Development of the District of Columbia Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Development of the District of Columbia

And in 1820, in the case of Loughborough v.Blake (5 Wheat., 317, 323-325), the Supreme Court of the United States, which had been appealed to to declare, in effect, that the government of the District of Columbia, in that it involved taxation without representation, was contrary to the spirit of our institutions, disposed of the matter in these words:

If, then, the language of the Constitution be construed to comprehend the Territories and District of Columbia us well as the States, that language confers on Congress the power of taxing the District and Territories as well as the States. If the general language of the Constitution should be confined to the Slates, still the sixteenth paragraph of the eighth section of Article I gives to Congress the power of exercising exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever within this District.

On the extent of these terms, according to the common understanding of mankind, there can be no difference of opinion; but it is contended that thev must be limited by that great principle which was asserted in our Revolution, that representation is inseparable from taxation.

The difference between requiring a continent, with an immense population, to submit to be taxed by a Government having no common interest with it, separated from it by a vast ocean, restrained by no principle of appointment and associated with it by no common feelings, and permitting the representatives of the American people, under the restrictions of our Constitution, to tax a part of the society, which is either In a state of infancy advancing to manhood, looking forward to complete equality so soon as that state of manhood shall be attained, as is the case with the Territories, or which has voluntarily relinquished the right of representation and has adopted the whole body of Congress for its legitimate government, as is the case with the District, is too obvious not to present itself to the minds of all. Although in theory it might be more congenial to the spirit of our institutions to admit a representative from the District, it may be doubted whether, in fact, its interests would be rendered thereby the more secure; and certainly the Constitution does not consider its want of a representative in Congress as exempting it from equal taxation.

It is thus seen that the American people have not allowed thencapital to become what it is in ignorance of what was happening; and it is my pleasant task to review to-day the steps by which the result which you see about you came to be.

As is well known, the establishment of the District as a political entity came about through events which, for want of a more philosophical expression, or rather, in the absence of reflection, we denominate fortuitous, but which, in their analysis and results are entitled to be deemed truly providential. Superficially speaking, and judged by the act at the time, by way of composing certain controversies, which now interest us historically only, the territory contributed originally by Maryland and Virginia was chosen as the site of the federal capital; and by way of avoiding the possibility of disturbances such as beset the national authorities when domiciled in Philadelphia, there was written into the eighth article of the Federal Constitution that supremely wise provision that the Congress shalinave power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such District (not exceeding 10 miles square) as may, by cession of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States.

As is equally well known, this territory, originally ceded by Maryland and Virginia, in fact comprised 10 miles square, or 100 square miles in all.

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