USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 21
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Under this act of 1805 Louisiana was a territory of the lowest class, with a government consisting of a governor and three judges, all ap- pointed by the president. When the census of 1810 showed a popula- tion of over twenty thousand, the territory (in 1812) was granted a legislature, the lower house elected by the people, and the upper house or council appointed by the president, and a delegate to congress. At the same time the name was changed to Missouri, to avoid confusion with the recently admitted state of Louisiana. Four years later the council was made elective and shortly afterward the agitation for statehood began. The American law and judicial procedure early supplanted the Spanish. In local government the original five Spanish districts of St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid were retained until 1812, when they became the first counties. In the next year the Potosi settlements were organized as Washington county and as popula- tion increased, more counties were created until there were twenty-five at the date of admission.
All of the territorial governors were men identified with the west. As a district, Louisiana was under the governor of Indiana territory. William Henry Harrison, later president of the United States. The
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first governor of the territory of Louisiana was James Wilkinson of Kentucky, afterward so deeply involved in the plans of Aaron Burr. Alone among the territorial governors Wilkinson was thoroughly unpopular. His successor was Meriwether Lewis, joint commander of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, and his, in turn, Benjamin Howard, of Kentucky. The last and best known was William Clark, brother of George Rogers Clark and earlier Lewis' companion to the Pacific. Clark was especially successful in dealing with the Indians, whose confidence he won by his fair dealing. Other men of note of this earlier period were Frederick Bates, secretary of the territory; J. B. C. Lucas, judge and land commissioner, and Hempstead, Easton and Scott, delegates to Congress.
EXTENSION OF SETTLEMENT, 1804 TO 1820
While the transfer to the United States stimulated the movement of population from Kentucky and Tennessee, the great influx of settlers did not come until after the War of 1812. Until 1815, the newcomers for the most part filled up the sections already opened up under the Spanish, with some adventurous pioneers on the Mississippi north of St. Louis and more in the Boon's Lick country on the Missouri, in the present counties of Howard and Cooper. The growth of these frontier settlements was stopped and the pioneers subjected to much hardship by the Indian raids during the War of 1812, but after peace was pro- claimed the newer settlements increased with startling rapidity. Of the sixty-six thousand settlers in 1820 nearly one-half were to be found in the Boon's Lick section or along the upper Mississippi above St. Louis; all but a few hundred of these had come since 1815. The control of the territory was rapidly shifting from the older sections to these purely American districts.
In the old French towns of New Madrid, St. Charles and particularly of Ste. Genevieve, the old French society, language and customs still sur- vived. In St. Louis the seat of government and the commercial oppor- tunities brought many Americans, but as late as 1820 French was heard as often as English on the streets and advertisements were commonly printed in both languages. The most prominent merchants were French and Spanish, like the Chouteaus and Manuel Lisa, who were able to adjust themselves to new conditions and take advantage of the rise in land values and the increase in trade. Even here the old, comfortable, unenterprising atmosphere was giving way to western energy and bustle; with its two newspapers, its fire engine, Protestant churches, and steamboats, St. Louis was becoming essentially western. Her merchants were already reaching out for the fur trade of the upper Missouri as far as the Yellowstone and trying, as yet unsuccessfully, to establish an over- land commerce with Santa Fe and the far Southwest. The expeditions of Lewis and Clark up the Missouri and down the Columbia to the Pacific and of Pike into the Southwest were great stimulants to this expansion. More important for the general development of the territory as a whole was the coming of the steamboats just before 1820. There- after the Mississippi was a highway into the country as well as out of it.
In spite of the increased importance of the fur trade and of lead mining, agriculture was necessarily the most important industry. In the southeastern part of the territory the pioneer farmers pushed out into the Ozark border with their cabins and cleared land in the creek bottoms and the range pastures for the stock on the ridges. In the Boon's Lick country many of the settlers were men of means who brought with them their slaves and furniture, so that typical pioneer conditions
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soon disappeared. As in the earlier period few Americans settled in towns. Old Franklin, since washed away, opposite the present city of Boonville, was the center of trade for the Boon's Lick country and a thriving town of over a thousand people, but the other new towns were mere hamlets clustering around the county court houses. While the brawling, bullying type of frontiersman with his brutal fights and feuds was by no means unknown, especially on the rivers, the establishment of several newspapers outside of St. Louis, a growing interest in educa- tion and academies and the rapid growth of the Protestant churches, beginning with the Bethel (Baptist) church in Cape Girardeau county in 1806, were much better evidences of the real character of the people.
MISSOURI ADMITTED TO THE UNION
When in 1818, the territorial legislature of Missouri petitioned con- gress for admission to the Union, Missouri in area, in population and in development was abundantly qualified for statehood. The unexpected and long drawn struggle between North and South, the first great sec- tional contest in our history, over slavery in the new state, can not be con- sidered here in any detail. This struggle revealed the divergence of the sections from their earlier common condemnation of slavery, a divergence due primarily to the unprofitableness of slavery in the North and the extension of the cotton culture through the invention of the cotton gin, and the subsequent demand for slave labor in the South. The storm broke when Missouri applied for admission because she was the first territory in which the existence of slavery could be an open question, and because the decision in her case involved the whole Louisiana pur- chase north of the state of Louisiana. The advantage to the South of admitting Missouri as a slave state was not primarily the opening of the state to immigration from the South, but rather the addition of two slave-state senators to the United States senate. Already the North had so far outstripped her in population that the former elected a majority of the members of the house; if the South was to retain an equal voice in the government it must be through an equality of the states from the two sections and equal voice in the senate. The debates ran through two sessions of congress and aroused a popular excitement dangerous to the Union. The house with its northern majority insisted on a restriction on Missouri's admission providing for gradual emancipation, which the more conservative senate refused to accept. The North argued that slavery was economically and socially a bad thing and ought to be rigidly restricted that it might die out, while the South insisted that the pro- posed restriction was unconstitutional and that the evils of slavery might be mitigated by spreading it over a wide territory. In the end, the first Missouri Compromise was effected; Missouri was permitted to draw up her state constitution without any limitations as to slavery, but slavery was to be forever prohibited in the Louisiana Purchase north of her southern boundary. At the same time Maine was admitted as a free state. The following year the whole question was reopened when the house refused to approve of Missouri's constitution because it forebade the immigration of free negroes and mulattoes, who, it was alleged, were citizens in some states and so guaranteed equal rights by the Federal constitution. After another contest which threatened the very existence of the Union, a second compromise was effected by Henry Clay, by which the Missouri legislature pledged itself not to violate the Federal consti- tution in reference to the rights of citizens, and Missouri became a state in the Union in 1821.
Meanwhile, excitement ran high in Missouri, not so much because
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the people were enthusiastically in favor of slavery as because they bitterly resented this attempt in congress to dictate to them about what they considered their own affairs. Indeed, until the attempted restric- tion in congress, there was a quite outspoken anti-slavery sentiment in St. Charles and Jefferson and Washington counties, but after the issue was raised in congress all united in opposition to congressional dictation, and the convention which drew up the first state constitution in the summer of 1820 did not contain a single anti-slavery delegate. This constitution, naturally modelled in many ways on those of Virginia and Kentucky, was a conservative and adequate frame of government, serv- ing the state with numerous amendments until 1865.
As soon as the convention had adopted the constitution the first state elections were held, a governor and assembly chosen and a representa- tive to congress. Soon afterward the governor was inaugurated, made his appointments to office, the assembly met and elected two United States senators and the state government was thus fully organized-all before the second Missouri Compromise at Washington and the formal admission of Missouri to the Union. The Missourians had little patience with this second attempt to dictate the action of the state, but passed the resolution required and President Monroe on August 10, 1821, proclaimed Missouri a state in the Union.
EARLY POLITICS AND PIONEER POLITICIANS
In national politics, this was the so-called era of good feeling. With only one national political party, the old Republican, politics consisted of personal contests between the rival leaders. This was particularly true in a frontier community like Missouri, where a man's personal ability and popularity counted for more than party organization.
In the first election for governor, Alexander McNair, a moderate and popular man. defeated William Clark, the territorial governor ; John Scott, the territorial delegate, was chosen Missouri's first representative and David Barton, president of the constitutional convention, was elected by the assembly as United States senator, both with little opposition. After a bitter contest. Thomas Hart Benton received a bare majority for the second senatorship over several candidates, the most prominent of whom was Judge Lucas. Benton was a newcomer to Missouri and had already made many bitter personal enemies, but his championship of western interests and the support of Barton gave him the victory.
Benton was very soon involved in a personal quarrel with Barton, but political parties do not appear at all clearly until about 1830. The beginnings of the later division may be seen in the presidential election of 1824, when Missouri supported Henry Clay in the popular election. When no candidate received a majority and the election was thrown into the national house of representatives, Scott, with the advice of Bar ton, cast Missouri's vote for John Quincy Adams, while Benton came out strongly for Jackson. In the next four years the people of the state rallied to Benton and Jackson, who carried every county in 1828. Dur- ing Jackson's first term Benton was a leader at the attack on the United States bank and one of the leaders in organizing the national Democratic party. That party's victory in the state and nation in 1832, seated Ben- ton in control of the politics of the state for the next fifteen years. While Jackson's attack on the bank was popular in Missouri, it would seem that Jackson's personification of western ideals and Benton's ag- gressive personality counted even more toward entrenching the Demo- cratic party in Missouri. The opposition, or Whig party, developed more slowly late in the thirties, but was badly beaten in every election.
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As a more conservative party interested in the material development of the country, its strength was naturally greatest in St. Louis and the prosperous slave holding districts along the Mississippi and the Mis- souri. But until 1844 the Democrats, united under the rigorous disci- pline of Benton, carried the state in local and national elections.
The limitations of space forbid even a mention of all the leaders of public opinion in this formative period in Missouri's history. The terri- torial secretary, Frederick Bates, succeeded McNair, but died in office. John Miller was elected to fill out the term and elected for the full four years in 1828. Then followed in turn Daniel Dunklin, Lilburn W. Boggs, and Thomas Reynolds. Miller and his successors were all Jack- son men or Democrats; Miller was born in Virginia, all the others in Kentucky. Barton and Benton were re-elected to the United States senate in 1824 and 1826 respectively, but in 1830 Benton succeeded in bringing about the defeat of Barton, his only formidable rival in Missouri. Alexander Buckner, Barton's successor, died in office, and was followed by Dr. Lewis F. Linn, perhaps the best-loved man, by political friends and foes alike, in all this early period. At least three-quarters of the men elected to important office were natives of Kentucky; indeed Jacksonian democracy and Kentucky origin might almost be given as qualifications for office.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS, 1820 TO 1845
By far the most important aspect of Missouri history in this period between 1820 and 1845 was the contest with the wilderness, the exten- sion of settlement, development and extension of trade, and the more important social growth. Of the many interesting incidents in the nar- rative history, only a few can be noted. Through the generosity of congress Missouri's boundaries (in 1837) were extended on the north- west to the Missouri river, to include the so-called Platte Purchase. This technical violation of the Missouri Compromise attracted no atten- tion from the country at large, but the attempt to establish the northern boundary of the new grant led to a long drawn-out dispute with the territory and state of Iowa, settled finally by the Supreme Court of the United States by a line dividing the disputed area. The Mormon settlements in the western part of the state occasioned a more serious disturbance. Settling first at Independence in 1831, they increased so rapidly that the other settlers, alarmed lest they gain control of the county, drove them across the river to Clay county. Here also they soon became unpopular and with their own consent were removed to the unsettled country to the north, where a separate county, Caldwell, was organized for them. When their leader, Joseph Smith, joined them here he began Mormon settlement outside of Caldwell on the Grand river and the Missouri, organized an armed force and declared that his people were to inherit the earth and more particularly western Mis- souri. The people of the surrounding counties were up in arms, prop- erty was destroyed and blood was shed, until finally the Mormons at- tacked a company of local militia and Governor Boggs ordered out the
state troops. The Mormons were surrounded in their Caldwell settle- ments and after some fighting surrendered their leaders and agreed to leave the state. None of the leaders were punished and few of the rank and file were able to save any of their property. The Missourian throughout showed a characteristic impatience of legal formalities and determination to solve the problem by the most direct and expeditious methods. While the Mormons could secure no protection from the law and in many cases were simply plundered. they were undesirable citi-
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zens and their expulsion, apart from the methods employed, was an advantage to the state.
Meanwhile population was increasing at a rate remarkable even in the West. From 1820 to 1830 the increase was more than twofold; from 1830 to 1840, well on toward threefold; the total population grew from a little over 65,000 in 1820 to at least half a million in 1845. In 1810 Missouri ranked twenty-third among the states and territories; in 1840, sixteenth. The streams of settlement were along the Missis- sippi above the Missouri, along both sides of the Missouri from the center of the state westward, and around the borders of the Ozarks to the south- west. North of the river, by 1845, all of the counties of today except Worth had been organized and the country opened up, although the counties along the Iowa line were as yet thinly populated. The most backward sections were the whole Ozark region and the western border south of Jackson county. The newer counties organized since 1845 are to be found in these areas. The new settlers were still for the most part from the border states to the eastward, and the population of the state was still on the whole homogeneous. The negro slaves still com- prised about one-sixth of the total population and until 1840 were in- creasing about as rapidly as the whites. They were not distributed evenly over the state but were to be found in greatest numbers in the older counties along the two great rivers.
The older sections of the state had now passed out of the pioneer stage of development, the log cabins were disappearing, and the class of substantial farmers with cleared farms, comfortable homes, and con- siderable means had appeared. With the increase of wealth and free- dom from the hardships of the frontier came a growing interest in edu- cation and philanthropy. In the thirties the endowed academies, fore- runners of the modern high schools, were organized all through the older portions of the state, and the assembly passed laws, ineffective it is true, for the establishment of a public school system. In 1839 the state made use of the liberal land grants of the national government and organized a State University, located the following year after a spirited contest between the counties at Columbia in Boone county. In this same decade the building of a state penitentiary at Jefferson City on the most approved eastern models, and the beginning of appropriations for the defective and unfortunate showed the intelligent interest in the prob- lems of reform and practical philanthropy.
The development of the state brought to the front new economic problems. As yet it is true Missouri was almost exclusively a commu- nity of farmers. St. Louis even as late as 1840 was a town of less than 20,000, while few others exceeded one thousand. Those smaller towns were county seats or more commonly river towns, for the rivers were as yet the only important highways of trade. Many of them sank into decay or even disappeared after the coming of the railroads but others, like Boonville and Lexington, have survived and prospered. After Old Franklin was washed away by the Missouri, Independence and West- port Landing, the beginning of Kansas City, were the most important, towns on the Missouri, and Hannibal on the Mississippi. But if the rivers did furnish an outlet for surplus agricultural products the dif- ficulties of getting the crops to the rivers and to market was the most pressing problem of the Missourians and the westerners. The neigh- boring states in the boom times of the thirties borrowed enormous sums to build canals and roads; Missouri did not embark on any such ambi- tious program, but some improvement was secured by the building of many miles of toll roads by private capital. The success of the first eastern railroads attracted much favorable attention and the assembly
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granted charters for the construction of several in Missouri, but lack of capital and the panic of 1837 postponed actual railroad building until after 1850.
Lack of an adequate and satisfactory currency and of banking facil- ities for borrowing money was another grievance of the West at this time. The common remedy was the reckless chartering of state banks and the issuance of immense quantities of paper money of less than doubtful value. Here too Missouri showed a healthy conservatism and only after long hesitation chartered one bank in 1837, the state sub- scribing to half the capital and retaining a strict supervision over it. However, Missouri was necessarily involved in the crash which followed this nation-wide over development, inflation of the currency and ficti- tious increase in values. The panic of 1837 did not lead to repudiation of the state debts or destruction of the state credit, but it bore very hardly on the people, who did not regain their prosperity for some years. The most interesting and dramatic expansion of Missouri enterprise
JAMES S. ROLLINS
was toward the far west and the southwest. In the fur trade up the Missouri the most important figure was William H. Ashley, first lieu- tenant governor of Missouri, and for years one of her leading men. After a disastrous encounter with Indians on his first venture in 1822, he prospered exceedingly and retired ten years later with a comfortable fortune. His traders and agents explored the whole southern water- shed of the upper Missouri, the Great Salt Lake District, opened up the famous South Pass through the Rockies and blazed the way for the later Oregon trail and Great Salt Lake trail to California. After 1830 the wealthy merchants of St. Louis developed the fur trade on a regular business basis, and made it one of the foundations of the city's pros- perity. Before 1845 the settlers were following the traders and Mis- sourians were opening up the Willamette valley in Oregon.
The commerce of the prairies overland to Santa Fe began in 1821 when William Becknell with a few companions made a successful trading expedition from Old Franklin to Sante Fe. In 1825 the United States surveyed the Santa Fe trail and made treaties with the Indians. Until the coming of the railroads this trade gave employment to hun- dreds of wagons every year and was an important stimulus to Missouri's prosperity.
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BEGINNING OF A NEW PERIOD IN STATE HISTORY
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The forties mark a dividing line in the history of the state. The coming of the railroads, the settlement of California and the growth of transcontinental trade, the marvelous growth of St. Louis, tenfold in the twenty years after 1840 until it ranked seventh among the cities of the whole country, all mark a new era in the economic development of the state. The population went on increasing almost as fast as ever, but several new elements were appearing. The Germans came to Her- mann as early as 1837, and after 1848, came to St. Louis and the neigh- boring counties in large numbers; the Irish also after 1850 were an important element in the city of St. Louis. The northern stream of settlement from New England and New York and Ohio finally reached Missouri, so that altogether the old homogeneity of the population dis- appeared. And between 1850 and 1860 the slave population was increas- ing only one-third as fast as the white. In politics the growing sectional divergence was casting its shadow over Missouri and the Democratic party was for a time rent in twain by the desperate struggle to eliminate Benton.
The sectional differences first attained first rate importance after the annexation of Texas and the Mexican war, both of which were heartily approved of by Missourians, with their characteristic western eagerness for expansion and more cheap land and their special interest due to the Santa Fe trade and the emigration of many of their young men to Texas. As soon as the Mexican war began several hundred volunteers went down the Mississippi to New Orleans; a little later a regiment of mounted Missourians under Doniphan started from Fort Leavenworth over the Santa Fe trail. This expedition, under the command of Gen- eral Kearney with some three hundred regulars, captured Santa Fe without resistance. Doniphan with less than a thousand men continued to El Paso and Chihuahua in northern Mexico. After resting his troops here for a couple of months he led his little force in safety to Taylor's army at the mouth of the Rio Grande, whence they returned to Missouri by water. Meanwhile a second regiment under Sterling Price was putting down a serious uprising at Santa Fe (reinforced later by a third regiment). All told Missouri furnished at least five thousand troops and conquered New Mexico for the Union.
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