as the
seat of Government.

No act of Congress can limit, suspend, or confine this constitutional
duty. I am not aware of the existence of any act of Congress which
assumes thus to limit or restrict the exercise of the functions of the
Executive. Were there such acts, I should nevertheless recognize the
superior authority of the Constitution, and should exercise the powers
required thereby of the President.

The act to which reference is made in the resolution of the House
relates to the establishing of the seat of Government and the providing
of suitable buildings and removal thereto of the offices attached to the
Government, etc. It was not understood at its date and by General
Washington to confine the President in the discharge of his duties and
powers to actual presence at the seat of Government. On the 30th of
March, 1791, shortly after the passage of the act referred to, General
Washington issued an Executive proclamation having reference to the
subject of this very act from Georgetown, a place remote from
Philadelphia, which then was the seat of Government, where the act
referred to directed that "all offices attached to the seat of
Government" should for the time remain.

That none of his successors have entertained the idea that their
executive offices could be performed only at the seat of Government is
evidenced by the hundreds upon hundreds of such acts performed by my
predecessors in unbroken line from Washington to Lincoln, a memorandum
of the general nature and character of some of which acts is submitted
herewith; and no question has ever been raised as to the validity of
those acts or as to the right and propriety of the Executive to exercise
the powers of his office in any part of the United States.

U.S. GRANT.

_Memorandum of absences of the Presidents of the United States from the
national capital during each of the several Administrations, and of
public and executive acts performed during the time of such absences_.

President Washington was frequently absent from the capital; he appears
to have been thus absent at least one hundred and eighty-one days during
his term.

During his several absences he discharged official and executive duties;
among them--

In March, 1791, he issued a proclamation, dated at Georgetown, in
reference to running the boundary for the territory of the permanent
seat of the Government.

From Mount Vernon he signed an official letter to the Emperor of
Mor