Instead of statehood for Washington, D.C., I propose that a smaller federal district be constructed without residential areas being included. Those parts remaining would revert back to Maryland from whence they came. It is within Congresses’ purview to undo what they created. People would then reclaim their voting rights as citizens of an existing sovereign state.

There is precedence for this. Exactly 100 square miles straddling the Potomac was designated by the 1790 Residence Act as the District of Columbia, ceded by the states of Maryland and Virginia; and the 1801 Organic Act placed the areas under control of the United States Congress. The portion west of the Potomac, ceded by Virginia consisted of 31 square miles in two parts: After decades of debate about the disenfranchisement that came with District citizenship, and tensions related to Congressional negligence, this portion of the District was returned to Virginia in 1847. The remaining District assumed its current boundaries and area of 68.34 square miles east of the Potomac and .19 square miles on land on the west side of the Potomac on Columbia Island.

With the approval of Maryland and Congress, the remaining portion of the District of Columbia excepting a small portion for the Federal Government, would be returned in retrocession to the state of Maryland. This would provide full representation in Congress and return local control of the District to its residents.

James U. Sinclair

Wright Township

GoLackawanna
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