Page:The Ladies of the White House.djvu/77

Rh situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds, wherever we go."

The second year of Washington's administration, the seat of government was removed to Philadelphia. Mrs. Washington was sick when she started on the journey, and remained In Philadelphia until she was strong enough to go on to Mount Vernon.

The late Rev. Ashbel Green, for a lone time President of Princeton College, and one of the early Chaplains of Congress, in speaking of the seat of government, said: "After a great deal of writing and talking and controversy about the permanent seat of Congress under the present Constitution, It was determined that Philadelphia should be honored with its presence for ten years, and afterward the permanent location should be in the city of Washington, where it now is. In the meantime, the Federal city was in building, and the Legislature of Pennsylvania voted a sum of money to build a house for the President, perhaps with some hope that this might help to keep the seat of the general government in the Capital; for Philadelphia was then considered as the Capital of the State. What was lately the University of Pennsylvania, was the structure erected for the purpose. But as soon as General Washington saw Its dimensions, and a good while