Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-02-15
THE VISIONARY NEW CAPITOL
SCHEME
It Crumbles Into Impalpab,s Dust Be-
meath tho Iron Tread u American
Experience.

abortively forced to serve as one of the
British Cunard line OF ocean steamers,
has there been a wilder proposition
mon Sense, than that Of defying the laws
of gravitation, population, and locomotlOn
by trying to force the Capitol of Maine
into the extreme corner Of the State. To
prove that it would he for the interest," of
the State to do so Ia as much war against
financial mathematics as the effort of
DeLesseps and his speculative adventures
to convince American citizens that they
should invest their money in the Panama
canal scheme, dumping millions Of gold
into Chargers river, when there is another
route 1900 miles shorter to the Pacific
States, costing one-third Of the Panama
scheme.
For nearly century the practical sense
of the American people has been opera
tive against the theory Of the Portland
Capitol attempt. In that time
there have always been those
who have sincerely argued for the theory
that the political capitols Of the States
and the Nation should be located at the
commercial capitals, Against til theory
GEORGE WAsHINGToN in the plcuitude of
his patriotic fame protested, and the Ma
tional Capitol was planted where It now
stands. The Empire state does not hsve
her capitol in her great commetri,l .'tv.
but at Albany, on the banks Of her Noble.
and beautiful river. New Jersey does rot
have her capitol at her great .Irr o., CIV.
but at Trenton. Pcnnsvlvani i".- MT
have her State House in her great aud
beautiful commercial city of Philadelphia,
but at the interior town of Harrisburg.
Michigan, that magnificent State between
the great lakes, whose population and
civilization are the composite product OF
New England and Western New York.
does not place her capitol in the large
commercial city Of Detroit, one of the
most beautiful in the Union, but 10 the
small central and interior town of Lansing.
Ohio, that great State OF nearly four mil
lions Of people, does not locate her capitol
metropolis, Cincinnati, but in the inland
city of Columbus. Illinois does not have
her State capitol in Chicago, that Carthage
of the new world, more splendid than the
Carthage of the old, hut she does place her
State House In the more central, inland
town of Springfield. The great State of
Wisconsin has not chosen her chief COM
mercial city, Milwaukee. for her political
capital, but the beautiful inland city of
Madison ia the chosen spot. Kentucky
does not plant her capitol at the great
commercial city of Louisville, but in the
country town OF Frankfort. The great
State of Missouri does not locate her
capital in her splendid commercial
metropolis, st. Louis, but in the more
central interior Jefferson City.
South Carolina does not locate her
State capitol in her chief commercial
city Of Charleston, but at the interior
town OF Columbia. Georgia, the Empire
State of the South, does not locate her
State House at her great commercial sea-
port Of Savannah, but in the interior city
of Atlanta. Alabama does not think her
natural seaport, finely situated on her
beautiful bay, should have the State Capt.
tol, but 1t is located in the small and
more central interior city of Mont
gomery. Louisiana does not think
that New Orleans Is the proper place for
her Lawmakers to do their work, but
deems 1t better that they should assemble
annually at Baton Rouge. Go to the
great State Of Texas, which has just built
new State House at the cost of millions,
which Is not located in her growing com
mercial metropolis, Galveston, but in the
interior, small city Of Austin. Cross the
Rockies to the Pacific Slope, where Maine
men are helping to build up great States,
with the riches OF empires in store, and
there the idess of the immortal Washing
ton and the experience of the Atlantic
States are being carefully regarded. Cali
fornia does not locate her Capitol In her
splendid commercial metropolis, that more
than Venice and Naples combined in her
beauty and wealth, but the interior city of
Sacramento is the chosen political Capital.
Oregon does not think Portland, her chief
commercial city, located about as near one
corner OF the State as is Portland. Maine,
but she selects the smaller. the more CEN
trail, and the interior town of Saiem. The
new State of Washington, about
to enter the Union, locates .rl
capitol not In either OF the rapidly ri ing
great commercial cities Of Seat. AMI It.
coma. but at the modest and more erHiriI
town Of Olympia. So of that rich ana "a
markable new State OF West Virginia, born
amid the bloody throes of the Civil War
and of Freedoms triumph, after full
test of discussion aud public opinion. /
reared her State Capitol, not in the great
and rising commercial city of Wheeling.
but In the small central town of Charles |
ton. But We shall weary our readers in |
going farther into these familiar facts of !
American geography and OF American
history. Never WAS the far-seeing wis
ION Of the Father of his Country" more
strikingly illustrated, that the commercial
and political capitals of . free people
Ihoald NOT Be the same. Thus 1t is as plain
md luminous a. electric lights OF thou
and hills, that the experience. the aver
lge sense, Of the scores of millions Of the
American people. past aud present, are in
.xact accord with the judgment Of the
majority Of the people of Maine. that it is
rot wise to have its State Capitol at one
,orner Of the State because sse Of its
commercial cities desires It,