583. ASSUMPTION OF STATE DEBTS, Federal capital and.—
It is proposed
to pass an act fixing the temporary residence of
twelve or fifteen years at Philadelphia, and that
at the end of that time, it shall stand ipso facto,
and without further declaration transferred to
Georgetown. In this way, there will be something
to displease and something to soothe
every part of the Union but New York, which
must be contented with what she has had. If
this plan of compromise does not take place, I
fear one infinitely worse, an unqualified assumption,
and the perpetual residence on the
Delaware. The Pennsylvania and Virginia delegates
have conducted themselves honorably and
unexceptionably on the question of residence.
Without descending to talk about bargains, they
have seen that their true interests lay in not
listening to insidious propositions, made to divide
and defect them, and we have seen them at
times voting against their respective wishes
rather than separate.—
To James Monroe. Washington ed. iii, 153.
Ford ed., v, 189.
(N.Y.,
June. 1790)
