USA > Missouri > Missouri the center state, 1821-1915 > Part 3
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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
Senator Cockrell's Researches.
Two years and two months had passed since the petition was laid before Congress. But admission was still a year and four months in the future. Francis M. Cockrell traced the devious legislative way to Missouri statehood. He went to original sources for his information. He did it in the thorough, painstaking manner which characterized him throughout the thirty years of his United States senatorship. Thereby he rendered signal service to Missouri history :
"Congress, by act of March 6, 1820, authorized the inhabitants of that portion of the Missouri Territory therein described 'to form for themselves a constitution and state government, and to assume such name as they shall deem proper,' for admission into the Union upon an equal footing with the original states, fixed the first Monday of May, 1820, and the two next succeeding days for the election of representatives to form a convention, and the second Monday of June, 1820, for the meeting of the convention, and by section 8 prohibited slavery in all the rest of that territory north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude, which was called the 'Missouri compromise' and adopted after a prolonged and bitter controversy.
"The representatives to the convention were elected on the first Monday of May and the two succeeding days, being the first, second and third days, and met in St. Louis on the second Monday in June, being the twelfth day of June, 1820, and completed their labors on July 19, 1820, and passed an ordinance declaring the assent of Missouri to the five con- ditions of the enabling act of March 6, 1820, contained in the sixth section of said act and transmitted to Congress a true and attested copy of such constitution.
"The constitution so adopted on July 9, 1820, required the president of the convention to issue writs of election to the sheriffs directing elections to be held on the fourth Monday- the 28th day-of August, 1820, for the election of a governor, lieutenant-governor, Repre-' sentative in Congress, state senators and representatives, and county officers.
"It required the general assembly to meet in St. Louis on the third Monday-the 18th day-of September, 1820, and on the first Monday in November, 1821, and on the first Monday in November, 1822, and thereafter every two years.
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MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
"Section 26 of the constitution, referring to the general assembly, declared: 'It shall be their duty as soon as may be to pass such laws as may be necessary to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and settling in this state under any pretext what- ever.'
"The election for state and other officers was held in August and the first general assembly met in St. Louis September 18, 1820, and the governor and lieutenant-governor elected were duly inaugurated and entered upon their duties, and the senate and house of representatives were duly organized and proceeded with their business, and on October 2, 1820, elected David Barton and Thomas H. Benton Senators from that state, Benton being elected by one majority. The whole machinery of state and county governments was completed and put in operation before the state was admitted into the Union.
"On November 14, 1820, the day after Congress convened, the President of the United States sent to the Senate a copy of the constitution so adopted.
"On motion of Senator Smith, it was ordered that 'a committee be appointed to inquire if any, and if any what, legislative measure may be necessary for admitting the State of Missouri into the Union.' And a committee of three was appointed, and the copy of the constitution was referred to the committee and ordered printed. On November 16, 1820, in the House of Representatives, Mr. Scott, who was the delegate in Congress from the Territory of Missouri elected to the Sixteenth Congress and who had been elected the Representative to the Seventeenth Congress beginning March 4, 1821, presented a manu- script attested copy of the constitution to the House, and it was referred to a select com- mittee of three.
"A long and heated controversy arose in the House and in the Senate over the clause in the constitution which I have quoted.
"Many measures were proposed and discussed from time to time.
"Finally on the 22nd day of February, 1821, Mr. Clay moved the adoption by the House of a resolution as follows :
" 'Resolved, That a committee be appointed on the part of this House, jointly with such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider and report to the Senate and House, respectively, whether it be expedient or not to make provision for the admission of Missouri into the Union on the same footing as the original states, and for the due execution of the laws of the United States within Missouri; and if not, whether any other, and what, provision adapted to her actual condition ought to be made by law.'
"This resolution was passed by the House on the same day by yeas 101 and nays 55.
"Mr. Clay moved that the committee consist of 23 members, to be elected by ballot, which was agreed to.
"On February 23 a ballot was had, and 17 members were elected on the first ballot. Mr. Clay then moved the rescinding of the order as to the selection of the remaining six members, which was agreed to, and the six remaining members were appointed by the Speaker.
"On February 24 the resolution of the House was reported to the Senate, taken up, and passed by yeas 29, nays 7, and a committee of seven appointed on the part of the Senate.
"On February 26 Mr. Clay, from the joint committee, reported to the House a joint resolution, which was read the first and second times and laid on the table; and after- wards, on same day, considered and passed by yeas, 109; nays, 50.
"On February 27 the resolution was reported to the Senate and read twice by unanimous consent, and was ordered read a third time by yeas 26, nays 15.
"On February 28 the resolution was read the third time in the Senate, and passed by yeas 28, nays 14, and was approved by the President, March 2, 1821, as follows :
" 'Resolution providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition.
"'Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever upon the fundamental condi- tion that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitu- tion, submitted on the part of said State to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize
CHARLES GRATIOT
FREDERICK BATES Second governor of Missouri
GEN. DANIEL BISSELL Commander of Fort Bellefontaine before 1812
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THE TRAVAIL OF STATEHOOD
the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Con- stitution of the United States :
"'Provided, That the legislature of said State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said State to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United States on or before the fourth Monday in November next an authentic copy of the said act; upon the receipt whereof the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said State into this Union shall be considered as complete.'
"The governor of Missouri called the general assembly in special session on June 4, 1821, which passed 'A solemn public act declaring the assent of this State to the funda- mental condition contained in a resolution passed by the Congress of the United States providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condi- tion,' which was approved June 26, 1821, and transmitted to the President.
"On August 10, 1821, President Monroe issued his proclamation announcing the fact, and Missouri was on that day a State in the Union.
"The credentials of Barton and Benton were dated October 9, 1820, certified their election on October 2, and were for the first time presented to the Senate-Barton's on December 3, 1821, and Benton's on December 6, 1821-were read, and the oath administered to each on said days, respectively, when each took his seat.
"While they were elected October 2, 1820, before the State was admitted to the Union, on August 10, 1821, and their credentials never presented to the Senate till December 3 and 6, 1821, and no oath previously administered to them, and no record made in the journals of the Senate of their names or presence, the records of the secretary of the Senate, dated March 3. 1821, and signed by John Gaillard, president pro tempore, show that they were certified to have attended, Barton from November 14, 1820, and Benton from November 18, 1820, each, to March 3, 1821, and they were paid their regular per diem salary and mileage, just as other Senators were."
Dating back the pay roll and giving Missouri Senators their salaries from the date of their election nearly a year before the admission of the State was small reparation for the injustice done. Before Congress attempted to dictate, there was considerable anti-slavery sentiment in Missouri. But it was swamped for the time by the general feeling of indignation. The "manumission men," as those who opposed slavery were called, presented several candidates for the constitu- tional convention. They were beaten badly at the polls. The only anti-slavery delegate elected was Benjamin Emmons of St. Charles, the tavern keeper. A St. Louis ticket of candidates who were "opposed to the further introduction of slavery into Missouri" was nominated but failed of election. The persons on this ticket were J. B. C. Lucas, Cash Bowles, Robert Simpson, William Long, Rufus Pettibone, John Brown and John Bobb.
The forty-one members of the constitutional convention elected in May were authorized to frame and adopt. It was not necessary to submit the constitution to a vote of the people. The convention met in St. Louis on the twelfth of June and adjourned on the nineteenth of July,-a session of five weeks. The first state election was held in August. Governor William Clark who held the office during the eight years of territorial government was a candidate. He received only 2,656 votes. The successful candidate was Alexander McNair, a Pennsylvanian, with 6,576 votes. McNair had been an officer in the war of 1812. He owned a carriage at a time when there were only nineteen pleasure vehicles in the City of St. Louis.
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MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
State government was fully organized under the new constitution. The first legislature with fourteen senators and forty-three representatives met in St. Louis the third Monday in September. On the 26th of September it adjourned one day in respect to the memory of Daniel Boone who died that day. On the 28th of November the legislature passed an act making St. Charles the capital of the State until October, 1826, when a new capital to be called Jefferson City was to be established in Cole County, Missouri.
Champ Clark on Benton's Election.
Missouri, although not yet a State, went on doing business as a State. Sena- tors were elected. When Champ Clark was made Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives his constituents in Ralls County sent him a gavel. The wood was from the old Matson mill. The first Matson miller in Ralls was one of Washington's soldiers. The mill was a famous industry of the pioneer period. Speaker Clark was reminded of the time when he had "ridden astride of a horse on a sack of corn to an old-fashioned grist mill." In accepting the gavel from the hands of his colleague, Representative Lloyd, the Speaker gave the House this chapter from Missouri's early political history :
"The first legislature of the State of Missouri did two remarkable things. The first was to elect David Barton United States Senator unanimously. That performance has been repeated a few times, notably in Michigan on one occasion. Then there was a prolonged deadlock for the other senatorship. Col. Thomas Hart Benton, one of the greatest of all American statesmen; Judge J. B. C. Lucas, whose son Benton had killed in a duel, and several other distinguished men were competitors for that place.
"The fight was intensely bitter. At last the legislature did a thing that has never been duplicated and in all human probability never will be duplicated. They asked David Barton, the senator-elect, to pick his senatorial mate. He chose Colonel Benton, but the fight was so bitter that even after Barton picked him there was a prolonged struggle.
"The legislature was holding its sessions in the lower story of the old Missouri hotel, the upper stories being used for hotel purposes. Daniel Ralls, one of the representatives of Pike County, the county in which I live, was sick unto death in one of the rooms upstairs. In the legislature they lacked one vote of having enough to elect Benton on the last ballot they took on Saturday. That night they got a French representative, by the name of Philip Leduc, out and agonized with him all night to induce him to vote for Benton. He had sworn that he would have his arm cut off at the shoulder before he would do it. They induced him to vote for Benton by stating to him that Benton represented all the French land claimants out there, and Leduc was one of them.
"At about sun-up on Sunday morning he finally agreed to vote for Benton. That would elect Benton, provided Daniel Ralls lived until noon on Monday, and the question uppermost in the public mind of St. Louis that day was to inquire after Daniel Ralls' health. He lived until noon on Monday. Four colored men carried him down into the legis- lative hall on a mattress. The last act of his life was to vote for Benton. They carried him back upstairs and he was dead within an hour. That legislature, out of gratitude for his services, cut a slice out of Pike County nearest her heart and constituted it into a new county, named Ralls County, in honor of Daniel Ralls.
"David Barton and Colonel Benton came to Washington and drew straws for the six-year and four-year terms. Benton drew the six-year straw, was re-elected four times, and was the first man who ever served 30 years in the Senate of the United States. Senator Barton drew the four-year term, was re-elected for six years, quarreled with General Jack- son, and that was the end of him, as it was of most men who quarreled with General Jackson.
"Benton had nothing to do with promising Leduc assistance about the French land grant claims, knew nothing about it, and so soon as he was elected called his clients together,
TYPE OF THE ROBIDOU HOUSE IN WHICH THE FIRST NEWSPAPER WAS PUBLISHED IN 1808
RUFUS EASTON The First postmaster
GOVERNOR ALEXANDER MeNAIR'S HOUSE
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THE TRAVAIL OF STATEHOOD
retired from the cases, and refused even to nominate an attorney to succeed himself, on the ground that he might have to vote in the Senate on the subject ; so jealous was he of his honor and reputation."
An Absurd Solemn Act.
Notwithstanding the organization of the state government and the election of Senators, admission to the Union was hung up by Congress until the passage of the "Clay Formula" in 1821. This required Missouri, as a further condition to admission to pass "a solemn act," that the "restrictive clause" excluding free negroes and mulattoes from settling in the State should not be construed to affect any citizen of any other State, in the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States. Missourians thought this was ridiculous.
Frederick W. Lehmann said the legislature "passed what it called a solemn pub- lic act by which it declared in effect that the fundamental condition was contained in the constitution of the State; that it was a piece of impertinence on the part of Congress to require this express assent ; that it made no difference whether the as- sent was given or withheld and so the State solemnly gave it. The State observed the condition in the spirit in which the assent was given. Free persons of color, citizens of other States were not forbidden entry to Missouri. But such conditions were imposed upon their living here, that few, if any, cared to come."
The preamble of the "solemn act" in its entirety was a wonderful document charged with satire. Mark Twain could not have done better.
"Forasmuch as the good people of this State have, by the most solemn and public act in their power, virtually assented to the said fundamental condition, when their representa- tives in full and free convention assembled, they adopted the constitution of this State, and consented to be incorporated into the federal Union, and governed by the Constitution of the United States, which among other things provides that the said Constitution and laws of the United States, made an pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything to the contrary, or the law of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. And although this general assembly do most solemnly declare that the United States have no power to change the operation of the constitution of this State, except in the mode prescribed in the constitution itself, nevertlie- less, as the Congress of the United States has desired this general assembly to declare the assent of this State to said fundamental condition, and forasmuch as no such declaration will neither estrain nor enlarge, limit nor extend, the operation of the operation of the Constitution of the United States or of this State; but the said constitution will in all respects remain the same as if the said resolution had never been passed, and the desired declaration was never made; and because such declaration will not divest any power or change the duties of any of the constitutional authorities of this state or of the United States, nor impair the rights of the people of this State, or impose any additional obligation upon them, but may promote an earlier enjoyment of their vested federal rights, and this State being, moreover, determined to give to her sister States and to the world the most unequivocal proof of her desire to promote the peace and harmony of the Union, therefore,-
"Be it enacted and declared that the general assembly of the State of Missouri, and it is hereby solemnly and publicly enacted and declared, that this State has assented and does assent that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the consti- tution of this State shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen, of either of the United States, shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizens are entitled under the Constitution of the United States."
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MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
A copy of this "solemn act" was delivered to President Monroe, who, on the Ioth of August, 1821, proclaimed that Missouri had been admitted to the Union-making the twenty-fourth State. The fundamental condition applied to "the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article." As a matter of fact the clause to which Congress objected is the first clause of the third division of the section according to the printed copy of the constitution. The explanation of this apparent mistake is that a manuscript copy was sent to Congress and that the printer who subsequently published the constitution for use in Missouri made a different subdivision of the text.
Missouri, a State.
In an address at the Old Settlers' Reunion on the Keytesville Fairgrounds in 1877, Charles J. Cabell told of Missouri's birthday :. "The celebration at night of the admission of Missouri as a State in the Union, excelled all that I had ever seen or heard. Bonfires blazed on the hills and in the street. Houses were lighted and windows sparkled. Music floated in grand accord, and the hills sent the echoes westwardly to gladden the hearts of our people that Missouri was a sov- ereign State."
According to the newspaper account, St. Louis "was generally and splendidly illuminated. Several transparencies were displayed, among others a very hand- some one displaying the American eagle surmounting the Irish harp, and another representing a slave in great spirits, rejoicing at the permission granted by Con- gress to bring slaves into so fine a country as Missouri."
There was a man in that first Missouri legislature who called himself the "Ringtail Painter." His name was Parmer. To this member from the interior of the Territory the routine procedure of legislation was a great surprise. Parmer could not understand why it was necessary for the bills to pass one house and then the other, and yet not become law until the governor approved. He thought it was undemocratic to place such power in the hands of one man. During a session of the senate Andrew S. McGirk and Duff Green got into a quarrel. McGirk threw a pewter inkstand at Duff Green. Green and McGirk began to fight. Governor McNair came forward and tried to part them, but as soon as he seized Green to pull him away, Ringtail Painter grabbed the governor, pushed him aside and shouted: "Stand back, Governor, stand back; you are no more in a fight than any other man. I know that much law. I am at home in this business. Give it to him, Duff, give it to him."
The legislature included several members who up to that time had never seen a steamboat. One day when a boat was about to start down the river a motion was made to adjourn in order that the members might go to the bank and see the boat leave. The captain had been fully impressed with the honor about to be shown him. He ran the boat upstream, turned around and came down at full speed past the legislators assembled on the bank. As the boat went by, the cannon, which was part of the equipment on all steamboats in that day, was fired. The legislators raised their hats and swung them, but Ringtail Painter let out a series of yells.
In his maiden speech before the legislature, Martin Parmer, or Palmer, as his name was sometimes written, introduced himself in this picturesque language: "Ringtail Painter from Fishin' river, wild and woolly, hard to curry. When I'm
ALEXANDER McNAIR
First Governor of Missouri
MISSOURI HOTEL'
MISSOURI HOTEL
MISSOURI HOTEL Where First Legislature Sat
EWELCHER & CO ST. LOUIS.
STATE CAPITOL, JEFFERSON CITY, IN 1876
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THE TRAVAIL OF STATEHOOD
mad I fight, and when I fight, I whip. I raise my children to fight. I feed 'em on painters' hearts fried in rattlesnake grease."
Ringtail Painter, by tradition, was the first white settler in the Grand river country. His cabin home was about five miles east of the present City of Bruns- wick and gave the name to Parmer's creek. General W. Y. Slack was a leading lawyer of the Grand river country. He went with Doniphan to Mexico. He was chosen by Governor Jackson to organize and command one of the divisions of the State Guard of Missouri at the outbreak of the war and fell at Pea Ridge. With a taste for local history, General Slack wrote sketches of the Grand river valley which were preserved in manuscript. The subject of one of these sketches was Ringtail Painter.
"His habits were as rude as his cabin, and, like all other pioneers, he was a rude dis- ciple of Esau, and lived by hunting. There were, however, but three kinds of game, Ring Tail Parmer cared to expend ammunition upon, and these, as he expressed it, were 'deers, bar and Injuns.' The last named, in his judgment, were not the least worthy of his deadly aim. His warfare with the red men was not manly and open, but on the contrary was stealthy and murderous.
"The traveler who called at Parmer's cabin and claimed his hospitality was furnished with dry deerskins for his bed, and venison and wild honey for his repast. The ceiling of the cabin was lined with dried venison; one corner of the room was filled with green hams; another was occupied with a number of deerskins sewed up tight into sacks and filled with honey-comb, and another contained a pole scaffold fitted up as a bedstead. On two hooks over the rude fireplace hung his rifle, the most esteemed article of furniture about the household. Thus fitted up in life, and with such paraphernalia started the first settler in this great valley; and when the reader is introduced to Parmer's cabin and made acquainted with its arrangements and fixtures, he has been introduced to the domicile and its appointments of every early poineer that first felled the forests and plowed the virgin soil of the Great West. Parmer's cabin, on Parmer's creek, formed the nucleus of a settle- ment which, in the course of a dozen years, extended along the hilly or bluff lands as far northwest as Salt creek and as far north as the 'great prairie' to which then even the hunters knew no limit."
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