Philadelphia as National Capital
Philadelphia as National Capital refers to the decade from 1790 to 1800 when Philadelphia served as the seat of the United States government while the permanent capital was being constructed on the Potomac River. During this period, the federal government under the new Constitution established its institutions and precedents in Philadelphia: George Washington served most of his two presidential terms here, the first Congress enacted Alexander Hamilton's financial program, the Supreme Court held its initial sessions, and the Bill of Rights was ratified. The decade saw intense political conflict between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, the emergence of the first party system, and crises both domestic (the Whiskey Rebellion, the Yellow Fever epidemics) and international (the French Revolution, the Jay Treaty controversy). Philadelphia's federal decade was a formative period in American political history, when the abstract principles of the Constitution were translated into working institutions of government.[1]
The Residence Act
[edit | edit source]The location of the national capital had been contentious since the Constitutional Convention. Southern states wanted the capital located in the South, both for convenience and to ensure that Southern interests would be represented in a government that might otherwise be dominated by Northern commercial interests. Northern states, particularly Pennsylvania and New York, sought to retain the capital and its economic benefits. The issue became entangled with Alexander Hamilton's financial program, which called for federal assumption of state debts—a measure that benefited Northern states with larger debts and that Southern states opposed. The impasse was resolved through the famous "dinner table bargain" of June 1790, in which Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison agreed that the South would support assumption in exchange for locating the permanent capital on the Potomac.[2]
The Residence Act of July 1790 formalized this agreement, designating a site on the Potomac River (to be selected by President Washington) as the permanent capital and providing for the government to reside in Philadelphia from 1790 until 1800 while the new capital was constructed. Philadelphia was chosen as the temporary capital over New York, where Congress had been meeting, partly because of Pennsylvania's central location and partly because the state had offered generous accommodations for federal institutions. The Pennsylvania Assembly made the State House (Independence Hall) and adjacent buildings available for Congress, renovating Congress Hall for the House of Representatives and the Senate, and Old City Hall for the Supreme Court.[1]
Federal Institutions
[edit | edit source]The federal government that operated in Philadelphia was still defining its powers and procedures. President Washington established precedents that would shape the presidency for generations: holding regular cabinet meetings, issuing proclamations, and maintaining a formal dignity that distinguished the office without approaching monarchy. The executive departments—State, Treasury, War, and the Attorney General's office—occupied rented buildings throughout the city, developing administrative procedures as they went. The Treasury Department under Hamilton was by far the largest, managing the national debt, collecting customs revenue, and implementing the financial system that Hamilton was creating.[3]
Congress met in Congress Hall, immediately adjacent to Independence Hall, with the House of Representatives on the first floor and the Senate above. The decade saw the passage of transformative legislation, including the establishment of the First Bank of the United States (1791), the creation of the United States Mint (which began operations in Philadelphia in 1792 and remains in the city today), and the admission of three new states (Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee). Congress also enacted controversial measures including the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which restricted immigration and criminalized criticism of the government—laws that remain among the most notorious violations of civil liberties in American history. The political battles of the 1790s established the patterns of partisan conflict that have characterized American politics ever since.[2]
Presidential Residences
[edit | edit source]George Washington established the presidential household at the Robert Morris House on Market Street, a large mansion that served as both residence and office. The house, which had previously served as British General Howe's headquarters during the occupation, became the center of official social life in the capital. Washington held formal levees and receptions, establishing the protocol of the presidency while avoiding the appearance of royal court. His successor, John Adams, lived in the same house during his single term, though Adams's presidency was increasingly consumed by the quasi-war with France and the domestic political crisis that would lead to his defeat in 1800.[4]
The President's House site, at 6th and Market Streets, has become controversial in recent years due to its connection to slavery. Washington brought enslaved people from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia to serve in the household, rotating them back to Virginia every six months to evade a Pennsylvania law that freed enslaved persons after six months' residence in the state. This deliberate circumvention of emancipation law by the Father of His Country has prompted re-examination of the founding era's relationship to slavery. The President's House site is now marked by an outdoor exhibit that interprets both the presidential history and the enslaved people who lived and worked there, a sobering reminder of the contradictions at the heart of the American founding.[5]
Crises and Challenges
[edit | edit source]Philadelphia's federal decade was marked by crises that tested the new government. The Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 killed approximately 5,000 Philadelphians (about 10% of the population) and forced the federal government to flee the city. President Washington withdrew to Mount Vernon, and Congress did not return until December. Subsequent epidemics in 1797, 1798, and 1799 reinforced perceptions that Philadelphia was unhealthy and may have weakened opposition to relocating the government to the malaria-prone but supposedly healthier Potomac site. The epidemics also prompted public health reforms that made Philadelphia a leader in urban sanitation and disease prevention.[6]
The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 presented the new federal government's first serious challenge to its authority. Western Pennsylvania farmers, angered by Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey, organized resistance that threatened federal tax collectors and raised the specter of armed rebellion. Washington assembled a militia force of approximately 13,000 men and personally led it partway to western Pennsylvania, a demonstration of federal power that dispersed the rebellion without serious bloodshed. The episode demonstrated that the new government, unlike the weak Confederation it replaced, possessed both the will and the means to enforce its laws—a precedent that would prove crucial in subsequent challenges to federal authority.[7]
End of the Capital
[edit | edit source]The federal government departed Philadelphia in stages during 1800. President Adams was the last to leave, moving to the unfinished White House in Washington in November 1800, just months before his term ended. Congress held its final Philadelphia session in May 1800 and reconvened in Washington the following November in the still-incomplete Capitol. The Supreme Court, which had met in Old City Hall, relocated to makeshift quarters in Washington that would remain inadequate for years. Philadelphia's decade as national capital was over, though the city retained its status as the nation's largest and most commercially important for another two decades.[1]
Philadelphia's federal decade left a lasting legacy on American government. The precedents established by Washington, the institutions created by Congress, and the political alignments formed in the capital's partisan battles shaped the nation for generations. The buildings where these events occurred—Independence Hall, Congress Hall, Old City Hall—survive as tangible connections to the founding era, part of Independence National Historical Park. The decade demonstrated that the Constitution's framework could produce effective government, that power could transfer peacefully between administrations, and that a republic could survive the intense political conflicts that had destroyed others. These achievements, accomplished in Philadelphia during the federal decade, remain foundational to American democracy.[2]