| District of Maine | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Massachusetts | |||||||||
| 1780–1820 | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 25 October 1780 | ||||||||
• British occupation of the east | September 1814–February 1815 | ||||||||
| March 6, 1820 | |||||||||
• Statehood | 15 March 1820 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Maine | ||||||||
TheDistrict of Maine was the governmental designation for what is now theU.S. state ofMaine from October 25, 1780, to March 15, 1820, when it wasadmitted to the Union as the23rd state. The district was a part of the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts and before American independence had been part of the Britishprovince of Massachusetts Bay.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1760 | 20,000 | — |
| 1770 | 31,257 | +56.3% |
| 1780 | 49,138 | +57.2% |
| 1790 | 96,540 | +96.5% |
| 1800 | 151,719 | +57.2% |
| 1810 | 228,705 | +50.7% |
| 1820 | 298,335 | +30.4% |
| Source: 1760–1780;[1] 1790–1820[2] | ||
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved. Find sources: "District of Maine" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Originally settled in 1607 by thePlymouth Company, the coastal area between theMerrimack andKennebec rivers, as well as an irregular parcel of land between the headwaters of the two rivers, became theprovince of Maine in a 1622land grant. In 1629, the land was split, creating an area between thePiscataqua and Merrimack rivers which became theprovince of New Hampshire. It existed through a series ofland patents made by the kings ofEngland during this era, and included New Somersetshire,Lygonia, andFalmouth. The province was incorporated into theMassachusetts Bay Colony during the 1650s, beginning with the formation ofYork County, Massachusetts, which extended from thePiscataqua River to just east of the mouth of thePresumpscot River inCasco Bay. Eventually, its territory grew to encompass nearly all of present-day Maine. The large size of the county led to its division in 1760 through the creation ofCumberland andLincoln counties.
Thenortheastern portion of present-day Maine was first sparsely occupied byMaliseet Indians andFrench settlers fromAcadia. The lands between the Kennebec andSaint Croix rivers were granted to theDuke of York in 1664, who had them administered asCornwall County, part of his proprietaryProvince of New York. In 1688, these lands (along with the rest of New York) were subsumed into theDominion of New England. English and French claims in western Maine would be contested until the Britishconquest of New France during theFrench and Indian War. With the creation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1692, the entirety of what is now Maine became part of that province.
When Massachusetts adopted itsstate constitution in 1780, it created the District of Maine to manage its northernmost counties, bounded on the west by thePiscataqua River and on the east by the Saint Croix River. By 1820, the District had been further subdivided with the creation ofHancock,Kennebec,Oxford,Penobscot,Somerset, andWashington counties.[citation needed]
A movement for Maine statehood began as early as 1785, and in the following years, several conventions were held to effect this. Starting in 1792, five popular votes were taken but all failed to reach the necessary majorities.[3] During theWar of 1812, British andCanadian forces occupied a large portion of Maine including everything from thePenobscot River east to theNew Brunswick border with the goal of annexing them to Canada as theColony of New Ireland.[4] A weak response by Massachusetts to this occupation and possible British annexation contributed to increased calls in the district for statehood.[citation needed]
TheMassachusetts General Court passed enabling legislation on June 19, 1819, separating the District of Maine from the rest of the Commonwealth.[5] The following month, on July 19, voters in the district approved statehood by 17,091 to 7,132.
| County | For statehood[6] | For status quo[6] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | PCT | Votes | PCT | |
| Cumberland | 3,315 | 70.4% | 1,394 | 29.6% |
| Hancock | 820 | 51.9% | 761 | 48.1% |
| Kennebec | 3,950 | 86.0% | 641 | 14.0% |
| Lincoln | 2,523 | 62.2% | 1,534 | 37.8% |
| Oxford | 1,893 | 77.5% | 550 | 22.5% |
| Penobscot | 584 | 71.7% | 231 | 28.3% |
| Somerset | 1,440 | 85.9% | 237 | 14.1% |
| Washington | 480 | 77.7% | 138 | 22.3% |
| York | 2,086 | 55.9% | 1,646 | 44.1% |
| Total: | 17,091 | 70.6% | 7,132 | 29.4% |
The results of the election were presented to theMassachusetts Governor's Council on August 24, 1819.[6] TheMaine Constitution was unanimously approved by the 210 delegates to the MaineConstitutional Convention in October 1819. On February 25, 1820, the General Court passed a follow-up measure officially accepting the fact of Maine's imminent statehood.[5]
At the time of Maine’s request for statehood, there were an equal number offree and slave states. Pro-slavery members of theUnited States Congress saw the admission of another free state, Maine, as a threat to the balance between slave and free states. They would support statehood for Maine only ifMissouri Territory, where slavery was legal, would be admitted to the Union as a slave state. Maine became the nation's 23rd state on March 15, 1820, following theMissouri Compromise, which allowedMissouri to enter the Union as a slave-holding state and Maine as a free state.[7]
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromToday in History – March 15: The Pine Tree State.Library of Congress. RetrievedJuly 30, 2017.
