The new capital of the United States foretold the future of the young nation. The city needed to be placed in the South to placate Republicans led by Jefferson and Madison and to gain their support for any Federal City and Capital.
Thomas Jefferson offered a plan more modest than what President Washington envisioned, but Washington's plan was more modest than Secretary Alexander Hamilton's vision of the new federal seat of government. As the leader of the Federalists, Hamilton envisioned a strong central government with which President George Washington agreed, but it was President Washington who placed the capital district on and around Jenkins Hill in Maryland and Virginia along side of the Potomac River.
The Federal City, now know as Washington DC, was the compromise between opposing political forces and and agrarian interests in the south versus urban business interests in the north. In 1801 it was known as Washington City which resided with Georgetown in the District of Columbia on the Maryland side of the Potomac containing large tracts of low lying swampy land. The Virginia side of the Potomac which included the city Alexandria and a good port once was part of this federal district, but was retroceded to Virginia in 1846.
Recap: DC was a political compromise built on a swamp, split in two parts and after only 45 years of federal control, 32 percent of it was gone, much as things are still done by the federal government today.
Thomas Jefferson offered a plan more modest than what President Washington envisioned, but Washington's plan was more modest than Secretary Alexander Hamilton's vision of the new federal seat of government. As the leader of the Federalists, Hamilton envisioned a strong central government with which President George Washington agreed, but it was President Washington who placed the capital district on and around Jenkins Hill in Maryland and Virginia along side of the Potomac River.
The Federal City, now know as Washington DC, was the compromise between opposing political forces and and agrarian interests in the south versus urban business interests in the north. In 1801 it was known as Washington City which resided with Georgetown in the District of Columbia on the Maryland side of the Potomac containing large tracts of low lying swampy land. The Virginia side of the Potomac which included the city Alexandria and a good port once was part of this federal district, but was retroceded to Virginia in 1846.
Recap: DC was a political compromise built on a swamp, split in two parts and after only 45 years of federal control, 32 percent of it was gone, much as things are still done by the federal government today.
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