Why did many U.S. states choose a capital that was near the center of the state, instead of the largest city?

by freemarketaddict

Examples of this New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan. All of these states have multiple cities that are far more populous than the capital.

_Booster_Gold_

Oftentimes, this is done to prevent an already large and influential city from gaining complete dominance over the affairs of the state, but this isn’t always true and the reasons seem to vary. This is a good discussion that took place some time ago and touches on various examples, including a detailed response on Albany, NY from /u/discovering_NYC.