A Reassessment of the Categorization of Nevada as an I Culture
My research leads me to offer a dissent to the distinguished trio, claiming instead that Nevada represents a prototypical example of the T culture. Indeed, I suggest that Nevada may be the only pure example of a state T culture in the United States today. The states identified by Elazar as T states included most of those in the Old South (former Confederate states). They, of course, were isolated in their defense of slavery, and then after emancipation, in their defense of states’ rights policies designed to support an apartheid posture to life. Isolation of the South grew during the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, and as the racist separation policies fell under the force of national edicts for change, a wave of change ensued throughout the South. Nevada had also been isolated, with its adherence to gambling policies, and a national political establishment also demanded change – an elimination of Mob-controlled casino gambling – in the same decades as the civil rights era. While Nevada was resisting that change, gambling enterprise entered into the economic and political fabric of many other states. Gambling spread first with horse racing, then with government-operated lotteries, and finally with casino gambling that in the form of games was quite similar to that found in Nevada. On the one hand, the T culture of the Old South was overwhelmed with national opposition; the T culture of Nevada, on the other hand, survived to a point where the rest of the nation came to accept the critical element of the Nevada political establishment—the defense of a casino industry.
To a large degree, communities in both California and Nevada began in a similar way. People were attracted to the possibilities of “getting rich quick”. John A. Sutter, a pioneer settler in California, discovered gold on his land near Sacramento in 1848. Word quickly spread. Between 1848 and 1860 the population of California went from less than 30,000 to nearly 400,000. Statehood came in 1850, and California entered the union as a wild and sinful place. Nevada’s society developed around the discovery of the Comstock Lode of silver in 1859. Populations rushed in from both the East and the West (California prospectors), creating a society that mirrored that of its wild neighbor to the west. Nevada statehood came not as a natural response to the growth of an American population but as a response to political needs in Washington, D.C. Abraham Lincoln had political struggles. Congress had proposed the 13th amendment abolishing slavery, but states (even some northern states) had been reluctant to ratify the amendment. Lincoln needed another vote, and Nevada’s ratification vote was the one necessary for the 13th amendment to take effect. The state’s birth thus can be associated with freedom. Lincoln also wanted congressional support for the proposed 14th and 15th amendments, and Nevada gave that support – especially in the Senate, where it had two votes just as did the biggest states. And, of course, Lincoln also wanted to be reelected, and Lincoln thought his 1864 opponent Gen. John McClelland would have a strong campaign. Nevada gave Lincoln its three electoral votes – just in time. Statehood was granted on 31 October 1864, just one week before the presidential election. (The timing was perfect, as today Nevada is the only venue of the union that makes Halloween an official state holiday!)
After the initial wave of miners, Nevada’s population development slowed. The second wave of family population that hit California completely missed Nevada in the nineteenth century. When mining resources dwindled, Nevada communities became ghost towns. The state’s population fell from a peak of almost 63,000 to less than 50,000 in 1890. There were actually discussions in the nineteenth century and even later that pondered the notion of revoking statehood status because of depopulation. It also can be noted that in 1922 the Methodist church removed “district status” from the state and designated Nevada as a “mission”. Early-on, sin represented a style of life as well as economic opportunity for part of the population; and when mining collapsed, there were no serious efforts to interfere with the jobs provided by alcohol, gambling, and prostitution, albeit a prohibition and antigambling crusade was played out to formal success, then totally ignored.
Early in the state’s history a defense against the outside world was necessitated by the declining mining industry. Control of politics was in hands of railroad giants. The Big Four (Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Colis Huntington, and Charles Crocker) who controlled California also controlled Nevada. Nevada was in a sense their colony. Gilman Ostrander has chronicled the era in his book Nevada: The Great Rotten Borough 1859–1964. One force kept Nevada’s neighbor California supporting Nevada’s existence as a state – its two votes in the U.S. Senate. The California railroad interests wanted the votes to support their interests, but also the seats represented desirable commodities for social reasons. During the latter decades of the nineteenth century, on at least five occasions California-based Senate candidates made overt purchases of elections from the Nevada legislature. In Washington they did not distinguish themselves in any way, and the representation they gave to Nevada interests was minimal—beyond resisting attempts to place the issue of rescinding statehood on the national agenda.
The system of boss selection of senators changed little as the state embraced popular election of senators along with the rest of the nation. By the time the 17th amendment took force, Nevada had a political boss – George Wingfield – who effectively controlled both parties. Personality battles over offices manifested themselves, but the contestants made little noise on policy matters that counted.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Francis Newlands, one of the senators who purchased his seat, emerged as a national leader of Progressives. He was the son-in-law of another Nevada senator who had purchased his U. S. Senate seat—William Sharon. Newlands distinguished himself in the field of conservation. In that role he served Nevada well, as he advocated a national involvement in projects that could reclaim lands for farming and provide water for western communities. The progressive Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 bears his name. Although Newlands believed that the national government should be a positive force in people’s lives, and such notions may have been against fears Nevadans had of federal control of their activities, a pattern was being established. Nevadans then and even now show a tremendous tolerance for its national leaders’ pursuing a variety of causes – liberal, conservative, moderate – as long as they adhere to the central cause of protecting the state’s economic base and its right to pursue its economic future as it pleases.
Nevadans survived threats to statehood, but they still had to make their own way economically. In the nineteenth century, many individual Nevadans felt that “making their own way” meant they had to leave the state, and many did. Those who stayed tried many things. They always fought to make mining work, but it could not do so in a reliable way over generations. The state occupied space and took advantage of that simple fact. The state sought to become a center for business incorporation in the way that Delaware was in the East. This effort was short lived, as California refused to recognize Nevada corporations unless they met California standards. The state allowed boxing matches when California refused to; the Jeffries versus Jackson “Great White Hope” match of 1910 in Reno was the most famous one until the modern era. The state permitted prostitution to remain legal in registered brothels; even today this activity continues in several of the state’s counties. Nevada sought to become the divorce capital of the country, as it had very lax rules on exactly who was a resident of the state – it being necessary that one party of a divorce be a resident. The state also sought tax revenues from commerce moving across its borders to and from California. Additionally, the state became a warehousing center by eliminating inventory taxes. In all these things, Nevada was somewhat different or even exceedingly different from other states. The first duty of the political establishment was to protect the economic life of the state, and often this meant protecting the ability of the state to be different. Populism was acceptable when it accomplished the essential goals, progressivism was acceptable when it accomplished the essential goals, and so too were activities that seemed to be of an I, M, or T culture.