576 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-VII 



Germany, which had been so long and painful, leading 

 them to abhor disunion in America. 



The conversation then fell into ordinary channels, and I 

 took leave after another hearty shake of the hand and 

 various kind assurances. A few days later came an invita- 

 tion to dinner with him ; and I prized this all the more be- 

 cause it was not to be an official, but a family dinner, and 

 was to include a few of his most intimate friends in the 

 ministry and the parliament. On the invitation it was 

 stated that evening dress was not to be worn ; and on my 

 arrival, accompanied by Herr von Schlotzer, at that time 

 the German minister in Washington, I found all the guests 

 arrayed in simple afternoon costume. The table had a 

 patriarchal character. At the head sat the prince ; at his 

 side, in the next seat but one, his wife ; while between them 

 was the seat assigned me, so that I enjoyed to the full the 

 conversation of both. The other seats at the head of the 

 table were occupied by various guests ; and then, scattered 

 along down, were members of the family and some per- 

 sonages in the chancery who stood nearest the chief. The 

 conversation was led by him, and soon took a turn espe- 

 cially interesting. He asked me whether there had ever 

 been a serious effort to make New York the permanent 

 capital of the nation. I answered that there had not ; that 

 both New York and Philadelphia were, for a short period 

 at the beginning of our national history, provisional capi- 

 tals ; but that there was a deep-seated idea that the perma- 

 nent capital should not be a commercial metropolis, and 

 that unquestionably the placing of it at Washington was 

 decided, not merely by the central position of that city, but 

 also by the fact that it was an artificial town, never likely 

 to be a great business center ; and I cited Thomas Jeffer- 

 son 's saying, " Great cities are great sores. " He an- 

 swered that in this our founders showed wisdom ; that the 

 French were making a bad mistake in bringing their na- 

 tional legislature back from Versailles to Paris ; that the 

 construction of the human body furnishes a good hint for 

 arrangements in the body politic; that, as the human brain 



