settle their own intraparty differences, and though they were still partly divided in the June 1 elections for the constitutional convention, by the fall of that year they had patched up their quarrels sufficiently to present a united front to the Republicans in the statehood election of October 13.

It is necessary, in view of their influence upon the coming constitutional convention, to take stock of the parties with a view to ascertaining their composition and the principles for which each stood.12 The Democratic picture of the Republican party of the territory, as expressed in the extravagant newspaper editorials of 1856 and 1857, partakes more of the nature of a caricature than of a portrait, yet it furnishes some excellent clues. In one denunciation after another, the Democratic newspapers held the "Black Republicans" up to scorn as rank abolitionists and "nigger worshippers," exponents of negro equality and negro suffrage. They were sneeringly referred to as "Know-Nothings" but thinly disguised, the sworn enemies of the immigrants from Europe. Their "freedom shrieking" leaders, "political priests and pulpiteers" were pious hypocrites who would regulate every detail of human life and conduct according to their own puritanical notions, let the cost be never so great. In their political methods they were accused of being revolutionists and disunionists, who, in order to realize their fanatical "higher law" beliefs, would destroy American institutions and the very Union itself.

This mordant newspaper characterization gives ample evidence, among other things, of the bitter feeling existing between the two parties in the territory. At the same time it presents, when proper discounts are made for exaggerations, a penetrating view of the original Republican party of Minnesota. The puritanical elements were undoubtedly very strong among the Republicans of the late fifties. A large percentage of the party came from the New England states, bringing with them New England views not of their own day only, but of a century or two earlier. In this New England section of the party, the "Maine law" men and the ministers were fairly numerous and highly influential. These men felt themselves the leaders in a crusade against the debasing immoralities of drink and slavery. Their fundamental principles were abolition and prohibition, yet it would be unfair to accuse them of having had a purely negative and destructive program.

The brief description of the parties here given is applicable to them primarily in the last few years of the territorial period, and is the result of the piecing together of many small bits of information gathered from a variety of sources. The two leading partisan newspapers of St. Paul, the Pioneer and Democrat and the Daily Minnesotian, for the years 1855, 1856, and 1857 yielded a considerable amount of contemporary printed material, and the St. Paul Times was also consulted. Something was learned from the Sibley Papers, the Stevens Papers, the McLeod Papers, and other collections in the manuscript division of the Minnesota Historical Society. The debates of both wings of the constitutional convention were of much value, and particularly at those points where business was set aside while the members told what they knew and thought about the rival organization. In addition, attention may again be called to the works cited in note 36, above.

They were puritans, it may be fairly said, with a social vision. They believed, for instance, that the criminal code should be founded upon the principles of reformation rather than of punishment. Their emphasis was upon education and liberation rather than upon mere repression.

The group of Republicans thus briefly described needs first to be spoken of because in the early years it stood at the front of the party in Minnesota and gave it principles and issues upon which to fight campaigns. In addition to this group, however, other elements soon drifted into the Republican ranks. A number of old-line Whigs, exemplified by ex-Governor Ramsey, after standing aloof and hesitant for a short time, found themselves irresistibly drawn into the new party. The Whigs of Minnesota, insofar as there was such a group, were soon absorbed in the growing and startlingly successful anti-slavery party. In the same way, a few members of the illstarred Know-Nothing party undoubtedly joined the Republicans, though there is evidence that some went also into the Democratic party. Stressing the slavery question above all others, the Republican platform appealed also very strongly to the anti-Nebraska and anti-slavery Democrats. When these began to join the new party in considerable numbers, its success was immediately assured.

It is of some interest to observe the position taken by the new Swedish and German settlers in Minnesota. In the election of members to the constitutional convention on June 1, 1857, the large Swedish settlement in Chisago county went solidly Republican. The Swedes accepted not only the anti-slavery, but also the anti-liquor, and other radical views of the Republican reformers. The Germans, on the other hand, who had settled in the group of counties around the big bend in the Minnesota river southwest of St. Paul, while they strongly opposed slavery, could not accept the prohibition plank of the Republican platform, and when in the election of June 1, 1857, it was secretly whispered about among them that the Republicans were Know-Nothings, the enemies of the foreigners, the Germans voted almost solidly for the Democratic ticket. It was not until the Republicans acquired the political wisdom a few years later to eliminate the "Maine law" principle from their platform that the Germans found it possible to vote for the Republican party.

The platform of this new party was naturally not a very consistent document. Moreover, there were divergent views within the party upon questions not dealt with in the platform adopted. For example, it is clear that the members were divided upon the question of squatter sovereignty, on the giving of full rights of citizenship to foreigners, on negro suffrage, and on prohibition. The one principle which united them was unquestionably opposition to slavery.

If, as in the case of the Republicans above, one were to obtain his view of the Democratic party in the territory from the opposition newspapers.

of the day, he would see in the party of Sibley, Rice, and Gorman, the arch supporters of the nefarious institution of slavery. Editorial writers on Republican newspapers seemed to try to outdo each other in denouncing the Democrats as the slavery party. They seemed totally unable to distinguish the Democrats of the North and particularly the Democrats of Minnesota, from that group of their fellow partisans in the South who had really come to justify negro servitude. In addition to this, however, the Republicans looked upon their opponents as a group of corrupt and immoral Indian agents, fur-traders, and federal office-holders. The name "Mocassin Democrats" was applied as a sort of stigma.

The exact strength of the various elements which made up the Democratic party in the territory is not capable of determination. The leaders among the old settlers seem to have been mainly Democrats, though there were many Whigs among the early lumbermen on the St. Croix. The Irish population of St. Paul was Democratic, and many of the German people of the territory also worked with the Democratic party at this time. Among its leading members were the federal office-holders in the territory, most of the fur-traders, many of the lumbermen, particularly those on the Mississippi, the men of large business in St. Paul and St. Anthony, and in addition a sprinkling of laborers, farmers, and small merchants throughout the territory. On the whole it is probably fair to say that the Democratic party was more representative of the various interests of the territory than was the Republican.

If a map could be drawn of the territory in the year 1857 showing the precise distribution of the Republican and Democratic strength, this interesting fact would undoubtedly appear.13 The Democrats were strong throughout the length and breadth of the newest frontier. The Republicans were later comers and were to be found on the real frontier only on the upper St. Croix river in the Swedish community which has been mentioned. In the main their strength was in the southeastern angle of the territory, extending as far north as the new town of Minneapolis across the river from St. Anthony and as far west as the town of St. Peter. Everywhere else, in the southwestern, western, northern, and northeastern portions of the territory, the Democrats held sway. Far in the northwest the towns of Pembina and St. Vincent together with the other small fur-trading posts in the Pembina country, always sent Democratic delegates to the legislature, and in 1857 to the constitutional convention.

43 See map, p. 76, showing the results of the election of June 1, 1857.

CHAPTER III

PRELIMINARIES OF STATEHOOD.

1. PLANS AND COUNTERPLANS. The rapid settlement and progress of the northwestern country is in nothing better exemplified than in the rapidity with which Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota passed through their period of tutelage as territories. Iowa became an organized territory in 1838; eight years later the state of Iowa was ushered into the Union. Wisconsin was given territorial organization in 1836; the state of the same name could have entered the Union in 1847, and it was only the inability of her people to agree upon a constitution which postponed her admission until 1848. Minnesota traveled the entire route from unorganized territory through the territorial stage to statehood in the course of nine years, from 1849 to 1858.

Viewed in retrospect it would appear that Minnesota was in any event destined to become a state at an early date, and that the transition to statehood, although rapid, must have been an easy and unexciting process. Nothing could be farther from the facts. It was not at all a simple and isolated movement, but on the contrary bound up in a web of personal and party politics arising almost inexplicably out of bitter conflicts among sectional and economic interests. The whole movement, full of color and incident, and covering a period of not over three years, constitutes one of the most dramatic in the history of Minnesota.

It is not the primary object of this study to deal with the political maneuvers of the various groups and parties which accompanied and lent color to the transition of Minnesota from the status of territory to that of state. The politics of the period throw but little light on the contents of the constitution which was adopted. There was all too little discussion of the significant problems of constitution-making Despite all considerations of this kind, however, one is drawn irresistibly into a brief study of the comings and goings, the plans and the counter-plans, of the politicians who guided the early destinies of our state. Whether or not their activities had much influence upon the framework of the government they undoubtedly determined to some extent the time when, and the circumstances under which, statehood was to be achieved. In the pages which follow it will be necessary to look somewhat closely into the activities of the parties and of the smaller more personal groups,―of the governor, the legislature, the delegate in Congress, and of Congress itself; to consider the apportionment for and the elections to the constitutional convention; to determine what relationships, if any, existed between the movement to remove the capital to St. Peter, the effort to have the territory divided by an east and west line, the activities of the land speculators, and the struggle for railroads on the one side, and the move

ment for statehood on the other. If the writer succeeds in giving a picture even partially complete in the following pages, he will feel amply repaid for his efforts.

The Congress of the United States in the fifties did not especially relish the task of appropriating federal funds year after year in increasing amount to the western territories. The sums were, indeed, mere trifles even for those days, yet congressmen were unable to avoid the thought that the thriving young communities on the western frontier could and should pay their own bills. It was particularly irritating to find that the territories incurred obligations in total disregard of congressional appropriations. The original $20,000 set aside for public buildings in Minnesota by the organic act, had to be supplemented by four additional appropriations.1 Territorial legislative expenses regularly exceeded congressional grants; judicial expenses grew by leaps and bounds; and executive officers drew their salaries even when they spent much of their time outside of the territories. The indulgent national government knew, however, when the limits of imposition had been reached. In 1856 there was added a clause to the appropriations for the legislative assembly of Minnesota territory, "that hereafter said compensation, mileage and contingent expenses shall not exceed the sums previously appropriated therefor." In the discussion of this measure, Mr. Campbell of Ohio, chairman of the House ways and means committee, is reported to have thrown out this remark: "I desire in this connection to give a gentle hint to the delegate from Minnesota Territory, that with a population of one hundred and fifty thousand or one hundred and sixty thousand, it is time that territory should make application to come into the Union as a state, and pay its own expenses.' " Early in the next year, the expenses of local sessions of the territorial courts were shifted to the counties. Territorial officers had previously, but without success, been forbidden to collect salaries during their absence from the territory. It was very evident that, from financial considerations alone, Congress was willing enough in 1856 and 1857 to allow Minnesota to become a state.

The new attitude of Congress coincided well with the rising sentiment in Minnesota in favor of statehood. In 1854 there had begun a new movement of people into the territory. With the opening in that year of the railroad from Chicago to Rock Island, the journey became much easier than it had been. The years 1855 and 1856 were years of heavy immigration and great material progress in the territory. It is reported that "the season of 1855 saw 50,000 people in the territory; that number was

1 Stat. at Large, 9:403, 438; 10:243, 292, 609.

2 Ibid., 11:114.

• Pioneer and Democrat, Aug. 19, 1856. This statement could not be found in the Congressional Globe; it may have been uttered in committee.