Drain the swamp? Sounds familiar.

A View of the Swamp: Foreign Impressions of Washington, D.C. from the Founding Era to the Civil War, edited with an introduction by Christopher Lee Philips, is an anthology of writings by foreign travelers who visited Washington, D.C. during its formative period from the 1790s to the 1860s.

The capital of the United States began as the vision of French engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant. “Planned wholly on paper” as William Chambers observed, the city would eventually evolve into a major metropolis. But it would take time, and along the way, there was a government to run.

First impressions were often critical, especially among the British, who had recently lost their American colonies to independence at the hands of a brilliant generation of upstart revolutionaries. Some visitors opined that the city would never really amount to anything. “It can never become a town of any importance,” wrote the Irish traveler Isaac Weld Jr. Frances Trollope reminded her readers that “it has been laughed at by foreigners.” For Charles Augustus Murray, Washington, D.C. resembled “the bottom of an old lake.” A generation after his mother’s visit, the English novelist Anthony Trollope, reflecting on the War of 1812, stated simply, “we burnt it.” True, the British once burned the capital, but the Americans rebuilt it, even as some suggested it should be moved to another location.

These early travelers met with major challenges. Roads were poor to non-existent, comfortable hotels were few, and fine dining, where available, came at a premium. Some visitors were simply tourists. Others were scouts for investors or investors themselves. There were abolitionists, diplomats, feminists, members of the military and probably a few spies. Viewing a session of Congress was a mandatory accomplishment for many, who would consider their visit incomplete without observing the American political process. Whatever their motivation, these intrepid visitors took great pains to venture to Washington, D.C., witnessed the growth and development of the new capital city and the new nation, and lived to tell about it.

Authors anthologized include Isaac Weld, Jr.; John Harriott; François-Alexandre-Frédéric La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt; Thomas Moore; Charles William Janson; John Melish; George Robert Gleig; Francis Hall; Henry Bradshaw Fearon; John Morison Duncan; Eneas MacKenzie; William Newnham Blane; Auguste Levasseur; Captain Basil Hall; Captain J. E. Alexander; Francis Trollope; Thomas Hamilton; Edward Strutt Abdy; Tyrone Power; Charles Augustus Murray; Harriet Martineau; Captain Marryat; Adolphe Fourier de Bacourt; Charles Dickens; Alexander MacKay; Sir Charles Lyell; Lady Stuart-Wortley; Fredrika Bremer; William Chambers; Sydney George Fisher; Anthony Trollope; and Edward Dicey.

Drain the swamp? A capital idea, indeed.

A View of the Swamp is available via Amazon in both Kindle [ASIN: B08BJD71V2] and paperback [ISBN-10: 1096640716; ISBN-13: 978-1096640714] editions. The Kindle edition is regularly priced at $9.99 and the paperback edition at $19.95.

Author Biography:

Christopher Lee Philips attended the Institute of Humanities at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. After moving to Washington, D.C., he worked briefly in the research department of the Washington Post and at United Press International. His writing has appeared in various publications including the Virginian-Pilot, Washingtonian and World War II magazine. A licensed tour guide in the nation’s capital, he is also a member in good standing of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).