Usdk wrote:
more central location on the eastern seaboard, back when we were only the eastern seaboard, if i remember correctly.
plus the smell.
It had to do with a lot of factors...some of them being:
1) We didn't want our federal banking and government in the same location:
Quote:
The site of the new capital was the product of political compromise. As part of the struggle over Hamilton's financial policy, Congress supported the Bank of the United States which would be headquartered in Philadelphia. In exchange the special District of Columbia, to be under Congressional control, would be built on the Potomac River. The compromise represented a symbolic politics of the very highest order. While Hamilton's policies encouraged the consolidation of economic power in the hands of bankers, financiers, and merchants who predominated in the urban northeast, the political capital was to be in a more southerly and agricultural region apart from those economic elites.
2) The prevalent issue of states rights and state equality. Many had the opinion that if the capitol was in a specific state (New York, Pennsylvania, etc.) then that state would have unfair leverage over all others. Washington D.C. isn't considered part of any state.
3) There were also issues with protestors in Philadelphia who wanted to be paid for their wartime services and were supported by the governor of Pennsylvania (resulting in bad blood and contributing to the decision to move the capitol):
Quote:
Prior to establishing the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., the United States Congress and its predecessors had met in Philadelphia, New York City, and a number of other locations.[2] In September 1774, the First Continental Congress brought together delegates from the colonies in Philadelphia, followed by the Second Continental Congress, which met from May 1775 to March 1781. After adopting the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was formed and convened in Philadelphia from March 1781 until June 1783, when a mob of angry soldiers converged upon Independence Hall, demanding payment for their service during the American Revolutionary War. Congress requested that John Dickinson, the governor of Pennsylvania, call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia.
I'm sure the smell was only a small part...and probably the major reason no location in New Jersey was ever considered.
! Must remain optimistic.
