How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [28]
Eastwardly and westwardly they shall be bounded, those on the Mississippi by that river on one side and the meridian of the lowest point of the rapids of Ohio on the other; and those adjoining on the east by the same meridian on their western side and on their eastern by the meridian of the western cape of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway [the present-day Kanawha River].
In effect, Jefferson proposed two tiers of states with slightly different dimensions to mitigate differences in resources. While his lines do not appear on the American map, their prototypical dimensions do. Indeed, two tiers of states ultimately did emerge, side by side, further west: Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota all have three degrees of height. Neighboring them, the mountainous states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana all have four degrees of height. Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, and South Dakota all have seven degrees of width, as do (allowing for coastal wiggles) Oregon and Washington.
Ghosts of Jefferson: prototype shapes
When did Congress begin fiddling with this Founding Father’s vision? Answer: eighteen days after his report. The report was delivered to Congress on March 1, 1784, and on March 19 Congress began altering it. Three days later, Jefferson presented additional revisions, to which additional amendments were made the following month. But the largest change came in 1787, when Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance. Jefferson’s proposed state names were now gone and, with the Northwest Ordinance, his proposed boundaries were also swept under the carpet. Moreover, the new proposed state borders were now confined solely to the Northwest Territory.
By then Jefferson himself was no longer in Congress; in fact, he was no longer in the country. He was in Paris, serving as the American ambassador to France. But he was not happy with what Congress was doing to his plan. The Northwest Ordinance stipulated that the region would be divided into “not less than three nor more than five States.” It then described where those divisions were located. These new boundaries were largely the work of Jefferson’s fellow Virginian (and fellow future president) James Monroe. Jefferson wrote to Monroe, his friend and protégé:
Borders stipulated in Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Will their inhabitants be happiest divided into states of 30,000 square miles, not quite as large as Pennsylvania, or into states of 160,000 square miles?… They will not only be happier in states of a moderate size, but it is the only way in which they can exist as a regular society. Considering the American character in general … a state of such extent as 160,000 square miles would soon crumble into little ones … and if they decide to divide themselves, we are not able to restrain them. They will end up by separating from our confederacy and becoming its enemies.4
Indeed, 160,000 square miles is the approximate size of the westernmost state proposed in the Northwest Ordinance, composed of present-day Illinois, Wisconsin, and regions of Minnesota and Michigan. Had such a state ultimately been created, it would be roughly the size of California.
As can be seen on today’s map, Congress eventually divided the Northwest Territory into five states. It also relocated numerous borders stipulated in the Northwest Ordinance. Nevertheless, each of the states that finally emerged exceeds 30,000 square miles.
Knowing when Congress tinkered with Jefferson’s vision begs the more important question: why? The congressional resolution that ultimately altered Jefferson’s boundaries stated that increased knowledge of the regions involved revealed that some of the proposed states would be deprived of navigation and others would consist almost entirely of barren mountain land. Indeed, this was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth. The rest of the story wasn’t openly revealed in Congress until 1845, during