I think this is where it all began:
7/20/1789 Congress passed the Tonnage Act of 1789 levying a 50 cents per ton tax on foreign ships entering American ports, 30 cents per ton on American built but foreign owned ships, and 6 cents per ton on American ships.
1789 Congress passed the Judiciary Act establishing the Federal Court System. Among its granted authorities was the ability to make laws and regulate the maritime industry. This became known as Admiralty Law.
1789 Through legislative activism, Admiralty Law became protectionist for certain industries.
American shipping companies in the Northeast were protected against foreign shipping competition by laws that required domestic importers and exporters to pay a fee to the Customs department if they used foreign ships for trade. These fees were then disbursed to private shipping companies as compensation Other protectionist laws were arranged to the advantage of Northeastern shipping interests. To discourage competitive shipping, no person or company was permitted to purchase a fully rigged ship from foreign sources.
So the FedGov had been favoring the North for a long time. I recall reading an article awhile back saying that New York fully intended to remain the Capitol of the United States, and efforts to move the Capitol to Washington DC were only agreed to because they never believed it would happen.
What I see now is that even though the Capitol physically moved to Washington DC, it's operation were still being controlled by the wealthy power brokers in New York, the Empire State.
And I think the Shadow government has been ran out of there ever since.