White males over twenty-one voted the constitution into law on November 9, 1857. The issues of slavery and admittance of free negroes were voted on separately. A delegation left shortly afterwards for Washington, DC to request statehood for Oregon. The Congressional debate over slavery delayed action for fourteen months. Finally, a bill was passed, and President James Buchanan signed it on February 14, 1859. Oregon joined the union as a "free" state on the eve of the Civil War. Original Oregon Constitution (via Oregon Blue Book)
Introduction
| Prohibition
| McLoughlin
| Prison
| Expositions
| Copperfield
| Environment |
he
Territorial legislature submitted another convention bill
for public consent in 1857. This time it passed. Sixty
delegates met in Salem from August 17 to September 18, 1857
and wrote the document, which they modeled after the 1851
Indiana Constitution. This bound volume of the convention
proceedings records the actions of the delegates during the
month it took to draft the state's constitution.