Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/84

78 of government was transferred from New York to this place. It comported as well with the dignity as with the interest of Pennsylvania, that her metropolis, which had thus become, for a time, the political centre of the Union, should be rendered in every way an acceptable residence to those who represented the national authority. Provision was accordingly made, at the public expense, for the suitable accommodation of the two houses of Congress; and by an act of the legislature, passed on the 30th of September, 1791, a large sum of money was appropriated for the building of a mansion to serve as a residence for the president of the United States, so long as Philadelphia should continue to be the seat of the national councils. In pursuance of this act, a lot was purchased, situated on the west side of Ninth Street, and extending from Market to undefined Streets, on which a building was commenced, appropriate, in extent of plan and solidity of structure, to the purpose for which it was designed. At various periods of its progress, further appropriations became necessary; and by the time of its completion, in the spring of 1797, its cost had amounted to little short of one hundred thousand dollars.

Among the motives which originally led to its erection, there can be no doubt that affectionate gratitude to the great man who then filled the presidency, was mingled with considerations of general policy; but nothing of this kind was expressed in the letter of the act, the provisions of which had reference solely to the office of chief magistrate, not to the person of any particular individual. It was probably from a knowledge of the feelings which actuated the legislature, that the opinion became and has continued very prevalent in this city, that the building was not only expressly designed for the use of Washington, but was even offered to his acceptance, and declined from a sense of the propriety of maintaining, in the exercise of his high duties, an