Not to say that I don’t believe you, but this is blatantly unconstitutional. The Constitution specifically forbids Congress from making laws with respect to the “Places of chusing Senators.” At the time, Senators were chosen by the state legislatures. Thus, Congress was barred from choosing where the state legislature was located.
Source: Article 1, Section 4, U.S. Constitution
Kentucky’s capitol, Frankfort, actually predates the state somewhat. It was a town in what was then Virginia a few years before Ky became a state in 1792. I haven’t been to the capitol since I was a wee one but I still remember this big clock face covered with flowers; can’t really recall the capitol building but we seem to keep paying for renovations to the darned thing.
My… what a fascinating post.
[sub]Actually I’ve always thought Kentucky might be a cooler state if we’d kept the name Transylvania. [/sub]
Sorry to bump this so late in the game, but Patrick Henry most certainly DID NOT make his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech in Williamsburg. He made it about 500 yards from my office, in St. John’s Church, on Church Hill, in Richmond, Virginia. Additionally, Williamsburg was not the furthest point on the Peninsula that Union forces managed - McClellan’s forces (150,000 strong) camped at White House in New Kent County on the Pamunkey River. The entire population of the county now is only about 13,000. Can’t imagine having more than 10 times the population camped out.
That about does it.
Well, darn it!, you are right . . . .you still got good memor. 
Here is the whole story:
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/AA/mqa2.html
For more detailed history about Austin, Texas, here is an interesting summary of that city up to 1900’s at:
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/mis325/history/austin.htm
Hope is of interest. 
XicanoreX
Here is more history between choosing Houston or Austin as capital of Texas:
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/mis325/history/austin.htm
For another good summary on the history of the capitals in Texas, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/CC/mzc1.html
XicanoreX
It fell through because voters repeatedly rejected the proposal, (URL=http://www.gov.state.ak.us/ltgov/elections/capmove.htm0most recently(/URL) in 1994. Another attempt is now underway in Alaska. This time, only the legislature would move out of Juneau. (There’s a vacant shopping mall where the proponents say the 60-member legislature could meet. Sure, that’s a lot more dignified than the old bank we have now.)
Factual question here: Have any other state or provincial legislatures regularly met in plenary session outside of the capital city?
For my money, one definition of “capital” is “where the legislature meets,” so this new scheme is based on a semantic loophole.
Trying to recall my 4th grade Florida History, I seem to recall that there were 2 Floridas in the early days: West Florida - capital in Pensacola, a port city, and East Florida - capital in St. Augustine, the oldest (1565) continuous European settlement in the USA. As muffinman said, there wasn’t much worthwhile south of St. Augustine at the time (or now?). When East and West merged, the story goes, horsemen set out from each capitol, and where-ever they met, that would be the new capital. Sounds apocryphal to me, but that’s the story.
And muffinman is also right about Tallahasse (only state capital with 3 double letters) - the only thing keepng it alive are the 2 Universities and the state government (everybody has a community college, so I don’t count it).
A bit more about Colorado. Denver was founded by two groups of miners - one group coming from Nebraska and the other coming out of Kansas. They established a community on the banks of the South Platte. It was called Auraria and was washed away a couple of times before it finally took. Early on it was little more than a group of gambling houses, brothels, and music halls most of which were located in tents.
A couple of other towns were considered as the capital including Salida, Pueblo, Central City and Colorado City (which in fact was briefly the territorial capital. It is now called Old Colorado City to clearly separate it from the Colorado City 80 miles south of Old Colorado City. The newer Colorado City was established by a handful of Texans in the second half of the 20th century who didn’t realize or didn’t care that there was already a town called Colorado City).
Denver was named after a Rebublican territorial governor based in Kansas City in hopes of garnering votes for statehood status. The joke was on the Denverites, however. By the time statehood came to a vote, the Republicans were out of power and Denver (the politician) had been forced to resign in disgrace over some financial irregularities.
To the best of my knowledge, Boston has been the capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or Massachusetts Bay Colony from the time it was founded in 1630. It was put there because it was the best natural harbor around, and was easily defended, being hilly and barely connected to the rest of the land. These days it is neither, but has remained the capital. Hell, we’ve been using the same building since 1803 or so (OK, it’s been greatly expanded). And the Old State House is still around, still bearing the lion and unicorn representing the British crown, and the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Basically, since 1713, our capital has moved once, about a third of a mile.
I think it was more because it was so easily defended. Marblehead/Salem/Beverly is a better harbor, and was, in fact, the original US Naval base. Boston was just a very good harbor, on an extremely easily defended peninsula. It was not the best harbor, really, just close to it.
Provincetown arguably has the best natural harbor in Massachusetts. But in the early days, the best was probably in Maine. (Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820). Even so, places like Cutler and Eastport, Maine, aren’t exactly hubs of the universe. It takes more than just a good harbor to make an important city.