A HISTORY OF THE
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
OF THE
STATE OE OKLAHOMA
BY
Albert H. Ellis
Second Vice President of the Constitutional Convention
AND
Speaker Pro Tempore of the First State Legislature of the State of OklahomaCopyright 1923
By
Newal A. Ellis
Economy Printing1 Co. Muskogee, OklahomaINTRODUCTION
The purpose of this volume is to give to the world a true history of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Oklahoma, that those who follow after us in future years may know under what conditions the Constitution was written and by what character of men that instrument was framed.DEDICATION
To that galaxy of courageous men that met in the City of Guthrie on the Twentieth day of November 1906, to form a Constitution for the proposed State of Oklahoma and who toiled so many weary days to write a progressive Constitution in face of many obstacles and bitter opposition: this volume is respectfully dedicated.
The Author.INTRODUCTION And ENDORSEMENT
When he requested me to write an introduction to his ,!History of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention”, I readily agreed without reading its contents, because I personally know the author, the Hon. Albert H. Ellis, as few men know their fellows. As a member of that Convention, over which I had the honor of presiding with apparent entire confidence of the larger number, I learned to know his capabilities, his steadfast devotion to popular government, his faith in the ample ability of the governed for their own self-determination, his sincere desire to promote the common weal, and his never faltering loyalty to the majority, or inner group of men, who really wrote and caused to be written the Oklahoma Constitution: for a few of its members were placed in position to be caused to write provisions in which they little believed and since have by misconstruction tried to nullify and destroy. I learned those things of Mr, Ellis, not alone from his service as its Vice-President but from his active participation on the floor in the closest contested questions and in heated debates over public policies. His faults were not for a lack of integrity, morality, soberity, faithful devotion to duty. His consisted of faith in ultra popular government.
When that body convened on the 20 th day of November 1906, in the old city hall at Guthrie, it had a stupendous task confronting it - two territories, dissimilar in governmental systems, in traditional sectionalism andpolitical thought, in interest and vocations, were to be moulded into one harmonious unit for one purpose and political inspiration: within its boundaries lived upwards of a third of all the Indians under the Bereau of the Government, in the United States and they were to be protected from a veritable horde of grafters that the widespread advertisement of their properties, rich potentially, had brought among them: asphalt lands, and coal lands aggregating a half million acres and recently discovered petroleum with lead and zinc mining had to be fosterd with fair and just consideration of labor employed to develop them; railroads, telegraph and other transportation and transmission lines had to receive fundamental consideration with a view to their further development and protection of the shipping public against excess unjust or discriminating rates or charges made by them and other public service corporations: care against monopolies: agriculture and commerce fostered; schools, colleges, assy-lums, and penal institutions to be established: counties were to be cut out and local government set up in more than half of the State, together with the sundry problems which Constitutional conventions must needs consider everywhere.
Notwithstanding all these problems, the day of its convening was a most auspacious day for a people seeking self-government; for all classes, (as thof attuned for the task) and most particularly the farmer, were organized, far better than they had ever been before or since, and what was most important, they, as well as federated labor, then were organized upon a wise and sensible basis, seeking justice and to harm no one. Therefore a Conventioncomposed of representatives-representative men and for the most part, able, honest and upright, and just in their private conduct, willing to "Live and let live11 - a convention of such men bached by such organized force for justice, leaves little wonder that they wrung from the ablest and most observant newspaper correspondent of the opposit political party (the late Fredrick Bard) the observation that the dominating forces of that Convention were the "Most sensibly conservative and safely radical of all men who ever wrote a constitution", and this despite the corrupt and criminal elements of the twin territories, bold, aggressive, and numerous as they were, and as dominating or influential as they at times have since been in the State Government not excluding even the judiciary, neither the convention in drafting nor the people in ratifying it, erred in the selection of the garments, constitutionally to clothe the State Government and the officials thereunder. The mistake has been in electing or appointing officers oft-times too ignorant to put on, and frequently too venal to wear the uniform prescribed by the constitution, the fundamental law. For this the people have only themselves to blame for voting thro’ party passion, for the tailor-made fit and dressed, rather than for him or them whom the constitution would clothe becomingly. For alas! no instrument or Government is self-executing, self-enforcing. Nor is a statute better than the power that construes and enforces it. Because the Oklahoma hotel inspection law may prescribe loop-rope fire escapes in the rooms of all hotels does not necess-arialy mean such escapes will be there and no man need lose his life by a hotel fire - if the Governor and Health officer permits the removal of such escapes. Herein liesthe proof of the axiom that sound government cannot come by intellect alone, but it must needs rest on character-upon honor, morality, integrity, truth - and whosoever does not possess character is unfit to make laws, or construe them as a judge or administer them as an ex-exucutive officer. I!The proof of the pudding is the eating of it”. Has not the State during the same years under the constitution progressed more rapidly than any other of the Mississipi basin? Has not our industrial progress been unprecedented, and that too without serious labor troubles? Labor has been satisfied because the Constitution gave it justice. The employer of labor whose income tax returns speak in stupendous volume their enormous earnings - he too is satisfied - for ”Work and wages” mark the balance between employer and employee- "Might makes right”; cartriges for current wages; gunpowder to enforce decrees of courts and executives - These were nullified by the Bill of rights. The Constitution recognizes that government and the business of the citizen must go hand in hand along the highway of progress, justice, and equality before the law; and that to protect both life and property is the first duty of government. It has given to the citizen the luxury of freedom in body and mind-freedom to move from place to place, and to exercise mind by human touch and contact, with stupendous appropriations for the minds improvement. True it has decreed that all must work;- for there is no progress for man or woman except by labor-labor of hand, and heart, and mind. Only thus can there be health and happiness, help and progress. Labor makes even kings respectable. Out of these relations arise contracts and credits. Without these neither will come capital for industrial progressnor wages for labor; but credits and contracts do not exist when there are no courts that men may trust. The Constitution established courts and left the people to fill them. If they therefore have not ’’Courts that men may trust” they have themselves to blame for not remembering that the execution of laws come thro’ men, and that sound and good government comes by men of character, who would extend a special favor (not wholly within right and the laws) to no man; that the candidate whom any man, high or low, can control should be distrusted by all men: that neither good-looks, nor style of dress, nor lodge-fraternity, nor church brotherhood alone qualifies a candidate for public office; but merit and character must be remembered if Oklahoma has just government: for even steel rails must rest on more than rock ballast. Of a truth, economic progress, oil wells and railroads, paying dividends; factories competing in the markets, merchants sustaining a retail trade and home market; banks solvent and protecting their stockholders and depositors; a growing population; public health with low death rate, maintaining the vigor of labor, guarding his home and schooling his children - all these as do steel rails, rest in safety only where government officials may be trusted and courts enforce contracts. Without these all relations of life and human safety and progress becomes a lottery or a gamble: disease will sap the vitality of the citizen and of his industry; pestilence and want will stalk abroad in the land; railroad rails, tho’ of steel and on rock ballast, will become a streak of rust.
Nor can there be secured capital or credit from abroad or labor at home. Verily! Confucius spake truth -’’Corruptor unstable, or tyrannical government is fiercer than tigers”. Give us courts and officers that men may trust, and then will be realized the fondest hope and highest ambition of the makers of the constitution, whose labor and example have almost passed from the memory of the citizen who is made its sovereign keeper, by its expressed provisions. Their elevating men who sat at its making opposed its provisions, and now in power cry aloud for another convention to change its wholesome terms, but illustrates the saying that '’Eternal vigalance is the price of liberty" and of the Scotch Historian "Most commonly the world forgets or never knows its greatest men, while its hard-headed fools, who in their lives perhaps have been the toys of fortune, sleep in their honored graves, their memory living in the pages of history preserved like grapes in aspic by writers suet-headed as themselves".
It is therefore, most gratifying that Mr. Ellis should undertake the labors of writing the true History of a most remarkable convention whose combined wisdom at the time received the encomium of the wisest Statesmen of both England and America as the most advanced achievement in the progress of unfolding popular government, and I bespeak for him that it may go through more than one published edition. Whatever may be its reception by the sovereign citizens, who are most interested, its makers, tho’ denied the plaudits of a grateful people, will ever chant an everlasting benediction for their liberty and progress, thisERCILLIAN REVEILLE
!,Happy whose eyes in timely darkness close, Savfd from the worst of sights, his country fs woes; Yet, while I can, I make her weal my care,
And for the public good my thoughts declare:
A leader still our present State demands,
To guide her with constitutional hands.11
Wm. H. Murray.
Tishomingo, April 13, 1921.A. H. Ellis
Second Vice President of Constitutional ConventionOpening op Oklahoma to Settlement
The original part of the State of Oklahoma b(nowthe counties of Logan, Payne, Kingfisher, Cleveland, Oklahoma, Canadian, Beaver, Texas and Cimarron) (the last three counties were formerly known as the Public Lands Strip ) was authorized to be opened to settlement by an act of Congress which became a law March 3 1889. The President of the United States was to issue a proclamation giving thirty days notice of the proposed opening. This law was approved by Grover Cleveland and was one of his last official acts as President.
On the 23 day of March 1889, Benjiman Harrison, President of the United States, issued a proclamation setting the date of the opening of Oklahoma Territory to settlement on the 22 day of April 1889 at 12 oclock noon. At the crack of a carbine in the hands of a United States soldier at noon on that day, the lands were subject to settlement, and the greatest horse race ever known in civil life was on. By sundown, thousands of men settled upon tracts of land that were destined to become homes for their families, Of course this mass of humanity that had come into a wilderness to lay the foundation of a future State found a somewhat chaotic condition, for the time being every man was a law unto himself, but the Anglo-Saxon always finds a way to maintain government, and order was soon brought out of chaos and a Territorial form of government well established, and a Territorial Legislature and a delegate to Congress was elected and Territorial government began to function. The virile settlers in2
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their sod houses and unpainted homes began to dream of Statehood for Oklahoma, but there were to be many, many changes geographically and politically before their dreams came to full fruition.
The	Iowa, the Sac	and	Fox	and Pottawatomie-
Shawnee	Indians, having	been	alloted in severalty, the
surplus lands of their reservations were opened to settlement on September 22 d 1891. These reservations contained an	area	of 864.414 acres.	Out	of the	territory contained
in	these	reservations was	formed the	counties of Lincoln
and Pottawatomie and some of the territory was attached to the counties of Logan, Oklahoma and Cleveland, by adding one tier of townships to the East side of each county, while Payne County was enlarged by adding thereto that part of the lands which lie South of the Cimarron River and North from the center line of Range 17.
The lands of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation was alloted to the members of the tribes and the surplus lands were thrown open to settlement on the 19 of April 1892. From the territory of this reservation was formed the counties of Blaine, Custer, Washita, Dewey, Roger Mills and parts of Canadian, Kingfisher, Beckham and Ellis.
That part of the State of Oklahoma formerly known as the Cherokee Outlet (better known as the Cherokee Strip) was thrown open to settlement together with the surplus lands of the Tonkawa and Pawnee Indian Reservation, at 12 o’clock noon September 16 th 1893. The area ofOpening of Oklahoma to Settlement
3
these lands was 5.698.140 acres and from the hour of
opening up to six o’clock P. M. the same day, the territory now embraced in the counties of Alfalfa, Garfield, Grant, Harper, Wood ward, Woods, Major and Pawnee and the greater portions of Noble and Kay counties and parts of Ellis and Payne counties, had a claimant for practically every homestead in the territory thus opened.
The Kickapoo Indian Reservation located in Lincoln, Oklahoma and Pottawatomie counties, containing 85.000 acres, having been alloted in severalty to the Indians of that tribe, the surplus lands were then thrown open to settlement in May 1895.
That part of Oklahoma formerly known as Greer County, was long a bone of contention between the United States and the State of Texas, both claiming the territory. In 1895 the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the contention of the United States Government was correct. In May 1896 an act of Congress re-organized Greer County and it became a part of Oklahoma Territory.
The area of Greer County was One & one half Million acres, from which was afterwards formed the counties of Greer, Jackson and Harmon and a part of Beckham. Thus, by a decision of the Supreme Court Texas lost a County and the future State of Oklahoma gained an Empire.
In 1901 the reservations of the Kiowa-Commanche and the Wichita-Caddo and affiliated tribes was opened to settlement. These reservations contained 3.460.000 acres and from this territory was formed the counties of Commanche, Caddo and Kiowa. Thus the several Indian4
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
Reservations thrown open to settlement, together with Greer County was amalgamated into what was known as Oklahoma Territory.5
Indias Territory
The Eastern half of Oklahoma, formerly the Indian Territory, was organized as a Territory May 26 th 1830, but the Indians by various treaties with the United States Government had secured territory for their respective tribes long before the Territory was organized. The Chero-kees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminóles, known as the Five Civilized Tribes were the predominating tribes.
The treaty with the Creek tribe was concluded February 12 th 1825 and ratified March 7 th the same year. The treaty with the Cherokees was concluded May 6 th 1828 and ratified on the 28 th of the same month. The Choctaw treaty was concluded October 18 th 1820. The treaty with the Seminóles was concluded May 9th 1832. The treaty with the Ghickasaws was signed Oct. 20 1832, and by agreement with the Choctaws in 1837 they were given a separate district in the Choctaw country and in 1855 became a separate Indian Government.
The Osage Indians entered into a treaty with the United States Government September 25 th 1818, by which they ceded to the United States the lands occupied by them. In June 1872 Congress passed an act confirming to the Osage Indians a reservation in the Indian Territory West of the 96 meridian, which became known as the Osage Nation.
The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Osage Indians each had written Constitutions and made and enforced their own laws.6
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
There were several tribes of Indians located in the Indian Territory in addition to those already enumerated, and it was one of the tasks of the Convention to frame the Organic law of the new State so that there would be no infringement of the treaty rights of any of the Indian tribes.Agitation for Statehood
In the 53 rd Congress, Delegate Dennis Flynn, introduced a bill providing that Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory be admitted as one State, but the Committee on Territories reported back to the House of Representatives a bill for separate Statehood for Oklahoma alone. The Chairman of the committee (Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama) was strongly opposed to admitting the two Territories as one State; always maintaining that there should be two States carved out of the two territories.
From the time of the report of the Flynn bill in Congress the agitation for Statehood increased and the question as to whether there should be one or two States was earnestly discussed and many public meetings were called to consider and discuss the merits of single Statehood versus two States for the two Territories.
The impression in the minds of many Congressmen seems to have been #that the Indian Territory would be Democratic if a State was made of it alone and that Oklahoma Territory would be safely Republican:	but
there was an element of doubt in the minds of all as to what political party would dominate if a single State was erected out of the two Territories, and the question of Statehood became a football between the Republicans and Democrats in Congress, as well as in the two Territories.8
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In January 1894 Congressman Thomas C. McRae of Arkansas, introduced a new bill providing for the admission of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory as a single State, but the opposition of the Chairman of the House Committee on Territories (Hon. Joseph Wheeler) was able to defeat the measure.
A Democratic Territorial Convention was held Jan. 24 th 1894 at which resolutions demanding single Statehood were adopted. The Indians of the Five Civilized tribes who were opposed to single statehood, then called an International Council, which was held at Eufaula in March 1894.
At the beginning of the short session of the 53 d Congress in 1894, Senator Berry of Arkansas introduced a bill for the organization of the Indian Territory under the name of f,Territory of Indianola’1, thus to pave the way to admit the Territory as a State at a later time, but Senator Faulkner of West Virginia who was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories was opposed to two States being erected from the two Territories and the bill was never reported back to the Senate by the Committee.
In January 1896 a Statehood Convention was held in Oklahoma City (two separate calls had been issued for the meeting-one call for single statehood for Oklahoma and Indian Territory and the other for statehood for Oklahoma Territory alone) The rival Conventions met but accomplished nothing beyond renewing the agitation between the adherents of the respective policies of statehood.Agitation for Statehood
9
Although many bills were introduced in Congress authorizing the people of Oklahoma to form a State Government and be admitted into the Union as a State, they never got further than to be reported by the Com-mitte on Territories, until the first session of the 57 th Congress, when Delegate Dennis Flynn succeeded in getting through the House of Representatives an ?fOmnibusfi bill authorizing the people of Oklahoma and Indian Territory to form a State, but the bill got no further during the session.
When the 57 th Congress convened for the short session in December 1902, the contest was renewed and a great legislative battle was fought, equaling any of the legislative battles over the admission of free or slave States. Every Democratic Senator from the South and West supported the omnibus bill as it had passed the House of Representatives, and in addition many Republican Senators supported the bill. But a majority of the Committee on Territories, headed by the committee Chairman, Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana were opposed to the measure that had passed the House of Represent-antives and reported back to the Senate a bill providing for the admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory as one State. Many appeals were sent to Congress by the advocates of single Statehood, but protests were just as numerous and in the end the measure died upon the Senate calendar.10
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
In the 58 th Congress, Bird S. McGuire, Delegate to Congress from Oklahoma, introduced a bill authorizing Cklahoma (without any reference to the Indian Territory) to form a State Government. The bill passed the House of Representatives, but was amended in the Senate so as to include the Indian Territory. The bill as amended was returned to the House of Representatives for concurrence, but the House refused to concur in the amendment. Again was Statehood postponed.
The agitation for Statehood had awakened the Five Civilized Tribes to the realization that ere long Congress would take some definite action in the matter of passing an enabling act authorizing the forming of a new State. Whether the new State shouid be formed out of one or both Territories was of vital interest to them and they began to bestir themselves to obtain Statehood for the Indian Territory alone, under the name of "Sequoyah11.Sequoyah
The first organized effort for separate Statehood for the Indian Territory, was an Executive Committee of five members appointed by the Chief Executives of the Five Civilized Tribes; namely, Henry Ainsley of McAl-ester, for the Choctaws; Alex Posey of Eufaula, for the Creeks; Connell Rodgers of Fort Gibson, for the Chero-kees; Henry Brown of Sasakwa, for the Seminóles and William H. Murray of Tishomingo, for the Chickasaws: all Indians by blood except Mr Murray, who is an intermarried citizen of the Chickasaws and at that time was personal adviser to Governor P. S. Mosley. This Committee wTent to Eufaula in 1903 and organized to put into operation a system of propaganda for separate Statehood for the Indian Territory.
A call for a Convention to form a Constitution was issued by Chief Green McCurtain, of the Choctaws; Chief W. C. Rogers of the Cherokees and Chief Gen. Pleasant Porter, for the Creeks. The Gonvention met in Muskogee in August 1905: each Recording District (of whicn there were twenty six) had seven Delegates in the Convention and five Delegates were elected at large - one from each of the Five Civilized Tribes. Thus there was a total of 187 Delegates in the Convention. Pleasant Porter, Chief of the Creeks was selected President and Alex Posey Secretary.12
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
Each of the Governors of the Five Civilized Tribes were made Vice Presidents; Charles N. Haskell to serve as Vice President in lieu of Pleasant Porter, as was William H. Murray the personal representative of Governor D. H. Johnston of the Chickasaw Nation.
The Convention selected a committee to draft the proposed Constitution and then recessed until the Committee could complete its work. W. W. Hastings was made Chairman of the Gommittee. William H. Murray and Chas. N. Haskell were never absent from either the sessions of the committe or the Convention and were accredit ed with writing the "Sequoyah Constitution". The writer submitted the question to Mr Murray and he replied "Not counting your Uncle Bill, the men who wrote the Sequoyah Constitution were C. N. Haskell, Judge John R. Thomas, Dr A. Grant Evans, General Pleasant Porter, William McCombs, Robert L. Owen, W. W. Hastings and Martin Rutherford."
The Committee reported to the Convention and the Convention adopted a Constitution and submitted it to a vote of the people and it was by them ratified by a majority of 65.000 votes. After being ratified by the people of the Indian Territoty the Constitution was submitted to Congress and rejected. Thus, the fate of the proposed State of Sequoyah was sealed forever: but many of the Delegates in that Convention were destined to help build a greater Commonwealth - Oklahoma.Sequoyah
13
After the rejection of the Sequoyah Constitution by Congress, the people of the Indian Territory realized that there was no hope for separate Statehood for the two Territories and immediately began agitation for single Statehood for the two Territories. At the beginning of the first session of the 59 th Congress, Statehood bills were introduced in both houses. The House of Representatives passed an omnibus bill providing for the admission of two States: one to be formed out of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory and the other out of the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico. Again it seemed that Statehood was doomed, but a compromise between the Senate and House of Representatives was agreed to, by which Oklahoma and Indian Territory were to be admitted as one State and the people of Arizona and New Mexico would vote upon the question as to whether the two Territories should be admitted as one or two States.
The amended Omnibus bill became a law June 14 th 1906. At last the question was referred to the people who were to be most affected, and the people of the proposed State began to bestir themselves to meet the new responsibilities confronting them. The question of what provisions should be incorporated into the Constitution of the proposed State was much discussed, and the array of suggested candidates was closely scanned and the measures they advocated were thoroughly considered.Sections of Enabling Act Providing for the Admission Of Oklahoma
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the inhabitants of all that part of the area of the United States now constituting the Territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, as at present described, may adopt a constitution and become the State of Oklahoma, as hereinafter provided: Provided, that nothing contained in the said constitution shall be construed to limit or impair the rights of persons or property pertaining to the Indians of said Territories (so long as such rights shall remain uhextinguished) or to limit or affect the authority of the Government of the United States to make any law or regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights by treaties, agreement, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent to make if this act had never been passed.
Sec. 2. That all male persons over the age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States, or who are members of any Indian nation or tribe in said Indian Territory and Oklahoma, and who have resided within the limits of said proposed State for at least six months next preceding the election, are hereby authorized to vote for and choose delegates to form a constitutional convention for said proposed State: and all persons qualified to vote for said delegates shall be eligible to serve as delegates; and the delegates to form such convention shall be one hundred and twelve in number, fifty-five of whom shall be elected by the people of the Territory of Oklahoma,Enabling Act
15
and fifty-five by the people of Indian Territory, and two shall be elected by the electors residing in the Osage Indian Reservation in the Territory of Oklahoma; and the governor, the chief justice, and the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma shall apportion the Territory of Oklahoma into fifty-six districts, as nearly equal in pop-lation as may be, except that such apportionment shall include as one district the Osage Indian Reservation, and the governor, the chief justice, and the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma shall appoint an election commissioner who shall establish voting precincts in said Osage Indian Reservation, and shall appoint the judges for election in said Osage Indian Reservation: and two delegates shall be elected from said Osage district; and the Commissioner to the Five Civilized tribes, and two judges of the United States courts for the Indian Territory, to be designated by the President, shall constitute a board, which shall apportion the said Indian Territory into fifty -five districts, as nearly equal in population as may be, and one delegate shall be elected from each of said districts; and the governor of said Oklahoma Territory, together with the judge senior it service of the United States courts in Indian Territory, shall, by proclamation in which such apportionment shall be fully specified and announced, order an election of the delegates aforesaid in said proposed State at a time designated by them within six months after the approval of this act, which proclamation shall be issued at least sixty days prior to the time of holding said election of delegates. The election for delegates in the territory of Oklahoma and in said16
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
Indian Territory shall be conducted, the returns made, the result ascertained, and the certificates of all persons elected to such convention issued in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma regulating elections for Delegates to Congress, That the election laws of the Territory of Oklahoma now in force, as far as applicable and not in conflict with this act, including the penal laws of said Territory of Oklahoma relating to elections and illegal voting, are hereby extended to and put in force in said Indian Territory until the legislature of said proposed State shall otherwise provide, and until all persons offending against said laws in the election aforesaid shall have been dealt with in the manner therein provided, and the United States courts of said Indian Territory shall have the same power to enforce the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, hereby extended to and put in force in said Territory, as have the courts of the Territory of Oklahoma: Provided, however, That said board to apportion districts in Indian Territory shall, for the purpose of said election, appoint an election commissioner for each district who shall distribute all ballots and election supplies to the several precints in his district, receive the election returns from the judges in precincts, and deliver the same to the canvassing board herein named, establish and define the necessary election precincts, and appoint three judges of election for each precinct, not more than two of whom shall be of the same political party, which judges may appoint the necessary clerk or clerks; that said judges of election, so appointed, shall supervise the election in their respectiveEnabling Act
17
precincts, and canvass and make due return of the vote cast, to the election commissioner for said district who shall deliver said returns, poll books, and ballots to said board, which shall constitute the ultimate and final canvassing board of said election, and shall issue certificates of election to all persons elected to such convention from the various districts of the Indian Territory, and their certificates of election shall be prima facie evidence as to the election of delegates: Provided further, That in said Indian Territory and Osage Indian Reservation, nominations for delegates to said constitutional convention may be made by convention, by the Republican, Democratic, and People’s Party, or by petition in the manner provided by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma; and certificates and petitions of nomination in said Indian Territory shall be filed with the districting and canvassing board who shall perform the duties of election commissioner under said law, and shall prepare, print, and distribute all ballots, poll books, and election supplies necessary for the holding of said election under said laws. The capital of said State shall temporarily be at the city of Guthrie, in the present Territory of Oklahoma and shall not be changed therefrom previous to anno Domini nineteen hundred and thirteen, but said capital shall, after said year, be located by the electors of said State at an election to be provided for by the legislature: Provided, however, That the legislatuae of said State, except as shall be necessary for the convenient transaction of the public business of said State at said capital, shall not appropriate any public moneys of the State for the erection of buildings for capitol purposes during such period.18
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
Sec. 3. That the delegates to the convention thus elected shall meet at the seat of government of said Oklahoma Territory on the second Tuesday after their election, excluding the day of election in case such day shall be Tuesday, but they shall not receive compensation for more than sixty days of service, and, after organization, shall declare, on behalf of the people of said proposed State, that they adopt the Constitution of the United States; whereupon the said convention shall, and is hereby authorized to, form a constitution and State government for said proposed State. The constitution shall be republican in form, and make to distincton in civil or political rights on account of race or color, and shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And said convention shall provide in said constitution —
First. That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and that no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship, and that polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited.
Second. That the manufacture, sale, barter, giving away, or otherwise furnishing, except as hereinafter provided, of intoxicating liquors within those parts of said State now known as the Indian Territory and the Osage Indian Reservation and within any other parts of said State which existed as Indian Reservations on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and six, is prohibited for a period of twenty-one years from the date of the admission of said State into the Union, and thereafter until the people ofEnabling Act
19
said State Shall otherwise provide by amendment of said constitution and proper State legislation, Any person, individual or corporate, who shall manufacture, sell, barter, give away, or otherwise furnish any intoxicating liquor of any kind, including beer, ale, and wine, contrary to the provisions of this section, or who shall, within the above-described portions of said State, advertise for sale or solicit the purchase of any such liquors, or who shall ship or in any way convey such liquors from other parts of said State into the portions hereinbefore described, shall be punished, on conviction thereof, by fine not less than fifty dollars and by imprisonment not less than thirty days for each offense: Provided, That the legislature may provide by law for one agency under the supervision of said State in each incorporated town of not less than two thousand population in the portions of said State hereinbefore described; and if there be no incorporated town of two thousand population in any county in said portions of said State, such county shall be entitled to have one such agency, for the sale of such liquors for medicinal purposes; and for the sale, for industrial purposes, of alcohol which shall have been denaturized by some process approved by the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue; and for the sale of alcohol for scientific purposes to such scientific institutions, universities, and colleges as are authorized to procure the same free of tax under the laws of the United States; and for sale of such alcohol to any apothecary who shall have executed an approved bond, in a sum not less than one thousand dollars, conditioned that none of such liquors shall be used20
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
or disposed of for any purpose other than in the compounding of prescriptions or other medicines, the sale of which would not subject him to the payment of the special tax required of liquor dealers by the United States, and the payment of such special tax by any person within the parts of said State hereinabove defined shall constitute prima facie evidence of his intention to violate the provisions of this section. No sale shall be made except upon the sworn statement of the applicant in writing setting forth the purpose for which the liquor is to be used, and no sale shall be made for medicinal purposes except sales to apothecaries as hereinabove provided unless such statement shall be accompanied by a bona fide prescription signed by a regular practicing physician, which prescription shall not be filled more than once. Each sale shall be duly registered, and the register thereof, together with the affidavits and prescriptions pertaining thereto, shall be open to inspection by any officer or citizen of said State at all times during business hours, Any person who shall knowingly make a false affidavit for the purpose aforesaid shall be deemed guilty of perjury. Any phycian who shall prescribe any such liquor, except for treatment of disease which after his own personal diagnosis he shall deem to require such treatment, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for each offense by fine of not less than two hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; and any person connected with any such agency who shall be convicted of making any sale or other disposition of liquor contrary to these provisions shall be punished by imprison-Enabling Act
21
ment for not less than one year and one day. Upon the admission of said State into the Union these provisions shall be immediately enforceable in the courts of said State.
Third. That the people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title in or to any unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian, tribe, or nation; and that until the title to any such public land shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the jurisdiction, disposal, and control of the United States. That land belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the limits of said State shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the land belonging to residents thereof; that no taxes shall be imposed by the State on lands or property belonging to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States or reserved for its use.
Fourth. That the debts and liabilities of said territory of Oklahoma shall be assumed and paid by the State.
Fifth. That provisions shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of the State and free from sectarian control; and said schools shall always be conducted in English: Provided, That nothing herein shall preclude the teaching of other languages in said public schools: And provided further, That this shall not be construed to prevent the establishment and maintenance of separate schools for white and colored children.
Sixth. That said State shall never enact any law22
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
restricting or abridging the right to suffrage on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Sec. 4. That in case a constitution and State government shall be formed in compliance with the provisions of this Act the convention forming the same shall provide by ordinance for submitting said constitution th the people of said proposed State for its ratification or rejection at an election to be held at a time fixed in said ordinance, at which election the qualified voters of said propsed State shall vote directly for or against the proposed constitution, and for or against any provisions separately submitted. The returns of said election shall be made to the secretay of the Territory of Oklahoma, who, with the chief justice thereof and the senior judge of the United States court of appeals for the Indian Territory, shall canvass the same; and if a majority of the legal votes cast on that question shall be for the constitution the governor of Oklahoma Territory and the judge senior in service of the United States court of appeals for the Indian Territory shall certify the results to the President of the United States, together with the statement of the votes cast thereon, and upon separate articles or propositions and a copy of said constitution, articles, propositions and ordinances. And if the constitution and government of said proposed State are republican in form, and if the provisions in this Act have been complied with in the formation thereof, it shall be the duty of the President of the United States, within twenty days from the receipt of the certificate of the result of said election and the statement of votes cast thereon and a copy of said constitution, articles, propositions andEnabling Act
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ordinances, to issue his proclamation announcing the result of said election; and thereupon the proposed State of Oklahoma shall be deemed admitted by Congress into the Union, under and by virtue of this Act, on an equal footing with the original States. The original of said constitut-tion, articles, propositions, and ordinances, and the election returns, and a copy of the statement of the vote cast at said election, shall be forwarded and turned over by the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma to the State authorities of said State.
Sec. 5. That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the defraying of the expenses of the elections provided for in this Act, and said convention, and for the payment of the members thereof, under the same rules and regulations and at the same rates as are now provided by law for the payment of the Territorial legislature of the Territory of Oklahoma, and the disbursments of the money appropriated by this section shall be made by the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma.
Sec. 6. That until the next general census, or until otherwise provided by law, the State of Oklahoma shall be entitled to five Representatives in the House of Representatives of the United States, to be elected from the following-described districts, the boundaries of which shall remain the same until the next general census:
That district numbered one shall comprise the counties of Grant, Kay, Garfield, Noble, Pawnee, Kingfisher, Logan, Payne, Lincoln, and the territory comprising the Osage and Kansas Indian reservations.24
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
That district numbered two shall comprise the counties of Oklahoma, Canadian, Blaine, Caddo, Custer, Dewey, Day, Woods, Woodward, and Beaver.
That district numbered three shall (with the exception of that part of recording district numbered twelve, which is in the Cherokee and Creek nations) comprise all the territory now constituting the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole nations, and the Indian reservations lying northeast of the Cherokee Nation, within said State.
That district numbered four shall comprise all that territory now constituting the Choctaw Nation, that part of recording district numbered twelve which is in the Cherokee and Creek nations, that part of recording district numbered twenty-five which is in the Chickasaw Nation, and the territory comprising recording districts numbered sixteen, twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-six, in the Indian Territory.
That district numbered five shall comprise the counties of Greer, Roger Mills, Kiowa, Washita, Comanche, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie, and thé territory comprising recording districts numbered seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory.
And said Representatives, together with the governor and other officers provided for in said constitutiin, shall be elected on the same day of the election for the ratification or rejection of the constitution; and until said officers are elected and qualified under the provisions of such constitution and the said State is admitted into the Union, the Territorial officers of Oklahoma Territory shall continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices in said Territory.Enabling Act
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Sec. 7. That upon the admission of the State into the Union sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six, in every township in Oklahoma Territory, and all indemnity lands heretofore selected in lieu thereof, are hereby granted to the State for the use and benefit of the common schools: Provided, That sections sixteen and thirty-six embraced in permanent reservations for national purposes shall not at any time be subject to the grant nor the indemnity provisions of this Act, nor shall any lands embraced in Indian, military, or other reservations of any character, nor shall land owned by Indian tribes or individual members of any tribe be subjected to the grants or to the indemnity provisions of this Act until the reservation shall have been extinguished and such lands be restored to and become a part of the public domain: Provided, That there is sufficient untaken public land within said State to cover this grant: And provided, That in case any of the lands herein granted to the State of Oklahoma have heretofore been confirmed to the Territory of Oklahoma for the purposes specified in this Act, the amount so confirmed shall be deducted from the quantity specified in this Act.
There is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasuay not otherwise appropriated, the sum of five million dollars for the use and benefit of the common schools of said State in lieu of sections sixteen and thirty-six, and other lands of the Indian Territory. Said appropriation shall be paid by the Treasurer of the United States at such time and to such persons as may be authorized by said State to receive the same under laws to be enacted by said State, and until said State shall enact such
i
laws said appropriation shall not be paid, but said State26
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shall be allowed interest thereon at the rate of three per centum per annum, which shall be paid to said State for the use and benefit of its public schools. Said appropriation of five million dollars shall be held and invested by said State, in trust, for the use and benefit of said schools, and the interest thereon shall be used exclusively in the support and maintenance of said schools: Provided, That nothing in this Act contained shall repeal or affect any Act of Congress relating to the Sulphur Springs Reservation as now defined or as may be hereafter defined or extended, or the power of the United States over it or any other lands embraced in the State hereafter set aside by Congress as a national park, game preserve, or for the preservation of objects of archaeological or ethnological interest; and nothing contained in this Act shall interfere with the rights and ownership of the United States in any land hereafter set aside by Congress as a national park, game preserve,or other reservation, or in the said Sulphur Springs Reservation, as it now is or may be hereafter defined or extended by law; but exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, shall be exercised by the United States, which shall have exclusive control and jurisdiction over the same; but nothing in this proviso contained shall be construed to prevent the service within said Sulphur Springs Reservation or national parks, game preserves, and other reservations hereafter established by law, of civil and criminal processes lawfully issued by the authority of said State, and said State shall not be entitled to select indemnity school lands for the thirteenth, sixteenth, thirty-third, and thirty-sixth sections that may be embraced within the metes and bounds of the national park, game preserve, and other reservation or the Sulphur Springs Reservation, as now defined or may be hereafter defined.Enabling Act
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Sec. 8 That section thirteen in the Cherekee Outlet, the Tonkawa Indian Reservation, and the Pawnee Indian Reservation, reserved by the President of the United States by proclamation issued August nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, opening to settlement the said lands, and by any Act or Acts of Congress since said date, and section thirteen in all other lands which have been or may be opened to settlement in the Territory of Oklahoma, and all lands heretofore selected in lieu thereof, is hereby reserved and granted to said State for the use and benefit of the University of Oklahoma and the University Preparatory School, one third; of the normal schools now established or hereafter to be established, one third; and of the Agricultural and Mechanical College and the Colored Agricultural Normal University, one third. The said lands or the proceeds thereof as above apportioned shall be divided between the institutions as the legislature of said State may prescribe: Provided, That the said lands so reserved or the proceeds of the sale thereof shall be safely kept or invested and held by said State, and the income thereof, interest, rentals, or otherwise, only shall be used exclusively for the benefit of said educational institutions. Such educational institutions shall remain under the exclusive control of said State, and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands herein granted for educational purposes, or the income or rentals thereof, shall be used for the support of any religious or sectarian school, college, or university.
That section thirty-three, and all lands heretofore selected in lieu thereof, heretofore reserved under said proclamation, and Acts for charitable and penal institutions and public buildings, shall be apportioned and disposed of as the legislature of said State may prescribe.28
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Where any part of the lands granted by this Act to the State of Oklahoma are valuable for minerals, which terms shall also include gas and oil, such lands shall not be sold by the State prior to January first, nineteen hundred and fifteen; but the same may be leased for periods not exceeding five years by the State officers duly authorized for that purpose, such leasing to be made by public competition after not less than thirty days advertisement in the manner to be prescribed by law, and all such leasing shall be done under sealed bids and awarded to the highest responsible bidder. The leasing shall require and the advertisement shall specify in each case a fixed royalty to be paid by the successful bidder, in addition to any bonus offered for the lease, and all proceeds from leases shall be covered into the fund to which they shall properly belong, and no transfer or assignment of any lease shall be valid or confer any right in the assignee without the consent of the proper State authorities in writing: Provided, however, That agricultural lessees in possession of such lands shall be reimbursed by the mining lessee for all damage done to said agricultural lessees interest therein by reason of such mining operations. The legislature of the State may prescribe additional legislation governing such leases not in conflict herewith.
Sec. 9. That said sections sixteen and thirty-six, and lands taken in lieu thereof, herein granted for the support of the common schools, if sold, may be appraised and sold at public sale in one hundred and sixty acre tracts or less, under such rules and regulations as the legislature of the said State may prescribe, preference right to purchase at the highest bid being given to the lessee at the time of such sale, the proceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest of which only shall be expended in the supportEnabling Act
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of such schools. But said lands may, under such regulations as the legislature may prescribe, be leased for periods not to exceed ten years; and such lands shall not be subject to homestead entry or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for school purposes only,
Sec. 10. That said sections thirteen and thirty-three, aforesaid, if sold, may be appraised and sold at public sale, in one hundred and sixty acre tracts or less, under such rules and regulations as the legislature of said State may prescribe, preference right to purchase at the highest bid being given to the lessee at the time of such sale, but such lands may be leased for periods of not more than five years, under such rules and regulations as the legislature shall prescribe, and until such time as the legislature shall prescribe such rules these and all other lands granted to the State shall be leased under existing rules and regulations, and shall not be subject to homestead entry or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for designated purposes only, and until such time as the legislature shall prescribe as aforesaid such lands shall be leased under existing rules: Provided, That before any of the said lands shall be sold, as provided in sections nine and ten of this Act, the said lands and the improvements thereon shall be appraised by three disinterested appraisers, who shall be nonresidents of the county wherein the land is situated, to be designated as the legislature of said State shall prescribe, and the said appraisers shall make a true appraisement of said lands at the actual cash value thereof, exclusive of improvements, and shall separately appraise all permanent improvements thereon at their fair and reasonable value,30
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
and in case the leaseholder does not become the purchaser, the purchaser at said sale shall, under such rules and regulations as the legislature may prescribe, pay to or for the leaseholder the appraised value of said improvements, and to the State the amount bid for the said lands, exclusive of the appraised value of improvements; and at said sale no bid for any tract at less than the appraisment thereof shall be accepted.
Sec. 11. That an amount equal to five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within said State shall be paid to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest only of which shall be expended for the support of the common schools within said State.
Sec. 12. That in lieu of the grant of land for purposes of internal improvement made to new States by the eighth section of the Act of September fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-one, which section is hereby repealed as to said State, and in lieu of any claim or demand of the State of Oklahoma under the Act of September twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and fifty, and section twenty-four hundred and seventy-nine of the Revised Statutes, making a grant of swamp and overflowed lands, which grant it is hereby declared is not extended to said State of Oklahoma, the following grant of land is hereby made to said State from public lands of the United States within said State, for the purposes indicated, namely: For the benefit of the Oklahoma University, two hundred and fifty thousand acres; for the benefit of the University Preparatory School, one hundred and fifty thousand acres; for the benefit of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, two hundred and fifty thousand acres; for the benefit of the Colored Agricultural and Normal University, one hundred thousand acres; for the benefit of normal schools, now established or hereafterEnabling Act
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to be established, three hundred thousand acres. The lands granted by this section shall be selected by the board for leasing school lands of the Territory of Oklahoma immediately upon the approval of this Act. Said selections as soon as made shall be certified to the Secretary of the Interior, and the lands so selected shall be thereupon withdrawn from homestead entry.
Sec. 13. That said State when admitted as aforesaid shall constitute two judicial districts, to be known as the eastern district of Oklahoma and the western district of Oklahoma; the said Indian Territory shall constitute said eastern district, and the said Oklahoma Territory shall constitute said western district. The circuit and district courts for the eastern district shall be held one term at Muscogee, one term at Vinita, one term at Tulsa, one term at South McAlester, one term at Chickasha, and one term at Ardmore, each year, and the circuit and district courts of the western district shall be held one term at Guthrie, one term at Oklahoma City, and one term at Enid, and one term at Lawton, each year, for the time being. And the said districts shall, for judicial purposes, until otherwise provided, be attached to the eighth judicial circuit. There shall be appointed for each of said districts one district judge, one United States attorney, and one United States marshal. There shall be appointed a clerk for each of said districts, who shall keep his office at Muscogee and Guthrie, respectively, for the time being. The regular term of said courts shall be held at the places designated in this Act, at Muscogee on the first Monday in January and at Vinita on the first Monday in March and at Tulsa on the first Monday in April; at South McAlester on the first Monday in June; at Ardmore on the first Monday in October; at32
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
at Chickasha on the first Monday of November; at Guthrie on the first Monday in January; at Oklahoma City on the first Monday in March; at Enid on the first Monday in June, and at Lawton on the first Monday in October, in each year, and one grand jury shall be summoned in each year in each of said circuit and district courts. The circuit and district courts for each of said districts, and the judges thereof, respectively, shall possess the same powers and jurisdiction and perform the same duties required to be performed by the other circuit and district courts and judges of the United States, and shall be governed by the same laws and regulations. The marshal, district attorney, and clerk of each of the circuit and district courts of said districts, and all other officers and persons performing duties in the administration of justice therein, shall severally possess the powers and perform the duties lawfully required to be performed by similar officers in other districts of the United States, and shall, for the services they may perform, receive the fees and compensation now allowed by law to officers performing similar services for the United States in other districts of the United States; and that the laws in force in the Territory of Oklahoma, as far as applicable, shall extend over and apply to said State until changed by the legislature thereof.
Sec. 14. That all prosecutions for crimes or offenses hereafter committed in either of said judicial districts as hereby constituted shall be cognizable within the district in which committed, and all prosecutions for crimes or offenses committed before the passage of this Act in which indictments have not yet been found or proceedings instituted shall be cognizable within the judicial district as hereby constituted in which such crimes or offenses were committed.Enabling Act
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Sec. 15. That all appeals or writs of error taken from the supreme court of Oklahoma Territory, or the United States court of appeals in the Indian Territory to the Supreme court of the United States or the United States circuit court of appeals for the eighth circuit, previous to the final admission of such State shall be prosecuted to final determination as though this Act had not been passed. And all cases in which final judgment has been rendered in such Territorial appellate courts which appeals or writs of error might be had except for the admission of such State may still be sued out, taken, and prosecuted to the Supreme Court of the United States or the United States circuit court of appeals under the provisions of existing laws, and there held and determined in like manner, and in either case the Supreme Court of the United States, or the United States circuit court of appeals, in the event of reversal shall remand the said cause to either the State supreme court or other final appellate court of said State, or the United States circuit and district courts of said State, as the case may require: Provided, That the time allowed by existing law for appeals and writs of error from appellate courts of said Territories shall not be enlarged hereby, and all appeals and writs of error not sued out from the final judgments of said courts at the time of the admission of such State shall be taken within six months from such time.
Sec. 16. That all causes pending in the supreme and district courts of Oklahoma Territory and in the United States courts and in the United States court of appeals in the Indian Territory arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, or affecting ambassadors, ministers, or consuls of the United States, or of any other country or State, or of admiralty or of maritime jurisdiction,34
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
or in which the United States may be a party, or between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants from different States; and in all cases where there is a controversy between citizens of said Territories prior to admission and citizens of different States, or between citizens of different States, or between a citizen of any State and citizens or subjects of any foreign State or country, and in which cases of diversity of citizenship there shall be more than two thousand dollars in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, shall be transferred to the proper United States circuit or district court for final disposition: Provided, That said transfer shall not be made in any case where the United States is not a party except on application of one of the parties in the court in which the cause is pending, at or before the second term of such court, after the admission of said State, supported by oath, showing that the case is one which may be so transferred, the proceedings to effect such transfer, except as to time and parties, to be the same as are now provided by law for the removal of causes from a State court to a circuit court of the United States: and in causes transferred from the appellate courts of said Territories the circuit court of the United States in such State shall first determine such appellate matters as the successor of and with all the powers of said Territorial appellate courts, and shall thereafter proceed under its original jurisdiction of such causes. All final judgments and decrees rendered in such circuit and district courts in such transferred cases may be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States or by the United States circuit court of appeals in the same manner as is now provided by law with reference to existing United States circuit and district courts.Enabling Act
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Sec. 17 That all cases pending in the supreme court of said Territory of Oklahoma and in the United States court of appeals in the Indian Territory not transferred to the United States circuit and district courts in said State of Oklahoma shall be proceeded with, held, and determined by the supreme or other final appellate court of such State as the successor of said Territorial supreme court and appellate court, subject to the same right to review upon appeal or error to the Supreme Court of the United States now allowed from the supreme or appellate courts of a State under existing laws. Jurisdiction of all cases pending in the courts of original jurisdiction in said Territories not transferred to the United States circuit and district courts shall devolve upon and be exercised by the courts of original jurisdiction created by said State.
Sec. 18. That the supreme court or other court of last resort of said State shall be deemed to be the successor of said Territorial appellate courts and shall take and possess any and all jurisdiction as such, not herein otherwise specifically provided for, and shall receive and retain the custody of all books, dockets, records, and files not transferred to other courts, as herein provided, subject to the duty to furnish transcripts of all book entries in any specific case transferred to complete the record thereof.
Sec. 19. That the courts of original jurisdiction of such State shall be deemed to be the successor of all courts of original jurisdiction of said Territories and as such shall take and retain custody of all records, dockets, journals, and files of such courts except in causes transferred therefrom, as herein provided; the files and papers in such transferred cases shall be, transferred to the proper United States circuit or district court, together with a transcript36
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
of all book entries to complete the record in such particular case so transferred.
Sec. 20. That all cases pending in the district courts of Oklahoma Territory and in the United States courts for the Indian Territory at the time said Territories become a State not transferred to the United States circuit or district courts in the State of Oklahoma shall be proceeded with, held, and determined by the courts of said State, the successors of said district courts of the Territory of Oklahoma and United States courts for the Indian Territory, with the right to prosecute appeals or writs of error to the supreme court of said State, and also with the same right to prosecute appeals or writs of error from the final determination in said causes made by the supreme court of said State of Oklahoma to the Supreme Court of the United States, as now provided by law for appeals and writs of error from the supreme court of a State to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Sec. 21. That the constitutional convention may by ordinance provide for the election of officers for a full State Government, including members of the legislature and five Representatives to Congress, and shall constitute the Osage Indian Reservation a separate county, and provide that it shall remain a separate county until the lands in the Osage Indian Reservation are allotted in severalty and until changed by the legislature of Oklahoma, and designate the county seat thereof, and shall provide rules and regulations and define the manner of conducting the first election for officers in said county. Such State government shall remain in abeyance until the State shall be admitted into the Union and the election for State officers held, as provided for in this Act.Enabling Act
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The State legislature when organized shall elect two Senators of the United States, in the manner now prescribed by the laws of the United States, and the governor and secretary of said State shall certify the election of the Senators and Representatives in the manner required by law; and said Senators and Representatives shall be entitled to be admitted to seats in Congress and to all the rights and privileges of Senators and Representatives from other States in the Congress of the United States. And the officers of the State government formed in pursuance of said constitution, as provided by said constitutional convention, shall proceed to exercise all the functions of such State officers; and all laws in force in the Territory of Oklahoma at the time of the admission of said State into the Union shall be in force throughout said State, except as modified or changed by this act or by the constitution of the State, and the laws of the United States not locally inapplicable shall have the same force and effect within said State as elsewhere within the United States.
Sec. 22. That the constitutional convention provided for herein shall, by ordinance irrevocable, accept the terms and conditions of this Act.The Campaign foe the Election of Delegates
Under the terms of the enabling act, the Governor, Secretary, and Chief Justice of Oklahoma Territory, together with the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes and two Judges of the United States courts for the Indian Territory, proceeded to district their respective portions of the proposed State into delegate districts. Oklahoma Territory was divided into fifty-five districts and the Indian Territory into the same number. The Osage Nation having two delegates under the provisions of the enabling act, constituted one district. Thus there to be one hundred and twelve delegates to be elected from one hundred and eleven districts.
After the delegate districts had been mapped out and numbered and the result announced, by proclamation by Governor Frantz of Oklahoma and W. H. H. Clayton, Judge Senior of the United States Court in the Indian Territory, an election was ordered to be held on the 6 th day of November 1906, as provided for by the enabling act. >
When the people of the two Territories learned how the delegate districts had been laid out by those in authority, a wave of indignation swept over the country and the gerrymander was denounced. The Democrats did not fail to take advantage of the dissatisfaction caused by the unfair gerrymander, but the Republicans had high hopes that they would carry the State and have a majority in the Convention.
Both dominant political parties nominated good men, and the issue between the two parties was clearly defined.40
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The Democrats demanding a progressive Constitution that would protect the individual and give the people a larger share in the State government; while the Republicans were the advocates of a short Constitution along regular conservative lines, that would minimize the part the individual would have inState government, and place many safeguards about the rights of corporate property; leaving much latitude to the Legislature and much to the discretion of the Courts.
The camprign for the election of Delegates to the Constitutional Convention was short but intensive, for all foresaw that the party which wrote the Constitution would have a strong hold on the future State government. The national Congress which was Republican in both branches watched the struggle with keen interest, and the people of the Nation had their eyes on Oklahoma, for it was felt by good men everywhere in the Government that if Oklahoma should write a progressive Organic Law, it would be a step in human progress and wield a beneficent influence throughout the Government, But should Oklahoma adopt a Constitution of regulation type, guarding more closely the rights of property than the rights of it’s citizens, a step backward w’ould be taken.
In the Indian Territory, party lines had not been so clearly drawn and the voters were not handicapped by former party affiliations, so it was easy for them to decide: but in Oklahoma Territory the Republican was the dominant party and had long been in power and the National Government was in the hands of that party. Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, was the national idol and under Sec. 4 of the enabling act, the President of the United States had the authority and duty of issuing aCampaign for Election of Delegates
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proclamation admitting the State into the Union: but if, for any cause that seemed to him sufficient to with-hold his approval of the Constitution for the proposed State, he should refuse or fail to issue a proclamation, then all efforts to get statehood would fail: and it was freely predicted that should the Democrats have a majority of the Delegates in the Convention and write the Constitution for the proposed State of Oklahoma, the President would with-hold his approval and not issue the required proclamation*
The Democratic Territorial Committee met in Oklahoma City and formulated the following "Suggestions for a platform" for the Democratic nominees for Delegates.
n 1. We endorse and sanction the principles of Democracy, as declared by Jefferson, sustained by Jackson and interpeted by their greatest living exponent, William J. Bryan.
2.	We favor laws providing for separate schools, separate coaches and separate waiting rooms for the negro race.
3.	We favor the establishment of a public printing plant, in which all State printing shall be done, including the text books to be used in our public schools, which said books shall be manufactured and sold by the State to the school children at actual cost, or upon a referendum vote by the district said books may be purchased by the district and distributed to the children free of charge, thereby delivering our people from the iniquitous grasp of the book trust
4.	We are in favor of a corporation and State railway commission elected by the people of the State at large, with full power to require all corporations transacting business within the State, to make full, complete and regular reports upon all their business transactions and to keep their books and papers open for inspection by the proper officers of the42
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
State, and a failure to do so, or to answer civil process, shall work a cancellation of the license of a foreign corporation and forfeit the charter of a domestic corporation; that these corporations, in the transaction of their business with the people shall be subject to such reasonable rules and regulations, as may be fixed by said commission. All foreign corporations dealing with citizens of the State should be considered as doing business within the State.
5.	We are not the enemies of railroads, but their friends in all just transactions. We are proud of their efficiency as a method of transportation and rejoice in their mechanical and scientific development, and we pledge ourselves to defend their rights and redress their wrongs. Yet we shall not shut our eyes to facts, nor consent to railroad rule in State or Nation. We pledge ourselves to oppose by strict laws and severe punishment rebates and discriminations of all kinds and the corrupting power and influence of railroad passes in conventions, legislatures, courts and other public offices. We believe that the giving of a railroad pass to public officers should stand before the law in the same attitude as the giving of any other bribe, to the end that government of the State may remain in the people.
6.	We endorse the plan of legislation known as the Initative and Referendum and agree with Hon. William J. Bryan when he says ?The principle of the Initative and Referendum is Democratic, it will not be opposed by any Democrat who endorses the declaration of Jefferson that the people are capable of self government.1 We pledge our members of the Constitutional Convention for the insertion of such a provision in the Constitution, to the end that the rule of the lobbyist may pass. In this connection, we are in favor of a mandatory primary system for the nominationCampaign for Election of Delegates
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of all public officials and an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for the nomination and election of United States Senators by a direct vote of the people.
7.	We favor a constitutional provision excepting agreements and arrangements between farmers of the State, in relation to their products, while in the hands of the original producers, from all legislation on the subject of trusts and combinations in restraint of trade, or agreements to fix prices.
8.	We favor a just and reasonable fellow servant law, which shall fully protect all employees in whatsoever capacity engaged.
9.	We favor the establishment of a legal bureau of the State for the publication of the statutes and court reports and for the purpose of advising the legislative branch of the government on matters of legal concern, to the end that members of the legislature may be supplied with a competent advisor, paid by the State and responsible only to the people of the State.
10.	We favor a constitutional provision making a maximum of eight hours a legal work day on all public work.
11.	We favor the establishment of a bureau of labor and agriculture, whos duties shall be to gather and publish information of interest to these two great departments.
12. We favor the employment of convict labor on the public highways, to the end that the good roads movement may be fostered and assisted.
13.	We favor liberal homestead and other exemption laws and the relief from generel taxation of personal property to the heads of families to the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, and we favor the taxing of all other taxable property at its actual cash value.44
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
14.	We are opposed to government by injunction whereby the rights of the people are restricted and transferred arbitrarily into the hands of unfriendly judges.
15.	A private monopoly is indefensible and we favor stringent laws and regulations which will aid us as a people to protect ourselves from the rapacity of the trust which mercilessly absorbes our earnings and productions and unscrupulously resorts to bribery and coercion to thwart us in our efforts for relief.
16.	We favor the establishment and maintainance of a system of inspection, at State expense, of all mines, factories and railways where the lives and health of the employees is hazardous, and we insist that the position of such inspectors be filled by men schooled by practical experience in their respective craft.
17.	We favor the establishment of a State board of Arbitration to adjust disputes between employers and employees, also a law preventing child labor in mill and mine, and we are opposed to the relaxation of the Chinese immigration law and condemn the present administration for winking at its violation; also we favor the establishment of a State Board of Charities which will have supervision and right of inspection over all State eleemosynary institutions maintained by the State.
18.	We favor constitutional provision for the election of all State officers, including judges of the Supreme Court and all members of the railroad or other corporation commission by all voters of the State, and condemn as un-American. unprecedented and unconscionable the scheme of the Republican party to elect State officers by districts or a portion of the voters.Campaign for Election of Delegates
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19.	We are opposed to the coal lands falling into the hansd of private monopolies and favor a system by which the coal lands may be acquired by the State for the benefit of the PUBLIC SCHOOL FUND and the general public who are the consumers of coal, to the END that the INDIANS may receive JUST and FAIR compensation for THEIR property and the public PROTECTED from EXTORTION and INJUSTICE.
20.	We favor the REMOVAL of all RESTRICTIONS upon Indian Allotments except the Homestead, and a just and reasonable limitation upon the amount of said lands to be purchased by an individual, to the end that these lands may become the homes of the ACTUAL FARMER and SETTLER. We are opposed to these lands falling into the hands of Corporations, Speculatoss and Grafters.
We FAVOR MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP and CONTROL of all PUBLIC UTILITIES.'1
There were local issues in both Territories, such as the division of Counties, locating county seats in proposed new counties, the the laying out of Judicial, Senatorial and Representative districts, and on the Oklahoma side the overshadowing question of prohibition.
The "Joint Legislative Board of the Farmers Union, Federation of Labor and Railway Organizations" issued the following demands.
’’PREAMBLE”
"WHEREAS, It has become apparent that the great corporate monopolistic interests of the land are at work striving, aiding and abetting the election of candidates for our46
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coming constitutional convention and first state legislature for the purpose of dominating and controling said bodies through and by the influence of lawyers, bankers and politicians.
BE IT RESOLVED by this legislative board that we reccomend that the candidates for delegates to the aforesaid bodies be selected where possible and expedient from the ranks of the farmers and laboring people.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we pledge ourselves to support a brother farmer or laborer in preferenceto any other profession in the great struggle soon to take place, and further demand an answer to the following demands from each and every candidate to the constitutional convention.
We are opposed to government by injuncteon whereby the rights of the people are restricted and transferred arbitrarialy into the hands of court.
We favor the holding of land in small bodies to actual settlers.
We favor submitting the matter of disposing of the school lands to a referendum vote of the people.
’’LEGISLATIVE DEMANDS”
1.	The initiative and referendum with the right of recall as adopted and applied in the State of Oregon.
2.	A blanket primary for the nomination of every officer in the State of Oklahoma on plurality vote by the Australian system.
3.	The power of the civil authorities shall never be usurped by the military authorities.
4.	That the State may engage in any industry or enterprise.
5.	That the common law relieving the employer from liability to employees injured through the carlessness of a fellow servant be abrogated, and suitable laws be passed by the first legislature protecting employees under such conditions.Campaign for Election of Delegates
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6.	The right of action to recover damages for injury or death shall never be abrogated and the amount recoverable shall never be subject to any statutory limitation.
7.	Not more than eight hours shall constitute a days work in all underground mines and on all work carried on by the state, county or municipal government and the legislature shall pass suitable laws to provide for the health and safety of employees in factories, mills, smelters, mines and on railrords.
8.	There shall be three commissioners elected by the people to regulate and maintain rates for railroads, insurance, telegraph, express companies, telephone and pipe lines and all other corporations.
9.	Compulsory education and free books printed by the State.
10.	There shall be established and maintained the office of chief mine inspector, who shall be elected by the people. The neglect or failure of a mine owner, or mine lessee, to comply with the laws and state regulations in regard to mines, or the orders of the inspector of mines made under and in pursuance thereof,shall render such mine owner or mine lessee, responsible for damages to the life, health or person of the employees or other persons resulting from such neglect or failure.
11.	Sanitary inspection of shops and homes.
12.	A commissioner of labor and commerce to be elected by the people.
13.	A commissioner of agriculture to be elected by the people.
14.	We demand a liberal homestead and exemption law.
15.	The constitutional convention shall define who shall constitute the returning board until otherwise provided by law.
16.	We demand a corporate tax commission of three elected by the people, who shall have full power to inspect all accounts, vouchers and books at any time, and put the true48
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valuation on all stocks, bonds, property, receipts and money values, so that all corporations shall be assessed by the duly elected assessors.
"PROHIBITIVE DEMANDS”
The legislature shall prohibit by the enactment of proper laws:
1.	The employment of children under sixteen years of age, in mines, mills and factories,
2.	The contracting of convict labor.
3.	The labor of convicts outside of prison walls except on public roads under direct control of the State.
4.	The political and commercial control of employees.
5.	Railroads from owning coal lands or leasing any kind of mines directly or indirectly.
6.	Any corporation from transacting business in the State without first procuring a charter under the laws of the State.
7.	All gambling in farm products to be prohibited in the constitution
8.	The legislature shall not have power to grant an irrevocable franchise.nThe Results of the Election
The election was held November 6 th 1906. The Democratic party won an overwhelming victory; there being Ninety-nine Democrats, One Independent and Twelve Republicans elected. During the convention the democratic delegates became known as the ’’Ninety and Nine”, while the independent delegate was called the ’’Renegade” (but he was really a democrat and finally allied himself with the democratic majority and took part in the councils of the democratic delegates) and the twelve republicans were known as the ’’Twelve Apostles”.
The following named persons were elected delegates to the Convention.
Delegate Dist. No.
1	T. 0. James	Democrat
2	Fred C. Tracey	• •
3	Edward R. Williams	• •
4	Homer P. Covey	Republican
5	E. 0. McCance	Democrat
6	George Norton Bilby	• •
7	John C. Majors	• ♦
8	George W. Wood	• •
9	Delphas G. Harned	• •
10	W. F. Hendricks	• •
11	C. H. Pittman	• •
12	J. A. Alderson	• •
13	Charles L. Moore	• •
14	Albert H. Ellis	• •
15	David S. Rose	• •
16	J. F. King	• •50
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Delegate Dist. No.
17	Henry S. Johnston	Democrat
18	G. M. Berry	• »
19	E. G. Newell	• •
20	J. E. Sater	Republican
21	F. E. Houston	• •
22	Joel M. Sandlin	Democrat
23	Henry L. Cloud	Republican
24	W. L. Helton	Democrat
25	Henry E. Asp	Republican
26	William B. Jenkins	• •
27	W. T. S. Hunt	Democrat
28	W. C. Hughes	
29	John L. Mitch	
30	S. M. Ramsey	
31	James H. Maxey	
32	Isaac B. Littleton	
33	T. C. Wyatt	
34	J. S. Buchanan	
35	J. K. Norton	
36	John J. Carney	
37	Mathew J, Kane	
38	Thad D. Rice	
39	Charles C. Fisher	
40	Henry Kelley	
41	C. H. Bowers	
42	H. 0, Tener	
43	David Hogg	
44	W. S. Deering	
45	John B. Harrison	. i
46	F. E. Herring	
47	B. E. Bryant	
48	J. J. Savage	Results of Election
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Delegate Dist. No. 49 Luke Roberts	Democrat
50	William J. Caudill	• •
51	W. E. Banks	• •
52	J. B. Tosh	• •
53	William H. Edley	• •
54	John M. Carr	• *
55	G. M. Tucker	«•
56-	f John Leahy	
	( J. J. Quarles	• «
57	Joseph J. Curl	• •
58	Walter D. Humphrey	• •
59	W. H. Kornegay	• •
60	Don P. Wills	• •
61	J. W. Swartz	• •
62	James R. Copeland	• •
63	J. K. Hill	
64	C V. Rogers	• •
65	J. Howard Langley	♦ •
66	J. Turner Edmundson	• •
67	J. H. N. Cobb	Republican
68	Flowers Nelson	Democrat
69	William T. Dalton	• •
70	A. L. Hausam	• •
71	James A. Harris	Republican
72	A. S. Wyley	Democrat
73	Charles W. Board	• »
74	W. A, Cain	Republican
75	Phillip B. Hopkins	• •
76	Charles N. Haskell	Democrat
77	0. H. P. Brewer	« •
78	William N. Littlejohn	•«
79	William B. Hudson	Republican52
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Delegate Dist. No
. 80 Hammer G. Turner
81	J. A. Baker
82	E. F. Messenger
83	William C. Leidtke
84	C. 0. Frye
85	Samuel W. Hayes
86	Charles McClain
87	Carlton Weaver
88	Ben F. Harrison
89	James I. Wood
90	Peter Hanraty
91	Neil B. Gardner
92	Edwin T. Sorrels
93	Royal J. Allen
94	Milas Lassiter
95	Frank J. Stowe
96	C. S. Leeper
97	Boone Williams
98	Albert G. Cochran
99	J. S. Lattimer
100	C. C. Mathis
101	Cham Jones
102	L. J. Akers
103	Walter A. Ledbetter
104	William H. Murray
105	James H, Chambers
106	J. C. Graham
107	George A. Henshaw
108	Robert L. Williams
109	Gabe E. Parker
110	B. F. Lee
111	Freeman J. McClure
Democrat
Republican
Democrat
Independent
DemocratMeeting, of the Democratic Delegates in Caucus
Under the terms of Sec. 3 of the enabling act, the delegates were to meet on the Second Tuesday after the election. Accordingly, the delegates began to gather two days prior to the time of the meeting of the Convention. The Democratic delegates met in caucus on Monday Nov. 19 th 1906, in the City Hall at Guthrie (this hall had been secured and furnished to hold the convention in by the Secretary of Oklahoma Territory, Chas. H, Filson) The caucus was called to order by delegate J. A. Baker, and an adjournment was taken until later in the day. When the delegates re-assembled they proceeded to the selection of the party choice for officers of the convention. William H. Murray, Charles L. Moore and Peter Hanraty were placed in nomination for President of the Convention. William H. Murray of Tishomingo, was nominated. Peter Hanraty of McAle-ster, was then nominated for Vice President; Henry S. Johnson of Perry, was elected caucus Chairman; John M. Young of Lawton, was selected as the party choice for Secretary of the convention; Rev. Frank Naylor of Pawnee, was chosen for Chaplin; and William Durant of Durant, Sergeant at arms.
There not being sufficient room in the City Hall to accommodate all the citizens who desired to be present when the Convention was to be organized, it was agreed to meet on the following day in the Brooks opera house to organize, and hold the first session of the Convention.Convening oe the Convention
The Convention convened in the Brooks opera house at 2 o’clock P. M. November 20 th 1906. Henry S. Johnson, Delegate from Destrict No. 17, called the convention to order and called upon the Rev. Frank Naylor, who offered the following prayer.
nAlmighty and everlasting God we are devoutly thankful to thee for the providence that has brought us to this good hour. We thank thee that from the conditions of a most discouraging nature and struggles with poverty and disappointment, thou hast made it possible for the conditions that obtain here today. We have been sent here in an earnest endeavor to frame a great constitution for a great people and for generations which shall follow us. Thou hast not forgotten us in the past, we are ready now and ask thee to continue Thy protective care over us. God bless the great mass of men, women and children who are anxiously awaiting the work of this body. Bless the men all over our state who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. May their interest be carefully guarded. God bless the President of the United States and all in authority. Preserve the peace of our Nation.
Lord while for all mankind we pray Of every clime and coast 0 hear us for our native land The land we love the most.
Bless the officers and members of this convention. Give them wisdom and health and strength to fearlessly do their duties. May no selfish motive or ambition stand in the wayConvening of the Convention
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of the greatest good to the greatest number. May each member feel that in thy fear he will properly weigh every question for the good of the mass of the people. Hear us we beseech thee, and finally permit us to be with thee and we will praise the forever, Amen.11
The following address was then delivered by delegate Henry S. Johnson.
,!From the consideration of the caucus of yesterday, the transcendent privilege of calling to order the first Constitutional Convention of the State of Oklahoma has devolved upon me, For the compliment of that privilege no words of mine can express the emotions of gratitude welling up within me. And while I give this word of thanks to you for thus distinguishing me from among your number, my heart is lifted in fervent prayer that my daily association with you may build an estimate of my character worthy of the honor you have so generously bestowed. May it be that our daily communion and companionship shall bud and blossom into a gorgeous friendship in .the consciousness of mutual worth.
From this word of personal relationship to you, I pray you to permit me to return to your number and of your body and rank and in our joint behoof to officiate as our spokesman. And now as the tongue and living voice of this Convention, permit me first to say; To the people of Guthrie, we thank you for your cordial and splendid welcome. Your kindness and hospitality has at once proved your own high ideals of courtesy and tied the bond of friendship to the heart anchoring of ^very several delegate.
To the people of Oklahoma and Indian Territory, we thank you that you have presented and given to us this commission by which you have sent us to this solemn presence.56
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By this grant of authority you have made these delegates your joint and several trustees. You have hereby made a requisition upon the energies and likewise have enlisted in your service the best intelligence and highest devotion of which we are capable. By this letter of authority, you have said to us: *Go Thou to the legal Mecca of these our Territories and lay firm and deep the organic law as a foundation whereupon we the people may build the great legal and political temple of the Commonwealth of Oklahoma.1
To which I wish on behalf of this Convention to respond, that we not only render this expression of our keen sense of gratitude and appreciation, but here and now voice the deep feeling of responsibility with which the acceptance of this trust is laden. In behalf of these delegates may I indulge the high hope that the labors of this Convention will be dedicated to the liberties of the people of the new State. May I indulge the hope that in that temple will be placed a sacred shrine upon which, written O’er in letters of living light, will be placed a parchment scroll, the Magna Charta of the State of Oklahoma.
In the dissolution of the barriers which hitherto have severed and held our Territories in twain, may the elements of their light so commingle in an atmosphere of love that the vigils of the stars shall behold the halo of the dawn.
In the writing of *The Schedule* by which the bodily form of these our Territories is transfigured into Statehood shall be transferred the full meed and unbounded measure of my affection.
Oklahoma has been kind to me, I was a stranger and she took me in, I was an hungered and, of the com of plenty, she gave me food. I was athirst and, of the wine of gladness, she gave me drink. Her years have been a measure of earthsConvening of the Convention
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jeweled glories and times golden joys. Sweet tempered air, grandure and softness of cloud, the almost terrifying bluff of threatened storms, showers shedding perfume from treasure fields of harvest; the glad young flowers swelling to the breaking point in the after visitation of the sun, youth past the age of frivolity, such is the physical nature of Oklahoma.
When the records of this convention shall have been entered on the journal of history’s judgment roll, may the fond heart of this the fairest of the Sisterhood of states beat in conscious approval of your patriotic devotion and labors of love.
Then may it be yours to say unto her ’Spouse of my choice, my betrothed one, My Oklahoma I love Thee. In this union are we joined in indissoluble wedlock forever. This temple shall be our habitation forever. This alter shall be the hearth stone of our dwelling place. By this charter have we sealed the covenant of our troth, In suasive gentleness of your tender mood you shall draw me from my grasp on self into love that shall deepen with each passing year. When this mortal frame shall falter and lie down to its last repose, may I yet sense the kiss of Thy breath, may my head be piliowed on Thy bosom wnen the curtains of these mortal eyes are drawn forever.f ff
Hon. J. F. King of Newkirk, Delegate from the 16 th district, was elected President protempore. Upon taking the chair Mr King addressed the Convention as follows.
"Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Ladies and Gentlemen: I would be something less than a man, I would be false to every manly instinct, did I not feel and express to you my sincere and profound thanks for the kindness and the honor you have done me in electing me your58
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temporary presiding officer. So long as I shall live I shall bear you and your act in treasured and affectionate remem-berance. The importance of your labors and the very limited time assigned for their performance would render an extended speech unpardonable. And yeti will ask your indulgence for but a little while. We are told that a Constitution usually consists of three parts, viz: First, the Bill of Rights, Second, the Frame of Government, and Third, the Schedule. The object of the Bill of Rights is to protect the individual in the enjoyment of his life, his liberty and his property. They usually declare that all men are possessed of certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and thr pursuit of happiness. That all political power rest’s with the people, that government is founded on their authority and instituted for their equal protection and benefit. That they have a right to assemble in a peacable manner to consult for their common good, to instruct their representatives and to petition the government or any department thereof for a redress of grievances. That they have the right to bear arms, that they have a right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. That in all cases of arrest the prisoner is entitled to the issuance of the writ of habus corpus, to inquire into the cause of his imprisonment and to furnish bail in bailable offenses, that in all prosecutions the accused shall be allowed to appear and defend by counsel or in person. To demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him. To meet the witness face to face. To require the attendance of witnesses in his behalf, and to a speedy public trial, by an impartial jury of the county where the offense is alleged to have been committed, and similar provisions along that line.Convening of the Convention
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The Frame of Government usually provides, and under our frame of government must neccessarialy provide, that the government shall consist of three separate co-equal and co-ordinate departments - the legal or law making department, the Judicial department, or the department which interprets and applies the law of a given state of facts, and the Executive department, or the department which enforces the law.
The Schedule provides for the transition from the old to the new government, and that suits pending shall be tried under the old law; that the old officers shall continue to act until the admission of the new State; that the laws not affected by the new Constitution shall continue in force, etc. The old Constitutions were divided substantially into three parts and until our day they were all that was necessary to the needs of the people.
As long as there were no large aggregations of organized capital, as long as Uncle Sam had one hundred and sixty acres of good land for every man who would take it and could put one man on an equal footing with another, these provisions werfe sufficient. For seven hundred years the struggle of the English people, and for part of that time of the American people, was against the executive, the King, to limit his power and to enlarge the powers of the legislative department to keep the King from taking their lives, their liberty and in the form of taxes their property. The people were at first content to wring from King John the Magna Charta and while it contains the germs of all there is in the petition of right and the Bill of rights, nevertheless it was stated in such general terms and such broad language that the King and his counselors early found ways of evading it, and it was only after centuries of experience and much60
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amendment that the law was so framed that neither the ingenuity of counsel nor the corruption of officials would find a loophole to wantonly take the life or the liberty of the citizen. But it remained for the men who framed the Constitution of the United States and the Constitutions of the original States, to so state and enact the law of personal liberty, that little if any improvment in that regard has since been made or probably can ever be made.
More than a hundred years of experience in popular government in the United States, has demonstrated that the great problem confronting the American people in Constitution making is not so much to control or limit the Executive as to control and properly limit the Legislative department. By this latter department has the American people been despoiled. And while the constitutions of the different states contain the germ and principle of good government, and while it is true of law as it is of farming that out of the old fields cometh the new corn, nevertheless these principles have been stated in such general terms and with so little provision for their application to the affairs of the people that little assistance can be derived from them in the way of administrative government.
Our fathers established the principle on which government should be founded, it is the labor of this generation to establish the principles on which it should be administered. To leave this labor to the next generation may be too late. What doth it profit a people to declare in their constitution that all men are created equal, that they are entitled to the same oppurtunities and the same fair measure of right and then permit predatory wealth, the smug men of finance and the corruptors of legislatures to rob them of their hard earned means. These glittering generalities, these beautifulConvening of the Convention
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statements of general principles should be given a definite and specific application to the affairs of the people to the end that government of the people, for the people and by the people, should become a reality instead of a mere theory. Constitutions as well as men should practice what they preach. I am therefore in favor of incorporating into the Constitution of Oklahoma a fourth department which I think cannot be better designated than the administrative department, so that the Constitution shall not only confer these great rights but shall secure and protect the people in their actual enjoyment. Do not understand me as criticising or attempting to criticise the work of the men who drafted the Constitution of the United States or of the states of the Union. It is beyond criticism.
The Constitutions which they framed were perfectly suited to the times in which they were made and effectuated every purpose of good government. But time impairs Constitutions as it does all things, and if they be not amended and repaired to meet changed conditions, new questions and the ever alteriong situations of an enterprising and progressive people, there is an end to good government.
These changes in the people and in their affairs make amenement and change in Constitutions and in laws a never ending, ever-continuing and ever-pressing necessity. As the ocean makes itself pure by constant agitation so the State must keep itself efficient by constant progress.
The questions which are now up for solution before the people of the states of the Union have come upon the State since the other states have framed their Constitutions and it is now the duty of Oklahoma not only to solve them for herself but to solve them for her sister states, for you may be sure the people of other states will listen with an interested62	Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
anxiety for the answer Oklahoma will make to them. While broadly speaking, a Constitution is to a State what a set of moral and business maxims is to a business man, and while we are told by some able judges that nothing should be put into a Constitution but what time and experience has demonstrated to be true, yet we should remember that a business man who never learns anything and who never improves has but a short time to remain in business. And that State which fails to meet and correctly solve the questions ever pressing upon its people must speedily degenerate into a mere despotism. The great Judges of 1790 had but little regard for the Constitution of the United States, and the man who would improve any trade or profession must look for but little encouragment from its grey haired devotees, however eminent or learned they may be. And while it is no doubt correct that nothing should be put into the Constitution except that which is known truth and not experiment, it is nevertheless true that there are self-evident truths in this day as there were in 1776, and that there are many things demonstrated by experience to be true that have passed from the domain of politics and political discussion to the realms of unquestioned and unquestionable truth and yet have not found their way into any Constitution. Such an objection would not only have made the Constitution of the United States as well as the Constitutions of all the States impossible but it world render government of the people a theng of the past.
As a Constitution not only organizes government itself, it shonld embody the settled policies on which that Government should be conducted, and as fast as great questions of government policy emerge settled from the political arena, the field and the forum, they should be embodied in the Constitution that they may become a permenant guide to theConvening of the Convention
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official and an inspiration and protection to the people. So that in a government enterprising and progressive like ours, each generation in the future as in the past should crystalize in the Constitution its wisdom and experience, carefully remembering that the State like a child must have room to grow, and that its principles as well as frame of government must not be so rigid or inelastic as to prevent healthy development. Also remembering that it is with Constitutions as with trees that while one branch is developing another is dying and provision must be made for the removal of the diseased and dead wood.
The first Constitutions of the original States contained many provisions as to religious and property qualifications, provisions of intense interest and particular force at the time of the formation of these Constitutions, yet by amendment and revision these provisions have largely passed out of the Constitutions of those States. And no doubt many of the things now pressing for consideration and which will be put into the Constitutions made in this generation will become so well settled or so unsuited to changed conditions as to pass out of these ^^Constitutions and make room for more appropriate or more pressing provisions. The great problem before the founders of the different American commonwealths, so far as property was concerned was to provide for the dev-olepment of the recources of the country and the production of material wealth. The great problem now pressing for solution by this generation is not so much that of the production of wealth as that those who produce it shall enjoy it. In other words their problem was one of production, ours is that of distribution. While I would not belittle the force or effect of any law, the real Constitution of any State is not upon the written or printed page, but in the hearts, the64
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intelligence and the conscience of its people. The men who framed the Constitution of the United States did not deem it necessary to put a Bill of Rights in the Constitution, deeming its provisions so well established in the common law of the land as to be unneccessary.
But the people refused to accet it except with the understanding that such a bill should be incorporated, wnich was done by the adoption of the first eight amendments. While it is not a necessary part of the Constitution, the wisdom of its insertion is beyond question. It furnished a beacon light for the official and a sufficient guarantee to the people. If we had with us today the despoilers of the American people and we should refer to the Declaration of the American Independence they would enthusiasticaly applaud if we would renew our aliegienceto the Constitution of the United States, they would ask to be included and give it apparently a most pronounced approval. If we should renew our faith in the teaching of the Bible they would beg to join us and proclaim their devotion to the lowly Nazarene. We have therefore nothing to gain by copying the ten commandments into the Constitution. We have therefore nothing to gain by filling it with glittering generalities and fulsome declarations of general principles, but we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by making a definite and specific application of the general principles and of the ten commandments to the business of the people. In my judgment the law rightly enacted and rightly interpreted is but an application of the ten commandments to the affairs of men.
This and every other generation of a free people has its own peculiar problems to face in Constitution making. The men and the generations that have gone before us have with splendid intelligence, unfaltering patriotiism and a courageConvening of the Convention
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that has challenged the world, confidently faced and as intelligently and courageously solved the problems of government and of constitution making that confronted them. We will be unworthy sons of worthy sires if we fail to meet and courageously solve the problems now pressing upon our people for solution. We the accredited delegates of what is destined to be the grandest State in the grandest country in the only Republic that ever lived. A moral coward should have no place and no seat in a Constitutional Convention.”
John M. Young was elected temporary Secretary and assumed the duties of the office.
Charles H. Filson, Secretary of Oklahoma Territory, called the roll of the Delegates elect, and one hundred and nine answered ’’Here”. (there were three delegates not present on first roll call, namely; Covey, Hughes and Hogg)
Hon. John H. Burford, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma Territory, administered the following oath of office to the delegates.
,fDo you and each of you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation of purpose or evasion and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Delegate to the Constitutional Convention on which you are about to enter: So help you God.n
The Convention then proceeded to effect a permanent organization. William H. Murray, Democrat, and Philip B. Hopkins, Republican of Muskogee, were placed in nomination for President of the Convention. A rising vote was taken and Mr Murray was elected. He was then escorted to the chair and addressed the Convention as follows.66	Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Delegates to the Constitutional Convention: I do not know whether I am expected to make a talk, but I want to say I deeply appreciate the honor conferred upon me and I am mindful of the great responsibility which it carries. I know that I will not be able to satisfy the various persons who want promotions in the way of committees and appointments, but I do want to say that I feel proud of the fact that I have not made a single promise, save and except one little boy for page. There are two ways to manage politics, one is to promise everybody that comes along everything and the other is to promise no one anything. The last one, I have followed. I belong to that class of men who believe that there is such a thing as honesty and integrity in politics. I believe the quicker the people of this country believe that and understand it the quicker they will conduct campaigns on the broad basis of honesty and public policy and not on the basis of misrepresentation, and the quicker will honesty and good men come into politics, and try to steer aright the ship of state. We regret to say that in some of the older States politics is so corrupt that the religious and pios dare not enter. I believe it would even be wise to provide in the oath of office that each and everyone swear that he did not offer anything of value for a vote or to with-hold a vote at an election at which he was elected or appointed.
I want to say to you especially that awhile ago we were two territories represented on the North and West with a thrifty population that came from all of the States of the Union and who by their industry, their courage and intelligence, have made this country what it is. On the other, the East and South, is the home of the Five Civilized Tribes, three of whom were never savages and which five are the most advanced and civilized Indians on earth, representedConvening of the Convention
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here with their history and memories of their great men, such as Douglas H. Johnston of the Chickasaws, Green McCurtain of the Choctaws, Pleasant Porter of the Creeks, W. C. Rodgers of the Cherokees, John Brown of the Seminóles, each the chief executive of their respective tribes; whose courage, intelligence and diplomacy have made them the equal of many of the Governors of the various States. In addition to these are their past patriots and heroes marked among the graves of the dead. There was the renowned and beloved Tishomingo, who represents the father of the Chickasaw Tribes as does George Washington that of the United States. There was Push-ma-ta-ha, the renowned warrior and executive of the Choctaws, who with his seven hundred warriors stood side by side with General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans and from behind cotton breastworks, assisted in whipping the British from off American soil. There was the bright and splendid genius, the inventor of the alphabet and spelling of the Cherokees, Sequoyah. These tribes, together with their white neighbors and friends sought first to hold their cherished ideas and territory rights for separate Statehood and to create out of their statesmanship the State of Sequoyah. In this we have failed, but we accept conditions as we find them; we bow to the decrees of fate. We take them as one accepts his sweetheart, with the determination that there shall be peace and love between these two Territories. We are now united, not as two Territories, but as Greater Oklahoma.
Now as we are in this Convention to make a Constitution, and as your presiding officer I shall not be allowed to say much, I am going to have my say now. In the first place I want to thank you for my election, and I want to say that I will perhaps take an unusual course in the selection of committees. I am going to select every committee with care.68
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I am going to take time to investigate the political principles and character of every delegate before I appoint a single committee. I want all Democrats and my friends, the Republicans to hand me their platforms on which they ran in the campaign, together with a statement of their first, second and third choice for committees, because there may be a conflict where you will have to take second or third choice, at least on one committee, because I have understood that nearly every one wants to be appointed on the committee on County Boundaries. In the appointment of a committee as I see it, there are two things to consider. First the qualification, Second the peculiar views relating to a given subject. I am going to be responsible for what Ido and if a man gets on a committee that represents the ’Interests’ he will get there decieving me. In this connection I might refer to some things and repeat some of the things that I said before the caucus yesterday. First, let us make a Constitution without the sting of partisnry; because the conditions of today may be reversed tomorrow and you may thus have to take the same dose yourself that you dosed out to your fellow citizens. The Provision for education should be liberal and as nearly non-partisin as possible. It should provide for the education of every child in the State, a training that will fit them for any position and not leave the child with merely a sentiment for a profession or for running for office. The child must be educated in things practical; in things that they can use. Let us reverse the false system of education that has characterized the American States. As we look about us and see the great Luther Burbank, the great horticulturist, and seethe achievement that he has brought forth, we can only say that there is but one and there should be a thousand where there is but one. It is highly important that every citizenConvening of the Convention
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have some general education to make a good citizen, because the schoolboy of today is the citizen of tomorrow, wielding out the power of the ballot box and framing government policies to shape the destinies of generations yet to come, the schoolgirl of today is the mother of tomorrow and occupying the distinctive position as expressed by Benjiman Hill, !The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world-.
A measure of vast importance will be to provide every possible means to promote home owning in this country, because its home owners are its mainstay. All writers of political economy and history have taught us that a nation is weak or strong in proportion to the number of home owners. That nation is the strongest which has the greatest number of home owners in proportion to the amount of soil and population. That nation is the weakest which has the fewest number of home owners in proportion to the amount of soil and population. Ireland, by reason of a few men owning all the land, has had the sympathies of the civilized world poured out to her for a thousand years. This question of home-owning touches more vitally every interest in my section of the State, thè Indian Territory which is settled and cultivated by tenant classes under those holding great bodies of land under lease contracts. It has brought about a deplorable condition in that section. The Indian citizen who lives in the city engaged in some business or profession is not affected gravely as is the Indian who lives out on his farm and expects to make it his home. If a few men and great corporations are to get control of the lands of the Indian in the Indian Territory portion of the State, the removal of the restrictions will not mean happiness and prosperity, but rather the reverse. You will witness the condition when each town has its land agent, the representative of some alien or foreigner or some foreign70
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corporation with the sole desire of increased rental. They will care little about the society, the moral character or intelligence of their tenants. They might place by the side of the Indian citizen or white home owner, a Dago or a John Chinaman as quickly as they would a good citizen, because their sole desire is rent; increased rent. Far rather would I be surrounded by the owners of that soil who could become my neighbors and who could assist me in building a school house on every hill and a church in every valley, thus promoting prosperity of the community and the purity of society.
I have other views on which I desire to express myself. Of course my views may be different from yours, but as I shall preside it will be impossible for me to have much to say, as I said in the beginning, and I shall have my say now.
Relative to the land proposition. The evils growing out of the ownership df land are these: Alien ownership, corporate ownership and uncertainty of ownership and expensive transfer of title. In my native State there is a tract of Five million acres of land owned by one British subject. Let us write it into the Constitution that no Alien shall own land in the State of Oklahoma. Then we find in that same State as we do in Montana, the Dakotas and many of the great States of the West where one man owns from forty, fifty or sixty miles square, or enough to make an entire county. Candidly, boys that is too much for one fellow. We can correct this evil. We should not attempt to correct it as our Socialist friends have sometimes said, because we would run counter to the Constitution of the United States, because each and every citizen has a right to own, buy and control all the property of whatsoever kind or class subject only to taxation. But since the power to tax is supreme in the State, or to use the language of Justice John Marshall in the celebrated case of McCulloughConvening of the Convention
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vs. the State of Maryland, fThe Power to tax is the power to destroy1, we can take this same power and apply it to the ownership of land in such a way as to promote home owning and prevent landlordism in this State. While we do not seek to confine a citizen to a mere garden spot, any reasonable amount would not endanger the safety and happiness of our State. Suppose that we say that any citizen owning a thousand acres of land of average taxable value shall pay the same rate of tax as is placed upon the personal property of the State, and any person owning land in excess of a thousand acres of averagetaxable value and up to and not exceeding fifteen hundred acres shall pay an extra tax of one per centum upon the excess, and any person owning fifteen hundred acres and up to and not exceeding two thousand acres shall pay an extra tax of two per centum on such excess, and any person owning land in excess of two thousand acres and up to three thousand shall pay an extra tax of five per centum, and any person owning in excess of three or four thousand shall pay an extra tax on such excess often per centum, and any person owning land in excess of that amount shall continue to pay a graduated increased tax on such excess until the person owning land to the amount of twenty or thirty thousand acres should have to pay the entire value each and every year. He will sell some of it, dont you think he will?, anddont you think this tedency to divide the great bodies of real estate would destroy the evils of landlordism and promote home owning in the State of Oklahoma.
Now the next evil. We must provide in the Constitution that no public service corporation shall own any more land than that which shall be necessary to operate its business. We must provide also for the easy and inexpensive transfer of real estate. Since real estate is subject to registration there ought72
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to be somehow, some way by which the citizen would not be compelled to undergo the exhorbitant expense of abstracts and the opinion of attorneys on title, which opinions might be good and yet might not be worth the paper they are written on. There might be some plan whereby the title in a given piece of real estate can be ascertained and the transfer made with but little cost to either party, and there is a system known as the 'Torrens Land Registration System' adopted in Australia in 1854 and installed in Massachusetts in 1901. The Torrens Land System is short, is a simple, easy, inexpensive method of transfer of real estate together with the certainty of ascertaining the owner of any particular tract, and when a pucrhase is made the State will stand behind the title and no person can lose his home. This one law with which many of our citizens are not acquainted, is a law that every citizen in the State, rich and poor alike, will endorse except the abstractors and land lawyers. In the course of our deliberations I shall have more to say in detail upon this subject, but by all means we must adopt it for the State of Oklahoma. And finally, relative to the land grafting, we must make it unlawful, or at least refuse to charter any corporation for the purpose of buying, selling or speculating in land or acting as land agent. Let the individual do the work. Deny that right to the corporations and the public service corporation cannot dodge behhind the provision prohibiting their ownership of lands and we can wipe out the evils affecting land ownership and thus promote home owning in the State of Oklahoma.
Another evil must be corrected. We read of an insurance Company contributing $47,000.00 to the Republican campaign fund and of more than $15,000,000.00 as the aggregate sum contributed by corporations in 1896 to defeat the peoples choice,William J.Bryan. We must provide that no corporationConvening of the Convention
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shall contribute funds to any political party or interest in our elections. We must look after and prevent grafting in lands belonging to our Indians. If Congress does not destroy grafting, the State can use the power to tax great leases and force them into the hands of farmers who will then have the advantage of buying those lands when alienable. Relative to the interest of labor. We should provide for the health and safety of the miners in the coal mines and protect them from the evils and dangers to which in the past they have been subject. In the interest of labor on railroads and other public works we should provide for a regular days work of eight hours, and that no railroad or other corporation shall be allowed to compel an employee to work more than sixteen hours in any one day. Now I know some people are in favor of the eight hour law, eight hours before dinner and eight hours after. It is true that the farmer, who can go to work when he pleases without losing his job, does not need an eight hour law, but the laborer on the railroad does. On the road running through my town, Tishomingo, why I have known one crew being compelled to work continously for sixty five hours without sleep.These people must have our protection. We must provide also that where a railroad corporation, mine operators, or others, require of a laborer the signing of a contract which would exempt him from damages in case of death or injury, that such contract shall be null and void. We should provide for the protection of all laborers, whether in mines, factories or on railroads.
In the matter of corporations, we should provide that a corporation shall not be chartered to do more than one thing and that all corporations shall be confined to the matters and things authorized by their charters. Under no circumstances should we allow any transportation company to engage in the coal mining business or oil wells, farming, or any other except74
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that of common carrier. We must declare all transportation companies and transmission companies common carriers and that their charges be fixed by law. We must provide for a railway commission with power to fix and enforce reasonable freight and passenger tarrifs with authority to make a fair and reasonable valuation of their property and prevent the issuance of stocks and bondsby corporations, except for money paib, labor done or property actually received, because there can be no such thing as a reasonable freight rate without a reasonable and fair valuation of the property of the carrier. There is quite a distincteon between a reasonable rate and a uniform rate. A uniform rate or rather a rate that prevents discrimination between shipper and shipper and town and town, is good as far as it goes, and the railroad and other carriers are perfectly satisfied with a law preventing discrimination if you will let them fix the amount of their rate, because they could fix that rate four times or more than what it should be. A just rate is a rate that gives them fair returns upon their investment. The Supreme Court of the United States has said that each State must give the railroad companies a rate sufficiently high to enable them to pay interest upon their bonds and reasonable dividends upon their stocks. We should compel each and every corporation doing businesss in this State to have headquarters in this State and subject themselves to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State. We should see to it that they pay their just share of taxation. We should adopt a provision prohibiting the mixed marriages of negroes and other races in this State, and provide for separate schools and give the legislature power to separate them in waiting rooms and on passenger coaches and all other institutions in the State. We have no desire to do the negro an injustice. We shall protect him in his real rights. No oneConvening of the Convention
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can entirely be said to educate himself or civilize another. We must provide the means for the advancment of the negro race and accept him as God gave him to us and use him for the good of society. Rosevelt’s dismissal of the regiment of negro troops is an unanswerable argument of the failure of the negro as a soldier. As a rule they are failures as lawyers,doctors and in other professions. He must be taught in the line of his own sphere, as porters, bootblacks and barbers and many lines of agriculture, horticulture and mechanics in which he is an adept, but it is an entirely false notion that the negro can rise to the equal of a white man in the professions or become an equal citizen to grapple with public questions. The more they are taught in the line of industry the less will be the number of dope fiends, crap shooters and irresponsible hordes of worthless negros around our cities and towns. I am a decendent of an ex slave holder.reared in a community where freadmen were in the majority. I know them from ’A’ down to’Z’, I know their traits and in same things I appreciate them as an integral part of the State. I have represented them in the courts,worked them on my farm and know them thouroughly. I appreciate the old time ex slave, the old darkey-and they are the salt of their race- who comes to me talking softly in that humble spirit which should characterize their actions and dealings with the white man, and when they come thus they cam get any favor from me. When a negro says tome fSet ’em up1 or taps me on the shoulder as would an associate or equal friend I would want to land on his shins: but when he comes tome with his hat under his arm humbly saying fCap’nf or ’Boss* give me a cigar, I would give it to him if it required the last cent that I had with which I had to purchase it, and this class of darkies can get all the favors I can possibly give. We have illustrations in our own country as to the proper treatm-76
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ent of the negro. The worst negrosof which I know in my Territory are in the Creek nation, where they have been allowed to vote, hold office, attend school with the Creek tribe under compulsion of the government in their efforts to amalgamate the negro, ever since the Civil war. While in the Chickasaw Nation, he has never been adopted, never allowed to sit on juries, never taught professions, he has only been taught matters of industry: there they are humble and never has there been acase of a Chickasaw Freedman being guilty of that heinous crime upon women of the country which causes mob violence, and where their actions are appreciated and their rights protected. This illustration and this comparison of the two tribal treatments gives us a key to the proper understanding of the negro.I doubt the propriety of teaching him in the public schools to run for office or to train him for professions, but his training should be equal so far as the appropriations of funds are concerned, to that of any other race, but he should be taught agriculture, mechanics and industry that would make of him a being servicable to society. At the same time let us provide in the Constitution that he shall have equal rights before the courts of the country, that he shall have whatever is due him, but teach him that he must lean upon himself, rise by his own exertions,hew out his own destiny as an integral but separate element of the society of the State of Oklahoma.
In the matter of organizing government of municipalities, we should provide for the largest measure of local control consistent with the interests of the State. We should guard against the evils growing out of the issuance of bonds and the granting of franchises. We have read of the scandals growing out of the bribery of the city council of St. Louis, and the corruption in Cincinatti,Chicago and Philadelphia. We should provide that no franchise should be granted by any city UntilConvening of the Convention
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the same is ratified by a majority of the voters of said city, and then they should not be made exclusive. In the matter of all corporations, there should be conditions of charter forfeiture which would in a great measure make them careful to obey the law. We have this in the laws of France, where the reason of such forfeiture to the State government ownership of railroads is less made necessary than any other State in Europe.
Asa further means of preventing corruption, bribery and fraud, from Constable to Governor, who accepts any railroad free pass, any frank or other privilege so often practiced in the surrounding states and which has grown up to be the cheapest means of bribery of the century, we should say to every public officer that if he rides on a free pass that he will also ride in stripes to the penitentiary.
We should adopt the Initiative and Referendum patterned after the law in force in the Republic of Switzerland and in the State of Oregon. The only argument offered against this system is that the people are not conservative, while the history of the optional power shows that the people are more conservative than reform leaders. The fact that the people have this power will prevent bribery of members of the Legislature. The fact that they have this power will make it unnecessary to use it. It has been in force in Switzerland since 1874 and has been used but four times, and twice when used the people voted down the government ownership of certain utilities.
The Initiative and Referendum as in force in Switzerland has prevented the evil which now threatns all European States. The extreme doctrines of Socialism is now disturbing every State in Europe except Switzerland. There are three principles of Initiative and Referendum. One advocated by the revolutionary Socialist, which is in force in five of the Cantons78
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(or States) of Switzerland, and that is that every law must be submitted to a vote of the people. This has proven both expensive and uncertain and is a failure. People would stay away from the polls when a great number of laws were submitted and few would go to vote except those directly or indirectly interested. This system is a failure from every point of view. There is another system which is ineffective. The best system of Initiative and Referendum advocated by the sensible element of the Socialist and all Democrats, is the optional Initiative and Referendum, which I mentioned before as it is used in Oregon. Another power sometimes spoken of as the fRecall1 or imperative Demand1 is a political principle advocated by the Socialist and which is very indefinite as to meaning. I have never yet had any person to give me a satisfactory explanation of the ‘Recall’. They sometimes speak of it as being in force in Oregon, but it is not. If the 'Recall’ means the dismissal of an officer who fails, neglects or refuses to do his duty, or who violates the law in the exercise of his offi cial duties, then I am in favor of it. If it is a power whereby an officer maybe dismissed,whereby perchance, in the exercise of his duty, he does something although admitted to be lawful, but by reason of his doing the same a majority of the people are in opposotion thereto, then I am opposed to it, because it would have a tedency to weaken the courage of our officicials rather than encouraging them to do their duty. In some sections it would operate to create mob violence, many illustrations of which had I time’, I could give you.
We should provide for a nonpartisan Board of Health with the power to maintain quarantine, the collection of vital statistics, regulate the practice of pharmacy and medicine, but without preference to any school of medicine,and I believe that every physician who has practiced for a reasonableConvening of the Convention
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number of years under a certificate or diploma should have the right to continue in his profession without being harassed by further examination,
One of the best means of advertising our State is by a system of low taxation.Let us limit the amount of bonds which can be issued so as to base them on the amount of taxable property in order that our children may not be burdened with the follies which we commit. Let us provide that all property shall be assessed upon its cash valuation and reverse the policy of 'Swearing down1 the tax duplicate, which in itself is a bad moral tedency. Then let us place a limitation on the power to tax so that no citizen shall be compelled to pay more than two dollars on the hundred dollars for all State and County purposes, and in order to make up the deficiency let us levy an income and inheritence tax.Then let us levy a gross receipts tax upon the output of all coal mines, oil wells, railroads, express and other transportation companies. The coal mines in the Choctaw Nation can not be taxed, as there is no way by which we can, under an advolorem system,tax those lands, but if we put a gross receipts tax upon the operator it wi 11 be constitutional and will give us one-half million dollars. The output of the oil wells will give us another half million dollars, the railroads, express companies and others will give us upwards of one million dollars, making a total of upwards of two million dollars. These two million dollars together with the income arising from the State school lands, distributed to all parts of the State in propotion to the scholastic population, would educate every child in the State, as this source of revenue would increase and would keep pace with the increase of population.We may be met with the cry that this tax should not be levied, but I submit to you that surplus wealth of this country should pay for its surplus protection. Surplus wealth80
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cannot go to war, it seldom pays any expenses of war and many of the great wars that are made between nations and civil strife in the nations themselves are directly or indirectly the outgrowth of excessive wealth, and it is nothing more than justice to make this surplus wealth pay for its surplus protection.
Russia, despotic Russia, derives its expenses of government from income, and today the party in power in the Republic of France has set the gauge of battle and planted themselves upon the proposition that all expenses of the French Republic shall be paid upon incomes, and the tax upon the living wealth shall be abolished. Do you know it is possible for any ordinary liver to pay as much tax as is paid by Carnegie, of the steel trust?. Under the present system in force in the Federal government of raising revenue upon tariffs, which is merely a tax upon the consumption of the citizen, it amounts practically to a poll tax in which every man irrespective of his wealth or position, pays the same.
Let us at all times provide for the supremacy of the civil over the military power in this State.Indeed let us do all things to protect every man, woman and child in this State. Let the rights of the merchant and professional man together with those of the farmer and laborer, have a place and sound footing in the Constitution of Oklahoma.
Do not let us make a one sided Constitution, but let us make it as broad as the entire citizenship of the State. Let us make good every platform pledge and do all things within our power to do, but no more.
There are many things that we cannot do. Would to God that we could do more. Would to God that we could say to Great Britain ’Hands off Ireland1, to Russia ’Hands off the Jews’, to Hitchcock and other grafters ’hands off the Indian and his property’, but since we cannot do all things there areConvening of the Convention
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many things we can do. We must conserve the public interest in every way possible. We must shut our ears to the clamor of the ’Special Interest and corporate graft and greed. There is but one interest. I know of no interest save the public interest.
Already the lobbyist representing the so called ’Special Interest’ are preaching into the ears of our members to maintain a conservative course and to call a halt, but let us march forward, let us march forward in solid battallions against the quartette of the railroads,Standard oil,coal operators and land grafters whenever they marshall their forces against the people. Mulbach, in her history, relates the incident when the fates seemed to have turned against the ’Man of destiny’ he turned to the drummer boy and said, ’Beat a retreat’ the boy replied ’Sire I khow no retreat. Desaix taught me no retreat, but I can beat a charge, I can beat a charge that will cause the Imperial dead to fall into line. I beat that charge at the bridge of Ledi, I beat at the Pyramids, Oh that I may beat it here’.The charge was ordered and the laurels Marenge added to the crown of Napoleon. Let ur take courage of the drummer boy and order a charge and the laurels of the patroits of Oklahoma and the plaudits ’’Blessed be the Constitutional Convention” will be sounded throughout all generations down to the remotest syllable of worded time.
Let us avoid the extremes of radical Socialism on the one side and extreme conservatism on the other, the extreme of a few men owning everything on the one side and nobody owning anything on the other.
In brief and in conclusion, in framing the Organic law for the future State of Oklahoma:Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
That the ACair form may stand and shine,
Make bright our days and light our dreams, Turning to scorn with lips divine The falsehood af extremes.1 MWm. H. Murray
President of the Constitutional ConventionConvening of the Convention
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A cal I was then made for the election of a Vice President, and Peter Hanraty, Democrat; and C.O.Frye,of Sallisaw, Republican; were nominated by their respective parties. Mr Hanraty was elected and went to the Presidents platform and delivered the following address.
nMr President and fellow members of the Convention: I thank you for the honor you have done me, by electing me Vice Presidont of this Convention, and I trust that in the administration of the duties of this office, I may be able to merit your confidence and show myself worthy of the honor you have bestowed upon me. I heartily endorse all that has been said by our President and see little room for expansion upon his suggestions. We are ’Up against’ some grave problems and serious duties and the eyes of the world are upon us and it behooves us to mak the best possible solution to every question that arises, and let’s endeavor to write the best Constitution that the world has ever seen.”
The temporary Secretary, John M. Young, was elected permanent Secretary of the Convention. Mr Young was a lawyer and resided at Lawton Oklahoma.
W. A. Durant, of Durant Indian Territory, was elected Sergeant at arms. Mr Durant was a Choctaw Indian and had seen much service in public life among his people.
D. C. Oats of Alva, Woods County Oklahoma, was elected Assistant Sergeant at arms. (Mr Oats had served three terms as Sherriff of Woods County. He later became Deputy Warden of the State prison and was killed in a prison riot )
The Rev. Frank Naylor was elected Chaplin of the Convention.
The Convention now being organized and ready to do business, the President appointed Delegates W. H. Kornegay,84
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E. F. Messenger and W. J. Caudill to notify the President of the United States, the Governor and other Territorial officers of the Territory of Oklahoma, the Judges of the Oklahoma Territorial Courts, the Judges of the United States Courts in the Indian Territory and the Commissioner of the Five Civiliz ed Tribes,that the Delegates of the Constitutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma are now in Convention assembled, and extend a cordial invitation to each of said officers to attend the sessions of the Convention.
It being necessary that much of the work of the Convention be done by committees, the question of the proper number of committees and their proper designation had to be settled by the Convention and to get a basis from which to work, the President appointed Delegates R.L. Williams, W. C. Hughes, Flowers Nelson, Pete Hanraty, D. S. Rose, J. C. Graham, and E.R. Williams as a committee to consider the question and report on the following day.
Congress had appropriated the sum of $100,000.00 to defray the expenses of holding an election to elect delegates to a Constitutional Convention and pay the per diem and mileage of the members of the Convention, clerical hire and printing for the Convention and holding the election to vote upon the adoption or rejection of the Constitution and to elect a full complement of State officers for the proposed State of Oklahoma. During the campaign it was urged by the Republicans that Congress had provided ample funds for all purposes contemplated by the act. The Democrats contended that the amount appropriated was insufficient for the payment of all expenses incident to holding a Constitutional Convention and election for ratification or rejection of the Constitution. That the Democratic position was believed to be sound by all is attested by the following resolution, introduced by DelegateConvening of the Convention
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Henry E. Asp, a Republican,
’’Whereas it is believed that the appropriation made by Congress, by section 5 of the act of Congress, entitled ’An act to enable the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory to form a State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States; Approved June 16th 1906-is inadequate for defraying the expenses of the election provided for in said act and this Convention, and the payment thereof, and is inadequate to furnish this Conventihn with the wherewith to pay the officers and employees necessary for the orderly and proper conduct of the business of the Convention.
Therefore be it resolved. That a Committee of ten members of this Convention be appointed by the Chairman, or presiding officer, of this Convention for the purpose of con-fering with the disbursing officer of the Government of the United States under said act and to ascertain and make report to this Convention of the amount of money already expended under said act and to submit to this Convention an estimate of the amount necessary to defray the actual and necessary expenses of this Convention, including the payment of the members mileage and the necessary employees, and the probable expenses of an election to be called by theConvention to submit the Constitution to be framed by the Convention to the people of the new State of Oklahoma for their adoption or rejection,to the end that proper memorial may be framed and adopted by this Convention to be presented to the Congress repuesting an additional appropriation for the purpose of this Convention and to defray the expenses contemplated by said act of Congress.”
This resolution was adopted and the President subsequently appointed the committee; composed of the following86
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Delegates. Henry Asp, Homer Covey, J.E. Sater, E.T. Houston, H.L.Cloud, W.D. Jenkins, J.H.N.Cobb, W.A.Cain, W. B. Hudson and C.O. Frye. All were Republicans.This committee subsequently reported to the Convention that in addition to the amount appropriated by Congress to pay all expenses of the Convention, the election already held and the election yet to be held, there would be a deficiency of approximately $150,000.00.
On February 7th 1917 the Convention adopted a resolution memorializing Congress to make an additional appropriation of $135,240.00 to cover the estimated deficit of the Convention and the holding of the election to adopt or reject the Constitution: But Congress gave a deaf ear to the request.
The President appointed a committee of three, composed of Delegatis Chas.H.Pittman, N.B.Gardner and Luke Roberts to ascertain and report to the Convention on the following day, the number of officers and employees necessary to complete the permanent organization of the Convention. This committee reported on the 21st day of November and recco-mended the appointment of a Minute Clerk, Chief Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk, Reading Clerk and a Journal Clerk, two Doorkeepers,four Cloak room attendants, two Watchmen, a Messenger, four Janitors, two Ushers, a Postmaster, a Mail Carrier, three Commisttee Stenographers, five Pages, a Secretary to the President and the official reporters, and the election of a Second Vice President by the Convention.
The committee that had been appointed at the first session of the Convention to ascertain the number and designation of the standing committes for the Convention, reported back to the Convention that the number of standing Committees should be thirty nine.Convening of the Convention
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Then came the nominations for the office of Second Vice President; and Delegates F. E. Herring of Elk City and Albert H. Ellis of Orlando were placed in nomination and Albert H. Ellis was elected. The Convention then proceeded to the selection of a Reading Clerk, and Albert S. Lee, W. W. Vandiver, R.E.L. Bagby, R. T. Williams and Claud McCrory were placed in nomination and after a number of roll calls R.T. Williams was elected. This completed the permanent organization of the Convention.Transacting Business
The Convention was now ready to commence to transact the buAress for which it had met. Delegate Baker introduced a resolution declaring that the Convention nDo hereby and now declare on behalf of the people of the proposed State of Ok« lahoma, that they adopt the Constitution of the United States as the highest and paramount law of the State of Oklahoma”. This resolution brought on the first debate of the Convention. Judge Ledbetter moved to strike out of the resolution the words !!As the highest and paramount law of the State of Oklahoma”. judge Baker contended for the adoption of the resolution intact. Judge Ledbetter and Judge King, both able lawyers, insisted upon striking out. After much discussion the resolution was referred to a special committee of three, composed of Delegates Kornegay, Baker and Rose and a few days later this committee reported the following resolution which was adopted by the Convention. 1 fResolved by the organized Convention, that the Delegates elected to the Constitutional Convention for the proposed State of Oklahoma, assembled in Guthrie,the seat of government of said Oklahoma Territory, do declare on behalf of the people of said proposed State, that they adopt the Constitution of the United States.'1 It will be seen that the contention of Ledbetter and King won.
There was one contested seat in the Convention; from Delegate District number Seventy One: entitled Thomas Harrell vs. James A. Harris. Harrell was a Democrat and Harris a Republican. This contest was given consideration by the Convention and after many days of delay the sitting Member, James A. Harris, was confirmed in his right to sit in theTransacting Business
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Convention by the adoption of a motion to postpone indefinitely any further consideration of the contest: and there the matter ended. This action of the Convention was an indication of the fairness of the Democratic majority and showed that they had no desire to be partisan in the Convention.
On the Sixth day of the Convention, Professor Inman (colored) President of the Colored Agricultural and Mechanical Normal University and Industrial School, located at Langston in Logan County Oklahoma; on behalf of the school presented to the Convention a desk and gavel made by the students of the school. His address was dignified and his words well chosen. Mr Inman said,
,fMr President and Gentlemen of this Convention: The University which I have the honor and privelege to represent on this ocassion had its origin in an act of the Legislature of Oklahoma of 1897, when the Honorable W.C. Renfro was Governor of this Territory. That act appropriated the sum of five thousand dollars for the purpose of erecting a school building and the equipment of the school. The Regents elected a faculty of four, the citizens of Langston donated forty acres of land and we began our university work in the fall of 1898, having a small building consisting of four rooms, and a faculty of four teachers, on forty acres of land. We have now, gentlemen, I am glad to be able to report to you, one hundred and sixty acres of land, fifteen teachers in the main building with a capacity of five hundred students, dormatoriesfor the young men and women. The mechanical department and land and buildings are worth over eighty thousand dollars, our equipment forty thousand dollars and it requires at least between thirty five and forty thousand dollars to maintain the institution from year to year.
Gentlemen this is the Langston University. We began90
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with but forty students, and when all our cotton picking boys shall have returned we shall be able to report an attendance of over four hundred. At the last meeting of the Board of Regents of this institution, it was decided that a desk and gavel should be presented to this honorable body. This desk is in obedience to that order, has been made, and the gavel has been made by the students who attend this institution, and we come today gentlemen, to present you with this desk and the gavel made by the hands of the students of that institution. And when your Convention shall adjourn and when you are about to depart for your homes, we hope it will be your pleasure, as it will certainly be our desire, that you make the President of this Convention a present of that desk and gavel.
Mr President this is the desk that has been made and this is the part of the desk on which the gavel is to fall.(indicating)
We thank you, Mr President and members of this Convention for tne privilege of making this presentation.”
President Murray Replied
’’Replying to the President of the Langston University, and accepting this desk on behalf of the Convention as the property of the Convention, we desire to assure him and his race that the men assembled here in this Convention will endeavor to protect him and his race in their rights. We desire to assure him and his race that as far as their rights are concerned there will be equality before the courts of this country; that the juries will be made under the law in such way as to give him and his race their rights, their property and their liberty.
We want to say that we accept this with pleasure, because it represents industry. It represents labor which he and hisTransacting Business
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race are peculiarly fitted to do and perform. If there be one thing for which he is peculiarly fitted it is the pursuit of mechanics and agriculture. One of the best fruit propogators of my native State is a representative of his race. This work which we have before us is an evidence of the mechanical skill of that race at that institution. We are indeed proud that in this State we will have an institution of this character for that class of people.
We want to say again that the more they study along this line the better it will be for all classes. The false notion that the colored man can attain the same place in other lines is an absurdity, because he must take his place in society as the great God intended, and be given an opportunity standing alone as he will, to rise or fall. Whatever effort is made or whatever advancement he achieves, must be by his individual effort. No man can be truly educated by another. He must educate himself; conquer his own difficulties; hew out his own destiny. The more the colored race makes an effort in the line of industry, mechanics and agriculture, and the less they attempt to become lawyers and professional men, the less will be the vagrabondage that infest our cities, the less the number of crap-shooters and fDope fiends1 will characterize this race, we do not desire that race to be extinguished, but we desire that they will be servicable to society. The only way to make it so is by glorious industry.
I want to say that the majority of this Convention represents that political party which awhile ago believed in the enslavement of that race. But we want to assure that race that never again will there be the remotest idea of slavery in this country. As one decending from an ex-slave holder, one who was reared in the communities where freedmen predominated, knowing them from AtoZ I want lo assure you that the greatest thing92
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that ever happened to the South, to the whole people of the South, was the freedom of the Negroes, I want to assure you that the men who go among you and tell you that the Democratic party would enslave you are doing so merely for campaign and clap-trap.
We want to say however, in all our dealings with your race as with others, we have a decided platform and a decided policy that we shall carry out here for the future.
Pardon me for these remarks which in a measure are partisan,more so than I have heretofore expressed as the presiding officer of this Convention, but itoccured to me to be fitting on this ocassion. I want to say in this connection with the Southland, that however erratic the statesmen and men of the South were, they were great. Great in intelligence, great in their statesmanship and great in their patriotism. They were great and good. Great in their intellectuality on the one hand and great in their impetuosity on the other. They were made like the Scotchman, as God made greatness, great in their virtues and yet great in thier faults. We want to say that, as the representatives of that class, we have no desire to ignore any mans rights in this State;We shall give him his real rights.
We have in this Convention, sitting on the majority side, some who were in the Civil war and marched either under McClellan or under Sherman, or under our immortal Grant; also we have others who marched under the leadership of a Joseph E. Johnston, a Stonewall Jackson, or a Robert E. Lee. we have in addition to those representing the two armies which met upon the battlefield of their country, the sons of those scarred veterens and patrots. It cannot be said that patriots were on one side alone, because the man who fights for a cause must always be emblazoned with the record of a patriot.T R ANS ACTING BUSINESS
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We want to say that we have here representatives from every State in the Union, and coming here as we do, we shall not establish institutions modeled after those of the extreme South, nor on the other hand shall we attempt to establish institutions peculiar to the extreme North,but we shall modify each with the other and agreeably harmonize the whole into a newer, grander citizenship that represents no section, but becomes the magnificent citizenship, the manhood and womanhood of Greater Oklahoma.11
Report of Committee on Rules
On the sixth day of the Convention, the Committee on Rules reported back to the Convention a set of rules for the governing of the Convention in the orderly transaction of its business. These rules were such as are customarily adopted by deliberative assemblies, but anew rule was adopted by the Convention as an addition to the rules reported by the Committee. This was known as the f!Anti Lobby Rule11
f,It being against public policy and against the best interests of the people, for any person employed for a pecuniary consideration to act as legislative counsel or legislative agent for any person, corporation or association, to attempt personally or directly to influence any member of the Convention to vote for or against any measure pending therein, otherwise than by appearing deforethe regular committee thereof when in session, or by newspaper publication, or by public address, or by written or printed statements, agreements or briefs, delivered to each member of the Convention; provided that before delivering such statement, argument or brief, twenty five copies thereof shall be first deposited with the Secretary94
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of the Convention and be subject to public inspection. No officer, agent, appointee or employee in the service of the Convention or of the United States shall attempt to influence any member of the Convention to vote for or against any measure pending therein affecting the pecuniary interest of such person, excepting in the manner authorized therein, in the case of legislative counsel and legislative agents.
No person employed for a pecuniary consideration to act as legislative counsel or legislative agent for any person, corporation or association, shall be allowed to go upon the floor of the Convention reserved for members while in session, except upon the invitation of such Convention.
In case of any violation of the foregoing provision, the offender shall be deemed in contempt of the dignity of this Convention and finally excluded from the Convention hall and from all Committee rooms, and his name be posted in writing on the excluded list of the main entrance to the Convention hall, and any member of this Convention thereafter willfully and knowingly communicating with such offender before final adjournment of this Convention shall likewise be deemed in contempt of the dignity of this Convention and subject to reprimand at the bar of this Convention in open session, by the President.”
Within twenty four hours after the adoption of this ,fAnti Lobby Rule” there was a general exodus of rail road, school book and insurance lobbyist and legislative agents and grafters, to!lGreener fields and pastures new” and the Convention was not molested by their return.
The Convention also adopted the following resolution. ”That we recognize in the distrbution of free passes over rail roads to public officials, and so called courtesies extended by means of franking privileges over Telegraph, Express andTransacting Business
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Telephone lines, only an indirect method of bribery none the less potent for corruption because bearing another name, and we hereby denounce the acceptance of any such favors from any corporation or privilege seeking iuterest or person, by any member or employee of this Convention,as treason to the State and hereby brand the recipient thereof as a taker of a bribe and demand that he be forthwith brought before the bar of this Convention and summarily expelled.11
There probably was not a Delegate in the Convention who had accepted any free pass or franking privilege, but the adoption of the resolution stopped the tendering of any free passes or franking privileges to any of the members or employees of the Convention, and the Convention subsequently incorporated in the Constitution a prohibition against the acceptance of free passes by State, County and Municipal officers elected or appointed in the State. So up to this time no public officer,from members of election boards to Governor aceepts or uses a free pass, except he commit perjury.
It is worthy ofrnote that the !!Anti Lobby Rule11 insub-stancewas enacted into law by the first State Legislature of this State, and at a later date was introduced in Congres to to be enacted into law to prohibit lobbying in Congress. Milliam H. Murray as Congressman at large from this State was the author of the bill, but failed to secure its passage through Congress.
Invitation to Banquet
On November 27 th 1906, the Mayor of Oklahoma City (Mr Messenbaugh)on behalf of the citizens of Oklahoma City, extended an invitation to the Delegates of the Convention to96
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attend a banquet given in their honor by the citizens,Saturday
night December 1st 1906. A similar invitation was also extended by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce; but the Convention had not met for the purpose of wining and dining or heing entertained by cities or civic bodies, and declined the Invitation in a manner that must have shocked the Mayor of the City and the President of the Chamber of Commerce. The Secretary of the Convention was instructed to nInform the Mayor of Oklahoma City and the President of the Chamber of Commerce of the acceptance of the invitation by the Convention, provided the date be changed to the day after the final adjournment of the Convention.iT Of course that was the last of the banquet, also the last invitation to the Convention to attend a banquet atOklahoma City.
Introducing Propositions
On the Eighth day of the Convention a call was made by the President for the introduction of propositions for the proposed Constitution. Hon. J.C. Graham of Marietta, Delegate from the 106th district, was the first to obtain recognition, and he introduced proposition number One. From this time on until the Convention had completed its work, Constitutional provisions to the number of 440 were introduced: the last being introduced by Delegate John B. Harrison of district 45« These proposed Constitutional provisions covered every phase of every conceivable subject that could be incorporated in the organic law of a State. The greatest number of propositions introduced by any one Delegate was Eighteen, by C. N. Haskell. There were Twenty one Delegates who introduced no propositions and Seventeen who introduced only one proposition each.Transacting Business
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The most voluminous proposition introduced was proposition number 438 by Henry E. Asp, entitled nA proposition for a complete Constitution, including Ordinances, Preamble, Bill of Rights, Form of Government and Schedule.” This proposition covered 44 pages of printed matter and when the proposition was presented it was moved to print the same, but objection was made by some of the members upon the ground ’’That the Convention had no funds with which to pay for printing it”. Delegate Haskell offered to print it on his own ¡press in Muskogee free of all cost, and his offer was accepted by the Convention.The proposition was reccomended by all the Republican Delegates and was doubtless their composit ideas. The proposition was of the regulation type of Constitution, making no advancement over older Constitutions. There was no provision for the organization of Counties, but the established Counties of Oklahoma Territory were left intact and provision made that the Re:ording Dis-ricts in the Indian Territory should be Counties until the legislature should enact laws changing the same. The Convention gave no serious consideration to the proposition.
Formation of New Counties
Overshadowing all other questions of interest to the people of the proposed new State, was the question of the formation of new Counties; and a vast majority of the Delegates very much desired to be appointed members of the Committee on County Boundaries. There were twenty six Counties already organized in Oklahoma Territory and some of them were as large as are some of the Eastern States. Beaver County had an area of 6048 square miles, being 36 miles in width98
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and 168 miles in length, and was larger in area than the State of Connecticut.
WoodwardCounty had an area of 3.480 square miles and was larger in area than Rhode Island and Deleware combined, with 180 Square miles over. Woods County had an area of 2.880 square miles and was larger than the State of Dele-ware and the District of Columbia combined. Commanche County had approximately the same area as Woods County, and Greer county with an area of 2.268 square miles was an Empire in itself. While the Eastern part of the proposed State, known as the Indian Territory (embracing all lands owned by the Five Civilized Tribes) had no County organization whatever.
The Committee on County Boundaries was appointed by the President of the Convention December 3rd and was composed of fifteen members of the Convention, as follows; Royal J. Allen, Chairman; Flowers Nelson, Clerment V. Rogers, Fred Tracy, C.S. Leeper, George Henshaw, Milas Lassiter, Peter Hanraty, John Carr, Hyman 0. Tenor, W.E. Banks, Don Wills, Neil B. Gardner, Luke Roberts and H. G. Turner. Mr Wills subsequently resigned from the committee and Charles N. Haskell was appoiuted in his stead. Allen, Gardner, Nelson, Rogers, Leeper, Henshaw, Lassiter, Hanraty, Carr, Haskell and Turner were from the Indian Territory ¡while Roberts and Banks were from ”Greer County”, Tracy was from what was then nBeaver County” and Tenor was from Dewey County. Thus the Indian Territory had eleven members of the committee while Oklahoma had but four members.
Many of the Delegates from Oklahoma had been elected on a platform opposing any change in the boundaries of established Counties and therefore were opposed to any changingTransacting Business
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of the boundaries of Counties in Oklahoma, but there was an ever-growing demand from the people of large Counties that new Counties be created. The opposition to the division of the large Counties and creating new Counties out of their territory, emanated from citizens living in and near the County seats-this was especially true of lawyers, real estate abstractors and business men. Being at no inconvenience to attend to such business as required personal attendance at the County seat they took counsel of their selfishness and raised a great hue and cry against any division whatever; insisting that the Convention had no legal right to change the boundaries, or create new counties out of the territory of established counties; that creating new counties was primarily the work of the legislature and the task should be left to some future legislative assembly; that the inconvenience and hardships to the people residing frofn thirty to seventy miles faom the county seat was more than counterbalanced by the lower tax rate -it being much cheaper to run a large County than two or three small ones- and that the Convention was prompted by selfish partisan motives.
The Committee held hearings and listened patiently to both the advocates and the opponents of division of counties already established, and after considering the question they began to map out Counties. New counties formed at one session would be obi iterated at the next, and after much wrang-lind and compromise, the Committee on December 18th reported to the Convention and the report was ordered printed. On the 19th the report was referred to the Committee of the whole Convention, but the reference to the Committee of the Whole was not carried without much debate and the vote upon the motion to refer was almost equally divided, there being fifty four in the affirmative and fifty two in the negative.100
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At 2 oclock P. M. the Convention in Committee of the whole began to consider the report and immediately the oratory began. Arguments pro and con were urged vehemently and eloquently. There has never been any question before a piiblic assembly in Oklahoma that aroused so much feeling, and the parlimentary battle in the Convention on that occas-sion has rarely been equaled and certainly never surpassed in any deliberative body in this State. All afternoon the battle raged upon the floor of the Convention and late at night an adjournment was taken until the next morning (December20) and on the morning of that day, the Committee on Rules brought in a special rule as follows. ,!The Convention shall upon presentation of this rule resolve itself into a Committee of the whole and the report of the Committee on Counties and Connty boundaries shall be advanced to the first place on the calendar of General Orders and to have precedence thereon over any matters finished or unfinished which may be pending before said Committee, said report to be read and considered section by section.M This special rule was adopted.
A night session was held and the battle went on. Amendment after amendment was offered and urged with much warmth, eloquence and logic, but the neccesity and the logic of the situation caused the defeat of the proposed amendments. But they were defeated by a very narrow margin, usually by a vote of fifty two yeas to fifty four nays. The supporters of the Committee on Counties and County Boundaries stood together and worked with the precision of a great Corliss Engine; a few minor amendments were offered by the friends of the report and adopted. In the wee small hours of the morning of December the 21st the Committee of the whole adopted the report of the County Boundaries committee with the minor amendments adopted thereto. Tired, weary and haggardTransacting Business
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from the long strain of the struggle, friend and foe declared a truce and went to their several places of abode to rest. The Convention convened the next morning (December 21) and upon roll call on the question ,!Shall the report of the Committee on Counties and County Boundaries as amended in Committee of the whole, be adopted!,s The report was adopted by a vote of Ninety Ayes, Twelve Nays, absent Ten. The members who had opposed the report with so much earnestness and determination, knowing that they had fought a good fight accepted their defeat graciously and voted for the report. The question as to the authority of the Convention to create new Counties was now to be transferred from the Convention to the Courts of Oklahoma Territory.
In the Courts
It had been rumord about the Convention hall that a Writ of Injunction had been served upon the President of the Convention restraining the Convention from dividing Greer County and creating a new county out of a part of its territory, but the President of the Convention had not paid any serious attention to the matter and had not in any official way notified the Convention, and the Delegates had refrained from calling attention to the matter, until Delegate Kane of Kingfisher arose and stated that he had been informed that the Convention had been sued, and asked for information as to the truth of the matter. The Second Vice President was occupying the chair (in the absence of the President on account of illness) and answered that the Chair had no official information relative to the question. Just at that moment President Murray walked into the Convention Chamber and Delegate102
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Kane demanded that he occupy the chair and answer the question, but the presiding officer cited the rule of the Convent-ion”That in the absence or inability of the president to preside, one of the Vice Presidents should occupy the chair” and the Chair ruled that the President was not able to occupy the chair on account of illness. Delegate Kane protested that he saw the President walking about the Convention Chamber, but accepted the ruling. Mr Murray found it convenient to quit the Chamber.
The Convention did however, prepare to meet the proposed suit by the adoption of the following resolution, introduced by Delegate Haskell. nThat Delegates Leahy, Hayes, King,Kane,Asp andLedbetter be appointed as a committee and instructed to investigate the proposed suit for injunction against the Convention and report its findings to this Convention.”
Three days later the Committee reported to the Convention as follows. ”We the special Committee appointed to investigate the suit alleged to have been instituted in the Supreme Court of Oklahoma to restrain the action of the Convention in certain matters, beg leave to report that our investigation discloses the fact that the Board of County Commissioners of Greer County Oklahoma Territory on the relation of Chas M. Thacker, County Attorney of said County, has filed in the Supreme Court of the Territory of Oklahoma a petition to enjoin the Convention and the members thereof from dividing Greer County and changing the boundaries thereof.
We have examined a copy of the petition and it is our opinion that the Supreme Court of Oklahoma is without jurisdiction in the premesis. Wereccomend that the Convention appoint a Committee to take such further action with reference to the suit as the Convention deems proper to betaken.”Transacting Business
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This report was signed by Leahy, King, Hayes, Asp,Kane and Ledbetter, all of whom were recognized as able lawyers.
The Committee was continued and instructed ”Tomake such appearance and such defense on the part of the Convention, and each member thereof, to appear only on the question of jurisdiction as said Committee may deem necessary and proper in said case.” and it was further ordered by the Convention ”That no fee shall be paid to any member of the Convention or other person for services as attorney for the Convention in the pending suit.”
Notwithstanding that the report of the Committee selected by the Convention, found that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to restrain the Convention from dividing Greer County and submitting the Constitution that contained the provision for the creating of new Counties and changing the boundaries of established Counties in Oklahoma Territory: a citizen of Woods County (who was also a County Commissioner of Woods County) named G. E. Autry, commenced an action in the District Court of Woods County against Frank Frantz, Governor of Oklahoma Territory; W. H. Murray, President of the Convention; John M. Young, Secretary of of the Convention, and all the members thereof, and also the County Commissioners of the Counties of Alfalfa and Majors (the two Counties which had been formed out of a part of the territory of Woods County) enjoining Frank Frantz, W. H Murray and John M. Young from issuing a proclamation submitting the proposed Constitution to the electors of the proposed State of Oklahoma.
The application for the injunction mas made to the Probate Court of Woods County, (the District Court Judge being absent) A temporary order of injunction restraining all the defendants was granted and at a later date the injunction104	Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
was made permanent, by District Judge Pancoast. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma Territory by the Governor and the Convention. The Supreme Court passed on the matter and dissolved the injunction, by the following decree.
The Decree of the Supreme Court
nThe judgment of the District Court of Woods County is therefore reversed, and in order that there may be no inconvenience or delay in carrying into effect the decree of this Court, it is hereby ordered, considered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment of the District Court of Woods County be and the same is hereby vacated, set aside and held for naught; and it is further ordered, considered, adjudged and decreed that the injunction granted in said cause is hereby dissolved, vacated, set aside and held for naught, and the said cause is hereby dismiss/jd at the cost of the Plaintiff.”
There wai; considerable difference of opinion among the members of the Convention as to the advisability of entering any appearance in any of the suits brought against the Convention, by either the Convention or the members therrof. Chas. M. Thacker, County Attorney of Greer County, had begun the first suit and ihe first notice of the action was served upon President Murray alone, but at a later date notice was served upon each Delegate in the Convention: and in the Woods County case each individual Delegate had notice served upon him. Dale and Bierer of Guthrie Oklahoma, appeared as counsel for private parties (and in effect for the Convention) to sustain the division of Woods County, in the District Court of Woods County, and later when the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, Dale and Bierer, W. A.Transacting Business
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Ledbetter and Judge J. F. King appeared as counsel for Governor Frantz and the Convention. When the case was called for trial, Chief Justice Burford evidently believing that the Convention and its officers were going to ignore tne court, proceeded to say in substance ,TThatthe Convention and some at least of its off icers .appeared to be disposed to ignore the court and refuse to submit to its jurisdiction.11 Judge King arose and answered to the court nThat there was no disposition on the part of the Convention to ignore the Court, or not to try in the Court the right of thè Convention to do what it had done, or to do anything other than have a full and fair trial of all the cases, and assist the Court in every way possible in arriving at a full and fair decision.If This seemed to please the Judges and they settled back in their chairs with a satisfied air. Dale And Bierer, W. A. Ledbetter and Judge J.F. King appeared for the Convention and the defendants generally in the Autry case. Judge King and W. A. Ledbetter had appeared for the defendants in the Greer County case, with Judge R. L. Williams on the brief, though he did not appear at trial. It was agreed to try the Autry case as a test case and to argue into it such propositions as were in the other case and not in that case.
Judge Bierer and Judge Ledbetter made the opening arguments for the Convention and other defendants, followed by Mr Snoddy, Mr Noah and Mr Speed for the plaintiffs, and Judge King made the closing argument for the Convention and other defendants: with the result previously herein stated; viz, that the court hadnoauthirity to interfere with the Convention. Thus it will be seen that the Committee that was originally selected by the Convention took no part in the litigation as a committee, but when the decision of the Court was communicated to the Convention, by vote of the106
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members thereof the opinion of the Court was made a part of the Convention records.
The highest Court of Oklahoma Territory had passed upon the right of the Convention to organize new counties out of the territory of established counties and had loosed the hands of the Convention. Thenceforth the issue was with the people of the proposed new State. "Should the Constitution be adopted by the people with the counties as established by the Convention?" The question was answered by an emphatic Yes.Accusations Against Members oe the Convention
On December 21st 1906 the Convention adjourned for the holidays and the sessions were resumed January 3rd 1907. The County boundaries struggle had left some ill feeling with outside parties who had not obtained such division of counties and location of County seats as they had hoped for, and there was some intimation that some of the members of the Convention had been unduly influenced. The accused members immediately (Jan. 4th) demanded an investigation, and the Convention adopted the following resolution.
’’Whereas: At various times during the sessions of this Convention, statements have been made by outside parties, through the press and otherwise, charging that corrupt and unlawful means were being used to influence the action of this Convention on various matters coming before it; and
Whereas: It is the sense of this Convention that all persons, if any, having knowledge of the use, or contemplated use, of such corrupt means should be required to testify and give evidence, if any they have, concerning the same, and that all persons making such statements or learning in any way of corrupt means or influence being employed to influence the action of this Convention, or any committee or member thereof, should have oppurtunity to prove the same; therefore
Be it resolved, that the Committee on Rules of this Convention is hereby authorized to investigate such statements or charges and is hereby created a proper tribunal, before which persons making such statements or charges may appear108
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and produce what evidence they have if any, of the same and that such Committe have full power to call before it witnesses having knowledge, either directly or indirectly, concerning such statements or charges, and explain the same, and that such Committee report to this Convention its findings with reference to such statements or charges, and a copy of the testimony taken in such investigation.fî
On January 5th the Committee notified the Convention that the Committee had organized for the purpose of performing the duty assigned to it by the Convention.
The citizens of the proposed new State had notice that here was a tribunal ready and anxious to hear any person who had any testimony that would in any way show that any Delegate in the Convention had been in any way unduly or corruptly influenced in any action taken in the Convention. The intelligence and probity of the members of the Committee was an assurance of a thorough investigation of any
charge against any member of the Convention and that there would be no nWhite wash” of any Delegate or employee.
After a painstaking investigation extending over a period of sixty seven days, the Committee reported to the Convention as follows. ,fNo charges were filed with your Committee against any Delegate in this Convention. Your Committee caused to be subpoenaed and examined before it, some twenty witnesses, relative to said matter, and after having made every reasonable effort to discover and obtain evidence of the use or attempted use of any corrupt or unlawful means, to influence the action of any Delegate to this Convention, touching any of the matters pending or which have been pending before it, or any of its Committees, your Committee has to report: That no evidence has been produced before it, nor has it been able to obtain any evidence proving or tendingAccusations Against Members
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to prove, the use or attempted use of corrupt, improper or unlawful means to influence the vote or action of any Delegate to this Convention in any matter now or heretofore pending before it or any of its Committees.11
This report was signed by J. F. King, Vice Chairman; Chas H. Pittman, Samuel W. Hayes, Joel M.Sandin and Henry S. Johnston,
Thus ended one more of the many attempts of those who were engaged in trying to discredit the Convention and thereby defeat the Constitution when it should be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection, The partisan press of the proposed State had made many charges but did not attempt to establish the truth of any of them when given the oppurtunity; and the friends of the Convention did not fail to call the attention of the public to the falsity of the charges.Recess Adjournment of the Convention April 22 1907
The complete Constitution was engrossed on parchment and presented to the Convention - was read and corrections made and roll call for final adoption was ordered. The roll call showed that 86 Delegates voted in the affirmative, (but 87 Delegates signed the document) none in the Negative and that 26 members were absent. After the signing of the Constitution, the signatures were attested by Charles H.Filson, Secretary of Oklahoma Territory, and John McClain Young, Secretary of the Convention. There were six duplicate copies on linen paper signed in practically the same order as the original parchment copy, and duly attested.
The Convention officers signed the Constitution in the following order; William H. Murray, President of the Constitutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma and Delegate from District No. 104; Peter Hanraty, Vice President. District No. 90; Albert H. Ellis, Second Vice President and Delegate from District No. 14; and the other delegates signed as the Constitution came to them.
The Convention then took under consideration the Election Ordinance, and after considering it in Committee of the whole the Ordinance was adopted by the Convention by a vote of Ayes 67. Nays none, absent 45.
The roll was called for the adoption of the resolution adopting the Constitution of the United States and all Delegates present voted in the affirmative.
The engrossed copy of the prohibition proposition as it was to be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection,Recess Adjournment
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was taken up and upon roll call there were Ayes 62, Nays 1, absent 49.
The Convention was now ready to adjourn for a time and the Delegates came to the close of their task with joy and gladness, albeit with quavering voice and tear dimmed eyes. The relaxation of tired nerves that had been strained to the utmost, was a welcomed relief to these men who had endured much that even political expediency could not justify. They had born the burden, they had kept the faith, and had stood for the best interest of the whole people without ’’Variableness or shadow of turning” ; and now that their handiwork was ready to submit to the judgment of the people, they felt that their work was not only good, but very good; and arose and sang ’’Godbewith you till we meet again” and then the gavel fell and the Convention stood adjourned until called together by President Murray.Committee sent to Washington
After the recess adjournment of April 22nd, the rumor was persistent that President Rosevelt would with-hold his approval of the Constitution of the proposed State of Oklahoma and thereby defeat Statehood. President Murray sent to Washington ,Delegates W. A. Ledbetter, Samuel W. Hayes and Charles L. Moore as a Committee to ascertain as near as might be, the sentiment of the President and his Attorney General, Mr Boneparte. Of course it was not expected that the President would commit himself, or define his attitude on the matter, but the Committee could learn in some degree from other sources as to how the President felt toward the new Constitution. The Committee returned and reported their impression and suggested some minor changes.The Convention Reconvened
President Murray called the Convention to reconvene in Guthrie on July 10th 1907 and the Delegates reassembled on that date. In order that the Constitution that had been adopted and signed prior to adjournment of April 22nd 1907, might be considered; the Committee on Rules brought in a report repealing rule 46 (the rule that required that a motion to reconsider should be made on the same or the next legislative day after the vote was taken on the measure sought to be reconsidered) The report of the Committee was adopted and the Constitution was again brought before the Convention for consideration. There were many changes made, but in most instances they were of minor importance and in many instances were only in phraseology. Many of the amendments adopted served to make the provisions clearer and stronger.
The election ordinance formerly adopted by the Convention was also reconsidered and amended and again adopted by the Convention.
On July 16th 1907 the engrossed copy of the Constitution as amended, was signed by William H. Murray, as President of the Convention; Peter Hanraty, Vice President; and Albert H. Ellis, Second Vice President; and the other delegates signed as the copy came to them. There were only two copies made of the amended Constitution. One on parchment and the other on linen paper. Both were subscribed in practically the same order. 86 Delegates signed the amended Constitution, after which their signatures were atttsted by114
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Charles H. Filson, Secretary of Oklahoma Territory; and John McClain Young, Secretary of the Convention: and the Convention adjourned until 10 o’clock A.M. September 16 1907, unless sooner convoked by the President of the Convention. But it was not adjourned sine die until November 16 1907: when President Murray adjourned it under authority of the Convention. At noon on that day the State officers were sworn in, and at last the Delegates to the Convention saw the consumation of their labors and they could not be blamed if they enjoyed to the full, their little hour of glory; for theirs had been the inestimable privilege to write a Constitution for a progressive State that is destined to be one of the greatest of the American Commonwealths.Signers or the Constitution
The Delegates who subscribed the Constitution, July 16th 1907, were
William H. Murray, President of the Constitutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma and Delegate from District No. 104 Peter Hanraty, Vice President. ( Dist. No. 90) Albert H. Ellis, Second Vice President
and Delegate District No 14
Philip B. Hopkins	75
C. N. Haskell	76
J. A. Baker	81
T. C. Wyatt	33
Charles L. Moore	13
A. L. Hausam	70
J. J. Quarles	56
C. S. Leeper	96
T. 0. James	1
C. H Pittman	11
J. H. N. Cobb	67
C. W. Board	73
W. S. Deering	44
David S. Rose	15
George A. Henshaw	107
W. F. Hendricks	10
James H. Chambers	105
William J. Caudill	50
Cham Jones	101
John M. Carr	54116
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I.	B. Littleton	District No. 32
J.	B. Tosh	••	52
J. K. Hill	-	63
J. J. Savage	**	48
J. S. Buchanan	“	34
J. C. Graham	**	106
J. A. Alderson	**	12
Thad Rice '	'*	38
A. G. Cochran	**	98
William N. Littlejohn	**	78
James R Copeland	**	62
C. V. Rogers	“	64
Ben F. Harrison	“	88
E. G. Newell	"	19
Hammer G. Turner	**	80
Delphas G. Harned	“9
J Howard Langley	"	65
G. W. Wood	"	8
J. S. Lattimer	“	99
John B. Harrison	45
Joel M. Sandlin	”	22
L. J. Akers	"	102
John L. Mitch	’*	29
W. A. Ledbetter	“	103
Christopher C. Mathis	**	100
Edwin T. Sorrels	“	92
Carlton Weaver	”	87
Henry S. Johnston	”	17
J. E. Sater	”	20
Milas Lassiter	’*	94
S. W. Ramsey	”	30
R. L. Williams	"	108Signers of Constitution
1
B.	E. Bryant	District	No. 47
Samuel W. Hayes	'*	85
James I. Wood	#*	89
David Hogg	**	43
Flowers Nelson	“	68
Boone Williams	"	97
W. L. Helton	-	24
Edward R. Williams	”	3
J. F.King	"	16
J. W. Swartz	*'	61
W. E. Banks	’•	51
R. J. Allen	"	93
Charles M. McClain	“	86
Fred C. Tracey	“	2
G.	M. Berry	”	18
William Leidtke	*’	83
Henry L. Cloud	*'	23
E. F. Messenger	“	82
John J. Carney	**	36
Gabe E. Parker	"	109
W. C. Hughes	"	28
H.	0. Tener	"	42
C. H. Bowers	41
J. K. Norton	35
Mathew J. Kane	'*	37
Joseph J. Curl	“	57
0. H. P. Brewer	*	77
A. S. Wyley	"	72
William .H Edley	-	53
George Norton Bilby	'*	6
T. J. Leahy	**	56118
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A total of eighty six members of the Convention signed the Constitution; and by an odd coincidence, forty two of the signers were from the Indian Territory and a like number were from Oklahoma: and two were from the ”Osage Nation” The following named Delegates subscribed to the first copy of the Constitution which was signed April 19th 1907, but failed to sign the amended Constitution of July 16 1907.
F. E. Herring	District No. 46
James H. Maxey	31
W. T. S. Hunt	27
Ben F. Lee	110
Neil B. Gardner	91
Luke Roberts	49
Don P. Wills	60
W. T. Dalton	69
J. Turner Edmundson	66
E. 0. McCance	5
W. H. Kornegay	59
John C. Majors	7
The following named Delegates did not sign the Const-	
itution when it was up for signatures	on either April 19th
or July 16th, 1907.	
James A. Harris	District No. 71
Henry E. Asp	25
F. E. Houston	21
William B. Jenkins	26
W. A. Cain	74
Wm. B. Hudson	79
C. 0. Frye	84
Freeman J. McClure	111Signers of Constitution
119
Charles C. Fisher Henry Kelly Frank J. Stowe Walter D. Humphrey G. M. Tucker Homer P. Covey	District No. 39 40 95 58 55 4
Nine of the Delegates who failed to sign either copy of the Constitution were Republicans and five were Democrats.Custody of the Constitution
The Convention had entrusted to the President of the Convention the custody of the original copy of the Constitution, to retain until statehood should be an accomplished fact.
The Governor and the Secretary of Oklahoma Territory wanted the copy filed in the office of the Territorial Secretary, but President Murray refused to do so and it was impossible to get it away from him; as he kept it with him as a constant companion and guarded it with jealous care.
The opposition demanded that the original engrossed copy be filed, so the people could know just what the provisions were: and although a cerrified copy had been filed, it was claimed to be not sufficient. Every argument was used to obtain the original copy but all efforts failed. Murray was villified, threatened, plead with and cartooned but he stood his ground. I recall one cartoon that pictured him out on the Pacific ocean in a small boat pulling Southwest and in his hip pocket was a long paper tube labled "Constitution of Oklahoma, care of Bill Murray".
Mr Murray faithfully kept the trust reposed in him by the Convention and never did file the original copy until statehood had become an established fact. He then filed the copy with the Secretary of State of the State of Oklahoma.Origin of the
Chickasaw Squirrel Rifles
When President Murray refused to file the original copy of the Constitution, of which he had been made pre-statehood custodion by the Convention; with the Secretary of Oklahoma Territory: Governor Frantz refused to call the election unless the original was so filed and a great clamor came from all sections of the proposed State demanding that the engrossed copy be filed, and this caused President Murray to issue an address to the people of the proposed State, in one paragraph of which he used the following language.
HThe efforts of the people to free themselves from a selfish, designing band of carpetbaggers is not new to many of the citizens of Oklahoma. Well do we remember when Richard Coke of Texas made that wonderful canvass against E. J. Davis, and after the people had given him an overwhelming majority how he had to summon the citizenship of the State with their squirrel rifles and dislodge the gang of Davis officers who held possession of the State House, and that may be necessary before the honest citizens of Oklahoma, and I include the rank and file of all political parties, will be able to come in possession of their own and secure what is their inherent right of citizenship by their votes, as intended by the act of Congress and the proclamation of the President admitting the State.,f
The opposition press took up the paragraph and cartooned and ridiculed the Delegates of the Convention by referring to them as TTBill Murray’s Chickasaw Squirrel Rifle Brigaden. The press in the East carried many heavy editorials as to just what was thought or a people who desired to122
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have a Constitution that had to be foisted upon a State by means of an armed force and the "Chickasaw Squirrel Rifles" became a noted organization, that never existed except in the minds of a few men controling a press that was opposed to the Oklahoma Constitution.
After Statehood had been secured, honorary Commissions were issued to many of the men who had met objections of the opposition and endured the ridicule. It was then recognized that to hold one of the commissions was an honor and they have been highly treasured by the recipients.
On account of his persistent efforts and his advocacy of planting a large acreage of alfalfa in Oklahoma, Wm. H. Murray became known as "Alfalfa Bill" and his friends referred to him by that name. When he became President of the Convention and the target of much criticism by the enemies of the Convention, he was by them called "Cocklebur Bill" and when the commissions were issued he had the cocklebur used as a seal.The Campaign for the AdOFTioisr of the Constitution
From the adjournment of the Convention on April 22nd 1907, the campaign was on in dead earnest; and whenever or wherever citizens met, they engaged in campaigning for or against the Constitution. After the April 22nd adjournment of the Convention, President Murray offered to file with the Territorial Secretary, a certified copy of the Election Ordinance and of the Constitution, but the Secretary refused to accept certification and demanded the original parchment copies. President Murray refused to comply with the demand- as the Convention had authorized him to retain possession. The Republicans charged that the Constitution could not be adopted by the people until it was filed with the Secretary of Oklahoma Territory; that the Secretary did not know whether the Convention had written, adopted and signed a Constitution (though the Secretary had seen the Constitution signed and had attested the signatures under the Great Seal of Oklahoma Territory on April 19th 1907) Certified copies of the Constitution and Ordinances was all that was required to be furnisned to the President of the United States and to the Courts, and should have been sufficient for the Governor and Secretary of Oklahoma Territory.
it was further charged by the Republicans that the Constitution was un-republican inform, because of the provision of the Iniativeand Referendum and that President Rosevelt would not issue his proclamation admitting Oklahoma to the Union: that the State had been unfairly nGerrymanderdn for partisan purposes, and that capital would be driven from the State.124
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
At their meeting in Enid Oklahoma May 23rd 1907, the department encampment of the G. A. R. of Oklahoma Territory, vigorously condemned the proposed Constitution in a series of resolutions, which declared such Constitution nRepugnant to the Constitution of the United States and offers immunity to invaders, rebels and anarchist and endangers the property, lives and peace of our citizens11.
The provision of the Constitution that grants a trial by jury for contempt of court, was denounced in the following language nit takes away from the supreme Court and Judges thereof the power to issue writs of injunction and restraining orders, by not granting this power with their other enumerated powers”.
Those good old soldier boys could not become reconciled to the creation of new counties: as is shown by their utterance in the resolution that said nWithout precedent or lawful authority and against the solemn protest of the inhabitants thereof, they assume the power to subdivide counties long established by special act of Congress in Oklahoma, making counties and county seats where there is not sufficient taxable property to maintain such municipalities. They without lawful authority carve out a large number of counties in the Indian Territory and establish county seats without the consent of the people thereof, and make these county seats virtually permanent by constitutional provisions”. It must have been quite a shock to the old veterans to have the Supreme Court of Oklahoma decide that the Convention had the right to create new counties out of territory that was formerly a part of established counties in Oklahoma.
The resolutions of these representatives of the Grand Army further said ”The proposed Constitution is a voluminous mass of constitutional and statutory provisions of anCampaign for Adoption
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extreme and experimental character on subjects that vitally affect the welfare of every citizen and future advancement and prosperity of the State and are far more dangerous by being placed in our Constitution, than similar laws would be if placed in our statutes by a legislature, on account of expense, delay and difficulty to amend. It is an extreme usurpation of undelegated, uuexpected and an unwarranted assumption of power by the Constitutional Convention and is causing expensive litigation now and will if adopted and approved as our law, hang over us like a pall for many years to come.”
After this arraingment of the proposed Constitution and the Constitutional Convention, it is no surprise that the Department encampment also adopted the following resolution. therefore be it resolved that we will vote against and use our influence to defeat the adoption oi said Conutitution. That we will not support for office at any election which may be called for its adoption any candidate for any office who does not pledge himself to vote against and openly oppose the adoption of said Constitution.”
The Democrats held their State Convention in Oklahoma City June 18th 1907 and endorsed the Constitution and declared ”We submit to the people of Oklahoma the best State Constitution that has ever been written and in asking the suffrage of the patriotic citizenship of this State' we firmly stand upon the Constitution in its entirety as our platform.”
The Republicans held their Convention at Tulsa August 2nd 1907 and after the usual laudations of their party and the usual condemnation of the Democrat party, they took a rap at the Constitutional Convention. ”After laborious effort they have now submitted an instrument which denies to each126
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
citizen equal rights under the law with every other citizen; deprives the minority of their just proportion of representation: unfairly discriminates in favor of one locality against another; increases the burdens of taxation without compensating benefits; discourages industrial and commercial development; lessens the demand for labor and decreases wages; antagonizes capital and depreciates investments; repudiates public obligations and destroys public credit; and has already brought a blight upon the fair name of the proposed State.”
It must be conceded that this was a serious indictment and if it had been true, should have, and no doubt would have defeated the Constitution; but the people of the new State knew the charges were not well founded.
The Democrats stood for the Constitution, met every objection of the Republidans and demanded of those who were assailing the Constitution that they point out the article, section, paragraph or sentence, in the Constitution that sustained any of the charges made, and being unable to do so the assailants lost prestige. The Democrats forced the fighting-the Republicans were on the defensive.
The Republicans sent to Washington for Hon. Wm. H. Taft, then a member of Rosevelt’s cabinet, to come over and help the Macedonians” and he came and in his speech at Oklahoma City added his great influence to the opposition to the Constitution and advised the people to vote in the negative. In turn the Democrats got the Great Commoner, Wm. J. Bryan, who also spoke in Oklahoma City, and advised the people to adopt the Constitution.
The Republicans injected the negro question into the issue and said that if the democrats were elected and the Constitution adopted the negro would be given a separate coach to ride in on all railways and separate waiting roomsCampaign for Adoption
127
at all depots, and that the negro would be disfranchised. The Democrats frankly stated that they would pass laws providing for separate coaches and waiting rooms.
The controversy over the filing of the engrossed Constitution with the Secretary of Oklahoma, terminated in the calling of the election by Governor Frantz: and when at last the campaign came to a close the people were thoroughly informed as to the provisions of the Constitution and they indorsed the labors of the Convention by a vote of 73.059 against and 180.333 for the Constitution. A majority, of 107.274.Statehood
The election wrs held September 17th 1907 and a full complement of State offecers elected. The Democrats were successful: electing all the State officers, 39 State Senators out of a membership of 44, and 93 members of the House of Representrtives to the Republicans 16, there beimg 109 members in that body. The State was admitted at 12 o’clock noon on November 16th 1907, and the Governor was sworn in at the same hour and the machinery of the State of Oklahoma immediately began to properly function.
On the same day that the State was admitted into the Union, President Murray issued a proclamation, under the authority of the Convention, adjourning the Convention sine die. The Constitutional Convention of Oklahoma had passed into history.
Statehood having now become an established fact, Oklahoma took her rightful place in the sisterhood of States and the work of the Convention in framing the organic law was henceforth to be a beacon light for any new State to be organized, and a chart and compass for any of the older States whenever any of them should meet in Convention to revise their respective Constitutions. Progressivism having been the guiding star in framing the Oklahoma Constitution, who shall be able to mersure the effect and influence upon her elder sisters of this great Republic. It is well that posterity will reap the benefits and rewards from the toil of the Oklahoma Constitutioual Convention.Personnel of the Convention
The vast majority of the 112 Delegates of which the Convention was composed, were under fifty years of age: here and there could be seen a grey haired man-all were enthusiastic and earnest. They represented many callings: Farmers 42 in number, Lawyers 28, Merchants 8, Ministers of the gospel 8, Editors 3, Physicians 2, Real estate agents 4, Teachers 7, Bankers 7, Oil men 2, Miners 1; and Some of them were engaged in a double occupation, as Farmer-Merchant, Lawyer-Real estate. They were an able, sober, industrious and conscientious body of men. Physically, they were all in the prime of life and it is a remarkable fact that there were no deaths of Delegates from the time of their first meeting Nov. 20th 1906 up to the time of the admission of the State into the Union. The Delegates were from almost every State: only one was of foreign birth and all were thoroughly imbuded with Americanism. Many there were who were decendants of the Indian tribes that were here before the white man came to this continent. The Convention was denominated nThe sanest conservative radical bady of men in America1’: Theodore Rosevelt called it a body oi ’’Zoological cranks”; Bryan said the Conventtion was the most ’’Progressive body of men that ever met in a deliberative assembly in America” There were no cranks or freaks, zoological or otherwise, but it was a body of earnest, well informed men, met to write the progressive thought of the 20th century into the organic law of Oklahoma.130
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
The debates were eloquent, forceful, logical and sometimes spirited, but generally devoid of rancor; and personalities were not injected into the arguments. There was one fight on the floor of the Convention between two members but both regretted the unpleasent incident and became friends.
By resolution of the Convention, President Murray was made custodian or the debates and proceedings until they could be prepared for printing, and then they should be filed with the Secretary of State. On January 4th 1917 Mr Murray addressed a letter to the members of the 6th Oklahoma legislature asking for an appropriation to pay the necessary help to enable him to compile and edit the debates ready for printing, but no effort was made by the legislature to meet his request.
It is a matter of sincere regret that the debates have not been published by the State; for should the records be lost or destroyed it would be a distinct loss to the people of the State of Oklahoma and deprive the historian of the future of a wealth of material: for much can be learned therefrom by future generations of the men and the motives prompting them in framing the organic law of Oklahoma.
One Delegate had served in the Constitutional Convention of Missouri, there were several who had been delegates to the Sequoyah convention and many of the Delegates from the Indian Territory had been members of the legislatures of their respective Indian Nations. Seven of the Delegates were ex-members of legislatures of Oklahoma Territory, one had been in both branches of the legislature of Tennesee and others had filled various judicial, executive and legislative offices. So the Delegates as a whole came to the ConventionPersonnel of Convention
131
well equipped by experience to discharge the onerous duties that developed in framing the fundamental law of the new State. Many of the lawyers were men of marked ability and had previously filled responsible positions in a legal capacity. Most of the Delegates were born politicians-not of the ward politician stripe-but in the broad meaning of the term. Many of them were skilled parlimentarians and the President of the Convention never had any difficulty in securing an able presiding officer for the deliberations of the Committee of the whole.
After the Convention had completed its work and the people began to look about for men of ability to fill the administrative, judicial and legislative offices, many of the exdelegates were selected for various places in the public service. One was elected Governor, three were elected as members of the Supreme Court, two to the State Senate, five to the House of Representatives, one as State Mine Inspector and several were elected to County offices. Thus the first administration was dominated by ex-members of the Convention.Bill, of Rights
In the Bill of Rights is to be found the usual provisions for the protection of the people in their right to life, liberty and the security of their property; but there are also provisions that heretofore have not generally been incorporated in a bill of rights.
Among these is the provision that juries in County courts and courts not of record, shall consist of six men: and that in all civil cases and criminal cases less than felonies, three fourths of the whole number of jurors concurring shall render a verdict. Allowing a jury to render a verdict without the concurrence of all the jurors, tends to reduce the number of hung juries and also to lessen the number of cases started in the courts over petty litigrtion: and at the same time substantial justice is done.
Also a provision forbidding any person being transported out /of the State for any offense committed within the State: nor shall any person be transported our of the State for any purpose without his consent, except by due process of law. When this provision was incorporated in the Constitution, the Convention had in mind the forcible transportation of laboring men out of the State of Colorado in 1906, at the behest of capitalist who were interested in a financial way in that State.
The right of the State to engage in any occupation or business for public purposes, except agriculture, had not heretofore been reserved by the Constitution of any of the States: and a few years before when Kansas attempted to build an oil refinery to combat the Standard Oil CompanyBill of Rights
133
and buy the oil produced in her own fields and refine it to supply her own citizens and her own public institutions, the courts decided that she had not the constitutional right to engage in business. The Oklahoma Constitutional Convention had this example before it when making the Constitution for Oklahoma.
The right of trial by jury for contempt of court except where the offense is committed in the presence of the Court; but in no case shall a penalty or punishment be imposed for contempt until an oppurtunity to be heard is given:	is a
safeguard for every citizen of the State. The tedency of courts is to assume that nThe court can do no wrong1* and when the court has made an arbitrary order (usually obtained from the court by exparte evidence) it is Heaven sent and must not be violated, and in case of violation, punishment by the court follows-the court possessing the inherent right to Inflict such punishment as the best policy calls for and the temper of the Judge will permit. The Convention recognized the fallibility of courts and interposed the right of trial by jury of persons accused of contempt, when not committed in the presence or hearing of the court: and where contempt is committed in the presence or hearing of the court, the accused is still entitled to a hearing. This gives his Honor time to cool his judicial temperment and "Tempers the wind to the shorn lambn.
Section 5 of the Bill or Rights provides that MNo public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated or used directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit or support of any Sect, Church, denomination or system of religion, or for the use, benefit or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary or sectarian institution as such.*1
This section is broad and comprehensive in scope: it not134
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
only prohibits the legislature from appropriating any money or property of the State for the purposes forbidden, but prohibits any of the sub-divisions of the State from appropriating any of the public funds or property to the church or to any of the persons enumerated in the section. Aye, the people themselves are prohibited from voting any money or property belonging to the public, to the support of any church or sectarian institution or to any of the persons designated in the section, as such;unless this section is first amended.
This is one of the wisest provisions of our organic law. If there should ever be a demand by any ecclesiastical body that any part or portion of the public funds or any public property, be diverted to the use or benefit of any church or denomination or any of its servants,or for the support of any religious institution, as such; this section will be found to be one of the safest of our safeguards.
The Convention, knowing the history of the union of Church and State in Europe and in New England in Colonial days, profited by the lessons of the past and made it impossible to appropriate or give to any church denomination or ecclesiastical servant or any religious institution, as such; the money or property of the public.
This section not only guards the citizens right to be free from taxation for the support of the church, but protects the rights of all denominations, however few the number of their respective adherents, by with-holding any incentive that might prompt any ecclesiastical body to participate in political struggles and by reason of their numbers exert an undue influence and become beneficaries at the expense of the public and a menace to weaker denominations and ultimately destructive of relegious liberty.
The Clergy recognize the safeguard thrown around theBill of Rights
135
church by this section. Rev J. M. Tressenriter says.
,fSection 5 of the Bill of Rights certainly has the sanction of the Constitution of the United States and the unqualified sanction of the citizenry. No church except those fostered by a Nation where the Church is dominated and supported by the State would have it otherwise. Not only so, but in this country no one has a right to divert money collected by taxation or otherwise, for a specific purpose, into other channels.
Our taxes are for special purposes, therefore they may not be diverted to the fostering of the church.
The church except as above mentioned would spurn*the support of the State, as it would spurn being dominated by the State.
Not only so. but it would be detrimental and demoralizing to the Church in that it would make it a political institution, whereas Christianity as represented by the church stands on a much higher plane than does present day politics.
No. Domination of the Church by a political machine would be to hang a mill-stone about the neck of the Church that would inevitadly drown it in the stew of politics
The people of this State should see to it well that this particular section in the bill of rights is never emasculated or nullified by any future convention, by one jot or title, but left intact as one of the imperishable provisions of the organic law protecting the people in their right against any encroachment by any ecclesiastical organization.
All honor to the delegates of the Convention who in the discharge of their duty remembered only the best interest of of their State and with courage and wisdom met the responsibilities.11136
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
The committee on Preamble and Bill of Rights consisted of D. S. Rose, Chairman; Messers Tener, Graham, Nelson, Langley, Harrison of 88, Tracey, Mathis, Kornegay, Buchanan and Asp.
Rose, Tener, Tracey; Buchanan and Asp were from Oklahoma Territory. Graham, Nelson, Langley, Harrison Mathis and Kornegay were from the Indian Territory. Six of the committee were lawyers, four were farmers and one was a college professor. All were Democrats except Asp.State Officers
The Convention gave long and deliberate consideration to the tenure of State officers and finally fixed it at four years; and provided that the Governor, Secretary of State, State Auditor and State Treasurer should not be eligible to immediately succeed themselves. It was also provided that the Lieutenant Governor should not have the power to appoint the Standing Committees of the State Senate, of which he is the presiding officer. (The Senate selects its own standing committees)
It has been observed that in those States where the Governor is eligible to succeed himself in office, the first term is used in a large measure in a partisan, political way to pave the way for a second term; and the same may be said of the Secretary of State, State Auditor and State Treasurer. The Convention had the examples before it and profited by them. In depriving the Lieutenant Governor of the privilege of appointing the standing committees of the State Senate, the Convention desired that the Senate should be a self governing body, and, it was also recalled to mind the abuse of the power to appoint standing committees by some of the Lieutenant Governors in other States, and especially in Missouri a few years before. The power of the State Senate to select its own standing committees has proven eminently satisfactory to both that body and to the people.Legislature
The Convention had to solve the problem of determining the form of the legislative branch of the State Government, the number of the membership, the length of time of session, whether the sessions should be held annually or biennialy, how special sessions might be convened and the renumeration to be received by the members.
A majority of the Delegates favored a bicameral body but many of the members were in favor of a unicameral body.
In Oklahoma Territory the Council (Territorial Senate) was limited to a membership of thirteen and the House of Representatives to twenty six members. There had been eight Territorial legislative assemblies and by reason of the small number of the membership as well as the circumscribed powers of the legislature, they were very efficient. There was a feeling in the Convention that a small number of members in both houses of the State legislature would be in the interest of economy and efficiency; but it was also felt that to create a legislative assembly with a small membership would in effect deprive some of the people of representation-by reason of a sparsely settled county being attached to a populous county for legislative purposes, the weaker county would not be properly represented; and that the cities on account of their population would rule the State, while the voter of the village, hamlet and rural communities would be unheard. And the Convention desired that no part or portion of the people of the new State should have any just cause to complain of not being duly represented in the legislature.Legislature
139
The number of Senators agreed upon was Forty Four and thé number of Representatives One Hundred and Nine: The number of Senators to remain permanent, but the number of Representatives might be changed. There was to be a new apportionment for members of the House of Representatives by the first session of the legislature after each decennial Federal census.
When the population of the State had been ascertained by the Federal census, the whole number (of the population) to be divided by one hundred and the quotient to be the number of inhabitants entitled to one Representative, except that no county shall ever take part in electing more than seven Representatives to the House.
It will be seen that the State Senate is a continuing body, as only one half of the members retire every two years and its number is not subject to change, While the House of Representatives must be elected every two years and its numbers is subject to change every ten years.
The provision limiting any county of this State from taking part in the election of more than seven members of the House of Representatives was strenuousl yresisted in the Convention by some of the Delegates from the cities and a warm debate was indulged in, but it was wisely provided that no single county, however densely populated, should ever be able to dictate to the House of Representatives. It was an indirect way to protect the minority and the Convention desired that all the people should rule in this State.
The Committee on Legislative Department to which was referred all provisions relative to the creation of the legislature, was composed of the following named delegates. Mr. Tosh, Chairman; Littleton, Alderson, Rogers, Humphrey, Wyley, Johnson, Williams of Dist. 3, Rice, Carney,Mathis,140
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Williams of 108, Cochran, McClain and Houston, All were Democrats except Mr Houston. Eight of the committee were from Oklahoma Territory and seven were from the Indian Territory. Five were farmers, four lawyers, three busines men, two educators and one a minister.
Sessions of the Legislature
The Convention gave the subject of the length of the term of all regular biennial sessions of the legislature much consideration. The time provided for the first legislature was limited to one hundred and sixty days and all succeeding biennial sessions were limited to sixty days. The remuneration to be six dollars per diem, but if a biennial session continued for a longer period than sixty days, two dollars per diem was to be paid for all time over sixty days.
The Convention contemplated that a session of sixty days at six dollars per day included Sundays and holidays. The first State legislature so understood the provision of the Constitution and at the end of the period of one hundred and sixty days, adjourned sine die. All succeeding legislatures up to the seventh so understood and were governed accordingly, and when the sixty days expired if their labor was not finished continued in session and accepted two dollars per day for all overtime.
The seventh legislature of 1919 adopted a resolution placing a different construction upon the Constitutional provision and by a forced construction made it mean sixty working days, and by some legislative legerdemain it was also construed to mean that the members were to draw pay at the rate of six dollars per day for all Sundays and holidays during theSessions of Legislature
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sixty working day session. Thus the biennial session was extended at least nine days and incidently each member received six dollars per day for at least nine days that was not due; and there being 154 members in both houses, the total amount taken from the State treasury in excess of the sum properly due amounted to $7, 816, 00.
The Territorial legislative sessions were governed by the Organic act in which Congress had limited the sessions of the legislature to a period of sixty days, and each legislative session adjourned sine die at the expiration of sixty days from the date of convening.
The State legislatures prior to the seventh, understood and construed the Constitutional provision to provide for a sixty day session inclusive of each and every day from the day of convening.
In the first legislature, the President pro tern of the State Senate and two other Senators were ex members of the Convention and in the House of Representatives the Speaker, Speaker pro tern and three other Representatives were exmembers of the Convention; yettheywere unable to discover that the Constitution said one thing and meant another. Manifestly, even if the Constitution meant sixty working days should be the length of a session, then it certainly did not mean that members should draw their per diem for Sundays and holidays; yet it has been done by members of the Legislature who had taken a solemn oath to support the Constitution. It is by such methods as this that the people are plundered by their servants, yet they are helpless, because the legislature is a power unto itself and places such construction upon the Constitution that the intent of the Convention is thwarted. If such an act was performed by a body142
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of individuals as private citizens it would be denominated "Petty graft"
Special Sessions of the Legislature
Section seven of Article six of the Constitution provides that "The Governor shall have power to convoke the Legislature, or the Senate only, on extraordinary occassion".
The power to call an extraordinary session of the legislature is properly vested in the Governor, but the Constitution in granting that power, qualified or limited the power to an extraordinary occassion. The Governor alone having the right to determine when an extraordinary occassion arises.
The Convention contemplated that an extraordinary occassion would be an occassion when the public interest would suffer, no provision having been made to meet the contingency; but we have seen in this State that the legislature has repeatedly failed to do what should and could have been done at the regular biennial session, thus creating a condition that had to be met by a special session, as was done in the eighth legislature. Instead of the membership of both houses meeting the demands of the publis interest, partisan interest seemed to be uppermost in the minds of many of the members, valuable time was lost and the public interest suffered and a condition brought about creating an extraordinary occassion never contemplated by the Constitution. After the experience the State has had, it is hard to escape the conclusion that in the past an extraordinary occassion has been deliberately created at the regular session of the legislature so that a special session would have to be convened by the Governor in order to serve the public interest.Special Sessions of Legislature
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And while the legislatures in the past have kept the letter, we may well ask if they have not violated the spirit of the Constitution and subverted the intent of the Convention?. Perhaps this condition will obtain so long as members of the legislature take counsel only of their partisanship and use the power placed in their hands in the interest of a political machine instead of using it for the rights and interest of the people of the State.Oath of Office:
Delegate Hayes of the Committee on Schedule, introduced a proposition prescribing the Oath of office and the same was referred to the Committee on General Provisions, and by that committee reported back to the Convention. The Convention in Committee of the whole considered and amended the proposition by adding thereto the following nAnd I further swear (or affirm) that I will not receieve, use or travel upon any free pass, or free transportation during my term of office.11
For a violation of this Oath of office, Section 2 of the oath provides the forfeiture of office; and any person who shall have been convicted of having sworn falsely or having violated his oath, shall be disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit within the State.
The Convention met and solved a condition that had cursed the people of the Territory of Oklahoma. There had been repeated demands upon the Territorial legislature fora law forbidding the use of free passes over railroads by public officials and many promises were made in political platforms and by candidates to abolish the evil, but nothing was done and all attempts to do away with the practice came to naught.Initiative and Referendum
There had been a popular demand that the Constitution should provide for the Initiative and Referendum and the provision had been freely promised; and many of the Delegates very much desired to become the author or the provision. Many members framed propositions embodying the principle of the law, but Delegate Henry S. Johnston offered the proposition that was finally incorporated in the Constitution.
It was contended by those who were opposed to the adoption of the Constitution that this provision was unrepublican in its operation and therefore in conflict with the terms of the Enabling act and the Constitution of the United States. But subsequent events proved the contention groundless; and while the people have not always used wisely the power retained by them under the provision, nevertheless it has proven to bean efficacious part of the Constitution when properly applied by the people to initiate laws desired by them and to defeat measures passed by the Legislature that do not meet popular approval.
Initiative
Under the provision of Section 2, Article 5 of the Constitution "The first power reserved by the people is the Initative and eight per centum of the legal voters shall have the right to propose any legislative measure."
There was no one question more seriously considered by the Convention than the power to be reserved by the people.146
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While having been tried out in Oregon, the Initiative was new to a vast majority of the Delegates. How it would work in practical operation in Oklahoma was problematical, but in view of the experience of other States in legislative matters, it was felt that the people of this State should have the reserved power to initiate any legislative measure desired by them. Since the adoption of the Constitution there have been many measures initiated-some of them wise and some otherwise. For the first few years the tedency to initiate proposed law was unduly and unwisely used and many thoughtful men decided that the provision in the organic law authoring the Initiative was an error. The friends of the Initiative deplored the unwarranted use of the measure, but upon the theory that f,The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy**, awaited the results. Experience has shown that after a few years of trial the Initiative measure of the Constitution will be used less frequently in the future, but to a better purpose. And if for any rsason the law making branch of the State government should fail or refuse to enact a needed law the power to enact the law rest in the hands of the people, the fountain source of all power.
The Delegates of the Convention believed that the people of this State would wisely use the reserved power left in their hands, and while mistakes have been made in the exercise of the power and mistakes may occur again, yet experience -a great teacher- will learn the holders of the reserved power to wield it with prudence, yet effectively guard their rights.
R EEEREJNRXTM
**The second power (reserved to the people) is the ReferendumInitiative and Referendum
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and it may be ordered (except as to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety) either by petition signed by five per centum of the legal voters, or by the legislature as other bills are enacted11.
While it requires eight per cent of the legal voters to initiate a law, but five per cent can suspend an act of the legislature until the measure can be submitted to the electors for their approval or rejection. The Referendum maybe ordered against any one or more items of any measure, within ninety days from the final adjournment of the legislature (which enacted the measure) unless the measure has had attached to it the declaration that it is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, and in that event the measure cannot be referred to the people.
The right to have a measure referred to the people for adoption or rejection is sound, and in practice it has acted as a brake upon the passage of extravagent or vicious measures through the legislature.
There has grown up in the legislature a practice of adding the nEmergency clause11 to measures that have passed the legislature by attaching thereto the declaration nFor the preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, by reason whereof, this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval11. Such section attached to a law takes it out of the power of the people to vote upon it, and such practice by the legislature was not contemplated by the Convention and is subversive of the principle of the Referendum.Primary Elections
Prior to Statehood there had been a demand for primary elections for the nomination of all public officers, but no very serious attention had been given the matter by the several party leaders. But when the people were given a chance to select Delegates to the Convention there was an almost unanimous demand from the rank and file of all political parties that the Convention should provide some means whereby the people could express their choice for candidates for public oifice, without the dictation of political bosses, exercised in political conventions: and a majority of the Delegates stood pledged to place a provision in the fundamental law providing for primary elections. The following Committee on Primary Elections was appointed by the President of the Convention. C. N. Haskell, Chairman; Allen, Williams of 108, Ellis, Pittman, Lattimer, Caudill, Messenger, Tosh, Williams of 3 and Cloud. Five of the committee were from Oklahoma Territory and six from the Indian Territory. All were Democrats except Cloud.
The committee gave much consideration to the matter, and in a joint meeting with the Committee on Privileges and Elections agreed upon and reported to the Convention a mandatory primary election provision which was adopted by the Convention and became a part of the Constitution.
The primary provision provided for the nomination of United States Senators, Congressmen, State, County, District and Township officers, and placed all power to make nominations in the hands of the people, and thereby enables the people to control the nominations of their public servants.Primary
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But soon after the law was passed the people seemed to lose interest in it, until now the primary is but little better than a farce. No law is self executing and the law itself by thè mere fact of its existence does not, and will not protect the citizen ;and many of the results of nominations have been very disappointing to the electorate and detrimental to the State.
In face of the fact that the electorate have the power to nominate all the candidates for public offices, there has not been any improvement in the personnel of public officers, and there is a very broad impression in the public mind that the public has not been well served by some of the men that have ben elevated to power, place and position who were unworthy of the great trust bestowed upon them. The primary system is potentialy capable of subserving the public interest but its failure to accomplish what the people expected and desired has been ina large measure due to the voter not using it: and some of the results are that the control of nominations has largely been transferred to cities because of the nearness of the urban voter to the polls. It is also evident that to get a nomination from either of the dominant parties of this State for a State office requires the expenditure of a vast amount of money to make a campaign, thus giving the wealthy man an advantage in the primary that in effect denies a poor man an oppurtunity to serve the State, however great his capabilities may be. The results in Oklahoma are to say the least, very discouraging; and the indirect results are that the citizen is oppressed by a great burden of taxes to pay vast appropriations made by the legislature and approved by the Chief Executive. Either the primary system should be changed or the people should use the weapon placed in their hands by the Constitutional Convention for the protection of the State and in the interest of good government.Pardons and paroles
The question of where to lodge the power to grant pardons and paroles to persons convicted of crime, was not so seriously considered by the people of the proposed State as were other questions. It was of minor importance and was not agitated to any considerable extent and the Convention was inclined to follow the precedent established by other States.
There was a proposition (No. 16) introduced in the Convention that limited the Governor’s power to grant pardons and paroles, by the creation of a pardon and parole board to be composed of three members, elected by the people of the State for a term of four years and ineligible to immediately succeed themselves. The decisions of thes board were to be final and when it reccomended a pardon or parole the Governor was to grant the same, but no pardon or parole could be granted except upon the reccomendation of the pardon and parole board. The proposition was referred to the Committee on Crimes and Punishments, composed of Delegates JohnB. Harr|son,Chairman; Baker, Rose, Cochran, Kane, Maxey, Williams of 97, Swartz and Hudson. Six of the committee were lawyers and they shied at the proposition as being a departure from Constitutional methods and an innovation on the prerogatives of the Governor.
If this provision or one of a similar nature, had been incorporated in the Constitution it would have helped to solve an age old problem and removed a great and vexatious responsibility from the shoulders of the Chief Executive: for however justified a Governor may be in granting a pardon or parole, there is in the public mind the question of the propriety of the act and sometimes the suspicion of the exercise of undue influence upon the Chief Executive.Pardons and Paroles
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The Constitutional provision vesting the pardon and parole power solely in the Governor would allow the Chief Executive to grant so many pardons and paroles as to come under a very grave suspicion; and if he finds it convenient to be absent from the State for a brief period, the powers and duties of his office devolve upon the Lieutenant Governor, whe can also exercise the pardoning power freely: and if he too leaves the State, the President pro tern of the Senate assumes the office of Chief Executive and can grant some pardons and paroles afhis own, then absent himself from the State and relinquish the Governorship to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who becomes as much a Governor as any of his predecessors and is without Constitutional restriction to limit him in granting pardons and paroles until the Governor finds it convenient to return to the State. This is not the intent of the Constitution or of those who favored placing the power with the Governor alone; but it has been charged that this has been an actual condition in this State.
The abuse of the pardon and parole power is subversive of justice and disasterous to the people of any State. Juries hesitate to convict the guilty or they impose light sentences, knowing that their verdict may be set aside by a Governor or acting Governor. Judges cannot adequetly punish the guilty, for they know only too well the power of the Chief Executive. Criminals go their way unterrified and unwhipped of justice and society suffers when the arbitrary power to pardon and parole without limit is used unjustly or corruptly.Public Lands
Under the Organic act creating the Territory of Oklahoma, Sections 16 and 36 in each Congressional Township were reserved from settlement, to the Territory for the benefit of the Common schools. Subsequently, by act of Congress authorizing the opening to settlement of the Cherokee Strip, the Tonkawa Indian Reservation and Pawnee Reservation» there was reserved from settlement Sections 16 and 36 for the benefit of the Common schools and Section 13 in each Township was set apart for the University and Univerity Pre paratory School, Normal Schools, Agricultural and Mechanical College and Colored Agricultural and Normal University: while Section 33 in each Township was set aside for Charitable and Penal institutions and Public buildings.
The Convention was confronted by the question of how to best preserve these lands for the benefit of the State. This was the greatest trust that was committed to it. Under the Enabling act these lands were conveyed to the State for the use and purpose for which they had been reserved. Should the Convention provide for the lands to be retained by the State in perpetuity or should the Legislature be authorized to sell them? Many of the Delegates were in favor of the State retaining the lands and leasing them; while many others favored authorizing the Legislature to dispose of them by sale. It was noted that as a general rule Delegates from rural districts were in favor of sale and those from cities favored the State retaining the lands in perpetuity.Public Lands
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The President of the Convention appointd a committee of fifteen members as follows. Judge Baker, Chairman; Messrs Fisher, Tener, James, Harned, Humphrey, Turner, Norton, Newell, Parker, Tosh, Harrison of 88, Majors, Cloud and Cobb. Seven of the members were from the Indian Territory and eight from Oklahoma. Two were lawyers, two were ministers, one a doctor, one a teacher and nine were farmers.
All propositions relating to the lands were referred to this committee and after much investigation the committee came into the Convention with a divided report. The majority report was against the sale of the lands and reccomended that the State retain them for an indefinite period, while the minority report favored the sale of the lands.
After debating the two reports during three days session of the Committee of the whole, the minority report was amended and substituted for the majority report and the sale of the lands authorized by the Convention, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Legislature. The vote upon final roll call was seventy eight for and thirteen against, with thirteen absent. This vote illustrates how a spirit of solidarity dominated the Convention from the beginning to the close.
Alifn Ownership of Land
There was a desire that the Convention in some form limit the Alien ownership of land in the proposed State. Several propositions having that end in view were submitted to the Convention. The different propositions were referred to the Committee on Agriculture and by that committe considered154	Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
and reported back to the Convention with the reccomendation that the report of the committee be adopted by the Convention. The report was referred to the Committee of the whole for consideration, and reported back to the Convention with the reccomendation that all pending propositions on the matter be referred to a special committee. That committee reported a composit proposition which was passed and became a part of the Constitution. Other States, notably California and Oregon have adopted alien ownership of land laws seeking to accomplish the same end as does this provision of the Constitution of Oklahoma.
Homestead Exemptions
The Convention wanted a Homestead Exemption provision that would be liberal in its terms. Several propositions were submitted, and duly referred to the Committee on Homesteads and exemptions. When the committee considered the different propositions there developed quite a diversity of opinion as to the number of acres and value of homestead that should be exempt from attachment for debt.
The following named Delegates constituted the committee. Chairman, Gardner; Meessrs Graham, Carr, Rogers, Edmunson, Bryant, Bilby, Savage and McClure. Six of the committee were from the Indian Territory and three from Oklahoma.
After mature deliberation the committee prepared its report and the Chairman being absent at the time, Mr Graham filed the report (No 37) which was referred to the Committee of the whole Convention and ordered printed.Homestead Exemptions
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The Committee of the whole considered the report, which met with strenuous opposition as not being liberal enough in its terms, and the report was amended and referred back to the Committee on Homesteads and Exemptions. (Mr Gardner being absent Mr Haskell was appointed in his place) On the next day (Feb. 12) the report was again brought into the Convention by the committee to which it had been re-commited, with all amendments adopted by the Committee of the whole incorporated therein.
In due time the report was again considered by the Committee of the whole and reported back to the Convention with the reccomendation that it be adopted, and on March 7th 1907 the measure was placed before the Convention for final action. Upon roll call the proposition was adopted by a vote of 85 Ayes 2 Nays: there being 25 members absent. By this vote there was incorporated in the Constitution a liberal provision in keeping with the spirit of the times, and in the years that have gone by since the adoption of the Constitution, it has served to stay the hand of the unscrupleous creditor and kept a home and shelter for many unfortunate debtors and their families.
The Constitutional provision exempting a homestead from seizure for debt was copied from the Kansas law and grants the same amount, Viz. 160 acres in the country and 1 acre in any incorporated town or city; the homestead in an incorporated town or city to not exceed $5,000,00 in value. This provision was strenuously contested by the so called business interest of the proposed State, but subsequent events have shown that the provision is not in the least detrimental to the business interest of the State and that the Convention builded well.Revenue and Taxation
The Convention gave much time and consideration to the framing of the article in the Constitution that governs the raising of revenue for the State and the subdivisions thereof.
There was much land in the Indian Territory that belonged to full blood Indians who were wards of the United States Government, that could not be taxed for a period of twenty one years from the admission of the State; and the provisions of the several treaties between the United States Government and the Indian tribes had to be kept in view and not violated. Nearly all the lands in Oklahoma Territory were subject to taxation and it was a part of the task of the Convention to provide a system for the raising of revenue so that the burden of taxation should be equitable, uniform and just. Upon the assumption that the Indian Territory possessed much less taxable property than did Oklahoma Territory, there was an impression in the minds of the people of Oklahoma Territory that taxation for the support of the State would fall most heavily on them, but it was subsequently found that the assumption was not well founded.
The Committee on Revenue and Taxation held many sessions: plans proposed and accepted at one session would be reconsidered and rejected at the next. The committee labored persistently and the Chairman was indefatigable in his efforts to frame a committee report that would meet all of the intricate conditions that existed in the two Territories and the exacting demands of the Convention.
At last the report was drawn and presented to the Convention, and referred to the Committee of the whole forRevenue and Taxation
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consideration. A part of the report was adopted and part of it referred back to the Committee on Revenue and Taxation for further consideration. The committee subsequently made a supplemental report on that part of the original report which had been referred back to the committee, and the supplemental report was adopted and incorporated with the original report and ordered engrossed and placed upon third reading and final passage. Upon roll call there were 79 votes in the affirmative, 3 in the negative and 30 Delegates absent.
The exemptions from taxation are: all property used for free public libraries, free museums, public cemetaries, property of schools and colleges, property used exclusively for religious and charitable purposes, all property of the United States and of this State and of counties and municipalities thereof; to the head of each family personel property to the value of $100,00, to all ex-union and ex-confederate soldiers who are bona fide residents of this state $200,00, all property of the Murrow Indian Orphan Home and all property of the Whittaker Orphan Home.
The legislature may authorize any incorporated city or town to, by a majority vote of its electors, exempt manufacturing establishments and public utilities from municipal taxation for a period not to exceed five years
On an ad valorem basis the total levy of taxes for State purposes shall never exceed three and one half mills in any one year, and except as otherwise provided the total tax levy for State, County, Township, City or town and School district shall not exceed thirty one and one half mills.
The Convention incorporated a provision in the Constitution giving the State the reserved power to select its own subjects of taxation in the following section.
Art. 10 Sec. 13, nThe State may select its subjects of158
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taxation, and collect its revenue independent of the counties, cities, or other municipal subdivisions.” Under this power the State should have ere this, selected its subjects of taxation: such subject^ to include a gross production tax on oil wells, gas wells, pipe lines and coal mines; a gross revenue tax on the receipts of all transportation companies and public service corporations; and a graduated land on all land owned or leased by any person, company or corporation, in excess of a given amount in either acreage or value; such taxes to be levied and collected by the State as an additional tax over and above the local tax; and such other subjects as may commend themselves to the legislature; leaving all other property exempt from taxation for State purposes and subject to local taxes only.
The provision is not mandatory, but authorizes the legislature to exercise the power whenever it sees fit to do so.
The Convention went far enough when it gave to the State the optional power to select its own subjects for taxation. The State may select those subjects that seem wisest and most remunerative at a particular time, and whenever it has been demonstrated that the subjects selected return an inadequet revenue, or yield a surplus, the list of subjects can be expanded or curtailed as conditions may warrant.
In this State a general property tax should be a matter of exclusive local concern. By legislative enactment, State and local taxes should be levied upon a different class of subjects.
The Committee on Revenue and Taxation was composed of the following named Delegates. J. F. King, Chairman; Messrs HaskelbKornegay, Mitch, Littlejohn, Harrison of 45, James, Allen, Alderson, Tracey, Parker, Mathis, Williams of 108, Ellis and Harris. All were Democrats except Harris. Eight of the committee were from the Indian Territory and seven from Oklahoma Territory," Jim Crow Law”
A majority of the Delegates had, during the campaign for the election of Delegates, advocated making a provision in the Constitution requiring all public carriers to maintain separate compartmenes, coaches and waiting rooms for persons of African decent.
November 30th 1906, Delegate W. A. Ledbetter introduced proposition number 4 nBeinga proposition for a Constitutional provision requiring all persons, companies and corporations engaged in the transportation of passengers, to provide equal but separate coaches for persons,of African decent.
This proposition was referred to the Committee on Railroads and Public Service Corporations, composed of the foi-owing Delegates; R. L. Williams, Chairman; King, Graham, Hendricks, Johnson, Baker, Carr, Haskell,Curl, Wills, Wyatt, Harrison of 88, Majors, Leahy and Harris.
This committee reported back to the Convention on Jan. 28th 1907 and the report was referred to the Committee of the whole Convention, to come up for consideration in its regular order: but on February 15th Delegate Williams gave notice that in due time he would move to make the report a special order for February 22nd 1907 and Delegate Leahy gave notice that he would in due time move that the report [be made a special order for February 20th 1907. February 21st 1907 the report was taken up and considered in Committee of the whole Convention and upon reccomendation of the Whole com mittee was referred to a special committee to be composed of Iswyers, with the further reccomendation that the report of the special committee be made a special order for Fed. 27th 1907.160	Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
The special committee appointed by the President was composed of Delegates Henshaw, Rose, Kane, Jones, Moore, Johnston, Nelson, Langley and Swartz. This committee reported back to the Convention and the report was considered in Committee of the whole, which reccomended that the report be laid upon the table. This report was adopted by the Convention and under rule 46 could not be re-considered.
Th is had been a vexatious question from the beginning of the Convention. Upon one hand, it was recognized that the white people, regardless of political affiliations, were in favor of the separation of the races in the proposed State and dem anded that the Negro race be seggregated in the public schools and railwaay coaches; and the promise of many of the Delegates that it would be done had a great influence in electing a Democrat majority. On the other hand, the Enabling act had provided in section 3 wThe Constitution shall be republican in form and make no distinction incivil or political rights on account of race or color”, and the Enabling act also gave the President of the United States the right to withold his approval of the Constitution and not issue a proclamation admitting the State to the Union if the terms of the Enabling act had been violated. The Convention found itself between ’’Charybdis and Scylla”- it was feared by many of the Delegates that if the Convention inserted a provision for separate schools and waiting rooms, the Pres-dent would not issue the necessary proclamation admitting the State: while it was contended by some of the Delegates that to fail to incorporate such a Provision would be to break faith with the people.
The debates upon the question were versatile, brilliant and sometimes acrimonious. Insisting on the incorporation of the provision in the Constitution was Williams of Dist. 1 08,Jim Crow Law
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Ledbetter (the author of the proposition) Graham and Leahy; arguing that the Convention keep faith with the people and if the President of the United States did not approve the Constitution with the provision in it, let the responsibility rest with him. Opposing the incorporation of the provision in the Constitution, was Haskell, King and others; urging that the Convention would be keeping faith with the people only by framing a Constitution that would meet the requirements of the Enabling act, and that the matter could safely be left to the first legislature of the new State. Thers was no doubt an almost unanimous sentiment prevailing in the Convention for the provision, but as a matter of policy it was deemed best to defer the matter until the State was admitted and let the first legislature deal with it; as is evidenced by the adoption of the following resolution by the Convention, on Mar. 1* 1907.
Resolution No. 89 "Resolved; that it is the sense of this body that separate coaches and waiting rooms be required for the negro race; that we consider this a legislative matter rather than a Constiutional question; that Statehood is the all important question to relieve our people of the embarres ment of Interior Department rule; that there is apparently good reason to doubt the proclamation of Statehood if the separate coach and waiting room provision is placed in the Constitution. Resolved, We do recommend that the legislature do by law require all railroads of the State to provide for separate but equal coaches and waiting rooms for the negro race.”
(As a matter of history, the first State Legislature did enact a law,known as the ffJim Crow Lawlf,seggrating the negro race from the whites, in passenger coaches and waiting rooms.)
A provision for separate schools was incorporated in the Constitution, and the legislature çnacted the necessary law to vitalize the provision.Woman Suffrage
The question of Woman Suffrage was one that engaged the serious attention of the Convention. The Delegates from counties that had no negroes were nearly all in favor of woman suffrage, while the Delegates from those counties having a great number of negroes were almost unanimously opposed to it. After many meetings of the Committee on Suffrage, and after the Convention had listened to addresses by ex-Governor Adams of Colorado, Hon. Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma and a Miss Clay of Kentucky (all of whom advocated woman suffrage) and many speeches by Delegates of the Convention, pro and con, the proposition to enfranchise woman was defeated.
Prohibition
The question of prohibiting the manufacture, sale or giving away of intoxicating liquor, was before the Convention from the first session until the question was finally submitted to the people as a separate proposition.
Both the Prohibitionist and the Anti-prohibitionist made every endeavor within their power. The first, to have prohibition incorporated in the Constitution; and the second to prevent any proposition being placed in the Organic law relative to the control of the sale of liquor.Prohibition
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There were not less than eight propositions submitted on the question; all referred to the Committee on Liquor Traffic. The committee was composed of the following Delegates; Luke Roberts, Chairman; Ledbetter, Johnson, Cobb Caudill, Geo. Wood, Harned, Williams of 97, Rogers, Tosh, Leahy, Messenger, McCance, Sater and Stowe. Seven of the committee were from the Indian Territory side of the proposed State and eight from Oklahoma. Four of the committee were lawyers, three were ministers, one was a school teacher, one an editor, one a real estate agent, one an abstractor, one a retired business man and three were farmers.
Afte listening to an abundance of oratory and laboring dil-ligently, the committee filed a report with the Convention, on January 29th 1907. The report was considered in Committee of the whole Convention and ably discussed, for and against, and finally an amendment to the report was offered by the anti-prohibitionist, The amendment proposed to sud-mit the proposition reported by the committee, to the people of the proposed State to vote upon as a separate proposition. The Chairman of the Commtttee on Liquor Traffic accepted the amendment and the question went to the electors at the same time the Constitution was submitted; and when the returns were made it was found that the proposition had carried by a vote of 18,000 majority, and thus became a part of the Constitution.Grand Jury
Section 18 Article 2 provides as follows, 11A grand jury shall be composed of twelve men, any nine of whom concurring may find an indictment or true bill. A grand jury shall be convened upon the order of a judge of a court having the power to try and determine felonies, upon his own motion; or such grand jury shall be ordered by such judge upon the filing of a petition therefor signed by one hundred resident taxpayers of the county; when so assembled such grand jury shall have power to investigate and return indictments for all character and grades of crime and such other powers as the legislature may prescribe: Provided that the legislature may make the calling of a grand jury compulsory.n
It will be seen that this provision is somewhat different from many constitutional provisions heretofore incorporated in the constitutions of other States, in that it reposes power to call a grand jury in the hands of the people. Whenever a petition calling fora grand jury is duly signed and presented the court has no option in the matter but must order the jury convened. Proposition No. 438 for a complete Constitution, concurred in by the Republican minority in the Convention and presented by Henry E. Asp, provided for the ordering of a grand jury as follows.
nA grand jury shall consist of twelve men any nine of whom concurring may find an indictment or true bill: Provided however, that no grand jury shall be convened except upon an order of a judge of a court having power to try and determine felonies, but when so assembled such grand juryGrand Jury
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shall have power to investigate and return indictments for all character and grades of crime.11
The difference between the Republican minority and the Democrat majority in the Convention on the theory of a Constitution for the State government, is clearly illustrated in the two propositions submitted for a Constituional provision for the ordering of a grand jury.
The Republican delegates would have given the people the irreducible minimun of power, while the Democrats did give to the people the maximum of power in the State government.
In the light of experience in this State it has been demonstrated that the power to order a grand jury by petition is a proper power to be exercised by the people.
The courts are not infallible, and it is feared sometimes not invulnerable to undue influence; but the people have in their own hands the remedy to correct the errors of courts:-as in such case as was reported to have occured in February 1922 in the court room at Okmulgee, wherein a superior court judge dismissed a grand jury just before the jury was ready to file its report of twenty one indictments: some of the indictments said to have been against some of the State officials: and it was openly charged that the judge who discharged the jury was unduly influenced to commit the wrong by men holding high positions at the State CapitoJ.
If the power to order a grand jury had been confined exclusively to a judge, the violated law would have been a nulity in the case and justics would have been thwarted; but within a short time the people of Okmulgee County had taken the matter in their own hands and circulated a petition for the ordering of another grand jury and presented the petition to another judge. However high the parties may166
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be in the councils of the State, the people have it in their hands to let no guilty man escape; for since the ordering of a grand jury is mandatory when a properly signed petition is presented, no corrupt or venal judge can let the guilty escape an indictment by refusing to order a grand jury or by discharging one already ordered.
It was not neccessary to empower the legislature to make the calling of a grand jury compulsory, as the people of any county can safely be trusted to demand a grand jury whenever in their judgment it is required.Education
The Committee on Education was composed as follows: Chairman, Mr Brewer; Parker, Mitch, Alderson, Savage, Wyley, Swartz, Quarles, Harned, Akers, Allen, Gardner, McCance, Stowe and Cobb.
Nine of the committee were from the Indian Territory and six from Oklahoma Territory. Of the membership, six were educators, one was a lawyer, one a banker, two were merchants, one was an editor, two were farmers and two were ministers of the gospel. All were eminently qualified to discharge the duties that devolved upon the committee. With the exception of Mr Cobb, all were Democrats. This committee laid broad and deep the foundation upon which to build the future public school system of this State.
Article 13 of the Constitution has some unique provisions incorporated therein. Section 3 of the Article provides, ’’Separate schools for white and colored children with like accomodations shall be provided by the legislature and impartially maintained. The term ’Colored children’ shall be construed to mean children of African decent. The term ’White children’ shall include all other children.”
From reading the section it will be seen that the intent and purpose of the Convention was to provide that Indians be classed as white children. No latitude was left the courts of the State to so construe the provision as to defeat the intent of the Convention in providing just what of our future citizens should be classed as ’White children4. This provision has never been challenged in the courts and is eminently just.168
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Section 7 of the Article provides, nThe Legislature shall provide for the teaching of the elements of agriculture, horticulture, stock feeding and domestic science in the common schools of the State.11
This provision was introduced by Delegate Murray (proposition No. 159) but met with much opposition in the Convention, and it looked for awhile as though it would fail of adoption; but Murrry stood by his guns, aided by the farmer Delegates: every objection was met, all ridicule was silenced and after changing some of the phraseology the measure was incorporated in the Constitution.
The provision is a wise one and the teaching of agriculture, horticulture etc in our common schools, supplementing as it does the teaching of agriculture in the many Agricultural colleges, should give to Oklahoma in a few years, the most advanced scientific farmers of any State in the Union.Resolutions
The Convention at times left the beaten path marked out by precedent and gave audible voice to the hopes and demands of the people of the proposed State, by adopting resolutions directed to Congress reeeomendlng amendments to the Con» stitution of the United States»
Delegate Swartz introduced a resolution relating to the income tax as follows, s,Resolved that it is the sense of this Convention that the Constilution of the United States ought to be so amended as to permit the regulation and levy of an Income tax,11
This resolution had been referred to the Committee on Federal relations and that committee reccomended that the resolution do pass* The consideration of the resolution by the Convention developed some opposition upon the ground that it was not within the province of the Convention to advise Congress what to do, and many excuses were given as why the Convention should not consider the resolution; all of which were answered by its supporters«,
There was an attempt made to have a viva»voce vote but Delegate Hayes demanded a roll call and a sufficient number of Delegates stood with him in his demand and a record vote was taken: with the result that 84 votes were cast for the resolution and 14 against, with 14 Delegates absent«, Of those voting r,Nbw nine were Republicans and five were Democrats, and of the 84 voting fYesJ? all but two were Democrats»
It is very gratifying to know that at a later date the State of Oklahoma, through its legislature, helped to incorporate170
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an amendment as a. part of the Constitution of the United States authorizing Congress to enact a law providing for an income tax.
The dire prophesies of disaster of those who were opposed to such amendment have not materialized; but on the contrary the tax was of untold advantage to our country during the great World war and will continue to be helpful in support of the Government in times of peace.
The Committee on Federal Relations also favorably reported another resolution that called forth much oratory, pro and con. ^Resolved, that it is the sense of this Convention that the Constitution of the United States ought to be so amended as to permit the selection of United States Senators by direct vote of the people.H
Against the adoption of this resolution the conservaties turned their batteries and used every means their ingenuity could suggest; urging again and again that the Convention had no right to ask Congress to do anything, that the business in hand was to frame a Constitution and that Congress would not consider any suggestion made by the Convention looking to the submission of any amendment of the Constitution of the United States. All of which, the progressives met with the argument that the Convention represented the people of the proposed State' and had the right to make such reccomendations as the body saw fit, that the Convention had the right to suggest any amendment to the Constitution of the United States that would make more nearly perfect the organic law. under which all had to live and that the only way congress could know what the people of the proposed State wanted was to adopt the resolution and send it to Congress.
The question, shall the resolution pass, was about to beResolutions
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taken by a viva voce vote, when a Delegate demanded a roll call and the required number of delegates joined in the demand and a record vote was taken; with the result that ninety three voted aye, six voted nay: with thirteen delegates absent. Of the members voting in the affirmative, eighty eight were Democrats and five were Republicans; and of those voting in the negative all were Republicans.
The Federal Constitution has since been amended so that now the people do elect United States Senators by direct vote and no great calamity has befallen our Nation. The objections urged against the amendment now seem to have not been sound in fact, but born of a mistrust of the ability of the people to govern themselves. The Oklahoma Constitutional Convention believd in the rule of the people and had no fear in the people having a larger share in the selection of those who are to enact laws for the government of a great nation.
The committee on "Federal Relations" that gave approval to the two above resolutions, was composed of the following named Delegates. Charles Moore. Chairman; Messrs Kornegay, Swartz, Hayes, Jones, Hughes, Maxey, Leahy, and Frye. All but two were lawyers and all Democrats except Frye. Five of the committee were from the Indian Territory and four from Oklahoma.Banks and Banking
Prior to statehood there had been many attempts to regulate banks so that the depositors would be protected fron loss in the event of failure of banks, but no law or regulation seemed to give the necessary protection; and when a bank closed its doors the depositors were helpless and when the receivers of a closed bank finally got through it was usually found that the depositors were the ones who bore the loss. There were also many attempts to regulate the rate of interest in Oklahoma Territory, where there had been a general complaint by the people about the excessive rates charged. Many times, as much as three per centum per month was charged and the interest taken out in advance and at the expiration of the time for which the loan had been procured, if a renewal was desired, payment of the interest in advance for the time the loan was extended was a condition precedent to renewal.
Any attempt of the Oklahoma Terriorial legislature to regulate banks and interest rates seemed impotent. There were many who believed that to regulate the rates of interest would have a tedency to drive capital out of the Territory and thus work a hardship upon those who needed to borrow, and would have the effect of impairing credits.
The Constitutional Convention swept aside such pusillanimous arguments and placed a provision in the Constitution making it obligatory upon the State Legislature to enact a law regulating State banks, loan, trust and guarantee companies.
Section 1 Article 14 of the Constitution provides: "General laws shall be enacted by the legislature providing173
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for the creation of a banking department, to be under the contral of a Bank Commissioner, who shall be appointed by the Governor for a term of four years, by and with the consent of the Senate, with sufficient power and authority to regulate and control all State Banks, Loan, Trust and Guaranty Companies, under laws which shall provide for the protection of depositors and individual stockholders.11
Sec. 2. "The legal rate of interest shall not exceed six per centum per annum in the absence of any contract as to the rate of interest, and, by contract, parties may agree upon any rate not to exceed ten per centum per annum, and until reduced by the legislature, said rates of six and ten per centum shall be, respectively, the legal and the maximum contract rates of interest."
Sec. 3, "The taking, receiveing, reserving or charging a rate of interest greater than is allowed by the preceeding section, when knowingly done, shall be deemed a forfeiture of the entire interest which the note, bill or other evidence of debt carries with it, or which has been agreed to be paid thereon. In case a greater rate of interest has been paid, the person by whom it has been paid, or his legal representative may recover from the person, firm or corporation taking or receiving the same, in an action in the nature of an action for debt, twice the amount of the interest so paid: Provided, such action shall be brought within two years after the maturity of such usurious contract: Provided, however, that this section may be subject to such changes as the legislature may prescribe.11
Under the terms of Sec. 1, the first State legislature created a State banking department and a Bank Guaranty law by which depositors were to be protected from loss whenever a State bank closed its doors.174
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The law required the State banking board to levy against the capital stock an assessment of one per cent of the banks daily deposits, less the deposits of United States and State funds, upon each and every bank and trust company organized or existing under the laws of this State.
In the event of failure of any State bank or trust corn-company, the Bank Commissioner should take charge of all the assets of the failed concern and immediately draw upon the Bank Guaranty fund for sufficient funds to pay all depositors in full.
This was the first law enacted in any of the states for the full protection of depositors. Several states have since enacted laws to insure depositors in banks from loss and all such laws have been modeled after the Oklahoma law.
Experience in this State has shown that the Convention builded well. Until recently, depositors in State banks that have failed have been paid in full without unnecessary delay, the banks that were solvent have not had to meet an unexpected or unusual demand of their depositors, because it was felt by depositors that they were amply protected by the guaranty law: and so long as the law is honestly and efficiently administered both the banks and the depositors are benefited.
It will be noted that section 2 of the Constitutional provision leaves the legislature free to enact any law to reduce the maximum rate of interest that may be charged by contract, but denies that body the power to enact a law making legal a greater rate of interest, even by contract.
It has been found that limiting the rate of interest by law has not been detrimental to the people, and has been satisfactory to all concerned, except a few conscienceless shy locks; and even they have been careful to stay withinBanks and Banking
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the intent of the provision, as the debtor has the right to recover twice the amount of the interest paid if the provision has been violated.
Section 3 of the provision is subject to change, alteration or amendment by the legislature, but it is reasonably certain that no legislature is going to enact a law that will in the least weaken or impair the effectiveness of the provision.
Nothing better illustrates the spirit that animated the Delegates of the Covention than the adoption of article 14 of the Constitution. When the roll was called for adoption or rejection of the article as reported by the committee on "Banks and Banking, Loan, Trust and Guaranty Companies", there were 88 votes for the report and but 1 vote against it: with 23 Delegates absent.
The committee that made the report was composed of the following Delegates: Chairman, Mr Curl; Messrs Lassiter, Swartz, Quarles, Bowers, Tucker, Edley, Williams of Dist. 97 and Hudson. Five were from the Indian Territory and four from Oklahoma Territory and all were Democrats except Hudson. One was an oil man, two were bankers, two were lawyers and four were farmers.Counties
The Convention created thirty eight new counties out of the territory formerly compring the Indian Territory and ten out of territory already organized into counties in Oklahoma, and two counties out of territory taken from both the Indian Territory and Oklahoma (viz. Stephens and Jefferson). The boundaries of Woods County were changed, and Alfalfa and Majors counties created out of a part of the territory formerly comprising that county.
Woodward County’s boundaries were changed-some of the territory was attached to Woods County, and the County of Harper and part of Ellis County was taken from its territory.
Day County was obliterated from the map and its territory thrown into the counties of Ellis and Roger Mills.
The North line of Roger Mills County (as originally erganized) was changed on the North to the center of the Canadian River and the South line was changed to a point severel miles to the North, and the territory thus detached went to form a part of a new County, Beckham.
Beckham County was formed from the territory formerly a part of Roger Mills and territory taken from Greer County.
Beaver County was cut into three Counties, viz. Beaver Cimmaron and Texas.
Thus, there was a total of 75 Counties in the proposed new State. It is or interest to note that seven of the counties created bear the names of Delegates to the Convention. The Convention originally named one County ,fMomann afterCounties
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the mother of Moman Pruett, the noted lawyer of Oklahoma City, but Mr Pruett was reported to have harshly and unfairly criticised the Convention and the Convention changed the county’s name to !,Creek!l.
County Names
The names and their origin of the Counties of Oklahoma are:
Adair, in honor of a prominent Cherokee family of that name.
Alfalfa , so named because of the large acreage of alfalfa grown in its territory.
Atoka, after the town of Atoka. (County seat)
Beaver, after Beaver creek which flows through it.
Beckham, in honor of Ex Governor Beckham of Kentucky. Blaine, after James G. Blaine, (the Plumed Knight of Maine) Bryan, after William Jennings Bryan, (the Great Commoner) Caddo, after the Caddo Indians.
Canadian, after the Canadian River flowing through it. Carter, after W. B. Carter of the Chickasaw Indian tribe. Cherokee, after the Cherokee tribe of Indians.
Choctaw, after the Choctaw Indian tribe.
Cimarron, after the Cimarron River which runs through it. Cleveland, after Grover Cleveland, President of the U. S. Coal, from the coal that underlies a large part of the County. Commanche, after the Commanche Indians.
Craig, after Frank Craig, banker at McCalester Okla.
Creek, after the Creek Indian tribe.
Custer, after Gen. Custer, who was killed in battle with the Sioux Indians on the Little Big Horn River in Dakota.178
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Deleware, after the Delaware Indian tribe.
Dewey, after Admiral Dewey, U. S. Navy.
Ell is, after Albert H. Ellis, Second Vice President of the Convention.
Garfield, after President James A. Garfield.
Garvin, after Samuel J.Garvin, of the Chickasaw Indian tribe. Grady , after Henry W. Grady, noted Southern orator. Grant, after President Grant.
Greer, after a former State official of Texas.
Harper, after Oscar G.Harper,minute clerk in the Convention. Haskell, after Delegate C.N. Haskell, first Governor of Okla. Hughes, after W. C. Hughes, a Delegate in the Convention. Jackson, after f?StonewaliM Jackson, a Confederate General. Jefferson, after President, Thomas Jefferson.
Johnston, after D. H. Johnston, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation.
Kingfisher, after Kingfisher creek running through it.
Kay, formerly named ^K11 by Congress. The people of the county attached two letters and spelled the name Kay. Kiowa, after the Kiowa Indians.
Latimer, after John S. Latimer, a Convention Delegate Leflore, after Capt. Charless Leflore of the Choctaw tribe. Lincoln, after President Lincoln.
Logan, after General John A. Logan of Illinois.
Love, after Robert H. Love, a leader of the Chickasaw Nation. McClain, after Chas. M. McClain, a Convention Delegate. McCurtain, after Green McCurlain, Governor of the Choctaw Nation
McIntosh, after a noted Creek Indian family.
Major, after John C. Major, a Delegate in the Convention. Marshall, after John Marshall, Chief Justice U. S. Supreme Court.Countv Names
179
Mayes, after Samuel H. Mayes, noted Cherokee Indian.
Murray, after William H. Murray, President of the Constitutional Convention.
Muskogee, after the city of Muskogee (County seat)
Noble, after John W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior in Cleveland’s cabinet.
Nowata, after the city of Nowata (County seat)
Okfuskee, (origin of name uncertain)
Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City (now State Capitol) Okmulgee, after the city of Okmulgee (County seat)
Osage, after the Osage Indian tribe.
Ottawa, after the Ottawa Indian tribe.
Pawnee, after the Pawnee Indian tribe.
Payne, after Captain David L. Payne.
Pittsburg, after Pittsburg Pennsylvania.
Pontotoc, after Pontotoc, an Indian Chief.
Pottawattomie, after the Potawattomie Indians. Pushmataha, after Pushmataha, a noted Choctaw Chief. Roger Mills, after Roger Q. Mills, Texas Statesman. Rogers, after Clem Rogers, Delegate in the Convention. Seminole, after the Seminole Indian tribe.
Sequoyah, after Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian who invented the Cherokee alphabet.
Stephens, after Congressman Stephens of Texas.
Texas, so named by the Convention because practically all its inhabitants were from the State of Texas.
Tillman, after BenR. Tillman, Senator from South Carolina. Tulsa, after the city of Tulsa (County seat)
Wagoner, after the city of Wagoner (County seat) Washington, after President Washington.
Washita, after the Washita River which runs across it.180
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Woods, after Sam Woods, a lawyer of Kansas who was murdered in a county seat war in Stevens County Kansas.
Woodward, after the city of Woodward (County seat)
The Convention organized fifty counties and gave them the names they bear, while there were twenty five counties the names of which were not changed. But the boundaries of Beaver, Woods, Woodward, Roger Mills, Greer, Payne, Noble and Commanche were changed, and nDay!I County was taken off the map.
There are thirteen counties in what was formerly the Indian Territory that have the same names as were designated for counties by the Sequoyah Convention for the proposed State of Sequoyah.Expenses
Congress made an appropriation of $100,000.00 to pay the expenses of an election to elect Delegates to form a Constitution for the proposed State of Oklahoma; to pay the expenses of the Convention (i. e. salary and mileage of the Delegates, clerical hire and printing for ,the Convention) and to pay the cost of an election to adopt or reject the Constitution and elect a full set of State officers.
Of the $100,000.00 appropriated, $52,270.00 went to pay the expenses of the election of Delegates: leaving a balance of $47,730.00 to pay the per diem and mileage of the 112 Delegates, officers, clerical hire and all printing-including the Journal and Constitution, and for holding an election to vote on the Constitution and select State Officers. The Convention adopted a resolution informing Congress that there would be a deficit and asked for a further appropriation of $135,240.00, but Congress paid no attention to the matter.
With all appropriations exhausted; with those who were opposed to the Constitution, urging on a bitter campaign of misrepresentation of the Constitution and villification of the Delegates and demanding that the Convention adjourn and go home and leave the making of a Constitution to some future time and to men who were better qualified; and with the partisan press doing all in its power to discredit the Convention and misrepresenting the measures passed by it: the Delegates worked on at their own expense faithfully discharging their sworn duty and nota single one deserted his post, but on the contrary several Delegates contributed funds to pay for the necessary clerical work. Secretary, John M. Young; W.A.Durant, Sergeant at arms; Ham P. Bee, Official Reporter and E.C. Patton,Journal Clerk; all refused to share in acceping the contributions, but went on with their respective duties without hope of reward. The printers for the Convention took182
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their chanee of ever getting any pay for their work and material furnished but stayed with the Convention and done the work needed. When the Constitution was finished, President Murray issued an appeal to the people of the State for funds to pay for clerical hire of the Convention and the people subscribed the sum of $2,047.00. At the close of the Convention there was due the Delegates for services the sum of $31,991.00 and due for clerical work and printing the sum of $45,349.33.
Section 25 of the schedule provides; fIAll debts and indebtedness to be incurred by the Constitutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma, and all expenses of holding the election for the ratification or rejection of this Constitution and for the election of officers of a full State government, which shall remain unpaid after the appropriation made by the Congress of the United States has been exhausted, are hereby assumed by the State; and it is hereby made the duty of the Legislature, at its first session, to provide for the payment of the same; Provided, that the debts and indebtedness, the payment of which is hereby assumed by the State, shall not include any debt or expenses as a salary or compensation of the delegates of the Constitutional Convention,”
The debts incurred by the Convention, to be assumed by the State, were for clerical hire, printing, supplies and holding an election; but it was felt that the amount due the delegates for their services after the appropriation made by Congress for that purpose had been exhausted, was a moral obligation resting upon the State and that the State could assume and discharge the debt; but the Convention did not make it obligatory upod the State to do so.
There was much contention as to the meaning of the clause: the Republicans contending that the State could not pay the delegates under the provision and that if the debt was ever paid Congress would have to make an appropriation for that purpose. But when it was recalled that Congress had turned a deaf ear to the request of the Convention for furtherExpenses
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appropriations to pay the necessary expenses of the Convention and the holding of an election for the adoption or rejection of the Constitution, it became certain that no appropriation would be made by Congress to pay the Delegates.
The clause is very adroitly drawn and shows the handiwork of the skillful lawyer, yet it is plain that the State could assume the debt if desired but was not compelled to do so.
A bill was introduced in the first State legislature making an appropriation to pay the delegates and when the question came up the Republican minority attacted the measure vehemently. The members who had served as Delegates had no vote on the bill and sat silent until the roll was called and theme-sure had passed the house. The writer then replied as follows.
MMr. Speaker: I just wish to occupy a very few minutes at this time. I have felt a delicay in saying anything or taking any part in the discussion of this measure for the reason I had a personal interest in it. But Gentlemen, I do want to make a reply to some of the insinuations that have been cast upon the membership of the Constitutional Convention.
When I was making my campaign in the interest of the people of Oklahoma, I told them that this money was due the Delegates of the Constitutional Convention, and there is nowhere any man of any political faith but what will say it was a just debt and should be assumed by the State..
It has been stated on this floor that the Republican party could have written a Constitution in thirty days, but I want to say to the Gentleman who made this slatement that one of the most eminent Republicans in this State sat as a Delegate in that Convention, and it is generally understood by the people of the State that he put in s^ven months writing a constitution that received nothing but the scorn and jeers of the people of Oklanoma.
Mr. Speaker; in regard to the membership of the Constitutional Convention, you can bear me testimony that there were times when men became physically exhausted after working continously for sixty hours. There was a Delegate184
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who sat there at the desk now occupied by Dr.Riddle, who absolutely broke down and wept like a school girl, and do you mean to tell me that these men who were making the greatest sacrifice of their lives, paying their own expenses, were not doing their duty to the State of Oklahoma? I want to say to you that there was never a time since the Constitutional Convention that framed the Constitution for the Federal Government that a more patriotic body of men have ever met than sat in that Convention. I want to say that no man in this House would have dared to go out in the last campaign and have said he stood for the repudiation of this debt that the people owe to the Delegates of that Convention. I assert that no man of the majority, when he goes out and tells the people how he voted on this measure, need hang his head in shame and sorrow; and you men of the minority will be glad if in the future it was in your power to repudiate the vote you have cast today.”
The bill passed both Houses and was sent to the Governor, who signed the bill but vetoed one item: and in his veto message to the legislature he said in part “I have to advise you that I have approved House Bill Number 509 with the exception of that item in Section number One thereof, which reads as follows, ‘Charles N. Haskell, Muskogee, mileage and per diem certificate No. 1855, $298.00’. All other items are approved.
In approving the bill except as to the single item mentioned, I want to say that I believe the legislature properly exercised the dis^ cretion which the Constitution vests in it, I believe that no body of paen ever worked more unselfishly or with more patriotism than the delegates in the Constitutional Convention. I personally know that many of them continued at their post of duty laboring for the welfare of the people of this State, when they were living on their own means and reduced to the point where they had to practice the greatest economy, to pay their expenses out of their own pockets and this appropriation by the State of Oklahoma to reimburse these men is but a small evidence of the State‘s appreciation of their good work.“
The legislature passed the item that was disapproved, over the Governors veto:	and the State thus assumed and paid the debt
due the Delegates of the Constitutional Convention.
Each Delegate had previously been given a certificate stating the amount due him, a copy of which is on the following page, and upon presentation of the certificate to the Auditor of State a warrant for the amount was drawn upon the State Treasurer and the certificate marked “Paid“ and returned to the holder, who under the law was permitted to retain the cancelled certificate.Great Seal oe the State
The selection of the "Great Seal of the State" of Oklahoma was committed to a special committee chosen by the Convention, and composed of the following Delegates: Johnston, Haskell, Parker, Stowe and J. B, Harrison. Mr Parker was elected Chairman of the Committee. The design of the seal was suggested by Rev. A. Grant Evans, who had formerly designed the Great Seal for the proprosed State of Sequoyah. The design of the Great Seal of the State of Oklahoma is an artistic combination of the ancient seal of each of the Five Civilized tribes and the Great Seal of Oklahoma Territory. Enclosed within a circle is a five pointed star; in the upward point of the star is the seal of the Chickasaw Nation, in the upper right hand point of the star is the seal of the Choctaw Nation, the lower right hand point of the star contains the seal of the Seminole Nation, the lower left hand star point has the seal of the Creek Nation and the upper left hand point contains the seal of the Cherokee Nation. In the center of the five pointed star is a small circle containing the Great Seal of Oklahoma Territory, including the words "Labor Omni Vincit" (labor conquers all). Grouped around the big star between its points is found forty five small stars, representing the 45 States of the Union at that time, and within the outside circle is found the words nGreat Seal of the State of Oklahoma11
The seal thus embodies the idea that the Indian Territory and Oklahoma are merged into a single State, and preserves the original Great Seal of all.Amendments to the Constitution
The Convention desired that the Constitution should be easy of amendment, and the legislature was given power to propose any amendment to the organic law. Any amendment proposed by the legislature shall be agreed to by a majority of each house and then submitted to a vote of the people at the next general election, or such amendment may be submitted at a special election by a two thirds vote of each house.
The power reserved to the people gives them the right to propose amendments by petition signed by fifteen per centum of the legal voters: such proposed amendments to be voted on by the people and if a majority of all the votes cast at the election are for the amendment it shall become a part of the Constitution.
Thus it will be seen that the Convention never lost sight of the principle that the people are the fountain source of all government and that an organic law should be so framed as to be amendable to the interest and demands of the people.
Some of the Delegates desired that all amendments should be proposed by the legislature only, and that such proposed amendments should receive two thirds of all the votes of the membership of each house before being submitted to the people for adoption or rejection. Other Delegates were in favor of making the Constitution very easy to amend and would have had amendments proposed by petition signed by five per centum of the voters, filed with the Secretary of State and submitted to the voters at any general or special election. After thourough consideration and much discussion the Convention chose the middle course and provided for a reasonably easy way to amend the Constitution,A New
Constitutional Convention
The Delegates of the Convention recognized than an organic law may need revising or rebuilding from time to time to meet ever changing conditions, and knowing how difficult some States have made it for the people to have a Constitutional Convention to frame anew the organic law, there was placed in the Oklahoma Constitution an unusual provision.
Sec 2 of article 24 provides; ”No Convention shall Be called by the legislature to propose alterations, revisions, or amendments to this Constitution: or to propose a new Constitution unless the law providing for such Convention shall first be approved by the people on a referendum vote at a regular or special election, and any amendments, alterations or new Constitution, proposed by such Convention shall be submitted to the electors of the State at a general or special election and be approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon, before the same shall become effective: Provided that the question of such proposed Convention shall be submitted to the people at least once in every twenty years.”
It will be seen that the legislature that desires to call a new Convention to make any change or alteration in the Constitution, must first submit the law calling a Convention to the people for approval. The legislature in itself is impotent to change any provision of the basic law of Oklahoma. When the people approve a law authorizing the calling of a Convention to propose amendments to the Constitution ora new Constitution, then the changes, alterations, amendments or new Constitution shall be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection.188
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
The proviso that the question of holding a Convention shall be submitted to the people at least once in every twenty years, leaves the legislature without any option in the matter. The eighth legislature at its regular session had the matter before the Senate, but it seemed to be premature and was not fovorably acted upon by the Senate and the proposal was not favorably received by the people.
The Convention ever kept in view the right of the people to mould their own government, and the the people of the State should never let this power slip from their grasp; but continue to retain in their own hands the power conferred upon them by the Constitution and in the future reject at the polls any amendments, alterations, revision or new Constitution which does not retain the provision giving the people control of the organic law. Ever remembering that there are interests in this State that would gladly deprive the people of the right to control the basic law and would gladly change, nullify, abrogate or emasculate this provision of the Constitution #INDEX
Page
Accusations Against Members............ ........ .. 107
Agitation for Statehood ........................... 7
Alien Ownership of Land.......................... 153
Amendments to the Constitution .... ............ 186
Anti Lobby Rule _________________________________   93
Banks and Banking...............................   172
Bill of Rights..................................... 132
Campaign for Election of Delegates................. 39
for Adoption of Constitution ...........123
Caucus of Democratic Delegates ...................  53
Chickasaw Squirrel Rifles......................    121
Committee sent to Washington .............. ....... 112
Constitution: Campaing for Adoption of_____________123
Custody of____________________________ 120
Signers of_____	____________________— 115
Convention: Convening of___________________________ 54
••	Personnel of___________________________ 129
Recess Adjournment of__________________  HO
Re-convened ____________________________ 113
Counties ......................................    176
Formation of_____________________________ 97
Names of_______________________________  177
^ Custody of Constitution .......................    120
Decree of Supreme Court .......................... 104
Delegates:	Campaign for Election	of________________ 39
Caucus of Democratic___________________  53
Names of________________________________ 49
Education ............... ...............-.. .... - 167
Enabling Act....................................... 14
Expenses .................................         181
Free Pass Rule ------------------------------------ 94
Formation of New Counties.......................... 97U
Index
Page
Grand Jury ......... . . ..
Great Sea! of State
Homestead Exemptions .......
Indian Territory....	.....
Initiative................
In the Courts .................
Invitation to Banquet ......
Jim Crow Law	....
Legislature ..............
Sessions of_______
Special Sessions of. __
Names of Counties .............
New Constitutional Convention
Oath of Office ................
. 164 185
154
5
145
101
.. 95
. 159 138
. 140 _ 142
177
187
143
to Delegates __________
Opening of Oklahoma to Settlement ... .
Pardons and Paroles .................
Personnel of Convention .............
Platforms____________________________
Primary Elections......... ..........
Prohibition .........................
Propositions ..... ..................
Public Lands.........................
Recess Adjournment of Convention
Referendum ..........................
Report of Committee on Rules .,......
Resolutions...........................
-- 65 ... ... 1
. . 150
... 129
41	125
... 148
.... 162 . ... 96 .....152
110
146
-... 93
.... 169
Adopting Federal Constitution________________88
Others__________________________85 95 107 124 161
Results of Election: For Delegates................	49
For Adoption of Constitution___127
Revenue and Taxation............... ................. 156Index
• • •
m
Separate Coach Law_________________
Sessions of the Legislature........
Sequoyah ..........................
Signers of the Constitution........
Special Sessions of the Legislature
Speeches of:	Ellis_________________
Inman________________
Johnston ____________
King_________________
Murray_______________
Statehood..........................
Agitation for___________
State Officers.....................
State Seal_________________________
Transacting Business...............
Woman Suffrage.....................
Page
159
.. 140
... 11
..115
..142
183 ... 89
.... 55 ... 57 66 90
128
... 7
... 137
... 185 . 88 ... 162