Ohio, the 48th State?

On March 1, 1803, Ohio entered the United States as the 17th state. But did it really? A controversy not well known outside of Ohio (but very well-known in Ohio) is the fact that one can argue that Ohio wasn't actually a state until 1953. But how can this be?

Ohio itself came from a large patch of land known as the Northwest Territory. The western part of the Northwest Territory was deemed as Indian territory, but a large part of the eastern section desired to become a state. It was named Ohio which comes from an Iroquois word meaning "great river".

The whole process of becoming a state at the time was still a little undefined. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 stated that a territory from the Northwest Territory could become a state once the population of the territory reached at least 60,000. In 1801, Ohio's population was only 45,000, but Congress saw that Ohio's population was booming, so it was assumed that the population would be 60,000 by the time of statehood. On February 19, 1803, President Jefferson formally signed an act of Congress that approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution. The funny thing is that Congress never passed a resolution to admit Ohio as a state. Louisiana became the next state in 1812, and a tradition began with Congress declaring an official date of statehood. So, since the population wasn't exactly up to the level it should have been, and since Congress didn't formally pass a resolution declaring Ohio a state, one could argue that Ohio wasn't really a state at all.

It was 150 years later that this oversight was found. So, to be formal (and to celebrate Ohio's 150th anniversary), Ohio congressman George Bender formally introduced a bill in Congress retroactively admitting Ohio to the Union. The bill was retroactive to March 1, 1803. On August 7, 1953, President Eisenhower signed the bill retroactively making March 1, 1803, the official date Ohio joined the Union.

Some people look to this event as being very strange, and indeed it is an odd occurrence. There are some who claim that it isn't legal to make retroactive laws, so Ohio should be deemed as a state as of 1953, but others argue that retroactive laws (ex post facto laws) only deal with criminal law. So, in one sense, Ohio was really a state, but the fine details weren't met (that don't really matter); and on the other hand, the tradition of how a state becomes a state didn't really begin (as it is today) until 1812, 9 years after Ohio became a state. This controversy is an interesting one that is still debated, but in the end, Ohio has really been a state since 1803, and nothing has been voided because of Ohio's participation on anything in the previous 200+ years.

Bet you didn't know that!