Washington, D. C., formally the District of Columbia

History

Main article: History of Washington, D.C.
Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people (also known as the Conoy) inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century. One group known as theNacotchtank (also called the Nacostines by Catholic missionaries) maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland.^[3]
In his Federalist No. 43, published January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety.^[4] Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia. Known as thePennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security.^[5]
Article One, Section Eight, of the Constitution permits the establishment of a "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".^[6] However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital. In what is now known as the Compromise of 1790, Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson came to an agreement that the federal government would pay each state's remaining Revolutionary War debts in exchange for establishing the new national capital in the Southern United States.^[7][a]

Foundation

Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to theretrocession
On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who signed the bill into law on July 16. Formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side, totaling 100 square miles (259 km²).^[8][b]
Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory: the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751,^[9] and the city ofAlexandria, Virginia, founded in 1749.^[10] During 1791–92, Andrew Ellicott and several assistants, including a free African Americanastronomer named Benjamin Banneker, surveyed the borders of the federal district and placed boundary stones at every mile point.^[11] Many of the stones are still standing.^[12]
A new federal city was then constructed on the north bank of the Potomac, to the east of Georgetown. On September 9, 1791, the three commissioners overseeing the capital's construction named the city in honor of President Washington. The federal district was named Columbia, which was a poetic name for the United States commonly in use at that time.^[13][14] Congress held its first session in Washington on November 17, 1800.^[15]
Congress passed the Organic Act of 1801, which officially organized the District and placed the entire territory under the exclusive control of the federal government. Further, the unincorporated area within the District was organized into two counties: the County of Washington to the east of the Potomac and the County of Alexandria to the west.^[16] After the passage of this Act, citizens living in the District were no longer considered residents of Maryland or Virginia, which therefore ended their representation in Congress.^[17]

Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865 assassination ofPresident Lincoln
On August 24–25, 1814, in a raid known as the Burning of Washington, British forces invaded the capital during the War of 1812. The Capitol, Treasury, and White House were burned and gutted during the attack.^[18] Most government buildings were repaired quickly; however, the Capitol was largely under construction at the time and was not completed in its current form until 1868.^[19]