The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-07-11

write Van Zandt letter of instructions on how
to negotiate the treaty of annexation with the
United States and sent J. Pinckney Henderson
along to help Van Zandt handle the matter with
the American secretary of state. This letter,
dated February %, 1914, emphasized two points
not embraced in previous instructions, the first
of which was this "The number of states into
which the Territory of Texas shall be subdivded.
1t is presumable that in the settlements already
made there is a sufficient population to consti-
tute one state, according to the requirements of
the Federal Constitution, and that the remaining
territory of the republic is sufficiently large to
constitute three more at future period.
You will, therefore, provide in the treaty for
the ultimate creation Of at least four states
and for their admission into the Union so soon
as the population of the respective territories
shall be sufficient for that purpose-and in the
meantime that territorial governments shall be
established and maintained as circumstances and
the wants of the people residing in those limits
respectively may render proper and necessary"
President Tyler, in his message of December
1874, refers to this same matter. Urging the
prompt and immediate annexation of Texas, he
says: Future legislatures can best decide as to
the number of states which should be formed
out of the territory, when the time arrives for
deciding that question"
The "bill to provide for the annexation of
Texas to the United States, and to restore the
ancient limits of the Republic" which was final
ly passed. says among other things: "The said
compact of cession and annexation, when made
as aforesaid, to provide further for the future
formation in said territories of at least two
states, and If more than two, then four states
and if more than four, then of six states, to be
hereafter admitted into the United States of
America"
Henry Clay, then living in retirement but
pdi FIR lott
April IL, 1914, emphasizing the fact that Texas
was ultimately to be composed of five states, and
declared that only two of them would be slave
and three of them free.
In that fact lies the fallacy of the idea that
Texas has the right to divide itself into FIVE
states. This idea arose from misnterpretation
of the clause in the joint resolution of congress
annexing Texas by which the Missouri comprO-
mise line carried to the west boundary of
Texas. At that time Texas claimed territory far
north, and provision merely being made
that states subsequently carved from Texas
should be slave below the compromise line and
free above Since the outcome of the War Be-
tween the States settled the question of slavery,
it also obviated the necessity for determining
which of the five new states were to be slave
and which were to be free soil.
Even though Of these recent proposals
for the creation of new commonwealth from
those already existing has made much progress,
they have added to the literature of Estates that
might have BEEN and have revived the memory
of other such proposals in the past. If "Absa-
roka," "Illiana,' and "Texlahoma" would look
queer on map of the United States today, how
much queerer would it look if it had Pelisypia,
Polypotamia, Metropotamia and Chersonesus on
it, Yet there were such names the maps of
80 years ago and might now have states
bearing those names if Thomas Jefferson had
had his way about it,
Back in 1854 the nation was considering
the possibility of forming new states out of the
Old Northwest Territory, won for the American
flag by George Rogers Clark during the Revo-
luton. In the Ordinance of 1854, which was
largely the work of jefferson, provision was
made for 10 states and Jefferson, who was one
of the foremost classical scholars of his day,
proposed these names for them: Svania, Mich
igania, Chersonesus, Arsenstpia, Metropotamia,
Illinoia, Saratoga, Polypotama, Pesypia and
Washington.
A map published by John Fitch Cater famous
for his invention of steamboaO in Philadelphia
in 1885 shows the boundaries of these proposed
states, although his spelling of some of the
names varies slightly from Jefferson's The new
state of Washington included strip through
the middle of Ohio from Lake Erie south to the
Ohio river. Saratoga comprised the lower half
of Indiana and Ohio, westward from the western
boundary line of Washington to a line drawn
straight south from the eastern shore line of
Lake Michigan. Metropotamia comprised the up
per half of Indiana and Ohio with the same
eastern and western boundaries. Chersonesus
included all Of the present lower peninsula of
Michigan and small portion of the present up