Ch. 1 Missouri Almanac, Pgs. 11-54
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CHAPTER 1 Missouri Almanac “Feminine Support” (Missouri State Archives, Putman Collection) History in Hand: Four Pivotal Missouri Elections Missouri State Capitol, c1860s. (Missouri State Archives) HISTORY IN HAND: FOUR PIVOTAL MISSOURI ELECTIONS 13 Introduction Political cynics charge that hopes of aligning the state with elections do not mean very southern slaveholders, but died much. The more things change, in an Arkansas exile, his state the more they stay the same. self-destructing in vicious gue- “Here comes the new boss, same rilla warfare. as the old boss,” the rock band, People make history, but not The Who sang in their 1971 always as they choose. Even so, song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” things can be changed, and for Today, the cynicism among the the better when people take the young, has, if anything, gotten making of history into their worse. The National Youth Sur- hands. Progressive governors like vey recently reported that half of Democrat Joseph Folk and Re- all young people they questioned publican Herbert Hadley effec- thought voting unimportant. tively challenged the common- Familiarity with history shows place political corruption of the the contrary. Elections do mat- early twentieth century. The 1945 ter. For good or ill, yesterday’s Missouri constitution, forged in elections shape today, and world war and informed by the today’s elections shape our bleak reality of economic de- tomorrow. That does not mean pression, still determines the that elections are not ironic, or character of our state’s politics even tragic. In Missouri’s first today. statehood election famed ex- In the following essays—two plorer, Indian agent, and back- from the nineteenth century, woodsman, William Clark, went two from the twentieth—four down to inglorious defeat as the Missouri historians use the “aristocratic” candidate of the 1820, 1860, and 1904 gover- old French and colonial elite. norship elections; and the refer- His equally “aristocratic” ally, endum on the 1945 constitution Thomas Hart Benton, narrowly to illuminate our past, teach us won election to the Senate only how these past choices made to emerge as one of America’s our present; and inspire us how greatest spokesmen for Jackson- we might, through the example ian democracy and the common of our ancestors and forerun- yeoman farmer. In 1860 ners, make in our own day, a Claiborne Fox Jackson won the better tomorrow. Missouri governorship with 14 OFFICIAL MANUAL Clark versus McNair: The Decline of the Old Republicans and the Rise of the New Democrats in Missouri’s First Statehood Election William E. Foley Contemporary Missourians put off by the nasty and accusatory tone of many modern polit- ical campaigns may find solace if not comfort in knowing that such practices are not unique to our own times. No less an American icon than William Clark, the celebrated coleader of the Lewis and Clark expedition and Missouri’s most successful territorial governor, had to endure a barrage of exaggerated and ill-founded allega- tions during his failed attempt to become the state of Missouri’s first elected governor in 1820. When the illustrious westerner’s political opponents spread tales characterizing him as a snobbish aris- “William Clark by Charles Willson Peale, From Life, tocrat with little sympathy for plain folk as well as 1807–1808.” (Independence National Historical Park) an Indian lover willing to subject exposed frontier settlers to devastation at the hands of ruthless sav- intensely personal political culture. An attempt to ages, they found a ready audience among the challenge the rising political newcomer Thomas newly arrived farmers and mechanics whose bur- Hart Benton’s eligibility to vote in a hotly contest- geoning numbers had made Missouri’s pending ed 1817 territorial election culminated with a trag- admission to the Union possible. ic affair of honor that left the promising young In truth, the partisan words and rhetorical attorney Charles Lucas dead by Benton’s hand on flourishes uttered on the stump and circulated in Bloody Island, a notorious Mississippi River duel- local newspapers during this campaign were ing ground near St. Louis. Election day antics sel- merely surface manifestations of Missouri’s dom degenerated into mortal combat, but partisan changing social and political climate. A combat- squabbles had become the order of the day in the ive new brand of popular democracy grounded turbulent Missouri Territory. on a belief that the most ordinary of men could aspire to greatness had already begun to take Missouri’s long and arduous struggle for state- hold in Missouri. A companion view that Indians hood added to the muddle. The territorial assem- stood in the way of settlement and progress had bly’s 1818 petition to Congress seeking admission supplanted earlier more tolerant notions about to the union as a slave state unleashed a heated native people prevalent under the colonial national debate that in the words of former presi- regimes of France and Spain. These new ideas, dent Thomas Jefferson sounded an alarm “like a epitomized in the popular imagination by the firebell in the night.” Congressional efforts to rising fortunes of Clark’s friend Andrew Jackson, impose restrictions designed to gradually elimi- drew strength from “Old Hickory’s” image as a nate slavery from Missouri caught most territorial self-made, tough-as-nails, soldier, Indian fighter, residents unawares. Angered by what they per- and politician eager to champion the people’s ceived to be unwarranted federal intervention in interests. While Clark too was a soldier, Indian their affairs, they rallied to voice their unalterable fighter and public servant, his patrician upbring- objection to all such restrictionist proposals. ing, unwavering loyalty to friends, preference for Eventually the chieftans in Washington, D.C. old republican principles, and reputation as a hammered out an agreement aimed at reconcil- fair-minded Indian negotiator landed him on the ing national divisions over slavery while sustain- wrong side of the political divide in 1820. ing the Union. Missourians (with the obvious Missouri politics had never been a place for exception of the territory’s ten thousand African the fainthearted. Name-calling, threats of bodily American slaves who were never allowed to harm, and allegations of military interference were express themselves publicly on such matters) commonplace in the territory’s highly charged and proclaimed their satisfaction with the final settle- HISTORY IN HAND: FOUR PIVOTAL MISSOURI ELECTIONS 15 ment because it authorized Missouri’s admission to the Union as a slave state. That 1820 agree- ment, known as the Missouri Compromise, also sanctioned Maine’s admission as a free state as a counterbalance to Missouri and closed to slavery all remaining portions of the Louisiana Territory north of Missouri’s southern latitude (36° 30’). Following receipt of this welcome news, Missouri officials wasted little time in scheduling elections to select delegates for a constitutional convention charged with drafting a framework of government for the soon-to-be twenty-fourth state. In the contest for convention seats, mem- bers of the territorial old guard skillfully held at bay the newcomers intent on making the election a referendum on broadening participation in the political process. By keeping public attention focused on the specter of slavery restriction, the old elite persuaded a majority of Missouri voters to play it safe by selecting prominent proslavery property holders to write their constitution. That momentary victory had by no means ended the opposition. When the convention’s proceedings got underway the old divides quick- ly resurfaced. A conservative coalition represent- ing the territorial establishment successfully fend- ed off a series of newfangled democratic reform proposals. Dubbed the “caucus” by their oppo- nents, the conservatives blocked attempts to make judges elective and not appointive, and they placed gubernatorial and judicial salaries outside the legislature’s purview by fixing them in the constitution. The outnumbered pro-democra- cy delegates strenuously objected to both provi- sions and branded the two thousand dollar salaries awarded the governor and judges exorbi- tant. Notwithstanding those successes, caucus Campaign pamphlet found in St. Charles Circuit members wisely chose not to buck the powerful Court case file “Rector v. Roberts and Nash, 1822.” national trend that favored universal white man- (St. Charles Circuit Court) hood suffrage without property qualifications. While delegates debated these issues, the dered his family’s future. The prospect of raising contesting factions set their sights on the new alone five children all under the age of eleven state’s upcoming elections. In the absence of gave him pause. But when his political allies organized political parties, members of the cau- failed to find a suitable alternate, even as the cus proposed a ticket headed by territorial prospects for his wife’s recovery dimmed, he Governor Clark, while their opponents quickly consented to allow his candidacy to proceed. rallied around the banner of Alexander McNair. Shortly thereafter Clark set out for Virginia, where Clark’s supporters believed that his long years of he had placed Julia and their children under the public service and governmental experience watchful care of her family. He did not return to would make him a virtual shoo-in, but McNair’s backers correctly sensed that the governor’s Missouri until the fall, and by then the votes had lengthy record might in fact prove to be a liabil- been counted and his political future sealed. ity. Each side agreed upon a slate of candidates When Governor Clark officially threw his hat for the other state elective offices, and all was in into the ring he advised his constituents that per- readiness for a spirited campaign. sonal circumstances would keep him away from Clark had declared his availability for the the state during the campaign. He hastened to state’s highest office in 1819.