The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-19

| the introduction of the resolution of Representative Benjamin Goodhue of
 Massachusetts, that the permanent seat of Government should be located l on the east bank of the Susauehanua. ! in Pennsylvania, and that while per- ! manent buildings were being erected the Capital should remain in New York.
 Question of Health Raised. The question of health, among other things, was argued against the Poto- mac. Congressman Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts. asserted that 1t was generally believed in New England that the climate of the Potomac 'is not on- iy unhealthy, but destructive to North ern constitutions" Jeremiah wads- worth, of the Nutmeg State, "did not dare to go to the Potomac" Should that be the location, he feared that tho whole of New England would consider the Union as destroyed"
 John vining of Delaware. and Mich ael Jenifer Stone of Maryland. favored the Potomac. So did James Madison of Virginia. Many of the arguments pro and con hinged upon the availability of communication with the growing West.
 Others participated in the debate, and finally MT. Lee of Virginia moved to strike out "the east bank of the River Susquehanna," and insert "the north bank of the River Potomac"
 This brought the question to a head The Lee substitute was lost by a de- cisive vote. The Goodhue resolution, fixing upon the east bank of the Sus- quehanna, passed the House by the de-
 cisive vote of 31 to IT, and was sent | to the Senate. As the Southern repre- | sentation in the House aggregated | thirty. 1t is evident that thirteen of | them hnrkGlid fTnpa hff1ey ton. or failed to vote.
 There is no record of any debate of the Goodhue resolution by the Senate. | On September 26, 17S9. 1t was sent back l to the House, amended to read: "A district of ten miles square, bounded on
 the south by line running parallel
 at one miles distance from the city of
 Philadelphia" It appeared that there
 was tie vote, and the Senate's amend | ment was adopted by the casting vote | of Vice-President Adams.
 But for MT. Adams's casting vote as
 Vice-President, therefore, the capital | of the United States would now stand
 somewhere on the bank of the SusQue- | hanna, in Pennsylvania. What It's ! name would be Is. perhaps, problemati- 1 cal If the House had agreed to the Senate amendment 1t would, perhaps,
 be located at or near Philadelphia. House Refused to Concur. However, the House refused to con- cur in the Senate amendment, and the whole question went over. The Con
 gress. in fact, adjourned three days la-
 ter. In the interim before the matter
 was taken up in the second session
 there was an extraordinary somersauIt
 in the Congressional attitude toward
 the new site But the evolution was
 not wrought through Washington's in-
 fiuence
 In Jeffersons diary it is learned that
 It turned on the assumption by the na-
 tional government of tho State debts
 entailed by the revolutionary war. The
 House had previously defeated assump-
 tion, as 1t was called There was much
 bitterness, and some threats of a disso-
 lution of the Union. The New Eng
 land States particularly were much dis
 gruntled. The Southern States had
 generally opposed and voted against
 Assumption.
 Eventually. through the efforts of
 Jefferson and Hamilton, an agreemenr
 was patched up by which two anti-AS
 sumption Virginia members, R, R. Lee
 and Alexander White, were to chance
 their position to favor Assumption
 while certain Eastern members. more
 interested In Assumption than the IoS
 cation of the capital, withdrew their
 support from the Pennsylvania canitai proposition al d voted for it's locat,o,, on the north bank Of the Potomao |" In other words there was deal" When the hour of decision arrivaS both sides delivered the goods" some S20, ,0O0,O ,OQ0 of state debts were in Sms course assumed by the National covS ernment to Glease the Northern states