Official Instructions to the Governor to Complete the Admission of Washington State to the Union, Issued by President Benjamin Harrison

Washington became the 42nd state of the United States of America on November 11, 1889, when President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation admitting it to the Union. After a hiatus of thirteen years when no new states were admitted to the Union, the United States Congress passed an act in February 1889 enabling the territories of Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana to seek statehood. Before statehood could be conferred, a state constitution had to be written and passed by the Territories.

Washington’s constitutional convention was duly convened in Olympia, the territorial capital, on July 4, 1889, in crowded and swelteringly hot conditions. The delegates were chosen by a formula devised by Congress which required the governor and chief justice of the Supreme Court to divide the territory into twenty-five voting districts of approximately equal populations. Election was apportioned by the party affiliation: of the three delegates representing each district, two were of the majority party and one of a minority affiliation, thereby ensuring the dominance, but not the dictatorship, of the Republican Party. Seventy-five men elected to the State Constitutional Convention included 21 lawyers, 13 farmers, 6 merchants, 6 doctors, 5 bankers, 4 cattlemen, 3 teachers, 2 real-estate agents, 2 editors, 2 hop farmers, 2 loggers, 2 lumbermen, 1 minister, 1 surveyor, 1 fisherman, and 1 mining engineer.

Some of the most contentious issues under discussion involved the disposition of school and state lands and the regulation or sale of tide lands. The regulation of railroads was also a much-debated topic. The creation of a judicial system that would adequately serve the state without draining it of resources was a concern; the other branches of government, the executive and legislative, were also seen as potentially expensive for the fledgling state. Delegates debated the corrupting influences of free railway passes for elected officials and prohibited them. In the end the Constitution reflected the issues and concerns of its day: the restrictions placed on the Legislature, the many statewide elected officials that split the responsibilities of governance, and the complex amending formula. Washington citizens approved the State Constitution by a vote of 40,152 to 11,879 in the election called by Territorial Governor Miles C. Moore on October 1, 1889.

On October 23, Moore wrote President Harrison stating that as Governor of the Territory of Washington, he certified that Washington had voted for statehood, and requesting “to be admitted to the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States…” Harrison responded with the procedure to be followed to effect the admission.

Autograph telegram signed, as President, Washington, November 4, 1889, to Governor Moore, with his official instructions to complete Washington’s statehood. “Section Eight of the Enabling Act requires that the Governor shall certify ‘a copy of said Constitution’ etc. The copy sent is duly certified by the Secretary. Send another certified by you, and attested by the Secretary with the seal attached.”

That very day, November 4, in response to the President’s instructions, Moore sent Harrison “a copy of the Constitution of the State of Washington, certified in the manner prescribed in your telegram of this date, attested by the Secretary, with the seal of the Territory attached.” A week later, the formalities perfected, Harrison proclaimed Washington a state.