the system, I recommend the subject to the attention
of Congress.

I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the condition of the
District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise in the framers of our
Constitution to place the people of this District under the jurisdiction
of the General Government, but to accomplish the objects they had in
view it is not necessary that this people should be deprived of all the
privileges of self-government. Independently of the difficulty of
inducing the representatives of distant States to turn their attention
to projects of laws which are not of the highest interest to their
constituents, they are not individually, nor in Congress collectively,
well qualified to legislate over the local concerns of this District.
Consequently its interests are much neglected, and the people are almost
afraid to present their grievances, lest a body in which they are not
represented and which feels little sympathy in their local relations
should in its attempt to make laws for them do more harm than good.
Governed by the laws of the States whence they were severed, the two
shores of the Potomac within the 10 miles square have different penal
codes--not the present codes of Virginia and Mary land, but such as
existed in those States at the time of the cession to the United States.
As Congress will not form a new code, and as the people of the District
can not make one for themselves, they are virtually under two
governments. Is it not just to allow them at least a Delegate in
Congress, if not a local legislature, to make laws for the District,
subject to the approval or rejection of Congress? I earnestly recommend
the extension to them of every political right which their interests
require and which may be compatible with the Constitution.

The extension of the judiciary system of the United States is deemed to
be one of the duties of Government. One-fourth of the States in the
Union do not participate in the benefits of a circuit court. To the
States of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Louisiana, admitted into the Union since the present judicial system was
organized, only a district court has been allowed. If this be
sufficient, then the circuit courts already existing in eighteen States
ought to be abolished; if it be not sufficient, the defect ought to be
remedied, and these States placed on the same footing with the other
members of the Union. It was on this condition an