Gerrymandering the District of Columbia: Didn't We Fight a Revolution Against Taxation without Representation?

Stolen Land, Broken Dreams, and Incoherent Visions (by Rickulous)

Didn't we fight a Revolution Against Taxation without Representation? It goes without saying, that Washington D.C. is broken, they still have not achieved the goal of the Revolutionary War. Anyone with a map can see that the District of Columbia is broken by overlaying a picture of the area as it was originally designated with the shape of the District since the Virginia Retrocession occurred. Slavery not only tore the country in two, it broke our beautiful gem of democracy which is our Nation's Capital in half as well. Shouldn't Washington D.C. be returned to it's intended Diamond Shape?

The background of this story is set in 1790 when a 100-square-mile site for the Nations Capitol was selected. The Residence Act of 1790 created the permanent seat of the Government of the United States under federal law annexed by eminent domain without evident compensation and selected the site in Virginia and Maryland along the Potomac River. The Organic Act of 1801 then officially organized the District of Columbia and the land designated as federal territory under the exclusive control of Congress. The District of Columbia was then organized into two counties with Washington on the east side of the Potomac River and Alexandria on other.

No sooner had the Constitution been ratified by the last of the 13 original states when efforts began to favor the idea of returning the southern portion including Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, and parts of Fairfax County, Virginia which complete the 10-mile-by-10-mile square which was the original plan for the District of Columbia. In the 1830s, efforts grew to reunite the southern portion of the District with Virginia and the deal-making was driven by a number of factors including the slave trade and voting rights.

From the founding of the District under the Residence Act until the passage of the Organic Act of 1801, the citizens who were living in D.C. continued to vote for members of Congress in Maryland or Virginia. By the Pre-Civil War period in 1846 negotiating to protect the slave trade and the support of the confederate south, the area of 31 square miles which was ceded by Virginia was returned in an effort of political maneuvering. President Lincoln made the first efforts to have the area re-annexed during the beginning of the Civil War, but was not able to influence the Senate to action on the subject.

The Supreme Court of the United States has never issued a firm opinion on whether the retrocession of the Virginia portion of the District of Columbia was constitutional. If unconstitutional, what remedy might be considered? It seems logical that either a Maryland Retrocession should occur or that the Virginia Retrocession should be returned to the District of Columbia. The state of Maryland may not want to take the District back and Virginia may not want to let go of Alexandria, but the issue must be legislated and adjudicated to determine the constitutionality of the annexation, retrocession, and continued disparity of the situation.

Congress has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia and could return a portion to Maryland or re-annex the portion of Virginia as originally envisioned under the Residence Act without the approval of the neighboring states if necessary. Proposals to return the area to Maryland began in 1839 and accompanied the Virginia Retrocession, but no action was ever taken. If the Maryland portion of the District were to be returned to Maryland today, a small tract of land immediately surrounding the United States Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court building which would become known as the "National Capital Service Area" and only one family would be considered residents of the location minimizing voting right suppression.

Congress has the power to restore the voting rights of citizens living in the District to the territories of Virginia and Maryland while maintaining the integrity of the federal district and may also grant the citizens living in the District voting rights with the passage of statehood. Many in the District of Columbia have advocated for making the District of Columbia a U.S. state and to grant the District voting representation in the Congress in addition to full control over local affairs. Ironically, one of the arguments against D.C. statehood is the size of the territory in question and the population within the district. Both of these arguments would become obsolete if the portion of the district which is currently in the Commonwealth of Virginia were returned to the District of Columbia. Should the residents of the District be granted full voting rights equal to other U.S. citizens in the other 50 states?

The issues of the Virginia Retrocession, a possible Maryland Retrocession, and D.C. Statehood can not be separated and must be studied together. The vast majority of the residents of the District of Columbia approve of the movement to make the District of Columbia the 51st state. Maryland does not want the land back and the residents of Washington D.C. do not want to become Marylanders. The area of the Commonwealth of Virginia which could be returned to Washington D.C. includes the Pentagon, Arlington Cemetery, and the Reagan National Airport. The residents of Alexandria have greater personal and professional ties with the residents of the District of Columbia than they do with the residents of the other regions of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Neither D.C. Statehood, a Maryland Retrocession, or correcting the Virginia Retrocession are issues of legislative priority for either major political party. The issues of the retrocession and equal voting rights for the citizens of the district represent an opportunity for honest discussion beyond political party affiliation. The two major parties have not been able to make progress on this issue since 1846. The Supreme Court of the United States of America may rule on the constitutionality of the original retrocession, but the non-elected 'Justices' have elected not to judge this matter for over 100 years. Our executive, legislature, and judiciary stand on a broken diamond and every governing action produced is emblematic of the symbolic lack of the symmetry they inhabit. The Executive must govern, the Legislature must legislate, and the Supreme Court must adjudicate, but until the federal government can govern it's own constitutionally defined land, then ....

Read on at the following Media Sources:

American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2013/11/virginia_to_washington_dc_take_this_county_please.html

D.C. Vote.org: https://dcvote.org/news/retrocession-maryland-fat-chance

The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-back-story-on-retrocession/2017/02/03/bec2dff6-e95d-11e6-903d-9b11ed7d8d2a_story.html?utm_term=.c95550b0ae9d

Virginia Places.org: http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/retrocession.html

The Baltimore Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-washington-letter-20160426-story.html

Wikipedia Reading:

Funding Act of 1790: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funding_Act_of_1790
Residence Act of 1790: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residence_Act
Organic Act of 1801: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Organic_Act_of_1801
District of Columbia Retrocession: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_retrocession
District of Columbia Statehood Movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_statehood_movement

Government & Organizations:

D.C. Statehood: https://statehood.dc.gov

The 51st State.org: https://the51st.org