In Capitol of Freedom: Restoring American Greatness, Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, with co-author Shonda Werry, has a new take on the tale of American exceptionalism.
Rather than walk us through the episodes of America’s founding that led to the design and construction of our radical experiment in self-governance, he’s going to walk us through the Capitol building itself and tell the tale by reference to statues, bas-reliefs, buildings, city plans, and other physical constructs he encounters on his daily treks through his workspace.
It’s a gimmick, to be sure, but it’s an interesting effort. And while it can’t be said to work everywhere, it nevertheless allows for a central organizing principle and a new way of looking at his subject matter.
Two years ago, Buck published Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption Is Worse Than You Think. It was a modern-day cri de coeur, one insider’s dark lament against a corrupt system so stacked that good policy came about only as a mistake. It was a dark book, depressing to read.
This new book has a much more hopeful tone to it. As for the gimmick (the focus on the physical structures as a means of telling the story he wants to tell), he explains: “In my time in Congress, I have come to appreciate that a deep understanding of the Capitol building is as important to understanding our heritage of freedom as is a deep understanding of the Constitution. And it was that realization that sparked my desire to write this book.”
But Buck does not confine himself to writing only of the Capitol building itself. Early on, he shares the story of Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a friend to George Washington. L’Enfant had been commissioned to design the layout for the new capital city.
“When he surveyed the land that would one day become the national capital, he recognized an opportunity,” writes Buck. “Using the area’s natural topography, he designed the city with equality specifically in mind. The Capitol building, the house of the people, would sit at the center of the city and on the highest point, rather than the president’s residence, as would have been befitting in a European monarchy setting.”
Buck adds that the construction of the National Mall (an open space immediately adjacent to the site of the Capitol building) was meant deliberately as a place of assembly for citizens seeking to engage in one of the rights guaranteed them by their new Constitution — the right to petition their elected representatives.
Before leaving L’Enfant, Buck shares the story of his firing. It turns out L’Enfant “encountered an obstacle for one of his new roads — the private home of Daniel Carroll, a prominent landowner in the area. Not to be deterred from his city designs, L’Enfant had the home demolished, paying little attention to Mr. Carroll’s property rights or the purpose for which the new federal government existed — namely, to protect individual liberty.”
The result? After consulting with Thomas Jefferson, who in turn consulted with James Madison, Washington sent L’Enfant a letter firing him and then sent a letter to Carroll apologizing — all because the leaders in charge of the new government knew their government had to respect individuals’ property rights to be true to itself. It’s a remarkable story, and kudos to Buck for finding it and sharing it.
It’s an interesting approach to American history, although it doesn’t work everywhere. For instance, when he takes up freedom of speech and of the press in chapter seven, Buck’s only connections to the Capitol building are a Ben Franklin quote inscribed on the wall of the Cox Corridors (“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech”) and a reference to the blood stains on the east staircase of the House wing, where, in 1890, a gun fight took place between a former congressman and a journalist. Likewise, in chapter nine (subject: the Second Amendment), Buck’s only nod to the Capitol building is a reference to a statue of Texan Stephen Austin at the front of the chapter.
But Buck succeeds in exploring the tension between the primacy of individual rights as laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution on the one hand, and, on the other, the desire among left-wing political actors to affirm instead the supremacy of the collective. In chapter 12, he writes of President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address, and how Obama twisted the meaning of a key passage from the Declaration:
In a time of pandemic, economic crisis, and social unrest, Capitol of Freedom is a timely reminder of what makes America unique, exceptional, and worth fighting for. If everyone in the United States could read it and ponder its lessons, we’d all be in a much better place, and we’d all have a much better understanding of the high stakes at play as we prepare for a consequential election.
Bill Pascoe is a political consultant.
