page_title: List of U.S. state partition proposals
hierarchical_section_title: List of U.S. state partition proposals
caption_attribution_description: English: A beautiful 1855 first edition example of Colton's map of Virginia. Covers the entire state as well most of adjacent Maryland and parts of North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. Predates split with West Virginia by seven years. Map is hand colored in pink, green, yellow and blue pastels to identify counties. Identifies towns, cities, railroads, roads and some topographical features. Features maps of Richmond (with Manchester and Spring Hill) and Norfolk (with Portsmouth and Gosport). Names the Cumberland Gap, Chesapeake Bay, Alleghany and Shenandoah Mountains, and the Dismal Swamp. Surrounded by Colton's typical spiral motif border. Dated and copyrighted to J. H. Colton, 1855. Published from Colton's 172 William Street Office in New York City. Issued as page no. 25 in volume 1 of the first edition of George Washington Colton's 1855 Atlas of the World.
context_page_description: Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, numerous state partition proposals have been put forward that would partition an existing state in order that a particular region within might either join another state, or create a new state. Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, oftentimes called the New States Clause, grants to the United States Congress the authority to admit new states into the United States beyond the thirteen already in existence at the time the Constitution went into effect. It also includes a stipulation originally designed to give Eastern states that still had Western land claims 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.
  The clause has served this same function since then whenever a proposal to partition an existing state or states has come before Congress.
context_section_description: Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, numerous state partition proposals have been put forward that would partition an existing state (or states) in order that a particular region within might either join another state, or create a new state. Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, oftentimes called the New States Clause, grants to the United States Congress the authority to admit new states into the United States beyond the thirteen already in existence at the time the Constitution went into effect (June 21, 1788, after ratification by nine of the thirteen states). It also includes a stipulation originally designed to give Eastern states that still had Western land claims (then including Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia) 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.
  The clause has served this 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, but only with the proper consents. 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
  Maine – 1820, was a part of Massachusetts
  West Virginia – 1863, was a part of Virginia
  Another state that may fit into this category is Vermont, which existed as a de facto but unrecognized sovereign state from 1777 until 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 this 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 after Vermont agreed 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."
  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) in order that the region might either join another state or create a new state. Proposals to secede from the Union are not included, nor are proposals to create states from either organized incorporated or unorganized U.S. territories. Land cessions made by several individual states to the Federal government during the 18th and 19th centuries are not listed either.
caption: 1855 J.H. Colton Company map of Virginia. Predates the West Virginia partition by seven years.
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