The most important action by Congress that decided the borders of many states for several years after was the Missouri Compromise. In 1820, Missouri requested to change from a territory to a state. At this point, the clear line between the North and the South was apparent, as the North started to industrialize while the South’s agrarian society grew with the help of a large slave population. Missouri, though submitting itself as a slave state, was clearly north of this social border.

    The territory’s request to become a state created strong tensions in Congress as the issue moved from simple statehood to slavery within the whole Union. Senator Henry Clay, known as the “Great Compromiser” helped create the Missouri Compromise that cooled the conflict; a line along the parallel 36°30' north would separate slave- and non-slave states, Missouri being the one exception. This bill shaped the rest of the country as slave-state Texas came into the Union and changed its border so that it was below this crucial line, thus forming the strange panhandle that is currently a defining feature of Texas.

(Sources: History Channel, The American Pageant)

           
     While the Missouri Compromise was a major obstacle for the Union, Congress kept granting territories statehood throughout the 1830’s and 1840’s. The gold rushes of California, Colorado, and Idaho were the main factors in both states’ borders and statehood. In 1849, the infamous forty-niners settled in California. At the time, government was planning on admitting California with its eastern border at the crest of the Sierra Nevada. The suddenly rich Californians, with the promise of more gold in the Sierra Nevada, rejected this idea and forced Congress to move its border farther west, enclosing all of the gold-rich mountains.

     Colorado and Idaho did not have as much power over Congress as California, but their gold shaped their borders. Colorado was originally in western Kansas territory; as new settlers moved into this area, they called themselves the Territory of Jefferson and eventually applied for statehood. Though Kansas would have benefited largely from the amount of money in Jefferson, they agreed to let Jefferson become its own state because of a large cultural divide: the “original” Kansas was full of agrarian, conservative people, while immigrants and liberals inhabited Jefferson. The split became official, but Congress exerted its power by renaming the state Colorado.

           
     One overarching theme in the US is the difference between the east and the west: while eastern states are largely defined by rivers and lakes (the main source of energy in the 1700’s), western states were created more linearly as railroads became the source of life in cities. There are several other stories that explain the way our states have been shaped.

(Sources: History Channel, The American Pageant)