Creating the United States

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In this letter to the former French minister to the United States, Marquis de la Luzerne (1741–1791), George Washington reported that despite the “good deal of warmth” that marked the Congressional debates over funding the Revolutionary War debt and the location of the national capital, a compromise had been reached. The federal government would assume all state and federal debts and, after a ten-year stay in Philadelphia, the capital would be located on the Potomac River near Washington’s home at Mount Vernon.

(Transcription)

“The two great questions of funding the debt and fixing the seat of government . . .”


In this letter to the former French minister to the United States, Marquis de la Luzerne (1741–1791), George Washington reported that despite the “good deal of warmth” that marked the Congressional debates over funding the Revolutionary War debt and the location of the national capital, a compromise had been reached. The federal government would assume all state and federal debts and, after a ten-year stay in Philadelphia, the capital would be located on the Potomac River near Washington’s home at Mount Vernon.