DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 20I 



appointed by the President and confirmed by Sensfte, and to 

 hold office for three years ; of the members to be first appointed 

 one-third to be appointed for one year, one-third for two years 

 and one-third for three years, so that the body might be kept 

 continuous and permanent. 



There are several subsequent acts conferring certain powers 

 on the Court and regulating its action in given cases, but the 

 character and importance of the Court were in no wise affected 

 thereby, and until its abolition in 187 1, it remained substantially 

 as fixed by the Act of 1863. 



The character of this body cannot be better stated than in the 

 language of Mr. Justice Miller of the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, speaking for that Court in the case of Levy 

 Court V. Coroner (2 Wall. 501, 507-8) as follows : 



The Levy Court is the body charged with the administration 

 of the ministerial and financial duties of Washington County. 

 It is charged with the duty of laying out and repairing roads, 

 building bridges, and keeping them in good order, providing 

 poor-houses, and the general care of the poor; and with 

 laying and collecting the taxes which are necessary to en- 

 able it to discharge these and other duties, and to pay the other 

 expenses of the county. It has the capacity to make contracts 

 in reference to any of these matters, and to raise money to meet 

 these contracts. It has perpetual succession. Its functions are 

 those which, in the several States, are performed by " county 

 commissioners," " overseers of the poor," " county supervisors," 

 and similar bodies with other designations. Nearl}^ all the func- 

 tions of these various bodies, or of any of them, reside in the 

 Levy Court of Washington. It is for all financial and minis- 

 terial purposes the County of Washington. 



I have said that at the time Congress assumed jurisdiction 

 over the District, and the Levy Court went into operation for 

 the County of Washington as a separate territory, there had 

 already been created a separate municipal government for 

 Georgetown. The histor}'^ of this government is not less inter- 

 esting than that of the Levy Court. 



Certain of the inhabitants of Frederick County having *set 

 forth in a petition to the Assembly of Maryland that there was 

 a convenient place for a town on the Potomac, above the mouth 

 of Rock Creek, and praying that sixty acres of land might there 



