<Li> In July, 1788, Congress began deliberations on whether to admit Kentucky to the Union . Kentucky was then a part of Virginia . The legislature of Virginia had consented to the creation of the new state from its western district . However, when Congress began to discuss the matter, they received notification that New Hampshire had ratified the Constitution, becoming the ninth state to do so, causing it to go into effect in the ratifying states . Congress instead passed a resolution stating that it was "unadvisable" to admit a new state under those circumstances and the matter should wait until the federal government under the Constitution came into existence . </Li> <P> As a result, no new states were admitted to the Union while the Articles of Confederation was in effect . </P> <P> At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, a proposal to include the phrase, "new States shall be admitted on the same terms with the original States", in the new states clause was defeated . That proposal would have taken the policy articulated in the Ordinance of 1784 and made it a constitutional imperative . Many delegates objected to including the phrase however, fearing that the political power of future new western states would ultimately overwhelm that of the established eastern states . </P> <P> Delegates, understanding that the number of states would inevitably increase, did agree to include wording into this clause to preclude formation of a new state out of an established one without the consent of the established state as well as the Congress . It was anticipated that Kentucky (which was a part of Virginia), Franklin (which was a part of North Carolina, and later became part of the Southwest Territory), Vermont (to which New York asserted a disputed claim), and Maine (which was a part of Massachusetts), would become states . As a result of this compromise, new breakaway states are permitted to join the Union, but only with the proper consents . </P>

In order to be a new state a territory had to have a population of at least