STATEHOOD. Following the Revolution, frontier settlers
who resented being ruled from Boston pressed for separation from
Massachusetts.
Coastal merchants, who held the balance of political power at
the time, resisted the separation movement until the War of 1812
showed that Massachusetts was unable or unwilling to provide adequate
protection for the people of the district against British raids.
With popular sentiment unified behind statehood, the separation
movement went forward. Congress established Maine as the 23rd
state under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This arrangement
allowed Maine to join the Union as a free state, with Missouri
entering a year later as a slave state, thereby preserving the
numerical balance between free and slave states in the nation.
By this time the population of Maine had reached nearly 300,000.
The new state had nine counties and 236 towns.
Delegates met for three weeks in October of 1819 in Portland to
hammer out a state constitution, a document strongly rooted in
political independence, religious freedom and popular control
of government.
The president of the convention was William King, a prominent
Bath merchant and shipbuilder who subsequently became Maine's
first governor.
Portland was selected as the state capital, but this was only
temporary. In 1832 the capital was moved to Augusta, a more centrally
located site.