Montana Historical Society
Archives
RS 148
Montana Constitutional
Convention (1889).
Montana Constitutional Convention (1889)
records
1889
1 linear foot of shelf space
These Montana Constitutional Convention records (1889)
consist of correspondence, a journal of daily proceedings, stenographer's notes, subject
files, propositions, reports, resolutions, petitions, oaths of office, draft constitution,
rules, membership lists, etc.
28:6-2
English
On February 22, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed an enabling act known as the
Omnibus Statehood Bill, providing for constitutional conventions to be called on July 4,
1889, in Montana, Washington, and North and South Dakota territories. A convention was
called in Helena, the territorial capital of Montana, to draft a constitution. Seventy-five
delegates were elected in May from the sixteen existing counties. The convention was in
session from July 4 to August 17, 1889. William A. Clark served as president of the
convention.
On October 1, 1889, the draft constitution was approved by a vote of the people of Montana
Territory. The U.S. Congress also approved the constitution, and a proclamation by President
Benjamin Harrison on November 8, 1889, admitted Montana as the forty-first state.
The records of the 1889 Constitutional Convention include general correspondence,
financial records, journal of daily sessions, general topical files arranged by file number;
propositions (include committee reports); resolutions and ordinances; status reports; bill
book; constitution draft; oaths of office; petitions; memorials; rules; membership list; and
convention letterhead.
The collection is arranged by series
Collection is open for research. Use of the handwritten copy of the stenographer's notes is
restricted due to its fragile condition; a photocopy is available for research.
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical
Society. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection.
In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright
owners. For more information contact an archivist.
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers.
Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information is available upon request.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Montana Historical Society
Archives catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places
should search under these terms.
Constitutional conventions--Montana--1889
Montana
Detailed Description of the Collection
General Correspondence
1 / 1
Chronological (includes "goods ordered for convention" "Some facts concerning the
location of the capital at Anaconda"; notifications of delegates who "paired")
1889 July-November
Financial Records
1 / 2
Checkbook
1889 July-August
OvFd / 1
Disbursements for mileage, per diem, and salaries
1889
1 / 3
Invoices, receipts, etc.
1889
Minutes
1 / 4
Convention journal
1889 July-August
1 / 5-7
Stenographer's notes (photocopy: fragile originals
are in Box 3 and are restricted)
1889 July-August
Proceedings
1 / 8
General File No. 1 (re city, town, and county
organization)
1889
1 / 9
General File No. 2-4 (re institutions, military
affairs, education)
1889
1 / 10
General File No. 5-7 (re corporations, boundaries,
and suffrage)
1889
1 / 11
General File No. 8-9 (re executive department, public
indebtedness)
1889
1 / 12
General File No. 10-15 (re apportionment, officers,
citizenship, fires, miscellaneous subjects and future amendments, water rights)
1889
1 / 13
General File No. 16 (re Legislative Department)
1889
1 / 14
General File No. 17 (re industrial resources and
commerce)
1889
1 / 15
General File No. 18 (re Judicial Department)
1889
1 / 16
General File No. 19 (re schedule (validity of
territorial documents))
1889
1 / 17
General File No. 20 (re revenue and taxation)
1889
1 / 18
General File No. 21 (re preamble)
1889
1 / 19
General File No. 22 (re ordinances)
1889
Miscellany
1
Bill book
1889
1 / 20
Draft of constitution
1889
1 / 21
Memorials
1889
1 / 22
Oaths of office
1889
1 / 23
Petitions (re woman suffrage, Sunday laws, taxes)
1889
1 / 24
Propositions 1-18 (re preamble and declaration of
rights, convict labor, imported labor, education, labor, Chinese, irrigation, military
affairs, executive department, boundaries and public lands, suffrage, Bureau of
Agriculture, state institutions and public buildings)
1889
2 / 1
Propositions 19-29 (re Legislative Department,
Judicial Department, pardoning power, public lands and homestead exemptions, municipal
corporations, irrigation, revenue and taxation, miscellaneous subjects and future
amendments, woman suffrage)
1889
2 / 2
Propositions 30-40 (re water rights, corporations,
military reservations, ordinances, public lands, public indebtedness, validity of laws
passed by territorial legislatures, woman suffrage, apportionment and representation)
1889
2 / 3
Resolutions, ordinances, etc. (re preamble,
stenographer's duties, boundaries, counties, state property, suffrage, new counties,
special deputies and private detectives, blacklisting, liquor dealers, abuse of
privilege by Helena Journal, printing of Constitution, federal grant of land to state,
prevention of cholera, taxation, court system)
1889
2 / 4
Rules, membership and committee lists, letterhead
1889
2 / 5
Status reports
1889
3 / 1-3
Stenographer's notes (original: RESTRICTED; use copy
in Box 1, Folder 5-7)
1889