The Wyoming Constitutional Convention and Adoption of Wyoming’s Constitution, 1889, and the Aftermath

By Phil Roberts, University of Wyoming Department of History

Statehood had proponents in Wyoming as early as 1869, soon after the territory was established. Realistically, however, the disappointingly slow population growth was seen as hindering advancement to statehood. In the late 1880s, statehood efforts enjoyed broad bipartisan support. Under Congress' commonly accepted rules dating back to the Northwest Ordinance, a territory had to count a population of at least 60,000 in order to take the first qualifying step toward statehood. Territorial Gov. Thomas Moonlight, a Democrat who had supported statehood when Cleveland was President but opposed it after Harrison’s election in November, 1888, reported to the Secretary of the Interior in December 1888 that Wyoming had no more than 55,500 people. (As later census figures revealed, his estimate was surprisingly accurate). His statement was met with derision by both Democrats and Republicans.[1]

Statehood was not a party issue, even though there were isolated individuals like Moonlight who opposed it. Most Democrats and nearly every Republican seemed to favor removal from territorial status in the late 1880s. The benefits of not having to pay for the salaries of territorial officers were offset by Congress' control over land and water questions, primarily. With the small state population, mostly living on ranches and in small towns, the major employers were the railroads (by 1890, the Union Pacific had been joined by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Chicago and Northwestern) and the coal mines (many owned by the railroads).  None of the promised industrial developments brought success; few employed many people. The population remained small and scattered over the 98,000 square miles of the territory.

Population, according to most observers, might be the Achilles heel for statehood. Francis E. Warren, the first resident of Wyoming to be appointed the territory's governor, replaced Moonlight in 1889. (It was Warren's second stint as territorial governor. He had been appointed by President Chester Arthur, a fellow Republican, in 1885, but removed when Democrat Grover Cleveland assumed the Presidency).  Warren strongly supported statehood. The only officer elected territory-wide, Delegate to Congress Joseph M. Carey, also backed statehood. He argued that while the Northwest Ordinance designated 60,000 people as the threshold for admission, it was not unprecedented for less populated territories to be granted statehood. Warren, Carey and the others knew that, even though Wyoming's experiment with women's suffrage would be controversial, the population issue was more likely to jeopardize statehood.

When Congress did not act on Carey’s proposal for enabling legislation for calling a constitutional convention  in 1889, presumably because of questions of population, Warren ignored the Congressional omission. He set a date for the election of delegates to the constitutional convention anyway.  The election was called for July 8, 1889.  Oddly, even though women enjoyed full voting rights and equal opportunity to seek elective office, dating from the Suffrage Act passed by the first territorial legislature, not one woman anywhere in the territory ran for a delegate slot. Thus, the future state that had prided itself for being the first government to grant women equal political rights was to have a state constitution that was drafted, debated and passed by a convention made up entirely of men.

Constitutional Convention:

Of the 55 elected members, 49 of them assembled in September, 1889, in Cheyenne to draft the Constitution.[2] Four of the 49 did not sign the Constitution and attended only occasionally. Of those elected, 36 were Republicans; 19, Democrats. Of those who did not participate, five were Republicans and one was a Democrat.[3]

As the convention got underway, the delegates discussed how to come up with language for the main provisions. On the first day, the convention delegates voted to create 17 committees, each responsible for a particular subject.  For example one was a committee of five "to be known as the committee on the preamble and the declaration of rights and executive."  Another committee reflected the state's economic interests: the "committee of seven to be known as the committee on agriculture, manufactures, commerce, live stock interests and labor."[4]

Warren, in his message to the delegates, emphasized the necessity for haste. In order to be considered along with admission requests from neighboring states, the Wyoming legislation had to be introduced before the congressional session ended.  To make that deadline, Wyoming citizens had to vote whether or not to adopt the Constitution at the November general election. With the time required for printing and giving the required legal notices, the delegates had a narrow window during which the Constitution had to be written and approved. Warren wanted their work completed by the end of September--25 working days from the opening of the convention to final action.

Knowing they had 25 days to debate and draft the document, the delegates borrowed articles from many other constitutions.[5]  In essence, the Constitution was a “scissors-and-paste” recapitulation of sections pulled from many other states—except in two major areas, water and irrigation and women’s rights.

  In terms of governmental structure, the delegates reflected the 19th century distrust of legislative power.  This view is particularly apparent as to fiscal matters, but many of the 37 sections in the Declaration of Rights article places limits on legislative power.

Likewise, the constitution explicitly states that the "executive power" of the state "shall be vested" in the governor and he "shall take care that the law of be faithfully executed." These seemingly broad powers, however, were substantially limited. Most notable was creation of numerous boards to administer many of the important state functions. The boards were made up of the governor acting with the other four statewide elected officials. The constitution also provided for appointments to various other boards to be made for terms longer than that of the governor. For example, University of Wyoming trustees are appointed for six-year terms.  The Constitution also allowed for the various boards and commissions to govern specific state agencies and even appoint the directors, taking that appointment power out of the governor's hands. (This existed for more than a century until government reorganization in the 1990s made many of these formerly governing boards advisory only).

The Constitution provided for a four-year term for the governor with no restrictions on the number of terms an individual could serve.  The legislature would need a 2/3 vote to override a gubernatorial veto. During the 16th day, delegate A. C. Campbell introduced an amendment attempting to make it a simple majority, but his proposal failed.[6]

Some of the main debates were over county organization (what constituted sufficient population and assessed valuation to establish new ones). Some delegates argued that the Constitution ought to make it easy to create new counties in order that people not have to travel great distances to transact business at county seats. Others, however, saw a danger in allowing new county formation. It could drain off essential resources from older, established counties.  The compromise was a provision for a relatively low threshold for county formation, but with the requirement that the county from which the new one was carved would have to meet a specific threshold for assessed valuation, with sufficient financial resources to continue functioning.

Debates over county business continued throughout the session. On the very eve of adjournment, the question of how to determine salaries paid to county officers consumed most of the session. Some delegates believed county officials would be more diligent if their pay was gained from a percentage of tax collected, from fees or other similar measure. The majority, however, favored salaries, set by the legislature.[7]

 In deliberations over the judicial article, the delegates debated whether or not to have a supreme court separate from district courts. The three territorial justices “rode circuit” sitting as trial judges and returning for appellate hearings as the supreme court.  Many delegates, particularly non-lawyers, believed making two separate courts would be wasteful. In the opinion of several delegates, the district judges would conduct most of the work while the Supreme Court justices would be left with little to do. Lawyers, however, favored separate courts and managed to defeat an effort to retain the territorial system, but barely—21 to 17.

Judges at all levels were to be elected to their offices. In 1972, the Constitution was amended to change the system of judicial selection dramatically. The state adopted the "Missouri plan" of judicial selection.  A judicial nominating committee accepts applications from lawyers admitted to practice in Wyoming who have an interest in serving as a judge. The committee selects three names and forwards the names to the governor who then selects one of them to serve on the court until the next general election. At that time, the judge's name appears on the ballot with voters given the option of voting to "retain" or to "not retain" the judge for the entire term.[8]

Legislative apportionment consumed substantial delegate debate. The disagreements came with apportionment in the Senate. Delegates from the older established counties, the southern tier of counties stretching along the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad, fought efforts by delegates from the smaller northern counties to follow a federal plan for Senate membership--each county given an equal number of senators. Delegates from the Union Pacific (southern Wyoming) counties, led by Charles Potter and E. S. N. Morgan, both from Cheyenne, argued that the federal analogy was flawed. Counties have no independence; they are creations of the state--not at all like the states' relationship to the federal government. George Baxter, also from Cheyenne, pointed out that it would be as unfair to give each county a senator as it would be to demand that each county give the same contribution to the state's general fund.

If delegates from the southern counties had been uniformly in agreement, the issue would have been settled very quickly. However, former Territorial Gov. John Hoyt and M. C. Brown, the president of the Constitutional Convention, broke with their southern colleagues Both argued that a smaller Senate, constructed along federal lines, could serve as a check on the popular will in the lower house. In describing the federal plan for Senate representation, Brown, a Republican lawyer who had served as Laramie’s first mayor, called it "the happiest compromise that ever came to man."

.All along, the delegates opted for apportionment in the House to be based on population. Elections were to be at large in each county.  Even the least populated county, therefore, would have at least one representative.  (Not until the legislative reapportionment after the 1990 census--and a legal challenge--were legislators in Wyoming elected from single-member districts). On the 19th day of deliberations, the convention rejected the federal analogy by allocating more than one senator to more populous counties. The delegates, however, gave a sop to several northern counties in the form of one additional House member each. While the more populous counties gained greater representation in the Senate, arguably, a modified "federal" plan still prevailed because one senator was granted to each county--even to the least populated one.[9]

The delegates seemed comfortable with retaining women suffrage by incorporating it into a provision of the Constitution. One delegate reported that the courts in Washington Territory had found against women suffrage because the definition was not clear as to who were "citizens."  The Wyoming provision flatly stated that equality would exist without reference to gender. For the majority of delegates, more specific language was not needed.[10] The delegates did argue, however, about including literacy as a requirement for voting.[11]  One member argued that if a voter had to read in order to vote, newcomers would have the franchise while old established ranchers, many of whom were war veterans who had been voting for many years, would be stripped of their voting rights. The entire article, incorporating equal rights and the much more debated requirement for literacy, passed by a vote of 30-12.[12] Only one delegate, Louis J. Palmer, an Illinois-born lawyer and Democrat from Sweetwater County, flatly stated opposition to women's suffrage.[13]

Even though women could vote and exercise all legal rights in Wyoming under the proposed Constitution, they were barred from mining coal.  Delegate Douglas A. Preston, a Democrat and lawyer from Fremont County, believed that restricting boys under the age of 14 and women from coal mining ought to be the prerogative of the legislature. "…as this convention has delegated to women the right to vote, she ought to have the right to dig coal if she wants to," he said.[14] A motion to strike the prohibition failed.  Later, at the very end of the deliberations,  H. G. Nickerson, a Fremont County Republican, brought the matter up again, arguing that it would be too restrictive. Alexander Sutherland, a Canadian-born Big Horn Basin rancher, responded that he had seen women working in the mines in Pennsylvania and "I hope we shall never see that in Wyoming."[15]  Despite Nickerson's last-minute efforts, the article barring women from coal mining remained in article on mining. Women were constitutionally barred from coal mining until 1978.

Convention President M. C. Brown introduced an article that would have established a coal tonnage tax. Brown pointed out that the coal industry was making substantial profits as the companies (primary the Union Pacific Coal Company) removed more and more coal from the territory. Little of mined coal was used within the borders of Wyoming. Brown argued that the state would be financially sound for years to come if a modest tax were assessed against every ton of coal shipped out of Wyoming. "Can they afford to pay out of that 75 cents (of clean profit) two and a half cents per ton?" he asked.  Without such a tax, "our new state shall be depleted of its wealth in coal, the coal taken and carried to other states and territories around us, to be used for their purposes, and se get no benefit…."[16] The measure passed initially during an afternoon session on the 20th day of the convention, but that evening, the delegates reconsidered their earlier action after hearing the impassioned arguments of C. D. Clark, a delegate from Uinta County who, at the time he was elected a delegate, was working as the Union Pacific Railroad’s legal counsel in that area. The Uinta delegate/railroad lawyer questioned what would happen if the state were to have revenues from every ton of coal mined. He argued that the result would be waste, inefficiency and corruption.  It would be preferable, he argued, to keep government lean and honest. This could only be done, he asserted, if the tax on coal were not made part of the Constitution. (Wyoming finally adopted a severance tax on coal, similar to Brown’s proposal, in 1969, after efforts for such a tax continued to be defeated no fewer than four more times through the lobbying efforts of the railroad and mining companies).

While taxation of coal would have forever changed state funding, Wyoming's Article VIII, involving water and irrigation, was revolutionary in its approach to water control, use and allocation. The constitution set up a complete system of water allocation, unique among states to that time, but it also established the principle of state ownership of the resource.

The state could intervene as to issues of water because of the declaration that the state owned all waters within its borders. Further, the article established a state engineer's office and board of control in order that the state's interests in water would be protected. It also set forth the principle that "beneficial use" determined the better right and no appropriation could be denied unless "demanded by the public interest." As several scholars have pointed out, the most important figure in drafting the water and irrigation article was Dr. Elwood Mead, the territorial engineer with substantial experience in administering the territorial water laws as well as the laws in Colorado. Frustrated by endless court adjudications of water rights in Colorado, Mead advocated removing such controversies to a group of individuals having substantial expertise in the subject--a state engineer and a board of control.

Water and irrigation issues attracted substantial convention attention. The importance is shown from the lengthy debates over questions of water and irrigation. Even more indicative was the mid-convention adjournment for an entire afternoon in order that delegates could meet with the visiting U. S. Senate Committee on Arid Lands. At the beginning of the afternoon session on the 14th day of the convention, the delegates voted 13-10 to adjourn for the remainder of the day.[17]  The action was unprecedented; at no other time did the convention adjourn for an entire half day.  As another example of the importance the delegates placed in the water questions, the entire morning session of the 18th day involved a lengthy debate over the definition of "appropriation."[18]

Two delegates were credited with the water article--J. A. Johnston, a Laramie County farmer, and Charles H. Burritt, a Johnson County lawyer. But prominent in the discussions over water was territorial engineer Mead who was not a convention delegate. Nonetheless, he advocated adoption of the prior appropriation doctrine (already in operation, to some extent, in California and in Colorado where he once had served as assistant water engineer). During his term as territorial engineer, he traveled throughout the territory urging support for his system as a means of fair allocation for everyone. Asbury B. Conaway, a former territorial court justice but serving as a delegate from Sweetwater County, questioned if the Mead-inspired article changed the common law rule about riparian rights to water.[19] Johnston and Charles Potter said it did.[20] The rest of the delegates approved.

While prior appropriation and administrative control by experts seemed reasonable, more revolutionary was state ownership of all waters within the boundaries of the state, a move that continues to intrigue modern historians.[21]   Some commentators believe declaration of state ownership simply confirmed that "cattle kings" who would control state government also would control state water allocations.[22] This interpretation, however, does not account for an interesting exchange among delegates early in the water debate. M. C. Brown pointed out that without state declaration of ownership, prior appropriators would not be subject to the Constitution. "It would be utterly impossible for the legislature, or any power of the state, to control, regulate, or in any manner interfere with its use."  He concluded that "It is only by the declaration that we are to be the absolute owners of all the water that we may be enabled to control unreservedly the uses to which it may be put."[23]

Later, Sheridan County Democrat Henry A. Coffeen questioned if the water appropriation was a move to enrich corporations. Republican Charles Burritt from neighboring Johnson County took issue with the insinuation. Such a connection "exists only in the very fertile imagination of the gentleman from Sheridan."[24]

Contrary to Coffeen's suspicions, historian Don Pisani argues that the lack of big mining interests, the relatively ample supply of unappropriated water and the absence of large groups of farmers made the Wyoming article possible.[25]  Other historians argue that the water article came from the "cattle kings"--early arrivals and earliest users of water who were confident such prior appropriation would ratify their holdings. At the same time, state ownership of the water would not be harmful because they also were certain they would control state government.[26] These interpretations do not account for the concern delegates had over rights of Wyoming cities to water. Surely, any "cattle king" would be expected to worry about having to compete with appropriation claims made by urban entities. Delegates debated whether or not municipalities should have the power to appropriate water.[27] The cities were given that power.

Crucial to debate and to the eventual adoption of the water and irrigation article was Elwood Mead. Delegates drew from his experience with water and his persuasive abilities to argue for a predictable, expert-driven means of determining rights. As Mead biographer James Kluger points out, Mead's ideas about water spread worldwide and the Wyoming convention gave him his first opportunity to articulate his water vision.[28]

Just as in the case of women suffrage in the first territorial legislature, men of like minds about water as a key to development, in the form of  key delegates like Johnston and Burritt (and even Warren and Carey who were not delegates), were making a revolutionary decision about water use and allocation. Mead had his plan and the receptive audience in the form of delegates, anxious to bring development to the new state as well as predictability in resource allocation. The delegates remained consistent in this debate about making certain that control was not entirely in the hands of a few big corporations. Mead's proposals, incorporated into the water article, ensured that a few big corporations would not hold the rest of Wyoming captive through control of water. After all, in the territorial days, the railroads controlled far more land than any other private landowner and, with it, the waters on it.

Throughout the wide-ranging convention discussions on the state's ownership of water, no mention was made of the rights of the earliest water users--the Indians. Following congressional passage of the Dawes Act, authorizing the breakup of tribal lands into individual allotments, the Shoshone reservation diminished in size. In the early 1900s, federal authorities opened a substantial parcel to white settlement. Water from the Wind River would be used for federal irrigation projects on what had been Indian lands.

In the 1970s, disputes over the waters of the Wind River pitted the Indians against downstream water users who claimed they were "senior appropriators" as recognized by the State of Wyoming. The State claimed that under its constitution, all waters in the state came under its control and the Indians, even if under the so-called Winters doctrine they had treaty rights to the water, they had followed proper state procedures in filing for water use. The federal courts appointed a special master who sorted out the thorny water rights issues, allocating most of the Wind River flow to the tribes under provisions of federal reserved water rights.[29] But even beyond natural resource issues (and except for the references to exemption from taxation and voting), delegates to the Constitutional Convention made no other mention of the presence of native people within the state's borders.

Except for their reversal on the coal tonnage tax, the delegates displayed independence from the Union Pacific by passing several provisions controlling the way it did business. One provision barred the railroad from by-passing an established community in order to set up a depot nearby. "No railroad company shall construct or operate a railroad within four miles of any existing town or city without providing a suitable depot or shipping place at the nearest practicable point for the convenience of said town or city, and stopping all trains doing local business at said stopping place."[30]  Another provision declared railroads common carriers and required them to "deal impartially with the public, and shall make no unjust discrimination or unreasonable charges for the services rendered."[31] 

The delegates extensively debated how the master-servant rule would be applied in Wyoming in order that employees would not be barred from collecting for damages resulting from the negligence of another employee. Many delegates pointed out that the other corporations existed beyond the Union Pacific.[32] Nonetheless, most knew that when provisions were being offered to curb corporate power, the railroad stood the most to lose.

The convention passed a section restricting the legislature from providing any form of financial aid for railroad construction. "The legislature shall have no power to pass any law authorizing the state or any county in the state to contract any debt or obligation in the construction of any railroad, or give or loan its credit to or in aid of the construction of the same."[33]

The delegates debated a proposal that would restrict corporations to one line of business. Adopted by the convention, Article 10, Sec. 6 was amended in 1960 to loosen the requirement.

            "Chinese labor" was debated extensively--whether or not the constitution ought to ban use of Chinese labor on public works projects. It was introduced by Thomas R. Reid, a Democrat and Union Pacific railway worker from Cheyenne, a native of England who had emigrated to Wyoming as a young man from Australia.[34]  Some viewed it as a dig at Warren for his actions four years earlier against the rioting miners at Rock Springs.[35] The measure passed. It demonstrated discrimination against Chinese labor de facto: "No person not a citizen of the United States or who has not declared his intention to become such, shall be employed upon or in connection with any state, county or municipal works or employment."[36] But ultimately even this measure passed with bipartisan support.

            On another labor-related issue, the Constitution instituted the eight-hour day for miners.[37] The strongest proponent was John L. Russell, a Democrat and delegate from Uinta County. Another section forbade the importation of "private armies" into the state. The measure was meant to restrict such operations as the Union Pacific from importing Pinkerton agents to break labor strikes. The measure passed. Just three years later, stockmen raised such a private army to invade Johnson County. Two of the invading stockmen had been delegates to the Constitutional Convention and must have known that the action was a clear violation of the Constitution.

The convention showed skepticism of corporations, but also of organized religion. It also insisted on separation of church and state. Article 3, Sec. 36 asserts that: "No appropriation shall be made for charitable, industrial, educational or benevolent purposes to any person, corporation or community not under the absolute control of the state, nor to any denominational or sectarian institution or association." A similar provision in the Declaration of Rights states it even more clearly: "No money of the state shall ever be given or appropriated to any sectarian or religious society or institution."[38]  During the course of debate over requiring an oath for jurors, delegates made it clear that "belief or non-belief in God" ought to be no bar to service.[39] The measures had near-unanimous and bipartisan support.

Republicans held a significant majority in the convention, but in terms of party loyalties, the convention did not divide along partisan lines. (Delegate Carey noted this fact in his speech to the Congress advocating admission in February 1890 and the fact is fairly clear from reading the proceedings of the convention). The body did seem to have a fair share of progressives and reformers. Along with Brown's efforts at taxation of coal, several other reform measures were proposed. For example, Delegate/UW President John Hoyt offered a section that would create a civil service for state employees, but his recommendation was defeated by a substantial margin (21-11).[40] C. D. Clark, who had eloquently opposed the coal tonnage tax, also led opposition to the reform measure. Brown, Hoyt and Clark were all Republicans.

More significant than political party affiliations were sectional differences.  Debates over legislative apportionment consumed substantial convention time. So did other issues that were sectionally divisive, mostly between the earlier-populated southern counties and the newly developing ones in the North. These divisions were illustrated once again on the question of location of state institutions. Delegates from the longer-settled southern counties wanted the convention to ratify the territorial legislatures' designated locations of the already existing capital (Cheyenne), state "insane asylum" (Evanston), university (Laramie), and prison (Rawlins).  Northern delegates, believing their region was about to experience huge spurts in population and, thus, ought to have an opportunity to gain these lucrative state facilities, disagreed. The convention struck a compromise. At an election to be held "no sooner than 10 years" after the passage of the Constitution, voters would decide the "permanent" locations of state institutions. [41] During the interim, the institutions would be temporarily housed in the communities previously designated by the territorial legislatures.[42]

In 1904, the election for the permanent locations finally was held. Laramie was the sole candidate for the university; Evanston, the state hospital; Rawlins, the state penitentiary. Cheyenne, however, was challenged by several cities for the capital.

The most serious competitor was the relatively new town of Casper, founded in 1888 as a wool shipping point, but soon after, the center for oil exploration and development. It had the advantage of central location. Cheyenne, in the extreme southeast corner of Wyoming, was a mere nine miles from the Colorado border and barely 50 miles from Nebraska. Another centrally located community, Lander, got into the contest. (A promoter from southern Wyoming advocated placing the capital at the geographic center of Wyoming--along Muskrat Creek. He proposed naming the new capital "Muskrat." His proposal gained little support. As one person ignorant of the muskrat genus observed, "How many state capitals are named for rodents?")

The election result gave Cheyenne more than 40 percent of the vote, but not the required 50 percent plus one, as designated in the constitution for permanent location. Consequently, Cheyenne remains, at least constitutionally, the "temporary" capital of the state.

The delegates never seriously questioned the ordinance, included in the Constitution, stating that: "The people inhabiting this state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof…"  Yet, totally disregarding the language in the Constitution, so-called sagebrush rebels over the years have persisted in demanding that the federal government "return" all federal lands to the state.[43]

The delegates debated numerous education issues. Most significant was how state lands, held in trust for the benefit of the schools, would be sold or leased. Any sale had to be made at or above appraisal. All revenues from sale or rent of these lands went into a permanent school fund for the exclusive support of public schools.[44]

Delegates endorsed a provision barring the state superintendent or the legislature from choosing textbooks for use in schools. The section became part of the constitution with just one comment explaining the rationale: "I venture to say there is no more corruption than that which is caused where the prescribing of textbooks is left to the legislature."[45]

In what would be a precursor to education funding questions for the next century and beyond, the constitutional convention debated how funding for schools could bring fairness to both small schools and large.  With the details left to the legislature, the convention concluded that after a threshold amount was allocated to each school, regardless of enrollment, the average class attendance would be used for determining allocation of additional funds. Details were left to the legislature.[46] A provision authorizing a state tax for support of public schools became a part of the Wyoming Constitution in 1948 and amended in 1982.[47]  A series of Wyoming Supreme Court decisions, handed down in the 1990s, demanded equity in education funding throughout the state. Consequently, education funding issues continued to dominate legislative sessions in the late 1990s and early 2000s, more than a century after the convention met.

Included in the general article on education, the Constitutional Convention placed three sections establishing a state university.  Declaring that it be governed by a board, higher education provisions also reaffirmed equality--"The university shall be equally open to students of both sexes, irrespective of race or color…"  The Constitution stated that higher education would receive adequate state funding either from land grants or other sources "in order that the instruction furnished may be as nearly free as possible."[48]

Once the issue of location of institutions was settled, the delegate committees reports concluded, and the language perfected, the delegates looked toward adjournment. Before that, however, came a discussion about admission tactics.  One member, Hubert Tschemacher, proposed that they not submit the constitution to popular vote until after Congress passed enabling legislation. M. C. Brown disagreed. "Senator Stewart, when here the other day, said that if we would prepare our constitution, submit it to the people, have it ratified, and then come down to Washington and say Wyoming wants to be a state, and we will be a state."[49]

On the 25th day of the convention, the delegates voted on adoption of the entire document. The resolution passed 37-0.  Later in the day, 45 of the 55 elected delegates signed the Constitution and adjourned, as they sent it to the voters for their approval.

Gov. Warren called a special election for Nov. 5, 1889. The vote count in the election was the source of problems for Warren, Carey and congressional supporters of Wyoming statehood. The Constitution passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 6,272 in favor to 1,903 against. But the problem was not the margin--it was the total number of voters.

Wyoming Statehood in the Congress:

On March 26, 1890, Territorial Delegate Joseph M. Carey introduced a bill calling for Statehood for Wyoming. This was not the first proposal for Wyoming statehood, however.  Carey introduced the first statehood bill on Feb. 27, 1888, but H. R. 7780 was not reported out of committee. Sen. Henry M. Teller introduced a second statehood bill on March 19, 1888, S. F. 2445. After languishing in committee for more than a year, Sen. Orville H. Platt of Conn., attached the Senate Committee on Territories Report 2695 to the Teller bill, but Congress adjourned five days later without considering the measure.[50]  Another house bill, H. R. 3830, would have included Wyoming with admission of three other states--Arizona, New Mexico and Idaho; it, too, failed. Rep. Isaac S. Struble, an Iowa Republican, introduced a statehood bill for Wyoming on Jan. 13, 1890, but it did not get out of committee.[51]

In the months prior to the special election on the Constitution, Delegate Carey had been telling colleagues that Wyoming's true population was far in excess of the 60,000 normally considered the threshold for statehood. At one point, he was quoted as estimating the population at 125,000!  He was embarrassed to explain that if the population was so great, why did so few people vote in the special election?  When he took to the floor to advocate passage of H. R. 982, the Wyoming Statehood Bill, he began by discussing the vast expanses of land, their fertility and the glittering potential the new state promised. After describing the various industries, mining, and the educational system, he addressed the "Questions of Population":

"In estimating population there is always a latitude for important differences of opinion," Carey began. "After I have made some comparisons I am confident you will agree with me, In this respect following all precedents heretofore established, that Wyoming is entitled to admission at this time."  He then compared the estimates for ten states admitted over the years, seven of the ten with an estimated population well below 60,000.. "Nearly every State doubled it population in five years after admission," Carey said. He promised Wyoming would have similar stellar growth because "with booms and immigration societies, the Territory has steadily increased each year since organization in population and wealth."

Carey then explained the problem with the small election turnout. "The population can not be properly based on the vote. There is but little of politics in Wyoming. Every year is an off year. The vote this year will be 23,000 in round numbers. If State government is given the people, it will be from 25,000 to 28,000--note my prediction." He then pointed out how difficult a "true census" was in a territory of some 100,000 square miles. "To get a full vote or a full census is an impossibility," he concluded. He then turned to a discussion of finances and the economy.  Rep. Charles S. Baker, a New York Republican, interrupted Carey to ask again about the population.  Carey, this time, responded with a lengthy argument that the commonly accepted 60,000 threshold was, in fact, not recognized as critical. He quoted a number of past members of Congress on this question.[52]

Curiously, Carey made no mention in his speech of the women suffrage article, one that some delegates believed might have been harmful to gaining statehood.  Nonetheless, numerous members of the House, mostly Democrats, rose to oppose admission of Wyoming (known to be leaning Republican). As T. A. Larson observed, the Democrats could hardly argue against admission based on party affiliation--the Republicans controlled the House--but they could argue against statehood for a Republican territory by attacking women suffrage.  Despite persistent objections to Wyoming's article 6 that granted women equal rights, the statehood bill finally passed the House of Representatives by a close vote of 139-127. 

Warren and Carey both assured Wyomingites that the bill would pass the Senate within ten days. Passage did not come nearly that quickly, however.  Several prominent Democrats in the Senate continued to question both the territory's population and the woman suffrage provision. Three months after House passage, Wyoming Statehood bill finally passed the Senate, but by a more comfortable 29-18 margin.  President Harrison signed the Statehood Bill on July 10, 1890, making Wyoming the 44th state admitted to the Union.[53] 

Constitutional Convention/Statehood Personalities: Their Later Careers

Soon after statehood, the first Wyoming State Legislature sent 45-year-old Joseph M. Carey to the U. S. Senate.  Gov. Warren, age 46, finished his term as territorial governor only to win election as the first state governor handily over his Democratic opponent. The constitutional convention delegate from Uinta County, C. D. Clark, who successfully argued against the coal tonnage tax in the convention, won election to the U. S. House of Representatives as Wyoming's only representative.  Two-and-one-half months later, Warren gave up his governor's seat to accept the legislature's election to the U. S. Senate. Except for a two-year period, he remained in that chamber, and as a power in state politics, until his death in 1929. As chairman of the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees, he was important to the career of his son-in-law, John J. Pershing, as well as to the continued federal presence at Fort Russell near his hometown of Cheyenne. After Warren's death, the fort was renamed in his honor. Today, it is Warren Air Force Base.

Carey's influence in the statehood drive was considerable.[54] In 1894, he and Warren, both Republicans, began a quarter century feud when Warren successfully pushed his old friend out of the Senate ("Wyoming will accept only one Cheyenne man in the Senate so that will be me," Warren was quoted as telling friends before the coup d'etat). Warren joined C. D. Clark in the Senate while Carey, blindsided by Warren's treachery, nursed a grudge until 1910 when he managed to gain the Democratic nomination for governor, beat the Warren candidate and serve for one term. His political career ended, however, when he backed his old friend Theodore Roosevelt in the three-way presidential race of 1912. Democrats turned on him; Republicans, still controlled by the Warren machine, repudiated him. He died in 1923, five years after the Warren machine ended the feud by nominating his son, Robert Carey, for the governorship.

M. C. Brown, the president of the Constitutional Convention who introduced the coal tonnage measure, later moved to Alaska to serve as a federal judge. Implicated in improprieties there during the gold rush, he resigned his judgeship, returned to Laramie to practice law and died in relative obscurity in 1928.

Hoyt, the UW President who was elected a delegate who drafted much of the education article, returned to UW after statehood. Soon after, however, he was fired by the trustees over disagreements with administrative control. One trustee stated that the reason he was fired was because he was “too much of a visionary.” He moved to Washington, D. C., tried unsuccessfully to interest Congress in creating a national university, and served for a time as an ambassador. He died in 1912.

Delegate Charles Potter, active in many of the convention debates, was elected to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Richard Scott, after service on the state district court bench, became a Supreme Court justice, too. So did delegate Jesse Knight.  John A. Riner, who like Potter came from Cheyenne, was appointed to the federal bench where he served for the next three decades as Wyoming's first U. S. District Judge. He retired in 1921 and died two years later.

Delegates W. C. Irvine, H. C. Teschemacher, and Charles Burritt were implicated on the side of the invaders in the Johnson County War. C. D. Clark was later elected to the U. S. Senate; Henry Coffeen, to the U. S. House of Representatives.

Two delegates, Charles Burdick and William Chaplin, were later elected secretary of state. Delegate DeForest Richards was serving as Wyoming governor at the time of his death in 1902.                                                        

Statehood: The Aftermath

When the 1890 census figures for Wyoming finally became available nearly two years after statehood, the result showed how close the territory had been to the 60,000 threshold. The census recorded 62,555 people in Wyoming, according to the official government count made in April 1890--two months after Carey's speech in the House.

            The question of population remained a significant one for Wyoming. Since statehood, Wyoming has been close to last in population (only Nevada was smaller in the early 20th century; only Alaska, for one census in the middle of the century). Throughout the years since statehood, government officials almost uniformly have advocated for economic diversification to increase the state's population base and diminish the state's dependence on agriculture and natural resources. In the early 21^st century, many residents of the state were comfortable with the small population and opposed promotional drives except for attracting tourists for temporary stays.

The industries prominently represented in the constitutional convention, remain important to the Wyoming economy today. Wyoming leads the nation in coal production (and has led every year since 1988).  Tourism, anchored by Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, is central to the economy of many of the state's towns. The federal government still owns nearly 50 percent of the land area of Wyoming, much of it administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

Agriculture has lost considerable economic importance during the past century. Nonetheless, particularly cattle ranching remains symbolically important to residents of the "Cowboy State." The reputation as the "Equality State," gained from being first to give women the right to vote, was bolstered in 1894 with the election of the first woman in America to a statewide office (Estelle Reel, elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction) and in 1924 when Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected the first woman governor of any state.

The national influence exercised in Congress by Warren and Carey in the early years of statehood rarely has been equaled since, although former U. S. Representative from Wyoming Dick Cheney served as U. S. Vice President from 2001-2009.

The Wyoming Constitution, amended some 75 times since its adoption, remains generally similar to the document drafted in 1889. It is the 11th longest of any state constitution, significantly longer and more detailed than the United States Constitution or many other state constitutions. Major amendments have been made to articles on judicial selection (Wyoming voters passed an amendment adopting the Missouri plan in 1972) and on public finance. An amendment was passed in 1974 making it difficult to adopt a state income tax (offsetting all other taxes against income taxes, but not specifically prohibiting such a tax); Wyoming remains one of seven states without an income tax. The first sales tax was authorized in 1935.[55]

Through the years, the question of executive power has been raised by a number of governors. Amendments have made it easier for governors to administer departments and hire and fire their directors. While gubernatorial power increased with government reorganization in the 1990s, the constitution continues to dilute the power of the chief executive by providing for such entities as a state land board, made up of the governor and the other four statewide elected officials.

.Frequent amendments to the Wyoming Constitution have been made (and even more have been proposed). To pass, an amendment must have two-thirds vote of each House and then a vote of the majority plus one of all voters casting ballots in the election.[56] Since its adoption in 1889 and Wyoming statehood the following year, there has been no call for a second constitutional convention to replace the current version. Wyoming's Constitution, the 11th longest among the states, retains the outlines drawn for it by the drafters in 1889 and accepted by Congress the next year as Wyoming became the 44th state.

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• Wyoming Constitution, 1889