ENABLING ACT.

An Act to provide for the division of Dakota into two states and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington to form constitutions and state governments and to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to make donations of public lands to such states.

What territor

Section 1. 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 Territories of Dakota, ies may be adMontana and Washington, as at present described, may become the States of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington, respectively, as hereinafter provided.

mitted.

kota.

Sec. 2. The area comprising the Territory of Dakota shall, Division of Dafor the purpose of this act, be divided on the line of the seventh standard parallel produced due west to the western boundary of said territory; and the delegates elected as hereinafter provided to the constitutional convention in districts north of said parallel shall assemble in convention, at the time prescribed in this act, at the city of Bismarck; and delegates elected in districts south of said parallel shall, at the same time, assemble in convention at the city of Sioux Falls.

Sec. 3. That all persons who are qualified by the laws of Qualifications said territories to vote for representatives to the legislative as- of electors and delegates. semblies thereof, are hereby authorized to vote for and choose delegates to form conventions in said proposed states; and the qualifications for delegates to such conventions shall be such as by the laws of said territories, respectively, persons are required to possess to be eligible to the legislative assemblies thereof; and the aforesaid delegates to form said conventions shall be appointed within the limits of the proposed states, Choosing delegates. in such districts as may be established as herein provided, in proportion to the population of each of such counties and districts, as near as may be, to be ascertained at the time of making said apportionments by the persons hereinafter authorized to make the same, from the best information obtainable, in each of which districts three delegates shall be elected, but no elector shall vote for more than two persons for delegates to such conventions; that said apportionments shall be made by the governor, and chief justice, and the secretary of said territories; and the governors of said territories shall, by proclamation, or

268469

Number of delegates.

Constitutional conventions, where held: when.

der an election of the delegates aforesaid in each of said proposed states, to be held on the Tuesday after the second Monday in May, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, which proclamation shall be issued on the fifteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine; and such election shall be conducted, the re turns made, the result ascertained, and the certificates to persons elected to such convention issued in the same manner as is prescribed by laws of said territories regulating elections therein for delegates to congress; and the number of votes cast for delegates in each precinct shall also be returned. The number of delegates to said conventions, respectively, shall be seventy-five; and all persons residents in said proposed states, who are qualified voters of said territories as herein provided, shall be entitled to vote upon the election of delegates, and under such rules and regulations as said conventions may pre. scribe, not in conflict with this act, upon the ratification or rejection of the constitutions.

Sec. 4. That the delegates to the conventions elected as provided for in this act shall meet at the seat of government of each of said territories, except the delegates elected in South Dakota, who shall meet at the city of Sioux Falls, on the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and, after organization, shall declare, on behalf of the people of said proposed states, that they adopt the constitution of the United States; whereupon the said conventions shall be, and are hereby, authorized to form constitutions and state governments for said proposed states, respectively. The constitutions shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not be repugnate to the constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And said convention shall provide, by ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States and people of said states: First: That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and that no inhabitant of said states shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship. Second: That the people inhabiting said proposed states do agree and declare that they forever disUnappropriated lands, own- claim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying ership of must be disclaimed. Within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the congress of the United States; that the lands belonging to the citizens of the United states residing without the said state shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the lands belonging to residents thereof; that

Religious toleration.

Taxation.

no taxes shall be imposed by the states on lands or property therein belonging to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States or reserved for its use. But nothing herein, or in the ordinances herein provided for, shall preclude the said states from taxing, as other lands are taxed, any lands owned or held by any Indian who has served his tribal relations, and has obtained from the United States or any person a title thereto, by patent or other grant, save and except such lands as have been or may be granted to any Indian or Indians under any act of congress containing a provision exempting the lands thus granted from taxation; but said ordinances shall provide that all such lands shall be exempt from taxation by said states so long and to such extent as such act of congress may prescribe. Third: That the debts and liabilities of said territories shall territories. be assumed and paid by said states, respectively. Fourth: Schools, free That provision shall be made for the establishment and maintain- and sectarian ance of systems of public schools, which shall be open to all the control. children of said states and free from sectarian control.

Debts of

Constitution

Dakota.

Sec. 5. That the convention which shall assemble at Bismarck Conventions in Dakota. shall form a constitution and state government for a state to be known as North Dakota, and the convention which shall assemble at Sioux Falls shall form a constitution and state government for a state to be known as South Dakota; Provided, That at the election for delegates to the constitutional con- for South vention in South Dakota, as hereinbefore provided, each elector may have written or printed on his ballot the words "For the Sioux Falls Constitution," or the words "Against the Sioux Falls Constitution," and the votes on this question shall be returned and canvassed in the same manner as for the election provided for in section three of this act; and if a majority of all votes cast on this shall be "For the Sioux Falls Constitution," it shall be the duty of the convention which may assemble at Sioux Falls, as herein provided, to re-submit to the people of South Dakota, for ratification or rejection at the election hereinafter provided for in this act, the constitution framed at Sioux Falls, and adopted November third, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, and also the articles and propositions separately submitted at that election, including the question of locating the temporary seat of government, with such changes only as relate to the name and boundary of the proposed state, to the reapportionment of the judicial and legislative districts, and such amendments as may be necessary in order to comply with the provisions of this act, and if a majority of the votes cast on the ratification or rejection of the constitution shall be for the constitution, irrespective of the articles separately submitted, the State of South Dakota shall be admitted as a state in the Union under said constitution as hereinafter provided; but the Archives of Dakota. archives, records, and books of the Territory of Dakota, until