On This Day: What happened in ‘The Room Where It Happens’?

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - On this day in history, July 26, 1790, Alexander Hamilton’s Assumption Plan was passed by Congress due to a clever compromise Hamilton made with Virginians Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to relocate the capital from New York to Virginia.

In the popular Broadway show, Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the details of the Compromise of 1790 are rhythmically laid out in the popular song, ‘The Room Where It Happens.’

There was extreme political polarization in the fledgling United States, which found itself in severe debt following the Revolutionary War.

Hamilton’s grand plan to solve the debt crisis couldn’t make it through Congress without votes from Virginia, and that’s where ‘the room’ comes into play.

Learn all about what happened from Dr. Bill Rasmussen, senior museum collections curator and Lora M. Robins curator of art at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, in this episode of NBC12′s history podcast How We Got Here:

Send it to 12 here.

Want NBC12’s top stories in your inbox each morning? Subscribe here.