I 
REMARKS, 173 
point, it was found, would admit of some dis¬ 
pute ; and as it could not be determined imme- 
in justice to be as central as possible to every state; the ne¬ 
cessity, indeed, of having the place so situated, has been ma¬ 
nifested in the building of the new federal city. Were it 
not for this step, many of the most enlightened characters in 
the states have given it as their opinion, that the union could 
not have remained many years entire, for the states s* 
far removed from the seat of the legislature, before the new 
city was founded, had complained grievously of the distance 
which their delegates had to travel to meet congress, and 
had begun to talk of the necessity of a separation of the 
states: and now, on the other hand, that a central spot has 
been fixed upon, those states to the northward, conveniently 
situated to Philadelphia, the present seat of the federal go¬ 
vernment, say that the new city will be so far removed from 
them, that the sending of delegates thither will be highly in¬ 
convenient to them, and so much so, as to call for a separa¬ 
tion of the union on their part. In a former letter I stated 
the various opinions that were entertained by the. people of 
the United States on this subject, and I endeavoured to 
shew, that the seat of Congress would be removed to the 
new federal city without endangering a partition of the 
states j but I am fully persuaded, that were Canada to be¬ 
come an independant state, and a place were to be fixed 
on central to all the states, supposing her to be one, that 
neither she, nor the state at the remote opposite end, would 
long continue, if they ever did submit, to send their delegates 
to a place so far removed, that it would require more than 
a fourth part of the year for them (the delegates) to travel, 
even with the utmost possible expedition, backward and 
forward, between the district which they represented and 
the seat of congress. 
Secondly, I think the two Canadas will never become- 
eonnected with the present states, because the people of 
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