A brief history of the Montana Constitution and the Copper Kings.

With the anticipation of Montana becoming a state, there were two constitutional conventions, one in 1866 and the second in 1884. Neither was put to a vote of the people.

Finally in 1889 a third constitutional convention was held, when a constitution was written and put to a vote of the new citizens of the State of Montana.  It was ratified.

From the very beginning of Montana’s history, the mining industry and its related industries of railroads and lumber were pitted against farmers and ranchers, setting up a political fight at the constitutional convention and the upcoming legislature. 

One of the hot button issues at the convention were taxes on mining.  Mine owners wanted a special tax status written into the constitution so that legislators could not change how taxes were levied on mine owners in the future.  Written into the 1889 Montana Constitution was that mines could only be taxed on the value of the original mining claim.  Most of those claims were only $5.00 This had a lasting impact on Montana revenues, setting up the mining industry’s dominance over Montana Politics for almost 100 years. 

Marcus Daly and William Clark, two of the riches copper tycoons, were competitive and liked getting their own way.  Their arguments became very public and expensive and so nasty that the rivalry became known as the War of the Copper Kings.  This war heavily influenced Montana politics and government. 

They fought over where the capital of Montana would be located.  They fought over one of the US Senate seats from Montana, which William Clark tried to buy.  They each bought newspapers to influence state politics.  They paid editors to support their causes, which in most cases benefited them, not the citizens of Montana.

A third mining owner entered the picture in Butte, Fredrick Heinze who got right in the middle of the mining disputes with Daly and Clark.  The battle for control of Montana now pitted Heinze against Amalgamated Copper Company, owned by Marcus Daly alongside Henry Rogers and William Rockefeller. This battle for control of Montana was now being fought in the courts.  There were over 100 lawsuits in the courts in Butte, where Heinze had the upper hand, due to his friendship with two powerful friends/judges in Butte.

Amalgamated Copper Company made a power play on October 23, 1903 and shut down operations in Montana. The economy of Montana came to a screeching halt.  Thousands of people were without work.  Amalgamated printed a message in the Anaconda Standard, owned by Daly, to Governor of Montana, Joseph Toole, to call a special session of the legislature to move the court cases out of Butte, so they could resume operations in Montana and put the people back to work.  Toole called a special session on December 1, 1903. Amalgamated Copper Company had won.   “It took just three weeks to coerce Montana into falling on her knees with the promises of anything the big corporation might want,” said the Idaho State Tribune.

Amalgamated Copper Company merged their companies in 1915 to become Anaconda Copper Mining Company.  Their power and influence over Montana Politics continued until the citizens of Montana voted to have a constitutional convention in 1972.  The citizens of Montana had finally spoken out against the overwhelming corruption of the mining companies.  At long last change was on the horizon.