The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-09-11


of the house of representatives; in 1912,
he was elected to congress, and served
in the Twenty eighth and Twenty ninth
congresses. He was a substantial Wing
member, social, cool, cautious, and given
to practical business. He retired, volun
tarily, from further service, after the
close of the twenty-ninth congress,
while, singularly enough, Henry Hast
ngs Sibley was just entering the thirt-
ieth congress as delegate from that
terra incognita, the territory of Mime
sofa.
Ramsey's career in congress was sig
nalized by his ardent support of the
Wilmot proviso, in its application to GER
tain territories acquired as the result
of the war with Mexico. His seat was
next to Wilmot's in the house, and as
matter of fact, he wrote the proviso
on his desk for Wilmot, which the latter
offered. No less strange is the fact that
Mr.. Sibley opposed the application of
the Wilmot proviso to the territory OF
Minnesota in the very next congress, as
"wholly superiluous."
In lS4S Ramsey was made chairman
of the Wing state central committee of
PENNSYLVANIA, and contributed largely to
the election of Zachary Taylor, the last
of the Wing presidents. When that gal
liant soldier was inaugurated he at once
rendered the governorship of Minnesota
to Alexander Ramsey. His commission
bears date April End, lS49.
The Wing party was now moribund,
dying of slavery Clay, too, was dying and
Webster had condoned with the slave
power The Fugitive Slave Law was the
final bolt that slew the great army
which Clay and Webster had organized.
Thus it happened that the brilliant
party which had won Alexander Ram
sey's youthful love and devotion was
waning and expiring, when he made his
advent into the Northwest.
On the 10th of September, 1915, while
member of congress, he was married
to Miss Anna Earl jerks, a beautiful
and queenly woman of eighteen sum-
mers, possessed of the sweetest DISPOSE
ton and the most estimable qualities.
With dash of Quaker blood, her "thee's
and thou's" were exceedingly agreeable.
She was highly domestic in her tastes.
Coming from a home of comfort and
the best society, with marked affability
and practical good sense, she at once
adapted herself to her new surroundings
and by her tact and grace contributed
largely to the fortunes of her disting
uished husband. After noble and useful
life, she died on November Goth, 1884, and
with sad hearts her troops of friends
laid her tenderly away, covered with
garlands of flowers in Oakland cemetery,
On the 9th day of May, lS49, the new
governor arrived at the scene of his
official duties With something of poetic
fitness. he came with his young wife,
from Sibley's baronial home at Mendoza,
where they had been guests, in an Indian
birch bark canoe On the first day of
June. lS49, he issued his official procla
nation, declaring the territory duly Or
ganized.
Minnesota thus entered her kindergar
ten preparation for statehood. Then fol-
lowed the detail necessary to the estab-
lishment of the machinery of the new
government. This was the historic
starting point of the new commonwealth.
These important proceedings brought
him face to face with the most remark
able body of men who ever graced
frontier, Sibley, Brown, the Rices, Ohm
sted, Morrison, Steele, Mcleod, Stevens,
Renville, Borup, Kittson and Bailly.
How at the mention of their
names, the dead arise, and life
starts in the the stalwart forms of
these primeval kings of the wilderness!
If New England parades, with pride,
her Puritan ancestors, with equal veneer
alton we point to the vigorous, intrepid
and superb men, who stood sponsors to
the birth of our commonwealth. They
were no ignoble rivals in the race which
was to be run. No stronger men ever
colonized a new country. They possess
ed that restlessness that comes of am
bition, and the audacity that comes of
enterprise.
Behind these empire builders of the
Northwest, there yet appeared in the
! twilight of our history, other majestic
forms We behold the sanity Allouez
and Marquette, glorified by their suffer
| ings. We see LeSueur in the Valley of
the st. Peter, in his journey in pursuit
of gold, shrouded in mystery and ro-
nance, as imaginary as that of Jason in
pursuit of the Golden Fleece.
We contemplate the reign and wars
of the great fur companies, those mighty
| lords of the lakes of the north. These
! all are the paladins of our history. Fol-
! lowing them came the era of the scien-
! fists, Nicollet, Pike, Schoolcraft. This
F, brings the panorama to true historic
ground. We now touch the time when
some of you were co-partners in our
early dramatic scenes.
! Inspired by these grand traditions, and
surrounded by these stalwart figures,
F.; the young Pennsylvania saw that this
! wilderness had an epic of thrilling in
terest. AS he stood in this environment,
what were his dreams of the future? ?
j Did he behold in the aisles of the path
less woods, and in the vernal bloom of the
unploughed prairies, the miraged image
[ of that wonderful state, which. is now
! so proud an ornament in the clustering
stars of the Union. But as yet, the
scene before him was far from inviting.
There was but little 10 inspire him with
hope.
He saw but small hamlet, with bark
rooted cabins. Savages yet walked in
the struggling streets, with the scalps
of their enemies dangling from their
belts. Cranberries and pelts were the
commercial currency of the settlement.
Oxen were the horses of the country,
! and Red river carts the ,chariots of her
commerce.
But what gave him greater anxiety
than all else, was the fact that, though
he was the nominal executive of a do
main more extensive than France, yet
but a fragment was open to settlement.
| Casting his eyes upon the map, all in
reality over which he had authority was
the narrow strip of land lying between