The 'United States and Provinces of America'

This is sort of a mixture of a WI and an idea I had earlier based on the argument that all of America's states hold some degree of sovereignty.


Alright, so as we all know the Louisiana Purchase was originally meant to be just the purchase of New Orleans and the surrounding area to safeguard America's transit capabilities of the Mississippi river, and of course as we know the purchase ended up being of a massive chunk of North America the size of (slightly larger?) the United States of the time.

Now the purchase itself was far from universally supported, seeing a great deal of opposition for many reasons, leading to it only being approved by a mere 59/57 vote.


Now for the WI part.

Jefferson, himself becoming concerned about the constitutionality of the purchase in the form it would take* comes up with a different way of purchasing it, that is rather than the United States purchasing it the U.S. government would provide a (highly regulated) loan to Jefferson to purchase it as a private citizen, after which point he would immediately bequeath the land and any and all rights to it to the United States.

Now, let's also say that an increasingly objecting Congress agrees, but with the addition that none of the territory will become states**, eventually leading to the establishment of Provinces once a Territory reached the requisite population number.


Beyond the initial PoD I'm thinking the Provinces woud basically be like States, just with Federal laws trumping Province laws (though not strictly enforced) and not having Senators.



*Jefferson favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution and was called a Hypocrite for supporting the purchase IOTL.
**One of the major reasons the purchase was opposed was because the Atlantic states saw it a threat to their dominance.
 
The land is the collateral... i think

this would also set the precedent for individual land owners buying territory and selling it to the USA to expand. now THAT's capitalism. what happens when someone doesn't want to sell? I see a highly balkanized n. america here
 
The land is the collateral... i think

this would also set the precedent for individual land owners buying territory and selling it to the USA to expand. now THAT's capitalism. what happens when someone doesn't want to sell? I see a highly balkanized n. america here

Well it would'nt be private individuals buying and selling land to the gvernment, rather the government using a middle-man.
 
I don't think that's possible, as Kentucky, Vermont, Ohio and Tennesse were already established as full-fledged states and so the predecent was there (even if you count Vermont as Atlantic anyways). Actually an interesting idea, but such a thing would really be unsustainable and questioned in the long run since the Constitution gauranteed new lands the right to be full-fledged states in time.
 
I don't think that's possible, as Kentucky, Vermont, Ohio and Tennesse were already established as full-fledged states and so the predecent was there (even if you count Vermont as Atlantic anyways). Actually an interesting idea, but such a thing would really be unsustainable and questioned in the long run since the Constitution gauranteed new lands the right to be full-fledged states in time.

It would lead to consitutional issues, yes, though I suspect an amendment would be easy to pass, especialy since it would only be the people who have an interest in no new states being able to vote.

In the long run their would likely be more Constitutional Amendments, especially once the population in the Provinces exceeds that of the states.
 
Top