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And unless Democrats get serious about adding new states to counteract the Republican advantage, the disconnect between popular votes and control of the federal government is likely to grow.
The only way to seriously address the issue is for congressional Democrats to add states, thereby changing the balance of power with new representatives. The good news for Democrats is that this can be done by a simple majority in Congress. Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to admit new states, subject to a presidential veto.
Historically, many states existed as federal territories prior to statehood, and some states spent years negotiating with Congress on the terms of their admission.
But these are optional steps—all it really takes is an act of Congress delineating the boundaries of new states and providing for their congressional elections. There are already several plausible candidates for new states that would lean Democratic. The permanently inhabited territories, like Puerto Rico, are similarly disenfranchised, and could also make good candidates for statehood.
But with a renewed expression of support for statehood and a promise of equal citizenship, the territories should be allowed to join the union. A third option is simply to break an existing Democratic state into multiple states. This would require permission from the state being broken, but perhaps one state—or several—would be enticed by the prospect of increasing its representation in Congress, and changing the balance of power in the federal government.
Wherever they come from, new Democratic states would immediately provide two benefits. First, they would add Democratic votes to the Senate and the Electoral College, which would largely, if not entirely, neutralize the existing Republican advantages in those institutions. As a result, the federal government would more closely reflect the policy preferences of the electorate.
Popular legislative ideas like gun control, paid family leave, and immigration reform—ideas that for years have died in the Republican-friendly Senate—might finally have a chance. Second, new states would prevent Republican retaliation, at least temporarily. Unlike court packing or filibuster reform—which practically invite an escalating set of tit-for-tats—adding new states, if done aggressively enough, prevents an opposition party from doing the same by bolstering the Senate majority the opposition would need to add states of their own.
When adding states, there is no back-and-forth. Whichever party strikes first wins. Republicans would, of course, cry foul, and accuse Democrats of manipulating the statehood process for partisan purposes. As Ian Millhiser has written, back when Republicans were the party of Lincoln they understood this well. Rather than risk defeat, they turned the sparsely populated territory of Nevada into a state, adding friendly votes to Congress and the Electoral College.
In , Republicans returned to the same playbook. Democrats had proposed a compromise whereby several western territories would be admitted in numbers that would evenly balance incoming Democrat and Republican senators. If there are any other conditions, Puerto Rico would have to meet those requirements and then Congress would approve admission for Puerto Rico. These misconceptions just show how long it has been since the U.
A simple majority is all that is required. How Does a Territory Become a State? Puerto Rico Report, April 19, Byers, William N. Congress must take action. You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Leave a Reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment.
This opened the door for new exploration and settlement. In order to claim its new territory with authority, the United States first had to explore and then populate it. President Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to head the first transcontinental expedition. Louis area with some forty enlisted soldiers. Their journey up the Missouri River, into uncharted lands, across the Great Divide, and along the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean took over a year.
They returned to St. Louis in September The Lewis and Clark expedition was the first government-sponsored scientific enterprise in the United States. It was America's first attempt to evaluate the environment of the Great Plains, the breadth of the Rockies, and the nature and extent of the terrain west of the Continental Divide. Geographical discoveries made by Lewis and Clark and recorded in their journals vastly expanded American knowledge of the new territory and helped promote trade and settlement in the region.
Other explorers, including Zebulon Pike, William Dunbar, and George Hunter explored other important river regions in the new Louisiana territory to add to Lewis's and Clark's discoveries. Piracy and Smuggling Long a feature of Louisiana life, piracy, smuggling, and other illicit economic activities became even more pronounced during the territorial period and undermined United States authority in the region.
In flagrant violation of United States laws, traders of all nationalities smuggled slaves and goods into Louisiana through the numerous swamps, bayous, and rivers that were too difficult to police. These men led groups of French and Spanish pirates who were given official status by the United States since they represented American interests by attacking enemy ships and capturing their goods. These pirates were known as privateers. The Laffite privateers, along with their white, free black, and runaway slave accomplices, ran goods into Louisiana, primarily through Barataria Bay below New Orleans.
The Laffites also engaged in legitimate trade. Border Conflicts Spain and the United States could not agree on Louisiana's western border with Texas, which was then still held by Mexico.
Spanish officials maintained that the Texan border traditionally had extended to the Arroyo Hondo, a dry gulch west of Natchitoches. The United States, however, argued that Louisiana's border stretched at least to the Sabine River, and possibly even to the Rio Grande. Negotiations to resolve the western border dispute broke down when Spain and the United States severed diplomatic relations in Rumors circulated that both sides were gathering troops near the contested area, and in General Wilkinson sent his forces up the Red River.
However, General Wilkinson managed to avert warfare and found a solution acceptable to both sides, in part because he served both parties--the United States as commander of southwestern troops and Spain as a spy.
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