"The Congress shall have Power . . . To make all Laws which shall
be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other
Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States."
Article I, Section 8
The Compromise of 1790
was the first of three great compromises made by the North and South every thirty years
in an attempt to keep the Union together and prevent civil war. Hamilton, Madison, and
Jefferson, with the backing of Washington, arranged the terms which resulted in passage
of the Residence Act in July and the Funding Act in August. Central to the compromise
was a bargain by which several southerners agreed to change their votes and support
assumption if Congress would first pass a bill locating the capital city of the United
States on the Potomac River, after a ten year temporary residence at Philadelphia. This
carried the strong implication that the North would not raise serious objections to the
institution of slavery, since the capital would be located in two slave states, Maryland
and Virginia. Although political leaders knew that the differences between North and
South would long plague the Union, they hoped they had found an indissoluble bond: a
democratic empire, fueled by Northern financial and commercial capitalism, with its
capital in the agrarian, slave-holding South. As the turbulent second session closed,
congressmen as well as the press urged Americans to support the compromise. During the
third session, Congress passed several laws confirming its terms.
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