Residence Act
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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 designated Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the temporary capital city of the United 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 the Potomac River between the Eastern Branch (the Anacostia River) and the Connogochegue. 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 that Maryland laws applied on the eastern side of the Potomac while Virginia laws applied on the western side in the District 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 on July 9, 1790[1]. 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 now Arlington County and a portion of the City of Alexandria.
