The National tribune., 1899-11-02

not done. Congress therefore adjourned
to Princeton, n. J. The people then be-
eame aware of the necessity of National
Capital in territory where the Government
had jurisdiction, for it could not be sub
iected to the limited power of Municipal
Government. For four years the contro-
versy went on. No official records of the
debates hs, been preserved, and it is only
through the .end of resolutions passed
that we get an estimate of the methods
chosen to bring a solution of the vexed
question.
We read that the session of 1890 was one
Of discussion and bitterness, and marked
by the policy of Alexander Hamilton to
assume the State debts, amounting to
S20,00O,000. The amendment to the pend
ing act covering this amount was rejected
by the House. Jefferson was now Secre-
tary of State, and Hamilton Secretary of
the Treasury. The North favored the pay
ment of the debt and the South opposed it,
Hamilton urged the necessity of payment
upon Jefferson.
A curious bit of history comes to us
which Mr.. jefferson recorded in his Ana.
1t touches the spring which opens the secret
to the final action upon the adoption of the
Potomac site for the National Capital
Jefferson and Hamilton met on the streets
and, arm in arm, walked back and forth be-
fore the Presidents house for half an hour
jefferson says that Hamilton was in de-
spair. He painted pathetically the temper
into which the Legislature had been
wrought, the disgust of those called the
Creditor States" the danger of the seces-
sion of its members and the separation of
the States. He said the members Of the
Administration ought TO act in concert;
that the President was the center on which
all Administration questions finally rested;
that all Of us should rally around him, and
support by joint effort measures approved
by him.
Jefferson replied that if its rejection en-
dangered dissolution of the Union at this
incipient stage he should deem it the most
unfortunate of all consequences; to avert
which all partial and temporary evils
should be yielded. He proposed to Mr..
Hamilton that he dine with him the next
day, and that he would invite friend or
two and bring them into conference. He
hoped some compromise could be made that
would save the Union.
The conference took place. They all
felt that the preservation of the Union and
concord among the States was of the most
importance. They decided that the vote of
rejection must be rescinded, TO effect which
some men must change their votes. To
make this an agreeable pill all around
some concomitant measures should be
adopted. There had been proposition to
fix the seat of Government either at Phila-
delphia or Georgetown on the Potomac, and
1t was thought by giving it to Philadelphia
for 10 years and TO Georgetown perma-
nently afterwards this might in some degree
calm the fernent which might be excited
by the other measure alone
1t might have been desirable. as some
agreed, to choose a place best suited to the
interests Of the whole country, regardless
Of the personal wishes or convenience of
individual members of Congress; and IL
might have been desirable, as some thought.
TO choose point which would not give un-
equal disadvantages to the most distant
States, and which should have the most
direct and easy communication with the
great Western territory. But when all
these considerations were weighed in the
balance they were found wanting in tip
ping the scales against measure that
would save the Union from dissolution.
So two of the Potomac membership.
White and Mr.. Lee-agreed TO change their
votes for assumption, and Hamilton agreed
10 carry the point of the Potomac site The
assumption was passed, and the permanent
Capital fixed on the Potomac
While the struggle for the Capital was
intense in the North, in the South the
slave interest bore no part in it. 1t must
not be forgotten that in 1889 New jersey