on the latter, by those of two members from Virginia, who represented districts on the Potomac; and who, in all the previous divisions on this question, had voted against the Assumption!

So anxious was Jefferson, the seat of government should be established in Virginia, that he addressed an official opinion to the President, prompted by a publication in a gazette, to prove," that the Houses may, by a joint resolution, remove themselves from place to place, because it is a part of their self-government; but that, as the right of self government does not comprehend the government of others, the two houses cannot, by a joint resolution of their majorities, only, remove the executive and judiciary from place to place. These branches, possessing also the rights of self-government from nature, cannot be controlled in the exercise of them, but by a law passed in the form of the Constitution." He nevertheless advised the President's assent to the resolutions, as that assent would make "good law of the part relative to the Potomac."*

This decision was openly stigmatized in the House of Representatives, "as the result of an arrangement between Virginia and Pennsylvania." "It is," said Gerry, "a mere manœuvre." The members from Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina, who were in Hamilton's personal confidence, persevered in their opposition to it to the last.†

* Jefferson's Works, Cong. Ed., vii. 490. July 15, 1790.

Ames, Benson, Boudinot, Goodhue, Lawrence, Sedgwick, Smith, of S. C., Wadsworth.-Journal, i. 267. Ames wrote, i. 71, "The Eastern members had agreed that it was best to postpone the question of the permanent seat of government, and we had no doubt of being able to do it. We were deceived. All South of the Delaware had agreed to make Philadelphia the temporary residence, and the Potomac the permanent seat. To break this intrigue was then our and New York's object. We decided for the Susquehanna." Again Ames wrote: "If we succeed in the ASSUMPTION, we shall have nothing of

Jefferson had given early evidence of his solicitude as to the seat of Government; and, it appears from his own statement, was the instrument to induce this change in the vote of Virginia.

Madison now attained the objects he had been seeking. He gratified his jealousy of the reputation Hamilton had derived from the funding system; and, instead of being regarded as a recreant from his State, gained great popularity there, by his opposition to the Assumption, and by the success of the Residence bill.

Although these measures were carried by the direct. influence of Virginia, acting through Jefferson and Madison, it was their policy still to decry the fiscal system. Madison was selected as the channel to convey the discontents of that State to Congress. Her general Assembly, having met a few months after the enactment of the laws to provide for the debt, took these laws into consideration. They declared, that so much of the act

bargain to reproach ourselves with. I confess, my dear friend, with shame, that the world ought to despise our public conduct, when it hears intrigue openly avowed; and sees that great measures are made to depend, not upon reason, but upon bargains for little ones. This being clear, I should have supposed myself warranted to make a defensive or counter bargain to prevent the success of the other. But even that would wear an ill aspect, and be disliked by the world. I repeat it, therefore, with pleasure, that we have kept clear of it."-Ames, i. 34. Ibid., 84. "R. Morris is really too warm for the Assumption, and as he is the factotum in the business, he will not fail to insist upon the original friends of it, and who have ever been a majority, voting for it. With five Pennsylvanians, our former aid from that delegation, we can carry it, or at least four-fifths of the debts to be assumed. Accordingly, they begin to say, these violent feuds must be composed; too much is hazarded to break up in this temper. Maryland is the most alarmed, as well as, next to Virginia, most anxious for the Potomac."

* "It is evident," he wrote to Monroe in 1785, "that when a sufficient number of the Western States come in, they will remove it to Georgetown. In the mean time, it is our interest, that it should remain where it is, and give no new pretensions to any other place."-Jefferson's Works, i. 235.