The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-09-29
EIGHT CITIES HAVE BEEN SEAT
OF T. $. GOVERNMENT. 9TH
Frs WANTED TO BE.

The removal of the seat of govern
r,on+ or the capital of country,
from one city to another may recall
4o.+be minds of many Americans that
4bA capitaI of the United States was
once wandering capital, and that in
tho carly days of the republic was
shifted from city to city, says the
Washington Star. The changes in
the seat of government were frequent
until the capital was firmly and per-
manently established on the Potomac
river around the junction with that
river and the eastern branch.
Philadelphia New York, Baltimore,
Lancaster, Pa, York, Pa, Prince
ton. n. j., Trenton, n. j., and Annap-
oils. Md. have been at one time the
capital of the United States. After
the close of the war independence
there began discussion of the need
for determining on a city, or site,
for the permanent capital for the re-
public. and New York, Kingston, N.
Y. Newport, R. l., Germantown, Pa,
Annapolis, Trenton, Baltimore, Will
Harrisburg, Va, and number OF 9TH
er cities were active candidates for
the honor and profit of being the per-
manent capital of the United States.
Then. when it had been determined
not to locate the seat of government
in a city already in being but to Sc
lect a site and create a national capt.
tai the claims of many localities were
presented to congress and pressed
upon its attention.
The late Ainsworth R. Spofford,
long librarian of congress, in little
study entitled The Coming of the
White Man and the Founding of the
National Capital" wrote that when
the first congress under the constitu-
ton met at New York in 1889 that
body was embarrassed by the claims
of many cities and the offers of vari-
Gus states to provide a permanent
seat of government.
Trenton, Philadelphia, Carlisle,
Germantown, Lancaster, York, Har-
risburg, Reading, Wilmington and
Baltimore were all eager to receive
the new government with open arms.
The debates in the house of repre-
senate are repOrted-were long and
sometimes acrimonious. Suffice it to
say that after many locations had
been successfully acknowledgements
town, Pa, having been once selected.
but recOnsidered-the site on the
Potomac was carried July 9, 1890,
by a majority of only two votes in
the house Those votes, moreover,
could not have been obtained had
North Carolina not come into the
union before the decision, casting her
vote for the Southern location.
In an address in 1900 in connec-
ton with the ceremonies commemOr-
ative of the centennial of the estab-
lishment of the seat of government
at Washington Representative Payne
said that New York and Philadel-
phia had each in turn furnished a
temporary seat of government for the
federation of states Each had Of
fered to donate suitable grounds and
buildings for the federal house, an
offer of no little consequence in view
of our bankrupt treasury.
Other cities-Baltimore, Lancas-
ter, York, Princeton, Trenton and
Annapolis-had furnished tempo
rary refuge to the continental con-
gress in the varying vicissitudes of
the war, and each had it's claim on
the grateful patriotism of our peo-
pie. Each of these cities had extend
ed hospitable welcome, and quick
.ly matured plans to give the congress
a permanent abiding place"
After the close of the war, and as
early as 1888, the discussion con-