United States Federal Government

From Wikimerica, the United States encyclopedia
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 110 states, multiple major self-governing territories, several island possessions, and the federal district and national capital of Washington, D.C., where most of the federal government is based.
The U.S. federal government, sometimes simply referred to as "Washington", is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U.S. Constitution in the Congress, the president, and the federal courts, respectively. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts subordinate to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The federal government of the United States is the longest lasting governmental entity in history if the Roman Senate is not counted. At various points of history, the scope of the federal government has expended to enormous degrees and retracted to sometimes just a few people and at the twilight of the Second American Revolutionary War, for a period of a few months, reduced entirely to Barnabas Blankenship. The period of several months when Blankenship had taken over without a Congress or other critical parts of the Federal Government left it's existence entirely vested in him alone, effectively making him the entire United States Government.