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The following table is a list of all 50 states and their respective dates of statehood. The first 13 became states in July 1776 upon agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, and each joined the first Union of states between 1777 and 1781, upon ratifying the Articles of Confederation, its first constitution. [6]
The clause has served the 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 only with the proper consents. [4] Of the 37 states admitted to the Union by Congress, three were set off from an already existing state:
Since then, 37 states have been admitted into the Union. Each new state has been admitted on an equal footing with those already in existence. [2] Of the 37 states admitted to the Union by Congress, all but six have been established within existing U.S. organized incorporated territories. A state that was so created might encompass all or part ...
Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. [65] no change to map: December 12, 1787 Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the Constitution. [66] December 18, 1787 New Jersey became the third state to ratify the Constitution. [67] January 2, 1788 Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the Constitution. [68]
As Congress failed to act on the petitions, Knox wrote to Gouverneur Morris, four years before the Philadelphia Convention was convened, "As the present Constitution is so defective, why do not you great men call the people together and tell them so; that is, to have a convention of the States to form a better Constitution." [21]
The resulting constitution, which came to be known as the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, provided for a weak central government with little power to coerce the state governments. [4] The first article of the new constitution established a name for the new federation – the United States of America.
Although it was the fifth of the 13 original colonies to join the Union in January 1788, some historians have argued that Connecticut was the first to have a written constitution.
The Signing of the United States Constitution occurred on September 17, 1787, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, representing 12 states (all but Rhode Island, which declined to send delegates), endorsed the Constitution created during the four-month-long convention.