Home > Back to Search Results >
Illinois joins the Union as the 21st state...
Illinois joins the Union as the 21st state...
Item # 701327
December 12, 1818
COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, Dec. 12, 1818
* Illinois statehood
* Joins the Union
The front page has a rather inconspicuous report headed: Journal of 15th Congress" noting in part: "...Messrs. Hunter of R.I. and Edwards and Thomas took their seats this day. The two latter represent the new State of Illinois, the law to admit which into the Union has been signed by the President...The Union is now composed of Twenty-one States...".
Edwards and Thomas were the first two Senators from the new state of Illinois.
The front page also has a lengthy: "Letter of Mr. Jefferson" datelined from Monticello & signed in type: Th. Jefferson.
Four pages, very nice condition.
background: Illinois became the 21st state of the United States on December 3, 1818, following a period of rapid settlement in the Illinois Territory, which had been part of the Northwest Territory. Early political leadership included Shadrach Bond, the first governor, and key figures like Ninian Edwards, who had served as territorial governor and played a major role in guiding Illinois toward statehood, and Nathaniel Pope, the territorial delegate to Congress who successfully lobbied to expand Illinois’s northern boundaries, securing fertile lands along Lake Michigan. Another influential figure, Thomas Ford, though active later as governor in the 1840s, helped shape the early political culture and judicial framework of the state. Illinois’s admission reflected the westward expansion of the United States, with settlers attracted by agriculture, river commerce, and opportunities in frontier towns, while tensions with Native American tribes and debates over slavery in the new state colored its early political life.
Category: Pre-Civil War
Available Now
$64.00
