The Compromise of 1790 was a compromise between Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, where Hamilton won the decision for the national government to take over and pay the state debts, and Jefferson and Madison obtained the national capital, the called the District of Columbia, for the South. This agreement resolved the deadlock in Congress. Southerners had been blocking the assumption of state debts by the Department of the Treasury, thereby destroying the Hamiltonian program for building a fiscally strong federal government. Northerners rejected the proposal, much desired by Virginians, to locate the permanent national capital on the Virginia–Maryland border. The meeting, which was organized by Thomas Jefferson, was attended only by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Jefferson, which led to speculation about what was discussed. The compromise made possible the passage of the Residence Act and Funding Act of 1790 in July and August 1790. According to historian Jacob Cooke, it is "generally regarded as one of the most important bargains in American history, ranking just below the better known Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850." Meeting Politicians at the federal and the state levels sought to break the legislative deadlock by unofficial negotiations. A number of clandestine meetings and political dinners were held in New York City, then serving as the nation's temporary capital, in the summer of 1790. The "dinner table bargain" was a pivotal episode in the final stages of these compromise efforts. Based on an account given by former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, two years after the event, the "dinner" was a private meeting between Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and U.S. House of Representatives member James Madison. Shortly after the Assumption Bill failed for a second time in June in the House, Hamilton, despairing that his financial plan would be scuttled, appealed to the newly appointed Jefferson to apply his influence on the matter. According to Jefferson's account, he arranged the dinner for the two officials at his residence in New York City on or about June 20, 1790. The meeting produced a political settlement on the "assumption" and "residency" crisis. Jefferson described the encounter between the men at his lodgings in New York City: The key provision of Secretary Hamilton's First Report on the Public Credit won approval with the passage of the Assumption Act, establishing the foundation for public credit. The Residence Act resulted in the permanent U.S.