From the very onset of Americas European colonization, what would ultimately become the United States was never really a closely united nation. For over a century prior to their declaration of independence and secession from British rule, the American colonies in the South had numerous deep-seated disputes with their Northern counterparts over a number of issues. Many of these arguments were geographic in nature and in 1763, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania appointed two English astronomers, Charles Mason of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and his assistant Jeremiah Dixon, to chart an official boundary line between the four colonies. Over a decade later, other controversies between the North and South became even more heated over such vital matters as a constitution for the new country and the location of its permanent national capital.
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