The Capital
Episode 1: In the Room Where It Happened
Episode 1 | 3m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
A dinner hosted by Thomas Jefferson leads to a deal to establish the U.S. capital in the south.
The new nation was almost torn apart with over thirty potential venues considered for the capital. Ultimately, the nation’s first political deal is made at a dinner hosted by Thomas Jefferson for James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and cooked by James Hemings, who was born into slavery but became America’s first French-trained chef. The deal is to bring the capital to the south.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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The Capital is a local public television program presented by WETA
The Capital
Episode 1: In the Room Where It Happened
Episode 1 | 3m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
The new nation was almost torn apart with over thirty potential venues considered for the capital. Ultimately, the nation’s first political deal is made at a dinner hosted by Thomas Jefferson for James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and cooked by James Hemings, who was born into slavery but became America’s first French-trained chef. The deal is to bring the capital to the south.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Where to Watch The Capital
The Capital is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipOn April 30th, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated in New York City as the first president of the United States.
Six years after beating the British, the United States of America still did not have an official capital.
It was tearing the nation apart.
On September 8th, 1789, the First Federal Congress voted 32 to 19 to place the federal capital in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.
But behind the scenes, not everybody was accepting this decision.
Virginia Representative James Madison and other Southern planters hated the idea.
They didn't want to travel the distance.
They didn't like the more urban environment, and they certainly didn't want the capital in an abolitionist-leaning state.
Madison tried many strategies to thwart this decision.
He was encouraged by Thomas Jefferson, and, to some extent, by George Washington.
In the spring of 1790, an opportunity presented itself.
Thomas Jefferson was walking the streets of Lower Broadway in Manhattan, and he ran into Alexander Hamilton, the country's first Secretary of the Treasury.
Hamilton was pacing back and forth in front of President George Washington's New York home at 3 Cherry Street.
Hamilton was distressed because he was unable to marshal the votes to consolidate the Revolutionary War debt.
Hamilton's financial plan was falling apart.
He wanted the federal government to assume all the state's Revolutionary War debts, especially critical for his state of New York, where much of the fighting took place.
But Hamilton simply didn't have the votes in Congress.
Thomas Jefferson, now Secretary of State, lived in New York City at 57 Maiden Lane, which today would be located on Wall Street next to Trinity Church.
Jefferson invited Hamilton and his fellow Virginian James Madison to an elegantly prepared dinner to be created by his enslaved chef, James Hemings.
Hemings was the first American chef to be trained in the culinary arts in France.
As the three men sat down over a sumptuous meal, Jefferson and Madison offered Hamilton a deal.
They would help Hamilton with his financial plan if he would deliver the boats needed to move the nation's capital south to the banks of the Potomac.
That dinner deal, referred to as "the room where it happened," is how Washington DC was born.
The fight for where the capital would be located may have ended, but the drama for how the capital would be built was about to begin.
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The Capital is a local public television program presented by WETA