Thread by @IJSanders

1. No, Oregon’s constitution did not die of dysentery. This week on #50Weeks50Constitutions we journey down that Trail. The state (which locals will remind you is pronounced Or-ih-gEn”) adopted its constitution in 1857 & stuck with it, though with many amendments over the years.

2. The US AND UK jointly possessed “Oregon Country” from 1818 until 1846. This uneasy equilibrium extended all the way from Alaska (Russia) to California (Spain then Mexico). The non-native presence was virtually non-existent, with the Hudson’s Bay Co having the biggest impact.

3. After a couple decades things suddenly went very Americana. In 1840 there were 150 US citizens in Oregon Country. 5 years later that grew to 5000 with most settling in the Willamette Valley. Then a 1846 treaty left the land south of the 49th Parallel under complete US control.

4. Eleven years later, sixty delegates met in Salem to draft a constitution. A majority of them were farmers, and many relatively new to Oregon (Portlandia is nothing new). One of the newer delegates brought a copy of the Indiana Constitution which served as the starting point.

5. Many other Midwestern state constitutions served as a model for the delegates chosen for Oregon’s constitutional convention. Prompting some commenters to lament a lack of originality in Oregon’s Constitution.

6. One theme that permeated the entire convention was thriftiness. The farmer delegates & most Oregonians chose quite Oregon instead of the California gold rush. The few paid officials at the convention has multiple duties and no official reporter was even hired.

7. The convention avoided the slavery question and instead submitted it directly to the voters along with the new constitution. The voters approved the Constitution, and rejected slavery, but voted to prohibit free African Americans from entering the state.

8. The voters approved the Constitution in 1857, but Oregon did not become a state until 1859. Debates over slavery & the controversy over Kansas stalled discussions, along with debates over whether Oregon even had a large enough population to qualify for statehood.

9. The convention had an interesting debate over the Bill of Rights. The former Chief Justice of the Oregon Territory (and future U.S. AG) George Williams advocated against adopting a separate Bill of Rights because they had caused too much consternation in other states.

10. Williams instead advocated the drafters place any important provisions directly in the text of the other articles. But his arguments did not persuade the delegates. They not only adopted a separate Bill of Rights but placed it first in the Constitution.

11. This Bill of Rights has numerous sections which protected religious freedom and a Baby Ninth Amendment which the Oregon Supreme Court relied on to invalidate a zoning ordinance that prevented the opening of a private catholic school.

12. This Constitution, like most constitutions of the age, placed stricter limits on legislative powers, including a prohibition on establishing banks and a single-subject rule for legislation. It also established a Supreme Court elected directly by the people.

13. The Oregon Constitution went unamended in its first 40 years. In fact, the process laid out for amendments by the original Constitution was used only once. It was used for the only time in 1902 to add additional processes for amendment, including through initiative.

14. Since 1902 the initiative process has been used to amend the Constitution over 240 times. Voters can use the same exact process to add statutes to the codebook. The required vote threshold is the same for each!

15. Some #Oregonians have advocated for a new constitution over the years. The voters approved the establishment of a constitutional commission in 1960. This commission drafted a new constitution and submitted it to the legislature, but the Oregon Senate rejected it in 1963.

16. The legislature modified this constitution over the next few years and eventually sent it to the people in 1970. But the people soundly rejected it. In 2009 the Oregon House considered a bill that would create a new constitution convention, but the bill was never approved.

17. Oregonians seem to be happy with their Constitution. It certainly has provisions that, under conventional wisdom, are more appropriate for a code book but that is part of the fun of exploring state constitutions and the fun of #50Weeks50Constitutions.

18. Each constitution has its own unique history, which is one reason why judges should independently interpret their state’s constitution instead of reflexively adopting whatever federal judges have held with respect to seemingly analogous provisions in the U.S. Constitution.

19. Sources for this week’s edition of #50Weeks50Constitutions:

sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhib…; sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhib…; osbar.org/publications/b…; sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Page…; scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1…; scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1…
washington.edu/uwired/outreac…