Residence Act
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| Long title | An Act for Establishing the Temporary and Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States |
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| Enacted by | the 1st United States Congress |
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| Statutes at Large | 1 Stat. 130 |
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| Virginia retrocession (1846) | |
The Residence Act of 1790, officially titled An Act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States, is the United States federal law that set where the capital of the United States would be established, selecting a site along the Potomac River. The federal government was located in New York City at the time the bill was passed and had previously been located in Philadelphia, Annapolis, and several other locations.
Congress passed the Residence Act as part of a compromise brokered between James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Madison and Jefferson favored a southerly site for the capital on the Potomac River, but they lacked a majority to pass the measure through Congress. Meanwhile, Hamilton was pushing for Congress to pass the Assumption Bill, to allow the Federal government to assume debts accumulated by the states during the American Revolutionary War. With the compromise, Hamilton was able to muster support from the New York State delegates for the Potomac site, while four delegates (all from districts bordering the Potomac) switched from opposition to support for the Assumption Bill.
The Residence Act gave authority to President George Washington to select an exact site for the capital, along the Potomac, and set a deadline of December 1800 for the capital to be ready. In the meantime, Philadelphia was chosen as a temporary capital. Washington had authority to appoint three commissioners and oversee the construction of Federal buildings in the District, something to which he gave much personal attention. Thomas Jefferson was a key adviser to Washington, and helped organize a competition to solicit designs for the United States Capitol and the President's house. The construction of the Capitol building was fraught with problems, including insufficient funds; the building was only partially complete in November 1800 when Congress convened in it for the first time.
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