_The District of Columbia_ is a territory with an area of seventy square miles, and was ceded to the United States in 1790 for the site of the national capital. The district was administered from 1801 to 1871 under the forms of municipal government, that is, by a mayor and council, but in the latter year Congress vested the government in a governor, a secretary, a board of public works, a board of health, and a legislative assembly. At the same time the district was allowed to send a delegate to Congress. Largely on account of the extravagance of this government in under-taking expensive public improvements, Congress in 1874 abolished the whole scheme and established the present system, which vests practically all governmental powers in the hands of a commission of three persons appointed by the President. Two of these must be appointed from civil life and the other must be an officer belonging to the engineering corps of the army. This commission has the general direction of administrative affairs and the appointment of employees, and exercises wide powers of a quasi legislative character, such as the issuing of health and police regulations. The legislature of the district, however, is the Congress of the United States. In each house there is a committee on the District of Columbia to which all bills relating to the district are referred, and on one day of each week an hour is set apart in the house of representatives for the consideration of such bills. No provision is made for the representation of the district in Congress, and the inhabitants take no part in presidential elections.[108] One half the expense of conducting the government of the district is defrayed out of the national treasury, and the other half is raised from taxation on private property in the district. [108] This is also true of the other territories and dependencies. The organized territories, however, have been allowed to send delegates to the national conventions for the nomination of the President and Vice President. The judicial establishment of the district consists of a court of appeals of three judges, a supreme court of six judges, and the usual police courts and courts of justices of the peace. (See page 364.)