Partition of States in the United States

Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50. That same clause also forbids the creation of new states from parts of existing states without the consent of both the affected states and Congress. This caveat was designed to give Eastern states that still had Western land claims to have a veto over whether their western counties could become states.

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.^[1]

Three U.S. states have been established through the partition of existing States (i.e. not "formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state"), as distinguished from the creation of states from those areas of the United States that the separate states ceded to the federal government in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, or from any other areas under the Federal government's direct jurisdiction.

Kentucky

After the American Revolution, certain counties of Virginia beyond the Cumberland Gap became known as Kentucky County.^[2] Eventually, the residents of Kentucky County petitioned for a separation from Virginia. Ten constitutional conventions were held in the Constitution Square Courthouse in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky's delegates accepted Virginia's terms of separation, and a state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth State admitted to the union.

Maine

Maine was originally an exclave of Massachusetts. Long-standing disagreements over land speculation and settlements led Maine residents and their allies in Massachusetts proper to force an 1807 vote in the Massachusetts General Court on permitting Maine to separate; the vote failed. Separatist sentiment in Maine was stoked during the War of 1812 when pro-British Massachusetts merchants opposed the war, and refused to defend Maine from British invaders. In 1820 Maine voted to separate from Massachusetts, and the formation of the State of Maine occurred in 1820 as part of the Missouri Compromise, which also geographically limited the spread of slavery and enabled the admission to statehood of Missouri the following year.^[3][4]

West Virginia

During the course of the American Civil War, the western counties of Virginia making up what is now West Virginia separated from Virginia (which had joined the Confederacy) and became the 35th State of the U.S. Specifically, Unionist leaders in Wheeling set up a new State government for Virginia under the Wheeling Convention that was recognized by Washington. The new Virginia State government in turn voted to allow the western counties to separate. They did so, wrote a constitution, and were admitted to the Union as West Virginia.^[5] Support for the Confederacy and the Union was about evenly divided in the new State and guerrilla war lasted until 1865.^[6]

Fifty-first State proposals and movements

There have been a number of proposals and movements whose goal is partition of a current State and formation of a new State, still within the United States:^[7][8]

• The book Lost States describes several examples including the proposed states of Absaroka, Deseret, Lincoln, Texlahoma and Transylvania.^[7]

• Various groups of advocates in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan—alone or in combination with those in northern Wisconsin and northeast Minnesota—have since 1858 made calls for the establishment of a separate state called "Superior".^[9][10]

• In 1977, political representatives on the islands of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands considered separation from Massachusetts, some even threatening secession from the United States if their requests were not recognized. However, eventually they settled for better representation in the Massachusetts legislature.^[11][12]

Jeff Stone's proposal for the new state of South California highlighted in red.

2013 election results: counties in orange voted to separate from Colorado, while counties in blue rejected the idea.

• In March 2008, the comptroller of Suffolk County, New York, once again proposed for Long Island to separate from New York State, asserting that Long Island gives more in taxes to the State than it receives back in aid.^[13] Numerous movements call for the partition of New York into western New York, upstate New York, New York City and/or Long Island.

• California has a long history of attempted state partition movements. Southern California attempted three times in the 1850s to achieve a separate statehood or territorial status from Northern California. The last attempt, the Pico Act of 1859, was passed by the California State Legislature, signed by the State governor John B. Weller, approved overwhelmingly by voters in the proposed Territory of Colorado and sent to Washington, D.C. with a strong advocate in Senator Milton Latham. However the secession crisis following the election of Lincoln in 1860 prevented the proposal from ever coming to a vote.^[14][15][16] Other attempts in the last century include that of the State of Jefferson of 1940–41, the 1965 proposal of a new state of Southern California south of the Tehachapi mountains, and the current day "Inland" and "Coastal" California state proposals in the late 2000s.^[8]

• In February 2011, a political committee made up of attorneys formed to put a proposal that Pima County, Arizona separate from the rest of the State before county voters in 2012. This 51st state would be named Baja Arizona.^[17]

• In June 2011, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone called for Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono Counties (see map at right) to separate from California to form the new state of South California. State officials responded derisively, with governor Jerry Brown's spokesman issuing the statement "What is this, 1860?" and fellow supervisor Bob Buster calling Stone's proposal "a crazy distraction", suggesting "...Stone has gotten too much sun recently."^[18]

• The Washington State Legislature on several occasions has considered measures to split the State in two: Western Washington and Eastern Washington, the border being along the Cascade Mountains. Reasons given are the distinct needs of urban and rural populations and political differences over water rights, labor law, and taxation.^[19][20]

• In 2013, Weld County, Colorado proposed a plan under which Weld and seven other counties in northeastern Colorado would separate and form the new state of North Colorado. The bid was motivated by a belief that the urban population centers of the State weren't concerned with the economic interests of more rural areas.^[21][22][23] Eleven counties were involved in the partition movement by election day, though Moffat County was looking into joining Wyoming rather than North Colorado.^[24] Voters rejected partition in six of the eleven counties, including Weld and Moffat, and supported it (without binding authority) in five.^[25]

• On September 3, 2013, the Board of Supervisors of Siskiyou County, California, voted 4-1 to pursue separation from California, with the goal of forming a new state called Jefferson.^[26]

References

1. "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. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
2. "About Kentucky". Ezilon Search. Retrieved November 29, 2006.
3. Woodard, Colin. "Parallel 44: Origins of the Mass Effect", The Working Waterfront, August 31, 2010.
4. Woodard, Colin. The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators and the Forgotten Frontier (2004) Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-03324-3
5. Curry, Richard O. Curry, A House Divided, A Study of the Statehood Politics and The Copperhead Movement in West Virginia, map on p. 49
6. The Civil War in West Virginia: Conclusion
7. Beyond 50: American States That Might Have Been, National Public Radio, April 2, 2010.
8. Trinklein, Michael J. (April 17, 2010), Altered States (includes interactive map), Wall Street Journal
9. "A new state—Ontonagon" N.Y. Times, April 6, 1858, p.4.
10. The State of Superior, The Washington Post, October 3, 1897
11. Mike Seccombe, Talkin' About a Revolution, Martha's Vineyard Magazine, September–October issue, 2007.
12. People Section Time Magazine, April 18, 1977.
13. "Suffolk County Comptroller Announces Interest In Making Long Island The 51st State: Dowling College to Prepare Study for The Effort". Dowling College. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
14. Michael DiLeo, Eleanor Smith, Two Californias: The Truth about the Split-state Movement, Island Press, Covelo, California, 1983. pg. 9-30. Nearly 75% of voters in the proposed Territory of Colorado voted for separate status.
15. J. M. Guinn, HOW CALIFORNIA ESCAPED STATE DIVISION, The Quarterly, Volumes 5-6 By Historical Society of Southern California, Los Angeles County Pioneers of Southern California. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
16. "Civil War: How Southern California Tried to Split from Northern California". KCET. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
17. Rhonda Bodfield and Andrea Kelly Arizona, Could Baja Arizona be 51st state in US?, Arizona Daily Star, February 24, 2011.
18. "Official Calls For Riverside, 12 Other Counties To Secede From California". KNX (AM). July 1, 2011.
19. John K. Wiley, 'Cascade Curtain' Symbol of a State's Split Personality, Associated Press in Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1992.
20. Keith Eldridge, State-Splitting Measure Gets Its Day In The Legislature, KOMO News, February 22, 2005.
21. Monte Whaley (June 9, 2013). "Weld County Floats Secession". The Denver Post.
22. Dylan Stableford (July 11, 2013). "Northern Colorado wants to secede from Colorado". Yahoo News. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
23. "Effort To Create New State Called 'North Colorado' Grows". CBS Denver. July 9, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
24. Alan Silverleib and Ashley Killough (November 6, 2013). "Election Results 2013: Gov. Christie And More". CNN. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
25. Victoria A.F. Camron and Monte Whaley (November 5, 2013). "Weld County voters like Colorado, reject secessionist proposal". Longmont Times-Call. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
26. Longoria, Sean (September 3, 2013). "Siskiyou supervisors support withdrawal from California". Reading Record Searchlight.