Raster Media

. ; In response to two antislavery petitions Georgia and South Carolina objected and were threatening to "blow the trumpet of civil war" Washington and Congress responded with a series of pro-slavery measures: citizenship was denied to black immigrants; slaves were barred from serving in state militias; two more slave states (Kentucky in 1792 Tennessee in 1796) were admitted; and the continuation of slavery in federal territories south of the Ohio River was guaranteed On February 12 1793 Washington signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act which overrode state laws and courts allowing agents to cross state lines to capture and return escaped slaves. Many in the north decried the law believing the act allowed bounty hunting and the kidnappings of blacks the Slave Trade Act of 1794 limiting American involvement in the Atlantic slave trade was also enacted. Constitutional responsibility for the oversight of Washington D.C. the federal district and national capital and the U.S territories of Guam American Samoa Puerto Rico the U.S Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands rests with Congress the republican form of government in territories is devolved by Congressional statute to the respective territories including direct election of governors the D.C mayor and locally elective territorial legislatures, Historians agree that it is impossible to predict exactly how Reconstruction would have proceeded had Lincoln lived Biographers James G Randall and Richard Current according to David Lincove argue that:, Joint resolutions There is little difference between a bill and a joint resolution since both are treated similarly; a joint resolution originating from the House for example begins "H.J.Res." followed by its number.

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