Historical Review

Historical Review The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI txxxxxxxxxt COVER DESCRIPTION: A recent ac quisition of the State Historical Society is Thomas Hart Benton's lith ograph of "County Politics," com pleted this past summer. The lith ograph is taken from Benton's oil tempra painting of the same subject in the mid-1950s, now in the collec tion of Rita P. Benton. Some of Benton's latest lithographic efforts are included in the exhibit "Mis souri Art: Past, Present and for the Future," presently on display in Society Art Gallery. MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI RICHARD S. BROWNLEE EDITOR MARY K. DAINS ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAMES W. GOODRICH ASSOCIATE EDITOR The MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW is owned by the State Historical Society of Missouri and is published quarterly at 201 South Eighth Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Send communi cations, business and editorial correspondence and change of address to The State Historical Society of Missouri, Corner of Hitt and Lowry Streets, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Second class postage is paid at Columbia, Missouri. The REVIEW is sent free to all members of The1 State Historical VOLUME LXVIII Society of Missouri. Membership dues in the Society are $2.00 a year or $40 for an individual life membership. The Society assumes NUMBER 2 no responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. JANUARY 1974 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of the State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R.S. of Mo., 1959, Chapter 183. OFFICERS 1971-1974 WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington, President L. E. MEADOR, Springfield, First Vice President RUSSELL V. DYE, Liberty, Second Vice President JACK STAPLETON, SR., Stanberry, Third Vice President MRS. AVIS TUCKER, Warrensburg, Fourth Vice President REV. JOHN F. BANNON, S.J., St. Louis, Fifth Vice President SHERIDAN A. LOGAN, St. Joseph, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer RICHARD S. BROWNLEE, Columbia, Director, Secretary and Librarian TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City T. BALLARD WAITERS, Marshfield Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1974 LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia R. I. COLBORN, Paris ROBERT A. BOWLING, Montgomery City W. W. DALTON, St. Louis FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon RICHARD B. FOWLER, Kansas City HENRY A. BUNDSCHU, Independence VICTOR A. GIERKE, Louisiana Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1975 GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis RONALD L. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe L. E. MEADOR, Springfield JACK STAPLETON, SR., Stanberry W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence HENRY C. THOMPSON, Bonne Terre ROBERT M. WHITE, Mexico Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1976 WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington ELMER ELLIS, Columbia JAMES W. BROWN, Harrisonville ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis RICHARD J. CHAMIER, Moberly JAMES OLSON, Kansas City WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton T. BALLARD WAITERS, Marshfield EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-seven Trustees, the President and the Secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and President of the University of Missouri constitute the Executive Committee. FINANCE COMMITTEE Five members of the Executive Committee appointed by the President, who by virtue of his office constitutes the sixth member, compose the Finance Committee. ELMER ELLIS, Columbia, Chairman WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville T. BALLARD WAITERS, Marshfield plSlSllllgl^^ NEW SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS 1 The State Historical Society of Missouri is always interested in obtaining new members. For more than seventy years thousands of Missourians who have be longed to the Society have been responsible primarily for building its great research collections and libraries. They have given it the support which makes it the largest organization of its type in the United States. The quest for interested new members goes on continually, and your help is solicited in obtaining them. In every family, and in every community, there are individuals who are sincerely interested in the mIj collection, preservation and dissemination of the his m tory of Missouri. 1 Why not nominate these people for membership? Annual dues are only $2.00, Life Memberships $40.00. wi Richard S. Brownlee Director and Secretary State Historical Society of Missouri Hitt and Lowry Streets Columbia, Missouri 65201 1 § AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE I The editorial staff of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL RE VIEW asks that members of the State Historical Society §1 | of Missouri, who are moving or have moved to a new i § location, please inform the Society of changes of address, as soon as possible. To remail a returned issue of the REVIEW under new | postal rates is very expensive. In addition to eliminating m this costly procedure, the immediate notification of a change of address will enable the member to receive the I REVIEW at an earlier date. Changes of address should be sent to: m State Historical Society of Missouri Corner of Hitt and Lowry Streets Columbia, Missouri 65201 CONTENTS RIOT AND REACTION IN ST. LOUIS, 1854-1856. By John C. Schneider 171 ''YOURS VERY TRULY, THOS. T. CRITTENDEN": A MISSOURI DEMOCRAT'S OBSER VATIONS OF THE ELECTION OF 1896. By P. Joseph Powers 186 "THE PUBLIC IS AROUSED": THE MISSOURI CHILDREN'S CODE COMMISSION, 1915- 1919. By Peter Romanofsky 204 THE SOCIETY OF BETHEL: A VISITOR'S ACCOUNT. By LI. Roger Grant 223 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Society Celebrates 75th Anniversary 232 Editorial Policy 235 Views from the Past: Missouri Courthouses 236 Local Historical Societies 238 Gifts 248 Missouri History in Newspapers 253 Missouri History in Magazines 256 Graduate Theses Relating to Missouri History 258 In Memoriam 259 Erratum 260 BOOK REVIEW 261 BOOK NOTES 263 OLD MCKENDREE CHAPEL Inside Back Cover Riot and Reaction in St. Louis 1854-1856 BY JOHN C. SCHNEIDER* In the 1840s and 1850s St. Louis shared with most other large American cities the experience of political nativism. A native- American movement made substantial inroads into the city govern ment in the mid-1840s, and city politics continued thereafter to reflect the division between the native-born and the large numbers of Irish and Germans pouring into St. Louis. A new peak was reached in 1854 when a Know-Nothing society was organized and then sought to increase the political fortunes of antiforeignism by endorsing a slate of candidates for the state and congressional elections in August. As it turned out, many of the Know-Nothing choices were also candidates on the Whig ticket, reflecting the *John C. Schneider received the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He is assistant professor of History at the Uni versity of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he teaches American urban history and American history in the Jacksonian era. 171 172 Missouri Historical Review deterioration of the Whig party as a consequence of the current Kansas-Nebraska debate and the slavery issue. The Democrats, who had traditional ties to the Irish and German elements in the city, took the counteroffensive as soon as the Whig-nativist fusion became clear.1 The principal contest in the city was the congressional race between the Whig, Luther Martin Kennett, and the renowned Democrat, Thomas Hart Benton. As the campaign wore on, Ken neths candidacy on both the Whig and Know-Nothing tickets came in for sharp attacks from the Democrats, who contended that he was trying to cater to nativists as well as to the foreign-born within traditional Whig ranks. Kennett had been a native-American St. Louis alderman in the mid-1840s and an Irish-courting Whig mayor from 1850 to 1853, and the Missouri Democrat accused him of "having changed his forefathers so often there is no telling how long he will remain an American." The Whig press concen trated much of its attack on Heinrich Boernstein, the editor of the city's anti-Kennett German daily, the Anzeiger des Western. Boern stein was a Forty-Eighter who argued on behalf of religious tol erance and the customs of the immigrants. A local Whig paper characterized him as a radical trying to Germanize St. Louis. "The American people/' boasted the Missouri Republican, "will not stand innovations upon their rights, their principles, their institutions."2 As the election approached, tactics became more desperate. The Democrat charged that there was a purposeful delay by the judge in charge of issuing naturalization papers to immigrants in an effort to minimize the potential Democratic vote. The paper went out of its way to publicize the closing date for the filing of natural ization applications, thereby advertising the close link it assumed between the Democratic vote and recent immigration. The Ken nett forces countered that the Democrats would ultimately herd illegal immigrant voters to the polls, and there was a call for volunteers to watch the polls and protect "the purity of the ballot box." As a further precaution, the Republican announced it was drawing up a list of unnaturalized aliens for the use of the election judges. i George McHugh, "Political Nativism in Saint Louis, 1840-1857" (un published Master's thesis, St. Louis University, 1939), 1-99; St. Louis Daily Mis souri Democrat, June 29, August 7, 1854. 2 Ibid., July 11, 27, 31, August 1, 3, 5, 1854; St. Louis Daily Missouri Re publican, July 28, 30, August 2-5, 1854. On Boernstein, see Carl Wittke, The German-Language Press in America (Lexington, Ky., 1957), 95. Riot and Reaction in St. Louis, 1854-1856 173 Talk of possible violence, especially by the Republican, only served to fuel the notion that indeed there would be violence. City authorities, however, remained compla cent and there seemed to be no special precautions taken for the election except for the usual few extra policemen to watch over the polls.

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