The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 led to the expansion of the federal government and notable growth in the District's population including a large influx of freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862 which ended slavery in the District of Columbia and freed about 3,100 enslaved persons nine months prior to the Emancipation Proclamation in 1868 Congress granted the District's African American male residents the right to vote in municipal elections. Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry South Africa: the administrative capital is Pretoria the legislative capital is Cape Town and the judicial capital is Bloemfontein This is the outcome of the compromise that created the Union of South Africa in 1910. The Mexican Cession shown in red and the later Gadsden Purchase shown in yellow Washington D.C. Business Directory; . Wikimedia Commons has media related to South Branch Potomac River.
. See also: District of Columbia retrocession and Washington D.C. in the American Civil War Eutrophication in the Potomac River is evident from this bright green water in Washington D.C caused by a dense bloom of cyanobacteria April 2012. Main article: Abraham Lincoln assassination, John Trumbull 1824 When the Second Continental Congress convened on May 10 1775 it essentially reconstituted the First Congress Many of the same 56 delegates who attended the first meeting participated in the second. New arrivals included Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania John Hancock of Massachusetts and John Witherspoon of New Jersey Hancock was elected Congress president two weeks into the session when Peyton Randolph was recalled to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses Thomas Jefferson replaced Randolph in the Virginia congressional delegation the second Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence Witherspoon was the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration He also signed the Articles of Confederation and attended the New Jersey (1787) convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, President John Witherspoon of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) wrote widely circulated sermons linking the American Revolution to the teachings of the Bible Throughout the colonies dissenting Protestant ministers (Congregational Baptist and Presbyterian) preached Revolutionary themes in their sermons while most Church of England clergymen preached loyalty to the king the titular head of the English state church. Religious motivation for fighting tyranny transcended socioeconomic lines to encompass rich and poor men and women frontiersmen and townsmen farmers and merchants the Declaration of Independence also referred to the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" as justification for the Americans' separation from the British monarchy Most eighteenth-century Americans believed that the entire universe ("nature") was God's creation and he was "Nature's God" Everything was part of the "universal order of things" which began with God and was directed by his providence. Accordingly the signers of the Declaration professed their "firm reliance on the Protection of divine Providence" and they appealed to "the Supreme Judge for the rectitude of our intentions". George Washington was firmly convinced that he was an instrument of providence to the benefit of the American people and of all humanity. .
John Muir Health