Mr King remarked that the section authorized the 2 Houses to adjourn to a new place. He thought this inconvenient. The mutability of place had dishonored the federal Govt and would require as strong a cure as we could devise. He thought a law at least should be made necessary to a removal of the Seat of Govt.
Mr Madison viewed the subject in the same light, and joined with Mr King in a motion requiring a law.
Mr. Governr Morris proposed the additional alteration by inserting the words, "during the Session" &c.
Mr Spaight. This will fix the seat of Govt at N. Y. The present Congress will convene them there in the first instance, and they will never be able to remove, especially if the Presidt should be [a] Northern Man.
Mr Govr Morris such a distrust is inconsistent with all Govt.
Mr Madison supposed that a central place for the seat of Govt was so just and wd be so much insisted on by the H. of Representatives, that though a law should be made requisite for the purpose, it could & would be obtained. The necessity of a central residence of the Govt wd be much greater under the new than old Govt. The members of the new Govt wd be more numerous. They would be taken more from the interior parts of the States; they wd not like members of ye present Congs come so often from the distant States by water. As the powers & objects of the new Govt would be far greater ye heretofore, more private individuals wd have business calling them to the seat of it, and it was more necessary that the Govt should be in that position from which it could contemplate with the most equal eye, and sympathize most equally with, every part of the nation. These considerations he supposed would extort a removal even if a law were made necessary. But in order to quiet suspicions both within & without doors, it might not be amiss to authorize the 2 Houses by a concurrent vote to adjourn at their first meeting to the most proper place, and to require thereafter, the sanction of a law to their removal.
The motion was accordingly moulded into the following form: "the Legislature shall at their first assembling determine on a place at which their future sessions shall be held; neither House shall afterwards, during the session of the House of Reps without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor shall they adjourn to any other place than such as shall have been fixt by law."
Mr Gerry thought it would be wrong to let the Presidt check the will of the 2 Houses on this subject at all.
Mr Williamson supported the ideas of Mr Spaight.
Mr Carrol was actuated by the same apprehensions.