Question of the Day - 28 June 2020

Nevada has several "tag" lines, as you call them -- slogans, mottoes, nicknames. 

One is "the Silver State," dating back to the Comstock Lode, the first silver-mining district in the U.S and one of the largest ever.

Another is "the Sagebrush State," due obviously to the proliferation of the perennial Artemisia tridentata, or common sagebrush, in the Great Basin Desert in most of Nevada; sagebrush is also the state flower and is featured on the Nevada state flag and the U.S. Mint’s Nevada state 25-cent piece.

Another is "All for Our Country," which appears near the bottom of the state seal on a yellow band surrounded by 36 stars, depicting Nevada as the 36th state. No records that we know of explain the motto that was adopted in 1864 at statehood, but Nevada historians believe it had to do with Nevada declaring its allegiance to the Union at the height of the Civil War. 

Which brings us to "Battle Born." Nevada achieved statehood in 1864, less than four years after it became a U.S. territory (carved off the western side of Utah Territory). That was record time for statehood; by contrast, next door, Arizona was declared a territory in 1863 and didn't become a state until 1912 (the 48th state).

Of course, the Civil War was raging at the time that Nevada entered the Union, though no actual battles between the Union and Confederate armies were fought here. Political battles were another story. 

President Lincoln needed votes on a couple of fronts. First, he had a tough reelection battle on his hands and he figured that a couple more electoral votes might help sway the outcome in his favor. It's no accident that Nevada became a state on October 31, 1864, only eight days before the presidential election.

Second, he was pushing very hard for the adoption of the 13th Amendment. If you've seen Steven Spielberg's movie Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as ol' Uncle Abe himself, you know what a neck-and-neck political horse race the vote to abolish slavery turned out to be in the House of Representatives, passing by only three votes out of 183 total. Nevada, having been a state for three months to the day when the vote took place, helped that cause.