Results navigation
2. Maine 1820 State Senate, Hancock County
3. Maine 1820 State Senate, Kennebec County
4. Maine 1820 State Senate, Kennebec County, Special
5. Maine 1820 State Senate, Lincoln County
6. Maine 1820 State Senate, Oxford County
7. Maine 1820 State Senate, Penobscot County
8. Maine 1820 State Senate, Somerset County
9. Maine 1820 State Senate, Washington County
10. Maine 1820 State Senate, York County
11. Maine 1821 State Senate, Cumberland County
12. Maine 1821 State Senate, Hancock County
13. Maine 1821 State Senate, Hancock County, Republican Nomination
14. Maine 1821 State Senate, Lincoln County
15. Maine 1821 State Senate, Oxford County
16. Maine 1821 State Senate, Penobscot County
17. Maine 1821 State Senate, Somerset County
18. Maine 1821 State Senate, Washington County
19. Maine 1821 State Senate, York County
20. Maine 1822 State Senate, Cumberland County
21. Maine 1822 State Senate, Cumberland County, Special
22. Maine 1822 State Senate, Hancock County
23. Maine 1822 State Senate, Kennebec County
24. Maine 1822 State Senate, Lincoln County
25. Maine 1822 State Senate, Oxford County
26. Maine 1822 State Senate, Penobscot County
27. Maine 1822 State Senate, Penobscot County, Special
28. Maine 1822 State Senate, Somerset County
29. Maine 1822 State Senate, Somerset County, Special
30. Maine 1822 State Senate, Washington County
31. Maine 1822 State Senate, York County
32. Maine 1822 State Senate, York County, Special
33. Maine 1823 State Senate, Cumberland County
34. Maine 1823 State Senate, Hancock County
35. Maine 1823 State Senate, Kennebec County
36. Maine 1823 State Senate, Lincoln County
37. Maine 1823 State Senate, Oxford County
38. Maine 1823 State Senate, Penobscot County
39. Maine 1823 State Senate, Somerset County
40. Maine 1823 State Senate, Washington County
41. Maine 1823 State Senate, York County
42. Maine 1824 State Senate, Cumberland County
43. Maine 1824 State Senate, Cumberland County, Special
44. Maine 1824 State Senate, Hancock County
45. Maine 1824 State Senate, Kennebec County
46. Maine 1824 State Senate, Lincoln County
47. Maine 1824 State Senate, Lincoln County, Special
48. Maine 1824 State Senate, Oxford County
49. Maine 1824 State Senate, Penobscot County
50. Maine 1824 State Senate, Somerset County
Results navigation
The pursuit of statehood dominated Maine politics between 1787 and 1820, when it finally achieved statehood separate from Massachusetts. Until 1820, the District of Maine simply comprised the eastern counties of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and thus shared all its political characteristics (see Massachusetts entry). There were significant efforts at statehood in 1788–1789, 1792, 1803, 1816, but the district's populous coastal communities proved unwilling to sever their connections with the Commonwealth.
After 1803 the statehood issue increasingly became identified with Jeffersonianism. Backcountry residents became increasingly restive, in no small part because of antipathy to absentee proprietors who owned vast swathes of Maine's undeveloped hinterland. The situation remained volatile until the issue became politicized by Jeffersonian leaders who saw a chance to land a major blow against the Boston-based Federalist elite. The dominant figure in the struggle for statehood was William King, a wealthy merchant who based his political career on the grievances of squatters and religious dissenters such as himself. In a timely defection, in 1803 he became a Republican, portending the district's conversion; in 1805 the District of Maine voted for a Jeffersonian gubernatorial candidate, and a majority of its voters never supported Federalism thereafter.
The War of 1812 proved a catalyst for statehood. Militarily abandoned by Massachusetts, Mainers increasingly realized that only statehood would endow them with a political voice. Yet an 1816 statehood effort failed. Stung by the defeat, King realized that Maine's coastal communities would not break with old Massachusetts as a consequence of a peculiarity in federal navigation laws. Utilizing his political connections in Washington, King helped refashion national maritime policies in such a way that separation did not threaten the shipping trades so essential to Maine's coastal communities. With this obstacle removed, in July 1819 an election based on separation passed in all nine Maine counties; by October, representatives held a constitutional convention.
Maine's constitution departed significantly from that of Massachusetts and can be seen as a triumph of Jeffersonian principles. It guaranteed freedom of both speech and press; absolute freedom of religion; and universal male suffrage for those over twenty-one, with no property qualifications whatever and no racial restrictions. Maine's legislature was bicameral, featuring a House of Representatives and a Senate, with November elections every two years for both houses. Unlike Massachusetts, which, to ensure the dominance of Suffolk County, based the number of senators on each county’s wealth, Maine apportioned senators on the basis of population.
The new state's executive powers were somewhat altered from those of old Massachusetts, which arguably had the strongest governorship in the nation, but they nonetheless remained strong. Governors were not required to be Christians, and they served a four-year term. There was no lieutenant governor; the president of the Senate was designated the successor to any governor incapacitated. The combined Senate and House elected a seven-member council to assist the governor.
Congress approved Maine's statehood in 1820 as part of the "Missouri Compromise." Given his prominence in the statehood movement, it is appropriate that King became Maine's first governor.
Bibliography
- Banks, Ronald F.
Maine Becomes a State: The Movement to Separate Maine from Massachusetts, 1785–1820. Middletown, CT: Published for the Maine Historical Society by Wesleyan University Press, 1970. - Formisano, Ronald P.
The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s–1840s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. - Goodman, Paul.
The Democratic-Republicans of Massachusetts; Politics in a Young Republic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964. - Leamon, James S.
Revolution Downeast: The War for American Independence in Maine. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993. - Marini, Stephen A.
Radical Sects of Revolutionary New England. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. - Taylor, Alan.
Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760–1820. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia. - Williamson, William D.
The History of the State of Maine: From Its First Discovery, A.D. 1602, to the Separation, A.D. 1820, Inclusive. Hallowell, ME: Glazier, Masters and Co., 1832.
State Senate
The upper house of the State Legislature. Until 1792, the upper house in Delaware was the Council. Until 1819, the upper house in Connecticut was the Council of Assistants. By 1825, all of the states had an upper house called the State Senate except New Jersey, whose upper house was the Legislative Council and Vermont, which had a unicameral legislature.
1787 - 1825: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Office Scope: State
Role Scope: State (Connecticut) / County / District / City / Parish