Foundation
The area that now constitutes Arlington County was originally part of
Fairfax County in the
Colony of Virginia.
Land grants from the British monarch were awarded to prominent
Englishmen in exchange for political favors and efforts at development.
One of the grantees was
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who lends his name to both Fairfax County and the
City of Fairfax. The name Arlington goes back to
Henry Bennet,
Earl of Arlington, the namesake of a
plantation, Arlington Plantation, along the Potomac River, and
Arlington House, the family residence on that property.
George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of First Lady
Martha Washington, acquired this land in 1802. The estate was eventually passed down to
Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of General
Robert E. Lee.
[7] The property later became
Arlington National Cemetery during the
American Civil War, and eventually lent its name to present-day Arlington County.
The area that now contains Arlington County was ceded to the new
United States federal government by the Commonwealth of Virginia. With
the passage of the
Residence Act in 1790, Congress approved a new permanent capital to be located on the
Potomac River, the exact area to be selected by U.S. President
George Washington. The Residence Act originally only allowed the President to select a location within Maryland as far east as what is now the
Anacostia River.
However, President Washington shifted the federal territory's borders
to the southeast in order to include the pre-existing city of Alexandria
at the District's southern tip. In 1791, Congress amended the Residence
Act to approve the new site, including the territory ceded by Virginia.
[8]
However, this amendment to the Residence Act specifically prohibited
the "erection of the public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland
side of the River Potomac."
[9]
As permitted by the U.S. Constitution, the initial shape of the federal
district was a square, measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side,
totaling 100 square miles (260 km
2). During 1791–92,
Andrew Ellicott and several assistants placed
boundary stones at every mile point. Fourteen of these markers were in Virginia and many of the stones are still standing.
[10]
1878 map of Alexandria County, now Arlington County
When Congress arrived in the new capital, they passed the
Organic Act of 1801 to officially organize the District of Columbia and placed the entire federal territory, including the cities of Washington,
Georgetown, and
Alexandria,
under the exclusive control of Congress. Further, the unincorporated
territory within the District was organized into two counties: the
County of Washington
to the east of the Potomac and the County of Alexandria to the west. It
included all of the present Arlington County, plus part of what is now
the
independent city of Alexandria.
[11]
This Act formally established the borders of the area that would
eventually become Arlington but the citizens located in the District
were no longer considered residents of Maryland or Virginia, thus ending
their representation in Congress.
[12]
Retrocession
Residents of Alexandria County had expected the federal capital's location to result in land sales and the growth of commerce.
[when?] Instead the county found itself struggling to compete with the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at the port of
Georgetown, which was farther inland and on the northern side of the Potomac River next to the City of Washington.
[13] Members of Congress from other areas of Virginia also used their power to prohibit funding for projects, such as the
Alexandria Canal,
which would have increased competition with their home districts. In
addition, Congress had prohibited the federal government from
establishing any offices in Alexandria, which made the county less
important to the functioning of the national government.
[14]
Alexandria had also been a major market in the
American slave trade, and rumors circulated that
abolitionists
in Congress were attempting to end slavery in the District; such an
action would have further depressed Alexandria's slavery-based economy.
[15]
At the same time, an active abolitionist movement arose in Virginia
that created a division on the question of slavery in the Virginia
General Assembly. Pro-slavery Virginians recognized that if Alexandria
were returned to the Commonwealth, it could provide two new
representatives who favored slavery in the state legislature. During the
American Civil War, this division led to the formation of the state of
West Virginia, which comprised the 55 counties in the northwest that favored abolitionism.
[16]
Largely as a result of the economic neglect by Congress, divisions
over slavery, and the lack of voting rights for the residents of the
District, a movement grew to return Alexandria to Virginia from the
District of Columbia. From 1840 to 1846, Alexandrians petitioned
Congress and the Virginia legislature to approve this transfer known as
retrocession.
On February 3, 1846, the Virginia General Assembly agreed to accept the
retrocession of Alexandria if Congress approved. Following additional
lobbying by Alexandrians,
Congress passed legislation on July 9, 1846,
to return all the District's territory south of the Potomac River back
to the Commonwealth of Virginia, pursuant to a referendum; President
James K. Polk
signed the legislation the next day. A referendum on retrocession was
held on September 1–2, 1846. The residents of the City of Alexandria
voted in favor of the retrocession, 734 to 116; however, the residents
of Alexandria County voted against retrocession 106 to 29. Despite the
objections of those living in Alexandria County, President Polk
certified the referendum and issued a proclamation of transfer on
September 7, 1846. However, the Virginia legislature did not immediately
accept the retrocession offer. Virginia legislators were concerned that
the people of Alexandria County had not been properly included in the
retrocession proceedings. After months of debate, the Virginia General
Assembly voted to formally accept the retrocession legislation on March
13, 1847.
[14]
In 1852, the Virginia legislature voted to incorporate a portion of
Alexandria County to make the City of Alexandria, which until then had
been only been considered politically as a town.
[17]
Arlington National Cemetery sits on land confiscated from Confederate General
Robert E. Lee
Civil War
During the
American Civil War,
Virginia seceded from the Union as a result of a statewide referendum
held on May 23, 1861; the voters from Alexandria County approved
secession by a vote of 958–48. This vote indicates the degree to which
its only town, Alexandria, was pro-secession and pro-Confederate. The
Union loyalists who lived in rural areas outside the town of Alexandria,
rejected secession.
[18] Although Virginia was part of the Confederacy, its control did not extend all the way through Northern Virginia. In 1862, the
United States Congress
passed a law that provided that those districts in which the
"insurrection" persisted were to pay their real estate taxes in person.
In 1864, during the war, the federal government confiscated the
Abingdon estate, which was located on and near the present
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, when its owner failed to pay the estate's property tax in person because he was serving in the
Confederate Army.
[19][20] The government then sold the property at auction, whereupon the purchaser leased the property to a third party.
[19][20]
After the war ended in 1865, the Abingdon estate's heir, Alexander Hunter, started a legal action to recover the property.
James A. Garfield, a
Republican member of the
United States House of Representatives who had been a
Brigadier General in the
Union Army during the Civil War and who later became the
20th President of the United States, was an
attorney on Hunter's legal team.
[19][20] In 1870, the
Supreme Court of the United States,
in a precedential ruling, found that the government had illegally
confiscated the property and ordered that it be returned to Hunter.
[19][20]
The property containing the home of Confederate General
Robert E. Lee's family at and around
Arlington House was subjected to an appraisal of $26,810, on which a tax of $92.07 was assessed. However, Lee's wife,
Mary Anna Custis Lee, the owner of the property, did not pay this tax in person.
[21][22][23] As a result of the 1862 law, the Federal government confiscated the property and made it into a military cemetery.
[21]
After the war ended and after the death of his parents,
George Washington Custis Lee, the Lees' eldest son, initiated a legal action in an attempt to recover the property.
[21]
In December 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the federal
government had illegally confiscated the property without due process
and returned the property to Custis Lee while citing the Court's earlier
ruling in the Hunter case.
[21][22][23]
In 1883, the U.S. Congress purchased the property from Lee for its fair
market value of $150,000, whereupon the property became a military
reservation and eventually
Arlington National Cemetery.
[21] Although Arlington House is within the National Cemetery, the
National Park Service presently administers the House and its grounds as a memorial to Robert E. Lee.
[21]
Confederate incursions from Falls Church,
Minor's Hill and
Upton's Hill—then securely in Confederate hands—occurred as far east as the present-day area of
Ballston.
On August 17, 1861 an armed force of 600 Confederate soldiers engaged
the 23rd New York Infantry near that crossroads, killing one. Another
large incursion on August 27 involved between 600 and 800 Confederate
soldiers, which clashed with Union soldiers at Ball's Crossroads, Hall's
Hill and along the modern-day border between the City of Falls Church
and Arlington. A number of soldiers on both sides were killed. However,
the territory in present-day Arlington was never successfully captured
by Confederate forces.
[24]
Separation from Alexandria
In
1870, the City of Alexandria became legally separated from Alexandria
County by an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that made all
Virginia
incorporated cities (but not
incorporated towns)
independent of the counties of which they had previously been a part.
Because of the confusion between the city and the county having the same
name, a movement started to rename Alexandria County. In 1920, the name
Arlington County was adopted, after
Arlington House, the home of the
American Civil War general
Robert E. Lee, which stands on the grounds of what is now
Arlington National Cemetery. The
Town of Potomac was incorporated as a town in Alexandria County in 1908. The town was annexed by the
independent city of
Alexandria in 1930.
In 1896, an electric trolley line was built from Washington through Ballston, which led to growth in the county (see
Northern Virginia trolleys).
