Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1867-01-17

with the principles of right aud Justice
that representatives OF States, where
suffrage is either denied the colored
man, or granted 10 him on qualifica-
cations requiring intelligence or pro-
perty, should compel the people of
the District Of Columbia to try an
experiment which their own constitu-
ents have thus far shown an unwilling
ness 20 test for themselves. Nor does
it accord with our republican ideas
that the principles Of self-government
should lose its force when applied TO
the residents Of the District, merely
because their legislators are not, like
those Of the States, responsible, thro'
the ballot, to the people for whom
they are the law-making power.
The great object Of placing the seat
Of government under the exclusive
legislation Of Congress, was 10 secure
the entire independence Of the General
Government from undue State influ-
cncc, and 10 enable il to discharge,
without danger Of interruption or in
fringement OF las authority, the high
functions Tor which it was created by
the people. For this important pnr-
p0se il was ceded to the United States
By Maryland and Virginia, and it GER
tainly never could have been contem-
plated as one Of the objects to be at
tanned by placing it under the exclusive
jurisdiction Of Congress, that it would
afford to propagandists or political
parties a place for an experimental
test Of their principles and theories.
While, indeed, the residents Of the scat
Of government are not citizens Of any
State, and are not therefore allowed
voice in the electoral college, or rep
resentation in the councils of the ma
tion. they are, nevertheless, American
citizens, entitled as such to every
guarantee Of the Constitution, to every
benefit Of the laws, and to every right
which pertains 10 citizens Of our com
mon country. In all matters, then,
affecting their domestic affairs, the
spirit OF our democratic form Of gov
ernment demands that their wishes
should be consulted and respected, and
they taught TO feel that, although not
permitted practically TO participate in
national concerns, they arc neyerthe-
less under a paternal Government.
regardful Of their rights, mindful Of
their wants, and solicitous for their
prosperity ltwas evidently contem-
plated that all local questions would
be leit 10 their decision, at least to an
extent that would not be incompatible
with the objects for which Congress
was granted exclusive legislation over
the seat o. government.
When the Constitution was yet un-
der consideration, it was assumed by
Mr. Madison that its inhabitants would
be allowed "a municipal legislature,
tor local purposes, derived from their
own suffrages." When, for the first
time, Congress, in the year 1900, as
sembled at Washington, President
Adams, in his speech at its opening,
reminded the two houses that it was
for them to consider whether the local
powers over the District of Columbia,
vested by the Constitution in the
Congress of the United States, should
be Immediately exercised, and he
asked them to "consider it as the
capital Of a great nation, advancing
with unexampled rapidity in arts, in
wealth, and in population, and pos
sessing within itself those resources
which. il not thrown away or lament
ably misdireoted, would secure to il a
long course of prosperity aud self
government Three years had not
elapsed when Congress was called
upon to determine the propriety Of
retroceding 20 Maryland and Virginia
the jurisdiction Of the territory which
they had respectively relinquished to
the Government Of the United States.
Ii was urged, on the one hand, that
exclusive jurisdiction was not neces-
sary or useful TO the Government
that it deprived the inhabitants of the
District Of their political rights; that
much Of the time of Congress was con
sumed in legislation pertaining to it
that its government was expensive
that Congress was not competent to
legislate for the District, because the
members were strangers to its local
concerns; and that it was an example
of a government without representa-
tiOu--an experiment dangerous to the
liberties Of the States. On the other
hand, il was held. among other rea-
sons. and successfully, that the Con
stitu6on, the acts ofoession Of Virginia
and Maryland, and the act of Congress
accepting the grant, all contemplated
the exercise Of exclusive legislation by
Congress, and that its usefulness, if
not its necessity, was inferred from
the Inconvenience which was felt for
want OF it by the Congress of the Con-
federation; that thepeople themselves,
who, it was said, had been deprived
of their political rights, had not CON-
planned, and did not desire a retroces-
son; that the evil might be remedied
by giving them a representation in
Congress when the District should
become sufficiently populous, and in
the meantime a local legislature that
if the inhabitants had not political
rights, they had great political inhu-
encc that the trouble and expense of
for the District would not
be great, but would diminish, and
might, IN a great measure, be avoided
by a local legislature and that Con
gress could not retrocede the inhabit-
ants without their consent. Continuing
20 live, substantially, under the laws
that existed at the time of the ccssion,
and such changes only having been