The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-12
a Short Frontier Story
About the Only Man Who Ever Represented Three States
in the United States Senate.
(BY HON. Q. e. FLANDRAU1

Gen. James Shields had most extraord
nary career. I remember no public man
in the history of our country who equals him
IN the diversity and extent Of his public
services and off1ce-hOldlng. He was a gen
eIlad IN the Mexican war. and for long
time enjoyed the unique reputation of being
the only man who ever shot through
the lungs aud survived. This, however, was
not true; many others, no doubt, underwent
the same experience, and I remember q
young Chippewa Indian who while on a war
party into my Sioux country was wounded
In exactly the same manner and lived to
good old age as very robust savage.
When the general returned from the Mex
lcan WAR to Illinois he was exceptionally
popular He was made commissioner of the
general land office of the United States and
Judge of the supreme court of the state of
Illinois, and was subsequently elected to the
United States senate, but when he was about
to take his seat he ran up against the snag
that is found in section 3 of article 1 of the
constitution of the United States which pro-
vides that senator must have been a citizen
of the United States for nine years before
election, and it appeared that the general
fell short of the requisite period. The con-
sequence was he was rejected and had to
return to his state. But the people of Illi-
nois wanted him to represent them in the
senate, and as soon as he attained the proper
citizenship they returned him. and he was
admitted and served his full term. The
general found out that his chances for a
reelection were not fattering. and. as Min
nesOta was about applying for admission as
state in the Union, he decided to emgrate
to that territory. What his motives were 1,
OF course. cannot say, but. as 1 was watch
ing closely political events, I concluded that
he had in view an election to the senate
from the new state of Minnesota, and 1
kept my eye his movements.
1t was soon announced that the general had
located the land warrant which had been
awarded to him for his services in the Mex
lean war on quarter section OF land in the
neighborhood of Faribault. in Rice county, in
this territory, and that he intended to settle
upon 1t. There was little bunccmbe added
to this announcement to the effect that this
was the first case in the history Of America
where a general officer had settled in person
upon the land donated to him reward for
the services be had rendered and the blood
he had shed for his adopted country We al
ways called the generals home 1.-THE blood
bought farm
1856 or 1857, 1 forget which, for delegate to
nomination of The regular Democratic con-
vention for the position, and Gen. German,
then territorial governor; Henry H. sibley
and many other leading Democrats had DELHI
erately bolted the judgment of the conven-
ton and nominated David Olmsted for dele
gate. The fight was on hot. l, of course,
was for Rice, the regular nominee. I then
lived we'll up the Minnesota valley at Trav-
erse des Sioux and we were becoming a
power in the territory in a political sense
and I looked forward to the arrival Of such
prominent Democrat as Gen. Shields in our
midst as an event of major political i'm
rortance. He soon landed at Hastings. on the
Mississippi with a complete outfit for a per-
manent settlement.
A good story is told of his advent at
Hastings. In those days of steamboating all
the belongings of an immigrant would be
landed on the levee and his freight bill
would be presented to him by what we called
the mud clerk, and he would take an account
reports that the general had five barrels Of
whisky among his paraphernala, and when
the first enc was rolled ashore he seated him
self upon 1t to watch the debarkation, and
when the bill was presented he refused to pay
it because he could see four barrels, and de-
nianded the fifth. The clerks got onto the
ing barrel until the last whistle blew. when
they suggested to the general that he was &C.
cupyng the disturbing element. Whether the
contents of the barrel ever caused any other
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. history fails to record.
AS soon as the general got comfortably To-
Gated on the biood-bought farm I dispatched
him Of the political situation and inapVoring
him to come out for the regular Democratic
ticket, but he replied in very diplomatic
way that he was too new a conner to take
any active part In the election. and de-
chned. From that moment Tom Cowan,
George Magruder and l. trio which COM
posed the leadership of the Democracy of
the Minnesota valley decided that the general
should never go to the senate If could
prevent it. and 1t happened that when
the first legislature of the state assembled
Tom Cowan was in the senate. but all our
efforts to beat him failed, and Henry M. Rice
and the general were elected to the United
States senate. 1t was hard to beat a man
in those days who was Democrat, an Irish
man and wounded soldier.
The only unlucky thing that the general
ever encountered the fact that he drew
the short term when the lots were cast for
the positions the new senators were to as
sumo.
The general served out his term in the
senate just about the time the Civil war
broke out. and he rendered his services to
the country, and became general of vol
unteers. He was wounded In some battle
and 1 remember reading a general order
announcing that he was sufficiently recovered
to ride eft the head Of his brigade in a
buggy. I took advantage of this singular
position for military commander and Inn
pressed into the service Of the state a splen-
did 50, coo team of trotters belonging to Harry
Lamberton, with his buggy. and himself as
driver, and rode comfortably in it until the