The daily Missourian., 1917-08-01
STATE CENTENNIAL
OF WIDE INTEREST
Admission to Statehood De.
layed by Politics, Says w.
B. Stevens.
GETS NEWS BY MAIL
People Learn That Repre-
sentatives Debate Over
Slavery Question.

souri, has birth years. In other COM
monwealths the centennial of state
hood means a celebration of local
concern. Missouri approaches the OBJ
servance OF a centennial period of
nation wide interest. One hundred
years ago there was. before the Amer
lean people no issue greater, more
serious, than the Missouri question.
This is the way in which Walter B.
Stevens speaks of the Missouri CEN
tennial in the Missouri Historical Re-
view.
The Missouri centennial is not lin
tied to a day, month, or even a
year. 1t is a period.
1t was high time in 1917 for Mis-
sourians to ask for statehood. Across
the river, Illinois, with less pOpula-
ton than Missouri, was signing petl-
tions for admission. Seven states had
been admitted to the original thirteen.
Missouri was growing faster than any
of them. Moreover, Missouri had a
claim to statehood based on interna-
tional treaty. When France ceded to
the United States the great territory
west of the Mississippi it was stipu-
lated that the inhabitants shall be
Incorporated in the Union of the
United States and admitted, as soon
as possible, according to the princi-
pies of the federal constitution, TO
the enjoyment of all the rights, ad-
vantages and immunities of citizens
of the United States" 1t was four
teen years after the agreement be-
tween the two nations before Missouri
applied for her statehood.
In the Early Days.
The Missouri petitions were pre-
sented to Congress on January s.
1918. The date was fitting. 1t was
the anniversary of the Battle of New
Orleans, fought by Andrew Jackson,
which Missouri led. Other states
were admitted into the Union, but
still Missouri waited-waited from
January s, 1918, to March 6, 1920, for
the enabling act Meanwhile a great
and dangerous game in national poll
tics went on. The Senate by ma
jOrity vote was ready to admit Mis-
souri,, The House of Representatives
insisted that Missouri must abolish
slavery gradually and must put into
the constitution a promise to that
effect, as a condition of admission tC
the Union.
Week after week the one-hOrse mail
brought to Missouri the aggravating
news. Congress adjourned in March
1919, the Senate and the House in
deadlock on the bill. Then the storm
of resentment in Missouri broke loose
From April, 1919, to December
1919, wherever Missourians assem-
bled, resolutions were adopted OF
toasts were drank in defiance of the
dictation of Congress as to wha'
should be put in the constitution OF
the subject of slavery. And these
sentiments were endorsed with pro
longed cheers.
Many other states were admitted
while the wrangle over the Missouri
question went on. The conflict con
tinued until March, 1920, when the bill
passed permitting Missouri to franz
constitution without restriction
but providing that slavery should b,
excluded from the rest of the Louisi
ana Purchase territory west ant
north of Missouri And that exclu
sion was the Missouri Compromis
which vexed American politics TO
thirty-seven years, only to be declare
unconstitutional by the United State
Supreme Court in March, 1857.
Becomes State i'm 1870.
When the news of the Missouri
Compromise was received at s.
Louis and other centers of population
about the end of March, 1920, Mis-
sourians celebrated what they firml
believed was the birth of statehood
A candle burned in every window o.
the night chosen for the form alrati
fication. AS the news travelled slowl
up the rivers, bonfires burned on tn
hilltops at night, and jollifcation wa
held in the day time.
But with the passage of the Mis-
souri, Compromise act, the peopl
proceeded, without delay, to thei
part under the enabling provision:
They elected delegates. held the con
yention and drafted a constitution
1t was all done before the middle G
June that year, 1920.
In a book on the centennial Of tn
statehood of Missouri, Floyd Shoe
maker says: Missouri became a stat
on Wednesday, July 10, 1920" o.
that day the constitution went int