I will not consent to take less. I would rather make some desperate effort to preserve this fine country." That day the negotiations commenced. Mr. Monroe reached Paris on the 12th of April, and the two representatives of the United States, after holding a private interview, announced that they were ready to treat for the entire territory. On the 30th of April, 1803, eighteen days afterward, the treaty was signed, and on the 21st of October, of the same year, congress ratified the treaty. The United States were to pay $11,250,000, and her citizens to be compensated for some illegal captures, to the amount of $3,750,000, making in the aggregate the sum of $15,000,ooo, while it was agreed that the vessels and merchandise of France and Spain should be admitted into all the ports of Louisiana free of duty for twelve years. Bonaparte stipulated in favor of Louisiana, that it should be, as soon as possible, incorporated into the Union, and that its inhabitants should enjoy the same rights, privileges and immunities as other citizens of the United States, and the clause giving to them these benefits, was drawn up by Bonaparte, who presented it to the plenipotentiaries with these words: "Make it known to the people of Louisiana, that we regret to part with them; that we have stipulated for all the advantages they could desire; and that France, in giving them up, has insured to them the greatest of all. They could never have prospered under any European government as they will when they become independent. But while they enjoy the privleges of liberty let them remember that they are French, and preserve for their mother country that affection which a common origin inspires.' Complete satisfaction was given to both parties in the terms of the treaty. Mr. Livingston said: "I consider that from this day the United States takes rank with the first powers of Europe, and now she has entirely escaped from the power of England," and Bonaparte expressed a similar sentiment when he said: "By this cession of territory I have secured the power of the United States, and given to England a maritime rival, who, at some future time, will humble her pride.” These were prophetic words, for within a few years afterward the British met with a signal defeat, on the plains of the very territory of which the great Corsican had been speaking. From 1800, the date of the cession made by Spain, to 1803, when it was purchased by the United States, no change had been made by the French authorities in the jurisprudence of the Upper and Lower Louisiana, and during this period the Spanish laws remained in full force, as the laws of the entire province; a fact which is of interest to those who would understand the legal history and some of the present laws of Missouri. On December 20th, 1803, Gens. Wilkinson and Claiborne, who were jointly commissioned to take possession of the territory for the United States, arrived in the city of New Orleans at the head of the American forces. Laussat, who had taken possession but twenty days previously as the prefect of the colony, gave up his command, and the star-spangled banner supplanted the tri-colored flag of France. The agent of France, to take possession of Upper Louisiana from the Spanish authorities, was Amos Stoddard, captain of artillery in the United States service. He was placed in possession of St. Louis on the 9th of March, 1804, by Charles Dehault Delassus, the Spanish commandant, and on the following day he transferred it to the United States. The authority of the United States in Missouri dates from this day. From that moment the interests of the people of the Mississippi Valley became identified. They were troubled no more with the uncertainties of free navigation. The great river, along whose banks they had planted their towns and villages, now afforded them a safe and easy outlet to the markets of the world. Under the protecting ægis of a government, Republican in form, and having free access to an almost boundless domain, embracing in its broad area the diversified climates of the globe, and possessing a soil unsurpassed for fertility, beauty of scenery and wealth of minerals, they had every incentive to push on their enter prises and build up the land wherein their lot had been cast. In the purchase of Louisiana, it was known that a great emire had been secured as a heritage to the people of our country, for all time to come, but of its grandeur, its possibilities. its inexhaustible resources and the important relations it would sustain to the nation and the world were never dreamed of by even Mr. Jefferson and his adroit and accomplished diplomatists. The most ardent imagination never conceived of the progress, which would mark the history of the "Great West." The adventurous pioneer, who fifty years ago pitched his tent upon its broad prairies, or threaded the dark laby. rinths of its lonely forests, little thought, that a mighty tide of physical and in tellectual strength, would so rapidly flow on in his footsteps, to populate, build up and enrich the domain which he had conquered. Year after year, civilization has advanced further and further, until at length the mountains, the plains, the hills and the valleys, and even the rocks and the caverns, resound with the noise and din of busy millions. "I beheld the westward marches Rushed their great canoes of thunder." In 1804, Congress, by an act, passed in April of the same year, divided Louisiana into two parts, the "Territory of Orleans," and the "District of Louisiana," known as "Upper Louisiana" This district, included all that portion of the old province, north of "Hope Encampment," on the Lower Mississippi, and embraced the present State of Missouri, and all the western region of country to the Pacific Ocean, and all below the forty-ninth degree of north latitude not claimed by Spain. The As a matter of convenience, on March 26th, 1804, Missouri was placed within the jurisdiction of the government of the Territory of Indiana, and its government put in motion, by Gen. William H. Harrison, then governor of Indiana. In this, he was assisted by Judges Griffin, Vanderberg and Davis, who established in St. Louis, what were called, Courts of Common Pleas. District of Louisiana, was regularly organized into the Territory of Louisiana by Congress, March 3d, 1805, and President Jefferson, appointed Gen. James Wilkinson, Governor, and Frederick Bates, Secretary. The Legislature of the Territory, was formed by Governor Wilkinson and Judges R. J. Meigs, and John B. C. Lucas. In 1807, Governor Wilkinson was succeeded by Captain Meriwether Lewis, who had become famous by reason of his having made the expedition with Clark. Governor Lewis committed suicide in 1809 and President Madison, appointed Gen. Benjamin Howard, of Lexington, Kentucky, to fill his place. Gen. Howard resigned October 25, 1810, to enter the war of 1812, and died in St. Louis, in 1814. Captain William Clark, of Lewis and Clark's expedition, was appointed Governor in 1810, to succeed Gen. Howard, and remained in office, until the admission of the State into the Union. The portions of Missouri, which were settled, for the purposes of local government were divided into four districts. Cape Girardeau was the first, and embraced the territory, between Tywappity Bottom and Apple Creek. Ste. Genevieve, the second, embraced the territory from Apple Creek to the Meramec River. St. Louis, the third, embraced the territory between the Meramec and Missouri Rivers. St. Charles, the fourth, included the settled territory, between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The total population of these districts at that time, was 8,670, including slaves. The population of the district of Louisiana, when ceded to the United States was 10, 120. CHAPTER II. DESCRIPTIVE AND GEOGRAPHICAL. Name-Extent-Surface-Rivers-Timber-Climate-Prairies-Soils-Population by Counties. NAME. The name Missouri, is derived from the Indian tongue and signifies muddy. EXTENT. Missouri is bounded on the north by Iowa (from which it is separated for about thirty miles on the northeast, by the Des Moines River), and on the east by the Mississippi River, which divides it from Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, and on the west by the Indian Territory, and by the states of Kansas and Nebraska. The state lies (with the exception of a small projection between the St. Francis and the Mississippi Rivers, which extends to 36°), between 36° 30′ and 40° 36' north latitude, and between 12° 2′ and 18° 51′ west longitude from Washington. The extreme width of the state east and west, is about 348 miles; its width on its northern boundary, measured from its northeast corner along the Iowa line, to its intersection with the Des Moines River, is about 210 miles; its width on its southern boundary is about 288 miles. Its average width is about 235 miles. The length of the state north and south, not including the narrow strip between the St. Francis and Mississippi Rivers, is about 282 miles. It is about 450 miles from its extreme northwest corner to its southeast corner, and from the northeast corner to the southwest corner, it is about 230 miles. These limits embrace an area of 65,350 square miles, or 41,824,000 acres, being nearly as large as England, and the states of Vermont and New Hampshire. SURFACE. North of the Missouri, the state is level or undulating, while the portion south of that river (the larger portion of the state) exhibits a greater variety of surface. In the southeastern part is an extensive marsh, reaching beyond the state into Arkansas. The remainder of this portion between the Mississippi and Osage Rivers is rolling, and gradually rising into a hilly and mountainous district, forming the outskirts of the Ozark Mountains. Beyond the Osage River, at some distance, commences a vast expanse of prairie land which stretches away toward the Rocky Mountains. The ridges forming the Ozark chain extend in a northeast and southwest direction, separating the waters that flow northeast into the Missouri from those that flow southeast into the Mississippi River. RIVERS. No state in the Union enjoys better facilities, for navigation than Missouri. By means of the Mississippi River, which stretches along her entire eastern boundary, she can hold commercial intercourse with the most northern territory and state in the Union; with the whole valley of the Ohio; with many of the Atlantic States, and with the Gulf of Mexico. "Ay, gather Europe's royal rivers all The snow-swelled Neva, with an Empire's weight The castled Rhine, whose vine-crowned waters flow, The Seine, where fashion glasses the fairest forms; Our Mississippi rolling proudly on, Would sweep them from its path, or swallow up, Like Aaron's rod, these streams of fame and song." By the Missouri River she can extend her commerce to the Rocky Mountains, and receive in return the products which will come in the course of time, by its multitude of tributaries. The Missouri River coasts the northwest line of the State for about 250 miles, following its windings, and then flows through the State, a little south of east, to its junction with the Mississippi. The Missouri River receives a number of tributaries within the limits of the State, the principal of which are the Nodaway, Platte, Loutre and Chariton from the north, and the Blue, Sniabar, Grand, Osage and Gasconade from the south. The principal tributaries of the Mississippi within the State, are the Salt River, north, and the Maramec River south, of the Missouri. The St. Francis and White Rivers, with their branches, drain the southeastern part of the State, and pass into Arkansas. The Osage is navigable for steamboats for more than 275 miles. There are a vast number of smaller streams, such as creeks, branches and rivers, which water the State in all directions. Timber. Not more towering in their sublimity were the cedars of ancient Lebanon, nor more precious in their utility were the almung-trees of Ophir, than the native forests of Missouri. The river bottoms are covered with a luxuriant growth of oak, ash, elm, hickory, cottonwood, linn, white and black walnut, and in fact, all the varieties found in the Atlantic and Eastern States. In the more barren districts may be seen the white and pin oak, and in many places a dense growth of pine. The crab apple, papaw and persimmon are abundant, as also the hazel and pecan. Climate. The climate of Missouri is, in general, pleasant and salubrious. Like that of North America, it is changeable, and subject to sudden and sometimes extreme changes of heat and cold; but it is decidedly milder, taking the whole year through, than that of the same latitudes east of the mountains. While the summers are not more oppressive than they are in the corresponding latitudes on and near the Atlantic coast, the winters are shorter, and very much milder, except during the month of February, which has many days of pleasant sunshine. Prairies.-Missouri is a prairie State, especially that portion of it north and northwest of the Missouri River. These prairies, along the water courses, abound with the thickest and most luxurious belts of timber, while the "rolling" prairies occupy the higher portions of the country, the descent generally to the forests or bottom lands being over only declivities. Many of these prairies, however, ex hibit a gracefully waving surface, swelling and sinking with an easy slope, and a full, rounded outline, equally avoiding the unmeaning horizontal surface and the interruption of abrupt or angular elevations. These prairies often embrace extensive tracts of land, and in one or two instances they cover an area of fifty thousand acres. During the spring and summer they are carpeted with a velvet of green, and gaily bedecked with flowers of various forms and hues, making a most fascinating panorama of ever changing color and loveliness. To fully appreciate their great beauty and magnitude, they must be seen. Soil. The soil of Missouri is good, and of great agricultural capabilities, but the most fertile portions of the State are the river bottoms, which are a rich alluvium, mixed in many cases with sand, the producing qualities of which are not excelled by the prolific valley of the famous Nile. South of the Missouri River there is a greater variety of soil, but much of it is fertile, and even in the mountains and mineral districts there are rich valleys, and about the sources of the White, Eleven Points, Current and Big Black Rivers, the soil, though unproductive, furnishes a valuable growth of yellow pine. The marshy lands in the southeastern part of the State will, by a system of drainage, be one of the most fertile districts in the State. POPULATION BY COUNTIES IN 1870, 1876, 1880. |