The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-10-25
The Removal Of the National Capital
General Shermnn,s Views.


The mooted question of the removal Of the
national capital from Washington to some
supposed central location in the Mississippi
Valley has received an calculation and a settle
ment that may quiet the weak nerves of all the
old women proprietaries in boarding houses,
furnished apartments, market stalls and fish
stands that have 'slocal habitation and
name in the Getty of Magnificent Distances.
General Sherman has, in fact, set the question
at rest forever. His opinion on the subject is
no doubt just as correct as it was in the be-
ginning of the war. When asked by Secretary
of War Cameron what forces would be required
to free Tennessee and Kentucky of the rebel
element therein, he promptly replied, "Two
hundred thousand men," Here was an esti-
nation of the proportions which the great
rebellion had even then assumed in the SOL
dier's judgment that even Cameron could not
appreciate or stomach, and General Sherman
was at once voted ''crazy." The result, how
ever, proved the sagacity and the far-seeing
Judgment of the second greatest soldier of the
war-the hero of the march from Atlanta to the
sea. Now, with regard to the removal Of the
capital he says 1.-THE consideration of the
question is futile, as it would take one hun
dred years to get bill to that effect through
the House Of Representatives, one hundred
years more to get such bill through
the Senate, and even after the passage
of the bill-after this double lapse OF
time-one hundred and one years would be
spent in discussing the most eligible point in
the Mississippi Valley to which the capital
could be removed"
The odd year in the last mentioned CEN
tenary is very suggestive; and still after all
this time was got rid of and had passed away
in due order, and that removal bill had
received the legal sanction, and that an appro-
pirate site and location had been selected,
another half century would most certainly be
required to put up the buildings, for it would
be ''big job" and would stick as long as
appropriations could be made to ''delay the
work."
Under all the circumstances, and relying
upon General Sherman's calculation of the
time needed to get even the House Of Repre-
sentatives to act in the premises the first one
hundred years, the Washingtonians had better
stick to their business and occupy, and in the
brief course of time allotted to them-com
pared with the time necessary for removal
bequeath their several premises and appur-
tenances in the full hope and assurance that
the Capitol will continue to stand upon the
banks of their beloved and historic Tiber-
Goose creek-long after their ashes will have
mouldered in their family urns, and those of
their chldren's children after them. Never
theless, it is worthy of observation that
Western men keep hammering at this subject
they have just had Convention in ST. Louis
for the removal, which looks like business
and in the face Of the exposed situation OF the
capital in case Of foreign war, and tho other
fact that an approach to it is in the hands OF a
railroad monopoly, they have arguments that
must be heard with respect.