Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-01-08

it was for them to consider whether
the local powers over the District Of Co
lumbia, vested BY the constitution in the
Congress Of the United States, should be
exercised: and he asked them
30 consider it as the Capital of a great ma
ton, advancing with uHexampled rsPidity
in arts, in commerce, in wealth, and in
population, aud possessing within itself
these resources, which II not thrown away,
or lamentably misdirecied, would secure 30
it long courses Of prosperity and selfgoy-
eminent Three wears had not elapsed
when Congress was called upon to determine
the pIopriety OF retrocedine 10 Maryland
and Virginia the jurisdiction Of the terri
tory, which they had respectively reiin-
pushed To- the government of the United
States. lt was urged on one hand, that ex-
elusive jurisdiction was not necessary, or
useful to the government; that il deprived
the inhabitants of tine district Of their po-
litical rights that much Of the time OF
Congress was consumed in legislation per
tanning 10 il; that lie government was eN-
pensiye; that Congress was not competent
10 legislate for the district, because its
members we're strangers 10 its local
concerns, and that il was an example Of a
government without representation, an eN-
pertinent dangerous 20 the liberties Of the
States On the other hand il was held.
among other reasons, and successfully, that
the constitution, the acts Of cession Of
Virginia and Maryland, and the act Of
Congress accepting the grant, all contem-
plated the exercise of exclusive legislation
by Congress, and that its usefulness, if not
its necessity, was inferred from the incon-
venienee which was felt for want Of IL; that
the people themselves who, it was said,
had been deprived of their political rights
had not complained, and did not desire
retroceRion; that the evil might be rem
edied by giving them representation in
Congress when the District should become
sufficiently Topulous, and in the meantime
4 local Legislature; that if the inhabitants
had not political rights, they had great
political Influence; that the trouble and
expense Of legislating for the District would
not be great but would diminish, and
might in a great measure be avoided by 4
| local Legislature, and that Congress could
| not retrocede the inhabitants without their
consent.
Continuing to live substantially under
the laws that existed at the time Of ces-
sion, land such only having been made as
were suggested by themselves the people
Of the District have not sought, by a local
Legislature, that which has generally been
willingly conceded by the Congress of the
nation. As a general rule, sound
! policy requires that the Legislature
should yield to the wishes of the people,
| when not inconsistent with the constitution
and laws; the measures suited to a COM
munity might not be well adapted to the
condition Of another, and persons best
| qualified to determine such questions are
| those whose interests are to be directly
effected by any proposed law. In Massa-
/ chusetts, for instance, male persons are
| allowed 10 vote without regard to color,
| provided they possess a certain degree Of
/ intelligence. In population in that State
! of ,23l ,066 there were, by the census of
| 1860 only 1902 persons Of color, and OF
| the males over twenty years of age there
were 1890 white to 1902 colored. The
! District during the war became a place OF
refuge for those who escaped from seryi-
| tude, and it is the abiding place
of a considerable portion Of those
who sought within its limits a shelter
| from bondage. Until then held in
slavery, and denied all opportunity for
| mental culture, their first knowledge OF
| government was acquired when by confer
| ring upon them freedom it became the ben
| etactOr of their raCe-the test of their
capability for improvement; began when
for the first time the care of free industry
and the avenues TO intelligence were opened
/ to them.
4 AZ
time-the greater number, perhaps, having
secured them near the close of the war-wI
may well pause to inquire whether, after 80
brief probation, they are, as a class, capa-
bic Of an intelligent exercise of the right
of suffrage and qualified to discharge the
duties of official position. The people who
are daily witnesses Of their habits OF
! thought have expressed the conviction that
| they are not competent to serve az electors
and thus become eligible for Office IN the
| local governments under which they live
| clothed with the elective franchise then
| number already largely in excess Of the de
mand for labor. would be soon increase,
/ by an influx from adjoining States, and
/ drawn from the fields where employment
| Is abundant, they would in vain seek il
here, and 80 add TO the embarrassment al
ready experienced from the large class o
idle persons congregated in this District
hardly yet capable of forming correct
judgments. Upon the important the ques
tons that are often made in the issues of a
political contest, they could be made sub.
servient to the purposes Of designing per
sons, while in Massachusetts, under the
| census OF 1860, the proportion of white tC
cOlOrpd males over twenty one Vpqr5 Of zoe
| was one hundred and thirty to one, here
| the black race constitutes nearly one-thiFd
Of the entire population.