A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III, Part 28

Author: Louis Houck
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: R. R. Donnelley & sons company
Number of Pages: 405


USA > Missouri > A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III > Part 28


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The delegates met in convention in St. Louis in June, 1820, at what was then known as the "Mansion House," corner of Third and Vine streets. David Barton was elected president, and William G. Pettus 5 secretary of the convention. On the 19th day of July


" William Grymes Pettus was born in Mecklenburg county, Virginia, Decem- ber 31, 1794; he received a good education; in the war of 1812, he served as a volunteer and after the war was deputy clerk of Lunenburg county; in 1818 came to St. Louis, and was employed by McNair in the land office as clerk; when the constitutional convention met he was elected clerk and so well did he


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following, after a session of a little over a month, and an expenditure for stationery, etc., of a total of $26.25, the work of the convention was finished by the adoption of a constitution for the new state. The constitution adopted, which was principally the work of Barton, was not submitted to a vote of the people for ratification, but went into effect of its own motion, superseding the territorial government, and provided for the election of a governor and a lieutenant- governor, members of the first general as- sembly, a representative to Congress, and the election of United States senators.


The constitution thus adopted without unnecessary delay and without that extra- ordinary display of legal and constitutional lore which it now seems all constitution- WILLIAM G. PETTUS makers deem it necessary to display, re- mained in force for many years and has been well said was "a marvel of moderation and political sagacity," framed as it was in a period of great political excitement. From time to time a few unimportant changes were made in this organic law in the simple and inexpensive way provided in it. As was to be expected, slavery was sanctioned, but at the time it was thought that if no attempt had been made by congressional action to prohibit slavery, and the mat- ter quietly left to the people, that slavery would have been excluded from the new state. The St. Louis Enquirer, at any rate, claimed that the act sanctioning it was adopted because of the "inter-med- dling of outsiders." A number of provisions incorporated in this constitution also show that while the rights of the slaveholder were protected, it was not intended that slaves should be clandestinely perform the duties of his office that a complimentary resolution was passed by the convention acknowledging his valuable services; in 1821 he was appointed clerk of the Supreme court and after the election of McNair as Governor be appointed him secretary of state, and this office he held until the end of McNair's administration; in 1824 he was elected secretary of the State Senate; then appointed Probate Judge of St. Louis county; in 1826 he married a daughter of Col. James Morrison of St. Charles and entered into the mercantile business there; in 1832 he was elected a member of the State Senate from the St. Charles district; from 1834 to 1842 he was in the mercantile business in St. Louis; then he became secretary of the Floating Dock Insurance company and also secretary of another insurance company. He died December 25, 1867, leaving four daughters and two sons. He was a most painstaking man in all his work as is evidenced by the fact that in the enrolled copy he made of the constitution it is said not a "t" was uncrossed nor an "i" undotted. That he was a man of education, culture, and intelligence his long public service makes evident. To the end of his life he enjoyed the confidence and respect of all who knew him.


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and wrongfully introduced into the state or certain natural rights of the slave wantonly disregarded. Thus power was denied the General Assembly to emancipate slaves without the consent of the owners, without making full compensation, and the right of emigrants coming to Missouri in good faith with their slaves was guaranteed. Power was given to enact laws to prevent slaves from being brought into the state "for the purpose of speculation," or which had been imported "into the United States contrary to law." The General Assembly was also authorized to enact laws "to oblige owners of slaves to treat them with humanity and abstain from all injuries to them extending to life and limb," and in criminal cases slaves were secured "an impartial trial by jury." Any person who mali- ciously deprived a slave of life or dismembered his body, it was provided in this constitution should suffer the same punishment as if the "offense were committed on a free white person."


Perhaps because political preaching was then held in great abhor- rence, but which is now so fashionable, a provision was incorpo- rated in the constitution providing that "no bishop, priest, clergyman, or teacher of any religious persuasion, denomination, society or sect" should be eligible to either house of the General Assembly, or ap- pointed to any office of profit, "except the office of justice of the peace."


The constitution expressly provided that "schools and means of education shall forever be encouraged in this state" and that in each township schools should be established as soon as practicable and necessary "and where the poor shall be taught gratis." And the first legislature passed an act to prevent the waste of the school fund. In 1830 Dr. J. J. Lowry of Franklin, Philip Cole of Potosi and Joseph Hertick of Ste. Genevieve, were appointed a commission to formulate and prepare a plan for a common school system for Mis- souri. Nor was the experience the people gained by the failure of the two territorial banks established at St. Louis allowed to pass without making provision to prevent a similar event. It was expressly pro- vided in the new organic law of the state, that the General Assembly should incorporate not more than "one banking company," but the legislature was authorized to establish not more than five branches, "not more than one branch to be established at any one session of the General Assembly," thus preventing a combination of various interests in various sections of the new state to secure useless and speculative branch banks. The capital stock of this bank was fixed


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at $5,000,000 and of this stock at least one-half was to be "reserved for the use of the state." Although authorized to establish a bank, the people so generally distrusted banks, that it was not until 1837 that the General Assembly chartered the Bank of Missouri.


All state offices, except the offices of governor and lieutenant- governor, were made appointive. The state treasurer, however, was elected by both branches of the General Assembly biennially.


The judicial power of the state was vested in a Supreme court, in a Chancellor, whose jurisdiction was coextensive with the state, in Circuit courts and such inferior tribunals as might be from time to time established. The judges of these courts, also all appointed by the governor, held their offices during good behavior, but no person under 30 years could be appointed a judge by the gov- ernor, nor hold his office after attaining the age of 60 years. It is evident, that the framers of this constitution of Missouri did not think that the judicial offices of the new state should become the plaything of political factions, or that it would add to the dignity, or independence of a judicial office if secured by low artifices and cun- ning schemes, certainly a poor preliminary training for an upright and impartial judge. No doubt it was then thought, low be it spoken, that the possibility of paying political debts by corrupt, partial, specious, and fallacious decisions was not an imaginary but a real menace to the purity of the judiciary, and that therefore it was wise to remove it as far as possible from the realm of such influ- ences. Such ideas at present, however, do not disturb the consti- tution-makers, and generally it is considered that when a judicial candidate has successfully pulled through the mire of politics, the judicial ermine covers all the dirt. This too may be said, that the growing and rising importance of the Federal judiciary, and which when the Federal government was organized was deemed of very little consequence, especially in all matters involving the property rights of the individuals, must be found in the fact that the judges hold their offices for life, during good behavior, and therefore are not dependent on the popular whims and caprices of the hour, or the clamor of the press.


Some of the leading members of this constitutional convention have already been mentioned and their services detailed, so that it is not necessary to say more. Their names are household words in Mis- souri. A few members of this convention became widely known on the ample theater of national politics or achieved eminence at the bar


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McNAIR


of the United States Supreme court. But this work would be incom- plete if it failed to give at least some details as to other members, not so widely known, and whose very names have almost been forgotten in the counties they represented in this memorable convention. At any rate, it has been a matter of no small difficulty to secure reliable facts as to some of these worthies of other days, and in a few instances no details whatever could be found, so completely have their lives and very existence faded from the recollection of the present generation.


Among the members of the convention not already mentioned, Alexander McNair, delegate from St. Louis county, is the most conspicuous. At the first election for governor he was elected to that office, defeating William Clark, who had been territorial governor since 1812. Mc- Nair was born in Terry township, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, in 1774. In 1794 he was lieutenant of the Dauphin militia and during the whiskey insurrection in 1799 was ap- pointed lieutenant of Infantry in the United States army, but mustered out GOVERNOR ALEXANDER MCNAIR of service in 1800; in 1804 he came to St. Louis; in 1805 he was appointed one of the judges of the court of Common Pleas of St. Louis district; in 1808 he was one of the first trustees of St. Louis; he then was United States commissary for several years; in 1813 he was appointed Inspector-General of the territorial militia of Missouri; at the close of the war devoted him- self to mercantile pursuits; in 1816 he was appointed register of the land office at St. Louis. After his term of office as governor expired he secured a position in the Indian department. In 1805 he married a daughter of Antoine Reihle, and thus became connected with some of the leading French families of the territory. He died at St. Louis, March 8, 1826. McNair was always active in politics. In 1814 was a candidate for territorial delegate to Congress, but defeated by Easton. He was a man of very pleasant manners, and made many friends. Billon says that he was "very popular with the whole community.""


Another member of the convention from St. Louis county was


Billon's Annals of St. Louis, vol. 2, p. 208. But Lucas, who was not very friendly to him, says that in Pennsylvania before he came to Missouri he


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Bernard Pratte, a name well and favorably known in Missouri. The Pratte family originally came from Fort de Chartres to Ste. Gene- vieve, where General Bernard Pratte was born. His father was a merchant there during the Spanish dominion. From Ste. Genevieve his son went to St. Louis, and lived there when the country was trans- ferred to the United States, engaged in the fur trade, a "negociant," or trader. Pratte was a member of the first grand jury empanelled in St. Louis in 1804; in 1807 a member of the court of Common Pleas; in 1808 one of the first trustees of the town of St. Louis; he built the first business house on the levee there; in 1813 became a member of the American Fur company, then monopoli- zing all the trade on the upper Missouri; he was one of the incorpora- tors of the first bank of St. Louis; in the war of 1812 was with an expedition to Fort Madison and otherwise rendered signal services; he was appointed by President Monroe receiver of the public money at St. Louis. He was a man of great enterprise, one of the first mer- chants of St. Louis and known as a man of unimpeachable integrity. He died in 1837.


Pierre Chouteau, Jr., another member to the convention from St. Louis, was the second son of Pierre Chouteau, born at St. Louis, January 19, 1789. From early life he was engaged in the fur trade. He was one of the principal owners of the American Fur company, associated with Pratte, Cabanne, Sarpy and others famous in that trade. His business operations during his whole life were extensive. In 1849, he, John Harrison and Felix Valle organized the American Iron Mountain company to work the Iron Moun- tain deposits in St. Francois county. In PIERRE CHOUTEAU, JR. 1851 he organized the firm of Chouteau, Harrison and Vallé to operate a rolling mill in North St. Louis, and for many years this establishment was one of the principal indus- tries of St. Louis. He was one of the original incorporators of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1849 and also one of the incorporators of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1851. In 1822 after serving in the constitutional convention he was appointed one of the com-


was a Federalist, and "that he was notoriously a bully on the side of the Feder- alists," that he was a man of "little information, but possessed of the manners and address suitable to gain popularity on a frontier, and nowhere else." Let- ters of Lucas, p. 109.


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missioners to locate the St. Louis jail. He was a man of affairs and indefatigable in his enterprises. In 1813 he married Miss Emilie Gratiot. He died in October, 1865.


John C. Sullivan, another delegate from St. Louis, was a son of Captain James Sullivan of Kentucky. In 1814 he was United States revenue collector for the Missouri territory. He first surveyed as an Indian boundary line, the present northern boundary of Missouri in 1816 and in 1819 surveyed the Indian boundary line in northern Illinois, which afterward was claimed as its southern boundary by Wisconsin. He died near Florissant.


William Rector was born in Farquier county, Virginia. He was the oldest of nine sons and four daughters.7 The family first settled at Kaskaskia in 1806, but from there removed to St. Louis. In St. Louis his brother, Col. Elias Rector, was appointed post- master in 1819, holding the office until 1822. In 1812 William Rector participated in the war against the Indians at the head of Peoria lake, says Governor Reynolds. In 1817 he was appointed surveyor-general of Illinois and Missouri. In 1818 laid out a town near the mouth of the Osage river. He made a map, no doubt at the instance of the authorities, of the western part of the United States, showing the courses of the rivers emptying into the Pacific, relying greatly on information obtained from Robidoux, and which was filed in Washington. The duel in which Joshua Barton was killed originated out of a criticism made by him in a newspaper of his conduct as surveyor-general. When Thomas Rector first chal- lenged Barton he refused to accept the challenge, unless Rector admitted the truth of the matters alleged in the article against his brother. Rector did this, but said the article was offensive and there- fore demanded satisfaction.8 The duel took place opposite the Big Mound, and the Rectors were on top of the mound to witness the affair, and when they found that Barton had been slain raised a victorious shout, says Darby." The intensity of their hatred may be gathered from the fact that they agreed among themselves, that if Thomas Rector should fall another member of the family should take his place, thus showing that they were determined to kill Barton at all hazards. Barton was buried by his friend Edward Bates at St. Charles not far from the old stone tower. When the first


" Reynolds' History of Illinois, p. 300.


' Darby's Recollections, p. 24.


' Scharff's History of St. Louis, vol. 1, p. 96.


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Protestant Episcopal church was organized in St. Louis, William Rector was one of the vestrymen. In 1823 it is said that he lived in old Franklin.10 He died in Illinois, June 6, 1826.


One of the most conspicuous members of the convention was John Rice Jones, delegate from Washington county. Jones was a native of Merionethshire, Wales; born February 10, 1759. He emigrated to the United States during the Revolutionary war; was with George Rogers Clark when he captured Vincennes, and resided in Missouri twenty years before his death, which occurred February 18, 1824.


10 It is said that Barton charged Gen. Rector was guilty of nepotism in making his appointments by giving his relatives positions as deputy surveyors. Gen. Rector was a man of great enterprise and energy, and much interested in promoting the growth of St. Louis. In 1816 he built a large house on the corner of Third and Vine streets, for a residence and office. This building in 1819 he enlarged for Bennett, who opened a hotel in it, and which became known as "Bennett's Mansion House Hotel." In the dining-room of this house the con- vention met in 1820, which framed the first constitution of Missouri. The Rector family became well known in the west and southwest. The Rectors of Missouri and Arkansas were descendants of John Rector, born in 1717, and Catharine his wife, and who lived in Germantown in Virginia. I should judge from the name that this John Rector was either a German or of German descent, the name evidently being the anglicized German name "Richter." The name Rector is not among the English surnames as found in Bardsley. One of the sons of this John Rector, named Frederick Rector, born on July 16, 1750, in Farquier county, married Elizabeth (Wharton?) in Norfolk, and from this marriage resulted thirteen children, the sons (except the names of two I could not ascertain) named respectively, William, Elias, Nelson, Samuel, Wharton, Thomas and Stephen, and four daughters, Mollie, Sallie, Elizabeth and Nancy. Of these, Elizabeth married a Mr. Barton, and whose descendants live in Kansas City; Sallie married a Mr. Beale, of Louisville, Kentucky; whom Mollie married I could not ascertain, but Nancy married Thomas Conway in Tennessee, and had seven sons, all of whom became distinguished men. Thomas Conway with his wife, came to St. Louis in 1816 and from there, under appointment of Gen. Rector, went upon a surveying expedition to Arkansas in 1820. In 1823 he removed to the Arkansas territory, settling on Red river, on a farm, "Walnut Hills," in what is now Lafayette county. His son, Henry Wharton Conway, was elected the first delegate to Congress from the Arkansas territory and was killed in a duel with Robert Crittenden in 1827. His second son, James Sevier Conway, was elected governor in 1836 and died in 1855, and still another son named Elias Nelson Conway was elected governor in 1852. Before Henry Wharton Conway moved away from St. Louis to Arkansas, he was captain of the St. Louis Guards in 1816, and in 1818 was engaged in merchandizing there. His uncle Stephen Rector was corporal in this company. Stephen Rector was lieutenant in the United States Rangers in the war of 1812 and was wounded at Rock Island, where he exposed himself with great bravery to the fire of the Indians. Col. Elias Rector, the postmaster of St. Louis, and who died in 1822, was the father of Major Elias Rector of Fort Smith, and who settled there at an early day and died there. He was the original of Albert Pike's poem, "The Fine Arkansas Gentleman," a parody on "The Old English Gentleman." Another son, Hon. Elias Massie Rector, born in St. Louis, was the sixth gov- ernor of Arkansas, succeeding his cousin, Gov. Elias Nelson Conway. In 1825, Gen. Stephen Trigg of Howard County, married Miss Francis B. Rector, and Robert W. Wells, 1820, married Miss Amanda Rector, both ladies then residents of St. Louis and members of this Rector family.


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For a time he lived at Vincennes in the Northwest territory prior to emigrating to Missouri, and was also a resident of Kaskaskia. In 1804 he came to Ste. Genevieve where he established his home, but continued the practice of law both at Kaskaskia and Vincennes. From Ste. Genevieve he moved to Potosi, and after the organization of the state government was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme court. He was married twice. His son by his first wife, Rice Jones, born in Wales, was assassinated in Kaskaskia, December 7, 1808. Gen. Augus- tus Jones and Hon. George W. Jones, at one time United States senator from the state of Iowa, were also his sons. Judge Jones died at the age of 65, and it is said that he was "a man of indefatigable industry, extensive experience and tact for business, in private life a friend of the indigent, the ignorant and dis- tressed, who found in him a benefactor; he had an active mind, constantly engaged; was a living chronicle of passing events, and a JOHN RICE JONES student until the day of his death; a correct judge of passing events and knew much of men and things. " 11


Samuel Perry, another delegate from Washington county, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1783, and came to the district of Louisiana in 1806, settling at Mine à Breton, by which name Potosi was then known. In 1817 he married Mrs. Anne M. Cross, a native of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. Perry was a prominent business man, engaged in the lead mining business at Potosi for many years. His only daughter married Edward Bredell.


Of Christopher G. Houts, delegate from New Madrid, all that is known is that he was a merchant for a number of years at Winchester, then the county seat of New Madrid county. For a time he was in partnership with Mark H. Stalcup, another early settler of New Madrid. Dr. Robert D. Dawson, also a delegate from that county, was a native of Maryland, active in politics, and repeatedly repre- sented New Madrid county in the General Assembly. He was for many years the leading physician of New Madrid and very popular.


Duff Green, who perhaps became more widely known than any member of this convention, was a delegate from Howard county. He


11 Missouri "Enquirer," 1824.


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was born in Woodford county, Kentucky, August 15, 1791. His father, William Duff, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and his mother was a cousin of George Washington and also related to Hum- phrey Marshall. At the age of twenty-one he enlisted in the war of 1812; afterward taught school; was a country merchant, and emigrating to Missouri Territory was elected colonel of the territorial militia. He was the first postmaster of Chariton; then entered into a contract with the United States to carry the mail between St. Charles, Franklin and Chariton; established the first mail . stage- line west of the Mississippi. In 1823 he removed to St. Louis and became editor and owner of the St. Louis "Enquirer." In 1825 moved to Washington where he purchased the United States "Telegraph " printing office and advocated the election of Jackson to the Presidency. He became a powerful factor in national affairs, visited Europe on important business, conferred with statesmen and From Nat. Cycle. Atu. Biog. White & Co., N. Y. crowned heads, and in 1843 was sent by President Tyler to Mexico to negotiate for the acquisition of Texas, New Mexico, and California. After the close of the Mexican war he went to Mexico to pay our indemnity, and instead of paying it in cash, paid it in exchange and thus saved the United States $50,000. During the time of his greatest success he made $50,000 a year as government printer, but afterwards lost his position on account of his opposition to Jackson. In 1860 was sent by Buchanan to Lincoln on a confidential mission. After the close of the civil war had a contract to construct the great Tennessee railroad from Dalton to Knoxville, and was the founder of the town of Dalton, Georgia. In appearance he was a tall and stately man, walked in his old age with a long staff, with long, flowing hair, and beard, - a picturesque figure; died June 10, 1875, at Dalton, Georgia.12


Benjamin H. Reeves, a member of the convention from Howard county, long was one of the leading men of North Missouri. He was a native of Kentucky, and came to the territory about 1816. He represented Howard county in the territorial Assembly. After the adoption of the constitution, he was elected senator


12 National Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. 1, p. 237. White & Co., New York.


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from his county of the first General Assembly. In 1824 he was elected lieutenant-governor. He was appointed by President Adams one of the commissioners to locate the Santa Fe road in 1830, but being opposed to General Jackson, politically fell into disfavor with the people. He returned to Kentucky and died there.


Jonathan Smith Findlay, also a delegate from Howard county, came to Missouri from Georgetown in the District of Columbia, where he had published a Federalist news- paper, so it was charged by his enemies. After the admission of Missouri into the Union he was appointed register of the Lexington land- office - and from which office he was removed in 1830, Finis Ewing being appointed his suc- cessor. Findlay died November 1, 1832, at Lexington.




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