District of Columbia retrocession
The District of Columbia retrocession was the act of returning to Virginia some of the land from the District of Columbia that Virginia had previously ceded to the federal government of the United States. The land was originally ceded to the federal government by Virginia and Maryland in 1790 for the purpose of creating a federal district for the new national capital; the capital was moved from Philadelphia to what was then called the City of Washington in 1800. After moving through various stages of federal and state approval, the Virginia portion was retroceded in March 1847.
Retrocession is the act of returning some or all of a portion of land that had previously been ceded.
The District of Columbia's creation was the result of the district clause of the United States Constitution. In the 1790 Residence Act, the district originally consisted of 100 square miles (259 km2; 25,900 ha) of land, which was ceded to it by Maryland and Virginia, and it straddled the Potomac River. The 1801 Organic Act placed the areas under the control of the United States Congress and removed the right of residents to vote in federal elections. The portion west of the Potomac River, ceded by Virginia, included two parts comprising 31 square miles (80 km2; 8,029 ha): the city of Alexandria, at the extreme southern shore, and the rural and short-lived Alexandria County, D.C.
After decades of debate about the disenfranchisement that came with district citizenship, and tensions related to perceived negligence by the U.S. Congress, this portion of the district was returned to Virginia in 1847. The remaining district assumed its current boundaries and area of 68.34 square miles (177.0 km2; 17,700 ha) east of the Potomac.
Subsequent proposals to return all or part of the remaining portion of the District of Columbia to Maryland have been cited as one way to provide full voting representation in Congress and return local control of the district to its residents. D.C. statehood advocates have noted that ceding Washington, D.C., to Maryland may not have the support of the government in Maryland.