^ME•UNIVERS■/^ ^lOSANCEl^^ ^OFCAIIFO/?,^ A;OFCAIIFOM<^ ^/9Aava9iH^^ "^(^Aavaan-^^"^ 1^1 iCt^ VT " ■ N >; o ^TjiJONvsov^ ■^AajAiNnjwv 6: .^'^ ,«i,V)fCAllFO% ,-, ^M[ UNIVER^/, ^lllBRARYQr -j^lUBRA'. '^^noiimi^'^ ^^ ^\^EUNIVfR.V/:/-, IJO^ .^OfCAllF0% ^^OF-CAllFi>- >&AavbaiH^ ^^Aavaaii-^v^- .vj.VOSANCElfJV> -oFfAl' m Sill., ^\\^EUNIVERS-//^ >- ahv}i;i Llt.llkllV/tOO/^ ii c OUP r^'jf SOME CHAPTERS in the HISTORY OF MISSOURI E. M. VIOLETTE » Jiso-^ SOME CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF MISSOURI BY E. M. VIOLETTE Professor of European History State Normal School, KiRKSVILLE, Mo. 1914 Journal Printing Co., KiRKSVILLE, Mo. Copyright, 1914, BY ^ E. M. Vtolette. PREFACE. At [)resent greater interest is being taken in state history than ever before. As yet however this subject is being pursued in our schools as a separate course and not in connection with American history, and all the texts on state history, as far as the author knows, have been written on that basis. But with the increased interest in the subject, the question has arisen as to how it may be best pursued in our schools, and here and there doubts are being expressed as to whether the old method should be continued. The author holds with others that the history of at least some of the states of our Union should be studied in connection with ouAJiational history in order that the proper setting may be obtained. In some instances it may be that the old method of pursuing state history as a separate and distinct course and without any close connection with our national history, should still be continued, but undoubtedly the history of Missouri should be studied in connection with that of our nation. Her relation to many of the vital problems of our national life and her geographical position, to mention nothing further, show how closely she is linked with that of om- country and how necessary it is to study her past in the Ught of that of oxu- nation. That this view has already found favor is seen in the most recent textbook on Missouri history in which the scholarly author . has incorporated a good deal of American history in order that something of a proper setting might be obtained. But his excellent text is intended primarily for use in classes that pursue Missouri history as a separate subject in the ele- mentary grades. As yet Mi.ssouri history, even as a sep&rate subject has found a place only in the courses of study in the elementary grades. As far as the author knows it is not pursued in the high schools at all, either as a separate subject or in connection with American history. Now the author of this booklet holds that Missouri history, whether studied in the elementary or in the high school grades, should be pur- sued in connection with American history, and he holds especially to the view that it should be studied in the high school and in the man- ner juet suggested. He has, therefore^lx'gun the task of writing a text which will conform to that idea and wliich will be suitable for high school work. Parts of it may be found adaptable to pupils of the eighth grade. The plan contemplates the elimination of much that is incidental that has found a place in the text books on Missouri history that have 754841 4 Chapters in Missouri History boen written, but the aim has been to deal with those things that are essential to a proper appreciation of the history of the state and that are more or less connected with the history of the nation and can be properly understood only as they are studied in that relation. The chapters have been written so that they may be used along with the text in American history, and at the beginning of each of them there has been placed a note to the teacher in which suggestions are made as to when the chapters might be used. While an effort has been made to connect these chapters so that in a way they form some- thing of a continuous story, it is possible for the teacher to omit some of them if he finds it necessary and yet do no serious violence to the sequence of the story that is being told. Certain chapters should not be omitted under circumstances, as for example the one on Early Settle- ments or the one on the Admission of Missouri into the Union, but others, such as the Attack on St. Louis in 1780 and the Presidential Election of 1820, might well be omitted if time is not sufficient. The present booklet contains enough chapters to enable a test to be made of the principle on which the scheme rests. It is published in a very limited edition and for experiemental purposes only in classes of high school rank. If, after the test which is to be made in the next six months, it appears as though the plan is practicable, the complete work with maps and illustrations will be pubhshed. Frank criticisms from any one interested in the subject will be greatly appreciated. E. M. ViOLETTE. State Normal, School, Kirksville, Missouri, February 12, 1914. CONTENTS. Chapter Page I'. Early Settlemb:nts in Missouri, 1735-69 7 Treaty of Paris, 1763; Early Illinois Settlements; First Efforts to establish Settlements in Missouri; Early Lead Mining in Missouri; P'ounding of Ste. Genevieve, 1735; Founding of St. Louis, 1764; Immigration from Illinois Settlements to Missouri. II. The English Attack on St. Louis in 1780 17 Relations between the Spanish Authorities at New Orleans and Gov. Henry of Virginia; Treaty between Spain and France; Alliance between the English and the Indians; Attack upon St. Louis; Attempt to capture Cahokia; Cap- ture of St. Joseph on Lake Michigan by the Spanish. III. Conditions in Missouri in 1803 22 Transfer of Louisiana to the United States; Causes of Increase in Population of Louisiana; Settlements in St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid Distri(!ts; Governmental Organization under the Spanish Regime; Pioneer Life among the French and the American Settlers; Daniel Boone; Governmental Or- ganization of the District of Louisiana in 1804. IV. Burr Conspiracy 47 Dissatisfaction with the Governmental Organization of the District of Louisiana; Creation of the Territory of Louis- iana; Intrigues of General Wilkinson, Governor of Louisi- ana, with Burr; Collapse of the Conspiracy. V. Indian Troubles During the War of 1812. 51 Relations between English and Indians; Indian Tribes in Missouri in 1812; Boon's Lick Country; Indian Attacks upon Mississippi River Settlements; Indian P'orts; Peace with Indians in 1815, and Cessions of Indian Lands in Mis- souri. VI. Admission of Missouri into the Union 57 Changes in the Territorial Organization of Missouri, 1804- 16; Increa.se in the Number of Counties; Increase in Popu- lation; Petitions to Congress for the Admission of Missouri; Boundaries proposed; Boundaries established; Agitation in the State over the Missouri Bill; Exultation over the First Missouri Compromise; Constitutional Convention; Election of State Officers; Second Mis.souri Comi)romise; Solenm Public Act of the Missouri Legislaf ur(>; Admission into the Union. VU Presidential Election of 1820 70 Missouri's Vote in the Election of 1820; Debate in Con- gress; Counting of Votes. B Chapters in Missouri History VIII. Missouri Politics, 1820-1S32 72 Natioiiiil Politics, 1S20-1832; State Campaigns in 1820 and in 1824; Presidential Campaign of 1824; Benton and Rise of the Jackson Party in Missouri; Elimination of Clay's Supporters from Missouri Politics; Ascendancy of the Democratic Party in Missouri. IX. The Railroads of Missouri 76 Section I. — Beginning of Raih-oad Construction in the United States; Reasons for Delay in building Raih-oads in Missouri; Railroad Convention at St. Louis in 1836; Chartering of Elighteen Railroads in 1837; Failure of Com- panies to build their Roads; Reasons for Revival of In- terest in Railroads; Disappointment over the Failure of Congress to assist in the building of Railroads; Grants of State Aid in 1851, 1852, and 1855; Gasconade Wreck in 1855; Grant of State Aid in 1857; Progress in Railroad Construction by 1860. Section II. Defaulting all the Railroads but the Hannibal & St. Joseph in the Payment of Interest on the State Bonds ; Causes of Default ; Progress of Construction dur- ing the Civil War; Sale of Railroads by the State; Farcical Investigation of the Sale; Extension of Unfinished Lines to the Boundaries of the State; Liquidation of the State Indebtedness on Account of the Railroads and of the Civil War by 1903; Provisions in the Constitution of 1875 against State Aid to Public Enterprises; Issue of County and Municipal Bonds in behalf of Railroads; Defrauding of Many of the Counties by the Railroads; Railroad Mile- age in Missouri in 1911; Establishment of Railroad Con- nections with the Outside World; Consolidation . of Rail- roads in Missouri and their Incorporation in Inter State Systems. CHAPTER I. EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN MISSOURI, 1735-69. [Note to the Teacher: This chapter should be used just after the class has studied the Treaty of Paris, 1763. James & Sanford, 125; Muzzey, 103; Channing, 136; Hart, 131; McLaughhn, 150; Mont- gomery, 154. In preparation for this subject in Missouri history, special emphasis should have been put upon the exploring expeditions of the French in the Mississippi Valley, particularly those of Joliet, Marquette, and La Salle.] By the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France lost all of her vast possessions in the Mississippi Valley which were then known as the Colony of Louisiana. To England she ceded all east of the Mississippi River except the Isle of Orleans, ^nd to Spain all west of that river and the Isle of Orleans. Although the cession was made in 1763, it was not until 1765 that English officers arrived to assume authority in the English portion, and not until 1769 that Spanish officials arrived to assume control in the Spanish portion. What is now Missouri was a part of what France ceded to Spain, and it is therefore proposed to bring under brief survey here the situation in what is now Missouri at the time when Spanish officials arrived, that is in 1769, to assume control of what Spain had acquired by the treaty of 1763. At the time when the Spanish officials arrived in 1769, there were just two settlements in what is now Missouri, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis. But we can not understand the history of the founding of these two settlements without knowing a little about the settlements that had been made in what is now Illinois, and so a few words must be said about them first. In 1769 there were at least five French settlements in what is now Illinois. They were Kaskaskia, La Prairie du Rocher (Prairie under the Rock), Ft. Chartres, St. Philii)pe, and Cahokia. These settlements were in a district that stretched along the Mississippi river for about fifty miles 7 8 Chapters in Missouri History from near the mouth of the Missouri River south to the mouth of the Kaskaskia.^ \r^ vj The oldest of these settlements were Cakokia and V ^ Kaskaskia. Both had been established by French mission- V )J aries, the former in 1699 and the latter in 1700. Though V nT XjC' sCahokia was the seat of the government of France in the -^ ^ \Cv Illinois district prior to 1763, Kaskaskia soon came to be the largest and most important of the settlements. It stood on the banks of the Kaskaskia river, a few miles above its junction with the Mississippi, and as it afforded many attractions to boatmen who were plying up and down the Mississippi, it came to be the center of trade on the Upper Mississippi some time before 1763. By far the larger part of the population of these Illinois settlements had emigrated from French Canada by way of the Great Lakes and the Illinois river. Most of these Canad- ians had been attracted by the opportunities for fur trading offered by the Illinois country, and they therefore devoted themselves largely to hunting and trading with the Indians. Lgriculture was carried on but little in these settlements. In some of them scarcely enough grain was raised to supply their own wants, and yet in at least two of them, Kaskaskia and Cahokia, there were mills for grinding grain and sawing --^ip lumber. In practically ■ all of these places, some stock raising was carried, on. The government of these settlements was prior to 1763 in the hands of a military officer called the major commandant who was appointed by the Governor at New Orleans. He was absolute in his authority except in the case of capital offenses which were tried by the Council at New Orleans. His- 'control over 'the Indian trade was so extensive that notody could-be concerned in it except on condition of giving' him part of the profits. -i'-i l.'.Most of these 'places can be located on a modern map of Illinois. I Early Settlements, 1735-69 9 Every person capable of Ix^aring arms was (nirolled in the militia, and a captain of the militia and officers were appointed in each settlement. In most of the settlements there were forts which were used as a means of protection against attacks from the Indians. In each of the settlements there was a Catholic church or chapel, and in at least two of them there was a local priest to look after the spiritual welfare of the people. Life in these villages was rather free and easy. Some of the Canadian French married Indian squaws while others brought their wives with them from Canada.^ Meanwhile a beginning had been made towards settling up what is now Missouri. The first two efforts at establish- ing permanent white settlements in Missouri, however, failed. The first of these was an attempt on the part of some Jesuit missionaries to establish a settlem ent _ at.Jit»- junction of the River Des Peres-^id^'the^ Mississippi, about six miles south of the original site of St. Louis. It is said that the site was found to be unhealthful and that the settlers shortly moved across the Mississippi and lived in what came to be called St. Joseph's Prairie from the church they built and dedicated to that saint. Later they moved to Kaskaskia which had been meanwhile established. The second of these temporary white settlements in what is now Missouri was called Ft. Orleans. Early in the eighteenth century the French authorities at Paris and at New Orleans sent men into what is now Illinois and Missouri to search for silver. The search carried on by these men proved unsuccessful but they did a good deal of exploring in these regions. Moreover, the French traders and hunters living in Kaskaskia and the other Illinois settle- ments early made their way up the Missouri in hunting ex- 1. An interesting contemporaneous account of these Illinois settle- ments can be found in Pittman's European Settlements on the Miss- issippi. 10 Chapters in Missouri History peditions. All this activity on the part of the French aroused the fears of the Spanish officials at Santa Fe, and they fitted out an expedition in 1720 to take a position on the Missouri river and check the advance of the French in that direction. They also hoped they might draw the trade of the Missouri Indians away from Kaskaskia and direct it towards Santa Fe. This Spanish expedition failed however owing to the attacks of the hostile Indians. It had, however, one definite result which is of interest here, and that was the establishing of Ft. Orleans by the French on the Missouri river as a counter move against the Spaniards. The exact site of this fort is unknown, but it has been conjectured that it stood on the Missouri a little above the mouth of Grand river, that is not far to the west of present Bruns- wick. Some think it was on an island in the Missouri, others on the south bank of that river. Owing no doubt to the fact that the Spanish did not renew their attempt at that time to get a foothold on the Missouri, the French government ordered that this fort should be abandoned in 1726. The story that it was destroyed by hostile Indians and the garrison massacred appears to be unfounded. The first white settlement in what is now Missouri that proved to be permanent was Ste. Genevieve. It was established by people who had been living in Kaskaskia and who had been operating lead mines which lay about thirty miles to the west of the Mississippi. Before relating the account of the founding of Ste. Qenevieve, something should be said about the mining operations in this region. The early settlers in the Illinois country soon learned from the Indians of the lead that was to be found in the region across the Mississippi river. This region proved to be a section of country about seventy miles long, from the headwaters of the St. Francois river to the Meramec. Rather extravagant accounts of the richness of this district in minerals made their way to France where they were readily Early Settlement's, 1735-69 11 believed by the French. Aiiioug' others who Ijecame ver}^ much interested in these reports was a man by the name of Renault. He secured large mineral grants in this district from the French government in 1723, and sailed with two hundred miners and laborers and everything necessary to carry on mining operations, including bricks for a furnace on which had been stamped his name. On his way to New Orleans he stopped at San Domingo where he purchased five hundred negroes to be used in his mines in what is now Missouri. These proved to be as far as is known the first negro slaves in the Missouri country. After reaching New Orleans he ascended the Mississippi river in canoes up 'to the Illinois settlements. He carried on an extensive search for minerals on both sides of the Mississippi, and after nearly twenty years of rather unsuccessful operations he returned to France in 1742. During the years of his operations, such mines as Mine LaMotte, Fourche a Renault, and Mine a Breton were opened up in what is now Missouri. Mining operations were carried on in what is now Mis- souri not only by such men as Renault who came from France, but also by people who lived in the Illinois region. As they found the ore rather near the surface they had no great difficulty in mining it. For some time these men not only mined but hunted in what is now southeastern Missouri, at the same time retaining their homes in the Illinois settle- ments. They would cross the Mississippi for a mining or hunting expedition, and then return home with their lead or game. Finally some of these miners and hunters from Kaskaskia who had been mining and hunting in the Missouri country, built some cabins on the west bank of the Mississipi)i at a point where they had been accustometl to cross as they passed back and forth on their expeditions. They tluni took up their residence in these cabins and called the settle- ment Ste. Genevieve. It went also by the name of Misere. 12 Chapters in Missouri History It is not known just when the first cabins were built but it is generally thought to have been about 1735. The founders of this place were led to select the pite they built upon not only because it was on their way from Kaskaskia to the lead mines on the Meramec, but because of the salt springs near by and the excellent bottom lands lying all around. Several persons in the new village soon began to make salt which they disposed of to Indians, hunters and other persons in the nearby settlements. Before Ste. Genevieve was founded the Illinois miners in the Meramec region had been accustomed to take their lead to Fts._Xlhartres, but after Ste. Genevieve was they deposited it at that place. The lead was usually molded in the shape of collars which were hung upon the necks of the pack horses. Later it was molded into pigs and carted in two wheeled French carts called charettes. The surplus lead which was not needed for local uses was sent down the Mississippi on flat boats to New Orleans and then loaded on ships and sent to France. By the time the Spanish officials came into what is now Missouri in 1769 to assume the government of Soain's newly acquired possessions, Ste. Genevieve had grown to be a village of several hundred people. One writer in 1770 said it contained seventy families, another said that it contained about six hundred people in 1769. The first settlers of Ste. Genevieve built their cabins near the river in what was called the Big Common Field But fifty years later owing to the encroachments of the river, the town was moved to higher ground about three miles up the river. It was in 1780 that the bank of the river began to cave in along the front of the village, and this forced the inhabitants to begin to think of moving. In 1784 some of them built houses on the site of the present town of Ste. Genevieve. The great overflow of 1785, the year of the "Great Waters," caused many more to leave the Early Settlements, 1735-69 13 old town for the new one, but it was not until 1791 that the original site was completely abandoned. Since then this site has been entirely washed away. After the new town was estabhshed a still greater number of people came from Kaskaskia to take up their residence.^ It was nearly thirty years after Ste. Genevieve was started that St. Louis, the second permanent white settle- ment in what is now Missouri, was established. In 1762, Maxent, a wealthy merchant of New Orleans, obtained from the French governor of Louisiana, a grant giving him the right to trade with the Indians on the Missouri river. It does not seem however that this grant gave him a monopoly of that trade. Maxent associated with himself a man by the name of Pierre Laclede Liguest, commonly known as Laclede. It seems that the former furnished the money for the enterprise and the latter agreed to conduct it. The firm was known as Maxent, Laclede & Co., or commonly as "The Louisiana Fur Co." Preparations having been completed, Laclede left New Orleans on August 3, 1763 and sailed up the Mississippi to Ste. Genevieve, arriving there after a very tedious journey about three months later. Finding no accommodations for his stores at Ste. Genevieve, he crossed the river to Ft. Chartres. Here he foimd a place to store his goods and a home for his family. During the month of December he searched along the west bank of the Mississippi as far north as the Missouri for a suitable place for a settlement which would become the center of the trade operations which his firm was going to carry on with the Indians. He finally decided upon a low bluff a few miles south of the mouth of the Missouri river. In February, 1764 the river was sufficiently free from ice to enable Laclede to send his step son, Auguste Chouteau, 1. In 1900 Ste. Genevieve had a population of 1707. 14 Chapters in Missouri History a boy of only twelve or thirteen years of age, in his boat to begin the work of erecting buildings on the site he had chosen. Chouteau land(Ml there on Fe])ruary 14 and put the men and boys who had becni sent with him to work. Laclede came overland a little later, leaving his family for the time being at Cahokia. By the time fall came on he was able to move his family to St. Louis and house them in a building which had been erected on the block now bounded by First, Second, Walnut and Market Streets. This house stood back further from the river than the other houses that had been built by the other settlers. There was nothing in the grant which had been made to Maxent, Laclede and Co. which authorized them to lay out a settlement nor to assign to different parties tracts of land. But Laclede did l)oth of these things and, later the govern- ment conferred legal titles to the land upon the people to whom grants had been made by him. In a few months after the work of building houses in St. Louis had been started, a band of about one hundred and fifty Indian warriors with their wives and children came and camped nearby. Laclede was not particularly pleased to have them so near, especially because of their habit of taking everything they could find loose. He tried to get rid of them first by putting them to work dig- ging a cellar, but he was compelled to threaten to call in the troops from Ft. Chartres if they would not go, where- upon they left. A year or two later a band of Peoria Indians were allowed to build a village at the lower end of the town, about one mile below where the United States arsenal now stands. They do not seem, however, to have been troublesome. The settlement was named St. Louis in honor of France's most noted king of the middle ages, Louis IX, commonly known as St. Louis whose reign lies in the thirteenth century. The town was also called in early days Laclede's Village in Early Settlements, 1735-69 15 honor of Laclede; it was also called Pain Court which has been interpreted to mean "short bread." The people of Kaskaskia are said to have been responsible for the derisive nicknames which many of the early settlements in what is now Missouri bore in early times, such as Pain Court for St. Louis and Misere for Ste. Genevieve. As far as we know no other white settlements had been established in what is now Missouri when O'Reilly arrived in New Orleans in 1769 to assume the duties of Commandant General of Louisiana for the Spanish government. But by this time the two settlements of Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis had grown considerably, their population numbering between 900 and 1000. The chief cause for this growth had been the emigration of the French from their settlements in the Illinois country. By the time Laclede had begun to establish St. Louis, the French settlers in the Illinois country had heard of the cession of Louisiana made by France to England and Spain. They were considerably disturbed over this, particularly over the cession ' to England. In all probability Laclede took advantage of this disturbed state of mind of the French settlers in the Illinois countrj^ and doubtless urged them to move to the new village he was going to lay out. It has also been suggested that he advised the French officials at Ft. Chartres who had juris- diction not only over the Illinois settlements but also those in the Missouri country as well, to make St. Louis the seat of the government of France for the Missouri country as soon as the English should take possession of the Illinois country. However all this may be, it is a fact that as soon as the English officers arrived to assume control in the Illinois country in 1765, the French proceeded to abandon their homes there in large numbers and to move either to New Orleans or to the Missouri region. St. Philippe was abandoned by its entire pojjulation, excepting the captain of the militia, and it is said that the people actually tore 16 Chapters in Missouri History down their homes and took them with them across the river to the Missouri country. All the inhabitants of Ft. Chartres except three or four families moved to Missouri, and many came also from the other settlements in the Illinois country. Capt. St. Ange de Bellerive, commonly known as St. Ange, who was French governor of the Illinois and Missouri settlements in 1763, on surrendering his authority over the Illinois settlements to the English governor in 1765, came to St. Louis with his garrison and continued there the authority of the French government over the Missouri settlements until the Spanish governor arrived in St. Louis in 1770. The population of St. Louis did not increase as rapidly in the next few years after 1770 as it had in the five years previous inasmuch as the French in the Ilhnois country had by 1770 recovered from their alarm over the acquisition of that territory by the English and had stopped their em- igration to the Missouri region. References: — Houck, History of Missouri, 3 vols., 1908, is the great authority on the history of Missouri up to 1821. It should be consulted for further details concerning matters dealt with in this chapter, as follows: First Efforts at Settlement, I, 240-45, 258-68; Founding of Ste. Genevieve, I, Chapter XI; Founding of St. Louis, II, Chapter XII. PiTTMANN, European Settlements on the Mississippi is a good contemporaneous account of the Early Settlements in the Illinois and Missouri Regions up to 1770. See the edition by Hodder, 1906. Ma- A^ ^''f CHAPTER II. THE ENGLISti ATTACK UPON ST. LOUIS IN 1780. [Thi^^ould be iisod just after a study has been made of the George Rog^ Clark expedition of 1778-79. James & Sanford, 173; Muzzey, 14^ Hart, 182; Montgomery, 197; Larned, 224; McLaughUn, 206. Is is assumed that the class is acquainted not only with the main out- lines of the Clark e.xpedition but also of the treaty of alliance that had been made in 1778 between France and the revolting English colonies in America.] In 1780 the English made an attack upon the Uttle village of St. Louis which was at that time under the government of Spain, having been acquired as a part of the territory which had been ceded by France to Spain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. In order that we may understand what induced the English to attack the village of St. Louis, we must remind ourselves of the George Rogers Clark expedition in 1778-79 and of the relations l^etween England and Spain at about that time. The Clark expedition which had resulted in the capture of the English forts of Kaskaskia and Cahokia in what is now Illinois, and of Vincennes in what is now Indiana, had been carried out under the authority of and with the assist- ance of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia. But Governor Henry seems to have had in mind more than on(^ plan of harassing and attacking the English. This is seen in the fact that even before the Clark expedition was undertaken he had been negotiating with the Spanish Governor at New Orleans for assistance against the English. As a result of these negotiations arms, ammunition and provisions were sent by the Spanish authorities at New Orleans to Americans who were in some of the Mississippi River posts and along the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Moreover, English vessels on the lower Mississippi were seized and confiscated on the order of the Sfjanish Governor witii such 17 18 Chapters in Missouri History success that by 1778 the British flag had been completely excluded from that river. It was not however until Clark had begun his expedition that Spain came out into open hostihty with England. In April, 1779 she made a treaty of alliance with France against England, and in the following June she issued her declara- tion of war. It will be remembered that France had been at war with England about a year at the time when Spain took this step. Judging from the treaty made between France and Spain, the chief object of Spain in declaring war against England seems to have been to get the territory which the English had acquired east of the Mississippi River by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Shortly after Spain declared war upon England, the Spanish Governor at New Orleans took possession of several English places, among them Ft. Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez on the lower Mississippi, and Mobile and Pensacola in the Floridas. It should also be noted that the French settlers in the Missouri country, which as we have seen had been under Spanish rule since 1769, had given General Clark active assistance by way of furnishing him and his soldiers with food supplies at the time he had captured Kaskaskia and Cahokia in the Illinois country. It was just this c(jmbination of circumstances that compelled England to turn her attention to the situation along the Mississippi. Plans were therefore laid not only for the recovery of the places east of the Mississippi that had been seized by Clark and by the Spanish Governor at New Orleans, but for the capture of vSpanish Louisiana also. The attack upon St. Louis in 1780 was the first effort that was put forth to realize this rather comprehensive scheme of the English. When this first effort should have l^een carried, then the towns in the Illinois country were to be recaptured and a descent upon New Orleans under- taken. Attack on 8t. Louis, 1780 19 It seems that the Enghsh authorities planned to depend very largely on the Indians for the success of these campaigns, and several tribes in the region of the Great Lakes were enlisted in the cause. In May, 1780, a force of almost 950 traders, servants, and Indians, mostly Indians, set out from the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers for St. Louis, a journey of about five hundred miles. They came down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi, and thence down the Mississippi to St. Louis. At the same time the English organized three other expeditions made up largely of Indians and sent them from the region of the Great Lakes into what is now Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. St. Louis was at the time of the attack a village of about one hundred and twenty houses, chiefly of stone, and had a population of about eight hundred, most of whom were French. It was in a fairly flourishing condition owing to the great activity of the fur trade which centered there. The Spanish garrison contained about fifty men under the command of Captain Fernando de Leyba. The village was in no condition to defend itself against any well organized attack. But as soon as word reached the people that a large body of Indians was descending the river bent upon an attack, preparations were made for defense as well as the situation would permit. Intrenchments were thrown up, a platform was erected at one end of th(! town upon whicii were placed five cannons, orders were sent to nearl)y forts for assistance, scouts were sent out, and cavalry men stationed as picket guards. A force of twenty-nine regulars and two hundred and eighty-one villagers manned the intrenchments during the attack. The enemy reached the village at about one o'clock on the afternoon of May 26, 1780, and commenced the attack on the northern end at once. But after consideral)le firing on both sides, the enemy failed to break through the intrenchments and withdrew, falling upon the defenseless 20 Chapters in Missouri History y farmers who lived in the vicinity of the village. According to the Spanish account twenty-nine were killed and wounded, jO'^ ^.^ ^^j>^ ^i-iifl tweiity-four taken prisoners; according to a British -^j-^ /* report seventy-four persons were killed, fifty-three scalped ''-K^and thirty-four taken prisoners. The main l)ody of this ^ attacking force shortly afterwards crossed the Mississippi ^i^^ ■/^ ^ \ \ and attempted to take Cahokia, but failed. They then /VV^ \ retreated in two divisions, one by the Mississippi and the other directlj" across the country to Mackinac. At the time when the English authorities had started this attacking force of Indians on their way to St. Louis, Clark was engaged in building a fort on the Mississippi five miles below the mouth of the Ohio. Word was" brought to him of the impending danger and he left his work at once for Cahokia. He reached this place shortly after the attack had been made upon St. Louis but twenty-four hours before the attack upon Cahokia. After the withdrawal of the enemy he organized an expedition of 350 men which he put under Col. Montgomery to pursue those retreating up the Miss- issippi. He organized another force which he directed towards Kentucky to head off the Indian expeditions which the English had directed towards the Ohio River. Thus ended the rather comprehensive plan of the English for recovering the territory they had lost along the Mississippi and for seizing the Spanish possessions west of that river. /The failure of this plan has been ascribed to the fact that the Indians became aware that Clark was at hand, and their fear of him was such as to cause them to withdraw from further operations./ i^^V^'jj-' This attack upon St. Louis by the English was answered vVtA' ^ the next year by an attack by the Spanish upon an English j'fort called St. Joseph on the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. In January, 1781, Cruzat, the Spanish Lieu- tenant Governor of Upper Louisiana organized a military expedition in St. Louis to invade the British possessions Attack on St. Louis. 1780 21 lying along the CJroat Lakes. The foree consisted of sixty- six Spaniards and French and sixty Indians. They marched in midwinter through the wilderness from St. Louis to St. Joseph and on arriving plundered the fort and distributed the supplies they found there among their Indian allies. After remaining at the fort a few days, the expedition returned to St. Louis, bringing the British flag which had been taken at St. Joseph, and delivering it to Cruzat. It should be said here that this capture of St. Joseph was made a basis for claims to territory which Spain demanded in the region of the Great Lakes while negotiations for peace were being made at the close of the American revolution in 1783. References: — For further reading on the Attack upon St. Lguis see HoucK, Hintory of Misnouri^ II, .33-46; Winsor, Westwai'd Move- ment, 170-4; James, Significanceof the Attack on St. Louis in Proceed- ings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, 1908-09, 199-217. On the Capture of St .Joseph in 1781 see Taggart, Capture of St. Joseph, in the Missouri Historical Review, V, No. 4, 214-28. \^y^ CHAPTER III. CONDITIONS IN MISSOURI IN 1803. [This ehapt(>r should be usetl after a study has been made of the Purchase of Louisiana in 1803. James & Sanford, 247; Muzzey, 209; Channing, 340; Hart, 267; Montgomery, 276; McLaughlin, 265; Lar- ned, 3L5. It is [M-esumed that the students in their study of the Pur- chase of Louisiana will have learned about the retrocession of Louisi- ana to France by the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, and of the nego- tiations that led up to the Purchase in 1803.] In a preceding chapter we saw something of the situa- tion in what is now Missouri at the time when Spain acquired it as a part of the territory that had been ceded by France by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. It is now proposed to bring under review the conditions in what is now Missouri at the time when the United States acquired it as part of the Louisiana Purchase from France, that is in 1803. After the treaty ceding Louisiana to the United States had been ratified by Congress, the formal transfer of the territory had to be made. But before this transfer could be made it was necessary for France to acquire actual possession of the territory from Spain. For in spite of the fact that Spain had by the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800 agreed to return Louisiana to France, the actual transfer had not been made when France agreed in April, 1803, to sell it to the L^nited States, nor even yet when Congress ratified the treaty in October of that same year. France had had a representative at New Orleans ever since the treaty of San Ildefonso had been made in 1800, but he did not assume authority over Lower Louisiana until December, 1803. What is more the formal transfer of Upper Louisiana was not made at St. Louis until March 9, 1804, and when it was made an American acted as the agent of the French govern- ment. Acting under orders from Laussat, the French Governor-General of Louisiana at New Orleans, Captain Amos Stoddard of the American army went from New 22 Conditions in Missouri in 1803 23 Orleans to St. Louis where he received from De Lassus, the Spanish Lieutenant Governor, the possession of Upper Louisiana on March 9, 1804, for the government of France. With special ceremony the Spanish flag was lowered and the flag of France was raised in its stead. But this ceremony was immediately followed on the same day with another which marked the transfer of Upper Louisiana from France to the United States. Captain Stoddard had not only been commissioned to receive this terri- tory from Spain for France, but he also had been authorized to act for United States and to declare the formal transfer of the same territory from France to the United States. He therefore lowered the French flag shortly after it had been raised and hoisted the American flag in its place. He thereupon assumed the duties of Governor of Upper Louis- iana for the United States. Former Governor DeLassus then sent proclamations to the different settlements in what is now Missouri notifying them of the transfers that had been made. At the time of the transfer what is now Missouri had a population of 10,000 as compared with 1,000 in 1769 w^hen, as we have seen, Spain assumed control over Louisi- ana. This large increase was due in great part to the im- migration from the territory to the east of the Mississippi river, the causes for which may be summarized as follows: 1. The treaty of peace between England and the United States in 1783. This treaty transferred the terri- tory between the Misissippi and the Alleghany Mountains to the Americans, and many of the French settlers who were yet living in the Illinois country disliked the idea of living under American rule and therefore moved to the French settlements in what is now Missouri. In fact a good many moved over at the time of the George Rogers Clark expedition in 1778-79. 24 Chapters in Missouri History 2. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This ordinance pi()hit)ited slavery in the region north of the Ohio river and south of the Great Lakes. The effect of this prohibition, as far as what is now Missouri is concerned, was to drive many people of the Northwest Territory into Missouri and to deflect into this country the current of population that had been flowing from Kentucky into the territory north of the Ohio,— As yet however most of the immigrants who came to Missouri because of the Northwest Ordinance were Frenchmen from the lUinois country. 3. The special inducements offered by the Spanish government to new settlers. For several years after the close of the American Revolution, Spanish authorities carried on intrigues with certain Americans in the Kentucky and Tennessee regions looking towards the breaking up of the newly formed American Union and the attachment of those western regions to Spain A stop was put to all of this intriguing by the treaty made between the United States and Spain in 1795. Failing in her plans for withdrawing of the Kentucky and Tennessee regions from the Union, and fearing an in- vasion of Louisiana by the English from Canada, Spain now inaugurated a scheme to draw settlers from the United States into Louisiana by offering them extraordinary in- ducements. Lands were granted freely to all settlers, the only expense being the fees for surveying and registration. It has been estimated that a farm of 800 acres could be obtained for $41 plus the fees of the surveyors and registra- tion officials. To make it all the easier for the prospective settler, he might obtain possession of his grant at once and pay these obligations later. Taxation was reduced to practically nothing. Moreover, the Spanish government made no discrimination between Catholics and Protestants in making these grants. In 1790 the King of Spain gave orders that no settler should be disturbed in the exercise of Conditions in Missouri in 1803 25 his religion, and the officials in Upper Louisiana ignored the regulations that had been prescribed regarding immigrants, especially those that bore heavily upon non-Catholics. The easy terms thus offered and the prospect of finding lead on the grants of land, induced many people to leave their homes east of the Mississippi and come into what is now Missouri. It was from this time that Americans began to come in large numbers and it is believed that the first ones to come into what is now Missouri came to St. Louis in 1781. A few Americans came in the next decade but it was not until the late nineties that they began to come in large numbers. 4. The Purchase oi Louisiana. This had a decided effect upon American immigration into what is now Mis- souri. Men who had hesitated to come into this country because of their objection to foreign rule found that objection was removed when the United States purchased Louisiana. By the time of the transfer of Louisiana to the United States in 1804, the population of what is now Missouri had risen to 10,000, more than half of which was American. It should be noted that though Spain had control of what is now Mis- souri for nearly thirty-five years prior to the purchase of Louisiana, very few Spaniards settled there. The popula- tion was of French descent almost exclusively until near the close of the eighteenth century when as we have seen, the Americans began to come in such numbers as to pre- dominate by 1804. By 1810 the population had grown to be 20,845 or twice what it was in 1804. The increase was primarily due to American immigration. At the time when the popluation of what is now Missouri numbered only 900 or 1000 there were only two settlements, St. Genevieve and St. Louis. The history of their founding was outlined in a former chapter. We have first seen that during the period of the Spanish rule, that is from 1769 to 2() Chapters in Missouri History 1804, th(> population had ris(ni to 1 (),()()(). A few words should be said here concerninfi; the most important of the new settlements that were established during this period, and the most convenient order of considering them will be according to the five districts into which the Spanish author- ities had grouped them. . We shall commence at the north and pass to the south. The northern most district was called St. Charles. It included all the territory lying between the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers. Its oldest settlement was St. Charles which was founded about 1780 on the north bank of the Missouri, twenty miles above its mouth. The founder was Louis Blanchette, commonly known as Blanchette le Chasseur, the hunter, a native of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The village was originally known as Les Petite Cotes (Little Hills) or Village des Cotes (Village of the Hills), because of the fact that it was situated at the foot of a range of small hills rising up from the northern bank of the Missouri river. For a time it was known officially at New Orleans as San Fernando, but just before the Purchase of Louisiana is came to be called officially San Carlos del Missouri or St. Charles of the Missouri. The houses of the village were built along one street that ran for about a mile parallel to the river. Up to the time of the purchase of Louisiana the population was almost entirely French Canadian and never amounted to more than one hundred families. The villagers cultivated two common fields that lay adjoining the village but they were chiefly interested in hunting and fur trading, and the place remained for a long time the headquarters of the fur trading industry along the Missouri river. There was another French settlement in this district which was situated on the Misisissippi on the tongue of land that lay between that river and the Missouri and was called Conditions in Missouri in 1803 27 Portage des Sioux. It was established by the Spanish author- ities in 1799 as an offset to a settlement which they thought the Americans were going to establish near the mouth of the Missouri on the Illinois side. Like St. Charles it con- tained very few Americans prior to the purchase of Louisiana. There was another French settlement in this district fifty miles up the Missouri from St. Charles called La Charette which is now known as Marthasville. It never amounted to anything in the period we are considering. As late as 1804 it had only seven very poor families. : The Americans that were in this district at the time of the purchase did not live in villages as a rule but in scattered and detached farms along the Cuivre River and the Dar- denne and Perruque Creeks which flowed into the Mississippi river, and along La Charette and Femme Osage Creeks which were tributary to the Missouri. They were most numerous along the Dardenne. St. Louis district embraced all the territory between the Missouri river on the north and the Meramec on the south, and extended indefinitely to the west. The largest and oldest settlement was St. Louis:which, as we have already seen, was founded in 1764. Ijts growth had been rather slow at first but by 1804 it had come^ to be a place of about 1,000. Its interests were still chiefly those of fur trading and its population was still predominantly French. Besides St. Louis there were several other settlements in the district by 1804.. Some of them were distinctly French, such as Carondelet, Florissant, Creve Coeur, and Point Labadie. Carondelet had been founded by Delor de Treget of Ste. Genevieve probably in 1767. It was located about six miles to the south of St. Louis on some hills that gently sloped to the Misisssippi river near the mouth of the River Des Peres. It was first called Delor's Village and, after several other names were applied to it, was called 28 Chapters in Missouri History Carondelet in honor of the Governor-General of Tvouisiana. It was nicknamed V'idi Poche (Empty Pocket) by the people of St. Louis. It grew slowly at first and by 1804 it had only fifty houses and two hundred and fifty people. It is now a part of the city of St. Louis. Florissant was next to the largest of the settlements in the district in 1804. It contained about sixty houses and about three hundred people. Its date of settlement is not known but- it is supposed that French immigrants from the Illinois country began to come here at about the time Laclede founded St. Louis. It was situated on Cold Water Creek, a tributary of the Missouri, about twelve miles northwest of St. Louis. Creve Coeur and Point Labadie were small French settlements further up on the Missouri. Creve Coeur means "broken heart" and was probably derived from the sickness and death of the settlers at this place after the overflow of the Missouri in 1796. By 1804 a good many Americans had settled in this district, but most of them had made their way further westward and southward than the French had gone, and instead of settling in villages had located themselves on isolated homesteads. They were to be found on the creeks that w^ere tributary to the Missouri and Meramec rivers. The first American settlement seems to have been on the Meramec. Ste. Genevieve District lay between the Meramec River on the north and Apple Creek on the south. The village of Ste. Genevieve was, as we have already seen, the first permanent white settlement established in what is now Missouri. By 1803 several other settlements had been established in this district, the areas of settlement being the land lying along the Mississippi river and the valleys of the St. Francois and Big Rivers to the west. Some of the settlements along the Mississippi river were established Conditions in Missouri in 1803 29 by French anil some by Americans, the most important American settlements being on Apple Creek to the south and on Meramec River to the north. As in other districts the French for the most part gathered in villages and the Americans took to detached farms. One of the most interesting of the settlements established along the Mississippi river during this period was called New Bourbon. It lay two and a half miles from the site of old Ste. Genevieve and was estab'ished by order of Governor Carondelet in 1793. It was intended to bring to this place a number of French royal families who had settled at Gallipolis on the Ohio River in what is now Ohio. They had become dissatisfied there and it was thought they might be induced to come to this new settlement in Ste. Genevieve district. However onlj^ a very few came, but the village grew in time to have a population of over one hundred. It has since disappeared. In the valleys of the St. Francois and Big Rivers, settle- ments were formed by Americans who were interested in mining and in farming. Although the French carried on mining operations in these valleys from very early days, they do not seem to have established any permanent settle- ments there until late in the eighteenth century. Up to that time they retained their residences in Ste. Genevieve or in the villages in the lUniois country and merely camped around their mines during the mining season. The best known, if not the most important of the American settle- ments in this part of the district, was called Mine a Breton or Burton near Potosi. There seems to have been a con- tinuous settlement at this place from the time lead was discovered there by Francis Azordit Breton in 1775, but it was not until Moses Austin obtained a grant of one l(>ague square near the Azor mine that the place attained any prom- inence. Austin was a pewter manufacturer in Richmond, Virginia. His business led him to become interested in 30 Chapterw in Missouri History mineralogy, especially lead mining. He left Richmond and moved to Wythe County, Virginia, where he operated some hnid mines during the Revolutionary War. While here he heard of the lead mines in what is now Missouri and there- upon made a visit to the mines of Ste. Genevieve in 1796, coming on horseback all the way. After receiving a grant of land, he returned to Virginia and brought his family to Mine a Breton in 1798. Here he sank the first shaft accord- ing to European practices ever sunk in Upper Louisiana. The settlement grew rather rapidly at once and the popula- tion was large enough to withstand an attack of Indians in 1799. Settlements were also begun in the St. Francois valley at what is now Farmington and Fredericktown. Farming- ton was known at first as Murphy's settlement from a man by that name who came from Tennessee in 1798. Frederick- town was called St. Michael's at first and was begun in 1800. Contrary to the rule concerning the settlements in this valley, it was a purely French settlement at first instead of being American. The population of this district did not increase very rapidly up to 1799. But in the next five years it ran up from 1156 to 2870, so that in 1804 Ste. Genevieve was the most populous of the five districts in what is now Missouri, having almost one hundred more than St. Louis district. The marked increase in the population of this district in the five years prior to 1804 was due to the fact that most of the French who left the Illinois settlements went as a rule to Ste. Genevieve District and did not scatter out into the other districts very much. Cape Girardeau district was bounded on the north by Apple Creek and on the south until 1802 by Tywappity Bottom. In that year this boundary was fixed at a line running east and west four or five miles south of the present town of Commerce, Scott County. Conditions in Missouri in 1803' 31 Before any settlement was made in this district, the name of Cape Girardeau, which was spelled Cape Girardot or Girardo, was applied to the region along the bend in the Mississippi to the north of the present town of CapeGirardeau. It is conjectured that the name was derived frorn a man named Girardot who was an ensign in the French troops in the early eighteenth century at Kaskaskia. It is supposed he moved from Kaskaskia to the beautifully wooded prom- onitory on the west side of the Mississippi above the present town of Cape Girardeau, and traded there with the Indians. Because of this the river men who passed up and down the river gave this name to this promonitory. The first permanent white settlement established in this district was Cape Girardeau. To Louis Lorimier belongs the honor of having founded this place. Before coming to what is now Missouri he had been an Indian trader first in Ohio and then at Vincennes, Indiana. By 1787 he was in the Ste. Genevieve district engaged in Indian trade having brought a large number of Shawnee and Delaware Indians with him. A few years later he moved to the present site of Cape Girardeau and in 1795 he received grants from Governor Carondelet which authorized him to establish himself with his Indians anywhere on the west bank of the Mississippi river from the Missouri to the Arkansas which was unoccupied, together with the right to hunt and culti- vate the soil. As he had already found what is now Cape; Girardeau to be a suitable locality he established the post there and became its commander. The place was never regularly laid out as a village or town by Lorimier; in fact it remained all during the Spanish period a mere Indian trading post. By 1804 there were about twelve hundred people in this district in settlements along the Mississippi and along the Whitewater River to the west. The vast majority were Americans, who began to come in large numbers about 1797. Most of these Americans came from Tennessee and 32 Chapters in Missouri History North Carolina, and many of them were of German or (ierman Swiss extraction. New Madrid District lay to the south of Cape Girardeau District, extending as far south as the mouth of St. Francois river near Helena, Arkansas.^ The first settlement in this district was on the bend of the Mississippi where the town of New Madrid now stands. This bend was called L'Anse a la Graise, a cove of fat or grease. Several explanations have been offered for this name, among which was the abundance of game, especially bears and buffaloes, in that region. Canadian hunters and fur traders made this bend their headquarters about 1780, and in six or seven years a few people had permanently settled there. Among them were Francis and Joseph Le Sieur who may be considered as the real founders of New Madrid. In 1789 efforts were made by Col. George Morgan of Virginia to found an American colony at L'Anse a la Graise or New Madrid, and elaborate plans were drawn up for a town of considerable magnitude. Morgan had made fre- quent trips to the region between the Alleghanys and the Mississippi and was therefore well acquainted with conditions in the west. He had suffered some reverses of fortune and thought he saw an opportunity to recover his losses by establishing a colony on the west side of the Mississippi near the mouth of the Ohio. He therefore entered into negotiations with Gardoqui, the Spanish ambassador _ to this country, and was promised support in all of his plans. He was assured he would obtain a grant of nearly 15,000,000 acres of land extending along the Mississippi for 300 miles from the mouth of the St. Francois River to what is now Perry County, Mo. He laid down certain conditions which 1. When the New Madrid District was first formed, it included what was afterwards known as Cape Girardeau District as no settle- ments had been established in that, region until after New Madrid District had been formed. Conditions in Missouri in 1803 33 the Spanish government was to observe, among which were guarantees of the right of local self government on the part of the settlers, and exemption from practically all taxation. He was authorized to go at once and examine the territory that was to be granted to him and to advertise his project among the people of the west whom he should meet on his way thither. He got together a large company of men and made his way down the Ohio. He reached its mouth on February 14, 1789 and crossed over to the west side of the Mississippi. After making a trip to St. Louis under great difficulties to deliver a letter to the Spanish commandant there from the Spanish Ambassador regarding his project, he returned to his men and proceeded to lay out the new town he was going to establish at L'Anse a la Graise, The town was to be four miles long and two miles wide, with broad streets parks and lots reserved for pubhc purposes. One city lot of one half acre and one out lot of five acres were to be given as a free gift to each of the first six hundred settlers that would come to this new place. Cabins and a magazine for pro- visions were erected, gardens were laid out and preparations were made for putting one hundred acres under cultivation at once. Sufficient land for three hundred and fifty families was to be platted into farms of 320 acres each for pros- pective settlers. Such liberal terms were granted to those who would come that it was expected a thousand families would settle in the colony annually for some time to come. But all of Morgan's plans were doomed never to be realized. It was necessary for him to get the approval of Miro, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana who resided at New Orleans, but this was denied him because of certain schemes in which Miro and Wilkinson of the United States army were interested. Both of them were deep in the Spanish intrigues to dismember the American union, men- tion of which has already been made, and they realized that Morgan's plans would work contrary to their schemes and 84 Chapters in Missouri History interests. Governor Miro thereupon refused to give his approval and Morgan's plans collapsed. Though Morgan was compelled to abandon his effort to establish a colony at New Madrid, the extensive advertis- ing he had done drew a great many Americans to the place in spite of his failure. It should also be borne in mind that just about this time Spain was making her extraordinary offers to prospective immigrants to come to what is now Missouri, and Morgan's campaign of publicity served to interest people more and more in these Spanish offers. By 1799 the town had become the gateway of all commerce be- tween the Gulf of Mexico and the region between the Alle- ghanys and the Mississippi, and by 1804 the district had a population of 1500, most of whom were in the town of New Madrid. In this district the settlements were established for the most part along the Mississippi river. Below New Madrid was the village of Little Prairie, now called Caruthersville which had been founded in 1790 by Francis Le Sieur. Many people moved to it from New Madrid. The place remained prosperous until the earthquake of 1811. A few settle- ments were established in the uplands about fifteen miles west of the Mississippi, the most important of which was Portageville. Its name is derived from the fact that it stood about midway on the portage between the St. Francoi.s and Mississippi Rivers. By 1803 the Americans considerably exceeded the French in numbers, one estimate being that they constituted two-thirds of the entire population of the district. Contrary to the usual rule the Americans settled in the French villages instead of on isolated farms. From this survey we see that by 1804 th(^ areas of settle- ment in what is now Missouri were first, the banks of the Mississippi from New Madrid to St. Louis, and of the Mis- souri for about forty or fifty miles up from its mouth; and Conditions in Missouri in 1803 35 second, the back country which consisted of the uplands, just to the west of the Mississippi and the valleys of the rivers still further to the west, such as the lower Meramec, Big, Whitewater, and St. Francois rivers. For the most part the French settlers gathered in villages in the first of these areas. The most important villages, St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid, were predominantly French except Cape Girardeau which was from practically the very first an American settlement. While the American settlers some- times took up their residence in villages in this first area of settlement either by themselves or with the French, they generally lived out on scattered and isolated farm settlements, and while some of these settlements were along the Mississippi and the Missouri, most of them were in the back country or the second of the above mentioned areas of settlement.^ /_ While Spain liad control of Louisiana, that colony was under the administi-aition of a Governor-General ap- pointed by the King ancFa council called Cabildo. The 1. The population by Districts in 1804 was as follows: Whites St. Charles 1400 St. Louis 2280 Ste. (lenevieve 23.'>0 Cape Girardeau 1470 New Madrid 1350 Slaves 150 Total 1550 500 2780 520 2870 80 1650 150 1500 8850 1.500 10, 3.50 The census of Delassus in 1799 was as follows: St. Louis 925 Carondelet 184 St. Charles 875 St. Ferdinand 276 Marais des Liards 376 Meramec 115 St. Andre 393 Ste. Genevieve 949 New Bourbon 560 Cape Girardeau 521 New Madrid 282 Little Meadows 49 6,028 36 Chapters in Missouri History Cxovernor-General and Council resided at New Orleans. The colony was divided for purposes of administration into two provinces called Lower and Upper Louisiana. What is now Missouri was a part of the latter province. For Upper Louisiana there was a Lieutenant Governor who resided at St. Louis. He was appointed by the Gover- nor-General at New Orleans and was subordinate to him. Under the Lieutenant Governor and appointed by him were Commandants of the various military posts throughout the province. The Commandant of New Madrid was however exempt from authority of Lieutenant Governor. The Commandants in turn appointed Syndics for the re- mote settlements of their districts and the dependencies of the posts. The Syndics and most of Commandants received no pay for their services. This sometimes proved a heavy burden upon the Commandants because of the free enter- tainments to Indians and others which they had to furnish occasionally. In the administration of laws the process was very simple and direct. Cases that fell within the jurisdiction I / of the Commandant, were quickly tried by them or by the Syndics who acted for them. After hearing the state- ments of both parties to a suit, the Commandant or Syndic would give his decision, which as a usual thing was accepted as final. However an appeal might be taken to the Lieu- tenant Governor and from him to the Governor General, but this was seldom done. Oftentimes not more thap four days would elapse between the beginning of a suit and the execution of the decree of the Commandant or Syndic. In criminal matters either the Lieutenant Governor would go to the place where the crime was committeed and try the case, or the Commandant would try it, his decision however being subject to an appeal to the Lieutenant Gover- nor, and from him to the Governor General. It should also be noted that the law provided for still further appeals, Conditions in Missouri in 1803 37 the last tribunal being the Council of the Indies in Spain, but it was seldom that appeal of any sort was taken. In addition to his judicial functions the Commandant exercised extensive administrative and military authority. He maintained peace and order, examined pass ports, which every traveller was compelled to have, passed upon requests of prospective settlers for permission to take up their residence in the district, and punished slaves. He had the rank and military duties of Captain. Superior to the Commandant and Syndic was the Lieutenant Governor. In power he was practically absolute. He was commander of the garrison of Spanish soldiers that had been sent into the province and of the local militia; he was the chief judicial officer and as such could hear most all cases when they were tried the first time or could enter- tain appeals from the decisions of commandants; he issued decrees or laws regulating all sorts of matters in the province; he made grants of land out of the royal domain; he ordered and conducted judicial sales; and he controlled the public affairs of the province without the interference of any one. Of course in all these matters he was subordinate either to the Governor General or to the Intendant who had authority regarding land grants. Except in very unimportant local matters the people had no voice in the government. There were no juries, no elected officials, no legislature for the province or councils for the districts or villages. However no one seems to have offered any objection to this way of doing. Both the French and American settlors seemed to like it. For one thing the* Lieutenant Governor used his extraordinary powers mildly. He might, it is true, take propertj^ away from one person and give it to another without any judicial process as he actually did in the case of a woman of St. Louis who refused to keep up the common field fence in front of her lot, but he generally acted arbitrarily only when there was some cause for 38 Chapters in Missouri History it. Lieutenant Ciovernors were men of rather good character and sought to govern to the best interest of the people, though it was admitted that some were guilty of land spec- ' ulations and fraudulent land grants. Generally speaking the people were law abiding at this time and there was little crime and there were but few land suits. Where crime was committed it was generally punished pretty severely. Seditious language, slander and libel, and stealing of horses were dealt with in a particularly rigorous way. The French as we have seen were accustomed to Live in villages. They built their houses along one street as a rule, though sometimes the village would have two or three streets. Their houses stood near the street and . were generally built of hewn logs set up on end in the ground or upon plates laid upon a foundation wall, the space between the l6gs being filled with stone, clay or mortar. They were rarely over one story high and were generally wider than they werej^ep, with porches running along the whole leiigii*'"^! the front and the rear. The roofs over these porches were a continuation of the roofs over the house proper. The houses were generally whitewashed on the outside, and on the ridge of the roof a cross was often placed. The houses of the well to do had a chimney in the rniddle which divided them into two rooms, each of which had its own large fire place. One of these served as parlor, dining room, and principal bed room, and the other as kitchen. From each of these rooms a room was often cut off which was used as a private bed room. Sometimes the houses had spacious halls running through the center from the front to the back, and large chimneys at the two ends. The chimneys were generally made by planting four posts so that they would converge towards the top, making the open- ing at the top almost half as large as at the hearth. The spaces between the posts were filled with rock and mortar. Conditions in Missouri in 1803 39 Sometimes however the wealthier used stone in constructing their chimneys. In some cases, especially when servants were owned, the kitchen was in a detached building several steps away from the main house, but whether the kitchen was in the main house or in a detached building the cooking was done in a fire place. Some of the houses had no garrets but in case they did, the garrets were reached by means of ladders and were lighted by dormer windows or by windows at the gable ends. The floors were sometimes made of plJuik__that were well jointed, but most generally they were madeof puncheons, that is logs that had been hewed and joined together. Usually there was a window of eight or ten panes of glass to each room. These windows were hinged so as to open like doors, and were protected on the outside with heavy wooden shutters which could be closed when there was danger of attack from Indians. When one is reminded that all the timber that was used in the construction of houses in what is now Missouri during this period was prepared by hand, he will realize what a task it must have been to erect one with even the poorest of accommodations. Moreover all the nails were made by hand so that most of the timbers had to be mortised and fastened together with wooden pegs. The furniture in these houses was very simple, con- sisting of beds, looking glasses, a tabfe or two, and some chairs. Inasmuch as the house stood near the street the front yards were very small but the back yards were unusually large. Here were to be found the barns, outbuildings, and quarters for the negro or Indian slaves. The yards were enclosed with fences that were built of pickets that were driven into the ground. Beyond the back yards were the vegetable and flower gardens and the orchards, which were also (Miclosed with picket fences. 40 Chapters in Missouri History Agriculture was tho chief occupation of the villagers. Their farms lay in a great common field, adjoining or near the village. This field was divided into farm lots which were much deeper than they were wide. In St. Louis the lots were one arpent wide and forty deep, an arpent being a little over one hundred and ninety feet. As a rule these lots lay parallel to each other, thus having a com- mon front. Some of the fields were of considerable size, that at Ste. Genevieve containing 3,000 acres, which by the way, is still in use. The whole field was enclosed by a common fence and each villager was required to keep up his part. The common fence was under the jurisdiction of the syndic of the place and a committee of umpires. These umpires inspected the fence each year in January and reported to the syndic when it needed repairing. It was necessary to build fences that were proof against cattle breaking through. The agricultural implements used by these villagers were very crude. Plows were made entirely of wood, save a single iron fastening. Hoes, spades, mattocks, and rakes were heavy and clumsy. As a usual thing each village owned a harrow or two which was used in common. Owing to the primitive implements and the unscientific methods of cultivation employed, the crop returns were very light and yet the prices that crops brought were good. The carts or charettes were very odd and because they had no iron tires, the American settlers called them bare- footed carts. They were made of two pieces of scantling, ten or twelve feet long, framed together at one end by two or more cross pieces; upon this end the body of wicker was placed, and the whole was adjusted to the axle trees of the two wheels. The projecting ends of the scantling served as shafts. This sort of a cart was used for transportation of all sorts. Laclede used one in moving his family from Cahokia to St. Louis in 1764. Conditions in Mii*isouHi in 1803 41 Though agriculture was the chief occupation of the settlers in these French villages, every one engaged more or less in hunting and in trading in furs. Many were accustomed to go out annually on long expeditions far up the Mississippi and the Missouri either on their own account or as employees of others. The most valuable of furs would often be purchased from the Indians with trinkets of various sorts, knives, awls, hatchets, kettles, gay red blankets and the like. Oftentimes the forest trader forsook civilized life almost altogether and allied himself in marriage with some one of the Indian tribes and l^ecame as much a savage as they. In some of the villages there were stone masons, black- smiths, gunsmiths and cabinet makers. Spinning and weaving were domestic industries. The merchants of that time kept no open shops but stored their merchandise awaj^ in chests in their homes and opened them up to prospective purchasers as they were called upon. Distant markets were generally reached by boats running up and down the Mississippi or the Ohio. Boats coming up the Mississippi were generally propelled by oars and when the wind was favorable, a sail was hoisted. But as a usual thing they were towed up the river by men walking along the bank and pulling upon a rope fastened to the top of the mast and to the bow of the boat. The labor necessary to get a boat up the Mississippi is almost inconceivable at this da5^ Of course the going down the Mississippi was very easy. As a usual thing the trip was made in flatboats which after the cargo was disposed of were broken up and the timber in them sold. The crews if they returned would come by land as best they could. The dress of the French settlers was j:>lain and simple The men wore a blanket coat of coarse cloth with a cape behind which could be thrown over the head. Both men and women wore blue handkerchiefs over their heads in 42 Chapters in Missouri History stead of hats. They also wore mocassins or Indian sandals on their feet. The women followed the fashions of New Orleans and Paris as far as they could, and hence appeared neater than the men. But the men seemed to have been provided with proper and neat dress for church and ball room. Though the French settlers were living largely in isola- tion from the world, they maintained in their manners and customs many of the traits and characteristics of the natioil from which they were descended. They were noted for their courtesy and politeness, their fondness for amusement, their happy dispositions, their hospitality and democracy of spirit, their honesty and punctuality in meeting their obligations, their freedom from anxiety, and their peacefulness and abhorrence of crime. Their chief amuse- ents were card playing, billiards, and dancing. At the alls all classes met and mingled in perfect equality, and the strictest decorum was observed. These balls were generally held on Sundays after church services. They maintained private schools in many of the villages in connection with the village churches, in which some sort of elementary instruction was offered. They were Catholic in religion and gave a great deal of attention to religious festivals and processions. The Christmas holidays were celebrated with specially attractive ceremonies. The American settlers as we have seen, preferred as a rule to live not in villages but in isolated farm homesteads. Their dwellings were somewhat unlike those of the French. They were usually double cabins, that is to say, the house was composed of two distinct log pens or rooms with an open space about the size of each of the rooms between them. This open space between the rooms was used as a sort of passage way. The logs in the walls were laid horizontally upon each other to the height of eight or ten ^-t -A Conditions in Missouri in 1803 ' 43 feet instead of being placed on end as in the French houses. The spaces between the logs were filled with clay. A single roof covered the two rooms and the open space. Sometimes it was extended over the walls of the rooms so as to form a shed or porch in the front and the rear. The roof was made by placing logs upon rafters and fastening them down by means of wooden pins and notches and then laying clapboards four or five feet long on these logs. Since the clapboards were not nailed to the logs, they were held in place by having three or four heavy logs laid upon them and fastened down at the end with withes. One or two doors were cut into >y\-^ —y^y^ the rooms and a few small openings left for light and air, _._— ^ /p_ "—^ which were sometimes gla^^^d: TEeTToors were puncheons. ^K^ ^ oy Each room had a broad fire place made either of wood Viyvr^ and clay or of rock. One room served as a kitchen and the other as the living room. In case the family owned slaves another room or pen was built a few feet back of the open space between the other two rooms, and this was used as the kitchen. The slaves lived in separate cabins back of the house of their master. Though the American settlers raised a good deal of corn and wheat and turned out a good many cattle on the range, they spent nmch of their time in hunting and trading in furs. They were far from being as cultured and as reBnec as the French, and though they were numerically stronger -^^i than the French by 1804, their isolation had prevented them^ "^ from taking the lead, and what is now Missouri was French J}^ in character when the United States acquired it. ir^'^ By far the most noted and the most picturesque character 4^^ ^v*-^ . . ^ among the Americans who had settled in what is now Mis- ^ XO-"^^^'^^ souri prior to 1804 was Daniel Boone. He was descended '^o"^'^'^ from a family who had emigrated from England to Penn- sylvania in 1717. Here Daniel was boin in 1732. When L-1 44 Chapters in Missouri History he was eighteen y»'fir.s old his father moveJ his large family of eleven children' to western North Carolina following rather leisurely one of the valleys of the Alleghany Moun- tains which ran from Pennsylvania to western North Caro- lina along W'hich numerous other (^migrants were also travel- j Ct^^'^"^^^ ^^^- Here Daniel married and began the rearing of a ^-^J^ family. It was not long however until game began to get scarce in that part of North Carolina owing to the increasing popu- lation, and to satisfy his own mastering passion for hunting and his desire to live the life o i a front iers n^n, Boone in company with several others began in 1769 to hunt and explore the Kentucky region. After several years of ad- venture he established Boonesborough in 1775. It was not long until he found that Kentucky was getting "too crowded" to suit him. Moreover he lost the lands that he had acquired in that region through some defect of title which was due to his carelessness in failing to observe the legal forms of entry. He finally migrated to Missouri and took up his abode in the Femme Osage settlement which had been established two years previously by his son, Daniel Morgan Boone, near the Missouri about twenty miles above St. Charles. The next year after he came, Boone was appointed Syndic of the settlement b}^ Governor De Lassus and for four years he served in this capacity. He was not learned in the law but he had a strong sense of justice, and through the fairness of his decisions won at once the approbation of his neighbors. He is said to have resorted to methods that were primitive and arbitrary; he frequently assessed whipping as the penalty for infractions of law; he did not bother himself about the rules of evidence but sought to get at the facts in the case in the mosc' direct method possible. His experiences with Kentucky lands were repeated in Mis.souri. He had been granted 10,000 acres by Governor Conditions in Missouri in 1803 45 DeLassus in return for bringing in one hundred and fifty families into Upper Louisiana from Vn-ginin and Kentucky, but the grant was never confirmed because he failed to get it properly certified. Congress however later granted him 1000 acres as a mark of recognition for his public services. He died in 1820 at the home of his son. Nathan Boone, three miles north of La Charette now known as Marthas- ville in Warren County, where he had spent most of the time in his last years. The house was a two story rock house, the first of its kind in Missouri, and is still standing. Here visitors from all parts of the country came to see him and hear from him the story of the pioneer's life in the new west. His body was moved from Missouri to Frankfort, Ken- tucky, in 1845 but his grave remained unmarked until 1880 when a monument was erected over it. We saw in the first part of this chapter that Captain Amos Stoddard had been appointed Governor of Upper Louisiana at the time the transfer was made in March, 1804, He served in this capacity until October of that year when an act that had been passed by Congress went into effect. By this act, Louisiana Territory was divided into two parts, the thirty-third parallel being the dividing line. All to the south of that line was called the Territory of Orleans; all to the north was called the District of Louisiana and was attached to the Territory of Indiana for adminstrative purposes. Governor William Henry Harrison, who later liecame President, was Governor of Indiana at that time and thereupon became the executive of the District of Louisiana. The legislature of the district was according to the act of Congress, to be composed of the Governor and the three Judges of Lidiana. This body met and enacted a series of, of laws which constituted the first body of laws in what is now Missouri that emanated from American authority. Governor Stoddard had made no changes during the few 46 Chapters in Missouri History months he was in office. He had retained all the old Spanish officials, with the exception of Lieutenant Governor De Lassus, and left them to continue the administration of Spanish laws and customs while he confined himself to the duty of maintaining public order. The body of laws issued however by Governor Harrison and the Judges of Indiana for the District of l-iouisiana introduced a whole series of innovations in the way of legal methods of procedure in the courts, penalties for crimes and other infractions of law, and the like. It put an end to the summary way which the Spanish officials had had of disposing of the cases that came before them, and it marked the separation of the administration of civil and military jurisdictions of the commandants of the various posts. No noticeable change was made however in the boundaries of the five districts. They remained practically as before. It was not long however until wide spread dissatisfac- tion arose among both the Americans and the French settlers, and a petition was submitted to Congress in November, 1804 asking for relief from the intolerable situation that had been created by these American laws. The outcome of this agitation we shall find out in the next chapter. References : Houck, . Ilistory of Missouri, should be consulted on the following topics: Growth of Settlements from 1765 to 1804, Vol. I, Chapter XI and Vol. II, Chapters XII-XV in loco; Govern- mental Organizations under the Spanish Regime, II, 193-208; Pioneer Life prior to 1803, II, 231-86; Governmental Organization in 1804 376-418. On the Population and Extent of Settlement in Missouri before 1804, see an article by Viles in Missouri Historical Review for July 1911, pp. 189-213. Thwaites Daniel Boone is the best life of Boone available. L^-^ y, i'^^ &--r^ CH^TER IV. BURR CONSPIRACY. [This shoiiltl follow or be used in connection with a study of the famous Burr Cwiispiracy. James & Sanford, 251; Muzzey, 212; Channing, 343; Hart, 271; Montgomery, 281; Larned, 318; Mc- Laughlin, 269.] The famous Burr conspiracy is connected with Mis- souri history in only an incidental way through one General James Wilkinson who for the space of nearly two years v was an official in Upper Louisiana. Congress it will be remembered had divided the Louisi- ana Territory in 1804 into two districts; all south of the thirty-third parallel was called the Territory of Orleans, and all north the District of Louisiana. The latter division had been attached to the Territory of Indiana for adniinis- trative purposes, hence the term district was applied to it instead of territory. It was not long however before large numbers of people in what is now Missouri became very much dissatisfied with this arrangement. There were many reasons for this dissatisfaction. For one thi ng they did not like having the District of Louisiana attached to the Territory of Indiana. They found that they were put to a very great disadvantage when they had need of appealing for assistance to the Governor of Indiana who lived far away from them and who could be reached only by a journey of many miles through an entirely uninhabited country which lay between the settlements in the Missouri and the Indiana countries, -j^oreover they disliked the provision that had been made ^ in the act looking towards the ultimate removal of Indians from the lands east of the Mississippi to those to the west, (^»j\aiid they complained that the right of self government had been withheld from them. But in all probability the strongest reasons for all this dissatisfaction on the part of 47J 48 Chapters in Missouri History the people wer^ rirst, the necessity of having to pay taxes from which they had been hirgely reheved under the Spanish regime; ^)second, the duty of rendering miUtary service without compensatioil^and third, the failure of the United States government to make adequate provision for the settlement of the disputes concerning the Spanish land titles. It is not a matter of surprise to us to find therefore that within six months after Upper Louisiana iiad been occupied by the United States, a convention of delegates chosen by the people of the several districts of Upper Louisi- ana, or the District of Louisiana as it was then called, met in St. Louis and drafted a memorial to Congress in which they set forth in unmistakable language why they were dissatisfied with the arrangements that had been made by that body in the Act of 1804. They asked not only for a repeal of that act but the for passage of another which would give them among other things a Governor, a Secretary and Judges who should be appointed by the President and who should live in the district and hold property in it, and which would give the people the right to elect two representatives from each of the counties who with the Governor should form the legislature of the district. It is a matter of special interest that most of those who had taken an active part on this agitation and in the getting up of this conven- tion were the Americans who had settled in what is now Mis- souri during the period of Spanish rule. Congress responded favorably to this appeal, and by the act of 1805 Upper Louisiana or the District of Louisiana was detached from Indiana Territory and declared to be erected into a separate territory under the name of the Terri- tory of Louisiana. Under this act General James Wilkin- son was appointed Governor of the Territory. He served in that capacity from 1805 to 1807. It was while Wilkin- son was Governor that he became implicated in the Burr BuBR Conspiracy 49 conspirac5^ thereby connecting Missouri history with that famous episode in American history. Just what Burr aimed to do when he set forth upon his journey through the west in April, 1805, immediately after his retirement from the Vice-Presidency, is not definitely known. He always scouted the idea of seeking to dismember the Union by getting the west to secede, whenever he was accused of that design, but he did admit that he contem- plated a revolt against Spain in Spanish territory, especially in Mexico. Perhaps he did not know himself what he was going to do and was waiting on circumstances to determine what his course would be. On his way to New Orleans by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Burr met General Wilkinson at Fort Monroe on the Ohio. Wilkinson was not only Governor of the Territory of Louisiana but also the highest military officer of the United States. He was also in the secret pay of the Spanish government. After conferring with Burr at Fort Monroe he returned to his headquarters at St. Louis where he tried to corrupt his subordinates and draw them away from their allegiance to their country. In this he failed so that when Burr came to St. Louis after having visited New Orleans he found that Wilkinson was less en- thusiastic over his schemes than formerly. Burr then re- turned to Washington with seemingly nothing done. He came back again into the west in August, ]8()G, but failed again to get things going. Wilkinson now realiz- ing that Burr was going to fail, decided to get himself under cover by playing the part of a traitor towards him. He therefore wrote President Jefferson about Burr's plans and made preparations to thwart them. In a short time Burr's schemes collapsed. He was tried in 1807 with Wilkinson as the chief witness against him but was acquitted. In 1811 Wilkinson was also tried on similar charges but was likewise acquitted. He was able in this trial to point to 50 Chapters in Missouri History two things as sufficient grounds for acquittal. First, he had written in October, 1804, a letter to Robert Smith, Secretary of the Navy under Jefferson, that Burr was al^out some- thinj;- and that an eye ought to be kept on him. It will be seen, however, that this letter antedated the trips that Burr had taken to the west. Second, he had been the most important agent in thwarting Burr's schemes after they had gotten under way.^ Meanwhile Wilkinson had been dismissed by President Jefferson from the Governorship of the Territory of Louisi- ana, and his place had been filled by Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition. These changes had taken place in 1807. Wilkinson had during his two years of office incurred the hostility of practically everybody in the Territory of Louisiana. That hostility was not due how- ever to the part he had played in the Burr episode but to the way he had conducted matters while he was Governor. 1. It should be recalled here that Wilkinson had been prominently connected with the Spanish intrigues of the early nineties of the eigh- teenth century, the outlines of which belong to American history rather than Missouri history. References: — For further reading consult Houck, History of Missouri, II, 399-418; also Roosevelt, Winning oj the West, IV, ^-^^ CHAPTER V. INDIAN TROUBLES DURING THE WAR OF 1812. [This chapter should be used after a study has been made of the War of 1812 or in connection with it. James & Sanford, 265; Muzzey, 224; Channing, 359; Hart, 279; Montgomery, 303; Larned, 346; McLaughlin, 286. The chief purpose of the chapter is to show the effects of these Indian troubles in retarding immigi-ation to Missouri and the opening up of.ihejnteriorJ . . — ■ During the war of 1812 the settlers in Avhat is now Mis- souri were troubled considerably by Indian attacks, many of which were inspired by the British with whom the Amer- icans were at war. In fact the Indians Hving east of the Mississippi were in active alliance with the British, and had the Indians living west of the Mississippi joined with the eastern Indians in a united attack upon the Missouri settlers, the crisis would have been much more serious than it actually was. In order that this crisis may be understood something needs to be said concerning the Indians who were living in what is now Missouri when the war of 1812 broke out. At that time there were several Indian tribes living within the boundaries of what is now Missouri. Among them the most important were the Osages, the Sacs and Foxes, the Missouris, and the Shawnees and Delawares. The Osages, seemed to be the most numerous, there being about eight thousand of them here in 1819. They lived south of the Missouri river, chiefly along the Osage, a tributary of the Missouri. They were noted for their athletic physique, their sobriety and their warlike dis- position. They were feared by l)oth Indians and whites. As a means of protection against them, the Spanish govermnent had authorized, as we saw in a former chapter,^ Lorimier to bring in a band of Shawnees and Delawares and settle them on Apple Creek and other small tributaries of the Missouri near Cape Girardeau in the latter part of the . 1. See page 31. 52 Chapters in Missouri History eighteenth century. They liowever did not render the protection that hud been expected and the Osages continued to trouble the whites as before. B}^ 1812 the Shawnees and Delawares were to be found along the Whitewater River as well as along the Misisssippi. North of the Missouri river were the Sacs and P'oxes and the Missouris. The Missouris were located near the mouth of the Grand River, a tributary of the Missouri. They were later dispersed by the Sacs and Foxes who held the territory between the Missouri and the Mississippi as far north as the headwaters of the Des Moines and the Iowa rivers. It is customary to speak of the Sacs and Foxes together because of the thorough and complete consolida- tion of these tribes. By the time the war of 1812 began the population of what is now Missouri had grown to be about 20,000, having doubled since the purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803. But the area of settlement had not been extended very much. For the most part the new comers during the interval between the purchase of Louisiana and the breaking out of the war of 1812, had settled in the territory that had already been occupied, that is along the Mississippi and the Missouri from New Madrid up to St. Charles, or had pushed out to the west from this region only a few miles. A few men however had undertaken to establish themselves in isolated places further up the Mississippi and the Missouri. Some had gone up the Mississippi to Cuivre River in what is now Lincoln County, and others had gone as far north as Hannibal. On the Missouri a few men attempted to establish themselves near the mouths of the Gasconade and Osage rivers, and in a region still further up called Boon's Lick Country. The name Boon's Lick was applied to the territory in and around the present Howard County. It arose from the fact that two sons of Daniel Boone had made salt at a salt spring or lick in what is now Howard County in 1807 and had brought Indian Troubles During the War of 1812 53 back to their friends in the older settlements an account of the fine agricultural country in that vicinity. The first effort to establish a settlement in this country was made by Benjamin Cooper in 1808. He was compelled however to abandon the effort for the time being, because the right to the territory had not been acquired from the Indians at that time. By 1812 there were several hundred settlers in the Boon's Lick country. During the war, however, immigration to this region was completely stopped because of the ^pdian hostilities, and many of the settlers abandoned their claims and returned to their places down the river. But the greatest danger was along the Mississippi river. It came from the Indians living east of the Mississippi who had been stirred up by English agents. In fact it seemed that these agents had been active in stirring up the Indians even before the war broke out. Roving bands of savages who had been furnished with arms by these English agents had crossed the Mississippi and engaged in horse- stealing and other marauding. After the war was declared the Sacs and Foxes who lived along the Rock River in Illinois were induced to make war against the settlers in what is now Missouri, and all through the war they proved the most troublesome of all the Indians engaged in it. The situation called forth energetic efforts on the part of the territorial governor of Missouri. The militia was ordered out, and forts and stations were established and garrisoned. Patrols were placed along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and the more exposed districts. Fortu- nately for the white settlers in what is now Missouri the English had not been able to enlist the Indians west of the Mississippi and thus the dangers to the settlers throughout the territory was considerably reduced. If the Indians east and west of the Mississippi had joined in a combined attack, all the frontier settlements would have been wiped 54 Chapters in Missouri History out and great loss would also have been inflicted on the older settlements. A volunteer militia force of about 1400 men was sent up the Mississippi under General Howard in September, 1813, to attack the Illinois Sacs and Foxes who were giving the most trouble. He was unable to bring them into open battle, but he was able to burn several of their villages and destroy many of their stores of corn. This put a check upon their attacks. At no time during the war did the Indians come in great numbers. They always came in small roving bands and slipped up on unsuspecting settlers in their homes. As the militia was not always around when most needed to ward off an attack by one of these bands, the settlers were compelled to build forts and thus protect themselves. This was particularly true in the more remote settlements. Some of these forts were built near what is now Hannibal and in what is now St. Charles, Lincoln, Howard and Cole counties. These forts were as a usual thing simply strong log houses with a projecting upper story and with loopholes through which the muskets and rifles of those inside were fired. In the large settlements the fort was a stockade which enclosed several cabins -or houses. Into these forts the settlers would flee when they heard of an Indian attack and remain until the enemy had departed. It was not often that the Indians undertook to take a fort and when they did they generally failed. They usually plundered the abandoned cabins and drove ofi^ the horses. The settlers who were killed during these raids were either unable to get into the forts in time or took risks in pursuing the Indians. During the war the settlers in the Boon's Lick country had so many horses stolen from them by the Indians that they had to plow their corn with oxen and even milch cows for two or three years after the war was over. After two years of this sort of warfare which left the Indian Troubles During the War of 1812 55 settlers in an almost continuous state of anxiety and fear, peace was finally made between the Indians and whites in June, 1815. At that time there were 1200 or 1500 Indian warriors along Rock River and Des Moines River that were yet on the war path, and it has been asserted that they were yet being secretly urged by the English agents to continue their depredations notwithstanding the fact that peace between the United States and England had been agreed upon in December, 1814. However that may have been, peace with the Indians was secured at a conference held at Portage des Sioux in the St. Charles District in June, 1815. At this conference former treaties which had been made with different tribes regarding the cession of Indian lands were ratified. One of them had been made with the Sacs and Foxes in 1804, according to which they had ceded among other lands the territory bounded by the Missouri and the Mississippi and a line drawn from the mouth of the Gasconade river to the river Jeffron or Salt river, thirty miles above its mouth, and then down that river to its junction with the Mississippi. It was later claimed by the Sacs and Foxes that this treaty had been made by their chiefs without authority, and this was oiie of the chief causes for the ill feeling that existed between these tribes and the Americans during the war of 1812. The ^, treaty of 1804 however was ratified at the close of the war. o'^ Later, that is in 1823, the Sacs and Foxes completed their ^^ cessions of territory in Missouri. Ly)^-^ Ly^^ Another treaty which was ratified in 1815 was the one 'X/-'*^^^''^ made in 1808 with the Osages. By this treaty they had /v*^ '^(^jr-^'^'^ agreed to code to the United States all their land bounded fl_J'-'^^ id a line running from -^a \u^^''^''^^^^'X' Fort Osage on the Missouri to the Arkansas river and thence j. ^/^ \i>^ down to the Mississippi. They also ceded by this treaty i<^Vt %/'-'^ a by the Missouri and Mississippi and a line running from ■^ r, .o^^'^^x" Fort Osage on the Missouri to the Arkj down to the Mississippi. They also whatever claims they had to territory north of the Missouri aX*'^ ^ river. By a subsequent treaty made in 1825 the Osages gave u -e^ >, 56 Chapters in Missouri^History up thoir right to the lands they yet claimed in the western part of the state. At that time the Kansas Indians also ceded whatever lands they claimed in Missouri. Other cessions were made later by other Indians such as the Kick- apoos, Shawnees and Delawares, so that by 1833 the title of Indians to lands in Missouri was completely extinguished. References: — Houck, History of Missouri, I, 168-2.36; III, 98-139. CHAPTER VI. ADMISSION OF MISSOURI. [This chapter should be used after a study has baen made of the Missouri Compromise. James and Sanford, 283; Muzzey, 313; Channing, 385; Hart, 301; Montgomery, 319; Larned, 374; McLaughhn, 307.] We have seen in a former chapter that the territory purchased by the United States from France in 1803 was put at once under territorial organization. All that part north of the thirty-third parallel was designated the District of Louisiana and was attached to the territory of Indiana. There was great dissatisfaction with this arrangement from the very start, and a convention was held in St. Louis in September of 1804 to protest against it. Congress heeded this protest by enacting a law in 1805 whereby the Dis- trict of Louisiana was converted into the Territory of Louis- iana and given a territorial organization of the first or lowest rank. The government of the territory was vested in a Governor, a Secretary and three Judges, all of whom were appointed by the President. The Governor and the Judges were constituted a legislature for the territory and were authorized to establish inferior courts, lay out new districts when needed, and make any necessary laws. In 1812 Congress enacted another law changing the name of the Territory from that of Louisiana to Missouri, and making certain alterations in its governmental organiza- tion thereby raising the territory to one of the second rank. Under the new government the Legislature consisted of the Governor, Legislative Council, and a House of Representa- tives. Its meetings were held annually in St. Louis. The Legislative Council was composed of nine men selected by the President out of eighteen nominated by the House of Representatives of the Territory, for a term of five years. The House of Representatives was composed of members elected for two years. The Governor and the Judges were 57 58 Chapters in Missouri History appointed by the President as had formerly been the case. Up to this time the people of the Territory had had no re- presentative in Congress; now they were authorized to elect a Delegate to Congress who could speak but not vote in that body. Edward Hempstead was the first delegate elected. In 1816 Congress made still further changes in the gov- ernmental organization of the Territory, thereby raising it from the second to the third or highest rank of territories. The people were now given the right to elect the members of the Legislative council, one member for each county, and biennial instead of annual meetings of the Legislature were provided for. No further changes were made in the terri- torial government of Missouri prior to the organization of the state government in 1820. Meanwhile some chaiiges in the county organization had been going on since 1803 that should be noted. The Spanish Government had previously divided the upper por- tion of the colony of Louisiana into five districts, St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, and for a few years after the purchase of Louisiana no change had been made in them by the United States government. But in 1812 the term district was dropped and that of county substituted, and by the time Missouri was admitted into the Union, twenty new counties had been created, eight having been created in 1818, and ten in 1820.^ 1. The first county created after the purchase of Louisiana was Washington County. This was done in 1812 by cutting off that part' of St. Genevieve County around Mine a Breton which was thereafter called Potosi. In 1813 what is now the state of .\rkansas was erected into Arkansas County. Up to that time this region was nominally a part of New Madrid County. In 1815 Lawrence County was created out of New Madrid County. In 1816 all north of the Osage River was erected into Howard County. This included parts of St. Louis and St. Charles Counties. Because of the fact that thirty-one counties were later carved out of the original Howard County, she has borne the name of Mother of Counties. In 1818 Lawrence County was abol- ished and eight new counties were erected as follows: Wayne out of Cape Girardeau and Lawrence; Franklin out of St. Louis; Pike, Mont- Admission of Missouri 59 This increase in the number of counties had been due to the growth of the population, especially since 1815. The population in 1810 was 20,845, nearly doubling that in 1803, but by 1812 this steady increase was suddenly checked by the war that broke out in that year. With its close in 1815 people once more began to move west, and in 1820 the census showed there were 66,557 in Missouri. Now the newcomers up to 1810 had found homes for themselves for the most part in those portions of the terri- tory where the early settlements had been made. But after 1815 they pushed out beyond the old frontier in large num- bers and established settlements further up the Missouri and the Mississippi, and along the Meramec and the St. Francois. The increase of population in the older regions of settlement made it necessary to divide the large old counties along the Misissippi into smaller ones, and the moving of people into the remoter parts made the creation of new coun- ties there necessary. Therefore, at the time of the admis- sion of Missouri into the Union, the twenty five counties of the state were strung along the Mississippi and the Mis- souri in the shape of a rough T: a double tier of counties had been formed along the Missisippi and a row of counties had been established along each side of the Missouri up to what is now Kansas City. In view of the rapid increase of the population of what is now Missouri, it is not surprising to us to find out that agitation was begun very shortly after 1815 in favor of state- gomery and Lincoln out of St. Charles; Jefferson out of St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve; Madison 'out of St. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau; Cooper out of Howard. (In addition Arkansas County was divided up into three counties, Pulaski, Clark and Hempstead). In LS2() Calla- way, Boone, Chariton, and Ray were created out of Howard; Lillard, Saline and Col(> out of Cooper; Gasconade out of Franklin; Dallas out of Pike; and Perry out of Ste. Genevieve. Meanwhile the 'IVrritory of Arkansas was organized in LSIO by cutting off that j)ortion of the Mis- souri Territory that comprises the present Arkansas and Oklahoma. 60 Chapters in Missouri History hood. As we have already seen the majority of the people living in what is now Missouri at the time of the Louisiana purchase were Americans. Moreover practically all the settlers between 1803 and 1820 were Americans, and there- fore all through the territorial period it was perfectly natural that they should have desired a voice in national affairs. Moreover they had found things in the territorial govern- ment that were unsatisfactory. Because relief from these conditions could only be found in statehood, efforts were soon made towards that end. As early as 1816 a petition was circulated among the citizens of the territory of Missouri asking Congress to admit her as a state into the Union. What became of this petition is not known. In 1818 two different petitions which had been signed by private citizens and a formal one which had been passed by the territorial legislature were submitted to Congress. The only difference between these petitions was the boundary lines proposed for the new state. In the first of the petitions presented by the private citizens it was prayed that the boundaries should be 36° 30' on the south and 40° on the north, and the Mississippi on the east, and on the west a line running north and south through a point on the Mis- souri River about twenty miles east of the mouth of the Kansas River. In the second of these memorials from private citizens, it was proposed that the state should extend from, the Missouri River on the north to a line somewhat farther south of the present southern boundary, and from the Mississippi River to a line much farther west than the present western boundary. In the petition passed by the territorial legisla- ture, it was asked that the boundary should be as follows: Beginning at a point in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi at 36° north latitude and running in a direct line to the mouth of the Black, a branch of the White River; thence up the White River to a point where Admission of Missouri 01 the parallel of 36° 30' north latitude crosses; thence west along this parallel to a point from which a line running due north will cross the Missouri River at the mouth of the Wolf River; and thence due north along that line to a point due west from the mouth of the Rock River, a branch of the Mississippi; thence due east on that line to the Mississippi thence down the Mississippi to the place of beginning. If this boundary had been adopted by Congress, Missouri would now include three tiers of Iowa counties, two tiers of Kansas counties, ten counties in northeastern Arkansas, and one or two counties in northeastern Oklahoma.^ The boundary line that was fixed by Congress followed the proposals of no one of these petitions. Instead it was enacted that the boundary line should begin at the Miss- issippi River where the parallel of 36° north latitude crosses it and thence west along that parallel to the St. Francois River ; thence north along that river to 36° 30' ; thence along that parallel west to a line running due north to the mouth of the Kansas River; thence due north along that same line to the parallel intersecting the rapids of the Des Moines River; thence east along that same parallel to the Des Moines River; thence down that river to the Mississippi; and thence down the Mississippi to the place of beginning. According to traditions, the little panhandle district in southeast Missouri was included in the boundaries of the state because of the activities of a Mr. J. Hardeman Walker who lived on a plantation near Little Prairie, now Caruthers- ville. If the southern boundary line had been fixed at 36° 30' along its entire course, that section of the country in which he was interested would have been left out of the new state. He is credited with working up the matter in some way so that the territory lying between the Mississippi and the St. Francois Rivers should be included as far south as the 36th parallel. 1. For maps showing the boundaries proposed in two of these {peti- tions, sec HoucK, History of Missouri, 1, '6 and 5. 62 Chaptehs in Missouri History In this connection it should be noted that in 1836 the boundaries of the state were enlarged on the northwest by the addition of what has been' called the Platte Purchase, and that Missouri had several boundary disputes with neigh- boring states, such as Kentucky, Kansas and Iowa, some of which were very troublesome and long drawn out. It is unnecessary to review here the debate that went on in Congress for two sessions over the question of the admission of Missouri into the Union. It will be sufficient to remind ourselves of the compromise that was reached in 1820 to the effect that Missouri should be admitted as a slave state but that the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36° 30' should always be free. During the interval between the two sessions of Con- gress which had this question under consideration, the whole country was agitated greatly over the matter, and debates which clearly revealed the growing antagonism between the north and the south were held everywhere. As was natural the feeling in Missouri was very intense. Lines were drawn very sharply between those who favored slavery and those who believed it should be restricted. Those who had l)een disappointed by the failure of Congress to act immediately upon the petition of Missouri for admission, expressed their views in indignation meetings in several of the counties. A meeting held in Montgomery county on April 28, 1819 de- clared that "the restriction attempted to be imposed upon the people of this territory, as a condition of their admission into the Union, is a daring stretch of power, an usurpation of our sacred rights, unprecedented, unconstitutional, and in open violation of the third article of the treaty of cession entered into with France". Similar resolutions were passed by mass meetings in Howard, Washington and New Madrid counties before Congress met again in the fall of 1819. In addition to these popular expressions, there were Admission of Missouri 63 semi-official expressions from grand juries in several counties. The grand jury of St. Charles County declared that the "attempts to restrict us in the free exercise of rights in the formation of the constitution and form of state government for ourselves, is an unconstitutional and unwarrantable usurpation of power over our inalienable rights and privileges as a free people". Similar resolutions were passed by juries in Jefferson, St. Louis and Washington counties. Moreover the newspapers of Missouri contained edi- torial comments that reflected the sentiment of the people, varying of course with the point of view. The Missouri Intelligencer, published at Franklin, declared that the failure of the Missouri Bill was due to the jealousy of the east over the development of the west. The St. Louis Enquirer said that the matter was simply and nakedly a question of state sovereignty, an experiment on the part of Congress to com- mence the business of making constitutions for the states. Articles appeared in the St. Louis Gazette condemning the attitude of Congress and the stand taken by those who opposed the admission of Missouri. Some of the bitterest articles to be found in the Enquirer appeared after the bill had been passed but before the news had arrived to that effect. The agitation even involved religious bodies. While the debate was still going on in Congress, the Baptist Asso- ciation of Mt. Zion in Howard County, sent a protest to Congress against any interference with the contemplated constitution and against any restriction on the rights of property. In the town of Franklin, Howard County, Hum- phrey Smith was mobbed because he had the temerity to ask how a member of the Methodist church could hold negro slaves, and he was afterwards indicted by the grand jury of that county for provoking the mob that had attacked him. When the news finally reached Missouri that a com- promise had been agreed upon in Congress whereby the state 64 Chapters in Missouri History would bo allowed to come inti) the Union without any restric- tions ui)on her as regards slavery, despair gave way to exulta- tion. Missourians spoke of the southern Congressmen as " A band of Spartans standing united in the pass of Thermopylae, defending the people of Missouri, the treaty of cession, .and the constitution of the Republic. " To the honor of northern congressmen who had voted with the southerners, it was suggested that there should be erected "an unperishable monument of everlasting fame. " Throughout the state celebrations were held in honor of the passage of the bill. The town of Jackson in Cape Girardeau county seems to have been the first place in the state to get the news. It was brought there by Thomas Hempstead while on his way to St. Louis. When the news reached the latter place there was an illumination in honor of the event, and the names of the northern congressmen who had aided in the passage of the bill were exhibited in transparencies. The name of Senator Lanman, of Connecticut who had been burned in effigy in Hartford for his attitude on the question, was very conspicuous in these transparencies. A big dinner was given in Franklin to celebrate the ''late triumph over east- ern policy and eastern artifice." Now that Congress had granted the petition of the Missourians for admission, the next step was the drafting of a state constitution. The election of delegates to the con- vention that was to draw up this constitution was held early in May, 1820. There were two tickets in the field, one fav- oring slavery, the other opposing it. But of the forty one members elected, not one was an antislavery man. Thirty seven had been born in slaveholding states, two in free states and two in foreign countries. In this connection it might be well to state that during the consideration of the Missouri bill in ('ongress, the antislavery men in the territory had been as bitter as the proslavery men in their denunciation Admission of Missouri 65 of Congress for delaying her admission. Thej'' claimed that Congress had no right to prescribe the terms of her admission into the union as a state. Notwithstanding this position that had been taken by antislavery men, or the restriction- ists as they were called, they were overwhelmingly defeated in the contest for seats to the constitutional convention. This convention met in St. Louis in June, 1820, and in a little over a month adopted a constitution which went into effect at once without ratification by the people.^ In it the legislative powers was vested in a General Assembly com- posed of a Senate and House of Representatives. The House was made up of representatives of the counties, at least one to each county, popularly elected for two years. The Senators represented their districts for four years. Clergymen were ineligible to membership in the General Assembly. The executive power was vested in a Governor elected for a four year term, and ineligible to re-election until four years had elapsed after his term of office had expired. There was also a Lieut. Governor, elected for four years. The other state officers, such as the Secretary of State, Auditor, Attorney General, Treasurer, etc., were appointed ])y the Governor for four years, except the Treasurer, who was chosen by the General Assembly. The judicial power was vested in a Supreme Court, a Chancellor, Circuit courts, and other inferior courts, such as should be established by the General Assembly. The Supreme court was composed of three Judges who were appointed by the Governor, and held during good behaviour. The Chancellor and the 1. The preamble of this constitution was as follows: — "We the people of Missouri, inhabiting the limits hereinafter designated, by our representatives in convention assembled, at St; Louis, on Monday the twelfth day of .June, 1820, do mutually agree to form and establish a free and indejjendent republic, by the name of the 'State of Missouri,' and for the government thereof do ordain and establish this constitu- tion. " The use of the term republic is noteworthy although not imique at that time a.s several other states designated themselv(\s as r(>publics in their constitutions. 66 Chapters in Missouri History Circuit Judges were also appointed by the Governor, with the same tenure of office.^ The people of the counties elected their own sheriff and coroner. According to tradition this constitution was chiefly the work of David Barton, who was the presiding officer of the convention, and who was later one of the first two United. States Senators from Missouri. But there is little foundation for this, the leading spirit in the convention being one Ed- ward Bates. He took the first step towards framing the constitution by moving the appointment of a committee for that purpose. It was decided to divide the work among four committees which should report to a central one. The document thus drawn up by these five comrnittees was then revised by a sixth whose chairman was Bates. In drafting the different articles the committees evidently used the con- stitution of Kentucky as a model, but portions of the consti- tutions of other states were adapted to the needs of Missouri as they were conceived by the convention, and there seems to have been no hesitancy in taking over some desirable features of both northern and southern constitutions. It seems that portions of the constitutions of Delaware, Con- necticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois had been used in the drafting of the Constitution of Missouri. This is particularly true for Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, all of which had been established within four or five years of the drafting of that of Missouri. The first election under this constitution was held August 28, 1820, when Alexander McNair was chosen Gov- ernor, and William Ashley, Lieut. Governor. They assumed office early in September. John Scott who had long been the territorial delegate to Congress, was elected the first repre- sentative to that body. The General Assembly met in St. Louis and elected David Barton and Thomas Hart Benton 1. The Chancellor and Court of Chancery were abolished by a constitutional amendment in 1822. Admission of ^Iissouri 67 to the United States Senate. Barton was elected first and uanimously , l)ut Benton was elected only after a very close and hard race. There seem to have been five men in the race for the second senatorship. Balloting went on for several days- without any result. Barton was then asked to make known his personal preference among the candidates, and he named Benton. Even so the opposition to Benton was still very strong and the prospects for his election were not any brighter. He was finally elected by the bare majority of one. Accord- ing to a story that is told, the last two men who came to his support were Le Due and Ralls. LeDuc was a Frenchman and a representative from St. Louis. He was particularly interested in having Congress confirm the various French and Spanish land claims held by people in Missouri, and when it was told him that these claims would be confirmed if Benton was elected to the Senate, he cast his vote for Benton in spite of his personal opposition to the man. Mr. Ralls, the second of these two men who made Benton's election possible, was at that time lying at the point of death, but the friends of Benton managed to bring the stricken man to the assembly on his bed, whereupon he cast the deciding vote for Benton. At the same session of the General Assembly that elected Barton and Benton United States Senators, St. Charles was made the temporary capital of the State, and a commission was appointed to locate the permanent capital which the constitution of the state had provided should be on the Missouri river within forty miles of the mouth of the Osage. After a long time Jefferson City was chosen by the commis- sion and the first session of the General Assembly was held there in 1826. Altho Missouri had succeeded in organizing herself under her new state constitution l)y September, 1820, she was not admitted into the Union until nearly a year later. The 68 Chapters in Missouri History reason for the delay was the objection that was raised in Congress to a certain chiuse in her newly adopted consti- tution. This clause provided that it should be the duty of the General Assembly to pass such laws as might be necessary to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and settling in Missouri under any circumstances. It is not necessary here to review the debates that took place in Congress over this matter. It will be sufficient to recall that a compromise was finally agreed upon, known as the Second Missouri Compromise, whereby Missouri was allowed to come into the Union with her constitution, pro- vided: first, that the objectionable clause should never be construed by the state to authorize the passage of a law by which any citizen of any of the states of the Union should be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the con- stitution of the United States; and second, that the legisla- ture of the state by a solemn public act should declare the assent of the state to this fundamental condition. It was further provided that when the President should have re- ceived an authentic copy of this solemn public act, he should announce the fact and thereupon the admission of Missouri would be completed. To this condition laid down by Congress, the Legisla- ture of Missouri readily complied in a special session held in June, 1821. But in doing so that body expressed very clearly in its solemn public act its opinion that Congress had no constitutional power whatsoever to prescribe any condi- tion upon the admission of a state into the Union, and that, the General Assembly in passing the act had no power to change the operation of the constitution except in the mode prescribed by the constitution itself. The fact that the Missourians felt they were doing an absurd thing in passing this act and that they realized the humor of the situation, is plainly seen in the language of the act itself. Admission of Missouri 69 An authentic copy of the act having reached President Monroe, he proceeded to announce on August 10, 1821 the admission of Missouri into the Union. References: — Changes in the Territorial Organization, 1804-16, HoucK, History of Missouri, III, 1-33. Petitions for Admission of Missouri and Agitation in Missouri over the Missouri Bill, Houck, III, chap. XXIX, and Hodder. Side Lights on the Missouri Compro- mise, in the Missouri Historical Review, April, 1911. First Constitu- tion of Missouri, Shoemaker, The First Constitution of Missoui i, in Missouri Historical Review, Jan. 1912. CHAPTER VII. PRESIDENTAL ELECTION OF 1820. [To bo used in connection with tiie study of the election of 1820. James ct Suriford, 2S0; Muzzey, 23G; Hart, 306; Montgomery, 292.] The Presidential election of 1820 occurred while the matter of Missouri's admission into the Union was yet pending. As we have seen in a former chapter, Congress had passed a bill early in 1820 which authorized Missouri to draw up a constitution and organize a state government. Acting under this authority the people of Missouri elected a constitutional convention which drafted a constitution and declared it in force, whereupon officers for the state were elected. All of this was done almost two months before the national election in November, 1820. Preparations were made for the people of Missouri to take part in that election, and three electors were chosen who at the proper time cast their votes for Monroe. When the time came for Congress to canvass the results of the election, the question arose at once as to whether Missouri had a right to cast a vote for President or not. The same question had come up in 1817 in regard to Indiana. At the time of the election in 1816, Indiana had not been fully admitted into the Union, but by the time .the votes were counted the admission had been completed. A long debate took place in Congress when the electoral votes were being canvassed and it was finally decided to count Indiana's vote, but no action was taken which would govern like cases which might arise in the future. In the case of Missouri in 1820 the situation was more complicated and perplexing than in the case of Indiana. Not only had Missouri not been admitted into the Union when the election occurred in November, 1820, but she was yet out of it when the time came to canvass the votes. More- 70 Presidential Election of 1820 71 over Congress was at that time discussing the conditions under which Missouri should be admitted, and it appeared doubtful to many as to whether Missouri would ever consent to the conditions that were being discussed. Now Missouri's vote, whether counted or not, would not affect the results of the electioji. Monroe was bound to be elected which ever way Missouri's vote was disposed of. But the situation was embarrassing, nevertheless, because of the unsettled questions about the conditions under which Missouri might be allowed to come into the Union. Congress therefore resorted to a method which left the point yet unsettled. A joint committee of the two houses was appointed to ascertain and report a mode of examining the electoral votes. In its report the committee included a provision to the effect that if any objection was made to the votes of Missouri they should be reported by the President of the Senate in the following manner: "Were the votes of Missouri to be counted the result would be for A. B. for President of the United States .... votes; if not counted, for A. B. for the President of the United States .... votes. But in either event A. B. is elected President of the United States. And in the same manner for Vice-President." The report was debated in both the Senate and the House, and after prolonged discussion which was especially bitter in the House, it was adopted. The votes of Missouri were allowed to be cast in accordance with the prescribed form. References:— Stanwood, History of the Presidency, 115-24. CHAPTER VIII. MISSOURI POLITICS, 1820-1832. [This should be used in connection with the re-election of Jackson in 1832. James & Sanford, :3()9; Muzzey, 285; Channing, 420; Hart, 320; Montgomery, 322.] The political situation through out the United States at the time when Missouri was admitted into the Union was decidedly unique in our national history. There was only one pohtical party in existence, and that was the old Republican party which had been established by Jefferson. The election of Monroe in 1820 was practically unanimous, there being only one electoral vote cast against him. It is not necessary for us to go into detail here regarding the political development that took place during the period frpm 1820 to 1832. It will be sufficient for us to recall that the "era of good feehngs" that prevailed in 1820 was followed, by a period of intense personal rivalry among men of the same party, as is seen in the presidential campaign of 1824 when John Quincy Adams was elected; that by 1828 a beginning was made towards the formation of new parties with Jackson as the leader of one and with Adams of the other; that by 1832 the Democratic and National Republican parties were definitely formed and lined up against each other. The course of Missouri politics during the period from 1820 to 1832 followed that of national politics. In 1820 there were no rival party organizations in Missouri and the three electoral votes of the state were cast in that year for Monroe. The contest for the governorship also lacked party features. It was a contest between two men on the basis of their personal popularity. Alexander McNair was elected by an overwhelming majority of 4,020 votes out of a grand total of 9,132. John Scott was in the same year elected Representative to Congress without any opposi- 72 Missouri Politics, 1820-1832 73 tion at all, and likewise David Barton to the United States Senate. The contest over the second senatorship between Benton and other candidates, which was related in a former chapter, was a purely personal affair. By 1824 the political situation was unchanged. No political parties had been formed and contests for offices were still personal rivalries. The race for Governor was made by Frederic Bates and William H. Ashley on purely personal grounds. Bates was elected, but as he died about a year later, it was necessary to hold a special election to fill out his unexpired term. Four men were candidates, John Miller, David Todd, William C. Carr, and Rufus Eaton. Miller was elected after a campaign marked by very bitter personal rivalries. In the presidential campaign of 1824, Clay, because of his great popularity among the people of Missouri, carried the State by a large vote. But when the election was thrown into the House of Representatives because of the failure of any one of the four candidates to receive a majority of the votes of the electoral college, Clay's name was eliminated by virtue of the constitutional provision which provided that only the three receiving the highest electoral vote should l)p submitted to the House. Clay thereupon urged his supporters to vote for Adams, and so Scott finally consented to cast the vote of Missouri for him. In this decision he was upheld by Senator Barton but opposed by Senator Benton who favored Jackson. Scott) Barton, and Benton had supported Clay in the campaign, but they were divided in their views as to whom they would support after Clay was eliminated from the race. The effects of this division was far reaching as we shall soon see. It will be recalled that the presidential campaign of 1828 began immediately after the election of Adams by the House in 1825. Jackson claimed he was entitled to the election by the House because he had been given the largest 74 Chapters in Missouri History electoral vote, and he vehemently charged Adams and Clay with entering into a corrupt bargain to secure the election of Adams. A party of opposition was therefore formed by Jackson which was known at first as Jackson's party. In Missouri Senator Benton took the lead in organizing this party. He became the logical leader through his sup- port of Jackson in the House contest in 1825. By 1828 the formation of the Jackson party had been effected in Missouri and it was able to signalize its appearance by making a clean sweep in the state on both the national and state tickets. The Jackson electors had been nominated by a convention of his friends in Jefferson City early in the year. The Adams electors were nominated a couple of months later. John Miller was the Jackson candidate for re-election to the Governorship. For some time several Adams men were mentioned as opponents to him, but no one stayed in the race, so that Miller was elected without opposition. Edward Bates sought re-election to Congress on the Adams ticket.^ Opposed to him were William Carr Lane and Spencer Pettis, two Jackson men. It was apparent to every one that if these three men made the race. Bates would be elected. The Jackson men disliked this prospect and they finally arranged to have the matter submitted to Benton with the request that he should decide between the two Jackson candidates as to which one should retire. He promptly declared that Lane should withdraw, and hand bills were thereupon sent out to all parts of the state notifying the people of that fact. Pettis was overwhelmingly elected by a vote of 8,272 as opposed to 3,400 cast for Bates. In the campaign of 1832 Jackson not only carried the state of Missouri for himself against Clay, but he carried the whole Democratic state ticket with him. Dunklin was elected Governor by a majority of 1100 over all other candidates. 1. Bates had been Representative in Congress from Missouri since 1820 when he defeated Scott. Missouri Politics, 1820-1832 75 By that year Missouri was definitely committed to the Democratic party and remained that way until the Civil War broke out. Both the national and state Democratic tickets were elected in the state in every campaign during this interval of nearly thirty years. Meanwhile the men who had opposed Jackson in the House election in 1825 had been completely eliminated from Missouri politics. Scott who had cast the Missouri vote for Adams was defeated for re-election to Congress in 1826, and Barton who had supported Scott in that action was defeated for re-election to the United States Senate in 1830. Barton later sought to defeat Pettis, a Jackson candidate for Congress, in 1832, but failed. He however succeeded in being elected to the State Senate but died very shortly thereafter. References: — Viles, History of Missouri, 89-96; Switzler, History of Missouri, 211-22, passim; Davis & Durrie, History of Missouri, 77-103, passim. CHAPTER IX. THE RAILROADS OF MISSOURI. [Section I of this chapter may be used in connection with the study of the condition of the railroads in the United States in 1850. James & Sanford, 304; Muzzey, 367; Channing, 487; Hart, 392; Mont- gomery, 360.] Section II may be used at the same time as Section I if the teacher should see fit, but if he thinks best to defer it until later, he might take it up in connection with the industrial situations after the Civil War. James & Sanford, 455; Muzzey, 513; Channing, 584; Hart, 302; Montogmery, 482.] Section I. The first railroad that was built in the United States for the purpose of carrying both passengers and freight was the Baltimore & Ohio, the first rail of which was laid on July 4, 1828 by Charles Carroll who was at that time the only surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Originally the cars and coaches on this road were drawn by horses, but in a year or two the locomotive engine was introduced. By 1830 fifteen miles of this road had been completed. Already other roads were being planned and in a few years were under construction, so that by 1850 a little more than 9,000 miles had been built. Notwithstanding all this progress in railroad building throughout the United States, not one mile was constructed in Missouri until 1851, unless a five mile road whose rails and cross ties were built entirely of timber and which extended from Richmond to a Missouri river point opposite Lexing- ton, is counted as a railroad. This road was built it is thought, sometime, between 1849 and 1850, and was operated by horse power. The question naturally arises why Missouri was so long without railroads. The answer to it is to be found first of all in the conservative character of the people in the state. This has been a marked trait of Missourians 76 The Railroads of Missouri 77 throughout their history. Railroads were an innovation in 1830 and the general feeling in Missouri seems to have Ijeen that there should be no haste in introducing them. The bitter experiences which many other states had in pro- moting railroads during the thirties no doubt strengthened this natural conservativeness of the people of Missouri. Even as late as 1847 Governor Edwards said that a campaign of education was needed to make the people appreciate the uses and advantages of macadamized roads, railroads and canals. In the second place, the state was well blest with great natural highways of commerce in the Mississippi and the Missouri and their tributaries. The invention of the steam- boat made these natural highways all the more important and profitable to Missouri. The first steamboat to reach St. Louis arrived in 1816, and the first to ascend the Missouri to Franklin in Howard County made the trip in 1819. The steamboat not only made it easier for the people of Missouri to reach the outside world but also to communicate between different parts of the state. Towns sprang up along the Mississippi and- the Missouri and their tributaries, and though they were not large they did a thriving business. Many of them were connected with the outlying districts by well constructed roads of plank, gravel, or rock which were as a rule toll roads built by private parties or companies. There seems never to have been any interest in the state in the building of canals as was the case in many other states at that time. In the third place, money was lacking to l)uild and operate railroads. The population of Missouri numbered only 140,455 in 1830 and only 323,868 in 1840, and capital for such enterprises was not available among so few people, especially since the most of them were engaged in agricul- ture. It appears also that eastern capitalists, who today furnish so much of the capital necessary to promote the 78 Chapters in Missouri History great enterprises of our country, either were not able to take up railroad building in Missouri or did not consider it to their advantage to do so. From the first it seemed ap- parent to those who were interested in having railroads built in Missouri, that assistance must be secured from either the national or the state government or from both. Inas- much as this government assistance was a long time in materializing, we seem to find here the chief reason for the delay in the beginning of railroad construction in Missouri. It should not be inferred, however, that during these twenty years (1830-1850), no efforts were made to get rail- roads started in Missouri. Agitation for them began rather early and the first step, as far as we know, was taken in 1836. On April 30 of that year the first railroad convention held in Missouri met in St. Louis. It was attended by fifty nine delegates from eleven different counties.^ Resolutions were of course passed in which the advantages of railroads were set forth. Two lines of railroads running out of St. Louis were recommended : one was to go to Fayette by way of St. Charles, Warrenton, Fulton, and Columbia for the purpose of opening up an agricultural region; the other to the valle}' of Bellevue in Washington County, with a branch to at least the Meramec Iron Works in Crawford County, for the .purpose of developing a mineral region. Congress was petitioned to grant 500,000 acres of public lands to encourage these enterprises, and the suggestion was also made that the state of Missouri might well place its credit at the disposal of the companies that would under- take to build these roads. In the fall of the same year in which this convention was held. Governor Boggs in his message to the legislature expressed himself strongly in favor of a general system of 1. These eleven counties were St. Louis, Lincoln, Washington Cooper, Warren, St. Charles, Callaway, Montgomery, Boone. Howard, and Jefferson. The Railroads of Missouri 79 railroad construction. Acting under the inspiration of this recommendation and doubtless of the resolutions of the recent railroad convention, the legislature proceeded to incorporate during the months of January and February, 1837 at least eighteen railroads whose aggregate capital stock amounted to about $7,875,000. These roads were all to be very short, ranging in length from five to one hundred and twenty miles. They were to connect the large country towns with each other or with river points. Ten of the eighteen roads were to be less than twenty-five miles in length. The capital stock of these roads varied from $25,- 000 to $2,000,000 though in most cases the stock ran at $150,000 or less. To appreciate this action of the legislature of Missouri, one must recall that the early thirties were a period of general speculation throughout the whole country, and that the Missouri legislature in chartering railroads so freely was only imitating the example of many other states. But no progress amounting to any thing was ever made towards building these roads, for which no doubt the panic of 1837 was largely responsible. For ten years or more after it had become apparent that none of the railroads that had been incorporated in 1837 would be built, interest in railroads declined to a very low state. The Board of Internal Improvements which had been created by the legislature in 1838 to supervise and control all the state roads, railroads, slack water naviga- tion, and canals that might be authorized by law wherein the state should own or reserve any interests or rights, was abolished in 1845. Moreover, the proceeds that had been realized from the sale of the 500,000 acres of land granted l)y Congress for the purpose of assisting internal improve- ments in Missouri, were divided among the counties of the state to be used in the construction of roads. Wliile the interest in railroads did not die out completely, yet it had 80 Chapters in Missouri History })ocome so low that Governor Edwards said in 1847, as has already been mentioned that it was necessary to begin a campaign of education among the people to get them to see the advisability of doing something to get railroads. It was not until 1850, however, that the people really became thoroughly interested in the matter. The reasons for the revival of interest by that time are obvious. In the first place, the population of the state had more than quadrupled itself in the preceding twenty years. In 1830 it was 140,455; in 1850 it was 682,044. This increase in population had taken place not only in the older portions of the state, that is along the Mississippi and the Missouri, but also in the more inland parts of the state as well. Not only had there been a marked increase in the population of the state by 1850, but the general business of the country had begun to revive from the effects of the panic of 1837, and Missouri shared in the general resumption. Under these circumstances Missourians began to realize that their transportation facilities were insufficient for any notable expanision of trade and commerce. Though the ]VI*ississippi and the Missouri were the natural highways of commerce, navigation was uncertain then as now upon them, especially upon the Missouri and her tributaries, because of the sandy nature of the soil that forms their beds, and as early as 1838 the state had begun to memorialize Congress to appropriate funds toward making these rivers more navigable. More- over, the toll roads that had been built were inadequate except for local purposes. If therefore the resources of the state were to be developed on a large scale and if the commercial interests of St. Louis, the chief trade center of the state and of the Mississippi valley, were to be enhanced, it was evident that better transportation facilities must be secured as soon as possible. The Railroads of Missouri 81 This fact was brought home to the people of Missouri very forcibly by the decline of the Santa Fe trade. From about 1806 to 1840 commercial adventurers from Missouri, especially from St. Louis, had maintained considerable trade by means of pack mules and wagons between Missouri and Mexico. This trade was at its height in 1828, but by 1840 it had practically ceased, and thereafter traders from New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans were making their way to Mexico by way of the Gulf. Not only had Missouri's trade with Mexico been cut off, but the rapid growth of Chicago as a trading point was threatening the commercial interests of St. Louis and the rest of the state throughout the Mississippi valley. St. Louis had a population of 80,081 in 1850 and was at that time the leading manufacturing center in the Mississippi valley. But Chicago was coming on at a markedly rapid pace. It had grown from a mere trading post of 4,470 in- habitants in 1840 to a thriving city of 30,000 in 1850. While it was as yet behind St. Louis in manufactures, having onlj^ about one fourth as much capital invested in them as St. Loui.s, it was well in the lead in commerce. More corn, wool, lumber, and hides were bought and sold in Chicago than in St. Louis. That was partly due to the opening up of the Illinois and Michigan Canal which connected Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, and partly to the construc- tion of several short railroads terminating in Chicago. Realizing the vast commercial benefits that were being derived through these railroads, (Chicago was exerting herself tremendously to have these roads extended so that a larger territory would be reached. It seemed evident that if things kept on going as they had started, St. Louis would lose most, if not all, the trade that .otherwise her natural position would bring her from the Upper Misisssppi and the Illinois countrj'. But there was another bad prospect in store for St. 82 C.'haptek.s in Missouri History Louis. Not onl}' was her t;;ade along the Upper Mississippi and throughout Illinois thus threatened by the railways that were being built out of Chicago, but there was little or nothing being done to increase her trade with the interior of Missouri. Even though the trade with the Upper Miss- issippi and the Illinois rivers was threatened by the rise of Chicago, most of the vessels that reached the port of St. Louis in 1849 came from those rivers and not from the Missouri. The agricultural and mineral resources of the state were not being worked to anything like their fullest capacity, and hence there was no prospect of any great increase in trade with the interior of the state. At the same time that Missourians were beginning to realize the necessity of having railroads, they were also thinking of how the funds for constructing them were to be obtained. It did not seem possible to obtain the amounts necessary from the private capital within the state. Even as late as 1850 the population of the state was only 682,044 and the assessed valuation of their property was onlj^ $89,- 460,803, and inasmuch as the chief industry of the state was as yet agriculture, there was comparatively little available capital for any large enterprises like railroads. Since therefore, it seemed impossible to get the neces- sary funds for railroads from private capital within the state, it was hoped that Congress might do something towards building them. We have seen that the railroad conven- tion held in St. Louis in 1836 had asked Congress to grant 500,000 acres of public land to aid in building the two roads that it proposed. Moreover, similar memorials were sent to Congress at different times thereafter asking for other grants of land. We have also seen that Congress had made an actual grant of 500,000 acres in 1841, which the Missouri legislature voted in 1 845 to dispose of to the counties when it became apparent that, none of the roads that had been chartered in 1837 would be built. The Railroads of Missouri 83 But if there was little in this on which to base any great expectations, there was reason to believe, for a while at least, that Congress would provide for a trans-continental road which would connect the Atlantic and the Pacific, and efforts were made to get Congress to build this road through Missouri. There was a good deal of agitation con- cerning a transcontinental road between 1840 and 1850, and after the acquisition of California and the discovery of gold in that region, this project was talked about more than ever. The question as to where- this line should cross the Mississippi was a vital one, and three different points were proposed, Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin, St. Louis in Missouri and Memphis in Tennessee. People in Missouri were in- terested in having this road pass through St. Louis and across the state and a convention was held in St. Louis in the fall of 1849 to foster that scheme. It was attended by about 1,000 delegates, over one half of whom came, as was natural, from Missouri, and more than one fourth from Illinois. But there were delegates from ten other states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Ken- tucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Louisiana, and Tennessee. As far as practical results are concerned nothing came from this agitation. Senator Benton, it is true, introduced a bill in the senate for the building of a road from St. Louis to San Francisco out of the nation's resources but it got very little consideration. In fact as far as members of Congress showed any interest in a transcontinental railroad at all, they favored a northern route in preference to either of the two southern routes that had Ix^cn proposed. As it appeared that helj) from Congress was not to be had, the feeling grew among Missourians that state aid must be secured in some form or other. The experience which other states had had in attempting to construct and operate railroads as state enterprises or in holding a certain amount of stock in railroads, was such as to make it inad- 84 Chapters in Missouri History visable to do either of these things. Governor King, there- fore, proposed to the legishiture in his message in 1850 that the state should put its credit to the use of the railroads by- way of issuing bonds and lending to them the money realized from the sale of these bonds. In return the railroad companies were to pay an annual interest at the rateof 6% and to pay off the principal in twenty years. The action taken by the legislature, to whom this suggestion was made, indicates that it was most heartily approved. On February 22, 1851 a law was passed which granted aid to two roads, the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the Pacific. To the former there was granted $1,500,000 and to the latter $2,000,000. The Hannibal & St. Joseph, which had been incorporated in 1847, was to connect Hannibal on the Mississippi with St. Joseph on the Missouri. The Pacific, which had been incorporated between 1847 and 1851, was to run from St. Louis to Jefferson City and from thence to the western boundary of the state. Now that the state had entered upon a policy of grant- ing aid to railroads, it was not slow in enlarging upon its plans. By 1860 it had issued bonds in behalf of six different railroads to the extent of $24,950,000. These roads were the Hannibal & St. Joseph, now a part of the Burlington system; the Pacific, now a part of the Missouri Pacific system; the Southwest Branch of the Pacific, now a part of the Frisco system; the North Missouri, now a part of the Wabash system; the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, now a part of €he St. Louis & Iron Mountain system; the Platt6 County, now a part of the Burlington system; the and Cairo & Fulton, now a part of the St. Louis & Iron Moun- tain system. A few words on the history of the granting of these bonds and of the progress made in railroad con- struction up to about 1860 are in order at this point. Very shortly^ after the legislature made its first grant to railroads in 1851 the work of constructing the Pacific The Railroads of Missouri 85 was begun. This road was plann,ed to begin at St. Louis and to extend to the western boundary of the state. The work of construction was inaugurated on July 4, 1851 when Mayor Keflnett of St. Louis threw the first shovelful of dirt. But progress was very slow for sometime, only five miles having been built by the close of 1852. However, the first locomotive used west of the Mississippi was placed upon its tracks about that time, and regular traffic on the few miles that had been built was begun. Meanwhile nothing had been done towards construct- ing the Hannibal & St. Joseph which, as we have seen, had also been given aid by the legislature in 1851 along with the Pacific. If the legislature had seen fit, it could have granted aid to other railroad companies in 1851, as there were a great many applicants for such favors. Although it declined to make numerous or extensive grants at first, the way was opened up for those roads that had received grants to ask for more help and for others to submit their claims for considera- tion. When therefore the legislature met in 1852 it was besougnt to extend further aid to railroads, and in December of that year it authorized the issuing of railroad bonds to the amount of $4,750,000 for the benefit of the North Mis- souri, the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, the Pacific and the Southwest Branch of the Pacific.^ Meanwhile Congress had given substantial encourage- ment to railroads in Missouri in the form of a land grant to the state which was to be used in aiding the construc- tion of the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the Pacific roads. Similar grants for other roads were made at later times. Notwithstanding this liberal patronage of the state 1. The grants of 1851 and 18.52 amounted to $8,2o0,()()0 as follows: Pacific, $:i,000,()00; Southwest Branch, $1,()00,()()(); Hannibal & St. Joseph, .$1,500,000; North Missouri, .12,000,000; St. Louis & Iron Mountain, .17.50,000. 86 Chapters in Missouri History and the national governments, progress in actual con- struction was very slow. It very soon developed that more money was needed to complete them than had l)een anti- cipated at the outset. For one thing it appeared that the actual cost of construction was from thirty to one hundred per cent greater than had been expected. Moreover the bonds that had been issued by the state to the railroads had been sold at a great discount, owing to the scarcity of money. Under these circumstances the railroads asked the legisla- ture in 1855 for further assistance. As was natural people began to ask why greater progress had not been made and why the legislature should be asked to give more help. There was much talk of waste and jobbery, and the legislature provided for an investigating commission which should go into matters and see just what the trouble was. The commission found that of the $8,250,000 which had already been granted to the railroads in bonds of the state, only $4,580,000 had up to that time been actually issued to them, and that that less than one hundred miles of railway were in operation. It also found the different roads in varying stages of construction. The Pacific, which was the only road that had taken up the entire amount of the bond that had been granted to it, was also the only one "that had made anything like real progress, having been con- structed as far as Jefferson City. The North Missouri however, had been built only a little ways beyond St. Charles, • and the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the St. Louis & Iron Mountain had considerable portions under construction but no part completed. The commission also found that the actual cost had been greater than had at first been antici- pated, but it exonerated the companies of any graft in the matter of salaries, engineering expenses, or letting of con- tracts for work or materials. It concluded its report by expressing the hope that the legislature would see its way The Railroads of Missouri 87 clear to extend such further aid as would enable these com- panies to complete the construction of their roads. Acting under the findings and recommendations of this investigating commission, the legislature granted $11,- 000,000 in state bonds to the various railroad companies whereby they might complete what they had begun. ^ At the same time these new grants were made, the legislature provided for a General Board of Pul)li(' Works through whom the state would be able to keep in touch with the workings of the railroads all the time and look after its interests in them. Now that the railroads had secured additional help from the state, the work of construction was taken up again and pushed as rapidly as possible. In fact it is quite evident that some of the work was done in a very hasty and imperfect manner. The Gasconade river bridge disaster of November 1, 1855, on the Pacific is evidence of this haste in construct- tion. On that day an excursion train of ten passenger cars was started from St. Louis to Jefferson City. The road had just been completed to the latter point and the excur- sion was planned in honor of that event. At about noon the train reached the Gasconade river. The stone piers and abutments of the bridge over this river had been com- pleted but the superstructure was as yet unfinished. A temporary superstructure was constructed in order that this train might cross over. It was not strong enough, however, to bear the weight of the heavily loaded train, and most of the cars were dropped into the river. Many men killed outright, among whom were some very promi- nent citizens, and many others were seriously injured. In spite of the fact however that extensive grants had been made to these roads, it was very plain that all of them 1. This grant was distributed as follows: Pacifif and Southwest Branch, $5,000,000; Hannibal & St. Joseph, $1,500,000; North Mis- souri, .|2,00(),()0(); St. Louis & Iron Mountain, $2,250,000; Cairo & Fulton, $250,000. 88 Chapters in Missouri History except the Hannibal & St. Joseph were by the close of 1856 very greatly in need of more money. Once more they appealed to the state legislature for help, and in 1857 a grant was made, this time for $5,700,000.^ This proved to be the last grant made to the railroads by the state. An effort was made in 1860 to get another one but it failed. Thereafter no further attempt was ever made. As has already been said the state of Missouri had by 1860 authorized bonds to the amount of $24-,950,000 in favor of six different railroads, or of seven if the Southwest Branch of the Pacific is counted as a separate road. Thanks to this generosity on the part of the state, which seems to have been inspired by a spirit of speculation almost reckless in character,. 715 miles of railroad track had been laid by 1860. The Hannibal & St. Joseph had been completed early in 1859, and during the same year the North Missouri reached Macon where it touched the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and the St. Louis & Iron Mountain was built to Pilot Knob. Meanwhile the Pacific was completed to Syra- cuse, 168 miles west from St. Louis; but of the other three roads, the Southwest Branch of the Pacific, the Cairo & Fulton, and the Platte County, no portion of any of them had been completed. 1. This amount was distributed as follows: Pacific, $1,000,000; Northwest Branch, $1,500,000; North Missouri, $1,500,000; St. Louis & Iron Mountain, $000,00; Platto County, $700,000; Cairo & Fulton, $400,000. It should be noted that the Platto County Road gotit first grant at this time. The Railroads of Missouri 89 Section II. As might be expected the period of the civil war was one of setbacks and financial difficulties for the rail- roads of Missouri. Much of the disaster that overtook them was due to the war, but even if the war had not broken out it is quite evident from the developments of the years 1859 and 1860 that the railroads were facing bankruptcy. On January 1, 1859 the North Missouri and the St. Louis & Iron Mountain failed to pay the interest due on the bonds that the state had issued in their favor. During 1860 the Pacific, the Southwest Branch, the Cairo and Fulton, and the Platte County likewise defaulted. Only one road, the Hannibal & St. Joseph, continued to meet regularly the interest charges during the civil war period. At no time, however, did the other roads ever resume payment of interest on their state railroad bonds. The causes for the default of these railroads were the lack of traffic, the unproductive character of the land grants that were given them, the excessive cost of construction, and the loose management of finances. In fact the looseness with which the finances of the roads were conducted almost warrants the charge that fraud and corruption were practiced by those in authority. This defaulting of the railroads in the pajrment of interest on their bonds put a very heavy financial burden upon the state inasmuch as the state was compelled to pay the interest herself in order to keep up her credit. This burden was thrown upon her at a time when she needed to save all her strength for a still greater burden that the war was destined to bring. In spite of the fact that all of the railroads but one were defaulting in the payment of interest, the delinquents were actually asking for more help from the state. Not one of them was completed, and inasmuch as the Hannibal 90 Chapters in Missouri History & St. Joseph had been finished in 1859, it was urged that if they could only find the means wherebj^ they could be completed, they too would be able to pay their interest charges. It was out of the question, however, for the state to extend any more aid, but the legislature enacted certain measures which authorized two of the roads, the Pacific and the North Missouri, to borrow money whenever they could find it, and give their creditors mortgages of such a character as to make them, instead of the state of Missouri, naturally the first creditors. From the money that was thus realized from such loans and from bonds issued by St. Louis county, the Pacific was enabled to resume the work of construction in 1865, and by the end of that year the road was completed to Kansas City. The first passenger train from Kansas City to St. Louis made the trip on September 20, 1865. The North Missouri was not as fortunate as the Pacific in borrowing money but it got enough during 1865 to begin the construction of a branch from Moberly to St. Joseph and to begin a bridge across the Missouri at St. Charles. However neither the bridge nor any part of the branch road was completed by the end of that year. The only other roads aside from the Pacific that actually added to their mileage during the war were the Cairo & Fulton and the Platte Country, formerly called the Platte County. But the sum total of mileage constructed during the war period was small, amounting to only 113 miles, 94 of which were on the Pacific. If we take into consideration the financial straits into which the roads had fallen, the actual destruction of many parts of the roads by hostile armies, especially the Pacific and the North Missouri, and the generally unfavorable situation, we are rather amazed that anything was done towards extending the roads at all during this period. The Railroads of Missouri 91 In view of the fact that all of the railroads but the Hannibal & St. Joseph had discontinued paying interest on their state bonds, and that there was no prospect of them ever resuming, notwithstanding the revival of business after the close of the war, the legislature decided to foreclose their mortgages on the roads and apply the proceeds upon the indebtedness of the state. Laws were therefore passed during 1866 and 1868 providing for the sale of the default- ing roads. By March, 1868 all of them were sold and the state's lien on them released. The total amount of the railroad indebtedness of the state on January 1, 1868 in bonds and interest was $31,735,- 840. Of this amount $23,701,000 represented the principal of the bonds ;^ the remainder, $8,034,840, represented the interest. The amount received from the sale of delinquent roads was only $6,131,496. When this amount was applied to the state's indebtedness, it was brought down to $25,604,344. -Perhaps no chapter in the financial history of the state is as shameless as this one on the sale of the railroads. Charges of bribery and corruption were made on all sides, and if no other evidence was available, the way in which the legis- lature pretended to carry on an investigation regarding these charges would be sufficiently conclusive that they were well founded. On March 23, 1868, just a few days after the sale of the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, the Cairo & Fulton, the North Missouri, the Southwest Branch, and the Platte Country roads, and just a few days before the sale of the Pacific, the 'legislature appointed a joint committee of the two houses to investigate the charges of corruption 1. The .state hafl authorized the issuance of bonds to the amount of $24,950,000, as was l)roufi;lit out in an (^arlicr portion of this chajjter, but the North Missouri forfeit(>d .1; 1,100,000 and tlie St. Louis & Iron Mountain $99,000 because of their defaulting in the {jayrnent of interest. In this way the princij)al of the state's indebtedness had been kept down to $23,701,000. 92 Chapters in Missouri History and bribery. While some of the members of this committee had not voted for the releasing of the state's lien on the roads after they had been sold, yet the leaders of the committee were men who had been very energetic in securing that action and who had been all but open agents of the companies that bought up the roads. Moreover the committee was given only one day to gather its information and make its report. Its report, as one might well imagine, was most farcical. However when the sales were made, conditions were imposed upon the purchasing companies which in themselves were very desirable. All of the roads that were sold were unfinished, and the state released her lien upon them on the condition that they should be completed in a given time. The purchasing companies met these conditions, thus add- ing 626 miles of railroads to what had already been built in the state which brought the sum total of mileage up to 1540 miles. For years the state struggled with this heavy railroad indebtedness to which had been added the civil war debt,' but it finally cleared itself of all this burden by 1903. But the experience of the state had been a bitter one, and when the constitution was revised in 1875, it contained a clause which prohibited the use of the credit of the state to assist any private or corporate enterprise whatsoever. Through this provision the state has saved itself from any repetition of the experiences of the fifties and sixties. Notwithstanding all these bitter experiences of the state, there is another chapter in the history of railroads in Missouri that is equally as disgraceful as the one we have just finished. With the restoration of peace on the close of the civil war, there came a great expansion of trade. It was apparent under these conditions that there were not enough railroads in the state. Large sections of The Railroads of Missouri 93 Missouri were without any at all, and the people wanted them very much. Many plans were proposed for supply- ing them, most of which included county and municipal aid. Companies were formed and railroads projected, and coun- ties and cities were asked to issue bonds to assist in the building of these new roads. Many of them voted bonds during the sixties and seventies and issued them to the comp- anies that had been organized. In some cases the roads were built according to the original contract, but in many instances they were not built at all, in spite of the fact that the bonds had been issued to the companies and had been sold by them. The defrauded counties tried to resist the payment of their bonds but the courts decided against them and gave j udgment for the bond holders. There are yet several counties that are struggling with their old debts for railroads that were either never started or never completed, and in many of them there may yet be found the old road beds of some of the unfinished roads. In spite of all these drawbacks and disgraceful features, the railroads have been an indispensable means of developing the resources of the state, and a network of them has been built over the state which in 1911 amounted to 8,108 miles. ^ At present (1914) every one of the 114 counties has at least one railroad of some sort passing through it. It should be noted here that the first railroads built in Missouri were intra-state roads. Up to at least the close of the civil war there was no intention of extending a road begun within the state beyond its borders or of making any of them parts of great inter-state systems. The roads of Missouri were to run from one point to another within the state. The Hannibal & St. Joseph and the Pacific w(Te, for example, to cross the state from the eastern border to the western, the former from Hannibal to St. Joseph and the 1. In the United States there were 244,179 miles in that year. 94 Chapters in Missouri History latter from St. Louis to Kansas City; and the North Missouri, the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, and the Southwest Branch were to radiate from St. Louis in different tlirections to the different borders of the state. But though none of the Missouri roads were to cross the border lines of the state, it was expected that other lines would be built in the neighboring states to the terminations of the Missouri roads and thus give the state connections with the outside world. The first of these connections to be secured was with the east. By 1860 railroads had been built to St. Louis which joined her to Cincinnati, Cleve- land, and Pittsburg, and by 1863 St. Louis was able to reach the Atlantic coast by way of the railroads that were completed in that year between her and C'hicago, the lat- ter place having enjoyed railroad connections with the Atlantic coast since 1853. By 1870 Missouri had increased her railroad connections with the outside world considerably further. From St. Louis, lines had been built that gave her access to such points in the south as New Orleans, Mobile, Nashville, Atlanta, and Charleston, but as yet she was without connections with Arkansas, that part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, and Texas. Other lines had also been built giving her access to such points to the north as Des Moines, St. Paul, and Omaha. Kansas City was by this time coming to be a railroad center in both state and interstate traffic. Many of the new roads in Kansas were built to Kansas City, and con- nections were established with the newly built road to the Pacific coast. By 1880 railroad connections were made between Mis- souri and the great southwest and northwest portions of our country. By means of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas and other roads built through to Texas, a large scope of territory was made commercially tributary to St. Louis and The Railroads of Missouri 95 other trade centers in the state. Since 1880 the railroad connections with the southwest and northwest have been increased and new sections of these regions have been open- ed up to Missouri trade. While this expansion was going on among the railroads in and out of the state, a process of consolidation was also taking place. In fact this consolidation was one of the things that made this remarkable expansion possible. By 1898 twelve companies owned 85% of the railroads of Missouri, and practically all of these twelve companies were parts of interstate systems. References: — There is only one authority on Raihoads in Mis- souri and that is Million, State Aid to Railways in Missouri. Much of this chapter has been taken from it. The Encyclopedia of Mis- souri History contains some articles on Railroads that are fairly good. 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