STRAIGHT FROM THE SENATE: STATEHOOD DAY

STATEHOOD DAY: INDIANA’S ROOTS
RUN DEEP

Indiana will be 195 years old next month but this Hoosier birthday celebration will retain a youthful spirit, thanks to exuberant fourth-grade students from across the state.

On Friday, December 9, approximately 700 students – some from as far north as Elkhart and others from as far south as Seymour – will travel to the Statehouse in Indianapolis for the annual Statehood Day festivities.

In all, more than 1,000 youngsters will be getting an up-close and personal view of state government, as an additional 400 plan to celebrate Statehood Day at the Indiana Historical Society.

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Timing of the event couldn’t be better. This annual birthday celebration comes less than a month before the start of the General Assembly’s 2012 legislative session, where lawmakers will strive to work together to make Indiana an even better place to live, work and raise a family.

It’s a great opportunity for the kids, but Statehood Day can also be a good time for adults to reflect a bit on our state’s deep historical roots.

Many may not realize it, but Indiana became a state just 40 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. If you subtract the 13 original colonies, only five states – Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Louisiana – were admitted to the union before Indiana, which became this nation’s 19th state on December 11, 1816.

Interestingly enough, just a few months earlier in that same year, a couple named Thomas and Nancy Lincoln packed their belongings and their two children – Sarah, 9, and Abraham, 7 – and left their Kentucky home bound for the frontier of Spencer County in southern Indiana. Of course, the Lincolns’ son would live in Indiana for 14 years, growing up to become the 16th president of the United States and one of our nation’s most revered leaders.

During their Statehouse visit, students will actually get to see documents that date back to Lincoln’s time and Indiana’s very beginning – the original 1816 state constitution and the 1851 version that we follow to this day.

History tells us the original 1816 document served the state well for a few years, but times changed rapidly. Many other families followed in the Lincolns’ footsteps and moved here. In fact, the population swelled from approximately 64,000 in 1816 to 988,000 by 1850, thanks in part to the growth of manufacturing and farming – still two staples of the Hoosier economy today.

So, Hoosier leaders realized their constitution had to adapt as well. What students will see when they view the 1851 constitution is a document that took 127 days for lawmakers of that era to create.

The constitution that resulted from those four months of deliberation was not a radical revision of the original document nor did it significantly alter the existing form of state government. Rather, the new draft addressed numerous concerns and problems that had emerged during the formative years of the state.

Today’s legislators seek to do the same thing – address numerous concerns and problems that emerge in a constantly changing society.

It is indeed an honor, a privilege and a great responsibility to serve as a senator in this great and historic state. Statehood Day is a time for all Hoosiers to celebrate our history.

Sen. David Long (R-Fort Wayne) is President Pro Tem of the Indiana Senate. He serves District 16, which includes portions of Fort Wayne.