THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Volume XV October, 1920 Number 1 MISSOURI CENTENNIAL NUMBER CONTENTS. Page T|he Travail of Missouri for Statehood 1 WALTER B. STEVENS Missouri in 1820. .• 36 JONAS VILES A Century of Journalism in Missouri............ 53 W. V. BYABS A Century of Missouri Literature 74 ALEXANDER NICOLAS DIMBNII A Century of Transportation in Missouri 126 EDWARD J. "WHITE Labor and Industry in Missouri During the Last Century..'. 163 LEE MERIWETHER 1 Social Customs and Usages in Missouri During the Last Century 176 MARY ALICIA OWEN Social Reform in Missouri During the Last Cen­ tury,. 1....... 191 GEORGE B. MANGOLD Historical Notes and Comments 214 Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. XV October, 1920 No. 1 MISSOURI CENTENNIAL NUMBER CONTENTS. Page The Travail of Missouri for Statehood 1 WALTER B. STEVENS Missouri in 1820. 36 JONAS VILES A Century of Journalism in Missouri 53 W. V. BYARS A Century of Missouri Literature... * 74 ALEXANDER NICOLAS DEMENIL A Century of Transportation in Missouri 126 EDWARD J. WHITE Labor and Industry in Missouri during the Last Century. 163 LEE MERIWETHER Social Customs and Usages in Missouri during the Last Century. '. 176 MARY ALICIA OWEN Social Reform in Missouri during the Last Century 191 GEORGE B. MANGOLD Historical Notes and Comments 214 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, $50.00; 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 postofftce at Columbia, Missouri, under the Act of Congress, Oct. 3, 1917, Sec. 442." CONTRIBUTORS. WALTER B. STEVENS, author and journalist, is the most popular historical writer in Missouri. Mr. Stevens has over a score of books to his credit and is now compiling a Centennial History of Missouri. He has held sev­ eral important public positions, including the Secretaryship of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis. He is president of the State Historical Society. His home is in St. Louis. 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 number of monographs *pn Missouri history, the latter having been pub­ lished in the Review. He is the most critical scholar in that fleM. WILLIAM VINCENT BYARS, author and journalist, is one of the ablest Missouri writers of today. He has produced both prose and poetry. He has has served on various newspapers and journals for forty-three years, having been associated with the leading St. Louis dailies, The New York Evening World, and Harper's. His home is in Maplewood, Missouri. ALEXANDER NICOLAS DEMENIL, literary editor and author is a native Miss- ourian, descendant from the founders of St. Louis. He holds degrees, including a Ph.D., from Washington University, Central University, and Christian Brothers* College. He is best known for his high standing as a literary critic. He is the author of several works, numerous magazine contributions, and is editor of the Hesperian. EDWARD J. WHITE, lawyer and author, is a native Missourian. He re­ ceived the degree of LL.B. from the University of Missouri. Since 1903 he has been connected with the legal department of the Misspuri Pacific Rail­ way and today holds the positions of vice-president and general solicitor. He is the author of a number of books on legal subjects. LEE MERIWETHER, lawyer and author, is an authoriy on American and European labor conditions. He has been employed by the U. S. Department of Interior and has served as Labor Commissioner of Missouri. He has traveled extensively in Europe for over a quarter of a century. Mr. Meri­ wether is the author of a number of works recounting his experiences abroad. MARY ALICIA OWEN, author and authority on folk-lore, is a native of St. Joseph, Missouri. Her researches in Voodoo magic and in Indian tribal customs give her a commanding position among scholars. Miss Owen is the author of a number of monographs and is a member of all prominent organiza­ tions covering her field. She is president of the Missouri Folk-Lore Society. GEORGE B. MANGOLD, of St. Louis, is director of the Missouri School of Social Economy of the University of Missouri. He holds degrees from Cornell College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin. From the latter he received his Ph.D. He is the author of several works in his field, and is an authority on social work. (2) THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW VOL. XV, No. 1 COLUMBIA OCTOBER, 1920 The Travail of Missouri for Statehood. BY WALTER B. STEVENS. "But the agony is over and Missouri is born into the Union, not a seven months baby but a man child; his birth no secret in the family, but a proud and glorious event, pro­ claimed to the nation with the firing of cannon, the ringing of bells and illumination of towns and cities." In this enthusiastic spirit the St. Louis Enquirer, of March 29, 1820, commented on the passage by Congress of the Missouri statehood act. The Enquirer was the paper for which Benton wrote. Two years and two months had elapsed since Missouri's petitions for admission to the Union had been presented to Congress. In a way congratulations were premature, for a year and four months were to pass before President Monroe's tardy proclamation announced that "the admission of the said State of Missouri into this Union is declared to be complete/' As early as the fall months of 1817, petitions were being circulated by men of influence in Franklin, St. Charles, Her- culaneum, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, St. Louis. They were "from sundry inhabitants of the Ter­ ritory of Missouri praying that said territory may be admitted to the Union on an equal footing with the original states.'' The movement was timely. Across the river, Illinois, supposed Editor's Note: The Review is not responsible for opinions and conclusions advanced by its contributors. (3) 4 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. to be some thousands smaller in population, was asking state­ hood. Seven states had been added to the original thirteen. Missouri was growing faster than any of them. Rev. John Mason Peck wrote in his "Memoir:" "The newcomers, like a mountain torrent, poured into the country faster than it was possible to provide corn for bread-stuff. Some families came in the spring of 1815; but in the winter, spring, summer and autumn of 1816, they came like an avalanche. It seemed as though Kentucky and Tennessee were breaking up and moving to the 'Far West/ Caravan after caravan passed over the prairies of Illinois, crossing the 'great river' at St. Louis, all bound for Boone's Lick. The stream of immigration had not lessened in 1817." On the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1818, the petition of the "sundry inhabitants of the Ter­ ritory of Missouri" was presented to Congress. That same month the petitions from Illinois were presented. Before the end of that session Congress had passed the necessary legislation for Illinois. The convention met in Kaskaskia and framed a constitution. Illinois was, in December, 1818, a state. But Missouri waited—waited from January 8, 1818, to March 6, 1820, for the first formal answer to her prayer. In the meantime, a game of national politics went on. Ala­ bama put in a plea for statehood and it was granted. When the Union was formed there were seven free and six slave states. After that the policy was to admit alter­ nately a slave state and a free state. Thus was to be main­ tained a compromise balance of power. Missouri's peti­ tions upset it. Senate and House wrangled long, the Senate willing to admit without restrictions; the House, having a majority, insisting on conditions as to slavery. Tallmadge of New York offered a resolution to make Missouri gradually a free state. This provision was that no more slaves should be admitted to Missouri and that all children born of slaves then in Missouri should be free at twenty-five years of age. The House adopted the resolution. The Senate refused to concur. There was much talk and vain effort to compromise. BOUNDARY OF MISSOURI AS FIRST BOUNDARY Ol- MISSOURI AS SUGGESTED BYTHfc SUGGESTED''IN 1817 TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE IN 1S18. I'M 111 Houck's Hist, of Mo , I ;. From Houck's Hist, of Mo., I. 5. U A rn ^\. K^ r/ %^ m tr fl 1 -1 jl—J] r 2 ;.. .1, t» il& it 1 BOUNDARY OF MISSOURI AS ADOPTED BY BOUNDARY OF MISSOURI WITH THE PLATTE CONGRESS IN 1820. PURCHASE ADDED. From Houck's FTist. of Mo., I. 6. From Houck's Hist, of Mo., I. 12. TRAVAIL OF MISSOURI FOR STATEHOOD. 5 Arkansas territory was created, but the Fifteenth Congress adjourned March 4, 1819, with Missouri waiting. Tallmadge and Taylor were two northern members who led the fight to make Missouri an addition to the list of free states. At the celebration on the Fourth of July, 1819, in St. Louis, Missourians paid their respects to these two states­ men in this toast: "Messrs. Tallmadge and Taylor—Politically insane.— May the next Congress appoint them a dark room, a straight waistcoat and a thin water gruel diet." The toast was drank and the newspaper report says it was "followed by nineteen cheers and the band played Yankee Doodle." Along the Mississippi and up the Missouri, resentment toward Congress spread.