 Following the admission of Wisconsin as a state in 1848 , the Minnesota area was temporarily without a government , though John <unk> , the former secretary of the Wisconsin Territory , claimed governorship of what remained of the territory as a short @-@ term measure . By this time Minnesota 's residents were largely Democrats and , as the U.S. Congress was at that time controlled by Democrats , they hoped Congress might be sympathetic to their concerns . In that same year a meeting was held in Stillwater , nominally led by <unk> and later known as the " Stillwater Convention " , to discuss establishing a new territory . The participants elected Henry Sibley as a representative to Congress . 
