2/1/2011:
North Dakota’s State Senators were reeling on this date in 1933, after Time magazine had just accused them of supporting secession from the United States of America. Once the erroneous story hit newsstands, North Dakotans were shocked by the audacity of their political leaders in Bismarck, and the rest of the country looked on in puzzlement.
What was the North Dakota Senate thinking? Well, to be fair, the story printed by Time was later retracted, having provided a false account of what actually transpired in late January of 1933 when eighty-three year old North Dakota State Senator William Martin rose in the Senate and called on the Western states of the country to secede, believing that the Eastern states were fostering a “financial oligarchy” and that “Wall Street interests [were] seeking to obtain absolute control…” of the Union. During that time of economic hardship, many rural areas in the western half of the country saw a scapegoat to their troubles in the Eastern financial markets, largely blaming the collapse of the stock market and irresponsible investors for the Depression. Senator Martin suggested that thirty-nine Western states secede, and “carry off” the Star-Spangled Banner. Time incorrectly reported on January 30th that Martin’s radical speech was met with raucous applause in the State Senate, and that North Dakota’s senators largely approved the measure. They quoted Senator Bonzer as saying the move was “…a message to the East that North Dakota be recognized and have a place in the Union.” The story made headlines across the country as being the first move toward secession since the Civil War. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the western states did not join the secession bandwagon.
Two weeks later, Time published a retraction, and also a letter of correction that they had received from the North Dakota Senate. The letter contained the full resolution made shortly after Senator Martin’s speech, in which no Senator was found to approve the measure, not one person cheered the recommendation, but which all Senators agreed should be recorded into the assembly’s public record. Apparently, supporting the recording of the speech had been misinterpreted as supporting the idea of secession itself. Ironically, only a year later, North Dakota Governor William Langer would actually threaten secession from the Union when faced with a court order to remove himself from office, although that is a story for another day.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
Time Magazine. States and Cities: Secession. Monday, January 30, 1933. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745017,00.html)
Time Magazine. Letters: Feb. 13, 1933. Monday, February 13, 1933. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745132,00.html)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510004575185973863870474.html
http://www.congressmatters.com/main/82