The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-06-17
FEDERAL CITY.
New Jersey Nearly Had
the National Capt.
tai.
HOW THE PLAN FAILED
It Was to Have Been
Located in Mercer
County.

County.
Federal City, Mercer county. New Jer.
sey, in days. gone by, was one the map
but it has been wiped off, says the New
ark Sunday Call The city still exists
not as its founders projected it should
be, but as fate has decreed. A small
group IF shabby habitations, with a
blacksmith shop in the centre, located q
few miles from Trenton, is all that is left
of what was to have been the greatest
city of the nation, no other than the
Federal City. which. as its name implies,
was to be the national capital.
There are those of the present genera
ton, and even those of a generation back,
who think that this idea of a national
Jersey capital was a myth but it is an
interesting bit of national history, amply
| corroborated by records. Another thing
proven is that the paterfamilias of all the
patriots. George Washington, was a man
of magnificent appetite, and his contem-
poraries followed his illustrious example.
The dread and fear if the national
| capital should have been located in this
| vicinity that the illustrious men of the
nation would have to eat Jersey sausage
and country serapple is the primary rea-
son why Federal City, Mercer county, is
no city at all, but a deserted Auburn, with
for the lapse of history. Federal City is
too poor to maintain a post Office. and
the local biographies that the
two dozen Inhabitants get their mail at
Pennington, and they might have added
that they get their liquor at Trenton.
New Jersey was within an ace of getting
the national capital. Overzealeus press
agents spout the whole seheihe- Al ehat
time its position was central enough, par
tieuiafiy as IL was located between New
lorh anu rhilauelplla put us hospi'an-
eies "eie not oioeu enousn - sun 10
SAWS III oo.n "ashihs,on
o :. eAi'fu - - eiaoos -
-, e. $500 :
80 !.
go uan.oana ao..t - -
,au - 49, $3.50
- overr rtroam ub;ab ins+a,a - soo4h
mo tho b,,ng,y To,,n Aaoms nrovokna
HIM 10 apea4, and Trenton Lost What
seemed to he firmly fiyed in her crash
the establishment ox q largo national
observation and tbe oanital of q ereat ma
tion an the hanks of +he Della wore and
Raritan Canal New Jersey keenlv feels
the loss. What little history of tbe state
that has been prepared. regretfully tells
of the notorious slip I'D.
The United States Government was for
some years on circuit, meeting around
wherever the glad hand was extended.
It grew a bit monotonous. and in 1873 it
was decided to settle down and get a
home. Philadelphia had been the prin-
cipal abiding place. but slow fevers and
other lingering pestilence added to the
general enn,,i- of Pann,s sa,lare town. and
caused them 70 come to Trenton because
.it was central. It was not the best place
for ! national canita1 beca,,se the hotels
were numerous hut not comfortable. but
h,,s;nass hoomed when Congress- came
ond &c soon as # was announced that
+ba National Governm ent was willing to
artertain avorable nronositions from
wealthy citizens and boards of trade.
-, ao,naiIs az ! sta+a I.eg,,islatura &c
~ . sita and ! grat,,ftv Trenton began
loo rolI;ng New Jersey had some good
naIit;oia,s =, +basa davs s,,cb &c Tohn-
u-;thorrnoo, E,an.;s Hankinso, tba
e+aoL+ans E1sba Ro,,dinot and others
49, go lo,g1beadad natriots and thew,
$50 aomb;na+ion WITH Ner,
$3.50 ~ Eng,ana states and start.
- e.a.+; l., ponn,,,,anio
49, 49, 49, oani+a1 Tba cow
s+nonn ard loo,1ad li1a
".ie e..
800. SEQ - csaanaas ~ -
eas ~ IS 49,. -.
,so' = nsatsaiaiaa,
WI, = nssaaaa. intnoa,,aaa
mans N1sa,s4.aa 80 h,,,ainms
" 1000 - =
~ ? =, $500 49, aas Ms.
W :. 49, -. Gaornaton,
Ton, or oh ! - aa
u - oao ont,
twenty -n,ie ra ~
70 star. as
-. - 4sasi4ss
sheuiu We oea'eu-
ne ny lnas - -,
IFS hhslois' ian oul ~ So
rum = ma
a great iopps lousy On l dlin
taetles
were useo- ihe seh''eAiea - as
south poo1ipooneu .'e - .
northern iospieal-'s' ~ : "ae ~ iois
before lfe Ne" 1865 "ia "a
.s !. Ann,a8c.xon adieoti,as farh;d.
ahtries - @aa
den by the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES