On May 15, 1800, President John Adams announced that the country’s seat of government would no longer be Philadelphia. Within a month, all official business would be conducted from the nation’s new capital, Washington, D.C. When Congress adjourned that day, Adams told his cabinet that all offices needed to be up and running by June 15, 1800. At the time, there were only about 125 federal employees. Official documents and archives were transferred from Philadelphia over inland waterways.
