Sunday, August 7, 2011

Happy 58th Birthday to our 49th State...Ohio!

We've been led to believe that Ohio was the 17th US State and the 1st State admitted to the Union under new rules set up in our blossoming country on March 1st, 1803.
It's a lie.
In 1953, while people were preparing for the 150th birthday shindig, laughing to I Love Lucy and enjoying the sweet sounds of Ohio native Dean Martin's hit song, "That's Amore", it was discovered that in 1803 President Jefferson signed off on the borders and State Constitution. Congress, however, didn't formally declare Ohio a US State. Essentially the right paperwork was not done. Oops!

No one was even sure if Ohio's laws were even valid now. So everyone got to work, rolled up their sleeves, took a break from racial segregation and bringing suspected communists to the Loyalty Review Board and they united as one to solve this important problem.
I'm just kidding. No one really took a break from McCarthyism or segregation. This was 1953 and that would go on for a while in the "good ol' days".
Ohio's first statehouse, sort of

They did solve the problem of this low hanging fruit. To remedy this odd situation, the Ohio General Assembly (that technically wasn't even legal when you think about it) approved a new petition for statehood in the old 1803 capital of Chillicothe. Then, in the spirit of 1803 delivered it on horseback (yes really) to Washington DC where Congress then formally declared Ohio a state and President Ike signed it on August 7th, 1953. What about those 150 years? Never fear my dear Ohioans, they made it retroactive to March 1st, 1803.

4 comments:

  1. "...they made it retroactive to 1803." No wonder lawyers-turned-politicians have trouble with Capital T Truth when they can "just make it so" with the flourish of a pen.

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    Replies
    1. That was tough...just to comment, I had to enter my password twice and type the crazy letters twice...that's some good security.

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    2. ...and one more letter thing for the reply...and for this one too!

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  2. I have it setup so anyone can comment even anonymously but the word verification cuts down on spam. The password must be for the Gmail account profile.

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