Washington City, 1800-1830 Cynthia Diane Earman Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School Fall 11-12-1992 Boardinghouses, Parties and the Creation of a Political Society: Washington City, 1800-1830 Cynthia Diane Earman Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Earman, Cynthia Diane, "Boardinghouses, Parties and the Creation of a Political Society: Washington City, 1800-1830" (1992). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 8222. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/8222 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BOARDINGHOUSES, PARTIES AND THE CREATION OF A POLITICAL SOCIETY: WASHINGTON CITY, 1800-1830 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The Department of History by Cynthia Diane Earman A.B., Goucher College, 1989 December 1992 MANUSCRIPT THESES Unpublished theses submitted for the Master's and Doctor's Degrees and deposited in the Louisiana State University Libraries are available for inspection. Use of any thesis is limited by the rights of the author. Bibliographical references may be noted, but passages may not be copied unless the author has given permission. Credit must be given in subsequent written or published work. A library which borrows this thesis for use by its clientele is expected to make sure that the borrower is aware of the above restrictions. LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES i 33 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................... iii INTRODUCTION ................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 VISIONS OF WASHINGTON IN THE PAST, 1800-1830 .................. 6 2 MESSING AROUND WASHINGTON: CONGRESS, LODGING AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE ........... 3 3 3 "PETTICOAT POLITICIANS": ELITE WOMEN AND THE ETIQUETTE OF A POLITICAL SOCIETY ..... 78 CONCLUSION ....................................... 140 SOURCES CONSULTED ................................ 145 APPENDICES A TERMS IN OFFICE........................... 155 B PRESIDENTIAL CABINETS AND SUPREME COURT JUSTICES, 1800-1830....................... 184 C ELITE AND CONGRESSIONAL WIVES BY CONGRESSIONAL SESSION................... 187 D BOARDINGHOUSES, HOTELS AND PRIVATE RESIDENCES 1800-1830.......................189 E POLITICAL MARRIAGES........................273 VITA .............................................. 274 ii ABSTRACT Washington's elite society was a political society where members of Congress, the president, members of his cabinet, Supreme Court justices, and members of the diplomatic corps met with members of the press, and other visitors to the capital, and long term residents came together to form a unique society. This study evolved from the premise that James Sterling Young's view of Washington City was flawed. Three questions guided this project: How did Washington change over time?; Why were specific boardinghouses chosen?; and What role did elite wives play in the Washington community? Washington's elite community was by definition a political community. For the senators and members of Congress who swarmed to the city during congressional sessions, boardinghouses and hotels provided both accommodation and the opportunity to develop close friendships with other like-minded individuals. Within the various congressional residences conversations often focused on politics. Wives and other non-congressional guests relayed political dinner, and leisure time gossip to their friends and relatives in their home states. On the whole life in boardinghouses and hotels much like fraternal organizations provided members the opportunity to cull important friendships. Coming to Washington meant that the President's wife, iii Congressional wives, and wives of cabinet members became hostesses for political events. Parties, teas, and public assemblies were as much political gatherings as were sessions of Congress. For Washington's elite women, theirs was an environment of power and privilege, and although their society followed proscribed rules, these women had access to most federal officials. As suggested through the actions of these wives, elite women in Washington used their social positions for political means. From 1800-1830 an unwritten etiquette increasingly regulated social behavior in the capital city. Making calls, attending balls, taking tea and even visiting Congress brought these women into the public sphere, open to public scrutiny. iv INTRODUCTION In 1966 James Sterling Young published The Washington Community 1800-1828. The book defined how subsequent historians would view the political and social life of early Washington, D. C.. It created an image of early Washington in which selfless public servants lived in monk like quarters during their tenure in the swampy federal city. In this dismal city, the branches of government remained physically and socially separate and political parties had little meaning or influence. Young's stagnant description of Washington and his casual dismissal of the importance of the first party system in the new national capital inspired this project. As Young says of the constitution and L'Enfant's plan of Washington, "Both plans prescribe frameworks for action, place the actors, set the stage for the drama of power."1 This political drama revolved around a unique society-- Washington City. CHAPTER 1, "VISIONS OF WASHINGTON IN THE PAST, 1800-1830" provides a brief overview of the city's growth and physical development, and argues that Washington was a more vibrant, dynamic and changing place than described.2 This chapter also introduces some of 1 James Sterling Young, The Washington Community 1800-1828 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), 2. 2 Two recent books which discuss the establishment of the capital at Washington are: Kenneth Bowling, The Creation of Washington, D. C.: The Idea and Location of the American Capital (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1991), 1 2 Washington's prominent social figures, and describes some of the diversions available to congressmen and others. CHAPTER 2, "MESSING AROUND WASHINGTON: CONGRESS, LODGING AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE," takes a closer look at members of Congress and the role of boardinghouses and hotels in the political community. If the Washington community was, as Young claimed, "a pleasureless outpost in the wilds and wastes" and if "the pursuit of power was socially disparaged as a vocation," why did members return to office year after year? The Biographical Directory of Congress reveals that several members of Congress moved from the House of Representatives to the Senate, and then on to either cabinet positions, diplomatic posts, the Supreme Court, or the Presidency. James A. Bayard (F,DE), Louis McLane (F,DE), Henry Clay (R,KY), James Buchanan (R,PA), and William H. Crawford (R,GA) are but a few who either moved from chamber to chamber, or from Congress to another federal office. Others, such as John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Crowninshield, came to Congress following other federal service.1 Despite the availability of congressional directories when he wrote The Washington and Bob Arnebeck, Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800 (Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1991). Constance McLaughlin Green's, Washington: Village and Capital, 1800-1878 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962) remains a standard but dated reference tool for information on Washington. 3 See Appendices A and B. 3 Community. Young used only the six directories available at the New York Public Library to draw his statistical picture of boardinghouse society.'1 In 1973 Young and Perry M. Goldman published congressional directories for the whole period 1789-1840 and suggested that much could be learned from an examination of them.45 Young's work has been criticized for other weaknesses besides limited sources. Allan Bogue and Mark Marlaire, for example, found much of Young's documentation "peculiar or strained." They analyzed 53 congressional roll call votes between 1821 and 1842 and they found that political party affiliation was equal to or greater than boardinghouse associations in determining how Representatives voted. Such findings are inconsistent with Young's.6 Similarly, Noble Cunningham, in The Jeffersonian Republicans; The Formation of Party Organizations, 1789- 1801. suggests that state parties were outgrowths of national organizations which had grown up in Congress. ... In a society where distance and difficulties of travel restricted the number of ladies who accompanied their husbands to the Capital, it had become 4 Meredith B. Colket, Jr., "The Early Congressional Directories." Columbia Historical Society Records, n.s. 53-56 (1953-56), 70-80. 5 Perry M. Goldman and James S. Young, The United States Congressional Directories 1789-1840 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973.) 6 Allan G. Bogue and Mark Paul Marlaire, "Of Mess and Men: The Boardinghouse and Congressional Voting, 1821-1842," American Journal of Political Science. XIX (May 1975), 225, 223, 229. 4 practical for those members of Congress whose political sentiments were congenial to find rooms in