Eh, maybe the war would’ve been less bloody, but Lincoln was pretty set on preserving the Union no matter what. He was willing to let slave states keep their slaves as long as new slave states were not admitted. He was pretty adamant that secession was illegal though.
While the technical mechanism for opposing secession turned on federal property, Lincoln had no intention of letting states secede under any terms.
You are counting Kentucky. I was disputing Kentucky, on the grounds that Virginia gave up Kentucky before the Constitution. The various dates are still not clear to me. It is clear that Virginia agreed to give up Kentucky, and tried to give up Kentucky, before the Constitution, but it ratified its decision to give up Kentucky after the constitution. So perhaps it is possible for a state, on its own, to get rid of part of itself. OTOH, Virginia was giving that land up for Kentucky to become a state, and it is still unclear to me whether that area would have remained part of Virginia had not Congress agreed to admit Kentucky.
And further, the Kentucky / Virginia case is not a case of a state letting part of itself leave the US (leave US jurisdiction).
No, you asked what state had split after becoming a state. Virginia became a state in July 1776, at which time it included present-day Kentucky, which split off in December 1776.
What’s different about Virginia / Kentucky is that Kentucky did not immediately become a state.
Maybe it’s more analogous to Maryland / DC. And for that matter Virginia and DC although Virginia ended up getting their land back.
Not worth researching the history of what was asked when. I thought the issue of a state splitting was related to the question of secession. Perhaps not.
And, while not worth worrying about since I’ve forgotten what the initial question was, it remains unclear to me whether Virginia gave up Kentucky before or after the Constitution was adopted. Because if it were done by a state, but before the Constitution, that might not be a precedent for what a state could do now.
Thread title verified.
Until your post, yes.
Sorry for the intrusion!
Yes, that’s what happened.
07/04/1776 - Virginia statehood
12/31/1776 - Virginia / Kentucky split
06/25/1788 - Virginia ratifies Constitution
06/01/1792 - Kentucky admitted as a state
So I’ll grant you it’s in a different category than West Virginia.
Interestingly the “Northwest” territories (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin) had their statehood paths dictated by the Northwest Ordinance… legislation passed by the Congress of the Confederation, pre-Constitution, and those rules still applied post-Constitution to the Northwest Territories. So they had to adhere to rules that no longer exist.
One such rule is setting aside a township for the purpose of higher education. IIRC, Michigan designated Ann Arbor (University of Michigan) and Ohio designated Oxford (Miami University). I’m not positive about Indiana, Illinois or Wisconsin.