Is America About To Welcome New States?

Puerto Rico has often been voiced as a possible 51st state, but most Puerto Ricans in national referendums have preferred their status as a U.S. territory with American citizenship but quasi-independence from the mainland and lacking voting rights in national elections or any representatives in Congress (Puerto Rice has non-voting delegates).

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But this post is not about Puerto Rice, but about efforts to establish new American states cut from existing mainland states. Needless to say, secession has a precedent in American history. But the bloody history of the Civil War (which say more American deaths than any other war) has put an effective lid on succession ideas since then.

But they have always existed in America and continue to be voiced in fringe circles. This is not surprising in a nation as massive - in land and demographics - as America. There will always be people who think that their lives would be better off if their territory simply became a new country so then they would not have to suffer the legislations that is born in Washington.

And in the Obama Era calls for succession have grown and actually been voiced by some prominent officials. The governor of Texas (and Texas used to be its own country after its war of colonial conquest from Mexico) Rick Perry not too long ago even voiced support for the idea of succession in objection to fiscal policies of the Obama administration. He later went moot on the idea and accepted federal stimulus money which he previously criticized and cited as a reason for considering secession. Many Americans like Perry worry that President Obama is attempting to create a socialist republic and destroy the American way of life and that the only salvation lies in creating a new country by breaking off from liberal states.

But beyond an extreme right-wing fringe such views do not hold much attraction with regards to Obama being a pretext. But that does not mean that there are not other reasons and other regions where secessionist fervor thrives. There are.

And some were profiled in the Wall Street Journal:

Long Island's latest quest to split from New York and become its own state had a promising start last year. Legislators in Suffolk county, upset over a new payroll tax to fund New York City's subways, voted 12-6 in favor of a secession plan. It seemed viable: In terms of square miles, Long Island is bigger than Rhode Island; its gross state product would be larger than that of 20 states. Some optimists even proposed a state bird: the duck.

Objections from the rest of New York effectively killed the idea, but attempts to make Long Island a state will almost certainly return. The proposal was just the most recent in a series of statehood crusades, usually arising from complaints of unfair taxation. During a campaign in the 1890s, one proponent—Long Island sugar magnate Adolph Mollenhauer—said, "We're tired of bosses and bossism." His quote could be the rallying cry of any number of secessionist movements.

Across the country, there have been a persistent and surprising number of attempts to redraw borders and create new states. Last month, objecting to proposals to create a national park in northern Maine, State Rep. Henry Joy submitted legislation to split his state in two. He suggested calling the southern part "Northern Massachusetts," a thinly veiled insult that assured rejection of the legislation. In recent years, new state proposals have cropped up in Florida, Washington, Kansas and Maryland.

Modern quests for statehood may seem like nothing more than odd footnotes, because Americans have largely forgotten that adding and dividing states is one of the primary mechanisms used throughout U.S. history to solve problems and redress grievances. As far back as the proposed state of Franklin in 1785, disaffected regions have attempted to cleave themselves from their mother states. Like most subsequent secessionist movements, the Franklinites believed that the established state government (North Carolina, in this case) wasn't responding to their needs. So, in a workmanlike manner, Franklin unilaterally adopted a constitution, established courts, and elected a governor, John Sevier. Then they decided not to collect any taxes, which meant the state had no revenue to pay a militia. Without a militia, Franklin quickly crumbled.

This sort of idealistic optimism—at the core of the American psyche—is amplified in secessionist movements. We're a can-do people, and if we don't like our state government, we are quite prepared to make a new one. Sometimes the fervor pushes secessionists to the next level, and they attempt to leave the union altogether. The outcome of the Civil War is no deterrent to the outraged. North Dakotans proposed leaving the nation in 1933; Texas governor Rick Perry flirted with the notion in 2009; and just last week, Republicans in Minnesota's 5th District passed a secession resolution.

A look at some would-be states.

Boston

Population: 630,000

Angry over a $600,000 tax that Boston was supposed to pay for funding schools statewide in 1919, a state representative filed a bill for the city to secede. Today, it's more populated than Wyoming.

Puerto Rico

Population: 3.8 million

Puerto Rico currently handles its own internal affairs, while the U.S. government controls areas like foreign relations and interstate trade. It's similar in size to Connecticut and has more citizens than about half the 50 states.

Long Island

Population: 2.9 million

If it became a state, as some local legislators proposed last year, Long Island would have the highest median household income of any state in the country. Its economy is roughly the size of Kuwait's.

Albania

Population: 3.6 million

It may not be a practical idea, given the fact that it's in Europe. But in the early 1990s, some pro-American Albanians pushed for a referendum to declare their country the 51st state.

Washington, D.C.

Population: 592,000

In 1982 residents voted to make the District of Columbia a state, but Congress denied the bid. Suggested names included Columbia, New Columbia and Hobson. Several groups continue the quest for statehood today.

Seceding from the nation is illegal and, practically speaking, impossible. But seceding from a state to form a new state is allowed by the U.S. Constitution—and the specifications are straightforward. Article IV Section 3 says a proposal first needs to get the approval of the existing state legislature. Dozens of plans have been debated in statehouses over the years, and in a handful of cases, legislatures have passed measures to split their states. In 1819, for example, the Massachusetts legislature voted to release its northern district—unconnected to the rest of the state—to become the new state of Maine.

I personally would like it if southern California became its own state divorced from the destructive force in Sacramento. And progressive northern Virginia would be better without the often benighted right-wing, Christian Right Rednecks in the southern part of the state whom recently elected a governor who has declared an entire month to celebrate the original secession of the Confederate states and the Civil War without once mentioning slavery.