On moving the capital

Alan Cai

April 26, 2024

America moved its capital city from Philadelphia in 1783 to Princeton, New Jersey after the 1783 Pennsylvania Mutiny. James Madison in his Federalist Paper No. 43 recognized the need for the nation to be able to administer its own capital out of concern for its own safety and security. The capital of the United States has been located in York, Pennsylvania; Annapolis, Maryland; and Trenton, New Jersey. Washington DC was selected as part of the Compromise of 1790 in which the federal government agreed to pay off state-incurred Revolutionary War debts in return for a relocation of the capital city to a location near the south.

The power of American democracy rests in its branches’ ability to remain independent not only from each other, but also from the oft-corrupting forces of special interests, corporate greed, metropolitan expansion, and other dizzying influences. The plan to build Washington DC was originally intended to be a compromise; it ostensibly gave the South and the North a sliver of the nation’s capital while being built in the relatively underdeveloped and unincorporated neighborhood of Georgetown; free from the influence of urban interests and yet still an accessible distance away from major population centers. In many other countries around the globe, the capital is the country’s largest city. For example, the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, Russia, Japan, Italy, Cuba, Chile, Austria, Malta, and Gabon all have their capital cities serving simultaneously as their largest metropolitan area. A quick glimpse at any world atlas would likely reveal that large capital cities are the norm rather than the exception.

However, in America, the opposite appears to be the case. States’ cities are, more often than not, not the largest city in the state. For California, cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, or even San Francisco would serve as excellent choices for a capital city given their proximity to the coast as well as their large populations. Michigan could have chosen Detroit. Yet, they settled with Lansing. Alaska would have had an ideal capital city in Anchorage. Notwithstanding, they chose Juneau, an extremely remote city located in the Alaska panhandle. These instances and so many more are not coincidences, they are part of a longstanding tradition for Americans to isolate their centers of political power from developed cities. Our nation has changed dramatically since the turn of the nineteenth century. Washington DC now is bigger than all five of our nation’s then-capital cities’ 1800 populations combined. What started as a relatively inconspicuous agricultural community has blossomed into a significant urban center, which if it were a state, would have the wealthiest per-capita state in the union. With its affluent communities, powerful business interests, and influential lobbying organizations (K Street), Washington has turned into the very city that our framers feared would negatively influence our nation’s politicians and inadvertently bring bias to the country’s decision-makers.

To address Washington’s status as a rapidly growing city and bring the long-awaited congressional representation to its citizens, it is imperative that America moves its capital away from Washington DC and reabsorbs its present territory back into Maryland. One interesting location for a new US capital could be a strip of land on the western tip of the Oklahoma panhandle. The problems aforementioned regarding over-urbanization would be quickly solved by the rural and sparsely populated areas. Politically speaking, the area represents an updated compromise of America’s voter landscape. Specifically, the capital would be sandwiched between two traditionally conservative states (Texas and Oklahoma), and two traditionally liberal states (New Mexico and Colorado). The balance of representation in neighboring states is crucial for prudent governance because it allows for a multitude of perspectives and ideologies to influence lawmakers. Additionally, the racial demographics of the neighboring states represent a healthy mix of the diversity of our country. Finally, a far-fetched but still reasonable justification for shifting the capital there is its distance from America’s coasts. Although coastal areas of the United States are where population centers are most concentrated, it is the most vulnerable to foreign attacks. In the event of an unlikely missile, bomber, or submarine attack, such a location would be much easier to defend than Washington DC located on the coast of the Chesapeake Bay. Especially with today’s ever-evolving global weapons systems potentially including hypersonic missiles, relocating our nation’s capital closer to the interior could make a big difference. The threat of attack does not merely come from our major contemporary adversaries. With non-state actors achieving increased rates of independence and willingness to commit unsanctioned violence, America would be better off being cautious than reckless. Finally, the United States must address our country’s changing geographic landscape over 250 years since our founding. Specifically, large swaths of the populace now reside on the west coast.

It is time for America to consider moving its capital to reflect the changing vicissitudes of the time and to reflect the novel political landscapes in our country.