At 09:11 AM 3/7/2004 -0600 Julia Thompson wrote:
>Did Hawaii become part of the US by treaty? Or the 13 States by
>treaty?
I think that the Articles of Confederation probably qualifies as a
"Treaty." Indeed, it is in many ways analogous to the "Treaty of Rome"
that founded the European Union.
For example, Article II of the Confederation, which appears right after the
name of the Confederation:
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every
power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation
expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
Continuing:
Article III
The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendhip with
each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and
their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other,
against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on
account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatsoever.
Again, under the Articles of Confederation, the United States was probably
much more like the European Union than a proper "country." Every State
had one vote in Congress, and the representatives were paid by each State,
not the Federal Government. The central government only had very limited
powers, with no executive or judiciary, and with each State retaining
"sovereignty... and independence." Indeed each State was permitted to
"equip warships" and to "coin money."
Indeed, most of the Original 13 States had far more of a functioning
government than the Republic of Texas ever did..... which really had little
centralized authority for most, if not all of its history.
>The 13 states decided it was in their best interest to form the
>United States in a unique experiment. I think Hawaii was taken by
>force, but I don't remember my history well enough to say for sure.
>Texas joined the already-existing US under a treaty, and that treaty
>gave it certain rights as a state that other states didn't have. (I
>doubt that the right to split into several states will be exercised
>anytime in the near future, though!)
Actually, Texas did not gain any special rights under the Treaty (It is
also worth noting that Texas' first applications for Statehood were
rejected.) Indeed, if it had done so, those rights would probably be
unconstitutional. All States in the United States are equal.
Every State has the "right" to split into multiple States under Article IV,
Section III:
"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."
In the case of Texas, this provision was not written into the Annexation
because of any special request of the State of Texas, but because the
Southerners wanted the right to be able to produce additional States with
two Senators apiece to preserve balance in the Senate.
In terms of other special rights, the ordinance of annexation requried that
Texas had to cede jurisdiction of any boundary disputes to the Federal
Government. Texas was also given control of its public lands, which I
guess is one difference from the other Western Territories, but this was
done in large part to ensure that Texas would be able to pay off its
substantial debts, and to ensure that its debts would not fall upon the
Federal Government to be repaid.
At any rate, the Federal Government had ownership of public lands in the
other territories largely by default, by virute of having purchased them,
or otherwise negotiated for them in Treaty. Thus, in this sense the
status of public lands in Texas largely parallels those in the Original 13
- but this hardly seems like "certain rights that other States don't have"
to me.
JDG
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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