Introduction: Where Oh Where Should the Capital Be?

There was another idea driving the debate over the location of the capital—the idea that it should be “central,” equally accessible to all. By the time of the passage of the Residence Act, three states—Delaware, Virginia, and Georgia—had already moved their capitals to more central locations. In the next twenty years eight more states did so, too. Only Maryland and Massachusetts retained their old colonial capitals.¹ In the new states west of the Appalachians, capitals were placed in as central a location as possible. Indiana, in fact, charged its commissioners to select a site at the geographic center of the state.
 

Once the president announced his selection of a site, January 24, 1791, planning for the new city began. The cornerstone for the White House was laid October 13, 1792, and that for the Capitol, on August 18, 1793. In November 1800, President John Adams moved into the White House, and in the same month the Congress began conducting its business in the unfinished Capitol. The 1800 census showed that 8,144 people lived within the District of Columbia, and that 69 percent of them were white. A considerable number of these persons were residents of Georgetown, an existing Potomac River port within the new Federal District. The next census showed almost a doubling of the population, to 15,471. The city was growing, but it was not yet the national center the early proponents hoped it would be.

The greatest threat to the new capital came in August 1814, when the British army invaded the city and burned the White House and Capitol as well as other government buildings. Although the British were in Washington just two days, the damage, physically and emotionally, was substantial. But Congress was determined to rebuild. Upon their return to Washington, President and Mrs. Madison moved into Colonel John Tayloe’s Octagon House. The reconstruction of the nearby White House was begun almost immediately and was largely completed by the time President James Monroe took the Oath of Office. City leaders and businessmen raised money for a temporary structure to house Congress while reconstruction of the Capitol continued. These actions forestalled any thoughts about relocating the capital. But even at this early date “the Seat of the Government” was no longer truly central.

Although by 1815 the United States was still a nation focused on the Atlantic seaboard, four states west of the Appalachians had been admitted to the union² and the nation’s territory stretched to the Rocky Mountains. By 1840, new states outnumbered the original thirteen, and by 1860 the country spanned the continent to the Pacific, with two states—California and Oregon—on the Pacific Coast.