DC was established by Congress under the Residence Act of 1790, allowing President George Washington to select a site for the federal capital along the Potomac River, not exceeding 10 miles square (100 square miles).<\/p>\n
Land was ceded by both Maryland (about 69 square miles) and Virginia (about 31 square miles) to form this diamond-shaped district that we now call D.C..<\/p>\n
The cessions were formalized; Virginia transferred its portion in 1790, and Maryland followed in 1791.<\/p>\n
This included areas like Georgetown (from MD) and Alexandria (from VA).<\/p>\n
By the 1840s, many residents in the Virginia portion of DC felt neglected by Congress, faced economic stagnation, and believed slavery would soon be abolished in D.C.<\/p>\n
In 1846, Congress passed legislation retroceding the Virginia portion\u2014now Arlington County and the City of Alexandria\u2014back to Virginia.<\/p>\n
President James K. Polk signed it into law<\/p>\n
That law reduced D.C. from 100 square miles to about 68, establishing retrocession as a viable, constitutional path.<\/p>\n
Virginia\u2019s land was returned without issue, and it thrives today as part of Virginia, not D.C..<\/p>\n
In spite of that precedent, some argue that D.C. should now become a state.<\/p>\n
But D.C. alone (rather than as part of Maryland) doesn\u2019t meet the criteria we\u2019ve historically applied to statehood.<\/p>\n
Although the Constitution doesn\u2019t specify minimum population or geographic size, our states have been admitted as territories with balanced economies\u2014agriculture, industry, and diverse resources.<\/p>\n
We have \u201cnever\u201d admitted a state that consists of just a single, geographically compact, urban enclave\u2014whether heavily dependent on the federal government (as D.C. is) or otherwise.<\/p>\n
D.C. lacks anything close to the industries, natural resources, opportunities for growth, and amenities found in literally every other state.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just a city\u2014one city\u2014and therefore can\u2019t be accorded the status of a sovereign state using the time-honored criteria.<\/p>\n
More importantly, the Founders quite intentionally created D.C. as a \u201cneutral\u201d federal district to serve as the seat of the U.S. government under Article I, Section 8.<\/p>\n
They did so specifically to prevent any one state from wielding undue influence over the national government.<\/p>\n
Making DC a state would subject the seat of the U.S. government to a state, entangling the capital city in that state\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not about partisanship. It\u2019s about preserving the constitutional design and preventing our nation\u2019s capital from becoming subject to one state.<\/p>\n
To give D.C. residents representation in Congress, we could instead follow the Virginia precedent. Retrocede most of D.C. to Maryland, excepting a small corridor\u2014just a few blocks stretching from the White House to the Capitol and the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
This small federal enclave would remain under congressional control\u2014allowing the centers of power in Washington to remain under exclusively federal control\u2014while the rest of D.C.\u2019s residents would gain full voting rights and representation as Marylanders.<\/p>\n
This solution would give D.C. residents what they deserve\u2014state-level representation\u2014without upending the Constitution or creating an anomalous micro-state.<\/p>\n
This approach would be practical, historical, and fair.<\/p>\n
Maryland ceded the land that\u2019s now D.C. at the dawn of our constitutional republic. It can absorb it back again, just as Virginia absorbed its previously ceded territory in the 1940s.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s prioritize the Founders\u2019 vision over political power grabs.<\/p>\n
D.C. should either remain a federal district or revert back to Maryland. But it\u2019s not a state, and shouldn\u2019t be considered for statehood (unless it\u2019s to be part of Maryland again).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DC was established by Congress under the Residence Act of 1790, allowing President George Washington to select a site for the federal capital along the Potomac River, not exceeding 10 miles square (100 square miles). Land was ceded by both Maryland (about 69 square miles) and Virginia (about 31 square miles) to form this diamond-shaped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}