The intense concern felt by members in the choice of the site of the national capital supplied him with the leverage which he brought to bear on the situation.

Most of the members were more stirred by that question than by any other before Congress.

It was a prominent topic in Madison's correspondence from the time the Constitution was adopted.

Maclay's diary abounds with references to the subject.

Some of his bitterest sentences are penned about the conduct of those who preferred some other site to that on the Susquehanna River which he knew to be the best because he lived there himself.
Bargaining among the members as to the selection had been going on almost from the first.