Date: 1981-01-29
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. in my series of statements on the United States Senate. I have given special at tention to a description of this bodys nmeeting places here in the Capitol. I have spoken of the statuary. the paintings. and the architecture that so distingu:sh the inside of this building. Today. In my 33rd statement since last March. I should like to discuss the Capitols exterior beauty. focusing on the Botanic Garden and the landscaping of the surrounding 181 acres. Looking back over the past 100 year.i. there have been major changes to both the Garden and the grounds. Undoubtedly. the coming century will bring additional alterations. So. today. I shall speak for the edification of my colleagues. and for future generations. about the efforts. over many years. to bring to this place the natural beauty that surrounds us. I am afraid that we become so busy with our legislative duties that we sometimes pass its beauty by unnoticed or not fully appreciated. Countless hours of planting. weeding. watering. spraying. pruning. separating. planning. and worrying about bugs and slugs. beetles and worms. droughts and rains. hail and frost go into making Capitol Hill the glorious splash of greenery and color we know and love. Most of the people who do all of this weeding and worrying. who try to keep our trees alive and our grass green. work in the Botanic Garden. or for the Landscape Architect. under the supervision of the Architect of the Capitol. We and the birds and squirrels of Capitol Hill owe them much. There is no more lovely oasis from the trials and tribulations of the Senate than the Botanic Garden. only a block away. Its history is almost as old as the nations. Because it is so old. its past is difficult to track down. I am very grateful for the efforts of Karen Solit. who. until recently. worked for the Garden. to help to piece together its story. The Botanic Garden grew out of a dream shared by George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. James Madison. and other early men of vision. As early as September 1796. Alexander White. who was one of the District of Columbias Commissioners. wrote to James Madison. then a member of the House. meeting in Philadelphia. Mr. White suggested that a botanic garden be built on what we now know as the Mall in the new federal city. to which the government would soon move. Madison. in turn. wrote to George Washington endorsing the idea. and. in October 1796. the president wrote to the District Commissioners urging that a botanic garden be built as part of the national university envisioned for the nations capital. The university did not materialize right away. and the idea of a botanic garden lay fallow until January 1814. when Dr. William Thornton. who had designed the Capitol and was. at that time. Superintendent of the Patent Offlee. wrote to President Madison. telling him that a botanic garden should be built even if not part of the hopedfor university. Fearing that some native plants might soon become extinct. rhornton warned Madison that: By clearing lands. whole families of plants are likely to be lost to the world. but a greenhouse would preserve what the Almighty has given . . . If a university be ever established . . . the botanic garden would be a necessary appendage. Six more years passed. however. before anything vas done to make the botanic garden a :eality. In 1816. a scientific organization known as the Metropolitan Society was established in Washington. Its name was soon changed to the Columbia Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. and. on April 20. 1818. it received a charter from Congress. Among its first members were Jefferson. Madison. John Adams. and General Lafayette. One of the Institutes purposes. as stated in its constitution. was to "collect. cultivate. and distribute the various vegetable production of this and other countries whether medicinal. esculent. or for the promotion of arts and manufacturing." In 1820. Congress granted the Lolurnbla Institute five acres of land on which to carry out these noble objectives. The land was on the jistern end of the Mall. bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue and Maryland Avenue on the north and south. and First Street and Third Street on the east and -vest. Unfortunately. lack of funds preverted the Institute from developing the g!ft. and the Columbia Institute itsed ceased to exist after 1837. With the demse of the Columbia Institute. the idea of a botanic garden withered on the vine. so to speak. Five years would pass Lefore the gardens would be revived. However. on August 18. 1838. an event occurred that would affect the Tbotanic gardens future. On that morning. ..n expedition. consisting of six ships. led by the sloop Vincennes. gaily started out from Hampton Roads. Virginia on the first lap of a long and dangerous voyage. These ships made up the United States Exploring Expedition to the South Seas. under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Incidentally. Wilkes later went on to a notable career: during the Civil War. it was Wilkes who stopped the British ship Trent and removed Confederate Commissioners Mason and Slidell. almost causing war between England and the Union. According to Wilkes. the primary objective of his 1838 expedition* was "the promotion of the great interest of commerce and navigation. yet all occasions will be taken. not incompatible with the great purpose of the undertaking. to extend the bounds of science and to promote the acquisition oi knowledge . . ." Among those aboard to see that knowledge was acquired was William D. Breckenridge. a horticulturist. Nearly four years later. in June 1842. the Expedition returned to the United States and put into New York harbor. Wilkes had covered 87.000 miles. surveying vast portions of the Pacific and confirming the existence of the continent we know as Antarctica. Thanks largely to Breckenridges efforts. stowed away in the holds of the returning ships were ten thousand species of seeds. nuts. and bulbs. and over one hundred live plants. This treasuretrove of flora became the basis of the Botanic Garden we know today. The Expedition collection was placed temporarily on exhibition on a lot behind what was then the new Patent Offlee. which still stands but is now the beautiful National Portrait Gallery and National Collection of Fine Arts. By the fall of 1842. a greenhouse had been built to protect the delicate plants from a North American winter. The greenhouse. which measured sixty feet by seventeen feet. wai put under the custodianship of the Commissioner of Patents. The actual care of these precious plants was largely the responsibility of Mr. Breckenridge. who was happy to show visitors his prizes. For the first time in the United States. exotic plants like the beautiful birdofparadise. and species of the mimosa tree. which we see all over suburban Washington today. were on display. The Patent Office greenhouse had been operating for eight years when it became an indirect victim of the industrial revolution. In 1849. the increased number of inventions forced the expansion of the Patent Office and made it necessary to find a new location for the plants. The site selected was at the west end of the Capitol grounds. where the Columbia Institute gardens were to have been located. In 1850. Congress appropriated $5.000 for the new greenhouse and. upon completion. it became an instant attraction for both citydwellers and tourists. In 1859. the Washington Star affirmed that "The Botanic Gardens at the foot of the Capitol are well worth visiting. Sinuous gravel walks. tastefully bordered with box. invite the visitor through a labyrinthian garden." During the particularly harsh January of 1860. the Star reminded readers that. "A stroll through the hot houses of the government at the foot of the Capitol in these times of snow. mud. and ice. is vastly pleasant." May I say that based upon my most recent experience of ony yesterday. 120 years subsequent to the Star article. I found. and others will find. that a stroll through the hot houses of the Government at the foot of the Capitol in these times of sunshine and almost balmy weather in January is vastly pleasant. I take this occasion to thank Mr. Albert DePilla. who has worked at the Garden since 1923. and who is now In his 57th year as manager of the Garden. for his courtesy and kindness in escorting me through the Garden explaining its exotic plants and displaying all of the verve. interest. dedication. and devotion of which he is capable. It is a dedication that is born of more than a half century of working in he place he loves and with the plants and flowers he loves. In 1854. William R. Smith. who later replaced Breckenridge as superintendent of the gardens. prepared a catalogue of the plants in the conservatory and noted that the majority were still plants from the Wilkes expedition. Smith was kept busy collecting their soughtafter seeds and distributing them around the country. In 1856. in recognition of its increasing stature. the Botanic Garden was placed under the official jurisdiction of the Joint Committee on the Library. and named the United States Botanic Garden. It has received an annual appropriation ever since. This Mr. William R. Smith was a very Interesting character. For almost sixty years the Botanic Garden was in effect his private estate. Visitors undoubtedly enjoyed treading the gardens shaded walks. and little children would peep in at the flowers through the Iron fence that enclosed it. but William R. Smith actually lived there. As official keeper of the coconuts and cyclamens. he occupied the little brick house buried in the jungle of rare and exotic plants. In 1850. while Mr. Breckenridge was still chief horticulturist. the 19yearold Smith. fresh from Scotland with a letter of introduction from eminent botanist Sir Joseph Hooker. was hired as the directors assistant. When Breckenridge resigned in 1863. Smith became superintendent of the garden. During his long tenure there. the cuttings he had planted with young hands grew into lofty trees. Seeds from the plants brought back by the Wilkes Expedition were not the only things Smith gathered and distributed. He returned from one of his trips to England with a clipping of what we call "Boston Ivy." which he proceeded to cultivate and introduce across the nation. The Washington Star of October 20. 1907. reported: Among the treasures in vegetation which grow in the National Botanic Garden in addition to the memorial trees is the Ampelopsis veitchil. the parent of millions of the same vine and ancestral vine of all of them in the United States. The vine is an English Immigrant ... Hence Mr. Smith is the foster father of a vine that climbs and clasps uncounted walls from sea to seathe foster father of the most popular city vine In America. Smith collected more than just plants. Over the years. Smith. an ardent Scotsman. collected the finest and most complete library. outside of Scotland. of the works of poet Robert Burns. At Smiths death. fellow Scotsman Andrew Carnegie bought his Burns collection and presented it to the Scottish Rite Temple of Washington. One of the major attractions of the Botanic Garden today is the Bartholdi fountain in the outdoor garden off Independence Avenue and First Street. Southwest. It has been part of the garden. although not always in the same spot. since 1877 and Mr. Smith was present when it arrived. This thirtyfoothigh sculpture is the work of Frenchman Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. He had designed it for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876. where it stood right in front of the main entrance. Also on exhibit at the 1876 Exhibition was a part of one of Bartholdis most famous worksthe sixteenfoothigh right hand of the Statue of Liberty. By the way. Bartholdi had originally proposed that the enormous figure be called "Progress" and placed at the entrance of the Suez Canal. After the Philadelphia Exhibition closed in 1877. the United States Government purchased Bartholdis fountain for $6.000 and erected it on the grounds of the Botanic Garden at the center of the Mall near Third Street. At the time of its creation. the fountain epitomized the artistic use of cast iron. which previously had been looked upon with disdain by many artists and critics. The cast iron was coated with bronze. but pollution and time have so deteriorated its surface that it now must be painted black periodically to keep it from rusting. This enormous fountain. with its huge basins. strange little sea creatures spitting water. and its three graceful. elevenfoothigh ladies represented. Bartholdi said. water and light. Indeed. the fountain was a major nighttime attraction in late nineteenth century Washington since its twelve Victorian lamps made one of the earliest public displays of electric lighting in the city. By the turn of the century. the Botanic Garden had won national prominence. but had not yet found a permanent home. In 1901. the dramatic new program for the beautification of Washington. known as the "McMillan Plan" for Senator James McMillan of Michigan who worked so hard for it. was unveiled. The most dazziing feature of the plan was the proposed Mall. an unbroken swath of green stretching from the Washington Monument to the Capitol. Gone would be the tangles of shrubbery. the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station and sheds littering the area. and the infamous area of crime known as "Murder Bay." The Botanic Garden ran afoul of the McMillan plan on two cotmts. The Garden and its greenhouses obstructed the planned vista between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. Moreover. the plan called for a large memorial to President Grant to be erected right