During the sessions of this Congress long and careful consideration was given to the question of a permanent seat of government. It had its place with great problems before Congress at the time--as the revenue bill, which would provide money for the newly established Republic, creating executive departments, plans for the funding of the public debt and the assumption of State debts, disposal of public lands, and establishing a judicial system. At the opening of the last month of the session the question of a residence for the United States Government was brought up. Protest was made against consideration of the subject in view of the other important questions pending before Congress that seemed to some to be more urgent, also because, they said, Congress was properly housed, and that other towns like Trenton, Germantown, Carlisle, Lancaster, York, and Reading would be glad to have Congress locate with them. However, the southern Members, led by Richard Bland Lee and James Madison, Representatives from Virginia, argued for present consideration of the subject. They favored the Potomac River site at least as far south as Georgetown, which they asserted would be geographically the center of the United States. They claimed for their section of the country in this matter the consideration of justice and equality. They argued that there was no question more important--one in which the people of the country were so deeply interested and one on the settlement of which the peace and the permanent existence of the country so much depended. The question of location finally resolved itself into the consideration of two localities: First, a site near the falls of the Susquehanna, at Wrights Ferry, Pa., 35 miles from tidewater; and second, a site at Georgetown, Md., near the lower falls of the Potomac. Great stress was laid on the importance of a site that would place the seat of government on a navigable stream far enough from the sea to be safe from hostile attacks. But it was also deemed very important to select a place that would offer means of communication with the western country, which was a subject, as we have seen, in which George Washington was interested for years previously. This argument was effective, as it offered advantages for carrying on trade with the vast western country for which the Potomac Company had been established.