DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 1 93 



the State of Maryland. In accordance with the provisions of 

 the act of Congress of April 24, 1800, which authorized the 

 President to direct the removal of the offices of the government 

 to the District at any time that he might judge proper after the 

 adjournment of the then present session of Congress, those offices 

 were so removed, and the government of the people of the United 

 States made its permanent home on the banks of the Potomac. 



I might, doubtless, in this presence have avoided going thus 

 into detail, but I have had an object in so doing ; for in order to 

 indicate fully the matters entering into the political development 

 of the District it is necessary for us to know at how many points 

 the principles of political science have touched us in our birth 

 and growth ; for, odd as it may seem, the situation demands 

 treatment from the top, instead of from the bottom, which latter 

 is the natural and proper order. For as between local and inter- 

 local law the former is naturally the first to be considered ; and 

 that form of inter-local law which we call international is the 

 latest of all. Yet, as I am to deal with the political devel- 

 opment of the District of Columbia as it now is, I must first 

 get rid of so much of the District as formerly was, but now is 

 not. This demands a word as to the political make-up of the 

 original District, and leads to a consideration first of inter-ldcal 

 or international law as bearing upon our subject. 



It is a cardinal rule of international law that whenever there 

 is a change of sovereignty only, the laws of the territory sub- 

 jected to the new sovereignty continue until duly changed by 

 that sovereignty. It is no exception to this rule to say that such 

 laws may be changed by the treaty or other act occasioning the 

 change of sovereignty, for this is the same as to say that the 

 former laws are duly changed. In the original act of Maryland 

 relating to the. cession of its portion of the District of Columbia 

 (the act of 1788), that State provided only that its representa- 

 tives in Congress should cede " to the Congress of the United 

 States " any district in the State not exceeding ten miles square 

 which Congress might fix upon and accept for the Seat of Gov- 

 ernment of the United States. But after the territory of Colum- 

 bia had been definitely located, the General Assembly of Mary- 

 land by act of December 19, 1791, in addition to making sundry 



