CALIFORNIA,

Formed out of the territory acquired from Mexico, by the treaty of 2d February, 1848, was admitted into the Union by act of September 9, 1850.

MINNESOTA

Was organized as a territory by act of 3d March, 1849, and admitted into the Union by act of May 11, 1858.

OREGON

Was organized as a territory by act of 14th August, 1848, and admitted into the Union by act of February 14, 1859.

TERRITORIES.

NEW MEXICO

AND

UTAH

Were organized from territory acquired from Mexico, by act of 9th September, 1850.

KANSAS

AND

NEBRASKA

Were organized from territory acquired from France, by the Louisiana purchase, by act of 22d May, 1854.

WASHINGTON

Is that portion of Oregon Territory not embraced in the State of Oregon. Each territory is allowed one delegate in Congress, who has a seat in the House of Representatives, with the right to intro

duce bills and motions, and to speak upon any subject under debate in the House, but without the right to vote on any question. He receives the same compensation and emoluments as a member of Congress.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

The framers of the Constitution of the United States regarded it as an important object that the general government should have a fixed and permanent location, and that its jurisdiction over the territory assigned to that purpose, should be exclusive, and secure from the interposition of any conflicting authority. For the attainment of this purpose, they inserted in the Constitution the following provision: "Congress shall have power 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."

The subject of fixing a permanent location for the seat of government had been several times agitated in Congress prior to the adoption of the Constitution.

In 1784, Congress passed a resolution for the erection of buildings for the permanent use of Congress and the public officers, near the falls of the Delaware, but it failed to be carried into effect. On the 10th of May, 1787, Mr. Lee of Virginia, moved in Congress, a resolution for fixing the permanent seat of the federal government at Georgetown, on the Potomac River (adjoining the present site of Washington), and for the adjournment of Congress to that place as soon as buildings could be erected. The motion was lost.

On the assembling of Congress in the city of New York, under the new Constitution, Mr. White of Virginia, presented to the House of Representatives a resolution of the Virginia legislature, offering to the United States ten miles square of the territory of that State, for the seat of the federal government. Mr. Seney of Maryland, also laid before Congress, an act of that State, offering

ten miles square of its territory for the same purpose. Numerous memorials and petitions were also offered, from citizens of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, for the selection of the location for the government in their respective States. On the 5th of September, 1789, a bill passed the House of Representatives. "to fix the permanent seat of the government of the United States at some convenient place on the banks of the Susquehanna, in the State of Pennsylvania." On the introduction of this bill, much feeling was manifested by the southern members, and particularly by those from Virginia, who contended that the banks of the Potomac was the most suitable location. Mr. Madison expressed a doubt whether Virginia would have become a party to the Constitution, if they could have foreseen that the government would be located so far north. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of thirty-one to seventeen. It was sent to the Senate, and there amended by changing the location from "the banks of the Susquehanna" to Germantown, near Philadelphia. This amendment was agreed to in the House of Representatives, with an amendment, providing that the laws of Pennsylvania should continue in force in said district until Congress should otherwise direct. This rendered it necessary that the bill should go again to the Senate, where it was postponed until the next session. Germantown, Pennsylvania, was therefore, actually agreed upon, by both houses of Congress, as the permanent seat of the federal government, and the bill failed to become a law, only by a delay brought about by parliamentary management.

At the next session of Congress, Mr. Smith, of Maryland, proposed Baltimore as the location, and as an inducement, stated that the citizens of that place would raise twenty or thirty thousand dollars, as a contribution towards the erection of the public buildings.

In the mean time the legislature of Virginia, on the 3d of December, 1789, passed an act, ceding to Congress a district for the location of the general government, within the limits of that State; and called on the State of Maryland to coöperate with them in an effort to procure the location to be fixed on the banks of the Potomac. In answer to this appeal, Maryland passed a resolution,

offering to cede territory and to furnish seventy-two thousand dollars towards the erection of the public buildings. Virginia offered to advance one hundred and twenty thousand dollars for the same purpose.

On the 28th June, 1790, a bill passed the Senate "to fix the permanent seat of Congress and the government of the United States " "on the river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the eastern branch and the Connogocheque." When this bill reached the House of Representatives, it produced great excitement. A decided majority of the members had already expressed their preference for a more northern location. But at this particular juncture, another absorbing question, to wit, the funding of the revolutionary State debts, also made its appearance in the House. This measure was generally favored by the eastern members and opposed by the South. In an interview between Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Jefferson (both then members of General Washington's cabinet), on the dangers of secession and disunion in case of the final rejection of the funding system, Colonel Hamilton urged it upon Mr. Jefferson to appeal to the judgment and discretion of his friends to aid in the passage of the latter measure. Mr. Jefferson replied, that he would invite another friend or two to meet Colonel Hamilton at dinner the next day, and he thought it impossible that reasonable men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some mutual sacrifices of opinion, to "form a compromise, which was to save the Union." The consultation took place, and it was finally agreed, that, whatever importance might be attached to the rejection of the funding bill, the preservation of the Union and of harmony among the States was more important. Mr. Jefferson's friends consented, therefore, to change their votes on that measure; but as "it would be a very bitter pill," they thought some concomitant measure should be adopted to "sweeten it a little to them." It was suggested, that there was a proposition pending to fix the seat of government either at Germantown, near Philadelphia, or at Georgetown, on the Potomac; and it was thought that by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm, in some degree, the hostility to the other

measure. With this understanding, two of the Virginia members, from the Potomac districts, White and Lee, agreed to change their votes in favor of the funding bill, which would secure its passage; and Colonel Hamilton undertook to procure votes enough from his northern friends to secure the passage of the bill for fixing the seat of government on the banks of the Potomac. The compromise was carried out in good faith, the State debts were assumed and funded by the general government, and the District of Columbia became the seat of government of the United States.

Congress accepted the ten miles square, lying on both sides of the Potomac River, which is the dividing line between the States of Maryland and Virginia, one half of the territory being taken from each State. The cities of Alexandria, in Virginia, and Georgetown, Maryland, were both included in the cession. The city of Washington is built on the Maryland side of the Potomac, which separates it from Alexandria, and a small stream, called Rock Creek, divides it from Georgetown.

The particular site of the Federal city was selected by President Washington; and it was laid out, and the streets, avenues, and the public squares, and the locations of the public buildings, were fixed and arranged under his direction. The capitol stands upon elevated ground in the eastern part of the city, and is surrounded by a highly cultivated park of about twenty acres in extent. The recent extension of the capitol is supposed to render a corresponding extension of the park necessary, and Congress has taken steps with the view of adding several acres to the grounds, by the purchase of adjacent squares. The executive mansion is located about one mile and a half west of the capitol; and Pennsylvania Avenue, the principal promenade and thoroughfare of the city, runs in a direct line from one to the other.

By an act approved February 27, 1801, Congress assumed exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, in accordance with the Constitution. That portion of the District which was ceded by Virginia, has since been receded to that State, so that the District now embraces only fifty square miles, all of which was originally a part of Maryland.