USA > Missouri > Shelby County > General history of Shelby County, Missouri > Part 8
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At his death, in 1858, there was gen- eral sorrow, and though during his polit- ical career some men had fought him hard and long, in his death they rever- enced his name as a great man.
For congress there were but two can- didates in this district, Hon. James J. Lindley, Whig, Know Nothing, &c., and Hon. James S. Green, regular Demo- crat, of Lewis county. The Germans of Bethel township voted solid for Benton. The result follows:
For Governor-R. C. Ewing. 411; Trusten Polk, 325; Thomas II. Benton, 166. Congressman-J. J. Lindley, 462; J. S. Green, 364. Legislature-John McAfee, 382; G. H. Edwards. 450. Sher- iff-J. M. Ennis, 447; E. L. Holliday. 424. Treasurer-J. M. Marmaduke, 453; Joe Bell, 398.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1856-THE "KNOW NOTHINGS."
For governor there were three candi- The Presidential election of 1856 was one of the most exciting elections ever known in Shelby county. The contest dates. Trusten Polk was the regular Democratie nominee, with Hancock Jack- son for lieutenant-governor; Thomas II. was between the Democratic leaders,
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Buchanan and Breckenridge, and the nominees of the Native American or "Know Nothing" party, Filhnore and Donelson. The fight was an aggressive one. Enthusiastic meetings were held and a large vote was polled. The Native American or "Know Nothing" party, since it has become extinct, deserves spe- cial mention, as it once had a strong grip on this county.
It was organized sometime in the de- cade of 1830, but remained in an em- bryonic stage for years, or until 1853, the year the Whig party went overboard, the "Know Nothing's" embraced this opportunity and forged their way to the fore ranks. In 1854 the first lodge was organized in this county, but in 1856 they were quite numerous. The party was an eccentrie one, a secret, political order, its members oathbound, involving in the order its passwords, signs, grips, signals and salutes-all the parapher- nalia of the secret order. They worked seeretly to accomplish all that they pub- licly professed. It carried in its mem- bership chiefly ex-Whigs, although it also made some inroads on the Democratie party. Its chief cornerstone or plank in its platform was that "Americans must rule America" or that none but native born Americans and non-Catholics can hold office and favored a radical change in the naturalization laws. It is said that the hailing salutation of the order was "Have you seen Sam?" If an- swered by the inquiry "Sam who?" the response came "Uncle Sam." Such a boost did the party have that they car- ried many counties and districts. The 1856 platform of the "Missouri Know Nothings" was:
1. That we regard the maintenance of the union of these United States as the paramount political good.
2. A full recognition of the rights of the several states, as expressed and re- served in the Constitution, and a careful avoidance by the general government of all interference with their rights by the legislative or exeentive action.
3. Obedience to the Constitution of these United States as the supreme law of the land, sacredly obligatory in all its parts and members-a striet construc- tion thereof and steadfast resistance to the spirit of innovation of its principles -avowing that in all doubtful or dis- puted points it may only be legally as- certained and expounded by the judicial powers of the United States.
4. That no person should be selected for political station, whether native or foreign born, who recognizes any alle- giance or obligation to any foreign prince, potentate or power, or who re- fuses to recognize the federal or state Constitutions (each within its sphere) as paramount to all other laws or rules of political action.
5. Americans must rule America ; and to this end, native born citizens should be selected for all state and federal of- fices in preference to naturalized citi zens.
6. A change in the laws of naturaliza- tion, making a continued residence of twenty-one years an indispensable requi- site for citizenship, and exelnding all paupers and persons convicted of crime from landing on our shores; but no in- terference with the vested rights of for- eigners.
7. Persons that are born of American
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parents, residing temporarily abroad, are entitled to all the rights of native- born citizens.
8. An enforcement of the principle that no state or territory can admit oth- ers than native-born citizens to the rights of suffrage, or of holding political office, unless such persons have been nat- nralized according to the laws of the United States.
9. That congress possesses no power under the Constitution to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the states where it does or may exist, or to exclude any state from admission into the union be- cause its Constitution does or does not recognize the institution of slavery as a part of its social system and (expressly pretermitting any expression of opinion upon the power of congress to establish or prohibt slavery in any territory), it is the sense of this meeting that congress ought not to legislate upon the subject of slavery within the territories of the United States ; and that any interference by congress with slavery as it exists in the District of Columbia, would be a vio- lation of the spirit and intention of the compact by which the state of Maryland ceded the district to the United States, and a breach of the natural faith.
10. That we will abide by and main- tain the existing laws on the subject of slavery as a final and conclusive settle- ment of the subject in spirit and in sub- stance, believing this course to be the best guarantee of future peace and fra- ternal amity.
A full vote swelled the ticket in each party and election returns showed the "Know Nothings" in the majority in this county. The returns were: Fil- more ("Know Nothing"), 432; Buch-
anan (Dem.), 373. The leading "Know Nothings" in the county were James Gooch, John Dunn, Leonard Dobbin, Jolın S. Duncan, George Gaines, James Foley, Dr. J. Bell, Henry W. Sheetz, Jo- seph M. Irwin, Thomas O. Eskridge and others. Prominent among the Demo- erats were Alex McMurtry, William R. Strachan, J. M. Ennis, John McAfee, W. J. Holliday, John F. Benjamin, John Dickerson, Perry B. Moore, Lewis Ja- cobs, Henry Lonthan and J. B. Marma- duke.
ELECTION OF 1858.
The Angust election of 1858 attracted little attention in Shelby county. The state Democratie ticket and John B. Clark for congress had no opposition here, neither had Democrat J. M. Ennis for sheriff. There was some contest, however, for the legislature. The Dem- ocratie candidate was William Richmond Strachan, who four years after became motorions throughout northeast Missouri as General McNeil's provost marshal. The Democrats swept everything and Strachan was elected by a large majority over the Whig candidate, Singleton, the Whigs losing much ground in this county as well as territory throughout the en- tire state.
SLAVERY DAYS.
In order to perpetuate the history of the past for the coming generations, some things are dwelt upon in these pages that the future may come in touch. actually know and feel just what the life of their forefathers was of other days. Children are educated in the day schools. but they too often are taught the foreign incidents of life. It is all in an outside world and is not brought within our own
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home land, country and county. What child does not know that slavery actually existed in other days, but how many men, women or children know the history of slavery in our own county, and the his- tory of slavery in our own county is an integral part of the history of slavery as it existed.
In the early part of the year 1860, there were 724 slaves in Shelby county, which was the maximum number ever in the county at any one time. The majority of the slaves were in the south part of the county and were employed in agricul- tural pursuits. It was transplanted here from Virginia and Kentucky, from whence came so many of our first set- tlers. They owned the slaves there and when they moved westward, to a new country, they knew they would have need of them and, as a rule, the slaves wanted to come along with "Massa." Few were ever brought into this county and sold on speculation, as there was no profit in the business, but many were taken into the far South and they sold there for a good profit, and were trafficked in large numbers. Under some of the loose moral workings of the system of the slave ne- gro the race increased rapidly, some of the slave girls becoming mothers at four- teen years of age. The slave owners worked the slave system for profit, not for social power and supremaey alone. The slave holder then planned his slave holdings as we plan any speculation of the present day to the best possible ad- vantage of gain. They were provided with comfortable cabins (which were cheap in that day), with coarse but com- fortable clothing (the kind that would preserve health was, of course, econ- omy), with substantial food and medical
attention was promptly administered when they were siek, but it was not al- ways humanity nor a big heart which prompted this attention, though often- times it was, but in lack of kindness, self- interest prompted the act. As a rule, the records of the county bears witness that as a rule the masters were kind, con- siderate and loyal to their holdings. Slaves were personal property and rated in a man's estate as horses and other personal possessions. To be sure, they were considered not in part with such possession, yet nevertheless they rated according to their power of increase. There was no avoiding the issue. A man had a right to the fruit of his orchard, and it justly followed the owner of a fe- male slave had a right to the offspring of his property. In some states, as Louisiana, slaves were real estate, but in Missouri they became chattels. Little or no attention was given during slavery days to the education of the slaves, but their religious teachings were not neg- lected, and they were encouraged to have prayer meetings and to institute and con- duct revivals, and especially were they drilled to a finish on the Pauline precept, "Servants, obey your masters," as one of the foremost principles and teachings of Holy Writ.
In regard to the domestic relations of slaves, convenience, in a degree, was the . system adopted and the regulations of that day would wholly shock propriety of today. Marriages were not exploits to be recorded. Indeed, most often, there was no ceremony at all, but they just "flocked together." Sometimes the husband belonged to one master and the wife to another, but in most cases the family tie was imitated and propriety
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outwardly observed. A man and wife hire belongs to me. You can have her a occupied a cabin, where they made a . year for seventy dollars by clothing her home and brought up their children after the fashion of the day. as well as she gets at home-two winter dresses, one summer dress, two shifts, one blanket, two pair shoes and stock- ings, and for the child two winter dresses, two summer dresses and two shifts. You'll have to lose the time lost in sickness by the woman, and I'll pay the doctor bills. You'll have to send for and return her when her time is out.
They not only did not have to provide for themselves, but they did not have to provide for their children. That was the master's business and duty. And the husband was usually satisfied with one wife-one at a time at any rate. The laxity in morals in regard to the connu- biał tie which existed in the South was not practiced here. Tales and tales have been told and repeated by both sides of the slavery question, tales which are too depraved and licentious to bear any but evil fruit-which have no bearing on the history of Shelby county, and we pass them up, to only remark that while some looseness of morals may have existed, yet, as a whole, the history of our county was a elean one along that line, and often, no doubt, could the fathers of some of the mulattoes be known, they would have been traced to depraved, dis- reputable white men who were not slave holders.
It became quite a common practice for a slave owner to hire out his slaves to those who had no slaves, and a good slave will bring in to his master $250 per annmin and his keep. It was made an indietable offense for a master to permit a slave to hire his own time. and it was also an offense to deal in them unless yon had a permit.
Men and women could be hired alike. To give you some idea of the terms of such a deal, we copy a letter which sets forth terms:
Feb. 3, 1844.
Mr. James Alger: Sir-I beg to en- lighten you that the woman you wish to
Yours truly, CHARLES LEIP.
As we have stated, as a rule, the rela- tion of the slave holder to his slaves was a peaceable one. As we have unkind and harsh fathers and mothers, so we had masters more or less ernel, but as a rule the slave owners were both reasonable and just.
In every municipal township there were patrols appointed by the county court, whose duty it was to patrol their respective townships a certain number of times every month and "keep tab" on the movements and ambitions of the slaves.
Slavery meant eternal vigilance. They required a continual oversight.
There was ever creeping forth that ambition for freedom, whose designs had to be nipped in the bud. In subordinate ones they had to be quelled. and loafing. prowling and quarreling had to be sup- pressed and broken up. To prevent these disorders was the business of the patrols. They were organized under their leaders and captains, and it was their duty to make their rounds at un- expected times and as suddenly as in his power lieth. No slave was allowed off the premises of his master after 9
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o'clock at night without a written pass from his master or employer. All of- fenders were made prisoners and pun- ished.
And the negroes had a pleasant lot, and perchance many of them were better off temporally and physically than to- day; but who is there that does not prize freedom above temporal blessings ? Then they had their social pleasures, their dances, their frolies, and various assen- blages.
Corn-huskings were a diversion at which many of them gathered and laughed and chatted and husked and threw eorn at each other. Then there originated a custom, after the husking- bee, to hoist the master to the shoulders of the men and carry him about the premises, singing songs improvised for the great occasion.
In the Civil war there were about seventy-five enlisted colored men from this county. The great part of them enlisted in the 2d Missouri and 1st Iowa "African Deseent."
In 1865, when the slaves were freed, many of them were anxious for a taste of liberty, and left their mistress and master and "set up" for themselves. Many of them had a distaste for country life and made a "bee line" for Hannibal, Palmyra and Macon.
Others left the state, going where anti- slavery people lived, expecting to re- ceive therefrom much substantial sym- pathy and assistance, but few ever realized their fond ambitions. Many of them got into their "noggin" that when the country freed them it would make them a donation,-and they are still looking for their "forty acres and a mule."
The Civil war was a death blow to slavery. In 1862-63 hundreds of slaves left their masters. No one can imagine the change that the turn of the wheel wrought. Even the slaves of the Union- ists ran away. When by legislative enactment and the adoption of the thir- teenth amendment the state set all slaves free, there was a great deal of discon- tent. Men vowed they would not rent the colored people a foot of ground nor lift their hand to aid them; but time has dealt kindly with us, obliterating all that feeling, and now very few would re- store slavery to our country if they had that power. In 1860 the population read : 6,565 : slaves, 724 ; free colored. 12: grand total, 7,301.
1860 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.
The 1860 presidential campaign was one that will ever be kept fresh in the minds of oncoming generations, because, for its remarkable surroundings and characteristics, its history will ever be perpetuated and kept before the minds of the people. Not only was its charac- ter affected by preceding events, but it was the pivot on which swung succeed- ing history. Among the events which preceded the election and gave color to the results, were the inflammatory speeches of great leaders of the Demo- cratic and Republican parties in both the North and the South; the enactment in the various northern states of the "per- sonal liberty bills," which rendered in- operative in those states the fugitive slave law ; exciting and printed debates in congress over the repeal of the Mis- souri Compromise; also the Kansas- Nebraska controversy, the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, Va., in the fall
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of 1859, and other minor details of more or less importance.
The country was up in arms with ex- citement, and right in the midst of the enthusiasm on came the presidential campaign, which added fire to the flames already aglow. Everywhere the slavery question was the all-absorbing topic. The populace was wronght into a frenzy. The Republican party, which as yet had not received a single vote in Shelby county, had carried by a large majority the North states in the 1856 canvass and since that time added new strength to its ranks from year to year, and as there was strife in the Democratic ranks, encouraged by the gains they had con- tinally made, they fought like tigers to win their tickets. Enthusiasm had struck both parties, but the Democratic party could not unite its forces, and at the Democratic convention at Charleston, S. C., on April 23, after a stormy and discordant session lasting several days, the ranks remained as they were at the beginning, a divide that could not be bridged, and two sets of candidates were nominated. Stephen A. Douglas and Herchel B. Johnson were the names for president and vice president of the regn- lars, and John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane by the southern or states' rights division of the party.
The "Constitutional Union" party was one composed of old Whigs, Know Nothings and conservatives from differ- ent parties. It nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, on the following brief but comprehensive platform : "The Union, the Constitution and the enforce- ment of the laws."
The Republicans then forged to the
front with Abraham Lincoln and Hanni- bal Hamlin, declaring principally in their platform that each state had the absolute right to control and manage its own domestic institutions, denying that the constitution, of its own force, carried slavery into the territories whose nor- mal condition was said to be that of freedom. Summarized, their platform declared hostility to the extension of slavery, but non-interference where it did not exist.
Missouri's situation was indeed a peculiar one. She was the only neigh- boring slave state bordering on the ter- ritories of Nebraska and Kansas, and she was deeply concerned, from a selfish if not a sentimental motive. She was both! Her people or their ancestors came largely from Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, primitive slave-holding states, and many owned slaves or were otherwise interested in the preservation of an institution against which the Re- publican party had dealt a blow. From a sentimental view it was thought to be unmanly or cowardly to yield to the coer- cion or dictates of the northern aboli- tionists.
The struggle was a memorable one. Polities were stirring. Each side fought for added strength. The canvass in the state was a spirited one. The division in the Democratic party was manifest in Missouri. The state convention nomi- nated Claiborne F. Jackson, of Saline county, for governor. The Bell and Everett party first nominated Robert Wilson. of Andrew, and on his with- drawal, Hon. S. Orr, of Green county. Then politicians commenced to sound Mr. Jackson as to his personal views on the principal question over which the
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states were contending, and, last but not least, which of the Democratic nominees did he favor. For a period of time the wily politician succeeded in eluding their strategie efforts, but at last they cor- nered him in such a manner that he came and fairly and squarely announced him- self for Douglas because he believed him to be a regularly and fairly chosen nomi- nee of the party, but also announced himself as in ntmost sympathy with some of the Breckenridge principles, which called forth again inch criticism and dissension; and soon thereafter the Breckenridge men called a state conven- tion and nominated Hancock Jackson, of Howard, for governor, and Monroe M. Parsons, of Cole, for lientenant- governor.
Encouraged by the widening gulf in the Democratic party, the Bell and Everett party had high hopes of electing their gubernatorial candidate at the Angust election and then carrying the state for Bell the following November.
To this end they used all possible means of widening the breach in the Democratic party to further the success of the cause they promulgated; but their tactics were foreseen by the enemy and they made it up to disagree on the presi- dential nominee but to support, as a whole, C. F. Jackson and Thomas C. Reynolds at the August election, and the outcome was their election by 10,000 majority; C. F. Jackson (Douglas Dem- ocrat), 74,446; Sample Orr (Bell and Everett), 64,583; Hancock Jackson (Breckenridge Democrat), 11,415; J. B. Gardenhire (Republican), 6,135.
The Shelby county vote was: C. F. Jackson, 64; Sample Orr, 576; Hancock Jackson, 95; Gardenhire, 91; which was
the first Republican vote ever cast in Shelby county.
It was said the railroads brought into the county many Republicans, and the Germans of the county cast their votes to that faith.
Nothing dannted by their defeat in Angust, the Bell and Everett contingent of Missouri kept up their fight for their presidential nominee, and only fell short a few hundred votes of electing their man in the November election. The vote as recorded was:
Douglas electors 58,801
Bell electors. 58,372
Breckenridge electors 31,317
Lincoln electors. 17,028
Douglas majority over Bell. 429
Donglas majority over Brocken- ridge 24,484
Records say that many Democrats cast their lot for Bell as the only candidate who could defeat Lincoln. In the Octo- her elections the Republicans had car- ried Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and Lincoln's election looked almost in- evitable. Fusion tickets against the Republicans had been formed in New York, New Jersey and other eastern states, and it was predicted the Tennes- see statesman might be elected after all.
The result for president in Shelby county stood: Bell, 702; Donglas, 476; Breckenridge, 293; Lincoln, 90. Bell re- ceived almost the Douglas and Brecken- ridge vote combined. The Republicans restored to Lincoln all the votes but one that had been cast to Gardenhire; and the Republicans cannot yet compute the loss of that vote, so systematically were they organized. Some jocosely say "he
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died" and some contend "it died," while others contend that the official record of 1860 was surely erroneous, contending that ninety Lincoln votes were not to be found in the county of Shelby in 1860.
THE SITUATION IN 1860.
The troubles in Kansas and the de- bates in congress on the subject of slavery had given force to the forma- tion of a new party wholly devoted to the work of opposing the extension of slavery. It took in time the name Re- publican. In 1856 its candidate for the presidency was John C. Fremont, a son-in-law of Thomas H. Benton. He received 114 of the 296 electoral votes; lience the new party had great hopes of success as the campaign of 1860 came on. Public feeling was hysterical. The whole country was aflame with sectional ani- mosities. The agitation for abolition had stirred the American people as nothing had ever done in the past. A mass of people in the northern states were determined to destroy slavery at any cost. Many southerners felt that the only way to preserve their own peace and property was to quietly withdraw from the Union.
Others said to remain in the Union and settle their difficulties there. It does seem strange now that a civilized people, who had established and for seventy years lived under a republic of popular sovereignty, could possibly have desired a perpetuation of slavery. But there were no meliorating circumstances. Slavery had formerly existed in all the colonies. When it became unprofitable in the North the slaves were sold to the southerners, with whom it was profit-
able. Many slave owners had inherited them from their fathers, and slaves were valuable property. The average man is slow to give up valuable property with- out resistance, and it was a problem to know what to do with them if they were freed. Many persons feared the consequence if millions of ignorant people should be turned loose, penni- less, among their former masters.
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