Embedded Files
4.5.11.wavThe delegates chose William A. Egan as convention president. Egan was a territorial senator, former Speaker of the House, and former mayor of Valdez. He was well-liked and was able to bring people together through consensus. Never a pretentious man, he arrived in Fairbanks for the convention by hitching a ride on a truck from Valdez.
As the convention delegates prepared to settle into their work at the university, they heard from the president of the student body, Ken Carson. He expressed the hope of young Alaskans that "now is the proper time for Alaska to become a state and for us to govern ourselves. Today, we are students, but tomorrow, we hope to be citizens of the state of Alaska, and with this thought in mind, we sincerely welcome you, you who will build a solid foundation upon which a state government must stand."
The idea of escaping the normal political arena and using a university campus to draft a state constitution was the idea of attorney Tom Stewart of Juneau. He thought that the University of Alaska in Fairbanks would be the ideal setting to plan Alaska's future government. As historian and constitutional convention delegate Victor Fischer has written, Juneau had the meeting rooms and housing, "but it also had the unsavory reputation that often goes with legislative politics: special interest lobbying, heavy drinking and the like."
The decision turned out to be a good one, as the convention that met during the winter of 1955-56 remained remarkably free of partisan politics and back-room dealing. Delegates said that the powerful canned salmon industry never took the convention all that seriously. The campus setting contributed to a spirit of camaraderie and helped build consensus.
"Delegates were viewed as a group of idealists working for a great cause and dealing with issues that generated, with few exceptions, no pressures from those lobbies and special interests that regularly pursue their interests at legislative sessions," Fischer wrote.
Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the gathering, but elections to the convention were conducted on a nonpartisan basis, and most delegates put "the good of Alaska" ahead of everything else. The delegates wanted to prove to Congress and the rest of the country that Alaska was mature enough to govern itself. It was important that the convention took place before statehood and that it was held in the university setting so that people were free to be creative and philosophical in designing the new state government.
Convention Delegates at Work
To navigate through the textbook, click on the next page button or go to the navigation menu on the top left.
Report abuse