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the oath of office to become the first President of the United States from the
balcony of the old City Hall. One of the issues the President had to deal with
was a permanent location for the country’s seat of government. As part of a
compromise, it was decided that the capital would move to Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania in 1791 for ten years and then to a suitable permanent location
on the Potomac River. Washington chose an area that included land from the
states of Maryland and Virginia. At this time the area was primarily farm and

marsh lands. Congress was scheduled to meet in the new capital on the first
Monday in December 1800.
Pierre Charles L’Enfant was hired to design the "Federal City." On
June 11, 1800, the capital of the United States had a permanent home in

Washington, D.C.
The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant feature
of the American governmental system. There are fifty (50) states and

Washington D.C. The last two states to join the Union were Alaska (49th)
and Hawaii (50th). Both joined in 1959. Washington D.C. is a federal district
under the authority of Congress. Puerto Rico is a commonwealth associated

with the United States (see the table of States and Districts and Territories).
History. The United States of America is at once a very new nation and
a very old nation. The first settlers – Asian hunters and nomads – reached

North America about 30,000 years ago. However, the United States of
America did not come into being until 1776 with the Declaration of
Independence. The history of the United States is the story of many different
peoples who together compose the United States of America. Since the first

Europeans arrived in 1492, millions of people from many different countries
have entered the United States and made the country their new home.
Among the flood [fl d] of immigrants to North America, one group

came unwillingly. These were Africans, 500,000 of whom were brought over
as slaves between 1619 and 1808, when importing slaves into the United
States became illegal. The practice of owning slaves and their descendants
continued, however, particularly in the agrarian South, where many laborers

were needed to work the fields. The process of ending slavery began in April
1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War between the free states of
the North and the slave states of the South, 11 of which had left the Union.

On January 1, 1863, midway through the war, President Abraham Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in those
states that had seceded. Slavery was abolished throughout the United States

with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the country's Constitution
in 1865.

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