To the President and the Congress Of the United States:

The people of Alaska, in that same tradition of freedom and self-reliance from which our beloved Nation has sprung and prospered, have adopted a Constitution of the State of Alaska.

In the example of the States of Tennessee, Michigan, Oregon, California, Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas, that Constitution makes a provision for a delegation to represent Alaskans in the Congress.

As president of the Alaska Constitutional Convention and by its direction, I hereby certify the election of three citizens of Alaska who will present themselves to the Congress for that purpose.

On the 9th day of October 1968, by a majority vote of the qualified electors of the Territory of Alaska, the following persons were chosen:

As United States Senator for the regular term expiring on January 3, 1963, or on such date as the Senate may prescribe, Ernest Gruening, of Juneau, Alaska, elected by a vote of 14,169 of 27,470 voting;

As United States Senator for a short term expiring on January 3, 1981, or on such other date as the Senate may prescribe, William A. Egan, of Valdez, Alaska, elected by a vote of 15,634 of 27,222 voting;

As United States Representative for the regular term expiring on January 3, 1959, Ralph J. Rivers, of Fairbanks, Alaska, elected by a vote of 15,569 of 28,914.

By referendum, by repeated memorials adopted unanimously by our Territorial legislature, and by acclamation, Alaskans have declared their desire for statehood at the earliest possible moment and for the enjoyment of the right of freemen to govern themselves.

Alaskans have demonstrated throughout their long period of tutelage in Territorial status their adherence to the principles upon which the Government of the United States was founded. Our population, resources, wealth, and will are sufficient to support and merit statehood. We have demonstrated our ability to govern ourselves by excellent administration of limited powers that have been given to us, and by writing a State constitution which has been unanimously praised as a model document by all authorities who have studied it.

As Alaskans, we point out that citizens of our Territory carry the full Federal tax burden without enjoying voting representation in Congress. Therefore, we are inflicted with taxation without representation, which our forefathers found so distasteful.

We point out that our Governor is appointed by the President of the United States, and members of the President's Cabinet control land, resources, law enforcement and important governmental functions in Alaska. Alaskans have no vote in presidential elections. Therefore, we are being administered as a colony, and we have been so administered for 89 years.

We point out that our citizens have proven themselves to be loyal Americans by reason of their unswerving devotion to the United States, their willingness to meet all Federal tax obligations and their eagerness to offer their blood in America's wars. Citizens of Alaska are, in the main, United States born people who have migrated north to help conquer a frontier, and by so doing have lost the precious rights of American citizenship.

We submit that it is against the principles of democracy and the spirit of our Federal Constitution for the United States to maintain a people in a permanent colonial status.

Therefore, we petition and pray that you seat our duly elected representatives and that you enact legislation enabling the admission of Alaska to the union of States.