DC Toolbooths & The Founding Fathers

The DC government proposal to establish tollbooths to "tax commuters" is the best argument to date as to why the DC government is already too powerful and should be put back in the bottle like some impish genie that only wreaks harm. This challenge to Constitutional government has been described as "unfair" to commuters and "too much" when added to the already record breaking taxes paid for takeout food in the District. Nowhere, that I can find, has anyone harkened back 230 years to the exact way that our Founding Fathers foresaw the danger of either a State government or other government exercising power in and over the Nations' Capitol City.

On 22 October 1787 John DeWitt noted "That the citizens of Philadelphia are running mad after it (sic, the location of Congress and the site of the national Capitol), can be no argument for us to do the like: - Their situation is almost contrasted with ours (sic, he was a Dutch patriot from Massachusetts); they suppose themselves a central State; they expect the perpetual residence of Congress, which of itself alone will assure their aggrandizement."

In the Federalist Papers, No. 32, Alexander Hamilton was concerned about a Federal or Capitol City "where the exercise of a concurrent jurisdiction might be productive of occasional interferences in the policy of any branch of administration".

In the Federalist papers, No. 48, James Madison strongly supported that the Congress " exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cessation of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States". He goes on the state the need for, "The indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of government carries its own evidence with it. It is a power exercised by every legislature of the Union, I might say of the world, by virtue of its general supremacy. Without it not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity, but a dependence of the members of the general government on the State (sic, today's District government) comprehending the seat of government for protection in the exercise of their duty might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy (sic, today's Unites States)".

What were they concerned about in today's world? What would be the role of DC government (dare I note an avowedly racial minority government at the moment) tollbooths in the event of a national convergence of demonstrators on Washington to say, eliminate all racial and sex-based preferences? What would be the role of DC government tollbooths in the event of farmers converging on Washington to demand higher food prices that DC residents would fiercely oppose or to oppose Roe v Wade that most DC residents support? What would be the role of DC tollbooths when any American seeks to enter the Capitol and redress grievances with the government? What would be the role of DC tollbooths when Congressional staffs or certain lobbyists or experts are hurrying to address some national issue that is of no concern to the DC government or that it opposes?

To even entertain such possibilities reminds all of us how smart the fellows that founded this great nation were and how parochial and cowardly are those that today cater to and encourage such dangerous actions. The issue is so much more than fairness to commuters or funding DC schools and roads. The DC government is too big for its britches (and the national good) and the Congress should either administer the Capitol City or let us replace them with those that can, for the benefit of all of us.

Jim Beers
14 May 2007

- Jim Beers is available for consulting or to speak. Contact:
jimbeers7@verizon.net

- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Centreville, Virginia with his wife of many decades.

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