D. O. 
 
 A. 
 
 Pass r^Cc > 
 
 Book -k^ S3 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 <u STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION, 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 
 
 Entry Catalogue Number 
 
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 C/ass 
 
 E-±u 
 
 C 3^ 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
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American Commontioealtl^js. 
 
 EDITED BT 
 
 HORACE E. SCUDDER. 
 
5llmerican Commontoealtljk^^ '^'^^ ' 
 
 MISSOURI 
 
 A BONE OF CONTENTION 
 
 BT 
 
 LUCIEN CAER 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1892 
 
V'fiAfifVi 
 
 
 Copyright, 1888, 
 By LUCIEN CARR. 
 
 All rights reserved^ 
 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., V. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by II. 0. Houghton & Ccmpany. 
 
PKEFATORY NOTE. 
 
 In the preparation of this volume the following works 
 have been found of service, though it is proper to add 
 that the list is by no means complete, and that it does 
 not include any of the authoritative publications that 
 have found their way into the newspapers and maga- 
 zines of the day. 
 
 Bancroft, H. H. History of the Pacific States. San Francisco. 
 Barb^i-Marbois. Histoire de la Louisiane. Paris, 1829. 
 Barnes, C. R. , editor. Commonwealth of Missouri. St. Louis, 
 
 1877. , 
 Benton, Thomas H. Thirty Years in the Senate of the United 
 
 States. New York, 1856. Abridgment of the Debates in 
 
 Congress, from 1789 to 1856. New York. 
 Bevier, R. S. History of the 1st and 2d Missouri Confederate 
 
 Brigades. From Wakarusa to Appomattox. St. Louis, 1879. 
 Billon, F. L. Annals of St. Louis. St. Louis, 1886. 
 Brackenridge, H. M. Views of Louisiana. Pittsburgh, 1814. 
 
 Recollections of the West, 2d edition. Philadelphia, 1868. 
 Brown, G. W. Reminiscences of Old John Brown. Rockford, 
 
 111., 1880. 
 Buchanan's Administration. New York, 1866. 
 Cooke, P. St. George. Conquest of California and New Mex- 
 ico. New York, 1878. 
 Davis and Durrie. History of Missouri. Cincinnati, 1876. 
 Edwards, Richard, and M. Hopewell. The Great West. St. 
 
 Louis, 1860. 
 Flint, Timothy. Travels. Boston, 1826. 
 
 ^(o(a^ 
 
VI PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Gayark:^, Charles. History of Louisiana. New Orleans, 1885. 
 
 Hughes, John T. Doniphan's Expedition. Cincinnati, 1848. 
 
 Laws of the United States. 
 
 Laws of the State of Missouri. 
 
 LuNT, George, Origin of the Late War. New York, 1866. 
 
 Margry, Pierre. D^eouyerte de FAmerique Septentrionale. 
 Paris. 
 
 Martln, F. X. History of Louisiana. New Orleans, 1827. 
 
 Niles' Register. 
 
 Official Records of the Rebellion. Washington. 
 
 Pakkman, Francis. Discovery of the Great West. Boston, 
 1869. 
 
 Peckham, James. General Nathaniel Lyon. New York, 1866. 
 
 Proceedings of Congress. 
 
 Proceedings of the Legislature of Missouri. 
 
 Proceedings of Missouri State Conventions, 1861 and 1865. 
 
 Sanborn, F. B. Life and Letters of John Brown. Boston, 
 1885. 
 
 ScHARP, J. T. History of St. Louis. Philadelphia, 1883. 
 
 Shea, John G. Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi. 
 New York, 1852. 
 
 Snead, Thomas L. The Fight for Missouri. New York, 1886. 
 
 Stoddard, Major Amos. Sketches of Louisiana. Philadel- 
 phia, 1812. 
 
 Von Holst. Constitutional History of the United States. Chi- 
 cago. 
 
 Wilkinson, General James. Memoirs of my own Times. 
 Philadelphia, 1816. 
 
 WiNSOR, Justin, Editor. Narrative and Critical History of 
 America. Boston. 
 
 The writer desires also to acknowledge his obligations 
 to Messrs. Oscar W. Collet, of the Missouri Historical 
 Society, John N. Dyer, of the Mercantile Library of 
 St. Louis, General James Harding, Railroad Commis- 
 sioner of the State, and to Alfred Carr, of the Insurance 
 Department ; to Ex-Governors Thomas C. Fletcher and 
 Charles H. Hardin, General D. M. Frost of the Con- 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. VU 
 
 federate service, and to Messrs. James O. Broadhead 
 and Thomas T. Ganett, who as members of the Constitu- 
 tional Convention, and in other capacities, did good ser- 
 vice for the Union. To Mr. R. J. Holcombe of Chilli- 
 cothe, Missouri, Andrew McF. Davis of Cambridge, 
 Mass., and John Henry Brown of Dallas, Texas, the 
 friend and aid-de-camp of General McCulloch, he is es- 
 pecially indebted for friendly counsel and assistance. 
 Cambridge, Mass., May 1, 1888. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 -•- 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 French Domination in the Mississippi Valley ... 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Spanish Domination 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Louisiana Purchase 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Louisiana Territory: 1804 to 1812 82 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Missouri Territory: 1813 to 1821 117 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Missouri Compromise 139 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Admission of Missouri into the Union .... 149 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Fkom 1820 TO 1844 163 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Annexation of Texas and the Conquest of New 
 Mexico 189 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Jackson Resolutions : Internal Improvements : 
 Education 220 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Kansas Troubles : Progress of the State : Election 
 of 1860 241 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Legislature and the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion: Missouri decides for the Union 267 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Arsenal, Camp Jackson, and the Second Meeting 
 of the Convention 291 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Springfield and Lexington: the Confederates 
 evacuate the State 324 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 From the Evacuation of the State to the End of 
 THE War 342 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Abolition of Slavery: The Convention of 1865 and 
 Test Oaths 363 
 
MISSOURI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 Although the French were the first to explore the 
 Mississippi, to map out its course, and to establish per- 
 manent settlements upon its banks, they were not its 
 discoverers ; neither were they the first to float upon its 
 waters. That honor, if the term can be applied to what 
 was but a lucky incident in a mad search after gold, be- 
 longs to the Spaniards, and is usually ascribed to Her- 
 nando de Soto, though upon what are believed to be 
 insufficient grounds. Without stopj)ing, however, to 
 discuss the point, it is sufficient to say that almost a cen- 
 tury and a half before the French explorers launched 
 their frail canoes upon the stream, he stood upon its 
 banks ; and whilst it is not possible to make out, with 
 any degree of accuracy, the itinerary of his journey, 
 there is but little hazard in asserting that the spot from 
 which he first gazed upon its turbid waters must have 
 been at or near the place where the city of Memphis 
 now stands. 
 
 Whether in the course of his wanderings he reached 
 the confines of what is now known as the State of Mis- 
 souri is a question that cannot be definitively settled. 
 
2 MISSOURI. 
 
 The course and length of the journey which he is said 
 to have made, after crossing the river, in order to reach 
 the country of the Capahas, or, as they are now called, 
 the Quapaws, would seem to indicate that he did ; the 
 mounds and embankments, too, to say nothing of the 
 other evidences of prehistoric life that are found in such 
 profusion in the southeastern portion of the State, an- 
 swer, with singular fidelity, to the descriptions which are 
 given of the houses and villages of these people, as well 
 as of their implements and ornaments ; and if to this be 
 added the fact that, a hundred and fifty years later, 
 they were living in the same region, though not, perhaps, 
 in the identical localities, it will be seen that a strong 
 presumptive case can be made out in favor of the truth 
 of the theory. However, be this as it may, it is not a 
 point upon which we care to insist, for even if the fact 
 be admitted, it was not followed by any practical results. 
 Like Cortes, Pizarro, and the rest of the Spanish con- 
 querors, De Soto and his followers were primarily, not 
 colonists, but adventurers in search of gold, and being 
 disappointed in their object, they had no thought but to 
 quit a country which had ceased to be attractive. Ac- 
 cordingly in 1543, after two years more of wearisome 
 marching and useless fighting, the survivors of the ex- 
 pedition, reduced in numbers, and with tlieir leader 
 dead, found their way back to the banks of the river, 
 and down it they sailed in hastily constructed brigan- 
 tines, glad enough to escape from a region in which, 
 instead of wealth and ease, they had met with nothing 
 but privation and hardship, sickness and death. 
 
 With the failure of this expedition, efforts to explore 
 the Mississippi valley were, for the time being, brought 
 to a close ; and it was not until after the lapse of a hun- 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 3 
 
 dred and thirty years that the work was again taken 
 up and carried to a successful conclusion. In the mean 
 time, the Atlantic coast, from Florida to Canada, had 
 been dotted with colonies. Of these, some were com- 
 paratively short lived, as, for instance, the settlements of 
 the Dutch and Swedes in New York and New Jersey 
 respectively ; others, like the establishments of the Span- 
 iards in Florida, appear to have been always in a mori- 
 bund condition, and owed what little success they had to 
 the rivalry of their neighbors, rather than to any strength 
 of their own : so that by the close of the seventeenth 
 century, the whole of the vast domain that lies east of 
 the Mississippi and south of Hudson's Bay, except, per- 
 haps, the peninsula of Florida, was in the hands of the 
 English and French. 
 
 These nations, enemies and rivals here, as they had 
 been for generations on the other side of the water, 
 were among the earliest to engage in the work of colo- 
 nization. "At first, their efforts met with but little suc- 
 cess, and it was not until after repeated- failures that they 
 succeeded, in the first decade of the seventeenth century, 
 in effecting permanent settlements at Jamestown and 
 Quebec. Other points were gradually occupied, and 
 as both nations claimed the whole of this region, and 
 did not hesitate, when opportunity offered, to treat their 
 rivals as interlopers, it soon brought on that long and 
 bloody struggle which, beginning with Argall's destruc- 
 tion of the French settlement on the island of Mount 
 Desert in 1613, was only ended, a hundred and fifty 
 years later, by the victory of Wolfe upon the Plains of 
 Abraham. 
 
 In watching the course of this struggle, or rather in 
 noting the progress of these colonies, for the struggle 
 
4 MISSOURI. 
 
 itself interests us but little, we cannot but be struck 
 with the contrast that exists between the rapid advance 
 of the French into the interior of the continent and the 
 slow and steady growth of the English in the same 
 direction. As early as 1639, only about thirty years 
 after Quebec was founded, Nicolet was upon the Wis- 
 consin and within three days' travel of the Mississippi, 
 or as it was then thought, the ocean ; and in 1671, be- 
 fore the Massachusetts colonists had closed in the death 
 struggle with King Philip, and whilst the spot where 
 now stands the city of Philadelphia was still a part of 
 the virgin forest, the Jesuits had completed the circuit 
 of Lake Superior, and were anxiously waiting for the 
 word which, two years later, sent Joliet and Marquette 
 on their voyage down the Mississippi. Various reasons 
 are brought forward by way of accounting for the un- 
 equal rate at which the colonies of these two nations 
 moved westward, and, so far as the French are concerned, 
 there can be no doubt that their progress in this direc- 
 tion was due in great part to religious enthusiasm and 
 the necessities of the fur-trade. Unquestionably there 
 were other causes, as, for instance, the facility of inter- 
 communication and the hostility of the Iroquois, which 
 contributed either to hasten or retard the movement; 
 but after all, in its last analysis, it was to the activity of 
 the fur-trader and the zeal of the missionary that the 
 French were indebted for their early acquaintance with 
 all this region. 
 
 To appreciate the full extent of the influence which 
 these two classes exerted in bringing about this result, it 
 is necessary to bear in mind that they had controlled the 
 destinies of the colony from its very foundation ; and 
 that, no matter how widely they may have differed at 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 5 
 
 times in their ends and aims, they were always alike in 
 so far as they both depended, for their continued pros- 
 perity, upon the extension of French influence among the 
 native tribes. To them, every step in this direction 
 meant an increase in the number of those who looked to 
 Quebec for a market, or who trusted to it for religious 
 instruction, and hence the energy with which they pushed 
 their way into the interior, sought out new alliances, and 
 established posts and missions wherever there was a 
 promise of a commercial or a spiritual harvest. 
 
 Urged on by considerations of this character, the R^' 
 collet fathers visited the eastern shores of Lake Huron, 
 and established themselves among the people of that 
 name as early as 1615 ; and, by the middle of the cen- 
 tury, the Jesuits, who had succeeded to the control of 
 the religious affairs of the colony, had in operation 
 among this same people one of the most flourishing 
 missions that has ever existed among our North Ameri- 
 can Indians. Unfortunately, however, for the success of 
 the undertaking, the Iroquois war broke out afresh about 
 this time, and those grim warriors, having obtained a 
 supply of firearms from the English and Dutch traders, 
 soon made a desert of all the region that lies between 
 the Ottawa and the lakes. In their insane fury they 
 spared neither missionary nor medicine man, neither 
 Christian convert nor pagan devotee. 
 
 Of those who escaped the general ruin, a part fled to 
 the regions west of the Straits of Michilimackinac, and 
 sought refuge along the southern shores of Lake Supe- 
 rior. Hither, in due time, came the traders and the no 
 less venturesome missionaries, and in this distant region 
 they resumed the work which had met with such a 
 bloody interruption. With characteristic energy they 
 
6 MISSOURI. 
 
 established posts and founded missions among the Hu- 
 ron refugees and their neighbors, and began at once 
 that series of explorations which, in the course of the 
 next fifteen years, not only made the French familiar 
 with the geography of the upper lakes, but brought 
 them to the head waters of streams which, flowing to- 
 wards the southwest, emptied into a river that led they 
 knew not whither, "perhaps into the Sea of Virginia, 
 the Gulf of Mexico, or possibly into the Vermillion Sea " 
 and the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Henceforward the discovery of this river and of the 
 great valley through which it flows was a foregone con- 
 clusion. In fact, its existence seems already to have 
 been generally known both to the traders and the mis- 
 sionaries, for there is scarcely a record of the period in 
 which the references to it are not more or less frequent. 
 In 1658 two traders, Radisson and Groseilliers, win- 
 tered on the shores of Lake Superior, and brought back 
 stories of the Sioux and of the great river upon which 
 they dwelt. A few years later Father Allouez confirmed 
 their account, and in 1669-70, in the course of his mis- 
 sionary labors, he visited the Mascoutens, who were then 
 living on the Wisconsin, " within six days' sail of the 
 Mississippi." La Salle, too, was not idle ; for it was 
 about this time that, taking advantage of a lull in the 
 Iroquois war, he started out in search of the mysterious 
 stream ; and, though the evidence is not sufficient to 
 prove that he reached it during the course of this ex- 
 pedition, yet there seems to be no doubt that he dis- 
 covered the Ohio, and perhaps also the Illinois. Last, 
 but not least, Marquette, in the " Relation of 1670," re- 
 ports what the Illinois had told him of this river ; and, 
 in his far distant station, near the western extremity of 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSTSS^TPPI. 7 
 
 Lake Superior, he was planning a visit to the " nations 
 that inhabit it, in order to open the passage to so many 
 of our fathers, who have long awaited this happiness.'* 
 Indeed, a mission among the Illinois is said to have 
 been decided on, and he was already studying that lan- 
 guage when the station at St. Esprit was broken up by 
 the Sioux, and the unfortunate Hurons were obliged to 
 resume their wanderings. Following his flock as they 
 retraced their steps towards the east, he came with 
 them to the Straits of Michilimackinac, where, tempted 
 by the abundance of fish and the facilities of trade, they 
 halted and fortified themselves. Here he built a log 
 chapel and founded the mission of St. Ignatius, and 
 here he passed the next two years of his life in the 
 faithful discharge of the round of duties that fell to his 
 lot, though his thoughts seem to have been ever turned 
 towards the Mississippi. Even when writing hopefully 
 of his work among the Hurons, as he did in 1672, he 
 avows his willingness " to give it up and go to seek new 
 nations towards the south sea ... to teach them of 
 our Great God," whenever it should be thought advis- 
 able for him to do so. 
 
 Fortunately he had not long to wait, for, in the au- 
 tumn of this year, Frontenac became governor ; and as 
 he was a man of ideas as well as of action, he quickly 
 saw the importance of the scheme which he had inher- 
 ited from Talon for the occupation of the interior of 
 the continent, and he determined to carry out the plan 
 which had already been partially formed for the dis- 
 covery and exploration of the Mississippi. Joliet, who 
 had been educated for a Jesuit, but who was now a fur- 
 trader, and a man of experience, and " had already 
 been near the great river," was chosen for the work, 
 
8 MISSOURI. 
 
 and with him was associated Marquette, the saintly 
 missionary at Point St. Ignatius, or, as it is now called, 
 Mackinaw. 
 
 Starting on his journey without any unnecessary de- 
 lay, Joliet reached the mission at Mackinaw, and on 
 the 8th of December, the festival of the Immaculate 
 Conception, gave Marquette the news that he had been 
 assigned to the expedition, — a coincidence which the 
 good father does not fail to notice. During the next 
 few months, the explorers busied themselves in collect- 
 ing what information they could as to their route, for 
 they were determined that the enterprise " should not 
 be foolhardy," even if it were hazardous. From the 
 accounts given by the Indians " who had frequented 
 these parts," they were able to trace a map of all the 
 new country, marking down the rivers on which they 
 were to sail, the names of the nations and places 
 through which they were to pass, the course of the great 
 river, and what direction they were to take when they 
 reached it. Everything seems to have been done coolly 
 and systematically, and, so far as it was possible to see 
 into the future, nothing was left to chance. With the 
 return of spring, the final preparations were made for 
 the journey, "the duration of which," we are told, 
 "they could not foresee." This did not take them 
 long, for their outfit was simple, consisting merely of 
 two birch canoes and a supply of Indian corn and dried 
 meat. They also engaged five men to accompany them ; 
 and then, having put their voyage under the protection 
 of the Blessed Virgin, they set out on the 17th of May, 
 1673, " firmly resolved to do all and suffer all for so 
 glorious an enterprise." 
 
 Skirting along the shores of Lake Michigan and 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 9 
 
 Green Bay, they entered Fox River, and followed it up 
 to the water-shed which divides the lakes from the 
 Mississippi. This they crossed, and, launching their 
 canoes upon the Wisconsin, they paddled down stream 
 " for a distance of seventy leagues," when, on the 17th 
 of June, they found themselves upon the broad bosom of 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 Descending with the current, they cautiously felt their 
 way along, anchoring at night at some distance from 
 the shores. In a few simple sentences the good father 
 describes the country through which they passed, and 
 the different kinds of animals which they met. Espe- 
 cially was he struck with the size of the fish, and the 
 appearance of the buffaloes. At length, on the 25th, 
 they discovered on the west bank of the river footprints 
 and a beaten path which led into a beautiful prairie. 
 Rightly conjecturing that it was the pathway to an In- 
 dian village, they followed it for some two leagues, 
 when they came to a cluster of three villages, which, to 
 their great relief, were inhabited by bands of the Illinois, 
 the very tribe which Marquette had long been anxious 
 to visit. Here they were received with true Indian hos- 
 pitality. A feast of four courses was duly prepared, 
 during which the several dishes were fed to them as if 
 they were children. They were also treated to the 
 " calumet " dance, and, what was more to the point, one 
 of these mysterious pipes was given to them as a safe- 
 guard, for with it " you can march fearlessly among 
 enemies, who, even in the heat of battle, lay down their 
 arms when it is shown." 
 
 Resuming their journey, they coasted along the Piasa 
 bluffs, on which were painted two frightful monsters as 
 large as calves, " with horns on the head like a deer, a 
 
10 MISSOURI. 
 
 fearful look, red eyes, bearded like a tiger, the face some- 
 what like a man's, the body covered with scales, and the 
 tail so long that it twice makes the turn of the body, pass- 
 ing over the head and down between the legs, and ending 
 at last in a fish's tail." These figures were so " high up on 
 the rock that it must have been difficult to get at them 
 in order to paint them," and yet the work is said to have 
 been so well done that " good painters in France would 
 find it hard to do as well." Green, red, and black were 
 the colors used, and altogether it seems to have been 
 a very creditable piece of savage workmanship. Hav- 
 ing passed this fearful spot, " on which the boldest In- 
 dian dare not gaze long, and whilst still talking about 
 it," they came to the mouth of the Missouri. From 
 the description of the scene, it must have been during 
 the spring freshet, and any one who has ever looked 
 upon the junction of these two mighty streams at such 
 a time will not fail to appreciate the dangers to which 
 our explorers were now exposed. Luckily, however, 
 they escaped, and holding on their course for a few days 
 longer they reached the mouth of the Ohio, or Oua- 
 boukigou, on which the Shawnees are said to have had 
 thirty-eight villages. 
 
 Soon after leaving this point, and whilst floating la- 
 zily along, scorched by the sun and a prey to the mos- 
 quitoes, they were startled by seeing on the east bank 
 of the river a band of Indians, who were armed with 
 guns, wore cloth clothes, and had hoes, hatchets, beads, 
 and other things which had evidently been obtained from 
 the whites. Marquette now displayed the calumet, 
 which was at once recognized, and he and his party were 
 invited to land and to partake of a feast, at which they 
 were served with "wild beef, bear's oil, and white 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. H 
 
 plums." The next morning they again set out, and after 
 a monotonous journey of some days they came to a 
 village of the Mitchigamea, which was situated eight or 
 ten leagues above the mouth of the Arkansas. Here, for 
 the first time, they met with what promised to be a hos- 
 tile reception. The war-whoop was sounded, the young 
 warriors crowded to the attack, and one of them threw 
 his war club, which fortunately missed its aim. It 
 was a critical moment, but just at this time some of 
 the old men appeared upon the scene, and, recognizing 
 the peace-pipe which Marquette held aloft, they checked 
 the ardor of the young warriors and put an end to the 
 threatened conflict. Tlie Frenchmen were now invited to 
 land, and after a friendly conference and the usual feast, 
 they passed the night in the cabins of their entertainers, 
 but " not without some uneasiness." Embarking again 
 the next day, they reached the village of the Arkansas 
 (" Akamsea"), which was situated opposite the mouth of 
 the river of that name, in what is now the State of 
 Mississippi. As their coming had been announced, they 
 were received with every mark of honor. A feast was 
 given them which seems to have lasted all day, and at 
 night the chief danced the calumet as a mark of perfect 
 assurance, and then, to remove all fears, he presented 
 one of these pipes to Marquette. 
 
 From these Indians they learned that they were ten 
 days' journey from the sea, and that the lower portion 
 of the river was so infested by hostile tribes, armed 
 with guns, that any farther progress in that direction 
 would be attended with great danger. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, the explorers held a council and decided to 
 return. They had gone far enough to satisfy themselves 
 that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, 
 
12 MISSOURI. 
 
 and they were fearful if they went farther of being cap- 
 tured by the Indians or SjDaniards, and thus losing the 
 fruits of their labors. Accordingly on the 17th of July 
 they set out on their homeward voyage. When they 
 reached the mouth of the Illinois they determined to re- 
 turn by that route instead of by the way by which they 
 came. This, we are told, shortened their journey, and 
 brought them without trouble to the lake of the Illinois, 
 or, as it is now called, Michigan. Coasting along its 
 western shores, they reached the mission at the head of 
 Green Bay on the last of September, having been gone 
 just four months and traveled over twenty-five hun- 
 dred miles. 
 
 Leaving Marquette here, to rest and recuperate, Joliet 
 pushed on to Quebec. When near Montreal, and al- 
 most in sight of his destination, his canoe was upset, and 
 all his papers were lost. It was a serious accident, but 
 fortunately not irreparable, for Marquette, too, had kept 
 a journal of the voyage ; and though Joliet made a short 
 report from memory, yet it is to the narrative of the 
 worthy Jesuit that we are chiefly indebted for what we 
 know of this expedition. In the map which accom- 
 panies his " Relation," he has rudely sketched the river 
 system of the valley as far as it was known ; and in his 
 speculations as to the length and course of the Missouri, 
 and his familiarity with the names and locations of some 
 of the tribes that dwelt upon its banks, as well as of 
 those that lived upon the Ohio, he gives a very favor- 
 able idea of the extent and character of the knowledge 
 which, even at this early day, the French had acquired 
 of the geography of all this region. 
 
 Important as were the results of this expedition, there 
 was yet much to be done before the full benefits of the 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 13 
 
 discovery could be reaped. The upper and lower por- 
 tions of the river were yet to be exj^lored, and when 
 this was done and the course of the great river was 
 known through its entire length, measures would still 
 have to be taken for the occupation of the country through 
 which it flowed. This was a vast undertaking, but it 
 was of a character that was suited to the spirit of that 
 age, and La Salle, who " had obtained the grant of Fort 
 Frontenac, the monopoly of the lake trade, and a patent 
 of nobility," now set out to accomplish it. He was a 
 friend if not a partner of the governor, and he had 
 rich relatives in France who were willing to assist him, 
 so that he was able to command political influence and 
 money, or its equivalent, credit. Besides these essential 
 requisites he was endowed with certain attributes of 
 mind and body, and was possessed of a measure of ex- 
 perience that fitted him for the work. He had already, 
 as has been said, discovered the Ohio, and probably the 
 Illinois too ; and if he did not reach the Mississippi, he 
 certainly knew of its existence, and he may possibly 
 have identified it with the great river of De Soto. At 
 all events, he seems to have had very clear ideas as to 
 where it emptied and of its commercial possibilities, for 
 he had obtained a monopoly of the fur-trade of the val- 
 ley, and contemplated the erection of forts and the es- 
 tablishment of colonies at such points as would give him 
 the control of this trade in fact as well as in name, and 
 thus enable him to establish his fortunes upon a sure 
 foundation. 
 
 In pursuance of this plan, he led an expedition to 
 the Illinois, in the winter of 1679-80, and built a fort 
 on that stream, just below Peoria lake, to which he gave 
 the name of Creve-coeur. From this point as a base, 
 
14 MISSOURI. 
 
 he dispatched Father Hennepin to explore the lower 
 Illinois and the upper Mississippi, whilst he himself re- 
 turned to Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, in order to 
 look after his affairs, which had fallen into confusion. 
 
 After some delay, growing out of his unwillingness to 
 undertake the expedition, Hennepin finally set out on 
 the 29th of February, 1680. On the 11th of April, when 
 near the mouth of the Wisconsin, he was captured by a 
 party of Sioux, who adopted him into the tribe. In their 
 company he visited the Falls of St. Anthony, which he 
 named ; and with them he remained until the autumn 
 of that year, when he was rescued by Du Lhut. During 
 the next year, and without having seen La Salle, or made 
 any report to him, the tricky friar sailed for Europe. 
 Soon afterwards he published a narrative of his journey, 
 in which he gave a description of the river above the 
 mouth of the Wisconsin, and an account of the manners 
 and customs of the Sioux. This is the only publication 
 he ever made that is entitled to any credence, and even 
 in this, some of the statements are to be taken with many 
 grains of allowance. In the edition issued some years 
 later, he involves himself in such a net-work of false- 
 hoods and contradictions as to cast discredit upon the 
 work which he really performed. 
 
 In the mean time La Salle, having restored his affairs 
 to something like order, returned to the Illinois, only to 
 find that, during the absence of Tonti, his fort had been 
 plundered and destroyed by his own men. This neces- 
 sitated another trip to Fort Frontenac, which must have 
 been made in 1681, for in December of that year he 
 was, once agaiji, at the head of Lake Michigan, accom- 
 panied by Tonti, Father Membre, and some others, who 
 had been faithful to him during his adverse fortunes, 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 15 
 
 and who were now to share with him in the glory of his 
 discovery. Including these faithful friends and follow- 
 ers, the party which he had made up for the descent of 
 the Mississippi consisted of twenty-three Frenchmen 
 and thirty-one Indians, of whom ten were women and 
 three children. 
 
 Loading their canoes upon sledges, they dragged them 
 across the portage and down the frozen Illinois to the 
 foot of Peoria lake, where they found open water. Here 
 they embarked, and after a somewhat uneventful voyage 
 they reached the Mississippi on the 6th of February, 
 1682, and the Gulf on the 9th of the following April. 
 Having found a suitable spot La Salle erected a cross, 
 raised the arms of France, and, in a proces verbal, which 
 was duly witnessed, he took possession of all the region 
 watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and he 
 named it Louisiana, in honor of his sovereign, Louis 
 XIV., by the grace of God King of France and Na- 
 varre. 
 
 The work of exploration was now complete, but the 
 more difficult task of occupation still remained, and to 
 this La Salle now devoted all his energies. Returning 
 to the lUinois he dispatched Father Membre to Europe, 
 with the news of his discovery, whilst he himself built a 
 fort on Starved Rock, — a bluff near where the town of 
 Ottawa now stands, — which he intended to serve as a 
 centre of trade and a place of refuge against the inroads 
 of the Iroquois. Around this point he speedily gathered 
 a large colony, consisting of a score of Frenchmen, to 
 whom he made grants of lands, and of some thousands 
 of Indians, belonging to different tribes, who were drawn 
 tliither by the prospects of trade, and by the promise of 
 protection which the fort afforded. 
 
16 MISSOURI. 
 
 Leaving Tonti in command of this motley crowd, 
 La Salle, in the autumn of 1683, sailed for France, 
 where his presence was sadly needed. His friend and 
 partner, Frontenac, was no longer governor, and La Barre, 
 who was now at the head of affairs, had identified him- 
 self with his enemies, and did not hesitate at any meas- 
 ures that were necessary to effect his ruin. Fort Fron- 
 tenac was seized on the ground that he had not com- 
 plied with the conditions upon which it had been granted 
 to him ; his men were prevented from obtaining sup- 
 plies ; the Iroquois were told that they might rob and 
 kill him with impunity ; and an officer was sent out to 
 take possession of the fort which he had built on the 
 Illinois. Such was the condition of affairs when he left 
 for Europe, and it must be confessed that the outlook 
 was anything but encouraging. He was in debt, and as 
 all his property had been seized, and much of it wasted, 
 there seemed to be no way by which he could extricate 
 himself. La Salle, however, was not a person to be 
 daunted by difficulties. Proceeding to Paris, he laid his 
 case before the colonial minister, and, fortunately for 
 himself, he found in that officer a warm advocate. 
 Frontenac, too, was again in favor, and by the aid of 
 these two powerful friends he soon succeeded in re- 
 establishing his affairs upon a firm basis. Not only 
 were his forts restored, but La Barre was ordered to 
 make reparation for the injury which had been done 
 him, and means were furnished him for establishing a 
 post and colony near the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 
 In a memorial which he prepared at this time for the 
 use of the king, he gave a brief statement of what he 
 had already accomplished ; set forth his views and 
 plans at some length ; and drew such a flattering pic- 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 17 
 
 ture of the military possibilities of the proposed colony 
 in the event of a war with Spain, that the king granted 
 him all the supplies that were asked for. Soldiers, of 
 whom Father Le Clerc did not have a very high opinion, 
 were recruited for the expedition, as were " three or 
 four mechanics in each trade," who were subsequently 
 found to know nothing at all about their several occupa- 
 tions. Some eight or ten families of good people vol- 
 unteered to go, as did a number of girls, who were 
 " allured by the prospect of certain marriage." A full 
 complement of priests, too, was added, among whom 
 were La Salle's brother — the Sulpitian, Cavelier — 
 and the RecoUet Friars Membr^, Douay, and Le Clerc. 
 At length, all things being ready, the expedition sailed 
 from Rochelle on the 24th of July, 1684, and, after a 
 series of misfortunes which seem to have attended them 
 from the beginning of the voyage, they reached the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and sighted land on the 28th of De- 
 cember. By accident, or owing to ignorance, or pos- 
 sibly, as Joutel suggests, to treachery, they passed the 
 mouths of the Mississippi, and coasted along in an aim- 
 less sort of way until about the middle of February, 
 1685 ; the colonists were finally landed on the shores of 
 Matagorda Bay, which La Salle had wrongly supposed 
 to be one of the outlets of the great river. Here he 
 built a fort ; and, having satisfied himself that he was 
 too far westward, he started out to find the Mississippi, 
 for he knew well that until it was found, and the colony 
 was safely transferred to its banks, all his expenditure 
 of time, labor, and money had been in vain. The effort, 
 however, was not attended with success, and equally 
 futile was a second attempt made in the following 
 yearX1686). 
 
18 MISSOURI. 
 
 Meanwhile, the affairs of the colony had been going 
 from bad to worse. In addition to other misfortunes, 
 disease and death had been busy among them. " Out of 
 one hundred and eighty colonists less than forty-five 
 remained," and they were weighed down by gloomy 
 forebodings as to the future. It was no longer a ques- 
 tion of the success of the expedition, but a matter of life 
 and death to the few colonists who were left. In this 
 extremity. La Salle determined to go to his fort on the 
 Illinois, the nearest point from which he could expect 
 assistance. It was a hazardous undertaking; but it 
 was the best thing that could be done. After a pain- 
 ful parting, " which all felt was to be their last," he set 
 out on the 17th of January, 1687, and, on the 19th of 
 March, he, together with one of his nephews, his ser- 
 vant, and his faithful Shawnee hunter, Nika, was mur- 
 dered by some of his own men. Upon his death, the 
 murderers took control of the party, and for a while 
 they carried matters with a high hand. In a short time 
 they quarreled over a division of the property, and, by 
 a sort of retributive justice, the two principal criminals 
 were in their turn killed by their accomplices. The 
 party now divided. Joutel, the two Caveliers, and Fa- 
 ther Douay, who had all been true to their leader, 
 pushed on, and, at the end of two months, they reached 
 the post which Tonti had established the year previous 
 at the mouth of the Arkansas. From here they pro- 
 ceeded by relatively easy marches to the fort on the Illi- 
 nois, where they were well cared for by the faithful Tonti, 
 to whom they falsely represented that La Salle was alive 
 and in good health, and from whom they borrowed the 
 money necessary to continue their journey. A few 
 months later he learned the truth about La Salle, -v^here- 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 19 
 
 upon he again descended the river in the hope of being 
 able to render some assistance to the colonists who had 
 been left at the fort on Matagorda Bay. In this gen- 
 erous effort he was doomed to disappointment. When on 
 Red River he was deserted by six out of the eight men 
 who were with him ; and though he kept on for some 
 time longer, he was obliged in the end to give up the 
 undertaking, owing to the accidental loss of all his am- 
 munition, and to the refusal of the Indians, among 
 whom he then was, to furnish him with guides. Under 
 these circumstances he decided to retrace his steps ; and, 
 after a journey in which he suffered great hardships, 
 he reached the Arkansas in July, 1689, and the fort on 
 the Illinois in September of the same year. 
 
 Disastrous as was this attempt at colonizing the lower 
 Mississippi, it did not long delay that event. The situ- 
 ation was too important, considered either strategically 
 or commercially, to be overlooked ; and, as La Salle 
 had foretold, both the English and Spaniards stood 
 ready to seize it, or to occupy such positions along the 
 coast as would enable them to neutralize any advantage 
 which the French might hope to gain from its posses- 
 sion. Indeed, with this end in view, the Spaniards are^ 
 said to have fortified Pensacola as early as 1696, and 
 some three years later an English expedition ascended 
 the Mississippi, but was turned back by a stratagem of 
 the French, who had anticipated their arrival by only a 
 few months. These designs on the part of their rivals 
 were well known to the French, and caused them to 
 hasten the preparations they were making for the occu- 
 pation of the mouth of the river. Accordingly, in 1698, 
 the Canadian, Iberville, was sent out in command of an 
 expedition, and, after a successful voyage, he landed at 
 
20 MISSOURI. 
 
 old Biloxi in February of the following year and built 
 a fort. From this point the neighboring coast and the 
 lower portion of the river were explored ; and it was 
 during one of these expeditions that Bienville was 
 handed the letter which, fourteen years before, Tonti 
 had left for La Salle. Other points were occupied in 
 due time, and soon traders and missionaries began to 
 ascend and descend the river. The journey, however, 
 was not always free from danger, as there were times 
 when, owing to the intrigues of English traders and 
 other causes, tribes, like the Chickasaws and Natchez, 
 dug up the hatchet and " barred " the river. As a 
 rule, though, these occasions were rare ; and the jour- 
 ney was made without other dangers and discomforts 
 than those of the river and climate. By superior man- 
 agement the French were able to counteract the influ- 
 ence of the English with the river tribes, and for fifty 
 years and more — from the settlement in 1699 until the 
 cession to Spain in 1762 — the Mississippi was to all 
 intents and purposes a French river. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FRENCH DOMINATION IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 During the whole of the period that the French held 
 the control of the valley, Missouri, as such, had no sep- 
 arate legal existence and not a single settlement that 
 has proved to be permanent, except, perhaps, Ste. Gene- 
 vieve. Exactly when the " old " village of this name 
 was founded is a matter that cannot be positively deter- 
 mined ; and it is not important that it should be, except 
 in so far as it may serve to throw light upon the time 
 when the French bescan to familiarize themselves with 
 the resources of the region west of the Mississippi. 
 Upon this point the testimony of Penicaut is of interest. 
 He arrived in lower Louisiana in 1699, and in 1700 he 
 made one of the party that ascended the river with Le 
 Sueur for the purpose of opening a copper mine which 
 was supposed to be on one of the tributaries of the 
 Minnesota. In the journal which he kept of that expe- 
 dition, he refers to the salt licks near Ste. Genevieve, and 
 says that they were resorted to by the French and In- 
 dians, and that " presently " there was a settlement of 
 the French at that place. He also speaks of a mine sit- 
 uated fifty leagues west of the Mississippi, from which 
 the Indians got their supply of lead, and to which they 
 went by way of the Maramec. These statements are 
 explicit ; they are borne out by the facts as they now 
 exist, and if they do not fix the precise date when Ste. 
 
22 MISSOURI. 
 
 Genevieve was first settled, they at least justify the in- 
 ference that it was shortly after the arrival of the French 
 at the village of Kaskaskia, on the other side of the 
 river, and hence, that it must have been early in the 
 eighteenth century, and not about the middle, as some- 
 times supposed. They also indicate, with reasonable cer- 
 tainty, the date when the French began to make use of 
 the mineral and other natural resources in which the 
 rSgion lying between the Mississippi and the Maramec 
 abounded. 
 
 From this time forward, the career of the French in 
 " the Illinois," as this portion of the colony was called, 
 can be easily traced. At first, and for a quarter of a 
 century or more, it would seem as if they must have been 
 given over almost altogether to the search after silver 
 and copper. At all events, this is the not unnatural in- 
 ference from the prominence accorded to this pursuit, 
 in all the official documents. As a matter of fact, how- 
 ever, there are two sides to the shield, though there can 
 be no question that, so far as it was possible for the home 
 authorities to make it so, the search for silver was, for a 
 number of years, the controlling interest in the little col- 
 ony. As early as 1703, a party of twenty set out to go 
 from Kaskaskia to New Mexico, by way of the Missouri 
 River, for the purpose of ... " visiting certain mines 
 which were said, by the Indians, to yield a kind of lead 
 that was white and of no account because it did not 
 melt in the fire," as did the true lead found nearer 
 home. Of the fate of this expedition nothing is known, 
 but the feasibility of the journey is placed beyond 
 doubt by the fact that, in 1714, specimens of silver 
 were forwarded to La Mothe Cadillac, at Mobile, and 
 the report that they had been taken from mines near 
 
FRENCH DOMINATION. 23 
 
 Kaskaskia brought that official up the river only to find 
 that he had been deceived, and that the specimens 
 had really come from Mexico. In spite of disappoint- 
 ments like these, and of the fact that thus far not a 
 particle of silver had been found in this region, the co- 
 lonial authorities were satisfied that it would ultimately 
 be discovered, and they ascribed the failure to find it 
 to the want of skill on the part of their agents. 
 
 Impressed with this belief, the directors of the Mis- 
 sissippi Company, who had come into the possession of 
 the charter of the colony after its relinquishment by 
 Crozat, in 1717, sent out several parties composed of 
 men who were supposejj to be accustomed to this kind 
 of work, though Charlevoix, for reasons that appear to 
 be good and sufficient, doubts their capacity. Among 
 the first to arrive was the Sieur de Lochon, who came 
 out in 1719. He " dug in a place that was showed him, 
 took up a pretty large quantity of the mineral, a pound 
 of which, that took up four days to melt, produced, as 
 they say, two drachms of silver ; but some persons sus- 
 pect that he put in the silver." A few months later 
 he tried for lead, " and from two or three thousand 
 weight of the mineral he extracted fourteen pounds of 
 very bad lead, which cost him 1,400 livres." Dishear- 
 tened by this failure, he gave up the work and returned 
 to France. Other parties followed in quick succession, 
 but met with no better success. They found no silver, 
 or, if they did, they put it into the melting pots them- 
 selves ; and though lead was abundant, yet they got but 
 little, for the reason that " they did not know how to 
 construct their furnaces." Finally, in 1720, there came 
 the Sieur Renaud, one of the directors of the company, 
 who is said to have surveyed these Maramec mines very 
 
24 MISSOURI. 
 
 thoroughly. He fared no better in the search for sil- 
 ver than did his predecessors, and his errand here would 
 not call for further comment but for the fact that, in 
 1723, the earliest grants of lands in what is now known 
 as the State of Missouri were made to him, and because, 
 either directly or indirectly, he was the means of intro- 
 ducing negro slavery into this portion of the colony. 
 According to the chronicles of the day, there came with 
 him "many families who had received concessions of 
 lands in the neighborhood of Kaskaskia, and who brought 
 with them a number of negroes, granted to them by 
 Bienville, for the purpose of cultivating these lands." 
 After this we hear but little of silver, though as late 
 as 1744 Vaudreuil forwarded to France certain speci- 
 mens of copper, which were said to have been found in 
 the district of the Illinois. The lead mines of this re- 
 gion, however, were steadily worked, and among the 
 articles sent down the river, lead was not the least im- 
 portant. 
 
 But whilst the authorities at New Orleans and Paris 
 were dreaming of silver mines and squandering large 
 sums of money in a vain search for them, the colonists 
 in this district, consisting almost entirely of emigrants 
 from Canada, were quietly pursuing the even tenor of 
 their way, and devoting more or less of their atten- 
 tion to the trade in furs, and to the more prosaic but 
 not less useful business o£ farming. Besides the ex- 
 pedition up the Missouri, to which reference has already 
 been made, they explored the Des Moines and the 
 Osage, and penetrated into Kansas among the Banis, 
 where Dutign^, in 1719, planted the arms of France. 
 This steady progress westward excited the jealousy of 
 the Spaniards, and, in 1720, they fitted out an expedition 
 
FRENCH DOMINATION. 25 
 
 for the purpose of taking a position on the Missouri 
 which would enable them to check the advance of the 
 French in this direction, and divert the trade of the 
 Indians from Kaskaskia to Santa Fe. In this they were 
 unsuccessful, as the expedition fell among hostile tribes 
 and was destroyed. 
 
 Alarmed by the boldness of this expedition, and with 
 the view of guarding against future danger from this 
 quarter, as well as in the expectation of extending 
 their trade, the French sent a force up the Missouri, 
 and built a fort near a village of the tribe of that 
 name, which they called Fort Orleans.^ At the date of 
 their arrival here, a general war was raging between the 
 Padoucas on one side, and the Missouris, Osages, lowas, 
 Pawnees, Ottos, Mahas, etc., on the other. As these 
 last were all friends of the French, and the war inter- 
 fered very seriously with the trade in " buffalo's wool," it 
 became a matter of the first importance to bring about a 
 peace between these tribes. Accordingly, M. de Bourg- 
 mont, the commandant of Fort Orleans, summoned 
 them to meet him at a council which was held in 1724, 
 at a point situated on one of the western tributaries of 
 the Kansas, when and where the pipe was smoked, and 
 a general peace was concluded. Soon after this. Fort 
 Orleans was destroyed and the garrison massacred, 
 probably by the Missouris, though upon this point there 
 is room for doubt. Bossu, however, ascribes it to them, 
 and intimates that the outbreak was due to the frauds 
 practiced upon them in the way of trade, and to the 
 fact that the French debauched their women. 
 
 ^ Du Pratz says this fort was on an island opposite the village of 
 the Missouris. There is reason, however, to believe that it may 
 have been on the south side of the river, fifteen or twenty miles 
 above the mouth of Grand River. Margry, vi. p. 393. 
 
26 MISSOURI. 
 
 These were the only occasions, during the rule of the 
 French, upon which the settlers in this portion of the 
 colony were exposed to serious danger, though they 
 bore their share of the loss entailed by Bienville's un- 
 successful war with the Chickasaws, and took a promi- 
 nent part in the fighting which began about the middle 
 of the century, on the head waters of the Ohio, and ended 
 in the treaty of Paris, February, 1763, and the expul- 
 sion of the French from the North American continent. 
 
 During all these years the little settlement on the Illi- 
 nois, left in a great measure to itself, and separated by 
 a thousand miles and more from the intrigues and ex- 
 actions that prevailed at Quebec and New Orleans, con- 
 tinued to grow slowly but steadily in population and 
 prosperity. Besides the fur-trade which now extended 
 some three or four hundred leagues up the Missouri, 
 and the lead mines of the Maramec from which the 
 yield was, practically, unlimited, the agricultural pro- 
 ducts of the district began to assume important propor- 
 tions. From the first arrival of the French in this 
 quarter, they had given more or less of their attention 
 to the cultivation of the soil, and it was owing to this 
 fact that they were exempt from the oft recurring sea- 
 sons of scarcity to which the inhabitants of New Orleans 
 and the settlers on the Gulf coast were subject. As 
 early as 1721, Charlevoix, writing from Kaskaskia, says 
 that the French in that neighborhood were living " pretty 
 much at their ease." They cultivated wheat and corn, 
 and had domestic cattle and fowls. The Indians, too, 
 whose villages adjoined the settlements of the French, 
 were " very laborious, and cultivated their fields in 
 their own fashion." A few years later, the farm prod- 
 ucts of this " district " had increased to such an extent 
 
FRENCH DOMINATION. 27 
 
 that they constituted a regular article of shipment. Le 
 Page du Pratz and Bossu both speak of the amount of 
 flour which was sent to New Orleans, and Vaudreuil 
 who, in 1743, succeeded Bienville as governor, and who 
 was not a partial witness, in a letter to the minister, says 
 that every year, in the latter part of December, there 
 came from " the Illinois " boats loaded with " flour, corn, 
 bacon hams, both of bear and hog, corned pork and 
 wild beef, myrtle and \eeswax, cotton, tallow, leather, 
 tobacco, lead, copper, buffalo-wool, venison, poultry, 
 bear's grease, oil, skins, fowls, and hides." Varied as 
 is this list, it is not complete, for Captain Pittman, who 
 traveled up the river soon after the eastern portion of 
 the valley fell into the hands of the English, adds " beer 
 and wines." This is certainly a very creditable show- 
 ing, and furnishes good grounds for doubting Vaudreuil's 
 sincerity, when he seeks to justify his grant to Deruis- 
 seau of the monopoly of tlie fur-trade of the Missouri, 
 by saying that the only way in which he could make the 
 people in this part of the colony abandon their wander- 
 ing mode of life and settle down to farm work, was by 
 preventing them from trading with the Indians, and by 
 prohibiting them from acquiring any more negro slaves. 
 The two statements, to say the least, do not harmonize. 
 A wandering life is never compatible with the success- 
 ful employment of slave labor, and the fact that, in 1745, 
 the negroes in this district were half as many as the 
 whites, is not only conclusive as to the profitable use of 
 this form of labor, but it is equally decisive as to the 
 manner of life of the owners of these slaves, even with- 
 out the confirmatory evidence of the products which 
 they annually sent down the river. 
 
 Notwithstanding the measure of success which at- 
 
28 MISSOURI. 
 
 tended this corner of the colony, Louisiana, taken as 
 a whole, and regarded, as colonies then were, simply 
 as a mercantile venture, was a decided failure. So 
 far from returning a profit upon the sums expended, 
 there never was a time when it was self-supporting. 
 Under the system of restrictions upon trade and produc- 
 tion which prevailed, and which embodied the highest 
 commercial wisdom of the day, the colonists were vir- 
 tually prohibited from producing anything that could 
 be obtained from the mother country. They were 
 taught to look to France even for their food. As a con- 
 sequence, on more than one occasion when the supplies 
 failed to arrive, the settlers on the lower Mississippi 
 and along the Gulf coast were reduced to such straits 
 that they were obliged to quarter themselves upon 
 the neighboring Indians, in order to escape starvation. 
 As late as 1741, owing to the destruction by a storm 
 of the warehouse in which their provisions were stored, 
 the inhabitants of Mobile and of some other places in 
 that part of the colony were threatened with a famine ; 
 and the dispatches of that day and even those of a much 
 later date are filled with pitiful appeals to France for 
 aid. Of course, so long as those who held the franchise 
 of the colony, no matter whether it was the state, a com- 
 pany, or an individual, were able and willing to furnish 
 the necessary supplies and make good the yearly deficit 
 in men and money, it was easy enough to counteract the 
 evil effects engendered by the attempt to put into prac- 
 tice the false theories upon which the enterprise was 
 managed. It was even possible, provided the expendi- 
 tures were upon a sufficiently lavish scale, to give the 
 settlement an appearance of prosperity, as was the case 
 with Louisiana from 1717 to 1731, when the Mississippi 
 
FRENCH DOMINATION. 29 
 
 Company held the charter. But when the time came, 
 as sooner or later it did, that the supplies were either 
 cut down or withheld altogether, or when from any 
 cause they became irregular and uncertain, the sem- 
 blance of prosperity disappeared, and the fatal effects of 
 this false system of management, in the shape of want 
 and its attendant train of evils, began at once to make 
 themselves felt. 
 
 Such in brief was the history of Louisiana under 
 French domination. Its most prosperous period was 
 during the fourteen years that the Company of the 
 Indies, or, as it was also called, the Mississippi Com- 
 pany, controlled its destinies, and its prosperity then, as 
 has been already intimated, was not a healthy growth, 
 but was the result of the lavish manner in which sup- 
 plies of men and money were poured into the colony 
 from abroad. Some idea of the rate at which this was 
 done may be gathered from the fact that, during this 
 time, the expenses of the colony are said to have been 
 upwards of twenty million livres, and that the popula- 
 tion was swollen from seven hundred to seven thousand, 
 of which number two thousand were negro slaves. 
 
 After the surrender of the charter to the king, in 1731, 
 the regular expenses of the colony were reduced to a 
 fraction of what they had been during the extravagant 
 days of the company, and the population, no longer fed 
 by arrivals from abroad, gradually fell off, until, in 
 1745, the number of inhabitants was only about six 
 thousand, of whom four thousand were whites. Com- 
 pared with the previous census, this shows a decrease of 
 one thousand whites, the number of negroes remaining 
 the same. In all probability this loss was afterwards 
 made good, and it is possible that the number of whites 
 
30 MISSOURI. 
 
 may have been slightly increased over what it was in 
 the palmy days of the company, but not to the extent 
 claimed by Redan de Rassac. According to him, 
 Louisiana, in 1763, at the date of the treaty of Paris, 
 contained " three thousand French families." Allowing 
 four persons to each family, — a liberal allowance, if 
 we are to credit the statement as to the age of many of 
 the married women, — it would give a total white pop- 
 ulation of twelve thousand, which is believed to be much 
 too large, as it is more than twice as many as were 
 living in Spanish Louisiana in 1766,^ when probably 
 four fifths of all the inhabitants of the colony were on 
 that side of the river. 
 
 However, be this as it may, there can be no question 
 that, excluding the years in which the budget was swol- 
 len by the payment of obligations incurred in prosecut- 
 ing the Chickasaw war, there was a marked increase in 
 the regular annual expenses from 1731 until the cession 
 to Spain in 1762. Thus, for instance, in 1740, the ex- 
 penditures were 310,000 livres ; in 1747 they had in- 
 creased to 539,000 ; and during the years 1754-56 and 
 1759 the average was at the rate of 800,000 livres per 
 annum. Probably during the whole of the time that 
 Louisiana was a dependency of the crown, it had cost 
 not less than from forty to fifty millions of livres (eight 
 to ten millions of dollars), and this, of course, inde- 
 pendent of the amount paid out by Crozat, and of the 
 twenty million livres which the Mississippi Company is 
 said to have wasted. 
 
 This was a heavy price to pay for what had thus far 
 
 1 "It had ... in all, five thousand five hundred and fifty-six 
 ■white inhabitants. The blacks were nearly as numerous." Mar- 
 tin's History of Louisiana, vol. i. p. 354. New Orleans, 1827. 
 
FRENCH DOMINATION. 31 
 
 proved to be but an empty honor, and, in the present 
 exhausted condition of France, it must soon have be- 
 come a serious burden. But even if this had not been 
 the case, and the French king had been as able, as he 
 seems to have been wiUing, to preserve his American 
 possessions, it was no longer possible for him to do so. 
 The fortunes of war were against him. Canada had 
 fallen ; and, with Havana in the hands of the English, 
 and their ships riding triumphant on the ocean, Louis- 
 iana was at their mercy. Under these circumstances, 
 his most Christian majesty made a virtue of necessity, 
 and, in November, 1762, he transferred the whole of 
 that colony to the king of Spain. It was, at best, a gift 
 of doubtful value, and the Spanish monarch seems to 
 have accepted it somewhat reluctantly, and as a favor to 
 France rather than in the hope of deriving any benefit 
 from it for himself. 
 
 For reasons that will readily suggest themselves, this 
 gift and its acceptance were not made pubHc, the king 
 of France continuing to act as if he were still the right- 
 ful owner of all that domain. Indeed, in February, 
 1763, at the treaty of Paris, he ceded to the English all 
 of Louisiana that was east of the Mississippi River, ex- 
 cept the city of New Orleans and the island on which it 
 was situated, and this in face of the fact that, less than 
 six months before, he had presented that very same re- 
 gion to his much-loved cousin of Spain. No authorita- 
 tive explanation has ever been given of this transaction ; 
 but the fact that the king of Spain was a party to the 
 treaty, and made no objection to the arrangement by 
 which he was deprived of a good part of the colony 
 which had been so recently presented to him, affords 
 ample grounds for doubting the good faith of the orig- 
 
32 MISSOURI. 
 
 inal gift. In all probability it was a mere ruse, under 
 cover of which the French king hoped to retain some 
 portion of his American possessions.^ 
 
 As there were no reasons why the treaty of Paris 
 should be kept secret, and no possibility of keeping 
 it so, even it if had been desired, its provisions were 
 at once made public, and, early in the ensuing spring, 
 the people of Louisiana were officially informed of the 
 dismemberment of the colony. By this act, the district 
 of the Illinois was divided into two unequal parts, all 
 on the east side of the Mississippi River being ceded to 
 the English. Except the village of Ste. Genevieve, all 
 the French settlements in the district were situated 
 within this area, including, of course. Fort Chartres, the 
 chef-lieu, or seat of justice. 
 
 With the surrender of this important position, " the 
 key to the trade of the upper rivers," it became neces- 
 sary to select another situation within French, or rather 
 Spanish, territory, to which the government of the dis- 
 trict might be removed, and which might serve as a 
 centre from which the different Indian tribes could be 
 furnished with their regular annual supplies. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, the colonial treasury was at this time 
 
 1 Under date of May 11, 1763, the Spanish minister, the Mar- 
 quis Grimaldi, wrote to the Spanish ambassador at the court of 
 France as follows : " M. le due de Praslin (French minister of 
 the marine) se rappellera qu'il y eut des doutes de notre part a 
 regard de 1' acceptation. Mais, eomme les memes raisons qui 
 f aisaient croire k la France la n^cessit^ de la cession, conseillaient 
 a TEspagne de 1' accepter, le roi le regut, quoique I'on reconnut 
 parfaitement que nous ne faisions I'acquisition que d'une charge 
 annuelle de deux cent cinquante mille h trois cent mille piastres, 
 en ^change d'une utility negative et ^loign^e, c'est-a-dire, celle 
 de poss^der un pays pour qu'un autre ne le poss^dat pas. " — 
 Gayarr^, Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. ii. p. 160. 
 
FRENCH DOMINATION. 33 
 
 empty. It had neither money nor goods ; and as the 
 matter was somewhat urgent, " it was deemed best to 
 grant the exclusive trade of the north and northwest- 
 ern part of the territory still remaining to a company 
 strong enough to manage it and to supply the wants 
 of the Indians, and which could make the necessary 
 provision for the accommodation of the district gov- 
 ernment on the west side of the river." ^ This was 
 done, and the firm of Maxent, Laclede & Co., having 
 received the grant, fitted out an expedition, which left 
 New Orleans on the 3d of August, 1763, and wintered 
 at Fort Chartres. Laclede, or, to give him his true 
 name, Pierre Laclede Ligueste, a junior partner in the 
 firm, was placed in charge of the expedition, and in the 
 exercise of the discretion which seems to have been 
 allowed him, he fixed upon the spot where the city of 
 St. Louis now stands as the site for the new post. In 
 February or March — the date is somewhat uncertain 
 — of the ensuing year he sent Auguste Chouteau and a 
 band of workmen to that place with orders to make a 
 clearing, and to begin building cabins for the accommo- 
 dation of his men and the storage of his goods. In 
 good time a number of French families, unwilling to 
 abandon the white flag, crossed the river and took up 
 their residence at the new post j^and in-OctoJber, 1765, 
 St. Ange de Bellerive, ha^^^fejEm^vZHefe^S^he 
 region east of the Missia^fp^u^ Captain 
 English representative, msp^^rem^jftd tprthatqpljMje,. 
 St. Louis became the offlpaal^'r^lftence 'Drthe" 
 
 ant, and the chef-lieu of S^^^rict^ ^^ ^ 
 
 ^ In this statement I have foIlowealSlW%MR«»W. €<5!tet, whose 
 articles upon the early history of Missouri, in the Magazine 
 of Western History^ and elsewhere, are models of careful re- 
 search. 
 
34 MISSOURI. 
 
 Meanwhile, in October, 1764, the letter of the king 
 to Governor d'Abbadie announcing the gift of Louis- 
 iana to Spain had been made public, though it was not 
 until March, 1766, that UUoa, the Spanish representa-* 
 tive, arrived in New Orleans for the purpose of receiv- 
 ing the transfer of the colony. He seems to have been 
 a worthy sort of man, given to literature and science, 
 perhaps, rather than to politics, and to have been actu- 
 ated by a sincere desire to discharge his disagreeable 
 duties in such a way as to avoid giving offense. In 
 this he was disappointed. The people of New Orleans, 
 or, to speak more correctly, a portion of them, were not 
 to be placated, and they refused to recognize Ulloa's 
 authority, though, with curious inconsistency, they did 
 not object to the payment of all the expenses of the 
 colony by the king whose agent he was. 
 
 After a year or two of ill-concealed strife, UUoa was 
 banished by a decree of the council, dated October 29, 
 1768 ; and, singularly enough, one of the main charges 
 brought against him was that he had established posts 
 and " hoisted the flag of Spain at the Balize, at the 
 Illinois," and at some other places. It is difficult, at 
 this late day, to understand how this could have been 
 construed into a crime against either the French or 
 Spanish crown, since it was clearly in the line of his 
 duty to his own sovereign, and was done, if not with the 
 approval, certainly without any objection on the part of 
 the French authorities. It also shows that, outside of 
 New Orleans and some other places in that immediate 
 neighborhood, the objection to the transfer was neither 
 as general nor as inveterate as is sometimes supposed. 
 Indeed, on this point there seems to be no room for 
 doubt, in view of the official recognition of Ulloa's au- 
 
FRENCH DOMINATION. 35 
 
 thority by the French governor, and of the fact that the 
 commandants of the different districts solicited and ob- 
 tained from him a continuation of their respective com- 
 mands. That St. Ange was one of these is, we think, 
 made clear by the dispatches of Aubry, the Acte d'ac- 
 cusation, and by his appointment to a position in the 
 army of his most Catholic majesty ; and thus it was 
 that, although a Frenchman by birth, he became the 
 first commandant of upper Louisiana under the Span- 
 ish regime. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SPANISH DOMINATION. 
 
 A PROCEEDING as revolutionary in its character as 
 was the expulsion of Ulloa could not be quietly passed 
 over. The Spanish king could not forget that he had 
 accepted Louisiana as a favor to France, and that in so 
 doing he had involved himself in a heavy annual outlay 
 without the prospect of any immediate return ; and he 
 knew very well that the measures complained of were, 
 to a very great extent, a legacy from the former govern- 
 ment, and that the changes that had been made, by which 
 the trade of the colony was transferred from French to 
 Spanish ports, were not intended as acts of oppression, 
 but were in harmony with the received commercial ideas 
 of the day. The hard lesson taught by the revolt of the 
 English and Spanish colonies in America had not yet 
 been administered ; and it was not until the next gen- 
 eration that the different European powers were made 
 to understand that the interest, real or supposed, of a 
 colony might conflict with that of the mother country, 
 and that when such was the case, it was the part of 
 a wise political economy to recognize the right of the 
 colonists to freedom of action in trade as well as in 
 politics. Unable to grasp this truth, and conscious alike 
 of the honesty of their own intentions and of the sacri- 
 fices which they made in retaining Louisiana, the Spanish 
 cabinet looked upon the conduct of the people of New 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 37 
 
 Orleans as being doubly criminal, since it was not only- 
 revolutionary in its character, but it also savored strongly 
 of ingratitude. As such it was not to be tolerated, 
 and they sent O'Reilly to the colony, with a force 
 large enough to overcome all opposition. On the 18th 
 of August, 1769, he took peaceable possession of New 
 Orleans, having found no occasion for the use of his 
 troops. During the nine or ten months that had 
 elapsed since the banishment of Ulloa, a reaction had 
 taken place in the minds of the people, and those who 
 had been most active in fomenting the insurrection were 
 now among the first to protest their willingness to submit 
 to the orders of the king. They even went so far as to 
 assert that they had never intended any disrespect to 
 him ; and they besought O'Reilly, inasmuch as the revo- 
 lution was due to the severity of Ulloa, and to the with- 
 drawal of certain privileges which they were pleased 
 to say had been guarantied them by the act of cession, 
 not to look upon the colony in the light of a con- 
 quered province. In spite of these protestations, an 
 example was deemed necessary, and twelve of the ring- 
 leaders in the conspiracy were tried and condemned. 
 Of these, one is said to have died and five were exe- 
 cuted. The others were imprisoned, but only for a short 
 time, as they were pardoned during the ensuing year, — - 
 a fact which is not always mentioned by those who have 
 seen proper to comment upon the transaction. 
 
 With the execution of these sentences, Spanish justice, 
 or vengeance, as it is more often called, was satisfied, 
 and O'Reilly now turned his attention to the reorganiza- 
 tion of the colonial government. Among other changes, 
 he abolished the council, and superseded the French 
 code by a set of regulations, based upon the laws of 
 
38 MISSOURI. 
 
 Castile and the code of the Indies, which he caused to 
 be drawn up for the guidance of the judges and other 
 officials. At the first glance it would seem as if such 
 a wholesale change as this presaged must have been 
 productive of no little trouble and inconvenience, but in 
 practice it was found not to be the case. The juris- 
 prudence of Spain, like that of France, was drawn from 
 the Roman code, and the two systems approached each 
 other so closely in those particulars in which they touched 
 the individual most nearly, that the transition was not 
 perceived until it became an accomplished fact. More- 
 over, a wide latitude seems to have been allowed in 
 the construction and enforcement of these laws. Thus, 
 for instance, although Spanish was declared to be the 
 official language of the colony, yet the use of French 
 was permitted in the judicial and notarial acts of the 
 commandants of the several districts ; and in upper 
 Louisiana, where the laws of Spain relating to inherit- 
 ance, dowry, and grants of land had been published 
 and were in force, the coutume de Paris, or, as Bracken- 
 ridge calls it, the common law of France, was the system 
 by which their contracts were governed ; and he gives 
 an instance in which a case, involving the dower right 
 of a widow, was decided by a United States court in 
 accordance with that law under the " article of cession," 
 which provided that respect should be paid to the usages 
 and customs which had prevailed in the country. 
 
 For the purpose of facilitating the administration of 
 justice, the colony was divided into a number of dis- 
 tricts, in each of which a commandant was appointed, 
 who was invested with such civil and military powers 
 as were thought necessary to the discharge of his duties. 
 These officers were generally taken from the army or 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 39 
 
 militia, and as they were paid by the crown, and were, 
 as a rule, Frenchmen, it is believed to indicate very 
 clearly the kindly feelings by which the Spanish au- 
 thorities were animated in their dealings with the col- 
 onists. 
 
 In making this division, the settlement of the Illinois, 
 or, as we shall now call it, upper Louisiana, was con- 
 sidered of too much importance to be classed any 
 longer with the districts, and it was constituted into 
 a sort of province, separate and distinct from lower 
 Louisiana, but in some respects dependent upon it. 
 At this time (1769) it had a population of 891, con- 
 fined to the villages of St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve ; 
 and after 1799, when New Madrid was added, it 
 embraced all the region west of the Mississippi and 
 north of the latitude of Memphis, once claim'ed by 
 France. Practically, liowever, except perhaps Dubuque, 
 the new settlements within the province, during the 
 whole of the Spanish domination, never extended be- 
 yond the limits of what is now known as the State of 
 Missouri. A lieutenant-governor was placed in com- 
 mand, who derived his power directly from the crown, 
 though he was obliged to conform to the orders of the 
 governor -general, and also of the intendant, after the 
 reestablishment of this office in 1794. "As sub-dele- 
 gate to the latter, he superintended the finances within 
 his jurisdiction, including everything that related to the 
 Indians, to commerce, to the sale and grant of lands, 
 and to the levy and collection of the public revenue. 
 As next in authority to the governor, he commanded the 
 military, and chose the commandants and other officers 
 of the districts" that were within his province. His 
 authority is said to have been without limitation in civil 
 
40 MISSOURI. 
 
 cases, and it extended to all criminal offenses except 
 capital, though his decisions were liable to be reversed 
 on appeal to the governor or to the intend ant, each of 
 whom had appellate jurisdiction within his appropriate 
 sphere. Such appeals, however, were not common, — 
 aggravated crimes against the person being so exceed- 
 ingly rare that but one case of the murder of a white 
 man by a white man is reported in St. Louis during the 
 whole period of Spanish rule ; and in civil cases the 
 proceedings were of such a character as effectually 
 to discourage appeals, save when the object was the 
 reversal of erroneous judgments. In case an appeal 
 was taken, the person so appealing was obliged to 
 pay the opposite party the full amount of the sum 
 decreed against him, bond being given to refund the 
 sum thus paid, provided the decree was ultimately re- 
 versed. To any one accustomed to our system of juris- 
 prudence, this method of administering justice will 
 appear arbitrary and somewhat summary ; but, taking 
 into consideration the times and the character of the 
 population, there is much to be said in its favor. Ac- 
 cording to Major Stoddard, who was certainly not a 
 partial witness, " it created a much greater degree of 
 punctuality in the payment of debts than is established 
 in any part of the United States." In fact, " the 
 change produced by the operation of the laws of the 
 United States, the dilatory proceedings of our courts, 
 the introduction of the trial by jury, and the expenses 
 of legal contests," are said to have given " a temporary 
 check to trade and to the credit of merchants, particu- 
 larly in upper Louisiana. Experience had led them to 
 believe that the Spanish mode of decision, grounded on 
 equitable laws, was much the most wise and salutary ; 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 41 
 
 and they murmured at a system calculated to produce 
 delays, and in many instanc-es to create expenses equal 
 in amount to the sums demanded. They preferred the 
 judgment of one man to that of twelve ; and it is but 
 justice to observe that the judicial officers were in most 
 instances upright and impartial in their decisions." 
 
 In estimating for the expenses of the colony, and in 
 the measures which they took to provide the funds to 
 meet them, the Spanish government cannot be accused 
 of harshness or illiberality. A duty of six per cent., 
 amounting, in most prosperous times, to an aggregate 
 of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars per annum, 
 was levied upon all goods and other articles exported 
 or imported ; and this, with the six thousand dollars 
 derived from a tax on salaries and legacies and from a 
 license for the sale of spirituous ' liquors, constituted the 
 whole of the revenue paid by the colony. No other 
 taxes, direct or indirect, were known. Deducting these 
 amounts from the average annual expenditure of about 
 six hundred and fifty thousand ($650,000) dollars, and 
 it will leave in round numbers a deficit of five hundred 
 and twenty-five thousand ($525,000) dollars, which was 
 made up by a charge of four hundred thousand dollars 
 per annum on the Mexican exchequer, and by drafts 
 on the royal treasury for the balance. Compared with 
 the previous expenses of the colony, even during the 
 extravagant days of the Mississippi Company, or with 
 the estimates of the Spanish ministry at the time of the 
 cession in 1762, this amount seems so out of all propor- 
 tion that it is difficult to understand what became of the 
 money, without giving credence to some of the stories 
 that were current as to the impositions jDracticed upon 
 the king " by exorbitant charges for useless fortifica- 
 tions, and for supplies that were never furnished." 
 
42 ^ MISSOURI. 
 
 Under this mild form of despotism, beneficently ad- 
 ministered, life in this portion of the colony moved on 
 much as it had done when upper Louisiana formed a 
 part of " the district of the Illinois," and was under the 
 rule of the French. The nationality of the chief execu- 
 tive officer, it is true, was no longer the same ; the chef- 
 lieu^ too, had been transferred from Fort Chartres to St. 
 Louis, and a number of families had removed from the 
 east side of the river to the west ; but with these ex- 
 ceptions, the cession of this region to Spain had not 
 been productive ,of change. As has been already in- 
 timated, the colonists were almost exclusively French 
 or of French descent, and naturally enough they clung 
 to the customs in which they had been brought up, and 
 persisted in the use of the only language with which 
 they were familiar. Indeed, situated as they were, it is 
 doubtful whether any change could have been effected 
 in these particulars even had it been desirable. Except 
 in a vague sort of way, they knew of no other mode 
 of life than that which they led. Being all related by 
 blood or marriage, there were no such things as social 
 distinctions among them. The wealthy and intelligent 
 received, perhaps, a trifle more consideration, but this 
 was a personal compliment, and carried with it no social 
 preeminence. In their amusements, as in their labor, 
 at church, as at the fireside, they met upon a footing of 
 equality. Moreover, they were separated by a thou- 
 sand miles of difficult and dangerous travel from their 
 neighbors in Quebec and New Orleans, and this, of 
 course, deprived them of the healthy stimulus which 
 might have come to them from a contrast of their short- 
 comings with the progress made by others. Under 
 these circumstances, in the little world in which they 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 43 
 
 lived, innovations were rare, and progress was corre- 
 spondingly slow. " My father did so before me," was 
 regarded as a satisfactory way of accounting for the 
 existence of a custom, no matter how inadequate, and it 
 usually proved a sufficient answer to any suggestions for 
 improvement. 
 
 Such a life may have been narrow, and there can be 
 no doubt that, when judged by our standard, these peo- 
 ple were illiterate, and except when occasion called for 
 exertion, they may have been lazy ; but, on the other 
 hand, the men were honest in their dealings and faith- 
 ful to their contracts, and the women were, with but few 
 exceptions, good wives and true and efficient helpmeets 
 to their husbands. It may also be urged in their favor 
 that their wants were but few, and as these were easily 
 supplied there was no necessity for their working more 
 than they did ; and that whilst they did not, perhaps, 
 know how to read and write, yet they had a reasonably 
 clear idea of the duties and amenities that belonged to 
 their condition in life, and were, withal, so prompt in 
 practicing them as to extort from Stoddard the some- 
 what unwilling admission that they were " apparently 
 the happiest people on the globe." 
 
 In a community so shut in, and leading the simple 
 sort of life that the people here did, the round of occu- 
 pations was necessarily small. A few of the more wealthy 
 and enterprising of the inhabitants were engaged in the 
 fur-trade and kept small stocks of goods, not displayed 
 on shelves and counters, for as yet " there were no open 
 shops and stores as in the States," but packed away in 
 chests and boxes, to be opened only when the occasion 
 called for it. Others, especially among the young and 
 adventurous, were employed in the lead mines and in 
 
44 MISSOURI. 
 
 boating, and a few held positions under the government ; 
 but " by far the greater number were engaged in agri- 
 culture." In fact, this may be said " to have been, in 
 some shape, the business of all," for the surplus produce 
 of this portion of the colony was not sufficient to justify 
 such a division of labor as would withdraw any num- 
 ber of persons, be it ever so small, from the production 
 of breadstuffs. 
 
 When not engaged with their crops, some of these 
 small farmers " exercised the calling of rough artisans, 
 and became blacksmiths, carpenters, stone-masons," etc., 
 traveling about from village to village, where their ser- 
 vices were needed. At first, there were neither tailors 
 nor shoemakers among them, and no baker until about 
 1775, when Barrere, who seems to have been the first to 
 embark in that business, came from New Orleans and 
 established himself in St. Louis. Flour-mills and saw- 
 mills, however, they had at an early day, and under 
 Governor Delassus, liberal grants of land were made for 
 the establishment of distilleries. Of other manufactures 
 they had none. If we may credit Brackenridge, there 
 was not such a thing as a loom or a spinning-wheel 
 then in the province ; ^ and the inhabitants had to de- 
 pend upon Europe, not only for such luxuries as " laces," 
 but for the materials from which were made the 
 " capotes " of the men and the dresses of the women. 
 The linsey, or homespun, of the thrifty Kentucky house- 
 wife was unknown, and in its place they had two and 
 even three-point blankets, calamanco, flannels, etc., which 
 they brought, chiefly, from Philadelphia and Baltimore, 
 
 ^ Stoddard, however, gives a different account. He says, p. 
 305, that ' ' the inhabitants generally cultivated a sufficient quan- 
 tity of cotton for family purposes, and spun and wove it into cloth. " 
 
SPAN IS ff DOMINATION. 45 
 
 and which did not always pass through the custom house. 
 Even as simple an article as a churn was not in use, and 
 those among them who indulged in the luxury of butter 
 made it either " by beating the cream in a bowl or 
 shaking it up in a bottle." 
 
 Of money they had but little — far too little to serve 
 as a medium of exchange, and in its place peltry, at a 
 fixed rate, was made a legal tender in all transactions 
 in which it was not stipulated that payment should be 
 made in Spanish miUed dollars. Lead, too, was used 
 in the same way ; in fact, among themselves, all trading 
 was done by barter. Even the salaries which the gov- 
 ernment paid to the priests, soldiers, and officials were 
 advanced by the traders, generally in foreign goods, in 
 exchange for bills drawn on the colonial treasury at 
 New Orleans. Except the amounts covered by these 
 drafts, all other remittances were made in lead, pel- 
 try, and provisions. Of the total amount of this trade 
 but little is known. The value of the peltries ex- 
 ported during the fifteen years next preceding 1804 
 is said to have been a trifle over two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars ($200,000) per annum ; but this could not 
 have been the whole amount, for as early as 1786, the 
 English are said to have " seized upon the richest part 
 of this trade by ingratiating themselves into the favor of 
 the natives that lived on the Des Moines " and elsewhere 
 west of the Mississippi. Of the amount of the other 
 articles exported, nothing definite is known. All that 
 can be said is that the merchants of upper Louisiana 
 sent their furs and peltries to Canada and brought back 
 such goods as were used in the Indian trade ; that they 
 shipped lead and provisions to New Orleans and ex- 
 changed them for groceries, and that they obtained their 
 
46 MISSOURI. 
 
 supplies of other articles from Philadelphia and Balti- 
 more in return for lead and salt, which are said to have 
 found their way up the Ohio in large quantities. To 
 speak of such a people as wanting in enterprise, or to 
 call the hardy voyagers on these " wild and wicked " 
 western rivers lazy, as is not unfrequently done, indi- 
 cates a confusion of ideas and terms that can hardly 
 be reconciled with truth and fairness. 
 
 As land had no value unless it was improved, the 
 wealth of the colonists consisted principally in personal 
 property, slaves being regarded as its most desirable 
 form. For the same reason rent was virtually unknown. 
 Every head of a family was entitled to a house-lot in 
 the village proper, to as much of the common field as 
 he could cultivate, and to the right of pasturage on the 
 village common. In return for these advantages, he 
 was required to keep up his part of the " common " 
 fence, to aid in road making, and bear his share of any 
 other improvements which the villagers, at their regular 
 annual town meeting, should order to be made. Under 
 such a system there was no inducement to acquire any 
 more land than was absolutely necessary ; and although 
 concessions, embracing hundreds and even thousands of 
 acres of fertile lands, could be had for the asking, it 
 was not until towards the close of the century, when 
 immigrants from the States began to pour into the prov- 
 ince, that land took on a recognized value, and that 
 " the principal inhabitants began to open plantations at 
 some little distance from the town," and to cultivate 
 them after the English- American fashion. " As a con- 
 sequence, passengers," we are told, " could now go 
 through the streets without danger of being jostled by 
 horses, cows, hogs, and oxen, which formerly crowded 
 them." 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 47 
 
 Of politics they knew but little and cared less. It 
 was the commandant's business, so they thought, to look 
 after " all that sort of thing," and consequently they 
 did not allow it to trouble them. Neither did they con- 
 cern themselves, to any extent, about education. As 
 early as 1772, a school was ordered to be established in 
 New Orleans, and a director was sent out, together with 
 three teachers, one of grammar, another of Latin, and a 
 third of reading and writing. The parents, however, 
 were not anxious to secure the benefits " which the 
 magnanimous heart of his Majesty had put within their 
 reach" for their children, and they failed to send them 
 to the school. Not a single pujDil, we are told, ever pre- 
 sented himself for the Latin class ; and those who came 
 to be taught reading and writing were but few in num- 
 ber and uncertain in their attendance. In 1788, the 
 school-house was burned down, when a certain Don 
 Andres Almonaster, to his honor be it said, offered a 
 small " edifice, containing a room thirteen feet in length 
 by twelve in width, which would suffice for the present," 
 and might be used until he could build another, which 
 he proposed to do at a cost to himself of six thousand 
 dollars. The Ursuline convent at New Orleans was 
 also in receipt of his Majesty's bounty to the amount of 
 six hundred dollars per annum ; but in no other part of 
 the colony was there any provision made for what may 
 be termed public education, nor was there any legal 
 ordinance on the subject. In St. Louis and Ste. Ge- 
 nevieve private schools, in which children were taught 
 reading, writing, and a little arithmetic, were occasionally 
 established, but they were usually of short duration, and 
 produced no good or lasting effect in the society at large. 
 The great mass of the people were unable to avail of 
 
48 MISSOURI. 
 
 even these scanty advantages. Numbers of them " could 
 not read or write their names," and yet we are assured, 
 on the authority of educated travelers, that "their 
 manners were easy, their conversation pleasant and 
 often instructive, and many of them manifested extraor- 
 dinary natural endowments." It is but just to add that 
 some of the more wealthy sent their sons to Canada to 
 be educated, and that there were among them a few 
 graduates from European universities. 
 
 But whilst the great majority of the people were thus 
 illiterate, and careless about political and educational 
 matters, they were by no means neglectful of their reli- 
 gious concerns or their amusements. The ceremonies and 
 festivals of the church occupied not a little of their lei- 
 sure, and they seem to have been much given to cards, 
 billiards, and other games, as well as to balls and assem- 
 blies. These latter usually took place on Sunday after- 
 noon, after vespers, and instead of being scenes of frivol- 
 ity they were " schools of manners," where the children 
 were taught " the essence of politeness and self-denial." 
 When questioned as to what seemed to their Protestant 
 neighbors like a desecration of the day they would an- 
 swer : " That men were made for happiness, and that 
 the more they are able to enjoy themselves, the more 
 acceptable they are to their Creator. They are of opin- 
 ion that a sullen countenance, an attention to gloomy 
 subjects, a set form of speech, and a stiff behavior are 
 more indicative of hypocrisy than of religion ; and they 
 have often remarked that those who practice these sin- 
 gularities will most assuredly cheat and defraud their 
 neighbors during the rest of the week. Such," it is said, 
 " are the religious sentiments of a people void of supersti- 
 tion ; of a people prone to hospitality, urbanity of man- 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 49 
 
 ners, and innocent recreation ; and who present their 
 daily orisons at the throne of grace with as much con- 
 fidence of success as the most devout Puritans in ex- 
 istence." 
 
 Of course they were all Catholics ; but whilst great 
 sticklers for their own form of worship, they were not 
 disposed to interfere with the religious rights of others. 
 In this they were far more liberal than were their laws. 
 Thus, when the Holy Office endeavored to gain a footing 
 in New Orleans. Governor Miro arrested the would-be 
 inquisitor and shipped him back to Spain ; and when, a 
 few years later, in upper Louisana, that sturdy Baptist, 
 Abraham Music, asked leave to " hold meeting " at his 
 house, Governor Trudeau is said to have answered : 
 " It cannot be granted, as it is a violation of law. 
 What I mean," he added, " is that you must not put a 
 bell on your house and call it a church, nor suffer any 
 one to christen your children but the parish priest ; but 
 if any of your friends choose to meet at your house, sing, 
 pray, and talk about religion, you will not be molested, 
 provided you continue, as I suppose you are, good Catho- 
 lics." The worthy governor knew that, as Baptists, they 
 did not believe in infant baptism, and that they did not 
 need the sound of a bell to show them the way to " meet- 
 ing." 
 
 In a community so constituted, and under the rule of 
 officers who were instructed to " maintain tranquillity and 
 contentment among the inhabitants," and to cultivate 
 friendly relations with their neighbors, red as well as 
 white, there was but little to disturb the tranquil flow of 
 what may, by courtesy, be termed public affairs. In fact, 
 the records of the province contain but little save grants 
 of land in the village and common fields, notices of the 
 
50 MISSOURI. 
 
 sales of the property of deceased persons, transcripts of 
 deeds and wills, and occasionally an account of a suit 
 for debt or slander. Even the coming and going of 
 the lieutenant-governors is not unfrequently a matter of 
 inference, to be determined by the date of the documents 
 to which their signatures are attached. In spite, how- 
 ever, of the simple character of these records, tradition 
 has preserved a few events that were regarded as being 
 of sufficient importance to be perpetuated, and it may be 
 well enough to glance briefly at some of them, more by 
 way of showing the character of the occurrences that 
 were thought worthy of commemoration, than for any 
 influence which they had in shaping the destiny of the 
 province. 
 
 Thus we find that, in 1770, St. Ange gave place as 
 lieutenant-governor to Piernas. He, in turn, was fol- 
 lowed in 1775 by Cruzat, and in 1778 by De Leyba, 
 who remained in office until his death in 1780, when 
 Cruzat was sent to the province for the second time, 
 and held the command until 1787. 
 
 During these different administrations, which cover 
 rather more than half the period of Spanish domination, 
 the revolt of the English colonies, or, as it is called, the 
 American Revolution, took place ; and although it was 
 indirectly fraught with important consequences to lower 
 Louisiana and the Spanish crown, yet its influence 
 seems hardly to have been felt in the portion of the col- 
 ony with which we have to deal. Indeed, it only inter- 
 ests us so far as the capture, in 1778, of Kaskaskia and 
 Cahokia by the Virginians, under General George Rogers 
 Clark, and the presence of these troops on the east side 
 of the river in the spring of 1780 can be said to have 
 contributed to the defeat of the invasion which tradition 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 51 
 
 has magnified into an attack upon St. Louis, and which 
 has caused the year 1780 to pass into local history, as 
 Vannee du coup, the year of the attack. 
 
 According to the account handed down by Stoddard, 
 the British governor at Michilimackinac anxious to pre- 
 vent the invasion of Florida by Governor Galvez of Lou- 
 isiana, sought to create a diversion by sending a force of 
 150 white men and 1,500 Indians down the Mississippi 
 for the purpose of attacking St. Louis. No direct as- 
 sault was made upon the village, but during the short 
 time that the hostile troops were in the neighborhood a 
 number — some accounts say as many as sixty — of the 
 inhabitants were killed and thirty taken prisoners. This 
 is the story as it is usually told, and in the main it 
 is correct, except in the number of killed and prison- 
 ers, which is greatly exaggerated. Another version of 
 the affair represents " the attack " as having been 
 brought about by a Canadian Frenchman named Du- 
 charme, in revenge for the loss of his goods, which had 
 been confiscated by the Spanish authorities because he 
 was caught trading with the Indians of the Missouri. 
 In this account, also, there is an element of truth, for 
 Ducharme's goods had been seized, and he was engaged 
 in the invasion. It is even intimated that it was owing, 
 in part, to his treachery that the expedition proved a 
 failure. 
 
 Recent investigations have thrown additional light 
 upon this subject ; and it now appears that whilst it was 
 expected that the posts which had been taken by Clark 
 would be recaptured, yet the expedition, as planned in 
 London, was a part of a comprehensive movement which 
 had for its object the expulsion of the Spaniards from 
 the Mississippi valley. Having captured St. Louis and 
 
62 MISSOURI, 
 
 the other villages in that neighborhood, these troops were 
 to proceed down the river and cooperate with an Eng- 
 lish force from below in an attack upon New Orleans 
 and the Spanish settlements on the lower Mississippi. 
 It was a magnificent scheme, but, unfortunately for its 
 success, the Spaniards and Americans in the valley 
 learned of it almost as soon as the English, and they at 
 once took measures to defeat it. In lower Louisiana, 
 Governor Galvez, without waiting to be attacked, raised 
 a force and took Natchez, Baton Rouge, and other Eng- 
 lish posts on the Mississippi ; whilst in Illinois, the in- 
 vaders found the Virginians under Clark so well pre- 
 pared that they did not dare to attack them. For this 
 reason, and owing also, it is said, to the treachery of Calve 
 and Ducharme, the expedition was broken up and re- 
 turned homewards, though not until " twenty Canadians 
 and a very few traders and servants had made an attack 
 upon Pencour " — Pain court — St. Louis, in the course 
 of which, according to the report of Lieutenant-Governor 
 Sinclair, " 68 were killed, and 18 blacks and white peo- 
 ple taken prisoners." 
 
 This is probably the truth of the affair, except as to 
 the number of killed and prisoners, and we have dwelt 
 upon it at some length for the reason that it exemplifies 
 the difficulties that attend an investigation into the his- 
 tory, or rather the traditions, of the province, and be- 
 cause it is the only instance in which these settlements 
 were ever seriously threatened by a hostile force. Un- 
 doubtedly there are numerous statements in the early 
 records as to the depredations committed by the Indians, 
 and it cannot be denied that, on more than one occa- 
 sion, they murdered a settler and were guilty of other 
 acts of hostility ; but, as a rule, these outrages are be- 
 
SPANISH domination: 53 
 
 lieved to have been the work of individual savages on 
 horse-stealing expeditions, and not the result of any 
 concerted tribal action. The fact that the French al- 
 ways lived in compact villages and not on separate 
 farms, in exposed positions, as was often the case with 
 the English-American pioneers, insured them a certain 
 amount of protection from Indian attacks ; and when, a 
 few years later, bands of Shawnees, Delawares, and other 
 tribes were brought westward and established on res- 
 ervations, where they served as a barrier between the 
 whites and their troublesome neighbors the Osages, this 
 comparative immunity was converted into an absolute 
 guarantee against all danger from that quarter. Indeed, 
 it is questionable whether, even without these precau- 
 tions, there would have been any very serious risk, for 
 the reason that the Spanish government, in all its deal- 
 ings with the Indians of the Mississippi valley, seems 
 to have been actuated by a sense of humanity that was 
 in advance of the times ; and because the officials of 
 upper Louisiana, in their treatment of these people, 
 were ordered to pursue a policy that was at once just 
 and conciliatory in its character. Instead of enslaving 
 them, O'Reilly, in 1770, notified the inhabitants of Lou- 
 isiana that they would have to prepare for the emancipa- 
 tion of those who were already in bondage ; and so far 
 from trying to dispossess them of their lands and drive 
 them off, the French, and after them the Spaniards, en- 
 deavored to make use of them as hunters and small far- 
 mers, and to this end they did not hesitate to establish 
 them, so far as they were able, in permanent settlements 
 close to their own villages, as was the case at Kaskaskia, 
 Ste. Genevieve, and other places. That such a course of 
 •onduct bore good fruit is well known to every student 
 
64 MISSOURI. 
 
 of border history ; and it is not therefore improbable 
 that the contrast between this method of treatment and 
 that pursued by the English-American colonists may 
 have given rise to the indignant remonstrance which a 
 Shawnee chief is said to have addressed to General 
 Harrison : " You call us your children," said he ; " why 
 do you not make us happy, as our fathers the French 
 did ? They never took from us our lands ; indeed, they 
 were in common between us. They planted where they 
 pleased, and they cut wood where they pleased, and so 
 did we. But now, if a poor Indian attempts to take a 
 little bark from a tree to cover hira from the rain, up 
 comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming 
 the tree as his own." Only on one occasion does there 
 appear to have been a prospect of a war between these 
 colonists and the Indians, and that was settled in such 
 a curious manner that the story would not be credible, 
 were it not vouched for by as trustworthy an authority 
 as Major Stoddard. According to him, during a sort of 
 predatory war which, in 1794, raged between the whites 
 and a tribe of Missouri Indians, a chief, with a party of 
 his warriors, boldly entered St. Louis and demanded an 
 interview with Governor Trudeau, to whom he said : 
 " We have come to offer you peace ; we have been at 
 war with you many moons, and what have we done? 
 Nothing. Our warriors have tried every means to meet 
 yours in battle ; but you will not, you dare not fight us ; 
 you are a parcel of old women. What can be done 
 with such a people but make peace, since you will not 
 fight ? I come therefore to offer you peace, and to bury 
 the hatchet, to brighten the chain and again to open the 
 way between us." The Spanish governor, it is added, 
 was obliged to bear the insult, but there w^as no war. 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 65 
 
 The Indians, however, were not the only people against 
 whom it was necessary to be on the watch. The recent 
 incursion, though a failure, showed the possibility of an 
 invasion by the English from Canada, and, accordingly, 
 Cruzat, with the view of guarding against an attack from 
 that direction, caused St. Louis to be fortified on the land 
 side by a stockade, to which in after years was added 
 sundry stone towers, a demi-lune, and a bastion. As 
 against any force which the Indians could bring, these 
 defenses were sufficient, though fortunately, perhaps, for 
 the villagers their strength was never tested by the use 
 of cannon. 
 
 During the remainder of Cruzat's term there was but 
 little to note. A census taken in 1785 gives the total 
 population of the province at about fifteen hundred ; and 
 in this same year there was a freshet in the Mississippi 
 which obliged the inhabitants of Ste. Genevieve to aban- 
 don the site of the " old " village, and to remove to the 
 situation which the town now occupies, on higher ground. 
 It was a memorable event in the annals of the colony, 
 and gave to the year the significant title of Vannee des 
 grands eaux, the year of the high water. 
 
 In 1787, called Vannee des dix batteaux, from the ar- 
 rival at one time of ten boats from New Orleans, Perez 
 came into office ; and it was during his administration 
 that bands of the Shawnees, Delawares, etc., driven back 
 by the advance of the whites across the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains, were induced to forsake their homes in the region 
 north of the Ohio, and to establish themselves upon the 
 lands which had been granted them in the neighborhood 
 of Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, and the other villages 
 on the Spanish side of the Mississippi. Here they were 
 permitted to remain for some thirty-five years ; and it is 
 
66 MISSOURI. 
 
 a sad commentary upon our treatment of these people 
 that when, in 1825, they were called on to remove still 
 farther westward, the improvements which they left be- 
 hind them are said to have compared not unfavorably 
 with those of the average of their white neighbors. On 
 the expiration of Perez's term of office in 1793, Trudeau 
 was appointed, and in 1799 he was succeeded by Delas- 
 sus, a Frenchman by descent, if not by birth, who was 
 the last lieutenant-governor of upper Louisiana under 
 the Spanish regime, as St. Ange, another Frenchman, had 
 been the first. 
 
 Under these two administrations, which embrace the 
 last decade of Spanish rule in the Mississippi valley, 
 there were a few events, as for instance the " hard win- 
 ter " of 1798-99, the prevalence of " the small-pox " in 
 1801, and some others, which have been commemorated 
 in the peculiar fashion of these villagers, but to which it 
 is unnecessary to do more than refer, as, however impor- 
 tant they may have appeared at the time, they were 
 without any influence in shaping the future of the col- 
 ony, and are, therefore, of but little moment when com- 
 pared with the increase of population which took place 
 during this period, and with the total change in its 
 character. 
 
 To appreciate the full significance of these facts, it is 
 necessary to bear in mind that the first settlers in this 
 province were emigrants from Fort Chartres, Kaskaskia, 
 and the other villages on the Illinois side of the river ; 
 that they were almost exclusively French or of French 
 descent, and that for twenty years or more, in spite of 
 the gradual increase in population, this distinct national 
 character was maintained. Even as late as 1788, if we 
 may judge from the village records, the registers of 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 57 
 
 deaths and marriages, there were but few of the two 
 thousand inhabitants that were then credited to the prov- 
 ince who had not sprung from this stock. About this 
 time, however, two events occurred, which, by turning in 
 this direction a fair share of the emigration from " the 
 States," increased the population of the province so rap- 
 idly, and wrought such a change in its character, that, in 
 1799, it amounted to six thousand, and in 1803 to about 
 ten thousand, of which number three fifths, or six thou- 
 sand, were English-Americans. 
 
 The first in time, and perhaps the more important of ^ 
 the causes which contributed to this result, was the adop- 
 tion by Congress of the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting 
 slavery in the region north of the Ohio and south of 
 the Lakes. This ordinance, it will be remembered, was 
 passed by a vote of five slave and three free States, and 
 although it was intended to be prospective in its action, 
 yet its immediate practical effect was to deter those who 
 owned slaves from settling in the region to which it ap- 
 plied. It also led some of those who had already estab- 
 lished themselves in that region, and who were desirous 
 of retaining that kind of property in their families, to 
 take up their residence on the other side of the Missis- 
 sippi, where the conditions were such as to enable them 
 to carry out this wish. Powerful as this motive must 
 have been in turning the attention of slaveholding emi- 
 grants in this direction, its influence was vastly increased, 
 and its effect hastened, by the necessity which, in 1796, 
 the Spanish authorities conceived themselves to be under 
 of strengthening the people of upper Louisiana, so that 
 they might be able to defend themselves against a threat- 
 ened invasion of the English from Canada. To enable 
 them to do this successfully, it was thought necessary to 
 
68 MISSOURI. 
 
 increase their numbers; and hence the great induce- 
 ments which were held out to emigrants, especially to 
 those from the United States, as it was thought that 
 their hostility to the English would prove a guarantee 
 of their fidelity to Spain. Accordingly, lands were 
 freely granted to all settlers, attended with no other ex- 
 penses than those of surveys and office fees. A farm 
 of 800 acres could be obtained for forty-one dollars, 
 exclusive of the amounts paid to the chainmen and for 
 the confirmation of the title at New Orleans. Even these 
 payments were not necessary to give possession. This 
 was certainly little enough ; and when we add that every 
 such concession might be made to cover a lead mine, and 
 that there was practically no such thing in the province 
 as taxation, it will be seen that the temptation to emi- 
 grate was of a character that the average pioneer from 
 Kentucky and Tennessee would find it difficult to resist. 
 A less attractive prize had lured Boone and men of his 
 stamp across the AUeghanies, and it was therefore but 
 natural that, being unable to find their places in the 
 new order of things which they saw growing up around 
 them, they should yield to the tempting offers of the 
 Spanish authorities, and cross the Mississippi in search 
 of the homes which they had failed to find in regions 
 farther to the east. 
 
 In this connection, it is worthy of note, and the fact 
 certainly redounds to the credit of the Spanish govern- 
 ment, that when making these grants, they practically 
 showed no discrimination in favor of Catholics as against 
 Protestants. In 1790 the king had given orders that 
 the settlers were not to be disturbed in the exercise 
 of their religion ; in 1797, the land laws of Gayoso, 
 narrow and bigoted as they were in some respects, al- 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 69 
 
 lowed liberty of conscience for the first generation of 
 emigrants to lower Louisiana ; and in the upper part 
 of the colony, as we have seen, the officials conven- 
 iently ignored the regulations that interfered with emi- 
 gration, including those that bore heavily upon all 
 who did not belong to the established church. In fact, 
 there is reason to believe that as early as 1788, Gardo- 
 qui, the Spanish minister at Philadelphia, in the conces- 
 sion which he made to Colonel Morgan of some millions 
 of acres in the New Madrid district, not only granted the 
 prospective colonists the right of self-government, but 
 also freedom of religious worship. This concession, it is 
 true, was not sanctioned by Governor Miro, and it was 
 therefore inoperative ; but the fact that it was granted 
 is proof of the growing liberality of the Spanish authori- 
 ties, and of the free and easy manner in which the laws of 
 the colony were interpreted. In refusing to confirm this 
 grant. Governor Miro refers to the fact that it would have 
 created an independent republic within Louisiana, and 
 says : " The circumstance of their governing themselves 
 whilst the king should pay the magistrates would attract 
 here a prodigious multitude of people . . . who would, 
 on the slightest provocation, declare themselves indepen- 
 dent, and, what is worse, having the free use of their re- 
 spective religions, they would never become Catholics." 
 With grim humor, the worthy governor adds, that " on 
 such conditions he would undertake to depopulate the 
 greater part of the United States, and draw all their 
 citizens to Louisiana, including the whole Congress it- 
 self." 
 
 With the incoming tide of emigration, there was a 
 marked change in the values of certain kinds of prop- 
 erty. Land which had heretofore been held in little 
 
60 MISSOURI. 
 
 esteem was now eagerly sought after ; and all who were 
 entitled to concessions solicited and obtained them. 
 Among those who were thus fortunate were " most of 
 the French inhabitants," and also those officials who 
 were entitled to compensation, and whose services, in 
 accordance with Spanish custom, were rewarded by- 
 grants of lands instead of by gifts of money. A few 
 of these concessions were on a large scale, embracing a 
 league square or more of land, but the great majority 
 of them were far from extravagant ; and yet so numer- 
 ous were they that, according to Major Stoddard, " the 
 quantity of land claimed in upper Louisiana under 
 French and Spanish titles, amounted to one million 
 seven hundred and twenty-one thousand four hundred 
 and ninety-three (1,721,493) arpents, a quantity " which, 
 we are told, " was not exorbitant when compared with 
 the population of the province." 
 
 Of these grants, some were general and others special ; 
 and the titles which they conveyed were either complete 
 or incomplete. The concessions were general when 
 they could be located upon any portion of the public 
 domain that was not taken up, and they were special 
 when they were designated by certain metes and bounds. 
 When the grant was derived directly from the crown, 
 or when it was sanctioned by the regularly constituted 
 authority at New Orleans, the title which it conveyed 
 was said to be complete ; but when the concession was 
 based upon a " naked grant " of the lieutenant-governor 
 or of a commandant, and had not received the approval 
 of the proper officers at New Orleans, it was incom- 
 plete. Nineteen twentieths of the titles belonged to the 
 latter or incomplete class, and this gave rise to much 
 trouble and litigation before the evil was finally reme- 
 
SPANISH DOMINATION. 61 
 
 died. Congress, however, set to work to accomplish 
 it, and though it took a good many years and several 
 acts, yet, thanks to the liberal policy which was adopted, 
 it is probable that there were but few bond fide grants 
 made by the French and Spanish authorities that were 
 not ultimately confirmed. 
 
 Such, in brief, is the history of upper Louisiana 
 under Spanish domination, and the picture which it pre- 
 sents of the condition of the inhabitants at the close of 
 the eighteenth century. This picture, it will be observed, 
 is not sketched from materials furnished by the colo- 
 nists themselves, but is made up from accounts given 
 by those who, however favorably disposed towards them, 
 were, with but few exceptions, either ignorant of what 
 was really meritorious in the Spanish form of govern- 
 ment, or were so hostile to it as to be able to see but little 
 that was good in any of its measures. In either event, 
 they were but poorly qualified for the work which they 
 had in hand ; and yet, in spite of the prejudice which 
 occasionally crops out even in trustworthy writers like 
 Stoddard and Brackenridge, it is evident to any one 
 who will take the trouble to read between the lines, that 
 these people had attained to a degree of mental, material, 
 and political progress which compared not unfavorably 
 with the early stages of existence in the communities on 
 the other side of the Mississippi. All things consid- 
 ered, it is safe to say that, so far as the acts of the 
 constituted authorities could or did affect the lives of 
 the colonists, they had nothing to leam from their 
 English- American neighbors. They did not, it is true, 
 have to pay as much for their homes and farms, contrib- 
 ute out of their scanty earnings to the maintenance of 
 the priests, or of the magistrates for whom they had but 
 
62 MISSOURI. 
 
 little use ; neither were they called on to tax themselves 
 to any great extent for the support of the government. 
 They had even managed to get along quite comfortably 
 without the introduction of the trial by jury ; and, what 
 some of the early writers find it difiicult to understand, 
 they regarded these exemptions as positive advantages. 
 Whether, alone and unaided, they could have edu- 
 cated themselves to a contrary way of thinking, is a 
 question which we are not called upon to consider. 
 Such a thing is possible ; and it is even possible that 
 the English-American settlers who had crossed the Mis- 
 sissippi to escape taxation and in pursuit of cheap lands 
 might have been foolish enough to revolutionize the 
 province, as they were abundantly able to do, for the 
 purpose of reincurring the obligations which such a 
 course would have imposed ; but there is no reason for 
 thinking they would have done so, though the contrary 
 has been often asserted and is generally believed. All 
 that we are permitted to know about the matter is that 
 the settlers were so well satisfied with their form of gov- 
 ernment, and with their mode of life, that the transfer 
 of the colony, in 1804, to the United States was a source 
 of undisguised regret to a great majority of the Creoles, 
 and that the English- American portion of the population 
 was neither unanimous nor enthusiastic in its favor.^ 
 
 ^ ' ' Indeed, few of the French and part of the English- Ameri- 
 cans only were at first reconciled to the change, though they 
 never manifested any discontent." — Stoddard, Sketches of Louis- 
 tana, p. 311. Philadelphia, 1812. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 
 
 In seeking for the causes that led to the treaties of 
 1800 and 1803, by which Louisiana was "" retroceded " 
 to France and subsequently sold by that power to the 
 United States, it will be necessary to glance briefly at 
 the political condition of Western Europe as it then was, 
 and to note the steps by which the English colonies 
 along the Atlantic coast had become welded into the 
 United States of America, and had extended their wes- 
 tern boundary to the Mississippi River. 
 
 By the first of these treaties, known to history as the 
 treaty of St. Ildefonso, and concluded on the 1st of Oc- 
 tober, 1800, France came into possession of Louisiana 
 with "the same limits that it now has in the hands 
 of Spain, that it had when France possessed it, and such 
 as it ought to have after the treaties subsequently en- 
 tered into between Spain and other powers." Ostensi- 
 bly this retrocession was made in return for the province 
 of Tuscany, which was to be erected into a kingdom 
 under the name of Etruria and handed over to the Duke 
 of Parma, one of the Spanish princes ; but in reality, 
 it was the result of a complication of affairs in which 
 Spain can hardly be said to have been a willing actor. 
 Under any circumstances, such a cession involved a 
 sacrifice of pride and prestige which must have been 
 exceedingly distasteful to a proud and haughty people, 
 
64 MISSOURI. 
 
 and in the present instance, it was made more objection- 
 able by the fact that, in many quarters, it was regarded 
 as a military and political blunder. By some inexplic- 
 able process, the Spanish authorities had persuaded 
 themselves that Louisiana might be made a sort of bul- 
 wark to their Mexican possessions, and hence the tenac- 
 ity with which they clung to it although it had already 
 brought them to the brink of a war with the United 
 States, and although it must, if the policy of closing 
 the Mississippi to the people of the Ohio valley were 
 persisted in, inevitably hasten the very result which 
 they were anxious to avoid. For these reasons, then, 
 among others, it is permitted us to believe that the court 
 of Madrid was not anxious to part with Louisiana, and 
 that it would not have agreed to do so, but for the 
 pressure which Bonaparte knew so well how to bring 
 to bear upon all who were in positions to help or hinder 
 his designs. 
 
 At this time, he was in the full flush of his Italian 
 triumphs. He had just been made First Consul for ten 
 years, and he was intent upon schemes for advancing 
 France to a position in naval and commercial affairs 
 which would be commensurate with the military su- 
 premacy he had reasserted for her on land. To do this, 
 colonies were regarded as absolutely essential, and these 
 France did not have. The ill-advised emancipation of 
 the slaves in Hayti had handed over that flourishing 
 island to Toussaint L'Ouverture and the party of the 
 blacks, as distinguished from that of the whites or the 
 mulattoes ; and of all her other possessions in Asia 
 and America, the English had left her but little that 
 was worth having. The outlook was not favorable, but 
 the First Consul, in nowise daunted by the prospect, 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 65 
 
 made up his mind to reconquer Hayti on the first op' 
 portunity, and by way of furnishing that colony with a 
 depot from which to draw supplies of " provisions, cattle, 
 and wood," he determined to reclaim Louisiana. 
 
 In the condition in which France then was, such a 
 course would, to-day, be looked upon as suicidal, but at 
 that time it was regarded as sound policy by not a few 
 of those who controlled the destinies of Europe. Even 
 the First Consul himself, far-sighted as he was, seems 
 only to have caught a glimpse of the truth, recognized 
 everywhere twenty five years later, that a distant colony 
 was " an element of weakness to a people who could be 
 shut out from the sea on the outbreak of every maritime 
 war." There were other considerations of a personal 
 character, that had their weight in leading him to adopt 
 this course. He knew very well that the family compact 
 of 1762, by which Louisiana had been ceded to Si)ain, 
 was considered a great mistake by the merchants of 
 France, and he was satisfied that he could count upon 
 their support in any efforts he might make to recover 
 it. He seems also to have had a vague notion that the 
 possession of the mouth of the Mississippi would enable 
 him to exert a pressure upon the people of the Ohio 
 valley which would, with a little judicious management, 
 bend them to his will and thus give him a potential voice 
 in North American affairs. But even if it did not come 
 up to his expectations in each and every one of these 
 particulars, he fancied that in some possible contingency 
 it might furnish him with a base of operations from 
 which he could threaten the English colonies in Canada 
 or the West Indies ; and if the occasion should ever 
 arise, it would afford him a position from which he could 
 seize Mexico and the Spanish possessions in Central 
 
66 MISSOURI. 
 
 America. Besides these advantages, which were rather 
 prospective than real, he hoped to find here the means 
 of rewarding the officers and soldiers whom the peace 
 had thrown out of employment, and he also saw in it a 
 safe and convenient outlet for certain turbulent spirits 
 whom he might wish to keep at a distance from France. 
 
 Influenced by these considerations, he took occasion 
 to open negotiations with the Spanish cabinet upon this 
 subject ; and skillfully availing himself of the critical 
 condition of the relations which then existed between 
 Spain and the United States, he found no difficulty in 
 convincing the Spanish minister that it was to the in- 
 terest of his country to retrocede Louisiana to France. 
 France, it was urged, was the friend and ally of Spain, 
 and in her hands Louisiana would be a protection to 
 Mexico, and not a source of danger, as it now was. 
 Powerful as this motive must have been, it was supple- 
 mented by the fact that the prevailing opinion at Mad- 
 rid, at that time, seems to have been that she would 
 prove a less dangerous neighbor than the United States, 
 as she was not a colonizing power, the experience of a 
 hundred and fifty years having demonstrated her in- 
 ability to maintain a successful continental possession. 
 Unquestionably these considerations had their weight, 
 and backed, as they were, by the imperious will and vic- 
 torious legions of Bonaparte, they were too powerful to 
 be resisted. Accordingly, on the 1st of October, 1800, 
 the treaty of St. Ildefonso was concluded, and Louisiana 
 became once more a French colony. 
 
 Thus far, everything had gone on smoothly. Spain 
 had given her consent to the retrocession, somewhat 
 unwillingly, perhaps, but still she had given it ; and thus 
 by the mere stroke of a pen, the First Consul had 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 67 
 
 acquired a clear title to a domain far more extensive 
 than France itself. To take possession of it, however, 
 was quite a different matter, and this was the lesson 
 which he was now to learn. England was the mistress 
 of the seas, and not only was it impossible for a French 
 fleet to move without her permission, but it was quite 
 within her power, in case the cession of Louisiana be- 
 came known, to land a force at New Orleans and seize 
 the colony before it had been formally transferred to its 
 new owners. Under these circumstances, the high con- 
 tracting parties found it necessary to move very cau- 
 tiously ; and hence the attempt to keep the terms of the 
 treaty and even its existence a secret, until the peace of 
 Amiens once more gave the French the free run of the 
 ocean, and made it possible for the First Consul to pro- 
 ceed openly in the execution of his plans for colonial 
 aggrandizement. When, therefore, in the autumn of 
 1801, the preliminaries of that peace were agreed upon 
 in London, he at once took advantage of the opportunity 
 and began secretly to make arrangements for the occu- 
 pation of Hayti and Louisiana. With the expedition 
 sent to Hayti, we are not concerned. It sailed in the 
 winter of 1801-2, before the conclusion of the definitive 
 treaty of peace in the March following, and except in 
 so far as the difficulties and disasters which it encoun- 
 tered may have influenced the First Consul in his deter- 
 mination to part with Louisiana, it does not come within 
 the scope of our investigation. 
 
 The second of these expeditions — the one intended 
 to take possession of Louisiana — was organized during 
 the ensuing summer and with the same secrecy, but its 
 departure was delayed by a misunderstanding as to the 
 interpretation of the treaty of St. Ildefonso, France con- 
 
68 MISSOURI, 
 
 tending that the Floridas were included in the act of 
 cession, whilst Spain maintained that they were not. 
 When, at length, after some months of contention, this 
 point was settled, another year had rolled around, and 
 the relations between France and England had become 
 so strained that the order for the expedition to sail was 
 countermanded, and the troops that had been intended 
 to occupy Louisiana and garrison New Orleans were 
 assigned to other duties. 
 
 In the mean time, notwithstanding the secrecy with 
 which the terms of this treaty had been guarded, its 
 purport was generally suspected in diplomatic circles. 
 In March, 1801, Mr. Rufus King, the American minis- 
 ter to England, informed Mr. Secretary Madison of the 
 rumors that were afloat on the subject, and ,Mr. R. R. 
 Livingston was at once sent to Paris, with instructions to 
 protest against a measure which was justly regarded as 
 beincf hostile to the interests of the United States, inas- 
 much as it placed a strong military power at the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, instead of a weak one as Spain then 
 was. This vigorous action brought the United States 
 prominently forward, and there can be no doubt that it 
 was their hostility to the measure, joined to the warlike 
 attitude assumed by England some months later, that 
 determined the First Consul to make a virtue of neces- 
 sity and sell a colony which he could not hope to retain, 
 even if he were permitted to take possession of it. 
 
 To understand the part which the United States were 
 henceforth to play in this transaction and the reasons 
 for it, we shall have to take a retrospective glance, and 
 note briefly the steps which had brought them to the 
 Mississippi River, and to the very doors of New Orleans. 
 In doing this it will not be necessary to go back of the 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 69 
 
 treaty of 1763, by which, as we have already seen, 
 France divided the possessions which she held upon the 
 mainland of North America, between Great Britain and 
 Spain, — r all on the east side of the Mississippi, except 
 the city of New Orleans and the island on which it is 
 situated, being ceded to the former power, whilst the 
 latter gained New Orleans and all of Louisiana that 
 was situated west of that river. At the same time, 
 Spain surrendered Florida in return for Havana which 
 had been recently taken from her, so that, by virtue of 
 these treaties. Great Britain was now the sole owner of 
 all of North America east of the Mississippi, except the 
 small triangle at the mouth of the river, which is 
 bounded by the Mississippi on one side, the Gulf on 
 another, and by the Iberville and Lakes Maurepas and 
 Pontchartrain on the third or north. 
 
 In the same year in which she came into possession 
 of all this broad domain. Great Britain divided Florida 
 into two provinces, which were called, respectively, East 
 and West Florida. At first the northern limit of West 
 Florida was fixed at a line extending from the Missis- 
 sippi to the Appalachicola along the 31st degree of north 
 latitude ; but shortly after, in order to expedite the 
 administration of justice in the Natchez district, a strip, 
 a hundred miles and more in width, along its entire 
 northern boundary, was added to West Florida, thus ex- 
 tending its limits in that direction to a line drawn due 
 east from the mouth of the Yazoo River to the Chatta- 
 hoochee, one of the main branches of the. Appalachi- 
 cola. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when the revolt of the 
 thirteen American colonies made another revision of the 
 map necessary. By the treaty of 1783 between Great 
 
70 MISSOURI. 
 
 Britain on the one part and the United States and her 
 allies, France and Spain, on the other. Great Britain 
 acknowledged the independence of the colonies, and 
 recognized as a part of their southern boundary a line 
 drawn due east from a point in the Mississippi River, 
 in latitude 31° north, to the middle of the Appalachi- 
 cola; and at the same time she ceded to Spain by a 
 separate agreement the two Floridas, but without defin- 
 ing their northern boundaries. This omission gave rise 
 to a dispute between Spain and the United States as to 
 their respective limits. On the part of Spain it was 
 contended that by the act of Great Britain, of 1764, the 
 northern boundary of West Florida had been fixed at 
 the line running due east from the mouth of the Yazoo 
 to the Chattahoochee, and that all south of that line had 
 been ceded to her ; whilst on the other hand, the United 
 States as strenuously maintained that the act fixing and 
 enlarging the limits of West Florida was superseded by 
 the recent treaty, which extended their southern bound- 
 ary to the 31st degree of north latitude, a hundred and 
 ten miles further south than the line claimed by 
 Spain. 
 
 Spain, however, had possession of the disputed terri- 
 tory by right of conquest, and evidently had no intention 
 of giving it up. She strengthened her garrisons at 
 Baton Rouge and Natchez, and built a fort at Vicksburg, 
 and subsequently one at New Madrid, on the Missouri 
 side of the Mississippi, just below the mouth of the Ohio ; 
 and of the latter she made a port of entry where vessels 
 from the Ohio were obliged to land and declare their 
 cargoes. She even denied the right of the United States 
 to the region between the Mississippi and the Alleghany 
 Mountains, which had been ceded to them by Great Brit- 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 71 
 
 ain on the ground that the conquests made by Governor 
 Galvez, of West Florida, and by Don Eugenio Pierre,^ 
 
 The following is the account of this expedition : — 
 From the 3Iadrid Gazette of the 12th March, 1786. 
 
 Translation. — By a letter from the commandant general of the 
 army of operations at the Havana and governour of Louisiana, his 
 majesty has advices, that a detachment of sixty-five militia men, 
 and sixty Indians of the nations Otaguos, Sotu, and Putuatami, 
 under the command of Don Eugenio Pierre, a captain of militia, ac- 
 companied by Don Carlos Tayon, a sub -lieutenant of militia, by 
 Don Luis Chevalier, a man well versed in the language of the In- 
 dians, and by their great chiefs Eleturno and Naquigen, which 
 marched the 2d January, 1781, from the town of St. Luis of the 
 Illinois, had possessed themselves of the post of St. Joseph, which 
 the English occupied at two hundred and twenty leagues distance 
 from that of the above-mentioned St. Luis ; having suffered in so 
 extensive a march, and so rigorous a season, the greatest incon- 
 veniences from cold and hunger, exposed to continued risks from 
 the country being possessed by savage nations, and having to pass 
 over parts covered with snow, and each one being obliged to carry 
 provision for his own subsistence, and various merchandises which 
 were necessary to content, in case of need, the barbarous nations 
 through whom they were obliged to cross. The commander, by 
 seasonable negotiations and precautions, prevented a considerable 
 body of Indians, who were at the devotion of the English, from 
 opposing this expedition ; for it would otherwise have been diffi- 
 cult to have accomplished the taking of the said post. They 
 made prisoners of the few English they found in it, the others 
 having perhaps retired in consequence of some prior notice. Don 
 Eugenio Pierre took possession, in the name of the king, of that 
 place and its dependencies, and of the river of the Illinois ; in 
 consequence whereof the standard of his majesty was there dis- 
 played during the whole time. He took the English one, and de- 
 Hvered it on his an-ival at St. Luis to Don Francisco Cruzat, the 
 commandant of that post. 
 
 The destruction of the magazine of provisions and goods which 
 the English had there (the greater part of it wliich was divided 
 among our Indians and those who lived at St. Joseph as had been 
 
72 MISSOURI. 
 
 of Fort St. Joseph, " near the sources of the Illinois," 
 had vested the title to all this country in her ; and she 
 insisted that what she did not own was possessed hy the 
 Indians, and could not therefore belong to the United 
 States. Even as late as 1795, she claimed to have 
 bought from the Chickasaws the bluffs which bear their 
 name, and which are situated on the east bank of the 
 Mississippi some distance north of the most northerly 
 boundary ever assigned by Great Britain to West 
 Florida. 
 
 Here, then, was cause for " a very pretty quarrel," and 
 to add to the ill feeling which grew out of it, Spain de- 
 nied the right of the people of the United States to the 
 "free navigation of the Mississippi," — a right which 
 had been conceded to them by Great Britain with all the 
 formalities with which she had received it from France. 
 Whether it was competent for her, thus, to hand over to 
 a third party the right which she undoubtedly had of 
 passing, at will, through this portion of the dominions of 
 Spain is a point about which opinions may differ. One 
 thing, however, is certain, that no self-respecting people, 
 powerful enough to prevent the exercise of such a right, 
 
 offered them in case they did not oppose our troops) was not the 
 only advantage resulting* from the success of this expedition, for 
 thereby it became impossible for the English to execute their plan 
 of attacking the fort of St. Luis of the Illinois, and it also served 
 to intimidate these savage nations, and oblige them to promise to 
 remain neuter, which they do at present. 
 
 When you consider the ostensible object of this expedition, the 
 distance of it, the formalities with which the place, the country, 
 and the river were taken possession of in the name of his Catho- 
 lick naajesty, I am persuaded it will not be necessary for me to 
 swell this letter with remarks that would occur to a reader of far 
 less penetration than yourself. — Secret Journal, vol. iv. (U. S. 
 Doc. 205.) 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 73 
 
 would ever suffer it to pass unchallenged. To this ex- 
 tent, then, it must be conceded that Spain occupied solid 
 ground, and in the present instance her position was 
 strengthened by the fact that, strictly speaking, the free 
 navigation of the Mississippi was not the point in dis- 
 pute. Of itself, this phrase meant nothing tangible, for 
 a sea-going vessel, as then constructed, could not reach 
 the Ohio ; neither could a flatboat, such as the people 
 of Kentucky generally used for sending their surplus 
 produce down the river, navigate the ocean. What was 
 needed to make the right of any value to the people of 
 the Ohio valley was the additional right to take their 
 produce into a Spanish port. New Orleans, and either 
 sell it then and there, or else store it, subject to certain 
 conditions, until such time as it suited them to transfer 
 it to sea-going vessels. This right Spain would not con- 
 cede ; and as the people of the Ohio valley were deter- 
 mined to have it, cost what it might, it brought on a 
 series of intrigues between the Spanish governors of 
 Louisiana and certain influential citizens west of the 
 AUeghanies which threatened the stability of the Amer- 
 ican Union almost before it was formed, and ultimately 
 led to the purchase of Louisiana, and to the sectional 
 struggle for political power which, aligning itself on dif- 
 ferent issues, finally culminated in the election of Lin- 
 coln and the war of secession.^ 
 
 At length in 1795, after ten years of procrastination, 
 the prospect of a European war, in which Spain and 
 England were to be ranged on different sides, and the 
 
 ^ " We agreed and lamented the one inevitable consequence of 
 the annexation of Louisiana to the Union would be to diminish 
 the relative weight and influence of the Northern section. ' ' John 
 Quincy Adams in New England Federalism, p. 148. Boston, 1877. 
 
74 MISSOURI. 
 
 necessity which, this imposed on the former power of 
 guarding her American possessions by the interposition 
 of a neutral and friendly state between upper Louisiana 
 and Canada, brought about an agreement between Spain 
 and the United States which resulted in the treaty of 
 Madrid. By the terms of this treaty, Spain recognized 
 the 31st degree of north latitude as the boundary be- 
 tween the United States and West Florida ; and she 
 agreed to permit the people of the United States to use 
 the port of New Orleans as a place of deposit for their 
 merchandise and effects, and to export the same free 
 of all duty or charge except a reasonable consideration 
 to be paid for storage and other incidental expenses. 
 This agreement was to be in force for three years, at 
 the end of which time, his Catholic majesty " promised 
 either to continue this permission, if he found during 
 that time that it was not prejudicial to the interests of 
 Spain, or if he should not agree to continue it there, 
 he agreed to assign, on another part of the banks of the 
 Mississippi, an equivalent establishment." At the ex- 
 piration of the three years, the agreement was contin- 
 ued by tacit consent, and it remained in force until 
 October, 1802, when the intendant, Morales, in oppo- 
 sition to the advice of the governor, canceled it, and re- 
 fused to name any other place of deposit, as the Ameri- 
 cans contended he was bound to do under the treaty. 
 This ill-judged act worked an injury to both parties. It 
 caused a scarcity of provisions at New Orleans, and it 
 effectually shut out the people of the Western States 
 from a market for their surplus produce, thus provoking 
 throughout all that region a storm of indignation not 
 only against Spain, but also against France ; for by this 
 time the fact of the retrocession was known, and it was 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 75 
 
 generally believed that the right of deposit would not 
 have been revoked except at her request. 
 
 At this time the population of the Ohio valley- 
 amounted to about six hundred thousand souls, and they 
 were in no mood to submit to a proceeding which they 
 regarded as being inimical to their interests, as indeed it 
 was, and also as a violation of treaty obligations, which 
 was a matter of some doubt, " the law of nature " to 
 the contrary notwithstanding. " The Mississippi," they 
 said, " is ours by the law of nature. ... Its mouth is 
 the only issue . . . to our waters, and we wish to use it 
 for our vessels. No power in the world shall deprive 
 us of this right. ... If our liberty in this matter is 
 disputed, nothing shall prevent our taking possession of 
 the capital, and when we are once masters of it, we 
 shall know how to maintain ourselves there. If Con- 
 gress refuses us effectual protection, if it forsakes us, 
 we win adopt the measures which our safety requires, 
 even if they endanger the peace of the Union and our 
 connection with the other States. No protection, no 
 allegiance." 
 
 In November, Mr. Madison wrote to the American 
 minister at Madrid to the effect that the proclamation 
 of Morales, prohibiting the right of deposit at New Or- 
 leans, was a direct and palpable violation of the treaty 
 of 1795, and expressed the hope that the Spanish gov- 
 ernment would neither lose a moment in countermand- 
 ing it, nor hesitate to repair every damage which might 
 result from it. You are aware, he said, of the sensibil- 
 ity of our Western citizens to such an occurrence ; and 
 this sensibility, he added, is justified by the interests 
 they have at stake. " The Mississippi to them is every- 
 thing. It is the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, 
 
76 MISSOURI. 
 
 and all the navigable rivers of the Atlantic States^ 
 formed into one stream. ... It is to be hoped that the 
 intendant will be led to see the error which he has 
 committed, and to correct it before a very great share 
 of its mischief will have happened. Should he prove 
 as obstinate as he has been ignorant or wicked, nothing 
 can temper the irritation and indignation of the West- 
 ern country but a persuasion that the energy of their 
 government will obtain from that of Spain the most am- 
 ple redress." Mr. Livingston held much the same lan- 
 guage in Paris, and made good use of the hostile out- 
 burst by way of enforcing the proposition which he had 
 previously submitted to the French cabinet for the pur- 
 chase of New Orleans and the Floridas. Congress, too, 
 took up the matter, and in February, 1803, after a 
 lengthy debate, resolutions of a decidedly belligerent 
 character were adopted. 
 
 Before the news of this action could reach Europe, 
 the Spanish king " had disapproved of the order of Mo- 
 rales, prohibiting the introduction of goods, wares, and 
 merchandise from the United States into the port of 
 New Orleans, and had ordered that the United States 
 should continue to enjoy the right of deposit there, but 
 without prejudice to his right of substituting some 
 other spot on the banks of the Mississippi," as provided 
 in the treaty of Madrid. Unquestionably this was a 
 politic move, and a few years earlier it would have 
 been hailed as a harbinger of peace by the people of 
 the Ohio valley ; but of late, events had moved rapidly 
 both in Europe and America, and the time had gone by 
 when the destiny of Louisiana could be affected by any- 
 thing that Spain might or might not do. The fact of 
 the retrocession, hitherto jealously guarded, was now 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 77 
 
 openly proclaimed, and England, armed for the struggle 
 with France which had now become inevitable, stood 
 ready to seize the mouth of the Mississippi on the fir- 
 ing of the first gun. This was well known to the First 
 Consul, and, no doubt, it decided him ; for whilst as a 
 matter of fact he could afford to ignore the protest of 
 as weak a power as the United States then was, and 
 probably would have done so, yet with the sword and 
 purse of England in the scale against him, the conditions 
 were changed, and he saw, at once, that the coveted 
 prize had gone from him forever. Resolved, however, 
 that what was France's loss should not be England's 
 gain, and being in sore need of money, he determined to 
 sell not only New Orleans, but the entire colony, and 
 Talleyrand was instructed to sound the American min- 
 ister on the subject. Accordingly on the 11th of April, 
 1803, he astonished Mr. Livingston, whose modest de- 
 sires had scarcely reached beyond New Orleans, by 
 asking him how much he would give for the whole of 
 Louisiana ? Not being prepared to name a definite 
 sum or even to negotiate for the entire colony, he an- 
 swered twenty millions, " provided our citizens were 
 paid for the losses inflicted on their commerce by French 
 privateers." This was pronounced too little, and Mr. 
 Livingston then proposed to defer the further con- 
 sideration of the matter until after the arrival of Mr. 
 Monroe, who was daily expected in Paris, and who was 
 specially charged by President Jefferson to assist in this 
 negotiation. Fortunately Mr. Monroe arrived at this 
 time, and he and Mr. Livingston at once took up the 
 negotiation. After a little finessing as to the price be- 
 tween them and M. Barbe-Marbois, the French repre- 
 sentative, the terms were agreed on, and the treaty was 
 concluded on the 30th of April, 1803. 
 
78 MISSOURI. 
 
 By it the United States obtained " Louisiana, with all 
 its rights and appurtenances as fully and in the same 
 manner as they had been acquired by the French Re- 
 public from Spain, on condition that the Americans 
 should pay to France eighty millions of francs, twenty 
 millions of which were to be used in payment of what 
 was due by France to the citizens of the United States." 
 Certain commercial advantages were also conceded to 
 France ; and in Article III., written by Bonaparte him- 
 self, it was stipulated that " the inhabitants of the ceded 
 territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United 
 States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to 
 the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoy- 
 ment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of 
 citizens of the United States ; and in the mean time they 
 shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoy- 
 ment of their liberty, property, and the religion which 
 they profess." 
 
 As soon as the terms of this treaty became known, 
 Spain protested against it, on the ground that France 
 had no right to make the sale, because, first, she had 
 agreed never to alienate the colony ; and, secondly, be- 
 cause her own title was not yet complete, owing to the 
 failure on her part to secure the recognition of the king 
 of Etruria by the cabinets of London and St. Peters- 
 burg. In reply, Mr. Madison contended that the prom- 
 ise " never to alienate " formed no part of the original 
 treaty between France and Spain, and that if it had 
 done so it would not affect the purchase by the United 
 States, which had been made in good faith, and in igno- 
 rance of any such understanding. He also called atten- 
 tion to the fact that, under date of May 4th, Spain had, 
 herself, referred the United States to France as being 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 79 
 
 the only power that could convey this territory, and he 
 added somewhat sarcastically that if any further evi- 
 dence were needed as to the validity of the French title, 
 it might be found in the orders of the king of Spain, 
 transferring that colony to France. 
 
 To this statement on the part of the United States, 
 there could be no satisfactory reply ; and on the 10th of 
 February, 1804, the Spanish minister, in a letter to Mr. 
 Pincknej'^, denied that he had given any order to oppose 
 the transfer of Louisiana, and declared that " his maj- 
 esty thought proper to renounce his protest against the 
 alienation of Louisiana by France." What the French 
 government thought of the objections brought forward 
 by the Spanish court may be inferred from the letter of 
 the French charge at Washington, dated October 14, 
 1803, in which he announced that as soon as the rati- 
 fications were exchanged, " he would proceed without 
 delay ... to the delivery of the colony to the persons 
 whom the President of the United States shall appoint 
 to take possession of it." In spite, however, of the har- 
 mony which prevailed between the two powers that 
 were most directly concerned, the protest of Spain was 
 taken advantage of by the opponents of Mr. Jefferson's 
 administration, and made one of the grounds upon 
 which they urged the rejection of the treaty. It proved 
 of no avail, for, as John Quincy Adams subsequently 
 truly said, " Notwithstanding the objections and appre- 
 hensions of many individuals, of many wise, able, and 
 excellent men in various parts of the Union, yet such 
 is the public favor attending the transaction which com- 
 menced by the negotiation of this treaty, and which, I 
 hope, will terminate in our full, undisturbed, and undis- 
 puted possession of the ceded territory, that I firmly 
 
80 MISSOURI. 
 
 believe if an amendment to the Constitution, amply suf- 
 ficient for the accomplishment of everything for which 
 vfQ have contracted, shall be proposed, as I think it 
 ought, it will be adopted by the legislature of every 
 State in the Union." This course, however, was not 
 thought necessary by the friends of the measure. The 
 constitutional objections to which Mr. Adams referred, 
 and which were shared, to some extent, by both Jeffer- 
 son and Madison, were brushed aside with character- 
 istic disregard ; and on the 26th of October, 1803, a 
 few days after the ratification of the treaty, an act to 
 enable the President to take possession of the ceded 
 territory was passed in the Senate by a vote of 26 to 6 ; 
 and on the 28th it was carried in the House by a vote 
 of 89 to 23. On the 29th of the same month, the House 
 passed a bill authorizing the creation of a stock to the 
 amount of eleven million two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars, for the purpose of carrying this treaty 
 into effect, and when, on the 3d of November, 1803, it 
 came before the Senate, Mr. Adams, rising superior to 
 sectional considerations, was found side by side with 
 Breckenridge, of Kentudiy, among its stoutest sup- 
 porters. 
 
 With the adoption of this measure, congressional 
 action upon the subject was at an end, and it now only 
 remained for the United States to take possession of the 
 territory which they had purchased. This was done 
 without difficulty. On the 30th of November the Span- 
 ish authorities at New Orleans handed over the colony to 
 Laussat, the French representative, and on the 20th of 
 December following, he formally transferred it to Gen- 
 eral "Wilkinson and Governor Claiborne, of Mississippi, 
 who were authorized to receive it on the part of the 
 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 81 
 
 United States. When the French flag that was floating 
 in the square was hauled down and the American flag 
 was run up, " a group of American citizens, who stood 
 at the corner of the square, waved their hats in token 
 of respect for their country's flag, and a few of them 
 greeted it with their voices." No emotion, it is said, 
 was manifested by any other portion of the assemblage, 
 unless the tears which, according to another account, 
 were shed on the occasion should be taken as an index 
 of the feelings of those who witnessed the ceremony. 
 
 With but little change, save in the actors, this scene 
 was repeated on the 9th of March, 1804, in the then 
 village of St. Louis. On that day, the American troops 
 crossed the river from Cahokia, and Don Carlos Dehault 
 Delassus delivered upper Louisiana to Captain Amos 
 Stoddard, of the United States Army, who was com- 
 missioned to receive it on behalf of France. The next 
 day he transferred it to the United States, and thus put 
 an end to the rule of Spain in the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi, which, counting from the landing of Ulloa at 
 New Orleans, had lasted thirty-eight years. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 LOUISIANA territory: 1804 TO 1812. 
 
 On the 26th of March, 1804, only about two weeks 
 after Captain, or, to give him the title by which he is 
 better known, Major Stoddard took command at St. 
 Louis, and in evident anticipation of that event, Presi- 
 dent Jefferson approved of the act of Congress by 
 which Louisiana was divided into two parts, and all 
 north of the 33d parallel of north latitude was formed 
 into a district, and styled the District of Louisiana. 
 For judicial and administrative purposes this district, 
 or upper Louisiana as we shall continue to call it, was 
 attached to the territory of Indiana, and in October of 
 that year the governor and judges of that territory pre- 
 pared a series of ordinances, and inaugurated the new 
 government within the district, thereby relieving Major 
 Stoddard from the anomalous position which he had 
 hitherto held of first civil commandant of upper Louis- 
 iana, under the appointment of Governor Claiborne, of 
 Mississippi, with all the powers and prerogatives of a 
 Spanish lieutenant-governor. 
 
 To that portion of the act which attached the district 
 to Lidiana, as well as to those clauses which declared 
 all grants of lands made subsequent to the treaty of 
 St. Ildefonso to be void and of no effect, and which 
 related to the prospective removal of the Indians from 
 the east side of the Mississippi to the west, the people 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 83 
 
 of upper Louisiana were violently opposed ; and in a 
 remonstrance signed on the 29th of September, 1804, 
 by " Representatives elected by the Freemen of their 
 respective districts in the District of Louisiana," they 
 prayed for the repeal of the act, and petitioned for the 
 erection of the district into a territory of the second 
 grade, the rank to which their numbers entitled them. 
 They also claimed the right, under the treaty, of im- 
 porting slaves into the district, which was prohibited in 
 the territory of Orleans, as lower Louisiana was now 
 called, but which had not been denied to them ; and 
 they asked that " funds should be appropriated for the 
 support, and lands set apart or bought for the building 
 and maintaining of a French and English school in each 
 county, and for the building of a seminary of learning, 
 where not only the French and English languages, but 
 likewise the dead languages, mathematics, mechanics, 
 natural and moral philosophy, and the principles of the 
 Constitution of the United States should be taught." 
 
 Of the fifteen signers of this " Remonstrance and 
 Petition," as it was termed, eight were unquestionably of 
 French extraction — a proof, if any were needed, of the 
 ease with which they adopted the methods of their neigh- 
 bors from the other side of the river. On the 4th of 
 January, 1805, this petition was presented in the lower 
 house of Congress, and was referred to a committee 
 which reported, on the 25th of the same month, a reso- 
 lution declaring that " provision ought to be made, by 
 law, for extending to the inhabitants of Louisiana the 
 right of self-government," though with singular incon- 
 sistency they accompanied the resolution by a number 
 of so-called " wise and salutary restrictions " as to the 
 subjects upon which freedom of action was to be allowed. 
 
84 MISSOURI. 
 
 This report was adopted, and a committee, of which 
 John Randolph was chairman, was appointed to draw 
 up an act in accordance with its provisions ; but before 
 they could report, a bill was received from the Senate 
 which erected the district into a territory of the first or 
 lowest grade, and changed its title from the District to 
 the Territory of Louisiana. This bill was at once passed, 
 and on the 3d of March, 1805, it received the signature 
 of President Jefferson and became a law, though it was 
 not to go into effect until the 4th of the July following. 
 By it, the President was empowered to appoint a gov- 
 ernor and three judges, who were to act together in a 
 legislative capacity, and who were authorized to adopt 
 such regulations as they might deem proper for the 
 government of the territory, subject of course to the ap- 
 proval of Congress. No mention is made in the act of 
 the land grants of the French and Spanish commandants, 
 nor is there any reference to the removal of the Indians 
 to the west side of the Mississippi, the two measures in 
 which the people of the territory were most interested. 
 
 So far as the Indians were concerned, it was not per- 
 haps necessary that there should have been any action, 
 at this time, as the intentions of the general govern- 
 ment in this respect had been made sufficiently mani- 
 fest, during the preceding autumn, by a treaty in which 
 the Sacs and Foxes had relinquished some tliree mill- 
 ion acres of land situated immediately north of the Mis- 
 souri and in the angle formed by the junction of that 
 stream with the Mississippi. In regard to the land 
 grants, however, there were no such assurances ; and it 
 was not until April, 1814, that an act was passed con- 
 firming all claims made " by virtue of incomplete French 
 or Spanish grants or concessions, or any warrant, or 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 85 
 
 order of survey which was granted prior to the 10th of 
 March, 1804," the day on which the United States took 
 formal possession of upper Louisiana. 
 
 Exactly why this just and politic measure was so long 
 delayed is a question which it is useless now to discuss. 
 Possibly, it may have been due to an unwillingness on 
 the part of the United States to admit the right of Spain 
 to dispose of any portion of the soil of Louisiana during 
 the time that she continued to hold it, after the cession 
 to France and before the final transfer to themselves, 
 that is, from October 1, 1800, to March 10, 1804 ; or it 
 may have been the result of certain well-grounded suspi- 
 cions as to the fraudulent character of some of the grants 
 made by the last two Spanish lieutenant-governors of 
 upper Louisiana. In either event, it was a mistake, 
 for as matters turned out it would have been productive 
 of less harm if the government had, in the first place, 
 submitted to the small loss with which it was threatened, 
 instead of trying to save a few thousand acres of land 
 by delaying the confirmation of these grants and there- 
 by prolonging the period of " alarm and apprehension "* 
 which, we are told, prevailed very generally throughout 
 the district in regard to these claims. 
 
 That this delay, or rather the uncertainty of which 
 it was, in some measure, the cause, may have led a 
 number of the holders of these concessions, and of the 
 entries made under them, to dispose of their claims at 
 prices that were merely nominal is very probable ; but 
 that it induced " many families to abandon the country," 
 as was asserted on the floor of Congress, is believed to 
 be a bit of exaggeration, excusable, perhaps, in view of 
 the end sought to be obtained, but hardly to be taken 
 as the literal statement of a truth. Indeed, the evidence 
 
86 MISSOURI. 
 
 all seems to point the other way ; for upon examination 
 it will be found that in a majority of the thirteen hun- 
 dred and forty-two confirmations made prior to January, 
 1813, the claims were still in the hands of the original 
 holders of the concessions or of their immediate repre- 
 sentatives ; and the fact that in 1810 the population 
 amounted to over twenty thousand, about double the 
 number it was estimated to have been when Major Stod- 
 dard took possession of the district, indicates beyond all 
 cavil that the number of families that had come into the 
 territory during this interval was largely in excess of 
 those that had quitted it. 
 
 In spite, however, of the silence of this act in re- 
 gard to these titles, and although it stopped short of 
 what the people of the district thought they had a right 
 to expect in the way of territorial advancement, it was a 
 step in the right direction. It did not, it is true, allow 
 the citizens of the newly formed territory to choose 
 their own officers, frame their own laws, or do much 
 else that a self-governing community is usually supposed 
 to do ; but it gave them officers whose field of duty was 
 limited to the territory ; and, theoretically, it made of 
 that territory a sort of preparatory school, in which 
 the inhabitants were to take their first lessons in the 
 science of self-government, though, practically, except 
 in the introduction of the trial by jury, it made but few 
 changes either in the laws or in the manner in which 
 they were administered. 
 
 Under the circumstances this was no doubt the best 
 thing that could have been done. The experiences of a 
 large minority of the citizens of the territory, accustomed 
 as they had been to the summary methods of the Spanish 
 commandants, was hardly of a character to fit them for 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 87 
 
 some of the duties that were now to devolve upon them, 
 and though they adapted themselves to the new order of 
 things with marvelous ease and rapidity, yet our fathers, 
 wiser, perhaps, in their generation than we have been in 
 ours, appear to have been of the opinion that a certain 
 amount of training was not a bad preparation for the re- 
 sponsibilities of citizenship. Accordingly they assigned 
 Louisiana to a position in the first or lowest grade of 
 territories, and not in the second, as was expected and 
 desired. 
 
 Under this new regime the first governor was General . 
 James Wilkinson, and with him were associated, the one 
 as chief justice and the other as secretary, J. B. C. 
 Lucas, a Frenchman by birth and a former member of 
 Congress from Pennsylvania, and Dr. Joseph Browne, 
 of New York, who is said to have been appointed upon 
 " the special and single recommendation of Aaron Burr," 
 whose brother-in-law he was. 
 
 Wilkinson at this time stood high in the favor of the 
 authorities at Washington, and though the suspicious 
 character of the dealings which he had formerly carried 
 on with the Spanish officials in lower Louisiana must 
 have been well known, yet he seems to have retained the 
 confidence of Mr. Jefferson and his cabinet to the very 
 end. He was, if we may credit Postmaster General 
 Granger, " one of the most agreeable, best informed, most 
 genteel, moderate, and sensible Republicans in the na- 
 tion ; " and if to this be added his high military rank 
 and his familiarity with border life and Indian affairs, it 
 would seem as if he must have been almost an ideal man 
 for the place. And yet, notwithstanding these qualifi- 
 cations, real and supposed, his career as governor was a 
 failure ; not that he did anything in his official capacity 
 
88 MISSOURI. 
 
 that was positively harmful to the people of the territory, 
 or left undone anything, within his power, that might 
 have contributed to their welfare, but for the reason that, 
 during the year or more that he was in authority, that 
 is, from July, 1805, to August, 1806, he succeeded in so 
 embroiling himself with the territorial officials with whom 
 it was his duty to act, as to interfere very seriously with 
 his chances of usefulness. In less than four months after 
 his arrival in the territory, his relations with Rufus 
 Easton, one of the most honorable men in all that region, 
 and the first postmaster St. Louis ever had, were of such 
 a character that he refused to send his mail through that 
 office ; and before the end of the year, according to his 
 own statement, Judge Lucas, Colonel Hammond, who had 
 been commandant of the district of St. Louis under Gov- 
 ernor Harrison, of Indiana, and other leading citizens of 
 the territory were engaged in " a cabal " to bring about 
 his removal. 
 
 Of the causes that led to this opposition it is impos- 
 sible to speak with certainty. The little that we know 
 about the matter has to be picked out, item by item, 
 from his own letters and from the evidence of his friends 
 and enemies, submitted in a case in which his conduct 
 as governor was not a point at issue, and hence the diffi- 
 culty of reducing the charges against him to anything 
 like a definite form, and the many grains of allowance 
 with which they are to be taken. Without attempting, 
 therefore, anything like a detailed statement of the causes 
 of complaint against him, it will be sufficient to say that 
 in one of his letters we find a reference to the charge 
 " of improper interference in the conduct of the com- 
 missioners ; " and that Major Bruif, who seems to have 
 been a personal as well as political enemy, asserts that 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 89 
 
 he was in favor of keeping the territory under military- 
 rule, and complains that he was not only " averse to the 
 first American settlers and Democrats," of both of which 
 classes he is said to have entertained an unfavorable 
 opinion, but that he was " prepossessed in favor ... of 
 the rich French landholders under antedated and other 
 large grants, royalists, federalists, and Burrites, alias the 
 new honest Republicans, who came out with him expect- 
 ing appointments." Reduced to plain English, this 
 simply means either that he had been engaged in land 
 speculations on his private account, or had interfered 
 with those of some of his neighbors ; and that in the 
 distribution of the few offices that were within his gift, 
 he had not met the expectations of one wing, at least, of 
 the political party to which he owed his appointment. 
 
 In regard to the first of these charges there is not 
 much to be said. Wilkinson was a speculator, and no 
 matter how high the position he happened to hold, there 
 was never a time when he was not ready to engage in 
 schemes for improving his pecuniary condition. This 
 course was not necessarily criminal, neither was it always 
 improper, though there were times when it was undigni- 
 fied, and when it led him into the performance of acts 
 that were open to suspicion. Such, indeed, seems to 
 have been the case in the present instance ; for although 
 in purchasing a large tract of land adjoining the spot he 
 had selected as a cantonment for the troops, he laid him- 
 self open to the accusation of using his official position 
 for the purpose of advancing his private interest, yet he 
 afterwards sold it to the government for the same price 
 he had paid for it, and this fact is sufficient to induce 
 those who are charitably disposed to acquit him of the 
 charge. 
 
90 MISSOURI. 
 
 But whilst cheerfully absolving him from blame in 
 this particular transaction, it is not so easy to relieve him 
 of the political offenses that are laid at his door. Upon 
 this count of the indictment he is clearly guilty, though 
 it may perhaps lighten our verdict to know that, in pur- 
 suing the independent course which he seems to have 
 marked out for himself, and which received the approval 
 of the authorities at Washington, he claimed to have 
 been actuated by a desire to unite the honest and mod- 
 erate men of both parties, Federal as well as Republi- 
 can, in an effort " to save the Constitution and prevent 
 a division of property which the Democrats," led by 
 that arch aristocrat Randolph, of Roanoke, are said to 
 have " aimed at." Absurd as this explanation now seems, 
 it was the reason, according to Major Bruff, that Wilkin- 
 son assigned for the course which he had thought proper 
 to pursue in administering the affairs of the territory ; 
 and we therefore give it, not that his conduct stood 
 in need of any justification even in that era of intense 
 political feeling, but for the reason that it furnishes us 
 with what may be considered either as a statement of 
 the dangers that were then thought to threaten the exist- 
 ence of the infant republic, or as a specimen of the clap- 
 trap in which our fathers, under the pressure of party 
 necessity, were wont to indulge. Be this as it may, 
 there can be no question as to the extent of the oppo- 
 sition which Wilkinson managed to excite, and of the 
 high character of some of those who took side against 
 him ; neither, on the other hand, can there be any doubt 
 as to the honesty and integrity of those who defended 
 him, among the stanchest of whom we must continue 
 to reckon President Jefferson. 
 
 Aside from the character of this opposition, which is of 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 91 
 
 interest as showing the rapid growth of what are some- 
 times termed American political ideas, but which is too 
 often but another name for the vulgar greed for money 
 or office, the only event of importance that occurred dur- 
 ing Wilkinson's term was the short visit which, in Sep- 
 tember, 1805, Aaron Burr made to his brother-in-law 
 Dr. Browne, of St. Louis. Of the secret purposes of this 
 visit, or rather of what are supposed to have been such, 
 it is not my province to speak ; neither does it come 
 within the limits marked out for my guidance to investi- 
 gate the connection which may or may not have existed 
 between Burr and Wilkinson. All that we are per- 
 mitted to know on the subject is that both of these 
 gentlemen were afterwards placed upon trial, the former 
 in 1807 for conspiring to break up the federal Union, 
 and the latter, several years later, for being an acces- 
 sory to this and other crimes ; and that the government 
 not only failed to prove that Burr was engaged in any 
 such conspiracy, but that Wilkinson, who was the chief 
 witness against him, was able to show that, in October, 
 1804, he had written to Robert Smith, Mr. Jefferson's 
 Secretary of the Navy, that " Burr was about some- 
 thing," whether internal or external he could not say, 
 but that " an eye ought to be kept on him." This let- 
 ter, it wUl be observed, was written and received a year 
 and more before the final collapse of Burr's plans, 
 whatever they may have been ; and of course in the 
 face of such evidence and of Wilkinson's subsequent 
 conduct, it was impossible to convict him of any com- 
 plicity with them. Accordingly, after one of the most 
 searching investigations of which we have any record, 
 he was, in December, 1811, acquitted by the court of 
 inquiry which had been summoned to investigate the 
 charges made against him. 
 
92 MISSOURI. 
 
 Of the substantial justice of this verdict there is, to- 
 day, but little doubt, though Burr, in after years, whilst 
 ridiculing the idea that he had been engaged in any 
 conspiracy against the federal Union, did not hesitate to 
 say that his object had been to revolutionize Mexico, 
 and that Wilkinson had been a party to the scheme, 
 but that at the critical moment he had betrayed and de- 
 feated it. That he did expose and defeat the move- 
 ment is most true ; but whether he was ever a party to it 
 is a point about which opinions may well differ. Burr's 
 unsupported assertion is not sufficient to establish the 
 fact ; and whilst there are circumstances in Wilkmson's 
 career at this time which, taken by themselves, are cal- 
 culated to make us doubt his integrity, yet inasmuch as 
 they can, when considered with reference to the hostile 
 attitude which the United States and Sj^ain then held 
 towards each other, be explained without in any way 
 impeaching his honor, it is but fair to allow him the 
 benefit of the doubt, and of the acquittal which neces- 
 sarily goes with it. 
 
 In September of the year following this visit, a few 
 weeks only after Wilkinson had left for the scene of 
 the boundary dispute between Spain and the United 
 States on the banks of the Sabine, Lewis and Clark 
 returned from their overland journey to the Pacific, 
 bringing with them as one of the results of the expedi- 
 tion a better knowledge of the extent and course of the 
 Missouri and the Columbia rivers, and of the valleys 
 through which they flow. It was the first expedition of 
 the kind ever undertaken by our government, and the 
 return of the party, safe and successful, after an absence 
 of over two years, was hailed with delight throughout 
 the entire West. Congress, too, sharing in the general 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 93 
 
 acclaim, voted a grant of land to each person engaged 
 in the expedition ; and in the spring of 1807, in further 
 recognition of his services. Captain Lewis was appointed 
 governor of the territory which he had done so much 
 to make known. 
 
 When, after a delay of some months, he arrived in 
 St. Louis, he found the affairs of his government in a 
 very disorderly condition. The officials are said to 
 have been distracted by " feuds and contentions," and 
 the people themselves, who seem to have caught the in- 
 fection, " were divided into factions and parties." Un- 
 satisfactory as is this picture, for which we are indebted 
 to Mr. Jefferson, it is not as discouraging as is the one 
 which Major Bruff has left us of the condition of affairs 
 that then prevailed. According to him " the territory 
 was convulsed ; society and confidence destroyed ; Amer- 
 ican citizens obliged to arm with dirks and pistols, and 
 the old inhabitants lamenting the change of masters." 
 To a certain extent this account is true, but taken as a 
 whole, the impression it conveys is decidedly erroneous. 
 Thus, for instance, whilst it is true that the " old inhab- 
 itants," meaning thereby the Creoles, were opposed to 
 the transfer of the colony to the United States, as were 
 a large number of the English-American residents as 
 well, and whilst it is also true that there was more or 
 less uneasiness throughout the territory, growing out of 
 the delay of Congress in confirming certain classes of 
 land grants, yet it is not true that society and confidence 
 were destroyed ; neither were the American citizens 
 obliged to arm themselves, though the custom of carry- 
 ing weapons was at that time, and for some years after- 
 wards, so general that " the judges on the benches had 
 their pistols and ataghans by their sides." Indeed, so 
 
94 MISSOURI. 
 
 far is the picture from being true to life that courts 
 were held regularly in the different districts into which 
 the territory had been divided, and, what is more to the 
 purpose, they appear to have found no difficulty in en- 
 forcing their decrees, even in cases where the supreme 
 penalty of the law was adjudged. Real estate, too, had 
 increased enormously in value, in some quarters as much 
 as five hundred per cent. ; and the eager demand for it 
 that prevailed everywhere, a demand which seems to 
 have been shared by the witness himself, was scarcely 
 compatible with the state of lawlessness that is said to 
 have existed. 
 
 Whilst, therefore, so much of this testimony as refers 
 to the overthrow of social order may be rejected safely, it 
 cannot be denied that there were causes at work which, 
 among a people so combative naturally as the American 
 emigrants were, occasionally brought on one of those 
 bloody personal encounters which gave the territory the 
 reputation of being an uncomfortable abiding place for 
 persons of weak nerves. Among these causes may be 
 mentioned the prominence of the military element at 
 certain social centres, and the tone which it gave to 
 society ; the personal character which the heated polit- 
 ical discussions of that day were wont to assume ; and 
 the lawsuits and disputes which sprang from conflicting 
 land claims, mining rights, and other similar sources, 
 and which were not unfrequently submitted to the arbi- 
 trament of the pistol. " ' Mr. P.,' said the well-known 
 Colonel S. to a neighbor with whom he had a dispute 
 about a mining claim, ' we have been friends for a long 
 time, and I feel great regret that any misunderstanding 
 should have arisen between us; here we are entirely 
 alone, and there is no one to interrupt us — let us settle 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 95 
 
 the matter in an amicable way. You know my aver- 
 sion to law and lawyers, and their quibbles ; I have 
 here a couple of friends that have no mistake in them. 
 Take your choice, they are both loaded and equally 
 true.' Mr. P., without losing his presence of mind, 
 thanked him and declined the proffered civility on ac- 
 count of important business which could not be trans- 
 acted by a ghost, whereupon Colonel S. resumed the 
 conversation, which he had interrupted for the purpose 
 of making what he considered a friendly offer." 
 
 Fortunately, the circles within which these influences 
 were active were necessarily small, being confined al- 
 most entirely to the two extremes of the social scale. 
 At the one end, were to be found " the persons of note,'* 
 as Brackenridge calls them, or "the small class that 
 denominate themselves the gentlemen," as they are 
 styled by Flint, among whom the duel was still recog- 
 nized as the proper mode of settling personal quarrels, 
 as it still was in some of the more favored localities of 
 the east. At the other were the miners, consisting of 
 " some of the rudest and most savage of the uncivilized 
 portion of civilized society," who were exceedingly jeal- 
 ous of their " natural rights," as taking lead from pub- 
 lic lands seems to have been termed, but who, even 
 when engaged in this illegal pursuit, were so far from 
 being lawless that they had found it necessary to frame 
 a set of regulations which, with but little change, may 
 have served as models for those that, long afterwards, 
 brought order into the mining camps of California. 
 
 Among these two classes, comprising at best but a 
 small part of the total population of the territory, 
 fatal duels and bloody " rencontres " were relatively 
 frequent, though they were not so common as they are 
 
96 MISSOURI. 
 
 sometimes represented to have been, nor were they so 
 general. Upon this point Timothy Flint, a New 
 England clergyman, who lived in upper Louisiana from 
 1816 to about 1820, and who traveled extensively not 
 only in that territory, but also in what are now the States 
 of Arkansas and Louisiana, is certainly good authority. 
 Protesting against the injustice of ascribing to a whole 
 community the crimes of a few fierce and ungovernable 
 natures he tells us that "it is true there are worthless 
 people here, and the most so, it must be confessed, are 
 from New England. It is true there are gamblers, and 
 gougers, and outlaws ; but there are fewer of them than, 
 from the nature of things and the character of the age 
 and the world, we ought to expect. ... I have," he 
 adds, " traveled in these regions thousands of miles un- 
 der all circumstances of exposure and danger . . . and 
 this, too, in many instances where I was not known as a 
 minister, or where such knowledge would have had no 
 influence in protecting me. I have never carried the 
 slightest weapon of defense. I scarcely remember to 
 have experienced anything that resembled insult, or to 
 have felt myself in danger from the people. I have 
 often seen men that had lost an eye. Instances of mur- 
 der, numerous and horrible in their circumstances, have 
 occurred in my vicinity. But they were such lawless 
 rencontres as terminate in murder everywhere, and in 
 which the drunkenness, brutality, and violence were mu- 
 tual. They were catastrophes, in which quiet and sober 
 men would be in no danger of being involved." 
 
 Of the backwoodsman of the West, that representative 
 in fact as well as in name of the great majority of the 
 emigrants, the same writer says : " He is generally an 
 amiable and virtuous man. . . . He has vices and bar- 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 97 
 
 barisms peculiar to his situation. His manners are 
 rough. He wears, it may be, a long beard. He has a 
 great quantity of bear or deer skins wrought into his 
 household establishment, his furniture and dress. He 
 carries a knife, or a dirk in his bosom, and when in the 
 woods has a rifle on his back and a pack of dogs at his 
 heels. An Atlantic stranger, transferred directly from 
 one of our cities to his door, would recoil from a ren- 
 counter with him. But remember, that his rifle and his 
 dogs are among his chief means of support and profit. 
 Remember, that all his first days here were passed in 
 dread of the savages. Remember, that he still encoun- 
 ters them, still meets bears and panthers. Enter his 
 door and tell him you are benighted, and wish the shel- 
 ter of his cabin for the night. The welcome is indeed 
 seemingly ungracious : ' I reckon you can stay,' or ' I 
 suppose we must let you stay.' But this apparent ungra- 
 ciousness is the harbinger of every kindness that he can 
 bestow, and every comfort that his cabin can afford. 
 Good coffee, corn bread and butter, venison, pork, wild 
 and tame fowls, are set before you. His wife, timid, 
 silent, reserved, but constantly attentive to your comfort, 
 does not sit at the table with you, but like the wives 
 of the patriarchs stands and attends on you. You are 
 shown the best bed which the house can offer. When 
 the kind hospitality has been afforded you as long as you 
 choose to stay, and when you depart, and speak about 
 your bill, you are most commonly told with some shght 
 mark of resentment that they do not keep tavern. Even 
 the flaxen-haired children will turn away from your 
 money. ... If we were to try them by the standard of 
 New England customs and opinions, that is to say, the 
 customs of a people under entirely different circum- 
 
98 MISSOURI. 
 
 stances, there would be many things in the picture that 
 would strike us offensively. They care little about min- 
 isters, and think less about paying them. They are 
 averse to all, even the most necessary, restraints. They 
 are destitute of the forms and observances of society and 
 religion ; but they are sincere and kind without profes- 
 sions, and have a coarse but substantial morality." In 
 a word, they were " a hardy, adventurous, hospitable, 
 rough, but sincere and upright race." 
 
 These were the people who were now coming into the 
 territory, and who were to shape its destiny. As a rule 
 they were sturdy, self-reliant scions of British stock, emi- 
 grants chiefly from the States that were afterwards known 
 as Southern, though Pennsylvania had already sent a 
 colony of hard-working Germans, and among those who 
 came from New York and New England we recognize 
 such honored names as Easton and Hempstead. Es- 
 pecially liberal were Kentucky and Virginia in the con- 
 tributions which they made to the life of the new terri- 
 tory, just as in after-years Missouri sent her sons and 
 daughters to people the regions still further to the west 
 and south. 
 
 Unlike the early French settlers, who preferred to live 
 in villages and were content with an allotment in the 
 common fields, these new-comers were farmers after the 
 English- American fashion, and their objects in coming 
 to the territory were to acquire land in as large tracts 
 as possible, and to avail themselves of the vast extent of 
 free pasturage or " range " which the unoccupied govern- 
 ment land afforded. To secure these advantages, they 
 passed by the villages and settled neighborhoods near 
 the river, and penetrating into the wilderness they estab- 
 lished themselves on detached farms, usually at some 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 99 
 
 distance from each other ; for the average emigrant from 
 the States " never wished to live near enough to hear 
 the bark of his neighbor's dog," unless the prospect of 
 danger from the Indians obliged him to build his cabin 
 within easy reach of some central fort or station, to 
 which, in case of necessity, he might repair. 
 
 With the incoming tide of emigration and its steady 
 flow westward, the frontier, which at the time of the 
 purchase in 1803 may be said to have been limited to 
 the villages and settlements along the west bank of the 
 river, was gradually pushed forward, until at the close of 
 the first decade of the century the inhabited portion of 
 the territory comprised an area some fifteen or twenty 
 miles in width, extending from the Arkansas to a point a 
 short distance above the mouth of the Missouri, and em- 
 bracing the districts of New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, 
 Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, and St. Charles. At this rate 
 of progress, it was a question of only a few years before 
 the advance guard of pioneers would be upon Indian 
 territory, if it was not already there ; and as such con- 
 tact had always led to hostilities, it became an object 
 with the authorities at Washington, as it was their pol- 
 icy, to lessen the chances of collision by buying the land 
 next adjoining the settlements of the whites, and remov- 
 ing the Indians further westward. In pursuance of this 
 plan, Pierre Chouteau, acting under the instructions of 
 Governor Lewis, concluded a treaty with the Osages in 
 1808, by which it was agreed that the boundary between 
 them and the whites should begin at Fort Clark, a post 
 on the Missouri thirty-five miles below the mouth of the 
 Kansas, and " extend due south to the Arkansas, and 
 down the same to the Mississippi." All east of this line, 
 comprising, as it was then estimated, about forty-eight 
 
100 MISSOURI. 
 
 millions of acres, was ceded to the United States. By 
 the same treaty, though this seems to have been rather 
 a formality, all the lands north of the Missouri to which 
 the Osages had any claims were also relinquished. Of 
 the territory so ceded, something over one half is said 
 to have been within the limits of Missouri, and this 
 amount, somewhat exaggerated, it is true, added to the 
 three millions of acres purchased in the autumn of 
 1804 from the Sacs and Foxes, gives an estimated total 
 of about twenty-seven millions of acres, — almost two 
 thirds of the present area of the State, — to which the 
 Indian title was extinguished. 
 
 With the terms of this treaty, or the circumstances 
 under which it was concluded, we are not now concerned, 
 except in so far as the knowledge of the manner in which 
 these purchases were sometimes made may cause us to 
 look with less austerity upon the free-and-easy way in 
 which the French and Spaniards were accustomed to 
 deal with questions of this sort. According to their 
 theory, the land belonged to them, and not to the Indi- 
 ans, and hence they were never troubled by any consci- 
 entious scruples as to the title by which they held it. 
 When they wanted a tract, be it large or small, they did 
 not think it necessary to go through the farce of a treaty 
 in order to get it, but they simply took what they wanted 
 and indemnified the Indians, or, if the exact terms be 
 preferred, "kept them quiet" by a system of presents, a 
 mode of procedure which the savages could understand, 
 and which was " more acceptable to them than the same 
 articles would have been if given in payment of a debt." 
 Such a course, no doubt, savored of the strong hand, but 
 it was open and above board ; and if, as was usually the 
 case, the Indians were the sufferers in the transaction, 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 101 
 
 SO also were they in their dealings with the United States. 
 Indeed, on the score of justice and morality, it may be 
 questioned whether the high-handed measures of the 
 French and Spaniards were not less objectionable than 
 were the devious methods to which our government 
 sometimes resorted when seeking to consummate a so- 
 called purchase. Thus, for example, when Brackenridge, 
 speaking of such transactions in general, but with evi- 
 dent reference to this particular case, tells us that " our 
 agents may have gone too far in procuring the consent 
 of the chiefs," or that " the chiefs may have been created 
 for the express purpose " of giving their consent, it is but 
 another and a gentler way of saying that the sale may 
 have been brought about by bribery, or in some other in- 
 defensible way. Happily, the evidence is not sufficient 
 to justify us in asserting that either of the methods re- 
 ferred to was adopted in this instance ; but there were 
 others, not less efficacious, which were equally available, 
 and the fact that the great body of the Osages were dis- 
 satisfied with the terms of the treaty is proof that there 
 were some features about it that did not commend them- 
 selves to the Indians' sense of fairness. This, however, 
 was a matter of but little moment to the other contract- 
 ing party. For reasons that were perfectly satisfactory, 
 it was deemed necessary to insist upon the purchase, 
 though the authorities at Washington suffered two years 
 to elapse before they took any steps towards complying 
 with their part of the bargain. At the end of this period, 
 the Osages were informed that the first payment for their 
 land was ready, and, accordingly, some thirty or forty 
 of their chiefs and head men repaired to St. Louis, ap- 
 parently not so much for the purpose of receiving the 
 amount due them as to protest against the enforcement 
 
102 MISSOURI. 
 
 of the treaty, which, they contended, had been unfairly 
 made. In a council held for the purpose, Le Sonneur, 
 who was the orator for the occasion, and who is said to 
 have " spoken with great art and some eloquence," ad- 
 dressed the gov^ernor as follows : " He was much sur- 
 prised to hear of this purchase, which had been forgotten 
 by his nation, and he supposed had also been forgotten 
 by his great father. The sale was made by those who 
 had no authority ; and his great father not having com- 
 plied with his part of the bargain, by delaying two years 
 the stipulated payment, and not performing the other 
 parts of the treaty, his nation ought not to be held to 
 their part of it, even if fairly entered into. But," said 
 he, "the Osage nation has no right to sell its country, 
 much less have a few chiefs, who have taken it upon 
 themselves to do so ; our country belongs to our posterity 
 as well as to ourselves ; it is not absolutely ours ; we re- 
 ceive it only for our lifetime, and then to transmit it to 
 our descendants. . . . No, my father, keep your goods, 
 and let us keep our lands." To this statement, admit- 
 ting its truth, there can be no answer, whether we regard 
 it from an Indian's point of view, or whether we look 
 upon it, as in fact we are bound to do, as the protest of 
 a weak but independent people against the unjust pre- 
 tensions of a powerful neighbor. Such, at all events, 
 seems to have been the opinion of Governor Howard, who 
 was appointed to office on the death of Captain Lewis in 
 1809, and in whose hands the negotiation now rested. 
 Instead of attempting to defend the course of the whites 
 either in making the treaty or in carrying out its pro- 
 visions, he contented himself with telling the chiefs that 
 their great father did not compel the Indians to sell their 
 lands, but that when they did they must adhere to the 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 103 
 
 bargain ; " that the annuities for two years were ready 
 for them : if they chose they might accept, if not it was 
 of no consequence ; the land would still be considered 
 as purchased, and their obstinacy would have no other 
 effect than that of displeasing their great father." 
 
 With this decision the Indians were obliged to be con- 
 tent, and it speaks well for the influence of the chiefs 
 who took part in this council and for their pacific dis- 
 position that, notwithstanding the injustice with which 
 they felt they had been treated, they were able and wil- 
 ling to hold the fighting men of the nation to the terms 
 of the treaty, except, perhaps, so far as it related to horse- 
 stealing. Upon this point the Osages were incorrigible ; 
 and whilst it was their boast that they had never shed 
 the blood of a white man, the reclamations made upon 
 them for stolen property were so numerous that they 
 exceeded the amount of their annuities, and at a treaty 
 made in September, 1818, the United States agreed to 
 assume some four thousand dollars of their indebtedness 
 in return for another liberal slice of territory, which the 
 Indians duly relinquished. 
 
 But whilst the Osages may be said to have submitted 
 quietly to this wholesale appropriation of their land, 
 there were portions of the tribes who claimed the re- 
 gion north of the Missouri who were by no means dis- 
 posed to bear with what they considered as a similar 
 injustice. To understand the condition of affairs that 
 prevailed along this portion of the frontier, it is neces- 
 sary to bear in mind that, in 1803, when Louisiana was 
 purchased, all of this part of what is now known as the 
 State of Missouri, as well as the northwest quarter of 
 Illinois and a part of southern Wisconsin, were claimed 
 by the Sacs and Foxes and their allies the lowas. Hav- 
 
104 MISSOURI. 
 
 ing driven out the Missouris and practically destroyed 
 the tribes that formed the Illinois confederacy, they 
 held the most of this region by right of conquest ; and 
 so far as our acknowledgment of this fact could give 
 them a valid title, they were its undoubted owners, and 
 they so continued until November, 1804, when they 
 ceded to the whites all of their possessions east of the 
 Mississippi, including the Rock River valley of Illinois 
 and other favorite localities. In the same treaty they 
 agreed that, west of the Mississippi, the boundary be- 
 tween them and the whites should be a line drawn 
 in a direct course from the Missouri River, opposite 
 the mouth of the Gasconade, to a point on the Jef- 
 freon River (Salt ? ) thirty miles above its mouth, and 
 down the said Jeffreon to its junction with the Mis- 
 sissippi. West and north of this line, they reserved all 
 the rest of this portion of Missouri ; and there can be 
 no doubt that, as against us, they held it by an indis- 
 putable title until they sold it in August, 1824, — three 
 years after Missouri was admitted into the federal Un- 
 ion, though long before that time the whites had crossed 
 the boundary, and were establishing themselves upon 
 forbidden ground. 
 
 To this treaty, especially to that portion of it which 
 related to the cession of their lands in Illinois and Wis- 
 consin, the Sacs and Foxes who lived east of the Mis- 
 sissippi were bitterly opposed. They complained that 
 the sale had been concluded by chiefs who were sent to 
 St. Louis on other business, but who, while there, had 
 been made drunk, and when in that condition had been 
 induced to agree to it. For this reason they held, and 
 justly, too, from their point of view, that it was not bind- 
 ing ; and there is every reason to believe that the part 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 105 
 
 which they took against us then, and in the war of 1812 
 with England, was due not so much to the intrigues of 
 British emissaries and traders, as it was to the deter- 
 mination of the Indians not to give up their homes with- 
 out a struggle. Their opposition, however, was of no 
 avail. They were divided among themselves as to their 
 true policy ; and though for several years, from the be- 
 ginning of the war of 1812 until its conclusion in 1815, 
 those of the Indians who took up the hatchet were able 
 to keep the northern frontiers of Missouri and Illinois 
 in a state of constant alarm, yet in the end they were 
 obliged to succumb. The whites had become too nu- 
 merous, and were too well organized, to be successfully 
 resisted. Their leaders were men like Governor How- 
 ard and his successor Clark, of Missouri, and Governor 
 Edwards, of Illinois, who were familiar with every phase 
 of border life, and who were as prompt in action as they 
 were skilled in the arts of Indian warfare and diplo- 
 macy. Under their direction, important points on the 
 Illinois and Mississippi were garrisoned, forts, or " sta- 
 tions " as they were called, were established at suitable 
 intervals along the frontier, and troops were raised for 
 service in the field, and for patrol duty on the rivers and 
 in the more exposed districts. The Indians of the Mis- 
 souri, too, especially the Sioux, were instigated to take 
 up arms against the hostile tribes on the upper Missis- 
 sippi ; and if we may credit the statement of Manuel 
 Lisa, the agent employed in the matter, they did good 
 service. 
 
 By the adoption of these vigorous measures, the hos- 
 tile Indians were held in check ; and the fighting, so 
 far as there was any, may be said to have been confined 
 to the efforts of the Americans to capture and hold 
 
106 MISSOURI. 
 
 Prairie du Chien. With the exception of the expedi- 
 tions undertaken for this purpose, and the defensive 
 and retaliatory measures which were improvised in the 
 different neighborhoods, the people of upper Louisiana 
 were not called upon to take any active part in the war, 
 or to bear, except in a general way, any of its burdens. 
 Owing to the early successes of the Americans, the Eng- 
 lish troops that might have been spared for service on 
 the Mississippi were needed for the defense of the Ca- 
 nadian frontier ; and the defeat of the Indians at Tip- 
 pecanoe in 1811 had so shattered the strength of the 
 confederated tribes that when, in 1812, on the outbreak 
 of the war with England, Tecumseh called on them to 
 take up arms against the United States, it was found 
 that they were hopelessly divided among themselves, 
 and that but a moiety of their warriors were ready to 
 follow him into the British camp. Large and influential 
 bands of the most hostile of the tribes, as for instance, 
 the Shawnees and the Sacs and Foxes, refused to take 
 any part in the war, preferring, as did those of their 
 friends and congeners that lived west of the Missis- 
 sippi, to trust to the friendship of the Americans, fatal 
 as it sometimes proved, rather than to risk the chances 
 of a collision. In such a contest, with the advantages 
 all on one side, the result could not long be doubtful. 
 A few desultory inroads were made into the territory by 
 small parties, usually from the east side of the river, 
 and occasionally an isolated cabin was destroyed and 
 its inmates slaughtered ; but beyond this the Indians 
 effected nothing. The time had gone by when they 
 could reenact, here, the scenes which had marked the 
 early struggle for Kentucky and the region between the 
 Ohio and the Lakes. In the changed condition of affairs, 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 107 
 
 the invasions in force, the determined attacks upon forti- 
 fied positions, and the bloody battles that characterized 
 that era were no longer possible. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the struggle on the part of 
 the Indians was soon seen to be hopeless even by them- 
 selves. Accordingly, when the Treaty of Ghent made 
 it incumbent on the United States to put an end to the 
 hostilities against the tribes with whom they were then 
 at war, they found the Indians ready to meet them half 
 way. In response to the invitations that were sent out, 
 representative chiefs from nearly all the hostiles tribes 
 repaired, in the summer of 1815, to Portage des Sioux, 
 a small village on the west side of the Mississippi a few 
 miles above the mouth of the Missouri, where they were 
 met by the American commissioners ; and as both par- 
 ties were anxious for peace there was no difficulty in 
 agreeing upon the terms. Among the tribes represented 
 in this council were the Sacs and Foxes, or rather 
 those of them who had adhered to the United States 
 during the late war, and who on that account had been 
 obliged to separate themselves from the rest of their 
 nation and remove to the Missouri. The Rock River 
 band, though, as it was called, still held out, and it 
 was not until the next year that they finally gave in, 
 and agreed to a settlement upon the basis of the treaty 
 of 1804. 
 
 "With the conclusion of these treaties, Indian wars in 
 the territory of Louisiana, and we may also add in the 
 State of Missouri, came to an end ; for although the 
 mad attempt, in 1832, of Blackhawk and his band to 
 repossess themselves of the Rock River valley caused 
 great alarm in the northeastern portion of the State, and 
 volunteers were sent out to protect the settlers in that 
 
108 MISSOURI. 
 
 quarter, yet the struggle, if that term can he applied to 
 what seems to have been the last frantic effort of a small 
 party of desperate men, was confined to the region east 
 of the Mississippi, and was soon settled by the capture 
 of Blackhawk and most of his warriors. Considered as 
 a part of the history of Missouri, and with reference to 
 the share taken by the State in suppressing it, this out- 
 break is too insignificant to merit more than a passing 
 notice. It has, however, a certain dramatic interest 
 from the fact that President Lincoln and his whilom 
 opponent Jefferson Davis — the former as a captain of 
 Illinois volunteers, and the latter as lieutenant in the 
 regular army — were both engaged in the pursuit and 
 capture of this marauding band of savages. 
 
 Returning from this digression, which has led us to 
 anticipate by some years the current of events, and re- 
 suming the thread of our narrative, it will be found 
 that the concluding year of Governor Howard's admin- 
 istration, memorable as it was in the history of the 
 United States for the declaration of war with England, 
 was notable in the local annals of the territory for cer- 
 tain events which have been more or less far-reaching 
 in their consequences. Prominent among these was the 
 earthquake of 1811, by which the village of New Mad- 
 rid and the settlements at Big and Little Prairie were, 
 for the time being, practically broken up, and the sur- 
 face of all that portion of the State was essentially 
 changed. The first and one of the severest of these 
 shocks, or series of shocks, was felt on the night of 
 December 16, 1811 ; another of equal violence was ex- 
 perienced some months later ; and after that they were 
 repeated at intervals, but with lessening intensity, until 
 finally, after the lapse of some years, they ceased alto* 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 109 
 
 gether. Eye-witnesses have told us that these concus- 
 sions were divisible into two classes, in one of which the 
 motion was perpendicular, whilst in the other it was 
 horizontal. Of these, the latter were the more destruc- 
 tive ; " when they were felt, the houses crumbled, the 
 trees waved together, and the ground sunk." The undu- 
 lations at such times are described as resembling waves, 
 which " increased in elevation as they advanced, and 
 when they had attained a certain fearful height, the 
 earth would burst, and vast volumes of water and sand 
 and pit-coal were discharged, as high as the tops of the 
 trees, leaving large crevices or chasms where the ground 
 had burst." Lakes of twenty miles in extent and more 
 were made in an hour, whilst others were drained, 
 and whole districts were covered with white sand, so 
 that they became uninhabitable. " Large tracts, includ- 
 ing the graveyard at New Madrid with all its sleeping 
 tenants, were thrown into the river ; " and '^ the whole 
 country extending to the mouth of the Ohio in one di- 
 rection, and to the St. Francis in the other, including 
 a front of three hundred miles, was convulsed to such a 
 degree as to create lakes and islands, the number of 
 which is not yet known." 
 
 Fortunately, the country was thinly settled, and as the 
 cabins were low and built of logs it was not easy to over- 
 throw them ; so that although many of them were shaken 
 down, the loss of life resulting from this cause was 
 small. In fact, if we except those who are said to have 
 been drowned by the sinking of the boats in the river, 
 of which there is no record, there were but two persons 
 whose deaths can be attributed to the earthquake, and 
 one of them " died from fright." The settlers, as soon 
 as they saw that " the chasms in the earth were in direc- 
 
110 MISSOURI. 
 
 tion from southwest to northeast, and that they were of 
 an extent to swallow up not only men, but houses," im- 
 mediately f eUed the tallest trees at right angles to these 
 chasms, and upon these trees they took refuge when 
 warned of an approaching shock. By this simple device 
 " all were saved." As the people did not dare to dweU 
 in houses, they passed this and the ensuing winter in 
 booths and camps, such as were in use among the neigh- 
 boring Indians. Meanwhile their crops were neglected 
 and nearly all their cattle died. This was a serious loss, 
 and would inevitably have resulted in a general scarcity, 
 but, that so many heavily laden flatboats were wrecked, 
 " and their contents driven by the eddy into the bayou 
 near the village of New Madrid," that provisions of all 
 sorts were in great abundance. Flour, beef, pork, 
 bacon, butter, cheese, apples, in a word all the articles 
 that usually found their way at this season of the year 
 to the New Orleans market, vvere in such quantities 
 " as scarcely to be matters of sale." 
 
 After the violence of the earthquake had somewhat 
 subsided, the country is said to have exhibited " a mel- 
 ancholy aspect of chasms, of sand covering the earth, 
 of trees thrown down or lying at an angle of forty-five 
 degrees, or split in the middle." The settlement at 
 Little Prairie was broken up, but two families remaining 
 out of a hundred, whilst that at Big Prairie, one of the 
 most flourishing on the west bank of the Mississippi, was 
 greatly reduced, and New Madrid itself had sunk into 
 insignificance, the people trembling in their miserable 
 hovels at the distant rumbling of an approaching shock. 
 Even as late as 1819, this district, " once so level, rich, 
 and beautiful, still presented the appearance of decay. 
 Large and beautiful orchards, left uninclosed, houses 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. Ill 
 
 uninhabited, deep chasms in the earth, obvious at fre- 
 quent intervals, — such was the face of the country, al- 
 though the people had for years become so accustomed 
 to frequent and small shocks, which did no essential in- 
 jury, that the lands were gradually rising again in value, 
 and New Madrid was slowly rebuilding with frail build- 
 ings, adapted to the apprehensions of the people." ^ 
 
 In the mean time Congress had been appealed to, 
 and had responded with an act allowing those whose 
 lands had been damaged or destroyed by the earth- 
 quake to locate the same quantity of land in any other 
 portion of the territory that was open to entry. It was 
 a generous provision, but it proved to be of but little 
 benefit to the actual sufferers, for the reason that al- 
 most all of them sold out their claims at a price which 
 is said to have averaged less than ten cents per acre. 
 " Out of five hundred and sixteen certificates issued, 
 only twenty were located by the original claimants or 
 sufferers. Three hundred and eighty-four were held by 
 persons who resided in St. Louis, one of whom had 
 thirty-three, another forty, another twenty-six, another 
 sixteen, and others from one to five each." 
 
 Unfortunate as was the failure of this act to effect 
 the end desired, it was not the worst of the evils to which 
 it is said to have given rise. Perjury and forgery fol- 
 lowed in its train, and were so common that there came 
 a time when a New Madrid claim was considered as a 
 synonym for fraud. ^ According to Mr. H. W. Wil- 
 
 1 Flint's Eecollections, Letter XX. Boston, 1826. 
 
 ^ As a sample of the frauds perpetrated under this act we have 
 the following, taken from American State Papers, title Public 
 Lands, vol. iv. p, 609 : — 
 
 "A claim was made by one George Tenelle (who had eighteen 
 other New Madrid claims) for two hundred and forty acres, 
 
112 MISSOURI. 
 
 liams, whose familiarity with the land laws of Missouri 
 entitles him to speak with authority, no less than one 
 hundred and forty-two claims, set up by persons who 
 falsely represented themselves to be the legal represent- 
 atives of New Madrid sufferers, were confirmed ; and 
 the holders were permitted to surrender lands which 
 they never owned, receiving, in lieu thereof, certificates 
 for location elsewhere. These certificates, as well as 
 those that were genuine, were located throughout the 
 State, wherever a desirable piece of land could be found, 
 often without regard to prior claims, and this of course 
 caused a vast amount of litigation, some of which has 
 continued to our day. 
 
 Of a totally different character, but not less influen- 
 tial in its consequences, was the act of Congress of June 
 13, 1812, which confirmed the titles of the inhabitants 
 of the different villages of the territory to the lots 
 which they had occupied prior to the 20th of December, 
 1803 ; and which provided " that all town or village 
 lots, out-lots, common-field lots, and commons in and 
 adjoining and belonging to the towns or villages of the 
 territory, which are not rightfully owned or claimed by 
 
 which he claimed as assignee of Elisha Jackson, producing docu- 
 ments to that effect, and also proof, under oath, that the land 
 had heen materially injured by earthquakes. He obtained his 
 certificate, and relinquished the injured land to the United States. 
 It was then entered on the books of the land office as public 
 land subject to entry. In 1825 it was entered by one Evans or 
 Ogden, who proceeded to take possession. It then transpired 
 that Jackson had sold the land in 1796, that the purchaser had 
 constantly lived on it until he died in 1819, that one of his heirs 
 had lived on it until it was claimed under the entry at the land 
 office, and, further, that it was a valuable farm, which had never 
 been injured by the earthquakes. ' ' — Seharf 's History of St. Louis, 
 p. 328. PhHadelphia, 1883. 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 113 
 
 any private individual, or held as commons belonging 
 to such towns or villages, or that the President of the 
 United States may not think proper to reserve for mili- 
 tary purposes, shall and the same are hereby reserved 
 for the support of schools in the respective towns or 
 villages aforesaid ; Provided^ that the whole quantity 
 of land contained in the lots reserved for the support of 
 schools in any town or village shall not exceed one 
 twentieth part of the whole lands included in the gen- 
 eral survey of such town or village." 
 
 With the first of these provisions we do not propose 
 to concern ourselves further than to say that it was one 
 of the amendments made to the law of 1804, to which 
 we have ajready referred, and that whilst it brought re- 
 lief to a number of deserving persons, whose cases had 
 hitherto been ruled out under the stringent regulations 
 of Congress, it also opened wide the door to fraud and 
 perjury, by making a number of these claims depend 
 for their validity upon the recollection by witnesses of 
 events which, in some cases, had happened years before. 
 Under these circumstances, and in view of the mania 
 for speculating in land which at this time prevailed in 
 the territory, the inducement to recollect circumstances 
 that were, to say the least, of doubtful occurrence, was 
 often very great, and it need not surprise us, therefore, 
 to be told that weak human nature not infrequently 
 yielded to the temptation. Out of some twenty-five 
 hundred claims that were presented for confirmation be- 
 tween the passage of this act and February, 1816, when 
 the commissioners made their report, eight hundred 
 were rejected ; and of this number, it is probably safe 
 to say that a large majority were either notoriously 
 fraudulent, or were based upon evidence that failed to 
 establish either their character or amount. 
 
114 MISSOURI. 
 
 For the second of these provisions, that by virtue of 
 which certain lots were reserved for school purposes, we 
 have only words of commendation. Its effect has been 
 uniformly beneficial ; and it is a pleasure to be able to 
 say that the grant has never been perverted from its 
 original purpose, but that its sphere of usefulness has 
 gone on steadily widening, and that it bids fair to be 
 productive of even more good in the future than it has 
 been in the past. It is no doubt true that, owing to sub- 
 sequent legislation, the gift was somewhat shorn of its 
 fair proportion before it was finally handed over to the 
 State in 1831 ; but in spite of this fact, such was the 
 number of these unclaimed lots, and so great has been 
 their increase in value in certain favored localities, that 
 in St. Louis alone they constitute the bulk of the real 
 estate held by the schools for purposes of revenue, and 
 furnish to-day an income which may be roughly esti- 
 mated at from fifty to sixty thousand dollars per annum. 
 
 For this magnificent gift the people of St. Louis, and 
 of the other villages which shared in the bounty of Con- 
 gress, are indebted to the exertions of Thomas F. Rid- 
 dick, a Virginian by birth, and one of the earliest immi- 
 grants to the territory. He was secretary to the first 
 board of land commissioners, and by virtue of his office 
 became cognizant to the fact that there were in each of 
 the villages in the territory a number of lots for which 
 no legal owners could be found. With rare foresight, 
 he conceived the idea of securing them as the beginning 
 of a fund for the support of common schools, and in ac- 
 cordance with his suggestion the section quoted above, 
 reserving them for this purpose, was inserted in the act, 
 the primary object of which was to quiet land titles. 
 When the proposition came before Congress, such was 
 
LOUISIANA TERRITORY. 115 
 
 his interest in its success that he made the trip from 
 St. Louis to Washington on horseback, and at his own 
 expense, to urge its passage ; and it vyas owing to his 
 exertions and those of Edward Hempstead, who then 
 represented the territory, that it finally became a law. 
 
 The last of the measures to which we find it necessary 
 to refer at this time was the act of Congress of June 
 4, 1812, by which, on the 12th of the December follow- 
 ing, Louisiana was to be advanced from the first to the 
 second grade of territories, and its name changed to 
 Missouri. It was time that this change should come, 
 for the territory had a population of over twenty thou- 
 sand, exclusive of Lidians. This was four times as 
 many as were necessary, under the law for the govern- 
 ment of the Northwest Territory, to entitle them to the 
 promotion, and they had begun to grow restive under a 
 mode of treatment which discriminated unfavorably be- 
 tween them and their neighbors on the other side of 
 the Mississippi. By the terms of this act, the territorial 
 affairs were to be administered by a governor appointed 
 by the President, and a general assembly consisting of 
 a house of representatives elected by the people, and a 
 legislative council of nine members, chosen by the Pres- 
 ident from a list of eighteen returned to him by the ter- 
 ritorial house of representatives. In accordance with 
 this law, Governor Howard issued a proclamation di- 
 viding the territory into five counties instead of districts, 
 as they had hitherto been called, and ordering an elec- 
 tion to be held in the November following for a dele- 
 gate to Congress, and for members of the territorial 
 legislature. It was one of the last of his official acts, 
 for soon after he was appointed a brigadier-general in 
 the army, which position he held with honor to him- 
 
116 MISSOURI. 
 
 self and advantage to the territory until his death in 
 1814. 
 
 After an interregnum of some months, during which 
 the duties of the office were satisfactorily performed by 
 Frederick Bates, the secretary of the territory. Captain 
 William Clark, the worthy companion of Merriwether 
 Lewis in the expedition to the mouth of the Columbia, 
 was appointed governor. It was a fortunate selection 
 in view of the hostile relations that then existed between 
 the whites and the tribes of the Northwest, and it was 
 no doubt his skill in dealing with these people and the 
 influence he had acquired over them that led to his ap- 
 pointment. His administration proved successful, and 
 he was continued in office until 1820, when Missouri be- 
 came a State, though it was a year and more before, she 
 was formally admitted into the Union. At the election 
 which then took place, Alexander McNair was chosen 
 governor, but General Clark, as he was usually called, 
 was still kept at the head of Indian affairs, and it was in 
 this capacity that he negotiated the treaties of 1824-25, 
 by which the Osages, Kickapoos, and Sacs and Foxes, 
 relinquished the lands which they still held within the 
 limits of the State. It was a position for which he was 
 preeminently fitted, for with perhaps the exception of 
 Sir William Johnston, there has never been a white man 
 whose influence among these wild and wayward chil- 
 dren of the forest was comparable with that which he 
 wielded. Up to the day of his death in 1838, he was 
 their tried and trusted friend and counselor ; and but 
 few of them ever came to St. Louis (and in those days 
 such an occurrence was by no means rare) whose first 
 visit was not made to the " Red-head," the name by 
 which he was known among them. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MISSOURI TERRITORY : 1813 TO 1821. 
 
 During the eight years that Governor Clark was at 
 the head of affairs, the territory, in spite of certain 
 drawbacks, made rapid progress in wealth and popula- 
 tion. For a year or two at the outset of his administra- 
 tion, during the continuance of the war with England, 
 the tide of immigration was somewhat interrupted ; but 
 on the return of peace in 1815, it set in afresh and with 
 increased force. In fact, so great was the rush from 
 Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas that 
 the " Missouri Gazette " of October 26, 1816, was 
 moved to exclaim that " a stranger witnessing the scene 
 would imagine that those States had made an agree- 
 ment to introduce the territory as soon as possible into 
 the bosom of the American family." As many as one 
 hundred persons are said to have passed through St. 
 Charles in one day " on their way to Boone's lick. Salt 
 River, or some other region which for the time being 
 was the centre of attraction ; " and this rate was kept 
 up for many days together." Many of these " movers " 
 brought with them a hundred head of cattle, besides 
 horses, hogs, and sheep, and from three to twenty slaves. 
 The few rude ferries that were then in existence on the 
 Mississippi were kept busy crossing them. 
 
 As one of these long trains moved slowly through the 
 woods or over the prairie, the huge wagons drawn by 
 
118 MISSOURI. 
 
 four or six horses and loaded down with the household 
 goods or "plunder," as it was called, of the family ; the 
 cattle with their hundred bells ; the negroes, who, we 
 are told " seem fond of their masters," and are quite as 
 much delighted and interested in the migration ; and, 
 finally, the mistress and her children strolling leisurely 
 by the side of the heavily laden teams, " often stretch 
 for three quarters of a mile or more along the road, 
 and present a scene which is at once pleasing and patri- 
 archal." As night comes on, the band halts near some 
 creek or spring where there is a supply of wood and 
 water. " The pack of dogs sets up a cheerful barking. 
 The cattle lie down and ruminate. The huge wagons 
 are covered so that the roof completely excludes the 
 rain. The cooking utensils are brought out. The 
 blacks prepare a supper which the toils of the day ren- 
 der delicious ; and they talk over the adventures of 
 the past day, and the prospects of the next." Mean- 
 time they are going where the land is inexhaustibly fer- 
 tile, and " where there is nothing but buffaloes and deer 
 to limit the range even to the western sea." Well might 
 the worthy preacher, in view of such a picture, exclaim 
 that " it carried him back to the days of other years 
 and to the pastoral pursuits of those ancient races, 
 whose home was in a tent wherever their flocks found 
 range." ^ 
 
 When the immigrant arrived at his journey's end, his 
 first business was to look out a suitable spot where he 
 might open a farm and once more set up his household 
 gods. This was not always an easy matter, especially 
 if he were going to an unknown region or among stran- 
 gers, for speculators beset his path at every turn and 
 1 Flint's Becollections, p. 202. 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 119 
 
 confused him with glowing accounts of their own lands, 
 whilst, at the same time, they decried the possessions of 
 their rivals by all the arts known to the profession. 
 Amid such a conflict of opinions, and in view of the di- 
 versity of claims founded, some upon settlement and 
 improvement rights, others upon Spanish or New Mad- 
 rid grants, some of which had been confirmed, whilst 
 others had not, it was often a difficult matter to decide ; 
 but when, at last, a choice was made, the necessary log- 
 cabins were soon raised, the neighbors all joining in and 
 helping on the work. A field of suitable size was cleared 
 and fenced after the Virginia fashion, and at the proper 
 season a crop was " pitched." In due time it was har- 
 vested, and ever after the Missouri farmer, with a mod- 
 erate force, if gifted with health and possessed of a fair 
 share of industry, was sure of food, shelter, and clothing, 
 and was thus " as independent as it was fit that a man 
 should ever get to be." 
 
 It is true that, owing to their abundance, farm prod- 
 ucts were often in but little demand, and that hence 
 money was scarce and but little of it ever found its way 
 into his possession ; but, on the other hand, it may be 
 urged that except for the purchase of 'the necessary farm- 
 ing implements or in the payment of his taxes, he had 
 but little use for it, as the necessaries of life and many of 
 its luxuries were within his reach without the expendi- 
 ture of a dollar in cash. Thus, for example, the ma- 
 terials for his clothing were grown in his own fields or 
 sheared from his flocks, and their preparation and man- 
 ufacture were among the duties that devolved upon the 
 women of the family ; his cabin of logs, rude at first and 
 soon replaced by the more ambitious frame house, gave 
 him shelter ; while the woods and streams, his fields, 
 
120 MISSOURI. 
 
 flocks, and well-filled " truck patch " or vegetable garden, 
 all contributed to furnish forth a table that was as abun- 
 dant as it was varied. 
 
 Of foreign wines and brandies he, of course, had none ; 
 but in a few years, when his orchard came into bear- 
 ing, he had an abundance of cider, and if with increasing 
 years he felt the need of a more potent stimulant, he was 
 at liberty to convert the nutritious corn or the fragrant 
 peach into the most seductive of liquors, without the 
 fear of a visit from the tax-gatherer. Tea and coffee, 
 too, were at times a recollection rather than a reality, 
 and here, it must be confessed that the ingenuity of the 
 housewife was at fault, as sassafras and rye furnished but 
 poor substitutes for these well-nigh indispensable articles. 
 However, he had an abundance of milk, or if he did not, 
 it was generally his own fault ; and with a plentiful supply 
 of maple syrup and honey, known as " long sweetening," 
 he had no reason to complain of the absence of foreign 
 sugar. 
 
 Being thus relieved from the dread of poverty, the 
 economic restrictions upon marriage that prevail in old 
 communities had no existence among them, and a pru- 
 dent father might reasonably expect to see his children 
 comfortably settled about him, in homes of their own, 
 long before his own days of usefulness were over. Land 
 was cheap, and in two years an active, energetic young 
 man might, by his own exertions, open a farm and be in 
 a condition to support a wife and children. After this, 
 the necessity for persistent, exhaustive labor would not 
 be so great, as it was " calculated " that two days' work 
 in Missouri would contribute as much to the support of 
 a family as the labor of a week would do in the North. 
 In good time the miller, the blacksmith, and the country 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 121 
 
 storekeeper would be attracted to the settlement, and 
 soon the school, the church, and the post-office would 
 follow. At this stage of progress the community would 
 contain within itself the nucleus of the coming village 
 and be virtually self-supporting. Soon there would arise 
 the need of something more regular and authoritative 
 than neighborhood law or custom, powerful as that was 
 in newly-settled districts ; and steps would be taken for 
 the establishment of courts and the enforcement of their 
 decrees. At first the little community would be attached 
 to the nearest county or judicial circuit, with the seat of 
 justice perhaps a hundred miles away, but this was a 
 mere temporary expedient ; and when, sooner or later, 
 the requisite population was attained, a suitable extent 
 of territory would be cut off and erected into a county, 
 with judges, representatives, and all the other officers 
 necessary to a separate political life. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the process by which neighbor- 
 hoods grew, and ultimately became welded into counties ; 
 and some idea of the rate at which this was going on 
 within the territory may be formed from the fact that, 
 between 1812 and 1820, the counties had increased from 
 five to fifteen, and the population, exclusive of Arkansas, 
 which in 1810 amounted to twenty thousand souls, now 
 numbered over sixty-six thousand, of whom about ten 
 thousand were slaves. 
 
 Of this increase, amounting in the ten years to over 
 two hundred per cent., a large majority were farmers, 
 and the gain in population, therefore, was chiefly in the 
 agricultural regions, though the villages also felt the im- 
 pulse and shared in the general prosperity. Especially 
 was this true of St. Louis, which, owing to its advanta- 
 geous situation, and to the fact that it was the political 
 
122 MISSOURI. 
 
 capital of the territory as well as the depot for the pur- 
 chase and distribution of supplies for the different mili- 
 tary and trading-posts on the upper rivers, soon acquired 
 a lead which it has ever since retained. In 1804, at the 
 time of the purchase, there were in the village one hun- 
 dred and eighty houses, consisting ordinarily of but one 
 room, and built after the French fashion, which differed 
 from the American in the fact that the logs, instead of 
 being laid horizontally, were set upright in the ground, 
 or upon plates, and were then connected by cross-pieces, 
 the interstices in each case being filled in with stones 
 and mud. A few of these houses, as for instance those 
 of the Chouteaus and the government buildings, were of 
 stones laid rough cast and coated with mortar ; and as 
 they were " inclosed with massive stone walls like a 
 demi-fortress," they may well have been regarded as 
 palaces when compared with the more humble dwellings 
 by which they were surrounded. All, however, were 
 alike in having porches on one or more sides ; and as 
 they were all whitewashed and usually stood in gardens, 
 surrounded by fruit-trees, they appeared beautiful when 
 seen from a distance, though most of them " were mean 
 and comfortless when contemplated near at hand." 
 
 As soon as the United States came into possession of 
 all this region, " the influence of the guardian spirit of 
 liberty," whatever that may mean, is said to have made 
 itself felt, and the place rapidly lost the distinctive fea- 
 tures of a French village. In 1809 it was incorporated 
 as a town, and before the close of the second decade of 
 the century there arose " lines of brick houses that would 
 not have disgraced Philadelphia." By actual count it 
 was found that in the spring of 1821 there were two 
 hundred and thirty-two dwelling-houses of brick and 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 123 
 
 stone in the village as against four hundred and nine- 
 teen of wood, to say nothing of warehouses, stables, 
 shops, and outbuildings. Land, too, had increased enor- 
 mously in value, and a few of the old French settlers, 
 hostile as they were at first to the new regime, by pru- 
 dently investing their savings in this form of property, 
 had reaped the benefit of the advance, and were com- 
 paratively rich. 
 
 To facilitate intercourse between different parts of the 
 territory, roads were cut out ; post-ofiices, too, were es- 
 tablished, and routes opened between the different vil- 
 lages and the east, though it was many years before the 
 arrival and departure of the mails became either frequent 
 or regular. In July, 1808, a newspaper was established, 
 which under different names has continued down to the 
 present time, and is now known as the " Missouri Repub- 
 lican." It was the first paper published west of the Mis- 
 sissippi River, but not the first in Louisiana, as one had 
 been issued in New Orleans as early as 1794, while the 
 Spaniards were yet in possession of that portion of the 
 valley. 
 
 A few good private libraries seem to have existed in 
 the territory from the earliest times, notably that of 
 Colonel Auguste Chouteau, which is said to have been 
 strong in works relating to the early history of America, 
 and was probably made up of books sent from France 
 for the Jesuit College at Kaskaskia. It was not much 
 used, if we may credit contemporary evidence ; and for 
 some years after the purchase, but few new books were 
 brought into the territory. To this rule, though, there 
 must have been some honorable exceptions, as the li- 
 brary of Mr. Secretary, Frederick Bates is spoken of 
 with commendation, and in 1820 Bishop Dubourg is cred- 
 
124 MISSOURI. 
 
 ited with having gathered together some eight thousand 
 volumes. Besides this hbrary, he had secured for the 
 new cathedral, which was then in course of erection, a 
 " collection of sacred vases, ornaments, embroideries, 
 and paintings " that is said to have been without a rival 
 in the United States. Among the paintings there were, 
 so we are told, " originals by Raphael, Rubens, Guido, 
 Paul Veronese, as well as by the modern masters of the 
 Italian, French, and Flemish schools." It was also dur- 
 ing this period that Governor Clark made a collection 
 illustrative of the arts and industries of the Indians, 
 which was open to«tlie public, and which, to-day, would 
 be of incalculable value to the ethnologist. 
 
 Limited as was the supply of reading matter, it was 
 fully equal to the demand, for among the old French 
 settlers there was a large proportion who could not read, 
 and the new-comers were so busy making farms, specu- 
 lating in lands, and otherwise providing for their tem- 
 poral wants, that they had no time to indulge in the 
 luxury of reading. But while they were thus careless 
 of their own literary improvement, they were by no 
 means neglectful of the education of their children. 
 Upon this point they displayed a commendable anxiety, 
 and there were but few settlements in the territory so 
 insignificant that they did not have, during some part of 
 the year, a school, in which reading, writing, and a little 
 arithmetic were taught. A lady who had resided two 
 years at Fort Osage, some two hundred miles up the 
 Missouri River, told Brackenridge " that descending the 
 river on her return from that place, she had observed on 
 the very spot, where on ascending she had seen a herd 
 of deer, several children with books in their hands, re- 
 turning from school." The settlement, it is added, had 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 125 
 
 been formed, and the school opened, during the two years 
 that she had lived at the fort. 
 
 According to the same writer there were in 1811 two 
 schools in St. Louis, one English and one French ; and 
 from other sources we learn that the former was " kept " 
 by George Tompkins, who afterwards became chief jus- 
 tice of the State, and the latter by Jean Baptiste Tru- 
 deau, whose career as a teacher, extending from 1774 
 to about 1825, covers a period of fifty years. Although 
 only two are mentioned, yet there must have been others, 
 as it was about this time that the " Missouri Gazette " 
 contained the advertisement of the erratic C. F. Schewe, 
 a graduate of the College of Berlin and of the Saxony 
 School of Mines, who seems to have divided his time 
 between teaching French and German and " moulding 
 candles out of deer's tallow." There were also Lancas- 
 trian schools, Pestalozzi establishments, and institutions 
 for ^^instruction mutuelle.'" Hebrew was taught in 
 twelve lessons, and Latin and Greek with equal dis- 
 patch, by professors whose knowledge of even their own 
 mother tongue was exceedingly limited. Dancing, es- 
 pecially the waltz, — then just introduced, — fencing 
 and music (the piano and clarinet) were also taught ; 
 and in a young ladies' academy, in addition to French 
 and English grammar, geography, and arithmetic, the 
 pupils were instructed in sewing and embroidery, and 
 " their minds were enlightened and their hearts formed 
 by a course of select reading either in ancient or modern 
 history or morality." 
 
 Of course these were all private institutions, as was 
 the college founded by Bishop Dubourg, from which 
 the St. Louis University may be said to have sprung. 
 As yet there was no such thing in the territory as a 
 
126 MISSOURI. 
 
 public school. Not until 1838, and after much tribula- 
 tion, was one opened in St. Louis, though in 1817 the 
 first step was taken towards organizing the system which 
 has since grown into such magnificent proportions, by 
 incorporating a board of trustees, whose duty it was to 
 superintend the schools of that town. 
 
 In 1811, at the time of Brackenridge's visit, the popu- 
 lation of St. Louis amounted to about fourteen hundred, 
 and was composed of Canadian French, a few Spaniards 
 and other Europeans, with a somewhat larger propor- 
 tion of Americans, to which may be added a slight 
 sprinkling of Indians, half-breeds, and negro slaves. It 
 was a motley crowd, and they differed among themselves 
 as much in appearance, character, and occupation, as 
 they did in nationality. Here might be seen the French 
 paysan and the American farmer who was destined so 
 soon to supersede him ; the boisterous, bragging, fight- 
 ing boatman of the lower Mississippi and the gay, good- 
 humored voyageuT from Canada and the upper rivers. 
 "Vagrant Indians still loitered along the streets, and 
 now and then a stark Kentucky hunter," — the veritable 
 gamecock of the wilderness, — " with rifle on shoulder 
 and knife in belt, strode al4)ng. Here and there were 
 new houses and shops just set up by bustling, driving, 
 and eager men of traffic from the Atlantic States ; while, 
 on the other hand, the old French mansions with open 
 casements still retained the easy, indolent air of the 
 original colonists ; and now and then the scraping of a 
 fiddle, or strain of an ancient French song, or sound of 
 billiard balls showed that the happy Gallic turn for 
 gayety and amusement still lingered about the place." 
 In appearance the town is said to have been less like 
 a rural village than Ste. Genevieve or any of the other 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 127 
 
 French settlements, as the inhabitants depended upon 
 trade for their support rather than upon agriculture. 
 Indeed, it was owing to this fact, and to the scarcity 
 which, in early times, it had sometimes occasioned, that 
 St. Louis was derisively styled by its more fortunate 
 neighbors Pain court, or " short loaf," as it may be 
 roughly translated. We are also told that the town 
 contained " twelve mercantile stores," and that the value 
 of its imports amounted to two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars per annum, which amount probably 
 represents rather more than half the cost of all the 
 goods annually brought into the territory. Except the 
 sixty thousand dollars which the troops stationed at 
 Belle Fontaine, near St. Louis, yearly put in circulation, 
 almost all the rest of the domestic trade of this region 
 was still carried on by barter. Lead and its product in 
 the shape of shot, and peltry were most in demand, for 
 the reason that, practically they were monopolies, and 
 besides furnishing a recognized currency for the country, 
 they were the two articles most eagerly sought after for 
 shipment, as, no matter what the condition of the mar- 
 ket in New Orleans or the Atlantic cities in regard to 
 the other products of the territory, they always com- 
 manded a ready sale at fair prices. 
 
 Of the former of these articles, it was estimated that 
 the Maramec mines alone produced, annually, one mill- 
 ion five hundred thousand pounds, and " gave employ- 
 ment to three hundred and fifty hands, exclusive of 
 smelters, blacksmiths, and others." The Dubuque mines 
 were not worked at this time, but those on the opposite 
 side of the river, near Prairie du Chien, were ; and it 
 may, perhaps, interest those of us who are concerned 
 about the future of the Indians to know that, in 1811, 
 
128 MISSOURI. 
 
 the Sacs and Foxes, who still held the region where 
 these " diggings " were situated, " having no other in- 
 strument but the hoe," made five hundred thousand 
 pounds of lead, which they sold to the traders, and which 
 ultimately found its way down the river. A fair share of 
 the lead produced in the territory was cast into shot, a 
 tower for that purpose having been erected on a river 
 bluff between Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, as early as 
 1809, by J. Maklot, who seems to have been the pioneer 
 in this business. His shot is said to have equaled the 
 best English patent ; and in the newspaper of that day 
 the opinion is expressed that he would " be able to supply 
 the Atlantic States on such terms as would defeat com- 
 petition." 
 
 The fur-trade, too, which, as we have seen, amounted 
 in 1804 to two hundred thousand dollars per annum, 
 was prosecuted with much vigor, though there is reason 
 to believe that it was hardly as profitable as it had once 
 been, and that its increase had not been commensurate 
 with the growth of the commerce of the territory in other 
 respects. In 1807-8, one year after the return of Lewis 
 and Clark from their journey to the mouth of the Col- 
 umbia River, Manuel Lisa, an experienced Indian trader, 
 and one " who had few equals in perseverance and in- 
 dustry," wintered on the Yellowstone at the mouth of 
 the Big Horn. The next year, a company with a capi- 
 tal of forty thousand dollars was formed for the purpose 
 of " monopolizing," as it was said, " the trade of the 
 tribes of the lower Missouri, who understand the art of 
 trapping, and of sending a party to the head waters of 
 that stream, strong enough to defend itself in case of 
 necessity, and which should engage, practically, in the 
 work of taking beaver and other skins." This was a 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 129 
 
 decided innovation, or rather an improvement, for hith- 
 erto this branch of the business had been left almost 
 altogether to the Indians, the trader being obliged to 
 take the furs as they were brought to him, or to go with- 
 out. Of course, so long as this was the case, there was 
 always an element of risk growing out of the competition 
 of the traders, and the irregular and uncertain habits of 
 the Indians ; and it was to remedy this evil that the 
 company proposed to employ white men, regularly, in 
 the work of hunting and trapping, thereby giving to 
 these pursuits a degree of stability which, thus far, they 
 had not possessed. Accordingly, in 1809, Mr. Henry, 
 one of the partners, started up the Missouri River at the 
 head of two hundred and fifty men, and after establish- 
 ing small trading-posts among the Sioux, the Arickaras, 
 Mandans, and other tribes, he proceded to the three forks 
 of the river, where he built a fort, and began at once 
 the business of hunting and trapping as well as trading. 
 It was a magnificent scheme, and one which promised a 
 large measure of success, but unfortunately for the com- 
 pany, all their plans miscarried ; and after a series of 
 unforeseen misfortunes, the partnership was dissolved at 
 the end of the time for which it had been formed. In 
 spite of this apparent failure, the company, thanks to the 
 energy of Lisa, saved its original investment, and began 
 life afresh with a slightly increased capital. It met 
 with no better success, however, and after a precarious 
 existence of a few years, it gave way, in 1819, to still 
 another, the third company, which is said to have bought 
 it out for ten thousand dollars. At this time, if we may 
 credit the report of Major Biddle, the whole amount 
 of capital embarked in the fur-trade of the Missouri 
 amounted to barely fifty-three thousand dollars, seven- 
 
130 MISSOURI. 
 
 teen thousand of which, including the plant, belonged 
 to the company, whilst the rest was owned by a number 
 of individuals, among whom the Chouteaus were prom- 
 inent. From these figures it is evident that the trade 
 had not made any great increase, for even if a possible 
 profit of five hundred per cent, be allowed, it would only 
 carry the total to about three hundred thousand dollars ; 
 and it is probable that this amount would cover, not 
 only the receipts from the Missouri, but those from all 
 other sources. 
 
 To carry on this commerce, and transport the farm 
 products, live stock, etc., that were annually sent down 
 the river, various kinds of craft, as for instance the keel- 
 boat, the barge, and the flatboat or " broad horn," were 
 called into requisition. Of these, the two first mentioned 
 were the most important, though not, perhaps, the most 
 numerous, as they could be used for a return trip, whilst 
 the flatboat could not, and was, therefore, broken up and 
 sold at the end of the voyage. 
 
 Some of these boats were of good size, carried as much 
 as forty or fifty tons, and were owned and run by men 
 who acted as " patrons " or captains, and who made the 
 transportation of freight and passengers a regular busi- 
 ness. In manning them it was the custom to proportion 
 the number of the crew to the size of the cargo, one 
 hand being allowed for every three thousand pounds. 
 A trip from St. Louis to New Orleans and back usually 
 occupied from four to six months, the upward voyage 
 being especially long, laborious, and by no means free 
 from danger. Even with the aid of sails and oars, it 
 could not be made in less than an average of ninety 
 days. Besides these means of propulsion, the crew were 
 often obliged to resort to " warping, cordclling, poling," 
 
MI8S0URI TERRITORY. 131 
 
 and, when the occasion offered, to a process known as 
 " bushwhacking," or pulling the boat forward by means 
 of the bushes and willows that grew along the shore. It 
 was a hard life, full of toil and danger, and developed a 
 class of men each one of whom, in the vernacular of the 
 river, claimed to be " half a horse and half an alligator." 
 
 In truth, they were a wild and reckless set, ever ready 
 for a fight or a frolic ; but to their credit be it spoken 
 they were honest and true and patient after their fashion 
 under labors and privations that would have daunted 
 less resolute spirits. The best man in every crew was 
 entitled to wear a feather or some other emblem as a 
 challenge, which he was bound to make good against all 
 comers ; and the worthy Mr. Flint, on the occasion of 
 his first visit to St. Louis, was surprised to learn that the 
 term " best " had no reference to the moral qualities of 
 the possessor, but that it meant " he who had beaten, or, 
 in the Kentucky phrase, had whipped all the rest." 
 
 Such were the men and the methods employed in car- 
 rying on the commerce of the valley when, in December, 
 1811, the New Orleans, the first steamboat built west 
 of the Alleghany Mountains, made the trip from Pitts- 
 burgh to New Orleans, and thus settled at once and for- 
 ever the question of the use of steam as a motive power 
 upon the Western waters. Although the career of this 
 vessel was very short, yet so satisfied were the people of 
 the Ohio valley with the result of the experiment, that 
 they went into the business of boat-building with an 
 energy that must have savored of recklessness to any 
 one not acquainted with the volume of trade that annu- 
 ally floated down the Mississippi. In the eight years 
 that intervened between 1811 and 1819, sixty-three 
 steamers, varying in capacity from twenty to some hun- 
 
132 MISSOURI. 
 
 dreds of tons, were constructed and running upon the 
 Western rivers, and of these fifty-six were built on 
 the Ohio, four at New Orleans, and one each at Phila- 
 delphia, New York, and Providence, R. I. 
 
 Rapid as was the increase in the number, size, and 
 speed of these vessels, at first and for several years they 
 found employment only on the Ohio and the lower Mis- 
 sissippi, and it was not until the 2d of August, 1817, that 
 the General Pike, Jacob Read master, the first steam- 
 boat that ever ascended the Mississippi above the mouth 
 of the Ohio, arrived at St. Louis. 
 
 From the description that has come down to us, she 
 must have been an ungainly sort of craft, with a hold 
 constructed on the model of a barge, and a cabin situ- 
 ated on the lower deck inside of the " running boards.'* 
 She had no wheel-houses and but one smoke-stack. 
 The motive power was furnished by a low-pressure en- 
 gine, reinforced occasionally by the exertions of the 
 crew, who pushed the boat along with poles much as 
 they had been accustomed to do with barges. She did 
 not run at night, and this may partially account for the 
 length of time she was on the way. In the course of 
 the next few months she made other trips to and from 
 Louisville, and in much better time. In October of the 
 same year, another steamer, the Constitution, also 
 reached St. Louis. During the ensuing season of 1818, 
 these arrivals and dej)artures were more numerous, 
 some of them from New Orleans, and the sight of a 
 steamboat soon became so common as no longer to ex- 
 cite the curiosity of the dwellers on the banks of the Mis- 
 sissippi. As yet no attempt had been made to ascend 
 the Missouri, and such was the swiftness of that stream 
 that the result of an effort to stem its mighty current 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 133 
 
 was awaited with some anxiety, not to say doubt. At 
 length the feat was accompHshed ; and the return in 
 June, 1819, of the Independence, Captain Nelson, from 
 Old Franklin, a town situated about one hundred and 
 fifty miles up the river and long since washed away, led 
 to an outburst in the " Missouri Gazette," in which it was 
 said : " The Missouri has hitherto resisted almost effectu- 
 ally all attempts at navigation ; she has opposed every 
 obstacle she could to the tide of emigration which was 
 rolling up her banks and dispossessing her dear red chil- 
 dren, but her white children, although children by adop- 
 tion, have become so numerous, and are increasing so 
 rapidly, that she is at last obliged to yield them her 
 favor. The first attempt to ascend her by steamboat 
 has succeeded, and we anticipate the day as speedy, 
 when the Missouri will be as familiar to steamboats as 
 the Mississippi or Ohio." 
 
 With the gradual increase in population and the con- 
 sequent growth in the agriculture, commerce, and other 
 material interests of the territory, the necessity for a 
 better system of currency became daily more apparent. 
 Lead, peltry, and tobacco, which had furnished the prin- 
 cipal mediums of exchange during the days of the Span- 
 ish regime, and useful as they still were in the way of 
 barter, were no longer adequate to the demands made 
 upon them, though as late as the winter of 1807 transac- 
 tions were made upon the basis of a payment in furs. 
 Even the supply of small change was totally insufficient, 
 and Spanish dollars cut up into halves, quarters, and 
 eighths or "bits" were made to do duty in this respect. 
 For any less amount, pins, needles, sheets of writing- 
 paper, and other articles of small value were used. 
 
 To remedy this evil, the territorial legislature char- 
 
134 MISSOURI. 
 
 tered the Bank of St. Louis, which went into operation 
 in the summer of 1816, and in the following year the 
 Bank of Missouri, with a capital of two hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars, was also organized. A partial 
 list of the stockholders of this latter concern is pre- 
 served, and it is of interest as showing the part which 
 the French element of the population still played in the 
 monetary affairs of the territory. Out of seven hun- 
 dred and eighty shares held in the city of St. Louis, two 
 hundred and seventy-six belonged to persons who were 
 unmistakably French, or of French descent ; and among 
 them we recognize the name of Charles Dehault Delas- 
 sus as a subscriber for five shares. 
 
 For a time the community felt the benefit of these 
 institutions, and the volume of business was increased 
 by the flood of money which they poured into the chan- 
 nels of trade. The merchants not only imported more 
 largely of goods and wares, but the spirit of speculation 
 in land, which was already rife, received additional 
 momentum. The people of the territory, one and all, 
 appeared to be possessed with a mania for it. No claim 
 was so indefinite, no title so uncertain, and no piece of 
 property so shadowy, as not to find a purchaser. A 
 tract of land, the only description of which was that it 
 was situated thirty miles north of St. Louis, was put up 
 at auction and actually bid off. Sometimes the same 
 tract was offered by two or three claimants, and on one 
 occasion the whole county of St. Charles, containing 
 several thousand inhabitants, was sold for thirteen hun- 
 dred dollars under a grant that had never been con- 
 firmed. The immigrants, who were pouring into the ter- 
 ritory in such a continuous stream, were possessed by the 
 usual Anglo-Saxon land-hunger, and bought, or " took 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 135 
 
 up," more than they needed or could pay cash for, trust- 
 ing to the future to be able to sell out at a profit and in 
 time to meet their engagements. At this period, govern- 
 ment lands were sold at two dollars per acre, one fourth 
 cash and the balance in two, three, and four years, so that 
 to enter a quarter section of one hundred and sixty acres 
 required only a cash payment of eighty dollars. This 
 was a temptation too strong to be resisted by the average 
 immigrant, and consequently we are told that, for every 
 eighty dollars brought into the territory, a quarter sec- 
 tion was taken up, upon which two hundred and forty 
 dollars, three fourths of the purchase money, was un- 
 paid. The dealings with the stores, too, were largely 
 increased, and were also upon credit, for with money in 
 abundance, the merchant could afford to be liberal, and 
 customers bought recklessly, as " every one expected to 
 get rich out of the future emigrant. The speculator 
 was to sell him houses and lands, and the farmer was to 
 sell him everything he wanted to begin with and to live 
 upon until he could supply himself. Towns were laid 
 out all over the country, and lots were purchased by 
 every one on credit ; the town-maker received no money 
 for his lots, but he received notes of hand which he con- 
 sidered to be as good as cash ; and he lived and em- 
 barked in other ventures as if they had been cash in 
 truth." 
 
 In this way the year 1818 found almost everybody 
 in debt, but this made no difference as long as immi- 
 grants continued to arrive, and bank-notes, good, bad, 
 and indifferent, circulated freely and without question. 
 But when about 1819 settling day rolled around, and 
 the stringency in the Eastern money market prevented 
 the people who were desirous of immigrating from sell- 
 
136 MISSOURI. 
 
 ing their lands, the flow of Eastern capital westward 
 was checked, and as a consequence the local institutions 
 were unable to respond to the demands made upon them 
 by the United States Bank for specie, and were forced 
 into suspension or hopeless bankruptcy. 
 
 The merchants, feeling the pressure, called for a set- 
 tlement of their outstanding claims, but in vain. Bank- 
 notes had driven out the specie, and as they were now 
 worthless, there was no longer any money in the coun- 
 try with which to make payment. Farm products, it 
 is true, were abundant, but they were unsalable. So, 
 also, was real estate ; and then was presented the sin- 
 gular spectacle of a people living in the midst of a 
 rude plenty, who were practically without a circulating 
 medium. They did not even have the means to pay 
 their taxes ; and those of them who were so unfortunate 
 as to owe a balance on their farms, be it ever so small, 
 saw no way of saving them from forfeiture. At this 
 stage of the crisis the general government came to the 
 rescue, and devised " a system of relief which, by extend- 
 ing the time of payment, and authorizing purchasers to 
 secure a portion of their lands by relinquishing the re- 
 mainder to the government, in the course of eight years 
 extinguished a large portion of those debts, and eventu- 
 ally . . . absorbed the whole without injury to the citi- 
 zen, and with little loss to the government." The legis- 
 lature, too, that had been called into existence by the 
 enabling act of 1820, not to be behindhand in the work 
 of relief, passed stay laws, and endeavored to accomplish 
 the impossible feat of paying something with nothing. 
 Among the other measures to which they resorted was 
 the issue, in sums varying from fifty cents to ten dollars, 
 of some two hundred thousand dollars' worth of certifi- 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 137 
 
 cates, which were predicated upon the credit of the State, 
 and were to be loaned by commissioners, appointed for 
 the purpose, to the citizens of the several " loan dis- 
 tricts," upon certain conditions. These certificates were 
 made receivable "not only for taxes and debts of what- 
 ever kind due the State, but for the salaries and fees of 
 all officers, civil and military, and in payment of salt 
 sold by the lessees of Salt Springs." 
 
 Owing to losses sustained by reason of insufficient se- 
 curity, and to the adverse decision of the courts as to 
 the constitutionality of the act under which they were 
 issued, these certificates were discredited almost as soon 
 as they were put in circulation ; and when they ceased 
 to pass current, the holders of them were in a worse con- 
 dition than they were before. Probably in no part of 
 the West was the scarcity of money and the consequent 
 derangement of business more keenly felt than in Mis- 
 souri. Her people had been so generally engaged in 
 speculative enterprises, and had so uniformly conducted 
 their affairs upon a basis of credit, that the process of 
 liquidation was severe, and that of recujDeration slow. 
 
 But whilst the closing years of this second decade of 
 the century were a season of trial, the people of the ter- 
 ritory, engrossed though they must have been with their 
 private troubles, yet found time to devote to political 
 affairs, and to securing for Missouri the position to which 
 her population entitled her. By an act approved in 
 April, 1816, she had been advanced to the third or 
 highest grade of territorial government, and during the 
 session of the legislature which met in November, 1818, 
 and whilst the first mutterings of the financial storm 
 which soon spread over the whole country were but 
 faintly heard in the distance, application was made to 
 
138 MISSOURI. 
 
 Congress for authority to frame a constitution and es- 
 tablish a state government. 
 
 A bill to effect this purpose was at once introduced 
 into the House, and in February, 1819, it came up for 
 consideration. J Mr. Tallmadge, of New York, then of- 
 fered an amendment, making it a condition precedent to 
 admission " that the further introduction of slavery or 
 involuntary servitude shall be prohibited, except for the 
 punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been 
 fully convicted ; and that all children born within the 
 State after the admission thereof shall be free at the age 
 of twenty -five years." This amendment, in so far as it 
 *' restricted " their freedom of action, was exceedingly 
 objectionable to the people of Missouri, and it also gave 
 rise to a long and acrimonious debate in Congress, which 
 convulsed the whole country and threatened the stability 
 of the Union itself. Ostensibly, it was a protest in the 
 interest of morality against the evil of slavery, and an 
 effort to legislate it out of territory where it lawfully 
 existed ; but in reality it was, as Rufus King frankly 
 admitted, a struggle for political power, and it did not 
 differ from that which had taken place in 1803, when the 
 treaty for the purchase of Louisiana was under consider- 
 ation, except in being aligned upon a different issue. The 
 admission of Alabama in 1819 and the organization of 
 the territory of Arkansas in the year following, without 
 any restriction as to slavery and whilst the Missouri 
 question was still pending, to say nothing of the addition 
 to Missouri in 1836 of the Platte Purchase, — a territory 
 larger than some of the States, — indicate very clearly 
 that hostility to slavery was not at all times the control- 
 ling motive of all of those who sought to prevent the 
 increase of slave States. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 
 
 To understand the condition of affairs that prevailed 
 at Washington at this time, it is necessary to bear in 
 mind that when the fifteenth Congress assembled, in 
 December, 1817, the free States, as we shall call them, 
 had acquired a large and constantly increasing prepon- 
 derance in the House of Representatives, whilst in the 
 Senate, with its representation based on States, not on 
 population, the inequality was not so great ; and when 
 Congress met in this year there were in the Union ten 
 free and nine slave States, counting Delaware among the 
 latter. Early in the session Mississippi was admitted, 
 and in December, 1818, a year later, Illinois, a free State, 
 was brought in, thus preserving the proportion between 
 the two sections as it had existed at the time of the adop- 
 tion of the Constitution, and as it had hitherto been main- 
 tained. So far all had gone well, notwithstanding the 
 delay that attended the admission of Kentucky, and it is 
 possible that if the same rate of increase could have been 
 kept up on both sides, the angry controversy which took 
 place at this time and the ill-feeling which it engendered 
 might have been indefinitely postponed. Such, however, 
 was not the case. For reasons that seem to be inherent in 
 the system of slavery the South spread territorially more 
 rapidly than the North, and in the session of 1818-19, 
 — the second of this Congress, — Alabama and Missouri, 
 
140 MISSOURI. 
 
 two slave territories, applied for authority to frame con- 
 stitutions, preparatory to their admission into the Union. 
 This of course precipitated the issue as to the balance of 
 power ; for, obviously, if these two applicants were to be 
 brought into the Union with slavery, as in all probability 
 they would elect to be, the proportion hitherto existing 
 between the free and slave States would be destroyed, 
 and the preponderance of power in the Senate would be 
 handed over to the South. This the representatives from 
 the North were determined to prevent, and to this end it 
 was necessary either to defeat the admission of one of 
 these territories, or to bring it in as a free State. 
 
 So far as Alabama was concerned, Georgia, when 
 ceding the territory out of which that State was subse- 
 quently carved, had made certain stipulations in regard 
 to slavery which were regarded as deciding, in the 
 affirmative, the question of the existence of this form 
 of labor in all that region. At all events, for this or 
 some other equally good reason, there was no attempt 
 made at Washington to dictate a constitution to the 
 people of Alabama, and they were left free to come into 
 the Union with or without slavery, as to them might 
 seem best. To an unprejudiced mind, this appears to 
 have been a just and fair method of settling the matter, 
 or rather of letting it settle itself ; and as it had worked 
 well in the case of Louisiana, it is difficult to under- 
 stand why the same rule should not have been applied 
 to Missouri, save on the theory that the balance of power 
 required that if she were to come into the Union at this 
 time, it must be as a free State. On no other ground can 
 the action of Congress be explained and justified. The 
 article in the Louisiana treaty which guaranteed to the 
 people of that territory the possession of their property 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 141 
 
 including slaves, was certainly as sacred as was the 
 clause in the Georgia deed of cession which is assumed 
 to have legalized slavery in Alabama. So far, too, as 
 the action of Congress could give them validity these 
 two instruments stood upon an equal footing ; for both 
 had been reaffirmed, the one by the admission of Louis- 
 iana, and the other by that of Mississippi. In fact, the 
 two cases are believed to be strictly analogous and were 
 therefore equally binding. If, then, Congress had the 
 power to forbid slavery in Missouri, it had the power to 
 prohibit it in Alabama ; and it was clearly the duty of 
 those who favored the Missouri "restriction," if they 
 believed slavery to be the great evil which they said 
 they did, to have insisted upon doing so, even though 
 it involved them in as utter disregard for the Georgia 
 deed of cession as they subsequently showed for the 
 Louisiana treaty. Such, however, does not appear to 
 have been their opinion, for in December, 1819, Alabama 
 was received into the Union with slavery, and without 
 any serious opposition on their part, at the very time 
 that they were insisting most strenuously upon forcing 
 the people of Missouri to adopt a clause in their con- 
 stitution which should put an end to slavery, under 
 penalty of being refused admission into the sisterhood 
 of States. 
 
 Out of this measure, as formulated in the amendment 
 of Mr. Tallmadge, of New York, sprung up a debate, in 
 which, for the first time, parties were divided by a geo- 
 graphical line, and in which hot words and threats were 
 bandied to and fro with a frequency and freedom that 
 showed how deep and determined was the feeling that 
 underlaid the struggle. On the part of those who op- 
 posed the imposition of this " restriction," as it was 
 
1J:2 MISSOURI. 
 
 called, upon the people of Missouri, it was contended 
 that the measure was contrary to the precedents estab- 
 lished by Congress in the cases of Kentucky, Tennessee, 
 Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, all of which had 
 been admitted into the Union with slavery ; that it in- 
 fringed upon that article in the treaty of purchase which 
 guaranteed to the people of Louisiana the possession of 
 their property ; and that Congress had no power to 
 prescribe to a State any particular form of government, 
 other than that it should be republican ; and that even 
 if they had the abstract power, it would be folly to use 
 it, since the people of the State would have a perfect 
 right to change or amend their constitution whenever, 
 and in whatever way, they might think proper. 
 
 In answer to these arguments, it was objected that 
 Congress had imposed restrictions upon other States, as, 
 for instance, in the case of Louisiana ; that in the bill 
 now under consideration, there was a clause which for- 
 bade Missouri to tax, for five years, the lands that had 
 been granted to soldiers ; and that even if this were not 
 so, the power to admit, or to refuse to admit, a State, 
 which Congress unquestionably possessed, necessarily 
 carried with it the power to impose the conditions upon 
 which such State should be admitted. In regard to the 
 argument based upon the treaty of purchase and the in- 
 fringement which this amendment, if adopted, would 
 work in the rights of property, it was held that slavery 
 existed only in virtue of local law ; that it was not only 
 unrepublican in its nature, but it was also a moral wrong 
 as well as a political and economical evil ; and hence, no 
 matter if the treaty and the subsequent enactments of 
 Congress did sanction it, self-interest and a higher law 
 demanded that it should be abolished. These objec- 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 143 
 
 tions were urged with great warmth and persistency, 
 and there can be no question as to the influence they 
 exerted upon the people of the North, though a mo- 
 ment's reflection will convince any fair-minded person 
 that they were more specious than solid. If the effort 
 to extinguish slavery in Missouri had been in conformity 
 with the will of the people of that State, and in undoubted 
 accord with the treaty of purchase and the Constitution 
 of the United States, the position of those who favored 
 the " restriction " would have been absolutely impreg- 
 nable. But this was not the case, and hence the anal- 
 ogy which, it was claimed, existed between this restric- 
 tion and those which had been imposed on other States 
 fell to the ground. So, also, in regard to the wrong and 
 the evil of slavery, both of which, we may remark in 
 passing, were admitted. Indeed, on this point the rep- 
 resentatives from the South went quite as far as did 
 their neighbors from the North ; and it is probably safe 
 to say that, as an original proposition, any measure that 
 looked to the introduction of slavery into territory then 
 free would have found but few defenders. But this 
 was not the point at issue, and its discussion was there- 
 fore irrelevant. The question to be decided was whether 
 Congress had the right to abolish slavery in a region 
 where it legally existed, regardless of treaty stipulations 
 and of the wishes of the people most directly inter- 
 ested. It was, it will be seen, a matter of law, not 
 of morality ; and in justice to themselves and to their 
 friends and kindred who had immigrated to Missouri, 
 the South could not afford to surrender the point. 
 Accordingly, they planted themselves upon their con- 
 stitutional rights and the faith of treaties, and though 
 this position was hotly contested at the time, yet, to-day, 
 
144 MISSOURI. 
 
 there are probably few who will venture to question 
 its legality, whatever may be thought of its morality. 
 As a matter of law, there can be no doubt that Mis- 
 souri was entitled to admission in 1820, and with slav- 
 ery, if her people so willed it, just as Louisiana had 
 been in 1812, and as Arkansas was in 1836 ; and 
 the attempt on the part of one branch of Congress to 
 force her people to do away with slavery as a sine qua 
 non of admission into the Union was, as was afterwards 
 affirmed by the supreme court, a stretch of power not 
 warranted by the Constitution, and therefore illegal. 
 Upon this point the argument of John Quincy Adams is 
 unanswerable. Speaking, some years later, on the mo- 
 tion to admit Arkansas, he said : " She is entitled to 
 admission as a slave State ... by virtue of that article 
 in the treaty for the acquisition of Louisiana which se- 
 cures to the inhabitants of the ceded territories all the 
 rights, privileges, and immunities of the original citizens 
 of the United States ; and stipulates for their admission, 
 conformably to that principle, into the Union. Louisi- 
 ana was purchased as a country wherein slavery was 
 the established law of the land. As Congress have not 
 power in time of peace to abolish slavery in the original 
 States of the Union, they are equally destitute in those 
 parts of the territory ceded by France to the United 
 States under the name of Louisiana, where slavery 
 existed at the time of the acquisition. . . . Arkansas," 
 or Missouri, for the argument applied equally to her, 
 " therefore, comes, and has the right to come, into the 
 Union with her slaves and her slave laws. It is writ- 
 ten in the bond, and however I may lament that it was 
 so written, I must faithfully perform its obligations." ^ 
 
 Benton's Abridgment of the Debates, vol. xiii. p. 33. 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 145 
 
 In spite of the strength of this position and the doubts 
 that must have prevailed as to the validity of a con- 
 trary course, the opponents of the " restriction " were 
 outvoted, and the amendment of Mr. Tallmadge, abol- 
 ishing slavery in Missouri (for that was what it amounted 
 to), was carried. When the measure came before the 
 Senate, this feature was stricken out by a decided vote, 
 and the bill was returned to the House in the shape in 
 which it had been originally introduced. This body 
 refused to concur in the change, and as the Senate ad- 
 hered to its position, the fifteenth Congress adjourned 
 without coming to any agreement, and the bill was 
 lost. 
 
 With the opening of the new Congress, in December, 
 1819, the question again came up, but under somewhat 
 different auspices. The House, it is true, showed very 
 plainly that it was not prepared to abandon the position 
 it had taken in favor of abolishing slavery in Missouri ; 
 but the application of Maine for admission into the 
 Union, which was made about this time, enabled the 
 Senate to exercise a little gentle pressure upon their 
 neighbors of the lower house by a resort to the well- 
 known device of coupling the two measures into one and 
 the same bill. This was done, and with a candor that 
 was worthy of a better cause, the opponents of the Mis- 
 souri restriction in both houses of Congress declared that 
 the two measures must stand or fall together ; that un- 
 less Missouri was admitted into the Union and without 
 conditions as to slavery, Maine should be kept out. This 
 brought on a debate, which ran through several weeks, 
 and finally culminated in a dead-lock, the appointment 
 of a committee of conference, and the adoption of a 
 ^ measure, or rather a series of measures, known as the 
 
146 MISSOURI. 
 
 Missouri Compromise. By the terms of this agreement, 
 which, it may be well to observe, was understood and not 
 expressed, the clause prohibiting slavery was stricken 
 from the bill authorizing the people of Missouri to form 
 a constitution. This left them nominally free to or- 
 ganize the State with or without slavery, as they might 
 prefer, but without any express guarantee as to its ad- 
 mission into the Union, though it seems to have been 
 clearly understood that this was to be the effect of the 
 measure. In return for this concession, which, in the 
 light of a subsequent decision of the supreme court, 
 yielded nothing, Maine was brought into the Union, and 
 a provision was inserted into the Missouri bill, by which 
 it was stipulated that slavery should be excluded from 
 all " the territory ceded by France to the United States, 
 under the name of Louisiana, north of thirty-six degrees 
 and thirty minutes north latitude." 
 
 In securing the adoption of this compromise, if that 
 term can be truly applied to a transaction in which one 
 party gained everything and conceded nothing, the rep- 
 resentatives of the free and relatively populous North 
 achieved a decided success. For the first time in the 
 history of the country, they had openly attempted to 
 limit the power of the South by preventing the admis- 
 sion of a slave State, and they certainly had no cause to - 
 be dissatisfied with the result of the experiment. By 
 the admission of Maine, they had regained the suprem- 
 acy in the Senate which was temporarily lost when 
 Alabama came into the Union ; and if they had not suc- 
 ceeded in carrying a measure for the abolition of slavery 
 in Missouri, they had secured the passage of a law by 
 which all that vast domain situated north of the line of 
 thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, and ^ 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 147 
 
 lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi 
 River, was transformed, as far as an act of Congress 
 could effect that purpose, from possible slave to actual 
 free territory. 
 
 Like all arrangements that are based upon expedi- 
 ency alone, this agreement was not lasting. Subse- 
 quent Congresses did not hesitate to violate it whenever 
 it suited their purposes to do so ; and individual States, 
 even those that had most to gain by insisting upon its 
 observance, indicated clearly what they thought of its 
 character when they declared, as Massachusetts did in 
 1845, that they did not intend to abide by it. In fact, 
 neither of the great political parties ever regarded it as 
 being peculiarly sacred save when there was something 
 to be gained by so doing. As early as 1836 it was vio- 
 lated, and that without a protest on the part of the North, 
 by the addition to the State of Missouri of the triangle 
 known as the Platte purchase ; in 1854 it was formally 
 abrogated ; and in 1857 it was pronounced unconstitu- 
 tional in an obiter dictum opinion of the highest tribunal 
 in the land. 
 
 This was certainly a most lame and impotent conclu- 
 sion, but for this verdict the Southern men who had 
 sanctioned the compromise were not responsible. In 
 good faith, and in the interest of peace and the Union, 
 they had sacrificed what they believed to be, and what 
 have since been decided to have been, their constitutional 
 rights ; and, so far as they could, they had dedicated to 
 freedom a much larger extent of country than that which 
 their fathers had given, when in 1787, by a vote of five 
 slave and three free States, they had passed the famous 
 ordinance that made free all the region north of the 
 Ohio and south of the Lakes. In so doing they certainly 
 
148 MlSSOCfRI. 
 
 had not been guilty of any act of aggression, whatever 
 else it may have been ; and the fact that a majority of 
 them in each house, small though it was, were willing 
 to make the concession is proof not only of their devo- 
 tion to the Union, but it indicates very clearly what are 
 believed to have been their sentiments, at this time, in 
 regard to the extension of slavery. 
 
 Were other evidence on this point necessary, it may 
 be found in the ratification by the Senate, at this very 
 session of Congress, of the treaty with Spain, in virtue 
 of which all of Louisiana territory south of the line of 
 thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, except Arkansas 
 and a strip reserved for certain Indian tribes, was ex- 
 changed for the Floridas. Of the merits of this treaty, 
 or of the hidden motives that may have led the Southern 
 members to vote for its ratification, it is not my province 
 to speak. All that it concerns us to know is the fact 
 that, in relinquishing their claims to all this region, the 
 United States sold the only territory they owned west 
 of the Mississippi, except Arkansas, into which slavery 
 could be legally carried. Indeed, if we also except Flor- 
 ida, which was acquired by the treaty, there was not 
 then a foot of land on either side of the Mississippi, be- 
 longing to the United States, in which slavery had not 
 been extinguished, and that with the approval and by 
 the votes of Southern slaveholders. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE UNION. 
 
 Although the adoption of this compromise put an 
 end to the attempt on the part of the North to abolish 
 slavery in Missouri, it did not secure her admission into 
 the Union, neither was it the work of Henry Clay. The 
 honor of having suggested it as a means of escape from 
 a dead-lock which threatened the integrity of the Union 
 belongs to Jesse B. Thomas, a senator from Illinois, and 
 a Southern man by birth, though it is proper to add 
 that Mr. Clay lent to the measure the weight of his 
 great name and abilities, and that it probably could not 
 have been carried without his assistance. What he 
 really brought about, and what earned for him the title 
 of the peace-maker, was the adoption of a second com- 
 promise, by virtue of which Missouri was admitted into 
 the Union, not in the usual way, but through a sort of 
 side door, opened to her in return for a certain conces- 
 sion which she was assumed to have made. 
 
 As a compromise, using this term in its usual accepta- 
 tion, this second measure was as one-sided as the first, 
 but differed from that in being altogether in the interest 
 of the South. By it, a few Northern men (fourteen in 
 the House, and eight in the Senate), joined to an almost 
 solid Southern vote, were able to secure the admission 
 of Missouri, on the condition that her legislature should 
 idopt a " solemn public act," which was ostensibly a 
 
150 MISSOURI. 
 
 modification, or rather a repeal, of an article in the con- 
 stitution she had just adopted, and which, therefore, from 
 its nature, was of no binding force, moral or legal, upon 
 any human being whatsoever. 
 
 To understand this curious page of legislative history, 
 it is necessary to transfer the field of investigation from 
 Washington to Missouri, and note briefly the change 
 which the adoption of the first, or Missouri Compro- 
 mise proper, had wrought in the political condition of 
 the people of the territory. 
 
 For a few years previous to this time, ever since 1816, 
 they had been living under the third or highest form of 
 territorial government, but when the news of the passage 
 of this " act " reached them, they at once took steps to 
 organize the State. An election was held for members 
 of a convention which met in June, 1820, and proceeded 
 to frame a constitution. It was a fairly representative 
 body, and numbered among its members some who were 
 afterwards called upon to play conspicuous parts upon a 
 more extended theatre. As might have been expected, 
 it was composed altogether of men who were in favor 
 of making Missouri a slave State, though they were not 
 necessarily in favor of a still further extension of the 
 slave area; and it is a curious commentary upon the 
 changes that subsequently took place in men and meas- 
 ures that Edward Bates, who was attorney-general un- 
 der President Lincoln, and one of the best and purest 
 men this country has produced, was one of its members, 
 having been returned from St. Louis in the pro-slavery 
 interest. The fact is that the attempt of the Northern 
 representatives to regulate the domestic affairs of the 
 territory had reacted upon themselves, and instead of 
 strengthening the hands of their friends, it had alienated 
 
ADMISSION INTO THE UNION. 151 
 
 not a few, even of those who agreed with them upon the 
 question of slavery. It was looked upon as a high- 
 handed effort at usurpation, and such was the opposition 
 it provoked within the State that, owing to this and to 
 other causes that will readily suggest themselves, no one 
 whose views upon the slavery question were in the least 
 doubtful stood any chance of an election. Even among the 
 free-state men the issue had become sa complicated that 
 the " Missouri Gazette," whose editor, Joseph Charless, 
 was one of the leaders on that side, declared, on one oc- 
 casion, when speaking of the effort in Congress to abol- 
 ish slavery in the incoming State, that " the question 
 was not whether slavery shall or shall not be prohibited, 
 . . . but whether we shall meanly abandon our rights 
 and suffer any earthly power to dictate the terms of our 
 constitution." 
 
 After a session of a little over a month, and an ex- 
 penditure for stationery, etc., of a total of twenty-six 
 dollars and twenty-five cents, the convention adjourned, 
 having completed the work for which it had been called 
 together. The constitution, as adopted, was not sub- 
 mitted to a vote of the people for ratification, but took 
 effect of its own motion. It did away with the territo- 
 rial government, and provided for the election of officers, 
 state as well as national. In August of that year this 
 election was held, and the officers then chosen were duly 
 inaugurated ; and although it was a year and more be- 
 fore Missouri was finally admitted into the Union, yet 
 the wheels of her government were promptly set in mo- 
 tion, and she found herself occupying the somew^hat 
 anomalous position of a State outside of the Union. 
 
 Of course this constitution sanctioned slavery. That 
 was a foregone conclusion : but as it was the very con- 
 
152 MISSOURI. 
 
 tingency against which the compromise that had been 
 so recently adopted was intended to provide, it did not 
 furnish any just and tenable ground for opposing the 
 admission of the State. So far as the Southern rep- 
 resentatives were concerned, they had complied with 
 their part of the agreement. Maine had been received 
 into the Union ; slavery had been excluded from all the 
 rest of Louisiana, or Missouri territory as it was then 
 called, north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, so 
 far as an act of Congress could effect that purpose ; and 
 it now only remained formally to advance Missouri to 
 the dignity of a State, in order to carry out in full the 
 well-understood terms of the compromise. This a large 
 majority of the Northern representatives were unwilling 
 to permit, so long as her constitution sanctioned slavery. 
 They had voted steadily and up to the very last to make 
 Missouri a free State, regardless of the wishes of her 
 people ; and for them now to wheel around and consent 
 to receive her into the Union with slavery would have 
 indicated a change of heart too sudden to be genuine, 
 and one which, in the temper then prevailing at the 
 North, they might have found it difficult to explain and 
 defend. Besides, although they had been temporarily 
 defeated upon the question of prohibiting slavery in the 
 State, yet the contest had been close, and there were 
 not a few among them who did not despair of ultimate 
 success, though they seem to have recognized the pro- 
 priety of shaping their course so as to avoid, if possible, 
 the appearance of coming to an open conflict with the 
 recently adopted compromise. Accordingly, when the 
 constitution which the State of Missouri had adopted 
 was presented for approval, they seized upon the clause 
 rendering it obligatory upon the legislature to enact a 
 
ADMISSION INTO THE UNION. 153 
 
 law to " prevent free negroes and mulattoes from com- 
 ing to and settling within the State," and made it the 
 occasion for renewmg the struggle. Free negroes, they 
 contended, were recognized as citizens in some of the 
 old States, and as emigration was a privilege possessed 
 by all citizens, they insisted upon the rejection of Mis- 
 souri's application, on the ground that this article was 
 contrary to that provision of the federal Constitution 
 which guaranteed to " the citizens of each State the priv- 
 ileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." 
 
 That this was a mere pretext, intended to cover up 
 the real grounds of their opposition, hardly admits of a 
 doubt. The fact that, at this time, there was, probably, 
 not a single State, north or south, that did not in some 
 shape discriminate against blacks and in favor of whites 
 certainly indicates it ; and if further proof be required, 
 it will be found in the chance utterances of different 
 speakers during the course of the debate, in the proceed- 
 ings of the legislature of at least one of the Northern 
 States, and in the fact that if the objectionable article 
 came in conflict with the federal Constitution, as it 
 was said to do, it was, ipso facto, null and void, and 
 would be so decided by the supreme court, whenever the 
 matter came up for adjudication. However, be this as 
 it may, it served the purpose for which it was intended ; 
 and whether the objection to which it gave rise was 
 feigned or real, it furnished the opponents to the admis- 
 sion of Missouri with what they most needed, — a plau- 
 sible excuse for keeping her out of the Union without an 
 open violation of their part of the compromise. To all 
 outward appearance, they now opposed her admission, 
 not Uecause she had legalized slavery, but because she 
 proposed to do as some of her neighbors had already 
 
154 MISSOURI. 
 
 done, and as one of them did as late as 1846, — prevent 
 an undesirable class of persons from settling within her 
 borders. In urging this objection they were apparently- 
 occupying high constitutional grounds, but in reality 
 their opposition was simply a continuation of the struggle 
 which had been begun some two years before ; and dis- 
 guise the fact as we may under high-sounding phrases 
 and nice verbal distinctions, it was, after all, but another 
 attempt on the part of the North to prevent the increase 
 and limit the power of the South. That it was a move- 
 ment in the interest of morality and a higher civiliza- 
 tion may be admitted, but that will not alter the fact. 
 The path was different, though the end aimed at was the 
 same. 
 
 In the debate which gi'ew out of this question some of 
 the ablest men in the nation took part. The evils of 
 slavery, the value of the Union, the terms of the Louisi- 
 ana treaty, the true intent and meaning of the Missouri 
 Compromise, and the powers of Congress in the premises 
 were all discussed at length, but to no purpose. The 
 key to the debate lay in the interpretation that was to be 
 put upon that clause in the federal Constitution, according 
 to which "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to 
 the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several 
 States," and upon this point opinions were hopelessly 
 divided. Even Charles Pinckney's declaration that when 
 he drew up this clause " there was not such a thing in 
 the Union as a black or colored citizen," and that con- 
 sequently it could not have been intended to include that 
 class of persons, important as it was to a proper under- 
 stp.nding of the provision, seems to have had little or no 
 waight in bringing about a decision. Under the cijjcum- 
 stances, and from a political point of view, it was more 
 
ADMISSION INTO THE UNION. 155 
 
 important to interpret the Constitution so as to make it 
 fit the changed condition of affairs than to find out what 
 the fraraers of that instrument had intended to say. 
 Accordingly, when it was urged that free blacks were 
 not citizens in the sense of the Constitution, it was re- 
 plied that now they were citizens in some of the States, 
 and that the Constitution spoke of citizens of the " sev- 
 eral States," and not of citizens of the United States. In 
 answer to this, it was shown that if this interpretation 
 prevailed, it would be possible for one State to impose 
 citizens upon another ; and that it might be made to 
 grant to a free colored citizen, say of Massachusetts, 
 immigrating to Missouri, rights and privileges in the latter 
 State which he did not possess in the former, both of 
 which propositions were declared to be absurd. In this 
 way the debate ran on from day to day and week to 
 week, only to end at last in a disagreement, the Senate 
 being in favor of the admission, whilst the House was 
 opposed to it. 
 
 In this condition of affairs Mr. Clay found his oppor- 
 tunity ; and he introduced a resolution to appoint a joint 
 committee, " to consider and report to the Senate and 
 House respectively whether it be expedient or not to 
 make provision for the admission of Missouri into the 
 Union on the same footing as the original States, . . . 
 and if not, whether any other, and what provision, 
 adapted to her actual condition, ought to be made by 
 law." This resolution was carried by an overwhelming 
 vote in both branches of Congress ; and a committee, of 
 which Mr. Clay was chairman, and which, so far as the 
 House was concerned, he may be said to have named, 
 was appointed. In due time it reported a resolution ad- 
 mitting the State, provided its legislature " by a solemn 
 
156 MISSOURI. 
 
 public act " shall declare that the clause in the constitu- 
 tion relating to the immigration of free negroes into the 
 State shall never be construed to authorize the passage 
 of any law, by which " any citizen of either of the States 
 in this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of 
 any of the privileges and immunities " to which he is en- 
 titled under the Constitution of the United States. It 
 was also provided, and the reason for it is obvious, 
 " that when this declaration shall have been made, and 
 a copy of it furnished to the President, he shall, by proc- 
 lamation, declare the State to be admitted." This reso- 
 lution was passed without discussion, having been carried 
 in the Senate by a vote of 28 to 14, and in the House, 
 where the contest was close, by SQ> to 82, fourteen mem- 
 bers from the non-slaveholding States voting in the affir- 
 mative, whilst a few Southerners are to be found on the 
 other side. 
 
 With the adoption of this measure the Missouri ques- 
 tion passed out of the hands of Congress, and it now only 
 remained for the legislature of that State to go through 
 with the farce of pretending to set aside a constitutional 
 provision. This they did with commendable alacrity, 
 though they evidently were well aware of the extent of 
 their own powers, and had a keen sense of the absurdity 
 of the part they were called upon to play. After recit- 
 ing the act of Congress containing the condition under 
 which Missouri was to be received into the Union, they 
 went on to declare that, " forasmuch as the good people 
 of this State have, by the most solemn and public act in 
 their power, virtually assented to the said fundamental 
 condition, when, by their representatives in full and free 
 convention assembled, they adopted the constitution of 
 this State, and consented to be incorporated into the 
 
ADMISSION INTO THE UNION. 157 
 
 federal Union, and governed by the Constitution of the 
 United States, which among other things provides that 
 the said Constitution and lavrs of the United States, made 
 in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which 
 shall be made under the authority of the United States, 
 shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in 
 every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the con- 
 stitution or law of any State to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. And although this general assembly do most 
 solemnly declare that the Congress of the United States 
 have no constitutional power to annex any condition to 
 the admission of this State into the federal Union, and 
 that this general assembly have no power to change the 
 operation of the constitution of this State, excejDt in the 
 mode prescribed in the Constitution itself, nevertheless, 
 as the Congress of the United States has desired this 
 general assembly to declare the assent of this State 
 to said fundamental condition, and forasmuch as such 
 declaration will neither restrain nor enlarge, limit nor 
 extend, the operation of the Constitution of the United 
 States or of this State ; but the said constitutions will 
 remain in all respects as if the said resolution had never 
 passed, and the desired declaration was never made ; 
 and because such declaration will not divest any power 
 or change the duties of any of the constitutional authori- 
 ties of this State or of the United States, nor impair the 
 rights of the people of this State, or impose any additional 
 obligation upon them, but may promote an earlier en- 
 joyment of their vested federal rights, and this State be- 
 ing, moreover, determined to give to her sister States and 
 to the vv'orld the most unequivocal proof of her desire to 
 promote the peace and harmony of the Union — there- 
 fore 
 
158 MISSOURI. 
 
 " Be it enacted and declared by the General Assembly 
 of the State of Missouri, and it is hereby solemnly and 
 publicly enacted and declared, That this State has as- 
 sented and does assent that the fourth clause of the 
 twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitu- 
 tion of this State shall never be construed to authorize 
 the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed 
 in conformity thereto, by which any citizen, of either of 
 the United States, shall be excluded from the enjoyment 
 of any of the privileges and immunities to which such 
 citizens are entitled under the Constitution of the United 
 States." 
 
 Upon the receipt of a certified copy of this act, which, 
 considered with reference to the preamble which accom- 
 panied it, can hardly be called solemn, President Mon- 
 roe issued a proclamation announcing the fact of its pas- 
 sage, and declaring that the admission of Missouri was 
 complete. This proclamation bears date the 10th of 
 August, 1821, and consequently that is the day upon 
 which Missouri took her place in the sisterhood of 
 States, and upon which the long and bitter controversy 
 of which she had been the innocent occasion was brought 
 to an end. 
 
 In looking back over this exciting period and noting 
 the results that were obtained, we cannot but be struck 
 with the absurdity, inconsistency, and, in view of subse- 
 quent decisions, we may add the illegality, that character- 
 ized almost every phase of the proceedings of Congress 
 upon this question. Thus, for instance, we find that be- 
 fore admitting Missouri into the Union " upon an equal 
 footing with the other States," an effort was made to de- 
 prive her of the privilege which her sister States had 
 exercised, and which they still possessed, of deciding for 
 
ADMISSION INTO THE UNION. 159 
 
 herself whether she would or would not legalize slavery, 
 unmindful apparently of the fact that if the measure had 
 been carried and could have been enforced, it would have 
 established her inequality at the very outset of her career. 
 This was, to say the least, somewhat inconsistent ; and 
 what added to the absurdity of the situation was the fact 
 that, although the attempt on the part of a majority of 
 the representatives from the North to prohibit slavery 
 in Missouri was, as was afterwards decided, unconstitu- 
 tional, yet by way of inducing them to abandon their 
 opposition upon this point and consent to the admission 
 of the State with or without slavery, as her people might 
 decide, the South agreed to a condition, which was also 
 subsequently decided to be unconstitutional, by virtue of 
 which slavery was excluded from all the territory north 
 of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude. 
 Thus we have the singular spectacle of a great political 
 party agreeing to refrain from an act which would have 
 been a violation of the organic law of the land, and which 
 they therefore could not legally perform ; in return for 
 which their opponents agree to a measure, and actually 
 embody it into a law, which was also null and void, be- 
 cause it, too, was in opposition to this same Constitu- 
 tion. This, it will be observed, was compromise number 
 one, the far-famed Missouri Compromise of March 6, 
 1820 ; or rather it is all that was left of it after passing 
 through the hands of the supreme court in 1857. In 
 view of this decision it seems like waste of time to repeat 
 that Missouri was not admitted into the Union under 
 this agreement, but that she was brought in under an- 
 other and a totally different one, entered into March 2, 
 1821 ; and hence that, in the opinion of not a few, even 
 of those who had aided in passing it, the first, or Mis- 
 
160 MISSOURI. 
 
 souri Compromise, was violated within the year by the 
 very Congress that adopted it, and the agreement as to 
 the exclusion of slavery north of the line of thirty-six de- 
 grees and thirty minutes thus became void and of no ef- 
 fect, the consideration for it having failed. Unsatisfac- 
 tory as this attempt at compromise proved to be, it did 
 not by any means complete the chapter of errors and 
 inconsistencies that marked the proceedings of Congress 
 in all their dealings with this question. Indeed, so cu- 
 rious was the next step taken that it is impossible to un- 
 derstand it, save on the theory suggested by Benton, . that 
 the Democrats, or Republicans as they were then called, 
 of the North had become sensible of the error into 
 which, when judged from a party point of view, they 
 had been led by keeping Missouri out of the Union, and 
 were now anxious to regain their lost ground and bring 
 her in, provided it could be done without jeopardizing 
 their individual positions at home. Certainly nothing 
 but a supposed dire political necessity could account for 
 such action as that which resulted in the adoption of 
 ■what, for the want of a better term, may be styled com- 
 promise number two. By it Missouri was, as we have 
 seen, admitted into the Union, but on condition that her 
 legislature adopted a "solemn public act," which not 
 only came in conflict with a provision of her organic law, 
 and was therefore null and void, but which, if it meant 
 anything and had been legal and could have been carried 
 out, would have resulted in bringing her in, not on an 
 equality with the other States, but shorn of the privi- 
 lege which they had enjoyed, and which Illinois exer- 
 cised as late as 1846, of deciding for herself as to the 
 qualifications of those who were to live within her bor- 
 ders, thus relegating her at once to a position of marked 
 inferiority. 
 
ADMISSION INTO THE UNION. 161 
 
 . In other words, to protect a handful of so-called citi- 
 zens in one or two of the older States, not one of whom 
 would ever have thought of immigrating to Missouri, her 
 legislature was required, as a condition precedent to her 
 admission, to assent to a measure that was illegal in it- 
 self, and could not, therefore, in any possible way affect 
 the class of persons which it was ostensibly intended to 
 benefit. 
 
 When this assent was given, although the legislature 
 that gave it took especial pains to declare that their 
 action was of no legal force, yet the demands of Congress 
 were satisfied ; and President Monroe, at the head of 
 whose cabinet was that sterling patriot and statesman, 
 John Quincy Adams, issued a proclamation announcing 
 the fact, and declaring that the admission of Missouri 
 was complete. 
 
 Amid all this confusion and conflict of ends and 
 means, laws and constitutions, and we have by no means 
 exhausted the list, the resolution admitting Maine and 
 the proclamation by which Missouri was brought into 
 the Union are about the only measures that stand out 
 distinctly and without challenge. They were final ; and 
 it is probable that they would both have been passed 
 without serious opposition, if Maine had been ready to 
 take her place in the Union when Missouri made appli- 
 cation for permission to frame her constitution. Unfor- 
 tunately, this was not the case ; and it was this fact, 
 which, threatening as it did to disturb the proportion 
 that had hitherto existed between the free and slave 
 States, gave the Federalists of the North the opportunity 
 of bringing the slavery question to the front as a polit- 
 ical issue. Intended, no doubt, at first, for effect in the 
 local elections, it proved to be so popular, and made such 
 
162 MISSOURI. 
 
 inroads into the ranks of the opposite party, that it 
 speedily outgrew the narrow proportions designed for it 
 and became of national importance. Instead of being 
 a struggle between the Federalists, and Republicans for 
 supremacy in their respective States, it brought about a 
 new division of parties, by which Congress and the coun- 
 try at large was divided geographically upon the line of 
 slavery, with political power as the prize of the contest. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FROM 1820 TO 1844. 
 
 Called upon to prepare a constitution in the midst 
 of great political excitement, and at a time when the 
 monetary affairs of the country were in a state of dis- 
 organization, the people of Missouri, acting through 
 their chosen delegates, set about the work with coolness 
 and deliberation, and, all things considered, they framed 
 an instrument that was a marvel of moderation and 
 political sagacity. Among its provisions were a few, as 
 for instance the one that declared ministers of the gos- 
 pel ineligible to certain offices, that might have been 
 improved, or better still, perhaps, left out altogether; 
 but, take it all in all, it was a very creditable i3iece 
 of work ; and if we may judge of its character from 
 the length of time that it remained in force without 
 any material alteration, it compared not unfavorably 
 with the best similar instruments, no matter when or 
 by whom they may have been " ordained and estab- 
 lished." 
 
 Especially was this true of the way in which it dealt 
 with the financial question. The lesson the people of 
 the State had just been taught by the failure of their 
 local banks and by the evils of which this was in some 
 measure the cause, severe as it was, seems to have been 
 thoroughly learned, and it now brought forth good fruit. 
 As a result of the experience of those years, a healthy 
 
164 MISSOURI. 
 
 distrust of banks and corporations of every kind per- 
 vaded all classes of the community ; and although the 
 establishment in St. Louis, in 1829, of a branch of the 
 United States Bank gave to the people of the State a 
 currency that was safer and more convenient than any 
 to which they had hitherto been accustomed, this fact 
 was not sufficient to eradicate the feelings of hostility 
 with which they regarded all such institutions, and which 
 they imbedded in their organic law in the shape of an 
 article limiting the power of the legislature to " the in- 
 corporation of one bank and no more, to be in operation 
 at the same time." Theoretically, and so far as legisla- 
 tive action was concerned, they were a hard-money peo- 
 ple, and it was not until 1837, five years after President 
 Jackson's veto of the bill rechartering the United States 
 Bank, that the legislature, in answer to the demands of 
 the business interests of the State, availed themselves of 
 the liberty allowed them, and agreed to the establishment 
 of a bank. Meanwhile the notes of institutions organ- 
 ized and doing business in other States formed the bulk 
 of the circulating medium ; and as many of these in- 
 stitutions were short-lived, their collapse entailed a loss 
 that was only measured by the extent of their circulation, 
 and that fell with peculiar force upon those who were 
 least able to bear it. In spite, however, of the uncer- 
 tainty as to the solvency of many of these banks, and the 
 consequent fluctuation in the value of their notes, their 
 issues, or " shin -plasters" as they were contemptuously 
 called, continued to pass current until the refusal of the 
 Bank of Missouri, in 1839, to receive or pay them out 
 placed them at a discount so far as specie and her own 
 bills were concerned. 
 
 At first this measure created not a little indignation, 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 165 
 
 and the merchants of St. Louis, the chief distributive 
 point of the State, denounced it in unmeasured terms, 
 but the bank officials remained firm, and the course 
 of events soon justified their action. By drawing a 
 broad line between currency and specie or bankable 
 funds, they furnished a standard, safe and steady, for 
 the adjustment of values ; and this brought about a much 
 needed reform, though it was powerless to drive the dis- 
 credited bills out of circulation. They continued to 
 pass current in small daily transactions, but when ten- 
 dered in payment of large amounts they were subjected 
 to the rate of discount that ruled at the time ; and those 
 of us who were familiar with the business methods that 
 prevailed in those days can hardly have forgotten the 
 numerous Counterfeit Detectors, Bank-Note Reporters, 
 and other publications of a similar character, that were 
 intended to keep the merchant and trader advised of 
 the condition, from week to week, of the banks whose 
 notes he was called upon to handle. 
 
 After some fifteen or twenty years of this experience, 
 during which time private individuals and savings in- 
 stitutions supplied, as far as could be done, the place 
 of banks, the constitution of the State was amended ; 
 and, in 1857, it was so changed as to authorize the es- 
 tablishment of banks of issue, with branches in differ- 
 ent parts of the State. With the conservatism that has 
 ever been one of their marked characteristics, the people 
 of Missouri did not plunge recklessly into the business 
 of banking, but they very wisely limited the number of 
 these parent institutions to ten, and provided that their 
 aggregate capital should never exceed twenty millions 
 of dollars, an outside limit that cannot be considered 
 extravagant in view of the population of the State and 
 
166 MISSOURI. 
 
 of the amount of business annually transacted. An ad' 
 ditional safeguard was also inserted in the constitution, 
 in the shape of a clause requiring these banks to be 
 " based upon a specie capital ; " and in the law of 1857, 
 under which they came into existence, they were still 
 farther hedged in by such provisions as experience had 
 seemed to render necessary. So far, then, as it could 
 be done by law, every care was taken to insure the stabil- 
 ity of these institutions ; and it is but just to say that 
 they were founded upon a solid basis, and that with but 
 few exceptions they have been well managed. 
 
 Unfortunately, they were begun at a most inauspicious 
 time. The panic of 1857, as sharp as it was short, 
 found them unprepared for the demands that were 
 made upon them, and a few years later, almost before 
 they had recovered from its effects, they were called 
 upon to share in the reverses that marked the opening 
 years of the civil war. With but one exception, that of 
 the Exchange Bank of St. Louis, they were obliged to 
 bend before the storm ; and during the whole of that 
 eventful period they had to suspend specie payments. 
 The legislature, however, refused to forfeit their char- 
 ters, so that with the return of peace they were able to 
 resume their accustomed functions ; and to-day they are 
 doing their legitimate work in facilitating the business 
 of the communities in which they exist, though almost 
 all of them, taking advantage of different acts of Con- 
 gress, have ceased to be state institutions, and are now 
 known as national banks. 
 
 But whilst the people of the State have in the main 
 shown themselves to be decidedly conservative in the 
 management of their monetary affairs, public as well as 
 private, there have been times when they appear to have 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 167 
 
 been unable to resist the tendency to speculation and 
 overtrading which seems an inevitable attendant upon 
 all new and rapidly developing communities. As a 
 consequence, they have not been exempt from the pen- 
 alty that attaches to such faulty methods of doing busi- 
 ness, and makes itself felt in the storms which, from 
 time to time, sweep over the financial world. Probably 
 the severest of these storms, not so much on account of 
 the amount destroyed as from the number of sufferers, 
 was the one which visited the country in 1837, and 
 which, following close upon the expiration of the char- 
 ter of the United States Bank, is often ascribed to that 
 event, though it would be going too far to assign it to 
 that as the sole, or even a sufficient, cause. The truth 
 is that so far from having been a prime factor in bring- 
 ing on the " hard times " of 1837, the fate of the bank 
 had little or nothing to do with it. This is, no doubt, 
 contrary to the impression most sedulously cultivated by 
 the Whigs of that day, but it can hardly be questioned 
 in view of the fact that although the charter of the 
 bank did not expire until 1836, yet the death-blow was 
 really given to the institution in 1832, four years ear- 
 lier ; and this measure, instead of causing a stringency 
 in the money market and a depression in prices, as it 
 would have done if there had been any necessary con- 
 nection between the fate of the bank and the hard times 
 of 1837, was followed, first, by a season of prosperity, 
 and subsequently, as such seasons often are, by one of 
 inflation, when for a time, say from 1834 to 1837, a 
 fever of speculation ran riot throughout the land. Not 
 only individuals, but States, caught the infection, and it 
 is to the reaction following upon this condition of affairs 
 that the student must look for an explanation of the 
 
168 MISSOURI. 
 
 crisis which has given Van Buren's administration such 
 an undesirable prominence in the financial annals of the 
 country. 
 
 To picture the saturnalia that prevailed during these 
 years of inflation were an idle task. All classes seem 
 to have engaged in it, and no portion of the country was 
 exempt. During its prevalence schemes without num- 
 ber, some of which would have taxed the resources of the 
 wealthiest communities, were launched upon the market ; 
 and there were few of them that did not find earnest 
 advocates. Only a fraction of the number, it is true, 
 ever came to anything, but to carry them on required 
 more money than was then in circulation. To supply this 
 deficiency the people in some of the States, forgetful of 
 the lesson of 1819, resorted to an indefinite increase of 
 local, or as they were sometimes called " pet," banks. 
 They seem to have imagined that these institutions, in- 
 stead of being mere instruments for facilitating com- 
 mercial intercourse, were, in some mysterious way, to 
 create wealth. Hence in some portions of the country 
 they were chartered in great numbers, without any re- 
 gard to the demands of the communities in which they 
 were expected to do business, and in defiance of all 'laws 
 of finance, and occasionally, we may add, of honesty. In 
 one of the Western States, an agricultural one, and 
 therefore relatively independent of such facilities, there 
 was at one time a bank for every five thousand inhabit- 
 ants. This number is said to have been subsequently 
 increased, and a writer of that day, speaking of the con- 
 dition of affairs which then prevailed, says, with pardon- 
 able exaggeration, " that every village plat with a house, 
 or even without a house, if it had a hollow stump to 
 serve as a vault, was the site of a bank ; " and " that it 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 169 
 
 was easy for any one to obtain their bills who could give 
 reasonable assurance that he would circulate them at a 
 distance and keep them afloat." 
 
 In this way, moving steadily on, but ever in a vicious 
 circle, affairs went from bad to worse, and when finally 
 the crash came, Missouri, in so far as she had held a 
 conservative course and kept aloof from the ruinous 
 systems of internal improvement in which certain of her 
 sister States had indulged, was spared some of the ca- 
 lamities that they were called on to endure. Still she 
 was not permitted to escape. With her growth in wealth 
 and population, there had been a corresponding increase 
 in commerce ; and her business interests were so closely 
 united with those of other and less conservative communi- 
 ties that they could not be separated. For good or evil 
 they were inextricably bound together, and it was im- 
 possible that one should suffer without affecting the other 
 injuriously. 
 
 Her people, too, in the management of their private 
 affairs, appear to have been forgetful of the prudential 
 considerations that governed their public action. For 
 years they had witnessed the steady tide of immigration 
 that had poured into the State, had noted the advance 
 in different kinds of property, especially real estate, 
 which was thus brought about ; and it was but natural, 
 as this stream of settlers still rolled in unchecked, to 
 look forward to a continuance of the era of prosperity 
 of which it was at once the cause and a visible sign. So 
 long as they saw the State gaining in all the elements 
 of wealth, they did not think it possible that a condition 
 of affairs could arise in which individuals composing 
 that State were to suffer. In this belief they acted, and, 
 heedless of the impending storm, they made every prep- 
 
170 MISSOURI. 
 
 aration to share in the golden harvest which was so 
 confidently anticipated. They bought and sold with a 
 freedom that savored of recklessness ; engaged in enter- 
 prises that under other circumstances would have been 
 regarded as too rash for consideration ; and when at last 
 the day of reckoning came, it found them steeped in 
 debt, and with lines of credit extended far beyond the 
 limits of safety. Many of them sank under the weight ; 
 but the great majority, after a few years of patient 
 labor and enforced economy, were able to resume their 
 positions in the world of commerce. It was a season of 
 trial for all, relieved somewhat by local stay laws and 
 such expedients, but none the less enduring and full of 
 distress. The laws of finance had been set at naught, 
 and the penalty had to be paid. Slowly and after much 
 suffering the process of liquidation was accomplished, 
 and an era of prosperity once more dawned upon the 
 stricken people ; but the record of these years, written in 
 the dockets of the courts and in the long list of bank- 
 ruptcies, will ever remain as a warning. 
 
 Naturally enough, the " hard times," as this period of 
 distress was called, entered largely into the political dis- 
 cussions of the day, and there can be no doubt as to the 
 important part it was made to play in bringing about the 
 defeat of Van Buren in the presidential election of 1840. 
 It had come upon the country during his administration ; 
 was associated in the minds of many with the veto of the 
 bank bill, which had taken place some years previously 
 and whilst his political friend and predecessor was in 
 power ; and although, as has been said, it owed its origin 
 to causes which neither he nor his party could control, 
 yet the Whigs, as the opposition was then termed, taking 
 advantage of the order in which these events had oc- 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 171 
 
 curred, succeeded in making it appear that there was 
 some necessary connection between them, and conse- 
 quently that he and his political allies were resjDonsible 
 for the distress which then prevailed. It was an old 
 fallacy, brought forward for the occasion, but it proved 
 effective among a people whom financial troubles had 
 made eager for a change ; and taken in connection with 
 the military reputation which General Harrison, the op- 
 posing candidate, had acquired in the war of 1812, it led 
 to the political revolution that resulted in his election and 
 the success of the Whigs. It was the first time in the 
 century that they or the party of which they were the 
 legitimate descendants had won a popular verdict at the 
 polls, and however desirable this may have been for 
 other reasons, its merit is somewhat obscured by the fact 
 that it was due, not so much to an intelligent dissent 
 from the policy of the Democrats as it was to the adroit 
 use made of a condition of affairs for which the people 
 at large were responsible, and to a wild and senseless, 
 but shrewdly manufactured, excitement over military 
 events that were of secondary importance. 
 
 In this revolution, the people of Missouri had no part. 
 They were essentially agricultural, and therefore com- 
 paratively independent of banks and banking facilities. 
 They were earnest believers, too, in gold and silver as 
 being not only the most desirable, but in fact the only, 
 kind of money that Congress could legally authorize, and 
 consequently they sympathized fully with the Democrats 
 in their hostility to the national bank, which they had 
 come to regard as an engine of political corruption. For 
 these reasons among others, they had no faith in the ex- 
 planation which the Whigs were wont to give of the 
 origin of the financial distress that then prevailed ; and 
 
172 MISSOURI. 
 
 as they were correspondingly distrustful of the promised 
 prosperity that was to follow upon a change in the ad- 
 ministration at Washington, they could see no reason for 
 surrendering their political convictions. Hence it was 
 that in the election of 1840 they refused to " bend the 
 knee to Baal," and voted with the Democrats, as they 
 had done from the time that parties were organized upon 
 the basis upon which they then stood, and as indeed they 
 have continued to do, to this day, whenever they have 
 been permitted to give a full and free expression to their 
 wishes at the polls. 
 
 Of the causes, then, that led the people of the State thus 
 early to identify themselves with the Democratic l^arty, 
 hostility to the bank may be said to have been the most 
 influential. At all events, the bill to recharter that in- 
 stitution was the first distinctively national issue upon 
 which they were called to act, and there can be no doubt 
 that the position which they then assumed in favor of 
 " hard money " was due in great part to the recollection 
 of the bitter experience through which they had passed 
 during the closing years of Missouri's career as a Terri- 
 tory and the beginning of her life as a State. 
 
 That this direction may have been given to the drift 
 of opinion by the hostility which the Federalists had 
 shown to the admission of the State into the Union is 
 undoubtedly true ; and so far as opposition to slavery 
 can be said to have been the cause of this hostility, it 
 may properly be counted as a factor in the problem. 
 But even if this be granted we shall have to admit that 
 its influence was but short-lived ; for, owing to the neces- 
 sity which then existed of providing a remedy for the 
 disorder into which the business affairs of the country 
 had fallen, the feeling of irritation engendered by the 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 173 
 
 course of the Federalists upon this occasion disappeared 
 almost as rapidly as it had sprung up. Long before the 
 close of President Monroe's administration in 1824, the 
 slavery question had given way to more pressing con- 
 siderations, and political parties, being left free to crys- 
 tallize around new centres, gradually took on the forms 
 under which they fought the battle that resulted in the 
 destruction of the national bank. 
 
 But whilst it is true that, so far as the country at large 
 was concerned, the slavery question had disappeared 
 thus suddenly and entirely from the field of politics, it is 
 a singular fact that there never was a time when, within 
 the State, the sentiment of opposition to this institution 
 was so active as it was during the twelve years covered by 
 the administrations of the younger Adams and General 
 Jackson, or when it made such headway. To a certain 
 extent this was due to the movement in favor of gradual 
 emancipation, of which Henry Clay was the great ex- 
 ponent, and of which the Whigs, considered as a party, 
 are thought to have been the peculiar advocates. In 
 Kentucky, no doubt they were so, and it may also have 
 been true of other portions of the South and West ; but 
 in Missouri it was not the case. Here and upon this 
 point both parties were in accord ; and as early as 1828 
 a number of prominent men, " representing almost every 
 district in the State, and consisting of about equal num- 
 bers of Whigs and Democrats," agreed upon a plan by 
 which they hoped to secure the passage of a law that 
 would provide for gradual emancipation, and thus in time 
 get rid of slavery. At a private meeting which was 
 then held, they determined to urge all candidates at the 
 approaching election to approve of such a measure, and 
 resolutions to this effect were drawn up and secretly dis- 
 
174 MISSOURI. 
 
 tributed, " with the understanding that they were to be 
 placed before the people of the State in the shape of 
 memorials, and both parties were to urge the people to 
 sign them." Among those who took part in this meet- 
 ing were United States Senators Benton and Barton, 
 the former of whom was at that time, and for many 
 years after, the recognized leader of the Democrats in the 
 State, whilst among the others there were those whose 
 influence within their respective spheres was not less 
 potent. Indeed, such was the strength of the " combina- 
 tion " that the Hon. John Wilson, to whom we are in- 
 debted for this curious bit of history, and who was a prom- 
 inent Whig politician of that day, does not hesitate to 
 declare that they had the power to carry out that pro- 
 ject. Unfortunately, however, before the day arrived 
 upon which the attempt was to be made, " it was pub- 
 lished in the newspapers generally that Arthur Tappan, 
 of New York, had entertained at his private table some 
 negro men ; that, in fact, these negroes had rode in his 
 private carriage with his daughters." This may or may 
 not have been true, but it was generally believed in Mis- 
 souri, and such was the furor it raised throughout the 
 State that those who had been instrumental in getting 
 up the meeting did not dare to let their memorials see 
 the light.^ 
 
 1 Mr. Wilson continues : "As well as I can call to mind, of the 
 individuals who composed this secret meeting, I am the only one 
 left to tell the tale ; but for that story of the conduct of the great 
 original fanatic on this subject we should have carried, under the 
 leadership of Barton and Benton, our project, and began in future 
 the emancipation of the colored race that would long since have 
 been followed by Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, 
 Tennessee, etc. Our purpose further, after we got such a law 
 safely placed on the statute book, was to have followed it up by a 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 175 
 
 To those who are accustomed to look at the occur- 
 rences of those days through the medium of subsequent 
 events, it is difficult to understand how so slight a matter 
 as the entertainment of a negro by a somewhat noted 
 abolitionist of New York could have influenced the ac- 
 tion of earnest, sensible men who were engaged, with 
 good promise of success, in what they must have felt to 
 be a great social reform ; but among those of us who 
 can remember the tremendous influence which such tri- 
 vial incidents, when skillfully handled, excited through- 
 out the South, there will be no hesitation in accepting 
 the fact as here given, nor will it be necessary to go 
 very far to find the explanation. Color, it will be re- 
 membered, was in all this region a badge of servitude, the 
 one mark of inferiority that could neither be concealed 
 nor gainsaid, whilst, on the other hand, every white man, 
 whatsoever his condition, was in theory, at least, the 
 equal socially of his neighbor. Starting from this point, 
 the average Southerner, by a process of reasoning wholly 
 illogical but not unnatural, had worked himself into the 
 conviction that freedom to the blacks necessarily meant 
 .their social recognition ; and when called upon for the 
 proof, he referred to the Tappan dinner and similar in- 
 cidents. Of course it is easy at this late day to detect 
 the fallacy in this mode of reasoning, but at that time, 
 and situated as he was, it was not so. From his point 
 of view the argument was sound, and it was owing to 
 the belief in the experimental as well as logical truth of 
 the conclusion to which he had come that the movement 
 
 provision requiring the masters of those who should be born to be 
 free to teach them to read and write. This shows you how little 
 a thing turns the destiny of nations." — Commonwealth of Missouri, 
 p. 223. St. Louis, 1877. 
 
176 MISSOURI. 
 
 in favor of gradual emancipation, wliich, up to this time, 
 had made such notable progress among the slaveholders 
 of the State, was brought to an untimely end. 
 
 A few years after the events here narrated, Lovejoy 
 took up the work and began his ill-advised agitation in 
 favor of the same cause, but under very different condi- 
 tions. Owing to the denunciations which the abolition- 
 ists of the North were now heaping upon slavery and 
 slaveholders, the Southerners not only refused to take 
 any measures for ridding themselves of what a large 
 number of them regarded as an evil, but they would not 
 listen to arguments in favor of a policy with which, only 
 a few short years before, they had been in full sym- 
 pathy. Accordingly, when in 1833, on his return from 
 the theological school at Princeton, Lovejoy began, in 
 St. Louis, the publication of his paj)er, his condemnation 
 of slavery and pleas for gradual emancipation fell upon 
 unwilling and even hostile ears, though there was noth- 
 ing new or objectionable in the doctrines he advocated ; 
 and the tone and temper of his utterances, when con- 
 trasted with the fierce philippics of later times, were 
 as gentle as the cooings of a dove. In spite of this, 
 fact, they gave occasion to much ill feeling, and by way 
 of allaying the excitement, and paving the way to the 
 continuance of his Journal as a religious publication, 
 pure and simple, a number of his friends and principal 
 supporters, among whom was Hamilton R. Gamble, the 
 Union Governor of Missouri during the war of seces- 
 sion, advised him " to distrust his own judgment so far 
 as to pass over in silence everything connected with 
 slavery." This he would not agree to do, having sworn, 
 as he himself tells us, " eternal enmity to slavery, and 
 being determined by the blessing of God never to go 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 177 
 
 back." In consequence of his persistence in this objec- 
 tionable course, he found, at the end of a year or two, 
 that a longer residence in St. Louis was neither profit- 
 able nor safe ; and in July, 1836, he so far deferred 
 to public opinion that he announced his intention of 
 removing to Alton, Illinois. Before he could do so, his 
 office was sacked, his press and types were thrown into 
 the street, but no personal injury was done him. When 
 he arrived in Alton, he resumed his crusade against 
 slavery, in defiance of pledges which his opponents as- 
 sert he had made to the contrary, and this speedily in- 
 volved him in fresh trouble. One press after another 
 was destroyed, and it was while defending a third that 
 he was shot, though not until he, or some of his friends, 
 had fired upon and killed one of the mob. 
 
 With the circumstances of this sad tragedy, or with 
 the subsequent attempt of certain admirers to apotheo- 
 size Love joy, we do not propose to concern ourselves. 
 He did not meet his death in a slave State, or at the 
 hands of slaveholders ; and so far as the influence 
 which he is said to have exerted in bringing about the 
 final settlement of this question is discernible, it would 
 have been better for the cause he had so much at heart, 
 and for the people whom he sought to benefit, if he had 
 never been born. That he had the abstract right to 
 speak and write as he did, holding himself amenable to 
 the laws of his country, is true, and so, also, it is true 
 that a person may have the right to go into a powder 
 mill with a lighted candle ; but if any one should insist 
 upon doing so, he would soon be taught that his neigh- 
 bors had certain rights, not perhaps expressly guaran- 
 teed by law, but which it would not be prudent to ignore. 
 Thus it was with Lovejoy. Whether rightly or wrongly 
 
178 MISSOURI. 
 
 it matters not, the teachings which a few years before 
 had been received in Missouri with a fair share of favor 
 were now considered as being not only injurious, but 
 positively dangerous ; and in putting a stop to them, the 
 people of St. Louis took the law into their own hands, 
 but in doing so, they exercised a right or a power — it 
 is immaterial by which name you call it — which is in- 
 herent in all communities, and which has been uniformly 
 exercised in our country whenever and wherever the 
 occasion demanded. 
 
 With the removal of Love joy from St. Louis, the 
 movement in favor of gradual emancipation in Missouri 
 came to an end. It was, certainly, a most dismal fail- 
 ure, and yet in some respects it is one of the most in- 
 teresting and instructive episodes in American history. 
 Properly interpreted, it teaches us how prompt the 
 Anglo-American is to resent anything that looks like 
 outside dictation even from his own countrymen, and 
 how futile it is to attempt to improve the domestic insti- 
 tutions of our neighbors by a system of abuse, no matter 
 how much it may be deserved. It also shows us that 
 there was a time, and that not very long ago, when the 
 people of slaveholding St. Louis and free Alton were 
 equally intolerant of the anti-slavery agitation ; and if 
 it does not throw any clear light upon the formation 
 of political parties as they existed at the time, it fore- 
 shadows, to some extent, the course of the border states 
 in the war of the rebellion, and it enables us to say with 
 certainty that, in the Missouri of that day, there was in 
 the Democratic party a strong contingent of emancipa- 
 tionists, just as there was some fifteen or twenty years 
 later, when Frank Blair and Gratz Brown raised the 
 banner of freedom and carried it to victory. 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 179 
 
 Another problem with which the Missonrians of that 
 day were called upon to grapple, ^nd which, at one 
 time, threatened the peace of the State, was the so- 
 called Mormon war. As early as 1831, Joseph Smith, 
 " the Seer, Revelator, Translator, and Prophet " of the 
 new faith, visited Western Missouri, then but thinly 
 populated, on a tour of inspection ; and soon afterwards 
 bands of Mormons, or, as they call themselves. Latter 
 Day Saints, began to arrive and settle in the neigh- 
 borhood of Independence, a town situated on the south 
 bank of the Missouri River near the border of the State. 
 This spot, we are told, is " the place selected by God 
 for the centre stake of Zion ; " and although there is 
 to-day but little of that fair land of which the Saints 
 can claim full and undisturbed possession, yet they still 
 look forward to a return to the homes which they once 
 had there, and to the time when they shall build there 
 " the most magnificent temple on the face of the earth 
 .to the name of Jehovah." 
 
 In the year succeeding the first settlements of the 
 Mormons in this neighborhood, their numbers were 
 largely increased by arrivals, chiefly from Ohio, where 
 they appear to have been badly treated. Smith himself 
 having been " daubed with tar and feathers " at a plac6 
 called Hiram. They established a " mercantile house," 
 as it was termed, in Independence ; opened some two 
 hundred farms in the adjoining country ; planted or- 
 chards, and " commenced many extensive improve- 
 ments." They also issued, in June of this year, the 
 first number of a periodical which was devoted, among 
 other things, to " publishing the revelations of God to 
 the church." These revelations must have been of a 
 somewhat partial character, for they are said to have 
 
180 MISSOURI. 
 
 promised most wonderful things to the faithful, whilst, 
 at the same time, " they denounced equally wonderful 
 things against the ungodly Gentiles." As a conse- 
 quence, the Gentiles became much incensed, for in 
 those days 23eople were not as tolerant in such matters 
 as they are to-day. It may be, too, that they were an- 
 gered by the interference, real or supposed, of the Mor- 
 mons with their slaves ; and they certainly had very se- 
 rious misgivings as to the safety of their persons and 
 property whenever the Mormons should obtain the con- 
 trol of the county, as they were certain to do if the rate 
 at which they were then increasing should be kept up 
 for any length of time. For these and other reasons 
 that seemed to them good and sufficient, they determined 
 to drive the new-comers from the county, and accord- 
 ingly they destroyed the house in which the objection- 
 able paper was printed, and pitched the press and types 
 into the street. They also tarred and feathered the 
 presiding bishop and one or two of the leading mem-, 
 bers of the church, whipped others, and burned down a 
 number of their houses. These outrages brought on 
 an armed collision, which seems to have resulted in 
 favor of the Mormons. Their success was but tem- 
 poi.; .j\ for in a few days they were completely over- 
 awed, and as a condition of safety they were required 
 to give up their arms and leave the county within a 
 specified time. This they did, some fifteen hundred 
 of them, according to their own account, crossing the 
 river and taking refuge in Clay and the neighboring 
 counties. Here they suffered greatly, for, owing to the 
 want of transportation, they had been obliged to leave 
 most of their goods and chattels behind, and, conse- 
 quently, they were but illy prepared to withstand the 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 181 
 
 winter cold that was then upon them. In the spring, 
 an effort was made to bring about some arrangement by 
 which they were to be paid for the property which they 
 had not been able to take with them, and a committee, 
 composed of some of the leading citizens of Jackson 
 County, was sent over to see if it were possible to agree 
 upon the basis of a settlement. The effort came to 
 naught, as the demands of the Mormons were thought 
 to he excessive, and equally fruitless was their appeal to 
 the Executive of the State and to the courts for protec- 
 tion and redress. 
 
 At the end of three or four years, during which time 
 these misguided people had been driven from Clay and 
 Carroll counties, the great bulk of them, reinforced by 
 large accessions from the east, had gathered together in 
 Caldwell county, where they had built up a town which 
 they called Far "West. Speaking from a material point 
 of view they were, in the main, a hard working people, 
 chiefly given to agriculture, though there was no lack 
 among them of skilled mechanics and shrewd merchants. 
 As an evidence of the prosperity which had thus far at- 
 tended their efforts, they are said to have opened in this 
 and the neighboring counties two thousand farms, and 
 we are also told that from the time of their arrival in 
 Missouri until their expulsion, they had paid to the 
 United States government, for land alone, three hundred 
 and eighteen thousand dollars. At the minimum price of 
 one dollar and a quarter per acre this would give them 
 over two hundred and fifty thousand acres, for the most 
 of which they still hold the patents. -^ This is certainly 
 a very favorable showing, but it is only one side of the 
 
 1 Discourse by President George A. Siiiith, delivered in the New 
 rabernaele, Salt Lake City, July 25, 1869. 
 
182. MISSOURI. 
 
 story. On the other hand, they are represented, and no 
 doubt with some degree of truth, as having been igno- 
 rant, bigoted, and arrogant, easily led by the designing 
 and unscrupulous men whom their very prosperity had 
 attracted, and not overly observant of the rights of their 
 neighbors. Preaching and believing, or affecting to be- 
 lieve, that " the Lord had given the earth and the full- 
 ness thereof to his people," and that they were his peo- 
 ple, bands of the more lawless among them are said to 
 have spent their time strolling about the country, help- 
 ing themselves to whatsoever they pleased and other- 
 wise spoiling the Egyptians, or in their more homely 
 phrase, " milking the Gentiles." As they were largely 
 in the majority, and the county officers were of their 
 way of thinking on this point, they were not interfered 
 with " until their lawless course excited the indignation 
 of the Gentile settlers, who, not being able to obtain jus- 
 tice in a lawful manner, resorted to violence and retalia- 
 tion in kind, until many a dark and unlawful deed was 
 perpetrated on both sides." ^ 
 
 In this condition of thinly disguised hostility, matters 
 remained until 1838, when the Mormons began to re- 
 sist by force what they were pleased to term the attacks 
 of the mob, but which, according to Gentile authority, 
 were nothing more than the efforts of a sheriff's posse 
 to execute the duly authorized processes of the courts. 
 This of course placed the Mormons in the wrong, and 
 gave Governor Boggs the opportunity, which he promptly 
 seized, of calling out the militia for the purpose of put- 
 ting down the insurrection and enforcing the laws. Un- 
 der his proclamation a large body of troops entered 
 
 1 Switzler, in the Commonwealth of Missouri, p. 244. St. Louis, 
 
 1877. 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 183 
 
 Caldwell county, and after a skirmish at Haughn's mill, 
 which seems to have been rather a butchery, the Mor- 
 mons were obliged to give up their arms and agree to 
 leave the State, except their leaders, who were to be 
 surrendered for trial. These conditions were certainly 
 very hard, but they were the best that could be obtained ; 
 and if we may credit Mormon writers, it was owang to 
 the determined stand of Alexander W. Doniphan that 
 they were not more rigorous. As it was, the scenes that 
 took place when the time came for carrying out these 
 terms are said to have beggared description. The sea- 
 son was already far advanced, transj^ortation was totally 
 insufficient, and yet notwithstanding these silent appeals 
 for delay some thousands ^ of these unfortunate creatures 
 of all ages, sizes, conditions, and of both sexes were 
 driven from their homes, and compelled to cross almost 
 the entire northern part of the State before they could 
 hope to find a resting place. As a rule, they were poor, 
 had nothing but the small farms from which they were 
 driven, but such was the pressure put upon them, or 
 their anxiety to get away, that not infrequently " a val- 
 uable farm was traded for an old wagon, a horse, a 
 yoke of oxen, or anything that would furnish them with 
 the means of leaving." To take advantage of the ne- 
 cessities of a peojDle so situated, even when their misfor- 
 tunes wer& brought about by their own misdeeds, was 
 certainly bad enough ; but what adds immeasurably to 
 the shame of the transaction is the fact that there are 
 
 1 In the Succinct History the number of refugees is given 
 at fifteen thousand ; Switzler, on the other hand, p. 249, tells us 
 that "at this time there were about 5,000 inhabitants in Caldwell 
 county, nearly 4,000 being Mormons, most of whom went to Nau- 
 voo, Illinois." 
 
184 MISSOURI. 
 
 grounds for believing that not a little of the intolerance 
 shown on this occasion may have been due to a desire 
 on the part of the Gentiles to get possession of the Mor- 
 mons' land. At least, this is the not unnatural inference 
 from the statement made, not by one of themselves, but 
 by a gentleman who has enjoyed exceptional advantages 
 for acquainting himself with the facts of the case, and 
 who tells us that " in many instances conveyances of 
 land were demanded and enforced at the mouth of a 
 pistol or rifle." ^ 
 
 With the leaders who were held for trial nothing was 
 ever done, though they were indicted for treason, mur- 
 der, robbery, arson, resisting legal process, and almost 
 all the other crimes known to the calendar. In remov- 
 ing them to Boone, to which county they had obtained 
 a change of venue, Joseph Smith escaped, by bribing 
 the guards say the Gentiles, or, possibly, as the Mor- 
 mons assert, by the connivance of the state authorities. 
 One or two of the others were brought to trial, and after 
 an impartial hearing, in which they were defended by 
 General Doniphan, and James S. Rollins of Boone, they 
 were acquitted. In view of this decision, the prosecut- 
 ing attorney for that district wisely determined to dis- 
 miss the indictments against the others, and at the Au- 
 gust term of the court, 1840, they were discharged from 
 custody. 
 
 Immediately on their release they repaired to Hancock 
 County, Illinois, where the other refugees from Missouri 
 
 ^ Switzler, in the Commomvealth of Missouri, p. 249. In the 
 Succinct History we are told that " Several hundred persons were 
 driven in a defenseless condition into a hollow square of armed 
 fiends, and compelled to sign away their property to the repub- 
 lic of Missouri, to defray the expenses which had been incurred 
 in committing these crimes." 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 185 
 
 had already established themselves. Here they were 
 most hospitably received as their co-religionists had al- 
 ready been, for the Saints were looked upon as martyrs 
 to their faith, and their sufferings had excited the sym- 
 pathy of all, even of those who knew how incomj^atible 
 were their social, political, and religious ideas and cus- 
 toms with the peace and welfare of the community in 
 which they dwelt ; but even here their stay was short. 
 In June, 1844, less than four years after their expul- 
 sion from Missouri, Joseph Smith and Hyrum, his 
 brother, prisoners in the hands of the law at Warsaw, 
 Illinois, were shot down by a mob ; and in 1846, the 
 last of the Mormons were finally driven from Illinois, 
 under circumstances that entailed heavier sacrifices and 
 more suffering than had attended their enforced flight 
 from Missouri. 
 
 Other measures there were of more or less importance 
 which called for settlement during this most eventful 
 period, and were, happily, free from the element of vio- 
 lence that characterized the treatment of Lovejoy and 
 the Mormons. Prominent among them were the es- 
 tablishment of the State University, at Columbia, and 
 the addition to the State of the triangle situated north 
 of the Missouri, between that river and a continuation 
 of the southern half of the western boundary line to the 
 northern limits of the State. This region is popularly 
 known as the Platte Purchase. It contains an area 
 about equal in extent to that of Delaware, is of excep- 
 tional fertility, and has since been divided into six coun- 
 ties, one of which, Buchanan, is among the wealthiest 
 and most populous in the State. In 1832, when the 
 legislature first took definite action for the acquisition 
 of this region, it belonged to the Sacs and Foxes, to 
 
186 ■ MISSOURI. 
 
 whom it had been granted in exchange for their posses- 
 sions further to the eastward ; and hence before the pro- 
 posed measure could be carried out, it became necessary 
 to abrogate the treaty with those tribes, — no very diffi- 
 cult matter so far as they were concerned and as such 
 affairs were usually managed. But besides this ob- 
 stacle it involved a violation of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise, as the whole of the coveted territory lay to the 
 north of the line of thirty-six degrees and thirty min- 
 utes ; and this, it would seem, ought to have been a more 
 serious consideration. Fortunately just at this time and 
 for a satisfactory reason, it was not as important for 
 the North to insist upon the sacredness of that com- 
 pact as it afterwards became ; and consequently in 1836 
 a bill making this addition to the State was passed 
 through Congress without causing so much as a ripple 
 of excitement. Under its terms a treaty was made with 
 these Indians by which all this tract was relinquished to 
 the whites, and in 1837 it was formally annexed to the 
 State. In speaking of the legislation by which this was 
 brought about, Colonel Benton ignored his own services, 
 and in his large-hearted way was in the habit of giving 
 all the credit of the measure to his colleague, Senator 
 Lewis F. Linn. He also bore willing testimony to the 
 generosity and magnanimity of the Northern Congress- 
 men, without whose aid it could not have become a law. 
 To this award we do not object, though, possibly, our 
 admiration of the liberality of the Northern members 
 may be tempered by the reflection that, politically speak- 
 ing, this concession to what is sometimes styled " the 
 slave power " cost them nothing. It did not and could 
 not add to the voting strength of the South in the Sen- 
 ate, the only place where the numerical superiority of 
 
FROM 1820 TO 1844. 187 
 
 the North was in the least danger ; and it is probably 
 safe to say that the representatives from that section, 
 in permitting the bill to pass, were influenced by this 
 consideration quite as much as they were by feelings of 
 generosity, or by the personal popularity of Dr. Linn, 
 great as that deservedly was. To have acted otherwise 
 would have been, on their part, a useless and aggravat- 
 ing exhibition of strength on a point which, practically, 
 could neither injure them nor benefit their opponents ; 
 and as such a display was not called for, either as a mat- 
 ter of principle or policy, they wisely kept out of a con- 
 test in which they had nothing to gain. Had the cir- 
 cumstances been changed and the stake been worth fight- 
 ing for, the result would perhaps have been different ; 
 for whatever may have been the shortcomings of the 
 Northern members of Congress in other respects, they 
 were never in the habit of wasting their strength upon 
 idle issues, nor did they fall into the error of mistaking 
 the shadow for the substance when a question arose in- 
 volving the possession of political power. 
 
 Turning now from individual business troubles and 
 matters of purely local concern to subjects of national 
 interest, the people of Missouri and of the country at 
 large found abundant occupation during the next few 
 years in dealing with questions that were connected, 
 directly or indirectly, with the hard times of 1837. 
 The presidential election of 1840, as we have seen, 
 turned largely upon this issue ; and though the Whigs 
 were successful in the contest, yet, owing to the death of 
 their candidate in one short month after his inauguration, 
 and to the treachery, as they termed it, of Vice-Presi- 
 dent Tyler, who succeeded him, they failed to reap the 
 reward of their hard-earned victory. Indeed, if we ex- 
 
188 MISSOURI. 
 
 cept the protective tariff of 1842, of which he approved, 
 Mr. Tyler, in his administration of affairs, may be said 
 to have followed the policy outlined by his Democratic 
 predecessor. Not only was this true of the financial 
 legislation of this period, but it also held good in rela- 
 tion to the management of foreign affairs, and espe- 
 cially in regard to the annexation of Texas — the one 
 measure that has given to this otherwise uneventful 
 administration a right to the memorable place in Amer- 
 ican history which it unquestionably holds. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ANNEXATION OP TEXAS AND THE CONQUEST 
 OF NEW MEXICO. 
 
 In the question of the annexation of Texas, the peo- 
 ple of Missouri were deeply interested ; and as it was 
 the immediate cause of the war with Mexico, in which 
 they played a most important part, it may not be out of 
 place to take a rapid glance at some of the causes that 
 brought it about. And first of all it must be premised 
 that it was not a new measure broached now for the 
 first time and as the result of a deep laid conspiracy for 
 the increase of slave territory, but on the contrary, it 
 was the outcome of forces which were perfectly natural, 
 which are constantly at work among all strong, coloniz- 
 ing nations, and which were shared to a very great ex- 
 tent by the people of the whole country, North as well 
 as South. For twenty years, in fact ever since John 
 Quincy Adams, acting under the instructions of Presi- 
 dent Monroe, but in opposition to his own better judg- 
 ment, had concluded the treaty by which all the vast 
 tract of country, now known as Texas, was handed over 
 to Spain in exchange for the Floridas, the policy of 
 the United States, it mattered not which political party 
 happened to be in the ascendant, had been to recover 
 it, whenever it could be done on satisfactory terms. To 
 this end, Adams, on more than one occasion during the 
 four years that he was at the head of affairs, endeavored 
 
190 MISSOURI. 
 
 to buy it back, either in whole or in part ; and later, 
 Jackson and Van Buren both made ineffectual efforts in 
 the same direction. Nothing daunted by these repeated 
 failures, Tyler took up the good work ; and it was in 
 1844, during the closing year of his administration, that 
 a treaty of annexation was made with Texas, the rejec- 
 tion of which by the United States Senate led to the 
 adoption of a joint resolution by Congress for the ad- 
 mission of that State into the Union and thus paved the 
 way to the Mexican war. 
 
 During all these years, affairs in the Spanish Ameri- 
 can provinces had not been at a standstill. In 1824, 
 Mexico revolted from Spain, and in 1836, Texas, follow- 
 ing the example thus set her, declared herself indepen- 
 dent of Mexico. Of the causes that prompted her to 
 this course it is not my place to speak. All that it con- 
 cerns us to know is that on the bloody field of San 
 Jacinto she showed, beyond the possibility of a doubt, 
 that she was abundantly able to maintain her position, 
 and that in consequence of the signal victory which 
 she gained on this occasion her independence was recog- 
 nized by the United States. This action, it is true, has 
 been criticised as being premature, and wanting in 
 comity to a sister republic, but it was in accordance with 
 the traditional policy of the government ; and its pro- 
 priety can hardly be questioned in view of the fact that 
 England and France made haste to do the same thing, 
 and that Mexico was never in a position to reassert her 
 authority over any portion of the revolted province by 
 force of arms — the only way in which such an asser- 
 tion could have been made effectual. 
 
 Being thus left to herself, with her independence 
 acknowledged by three of the leading powers of the 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 191 
 
 world, and with no enemy strong enough to dispute her 
 right to self-government, it was certainly competent for 
 Texas to enter into any engagements that she might 
 think conducive to her future welfare, and with any 
 power with which she might see fit to treat. It was 
 a matter in which she possessed freedom of action by 
 virtue of her position as a sovereign State ; and as the 
 United States had recognized her right to this position 
 when they acknowledged her independence in 1837, it 
 followed necessarily that there was no valid reason, 
 either in law or morals, why they should not become a 
 party to any such treaty, provided they chose to do so. 
 Accordingly, when, in 1844, the treaty of annexation 
 came before the Senate of the United States for ratifi- 
 cation, the question to be decided was not one of inter- 
 national morality, for that had been settled some seven 
 years before, but of expediency, and of this they were 
 the sole judges. In other words, they were called upon 
 to say whether the acquisition of the magnificent empire 
 which they were then offered was worth the war which 
 Mexico had foolishly threatened ^ in the event of its 
 acceptance, and the internal struggle and consequent 
 strain upon the Union which the acquisition of addi- 
 tional slave territory would inevitably cause. Other 
 objections there may have been, of more or less weight, 
 but these were the chief, and it may be added that they 
 were decisive, for in April of this year the treaty was 
 
 1 On the 3d of November, 1843, General Almonte, the Mexican 
 minister in Wasliing-ton, notified the state department that if the 
 United States should commit the ' ' inaudito atentado ' ' of ap- 
 propriating- to themselves an integral portion of the Mexican 
 territory, he would demand his passports, and his country would 
 declare war. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States,\ol. viii. p. 
 335. San Francisco, 1885. 
 
192 MISSOURI. 
 
 rejected by a vote of 35 to 16, a number of those who 
 were in favor of annexation voting against the treaty 
 on account of certain objectionable features which it 
 contained. 
 
 This action of the Senate, while it effectually dis- 
 posed of this particular measure, was so far from 
 putting a stop to the agitation for the acquisition of 
 Texas that it merely transferred it to another and a 
 larger field. It now became the principal issue in the 
 presidential election that came off a few months later ; 
 and it was, no doubt, the position of seeming hostility 
 to this measure which Clay, as leader of the Whigs, was 
 made to assume that led to his defeat and the suc- 
 cess of the Democrats. Instead of coming out openly 
 in favor of the acquisition of this region, as from his 
 course in 1819, and again in 1837, it was to have been 
 expected that he would do, he seems to have been 
 driven by the logic of events into a position in which it 
 became necessary to sacrifice something of his freedom 
 of opinion to the necessities of his party, and to what 
 he certainly believed to be the good of the country at 
 large. Thus, for example, when questioned as to his 
 views upon this subject, he answered that, " so far from 
 having any personal objection to the annexation of 
 Texas, he would be glad to see it, without dishonor, 
 without war, with the common consent of the Union, 
 and upon just and fair terms." He also added that he 
 did not think that " the subject of slavery ought to af- 
 fect the question one way or the other." That he was 
 sincere in returning this Delphic answer, and that his 
 course was dictated by praiseworthy motives, do not 
 admit of a doubt. As an abstract proposition he would 
 unquestionably have been in favor of annexation, as 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 193 
 
 would nine tenths of the people of his State and of the 
 South and West ; but during his entire career, devotion 
 to the Union had been his controlling principle of action, 
 and so great was his dread of the consequences that 
 would follow the acquisition of additional slave terri- 
 tory that he was betrayed into a position which com- 
 mitted him to nothing definite, and which, perhaps for 
 this very reason, weakened him in the South and West, 
 whilst it failed to strengthen liim m the North. Polk, on 
 the other hand, the Democratic candidate, was pledged 
 to immediate annexation, and his friends were united 
 and aggressive. They knew what they wanted, and as 
 there were no considerations of party policy to qualify 
 their action, they were at liberty to work for it deter- 
 minedly and with enthusiasm. In the end they were 
 successful, as they deserved to be, whether the cause for 
 which they contended be judged upon its merits, or 
 whether we simply take into consideration the frankness 
 with which they avowed their purpose and the energy 
 with which they carried on the contest. 
 
 In this election the people of Missouri, by a very 
 decided majority, recorded their votes in favor of the 
 policy of annexation and against the great Kentuckian, 
 though, in 1824, they had given the electoral vote of 
 the State first to him, and then to the younger Adams, 
 whose election was thus secured. In pursuing this 
 course they were actuated by the sentiment of national 
 pride which finds its expression in the spread of Amer- 
 ican ideas and institutions, and they were also largely 
 influenced by that faith in themselves and in the future 
 of their country which led them to look upon it as the 
 " manifest destiny " of every contiguous bit of territory 
 to gravitate, sooner or later, into the Union. These sen- 
 
194 MISSOURI. 
 
 timents were more or less general, and though by a sort 
 of poetic license they are sometimes said to have been 
 due to the Viking blood that is supposed to course 
 through the veins of every Anglo-American, yet, in real- 
 ity, under the less attractive name of a passion for terri- 
 torial aggrandizement, they are common to every grow- 
 ing power, to whatever race it may belong. They are 
 also sufficient, when taken in connection with the sym- 
 pathy that was felt for the cause of Texas and the 
 horror inspired by the massacres of defenseless prison- 
 ers at Goliad and the Alamo, to account for the move- 
 ment on the part of the people of the Southwest to throw 
 a protecting shield over their weaker neighbor, without 
 attributing their conduct to any such recondite motive 
 as a desire to increase the voting strength of their sec- 
 tion by the acquisition of territory which might be ulti- 
 mately cut up into slave States. This is, no doubt, con- 
 trary to the impression that has been assiduously propa- 
 gated, and possibly, in regard to a few extremists from 
 the far South, the statement may not hold good, but with 
 these exceptions it is believed to be substantially true. 
 Certainly, so far as the people of Missouri were con- 
 cerned, the extension of the slave area was so little 
 thought of at this time that but for the prominence 
 given to it by the opponents of annexation, it would not 
 have entered into their calculations. Upon this point 
 there is not room for an argument. The recollection of 
 the fierce struggle that had attended the admission of 
 Missouri into the Union, not less than the necessities of 
 her position on the border line between freedom and 
 slavery, had inspired her people with a healthy spirit of 
 conservatism ; and although they had very decided ideas 
 as to the propriety and expediency of " recovering '* 
 
TEE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 195 
 
 Texas, yet they were not prepared to do so in the inter- 
 est or at the behest of the so-called slave power, if by 
 so doing they were to endanger the stability of the 
 Union. This position they made manifest in a series of 
 resolutions, which was adopted by the legislature for the 
 guidance of their members of Congress, and which was 
 laid before the Senate at Washington, in February, 1845. 
 In it, they express the opinion that the decision of the 
 question as to the existence of slavery " ought to be left 
 to the people who now, or may hereafter, occupy the 
 territory that may be annexed ;" but at the same time 
 they declare that " so essential do they regard the an- 
 nexation of Texas to the interests of the State and of 
 the United States that, rather than fail in the consum- 
 mation of this object, they will consent to such just and 
 reasonable compromises ... as may be indispensably 
 necessary to secure the accomplishment of the measure 
 and preserve the peace and harmony of the Union." 
 In sentiments like these all true patriots can unite, and 
 it would have been well for the peace of the country if 
 they had been more general. They indicate a proper 
 appreciation of the principle of concession which is 
 necessary to the success of representative government, 
 and they breathe a spirit of moderation and loyalty that 
 is in refreshing contrast to the threats of disunion in 
 which at this time, Massachusetts, not less than South 
 Carolina, so freely indulged, provided their respective 
 ideas were not carried out. 
 
 But besides the desire for territorial increase and the 
 interest which they, not unnaturally, felt in the effort 
 of their neighbors to maintain their independence, the 
 people of Missouri were closely connected with those of 
 Texas by ties of blood ; and it was the fact of this kin- 
 
196 MISSOURI. 
 
 ship, the actual personal interest which it gave them 
 in the individual well-being of their friends and relatives 
 over the border, that largely influenced their action at 
 this time, just as during the earlier years of the struggle 
 with Mexico it had led them to make the cause of Texas 
 their own. To understand how this close relationship 
 had grown up, it is necessary to bear in mind that soon 
 after the treaty which gave Spain the undisputed posses- 
 sion of all this region, emigration began to flow into it 
 from Missouri. The stream was never, perhaps, very 
 strong, at least not when compared with the current of 
 population that poured into the older State, but it was 
 steady, and for twenty years or more it rolled in without 
 let or hindrance. At first, these emigrants were drawn 
 thither by the boundless " range " which the plains of 
 Texas promised ; and it may well be that not a few of 
 them, as for instance the Austins, Browns, and others, 
 were attracted by the stories with which they must have 
 been familiar of " the happy days " when, under Spanish 
 rule, land could be had for the asking and taxes were un- 
 known. At all events, similar inducements had brought 
 their fathers across the Mississippi into what was then 
 Spanish Louisiana ; and as they are quite sufficient to 
 account for the desire which, we are told,^ prevailed 
 among the Missourians of that day to emigrate to Texas, 
 it will not be necessary to seek further for the explana- 
 tion of a movement which any one familiar with border 
 life will recognize as being perfectly natural. 
 
 1 " It is curious to observe with how much ardor they recur to 
 the recollection of those happy days. And these recollections are 
 the cause that those people and their descendants have still a 
 strong predilection for the French and Spanish governments, and 
 one great reason of their wish to emigrate to Texas." — Flint's 
 Travels, p. 209. Boston, 1826. 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 197 
 
 Some ten or fifteen years later, after the Texan struggle 
 for independence had been begun and when it became 
 evident that Mexico intended, if possible, to crush the 
 movement by force of arms, a new and important ele- 
 ment was introduced into the contest. The sympathy 
 which the people of Missouri and the Southwest felt 
 for their friends and relatives in Texas, and which had 
 hitherto been theoretical rather than personal, now lost 
 its passive character and became at once an active mov- 
 ing force. They could not look upon the people of Texas 
 as strangers and foreigners, and it was imjjossible to sit 
 quietly by and see them engaged in what appeared to be 
 a hopeless struggle with a people of alien race. Accord- 
 ingly when, in her hour of need, a cry went up from 
 Texas for aid, it met with a quick and effectual response. 
 " Blood " j)roved to be " thicker than water," and the 
 recognition of this fact led, as it must always do with a 
 people in whom the race feeling is as strong as it is 
 among the Anglo-Americans, to results that can hardly 
 be justified under the law of nations. International 
 boundaries were overstepped as if they had been obso- 
 lete lines ; neutrality proclamations and hostile mani- 
 festoes were treated as so much waste j^aper, and, in 
 short, the emigrant now moved with a musket in his 
 hands instead of a plough. In company with their 
 neighbors the people of Missouri had taken the matter 
 into their own hands, and as individuals they did not 
 hesitate to do that which was interdicted to them as a 
 State, and from which in their national capacity they 
 would probably have shrunk. Of the number of them 
 that flocked into Texas during her colonial days and in 
 the anxious years that preceded and followed her dec- 
 laration of independence, it is impossible to form any- 
 
198 MISSOURI. 
 
 thing like a correct idea, but it is probably within bounds 
 to assert that between 1822 and 1836 there were few 
 prominent Missouri families that were not at some time 
 represented in the life of the new State. 
 
 Such being the feeling in Missouri when the question 
 of the annexation of Texas became a living issue, the 
 result could not long be doubtful. Annexation was 
 carried by a majority of ten thousand against the strong- 
 est candidate the Whigs could put up, and it would have 
 been larger, had* it not been for the well-settled belief 
 that Clay was at heart as much in favor of the measure 
 as was his Democratic opponent, and that really the only 
 difference between them on this point was in the way in 
 which they expected and desired to see it accomplished. 
 That this belief was not without a solid foundation was 
 shown by the action of Congress, which met in December, 
 1844, hard on the heels of the presidential election. It 
 was the same body that had rejected the treaty of an- 
 nexation, and yet, at this session, they passed a joint 
 resolution which accomplished the same purpose in a far 
 more summary manner. On the 4th of July, 1845, Texas 
 acceded to the terms offered her, and in the December 
 following she was formally admitted into the Union by 
 an overwhelming vote, over two thirds of the members 
 of each house being in favor of the measure. 
 
 A few days after the adoption of the joint resolution, 
 in March, 1845, General Almonte, the Mexican minister 
 at Washington, closed his legation, as he had said he 
 would do, and in due time the American representative 
 at the city of Mexico received his passports. This was 
 certainly ominous, but President Polk, who was now in 
 power, unwilling to abandon all hopes of peace, propcsed 
 through the American consul to send an envoy to Mexico, 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 199 
 
 clothed with powers to settle all the questions that were 
 in dispute between the two countries. This proposi- 
 tion was at first favorably received, and John Slidell 
 was sent out on that errand. He arrived at Vera 
 Cruz in the following December, only to find that the 
 policy of the Mexican authorities had undergone a 
 change. They now refused to receive him, and in so 
 doing they effectually shut the door upon all prospects of 
 peace. Soon after, on the 24th of AjDril, 1846, General 
 Arista, the Mexican commander on the Texas border, 
 notified General Taylor that he considered hostilities to 
 have begun, and the next day the collision took place 
 which gave occasion to the declaration on the part of 
 Congress that " war existed by the act of Mexico." 
 
 Whether this war could have been averted by the 
 adojDtion of some less summary method of annexation 
 is a matter that may well be doubted. On more than 
 one occasion Mexico had officially declared that the in- 
 corporation of Texas into the United States would be 
 regarded as a cause of war, and there is no reason for 
 supposing that she did not intend to abide by her dec- 
 laration. At all events this is precisely what she did ; 
 and, whatever may have been the provocation, it is clear 
 that in the attack which her troops made upon Captain 
 Thornton's small command near the town of Matamoras, 
 but on the east side of the Rio Grande and therefore 
 within the limits claimed by Texas, she committed the 
 first overt act of the war. 
 
 When the news of this skirmish reached New Orleans, 
 General E. P. Gaines, a veteran of the war of 1812, who 
 was in command of that military department, became 
 alarmed for the safety of General Taylor's army and 
 made a requisition upon several of the neighboring States 
 
200 MI880URT. 
 
 for volunteers, in addition to the four regiments asked 
 for by Taylor himself from Texas and Louisiana respec- 
 tively. Missouri was one of the States thus called upon, 
 and so prompt was her response that, in two weeks from 
 the receipt of the governor's order in St. Louis, a regi- 
 ment six hundred and fifty strong was on its way to the 
 seat of war. They did not remain long in the field, nor 
 did they see any actual service ; for General Gaines' 
 course was disavowed at Washington, and as the troops 
 raised under his call, owing to the short time for which 
 they were enlisted, were an embarrassment rather than 
 an assistance, they were disbanded and sent home at 
 the end of three months. 
 
 With the return of this regiment and its discharge 
 from the service, Missouri's part in the military opera- 
 tions along this portion of the frontier was brought to a 
 close. Her troops were needed in another field, and to 
 this end they were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Leaven- 
 worth, a government post on the western border of the 
 State, where a force was being assembled preparatory to 
 a march on New Mexico and California. This little 
 band, known by the pretentious name of the " Army of 
 the West," consisted of one regiment of horse, one bat- 
 talion of infantry and one of artillery, all volunteers, 
 with six companies — about three hundred — of the first 
 (regular) dragoons, the whole amounting to some sixteen 
 hundred and fifty men. With the exception of the reg- 
 ulars all of these troops were from Missouri, their com- 
 mander. Colonel, afterwards General Kearney, himself, 
 being a citizen of the State. In the latter part of June, 
 1846, they set out from Fort Leavenworth, and taking the 
 well known " Santa F^ trail " they reached that town on 
 the 18th of August, having made the journey of nine 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 201 
 
 hundred miles through an uninhabited region in less than 
 fifty days, and with but little loss in men or animals, 
 though there were times when they suffered for want of 
 water and from a scarcity of provisions. Upon their 
 approach Governor Armijo abandoned the place and re- 
 treated southwards, — the result, it is said, of an intrigue 
 in which he and Don Diego Archuleta, his second in com- 
 mand, were bribed, — so that when the Americans ar- 
 rived before the town they had nothing to do but to 
 enter and take possession. This they did, " without fir- 
 ing a gun or shedding a drop of blood." 
 
 Compared with the storming of Monterey or the cap- 
 ture of the city of Mexico, the unresisted occupation of 
 this village can hardly be called a brilliant achievement ; 
 and yet in the end it led to results that have proved to 
 be quite as momentous, and far more permanent, than 
 any that followed those successes, signal as they were. 
 At that date Santa Fe pro23er contained a population of 
 about three thousand souls, who lived in badly furnished 
 houses, built of adobe, in the usual New Mexican fashion, 
 and only one story high. Poor and mean as the village 
 was, it had a certain importance, growing out of the cir- 
 cumstance that for twenty years or more it had been 
 the erdrepot of the overland trade with Missouri, and a 
 sort of distributing point for all the goods imported into 
 this and the neighboring departments of northern 
 Mexico. From a small beginning in 1822 this trade 
 had gone on, increasing year by year, until in 1843 it 
 was estimated at four hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
 lars, necessitating the employment of two hundred and 
 thirty wagons and three hundred and fifty men. Even 
 \n 1845, after the adoption of the joint resolution for 
 the annexation of Texas, and when the relations between 
 
202 MISSOURI. 
 
 the United States and Mexico were consequently in a 
 high state of tension, the value of the goods brought 
 into Santa Fe over this route is said to have been about 
 three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; and it is a 
 curious fact, indicative perhaps of the sentiments with 
 which the merchants, native as well as foreign, regarded 
 the occupation of this department, that there was at 
 this time a large caravan of traders' wagons, following 
 in the wake of the American troops. 
 
 Aside from the importance which this place possessed 
 as a port of entry, it was the political capital of the 
 department, which is divided into two parts by the Rio 
 Grande. It was also situated some miles to the eastward 
 of this stream and therefore within the limits claimed by 
 Texas, though in justice it must be admitted that she 
 had never been able to extend her sway thus far, the 
 effort which she made in 1841 to do so having resulted 
 in a disastrous failure. 
 
 On the day after he took possession of Santa Fe, 
 General Kearney issued a proclamation, in which, among 
 other things, he absolved the people of New Mexico from 
 all allegiance to their constituted authorities, and by a 
 stroke of the pen transformed them into citizens of the 
 United States. This was certainly a very high-handed 
 measure ; but it were easily defended, if, as was the case 
 with the proclamation issued August 2d from Bent's 
 Fort, its effect had been limited to so much of the de- 
 partment as was situated east of the Del Norte, as the 
 Rio Grande is here called, though the ultimate own- 
 ership of the tract would have depended upon the fate 
 of the war. General Kearney, however, was not dis- 
 posed to wait upon the slow march of military events, 
 nor did he have the slightest intention of abandoning 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 203 
 
 one foot of the territory upon which he had seized. So 
 far was he from it that on the 22d of August, only- 
 three days after the officials at Santa Fe had been 
 required to take the oath of allegiance to the United 
 States, he announced his purpose of holding the en- 
 tire department " with its original boundaries (on both 
 sides of the Del Norte) ; " and as if to to leave no doubt 
 as to his intentions, he caused a constitution and code 
 of laws to be prepared which changed New Mexico, in 
 name and in fact, from a province of Mexico into a 
 territory of the United States. 
 
 In seeking for the authority under which Kearney 
 acted in making these radical changes, we are obliged 
 to fall back upon the confidential instructions sent him 
 June 3, 1846, though, carefully worded and elastic as 
 they are, they can hardly be said to justify his course. 
 Unquestionably, they authorize him to take possession 
 of New Mexico and " establish a temporary civil govern- 
 ment therein ; " and there can be no doubt that they 
 also require him to assure the people of this province 
 that " it is the wish and design of the United States to 
 provide for them a free government . . . similar to that 
 which exists in our territories ; " but beyond this they 
 do not go. Nowhere, not even by implication, do they 
 confer upon him the power to annex this or any other 
 region that he might conquer. Indeed, it could not well 
 have been otherwise, for this was a power which the 
 President himself did not possess, and which, conse- 
 quently, he could not delegate to another. But whilst 
 this is clear, it is difficult to believe that Kearney, sol- 
 dier that he was and therefore accustomed to obey or- 
 ders, would, in a matter of this importance, have taken 
 the responsibility of acting as he did, unless he had been 
 
204 MISSOURI. 
 
 assured of sympathy and support from Washington. Of 
 course, this is conjecture and must be taken for what it 
 is worth, though it is but fair to add that it receives a 
 certain amount of confirmation from the fact that Pres- 
 ident Polk, when communicating the account of these 
 proceedings to Congress, refers to what, he says, may 
 have been " the exercise of an excess of power," and ex- 
 cuses it on the ground that it was " the offspring of a 
 patriotic desire to give to the inhabitants the privileges 
 and immunities so cherished by the people of our own 
 country." 
 
 However, let the responsibility for this wholesale seiz- 
 ure of foreign territory be where it may, it is very evi- 
 dent that Kearney was never troubled by any doubts as 
 to what was required of him. On the contrary, he always 
 moved resolutely, without hesitation, and as if sure of his 
 ground. When the constitution and laws, the prepa- 
 ration of which had been committed to Colonel Doni- 
 phan and Private W. P. Hall, of the Missouri volunteers, 
 were submitted to him, he at once ordered them to be 
 promulgated and obeyed ; and on the very same day he 
 completed the civil organization of the territory by the 
 appointment of another Missourian, Charles Bent, of 
 Bent's Fort, as governor, with a full complement of 
 judges and other ojBficials, among whom we recognize 
 the well-known name of Francis P. Blair, Jr., as attorney 
 general. Having thus set the wheels of government in 
 motion, he felt that his work in New Mexico was done, 
 and on the 25th of September, but little more than a 
 month from the date of his arrival at Santa Fe, he set 
 out for California. 
 
 On the 26th, the day after his departure. Colonel 
 Sterling Price, of the 2d Missouri mounted volunteers, 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 205 
 
 arrived in Santa Fe and relieved Colonel Doniphan, 
 who began to prepare for his march on Chihuahua, 
 where it was supposed he would find General Wool, to 
 whom he had been ordered to report. Before he was 
 ready to move, the Navajo Indians had become so 
 troublesome that an order was sent back by General 
 Kearney, directing him to march against them and put 
 a stop to their depredations. Dividing his command, 
 he sent a column under Major Gilpin up the Chama 
 and across the mountains into the valley of the little 
 Colorado; with another he marched up the valley of 
 the Puerco ; while a third party, numbering only thirty 
 men, under command of Captain John W. Reid, took a 
 middle route and thus penetrated into the very heart of 
 the Indian country. By means of these several expedi- 
 tions all the different bands of the Navajos were visited, 
 and it resulted in bringing a large number of their chiefs 
 and warriors to the Ojo del Oso, — Bear Spring, — a well- 
 known watering-place sixty miles northwest of Zuni 
 and not far from the Moqui villages. Here the coun- 
 cil was held and peace was finally concluded, though 
 Colonel Doniphan seems to have had some difficulty in 
 makhtg the Navajos understand how it was that he now 
 appeared as the defender of the people whom he had 
 come out to fight. Thus, when the Navajos were told 
 that they would no longer be permitted to continue their 
 hostile incursions into the territory, one of their chiefs 
 is said to have answered : " Americans, you have a 
 strange cause of war against the Navajos. We have 
 waged war against the New Mexicans for several years. 
 We have plundered their villages, and killed many of 
 their people, and made many prisoners. We had just 
 cause for all this. You have lately commenced a war 
 
206 MISSOURI. 
 
 against the same people. You are powerful. You have 
 great guns and many brave soldiers. You have there- 
 fore conquered them, the very thing we have been at- 
 tempting to do for so many years. You now turn upon 
 us for attempting to do what you have done yourselves. 
 We cannot see why you have cause of quarrel with us 
 for fighting the New Mexicans on the west, while you 
 do the same thing on the east. Look how matters stand. 
 This is our war. We have more right to complain of 
 you for interfering in our war, than you have to quarrel 
 with us for continuing a war we had begun long before 
 you got here. If you will act justly, you will allow us 
 to settle our own differences." 
 
 In reply to this statement, which is not without its 
 force. Colonel Doniphan explained that the " New 
 Mexicans had surrendered ; that the whole country and 
 everything in it had become ours ; that when the In- 
 dians now stole property from the New Mexicans they 
 were stealing from us ; and that when they killed them 
 they were killing our people, and that this could not be 
 suffered any longer." Satisfied with this explanation, 
 or, as is far more probable, intimidated by the display 
 of force and the energy with which the Americans had 
 followed them over snow -covered regions into their 
 mountain fastnesses, the Navajos agreed to a treaty of 
 peace, which, by a special article, was made to include 
 the New Mexicans and also the Pueblo Indians. 
 
 Having arranged this matter satisfactorily, Colonel 
 Doniphan was now at liberty to take up his line of 
 march for Chihuahua, and, accordingly, he retraced his 
 steps to the valley of the Del Norte, where he established 
 his headquarters at the town of Valverde, which had been 
 made the depot for his supplies and the rendezvous for 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 207 
 
 the different detachments of his regiment. Here the 
 weary soldiers were allowed a few days of rest, before 
 they were called upon to start on that long and toilsome 
 march which, beginning with Chihuahua as the objective 
 point, only ended on the shores of the Mexican gulf. 
 On the 14th of December, all things being in readiness, 
 the first battalion, consisting of three hundred men under 
 Major Gilpin, set out, the regiment moving in separate 
 divisions for the convenience of crossing the Jornada del 
 Tnuerto, a sandy waste of ninety miles, without wood or 
 water. On the 16th Lieutenant Colonel Jackson fol- 
 lowed with two hundred men, and on the 19th Doniphan 
 brought up the rear with the rest of the regiment, the 
 principal part of the baggage train, and Lieutenant Colo- 
 nel Mitchell and ninety men of the 2d Missouri — Price's 
 regiment. A hard march of three days brought them 
 across the desert, and on the 22d the command was con- 
 centrated at the little village of Donna Ana, where they 
 found an abundance of supplies of all kinds, with streams 
 of running water. Continuing their journey down the 
 valley, they came, on the afternoon of the 25th, — Christ- 
 mas Day, — to a place called Bracito (" little arm " of 
 the river), where they pitched their camp and began to 
 make themselves comfortable for the night. Whilst they 
 were scattered about, engaged in gathering forage for 
 their horses, and fuel and water for their own needs, they 
 were attacked by a superior force of Mexicans, nearly 
 half of which was cavalry. Rapidly forming on foot, 
 the Americans held their fire until the enemy came 
 within easy range, when they opened upon them with 
 destructive effect. At the same time Captain Reid, who 
 had succeeded in mounting some fifteen or twenty of his 
 men, broke through the Mexican ranks and threw them 
 
208 MISSOURI. 
 
 into confusion. In less than half an hour the skirmish 
 was over and the Mexicans were in full retreat, " leaving 
 sixty-three killed, one hundred and fifty wounded, and 
 one howitzer, the only piece of artillery in the engage- 
 ment on either side." The loss of the Americans was 
 eight wounded, none killed. 
 
 Resuming their march, the Americans entered El Paso 
 on the 27th without opposition, and there they learned 
 from prisoners and others of the change that had been 
 made in General Wool's movements, and that so far 
 from being in possession of the city of Chihuahua he had 
 not even " marched upon the state." This was not very 
 encouraging, but Doniphan determined to press on, 
 though Chihuahua was still two hundred and twenty-five 
 miles distant, and not a little of the route lay through a 
 desert waste. Under the circumstances, he did not think 
 it prudent to adventure further without artillery, and 
 he ordered down from Santa Fe Captain Weightman's 
 company, with a battery of six guns, under command of 
 Major M. L. Clark. 
 
 This involved a delay of some weeks, but the 8th of 
 February found him once more on the march, at the 
 head of nine hundred and twenty-four effective men, and 
 singularly enough with a caravan of over tliree hundred 
 traders' wagons, which he was supposed to be escorting. 
 On the 28th, at the pass of the Sacramento, fifteen miles 
 from Chihuahua, " the enemy was discovered strongly 
 posted on high ground, fortified by entrenchments and 
 well supplied with artillery." After an effective cannon- 
 ade. Colonel Doniphan advanced to the attack with seven 
 dismounted companies in line and three mounted ; but 
 the battle was decided by the charge of two twelve- 
 pound howitzers, under Captain Weightman, supported 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 209 
 
 by the cavalry and followed up by the dismounted troops 
 and the rest of the artillery. In this charge the howitz- 
 ers were not unlimbered until they were within fifty yards 
 of the enemy's redoubts, and the cavalry riding up to the 
 brink of the entrenchments drove the Mexican gunners 
 from their pieces. Unable to withstand this onset, the 
 Mexicans retreated, closely followed by the Americans, 
 until night put an end to the conflict. In this engage- 
 ment the Mexicans had about four thousand men, of 
 whom some fifteen hundred were rancheros, badly armed 
 with lassos, lances, and machetes or corn-knives, and 
 their loss is given at three hundred killed, as many 
 wounded, and forty prisoners. The Americans, as has 
 been said, had nine hundred and twenty-four effective 
 men, to which number must be added two companies of 
 teamsters, under Samuel C. Owens, of Missouri, and a 
 few amateur soldiers, which carri-ed the total force up to 
 eleven hundred and sixty-four men. Of this number 
 but one, Owens, was killed, though eleven were wounded, 
 three of whom subsequently died. 
 
 On the 1st of March, 1847, the day after the battle, 
 Doniphan took possession of Chihuahua, and here he re- 
 mained until the 28th of April, when, in obedience to 
 orders from General Taylor, he set out for Saltillo and 
 Matamoras, nine hundred miles distant, but not until 
 he had provided, as far as it was possible to do so, for 
 the safety of the traders whom he now left behind. 
 The march to Saltillo was a hard one owing to the want 
 of transportation and the scarcity of water, but it was 
 successfully accomplished, and would, perhaps, have 
 passed without incident had it not been for the severe 
 punishment which Captain Reid and a detachment of 
 thirty-five Americans inflicted upon a marauding band 
 
210 MISSOURI. 
 
 of Indians at the request of the people of Parras, and 
 in grateful recognition of the kindness which they had 
 shown to the sick of General Wool's command. Take 
 it all in all, this re.scue of eighteen Mexican boys and 
 girls from a captivity worse than death by a party of 
 Missouri troopers was a novel and pleasing episode ; and 
 as it was, in its origin and ending, as creditable to the 
 Mexicans as to the Americans, and was, moreover, a fair 
 illustration of Western character, it is here given in the 
 words of Jose Ignacio Arabe, the prefect of Parras. 
 Under date of May 18th he thus addresses Captain 
 Reid : — 
 
 " At the first notice that the barbarians, after killing 
 many and taking captives, were returning to their haunts, 
 you generously and bravely offered ... to fight them 
 on their crossing by the Pozo, executing this enterprise 
 with celerity, address, and bravery worthy of all eulogy, 
 and worthy of the brilliant issue which all celebrate. 
 You recovered many animals and much plundered prop- 
 erty, and eighteen captives were restored to liberty and 
 to social enjoyments, their souls overflowing with a lively 
 sentiment of joy and gratitude which all the inhabitants 
 of this town equally breathe in favor of their generous 
 deliverers and their valiant chief. The half of the In- 
 dians killed in the combat, and those which fly wounded, 
 do not calm the pain which all feel for the wound which 
 Your Excellency received defending Christians and civil- 
 ized beings against the rage and brutality of savages. 
 All desire the speedy reestablishment of your health, 
 and although they know that in your own noble soul will 
 be found the best reward of your conduct, they desire 
 also to address you the expression of their gratitude and 
 high esteem. I am honored in being the organ of the 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 211 
 
 public sentiment, and pray you to accept it, with the as- 
 surance of my most distinguished esteem." 
 
 On the 22d of May the Missourians, " rough, ragged, 
 and ready," reached General Wool's lines near Saltillo ; 
 and the next day, as the term of their enlistment was 
 rapidly drawing to a close and there was no prospect of 
 further need of their services, Captain Weightman turned 
 over the battery which he had so worthily commanded 
 to the officer who was appointed to receive it. The ten 
 guns which had been captured at Sacramento were, by 
 permission of General Taylor, conveyed to Missouri and 
 deposited with the state authorities at Jefferson City, 
 subject to the action of the War Department at Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 Leaving Saltillo, the Missourians proceeded by rela- 
 tively slow and easy marches to Brazos Island, at the 
 mouth of the Rio Grande, where they arrived on the 9th 
 of June ; and the following day they embarked for New 
 Orleans and home. With their arrival on the shores of 
 the gulf this extraordinary march came to an end. In- 
 cluding the Navajo expedition, it had extended over a 
 distance of three thousand miles, through an uninhabited 
 or a hostile country, often without water or supplies of 
 any kind ; and it had been made in the face of difficulties 
 which tested to the utmost the endurance of those who 
 took part in it. That they were able to accomplish it 
 with a loss of less than fifty men, counting those who fell 
 in the sharply contested action at Sacramento, speaks 
 volumes for the material of the command, and justly 
 entitled them to the enthusiastic welcome which they re- 
 ceived on their return. Considered, however, as a fac- 
 tor in the military problem, assuming this to have been 
 the capture of the city of Mexico, the work performed 
 
212 MISSOURI. 
 
 by this column loses much of its importance, owing to 
 the adoption of the route by way of Vera Cruz instead 
 of that by way of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, over 
 which Taylor had proposed to advance ; but if we esti- 
 mate it by its final results, we shall have to admit that 
 the conquest and occupation of New Mexico simplified 
 the task of the American commissioner when negotiating 
 the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and made it possible 
 for him so to perfect the title to the territory which we 
 then gained that, compared with that by which Germany 
 now holds Alsace and Lorraine, it may be said to be 
 without a flaw either in law or morals. 
 
 But whilst we have been following the march of 
 Doniphan and his men, New Mexico was the scene 
 of a bloody uprising, which led to the death of Gov- 
 ernor Charles Bent, and threatened the supremacy of 
 the Americans. Benton tells us that it was due to the 
 machinations of a certain Diego Archuleta, the second 
 in command under Governor Armijo, and intimates 
 that Archuleta's course was dictated by the conviction 
 that he had been cheated in the intrigue to which he 
 is said to have been a party, by virtue of which he 
 was to have been permitted to make himself master of 
 so much of the province as lay to the west of the Rio 
 Grande, in consideration of the surrender of Santa Fe 
 to the Americans. So far as Archuleta was concerned 
 this may well have been true. Certainly, if the story 
 of the intrigue be accepted, and if, furthermore, it be 
 admitted that he was led to believe that Magofiin, who 
 seems to have been the tempter in this case, was acting 
 by the authority of the United States, it will be easy to 
 understand why, having fulfilled his part of the iniqui' 
 tous bargain, he should have regarded Kearney's procla- 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 213 
 
 mation annexing the whole of New Mexico as an attempt 
 to get rid of him without paying him for his services. 
 But even if all this were true, we must not forget that 
 Archuleta was only one of the prime-movers in this re- 
 volt, and apparently not the ruling spirit among them ; 
 and base and sordid as may have been the motives 
 that governed his conduct, there is not the slightest 
 ground for supposing that the co-conspirators were in- 
 fluenced by any such considerations. Their course may 
 have been dictated by high patriotic motives. In fact 
 the evidence all seems to point that way, for Colonel 
 Price, of the 2d Missouri, who was left in command of 
 the troops stationed in the territory, writing under date 
 of July, 1847, speaks of " the deadly hostility " with 
 which the New Mexicans regarded the Americans, and 
 it is not probable that the feeling was any less bitter in 
 the months immediately succeeding the occupation, or 
 whilst the so-called revolt was in progress. 
 
 Under any circumstances the dismemberment of a 
 nation or the forcible annexation of one people by an- 
 other, especially when they differ in race and religion, is 
 not a gentle process ; and when it is attended, as was 
 the case in the present instance, by radical changes in 
 their mode of government and in their laws and cus- 
 toms, it inevitably gives rise to a deep-seated feeling of 
 hostility which may be suppressed by the strong hand, 
 but which only awaits a favorable opportunity to burst 
 forth into acts of open, and, we may add, justifiable war- 
 fare. When an outbreak of this character is successful, 
 or if, perchance, the story be told of ourselves, the move- 
 ment is always ascribed to patriotic ardor ; but if, on the 
 other hand, it result in failure, or if we happen to be the 
 sufferers, then it is characterized by other and less high- 
 
214 MISSOURI. 
 
 sounding terms. In a struggle of this kind, the losers, 
 like the absent, are always in the wrong, and such seems 
 to have been the case with the New Mexicans in the 
 effort^ which they made to throw off the yoke that had 
 been imposed on them. Evidently they had never ac- 
 cepted the situation, and although the conditions were 
 not favorable to a reenactment on this distant field and 
 at this late day of the " Sicilian Vespers," yet they gal- 
 lantly made the attempt ; and but for the promptness of 
 the American commander in attacking the insurrection- 
 ary force before it had perfected its organization, the 
 result might have been different. 
 
 According to the vague and somewhat incomplete ac- 
 counts that have come down to us, the first mutterings 
 of the storm were heard about the middle of December, 
 only four months after the occupation of Santa Fe, 
 during which period the plans of the conspirators had 
 been so far matured that the 25th of the month, the 
 day on which Doniphan fought the skirmish at Bracito, 
 was chosen for the uprising. Colonel Price, however, 
 had received an intimation of the impending danger, and 
 he at once took measures to meet and counteract it. Sev- 
 eral arrests were made, and for the time being the prog- 
 ress of the movement seemed to have been checked. 
 The affair, however, had gone too far to admit of any 
 other mode of settlement than by an appeal to the sword, 
 and for this the Americans were not yet prepared. 
 Indeed so secure did they feel that Governor Bent, 
 on the 14th of January, 1847, left Santa F^ on a visit 
 to his family at Taos, distant about seventy miles ; and 
 here he was when, on the 19th, a revolutionary force took 
 possession of the place, and murdered him and several 
 other government officials, among whom was Cornelio 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 215 
 
 Vigil, the prefect, a native of New Mexico. Similar 
 outbreaks took place at Arroyo Hondo, Mora, and other 
 places in this portion of the territory, during which a 
 number of Americans, and of those who were supposed 
 to be favorable to them, lost their lives. 
 
 The news of the uprising at Taos and the murder of 
 Governor Bent was brought to Colonel Price on the 
 day after it occurred, and he immediately sent orders 
 to Major Edmonson of his regiment, at Albuquerque, to 
 move up to Santa Fe and take command there, whilst 
 he himself marched against the insurgents, who were re- 
 ported to be advancing and rapidly gaining in strength. 
 On the 23d, he set out at the head of only three hun- 
 dred and fifty men, consisting in great part of the dis- 
 mounted troopers of his own regiment, and on the next 
 day he encountered the enemy near the village of Can- 
 ada, where they were posted on heights commanding the 
 road, and in some strong adobe houses at the foot of the 
 liills. After a sharp skirmish, in which the brunt of the 
 fight seems to have been borne by Captain Angney's 
 battalion of (Missouri) infantry, and St. Vrain's company 
 of volunteers from Santa Fe, the enemy were driven 
 from every position, and retreated, leaving thirty-six of 
 their number dead on the field, while the Americans had 
 to lament the loss of two killed and seven wounded. 
 Following up his success. Price reached Luceros on the 
 28th, where he was joined by Captain Burgwin, with one 
 company of the first dragoons and a six-pound cannon. 
 This increased the number of his available men to four 
 hundred and eighty, and with this force he marched on 
 Taos, whither the enemy fled after a second skirmish, 
 which took place at Embudo. After a hard march of 
 several days, during a portion of which the snow was 
 
216 MISSOURI. 
 
 so deep that the soldiers were obliged to break the way 
 for the artillery and baggage wagons, he reached the vil- 
 lage of San Fernando de Taos, through which he passed 
 on his way to the pueblo of the same name, where the 
 insurgents had taken refuge. This place was " inclosed 
 by formidable walls and strong pickets, within which 
 were two large buildings of irregular pyramidal form, 
 seven or eight stories in height. Besides these dwelling- 
 houses, each capable of sheltering five or six hundred 
 men, there was a large church situated in the north- 
 west angle of the inclosure, with a narrow passage be- 
 tween it and the outer wall." All these buildings were 
 of adobe, — sun-dried bricks, — and it was no doubt 
 owing to this fact, to the thickness of these walls, and to 
 their singularly defensive form, pierced as they were for 
 rifles, that the besieged were able to resist, during the 
 better part of two days, an attack in which the guns, 
 under Lieutenants Dyer (afterwards chief of ordnance) 
 and Wilson, were served at unusually short range. 
 
 Into the details of this siege we do not propose to 
 enter, though some idea may be formed of the difficulty 
 of the undertaking and the obstinacy of the defense from 
 the fact that at eleven o'clock on the morning of the sec- 
 ond day, Price, finding that it was impossible to breach 
 the walls of the church with his cannon, ordered the build- 
 ing to be stormed. At a given signal Captain Burg- 
 win, with his own company and one of the 2d Missouri, 
 " charged upon the western flank of the church ; " while 
 Captain Angney, with his battalion of infantry and an- 
 other company of the 2d Missouri, attacked the northern 
 wall. As soon as the troops under Captain Burgwin had 
 established themselves on their side of the church, they 
 began to cut their way through the wall with axes. 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 217 
 
 After some hours of this kind of work, during which 
 Capt. Burgwin was mortally wounded, " the six-pounder 
 was run up within sixty yards of the church, and after 
 ten rounds, one of the holes which had been cut with 
 axes was widened into a practicable breach." Through 
 this the stormers entered, and the building was carried 
 without further resistance. 
 
 This virtually put an end to the conflict; for the 
 enemy, in their haste to escape, either fled to the neigh- 
 boring mountains, or took refuge in the large communal 
 houses in other parts of the village. The next morning, 
 in answer to their supplications. Colonel Price agreed to 
 a peace on condition that they would deliver up Tomas, 
 one of their leading men, who was said to have been 
 actively engaged in the murder of Governor Bent. This 
 was done, and Tomas was taken to San Fernando de 
 Taos and confined in the guard-house, where he was 
 shortly afterwards shot by a private soldier. The num- 
 ber of the enemy, Mexicans and Pueblo Indians, en- 
 gaged in this battle was estimated by Colonel Price at 
 between six and seven hundred, of whom one hundred 
 and fifty were reported killed. On the side of the Ameri- 
 cans the loss was seven killed and forty-five wounded, 
 many of whom died. 
 
 With the fall of this pueblo the revolt may be said to 
 have been brought to an en^. Of those who were 
 prominently concerned in it, a few died in action, while 
 others, among whom was Archuleta, took time by the 
 forelock and escaped. Fifteen, seven of whom were 
 Pueblo Indians, were accused of treason, — a crime of 
 which, under the circumstances, they could not have 
 been guilty, — and having been tried and convicted by a 
 court which had no jurisdiction in the matter, they were 
 
218 MISSOURI. 
 
 promptly executed. This was but little better than a 
 judicial murder ; and that such was the opinion of the 
 cabinet at Washington is evident from the way in 
 which President Polk treated those cases that were rec- 
 ommended to him for mercy. To have pardoned them 
 would have been to acknowledge the legality of the sen- 
 tence under which they were to suffer, while, on the 
 other hand, to have refused to do so would have been 
 to make himself, in a measure, responsible for the out- 
 rage upon law and justice by which they were con- 
 demned ; and so, if we may trust Benton's account, he 
 solved the difficulty by instructing the authorities in 
 New Mexico quietly to turn them loose. 
 
 Notwithstanding the severity of the measures taken 
 for the suppression of the uprising, affairs within the 
 territory continued for some months to be in a very un- 
 settled condition, and intercourse between Santa F^ and 
 Missouri became very unsafe. Trains were captured 
 and pillaged, distant grazing camps were attacked and 
 the animals stampeded, and not unfrequently cases of 
 the murder of isolated parties of Americans occurred. 
 These outrages, it is true, were not the result of a con- 
 certed attempt on the part of the Mexicans to drive out 
 the invaders, but were the work of individual bands of 
 marauders, red as well as white, who were bent on rob- 
 bery ; and although the perpetrators when caught met 
 with a short shrift, yet they were so numerous, and their 
 depredations so daring, that, joined to the rumors of an- 
 other insurrection and of the approach of a large hostile 
 force from the South, Colonel Price was led, in the let- 
 ter to which we have already referred, to ask for addi- 
 tional troops to take the place of those whose terms of 
 service were about to expire. 
 
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO. 219 
 
 These were promptly furnished, his call for reinforce- 
 ments having been anticipated, and by autumn the 
 available force in New Mexico was raised to three thou- 
 sand men by the arrival of fresh regiments, which, 
 with but one exception, were from Missouri. With this 
 force, about twice as large as that which had originally 
 taken possession of the province, Colonel or as he must 
 now be called General Price, found no difficulty in restor- 
 ing order and in maintaining the advantages which had 
 already been gained. In an incredibly short time the 
 people of New Mexico submitted to the situation, and the 
 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluded in February, 
 1848, so far from effecting any change in their condi- 
 tion, merely gave a legal sanction to what was an accom- 
 plished fact. New Mexico to all intents and purposes 
 was already a territory of the United States ; and if we 
 except the few companies of the first dragoons, whose 
 gallant services there is no wish to disparage, it was 
 made so by Missouri volunteers. Of the seven thousand 
 men whom she sent to the war, over six thousand were 
 employed in the conquest and pacification of this prov- 
 ince ; and there can be no question that it was the thor- 
 oughness with which they did their work that made it 
 relatively an easy matter for the Mexican authorities to 
 part with all this region in return for the very handsome 
 monetary consideration which they received. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The acquisition of California and New Mexico was 
 made the occasion for reviving the slavery issue, though 
 it assumed a different form from that which it had 
 worn in 1820, when the adoption of the Missouri Com- 
 promise put a stop, temporarily, to the agitation of the 
 question. At that time, it will be remembered, slavery 
 existed in all the territory west of the Mississippi 
 owned by the United States ; and the effect of the com- 
 promise then adopted was to transform the northern 
 portion of that vast region from possible slave to actual 
 free territory. Now the conditions were reversed. 
 California and New Mexico, so far as negro slavery 
 was concerned, were free — made so by the law of 
 Mexico ; and to extend the line of thirty-six degrees 
 and thirty minutes north latitude through them and on 
 to the Pacific Ocean, as the Southern representatives 
 insisted upon doing, was to transfer the southern por- 
 tions of those territories from actual freedom to possible 
 slavery. In other words, in the one instance slavery 
 was excluded from a region in which it legally existed, 
 whilst in the other it was in contemplation to make it 
 legally possible in territories where it had been pro- 
 hibited by the laws of the country to which they had be- 
 longed. This a large majority of the people of the 
 
THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 221 
 
 North were anxious to prevent ; and to this end they 
 not only opposed the extension of the Hne of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise into the newly acquired territories, 
 but their representatives in Washington endeavored so 
 to shape the action of Congress as to prohibit, by legisla- 
 tive enactments, the introduction of slavery into any part 
 of this region. 
 
 To all such legislation the people of Missouri were 
 opposed ; not that they were necessarily in favor of 
 the extension of the area of slavery, but for the reason 
 that they either did not believe that Congress had the 
 power, under the Constitution, to legislate upon the 
 subject, or because, admitting that Congress had the 
 power, they did not deem its exercise advisable, believing 
 as they did that the people of a territory, when framing 
 their State Constitution, ought to be left free to decide 
 as to the institutions under which they were to live. 
 Upon this point their ideas were very clear, and in 
 January, 1849, the legislature of the State embodied 
 them in a series of resolutions intended for the guidance 
 of their members of Congress. In local history, these 
 resolutions are known as the " Jackson resolutions " 
 from the fact that Governor C. F. Jackson was chair- 
 man of the committee that reported them ; though they 
 were introduced into the Senate by Carty Wells, of 
 Marion County, and were originally drawn up, so it was 
 said, by Judge W. B. Napton, of the supreme court, a 
 learned lawyer, an upright judge, and a most estimable 
 citizen. 
 
 After a stormy debate, which was but a prelude to 
 the heated political contest that was to follow, the entire 
 series was adopted, the Whigs opposing, while the 
 Democrats, who had a large majority in both branches 
 
222 MISSOURI. 
 
 of the General Assembly, were, with few exceptions, in 
 favor of it. Notwithstanding the almost unanimous vote 
 which they had given to these resolutions, the Democrats 
 soon found that instead of being a bond of union and a 
 source of strength, they were a cause of discord and an 
 element of weakness. Benton, in open Senate, refused 
 to be bound by them on the ground that, like Calhoun's 
 resolutions, of which they were to some extent a copy, 
 they contemplated secession and did not truly represent 
 the opinions of the people of the State ; and it was this 
 refusal that led to the split in his party and brought 
 about his defeat after a service of thirty years in the 
 Senate of the United States. 
 
 So far as these resolutions can be said to have 
 threatened disunion, there can be no question that Ben- 
 ton was right, and that they did not reflect the senti- 
 ments of the people of the State ; but whether, admit- 
 ting that they did contemplate secession, he was equally 
 correct in charging that all who supported them were 
 aiming at such a result is a point about which opinions 
 may well differ. At this time there was probably not 
 a handful of people in the State who believed that mat- 
 ters would ever be carried to such an extreme as to lead 
 to secession ; and to understand these resolutions aright 
 it is necessary to bear in mind that they are to be inter- 
 preted, not by the events which subsequently took place, 
 but by the opinions that were current among those 
 by whom they were adopted. Tried by this standard, 
 the vague threat or warning which they contain may 
 be said to have been a mere bit of stage thunder, 
 meaning anything or nothing, according to the fancy of 
 the person who used it, and therefore harmless so long 
 as there was no attempt made to carry it into execu- 
 
THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 223 
 
 tion. Neither then, nor at any subsequent period, did 
 any considerable number of the people of Missouri ever 
 look to the secession of their State as a remedy for the 
 injustice of which they felt they had a right to complain. 
 Not even by the most ardent supporters of these resolu- 
 tions was such an idea generally entertained ; for among 
 them are to be found not only some of those who after- 
 wards followed the fortunes of Benton, but also others 
 who, like Governor Robert M. Stewart, did what they 
 could to defeat him, though when the crisis came, ten 
 years later, they were among the stanchest defenders 
 of the Union. But this is not a matter upon which it 
 is necessary to enlarge. All that we are interested in 
 knowing is that these resolutions proved to be the wedge 
 that split the Democratic party, and gave the Whigs a 
 Senator in place of Benton. For this reason, and be- 
 cause of the important part which they played in the po- 
 litical affairs of the State during the next few years, 
 they are here given in full : — 
 
 " Resolved hy the General Assembly of the State of 
 Missouri : That the federal Constitution was the re- 
 sult of a compromise between the conflicting interests 
 of the States which formed it, and in no part of that in- 
 strument is to be found any delegation of power to Con- 
 gress to legislate on the subject of slavery, excepting 
 some special provisions having in view the prospective 
 abolition of the African slave trade and for the recovery 
 of fugitive slaves. Any attempt, therefore, on the part 
 of Congress to legislate on the subject, so as to affect 
 the institution of slavery in the States, in the District of 
 Columbia, or in the Territories, is, to say the least, a vio- 
 lation of the principles upon which that instrument was 
 founded. 
 
224 MISSOURI. 
 
 " 2. That the territories, acquired by the blood and 
 treasure of the whole nation, ought to be governed for 
 the common benefit of the people of all the States, and 
 any organization of the territorial government, exclud- 
 ing the citizens of any part of the Union from removing 
 to such territories with their property, would be an ex- 
 ercise of power by Congress inconsistent with the spirit 
 upon which our federal compact was based, insulting to 
 the sovereignty and dignity of the States thus affected, 
 calculated to alienate one portion of the Union from 
 another, and tending ultimately to disunion. 
 
 " 3. That this General Assembly regard the conduct of 
 the Northern States on the subject of slavery as releas- 
 ing the slaveholding States from all further adherence 
 to the basis of compromise fixed on by the act of Congress 
 of March 6, 1820, even if such act ever did impose any 
 obligation upon the slaveholding States, and authorizes 
 them to insist upon their rights under the Constitution ; 
 but for the sake of harmony, and for the preservation of 
 our federal Union, they will still sanction the applica- 
 tion of the principles of the Missouri Compromise to the 
 recent territorial acquisitions, if by such concession fu- 
 ture aggressions upon the equal rights of the States may 
 be arrested, and the spirit of anti-slavery fanaticism be 
 extinguished. 
 
 " 4. That the right to prohibit slavery in any territory 
 belongs exclusively to the people thereof, and can only 
 be exercised by them in forming their constitution for a 
 state government, or in their sovereign capacity as an 
 independent State. 
 
 " 5. That in the event of the passage of any act of 
 Congress conflicting with the principles herein expressed, 
 Missouri will be found in hearty cooperation with the 
 
THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 225 
 
 slaveholding States, in such measures as may be deemed 
 necessary for our mutual protection against the en- 
 croachments of Northern fanaticism." 
 
 Leaving out of consideration the covert threat and 
 the somewhat truculent language in which these resolu- 
 tions are couched, and regarding slaves simply as prop- 
 erty, as they were subsequently decided to be by the 
 highest tribunal in the land, it is difficult to find any- 
 thing in the positions here taken to which a fair-minded 
 person can reasonably object. Benton, however, as has 
 been said, refused to abide by them, and appealed from 
 the legislature to the people of the State. His reasons 
 have been briefly indicated, though it is proper to add 
 that back of them, and lying far deeper, was his belief 
 in the evil of slavery. Upon this point, his position 
 cannot be mistaken ; and it is worthy of note that it was 
 his conviction as to the difficulty of getting rid of the 
 evil when it was once firmly established — a conviction 
 shared by many thoughtful men in the State — that 
 made him all the more determined in his opposition to 
 any measure that made its extension possible. " The 
 incurability of the evil," he said, on a subsequent occa- 
 sion, " is the greatest objection to the extension of 
 slavery. If it is wrong for the legislature to inflict an 
 evil which can be cured, how much more to inflict one 
 that is incurable and against the will of the people who 
 are to endure it forever. I quarrel with no one for 
 deeming slavery a blessing ; I deem it an evil, and 
 would neither adopt it, nor impose it upon others." 
 How the problem was finally to be solved in regions 
 where slavery existed seemed to him, as he frankly con- 
 fessed, to be beyond the reach of human wisdom ; but, 
 added he, '' there is a wisdom above human, and to that 
 
226 MISSOURI. 
 
 we must look. In the mean time do not extend the 
 evil." 
 
 This is certainly a strong presentation of the case ; 
 and if it had been made in opposition to an attempt on 
 the part of Congress to legislate slavery into a region 
 where it had not previously existed, it would not have 
 been easy to frame a satisfactory reply. But, in point 
 of fact. Congress was not asked or expected to do any- 
 thing of the kind. All that these resolutions demanded 
 was that Congress should not interfere in the matter, 
 save, perhaps, in the way of compromise. What was 
 wanted was that the question should be left open, so 
 that the people of the slaveholding States might go into 
 any of the territories which they had helped to acquire, 
 taking their slave property with them in case they so 
 desired, upon the same footing as that upon which the 
 people of the free North were permitted to move into 
 these same territories with their horses, or any other 
 articles of personal property that they might possess. 
 Of course, in such an event it was possible that the peo- 
 ple in some of these territories, when framing their state 
 constitutions, might see fit to sanction slavery, though 
 this was by no means certain. But even if it had been, 
 it would hardly have afforded any just grounds for op- 
 posing the policy of " non-interference," as it was called, 
 since the question was not whether Congress should or 
 should not legislate slavery into the territories, but 
 whether it should leave the people of each territory free 
 to decide that matter for themselves. Between these 
 two courses there was a wide difference ; and whilst in 
 the former case Benton's argument would have been per- 
 fectly relevant, in the latter it was out of place, for the 
 reason that there was no necessary connection between 
 
THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 227 
 
 a desire to extend slavery into the new territories and a 
 denial of the power of Congress to legislate upon the 
 subject. Indeed, the very reverse of this was true, since 
 it was possible to be a believer in the constitutionality 
 of the doctrine of " non-interference," and to be opposed 
 to the extension of the slave area. In other words, a 
 person might be in favor of transforming a territory 
 into a free State, when the time came to make the 
 change, though he denied the power of Congress to pre- 
 vent the introduction of slaves into that territory, as 
 long as it remained in that condition. , So far from in- 
 volving any inconsistency, this position was perfectly 
 logical ; and as subsequent events abundantly showed, 
 it was the position held by a large proportion of the 
 people of the State, including some of those who voted 
 for the resolutions, and who were known as anti-Benton 
 Democrats, or " Softs." 
 
 Benton did not recognize this fact, or, what is far more 
 probable, he did not think it necessary to take advan- 
 tage of it ; otherwise it would have been easy for him, 
 without any very great sacrifice of opinion, so to shape 
 his course as to conciliate those of the malcontents in 
 his own party who, whilst differing with him as to the 
 means by which they hoped to attain a certain end, fully 
 agreed with him as to the end itself. Unfortunately for 
 the success of his candidacy, a spirit of conciliation 
 formed no part of Benton's disposition, and the experi- 
 ence of a quarter of a century and more, during which 
 he had been the acknowledged leader of the party that 
 controlled the political destinies of the State, had not 
 been of such a character as to lead him to cultivate that 
 virtue. Gifted with superb courage, physical as well as 
 moral, and possessed of an imperious will, he was prob- 
 
228 MISSOURI. 
 
 ably never more at home than when engaged in one of 
 those fierce political contests in which quarter was 
 neither given nor expected. In all such cases his prac- 
 tice had been to crush, not placate ; and in the present 
 instance his natural tendency to deal with his opponents 
 in this summary fashion was no doubt strengthened by 
 the conviction that those who supported these resolutions 
 were secretly aiming at disunion. With all such, or 
 with those whom he only suspected of such a purpose, 
 Benton held no terms. Devotion to the Union had 
 come to be with him the one ruling idea, and thus it 
 may have happened to him, as it not unfrequently does 
 to strong natures, when similarly placed, that he mis- 
 took the individual prejudices and animosities that had 
 sprung from the stormy debates in which he had parti- 
 cipated, for the dictates of reason and patriotism. Such, 
 in fact, appears to have been the case. By some inex- 
 plicable process he had satisfied himself that Calhoun's 
 object was to bring about a separation of the States, and 
 as these resolutions which he was called on to obey em- 
 bodied the South Carolinian's views as to the power of 
 Congress to legislate upon the subject of slavery, he not 
 unnaturally transferred to those who had been instru- 
 mental in securing their adoption a portion of the per- 
 sonal hostility with which he appears to have regarded 
 that greatly misrepresented and much-abused man and 
 every measure with which he was prominently identi- 
 fied. 
 
 The circumstances, however, were very different, 
 now, from what they had been during the earlier por- 
 tion of Benton's career. A generation of voters had 
 grown up who "knew not Joseph," and among them 
 were a number of comparatively young men, who were 
 
THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 229 
 
 ambitious of political preferment, and who afterwards 
 attained and wore worthily the highest honors within the 
 gift of the people of the State. As a rule, they were 
 men who, in the expressive idiom of the time, were ac- 
 customed to do their own thinking ; and as they re- 
 garded the political situation through an altogether dif- 
 ferent medium from that which enveloped the Capitol at 
 Washington, they may be excused if they failed to see 
 in these resolutions the evidence of a purpose to break 
 up the Union. They had yet to learn that the assertion 
 of the rights to which they believed they were entitled 
 under the Constitution was a political crime ; and they 
 were not ready to admit that the declaration of their 
 intention to make common cause with the other slave- 
 holding States in case of a refusal on the part of the 
 free and populous North to grant these rights was proof 
 of disloyalty. It did not need the authority of Webster 
 to convince them that " a bargain broken on one side is 
 broken on all sides." 
 
 When, therefore, Benton, in the course of the tremen- 
 dous struggle which he now made for the retention of 
 his political power, asserted that an adherence to these 
 resolutions would inevitably lead to secession, and con- 
 tended that those who knowingly supported them were 
 endeavoring to bring about such a result, the charge 
 was met by an indignant denial. It was all the an- 
 swer to which it was entitled ; for, like so many other 
 attempts that have been made to impeach the motives of 
 an entire party on the strength of an induction, it was 
 based upon a false premise, the exceptions being too 
 numerous to justify the conclusion. But even if this 
 had not been so, and his opjDonents had been as disloyal 
 as he painted them, it would not have helped his cause, 
 
230 MISSOURI. 
 
 for the reason that the people of the State could not 
 be made to believe that the political situation was as 
 urgent as he insisted that it was. So far were they 
 from sharing in his apprehensions that there never was 
 a time when they were more actively engaged in advanc- 
 ing their private interests and pushing forward those 
 measures upon which the future welfare and prosperity 
 of the State were thought to depend. Hence it was that 
 almost the only effect of the appeal, and of the fierce per- 
 sonal element which he introduced into the canvass, was 
 to make the breach between his former friends and ad- 
 herents practically irreparable. 
 
 In this factional fight the Whigs took no immediate 
 part. They had no love for Benton ; and whilst it is 
 probable that a majority of tliem would, if put to the 
 test, have sympathized with him in his opposition to the 
 extension of slavery into territory then free, as they cer- 
 tainly did in his denunciation of everything that savored 
 of secession, yet they did not regard the situation as be- 
 ing serious enough to call upon them to forget old party 
 affiliations so far as to aid in giving him a new lease of 
 power. For thirty years, during much of which time 
 they had been taught to look upon him as the embodi- 
 ment of all that was politically evil, they had steadily 
 but unsuccessfully opposed him and his methods, and 
 they were not prepared to abandon the contest now, 
 when they saw the prize of victory almost within their 
 grasp. Accordingly, they kept their organization intact ; 
 and the result of the election which occurred in the 
 summer of 1850 fully justified this policy. In the tri- 
 angular contest which then took place, they succeeded in 
 returning sixty-four members to the General Assembly, 
 one of whose duties it was to choose a United States 
 
THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 231 
 
 Senator in place of Benton. This gave them a plurality 
 in that body, as the Benton men, who came next in point 
 of numbers, were only able to elect fifty-five, and the 
 anti-Benton men, or " Softs," had to be content with 
 thirty-eight.^ On the 10th of January, 1851, the legisla- 
 ture met in joint session, but failed to elect, neither party 
 having a majority of all the votes cast. Finally, after 
 some ten or twelve days spent in voting by day and cau- 
 cussing by night, a break occurred in the ranks of the anti- 
 Benton men, and on the fortieth ballot enough of them, 
 under the lead of Senator Robert M. Stewart, went over 
 to Henry S. Geyer, the Whig candidate, to secure his 
 election, the vote being, for Geyer 80, Benton 55, String- 
 fellow (anti-Benton Democrat) 18, and 5 anti-Benton 
 men scattering. 
 
 With this defeat Benton's official career may be said 
 to have been brought to a close ; for although he repre- 
 sented the St. Louis district in the Congress of 1852-54, 
 during which the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed, and 
 was conspicuous in his opposition to that measure, yet in 
 his own State he was steadily losing ground. The prin- 
 ciple of non-interference by Congress in the domestic 
 affairs of a territory which was then formally announced, 
 and the consequent abrogation, in specific terms, of the 
 Missouri Compromise, had come to be regarded as a car- 
 dinal doctrine by one wing of the Democratic party, and 
 the current of opinion in its favor was too strong to be 
 successfully resisted. At the next election Benton was 
 beaten by Luther M. Kennett, formerly a Whig, but 
 who now ran as a Native American, or "Know Noth- 
 ing," the Whigs, as a party, having disappeared from 
 
 1 This was the first vote g-iven for senator on January 10, 
 1851, but there were two members absent and one had died. 
 
232 MISSOURI. 
 
 the field of Missouri politics. In 1856 he again came 
 before the public for their suffrages, this time as a 
 candidate for the office of governor. Although sev- 
 enty-four years of age, and suffering from an incurable 
 disease, yet, in the course of the canvass which he then 
 made, he traveled, over the entire State, a distance of 
 some twelve hundred miles, and made forty speeches, 
 each one of which was one or two hours in length. Un- 
 der the circumstances this was, as his biographer well 
 says, "a remarkable feat," but it was without avail. 
 His star was on the wane, and in the poll which then 
 took place he was third, receiving less than twenty-eight 
 thousand votes, out of a total of one hundred and fifteen 
 thousand. In the senatorial election, or elections, for, 
 owing to a failure to elect at the previous session, two 
 of them came off during the ensuing winter, his friends 
 once more brought him forward, but with no better suc- 
 cess. 
 
 This was his last appearance in the political arena, 
 though in the autumn of 1856 " he made, by request, a 
 lecturing tour in New England, speaking on the danger 
 of the political situation and the imperative necessity of 
 preserving the Union, which he now saw to be gravely 
 threatened." In April, 1858, he quietly passed away at 
 his house in Washington, busy to the last upon the liter- 
 ary work to which he devoted himself when he first lost 
 his seat in Congress, and which is, after all, the founda- 
 tion upon which his claims to remembrance must rest. 
 As a Senator and in niatters of national concern he was 
 overshadowed by some of his compeers ; and in bring- 
 ing forward and advocating measures like the bills to 
 repeal the salt tax, to graduate the price of the public 
 lands, and, perhaps, some others that were of special 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, 233 
 
 service to the State and section, and which could hardly 
 have been carried without his support, he cannot justly 
 be credited with originality, since he was but following 
 in paths that were by no means new. The one measure 
 which may be said to have been peculiarly his own, and 
 upon which he certainly prided himself, was the " Ex- 
 punging Resolution," as it was called ; and this, to say 
 the least, was a piece of child's play, unworthy of Benton, 
 and beneath the consideration of any deliberative body 
 that aimed at official dignity. 
 
 Amid the turmoil and excitement attending these 
 political contests it is a satisfaction to be able to say that 
 the material and educational interests of the State were 
 not neglected. In February, 1849, shortly after the 
 adoption of the Jackson resolutions, the legislature au- 
 thorized the construction of the Missouri Pacific Railroad 
 from the city of St. Louis to the western border of the 
 State. The preliminary surveys were at once begun, 
 and in July, 1850, " ground was formally broken " at 
 the eastern end of the line. It was the first permanent 
 work of the kind done within the State, though it was 
 not by any means the first essay which the people of 
 Missouri had made in the field of internal improvements. 
 As early as 1836, they had awoke to the fact that the 
 Missouri, the Mississippi, and their tributaries did not 
 afford all the means of intercommunication necessary to 
 the development of the different sections of the State. 
 Centres of population had sprung up at a distance from 
 these great commercial highways, and it was a matter of 
 the first importance to provide them with outlets for their 
 surplus products. The dirt roads on which the peojDle 
 had hitherto been dependent were often impassable, and 
 the mode of transportation which they afforded was felt 
 
234 MISSOURI. 
 
 to be too slow to suit the fast increasing wants of the 
 age. Accordingly, the legislature which met in that 
 year chartered a number of roads, though it is evident 
 from an examination of these charters that the people of 
 the State had not yet formed any very clear ideas as to 
 the relative value of steam or horses as a motive power, 
 and were, in fact, somewhat undecided as to what sort of 
 road they really wanted, whether of plank, rail, or simple 
 macadam. But whilst they may be said to have been in 
 doubt upon this important point, they appear to have 
 had no misgivings as to the possible earnings of these 
 roads. At least, this is the not unnatural inference 
 from the fact that upon some of them the prospective 
 dividends were, by the terms of their charters, limited 
 to twenty per cent. — a wise precaution no doubt under 
 certain contingencies, but needless in the present case. 
 Fortunately for Missouri, her legislators were not so 
 far dazzled by visions of the golden harvest that was 
 to follow upon the completion of these roads, as to lead 
 them to commit the State to the task of carrying out 
 the system of internal improvements which they had 
 authorized. Charters they were willing to grant — any 
 number of them, and containing the most liberal provi- 
 sions ; but when it came to engaging the State in the work 
 of building these roads, they wisely called a halt. Under 
 the circumstances this course, involving, as it did, a cer- 
 tain self-denial, was as wise as it was unusual ; and if 
 Missouri, during the next few years, escaped a portion of 
 the pecuniary troubles that bore so heavily upon some of 
 her sister States, it was owing to the conservative spirit 
 which then ruled in her legislative councils. 
 
 In the fourteen years that elapsed between 1836 and 
 1850, there was a notable growth in the wealth and 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 235 
 
 population of the State, and with it came a change in 
 the opinions of those who had succeeded to the man- 
 agement of her finances. To a certain extent, the de- 
 parture which now took place from the conservative 
 methods that had hitherto prevailed can be justified. 
 The State was virtually out of debt ; her revenue had 
 largely increased, and granting that it is ever right or 
 prudent for a State to engage in a work of internal im- 
 provements, or " developing her resources," as enter- 
 prises of this kind were called, it is safe to say that the 
 time had now come when the people of Missouri could 
 afford to indulge in such an undertaking. The trouble, 
 however, when a State once embarks in a business of this 
 kind, is to find a stopping place. The doors of the public 
 treasury having been thrown open, local interests at once 
 step in, and as each section of the State has an undoubted 
 claim to recognition, it often ends in a general scramble 
 for the spoils. Such seems to have been the case in the 
 present instance. No sooner was it understood that the 
 Missouri Pacific road was to receive a subvention from 
 the public purse than there arose the demand for other 
 trunk roads, to each of which the State was expected to 
 lend assistance. In quick succession the Southwest 
 Branch, as the St. Louis ' and San Francisco was then 
 called, the Iron Mountain, and the North Missouri roads 
 were chartered ; and in the short space of eight years, 
 including the sums voted to the Hannibal and St. Jo- 
 seph, these different roads received from the State, 
 in the shape of guaranteed bonds, loans amounting, in 
 the aggregate, to about twenty-four millions of dollars. 
 Upon this sum the roads were expected to pay the 
 interest ; but inasmuch as with but one exception they 
 failed to do so, the State became bound for the entire 
 
236 MISSOURI, 
 
 sum upon which default was made, amounting to some 
 twenty millions of dollars. At the time, this was a 
 heavy load, especially when supplemented, as it was soon 
 afterwards, by the large sums which the State was called 
 upon to pay out during the war of the rebellion. How- 
 ever, by judicious management and a willingness on the 
 part of her citizens to meet these additional expenditures 
 by a corresponding increase in the rate of taxation, a 
 goodly portion of this debt has already been discharged, 
 and the balance, amounting in 1887 to fourteen million 
 dollars, has been so placed that it can be met without 
 causing any undue hardship. To a great extent this re- 
 sult has been brought about by the very development 
 these roads were intended to efPect ; and to grieve, there- 
 fore, over the amount which they have cost, or which is 
 yet due is as idle as would be " the lamentations of a 
 boy over the loss of the bait with which he had caught 
 the fish." 
 
 Simultaneously with the adoption of these plans of in- 
 ternal improvement, measures were taken for extending 
 and improving the school system of the State and estab- 
 lishing it upon a broader financial basis. Hitherto these 
 " free schools," as the institutions organized under this 
 system were called, depended for their support upon the 
 income derived from certain funds which belonged to the 
 State, the county, and the township respectively, and 
 upon the voluntary contributions of those who were in a 
 condition and were willing to avail themselves of the 
 advantages which the system offered. The sums re- 
 ceived from these several sources were small, that from 
 the State amounting in the most prosperous year to less 
 than seventy thousand dollars, — a mere drop in the 
 bucket when compared with what might have been use' 
 
EDUCATION. 237 
 
 fully expended. For this reason, and perhaps owing, 
 also, in some degree to the sparseness of population and 
 to a feeling of prejudice which still lingered in certain 
 quarters against the use of schools that were wrongly 
 called "free," the cause of public education was in any- 
 thing but a flourishing condition. In some portions 
 of the State, especially in the remote and thinly popu- 
 lated districts, schoolhouses were necessarily few and far 
 apart ; and in those regions where they were more com- 
 mon, they were often " nothing more than log huts, un- 
 plastered and un ceiled, with chimneys constructed of 
 sticks, mud, and straw, and without school furniture, un- 
 less long, backless benches, made of inverted puncheons, 
 and wide planks fastened to the wall for a writing desk, 
 can be called furniture." Rude and unsuitable as these 
 buildings would now be considered, they were all that 
 could then be afforded, and not unfrequently, it is to be 
 feared, they were in keeping with the qualifications of 
 the teachers and the elementary character of the in- 
 struction given. Webster's Speller and Pike's Arithme- 
 tic were the text-books in general use, and when a boy 
 had ** been through " these, and was able to write " fine 
 hand," his education, so far as these primitive institu- 
 tions were concerned, may be said to have been com- 
 pleted. 
 
 Such, in brief, seems to have been the condition of 
 public instruction throughout the State of Missouri dur- 
 ing the earlier years of her existence. In a few favored 
 localities, as for instance in St. Louis and in some of the 
 other wealthy and populous counties, a better state of 
 affairs might have been found ; but this was the result of 
 local causes, and was in nowise due to any action on the 
 part of the State, considered as such. Indeed, when re- 
 
238 MISSOURI. 
 
 garded from this point of view, it must be confessed that 
 Missouri, despite the positive injunctions of her constitu- 
 tion to the contrary, had done but little to forward the 
 cause of popular education. Even the small sums which, 
 from 1842 to 1854, were annually apportioned, for this 
 purpose, among the children of the State, were derived 
 from a fund, the principal of which she had received, at 
 different times, from the general government in the 
 shape of gifts in money and land. 
 
 Fortunately, all this was now to be changed. The 
 growth of the State in wealth and population, and the 
 diversification of interests that had followed in its train, 
 made a higher standard of education necessary, and lent 
 additional force to the demand which came up for an 
 increase in the facilities with which such an education 
 was to be obtained. The great mass of the people were 
 no longer content with an occasional schoolhouse of logs, 
 or with the rudimentary branches in which they had hith- 
 erto been instructed ; and although the wisdom of a policy 
 which permits any part of the school fund to be " wasted 
 in bricks and mortar," or allows one portion of the com- 
 munity to be taxed in order to teach another music and 
 German, may well be questioned, yet it cannot be denied 
 that a long step forward was necessary, if the State was 
 to be kept abreast of her neighbors in matters of educa- 
 tion. This fact was duly recognized, and at the session 
 of 1852-53 the General Assembly passed a law requir- 
 ing twenty-five per cent, of the annual revenue of the 
 State to be set apart and divided between the different 
 counties, according to the number of children of school 
 age in each. The first full apportionment under this 
 law took place in 1855. With the exception of the 
 seven years between a. d. 1861 and 1867 inclusive, it 
 
EDUCATION. 239 
 
 has been regularly continued ever since, and so satis- 
 factory have been the results produced, that in 1875, 
 when a new constitution was adopted, a provision con- 
 tinuing and perpetuating this appropriation was made 
 part of the organic law, thus fixing, so far as it was pos- 
 sible to do so, the policy of the State. 
 
 Liberal as was this provision, it is by no means all 
 that the people of Missouri have done for the cause of 
 popular education. From various sources the State, 
 county, and township funds have been increased, until 
 they now amount to ten million five hundred thousand 
 dollars, a good part of which is invested in the bonds of 
 the State. The interest upon this sum is all that can 
 be used, but it has reached an amount which, added to 
 the annual appropriation and to the receipts from tuition 
 fees and the voluntarily imposed local taxes, swelled the 
 grand total, for the year ending June 30, 1886, to the 
 magnificent proportions of five millions of dollars. 
 
 In disposing of these amounts as from year to year 
 they became available, care has been taken to add to 
 the number of primary as distinguished from high 
 schools, experience having shown that they are rela- 
 tively of greater importance, owing to the number of 
 pupils who attend them and do not advance any farther. 
 Institutions for dispensing a higher education, however, 
 are by no means ignored. " In the larger cities and 
 towns, and in many of the smaller towns and villages, 
 prosperous graded schools are maintained for eight, nine, 
 or ten months in the year ; and nearly all support a 
 high school," with a curriculum extending through two, 
 three, or four years. Besides these institutions of a 
 higher class, there are in the State four normal schools, 
 one of which is intended to furnish teachers for the 
 
240 MISSOURI. 
 
 colored schools, and a State University, to which are 
 attached a school of mines and an agricultural and 
 mechanical department. To the support of all these 
 the State contributes liberally, the amount of each ap- 
 propriation varying with the necessities of the case. Of 
 the benevolent institutions, the asylums for the blind, 
 the deaf and dumb, and the insane, it is unnecessary to 
 speak at length. In number and thoroughness of equip- 
 ment they have kept pace with the demands of the time, 
 and they are maintained upon a scale of liberality be- 
 fitting the State. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 KANSAS TROUBLES : PROGRESS OP THE STATE I 
 ELECTION OF I860. 
 
 From considerations of this pleasant and peaceful 
 character, the people of Missouri were recalled by the 
 adoption, in May, 1854, of the Kansas bill and the 
 struggle to which it gave rise between freedom and slav- 
 ery for the possession of that fair land. As has already 
 been intimated, the region which it was proposed, under 
 this act, to organize into a territory, was a part of the 
 Louisiana Purchase, and as it was situated north of 
 the line of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north 
 latitude, it of course came within the limits within which 
 slavery was prohibited by the terms of the Missouri 
 Compromise. This measure, it was then contended, was 
 no longer binding, having been superseded by the com- 
 promise of 1850 ; and that there might be no doubt as 
 to the opinion of Congress upon this point, a clause was 
 inserted into the Kansas bill, by virtue of which the 
 Missouri Compromise was expressly repealed, and the 
 people of the newly organized territory were left to de- 
 cide whether they would or would not sanction the exist- 
 ence of slavery within its limits, just as had lately been 
 done in the cases of New Mexico and Utah, and as had 
 been the custom in the early days of the Republic. 
 
 To any one not wedded to an idea, or not blinded by 
 
242 MISSOURI. 
 
 political prejudices, this return to the policy of the 
 fathers seems like a fair and equitable settlement of the 
 question. The Missouri Compromise had been tried and 
 found wanting, and in abrogating it, as it undoubtedly 
 had the right to do, Congress not only performed a 
 tardy act of justice to the South, but it anticipated by 
 some three years the decision of the supreme court, 
 which pronounced this same compromise to be uncon- 
 stitutional, and therefore null and void. In taking this 
 action, then, Congress certainly gave no grounds for sup- 
 posing that it was actuated by a wish to legislate slavery 
 into the territory, neither, on the other hand, did it 
 show any evidence of an intention to exclude it there- 
 from ; but in throwing open this region to settlement by 
 the people alike of the slave and free States, and declar- 
 ing that its object in so doing was to leave them " per- 
 fectly free to form and regulate their domestic institu- 
 tions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution 
 of the United States," it furnished the best possible 
 proof of its desire to eliminate, as far as it could be 
 done, " the dangerous and exciting question of slavery '* 
 from the field of national legislation, and confine it to 
 the people who were directly interested in solving it. 
 That such would have been the result if the settlement 
 of the territory had been permitted to go forward in 
 the usual way, without any outside interference, there is 
 every reason to believe ; but the experiment was never 
 tried, owing to the course which the anti-slavery faction 
 of the North now thought proper to pursue. They 
 were determined to prevent the formation of any more 
 slave States ; and to this end they began, even before the 
 Kansas bill became a law, the organization of Emigrant 
 Aid companies, the object of which was to flood the 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 243 
 
 territory with voters ^ who should control it in the inter- 
 est of freedom. In this they ultimately succeeded ; and 
 whilst it is not possible to a23prove of the revolutionary 
 measures to which they and their agents in Kansas were 
 obliged to resort in order to effect this purpose, yet there 
 are, to-day, but few who will regret the result. 
 
 As might have been expected this course added not a 
 little to the excitement which the discussion of the ques- 
 tion of slavery in the territories had created among the 
 people of the Southern States. They regarded it as an 
 effort on the part of the North to evade the evident spirit 
 and intent of the law, and it led to the formation of coun- 
 ter associations and " blue lodges," which were intended 
 to perform in behalf of slavery the same kind of work 
 that was expected of the aid societies in the cause of 
 freedom. Especially was this the case in Missouri, which, 
 being coterminous along its western border with the new 
 territory, was supposed to be in a position to be more 
 seriously affected by the result than was any other por- 
 tion of the South. Evidently, if Kansas were to be- 
 come a free State it would make of Missouri a huge 
 
 1 The character of much of this emigration may be gathered 
 from the fact that ' ' the Kansas societies, leagues, and committees 
 . . sent out men only,' ' and that in some of their bands Sharps' 
 rifles were more numerous than agricultural implements. Min- 
 ing camps, we may remark, are peopled on this principle, but 
 bond fide settlers in a farming country do not emigrate in this 
 one-sided fashion, — a truth of which the Hon. Eli Thayer seems 
 to have caught a glimpse, when he tells us that " when the Mis- 
 sourians went into Kansas to settle, they took their families with 
 them." So far as the Blue Lodges of Missouri and the Emi- 
 grant Aid companies of Massachusetts were concerned, their ob- 
 ject was the same and their methods identical. The only differ- 
 ence was that the Missourians were more open and above-board 
 in their efforts to capture the State. 
 
244 MISSOURI. 
 
 slave peninsula jutting up into free territory, and it was 
 assumed, whether rightly or wrongly it matters not, that 
 this fact would lessen, if it did not practically destroy, 
 the value of the slaves owned in the State, by rendering 
 their possession insecure. At this time, Missouri con- 
 tained, on a rough calculation, about one hundred thou- 
 sand of these unfortunate people, worth, perhaps, some 
 thirty-five millions of dollars. Probably one half of 
 this number were to be found in the western half of 
 the State ; and though there was no reason to suppose 
 that they would escape into Kansas any more than they 
 had done into Illinois, Iowa, or the Indian country, yet 
 the possibility of such a contingency, and the feeling of 
 alarm which it created as to the safety of this kind of 
 property, were seized upon by the small but active band 
 of slavery propagandists who lived in the State, and 
 made to do duty as a reason why those who wished to 
 preserve the " peculiar institution " should cross the 
 border and endeavor to fasten it upon Kansas. " If," 
 said Senator Atchison, on the eve of the territorial elec- 
 tion in November, 1854, "a set of fanatics and dema- 
 gogues, a thousand miles off, can afford to advance their 
 money and exert every nerve to abolitionize the territory 
 and exclude the slaveholders when they have not the 
 least personal interest " in so doing, how much more is 
 it the duty of those who live within a day's journey of 
 the territory, and whose peace, quiet, and property de- 
 pend on the result, to meet and counteract these efforts 
 by sending some hundreds of their young men over the 
 border to vote for their institutions. " Should each 
 county in the State only do its duty," the question, he 
 thought, " would be decided quietly and peaceably at 
 the ballot-box ; " but if they failed and the territory 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 245 
 
 was lost to slavery, then, he added, "Missouri and the 
 other Southern States would have shown themselves rec- 
 reant to their interests and would deserve their fate." 
 
 From a Southern point of view, this is perhaj^s as 
 strong a statement of the case as can be made, though 
 it is in the nature of a tu quoque argument, and cannot 
 be considered as justifying the course of the pro-slavery 
 men, so far as this can be shown to have been contrary 
 to law. It is well, however, when condemning crimes 
 against the ballot-box, no matter by whom committed, to 
 remember that in a newly organized territory the con- 
 ditions of citizenship are different from those that pre- 
 vail in old established communities. Tomahawk claims 
 and such like devices, according to the unwritten law 
 of the frontier, have always been held to convey cer- 
 tain rights as to property, and inferentially as to citizen- 
 ship ; and bearing this fact in mind, and having due 
 regard for the saving effect of a few days' presence in 
 the territory, it must often have been a difficult mat- 
 ter to know whether a given person was or was not a 
 citizen within the purview of the law. Certainly, if 
 a company of so-called northern emigrants, in which 
 there were two hundred and twenty-five men and only 
 five women, whose " wagons contained no visible furni- 
 ture, agricultural implements or mechanical tools," but 
 " abounded in all the requisite articles for camping and 
 campaigning purposes," were considered as bond fide 
 settlers and permitted to vote, there could not have been 
 a sufficient reason for ruling out any band of Missourians 
 who ever crossed the border and declared their inten- 
 tion of remaining, even though they left the next day. 
 
 Another consideration, but of a purely political nature, 
 and having for its object the restoration of the equilib- 
 
246 MISSOURI. 
 
 rium between the free and slave States which had been 
 disturbed by the admission of California, was not with- 
 out its weight. Its influence, it is true, was but limited, 
 for, as yet, the circle of those who recognized the full 
 significance of the struggle for the possession of Kansas 
 was small. To the great mass of the American people. 
 North as well as South, it was a mere incident in the 
 contest for political power which had been going on for 
 fifty years and more ; and like all former incidents of 
 the same kind, it was regarded as important only so far 
 as it might give a temporary advantage to one or the 
 other of the political parties into which the country 
 was divided. To shrewd, far-seeing politicians like 
 Senator Atchinson and B. F. Stringfellow, it meant 
 much more. They saw in it the last peaceful struggle 
 that the South could make upon this issue, with any 
 prospect of success ; for they knew, as only one " to the 
 manner born " could know, that upon the result in Kan- 
 sas depended not only the future of New Mexico and 
 Utah, but also of all the rest of that vast region which 
 the repeal of the Missouri Compromise had thrown open 
 to the Southern slaveholder upon the same terms as 
 those upon which it was open to the Northern f ree-soiler. 
 If, with all the advantages which the proximity of Mis- 
 souri to Kansas gave them, they could not secure that 
 territory to their interest, it needed no prophet to tell 
 them that the prize for which they had so long con- 
 tended was lost ; that as parties were then constituted, 
 the struggle for political supremacy was ended ; and that 
 hereafter, so far as slavery was concerned, they would 
 have to fight not for its extension into new territories, 
 but for its existence even in those States in which it had 
 the sanction of law. 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 247 
 
 Powerful as these considerations must have been 
 with a certain class, and influential as that class con- 
 fessedly was, by reason of its wealth and intelligence, 
 they do not enable us to account for the number and 
 political complexion of the Missourians who crossed 
 over into Kansas during the year or two succeeding its 
 organization as a territory, and in good faith sought to 
 make a home there. To do this we shall have to trust 
 to an entirely different order of facts, — to one that is 
 not only disconnected with the question of slavery, but 
 which is at once general in its application and immedi- 
 ate in its effects. Thus, for instance, assuming with the 
 census of February, 1855, that the number of qualified 
 voters then in the territory (a majority of whom are ad- 
 mitted to have been of Southern birth) was about three 
 thousand, it is probably safe to say that from one third 
 to one half of them had come from Missouri, though 
 they may not all have been natives of that State. They 
 were not slaveholders, or if they were, they evidently 
 had not taken their slaves with them, for to have done 
 so would have been to incur the very risk which, as 
 owners of this kind of property, they were anxious to 
 avoid ; but they were, as a class, small farmers, — men 
 who were not above the necessity of doing their own 
 work with their own hands, though with a genuine An- 
 glo-Saxon greed for land, they either owned or expected 
 to own the farms upon which they lived. To state the 
 character of the emigration in this fashion is to suggest 
 the motives of those who took part in it. Obviously, 
 their object was none other than that which had led 
 their fathers across the Mississippi ; and to any one 
 familiar with frontier life, it is needless to say that this 
 was the very general though somewhat prosaic desire of 
 
248 MISSOURI. 
 
 improving their condition. In the older communities, 
 much of the desirable farming land had been taken up, 
 and was either in cultivation, or held for speculation; 
 whilst Kansas was, as yet, a virgin field, a sort of prom- 
 ised land, where farms could be had at government 
 prices, and the range was practically boundless. Con- 
 siderations of this character have ever been irresistible 
 with a certain class of borderers, and tempted by them 
 now, numbers of Missouri farmers, following in the foot- 
 steps of their fathers, joined the long caravan of movers, 
 and pitched their tents a day's march farther west. 
 
 Not being slave-owners even in the restricted sense 
 in which that term was used in the border States, they 
 cannot be accused of having any direct pecuniary inter- 
 est in the extension of the '' peculiar institution " to their 
 new home. In fact, upon economic grounds it would 
 seem as if they ought to have been the natural political 
 allies of the free-State men ; and yet such had been the 
 effect produced by the agitation of the slavery question, 
 and the short-sighted action of the more violent among 
 the Northern abolitionists in running off slaves and abus- 
 ing all who were interested in the institution, even those 
 who only tolerated it, that they were, as a rule, changed 
 from possible friends to actual enemies. From their 
 ranks came not a few of those who were most deter- 
 mined to make Kansas in all respects like Missouri. 
 
 Of the details of the struggle which took place when 
 these two opposing currents met it is not necessary to 
 speak. That task has been committed to another hand, 
 and from the account which Mr. Spring -^ has given of 
 those stirring times, it is evident that the sins were not all 
 on the side of those who wished to make Kansas a slave 
 1 See Kansas^ in "American Commonwealths," by L. W. Spring. 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 249 
 
 State. To any one conversant with the facts, this as- 
 surance is not necessary, and yet so generally and per- 
 sistently have the occurrences of this period been mis- 
 represented that it may not be out of place to intimate 
 that if all that was ever charged against the so-called 
 border ruffians in the way of illegal voting be admitted, 
 it would not justify the course which the friends of free- 
 dom thought proper to pursue at this juncture. The 
 remedy for the evils of which they complained was to be 
 found at the ballot-box, and not in revolution. Without 
 going into the particulars of this long and bloody strug- 
 gle, it will be sufficient for my purpose to state that 
 whilst, as a matter of fact, both parties were engaged in 
 the disreputable business of colonizing the territory with 
 voters, the legality of the first election — the one held 
 in November, 1854 — was not only not contested, but 
 the pro-slavery delegate to Congress, then chosen, was 
 permitted to take and hold his seat without opposition. 
 At the next election, in March, 1855, things were very 
 different. It was attended with more or less violence 
 and intimidation, and there seems to be no doubt that, 
 in this case, the Missourians or pro-slavery men were 
 the chief, but not the only sinners. At all events they 
 polled the most votes, more it is said than there were 
 voters in the territory, and elected an overwhelming 
 majority of their candidates to the territorial legislature, 
 even after ruling out the six whose seats were contested, 
 and two others, against whose election there was no pro- 
 test, but to whom Governor Reeder also refused certif- 
 icates. This purgation, sweeping as it was, did not 
 satisfy the free-State men. On second thoughts, and 
 for obvious reasons, they now wished the whole election 
 to be set aside ; but to this neither the territorial au- 
 
250 MISSOURI. 
 
 thorities nor Congress were willing to accede.^ Fail- 
 ing in their efforts to bring this about, the anti-slavery 
 party set up an opposition legislature, and endeavored, 
 by force and usurpation, to overthrow the government 
 which had been regularly established over them. In 
 taking this course, instead of submitting their cause to 
 the arbitrament of the ballot-box, they not only gave 
 good grounds for doubting the truth of their oft-repeated 
 statement as to the preponderance of population in 
 their favor, but they placed themselves outside of the 
 law, and therefore clearly and hopelessly in the wrong. 
 Had they succeeded, it would have resulted, as Presi- 
 dent Buchanan well and truly said, in establishing a 
 revolutionary government in place of the one " pre- 
 scribed and recognized by Congress," ^ and would have 
 been " a usurpation of the same character as it would 
 be if a portion of the people of a State were to under- 
 take to establish a separate government within its char- 
 tered limits, for the purpose of redressing any grievance, 
 real or imaginary," of which they thought they had a 
 right to complain. " Such a principle," he added, " if 
 carried into execution, would destroy all lawful author- 
 ity and produce universal anarchy," and yet, new as the 
 fact may be to some of us, this is precisely what the 
 free-State men of Kansas and their friends and allies in 
 the North tried to accomplish. 
 
 1 ... At the time I entered upon my official duties " (March 
 1857), *' Congress had recognized this legislature in different forms 
 and by different enactments. The delegate elected to the House 
 of Representatives, under a territorial law, had just completed 
 his term of service on the day previous to my inauguration. In 
 fact, I found the government of Kansas as well established as that 
 of any other territory.' ' — Buchanan' s Administration, p. 31. New 
 York, 1866. 
 
 2 Buchanan's Administration, chapter ii. New York, 1866. 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 251 
 
 With such a beginning, it was inevitable that evil 
 should follow. The difficulty, not to say impossibiHty, 
 of enforcing the processes of the courts, United States 
 as well as territorial, in Lawrence and other portions 
 of the territory where the friends of freedom held sway, 
 naturally gave rise to an era of lawlessness ; and in the 
 saturnalia that then prevailed, the " jayhawkers," as 
 those who took to robbery in the interest of anti-slavery 
 were called, are said to have been " the superior devils." ^ 
 In the long list of crimes attributed to them, illegal vot- 
 ing, the one offense of which the free-State men com- 
 plained most bitterly, and which it was therefore natural 
 to suppose they would have avoided, certainly holds a 
 place ; and it was reserved for John Brown to inaugurate 
 the system of murder for opinion's sake, by the assassi- 
 nation of five peaceable settlers on the Pottowatamie, ap- 
 parently for no better reason than because they differed 
 from him upon the question of slavery, and he thought 
 an example necessary.^ 
 
 ^ Kansas, by Leverett W. Spring-, p. 256. Boston, 1885. 
 
 ^ ' ' Measured by the scale of the times, the five squatters on 
 whom he laid a tiger's paw were not exceptionally bad men." — 
 Spring's Kansas, p. 147. " I became satisfied from new and con- 
 clusive evidence that these men were innocent of all crime or 
 threatened crime, and that their taking- off was not intended for 
 the protection of free-State men from their outrages and such as 
 theirs, but was intended by Brown as an act of offensive war." — 
 Governor Charles Robinson, in a letter dated Lawrence, July 22, 
 1884, and published in the Boston Transcript of August 15th. 
 Any one desirous of further information upon this point, or as to 
 Brown's career in Kansas, will do well to consult Reminiscences of 
 Old John Brown, a pamphlet published atRockford, 111., in 1880. 
 The author, Dr. George W. Brown, was the editor of the Kansas 
 Herald of Freedom, and one of the most active men of that time 
 on that side. The Life of John Brown, by F. B. Sanborn, may 
 also be read to advantage. 
 
252 MISSOURI. 
 
 During all these troublous years, it is a noteworthy- 
 fact that the pro-slavery men of the territory, what- 
 ever may have been their sins as individuals, were, as 
 a party, uniformly to be found supporting the govern- 
 ment.^ Even upon those occasions when, reinforced by 
 their friends and neighbors from Missouri, they are said 
 to have invested, or beleaguered, or sacked Lawrence, 
 they were serving as a posse comitatus, summoned by 
 the regularly constituted authorities of the territory ^ to 
 aid in enforcing the laws. 
 
 With Kansas in a state of anarchy, it was impossible 
 that the people in the adjoining counties of Missouri 
 should not suffer. Compared with their neighbors on 
 the other side of the b rder, they were old settlers, and 
 as they had accumulated more or less property they of 
 course had something to lose, which is more than can be 
 truthfully said of most of the new-comers. This fact 
 the " jayhawkers " were not slow to learn, and as they 
 cared as little for state lines as they did for law, they 
 soon began their freebooting inroads into the more 
 thinly populated counties south of the Missouri, taking 
 whatever they could conveniently carry off. One of 
 these raids was headed by John Brown, and it is memo- 
 rable as being his last appearance in Kansas affairs. It 
 took place in December, 1858, and resulted in the de- 
 struction of considerable property, the liberation of eleven 
 slaves, and the death, but not by the hands of Brown's 
 immediate party, of a slave-owner, who seems to have ob- 
 
 1 " Whilst the pro-slavery party in the territory sustained the 
 government in all its branches which had been established over it 
 by Congress, the anti-slavery party repudiated it." — Buchanan' s 
 Administration, p. 29. New York, 1866. 
 
 2 Spring's Kansas, pp. 91, 118, 189, 197; Sanborn's Life of 
 John Brown, pp. 216, 234. 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 253 
 
 jected to the way in which it was proposed to dispossess 
 him of his property. This raid, coming as it did soon 
 after the joint attempt of the governors of Missouri and 
 Kansas to bring about a pacification of the frontier, 
 created great excitement in the former State, where it 
 was made the basis of legislative action at the meeting 
 of the General Assembly, which took place in the Janu- 
 ary following. During the course of that session, Gov- 
 ernor Stewart sent in several messages, in which he 
 called attention to this outrage and urged that measures 
 be taken to protect the people of that portion of the State 
 from further trouble. Accompanying one of these mes- 
 sages were memorials from thirty-five citizens of Bates 
 and Vernon counties, in which they gave accounts of 
 crimes that had been perpetrated in their neighborhoods 
 by organized bands of robbers from Kansas, and asked 
 that a sufficient force be sent to the border to defend 
 " peaceable and law-abiding citizens from insult, outrage, 
 and lawless violence." 
 
 In accordance with this request, a bill was prepared 
 and introduced into the Senate, where it was favorably 
 received. When the measure came up in the House, 
 it was referred to the committee on federal relations, 
 and in due time it elicited from that body a report, 
 which is well described by a recent writer as being a 
 " singularly dispassionate and sensible document." In 
 it, the committee, after referring to the delicate relations 
 that must exist between States which are separated only by 
 an imaginary line, and to the fact that the borders of 
 counties, so separated, are the favorite resorts of banditti 
 and desperadoes, go on to say : — 
 
 " We do not doubt that at least ninety-nine out of 
 every hundred of the citizens of Kansas deplore the 
 
254 MISSOURI. 
 
 events under consideration. . . . The people of Kansas 
 and Missouri are most intimately connected, not only by 
 geographical lines, but by the tender cords of kindred. 
 We are the same people, impelled by the same interest, 
 and bound by the same manifest destiny. . . . Even if 
 this difficulty be winked at by Kansas ... we would 
 earnestly recommend the trial of every honorable means 
 of reconciliation before a resort to extreme measures. 
 ... If ... an army be stationed along the line of our 
 frontier for the avowed purpose of protecting our border 
 from incursions from a neighboring territory . . . Mis- 
 souri . . . might well expect other States on our border 
 to act on the line of the same suicidal policy . . . and 
 the fraternal feeling that is not now circumscribed by 
 state lines, would be rent asunder, and we would meet 
 our brothers from our sister States as aliens and 
 enemies." 
 
 " This bill," it was further objected, " provides that 
 these troops are to be raised from the counties on the 
 border ; taken from the midst of a people already exas- 
 perated by the murder and robbing of their kindred and 
 neighbors. Companies formed out of such material 
 would be hard to restrain from acts of summary pun- 
 ishment, should any of these desperadoes fall into their 
 hands ; and it would likewise be difficult to teach 
 such troops the line of our jurisdiction, and, in the ex- 
 citement of inflicting a merited punishment on some 
 offender, it would be hard for them to comprehend the 
 deplorable evils attending an armed invasion of a sis- 
 ter territory by the militia of a State. . . . Your com- 
 mittee," it is added, "are not insensible of the obli- 
 gations of the State to protect all her citizens, . . . 
 but . . . we are most unwilling that the State should 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 256 
 
 run wild in the remedies applied We have evidence of 
 the most satisfactory character that outrages, almost 
 without a parallel in America, at least, have been per- 
 petrated upon the persons and property of unoffending 
 citizens of Bates and Vernon counties, — their houses 
 plundered and then burned, their negroes kidnapped in 
 droves, citizens wounded and murdered in cold blood, 
 — which evils demand at our hands the best remedy the 
 wisdom of the legislature can apply." In conclusion, 
 they decline to recommend the use of a military force, 
 but they advise that rewards should be offered for the 
 arrest of the jayhawking leaders, and that circuit judges 
 should hold special terms in the disturbed districts, for 
 the purpose of investigating grievances and adopting 
 measures for the arrest of all offenders. A bill to this 
 effect was accordingly passed ; and by way of affording 
 additional security to the people of the threatened coun- 
 ties, the governor was authorized to use his discretion 
 in the adoption of such measures as he might deem nec- 
 essary for their protection, and a special appropriation 
 of thirty thousand dollars was made to enable him to 
 carry out this purpose. In accordance with this law, a re- 
 ward of three thousand dollars was offered for the arrest 
 of Brown, but it was of no avail. He succeeded in pilot- 
 ing his little band of fugitive slaves to a place of safety 
 in Canada, and then returned to Ohio, where he sold the 
 horses he had stolen, though we are told, with what may 
 be an attempt at humor, that he " warned the purchasers 
 of a possible defect in the title." ^ 
 
 "With this successful foray, John Brown's career in 
 Kansas and on the border came to an end. On each 
 of his visits to the territory, his path had been marked 
 
 ^ Sanborn's Life of John Broivn, p. 494. 
 
256 MISSOURI. 
 
 with blood ; and yet, except in the little town of Tabor, 
 Iowa, which had been one of his favorite haunts when 
 Kansas became " too hot to hold him," his course does not 
 appear to have called forth a word of protest from his 
 Northern admirers. Instead of meting out to him the 
 treatment due to a monomaniac or a fugitive from jus- 
 tice, they received him as a sort of popular hero. His 
 murders were either denied or justified ; the attempts 
 which he and his friends successfully made to resist ar- 
 rest were characterized as battles, and philanthropic 
 gentlemen were found in Boston and elsewhere, who did 
 not hesitate to supply him with " material aid," though 
 they must have known that in the schemes in which he 
 was engaged, robbery certainly, and probably murder, 
 were essential to success. In their sympathy for " bleed- 
 ing " Kansas — made so by crimes for which they were 
 largely responsible — they seem to have forgotten that 
 even in as good a cause as a crusade to prevent the for- 
 mation of another slave State, the end did not justify the 
 means.-^ 
 
 For some time after this action of the Missouri offi- 
 cials, and in consequence, also, of the exertions of the 
 federal and territorial authorities, a condition of com- 
 parative peace was established on the frontier. It did 
 
 1 Some idea of the state of feeling that prevailed in certain 
 quarters may be inferred from the following statement of Mr. 
 F. B. Sanborn, published in the Boston Transcript of December 
 6, 1884: " I myself heard a Massachusetts man, high in the con- 
 fidence of Mr. Lawrence, propose (in the rooms of the Emigrant 
 Aid Company in Winter Street, Boston, a few days after Buchan- 
 an's election, November, 1856), that men should be sent out to 
 dispatch Stringf ellow and Atchison, leaders of the border ruffians 
 in Missouri. No one responded to the suggestion, but it was 
 seriously made." 
 
KANSAS TROUBLES. 257 
 
 not last long, as the decline of guerilla life was apparent 
 rather than real. In November, 1860, another outbreak 
 occurred, in which the United States court for the third 
 Kansas district was broken up by a band of " jayhawk- 
 ers," under the lead of Montgomery, and the United 
 States officers, including the judge himself, "were obliged 
 to fly for their lives." A grand juror by the name of 
 Moore was murdered, as were Samuel Scott and Rus- 
 sell Hindes, the latter a citizen of Missouri. 
 
 The crime of which they were accused, according to 
 a paper found in Hindes' pocket after death, consisted 
 in being engaged (in) hunting and kidnapping negroes 
 in 1859. In other words, they were hung because they 
 had aided in capturing a runaway slave, as it was clearly 
 their right to do under a law which, however objection- 
 able in some of its features, did not differ in its end and 
 aim from one that had been passed in 1793, and had re- 
 ceived the approving signature of Washington himself. 
 Naturally enough these proceedings caused much alarm 
 along the border, and more particularly as they were 
 indorsed by a so-called convention of Linn and Bour- 
 bon counties, Kansas, and were backed by the declara- 
 tion of Montgomery that he intended " to keep posses- 
 sion of Fort Scott and other places near the state line, 
 to prevent ' a fire in the rear,' while he cleaned out 
 southern Missouri of its slaves." ^ 
 
 When the report of these proceedings, somewhat ex- 
 aggerated, perhaps, so far as it related to the invasion 
 
 ^ Our authority, Judge Williams of the United States District 
 Court, adds that ' ' so far, he has carried out literally his declared 
 programme," and "the citizens of Missouri on the Osage, Mar- 
 maton, and in Bates and Vernon, are flying from their homes 
 into the interior." 
 
258 MISSOURI. 
 
 of the State, reached Jefferson City, Governor Stewart 
 ordered Brigadier-General D. M. Frost to proceed at 
 once to the border with men enough to end the difficulty. 
 This order reached St. Louis on the 23d of November, 
 1860, and in less than forty-eight hours a force of six hun- 
 dred and thirty men was on the way to the scene of the 
 out-break. Upon reaching the frontier, which they did 
 early in December, they found that General Harney of 
 the regular army had already arrived at Fort Scott ; and 
 when Montgomery saw himself threatened by both fed- 
 eral and state troops, he abandoned his fort, disbanded 
 his men, and temporarily left the county. In a report 
 made after his return to St. Louis, General Frost sub- 
 mitted a number of affidavits, from which it appears 
 that " Hindes was taken from the midst of an indigent 
 and dependent family . . . and hanged to death for no 
 other crime, than that he had been faithful to the laws 
 and institutions of his State." General Frost further 
 states " that the deserted and charred remains of once 
 happy homes, combined with the general terror that 
 prevailed amongst the citizens who still clung to their 
 possessions, gave but too certain proof of the persecution 
 to which they had all been subjected, and which they 
 would again have to endure, with renewed violence, so 
 soon as armed protection should be withdrawn." In 
 view of this condition of affairs, and in order to carry 
 out fully Governor Stewart's order " to repel invasions 
 and restore peace to the border," Frost determined to 
 leave a considerable force in the threatened district. 
 Accordingly, a battalion of volunteers, consisting of 
 three companies of rangers and one of artillery, was 
 enlisted, and Lieutenant-Colonel John S. Bowen, who 
 afterwards rose to high rank in the Confederate service, 
 was chosen to the command. 
 
PROGRESS OF THE STATE. 259 
 
 With the organization of this force, and perhaps 
 owing also, in some degree, to the inclemency of the 
 season, " jay hawking," as such, came to an end, though 
 the thmg itself, during the first two or three years of 
 the civil war, and, in fact, as long as there was anything 
 left on the Missouri side of the border worth taking, flour- 
 ished more vigorously than ever. The old jayhawking 
 leaders, however, now came with United States commis- 
 sions in their pockets and at the head of regularly en- 
 listed troops, in which guise they carried on a system of 
 robbery and murder that left a good portion of the 
 frontier south of the Missouri River as perfect a waste 
 as Germany was at the end of the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 Notwithstanding the condition of semi-hostility that 
 prevailed upon her western border during a great part 
 of the time, the progress of Missouri in wealth and 
 population during the ten years that intervened between 
 1850 and 1860 was satisfactory. From being the thir- 
 teenth in the sisterhood of States, in point of numbers, 
 she had grown to be the eighth, and in this respect, at 
 least, she was at the head of the Southern States. In 
 other words, she now had within her borders a popula- 
 tion of one million one hundred and eighty-two thou- 
 sand as against six hundred and eighty-two thousand 
 in 1850 ; a rate of increase, we may remark in pass- 
 ing, which is hardly reconcilable with the theory that 
 emigration always shunned the regions where slavery 
 existed. Of this whole population one hundred and fif- 
 teen thousand were slaves, about twenty-seven thousand 
 more than were reported in the census of 1850. As- 
 suming these two enumerations to have been correct, it 
 will give an increase of about thirty-one per cent, for 
 the ten years, a fraction over three per cent, per an- 
 
260 MISSOURI, 
 
 num, only about one third the rate at which the whites 
 had advanced during the same period. Under the cir- 
 cumstances this increase in the number of blacks is a 
 noteworthy fact, not so much on account of the per- 
 centage of growth which it indicates, as for the insight 
 which it gives us into the condition of public opinion 
 in the State. Thus, for instance, if we compare this 
 rate of increase with the progress in numbers made 
 by this ill-fated people during the several decades that 
 had elapsed since the organization of Missouri as a ter- 
 ritory, it will be seen that there is a marked falling 
 off. This has been construed, and no doubt correctly, 
 as foreshadowing the fate that would ultimately have 
 befallen the " peculiar institution " if it had been left to 
 the action of natural causes. It may even be taken 
 as an indication that the process of its gradual extinc- 
 tion in the State was already well under way ; but if, 
 on the other hand, we limit ourselves to the considera- 
 tion of the actual increase in the number of slaves dur- 
 ing this interval, without reference to any previous period, 
 it will be found to suggest a different order of facts. 
 Viewed in this light, it tells us in no doubtful terms 
 that, up to this time, but few of these people had been 
 sent South, as they would have been if such a course had 
 been deemed necessary to their retention as slaves, and 
 it justifies the inference that the great mass of the 
 people of the State still looked forward to a peaceable 
 solution of the difficulties between the North and the 
 South, which now began to take a most portentous shape. 
 Another fact of much economic and, as we shall see 
 later on, of no little political importance that may be 
 gathered from a study of the census returns is to be 
 found in the number of foreign-born emigrants that 
 
PROGRESS OF THE STATE. 261 
 
 were then in the State. According to the reports of 
 1860, they amounted to one hundred and sixty thousand 
 — almost a seventh of the entire population ; and of 
 this number eighty-eight thousand were Germans, whilst 
 the Irish, who came next, had but forty-three thousand. 
 The revolutions of 1848 and the unsettled condition of 
 continental Europe for some years afterwards, taken in 
 connection with the failure of the potato crops in 1846-47 
 and the consequent famine in Ireland, will no doubt ac- 
 count for much of the emigration that took place dur- 
 ing this period ; and when once these new-comers had 
 landed on our shores, the central position and temperate 
 climate, to say nothing of the agricultural and commer- 
 cial advantages which Missouri held out to those in 
 search of a home and a livelihood, will go far towards 
 explaining the favor with which the State was generally 
 regarded. Although not in receipt of the heaviest con- 
 tingent of these new arrivals, yet she had no reason to 
 be dissatisfied with the number or character of those of 
 them who found homes within her hospitable borders. 
 Compared with Ohio, Illinois, or even Wisconsin, she 
 certainly lagged behind, but among the other States of 
 the West and Northwest she was easily first. 
 
 Contrary to the practice of immigrants generally, a 
 number of these new-comers, especially among the Ger- 
 mans, turned their attention to farming and market- 
 gardening, and established themselves on small hold- 
 ings near the cities and towns ; or else, going into the 
 country, they might have been found on little farms, and 
 usually in isolated communities, whole townships in por- 
 tions of the State being taken up with their settlements. 
 Being industrious and frugal, they soon came to own 
 the farms on which they lived, and were thus pecu- 
 
262 MISSOURI. 
 
 niarily independent. To this extent, and so far as 
 they proved themselves to be law-abiding and, when the 
 crisis came, patriotic, they may be said to have been a 
 valuable addition to the population. From a political 
 point of view, however, it may well be questioned 
 whether they did not show themselves to be possessed of 
 certain characteristics which made them less desirable 
 as citizens than were the emigrants from other portions 
 of Europe, who were not gifted with their prudent fore- 
 sight, but who were more easily assimilated. Leading 
 the isolated lives they did, they were not open to out- 
 side influences, and this, of course, had a tendency to 
 keep them separate and apart from the rest of the com- 
 munity, and it also aggravated the natural tenacity with 
 which they clung to the language, the manners and cus- 
 toms, and habits of thought which they brought from 
 the " fatherland." Indeed, they may be said to have 
 had in an eminent degree, as they still have, the defects 
 of their virtues. The very strength of race which has 
 made the Anglo-Saxon the virtual owner of a large part 
 of the habitable globe, and which he inherited from his 
 German ancestors, may upon occasion prove a source of 
 discord and an element of danger in so far as it pre- 
 vents the German emigrant of to-day from becoming 
 thoroughly and speedily Americanized. 
 
 Great as was the progress of the State in population, 
 it was more than equaled by her increase in wealth. 
 According to the official reports, the estimated value of 
 the property, real and personal, for the year 1860 was 
 $501,214,398 as against $137,247,707 in 1850, an in- 
 crease of about 265 per cent. This is believed to be 
 too great, as the valuation of 1850 was low ; but even 
 if we add to that estimate fifty millions of dollars, it 
 
PROGRESS OF TEE STATE. 263 
 
 will still give very satisfactory results. Of the whole 
 amount, the farms are put down as being worth some 
 two hundred and thirty millions, and this is probably 
 not far from their actual value, as, up to that date, 
 twenty-one millions of acres had been taken up, over 
 six millions of which were in cultivation. On the other 
 hand, the manufactured products were estimated at only 
 about forty-two millions of dollars, the original plants, 
 or capital invested, being rated at half that sum. 
 
 Of this latter amount but a small fraction was em- 
 ployed in mining and kindred pursuits, though the geo- 
 logical survey of the State had shown that her stores of 
 mineral wealth were practically inexhaustible, and that 
 they were so situated with reference to each other and 
 to a market as to promise favorable returns upon any 
 efforts that might be made to develop them. This sur- 
 vey, it is true, was not yet finished, but enough had 
 been done to show that of the sixty-nine thousand 
 square miles composing the total area of the State, 
 fourteen thousand were underlaid by workable beds of 
 coal ; that more than one thousand valuable veins of 
 lead, and half as many of iron, had been discovered and 
 partly traced, besides many of zinc, copper, hydraulic 
 limestones, and mineral paints. 
 
 It had also been demonstrated that " that portion of 
 the State south of the Osage River, once considered by 
 the superficial observer as almost worthless, has a soil 
 (rocky and broken as it is) and a climate wonderfully 
 adapted to the grape and other valuable fruits." Of 
 the forty -four millions of acres of land in the State, 
 there were only about three millions, and these mainly 
 in the swamp region of the southeast, that did not 
 promise plenteous returns to careful and intelligent hus- 
 
264 MISSOURI. 
 
 bandiy. All the grains, grasses, fruits, and vegetables 
 that are adapted to a fertile soil and temperate climate, 
 to say nothing of such products as tobacco, hemp, and 
 even cotton, were cultivated to advantage ; and upon 
 the broad prairies and in the fertile valleys of the State 
 countless herds and droves of domestic animals found 
 abundant food and shelter. 
 
 Such, in fine, was the condition of Missouri on the 
 31st of December, 1860, when the twenty-first General 
 Assembly of the State began its first session at Jefferson 
 City. This body, consisting in the Senate of twenty- 
 five Democrats, seven Bell-Everett (Compromise Union) 
 men, and one Republican, and, in the House, of eighty- 
 three Democrats, thirty-seven Bell-Everett men, and 
 twelve Republicans, had been chosen at the election 
 which took place in the preceding August ; and, speak- 
 ing without reference to the question of secession, it 
 may be said to have been fairly representative of the 
 political parties in the State as they had shown them- 
 selves to be at the presidential election in November of 
 that year. Of the 165,000 votes then cast, Lincoln re- 
 ceived 17,028 ; Bell and Everett, 58,372 ; and the 
 Democrats had the rest. Their vote, however, was di- 
 vided between Breckinridge and Douglas, the former of 
 whom received 31,317 votes, whilst the latter, with a fol- 
 lowing of 58,801, obtained the electoral vote of the State. 
 In attempting to carry our classification still further, and 
 distinguish between the two wings of the Democratic 
 party, the Breckinridge men, or rather those who after- 
 wards became such (for at the time of their election 
 this issue was not sharply drawn), may be set down as 
 being States' rights men, and there can be no doubt 
 that, when the time came for a decision, the leaders 
 
ELECTION OF 1860. 265 
 
 amongst them, and not a few of the rank and file, cast 
 their lot in with the South ; but to speak of them as 
 being secessionists, meaning thereby that they were in 
 favor of an immediate dissolution of the Union at any 
 and every cost, would be gross injustice. Probably at 
 this time, although it was ten days after South Carolina 
 had seceded, there was not a handful of people in the 
 State who did not believe, with Senators Crittenden and 
 Douglas, that the difficulty would be settled by a com- 
 promise of some sort, and without an apj^eal to arms. 
 Of secessionists proper, using the term in the sense we 
 have given to it, there was not a corporal's guard in the 
 whole State. 
 
 But whilst this statement is believed to be substan- 
 tially true, it would be a grave mistake to suppose that 
 the people of Missouri were in sympathy with the posi- 
 tion which the triumphant Republicans of the North 
 now occupied, or with the long course of action, legisla- 
 tive and otherwise, that had led to it. So far were they 
 from anything of the kind, that they held the ReiJubli- 
 can party responsible for the condition in which the 
 country was placed, and in proof of it they refen^ed to 
 the continued interference, in Congress and out of it, 
 with the institution of slavery ; to the repeated attempts 
 to deprive the people of the South of their constitu- 
 tional rights in and to the territories that should have 
 been common to all ; and they pointed to the fact that, 
 at this very time, fourteen out of the seventeen free 
 States had upon their statute-books laws which were 
 intended not only to nullify the act of Congress for the 
 return of fugitive slaves, but were in direct violation of 
 an express mandate of the Constitution. 
 
 With such facts staring them in the face, it was not 
 
266 MISSOURI. 
 
 possible for the people of the State to shut their eyes 
 to the aggressive spirit which the North — except, per- 
 haps, in the one case of the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise — had manifested when dealing with any 
 proposition that looked to an increase in the number 
 of slave States ; nor could they forget the declarations 
 of Lincoln and other leaders of the Republican party 
 that " a house divided against itself must fall," and that 
 " this country could not permanently endure half slave 
 and half free." Clearly, if these were the sentiments of 
 the Northern people, it was their duty as patriots, now 
 that they had control of the executive department of the 
 government, to do what they could to remove the last 
 vestige of slavery from the country ; and, conceding to 
 them the same honesty and sincerity which they claimed 
 for themselves, the people of the Southern States had 
 no reason to doubt that such would be their course. In 
 view, then, of these declarations, and of the success 
 in the presidential election of the party that indorsed 
 them, the people of Missouri may be excused for think- 
 ing that the South had a right to demand additional 
 guaranties against Northern aggression. Exactly what 
 these guaranties were to be was never clearly formu- 
 lated. In a vague sort of way it was said that they 
 must be embodied in a constitutional provision, though 
 how that provision was to be enforced, or made any 
 more binding than were the mandates of the Constitu- 
 tion under which they now lived and of the violation of 
 which they complained, is a point upon which we are 
 left to conjecture. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LEGISLATURE AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVEN- 
 TION : MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 
 
 Although the Breckenridge, or Southern rights men, 
 were in a minority in the State even when compared with 
 the supporters of Douglas, in the legislature they outnum- 
 bered either of the other parties. Not being numerous 
 enough, however, to effect an organization by themselves, 
 they united with the Douglas men, and by this means 
 they secured the election of their candidate for speaker. 
 The newly chosen President of the Senate, too, Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor Thomas C. Reynolds, belonged to their 
 wing of the party, as did the governor-elect, Claiborne F. 
 Jackson, so that the Southern rights Democrats were in 
 possession of the chief places in the legislative and exec- 
 utive departments of the State ; and but for the fact that 
 they voluntarily relinquished their power into the hands 
 of a constitutional convention, it was possible for them to 
 have given the course of legislation a very different di- 
 rection from that which it was eventually made to take. 
 
 The retiring governor, Robert M. Stewart, belonged 
 to a different school of politics. He was a Northern 
 man by birth and no friend to slavery, though he 
 " believed that the Southern people had the right to 
 take their slaves into all the territories and hold them 
 there, under the protection of the Constitution." He 
 was, moreover, a staunch Union man ; and in the valedic- 
 
268 MISSOURI. 
 
 tory message which he sent in on the meeting of the 
 General Assembly, he denounced the heresy of secession, 
 and took the ground that, no matter what the other slave 
 States might do, it was the duty of Missouri, as it was 
 her interest, to remain within the Union. But whilst 
 his opinions upon this point were very decided, he was 
 not blind to the scant measure of justice which the 
 South had received, or to the dangers that might come 
 to her institutions from hostile legislation ; and he be- 
 lieved that the only way to maintain the Union was for 
 the North to give the South guaranties against the 
 threatened aggressions, — " not such ephemeral contracts 
 as are enacted by Congress to-day and repealed to-mor- 
 row, but a comi^romise assuring all the just rights of the 
 States, and agi-eed to in solemn convention of all the 
 parties interested. Upon this subject," he continued, 
 " Missouri has the right to speak, because she has suf- 
 fered. Bounded on three sides by free territory, her 
 border counties have been the frequent scenes of kid- 
 napping and violence, and this State has probably lost as 
 much in the last two years, in the abduction of slaves, as 
 all the rest of the Southern States. At this moment 
 several of the western counties are desolated, and al- 
 most depopulated, from fear of a bandit horde who 
 have been committing depredation — arson, theft, and 
 foul murder — upon her adjacent border. Missouri 
 has a right, too, by reason of her present position and 
 power, as well as from the great calamities which a hasty 
 dissolution of the Union would bring upon her. She 
 has already a larger voting population than any of the 
 slave States, with prospective power and wealth far be- 
 yond any of her sister States. . . . Indeed, Missouri 
 and her sister border States should be the first, instead 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 269 
 
 of the last, to sjDeak on a subject of this kind. They 
 have suffered the evil and the wrong, and should be the 
 first to demand redress. Is it quite proper that those 
 who have suffered no pecuniary loss should initiate a 
 proceeding of this kind, and say to us, by their premature 
 action, that we do not know when to redress our wrongs 
 or defend our honor ? Our people would feel more sym- 
 pathy with the movement if it had originated amongst 
 those who, like ourselves, had suffered severe loss and 
 constant annoyance from the interference and depreda- 
 tions of outsiders. 
 
 " As matters are at present, Missouri will . . . hold 
 to the Union so long as it is worth an effort to preserve 
 it. So long as there is hope of success, she will seek for 
 justice within the Union. She cannot be frightened 
 from her propriety by the past unfriendly legislation of 
 the North, nor be dragooned into secession by the ex- 
 treme South. If those who should be our friends and 
 allies undertake to . . . reduce us to the position of an 
 humble sentinel to watch over and protect their inter- 
 ests, receiving all of the blows and none of the benefits, 
 Missouri will hesitate long before sanctioning such an 
 arrangement. She will rather take the high position of 
 armed neutrality. . . . 
 
 "If South Carolina and other cotton States persist 
 in secession, she will desire to see them go in peace, with 
 the hope that a short experience at separate govern- 
 ment, and an honorable adjustment of the federal com- 
 pact, will induce them to return to their former position. 
 In the mean time Missouri will hold herself in readmess 
 at any moment to defend her soil from pollution and 
 her property from plunder by fanatics and marauders, 
 come from what quarter they may." 
 
270 MISSOURI. 
 
 In this vein he continued for some time longer, and 
 then, after painting in glowing colors the benefits that 
 had flowed from the establishment of the Union, and 
 the evils that must necessarily follow its dissolution, he 
 concluded with an impassioned appeal for its preserva- 
 tion, in the course of which he said that, "whilst rec- 
 ommending the adoption of all proper measures and in- 
 fluences to secure the just acknowledgment and protec- 
 tion of our rights, and, in final failure of this, a resort 
 to the last painful remedy of separation ; yet, regard- 
 ing , . . the American confederacy as the source of a 
 thousand blessings, pecuniary, social, and moral, and its 
 destruction as fraught with incalculable loss, suffering, 
 and crime, I would here, in my last public official act 
 as governor of Missouri, record my solemn protest 
 against unwise and hasty action, and my unalterable 
 devotion to the Union, so long as it can be made the 
 protector of equal rights." 
 
 This message was received on the 3d of January, and 
 on the same day Governor Jackson was sworn into office 
 and delivered his inaugural address. 
 
 Born in Kentucky of Virginia parentage, Jackson had 
 come to Missouri in his boyhood, and found employment 
 in a country store. By the time he was thirty years of 
 age he had accumulated enough of this world's goods to 
 enable him to retire from business and devote himself to 
 politics, " for which he had a natural aptitude and great 
 fondness." In 1836, he was first elected to the legisla- 
 ture, and from that time until his death in 1862 he was 
 steadily in public life. In 1849 he was a member of 
 the state senate, and, as chairman of the committee on 
 federal relations, he reported the resolutions of instruc- 
 tions which bear his name, and which, as we have seen, 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 271 
 
 led to Benton's appeal from the decision of the legisla- 
 ture to the people of the State. In the fierce struggle 
 that ensued, Jackson was a conspicuous figure, and it 
 was the readiness he showed in debate, and the skill he 
 displayed in the management of men, that gave him the 
 leading position which he then took in the councils of 
 his party, and which he ever afterwards maintained. 
 
 He was at this time fifty-five years of age, and is de- 
 scribed by one who knew him well as being " tall, erect, 
 and dignified ; a vigorous thinker, and a fluent and for- 
 cible speaker, always interesting, and often eloquent ; a 
 well-informed man, thoroughly conversant with the poli- 
 tics of Missouri and of the Union ; with positive opinions 
 on all public questions, and the courage to express and 
 uphold them ; courteous in his bearing towards all men, 
 for he was kind-hearted, and. by nature a democrat; 
 and a truthful, honest, and honorable gentleman. He 
 loved the Union, but not with the love with which he 
 loved Missouri, which had been his home for forty years, 
 nor as he loved the South, where he was born and where 
 his kindred lived." ^ 
 
 Called to the high position which he now occupied at 
 a moment of unparalleled excitement, he is said to have 
 " assumed the office with becoming modesty, but with an 
 unshakable determination to defend the honor and the 
 interests of Missouri against all assailants whatsoever." 
 
 In the course of his address, after commenting on the 
 rise of the Republican party, he went on to say that it 
 
 1 For these facts, and many others in the course of this and the 
 succeeding' chapter, I am indebted to Colonel Thomas L. Snead, 
 •whose Fight for Missouri must be carefully studied by any one who 
 wishes to arrive at a correct understanding of the course of events 
 in Missouri at this critical period. 
 
272 MISSOURI. 
 
 was purely sectional, and that its one principle was hos- 
 tility to slavery. Its object was, " not merely to confine 
 slavery within its present limits ; not merely to exclude 
 it from the territories, and prevent the formation and 
 admission of any slaveholding States, . . .but to strike 
 down its existence everywhere. . . . The triumph of 
 such an organization is not the victory of a political 
 party, but the domination of a section. It proclaims in 
 significant tones the destruction of that equality among 
 the States which is the vital cement of our federal 
 Union." 
 
 The destiny of the slaveholding States was one and 
 the same, and Missouri, he thought, would " best con- 
 sult her own interests, and the interests of the whole 
 country, by a timely declaration of her determination to 
 stand by her sister slaveholding States, in whose wrongs 
 she participates, and with whose institutions and peo- 
 ple she sympathizes. These views," he said, " are ad- 
 vanced, not upon a belief that all hope of the present 
 Union is lost, but upon a conviction that the time has 
 arrived when a further postponement of their considera- 
 tion would be unwise and unsafe. ... So far as Mis- 
 souri is concerned, her citizens have ever been devoted 
 to the Union, and she will remain in it so long as there 
 is any hope that it will maintain the spirit and guaran- 
 ties of the Constitution. 
 
 " But if the Northern States have determined to put 
 the slaveholding States on a footing of inequality by 
 interdicting them from all share in the territories ac- 
 quired by the common blood and treasure of all ; if they 
 have resolved to admit no more slaveholding States into 
 the Union ; and if they mean to persist in nullifying 
 that provision of the Constitution which secures to the 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 273 
 
 slaveholder his property when found within the limits 
 of States which do not recognize it or have abolished 
 it, — then they have themselves practically abandoned 
 the Union. . . . 
 
 " We hear it suggested in some quarters," he con- 
 tinued, " that the Union is to be maintained by the 
 sword," but tbis, he urged, would lead to consolidation 
 or despotism, not to union. *' That stands upon the 
 basis of justice and equality, and its existence cannot be 
 prolonged by coercion. 
 
 " As the ultimate fate of all the slaveholding States 
 is necessarily the same, their determination and action 
 . . . should be the result of a general consultation," 
 and should be in the nature of a demand for a constitu- 
 tional guaranty and not a congressional compromise, 
 " as experience had shown that such compromises only 
 lay the foundation for additional agitation. Being but 
 laws, they are, like all other laws, liable to be repealed ; 
 and their duration depends altogether upon the fluctua- 
 tions of public opinion, operating through the representa- 
 tives of that opinion at Washington." In conclusion he 
 said that he was " not without hope that an adjustment 
 alike honorable to both sections may be effected, . . . 
 but in the present unfavorable aspect of affairs it is our 
 duty to prepare for the worst. We cannot avoid dan- 
 ger by closing our eyes to it. The magnitude of the 
 interests now in jeopardy demands a prompt but deliber- 
 ate consideration ; and in order that the will of the peo- 
 ple may be ascertained and effectuated, a State conven- 
 tion should ... be called." He also advised, " in view of 
 the marauding forays which continue tQ harass our bor- 
 ders, as well as of the general unsettled condition of our 
 political relations," that the militia of the State should 
 be thoroughly organized. 
 
274 MISSOURI. 
 
 Upon a comparison of these two messages it will be 
 found that up to a certain point they are in full accord, 
 and there can be no question that to that extent they 
 reflected the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of 
 the people of the State. It was only in the event of the 
 attempt on the part of the North to coerce the seceding 
 States back into the Union, that the paths recommended 
 by Stewart and Jackson began to diverge. In such a 
 contingency the former thought the true policy of Mis- 
 souri was to adhere to the Union, whilst the latter held 
 that the honor as well as the interest of the State re- 
 quired her to make common cause with the South. As 
 yet, this issue was in abeyance, and there were, compar- 
 atively speaking, but few who imagined that she would 
 ever be called upon to make the decision. Among these 
 few, though, was Francis Preston Blair, Jr., the leader 
 of the unconditional Union men of the State. With 
 rare foresight, he had already grasped the situation, 
 and even now he was busy organizing the force which, 
 when the moment of action came, enabled him to lay 
 an iron hand upon the city of St. Louis, and by a move- 
 ment necessary, perhaps, but none the less revolution- 
 ary, drive the regularly constituted authorities of the 
 State away from the capital and into exile. 
 
 Blair was then forty years of age, having been born 
 in Lexington, Kentucky, in February, 1821, of Vir- 
 ginia parentage. When but a lad, his father, upon the 
 invitation of General Jackson, removed to Washing- 
 ton city, and took the editorial control of the adminis- 
 tration organ ; and it was in this school and under such 
 teachers that " Frank Blair," as he was familiarly called, 
 learned his first lessons in politics. In due time he was 
 sent to Princeton College, and soon after he came to 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 275 
 
 St. Louis, where, in 1843, we find him studying law in 
 the office of his brother. Judge Montgomery Blair, af- 
 terwards postmaster-general under President Lincoln. 
 In 1845, on the outbreak of the Mexican war, he was 
 in Sante Fe, whither he had gone for his health ; and 
 when Kearney took possession of that territory and an- 
 nexed it to the United States, he appointed him attor- 
 ney general in the provisional government which was 
 then established, and of which Charles Bent was the 
 head. Returning to St. Louis in 1847, young Blair 
 made his first appearance in the political field in the 
 presidential election of 1848, when he championed the 
 cause of Van Buren, the unsuccessful candidate of the 
 free-soilers. In the following year, he supported Col- 
 onel Benton on the occasion of his appeal from the leg- 
 islature to the people of the State ; and when death 
 removed that doughty warrior from the field of Mis- 
 souri politics, Blair, by common consent, took his place, 
 and became the leader of the anti-slavery men of the 
 State. In 1852 and again in 1854 he was elected to the 
 legislature uponHhe Benton ticket ; and in 1856 he was 
 transferred to the national House of Representatives at 
 Washington, of which body he was a member - elect, 
 having been returned, for the second time, at the pre- 
 ceding election. 
 
 During all this portion of his career, and in fact until 
 slavery was stricken down by the strong hand of arbi- 
 trary power, Blair was its steady and consistent oppo- 
 nent, though he was by no means an abolitionist in the 
 sense in which that term was then used. He did, it is 
 true, wish to get rid of the negroes in Missouri, and his 
 efforts were no doubt directed to this end. He was 
 also in favor of keeping them out of all territory not 
 
276 MISSOURI. 
 
 yet cursed by the presence of slavery ; but in taking 
 this course he was governed by economic considerations, 
 and " not by a sentimental regard for the blacks, or a de- 
 lusion as to their equality with the whites." In a word, 
 he approached the subject as a statesman, rather than as a 
 moralist, and he wished to abolish the system in Missouri 
 because he saw that it was a burden upon the State, and 
 nmst inevitably retard her development in wealth and 
 population. 
 
 For advocating these views, he was often called an 
 abolitionist, which troubled him but little ; and it is pos- 
 sible, though Colonel Benton did not find it so, that 
 there may have been portions of the State in which it 
 would not have been safe for him to speak his senti- 
 ments on this subject ; but this was evidently not the 
 case in St. Louis, where his friends were in the major- 
 ity, where his personal popularity, even among those 
 who differed from him politically, was very great, and 
 where his high social position was unquestioned. In- 
 deed, it may well be doubted whether Blair himself 
 thought so, for in those days, as some of* us can remem- 
 ber, there was no surer way of leading him to make a 
 fierce attack upon slavery, no matter how unpalatable 
 his speech may have been to some of his hearers, than by 
 assuring him that its delivery would be attended with 
 personal danger. In the pursuit of an object which he 
 had once marked out for himself as desirable and proper, 
 he knew no such thing as fear, and it is but just to add 
 that in moral courage he was equally grand. 
 
 Such was the man to whom the Union men of Mis- 
 souri now turned, and not in vain, for counsel and en- 
 couragement. As has already been intimated, he was 
 one of the few who realized the full significance of the 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 277 
 
 impending struggle, and he never deluded himself with 
 the hope that it might be peaceably settled. From the 
 first, he seems to have felt instinctively that it was 
 one of those questions that could only be decided by an 
 appeal to the sword, and, acting on the maxim that 
 " God fights on the side of the heaviest battalions," he 
 began at once to make ready for the part which he in- 
 tended to play in the bloody drama. 
 
 These preparations, it is projDer to say, were not car- 
 ried on with any very great amount of secrecy, and in 
 fact there was no particular reason why they should 
 have been, though the contrary has been asserted. The 
 semi-military associations, composed chiefly of Germans, 
 which, under the name of Wide- Awakes, had done good 
 service for Lincoln in the election of 1860, had a per- 
 fect right to continue their organization as Union clubs, 
 home guards, or under any other name that they might 
 think proper to adopt, and that they were doing so, was 
 well understood. The use, too, to which they were to 
 be put in case an effort was made to detach Missouri 
 from the Union, was never doubted by any one who 
 knew Blair ; and yet^ despite this fact, so reluctant were 
 Governor Jackson and the Southern sympathizers in the 
 legislature to take any steps that would bring the State 
 into conflict with the federal government, without the pre- 
 viously expressed approval of the people, that, although 
 they were fully alive to the necessities of the situation, 
 they failed to take advantage of the only opportunity 
 they ever had of securing such a supply of arms as 
 would have enabled them to meet Blair, upon anything 
 like equal terms, in the fight which he was evidently 
 determined to make for Missouri. Had they shown as 
 little hesitation in making war upon the federal govern- 
 
278 MISSOURI. 
 
 ment as, some four months later, the federal government 
 showed in making war upon Missouri, they would have 
 seized the arsenal, as there is reason to believe they 
 might have done at almost any time during the first 
 three weeks of January, 1861, and as it was clearly 
 their policy to do, with or without law, in case they had 
 resolved upon secession, and had the power to carry 
 their resolution into effect. Instead of doing so, they 
 contented themselves with adopting a measure, which 
 not only committed them to a course of delay when in- 
 stant action was necessary to the success of their cause, 
 but which involved, on their part, a relinquishment of 
 the power of legislation upon the very question that 
 was at issue. By the terms of this act, which was 
 approved on the 21st of January, it was provided that 
 an election should be held on the 18th of February 
 for members of a convention who were "to consider 
 the relations between the government of the United 
 States . . . and the government and people of the State 
 of Missouri ; and to adopt such measures for vindicat- 
 ing the sovereignty of the State, and the protection of 
 its institutions, as shall appear to them to be demanded." 
 By way of safeguard, it was added that " no act, ordi- 
 nance, or resolution of said convention shall be deemed 
 to be valid to change or dissolve the political relations 
 of this State to the government of the United States, 
 or any other State, until a majority of the qualified vot- 
 ers of this State, voting upon the question, shall ratify 
 the same." 
 
 So far as the action of Blair and the Wide-Awakes 
 was concerned, the adoption of this measure was with- 
 out any practical effect. He had made up his mind 
 that, in a certain contingency, he would wage war upon 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 279 
 
 his State, and, as in that event it would make but little 
 difference what laws or how many of them stood in the 
 way, he did not consider it necessary to pretermit his 
 exertions to arm and equip the recruits that were flock- 
 ing to his standard. 
 
 Not so, in regard to the Southern sympathizers, or 
 secessionists, as, for the sake of brevity, we shall now 
 call them. To them, and the cause they had so much 
 at heart, this measure was full of serious consequences. 
 As has been said, it amounted practically to an abdica- 
 tion by the legislature of certain powers, and, although 
 in all probability not so intended, yet, in so far as it 
 gave occasion to the exhibition of Union sentiment 
 which took place at the February election, it was 
 fraught with disaster to the cause of the South. No 
 matter from what point of view we approach it, the 
 effect will be found to have been the same. Regarded 
 as a political measure, it checked at once the drift of 
 Missouri secessionward, and later on, by a vote that ad- 
 mitted of no dispute, it fixed her position firmly in and 
 with the Union. By the same token, it placed her vast 
 resources in men and quartermasters' stores at the ser- 
 vice of the Union, and, speaking militarily, it may be 
 roughly said to have thrown back the Confederate line 
 of battle from the Missouri to the Arkansas. 
 
 Curiously enough, although this measure brought with 
 it an Iliad of woes to the cause of the South, yet so 
 little were its consequences foreseen, that at the time of 
 its adoption it was regarded by the Southern sympa- 
 thizers as a triumph. In a certain sense this was per- 
 haps true, for it enabled them to appeal to the people 
 of the State upon an issue upon which they could not 
 carry the legislature, but from any other point of view 
 
280 MISSOURI. 
 
 it was a mistake. The times were revolutionary, and 
 whilst the Southern rights men in the legislature may 
 have had every confidence in the result of the appeal 
 to the people, they do not appear to have realized the 
 fact that every moment of delay strengthened Blair 
 and weakened them. Indeed, when we reflect that the 
 very measure, which they welcomed as a harbinger of 
 success, not only tied the hands of their friends at a 
 time when instant action could alone have saved their 
 cause, but that it also resulted in the total annihilation 
 of their party at the succeeding election, it would seem 
 as if the irony of fate could scarcely have reached 
 further. 
 
 To understand the influences that combined to 
 bring about the adoption of this measure, it is necessary 
 to bear in mind that the three leading parties in the 
 legislature, consisting respectively of the followers of 
 Breckinridge, Douglas, and Bell, were so evenly divided 
 that they served as checks upon one another. The 
 Southern sympathizers, whose main support was drawn 
 from the Breckinridge men, were not strong enough to 
 carry a resolution in favor of secession, even if they 
 had been disposed to do so ; and the Union men, 
 though united upon one point, differed among them- 
 selves to such an extent upon certain ulterior issues 
 that it was difficult for them to find any ground which 
 they could occupy in common. Moreover, at the time 
 of the election, the question of secession had not en- 
 tered into the canvass, and consequently there was no 
 certainty as to what was the prevailing sentiment of the 
 people of the State in regard to it. For these reasons, 
 among others, the members of the legislature, unwill- 
 ing to assume the responsibility of committing the State 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 281 
 
 to a line of action that might prove unacceptable, and 
 hopeful, perhaps, of the success of their respective views, 
 joined, almost without distinction of party, in refer- 
 ring the question back to the people. In the Senate 
 there were but two votes against the measure, and in 
 the House but eighteen, eleven of whom were Republi- 
 cans from St. Louis. In fact, it may be said that the 
 Republicans alone opposed it ; and yet, by an unex- 
 pected turn of the wheel, their wing of the Union party 
 was the only one that derived a permanent benefit from 
 it. Probably no more striking instance can be given of 
 the changes that were now going on in the opinions of 
 the people of the border States, or of the certainty 
 with which the Union men were gradually coming up to 
 the position to which they were logically committed. 
 
 With the adoption of this measure all political legis- 
 lation came, for the time being, to an end. Resolu- 
 tions, it is true, were adopted which denounced coercion 
 in vigorous terms, and pledged Missouri to resist it by 
 force ; but except in so far as they may be taken as in- 
 dicating the opinions of the individual members of the 
 legislature, they amounted to nothing. The power to 
 decide upon the course which Missouri was to follow 
 was now in the hands of the convention, placed there 
 by the act of the legislature itself, and so long as this 
 act was unrepealed, any attempt on the part of the leg- 
 islature to shape that course was a mere waste of time. 
 
 In the canvass which now took place for the choice 
 of delegates to the convention, the best men in the State 
 came to the front. The rights of the States and the 
 authority of the federal government to coerce a State ; 
 the relations of Missouri to the Union, to the seceded 
 States, and her duty in the premises to them and to 
 
282 MISSOURI. 
 
 herself, — in a word, the whole question of secession, so 
 far as it bore upon the future of the State, was thor- 
 oughly discussed, and with an earnestness and an ab- 
 sence of excitement that showed how deeply impressed 
 the great mass of the people were with the gravity of 
 the situation. 
 
 Among those who were most prominent on the side 
 of the South, we may mention the governor of the 
 State, Senators James S. Green and Trusten Polk, ex- 
 Senator and ex- Vice-President David R. Atchison, with 
 Vest, Parsons, Claiborne, ChurchiU, and others in the 
 General Assembly. Their organ was the " St. Louis 
 Bulletin," of which J. W. Tucker and Thomas L. 
 Snead were the editors. From the latter, whose position 
 as a chosen counselor of Governor Jackson, and sub- 
 sequently as a trusted officer on General Price's staff, 
 enabled him to speak with authority as to the motives 
 of his party friends, we learn that there were but few 
 of them who were primarily secessionists or believed 
 in the right of secession. They deplored the precipi- 
 tate action of South Carolina and the other seceding 
 States, and would gladly have persuaded them to re- 
 turn to the Union and trust to peaceful methods for the 
 protection of their rights. They were not particularly 
 devoted to the institution of slavery, nor were they 
 deeply interested in the maintenance of that system. 
 They were secessionists only because they believed that 
 the Union had been dissolved, that its reconstruc- 
 tion was impossible, that war was inevitable, and that 
 in war the place of Missouri was by the side of the 
 Southern States. Opposed to them were the Union 
 men, who were divided among themselves, according to 
 the degree of their loyalty, into conditional and uncon- 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 283 
 
 ditional Union men, but who upon this occasion, thanks 
 to the adroit management of Blair, voted together. Of 
 these two subdivisions, the former was composed almost 
 altogether of those who had supported Douglas and 
 Bell at the presidential election, and, as events subse- 
 quently proved, they constituted a large majority of 
 the people of the State. They did not believe in seces- 
 sion as a remedy for the evils of which the South 
 complained, and in their speeches and writings they 
 avowed their attachment to the Union, and declared 
 their intention of standing by it so long as there was a 
 hope of preserving it. Some plan of adjustment, they 
 felt certain, would be adopted, and they referred to 
 the Crittenden proposition, which had been declared 
 satisfactory by those representative Southern senators, 
 Toombs of Georgia, and Davis of Mississippi, as af- 
 fording a basis of settlement upon which all could agree. 
 If, however, the North should refuse to listen to the 
 just demand of the South for additional guaranties 
 against aggressive legislation, it would then, they 
 thought and said, be the duty of Missouri to unite with 
 the Southern States for the protection of their common 
 interests, including, of course, slavery. They also de- 
 clared that " if the North, pending the attempt to adjust 
 matters peaceably, should make war upon any Southern 
 State, Missouri would take up arms in its defense." 
 
 The position of the unconditional Union men differed 
 from this in one very important particular. As their 
 name indicated, they took the ground that they would 
 support the government in any and every measure that 
 might be deemed necessary to preserve the Union and 
 enforce the laws. They were recruited from the ranks 
 of the Republicans, or supporters of Lincoln, and, natu- 
 
284 MISSOURI. 
 
 rally enough, they were elated at their success at the 
 late election, and provoked at what seemed to them to 
 be the refusal of the secessionists to abide by the result 
 of that election. In St. Louis, where, alone in the 
 State, they could expect to form an appreciable factor 
 in the political problem, a large majority of them were 
 Germans, though their leaders were Anglo-Americans, 
 and, with but few exceptions, men of Southern birth 
 and lineage. Between them and the conditional Union 
 men there was but little sympathy ; in fact, not much 
 could have been expected when one party held the other 
 responsible for the deplorable condition in which affairs 
 then were, and the other recriminated by charging their 
 quasi friends and allies with being but little better than 
 secessionists in disguise. So bitter was the feeling that 
 it required all of Blair's tact and management to induce 
 the two wings of the party to work together against the 
 common enemy. " I don't believe," said a Republican 
 partisan, " in breaking up the Republican party just to 
 please these tender-footed Unionists. I believe in stick- 
 ing to the party." " Let us have a country first," 
 responded Blair, "and then we can talk about parties." 
 This was sound advice, and backed as it was by the 
 full weight of Blair's personal influence, it resulted, in 
 St. Louis, in the formation of a ticket composed of 
 seven Douglas, three Bell, and four Lincoln men, which 
 swept the county by a majority of over five thousand. 
 In the State at large the victory of the Union men was 
 not less complete. By a majority of eighty thousand 
 the people of Missouri decided against secession. Not 
 a single member of that party was returned to the con- 
 vention ; though there were a number of the delegates 
 who were believers in the doctrine of states - rights, or 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 285 
 
 as it is HOW termed, local self-government. Of the whole 
 number of members eighty-one were born in the slave 
 States, fourteen in the North, three in Europe, and one 
 in the District of Columbia. 
 
 To speak of the result of the election as being a sur- 
 prise and a disappointment to the secessionist leaders is 
 but faintly to describe the feehngs with which they wit- 
 nessed the overthrow of their air-built castles. They 
 had worked themselves into the belief that Missouri was 
 ready to follow South Carolina and the rest of the cotton 
 States into the secessionist camp, and was only waiting 
 for the forthcoming election in order to do so ; and so 
 satisfied were they of it that they did not hesitate to 
 counsel delay to a small and gallant band of their 
 friends, who were anxious to attempt the seizure of the 
 arsenal. " Wait," said they in effect, " until the people 
 shall, at the forthcoming election, declare their intention 
 of siding with the South ! Then the governor will order 
 General Frost to seize the arsenal in the name of the 
 State, and he with his brigade and the minute men and 
 the thousands " who it was supposed would flock to his 
 aid, could easily do it. 
 
 From these dreams, as they are now known to have 
 been, the secessionist members of the General Assem- 
 bly were rudely awakened by the result of the election. 
 It was a verdict that admitted of no misinterpretation, 
 and as such it was accepted. The military bill, as it 
 was called, which was intended to arm and equip the 
 militia, and was supposed, in some quarters, to cloak a 
 project for forcing the State into secession, was accord- 
 ingly shelved, and Missouri prepared of her own free 
 will, and by the votes of her chosen delegates, eighty per 
 cent, of whom were southern born, to take her place with 
 the loyal North. 
 
286 MISSOURI. 
 
 On the 28th of February, agreeably to the law which 
 called it into existence, the convention met at Jejffierson 
 City. Sterling Price, a decided Union man, who had 
 been member of Congress, governor of the State, and 
 had played a conspicuous part in the conquest and oc- 
 cupation of New Mexico, was chosen president, the vote 
 being seventy-five for Price, to fifteen for Nathaniel W. 
 Watkins, a half-brother of Henry Clay. As soon as 
 the organization was complete, an adjournment was had 
 to St. Louis, whose loyal atmosphere is said to have 
 been preferable to that of the capital, though it is prob- 
 able that the comfort and convenience of the members, 
 to say nothing of the desirability of having a suitable 
 hall for their deliberations, may have had something to 
 do with the change. On the 4th of March, the day of 
 Lincoln's inauguration, the convention reassembled in 
 St. Louis, and by an ominous conjunction it was on the 
 afternoon of this day that, by special invitation, Luther 
 J. Glenn, commissioner from the State of Georgia, ap- 
 peared before the convention for the purpose of making 
 the communication with which he was charged. In a 
 few well-chosen sentences he announced the secession of 
 Georgia from the Union, with the reasons therefor, and 
 in the name of his State he asked the people of Missouri 
 to adopt a similar course, and unite with their kinsmen 
 in Georgia in forming a Southern confederacy. His 
 message was not favorably received, though the able 
 adverse report of John B. Henderson was not acted 
 upon, the necessity for such a proceeding having been 
 superseded by the adoption of the report of the com- 
 mittee on federal relations which virtually covered the 
 same ground. 
 
 This most important committee, appointed for the 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 287 
 
 purpose of considering ''the relations now existing be- 
 tween the government of the United States, the govern- 
 ment and people of the different States, and the govern- 
 ment and people of this State," consisted of Hamilton 
 R. Gamble, chairman, John B. Henderson, John T. 
 Redd, William A. Hall, Jacob T. Tindall, Alexander 
 W. Doniphan, Nathaniel W. Watkins, Willard P. Hall, 
 Harrison Hough, Samuel L. Sawyer, William Doug- 
 lass, John R. Chenault, and William J. Pomeroy. It 
 was a picked body, fairly representative of the different 
 shades of opinion that were to be found in the conven- 
 tion ; and in the list of its members will be found the 
 names of a number of those whom the State delighted 
 to honor, and to whom their fellow-citizens now looked 
 for counsel. 
 
 On the 9th of March this committee made a report, 
 which is a model of clear, compact statement and close, 
 dispassionate reasoning. In it, they very properly draw 
 a distinction between the action of individual Northern 
 States and of the federal government ; and whilst ad- 
 mitting that the people of the South had just cause of 
 dissatisfaction with many of the former, they take oc- 
 casion to say that, thus far, there had been no intima- 
 tion that the latter had ever violated any of the rights of 
 the Southern States, or had any intention of doing so. 
 They also deemed it a subject of congratulation that, 
 although " a spirit of insubordination to law, unequaled, 
 perhaps, in any other civilized country, reigned through- 
 out the land, yet the judicial tribunals of the federal 
 government had not failed, in any case that had been 
 brought before them, to maintain the rights of Southern 
 citizens, and to punish the violators of these rights." 
 The cause, then, of the present condition of affairs, they 
 
288 MISSOURI. 
 
 continued, was to be found in "the alienated feelings 
 existing between the Northern and Southern sections of 
 the country, rather than in the actual injury suffered by 
 either; in the anticipation of future evils, rather than in 
 the pressure of any now actually endured." 
 
 In regard to the hostile legislation, which in almost 
 all of the Northern States had taken the shape of per- 
 sonal liberty bills, and was intended to nullify the act 
 of Congress for the return of fugitive slaves, the com- 
 mittee held, and very justly, that it was unconstitutional. 
 The remedy for it, they maintained with equal justice, 
 was provided by the Constitution, and was to be found 
 not in secession, or " its equivalent, revolution," but in 
 an appeal to the supreme court. This tribunal was the 
 recognized arbiter in all such cases, and there was no 
 reason to suppose that it would not vindicate the suprem- 
 acy of the Constitution in this instance, as it had done 
 in all others which had been submitted to it for adjudi- 
 cation. 
 
 Other points of law and fact which we must dismiss 
 with a bare mention, were discussed with equal clear- 
 ness. In conclusion, the committee, in a few pregnant 
 paragraphs, refer to the destructive effect which seces- 
 sion, or as they prefer to call it " revolution," would 
 entail upon the best interests of the State, including 
 slavery itself, and they ask what under the circumstances 
 is the position Missouri ought to assume ? To this they 
 answer : " Evidently that of a State whose interests are 
 bound up in the .maintenance of the Union, and whose 
 kind feelings and strong sympathies are with the people 
 of the Southern States, with whom we are connected by 
 ties of friendship and blood. We want the peace and 
 harmony of the country restored, and we want them 
 
MISSOURI DECIDES FOR THE UNION. 289 
 
 with us. To go with them as they are now ... is to 
 ruin ourselves without doing them any good. We can- 
 not now follow them ; we cannot now give up the Union ; 
 yet we will do all in our power to induce them to take 
 their places with us in the family from which they have 
 attempted to separate themselves. For this purpose we 
 will not only recommend a compromise " (the Critten- 
 den proposition), " with which they ought to be satisfied, 
 but we will unite in the endeavor to procure an assem- 
 blage of the whole family of States, in order that in a 
 General Convention such amendments to the Constitu- 
 tion may be agreed upon as shall permanently restore 
 harmony to the whole nation." Such a recommenda- 
 tion, it was thought, would come with appropriateness 
 and effect from Missouri, for she " was brought forth in 
 a storm, and cradled in a compromise." 
 
 Accompanying this report was a series of resolutions 
 which was adopted, but not without debate. Among 
 them, the first and most important was the one which 
 declared that there was " no adequate cause to impel 
 Missouri to dissolve her connection with the Federal 
 Union." Upon this, there was practically no disagree- 
 ment, the vote upon its adoption being eighty-nine to 
 one — Mr. Bast of Montgomery. The others were of 
 less moment, though among them were one or two that 
 were possessed of a certain interest, not so much on ac- 
 count of any effect which they had in " stilling the tem- 
 pest," as from the fact that they showed how tenaciously 
 the people of the State clung to the fast-disappearing 
 hope of a compromise, and how surely the loose and 
 shifting Union sentiment was crystallizing into uncon- 
 ditional loyalty. 
 
 This latter fact was made especially manifest in the 
 course of the debate which took place upon an amend- 
 
290 MISSOURI. 
 
 ment declaring what Missouri would do in case the North 
 should attempt to coerce the seceding States back into 
 the Union. Thus, for instance, when it was said that 
 she would never furnish a regiment for any such purpose, 
 William A. Hall tersely replied that Missouri was in the 
 Union, and it was her duty to respond to all demands 
 that the federal government might constitutionally make 
 upon her. This was certainly plain enough ; and what 
 was more to the point, it admitted, logically, of no satis- 
 factory answer. Nor was this all. Events outside of 
 the convention had moved rapidly of late, and the ques- 
 tion now, among those who knew whereof they spoke, 
 was not what Missouri would or would not do, but 
 what she was to be permitted to do. " Missouri has 
 not the power to go out of the Union if she would," said 
 James 0. Broadhead of St. Louis, a Virginian by birth 
 and one of Blair's most trusted advisers, in the course of 
 a speech in which he pictured the State as standing in 
 the pathway to the Pacific, and urged this as a reason 
 why the North would never consent to her secession. 
 *' Missouri has not the power to go out of the Union if 
 she would," he repeated, and little as the truth of the 
 statement was then suspected, it was soon seen to be 
 fraught with meaning. Read in the light of subsequent 
 events, it meant that the arsenal was safe, that Blair was 
 ready to strike, and only bided his time. 
 
 The adoption of this report virtually closed the pro- 
 ceedings of the convention, and on the 22d of March it 
 adjourned to the third Monday in December, but not 
 until a committee had been appointed with power to call 
 it together at an earlier date, should such a course be 
 deemed necessary. On the 28th of the same month the 
 General Assembly, which of late had been chiefly en- 
 gaged in local legislation, also adjourned. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE ARSENAL, CAMP JACKSON, AND THE SECOND 
 MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 The refusal of President Buchanan to withdraw the 
 Federal troops from Charleston, and his evident deter- 
 mination to regain possession of the forts which had been 
 surrendered to South Carolina, and to reinforce those 
 which still held out, hastened the action of Georgia and 
 the Gulf States, and led them, early in January, 1861, 
 even before they had formally seceded, to seize the 
 arsenals and such other public property as were within 
 their limits. This proceeding, which was epigrammati- 
 cally described by Blair as "• stealing empty forts and 
 full treasuries," but which was nothing more than the 
 practical application of the doctrine, then quite common, 
 of state sovereignty, naturally directed the attention of 
 the leaders of the different political parties in Missouri 
 to the arsenal in St. Louis, and set them to work planning 
 how they might get control of the forty thousand mus- 
 kets and other munitions of war which it was known to 
 contain. They felt that upon the success or failure of 
 their efforts to accomplish this purpose depended the 
 future of the State ; for let the result be what it might, 
 they knew the party that obtained those guns would be 
 able to hold St. Louis and Missouri, by virtue of its 
 ability to arm its adherents. 
 
 Impressed with this belief, and satisfied that move- 
 
292 MISSOURI. 
 
 ments were on foot among irresponsible parties, Union- 
 ist as well as Secessionist, to take possession of this 
 post, General D. M. Frost, of the Missouri state militia, 
 a graduate of West Point and a thorough soldier, is said 
 to have called Governor Jackson's attention to the neces- 
 sity of " looking after " it, so that the State might be in 
 a condition to arm her troops, as he was satisfied she 
 would, sooner or later, have to do, whether she fought 
 for the Union or against it, or whether, having declared 
 for neutrality, she simply wished to make her position 
 respected. Jackson, however, needed no prompting. 
 The secession of the cotton States had, he thought, made 
 disunion an accomplished fact ; and as he had long since 
 come to the conclusion that, in such an event, Missouri's 
 place would be with the South, and as, moreover, he had 
 no doubt that this was the sentiment of the people of the 
 State generally, he did not hesitate to give Frost author- 
 ity to seize the arsenal, whenever in his judgment it 
 might become necessary to do so. Meanwhile he was 
 to assist in protecting it against mob violence of any 
 kind or from any source. In the discharge of this 
 duty, Frost called upon Major William H. Bell, the 
 commandant of the arsenal, who gave him to understand 
 that whilst he was determined to defend the post against 
 any and all irresponsible mobs, come from whence they 
 might, he would not attempt to defend it against the 
 proper State authorities, as he was of the opinion that, 
 whenever the time came, the State had the right to claim 
 it as being on her soil. He also promised that he would 
 not suffer any arms to be removed from the place 
 without giving notice of the fact. In return. Frost 
 engaged to use the force at his command to protect the 
 arsenal from the assaults of all persons whatsoever, 
 
THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 293 
 
 though he frankly avowed that, in view of the present 
 defenseless condition of the place, and in order to carry- 
 out this purpose, it might become necessary for him to 
 come down and quarter troops there, to which Major 
 Bell assented. These assurances were satisfactory to 
 Frost, as they were, of necessity, to the small but active 
 band of secessionists which had been organized in the 
 city, and which, as we have seen, was held in check by 
 the advice of friends at Jefferson City ; and they fully 
 justified Frost, who had every confidence in Major Bell's 
 word, in declaring that he should now rest easy, though 
 he intended to be " prepared with the proper force to act 
 as emergency might require." 
 
 Frost, however, was not the only person in St. Louis 
 who had his eyes fixed upon the arsenal and its con- 
 tents. Frank Blair was looking longingly in the same 
 direction, and was already busily engaged in organizing 
 the bands which, supplied with guns from this very 
 storehouse, enabled him, some four months later, to lay 
 such a heavy hand upon Missouri. Just then, it is 
 true, he could not arm them, for except the few muskets 
 furnished by the liberality of his friends and through 
 the instrumentality of Governor Yates of Illinois, he 
 was without the necessary means ; but he did not permit 
 this to interfere with the work of recruiting and drilling. 
 That went on steadily, and as a consequence, when the 
 moment came for action, Blair was able to appear at the 
 decisive point with a well-armed force, ten times as numer- 
 ous as that which his opponents could bring against him. 
 
 In the mean time, whilst these two, or rather three, 
 parties (for Frost can hardly be termed a secessionist, 
 though as an officer in the service of the State he was 
 willing to obey the orders of his commander) were 
 
294 MISSOURI. 
 
 watching each other, the federal government awoke 
 from its lethargy, and began to concentrate troops in St. 
 Louis for the protection of its property. The first ar- 
 rival, consisting of a detachment of forty-seven men, 
 occurred on the 11th of January ; on the 24th, the very 
 day that Frost reported to the governor the result of 
 his visit to the arsenal, Major Bell was relieved from 
 command and Major Hagner put in his place ; and by 
 the 18 th of February, the day of the election of dele- 
 gates to the convention which pronounced so decidedly 
 against secession, there were between four and five hun- 
 dred men behind the arsenal walls, and under the com- 
 mand of officers who would not have hesitated to use 
 them in defense of the property intrusted to their care. 
 With such a force, properly handled as this unquestion- 
 ably would have been, the place was now so far from 
 being in need of " protection," either by secessionists or 
 Union men, that it was abundantly able to take care of 
 itself ; and General Harney, who was in command of 
 the department and presumably familiar with its con- 
 dition, under date of February 19, notified the author- 
 ities at Washington that there was no danger of an at- 
 tack, and never had been. " If," added he, *' one should 
 be made, the garrison would be promptly rescued by an 
 overwhelming force from the city." 
 
 Such was not the opinion of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, 
 who had arrived at the arsenal on the 6th of February, 
 and who was destined, in the short space of the com- 
 ing six months, to write his name indelibly in the his- 
 tory of the State. He was at this time forty-three 
 years of age, having been born at Ashford, Con- 
 necticut, in July, 1818. In personal appearance he is 
 described as having been " of less than medium height ; 
 
THE ARSENAL AND CAMP J4CKSON. 295 
 
 slender and angular ; with abundant hair of a sandy- 
 color, and a coarse, reddish-brown beard. He had 
 deep-set blue eyes; features that were rough and 
 homely ; and the weather-beaten aspect of a man who 
 had seen much hard service on the frontier," as, in 
 truth, he had. Indeed, it is quite probable that it was 
 his service in Kansas during the troublous days of which 
 we have spoken, the scenes which he had then witnessed 
 and in some of which he had been an actor, that had so 
 intensified his dislike of slavery and slaveholders as to 
 make him forgetful, at times, of the distinction which 
 should be drawn between the sin and the sinner. In 
 his inability, too, to see more than one side of a ques- 
 tion, and in the terrible earnestness with which he saw 
 that, he betrayed the puritanical bent of his mind, as he 
 also did in his impatience of control, and in the spirit of 
 intolerance that made it impossible for him to under- 
 stand how there could be two opinions upon a subject 
 upon which he had made up his mind, and that caused 
 him to attribute incapacity, or unworthy and improper 
 motives, to any one who ventured to differ from him, or 
 who failed to approve of the extreme measures to which 
 he naturally inclined. This last characteristic is espe- 
 cially noticeable in his political writings and in his treat- 
 ment of Major Hagner, whose refusal to act upon his 
 suggestions for strengthening the arsenal is said to have 
 been the result of "imbecility or d — d villainy." It 
 may also be seen in his denunciation of General Scott's 
 decision awarding the command of the arsenal to 
 Hagner and not to him, which we are told was made 
 " in his usual sordid spirit of partisanship and favoritism 
 to pets, and personal associates, and toadies ; " and it led 
 him to question Lincoln's "resolution to grapple with 
 
296 MISSOURI. 
 
 treason, and to put it down forever," and to express the 
 fear that " he was not the man for the hour," and that 
 " our political triumph had been in vain." 
 
 Qualities like these are hardly of a character to com- 
 mend their possessor to men of moderate views, and 
 hence we find that in the efforts that were made in St. 
 Louis and at Washington to effect Hagner's removal 
 and Lyon's installment in his place, the latter gentle- 
 man received but little aid from men of a conservative 
 stamp. Even after the accession of Lincoln and the 
 capture of Camp Jackson, his advancement was opposed 
 by such Union men as Attorney General Edward Bates, 
 Hamilton R. Gamble, the president of the convention, 
 and James E. Yeatman, afterwards so well known as 
 the efficient head of the Western Sanitary Commission. 
 On the other hand he was possessed of certain soldier- 
 ly qualities, and had withal a military way of untying 
 political and legal knots that appealed at once to men 
 of action, like Blair and Broadhead and the other mem- 
 bers of the Union Safety Committee. Through all this 
 trying period they supported him bravely and stead- 
 fastly ; and it was due in great part to their ceaseless 
 efforts that he finally succeeded in obtaining the ap- 
 pointment which gave him the command of the arsenal 
 and made him the master of St. Louis. 
 
 As yet all this was in the future. President Bu- 
 chanan's term of office still had a month to run, and so 
 long as he remained in power neither Blair nor Lyon 
 could hope for any special favor. All that they or 
 any one could expect was that he would take care that 
 the public property was properly defended, and this 
 he was evidently determined to do, whether the attack 
 came from Union men or secessionists. In fact, it was 
 
THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 297 
 
 owing to this very determination, and the consequent 
 concentration of troops at the arsenal, that Lyon now- 
 found himself in St. Louis, and engaged in the con- 
 genial occupation of drilling and disciplining the home 
 guards, thereby transforming them from an unarmed 
 mob of civilians into a band of trained soldiers, ready 
 to defend, or if need be take the arsenal, and prepared 
 at all times to fight for the Union. 
 
 For this work he was well fitted, not only by his mili- 
 tary training, but also by his tireless energy and his de- 
 votion to the Union. It was to him a labor of love, and 
 such was the zeal he brought to bear in its prosecution, 
 the cheerful courage with which he bore up under the 
 depressing influence of hope deferred, and the confi- 
 dence that he manifested in the righteousness of the 
 cause in which he was engaged and in its ultimate suc- 
 cess, that he became a tower of strength to the weak 
 and timid, and even among the strong and courageous 
 he was speedily recognized as a leader. Under the 
 stimulating influence of two such spirits as Blair and 
 himself, the work of preparation went bravely on. By 
 the middle of April, four regiments had been enlisted, 
 and Lyon, who was now in command of the arsenal, 
 though not of the department, proceeded to arm them 
 in accordance with an order which Blair had procured 
 from Washington. 
 
 Backed by this force, Blair felt strong enough to set 
 up an opposition to the state government, and accord- 
 ingly, when Jackson refused to furnish the quota of 
 troops assigned to Missouri under President Lincoln's 
 call of April 15, 1861, he telegraphed to Washington 
 that if an order to muster the men into the service was 
 sent to Captain Lyon, " the requisition would be filled in 
 
298 MISSOURI. 
 
 two days." The order was duly forwarded, and five 
 regiments having been sworn in instead of four, as called 
 for, Blair was offered the command. This he declined, 
 and, on his recomniendation, Lyon was elected in his 
 place. On the 7th and 8th of May another brigade was 
 organized, and Captain Thomas W. Sweeny, of the 2d 
 Infantry, was elected commander. This made ten regi- 
 ments of volunteers, besides several companies of regu- 
 lars and a battery of artillery, that were now ready for 
 service ; and as General Harney, whose relatives and 
 associates were suspected of disloyalty, had been ordered 
 to Washington to explain his position, Lyon was virtually 
 in command of the department. The wished-for oppor- 
 tunity had come at last ; and Blair and Lyon, no longer 
 trammeled by higher authority, and determined that 
 Missouri should be made to fight for the Union instead 
 of occupying the merely negative position which she had 
 taken upon the question of secession, were now at liberty 
 to carry out their plans. 
 
 Meanwhile the February election had passed off with- 
 out disturbance, and resulted, as has already been said, 
 in an overwhelming defeat of the secessionists. It was 
 a fatal blow to their cause, for it led the General Assem- 
 bly to adjourn without taking any measures to put the 
 State in a position either to fight or to defend her neu- 
 trality. This, of course, left Governor Jackson power- 
 less, and, as Snead says, "turned Missouri over, unarmed 
 and defenseless, to Frank Blair and his home guards." 
 In St. Louis, it is true, a small and gallant band of young 
 men, under the lead of Basil W. Duke and Colton 
 Greene, both of whom afterwards held high command in 
 the Confederate service, showed a disposition to contest 
 the prize with him, but their efforts came to naught. 
 
THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 299 
 
 For some unexplained reason, although possessed of ad- 
 mirable recruiting grounds, they never numbered over 
 three hundred men — not a tenth of the force vi^ith 
 which Blair stood ready to overwhelm them ; and in the 
 end they wisely dropped their organization as minute 
 men, and formed a battalion, which was assigned to 
 Frost's brigade of the state militia. 
 
 Jackson, too, though possessed of but little actual 
 power, was unwilling to give up the contest without an 
 effort. He did not accept the decision of the February 
 election as final, and as his views in regard to the posi- 
 tion that Missouri should take in the impending struggle 
 had undergone no change, he showed in this supreme 
 moment of his life that he did not lack the courage of 
 his convictions. Repairing to St. Louis as soon as the 
 adjournment of the General Assembly had left him free, 
 he began at once, in conjunction with certain leading 
 secessionists, to concert measures for arming the militia 
 of the State, and thus putting her in a condition to make 
 her action, whatever it might be, effective. To this end, 
 the seizure of the arsenal was held to be a prerequisite, 
 and General Frost was preparing a memorial showing 
 how this could best be done, when the surrender of Fort 
 Sumter and the President's consequent call for troops 
 hurried Jackson into a position of antagonism to the 
 federal government, though no one knew better than 
 he how inadequate the resources of the State were to 
 maintain the defiant attitude which he assumed. How- 
 ever, he was not dismayed. To the requisition made 
 upon Missouri for four regiments to suppress combina- 
 tions, maintain the Union, and repossess the forts which 
 had been seized, he answered that she would not send a 
 man for the purpose of carrying on an unholy crusade 
 
300 MISSOURI. 
 
 against the people of the seceded States. Under the 
 circumstances, this was a rash declaration, for, as events 
 subsequently proved, the matter had already passed be- 
 yond the control of the state authorities, though Jackson 
 knew it not ; and if he had, it is questionable whether 
 it would have made any difference in his official action, 
 as he was determined, if possible, to place Missouri 
 where he thought she belonged, on the side of the South. 
 Accordingly he sent messengers to the Confederate 
 authorities at Montgomery, Alabama, asking them to 
 supply him with the guns that were needed for the pro- 
 posed attack on the arsenal ; and he summoned the 
 General Assembly to meet at Jefferson City on the 2d 
 of May, to deliberate upon such measures as might be 
 deemed necessary for placing the State in a position to 
 defend herself. He also ordered, as he was authorized 
 to do under the law, the commanders of the several mili- 
 tary districts to hold the regular yearly encampments 
 for the purpose of instructing their men in drill and 
 discipline. And here it is worthy of note, as indicating 
 the motives of the people of the State, that the law under 
 which this order was issued was introduced into the 
 state senate by General Frost in 1855, and was in- 
 tended, as he then said, to provide the means for raising 
 a volunteer force of fifty thousand men, which was to be 
 used in " preventing our Northern and Southern brethren 
 from flying at each other's throats, as they will probably 
 do at the next presidential election in 1856, or passing 
 that, then certainly in 1860, unless the border States take 
 action such as this to keep the peace." The bill, we 
 are told, was passed, but not until it was shorn of the 
 appropriation which alone could give it force, though 
 General Simon B. Buckner of Kentucky, who " shared 
 
THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 301 
 
 in these fears and views as to the means of preventing 
 their realization," seems to have had better success, as 
 he is said to have " obtained a copy of the law and 
 passed it in better shape through the legislature of his 
 State." For this curious bit of unwritten history we 
 are indebted to General Frost, and chimerical as the 
 project may have been, it is of interest as showing that 
 the idea of neutrality was by no means of recent origin 
 in the border States, and it may help to explain the 
 hold which that idea had taken upon a people as com- 
 bative as those of Kentucky and Missouri showed them- 
 selves to be. 
 
 Returning now to the order for the encampment, we 
 find that it was general, though practically its effect was 
 limited to the first or Frost's brigade, as that was the 
 only one that had been organized under the law. On 
 the 3d of May, this little band, numbering less than 
 seven hundred men, pitched their tents in a wooded val- 
 ley in the outskirts of the city of St. Louis, and named 
 it Camp Jackson, in honor of the governor. It is de- 
 scribed as being surrounded on all sides, at short range, 
 by commanding hills ; it was, moreover, open to a charge 
 of cavalry in any and every direction, and the men 
 were supjDlied with but five rounds of ammunition each, 
 hardly enough for guard puriDoses. In a word, it was 
 defenseless, and this fact is believed to be conclusive in 
 regard to the peaceful character of the camp as it was 
 organized. Whatever, then, may have been Jackson's 
 motives when he ordered its formation, and there is but 
 little doubt that he intended to take advantage of any 
 favorable opportunity that might have occurred for 
 seizing the arsenal, it is evident that Frost did not, now, 
 contemplate any such action. Independently of the fact 
 
802 MISSOURI. 
 
 that the removal of the arms to a place of safety in 
 Illinois had taken away the occasion for such a course, 
 he was too good a soldier, had he intended any such 
 movement, or had he anticipated an attack from Lyon, 
 to have brought his small command within easy striking 
 distance of ten times their number of well-armed men ; 
 nor vrould he have encamped in a position in which, 
 from the nature of the ground, it was impossible to 
 make a successful defense. 
 
 All this was, of course, well known to Lyon, but it did 
 not satisfy him of the peaceful character of the camp. 
 On the contrary, we are told by his biographer that he 
 regarded it as a " fearful menace, which by prompt ac- 
 tion would amount to no more than bravado, but if suf- 
 fered to continue and grow, would become very shortly 
 a source of serious trouble, and might result in terrible 
 conflicts in the very streets of the city." These gloomy 
 anticipations may or may not have been well founded, 
 but in either case it is difficult to understand why Lyon 
 should have concerned himself about the matter, since 
 he was not a guardian of the peace in St. Louis, and, 
 moreover, he was even then engaged in maturing a plan 
 that certainly threatened the peace which he seemed so 
 anxious to preserve. The times, however, were revolu- 
 tionary, as General Scott said when approving of an 
 order that gave the Safety Committee power to declare 
 martial law in St. Louis ; and in view of the tremendous 
 stake for which Blair and Lyon were playing, it would 
 have been too much to expect that they could or would 
 square their conduct by the rules of logic any more than 
 they did by the laws of the State. In their judgment, 
 the hour had come when the interests of the Union 
 demanded that they should strike down the legally con- 
 
THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 303 
 
 stituted authorities of the State, and revolutionary as 
 was the proceeding, they set about it in a fashion that 
 left no doubt as to the thoroughness with which they 
 proposed to do the work. 
 
 As a preHminary step, it was determined to seize 
 Camp Jackson and every man in it, and hold them as 
 prisoners of war. At a meeting of the Safety Commit- 
 tee Lyon unfolded this plan, and gave as a reason for 
 thinking this course necessary, that a longer delay might 
 enable the camp to assume proportions so formidable as 
 to endanger the safety of the State. Blair, Broadhead, 
 O. D. Filley, and J. J. Witzig agreed with him; but 
 Samuel T. Glover and John How, the remaining mem- 
 bers of the committee, though desiring the capture of the 
 place, objected to the time and manner in which it was 
 proposed to take it. The camp, they said, had a legal 
 existence but for a week, five days of which had already 
 elapsed, and they did not think it ought to be attacked 
 during that period. Besides, the officers in command of 
 it recognized the government of the United States, and 
 had in no instance disturbed the j)eace. True, there 
 was property there, believed to have been wrongly taken 
 from the government arsenal at Baton Rouge, but the 
 way to reach that was by a writ of replevin. If Gen- 
 eral Frost refused to respect the writ, the marshal might 
 then call upon General Lyon for assistance, and thus the 
 object would be gained. 
 
 In reply to this, Lyon urged the impropriety of allow- 
 ing Frost to prepare for resistance when the whole en- 
 terprise could be managed without the firing of a gun. 
 He knew, he said, the camp to be a nest of traitors ; that 
 the legislature was in secret session, and even then a new 
 military law might be in operation, or, if not, it would 
 
304 MISSOURI. 
 
 certainly be in a day or so. Advices from all parts of 
 the State, he added, were discouraging to the Union 
 men, and the rebels were gathering in strength, and he 
 closed with the significant warning that General Harney 
 would arrive on Sunday (it was now Thursday) and be 
 once more in command, and no one could tell what he 
 would do. 
 
 The mention of Harney's return and the fear as to 
 the effect of his peaceful policy are said to have decided 
 Glover, who thereupon agreed to the necessity of break- 
 ing up the camp, though he still held to the opinion that 
 it would be best to have the United States marshal at 
 the head of the attacking column, and let him first make 
 a demand for the arms which the Confederate authori- 
 ties had forwarded at Jackson's request, and which were 
 now, by Frost's permission, and at the earnest solicita- 
 tion of Mayor Taylor, deposited outside the front en- 
 trance to the camp. Lyon opposed this plan as being 
 in the nature of a subterfuge, and in a private consulta- 
 tion with Blair he announced his intention of seizing the 
 entire force at the camp, without any ceremony other 
 than a demand for its surrender. " This demand he 
 would make with his men in line of battle and his guns 
 in position, and if it was not complied with at once, he 
 would fight for it." ^ The next day — the last of the 
 encampment — Frost, who had heard of the proposed 
 attack, sent a letter to Lyon, in which he denied that he 
 or any part of his command were actuated by hostile 
 intentions towards the federal government ; but that 
 
 ^ For this account of the meetings of the Safety Committee, 
 and for many other facts connected with this most eventful 
 period, I am indebted to General Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 
 1861, by James Peckham. New York, 1866. 
 
TEE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 305 
 
 officer, having matured his plans for taking the camp, 
 refused to receive it. Frost also notified Glover, How, 
 and other members of the Safety Committee, that he 
 knew nothing and cared nothing about the arms said to 
 have been taken from Baton Rouge and now deposited 
 at the entrance to his camp ; that he had no claim on 
 them and no orders regarding them, and that if the 
 United States marshal wanted them he was welcome 
 to come and take them away. These protestations 
 were of no avail, as Lyon had made up his mind that 
 the time had come for action. He seems to have 
 thought, as was said by Blair in his letter to the Presi- 
 dent, that to seize Camp Jackson and follow it up " by 
 blows struck at the enemy in other parts of the State 
 would speedily and effectually, and at small cost of life 
 and treasure," crush the rebellion in the State. In this 
 he was no doubt correct, though it is probable that the 
 result, when achieved, would have been due not so much 
 to the "blows" which he proposed to strike, as to the 
 fact that except Governor Jackson and his adherents or 
 *' clique," as Postmaster General Blair styled them, there 
 were no rebels in the State. Missouri, it will be remem- 
 bered, had just given a majority of eighty thousand 
 against secession, and to suppose that the Union men 
 of the State could have been duped or driven into an op- 
 posite course by less than one fourth of their number is 
 preposterous, and it was so considered by those who may 
 be said to have been most directly interested. 
 
 Lyon, however, was not to be turned from his purpose 
 by such considerations, any more than he was by peaceful 
 protestations or legal obstacles. Putting his troops in 
 motion early in the morning of the 10th of May, he 
 surrounded Camp Jackson and demanded its surrender. 
 
306 MISSOURI. 
 
 As Frost could make no defense against the overwhelm- 
 ing odds brought against him, he was of course obliged 
 to comply ; and his men, having been disarmed, were 
 marched to the arsenal, where they were paroled — all 
 except Captain Emmett McDonald, who refused to ac- 
 cept his release upon the terms offered, and was finally 
 set free by the action of the courts. 
 
 After the surrender, and whilst the prisoners were 
 standing in line, waiting for the order to march, a crowd 
 of men, women, and children collected and began to 
 abuse the home guards, attacking them with stones and 
 other missiles. It is even said that several shots were 
 fired at them, but this lacks confirmation. According 
 to Frost, who was at the head of the column of prison- 
 ers, the first intimation of firing was given by a single 
 shot, followed almost immediately by volley firing, which 
 is said to have been executed with precision considering 
 the rawness of the troops. When the fusillade was 
 checked, it was found that twenty-eight persons had 
 been killed or mortally wounded, among whom were 
 three of the prisoners, two women, and one child. In 
 justice to the federal troops, it must be added that one 
 of them was killed ; and if we may credit Peckham, 
 Captain Blandowski, of the third (Sigel's) regiment, 
 whose company began the shooting, died the next day 
 from the effect of a wound received at the hands of the 
 excited crowd before he gave the order to fire. 
 
 Judging this action by the reasons assigned for it, and 
 by its effect throughout the State, it must be pronounced 
 a blunder. So far from intimidating the secessionists, 
 it served only to exasperate them ; and it drove not a 
 few Union men, among them General Sterling Price, 
 into the ranks of the opposition and ultimately into the 
 
THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 307 
 
 Confederate army. That Blair and Lyon were honest 
 and sincere in what they said is not, for a moment, 
 doubted ; but this can hardly be considered as a full 
 justification of their conduct. Even after admitting all 
 that can be brought forward in their favor and against 
 Jackson, there will remain the fact that in seizing the 
 camp they were actuated not so much by anything that 
 had taken place, as by their fears of what might here- 
 after be done. Such an explanation is but a phase of 
 the tyrant's plea of necessity, and whilst there are times 
 when it is satisfactory, it is not in the present instance, 
 for the reason that Blair and Lyon both knew that one 
 effort had already been made to detach Missouri from 
 the Union, and had failed ; and they had no reason to 
 suppose that a second attempt would be any more suc- 
 cessful. In taking the course they did, then, they were 
 in open, flagrant revolt against the State ; and so far as 
 their action was dictated or sanctioned by the authorities 
 at Washington, the capture of Camp Jackson was an act 
 of war perpetrated by the federal government upon a 
 State which was as much a part of the Union as was 
 Illinois or Iowa. 
 
 When the news of the seizure reached Jefferson City 
 the General Assembly was in secret session ; and if a 
 proof of its ill-effect upon the people of the State, or a 
 measure of it, be needed, it will be found in the influ- 
 ence it exerted upon the members of that body and the 
 legislation to which it led. Thus we find that the mili- 
 tary bill, as it was called, was then under consideration, 
 and that its opponents were contesting its passage, striv- 
 ing by every device known to parliamentary warfare to 
 deprive it of the features that made it objectionable to 
 the Union men. It was the same measure that had 
 
308 MISSOURI. 
 
 been rejected at the previous session of the legislature ; 
 the men who defeated it then were opposing it now, 
 and there was no reason to believe that the result would 
 have been different ; and yet, such was the revulsion of 
 feeling caused by the ill-advised attack upon the state 
 troops, that in less than fifteen minutes from the time 
 that the news was received, the bill was rushed through 
 both branches of the General Assembly in the shape 
 in which it had been originally introduced, the amend- 
 ments that were intended to render it less objection- 
 able having been rescinded. Resolutions denouncing 
 the conduct of Blair and Lyon were also passed, and 
 the governor was unanimously requested to call out the 
 militia for the purpose of defending the State. Other 
 and more extreme measures were also adopted, but it is 
 unnecessary to specify them, as, owing to the rapid 
 march of events, this General Assembly soon ceased to 
 be a factor in Missouri politics, and these enactments 
 died with it. 
 
 Fortunately for the State, and perhaps for the Union, 
 the question of secession was not one of those upon 
 which the legislature could take action. That matter 
 had been referred to the convention ; and the wisdom 
 that led this body, when its ostensible work was fin- 
 ished, to take a recess instead of adjourning finally, 
 was now fully justified. By adopting this course it was, 
 constructively, still in existence, and so long as this 
 was the case, the question of the secession of Missouri 
 was within its control, and the General Assembly was 
 powerless to act in the matter. 
 
 But whilst this was undeniably true, it was equally 
 true that there was no reason why the General Assem- 
 bly should not arm and equip the state troops, or take 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 309 
 
 any constitutional measures that might be deemed nec- 
 essary to secure the enforcement o£ the laws ; and this 
 was precisely what it claimed to be doing when it au- 
 thorized the enlistment of a body of troops to be known 
 as the state guard. Under the terms of this law, the 
 governor was empowered to appoint a major-general, 
 who was to be in command of the entire force, and eight 
 brigadier-generals, who were to have control of the sev- 
 eral military districts into which the State was divided. 
 To the first of these positions Sterling Price, the presi- 
 dent of the convention, was appointed, and, to the great 
 delight of the secessionists, he accepted. Volunteers at 
 once began to flock to Jefferson City, and in a week 
 from the time that Blair and Lyon had thrown down 
 their gage of battle, a regiment was formed, of which 
 John S. Marmaduke, the late governor of the State, was 
 made colonel. 
 
 Meanwhile General Harney had returned to St. 
 Louis and resumed command of the department. He 
 approved of the capture of Camp Jackson, and on the 
 14th of May he issued a proclamation, in which he an- 
 nounced that the whole power of the United States 
 would, if necessary, be exerted to maintain the State in 
 her present position in the Union. Upon this point he 
 was explicit, but beyond this he seems to have had no 
 other wish than to preserve the peace. To this end he 
 invited General Price to an interview, in which it was 
 agreed that the latter officer should be intrusted with 
 the duty of keeping order within the State, subject to 
 the laws of the general and state governments. If this 
 were done, the peoj^le were assured by Harney that he 
 would have no occasion, as he had no wish, to make 
 military movements which might create excitement and 
 
310 MISSOURI. 
 
 jealousies. In accordance with this agreement, Price 
 dismissed the trooj)s which had assembled at Jefferson 
 City, though, in reply to a suggestion of Harney, he is 
 said to have answered that he had no power to suspend 
 the organization of the state guard, as that was carried 
 on under a law of the State which must be obeyed until 
 it was repealed, or decided to be unconstitutional by com- 
 petent authority. 
 
 This agreement which, according to Harney, produced 
 a good effect throughout the State, was by no means 
 satisfactory to Blair and Lyon. They did not want the 
 State to be neutral, nor did they intend that she should 
 be. What they wanted was that she should be made to 
 fight for the Union ; and as this could not be effected 
 whilst Jackson was in authority, they determined to de- 
 pose him and drive him from the State. But before 
 this could be done it was necessary to get rid of Har- 
 ney ; and accordingly they set to work to bring this 
 about. A circular signed by 0. D. Filley, one of the 
 safety committee, was sent to loyal men throughout the 
 State, in which they were asked to write frequently to 
 headquarters in St. Louis, and give any information 
 they might have as to the organization of troops under 
 the military law. They were also ask'ed to forward ac- 
 counts of any outrages of which they had cognizance, 
 that might be perpetrated by secessionists upon Union 
 men ; and they were earnestly recommended, in viola- 
 tion, it was claimed, of the Price-Harney agreement, to 
 organize " as fast as possible — with arms, if to be had, 
 if not, without them." In response to this circular, the 
 committee was flooded with letters from all parts of the 
 State ; and if we may judge of the whole number from 
 those that were published, they were not of a character 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 311 
 
 to entitle them to any great amount of credence. They 
 consisted chiefly of rumors that were afterwards proved 
 to be false, and inferences based upon them, all of which 
 were gravely stated as facts. In one case, — and it is 
 a fair sample of all, — a loyal gentleman, writing from 
 the southwestern portion of the State, tells us that in 
 that region " the people are overwhelmed with terror 
 and fright," though he admits that at that time there 
 were in the town in which he lived eight hundred home 
 guards already mustered into service ; and General 
 Sweeny, writing from the same place, six weeks later, 
 says that the people in that vicinity were generally loyal, 
 and that since his arrival he had organized several regi- 
 ments of Union troops. Stories like these were eagerly 
 collected, and although General Harney discredited 
 them, and on more than one occasion bore official testi- 
 mony to the fidelity with which Price was carrying out 
 his part of the agreement, yet they had the desired effect 
 upon Lincoln, to whom they were duly forwarded. In 
 fact, so impressed was he with their truth, and with the 
 sufferings and dangers to which the Union men of the 
 State were said to be exposed, that he issued an order, 
 or rather a series of instructions, in which Harney was 
 enjoined to put a stop to "these outrages " by the aid of 
 the troops under his command, and with such assistance 
 from Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois as he might require. 
 He was also told that the state officers were not to be 
 trusted ; that the authority of the United States was 
 paramount ; and that whenever it was apparent that a 
 movement, whether by color of state authority or not, 
 was hostile, he must put it down. These instructions 
 indicate very plainly the light in which Missouri was 
 now regarded at Washington, and the position to which 
 
312 MISSOURI. 
 
 it was proposed to reduce her ; and they are reproduced 
 here simply for that reason, as Harney did not receive 
 them until he was no longer in a situation to carry them 
 out, the order relieving him of the command having 
 been delivered to him by Blair on the 30th of May. 
 
 The dismissal of Harney left Lyon once more at the 
 head of the Federal troops in Missouri. As his inten- 
 tions in regard to the State were well known, both 
 sides began to prepare for war ; but before hostilities 
 were begun, an effort was made by Thomas T. Gantt, 
 "William A. Hall, and other well-known citizens to bring 
 about an agreement between the rival parties which 
 woidd give a promise of peace to the State. To this 
 end a meeting was arranged, and took place in St. 
 Louis on the 11th of June, in which Blair, Lyon, and 
 Major Conant represented the federal government, and 
 Price, Jackson, and Colonel Thomas L. Snead appeared 
 for the State, but it came to naught. After some hours 
 spent in a fruitless discussion, Lyon, who was still 
 seated, closed the interview in the following words, 
 spoken " slowly, deliberately, and with peculiar empha- 
 sis : * Rather than concede to the State of Missouri the 
 right to demand that my government shall not enlist 
 troops within her limits, or bring troops into the State 
 whenever it pleases, or move its troops at its own will 
 into, out of, or through the State ; rather than concede 
 to the State of Missouri for one single instant the right 
 to dictate to my government in any matter however un- 
 important, I would ' (rising as he said this, and pointing 
 in turn to every one in the room) ' see you, and you, 
 and you, and you, and you, and every man, woman, and 
 child in the State, dead and buried.' Then turning to 
 the governor he said : ' This means war. Li an hour 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 313 
 
 one of my officers will call for you and conduct you out 
 of my lines.' And then," continues Snead, " without 
 another word, without an inclination of the head, with- 
 out even a look, he turned upon his heel and strode out 
 of the room, rattling his spurs and clanking his sabre, 
 while we, whom he had left, and who had known each 
 other for years, bade farewell to each other courteously 
 and kindly, and separated — Blair and Conant to fight 
 for the Union, we for the land of our birth." 
 
 Returning to Jefferson City, Jackson forthwith issued 
 a proclamation in which he announced the result of the 
 interview in St. Louis ; spoke of the humiliating con- 
 cessions he had been willing to make in order to avert 
 the horrors of civil war, of their contemptuous rejection 
 by Lyon, and the declaration that the administration 
 intended to take military possession of the State and re- 
 duce it to the condition of Maryland ; and he closed by 
 calling out fifty thousand of the militia for the purpose 
 of repelling the attack that had been made upon the 
 State, and for the protection of the lives, liberties, and 
 property of her citizens. He also sent orders to the 
 commanders of the different military districts to assem- 
 ble their men and prepare for active service. This 
 done, and warned by the rumors of Lyon's approach, he 
 left on the 13th of June for Boonville, where he found 
 General John B. Clark, with several hundred of the men 
 of Marmaduke's regiment, awaiting his arrival. Here 
 he determined to make a stand, more to give the state 
 troops which had been organized on the north side of 
 the river time to join him, than from any expectation 
 of being able to hold the place permanently. In fact, 
 General Price had already decided that, being without 
 artillery and having his men armed only with shotguns 
 
814 MISSOURI. 
 
 and hunting rifles, it would be impossible for him to 
 defend the line of the Missouri ; and consequently he 
 had gone to Lexington, to prepare the troops there for 
 moving to some point near the Arkansas border, where 
 he could organize and equip them under the protection 
 of McCulloch and the Confederates. 
 
 In the mean time Lyon was not idle. Having resolved 
 upon war, he lost no time in making such a disposition 
 of his troops as would enable him to carry it on to the 
 best advantage. A brigade, consisting of three regi- 
 ments of infantry and two batteries of artillery, under 
 the command of General Sweeny, was sent to Spring- 
 field, charged with the double duty of watching McCul- 
 loch, and of intercepting the retreat of Jackson and the 
 state guard, against whom Lyon proposed to march in 
 person, and whom he intended if possible to drive back, 
 in that direction, out of the State. 
 
 In pursuance of the part of the work he had marked 
 out for himself, Lyon set out from St. Louis on the 13th 
 of June, the very day that Jackson left Jefferson City. 
 On the 15th he took peaceable possession of that place, 
 and on the 17th, after a slight skirmish, fought in obe- 
 dience to Jackson's order, but against the advice of Mar- 
 maduke, he captured Boonville, and obliged the state 
 troops to beat a hasty retreat towards the southwestern 
 portion of the State. He was, however, in no condition 
 to follow up his success, and during the two weeks and 
 more that he was detained, reorganizing his command 
 and waiting for transportation, etc., Jackson crossed the 
 Osage and effected a junction with the troops from 
 Lexington, who were also in full retreat, followed by 
 Major Sturgis, with nine hundred regulars and two regi- 
 ments of Kansas volunteers. 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 315 
 
 Jackson's force now amounted to between six and 
 seven thousand men — a formidable array as then 
 reckoned, though practically it was but little better than 
 a rabble, being without organization and poorly supplied 
 with arms and equipments. A third, perhaps, of the 
 men were without guns of any kind, but as an offset, 
 they had a surplus of baggage, some of which, as, for 
 example, the feather beds and frying pans, were scarcely 
 suited to a column in light marching order. 
 
 Continuing his retreat southward, Jackson, on the 
 morning of the 5th of July, found his further progress 
 barred by a force, consisting of about a thousand men, 
 under Colonel Sigel, who had thrown himself in the 
 way, for the purpose of holding him in check until Lyon 
 and Sturgis could come up and by an attack in the rear 
 complete his destruction. The approach of this new 
 enemy was a surprise to Jackson, but it did not discon- 
 cert him. On the contrary, taking a position on the 
 ridge of the prairie, nine miles north of Carthage, he 
 awaited the attack of the Federal troops. This was 
 promptly begun with artillery, to which the batteries of 
 Guibor and Bledsoe replied, apparently without much 
 damage to either side. After an hour of this practice, 
 Jackson ordered certain changes in the position of his 
 troops, which gave Sigel the impression that he was 
 about to be surrounded. To prevent this, he ordered a 
 retreat, which was well conducted, though he did not 
 consider it safe to halt for rest or food until he reached 
 Sarcoxie, a town situated fifteen miles beyond Carthage 
 on the road to Springfield. The day after the battle, 
 Jackson entered Carthage, and here he was met by Gen- 
 eral Price, who had preceded him to Arkansas, and at 
 whose solicitation McCuUoch had crossed the border and 
 
316 MISSOURI. 
 
 come to the rescue, with several regiments of Confeder- 
 ate and Arkansas state troops. Finding that they 
 were not in danger of pursuit, for Lyon and Sturgis 
 had been delayed by high water in the Osage and other 
 streams, McCuUoch and Price, who now assumed com- 
 mand of the Missourians, moved slowly back, the former 
 to his old position near Maysfield, Arkansas, whilst the 
 latter pitched his camp on Cowskin Prairie, in the ex- 
 treme southwestern corner of the State. Here, as we 
 are told by Quartermaster - General James Harding, 
 "prairie grass, lean beef, and water," were plentiful, 
 though there seems to have been a lamentable scarcity 
 of everything else that an army, in active service, is 
 usually supposed to need in the way of food and sup- 
 plies. 
 
 Price now began in earnest the work of organizing 
 and arming his men ; and to any one not familiar with 
 the ready methods of the frontier, it must have appeared 
 a hopeless task. Powder he had, owing to the fore- 
 sight of Governor Jackson, and the Granby mines fur- 
 nished him with lead ; but beyond this he had nothing, 
 ^'neither arms nor military stores of any kind, and no 
 money to buy them, if any had been for sale." Uni- 
 forms were, of course, out of the question, but this diffi- 
 culty he obviated by causing bits of red flannel or white 
 cotton to be tied around the arms of the officers. To 
 add to his perplexities, there were but few trained sol- 
 diers with him. Even the officers of his staff, except 
 Colonel Little, who left for Washington on the 19th of 
 July, were ignorant of their duties. His chief of ord- 
 nance. Colonel Snead, who tells the story, "did not 
 know the difference between a siege gun and a howitzer, 
 and had never seen a musket cartridge." Fortunately, 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 317 
 
 he had under him men who had served in Mexico 
 with Price or Doniphan, or who had passed their 
 lives upon the frontier, and were accustomed to meet 
 and overcome such difficulties. Major Thomas H. 
 Price, for instance, knew how to convert the neighbor- 
 ing forest trees into huge bullet moulds, and in a few 
 days his improvised ordnance shop turned out bullets 
 and buckshot enough to satisfy the immediate wants of 
 the command. Guibor, too, whose guns were heard in 
 every battle in which the state guard had a part, soon 
 had an " arsenal of construction " in working order, 
 and with some of Sigel's captured shot as models, was 
 busy making cartridges for his cannon. " A turning- 
 lathe in Carthage supplied sabots ; the owner of a tin- 
 shop contributed straps and canisters ; iron rods which 
 a blacksmith gave and cut into small pieces made good 
 slugs for the canisters ; and a bolt of flannel, with 
 needles and thread, freely donated by a dry-goods man, 
 provided us with material for our cartridge bags. A 
 bayonet made a good candlestick ; and at night . . . the 
 men went to work making cartridges ; strapping shot to 
 the sabots, and filling the bags from a barrel of powder 
 placed some distance from the candle. . . . My first 
 cartridge resembled a turnip rather than the trim cyl- 
 inders from the Federal arsenals, and would not enter 
 a gun on any terms. But we soon learned the trick, 
 and at the close range at which our next battle was 
 fought, our home-made ammunition proved as effective 
 as the best." ^ 
 
 tfi the quartermaster and commissary departments, 
 things were in an equally crude state. General James 
 
 ^ Lieutenant Barlow, of Guibor' s battery, in the St. Louis Re- 
 publican^ of March 1, 1885. 
 
318 MISSOURI. 
 
 Harding, the present chairman of the board of railroad 
 commissioners of the State, has given an amusing ac- 
 count of the difficulties and perplexities that beset him, 
 during his career as quartermaster-general of the state 
 guard ; and speaking of this very period, he tells us 
 with delicious frankness that " we did not have any too 
 much to eat, and at one time rations were very scarce, 
 and much grumbling was heard in consequence. How 
 we got along, I don't know ; more by luck than man- 
 agement, probably." 
 
 Of course, in such a dearth of the necessaries of array 
 life, and with nothing that could by any possibility be 
 termed a camp chest, the men were obliged to serve 
 without pay. This did not make much difference, for 
 they did not expect any, and consequently they were 
 not disappointed. As a rule, they belonged to the well- 
 to-do class, were above the average in intelligence and 
 education ; and they had joined the guard not from 
 any expectation of pay, but from an honest convic- 
 tion that the State had been wantonly outraged and 
 it was their duty to come to her defense, or else they 
 had been led thereto by the determination to stand by 
 their Southern friends and relatives in their effort to 
 resist invasion. The question of slavery was lost sight 
 of altogether, and Snead was probably not far wrong 
 when he said that among them all there was not a man 
 who would have fired a shot had that teen the only 
 issue involved. 
 
 Leaving Price to go on with the work of organizing 
 his little army, Jackson, on the 12th of July, left for 
 Memphis, Tennessee, in order to induce the military 
 authorities to send a body of Confederates into Missouri 
 strong enough to take possession of the State. It was 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 319 
 
 not the first time that he had urged such a policy, for 
 early in June, before Lyon's declaration of war, he had 
 sent Caj^tain Colton Greene to McCulloch's headquar- 
 ters at Fort Smith, requesting him to move into Mis- 
 souri with his army, for the purjjose of encouraging the 
 Southern rights people, and of giving Price time to en- 
 list and organize the state troops. This was certainly a 
 singular request to come from the governor of a State 
 which had decided against secession, though, considered 
 from a military point of view, there can be no doubt as 
 to the advisability of the movement he suggested. In 
 fact, so favorably was it regarded that McCulloch ap- 
 plied to the Confederate War Department for permission 
 to undertake a campaign which was partly based upon 
 it. Before he could get an answer, it became necessary 
 for him to act, and it was therefore upon his own re- 
 sponsibility that, on the 4th of July, he had crossed the 
 border and advanced to the support of Jackson, who 
 was supposed to be in danger of being caught between 
 Lyon and Sigel and so destroyed. 
 
 When, at length, after his return to his camp in the 
 Indian Nation, an answer was received to his applica- 
 tion, it was found to discourage the idea of a forward 
 movement into Missouri. She had not, it was said, se- 
 ceded ; and through an absurd adherence, at this most 
 inopportune moment, to the doctrine of states' rights, the 
 authorities at Richmond let slip the opportunity, and 
 failed to make the fight for Missouri at the only time 
 when they could have done so with any prospect of suc- 
 cess. To McCulloch's request for permission to occupy 
 Fort Scott, and thereby overawe southern Kansas and 
 encourage the secessionists in that part of Missouri, they 
 answered, under date of July 4th, that " the position of 
 
320 MISSOURI. 
 
 Missouri as a Southern State still in the Union requires, 
 as you will readily perceive, much prudence and cir- 
 cumspection, and it should only be when necessity and 
 propriety unite that active and direct assistance should 
 be afforded by crossing the boundary and entering the 
 State before communicating with this department." As 
 Richmond was a thousand miles from McCulloch's head- 
 quarters, and telegraphic communication between the 
 two points was not continuous, the propriety of such an 
 order may well be questioned. 
 
 During the time that Jackson was in Memphis, en- 
 gaged in what proved to be a fruitless undertaking, 
 the convention which had been called together by the 
 committee appointed for the purpose met at Jefferson 
 City. In the two months and more that had elapsed 
 since the seizure of Camp Jackson, the exasperation 
 caused by that act had measurably subsided, or rather, 
 it had given place to a tardy recognition of the fact that 
 the two sections of the country were at war ; and that 
 divested of extraneous issues, all that Missouri now had 
 to do was to adojDt such a course as would make her 
 adherence to the Union effective. This simplification 
 of the issue had necessitated another change of parties, 
 and men who but a few months before had ridiculed the 
 idea of a Federal invasion of the South were now ready 
 to buckle on their swords and take part in such an inva- 
 sion. Indeed, so rapid had been the development of the 
 Union sentiment that on the 30th of July, the convention 
 went to the extreme length of deposing Governor Jack- 
 son and appointing Hamilton R. Gamble in his place. 
 They also declared vacant the seats of the members of 
 the General Assembly, and they formally abrogated the 
 laws which had been passed for the purpose, it was 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 821 
 
 charged, of enabling the governor to carry on a war 
 against the general government. 
 
 These were certainly radical measures, but they were 
 necessary steps in the revolution then in progress in the 
 State, and as such they can be justified. Jackson was 
 unquestionably engaged in an attempt to defeat, by 
 force, the will of the people as expressed at the Febru- 
 ary election, and for this he deserved impeachment and 
 removal. Under the circumstances, however, this was 
 impossible, and consequently the only way to reach him 
 and to put a stop to his intrigues was to depose him. 
 This could only be done by a successful revolution, and 
 in the condition of affairs which then prevailed, it was 
 eminently proper that the convention should take the 
 lead in such a movement. But whilst all this is plain 
 enough to require no argument, it must be confessed 
 that the attempt to invest the proceeding with any legal 
 sanction is not so successful. Certainly, if the conven- 
 tion had the right to pull down and set up state officers 
 who held their positions by the same title as that by 
 which the members of the convention held theirs ; and 
 if, furthermore, they had the right, during three years, 
 to arrogate to themselves the executive and legislative 
 powers of the State, so far as the military authorities 
 permitted them to do so, there can be no good reason 
 why they might not have declared themselves a close 
 corporation, with power to govern the State in perpetu- 
 ity, and this is absurd. 
 
 Moreover, from the necessities of the case, the com- 
 mittee to which was intrusted the task of defending the 
 action of the convention were obliged to rest their argu- 
 ment upon facts which, if carried to a logical conclu- 
 sion, would have brought the State into armed collision 
 
322 MISSOURI. 
 
 with the federal government as surely as they had 
 done in the case of Governor Jackson. Without going 
 into details, it is sufficient to say that the State was "in- 
 vaded " by troops from Iowa and Kansas some time be- 
 fore the Confederates crossed the boundary. Regarded 
 simply as " outrages," the one invasion was as bad as 
 the other ; and if " the duty of vindicating the sover- 
 eignty of the State " required the convention, in the one 
 case, to depose Governor Jackson for inviting the Con- 
 federates to enter the State, it is difficult to understand 
 why the same sense of duty should not, in the other in- 
 stance, have led these same defenders of the doctrine of 
 state sovereignty to resent the continued presence of 
 troops who had come into the State without an invita- 
 tion from any authoritative quarter, and whose illegal 
 exactions and arbitrary arrests were the cause of the 
 unsettled condition which prevailed in portions^ of the 
 State otherwise unquestionably loyal. 
 
 In thus calling attention to the inconsistency and ille- 
 gality that characterized some of the acts of the con- 
 vention, it must not be supposed that the writer under- 
 rates the importance of the work it performed, or that 
 he wishes to detract from the meed of praise to which 
 it is so justly entitled. Undoubtedly, those of its ordi- 
 nances that partook of a legislative character were il- 
 legal and revolutionary, but they were necessary to the 
 life of the State, and their illegality and revolutionary 
 nature will be overlooked in view of this fact, and be- 
 cause it was only by usurping legislative and executive 
 powers that the convention was able to preserve the 
 machinery of the state government and keep it in mo- 
 tion. When Jackson was driven into exile, the State 
 was left without a legal official head, and she was in 
 
SECOND MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 323 
 
 danger of drifting into anarchy or being reduced to the 
 condition of a conquered province and governed by an 
 appointee from Washington. In this emergency, the 
 convention stepped into the breach, organized a provi- 
 sional government, and thereby saved her from the 
 threatened dangers. It was a practical and timely as- 
 sertion of the principle of self-government, for which the 
 convention deserves and should receive the thanks of 
 every Missourian. Unconsciously, perhaps, but none 
 the less surely, it had removed the only excuse that 
 could be found for keeping the State in a condition of 
 military subjection, and in so doing, it saved her from 
 the pit of political degradation into which the States in 
 rebellion were sunk during the period of reconstruction. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON : THE CONFEDERATES 
 EVACUATE THE STATE. 
 
 For two weeks and more after the occupation of 
 Boonville, Lyon was unable to move owing to the want 
 of transportation. Even after he started, he was still 
 further delayed by high water and the necessity of swerv- 
 ing from his direct route in order to effect a junction 
 with Major Sturgis, so that he did not reach Springfield 
 until the 13th of July. Including Sweeny's command, 
 he found himself, upon his arrival here, at the head of 
 about seven thousand men. Of this number, some three 
 thousand had enlisted for only ninety days, and as their 
 term of service would expire on or before the middle of 
 August, they could not be depended upon for a longer 
 campaign. They were, besides, badly clothed, poorly 
 fed, and imperfectly supplied with tents ; none of them 
 had been paid, and the three months' volunteers are said 
 to have become so disheartened that very few of them 
 were willing to reenlist. In view of these facts and the 
 rumored approach of Jackson with " not less than thirty 
 thousand men," Lyon telegraphed St. Louis, immedi- 
 ately on his arrival at Springfield that he must have 
 an additional force of ten thousand men or abandon the 
 position. 
 
 For various reasons it was impossible to reinforce 
 him. In fact not a regiment was ordered forward until 
 
SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON. 325 
 
 the 4th of August, too late to be of any service ; and 
 though General Fremont, who took command of the 
 department on the 25th of July, has been severely cen- 
 sured for the delay, it is difficult to see how, with the 
 other interests committed to his charge, he could have 
 acted differently. The battle of Bull Run, it will be 
 remembered, had just been fought, and leaving out of 
 consideration the necessity which was then supposed to 
 exist of hurrying every available man to the defense of 
 Washington, it will be sufficient to call attention to the 
 fact that upon his arrival in St. Louis, Fremont, with a 
 limited force and insufficient means, found himself con- 
 fronted by the problem of defending Cairo and the 
 mouth of the Ohio, whilst according to the testimony of 
 Colonel Chester Harding, Jr., Lyon's adjutant-general, 
 the condition of Missouri was such as to make it unsafe 
 to withdraw any troops from the sections of the State 
 in which they were then stationed. Moreover, Lyon's 
 force was as large as any other separate command in the 
 department ; and if we may credit the statement that 
 Fremont, when told that Lyon intended to fight any- 
 way, answered that " he must do it upon his own respon- 
 sibility," it would appear that he did not approve of the 
 plan of risking a battle when, by a retreat upon Rolla, 
 the safety of the command might be insured. Such too 
 was evidently the opinion of Lyon's subordinates, and 
 was his own, though he afterwards saw fit to change his 
 mind without, however, assigning any satisfactory reason 
 for so doing. 
 
 In the mean time, whilst Lyon was detained here, 
 waiting for the reinforcements which it was impossible 
 to furnish, the Confederate authorities at Memphis re- 
 solved upon a campaign which embraced the advance of 
 
326 MISSOURI. 
 
 a strong column into southeast Missouri for the pur- 
 pose either of " taking him in the rear whilst Price and 
 McCulloch attacked him in front, or marching upon St. 
 Louis, capturing that city, and then sweeping up the Mis- 
 souri." This plan would have been feasible enough if 
 the Confederates had been in a condition to invade the 
 southeastern portion of the State in force. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, for the success of their plans, they were 
 obliged to convert this proposed movement into a feint ; 
 and although it was successful in so far as it prevented 
 Lyon from being reinforced, and thus obliged him to 
 fight a losing battle, yet it deprived Price, in the advance 
 which he subsequently made to the Missouri River, of 
 the advantage which would have accrued to him from a 
 diversion, such as the march of a heavy column upon St. 
 Louis would have caused. 
 
 Of the adoption of this plan and of its abandonment, 
 Price and McCulloch were duly informed, but not in 
 time to affect their movements ; and being thus left to 
 fight the battle at their end of the line according to 
 their best judgment, they prepared to march upon Lyon 
 without reference to the movement of any correspond- 
 ing column. On the 25th of July, Price broke camp 
 on Cowskin Prairie and set out for the rendezvous at 
 Cassville, a small town situated about forty miles south- 
 west of Springfield. There he arrived on the 28th. The 
 next day McCulloch came up with 3,200 Confederates, 
 and following close behind him was General Pearce with 
 2,500 of the Arkansas state troops. These with the 
 5,000 armed men under Price swelled the entire force 
 available for the march on Springfield to about 11,000, 
 in addition to which there were 2,000 unarmed Missou- 
 rians, who insisted upon following the army, much to 
 McCuUoch's disgust. 
 
SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON. 327 
 
 Informed of the advance of these different commands 
 and thinking to strike them in detail, Lyon moved out 
 from Springfield on the 1st of August at the head of 
 5,000 men. The next day, he encountered the advance 
 guard of the Confederates, consisting of a part of Rains' 
 brigade of Missouri troops, which he easily put to flight. 
 It was an insignificant affair, of no material benefit to 
 the victors, and yet it is said to have caused McCuUoch 
 to lose all confidence in the fighting quahties of the 
 Missourians. On the morning of the 3d, Lyon ad- 
 vanced still further, and took a position within six 
 miles of McCuUoch's camp. Here he remained for 
 twenty-four hours, when fearing lest the Confederates 
 might cut off his communications, he fell back upon 
 Springfield, arriving there on the evening of Monday 
 the 5th. 
 
 Meanwhile there was a total want of harmony in the 
 councils of the Confederates, growing out of the fact 
 that Price and the Missourians were determined to bring 
 on a battle, whilst McCulloch was unwiUing to assume 
 the offensive, alleging as an excuse that his orders did 
 not permit him to move into Missouri except so far as 
 it might be necessary for the defense of the Indian 
 territory ; and that to advance further into the State 
 might endanger that territory and subject him to cen- 
 sure. This was a valid excuse, though there is reason 
 to believe that it was not the only one. It is in evi- 
 dence that he was influenced by his distrust of the Mis- 
 sourians, and their officers, and justly enough, he hesi- 
 tated about risking a battle so long as the army was 
 subject to a divided command. Suspecting the cause of 
 his unwillingness to move. Price waived his rank and 
 proposed to take a secondary position, though he re- 
 
328 MISSOURI. 
 
 served the right of resuming the command of his own 
 troops whenever he should think proper to do so. Be- 
 ing now at the head of both armies, and having been 
 informed of the entry of the Confederates into south- 
 east Missouri, McCulloch agreed to attack Lyon ; and 
 accordingly he marched at midnight of Sunday the 4th, 
 so as to have his men in position by daybreak the next 
 morning. Soon after starting he learned that Lyon had 
 retreated and was now beyond his reach, but he did not 
 allow this to check his advance. He still pushed on, 
 and that night he camped at Moody's Spring, twelve 
 miles from Springfield. The next morning, he moved 
 two miles further and took a position on Wilson's 
 Creek, near some fields of corn then in the " roasting 
 ear " stage, as " that was to be his main dependence for 
 food during the next few days " and until his trains 
 could arrive. 
 
 Here the disputes between the Confederate command- 
 ers were renewed. Price still urging an advance, whilst 
 McCulloch was determined not to make a blind attack, 
 as he called it, upon Springfield. According to his own 
 account the Missourians failed to furnish him with re- 
 liable information as to the strength and position of the 
 enemy and the character of the defenses in and around 
 Springfield, as he expected them to do, though " to urge 
 them he declared that he would lead the whole army 
 back to Cassville rather than bring on an engagement 
 with an unknown enemy." At length on the 8th, Price 
 learned, upon what he considered good authority, that 
 Lyon was preparing to abandon Springfield, as Peck- 
 ham says he intended doing up to the day before the 
 battle. Communicating this information to McCul- 
 loch, Price insisted so strenuously upon an advance that 
 
SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON. 329 
 
 » 
 McCuUoch agreed to call a council of war. This was 
 held at noon of the 9th, and after a stormy scene in 
 which Price" threatened to take the Missoiirians and 
 with them alone give battle to Lyon, McCulloch yielded, 
 and the army was ordered to march at nine o'clock that 
 evening. Before that hour it began to rain, and as 
 three fourths of the command were without cartridge 
 boxes, and would consequently have found it difficult to 
 keep their powder dry, the order was countermanded, 
 though the men rested upon their arms preparatory to 
 a forward movement in the morning. 
 
 Lyon was now sorely perjjlexed. No reinforcements 
 had reached him, and if we may judge from his own 
 dispatches and the testimony of his officers, he was at 
 a loss whether to retreat or to hold his position until 
 driven back. He was even undecided whether, in case 
 of retreat, he should fall back upon Rolla, Missouri, or 
 Fort Scott, Kansas. At last, being loth to give up the 
 Southwest he decided to fight, in opposition, as his biog- 
 rapher tells us, to the opinion of his council. Having 
 made up his mind to this, he lost no time in carrying 
 out his design. On the morning of the 9th, after a con- 
 sultation with Sigel, he adopted the hazardous plan of 
 dividing his little army in the face of a numerically supe- 
 rior force. One of his columns, consisting of 1,200 men 
 under Colonel Sigel, was to move to the left or eastward 
 of the Cassville road and Wilson's Creek, for the pur- 
 pose of turning the Confederate right ; whilst he him- 
 self, with 4,200 men, including eight companies of reg- 
 ulars and ten pieces of artillery, was to attack the ene- 
 my's left, on the west side of the creek. Both of these 
 movements were successful, as the Confederate pickets 
 had been withdrawn during the night ; and at dawn on 
 
330 MISSOURI. 
 
 the morning- of the 10th, the Southern army lay between 
 Sigel and Lyon and in blissful ignorance of their prox- 
 imity. Almost the first intimation that the rebel gen- 
 erals had of the presence of an enemy was the roar of 
 Lyon's guns as he came into position on the west side of 
 the creek, followed immediately by the boom of Sigel's 
 cannon, as it thundered forth a quick response from the 
 other end of the line. 
 
 Breaking up the consultation which, early as it was, 
 they were holding, McCuUoch hastened to the east side 
 of the creek, and put himself at the head of the troops 
 that subsequently whipped Sigel and drove back Plum- 
 nier ; whilst Price, having ordered the Missourians to 
 follow as rapidly as possible, hurried to the front where 
 he met Cawthon's brigade which was falling back before 
 Lyon, though still " resisting all that it could." By the 
 time that he had steadied this brigade, and formed it 
 anew under the brow of Bloody Hill and out of the 
 range of Totten's cannon, the Missourians began to ar- 
 rive on the field. In less than half an hour, 3,100 of 
 them, including Guibor's battery of four guns, were in 
 position ; and soon afterwards, Churchill's regiment, 
 600 strong, of McCulloch's brigade, came up and took 
 its place in the line of battle. 
 
 To attack this force Lyon now moved with about 1,900 
 men, the rest of his command, except four companies of 
 regulars under Captain Plummer, being held in reserve. 
 At this time the two armies were concealed from each 
 other by the dense growth of underbrush with which 
 the hill was covered, though they were so close to each 
 other that the order to advance was distinctly heard 
 within the Confederate lines. Holding their fire until 
 the Union troops had come within easy range, Price's 
 
SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON. 331 
 
 men opened upon them with shotguns and rifles, " while 
 from opposing heights, Totten, who had but lately been 
 stationed at Little Rock, where his family still resided, 
 fought furiously against Woodruff's battery, which now 
 turned against him the very guns that had been taken 
 from him a few months before. 
 
 " The battle thus joined upon the hillside was waged 
 for hours with intense earnestness. The lines would ap- 
 proach again and again within less than fifty yards of 
 each other, and then, after delivering a deadly fire, each 
 would fall back a few paces to reform and reload, only 
 to advance again, and again renew this strange battle in 
 the woods. Peculiar in all its aspects . . . the most re- 
 markable of all its characteristics was the deep silence 
 which now and then fell upon the smoking field . . . 
 while the two armies, unseen of each other, lay but a few 
 yards apart, gathering strength to grapple again in the 
 death struggle for Missouri." ^ 
 
 By ten o'clock the Confederate regiments that were 
 on the east side of the creek, having defeated Sigel 
 and driven back Plummer and his regulars, began to 
 cross over and hasten to the assistance of Price. Seeing 
 the approach of these fresh troops, some of whom had 
 not been under fire, Lyon at once ordered forward every 
 available battalion. "The engagement," so the Federal 
 reports tell us, " now became general, and almost incon- 
 ceivably fierce along the entire line, the enemy appear- 
 ing in front often in three or four ranks, lying down, 
 kneehng, and standing, the lines often approaching 
 within thirty or forty yards of each other as the enemy 
 would charge upon Captain Totten's battery and be 
 driven back." For an hour and more this bloody work 
 1 The Fight for Missouri, p. 275. 
 
332 MISSOURI. 
 
 continued, and it was at this stage of the battle that Lyon, 
 while leading a charge, was killed. Soon after his fall, 
 there came a lull in the fight, during which Sturgis, who 
 succeeded to the command, summoned the principal offi- 
 cers to a consultation. The question, we are told, with 
 most of them was whether retreat was possible, and so 
 doubtful did it then appear, that even while the discus- 
 sion was going on, the Federals were called upon to re- 
 sist an attack in which the Confederates charged within 
 twenty feet of Totten's guns. Fortunately for the cause 
 of the Union, the attack was repulsed, and before it was 
 renewed, the Federals, unable to hold their ground against 
 the increasing force of the enemy, abandoned the field 
 and began a retreat which only ended at Rolla. 
 
 This closed the battle. It had lasted about six hours, 
 and considering the number of men engaged, and the 
 fact that but few of them had ever been under fire, and 
 that a large proportion of them were armed with noth- 
 ing but shotguns and hunting rifles, it was one of the 
 bloodiest, as it was one of the most memorable, conflicts 
 of modern times ; of the 5,400 Union men that took part 
 in the fight over 1,000 were killed or wounded, whilst 
 of the 10,000 Confederates that were actually engaged 
 over 1,200 suffered. If to these numbers we add the 
 186 Federals, chiefly of Sigel's command, that were 
 missing, it will give a total of 2,547 killed, wounded, 
 and missing, out of 15,000 actual combatants, or about 
 sixteen per cent. But if we limit ourselves to the con- 
 test on Bloody Hill, which was to all intents a separate 
 battle, it will be found that of the 3,500 Federals and 
 4,200 Confederates that were there pitted against each 
 other, the former lost 892 and the latter 988 men ; or 
 taking both together it will be seen that of the 7,700 
 
SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON. 333 
 
 men engaged, 1,880, or about twenty-five per cent., were 
 killed or wounded, and this, be it remembered, among 
 troops but few of whom had ever fired a shot in anger, 
 and almost one half of whom were insufficiently armed. 
 Of the Confederates who fought on Bloody Hill, 3,100 
 were Missourians and 1,100 Arkansians, and their re- 
 spective losses were 680 and 308. On the side of the 
 Federals, the first Missouri, Blair's regiment, and Oster- 
 haus' battalion bore themselves with equal gallantry. 
 Out of 925 men belonging to these two commands, 91 
 were killed, 248 wounded, and 11 missing, making a 
 total of 350, or about thirty-seven per cent. The Iowa 
 and Kansas troops, too, fought equally well ; but of the 
 German regiments under Sigel, the same cannot be said. 
 When brigaded with other troops the Germans made 
 fairly good soldiers, but left to themselves they were 
 never able to stand before an equal number of Confed- 
 erates, and in this case they were expected to attack a 
 superior force. 
 
 As soon as it was known that the Federals were 
 leaving the field, McCiiUoch was urged to pursue them 
 vigorously, but this he refused to do, as many of his men 
 had fired their last cartridge in the battle, and were con- 
 sequently without ammunition. That night, the Federal 
 troops evacuated Springfield, and on the 17th they ar- 
 rived at Rolla, a somewhat disorganized mass of fugi- 
 tives, but with their large and valuable train of three 
 hundred and seventy wagons safe. 
 
 A few days after the battle, General Price called on 
 McCuUoch and proposed to him to cooperate in a march 
 to the Missouri River. This McCulloch declined, alleg- 
 ing first his orders, which made the defense of the Indian 
 Nation his primary consideration ; secondly, the scarcity 
 
334 MISSOURI. 
 
 of ammunition ; and thirdly, the fact that the force in- 
 tended for the invasion of southeast Missouri had been 
 obliged to fall back, and consequently he could not 
 reckon upon a diversion in that quarter. To a Confed- 
 erate officer, as McCuUoch was, the first of these reasons 
 was, of course, sufficient ; and accordingly he led his 
 brigade back to their camp in the Indian country, whilst 
 the Arkansas State troops, under General Pearce, re- 
 turned homeward. Price, however, was not to be de- 
 terred from his expedition to the Missouri, and on the 
 25th of August he set out from Springfield on the cam- 
 paign which resulted in the capture of Lexington. 
 
 Proceeding northward as far as Bolivar, Polk County, 
 he turned sharply to the west, for the purpose, as he tells 
 us, of " chastising " Senator General James H. Lane and 
 his brigade of freebooters, who had already begun that 
 career of robbery, arson, and murder, which converted 
 Lawrence, Kansas, into a mere fence-house for stolen 
 property, and led, in August, 1863, to the sack of that 
 town, and the massacre of 183 of its inhabitants by 
 Quantrell's band of guerrillas. 
 
 Having driven Lane and his doughty warriors out of 
 the State and away from Fort Scott, and thus secured his 
 flank from attack. Price continued his march northward, 
 and on the 13th of September, he sat down before Lex- 
 ington with his advance guard of mounted men. By the 
 18th, his ammunition wagons and the rest of his forces 
 arrived, and he then began the attack on the place in 
 earnest. After fifty-two hours of firing it was surren- 
 dered, the garrison having been cut off from their supply 
 of water. The loss on either side was trifling, owing to 
 the fact that the Union troops were entrenched, whilst 
 the Confederates made movable breastworks of bales 
 
SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON. 335 
 
 of hemp, under shelter of wliich they approached the 
 enemy's works with comparative impunity. 
 
 According to General Price, the fruits of this almost 
 bloodless victory consisted of 3,500 prisoners, 5 pieces of 
 artillery, over 3,000 stand of arms, 750 horses, about 
 $100,000 worth of commissary stores and a large amount 
 of other projDerty. He also obtained the restoration of 
 $900,000 in money which had been taken from the bank, 
 and he recovered the great seal of the State and the pub- 
 lic records, which are said to have been stolen from their 
 proper custodian. 
 
 During the two weeks and more that Price was at 
 Lexington, his force was considerably augmented by re- 
 cruits, many of whom were from the north side of the 
 river, though the increase was nothing like as great as 
 was reported. Instead of 60,000, there were probably 
 never more than from 15,000 to 18,000 men in and about 
 his camp, including hundreds who had come to see the 
 fight, just as they would have gone to a country fair. 
 Of this number, 11,000 may have started with him when 
 he began his retreat ; but so numerous were the deser- 
 tions during the next ten days, that it is doubtful whether, 
 at any time after crossing the Osage, he could have mus- 
 tered 7,000 men for duty. As this force was never ma- 
 terially increased, there is no reason to believe that dur- 
 ing the year and more that the Missouri state guard 
 was in existence, it was ever stronger than at Wilson's 
 Creek ; and there, as we have seen, it numbered 7,000 
 men, 2,000 of whom were unarmed. After crossing the 
 Osage, Price, no longer in fear of pursuit, moved leisurely 
 southward and took up a position in the southwestern 
 portion of the State, where he was in easy communication 
 with McCuUoch, and could, at the same time, protect the 
 
336 MISSOURI. 
 
 General Assembly which had been summoned by Gov- 
 ernor Jackson to meet in extra session at Neosho, on 
 the 21st of October, 
 
 Of the proceedings of this body it is unnecessary to 
 speak in detail. It was a mere rump, — not a quorum of 
 either house being present, — and consequently its acts 
 were irregular and of no legal force. Moreover, it had 
 relinquished the power of legislating upon the subject of 
 secession to the convention, which was still in session, 
 though this fact was conveniently ignored, and an act was 
 passed which purported to dissolve the ties existing be- 
 tween the State of Missouri and the United States of 
 America. For purposes of its own, the Confederate 
 government saw proper to regard this action as valid, 
 and on the 28th of November Missouri was formally ad- 
 mitted into the Confederacy, though it was now too late 
 to make the fight for her with any prospect of success. 
 In fact, it was whilst the few members, present at this 
 meeting of the General Assembly, were playing at legis- 
 lation that Fremont, whose pursuit of Price had been 
 delayed by the want of transportation, arrived at Spring- 
 field with a well-appointed army of forty thousand men. 
 His purpose, so it was stated, was to force the Confeder- 
 ates to«a battle, and in case of success, of which he had 
 no doubt, he then proposed to sweep down upon Little 
 Eock, Memphis, and ultimately New Orleans. Unable 
 to stand before this overwhelming force, McCuUoch was 
 preparing for a retreat into Arkansas, when on the 2d 
 of November Fremont was relieved from the command 
 of the army which he may be said to have created. A 
 few days afterwards, in obedience to a suggestion from 
 President Lincoln, General Hunter, who had succeeded 
 to the command, fell back upon Rolla and Sedalia. 
 
SPRINGFIELD AND LEXINGTON. 337 
 
 Of course this retrograde movement again uncovered 
 the entire Southwest, and Price and his half-clothed and 
 half-fed Missourians were not slow to avail themselves 
 of the opportunity of returning. For a few months, 
 now, they lived at their ease. Their quarters were com- 
 fortable, forage was abundant, their food was plentiful 
 and of the best, and money, such as it was — state 
 " scrip " and Confederate notes — circulated freely and 
 apparently without any fears as to its future value. A 
 Confederate veteran, to whose accountof the state guard 
 I have repeatedly had occasion to refer, tells us that 
 often during the years 1863-64, when on duty in South 
 Carolina, and living on rice, molasses, and sweet potatoes, 
 "which were served with commendable regularity twenty- 
 one times per week," his mind would revert to the " flush 
 times " at Springfield, and he would long for the scraps 
 that then fell from his table. 
 
 These halcyon days were not to last. On the 13th 
 of February, General Curtis, with twelve thousand men, 
 was so near Springfield that Price, who had delayed 
 evacuating the place in the hope that McCulloch would 
 come to his assistance and enable him to risk a battle, 
 was obliged to beat a hurried retreat into Arkansas. 
 Shortly after passing the state line, the Confederates 
 were met coming to the rescue ; and the meeting was 
 made memorable by the fact that the 3d Louisiana had a 
 Confederate battle-flag, the first that the Missouri troops 
 had seen. Although the combined force of Price and 
 McCulloch was fully as numerous as that which was 
 pursuing them, yet they continued to fall back until they 
 reached Cove Creek, in the Boston Mountains, twenty 
 miles beyond Fayetteville. Here they halted, and here 
 they were on the 2d of March when Van Dorn arrived 
 and took the command. 
 
338 MISSOURI. 
 
 Including Pike's brigade of Indians and half-breeds, 
 the Confederates now numbered about fourteen thousand 
 available men, and with this force Van Dorn turned on 
 Curtis, who occupied a fortified position on Pea Ridge, 
 near the Elkhorn tavern, with ten thousand five hundred 
 men. After a conflict which lasted through portions of 
 the 6th, 7th, and 8th of the month, the Confederate at- 
 tack was repulsed and the Union army was left in pos- 
 session of the field. In this contest the Missourians, in- 
 cluding those who had entered the Confederate service 
 as well as the state guard, numbered about six thousand 
 eight hundred men, six thousand of whom were actively 
 engaged. They formed the left wing of the army, and 
 are said to have borne the brunt of the battle. From 
 the first shot to the last, according to Van Dorn's ofii- 
 cial report, " they continually pushed on, never yielded 
 an inch they had won, and when at last they received 
 the order to fall back " — an order made necessary by 
 the deaths of McCuUoch and Mcintosh, the capture of 
 Hubert, and the defeat of the Confederate right wing — 
 " they retired steadily and with cheers," thinking it only 
 a change of position. 
 
 After some two weeks given to rest and reorganiza- 
 tion, Van Dorn moved with the Missourians and a 
 large part of his other troops to Des Arc, a town on 
 White River in the eastern portion of the State, where 
 he arrived on the 7th of April. The next day. General 
 Price published an order, in which he bade farewell to 
 the state guard. Shortly after, he was transferred to 
 the other side of the Mississippi, with about five thou- 
 sand of the Missouri troops, who had followed him 
 into the Confederate service. On their arrival at Beau- 
 regard's headquarters near Corinth, Mississippi, they 
 
CONFEDERATES EVACUATE THE STATE. 339 
 
 were joined by a number of their fellow-citizens, and 
 together they organized the famous 1st and 2d Missouri 
 Confederate brigades. Including the six batteries that 
 had crossed the river with them, and allowing to each 
 regiment and battery its full comjilement, they may 
 have numbered ten thousand men. This is an outside 
 estimate ; and as these brigades were never in a position 
 to increase their strength, it is not probable that the 
 Missouri Confederates, serving on the east side of the 
 Mississippi, ever exceeded the number here given. Of 
 the subsequent career of this gallant band it is not my 
 province to speak, though the story of their courage, 
 their endurance, and their devotion to the cause of the 
 South has been well told, and the record is one of which 
 every Missourian may feel proud. Let it suffice to say 
 that on the 5th of July, 1861, they had fought their 
 first battle at Carthage, Missouri, and on the 9th of April, 
 1865, the very day on which Lee surrendered, these 
 brigades, now consolidated and reduced to a mere skele- 
 ton scarcely four hundred strong, fired their last gun at 
 Fort Blakeley on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 With the admission of Missouri into the Confederacy 
 and the transfer of so many of her troops to that service, 
 the organization of the state guard virtually came to an 
 end. Thereafter, the Missourians who " went South " and 
 entered the Confederate army, were known as Confeder- 
 ates not as state troops, and to this extent lost their 
 individuality, though in their regimental and brigade 
 organizations they were still credited to the State. Of the 
 number who, during the next three years, left their 
 homes and in the face of grave dangers made their way 
 to the Confederate army, it is impossible to speak with 
 certainty. According to an estimate furnished by Gen- 
 
340 MISSOURI. 
 
 eral James Harding, they did not exceed six regiments 
 of infantry, ten of cavalry, and eight batteries. Allow- 
 ing to each regiment its full complement of one thou- 
 sand men, and to each battery one hundred, it would 
 give sixteen thousand eight hundred as the total num- 
 ber of Missourians on the west side of the river ; or, 
 making every allowance for subsequent increase by re- 
 cruiting, they may have amounted to twenty thousand. 
 This is a liberal estimate, and if we add to it the ten 
 thousand that were east of the river, it will swell the 
 grand total to thirty thousand, and this, it is believed, 
 will cover all the men that Missouri contributed to the 
 Confederate service. 
 
 Contrasted with the magnificent array of one hun- 
 dred and nine thousand men, including eight thousand 
 colored troops, whom she sent into the Union army, the 
 Southern contingent is small ; but if we consider it with 
 reference to the Breckinridge vote in the autumn of 
 1860, or if we compare it with the secession vote for 
 members of the convention in February, 1861, it will be 
 found to amount, practically, to a levy en masse. More- 
 over, it was composed of the best material in the State, 
 consisting in good part of men who served without other 
 hope of reward than that which comes from the con- 
 scientious discharge of a duty, and of others, and they 
 were not a few, who were driven into the rebel ranks 
 by outrages perpetrated upon them by the military au- 
 thorities. Under the lead of Price, Marmaduke, and 
 Shelby, these men were always ready for a raid into 
 the State, and though they were never able to reestablish 
 themselves upon her soil, yet such was their activity 
 that they succeeded in keeping much of the region south 
 of the Missouri in a constant state of turmoil and ex- 
 
CONFEDERATES EVACUATE THE STATE. 341 
 
 citement. In the end they shared the fate of the Con- 
 federacy, and of the army of which they formed a part. 
 Step by step they were driven back, until, at the close 
 of the rebellion, they were massed upon the line of Red 
 River, and not in the Ozark Mountains and upon the 
 Arkansas. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FROM THE EVACUATION OF THE STATE TO THE END 
 OF THE WAR. 
 
 Although the Confederates were never able to recover 
 the ground which they lost in the early part of 1862, 
 when they were driven from Springfield and forced to 
 evacuate New Madrid, it would be a mistake to suppose 
 that the advance of the Federals and the military rule 
 which they established were followed by a restoration of 
 peace and order. So far were they from it, that, prob- 
 ably, but few months elapsed during the four years that 
 the war lasted, in which there was not an outbreak of 
 some sort in some part of the State. According to the 
 official records, between the 20th of April, 1861, the 
 date of the capture of the Federal arsenal at Liberty, 
 Missouri, and the 20th of November, 1862, — a period 
 of nineteen months, — over three hundred battles and 
 skirmishes were fought within the limits of the State. Of 
 the number that took place during the last tw^o years of 
 the war it is not possible to speak with accuracy, but it 
 is probable that there were half as many more ; and it 
 may be said of them that they were relatively more de- 
 structive of life, as by this time the contest had degen- 
 erated into a disgraceful internecine struggle. In many, 
 perhaps a large majority, of these skirmishes, especially 
 those that occurred in the northern half of the State, the 
 combatants on the side of the Confederates were regu- 
 
TEE END OF THE WAR. 343 
 
 larly enlisted soldiers, who were endeavoring to make 
 their way south. Theoretically, this ought to have been 
 impossible, for all this region was within the Federal 
 lines, but practically there never was a time when, in 
 spite of martial law and the formidable barrier which 
 the Missouri offered to those going south, a rebel re- 
 cruiting officer could not have been found on the north 
 side of the river by any one who was anxious to do so. 
 In the last great raid into the State, the one led by Price 
 in person in the autumn of 1864, he is said to have 
 been joined by over five thousand recruits. 
 
 Facts like these indicate a deep-seated spirit of dis- 
 content ; and to account for it we shall have to trust to 
 other influences than those that sprung from sympathy 
 with the people of the South and the cause for which they 
 fought. Unquestionably this sympathy, founded upon 
 political considerations and strengthened by ties of blood, 
 was chiefly instrumental in sending into the Southern 
 army the men who followed Price and Jackson at the 
 outset of the war. It will not, however, explain the out- 
 break which took place in the summer of 1862, nor will 
 it account for the fact that as late as the autumn of 
 1864, Missouri, though still overwhelmingly true to the 
 Union, was in as unsettled a condition as she had been 
 at any time since the capture of Camp Jackson. 
 
 Probably, the one measure which, more than all 
 others, contributed to the above-mentioned outbreak, 
 was the order of Governor Gamble enrolling the entire 
 fighting population of the State, and authorizing Gen- 
 eral Schofield to call such portion of it into active ser- 
 vice as might be deemed necessary to put down all 
 marauders and preserve the peace. The order was 
 somewhat indefinite; it was generally supposed to be 
 
344 MISSOURI. 
 
 preliminary to a draft, and it was looked upon by the 
 Southern sympathizers as betraying an intention on the 
 part of the state and federal authorities to force them 
 into the army and make them fight against their friends 
 and relatives in the South. They also regarded it as a 
 violation by the State of the implied barggiin which had 
 been entered into when they were disarmed and obliged, 
 under penalty of arrest and imprisonment, to take an 
 oath not to bear arms against the United States or the 
 provisional government of Missouri, and to give a bond 
 for the faithful observance of the oath. They held, and 
 with some measure of justice, that in exacting this bond, 
 as had been generally done throughout the State, the 
 government had recognized them as non-combatants ; 
 and they resolved that if they must take a part in the 
 war, they would choose the side upon which they were 
 to fight. Hence, as General Schofield admits, the first 
 effect of this measure was to cause every rebel who could 
 possess himself of a weapon to spring to arms, " whilst 
 thousands of others ran to the brush to avoid the required 
 enrollment.'* 
 
 Another measure of more or less influence in mould- 
 ing public opinion was the Emancipation Proclamation 
 of January 1, 1863 ; not that it applied directly to Mis- 
 souri, or that it can be said to have weakened the Union 
 sentiment among the great mass of the people, but for the 
 reason that it gave rise to serious differences among the 
 Union men, and, in the opinion of not a few, it removed 
 the contest from the high plane upon which it had hith- 
 erto been conducted, and reduced it to the level of mere 
 party politics. To understand this, it is necessary to 
 bear in mind that the proclamation, or rather the over- 
 throw of slavery which it brought about, was in direct 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 345 
 
 violation of the assurances upon which the federal gov- 
 ernment had thus far carried on the contest ; and whilst 
 as a war measure it was clearly justifiable, it was looked 
 upon as introducing new and different issues into the 
 struggle, and as involving the exercise of a power for 
 which there was no warrant in the Constitution. From 
 this point of view it was open to criticism, and that it 
 was so considered by President Lincoln himself is evi- 
 dent from the answer he returned to a delegation of 
 Missouri radicals who visited Washington for the pur- 
 pose, among others, of insisting upon the immediate 
 abolition of slavery in the State, in preference to the 
 scheme of gradual emancipation which the convention 
 had recently adopted. Speaking of the political situa- 
 tion in Missouri at this time, Lincoln said that it was a 
 " perplexing compound " of Union and slavery, " even 
 among those who were for the Union, to say nothing of 
 those who- were against it." Thus there were "those 
 who were for the Union with but not ivithout slavery ; 
 those for it ivithout but not ivith ; those for it with or 
 without, but prefer it ivith ; and those who are for it 
 with or without, but prefer it without. Among these, 
 again, is a subdivision of those who are for gradual but 
 not for imTnediate, and those who are for immediate but 
 not for gradual, extinction of slavery." These different 
 opinions, he continued, might be honestly entertained 
 by loyal men, and this would, of course, give rise to dif- 
 ferent ideas as to the proper way of sustaining the 
 Union. For this reason, then, he declined to accede to 
 the changes upon which the radical delegation thought 
 proper to insist, and in so doing he preserved to the 
 people of the State the small remnant of self-govern- 
 ment which had been left them. In concluding his 
 
346 MISSOURI. 
 
 answer, and apparently by way of emphasizing his posi- 
 tion, he says in his terse and pointed way : " The radi- 
 cals and conservatives each agree with me in some 
 things and disagree in others. I could wish both to 
 agree with me in all things ; for then they would agree 
 with each other, and would be too strong for any foe 
 from any quarter. They, however, choose to do other- 
 wise, and I do not question their right. I, too, shall do 
 what seems to be my duty. I hold whoever commands 
 in Missouri or elsewhere responsible to me, and not to 
 either radicals or conservatives." 
 
 Potent as this measure may have been in separating 
 men of conservative views from sympathy with the na- 
 tional administration, its influence was but slight when 
 compared with that exerted by the constant interfer- 
 ence of the military with unoffending citizens, especially 
 with those who were suspected of rebel tendencies. To 
 enumerate all the different shapes which this interfer- 
 ence took were an idle task. Even after leaving out 
 those cases that affected the entire community, and con- 
 fining ourselves to those that involved crimes against a 
 class or against individuals, they will be found to run 
 through the entire gamut, — ranging from the arbitrary 
 arrest and imprisonment of men and women for mere 
 opinion's sake, to the murder of prisoners ; from the 
 illegal requisition for unnecessary supplies by irrespon- 
 sible parties, to robbery, pillage, and arson. 
 
 To a great extent these lawless proceedings were in 
 violation of orders, and it would therefore be unjust to 
 hold the department commanders or the administration 
 at Washington responsible for them. They were the 
 acts of subordinates, and It is but fair to add, that, as a 
 rule, they resulted from ignorance and an excess of zeal, 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 347 
 
 rather* than from a spirit of wantonness or the desire of 
 personal gain. By some curious process, the average 
 military officials, especially those from other States, 
 appeared to have satisfied themselves that Missouri was 
 disloyal ; and acting upon this conviction, and ignorant, 
 perhaps, of the fact that there was such a thing as mili- 
 tary law, they not unfrequently conducted themselves in 
 a manner that would hardly have been justifiable in an 
 enemy's country. Instead of discharging the delicate 
 duties of their office in such a way as to give as little 
 offense as possible, they acted as if it were the policy to 
 exasperate the people among whom they were stationed, 
 and drive them into the rebel army, or, worse still, into 
 some wild and predatory band of guerrillas. In this, 
 unfortunately for the peace of the State, they were too 
 often successful. 
 
 But whilst it is easy to acquit the ruling authorities, 
 civil as well as military, of complicity in outrages com- 
 mitted in defiance of orders, and of which they had no 
 knowledge, it is not possible to absolve them from blame 
 for those which they themselves perpetrated, or which 
 were committed with their knowledge, and presumably 
 with their approval. Take, for example, the outrages 
 on the western frontier of the State, — those perpetrated 
 by Union troops and Kansas Red-Legs upon Missou- 
 rians, as well as those committed by guerrillas and out- 
 lawed Missourians upon the people of Kansas, — and, 
 either as sins of omission or commission, they can be 
 traced directly to mismanagement on the part of the 
 Federal authorities. 
 
 Without stopping to enlarge upon the crimes of Lane 
 and his brigade, to which reference has already been 
 made, it is sufficient to say that in 1861 they burned the 
 
348 MISSOURI. 
 
 town of Osceola, " an enterprise in which large amounts 
 of property and a score of lives were sacrificed ; " that 
 they " cleaned out " the villages of Butler and Park- 
 ville ; and, in a word, that they began in Missouri the 
 work of robbery and murder which resulted in depopu- 
 lating a large part of the western border. Following in 
 the wake of this brigade of " thieves and marauders," as 
 Governor Robinson is said to have called them, came the 
 bands of robbers known as Red-Legs, whose custom 
 it was " at intervals to dash into Missouri, seize horses 
 and cattle, — not omitting other and worse outrages on 
 occasion, — then to repair with their booty to Lawrence, 
 where it was defiantly sold at auction." These depre- 
 dations were well known to the authorities. In Decem- 
 ber, 1861, General Halleck, who seems to have been 
 powerless to remedy the evil, wrote to McClellan that 
 " the conduct of our troops during Fremont's campaign, 
 and especially the course pursued by those under Lane 
 and Jennison, has turned against us many thousands who 
 were formerly Union men ; " and on another occasion, 
 when speaking of the rumor that Lane had been made a 
 brigadier-general in the Federal army, he added that such 
 an appointment " is offering a premium for rascality 
 and robbing generally," and that " it will take twenty 
 thousand men to counteract its effect in the State." 
 This letter was seen by President Lincoln, who did noth- 
 ing to bring about a different state of affairs on the bor- 
 der, though he signified his regret that Halleck should 
 have entertained such an unfavorable opinion of Lane. 
 
 If, now, we reverse the shield, we shall find that the 
 outrages of Lane and the Red-Legs not only sent a num- 
 ber of men into the Southern army, but that they also 
 drove others into adopting the lawless mode of life 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 349 
 
 known as " bushwhacking." The number of those 
 who thus outlawed themselves was never large, certainly 
 not a tenth of the force that might at any moment have 
 been brought against them, and yet such was the ineffi- 
 ciency of the Federal authorities that these guerrillas, 
 aided by certain hangers-on to the Confederate army, 
 are said to have carried on a savage and, we may add, 
 a seemingly successful predatory war with the Union 
 troops, as well as with their freebooting neighbors over 
 the border. • This result was clearly foreseen by Gov- 
 ernor Charles Robinson of Kansas. As early as Sep- 
 tember, 1861, he warned Fremont that there was danger 
 that " Lane's brigade will get up a war by going over 
 the line, committing dej)redations, and then returning 
 into our State." In such an event the secessionists, he 
 said, will be forced to retaliation, " and in this they 
 will be joined by nearly all the Union men of Missouri." 
 In the same letter in which he utters this warning he 
 bears testimony to the peaceful disposition then prevail- 
 ing among the Missourians. " There are," said he, 
 " small parties of secessionists among them, but we have 
 good reason to know that they do not intend to molest 
 Kansas. . . . Indeed, a short time since, when a guer- 
 rilla party came over and stole some property from our 
 citizens, the officers in command of the Confederates 
 compelled a return of the property, and offered to give 
 up the leader of the gang to our people for punishment. 
 ... If you will remove the supplies at Fort Scott to 
 the interior," he adds, " and relieve us of the Lane 
 brigade, I will guarantee Kansas from invasion . . . until 
 Jackson shall drive you from St. Louis." 
 
 Unfortunately for the peace of the border, neither 
 the protests of Robinson and Halleck, nor the example 
 
350 MISSOURI. 
 
 of the Confederates In offering to give up a guerrilla, 
 were of any avail. The Kansas marauders were per- 
 mitted to continue their depredations without any seri- 
 ous effort on the part of the Federal authorities to 
 put a stop to them, and this course, as had been fore- 
 told, led to savage reprisals. In August, 1863, a band 
 of outlawed Missourians, maddened by the atrocities 
 that were committed on their people, made a descent 
 upon Lawrence, Kansas, burned the town, and slaugh- 
 tered one hundred and eighty-three of its»inhabitants. 
 *' Jennison has laid waste our homes," was the declara- 
 tion of more than one Missourian on the day of the 
 massacre, " and the Red-Legs have perpetrated unheard- 
 of crimes. Houses have been plundered and burned, 
 defenseless men shot down, and women outraged. We 
 are here for revenge — and we have got it." ^ 
 
 This savage butchery, indefensible even upon the 
 score of retaliation, aroused the military authorities to a 
 sense of their shortcomings ; and on the 25th of August, 
 only four days after the massacre. General Thomas 
 Ewing issued an order, which may have been intended 
 to put an end to the disgraceful warfare that had grown 
 up in this district, but which, considered as a military 
 measure, was, fortunately, without a parallel in Missouri. 
 Instead of obliging the Kansas robbers to stay on their 
 own side of the border, and using the troops at his com- 
 mand to drive out or exterminate the " bushwhackers," 
 as there is reason to believe he might have done, and as 
 certainly would have been done by any one who really 
 desired to give peace to the border. General Ewing is- 
 sued an order, in the execution of which, those of the 
 inhabitants of Jackson, Bates, Cass, and a part of Ver* 
 ^ Spring's Kansas, p. 287. 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 351 
 
 non counties, who were so unfortunate as to live outside 
 of certain limits, were driven from their homes, their 
 dwellings burned, their farms laid waste, and the great 
 bulk of their movable property handed over, without 
 let or hindrance, to the Kansas " jayhawkers." It was 
 a brutal order, ruthlessly enforced, and so far from 
 expelling or exterminating the guerrillas, it simply 
 handed this whole district over to them. Indeed, we 
 are assured by one who was on the ground, that from 
 this time until the end of the war, no one wearing the 
 Federal uniform dared risk his life within the devas- 
 tated region. 
 
 The only people whom the enforcement of the order 
 did injure were some thousands of those whom it was 
 Ewing's duty to protect. They were ruined ; and if 
 possible the enormity of the outrage upon them was in- 
 creased by the fact that, fourteen years later, General 
 Schofield, who had approved of the order, justified his 
 action on the ground that they were mere furnishers 
 of supplies to the guerrillas, when in point of fact, 
 tried by any known standard, they were as loyal to the 
 Union as were their neighbors in Kansas. They had 
 voted against secession ; they had not only, thus far, 
 kept their quota in the Union army full, and that with- 
 out draft or bounty, but they continued to do so ; and 
 if they did not protect themselves against the outrages 
 alike of Confederate bushwhackers and Union jay- 
 hawkers, it was because early in the war they had been 
 disarmed by Federal authority, and were consequently 
 without the means of defense. But it is unnecessary 
 to pursue this subject further. Considered as a military 
 measure, the only light in which we are privileged to 
 regard it, this order was, as General Blair truly said, 
 
352 MISSOURI. 
 
 an act of imbecility — a confession on the part of the 
 Federal commander that he was unwilling or unable 
 to put down the bushwhackers — which should have cost 
 him his command ; and neither General Schofield's nor 
 President Lincoln's approval of the measure can change 
 its character, though it may divide the odium. 
 
 A wholesale spoliation of this character was hardly 
 calculated to make many converts among the secessionists 
 proper, and as it did not commend itself to the great 
 mass of the Union people, and utterly failed to give 
 peace to the district in which it was tried, it was not 
 repeated elsewhere. There were, however, other methods 
 of confiscation, less brutal, perhaps, but equally unjust, 
 that were practiced, and always with the same evil re- 
 sult. Among them, the favorite seems to have been to 
 assess the Southern sympathizers for damage done by 
 bushwhackers and Confederate raiders, or for the pur- 
 pose of raising a fund to be used in the support of 
 Union refugees and for other purposes. Of the injus- 
 tice of such a proceeding it is needless to speak. The 
 people who were thus called upon to make good these 
 losses, or contribute to the charities which the govern- 
 ment should have maintained, were in no manner re- 
 sponsible for the injuries which they were called upon to 
 repair. Even if they had known of them, they could 
 not have prevented them ; and yet so popular was this 
 method of raising money, that, in August, 1862, the 
 Southern sympathizers in St. Louis County were ordered 
 to be assessed in the sum of five hundred thousand 
 dollars for the purpose of arming the state militia and 
 supporting the families of such militiamen and United 
 States volunteers as might be left destitute. As if to 
 add absurdity to injustice, it was furthermore proposed 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 353 
 
 to grade this assessment not only according to the wealth 
 of the individual, but according to the supposed degree 
 of his sympathy with the South. In other words, it was 
 proposed, in a community in which all shades of opinion 
 existed, to establish a dividing line between loyalty and 
 disloyalty, and to fix the rates of payment of those 
 who fell below the standard ; and this was to be done 
 not by an open trial, and the examination of witnesses 
 under oath, but by a board sitting in secret session and 
 obliged, from the nature of the case, to rest its deci- 
 sions upon vague rumors, hearsay evidence, and general 
 impressions. That such a proposition could have been 
 seriously entertained, or that worthy citizens could have 
 been found who were willing to undertake the duties of 
 this office, is almost incredible at this late day ; but it 
 illustrates very clearly the spirit that then ruled in some 
 of the border States. Fortunately for the good name of 
 the State, the Rev. Dr. William G. Eliot, a loyal clergy- 
 man of St. Louis, called President Lincoln's attention 
 to the injustice and iniquity of this measure, and it 
 was countermanded. The disapproval of this particular 
 order of assessment, however, did not put an end to the 
 evil. It continued to flourish, and so serious did it 
 finally become that Governor Gamble, in December, 
 1862, forbade the militia of the State to aid in carrying 
 out any of these assessments, thus depriving the pro- 
 vost marshals of the services of these troops, and to 
 some extent putting an end to the practice. 
 
 Amongst the other and more general forms in which 
 this interference of military with the civil administration 
 manifested itself, may be mentioned the restrictions that 
 were placed upon trade and commerce, and the presence 
 of soldiers at the polls. With the first of these measures 
 
854 MISSOURI. 
 
 we need not concern ourselves. It was a serious incon- 
 venience to the people of the State, loyal as well as dis- 
 loyal, and a positive injury to many ; but it was regarded 
 as a necessary precaution, and hence it was willingly 
 borne even by those who suffered most from its enforce- 
 ment. 
 
 The second of these measures cannot be dismissed 
 in this summary fashion. The presence of soldiers at 
 the polls is never a pleasant sight to a people accus- 
 tomed to self-government, and in the present instance 
 it was made more objectionable by the fact that the 
 reason assigned for it was not sufficient, and because 
 it involved an unnecessary display of force for the pur- 
 pose of carrying out an unnecessary and, so far as it par- 
 took of the nature of an ex post facto law, an illegal 
 ordinance. There were never any grounds for suppos- 
 ing that those who were disfranchised by the ordinance 
 of June, 1862, would attempt to vote ; and even if they 
 had been allowed to do so, there was not the slightest 
 probability of their carrying the election. To intimate, 
 then, that the soldiers were permitted at the polls for the 
 purpose of preserving order and preventing intimidation, 
 is to assert that the loyal voters of the State, although 
 they outnumbered the disloyal in the proportion of two 
 or three to one, would not preserve order, and could be 
 so far intimidated as to prevent their voting. Such a 
 thing might have been possible at some outlying pre- 
 cinct, or in some guerrilla-infested neighborhood ; but to 
 admit it of the State at large is to cast a reflection upon 
 the Union men which is certainly undeserved. Never- 
 theless it is the explanation which the order, relating to 
 the election of November, 1862, was made to give of 
 itself ; and whilst it would hardly be fair, for the reason 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 355 
 
 just givfen, to characterize it as untrue, it would be ob- 
 viously unsafe to accept it as the whole truth. This will 
 be found in the evident determination of the authorities 
 to enforce the ordinance of the convention, which made 
 an oath of loyalty to the United States and the provi- 
 sional government of Missouri a condition precedent to 
 voting. In other words, soldiers were encouraged to be 
 at the polls not so much for the purpose of preventing 
 any person from being intimidated, as of intimidating 
 any one who might attempt to vote without having taken 
 the prescribed oath. In the language of the order, they 
 were " to see that no person is either kept from the polls 
 by intimidation, or in any way interfered with in voting 
 at the polls for whatever candidate he may choose," 
 though in a previous clause they were virtually in- 
 structed that no person was to be allowed to vote who 
 did not pledge himself to vote in a particular way. 
 
 In view of the predominance of Union men in the 
 State, this course was unnecessary. Indeed, the provi- 
 sional authorities themselves soon saw it, and at the 
 next election — the one held in November, 1863 — they 
 so far rectified the mistake as to require the soldiers to 
 vote in their camps. This was a step in the right direc- 
 tion, but it did not go far enough. The test oath for 
 voters and candidates, which had been adopted as a safe- 
 guard against the possibility of having a disloyal govern- 
 ment, was retained ; and although there was never any 
 occasion for testing its utility from this point of view, 
 yet in theory at least it was assumed to have effected 
 the purpose for which it was designed. In practice 
 it did much more, for it led to results that were not 
 generally contemplated. By disfranchising those who, 
 whilst not being secessionists, would not pledge them- 
 
356 MJSSOVRL 
 
 selves not to aid those of their friends and relatives who 
 were, it virtually handed the State over to the radical 
 Republicans ; and what was far worse, it furnished them 
 with a precedent for the long list of outrages which for 
 some years made an election in Missouri such a sorrow- 
 ful travesty. From 1862 to 1872 there was not an 
 election held in the State that could be called either full, 
 fair, or free ; and this result, so foreign to the spirit of 
 our institutions, would hardly have been possible but for 
 the precedent furnished by the adoption of this ordi- 
 nance and the methods taken to enforce it. 
 
 These were a few of the ills which grew out of this 
 interference of the military with the civil authority, and 
 to which the people of Missouri were subjected. In the 
 North, where there was, substantially, no difference of 
 opinion, the evil was but little felt ; but in the border 
 States, where every shade of sentiment existed, it was 
 very real, and there can be no question as to the influ- 
 ence it exerted. Grievous as it was, and numerous as 
 were the individual cases of oppression to which it gave 
 rise, it did not affect the action of the Union men of the 
 State upon the one great issue of the war. Upon this 
 point their conduct was uniformly consistent, and what- 
 ever may have been their differences of opinion as to 
 the means employed to restore the Union, they never 
 wavered in their fidelity to it. In fact, so determined 
 were their efforts in this direction that they not only 
 succeeded in establishing order over the greater part of 
 the State, especially in those regions in which they were 
 not hampered by Federal interference, but they an- 
 swered every demand made upon them by the national 
 authorities for men, without a draft, and with but a rel- 
 atively small expenditure for bounties. 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 357 
 
 Notwithstanding the heavy contingent which the State 
 sent into the Confederate service, she furnished to the 
 Union army 109,000 men, over nine per cent, of her 
 entire population, or forty-seven per cent, of the num- 
 ber available for military purposes. The extent of this 
 drain will be better understood if we compare it with the 
 number of men furnished by the other States. Accord- 
 ing to the official reports, the percentage of troops to 
 population in the Western States- and Territories was 
 13.6 per cent., and in the New England States twelve 
 per cent. ; whilst in Missouri, if we add to her quota the 
 30,000 men who went into the Southern army, it was 
 fourteen per cent., or sixty per cent, of those who were 
 subject to military duty. These are instructive figures, 
 and they become more so when taken in connection with 
 the fact that at the presidential election of 1860, Lin- 
 coln had but a tenth of the vote cast in the State. 
 
 Of the loss of life among the Missouri troops. Confed- 
 erate as well as Federal, it is impossible to speak with 
 accuracy, as there is no record of the mortality of those 
 who went South. In the Union army, the deaths are put 
 down at 13,885 — a fraction over twelve per cent, of all 
 the men furnished by the State, — of which number 
 3,317 were either killed, or died of wounds received in 
 battle. These are the official figures, and they are no 
 doubt correct as far as they go, though it is doubtful 
 whether they include the number of deaths among the 
 state troops, who were never in the service of the United 
 States. Of the mortality among the Confederates we 
 are, as has been said, without any official record ; and 
 the facts upon which we have to depend are of such a 
 character that any attempt to fix the number of deaths 
 among them must be but the merest guess-work. It is 
 
358 MISSOURI. 
 
 probable, however, that the ratio among them, especially 
 in the cases of deaths from disease, was much greater 
 than among the Union troops, owing to the unwonted 
 hardships they were called upon to endure, and the want 
 of medicines and suitable hospital accommodations for 
 the sick and wounded. Taking these facts into consider- 
 atio'n, and bearing in mind the privations to which they 
 were unavoidably subjected in the way of an insufficiency 
 of food and clothing, it is believed that an estimate, 
 placing the total number of their deaths at forty per 
 cent., would be within the bounds of reason. This would 
 carry their loss up to 12,000 men, and adding this number 
 to the deaths that occurred in the Federal service, it 
 will swell the aggregate mortality in the two armies to 
 25,885. This estimate does not cover those who were 
 killed in the skirmishes that took place between the 
 home guards and the guerrillas ; nor does it include 
 those who were not in either army, but who were shot 
 down by " bushwhackers " and " bushwhacking " Federal 
 soldiers. Of these latter there is no record, though 
 there were but few sections of the State in which such 
 scenes were not more or less frequent. Assuming the 
 deaths from these two sources to have been 1,200, and 
 summing up the results, it will be found that the num- 
 ber of Missourians who were killed in the war and died 
 from disease during their term of service amounted to 
 not less than 27,000 men. 
 
 Heavy as was this loss of life, that of property was 
 relatively quite as great. Leaving out of consideration 
 the value of the slaves, which, may be roughly estimated 
 at $40,000,000, the other elements of wealth exhibit a 
 marked decrease during the war and after. As late as 
 1868, after two years of prosperity, the taxable wealth of 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. * 359 
 
 the State was rated at only $454,000,000, or $46,000,000 
 less than the amount returned in 1860. In many por- 
 tions of the State, especially in the southern and west- 
 ern borders, whole counties had been devastated. The 
 houses were burned, the fences destroyed, and the farms 
 laid waste. Much of the livestock of the State had dis- 
 appeared ; and everywhere, even in those sections that 
 were comparatively quiet and peaceful, the quantity of 
 land in cultivation was much less than it had been at the 
 outbreak of the war. Added to these sources of decline, 
 and in some measure a cause of them, was the consider- 
 able emigration from the State which now took place, 
 and particularly from those regions that lay in the f)ath- 
 way of the armies, or from those neighborhoods that 
 were given over to the " bushwhackers." The amount of 
 loss from these different sources cannot be accurately 
 gauged, but some idea may be formed of it, and of the 
 unsettled condition of affairs, from the fact that only 41 
 out of the 113 counties in the State receipted for the tax 
 books for 1861 ; and in these counties, only $250,000 
 out of the $600,000 charged against them were collected. 
 In the last two years of the war, the collections in por- 
 tions of the State are said to have been better, though 
 they were still far from satisfactory ; and yet, notwith- 
 standing these unfavorable conditions, the State expended 
 over $7,000,000 in fitting out and maintaining her troops. 
 The bulk of this sum was afterwards returned to her 
 by the general government, and as it was used in paying 
 the indebtedness which she had failed to meet during 
 the war, it enabled her to reestablish her credit upon 
 the favorable basis upon which it now rests. 
 
 Of the numerous and daring raids that were made 
 into the State we have not thought it necessary to speak, 
 
860 • MISSOURI. 
 
 as they had no appreciable influence upon the result, 
 either in Missouri or upon the country at large. Even 
 when intended to mask some important movement, or to 
 prevent reinforcements from being sent to a threatened 
 point, they can hardly be considered as successful, since, 
 as a rule, after the spring of 1862, the state troops and 
 the enrolled militia could be depended upon to give a 
 satisfactory account of these most unwelcome visitors. 
 Such, though, was not always the case, and notably so 
 in the raid led by Price in September, 1864. Entering 
 the southeastern portion of the State at the head of 
 12,000 men, this gallant officer came within forty miles 
 of St. Louis, passed in sight of Jefferson City, and mov- 
 ing up the Missouri, captured Lexington and Indepen- 
 dence. Here he was confronted by troops from Kansas, 
 and being closely followed by General Pleasanton with 
 a large force of cavalry, he turned southward and made 
 his escape into Arkansas, but not without heavy loss in 
 men and material. In the course of the raid he marched 
 1,434 miles, fought forty-three battles and skirmishes, and 
 according to his own calculation destroyed upwards of 
 " ten million dollars worth of property," a fair share of 
 which belonged to his own friends. 
 
 Considered with reference to the number of men, the 
 distance marched, the battles fought, and the amount of 
 property destroyed, this was one of the most memorable 
 raids of the war ; and yet it is difficult to see what the 
 Confederate authorities expected to gain by the move- 
 ment. Price was not strong enough to maintain him- 
 self in the State against the overwhelming odds that 
 could be concentrated against him, and without some 
 such prospect his expedition was a predestined failure. 
 As matters turned out, it did not prevent reinforcements 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 861 
 
 from being sent to Thomas at Nashville, nor did it exert 
 any perceptible influence upon the presidential election of 
 that year. The property destroyed, at least that part of 
 it which belonged to the federal government, was never 
 missed ; and it is probable that, after making due allow- 
 ance for the exaggerations on both sides, Price lost, in 
 men and material, quite as much as he gained. 
 
 This was the last effort made to carry the war into 
 Missouri. In the following spring Grant and Lee closed 
 in the death struggle around Richmond, and in the pres- 
 ence of this battle of giants all minor combats were 
 dwarfed. When at last, on the 9th of April, it was 
 known that the Confederate army, reduced to a mere 
 handful but still ready for duty, had surrendered, the 
 news brought a universal feeling of relief. By a proc- 
 lamation of Governor Fletcher thg 15th was set apart 
 as a day of thanksgiving for " this hope of peace," and 
 there were but few Missourians, Union men or secession- 
 ists, who did not join in the glad acclaim. 
 
 In due time the Confederate forces on the west side of 
 the Mississippi laid down their arms, and in June some 
 eight thousand of them arrived in St. Louis. Speaking 
 of this event, the " Republican " of that city held the fol- 
 lowing language, which, mutatis mutandis, may with 
 equal justice be applied to the gallant men who followed 
 the flag of the Union. " In a few days all that por- 
 tion of the rebel army which was recruited in Missouri, 
 with the exception of a few who prefer to remain in 
 the South, . . . will have returned to their farms, or 
 their former places of labor or business throughout the 
 State, and their character, habits and feeling as sol- 
 diers will disappear as they resume their old habits as 
 citizens.'* 
 
362 MISSOURI. 
 
 These pleasing anticipations were soon realized, though 
 in certain portions of the State, especially along the 
 southern and western borders, the guerrillas and ma- 
 rauders of all kinds showed an unwillingness to give up 
 their freebooting habits and return to an orderly mode 
 of life. The state authorities, however, proved equal to 
 the occasion. Governor Fletcher ordered a large force 
 into the disturbed districts, and this, taken in connection 
 with the summary action of the people in certain counties, 
 soon stamped out the evil. The turbulent spirits bred 
 by the war, federal as well as rebel, were soon made to 
 understand that the civil authority was again supreme, 
 and that crime, no matter of what character or by whom 
 committed, could no longer be cloaked under the guise 
 of military necessity. In these disturbances the old 
 soldiers, the men who had faced each other in the battle- 
 field, were not arrayed on opposite sides, but they stood 
 together for the maintenance of law and order. In the 
 hard school of the war they had learned to respect each 
 other, and as they had put away all feelings of hatred 
 and uncharitableness when they laid aside their muskets, 
 they found no difficulty in working together for the sup- 
 pression of crime, the restoration of order, and the good 
 of the State. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. THE CONVENTION OF 1865 
 AND TEST OATHS. 
 
 Turning now to the political history of these years 
 we find that although the Emancipation Proclamation 
 of President Lincoln did not apply to Missouri, yet the 
 question of the abolition of slavery in the State entered 
 largely into the local politics of the day. At the elec- 
 tion held in November^ 1862, for members of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, a majority of emancipationists were re- 
 turned, though they were unable to take any definite 
 action in the matter, owing to the exhausted condition 
 of the state treasury, and to the constitutional provision, 
 which forbade the emancipation of slaves without the 
 consent of the owners, or the payment of a full equiva- 
 lent for the slaves so freed. Satisfied that the people 
 of the State were in favor of doing away with slavery, 
 the legislature indicated it so plainly that Governor 
 Gamble summoned the convention to meet on the 15th 
 of June, 1863, for the purpose of acting upon the ques- 
 tion. After a prolonged debate, an ordinance was 
 adopted which provided for gradual emancipation, and 
 the convention then adjourned sine die. 
 
 The plan as adopted was as just and fair as any meas- 
 ure of confiscation can be said to be, but it did not sat- 
 isfy the radical Republicans of the State. They wanted 
 to have the slaves made free at once, and to effect this, 
 
364 MISS QUEL 
 
 they sent a committee to Washington for the purpose of 
 inducing President Lincoln to extend the area within 
 which his proclamation was operative, so as to include 
 Missouri. Failing in the object of their visit, they re- 
 turned home, and at once began their preparations for 
 the election of November, 1864. Upon the direct issue 
 of immediate and unconditional emancipation they 
 carried the State by a majority of 30,000, though the 
 total vote was but little more than half what it had been 
 four years before. It was the first election for state 
 officers that had been held since the beginning of the 
 war, Provisional Governor Gamble having been ap- 
 pointed by the convention, as was Lieutenant Governor 
 W. P. Hall, who became governor upon the death of 
 Gamble in January, 1864. 
 
 The proposition to hold another convention having 
 been carried, the delegates chosen to that body met at 
 St. Louis on the 6th of January, 1865. Divided accord- 
 ing to their nativities, it will be seen that thirty-five 
 of them were born in the slave States, twenty-one in the 
 free States, nine in Europe, and one is not given. Politi- 
 cally speaking, they were, as a rule, new men. But few 
 of them were known outside of their immediate neighbor- 
 hood, and it is but fair to add, in view of the specimen 
 of political handiwork which they turned out, that still 
 fewer of them were ever heard of again. The constitu- 
 tion which they framed, despite certain good provisions, 
 evinced such a spirit of political intolerance, showed so 
 clearly that its authors were unfit for statesmanlike work, 
 that they were speedily relegated to the obscurity from 
 which they should never have been taken. Unquestion- 
 ably much of the bitter feeling displayed in this instru- 
 ment can be ascribed to the excitement of the hour, and 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 365 
 
 it would no doubt be pleasant if it could all be assigned 
 to this cause. Unfortunately for this theory, the course 
 of the radicals in carrying out these invidious restric- 
 tions, after the necessity for them had passed away, af- 
 fords ground for the belief that their object in adopting 
 them was not so much to punish the rebels, as it was to 
 give the control of the State to the wing of the Repub- 
 lican party to which they belonged. 
 
 The first measure upon which, under the terms of the 
 call, the convention was expected to act, was the one for 
 the abolition of slavery. This was soon settled. On the 
 11th of January George P. Strong, of St. Louis, reported 
 " An Ordinance abolishing Slavery in Missouri," 
 and recommended its passage. Various attempts were 
 made to amend it, but they were voted down, and the 
 ordinance, as reported, was passed by a practically 
 unanimous vote, there being sixty for it, to four against 
 it, whilst two were absent. A copy of the Ordinance, 
 duly signed and attested, was forwarded by special mes- 
 senger to Governor Fletcher, and in accordance with the 
 request of the convention he issued a proclamation, de- 
 claring " that henceforth and forever, no person within 
 the jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to any 
 abridgment of liberty, except such as the law shall pre- 
 scribe for the common good, or know any master bu^ 
 God." 
 
 At this time there were probably a hundred and 
 fourteen thousand negroes in the State, worth for pur- 
 poses of taxation forty millions of dollars. Ostensibly 
 they were slaves, but practically they were not, for it 
 was clearly understood, even by the slaveholders, that 
 the institution in Missouri was dead, and that all that 
 remained to be done was to see that it was decently 
 
366 MISSOURI. 
 
 and legally buried. The opportunity to do this was 
 afforded by the convention ; and in promptly availing 
 themselves of it, the people of Missouri may justly 
 claim for her the credit of being the only one of the 
 slave States which voluntarily and of its own accord 
 abolished slavery. As we have repeatedly had occasion 
 to declare, the people of the State had never been enam- 
 ored of the institution, had in fact tolerated it from 
 an unwillingness to interfere with vested rights ; and 
 in striking it down they not only gave abundant proof 
 of this fact, and at a cost, to the State, of a portion of 
 the revenue of which she was sorely in need, but they 
 again served notice upon the Confederate authorities 
 that Missouri was in the Union and proposed to stay 
 there. 
 
 Having disposed of this question in a satisfactory 
 manner, the convention might well have adjourned, as 
 the disfranchisement of the rebels, the one other matter 
 upon which it was expected that action would be taken, 
 had been accomplished by the convention which met in 
 June, 1862, so far as it was possible to effect that pur- 
 pose by a constitutional enactment. This action was by 
 no means satisfactory to the members of the present 
 convention. From the first they had fallen under the 
 control of a few extremists, who were determined to be 
 satisfied with nothing less than a thorough remodeling 
 of the constitution ; and under" their lead it was com- 
 placently resolved that the people " intended and ex- 
 pected " not only that slavery should be abolished and 
 disloyalists disfranchised, but that the constitution should 
 be so amended as ' to bring it into harmony with the 
 change that had taken place in the industrial and po- 
 litical condition of the State. Doubtful as this measure 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 367 
 
 was from a legal point of view, the members of the 
 convention thought proper to regard it as tantamount to 
 a removal of the restrictions imposed upon them by the 
 call under which they met ; and they proceeded to frame 
 an entirely new constitution. This was submitted to 
 the people, for ratification, in June, 1865, and was ac- 
 cepted by a majority of eighteen hundred in a total 
 vote of eighty-five thousand. 
 
 In some of its articles, notably in those that related 
 to education and to banks and corporations, the new 
 constitution was a decided improvement upon the one 
 adopted in 1820, and still in force; but in the article 
 on the right of suffrage, especially in the clause which 
 established a test oath for voters, there were features 
 that were so outrageous as to outweigh the good that 
 might have come from those provisions that were clearly 
 of a beneficent character. Without stopping to enu- 
 merate the objections that might be urged against this 
 particular clause, it will be sufficient to say that the 
 oath as established was so comprehensive in its scope, 
 and covered such a wide field of conduct past and future, 
 that it is doubtful whether there was a prominent man 
 in the State who could truthfully have taken it. Includ- 
 ing subdivisions, there were over forty -five different 
 offenses which the applicant for registration must swear 
 he had never committed ; and unless he could do so, he 
 was not to be allowed to vote, or hold any state, county, 
 or municipal office, or act as a teacher in any school, or 
 preach, or solemnize marriage, or practice law, or serve 
 as juror. He could not even hold any real estate, or 
 other property, in trust for the use of any church, re- 
 ligious society, or congregation. 
 
 In the attempt to enforce this iniquitous ordinance, 
 
868 MISSOURI. 
 
 much trouble occurred. The judges of the supreme 
 court, satisfied that it was null and void, refused to va- 
 cate their offices, and vi^ere forcibly ousted. Ministers 
 of the gospel. Catholic priests, and sisters of charity en- 
 gaged in teaching were arrested, and in some cases fined 
 and imprisoned. Prominent lawyers like Samuel T. 
 Glover, a member of the Union safety committee in 
 1861, refused to abide by the law and challenged indict- 
 ment ; and when in November, 1865, that gallant sol- 
 dier General Frank Blair refused to take the oath and 
 brought suit against the judges of the election for de- 
 clining to receive his vote, it was felt, even by those 
 who had approved the ordinance, that the time had come 
 when its enforcement was no longer possible. At the 
 meeting of the legislature, in January, 1867, Governor 
 Fletcher, who had opposed the adoption of the con- 
 stitution, recommended that the 9th section of the 2d 
 article should be stricken out for the reason that it had 
 not prevented disloyal persons from being lawyers and 
 school-teachers, and because " bishops, priests, and min- 
 isters teach and pray without taking the prescribed 
 oath," thereby setting an example of disobedience to 
 law, which may ultimately lead to anarchy. Before the 
 legislature could act upon his recommendation, the su- 
 preme court of the United States, in January, 1867, 
 decided that the test oath was unconstitutional. 
 
 The announcement of this decision gave a measure 
 of relief to the people of the State, though the reign of 
 intolerance was not yet over. The test oath and the 
 methods taken to enforce it had brought a number of 
 exceedingly small men to the front ; and as they were 
 naturally desirous of prolonging their lease of power, 
 they adopted, in January, 1868, another registry law 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 369 
 
 which was even more stringent than the one it super- 
 seded. Under it, the governor, by and with the advice 
 and consent of the Senate, was authorized, at every 
 general election, to appoint a superintendent of registra- 
 tion in each senatorial district. These superintendents 
 appointed a board of registration for each county, to 
 whom was committed the whole electoral machinery of 
 the State, with power to purge the voting lists at their 
 own sweet will. In the hands of facile officials it was 
 easy, under this law, to produce any given result, and 
 there can be no doubt as to the unflinching manner in 
 which this privilege of purgation was exercised in some 
 portions of the State. At the election in November, 
 1868, the radicals were successful, J. W. McClurg their 
 candidate being chosen governor by a majority of over 
 19,000, though the aggregate vote was only 145,000, 
 20,000 less than it had been in 1860. 
 
 Efficacious as this law had proved to be when judged 
 from a party point of view, it did not enable the radi- 
 cals to retain control of the State. The liberal Republi- 
 cans as they were called, under the lead of B. Gratz 
 Brown and Carl Schurz, had long been restive under 
 this harsh legislation, and they now took issue with the 
 radical wing of their party upon the question of uni- 
 versal amnesty and universal enfranchisement. With 
 the aid of such Democrats as were allowed to vote, they 
 swept the State at the election held in the autumn of 
 1870. In justice, however, to Governor McClurg and 
 the General Assembly it must be said that, in point of 
 liberality, they showed themselves to be in advance of 
 their party. In his inaugural message the governor 
 had called attention to the policy of removing the dis- 
 abilities that had been imposed upon those who were 
 
370 MISSOURI. 
 
 upon the side of the South during the war ; and at a 
 special meeting of the legislature in January, 1870, it 
 was resolved to submit to the people, for ratification, 
 certain proposed amendments to the constitution of the 
 State, which virtually covered this ground. By one of 
 these amendments the test oath for voters was abolished ; 
 another removed the disqualifications that had been im- 
 posed on account of former acts of disloyalty, and also 
 those that were due to race, color, or previous condition 
 of servitude ; a third related to education ; and there 
 were still others that referred to the courts and to banks 
 and corporations. All of these amendments were adopted, 
 and at the same election B. Gratz Brown, the liberal 
 candidate, was chosen governor by a majority of 41,000 
 in a total vote of 166,000. This, it will be observed, 
 is only one thousand more than were cast ten years 
 before, at the election of 1860, though the population 
 of the State was now 1,728,000, or 540,000 greater than 
 it then was. 
 
 The repeal of these disfranchising and disqualifying 
 laws swept away the last vestige of the intolerant legis- 
 lation that grew out of the war ; and at the election 
 of November, 1872, the Democratic party, composed 
 largely of conservative Union men like Blair, Broad- 
 head, Phelps, and others, carried the State by a majority 
 of 35,000 in a total poll of 278,000. Compared with 
 the vote of 1870, it will be observed that the increase in 
 two years amounted to 112,000. This is too large to 
 be attributed to natural causes ; and whilst it would be 
 manifestly unjust to assert that it represents the number 
 of persons who were disfranchised, yet it gives good 
 ground for the conclusion that the number of those who 
 were affected by this measure was much larger than is 
 usually supposed. 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 371 
 
 With the success of the Democrats at this election, 
 the control of the State passed into the hands of those 
 who were entitled to it by virtue of their numbers ; and 
 they still retain it. Of their management of affairs it 
 is not my purpose to speak. Neither does it come within 
 the limits of this work to treat of the rapid recovery of 
 the State from the wounds of the civil war ; of her phe- 
 nomenal increase in wealth and population during the 
 five years immediately succeeding the return of peace, 
 or of the liberality which she has displayed in advanc- 
 ing the negro to all the privileges of citizenship. Facts 
 upon these points are accessible to all, and as they con- 
 tain within themselves the germs of actions whose re- 
 sults have yet to be worked out, their discussion belongs 
 to the political economist, and would be out of place at 
 this time and in this connection. The career of Missouri, 
 or rather that portion of it which belongs to the domain 
 of history, may be said to have been ended with the 
 abolition of slavery. For fifty years and more this had 
 been the issue upon which parties, in their struggle for 
 power, had been aligned ; and during all this period, 
 through no desire of their own, but in opposition to their 
 wishes as it was to their interests, it had furnished the 
 people of the State with the motive for much of their 
 political action. With its removal from the field of 
 contention, the motive also disappeared ; but in its place 
 we have new interests, and these will give rise to new 
 issues, around which parties will form. This will again 
 bring on the struggle for power which in some shape 
 has been going on since the formation of society, and 
 will continue as long as human nature remains un- 
 changed. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, 79, 80, 144, 161, 
 
 189, 193. 
 Agriculture, 24, 26. 
 Alabama, admitted, 141. 
 AUouez, Father, 6. 
 Almonaster, Don Andres, 47. 
 Almonte, General, 191, 198. 
 Amusements, 48. 
 
 Arabe, Jose Ignacio, letter of, 210. 
 Archuleta, Don Diego, 201, 212, 217. 
 Arista, General, 199. 
 Arkansas, admission of, 144. 
 Armijo, Governor, 201, 212. 
 Arsenal, St. Louis, importance of, 
 
 291, 294, 299 ; garrisoned, 297. 
 Assessments, 352. 
 Atchison, D. R., 244, 246. 
 Atlantic coast, colonized, 3. 
 Augney, Captain, 215, 216. 
 
 Backwoodsman, the, 96. 
 
 Balance of power, 140-246. 
 
 Banks, chartered, 133, 165, 168 ; sus- 
 pension of, 164-166. 
 
 Barbe-Marbois, 77. 
 
 Barter, 45. 
 
 Barton, David, 174. 
 
 Bates, Edward, 296. 
 
 Bates, Frederick, 123. 
 
 BeU, Major W. H., 292, 294. 
 
 Bent, Governor Charles, 204, 21*?, 214, 
 217. 
 
 Benton, Thomas H., 174, 186, 212, 227, 
 228, 229-233 ; his appeal to the peo- 
 ple, 222, 225 ; elected to Congress, 
 231. 
 
 Biddle, Major, report on fur trade, 129. 
 
 Bienville, 20, 24, 26. 
 
 Blair, F. P., Jr., 178, 204, 274, 277, 291, 
 293, 296, 305, 351. 
 
 Blandowski, Captain, killed, 306. 
 
 Bledsoe, Captain H., 315. 
 
 Blue lodges, 243. 
 
 Boone, Daniel, 58. 
 
 Boonville, skirmish at, 313. 
 
 Border troubles, 347. 
 
 Bowen, General John S., 258. 
 
 Bracito, skirmish at, 207. 
 Broadhead, James 0., 290, 370. 
 Browne, Joseph, 87. 
 Brown, B. Gratz, 178, 369, 370. 
 Brown, John, 251, 252, 255. 
 Bruff, Major, 88, 90, 93. 
 Buchanan, James, 250, 296. 
 Burgwin, Captain, 215, 217. 
 Burr, Aaron, 91. 
 
 Cahokia, taken by Clark, 50. 
 
 Calhoun, John C, 222, 228. 
 
 CalvtJ, 52. 
 
 Camp Jackson, 301 ; taken, 305 ; ef- 
 fect of capture of, 300, 307. 
 
 Carthage, skirmish at, 315. 
 
 Cathedral, built, 124. 
 
 Cavelier, 17, 18. 
 
 Charless, Josepli, 151. 
 
 Chartres, Fort, 32, 56. 
 
 Chihuahua, occupied, 209. 
 
 Chouteau, Auguste, 33, 122, 123. 
 
 Chouteau, Pierre, 99. 
 
 Citizens, interference with, 346. 
 
 Clark, Major M. L., 208. 
 
 Clark, General George R., 50, 51, 52. 
 
 Clark, Governor WiUiam, 92, 105, 116, 
 117, 124. 
 
 Clay, Henry, 149, 155, 175, 192, 198. 
 
 Clay's compromise, 149, 155, 159. 
 
 Commerce, 44. 
 
 Conant, Major, 312. 
 
 Confederates, hesitation of, 318 ; ad- 
 vance of, 325, 320 ; disagreements 
 among, 327 ; return of, 361 ; retreat 
 of, 335 ; surrender of, 361. 
 
 Constitution of 1820, 163 ; amended, 
 165. 
 
 Convention of 1820, 150, 151. 
 
 Convention of 1861, called, 278 ; effect 
 of, 278 ; canvass for delegates to, 
 281 ; election of members to, 284, 
 298 ; second session, 320 ; adjourn- 
 ment of, 290-303. 
 
 Convention of 1865, 364. 
 
 Copper, search for, 22, 24. 
 
 Cruzat, Lieutenant-Governor, 50, 55. 
 
/ I ; 
 
 STI4 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Currency, 164, 165. 
 Curtis, General, 337. 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, 108. 
 
 Delassus, Lieutenant - Governor, 44, 
 
 56, 81, 134. 
 De Leyba, Lieutenant-Governor, 50. 
 Democrats successful in election, 371. 
 Deruisseau, 27. 
 Desmoines, the, explored, 24. 
 De Soto, 1, 2. 
 
 Disabilities, political, removed, 369. 
 Discontent with Federal rule, 343. 
 Disfranchisement of rebels, 355. 
 Doniphan, Colonel A. W., 183, 184, 
 
 204, 205, 207, 212. 
 Douay, Father, 17, 18. 
 Dubourg, Bishop, 123, 125. 
 Ducharme, 51. 
 Dutign^, 24. 
 Duke, Basil W., 298. 
 Du Lhut, 14. 
 Dyer, Lieutenant, 216. 
 
 Earthquake, the New Madrid, 108. 
 Easton, Rufus, 88. 
 Edmonson, Major, 215. 
 Education, 230. 
 Edwards, Governor, 105. 
 Elections, interference with, 354. 
 Election of 1800 for President, 264. 
 Election of 1844, 192. 
 Election of 1840, 107. 
 Eliot, Rev. William G., 353. 
 Emancipation, 173, 175-363. 
 Emancipation proclamation, 344. 
 Emigrant Aid companies, 242. 
 Ewing, General Thomas, 350. 
 Exchange Bank, 166. 
 Exports, 127. 
 
 Federal advance, 337. 
 Filley, Oliver D., 310. 
 Fletcher, Governor Thomas C, 361, 
 
 302, 365, 368. 
 FHnt, Timothy, 95, 96. 
 Florida, divided, 69. 
 Fort Crevecceur, 13, 14. 
 Fort Orleans, 25. 
 Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, 15. 
 Fremont, General John C, 325, 336. 
 French wars, 3. 
 Frontenac, 7, 16. 
 Frost, General D. M., 258, 292, 299, 
 
 301, 304, 306. 
 Fur-trade, 4, 13, 24, 26, 32, 128. 
 
 Gaines, General E. P., 199, 200. 
 Galvez, Governor, 51, 52, 71. 
 Gamble, Governor H. R., 176,296,320, 
 
 343, 363, 364. 
 Gantt, Thomas T.,312. 
 
 Gardoqui, 59. 
 
 Gayoso, 58. 
 
 Geyer, Henry S., the Whig candidate, 
 
 elected Senator, 231. 
 Gilpin, Major William, 205, 207. 
 Glenn, Luther J., 286. 
 Glover, Samuel T., 303, 368. 
 Granby Mines, 316. 
 Granger, Postmaster-General, 87. 
 Greene, Colton, 298. 
 Groseilliers, 6. 
 Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 212, 
 
 217. 
 Guibor, Captain, 315, 317. 
 
 Hall, W. A., 290, 312. 
 
 HaU, W. P., 204, 364. 
 
 Halleck, General H. W., 348. 
 
 Hammond, Colonel, 88. 
 
 Hard money, 164. 
 
 Hard times, 136, 167, 170. 
 
 Harding, General James, 316, 318, 
 340. 
 
 Harding, Colonel Chester, Jr., 325. 
 
 Harney, General W. S., 258, 298, 304, 
 309, 311. 
 
 Harrison, William H., 54, 88, 171. 
 
 Haughn's Mills, massacre at, 183. 
 
 Hempstead, Ed., 115. 
 
 Hennepin, Father, 14. 
 
 Hindes, Russell, 257, 258. 
 
 Home guards, organized, 277; mus- 
 tered into service, 297. 
 
 Howard, Governor, 102, 105, 108, 116. 
 
 Iberville, 19, 20. 
 
 Illinois, the district of, 39. 
 
 Immigrants, character of, 98 ; num- 
 ber of, 117 ; life of, 118. 
 
 Indians, war with, 25-105 ; exemption 
 from attacks of, 53 ; removal of, 
 55 ; specimens of eloquence, 54, 
 102, 204; treaties with, 84, 99, 103, 
 107, 205 ; treatment of, 53, 54, 100. 
 
 Insurrection, New Mexican, 212. 
 
 Internal improvements, 233. 
 
 Interview between Jackson and Lyon, 
 312. 
 
 Iroquois war, 5. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 190. 
 
 Jackson, Colonel Congreve, 207. 
 
 Jackson, Governor C. F., 221, 267, 
 270, 292, 298, 314, 318; refuses 
 troops to federal government, 299 ; 
 proclamation of, 313. 
 
 Jackson resolutions, 221, 223 ; mean- 
 ing of, 226. 
 
 Jamestown, settled, 3. 
 
 Jefierson, Thomas, 77, 82, 84, 87, 93. 
 
 Joliet, 4, 7, 12 ; descends the Missis- 
 sippi, 9. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 375 
 
 Joutel, 17, 18. 
 Jurisprudence, system of, 40. 
 
 Kansas, visited, 24 ; character of im- 
 migrants to, 243, 245, 247, 248; 
 jay hawkers, 251 ; first election in, 
 249, 250 ; report on troubles in, 253. 
 
 Kaskaskia, 21, 56 ; founded, 22 ; taken 
 by Clark, 50. 
 
 Kearney, General S. W., 200, 202, 
 205, 212. 
 
 Kennett, Luther M., elected to Con- 
 gress, 231. 
 
 King, Rufus, 68, 138. 
 
 La Barre, Governor, 16. 
 
 Laclede, 33. 
 
 Lake Superior, 4. 
 
 Land grants, 24 ; amount of, 60 ; con- 
 firmed, 61, 84, 112 ; liberality of, 
 58, 59 ; in New Madrid, 111 ; school 
 purposes, 112; made to settlers, 
 46. 
 
 Land, increase in value of, 59, 94, 123. 
 
 Lane, James H., 334, 347, 348, 349. 
 
 U Annie du coup, 50. 
 
 L^ Annie des dix baiteaux, 55. 
 
 L^ Annie des grands emix, 55. 
 
 La Salle, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19. 
 
 Laussat, 80. 
 
 Lawrence, massacre of, 350. 
 
 Lead, amount mined, '127. 
 
 Lead mines, 23, 24-26. 
 
 LeClerc, Father, 17. 
 
 Legislature, organized, 267, 280 ; ad- 
 journment of, 290 ; summoned to 
 meet, 300 ; resolves to secede, 336. 
 
 Le Sonneur, speech of, 102. 
 
 Lewis and Clark, expedition of, 92. 
 
 Lewis, Governor Merriwether, 92, 93, 
 99, 102. 
 
 Lexington, campaign of, 334. 
 
 Libraries, 123. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 108, 266, 311, 345, 
 348, 351, 364. 
 
 Linn, Lewis F., 186. 
 
 Lisa, Manuel, 128. 
 
 Livingston, R. R., 68, 76, 77. 
 
 Loan certificates, 136. 
 
 Louisiana, colony of, a failure, 28 ; 
 population of, 29 ; cost of colony of, 
 29, 30, 41 ; given to Spain, 31 ; taxes 
 in, 41 ; divided, 32 ; purchased, 77, 
 80. 
 
 Louisiana territory, 87, 115. 
 
 Louisiana, district of, 82. 
 
 Lovejoy, Rev. E. P., 176, 177, 178. 
 
 Lucas, J. B. C, 87, 88. 
 
 Lyon, General Nathaniel, 294, 297, 298, 
 302, 305, 312, 314, 325, 329, 330, 332. 
 
 Madison, James, 68, 75, 78. 
 
 Maklot, J., 128. 
 
 Manners and customs, 42. 
 
 Manufactiu-es, 44. 
 
 Marmaduke, Governor John S., 309, 
 314 340. 
 
 Marquette, Father, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12. 
 
 Membre, Father, 14, 15, 17. 
 
 Message, Governor Stewart's, 268. 
 
 Message, Governor Jackson's, 272. 
 
 Mexico, French expedition to, 22 ; re- 
 volt from Spain, 190. 
 
 Military law, tlie, 300. 
 
 Miro, Governor, 49, 59. 
 
 Missionaries, zeal of, 4. 
 
 Mississippi, discovered and explored, 
 1, 6, 8, 14, 15 ; a French river, 20 ; 
 closed to the United States, 72 ; 
 navigation of, 130. 
 
 Missouri, applies for admission, 138 ; 
 debate on admission, 142, 154 ; ad- 
 mission of, objected to, 152; admitted 
 into the Confederacy, 336 ; admitted 
 into tlie Union, 158, 101 ; character 
 of population of, 200 ; evacuated by 
 Confederates, 341, 342, 357. 
 
 Missouri Compromise, adopted, 146 ; 
 Soutliern vote for, 147 ; its effect, 
 149, 158 ; violated and repealed, 186, 
 241 ; unconstitutional, 358. 
 
 Missouri Confederates, 1st and 2d 
 Brigades, 339 ; number of, 340 ; 
 mortality among, 357. 
 
 Missouri Federals, number of, 340, 
 357 ; mortality among, 357. 
 
 Missouri state guard, organization of, 
 316 ; ordered to be raised, 319. 
 
 Missourians not secessionists, 222, 229, 
 230-264 ; nor slavery propagandists, 
 226, 230. 
 
 Mitchell, Colonel D. D., 207. 
 
 Montgomery, 257. 
 
 Morales, 74, 75. 
 
 Mormon war, 179. 
 
 Mormons, driven from the State, 183 ; 
 move to Illinois, 185 ; driven from 
 Illinois, 185. 
 
 Museum of Indian articles, 124. 
 
 McCulloch, General Benjamin, 314, 
 315, 319, 320, 328, 330, 333, 338. 
 
 McClurg, Governor J. W., 369. 
 
 McDonald, Captain Emmett, released 
 by the court, 306. 
 
 Napton, W. B., 221. 
 
 Nelson, Captain, ascends the Missouri, 
 133. 
 
 New Mexico, annexed , 202 ; end of in- 
 surrection in, 217 ; insurrection in, 
 212 ; purchase of, 219. 
 
 Newspaper, first, published in Missou- 
 ri, 123. 
 
 Nicolet, on the Wisconsin, 4. 
 
376 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ohio River, discovered, 6. 
 Ohio valley, population of, 75. 
 Order restored in Missouri, 362. 
 Order No. 11,350. 
 Order of enrollment, 343. 
 Ordinance of 1787, 57. 
 O'Reilly, 37, 53. 
 Osage River, explored, 24. 
 Owens, Samuel C., kiUed, 209. 
 
 Pea Ridge, battle of, 338. 
 
 Pearce, General, 326. 
 
 P^nicaut, 21. 
 
 Perez, Lieutenant-Governor, 55. 
 
 Phelps, Johns., 370. 
 
 Piasa Bluffs, 9. 
 
 Piernas, Lieutenant-Governor, 50. 
 
 Pierre, Don Eugenio, 70. 
 
 Pinckney, Charles, 154. 
 
 Pittman, Captain, 27. 
 
 Platte purchase, the, 185 ; a violation 
 of the Missouri Compromise, 186. 
 
 Pleasanton, General, 360. 
 
 Plummer, Captain, 330, 331. 
 
 Politics 47. 
 
 Pohtical power, 162, 371. 
 
 Political parties, 294. 
 
 Polk, James K., 193, 198, 204, 218. 
 
 Post-offices established, 123. 
 
 Prairie du Chien, attack on, 105. 
 
 Price, General Sterling, 306, 309, 310, 
 313, 316, 326, 328-330, 333, 335; 
 farewell to state guard, 338 ; in 
 New Mexico, 213, 215, 217, 219; 
 elected president of the convention, 
 286 ; raids into Missouri, 360. 
 
 Price, Major Thomas H., 317. 
 
 Price-Harvey agreement, the, 309. 
 
 Quebec settled, 3. 
 
 Radisson, 6. 
 
 Raids, 359, 360. 
 
 Railroads, aided, 235. 
 
 Randolph, John, 84, 90. 
 
 Read, Jacob, 132. 
 
 Rebels, disfranchised, 355, 367. 
 
 R^coUet mission, on Lake Huron, 5. 
 
 Reeder, Governor A. H., 249. 
 
 Reid, Captain John W., 205, 209; 
 rescues Mexican captives, 210. 
 
 Religion, 48. 
 
 Remonstrance and petition, 83. 
 
 Report of Committee on Federal Re- 
 lations, 287. 
 
 Retreat of state guard, 314. 
 
 Riddick, Thomas F., 114. 
 
 Robinson, Governor Charles, letter to 
 Fremont, 348, 349. 
 
 Rollins, James S., defends Mormons, 
 184. 
 
 Sacramento, battle of, 208. 
 
 Safety committee, members of, 303; 
 meeting of, 303 ; circular of, 310. 
 
 Santa F6, taken, 200 ; overland trade 
 with, 201. 
 
 Schewe, C. F., 125. 
 
 Schofield, General J. M., 343, 344, 
 351. 
 
 Schools, 47, 124. 
 
 School fund, amount of, 239. 
 
 Schurz, Carl, 369. 
 
 Shelby, General J. O., 340. 
 
 Shot, manufactured, 128. 
 
 Sigel, General F., 315, 329, 333. 
 
 Silver, search for, 22. 
 
 Slavery, introduced, 24 ; profitable, 
 27, 46 ; position of South on ques- 
 tion of, 148 ; sanctioned in Missouri, 
 151 ; division of parties on, 162 ; 
 decline of agitation, 172 ; agitation 
 of, renewed, 220 ; abolished, 365. 
 
 Slaves, number of, 244, 260. 
 
 SlideU, John, 199. 
 
 Smith, Hyrum, 185. 
 
 Smith, Joseph, 179, 184, 185. 
 
 Snead, Colonel Thomas L., 298, 312, 
 316. 
 
 Society, state of, 93. 
 
 Solemn public act, the, 156. 
 
 Spain, in Louisiana, 36 ; closes the 
 Mississippi, 72 ; troubles with, 372. 
 
 Speculation, mania for, 134, 167, 169. 
 
 Springfield, occupied by Lyon, 324 ; 
 battle of, 330. 
 
 State Bank, chartered, 164. 
 
 State convention of 1820, 150, 151. 
 
 State debt, 235. 
 
 State guard, 309 ; broken up, 338, 
 339. 
 
 State university established, 185. 
 
 St. Ange de Bellerive, 35, 50, 56. 
 
 St. Esprit, mission of, 4. 
 
 Ste. Genevieve, founded, 21, 
 
 St. Ignatius, mission of, 7. 
 
 St. Ildefonso, treaty of, 63. 
 
 St. Louis, attack on, 50 ; fortified, 55 ; 
 progress of, 122 ; population of, 
 126 ; trade of, 127. 
 
 St. Vrain, 215. 
 
 Steamboat, the first, on western rivers, 
 131. 
 
 Sterling, Captain, 33. 
 
 Stewart, Governor R. M., 223, 231. 
 
 Stoddard, Major Amos, 81, 82. 
 
 Stringfellow, B. F., 231, 246. 
 
 Strong, Geo. P., 365. 
 
 Sturgis, Major S. D., 314, 332. 
 
 Sweeny, General T. W., 298, 311. 
 
 Tallmadge's amendment, 138, 141, 
 
 142. 
 Taos, capture of, 216. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 377 
 
 Tappan, Arthur, 174, 175. 
 
 Taylor, General Zachary, 200, 211, 212. 
 
 Tecumseh, 106. 
 
 Territory, population of, 86, 121. 
 
 Texas, exchanged for Florida, 148, 
 189 ; efforts to recover, 189 ; revolts 
 from Mexico, 190 ; independence 
 of, acknowledged, 190 ; annexation 
 of, 189, 191, 198 ; a party question, 
 192 ; admitted into the Union, 198. 
 
 Thomas, Jesse B., author of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise, 149. 
 
 Thornton, Captain, attacked by Mex- 
 icans, 199. 
 
 Tippecanoe, battle of, 106. 
 
 Toleration, religious, 58, 59. 
 
 Tomas, 217. 
 
 Tompkins, George, 125. 
 
 Tonti, 14, 16, 18, 20. 
 
 Totten, Captain, 330, 331, 332. 
 
 Treaty of Madrid, 74 ; of Paris, 31, 
 69 ; with England, 69. 
 
 Trudeau, Lieutenant-Governor, 49, 
 54 56. 
 
 Tyler, John, 187, 190. 
 
 UUoa, 34, 37, 81. 
 United States Bank, 164, 167. 
 United States Constitution, violated 
 by Northern States, 265. 
 
 United States, protest of, against ces- 
 sion of Louisiana to France, 68. 
 
 United States take possession of 
 Louisiana, 81. 
 
 University, St. Louis, 125. 
 
 VanBuren, M., 170, 190. 
 Van Dorn, General Earl, 337. 
 Vaudreuil, Governor, 24, 27. 
 Vigil, Cornelio, 215. 
 Village lots, 46-112. 
 
 War with England, 105, 106; with 
 
 Mexico, 199. 
 Weightman, Captain Richard, 208, 
 
 211. 
 Wells, Carty, 221. 
 Whigs, the, disappointed, 187. 
 Wilkinson, General James, 80, 87, 89, 
 
 90, 91, 92. 
 Williams, Henry W., 111. 
 Wilson, John, account by, of a secret 
 
 meeting in favor of emancipation, 
 
 174. 
 Wilson, Lieutenant, 216. 
 Wisconsin, the, discovered byNicolet, 
 
 4,6. 
 
 Yeatman, James E., 296. 
 
9lmerican Cotmnon\Dealtf)S, 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HORACE E. SCUDDER. 
 
 A series of Histories of the representative Common' 
 wealths of the United States. 
 
 VIRGINIA. A History of the People. By John Esten 
 CooKE, author of " Life of Stonewall Jackson/' etc. 
 
 OREGON. The Struggle for Possession. By William 
 Barrows, D. D. 
 
 MARYLAND. The History of a Palatinate. By Wil- 
 liam Hand Browne, Associate of Johns Hopkins University. 
 
 KENTUCKY. A Pioneer Commonwealth. By Nathaniel 
 
 S. Shaler, S. D., Professor of Palaeontology, Harvard University. 
 
 MICHIGAN. A History of Governments. By Thomas 
 McIntybe Coolet, LL. D., formerly Chief Justice of Michigan. 
 
 KANSAS. The Prelude to the War for the Union. By 
 Leverett W. Spring, formerly Professor in English Literature 
 in the University of Kansas. 
 
 CALIFORNIA. From the Conquest in 1846 to the Second 
 Vigilance Committee in San Francisco. By Josiah Rotcb, for- 
 merly Professor in the University of California. 
 
 NEW YORK. The Planting and the Growth of the Em- 
 pire State. By the Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, author of " Govern- 
 ment Revenue." In two volumes. 
 
 CONNECTICUT. A Study of a Commonwealth-Dem- 
 ocracy. By Professor Alexander Johnston, author of " Amer- 
 ican Politics." 
 
 MISSOURI A Bone of Contention. By Lucien Carr, 
 M. A., A.<sistant Curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology. 
 
 INDIANA. A Redemption from Slavery. By J. P. 
 Dunn, Jr., author of '* Massacres of the Mountains." 
 
 OHIO. First-Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787. By Hon. 
 RuFUS King. {Nearly Ready.) 
 
 In Preparation. 
 
 NEW JERSEY. By Austin Scott, Ph. D., Professor 
 
 of History, etc., in Rutgers College. 
 
 PENNSYL VANIA. By Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, late 
 
 Attorney-General of the United States. 
 ILLINOIS. By E. G. Mason. 
 
 Other Volumes to he announced hereafter. Each volume, 
 with Map^ IGtno^ gilt top^ %1.25, 
 
PRESS NOTICES. 
 
 « VIRGINIA," 
 
 Mr. Cooke has made a fascinating volume — one which it will be 
 rery difficult to surpass either in method or interest. If all the vol- 
 umes of the series ["American Commonwealths"] come up to the 
 level of this one — in interest, in broad tolerance of spirit, and in a 
 thorough comprehension of what is best worth telling — a very great 
 service will have been done to the reading public. True historic in- 
 sight appears through all these pages, and an earnest desire to do all 
 parties and religions perfect justice. The story of the settlement of 
 Virginia is told in full. ... It is made as interesting as a romance. 
 — The Critic (New York). 
 
 It need not be said that it is written in a fascinating style, and ani-. 
 mated by a spirit of strong love for the author's native State, and 
 pride in its history. It should be said further that it brings out many 
 an obscure or forgotten bit of history, and makes real an epoch which 
 is familiar to very few. — New York Evening Post. 
 
 " OREGON." 
 
 The long and interesting story of the struggle of five nations for 
 the possession of Oregon is told in the graphic and reliable narrative 
 of William Barrows. ... A more fascinating record has seldom been 
 written. . . . Careful research and pictorial skill of narrative commend 
 this book of antecedent history to all interested in the rapid march and 
 wonderful development of our American civilization upon the Pacific 
 coast. — Springfield Republican. 
 
 There is so much that is new and informing embodied in this little 
 volume that we commend it with enthusiasm. It is written with great 
 ability. — Magazine of American History (New York). 
 
 "MARYLAND." 
 
 "With great care and labor he has sought out and studied original 
 documents. By the aid of these he is able to give his work a value 
 and interest that would have been impossible had he followed slav- 
 ishly the commonly accepted authorities on his subject. His investi- 
 gation in regard to toleration in Maryland is particularly noticeable. 
 '—New York Evening Post. 
 
 A substantial contribution to the history of America. — Magazine 
 ^American History. 
 
''KENTUCKY:' 
 
 The author of it is admirably qualified to give us the history of the 
 State of which he is a native, to the scientific examination of which 
 he has given his eminent professional service, and of whose popula- 
 tion he is proud because of the heroic and manly qualities it has mani- 
 fested in many crises of its public affairs. — Christian Register (Bos- 
 ton). 
 
 Prof. Shaler sees how little the people he was born amongst know 
 the rest of mankind, and how little they are in turn known ; and this 
 book is chiefly an attempt to explain and defend the peculiar ideas of 
 political and social life which characterize Kentuckians. This effort 
 is successful and interesting. — Chicago Tribune. 
 
 An excellent map of Kentucky is a welcome feature of this concise 
 and well- writ ten volume. — Magazine of American History » 
 
 ''MICHIGAN:* 
 
 An ably written and charmingly interesting volume. . . . For vari- 
 ety of incident, for transitions in experience, for importance of events, 
 and for brilliancy and ability in the service of the leading actors, the 
 history of Michigan offers rare attractions ; and the writer of it has 
 brought to his task the most excellent gifts and powers as a vigorous, 
 impartial, and thoroughly accomplished historian. — Christian Register 
 (Boston). 
 
 Other States cover only special lines, as it were, of political history ; 
 Michigan seems to have covered the whole, and hence furnishes an 
 admirable field for a history of governments. More fortunate still, 
 she has in Judge Cooley a man of great and acknowledged ability, 
 learning, and authority upon all such themes. . . . From its distin- 
 guished author, but even more from its profoundly valuable subject- 
 matter, this is a work to repay abundantly the diligent study of all 
 our citizens. — The Literary World. 
 
 "KANSAS." 
 
 Few, even of actual participants in the Kansas struggle, have so 
 complete a knowledge of it that they cannot learn something from 
 this narrative. Professor Spring has been diligent in research to a 
 degree that merits special praise, and his diligence has been inspired 
 and controlled by method, so that it has borne rich fruits. — The Ex- 
 aminer (New York). 
 
 In all respects one of the very best of the series. . . . His work ex- 
 hibits diligent research, discrimination in the selection of the mate- 
 rials, and skill in combining his chosen stuff into a narration that has 
 unity, and order, and lucidity. — Hartford Courant. 
 
"CALIFORNIA:' 
 
 The formation of the modern commonwealth of Cah'fornia is a phe» 
 nomenon which never has been matched, and probably never will be. 
 , . . Mr. Royce has undertaken to study, in a philosophical spirit, the 
 causes and circumstances of this social evolution. — New York Tribune. 
 
 The study is one of sociological changes, never before known be- 
 cause the sociological conditions have never before existed in history. 
 The problem is new and most fascinating. Every facet of it has a 
 distinct light. Professor Royce has turned it round and round, ha?: 
 received its various lights, and has cast upon it some of his own, 
 , . . The style is as breezy as varied. — San Francisco Bulletin. 
 
 "NEW YORK." 
 
 The field occupied, embracing so much time and such variety of inci- 
 dent, such extent of territory fought over and contended for by so 
 many different races, so complete development of indwstrial and com- 
 mercial interest, with all the institutions of social and civil life grow, 
 ing up among a mixed and shifting population, requires that the 
 historian have a full and firm grasp upon his subject, as a whole and 
 in its details, that he may preserve harmony and proportion through- 
 out. This requisite the author had, and his book is admirable in the 
 just prominence given to the several topics according to their impor- 
 tance to the story as a whole. — Boston Transcript. 
 
 Mr. Roberts has executed his difficult task with signal ability. He 
 has put into less than eight hundred pages all the truly significant 
 events which have gone to the making up of New York history from 
 1524 to the present day. — New York Journal of Commerce, 
 
 " CONNECTICUT." 
 
 The most interesting portions of Professor Johnston's valuable and 
 spirited volume are those which demonstrate the precedence of Connec- 
 ticut in tlie establishment of the democratic principle of government 
 which now makes the essential feature of the American plan, and 
 those which exhibit the influence of the Connecticut town-system in 
 the development of our national theory of local self-rule combined 
 with federal authority. In the prominence given to these important 
 points the author shows an appreciation not only of the intrinsic 
 character of his subject but of the best uses of the excellent and well 
 edited series in which his book takes a high place. — New York Tribune, 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston.