As a result of Hamilton’s bargain, the bill for Assumption was passed, and it was agreed that Philadelphia should be the capital for ten years and that afterwards a new city should be built on the banks of the Potomac and made the capital permanently.

During the summer of 1789 Washington suffered the most serious sickness of his entire life.  The cause was anthrax in his thigh, and at times it seemed that it would prove fatal.  For many weeks he was forced to lie on one side, with frequent paroxysms of great pain.  After a month and a half he began to mend, but very slowly, so that autumn came before he got up and could go about again.  His medical adviser was Dr. Samuel Bard of New York, and Irving reports the following characteristic conversation between him and his patient:  “Do not flatter me with vain hopes,” said Washington, with placid firmness; “I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the worst.”  The doctor expressed hope, but owned that he had apprehensions.  “Whether to-night or twenty hence, makes no difference,” observed Washington.  “I know that I am in the hands of a good Providence."[1] His friends thought that he never really recovered his old-time vigor.  That autumn, as soon as Congress had adjourned, he took a journey through New England, going as far as Portsmouth and returning in time for the opening of the Second Congress.

[Footnote 1:  Irving, V, 22.]

The Government was now settling down into what became its normal routine.  The Cabinet was completed by the appointment of Jefferson as Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph as Attorney-General.  Jefferson would have preferred to go back to France as American Minister, but in a fulsome letter he declared himself willing to accept any office which Washington wished him to fill.  The Supreme Court was organized with John Jay as Chief Justice, and five Associate Justices.  Washington could not fail to be aware that parties were beginning to shape themselves.  At first the natural divisions consisted of the Federalists, who believed in adopting the Constitution, and those who did not.  As soon as the thirteen States voted to accept the Constitution, the Anti-Federalists had no definite motive for existing.  Their place was taken principally by the Republicans over against whom were the Democrats.  A few years later these parties exchanged names.  A fundamental difference in the ideas of the Americans sprang from their views in regard to National and State rights.  Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit.  Others insisted that the Nation was sovereign.  These two conflicting views run through American history down to the Civil War, and even in Washington’s time they existed in outline.  Washington himself was a Federalist, believing that the Federation of the former Colonies should be made as compact and strongly knit as possible.  He had had too much evidence during the Revolution of the weakness of uncentralized government, and yet his Virginia origin