Tuesday, December 11.
Recession of District of Columbia.
The Speaker laid before the House a letter addressed to him from George Washington Parke Custis, chairman of a meeting of the inhabitants of the county of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, enclosing sundry resolutions of the said inhabitants, expressive of their disapprobation of so much of a motion now depending before the House, as relates to a recession of jurisdiction to the State of Virginia, of that part of the District of Columbia which is contained in the county of Alexandria, aforesaid.—Referred.
Potomac River.
The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill authorizing the Corporation of Georgetown to make a dam or causeway from Mason’s Island to the western shore of the river Potomac.
Mr. Macon gave it as his opinion that it would be improper at this time to take up the subject, as there was a motion on the table to recede the territory of the district back to the jurisdiction of the States out of which it had been carved. If it is intended to recede the territory, it would certainly be better to recede with as few encumbrances or alterations as possible; indeed, the striking propriety of the business taking the course he had just mentioned, had led him to expect that the present bill would not be again agitated until the question of recession had been investigated and decided. He would therefore move that the committee rise and report progress.
Mr. Smilie voted against going into a Committee of the Whole, on the ground mentioned by the Speaker. If it be the intention of the Legislature to recede this territory, there was certainly no necessity of discussing the propriety of erecting a causeway; if it be not the intention, when this is manifest it will be time enough to consider the bill before them. From what he had observed on the part of the inhabitants of the District of Columbia, there seemed to be a disposition, if not a determination, to give Congress as much trouble in legislating for them as they had for all the rest of the Union. During the present session, this single ten miles square had occupied as much of the time of the House as the whole of the United States, whose general and important business was daily caused to be suspended for the local concerns of this place. From observing this to be the settled course of proceeding, he was convinced that Congress must do one of two things, either recede them to their respective States, or put them in a situation capable of managing their own affairs, in their own way. The daily pay of the members amounted to a considerable sum, and the length of time consumed on every trifling application for want of some member able to explain the true situation of the district, occasioned by its unrepresented state on this floor, were evils much to be lamented, if they could not be remedied. He thought members could hardly justify the waste of time, intended to be devoted to the public, whatever they might think of the expense it occasioned. He hoped the committee would agree to rise.
Mr. Lewis did not think it fair to anticipate the opinion of the House on the subject of recession, which he considered would be the effect of the committee’s rising. If, however, the committee shall determine that they would not, at this time, discuss the present bill, he had no objection to enter on the consideration of the other subject.
Mr. Nelson thought this the proper time to discuss this question, even in preference to that of recession. It appears from the petition of the inhabitants of Georgetown, that the channel of the river, on which the salvation of that town depends, is filling up daily; that the mass of mud would soon increase to such a degree as totally to ruin the navigation to that port. If even it should be agreed by Congress to recede the territory to the States of Virginia and Maryland—which he wished and hoped in God would not be the case—it would be late in the session, and in all probability, at a time when neither of those State Legislatures will be in session. Supposing both States were willing to accept the recession, which he believed would not be found to be the case, the petitioners could not apply to the Virginia Legislature until next December, as their session began in that month, nor to Maryland until next November. A twelvemonth’s delay might defeat the object altogether, for the petitioners assert that it requires immediate exertions to prevent the channel filling up altogether.
Mr. Sloan reminded the committee of an old saying: “The time present only is in our power, the future we know not of.” The time present, then, is the time to redress the grievances of the suffering part of this community, and as the citizens of Georgetown were really embarrassed, and their apprehensions excited of greater danger, he hoped the committee would proceed with the business.