10/1/2008:
“An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two States and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington to form constitutions and State governments and to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.” Thus read the Enabling Act of 1889, approved by the Fiftieth Congress on February 22, of that year. It set into motion the final division of Dakota Territory into two separate states as well as the creation of Montana and Washington.
Although the Enabling Act of 1889 set the ball rolling towards North Dakota statehood, the northern half of Dakota Territory had far to go before it could place its own star upon the flag. It still had to approve a state constitution. The North Dakota Constitutional Convention took place throughout the summer of 1889, and like so many other official assemblies, it was a messy affair. Cities and townships fought for the placement of government institutions in their communities. Jamestown vied with Bismarck for the permanent capital but settled for the state hospital, Mayville, Fargo and Grand Forks each competed for their pick of new state educational institutions. And somewhere in the regional jockeying the main articles of the constitution managed to be brought to a vote. On July 20, 1889, an early draft of the North Dakota Constitution was first introduced under the less than auspicious title of “File Number 106.”
File Number 106, also known as the Williams Constitution, contained many of the provisions integrated into the final constitution passed by the convention. It laid out the rights of the population, made clear who was eligible to vote, and set out the duties of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
The origin of the Williams Constitution was not initially known. Rumors were circulated by the New York Times that William Evarts, former Secretary of State and notable Senator from New York was paid $500 by a number of Burleigh County cattle barons to draft the document. Only later was it revealed that the Williams Constitution, the source for a large portion of the final constitution, was actually written by Professor James Bradley Thayer of the Harvard School of Law. His work was not at the request of cattle interests, but the finance chairman of the Northern Pacific Railway. One may find it peculiar that the author of such an important document would initially remain nameless. However, as the document was written by an East Coast professor, with help from a Wall Street lawyer and at the behest of one of the heads of the largest railroad interest in the territory, the backers of the Williams Constitution felt that should the document’s background be known its prominent association with out-of-state interests would hurt its chances to pass.
Despite its out-of-state origin many aspects of the Williams Constitution were adopted in the final draft of the Constitution of North Dakota which was approved on this day, October 1, 1889.
Written by Lane Sunwall
Sources:
Chiorazzi, Michael, and Marguerite Most, eds. Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the Districk of Columbia. Vol. 2, N-W: Haworth Press, 2005.
"Evarts, William Maxwell, (1818-1901)", United States Congress http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000262 (accessed September 18, 2008).
"It Is No Longer a Secret; North Dakota's Complete Constitution Explained." New York Times, July 31 1889.
Journal of the Constitutional Convention for North Dakota, 1889.
Lounsberry, Clement Augustus. Early History of North Dakota: Essential Outlines of American History. Washington, D.C.: Liberty Press, 1919.
State of North Dakota, "Constitution of the State of North Dakota" http://www.legis.nd.gov/constitution/const.pdf (accessed September 18, 2008).
State of Washington, "Enabling Act" http://www.leg.wa.gov/History/State/enabling.htm (accessed September 18, 2008).