"Where will Congress establish their residence? is a question much agitated. It is a question of great importance, no less to the United States in general, than to the particular State that may obtain the honor. It seems the general voice of the people that large cities are to be avoided; for this opinion a variety of reasons are assigned, too obvious to need enumeration. A small State, nearly central, ought to be preferred to an opulent State, either northward or southward, which might hazard a competition of interest. On this account New Jersey has many voices. Whatever disadvantages hereafter mingle themselves with the emoluments attending the permanent residence of Congress, it is not to be doubted that the real estate in the vicinity, and even throughout the State, will instantaneously receive a great additional value.

"For these reasons I submit to you a proposition entirely new, and which cannot fail to be acceptable to your State, as you are largely interested in the public credit and can entertain little or no hope of seeing Congress established in your island, however delightful and ́ commodious that situation might be. By the treaty of peace and by the cessions of the claims of some of the States made and to be made, the United States are and will be in possession of an immense extent of territory lying southward of the lakes, eastward of the Mississippi, and westward of the Allegheny Mountains.

"A late calculator in a Boston paper scruples not to assert that these lands at sixpence an acre would extinguish the whole of our national debt. On the proposition, therefore, that Congress should establish their residence (suppose for a term of only thirteen years) at some of those commodious and young settlements, as Detroit, Louisville, Kaskaskia, St. Vincent's, Sandusky, etc., etc., what an amazing value would be added to that important territory! how incredulously would it accelerate the rapidity of its settlement and population! Lest at first view you should sneer at the proposal, or condemn it at once as chimerical, I pray you to consider the subject for a moment in a serious light. Is not the establishment of a national credit an object of first magnitude? Ought any practicable means to obtain it (consistent with our liberties) to be left unattempted? But you will ask, Has Congress moneys to expend for buildings, etc.? I answer, Perhaps one quarter of the lands in the compass of twenty miles square fixed on for the residence of Congress, whereby they would be amazingly appreciated, would be amply sufficient to erect buildings suitable for a republican court. But you will, in fine, demand a security against the inconvenience of savage insurrections, etc., etc. To this I answer,

Congress may there assume plenary jurisdiction, or model their government on the most perfect plan of modern refinement, and lands in their vicinity being allotted to those brave officers and men who have served in the late glorious war, in lieu of their certificates, they would plant themselves around their patrons as an impregnable bulwark against the natives, and Congress would be safe as they ever were in the city of Philadelphia."

By a resolution of Congress then in session at Yorktown, Pennsylvania, passed June 4, 1783, it was resolved "that copies of the act of the Legislature of Maryland, relative to the cession of Annapolis to Congress for their permanent residence, and also copies of the act of the Legislature of New York, relative to the cession of Kingston for the same purpose, together with the papers which accompanied both acts, be transmitted to the executives of the respective States, and that they be informed that Congress have assigned the first Monday in October next for taking said offers into consideration." This resolution brought the whole subject before Congress for consideration. It was evident that the matter was deemed in every way of the first importance. The great State of New York generously offered one of its most thriving towns, beautifully situated on the romantic Hudson, and Maryland offered its capital, already distinguished for the charm of its climate and the culture and elegance of its inhabitants, as places fit for the permanent residence of Congress. These offers were coupled with the further grant to Congress of the exclusive, unlimited authority of the General Government over such places. This was all that could be required, and it seemed an easy matter for Congress to determine upon one or the other as the future residence of the infant government. Indeed, Congress went so far as to appoint a committee "to consider what jurisdiction may be proper for Congress in the place of its permanent residence." The importance of this had been rendered manifest by the condition of affairs at Philadelphia at the time of the mutiny, to which reference has already been made. This committee recommended in its report, made on the 5th of September, that Congress "ought to enjoy an exclusive jurisdiction over the district which may be ceded and accepted for its permanent residence, and that the district so ceded ought not to exceed the contents of six miles square, nor to be less than three miles square."

Subsequently this report was considered, but no conclusion reached. When the time fixed for the formal consideration of the subject by the resolution of June arrived, offers had been made by several other States, and it was determined to consider the whole matter in the

order of the thirteen States then composing the government of the United States. This was in October, 1783. By a resolution passed on the 6th of this month, it was ordered that the question be taken, in which State buildings shall be provided and erected for the residence of Congress, beginning with New Hampshire, and proceeding in the order in which they stand; and it was finally determined "that buildings for the use of Congress be erected on or near the banks of the Delaware, provided a suitable district can be secured on or near the banks of said river for a Federal town; and that the right of soil and an exclusive or such other jurisdiction as Congress may direct, shall be vested in the United States." It was further determined that the place should be near the falls of the Delaware, and that a committee should repair to that place, view the situation, and report a proper district for carrying out the design of the resolution. An effort was made to reconsider this action of the Congress with the view to change the location so selected, but it proved fruitless. Thus as early as October, 1783, Congress had apparently settled the question of the location of the Capital City, and nothing seemed to be needed. but the execution of the details to that end to secure a final determination of this much mooted question. Subsequent events, however, prove how fallacious such conclusions were.

While the location of the permanent residence of Congress was apparently thus early and easily decided, the fact was soon manifested that this action of Congress, instead of settling the matter, was but the introduction to a long and exceedingly difficult contest. It is interesting, particularly in view of the final determination of the question of the selection and establishment of the Capital of the Nation, to follow the Continental Congress in its varied and ever-changing legislation on this subject. While we know now of how little import that legislation was; how weak and indefinite was every action of a government that was without a single essential of sovereignty, the men who controlled the counsels of the Nation in those days were so distinguished in every way, and their discussions manifest so surely what was meant by the establishment of the seat of government, what was the significance in the minds of those early legislators of the final conclusion to build a capital,- not to make one of a city already constructed,― that a history of the city of Washington cannot be complete without a review of this legislation, cursory and incomplete as it may be, but sufficient to show what was done. The discussion was long, and the projects offered and considered various. It commenced immediately. Resolutions were offered declaring that the retention of the

territory near the falls of the Delaware was not satisfactory to a large number of the citizens of the States; that the purposes of the government would be better effected by the providing of buildings for the accommodation of Congress in two places, in which alternate sessions could be held. This proposition was deliberately considered, and with some immaterial amendment was adopted. It was determined that the alternate places of residence of Congress should be on the banks of the Delaware, as already provided, and on the banks of the Potomac, near the lower falls of that river, and that until buildings suitable for their residence should be erected at the places designated, such residence should be temporarily, alternately, at equal periods of not more than one year and not less than six months, at Trenton and Annapolis. It is interesting to remark how speedily this proposition for alternate residences of Congress followed upon the adoption of the resolutions fixing that residence on the banks of the Delaware. Nothing is needed more than this to show how unstable any determination of the question was. Fortunately, the experiment of holding temporary sessions of Congress at Trenton and at Annapolis soon proved a failure, and the impracticable scheme of having two permanent seats of government was not carried into effect. No effort was made to erect buildings either at the falls of the Delaware or on the Potomac. Mr. Force, in his history of the permanent seat of government for the United States, from which much of what is here written is derived,

says:

"Much sport was made in the newspapers of the plan of having two Federal towns. One writer, in alluding to the resolution of Congress of the 7th of August, to erect an equestrian statue of General Washington at the place where the residence of Congress should be established,' remarks, that some persons suppose there may be difficulty in carrying out this resolution if two seats of government should be established. But he suggests, that so far from there being any difficulty, it is easy, 'not only to comply with the spirit of the resolve respecting the equestrian statue, but to make that very resolve conducive to the scheme of the two Federal towns.' And in a lengthy communication he describes how this may be done. The spirit and intention of the resolve respecting the equestrian statue,' he observed, was nothing more than this: that the said statue should always be where the House should sit. To effect which, nothing was necessary but to adjourn the statue whenever and wherever they should adjourn the House, which might easily be done by mounting it upon wheels. But this was not all; for if the horse should be constructed of a large size, and framed

with timbers like the hull of a ship, it would become a most convenient and proper vehicle to transport the members themselves, with their books, papers, etc., from one Federal town to another.""

He alluded, also, to the enormous expense of building two Federal towns, where one might be sufficient for the purpose. To obviate this, he proposed "that there should be two permanent places of alternate residence, agreeably to the late resolve, and but one Federal town; which town should be built upon a large platform mounted on a great number of wheels, and be drawn by a great number of horses."

This fun of the olden times has been repeated in more modern days, and the project of an enterprising citizen who proposed the removal of our proud Capital City has been caricatured in very much the same spirit that is exhibited in the extract from the newspaper of 1783. A procession of the Capitol and the several department buildings, mounted upon wheels, and drawn by horses over the mountains

journey to the far West, illustrated the derision with which a project to remove the Capital from its present residence was regarded by the people of to-day.

This failure of the project to establish alternate residences of Congress resulted finally in an abandonment of all such schemes. But before this was effected, Congress, in response to resolutions to that effect, appointed commissioners to visit the falls of the Delaware and the Potomac, and to report suitable places for the erection of the contemplated Federal buildings. These commissioners made report, but nothing more was done under the resolutions referred to. It may not be out of place to remark here, that the commissioners appointed to examine and report upon the site near the falls of the Potomac, in their report use the following language: "At Georgetown, however, a little to the northward of the buildings, is a rising ground somewhat broken, but pleasantly situated, and commanding good water as well as other prospects. At Funkstown, about a mile and a half below Georgetown on the river, there is also a district which commands fine prospects. Some part of this is low, but the residue is high and pleasant. The committee have ordered a plan of each of these districts to be taken and transmitted to Congress." This is very nearly what afterward became, and to-day is occupied as, the site of the National Capital.

Again, Congress, by an ordinance of December, 1784, determined upon the selection of a place upon the Delaware River for the permanent residence of Congress, and commissioners were appointed to make a selection. This seems to have been all that was done, and the question