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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AIAGAZINE 



of Pennsylvania troops occurred in Phila- 

 delphia. The Congress appealed to the 

 State government, but was told that the 

 militia of Philadelphia would not be will- 

 ing to take up arms before their resent- 

 ment should be provoked by some actual 

 outrage. Some 300 men, fully armed, 

 surrounded Independence Hall and de- 

 manded their money, although they made 

 no attack. The result was that three days 

 later Congress left Philadelphia and went 

 to Princeton. 



That incident proved to Congress that 

 the Federal government must have a 

 home of its own, where it could have sole 

 and undisputed jurisdiction and where it 

 could defend itself. 



The years that followed the removal of 

 Congress from Philadelphia were years 

 of inconvenience to that body and its 

 members. The Congress met at Trenton. 

 York, Lancaster, and Baltimore. 



The Constitution provided for a Fed- 

 eral district, but did not fix the place. 

 The first Congress under the new govern- 

 ment took up the matter and at its second 

 session fixed the site on the Potomac 

 River. The solution was reached by 

 "log-rolling." 



TRADING W^ITH THE ASSUMPTIONISTS 



The Northern States wished the Fed- 

 eral government to assume the obliga- 

 tions that the States had incurred during 

 the war, and the Southern States to have 

 the capital on southern soil. Alexander 

 Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, repre- 

 senting the conflicting interests, got to- 

 gether and agreed that the anti-assump- 

 tionists would vote for assumption, and 

 in return that the assumptionists would 

 support the bill to locate the capital on 

 the Potomac. 



As soon as the law fixed the capital 

 site on the Potomac River, Washington 

 himself took active charge of the work 

 of its location. He early wrote that Phila- 

 delphia stood upon an area of six square 

 miles in extent, and declared that if the 

 metropolis of a single State needed such 

 an area the nation certainly would need 

 more. He urged upon L'Enfant the de- 

 sirability of providing all the land that 

 might be needed for future growth, so 

 that the capital should be freed from 

 those blotches that otherwise mig^ht re- 



sult. The law left the site optional with- 

 in a limit of 67 miles between Williams- 

 port, Maryland, and what is now Ana- 

 costia. Washington went over the whole 

 territory, and finally selected the present 

 District of Columbia. 



A GREAT CITY PLAN 



Washington's appointment of L'En- 

 fant, an educated French army engineer, 

 to lay out the Capital City was a most 

 lucky circumstance in our history. L'En- 

 fant's plan in a way resembles the Fed- 

 eral Constitution. That great instrument 

 of government has proven itself adapta- 

 ble to a change of conditions that even 

 the most clear-sighted man of afl^airs 

 could not have anticipated. The simple 

 comprehensiveness of its broad lines 

 under the statesmanlike interpretation of 

 ?\[arshall has proved equal to the great- 

 est emergencies and the most radical 

 crises that could possibly confront a na- 

 tion. 



So Washington and L'Enfant and Jef- 

 ferson in their planning for W^ashington 

 have left a framework for its develop- 

 ment that the ablest architects and artists 

 now more than 100 years after the plan 

 was drawn and its execution begun have 

 confessed themselves unable to improve. 



The plan has been departed from in 

 two or more notable instances through 

 the obstinacy of men in power who could 

 not appreciate its admirable qualities. 

 Instead, however, of manifesting regret 

 at these we should be grateful that they 

 are so few in number, and that Ave are 

 still able' to carry out the plan and to 

 make what its complete execution will 

 make of Washington — the most beauti- 

 ful city in the Avorld. The reason why 

 this is possible is because it has never 

 been a center for business or manufac- 

 ture, because its raison d'etre is only to 

 provide a seat for government activities 

 and a home for public servants who carry 

 them on. It thus is singularly free in its 

 opportunity to devote its energies to en- 

 hancing its own stateliness and acquir- 

 ing a dignity appropriate to the heart of 

 our national sovereignty. 



JEFEERSON AND THE CAPITAL 



The troubles that grew out of the tem- 

 perament of Major L'Enfant and the ne- 



