USA > Missouri > Missouri the center state, 1821-1915 > Part 51
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
"When all my acts and utterances are on one side, it is hard to comprehend the circulation of a story so utterly opposed to what I did, said and thought.
"Very respectfully yours,
"JEFFERSON DAVIS."
Rapid Reconciliation.
Major William Warner, afterwards Representative in Congress and United States Senator, performed his part in the policy of reconstruction and recon- ciliation immediately following the war. This tribute was paid him by an ex- Confederate :
"When we straggled home some time after the war closed and began to settle down there was a very bitter feeling in Western Missouri. Tutt was on the bench in that circuit. Warner was prosecuting attorney. The grand jury brought in a lot of indictments against ex-Confederates. They revived charges of horse stealing and other offenses based on what had taken place during the
.
362
MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
war. I think there were at least 150 of these indictments, and I am not sure but one of them was against Jo Shelby himself. I was not indicted, but some of the boys in my command were. John Ryland, Henry Wallace and several of the old lawyers volunteered to defend the cases. It was agreed that all of them should be tried at once. When the day came Major Warner got up in court and said the war was over and these men had come home to settle down in good faith. He did not believe in raking up the old troubles. He considered the surrender as wiping out the offenses that had preceded it, and, therefore, he moved that the cases be dismissed. And that was the end of them. It was the only sensible thing to do."
United States Marshal Shelby.
Some of the Eastern newspapers had a good deal to say of the appoint- ment of General Shelby for the United States Marshal in Missouri. They seemed to think that he belonged to those whose course in the war was unpar- donable. One Republican Senator was quoted as saying :
"Nearly thirty years have elapsed since the termination of the war. All that one can ask-even the most loyal Unionist-is that the government shall not be confided to men who, during that awful time, represented not fair battle, but rapine, cruelty and chaos. We, or most of us, believe that Jo Shelby be- longed to the latter class. Still, we can do nothing to prevent the consumma- tion of the outrage involved in making such a man the representative of law and order. All we can do is to enter our solemn protest."
This was only interesting as going to show how little the rest of the country even yet appreciated the fierceness and savagery of the warfare of the border, and particularly that which was waged within the limits of Missouri. Perhaps there never was a country so divided against itself and so continuously drenched in blood as was the State of Missouri. Certainly no other State came out with such scars. Virginia was fought over, but the Virginians were on one side. To the other horrors the Old Dominion did not have to add fratricidal strife and neighborhood contention.
As far as General Shelby was personally concerned sufficient answer to what was printed about him was found in the fact that ex-Commander-in-Chief William Warner, of the Grand Army, wrote a letter indorsing him for this appointment, and then tendered hearty congratulations on success, while ex- Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher, the war governor of Missouri, went in person to the attorney general to say that no mistake would be made in the selection of General Shelby. Union veterans vied with ex-Confederates in their mani- festation of good will to Shelby.
CHAPTER XIX.
STATE ADMINISTRATION.
Missouri's Governors-First General Assembly-McNair's Distinction-Low Cost of Living at St. Charles-Palmer's Experience-Miller's Record Breaking Service-Direct Elec- tion of President Recommended-First Capitol at Jefferson City-Jackson's Veto- Lottery Chorters-The Plank Road Myth- United States Bank -- An Overshadowing Issue-John O'Fallon's Record-Bank of Missouri Established-One-Third of Stock Taken by the State-Sound Money Policies-Missouri Flooded with "Shinplasters" from Outside-Panic of 1837-State Bank Notes Above Gold-Mysterious Robbery- Banking Legislation of 1857-The State's Stock Sold-Liquidation of the "Old State Bank"-Governor Reynolds on Abolitionists-The Atchison Issue-Hard Money the Issue in 1844-Governor Edwards' Sarcastic Account of Expenditures-"Hoss" Allen- Deadlock on Senatorship-Trusten Polk's Brief Term-The Stewart-Rollins Compaign -A Curious Application of Clemency-"Bob" Stewart's Patriotism-Negro Suffrage -Fletcher's Opportunity to Profit-B. Gratz Brown on Prison Reform-Governor Hardin's Pardon Record-Prophecy by Waldo P. Johnson-Wor Records in State Politics-Hatch, Cockrell and Vest-The State's Finances-How' Missouri Bonds Became Gilt-Edged-Certificates of the School Fund-Diplomacy of Francis-Stone's Conservative Forcefulness.
Missouri is a grand State and deserves to be grandly governed .- B. Gratz Brown.
Missouri has had thirty-three governors in ninety-four years. Terms have varied widely. John Miller held office seven years, a longer period than any other governor has served. He was re-elected, the only governor to have that distinction. The constitution of 1875 lengthened the term to four years with- out the privilege of re-election. Miller was the fourth governor, counting Williams, who was acting governor a few months after the death of Governor Bates. He was in the war of 1812. According to Walter Willians, John Miller was the young officer who said when Gen. William Henry Harrison asked him if he could take a British battery, "I'll try, sir." The incident occurred in connection with the Fort Meigs affair. Some historians credit the saying to another officer named Miller and give the occasion as the battle of Lundy's Lane several months later.
The first general assembly was composed of fourteen senators and forty- three representatives. Most of them wore home-spun clothing and home-made shoes. Several came in buckskin leggings and fringed hunting shirts with Indian moccasins. Very few of these pioneer lawmakers had wool hats. The prevailing fashion for head covering in Missouri, even with the public men, was the fur cap made of wildcat or coon.
Board was reasonable in St. Charles. Most of the members found accom- modations in private houses. Those who went to the taverns were charged not
363
364
MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
more than $2.50 a week for the best. At that time market prices in St. Charles were: Pork, 11/2 cents a pound; venison hams, 25 cents each; eggs, 5 cents a dozen ; honey, 5 cents a gallon ; coffee, ȘI a pound.
The legislature passed stay laws to help out those settlers who had gone into debt. It issued certificates ranging from 50 cents to $10-$200,000 in all-to be loaned by commissioners to citizens of the "loan districts," as they were called. These certificates passed into circulation and then were decided by the courts to be unconstitutional.
Governor McNair, Lieutenant Governor Ashley and many members of the legislature rode horseback to the new capitol at St. Charles. In the front of the building which was turned into a capitol was a large opening; in the rear was a lot where the horses were hitched when the legislators arrived. Some who remained in St. Charles for the session turned over their horses to Archi- bald Watson, who had a farm at the "Point," where the Missouri and Missis- sippi rivers came together some miles below the capitol. According to the tradition Governor McNair was the only state officer who wore a cloth coat cut swallow tail, the most fashionable style of 1821. The governor was also distin- guished by a beaver hat.
At the close of that session of the legislature in the temporary capitol at St. Charles some one took a black coal from the fireplace and scrawled upon the whitewashed wall back of the speaker's chair: "Lord forgive them. They know not what they do."
A Shipwrecked Statesman.
On his way to attend a session of the legislature, Representative Palmer, or Parmer as his name was sometimes spelled, loaded a small keel boat with salt and other products of the Grand River country, expecting to float down the Missouri River to St. Charles. He was accompanied by his boy and a slave. The boy stood at the prow to give warning of snags and sawyers. The negro was the crew. The legislator occupied the stern, to do the steering. He had an old newspaper and by way of preparation for his public duties was slowly spelling out the sentences. The newspaper engaged his attention. Palmer held the tiller of the boat between his legs. Suddenly the boy called out, "A sawyer ahead." This meant a tree which had fallen into the river and lay with its roots on the bottom and its branches showing just above the surface, rising and falling with the eddying current.
"Wait a minute," said Palmer, "until I spell out this other crack jaw. Its longer than the barrel of my rifle gun." Just then the boat struck the bobbing sawyer and turned bottom upwards. The slave swam ashore. Palmer and his son climbed on the keel of the boat, took off their clothes to be ready to swim if it became necessary, and floated down with the current until they came to Frank- lin. There they landed and borrowed some clothes. Palmer was treated with the consideration that was due a member of the legislature. The lady at whose house he was received expressed sympathy and, while Palmer was drinking the coffee she offered, asked if the little boy had not been badly frightened.
"No, madam," said Palmer, "I am a real ring-tail painter, and I feed all my children on rattlesnake hearts fried in painter's grease."
365
STATE ADMINISTRATION
Then he went on with the narrative of his recent experience.
"There ar a heap of people that I would not wear crape for if they was to die before their time. But your husband, marm, I allow, has a soul as big as a court house. When we war floating bottom uppermost past Hardeman's garden, we raised a yell, like a whole team of bar dogs on a wildcat's trail. And the black rascals on shore, instead of coming to our assistance, only grinned up the nearest saplin, as if a buck possum had treed.
"The river, marm," continued Mr. Palmer, "I find, is no respecter of per- sons; for I was cast away with as little ceremony, notwithstanding I am the people's representative, as a stray bar dog would be turned out of a city church. And upon this principle of democratic liberty and equality it was that I told McNair when I collared him and backed him out of the gathering at a shooting match where he was likely to spoil the prettiest sort of a fight. 'A governor,' said I, 'is no more in a fight than any other man.' I slept with Mac once, just to have it to say to my friends on Fishing River that I had slept with the governor."
Executives in Quick Succession.
In 1824 McNair declined to run for a second term. The candidates were Frederick Bates and William Ashley. Bates had been secretary and several times acting governor in territorial days. Ashley had made a fortune and a fine reputation as the successful head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The contest was spirited, the old residents supporting Bates while the new- comers rallied to the bold fur trader. Bates won but he did not live out his term. He died of pleurisy in August, 1825. It was during Bates' term that Lafayette visited St. Louis.
The third governor of Missouri was a one-legged man. He was making boots in Columbia when he ran for the state senate and was elected. His name was Abraham J. Williams. Upon the organization of the senate Williams was chosen president pro-tem. The lieutenant-governor, who was Benjamin H. Reeves of Howard County, resigned. That made Williams the acting lieutenant- governor. Upon the death of Governor Bates the one-legged boot maker be- came the governor. He filled the office only five months, until the special election placed John Miller of Cooper in the chair. Four candidates offered themselves for the vacancy. The campaign was made largely on personal popularity. Party lines were not drawn. The result was the election of John Miller who received 2,380 votes. William C. Carr received 1,470 and David Todd 1,113. In 1828 Governor Miller was a candidate for reelection and had no opposition. There was a lively contest, however, for lieutenant governor with Samuel Perry, Felix Scott, Alexander Stewart, Daniel Dunklin and Alexander Buckner as can- didates. Dunklin won.
Miller held the executive office for seven years. Subsequently he was sent to Congress from Missouri serving six years. In early life Miller was a news- paper editor in Steubenville, Ohio. During the war of 1812 he was a colonel in the United States army. He was a native of Albemarle County, Virginia, and was reared on a farm.
366
MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
Presidential Election by Direct Vote Suggested.
With the recollection of Congressman John Scott's course in the last Presi- dential election fresh in mind, Governor Miller sent a message to the legislature in 1828, proposing that Missouri take the initiative in the movement to amend the Constitution of the United States. He urged that the will of the people should control in national elections; that it should be made impossible for that will to be thwarted as it had been by the election in the House of Representatives at Washington: "It is therefore your prerogative, as guardians of the public liberty, to urge on Congress and the legislatures of our sister States, such amend- ments to the Constitution of the United States on this subject, as you in your wisdom may deem requisite and proper ; providing for a uniform mode of elec- ing the President and Vice-President by the people, and prevent in any event an election being made by the House of Representatives."
The governor of Missouri had the power to appoint the secretary as well as other executive officers. When Governor Miller was elected to fill out the term of Frederick Bates he gave Spencer Pettis the appointment of secretary, although the young Virginian had resided in St. Louis only about two years. Pettis made out and forwarded commissions to justices, county judges and some other officials. When he sent a commisison he wrote a letter in which he said, "Please say that I am a candidate for Congress." This canvass by letter was effective. In 1828 Pettis ran as a democrat and was elected, defeating Edward Bates.
The First Capitol at Jefferson.
A very plain brick building two stories high was the first capitol at Jefferson City. It was called the state house. The legislature met there for the first time in November, 1826. A representative-elect presented himself in the senate chamber on the second story and offered his credentials to the secretary of the senate. The latter handed back the papers saying :
"This belongs to the lower house."
"Where is that?" asked the representative.
"Down stairs."
"Why, I saw those fellows there but I thought that was a grocery."
The first capitol burned in 1837, destroying records and other valuable papers. It stood on the present location of the governor's mansion. The next session of the legislature was held in the Cole County court house. In 1840 the new capitol built on the next bluff west of the old one was occupied. It was subsequently enlarged.
At the earlier sessions of the legislature many laws were passed to encourage the "killing of wolves, panthers and wild cats." As early as 1837 the legislature was attempting to regulate the tolls at the grist mills. This had the effect to discourage the building of mills and the use of water power. There was such vigorous protesting that Wetmore's Gazetteer predicted: "It is, however, be- lieved that law givers will cease to interfere with the contracts that millers and their customers may choose to make, and allow the farmer to fix the rate of toll according to the interest of the contracting parties. Notwithstanding the prohibitory enactments now in force, it is the practice of some millers to take one bushel of grain for grinding two; but the bag is generally sent home with
367
STATE ADMINISTRATION
the grist. Competition in milling will eventually make the terms of grinding easier to the farmers-but legislation never."
Lottery Charters.
The present generation can hardly realize that there was a time when the legislature of Missouri granted lottery charters. The motive was to raise money for some public purpose. About 1831 the legislature authorized a lottery to raise $10,000 toward the building of a hospital in St. Louis for the Sisters of Charity .. The commissioner provided for in the act sold the privilege of conducting the lottery to James S. Thomas. Charges were made in the news- papers that the management of this lottery meant great gains to the purchaser and comparatively small revenue for the hospital. A committee was chosen to look into the methods Mr. Thomas proposed to adopt. On the committee were such well known citizens as N. H. Ridgely, David H. Hill, Geo. K. McGunnegle, D. Hough, Augustus Kerr, John F. Darby and Bernard Pratte, Sr. They made an elaborate report, the conclusion of which was:
"Your committee then, after an attentive review of the subject, are of the opinion that the charge made against this scheme, that it affords the manager an opportunity of realizing a great and unusual proportion of profit, is not sustained."
Sentiment against the grant of lottery privileges by the legislature grew so strong that the passage of such acts ceased. But lotteries continued to operate openly under old charters. The business was gradually consolidated into what was known as the Missouri State lottery. This institution had many offices. Drawings were held regularly in a public hall. The winning numbers were advertised in St. Louis papers.
The business was based on an old act of the legislature authorizing a lottery to build a plank road from the town of New Franklin to the Missouri River. New Franklin was near Boonville. It had passed almost out of existence. The plank road, a considerable part of it, had slipped into the Missouri River. The Missouri Republican opened war on the Missouri State lottery. It exposed the plank-road myth. It kept up the opposition until by legal and by legislative action the end came not only to the Missouri State lottery but to all open lottery business in this State. The fight was not one of days or weeks, but of years. It required the making of public sentiment, for in 1871 not only lottery offices were conducted as openly as cigar stores are now, but faro and keno houses occupied the prominent locations on business streets and were places of common resort. Perhaps there has not been in all the history of Missouri a moral move- ment of such magnitude and complete success as this one against lotteries. It led up to the supplemental movement successfully conducted by Charles P. Johnson in the legislature against gambling. This moral reform was made effective in Missouri several years before the general government at Washington took up the movement and made it national by barring all lottery business from the United States mails.
Jackson's Veto the Issue.
There were three candidates for governor to succeed Miller at the August election of 1832. The issue was President Jackson and his veto of the United
368
MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
States bank. The St. Louis branch of the bank, under the management of John O'Fallon, had given such satisfaction that anti-Jackson sentiment was strong in the city. Daniel Dunklin, the lieutenant-governor, ran as the Jackson candi- date. The country vote saved him. Dunklin was elected by 9,121 votes; John Bull, the anti-Jackson candidate, receiving 8,035, and S. C. Davis 386.
Two months before the end of his term Governor Dunklin resigned to become surveyor general of the United States. Lieutenant-Governor Lilburn W. Boggs was acting governor until November when he became governor by virtue of the August election. In the days of Andrew Jackson it was the custom of Mis- souri Democrats to meet in Jefferson City on the 8th of January, the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, and make their nominations for the state ticket to be voted in the August following. Boggs was the Jackson candidate. He was opposed by William H. Ashley. The campaign was a close one, resulting: Boggs, 14,315; Ashley, 13,057.
The 24th of July, 1832, was a day of note in St. Louis. Andrew Jackson had smashed the United States bank with his veto. In the afternoon of that day, the friends of the bank met at the town hall. William Carr Lane pre- sided. The resolutions were brought in by Edward Bates, Pierre Chouteau Jr., George Collier, Thornton Grimsley, Henry S. Geyer and Nathan Ranney: They expressed "deep mortification and regret" for the veto. They declared that the bank had been "highly beneficial to the nation at large and indispensably necessary to the commercial prosperity and individual comfort of the western people." They revealed apprehension that the consequences of the President's course would be that "one universal scene of distress and ruin will pervade the whole western country."
The sentiment of St. Louis was not one-sided upon the United States bank issue. In the evening of the same day that the supporters of the bank acted, the Andrew Jackson side was heard. A second meeting of citizens was held in the town hall. Dr. Samuel Merry presided. Dr. Merry and Dr. Lane had been partners in the practice of their profession. Now they headed the opposing political parties. Lane had held the office of mayor of St. Louis six years, retir- ing in 1829. Dr. Merry was to be a candidate for mayor at the coming city election. He was receiver of public moneys under President Jackson. It was quite natural that he should head the movement to indorse the Jackson veto.
If these resolution adopted at the afternoon meeting were strong, those which the Jackson people put forth were even more sweeping. The committee was composed of E. Dobyns, John Shade, James C. Lynch, L. Brown, B. W. Ayres, J. H. Baldwin and P. Taylor.
While the first meeting viewed the veto "with deep mortification and regret" the second body of citizens viewed "all banks and banking institutions possessing exclusive privileges and powers of monopoly as of dangerous tendency in a gov- ernment of the people, calculated in their nature to draw distinctions in society and to build up family nobilities." The meeting furthermore viewed "the stand which General Jackson has taken against the monied powers of Europe and America as a mark of firmness and patriotism not surpassed by any patriot or statesman since the light of liberty first dawned upon our country."
369
STATE ADMINISTRATION
The Overshadowing Issue in Missouri.
The bank question overshadowed all other issues in Missouri for some years after this. Senator Thomas H. Benton committed the Democrats to specie. He advocated a monetary system in which there should be no money other than the precious metals. Thereby he obtained the name of "Old Bullion." The Senator denounced the opposition. But strong as Benton was, the chamber of com- merce of St. Louis, predecessor of the merchants' exchange, sent to Congress a petition "for the establishment of a national bank." That was in the summer of 1837. The petition bore the signature of nearly every prominent business man in St. Louis. The truth of history is that St. Louis had had an exceptional experience with the United States bank. The St. Louis branch of that institution was under the management of John O'Fallon throughout the period of its exist- ence. And John O'Fallon was a born banker. The other efforts to establish and to conduct banks in St. Louis had been disastrous to stockholders. John O'Fallon managed the St. Louis branch of the Bank of the United States in such manner as to afford the banking facilities which the business of St. Louis so much needed. At the same time he protected the interests of the bank. When President Jackson destroyed the United States bank there followed considerable losses in all of the cities except St. Louis where branches had been established. John O'Fallon wound up the business of the St. Louis branch with a loss of $125. In that period, when the banking business of this country was passing through its crude and elementary stage, the conduct of the St. Louis branch of the United States bank laid the foundation of the financial repute of St. Louis. It taught that successful bank management calls for more than fine business qualifications. Temperament had its part in the make-up. In that measure men are born to be bankers. Ability to read human nature, to know character, is no small asset in the capital the bank manager puts into the business. It counts for far more than the stock he may hold in his own name. The lesson of John O'Fallon does not teach that the bank manager must be cold-blooded. It does prove that an extraordinary talent of discrimination is indispensable.
When all the affairs of the St. Louis branch were settled and it was known that the loss had been only $125, the sentiment in favor of a bank recognized by government was very strong. If the United States would not charter then the State should. Thus the sentiment crystallized. St. Louis had become a city of 6,000 population, with far-reaching business connections. Lines of steam- boats carried the trade north and south, east and west. Confronted with the pos -. sibility of entire loss of banking facilities, the business men welcomed tem- porarily a branch of what was known as the Cincinnati Commercial agency. Mr. O'Fallon turned over such banking business as could be transferred. The government made the agency its depository. Fair service was given by the Cin- cinnati people. The situation which was in a way to become desperate was par- tially relieved by the agency. Very soon the St. Louis business men realized that the agency was making much money for Cincinnati capital. The movement for a home institution gained headway.
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.