Oregon aims to preserve original constitution – warts and all

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s original constitution, stored deep in the bowels of the state archives building in a climate-controlled room, is tattered. Some of its pages are starting to fall out.

Now, the state is trying to raise funds from schoolchildren and others to restore it and buy a special case to put it on display, warts and all. They’ve raised one-tenth of the amount so far.

Written by white men in 1857 after a constitutional convention, it contained a clause prohibiting blacks from residing in the state. State Archivist Mary Beth Herkert said Oregon was the only state admitted to the Union with an exclusionary clause in its constitution.

Holding the leather-bound document in white-gloved hands, Herkert said of the clause that “we have to remember it’s our history, and we have to learn from our mistakes.”