192 DAVIS 



As is equally well known, this territory, originally ceded by 

 Maryland and Virginia, in fact comprised ten miles square, or 

 one hundred square miles in all. The legislative acts of Mary- 

 land and Virginia providing for the cession were passed re- 

 spectively December 23, 1788, and December 3, 1789, and the 

 first Act of Congress on the subject was approved July 16, 1790, 

 an amendment thereof being approved March 3, 1791. The 

 earlier Act of Congress, that of 1790, accepted for the perma- 

 nent seat of the Government of the United States a district of 

 territory not exceeding ten miles square, to be located on the 

 river Potomac between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and 

 Conogocheague, the same to be laid out by commissioners 

 provided for by the Act ; and it provided that by the first 

 Monday in December, 1790, all offices attached to the seat of 

 Government of the United States should be removed (from 

 New York) to Philadelphia, and there remain until the first 

 Monday in December, 1800, on which day the seat of Govern- 

 ment of the United States should be transferred to the district 

 and place aforesaid, and all offices attached to the said seat of 

 Government, accordingly, be removed thereto by their respective 

 holders, and after said day cease to be exercised elsewhere. 

 The later act of Congress, that of 1791, amended the earlier 

 act by providing that the whole of the contemplated district 

 need not be located above the mouth of the Eastern Branch, but 

 that a part of it might be located below the said limit and in- 

 clude, with other territory, the city of Alexandria, Virginia. 

 On January 24, 1791, President Washington proclaimed a ten- 

 tative location of the District by metes and bounds, and after- 

 wards, and on March 30, 1791, he proclaimed the metes and 

 bounds as fixed in accordance with the act of Congress of that 

 year. This latter proclamation located the District of Columbia 

 as it existed until, in conformity with the act of Congress of 

 July 9, 1846, the Virginia portion was retroceded to the State of 

 Virginia, and from the date of this retrocession (which became 

 an accomplished fact only upon the vote of the people of the 

 county and town of Alexandria in manner prescribed by the act), 

 the District of Columbia has consisted exclusively of the terri- 

 tory, about sixty-four square miles in extent, originally ceded by 



