Charles N. Haskell - Governor of Oklahoma

Governor of Oklahoma

On November 16, 1907, five minutes after it was known that Oklahoma had officially become a state, the oath of office was administered to Governor Haskell by Leslie G. Niblack, editor of the Guthrie Leader, who had qualified as a notary public especially for this purpose. The ceremony took place privately in Haskell's hotel apartments in the presence of his immediate family, Robert Latham Owen, United States Senator-elect, and Thomas Owen of Muskogee, Haskell's former political manager. Haskell’s inaugural address at Guthrie, delivered on the south steps of the Carnegie Library, quickly lifted him into national prominence.

Haskell’s old friends William H. Murray and Robert L. Williams also came into power with the state’s founding; with Murray as the state’s first Speaker of the House and Williams appointed, by Haskell, as the first Chief Justice of Oklahoma. Haskell quickly became the idea of executive power through his handling of the Legislative and Judicial branches. Through his powerful personality and keen understanding of the office he had helped to create, Governor Haskell would weld the powers granted to him as Governor in such a manner that he is still remembered as being Oklahoma's greatest chief executive.

During the state’s First Legislature, Governor Haskell delivered a message creating a commission charged with sending a message to the U.S. Congress: amending the Federal Constitution to provide for the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people. Though after he left office, his efforts, as well as the works of the Progressive-era leaders, provided for the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1912.

Though Guthrie was the official capital of the State, Haskell set up his administration from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City quickly grew in industry and prominence, with a booming population of 64,000, shadowing the Capitol located just miles from the growing city. Haskell personally led the move to change the capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. First, he moved the official home of the Great Seal of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Constitution. Slowly, all government functions moved to the Oklahoma City area.

In the Legislature’s first session, under Haskell’s leadership, Oklahoma adopted laws regulating banking in the state, reformed the old territorial prison system, and protected the public from exploitative railroads, public utilities, trusts and monopolies. Haskell also initiated a law insuring deposits in case of a bank failure, a landmark piece of legislation in the nation. Haskell also rigidly enforced prohibition through the Alcohol Control Act. Though following progressive dogma at every turn, such as the introduction of child labor laws, factory inspection codes, safety codes for mines, health and sanitary laws, and employer’s liability for workers, Haskell’s legislative schedule also included Jim Crow laws for Oklahoma. Haskell's other significant contributions while governor included establishing the Oklahoma Geological Survey, the Oklahoma School for the Blind, the Oklahoma College for Women and the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In addition, he helped to create the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in 1908.

Before Oklahoma became a state, all prisoners were imprisoned by Kansas officials. The Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections Kate Barnard, Oklahoma's first female state official, visited the Kansas prisons and reported to Governor Haskell on the horrible conditions. In response, in 1908, Haskell pushed through the Legislature a bill that transferred 50 Oklahoma prisoners detained in the Kansas penitentiary at Lansing to McAlester, Oklahoma. When the Oklahoma state militia marched the prisoners down to McAlester, they found no prison. Under military supervision, the prisoners built Oklahoma State Peniteniary, the state's first correctional facility (which is still in use today). The militia housed the prisoners in a tent city and were authorized by Haskell to use lethal force against any prisoner that tried to escape.

A grandfather clause was also enacted in the Legislature’s second session by the state’s Democratic leaders, effectively excluding all blacks from voting. Haskell would spend the remainder of his term enforcing prohibition, regulation of railroads and other trusts, and the moving of the state capital to Oklahoma City. Haskell’s dream came true on June 11, 1910, when Oklahoma City became the State’s official capital.

Throughout his term as Governor, Haskell remained free from corruption. Though he was the leader in the deliberations of the committee on county lines and county seats, when hundreds of towns had committees attending the sessions with heavy purses, he left these deliberations lean and poor, and by the time he retired from the Governor's office he had become utterly impoverished. In debate he ignored the graces of oratory and instead marshaled facts, arrayed statistics and piled up figures, using his cutting wit and grim humor to carry his point.

He possessed a deep insight into human psychology based on a reverence for public duty which is best demonstrated in his selection of the first judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals. He declared that, though he deemed knowledge of the law of vast importance in a court dealing with the liberties of the citizens, rising above and far beyond this was the requirement that the court should be composed of men of the noblest human impulses and a rich and abiding sympathy of heart.

At the end of his term as Governor in 1911, Haskell stepped down from the Governorship, happy to see his 1907 Democratic primary challenger Lee Cruce inaugurated as the second Governor of Oklahoma. In 1912, Haskell unsuccessfully challenged his fellow Democrat Robert Latham Owen in a hard-fought primary for Owen's Senate seat.