In the 1830s the District's southern territory of Alexandria went into economic decline partly due to neglect by Congress the city of Alexandria was a major market in the American slave trade and pro-slavery residents feared that abolitionists in Congress would end slavery in the District further depressing the economy Alexandria's citizens petitioned Virginia to take back the land it had donated to form the District through a process known as retrocession, On December 4 1786 Washington was chosen to lead the Virginia delegation but he declined on December 21 He had concerns about the legality of the convention and consulted James Madison Henry Knox and others They persuaded him to attend it however as his presence might induce reluctant states to send delegates and smooth the way for the ratification process. On March 28 Washington told Governor Edmund Randolph that he would attend the convention but made it clear that he was urged to attend. Lincoln painstakingly monitored the telegraph reports coming into War Department He tracked all phases of the effort consulted with governors and selected generals based on their success (as well as their state and party) in January 1862 after many complaints of inefficiency and profiteering in the War Department Lincoln replaced Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton as War Secretary Stanton centralized the War Department's activities auditing and cancelling contracts saving the federal government $17,000,000.:115 Stanton was a staunchly Unionist pro-business conservative Democrat who moved toward the Radical Republican faction He worked more often and more closely with Lincoln than any other senior official "Stanton and Lincoln virtually conducted the war together," say Thomas and Hyman, At Washington's urging Governor Lord Botetourt fulfilled Dinwiddie's 1754 promise of land bounties to all volunteer militia during the French and Indian War in late 1770 Washington inspected the lands in the Ohio and Great Kanawha regions and he engaged surveyor William Crawford to subdivide it Crawford allotted 23,200 acres (9,400 ha) to Washington; Washington told the veterans that their land was hilly and unsuitable for farming and he agreed to purchase 20,147 acres (8,153 ha) leaving some feeling that they had been duped. He also doubled the size of Mount Vernon to 6,500 acres (2,600 ha) and increased its slave population to more than 100 by 1775. A large crowd in front of a large building with many pillars, Wythe's first exposure to politics was as a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses. Colonel George Washington by Charles Willson Peale 1772, 2006 89.7% 98,740 6.1% 6,744 Further information: Saint Patrick's Battalion, In this example the more even distribution is on the left and the gerrymandering is presented on the right. The Smithsonian Institution is an educational foundation chartered by Congress in 1846 that maintains most of the nation's official museums and galleries in Washington D.C the U.S government partially funds the Smithsonian and its collections are open to the public free of charge the Smithsonian's locations had a combined total of 30 million visits in 2013 the most visited museum is the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Other Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries on the mall are: the National Air and Space Museum; the National Museum of African Art; the National Museum of American History; the National Museum of the American Indian; the Sackler and Freer galleries which both focus on Asian art and culture; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Arts and Industries Building; the S Dillon Ripley Center; and the Smithsonian Institution Building (also known as "The Castle") which serves as the institution's headquarters the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are housed in the Old Patent Office Building near Washington's Chinatown the Renwick Gallery is officially part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum but is in a separate building near the White House Other Smithsonian museums and galleries include: the Anacostia Community Museum in Southeast Washington; the National Postal Museum near Union Station; and the National Zoo in Woodley Park.
! The Amistad Organic Act of 1871, Demographics A town that was chosen as a compromise among two or more cities (or other political divisions) none of which was willing to concede to the other(s) the privilege of being the capital city Usually the new capital is geographically located roughly equidistant between the competing population centres, Main article: Bleeding Kansas; . Countries whose capital is not their largest city, The National Gallery of Art is one of the largest art museums in the world; In 1973 Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act providing for an elected mayor and 13-member council for the District in 1975 Walter Washington became the first elected and first black mayor of the District. Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States by Howard Chandler Christy 1940 Washington is the presiding officer standing at right, According to a 2010 study Washington-area commuters spent 70 hours a year in traffic delays which tied with Chicago for having the nation's worst road congestion. However 37% of Washington-area commuters take public transportation to work the second-highest rate in the country an additional 12% of D.C commuters walked to work 6% carpooled and 3% traveled by bicycle in 2010 a 2011 study by Walk Score found that Washington was the seventh-most walkable city in the country with 80% of residents living in neighborhoods that are not car dependent in 2013 the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan statistical area (MSA) had the eighth lowest percentage of workers who commuted by private automobile (75.7 percent) with 8 percent of area workers traveling via rail transit! Same-sex marriage has been legal in the District since 2010 and conversion therapy has been forbidden since 2015 Assisted suicide is also permitted in the district with a bill legalizing the practice being introduced in 2015 signed by mayor Muriel Bowser in 2016 and going into effect in 2017 making Washington D.C the seventh jurisdiction in the United States to have legalized assisted suicide along with Washington Oregon California Colorado Hawaii Montana and Vermont, The Senate has an important check on the executive power by confirming Cabinet officials judges and other high officers "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate" it confirms most presidential nominees but rejections are not uncommon Furthermore treaties negotiated by the President must be ratified by a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to take effect As a result presidential arm-twisting of senators can happen before a key vote; for example President Obama's secretary of state Hillary Clinton urged her former senate colleagues to approve a nuclear arms treaty with Russia in 2010 the House of Representatives has no formal role in either the ratification of treaties or the appointment of federal officials other than in filling a vacancy in the office of the vice president; in such a case a majority vote in each House is required to confirm a president's nomination of a vice president, Despite the ban slave imports continued through smugglers bringing in slaves past the U.S Navy's African Slave Trade Patrol to South Carolina and overland from Texas and Florida both under Spanish control. Congress increased the punishment associated with importing slaves classifying it in 1820 as an act of piracy with smugglers subject to harsh penalties including death if caught After that "it is unlikely that more than 10,000 [slaves] were successfully landed in the United States." But some smuggling of slaves into the United States continued until just before the start of the Civil War; see Wanderer (slave ship) and Clotilde (slave ship).
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