Nevada Lore Series: the Making of a State, Part 2
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Tue, 10/23/2018 - 3:21pm
To read part one, click here. After a battle with Utah Mormons, new prospectors, and a vigilante committee, Nevada finally won its right to be an official U.S. territory in 1861, most likely due to the fact that the Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859, and supplied the Union with much needed gold and silver deposits.
The American Civil War officially began in 1861, and lasted until 1865.
One theory as to why Nevada was also absorbed into the Union as a territory was to create a buffer zone of sorts between the California and the Arizona/New Mexico areas, whose citizens were sympathetic to the Confederacy.
On September 2, 1863, Nevada territory voters gathered together and voted 6,660 to 1,502 to apply for Statehood, which was fairly quickly after becoming a territory, considering they spent a good part of a decade attempting to become a territory with many hiccups along the way.
Originally, the southern states objected to any new western territories that did not allow slavery, but when they succeeded to the Confederacy, it was no longer an issue.
A first draft of the Nevada Constitution was created over the next three months, but in January of 1864 voters went against the first draft, which supported a mining tax on the western states that the Union was attempting to push through, as well as a tax on private property.
In September of 1864, a second draft was brought to vote, which included the outlawing of slavery (despite the fact that slavery had never entered Nevada, which was a highly diversified area throughout the Comstock era), the addition that all public lands would be under tax-free federal government ownership, and miners and mining owners would only be taxed on their net profits.
The new draft was adopted by voters on a 10,375 to 1,284 vote.
Days before the November 8 Presidential Election, which reelected President Abraham Lincoln, the Constitution of Nevada was sent to the U.S. Congress via telegraph, which is still to date the largest and most expensive transmission ever sent over the wire.
Nevada had only a fifth of the amount generally needed to become a state (60,000 people), but Congress accepted the proposal of Statehood on October 31, 1864.
President Lincoln actually changed the legislation for territories to become states, in which the president had singular power in approving or discarding a proposed constitution, thus bypassing Congress, some say because he feared Congress wouldn’t allow Nevada as a State.
There are different theories on why Nevada became a state at the time that it did, but the most popular suggests that Lincoln did it as a way to secure himself a term of reelection, as well as make sure that the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery would pass, as it had failed to get the two-third votes needed to get passed the House of Representatives. However, by the time the new Nevada State Senators made it to Washington, they had missed the vote for the 13th Amendment, which passed regardless.
Regarding the introduction of Nevada to Statehood, President Lincoln said, "Be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act of Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said State of Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.”
Nevada’s state motto is well known to its citizens as being “Battle Born.” This is because Nevada became, or was born, a state in the midst of the Civil War, and did its fair share to support the Union against the Confederacy, as well as slavery.
In Virginia City, even before Nevada officially became a Union state, any person who was heard to support the confederacy or fly a confederate flag was generally driven through the streets, thrown out of taverns, or chased by angry mobs out of town.
Nevada Day, October 31, became an official state holiday in 1939, and has been celebrated in Carson City ever since.
Happy Nevada Day everyone.
— The Nevada Lore Series focuses on the legends of Nevada and the surrounding areas that help build our culture, from ancient Washoe stories, to Old West ghostly visions, to modern day urban legends.
Nevada Lore Series: The Missing Treasure of Prison Hill
Nevada Lore Series: The Ormsby House
Nevada Lore Series: The Curse of Bodie
Nevada Lore Series: The murder of Julia Bulette, Virginia City’s beloved Madam and Firefighter
Nevada Lore Series: 'Captain' and the bizarre history of the Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe
Nevada Lore Series: The Birth and Death of the American Flats
Nevada Lore Series: Genoa's Hanging Tree, and Adam Uber's Dying Curse
Nevada Lore Series: The Extortion Bombing of Harvey's Lake Tahoe Resort
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