Revolution to the Civil War, 1775/1783-1861.

Richard Henry Lee was the man who introduced the resolutions that ultimately led to the Second Continental Congress drafting the Declaration of Independence.	Land Ordinance of 1785 established a method for the survey and sale of Western lands by the federal government.
	The Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually free a single slave, but it do much to strengthen the North and weaken the South by making slavery a central issue of the Civil War.