Global InformationList of state partition proposals in the United States information
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Numerous state partition proposals have been put forward since the 1776 establishment of the United States that would partition an existing U.S. state or states so that a particular region might either join another state or create a new state. Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, often called the New States Clause, grants to the United States Congress the authority to admit new states into the United States beyond the thirteen that existed when the Constitution went into effect (June 21, 1788, after ratification by nine of the thirteen states).[1] It also includes a stipulation originally designed to give Eastern states that still had Western land claims, which included Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, a veto over whether their western counties could become states.[2]
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.[3]
The clause has served the same function since then whenever a proposal to partition an existing state or states has come before Congress. New breakaway states are permitted to join the Union only with the proper consents.[4] Of the 37 states admitted to the Union by Congress, three were set off from an already existing state:
- Kentucky – 1792, was a part of Virginia[5]
- Maine – 1820, was a part of Massachusetts[6]
- West Virginia – 1863, was a part of Virginia[7]
Another state that may fit into this category is Vermont, which existed as a de facto but unrecognized sovereign state from 1777 to 1791. The region had been a subject of a territorial dispute between New York and New Hampshire during the colonial period, which royal authorities had resolved in favor of New York. As the State of New York continued to claim Vermont's territory under that ruling after independence, the Continental Congress never recognized Vermont as an independent state. In 1790, after negotiating the common boundary between the two states and Vermont agreeing to pay New York $30,000, New York relinquished its land grant claim and consented to Vermont becoming part of the Union. Vasan Kesavan and Michael Stokes Paulsen assert that "although Vermont was admitted into the Union with New York's consent, it is not at all clear that New York's consent was constitutionally necessary. While Vermont was within the territory claimed by New York, the preponderance of evidence suggests that Vermont was not within the jurisdiction of New York."[4]
The following is a list of substantive proposals, both successful and unsuccessful, put forward since the nation's founding to partition or set off a portion of an existing U.S. state or states so that the region might either join another state or create a new state. Proposals to secede from the Union and proposals to create states from either organized incorporated or unorganized U.S. territories are not included. Land cessions made by several individual states to the federal government in the 18th and the 19th centuries also are not listed.
- ^ Maier, Pauline (2010). Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 361.
- ^ Forte, David F. "Essays on Article IV: New States Clause". The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on July 24, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
- ^ "The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, Centennial Edition, Interim Edition: Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 26, 2013" (PDF). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 2013. pp. 16–17. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 25, 2014. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
- ^ a b Kesavan, Vasan; Paulsen, Michael Stokes (2002). "Is West Virginia Unconstitutional?". California Law Review. 90 (2). California Law Review at Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository: 395. doi:10.15779/Z384B06. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
- ^ Harrison, Lowell H. (1992). Kentucky's Road to Statehood. The University of Kentucky Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-8131-1782-8. Archived from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
- ^ "Today in History: March 15". loc.gov. Library of Congress. Archived from the original on August 27, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ Michael P. Riccards, "Lincoln and the Political Question: The Creation of the State of West Virginia" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997 online edition Archived June 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine