USA > Missouri > Missouri the center state, 1821-1915 > Part 15
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"Mr. Benton's whole course was calm, collected and dignified, never uttering a harsh word, or giving expression to a feeling of unkindness to any party. He presided at the
MAJOR THOMAS BIDDLE Principal in the fated Pettis-Biddle duel
THE ROY WINDMILL TOWER OPPOSITE WHICH THE DUELS WERE FOUGHT ON BLOODY ISLAND
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meeting of the friends of Mr. Pettis, who met to give expression to their regrets, wrote the account of the duel in a calm, dignified and impartial style, which Doctor Linn and I took from his residence down to the St. Louis Beacon, a paper published by Colonel Charles Keemle. This notice was copied into almost all of the papers of the United States."
One of the earliest accounts of this duel, thought to be, from the description, written by Benton, read : "The pistols were then loaded, and put in the hands of the principals, who were stationed at the distance of five feet apart. The seconds then stood at right angles between the principals. The seconds then cocked their pistols, keeping their eyes on each other and on their principals. They had thrown up for positions, when Pettis had won the choice. Everything being ready, the pistols having been loaded, cocked and primed, and put into the hands of the principals, the words were pronounced, according to the rule of dueling-'Are you ready?' Both answered, 'We are.' The seconds then counted-'One-two- three.'
"After the word was given both principals fired with outstretched arms. The pistols were twelve or fifteen inches in length and they lapped and struck against each other, as they were discharged. There was scarcely any chance for either to escape instant death. They both fired so simultaneously, that the people on the shore heard only one report, and both men fell at the same time." The seconds in this duel were Captain Thomas and Major Ben O'Fallon.
Rev. Dr. Eliot's Protest.
The growing sentiment in St. Louis against dueling found ways of manifest- ing itself. In November, 1836, William Greenleaf Eliot, who created Washington University, came to St. Louis to live-a young man, a Unitarian minister just or- dained. One of his first letters to friends "back east" contained this: "We had a duel here yesterday between two young fools, lawyers. Neither hurt and will probably fight again. If I can do it incog, I mean to give them a basting in the way of the ridiculous."
St. Louis newspaper reports of duels were, as a rule, quite brief. In 1837 the Missouri Republican disposed of one of these affairs in this manner :
"Duel-A meeting took place yesterday a little before sundown on Bloody Island between Mr. William C. Skinner and Mr. William S. Meservey, of this city, in which the latter, on the first fire, received a flesh wound just below the knee. His antagonist escaped unhurt."
Three years later occurred a meeting in which the editor of the Republican. was a principal. Adam Black Chambers was "called out" by Thomas B. Hudson, a young Tennesseean. Soon after beginning the practice of law in St. Louis Hudson entered politics. He became a member of the city council, the city counselor, a member of the legislature, and ran for Congress as an anti-Benton candidate. In 1840 there was held a Democratic Van Buren rally at Creve Cœur Lake, in St. Louis County. Hudson was one of the speakers. A disturbance of serious character interrupted the meeting. Some correspondent wrote an account of the trouble for a St. Louis paper and signed the communication "Veritas." In the course of the description of the row Hudson was given credit for "bold and fearless conduct." The Missouri Republican was supporting the Whig can-
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didate for President, William Henry Harrison. It published a communication upon the Creve Cœur meeting, intimating that Hudson was "Veritas," and that he had described himself as a hero. The Republican went further, editorially endorsing the communication and saying: "We have the word of several gentle- men, and some of them Loco-focos, saying that a more disgraceful, unbecoming proceeding has not transpired during the canvass than this was. We particu- larly invite the attention of the author of 'Veritas,' reported to be the 'bold and fearless Mr. Hudson,' to this communication."
The attention was given quickly. Hudson challenged Mr. Chambers. The editor of the Republican accepted. The duel was fought with rifles at forty paces. It took place on Bloody Island in the early morning.
Hudson was accompanied by Charles Bent and John H. Watson. Chambers' friends were Martin Thomas and W. Gordon. Three times the word was given and the rifles were discharged. Nobody was hurt. The seconds refused to per- mit any more shooting. Principals, seconds and surgeons came back to St. Louis, went to the residence of Colonel Chambers, and passed the rest of the day in banqueting. The seconds joined in a card to the newspapers stating that the principals had acted with coolness and bravery.
John B. Clark, "Old Bustamente," of Fayette, had his experience with the code in that same campaign. He gave the writer this account of it: "When I ran for governor in 1840, I wrote a letter about some man being a rascal, and I spelled it wrong,-put in a 'k' I believe, instead of a 'c.' Claib Jackson was a bitter political enemy of mine. He wrote a piece about the letter in which he commented on my spelling. It was a mighty severe article. Abiel Leonard, afterward supreme judge, and I were friends, and I showed him the piece. He said I ought to fight. I sent a challenge. Jackson agreed to fight and named a place right in the edge of town here (Fayette). That was the same day the article about my spelling came out in the paper. We both were arrested before the fight could be had. I turned in and published Jackson as a coward. I said the article was a mean and cowardly attack. He had accepted my challenge and had named a place where he knew there couldn't be a fight. I had this printed in handbills and put them up on the corners. Of course, after that. I meant to shoot wherever we met, and we went prepared; but friends interfered and fixed it up. Jackson and I afterwards became friends. That was about the extent of my connection with dueling, except that I carried a challenge from Leonard to Taylor Berry in 1823. That trouble started about a speech Leonard had made. Berry horsewhipped Leonard, and the latter sent a challenge. I delivered it, meeting Berry on one of the corners downtown. They met and Berry was killed."
The Blair-Pickering Affair.
The next noteworthy resort to the code in Missouri was by Francis P. Blair, Jr., and Lorenzo Pickering. And that, too, was about Benton. Pickering was conducting the Union and had made it anti-Benton. Blair was foremost among the younger adherents of Benton. Pickering assailed Blair so bitterly in the Union that Blair, although opposed to the code, sent a challenge. Blair's "friend" in the transaction was Thomas T. Gantt, afterward judge of the court of appeals. In his acceptance, Pickering exercised the right of the challenged to name the time and place; he did it in such manner as to make the duel impos-
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sible. His stipulation was that the meeting must take place at Fourth and Pine streets; that the hour must be twelve o'clock noon. Blair "posted" Pickering. That is to say, he denounced him as a coward. A few days later the men met on Chestnut street. The sidewalk was narrow. Pickering stepped off into the roadway. He either drew a knife or made a motion as if to do so. Blair thrust his umbrella forward into Pickering's face, making a mark which was visible several days.
A short time afterward there was held a Free-Soil meeting at night in the ro- tunda of the courthouse, then a favorite place for political gatherings. Blair made a speech. He started to leave by the Fourth street front. As he stepped through the door out on the portico, which was semicircular, instead of the present form of architecture, a man greeted him with "Good evening, Mr. Blair."
The words were spoken loudly. Acknowledging the salutation, Blair continued across the portico to the steps leading down to the street. Another man stand- ing at the bottom of the steps fired and ran. The ball went by. Blair drew his pistol and fired. He ran down the steps and fired again, but without effect. At the inquiry which followed, suspicion pointed to Doctor Prefontaine, a writer on the Union, as the one who had given the loud greeting. It was supposed that this was done to give notice to the person standing at the bottom of the steps that Blair was coming. There was no positive identification of the one who fired. Street lamps were not lighted, because, as one witness explained, it was a "cor- poration moonlight" night. Pickering was arrested on suspicion, but was dis- charged. The proof against him was not positive, but the real reason why the case was not pushed was a secret agreement or understanding that he would leave Missouri. Pickering went to California with the goldseekers, started a paper in San Francisco and became widely known and wealthy. Blair and Gantt were summoned to court for participating in a challenge to fight a duel. They pleaded guilty and were fined $1 each. The district attorney who prosecuted was Samuel T. Glover, who became one of the leaders of the St. Louis bar twenty years later. The judge who imposed the fine was James B. Colt, a brother of the maker of Colt's revolvers.
The Blair-Pickering affair was far-reaching in its relationship to newspaper destinies in St. Louis. With the departure of Pickering, the Union not only changed hands, but entered upon a new political course. It took up the fight for Benton in his appeal from the pro-slavery resolutions of the Missouri legis- lature. Blair and Brown contributed most of the editorials. Brown found newspaper work to his liking. When in the summer of 1852, Giles F. and O. D. Filley, John How and a few others thought the time was opportune for a dis- tinctively Free Soil paper in St. Louis, Blair and Brown joined them. The busi- ness men furnished the capital. Blair and Brown contributed the political and. editorial talent. William McKee, who had a large job printing establishment, sup- plied the mechanical plant, and took a half interest in the venture. The Signal, which had been conducted as a morning paper by a group of printers on a co- operative plan, was purchased. The name of "Missouri Democrat" was chosen. The Union was absorbed.
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The Blair-Price Feud.
A personal feud between Francis P. Blair and Sterling Price continued sev- eral years. Under different conditions it would on two occasions have led to a duel. In his unpublished memoir, preserved by the Missouri Historical Society, Thomas C. Reynolds wrote of the feud and of its important bearing upon Missouri politics :
"I have heard the statement of both in regard to it, from Mr. Blair at Jefferson City in January, 1857, and from General Price at Camden, Ark., in the summer of 1864. Mr. Blair considered his arrest as a piece of tyranny and an outrage on him by General Price, then U. S. military governor of New Mexico, and attributed it to personal malice. Even after the lapse of ten years (1857) he spoke of it with great bitterness, and as fully justify- ing his violent philippic in the Missouri legislature against General Price when governor of the state. He justified his personal abuse of Governor Price at the time when their respective official positions prevented the governor from demanding 'satisfaction,' on the ground that he was retaliating for an outrage committed on him at the time when their respective positions in New Mexico prevented, and indeed precluded for all time his seeking redress for it from General Price; that as he had had to pocket the outrage he insulted Governor Price in a speech at a time when the latter would have to pocket the insult in like manner. Mr. Blair added, 'I consider him, however, a man of such courage that I believe he would have given his right hand to have been able, without violating his duty, to resign the governorship and challenge me.' This feud with Mr. F. P. Blair, Jr., and with his family, who shared his resentment, was considered to have influenced General Price in his desertion of Colonel Benton in 1852, the period at which the latter, more publicly than he had pre- viously done, entrusted the management of his political fortunes in Missouri to F. P. Blair, Jr., Hon. Montgomery Blair, his brother, and Mr. B. Gratz Brown, his cousin, all of St. Louis, and allied himself more closely than ever with Mr. Francis P. Blair, Sr., at Washington City. But in General Price's own account of the matter to me in 1864, he treated the New Mexico incident as a petty quarrel between Mr. Blair and some subaltern officer, with which he as governor of New Mexico had really little to do, and in regard to which Mr. Blair's resentment had greatly surprised him; in general his account treated the matter very lightly, and as of little importance in determining his subsequent relations with the Blairs, against whom neither his manner nor his language evinced any personal ill-feeling."
The last duel on Bloody Island was just before the outbreak of the Civil war. It was bloodless. The principals were General D. M. Frost and Edward B. Sayers, both well known in St. Louis and both afterwards in Confederate army. Say- ers was a civil engineer. He laid out Camp Jackson in the spring of 1861. He was active in the state militia. Frost was brigadier-general, commanding the militia of the St. Louis district. After the return of what was known as the Southwest Expedition, a movement of Missouri troops to Southwestern Missouri to meet expected troubles on the Kansas border, Sayers indulged in some criticism of General Frost. The latter went to Sayers' office, which was on Chestnut street, near Second. and applied a horsewhip. Sayers challenged and Frost ac- cepted. At the meeting on Bloody Island, Sayers missed and Frost fired in the air.
Edwards-Foster.
Late in the decade, 1870-80, an editorial controversy occurred between the St. Louis Times and the St. Louis Journal. The editor of the latter was Emory S. Foster. John N. Edwards was editor of the Times. The managers of a county fair on the northern border of Illinois conceived the enterprising idea that the
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presence of Jefferson Davis would be a drawing card. They extended the invita- tion and made public their action. The press of the country commented vigor- ously. Davis declined the invitation. The ex-Confederate editor of the Times and the ex-Federal editor of the Journal kept up the fire. On one side it was intimated that Davis' declination was probably just as well, as it might have been embar- rassing to have the ex-President of the Confederacy discover in the North some of the silverware carried home by returning Union soldiers. Foster denounced the insinuation in words that reflected upon the editor of the Times. Edwards challenged. Foster accepted and chose for the place of meeting Winnebago County, the Illinois locality where the invitation to Davis had been extended. And to Winnebago County the principals journeyed, attended by Morrison Mum- ford and P. S. O'Reilly for Edwards and by Harrison Branch and W. D. W. Barnard for Foster. The party reached the appointed locality, drove out into the country a few miles and exchanged shots. The duel was bloodless. The dignity of Illinois was outraged and for a time there was much talk of prosecution under the anti-dueling statute, but it died down.
Bowman-Glover.
In 1883 Frank J. Bowman challenged John M. Glover,-both of them St. Louis lawyers. He began the correspondence by demanding an apology from Glover for epithets such as "You lied, you rogue," "You are a scamp," "Shut your mouth," and the like, which he said Glover had applied to him in various cases where they had appeared on opposite sides. Glover replied "That whatever lan- guage I may have used toward you upon the various occasions referred to was fully justified by the provocations at the time." He declined to apologize. The negotiations which followed were notable chiefly because of the prominent citizens of St. Louis who became more or less interested. Bowman selected Celsus Price and R. S. MacDonald as his friends and put in Price's hands a chal- lenge. Price waited upon Glover and asked him to name his friends. Glover selected Captain Silas Bent and T. T. Gantt. Gerard B. Allen and Edwin Har- rison were asked by friends of Mr. Bowman and Mr. Glover to submit a plan of adjustment. While negotiations were supposed to be in progress, Glover com- plicated the situation by swearing out a warrant against Bowman charging him with having committed perjury in certain testimony given about the St. Louis Times in 1881. It was proposed to arbitrate the differences between the two lawyers. Mr. Bowman's friends selected General D. M. Frost as their arbitrator. George A. Madill was asked to act as arbitrator on the part of Mr. Glover but declined. The gentlemen who had suggested arbitration finally gave up the effort to bring it about. The formal challenge was delivered to Glover, who declined to take any notice of it. This affair between Bowman and Glover constituted the last chapter in the history of the code in Missouri. The letters were drawn up with much form. All of the usual technicalities were observed. Glover gave as his reasons for ignoring the challenge that it was backdated about eight days before the delivery and secondly that the offenses complained of by Bowman were some of them months old when the challenge was received and that he had sworn out a warrant charging Bowman with a felony before the challenge. Vol. I- 7
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Vest on the Code.
During his memorable oration upon Benton at the time of the unveiling of a statue in Statuary Hall at Washington Senator George G. Vest offered this pal- liating view of the Lucas duel : "All this sounds to us now as semi-barbarous, and yet if we carry ourselves back to the age in which this event occurred and place ourselves in the position public men then held, it will, I think, charitably be ad- mitted that, entertaining the opinion he did and in the community he lived, Benton could hardly have done anything else. Dueling was then an institution. No man could remain in public or social life without ostracism who refused what they called a challenge to the field of honor. All the distinguished men of the United States fought duels. When Randolph and Clay fought, in sight of this Capitol, members of the Cabinet and members of the Senate and House of Rep- resentatives, among whom was Colonel Benton, were present as spectators. Jack- son had killed his adversary in a duel. Houston had fought a duel and wounded his opponent severely. Davy Crockett acknowledged the obligations of the duello and participated in it; and it was not until Hamilton fell before the deadly pis- tol of Aaron Burr that even the people of the conservative, God-fearing North came to a full realization of the terrible nature of this institution."
A VIEW OF ST. LOUIS IN 1860
CHAPTER VII.
THE WATERS OF MISSOURI.
Boatable, Potable, Powerful, Medicinal-Robert Fulton's Proposition-Navigation by Pirogue -Arrival of the Pike-The Missouri Mastered-Trip of the Independence to Franklin -- A Great Celebration-Newspaper Congratulations-Captain Joseph Brown's Reminis- cences-Primitive Construction and no Schedules-Firing a Salute-Famous Missouri Pilots-The Record of Disasters-The Edna, the Bedford and the Saluda-Search for Sunken Treasure-Lost Cargoes of Whiskey-Captain Hunter Ben Jenkins-The Shift- ing Channel-The Missouri Belle and the Buttermilk-Up Grand River-The First Steamboat on the Upper Osage-Uncle John Whitley's Hunt for a Mysterious Monster- Some Notable Captains-Rise and Decline of Missouri River Traffic-Seventy-one Steamers in the Trade-The Rush of the Forty-niners-Jonathan Bryan's Water Mill- Possibilities of Power Ignored-An Expert's Facts-Mammoth Springs-The White River Plant-Beginnings of Hydro-Electric Development-Lebanon's Magnetic Water- Benton's Bethesda-Monegaw's One Hundred Mineral Waters-Meanderings of the White-Navigation at Forsyth-Lines on "Two Ancient Misses."
I believe this is the finest confluence in the world. The two rivers are much of the same breadth, each about half a league, but the Missouri is by far the most rapid, and seems to enter the Mississippi like a conqueror, through which it carries its white waves to the opposite shore without mixing them. Afterward it gives its color to the Mississippi, which it never loses again, but carries quite down to the sea .- Charlevoix on the Mouth of the Missouri.
Running water is the most valuable natural asset of the people .- President Roosevelt's Message to Congress, February, 1908.
Missouri has a little more than one acre of water to one hundred acres of land. This is surface, running water. Missouri has few lakes. The under- ground rivers and veins are not taken into account.
Missouri has water for transportation. The entire eastern frontage and half of the western frontage is on navigable water. The State is bisected by navig- able water.
Missouri has water for power. No other State, perhaps no other country, presents conditions so encouraging to the coming energy-the hydro-electric.
Missouri has water for medicine. The spas are many and of endless variety in constituents.
Governor William Clark and Thomas H. Benton, in the days before steam- boats, undertook to estimate what they called "the boatable waters" of the Mississippi and tributaries. They made the navigable distance 50,000 miles- 30,000 above and 20,000 below St. Louis. "Of course," wrote Mr. Benton, long afterwards, "we counted all the infant streams on which a flat, a keel or a bateau could be floated." The pirogue was the freightboat on the Mississippi before steam. It was built like a barge of a later period. The length varied from thirty- five to sixty feet ; the depth from twelve to fifteen feet. One of these craft could carry thirty to forty tons of freight. The pirogue was poled in shallow water. It was towed by a long line like a canal boat. Three months was the time required
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to make the trip from New Orleans to St. Louis. The freight rate on most articles was a cent a pound.
Up the Missouri by Pirogue.
What navigation on the Missouri meant during the pioneer period Henry M. Brackenridge described in his Journal. He accompanied a fur trading expedition : "We set off from the village of St. Charles on Tuesday, the 2nd of April, 1811, with delightful weather. The flood of March, which immediately succeeds the breaking up of the ice, had begun to subside and yet the water was still high. Our barge was the best that ever ascended this river and was manned by twenty stout oarsmen. Mr. Lisa, who had been a sea captain, took much pains in rigging his boat with a good mast and main and top sail, these being great helps in the navigation of this river. Our equipage is chiefly composed of young men, though several have already made a voyage to the upper Missouri, of which they are exceedingly proud, and on that account claim a kind of precedence over the rest of the crew. We are in all twenty-five men, and completely prepared for defense. Besides a swivel on the bow of the boat, which, in case of attack, would make a formidable appearance, we have, also, two brass blunderbusses in the cabin, one over my berth and the other over that of Mr. Lisa. These precautions were ab- solutely necessary from the hostility of the Sioux bands, who, of late, had com- mitted several murders and robberies on the whites and manifested such a dispo- sition that it was believed to be impossible for us to pass through their country. The greater part of the merchandise, which consisted of strouding, blankets, lead, tobacco, knives, guns, beads, etc., was concealed in a false cabin, ingeniously con- trived for the purpose; in this way presenting as little as possible to tempt the savages. But we hope that as this was not the season for wandering tribes to come on the river, the autumn being the usual time, we might pass by unnoticed. We came in sight of Fort Osage, at the distance of three miles off the bluff and a long stretch of river before us. We had now come three hundred miles upon our voyage. And for the last hundred had seen no settlement or met anyone, except a few traders or hunters who passed us in canoes. With the exception of a few spots, where the ravages of fire had destroyed the woods, we passed through a continued forest presenting the most dreary aspect. Our approach once more to the haunts of civilization, to a fort where we should meet with friends, and per- haps find a temporary resting place, inspired us with cheerfulness. The song was raised with more than usual glee ; the can of whiskey was sent around and the air was rent with shouts of encouragement."
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