Whereas the Congress of the United States did by an act approved
on the 22d day of February, 1889, provide that the inhabitants of the
Territory of Dakota might upon the conditions prescribed in said act
become the States of North Dakota and South Dakota; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the area comprising the
Territory of Dakota should for the purposes of the act be divided on
the line of the seventh standard parallel produced due west to the
western boundary of said Territory, and that the delegates elected as
therein provided to the constitutional convention in districts north of
said parallel should assemble in convention at the time prescribed in
the act at the city of Bismarck; and

Whereas it was provided by the said act that the delegates elected as
aforesaid should, after they had met and organized, declare on behalf
of the people of North Dakota that they adopt the Constitution of the
United States, whereupon the said convention should be authorized to
form a constitution and State government for the proposed State of
North Dakota; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitution so adopted
should be republican in form and make no distinction in civil or
political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not
taxed, and not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States
and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and that the
convention should, by an ordinance irrevocable without the consent of
the United States and the people of said States, make certain
provisions prescribed in said act; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitutions of North