In the context of “the United States,” what exactly is a “State?”

Today, it seems obvious to us, but remember that in 1776 there were “States” that shared their governor. At least one of the “States” technically wasn’t a State at all, but rather a dubiously area of leased lands, that while it had its own legislative body, it was only because the State that “owned” the land didn’t like the people who lived there and didn’t want them voting in their elections and legislature. In June of 1776, the leased lands fixed that by declaring their Independence, three weeks before the entire nation did the same thing.

At any rate, the whole question of new States would vex the nation from the very beginning. By the middle of July in 1787, there were two distinct schools of thought about the concept of adding new States to the Union. They can be briefly summarized as follows:

One side said, “DO NOT add new States.”

The other side said… “DO add new States.”

And while many of the Philadelphia convention delegates leaned into the second thought, there were others who acted to make certain that the second way of thinking would prevail…

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