| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Establishing Congress: The Removal to Washington, D.C., and the Election of 1800. Ed. by Kenneth R. Bowling and Donald R. Kennon. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005. xii, 225 pp. $44.95, ISBN 0-8214-1619-7.)
The title of this omnium-gatherum will lead prospective readers to think that its contents have to do principally with the early years of the national legislature. Instead, the binding thread of the essays in this work is the realities of government in the nation's new federal city in the years around 1800. Since the essays share little more than that large topic, I take up each essay in ascending order of significance.	1
The volume opens with an architectonic essay by Cal Jillson on the struggle between Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians to define the American dream. It would be surprising if a short text on this particular subject could add much to historian's understanding. It does not. But the essay has the virtue of trying to explain why Thomas Jefferson's vision won out: "you cannot dream with [Alexander Hamilton] the way you can with Mr. Jefferson" (p. 22).	2
Two entirely descriptive essays devote themselves to the relocation of government officers and records from Philadelphia to Washington and to the realities of feeding, housing, and diverting congressmen in the new capital. The first, by Elaine C. Everly and Howard W. Wehmann, is to my knowledge the first coverage of its subject. The second, by Cynthia D. Earman, adds some detail to existing literature. Both would have benefited from a greater effort at historiographical placement and analytical venturesomeness.	. . .

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