USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. IV > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Benton exultantly declared that the area of Missouri had thus been expanded "by an addition equal in extent to such states as Delaware and Rhode Island, and by its fertility equal to one of the third class of states." The new territory, which is one of the richest parts of Missouri, comprises the counties of Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway and Platte. Weston, in Platte county, figured prominently in the raids across the border in 1854 and for a few years afterward when the free and the slave states were fighting for the control of the Territory of Kan- sas. The "Platte purchase" also contributed St. Joseph, the third. city in Missouri in population and wealth.
Shortly after the annexation of the Platte region a dispute with Iowa Territory in regard to Missouri's northerly boundary threatened to result in something like war between the two com- munities. Each had a small army of militia on its own side in the disputed territory for a few weeks, but the absurdity of the situation quickly appealed to both parties and peaceable methods of settling the difficulty were resorted to. This controversy, which began during that convulsive administration of Governor Boggs, in 1838, lasted till that of Governor King, ten years later. The matter at last was referred to the supreme court, by an act of congress in 1846, that tribunal ruled in favor of Iowa, thus depriving Missouri of some territory which she claimed, and the decision was confirmed by an act of congress in 1848, after which the boundary line was run as it stands to-day.
The panic of 1837 hit Missouri as it did all the rest of the country, but it was less disastrous here than it was in most of the other western communities. That convulsion was due to several causes-the overthrow of the United States Bank by President Jackson, which died at the expiration of its charter in 1836; the establishment of "wildcat" banks around the same time, the cur- rency by which was inadequately secured; the wild speculation in public lands; President Jackson's specie circular of 1836, direct- ing that nothing except gold or silver should be received in pay- ments for lands, and the general discredit which came to those
78
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
banks as a consequence, resulting in the wreck of many of them, and severe losses to the holders of their notes.
A branch of the United States Bank had been established in St. Louis in 1829, with Col. John O'Fallon as president. Great loss had been inflicted on St. Louis and other parts of the state through the earlier banks of that city, especially the Missouri and the St. Louis, but the branch of the big federal bank secured the confidence of most of the community from the start. On this account there was great indignation in business circles in St. Louis when Jackson, in the summer of 1832, vetoed the bill to grant a new charter to the United States Bank and thus to extend its existence for another twenty years. The opposition, moreover, was not confined to the enemies of Jackson's party, but was shared in by most of the business people of St. Louis and vicinity. On the other hand, many persons in city and county expressed decided approval of Jackson's act. In the elec- tion, of course, later on in that year, Jackson received a large majority of the votes of the state. Nevertheless, when the branch bank disappeared at the expiration of the charter of the parent institution of 1836 there was profound regret in financial circles, and the commercial convulsion which came a year later, soon after Van Buren entered office, was attributed by many persons to this act of Jackson and to the recklessness of some of the state insti- tutions which flourished for a time afterward.
On the whole, however, Missouri's loss was less through the financial crash of 1837 than was that of most of the other com- munities west of the Alleghenies, and its recovery was quicker. The majority of the constituents of "Old Bullion" Benton, who aided Jackson in overthrowing the United States Bank, were con- servative in financial matters, and were believers in the use of gold and silver as far as possible in the circulating medium.
In 1837 the state house at Jefferson City was destroyed by fire, with all the papers in the office of the secretary of state, all the furniture and half the library. Many valuable papers which could not be replaced were thus lost. The new capitol was begun in 1838, occupied in 1841, and cost about three hundred fifty thousand dollars.
About this time commissioners were superintending the sales of lands whose proceeds were to go to the establishment of a state university. Columbia was selected for the site, the cor- ner stone was laid on the Fourth of July, 18.jo, at which occa- sion an address was delivered by James L. Minor, and the
79
MISSOURI'S PERMANENT BOUNDARIES.
beginning was made in the creation of one of the greatest educa- tional institutions to be found in the West.
A great social event in the life of St. Louis in that period was the visit of Daniel Webster to that city in 1837. Webster was then at the height of his fame, and was already prominently men- tioned in connection with the Whig candidacy for 18440. St. Louis and Missouri did not have a chance to see so many celebrities in those days as they have greeted in more recent times, and the advent of the "expounder of the constitution" drew to St. Louis hundreds of people from the rest of Missouri and many from Illinois. He was entertained at the National Hotel, on the corner of Third and Market streets, remained in the city about a week, and on one of those days he attended a barbecue in his honor in J. B. C. Lucas's woods, on the present Twelfth street, near Olive. At that affair Gen. William II. Ashley, the well-known Whig congressman, presided, and William Carr Lane, John B. Sarpy, James Clemens and other conspicuous local per- sonages of that day were among the vice presidents of the gath- ering. The speech which the guest made was worthy of the author of the "reply to Hayne."
David Barton died in 1837 and Gen. William Clark in 1838. Barton, who was one of the most conspicuous and popular of Missourians at the time of his election as the first senator whom the state chose, had been driven out of office by his drift over to the Whig party, and was in eclipse and forgotten for several years before his death. Clark, on the other hand, retained his prominence and his prestige to the end, and his death removed Missouri's oldest and best beloved citizen.
80
THE PROVINCE AND THE ST.ITES.
CHAPTER VIII
Lull Preceding the Conflict with Mexico
T HE exciting days in Missouri covered by the administrations of Governors Dunklin and Boggs were followed by still more stirring times. Texas annexation and the Mexican war which followed it, and which brought the acquisition of New Mexico and California, were only a few years in the distance when Boggs retired, and the influences which led to these events were already beginning to shape themselves. In all of them Missouri bore a prominent part. A few years were to pass, however, before these forces started to assert themselves in a concrete way.
Missouri's most interesting canvass along to that day was the one which she saw in 1840. At a convention in Harrisburg, in December, 1839, eleven months before the election, the Whigs of the nation nominated William Henry Harrison for president and John Tyler for vice president. In May, 1840, at a conven- tion in Baltimore, the Democrats renominated President Van Buren.
Although Clay had been the favorite of a large majority of the Whigs of the country for the candidacy of 1840, Harrison's nomination quickly aroused great enthusiasm in his party every- where, including Missouri. "The American people like the smell of gunpowder on the clothes of their candidates," said Ben- ton long afterward, referring to the election of Jackson, Har- rison and Taylor, successful soldiers. Harrison's defeat of the Prophet, Tecumseh's brother, at Tippecanoe, in 1811, and his overthrow of Tecumseh himself and his British allies at the bat- tle of the Thames, in Canada, in 1813, the latter being the biggest victory gained by the Americans in the war of 1812-15 on land except that shortly afterward by Jackson at New Orleans,
81
MISSOURI PRECEDING THE MEXICAN CONFLICT.
gave him a military reputation which proved a valuable asset for him and his party in the campaign of 1840. Benton, of course, opposed Harrison in that election. Harrison, however, as gov- ernor of Indiana Territory, had for a short time been the execu- tive of upper Louisiana, which had been joined to Indiana for administrative purposes in 1804, and Missouri felt a sort of pro- prietorship in him. His candidacy gave the Whigs of the state great encouragement to make an active canvass.
At a convention held in Rocheport, Boone county, in June, 1840, which body was addressed by Fletcher Webster, son of the great Massachusetts statesman, Gen. Alexander W. Doni- phan, Col. John O'Fallon, James S. Rollins, and other well-known men, the Whigs nominated John B. Clark for governor. The Democrats put up Thomas Reynolds for governor and Mere- dith M. Marmaduke for lieutenant governor. A heavy vote was polled and the Democrats, as usual, swept the State. .
The panic of 1837, which began a few weeks after Van Buren entered office (which, however, did less damage in Missouri than it inflicted in most of the other states), was disastrous to his fortunes. He carried only seven of the twenty-six states, but Missouri was one of the seven. He received only 60 electoral votes, as against 234 for Harrison, but Missouri contributed 4 of the 60. In Missouri Van Buren's vote was 20,760, a major- ity of 6,788 over Harrison. Reynolds' vote was 29, 625, a lead of 7,413 over Clark. The Democrats' two candidates for con- gress, John Miller and Jolin C. Edwards, were also elected.
One act of especial importance of which he was the author, and in which he took a just pride, was passed during Governor Reynolds' service. This law, which read, "Imprisonment for debt is hereby forever abolished," ended for Missouri a barbarous practice which had been in vogue in most of the states previous to that time, and which operated in some of them at an even later day.
Missouri's growth in industries, population and wealth had been notably rapid from 1830 to 1840. Its inhabitants, which numbered 140,455 at the beginning of the decade, jumped to 383,702 at the end of ten years. Of this total, 59,814 represented the negro population, nearly all of whom were slaves. St. Louis' population increased from 6,694 in 1830 to 16,469 in 1840. Under the apportionment based on the census of 1840 Missouri's representation in the popular branch of congress was more than doubled, and in 1842 these men were elected to that body: James IV -- 6
-
82
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
B. Bowlin, James M. Hughes, James H. Relfe, Gustavus B. Bower and John Jameson. All were Democrats. Lewis F. Linn was, in 1842, re-elected to the senate for the six years begin- ning on March 4, 1843, but he died in October of that year, after ten years' service, at the age of forty-eight.
Benton, during his twenty-one years of service in the senate along to that time, had overshadowed all his colleagues in that chamber from his State except Linn. With much of Benton's courage and energy, Linn had more versatility than Benton, much greater adroitness and immeasurably greater personal popular- ity. Two eulogies were delivered on Linn in the senate. One was by a representative of the state of Linn's birth, Kentucky, John J. Crittenden. The other was by the member from his residence state, Benton. The last named tribute, which came from a man who never dealt in idle panegyric, was notably effective. Benton closed his address by telling of a conversa- tion he had with Linn shortly before the latter's death, in which Linn spoke of the duties of the living toward the dead. "He spoke," said Benton, "of two friends," meaning Benton himself and Jackson, "whom it was natural to believe that he should sur- vive, and to whose memories he intended to pay the debt of friendship. Vain calculation! Vain impulsion of generosity and friendship! One of these two friends now discharges that mournful debt to him. The other has written me a letter express- ing his 'deep sorrow for the untimely death of our friend 'Dr. Linn.'"
Governor Reynolds appointed David R. Atchison to succeed Linn in the senate, and he was subsequently elected and re-elected by the legislature, serving from 1843 to 1855. A native of Ken- tucky, which furnished a large proportion of Missouri's great men of the period before the Civil war days, and which contrib- uted many of those of a later time, Atchison emigrated to Mis- souri at an early age, served several terms in the legislature, was judge of the Platte county circuit court, and was a man of influence and distinction before he became a colleague of Ben- ton. During his dozen years of service in the senate. he was for a time president of that body. He was the only senator from Missouri during Benton's service who dared to set himself up in opposition to Benton. In the division in the Democratic party in Missouri which came soon after the Mexican war, Atchison led the pro-slavery and pro-southern clement, as against the old Jacksonian and Unionist ingredient of the party which had Ben- ton for a chieftain.
83
MISSOURI PRECEDING TIIE MEXICAN CONFLICT.
Early in 1844 Governor Reynolds committed suicide in the executive mansion at Jefferson City by shooting himself with a rifle. Ill health and violent abuse by his enemies were the causes of the deed. He was born in Kentucky, resided in Illi- nois for a few years, where he was a supreme judge of the state for a time, emigrated into Missouri in 1828, was succes- sively a member of the lower branch of the legislature, speaker of that body, and district judge previous to his election as gov- ernor, and was a man of ability, character and personal popu- larity.
From Reynolds' death in February, 1844, to the end of the term in November of that year, Lient. Gov. Marmaduke acted as governor. Marmaduke had a long and diversified career before reaching that office. Born in Virginia back in 1791, he commanded one of that state's regiments in the war of 1812, served as United States marshal of the state's eastern district afterward for a few years, settled in Missouri in 1824, was . prominent in the Santa Fe trade for a few years, and held sev- eral offices in the state previous to his election as lieutenant gov- ernor in 1840. During the war of secession he was, until his death in 1864, a stalwart Unionist, although most of his relatives were on the Confederate side, including his son, John S. Marma- duke, who was elected governor of Missouri in 1884, and who died in office in 1887.
In the early summer of 1844, through the swift and unex- ampled rise of the Illinois, the Missouri and other tributaries of the upper Mississippi, the flood in the big stream was memo- rable for the height which it reached and the destruction which it caused. There is reason to believe that it surpassed the rise of 1785, which was known in the Mississippi valley's annals as the "year of the great waters." It was undoubtedly higher than the big freshets of 1811 and 1826, and every other rise which has taken place since then. The present East St. Louis and other towns on the east bank of the Mississippi were flooded, the American Bottoms, opposite St. Louis, were a vast sea for many miles north and south, and the waters passed far above the top of the levee in St. Louis. Many farm animals were drowned, a great amount of other property was destroyed, and some human lives were lost. In 1844 the Mississippi at St. Louis rose to a height of 41.5 feet on the government gauge. The high- est rise at the same point since then was in June, 1903, when the 38-foot mark was touched.
The election in 18.14 in Missouri was notable because of the
8.1
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
circumstance that the Whigs made no nominations for state offi- cers. Missouri had always elected its members of congress on a general ticket, but congress shortly before that time had passed an act directing Missouri to divide the state into congressional districts. Missouri's legislature refused to recognize congress's authority to interfere in the matter and made no division. The Whigs on this account, professing to believe that an election held under the old conditions would be illegal, declined to make nomi- nations for any offices. With the pressure of organized Whig opposition removed, the Democrats split among themselves into "Hards" and "Softs," the former representing the stalwart gold and silver money champion, "Old Bullion," Thomas H. Ben- ton, and the latter being Benton's Democratic enemies, who declared that his supremacy in his state had lasted long enough, and demanded a change for the senatorial term beginning in 1845. Beginning with 1846, however, Missouri has elected its congressmen by districts.
John C. Edwards was nominated for governor by the "Hards," while the "Softs," who favored an increase in bank currency, partly because they believed that that would benefit the state and partly because they wanted to hit Benton, refrained from making any nomination of their own, but supported Charles H. Allen, an independent candidate, who was favored by the Whigs. In the election Edwards received 36,978 votes, or 5,621 more than Allen.
The "Hards" were jubilant at their triumph over the com- binted opposition of the Whigs and anti-Benton Democrats, and gave Benton another term, which was to end in 1851. It was Benton's last victory, but neither he nor anybody else could have foreseen this at the time. The Democrats swept the state on congress, electing the five members. Two of those, Jolin S. Phelps and Sterling Price, then entering public life on the national stage for the first time, were to figure with great prominence in the after day.
Phelps, who was born in Connecticut but who removed to Missouri in early manhood, and who served in the legislature for ยท a short time, was thirty years of age at his election to congress in 1844; he remained there until 1863, commanded a regiment on the Union side during part of the war of secession, was made military governor of Arkansas by Lincoln for a short time, was elected governor of Missouri in 1876, and died in St. Louis ten years later. Price, a Virginian by birth, who removed to Mis- souri in early life, was speaker of the lower branch of the Mis-
85
MISSOURI PRECEDING THE MEXICAN CONFLICT.
souri legislature for several years, was thirty-three years of age when elected to congress in 1844, resigned from that body in 1846 to take command of the Second Missouri Cavalry, rendered brilliant service in the war against Mexico in that year and in 1847, was elected governor of Missouri in 1852, fought on the confederate side in high command in Missouri and other places in the civil war, and died in St. Louis in 1867.
Missouri's position in the presidential canvass of 1844 was peculiar. The Democratic party, which was dominant in Mis- souri, declared in its platform of that year that "our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable ; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power ; and that the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-an- nexation of Texas, at the earliest practicable period, are great American measures, which this convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of the Union."
The reference to Oregon in this deliverance was intended for use in the North chiefly. That about Texas was designed to strengthen the party in the slave states, there being no such thing as a solid Democratic South in those days. Notwithstand- ing the desire of the country for national expansion, a desire inherent in the people of all young, virile and growing commu- nities, slavery acted in this juncture as a barrier to expansion, so far as it had any influence. Slavery existed in the republic of Texas. Its annexation would enlarge the slavery vote in the senate by two, and possibly by more than that, for that vast country, as the North at that time feared, might be divided up into several states. Therefore, a majority of the people of the free section of the country, Democrats and Whigs alike, were opposed to Texas acquisition at that particular time. The fact, too, that annexation, on account of the dispute between Texas and Mexico as to the western boundary of the former, Texas placing it at the Rio Grande and Mexico putting it at the Nue- ces, far to the castward of the big river, would involve the United States in a war with Mexico, made many persons averse to annexation who would otherwise have favored it. On the other hand, despite its expansionist aspirations in the abstract, the South was rather averse to the acquisition of Oregon, which would strengthen the vote of the free section and menace slavery.
But although a slave state herself and on the border line between the slave and the free sections, Missouri wanted national expansion in any quarter, North or South, in which it could be Had legitimately. Manifest destiny-the feeling that Providence
c
86
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
had decreed that we were to spread all over the continent, give its peoples a better government than they could create for them- selves, and open for them a brighter future than they, single- handed, could ever achieve-had enthusiastic champions in Missouri. Missouri favored the "re-occupation of Oregon," and shouted "Fifty-four-forty or fight," which was a slogan among the Democrats of the free states in 1844, the northern line of the Oregon country, as claimed by the United States being 54 degrees 40 minutes of latitude, which was the south- ern boundary of Russia's territory of Alaska. England claimed all of Oregon down to the mouth of the Columbia, or farther south. Missouri likewise favored the "re-annexation of Texas," the United States' claim to which had been given up in the treaty of 1819 with Spain as part of the concession which we made for Florida, which, it was contended, was ceded to us in that compact.
Clay was the candidate of the Whig party for president in 1844 and he was personally very popular in the West, especially in Missouri, which gave him its electoral vote in 1824. Polk, in whose record or name there was no magic, was the Demo- cratic nominee. But Clay, chiefly on account of the war with Mexico which it would bring, declared in 1844 against Texas annexation. Polk, on the other hand, was an avowed annex- ationist. Although Polk gained only a small majority in the electoral college, he swept Missouri triumphantly, getting a lead of 10,118 in the state, or 3.330 in excess of that given to Van Buren in Missouri four years earlier. Missouri's enthusiastic approval of the Democratic platform of 1844. both in its Ore- gon and Texas features, was an eloquent presentation of its views on the issue of the broadening of the nation's boundaries.
Among the five members of congress which Missouri elected in 1846 were two-James S. Green and Willard P. Hall-who attained distinction later on. Green, a native of Virginia, who was twenty-nine years of age when elected to congress from Mis- souri in 1846, served in the house of representatives several terms, and then went to the senate, from which he retired in 1861. Hall, also a native of the Old Dominion, likewise served several years in congress after his first election in 1846, but, unlike Green, he was an enemy of slavery, and also, unlike Green, he was a devoted supporter of the Union in the Civil war days, and acted as governor after the death of Provisional Gov. Hamilton R. Gamble in 1864 until the regularly elected governor, Thomas C. Fletcher, was inaugurated in 1865.
In the politics of 18446, aside from the election of members of
87
MISSOURI PRECEDING THE MEXICAN CONFLICT.
congress, the leading event in Missouri was the vote on the pro- posed state constitution, which had been framed in a convention held in 1845, composed of many of the ablest men in the com- monwealth, Whigs as well as Democrats. In the election of 1846 the constitution was beaten by a majority of 9,000 votes out of an aggregate poll of about 60,000. It was the vote of St. Louis which defeated the constitution, the opposition in that city being chiefly directed against the provision which would make supreme. and circuit judges elective instead of being, as then, appointed by the governor. Aside from St. Louis, the state evidently favored the change. Outside of that town the proposed consti- tution received a majority of the votes cast. Moreover, shortly afterward the change was brought about by constitutional amend- ment, which received the sanction of the people, and since then the judges have been elected, as they are in most of the states.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.