New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-22
REMOHING TIE CAPITAL.

REMOVING THE CAPITAL.
The West has taken up with some earnest
ness the project of transferring the national
capital from Washington to the Mississippi
Valley, and, strange to say, is nearly unani-
nous in urging the selection OF st. Louis Tor
the new seat of government. Chicago makes
the nomination, and Omaha seconds 1t.
Chicago is the vainest place in the world,
and believes herself already the cynosnre
of the eyes of mankind, and tho me-
tropolis of American wealth and enterprise
Omaha having come into fine property very
early in life, is naturally inflated with an ex-
travagant and juvenile ambition. Yet in the
very handsomest manner both yield to that most
respectable old town, st. Louis. Such harmony
is touching. Cincinnati, to be sure, makes
faint protest; and there is place called Keo-
kuk which prefers q claim, for some reason
which we do not now remember. Cincinnati,
however, is hardly in earnest and VIII soon tall
into line, and Keokuk is ruled out, of course
by its prepOsterOus name. We could not have our
national capital called KeOkuk on any account.
Fancy how NJ. ROuher would feel if Louis Ma
poleon should call him into his private cabinet
some day and say, :" NJ. Rouher, | have
"appointed you Minister Plenipotentiary at
"Keokuk.n
There are some considerations which might
induce us to look upon this plan OF West
ward emigration of Congress with favor, If
there were not other considerations inducing
us to look in an opposite direction. Washing
ton has no special recommendations for seat
of government Tor indeed for anything else
except a pententiary) and on many accounts
is highly Objectionable 1t is one of the wick
eldest places in the world one of the muddiest,
ono of the dustiest, one of the dullest, and
worse than all, it contains the national collec-
ton of works of art. All these are excellent
reasons for going away from it-net to speak
of its inconvcnient geographical situation, and
of the important fact that in a military point
of view il is so easy to take aud so hard to
hold. Nor need the Government buildings
prove an embarrassment. They might be taken
to pieces and carted away, stone by stone, or
they might even be moved bodily acress the
continent. Chicago we remember, was built
in mud hole considerably below water marx,
and after it had grown to maturity the whole
city was raised up in a mass some eight or ten
feet. The engineers who could perform this
exploit would make nothing of freighting the
Capitol or the Treasury Building on big plat
form car and whirling it from the Potomac to
the Mississippi or the Hudson.
The clamor for the change comes, as we
have already said, from the West, and st.
Louis is by general consent the elected city. st.
Louis is very nice place. 1t contains some
estimable old families who might teach the
Congressman manners. But we fear that the
reason why Chicago, and Hannibal, and
Oshkosh, and Promontory Station, and the
ether principal cities Of the West are so ready
To yield IL precedence in this matter, Is that
they have no fear Of its rivaiship in any other.
Theoretically it is all very well to put Congress
out in the rural districts, and expect honorable
members TO grow in virtue by the smell Of the
cows and the ncw-mown hay, and by contact
with bold peasantry, their country's pride.
Practically, however, we know very well that
rustic simplicity flies the approach of legisla-
lures, and unless We can plant them in n busy,
prosperous ready made city, they will soon be
surrounded by bogus metropolis of dram
shops, gambling bells, claim Offices, and
boarding houses. II Congress went to St. Louis,
it would have nothing to do in lbs hours of
ease but stand on the levce and watch the
shipment Of breadstuils If it went 10 Chicago,
its sole amusement would be looking at the
Lake tunnel and getting divorced. Cincinnati
has no genteel family amusement except pork
slaughterng and Oshkosh can only entertain
its guests with statistics of its own greatness.
1t results as n matter Of course that whenever
the capital is moved it must be moved to New
York. This city is the commercial and intel
lectual center of the United States, and is
likely always to remain So If the political
center is ever moved from its present position,
it will inevitably Gravitate to the same point,
and any change which carries the capital else
where will be but temporary expedient We
have every means of making Congress COM
Portable, as well as some facilities for keeping
it respectable. We have good hotels. and
plenty of them, excellent theaters, Croton
water, the Central Park, and THE TRIBUNE
every morning before daylight Let these con-
siderations be well weighed; and if the seat
of Government is disturbed at all, we believe
every impartial mind will perceive that it ought
by all means to be placed here.
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There seems to be q predestinate fatality
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