The first push to make Nevada Territory a state originated from within the territory, without prior authorization from Congress. On September 2, 1863 the voters of the territory approved of the concept of statehood by the overwhelming margin of 6,660 votes to only 1,502. To implement this, on November 2, 1863, thirty-nine delegates met to draft a state constitution. Since the great majority of the delegates had come to Nevada by way of California, they used the California state constitution as a first draft in formulating their own document. On December 11, 1863 the newly written constitution was submitted to the voters who, on January 19, 1864 surprisingly rejected it by a crushing 8,851 to 2,157 vote. There were a variety of reasons why it was rejected, including the idea that the taxation of mines, as established in the newly written constitution, was deemed too unfavorable for the mine owners.
Yet the idea of statehood did not die; instead it was immediately taken up on the national level, and a new attempt to create a state of Nevada was started in the United States Congress. An enabling act for Nevada statehood was passed just before the Thirty-eighth Congress was to go into recess, and signed by President Lincoln on March 21, 1864, which set up the procedure for future admission. This enabling act stated that Nevada would achieve statehood when and if it wrote an acceptable constitution, which would include certain stipulated provisions. The constitution would be reviewed by the President, and, if approved, Nevada would be admitted. The procedure was constitutionally odd, in that Congress was left out of it; it was up to the territory and to the President to implement the required ideas. But there was haste to insure that Nevada would become a state before the next meeting of the congress.
There were reasons for both the rush to have a Nevada state, and for the irregular procedure. First, it was at a time when the nation was fighting a desperately fought Civil War, and Nevada Territory was universally and correctly perceived to be both pro-Unionist and strongly Republican. Thus, despite other territories having considerably more population, Nevada was pushed to the head of the line for statehood. As the 1864 Presidential election approached, there were certain perceived advantages in having an additional Republican state. For one thing, a Republican congressional delegation could provide additional votes for the Passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery, which earlier had narrowly failed to garner the necessary two thirds support of both houses of Congress. More overriding, however, at least in the spring of 1864 was the real fear that there might be three major candidates running for President that year, and that no party would achieve a majority of electoral votes. Then, as required by the United States constitution, the election would go into the House of Representatives, where each state would have only one vote, and where a Republican Nevada would have voting rights equal to those of populous New York or Pennsylvania. This made the admission of an additional safe Republican state seem quite necessary.
A second convention to write a state constitution therefore met from July 4โ27, 1864. The defeated 1863 constitution was used as the basis for the new document. The requirements of the congressional enabling act were duly incorporated at the beginning of the constitution in a section called “The Ordinance.” This included the outlawing of slavery, and the statement that all undistributed public lands would be retained by the federal government and could never be taxed by the state. These provisions would be “irrevocable” without the consent of Congress and of the people of Nevada. The new constitution also included a “paramount allegiance” clause, proclaiming the supremacy of the United States government over the states and that no state had the right to secede, both very much Republican party doctrine, and voluntarily inserted into the document by its makers. The 1864 constitution also espoused democratic principles, popular in the West, with popular elections demanded for many state offices, including the state judiciary. Possible opposition from mine owners was headed off by a provision stating that only the net proceeds of mines could be taxed.
This state constitution was overwhelmingly approved by Nevada voters on September 7, 1864, with 10,375 votes supporting it, and a mere 1,184 against. The constitution was telegraphed to Washington, D.C. at a cost of $3,416.77, supposedly the longest and most expensive telegram ever sent up to that time. Lincoln proclaimed Nevada a state on October 31, 1864, and, eight days later, Nevada voted strongly Republican in the Presidential, congressional, and legislative elections. The state surely was “Battle Born” (one of its several state mottoes). The Civil War had been indispensable for giving statehood to one of the least populated and economically viable of all the territories.
Suggested Reading:
Eleanore Bushnell and Don Driggs. The Nevada Constitution: Origin and Growth. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1984.
David Alan Johnson. Founding the Far West: California, Oregon, and Nevada, 1840-1890. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
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Why Did Nevada Become A State?
by Guy Rocha – Nevada State Archivist
Who hasn’t heard ad nauseam that our state was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864 because its silver and gold production were needed to help finance the Civil War. Anyone who has attended Nevada’s schools has heard the story from a teacher or read it in a textbook. It’s a wonderful tale, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Our state’s history has too often been embellished and transposed into myth, and the claim of Nevada’s mineral wealth triggering statehood ranks as one of the most pervasive fictional stories in the annuals of the Silver State. The reasons for Nevada’s statehood were political, not economic. Earlier writers were so caught up in romanticizing Nevada’s role in the Civil War they decided to re-invent history.
FACT: Nevada Territory was a federal territory, a part of the Union, and President Abraham Lincoln appointed Governor James Warren Nye, a former Police Commissioner in New York City, to ensure that it stayed that way. Governor Nye put down any demonstration in support of the Confederacy, and there were some. The federal government bought much of Nevada’s silver and gold bullion to support its currency. What federal taxes there were at the time that could be effectively collected went into Union coffers. Therefore, Nevada’s creation as a TERRITORY on March 2, 1861 by the United States Congress ensured that its riches would help the Union and not the Confederate cause.
FACT: By the time Congress approved an Enabling Acting for Nevada on March 21, 1864, the Civil War was winding down. The Union had won decisive victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and the South was in shambles. President Lincoln sought reelection and faced a three-way race against General John C. Fremont, the Radical Republican candidate, and General George B. McClellan, a Democrat–he had earlier in the war relieved both generals of their commands. New states, and their popular and electoral vote, were needed to reelect Lincoln in support of his moderate, reconstruction policies for the South. Among the proposed policies was the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. If Nevada were a state, it could ratify the amendment and help in the passage of the landmark humanitarian legislation.
FICTION: Nevada was singled out to help save the Union. Actually Enabling acts for three territories, Colorado, Nebraska, and Nevada, were passed by Congress in March 1864. Nebraska’s constitutional convention voted against statehood, while Colorado Territory’s voters did not approve the proposed state constitution. Thus, Nevada Territory was the only territory to come to the support of President Lincoln. Ironically, shortly after Nevadans voted 8-1 in support of the state constitution, General Fremont dropped out of the presidential race, and Nevada was no longer critical to a Lincoln win. President Lincoln proclaimed Nevada a state on October 31, a week before the national election, and then went on to carry Nevada in a relatively easy win over General McClellan.
FICTION: While it is true that Nevadans gave the beleaguered president three Republican Congressman to help rebuild the nation, ironically our two U.S. Senators James W. Nye and William M. Stewart arrived in Washington, D.C. too late to sign the 13th Amendment. Congressman Henry C. Worthington did sign the amendment, and it was soon ratified by Nevada. Senator Stewart would prove to be a key player in the drafting of the 15th Amendment giving Black males the right to vote.
So Nevada was, in fact, the “Battle Born” state because of its entrance into the Union during the Civil War, but not for the reasons we find in the popular mythology. Historians recognize that the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859 was one of many factors influencing Nevada’s territorial status. However, making the leap to statehood because wealth from Nevada’s mines was desperately needed to help the Union win the Civil War keeps stubbornly recurring as perhaps our state’s #1 legend.
The Exhibit Gallery of the Nevada State Library and Archives, where the original State Constitution is displayed, has an informative video entitled “Battle Born” which creatively captures the reasons for granting Nevada statehood in 1864.