Ti MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVI EW
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Ti MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVI EW, CONTENTS Missourians and the Nation During the Last Century Champ Clark Missouri Centennial Exposition Donald D. Davis A Guide to the Study of Local History and the Collec tion of Historical Material Jonas Viles and Jesse E. Wrench Missourians in Japan S. H. Wainwright The Missouri and Mississippi Railroad Debt E. M. Violette The Followers of Duden William G. Bek Shelby's Expedition to Mexico John N. Edwards Historical Notes and Comments Historical Articles in Missouri Newspapers STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY oF MISSOURI THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. XV April, 1921 No. 3 CONTENTS. Page Missourians and the Nation During the Last Century.... 433 CHAMP CLARK Missouri Centennial Exposition 449 DONALD D. DAVIS A Guide to the Study of Local History and the Collection of Historical Material 453 JONAS VILES AND JESSE E. WRENCH Missourians in Japan 468 S. H. WAINWRIGHT The Missouri and Mississippi Railroad Debt 487 E. M. VIOLETTE The Followers of Duden 519 WILLIAM G. BEK Shelby's Expedition to Mexico 545 JOHN N. EDWARDS Historical Notes and Comments 561 Historical Articles in Missouri Newspapers 580 FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Editor The Missouri Historical Review is published quarterly. The sub- scription price is $1.00 a year. A complete set of the REVIEW is still obtainable—Vols. 1-14, bound, $60.00; unbound, $30.00. Prices of separate volumes given on request. All communications should be addressed to Floyd C. Shoemaker, Secretary, The State Historical So ciety of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. "Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Columbia, Missouri, under the Act of Congress, Oct. S, 1917, Sec. W" CONTRIBUTORS CHAMP CLARK (deceased), author and statesman, was one of the best known and beloved Missourians of his generation. His long public service, his ability as an orator, his preeminent position as Speaker of the IT. S. House of Repre sentatives, and his authorship, made him a national figure. His article on "Missourians and the Nation During the Last Century" was specially pre pared for The Missouri Historical Review and was submitted in January. It is, perhaps, Mr. Clark's last piece of public writing and as such deserves to be cherished by all. DONALD D. DAVIS, newspaper and advertising writer, is a graduate of the University of Kansas. (A. B.) He is head of the department of sales promo tion and advertising for the Hugh Stephens Company, Jefferson City. JONAS VILES, author and teacher, is a native of Massachusetts. He re ceived his Ph. D. from Harvard University. Since 1901 he has taught in the University of Missouri. Dr. Viles is the author of several works and of a num ber of monographs on Missouri history, the latter having been published in $he Review. He is the most critical scholar in that field. JESSE E. WRENCH, teacher, is a native of New York. He received his A. B. from Cornell University. Since 1911 he has taught in the history de partment of the University of Missouri. S. H. WAINWRIGHT, clergyman and author, is a Missourian by adoption and rearing. He is one of the leading American divines in the Orient, hav ing resided there almost continuously since 1888, in connection with the Board of Foreign Missions. He holds the position of general secretary of the Chris tian Literature Society of Japan. His address is Tokyo, Japan. E. M. VIOLETTE, author and teacher, is professor of history in Washington University in St. Louis. Until this school year he held a similar position in the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College at Kirksville, with which in stitution he had been connected for twenty years. Prof. Violette is the author of several historical works, his latest compilation being A History of Missouri. He has contributed a number of valuable articles to The Missouri Historical Review, and has done much in the. cause of State history. WILLIAM G. BEK, a native Missourian, is head of the department of Ger manic languages in the University of North Dakota. His contributions, brochures and translations relating to German settlements in the United States place him among the highest authorities in this line of historical research. His translation of "Duden's Report," lately published in the Review, is re garded by scholars as one of the most important contributions to western history that has appeared in recent years. JOHN N. EDWARDS (deceased), one of the most widely known journalists of Missouri, was a member of Shelby's expedition to Mexico. He is regarded by some competent authorities as having been the greatest master of journalistic writing that the State has produced. (432) MISSOURIANS AND THE NATION DURING THE LAST CENTURY By Champ Clark. MISSOURIANS IN THE SENATE. When Gov. Benjamin Gratz Brown, one of the most brilliant of all Missouri statesmen, on an historic occasion said, "Missouri is a grand State and deserves to be grandly governed," he uttered an immortal truth. He might have added, with equal veracity, "She deserved to be grandly repre sented in the Congress of the United States," and she has been in the main, particularly in the Senate, where paucity of mem bers and length of tenure more surely fix a man in the public eye than service in the House. First and last, Missouri has commissioned 26 different men to represent her in the less numerous branch of the National Legislature, in the Chamber of the Conscript Fathers, in "the Upper House of Congress," improperly so called, or, as Senator Morgan, of Alabama, would have it, "ambassadors of a sovereign State" to the Federal Government. Beginning with David Barton and Thomas Hart Benton, her pioneer Senators, who at once attracted general attention and chal lenged universal admiration by reason of their commanding talents, down to this very hour, when, in the person of James A. Reed and Selden P. Spencer she holds high position in that conspicuous arena, Missouri has taken second place to none of her sister States. These 26 Senators naturally divide themselves into two classes—the Barton line and the Benton line, 18 of the former and only 8 in the latter. In the Barton line are Barton himself, Alexander Buckner, Lewis F. Linn, David R. Atchison, James S. Green, Waldo P. Johnson, Robert Wilson, Benjamin Gratz Brown, Charles D. Drake, Daniel T. Jewett, Francis P. Blair, Lewis V. Bogy, (433) 434 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. David H. Armstrong, James Shields, George G. Vest, William Joel Stone, Xenophen P. Wilfley and Selden P. Spencer. In the Benton line are Benton himself, Henry S. Geyer, Trusten Polk, John B.Henderson, Carl Schurz, Francis Marion Cockrell, William Warner and James A. Reed. Lucky the man who gets into Barton's seat; luckier, far luckier, the man who secures that of Thomas H. Benton, as the precedents indicate a longer public life for him. An examination of the dates at which Missourians entered and left the Senate will disclose two curious facts in Missouri history. She is the first state that ever elected two men for five full consecutive terms to the Senate of the United States—"six Roman lustrums," as Benton was wont to boast in his pompous way. These were Benton and Cockrell. The only other state to do that is Maine, Missouri's political twin. Missouri was the first State that had only one Senator for any considerable length of time through failure to elect another. By reason of the unrelenting warfare between the Bentonites and the anti-Bentonites the legislature chosen in 1854 never could and never did elect a Senator, as it was in duty bound to do, so that for two entire years Henry S. Geyer was Mis souri's only Senator. What is more, the governor did not appoint or attempt to appoint anyone to fill the vacancy, nobody then dreaming that the governor had such power. But in these later days several States have followed Missouri's example in failing to elect Senators, and, strange to say, divers governors have insisted on the right to fill vacancies by appointment under similar circumstances, until finally the Senate, after lengthy and ponderous debate, solemnly vindicated the wisdom and knowledge of constitution law possessed by the governor of Missouri in 1855 and 1856, Sterling Price, by declaring that a governor has no right to make such aid interim appointment under such circumstances. Of Missouri's 26 Senators there were 18 Democrats, 1 Whig and 7 Republicans. Of 198 years of senatorial repre sentation to which she has been entitled, 2 were not used, 6 fell to Whigs, 29 to Republicans and 161 to Democrats. s.'uutJ-t U- MISSOURIANS AND NATION DURING LAST CENTURY. 435 The roster of Missouri Senators is an array of names of which the Nation, no less than the State, may well be proud. There are many great men—scarcely a small one—in the list. Missouri is proud of her immeasurably physical re sources, which will one day make her facile princeps among her sisters; but there is something else of which she is prouder still, and that is her splendid citizenship, consisting at this day of nearly 4,000,000 industrious, intelligent, patriotic, progressive, law-abiding, God-fearing people. When questioned as to her riches she could with propriety imitate the example and quote the words of Cornelia, the mother of the heroic Gracchi, and, pointing to her children, say truthfully and pridefully, "These are my jewels." MISSOURIANS AND THE PRESIDENCY AND THE CABINET. While Missouri has never had a President, Vice-President or Judge of the Supreme Court, she has been reasonably lucky in the matter of having her sons for Cabinet officers.