[Terr_]

> Which is exactly how it’s supposed to work in the first place

True, but that was also when riding on a horse was the fastest way over land and a much much greater proportion of stuff was within state-lines.

In some alternate universe where the telegraph had already been invented, all those states may have entered into some sort of special telegram compact, and our "how it's supposed to work in the first place" would be rather different.

Actually, in this universe something similar did happen: The federal government was explicitly authorized to run a nationwide postal service, which stands out in a Constitution that was otherwise mostly about what it couldn't do.