History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 44

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 44

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The Republican convention for the nomina- tion of delegate to congress was held at Pierre. September 17th. John B. Raymond was a candı- date for re-election, supported by North Dakota delegates, generally. South Dakota presented four candidates, Oscar S. Gifford, of Canton, Arthur C. Mellette, of Watertown, Samuel Mc- Masters, manager of the Homestake mine, and Junius W. Shannon, of Huron. The first ballot showed their relative strength to be: Raymond, one hundred seventy-three ; Gifford, eighty-nine : Mellette, forty-eight, and Shannon, nineteen, with twenty-eight scattering votes. On the eighth bal- lot the South Dakota men under the lead of Mel- lette threw their strength to Gifford, nominating him by a vote of two hundred twenty-six to one hundred sixty-five. Mellette was made chairman of the committee.

The Democrats held a harmonious convention at Sioux Falls on October Ist and nominated John R. Wilson, of Deadwood. Mark W. Sheafe and Maris Taylor received complimentary votes. Darwin M. Inman was re-elected chair- man of the committee, which was really the im- portant feature of the convention's action.

This year saw the first electric lighting in Dakota, a street system having been inaugurated in Sioux Falls.

On September 3d the cornerstone of the Methodist Dakota University was laid at Mitch- ell and on September 1Ith the foundations were laid for the Episcopal All Saints' School at Sioux Falls.

The abuses of grain grading and transporta- tion, together with the unprecedented low price, led to active organization among the farmers. At this time the movement called the Farmers' Protective Union had no political significance.

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In addition to the grading and transportation questions matters of farm economy were dis- cussed in the meetings which were held very gen- erally throughout the state.

The treaty for the opening of the great Sioux reservation which had been negotiated the previ- ous year by a commission headed by Governor Edmunds was rejected by congress, delaying the opening for several years. Possibly no one other event has done so much to retard the develop- ment of South Dakota as the failure to ratify the Edmunds' treaty. The two great railways then, as now, were at the Missouri, waiting to cross over as soon as the lands were open to settle- ment. In that era of boom and railroad building,

there is scarcely a question that, had the reserva- tion been opened, the Northwestern and Mil- waukee would both have crossed the prairies to the Hills before the end of the year, and the story of South Dakota would have been quite altered. Failing in this, the Northwestern sought an en- trance to the Hills by the Nebraska route and by the time the lands were opened in 1890 the boom was over and gentlemen's agreements and mergers of interests had quite changed conditions with the result that at this late date the two ends of South Dakota lack direct connection by rail.

Isaac Stockwell, an old and prominent resi- dent of Yankton, died on Christmas eve.

CHAPTER LVII

THE TURN OF THE TIDE IN 1885.

With 1885 the high level of the boom was passed. Naturally this fact was not realized at the time. Every Dakotan believed that this fa- vored land was to go forward, ever mounting higher and higher, advancing materially and morally, without let or reaction, but as we look back upon the course of events from this dis- tance of time we realize that the palmy days of the great boom were over and that the territory was entering upon a long reactionary period which was to try out the timid and the weak- lings.

The legislature met in its first session at the new capital at Bismarck on January 13th and or- ganized by electing South Dakota men to both chairmanships, J. H. Westover, of Hughes coun- ty, being made president of the council and George Rice, of Flandreau, speaker of the house. The choice turned clearly upon the North and South Dakota issue and the South Dakotans had a walkaway. Upon all of the committees the idea was carried out, South Dakota having a working majority upon each. It was a particu- larly strong legislature from the South Dakota standpoint. Among the prominent South Da- kota members were Senator Pettigrew, John R. Gamble, John A. Pickler, Eben W. Martin, A. M. Bowdle and A. Sheridan Jones. It was the intention of the South Dakotans to promptly re- move the capital back to South Dakota, Pierre being the chief candidate for the honor, but local jealousies prevented the carrying out of the proj- ect, even could it have been passed by the al-

most certain veto of Governor Pierce. Bills were passed for the establishment of a Central Dakota University at Ordway and a reform school at Plankinton, which were vetoed by the Governor. The county seat of Spink county was located at Ashton, subject to a vote at the next general election.

Through the efforts of Major Pickler, a bill passed both houses conferring the right of suf- frage upon women, but it was vetoed by the Governor because it did not submit the question to the people, holding that such an act was in the nature of a constitutional amendment and should not become binding without the referen- dum. . The appropriation bills were rather large, aggregating more than four hundred thousand dollars. On the whole very little was accom- plished by the session. Governor Pierce ap- pointed Ernest W. Caldwell, of Sioux Falls, ter- ritorial auditor, George Rice, attorney general, and Joseph Ward, superintendent of public in- struction. The legislature provided for a consti- tutional convention for South Dakota.

At Huron, in February, the Farmers' Alliance was formally organized with J. L. Carlisle, of Brown county, president, and William F. T. Bushnell, of Huron, secretary. This organiza- tion, which was destined to exert a powerful in- fluence upon the affairs of South Dakota, was the outgrowth of two years' agitation for better grain markets. It was entirely non-partisan in its origin.

Under the provision made by the legislature

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for a constitutional convention for that portion of the territory south of the forty-sixth parallel, an election was held for delegates on June 30th and the convention assembled at Sioux Falls, in Germania Hall, at noon on September 8th. Hon. Alonzo J. Edgerton, of Yankton, was chosen president and his presence gave added dignity to the deliberations of a body of dignified men. All of the counties were represented, but a few of the delegates from counties adjoining the pro- posed division line were opposed to division. Accordingly as soon as the convention was or- ganized, Henry Niell, a delegate from Grant county, moved that the convention adjourn sine die. Theodore D. Kanouse at once moved to table the motion to adjourn, which prevailed, but twelve votes being favorable to adjournment, four of which came from Brown county, where it was hoped the capital of an undivided Dakota might be located. The convention proceeded with calm deliberation, the only deviation from this rule being in the discussion of a paragraph of the bill of rights, proposed by Hugh J. Camp- bell, the leader of the most revolutionary of the delegates. This paragraph recited that govern- ments are founded in the will of the governed, who have the inherent rights to change the form of government at their pleasure. Judge Edger- ton took the floor to oppose this suggestion and with that ponderous eloquence for which he was renowned declared : "I protest against the dec- laration. It is not my declaration. I desire that we shall present to congress a constitution which will receive the approbation of congress; to ap- peal to them ; not to declare that we have an ab- solute right to establish a different form of gov- ernment. We should appeal to congress for our rights, and not come before it as rebels, with the statement that we have the absolute right to abol- ish our territorial form of government."

Judge Edgerton ever spoke with an impress- iveness which always makes his simple words, independent of his personality, appear tame and colorless and there was an intensity in his elo- quence at this time which held every hearer with bated breath. General Campbell replied with some excitement : "There was a time when such

sentiments as were just now presented to us from the lips of our president were considered loyal and the opposition doctrine was considered re- bellion. There was a time when it was consid- ered revolutionary to assert that the power of the government rested upon the consent and author- ity of the people, but, sir, from the time that Patrick Henry made his speech for Virginia; from the time the constitution was adopted by the people; from the time the Declaration of In- dependence was framed, in which our forefa- thers did not hesitate to say that government was based upon the authority of the people; from that time to this I have never heard that authority disputed. I hope the time will never come when the people of Dakota will have less spirit than did their fathers. There are men here whose beards are turning gray, who were boys in 1860, who remember when the Demo- cratic congress to whom some men would have us bow as before demigods ; to whom they would have us bend the knee and bow the head as if they were czars, as if we were not people of the Amer- ican government-said to the people of Kansas, 'You have no power to act until we grant that power.' And the people of Kansas replied by turning out the legislature set up by congress and thrust down its throat the iniquitous Le- compton constitution, and when that congress ended the Democratic party went out of power not to return for a quarter of a century. The people of Kansas hurled back at the Democratic congress the declaration that they must wait for congress to confer the power to act. If this dec- laration is treason, I pray God that I may always be a rebel."

These addresses well illustrate the two ex- tremes of opinion represented in the convention and the popular opinion of the state as well. The fact is that the situation was well nigh in- tolerable and it required all the wisdom of the conservatives to prevent an open revolution.

The constitution as adopted contained all of the salutary provisions of the present document embodying General Beadle's long-contended-for ten-dollar minimum price for the school lands with the wise provision for the protection of the

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funds. Prohibition of the liquor traffic and mi- nority representation were submitted as separate articles. Provision was made for the submis- sion of the constitution to the people at the elec- tion in November and for the election of a full complement of state officers. After the election the legislature was to be assembled and United States senators were to be elected, when the leg- islature should adjourn and everything held in abeyance until admission was accomplished. Da- kota was to be the name of the state.

The Republican state convention met at Hu- ron on the 21st of October and placed in nomi- nation a full state ticket, as follows: For con- gress, Oscar S. Gifford and Theodore D. Ka- nouse ; governor, Arthur C. Mellette ; lieutenant governor, A. E. Frank, of Deadwood; secretary of state, Hugh S. Murphy, of Elkton; auditor, Frank Alexander, of Mound City ; Treasurer, D. W. Diggs, of Milbank; attorney general, Robert Dollard, of Scotland; superintendent of schools, A. Sheridan Jones, of Olivet; commissioner of school lands, W. H. H. Beadle; judges of the supreme court, A. G. Kellam, of Chamberlain, Dighton Corson, of Deadwood, and John E. Ben- nett, of Clark. There was a large attendance at the convention and a determined campaign for the nominations.

The Democratic state committee met at Mitch- ell on the 25th and resolved to ignore the consti- tution and take no part in the election. This was in accord with the policy of the administra- tion of President Cleveland, which opposed both division and admission for political reasons, as the Dakota representatives, whether from one or two states, would presumably oppose the admin- istration.

The election occurred November 3d and of course resulted in the election of all the Repub- lican candidates for state and legislative offices, there being no opposing tickets. The temporary seat of government was also at issue in this elec- tion, and Huron, Pierre, Alexandria, Sioux Falls and Chamberlain were candidates. 31,652 votes were cast. The constitution received 25,132, with 6.522 opposed. Prohibition prevailed by 334 majority and minority representation was lost

by more than five thousand votes. For the capi- tal Huron won with twelve thousand one hun- dred forty-six votes. Pierre received 10,305 : Chamberlain. 3.167; Sioux Falls, 3,337, and Al- exandria,. 1,374.

The legislature convened according to the terms of the constitution at Huron on Decem- ber 15th and organized with Thomas V. Eddy. of Watertown, speaker of the house.

The message of Governor Mellette was de- clared to be without a peer as a state document in Dakota. Its most significant sentence de- clared : "The people of Dakota are a state by the supreme right of creation. They have carved the new state out of the wilds of the prairie in a half decade of years at a touch of the magical wand of progress. The state is the creature of the' people, not of congress. While congress alone can endow with life, the people alone can create. * * * Kansas struggled to state- hood through blood, but her course can never excite the sympathy of intelligent statesmanship. as has the contempt so persistently shown to the people of Dakota. The state has not only shown herself capable of administering and maintain- ing government, being a very hive of industry and thrift, presenting throughout her domain a model of law and order, sustained virtually with- out courts, the admiration of right minded and liberty loving people. While constitutional liberty is still against the steel hand of the invader, it is as delicate as the petal of the rose to the touch of injustice from within. Robbed of justice it is robbed of respect; robbed of respect it is rob- bed of power; robbed of power it is robbed of life. 'Outrage, contempt and death' is the epi- taph inscribed upon the tablets of liberty adown the mausoleum of time. A wrong to the state is a wrong to the Union. While injustice in- jures her directly, the gangrene of her wounds i's absorbed into every fiber of the body politic of which she is a member. Amputation is deform- ity. The only remedy is to heal and the only ointment, righteous justice. She no longer solic- its a favor within the power of congress to grant or to withhold. She demands a right granted by law which congress cannot legally refuse. If

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her people are content with less than justice, they are unworthy to be free. If the nation offers less it is unworthy to exist under the name of constitutional liberty. Dakota is a state with ev- ery prerequisite fulfilled, a fact which she knows and will cause congress to know."

The legislature effected a complete organi- zation and elected Judge Alonzo J. Edgerton and Col. Gideon C. Moody United States senators. Hugh J. Campbell was the only opposing candi- date. The legislature then adjourned subject to the call of the Governor.

Governor Mellette's message and declaration that "We are a state," subjected him to much criticism from the Democrats and from the con- servative Republicans, but when congress ig- nored our claims to admission year after year the revolutionary spirit well nigh prevailed.

Judge Edgerton having resigned as chief jus- tice of the territory. Bartlett Tripp was appointed by President Cleveland to fill the vacancy. Cleve- land to a large extent filled the appointive posi- tions in the territory with Dakotans. In Octo- ber, however, Seward Smith, judge of the third district, was removed, and Louis K. Church, of New York, was appointed to the place. Smith was elected by the divisionists judge of the Ab- erdeen circuit ; he was in poor health and some- what erratic and to the surprise of every one an- nounced himself a candidate for the senate. Even then the true state of his mind was not apprehended, but soon he showed unmistakable signs of insanity and he was taken by his Iowa friends to a sanitarium where he died.

Aside from the constitutional movement, the year was not especially eventful. On February 25th, seven days before the close of his term. President Arthur had by executive order opened to settlement all of the Crow Creek reservation lying on the east side of the Missouri, above Chamberlain, which had not been taken in' sev- cralty by the Indians. Very many settlers thronged in and located upon these lands. On April 17th President Cleveland, deeming that Arthur's order opening the lands conflicted with the treaty rights of the Indians, revoked the same and ordered the settlers to vacate. This was

deemed by the people a very great hardship and was one of the grievances against the Cleveland administration to which Dakotans of the period were wont to point. The Cleveland order, how- ever, was really founded in justice. If the lands were to be opened the Indians were entitled to the accruing benefits and should have been paid for them as were the Sissetons and Yanktons for their surplus lands in after years. After several years, during the Harrison administra- tion, the government did reimburse the Crow creek settlers for their losses.

On September 29th a great territorial fair was held at Huron, the first to be held after the great development of the northern and central portions. It was considered a success, largely due to the energy of Secretary W. F. T. Bushnell.

At Pierre on the 15th of April, a sensational tragedy occurred. On the 4th of the preceding December Forrest G. Small, a young lawyer of Harrold, had been foully murdered by another lawyer of the village, J. W. Bell. Small had been elected county attorney of Hughes county, a fact which made Bell, his business competitor, inordinately jealous and upon the date named he met Small on the road between Harrold and Blunt and killed him with a hatchet and buried the body in a field of breaking. Bell had an ac- complice who confessed the crime and both were arrested and lodged in the jail at Pierre, where on the morning of April 15th, Bell was taken from the jail by a party of Small's neighbors from Blunt and Harrold and hanged to the flag pole in the front yard.

On July 15th a terrific storm, approaching a cyclone in character and intensity, swept over the country from Holabird to Ree Heights. Hola- bird, then a village of two hundred inhabitants, was practically destroyed and great damage was wrought at Highmore and to the farms through- out the region. Fortunately no lives were lost.

Peyler H. Acton, editor of the Sioux Falls Leader, died on March 25th. He was a writer of brilliance, and had achieved a wide reputation for his writing, both in newspaper work and as a contributor to the standard periodicals, being one of the first Dakotans to win literary notice.

CHAPTER LVIII

THE WEARY WAIT FOR STATEHOOD BEGINS.

With the opening of the new year, Messrs. Moody, Edgerton, Kanouse and Mellette joined delegate Gifford in Washington to urge the ad- mission of the new state. They were given re- spectful hearings by the congressional commit- tees and the senate, which was Republican, promptly passed the bill, but the Democratic house could not be induced to give up the political advantage accruing to its party by granting state- hood, thus cutting off a considerable amount of patronage and at the same time adding several votes in congress to the Republican side. All sorts of temporizing expedients were resorted to. No less than five bills were under consider- ation by the committee, one for the recognition of the Sioux Falls constitution, one for admission as a whole, one for division without admission, one for division on the Missouri river. It early became manifest that it was not the intention to take any action whatever. On May 4th the con- stitutional convention met and adjourned until July 12th, serving notice that unless at that time congress had acted favorably

that

the section of the constitution

re-

straining the state from exercising its power to govern, would be submitted to the people for its repeal, but Senator Benjamin Har- rison, who had the interests of the new state in charge in the senate, at once wrote discouraging such action as likely to prejudice the cause of Dakota before the people of the nation, to-whom Dakota must look for ultimate justice. At this juncture Hon. Abraham Boynton, now of Mitch-

ell, but then a citizen of Lenox, came into great prominence in relation to the Dakota move- ment. Mr. Boynton was a strong Democrat and had formerly been a leader in the movement for division, having been a member of the constitu- tional convention of 1883. In common with many Democrats, he had changed his views on this subject, and at this time spent several months in Washington where among his Demo- cratic partisans he acquired great influence and was accepted by them as authority upon all ques- tions relating to the admission of Dakota.

Among the large element of adventurous men which the boom had landed in Dakota, there were many who, not being firmly fixed in principle, made expediency the test of every political action and this class seeing that congress was not likely to admit South Dakota at once, were ready, for expediency's sake, to take up with anything which might be offered, and they soon began to weaken in their loyalty to the division movement, forgetting the interests of posterity and ready to accept statehood upon any terms that might be offered. There were, however, thousands of di- visionists who never faltered in their loyalty to the cause and they were sufficient to dominate the policy. Leaders among them were the officers chosen by the new state, though their motives were constantly assailed, but deep in the hearts of the rank and file the principle involved held dominance, as was demonstrated at every oppor- tunity for expression. Again there were a few entirely unselfish propagandists surrounding

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Yankton College, in which Joseph Ward was the leading spirit who never allowed the agitation to flag. Another strong incentive among the rank and file people was the protection which the Sioux Falls constitution threw about the school funds. It is, in the light of conditions then exist- ing in Dakota and the large number of adventur- ers who projected themselves into politics, a real- ly marvelous thing that a constitution not only lit- erally without a job in it, should have been framed, but one on the other hand which ren- dered jobbery so almost impossible. The people were exceedingly loathe to give up this document, especially its provisions for the future of the school lands and school funds, fearing that the freebooters might get control of another con- vention and prevent the framing of another char- ter so desirable, and therefore they gave quiet but constant and tenacious support to the divi- sion movement as embodied in the state already erected. The Huron contingent of course, hav- ing already secured the temporary seat of govern- ment, was anxious to retain whatever advantage she possessed and was therefore a constant agi- tator for the South state, and so from all these sources came sufficient vitality to keep the move- ment alive in spite of the temptations held out for a different course.

One great hardship visited upon the settlers at this time was the policy adopted by Land Com- missioner Sparks. Of course in the vast move- ment of settlers upon the public lands through which title could be secured through home- steads, pre-emptions and timber claims, there was a certain amount of fraud, though on the whole it may be stated at this distance of time, the percentage of those who acted in bad faith was marvelously small. The people as a rule came out filled with hope and a desire to make homes and they settled upon the soil, broke the sod, built to the extent of their means and in ev- ery way showed the good faith of their action. Commissioner Sparks, however, reversed the common law rule and assumed that every action was in bad faith and placed the burden upon the settlers to show their honest intentions. Thou- sands of claims were cancelled arbitrarily; the

borrowing of money upon a proved-up claim, before the issue of a patent, was held to be an evidence of bad faith; the commutation of a homestead was held to be an abandonment of the right of pre-emption. A reign of terror fell upon the homesteaders, who felt that they had no cer- tainty of tenure in their lands. A convention was held at Huron, largely represented from ev- ery section in the state, to protest against this policy. The annual meeting of the Territorial Farmers' Alliance, in session at Watertown, sent an earnest protest to Secretary Lamar against the course being pursued by the land department, and influential Dakotans hastened to Washing- ton and besieged the President and the secretary of the interior for relief. Secretary Lamar was soon awakened to the injustice of the commis- sioner's conduct and took action to modify the harsh feature of his policy and the settlers breathed free once more.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 44

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998