Chapter 11 Mrs. Thornton’s Diary
Table of Contents Rewriting this chapter Chapter 11: Mrs. Thornton’s Diary Octagon and environs toward southwest in 1817 Doctor Thornton reached Mount Vernon with the Laws a day late, and he long voiced his regret that he had not arrived soon enough to perform a tracheotomy to restore breathing stopped by a throat infection. Sometime after 1802, he would write a fantasy claiming that he offered to bring the General back to life but "was not seconded." Of course, what he did know at the time was that the General’s death meant nothing to his slight reputation as a physician, but had a great deal to do with the fate of his Capitol design. To the delight of Thornton’s biographers, his wife seized the moment in a way that did much for Thornton’s fame as an architect. On January 1, 1800, she began keeping a diary with entries for every day of that year noting what she and her husband did as well as who they saw. She never explained why she kept her diary. Perhaps t...