the entire independence of the
General Government from undue State influence and to enable it to
discharge without danger of interruption or infringement of its
authority the high functions for which it was created by the people.
For this important purpose it was ceded to the United States by Maryland
and Virginia, and it certainly never could have been contemplated
as one of the objects to be attained by placing it under the exclusive
jurisdiction of Congress that it would afford to propagandists or
political parties a place for an experimental test of their principles
and theories. While, indeed, the residents of the seat of Government are
not citizens of any State and are not, therefore, allowed a voice in the
electoral college or representation in the councils of the nation, they
are, nevertheless, American citizens, entitled as such to every guaranty
of the Constitution, to every benefit of the laws, and to every right
which pertains to citizens of our common country. In all matters, then,
affecting their domestic affairs, the spirit of our democratic form of
government demands that their wishes should be consulted and respected
and they taught to feel that although not permitted practically to
participate in national concerns, they are, nevertheless, under a
paternal government regardful of their rights, mindful of their wants,
and solicitous for their prosperity. It was evidently contemplated that
all local questions would be left to their decision, at least to an
extent that would not be incompatible with the object for which Congress
was granted exclusive legislation over the seat of Government. When the
Constitution 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 opening, reminded the two Houses that it was for them
to consider whether the local powers over the District of Columbia,
vested by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States, should
be immediately exercised, and he asked them to "consider it as the
capital of a great nation, advancing with unexampled rapidity in arts,
in commerce, in wealth, and in population, and possessing within itself
those resources which, if not thrown away or lamentably misdirected,
would secure to it a long course of prosperit