Jim Davis

10/16/2014: As one of his last acts as governor of Dakota Territory, A. C. Mellette would meet with Secretary L. B. Richardson and Chief Justice Bartlett Trip in Bismarck on October 17thto certify the fall election. Once that was completed, he would send a certified copy to President Benjamin Harrison along with a copy of the State Constitution. Harrison would then issue the Proclamation of Admission, and Dakota Territory would no longer exist.

10/8/2014: One hundred twenty-five years ago on this date it was a week after the vote on North Dakota's constitution. The votes were still being tallied, but newspaper headlines proclaimed a huge Republican victory and the passage of the Constitution.

9/30/2014: The last week of the campaign had passed quickly, and tomorrow, the 1st of October, 1889, would hopefully change the political face of Dakota Territory forever. For the first time in almost three decades, the people would be free of the political yoke of territorialism, free of carpetbaggers, and free to chart their own destiny. Yet the fate of the Constitution was now in the hands of the voters, and the outcome was uncertain.

9/22/2014: Alexander McKenzie was a powerful man in the political field in Dakota Territory. The Jamestown Alert called him the “noblest Roman of them all” and noted, “Without a doubt the people of North Dakota would turn in and send him – the one man above all others – to the United States Senate… if he would consent himself.”

9/18/2014: On this date in 1889, with only thirteen days remaining before the election to approve the state Constitution and choose North Dakota’s first state officials and legislators, the political parties were working at a frenzied pace.

9/9/2014: Politics reigned supreme this week in 1889. The election was only three weeks away. One of the decisions to be made by each party was the choice of the three candidates for the US Congress.

9/3/2014: The Constitutional Convention was over and it was time to concentrate on the October election. The Republican Convention convened in Fargo on August 22nd with many of the old political war horses already on the ground promoting themselves or their candidates.

8/27/2014: After forty-five days, North Dakota had its Constitution, but where did it come from?

8/21/2014: In the waning days of the convention, the last of the major concerns were addressed. Suffrage was partially adopted, with women voting in school-related elections only. The Australian ballot issue, which involved printed ballots and private voting, was sidestepped when E. A. Williams provided a substitute clause that required the legislature to pass legislation ensuring the secrecy of the ballot. The Prohibition question was not made part of the Constitution, but a fully developed section was created and attached in subscript stating that a Prohibition Clause would be voted upon separately.

8/15/2014: August 15, 1889 marked the forty-third day of the Constitutional Convention, and great strides had been made in cementing a constitution for the State of North Dakota.