Why Isn't Washington, D.C. a State?

bill still faces an uphill battle in the U. S. Senate. Currently, Washington d C has a non voting delegate to the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who introduced the statehood legislation, but has no say in its passage, as well as to shadow senators who similarly cannot vote on legislation. The bill would shrink the federal capital to a small area encompassing the White House, capital buildings, Supreme Court, and other federal buildings along the National Mall. The rest of the city would

become the fifty first state. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a news conference. For more than two centuries, the residents of Washington d C, the District of Columbia, have been denied their right to fully participate in their democracy.

Pelosi said that the importance of giving Washington d C. Full voting rights was demonstrated earlier this month when the administration of President Donald Trump deployed federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops against protesters in Washington, d C. Without the resident's approval. House Majority Leader Sunny Hoyer said, this is not just an issue of local governance and fairness,

it's a major civil rights issue as well. At this point, the legislation is a largely symbolic statement that few expect to pass, at least for now, because it would have to get through the Republican controlled U. S. Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated in an interview with Fox News that he would deny it a vote even if the Senate did approve it. Trump most likely would veto the measure. Trump said to The New York Post in May, Why so we can have two more Democrats senators and

five more Congressmen. No, thank you, That will never happen. But the current controversy raises another question. Why didn't the nation's founders make Washington d C. A state in the first place, But when they decided to create a new national capital, why did they choose to deny residents the same representation in the national government that the rest of the nation citizens have. As historians explain, Washington's lack of

full representation has mainly to do with two things. First, there was a desire on the part of some of the founders to have a strong federal government that wouldn't be dependent upon the state it was in for services and protection. But it also has something to do with Southern slaveholders desire to have a national capital in their territory with weak self governance so that slavery wouldn't face

any local political resistance. Even after the Civil War, segregationists in Congress fought for many years to keep control over the district's administration and deny any power to the city's largely black population. On that first count, though, an early U s military mutiny was a primary event that convinced

the founders to keep Washington, d C. From statehood. Ec Initially, Philadelphia served as the nation's capital, but the Confederation Congress, which was the predecessor of the present legislative branch, found itself in a difficult situation. In June of three, that's when Pennsylvania militiamen who had been furloughed after the Revolutionary War decided to march to Philadelphia to protest the government taking away their jobs and not paying them what they

were owed. When these mutineers arrived in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania government began negotiating with them, but rumors started to spread among the nervous national legislators that the soldiers might loot the government chartered Bank of North America if they didn't get their money. A committee of delegates led by Alexander Wilton demanded the Pennsylvania state government put down the rebellion, but the state government declined, saying that the protesters weren't violent.

In the view of some historians, that actually was just fine with Hamilton's, who was looking to advocate for a central government with its own police powers over its domain. Hamilton's persuaded an Ally, the then President of Congress, to convene a session on a weekend, even though there weren't enough members around to reach a quorum, so that it would create the impression that they were menaced by the protest.

Hamilton's then chastised state leaders for failing to protect the federal government against the soldiers and thus putting it in a weak and disgusting position. The handful of legislators then fled to New Jersey, perhaps specifically to add to the drama.

A few years later, the Constitution's framers specified in Article one, Section eight, clause seventeen that the national capital should be located in a district quote not exceeding ten miles square that would be controlled by the federal government and not

by any date. That meant that members of Congress wouldn't be dependent upon local or state officials to protect them from future mobs of aggrieved citizens, and, as future President James Madison noted in Federalist forty three, by not being dependent upon a state, Congress would avoid potential for corruption quote an imputation of awe or influence equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy.

Southerners and Northerners in the new government worked out a compromise in which the capital would be located in the South in exchange for Southern Congress members dropping their opposition to the federal government, paying off Northern States debts from

the Revolutionary War. The location along the Potomac River was attractive to George Washington because it was less than twenty miles or about thirty two kilometers from his Mountain Vernon estate, and because he had a vision of turning the capital

into a prosperous riverport and commercial hub. In eighteen o one, Congress passed the Organic Act, which took away district residents right to vote for congressional representatives, and the following year granted a charter to a portion of the district the city of Washington, which was allowed to elect a twelve member city council. The mayor initially was appointed by the U. S President, though in eighteen twenty the law was changed to allow a mayoral election as well as for that

second count. Washington, d C. Was situated between two slave states, Maryland and Virginia, which helped protect the slavery there from

northern influence. But we spoke via email with J. D. Dickey, the author of the book Empire of Mud, the Secret History of Washington, d C. He said that district became a bulwark of Southern legislative power and slave trading and human bondage became legion there, and so, with the population in the district largely made up of enslaved people and disenfranchised citizens, the only people who could vote federally or hold federal power of any kind were congressmen elected by

voters who didn't live there. In the first half of the eighteen hundreds, Washington became a center for the domestic trade, home to one of the busiest markets involved in the sale of human beings. It was a sort of place where free black man such as Solomon Northrope, whose memoir was adapted into the film Twelve Years as Slave, ran the danger of being kidnapped and thrown into the slave pen that was located at what's now the Federal Aviation

Administration's headquarters at eight hundred Independence Avenue Southwest. But we also spoke via email with Chris Myers Ash, who's the co author, along with George Derrek Musgrove, of the book Chocolate City, A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital. Ash explained it developed as a southern city, not a northern one. Slavery was embedded into the fabric of the city from its inception, and the slave trade

quickly became a major industry. After emancipation and a brief flowering of interracial democracy, the city lost itself government, and city leader is embraced Southern style segregation in customs and social relations. D C was a Southern city until the late twentieth century. The issues of self government and statehood in Washington, d C. Are intertwined with race. Ash says the Washington had limited self rule for much of the

eighteen hundreds. In the eighteen seventies, Congress took that away. For the next century, Washington was run largely by Southern segregationists, such as Senator Theodore Bilbo, a Mississippian who had the unofficial title of Mayor of Washington. He once warned in a speech that the voting rights were granted in Washington, blacks quote would soon have control of the city. Eventually, Washington's residence did achieve some rights granted two other American citizens.

In nineteen sixty one, the twenty third Amendment gave them the right to vote in presidential elections, and in nineteen seventy three they regained the right to elect council members and the mayor. In nineteen seventy eight, Congress passed a institutional amendment that would have given Washington residents representation in Congress, but it had a seven year window for ratification, and by the time that expired in only sixteen states had

approved it. In another effort to pass a bill in the House to grant statehood to Washington failed by a vote of two hundred and seventy seven to just one hundred and fifty three, but statehood advocates didn't give up. The current legislation, whose two hundred and twenty five co sponsors include Speaker Pelosi, is on a path to pass

on a party line vote. The new bill gets around the Constitution's Article one by carving out of space in the capital for government buildings, which would remain under federal control, while converting Washington's mayor to the equivalent of a state governor. The current Washington statehood legislation would create the state of Washington d C, with the d C standing no longer

for District of Columbia, but rather Douglas Commonwealth. Thus, the state would draw it's new name from President George Washington and abolitionist Frederick Douglas, thereby differentiating it from the Washington state that already exists. In the Pacific Northwest. Today's episode was written by Patrick Jake Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on the lots of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com brain stuff It's production of iHeart Radio.

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