Washington, D.C., is a city borne of politics, by politics, and for
politics. It wasn't the first national capital: Baltimore, Lancaster, York,
Annapolis, Trenton, and even New York City all tried their hand at hosting the
national government. For a time, it seemed like Philadelphia would stake a
claim as home to the federal government; however, Congress soured on the
"Cradle of Liberty" after disaffected American soldiers, with the
tacit sanction of the Pennsylvania government, chased its members out of the
city to Princeton. That incident made clear that the nation's capital would
need to be independent from the
