Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Foreword
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Wartime Washington
- 3 The Freedmen's Bureau in the District of Columbia
- 4 Congressional Reconstruction in the District of Columbia
- 5 Reconstructing the City Government
- 6 Race, Radicalism, and Reconstruction
- 7 A City and a State
- 8 From Biracial Democracy to Direct Rule
- 9 Reconstruction in the Nation's Capital
- Index
- References
4 - Congressional Reconstruction in the District of Columbia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Foreword
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Wartime Washington
- 3 The Freedmen's Bureau in the District of Columbia
- 4 Congressional Reconstruction in the District of Columbia
- 5 Reconstructing the City Government
- 6 Race, Radicalism, and Reconstruction
- 7 A City and a State
- 8 From Biracial Democracy to Direct Rule
- 9 Reconstruction in the Nation's Capital
- Index
- References
Summary
An “Experimental Garden for the Propagation of Political Hybrids”
At the foot of Capitol Hill lay the United States Botanic Garden, a fruit of the largely abortive attempt during the early national period to convert the nation's capital into a center of scientific endeavor. Here exotic plants were to be collected and displayed to enhance the knowledge of the nation's nurserymen and promote the improvement of agriculture. By the eve of the Civil War, such ambitious purposes had been largely forgotten; the botanic garden served largely as a pleasant place for congressmen and their friends to take the air on summer evenings and listen to the concerts given by the naval band from the Capitol terrace. From time to time in Washington's history, it has seemed appropriate to regard the whole city as an “experimental garden” where policy initiatives designed for wider application might be tried and tested. That was especially true during and immediately after the Civil War.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Washington during Civil War and ReconstructionRace and Radicalism, pp. 109 - 149Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011