[f. STATE sb. + -HOOD.] The condition or status of a political state (see STATE sb. 30, 31), Chiefly with reference to the U.S.
1804. Aurora General Advertiser, 22 Sept., 2/4. An officer appointed by the President, as the governor of Louisiana now is, presided, as governor of the western territory, over all such parts as have not arrived at the maturity of statehood.
1868. N. Y. Times, 8 June., 8/1. Why indeed should the Federal Senate be organized on the basis of an extinct statehood?
1881. Jefferson Davis, Rise & Fall Confed. Govt., I. 290. The comparative claims of Statehood and Union.
1906. Outlook, 29 Dec., 819/1. That indiscriminate turmoil through which Russia has yet to fight her way to coherent statehood.
1911. Times, 19 April, 8/4. When Utah was admitted to Statehood in 1896 the prohibition of polygamy was made an article of the State Constitution.
