United States Capitol

===Background===
{{See also|History of Washington, D.C.|List of National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C.|List of capitals in the United States#Capitals of the United States}}
[[File:US Capitol east side.JPG|thumb|The east front of the United States Capitol in 2013]]
[[File:Capitol at Dusk 2.jpg|thumb|The east front at night in 2013]]
[[File:Capitol2.png|thumb|The U.S. Capitol in November 2023]]
Prior to establishing the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., the [[United States Congress]] and its predecessors had met at [[Independence Hall]] and [[Congress Hall]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Federal Hall]] in [[New York City]], and five additional locations: [[York, Pennsylvania]], [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]], the [[Maryland State House]] in [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and [[Nassau Hall]] in [[Princeton, New Jersey]], and [[Trenton, New Jersey]].<ref>See [[List of capitals in the United States]]</ref> In September 1774, the [[First Continental Congress]] brought together delegates from the [[Thirteen Colonies|colonies]] in Philadelphia, followed by the [[Second Continental Congress]], which met from May 1775 to March 1781.

After adopting the [[Articles of Confederation]] in [[York, Pennsylvania]], the [[Congress of the Confederation]] was formed and convened in Philadelphia from March 1781 until June 1783, when a mob of angry soldiers converged upon Independence Hall, demanding payment for their service during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Congress requested that [[John Dickinson (delegate)|John Dickinson]], the [[Governor of Pennsylvania]], call up the [[Militia (United States)|militia]] to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the [[Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783]], Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia. As a result, Congress was forced to flee to [[Princeton, New Jersey]], on June 21, 1783,<ref>{{cite book | last=Crew | first=Harvey W. |author2=William Bensing Webb |author3=John Wooldridge | title=Centennial History of the City of Washington, D. C. | publisher=United Brethren Publishing House | year=1892 | location=[[Dayton, Ohio]] | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5Q81AAAAIAAJ | page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5Q81AAAAIAAJ/page/n73 66]}}</ref> and met in [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and [[Trenton, New Jersey]], before ending up in New York City.

The U.S. Congress was established upon [[History of the United States Constitution|ratification]] of the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] and formally began on March 4, 1789. New York City remained home to Congress until July 1790,<ref>Allen (2001), p. 4</ref> when the [[Residence Act]] was passed to pave the way for a permanent capital. The decision of where to locate the capital was contentious, but [[Alexander Hamilton]] helped broker a compromise in which the federal government would take on war debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War, in exchange for support from [[Northeastern United States|northern states]] for locating the capital along the [[Potomac River]]. As part of the legislation, Philadelphia was chosen as a temporary capital for ten years (until December 1800), until the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., would be ready.<ref>Allen (2001), p. 4–7</ref>

[[Pierre Charles L'Enfant|Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant]] was given the task of creating [[L'Enfant Plan|the city plan]] for the new capital city.<ref>L'Enfant identified himself as "Peter Charles L'Enfant" during most of his life, while residing in the United States. He wrote this name on his [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3850.ct000512 "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States ...."] (Washington, D.C.) and on other legal documents. However, during the early 1900s, a French ambassador to the U.S., [[Jean Jules Jusserand]], popularized the use of L'Enfant's birth name, "Pierre Charles L'Enfant". (Reference: Bowling, Kenneth R (2002). ''Peter Charles L'Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic.'' George Washington University, Washington, D.C. {{ISBN|978-0-9727611-0-9}}). The [[United States Code]] states in {{USC|40|3309}}: "(a) In General.{{snd}}The purposes of this chapter shall be carried out in the District of Columbia as nearly as may be practicable in harmony with the plan of Peter Charles L'Enfant." The [[National Park Service]] identifies L'Enfant as "[http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/Wash/text.htm#washington Major Peter Charles L'Enfant]" and as "[http://www.nps.gov/history/Nr/travel/presidents/washington_monument.html Major Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant]" on its website.</ref> 

L'Enfant chose Jenkin's Hill as the site for the Congress House, with a grand avenue, which is now [[Pennsylvania Avenue]], N.W. and connects it with the [[White House]], and a public space containing a broader grand avenue (now the [[National Mall]]) stretching westward to the [[Potomac River]].<ref name=Kornwolf>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4bHwImC-UOUC&pg=PA1522|page=1552|title=The Creation of the Federal City: Washington|work=Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America: Vol. 3|first1=James D|last1=Kornwolf|first2=Georgiana Wallis|last2=Kornwolf|location=Baltimore, Maryland|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2002|isbn=0801859867|oclc=45066419|access-date=October 29, 2016|quote=A final legacy of Jefferson's vision of the city is found in correspondence between him and L'Enfant. Jefferson consistently called the building to house Congress, the "Capitol," whereas L'Enfant just as consistently referred to it as "Congress House."}} ''At'' [[Google Books]].</ref><ref>(1) {{cite web|last=L'Enfant|first=Peter Charles|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g3850+ct000512))|title=Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States : projected agreeable to the direction of the President of the United States, in pursuance of an act of Congress passed the sixteenth day of July, MDCCXC, "establishing the permanent seat on the bank of the Potowmac": (Washington, D.C.)|work=Photocopy of annotated facsimile created by U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D.C. (1887)|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|year=1791|access-date=January 26, 2016}}<br />(2) {{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/62wash/62images/62map1.pdf|title=Enlarged image of central portion of ''The L'Enfant Plan for Washington''|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=October 23, 2009}}<br />(3) {{cite web|last=Vlach|first=John Michael|title=The Mysterious Mr. Jenkins of Jenkins Hill|publisher=United States Capitol Historical Society|date=Spring 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705085017/http://uschscapitolhistory.uschs.org/articles/uschs_dome-02.htm|archive-date=July 5, 2008|url=http://uschscapitolhistory.uschs.org/articles/uschs_dome-02.htm|work=Capitol History: The Capitol Dome|access-date=September 14, 2009}}<br />(4) Allen (2001), p. 8</ref>

====Name====
The term "Capitol" (from Latin ''Capitolium'') originally denoted the [[Capitoline Hill]] in Rome and the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus|Temple of Jupiter]] that stood on its summit.<ref>{{Cite OED|Capitol|6242540895}}</ref> The Roman Capitol was sometimes misconceived of as a meeting place for senators, and this led the term to be applied to legislative buildings; the first such building was the [[Capitol (Williamsburg, Virginia)|Williamsburg Capitol]] in [[Virginia]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Naming the Capitol and the Capital |first=George W. |last=Hodgkins |journal=Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. |volume=60/62 |year=1960 |pages=36–53 |jstor=40067217}}</ref> [[Thomas Jefferson]] had sat here as a member of the [[House of Burgesses]], and it was he who applied the name "Capitol" to what on L'Enfant's plan had been called the "Congress House".<ref name=Kornwolf/> "Capitol" has since become a general term for government buildings, especially in the United States. It is often confused with "capital"; one, however, denotes a building or complex of buildings, while the other denotes a city.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Capitol |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitol |dictionary=Merriam-Webster |access-date=21 July 2022}} and {{cite encyclopedia |title=Capital |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capital |dictionary=Merriam-Webster |access-date=21 July 2022}}</ref>