It was recognized that the presence of that national body was a valuable asset to the city. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who late in 1791 made the plan for the Federal City, was selected to design and construct the building. When the Members of Congress assembled for the First Congress under the Federal Constitution, they met in a building constructed with classical arches and columns, painted ceilings and marble pavements, and furnished in a magnificent manner with crimson damask canopies and hangings. The exterior was marked by a portico with arcaded front and highly decorated pediments. But the building had been erected too rapidly to endure permanently; poor work had been done, and in a few years it was demolished.
The building was called Federal Hall. Here on April 30, 1789, a date never to be forgotten in the annals of American history, George Washington was inaugurated first President of the United States of America. The spot where General Washington stood is now marked, as nearly as possible, by the J. Q. A. Ward statue of the first President, which stands in front of the subtreasury building on Wall Street. Just inside the door, preserved under glass, is a brownstone slab on which is inscribed:
STANDING ON THIS STONE, IN THE BALCONY OF FEDERAL HALL, APRIL 30, 1789, GEORGE WASHINGTON TOOK THE OATH AS THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
During the sessions of this Congress long and careful consideration was given to the question of a permanent seat of government. It had its place with great problems before Congress at the time—as the revenue bill, which would provide money for the newly established Republic, creating executive departments, plans for the funding of the public debt and the assumption of State debts, disposal of public lands, and establishing a judicial system. At the opening of the last month of the session the question of a residence for the United States Government was brought up. Protest was made against consideration of the subject in view of the other important questions pending before Congress that seemed to some to be more urgent, also because, they said, Congress was properly housed, and that other towns like Trenton, Germantown, Carlisle, Lancaster, York, and Reading would be glad to have Congress locate with them.
However, the southern Members, led by Richard Bland Lee and James Madison, Representatives from Virginia, argued for present consideration of the subject. They favored the Potomac River site at least as far south as Georgetown, which they asserted would be geographically the center of the United States. They claimed for their section of the country in this matter the consideration of justice and equality. They argued that there was no question more important—one in which the people of the country were so deeply interested and one on the settlement of which the peace and the permanent existence of the country so much depended. The question of location finally resolved itself into the consideration of two localities: First, a site near the falls of the Susquehanna, at Wrights Ferry, Pa., 35 miles from tidewater; and second, a site at Georgetown, Md., near the lower falls of the Potomac.
Great stress was laid on the importance of a site that would place the seat of government on a navigable stream far enough from the sea to be safe from hostile attacks. But it was also deemed very important to select a place that would offer means of communication with the western country, which was a subject, as we have seen, in which George Washington was interested for years previously. This argument was effective, as it offered advantages for carrying on trade with the vast western country for which the Potomac Company had been established.
The subject received the consideration of both the House and Senate in September, 1789, but its final consideration was deferred until the following year, in June, 1790. The southern Members, especially the Representatives of Maryland and Virginia, were particularly active, believing a decision on the Potomac River site was in their favor. In December, 1789, Virginia had made a grant of $120,000, and a sum equal to two-thirds of that amount had been voted by the Legislature of the State of Maryland for the construction of buildings, in addition to their willingness to cede the portion of the 10-mile square in their respective States along the Potomac River desired for the Federal district.
The final disposition of this question was settled by compromise.
At the time Hamilton had the funding bill before Congress, and lacked one vote in the Senate and five in the House to secure its passage, he came to an agreement with Robert Morris, financier of the Revolution, on the question of location of the seat of government. Also, Thomas Jefferson tells us, in his “Anas,” of a dinner given by him at which the residence question was discussed and an agreement reached whereby the southern Members agreed to the funding bill in consideration of the designation of Philadelphia as the seat of government for a 10-year period and thereafter along the Potomac.