s left to him to do, no
doubt because of his thorough knowledge of the Constitution and of the
points wherein it was still imperfect, as well as those wherein it had
better not be meddled with. The amendments, as finally agreed to after
long debate, were essentially those which he proposed, and in due time
ten of them were ratified by the States. The two that were not accepted
referred only to the number of representatives in the House, and to the
pay of members of Congress.

It was hoped that the selection of a place for the permanent seat of
government would be made by this Congress. There was much talk of the
centres of wealth, of territory, and of population then, and of where
such centres might be in the future. But the question was really a
sectional one. The Northern members were accused of having made a
bargain out of doors with the members of the Middle States. The bargain,
however, was only this: that, inasmuch as it was hopeless that the
actual centre should be chosen as the site for a capital city, a place
as near as possible to it should be insisted upon. The South, on the
other hand, determined that the seat of government should be within the
boundaries of the Southern States. That was a foregone conclusion with
them, that needed no bargain. The nearest navigable river to the centre
of population was the Delaware; but the jealousy of New York stood in
the way of any selection that favored Philadelphia. The Susquehanna was
proposed. It empties into Chesapeake Bay. North of it was, as Mr.
Sherman showed, a population of 1,400,000; and south of it, 1,200,000.
The South wanted the capital on the Potomac, not because it was the
centre of population then, but because it might be at some future time,
from the growth of the West. On the other hand, it was insisted that the
population south of the Potomac was then only 960,000, while north of it
there were 1,680,000 people, and that it was no more accessible from the
West than the Susquehanna was. To many members, moreover, this talk of
the great future of the West seemed hardly worthy of consideration. It
was "an unmeasurable wilderness," and "when it would be settled was past
calculation," Fisher Ames said. "It was," he added, "perfectly romantic
to make this decision depend upon that circumstance. Probably it will be
near a century before these people will be considerable." He was nearer
right when he said in the same speech "that trade and manufactures will
acc