The most honest thing that can be said about this is that Ohio became a state
around 1803, but the Congress left it slightly ambiguous as to the exact date of
its statehood.
Summarized from BUS&SS:
Pursuant to an enabling act approved April 30, 1802, a convention was held in
Ohio to adopt a state constitution. The convention finished its work on
November 29, 1802, and submitted the product to the Congress for requisite
approval. On February 19, 1803, the Congress passed an act "to provide for the
due execution of the laws of the United States within the State of Ohio." The
same act refers to the adopted state constitution "whereby the said State became
one of the United States of America." Thus, it is clear that Congress had no
lack of recognition of Ohio's admission, however the lack of any specifically
stated effective date led to some confusion. It appears that the federal
territorial officials were not paid beyond the adoption of the state
constitution on November 29, 1802. Over three years later, on February 21,
1806, the Congress appropriated money to pay the back salaries of the governor,
secretary, and judges of the "late Territory" for the interval between the
adoption of the state constitution and March 1, 1803. This was the date upon
which the legislature of the new state first convened and the Territory's
non-voting delegate had left the House of Representatives.
Thus, the 1953 act discussed below reiterated formal recognition of March 1,
1803, as the official effective date of Ohio's admission.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brendan Whyte" <bwhyte@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2004 9:14 PM
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Ohio not part of US until 1803
> Anyone want to comment on this item:
>
> Ohio signed up to join the US in 1803, but was not formally admitted by
> Congress until 7 August 1953, retroactive to 1803!
> (thus there was a large hunk of land in the US that was not a state).
>
> http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_127.html
> It all started when Ohio was preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary
> of its admission to the Union in 1953. Researchers looking for the original
> statehood documents discovered there'd been a little oversight. While
> Congress had approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution, it had never
> passed a resolution formally admitting the future land of the Buckeyes.
> Technically, therefore, Ohio was not a state.
>
> Predictably, when this came to light it was the subject of much merriment.
> One senator joshingly suggested that his colleagues from Ohio were drawing
> federal paychecks under false pretenses.
>
> But Ohio congressman George Bender thought it was no laughing matter. He
> introduced a bill in Congress to admit Ohio to the Union retroactive to
> March 1, 1803. At a special session at the old state capital in Chillicothe
> the Ohio state legislature approved a new petition for statehood that was
> delivered to Washington on horseback. Congress subsequently passed a joint
> resolution, and President Eisenhower, after a few more jokes, signed it on
> August 7, 1953.
>
> But then the tax resisters got to work. They argued that since Ohio wasn't
> officially a state until 1953, its ratification of the 16th Amendment in
> 1911 was invalid, and thus Congress had no authority to enact an income tax.
>
>
> Brendan
>
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