- Residence Act
The Residence Act of 1790, officially titled An Act for Establishing the Temporary and Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States, is a
United States federal law that designatedPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania as the temporarycapital city of theUnited States federal government for a period of ten years. It also gave the power to select the surveyors for the new capital's site to the President,George Washington . The permanent capital,Washington, D.C. , was to be located along thePotomac River between the Eastern Branch (theAnacostia River ) and theConnogochegue . It was to encompass an area of no more than "ten miles square" (100 square miles), and the laws of the state from which the area was ceded would apply there. This means thatMaryland laws applied on the eastern side of the Potomac whileVirginia laws applied on the western side in theDistrict of Columbia until the government officially took residence.The Act was passed by the Senate by a vote of 14 to 12 on
July 1 ,1790 , and by the House of Representatives by a vote of 31 to 29 onJuly 9 ,1790 [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Residence.html] . The legislation passed as a compromise in a dispute between Northern and Southern states. Northern states had accumulated a huge amount of debt during the Revolutionary War, and wanted the Federal Government to assume their burden. The Southern states, whose citizens would effectively be forced to pay a portion of this debt if the Federal Government assumed it, were disinclined to accept this proposal. A compromise was reached whereby the Capital of the young country would be located in the South, but the Federal Government would then assume the North's debt.Residents of the Virginia portion of the District (Alexandria County) successfully petitioned Congress to retrocede their portion of the federal capital to Virginia. This happened on
July 9 ,1846 . Alexandria County is nowArlington County and a portion of the City of Alexandria.External links
* [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Residence.html Library of Congress - Residence Act and Related Resources]
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