II.

ry's motion was avoided by the rising of the committee; CHAPTER and the bill being reported to the House with an amendment for funding the outstanding Continental money at 1790. the rate of seventy-five for one, was passed and sent to June 2. the Senate.

The president had communicated, the day before, in a message to both houses, the accession of the State of Rhode Island to the new federal system. By the casting vote of Governor Collins in the Board of Assistants, a bill calling a state convention, to take into consideration the Federal Constitution, had passed the Rhode Island Assembly early in the year. Along with notice Jan. 21. of this act, an urgent request had been sent to Congress for a further suspension, as to Rhode Island shipping, of the extra duties on foreign vessels. When the Convention met at the time appointed, the anti-Federal members found themselves a majority; but not daring to venture on a positive rejection of the Constitution, they procrastinated matters by voting an adjournment. The annual election occurring in the interval, Collins was dropped by the anti-Federalists, and Arthur Fenner chosen governor in his place. But the ruling majority felt very doubtful and uneasy. The secession of the two commercial towns of Providence and Newport, indeed the partition of the whole state between Massachusetts and Connecticut, was openly talked of, as well in Rhode Island itself as in the neighboring states. As a further stimulus, the federal Senate passed a bill, and sent it May 18. down to the House, prohibiting commercial intercourse with the recusant state, and authorizing a demand upon her for her quota toward the Continental debt. On the reassembling of the Rhode Island Convention, another attempt at procrastination was made by moving a further adjournment. This, however, failed; and the Consti

CHAPTER tution was at length ratified by a majority of two votes, II. not, however, without previously setting forth, besides 1790. twenty-one proposed amendments to the body of the in

The

strument, a Bill of Rights, in eighteen articles, declared,
like the similar bill set forth by the New York ratifying
Convention, consistent with the Constitution, and inca-
pable of being abridged or violated. Thus were all the
states of the original confederacy again reunited, by their
own free consent, under the Federal Constitution.
Rhode Island members presently took their seats in Con-
gress; immediately after the adjournment, the president
paid a visit to that state, where he was welcomed with
no less enthusiasm than he had been in other parts of
New England.

Though defeated in the House, the friends of the assumption of the state debts did not despair; and, indeed, means were soon found to connect this question with another, in which local interests and jealousies were not less involved that of a permanent seat for the federal government. By a combination at the last session between the members from the Eastern and Middle States, a bill, as we have seen, had very nearly passed, though finally defeated on a trifling matter of difference between the two houses, for fixing the permanent seat of government on the Delaware near Philadelphia, Congress to continue to sit at New York till the necessary buildings could be erected. At the present session new combinations had been formed. The Pennsylvanians seemed unwilling to risk the temporary residence at New York, and by their votes, and those of the Southern members, May 31. a resolution had been carried in the House for holding the next session of Congress at Philadelphia. The SenJune 8. ate having rejected this resolution, another was sent to

them for holding the next session at Baltimore; but they

II.

were not disposed to sanction a removal from New York, CHAPTER unless the whole question could be settled at the same. time. A bill had been introduced for that purpose, but 1790. any agreement as to the precise spot was found very difficult.

The states most interested in having the federal capital on the Potomac were Virginia and Maryland, and, as a very rapid growth seems to have been generally anticipated for the federal city, this interest was particularly strong in that part of these two states immediately bordering on the river. It occurred to Robert Morris and others, strong advocates for the assumption, that, if gratified as to the seat of the federal capital, some of the Virginia and Maryland members might be willing to yield the other point, and a change of two or three votes would be sufficient to change the majority in the House. Jefferson complains in his Ana that, having but lately arrived at New York-he had, in fact, arrived and entered upon the duties of his office in the midst of the slavery. debate he was "most ignorantly and innocently made to hold the candle" to this intrigue, "being duped into it," as he alleges, "by the Secretary of the Treasury, and made a tool of for forwarding his schemes, not then sufficiently understood." Hamilton, it seems, appealed to Jefferson for his aid and co-operation as a member of the cabinet in calming an excitement, and bringing about the settlement of a question which seemed to threaten the very existence of the federal government. Jefferson proposed to Hamilton to dine with him the next day, on which occasion he would invite another friend or two, to see whether it "were not possible, by some mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise to save the Union." At this dinner-party the subject was discussed, Jefferson, as he assures us, taking "no part but

CHAPTER an exhortatory one;" and finally it was agreed that, for II. the sake of the Union, White and Lee, two of the Vir1790. ginia members, should change their votes on the question of assumption; but by way of anodyne to the excitement which this change might produce, the seat of the federal government, after remaining for the next ten years at Philadelphia, was to be permanently fixed on the Potomac. From their influence with the Eastern and Northern members, Hamilton and Morris undertook to carry out that part of the bargain.

In accordance, it would seem, with this arrangement, the bill in relation to the seat of government having been made to correspond to the agreement above recited, was passed by the Senate, and sent to the House. But, as the secret of the bargain of which it formed a part had been communicated to a few only of the Northern members, just sufficient to secure its passage, it there encountered a very violent opposition. The yeas and nays were called upon it no less than thirteen times, and it finally July 10. passed only by the close vote of thirty-two to twenty

nine.

By this act the permanent seat of the federal government was established on the Potomac, the particular spot, within certain limits, being left to the discretion of the president, who was to appoint commissioners to fix the location, and to erect suitable public buildings for the accommodation of Congress, the president, and the several departments. In their eagerness to fix the seat of government in their own neighborhood, Maryland and Virginia, as well as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, had held out very liberal offers; and it was one of the arguments in favor of the present act, that it provided for establishing a capital and erecting all the necessary public buildings without any cost to the nation-an idea kept

II.

up for several years, but which proved in the end to be CHAPTER a very mistaken one. Instead of an appropriation to defray the expenses of the purchase of land and of erect- 1790. ing the necessary buildings, the president was authorized and requested to accept grants of money for that purpose. Congress and the government were to remove to this new city in December, 1800. Meanwhile, commencing with the ensuing December, the seat of government was to be at Philadelphia.

This side of the bargain thus provided for, the Senate, among numerous other amendments to the Funding Bill, inserted a provision, founded on Sherman's suggestion in July 16. the House, assuming certain specified amounts in the certificates of the debts of the different states. Not only was this specification more satisfactory to many than a general assumption of the whole mass of the state debts, but it admitted of modifications as to particular states, by which a number of wavering votes might be fixed, and popular opinion be also conciliated. The bill, thus amended, passed the Senate, fourteen to twelve: Mas- July 22. sachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and South Carolina, unanimous for it; New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, divided; Rhode Island, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, unanimous against it.

By the time the bill came back to the House with this new provision in it, the subject had been pretty well exhausted. The nature of the compromise entered into, and that votes enough were secured in the House to insure the passage of the bill, seem now to have been generally understood. But it was not suffered to pass without a warm debate. Jackson was the chief speaker for the anti-assumptionists; the other side was maintained by Smith of South Carolina, Gerry, and Sherman.