COMMENTARY BY JOHN FLANAGAN
An accident of history
Washington D.C. disenfranchisement through the ages
D
riving along Pennsylvania Avenue, “America’s Main Street,” is a lesson in the development of the world’s oldest constitutional republic. The White House and Capitol, which bookend this grand boulevard, showcase the struggle of checks and balances. However, it’s hard to miss the ominous ticker that stands close to the White House. Every day, it counts up dollar-by-dollar the taxes D.C. residents have paid without a vote in Congress. Almost any American can tell you that the central drama of the War of Independence centered around the idea that the British imposed “taxation without representation” on North American colonies. But in a move that would become one of the great ironies of the American Revolution, the first U.S. Congress created a federal district whose residents would suffer just the same fate. The U.S. constitution calls for “representatives of the various states” in Congress, but D.C. was expressly created independent of the 13 states. Also, the constitution gives Congress complete authority over the federal district, which was just the kind of government the American patriots fought to avoid. The creation of this disenfranchised District of Columbia was an accident of history, a convergence of the interests between a skittish federal government concerned for its safety and a reticent South that wanted a capital close to its sphere of influence. There are ways to remedy this inconsistency, but there are no simple fixes to a problem that is more than 200 years in the making. n June 20, 1783, nearly 400 ContinenO tal Army soldiers protested at Independence Hall, then the seat of Congress, over
unpaid wages for service in the Revolutionary War. At the time, the national government had no standing army of its own under the Articles of Confederation. So when the mutineers arrived in Philadelphia, Congress had to beg the government of Pennsylvania for protection. The national legislature was forced to decamp to Princeton, New Jersey. After a shameful exile, Congress formed a committee to study the
idea of creating a “federal town” to secure its own safety. The committee recommended the creation of a district over which Congress would have exclusive jurisdiction. The proposal made its way into the U.S. Constitution as Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, also known as the District Clause. The measure, which comes near the end of a long list of delegated federal powers, calls for Congress “to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of Particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States.” James Madison defended the District Clause in Federalist No. 48 by cautioning that “a dependence … on the State comprehend-
“[Some fear that] senators elected from the District may be too liberal, too urban, too black, or too Democratic.”
TED KENNEDY
ing the seat of Government for protection in this exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence.” He also addressed Pendleton’s worry that future citizens of the federal district would be disenfranchised by arguing that they would retain voting rights in the ceding states. In concluding, Madison promises, “a municipal Legislature for local purposes, derived from their own suffrages, will of course be allowed them.” As an extra safeguard, Alexander Hamilton, one of the delegates of the original Constitutional Convention, added an amendment guaranteeing that the residents of the new federal district would temporarily retain their old state citizenships for the purposes of voting, to gain full representation later. However, this language never made it into the final draft. Sure enough, when the District of Columbia was formally organized under the Organic Act of 1801, the residents of D.C., who had been previously represented by congressmen from Maryland and Virginia, formally lost congressional representation.
THE TICKING METER outside
Washington D.C. City Hall tracks federal taxes paid by District residents.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Travlr
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In 1800, D.C. had only 8,144 residents. By 1870, the population had grown to 131,700. The Civil War and the resulting increase in federal power raised the profile of the District of Columbia and made a more modern and efficient government necessary. The Organic Act of 1871, which created a single government for the District, called for a presidentially appointed governor and a bicameral legislature with local suffrage in the lower house and presidential appointees in the upper house. D.C. also had a non-voting delegate to Congress during this period. But when D.C.’s second governor, “Boss” Andrew Shepherd, went on a financially ruinous spending spree, Congress abolished this form of government. In the place of an elected legislature and congressional delegate,
Counterpoint
the president would appoint a three-member Board of Commissioners. But the triumvirate that would rule Washington for almost a century to follow was not accountable to the people it served. Its only distributional requirement was that the Board be composed of one Democrat, one Republican, and one engineer of no specified party. While the Board was theoretically the local government of D.C., Congress regularly interfered with D.C. affairs through the District of Columbia committees in each chamber. Only the most marginal congressmen were appointed to what was viewed as an undistinguished committee. This attracted fringe elements from both parties, such as Chairman John McMillan (D-SC), a staunch segregationist who would rule the city through the 1960’s and early 1970’s. But greater sovereignty for the District would only come when D.C. residents actively campaigned in McMillan’s district to have him ousted from the head of the D.C. House Committee. After that, the D.C. Home Rule Charter sailed through Congress and was signed by the President in 1973. In 1974, the charter was put to the citizens of D.C. and overwhelmingly approved. However, the Home Rule charter provided neither voting representation in Congress, nor full sovereignty for the District of Columbia. Congress still has the privilege of vetoing any law the local government may propose, and D.C. only sends a nonvoting delegate to Congress. Efforts to expand D.C.’s voting rights came in 1978 with an amendment that would give the federal district representation as if it were a state. However, the amendment failed to be ratified by the requisite number of states prior to its expiration in 1985. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who co-sponsored the amendment, famously claimed that opposition “has seemed to arise from ... the fear that senators elected from the District may be too liberal, too urban, too black, or too Democratic.” then, D.C. has continued to lack votSince ing representation in Congress and has
APRIL 2011