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Why is Boston still the state capital?
By adamg on Sat, 10/08/2016 - 10:34am
J.L. Bell discusses how most of the new states of the union moved their capitals away from the coast during or after the Revolution, offers a couple of suggestions on why we didn't, including:
One factor is that Boston’s rivers don’t go very far. New Yorkers could move their capital up the Hudson, Virginians up the James, Pennsylvanians to a spot on the Susquehanna, New Hampshirites to a spot on the Merrimack. But the big river inside Massachusetts is the Connecticut, which seemed too far and emptied out through another state.
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Comments
As does the Merrimack
Some differences
The biggest city in New Hampshire, Manchester, is also on the Merrimack. The distance from the mouth of the Merrimack to Portsmouth is just over 20 miles. The Merrimack makes sense for commerce in NH.
The Connecticut, in distinction, doesn't link Springfield with Boston. The journey around the cape would take days.
Quirk of history
After the border disputes with NH were settled, the Merrimack is never more than 3 miles within Massachusetts.
The Connecticut cuts right through the interior.
Perhaps the capital could have been Concord, MA, but that's really not accessible by navigable waters - just overland.
An exaggeration
This is an exaggeration. For instance, the north end of the Rourke Bridge in Lowell is almost exactly 4 miles from the NH border, according to DeLorme maps.
As percentages go ...
So somebody snuck an extra mile in when the king settled the border at 3 miles from the Merrimack. 80 miles plus 4 miles versus 81 miles plus 3. Hardly an exaggeration.
And still not much room to squeeze your capital in.
Quoth the Swirly
"Nevermore!"
An interesting question
But a lazy study of history.
At the end of the nineteenth century, there was a plan floated to move the capital to Springfield. Didn't happen. Instead, they enlarged the State House. If I remember my history right, Gov. Wolcott kept the capital in Boston.
Of course, it could be noted that the original plan of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was to have the seat of government at Harvard Square, but that's another story for another time.
Industrial wealth and power
I'm surprised that it didn't happen - by that time, railroads linked up areas that were once separated by serious geology and distance, and the Connecticut Valley was flush with manufacturing wealth.
Although Worcester was, too, and would be more central to more people (centroid of population, not land area).
Are there any good writings about how this plan went down? It must have been quite contentious!
Worcester would have been a better choice
Which is why I remember the Springfield was being pushed. Why push for a more central capital while not pushing for a capital in the center of the state?
Important to remember
that Maine was part of Massachusetts in colonial times. It made sense to keep the capital on the Atlantic to have a route from that part of the MA to the seat of government.
I think people also often
I think people also often forget about Cape Cod when they talk about the center of Massachusetts. It might not be a huge land mass or a population juggernaut but to get from the outer reaches of Cape Cod to anywhere else is a hike.
Pittsfield to Boston by car is 138 miles by road and Provincetown to Springfield is 150 miles. I also assume that lots of business happened from Cape Cod via boat to Boston in those times.
SO moving it to Springfield would help people in the west and hurt people in the extreme East and the extreme North at the time.
Not just Cape Cod
Southeastern Massachusetts bulges down to the south, making the north-south extent nearly as long as the east-west (if you consider how far south Westport, the Cape, and the islands go, too). That area also has a lot more population than the cape, as the cape and islands do not have any really large cities like the New Bedford/Fall River conurbation.
This actually makes it tricky to get adequate zoom for features if attempting to fit a map of the Commonwealth in a portrait orientation.
Different in colonial times
The Cape and Islands were big whaling ports.
And their boats were built in ...
New Bedford.
I'd also note that Boston
I'd also note that Boston managed to fight the British off which may have had an impact on the feelings of the city itself patriotism wise and confidence that it could be done again. Boston also has the added protection of being tucked into the bay with lots of little islands and Cape Cod/South Shore flanking the water passages.
This explains a lot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipaliti...
Until the advent of widespread auto use
And especially up until the early 20th century, travel around the main population centers of the state/colony (which at one point included Maine) was by ship, and the population lived mostly along the coastline. Boston was an obvious choice, being it was and still is the main economic and population center.
Give it time with the rising oceans
According to Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and other experts, any minute now we should have a river running down Beacon Street with the "rising oceans" unless Obama has solved that as promised.
Have you seen the new flood
Have you seen the new flood maps that were released? What you are saying sounds comical until you are one of the people who now has to pay flood insurance when previously they were safer. The oceans have risen, they just don't immediately flood everything in their path. The first "wave" is literally flood surging. Take a look at places like Lousianna where that is pretty evident, first it was Katrina and then non storm flooding followed. It was not covered much this year but they had some pretty devastating flooding without the help of a Hurricane. We are also experiencing more "extreme" weather in recent years. Just because these storms and events are not as drastic as say The Day After Tomorrow does not mean they are not happening. A degree here, an inch there does not sound like much but think of it this way: Toss an ice cube into a bath tub full of 70 degree water, the water balances itself out and will melt the ice cube. It takes a lot to move that bar down , so getting that water down to 69 degrees is a pretty big deal. Take that same tub of water and fill it within 2 inches of the top and then start disturbing the water, yes some water may spill out but most of it stays put. Raise it up and inch and do the same thing, more water will spill out. Now raise it so it just skims the surface and is even with the edge... From a distance it looks ok but now any ripple results in overflow.