Happily our pupils nowadays are no longer compelled to commit to memory lists of the states admitted during each administration. While we are all agreed as to the futility of this antiquated practice we must at the same time recognize that no pupil should leave our schools without a fairly definite idea of the process by which new states are created. This knowledge is essential to a comprehension of the present condition of the nation and of its development in the future. It is the purpose of the present article to show how a grasp of the process of admitting states may be developed by means of the story of the admission of some one typical state.
Vermont and Kentucky at once suggest themselves because of the very early date of their formation. To these states, however, as to others admitted in the first few administrations, there is the objection that their admission was not typical of the process. This is due to their previous dependence upon or relation to some of the original states. Missouri, on the other hand, lying west of the Mississippi, may be said to typify most of the states subsequently admitted. Another reason for the choice of Missouri lies in the fact that our courses of study require us to present the subject of the Missouri Compromise, thus furnishing the best excuse in the world for developing in that connection our type-lesson on the admission of new states.
The first point that should be developed is the relation between the national government and the territory of the United States. Only one definite reference to this relation occurs in the federal constitution. In Art. IV, section 3, we find this statement: “The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States.” We should impress our pupils with the significance of this clause which places in the hands of the national legislature complete control over United States territory. The wide extent of land which had come into our possession by the Louisiana Purchase could be disposed of by Congress in any way that it might see fit. In this land lay the future state of Missouri.
Having thus given due consideration to the general relation between the United States government and the territory which it owns, we should pass next to the question of the creation of new states. Our pupils are presumably acquainted with the necessity of referring to the Constitution for any reference to a matter of fundamental national law. It might be worth while to have the children themselves find the Constitutional provision which relates to the admission of states. The first part of Art. IV, section 3, provides that “new states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union,”—the rest of the clause, as far as our present purpose is concerned, may be dispensed with. Attention should be called to the extreme indefiniteness of this provision and to the general fact that while the Constitution gives Congress full control of United States territory and further delegates to it the power to admit new states, the actual mode of procedure has been left to Congress itself to work out.
The ordinance of 1787 next calls for reference and rapid review. For the purposes of this lesson the ordinance is important as having furnished the type of territory destined to become an integral part of our political organization. Further, it had made definite provision for the future admission of states to be carved out of the Northwest territory. To be sure, this ordinance was the work of the Continental Congress, but it had been re-enacted by the first Congress under the Constitution as early as 1789. The process mapped out in this famous ordinance had already furnished the model for the creation of territories and the admission of states in various parts of the country.
The territory of Missouri, originally as we have said a part of the Louisiana Purchase, was organized by act of Congress June 4, 1812. The class must be brought to see the significance of this organization. As a territory Missouri had definite boundaries and an organized government. It had a governor appointed by the President of the United States, and a territorial legislature. It of course had no voice in national affairs, and was in last resort subject to the will of Congress.
A flood of immigration from the eastern states rapidly increased the population of the new territory. It may be well, because of the subsequent significance of the fact, to point out that a large pro-slavery element had made repeated unsuccessful attempts to secure for slavery the states which so far had been made from the Northwest Territory. The anti-slavery provision of the Northwest Ordinance, however, continued to hold good, and slave holders began to look across the Mississippi for the extension of their dominion. So rapid was the increase of population in Missouri that in less than six years after its organization as a territory we find it seeking admission as a state. In the early months of 1818 several memorials were presented in the House petitioning for statehood, and on April 3 of that year an enabling act was introduced.
The discussion of the enabling act constitutes one of the most important “type elements” of our lesson. Normally the passing of such an act by Congress must be regarded as the first step in the transition of a territory to a state. There are, to be sure, some striking instances where states have been admitted without the previous passage of an enabling act by Congress—Texas and California are cases in point—but in our type lesson we are concerned with the normal practice only. We must develop in our pupils the idea of an enabling act as the authorization of a territory by Congress to adopt a state constitution and present itself for admission into the Union on equal terms with the other states; the act further fixes the boundaries of the prospective state.
As we have already mentioned, an enabling act for the admission of Missouri had been introduced into the House as early as April 3, 1818. The passage of the final Missouri Enabling Act, however, did not take place until March 6, 1820. The fact that this delay was caused by the bitter fight over slavery extension must by all means be emphasized, but the history of the struggle in Congress,—of the amendments, references, committee reports, etc., is far too complex to form a part of any elementary lesson. It will be sufficient if our pupils understand that there was a constant struggle to preserve the balance of slave and free states, and grasp the significance of the admission of Alabama in 1819 and of the application of Maine in that same year.
The Enabling Act of 1820, as typical of enabling acts in general, should receive careful attention. Section 1 authorizes the people of the territory of Missouri “to form for themselves a constitution and state government, and to assume such name as they shall deem proper.” Section 2 consists of an exact statement of the boundaries of the new state. The phrasing of these sections is significant, typical, and interesting, and should be presented to the class in full.[8]