Puerto Rico Moves on Tennessee Plan
Back in 1796, the Territory of Tennessee decided that Congress was moving too slowly on granting them statehood. In a plebiscite, 73% of the voters had favored statehood, and they were ready to take on the rights and responsibilities of a state. The people of Tennessee declared the territory to be a state, elected senators and congressmen, and sent their representatives to Washington to demand their seats in the Congress.
It wasn’t that simple. Congress refused to accept Tennessee’s representatives and disagreed that Tennessee had the power to declare itself a state. Then as now, territories were under the power of the Congress and couldn’t just decided to become states.
It was just a few months later that Congress admitted Tennessee as a state, though, and the representatives went back to Washington to serve in the Congress.
This method of demanding statehood was used by a number of other territories to speed up the process of becoming a state. It became known as “The Tennessee Plan.”
Read more: http://www.puertoricoreport.com/puerto-rico-moves-tennessee-plan/