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The Territorial Era: 1787-1848. A Short History of Wisconsin. When the fledgling United States took legal possession of Wisconsin lands at the close of the Revolutionary War, few seemed to care. The new American government had more important priorities than the remote Wisconsin frontier.
The State Constitutions of 1846 and 1848. For most of Wisconsin's territorial existence, political leaders and businessmen (often one and the same) had urged the territory's advancement toward statehood.
The Wisconsin Constitution was written at a constitutional convention held in Madison, Wisconsin, in December 1847 and approved by the citizens of Wisconsin Territory in a referendum held in March 1848. Wisconsin was admitted to the United States on May 29, 1848.
By 1845 the Wisconsin territory had grown to 155,000 — well beyond the minimum 60,000. Four previous attempts at statehood had been defeated. But Governor Henry Dodge had a strongly Democratic territorial legislature.
Wisconsin opened its first constitutional convention in October 1846; this version however, was rejected by Wisconsin voters in April 1847. The second constitutional convention opened in December 1847 and concluded its work in February 1848.
The most permanent of these western Jacksonian constitutions was that of Wisconsin, under which the territory became a state in 1848. In 1914 it was still in force, and in that year a decisive expression of opinion was given by the people against any con-siderable modification of it.' It shows in its provisions the
12 wrz 2023 · The 1846 Constitutional Convention. Wisconsin’s preternatural passage of the Act – within one session of the 29th Congress in August 1846 – inspired the territorial government to quickly establish a constitutional convention. Territorial leaders set a goal to secure statehood before the 1848 presidential election.
