History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 36

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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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).

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of taxation and debt. In this great and rich territory, possessing extent of country and natural resources sufficient to make an empire, let freedom rule-let this be the home of the white man. Declare by legislative enactment that her labor shall be honored, respected and rewarded. Let us make room in our territory for no privileged class, spurning labor and the laborer-exalted above common sympathies and cares-sacred against vulgar necessities, and scorning honest occupation. Let us pass this law, and then we shall be done with slavery, so far as we have any authority over the question; leaving it where the Constitution has left it, and the fathers of the Constitution left it, with the states where it exists, to be by them regulated as they deem best.

I take this occasion to warn you against falling into the snares of bank men. Too often it has been the case that legislative sanction has been given, in the new territories, to the designs of cunning men, who, unwilling to labor, have endeavored by plausible schemes of finance to put afloat worthless bank paper, which soon depreciates and robs the laboring men of the country. I hope you will turn a deaf ear to all their applications for bank charters, and that you will, to the best of your ability, secure our citizens against the evil of a pernicious paper currency.

Elections in the new territories, of late years, have been so fraudulently conducted that the word "election" has almost become, in the territories, a synonym of fraud, deception and corruption. Upon the purity of the elective franchise rests the basis of our Government. I trust that you will enact a stringent election law, one which shall secure to our people immunity from fraud.

At the present time we are suffering inconvenience for the various departments of our territorial government, but they are but temporary. I have no doubt but what Congress, with her accustomed liberality and fostering care to her territories, will make provision by appropriating as liberal an amount as the state of the treasury will justify, for the purpose of erecting buildings for the use of the various departments. While I think it is very necessary these should be made, it may be neglected by the general Government, unless we bring them to the notice of Congress, and show the prosperity and the advantages to be received by the territory and the Government in return for the expense. It would seem to me very proper that the Legislative Assembly should memorialize Congress on the subject of an appropriation for military roads, and for a geological survey of the terri- tory, and a Pacific railroad. There should be a military road from the mouth of the Big , Sioux to Fort Randall, and from Randall to Fort Laramie: also one from the Red River of the North to the Missouri. Every man who is acquainted with the country west of the Missouri is aware of the fact that Fort Randall should be the distributing military post west of the Missouri and north of the Kansas River. Thousands and tens of thousands could and would be saved to the treasury by making Fort Randall, instead of Fort Leaven- worth, the distributing post for supplying Laramie and the military posts in Utah. There would be thus saved to the Government the expense of more than three hundred miles land transportation. No better road can be found to Laramie than one running along the Niobrara River. As we have good water communication from St. Louis to Randall, goods and army stores would be delivered at Randall at but a trifling cost more than the Govern- ment pays for freight to Leavenworth. It is only necessary that this matter be brought to the attention of Congress to have the change effected. The economy of the change, in connection with the present excessive demands on the treasury, is an imperative reason why it should be done promptly, and at once.

I would recommend that you memorialize Congress on the subject of the Pacific Rail- road. The only route to the Pacific, along the line of which the country is capable of sustaining a continuous and prosperous settlement, is through this territory. By any other route hundreds of miles of the railroad must pass through a barren, sterile country, not susceptible of settlement. The cost of construction of such parts of a railroad would necessitate an immense outlay in the original cost, as would also the annual expense of repairs. Through Dakota is found the most direct route; one easy and cheap of construc- tion, and the character of the country through which the road would pass insures a rapid and prosperous settlement along the whole line. A direct route from New York City along the shores of the lakes, would pass through Chicago, Dubuque and Sioux City, up the Valley of the Missouri to the month of the Niobrara, and then up the Valley of the Niobrara to the South Pass. Chicago and Dubuque must extend the hand of welcome to us, and cooperate with us in securing the carly completion of a railroad to the territory, if they would avail themselves of the trade of the tens of thousands who will soon occupy the Valley of the Missouri. Otherwise our trade and travel will seek New Ulm and Man- kato for an outlet, and St. Paul as the center of the trade and commerce of the territory. St. Paul being only 200 miles distant from the Town of Sioux Falls, situated near the east line of the territory.

The propriety of a geological survey of the territory has already been brought to the notice of the Government in a very able manner by our efficient surveyor, Gen. George D. Hill. Esquire. Feeling a great interest in this survey. I cannot refrain from urging on you that you shall cooperate in securing from Congress a liberal appropriation for that purpose. I am confident that there is, west of the Missouri River, untold wealth in the mineral resources of Dakota Territory. The recorded opinion of some of the most eminent geologists in the United States, and information gathered from missionaries and trappers

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who have visited that part of the country confirm that belief. Every dollar appropriated will be returned a hundred fold by the addition to our population, the increase of business and the amount of land sold.

I hope you will memorialize Congress upon the subject of the Homestead Law and urge its immediate passage. That question is no longer an open one and subject to debate. The American people have declared almost unanimously in favor of the justice, wisdom and necessity of such a law-the grant of 160 acres of land to every actual settler who is willing to go out on the public lands and settle upon and occupy the same. If such a bill fails to become a law at the present session of Congress, it can only be by the neglect of those who are the most vitally interested in its enactment. Agriculture being for some time to come the leading interest in our territory I should deem it proper in you to give to that interest the benefit, fostering care and protection of wise legislation. Proper laws should be passed to prevent, as far as possible, those extensive prairie fires which sweep over the country in the fall months, and have destroyed crops and fences, and houses, and have injured to a great extent the young timber, which is so rapidly growing along all our streams. If these fires can be prevented, a few years will suffice to make Dakota a well timbered country. Territorial roads should be surveyed and established by law at an early day between the different towns and settlements by the most direct and eligible routes. Proper attention to this will secure our settlers from much trouble and annoyance which otherwise will hereafter arise upon the location of roads at a later day.

Having within our territory a large Indian population, it would seem desirable that you should enact some law regulating intercourse between our citizens and the different tribes. As our citizens are excluded from going upon the Indian land without a permit, it would seem to be just that the Indians should not be allowed to roam at will over the ceded lands. I believe that all Indians should be restricted to the unceded lands and their reservations. I believe that such a requirement would conduce to the peace and quiet of the territory, and free the settlers from the annoyance of these straggling Indians who are wandering about the country. Such an exclusion from the public lands would do away with the oppor- tunity which now tempts bad white men to carry on an iniquitous liquor traffic with the Indians.

I would recommend to you that a law be passed securing to every family freedom from execution and sale of their homestead; if resident in the country, a house and so many acres as your wisdom may determine. I believe that such a law is eminently just and proper. I would have every man know, and especially every wife and child feel, that there was one spot on earth that they could call home; one place that the cruel and remorseless creditor could not tread upon; that one fireside was sacred, and that one roof should shelter the innocent and unfortunate. I hope never in Dakota to see the harsh creditor darken the door and drive from the home the wife, or it might be the widow and her children, because, forsooth, he could, in his wily brain and bloodless heart, overreach in trade the honest but improvident husband and father.

The vast expense of the Federal Government incurred in the prosecution of the war, will necessarily impose upon all the people of this country a burden of taxation hitherto unknown in our Government. As the expenses of the executive, judicial and legislative departments of our Government are defrayed by Congress, with the exception of our pro- portion of the war tax, the taxes levied upon our people should be very light. I hope that the form of our county organization, and the powers granted to the county authorities for the levying of taxes, will be so guarded as to confine them to the strictest economy con- sistent with efficiency. The great error committed in other territories has been the disposi- tion to incur debt, and to issue territorial warrants and county orders. Sound public policy forbids such a system of finance. A depreciated currency increases the price paid, and the enhanced price necessitates an additional issue, which again contributes to lower the county or territorial credit. Our proportion of the war tax our people will cheerfully pay. There being as yet no titles to real estate in this territory-no land office having as yet been opened-much is left your body to decide as to the proper system of taxation to adopt.

I would recommend the passage of a law which shall secure to every citizen of Dakota, who shall volunteer to go into the service of the United States, upon the requisition of the War Department, his right to vote for all territorial, legislative and county officers, upon our election day. I would not have his patriotism be the means of depriving him of the proudest right of the citizen-the enjoyment of the elective franchise. This proposi- tion is so plainly just that it need only be suggested to be approved.

] take this occasion to express my gratification at the prompt response made by our loyal citizens to the requisition made by the War Department upon the executive of Dakota for volunteers to garrison Fort Randall, and thus relieve the regulars who were stationed there, who were needed South to aid in crushing this most accursed rebellion. ln a few weeks the requisition was filled, and we now have a volunteer force of which we have just reason to be proud. Every citizen felt it a privilege that Dakota. in common with her older sisters, should be allowed to contribute her mite to aid the Federal Government in this, the darkest day of her life. If the exigencies of the war should demand it, I believe that every male citizen within our limits would abandon the field and workshop, and with his musket upon his shoulder would rush to the tented field to the rescue of the Constitu- tion. That, I trust, will not be necessary. I believe the dawn of a better and brighter day

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is upon us. This most infamous rebellion, born and bred of an aggressive, domineering interest, must die-must perish, that faith in the justice of God shall be vindicated. He is but a superficial observer of political events, who does not recognize in the primary cause of this wicked rebellion, the institution of slavery. Can it be possible that in the providence of God, an institution founded in error, injustice and despotism, shall become the instrument for the destruction of a government, the wisest and best ever framed by the inventive genius of man? I cannot believe so. I recognize in the darkness that now clouds our beloved country, and the heavy hand that presses upon her, the inscrutable work- ings of a Divine Providence "who doeth all things well." I believe that we shall come out of this rebellion better, purer and stronger-that the American Union will continue to move upward and onward in her destined path in the history of the world. 1 have never entertained any fear of the disruption of our Government, the division of our Union, and the overthrow of the Constitution. A glance at the map of North America should satisfy anyone that nature made this country for one people to dwell in, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes of the North to the Gulf of the South. The great Northwest, the region of the lakes, and the valleys of the Mississippi and the Missouri, whose waters divide and seek the ocean, to the East through the chains of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, to the South through the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, forbids a division. The millions who live upon the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries can never consent to a division of the Union. To them an imperative political and commercial necessity forbids a division. To allow the mouth of the Mississippi to belong to a foreign power, would be to subject ourselves to trouble and annoyance, and all our commerce to unjust and arbitrary taxation. An absolute, overwhelming necessity compels us to remain one people-one nation-with the flag of our fathers floating over every state. Six hundred thousand free- men are today in martial array-citizen soldiers-not an unwilling conscript among them all-a prouder army than Napoleon, in the plenitude of his power, ever reviewed; each and every man crying aloud to be led on to battle and to victory. The men composing that army are men of peace, who prefer the peaceful walks of life, who love to tread in the paths of agriculture, the mechanic arts, trade and commerce; but they are men who, when treason opened its batteries upon Sumter and its little band of devoted men, inspired by the noblest impulses which are implanted in the human heart, bid farewell to home and its comforts, to father and mother, wife and children, and rushed to the fieldl with willing hearts and strong arms, offering all upon the altar of their country, ready to pour out their blood like water, and yield their lives, if need be, in defense of the supremacy of law and the Constitution. With such an army, engaged in such a cause, who can doubt the final result? Though they were not the first to seek the arbitrament of the sword, they will be the last to leave it. Though they did not provoke or commence the conflict, they will be the last to abandon it. Let the war be prosecuted vigorously and in deadly earnest, with but one object in view, the security of the country, the preservation of the Union, and the assertion and supremacy of the Constitution, over every foot of our widely extended domain. Let nothing cramp or hamper the noble efforts of our army; what- soever stands in the way of success let it be trampled under foot. Let us commit no blunder by placing any interest before or above the Union, least of all that interest which is solety and entirely responsible for the rebellion which today convulses the nation. If slavery stands in the way of a successful subjugation of this hellish rebellion, let slavery die. If in the providence of God it should come to pass that through the efforts for the preservation of constitutional liberty, the institution of human slavery should be blotted out of existence, no lover of humanity, civilization, and Christianity, will drop a tear over its grave.

The events of the last forty days have given heart and hope to the whole country. The advent of Secretary Stanton into the War Department, with the declaration that the business of the army was "to attack, pursue, and destroy the rebellions enemy," electrified the nation. The late glorious victories in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Mis- souri, have made good the declaration. Manassas and Columbus are evacuated -the two great strongholdls of the enemy. This is due to the new vigor infused into the War Department by the act of the President in placing in that department a man of will and purpose. Upon the accession of Stanton into the war office, a cabinet meeting was called. The country had furnished 600,000 men, and $6,000,000 of money; and was clamorous and impatient for an advance. The zeal and patriotism of the people were likely to become paralyzed unless something was done to justify the immense outlay of men and money. The President, rising with the occasion, asserting his rights and duties as commander-in- chief of the army and navy, having with his far-sighted and sure-footed judgment, declared that the backbone of the enemy was to be broken by a vigorous advance in the West, and that the just expectations of the people should be fulfilled; Abraham Lincoln directed that Buell and Grant and McClernand and Curtis should advance, and make good the declara- tion of Stanton that the business of the army was "to attack, pursue, and destroy the rebellious enemy." The terrible energy of those armies, drawn from the bone and sinew of the West, led by Generals Grant, McClernand, Curtis and Buell, have not only won the most fiercely contested battle fields, but have compelled the evacuation of Columbus and Manassas, without the sacrifice of a life. We already see the beginning of the end. The hanghty and rebellious enemy have been driven at the point of the bayonet, from behind their own chosen and well fortified entrenchments.

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These victories do not prove that the men of one section are any better or braver than those of a different section of our common country; but it proves "that he is thrice armed that hath his quarrel just:" it evidences that the ingrate, and wicked, and rebellious citizens, seeking to destroy the priceless legacy of constitutional liberty, bequeathed by Washington and his noble compatriots, cannot withstand, on the battle field, the indomitable will and determined valor of the citizen, who, giving his life to his country and his soul to God, fights to "preserve, protect and defend" that rich political inheritance, purchased by the struggles of our fathers on the bloody fields of Trenton, Monmouth, Saratoga and Yorktown. The glorious victory won by the Northwest-the men of Illinois aided by their fellow soldiers of lowa and Indiana and other western states, have won imperishable honor. The attack and capture of Fort Donelson is the most brilliant military victory ever won on the American continent. To every officer and soldier of that gallant army, the whole American people owe a lasting debt of gratitude, and they will ever live in their hearts. This victory has given us possession of the state which holds the honored remains of the great chieftain who so heartily hated and despised this cursed heresy of secession. Standing by the grave of Jackson, may our brave soldiers renew their faith and redouble their will, and swear "by the Eternal," secession shall die.

Andrew Johnson, the first of patriots and most courageous of men, who, in the darkest hour and amid the thickest gloom, when reverses attended our arms, and hope almost fled the stoutest heart, he faltered not-despaired not-proscribed and exiled from his home for months by the hell-hounds of secession, today he revisits his home, and stands upon the soil of Tennessee with the Stars and Stripes floating over the capital. Let the energy of the last sixty days continue-as it will continue-and a few months will witness the end of this monstrous and stupendous slaveholders' rebellion.

Gentlemen I trust that when your labors are over and you shall have passed away from the field of legislative action, that those who shall come after you may remember you as not unmindful of the responsibilities imposed upon you. It is well you should bear in mind the age in which you live, and the nation of which you are a part. Let your memories. run back a little over two centuries. and there is present before you a small band of refugees, hated, despised, and oppressed, about to set sail upon an angry sea, seeking a home in the unknown western world, bearing with them the germ of civil and religious liberty, which today has expanded until it has become the first nation of the world.

Let your imagination run forward only half a century, and you behold the American Union dictating the law to all nations. You behold her without a parallel in the history of nations ; first in the arts and sciences, in religion and literature, in peace and arms, the pride of all governments, the hope of the oppressed, the asylum of the refugee, a nation kind to the weak, firm to the strong; a republic which will stand unmoved amidst the throes of revolutions, while thrones totter and empires pass away; beautiful as Cytherea as she arose from the flashing foam of the .Egean; more powerful than Rome in the days of the Caesars, or France under the imperial sway of Napoleon; a government with a hundred millions of loyal subjects, carrying the beneficent influence of her arts and her civilization upon the wings of her commerce, over every sea and ocean, to every continent and isle which smile beneath the genial rays of the sun.

In conclusion, allow me to assure you that it will be my endeavor to cordially, earnestly and faithfully cooperate with you in the enactment of all laws which your wisdom inay suggest, which shall prove kind in their influence, and tend to advance the honor and greatness and glory of Dakota.

Yankton, Dakota Territory.

Executive Department, March 17, 1862.

THE BIG SIOUX BIG BEND

The Missouri River is noted for its sinuosities, some of them most remarkable because the river seems to have chosen for its channel the very longest way round a neck of land when it apparently could have saved many miles by cutting "across lots." Such a great bend existed a short distance above the mouth of the Big Sioux River, which resembled somewhat a colossal letter S. It was fifteen miles around the bend and the flood of 1867 cut through the narrowest part, a distance of fifty yards and made a new navigable channel for the river, which was greatly appreciated by the steamboat people, because it practically shortened the river fifteen iniles. The land thus segregated was occupied but it was many years before the question was settled as to whether Nebraska or Dakota had jurisdiction over it and it required an assault with intent to kill case to deter- mine the matter. The sheriff of Union County went there to serve a legal process and was met by armed resistance, which culminated in a fight. The sheriff was seriously wounded. The offender was subsequently arrested and held to answer under a decision of the Dakota court that he had committed his offense in Dakota.

CHAPTER XXI THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (Continued)

LEGISLATURE CONTINUED-GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE WELL RECEIVED-THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS AND RED RIVER-JAMES M'FETRIDGE FROM PEMBINA-LEGISLATIVE COM- MITTEES-THE CAPITAL CONTEST-YANKTON SECURES THE PRIZE-SPEAKER PIN- NEY RESIGNS ; TIERNON SUCCEEDS HIM-SOLDIERS IN THE HOUSE ; GREAT INDIG- NATION-AN UNPLEASANT EPISODE-BRIEF BIOGRAPILIES OF FIRST MEMBERS AND OFFICERS-MISSOURI RIVER OVERFLOW-OLD SETTLERS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION -EPISCOPAL MISSION ESTABLISIIED BY REV. MELANCTION HOYT.

The governor's message struck a responsive chord in the breasts of the mem- bers of both council and House. The former body, by resolution ordered 1,500 copies printed in the English language, 300 in Norwegian and 200 in German ; while the House ordered 1,200 copies all told, 500 in English, 300 in Norwegian, 200 in French, and 200 in German.

James McFetridge, of Pembina, through Councilman Brookings, presented a petition on the eighth day of the session, claiming the seat occupied by said Brookings and asking the council to appoint a committee to investigate his claims. The petition was referred to the Committee on Elections from which committee Mr. Brookings had resigned. This petition received no further direct attention, and was not reported from the committee, it being the conviction of a majority that the Red River region was country still belonging to the Chippewa Indians, and therefore the whites residing there could not legally exercise the elective franchise. But the Legislature passed a suitable memorial praying that a treaty of cession be made with the Indian owners ; and also in anticipation of a treaty being made during the succeeding year, created a legislative district in the country and apportioned to it a councilman and two members of the House. The standing committees of the House were composed of the members hereafter named :

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 36

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198