most minute local regulations by which we are to be affected. We shall be reduced to that deprecated condition of which we pathetically complained in our charges against Great Britain, of being taxed without representation." The following year, the Board of Commissioners was abolished, the City of Washington was incorporated, and a local government consisting of a locally elected 12-member council and a mayor appointed by the president was put in place. In 1812, the District was given more significant home rule when the mayor became an elected official, chosen from among the group of 12 elected council members and 8 aldermen, and in 1820 the mayor became directly elected. Minor modifications were made over the years, but in 1871 the District government was again dramatically modified, getting a government more similar to that of the territories. Under this new government, the governor of the District was again appointed by the president, as were all members of one house of the District legislature. The Congress abolished the territorial government in 1874 and replaced it with a presidentially appointed council, which by 1878 was considered the District's permanent government. It was later decided that this congressional act constituted the District's constitution, making the District the only territory that had not been allowed to write its own constitution. By the 1930s, the District of Columbia was administered by House committees that had little regard for the concerns of the local population; the representative Ross A. Collins from Mississippi cut spending on local funds for welfare and education, stating that "my constituents wouldn't stand for spending money on niggers". In the 1950s, as part of the more prominent Civil Rights Movement, interest emerged in giving the District full representation. As a compromise, the Twenty-third Amendment was adopted in 1961, granting the District some votes in the Electoral College in measure to their population, but no more than the smallest state. The Districts' residents have exercised this right since the presidential election of 1964. The District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 devolved certain Congressional powers over the District to a local government administered by an elected mayor, currently Muriel Bowser, and the thirteen-member Council of the District of Columbia. However, Congress retains the right to review and overturn any of the District's laws. Each of the District's eight wards elects a single member of the council, and five members, including the chairman,