To quibble with your otherwise excellent answer, the 13 colonies were
never 13 separate states. It was the Continental Congress that declared
independence and that signed and approved the Treaty of Paris.

Of course there was disagreement over the exact status of the states,
especially and most importantly in their control of slavery, in how much
independence a particular state might have. Which side a state stood on
"independent" states depended upon which side of the slavery issue was
being debated. Slave states argued that their citizens could take their
property into *any* state or territory with the protection of the
Federal government, indeed with the interference of the Federal
government in Free States' independent right to control what went on
within the boundaries of the Free States (see Personal Liberty Laws, the
1850 Fugitive Slave Act and the Lemmon case). OTOH, slave states argued
they could ignore treaties or congressional laws when it was convenient
because they were independent. See nullification))

But when a Free State nullified a pro-slavery law (i.e., Ableman v.
Booth), the slave states supported the Federal government in overturning
the independence of the Sovereign State of Wisconsin.

As in most political issues, "independence" depended upon whose ox was
being gored! :>)

Take care,

Bob

Judy and Bob Huddleston
10643 Sperry Street
Northglenn, CO  80234-3612
303.451.6276   [log in to unmask]


In a message dated 10/29/2001 10:55:35 PM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> I have received a
> letter from a child who wants to know why the US was called the United

> States and not the United Colonies, or some other such name. Is there
> a simple answer to this question?
>
>

The simplist answer is that when the "colonies" freed themselves from
Great Britain they considered that they were no longer "colonies" but
were independent "states"  They opted to become one nation in dealing
with the rest of the world and were thus "united".  They really never
gave up their status as "states" and are still called that by the nation
and the states themselves although they have not been allowed to be
"states" since 1865.

If "states" are "united" then the logical name for the organization
would be "The United States of America" since they were all on the North
American continent. I cannot conceive of a more appropriate name.  It
would not be logical to call them merely America since there were
ununited nations on the American continents.  I suppose that they could
have been named something like "Freeland" but I feel that each of the
colonies who now considered themselves as independent states would not
have been willing to be so consolidated together.  The peoples of those
times were more independent minded than are most people of today's USA.

Gordon Reid Hale
Grand Prairie, Texas

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