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THE
ADMISSION OF
OKLAHOMA
The act of 1898 providing for the
dissolution of the Five Civilized
Tribes
made necessary the speedy formation of one
or more states from the area
that had
been
the Indian
Territory between 1854 and
1890. The formation
of two separate
commonwealths was
never probable,
if
indeed it was ever possible; but many persons both in what is now
Oklahoma and in other parts
of the United
States were committed to such an arrangement.
The delay incident to the
reorganization
of the Five Civilized
Tribes
gave opportunity for a full discussion
of the question, and the
struggle between those
who wanted one state
and
those who wanted two
seemed at the time to
overshadow everything else.
The agitation for statehood began
soon after the establishment of
the Territory of
Oklahoma. It is possible to say that it
began even earlier. The
settlers had
hardly crossed the border
before
they began
to ask for
the forms of government to which they had been accustomed, and a bill was
introduced in Congress in
December, 1889,
for the admission of a part of the
Indian Territory as the
state of
Columbia.
This
bill, however, did not
receive
consideration.
In 1891 the people of Oklahoma began to ask seriously that it should be
admitted. In December of that
year there
was held at Oklahoma City a convention which
sent a memorial to Congress
asking for
statehood. In January, 1892,
David A.
Harvey, the first territorial delegate to
Congress, introduced a bill
in the House of
Representatives for the same
purpose.
Abraham J.
Seay, the second governor of the territory, in
his report
for 1892 asserted that Oklahoma
would be
entitled to admission into
the Union in a
very
short time.
The plan for two states was already
receiving attention. It will
be remembered
that two bills were introduced in Congress
by members from Arkansas as
early as the
spring of 1892 which provided
for the
formation of a separate state from the country
occupied by the Five
Civilized
Tribes.
Several bills of different
sorts
for the reorganization
of the former Indian
Territory were
proposed
between December, 1892, and the
beginning of
1895.
On
December 20,
1893, the House Committee on Territories,
whose leading members were
Southern men,
presented a report favorable
to a bill
introduced by its chairman, Joseph Wheeler
of Alabama, for the
admission of the
Territory of Oklahoma.
Facts
were
presented in this
report to show that Oklahoma alone had sufficient resources for a state. It
was apparent that many Southern
congressmen preferred
that two new states
should be formed from this
section of the
Southwest
to offset in part
the
new states that had been
formed recently in
the Northwest.
A division of sentiment at once
became evident in the territories.
William C. Renfrow, the
third governor of
Oklahoma, in his first annual
report in October, 1893, took a stand for the
admission of the two
territories, as one
state joint
statehood, or single
statehood,
as it soon became known.
In
January, 1894, the members
of the
Democratic central committee of the
Indian
Territory protested
against union with
Oklahoma. They preferred separate statehood, or double statehood,
as it was also called. Both
plans
had supporters in the two territories during
the next ten or twelve
years.
Between 1895 and 1901 little
attention was given to the proposals
for the
admission of Oklahoma. As a result of the
election of 1894, the
Republicans secured
control of both
houses of
Congress. They
postponed
the consideration of statehood for Oklahoma until affairs in the Indian
Territory could be adjusted
in
preparation for a
reunion of the two territories. The North
and the East generally
disapproved of
more
Western, or especially Southwestern,
states
than was necessary. Several bills dealing with Oklahoma were introduced in
Congress during this period,
but not one
of them received serious consideration.
Meanwhile, the two territories were
developing under different conditions.
Oklahoma was occupied by
small landowners.
The Indian Territory was a
community of
landlords
and leaseholders,
either
of farms and
ranches or of coal, gas, oil, and
asphalt rights. The
government at
Washington
was trying to
introduce
the usual
system of land tenure in the Indian
Territory,
but with each
year of delay the irregular
and accidental
boundary
between it
and Oklahoma became more important.
Moreover, Congress needlessly
permitted the territories to develop
as separate
political units. Their administrative systems
were entirely different,
since one was an
organized territory,
and the other
unorganized. Their codes of laws
also were
different, since
the code of Arkansas was used in the Indian
Territory instead of the
code of Oklahoma.
The
union of the two could
have been
accomplished
with less friction in 1898 than in 1906, and the authority of the United
States would have been a
powerful
force in preparing the enlarged territory for
statehood.
A bill was introduced in both
houses
of Congress
in 1898 for the
union of the
Indian
Territory and Oklahoma prior to their admission as a state. This plan was
not considered as it should
have
been. The differences between the two sections
were numerous and important,
but a
territorial government could
have been
devised to meet the situation. Those who did
not wish the union to take
place at all,
joined with those who did
not
wish to act
until it
should become absolutely necessary, were able to keep the territories separate for
the time.
Most of the people of the Territory
of Oklahoma preferred to wait
for
admission until the two territories could be
formed into one state.
Cassius M. Barnes, the
fourth governor of
Oklahoma, appointed
in 1897,
said in his report for 1899: "... I
agree with the larger and
more
conservative part of our people
that it is better to wait a
reasonable
time and eventually, by a
union
of the two
territories,
establish one grand state. ..." In 1900, however, a party division began
to appear. The Democratic territorial
convention declared for the union
of the
territories.
The
Republican convention declared for the
admission of Oklahoma with
such boundaries
as
Congress wished to give
it.
Governor
Barnes in his report for that year
called for
the immediate
admission of the Territory of
Oklahoma, but he
did
not say
whether he wished it to be admitted separately
or in conjunction with the
Indian Territory.
The people of the Indian Territory
gave separate statehood somewhat
more
favorable consideration, although they were
interested chiefly in the
work of the Dawes
Commission. They
knew that
their
territory would
not be ready for admission for a few years, and the proposal that it
should be annexed to Oklahoma,
one
reservation at a time, was particularly
distasteful to them. Many
thought that a union of the
territories
would be unfair
to the
Indian Territory,
since the capital and' the leading public institutions probably would be
located in the fully organized portion
of the
state. They believed, too, that the people
of that portion would
control the
important offices at first,
because
of their
political
experience.
Public opinion in the country at
large regarding the admission of
new states was
of more significance than the attitude of the
people of
Oklahoma and the Indian Territory.
The
conventions of both the
great
parties in 1900 declared
unequivocally
for
statehood
for Arizona, New Mexico, and
Oklahoma, but the
form of statehood for
Oklahoma was not
specified. It was expected
that
the Congress elected in
1900 would take up the
matter at once when it met
in December,
1901.
Two of the seven bills introduced in
the House of Representatives during
this session
for the better government of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory were
reported by the committee. One for the organization of the
Indian Territory under the
name of
Jefferson, introduced by John A. Moon of
Tennessee, the leading
member of the minority on
this
committee, was reported favorably
by its
author on March 14, 1902 ; the other
for the admission of
Oklahoma, Arizona,
and New Mexico, introduced
by
William S. Knox
of
Massachusetts, the chairman of the committee, was also reported
favorably
by its author
on April I. The
Knox
bill provided that
Oklahoma should be admitted alone, but that the
new state must give its consent irrevocably to the annexation of the
Indian Territory, wholly, or
in part, if
Congress should determine upon such a plan.
The Moon bill provided for
the government of
the Indian Territory
in the
mean time.
These reports were clearly the result
of a compromise that was
intended to
defer the settlement of the matter. Those who
favored single statehood for
the two
territories believed that Congress
finally
would annex the Indian Territory to Oklahoma.
Those who wanted each
territory to form a
separate state
believed that
the union of
the two
would be impossible if Oklahoma should be admitted alone. The Moon bill
received no further consideration,
but
the bill for the admission of Oklahoma,
Arizona, and New Mexico
passed the House on May 9,
in spite of
the opposition of
members who thought that
the people of the
Indian Territory either
should be allowed
to
participate in the
organization
of the
new commonwealth or should be separated
from
it
permanently.
The opponents of the statehood bill
in the Senate at once adopted
a policy of delay.
While party lines had not been drawn in the House, the Democrats of the
Senate seem to have united in
support
of the bill, and the Republicans seem to have
opposed it. Matthew S.
Quay of
Pennsylvania, a member of the
Committee
on
Territories, was the
most prominent Republican who was out of harmony with his party.
The
committee,
controlled by the
Republicans
without
the aid of Quay, refused to report the bill for consideration by the
Senate at this session ; but
Quay forced the
chairman, Albert J. Beveridge of
Indiana, to agree to
make a report at the
beginning of the next
session in December, 1902.
The committee was
composed of eleven
members.
Quay and
the four Democrats presented minority
reports favorable to the
House bill on
December 10 and December
15,
respectively,
but the
majority report made on December 10 was adverse to it. A substitute
bill
for the admission of
Oklahoma
and the
Indian Territory
as one state was included in
a preliminary report of the committee
made on
December 3, but it
was
withdrawn for
revision when the final report was presented. Quay tried many times to
bring the House bill to a
vote, but on
March 3, 1903, the session came to an end
without action.
The contest over the statehood bill
gave the people of Oklahoma and
the Indian
Territory an opportunity to present their
views. Both factions in the
Senate
appealed to them for support.
A
subcommittee of
the
Committee on Territories in November and December, 1902, gave a series of
public hearings.
Two important elements were found to
be opposed to the immediate
admission
of the territories as one state. The
governments of the Five
Civilized Tribes declared in
favor of the
separate
admission
of the Indian
Territory. On November 28, 1902, Indian officials held a meeting at
Eufaula, where they adopted a
statement
regarding their position. The tribes also
protested separately against
union with
Oklahoma. Many of the active
Republicans of
the Territory of Oklahoma
were as much opposed to union
with the Indian Territory. They made
their
appeal on purely
partisan grounds.
Oklahoma alone would
he a
close state politically,
so ran their appeal,
but in time they
hoped that
it would be safely Republican.
If this should
prove true, it
ought to be
kept separate from the Indian
Territory,
which would be
overwhelmingly Democratic.
If this should not
prove
true, Congress could
join it to the Indian
Territory so that
only one
new Democratic state might be
admitted.
Congress,
however,
ought to give the Republicans a chance to
carry Oklahoma before doing
this.
Thus the wishes of the
Indians and
party
expediency
were the chief arguments against
single
statehood.
In the Territory of Oklahoma a
sectional division became manifest.
This
appeared in the attitude of the four leading
towns of the territory. It
was evidently
due in part to the local
benefits
expected to come from the particular form of
statehood favored. Enid and
Guthrie openly declared
for the House
bill and the
immediate admission of
Oklahoma. Shawnee and
Oklahoma City were committed
to a union of
the
territories.
The form in which the question of
statehood was presented to
the people of
the Indian Territory did not allow them a free
choice of answers. To many
it seemed that
union with Oklahoma
would be
inevitable
in the end.
Accordingly, they preferred to become a part of the new state at the
beginning. The non-citizens apparently
favored
immediate single statehood rather uniformly.
Those of the Chickasaw
district in
particular desired union at
once.
Those in the eastern and central parts were
noncommittal. An opportunity
to choose
freely between the immediate
admission
of the territory with Oklahoma and the
immediate admission of it as
a separate
state might have brought
out
somewhat
different
replies.
The people of
the two territories on the whole clearly
expected and probably
favored joint statehood. In
anticipation
of this,
religious,
fraternal,
and commercial organizations had already ignored the line between the
territories in many cases. It
was argued that
one state government would be less expensive
than two, and that Oklahoma
and the
Indian
Territory
together would make
a state
only
approximately as large as Kansas, or Missouri, or Nebraska, or one of the
Dakotas. Separately, they seemed
very small
in proximity to the state of Texas, eight
times as large as either of
them. To many
persons it seemed most
important
that the
joint state
should contain within its limits agricultural and mineral resources to
form
a well-balanced
industrial unit,
in which
commerce could
be regulated by the state.
It soon became clear that the leaders
in Congress had determined upon
a union of the
territories. In November, 1903, Congress met in a brief special session.
A
bill was introduced
in each
house for
the immediate
admission of Oklahoma alone, but this was the last serious effort to
admit Oklahoma without the
immediate
inclusion of the Indian Territory. In
the regular session a number
of new statehood bills
were introduced, and
in
April, 1904, the
House
Committee on Territories by its chairman, Edward L. Hamilton of Michigan, prepared
and reported favorably a bill
for
the admission of two new states: one made
up of Oklahoma and the
Indian Territory,
and one of Arizona
and New
Mexico.
This bill was
hurriedly considered by the House and passed on April 19. In the
Senate the bill was not taken
up until the
next session of Congress, which began in
December, 1904. On February
7, 1905, the
Senate rejected the sections of
the House bill
which provided for the
union of Arizona and New
Mexico. It accepted the
provisions for the
admission of Oklahoma and
the Indian
Territory as
the state of
Oklahoma. The
House
refused to concur in the Senate amendments, and a conference committee
failed to agree. The fact
that the
fortunes of Oklahoma were bound up with those
of Arizona and New Mexico
kept it from
becoming a state at this
time.
A new agitation for the admission of
the Indian Territory as a
separate state
was an important development in 1905.
Hither to the immediate
admission of the
Territory of Oklahoma
had
been discussed
seriously, but after the beginning of 1904
this plan was abandoned. The
Republican
territorial convention of
that year
declared for the immediate admission of the
two territories as one
state, as provided in
the House bill. The
Republicans
were
consistent,
literally at least, for their platform in previous years had called for the
immediate admission of Oklahoma
with such
boundaries as Congress wished to give it.
During 1904 it became clear
that Congress
wished to join the
territories,
and the
Republicans of Oklahoma acquiesced. After
the supporters of the
separate admission
of Oklahoma had given
up, the
leading
Indian citizens
of the Indian Territory headed a movement for the formation of a state
from the districts recently governed
by the
Five Civilized Tribes.
The Indian Territory was undoubtedly
ready for a better organization.
The
Dawes Commission disbanded on June 30,
1905, and its work of
allotment was
nearly completed that
the
Department of
the
Interior could carry it to a successful conclusion.
The town sites were surveyed and
appraised, and the sale of
them
was nearing completion.
As early as
February, 1903,
Congress had
been compelled to provide for rudimentary
counties, known as recording
districts.
Under
the existing
laws all
tribal
institutions, including their
executive and
legislative departments,
their schools, and their
public charities,
must come
to an end on
March 4,
1906. The establishment of a state or a territorial government in the
country
of the Five
Civilized Tribes
was clearly
imminent.
Good reasons were given for the
separate admission of the Indian
Territory. In
area and in population it was on a par
with the state of Maine. Its
industrial
development and its natural
resources
were in some respects greater than those of
Oklahoma. It contained three
hundred
incorporated towns, and more
than three
thousand miles of railroad were in operation
within its borders. The
production of
coal
from
its mines for the year
ending
June 30, 1905,
amounted to three million tons.
The development
of its great oil and gas fields was just
beginning. Its deposits of
asphalt, granite, marble,
lead, zinc, iron,
and
building stone
were
hardly touched. Much of its land was in the hands of Indian allottees, and it
would not be subject to taxation
for many
years; but the assessable wealth of the
territory, aside from land,
was more than two
hundred
million dollars, and was said to be sufficient to
support a state government.
The union with Oklahoma would bring
together two unlike divisions.
Oklahoma
had developed a system of roads and public
schools. These were yet to
be provided in
the rural parts of
the
Indian
Territory. The
Indians of Oklahoma were
few in number, and their
holdings were
comparatively unimportant.
The
affairs of the Five
Civilized Tribes would
require special
state
legislation, and their political
strength
would be
relatively twice
as great in a separate commonwealth as in the
joint state of Oklahoma. The
Indians were able to
point to a section in
the
Atoka agreement of 1897
which supported their
claim for separate
statehood.
It is not surprising
that they made
a vigorous
though
unsuccessful effort to convince
Congress of
the justice of
their cause.
The executives of four of the five
tribes in July, 1905, joined in
a call for a
constitutional convention to meet at Muskogee
on August 21. All residents
of the Indian
Territory were invited
to
participate in
the
selection of delegates. The meeting of this convention was of ultimate importance
chiefly because it brought about
the first
political co-operation on a large scale
between the Indian citizens
and the outlanders. No
doubt some took part
in the
movement who
were not in
favor of separate statehood. They believed that the opportunity to
join
with the Indians
in a request
for
better
government should not be lost. The name adopted for the
proposed state was Sequoyah, selected in honor
of the
"Cherokee Cadmus,"
and the Indians
were given important
parts
in
the deliberations of the convention. A
constitution was adopted on
September 8, and provisions
were made
for submitting it
to a vote of the people on November 7.
The constitution was ratified at this
election by a vote of fifty-six
thousand
to nine thousand. The conditions under
which the vote was taken
were such that
it
did
not afford a test of the
popular
attitude toward
separate statehood. Those who voted against the ratification of the
constitution were not allowed to
take part in the
choice of the proposed officials or to help
select county seats in the
forty-eight counties
delimited by the
convention. Most
persons
opposed to
separate statehood did not go to the polls, and not more than half of
the qualified voters took part
in the
election. Some opposed to separate statehood
may have voted for the
ratification of the
constitution in order that
they
might be
permitted to
cast their votes on the other questions.
The plan for a state of Sequoyah did
not receive a hearing in
Congress. A bill
for the admission of it was introduced in
each house in the House of
Representatives
on
December 4, 1905, and in
the
Senate on January
25, 1906. Nothing further, however, was heard of the proposal. The
union of Oklahoma and the
Indian
Territory had already been agreed upon at
Washington.
The admission of the four territories
as two states had received
consideration at once in this Congress.
President Roosevelt
in his
message of
December 4,
1905, recommended joint statehood, and in the first four days of
the session five bills were
introduced for
the admission of Oklahoma and the Indian
Territory as one state. Two
of these
bills, one by Senator Beveridge
and one
by Representative Hamilton, the chairmen
of the respective committees
on
territories, provided also for the
admission of
Arizona and New Mexico as one state. On
January 23, 1906, the House
committee
reported favorably a modified
joint-statehood bill
that had been introduced
the day before by Chairman
Hamilton. This bill
passed the House two
days
later. On January 29 it
was reported by the
Senate committee
with minor
amendments, and it was debated
on several
occasions. On
March
9 the Senate by a decisive vote adopted
a
proviso that the admission
of Arizona
and New Mexico as one state
should be
effective only if it should be ratified by a
majority of the voters of
each territory. Later on
the same day, the
Senate agreed
to strike
out all
reference to Arizona and New Mexico and passed the bill amended to apply only
to Oklahoma and the Indian
Territory. Both
houses had voted a second time to admit
the enlarged Oklahoma, but
Arizona and
New
Mexico
still blocked its
admission.
The conference committee did not make
a report until June 2. This
report
accepted the House bill practically unchanged.
When it became apparent that
the Senate
would not agree to this, the
report
was withdrawn. On the same day, June 12, a
new report was presented. It
provided for
the admission of
Oklahoma and
the
Indian Territory as
one state, and of Arizona and New Mexico as another ; but the union
and admission of the two
latter
territories could take place only with their
consent given separately, as
the Senate bill had
proposed for a short time
on
March 9. The
Senate
accepted this report on June 13, the House on June 14. The bill received the
approval of the President on
June 16. The
formation and adoption of a constitution
was all that remained
between Oklahoma
and
statehood.
The enabling act as passed authorized
a constitutional convention of
one hundred and
twelve members fifty-five for the Indian Territory, fifty-five for
Oklahoma,
and two for the
Osage reservation,
the
only part of the Territory of Oklahoma in 1906
that had not been placed
under county
government. This act also
prescribed
that the constitution to be formed should
prohibit the sale of
intoxicants in the Indian
Territory, as it then
existed,
and in the
Osage reservation, which, it was specified,
was to become a separate
county in the new
state.
The task before the constitutional
convention was an extremely difficult
one. The
proposed state had four times as many inhabitants as any other state had
at
the time of
admission. No
other convention
was
under the necessity of forming a commonwealth out of two distinct political units. The
difficulties were greater
because of the
unorganized conditions in the
Indian
Territory. Other
similar conventions dealt
only with an
organized
territory
or with
part of a former state, except the convention
of California; and the
unorganized
portion
of
Oklahoma had eight times
as
many inhabitants as
California had when it was
admitted into the Union.
Under the conditions the convention
adopted much legislation that
was properly
statutory and not constitutional. The
demand for progressive laws,
strong in
all
the
Western states, had to be
met. Moreover. Oklahoma has
more Indian
citizens than any
other
state, but it also
has many Negroes, with the resulting Negro problem. The question of
prohibition for the entire
state was
likewise a troublesome one, but it was
submitted to a popular vote
separately. One purely
local matter caused
much
bitterness at
the time.
New counties were marked out in the hitherto unorganized portion of the
state without reference to
the boundaries
of the existing recording districts, and in
some cases new counties were
established in
the
former Territory of Oklahoma.
It
is too early to try to pass judgment on the
work of the convention as a
whole.
The members of the convention were
elected on November 6, 1906, and the first
meeting of the body was held
on November
20. It adjourned
on
March 15, 1907, but it was in session again
from
April 16 to April 22
and from July 10
to July 16. On September 17
the
constitution as submitted was ratified by a
vote of one hundred and
eighty thousand
to
seventy-three thousand.
On November 16, 1907, President
Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring that Oklahoma was a state.
Thus one hundred and four
years
after its acquisition by the United States
as a part of the Louisiana
Purchase, it
was finally admitted into
the
Union. No
distinctively
Indian commonwealth has been established, but one-third of the Indians
of the United States participated
as
citizens in the organization of Oklahoma, the
home of the red man, which
has become in
a
modified
sense the Indian
state.
Source: The Formation of the State of
Oklahoma (1803-1906) By Roy
Gittinger
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