The situation of this District, it is thought, requires the attention of
Congress. By the Constitution the power of legislation is exclusively
vested in the Congress of the United States. In the exercise of this
power, in which the people have no participation, Congress legislate in
all cases directly on the local concerns of the District. As this is a
departure, for a special purpose, from the general principles of our
system, it may merit consideration whether an arrangement better adapted
to the principles of our Government and to the particular interests
of the people may not be devised which will neither infringe the
Constitution nor affect the object which the provision in question
was intended to secure. The growing population, already considerable,
and the increasing business of the District, which it is believed
already interferes with the deliberations of Congress on great national
concerns, furnish additional motives for recommending this subject to
your consideration.

When we view the great blessings with which our country has been
favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of
handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is
irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us, then,
unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgments for these blessings
to the Divine Author of All Good.

JAMES MONROE.




SPECIAL MESSAGES.