acted times might present. It was the influence
of a few great men that made America a nation. If one is not subject to
the spirit of ancestor worship that has long ruled American history, one
is bound to say that--apart from some forceful pamphleteering of transient
purpose--the voluminous political literature of the formative period
displays much pedantic erudition but has little that goes really deep. The
_Federalist_, the artillery of a hard fought battle, is a striking
exception. So, too, is the series of reports by Hamilton. But his plans
could not prevail by force of reason against the general spirit of selfish
particularism. Although on March 2 a motion adverse to assumption in
committee of the whole was defeated by a vote of 28 to 22, it was then
known that a majority could not be procured for enactment, and on April 12
the assumption bill was defeated outright in the House, 31 to 29. Maclay,
who went over to the House from the Senate to witness the event, gloated
over the defeat in his diary:

"Sedgwick, from Boston, pronounced a funeral oration over it. He was
called to order; some confusion ensued; he took his hat and went out. When
he returned, his visage bore the visible marks of weeping. Fitzsimmons
reddened like scarlet; his eyes were brimful. Clymer's color, always pale,
now merged to a deadly white; his lips quivered, and his nether jaw shook
with convulsive motions; his head, neck, and breast contracted with
gesticulations resembling those of a turkey or goose nearly strangled in
the act of deglutition. Benson bungled like a shoemaker who has lost his
end.... Wadsworth hid his grief under the rim of a round hat. Boudinot's
wrinkles rose in ridges and the angles of his mouth were depressed and
assumed a curve resembling a horse's shoe." The defeat did not discourage
Hamilton. He had successfully handled a more difficult situation in
getting New York to ratify the Constitution, and, resorting now to the
same means he had then employed, he used pressure of interest to move
those who could not be stirred by reason. The intense concern felt by
members in the choice of the site of the national capital supplied him
with the leverage which he brought to bear on the situation. Most of the
members were more stirred by that question than by any other before
Congress. It was a prominent topic in Madison's correspondence from the
time the Constitution was adopted. Maclay's diary abounds with references
to the subje