Editing Arlington County, Virginia (section)

===Retrocession===
{{main|District of Columbia retrocession}}
[[File:12-07-15-arlington-friedfhof-RalfR-026.jpg|thumb|[[Arlington National Cemetery]], located on land confiscated by the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] from [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] General [[Robert E. Lee]] during the [[American Civil War]]]]
Prior to retrocession, residents of [[Alexandria County, Virginia|Alexandria County]] expected the proximity of the federal capital to result in higher land prices and the growth of regional commerce. The county instead found itself struggling to compete with the [[Chesapeake and Ohio Canal]] in [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]], which was farther inland and on the northern side of the [[Potomac River]] next to [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Frequently Asked Questions About Washington, D.C. |url=http://www.historydc.org/aboutdc.aspx |publisher=[[Historical Society of Washington, D.C.]] |access-date=October 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918042009/http://www.historydc.org/aboutdc.aspx |archive-date=September 18, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Members of [[United States Congress|Congress]] from other areas of Virginia used their influence to prohibit funding for projects, including the [[Alexandria Canal (Virginia)|Alexandria Canal]], which would have increased competition with their home districts. Congress also prohibited the [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]] from establishing any offices in Alexandria, which made the county less important to the functioning of the national government.<ref name="debates">{{cite journal|last=Richards |first=Mark David |date=Spring–Summer 2004 |title=The Debates over the Retrocession of the District of Columbia, 1801–2004 |journal=Washington History |publisher=www.dcvote.org |pages=54–82 |url=http://www.dcvote.org/pdfs/mdrretro062004.pdf |access-date=January 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118053203/http://www.dcvote.org/pdfs/mdrretro062004.pdf |archive-date=January 18, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Alexandria was a center for the [[Slavery in the United States|slave trade]]; [[Franklin and Armfield Office]] in Alexandria was once an office used in slave trading. Rumors circulated that [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] in Congress were attempting to end slavery in the District, an act that, at the time, would have further depressed Alexandria's slavery-based economy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Greeley |first=Horace |title=The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States|publisher=G. & C.W. Sherwood |year=1864 |location=Chicago |url=https://archive.org/details/americanconflic06greegoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanconflic06greegoog/page/n154 142]–144}}</ref> 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 Virginia, it could provide two new representatives who favored slavery in the state legislature. Some time after retrocession, during the [[American Civil War]], this division led to the formation of [[West Virginia]] as a state, which comprised the 51 counties then in the northwest part of the state that favored abolitionism.<ref name="richards">{{cite journal|last=Richards |first=Mark David |date=Spring–Summer 2004 |title=The Debates over the Retrocession of the District of Columbia, 1801–2004 |journal=Washington History |publisher=Historical Society of Washington, D.C. |pages=54–82 |url=http://www.dcvote.org/pdfs/mdrretro062004.pdf |access-date=January 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118053203/http://www.dcvote.org/pdfs/mdrretro062004.pdf |archive-date=January 18, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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 such a transfer, known as [[District of Columbia retrocession|retrocession]]. On February 3, 1846, the Virginia General Assembly agreed to accept the retrocession of Alexandria if Congress approved. Following additional lobbying by Alexandrians, [[List of United States federal legislation, 1789–1901#1841 to 1851|Congress passed legislation on July 9, 1846]], to return all the District's territory south of the Potomac River back to Virginia, pursuant to a referendum, and President [[James K. Polk]] signed the legislation the next day. A referendum on retrocession was held on September 1 and 2, 1846, and the voters in Alexandria voted in favor of the retrocession by a margin of 734 to 116, while those in the rest of Alexandria County voted against retrocession 106 to 29. Pursuant to the referendum, President Polk 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 Alexandria County residents had not been properly included in the retrocession proceedings. After months of debate, on March 13, 1847, the Virginia General Assembly voted to formally accept the retrocession legislation.<ref name=debates />

In 1852, the Virginia legislature voted to incorporate a portion of Alexandria County as the City of Alexandria, which until then had been administered only as an unincorporated town within the political boundaries of Alexandria County.<ref name="Incorporation_of_Alexandria">{{cite web| url= http://alexandriava.gov/city/about-alexandria/about.html#history| title= Alexandria's History| access-date= August 30, 2006| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060829220638/http://alexandriava.gov/city/about-alexandria/about.html#history| archive-date= August 29, 2006| url-status= dead| df= mdy-all}}</ref>