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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NEW-YORK EVENING POST,
UNDER THE SIGNATURE OF "WYTHE."
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WITH ADDITIONS BY THE AUTHOR.
FOURTH EDITION.
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NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,
No. 143 NASSAU STREET. 1838.
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This No. contains 3-1/2 sheets.--Postage,under 100 miles, 6 cts. over 100, 10 cts.
POWER OF CONGRESS OVER THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
A civilized community presupposes a government oflaw. If that government be a republic, its citizensare the sole sources, as well as the subjectsof its power. Its constitution is their bill of directionsto their own agents--a grant authorizingthe exercise of certain powers, and prohibiting thatof others. In the Constitution of the United States,whatever else may be obscure, the clause grantingpower to Congress over the Federal District may welldefy misconstruction. Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 18: "TheCongress shall have power to exercise exclusive legislation,in all cases whatsoever, over such District."Congress may make laws for the District "in allcases," not of all kinds.The grant respects the subjects of legislation,not the moral nature of the laws. The law-makingpower every where, is subject to moralrestrictions, whether limited by constitutions ornot. No legislature can authorize murder, nor makehonesty penal, nor virtue a crime, nor exact impossibilities.In these and similar respects, the power of Congressis held in check by principles existing in the natureof things, not imposed by the Constitution, but presupposedand assumed by it. The power of Congress over theDistrict is restricted only by those principles thatlimit ordinary legislation, and, in some respects,it has even wider scope.
In common with the legislatures of the States, Congresscannot constitutionally pass ex post facto laws incriminal cases, nor suspend the writ of habeas corpus,nor pass a bill of attainder, nor abridge the freedomof speech and of the press, nor invade the right ofthe people to be secure in their persons, houses,papers, and effects, nor enact laws respecting anestablishment of religion. These are general limitations.Congress cannot do these things any where.The exact import, therefore, of the clause "inall cases whatsoever," is, on all subjectswithin the appropriate sphere of legislation.Some legislatures are restrained by constitutionsfrom the exercise of powers strictly within the propersphere of legislation. Congressional power over theDistrict has no such restraint. It traverses the wholefield of legitimate legislation. All the power whichany legislature has within its own jurisdiction, Congressholds over the District of Columbia.
It has been asserted that the clause in que