Constitutional Convention (1895)

Records, s 1895.

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Schedule Description

In July 1894, the U.S._Congress enacted a law to enable the territory of Utah to be admitted into the Union as a state. The act spelled out the calling of a convention composed of 107 delegates to meet beginning in March 1895 to draw up a state constitution. These records are the papers of that convention. They include a copy of the federal enabling act; roll call; transcripts, published and unpublished, of the proceedings; files of proposals, petitions, and other recommendations for inclusion in the state constitution; and a limited number of committee reports, minutes, and notes. The proceedings of the 66-day convention were typed verbatim. These were then published, with the exception of rarely expunged portions. The transcripts cover the discussions and debates of the convention in detail. Procedural and administrative matters are covered. Constitutional topics follow specifications in the enabling act or topics considered important by the delegates: preamble and bill of rights;

formation and responsibilities of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; municipal and non-municipal corporations; public lands and buildings; the militia; labor and arbitration; taxation, revenue, and public debts; water rights; mining; and suggestions for future legislation or amendments. Many topics involved protracted debate, particularly female suffrage and prohibition. Files and committee reports form the basis of the constitutional articles. They

Scope and Content

In July 1894, the U.S. Congress enacted a law to enable the territory of Utah to be admitted into the Union as a state. The act spelled out the calling of a convention composed of 107 delegates to meet beginning in March 1895 to draw up a state constitution. These records are the papers of that convention. They include a copy of the federal enabling act; roll call; transcripts, published and unpublished, of the proceedings; files of proposals, petitions, and other recommendations for inclusion in the state constitution; and a limited number of committee reports, minutes and notes.

Proceedings

The proceedings of the 66-day convention were typed verbatim; a few pages of the typed transcripts are missing. Each day is numbered, including those Saturdays and Sundays the group did not meet, so members could collect their per diem allowance for those days as well. Toward the end of the convention, arrangements were made to have the proceedings published. Rarely portions in the typed transcripts were expunged and do not appear in the published copy, but for the most part, the published version matches the typed.

The transcripts cover the discussions and debates of the convention in detail. Procedural matters include rules, the appointment of committees, order of business, employing a stenographer, choosing office furnishings, and arranging publication of the proceedings. Constitutional topics follow specifications in the enabling act or those topics considered important by the delegates. These include a preamble and bill of rights; education and school lands; elections and apportionment; the formation and responsibilities of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government; municipal and non-municipal corporations; public lands and buildings; the militia; labor and arbitration; taxation, revenue and public debts; water rights; mining; and suggestions for future legislation and means of amending the constitution. Many of these topics involved protracted debate; two highly debated items were female suffrage and prohibition.

Entries for a typical day usually begin with a call to order, roll, a prayer, and reading of the previous day's minutes. Petitions and memorials were then noted and referred to the appropriate committee. Any standing committee ready to report did so, and its report, a formally written article proposed for inclusion in the constitution, was sent for printing and placed on the calendar. Next, propositions relating to particular items desired included in the constitution were submitted and referred to the appropriate committee. Finally, the convention resolved itself into a committee-of-the-whole for consideration of one or more of the committee reports.

Files

The numbered files contain petitions, memorials and proposals. Petitions and memorials were sent by individuals or groups with a particular interest. Proposals were statements, worded appropriately for inclusion as a section in a constitutional article, introduced by one of the members of the convention. Except for the first memorial, all were assigned file numbers. (The first memorial was simply called memorial #1; those received later however, were incorporated into the regular files.) Initially many were read into the proceedings; later they were simply noted by file number and topic. Many of the files are missing: about a third of those from number 1-150. All after 154 are missing; most of these were petitions regarding female suffrage, with a lesser number relating to prohibition.

Committee Reports

Committee reports usually include a cover letter noting what files were used in the preparation of the report, and a copy of a proposed article in the constitution. Several of these as well are missing in all or in part. Notably, reports from the Preamble and Declaration of Rights Committee; the Municipal Corporations Committee; the Schedule and Future, Amendments, and Miscellaneous Committee; the Elections and Right of Suffrage Committee; the Legislative Committee; the Apportionment and Boundaries Committee; and the Militia Committee are all missing drafts of articles which should accompany them.

Rarely committee items other than reports appear in these records. The Committee of Manufactures and Commerce also has minutes and notes, the latter primarily relating to the metric system. Two other committees have miscellaneous notes included as well. The committee on Elections and Suffrage has a letter from a Sidney Hudson, who apparently had been petitioning the legislative assembly since 1874 regarding the nominative franchise, and a proposal from Fred J. Kiesel, one of the committee members, regarding voter qualifications. The legislative committee also received a letter from Hudson. Neither the Hudson letters nor the Kiesel proposal appear ever to have been formally submitted, numbered, and referred to the committees.

Revisions and Publications

The final revision notes, for the article entitled "Congressional and Legislative Apportionment" only, are also included in the records. The location of final revision notes for the other articles, as noted in the proceedings, is unknown. A draft copy of the journal (the transcripts as printed with editing comments) is present. Finally, a two volume publication, copyright 1898, contains a copy of the enabling act, a transcript of the proceedings (with rare additional editing or expunging), and a copy of the Utah state constitution to be submitted to the voters. Following its publication, a statement of the total costs of the convention, including those of publication, was filed.

Notes

Some yellowing and deterioration throughout

Some use of adhesives throughout

Records of the convention were turned over to the Secretary of State. In turn these were transferred to the archives by 1957. Archivally processed by A.C. Cone in 1990, the series was microfilmed in 1994.

Records were re-housed in new folders and smaller document boxes for better support by Gina Strack in January 2020. Minor revisions were also made to the finding aid including details of which numbered files are present in the container list.

The microfilming completed in 1994 has been retained and remains on the container list, however the box and folder numbers will no longer line up with new containers. Folder contents did not change.

Paper copy should be retained based on its association with a significant event. No filming in addition is recommended at this stage; very little is in the files that was not written out and published, and the reference room has a duplicate copy of the 2 volume set which should answer most casual inquiries. The paper is fairly stable and able to withstand some use.?10 August 1993: reference has decided they would prefer the series on film rather than using the spare volumes. The series will be filmed and their spare set discarded (cut up for filming).