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speaking of Nevada...how did they get to be a state?
chumley
Posts: 2,305 ✭✭✭✭
wasnt there some sweetheart deal with the railroads or a quid pro quo for a mint or something like that involved?
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chumley
Posts: 2,305 ✭✭✭✭
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John
Never view my other linked pages. They aren't coin related.
on Oct 31, 1864 and with the congratulatory wire from Abe was the statement that our
resources would help with the payment of the huge debt that was being incurred in the
war efforts.
bob
And Happy Nevada Day to all!!
There are a number of hurdles that a Territory had to meet to apply for admission as a State, population of a certain size was one of them.
Here's a Wikipedia page that briefly discusses the process of admission into the Union.
Check out the Southern Gold Society
West Virginia was the 36th state....Nooooooooooooooo, Nevada was the 36th state
admitted to the Union. West Virginia was the 35th state the year before.
Here's a quote that may help:
"This state constitution was overwhelmingly approved by Nevada voters on September 7, 1864, with 10,375 votes supporting it, and a mere 1,184 against. The constitution was telegraphed to Washington, D.C. at a cost of $3,416.77, supposedly the longest and most expensive telegram ever sent up to that time. Lincoln proclaimed Nevada a state on October 31, 1864, and, eight days later, Nevada voted strongly Republican in the Presidential, congressional, and legislative elections. The state surely was "Battle Born" (one of its several state mottoes). The Civil War had been indispensable for giving statehood to one of the least populated and economically viable of all the territories."
Nevada did not go about asking for statehood in the normal way (Congress proposing) but instead voted for admission without
asking! It was the citizens of Nevada (most were ex-Californians) that pretty much adopted the California constitution as it's model
to proceed. It took two tries the first being voted down as the mines were to be taxed. The second attempt eliminated the mining
taxes and it succeeded. As a territory for only two years and with little population it's admission was iffy at best. However, with the
war raging and Utah trying to retain Nevada for its own state of Deseret, Congress was only happy to approve. Utah was not particularly popular with Congress due to it's Mormon religion and it's allowing of plural marriages. Nevada wanted to be as far away
from Utah as it could. It wanted to stand on it's own two feet.
That's funny or ironic as our first settlements in both Northern Nevada and Southern Nevada were Mormon settlements (Genoa in the North and Mormon Station in the South!
bob
edited: Japan John, yes Lincoln wanted Nevada as it was pro Union and a Republican state (vote wise). It was a win/win for Nevada
and Lincoln and Congress.
Why not let 'em in?
<< <i>Unless I'm way off it had something to do with Lincoln's reelection. The Comstock Lode was several years prior I'm sure making it an attractive addition.
John >>
This is correct, I believe. Nevada's resources had little to do with it. It was a territory in early 1861 and the federal gov't was already buying Nevada's silver and gold. Comstock was 1859.
The war was winding down in early 1864. Big wins at Gettsyburg and Vicksburg had already happened. The south was buckling rapidly.
Lincoln faced reelection against two opponents, both generals he relieved, Fremont and McClellan. He needed electoral and popular votes to be reelected and also to ratify the 13th amendment.
It was politics, not silver and gold for the war effort. (This information was summarized nicely in the package that came with the Nevada State Museum 2009 commemorative Lincoln coin.)
Lance.
Camelot
Not so much he's re-election (of course Nevada was pro Union and adhered to to the
Republican party credo's of the day).
"Nevada's bullion has been a subsidy to the nation....For one thing it was of crucial aid to the
Northern cause during the Civil War.......The production of Nevada and other states, including
Colorado, helped strengthen Union credit, and the potential output helped demoralize the
South, particularly after several hopeless Confederate plots had failed to capture Nevada and
California for Jeff Davis. Nevada was admitted as a state to give Lincoln the three-fourths
majority he needed to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, a military measure that would change
the national slavery policy, break the continuity of ideas in the South, and be the equivalent of
new armies in the field. "It is easier to admit Nevada than to raise another million of soldiers"
said Lincoln.
bob