y and self-government."
Three years had not elapsed when Congress was called upon to determine
the propriety of retroceding to Maryland and Virginia the jurisdiction
of the territory which they had respectively relinquished to the
Government of the United States. It was urged on the one hand that
exclusive jurisdiction was not necessary or useful to the Government;
that it deprived the inhabitants of the District of their political
rights; that much of the time of Congress was consumed in legislation
pertaining to it; that its government was expensive; that 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
government 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 cession
of Virginia and Maryland, and the act of Congress accepting the grant
all contemplated the exercise of exclusive legislation by Congress,
and that its usefulness, if not its necessity, was inferred from the
inconvenience which was felt for want of it by the Congress of the
Confederation; that the people themselves, who, it was said, had been
deprived of their political rights, had not complained and did not
desire a retrocession; that the evil might be remedied by giving them a
representation in Congress when the District should become sufficiently
populous, and in the meantime a local legislature; that if the
inhabitants had not political rights they had great political influence;
that the trouble and expense of legislating for the District would not
be great, but would diminish, and might in a great measure be avoided
by a local legislature; and that Congress could not retrocede the
inhabitants without their consent. Continuing to live substantially
under the laws that existed at the time of the cession, and such changes
only having been made as were suggested by themselves, the people of the
District have not sought 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 legislature should
yield to the wishes of a people, when not inconsistent with the
constitution and the laws. The measures suited to one community might
not be well adapted to the condition of another; and the persons best
qualified to determine such questi