The Union Officially Welcomes a New State, the Westernmost Point in the Contiguous United States

A true treasure, being the only admission order for statehood we have ever seen

Washington became the 42nd state of the United States 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. President Cleveland signed the act. 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 party.

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. 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 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, saying “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.” On 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, on November 11, 1889, the formalities perfected, Harrison proclaimed Washington a state.

Harrison’s proclamation stated in part: “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 Washington might upon the conditions prescribed in said act become the State of Washington; and Whereas it was provided by said act that delegates elected as therein provided to a constitutional convention in the Territory of Washington should meet at the seat of government of said Territory, and that after they had met and organized they should declare on behalf of the people of Washington that they adopt the Constitution of the United States, whereupon the said convention should be authorized to form a State government for the proposed State of Washington; and…Whereas it has been certified to me by the governor of said Territory that within the time prescribed by said act of Congress a constitution for the proposed State of Washington has been adopted, and that the same has been ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of said proposed State in accordance with the conditions prescribed in said act; and…

“Whereas a duly authenticated copy of said constitution and articles, 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 provisions of the act of Congress aforesaid, declare and proclaim the fact that the conditions imposed by Congress on the State of Washington 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 11th day of November, A. D. 1889…”

All that was left was for the President to order implementation of the proclamation. Document signed, as president, November 11, 1889, the same day as the proclamation, implementing that proclamation by directing the Secretary of State to “cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to my Proclamation announcing the admission of the State of Washington into the Union.” Harrison then wrote Governor Moore that Washington’s “admission… into the Union is complete.”

The news was immediately telegraphed to Olympia, setting off celebrations in the new state’s capital, where elected officials and citizens have been waiting with increasing impatience for word that Washington is finally a state after 36 years as a territory. The announcement in the senate chamber that the proclamation had been signed touched off a raucous celebration: There was a moment of dead silence, followed by a roar which shook the ancient wooden capitol. Jubilation spread from the senate to the house and then down Main street to the town. The cannon, which had been charged for days awaiting the great event, fired unceasing salvos.

A true treasure, being the only admission order for statehood we have ever seen.