USA > Iowa > Calhoun County > Past and present of Calhoun County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress, and achievement, Volume I > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
At the close of the French and Indian war many of the people living west of the Mississippi remained in the province, became Span- ish subjects, and took an active part in business and public affairs. On the east side of the river it was different. Many of the French subjects there refused to acknowledge allegianee to Great Britain and removed to the Spanish possessions aeross the river. When the English colonies declared war against the mother country, a large number of them returned to the east side of the river and joined the colonists in their struggle for independence. In the territory acquired by Great Britain by the treaty of Fontainebleau, several posts had been established, the most important of which were those at Detroit, Vineennes, Cahokia and Kaskaskia. At the beginning of the Revohi- tion Detroit had about two hundred houses, Vincennes and Kaskaskia about eighty cach, and Cahokia about fifty. There were also a few families living at Prairie du Rocher, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis. Virginia then claimed a large expanse of country extend- ing westward and including the posts in Indiana and Illinois. In 1778 the Legislature of that colony, upon the recommendation of Gov. Patrick Henry, authorized an expedition under Gen. George
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Rogers Clark for the reduction of the British posts upon Virginia territory. One of the most thrilling campaigns of the War for Inde- pendence was Clark's conquest of the Northwest, by which the map of Central North America was once more changed, for by the treaty of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war, the western boundary of the United States was fixed at the Mississippi River, thus giv- ing to the new republic a large traet of country in addition to the thirteen colonies that had rebelled against British injustice and oppression.
It was not long after the independence of the United States was established until the new nation became involved in a controversy with the Spanish officials in Louisiana over the free navigation of the Mississippi. The final settlement of this controversy had a direet and important influence upon that part of the country now compris- ing the State of lowa. Posts were established by the Spanish at various places along the river, and every boat descending the stream was compelled to land at such posts and subnnt to arbitrary revenne exactions. As the Mississippi constituted the natural outlet for a large part of the commerce of the United States, it was humiliating to the American citizen to see it under the control of a foreign power. Moreover, the system of revenue duties inaugurated by the Spanish authorities materially decreased the profits of the American trader. After much discussion and diplomatic correspondence, the question was finally settled, temporarily at least, on October 20, 1795, by the treaty of Madrid, which provided that "The Mississippi River, from its souree to the gulf, for its entire width. shall be free to American trade and commerce, and the people of the United States shall be permitted, for three years, to use the port of New Orleans as a port of deposit without payment of duty."
During the three years that Americans were allowed the use of the port of New Orleans the commerce of the states bordering on the Mississippi showed a marked increase in volume. But at the expira- tion of that time Spain showed a disposition to return to the old order of things and the free navigation of the Mississippi again became a subject of vital interest to the people of the United States. It was pointed out that the language of the treaty was such that the three- years provision applied only to the use of the port of New Orleans, and not to the navigation of the river. While the question was under discussion a seeret treaty was negotiated between Franee and Spain, at San Ildefonso in the fall of 1800, by which Spain agreed to cede Louisiana back to France, under certain conditions. The secret
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agreement was ratified by the treaty of Madrid, which was concluded on March 21, 1801, and was soon afterward made public. A copy of it was sent to President Jefferson hy Rufus King, the United States minister to England. The recession of Louisiana to France changed the whole situation, inasmuch as the United States must now negoti- ate with France for the free navigation of the river.
Little progress was made during the next two years toward a satisfactory adjustment of the navigation matter. On January 7. 1803. the lower house of the United States Congress adopted the fol- lowing: "Resolved, that it is the unalterable determination of the United States to maintain the boundaries and the rights of naviga- tion and commerce through the Mississippi River, as established by existing treaties."
The next move was made by President Jefferson a few days later, when. with the consent of Congress. he despatched Robert R. Living- ston and James Monroe as special envoys to Paris with instructions to negotiate a treaty that would seeure to the United States the free navigation of the Mississippi. "not as a favor, but as a right." They were also instructed to secure, if possible, the cession of the city and island of New Orleans to the United States, which would give this nation the full control of the mouth of the river. At the first favorable opportunity Livingston and Monroe presented the question of the cession to M. Talleyrand, the French prime minister, who quietly suggested that it might be possible for the United States to acquire the entire Province of Louisiana. A few days later the envoys extra- ordinary had an interview with Napoleon, who offered to cede the entire province to the United States and mentioned the sum of $25.000.000 as a fair consideration therefor. There were no tele- graphs or other methods of quick communication in those days; Wash- ington is a long way from Paris: yet whatever was done had to be done quickly. and when a few days later Napoleon reduced the price to $15,000.000 the offer was accepted, notwithstanding the instruc- tions given to Livingston and Monroe did not contemplate such action on their part. They saw, however, that the acquisition of Louisiana offered a complete solution to the navigation problem, by giving the United States the complete control of the entire river, and accepted the proposition hoping that the president would approve and Con- gress ratify the proceeding. The treaty was accordingly concluded on the last day of April. 1803, by which Iowa became a part of the territory of the United States.
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Had Livingston and Monroe been laeking in initiative and adhered strietly to the letter of their instructions, they might have acquired the city and island of New Orleans, leaving all the rest of the province in the hands of France. In that case, what the history of Iowa might have been ean only be conjectured. But the desire of Napoleon to dispose of the entire provinee and the fact that the envoys exceeded their instructions place Iowa among the states of the American Union.
The treaty was promptly ratified by Congress and on December 20, 1803, Gen. James Wilkinson and Gov. William Claiborne, of Mississippi, acting as commissioners on behalf of the United States, took formal possession of the province and raised the Stars and Stripes at New Orleans. Thus the territory of the United States was extended westward to the Rocky Mountains and northward from the Gulf of Mexico to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude.
Fifteen millions represented a large sum of money at that time and in giving his approval to the action of Livingston and Monroe President Jefferson expressed some doubt as to whether the people would likewise approve the acquisition of such a vast and practically uninhabited domain. His fears were without foundation, however, as he was again elected president in 1804. The great plains of the West have sinee then become the greatest wealth producing seetion of the country. At the present time there is not a county in Iowa in which the property is not valued at more than the original purchase price of all Louisiana. In Calhoun the property is valued at nearly three times that sum.
UNITED STATES JURISDICTION
On March 26, 1804, President Jefferson approved an act of Congress dividing Louisiana, by providing that from and after Oeto- ber 1. 1804, all that part of the province lying south of the thirty-third parallel of north latitude was to be known as the Territory of Orleans, and the country north of that parallel as the District of Louisiana. In the latter was included the present State of Iowa. The District of Louisiana was placed under the jurisdiction of the Territory of Indiana, of which Gen. William H. Harrison was then governor. On July 4, 1805, the District of Louisiana was organized as a separate territory with a government of its own. In 1812 the Territory of Orleans was admitted into the Union as the State of Louisiana and the name of the upper distriet was then changed to the Territory of Missouri.
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When the State of Missouri was admitted into the Union in March, 1821, the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase was left without any form of civil government. No one seems to have given the matter any serious thought, at the time, as the only white people in the territory were a few hunters, trappers and the agents of the different fur companies, all of whom were more interested in their occupations than in paying taxes. Eleven years later the large tract of land in Eastern lowa known as the "Black Hawk Purchase" was acquired by the United States through the treaty with the Saes and Foxes on September 21, 1832. This was the first eession of Indian lands in lowa intended for white occupation. Preparations for the settlement of the new purchase were soon commenced and it then became necessary to establish some form of government over a region that had lain without the pale of authority for about twelve years. On June 28, 1834, President Jackson approved an aet of Congress attaching Iowa to the Territory of Michigan, which then included all the territory from Lake Huron westward to the Missouri River. Iowa thus became a part of Michigan.
On April 20, 1836. the President approved the aet ereating the Territory of Wiseonsin, but it did not take effect until the fourth of July following. Gen. Henry Dodge was appointed governor of the new territory, which embraced all the country west of the Mis- sissippi River, and on October 3, 1836, pursuant to Governor Dodge's proclamation, the first election ever held in lowa was held for the election of members of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature.
TERRITORY OF IOWA
Early in the fall of 1837 the question of dividing the Territory of Wisconsin and establishing a new territory west of the Mississippi became a subject of engrossing interest to the people living west of the river. The sentiment in favor of a new territory found definite expression in a convention held at Burlington on November 6, 1837. which adopted a memorial to Congress asking that body to establish a new territory west of the Mississippi. In response to this expres- sion of popular sentiment. Congress passed an aet, which was approved by President Van Buren on June 12, 1838, dividing the Territory of Wisconsin and ereeting the Territory of Iowa. The act became effective on July 3, 1838. President Van Buren appointed Robert Lueas, of Ohio, as the first territorial governor: William B. Conway, of Pennsylvania, secretary: Charles Mason, of Burlington,
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chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate judges.
The boundaries of lowa Territory, as described in the original organic act, included "all that part of the Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi River and west of a line drawn due north from the headwater or sources of the Mississippi to the northern boundary of the territory of the United States."
On February 12. 1844, more than eleven years before Calhoun County was organized, the Iowa Legislature, with the consent and authority of the Federal Government, passed an aet providing for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention, which met at Iowa City on October 7, 1844, and finished its work on the first day of November. The constitution framed by this convention was submitted to the people at the elcetion on August 4, 1845, and was rejected by a vote of 7,656 to 7,235.
On May 4, 1846, a second constitutional convention assembled at Iowa City and remained in session for two weeks. The result of its labors was submitted to the people at the general election held on August 3, 1846, when the constitution was ratified by a vote of 9,492 to 9,036. It was also approved by Congress and on December 28, 1846. President Polk affixed his signature to the bill providing for the admission of Iowa into the Union as a state.
ACQUIRING THE INDIAN LANDS
Through Gen. George Rogers Clark's conquest of the British posts in Indiana and Illinois the boundary of the United States was extended westward to the Mississippi River at the elose of the Revo- lutionary war. By the Treaty of Paris, concluded on April 30, 1803. France sold the entire Province of Louisiana to the United States, thereby extending the boundary to the Rocky Mountains. But neither the treaty of 1783, which concluded the Revolution and ree- ognized the independence of the American Republic, nor the Treaty of Paris had the power to extinguish the Indian title to the lands. That problem was left to the Federal Government for solution. It was therefore necessary, before the United States could come into full and formal possession of the territory, that some agreement should be made with the Indians. In order that the reader may understand the origin of Indian treaties of cession, it is deemed appropriate to notice briefly the policies of the several European nations elaiming territory in America in dealing with the Indians.
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When Hernando Cortez was commissioned captain-general of New Spain in 1529, his instructions were "to give special attention to the conversion of the Indians, and see that none are made slaves or servants." When Bishop Ramirez, as acting governor. undertook to obey these instructions he quickly learned that policy and practice were two widely different things. Instead of sustaining him in his efforts to carry out the announced policy, Spain took the lands of the Indians without compensation, leaving them only what the Span- ish officials considered sufficient for a dwelling place: little or no attention was given to their conversion; and in numerons instances natives were enslaved and compelled to work in the mines or upon the plantations.
The French Government issned no instructions to colonial offi- cials in America regarding the treatment of the natives. The carly French trader cared little for the land. In the establishment of trading posts not a great amount of land was required and the trader and his assistants lived with the Indians as "tenants in common." Occasionally a small tract near the trading post was cleared for the purpose of raising a few vegetables, but the trader was chiefly inter- ested in the preservation of the Indian hunting grounds, from which came the rich supply of furs that he handled at an enormous profit. Even when the charter was granted to Antoine Crozat in 1712, which stipulated that the Indians and negroes living in Louisiana were to be given religions instruction, no provision was made for extinguish- ing the Indian title to the land.
The English policy was radically different. Parkman says that in all the early land grants made by the British crown "the Indian was scorned and neglected." While a few of the early English immi- grants were interested in the fur trade, a majority of them were husbandmen. Their greatest desire was to establish permanent homes and to become tillers of the soil. Under those conditions it was but natural that possession of the land was the first and greatest consideration. The policy of the English crown is seen in a provision of Lord Baltimore's charter to Maryland, giving the grantee the authority "to collect troops, wage war on barbarians and other ene- mies who may make incursions into the settlements; to pursue, even beyond the limits of the province, and, if God shall grant it, to van- quish and captivate them; and the captives to put to death, or, accord- ing to their discretion, save."
Similar provisions are to be found in other English colonial char- ters. As the people who founded the Government of the United
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States were nearly all descendants of the first English colonists, and British subjects until they declared themselves independent, they naturally copied the English poliey. In the Articles of Confedera- tion-the first organie law of the Federal Government-article IX provided: "That Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right and power to regulate the trade with, and manage the affairs of the Indians."
Under the authority conferred by this article, Congress issued an order of September 22. 1783, forbidding all persons to settle upon the Indian domain. The Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Constitution, which likewise gave to Congress the exclusive power to regulate Indian affairs. By the act of March 1, 1793, Congress declared: "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any title or claim thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
By the enactment of this law Congress aimed first, to prevent irresponsible persons from trespassing upon the Indian lands, thereby arousing the hostility of the natives; second, to acquire, through treaties, a valid title to the lands for all time to come. The first treaties between the United States and the Indian tribes were merely agreements of peace and friendship, but as the white population increased treaties were negotiated by the Government for the acqui- sition of land and the continuation of the policy gradually crowded the Indian farther and farther westward before the advance of civil- ization.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the white man was already looking with longing eyes upon the broad prairies. of Illinois. When the Louisiana Purchase was made a clamor arose for the removal of the Indian tribes in Illinois to the new domain west of the Mississippi. Among those tribes were the Sacs and Foxes, with whom Gen. William H. Harrison, then governor of Indian Terri- tory, negotiated a treaty at St. Louis on November 4, 1804, by which the confederated tribes ceded to the United States their lands cast of the great river, but retaining the privilege of dwelling thereon until the lands were actually sold to white settlers, when they were to remove to the west side of the river. At that time it was the enstom of the Sacs and Foxes to give instructions to their chiefs or delegates to a treaty convention as to what course should be pursued, or, in the absence of such instructions, afterward confirm the action
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of the delegates by a vote. One faction of Indians claimed that the delegates to the St. Louis council had no instructions to sell the lands east of the Mississippi, and a considerable number, under the leader- ship of Chief Black Hawk, refused to confirm the sale. The opposi- tion to the St. Louis treaty was largely responsible for the alliance of Black Hawk and his band with the British in the War of 1812. After that war treaties of peace and friendship were made with sey- cral of the tribes that had fought on the side of the British. Black Hawk and his followers were the last to enter into such an agreement. On May 13, 1816, at St. Louis, a number of Sac and Fox chiefs and head men were induced to sign a treaty confirming that of 1804, which ceded the Sac and Fox lands in Illinois to the United States. One of the twenty-two chiefs who signed the treaty of 1816 was Black Hawk. who, although he never denied that he had "touched the goose quill," afterward repudiated the agreement.
It required considerable diplomacy on the part of the United States to induce Black Hawk to remove to the west side of the Mis- sissippi River, but in 1830 he and his band erossed over into Iowa "under protest." Not satisfied with his new surroundings, he recrossed the river in the spring of 1831 with a number of his braves and their families and took possession of their former cornfields on the Roek River. A force of troops under General Gaines was sent to expel the Indians and Black Hawk was solemnly admonished not to repeat the offense.
Despite the warning, the old chief, influenced by a "bad medieine man" called Wa-bo-kie-shiek, again crossed over into Illinois in 1832. Again troops were sent against him and the conflict which followed is known in history as the "Black Hawk war," which ended in the defeat of the Indians at the battle of Bad Axe, August 2, 1832. Black Hawk and his two sons were captured and held for some time as prisoners of war.
THIE NEUTRAL GROUND
Going back a few years, it is necessary to notice a treaty which, though no lands were eeded by it, played a conspicuous part in the subsequent history of Iowa. About 1825 some of the tribes in Iowa, Minnesota and Wiseonsin became engaged in a controversy over the limits of their respective hunting grounds and the United States undertook to adjust the difficulty. William Clark and Lewis Cass were appointed commissioners, with instructions to hold a council
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and endeavor to fix a line that would define the boundaries of the different tribes. A general council was held at Prairie du Chien, Wis .. August 19, 1825, in which the Saes and Foxes, Sioux, Chip- pewa. Pottawatomi, Ottawa, Winnebago and some minor tribes took part. The northern boundary of the Sac and Fox lands was fixed upon a line
"Beginning at the month of the Upper Iowa River, on the west bank of the Mississippi, and ascending said Iowa River to its west fork; thence up said fork to its source: thence crossing the fork of the Red Cedar River in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines Rives: thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the C'alumet ( Bix Sioux) River, and down that stream to its junction with the Missouri River."
North of the line the country was to be the hunting grounds of the other tribes that agreed to the treaty. It was further agreed that the lowa Indians should have the privelege of dwelling in the Sae and Fox county until the Government could make some pro- vision for them. It soon became apparent that the imaginary line thus established was not sufficient to keep the contending tribes from trespassing upon each other's premises. Another council was there- fore called to meet at Prairie du Chien on July 15, 1830. In the treaty negotiated at this couneil the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land twenty miles wide along the northern boundary of their domain, extending from the Mississippi to the Des Moines. and immediately north of and adjoining this strip the northern tribes ceded a tract twenty miles between the same rivers. The 40-mile strip thus formed was intended to act as a sort of buffer between the tribes and was called "The Neutral Ground." It remained neutral until in 1841, when it was granted to the Winnebagoes for a reserva- tion. A few years later that tribe ceded it to the United States.
TREATY OF 1830
On July 15, 1830, at the same council which established the Neu- tral Ground, the Saes and Foxes ceded to the United States a tract of land described as follows:
"Beginning at the upper fork of the Demoine River and passing the sources of the Little Sioux and Floyd rivers to the fork of the first creek which falls into the Big Sionx or Calumet River on the east side; thence down said creek and the Calumet River to the Mis- souri state line above the Kansas River; thence to the highlands
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between the waters falling into the Missouri and Demoine rivers, passing to said highlands along the dividing ridge between the forks of the Grand River: thence along said highlands or ridge separating the waters of the Missouri from those of the Demoine to a point opposite the source of the Boyer River, and thenee in a direct line to the upper fork of the Demoine, the place of beginning."
Part of the land thus ceded is in Missouri and part in Minnesota. That portion in Iowa is bounded on the west by the Missouri River; on the south by the line separating lowa and Missouri: on the east by a line passing through or near the towns of Estherville and Emmetsburg until it struek the west fork of the Des Moines River, about ten miles above Fort Dodge. The line along the highlands or watershed between the Des Moines and Missouri passed about ten niiles west of Carroll, about half-way between Audubon and Guth- rie Center, just east of Greenfield, west of Afton and through the Town of Mount Avr. The line from the source of the Boyer River to the Des Moines (the last boundary mentioned in the above deserip- tion ) passed across the northern part of the present County of Cal- houn. The greater part of Williams Township, about half of Butler, and a strip across the northern part of Sherman lay within the cession.
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