National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-11-20
HOW SHALL WE BE GOVERNED!


In other columns we reproduce this
morning synopsis Of series Of CONVEX,
satiOns, or, as they are more popularity
called, interviews, between leading gentle.
men in this city and representatives of THE
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN last summer
upon the subject of the future gov
eminent ofthe District. They are
of special value at the present time,
and we invite attention to them, par
ticularly the attention Of the Joint Com
mittee Of Congress who have the matter
in charge, and of the members of the
Senate and House of Representatives who
are in the city, and who will soon be called
upon TO devise form Of government for
the Capital.
1t cannot be denied that large number
Of Our citizens are opposed to all suffrage
in this city; but as a general rule they be-
long TO the Opposition, and it is very certain
that if they were in the majority they
would entertain very different views. If
he were assured that he could do it, nothing
would better please Mr.. Norris, as the rep
resentative of the Jackson Democracy, or
Mr.. Dickson, as the representative of what
might be called the Young Democracy OF
the District, than to tomorrow send out
the news to the country that President
Grant and the Republican party were repu-
dated by the citizens of the National Cap
ital. A Democratic triumph at the polls
under the eyes of the Administration, in
the face Of a Republican majority in the
two houses of Congress and the Govern
mcHt Departments would be hailed as an
immense victory by the Democratic party
Of the country, and we should not hear
the end of it for months and months in
the newspapers and on the stump. But
Mr.. Norris and the jackson Association
know that the city is Republican, and
hence, as a rule, they do not want elections
which would be a condemnation of them
and their party. There is another class of
our people who maintain that suffrage in
the District Of Columbia has been a failure,
and they point to the late Territorial form of
government as the evidence and the proof of
the truth of their assertions. Now, the state
ment may be considered somewhat rash,
but We deny that the late form of govern
ment affords any proof of the kind. To
be sure, our local Legislature was not the
most uneXceptionabIe body in the world,
but il was just as good as the Legislatures
in half the States of the Union. 1t was as
respectable and intelligent as the councils
Of New York, the commercial metropolis
Of the country. 1t contained men who
would do honor to any legislative body in
the country. Mr.. Dyer and Mr. Cox, Mr..
Dickson and Mr.. Clagett, Mr. Campbell
and Mr.. Smoot, Mr.. Boswell and Mr..
Fleming sat in that Assembly, and they
and many of their associates would do no
discrcdit to Congress if they had been
elected to it. General Chapman was the
Delegate chosen by universal suffrage in
this city TO Congress. He is certainly the
peer Of any man in it, As a gentleman and
a man Of character. Any one OF the men
we have named as members of the Assem-
bly, is the peer of the average Congressman.
The point is frequently made in the
newspapers and in other places that be-
cause Of the debt and the rate of taxation,
and the general condition of the city at the
present time, the late form of government,
with its concomitant Of suffrage, was a
failure. This is by no means true. The
present condition Of the city is owing to a
variety Of causes, the principal one of
which was the failure of Congress to dis
charge its just obligations toward us as a
community. The nation justly owes us
to-day more than one half of our entire
debt, and unless we are mistaken it will
pay it in the near future. We voluntarily
taxed ourselves to improve the property of
the United States, and if it had not been
for the distractions that were thrown
in the way we should long ago have
been reimbursed for the expenditure.
When it shall have been paid,
what becomes Of the charge which
is now 50 generally made about the failure
Of our local government and our inability
TO manage our own affairs? In four years
our property has more than doubled in
value: we have received an impetus as a
community that has placed us in the front
rank and made us worthy Of our position
in the Union; the capital-mOying project
has been killed; we have attracted thou
sands of rich and cultivated people from all
sections Of the country; awakened a spirit
of enterprise and activity that could not
have been aroused in any other way. Local
government, "hOme rule" has not been a
failure here. On the contrary, it has been
a success, and a great success. The young
est city on the Atlantic slope, we compare
favOrably in every respect with the older
and more settled communities. To be sure,
we have large debt, but the greater por-
ton of it justly belongs to the United
States, and when it is paid VIC shall have