If you're a scraper, please click the link below :- Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. On February 6, , Massachusetts Bay Colony was no longer. Just 12 years after the United States became a country, Massachusetts joined the Union and became its sixth state. But reaching this status required more than a simple declaration. Joining the group and adhering to the Constitution put a lot at stake, and it took the Massachusetts Ratifying Committee nearly a month to reach a conclusion that satisfied everyone.
In one corner were the Federalists, who were eager to sign on the dotted line. Granted statehood in , Washington was named in honor of George Washington; it is the only U. At Four Corners, in the southeast, Utah meets Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona at right angles, the only such meeting of states in the country.
Utah became the 45th member of the union on Jan. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Deconstructing History: Empire State Building. Washington, D. Lizzie Borden - Meek or Murderess? But after Shays' rebellion caused such havoc in western Massachusetts, Maine merchants worried that they would need the power of Massachusetts if they were ever faced with a similar uprising. They decided to express their grievances rather than push for statehood. Their list of grievances was long, and their egalitarian, fiercely democratic politics made them eager to break with Massachusetts.
But with the continued growth of the population outside established coastal towns, frustration spread to inland farmers. Unlike the coastal merchants, these folks had no common interest with the men who ruled Massachusetts and Maine. By these inland farmers were leading the drive for statehood.
The most common complaint was the distance Mainers had to travel to reach the General Court in Boston. A further irritant was the fact that Maine towns were under-represented in the Massachusetts legislature. Another source of dissatisfaction was a law that reduced the price of Maine lumber, enriching Massachusetts at the expense of Maine. And Massachusetts tax laws appeared unfair to Maine farmers. For example, they complained bitterly that because the cost of raising sheep in Maine was so much higher than in Massachusetts, their sheep should be taxed at a lower rate.
The War of destroyed any affection that Mainers may have retained for Massachusetts. The Massachusetts General Court failed to take any action to protect Maine.
It was clear that, lacking the votes to influence the legislature, Maine could expect its interests to be sacrificed to those of Massachusetts. Vigorous campaigning for statehood began in The bill for Maine's statehood came before Congress in December of , just at the time that the slave-holding territory of Missouri was campaigning for statehood.
Over the next four years, Maine passed several referendums supporting statehood, but none of them persuaded the Massachusetts General Court to take action. Finally, in the summer of , the people of Maine voted so overwhelmingly for statehood that Massachusetts could no longer ignore the issue.
Delegates gathered in Portland in October to frame a constitution for their new state. Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution on February 6, , by a vote of to In June, when New Hampshire came on board as the ninth state to ratify, adoption of the Constitution was guaranteed. Its formal enactment, on April 30, , coincided with George Washington's inauguration as the first president of the United States. The Massachusetts Historical Society holds correspondence from delegates who attended the convention in Boston in , as well as many accounts of the convention by contemporary observers.
Another connection also ties the ratification of the Constitution to the Society's history: after the delegates first gathered in the Old State House, they moved briefly to the Brattle Street Church and finally settled in the church of the Reverend Jeremy Belknap, who would soon after lead the founding of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
0コメント