Missouri Historical Review
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HISTORICAL REVIEW rULY 1962 T. H. Benton's "Huck Finn' Published Quarterly By The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of this State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R. S. of Mo., 1949, Chapter 183. OFFICERS 1959-1962 E. L. DALE, Carthage, President L. E. MEADOR, Springfield, First Vice President WILLIAM L. BRADSHAW, Columbia, Second Vice President GEORGE W. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe, Third Vice President RUSSELL V. DYE, Liberty, Fourth Vice President WILLIAM C. TUCKER, Warrensburg, Fifth Vice President JOHN A. WINKLER, Hannibal, Sixth Vice President R. B. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Columbia, Secretary Emeritus and Consultant RICHARD S. BROWNLEE, Columbia, Director, Secretary, and Librarian TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City L. M. WHITE, Mexico Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1962 F. C. BARNHILL, Marshall ROBERT NAGEL JONES, St. Louis FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Columbia HENRY A. BUNDSCHU, Independence WILLIAM C. TUCKER, Warrensburg W. C. HEWITT, Shelbyville ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1963 RALPH P. BIEBER, St. Louis LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville BARTLETT BODER, St. Joseph W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence L. E. MEADOR, Springfield JACK STAPLETON, Stanberry JOSEPH H. MOORE, Charleston HENRY C. THOMPSON, Bonne Terre Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1964 WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton FRANK LUTHER MOTT, Columbia ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis GEORGE H. SCRUTON, Sedalia GEORGE FULLER GREEN, Kansas City JAMES TODD, Moberly ROBERT S. GREEN, Mexico T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The thirty 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 of the Society at each annual meeting of the Executive Committee constitute the Finance Committee. L. M. WHITE, Mexico, Chairman ELMER ELLIS, Columbia GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City W. C. HEWITT, Shelbyville T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield Missouri Historical Review RICHARD S. BROWNLEE JAMES E. MOSS Editor Assistant Editor Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI VOL. LVI JULY 1962 No. 4 The Missouri Historical Review is published quarterly at 119 S. Elson Street, Kirksville, Missouri. Send communications and change of address to The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. Second class postage is paid at Kirksville, Missouri. The Review is sent free to all members of The State Historical Society of Missouri. Membership dues in the Society are $1.00 a year or $20 for a life membership. The Society assumes no respon sibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. CONTENTS Page WORTHY OF THE STEEL OF OUR BEST. By Elbert B. Smith 315 COATES' TALES. By Janet Loring 319 OLD WOMAN RIVER. By Rudolph J. Gerber 328 BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, AND LIBRARIES IN PIONEER ST. LOUIS, 1808-1842. By Eleanora A. Baer 347 FROM JAIL TO HISTORY CENTER. By W. Howard Adams 361 RATIFICATION SPEAKING IN MISSOURI IN 1800. By A. L. Thurman, jr 305 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Members Active in Increasing the Society's Membership 380 New Members in the Historical Society 381 Missouri News 380 Local Historical Societies 391 Anniversaries 398 Honors and Tributes 398 Monuments and Memorials 401 Notes 401 Obituaries 400 Historical Publications 409 MISSOURI HISTORY NOT FOUND IN TEXTBOOKS 415 THE DANIEL BOONE HOME Verso Back Cover THOMAS EWING Back Cover THE COVER: In 1930 Thomas Hart Benton completed the mural in the State Capitol at Jefferson City depicting the social history of Missouri. The mural contains some 45,000 square feet involving several hundred figures. The reproduc tion on the cover entitled "Huck Finn" is taken from a Benton lithograph made from a detail of his mural. The lithograph typifies the artist's interest in the indigenous folk lore of his native Missouri, and shows his distinctive concern for the characteristic anatomy of those who do physical labor. It demonstrates his wit, earthiness and preoccupation with easily communicated symbolism, while at the same time it reveals his knowledge and control of compositional qualities such as his rich use of Renaissance chiaroscuro. Benton's comprehension of the formal elements of art is highly sophisticated and complex, and through it all there emerges a dramatic and poetic quality. A copy from the lithograph now hangs in the State Historical Society of Missouri. (See also page 398.) WORTHY of the STEEL of OUR BEST Sid Larson Illustration BY ELBERT B. SMITH* Frank P. Blair As the one hundredth anniversary of the Civil War is com memorated, most Americans remember Generals Grant, Lee, Sheridan, Sherman, and Stonewall Jackson with equal pride as the national heroes of a united people. Indeed, in recent years the leaders of the South have if anything attracted more sentimental and sympathetic interest than their victorious opponents. The brave losers who acquit themselves with honor against great odds have been universally appealing subjects in the dramatic and romantic literature of every age, and the heroes of the fallen South have been no exception. A Union General from Missouri predicted publicly in 1869 that this would be so, but his prophecy at the time brought only a roar of indignant anger and disbelief from his Northern audience. On July 9, 1869, the Stetson Hotel at Long Branch, New Jersey, was the scene of a great banquet for the officers of the Union Army and Navy who had served in the Department of the Gulf. Numer ous generals and admirals, both military and political, were among the 125 officers gathered to organize a permanent association and launch their undertaking with a gay dinner. A throng of invited guests, including hundreds of ladies, was also present. At the business meeting Admiral David Farragut was elected president. The numerous vice presidents chosen included Admiral Theodorus Bailey and Generals William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, Nathan iel Banks, and Benjamin F. Butler. *Elbert B. Smith, Ph.D., is associate professor of history at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. 315 316 Missouri Historical Review It was a harmonious gathering of heroes and hero worshippers met to enjoy each other. The decorations were colorful; the food, champagne, and cigars excellent. Introductions were punctuated and followed by long and lusty cheers. The evening was destined, however, to produce at least one shocking surprise. As the eating gave way to the popping of champagne corks which signified the beginning of speeches and toasts, General Frank P. Blair, seated next to General Sheridan, slumped nonchalantly with his feet on another chair. He had been invited only at the last second when someone had discovered that he was visiting in the vicinity on other business. As the toastmakers began to unfold their heroic narra tives, observers noticed General Blair's cigar puffing at an ever more furious rate. Some remembered later that there was a wild gleam in his eye. Others had been certain all along that he was thoroughly intoxicated. At least one felt that "the overcharged clouds never gave a surer evidence than did the smile on the face of Frank Blair."1 General Blair was no ordinary soldier. Son of the radical editor of President Andrew Jackson's official newspaper, Frank Blair was a firebrand all his life. After eleven weeks at the University of North Carolina he was expelled for a list of offenses which included 32 absences from class, 31 absences from prayers, and three irreverences during the prayers he did attend. His brief career at Yale ended because of unsavory associations and certain broken windows in the rooms of a tutor.2 He finally graduated from Princeton. He was roaming the West with the mountain men when the Mexican War began and served as the first Attorney General of the New Mexico Territory. Then, established in the St. Louis law office of his father's friend, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, Frank Blair turned Missouri politics upside down. As a free-soiler in a slave state lie was shot at in the streets and denounced as a traitor, but he won election to Congress in 1856. There he dramatically urged the South to stop agitating for slave rights in the territories and called for gradual emancipation with repatriation for the slaves to South America or Africa. When the Civil War began, Blair and General Nathaniel Lyon seized the federal arsenal at St. Louis and captured the army camp established by the secessionist Governor, Claiborne Jackson. Frank Blair probably did more than any other person to save Missouri for the Union. 1Neiv York Tribune, July 10, 1809. Collection of clippings from the Tribune, the New York World, the New York Times, and the New York Sun, July 10-14, 1869, in the Blair Collection, New York Public Library. 2Reports from Yale University, January 6, 1838, and the University of North Carolina, June 21, 1831), to Francis P. Blair, Sr., Blair - Lee MSS, Princeton University Library. Worthy of the Steel of Our Best 317 A great favorite of President Abraham Lincoln, Blair played a dual wartime role as major general and legislator. In numerous battles he fought with reckless courage, and both Grant and Sher man considered him a military man of the first rank. He also made occasional trips to Washington, where he denounced the President's enemies and rivals in Congress with speeches as withering as the gunfire at Vicksburg. When the war ended, Frank Blair turned away from the political rewards being lavished on heroes willing to cooperate with the vengeful process of radical reconstruction.