The Final Countdown to Statehood
A legal peek into the procedural mechanics of Washington’s impending admission to the Union.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Now that the constitution is adopted, how will the fact that Washington is a state be recognized by the general government? Justice-elect John P. Hoyt explained the procedure: Once all county returns are canvassed by local officials, they are forwarded to the territorial secretary. The secretary, the governor, and the chief justice will then canvass the returns together and forward the results to the president. The president will then examine the organic law of the state; if it is republican in form and complies with the enabling act, he will issue a proclamation declaring Washington admitted into the Union. It is expected to take at least a month, perhaps longer, for this formal step to be completed.
“It shall stand on an equal footing with the original states from and after the date of the issuance of the proclamation.”
In 1889, statehood was a bureaucratic hurdle of mail and signatures. Today, the focus has shifted from the legal act of joining the Union to the perpetual struggle of exercising the sovereignty that status confers.
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