Do people ever stop to think why, say, Massachusetts, Ohio, and South Carolina are called states? The Declaration of Independence refers to "free and independent states." Readers of antiquarian books are struck by the usage of "the United States are," rather than "the United States is," when collectively refering to America's states. What does "state" mean? In every application, save for its current use as a designation for the 50 governed areas that make up the United States, "state" means, well, state, i.e., an independent political unit. Examples of states, then, would include France, Sweden, and Germany. The geograpic boundaries of these states have not remained stable for too long, as Sweden once included Norway, Germany included parts of present-day Poland, and France bickered with Germany over the Saarland.
If the maps of European states have changed, why has not the geography of American states? They can. Article 4, Section 3 of the Constitution states: "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states 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." But with states as eager to lose taxpaying counties as the federal government was to lose the South, examples of states giving up territory are meager.
The Associated Press has a neat article on the American state not known as Jefferson. Never heard of it? That's because Jefferson never became a state. In 1941, a secessionist movement brewed in several of California's northern counties. Poor roads served as part of the impetus for secession. "Our Roads Are Not Passable, Hardly Jackassable," went the rallying cry. Before the movement could pick up steam, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and "Jefferson" passed into history as its namesake had more than a century prior.
Similar movements, more quirky and cute than well-organized and serious, have sprung up in other states. Residents of the Upper Peninsula have dreamed of splitting from Michigan to become "Superior." Killington, Vermont has attempted to form a Granite State diaspora in the Green Mountain State. A legislator from Maryland's Eastern Shore submitted a bill to the state general assembly to incorporate a new state from coastal areas of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia to form Delmarva. A lot of talk, but no successful action. Aside from the Founding-era separation of states from their western claims, only Maine, constitutionally extracted from Massachusetts, and West Virginia, unconstitutionally extracted from Virginia, have become states out of other U.S. states.
So why, almost seven decades later, do inhabitants of Orefornia/Caligon still buzz over the state of Jefferson? "It's more mythical than anything else," Pete LaFortune, executive director of Yreka's Chamber of Commerce, told the AP. "The State of Jefferson is that state of independence. It's that state of being able to take care of yourself--the Jeffersonian ideals that the government is not the answer. People are the answer."
Too bad. It would be nice to have Cali broken up a bit.
California is so beautiful. Too bad it's become a mecca for disorganized squatters. My Californian Aunt used to love to call her home state the land of fruits and nuts. How true.
Back in the 80’s, many citizens from Boston’s heavily minority neighborhoods proposed seceding from the city and calling the new ‘City’ Mandela.
The idea died when the initiators figured out that the inhabitants of those areas included in the secession used more tax payer-funded programs than the new city could afford to pay for and when it was made clear that the State would not heavily subsidize the new charter, more common sense prevailed to drop the proposal.
I vaguely remember that, ASDF.
As I recall, they wanted to wall or fence it off as well. That may be a sketchy recollection but I'm pretty sure a correct one.
