Read Article I, Section 8, part 17 of the U.S. Constitution. Examine the images below.

How do you
think these primary sources are related?

http://www.loc.gov/item/87694248/

Plan of the City of Washington, March 1792, Engraving on paper, http://lccn.loc.gov/88694159

The Origins of Washington, DC

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. Five
years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia.
Known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to
rely on any state for its own security.
Article I, Section 8 of the United States 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."
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.
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.
In the 1830s, the Federal District's southern territory went into economic decline partly due to neglect
by Congress. This territory made up land ceded from Virginia, including the town of Alexandria. Alexandria
was a major market in the American slave trade and residents feared that abolitionists in Congress would end
slavery in the District, further depressing the economy. Alexandrians petitioned Virginia to take back the land it
had donated to form the District; a process known as retrocession.
The state legislature voted in February 1846 to accept the return of Alexandria and on July 9, 1846,
Congress agreed to return all the territory that had been ceded by Virginia. Therefore, the District's current
area consists only of land donated by Maryland and is no longer a perfect square in shape.
1.

Based on the agreement made in the Compromise of

1790, it can be inferred that the
a. Southern states did not want the federal
government to pay off each states war debt.
b. Southern states wanted the federal capital city to
located in the south.
c. A and B are true
d. A and B are false
2. True or False: The Legislative branch checked the
power of the executive branch by signing the Residence Act into law.

3. The District of Columbia originally had the area of how many square miles?
a. 1000
B. 100
C. 256
D. 160
4. Read the sentence with the term retrocession in it. What does the term mean?
a. the return of land to the original owner
b. the taking of land from someone else
c. Buying land
d. Donating land
5. Based on the information in the text, it can be inferred that slavery

be

a. was legal in Virginia

c. was illegal in Maryland

b. was illegal in Virginia

d. there is not enough information given to form an answer