Constitution Day 2018 | On Equal Footing: The Constitution, the Senate, and the Expanding United States

The Framers' Views on Expansion

The principles that would govern expansion of the American Union were in place even before the framers of the Constitution met in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. Under the Treaty of Paris that ended the war with Great Britain in 1783, the United States acquired millions of acres of land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. The land was home to numerous Native American tribes but white settlers were eager to move westward. Under the Articles of Confederation, individual states ceded their claims to western territory to the new national government, but questions remained, including what power Congress would exercise over these territories and how they would be brought into the Union.

As early as 1780, Virginia's delegates proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution that lands ceded by the individual states to the Union ought to be "formed into distinct republican states, which shall become members of the federal union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence, as the other states." Congress passed a land ordinance in 1784 that called for new western states to be admitted "on an equal footing with the original states." This guarantee of new state equality was incorporated into the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which organized the land north of the Ohio River.

As vast new territories were brought into the Union, expansion westward became a double-edged sword. Settlers venturing into new territories might add to the size and wealth of the nation, but settlement of the frontier, so far from the centers of political and economic power, could also erode loyalty to the United States. The prospect of new states also stirred anxieties about the balance of regional power. Massachusetts's Rufus King opined that "no paper engagements can be formed" that would guarantee union "between the Atlantic States, and those which will be erected to the Northwestward."

Such concerns fueled debate at the Constitutional Convention. The Committee of Detail, tasked with pulling the threads of the Constitution into a coherent, final form, initially reported a clause stating, "If the admission be consented to, the new States shall be admitted on the same terms with the original States." Virginia's George Mason insisted to the convention delegates that, "If the Western States are to be admitted into the Union, as they arise, they must . . . be treated as equals, and subjected to no degrading discriminations." Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania disagreed, however, and moved to strike out the equality clause. The delegates approved Morris's motion by a vote of 9-2. Consequently, Article IV of the Constitution states only that "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union." The Constitution also gave Congress the power "to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory . . . belonging to the United States."

The Constitution, the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, and later treaties under which the U.S. acquired new territories—such as the Louisiana Purchase Treaty of 1803—governed Congress's practices for organizing territories and setting conditions for statehood. Only after territories had served a period of tutelage and built up the requisite population and economic resources could they apply to Congress for equal status as a state. It was a process that often took decades and prompted fierce debates in Congress.

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Treaty of Paris, 1783

The Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain formally ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783 and ratified by the Confederation Congress on January 14, 1784. Article II of the treaty established the boundaries of the newly independent nation of the United States, which extended westward from the existing colonial settlements to the Mississippi River.

Map of North America, 1784

In 1784 the formal western boundaries of the original states remained undetermined. As the nation looked westward in subsequent years, states ceded their land claims to the United States, requiring the Confederation Congress to consider how to govern settlement of these expansive lands.

Land Ordinance of 1784

In early 1784 the Confederation Congress appointed a committee composed of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Jeremiah Townley Chase of Maryland, and David Howell of Rhode Island to draft an ordinance governing the creation of temporary governments in the territory north of the Ohio River. The 1784 Ordinance, adopted by Congress on April 23, provided that territories could apply for statehood upon reaching a population equal to the smallest of the original states. A territory would be accepted into the Union "on an equal footing" with the original states by vote of two thirds of Congress.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

In 1787 Congress replaced land ordinances adopted in 1784 and 1785 with the Northwest Ordinance and established procedures for adoption of new states in the years ahead. The Northwest Ordinance provided a more detailed road map for distribution of land to settlers, organization of territorial governments, and ultimate acceptance of new states into the Union. The 1787 ordinance, which also banned slavery from the Northwest Territory and expressed a commitment to respect tribal land rights, provided that no less than three and no more than five states would be formed from the land bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Prospective states could apply for admission to the Union once they reached 60,000 free inhabitants.

Madison's Notes on Debate (July 11, 1787)

Land ordinances passed by the Confederation Congress had provided for adding new states "on an equal footing with the original states." At the Constitutional Convention, however, some delegates, especially New Englanders like Gouverneur Morris, expressed anxiety about westward expansion and the potential shift in power to new states. On July 11 George Mason of Virginia argued that new western states should "be treated as equals, and subjected to no degrading discriminations."

United States Constitution

The Committee of Detail at the Constitutional Convention submitted a draft to the delegates with a clause providing that "new States shall be admitted on the same terms with the original States." The delegates, by a vote of 9-2, removed that language from the Constitution before it was adopted. Section 3 of Article IV states only that "New States may be admitted by the Congress into the Union," with the stipulation only that no state may be formed by combining or dividing existing states without consent of those states' legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Congress also was granted power "to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory . . . belonging to the United States."