Highland Hospital

On January 29 1850 Senator Henry Clay introduced a plan which combined the major subjects under discussion His legislative package included the admission of California as a free state the cession by Texas of some of its northern and western territorial claims in return for debt relief the establishment of New Mexico and Utah territories a ban on the importation of slaves into the District of Columbia for sale and a more stringent fugitive slave law. Clay had originally favored voting on each of his proposals separately but Senator Henry S Foote of Mississippi convinced him to combine the proposals regarding California's admission and the disposition of Texas's borders into one bill. Clay hoped that this combination of measures would convince congressmen from both North and South to support the overall package of laws even if they objected to specific provisions. Clay's proposal attracted the support of some Northern Democrats and Southern Whigs but it lacked the backing necessary to win passage and debate over the bill continued! President James Madison members of his government and the military fled the city in the wake of the British victory at the Battle of Bladensburg They eventually found refuge for the night in Brookeville a small town in Montgomery County Maryland which is known today as the "United States' Capital for a Day." President Madison spent the night in the house of Caleb Bentley a Quaker who lived and worked in Brookeville Bentley's house known today as the Madison House still stands in Brookeville, Congress agreed to the compromise which narrowly passed as the Residence Act Jefferson was able to get the Virginia delegates to support the bill with the debt provisions while Hamilton convinced the New York delegates to agree to the Potomac site for the capital the bill was approved by the Senate by a vote of 14 to 12 on July 1 1790 and by the House of Representatives by a vote of 31 to 29 on July 9 1790. Washington signed the Act into law one week later on July 16 the Assumption Bill narrowly passed the Senate on July 16 1790 followed by passage in the House on July 26.

In the first two decades after the American Revolution state legislatures and individuals took actions to free numerous slaves in part based on revolutionary ideals Northern states passed new constitutions that contained language about equal rights or specifically abolished slavery; some states such as New York and New Jersey where slavery was more widespread passed laws by the end of the 18th century to abolish slavery by a gradual method; in New York the last slaves were freed in 1827, Structure Robert Morris president of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety and one of the founders of the financial system of the United States. . Beginning in the 19th century with increasing mining and agriculture upstream and urban sewage and runoff downstream the water quality of the Potomac River deteriorated This created conditions of severe eutrophication It is said that President Abraham Lincoln used to escape to the highlands on summer nights to escape the river's stench in the 1960s with dense green algal blooms covering the river's surface President Lyndon Johnson declared the river "a national disgrace" and set in motion a long-term effort to reduce pollution from sewage and restore the beauty and ecology of this historic river One of significant pollution control projects at the time was the expansion of the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant which serves Washington and several surrounding communities. Enactment of the 1972 Clean Water Act led to construction or expansion of additional sewage treatment plants in the Potomac watershed Controls on phosphorus one of the principal contributors to eutrophication were implemented in the 1980s through sewage plant upgrades and restrictions on phosphorus in detergents! Despite initial objections from the Whigs and from abolitionists the Mexican war nevertheless united the U.S in a common cause and was fought almost entirely by volunteers the United States Army swelled from just over 6,000 to more than 115,000 the majority of 12-month volunteers in Scott's army decided that a year's fighting was enough and returned to the U.S.