On the question to postpone the bill for incorporating the Washington Building and Fire Insurance Company, there were 51 for it and 42 against it; and the bill was postponed accordingly,
The House then adjourned to Wednesday.
Monday, January 7, 1805.
District of Columbia.
The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on a motion “to recede to the States of Virginia and Maryland, the jurisdiction of such parts of the Territory of Columbia as are without the limits of the city of Washington.”
Mr. Stanford said it was his wish to make a few observations on the resolution now before the Committee, for the retrocession of that part of the District of Columbia which had been ceded to the United States by the State of Virginia, in support of the vote he should give—expecting that what was said on the first, would be generally applicable to the last resolution also. He begged leave, however, in the first place, to suggest that, in bringing forward the motion, he had not had any the least intention to take any step that should go to a removal of the government. He trusted no gentleman of the committee would entertain such an opinion of his views. Had such been his intention he would have preferred a direct motion to that effect.
As then both the resolutions together made but a single object—that of ceding back again to the respective States of Virginia and Maryland all the District of Columbia, except the city of Washington—he should, in the course of the discussion, consider it more incumbent on those adverse to the measure to show the original wisdom and utility of the provision in the constitution, than on its friends. It would be enough for them to show its present evil tendency, and that it was an encumbrance no way necessary or useful to the General Government.
Upon a former occasion some question had arisen, and might yet lie in the way of some gentlemen, whether Congress, having once accepted the cessions of the States, had now the power of recession. On that head he had not, himself, ever found reason to doubt. By the third section and fourth article of the constitution, “Congress has power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States;” and besides, the eighth section of the first article, which assigns to Congress the exclusive legislation over this district, in all cases whatsoever, does not appear to come short of such a power. Like authority is also given, in the same paragraph of the constitution, over all places purchased by the consent of the State in which the same shall be, “for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings.” Congress, thus possessing the right of disposal, had exercised that right by an act passed two sessions ago, authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to convey to the Salem Turnpike and Chelsea Bridge Companies a part of the navy yard at Boston. With it, will any one contend that jurisdiction did not also pass to the State of Massachusetts, whence it had been obtained? It certainly would by every fair and bona fide view of the circumstances. If, for instance, murder should be committed on that part of the turnpike which was formerly a part of the navy yard, could it be contended that such murder was not punishable by the laws of Massachusetts; that the General Government was the only competent authority to punish? He hoped otherwise. A like discretionary power of cession was also exercised when Congress anticipated the ordinance, and transferred the jurisdiction to the people of the North-western Territory, which now forms the State of Ohio. It would be remembered that, at the time of the transfer, the United States held the exclusive jurisdiction of that territory.
But, said Mr. S., over and above the consideration that the District of Columbia is in no way necessary, and every way expensive, to the General Government—in fact, a kind of governmental nuisance that ought to be removed—there was another objection, still more serious with him, the people of the district were the merest subjects in their condition. If they held rights, they were not apparent to him in the constitution. He believed all they held were those of courtesy. In the constitution no immunity, no privilege, no political right, had been, in so many words, reserved to them. They had been specifically given away, consigned to the ideal convenience of the General Government, without a single specific reservation. This was not the case as to the people of the States. If he were told the people were content, and did not wish a change, that with him was a good reason why the motion should at once prevail. If twenty, or twenty-five thousand people had already become willing subjects, without wishing any share or control in their own affairs, such an example ought no longer to remain under our system of government, and he trusted would not. He concluded by expressing a hope that the resolutions might be adopted.
Mr. Smilie rose in reply. He disclaimed any intention hostile to Washington remaining the seat of Government, and denied that the recession would have any influence upon it. Having elucidated the constitutionality of the measure, he exhibited in strong colors the degraded situation of the people of the district, and the dangers which might hereafter arise from a continuance of it.