Evening Capitol Tour

Garret Graves (R-La.), who represents Louisiana's sixth congressional district, sometimes gives nighttime tours of the United States Capitol to his visiting constituents in Washington. Our group, along with some other visitors from Louisiana, had the opportunity to take part in one of these special tours, and it far exceeded expectations. Admittedly, having just been to the Capitol two days before, I thought we may be getting a repeat of the same thing. That notion proved to be entirely misguided, as Congressman Graves showed us places we otherwise certainly would not have seen. To begin, he let us walk onto a balcony off the Speaker's Lobby, where he pointed out many buildings in view and explained the history of the Washington skyline. When we returned inside, we sat in chairs on the House floor and learned about the history of the chamber and the deliberation process, and we were able to ask questions. We also stepped inside the Democratic cloak room to get a peek at what less formal discussions probably look like when congresspeople take a break.
Following our walkthrough of the cloak room, we went down to Statuary Hall and saw figures of many prominent Americans. One of the coolest parts of the trip, we walked through Majority Whip Steve Scalise's office and saw the Lincoln Room, where Abraham Lincoln is said to have had fireside chats. We then ventured to the Capitol rotunda and talked about some of the historic paintings and statues. The painting of George Washington resigning his commission as general is important because he had to do so to be eligible to be the president.

General George Washington Resigning His Commission¹

Another painting depicted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. An interesting fact about that painting that I did not know is that Cornwallis felt that George Washington was not worthy of Cornwallis' surrender so Cornwallis sent lesser soldiers to surrender. Washington reciprocated by standing back and sending his lower men forward to accept the surrender.

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis²

Yet another impressive piece of art in the Capitol Rotunda is the Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, which was left unfinished to symbolize that the fight for women's rights was not over.

Before the last stop on our tour, The Crypt, we went down to see the real crypt where George Washington's remains were to be buried before his will revealed that he did not want to be entombed in the Capitol. He felt that it was kinglike and royalty was one of the principal things they had come to the United States to escape. He was also very attached to his home at Mount Vernon and wanted to be buried there with his wife Martha. Finally, we went up to The Crypt and learned a few facts about it before concluding our tour. We also rubbed our feet on the center of the city for good luck and then we parted ways after a truly enriching and informative experience for which I am very grateful to Congressman Graves and his staff.



1: https://www.aoc.gov/art/historic-rotunda-paintings/general-george-washington-resigning-his-commission
2: https://www.aoc.gov/art/historic-rotunda-paintings/surrender-lord-cornwallis