USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109
On the last named day the returned volunteers were given a grand
*Afterward general in command of the Federal army at the first battle of Bull Run.
249
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
reception by the people of the county. The place selected was in Walnut Grove, a beautiful grassy wood on the level ground east of the bridge on the road from Miami to the bottom lands below. The assemblage of peo- ple, including the soldiers and many from adjoining counties, was very large. The order of the day was as follows: A procession was formed beginning where the Stewart hotel now stands, in Miami. It was regu- larly marshaled and marched, with music and banners, to the grounds, forming quite an imposing pageant. A magnificent barbecue dinner was served. The meats were cooked in deep pits in the ground and served up in huge trenchers on a long table. Col. John Brown, then the repre- sentative of the county, presided. W. T. Hewitt, of Miami, was orator of the day, and his address of welcome to the Saline county heroes was replete with eloquence, cordiality and patriotism. After dinner many gratulatory and patriotic toasts were offered and cordially responded to. One of these toasts remembered was:
THIS BARBECUE .- A home harvest-feast for the brave boys who have been reaping laurels on the fields of Bracito and Sacramento.
In the evening there was a grand ball in a large hemp warehouse at the foot of Main street, Miami, which was largely attended and partici- pated in by the best people of the county.
FROM 1844 TO 1850.
Pursuant to a treaty made with the Sac and Fox Indians at their agency in southern Iowa in 1842, they were removed from that state in the fall of . 1845 and in the spring of 1846 to Kansas. Those who left in the fall of 1845 were not in charge of a government agent, but came voluntarily down the Grand river to its mouth, and then crossed over to the Saline county side to spend the winter in the bottom nearly opposite Brunswick, waiting for the mild weather of spring to remove to their reservation in Kansas. They arrived in the Miami bottom in January, 1846. The party was in charge of the renowned chief, Keokuk ("the Watchful Fox"), Young Black Hawk, and other prominent braves. It numbered about five hundred men, women and children.
Soon after the arrival of the Indians the people of north Saline grew very indignant, chiefly because the Indians were fast destroying the game, and efforts were being made to call out the militia and drive them out, when unexpectedly Maj. Harvey, a superintendent of Indian affairs, arrived at his home, a few miles south of Miami. On learning the state of affairs, he came to Miami, and sent messengers to the Indian camp, requesting the chiefs and head men to come up and have a "talk." In a small yard, inclosed in front of the house now owned by Mrs. Mary
250
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
Walden, the council met. Keokuk and Young Black Hawk, with a few of their retainers and their interpreter, Joseph Smart, represented the Indians, and Major Harvey and a deputation of citizens represented the whites. There was considerable parleying on both sides. The Indians evinced great opposition to moving at that time on account of the inclem- ency of the weather and the suffering that must inevitably ensue among their women and children. The matter was at last settled by the philan- thropic Major Harvey. He owned a large tract of timber land on the bottom above Miami, to which the Indians consented to remove their camp, and remain until next spring, and not trespass upon the lands owned by the other whites in the meanwhile. This arrangement satisfied all parties, and the Indians soon were in their new quarters.
While the Indians were here encamped they were visited by hundreds of the citizens of the county, from far and near. They always received their visitors very friendly, and made them welcome as well as they could. Several trials of skill, in the use of the rifle, took place between them and the white marksmen of that day, and as powder and lead with them were scarce, they invariably stipulated in these shooting matches that the whites should furnish the ammunition. On one occasion, Dr. Dun- lap, of Miami, had been out quail shooting, and had been able to secure a few braces of these birds. Being close to the Indian camp on his way home, he visited it. The squaws and boys gathered about him, and see- ing the game he carried, by a variety of ejaculations and gestures expressed their contempt for a man who would waste powder and lead on such small game as quail!
The Indians left in March for their Kansas reservation, and not long afterward, the great chief Keokuk died of delirium tremens, after a pro- longed debauch. Young Blackhawk, it is said, had for a wife, or rather for one of his wives, the daughter of a white woman, captured by the Sacs in early days. This is a mistake. The woman in question was. a white woman, but she was from a small town in Iowa, and being forced to leave her home for improper and immoral conduct, joined the Indians at their camp, at the town of Iowaville, in Van Buren county, Iowa, and became the wife or rather the paramour of Young Black Hawk, or " Pete," as the whites in Iowa called him. The Indians were well acquainted with Saline county and this part of Missouri, generally, hav- ing, some of them, lived here in the " long ago," and others of them hav- ing visited here during the war of 1812.
In the presidential canvass of 1848, General Zachary Taylor, of Louis- iana, was the whig candidate for president, with Millard Fillmore, of New York, for vice-president. The democrats nominated Gen. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for president, and General Wm. O. Butler, of Kentucky, for vice-president. There was no very unusual excitement in this year, in
251
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
Saline county. The whigs carried the county by a reduced majority, the vote being as follows:
Taylor und Fillmore. 536
438
Cass and Butler
Majority for the whigs 9S
Not every whig voted for Gen. Taylor. Some of the returned soldiers did not like him, and voted against him. There was a third Presidential ticket in the field, that of the free-soilers, composed of Martin Van Buren, formerly an ardent democrat, and Charles Francis Adams, but it received no votes outside of the free states.
The whigs made strenuous efforts to carry the state of Missouri for " Old Rough and Ready," as they called Gen. Taylor, as they did through- out the Union. One verse of one of their campaign songs indicates the animus of their canvass:
O, Jimmy Polk we thought a joke in 1844,
When he was made the nominee by the Locos at Baltimore; But now we'll lookout what we're about before it gets too late, And we'll have no such cruel tricks played off in '48.
Although the whigs succeeded in electing their nominee,s they failed to carry Missouri. The vote was, for the democratic electors, 40,077; for the whig electors, 32,671; majority for the democrats, 7,406.
In January of this year began a series of discussions in the legislature con- cerning the question of slavery, or rather the power of congress over slavery in the territories. The " Wilmot Proviso," so-called from its author, Hon. David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, had been introduced into a previous congress, providing as follows:
That as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty that may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involun- tary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.
This was during the debate in congress over the bill appropriating moneys to carry on the Mexican war.
The Wilmot Proviso caused great discussion throughout the Union, and considerable excitement in the South. Col. Switzler says* that the people of the southern states were much alarmed for the security of their " pecu- liar institution," and felt the keenest apprehensions that by the admission of new states, devoted forever to free soil, they would lose their dominance in the national legislature, and soon become an easy prey to the designs of the abolitionists. It was quite natural that a large portion of the peo- ple of Missouri, without regard to political party distinctions, should share these convictions with varying degrees of intensity. Some, it is true,
*History of Missouri p. 264.
252
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
were so wedded to the institution of slavery that rather than abandon it in Missouri, by any plan or process, they seemed willing to dissolve the Union. Others, while feeling strongly attached to and believing in slavery, were at the same time devoted to the Union. Either they or their ances- tors or their kinsmen, had fought for it, and its flag to them was a holy thing. While desiring to perpetuate, and to extend, the " peculiar insti- tution," they shrank aghast at the idea of dissolving the Union. They believed that the Union and slavery ought to and could be preserved together. The latter sentiments were shared by most of the whigs and many of the democrats of Saline county.
In the legislature, on the 15th of January, Hon. C. F. Jackson, who had long been a citizen of Saline, but who had removed to Howard county, and was then a senator from that district, introduced some resolutions on the subject of the nature of the Federal government, and its power over the question of slavery in the territories. The following is a copy of these resolutions :
Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri: That the Federal constitution was the result of a compromise between the conflicting interests of the states which formed it, and in no part of that instrument is to be found any delegation of power to congress to leg- islate on the subject of slavery, excepting some special provisions, having in view the prospective abolition of the African slave trade, made for the securing the recovery of fugitive slaves; any attempt, therefore, on the part of congress, to legislate on the subject, so as to affect the institution of slavery in the states, in the District of Columbia, or in the territories, is, to say the least, a violation of the principles upon which that instrument was founded.
2. That the territories, acquired by the blood and treasure of the whole nation, ought to be governed for the common benefit of the people of all the states, and any organization of the territorial governments, excluding the citizens of any part of the Union from removing to such territories, with their property, would be an exercise of power by con- gress inconsistent with the spirit upon which our federal compact was based, insulting to the sovereignty and dignity of the states thus affected, calculated to alienate one portion of the Union from another, and tending ultimately to disunion.
3. That this general assembly regard the conduct of the northern states on the subject of slavery as releasing the slave-holding state from all further adherence to the basis of compromise fixed on by the act of congress of March 6, 1820; even if such act ever did impose any obliga- tion upon the slave-holding states, and authorizes them to insist upon their rights under the constitution; but, for the sake of harmony, and for the preservation of our Federal Union, they will still sanction the application of the principles of the Missouri Compromise to the recent territorial acquisitions, if by such concession future aggressions upon the equal rights of the states may be arrested and the spirit of anti-slavery fanaticism be extinguished.
4. The right to prohibit slavery in any territory belongs exclusively
253
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
to the people thereof, and can only be exercised by them in forming their constitution for a state government or in their sovereign capacity as an independent state.
5. That in the event of the passage of any act of congress conflicting with the principles herein expressed, Missouri will be found in hearty co-operation with the slave-holding states, in such measures as may be deemed necessary for our mutual protection against the encroachments of northern fanaticism.
6. That our senators in congress be instructed and our representatives be requested to act in conformity to the foregoing resolutions.
These resolutions engrossed the attention of public men and the consid- eration of the public mind for a time almost as much as the Wilmot pro- viso. They were known as the "Jackson resolutions," from the name of their mover, but their real author was Hon. W. B. Napton, of Saline county, one of the most prominent men and one of the ablest lawyers and jurists of the state .*
The champion of the resolutions in the legislature was Hon. C. F. Jackson (afterward governor), really a Saline county man, and the leader of the opposition to them was also from this county, Hon. Geo. C. Bingham, the painter-statesman-soldier, who was raised chiefly at Arrow Rock, and painted his first picture there on a walnut board prepared by himself while working as an apprentice in a cabinet shop.
The resolutions passed both houses of the legislature-the senate by a vote of 23 to 6; the house by 53 to 27. Col. Benton, one of the United States senators from this state, appealed from the instructions of the leg- islature to the people, canvassed the state against them, and divided the democratic party in this state into two factions, known as the Benton and the anti-Benton democrats, or the "hards " and the "softs." The result was that at the next session of the legislature the whigs succeeded in electing their candidate, Hon. H. S. Geyer, to the United States senate to succeed Col. Benton.
In the summer of 1849, cholera again made its appearance in this county,
*DEAR SIR .- You are right in assuming that I am the author of the "Jackson resolu." tions." I wrote them at the request of Governor Jackson and other members of the legisla- ture. On the morning after they were prepared, Gov. Jackson, Judge Scott, Carty Wells, George W. Hough, and probably one or two other friends of mine whose presence has been forgotten, called on me at my room in the capitol, and I read the resolutions and they approved them. These gentlemen are all dead now, and the principles of government declared in the resolutions are also dead. The gentlemen named and myself happened to agree in political opinions and were intimate personal friends, and this was doubtless the reason why I was called on to draw up the resolutions.
Whether or not the conversion of the Federal government into a national one, which the civil war effected, will result in ultimate benefit, time alone can show. I confess to a partiality to the principles of state sovereignty as defined by Jefferson and Madison, and all the early republican presidents, by the Virginia resolutions of 1798-9, and Madison's report, and by the Kentucky resolutions. It was upon these original documents of our early statesmen that the resolutions you refer to, introduced into the Missouri legislature by Gov. Jackson, were based, and I am only entitled to the credit of putting them in a shape that was acceptable to my political friends and associates.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ELK HILL, May 8, 1881.
W. B. NAPTON.
254
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
and this time was very fatal and destructive. Arrow Rock, Saline City, Cambridge, Miami, and Marshall were all visited by the dreadful scourge, and there were many cases in the country. There was the greatest alarm throughout the county. Farmers and others living in the country feared to visit the towns, even to procure family supplies or medical attendance. When they came in, they would ride up in front of a store, call for what they wanted, receive it, and without dismounting, gallop hastily away. The negroes were very much affected by the general alarm, and worked faithfully for their masters, and for the time being at least were not eye- servants. Some of them died, and this among other circumstances, fright- ened them into doing their duty. A story illustrative of these times was related by the people of those days, but it is hardly fit for ears polite.
A Mr. Snoddy first brought the cholera to Marshall. He had been to Miami, where he contracted the disease. He rode into Marshall, but had to be helped from his horse. In a short time he was dead. Dr. Hicks, a prominent physician of Marshall, attended Mr. Snoddy. In but a short time the doctor himself was taken. He suffered but little, apparently, and declared that he underwent no pain, although he felt certain that he would die. In a brief period he had passed away. Some negroes in town were attacked, and died. The number of deaths in the town of Marshall was six; the whole number in the county about fifty.
FROM 1850 TO 1860.
From 1850 to 1860 the county steadily prospered. The seasons were propitious, the harvests universally abundant, and prosperity was general and substantial. Thousands of tons of hemp, of bushels of wheat, of pounds of tobacco, were annually raised and shipped, from which golden returns, in abundance, were always received. The large land-holders of the county owned many slaves that did the work and made the wealth of their owners.
Miami and Arrow Rock were the principal shipping points, and much business was transacted at these ports, in the line of forwarding produce and receiving merchandise.
FIRST RAILROAD AGITATION.
All of the goods and merchandise used and consumed in the county prior to about the year 1858, were shipped on steamboats. In 1852-3, there was a very considerable effort made to secure the location of the Pacific railway through the county. Many public meetings were held and the county court, authorized by the people, agreed to make an order, issuing bonds to a considerable extent, in favor of the road, upon its com- pletion through the county. It was contemplated by the people of Cooper,
255
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
Saline and Lafayette, to have the road leave Jefferson City or George- town, and pass through their counties via Booneville and Marshall. But those having the building of the line in charge located it upon what was called the southern route, to Sedalia via California, for upon this line they owned tracts of land, which became largely enhanced in value, in conse- quence of the building of the railroad.
At the session of the county court, September, 1852, an election was ordered to be held, October 2, " for the purpose," according to the record, "of taking the sense of the people, upon the proposition that the county court of Saline county subscribe for stock of the Pacific railroad, to the amount of $100,000; and if it should be necessary to secure the said road tó run through the body of our county, to pass in a reasonable distance of the county seat; that the said court subscribe for the stock of said road to the amount of $200,000, or go as far as $300,000 worth of stock, rather than to fail in securing said road to pass through the body of the county."
Considerable of a canvass was made throughout the county, by friends of the project, attended with much discussion of the subject. The elec- tion came off and an examination of the poll books disclosed these facts: Four hundred and seventy-three votes were cast at the election. For subscribing $100,000, there were 274 votes; for subscribing $200,000, there were 244 votes; for subscribing $300,000, there were 205 votes, and against subscribing for any stock there were 199 votes.
At the November session it was ordered that $200,000 worth of stock should be subscribed for, provided the road should be built by way of Arrow Rock and Marshall. John Locke Hardeman was appointed agent of the county to subscribe for the stock to the aforesaid amount, and to attend to any other business in relation to railroad matters required of him by the court.
No opportunity was ever given Mr. Hardeman to make the subscrip- tion, for, as before stated, the road was located upon the southern line, and not upon the "river route." A great calamity to Saline, Cooper, and Lafeyette counties, then acting in concert to secure the location of the important thoroughfare known as the Pacific railroad, now called the Mis- souri Pacific. This was the first legislation upon the subject of railroads by the authorities of Saline county.
January 31, 1857, an election was held "to test the sense of the people in regard to the propriety of the county court's subscribing, on behalf of the county, for stock in a railroad which shall run from Lexington, and pass centrally through Saline county, connecting with the Pacific road at some point west of Jefferson City," which subscription was to be to the amount of $300,000 to $400,000. The people not taking kindly to the
256
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY. .
idea of "plug" railroads, the proposition was voted down by a good majority. The following was the vote of the county, by townships :
Townships.
For $300,000.
For $400,000.
Against any Appropriation.
Arrow Rock
17
32
104
Jefferson .
9
5
172
Miami ..
1
14
207
Grand Pass
0
27
5
Salt Pond.
9
13
105
Blackwater.
1
11
40
Marshall .
2
103
36
Total
39
205
669
Majority for no appropriation
425
Politics engrossed a very large share of the time and attention of the people. The constant agitation of the slavery question in congress and elsewhere attracted the attention of the people of this county. While there was probably not a single out-and-out abolitionist in the county, there were many who antagonized the extreme position of some pro-slavery men upon the question of the "peculiar institution," and deprecated the constant turmoil upon the question then going on.
The two political parties in the county were the democratic and whig parties, the latter being slightly in the majority. In the presidential con- test of 1852, Gen. Winfield Scott was the nominee of the whigs and Gen. Franklin Pierce the democratic candidate. The freesoilers had a ticket in the field headed by John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, but it cut only a very insignificant figure in the campaign. This campaign will ever be regarded as a memorable one, since it was the last in which the old whig party, as a party, presented a presidential candidate. Gen. Scott was quite well and favorabiy known throughout the country. He was a hero of three wars and commander-in-chief of the U. S. army during the war with Mexico. He had been a brave and gallant soldier, who had shed his blood for his country. British lead was in his body, which he carried with him to his grave. But however great Gen. Scott was as a soldier, he was an utter failure as a politician and as a candidate. His first speech in the campaign, to a deputation of foreigners in which he declared that he " loved the rich Irish brogue and the sweet German accent," made him the butt of his opponents, and a subject of general ridicule, while his posi- tion upon both sides of the Missouri compromise question, the tariff ques- tion and other measures regarded as of moment, effectually killed his case . before the American people, and he was overwhelmingly defeated by his opponent, a comparatively obscure New England senator and a brigadier general of volunteers in the Mexican war. Twenty-eight years thereafter Gen. Scott's namesake, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock was as deci-
257
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
dedly, although not near so overwhelmingly defeated in a contest for the presidency.
In Saline county this year the whigs, under Letcher, Maupin, and others, were met by the democrats led by C. F. Jackson, Dr. Penn and others. The whigs fought hard, for they were fighting their last battle under their old party organization. They carried the county by the fol- lowing vote:
Scott and Graham 514
Pierce and King 443
Majority for the whigs 71
Very soon after the presidential election of this year, the whig party fell to pieces. From its ruins sprang up the American party, of which most of the " old line" whigs became members, and for whose candidates most of them thereafter voted. But for many years thereafter, and even to this day, there were, and are voters in Saline county called by themselves "whigs,"-who yet believe in Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, free banks, and internal improvements.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1856.
In 1856, the American or Know-nothing party, composed of old whigs and a few democrats, with a platform embodying the principles of opposi- tion to the holding of office by foreigners and Roman Catholics, carried Saline county by a considerable majority. The candidates were James Buchanan and John C. Breckenridge of the democrats, Millard Fillmore and Andrew Jackson Donelson of the Americans, and John C. Fremont and Wm. L. Dayton, of the republicans. Votes were cast in Saline for only Buchanan and Fillmore, as follows:
Fillmore and Donelson S53
Buchanan and Breckenridge. 599
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.