Why did the Founders choose such a remote place for their capital? That, too, was a bit of a swamp. When George Washington was inaugurated, in April, 1789, New York was the seat of government—the latest in a long list of places where Congress had met, including Philadelphia, Lancaster, York, Baltimore, Annapolis, Trenton, and Princeton. But the issue was festering, and so many proposals were still coming in, for Northern and Southern versions of the capital, that one satirist proposed a mobile platform, with a few buildings and a statue of George Washington, which could be wheeled from one location to another.
In the spring of 1790, Congress, already dysfunctional, argued over everything, and high on the list of disagreements were its permanent location and its ability to pay for itself. The two issues were eventually fused in a masterly compromise, struck by Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton, around June 20th. In what may have been the most consequential dinner in American history, they met at Jefferson’s New York residence, at 57 Maiden Lane—the room where it happened, known to every “Hamilton” fan—to hammer out the details. On the table was the deal of deals. Congress would agree to assume the debt burden of the states, easing the creation of a strong economy, soon to be centered in nearby Wall Street. In return, Hamilton would agree to support the South’s dream of a capital closer to home.
Jefferson appeared to regret the arrangement; he confessed to George Washington that it was the worst political mistake of his life, because an invigorated economy had given rise to a “speculating phalanx” that had revealed, very early, the dispiriting influence of money in our politics. But Northerners, too, would question a deal that now required them to travel a great distance, along terrible roads, to a capital that seemed to be settling into the ooze it was built upon.
As it turned out, the “speculating phalanx” was active in the South, as well, where investors long before had bought land around the future site of Washington. A low-grade “Potomac fever” had coursed through the bloodstream of these investors, as they pursued a dream of luring settlers to the enchanted spot. They imagined a grand city of commerce arising from the manure-rich banks of the river.