There’s been much ado about the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this year, and rightly so. It’s a huge national milestone. However, this celebration unfolds as the country is in turmoil. Families struggle. The U.S. is at war. A controversial leader is in the White House. Racial animosity runs rampant. And an election is around the corner.
In many ways, the 2026 election mirrors that of 1864, when the country was enmeshed in the Civil War, and President Abraham Lincoln sought reelection with Republican majorities large enough to pass his legislative agenda.
It’s also the year Nevada gained statehood — largely to support that agenda.
On October 26, 1864, the Territory of Nevada’s governor, James W. Nye, began sending a telegram to President Lincoln. The message was the entire Nevada State Constitution — in Morse code. Two other efforts to get the document to D.C., one by overland mail and another by sea, had failed.
It took two days to send the 16,543 words over the wire. Carson City telegrapher James H. Guild worked seven hours to transmit the message to Salt Lake City. It was then relayed to Chicago, then to Philadelphia, and finally to the District of Columbia and the War Department’s telegraph office. The final transcription was 175 pages long, and the whole process cost more than $4,300, roughly $90,000 in today’s dollars.
Three days later, Lincoln proclaimed Nevada the Union’s newest state. A week after that, roughly 60 percent of the new state’s voters cast a ballot in his favor.
While the Silver State did little to sway the final vote of the 1864 electoral college, Nevadans were instrumental in ratifying the 13th Amendment the following year.
It’s an appropriate origin story for our state, which in recent decades has become a swing state, whose early nominating contest can help sway presidential elections. Now that rush to secure statehood in 1864 feels providential.
