ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF WYOMING.

The convention convened at Cheyenne on September 2, 1889, to frame a constitution for the state of Wyoming, has completed its labors.

The constitution so framed will be submitted to you for adoption or rejection on November 5, 1889.

The convention designated the undersigned as a committee to lay before the people of the territory reasons why the fore going constitution should be adopted. Our space is limited, and in this address we can only call your attention to a few of the many good reasons that exist.

Every county in the territory was represented in the convention. A month’s time of careful, conscientious and painstaking labor has been spent in formulating this constitution.

In all our deliberations we have endeavored to embody in our fundamental law such economic measures as we believed would commend our work to the people of the whole territory, without reference to partisan politics and with equal protection for the rich and poor.

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT

For twenty years and more Wyoming has been laboring under the disadvantages of a territorial form of government.

These disadvantages are numerous. We have no voice in the selection of the most important officers who administer our local affairs; no voice in the enactment of laws by congress, to which we must yield obedience; and no voice in the election of the chief magistrate of the republic, who appoints the principal officers by whom the executive and judicial affairs of our territory are administered. It has been well said “A territory cannot have a settled public policy. The fact that congress may at any time annul its legislation on any matter of purely local concern, prevents active cooperation by the people in those higher planes of public life which result in the establishment of a permanent state policy.”

The abuse of the veto power by alien governors, the lack of familiarity of alien judges with our laws and the frequent changes of our executive and judicial officers, as it has been in the past and may be again in the future, cannot but discourage the people.

Although citizens of the United States in name we have been in fact disfranchised.

Territorial representation in congress is a delusion, the territories of these United States have no representation.

Taxation without representation, a condition in many respects allied to colonial vassalage, with the many other wrongs that follow the application of these two anti-American terms and with which you are familiar, have all united to render the condition of the people of Wyoming, the most energetic, intelligent and patriotic citizens of the United States, well nigh intolerable. We have endured all these things up to the present time without a murmur of discontent, because we have not heretofore seen our way clear to throw off these chains of political and industrial bondage, and to ask, with the hope of success, our admission into the federal union, where we could enjoy equally with sister states the right of local self government and those other natural and inalienable rights guaranteed in the constitution to every man. The residents of Wyoming territory are the descendants of free citizens, such citizens as framed the constitution of the United States. The loyalty of the sons to Republican institutions and their love of liberty have not been decreased, but increased by their love ships and dangers they have endured and by the difficulties that have been encountered and overcome in laying the foundations of this great and prosperous commonwealth. It is admitted that Wyoming Territory stands next in order in its right to admission into the Union. We believe she is now ready to assume the responsibility of statehood, to cast of the burdens and inconveniences of territorial vassalage. She can now ask admission with hope of success. Her time has arrived. For the first time in ten years public opinion in the older states has so changed as to view the admission of new states with a fair degree of favor.

If not admitted at this time we may reasonably expect the wave of public sentiment will soon recede and the old unfavorable attitude toward the territories will be again established. In this event our admission as a state would become so problematical that we need entertain no hope of obtaining the rights and benefits of statehood for the next ten and perhaps fifteen years.

While the cost of state government is increased over the cost of territorial government in some departments, the savings in other departments, the retrenchment in other directions, the- increase in population and assessable property that will follow our admission as a state will in a short time materially lessen the burden of taxation, while to delay our application for admission until the “swing of the pendulum” of public opinion has reached the opposite proposition from that so favorable now to the formation of new states, will be to fasten upon us for a long term of years all the abuses of financial management that have made our taxation burdensome and made plethoric the pockets of public officials at the expense of the taxpayer.

PUBLIC LANDS

By the terms of the senate bill for the admission of Wyoming there is donated to the state the following public lands:

Agriculture and college lands....................90,000 acres

Scientific school lands.............................100,000 acres

Normal school lands...............................100,000 acres

For charitable and penal institutions............300,000 acres

For public buildings..................................32,000 acres

Total.................................................622,000 acres

In addition to these lands the state is authorized to select in lieu of Secs. 16 and 36 in each township found to be mineral lands an equal amount of agricultural lands. It is believed that at least 500,000 acres of these lands will be found to be mineral. This would give the state of Wyoming available agricultural lands to be selected at once upon her admission, to the extent of 1, 122,000 acres. If statehood should from any cause be delayed for the next ten or fifteen years, the choice agricultural lands within the state will have been disposed of and the donations of the lands to the state would thereby be rendered of less value.

There is also donated to the state for the use of her public schools five per centum of the proceeds of all public lands, sold by the United States after our admission as a state. This fund alone would average not less than $20,000.00 a year and a delay of ten years in our admission would entail a loss from this source alone of $200,000.00.

The lands donated and selected, if leased at five cents an acre per annum, would produce in ten years a revenue of $561,000.00.

It thus appears that delay of statehood means for us a loss in ten years from these two sources of $761,000.00, or $76,100.00 per annum.

THE CONVENTION AND THE CONSTITUTION

The delegates in this convention came from both political parties, from all sections of the territory. It was non-partisan in character, indeed, it may be truthfully said that in its deliberations there was at no time a division of its membership upon party lines. Sectional questions were at no time considered, but to act for the common good of the whole people of Wyoming seemed to be the ruling motive. The material, industrial and professional interests were represented in its membership, and no outside influences were permitted to affect their action.

The constitution adopted is believed to be fairly conservative and also progressive. It is the first constitution adopted by man which gives to each citizen the same rights guaranteed to every other citizen. Under its provisions pure elections are practically guaranteed, and economy of administration assured. Restrictions upon legislation and loose appropriations of public moneys are clear and positive. The salaries of officers have been fixed according to the value of the service rendered and in proportion to the means of the people to pay.

Public trusts are carefully controlled and corporations restricted to a single line of business. The establishment of compulsory courts of arbitration to settle disputes between corporations and their employees, the protection of laborers in mines, the prohibiting of the importation of foreign police to usurp local authority, are all measures that commend themselves and in the convention received the support of the representatives of both capital and labor. The extravagance in the management of county affairs that has prevailed in the past has been circumscribed and rendered impossible. The restrictions upon taxation and the creation of public debts are such as to necessitate economy in public affairs and to insure to the people the highest excellence in government for the least money.

In the interest of local self government to promote the general good and to encourage the growth and development of the state of Wyoming the constitutional convention having finished its work, respectfully solicits your candid consideration of the constitution herewith submitted and the ratification of the same by your suffrages.

MELVILLE C. BROWN, President.

CHARLES H. BURRITT, Chairman.

HENRY G. HAY, MORTIMER N. GRANT, JESSE KNIGHT, GEORGE C. SMITH, CALEB P. ORGAN, HENRY A. COFFEEN, DOUGLAS A. PRESTON, MARK HOPKINS, FREDERICK H. HARVEY, Committee.

• Address to the People of Wyoming (introduced on 1889-09-30 09:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e723272) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]
  • Motion to Adopt the Report (introduced on 1889-09-30 09:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e726295) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1889-09-30 09:00:00 - ADOPT_PROPOSAL - e726297) [view current proposal at this moment]