Chapter II: Section 7: , and Conway, The Compacts of Virginia, p. 5. The

Potomac River Fisheries Compact of 1958 (Acts of Assembly,
1962, Chapter 406; _Code of Virginia 1950_, Title 28.1, Sec.
203) did not affect Arlington.

Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution of the United States gives the Congress power to accept a territory not exceeding ten miles square to be set aside as the seat of the Federal Government. The story of the compromise which led to the selection of a site on the Potomac is told in all the history books.[21] These, however, rarely give the details of how the exact area which became the District of Columbia came to be chosen.

[21] Cf. for example, Samuel Eliot Morison & Henry Steele
Commager, _The Growth of the American Republic_, Vol. I,
p. 332. New York, 1962. Leon H. Canfield & Howard B. Wilder,
_The Making of Modern America_, p. 148. Boston, 1964.

In 1789, the Virginia legislature adopted an Act[22] offering to cede "ten miles square, or any lesser Quantity of Territory within the State" to the United States for the permanent seat of the general government. Section I of this Act recited the motive: "Whereas the equal and common benefits resulting from the administration of the general government will be best diffused, and its operation become more prompt and certain, by establishing such a situation for the seat of the said government, as will be most central and convenient to the citizens of the United States at large, having regard as well to population, extent of territory, and a free navigation to the Atlantic Ocean, through the Chesapeake bay, as to the most direct and ready communication with our fellow citizens in the western frontier; and whereas it appears to this Assembly that a situation combining all considerations and advantages before recited, may be had on the banks of the river Patowmack, above tide water, in a country rich and fertile in soil, healthy and salubrious in climate, and abounding in all the necessaries and conveniences of life, where in a location of ten miles square, if the wisdom of Congress shall so direct, the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia may participate in such location."

[22] Acts of Assembly, 1789, Chapter XXXII, p. 19.

It is clear from the inclusion of Pennsylvania as one of the participating States, and the reference to "above tide water" that the Virginia legislators of those days had in mind a tract somewhat higher up the river than that which was eventually chosen. Indeed, the first Act of Congress[23] dealing with this subject set the limits within which the Federal District was to be established "on the river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and Connogochegue" (a tributary of the Potomac some 20 miles south of the Pennsylvania State line) and authorized the President to appoint three commissioners to survey and "by proper metes and bounds" define and limit the district to be accepted by the Congress.

[23] July 16, 1790.

By a proclamation of January 24, 1791,[24] President Washington directed that a survey should be made.

[24] Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_,
Vol. I, p. 100.

"... after duly examining and weighing the advantages and
disadvantages of the several situations within the limits
aforesaid, I do hereby declare and make known that the location of
one part of the said district of 10 miles square shall be found by
running four lines of experiment in the following manner, that is
to say: Running from the court-house of Alexandria, in Virginia,
due southwest half a mile, and thence a due southeast course till
it shall strike Hunting Creek, to fix the beginning of the said
four lines of experiment.

"Then beginning the first of the said four lines of experiment at
the point on Hunting Creek where the said southeast course shall
have struck the same, and running to the said first line due
northwest 10 miles; thence the second line into Maryland due
northeast 10 miles; thence the third line due southeast 10 miles,
and thence the fourth line due southwest 10 miles to the beginning
on Hunting Creek."

Since the tract thus specified did not lie within the limits set by the Act of July 1790, the Congress was asked to authorize the moving of the southern boundary point of the "ten miles square" farther south to include the Eastern Branch and the town of Alexandria. Accordingly, the Act of July 16, 1790, was amended by an Act approved March 3, 1791:

"... it shall be lawful for the President to make any part of the
territory below the said limit [the confluence of the Eastern
Branch with the Potomac] and above the mouth of Hunting Creek, a
part of said district, so as to include a convenient part of the
Eastern Branch, and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof
and also the town of Alexandria...."

No time was lost in establishing definite boundaries for the new district, and on March 30, 1791, President Washington issued a proclamation declaring

"that the whole of the said territory shall be located and
included within the four lines following, that is to say:

"Beginning at Jones's Point, being the upper cape of Hunting
Creek, in Virginia, and at an angle in the outset of 45 degrees
west of the north, and running in a direct line 10 miles for the
first line; then beginning again at the same Jones's Point and
running another direct line at a right angle with the first across
the Potomac 10 miles for the second line; then from the
termination of the said first and second lines running two other
direct lines of 10 miles each, the one crossing the Eastern Branch
aforesaid and the other the Potomac, and meeting each other in a
point.

"... and the territory so to be located, defined, and limited
shall be the whole territory accepted by the said acts of Congress
as the district for the permanent seat of the Government of the
United States."[25]

[25] Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, Vol.
I, p. 102.

The cornerstone was set at Jones Point, on the bank of the Potomac below Alexandria, on April 15, 1791. Many of the original stones, set at intervals of one mile along the boundary, are still in place though badly showing the effects of time.[26] The stone referred to earlier--at the northwest corner of present Arlington County--is chipped and almost overgrown by the great oak tree near which it was placed. A small tract surround this stone has been set aside as a public park, jointly owned by the City of Falls Church and the counties of Arlington and Fairfax.

[26] Ernest A. Shuster, Jr., "Original Boundary Stones of the
District of Columbia"; _The National Geographic Magazine_,
Vol. XX, pp. 356-359 (April, 1909).

It is interesting that the Acts of Congress setting up the District of Columbia should have specified that no public buildings were to be erected on the Virginia side of the Potomac.[27] The Act of 1790 empowered the commissioners to buy or accept the gift of land for the site of public buildings only on the eastern side of the Potomac. The Act of 1791 made this limitation more explicit:

"... nothing herein contained, shall authorize the erection of
public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river
Potomac."

[27] It has been hinted that George Washington insisted upon
this to refute rumors that he had been influenced in his choice
of a site by motives of personal gain since he owned land in
Arlington. Cf. Moore, _Seaport in Virginia_, p. 39.

It is curious that this should have been so since the General Assembly of Virginia in 1789 followed its Act ceding territory for the formation of a Federal District by a joint resolution promising to appropriate not less than $120,000 (a considerable sum in those days) for public buildings in this territory if Maryland would put up an amount not less than three-fifths as much. The fact that there were no Federal office buildings on the Virginia side of the Potomac was used as an argument for the retrocession of this area in mid-19th Century.

The compromise which had resulted in the selection of the Potomac as the site of the Federal District included an agreement that the seat of the Government should be in Philadelphia for a period of ten years. Accordingly, it was not until 1800 that the Congress and Government offices were moved to the City of Washington in the District of Columbia.

Almost from the beginning there was dissatisfaction among the inhabitants of Alexandria County at being part of the District of Columbia. This sentiment crystallized in 1846 when the General Assembly adopted an Act[28] expressing the willingness of Virginia to accept the territory should the Congress re-cede it. A petition was presented to the Congress by the residents requesting that this be done. The petition was referred to the Committee on the District which reported:

"The experience of more than forty years seems to have
demonstrated that the cession of the county and town of Alexandria
was unnecessary for any of the purposes of a seat of government,
mischievous to the interests of the State at large, and especially
injurious to the people of that portion which was ceded by
Virginia."[29]

[28] Acts of Assembly, 1845-47, p. 50.

[29] Quoted in "Remonstrance of the Mayor and Citizens of
Alexandria...."

Accordingly, a bill was introduced to turn back to Virginia the area ceded by it in 1789. After considerable debate as to its constitutionality, the bill was enacted on July 9, 1846. It stipulated that the retrocession should be contingent upon a referendum among the people of the area in question. The referendum was held[30] and the vote was 763 for and 222 against retrocession.

[30] Although the "Remonstrance" cited above states that the
vote was held on August 17, 1846, the presidential proclamation
putting the transfer into effect declares the poll to have been
taken _viva voce_ at the Court House on September 1 and 2.
The August date is given in the proclamation as that on which
five commissioners were appointed by the President and directed
to take the poll.

On September 7, 1846, President Polk announced the results of the referendum and called "upon all and singular the persons whom it doth or may concern to take notice that the act aforesaid [of July 9, 1846] 'is in full force and effect.'"[31] It was not until the next year, however, that Virginia got around to extending its jurisdiction over the "county of Alexandria." On March 13, 1847, "An Act to extend the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Virginia over the county of Alexandria" was passed. It stated:

"... The territory comprising the county of Alexandria in the
District of Columbia heretofore ceded by this Commonwealth to the
United States and by an Act of Congress of July 9, 1846, retroceded
to Virginia and by it accepted shall be an integral portion of the
Commonwealth."

[31] Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, Vol.
IV, p. 470. The legality of the retrocession was unsuccessfully
challenged in 1875. Cf. _Phillips_ v. _Payne_, U.S. Reports,
S.C. Otto 2, p. 130.

The Act provided that after March 20, 1847, the laws of Virginia were to be in force in this territory, and went on:

"That the territory so retroceded and accepted, comprising the
county of Alexandria, shall constitute a new county, retaining the
name of the county of Alexandria, the court-house whereof shall be
in the Town of Alexandria where the courts now sit...."[32]

[32] Acts of Assembly, 1846-47, Chapter 53. Cf. also, _Code of
Virginia, 1950_, Title 7.1, Sec. 9. For a full account of the
actions on the part of both the United States and Virginia in
connection with this retrocession, cf. Harrison Mann,
"Chronology of Action on the Part of the United States to
Complete Retrocession of Alexandria County (Arlington County)
to Virginia," _The Arlington Historical Magazine_, Vol. 1, No.
1 (1957), pp. 15-23; and "Chronology of Action on the Part of
the State of Virginia to Complete Retrocession of Alexandria
County (Arlington County) to Virginia" _Ibid._, Vol. 1, No. 2
(1958), pp. 43-51.

Tentative efforts have been made from time to time to re-annex this area to the District of Columbia. It was on one such occasion, in 1865, that a "Remonstrance of the Mayor and Citizens of Alexandria against the Bill to annex the city and county of Alexandria to the District of Columbia" concluded that "Annexation to the District at this time is repugnant to the feelings and wishes and would be ruinous to the interests of the people of Alexandria."

_Arlington's Boundary with the City of Alexandria_

Until 1870, Alexandria, first as a Town and, after 1852 as a City, was geographically part of the County of Alexandria. However, its boundaries must be considered from the beginning because all Acts extending the area of the Town were made in reference to the pre-existing limits. It is impossible to comprehend the effect of any given change without tracing the boundaries back to--or forward from--the beginning. (Map III.)

In 1748, a charter was issued to a group of trustees to establish a Town

"covering 60 acres of land, parcel of the lands of Philip
Alexander, John Alexander, and Hugh West, situate, lying and being
on the south side of Potomac River about the mouth of Great Hunting
Creek and in the county of Fairfax ... beginning at the mouth of
the first branch above the warehouse, and extending down the
meanders of the said River Potomac to a point called Middle Point,
and thence down the said river ten poles; and from thence by a line
parallel to the dividing line between John Alexander's land and
Philip Alexander, and back into the woods for the quantity
aforesaid."[33]

[33] Hening, Vol. vi, p. 214. Cited by title as "An Act for
erecting a town at Hunting Creek warehouse, in the county of
Fairfax." The text of the Act is given in the _Journal of the
House of Burgesses_, and quoted in Caton, _Legislative
Chronicles of the City of Alexandria_, p. 7.

The land was surveyed and lots sold by auction in July 1749. A map with a notation of the purchasers was made by George Washington,[34] at that time a boy of seventeen. On the north, the lots lay along the north side of Oronoco Street, one block below Water Street (later Lee; at that time it was interrupted between Queen and King Streets by the shore line of the River), and on the south, lots were laid off on the south side of Duke Street. The Potomac with its bend between Oronoco and the south side of Prince Street, formed the eastern boundary, while the western was a line of lots on the west side of Royal Street. There were 84 lots in all, four to a block for the most part except for the northwest portion where a stream, rising on Pitt Street between Cameron and Queen, drained into the Potomac north of Oronoco Street. This is the "first branch above the warehouse" referred to in the charter.

[34] In the Library of Congress. Reproduced in Moore,
_Seaport in Virginia_, pp. 10-11.

The first increment came in 1762 when the General Assembly passed "An Act for enlarging the town of Alexandria in the county of Fairfax."[35] On the ground that all of the lots included within the bounds of the town had been built on except for some lying in low wet marsh, this Act included in Alexandria the

"... lands of Baldwin Dade, Sibel West, John Alexander the elder
and John Alexander the younger which lie contiguous to the said
town ... beginning at the corner of the lot denoted in the plan of
said town by the figures 77 [at the south side of Duke St., three
lots from its intersection with Water (Lee) Street] on the said
river Potowmack, at the lower end of the said town, and to extend
thence down the said river the breadth of two half acres, and one
street thence back into the fields, by a line parallel to the lower
line of the said town, such a distance as to include ten half acre
lots and four streets; thence by a line parallel with the present
back line of the said town to the extent of seventeen half acre
lots and eight streets, and from thence by a line at right angles
with the last to the river."

[35] Hening, Vol. vii, p. 604. Acts of Assembly, November 1762,