MISSION

THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD BE MORE EQUITABLE TO THE PEOPLE IF IT WERE RELOCATED TO THE MIDDLE OF AMERICA

From the Federalist Papers, the Federal Farmer's October 9, 1787 letter "...wealth, offices, and the benefit of government would collect in the center: and the extreme states and their principal towns, become much less important".

His October 13, 1787 letter further states, "...the middle states will receive the advantages surrounding the seat of government".

Relocating the Seat of Government will:

Give the general populace more access to congress, the executive branch and the various departments and agencies thereof.
Lessen the difficulties associated with ‘we the people’ petitioning our government.
Right the inequity that has accrued to those states lying outside the circle of Washington D.C.
Enable the members of government to more easily access their constituencies.
Give new vigor to those masses of the people who have for nearly 200 years been deprived of fair access to their government.
Endeavor to unite a divided America, and and serve as a shining example of what a great nation united can accomplish.
Provide protection for our Seat of Government by removing it from a coastal area vulnerable to air attack.
Located in the Heartland of America, our national capital will be less vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

For these reasons the FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRATIC AND GOVERNMENTAL STUDIES, thru www.MovDC.org strives to educate and inform the public of the disadvantages of the SEAT OF GOVERNMENT being located on the geographic fringes of the United States (the middle of the East Coast).

The Nine Capitals of the United States

Congress has met in nine locations since 1774, when it first convened in Philadelphia. Before it established Washington, D.C. as the permanent seat of government, Congress also met in Baltimore; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; York, Pennsylvania; Princeton, New Jersey; Annapolis, Maryland; Trenton, New Jersey; and New York. (more)

Washington: Too Close to the Coast?

British troops burned the White House on the night of August 24-25, 1814. Most historical accounts reveal that they took pleasure in setting fire to the structure that represented a former colony and upstart nation. Although Dolley Madison fled the White House only hours earlier, taking with her state papers, important pieces of silver and the ultimate symbol of the country, the full length portrait of George Washington, she had expected to serve dinner to 40 military and cabinet officers accompanied by her husband. Instead, the British troops consumed the meal. They looted the house and then set fire to it. The house that had been the site of so many happy occasions was in ruins. All that remained were the scorched sandstone walls. Dolley Madison was distraught when she first returned to view the destruction. Although the Madisons would never live in the White House again, they were committed to the reconstruction of the house and to the resurrection of it as a symbol of the republic.

The destruction of the White House was physical, emotional, and symbolic. There were rumblings that the nation's capital should be moved to a more secure location. But from the ruins the will emerged to keep the government in Washington, in temporary quarters, until the damaged public buildings could be restored and rebuilt. In 1817, after the Madisons had retired to their Virginia home, a new president, James Monroe, moved into the White House and restored its place in history