A Brief History of South Dakota/Chapter 28
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD
When Dakota territory was created in March, 1861, it comprised the land now occupied not only by the states of South Dakota and North Dakota, but also by part of Wyoming and most of Montana. In 1864 Montana was organized as a territory, and in 1868 Wyoming also was cut off, leaving only North and South Dakota within the territorial boundary.
As early as 1872 the pioneers, looking forward to the time when all of the territory would be populated, and solicitous for the convenience and interests of their children, began to agitate for the division of Dakota territory upon the 46th parallel, making two territories of equal size; and the territorial legislature petitioned Congress to take action in the matter. No action, however, was taken, and there was really no great interest in the subject until, in the autumn of 1879, some speculative gentlemen began to talk of buying the entire amount of school land in the territory at a low figure.
The school lands consisted of two sections in every congressional township, set apart by the United States government for the creation of a permanent public school fund out of the proceeds of their sale. At that time scarcely a farm in the territory was worth so much as ten dollars an acre. The proposition, however, to buy the school lands at a nominal price came to the attention of General W. H. H. Beadle, then territorial superintendent of public instruction, and he promptly inaugurated a movement to prevent
General W. H. H. Beadle
such action. He declared that the people should adopt, as an irrevocable condition, that not one acre of our school lands should be sold for less than the sum of ten dollars. This proposition seemed like a hopeless dream, even to the most hopeful of the Dakotans, but General Beadle stood strongly for it.
Fearing that a scheme might be worked through Congress to sell the school lands for a small price, General Beadle believed that safety lay only in the division and admission of the Dakotas as states, and in placing the ten-dollar principle in the constitution, and he joined the two plans into one general movement, for the success of which he talked and wrote constantly. In this work he was loyally assisted by Governor Howard, Dr. Joseph Ward, president of Yankton College, and Rev. Stewart Sheldon, and, though the price of land did not increase very rapidly, he had, by 1882, so impressed his views upon the people that it was generally said that the ten-dollar idea should be made the rule.
The first wide-reaching movement in this direction was a convention of citizens held at Canton, June 21, 1882, when an executive committee was appointed to promote the division and statehood idea. This committee carried the matter to the territorial legislature the next winter and secured the passage of a bill providing for a constitutional convention for South Dakota, but the bill was vetoed by Governor Ordway. This veto caused much indignation among the people of South Dakota and did very much to arouse the people to the necessity of prompt action. The executive committee thereupon called a delegate convention to meet at Huron, June 19, 1883. Every county in South Dakota was there represented by its strongest men. Its action was most calm and dignified. A solemn ordinance was passed providing for a constitutional convention for the south half of Dakota territory to be held at the city of Sioux Falls on September 4 of that year.
Pursuant to this ordinance, an election was held for delegates and they assembled at Sioux Falls in September. Hon. Bartlett Tripp was elected president of the convention, which was composed of the ablest men from every community. An excellent constitution was framed, and submitted to the people at the November election, and adopted by an almost unanimous vote. A committee of the convention, composed of Bartlett Tripp, Hugh J. Campbell, Gideon C. Moody, and Arthur C. Mellette, carried this constitution to Congress and asked that it be accepted, and that South Dakota be admitted to the Union; but without avail.
The next legislature, by law, provided for a new constitutional convention to be held in Sioux Falls in September, 1885. Meanwhile
Bartlett Tripp
General Beadle had carried on his agitation for ten-dollar school land, and the principle was adopted by the new constitutional convention. The constitution framed by this convention was duly ratified by the people at the November election, and a complete set of state officers were elected, together with members of Congress and a legislature. Arthur C. Mellette was elected governor. Huron was chosen for the temporary capital. The new (state) legislature met at Huron on December 15 and elected Gideon C. Moody and Alonso J. Edgerton as United States senators. Oscar S. Gifford and Theodore D. Kanouse had been elected members of the lower
house of Congress.
These gentlemen and the governor carried the new constitution to Congress with a prayer for admission. South Dakota was a strongly Republican community, while the national government at this time was dominated by the Democratic party, and Congress objected to the admission of a state which was certain to send Republican United States senators to cut down the narrow majority of the Democrats in that body. Consequently the prayer for admission was denied, the officers elected under the proposed constitution had no power, and the territorial government continued as before.
The Democratic leaders declared for admission of Dakota territory as a whole, and the federal government used its influence to oppose the division movement in Dakota; therefore, a considerable party grew up in Dakota in opposition to division, but at every test the people pronounced strongly for two states. The population of Dakota was increasing rapidly, there were nearly six hundred thousand white citizens in the territory, and, under the territorial form of government, they were denied many of the privileges of citizenship. Yet year after year passed without action for their relief.
The Republican national convention of 1888 made the division and admission of North and South Dakota a national issue and it was discussed from every platform in America. The Republican party prevailed in that election, and, before the close of the Congress then in existence, the bill for the division of Dakota territory and the admission of North and South Dakota was passed on St. Valentine's Day and approved on Washington's Birthday, 1889, and that bill provided that no acre of school land in South Dakota or North Dakota should ever be sold for less than the sum of ten dollars. A new constitutional convention met at Sioux Falls on July 4 of that year, with power only to amend and resubmit the constitution of 1885. The constitution was submitted to the people at an election on the first day of October. They approved it, and on the second day of November, 1889, President Harrison issued his proclamation, admitting South Dakota as a state in the Union. North Dakota was admitted as another state by the same proclamation.
Statehood was welcomed by the people with real rejoicing. As a territory the people had no part in the election of a President, nor in the legislation by Congress, and all of the conditions of territorial life tended to make a people dependent rather than self-reliant. The chief concern of the people of Dakota, however, during the ten years' fight for statehood, had been for the division of the territory into two states. In this they were moved by motives of the highest patriotism. The leaders of that period believed that it would be a crime for them to sit idly by and permit the great territory to become one state, with but two members of the United States Senate, thus entailing to posterity forever a sort of political vassalage to the small states of the eastern seaboard. Besides this there was at that period an inherent difference between the people of South Dakota and those of the North. South Dakota was chiefly occupied by homesteaders, who brought with them the conservative notions of small farmers, about public and private economy, morality, and education. On the other hand North Dakota was in the beginning chiefly settled by bonanza farmers, captains of industry, who came with large means, buying great areas of land and farming upon extensive lines. They and their camp followers were adventurous men whose traditions were entirely at variance with those of the homesteaders of the South, and the result was constant friction between the two elements. The progress of time, and new immigration to the western portion of North Dakota, has materially modified conditions there.