Evening star., 1937-12-17
More Light on Rights
OF the District People

Omitting much that should be made
plain, the article in your last Sundays
issue by Assistant Corporation Counsel
Walter L. Fowler falls short ~ guide
to vital historical accuracy. What our
forefathers did here is Of far greater
Importance than what others may guess
or decide about 1t q century later.
The purpose in acquiring q seat Of
government for the United States was
that no State should have Jurisdiction
over 1t. But by the acts Of cession of
territory by Virginia and Maryland the
United States did not acquire entire
ownership Of the ceded territory, as In
the case Of arsenals, dockyards, etc. It
mainly acquired legislative jurisdiction.
In the first governing act Of Congress
concerning the territory Of Columbia"
February n, 1901 1t was forgotten that
the seat Of government was to be 4
district" for the Congress, acting SINH
larly to q State Legislature, created two
counties therein-the County Of Alex
andria and the County Of Warrington.
Congress likewise provided that the laws
Of Virginia as they then existed and Of
Maryland as then existent shall continue
in force in those parts of the seat of
government ceded by each State, re-
spectively.
Congress also continued in existence
the City of Alexandria and the City of
Georgetown as municipalities governed
by the people thereof, and George WASH
ington laid out the City of Washington
as q part only Of the County Of WASH
ington, the territory ceded by Maryland
Realizing that 1t is no function Of our
Nations Legislature to govern num-
cipalities, our forefather winners of
freedom, in Congress assembled (by act
Of May 3, 1902, constituted the inhabi-
tants Of the City of Washington q bedy
polite and corporate by the name Of
mayor and city council. The city council
was given the right to levy and collect
taxes and to make municipal ordinances;
and this form Of government continued
for nearly SO years. Contrast this with
the preposterous monstrosity set up by
the act of Congress June II, 1873, in
which territory" Is designated q mu-
nicipal corporation. A corporation must
be composed of "persons'-not land
as intelligently indicated by our fore
fathers in 1902 creating the inhabitants"
of the City of Washington q body polite
and corporate.
u
Compare the power granted to the
people, Though their city council, to
make municipal ordinances with the au-
thority later given the District Commits
sioners to make regulations" that are
ordinances in disguise, and 1t will be
found that these Commissioners actually
are invested with legislative power, every
act OF which ought to be declared null
and void, for they are merely admins
trative oflcers-one of them an officer
Of the United States Army. Congress
cannot delegate its power to make laws
to-, an executive department or to an
administrative officer, nor does the power
delegated to such department or officer
carry with it the authority to repeal,
extend or modify an act Of Congress"
(Morrill v. Jones, 100 U. s., 1861
The territorial form of government
here 0s71-1874 abolished the City of
Washington as municipal corporation.
THE District of Columbia is munic-
ipal corporation, and as such it may be
invested with legislative authority; but
1t can exercise only those powers which
are expressly conferred by statute, which
must be of strictly municipal nature"
(See list of United States Supreme Court
cases cited on page 239. Senate docu-
ment No. 154, Sixty-eighth Congress,
first session. And who should possess
this municipal legislative authority? Not
administrative officers, as the court has
said. 1nalienably and fundamentally,
the people Of the District of Columbia
should properly exercise municipal power
Of taxation and municipal power to make
District ordinances.
1t seems certain, under the Constitu-
ton Of the United States (Which was
extended to the District of Columbia by
section "a Of the act Of Congress Febru-
ary 2l, 1871, and never repealed, to my
knowledge, that the governmental set
UP OF the District of Columbia is out of
harmony with the form of govern
ment Of the United States and has no
justification under the guarantees of
justice and freedom therein contained
and to be obeyed.
Let 1t be realized that Maryland was
not an absolute sovereign when in 1913
she ceded territory as part of the seat
OF government of the United States
Maryland was q member Of the loose
union of States under the articles Of
Confederation and was bound thereby
in many particulars-especially in the
respect that she could not by cession take
away fundamental rights of her free
citizens. The inhabitants of the ceded
soil Of Maryland could not be turned over
to the United States, to be governed as
a colony, at the whim or pleasure of
Congress. (See Dred Scott v. Sanford,
10 Howard, 1876, etc.
~
It is even doubtful, from legalistic
point Of view, whether the United States
has possessed seat Of government" for
the past 81 years. In 1886 Congress per-
mitted few voters in the County Of
Alexandria to amend the Constitution Of
the United States-to do, in effect what
the Constitution provides that three
fourths of the States only may do. The
Constitution requires that the seat Of
government shall be q district composed
Of territory ceded by Estates" The
referendum action of the voters Of the
County Of Alexandria in 1916, by permis-
sion Of Congress, reduced the seat Of
government to territory ceded by one
State" when there was no authority in
the Constitution or in Congress to have q
seat of government whose territory was
ceded by one State alone.
Let us believe that our forefathers
knew better as to what the form of gov
or,,v,, ,ov,% f1u &l,o NJ of