Proclamation 291

by Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901)

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas the Congress of the United States did by an act approved on the 22d day of February, 1889, provide that the inhabitants of the Territory of Dakota might upon the conditions prescribed in the said act become the States of North Dakota and South Dakota; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the area comprising the Territory of Dakota should for the purposes of the act be divided on the line of the seventh standard parallel produced due west to the western boundary of said Territory, and that the delegates elected as therein provided to the constitutional convention in districts south of said parallel should at the time prescribed in the act assemble in convention at the city of Sioux Falls; and

Whereas it was provided by the said act that the delegates elected as aforesaid should, after they had met and organized, declare on behalf of the people of South Dakota that they adopt the Constitution of the United States, whereupon the said convention should be authorized to form a constitution and State government for the proposed State of South Dakota; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitution so adopted should be republican in form and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and that the convention should, by an ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said States, make certain provisions prescribed in said act; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitutions of North Dakota and South Dakota should, respectively, incorporate an agreement, to be reached in accordance with the provisions of the act, for an equitable division of all property belonging to the Territory of Dakota, the disposition of all public records, and also for the apportionment of the debts and liabilities of said Territory, and that each of said States should obligate itself to pay its proportion of such debts and liabilities the same as if they had been created by such States respectively; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that at the election for delegates to the constitutional convention in South Dakota, as therein provided, each elector might have written or printed on his ballot the words "For the Sioux Falls constitution" or the words "Against the Sioux Falls constitution;" that the votes on this question should be returned and canvassed in the same manner as the votes for the election of delegates, and if a majority of all votes cast on this question should be "For the Sioux Falls constitution" it should be the duty of the convention which might assemble at Sioux Falls, as provided in the act, to resubmit to the people of South Dakota, for ratification or rejection, at an election provided for in said act, the constitution framed at Sioux Falls and adopted November 3, 1885, and also the articles and propositions separately submitted at that election, including the question of locating the temporary seat of government, with such changes only as related to the name and boundary of the proposed State, to the reapportionment of the judicial and legislative districts, and such amendments as might be necessary in order to comply with the provisions of the act; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitution formed for the people of South Dakota should, by an ordinance of the convention forming the same, be submitted to the people of South Dakota at an election to be held therein on the first Tuesday in October, 1889, for ratification or rejection by the qualified voters of said proposed State, and that the returns of said election should be made to the secretary of the Territory of Dakota, who, with the governor and chief justice thereof, or any two of them, should canvass the same, and if a majority of the legal votes cast should be for the constitution the governor should certify the result to the President of the United States, together with a statement of the votes cast thereon and upon separate articles or propositions, and a copy of said constitution, articles, propositions, and ordinances; and

Whereas it has been certified to me by the governor of the Territory of Dakota that at the aforesaid election for delegates the "Sioux Falls constitution" was submitted to the people of the proposed State of South Dakota, as provided in the said act; that a majority of all the votes east on this question was "For the Sioux Falls constitution," and that the said constitution was at the time prescribed in the act resubmitted to the people of South Dakota, with proper changes and amendments, and has been adopted and ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of said proposed State in accordance with the conditions prescribed in said act; and

Whereas it is also certified to me by the said governor that at the same time that the body of said constitution was submitted to a vote of the people two additional articles were submitted separately, to wit, an article numbered 24, entitled "Prohibition," which received a majority of all the votes cast for and against said article, as well as a majority of all the votes east for and against the constitution, and was adopted; and an article numbered 25, entitled "Minority representation," which did not receive a majority of the votes cast thereon or upon the constitution, and was rejected; and

Whereas a duly authenticated copy of said constitution, additional articles, ordinances, and propositions, as required by said act, has been received by me:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, do, in accordance with the act of Congress aforesaid, declare and proclaim the fact that the conditions imposed by Congress on the State of South Dakota to entitle that State to admission to the Union have been ratified and accepted and that the admission of the said State into the Union is now complete.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 2d day of November, A.D. 1889, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fourteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON

By the President:

JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State