When representatives of the American colonies met secretly in Philadelphia in 1774, they described this meeting with the word ‘Congress’, which was hardly used in global political literature in those days. The Latin term, consisting of the roots’ kon ‘meaning’ together ‘and’ gre ‘meaning’ to advance‘, was used by colonial representatives, almost all of whom belonged to the ancient Greek and Roman republics, in the sense of’ meeting ‘or’ meeting’.
Two years later, when the delegation that prepared the declaration of independence in 1776 identified itself with this word, ‘Congress’ became part of American political literature. 11 years later, in 1787, when they designed the scheme of the new state, they chose to call the Legislature ‘Congress’, keeping to their 10-year tradition, rather than saying ‘Parliament’ as in England.
The nomenclature was not the only difference from the UK Parliament. They made another choice, far ahead of the widespread state scheme of the era. They placed Congress at the center of the state they had just established. The state’s flagship convention would be. As a matter of fact, in the negotiations of the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, they referred to Congress as the ‘First Branch’ in the sense of the ‘first force’ in the subsequent process.
That’s why the first article of the U.S. Constitution, consisting of a total of 7 articles, regulates Congress, not the presidency. Taxation, laws and regulations, making the creation of crime and punishment, build an army, subtraction of money, to whom to be granted citizenship by determining to allocate appropriations to all institutions of the state, review how the appropriations are spent, in addition to checking the activities of the executive branch on behalf of the nation, the president’s choice of all ministers, ambassadors, judge, and a federal institution administrator the authority to approve the assignment of such a large number of candidates gave to the Congress. In the new state, the symbol of the unity of the country and the manifested authority of the National Will was the Congress, not the presidency…
The new American state, in which an Assembly led, established and framed the war of independence, would demonstrate the awareness that this assembly was the cornerstone of its system, even with extreme care for its building. On March 4, 1789, when the idea of building a new capital for the federal state was formed after the U.S. Constitution was officially enacted, they would begin the plan for the new capital with the most important building in the state, namely the design of the congressional building.
For the congressional building, Jenkin Hill, the highest place on federal land that would later be called the District of Columbia (DC), was chosen. But the Founding Fathers considered the name ‘Congress building’ inadequate for the building to be built on the highest hill. At the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson, this building was adopted to be called the ‘Capitol’. ‘Capitol ‘comes from the Latin word’ Head‘,’ source‘, meaning’ hood’. Built on Seven Hills, it was the name of the highest hill(Capitoline) in Ancient Rome, where the Temple of Jupiter, the most important temple of the city and civilization, was located. Congress, too, was the source, the summit, the mind, and the symbol of the American state.
