Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague and I, too, thank the Senator from Virginia for allowing us to speak today on the 50th anniversary of the convening of the Alaska Constitutional Convention. Although it has not quite been 50 years since Alaska's statehood, it was half a century ago today that 55 delegates from around the State met to debate what would become the Alaska Constitution. Prior to the Constitutional Convention, the Convention's secretary, Thomas Stewart, traveled around the country for 6 months looking at other States' constitutions and how their provisions may work in Alaska. Later, 55 delegates were elected from every region in Alaska, and on November 8, 1955, the delegates met in Fairbanks at the University of Alaska. As the country was shrouded in the Cold War, Alaska's Territorial Governor Ernest Gruening stood to address the Constitutional Convention, and said: Alaska has a great, great destiny. We are here situated by geography and by history in the farthest north and our farthest west in a unique position to achieve that destiny. We were formerly part of a country which today, under changed government, represents the antithesis of everything that we believe in and of everything we hold dear. We have a geographic juxtaposition to that area. We can see it from our mainland with the naked eye.…”