Page:History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.djvu/333

CHAPTER IX.

PROGRESS AND STATEHOOD.

Remarkable Growth of the Territory—Demand for Statehood—Enabling Act—State Convention—Character of the Delegates—Constitution Ratified—Waiting for a Proclamation—Meeting of First State Legislature—Character of Members—Unexpected Delay of the Presidential Proclamation—Election of Senators.

From 1880 to 1888 the progress made in Washington was phenomenal, and was felt in every direction—in commerce, manufacture, banks, corporations, schools, growth of towns, improved styles of building, construction of railroads, mining, agriculture, and society. New towns had sprung up among the firs and cedars, the Puget Sound country, and out of the treeless prairies almost in a night; and hitherto unimportant villages had become cities with corporate governments, grand hotels, churches, colleges, and opera-houses.

The board of trade of Tacoma in 1886 declared that "the commercial independence of Washington territory accompanying the completion of the direct line of the Northern Pacific railroad to tide-water should be supplemented by its political independence as a state of the American union. Admission cannot in decency be delayed many years longer, whatever party influences may sway congress. The census of 1890 will show a population within the present limits of the territory exceeding 200,000, and a property valuation of at least $200,000,000."^[1] Governor

1. The state auditor in November 1889 reported the resources of the commonwealth from taxes, licenses, prison labor, etc., at $372,866.35.

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