The so-called ‘Omnibus’ Enabling Act of 1889, which permitted the splitting up of the Territory of Dakota into two states, provided for the appointment of a joint commission, composed of delegates from both North and South Dakota, to negotiate an agreement upon the division of all property belonging to the Territory of Dakota, the disposition of public records, and the assumption of territorial debts and liabilities.

Following the passage of the Enabling Act, six delegates from each state, appointed by their respective conventions, met on July 16 1889, in Bismarck. The Commission was presided over by two alternating chairmen: Edgar Whittlesey Camp, from North Dakota, and A. G. Kellam, from South Dakota. Six standing committees were appointed: on records, the public library, miscellaneous property, militia, federal appropriations, and claims and accounts due the territory. Members submitted resolutions to the Commission, which were then referred to the standing committees. Unlike the South Dakota convention, the commission did not begin the process of negotiation with a pre-formed, coherent constitutional text. Nor did it follow the open proposition approach taken by North Dakota, in which standing committees drafted reports recommending the adoption, rejection, amendment or substitution of files submitted by delegates to the Convention. Instead, the approach of the Joint Commission depended heavily on the work of its standing committees. The concurred-in articles, though informed by resolutions submitted to the Convention by individual delegates, originated in the standing committees themselves.

After meeting for 15 days, the delegates submitted three documents to their respective conventions for approval: the articles of agreement, intended to cover those matters referred to the Commission by the Enabling Act, and two separate articles submitted for inclusion in both state constitutions: one regarding territorial debts, and one concerning the division of records, books and archives belonging to the Territory of Dakota.

Elizabeth Green

Documentary Editor

Quill Project

Pembroke College, Oxford.

July 2023.