THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION PHILADELPHIA，SEPTEMBER 17，1787.
9.How Interference Is Avoided.It might be thought that so many legislatures might make laws which would interfere with one another.But the Constitution prevents that.In the first place，congress maymake only such laws as the Constitution permits.Then the state legislatures are forbidden to make any laws which shall interfere either with the Constitution or with the laws made by congress.In this way there is very little trouble about the interference of laws.
10.The Old Thirteen.The thirteen colonies which resisted the tyranny of the British government became the thirteen United States.They were New Hampshire，Massachusetts，Rhode Island，Connecticut，New York，New Jersey，Pennsylvania，Delaware，Maryland，Virginia，North Carolina，South Carolina，and Georgia.Some people think thirteen an unlucky number.The success of the old thirteen states，a fact yet brought to mind by the thirteen stripes of the American flag，shows how foolish is such a notion.
11.The New Thirtytwo.When the old thirteen colonies became an independent republic，the land between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River was a wilderness.Very few white men were living scattered among its forests and prairies，and these few were mostly hunters.Wild beasts and wild Indians were almost the only inhabitants of the wild land.
12.All this wilderness belonged to some of the states.What is now the state of Kentucky was a part of Virginia，and what is now Tennessee belonged to North Carolina.The rest of the land of which we are speaking was claimed by several statesGeorgia，South Carolina，Virginia，New York，Connecticut，Massachusetts.
13.But when people crossed the mountains into the woods south of the Ohio River and made their homes there，it was very inconvenient for them to be under the government of Virginia and North Carolina.There were no railroads in those days，and it took many days to go by the forest trails to and fro across the mountains.Then，too，the people east of the mountain range were busy and absorbed in their own affairs，and the settlers in the far west did not find it easy to get such laws as they wanted.So the latter asked to be allowed to form new states.Virginia and North Carolina were willing，and so，in 1792，the congress of the United States admitted Kentucky，and in 1796Tennessee，to the Union.The Constitution gives congress the power to admit new statesto the Union.So every one of the thirtytwo which have come in sincethe old thirteen，has been admitted by an act of congress.
14.Vermont was admitted the year before Kentucky.Both New Hampshire and New York claimed to own the Green Mountains，and，as these states could not agree，the quarrel was settled by allowing Vermont （which means Green Mountains ）to be a separate state.
15.The states which owned，or claimed to own，the land west of the Allegheny Mountains，and not included in the new states of Kentucky and Tennessee，gave all that land to the United States.So congress made the laws for it，and when enough people had made settlements，one portion after another came into the Union as states.In this way were admitted Ohio，Indiana，Illinois，Wisconsin，Michigan，Alabama，and Mississippi.
16.When the revolutionary war was ended，in 1783，the United States was bounded on the west by the Mississippi River.Spain owned everything west of that stream as far as the Pacific.Spain also owned Florida，and the land from Florida to the great river，too.But nearly twenty years later France bought from Spain all that vast area from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and from Texas to British America.And then France sold this land to the United States.This was in 1803，just twenty years after the war of independence.We paid France fifteen millions of dollars，and cheap enough it was at that price.There were not many people there then.The first settlers had been French people；for what Spain sold to France had before that been sold by France to Spain.New Orleans was a French city of no great size in 1803，and a few other French settlements were scattered along the river.But nearly all the land was a wilderness，a sea of treeless prairies，over which roamed herds of buffalo and tribes of wild Indians.
17.Many people in 1803thought it was foolish to give so much money for a great tract of uninhabited land.Very little was known about it，indeed.Few travelers had gone far west of the Mississippi.Strange tales were told “of a tribe of Indians of gigantic stature；of tall bluffs faced with stone and carved by the hand of nature into what seemed a multitude of antique towers；of land so fertile as to yield the necessariesof life almost spontaneously；of an immense prairie covered with buffalo，and producing nothing but grass because the soil was far too rich for the growth of trees；and how，a thousand miles up the Missouri，was a vast mountain of salt！The length was one hundred and eighty miles；the breadth was fortyfive；not a tree，not so much as a shrub was on it；but，all glittering white，it rose from the earth a solid mountain of rocksalt，with streams of saline water flowing from the fissures and cavities at its base！The story，the account admitted，might well seem incredible；but，unhappily for the doubters，bushels of the salt had been shown by traders to the people at St.Louis.”
18.In time，however，people went into the new land across the Mississippi in such numbers that many states have been admitted into the Union from the French purchase Louisiana，Arkansas，Missouri，Iowa，Minnesota，the Dakotas，Nebraska，Kansas.A great part of Montana，Wyoming，and Colorado was also included in the purchase.
19.Florida was bought from Spain in 1819，and some years later became a state of the Union.