The Great Constitutional Gamble: How Washington Will Become a State
With the enabling act signed, the territory prepares for a historic election in May to frame a constitution. The clock is ticking toward July 1st, when delegates will meet in Olympia to decide the fate of the new state.
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.
The admission bill, which has passed in the form agreed upon by both houses of Congress and signed by the President, is a somewhat elaborate document containing reasonably full and explicit instructions for the guidance of the people in framing constitutions for the four new states.
By the provisions of the bill, the Governor, the Chief Justice, and the Territorial Secretary will, prior to April 15, divide Washington into twenty-five districts according to population. The latest estimate of our population is 370,000, in accordance with which districts would be established with an allowance of people to each.
The Governor, by proclamation issued April 12, will order an election to be held Thursday, May 14, for delegates to the constitutional convention. Each district shall elect three persons, making the convention consist of seventy-five delegates. The rights of the minority are protected; no elector in any one district can vote for more than two persons for delegate. It was deemed advisable to make the convention a body in which both of the leading political parties should have fair representation.
The convention will meet at Olympia, Tuesday, July 1. It will frame a constitution and provide by ordinance for a submission to the people of the same together with any separate articles. The election for adoption or rejection will be held Tuesday, October 1. If the Constitution is republican in form and it appears that it has been adopted in accordance with the enabling act, the President will at once proclaim the result and Washington will be deemed to have entered the Union.
This article captures the precise bureaucratic moment when Washington Territory ceased to be a colony and became a state. The process described—dividing into districts, electing delegates, and drafting a constitution in Olympia—is the exact legal mechanism that created our current government. It serves as a reminder that statehood was not an inevitable natural progression but a complex political negotiation involving population estimates and party balance.
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