St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-12

territory was phenomenal, and speculation
ran riot. Towns on land sprang rapidly into
existence, and towns on paper were tbiok as
locusts, but there was nothing else, and agrl-
culture was almost unknown. Interest was
n'gn, money flowed in, and everybody bor-
rowed all they could get hold of for specula-
ton. We had everything to buy, but every
body was rich, and things were booming. 1t
Is impossible to understand how intelligent
men could have been so deuded. One bright
morning the crash began, and money
flowed out as fast as it had flowed
In, until there was not enough
left to do business with. Supplies were cut
or, property went and everybody was
swamped IN debt, but the idea of paying
debt was regarded as joke. The effect Of
tnis financial ruin was most salutary. Peo-
pie discovered that labor was the only sub
stantlal foundation Of prosperity In fact, 1t
was root little pig. or die" Farms were
opened and industrial enterprises began. The
recuperation was rapid and encouraging, but
1t was many long and weary years before the
bufthen of debt was removed and prosperity
smiled again. 1t was at this critical period
that the territory made the greatest blunder
of its history. The almost incredible scheme
was devised of bonding the utterly bankrupt
territory for SIS, 100000 to aid In the construc-
uOn or railroads. AS this was in conflict with
the terms of the consolidation, an amendment
was submitted to the people and adopted al
most unanimously in 1858.
THE WHOLE SCHEME
was failure. A good deal of grading was
done, but by the time the bonds were half is
sued the people became as clamorous for the
repeal OF the amendment as they had been to
aoopt it. Another amendment was submitted
and adopted which wiped out the former one
and declared that the bonds already issued
should never be paid unless sanctioned by a
DnrN1n HfI,rxr ,I,<1-
was simply u bad bargain made at Il time
when the country was struggling in the throes
OF financial dissolution and any remedy that
presented itself was seized upon. The stigma
OF reputation rested upon us for many years,
but fortunately the matter was finally patched
up and the creditors satisfied.
The speaker then referred to one of the pc
cul1ar political phases that attended the early
existence of Minnesota as state. Congress
had asked the people of this section to frame
constitution and enter the Union. Believ-
ing themselves able to manage and conduct a
state government Il constitution was framed,
in which a provision was made that the terri
tor1al officers should hold their places until
superseded by the state authority, The first
legislature was to convene on the first We'd
nesday of December, 1857, the election being
on october Ii, 1857, the leaders of course pre-
Stunning that before the sitting of the legisla-
lature they would be snugly in the Union.
The election took place; state officers were
elected and also (being quite modest),
only three members of congress were chosen,
when it was a question whether the state was
entitled to more than one. The members thus
elected were George l.. Becker, of ST. Paul,
w. w. Phelps OF Red Wing, and James N.
Cavanaugh of Preston, or near there. They
proceeded to Washington, but were doomed
to encounter obstacles they thought and
dreamed not of. First it was learned the dele
cation was ''too numerous, and that only
two could be seated. And then TOUR dele
gates" were Democrats, and the house was
very close and.the Republicans were afraid of
them, particularly so as there was a contested
seat from Ohio. Consequently the Minnesota
delegation was kept out in the cold until May
IL, 1858. 1t was never known just how the
seats for two were then drawn between the
three members, but the two who took them
were Phelps and Cavanaugh.
MAKING A CONSTITUTION.
One of the amusing events of the entrance
as q state was the ''two-headed' constitu-
tional convention that was held, in which
both the Democrats and Republicans organ
lied in separate rooms and both proceeded to
make constitution. The two bodies sat for
ffty-four days, at the conclusion of which
the members of the two conventions made |
the discovery that there were no serious
differences between them that could find eX-
preston in the manufacture of q constitution
and that the two instruments were subStan-
TALLY the same. They also realized that if
two constitutions were sent to congress, that
body would in all probability reject both
joint committee from both
conventions was consequently selected
and the two documents neatly merged into
one. Henry N. Setter, however, a member
from the st. Croix valley, swore the constitu-
ton was not the work of the convention, and
me would have nothing to do with it, and he
would have let Minnesota stay out forever
before he would have recognized the work O f |
the Republican convention.
The constitution was hurried together in !
manner that caused several inaccuracies to |
be made, although, on the whole, it was a |
pretty good thing. One defect, seized upon |
by the opponents of admission, was the fact !
that the terms of Office of state senators were |
fixed at two years, while those of members |
OF the house were not fixed
at all! 1t was asserted that they |
were elected for life. Finally, when Min
nesota was admitted as state, things |
logged along tremendously until the matter |
of building the first railroad in the state came |
up. Many gentlemen had given much time |
and labor to this work, prominent among |
whom were Edmund Rice, present mayor of |
st. Paul, Col. William Crooks and Others |
Capital was as shy as a maiden with her first |
lover, but after extraordinary efforts enough |
money was procured to build the first ten |
miles between St. Paul and st. Anthony They |
were built in 1868. The first locomotive that |
ever whiStled in the state was called the |
civilian Crooks well-deserved compli- |
ment to an intelligent and energetic pioneer |
in our railroad work.
The Judge here refers to the Indian massa-
ere at Spirit Lake, in the southwestern part |
of the state, following the financial disaster |
of 1857 in which about forty-two people were !
mastered. The effect Of the massacre was |
to greatly deter settlement the remote |
frontier and was very serious blow to the |
growth of Minnesota, and the country had |
scarcely recovered from that scare until the |
terrible massacre of 1852 was precipitated |
upon US, the magnitude of which outbreak |
has never been appreciated except by those |
who were here at the time. TWAS regarded as |
the greatest Indian massacre that has |
ever taken place from the first settlement on |
the Atlantic coast to the present day. Its in |
fuence upon our material prosperity, |
although temporary, was immense. The |
actual destruction OF property went into the |
millions, and the suffering consequent upon |
it was enormous. And on August Is, 1852, |
the Sioux Indians rebelled and inaugurated a |
bloody butchery, Dutchering all the people at |
agencies, nearly if not quite, a thousand |
people. Organized efforts of residents re-
suited in the Indians being driven out of the |
state and across the Missouri river. since
which time we have not been disturbed by the |
Sioux.
The four years Of the great struggle for the |
preservation of the Union from 1851 to 1865. |
was heavy strain on our resources. We /
sent to the war about $4,000 men. who re- |
manned away an average of three years.
A THREATENED DANGER.
After referring to the free trade and labor |
question at some length the speaker said that
there was great danger threatening this
country in the importation OF foreign labor.
1t was very common thing to see the manu-
facturers of New England, when they had re-
duced the wages of their operatives to
starvation basis, and driven them to strikes
boil, x-ith np.f. fs<v,C <fl
Chinese, Poles, Hungarians, Italians Bo-
hemians and people of all foreign nations.
Whilst we say to the Chinaman, you must not
come over here, we throw wide the gates to
all the rest Of the world, and they
are invited to swarm into our
labor fields, and not only drive
our laborers TO poverty but flaunt their
bloody emblems in the faces of our people, |
threatening rap1ne and chaos. If it was a
good thing to exclude Cinnamon it must be
equally good thing to cut Off other streams
of competition that bring with them not only
distress to our laborers, but danger to our in