ITBI.IC IXHTMi: 



S4I 



tOfl of tip- (i.-nerul Qov- 



;,tte iiillnenee, i:,>l i.i enable 

 i interruption >r 

 hority, tin- lii:'li I 

 which by III'' people. l'..r tK 



I III (III- I'llilcd 



iniii, and it rertaittl\ 



dm! I li:i\v- In" -u c.M!!''mp]ate,|, ;i-i inn. ,,f tin- nliji'ds 



:n-d liv placing it ninlt-r ill.- . \.-lu-i\ i- 



-, that it \vniilil alford to pro- 



or political parties u place I'nr an 



I, -t of (heir prmciples nnd tin-Dries. \Vliilc-, 



: nts of the seat of Government arc 



- of any Stair, and are not there/ore 



allowed u voice in (In- Electoral College or n-pr'-sen- 



in the councils of the nation, they are never- 



. American citi/.ens, entitled aa such to every 



t (lie Constitution, to every benefit o'f 



and to every right which pertains to 



- of our common country. In all in 



ling their domestic affairs, the spirit 

 democratic form of government demands 

 that their wishes should be consulted and re- 

 !, and they taught to feel that, although not 

 permitted practically to participate in national con- 

 they are nevertheless under a paternal Gov- 

 nt, regardful of their rights, mindful of their 

 . and solicitous for their prosperity. It was 

 ,'ly contemplated that all local questions 

 would li<- l-1'( to their decision, at least to an extent 

 that would not be incompatible with the object for 

 which was granted exclusive legislation 



t of Government. When the Constitu- 

 tion was yet under consideration it was assumed by 

 Mr. Madison that its inhabitants would be allowed 

 " a municipal Legislature for local purposes, derived 

 from their own suffrages." When, for the first 

 time. Congress, in the year 1800, assembled at 

 Washington, President Adams, in his speech at its 

 r.peni.i'r, reminded the two Houses that it was for 

 (hem TO consider whether the local powers over the 

 District of Columbia, vested by the Constitution in 

 tigress of the United States, should be imme- 

 diately exercised, and he asked them to "consider 

 'ilia capital of a great nation, advancing with 

 upled rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth 

 and in population, and possessing within itself those 

 resources, which, if not thrown away or lamentablv 

 inis lirectcd, would secure to it a long course of 

 i ity and self-government." Three years had 

 not elapsed when Congress was called upon to deter- 

 mine tin- propriety of rctroceding to Maryland and 

 : i the jurisdiction of the territory which they 

 , relinquished to the Government 

 of (he Uni: 



It was n rred, on the one hand, that exclusive 

 jurisdiction was not necessary or useful to the Gov- 

 ernment; that it deprived the inhabitants of th<- 

 District of their political rights; that much of the 

 time of Congress was consumed in legislation per- 

 taininir t' it; (hat its irovernment WHS expensive; 

 (hat Congress was not competent to legislate for the 

 District, because the members were strangers to its 

 local concerns ;. and that it was an example of a gov- 

 ernment without representation an experiment 

 dangerous to the liberties of the States. On the 

 other hand, it was held, among other reasons, and 

 successfully, that the Constitution, the acts of ces- 

 sion of Virginia nnd Maryland, and the act of Con- 

 ..eoepting the grant, all contemplated the ex- 

 ercise of exclusive legislation by Congress, and that 

 fulness, ifn"t its ueeeMiir, was inferred from 

 the inc mveniencc which was felt for want of it by 

 .. ^i-ess of the Confederation ; that (he people 

 themselves, wh'i, it was said, had been deprived of 

 their political rights, had not complained and did 

 ession ; that the evil might lie rem- 

 edied by giving them a representation in Congress 

 when the District should become sulliei.-ntlv popu- 

 lous, and, in the mean time, a local Legislature ; that 



if the inhabitants had not political right* they bad 



great political inllnen<-e ; t|,.,t the ! < ..ul,!.- und expense 



would nut I,.- t r .- 



ul niL'lit in a great measure be 

 I liy a local Legislature; and that Ci.njrreM 

 ciiill.l not retroccde the inhabitants withou! 



'. Cniitimiing to live substantially under 



the laws that existed at the time of the cet- 



H h changes onlv having been made as 



-ted liy themselves, the pei.pl,- O f the 



District have not nought, by a local Legislature, that 



which has generally been willingly conceded by the 



Congress of the nation. 



As a general rule, sound policy requires that the 

 .lure should yield to t ; the people, 



when not it. ith the Constitution and the 



laws. The measures suited to one community might 

 not be well adapted to the condition of another; an-! 

 the persons best qualified to determine such 

 tions are those whose interests are to be di 

 affected by any proposed law. In Ma.-saclr 

 for instance, male persons are allowed to vote with- 

 out regard to color, provided they possess a certain 

 degree of intelligence. In a population in thai 

 of 1,231,066, there were, by the census of 1860, only 

 9,602 persons of color ; and of the males over 

 twenty years of age, there were 339,086 white to 

 2,602 colored. By the same official enumeration 

 there were in the District of Columbia 60,764 whites 

 to 14,316 persons of the colored race. Since then, 

 however, the population of the District has largely 

 increased, and it is estimated that at the present 

 time there are nearly 100,000 whites to 30,000 

 negroes. The cause of the augmented numbers of 

 the latter class needs no explanation. Contiguous 

 to Maryland and Virginia, the District, during the 

 war, became a place orrefuge for those who escaped 

 from servitude, and it is yet the abiding-place of a 

 considerable proportion of those who sought within 

 its limits a shelter from bondage. Until then held in 

 slavery, and denied all opportunities for mental cul- 

 ture, their first knowledge of the Government was 

 acquired, when, by conferring upon them freedom, 

 it became the benefactor of their race ; the test of 

 their capability for improvement began, when, 

 for the first time, the career of free industry and 

 the avenues to intelligence were opened to them. 

 Possessing these 'advantages but a limited time 

 the greater number perhaps having entered the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia during the later years of the war 

 or since its termination we may well pause to in- 

 quire whether, after so brief a probation, they are as 

 a class capable of an intelligent exercise of the right 

 of suffrage, and qualified to discharge the duties of 

 official position. The people who are daily witnesses 

 of their mode of living, and who have "become fa- 

 miliar with their habits of thought, have expressed the 

 conviction that they are not yet competent to serve 

 as electors, and thus become eligible for office in 

 the local governments under which they live. 

 Clothed with the elective franchise, their numbers, 

 already largely in excess of the demand for labor, 

 would be soon increased by an influx from the ad- 

 joining States. Drawn from fields where employ- 

 ment is abundant, they would in vain seek it here, 

 and so add to the embarrassments already experi- 

 enced from the large class of idle persons congre- 

 gated in the District. Hardly yet capable of forming 

 correct judgments upon the important questions 

 that ofteu make the issues bf a political contest, they 

 could readily be made subservient to the purposes of 

 designing persons. 



While in Massachusetts, under the census of 1860, 

 the proportion of white to colored males over twenty 

 years of age was one hundred and thirty to one, 

 here the black race constitutes nearly one-lhird of 

 the entire population, while the same class surrounds 

 the District on all sides, ready to change their resi- 

 dence at a moment's notice, and with all the facility 

 of a nomadic people, in order to enjoy here, after a 



