Moore’s American Capital Project describes that constitutional language as “a one-way ratchet.” On that argument, Congress never had the authority to give back the territory it received.

Although the Federalist faction wanted Congress to have exclusive jurisdiction over the district, their opponents, the Democratic-Republicans, opposed what they saw as an attack on citizens’ rights. That dispute animated early debates over retrocession to Virginia and Maryland in the years after the district’s creation.

Alexandrians pushed for retrocession in the 1830s and 1840s. They cited poor treatment and infrastructure relative to those on the other side of the Potomac, as well as their lack of rights.

Historian Charles S. Clark noted that some wealthy Alexandrians also feared that the district would outlaw the slave trade.

The American Capital Project highlights the slavery connection on its website, stating: “The 1846 retrocession was driven by slave traders who wanted to escape federal jurisdiction. The ‘vote’ was organized by the very men who profited from human trafficking.”

In 1846, after the Virginia General Assembly gave the nod to retrocession, the U.S. House and Senate passed a retrocession act. Then came a referendum in Alexandria and Alexandria County—now Arlington County. Citizens of the county accused Alexandrians of fraud, claiming that they acted in secret.

President James K. Polk issued a proclamation affirming the result of that referendum several days later, setting the stage for the Virginia General Assembly to approve the retrocession bill in March 1847.

After Alexandria joined Virginia, the slave trade continued even as the remaining district outlawed it. Alexandria’s schools for its free blacks were also closed in accordance with state law.

In the succeeding decades, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Howard Taft both mulled the reversal of retrocession.

Revived by a heavily Republican Congress after the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, according to Richards, the 1860s proposal eventually fell flat in the Senate as the South regained some political power during Reconstruction.

Taft’s push during the 1910s likewise failed to gain traction.

Moore dismissed the objections of Alexandrians and Arlingtonians.

“As a D.C. native, I don’t care about the opinion of people on stolen land,” he said. “That’s my land that slavery stole from D.C.”

Murray—not a D.C. native, although he is the grandson of a man who helped desegregate Washington’s police force—said he independently arrived at the idea of restoring the district’s original borders before joining forces with Moore.

Moore said an 1875 Supreme Court decision bearing on the retrocession, Phillips v. Payne, never settled whether it was constitutional in the first place.

In Pilon’s words, “The court dodged it.”

He agreed with Moore that any legal challenge to a Trump executive order reversing retrocession would go straight to the Supreme Court.

In Murray’s view, “there’s no drawback” to the executive order path.

“There’s a lot of upside if it succeeds,” he said.

Pilon questioned the optics of taking political representation away from hundreds of thousands of Virginians, contrasting that with the push for D.C. statehood.

“It’s one thing not to grant the vote,“ said Pilon, who said he believes that D.C. statehood would require a constitutional amendment. ”It’s quite another to take them away.”

Strauss said that “there should be more Americans allowed to participate in the democratic process … not less,” citing the District of Columbia as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.

Fine, who cosponsored the current legislation, told The Epoch Times that he was not sure whether leadership or the relevant committees were acting to advance the legislation.

Whatever happens with the campaign, Moore is committed to the new, old idea of a symmetrical Washington.

He said he cringes when he looks at the current map.

“I see the perfect diamond in my mind,“ he said. ”That’s the border of D.C.”

McCormick and Carter did not respond to requests for comment.

Pray for Virginia and other states considering redistricting!

This article was originally published in The Epoch Times.