The area of the United States in 1800 was the same as at the close of the Revolutionary War. But the population had begun to increase rapidly. In 1791 there were nearly four million people in the United States. By 1800 this number had risen to five and one-quarter millions. Two-thirds of the people still lived on or near tide-water. But already nearly four hundred thousand people lived west of the Alleghanies. In 1791 the centre of population had been east of Baltimore. It was now eighteen miles west of that city.

Philadelphia was the largest city in the United States. It had a population of seventy thousand. But New York was not far behind Philadelphia in population. Except these two, no city in the whole United States had more than thirty thousand inhabitants. The seat of government had been removed from Philadelphia to Washington. But the new capital was a city only in name. One broad long street, Pennsylvania Avenue, led from the unfinished Capitol to the unfinished White House. Congress held its sessions in a temporary wooden building. The White House could be lived in. But Mrs. Adams found the unfinished reception room very convenient for drying clothes on rainy Mondays. A few cheaply built and very uncomfortable boarding-houses completed the city.