214 DAVIS 



cesser to territory and all rights therein is surely under no 

 hamper of delegated authority. 



The fate of the territorial government, as it is generally called, 

 is too freshly in mind to call for extended comment ; and it suf- 

 fices to say that between the riot of extravagance of the Board 

 of Public Works and the orgy of suffrage, which some of our 

 good citizens long to have restored, that government, after a 

 fevered life of a little more than three years, deservedly fell. 

 And its fall ushered in what I hope is to be the last stage of the 

 District's political development. 



When Congress could no longer endure its creature of 187 1, 

 it enacted on June 20, 1874 (18 Stats. 116), that all provisions 

 for an Executive, Secretary, Legislative Assembly, Board of 

 Public Works and Delegate to Congress from the District should 

 be repealed (saving the term of office of the then sitting dele- 

 gate), and that for the time being, and until otherwise provided 

 by law, the government of the District should be committed to a 

 board of three commissioners to be appointed by the President 

 and Senate and vested with all the powers formerly belonging to 

 the Governor and Board of Public Works, except as otherwise 

 provided by the act ; and that the powers of the Chief Engineer 

 of that Board should be exercised by an officer of the Engineer 

 Corps of the Army of the United States, to be detailed by the 

 President. In addition, a Board of Audit, consisting of the First 

 and Second Comptrollers of the Treasury was provided, with the 

 authority and duty to audit all claims growing out of the acts of 

 the Board of Public Works in the execution of its " comprehen- 

 sive plan of improvements," the cost of which the District is yet 

 paying and to pay through the medium of the familiar and 

 much-to-be-desired 3.65 bonds. 



After a four years' trial of this form of government for the 

 District, Congress very wisely decided to make it, with certain 

 improvements, permanent, and on June 11, 1878 (20 Stats. 102), 

 passed the act under which, as amended and supplemented from 

 time to time, we now live. The Government of the District 

 under this legislation which at the outset I made bold enough to 

 speak of as the best possible for a municipality may be gener- 

 ally described as follows : 



