Should Washington DC Be Federalized

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the creation and governance of Washington, DC., the capital of the United States of America. The following information describes the origin of Washington, DC. 

On July 16, 1790, Washington, DC was established as the nation’s capital by the Constitution of the United States. You can read the actual line at the National Archives. From its beginning, it has been embroiled in political maneuvering, sectional conflicts and issues of race, national identity, compromise and, of course, power.

Like may decisions in American history, the location of the new city was to be a compromise: Alexander Hamilton and northern states wanted the new federal government to assume Revolutionary War debts, and Thomas Jefferson and southern states who wanted the capital placed in a location friendly to slave-holding agricultural interests.

 

 

President George Washington chose the exact site along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, and the city was officially founded in 1790 after both Maryland and Virginia ceded land to this new “district,” to be distinct and distinguished from the rest of the states….

Even before coming of age, DC was nearly completely destroyed. During the War of 1812 against Great Britain, enemy forces invaded the city and burned much of it to the ground, including the newly completed White House, the Capitol and the Library of Congress (including all of its books). Thomas Jefferson later replenished the library’s collection by selling off his entire library for $23,950 in 1815.

After the devastation, the city remained small, especially in terms of permanent residents. Soon it would become smaller in physical size as well. In 1847, the portion of the city that had originally belonged to Virginia was retroceded, after the voters of Alexandria elected to leave DC, feeling that they had been left out of development on the other side of the river. You can still see some surviving original markers for the District today.

The city only increased in size as a result of the Civil War. Slaves owned in Washington were emancipated on April 16, 1862, nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation, and it therefore became a hub for freed slaves. After, it remained a home to a significant and vibrant African American population, which included abolitionist Frederick Douglass. A substantial army was up just to protect the capital during the war, and the federal government grew around this administration.

In 1973 Washington DC became self-governing when the District of Columbia Home Rule Act became law. It allowed residents to elect their own mayor and a city council. Prior to this time, Congress governed the District.

This site stated that “James Madison explained the need for a federal district on January 23, 1788, in the Federalist No. 43.” He argued that “the national capital needed to be distinct from the states, in order to provide for its own maintenance and safety.” Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution is “the authority to establish a federal capital” and gives power to Congress to establish it. The reason given in the article is that the government needed to take care of its own security. 

This brings us to today, and President Donald Trump’s threat to federalize the capital city. At this point, Trump has only “ordered police to increase their presence in the District of Columbia” because there was “an attack on a Department of Government Efficiency staffer.” Trump wants the nation’s capital to be safe for residents and visitors. If that means being federalized again – temporarily or permanently, he will do it.