e
rebels. They yielded. But Fries was tried for treason, was sentenced to
be hanged, and was then pardoned. Thus a second time was it proved that
the people of the United States were determined to support the
Constitution and the laws and put down rebellion.

%240. Washington the National Capital.%--In accordance with the
bargain made in 1790, Washington selected a site for the Federal city
on both banks of the Potomac. This great square tract of land was ten
miles long on each side, and was given to the government partly by
Maryland and partly by Virginia.[1] It was called the District of
Columbia, and in it were marked out the streets of Washington city.

[Footnote 1: In 1846 so much of the District as had belonged to Virginia
was given back to her.]

Though all possible haste was made, the President's house was still
unfinished, the Capitol but partly built, and the streets nothing but
roads cut through the woods, when, in the summer of 1800, the
secretaries, the clerks, the books and papers of the government left
Philadelphia for Washington. With the opening of the new century, and
the occupation of the new Capitol, came a new President, and a new party
in control of the government.

[Illustration: The National Capitol as it was in 1825]

%241. The Election of Thomas Jefferson.%--The year 1800 was a
presidential year, and though no formal nomination was made, a caucus of
Republican leaders selected as candidates Thomas Jefferson for
President, and Aaron Burr for Vice President. A caucus or meeting of
Federalist leaders selected John Adams and C. C. Pinckney as their
candidates. When the returns were all in, it appeared that Jefferson had
received seventy-three votes, Burr seventy-three votes, Adams sixty-five
votes, Pinckney sixty-four votes. The Constitution provided that the man
who received the highest number of electoral votes, if the choice of
the majority of the electors, should be President. But as Jefferson and
Burr had each seventy-three, neither had the highest, and neither was
President. The duty of electing a President then devolved on the House
of Representatives, which after a long and bitter struggle elected
Jefferson President; Burr then became Vice President. To prevent such a
contest ever arising again, the twelfth amendment was added to the
Constitution. This provides for a separate ballot for Vice President.
March 4, 1801, Jefferson, escorted by the militia of Georgetown and
Alexandria, wal