1. This week’s edition of #50Weeks50Constitutions travels to one of the least visited states in the country: North Dakota. The #PeaceGardenState, & home of Roger Maris, still operates under its 1889 Constitution, though it has been amended frequently over the intervening decades. 
2. The U.S. gained control over the land that would eventually become ND through the Louisiana Purchase, but it took a while for the push for statehood to really get going. Though Lewis and Clark wintered there during the westward portion of their journey.
3. It was not until March 1861 that the federal government officially created the Dakota territory and set up the basic form of American government there. Lincoln appointed the first governor, but the legislature and many local officials were popularly elected.
4. But people were slow to flock to the territory due to skirmishes with the Native Americans and the Civil War. But once the railroads arrived in the 1880’s things started to change and the population began to grow.
5. By 1889 there was enough of a push not only in both Dakotas but also in Montana and Washington for Congress to offer admission to each through a single enabling act in February 1889. North Dakota worked quickly to take up this offer.
6. In May, North Dakotans elected 75 delegates and the convention opened on July 4. Most delegates were not native to the territory and at least 20 were foreign born. Republicans dominated the convention (51 of 75) and there were two members of the prohibitionist party as well.
7. The delegates drafted a rather moderate Constitution and adopted a conventional form of state government. They did toy with the idea of adopting a unicameral legislature, but opted instead for a standard bicameral one. No wheel reinvention was done.
8. The delegates vigorously debated women’s suffrage during the convention as well. In the end, they reached a compromise. Women were granted the right to vote in school elections and hold school board seats, but they would have to wait for additional voting rights.
9. Because of their distrust of government and corporations the drafters “constitutionalized” many ordinary legislative issues. This bound the hands of future generations and went against the advice of Thomas M. Cooley, one of the two scholars that played a role in 1889.
10. Cooley was invited to speak at the convention and advised the delegates, in one of the shorter speeches given, to keep legislative topics out of the constitution as putting in too much minutia would lead to a struggle to adapt to future issues.
11. James B. Thayer also played a role. At the behest of a railroad executive he drafted a constitution that was submitted by a delegate w/o his name (how much was changed is a bit fuzzy). This draft prompted considerable debate & much of the eventual constitution reflected it.
12. The voters approved this Constitution by a large margin, and also approved a separately submitted prohibition article. President Harrison signed the admission papers for North and South Dakota on the same day, but he shuffled the docs around so no one knows which was first.
13. This 1889 Constitution has been frequently amended and is the current constitution. But in 1971 the voters approved a new convention and elected delegates who drafted a constitution intended to streamline and modernize the document and make government more efficient.
14. But controversial proposals doomed its passage, including the inclusion of a right to work clause which the unions opposed. The drafters also separately submitted a proposal to create a unicameral legislature, but this was also rejected.
15. The voters did approve an amendment which raised the number of signatures needed for initiatives. So, while the convention was not a total waste, it was a bitter disappointment to those who desired a more streamlined, and modern, constitution.
16. Sources for #50Weeks50Constitutions:
books.google.com/books?id=u_u8d…; history.nd.gov/archives/state…;; bismarcktribune.com/opinion/column…; constitutingamerica.org/north-dakota-c…; history.nd.gov/archives/state… ; ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/un…;; leg.wa.gov/History/State/…; ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/un…
books.google.com/books?id=u_u8d…; history.nd.gov/archives/state…;; bismarcktribune.com/opinion/column…; constitutingamerica.org/north-dakota-c…; history.nd.gov/archives/state… ; ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/un…;; leg.wa.gov/History/State/…; ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/un…
