Yeah, I guess the U.S. didn’t really own the territories that eventually became the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and the others.
Sure, the States collectively (i.e. "U.S.")
owned the territories, but they never
owned each other (i.e. any States)!
What is so difficult about this concept? Every State
agreed to join the U.S. as a
State regardless of their prior status.
Wiki has a nice list of statehood dates with "preceding entity". Some like WI were U.S. territories. Some were independent sovereign states (RI). Some were extracted from Mexican possession after the Mexican-American War. Some were bought from Russia, France, Spain, etc. But
all voted and agreed to their transition from whatever former entity to sovereign State within the American political union.
If Norway or Belarus decides to join the E.U., does the E.U. thus
create them? Did the E.U.
create Germany, France, et al.? Can States in the E.U. secede? Hint:
"Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements."
Apparently they read their history and didn't want yahoos disputing such an obvious issue of States' rights that they codified it to avoid a "civil war".
Time to let this myth die and move on.
Some like WI were U.S. territories. Some were independent sovereign states (RI). Some were extracted from Mexican possession after the Mexican-American War. Some were bought from Russia, France, Spain, etc. But all voted and agreed to their transition from whatever former entity to sovereign State within the American political union. What you apparently fail to read from your own source is that every one of those, after the initial 13 and with the exception of Texas and, to a lesser extent, California passed through the status of US territory. In the case of California, arguments between slave and free interests and the Wilmot Proviso delayed the organization of the Mexican Cession into a formal territory, and as part of the Compromise of 1850 California was admitted as a state.The other exceptions are Maine and West Virginia, which were broken off from other existing states.
The fact is that the people of a territory can't simply form themselves into a state. The people of a territory tell Congress that they want to be admitted as a state and Congress passes an Enabling Act, giving the people of that territory the authority to form a state. And that permission is not automatic. Colorado started asking for admission in 1864, but it wasn't until 1876 that they were admitted.