majority of the votes cast be in favor of the constitution, that fact shall be certified to the president of the United States, with a statement of the votes for and against the constitution and each specific proposition so separately submitted, together with a copy of the constitution and of any articles separately submitted; and from the data thus certified the president was required to determine whether or not the constitution was republican in form, and whether or not all the requirements of the enabling act had been complied with, and, if so, he was required to issue his proclamation admitting North Dakota as a state. Where, in this section, congress spoke of the votes cast, it had reference to votes cast upon the particular objects which it directed should be submitted to a vote of the qualified electors. Congress had no knowledge that any candidates for offices would be voted for at that same election, and the matter of electing officers was left under the exclusive control of the constitutional convention; arid, further, it was the vote upon the constitution and the articles, if any, separately submitted, that was to be certified to the president; and, if by the use of the words “majority of legal votes cast” congress meant votes cast upon any subject other than those directed to be certified to the president, it would be obviously impossible for that official ever to determine whether or not the constitution had been legally adopted, and yet, under the act, the duty devolved upon him to determine that question at once. These considerations seem to us to conclusively establish that when congress used the words “majority of legal votes cast” it meant votes cast for or against the adoption of the constitution or of the articles separately submitted. Whether or not congress did not also intend that, in case the constitution was adopted, the separate articles should stand or fall upon their separate vote, we need not determine.
Chapter 110, Sess. Laws 1890, was enacted by our first, state legislature undoubtedly in response to what the legislature regarded as its duty under the provisions of article 20 of the constitution, and to provide the necessary machinery for the proper
