USA > Missouri > Cedar County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 14
USA > Missouri > Dade County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 14
USA > Missouri > Barton County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 14
USA > Missouri > Hickory County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 14
USA > Missouri > Polk County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 14
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Emancipation in Missouri was thus established by law, al- though it had practically existed for some time previous.
THE DRAKE CONSTITUTION.
It soon became apparent that mere amendments to the con- stitution would not satisfy the leading members of the convention, prominent among whom was Mr. Drake, of St. Louis, who had been chosen vice-president. A complete remodeling of the or-
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ganic laws of the State seemed to many not to fall within the authority of the convention, moreover they believed that the time had not come for that dispassionate and statesmanlike legislation which so important a measure demanded. However, the conven- tion proceeded with its sweeping work of reform, until it had made new provisions in every article of the fundamental law. Section 3 of Article XI, on the " Right of Suffrage, " which was the ob- ject of the most angry and exciting debate in the convention, and a prolific source of strife and division afterward, is here tran- scribed.
SEC. 3. At any election held by the people under this constitution, or in pursuance of any law of this State, or under any ordinance or by-law of any municipal corporation, no person shall be deemed a qualified voter who has ever been in armed hostility to the United States, or to the lawful authorities thereof, or to the Government of this State; or hasteyer given aid, comfort, countenance or support to persons engaged in any such hostility; or has ever in any manner adhered to the enemies, foreign or domestic, of the United States, either by contributing to them, or by unlawfully sending within their lines, mon- ey, goods, letters, or information; or has ever disloyally heid communication with such enemies; or has ever advised or aided any person to enter the service of such enemies; or has ever, by act or word manifested his adherence to the cause of such enemies, or his desire for their triumph over the armies of the United States; or his sympathy with those engaged in exciting or carrying on rebellion against the United States; or has ever, except under overpowering compulsion, submitted to the authority, or been in the service of these so-called " Confederate States of America; " or has ever left this State, and gone within the lines of the armies of the so-called " Confederate States of America," with the purpose of adhering to said States or armies; or has ever been a member of, or connected with any order, society or organization inimical to the Govern- ment of the United States, or to the Government of this State; or has ever been engaged in guerrilla warfare against loyal inhabitants of the United States, or in that description of marauding commonly known as "bushwhacking;" or has ever knowingly and willingly harbored, aided or countenanced any per- son so engaged; or has ever come into or left this State for the purpose of avoid- ing enrollment for or draft into the military service of the United States; or has ever, with a view to avoid enrollment in the militia of this State, or to escape the performance of duty therein, or for any other purpose, enrolled himself, or authorized himself to be enrolled, by or before any officer, as disloyal or as a Southern sympathizer, or in any other terms indicating his disaffection to the Government of the United States in its contest with rebellion, or his sympathy with those engaged in such rebellion; or having ever voted at any election by the people in this State, or in any other of the United States, or in any of their Territories, or under the United States, shall thereafter have sought or received, under claim of alienage, the protection of any foreign government, through any consul or other officer thereof, in order to secure exemption from military duty, in the militia of this State, or in the army of the United States; nor shall any such person be capable of holding, in this State, any office of honor, trust or
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profit under its authority; or of being an officer, councilman, director, trustee, or other manager of any corporation, public or private, now existing, or hereafter established by its authority; or of acting as a professor or teacher in any edu- cational institution, or in any common or other school; or of holding any real estate or other property in trust for the use of any church, religious society, or congregation. But the foregoing provisions in relation to acts done against the United States shall not apply to any person not a citizen thereof, who shall have committed such acts while in the service of some foreign country at war with the United States, and who has, since such acts, been naturalized, or may hereafter be naturalized, under the laws of the United States; and the oath of loyalty hereinafter prescribed, when taken by any such persons, shall be con- sidered as taken in such sense.
Section 4 provided for a registration of the names of qual- ified voters, and section 5 required that the oath indicated in the third section should be taken by every voter at the time of his registration. Taking the oath should not, however, be deemed conclusive evidence of the right of a person to vote, supposing such right could be otherwise disproved. This section also pro- vided that evidence for or against the right of any person to vote should be heard and passed upon by the registering officers and not by the judges of election.
These officers should keep a list of the names of rejected voters, and the same were to be certified to the judges of elections who were to receive the ballotof any such rejected voter, marking the same as a rejected vote; but even with these precautions the vote was not to be received unless the party casting it should, at the time, take the oath of loyalty.
Under the ninth section no person was permitted to practice law, "or be competent as a bishop, priest, deacon, minister, elder or other clergyman of any religious persuasion, sect or denomi- nation, to teach or preach, unless such person shall have first taken, subscribed and filed said oath."
While the article upon the " executive department " was pend- ing, an effort was made to introduce an amendment by which any citizen of the State, white or colored, male or female, would be eligible to the office of governor, but the amendment was rejected by a tie vote, as also a similar proposition in reference to the " Legislative Department."
It is but just to say, in this connection, that the new constitu- tion, objectionable and stringent as it was in many particulars, was
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admirable in respect to its provisions for public instruction, and was conceded to be so by its bitterest enemies.
The constitution was adopted April 8, and two days after- ward the convention adjourned sine die.
An election had been appointed for the 6th of June, 1865, to submit the new constitution to the people for their indorsement or rejection, but it had also been provided that no person should vote at that election, except those who would be qualified as voters under the second article thereof. The canvass which fol- lowed was naturally one of the greatest bitterness.
Although the war was nominally over, and all the strong- holds of the Rebellion were in the hands of the United States authorities, yet there were fragmentary guerrilla bands still roaming through various sections of the country, and the war spirit continued in undiminished force. Multitudes of taxpayers in the State, not a few of whom were honored and influential citizens, and had been noncombatants during the war, were disfranchised by the third section, and denied the privilege of voting upon the adoption or rejection of the code of laws which was to govern them and their children. On the other hand it was maintained with vigor that citizens who had attempted to destroy their Gov- ernment, who had committed treason either by open deeds of rebellion, or by encouragement, sympathy and aid given to those in rebellion, had forfeited all right to assist in conducting the affairs of State. The election resulted in a majority of 1,862 for the constitution, which accordingly went into effect July 4, 1865.
The next General Assembly which convened at Jefferson City, on November 1, proceeded to enact a registry law, which, on account of its stringency, occasioned much violence and dis- order in its enforcement. The " Ousting Ordinance," for vacat- ing certain civil offices, was also attended with unpleasant results. That portion of the ninth section in regard to ministers, lawyers and teachers excited so much trouble in the State that B. Gratz Brown, Carl Schurz and other leading Republicans set on foot December, 1866, a movement which had for its object universal amnesty and enfranchisement. The movement soon became popu- lar throughout the State, and, in his message to the Twenty-
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Fourth General Assembly, January, 1867, Gov. Fletcher recom- mended an amendment to the constitution, striking out the ninth section of the second article. At this session of the Legis- lature a constitutional amendment was submitted to the people proposing to strike the word " white " from the eighteenth sec- tion of the second article, and thus inaugurate negro suffrage in Missouri. While this amendment was under consideration in the House, Mr. Orrick of St. Charles proposed to strike out not only the word " white " but also the word "male." This effort in behalf of female suffrage was rejected; and at the election of the people in November, 1868, negro suffrage was also defeated by a majority of 18,817 votes.
The adjourned session of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly, which met on January 5, 1870, accomplished important work in several directions.
Gov. Joseph W. McClurg recommended in his message the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the constitution of the United States, passed by Congress on February 27, 1869, and transmitted to the General Assembly at the same time a copy of the amendment as follows:
ARTICLE XV.
SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropri- ate legislation.
Immediately upon the reading of the amendment, a joint reso- lution ratifying it was introduced into the Senate, and was speed- ily adopted by both Houses of the Legislature.
DIVISIONS IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
The differences of opinion regarding universal amnesty and enfranchisement were rapidly assuming the proportions of dis- cord and disintegration; and the Republican party in the State became divided in sentiment as well as in name, being known re- spectively as Radicals and Liberals; the former maintaining a severe, and the latter a more magnanimous policy toward those who had complicity with the Rebellion. The Democrats, owing to the stringent registry laws, were in a hopeless minority, and
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so attached themselves to the Liberal Republicans, believing that by this course they might best aid their disfranchised brethren, and eventually gain control of State politics. The State Nomi- nating Convention, which met at Jefferson City on August 31, 1870, witnessed the final division of the Republicans. The plat- forms of the two branches of the party, differed chiefly in regard to enfranchisement, and the articles embodying their respective sentiments were as follows:
MAJORITY OR LIBERAL PLATFORM.
Fourth. That the time has come when the requirements of public safety, upon which alone the disfranchise ment of a large number of citizens could be justified, has clearly ceased to exist, and this convention, therefore, true to the solemn pledges recorded'in our National and State platforms, declares itself une- quivocally in favor of the adoption of the constitutional amendments , com- monly called the suffrage and office-holding amendments, believing that under existing circumstances the removal of political disabilities, as well as the exten- sion of equal political rights and¿ privileges to all classes of citizens, without distinctions, is demanded by every consideration of; good faith, patriotism and sound policy, and essential to the integrity of Republican institutions, to the welfare of the State, and to the honor and preservation of the Republican party.
MINORITY OR RADICAL PLATFORM.
Third. That we are in favor of re-enfranchising those justly disfranchised for participation in the late Rebellion, as soon as it can be done with safety to the State, and that we concur in the propriety of the Legislature having submitted to the whole people of the State the question whether such time has now arrived; upon which question we recognize the right of any member of the party to vote his honest convictions.
The two reports being before the convention, the report of the minority was adopted, whereupon about 250 delegates, friends of the majority report, led by Mr. Schurz, withdrew, organized a separate convention, and nominated a full State ticket, with B. Gratz Brown as a candidate for Governor. The other convention also nominated a full ticket, headed by Joseph W. McClurg for Governor, at that time incumbent of the office.
The election of November, 1870, resulted in the choice of the B. Gratz Brown ticket by a majority of over 40,000 Liberal and Democratic votes. This election marks the period at which the Republicans, who had been for eight years in the ascendency, surrendered the power which they have since been unable to regain.
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THE MURDERS AT GUN CITY.
During the administration of Gov. Brown, a bloody infraction of the public peace occurred . at Gun City, a small station on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, in Cass County.
Judge J. C. Stevenson was one of the judges of the late county court of Cass County, that had made a fraudulent issue of bonds in the name of the county, thereby imposing heavy burdens upon the taxpayers. James C. Cline was county attor- ney, and was implicated in the swindle, and Thomas E. Detro was one of Cline's bondsmen. Both Stevenson and Cline had been indicted, and were under heavy bonds to answer for the offense with which they were charged. All of these men, to- gether with Gen. Jo. Shelby, were on the eastern bound train which reached Gun City on Wednesday, April 24, 1872. At this place logs, rails and rocks were found piled upon the track, and seventy or eighty masked and armed men compelled the en- gineer and fireman to leave the locomotive, and then commenced a terrible fusilade into and around the captured train. Loud cries were made for Cline, who stepped out on the platform, and was instantly riddled with bullets. The murderers then rushed through the train calling for the "bond robbers." They shot Judge Stevenson down in the car, and afterward dragged him out on the grass. Mr. Detro they found in the mail car, and, after severely wounding him, threw him on the roadside, where he was allowed to bleed to death. The gang then called for Gen. Jo. Shelby, but his intrepidity saved him, as he coolly kept his seat, replying, " Here I am; if you want me come and get me."
Gov. Brown at once took measures to bring the murderers to justice, but they were never discovered. No further disturbance occurred, however.
AMENDMENTS TO THE STATE CONSTITUTION.
At an adjourned session of the Twenty-sixth General Assem- bly, which convened December 6, 1871, two constitutional amendments had been submitted to the votes of the people.
These were ratified at the November election in 1872. The first increased the number of supreme court judges from three
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to five, fixing their term of office at ten years, and providing that two additional judges should be elected at the general election in 1872, and one judge at each general election, every two years thereafter.
The second provided that no part of the public school fund should ever be invested in the stock or bonds or other obliga- tions of any other State, or of any county, city, town or cor- poration; that the stock of the bank of the State of Missouri, held for school purposes, and all other stocks belonging to any school or university fund, should be sold in such manner and at such time as the General Assembly should prescribe; and the proceeds thereof, and the proceeds of the sales of any lands or other property which belonged or might hereafter belong to said school fund, should be invested in the bonds of the State of Missouri, or of the United States, and that all county school funds should be loaned upon good and sufficient and unincum- bered real estate security, with personal security in addition thereto.
REVISION OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION.
During an adjourned session of the Legislature, which met on January 7, 1874, a law had been passed authorizing a vote of the people to be taken at the general election in November, 1874, for and against calling a convention to revise and amend the constitution of the State. This convention was agreed to by a majority of only 283. An election for delegates took place on January 26, 1875. On May 5 of the same year the convention assembled at the Capitol. It consisted of sixty-eight members, sixty of whom were Democrats, six Republicans, and two Lib- erals. A thorough revision of the entire organic law was made, both in committee and in convention. Every department of the State Government passed under review, and many important changes were made, which can not be discussed here, but they are familiar to every well-informed citizen of the State.
The bill of rights occasioned much discussion. County rep- resentation, which has been a feature of every State constitution, including the first, was still maintained in spite of opposition. Carefully prepared and stringent limitations on the powers of the General Assembly were engrafted on the new instrument.
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Sessions of the Legislature were made biennial, and the guber- natorial term changed from two to four years. The formation of new counties was made extremely difficult or impossible. The power of the Legislature, and of counties, cities, towns and all other municipalities, to levy taxes and contract debts, was hedged about with limitations and safeguards. Extra mileage and per- quisites to officials were laid under embargo. Our system of free public schools, embracing a liberal policy for the mainte- nance of the State University, received recognition in the article on education. The final vote on the adoption of the constitu- tion as a whole stood-ayes, sixty; noes, none; absent, eight. October 30, 1875, the people ratified the constitution by a major- ity of 76,688, and on the 30th of November, 1875, it became the supreme law.
GOV. CRITTENDEN'S ADMINISTRATION.
In 1880, Thomas T. Crittenden, of Johnson County, received the Democratic nomination for Governor of Missouri, and was elected in November of that year. Gov. Crittenden's competitors for the nomination were Gen. John S. Marmaduke, of St. Louis, and John A. Hockaday, of Callaway County. In his inaugural address, he recommended refunding at a lower rate of interest all that part of the State debt which could be thus refunded; some measures for the relief of the docket of the supreme court of the State, and a compromise of the indebtedness of several counties. He also condemned in the strongest terms the doctrine of repu- diation.
Gov. Crittenden is by birth a Kentuckian-a direct descend- ant of the old Crittenden stock so long and deservedly prominent and popular in the State of Kentucky. Though himself a slave- holder, at the outbreak of our Civil War he espoused the cause of the Union, and no braver officer than he ever faced an army. At the close of the war he was found in the front rank of the con- servative portion of the people, who contended that peace should prevail, and the bitter animosities of the past be forgotten.
He was sent to Congress, where, in more than one instance he proved his integrity. Throughout his entire career, no stain of venality adhered to his fair name, and no act of violence char- acterized his discharge of any duty.
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Under his guiding hand, the credit of the State advanced to a par with that of the Federal Government; the debt of the State gradually diminished, and all of her educational interests fos- tered. and nourished.
When Gov. Crittenden took charge of the helm of State, a por- tion of the border was infested with a lawless band of thieves and murderers, known as the " James Gang, " who murdered without pity, and robbed without regard to person. He resolved to dis- band them. Soon some of the most desperate of the gang were in the hands of the officers, and, in one instance, when resistance and rescue were threatened, Gov. Crittenden attended the trial in person, with a few chosen friends, determined to defend the supremacy of the law with his life if necessary.
One by one, the members of this gang were hunted down and sent to the penitentiary, and finally Jesse James was shot at St. Joseph by the "Ford Boys, " former comrades, who had been employed to capture him.
HANNIBAL & ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD CONTROVERSY.
By continued legislation, commencing with the act approved February 22, 1851, and ending with that of March 26, 1881, the State of Missouri granted liberal aid in the construction of rail- roads within her boundaries. The Hannibal & St. Joseph Rail- road was among the enterprises thus assisted, and, for its con- struction, bonds of the State amounting to $3,000,000, bearing in- terest at 6 per cent per annum, payable semi-annually, were issued. One-half of these bonds were issued under the act of 1851, and the remainder under the act of 1855. The former were to run twenty years, and the latter thirty years. Some of these bonds have since been funded and renewed. Coupons for the interest of the entire $3,000,000 were executed and made payable in New York. The acts under which the bonds were issued contain vari- ous provisions designed to secure the State against loss and to make it certain that the railroad company would be bound to pay the principal and interest at maturity. It was especially made the duty of the railroad company to save the State from any and all loss on account of said bonds and coupons. The State treas- urer was not to advance any money to meet either principal or
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interest. The State contracted with the railroad company for complete indemnity. Neither was she required to relinquish her statutory mortgage lien, except upon the payment into her treas- ury of a sum of money equal to the entire indebtedness incurred by the railroad company on account of the issue and loan of her bonds.
In June, 1881, the railroad company, through its attorney, George W. Easley, Esq., paid into the State treasury $3,000,000, and asked for a receipt in full of all dues to the State. The treasurer, Mr. Philip E. Chappell, refused to give such a receipt, but instead gave a receipt for the sum "on account." Although the debt was not due, the officers of the railroad wished to pay it at this time in order to save the interest. They first asked for the bonds of the road, but these the State refused to give up. They then demanded that the $3,000,000 be paid back, and this demand was also refused. The railroad company then brought suit in the United States Court for an equitable settlement of the matter in dispute. The $3,000,000 had been deposited in a bank by.the State authorities, and was drawing interest at the rate of only one-fourth of one per cent. The railroad company asked that this money should be invested so as to yield a larger amount of interest, which interest should be allowed to its credit, in case anything should be found due from it to the State. Justice Mil- ler, of the United States supreme court, who heard the case upon preliminary injunction in the spring of 1882, decided that the unpaid and unmatured coupons constituted a liability of the State, and a debt owing, though not due, and that until these were pro- vided for, the State was not bound to assign her lien upon the road.
Another question which was raised but not decided was whether any, or if so, what account the State ought to render for the use of the money paid into the treasury by the complainants, June 20; and whether she could hold so large a sum of money, refusing to make any account of it, and yet insisting that the railroad company should make full payment of all the outstand- ing coupons.
Upon this subject Justice Miller, in the course of his opin- ion said: "I am of the opinion that the State, having accepted
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or got this money into her possession, is under a moral obligation (and I do not pretend to commit anybody as to how far its legal obligation goes) to so use that money as, so far as possible, to protect the parties who have paid it against the loss of the inter- est which it might accumulate, and which would go to extinguish the interest on the State's obligation."
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