REMARKS, 11th ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE

METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON COUNCIL OF

GOVERNMENTS-WASHINGTON, B. C.

September 25, 1962

I am grateful for this opportunity to represent the State of Mary-
land at this Eleventh Annual Conference of the Metropolitan Wash-
ington Council of Governments. I am sure that Governor Harrison
will agree with me that the states of Virginia and Maryland are
keenly conscious of the fact that this great city which is the seat of
our national government is very much a part of our domain.

As Governor of Maryland, I am aware that well over a half mil-
lion citizens of my State are oriented economically, socially and cul-
turally to the city of Washington. The problems of the District of
Columbia, therefore, are in the strictest sense the problems of Mary-
land—and the problems of Virginia—and we are eager to continue
and strengthen the cooperative effort of the various governments
represented in this Council to solve our common problems. The
State of Maryland from the very beginning has enjoyed a close affin-
ity with, and affection for, the seat of our federal government. Our
State House in Annapolis was for a time (1783-1784) the Capitol of
the United States in that period when the executive and legislative
functions of the Federation were exercised by the Continental Con-
gress. In 1783, the General Assembly of Maryland made a move to
induce the government of the United States to move permanently to
Annapolis. It promised to donate to the Continental Congress as
an outright gift the State House which had only recently been com-
pleted and which still serves as our State capitol. And it offered to
give also the mansion of the Governor of Maryland as an official
residence of the President of the Congress and to provide thirteen
other buildings for the use of the delegates of the thirteen states.
The federal government declined the offer we made, but as you know
a few years later Maryland ceded a parcel of land to the government
for use as a federal district. All of the land that now comprises the
District of Columbia was a part of the territory granted by King
Charles I to George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore, and called
Maryland.

We Marylanders, therefore, feel that we are something more than
just neighbors of Washington. And the fact that the population of
the federal district has overflowed its boundaries and spilled into
the surrounding Maryland counties has brought us even closer to-

406