University of Virginia Library

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Your letter of the 14th instant[93] did not arrive till
Sunday night, and being not then at home, I did not
receive it till last night. I now lose not a moment
in complying with its request; tho' I foresee it cannot
reach you before you will have left Mount
Vernon, and before you will probably have made
up a final determination on some if not all the questions
proposed. These are

1.

• Ought the President to summon Congress at a
  time and place to be named by him? or

2.

• If the President has no power to change the
  place, ought he to abstain from all interposition
  whatever? or

3.

• Ought he to notify the obstacle to a meeting at
  Philadelphia, state the defect of a regular provision
  for the exigency, and suggest his purpose of repairing
  to—as a place deemed most eligible for a
  meeting in the first instance?

4.

• What is the place liable to the fewest objections?
  From the best investigation I have been able to
  make in so short a time, the first expedient, tho'
  most adequate to the exigency, seems to require an
  authority that does not exist under the Constitution
  and laws of the U. States.

The only passage in the Constitution in which

such an authority could be sought is that which says
"The President may, on extraordinary occasions,
convene both Houses, or either of them." But the
obvious import of these terms is satisfied by referring
them to the time only at which the extraordinary
meeting is summoned. If indeed they included a
discretion as to the place as well as the time, it
would be unnecessary to recur to the expedient of
altering the time in order to get at an alteration of
the place. The President could as well alter the
place without interfering with the time, as alter the
time without interfering with the place. Besides,
the effect of a change as to place would not be in all
respects similar to a change as to time. In the
latter case, an extraordinary session, running into
the period of an ordinary one, would allow the
ordinary one to go on under all the circumstances
prescribed by law. In the former case, this would
not happen. The ordinary part of the Session would
be held out of the place prescribed for it, unless prevented
by a positive act for returning to it.

The obvious meaning here assigned to the phrase
is confirmed by other parts of the Constitution. It
is well known that much jealousy has always appeared
in everything connected with the residence of
the General Government. The solicitude of the
Constitution to appease this jealousy is particularly
marked by the 1st paragraph of section 6th & the 3d
paragraph of section the 7th, of Article I. The light
in which these paragraphs must be viewed cannot
well be reconciled with a supposition that it was

meant to entrust the Executive alone with any power
on that subject.

Laying aside the Constitution and consulting the
law, the expedient seems to be no less inadmissible.
The Act of July 1790 "establishing the temporary
and permanent seat of the Government of the U. S."
cannot be understood to leave any such power in
the President. And as the power, if exercised so as
to interfere with the provision relating to the
temporary seat, might beget an alarm lest, in the
hands of a President unfriendly to the permanent
seat, it should be turned on some pretext or other
against that arrangement, prudential reasons unite
with legal ones for avoiding the precedent.

The 2d mode of treating the difficulty would seem
to be best, if the danger at German Town were out
of the way. A voluntary resort to that place might
be relied on; and the members of the Legislature
finding themselves together and with the President
might legalize the necessary steps; or if that should
be thought wrong might deliberate and decide for
themselves on the emergency. But as the danger
might defeat such an expectation it results that,

The 3d expedient is called for by the occasion; and
being sufficient, is all that can be justified by it.

The 4th point to be considered is the delicate one of
naming the place.

In deciding this point, it would seem proper to
attend first to the risk of the infection. This con
sideration lies, as you observe, against Trenton &
Wilmington: secondly, to Northern and Southern

jealousies. This applies to N. York and Annapolis:
thirdly to the disposition of Pennsylvania, which is
entitled to some regard, as well by her calamity as
by the circumstance of her being in possession of the
Government.

In combining these considerations we are led to
look for some place within the State of Pennsylvania
not materially different from Philada in relation to
North and South. Lancaster and Reading appear
to have occurred. With the former I am but little
acquainted. The latter I never saw. If the object
of the Executive should be merely to put Congress in
the most neutral situation possible for choosing a
place for themselves, as would have been the case at
German Town, Reading seems to have the better
pretensions. If the object should be to provide a
place at once marking an impartiality in the Executive,
and capable of retaining Congress during the
Session, Lancaster seems to claim a preference.

If the measure which my present view of the subject
favors should be deemed least objectionable,
something like the following form might be given
to it.

"Whereas a very dangerous and infectious malady
which continues to rage in the City of Philada, renders
it indispensable that the approaching Session of
Congress should be held, as well as the Executive
Department be for the present administered, at some
other place; And whereas no regular provision exists
for such an emergency, so that unless some other
place be pointed out at which the members of Congress

may assemble in the first instance, great embarrassments
may happen: Under these peculiar
circumstances I have thought it incumbent on me
to notify the obstacle to a meeting of Congress at the
ordinary place of their Session; and to recommend
that the several members assemble on the day appointed
at—in the State of—at
which place I shall be ready to meet them.