Virginia’s General Assembly passed an act permitting residents of the District of Kentucky to convene and consider separation from Virginia and admission to the United States—an essential state-consent step under the U.S. Constitution.
A Vermont convention voted (reported as 105–4) to petition the U.S. Congress for admission, signaling the end of Vermont’s period as an independent republic and accelerating federal action.
Congress passed (and President George Washington signed) the act consenting to the creation of Kentucky out of Virginia’s jurisdiction, setting June 1, 1792 as the effective date for Kentucky’s admission.
Congress approved the admission of Vermont, specifying that Vermont would be “received and admitted” to the Union on March 4, 1791—the first state added after the original thirteen.
Vermont entered the Union as the 14th state, resolving long-running New York–New Hampshire land-claim conflicts and bringing a new New England state into the Early Republic.
Kentucky joined the Union on the date set by the 1791 consent act, becoming the first state formed from an existing U.S. state (Virginia) under Article IV’s state-creation rules.
Vermont completed constitutional revisions that are widely cited as making it the first U.S. state constitution to prohibit slavery, shaping Vermont’s legal identity after admission.
Delegates in the Southwest Territory adopted Tennessee’s first state constitution, preparing institutions for statehood that would take effect upon congressional admission.
Congress enacted (and President Washington signed) the statute declaring the former Southwest Territory to be the State of Tennessee, extending federal laws to the new state and setting representation until the next census.
Tennessee entered the Union as the 16th state—often described as the first state created from a federally administered territory—expanding U.S. governance south of the Ohio River.
Congress authorized residents of the eastern portion of the Northwest Territory to form a constitution and state government, launching the formal process that led to Ohio’s statehood.
Elected delegates met in late 1802 to draft Ohio’s first constitution; the convention completed and ratified the document on November 29, establishing the framework for state government.
Congress passed an act providing for execution of U.S. laws in Ohio; while not an explicit admission statute, it treated Ohio as having become a state through the enabling-act process.
Ohio’s generally recognized admission date is March 1, 1803 (a date retroactively fixed by Congress in 1953), completing this early sequence of new-state admissions from Vermont through Ohio.
Admission of New States to the Union: Vermont through Ohio (1791–1803)
