Thus without, as yet, developing any eminent specialty, the resources of this Territory seem to promise all the requisites of prosperity to a large population; while the climate is mild and extremely healthy, and the great thoroughfare between the east and the west furnishes all necessary facilities for transporting its supplies to the best markets. More intimate knowledge of its mineral deposits may perhaps give it a higher rank as a mining State.
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
The first Congress convened under the new Constitution in 1789, held its session in New York. The seat of government was then removed to Philadelphia. There was much dissension as to where it should be permanently located. The North and the South, were each equally obstinate in their desire to locate it in their own section, and the quarrel threatened a rupture of the confederacy. The great political question of the time was the debts of the States contracted in carrying on the War of Independence. The South, disliking a strong central-government, opposed giving the charge of the finances of the country into its hands; while the North, strongly approved the plan of clothing it with authority to concentrate the strength of the nation to a reasonable extent, so that it might be able to act with vigor, and make the country formidable to its enemies. The reservation of as much power as possible to the individual States was a vital question with the South, since it wished to maintain Slavery, and it was always foreseen that the north must preponderate, ultimately, in the general government; and the north was unfriendly to slavery. The Constitution could make its way in the South only by compromise as to slavery.
The question was a very difficult and delicate one to adjust, but with much tact Jefferson and Hamilton, usually antagonists in politics, united to urge a compromise; the North conceding the location of the national capital, and the South the assumption, by the general government, of the State debts. This was accomplished in 1790, and Washington selected the site on his own Potomac, Virginia and Maryland uniting to give a tract ten miles square, extending to both sides of the river. A new city was laid out, and buildings erected which were occupied for the first time in 1800. This small territory, the government and control of which was lodged wholly in Congress, was called “Columbia.” This possession of its own capital was considered important in order to avoid a possible conflict of Federal and State authority.
The capital city was located on the Maryland side, and called Washington. The territory on the Virginia side was, in 1846, re-ceded to Virginia. On Feb. 21st, 1871, the District was made a territory, with a legislature for its internal government, and the right to be represented by one member in the House of Representatives.
The population in 1870 was 131,706. Washington is adorned with many immense buildings erected for the various departments of the government, and the capitol itself is one of the largest in the world, and cost $5,000,000. It is worthy of the great nation represented in its halls.
CHAPTER LXX.
THE ANNEXATION POLICY.
1. The original States of the American Union were all on the Atlantic seaboard. The central States were separated from the fertile valleys and plains of the Mississippi and its tributaries by mountains, while those lying at the northern and southern extreme found, in the vast forests filled with fierce and hostile savages, a still greater barrier against settlement westward. The “Old Thirteen” found their hands and thoughts sufficiently occupied with the establishment of their liberties, and the ultimate western boundaries of the country were left to be settled in future years. Fortunately for us England was too much occupied with the immense debt the useless American war had cost her to make difficulties over the cession of the western regions to us; and, at the peace, we were in possession of the whole region from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river. That was enough and more for the present; but the people were enterprising. We offered a home, freedom, and great opportunities to the oppressed and poor of other lands, and that region was soon sufficiently peopled to show what other regions were required to secure the prosperity of all.
2. It soon became clear that the development of the Western States east of the Mississippi required the possession of the lower part of the river and the territory on its western bank. Circumstances were favorable to its acquisition, and Louisiana, extending from the mouth of the river far up toward its head waters, including several hundred thousand square miles of as valuable land as was to be found on the continent, was purchased. It entered into the vindictive policy of Napoleon Bonaparte to injure England by strengthening America, and it was obtained for the comparatively insignificant sum of fifteen million dollars. This annexation was altogether essential to the security and development of the larger part of the original territory.