by Lenna Gonya

Created on: November 28, 2009   Last Updated: November 19, 2010

Most people, including Ohioans would be amazed to find out that Ohio's official declaration of legal statehood was not made until August 7, 1953. Even though the historical date of Ohio's statehood is March 1, 1803, the actual official declaration of legal statehood was not made until  President Eisenhower signed an act making it legal, one hundred and fifty years later.

President Jefferson had approved the boundaries and constitution of Ohio Feb. 19, 1803, but Congress never formally passed a resolution admitting Ohio as a state. The act of declaring states formally did not officially begin until 1812.

In 1953, a congressman from Ohio decided to rectify this oversight, and introduced a bill admitting Ohio to the Union retroactively, back to March, 1803. The bill was introduced by Congressman, George H. Bender in Chillicothe, the old state capitol, and the petition for statehood was symbolically sent off to Washington on horseback.

However, ultimately, Ohio owed it's statehood to President Thomas Jefferson.

From 1787 until 1803, the land that is now the state of Ohio was part of the Northwest Territory. It was during this era that several groups laid claim to sections of the Ohio Territory. Marietta was founded by the Ohio Company, Revolutionary War veterans, on the Ohio river. The Miami Company laid claim to the southwestern part of the territory, and, the Connecticut Land Company settled the northeast. The rest of the Northwest Territory was part of an area known as the Ohio and Illinois Country, and it was from all this land that Illinois, Indiana, and the Ohio boundaries were carved.

Carving the state of Ohio from the Northwest Territory proved to be more of a challenge than anyone expected.

According to the Northwest Ordinance, a territory needed a population of 60,000 in order to apply for statehood, and, by 1803, it was assumed that there were sufficient people in the Ohio territory to make it a state.

The Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Worthington, Michael Baldwin, Edwin Tiffin, and Nathaniel Massie, wanted the boundaries to be basically as they are today. The Federalist Party, led by the Governor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair, insisted that the boundary of Ohio be at the Scioto River. Since the population of a territory was required to reach 60,000 before statehood, the small areas formed by the Federalist plan would make it nearly impossible for Ohio to become a state. The Federalists reasoned that if they kept the territory cut up into smaller sections, they could retain control over it.

The Democratic-Republicans appealed to the federal government for help in settling the matter, claiming that in the near future, Ohio would certainly reach the population limit, and statehood procedures should begin immediately. President Thomas Jefferson, who happened to be a Democratic- Republican, agreed with them and signed the Enabling Act, which would allow Ohio to become a state as soon as possible.

Not to be defeated, Governor St. Clair urged the delegates at Ohio's first state convention to ignore the President and the Enabling Act. Unfortunately for the Governor, the news got back to the President. St. Clair lost his position as Governor of the Northwest Territory, and plans moved forward for Ohio's statehood.




http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=530

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