USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Municipal government history and politics, Vol. V > Part 11
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democratic in form. The organization of this first civil gov- ernment was then completed by the act of the Governor-Gen- eral of Louisiana who appointed two judges, an attorney-gen- eral and a notary. Spain was the legal owner after the Peace of Paris of this part of Louisiana, but as yet no action had been taken by that country to claim her own, and for some years St. Louis was ruled by its inhabitants under French authority. When Don Pedro Piernas, the Spanish Lieutenant Governor, arrived in Upper Louisiana in the spring of 1770, but little change was made in the administration of the affairs of St. Louis, which were, in the main, conducted wisely during all the period of Spanish rule in Louisiana. The retrocession of the territory to France in the early part of the century and "the sale to the United States by Napoleon in 1803 were the final steps in a series of changes which were of much import- ance to the general interests of the nations concerned, but which made little difference to the growing town of St. Louis. The population grew, business increased, and peace reigned.
It was not until the year 1808 that St. Louis was legally incorporated as a town. On the eighteenth of July of that year an act was passed by the Legislature of the Territory of Louisiana, entitled " An act concerning towns in this Terri- tory." November ninth, on petition of two-thirds of the tax- able inhabitants, the Court of Common Pleas for the district of St. Louis incorporated the town. This first charter of St. Louis fixed the limits of the town as follows, in terms hardly intelligible to the present resident of the then French village ;
. . " Beginning at Antoine Roy's mill on the bank of the Mississippi ; thence running sixty arpens west; thence south on said line of sixty arpens in the rear until the same comes to the barrier Denoyer; thence due south until it comes to the Sugar-loaf; thence due east to the Mississippi ; from thence by the Mississippi along low-water mark to the place first mentioned." Its taxable boundaries were also fixed ; and provision was made for a board of five trustees to whom was to be confided the administration of town affairs. Decem-
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ber sixth was fixed as the day when the first body of trustees should be elected by popular vote, but the people, even before the town was incorporated, met at the court-house and elected trustees for one year. January 23, 1808, is, therefore, the proper date of the beginning of the history of St. Louis as a corporation.
The charter gave to these trustees not only executive, but legislative, functions and they enacted ordinances for the gov- ernment of the town which were afterward, when the town had become a city, placed upon the statute-books. A perusal of these ordinances reminds us of times and conditions of society which seem more than eighty years back. We find it ordained, for example, among other clauses intended to preserve the proper relations between masters and slaves, that " every white person who shall associate with slaves at their balls, or other amusements, shall for every such offence forfeit and pay the sum of ten dollars ;" and upon conviction of any person for violation of this or any other ordinance of like nature " all fines and penalties accruing therefrom shall be appropri- ated, one-half to the informer, and the other half to the chair- man for the use of the town." Loud complaints were uttered in those days about " the putrid carcasses of cows, hogs, dogs, etc. which obstructed the streets of St. Louis ; " and about the wretched, unpaved streets and foot-paths, the stagnant ponds, and the high taxes. At the election of Madison in 1809 St. Louis gave her first vote for presidential electors. Missouri was not in the Union as a State, but a record of the vote of St. Louis is worth noting as an indication of her voting popu- lation and political preferences. The vote stood 122 for James Madison, 48 for Charles Pinckney, and 6 for George Clinton ; 176 in all. The principal currency of the town was peltries, lead, and whiskey. Taxes were paid without the services of a regular collector until 1810, when an ordinance was passed providing for a collector to be appointed by the Chairman of the Board. In the same year provison was made for the organization of fire-companies and for much needed improve-
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ment of streets and bridges. That this was the day of small things may be readily seen from a statement of receipts and expenditures for the year 1811, in which we find the total expenditure of the town government for the year to be $632.87}, exceeding the receipts by $84.57}. The population at this time was not far from 2,000. Various town ordinances were passed in 1811; one, for example, fixing a penalty of a ten-dollar fine for the offence of keeping any store on Sunday " for the purpose of vending goods or merchandise on the Sabbath-day, or Sunday, between the hours of eight o'clock in the morning and sundown." One also obliges every boat of five tons burthen within the Territory of Louisiana to pay a duty of two dollars ; and another provides " for levying and collecting a tax within the limits of the town of St. Louis." In 1813, 217 votes were cast at the time of the second election of James Madison, and the population in 1815 was returned by the sheriff as 2,600.
Such, stated very briefly, are the various steps in the pro- gress of civil .government in St. Louis from its settlement to the admission of Missouri into the Union as a State in August, 1821.
II.
For two or three years before the admission of Missouri as a State the question of a city charter was agitated in St. Louis, but it was not until December 9, 1822, that the act of incor- poration passed the State legislature, constituting a body politic and corporate by the name and style of The Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of St. Louis. The western boundary of this city of sixty-five years ago was Seventh Street, which was a long way from the settled portions of the town. All west of Seventh Street was rolling, wooded prairie, a favorite hunting and shooting ground, now for miles covered with sub- stantial business houses and fine residences, and threaded with well-paved streets. The administration of the affairs of the corporation was vested in a Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
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The mayor was to be elected yearly, as also were the nine aldermen. Both Mayor and Aldermen were to possess a free- hold estate within the city limits. They were vested with powers differing little from those conferred upon like officers in more modern city charters. The right to vote for these officers on the first day of April in each year was given to " all free white male persons of the age of twenty-one years who have paid a city tax." The question of accepting or rejecting this charter was laid before the qualified voters of the town on the first Monday in March, 1823. 107 voted for and 90 against the charter. The small vote is partly accounted for by the fact that many otherwise qualified voters had not yet paid the tax to the town corporation, and hence could not vote upon this matter. After the adoption of the charter the new city was divided into three wards, and on the 7th of April, 1823, William Carr Lane was elected the first Mayor of St. Louis. It may be said here, in passing, that his administra- tion of city affairs was so satisfactory that he was re-elected in 1824, '25, '26, '27, and '28, and after an interval of ten years, in 1838, '39 and '40. The first Mayor's message delivered west of the Mississippi was read to the board of aldermen on the 14th of April, 1823. The Mayor touched upon the pros- pects of future greatness, the perplexing and ever-to-be-recur- ring question of street reconstruction and improvement, the importance of harbor and river improvements, and of the Mississippi as the highway of the city to prosperity, the public health, the need of a better water-supply, and of a city hos- pital. A City Register, City Auditor, Street Commissioner, Assessors and other minor officers were then appointed and the new government was now fairly in operation. The salary of the Mayor was put at $300. The Aldermen received no emolu- ment. The next year after the re-election of William Carr Lane his salary was made $600, and one per cent. upon all moneys paid into the treasury was made the compensation of the Treasurer.
Up to the year 1809 the old French names of streets had been retained. From 1809 to 1826 the east and west streets
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were lettered north and south of Market Street, North A, South A, &c. In 1826, by a city ordinance, the streets within the then north and south limits of the town were given the names which they have since kept. Second and Fourth Streets were paved in 1827, and by the end of the year 1829 streets were laid out and partly paved as far as Seventh Street, the western boundary of St. Louis City. Third Street was not widened and paved until 1831. The offices of city surveyor and street commissioner were united by ordinance in 1829.
The charter of 1822, with some trifling amendments, con- tinued in force until February 26th, 1835, when the legisla- ture passed an act by which the city was constituted a body politic under the style of the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of St. Louis. By this new charter the powers of the corporation were much enlarged. Its powers were vested in a Mayor and twelve Aldermen, three from each of the four wards. The Mayor was to be at least thirty years of age, a citizen of the United States, a resident of the city for two years, at least, before his election, to possess a freehold estate within the city, and not to hold any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States at the time of his election. The revised ordi- nances were adopted which prescribed "the duties of the reg- ister, the mode and manner of holding city elections, and for registering free negroes and mulattoes ; for guaging and inspect- ing domestic liquors; for the inspection of flour, beef, pork, &c .; for weighing hay and stove-coal ; for the suppression of riots, routs, &c .; concerning the police; registering and restrain- ing dogs; providing fire-buckets; restraining hogs; concerning breaches of ordinances ; establishing a treasury department ; regulating wagons, drays, and carriages; establishing the health department ; appointing a city attorney and a night- watch ; suppression of gambling; restraining the assembling of negroes and mulattoes ; regulating the revenue and taxes ; regulating the water-works; regulating the harbor of St. Louis ; establishing quarantine and vaccination ; lighting the city with gas; regulating the care and improvement of streets
.
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and highways, city market, &c." The variety of matters belonging to these ordinances shows how the little city of only about 5,000 inhabitants was struggling fifty years ago with all the serious problems which beset those who administer municipal affairs now-a-days.
Municipal officers at this time received but slight compen- sation for the amount of time and labor devoted to city affairs. The Mayor's salary was now $800 a year. For attendance at each meeting Aldermen received two, and the President three dollars. When members were absent fines were levied and when paid placed in a fund used for a banquet at the end of the year. The City Register received $800; the Treasurer, $400, and the other officers a similarly low rate of compensa- tion. The policeman were few in number and all persons on the streets after ten o'clock were very likely to be stopped by the night-watch, who asked the reason for such late hours, and perhaps escorted them to their homes or to the watch- house. It was also the duty of the night-watch "to apprehend all slaves that may be found in the streets, lanes, or alleys, or on the private property of persons other than their owners, or the persons under whose control they are at the time, after the hour of nine o'clock at night from October 1st to April 1st, and after ten p. m. from April 1st to October 1st." For violation of this ordinance a fine of three dollars was imposed upon the owner, or the slave received a number of lashes, not exceeding twenty-five, "well laid on." A proclamation of the Mayor in 1832 notifies masters of slaves that "the recent extensive distribution in this city of incendiary, abolition newspapers, tracts and pictures, effected secretly in the night- time by casting packages into yards and other places where they would be found by servants, compels all officers who are concerned in maintaining the public pcace to deny the colored people some of their usual privileges until those enemies of the human race, the abolitionists, who have evidently done this deed, are discovered and dealt with according to law. ... The usual permits from this office to colored people for social
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parties and religious meetings after night will be withheld until information is given of the hiding-place of the incendi- aries, which must be known to some of our colored people."
February 11, 1839, by an Act of the General Assembly of the State, a new charter was given to the city. The City Council was to consist of two chambers, a Board of Aldermen and a Board of Delegates; the former to be com- posed of two members from each ward chosen every second year; the latter of three from each ward chosen for three years. The executive officers were a Mayor, a Register, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Marshal, and an Engineer. No char- ter before this of 1839 had stated with sufficient explicitness the necessary qualifications of a voter. These qualifications were now given in the plainest terms. He must be a citizen of the United States, must be twenty-one years old, must have resided in the city twelve months next preceding the election, and must have paid a city tax within a year next preceding such election. The name of the voter must be indorsed upon his ballot. It is to be noticed, also, that any inhabitant of the State not a resident of the city, who owned a freehold estate within it and who had paid the tax required by law, was allowed to vote at any election in the ward where his property was situated.
In 1840 the City Guard "appointed to keep watch and guard every night throughout the year," consisted of a cap- tain, three lieutenants, and twenty-eight privates. In this year the Council created the "fire-wardens and property guards of the city of St. Louis," from which legislation sprang afterward the excellent "salvage corps," which now does good service at fires in removing or covering goods and merchandise. The erection and regulation of a work-house was also an Act of the year 1840, for the punishment of " all persons legally committed by due course of law for any viola- tion of ordinances for which a fine shall be imposed and the convict shall refuse or be unable to pay such fine and costs."
By an Act of February 15, 1841, the boundaries of the city were enlarged and the following year an "engineering de-
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partment " was established, composed of the City Engineer, a Street Commissioner, and Superintendent of the water-works. By another Act of the Legislature in February, 1843, the various Acts before passed incorporating the city of St. Louis and amending the articles of incorporation were reduced to one Act. The corporate style was changed to that of The City of St. Louis, and the charter was in many respects made more clear and simple.
It was in this year that agitation began upon the subject of separating St. Louis county from the city. The question was decided against separation in August, 1844, but was continually arising for thirty years. In another part of this paper will be given the details of the final success of the party advocating division.
Several important offices were created in 1843, among others those of Harbor Master and of Street Commissioner, and of Inspectors, whose duty it was to superintend the cleaning of streets, alleys, avenues, market-places and public squares. By an ordinance of September 2, a Health Department was established, to consist of the Health Officer and one member of the Board of Aldermen from each ward. Street Inspectors were placed under the control of the Board of Health. The Health Officer was to be appointed by the Mayor for six months, and chosen alternately from the Professors of the Medical Department of Kemper College and that of the St. Louis University.
By the Act of Incorporation in 1822 no person could vote at a city election who had not paid a city tax. Various attempts were made to repeal this provision of the charter, and this was the issue in the municipal election of 1844. The enemies of this provision declared that the election of 1843 had been carried by the dog-tax ; that men who had never owned a dog, went on election day and paid a dog-tax and thus qualified as voters ; that clubs were formed to issue these dog-tax certificates. Others said that paying a water-license was paying a tax, and claimed the right to vote. After an
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animated and exciting election, the Whig candidate for Mayor was elected and the unpopular tax-paying qualification defeated.
In 1852 a number of citizens petitioned the County Court to incorporate as a town a district lying about one mile west of "St. Louis Common Fields." The petition was granted and the name Second Municipality of the City of St. Louis was taken as its corporate title. This Second Municipality had its own Police, its Recorder's Court, the right to levy and collect taxes, and, in short, all rights that are usually granted to in- corporated towns.
Sixteen years had elapsed since any material change in the charter of St. Louis had been made by the Legislature of the State, when in March, 1859, an Act was passed " amendatory of and supplemental to the several Acts incorporating the city of St. Louis." Among other things it was provided that the " City Council should consist of one Board called the Common Council, who should possess all the powers and exercise all the functions of the Board of Aldermen and City Council as here- tofore constituted." This Board was to consist of twenty members, two for each ward, one-half of the members to be elected in each year to serve two years. It was under this amended charter that St. Louis passed through the trying period of the civil war. No city in the Union was placed in a more embarrassing and perplexing situation. Business was well-nigh suspended; commercial and manufacturing interests were prostrated ; unity and harmony among citizens were de- stroyed ; and the administration of city affairs in any satisfactory manner became almost impossible. A majority of the citizens were, however, loyal to the United States Government and to the municipal laws and regulations, and the city survived this most trying ordeal without loss of reputation as a law-abiding community, although greatly crippled in every business and social interest. Shortly after the war, in 1866, by a legislative act, the Council was divided into two branches, and by another revision in 1871 it was provided that all elective and appoin- tive officers should hold their offices for the term of two years.
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The city of Carondelet was incorporated with the city of St. Louis in 1870. The revised charter requiring the city to be divided into not less than twelve wards, and the population seeming to justify even more than twelve, a thirteenth ward was created which had its first representation in the Council in 1873, but on the reorganization of the wards in 1874 this thirteenth ward disappeared.
III.
We now come to an important and radical change in the government of the city and in its relation to the county of St. Louis, of which it had up to this time been a part.
The State of Missouri adopted a new Constitution in 1875. In Article IX, section 20, the following provision was made for a change in the charter of the city of St. Louis: "The city of St. Louis may extend its limits so as to embrace the parks now within its boundaries, and other convenient and contiguous territory, and frame a charter for the government of the city thus enlarged, upon the following conditions, that is to say :
"The Council of the City and the County Court of Saint Louis shall, at the request of the Mayor of Saint Louis, meet in joint session and order an election, to be held as provided for general elections, by the qualified voters of the city and county, of a Board of Thirteen Freeholders of such city or county, whose duty shall be to propose a scheme for the en- largement and definition of the boundaries of the city, the reorganization of the county, the adjustment between the rela- tions between the city thus enlarged and the residue of St. Louis county, and the government of the city thus enlarged by a charter in harmony with and subject to the Constitution and laws of Missouri, which shall, among other things, pro- vide for a Chief Executive and two Houses of Legislation, one of which shall be elected by general ticket, which scheme and charter shall be signed in duplicate by said Board, or a major-
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ity of them, and one of them returned to the Mayor of the city and the other to the Presiding Justice of the County Court within ninety days after the election of such Board. Within thirty days thereafter the City Council and County Court shall submit such scheme to the qualified voters of the whole county, and such charter to the qualified voters of the city so enlarged, at an election to be held not less than twenty nor more than thirty days after the order thereof ; and if a majority of such qualified voters voting at such election shall ratify such scheme and charter, then such scheme shall become the organic law of the county and city, and such charter the organic law of the city, and at the end of sixty days thereafter shall take the place of and supersede the charter of St. Louis and all amendments thereof and all special laws relating to St. Louis county incon- sistent with such scheme."
In accordance with this section of the new constitution a Board of thirteen freeholders was duly appointed. On the 3d of July, 1876, they reported the Scheme for the Government of the County and City of St. Louis. The constitution had pro- vided that copies of the scheme and charter should be delivered to the Mayor of the city and to the presiding Justice of the County Court "within ninety days after the election of said Board." The delivery of the latter was not made until twenty minutes after twelve o'clock on the morning of the 4th of July. The ninety days expired at midnight. It was, there- fore, held by some that the law had not been complied with, and that the whole scheme fell to the ground. The matter was, upon this quibble, referred to the County Counsellor for an opinion. In the meantime Mayor Overstolz raised no question on this point, called the City Council in special session on the 12th, and invited the County Court to be present and take such joint action with the Council as the case should call for. On Tuesday the County Counsellor gave it as his opinion that the point of the County Court was not well taken ; that such a trivial irregularity could not defeat the purpose of the constitutional convention and the will of the
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people; and so on Wednesday the two bodies met, as had been arranged, and made preparations for the special election for presenting the new plan to the suffrages of the county and city. This election was one of great interest. For days before that set for the settlement of the matter the daily newspapers were full of articles, editorial and contributed, in which the merits and defects of the scheme and charter were set forth in detail. By their friends it was contended that the double-headed system then in force was anomalous and absurd, not to dwell upon the acknowledged fact that it was badly administered. Two bodies levied taxes within the same territory, neither of which fairly represented the people because neither was voted for at large. By the scheme and charter, they said, all this would be remedied. Each government would be remanded to its proper sphere and their relations would be properly adjusted. The County Court would exercise authority only within the County of St. Louis, and the City Council would be made, in truth, as well as in name, the legislative body of the city. This Council, with its upper and lower houses, would be truly representative in character. The city government would pos- sess a character and dignity before unknown to it, and its operation in all directions would be thorough and systematic. These advantages were summed up as follows by a writer in the St. Louis Republican of August 19, 1876, three days before the election :
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