Constitutions are not only working plans for government, but also documents of ideas about the meaning of freedom, the nature of justice, and the sources and limits of authority.

To English-speaking peoples before the American Revolution, the word "constitution" meant the body of laws, customs and understandings which governments were expected to follow. For more than 150 years the relationship of the American colonies to the British government was set forth in a series of written documents such as acts of Parliament, royal decrees and charters.

When constitutional conflicts over the stamp tax and other issues ended in revolution, the former colonists not only declared their independence, but took steps to put their own understandings of fundamental law into document of the most authoritative kind—written constitutions.

To assure that a constitution will actually restrain lawmakers and government officials from going beyond the limits set for them by the people, a constitution is elevated above ordinary law.

The tradition of constitutional conventions began in Massachusetts in 1780 when a specially elected convention rather than the Legislature drafted a constitution to be submitted to a vote clearly reflecting the people's will.

The original U.S. Constitution of 1787 provided guarantees of jury trial, of habeas corpus (a court petition seeking release of a person wrongfully jailed) and important safeguards in treason trials, but lacked a separate Declaration of Rights customary in state constitutions. In 1789-991, the first ten amendments which came to be known as the Bill of Rights were added to the Constitution.

In 1865-70, following the Civil War, amendments abolished slavery, gave national citizenship to native-born and naturalized Americans, and expanded the Bill of Rights to cover actions by individual states. Suffrage for women was among the amendments added in the twentieth century.

“The Constitution of the United States is the Supreme law of the land.” Article 1 Section 2 Washington State Constitution, 1889

A durable foundation for the nation’s political life, the United States Constitution stands as the supreme law of the land—a phrase of the constitution given practical effect in a multitude of decisions by the Supreme Court.

A landmark document, the Washington State Constitution of 1889 continued the American tradition of constitution-making in the west. When it was adopted one hundred years after George Washington was inaugurated as the nation’s first president, the state bearing his name was admitted to the Union.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 providing for the entry of new states into the Union completed the basic Constitutional foundations of the United States of America.

The constitutional processes inaugurated at the very beginning of our national life have continued without interruption ever since.

The first Territorial Governor, Isaac I. Stevens, conducted treaty signing councils to create reservations of land for native peoples. Tribal governments with treaty rights under federal jurisdiction evolved. Congress granted full U.S. citizenship to American Indians in 1924.

From the 1870’s on, the Washington Territorial Legislature repeatedly petitioned Congress for statehood. In 1878 the first state constitution was written at Walla Walla, then the territory’s most populous town. Voters approved it, but Congress, not having authorized it, did not.

A major issue at both state constitutional conventions, women’s suffrage was twice referred to and defeated by the voters. In 1910 voters amended the constitution and Washington became the fifth state to grant women the right to vote.

The coming of the nation’s second transcontinental railroad to Tacoma in 1883 brought an end to frontier days in Washington Territory. Attempts to drive out the Chinese after completion of work on the railroad, however, caused Washington Territory to be condemned in the eastern press as “too unruly for statehood.”

Railroad literature promoted the rich farming potential of the West in eastern states and Europe. An economic boom in the late 1880s and the promise of fertile land attracted the additional population needed for statehood.

Americans first settled on the southern tip of the Puget Sound in 1845.

No photographs survive of George Washington Bush, a free black in the Simmons party which settled on the southern tip of Puget Sound in 1845.

Monopolies and trusts, subject of the first resolution of the State Constitution, were forbidden. The State was not to lend its credit or purchase stock in any company.

Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890.

Violence against striking conductors by private detective agents brought a restriction against the corporate employment of armed bodies of men.

The railroad lobby defeated a proposed railroad commission, but future legislators were barred from accepting free rail passes.

Great potential wealth from timber, minerals and agriculture was at stake, and the preservation of public lands granted with statehood presented the most difficult problem the state constitutional convention faced. Used to finance state governments, such lands in other states were sometimes sold off for as little as ten cents per acre. The state of Washington reserved harbor areas in front of cities, despite railroad opposition, asserted ownership to over 2500 miles of tidelands, and created the office of Commissioner of Public Lands.

The need to regulate the practice of medicine and to control the spread of smallpox and other deadly diseases prompted the creation of a state board of health.

The Legislature was authorized to pass laws for the protection of people working in mines, factories and other employments dangerous to life and health.

The telegram announcing Washington Statehood arrived collect at 3:09 p.m. on November 11, 1889. Courtesy Washington State Archives.

Handwritten Proclamation of Statehood “Done at the City of Washington” as the nation’s capital was still called at the time. Courtesy The National Archives

Arriving at the Territorial Capitol Building, Elisha P. Ferry was inaugurated as the first Governor of Washington State. November 18, 1889. Courtesy Washington State Archives.