USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 70
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In the state campaign of 1888 an organization called the Agricultural Wheel of Missouri had to be reckoned with. It was an anti-monopoly movement. The members called themselves the "wheelers." The local bodies were known as wheels. The wheelers declared independence of party and indorsed candidates understood to be in sympathy with their political creed. The preamble to the constitution of the Agricultural Wheel of Missouri set forth these declarations :
"We believe there is a God, the great creator of all things, and that He created all men free and equal, and endowed them with certain inalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that these rights are a common inheritance and should be respected by all mankind.
"We further believe that any power or influence that tends to restrict or circum- scribe any class of our citizens in the free exercise of these God-given rights and priv- ileges is detrimental to the best interest of a free people.
"While it is an established fact that the laboring classes of mankind are the real producers of wealth, we find that they are gradually becoming oppressed by combinations of capital, and the fruits of their toil absorbed by a class who propose not only to live on the labor of others, but to speedily amass fortunes at their expense.
"We hold to the principle that all monopolies are dangerous to the best interests of our country, tending to enslave a free people and subvert and finally overthrow the great principles purchased by Washington and his glorious compatriots.
"We hold to the principle that the laboring classes have an inherent right to sell and buy when and wherever their interests are best served, and patronize none who dare -by word or action-oppose a just, fair and equitable exchange of the products of our labor."
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The Wheelers.
The wheelers claimed a membership in Missouri at that time of over 40,000. Another independent movement in Missouri was the Farmers' Alliance. It was organized May, 1887, and before the end of the campaign of 1888 had a mem- bership of between 18,000 and 19,000 voters. The alliance attempted to intro- duce the principle of co-operation among the farmers. It advocated the estab- lishment of alliance stores upon the Rochdale plan. The theory of the alliance was that "Whatever wealth a man produces, to that he should be entitled." The co-operative store was tried out in Butler county. Members of the alli- ance subscribed enough money to buy the stock of goods. For these loans they received the legal rate of interest. The store was held by an incorporated com- pany with a board of directors. These directors employed a manager and such - clerks as were necessary on salaries. A cash business was done as far as possi- ble. Where credit was allowed it was extended only until Saturday night or until the end of the month. The goods were sold at regular retail prices. Each member of the alliance had a trade card on which the record of his purchases was kept. The plan was to clean up at the end of every six months, reserve enough to pay interest on the loans and divide the remaining profits among mem- bers of the alliance according to the amount of trade each one had done. The membership in the alliance was limited to farmers, farm laborers, mechanics, country school teachers, county physicians and ministers of the gospel. Law- yers were not eligible. The alliance was very popular during the political cam- paign, but the application of the principle to co-operative store keeping was limited.
Callaway's Low Salary Party.
When Dr. W. B. Tucker was a candidate for the office of collector in Calla- way county, he announced the following platform :
"I will collect the revenue of this county for the sum of $1,500. The law, as it now stands, would give me about $3,000 for the same amount of work; but to show to the legislature of the state that the people are overtaxed; that we wish to reduce the expenses of government in every fair and honorable way, I propose to return all fees, to which I may be entitled under the law, over $1,500, for the benefit of the public schools of the whole county. I will further state,-as it has been said by some that there will be nothing to bind me to carry out the proposition,-that if elected, I will deposit in one of the banks of the city, the amount of the salary above $1,500 per year, or my note for the same, with good security, for the uses and purposes indicated in this communication." Dr. Tucker was elected.
Later the "Low Salary party" was organized in Callaway county, and nomina- tions were made of men who agreed to perform the duties of the respective offices at smaller compensation than that fixed by law. "Retrenchment, Reform and Tuckerism" was the slogan of the new party. H. Larrimore, the candidate for representative in 1878 made a keynote speech in the course of which he said :
"We have tried in vain to get our legislature to reduce these high salaries. We have appealed to them with tears in our eyes, but they have heeded us not. In the midst of
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our wrongs Tucker stepped forward. He has done a better and a cleaner job than was ever done before. It is said that Billy Harrison voted against a bill that would have saved money to the state. I like Billy. I am a friend of Billy. I haven't looked up Billy's record. Billy's vote is natural. He is a moneyed man. Billy has an interest in a bank and it is the most natural thing in the world for him to vote for his bank's interest. But if you send me to the legislature, I, who have been used to hard things, who have paid ten per cent compound interest for money, I will vote for the interest of the tax burdened people. I believe Billy bolted a convention once. Yes, I know he did. He did right. They would not elect Billy and he bolted. I would have bolted, too. Billy has always worked with the cliques and rings. He belongs to that brood of roosters that was raised up in the Fulton coop. He was fed by the Fulton ring. But when Billy came out of the Fulton convention he came out with his neck feathers turned up. He said he would pick all of the feathers out of the - frizleys. Billy belongs to the frizleys. But, fellow citizens, Billy is not gwine to roost in that thare hen roost over in Jefferson City next winter. No sir,-nafy time."
That winter the low salary party received a severe backset. The supreme court in litigation which was started by the regular party organization ruled that, "It is unlawful for a candidate for public office to make offers to the voters to perform the duties of the office, if elected, for less than the legal fees. An election secured by such offers is void."
. The legislature in 1879 passed an act making it a misdemeanor punished by fine of from $50 to $500, or imprisonment from ten days to six months, to offer or promise to discharge the duties of office for less salary or fees than fixed by the laws of the state. The low salary party movement thus started in Calla- way, which Joseph K. Rickey had characterized as "one of the grandest move- ments of the age" and which he had predicted "will go on from the lakes to the gulf, from the rockbound shores of Maine to the golden sands of California, and I believe it will dash its waves against the White House at Washington," was crushed. Colonel Rickey was vice president of the low salary party convention which carried the county of Callaway.
The Blind Bridle Story and Its Sequel.
Champ Clark once credited David Ball of Pike county with being the best campaign story teller of his generation in Missouri. There has been some ques- tion whether Champ Clark or his old law partner Ball held the moral copyright on the blind bridle story. Ball told. it on the stump in this way :
"The Republicans are like the old farmer up in Pike county who had a good wife and a bank account and seven children and all the things that are worth living for, but the preachers had praised his goodness so much and had told him so often that when he died he would go straight to heaven that he believed it and at last he became so anxious to get to heaven that he decided to commit suicide as the quickest route. He went to the barn and took an old blind bridle and put the head stall around his neck, climbed on a barrel, tied the reins to a joist and jumped off. Just as he was taking his last kick his son found him and cut him down. When the old man came to, he said to his son :
"'John, what did you do that for? Why didn't you let me die and go to heaven?' "'Dad, do you really believe you'd have gone to heaven?'
"'I know I would, John. Why, I could hear the angels singing as it was. You ought to have let me die. I would have been in heaven now.'
"'Say, dad, don't you think you'd have cut a caper in heaven with a blind bridle on?'"
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Champ Clark's version had a sequel. As Mr. Clark told the story it ran thus :
"An old man out in Missouri tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with a blind bridle. His son cut him down just in time. On that foundation I added this : When the son cut him down and brought him to, the old man complained feebly: ‘It ain't right, Henry,' the old man said. 'You've kept your old father out of heaven.'
" 'You'd cut a figure in heaven looking through a blind bridle, wouldn't you?' retorted the son.
"Now I regard that as my best story. At least it is the most successful. Bob Taylor stole it after I had used it for years, and told it in his lectures, and finally put it in his book. A friend of mine named Jordan put the climax on the story of my story, though. He supposed I had made it all up, and he told it one night before an audience out in our country, an audience that had the old man whose son cut him down, on the front seat. The old man broke down and cried and that rather spoiled the point for Jordan."
How Dockery Saved a Seat in Congress.
The Dockery motto in politics was "Never leave anything undone." Or he might have put it differently : "Eternal vigilance is the price of election." Strict attention to details was the secret of his success. It saved him from defeat one time when he was downed as campaigns go. The republicans carried Mis- souri in 1894. They captured Alexander Monroe Dockery's district. They had it safely on Monday morning. Yet Mr. Dockery was elected when the polls closed Tuesday night. He should have gone down with Bland and Champ Clark and other Missouri democrats under the tidal wave. That he didn't was due to one of the smartest last minute moves ever made in a Missouri campaign. Mr. Dockery was about as familiar with his constituents as Miles Standish was with his army. He knew every man in his party. That Monday morning Mr. Dockery realized better than any other politician in his district where he stood. Monday afternoon he sent 300 telegrams. The messages were all of the same purport. They urged "the necessity of getting out our votes." Mr. Dockery knew his men. He understood the effect of the reception of a telegram upon a man not accustomed to receiving a political appeal in that form. He staked his chances on the impression of urgency which a telegram would make. It was no error of judgment. The returns gave Mr. Dockery another term in Congress by fewer votes than the number of telegrams sent. Mr. Dockery's principle of campaigning snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Party Loyalty in Missouri Illustrated.
Senator Vest occasionally told a story to illustrate the supreme loyalty of the Missouri democracy. Back in the Ozark country lived Uncle John, a devout member of the church and a democrat of unswerving fidelity. A democratic national convention was in session. Uncle John was away from the railroad and the telegraph. He waited impatiently for the news. This was many cam- paigns ago, at a time when the world had been surfeited with the details of a great scandal. The young fellows rode up to the house. They were just from town, and Uncle John came out to hear what they could tell.
"Have you heard the ticket, Uncle John?" they asked.
"No," said Uncle John. "Hev they nominated ?"
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"Yep." "Who?"
"Beecher and Tilton."
"Sho !"
"It's a fact, Uncle John. The democrats have nominated Beecher for Presi- dent and Tilton for Vice-President."
The old man looked incredulously at his informants. Their faces gave 110 sign of deception. He gazed down the road thoughtfully for a few moments. Then, as he turned to go into the house, he said:
"Well, boys, they're very able men."
Champ Clark's Political Philosophy.
"Some men are bound to be democrats and some men are bound to be repub- licans," reasoned Champ Clark in a campaign speech. "I don't know what it is, but there seems to be something in a man's skull that makes it so. It is sort'er like the two forces in philosophy, the centripetal force turns everything into the center. The centrifugal turns everything out from the center. That is what makes a republican party and a democrat party." After a slight pause Mr. Clark added, "I don't know what makes a third party."
Mr. Clark's political philosophy was always interesting. He thinks it must be habit that makes a man go on voting his party ticket when he knows the other thing is what he ought to do. "The great Dr. Johnson, father of the English dictionary," Mr. Clark illustrated, "visited a widow every night for twenty years. Somebody said to him, 'Doctor, why don't you marry her?' 'Marry her?' repeated the doctor, 'if I did where would I spend my evenings?' And that is about as good an argument," concluded Mr. Clark, "as some men can make for going on voting their party ticket."
A Pike County Reminiscence.
"I used to think that a man never made the same political speech twice, and I used to wonder how in the world they could make so many speeches," said Champ Clark, in talking of Missouri campaigns. "That was before I heard George Easley, who was about the smartest man I ever met, make the same identical speech three times in one day. After that experience I changed my mind. People who have heard me once in a campaign probably think they are getting something that sounds very familiar the next time they get in front of me." Before long experience enabled him to enlarge his repertoire. Mr. Clark had one string of very good stories when he started on a campaign, and he aimed to make them last him until election day. This habit led to a funny scene some years ago at a speaking in one of the Pike county townships. Matt G. Reynolds was billed for a republican speech at the same time that Clark was to expound democratic doctrine. Time was divided and it fell to Reynolds to make the opening speech. Reynolds had been to several of Clark's meetings and he had heard Clark's stock of stories until he knew them by heart. So, after he had made his acknowledgments to the assemblage gathered at the cross roads. Mr. Reynolds started off with, "When Mr. Clark arises to address you tonight he will begin by telling you this story." Mr. Reynolds gave the story with which
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Mr. Clark usually opened. He made his own application of it and then pro- ceeded to the next story. And he went on until he had told the whole string of stories which constituted Mr. Clark's regulation speech. And Champ Clark sat there for an hour wondering how he was going to get even. When his turn came he had not solved entirely the question. With considerable difficulty he went through his impromptu remarks, recalled some new stories and refused to meet Reynolds in debate again.
Stage Fright.
Champ Clark once owned up frankly to nervousness on the platform. He said :
"It may interest young speakers who suffer from that most excruciating and exasper- ating disease or affliction known as 'stage fright' to learn that even veterans are liable to suffer from it. At any rate, I have had it so bad twice in the last eleven years that I could hardly speak at all. In 1888, when I placed David A. Ball in nomination for lieuten- ant-governor, my tongue was so dry that I thought it would stick to the roof of my mouth in spite of all I could do, and my knees knocked together as though I had ague. Again, in 1893, at Tammany Hall, when I began, I had as severe a case of stage fright as any girl that ever appeared before the footlights for the first time. But, in each instance, there was something in the first sentence that set the audience to laughing and applauding, and the dreadful sensation-for that's what it is-passed off suddenly. So far as I know, there is neither preventive nor cure for this strange disease, if disease it may be called. There is just a little unpleasant nervousness immediately preceding the beginning of any speech of importance that I make. Governor Charles P. Johnson-a rare judge in matters oratorical-once told me that if I ever ceased to feel that way it would be an infallible sign that my powers as a public speaker were on the wane."
The Spittoon Racket.
Under the desk of each member of the Missouri legislature in the old days was a big iron spittoon with a loose top. If a speaker became tiresome or voiced unpopular sentiment, it was the custom to rattle the spittoons. A member could insert the toe of his shoe under the cover and by withdrawing it suddenly make a sharp clicking noise. He could do this secretly so that only those very near him could discover his action. If, as sometimes happened, a considerable number joined in the rebuke the noise would drown an ordinary tone. Spittoon rattling was not infrequently resorted to as a method of disconcerting new members when they took the floor for their maiden efforts. Champ Clark came to the legislature for his first term. He had heard about the spittoon rattling. When he arose to make his first speech he was given close attention. For ten minutes he went on without interruption. Then from a few seats back of him came the "click," "click," "click." Turning squarely about and looking straight in the direction from which the sound came, his face flaming with indignation, Mr. Clark said: "The next man that interrupts me that way will have a spittoon fired at his head." He never heard another spittoon rattle when he had the floor during his entire legislative service.
Oratory and Eats in the Ozarks.
Judge David P. Dyer, in a reminiscent mood, told of this incident in a Mis- souri campaign :
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"It was at the close of a remarkable campaign in Missouri politics. Judge Lamm and I were republicans; our democratic friends .had a rally at Springfield, the largest that had been had in that part of the state, and a beautiful day it was when their rally came. Their orators were there; great crowds were there, and the next day had been set aside for the republican rally. It was the year that Judge Lewis, now Federal judge in Colorado, was the candidate of the republican party for governor of Missouri. Lamm and I, with others, went to Springfield for this republican rally. Men from the mountains-Ozark mountains -and all around came in great numbers, by wagon, on horseback and otherwise, camped on the outskirts of the town and tvere undertaking to outdo their opponents by the size of the crowd and enthusiasm that was had at the meeting. We woke up about sunrise of the next morning, the morning that the rally was to be, and I have never seen it rain as hard in my life as it rained that day. It rained all day and they divided up the crowd by sending part of them to the opera house and part of them to the court house and a part to some other hall and so the meetings were running all day. I was on the north side of the town. They sent Lamm over to the court house and he was making a speech about 12 o'clock. Judge Hubbard, who had been judge of the circuit court and I believe then was judge of the circuit court, was the marshal on that occasion and I will never forget the size of the sash he wore. It was a red, white and blue sash a yard wide and ten feet long and he was an excitable fellow and very nervous. Lamm was making a speech and he was making a most eloquent one. He had the crowd entranced, and just as he was in the middle of a sentence with his mouth wide open and his hand uplifted Hubbard said, 'I want to announce to the people here assembled that there is a free lunch downstairs.' And that crowd left Judge Lamm with his mouth open and his hand up. He stood until he saw the last one of his auditors pass downstairs."
Vest's Political Barometer for Missouri.
Senator Vest was not surprised at the result of the election in 1900. He realized what was coming early in the campaign and on his return to Washing- ton he told how the truth dawned upon him. One day in September he went down to the barber shop at Sweet Springs, where he had a cottage. He was sitting in a chair out of the way of ordinary observation when two typical Mis- souri farmers came in and began to talk politics. "Bill," the senator heard one say to the other, "what do you think about the election anyhow?" The senator was all attention, for he knew how to catch the course of the wind with a mighty small straw. "I dunno, Jim," said Bill. "I dunno hardly what to think. You know I've allers been a democrat, Jim. Dad was a democrat before me. Grandpap was a democrat, too. But I tell you, Jim, I'm getting $32 a head more for my mules than I ever did in my life before. Derned if I don't think I'll have to put in one fer old Bill McKinley this time." There was silence for part of a minute and then the reply from the other: "I reckon, Bill, you're right," said Jim, thoughtfully. "I've always voted her straight democrat up till now. But I'm doin' better on hogs than I ever did. I don't want anything to spoil good times. I don't want ary change." The senator did not interrupt. He sat awhile longer and then he went slowly back to the cottage and said to Mrs. Vest : "Mckinley is going to be elected. Bryan hasn't a chance." He told the barber shop incident and added simply his conviction that when Mis- souri democrats talked that way there could be no doubt how the country was going.
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CHAPTER XIX
SLAVERY AND AFTER
Immigration Influenced-Illinois Envious of Missouri Prosperity-The Secret Emancipa- tion Movement-Benton's Participation-Coming of Lovejoy-Wrecking of the St. Louis Observer-The Alton Tragedy-Treatment of Missouri Slaves-What Kossuth Saw-A Problem of Colonial Days-Marion College Troubles-Rev. Dr. Nelson's Expulsion-Theological Students Sent to the Penitentiary-Shackleford's Reminiscences -Dred Scott-Five Years of Litigation-The Missouri Compromise Unconstitutional -The Case Judge Dyer Defended-Blair Slaves Set Free-Lincoln and Blair Confer- ences-Slavery Issue in 1860-Auctions in St. Louis made Odious-Lincoln's Plan to Pay Missouri Slaveholders-John B. Henderson's Recollections-Norton's Effective Opposition-Charcoals and Claybanks-First and Second Plans of Freedom-The Elec- tion of 1862-Negro Education-Lincoln Institute-Jesse James' Contribution-Manual Training-Samuel Cupples' Interest-Vest on the ex-Slave-Negro Farming in Mis- souri-Record Breaking Results at the Dalton School-Calvin M. Woodward's Monu- ment-Slavery in Missouri an Economic Mistake-Profitable in Only Four Hemp Grow- ing Counties-An After-the-War Investigation.
We can't get through this terrible war with slavery existing. You've got sense enough to know that. Why can't you make the border states' members see it? Why don't you turn in and take pay for your slaves from the government? Then all your people can give their hearty support to the Union We can go ahead with emancipation of the slaves by proclamation in the other states and end the trouble. --- President Lincoln to Senator John B. Henderson in 1862.
No sooner was Missouri admitted to the Union than there was a renewal of the slavery issue in the new-made state across the Mississippi. Ford in his His- tory of Illinois, said: "A tide of emigrants was pouring into Missouri, through Illinois, from Virginia and Kentucky. In the fall of the year every great road was full of them all bound for Missouri, with their money, and long trains of teams and negroes. These were the most wealthy and best educated emigrants from the slave states. Many of our people, who had lands and farms to sell, looked upon the great fortune of Missouri with envy, whilst the lordly emigrant, as he passed along with his money and droves of negroes, took a malicious pleasure in increasing it, by pretending to regret the shortsighted policy of Illinois, which precluded him from settlement amongst us, and from purchasing the lands from our people. In this mode a desire to make Illinois a slave state became quite prevalent." When the Missouri question was before Congress the two Illinois Senators, Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas, voted to admit as a slave state, while the single Representative, Cook, was on the other side. Whether Illinois should follow Missouri and become a slave state was one of the chief issues in the election of 1822. There were four candidates for governor. Edward Coles, who had come out from Virginia and had freed his slaves, was elected by
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