ENABLING ACT AND CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS PASSED BY THE THIRTEENTH SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE State of South Dakota Begun and Held at Pierre, the Capital of Said State, on Tues- OFFICIAL EDITION 1913 BROWN & SAENGER Sioux Falls, S. D. THE 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. SECTION 1. That the inhabitants of all that part of the area of the United States now constituting the Territories of Dakota, Montana and Washington, as at present described, may become the States of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington, respectively, as hereinafter provided. SEC. 2. The area comprising the Territory of Dakota shall, for the purposes of this act, be divided on the line of the 7th 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 the 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 law of said territories to vote for representatives to the legislative assemblies 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 convention shall be apportioned within the limits of the proposed states, in such districts as may be established as herein provided, in proportion to the population in each of said 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 apportionment shall be made by the governor, the chief justice and the secretary of said territories; and the governors of said territories shall, by proclamation order an election of the delegates aforesaid in each of said proposed states, to be held on the Tuesday after the second Monday in May, 1889, which proclamation shall be issued on the fifteenth day of April, 1889; and such election shall be conducted, the returns made, the result ascertained, and the certificates to persons elected to such conventions issued in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of the 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 75; and all persons resident 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 prescribe, 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, 1889, and after organization shall declare on behalf of the people of said proposed states, that they adopt the constitution of the |