There was a fundamental shift in power from Western Europe to the new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, with significant boundary changes and displacement of people as the Soviet Union's borders shifted westwards.
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In order to let you understand more clearly the manner in which I traveled around this city, I will now show you the relative position of some of the landmarks I saw.
If you look at the picture below, you will notice the World War II Memorial located behind the Washington Monument. Behind the World War II Memorial lies the Reflecting Pool leading up to the Lincoln Memorial.
In the Washington Memorial’s fore sits majestically the United States Capitol.
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It is important to give you the opposite view to the picture above. In the picture below is the view towards the Washington Monument standing directly in front of the US Capitol.
If you were following this, you would have rightly inferred that the Lincoln Memorial and the US Capitol lie at opposite ends of the Washington National Monument.
The Lincoln Memorial is a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln and the nation he fought to preserve during the Civil War (1861-1865). The Lincoln Memorial was built to resemble a Greek temple. It has 36 Doric columns, one for each state at the time of Lincoln’s death. A sculpture by Daniel Chester French of a seated Lincoln is in the center of the memorial chamber.
Inscribed on the south wall of the monument is the Gettysburg Address. Above it is a mural painted by Jules Guerin depicting the angel of truth freeing a slave. Guerin also painted the unity of North and South mural on the north wall. Etched into the north wall below the mural is Lincoln’s second inaugural speech.
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As I walked beside the calm Reflecting Pool, I cast my eyes yonder towards the Lincoln Memorial and I beheld the people assembled there. People from every land and clime congregated on the massive stairs leading up to the Memorial.
When I got to the stairs, I took another look back at the Reflecting Pool with the Lincoln Memorial towering behind me.
What exactly does the memorial stand for? What does it symbolize? The Lincoln Memorial symbolizes many things to many different people. At its most basic level the Lincoln Memorial symbolizes the idea of Freedom. But how, and in what ways does the memorial symbolize "Freedom?" First and foremost, in its debt to classical architecture. Modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, the Lincoln Memorial aspires to remind us of the tremendous accomplishments of the ancient Greeks, the first modern culture to practice a form of democratic government. In addition, for many Americans it serves as a national Civil War memorial, recalling the unspeakable bloodshed that laid waste vast stretches of fertile land, destroyed towns and cities, and devastated an entire generation. The story of the survival of a democratic form of government through bloody civil war, and its phoenix-like rebirth promising even greater participation in the governmental process, is what makes the Lincoln Memorial such a proud symbol of American democracy. As a powerful symbol of Freedom the Lincoln Memorial continues to serve as a light to the rest of the world.
IN THIS TEMPLE AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER
Without reference to Social Justice and by stressing Union, do these words convey the raison d'être of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial? Quite clearly, yes, they do. For beneath such words, the determined visage upon the Great Emancipator's statue looks to us and to successive generations to continue the unfinished work of an unfinished presidency-to remain a vital part of the experiment "to form a more perfect Union." Inescapable, though, is the truth that the structure preeminently commemorates the sacrifice of a martyred man. This man, with no leadership experience and but one term in the United States House of Representatives, remains the only American chief executive whose entire presidency fit into a framework of internal discord and civil war. Throughout, he held as his "paramount object" the preservation of a Union embodying the true sentiment of the Declaration of Independence -"that all should have an equal chance." During his term in office, his thinking evolved from reestablishing the Union as it was, to remolding the Union into what it could be. His evolution, some have argued, signaled a true revolution within the American Republic. Abraham Lincoln-war president-miraculously transformed this nation during its most "fiery trial," preserving the integrity of the Federal Union while accelerating within it the extirpation of antebellum culture, society, and thought
Between 1861 and 1865 more than 620,000 soldiers, both Union and Confederate, would lay down their lives on behalf of a cause they called "Freedom." For many Americans the Lincoln Memorial is a secular sacred space or temple commemorating the nation's savior and first assassinated president. Having led the country through the long night of civil war, Abraham Lincoln would not live to see the dawn of "a new birth of freedom" he spoke of so eloquently. This freedom would take two tangible forms: freedom for the thousands of emancipated slaves or the legacy of Social Justice and the freedom found in a reunited country or the legacy of National Unity, with a fully restored federal government under the Constitution, ensuring the continuance of participatory democracy.
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Inscribed on the South Wall of the Monument is the Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln which ran thus:
Nov. 19, 1863
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
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This Republican President of old was also the one who made the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves. I hereby present to you the statue of Lincoln (some renovation work was being done on it)seated in the center of the Memorial...
The Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
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I don't want to rehash the worst crime ever perpetrated by Man against his fellow Man (i.e Slavery), but ostensibly every Black person in America has felt at one point or another some race-based discrimination or stereotyping. So as I came to the Lincoln Memorial, I was overcome by emotion.
Just in case anyone wonders why the US is as great as it is today, a lot can be directly traced to the suffering and toiling of Blacks as they were used to build up practically the American landscape and Economy.
This is perhaps as good a time as any to remind us of the Black National Anthem by James Weldon Johnson.
Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring. Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, High as the list'ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast'ning rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet, Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on the way; Thou who has by Thy might, Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee, Shadowed beneath thy hand, May we forever stand, True to our God, True to our native land
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Inscribed on the North Wall was Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address:
March 4, 1865
Fellow countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it-- all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-- seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.
What Presidential skills can be derived from a childhood of poverty, no formal education, and the death of your mother, brother, and sister by the age of twenty one? Add to that the loss of two sons at ages 4 and 12, depression and a potentially fatal abnormality called Marfan Syndrome. How did Abraham Lincoln overcome such adversity and become recognized as one of our greatest champions of democracy? Were the many hardships he endured the source of the strength needed to lead this nation through its greatest crisis?
A neighbor described the Kentucky cabin in which Lincoln was born on February 12th, 1809 as "a hunters hut not fit to be called home." No president has ever started from more humble beginnings than Abe Lincoln . Imagine the challenge of living in a home with a dirt floor, one small window and a chimney made of packed clay. Imagine a mattress made of a pile of leaves, twigs and animal skins. This was the life Abraham Lincoln knew until he was a young man. That was the first of many challenges he would endure.
While his parents Tom and Nancy could not provide many material needs, they did give him a loving home that helped foster the compassion and concern for others that made him an outstanding president.The Lincoln family moved often, and in 1816 relocated from Kentucky to Indiana in order to live in a state that did not condone slavery. Young Abraham's sensitivity to social injustice was apparent early in life. One of his childhood friends, Elizabeth Crawford, recalled how he loved giving speeches and debating other children. She said his favorite topic was discussing who had the greatest right to complain - slaves or Indians? This enlightened view of the oppressed became the cornerstone of his legacy of democracy. Was this awareness a result of his own unpretentious upbringing?
Lincoln's mother provided his early education. She was a rarity on the frontier in that she could read and shared the skill with him at an early age. The vast majority of his education was acquired by reading. He seldom was without a book and spent long hours studying Shakespeare, Byron, and even Euclid's geometry. Despite having little formal education he triumphed with determination. Lincoln ultimately developed a talent for expression that could have led to a very different career. His "Gettysburg Address" is considered one of the most succinct and eloquently written speeches delivered by an American politician.
Another virtue instilled in Lincoln by his parents was the belief that in America everyone willing to work hard, could better himself or herself. Hard work was what he did best. Stories abound of his legendary skills with an ax. He worked for a while splitting logs into fence rails. In a typical day he split 400 rails for a wage of 25 cents. By most accounts his aspiration to succeed was unparalleled. His political career began in the mid 1830's, at age 25, with his election to the Illinois State Legislature. Lincoln was known for idolizing the Founding Fathers and their grand experiment in popular government and liberty for all. Henry Clay of Kentucky became his political idol. Clay, like Lincoln, was born into a poor farm family. Despite the obstacles, Clay went on to the U.S. Senate and international fame. Lincoln felt that thanks to the rights bestowed by the Declaration Of Independence "in this country, one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably." Lincoln proved that point exactly by teaching himself enough about law to gain admission to the Illinois Bar in 1837.
Lincoln's life, begun so modestly, had changed dramatically. Marriage to Mary Todd in 1842 had been a true gift. She provided love and support and found him to be a wonderful father to their 4 sons. By the 1850's he was one of the most respected attorneys in Illinois. The majority of his work by then was in the state's Supreme Court where he participated in over 240 cases, most of them wins. Despite these improvements, more obstacles manifested themselves. Lincoln now faced regular bouts of depression, the loss of one son in 1850, and two failed attempts at the U.S. Senate. Undaunted, he again found a way to overcome adversity. His successful debates with Stephen Douglas set the stage for his eventual Presidential Nomination by the Republican Party in 1860. His trademark ambition as well as his principled beliefs of equal rights and a united democracy, led to victory.
Ultimately Lincoln would come to be known as an emancipator and savior of democracy. The price he and this nation would pay for those ideals could never be imagined on that election day of November 6, 1860. Would his unwavering conviction in those beliefs have withstood the ultimate test of civil war if he had he lived a more privledged, genteel life?
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At this point, the Messenger of Light tapped me gently on the shoulder. I sensed that her eyes were misty and her brows arched in thought. She looked like a weeping seraph or perhaps as sapient Athena somberly surveying that bloody field upon which both Grecians and Trojans had for fickle reasons fought and perished. I wanted to ask her what sublime thoughts had conspired to render her angelic face the very picture of Reticent Grief!
She looked at me and would fain have ignored my musings had I given them utterance.
"It is not given unto thee, Frail Tenant of Dust, to comprehend the deeper mysteries of my nature. But it is indeed meet that you ask questions because you shall doubtlessly record that which thy eyes beholdest.
Here, I personally remember the Rebellion and the Sacrifice which men gave to acquire Freedom. When I survey the crass and reprehensible society of the present lot of Men, I marvel that in so short a time, those for whom the joyous peal of Freedom announced their liberty to pursue education and other virtues doth now richly transgress the Spirit which possessed and drove the wheels of their Past!"
And then, she said to me:
"The Time quickly approacheth when thou shall take thy leave of these surroundings. I bid you, make haste and come with me to the Capitol"
By this time we were at the stairs to the memorial, and in a twinkling of an eye, we were gone from the Lincoln Memorial.
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We walked casually by the side of the tranquil Reflecting Pool back towards the World War II Memorial. When we reached the WW2 Memorial, I glanced back and beheld for the last time this view of the Lincoln Memorial.
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As I stood and watched this, totally lost in my reverie, her soft gentle voice once again nudged me to the present.
“Thou seeth but from afar—wherefore lookest thou entranced? Come hither and hold my hand for I shall fly presently to the very entrance of that great building. And as she spake thus, I heard a distinct rustle. When the noise subsided, behold, we were at the very entrance to the U.S Capitol.
The United States Capitol is the US capitol building, that serves as home for Congress, the legislative branch of the United States federal government. It is located in Washington, D.C., atop Capitol Hill at the east end of the National Mall. Although not in the geographic center of the District of Columbia, the Capitol is the focus by which the quadrants of the district are divided.
The building is marked by its central dome above a rotunda and two wings, one for each chamber of Congress: the north wing is the Senate chamber and the south wing is the House of Representatives chamber. Above these chambers are galleries where people can watch the Senate and House of Representatives.
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Then we walked into the US Capitol grounds. I looked at the Capitol lawns, and I imagined how much more luxurious it would look if it was summer.
The Capitol Grounds
The Capitol Grounds cover approximately 274 acres (111 ha), with grounds proper consisting mostly of lawns, walkways, streets, drives, and planting areas. Today's grounds were designed by noted American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who planned the expansion and landscaping performed from 1874 to 1892. In 1875, as one of his first recommendations, Olmsted proposed the construction of the marble terraces on the north, west, and south sides of the building that we see today.
Olmsted also designed the Summer House, the open-air brick building that sits just north of the Capitol. Three arches open into the hexagonal structure, which encloses a fountain and twenty-two brick chairs. A fourth wall holds a small window that looks onto an artificial grotto. Built between 1879 and 1881, the Summer House was intended to answer complaints that visitors to the Capitol had no place to sit or water their horses and themselves. Modern drinking fountains have since replaced Olmsted's fountain for the latter purpose, but the horses ridden by the Capitol's mounted police unit can still occasionally be seen dipping into the original stone basin. Olmsted intended to build a second, matching Summer House on the southern side of the Capitol, but Congressional objections led to the project's cancelation.
The current building is the fourth to serve as the U.S. capitol, after the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland (1783–1784), Federal Hall in New York (1789–1790) and Congress Hall in Philadelphia (1790–1800).
Construction of the current Capitol building began in 1793. It is known that George Washington laid the cornerstone, but the exact whereabouts of that stone are now unknown. The Capitol was built and later expanded in the 1850s using the labor of slaves "who cut the logs, laid the stones and baked the bricks." The original plan was to use workers brought in from Europe, however, there was a poor response to recruitment efforts and African Americans—free and slave—comprised the majority of the work force.
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