_Thursday._--Rose early, much refreshed--as I forgot to mention that,
although our beds at Baltimore were entirely covered with net, I was
afraid I should have been eaten alive with mosquitoes. Washington is
called a capital, having a portion taken from Virginia and Maryland for
the senators' use. It is a long straggling town, with very wide streets;
called by some the city of magnificent distances, but, more properly
speaking, it might be called the city of magnificent intentions. It is
located in the district of Colombia--a territory of ten miles square,
formed into a separate and detached jurisdiction by the constitution of
the United States. The city was laid out by General Washington, and
Congress took up its abode there in 1800. The Capitol is situated in an
area of twenty-two and a half acres; is a splendid building, on an
eminence close to the Potomac river. The Hall of Representatives is in
the second story of the south wing, and is of the form of the ancient
Grecian theatre. There are twenty-four columns of variegated native
marble from the banks of the Potomac. There is a splendid portrait of
Lafayette, and another of Washington, by Vanderlyn. Their present
speaker is Mr. White--elected the same as ours. The rotunda is very
imposing. In its centre stands the great statue, by Greenough, of
Washington; and around the walls are the various pictures ordered by
Congress--"The Declaration of Independence," "The Surrender at
Saratoga," "The Surrender and Capitulation at York Town," and
"Washington resigning his Sword at Annapolis," all by Trumbull. I was
much struck with Chapman's great picture of "The Baptism of the Indian
Princess Pocahontas, before her Marriage with Rolph, the Englishman."
The Vice-President of the United States presides in the Senate-house:
his salary is only 5000 dollars, and the President's 25,000 dollars. In
the library are portraits of Tyler, Adams, Jefferson, Washington,
Madison, Munro, and Peyton; also Randolph, the first president in 1774