The honored subject of this sketch was a man who in his time played many parts, a soldier, a statesman, a lawyer, and a model citizen. An irreversible judgment has been pronounced upon the record of his life, and his imperfections were so few and his virtues so many that we give him a position in that temple of honor consecrated to men only of lofty character.

Willis Arnold Gorman was of Irish descent, the only son of David L. and Elizabeth Gorman, and one of two children. He was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, near Flemingsburg, January 12, 1816. His parents removed to Bloomington, Indiana, in 1853, where in the Indiana University, as he had received a good primary and academic education, he at one applied himself to the study of law. He graduated at the law school connected with the university at the early age of twenty. He had many difficulties to encounter, but made a success of his profession from the beginning, when he defended a man charged with murder and won an unexpected victory.

In January, 1836, he married Miss Martha Stone, a daughter of Ellis Stone, an honored citizen of Monroe county, Indiana. He gradually won a fine position at the bar, and his natural ability and growing popularity seemed to open the door for a public career. He was first elected to the legislature at the early age of twenty-three, and gave such satisfaction that he was elected five times in succession.

At this period the Mexican War broke out, and he could not repress his patriotic spirit, but volunteered at once as a private in the Third Indiana Volunteers, and was elected a major, June, 1846. James H. Lane, afterward United States senator from Kansas, was in colonel. This regiment rendered signal service and won great fame at the battle of Buena Vista. It is said that under the direct order of General Taylor he made so vigorous an attack on the enemy's flank as to materially aid in winning the victory. Every fourth man in Major Gorman's battalion of five hundred was either killed or wounded. During this battle, the Major's horse was shot from under him and fell in a deep ravine, and the fall severely injured the Major, but he never abandoned his command till the enemy fled.

In May, 1847, the term of the enlistment of his battalion expired, and the regiment returned home with abundant laurels, and Major Gorman immediately began the organization of the Fourth Indiana regiment, of which he was unanimously elected colonel. This regiment participated in a number of battles, in which he 063 51won the reputation of a dashing and gallant officer. He served with eminent distinction and returned to Indiana at the close of the war.

In August, 1849, he was chosen to represent his district in Congress, which position he filled for two terms. While in Congress he displayed great readiness and versatility in debate, and on the slavery question then agitating the country, he distinguished himself for the clearness of his views and the force and eloquence with which they were presented.

When Franklin Pierce became president, in 1853, he appointed Colonel Gorman governor of the then territory of Minnesota.

He reached St. Paul May 13, 1853, and two days afterward took possession of his office. Thenceforth his history became identified with the growth and development of the territory and state of Minnesota. He did not come to our territory, like Medary, as a bird of passage; but he came to stay, and to share our hopes and destiny. Shields, one of the first United States senators of Minnesota, was a politician, floating around among new territories and states, to see what good things could be picked up, and if he failed, he would fly to pastures new. But permanence was the purpose of Gorman, and he entered at once into the study of those things which made for the general welfare of the territory. In his last message he pledged the people that he would remain in the territory and future state as a permanent citizen.

Governor Gorman, with his experience in Indiana as a politician, his fine personal appearance, his earnest and impressive manner, his gifts as a public speaker, speedily ingratiated himself into the public notice, and was accounted a leader in territorial politics. While he took great interest in inducing the building of railways, he was firm in protecting the people's rights, and recommended that in the distribution of the land grants the state should receive at least three per cent. of the gross earnings in lieu of general taxation. There is no doubt but that the present system of three per cent. of tax upon the gross income of the railways of the state is owing largely to the firmness and wisdom of Governor Gorman. It was during the contests growing out of these land grants that a stranger came to the governor's office, and made the attempt to offer him a bribe of a very considerable sum of money if he would suffer a certain railroad bill to become a law. With flaming eyes and vehement language the Governor ejected him from the executive chamber.

The only instance in which Governor Gorman seemed to permit personal interests to sway his judgment, was in the matter of the removal of the state capital from St. Paul to St. Peter, for it developed in the history of that celebrated contest that the Governor was one of the leading stockholders in the St. Peter company. In the Joe Rolette episode, a bill that had passed by a very narrow majority, having for its object the removal of the state capital from St. Paul to St. Peter, was 065 53spirited away by this Pembina member, and failed to become a law. All this occurred during Gorman's administration, and the success of the movement depended wholly upon the governor's known willingness to sign the bill. The services of Joe Rolette to St. Paul in the eventful crisis never be forgotten by the people of that city.

During his entire administration, Governor Gorman made it a point to deal justly and fairly with the Indian population of the territory. He made several important treaties with the savages, with perfect peace and harmony, and entire satisfaction to the government. He was, ex officio, the general superintendent of the several tribes, and disbursed for their benefit more than a million dollars during his term of office, without the Indians losing a dollar, and no charge was ever made that any of the moneys went astray. His personal integrity was without blemish. In 1853, he accomplished the removal of the Sioux bands from their possessions opposite St. Paul to their new homes at Redwood and Yellow Medicine, as provided by treaty, without conflict or disturbance, a most difficult and delicate task requiring consummate skill and tact.

In 1857, his term of office having expired, he resumed the practice of law in St. Paul with much success. June 1st, of that year, the election of delegates to the constitutional convention was held, and Governor Gorman was elected from St. Paul, and took an active part in the exciting deliberations of that body. During the 066 54session of the legislature of 1857 he was a candidate for the Senate of the United States, but was apparently defeated by the unfortunate division in his party. In the fall of 1859, he was elected to the legislature, but the governor declined to call that body together.

The presidential election of 1860 was now approaching, in which Governor Gorman took a most active part, canvassing every portion of the state, and championing the claims of his personal friend, Stephen A. Douglas. He was a vigorous and eloquent stump speaker, and widened his influence and popularity by his efficient work.

Prior to the breaking out of the Civil War, and when secession was threatened, he promptly announced himself as an unqualified unionist. When Sumter fell, April 14, 1861, a meeting of the citizens of St. Paul was called, and Governor Gorman, in a most stirring and fervid appeal to the people, did much to give a tone and patriotic direction to public sentiment.

At this moment, Alexander Ramsey, the governor of the state, was in Washington on executive business, and on Sunday morning he called on President Lincoln and made tender of a Minnesota regiment for the common defense, being the first of the loyal governors to tender troops for the preservation of the Union. Governor Ramsey at once sent a dispatch to Lieutenant Governor Donnelly, instructing him to forthwith issue a call for the services of a regiment of infantry, which call was issued Tuesday, the 16th of April. Business was for the time suspended, and political ties seemed obliterated.

This historic First regiment was mustered at Fort Snelling April 29, 1861. Governor Ramsey was present at the muster, and immediately announced the field officers, and Willis A. Gorman was colonel.

On May 1st Colonel German was presented with a handsome sword by Major W. I. Cullen, of St, Paul. On May 14, the numerous friends of Colonel Gorman presented to him a large and serviceable war horse, with an elegant equipment. On May 24, the ladies of St. Paul, by the hands of Mrs. Anna E. Ramsey, the accomplished wife of the Governor, presented the regiment with a fine flag. On the morning of the 3d of July, 1861, one thousand Minnesota soldiers, with hostile intent, under command of Colonel Gorman, passed over the Potomac and trod the “sacred soil” of old Virginia, and entered upon that illustrious career which crowned them with laurels second to none in that mighty contest.

Colonel Gorman was ordered to join General McDowell's command, and was in the battle of the first Bull Run, where the regiment displayed conspicuous gallantry. On returning to Washington, Colonel Gorman was placed in command of a brigade, and on the recommendation of General Scott on the 17th of September following, by reason of his gallant conduct at the battle of Bull Run, he was made a brigadier general, October 1, 1861. This ended his direct connection with the First Minnesota regiment. October 22 following, his brigade took part in the battle of Ball's Bluff, and in that campaign 068 56the First regiment was in Gorman's brigade. It was in this unfortunate battle that Gen. E. D. Baker was killed, while gallantly fighting, and he fell not far from Gorman's brigade.

The following spring, General Gorman's brigade was with the advance column headed for Richmond by way of the Peninsula. It was on this march that he experienced an attack of material fever which compelled his return to Washington. Recovering from his illness, after Pope's disastrous campaign, he joined General McClellan's column in its march to intercept Lee, when that officer invaded Maryland, which resulted in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, in both of which Gorman participated. General Gorman next won high commendation for his efficient conduct in the battle of Fair Oaks, May 31, 1862.

About this time General Gorman was transferred to an important command in the West. He parted company with the “Old First” with profound regret; indeed, the regret was mutual, and this esteem ever remained. From the beginning he was indefatigable in drilling and preparing it for service and urging it on to high ideals. Judge William Lochren, a very excellent authority, says: “Perhaps the regiment never would have become all that it was, but for the influence of Gorman, which remained after he left it and to the end, and was seen in its charge at Gettysburg, as in its unyielding attitude in earlier battles.”

By virtue of the transfer referred to, he assumed command of a military division in Arkansas with headquarters at Helena. Here his duties were as much civil as military. His aim seemed to be to subordinate the military to the civil law. He established a sort of court of civil jurisdiction, which was ordered to proceed according to the form of the common law. Lawlessness was suppressed, and stability was thus given to all business interests.

In the latter part of 1864, after nearly four years of active service, with honor to himself and credit to his state, he bade adieu to military life and sought rest and recuperation in private life.

In 1864 he returned to his home in St. Paul and soon formed a partnership with the Hon C. K. Davis, later United States senator. This intimacy subsisted for many years, General Gorman giving special attention to the criminal branch of his profession. He was, in 1869, elected city attorney, which office he held for six successive terms, to the entire satisfaction of the people of the whole city.

General Gorman was primarily a lawyer. As a professional man, his capacity, skill, and legal attainments, have been celebrated by a better pen than mine. “In his profession he had no superior as an advocate. His devotion to a client knew no bounds, and he brought to the trial of any case in which he engaged, resources and tact which made him a most dangerous antagonist.” 1

It remains to speak of General Gorman as a private man and a citizen. He was in every respect exemplary and amiable. His disposition was kind and affectionate. Brave in action and at times rough in manner, yet he was at heart tender as a woman. He had a strong sense of moral and religious duty, and was a sincere and devoted Catholic. As we review his life, we see how perfectly immaterial are the blemishes which were frequently charged to his account. We see, too, how many were the virtues which adorned his well spent years. To women have was ever profoundly respectful and chivalric, which is the mark of a true gentleman. His whole personal conduct was marked by independence and sterling honesty. He never was controlled by any clique, nor accused of being the tool of any ring. Whatever came to him in the line of duty, to that he gave the most intense devotion. In his domestic life he was sweet and lovable. His hospitals home was the abode of the most charming social life, and the writer can never forget the many delightful hours spent at his fire-side.

We cannot close this estimate of General Gorman without quoting from his friend and partner, Cushman K. Davis, his last eulogistic words touching his dead friend:

“It is one of the facts to which we cannot reconcile ourselves, that the force of such personal examples as his, perishes so soon. Nothing is permanent but the permanency of change; and the sure and saddening change in 071 59which a good man disappears, and shortly after his memory and his works go after him, Like a dream of the shadow of smoke, ‘ seems to us who look, with finite vision, like uncompensated loss. Let us protect him and his memory, as far as we may, against the inevitable resolution of all things into dim forgetfulness. Assuring ourselves that in our time we shall not see, fortunate will those who come after us be if they can possess as a companion so brave, so faithful, so spotless a man as Willis Arnold Gorman.”

General Gorman was twice married. His first wife was Miss martha Stone, of Bloomington, Indiana. She was a most admirable lady, and possessed of great social qualities. To this union there were five children as follows: R. F. Gorman, the eldest, so favorably known in St. Paul, and long the clerk of the Board of Public Works; James W. Gorman, who was assistant adjutant general on the General's staff from September, 1862, till the date of his death at Indianapolis, February 19, 1863, from disease contracted in the service; Louisa G., wife of Harvey Officer, Esq., of St. Paul, who died March 4, 1870; E. S. Gorman, Attorney at law in St. Paul; and Martha B., now Mrs. Wood, residing at Evansville, Indiana. The noble mother of these children died March 1, 1864, at Bloomington, Ind., the home of her childhood, where she was visiting during the absence of the General with his military command. He was subsequently married to Miss Emily Newington, April 27, 072 601865. This estimable lady survived her husband, and of this union there was no issue.

General Gorman died May 20, 1876, at his residence in St. Paul. His mind was clear to the last, and he died surrounded by his family and friends. The flags on all city and state buildings were hoisted at half, mast, for his death was regarded as public calamity. His funeral cortége was, to that period, the most imposing the city had seen. The funeral was attended by seventy lawyers of the city, with the judges of the supreme and district courts and court of common pleas. A company of the 20th United States Infantry from Fort Snelling, with the full regimental band, was present. The mayor, the council, and all the city officers, veterans of the Mexican War, and many members of the old Minnesota First, the members of Acker Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, the governor and other state officers,—all these were part of the procession which filled the ample Cathedral. A most tender and eloquent funeral discourse was delivered by that distinguished prelate, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Ireland, from those well known words, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after death the judgement.” The remains were deposited in Oakland Cemetery, in the beautiful family lot, covered with floral offerings, and the 20th United States Infantry discharged three volleys over the grave of one whose character and service to his state will stand as a monument when that of granite shall have crumbled away.

The first message of Governor Gorman to the territorial legislature January 11, 1854, was published in pages 25-34 of the Journal of the Council during the fifth session of the legislative assembly (St. Paul, 1854). In this message he said:

The maxim that “that government is best which governs least,” has much wise admonition to a state in its infancy. The laws for the government of a plain republican people should be few, simple, and with uniform application to every section of the country, and bearing alike upon all, leaving to each individual the largest liberty consistent with the good of the whole. Capital always comes forward with the largest demands upon the legislator, whilst labor is more humble in its pretentions, and stands yet far more in need of your fostering care. I hope we may all profit by an occasional recurrence to those great principles, which lie at the foundation of all legislation. Therefore, should it be your pleasure, during the present session, to incorporate companies for the development of our resources, I recommend that they be so guarded, with restrictions, as to keep them constantly under the control of the people's representatives. Population and commerce will command capital, and without the aid of legislative protection, that capital, concentrated, will command power enough for all legitimate purposes.

The message to the legislature in its sixth session, delivered January 18, 1855, is in the Journal of the Council, pages 31-43. Governor Gorman in this message recommended that the attractions of Minnesota for new settlers should be made known more widely, as follows:

Sound political economy has taught us that population is the basis of wealth and greatness. It is therefore the duty of the law-making power to so frame the political institutions of government as most certainly to secure it. Our agricultural, mineral and manufacturing resources are so abundant that Minnesota needs no utopian pictures to be drawn to entice to our territory either population, capital, or commerce. We need only a true history of our broad fertile prairies, our woods, lakes, rivers, minerals, pineries, water power and navigation, to tempt capital in abundance, and direct emigration to where they can find enough of those advantages combined to satisfy the enterprising of all classes and countries. We need not stop 074 62to inquire why it is that thousands of our fathers, brothers, and friends, can content themselves to stick to the worn out and comparatively barren soil of the old states, rather than seek a home in this invigorating and healthy climate and fertile soil. They will soon find out our facilities for wealth and comfort when we take steps to advertise them. I would, therefore, as the first step to this end, recommend that you take into consideration, at the earliest day convenient, the propriety of appointing an emigration agent to reside chiefly in the city of New York, whose duty it shall be to give to the people correct information of our territory, its soil, climate, population, productions, agricultural, manufacturing and educational facilities and prospects.

Gorman's message of January 9, 1856, in the Seventh session of the territorial legislature, published in pages 1-13 of the Appendix of the Journal of the Council, contains the following:

It is a source of much satisfaction to observe the laudable efforts being made by our people in the cause of literature and science, and particularly in the reorganization of the Minnesota Historical Society, under circumstances that give the fullest assurance that no effort will be spared to place it upon a basis of the most honorable distinction. It will be a matter of much interest to the coming generation to have perpetuated the monuments of our early history, not only in this territory, but for the whole Northwest; and no institution at present promises to accomplish so much as this society. It is recommended that a small appropriation be made for the purpose of aiding in the advancement of these objects.

The last message of Governor Gorman to the legislature, delivered January 14, 1857, in its Eighth session, was published in the Journal of the Council, pages 21-31, and also as a separate pamphlet of 15 pages. The admission of Minnesota as a state was recommended by many considerations, beginning as follows:

From sources deemed reliable, I am able to state the population of the territory at about one hundred and eighty thousand souls, and I feel justified in saying that this is rather under than over the estimate made by many who have taken some pains to inform themselves on the subject.

It is proper to state that the taxable property in the territory amounts to between thirty and thirty-five millions of dollars, even at the low rate of assessment made by the officers appointed for the purpose. The returns made by twenty-four counties show an assessment of twenty-four millions of dollars.

In view of our population and wealth, it seems to be a matter of necessity that steps be taken to throw off our state of dependence on the National Government, and assume the mantle of state sovereignty. Even should the most speedy organization be made to this end, our population must run up to two hundred or two hundred and fifty thousand people, and our taxable property reach fifty or sixty millions of dollars at least, before Congress will probably admit us into the Union. * * *

The acquaintance of the writer with governor Medary began in 1855, when just after leaving college I became editor of the Scioto Gazette at Chillicothe, Ohio. Governor Medary was at that time editor of the Ohio Statesman. We exchanged papers and also exchanged pungent paragraphs, he being a violet Jacksonian Democrat, and I in the chrysalis state, passing from a Whig to a Republican. In these encounters he undoubtedly gor the better of me, for he was a skilled knight of the quill, and I but a fledgling. Though he was a stalwart editor, vehement and caustic, yet personally he was one of the most agreeable of men, in every way genial and lovable. He was at that time easily the Nestor of the Ohio press.

He was succeeded in the editorship of the Statesman by the Hon. S. S. Cox, and able man, long in Congress from the Columbus district, and who was known by the sobriquet of “Sunset Cox,” a title I had given him by reason of a highly wrought and sophomoric editorial on a flaming sunset after a great storm.

Samuel Medary, called “the wheel horse of Ohio Democracy,” was born in Montgomery Square, Montgomery county, Pa., February 25, 1810. It has been said that the family name was originally spelled Madeira. He was the son of Jacob Medary, a respectable farmer. His ancestors were Quakers, and he was brought up as a Quaker, and it is record in the family that his mother's ancestor emigrated to this county with William Penn.

Samuel Medary was educated at the Norristown Academy. It is said of him that in his youth he contributed poetic effusions to the local paper. For awhile he taught school and continued his studies in higher branches. His family appear to have been unsettled, for they removed in 1820 to Montgomery county, Md., and three years later to Georgetown, D. C. In 1822 he himself went to Montgomery county, Va., where he was married. In 1826, he settled in Batavia, Clermont county, Ohio. At the age of twenty-six, he was made county surveyor, school trustee, and afterward county auditor. Meantime he learned the trade of a printer. In 1828 he appears to have entered upon his life work, for he established the “Ohio Sun,” and became an enthusiastic advocate of General Jackson for the presidency. In 1834 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, and subsequently to the state senate. His term having expired, he removed to Columbus, Ohio, the capital of the state, and purchased the “Western Hemisphere,” which in due time was given the name of the 080 69“Ohio Statesman,” and in the columns of this paper he achieved great success. Perhaps no Ohio editor was ever better known, or more greatly feared by his enemies than was Samuel Medary during the twenty-one years he edited that journal. It was a political power always to be counted with, not only in Ohio but all the middle states. He was recognized by Jackson as his ablest editorial supporter, and no editor in the United States enjoyed the confidence and personal regard of “Old Hickory” as did Medary.

The old political battle cry of “Fifty-four Forty or Fight,” relative to the Oregon boundary question, originated with him. In 1844 he was made chairman of the Ohio delegation to the Baltimore convention. The internal history of that celebrated convention develops the fact that his great friend, General Jackson, had written a letter to Mr. Medary asking him, in the event of discord, to offer the name of James K. Polk, of Tennessee, for the presidency. The hour apparently foretold by Jackson came, and when the tumult was at its height, Medary produced this letter, and the result was Polk's nomination by acclamation. His action in securing Polk's nomination by the Jackson letter, resulted in his being offered the position of United States minister to Chili in 1853, which was declined.

In 1856, being a delegate to the Cincinnati convention which nominated James Buchanan for the presidency, he was made temporary chairman, though he strongly advocated the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas, 081 70with whom he had ben on terms of intimate personal friendship. Subsequently, when Douglas opposed Buchanan, a political separation ensued. James Buchanan having been elected president, he appointed Samuel Medary of Columbus, Ohio, territorial governor of Minnesota in March, 1857. He succeeded Willis A. Gorman, a Democrat, but an appointee of President Piece, the latter not being popular among the Democrats of the Northwest.

Governor Medary arrive in St. Paul on the 22d day of April, 1857. He was quietly sworn in as governor at the old capitol building, April 23, and on the 29th of April, he delivered to the territorial council and house of representatives his first message.

Minnesota was at this period in transition from a territorial to a state government. It was also the period of the real estate mania. Townsites and paper cities were the passion of the hour. One humorous citizen, with bitter irony, recommended that a small portion of the land be reserved for agriculture and not all be laid out in town lots. That same year the bubble of speculation burst, and almost in a single day the territory dropped from the top wave of prosperity into a slough of despondency.

These conditions were not such as to give Medary a cordial welcome to his new home. Then also occurred the first state election, though somewhat premature, the state not yet being admitted. The entire state, judicial, and legislative ticket was elected in October, 1857, 082 71although the constitution was not accepted and approved by Congress till May 11, 1858. None of the state officers could qualify till after the formal admission of the state. Meantime, Medary was still recognized as governor, though most of the time out of the territory and acting through the secretary of the territory, Charles L. Chase.

The passage of the celebrated Five Million Loan Bill was of this period, and was approved by Governor Medary, through the secretary. The situation was indeed anomalous. The legislative in existence was a state legislature, so elected, and it was passing acts approved by a territorial governor, the state not being yet admitted. A “solemn protest” was entered of record against the validity of all acts passed at this session, and on the journal of the senate are spread protests and resolutions to that effect. It was held that the constitution enacted contemplated an admission into the Union as a prerequisite to the exercise of any act of state sovereignty. But the majority held differently and matters of legislation proceeded, and no further objection was ever raised as to the validity of all acts done under this double-headed system, either by Congress or the state. It is proper to remark, however, that the question of the legality of these laws did reach the territorial bench, and Judge Flandran pronounced them legal. But the general situation was unpleasant for the new governor, and was the occasion of his continued absence from the capital. The acting governor during the absences 083 72of Governor Medary was C. L. Chase, secretary of the territory.

December 11, 1857, Governor Medary issued his second and last message to the legislature. It was a comprehensive review of the condition of the territory, and of the changes necessarily incident to the transition from a territorial to a state government. This was the period when Minnesota apparently presented the condition of having three governors at the same time,—H. H. Sibley was governor elect of the yet unadmitted state; C. L. Chase, territorial secretary, was acting governor in the absence of Medary; and Samuel Medary was de facto governor, being in Columbus, Ohio, and drew his salary until May 24, 1858.

Governor Medary was in the gubernatorial office for a period of thirteen months. He was the last of our territorial governors, there being three, Alexander Ramsey, Willis A. Gorman, and Samuel Medary.

After the formal admission of Minnesota into the Union, he was appointed postmaster at Columbus, Ohio. Soon afterward he was appointed governor of Kansas, November 19, 1858, and entered upon the duties of his office December 20. The long existing difficulties in Kansas were comparatively at rest during his administration, and no occasion was given for the display of administrative ability. He resigned his office December 20, 1860. He again returned to Columbus and resumed his old vacation by establishing a paper which 084 73was called “The Crisis,” whose proprietor he remained until his death, which occurred November 7, 1864.

He was buried in Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio; and in 1869 the Democrats of Ohio erected there a noble monument to his memory. It bears this inscription: Samuel Medary, Born in Montgomery County, Penn., February 25, 1801. Died at Columbus, Ohio, November 7, 1864. In connection of his Public Services, Private Virtues, Distinguished Ability and Devotion to Principle, This Monument is Erected by the Democracy of Ohio.

Governor Medary had twelve children: Virginia (Mrs. Wilson), Sarah (Mrs. Massey), Kate (Mrs. Blair), Louise (Mrs. Smith), Missouri, Samuel Adams, Flora (Mrs. Nevins), Charles Stewart, William Allen, Frederick Henry, Laura Willey, and Jacob. Missouri died in infancy, and Louise died in 1861. The other children survived the Governor.

Governor Medary's message of April 29, 1857, in the extra session of the territorial legislature called to provide for admission to statehood, was published in the Journal of the Council, pages 5-7, and also as a pamphlet of six pages. The purpose of the session was noted thus:

Herewith transmitted is a copy of the act of Congress, passed at the last session, “To authorize the people of the Territory of Minnesota to form a Constitution and State Government, preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.”

The provisions of the act are explicit, requiring no explanation. They are liberal and beneficent to the future state of Minnesota. It is your province to determined what legislation is required at your present session to carry the law into effect. It will devolve upon you to provide for the compensation of the members of the Constitutional Convention, and for defraying the expenses of that body. The whole subject is submitted to your disposal, in the confidence that your action will be as prompt and judicious as the interests of the territory may demand; and that it will be in full harmony with the spirit and intent of the Enabling Act of Congress.

The message of Medary to the first legislature of the state of Minnesota, delivered December 11, 1857, published in the Journal of the Senate, pages 29-39, and as a separate pamphlet of 13 pages, begins as follows:

I congratulate you upon your organization as the Legislative Department of a State Government.

The territorial existence of Minnesota has been brief, healthful and fortunate; and having patiently waited until the full measure of her population is more than attained, and asked and fulfilled every formality of law and precedent, she is ready—without dissension, strife or doubt—to take her place among the co-equal sovereignties of the Federal Union.

You will join with me in the hope and effort that Minnesota may achieve a position of usefulness and importance in national affairs, and be powerful in promoting the harmony and prosperity of these United States.

The Constitution adopted by the people of our territory, with such distinguished unanimity, is so distinct in its grants and limitations of power that there need be no difficult in following its true intent and meaning. Securing the fullest liberty of conscience, of speech, and of the Press, its Republican character is indisputable. The work of actual residents, uninfluenced by outside interference, the people of Minnesota can repose upon it as their own creation; and if found inadequate to the complete development of their state, or defective in any of its provisions, they have reserved to themselves the ways and means of its revision or abrogation. Upon the legislature now assembled devolves the high privilege and important duty of shaping the first laws of our infant state, in accordance with the charter the people have decreed.

Henry Hastings Sibley, the first governor of the State of Minnesota, was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, February 20, 1811. The genealogical record of the Sibley family shows him to have been well born. His ancestors were English. His father was chief justice Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, whose immediate ancestors attained prominence in early New England history and were all of thoroughly Puritan stock. The mother of Henry Hastings Sibley was Sarah Whipple Sproat, and was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, Col. Ebenezer Sproat, a family of subsequent distinction in both Ohio and Michigan.

The Sibley family were in Detroit during the War of 1812, and during the disgraceful surrender of the fort by General Hull to General Brock, the British commander. When the attack was made upon the city, Mrs. Sibley was holding in her arms her youngest child, Henry Hastings, while she was making cartridges for the soldiers, or scraping lint for the wounded. To the memory of this good and noble woman, Mrs. Ellet, in 089 78her admirable volume, “The Pioneer Women of the West,” pays a beautiful and touching tribute.

Young Sibley was thus by heredity born to an adventurous career. He was educated in the academy at Detroit, and received during two years a polishing course of Greek and Latin under an Episcopal clergyman. Then followed two years of study in the law. But this was irksome work for one who longed for outdoor pursuits and a more stirring life. Of his own accord he entered upon a career of his own choosing. In 1828, in his eighteenth year, he turned his steps to the West, never again to return to his home, except as a transient guest.

He first found employment as a clerk at Sault Sainte Marie in a sutler's store. This and subsequent employment familiarized young Sibley with Indian affairs, and opened the way for an important clerkship in the American Fur Company, of which John Jacob Astor, of New York, was the head. This company gathered furs and pelts from vast regions in the Northwest. Sibley's first employment was at Mackinac, then the central depot of the great fur company, second only to that of the Hudson Bay Company. There he met Robert Stuart, the head and embodiment of the fur company itself. Under the tutorship of that distinguished trader, he learned the entire business of traffic with the Indians. Here he also became intimate with Henry R. Schoolcraft, who was ever afterward his warm personal friend. The five years he spent with this great company advanced 090 79him to high responsibilities and to the practical control of its business.

In 1834, John Jacob Astor sold his entire interest to a new corporation of which Ramsay Crooks, father of the late Colonel William Crooks, of St. Paul, was chosen president. Into this new company came Hercules L. Dousman and Joseph Rolette, Sr., and also young Sibley; and the latter, largely upon Dousman's recommendation, was to push into the wilderness and take exclusive control of the direct trade with the Sioux Indians from Lake Pepin to the British line. This business arrangement decided the tenor of young Sibley's whole subsequent career. In his twenty-third year, he succeeded Alexis Bailly, a well known trader, in charge of the company's headquarters post, at the junction of the Mississippi and St. Peter's rivers, at a point subsequently called Mendota. On the 7th day of November, 1834, the young adventurer first set foot on that soil which was destined to be the theater of the activities of his stirring life. The only friendly object in sight was the starry flag floating from the turret of Fort Snelling, erected by the War Department in 1820.

With his accustomed energy, in 1835-36, he erected two massive stone buildings, one a warehouse, the other a substantial stone residence, the first stone dwelling-house ever erected in Minnesota or Dakota. For nine years, from 1834 to 1843, he lived there in baronial state, pursuing with ardor the ever growing interests of the fur company. The long and unoccupied winters gave great 091 80opportunity for study, and he caused to be sent to him from Detroit and St. Louis works of the highest merit, such as those of Gibbon, Hume, Rollin, Cooper's and Scott's novels, and other kindred works, the first valuable collection of books brought to Minnesota.

There he became acquainted with all the early missionaries, Protestant and Catholic alike and bore frequent testimony, in his letters and addresses, to their devotion and zeal for the welfare of the red men. Samuel W. Pond and Gideon H. Pond, Stephen R. Riggs, Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, and William T. Bout-well, were all his friends. Nor less friendly was the relation he sustained to those noble Catholic pioneers, Father Galtier, Father Ravoux, and Rather Cretin, subsequently Bishop of St. Paul.

Among the sturdy pioneer traders, who were his early associates, were such strong men as Joseph R. Brown, Joseph, Louis Provencalle, William A. Aitkin, the two Faribaults, Alexis Bailly, Norman W. Kittson, Martin McLeod, Franklin Steele, Henry M. Rice, Philander Prescott, W. H. Forbes, the Morrisons, Charles H. Oakes, Dr. C. W. W. Borup, and other really remarkable and widely known men, who carried into our untrodden wilderness the seeds of the coming civilization. Never was a new state blessed with a braver or more intellectual body of men than that stalwart band of pioneers who, in the vigor of youth, gave their energies and indomitable courage to the building of the young empire of Minnesota. These men gathered around 092 81Sibley as the Greek heroes about Ajax. He was the central figure of pre-territorial and territorial times.

It was during these early years that Sibley became famous as a Nimrod among the hunters and Indians of the Northwest. With the rifle he was almost an unerring shot. Ducks, geese, elk, and deer, often filled his commissary department with abundant stores. His well organized hunting expeditions, with trained dogs and Indians, often hunted buffalo and elk over the great counties which now comprise the cultivated empire of Southern Minnesota.

But nine years of this varied and romantic life brought him to an event which was personally of the greatest importance. He changed his mode of life from a bachelor's to a benedict's.

Henry Hastings Sibley and Sarah Jane Steele were married at Fort Snelling by the post chaplain, Rev. Ezekiel G. Gear, May 2, 1843. He had met this really beautiful young lady in the city of Baltimore, where he had gone as groomsman to the late Franklin Steele, whose sister she was. She was charming in person and bright with intelligence. They lived happily together at Mendota many years, removing to St. Paul in 1862, when he began his military career. This truly good and accomplished woman died at St. Paul May 21, 1862. Mr. Sibley never remarried.

The home of Mr. Sibley at Mendota was ever a mansion of generous hospitality. Men of civil, military, and scientific fame found there, in the remote wilderness, 093 82an elegant home. Such distinguished men as Governor Lewis Cass, of Michigan; Major Stephen H. Long, U.S.A.; Henry R. Schoolcraft, the unquestioned discoverer of the sources of the Mississippi; the noted savant, Joseph N. Nicollet; the celebrated John C. Fremont; George Catlin, whose works and paintings of Indian character gave him fame; the well known novelist, Captain Marryatt, were all among the noted guests who enjoyed his princely hospitality. The fame of the Mendota mansion as the abode of hospitality traveled far and wide. Its scenes and rich associations are truly historic, and the building should be preserved by the Historical Society for the memories which enrich its record.

The year 1848 marked an era in the history of Sibley. He was elected as a delegate to the thirtieth Congress from the territory of Wisconsin. During that session of Congress, Wisconsin was admitted as a state with diminished boundaries, leaving all that portion of the former territory of Wisconsin west of the St. Croix river deprived of government representation. It was this residuum of territory, not included in the new born state, that Sibley had been elected to represent. Mr. Sibley defended with marked ability his right to a seat, and after a sharp contest he was admitted by a vote of ninety yeas to sixty-two nays. This result blazed the way for the organization of the territory of Minnesota.

Old Virginia came into possession of the entire “Territory of the Northwest” by virtue of various royal charters. Constructively, it reached from sea to sea. 094 83But she never claimed jurisdiction except of that territory lying east of the Mississippi and northwest of the Ohio river, keeping her foot off from French dominion. Virginia, by an act of the noblest generosity, ceded, March 1, 1784, this vast domain to the United States forever. This grant was again fully ratified in the celebrated ordinance of 1787, establishing a territory and consecrating the princely domain forever to freedom. Out of it were carved the great states of Ohio, Michigan, Indians, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and a part only of the state of Minnesota. That portion of Minnesota lying wast of the Mississippi came from the “Louisiana Purchase.” Minnesota thus had a double mother. Her territory passed through many jurisdictions before it became a territorial unit; and the changes on the west side of the Mississippi may be noted in Mr. Sibley's own words, “I was successively a citizen of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota territories, without changing my residence from Mendota.”

The important object of Sibley's mission to Congress was the organization of the territory of Minnesota. After a severe struggle it was organized March 3, 1849. There was but little a territorial delegate in Congress could do for his constituents. The establishment of land offices, the fixing of mail routes, and suggestions as to the control and management of the Indian population, comprised the extent of his work. While in Congress, Sibley took no part in party politics, and was more influential for that reason.

Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, had been appointed by the new President, Zachary Taylor, governor of the new made territory; and on June 1, 1849, he issued his proclamation for its organization. The new governor fixed the first day of August for the election of a delegate to Congress from the territory of Minnesota. Mr. Sibley was chosen, receiving without opposition the votes of all the electors in the territory. No political party had yet been formed in the territory, and no partisan distractions yet marred the harmony of his constituents. About November, 1849, party organization made its appearance, but Mr. Sibley's name does not appear in either call.

A multitude of new duties were now devolved upon the delegate from the new born territory. Post roads and military roads were to be established; obstructions to commerce needed to be removed from the great rivers; the frontier must be protected from Indians; treaties were to be negotiated; a capitol building was to be erected; land offices to be established; pre-emption rights to be defended; surveys of public lands to be demanded; the school lands to be assured and protected; and large appropriations should be solicited. Such were the duties now pressing upon the new delegate.

Mr. Sibley was again elected to Congress in 1851, serving in all in that body four years and three months. During all this period, he was assiduous in the performance of every duty which involved the interests of his constituents. His official record is a remarkable one for 096 85faithful work. Everything he gained for the territory was won by determined struggles in fierce contests. His Congressional career is marked with splendid results for the people of Minnesota, and his great labors in Congress underlie the civil and political structure of our state.

Retiring from Congress, Mr. Sibley returned to his home in Mendota and gave earnest attention to his long neglected private affairs. In October, 1854, he was returned from Dakota county as a member of the Sixth territorial legislature. In that body he was largely instrumental in preventing gigantic schemes of robbery by railroad land jobbery and corruption in connection with the Minnesota and Northwestern railroad company.

In 1857-58, the time was ripe for Minnesota to seek entrance into the sisterhood of states. The population was approaching 200,000. February 23, 1857, Congress passed an “Enabling Act,” authorizing the people of the territory to meet in convention at St. Paul and form for themselves a state constitution. An election for this purpose was duly held, June 8, 1857. The delegates so chosen met in St. Paul July 13, at the state capitol. Party feeling ran high. Kansas was “bleeding,” and politics were, indeed, acute. The Democratic and Republican parties organized in different chambers of the capitol, and each styled itself “the Constitutional Convention.” Sibley was elected chairman of the Democratic convention. Each convention claimed that it was valid, and denounced the other as 097 86spurious. Party spirit blinded all eyes, and scenes were enacted which, to calm and retrospective vision, were ridiculous. The proceedings of these conventions were published in two separate volumes. After weeks of bitter contention, better counsels prevailed; a committee of “conference and compromise” was appointed; and, adopting the suggestion of Joseph R. Brown, one constitution was agreed upon, on August 29, and was unanimously ratified by a vote of the people October 13, 1857. The Congress approved the constitution and it received the signature of the President, May 11, 1858. Thus, nine years after her organization as a territory, Minnesota shone as a new star in the deep blue of the national flag.

The election for state officers under the new constitution was held October 13, 1857. Henry Hastings Sibley, after much delay, was declared elected governor by a majority of 240, the contest being between himself and Alexander Ramsey. A question arose as to the voting of Indians, the result of the canvassing board was not acquiesced in by the opposition, and the papers of that day fairly glowed with malignity and gall. The returns as finally accepted gave Sibley 17,790 votes, and Ramsey, 17,550.

The year when Sibley became governor, chronicled the greatest financial disaster ever known to the country. The fabric of commerce and trade was shattered, and public and private credit was wrecked. Minnesota was in the slough of the general distress. In the vigorous 098 87language of Judge C. E. Flandrau, “Towns on paper were thicker than locusts in Egypt. There was little else than towns. Agriculture was hardly known. The current rate of interest was three and five per cent per month. Everybody borrowed all he could to operate in town lots. Then came a succession of failures all over the country. Never was smash more complete.” But it gave to the people of Minnesota the salutary lesson that all true wealth comes from the soil, and that honest labor is the substantial foundation of all genuine prosperity.

In the midst of this insanity of speculation, came a most gigantic blunder on the part of the state. The celebrated “Five Million Loan Bill” was the crowning monument of the unreason of the people. This bill, in the form of a constitutional amendment, provided for a loan of the credit of the state to four railroad companies, to the amount of $5,000,000, on certain restrictive conditions. Governor Sibley himself voted against the measure. But the political opponents of his admistration managed to cast the odium of the measure upon the Democrats, and in some degree upon Governor Sibley, though many Republicans shared equally the responsibility of its adoption. It was carried like a whirlwind by a vote of 25,023 in favor, to 6,733 against it. The election occurred on April 15, 1858. The amendment thus passed became a part of the organic law of the state. The railroad companies promptly accepted the conditions, and began work. Governor Sibley notified the companies that, before he would deliver to any of 099 88these corporations any portion of the state bonds, they must comply with the letter and spirit of the amendment authorizing the loan. However, one of the companies, the Minnesota and Pacific, tendered the governor a trust deed, not in conformity with his requirements, and demanded the issuance of bonds claimed to be due. The governor refused to deliver the bonds, and the company appealed to the supreme court for a peremtory writ to compel their issuance. A majority of the court granted the mandamus, Judge Flandrau dissenting. This act and decision of the court was a direct encroachment upon the prerogative of the executive. The dissenting view of Judge Flandran was an opinion of clearness, force, and soundness.

We are of the opinion that Governor Sibley, in this transaction, committed a serious error of judgment, and at the time surrendered his constitutional prerogative of alone exercising the executive function. In this proceeding, he made a majority of the supreme court the governor, ipso facts, an authority which he could not surrender or share with any person or tribunal. The decision was an encroachment upon the executive prerogative. The bonds were accordingly issued as prescribed by the mandate of the court. The result was that the companies defaulted, and the whole arrangement was a disastrous failure. The honor of the state was compromised, and we entered upon a period of general disgrace. Had the governor stood firm, how different would our history have been in the sad story of the results 100 89of the “Five Million Bill.” The companies ceased operations, and for the time being the condition of the state was most unhappy.

In all this transaction, the personal and official character of Governor Sibley was untarnished. No one ever questioned the purity of his purposes, and his honor was unassailable. But his best friends afterwards heartily wished that he had refused to obey the writ of the court. The court was only a co-ordinate, and not a superior branch of the state government. The constitution stood above the court, and guaranteed the independence of the executive. The Republicans did not fail to use the “Five Million Loan” to great advantage in the approaching political contest. It was a shibboleth which, whether rightfully or wrongfully used, carried dismay into the ranks of their opponents.

While the Five Million Loan was by far the most important feature of Governor Sibley's administration, minor matters claimed attention. The “Wright County War,” so called, occurred during this period. Governor Sibley in a proper manner vindicated the majesty of the law as against mob violence. While much ridicule was sought to be thrown upon the governor in this matter, his determination to resist anarchy and maintain and uphold the majesty of the law through the use of the militia was heartily sustained by every law-abiding citizen.

The two years of his life as executive of the state were well filled with the vast business detail of needs 101 90incident to a new state. His office as governor expired January 1, 1860. Mighty events were now filling the political world with unusual excitement. The revolt of the country against the aggressions of the slave power; the fugitive slave law; the Dred Scott decision; squatter sovereignty; the Lecompton constitution of Kansas; these, and kindred issues, shook the country as with an earthquake. The Democrats themselves were divided. The northern Democracy was aligned under the lead of Stephen A. Douglas; the southern Democracy was following John C. Breckenridge. In this contest Ex-Governor Sibley enlisted under the banner of Douglas, and, being a delegate to the Charleston convention, he voted for the “Little Giant” fifty-seven times, notwithstanding the defection of most of the Minnesota delegation. Governor Sibley never affiliated with the extreme Democrats of the South. He was a “War Democrat,” and was ever loyal to the flag of his country.

Abraham Lincoln was elected president in November, 1860. South Carolina seceded November 20th, 1869. In Charleston Harbor, April 12, 1861, the fatal gun was fired which awoke the nation to arms.

In the midst of the lurid light of the flames of the great Civil War, another woe came to the people of Minnesota. Not if another Vesuvius had opened its sulphurous crater in the beautiful valley of Minnesota, could the people have been taken with greater surprise. A merciless and vengeful enemy, with instinctive secrecy, suddenly burst upon the unsuspecting settlers, and commenced 102 91an orgy of butchery of men, women, and children. It began at Acton, in Meeker county, and spread southward till eighteen counties of the state were made hideous with the savage war-whoop of the naked and painted Indians, who, with rifle, scalping knife, and torch, wreaked their fiendish passions upon the unresisting and unsuspecting people, and made a valley as sweet as Wyoming, a carnival of hell. This is not the place to discuss the causes of this awful tragedy. Little Crow followed as the historic successor of King Philip, Black Hawk, and Tecumseh. He had come with his warriors to repossess the state.

Alexander Ramsey, then governor, in this alarming crisis, turned to Henry Hastings Sibley, his old political antagonist, as the proper man to lead a military force against the savage foe. No man in the land knew the Indian character better than Sibley. He understood their language, their character, their mode of warfare, their purposes, and had thorough knowledge of the country. On the 19th day of August, 1862, he was commissioned by the governor as colonel and commander of the expedition against the hostile Sioux. With creative energy he organized military companies, turned lead pipe into bullets, and found guns and ammunition where none where known to exist, while medical and commissary stores were secured as by enchantment. And yet, with all his energy, a mere heterogeneous mass never moved against a foe. His movements seemed slow and conservative because of unpreparedness; yet the results of his 103 92first campaign disarmed all censure. He relieved Fort Ridgely, saved the most of Major Brown's command at the bloody action at Birch Coulie, re-enforced the retreating column of Colonel Flandrau from New Ulm, protected Mankato, St. Peter, Henderson, and Glencoe, prevented further outrages to an extended frontier, and fought the important battle of Wood Lake, September 22 and 23, 1862.

This battle broke utterly the prestige of Little Crow and his allies and expelled them forever from the state, released three hundred helpless captives at Camp Release, took one thousand five hundred prisoners, and put four hundred twenty-five Indian cut-throats and murderers in irons. The results of the victory were of immense value to the state and to the whole country. One important feature of these results was the confiscation of the large Indian reservation south of the Minnesota river and its opening to settlement and civilization.

President Lincoln at once promoted Colonel Sibley to the rank of a brigadier general in the United States army. This good work was accomplished in one month and six days. He immediately organized a military commission; caused the 425 alleged murderers to be tried, 321 of whom were duly convicted; and 303 were sentenced to capital punishment, whose atrocious crimes surely made them worthy of death. President Lincoln, however, in the clemency of his great heart, remitted the death penalty on all but forty, thirty-eight of whom 104 93were duly executed by hanging in the city of Mankato December 26th, 1862.

No more tragic scene was ever witnessed on the American continent than when these red-handed murderers, suspended from thirty-eight ropes, fell when the strongly built scaffold dropped as the cable which held the great oak platform was cut by William J. Duly, whose wife had been violated and children murdered by these same barbarians. If the massacre was tragic, not less tragic was the end. The goddess of Justice as she gazed upon the scene must have been content.

The brilliant results of General Sibley's campaign in the fall of 1862, thus closed, did not free the frontier from savage menace. There still existed portions of tribes, with more than five thousand warriors who were still for war. Therefore a second military expedition was more carefully organized and equipped, in the spring of 1863, to drive the whole Sioux nation beyond the Missouri. A force of more than 4,000 men, including infantry, cavalry, and artillery, was concentrated at Camp Pope, and on the 16th of June General Sibley started this army in the general direction of Devil's Lake, in the neighborhood of which the Indians were believed to have rendezvoused.

The field of operations was large and pursuit difficult. The season was excessively hot, and the grasshoppers had ravaged the plains. The column marched over marsh, plain, and mounds, amid clouds of dust, 105 94and the wind was as the breath of a simoom. The lakes were alkaline, and pure water was scarcely to be found.

Forced marches brought the command to Big Mound, beyond the James river, where a large body of Indians were encamped, and an engagement was at once precipitated, on Friday, July 24, 1863. The savages were defeated and forced back over successive ridges of the rolling prairie, a distance of from ten to fifteen miles. A mistaken order induced the return of the pursuing column in the dead of night and far into the morning, weary and hungry, to the main camp. It would seem to have been good military policy to have had the main force follow the pursuing column and maintain their advantage. Such a purpose was evidently entertained by the commanding general. For early that evening General Sibley called a council of war in his tent and laid before the members the situation. Just where the advance detachments were at that time was not known, but they were believed to be successfully following the enemy. The question submitted by the commanding general to the council was, Should a night march be made to overtake the advance column and close in on the enemy who had been taken unawares? All the field officers present, each in his turn, including the writer, counseled for an immediate night march. Very soon, however, General Sibley advised the regimental officers that no movement would be made that night, and that the camp would not be broken. This was an unfortunate determination. Sibley believed the Indians 106 95to be in full force and feared a night attack upon his column, with the dispersion of his cattle, which conviction may have controlled his decision.

The result was that two full days were lost to the expedition, for the pursuing column returned, men and horses utterly worn and exhausted, being without water and without food, and were unable to move. The returning force had retraced their steps with sad and almost rebellious hearts. The advantage to be gained was lost, and the enemy had escaped, with time to gather their aged, their women and children, and camp equipment, and to speed on their way to the woods of the Missouri valley. If the order to bivouac on the field had not been given, a night march would have enabled the expedition to overtake the surprised Indian forces, with all their woman, children, aged, and impedimenta, and a final contest would have been had under the most favorable circumstances. Thus it appeared to all his colonels.

The pursuing expedition never again caught up with the flying savages, who made good their escape to the tangled thickets bordering the Missouri river and finally went across that stream. True, the Indian warriors three several times returned to contest the advance of the expedition, their evident purpose to still further aid in the escape of their families. On July 26, the battle of Dead Buffalo Lake was fought, where the Indians retreated, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. The battle of Stony Lake was fought by 107 96the returning Indians, Tuesday, July 28, to give their wretched wives and children further relief from the horrors of the pursuit. This was, by far, the most important engagement with the retreating Sioux. Fully 4,000 Sioux warriors confronted the expeditionary forces at three o'clock in the morning, being the largest Indian force that ever faced a white man's army on the American continent. The fiendish yells of the Indians will never be forgotten by those who heard them in the dawn of that day. “The brunt of the conflict was borne by the Tenth regiment, then in front, where the Indian assault was gallantly met and broken.” 1 The savages rapidly withdrew from the field.

The force now advanced, with daily skirmishing, to the final engagement at Apple Creek, in the tangled wilderness which lined the Missouri river. After a most painful march through vast thickets, the banks of the Missouri were visible and the Indian camps were seen on the bluffs opposite. They had escaped. This was the terminal point of the expedition, being about 600 miles from St. Paul. There was hope, not realized, that General Alfred Sully with a like expedition on the west side of the river would intercept the flying Sioux. Rockets were sent up and guns fired to attract the attention, if possible, of General Sully, but in vain. It was found subsequently that on that day General Sully was on the Missouri river 163 miles below this expedition. Without 108 97boats to cross the great river, further pursuit was useless. Rations also were short, so on August 1, 1863, the whole force started on its return. It had been absent two months and three weeks, and had marched nearly 1,200 miles.

It is difficult and embarrassing, even at this distant day, to pass considerate judgment upon the merits of the Sibley campaign to the Missouri river in 1863. If to drive the Sioux across the Missouri was the object of the expedition, it was a triumphant success. But it must ever remain a historic fact that a single night's march would have marvelously changed the results of the expedition by the probable overthrow and capture of practically the entire Sioux force, together with their families, not less than 8,000 souls.

General Sibley was a careful and considerate commander, and every military movement he made was inspired by the best motives and the purest patriotism. As compared with other campaigns against hostile Indians, conducted by able, noted, and experienced officers, no such important and effective blows were ever given in the history of this country to frontier savages as those of General Sibley's two campaigns. With comparatively little loss to his own force, he made our frontiers secure forever against Indian incursions. Between Generals Sibley and Sully, over 500 Indians were killed and wounded, and nearly 2,500 prisoners were taken. General Sibley will rank, historically, among the very foremost of the country's Indian fighters. He was a better 109 98and safer commander for not having the dash of Custer. He possessed the courage of Harney, the caution of William Henry Harrison. He had not the ardor of Anthony Wayne, but he had his wise and prudent skill in preparing for a campaign or a engagement.

He fought greater Indian battles than William Henry Harrison in his contest against Tecumseh at Tippecanoe, which made him President of the United States. His campaign against the Sioux would have riveted the eyes of the country and the civilized world, had not public attention been so overwhelming absorbed by the gigantic struggle of the Civil War.

His Indian campaigns being closed, General Sibley returned to his home in St. Paul, where a cordial welcome was given him. He resumed his place in the ranks of citizenship and positions of trust and responsibility soon came to him. Meantime he was retained in his military position and appointed on a military commission to negotiate treaties with the Sioux and Cheyennes on the upper Missouri. This work was promptly and satisfactorily accomplished, and others of a kindred nature followed.

But he finally retired from government service in 1886, to devote himself to his private affairs. Before his retiring, as a further reward for his military services, the rank of major general, by brevet, was conferred upon him. Now that he was again a citizen, many honors were showered upon him. He was elected president of the St. Paul Gas Light Company, in which capacity 110 99he served for twenty-three years. He was made president of the state normal board; president of the board of regents of the state university; president of the chamber of commerce in St. Paul; president of the Minnesota Club; and commander of the Loyal Legion, a fitting honor for his military service, and it is of record that one of his ancestors belonged to the “Order of the Cincinnati.”

Among all the honorary offices that came to him, the one nearest his heart was his election as president of the Minnesota Historical Society. He had been a charter member of this Society in 1849. General Sibley was of methodical tastes and habits. He was always careful to preserve every paper and document of any value that was sent to him, and to this trait and disposition is due the existence of the invaluable letters and documents called “The Sibley Papers,” which are now among the collections of this Society's Library. Portions of his private library, and these invaluable papers and manuscripts, were bequeathed to this Society. They are of great historic value, covering a period of sixty years.

For several years, in advanced age, he fought a vigorous battle to preserve inviolate the faith and credit of the state in the matter of the yet unadjusted railroad bonds. During a period of twenty-four years this issue perplexed our state politics. The whole affair was unfortunate, but the bonds outstanding were issued by the authority and under the seal of the state, and the 111 100honor of Minnesota required their adjustment, which was finally accomplished after repeated attempts, under the administration of Governor Pillsbury, in October, 1881.

Through all his declining years, there was continuous demand by the public for his counsel and advice on public questions. In 1880, at that great “Bi-Centennial Anniversary of the Discovery of the Falls of St. Anthony,” he was chosen president, and was himself the central figure of the august ceremonies.

November 7, 1884, on the completion of fifty years of his active and useful life in the service of Minnesota, his friends tendered him a sumptuous banquet, beautiful with flowers, and graced by the presence of the elite of St. Paul. In response to an appropriate toast, Cushman K. Davis paid him as elegant and touching a tribute as ever fell from the lips of that distinguished orator.

The universities of the land did not overlook the merits of this worthy son of Minnesota. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Princeton College, June 25, 1888. No other Minnesotan ever received so many signal marks of public esteem, and he wore all these honors unclouded by a single stain.

In his waning years he lived at his elegant home in St. Paul, surrounded by every comfort, with members of his own family who watched him with assiduous care, and in the complete enjoyment of the esteem and love of the people of the state.

Mrs. Sibley died May 21, 1869, lamented by a large circle of loving friends. She was a lady of rare virtues and accomplishment, and was in every way fitted to adorn the high station in life it was her fortune to occupy. They lived together twenty-six years of happy married life. Two beautiful children died in his absence while he was leading the expedition against the Sioux in 1863. These losses bore heavily upon the general, and bowed his stalwart form with age. In all, this goodly pair lost five children. The family register shows nine children, as follows: Augusta, who became Mrs. Captain Douglas Pope; Henry Hastings, who died in infancy; a second Henry Hastings, who also died in infancy; Sarah Jane, who became Mrs. Elbert A. Young; Franklin Steele, deceased; Mary Steele, deceased; Alexander, deceased; Charles Frederick; and Alfred Bush.

General Sibley died at his residence, 417 Woodward avenue, St. Paul, February 18, 1891, at 4:30 o'clock, A. M., in the eightieth year of his age. The Loyal Legion laid him, with loving hands, in a soldier's grave. The services were those of the Episcopal church, conducted by Bishop M. N. Gilbert. His casket was covered with a profusion of flowers, and, followed by a most distinguished cortége, was laid away in Oakland Cemetery.

Thus ended the career of Minnesota's most princely pioneer. His name had become a household word in the state, and his active life was interwoven with all our history. A loving and admiring people have perpetuated 113 102his name in county, town, and streets. During later years his polished pen was never idle, as shown by his lectures, addresses, and a most valuable list of papers delivered before the Historical Society, to which he was always warmly attached. He was prominent in social as well as official life, and his hospitable home was the center of a wide circle of friends. Authors, tourists, journalists, artists, and strangers who visited St. Paul, were sure to call on its distinguished citizen. The writer came to serve under him in the Sioux War with preconceived prejudices. Experience taught him to correct his judgment and revise his opinions. General Sibley was first of all a gentleman. Every act of his daily life bespoke the well-bred man. He was truly a baron of the border, and was surrounded by a body of remarkable men, who were chiefs of their clan in that day; but it is easy to note that Sibley was the Douglas of them all.

His work, as if foreordained, was to deliver the wilderness over to civilization. Nobly was it accomplished, and the barbaric past is now but as a tale that is told. What a history, what events, what memories, crowd upon us as we survey the grand panorama of this man's life! It is an unwritten Ilaid from savage time to the present consummate glory of our august state. As a commander in Indian warfare, he surely was never surpassed, if ever equalled. Anthony Wayne or General Custer would have fought at times when Sibley remained in his camp. But we recall the fearful disaster which befell Braddock when he neglected to guard against surprise. He 114 103was the most impressive force in the early and plastic period of our commonwealth.

As Washington stands for the infant nation, so Sibley stands for our infant state. He is the bright consummate flower of our earlier days, and the Muse of History, in her final decrees, ever loyal to truth and justice, will write the name of Henry Hastings Sibley, the pioneer, the statesman, and the soldier, far up in that pantheon which will preserve the fame of those who have best served the state.

The message of Governor Sibley to the first legislature of this state, June 3, 1858, was published in the Journal of the Senate, pages 372-379, and also separately as a pamphlet of 15 pages. Its last paragraphs are these:

Minnesota enters the Union as the thirty-second state. She extends a friendly hand to all her sisters, north and south, and gives them the assurance that she joins their ranks—not to provoke sectional discord or to engender strife—not to enlist in a crusade against such of them as differ with her in the character of their domestic institutions—but to promote harmony and good will, and to lend her aid, on all occasions, in maintaining the integrity of the Union.

Having been elected to the position of Chief Magistrate of the new state of Minnesota, I enter upon the discharge of the duties devolving upon me with much diffidence of my own abilities, but with a full consciousness that they will be honestly performed. Expecting to be held to a rigid accountability for the course of my administration, I shall exact from those officials for whose actions I may be in any manner responsible, an equally strict execution of the trusts that may be imposed upon them. For nearly twenty-four years I have been a resident of what is now the state of Minnesota, and I have watched each change in the condition of the country up to its present state of development, with much solicitude. I have no objects and no interests which are not inseparably bound up with the welfare of the state, and it is my highest ambition so to conduct her public affairs, that, when my official 115 104term shall expire, there will be found no blot on her escutcheon, and no departure, for which I can be made justly responsible, from those principles of integrity and sound democratic policy which have been the means, under Providence, of placing the American Union in the high position it now holds in the estimation of the world.

In his second and last message to the legislature, December 8, 1859, published in the Journal of the Senate, pages 10-27, and also in a pamphlet of 28 pages, Sibley referred to the strife between the North and the South, as follows:

The slavery question has for years been the fruitful source of sectional discord, and will continue to alienate the affections of the two great parts of the Union from each other, so long as it can be dragged into the arena of politics. When the principle of non-intervention on the part of Congress with the domestic institutions of the states, or organized territories, shall be fully established as a part of the public policy, and the same doctrine is made applicable to the several states and territories, no one being permitted to interfere in any manner with the domestic affairs of another, we may confidently expect to see the bonds of fraternal kindness fully restored between the North and South, and the only element of danger to the integrity of the confederacy wholly dissipated and removed.

It is the duty of Minnesota, and that of every other state, to promote harmony and good will between the different sections, and to frown upon all endeavors to exasperate one part of our common country against the other. God has given us a noble heritage, and while we enjoy the blessings of perfect freedom, religious as well as civil, we should bear in mind that we shall be held justly responsible for any failure on our part to transmit them unimpaired to our descendants.

Governor Sibley contributed the following papers in the Minnesota Historical Society Collections:

Description of Minnesota, a letter dated February 15, 1850 (Volume I, 1872, pages 37-42; 1902 pages 19-24).

Speech before the Committee on Elections of the House of Representatives in Congress, December 22, 1848 (Vol. I, 1872, pp. 69-76; 1902, pp. 47-54).

Memoir of J. N. Nicollet (Vol. I, 1872, pp. 183-195; 1902, pp. 146-156).

Reminiscences, Historical and Personal; an address at the annual meeting of this society, February 1, 1856 (Vol. I, 1872, pp. 457-485; 1902, pp. 374-396).

Sketch of John Other Day ( Vol. III, 1880, pp. 99-102).

Memoir of Jean Baptiste Faribault (Vol. III, pp. 168-179).

Memoir of Hercules L. Dousman (Vol. III, pp. 192-200).

Reminiscences of the Early Days of Minnesota (Vol. III, pp. 242-282).

Tribute to the Memory of Rev. John Mattocks (Vol. III, pp. 307-310).

Memorial of Rev. Gideon H. Pond (Vol. III, pp. 364-366).

ALEXANDER RAMSEY SECOND GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA January 2, 1860, to July 10, 1863

The complete biography of Governor Ramsey will be found on pages 3 to 46 inclusive.

In Maple Grove Cemetery, at Ravenna, Ohio, there sleeps, in his last sleep, the third governor of Minnesota, Henry Adoniram Swift. He was a remarkable and uncommon man in the distinguishing features of his personal character. He was of a rare and delicate mould, and really devoid of political ambition. What came to him in the way of official position was conferred by his fellow citizens because of their belief in his special fitness and endowment for the place they wished him to occupy. He never personally sought an office nor solicited a recommendation for one. He is the only one of our governors of whom this could be truthfully said. And of how many men in this nation, who have enjoyed political preferment, can this be affirmed?

Henry Adoniram Swift was born in Ravenna, Ohio, March 23, 1823. He was the second son the third child of Isaac and Eliza Swift. He was of Revolutionary stock; but, as Voltaire was wont to say, “He who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.” Yet we record the genealogical fact that the Swifts could trace their lineage back to the Pilgrim Fathers. His 121 112grandfather,Dr. Isaac Swift,was a Revolutionary patriot, and being a surgeon, was appointed a surgeon in the army under his cousin, Col. Herman Swift,and in that capacity he served during the year of 1776.

The Swifts came from England. They settled at Watertown, several miles west of Boston, in 1634. Bancroft (Vol.II, page 97) relates how governor Thomas Mayhew, who settle at Watertown in 1631 and who was related to the Swifts, received a good grant of land from the Earl of Sterling,—Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands. So we see they were well connected. Swift's father, like his grandfather, was also physician, Dr. Isaac Swift, and was from Cornwall, Connecticut. He was graduated at Columbia College, New York.

In the spring of 1815, Dr. Swift started west on horseback, with his diploma in his pocket, and all his effects in a portmanteau. Finally he reached Ravenna, Ohio, where, his horse sick, he was compelled to stop. He became the guest of one Salmon Carter, who kept a hotel. Carter soon made it known that he had a physician in his house, and as there were many sick in the new settlement, he came unexpectedly into professional employment which determined his location for life.

In 1818 Dr. Swift married Miss Eliza Thompson. Her family had come from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and had also settled in Ravenna. Her this goodly couple lived for over fifty years, honored and beloved by 122 113all. And here, at the ripe age of eighty-four, Dr. Swift died, and ten years later his wife died at the same age.

Young Swift attended the schools of his native town till the dawn of manhood, when his father sent him to the Western Reserved College, at Hudson, Ohio, where he was graduated with high honors in 1842. Henry A. Swift and Cushman K. Davis are the only ones of our governors who received a complete collegiate classical education, carried away their diplomas with a well-earned A. B., and finally had an A. M. attached to their names.

Not long after his graduation, young Swift made a trip South to look the world over and see what there was for him to do. On the boat he met a wealthy planter, who, being much pleased with the young man, at once engaged him as tutor for hi children on his plantation in Mississippi. The one great question of the day was that of slavery, and throughout all the South they were suspicious of Northern men; and Swift, being from the Western Reserve, was at once denounced as an abolitionist. His mail was inspected, and in general, it became so uncomfortable that save for the influence of his patron he might not have left the community alive. It is of record that in the immediate vicinity in which he taught, man denounced as an “abolitionist” was killed, and his body, cut to pieces and placed in box, was floated down the Mississippi as a warning to all such persons. Swift, however, safely returned to his Northern home, deeply imbued with anti-slavery 123 114views which he maintained with vigor to the end of his life.

At home once more, young Swift studied law with Messrs. Tilden and Ranney, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1845. The winter of 1846-47 he spent in Columbus, Ohio, as assistant clerk of the House of Representatives. The ensuing year he was chosen chief clerk of the legislature. It was during this period of his life that he made the acquaintance of Miss Ruth Livingston, a very accomplished young lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She was a graduate of the Female Seminary of her native city, but with her parents had removed to Pittsburg, Pa. In 1851 their marriage occurred, and they at once settled to housekeeping in Ravenna. He devoted himself to the law and also acted as secretary of the Portage County Insurance Company.

For some time Mr. Swift had east longing eyes toward the great Northwest, as the mighty cradle of great empires and abounding in great opportunities. In the early spring of 1853, with his wife and infant daughter, he bade adieu to the Western Reserve and started for St. Paul, Minnesota. The route was circuitous. He went to Pittsburg, thence down the Ohio river to St. Louis, and after much delay as to boats got one to Galena, Illinois, and finally another to St. Paul, making a journey of nearly two thousand miles and of three weeks duration. In a letter home after his arrival in St. Paul he says: “St. Louis is the smartest business place I ever saw. I did not expect to find ‘Uncle Tom's 124 115Cabin’ exposed for sale and placarded in every bookstore in the city. I asked one bookseller if they sold well, and his reply was, ‘I don't sell anything else.’ I hope, the next time I visit the place, to find that work has brought down one sign I saw there, which read ‘Negroes bought and sold here.’”

March 3, 1849, Congress passed the bill authorizing the organization of the Territory of Minnesota, and June 1, Alexander Ramsey, the newly appointed governor, issued a proclamation declaring the territory duly organized. In his message to the legislature, the Governor gives this description of St. Paul as he found it in 1853: “It was then a village of a dozen frame houses and some eight or ten log buildings with bark roofs.” The steamer on which the Governor came did not have a pound of freight for St. Paul.

On his arrival in this embryo city, in May, 1853, Mr. Swift set to work building a home for his family on College avenue. It was afterward sold to E. S. Edgerton. He at once opened an office as a real estate and insurance agent. He remained in St. Paul about three years, devoting his time and energies to the upbuilding of the young commonwealth in many ways. In 1856 he sold his property and invested his money in the “St. Peter Company,” which was the name of the association seeking to build a new city, and to secure the state capital, far up the Minnesota river, but as yet without a single house. Such was the measureless faith the young man had in the future of Minnesota.

For some inexplicable reason Mr. Swift's name is not mentioned in the “History of the Minnesota Valley,” a pretentious volume of over one thousand pages, purporting to give an account of all the leading men of the great Minnesota valley. Yet he was one of the charter members of the “St. Peter Land Company,” and played as important a part as any man connected with it, and was perhaps the best known man in Nicollet county at that period.

It was in the fall of 1853 that Captain William B. Dodd made a claim of 160 acres on which a part of St. Peter now stands. The place was called “Rock Bend.” Subsequently, William and Oliver Ames took claims by the side of Captain Dodd's, extending the city on paper. A stock company was organized in February, 1854, and the land above mentioned, including about five hundred acres in all, was laid out in townsite and the name was changed to St. Peter, this name being given the city of hope from the name of the river.

The early years of Swift's residence in St. Peter were years of hardship and privations incident to frontier life, yet he and his excellent wife bore them all patiently. He threw his soul and energies into the task of building up the town of his early affections. In this way it is not too much to say that he became the idol of the young community, so universally was he beloved and esteemed. The winter of 1857-58 he spent in Washington, trying to secure a grant of lands for railroads in the new territory, and aiding in the work of gaining 126 117admission for the new state, to which much opposition had developed from political causes. During this active period, he built a fine residence on Main street, in St. Peter, which he occupied during the residue of his life. It became an historic spot, and has been kept as much as possible, in its general features, as he left it.

He suffered, as did all the early settlers, from the financial crash in 1857. It was in February, 1857, that the territorial legislature passed the celebrated bill removing the state capital from St. Paul to St. Peter. It was a bitter fight, in which St. Peter eventually lost. In consequence of this defeat, property in St. Peter rapidly depreciated. This, and the financial crash of 1857, greatly embarrassed Mr. Swift, and it was many years of effort before he re-established himself in comfortable circumstances.

At this time Mr. Swift's general fitness and qualifications induced the people of his district to nominate him for Congress as a Republican, without solicitation on his part. It was a heated canvass, and, as he appeared often upon the stump, he won the good opinion even of his opponents by the fair, candid, and manly way in which he spoke and deported himself. His party was defeated, and the Hon. James M. Cavanaugh was elected, but Mr. Swift gained in popularity and standing.

In 1861 Mr. Swift was elected to the state senate, and served during the two sessions of 1862 and 1863. The convention which nominated him met at Henderson, 127 118Sibley county, and nominated the Hon. M.J. Severance for senator. But for some unexplained reason, Mr. Severance immediately declined the honor, and the convention at one substituted the name of Mr. Swift. Thus it came to pass that the declination of Mr. Severance opened the door for the advance of Mr. Swift to gubernatorial honors in a manner wholly unforeseen.

Senator Swift took his seat in the senate in January, 1862. His courteous, genial, and manly ways soon won the good will of the entire senate. He seldom spoke, but when he did his reasoning always carried conviction. One important measure to which he gave considerate attention was an act for the “Organization and Regulation of Independent School Districts.” It contained the basis of the present school system, of which the state is so justly proud.

The news of the terrible Sioux outbreak, which occurred August 18, 1862, struck fear into all hearts on the frontier. The news was brought to St. Peter the evening of the same day. On receipt of this news, Senator Swift asked William G. Hayden, for many years auditor of Nicollet county, to accompany him to New Ulm the next day, and the two left St. Peter in a buggy about noon, Tuesday, th 19th. In the meantime, A. M. Bean with sixteen men, well armed, had already started from Nicollet and reached New Ulm about one o'clock. About a hundred Indians under Little Crow, made their appearance about four o'clock, and began an attack, shouting and yelling like demons. Very 128 119soon after the battle began Senator Swift and Captain L. M. Boardman, sheriff of the county, with sixteen well armed men arrived on the scene, and, taking an active part, turned the tide of battle, with the result that the Indians withdrew at dusk. This constituted the first defense of New Ulm, and it was vitally important as it unquestionably saved the people of New Ulm from massacre. Senator Swift's prompt action in aiding in rallying men and going to that place with the others, on Tuesday, the 19th of August, was probably the salvation of the town.

In Charles E. Flandrau's official roster of his company, called the “St. Peter Frontier Guards,” we find Senator Swift's name as a private serving from the 19th to the 26th of August, 1862, and being in the first and second battle of New Ulm. In the St. Peter Tribune, published cotemporaneously with the event, we find Swift's name with that of his companion Hayden as two of the company of eighteen men who arrived in New Ulm on the 19th and took an active and gallant part in the first defense of the town. From the best information available, it is probable that Swift returned the next day towards St. Peter to guide Capt. Charles E. Flandrau's company to the ferry and to New Ulm, for Flandrau states in his official report that Swift was his guide from some point to the ferry. In the second attack, on the 23rd, Mr. Swift exhibited the greatest courage and bravery throughout that bloody engagement. His constant exposure in heavy rains and inclement 129 120weather, while on guard, and other severe duties, brought upon him a disease from the effects of which his delicate constitution never recovered. His home for more than a month was filled with the sick and wounded from this terrible Indian raid.

During Senator Swift's second term as state senator, Lieutenant Governor Ignatius Donnelly resigned his position, having been elected to Congress, in which body he was to take his seat March 4, 1863. The senate so highly appreciated Senator Swift's abilities and general demeanor that he was unanimously elected president of the senate, to fill the vacancy. Subsequently, this same legislature elected Governor Alexander Ramsey to the United States Senate; and Senator Swift, being now his legal successor, was thus, by rapid and unexpected promotion, made governor of Minnesota, July 10, 1863.

His message to the legislature, delivered January 11, 1864, is an excellent document, covering the condition of the state and country expressed in a clear and forcible manner. It is replete with many practical suggestions touching railroads, financial questions, and the State University, and it closes with an elegant peroration reviewing the great national struggle then in its last stages. It is notable for its exalted patriotism, and demonstrates the Governor's ability to wield a vigorous and classic pen.

It was during his administration that Captain James L. Fisk, by authority of the general government, made his celebrated trip to the new gold fields of Montana, 130 121and thus demonstrated the superiority of the Minnesota route to the new discoveries, and indicated it to be the best route for a northern line of railway to the Pacific. It was during this period, also, that Little Crow, the leader and master spirit of the Sioux outbreak, was killed by Nathan Lamson and his son near Hutchinson. During this same period, a most important treaty was made by Senator Ramsey with the Red Lake and Pembina bands of Chippewa Indians, acquiring the valley of the Red river, extinguishing the Indian title to some 10,000 square miles of rich territory, and opening for settlement an extension to the state of immeasurable value. Solicitude and care for our soldiers in the field demanded and received the most considerate attention from Governor Swift. It was just before the beginning of his administration, on the 2d and 3d of July, 1863, that the First Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers, on whose standards the names of twenty battles were already written, entered the very vortex of the conflict at Gettysburg, and added to its immortal roll the gallant charge with which its name is forever identified. With Governor Andrew G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, Swift arranged the purchase of the ground on which that greatest battle of modern times was fought, and thus gave our brave dead a shrine safe from profanation. And there Abraham Lincoln, on the 19th of November, 1864, delivered one of the most memorable orations recorded in human history.

The last call for troops, 300,000, was made after Swift assumed office. Minnesota, under this call, was in debt on her contingent 1,300 men. Governor Swift proposed to compromise this demand by raising a regiment of cavalry to be employed in protecting our frontier against the hostile Indians, which request was granted.

It was during the closing days of his administration that Minnesota enjoyed immigration in an unprecedented degree, which was estimated, for a large part of the year, at one thousand per day. His administration was a notable success in every department.

There was a general desire that Governor Swift should be a candidate to succeed himself. The St. Paul Daily Press voiced the universal sentiment when it said: “We know of no one on whom executive honors would sit with more grace and fitness, and no one more worthy in his private and public character to fill the gubernatorial chair than Governor Swift.”

He was repeatedly urged to permit the use of his name as a candidate by the important leaders of the Republican party, but he steadfastly declined, and in August, 1863, the St. Paul Press contained an authoritative statement from the governor that under no circumstances would he be a candidate. The announcement was received with general regret by all parties, and his nomination was really a foregone conclusion if he would accept. Stephen Miller was placed in nomination to succeed him.

Subsequently, at the earnest solicitation of his friends in St. Peter, he did consent to become again a member of the state senate. During this period he was urged to be a candidate for the United States Senate, there being a vacancy. Although he refused, his friends still voted for him; but as he made no effort whatever to secure the position, Daniel S. Norton was nominated. After the convention which nominated Stephen Miller as his successor as governor, he wrote to his wife expressing his complete satisfaction in not permitting his name to be presented, as he wished to be at home with her and his family, who were more to him than any political honors whatever. In another letter to his wife, referring to the United States senatorial election, he said: “I am very much relieved and pleased that this senatorial contest is over as it is, and for a few minutes I was afraid I might be elected.”

During the summer of 1865 he was appointed register of the St. Peter Land Office, with a salary of $3,000 a year. This position he held till his death, and greatly enjoyed it because he could be with his family in their own home.

In January, 1868, on the occasion of the golden wedding of his honored parents, he visited his old home in Ravenna, Ohio, for the last time.

About one year after this golden anniversary, Governor Swift was taken with typhoid fever. His attending physician was Dr. A. W. Daniels, a man eminent in his profession and the Governor's warm personal friend. 133 124For three weeks it seemed to be a very mild case, but after that period there came a relapse, and he gradually grew worse till his death came at 10 A. M., February 25, 1869. His demise case a gloom not only over his family and his city, but over the entire state. The flag was placed at half-mast on the state capitol. His funeral did not occur till March 3, to give time for his aged parents to come from Ravenna, Ohio. The Rev. A. H. Kerr, his friend and pastor and a chaplain of the Civil War, officiated. His funeral was attended by the community at large, and by many noted persons from abroad. He was forty-five years of age at the time of his death, falling in the very prime of his manhood. Many fine tributes of respect for his noble life and his public services appeared in numerous papers of the state.

Governor Swift was an active member of the Minnesota Historical Society, and that body passed resolutions in honor of his life and public services, and its secretary, Mr. J. F. Williams, published an excellent memoir of the governor in Volume III of the Society's Historical Collections.

About six months after his death his body was removed to Maple Grove Cemetery, Ravenna, Ohio, where he sleeps with his family.

To the happy marriage heretofore mentioned, five children were born. December, 1863, a daughter, ten years old, died of diphtheria. About one month later an only son, four years old, died of scarlet fever. In 1866 an infant child was taken away. His friends have always 134 125asserted that these bereavements cast an ineffaceable shadow upon his life, and had much to do with his subsequent aversion to a public career. He seemed then to have resolved that no official position should deprive him of the society of his wife and two remaining daughters. These two daughters are still living, and were both married before the death of their mother. The elder, Margaret Livingston Swift, was married to William M. Spackman, a prominent lawyer of the city of New York, where she still resides. Mary Eliza Swift, a refined lady, was married to the Hon. Gideon S. Ives, then of St. Peter, who had been a soldier in the Union army, and who subsequently was mayor of St. Peter, a state senator, and lieutenant governor of the state. He is now a leading in St. Paul, and a man of commanding position in the state.

The memory of Governor Swift will ever be held in the highest regard by the people of the state. The integrity of his character, his fidelity to public duty, his exemplary and spotless life as a citizen, and his devotion to family ties, made him a model worthy of the regard and admiration of the youth of Minnesota. Governor Swift was one of the most interesting personalities of his day. A politician in spite of himself, he played a role given to but few men. Where others, however aspiring and diligent, failed, he obtained honors without effort. His private life was stainless. He was singularly amiable, and of unblemished personal purity in all the relations of family or society. His unruffled good 135 126nature always made him an agreeable companion. His marked characteristics was his persistent hostility to public life. He seemed utterly devoid of ambition and resisted all offers or opportunities of public preferment. His love of home and family overcame all the attractions of official distinction. He had absolute confidence in his political principles, and never, for an instant, swerved from their earnest support. In his inveterate hostility to slavery he was, undoubtedly, an abolitionist. Born and reared in the atmosphere of the Western Reserve, in Ohio, his anti-slavery convictions were of native growth, and they were surely nursed and strengthened by his experiences in the South. If Joshua R. Giddings was an abolitionist, then Henry A. Swift was one also.

He was of strong religious habits and convictions. He is the one man, among all our public men, who ever turned a deaf ear to all the allurements of political preferment.

The annual message of Governor Swift, January 11, 1864, was published as a pamphlet and as the first paper (33 pages) in the Executive Documents of the state of Minnesota for the year 1863 (St. paul, 1864). He alluded to the gallant charge of the First Minnesota Regiment in the battle of Gettysburg, as follows:

The past year has added new lustre to the achievements of our troops. On nearly every important battle field of the war, their graves are strewn to mark the glorious share of Minnesota in the progressive triumphs of the Union cause. * * *

On the second and third of July, the first of the gallant regiments which Minnesota has sent to the field—that regiment which already has the names of twenty battles written upon its standard—took a prominent part in one of the fiercest struggles of the war. Of the 330 men of the First Minnesota who had survived the disasters and triumphs of the Virginia campaigns from Bull Run to Chancellorsville, to plunge again with its shattered ranks and bullet-riddled flag into the vortex of the conflict at Gettysburg, but ninety-two emerged unharmed from the smoke and glorious issue of the struggle. One hundred and seventy-five were wounded and fifty-one more were added to the immortal roll of its dead heroes, to find a sepulchre with over twenty-one hundred other brave men from other States, in the cemetery where they fell.

Of the loyalty of both the great political parties of the North in their devotion to the preservation of the Union, he said:

* * * Party spirit and party prejudices were buried and forgotten in the all absorbing patriotism of the American people, and if they have since revived, it has been only for consignment to a more lasting rest, until our country is saved. And among the more than half a million of freemen who are doing battle today in the holiest cause that ever stained a sword, Democrat and Republican stand shoulder to shoulder, camp side by side, knowing only a common cause and a common enemy. It is sublime lesson to teach the world. It is a glad and useful one for us all, and when this trial shall have ended, in the bright career of glory that awaits us, no man of this generation can ever forget that in the breast of a political opponent the heart swells as fervently with patriotic love as in his own. And God grant that out of this bloody ordeal may come another spectacle for the admiration of all nations, that though brothers have joined in deadly conflict on the field of battle, section been arrayed against section for destruction, yet when the contest is closed in the removal of its incitements and the sure triumph of the Right, the old affection may return in overwhelming tide, and through the prudence, wisdom, and magnanimity or our national councils, the old bond of Union may be strengthened with triple bands.

This noted son of Pennsylvania was born in Perry county, of that state, January 7, 1861. His grandfather, Melchior Miller, came from Germany about the year 1785. His father was David, and his mother Rosana Darkness Miller. Stephen was educated in the common schools of his native county. His first effort for himself was to learn the milling business. Later, in 1837, he became a forwarding and commission merchant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1849 and 1852 he was elected prothonotary of Dauphia county. In 1853 to 1855 he edited the Pennsylvania Telegraph, a Whig journal at Harrisburg, and is 1855 to 1858 he was, by appointment of Governor James Pollock, flour inspector at Philadelphia. Some time before this he procured a large canvas tent and itinerated a portion of the state as a temperance lecturer, meeting with much success.

In the spring of 1858, his health being impaired, he removed to St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the purpose of recuperation. There he engaged in the mercantile business with Henry Swisshelm, of Pittsburg, Pa., as a 140 132partner. Mr. Swisshelm had preceded him, coming to St. Cloud in 1856.

Mr. Miller at once became quite active in local and state politics. He was made delegate to the National Republican convention at Chicago i 1860, and headed the Republican electoral ticket for Lincoln in that year. It was during that celebrated campaign that he held some fifty joint discussions in the principal cities and towns of the state with Gen. C. C. Andrews, who was the Douglas elector. This campaign brought Mr. Miller prominently before the people of the whole state, and it was generally held that he was much the superior in debate.

He was commissioned as receiver in the United States Land Office, March, 1861, and in May of the same year he was offered a captain's commission in the regular army. Both of these appointments he declined.

At the commencement of the Civil War, he and his eldest son, Wesley F. Miller, enrolled themselves as private soldiers in the First Minnesota regiment. This son, after bravely discharging his duty in several battles, being a first lieutenant in the Seventh United States Infantry, was slain at the battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. His second son, Stephen C., also enlisted as a private soldier, in the Sixth Minnesota Volunteers, and was, as a reward for good service, made Commissary of Subsistence, with the rank of captain. He served with General Steele in Arkansas.

Mr. Miller had been a close friend to Governor Ramsey back in Pennsylvania, and this early friendship served him well in furthering his fortunes in Minnesota. By reason of his great activity in raising recruits for the war, and of his general fitness, Governor Ramsey lifted him from the ranks as a private and commissioned him lieutenant colonel of the First Minnesota regiment, his commission bearing date April 29, 1861. He was then in the prime of manhood, being forty-five years of age.

He served faithfully with the “Old First” in numerous engagements. He commanded the right wing of the First at the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, when the regiment lost 189 men. He was subsequently engaged with the enemy at Yorktown, May 4, 1862; at West Point, May 6, 1862; in the two battles at Fair Oaks, May 31 and June 1, 1862; in the battles of Peach Orchard and Savage's Station, June 29, 1862; at White Oak Swamp and Nelson's Farm, June 30, 1862; and in the battle of Malvern Hill, July 31, 1862. In these several engagements he personally commanded the regiment, and lost ninety-one men in killed, wounded, and missing. July 2, 1862, he was rear guard on the retreat to Harrison's Landing. September 15, 1862, he was held in reserve at the battle of South Mountain.

On August 24, 1862, he was commissioned colonel of the Seventh regiment of Minnesota infantry, but the order from General Halleck to start west did not reach 142 134him until September 17, 1862. He left the First regiment for his new command just before the battle of Antietam. Judge William Lochren, in his narrative of that regiment, speaks of him in these complimentary terms: “Here our brave Lieut. Col. Stephen Miller left us, on receipt of his commission as colonel of the Seventh Minnesota regiment. Without military training previous to the organization of our regiment, his bravery was conspicuous on every battlefield, and endeared him to the men, who parted with him sincere regret.”

He had served with marked courage and skill and constant activity from April 1, 1862, to September 17, 1862, in Gorman's brigade, Sedgwick's division, and Summer's corps. During this time an unfortunate fall from his horse occurred, affecting the small of his back and his kidneys, so as to render him quite unable to ride on horseback. This accounts for his not being in personal command of the Seventh regiment during the two Indian campaigns. After a short rest at home, in St Cloud, he assumed command of the Seventh at Camp Release, and was subsequently placed in command of Camp Lincoln, near Mankato, where he had charge of the three hundred condemned Sioux Indians. December 4, 1862, Camp Lincoln was attacked by a considerable body of citizens with the purpose of killing the Indian prisoners, but by firmness and wisdom he prevented a disgraceful scene.

During December and January, 1862, he was in command of the post of Mankato. It was a difficult and 143 135perplexing task to care for these Indian prisoners and guard them against an irritated and embittered public. The delays and uncertainties attending the carrying out of the sentence for their execution, as ordered by the court martial, aggravated public sentiment in the state, and especially in the frontier counties. There appeared to be a settled purpose to resort to mob law and violence to dispose of the prisoners. But Colonel Miller, though sympathizing with public sentiment in believing that summary punishment should be meted out to the condemned murderers, was equally hostile to anything savoring of mob law, and to his heroic firmness is due the fact that all attempts of this character were speedily and thoroughly squelched. By his manly and decisive policy, Colonel Miller won the respect and esteem even of the leaders of this rash policy.

The execution of the thirty-eight condemned Sioux Indians at Mankato, December 26, 1862, was entrusted by General Sibley to Colonel Miller. It was one of the most remarkable events of that exciting period. From a single scaffold, and at one drop, the thirty-eight murderers fell at the same moment to their deserved death. The writer, as an officer in command at the scaffold during the execution, can never forget this extraordinary spectacle, perhaps the most extraordinary ever witnessed on American soil.

From June to September, 1863, Colonel Miller was in command of all the forces in garrison in the District of Minnesota, during the absence of General Sibley on 144 136the Indian expedition of that year. During this period he was also engaged under the orders of General Sibley in running a line of posts for the defense of the frontier, from Paynesville, Stearns county, south to Forth Ridgely, and thence in a due south course to the Iowa line. The stockades were about ten miles apart, and daily communication was kept up by mounted men.

October 26, 1863, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers by the President. This position he resigned January 12th, 1864, to assume the duties of governor of the state.

In August, 1863, the Republican convention nominated General Miller for governor of the state on a very radical platform. His opponent was the Hon. H. T. Welles, a gentleman of high character and fine ability. The war absorbed public attention at the time to the exclusion of every other question, and on its issues General Miller was easily elected, receiving 19,628 votes, and Welles, 12,739. He entered upon the duties of the chief executive of the state January 11, 1864, following Henry A. Swift, an executive who left behind him an enviable record for capacity, patriotic devotion to duty, and unblemished integrity.

Governor Miller was in the executive chair during the closing years of the rebellion, and in many ways demonstrated his intense patriotism in caring for the soldiers yet in the field and on their return home. He was also diligent in calling the attention of the War Department 145 137to deserving officers, and secured for such many brevet promotions, and for others appointments in the regular army. While in office he delivered two messages, his inaugural address and one annual message. 1 They are plain and practical documents, presenting a comprehensive view of the condition and resources of the state. Special attention was given in urging measures for the relief of all soldiers who required assistance, either for themselves or their families. His paternal care and solicitude for these exhibited the tenderness of his heart. His administration of a single term of two years was mainly devoted to closing Minnesota's connection with the various interests growing out of the Civil War. The old veterans hold him in sweet remembrance, for to them he was like a kind, indulgent father, or a warm-hearted, affectionate brother.

After retiring from the executive office, January 8th, 1866, he was for a time without any public employment or special private business. 2 In June, 1871, he entered into the service of the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company, as general superintendent of its large land interests in southwestern Minnesota, and resided at Worthington. During this period he was, in 1873, 2 Governor Miller was not a candidate for re-nomination and received no second term. The reasons for this were of a sad character, and in no wise reflected upon him. His two sons had gone to the Pacific coast and were inveigled into some depredations upon the United States mail. For this, one was punished and both were morally wrecked. The mortified father never again asked for public preferment. 146 138 elected to the legislature and served one session. He was also presidential elector at large in 1876, and, as messenger, bore the vote to Washington.

That among our prosaic governors we should find one who worshipped at the shrine of the Muses, may occasion some surprise. Governor Miller was, however, the guilty man. In 1864, Mrs. W. J. Arnold, of Wabasha, issued a small volume entitled “The Poets and Poetry of Minnesota.” It was dedicated “To the Hon. Stephen Miller, Governor of Minnesota, the Soldier, the Patriot, the True Friend.” The fair compiler of this unique volume claims to admit only poems of merit, and those the best of each author. She claims to have received from Governor Miller efficient advice from the commencement of her labors to their close. We find also that two others of our public men are generously embalmed in the same volume, the Hon. Ignatius Donnelly and Gen. J. H. Baker. This good lady has, with a warm and generous heart, rescued some of the poetic sins of sophomoric youth from merited oblivion. I know of but two copies of this rare volume now in existence, one in the Historical Society Library, and the other in the possession of the writer. The balance of the very limited edition was either condemned to the waste basket, or sleep in dusty rest in unknown libraries. The volume is valuable for its biographical sketches, rather than for its poetic fire. Governor Miller's youthful effusions are entitled: “Snow in Tears and Reap with Joy,” “Earth's Angels,” “Things I Want,” “A Contrast,” “On the 147 139Death of a Loved One,” “For an Album,” “Little Maggie,” “Why Don't You Sing as Once You Sung?” and “The Sky.” No kinder hearted woman than Mrs. Arnold ever labored to build a budding literature out of such material as she found. The filial bards of the state, as such, have gone to their merited forgetfulness; and we trust a general amnesty and pardon has been duly issued to those of us who, in wayward youth, presumed to strike the harp in the ears of the “Weary Nine.”

Stephen Miller was not of the material out of which great statesmen are made. We cannot place him in the rank of such governors as Ramsey, Sibley, Davis, Pillsbury, or Hubbard. But with his good common sense, his sterling integrity, his ardent patriotism, his broad sympathies, Minnesota can well congratulate herself that he was governor at the time he filled the executive chair. Governor Miller was a rough and ready speaker, and his remarkable wit, his originality of style, and a somewhat brusque manner on the rostrum, made him a very attractive and popular speaker among the early settlers. He was more anecdotal than any other of our governors. He could make the lines very hard for an adversary. He thought quickly when on his legs, and could instantly perceive an opponent's weakness and could take advantage of it.

No man's private character stood higher in all respects, and he possessed the most amiable domestic affections. He had strong religious convictions, though not a member of any church. All his life he was a man of 148 140moderate means, and never was a money maker. It is sad to note that his last days were somewhat clouded by comparative poverty and personal indulgence; but his rugged honesty and manly principles were never questioned.

Misfortunes seemed to crown upon him toward the close of his career. The death of his children and of his beloved wife, after years of harrowing illness, comparative poverty for himself, all these things beset his later years. The general government bestowed a small pension on him toward the last, and with this little fund he was engaged in preparing a modest home in Worthington, a retreat for his declining years. Governor Miller was sick for quite a while before death came, but he was well and tenderly cared for during his last days. He died Thursday evening August 18, 1881, at 10:30 o'clock, aged sixty-five years, seven months, and eleven days. He was buried in the cemetery at Worthington the following Saturday, the ceremonies being conducted by the Masonic fraternity.

In 1859 he was married to Miss Margaret Funk, of Dauphin county, Pa. To this union there were born three sons and one daughter. Wesley F. was a lieutenant in the Seventh U.S. Infantry, and was killed in the battle of Gettysburg on the 2d of July, 1863. He was born April 1, 1841. His second son, Stephen C., was born May 22, 1842, and was also in the army as Commissary of Subsistence, with the rank of captain. He is now in the Treasury Department in Washington, D. C. 149 141Robert D., August 18, 1847, died in Pueblo, Colorado, March 17, 1886. The daughter, Elizabeth, died February 23, 1848.

A fine monument to the memory of Government Miller occupies a prominent place in the will-kept cemetery at Worthington. The following are the inscriptions, as they appear on the monument:

On the west side, “Stephen Miller, born January 7th, 1816; died August 18th, 1881, Governor of Minnesota, 1864-1865.”

On the south side, “Enlisted as a private in the First Minnesota Volunteers, April, 1861; appointed Lieutenant Colonel, April, 1861.”

On the north side, “Appointed Colonel Seventh Minnesota Volunteers, August, 1862; promoted Brigadier General, 1863.”

On the east side, “Erected by his sons, Stephen C. and Robert D. Miller.”

The Worthington Advance noted a strange coincidence in connection with the death of the Governor:

“There were no dreadful coincidents connected with the death of Governor Miller. A beautiful one did occur, however, which is worthy of note. Just after the governor died, one of the little apple trees in his lot put out a bouquet of snow-white blossoms. Our attention having been called to the fact by several persons, we examined this beautiful phenomenon and found that on none of the other trees were there any signs of blossoms. These blossoms were plucked on Saturday and laid on 150 142the casket, Nature furnishing a fresh bouquet as though it were done especially and spontaneously for the occasion. This is a fit emblem, at least, of the Governor's advent into a higher life. No whiter-souled public man has lived during the stirring times of the past twenty years, and as he leaves behind the troublesome body with its common frailties, and emerges into the spirit-world, free and pure in spirit, we can think of no more fitting and expressive emblem than this cluster of snow-white blossoms bursting into bloom just as his spirit bursts into the eternal bloom of the other world.”

The inaugural address of Governor Miller, January 13, 1864, was published as a pamphlet and as the second paper (11 pages) in the Executive Documents of the state of Minnesota for the year 1863 (St. Paul, 1864).

His annual message of the following year, delivered January 4, 1865, was published as a pamphlet of 30 pages, and as the first paper (pages 9-38) in the Executive Documents of the state of MInnesota for the year 1864 (St Paul, 1865). The following is its first paragraph:

In this solemn and momentous crisis in the history of the great nation of which we form a part, it is peculiarly appropriate that we as representatives of a Christian people, assembled deliberate and act upon grave and important questions affecting their welfare, should humbly acknowledge our dependence upon Almighty God, and invoke his blessing upon our labors. We have abundant cause for thankfulness in view of the success vouchsafed to the national arms during the past year in the struggle with the great rebellion—of the stern determination of the loyal States, so lately expressed through the ballot box, to maintain the integrity of the Republic—of our continued progress in all the elements of prosperity, notwithstanding 151 143the great drain upon our resources, and especially that our State has been almost entirely relieved from apprehensions of savage raids. The very fact that during the continuance of the prolonged and bloody strife with armed traitors, most of the great Powers of the World have neither sympathized with them nor desired their ultimate success, should induce the American people to cling more closely to the God of their fathers, who holds alike in his hand the destinies of nations, and of men.

Governor Miller's last message to the legislature, January 8, 1866, was published as a pamphlet and as the first paper (29 pages) in the Executive Documents for 1865 (St. Paul, 1866). The following extracts are selected from it:

* * * The great war of the rebellion has been happily and successfully closed, and the seceding States have been compelled to return to their allegiance. Human slavery has ceased to exist, and the national authority is restored over the whole broad expanse of the Republic. If the hand of the assassin has stricken to the earth or late lamented President, in the fullness of his fame, his mantle has fallen upon the shoulders of a worthy successor. Our country once more united, and freed from the embarrassments of the only institution which darkened its splendor and impeded its progress, reassumes its position in the front rank of the nations, as the bulwark of human liberty, and the hope of the oppressed in every land.

We have also cause for grateful acknowledgment in the condition of our own State during the past year. Pestilence has not been permitted to visit us—the granaries of our people are filled with the products of a bountiful harvest—many thousands of our citizen soldiers have returned in safety from an active participation in the bloody but successful conflict with traitors in arms against the national government, and resumed the peaceful vocations from which they were summoned. Our population has steadily and rapidly increased, and Minnesota, although clothed in the robes of mourning for so many of her sons who have fallen in a glorious cause, has reason to pride herself upon their gallant achievements in the field, which have given her a reputation second to that of no loyal State.

Nor has the precious sacrifice been made in vain. One year ago when clouds and darkness beset our pathway, relying upon the justice of God, I said, in my annual message to your predecessors, that “Our successes would surely culminate in the 152 144restoration of the authority of the Government over the seceding States, in blessings to ourselves and our posterity, and in the encouragement of the friends of constitutional liberty throughout the world.” The prediction has been fully verified by subsequent events. Today the ensign of the Union floats over every foot of soil pertaining to our common country. Its folds protect the resting places of our heroic dead, and its presence proclaims “liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

It becomes the duty of the National authority to provide against a recurrence of the events which have filled the land with mourning, and shaken the very pillars of our Republican institutions.

When this shall have been accomplished, the country of which we form a part, will, by the blessings of heaven, be recognized as the leading power of the world, while Minnesota will assume a prominent position in the galaxy of States.

Commending the interests of our State to you, to my esteemed successor in office, and to the still surer protection of a kind and merciful Providence, I relinquish, with profound gratitude to the people of Minnesota, the trust which two years ago they confided to my hands.

56740153

Two of our governors were born south of Mason and Dixon's Line, Willis Arnold Gorman in Kentucky, and William Rainey Marshall in Missouri. Migration from the East to the West has been uniform and extensive; but from the South to the North there has been but little. I am of the opinion that both of these prominent men brought with them something of the impulsive character of the South, which was modified and somewhat subdued by the different atmosphere in which they passed their active lives. Both had a natural taste for arms, and became good soldiers at the first opportunity.

William R. Marshall was born near Columbia, Missouri, October 17, 1825.

About 1830 young Marshall's parents removed to Quincy, Ill., where he passed his boyhood and received his education in the schools of that town. But it may be justly said that he was self-taught in all he knew of books.

In 1841, with his brother Joseph, he went to the lead mines near Galena, Ill., where he worked for several years. During this period he learned practical surveying, which seems to have been the extent of his book education, though he was always a great reader.

Sometimes in the year 1847, when twenty-two years of age, he removed to St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, and made a land and timber claim near the falls on the Wisconsin side, which is now included in what is known as the Philip Jewell farm. While at St. Croix Falls he sold goods, dealt in lumber, was deputy receiver of the United States land office, and took a very active part in what were called “boundary meetings.” He was elected to the legislature of Wisconsin for the St. Croix Valley in 1848; but his seat was successfully contested on the ground of non-residence, as he resided west of the wester line of the new state of Wisconsin.

In the autumn of 1847 he made a visit to St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota, staked out a claim, and cut logs for a cabin, but, partially abandoning the claim, he returned to St. Croix Falls. However, in 1849, he returned to St. Anthony Falls and perfected his claim. That same year he was elected to the first Minnesota Territorial legislature. While living at St. Anthony, he engaged in a general hardware business with his brother Joseph. He also surveyed and platted the town of St. Anthony for Bottineau and Steele, and made some surveys of adjacent government lands.

In 1851, he removed to St. Paul and became a pioneer merchant in the hardware business. The wholesale house of Nicols and Berkey, and later Nicols and Dean, became the successor of his pioneer store. During the same year he continued his survey of public lands. In 1855, in connection with other parties, he established a banking business, and did well till overwhelmed by the financial storm of 1857. He then went into dairy farming and stock raising, and brought into the state the first high-bred cattle.

In 1861 he purchased the St. Paul Daily Times and the Minnesotian, and merged them into the St. Paul Press, and this paper at once became the leading Republican journal of the state. Such discordant elements as existed in the Republican party previous to this consolidation at once disappeared. Mr. Joseph A. Wheelock, a brilliant young writer and at that time Commissioner of Statistics, was made editor of the new journal. The Press under its new management was friendly to Governor Ramsey for the United States senate. Its proprietors, Marshall and Wheelock, ever afterward remained steadfast friends of Ramsey.

In the fall of 1862, a legislature was elected which was to name a new United States senator. The contest was sharp, and a new man in the person of the Hon. Cyrus Aldrich, member of Congress from the First District, was named in opposition to Ramsey. To aid in the contest a new paper, called the Union, under the control of Mr. Frederick Driscoll, was established. The result of 158 150this fierce battle was the election of Governor Ramsey, and perhaps no parties rendered more efficient service than Marshall and Wheelock through the columns of the St. Paul Press. The Press had the state printing, said to be worth $20,000 a year. The Union was financially wrecked by the election of Ramsey and the loss of the state printing. But the friends of the two papers solved the problem by inducing Driscoll to buy a half interest in the Press, and finally Mr. Wheelock bought Marshall's interest, and under their joint control that paper became powerful and prosperous. It never forgot, however, to use its influence for its old friend and founder, Marshall, in his future career.

In response to President Lincoln's second call for volunteers, the Seventh Regiment Minnesota Infantry was organized. Of this regiment, William Rainey Marshall was commissioned by his friend, Governor Ramsey, as lieutenant colonel, August 28, 1862. He at once began a military career which was conspicuous for courage, even to audacity, till he was mustered out of service, August 16, 1865.

His first military act was in joining a party of improvised soldiers under Colonel McPhail for the relief of Fort Ridgely. Here for the first time he met part of his regiment, and was immediately ordered to join General Sibley and march to the relief of Captain Grant at Birch Coolie. He had now gathered five companies of his regiment, which, in the confusion incident to the fierce Indian raid, had been widely scattered, and on 159 151September 22, 1862, he marched toward Wood Lake, in the battle at which place Colonel Marshall bore a conspicuous part.

During the winter following this important engagement, he was with several companies of his regiment guarding Indian prisoners at Madelia and Mankato. In the spring he, with his regiment, was ordered to Camp Pope to take part in the great expedition then organizing under General Sibley to operate against the hostile Sioux, supposed to be now gathered about Devil's Lake, in Dakota. Col. Stephen Miller, now colonel of the Seventh regiment, had been ordered back to St. Paul to the command of the sub-department of Minnesota, in the absence of General Sibley. This left Lt. Col. Marshall in full command of the Seventh regiment. June 16th, 1863, the army, under General Sibley, moved from Camp Pope and started on its long and tedious march in pursuit of the Sioux. On the Sheyenne river the column passed through a grasshopper district where all the grass was eaten away by these countless posts to an extent that threatened to defeat the purposes of the expedition. The heat also was intense, and the torrid temperature sent some of the best to the ambulances. July 24 the Sioux were encountered at Big Mound. Here the writer witnessed Colonel Marshall make a superb charge on hundreds of Indians with his regiment, scattering them in every direction. We will not pursue the story of Colonel Marshall's history in the campaign against the Sioux. A more detailed account of that expedition has been given 160 152in the biography of Governor Sibley. We must observe, however, that Colonel Marshall was ever a brave and efficient officer, never sparing himself in the discharge of his duty.

October 7, 1863, the Seventh regiment was ordered South, with Lieutenant Colonel Marshall in command, Colonel Miller yet remaining in control at St. Paul. They were ordered to St. Louis, Mo., together with the Ninth regiment under command of Col. Alexander Wilkin, and the Tenth under command of Col. J. H. Baker. These regiments subsequently shared fortune together in the future of the Civil War. Shortly after going South, November 6, 1863, Lt. Col. Marshall was promoted to the colonelcy of the regiment, Colonel Miller having been promoted to a brigadier-generalship. The regiment remained in St. Louis, on provost duty, until the 20th of April, 1864, when it was ordered South. Arriving at Memphis, Tenn., it was assigned to the right wing of the Sixteenth army corps, under Gen. A. J. Smith, and in the Third brigade, commanded by Gen. J. A. Mower. On the 13th of July they were engaged in the battle of Tupelo, afterward on the Oxford raid and in the pursuit of General Price in Missouri. Returning from this, they were sent hurriedly to Nashville, Tenn., where they arrived in time to hear the sound of the guns at the bloody battle of Franklin. On the 15th of December, the regiment, Colonel Marshall commanding, took a conspicuous part in the great battle of Nashville. In this battle, as usual, Colonel Marshall rode his 161 153little chestnut horse, Don, which made him a conspicuous mark on every field. The colonel that day carried his gauntlets doubled up on his breast, and they received a minie-ball which otherwise would have cost him his life. The Sixteenth army corps was now ordered to New Orleans, and thence to Spanish Fort on Mobile bay.

At this time Colonel Marshall, by virtue of the age of his commission as colonel, was in command of the brigade. On the 25th of March, as they were approaching the Fort, Colonel Marshall, while riding at the head of his brigade, was wounded, the ball passing through the side of his neck and out near the spine. He kept on duty in spite of the orders of his surgeon. The wound was severe, though not dangerous. The rebels evacuated Spanish Fort on the night of April 8, and this virtually closed the war for Colonel Marshall and his regiment.

On the 20th of July, the Seventh regiment, Colonel Marshall once again in command, started for home, and arrived at St. Paul August 8. Here Colonel Marshall's commission as a brevet brigadier general, dated March 13, 1865, reached him. On arriving at Fort Snelling he issued a farewell order, “General Orders No. 10.” He parted with his men, taking each man by the hand, the tears rolling down his cheeks. Thus, after three years of arduous service, he parted tenderly with his regiment and closed his military career. He was mustered out of service August 16, 1865. It had been a field of honor and glory for him, and I hesitate not 162 154to say the noblest and brightest period of his eventful life.

Returning to the duties of private life, it was not long till he began an active political career. He had always been an earnest Republican, and in 1855 had presided over the convention which organized the Republican party in Minnesota. In heart and action he was thoroughly identified with that party. He still had behind him the influence of the St. Paul Press and the Ramsey wing of the party. Stephen Miller's gubernatorial term was about to close. The Republican convention was called to meet in Ingersol Hall, September 6, 1865. The candidates were Charles D. Gilfillan of St. Paul, a very worthy and able man; Gen. John T. Averill of Lake City, a gentleman of the highest personal character and a soldier with a good record; and Gen. William R. Marshall, whose good record, up to this date, we have spread before the reader. At the start, Averill was well in the lead and Marshall second. Singularly Marshall began to lose badly, and his cause was considered hopeless. Suddenly, however, one of those little political cyclones which often occur in conventions took place, and the twenty-second ballot brought Marshall unexpectedly the nomination.

His opponent was the Hon. Henry M. Rice, a Democrat of distinction and ability, and formerly a United States senator. A joint debate was cunningly devised between them. Neither were public speakers, and the display of oratory was not brilliant, and after 163 155complimenting each other as good and noble old settlers they hastily dropped the joint debate. 1 Marshall was elected, receiving 17,318 votes, while Rice had 13,842, and Marshall became governor January 8, 1866.

An examination of his messages exhibits a careful consideration of the economical condition of the state's affairs and its public institutions. In his inaugural address he felicitates the people of Minnesota upon the discovery of gold at Vermilion lake, which, however, proved to be unfounded. In the year 1866, Major T. M. Newson, of St. Paul, a noted character in his day, organized a company and was its president, which prospected for gold at Vermilion lake. It caused great excitement and aroused great hopes at the time, but proved a sad failure. The gold was not there; it was iron, which in time became a gold mine of fabulous wealth.

During Marshall's term of office the regimental flags of the several regiments engaged in the Civil War were gathered and turned over to the state, and were deposited in a suitable case in the rotunda hall of the old capitol. They have since been transferred to the new capitol and placed in metallic cases where they will remain, perhaps for centuries, as mute but eloquent witnesses of the heroism of the men who bore them.

It was during his first term of office that the grant of five hundred thousand acres of land for “Internal Improvements’ 164 156was secured from the general government by the suggestion of the Hon. E. F. Drake.

It was largely to his efforts, while governor, that the word “white” was stricken from the constitution of Minnesota.

In 1869 he vetoed the bill for the removal of the state capital to Kandiyohi county, where the lands granted by Congress for a state capital were located.

He urged the payment of whatever “might be justly due” on the old state railroad bonds, a serious question which haunted every governor till their final adjustment under Pillsbury.

In 1867 Marshall was a candidate for re-election, his Democratic opponent being Charles E. Flandrau, who was then living in Minneapolis. Marshall's majority was greater than in the previous election, the vote for Marshall being 34,874, and for Flandrau, 29,502.

During the two terms he was governor of the state there were no great or exciting questions of state policy, except that of the adjustment of the old state railroad bonds. It was an era of peace in which the state grew, its population doubled, and its wealth also doubled, while its railroad mileage quadrupled. He dealt only with present and practical questions, and wholly ignored remote and speculative matters. He fully believed that the less legislation we had, the better it would be for the people.

January 7, 1870, he retired from the executive office, to be followed by the Hon. Horace Austin.

On the conclusion of his term of office, Marshall again engaged in banking, and became vice president of the Marine National Bank, and president of the Minnesota Savings Bank. In 1874 he was appointed a member of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, and in November, 1875, there being a change in the law, he was elected railroad commissioner, the old commission being abolished, and he was re-elected in 1877. It does not appear from any record that he was very active in that capacity, as the writer, who succeeded him, never was able to secure any books or records covering the transactions of the office during his term. He held the office from January 6, 1876, to January 10, 1882.

Subsequently he was engaged in several business enterprises, in which, however, he was not very successful. Arriving in Minnesota two years before the organization of the territory, he lived cotemporaneously with all its development and progress, in which he bore an honorable and often an important part. In fact, no governor of the state had a more eventful career. His business enterprises were exceedingly numerous. With robust health and restless energy, and having no regular profession, he was immersed in almost every avocation and pursuit incident to a growing young territory and state. It was always regretted by his friends that his push and energy did not receive some adequate reward. But amid it all, his integrity and personal honor ever remained unsullied.

His military career is that period of his life which was the most conspicuous, and which brought him just fame and crowned him with other reward in the important positions he subsequently held. He was of that make and material of which good soldiers are made, and had he been a West Point graduate at the time of the war, he would surely have achieved great renown.

He was always actively interested in the Minnesota Historical Society as a promoter and contributor, and in 1868 was its president. In 1893 he was elected its secretary, but ill health made it necessary for him to resign in 1894, when he went to Pasadena, California, with the hope of recovery. His friends, however, continued him as the nominal secretary until March, 1895.

Governor Marshall was a member of the Minnesota Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, both of his grandfathers, Lieutenant David Marshall and Private Daniel Shaw, having been Revolutionary soldiers in the Pennsylvania line.

No one can speak of him more understandingly than his pastor, the Rev. Edward C. Marshall, who pays him this beautiful tribute:

“William R. Marshall was a man whom it was easy to love. He was large-hearted, broad-minded and intellectual, generous, sympathetic, genial and considerate, and unusually versatile in his activities. At the time of his death, the press of our state expressed its 167 159high estimate of his character, his ability, and his usefulness, as a brave soldier, an able statesman, and a public-spirited citizen. And it is for me, as his pastor for the last twenty-three years of his life, to speak of him as a man; of his loving faith in the Word of God; his steadfast trust in Divine Providence; the purity and beauty of his social life; his unswerving loyalty to every good cause; his tender sympathy with all who suffered; his uncompromising opposition to all forms of meanness; his chivalrous championing of all who were oppressed; his dominant cheerfulness; his freedom from vindictiveness; his generous confidence in the good intentions of others; his patient bearing under severe trials and sufferings. He was an active member of the New Jerusalem (or Swedenborgian) Church, and one of those who united in forming the Society of that Church, in St. Paul, in 1873. He was a good man to live with, and he endeared himself to all who came in close contact with him. * * * He lacked the cautious calculation, the habitual attention to petty details, and the cool foresight which always allows for unforeseen contingencies.

“Commercially speaking he left little behind him, of this world's goods; but, speaking from a spiritual standpoint, there are few men who carry more with them to the world beyond.”

Governor Marshall died at Pasadena, California, January 8, 1896. His remains were brought to St. Paul and buried in Oakland Cemetery.

On March 22, 1854, William R. Marshall was married to Miss Abby Langford, one of the most estimable of women, of Utica, New York. She was a sister of the Hon. Nathaniel P. Langford, the president of the Historical Society, of the late Mrs. William A. Spencer, and of the late Mrs. James W. Taylor, of St. Paul. Mrs. Marshall died December 23, 1893. To Governor and Mrs. Marshall there was born but one child, George Langford Marshall, who died April 21, 1892, leaving a widow and a daughter, Alice. These were with the Governor when he died in California.

The inaugural address of Governor Marshall, January 8, 1866, was published in the Executive Documents of the state of Minnesota for the year 1865, pages 31-38 (St. Paul, 1866). It is in part as follows:

The munificent endowment of our schools—already nearly a million dollars in funds, and millions more to be realized from the lands—needs for its application the most perfect system, the best talent and the largest experience that can be commanded. * * *

State charitable institutions demand immediate attention. It is due to the State that an enlarged philanthropy should characterize its efforts for its helpless one. These children of sorrow, the blind, the dumb, the insane, have a claim upon us that we cannot disregard. If speedy action for their relief is not taken it will be a reproach to our Christian civilization. Happily the work is no experiment. Enlightened philanthropy has developed these works of mercy into complete systems, and the only question is, have we the will and ability to do our whole duty. No questions of expediency should fetter us in so plain obligations. Both in respect to these and educational institutions, parsimony is the worst extravagance. No State was ever impoverished by liberality to these great interests.

Generally, I commend care and thorough deliberation on every subject before you. Your wisdom will best be shown in enacting only ten laws unmistakably necessary and thoroughly matured, rather than hundreds of acts, some of doubtful necessity, and few receiving that careful consideration that public laws demand.

An important reform can be effected in this regard. Let it be our record that a small amount of work was well done, rather than a large amount hurriedly and poorly done.

In conclusion, I can only assure you that I shall welcome the enactment, and faithfully aid in the execution of all measures which shall tend to promote the material development of the State, and the moral advancement of the people; which shall promote wealth, yet check its undue influence through the power of associated capital; which shall secure the interests of labor—free, intelligent labor, the very basis of our social and political system; which shall enlarge and diffuse the blessings of popular education—the main pillar of Free Government; which shall provide for those benevolent institutions which are the crown of modern civilization; which shall fulfill the obligations of the State to her gallant soldiery, in whose hands the sign and symbol of our nation's sovereignty—our Starry Flag—was borne aloft amid the smoke and carnage of hundred battles; finally, which shall advance the standard of public morals and life in this home of our adoption—this scene of our activities and hopes—our own commonwealth of Minnesota, and that shall add to the greatness and grandeur of that ONE NATION that makes each man of us proud of the name of an American citizen.

Marshall's annual message of January 10, 1867, published as a pamphlet and also as the first paper, 26 pages, in the Executive Documents of the State of Minnesota for the year 1866 (St. Paul, 1867), contains the following estimate of the population of the state:

The result of the state census of June 1, 1865, together with the returns of the school population on the 30th of September of the same year, afford a basis for a close estimate of the population of the state on the 1st of June last. On this basis, after allowing for a few palpable omissions in the last school reports, the population of the state on the 1st of June last was 310,000. The immigration into the state subsequent to that date far exceeds that of any corresponding period, 170 162since the territorial or state organization. The evidences of this fact from all quarters are uniform and conclusive. The total immigration of 1866 is variously estimated at from 40,000 to 75,000. I deem 30,000 as a moderate estimate of the total increase since the last named date, which will make the present total population of the state 340,000.

January 10, 1868, Governor Marshall delivered his annual message to the tenth legislature of this state, which was published as a pamphlet and as the first paper, 30 pages, of the Executive Documents for 1867 (St. Paul, 1868). A passage entitled “Impartial Suffrage” is quoted below.

The amendment to the constitution striking out the word “white” as a qualification of electors submitted at the last election, failed of adoption by minority of 1,315 votes in a total vote of 26,000, showing a very considerable advance of the sam question was submitted it failed, lacking 2,327 in a total vote of 26,000, showing a very considerable advance of sentiment in favor of equal political rights for all men.

This question involves a principle vital in free government. It will triumph. I recommend that you again submit the question to the people.

“For freedom's battle once begun Though baffled oft, is ever won.”

It is a proud record of any party or any people that they espouse the cause of the oppressed and despoiled—that they respect the rights of the weakest and humblest. It will b a proud day for Minnesota when she shall, by popular vote, remove from her constitution the disfranchisement of a class—having its origin in the prejudice of caste growing out of the enslavement of a race—from whom she demands and has received the honorable service of the soldier, and whom she taxes without representation.

The annual message of Marshall to the eleventh legislature January 7, 2869, was published in the Executive Documents for 1868 (St. Paul, 1869) as the first paper, 22 pages, and also separately as a pamphlet. 171 163It contains the following passage in regard to the state constitutional amendment which had recently passed, giving the ballot to colored men.

The progress of communities in the elements of permanent well-being is most truly recorded, not in the increase of its wealth, not in the development of its material interests, but in the advance towards the realization of that Divine rule of justice and brotherhood, which is the golden law of liberty.

More, then, than on your abounding wealth, I feel disposed to congratulate you on the final triumph, at the last election, of the amendment to the State Constitution, wiping out forever from our organic law that unrepublican principle that this is a government for only part of the people, and establishing equal manhood suffrage as the fundamental law of the commonwealth. The free young State of Minnesota—now altogether free—proclaims from all her statutes that justice and liberty are the sure inheritance of all who, from the oppressions of the Old World or the New, seek an asylum within her borders.

Under date of January, 1869, Governor Marshall issued a special message to the Legislature, relating to the state railroad bonds of the “Five Million Loan,” and transmitting copies of letters and memorials received from holders of the bonds. In this message, published, with the accompanying papers, in a pamphlet of thirteen pages, the governor said:

I have heretofore indicated to the Legislature that it seemed to me expedient that the five hundred thousand acres of internal improvement lands should be devoted to the payment of these bonds. Time serves to strengthen this conviction. * * *

In my judgment, the duty of the State to enter upon an adjustment of this suspended debt, begins the moment the State has the convenient means and ability to do so.

We have the example of the State of Michigan before us, in which a suspended debt twice greater than ours, and essentially of a similar character, was equitably and satisfactorily adjusted.

We have the example of the State of Illinois, which, in the attempt to build railroads and canals by the use of her State credit, broke down with not a mile of railroad completed, 172 164and with a debt of fifteen million dollars—six times greater than the nominal debt of Minnesota—and for years the State of Illinois did not pay a dollar of interest; yet when prosperity returned to her she promptly met the holders of her bonds and made satisfactory adjustment of the last dollar of her obligations. * * *

Marshall's last annual message to the Legislature, January 7, 1870, was published in pamphlet form and as the first paper, 30 pages, in the Executive Documents of Minnesota for 1869 (St. Paul, 1870). Characteristic paragraphs near the end of this address are as follows:

Looking back over the period during which I have been connected with the State government—humbled by the feeling that I have been able to do so little for the State—I am yet proud of what the people and the spontaneous agencies of public advancement have achieved. During that period the population of the State has almost doubled. Its wealth has quite doubled. Its railroads have quadrupled. Its educational funds and facilities have increased manifold. Its noble public charities—the highest marks of our civilization—have; most of them, been founded, and all of them advanced, to high positions of usefulness. The resources of the State, by the half million acres of internal improvement lands and other liberal grants for important railroads have been greatly augmented. I am profoundly grateful for the providence that has connected me with the government during so interesting and prosperous a period. and I yet look forward to gather results in the future, under wiser and abler administrations.

I am profoundly impressed with the belief that evil lies in the direction of too much legislation and governing rather than too little. The fewer, simpler and more stable the laws, the better. The less interference the better, with the over present natural laws that govern individuals and society with unerring rule of right.

I am taught ever renewed thankfulness for our beneficent political institutions, that our government, State and National, gives such large liberty and such large opportunity to each and all its citizens. This is the source of our marvelous prosperity of our wonderful progress in the arts of peace, and of our might in war.

And now, after seven full years of public service, military and civil, deeply grateful to my fellow citizens for the unmerited honors they have conferred upon me, I gladly resign to the eminent citizen, who has been called from another department of honorable public service, the trust which was committed to my hands. I exchange it willingly for the more congenial pursuits of private life. There, in the ranks of useful laborers, I hope henceforth to contribute my personal share to the well-being of our Commonwealth, my well beloved State.

The two following papers by Governor (and General) Marshall have been published by the Minnesota Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, in their series of volumes entitled “Glimpses of the Nation's Struggle.”

Reminiscences of General U. S. Grant (First Series, 1887, pages 89-106).

Some Letters by General W. T. Sherman, U. S. A., chiefly relating to Shiloh, read November 8, 1892 (Fourth Series, 1898, pages 605-614).

An Obituary Sketch of Senator Henry M. Rice, read by Governor Marshall at a meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society, February 12, 1894, is in this Society's Collections, Volume IX, 1901, pages 654-658.

This great and marvelous state—this infant Hercules—has usually been careful in selecting its governors. Their personality and characteristics have reflected the character and intelligence of our people, not perhaps as men of letters, not as orators, not as heroes laureled from the war, but as men substantially representative of the people who have chosen them. There are men of vital importance to the state, of whose services history takes but little heed. It is not the man of genius, nor the orator who is ablaze with wit, who does most and best for his country. But it is the man who, though unskilled in these brilliant arts, aids in keeping the state in the paths of justice and public righteousness, who brings comfort and happiness, contentment and prosperity to his fellows, who opens up the highways of commerce, who fosters schools and colleges, and in all proper ways brings to pass practical things for the state.

In all, we have had eighteen governors, territorial and the stat. I would not attempt the appraisement of the intellectual character or quality of service of our gubernatorial roster. Every governor was in some peculiar 177 170degree the mirror of his times. His nomination and election were controlled by peculiar existing conditions. In all the roster of our chief executives there is little or nothing of which to be ashamed, and much of which we may justly be proud. Occasionally the public intelligence and the public conscience may appear to have slumbered, but uniformly public alertness and public scrutiny have secured the elevation of able men to the executive chair.

Horace Austin was born October 15, 1831, at Canterbury, Connecticut. He was the son of a substantial farmer, and the family was of stern New England stock. He was reared on the home farm. His education, after the public school, was finished at an academy in Litchfield, Maine. Subsequently he taught in Belgrade Academy, of which institution he was for a short time the principal. From there he went to Augusta, Maine, and studied law in the office of the Hon. Lot Morrill, for many years a United States senator.

Smitten with the Western fever, in 1856 he turned his ambitious footsteps to the West in search of home and fortune, and finally located at St. Peter, Minnesota. He was then twenty-five years of age. He at once began the practice of his profession as a lawyer.

In 1862, on the breaking out of the Indian war, he promptly enlisted as a private in the “St. Peter Frontier Guards.” He was afterward made first lieutenant of the company. He was in the second battle of New Ulm. Immediately afterward the First Regiment of Mounted 178 171Rangers was organized by Colonel Samuel McPhail. For this regiment Horace Austin raised Company B, and was mustered as captain into the service of the United States for the Indian war, October 29, 1862. He was then thirty-one years of age. This regiment made a splendid record in defense of the homes of the frontier. At Camp Baker it was the fortune of the writer to see Captain Austin lead a gallant charge against the infuriated savages.

His next step was a judicial one. There was a general conviction that he was a sound lawyer, and, without much opposition, he was elected judge of the Sixth Judicial District in 1864. It was soon observed that he was an independent, upright, and fearless judge. This fact paved the way for another and greater preferment.

The advent of Judge Austin into politics was quiet and unostentatious. The Republican state convention of 1869 met September 9 at St. Paul. There seemed to be an opportunity for the nomination of a safe and prudent man. Judge Austin's reputation in his judicial district was of the best, and that district presented his name with perfect unanimity. The vote was quite a surprise and he was nominated on the first ballot, the vote standing Austin 147, Donnelly 64, and McKusick 17. His Democratic opponent was George L. Otis, a lawyer of St. Paul, a gentleman of high standing and marked ability. The campaign was rather a lifeless affair. The Republicans came near losing the election. Austin received 27,348 votes; Otis 25,401; and Daniel Cobb, the Prohibition 179 172candidate, 1,764. Austin's plurality over Otis was but 1,947. He was elected by the smallest majority the Republicans had ever received in the state.

A study of his messages gives a very favorable idea of the man, of the condition of the state, and of the important measures he earnestly advocated. The firmness and decisive character which he developed commended him more to the people than it did to the politicians. He advocated a complete revision of the criminal code; he opposed special legislation; he urged that the state and federal elections should occur on the same day; and when a subservient legislature apportioned the internal improvement lands among certain railroad corporations, he promptly vetoed the proposition, and secured the adoption of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the legislative from squandering these lands without consent of the voters.

Subsequently, and after the adoption of this constitutional amendment, during his second term, an act was passed authorizing the division of the proceeds of the sale of these internal improvement lands for the special purpose of paying the “Minnesota Railroad Bonds.” This proposition was ratified by the people at the next ensuing election by a vote of 18,257 yeas, to 12,489 nays.

He suggested the wisdom of a convention to revise the constitution, the old one having served its day and usefulness. But the proposition failed then, and subsequently in 1896.

Perhaps the most important act of his administration was his veto of the preposition to divide among the various railroads of the state what were known as the “Internal Improvement Lands.” A strong combination of railroad interests secured the passage of an act for that purpose. The pressure on Government Austin to sign the bill was intense. But his firmness was equal to the occasion and the veto came. After full consideration of his act, the wisdom of the veto was seen and cordially approved by the general public. The result as to these lands was an above stated.

After serving as governor for two years with honor and fidelity, he was renominated in 1871 without opposition. The result of the election was a triumphant vindication of his conduct as chief executive. The Democratic candidate was Winthrop Young. A Prohibition candidate, Samuel Mayall, was also in the field. The vote was as follows: For Austin, 46,950; for Young, 30,376; and for Mayall, 846.

On the 13th of July, 1870, Daniel S. Norton, member of the United States Senate, having died, Governor Austin appointed Hon. William Windom, then a member of Congress from the First District, to fill the vacancy till the meeting of the legislature.

When the legislature convened, Ozora Pierson Stearns was elected to fill the yet unexpired term of the late Senator Norton. At the same time, William Windom was elected senator for the full term beginning 181 174March 4, 1871. Senator Stearns occupied the position for less than two months.

During the administration of Governor Austin a very extraordinary event occurred, the only one of its kind in the history of the state. It was in the winter of 1873 that the great state treasury defalcation was discovered. William Seeger was state treasurer. Governor Austin's message gave a very satisfactory statement of the condition of the state treasury. It showed a balance in the treasury of $243,300.

As the people had voted in the preceding fall to issue a quarter of a million of bonds to construct necessary buildings for the state institutions, the question arose, where is the $243,300 surplus, and why is it not made applicable to the situation? In the Senate W.G. Ward, of Waseca county, offered a resolution to ascertain whether the surplus funds reported in the governor's message were actually in the vaults of the treasury, or loaned to banks or individuals. The resolution was passed, and Senators Ward, R. B. Langdon, and L. F. Hubbard, were so appointed. As the investigation proceeded, it began to be clear that this money was not in the state treasury, or at least that $180,000 was missing Mr. Seeger seemed inclined not to give information as to its actual whereabouts, but insisted that the money could and would be faithfully accounted for, and the state was fully protected by his bondsmen. He also insisted that not one cent of the moneys of the state had ever been perverted to his own use.

The result was that a resolution was offered in the House, asking William Seeger to resign his office a state treasurer. Being advised by his attorneys, he declined to do so. It appeared that the missing money had been need to cover the actual deficit of Seeger's predecessor, Emil Munch; that when he took the treasurership, Seeger accepted Emil Munch's note for $112,000 as cash. This, and an additional sum, Seeger was carrying for Munch, in the hope that the latter would retrieve certain personal losses and restore the missing funds. The investigation exposed the whole situation.

A resolution was immediately passed, ordering Seeger's impeachment. During the progress of the impeachment proceedings, Seeger, by the advice of his attorneys, resigned. He sent his resignation to Governor Austin, and it was accepted by him. The governor was criticised considerably for so doing.

There was much sympathy for Seeger, as it became evident that he was the tool of other parties. Seeger's bondsmen were very responsible men. They prove to have a high sense of honor, and the state recovered promptly every dollar, principal and interest. The bondsmen of the state treasurer were Horace Thompson and Maurice Auerbach, of St. Paul, Charles Scheffer, of Stillwater, Emil Munch, who was the son-in-law of Seeger, and Adolph Munch, brother of the former state treasurer. Mr. Maurice Auerbach, the only one of the unfortunate bondsmen now living, states that this endorsement cost him personally $100,000.

Mr. Seeger was regularly impeached and removed from office, in spite of his resignation. Edwin W. Dyke was appointed treasurer by Governor Austin to fill the remainder of Seeger's term. Soon afterward, the legislature hedged the state treasury about with such ample provisions of law that such an event could not happen again.

There was no attempt made to criminally prosecute any one. While the Republicans felt that they party had received a strain, yet the Democrats did not avail themselves of the opportunity to make a fuss about this flagrant crime.

In 1873, there began to be much activity in the political arena in reference to the selection of a United States Senator. Governor Ramsey was anxious for a re-election; Governor Austin was active for securing his own election to the Senate, but was not favorable to the re-election of Ramsey. Many opponents of Ramsey presented, as their candidate, William D. Washburn. The St. Paul Dispatch was especially bitter against Ramsey, and in stirring editorials advocated a revolt against what it termed the “Old fogies.” The Dispatch's candidate for governor was Cushman K. Davis, who was then United States district attorney. When the state convention finally assembled, General L. F. Hubbard presented a letter from Governor Austin, declining to be a candidate. This left the contest substantially between Washburn and Davis. On the fourth and final ballot, 184 177Davis received 155, and Washburn 152. The young Republicans had forged to the front.

Austin, after retiring from the governor's chair, was appointed by President Grant Third Auditor of the United States treasury, a position which he held for four years. He served under three successive secretaries of the treasury, Bristow, Morrill, and Sherman. He was then appointed register of the United States land office in Fargo, Dakota, which position he held seven years.

During the Austin administration, the counties of Aitkin, Yellow Medicine, Lac qui Parle, Becker, Carlton, Clay, Cottonwood, Kanabec, Lyon, Nobles, Rock, Stevens, Swift, Cass, Murray and Wilkin, were organized.

In a compendium of the important law passed during his administration, the following are worthy of note: A revision and codification of all laws relating to common and Normal schools; a reciprocal general insurance law; the establishment of a state board of health; a division of the state into three congressional districts; to regulate and restrict railroads; Canada thistles pronounced a common nuisance, and fines imposed for not preventing their growth; geological and natural history survey of the state under the supervision of the state University.

During this period occurred the presidential election of 1872, when Ulysses S. Grant was the Republican and Horace Greeley the Democratic nominee. The vote in Minnesota stood, for Grant 90,919; for Greeley, 35,211, and for Charles O'Connor, a third candidate, 162.

Returning to Minnesota and resuming the practice of law, Austin was, in 1887, appointed by Governor A. R. McGill a railroad commissioner for the state, and served from January 12, 1887, to January, 1891. His associates in the office were Gen. George L. Becker and Hon. John L. Gibbs.

When Austin became governor, he took Andrew R. McGill with him from St. Peter as his private secretary. In due time, Governor Austin promoted McGill to be Insurance Commissioner. When, in turn, thirteen year later, McGill became governor, he appointed Austin on the Railroad and Warehouse Commission. Thus these mutual friends served each other.

After retiring from public life, in which he had spent about thirty years, Austin retained his residence in Minneapolis, but his family home was at Mound, Lake Minnetonka. In his last days he appeared to float about seemingly at sea, without any special purpose in life. But the uprightness of his character, his general intelligence and pertinent views on all public questions, made him a welcome guest among a large circle of friends. His private life was of unsullied purity. His religious views were strict, but, in all, liberal. His was not a perfect life. In some measure it was incomplete, an admirable fragment, of which we can wish there had been more.

If you will study the roster of our governors with comparative care, you will find that Horace Austin stands well up in the front row, and he bequeaths to the 186 179state an honorable record as one of the best and firmest of its executives.

He made the trip to Alaska in company with his friend, F. B. Morrill, of Fargo, and greatly enjoyed it. He spent several winters in southern California, where he had a small ranch. He bought a team and roamed over the country, sometimes prospecting in the mountains for minerals. He had an assaying outfit, and amused himself in that way, the main intent being to live out of doors. It was the writer's privilege in those days to meet him often and enjoy his agreeable society in company with his lifelong friend, J. K. Moore, formerly editor of the St. Peter Tribune.

In November, 1905, he required a minor surgical operation, and for that purpose went to St. Barnabas hospital in Minneapolis. He was then in his seventy-fifth year, and had just celebrated his birthday with his family at Mound, October 15th. His condition for the operation was deemed excellent, but unexpectedly a change took place, and to the surprise of his physicians his death came suddenly on Tuesday, the seventh of November, 1905. Thus ended the days of a noble citizen, a sound jurist, a brave soldier, and a good governor.

At the time of his death, and for some time previous, he was engaged in writing and compiling his memoirs. We trust that these papers will be given by his family to the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation and future use. Singularly enough, Governor McGill, his devoted friend, died only one week before Governor 187 180Austin. There was something dramatic in the lives of these two governors, so devoted in friendship, so nearly allied in death.

On the day before the operation that resulted in his death, Governor Austin wrote the following letter to his lifelong personal friend, Prof. Judson Jones, of Cleveland, Minn.:

“Dear Jud.: Thirty-five years ago three fast friends came down the Minnesota valley together to take part in the affairs of state; they acted well their parts (at least the other two of the three), and they have been sincere friends ever since. But on yesterday we laid one of them away in sleep at Oakland, and now the little circle is broken, one tie is rent asunder.

“I cannot, as otherwise I would, now write you fully of the great sorrow and of the last hours of our dear old friend, Andrew McGill (though there is not much to be said of the event itself, his death, which does not appear in the public press sent you), for now I am in a hospital for a surgical operation. This is my last afternoon before it is to take place, and I have many notes to send out, many little affairs to attend to, and so cannot give much time to either. In the morning I go under the knife and for two or three weeks thereafter, at the best, I shall not be permitted to write, perhaps not even read.

“It is not regarded as a very critical operation, and I submit to it with courage and confidence; but in such 188 181cases no one knows in advance what the issue may be; so it becomes one to be prepared for the worst. And I have made a pretty good ready as far as my business matters are concerned. As to the rest, having acted on my best knowledge and judgment, I have no misgivings.

“I confidently expect to meet and greet you again as we have so often met and greeted each other in the past for now almost fifty years; but if in this we should be disappointed, I shall go in the hope to meet you and greet you in a land that is fairer than this (though this to both of us has been kind and beautiful), as well as to meet and greet in love and pleasure so many loved ones who have gone before and are already ‘on that beautiful shore.’ So, my dear old friend, if forever, still forever fare thee well.

“As in the goodness of God we have prospered, enjoyed many blessings during a long life, so in unlimited confidence that His wisdom and grace will prove ample for the wants of all His children, here and hereafter, and with courage for any fate, I am, as ever, Your devoted and sincere friend, “HORACE AUSTIN.”

The remains of Governor Austin were cremated at his request, and the ashes are buried in Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul.

Governor Austin was married in March, 1859, to Miss Mary Lena Morrill, of Augusta, Maine. To this union were born six children, five daughters and one son, 189 182as follows: Mrs. Lenora Hamlin, of Chicago; Alice Austin, an artist of Boston; Ida W. Austin, who died March 22, 1888; Herbert W. Austin, of St. Paul, now with the Northern Pacific Railway Company; Mabel, married to Dr. Ernest Southard, professor in Harvard Medical College, Boston; and Helen Horace Austin, teacher in the Central High School, St. Paul. They are a family of high intellectuality, great and varied talents, and marked individuality and force of character. The world will certainly be the better for the earnest and progressive spirit of their lives.

The Governor had one brother, George Austin, of Everett, Washington, and also a half brother, C. D. Austin, of Minneapolis, who are both now living.

Governor Austin's inaugural address to the Legislature, January 7, 1870, was published as a pamphlet of 25 pages, and also as the second paper in the Executive Documents for the year 1869 (St. Paul, 1870). The closing part of this address contains the following tribute to the memory of Austin's fellow townsman, Governor Swift:

In the struggle for preserving the unity of the republic, Minnesota bore her full share. Her gallant troops turned the tide of battle on many a hard fought field. Well may we congratulate ourselves, therefore, upon the success of the labors and sacrifices in which we had a brilliant, if not a commanding part. Here let me speak, without disparagement to others, of one of Minnesota's lamented citizens, her dead Governor, the noble, generous, self-sacrificing Henry A. Swift, in whose character was realized the traits of Wordsworth's “Happy Warrior:” 190 183 “Who if he rise to station of command Rises by open means; and there will stand On honorable terms; or else retire, And in himself posses his own desire.”

His name deserves to be enrolled with those of Andrew, Curtin, Morton, and the loyal Governors who realized the genius and strength of the rebellion, and rendered such efficient aid in its suppression. They were the Lieutenants of the President, without whose hearty support failure would have been inevitable.

The annual message of Austin to the Legislature, January 5, 1871, was of unusual length, forming a pamphlet of 56 pages, published also as the first paper in the Executive Documents for 1870 (St. Paul, 1871). Nearly a third of this message is devoted to discussion of railway tariffs, on which the governor wrote in part as follows:

In my inaugural address I took occasion to examine the popular complaints against the management of the railroads within the State, as well as to present, to the best of my ability, the facts which the roads plead in justification of their course, and, after an examination of the legal bearings of the case, took the responsibility of suggesting remedial legislation; preliminary to which I advised that a commission be created to make full inquiry into the alleged abuses, and who should, in case the evils complained of, or other wrongs, were found to prevail, present some plan remedying the difficulties.

My reason for recommending the precautionary step of a commission, in advance of other legislation to which the services of the commissioners were designed to be preparatory, was not that I questioned the constitutional right of the Legislature to regulate freight and passenger tariffs, or doubted the necessity of so doing, but that you might have before you the means of an accurate knowledge of the merits of the controversy, gathered from an extended and thorough examination of the whole subject in all its relations.

However plausible the excuse, there can be no doubt that the system of freight tariffs and elevator charges practiced by some of our roads are unjustifiable, extortionate and oppressive to the last degree—totally indefensible on any well 191 184recognized principles of legitimate business, of commercial integrity, or of public decency.

Austin's next annual message, delivered January 4, 1872, at the beginning of his second term, was published as a pamphlet and as the first paper, 41 pages, in the Executive Documents for 1871 (St. Paul, 1872). The following were his recommendations for the state geological survey, which was authorized by the legislature in that session, and for the Minnesota Historical Society and the State University.

Considering the vast extent of our territory, its varied formations, soils, mineral deposits—undoubtedly existing in great wealth in some sections of the State—and the fact that we have never had a survey of the State worthy of the name, except at a few points of easy access, is it not desirable that you should make provision for a thorough geological survey by a capable, efficient, practical geologist? Such a survey would probably have saved the State the six sections of land consumed at Belle Plaine in the vain search for salt, the value of which alone would defray the entire expense of the undertaking, and might have saved to th citizens interested in that enterprise additional expense. A thorough geological survey would most likely reveal sources of wealth unknown, and not have even supposed to exist, and would probably definitely locate and uncover others, the existence of which is only surmised. * * *

The Historical Society is steadily and successfully pursuing its labors and during the past year has made gratifying progress, amply demonstrating its usefulness and value. Its library now contains nearly 5,000 bound volumes, most of them rare and valuable, while its collection of a published nature concerning the state is remarkably complete and useful. The rooms provided for the society several years ago have already become too limited and should be enlarged as far as the needs of other departments will admit. I commend the society to your continued care and recommend liberal provisions for its future usefulness.

The annual report of the Board of Regents, which will be laid before you, shows favorable progress at the University. 192 185There have been in attendance, in all the department, during the year past 321 students, of whom 92 were females. This increase in the number of students enhances the demand for more and better accommodations, and the board of regents therefore make an earnest appeal for an appropriation for the enlargement of the old building, which is but a wing of the original plan. There can be no doubt of the necessity of this, nor of the fact that the School must be embarrassed and greatly limited in its usefulness until more ample accommodations are provided. No part of the funds arising from the sale of lands can be applied for the erection of buildings, which leaves the institution entirely dependent upon the legislature for a supply of its wants in this direction.

The University, being the chief institution of learning in the State and standing at the head of our system of schools, should be made to reflect credit on the State and be enabled to take position with similar institutions of the country. It should received such substantial aid as may be consistent with the means at your disposal and the demands of our charitable institutions.

January 9, 1873, Governor Austin delivered his third annual message to the legislature, which was published in 49 pages as a pamphlet and as the first paper of the Executive Documents for the year 1872 (St. Paul, 1873.) Concerning development of local manufactures, this message said:

After all shall have been done that can be done to cheapen the transportation of the bulky freights produced by an agricultural people, even though the expectation of the most sanguine should be realized, the profits upon such production will be small, the prosperity of the people limited and their lot a hard one, so long as fifteen hundred to five thousand miles lie between them and their markets. Minnesota is essentially an agricultural State, but nature has not been so ungenerous in the distribution of her bounties as to limit us to the culture of the earth alone; on the contrary, she has endowed us with those elements which need but to be utilized by the ingenuity of man, and inspired by the magic touch of capital to make us the New England of the great Northwest—to build up a thousand active business centres where the busy artisan and the tradesman shall require not only the surplus production of the farmer, but where the wealth of our forests and of our mines shall be demanded, and where they shall be coined into gold, or become a commodity of ready exchange with the consumer, without the intervention of a score of middle-men—whose profits 193 186exceed those of the producer and consumer combined—or subject to the inexorable extortions of confederated transportation companies. To effect the desired result, I would suggest such a change in the constitution as will allow the Legislature to enact laws authorizing towns and cities to relieve from taxation capital which shall be invested in manufacturing, or perhaps authorize the loan or donation of a specific sum.

However, these privileges, if granted, should be well guarded, that the flood-gates be not opened to an injudicious and unlimited indebtedness. I would restrict an exemption from taxation to a limited number of years, any fifteen, and, if more direct aid were to be extended, would permit it to be done by virtue of not less than a two-thirds vote, and would limit the amount to be loaned or donated, whether paid in cash or bonds, to a certain per cent of the valuation of the property in the city or other municipal corporation granting the aid. * * *

The fourth and last annual message of Governor Austin, January 9, 1874, published in a pamphlet of 45 pages and in the Executive Documents for 1873 (St. Paul, 1874), concludes as follows:

If I have not been able to accomplish any great work of public improvement or material development, nor to enlarge the powers or the privileges of the masses, I have not stood in the way of the former nor retarded the progress of the later. The growth of the State in wealth, in public and internal improvements, in agriculture, in population, in the means of general education, and in the general prosperity and happiness of the people, has been too great to be questioned.

To have been at the head of affairs, to have my name associated with the events of these four prosperous if not eventful years, I am profoundly thankful to the people of Minnesota. And now, after ten years of public service, judicial and executive, worn with care and realizing the necessity of making for a dependent family better provision than the opportunities of a public life permit, I willingly resign to another the honors and responsibilities of my situation, and the more willingly because they are to be transferred to a gentleman of eminent ability, who will guard the one and faithfully discharge the other.

I bespeak for him your cordial co-operation, and earnestly do I invoke Heaven's most abundant blessings upon the people of Minnesota; and that her untarnished name may shine forever in the galaxy of American States with the lustre of that star which symbolizes her glory, is my earnest prayer.

In the Publications of the Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States, “Glimpses of the Nation's Struggle” (Fourth Series, 1898, pages 124-143), is a paper by Governor Austin, “The Frontier of Southwestern Minnesota in 1857; the Ink-pa-doota Outbreak; the Campaign of 1863 against the Sioux,” read December 12, 1893. This paper is partly autobiographic, and also contains interesting character notes of Governor Gorman, Joseph R. Brown, Joseph Rolette, and other members of the last territorial legislature.

Politics and literature do not often go hand in in hand. We have had, however, in this state a rare exception. But seven years have passed since the death of Cushman Kellogg Davis. His recognition as statesman, classic orator, and man of letters, has gained in expression and cumulative interest with each passing year. The pervasive atmosphere of his memory is extending through all the ranks of culture. In another generation interest will center more and more about this man, so unlike our other governors.

Literary talent, culture, a wonderful power of expression, rich as cloth of gold, so potent in him, will reach with propulsive force to Minnesotans yet unborn. Amid his political entanglements, his legal work, dry as dust, and statesmanly employments, his irrepressible literary gifts would flash out like lances of sunlight between the clouds.

His accomplishments as a man of letters, and his wonderful skill in state-craft, are the two Corinthian columns on which rest his glory and his fame.

No one can envy the great distinction which came to this remarkable man. He was too amiable and honorable to assail or decry any competitor in the race for supremacy. The rewards of a commendable ambition came to him without seeking to humble any rival. “His tongue dropped manna” for all, and wellnigh made him exempt from that vituperation which is too often the fate of our public men. In the earlier period of his professional career, there seemed to be a sportive tendency in his tastes; but quite suddenly he dropped all the haunts of diversion, and studiously gave himself to his library and his profession. Henceforth his life and career formed a notable part of the state he so devotedly loved and so greatly honored.

He was born at the village of Henderson, Jefferson county, New York, on the 16th day of June, 1838, in a small home built partly of logs, and mossy and venerable with age. He came of sturdy Puritan stock, and on his mother's side he was a descendant of Mary Allerton, who was the last survivor of the noble band that came over in the Mayflower. He was a descendant of Robert Cushman, the preacher of the Pilgrims, and he had great pride in his ancestry. His father, Horatio N. Davis, was quite prominent, had served in the Civil War, and retired from the army with the brevet rank of major. He held many municipal offices, and was, at one time, a member of the Wisconsin Senate. When an infant, his parents removed to the vicinity of Waukesha, Wis., where, for fifteen years, they resided on a farm. He 199 193was trained in the local schools, but was early transferred to the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated in 1857. He studied law, and came to the bar in Waukesha as soon as he had reached his majority. With his intellectual gifts he speedily attained a good practice, and was recognized as a rising and ambitious young lawyer.

But the storm of civil war broke upon the country, and he entered the army as first lieutenant of Company B of the Twenty-eight Wisconsin infantry. He served with marked courage and fidelity until the complete breaking down of his health from constant and insidious malaria and fever. For nearly two years he was with the Army of Tennessee in campaigns in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Mississippi. He returned to the paternal home, and with gradually returning health he was ambitious to seek a larger field of activity. Surveying the great Northwest, fortunately for both him and this state, he chose St. Paul as his future home.

He arrived in that city in 1865. Resuming at once the practice of the law, in partnership with ex-governor Willis A. Gorman, he became noted as one of the ablest and most prominent members of a bar eminently distinguished for its rare ability and high character.

In 1867 came his first political recognition, when he was elected to the legislature of that year. His ability was speedily recognized, and he took an active part in its deliberations. In 1868 he was appointed, by 200 194President Johnson, United States attorney for Minnesota, and served in that capacity till 1875.

In the meantime he was devoting unwearied attention to general literature. In response to the trend of public sentiment, then greatly agitated over alleged railway dominance and aggression, he prepared his celebrated lecture entitled “Modern Feudalism.” He delivered this lecture at many places over the state, and it won for him a good deal of reputation. In fact, it was the means of directing public attention to him, and was probably the inciting cause of his being nominated for governor by the Republican party, July 16, 1873.

The contest in the convention was between Davis and W. D. Washburn, of Minneapolis, a most worthy and able antagonist. After an exciting struggle, Davis was declared nominated by one majority. Upon so slender a thread does human destiny turn. This result changed many personal and political fortunes in our state. His opponents were Asa Barton, Democrat, of Faribault, and Samuel Mayall, Prohibitionist, of St. Paul. Davis received, in the election, 40,741 votes; Barton, 35,245; and Mayall, 1,036. Davis was the youngest of all our governors, being only in the thirty-sixth year of his age when he entered upon the duties of his office.

January 9, 1875, he delivered his inaugural message to the legislature. The marked feature of that document was his vigorous arraignment of the railways of the state for extortionate rates, and suggesting remedies. Following these suggestions, a board of railway 201 195commissioners was established, and Davis subsequently appointed the first board.

His last annual message was delivered January 7, 1876. He had from time to time offered many valuable suggestions for the betterment of our laws, now incorporated in our statutes, though the source of their inspiration is forgotten. But the essential feature of his last message was his views upon the duty of the state as to the old state railroad bonds. The question of the moral and legal obligation of the state to adjust that indebtedness was never, before or since, so succinctly and cogently presented. There will be found the whole essence of the argument against the state, never improved by any subsequent discussion of that vexed question. He clearly and boldly set forth, though it was unpopular at the time, the law and that higher rule of action which requires that states, no less than men, shall do justice, no matter how onerous may be the performance. With this sound admonition, he closed his career as governor of Minnesota.

On the expiration of his term of office Governor Davis declined to be again a candidate. He alleged that he was a poor man, and his profession gave him an income greatly in excess of the governor's salary. But it was understood he was then nursing an ambition to go to the United States Senate, and in the second year of his term of office he threw his gauntlet into the senatorial arena.

The senatorial election came on in 1875. There were four candidates, to wit: Senator Ramsey, for a third term; W. D. Washburn; ex-Governor Austin; and Davis. Ignatius Donnelly came in later on. The struggle was long and bitter, and developed much personal feeling. The final result was the defeat of Senator Ramsey and the election of Judge S. J. R. McMillan, of the Supreme Bench, a “dark horse” introduced to allay the feeling which had been engendered. Judge McMillan served two terms in the Senate.

During these long twelve years, Governor Davis bided his time with calmness and patience. He was recognized as a brilliant and coming man. While he devoted himself to his profession and to the wide field of letters, he was prominent in all political campaigns, and spoke with marked ability for this party, for he was always a loyal Republican. During this period he lectured on “Hamlet” and “Madame Roland,” and also published his charming little book entitled “The Law in Shakespeare,” which attracted much attention.

The political campaign of 1886 was approaching, and the Republican press of the state was almost a unit for Davis for the Senate. The legislature met on the fourth of January, 1887, and at the Republican caucus held to nominate a candidate for United States senator Cushman K. Davis received every vote but one. His destiny was now fixed, and he entered on the most brilliant political career that was ever the fortune of any son of Minnesota. It remains to add that he was given 203 197his second term by a re-election in 1893, and a third term by nearly a unanimous vote, in 1899, when death cut short his great and valuable life, November 27, 1900.

He entered the Senate March 4, 1887, in the forty-ninth year of his age. There were assembled in that Chamber such senators as Hoar, Lodge, Aldrich, Allison, Spooner, and Morgan; and its walls yet echoed with the voices of Webster, Clay, Benton, Calhoun, and Conkling. He came with respectfully regard for the dignity and reputation of that high legislature body, which was equal to that any nation had yet established in the rank of statesmanship and forensic eloquence.

When this young man entered the chamber that august body was not aware that Cicero had arrived. Whatever his aspirations or hopes, his innate modesty covered them all. He sought his honors through honest toil by the midnight lamp. While his friends at home looked confidently forward to a career of honor and fame for their chosen son, the Senate itself, of its own knowledge, had no occasion to be on the tiptoe of expectation. Indeed, he worked himself upward by the strictest devotion to senatorial duty, as opportunity came.

To him, at first, was accorded the chairmanship of the committee on pensions, comparatively a humble position, the duties of which he discharged with unwearied diligence and unruffled patience. The Senate soon learned that this new man was gifted with great intellectual force, and was a sound legislator. It was not 204 198long till he was transferred to the committee on foreign relations, and here finally, as its chairman, he found a wide field for his great abilities and for the exercise of those qualities of statesmanship and diplomacy with which he was so well gifted and equipped. He was a profound student of the history of our diplomatic relations with foreign countries, and as a preparation for this, he was already a master of constitutional and international law. His wealth of preparation for the headship of that committee soon gave him a record that caused the Senate to rely upon his reports and accept his advice.

Following the War with Spain, he was nominated by President McKinley, in company with two of his senatorial colleagues and other distinguished persons, to negotiate a treaty of peace with that country. The position was one in which the highest skill and learning were necessary, and in that able body of American commissioners he was pre-eminently conspicuous for his learning, his tact, and his fearless advocacy of the right. That treaty gave to the people of the Spanish islands relief from the most intolerable despotism, and added the Philippines and Porto Rico to the American Republic. The Treaty of Paris was the first occasion on which the United States was called upon to test its strength and wisdom in settling grave questions which really involved the great countries of Europe. Of all that work, Senator Davis was admitted to be the greatest part. His speeches and reports on the Spanish War in the Senate, and it 205 199is said more especially those in executive session, were masterful expositions of all matters involved, and were the propelling force which controlled the Senate.

When President Harrison sought to acquire the Hawaiian Islands, that halfway station to Asia, Senator Davis was his devoted supporter. And later, when President McKinley was constrained for the broad purposes of public defense and welfare to secure their possession, it was Senator Davis, with abundant and cogent reasons, who chiefly devised the plan which resulted in their annexation.

We recall the value of his services while serving on the committee of the Pacific railroad, in working out the mode and manner of settlement between the government and the roads, so that the people lost nothing by their generosity in originally aiding the growth and development of vast regions of our country.

No soldier of the great Civil War should ever forget the debt of gratitude due him for his skill and persistency, while chairman of the committee on pensions, in framing and securing the Dependent Pension Act of 1890. A veteran himself, he remembered his old comrades. Through that act more than $750,000,000 has gone to the needy and infirm veterans and their widows, in token of the gratitude of a loyal people.

During the Venezuelan contention, his ability and diplomatic skill enabled him to perform the most signal service as the head of the committee on foreign relations.

Thus, in all national affairs, he was wise, prudent, considerate, and far-seeing, even to prophecy, exhibiting all the elements of exalted statesmanship; never impulsive, never erratic, but practical, and with broad views on all public and international questions. Many of his illustrious services in assisting and directing great policies and events, which profoundly influenced the entire history of the country, were unknown to the general public because presented and considered in the committee room and in executive sessions. As chairman of the committee on foreign relations, he had reached the field of the greatest opportunity for his abilities and service to his country. Here he won that supreme distinction which placed him in the advanced line of American statesmen.

Absorbed as he was in the consideration of questions of almost worldwide importance, he did not overlook matters pertinent to the fortunes of his own state and the great Northwest. He fully realized that the people of Minnesota and the Dakotas could never secure the just rewards of their productive fields unless they were enabled to reach the markets of the world by the cheapest and best possible route. Who that is well informed on matters of momentous public interest has not read that masterly exposition of traffic by waterways in which he directed the attention of the senate and the nation to the imperious necessity of the improvement of the canal and locks at the Sault Ste. Marie? He saw with the eye of a statesman that the swelling productions of the 207 201vast wheat belt, the granary of the world, must be moved to the sea on economic lines and arteries, or the golden wealth of the vast Northwest would largely be lost to the people. He educated congressional and public sentiment by one great oration to the necessity of this improvement, and it was accomplished. Every home in the Northwest will forever be more prosperous by reason of the far-sighted statesmanship of Senator Davis in securing the enlargement and betterment of the Sault Sainte Marie canal.

Among all our statesmen, he was the most vigorous and clear expounder of the reach and effect of the Monroe doctrine. The true relations of the United States to Europe and the world, and our guardianship of all American interests, were presented and interpreted by him in a manner commensurate with the magnitude of the subject.

These examples will serve to illustrate the scope and character of his senatorial work. But now we must study the man himself, the qualities of his intellect, heart, and character. Sometimes the writer doubts whether the people of his own state, loving him as they did, fully appreciated the strength and vigor of his mind, the abundance of his intellectual resources, and the Grecian culture which polished and enriched them all. He was the first really great man Minnesota had presented to the Republic. His modesty was as great as his genius and his talents, and he lived a simple and unostentatious life in the midst of his friends. He was at all times and 208 202under all circumstances a true gentleman. It is quite impossible to define precisely that term, but we always feel what it means when in the presence of a man who is endowed with that special grace and courtesy. No man was ever more tolerant to his foes, and he never answered another's argument with warmth or heat. Yet, while he respected the opinion of other men, to the things for which he stood he was as true as steel. He always remembered the dignity and honor of his senatorial office. No Roman senator ever bore himself with more dignity and decorum, for he was ever mindful that no civil tribunal on earth is clothed with more power and majesty than the Senate of this Republic. He always appreciated the honor of the great commission he bore from the people of his state, and never failed to perform for them a senator's full duty.

His powers of conversation, to which it was always a delight to listen, were extolled and greatly admired by those who had the pleasure of his intimacy. His great and various knowledge and wide reading were always available to the uses of society. His choicest relaxation was in the polished company of men of literary tastes.

His manners apparently were not so polished, yet in personal contact he was one of the most agreeable of men. His manners were democratic and thoroughly unconventional, and he was easily approached by the humblest citizen. Though clothed with an unaffected simplicity, his self-respect and innate dignity were unmistakable.

His voice, unfortunately was not of a quality which aided him as an orator, being sotto voce, with a tenor strain. He possessed a felicity of speech which was truly remarkable, and his language, in speaking or writing, was a model of excellence.

Society had no charms for him. His place of recreation and enjoyment was his library, where his books were his companions and his chosen friends. The wide range of his reading in history and general literature was simply extraordinary. He was the only one of our governors who could be correctly called a literary man. Sibley was only other governor who had the inbred love of letters.

Although Davis dropped his Greek, he retained as firm a hold on his Latin as any practiced collegian. Ovid and Livy, Horace and Virgil, were his relaxations. What do you think of a man who packs his valise for a journey with a copy of Sallust and a volume of Pliny's letters, for idle recreation? He had taught himself the important modern languages, French, Italian, and German, and he was not an inapt scholar in Spanish. None of these acquirements were made for parade or show; it was a love of learning for its own sake.

There were special fields of literature in which he delighted to roam and pluck flowers for his own enjoyment. I believe every truly great man of learning and taste has studied and loved Shakespeare. The incomparable dramatic poet was one of his chief loves. His little book, entitled “The Law of Shakespeare,” was a 210 204royal testimonial of his Shakespearian learning. To illustrate the Senator's polished and elegant style, I will quote a passage from his introduction to this extraordinary volume:

“There was everything in that romantic age to stir the imagination. There was spirit of chivalry abroad which marched in quest of something more substantial than moldy relies and fulfilled vows sworn to something grander than the achievement of pious absurdities. Frobisher had sailed northward into the silence of the eternal seas of ice. El Dorado lifted against the western skies its shafts and domes of gold. The Armada had vanished like a portentous phantom, smitten by the valor of Englishmen, and chased far off into the Hebridean fogs by the waves of the exasperated sea which fought for its island nurseling. Hawkins, pirate and admiral, had thrown his fortune into the pit which threatened to swallow up his country, and had died under the displeasure of his stingy yet magnificent queen. Raleigh, having seen his dream of the New World die out, lay in the Tower writing his history, doubtless smoking the consoling weed while awaiting the end of so much bravery, so much rashness, and so many cares, in the summons of ‘eloquent, just, and mighty Death.’

“Drake had spoiled the seas and cities thereof. Captain John Smith had told of great empires in the West and their swarthy emperors. Mary, Queen of Scots, that changeful enchantress, as we see her now—at one 211 205time the French lily, all sweet, pure, and fragrant, and again the Scottish thistle, spinous and cruel to all who touched her—had woven the cords of love into the chains of empire, and had pressed the cup of her sorceries to the lips of many men, until her own glorious head bowed to ‘the long divorce of steel.’”

Thomas Babington Macaulay never wrote more superb lines than these. The shade of Shakespeare itself could bow to their stately rhythm.

His study of international law was held by his senatorial associates to be thorough and masterly, and made him a recognized leader and guide on all complicated international questions. He was also profoundly versed in diplomatic precedents and history. His eminence in the legal profession was universally acknowledged by the bar, and it is no disparagement to many distinguished legal contemporaries to say that he was the leading lawyer of the Northwest. As a lawyer he was not a specialist in any sense, and his versatility was so great that there was no branch of the profession in which he was not at home. It was the judgment of Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, himself one of the ablest of attorneys, that his arguments addressed to the courts upon questions of law, and to juries upon questions of fact, could not be excelled by any one for strength, learning, and eloquence.

With him reading was a passion. He invaded every department of literature. He could say with Gibbon, 212 206“My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for the treasures of India.” As his memory was remarkably retentive, he became encyclopedic in universal knowledge. Thus he was enabled to enrich and adorn his public addresses, his senatorial speeches, and even his private conversation, and that without effort or ostentation.

In his earlier years, as is often the case with aspiring minds, he was undecided in his religious views, as to what was true in the Bible and the Christian religion. But, with advancing years, profound study and more serious thought brought him to a safe conclusion. He was not devoted to any exclusive creed, but he realized that the spiritual life was the flower and purpose of creation. To use his own distinct utterance to his pastor, 1 not long before his final illness, he said:

“It is a great deal better to have these things discussed by the friends of the church rather than by her enemies, but it is not new—Voltaire had much to say on the subject. The heart of the question is not in any debate about the history of the books of the Bible. I am very familiar with the Bible. Job is the noblest poem ever written, and there is much of the loftiest eloquence in the Prophets. Nor is it in the literature of the Bible that the problem of faith rests. I know human history, and I know that in the first century something happened that destroyed the old world and 213 207gave birth to the new. The resurrection of Jesus would account for that change, and I do not know of any other adequate solution that has ever been proposed.”

In this noble conviction Senator Davis departed to his immortal rest, believing that he who had Christ had all.

Among the many striking incidents of his eventful career, we recall with pride his prompt action and ringing words, July 1, 1894, when that ill-timed resolution was introduced into the United States Senate to permit strikers to stop all railway traffic, provided they did not interfere with the United States mails. A committee from Duluth, assuming to speak for labor, wired Senator Davis, requesting him to support the resolution. The message came in the middle of the night, and springing from his couch, without dressing, he wrote the famous reply which was published in every newspaper in the land, and which did more to allay the fierce passions then aflame, and to set men thinking, than any other cause in that dark hour of national depression. The message was instinct with the courage of a patriot, and exhibited the farsightedness of a great statesman. Here is the message:

“I have received your telegram. I will not support the resolution. It is against your real welfare. It is also a blow at the security, peace, and rights of millions who never harmed you or your associates. My duty to the Constitution and the laws forbids me to sustain a 214 208resolution to legalize lawlessness. The same duty rests upon you and your associates. The power to regulate commerce among the several states is vested by the Constitution in Congress. Your associates have usurped that power at Hammond and other places, and have destroyed commerce between the states in these particular instances. You are rapidly approaching the over act of levying was against the United States, and you will find the definition of that in the Constitution. I trust that wiser thoughts will again control. You might as well ask me to vote to dissolve the Government.”

It was probably from this very message that President Cleveland conceived the idea of sending United States troops to Chicago to suppress the great labor riot, which was one of the noblest acts of his presidential career.

We would do great injustice to Senator Davis' intellectual power, were we to omit calling special attention to his orations and public addresses, delivered on many occasions of great moment, and on widely different subjects. When, on July 4, 1880, the Minnesota Historical Society celebrated the two hundreth anniversary of the discovery of the Falls of St. Anthony by Louis Hennepin, Governor Davis was selected as the orator of that imposing occasion. The audience was immense, and many of the most distinguished men of the nation honored the day with their presence. The oration was all that could be hoped for with such a theme, and such a spot, and such a speaker. There are passages in it 215 209worthy of Cicero. Take this superb figure: “This cataract has been manacled by the hand of man, and works like the blind Samson in his mills.”

Another of his elaborate orations was delivered at the laying of the corner stone of the New Capitol in St. Paul, July 27, 1898. It was one of his best addresses, eminently worthy of the stately occasion, and was deservedly admired. The design of the oration was as exalted as the execution was masterly.

On the 2d of July, 1897, Senator Davis delivered an address on the battlefield of Gettysburg, at the unveiling of the statue erected by our state in honor of the First Regiment's gallant deeds on that historic site. Spoken upon a battlefield where blood flowed from the splendid valor of our own sons, yet toleration and moderation marked every sentiment of that grand utterance. It was a message of peace and good will to all the Republic. It is rich and fragrant with the generosity of the great heart of one who spoke as nobly as the fought. Listen to that patriotic voice of toleration and moderation that speaks to a reunited country louder than bugle call:

“And it was this transcendental fealty which so soon reunited us in one family by the combined efforts of men in whom hostility had been appeased, and closed that awful chasm which our evil-wishers aborad predicted would always divide us by a fixed and impassable gulf. The same earthquake force which opened that abyss close it again, and we stand now, here and everywhere, 216 210upon solid ground—holy ground here, because it is a tomb where the hosts of valor and patriotism have ‘set up their everlasting rest.’ It is also a field of resurrection whence has arisen the Genius of a restored Union.”

But brilliant examples of his power as an orator abound through all his addresses. These will serve to guide the reader to the rich mine that will forever remain as our state's heritage, bequeathed to us by our greatest orator. It should be the loving task of some loyal son of Minnesota, to gather his speeches and addresses in a volume, the better to preserve them in a proper and durable form. Permit me to quote another passage from his Gettysburg oration, to further illustrate his classic style and exquisite beauty of expression:

“How lovingly Peace, enrobed in her imperial mantle of golden harvests, reigns over this delicious landscape. The refulgent armor of war now rusts beneath our feet. The cannon that we see here in position among the ranks which sleep in the invincible array of death are silent forever. Peace now holds an unbroken sway over our dear land. And yet thirty-four years ago today she fled affrighted from this scene. The fiery chariots of War were reaping here the fields and were gathering a harvest of men into that tabernacle of never-ending rest, wherein all grains and fruits and flowers and men and all living things must be garnered at last.”

It would be an unpardonable fault, in citing these examples of his style, to omit a quotation from the address he delivered at the “Seventeenth Meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee,” at Lake Minnetonka, August 13, 1884. General Grant had written Governor Davis a personal letter, asking him to deliver the regular address on that occasion. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and other illustrious men were present. Attention is called to that splendid burst of eloquence wherein he summons the phantom armies of Napoleon and their imperial marshals in the “fields of air.” I challenge the whole range of oratory, modern and ancient as well, to rival this superb utterance.

“* * * It was a sublime conception of the Austrian poet Zedlitz, that before the statue of the great Napoleon in the Place Vendome the hosts of the Empire muster for review. While Paris sleeps, the disembodied cohorts of the dead conqueror break the marble calm of death and are marshalled upon the fields of air. The armies of twenty years stand embattled on that serial plain. They come from the slime of the Nile, from the sands of Arabia, from the snows of Russia, from Alpine ice, from German plains, from the fields of Italy, from Spanish sierras, from the waves of Trafalgar. The imperial marshals are there: Murar, with his squadrons; Davout, with the victors of Auerstadt; Massena, with the famine-stricken defenders of Genoa; Macdonald, sword in hand, and on foot, at the head of the eighteen thousand immortals who broke the 218 212Austrian center at Wagram; slaughtered Ney, with the apparition of the despairing Guard, which broke in vain in bloody surges upon the English squares at Waterloo. The spectres of auxiliary kings, their brows gold-bound with phantom crowns bestowed by him, career before their shadowy legions, and far off upon the confines of the night the phantasma of vanquished armies in full retreat is dimly seen upon a hundred fields. Martial music is faintly heard beneath the stars, and upon the spirit banners of the pallid and evanescent host as it sweeps in dark review before the bronze emporer, who has also taken a ghostly life, gleam the words ‘Ave Imperator! Morituri te salutant,’ and then the armies of a lost cause melt into the air and the emperor becomes bronze again.

“So now and in all time will the hosts of this army defile before the Genius of History. They rise, arms in hand, from the ancient river-beds, from the bivouac of the grave, from Vicksburg and Kenesaw, from every historic battlefield, from deadly forest and noisome prison pens. The living and the dead are there, the white man and his dusky comrade. The great generals are in their places. The paeans of victorious music are heard again. The starry flag gleams among the constellations. This pageant fades from the Elysian fields, and History, taking up her pen, writes of that army the imperishable words, ‘Its cause was not lost, for it was the cause of Liberty, my best beloved child. 219 213It fought the great battle of humanity and conquered, and is consecrated to the reverence of mankind.’”

In his addresses and orations there was never any attempt to be theatrical or dramatic. There was no fervid declamation; there was no violent action, as is said of Demosthenes and Roscius. In fact, the manner of his delivery did not seem much to concern him. He was calm, dignified, and wholly unimpassioned. He seemed to rely upon the substance and merit of his discourse for his impression upon his auditors. His great intellectual gifts governed his oratory. In his written orations, by the midnight lamp he carefully prepared each sentence, and was scrupulous in the selection of his words. His diction was copious, indeed a model of every elegance. Like Fox, he possessed no grace of action, and had a voice of little compass. But all this was forgotten when he got into his topic, and held you by his intellectual power. He never addressed himself to the reporters, but directly to the people before him. His pronunciation of our language was clear and beautiful, and his use of it always pure and chaste.

Nothing so refreshed his mind, except his books, as intercourse with those friends in whose companionship and converse he delighted.

Death found him at the zenith of his powers, and in control of the really great committee of the Senate. There was before him a field worthy of his splendid abilities, and hence the pathos and regret of his unexpected 220 214demise. It is to be regretted that he wrote go little of a permanent character. With his sentiment and imagination, and his remarkable facility at elegant composition, combined with his great learning, he could have achieved permanent fame in any walk of literature he might have chosen.

If we were to consider his private life, he would appear sometimes to violate the correct principles of social order. To reconcile private infirmities with great public virtue is a difficult task. It is indeed a puzzling question in a biography of this sort, how far to apply the ethical laws of society to a public man. Webster was a deep drinker at times, and Clay was given to gaming; yet it was never alleged that either of them neglected a public duty by reason of personal infirmity. It is, however, a dangerous example, of evil tendency, to let the private faults of great statesmen pass uncensured. It was said of Pericles that he could deliver the most brilliant address, and then away to sup with Aspasia. But nearly twenty centuries ago society was reconstructed on a different basis. Mankind are ever indulgent toward the errors of great man. The only marked blemish on Senator Davis' reputation was a want of proper appreciation of the true character of women, who in their exalted purity are the conservators of society.

Senator Davis was twice married. His first wife was a Mrs. Laura Bowman, of Wisconsin, from whom he procured a legal separation. He was subsequently 221 215married to Anna Malcom Agnew (maiden name), the divorced wife of Charles Fox, of St. Paul. This marriage occurred in 1888. Neither wife bore him children.

He died at eight o'clock, November 27, 1900, at his home, 130 Farrington avenue, at sixty-two years of age. He had suffered for two months from senile gangrene, which later became complicated with acute inflammation of the kidneys. There were present at his death-bed his venerable father, ninety years of age (his mother, eighty-six, was in the adjoining room); his wife; his sister, Mrs. Bartlett Tripp; his regular physician, Dr. A. J. Stone; two consulting physicians; his legal partner, C. A. Severance; and the nurses.

His remains lay in state in the Governor's Room at the Capitol, where they were visited by an immense and constant procession of citizens. On the day of the funeral all public business was suspended. Messages of sympathy, from the President of the United States, from cabinet officers, senators, and foreign ministers, poured in upon the family. The press of the entire nation paid tribute to his memory. Indeed, the whole people mourned.

The funeral took place Saturday, December 1, 1900. Half-masted flags told mutely but eloquently of the national bereavement. The surging throngs which occupied the streets attested the respect and consideration in which he was held by his immediate fellow-citizens. The services were conducted by Dr. C. D. Andrews, of Christ Episcopal Church. United States 222 216senators, congressman, the governor and his staff, the Loyal Legion, the city officers, Grand Army posts, and a long procession of carriages, followed the remains of Minnesota's greatest statesman, whose casket, covered with a profusion of flowers, was laid away in the mortuary chapel at Oakland Cemetery, December 3d.

His body rested in the chapel at Oakland till his widow saw fit to cause its removal to Arlington Cemetery, Washington, D. C., October 23, 1901. The monument in Arlington Cemetery, erected by his widow, is quite an imposing structure, fifteen feet high, of brown Italian granite. It is surmounted by a very good marble bust of the senator. At the base is a raised carving on the stone, with a table at which the senator is sitting, represented as signing the Treaty of Paris. The inscription on the monument is as follows: SENATOR CUSHMAN KELLOGG DAVIS SOLDIER, SCHOLAR, STATESMAN. June 16, 1838—Nov. 27, 1900.

It is impossible to close this record of Senator Davis' history without expressing profound regret that his widow removed his remains to Arlington Cemetery, near Washington city. This act greatly disturbed the tender feelings of the people of Minnesota. Here he had lived his life, fought his battles, and won his high 223 217honors. The very threads of his existence were interwoven with Minnesota, and his body should be inurned in its soil. I freely express the hope that the day will yet come when his remains will be returned to sleep in the bosom of the state he so dearly loved and faithfully served; and that an admiring and remembering people will rear to him a monument worthy of his name and fame.

Governor Davis presented four published messages to the state legislature, as follows:

Inaugural Message, delivered January 9, 1874, published as a pamphlet of thirty pages and also in the Executive Documents of Minnesota for the year 1873 (St. Paul, 1874).

Annual Message, January 8, 1875, thirty-two pages, as a pamphlet and in the Executive Documents for 1874 (St. Paul, 1875).

Special Message, January 29, 1875, transmitting the Report of Hon. H. H. Sibley, chairman of the committee appointed by the Governor, to distribute the relief afforded, to the people of the frontier counties, suffering from the ravages of grasshoppers; a pamphlet of ten pages, ordered printed by the Senate.

Annual Message, January 7, 1876, a pamphlet of forty-two pages, also published as the first paper in the Executive Documents for 1875 (St. Paul, 1876). The last six pages are devoted to the state railroad bonds, for which the governor earnestly urged due consideration 224 218and a just settlement. He introduced this part of the message as follows:

I should feel self reproach from the consciousness of having left an important duty unperformed, should I suffer this occasion to pass without expressing my views upon a subject which has been a topic of reproach by our creditors, and recrimination, excuse and defence by many of our citizens for more than fifteen years. I allude to the obligations, moral and legal, to which the state is subject by the evidences of its indebtedness commonly known as the Minnesota state railroad bonds.

They were executed so long ago that, of our present population, over four hundred thousand have become inhabitants since the date of these securities; so many popular ideas upon the question have been the creation of hasty, angry or insufficient assertion, that it does not seem improper to present here a concise historical statement showing precisely what was done by the state in the premises. I give it in the hope that it may be influential in clearing away some of the distorting and erroneous assumptions of fact which have obscured the subject, and, as I think, darkened the conscience of this people.

After relating very clearly the history of these bonds and of the state enactments concerning them, Davis closed his final message as governor with the following argument and farewell:

It is asserted by some persons who have embittered our people by the infliction of unqualified censure upon them, that we have planted ourselves upon an explicit denial that there is anything due upon these securities. Such is not the sentiment of our people. But many of them do think that the transaction is affected by circumstances which ought to abate materially from the obligation to pay these securities at their face in the case of those who hold the bonds with notice of the facts. This is a defence that any debtor has the right to make. But in making it he ought not to bar every avenue to adjudication, and make his defence as to part a pretence for not paying anything. As to the portion which we do wrongfully refuse to pay, the world will hold that we repudiate as long as we deny jurisdiction to any tribunal to entertain the question involved. I suppose that when the claims of this government against Great Britain were first advanced on account of the damages done by Confederate cruisers, the English people were as firmly persuaded that they owed nothing, and were as firmly resolved to pay nothing, as any of our 225 219people today are. But no man and no nation ought to be the judge in its own cause, and accordingly these great governments constituted a court at Geneva, submitted to its jurisdiction and abided by the judgment of that unimpassioned forum. It is an example worthy of our imitation. If a board of commissioners composed of men of or not of this state, eminent for integrity and judicial wisdom, could be invested with jurisdiction to her and determine the questions involved by a consideration of every equity, legal or moral, existing on either side of the controversy, it cannot be presumed that our people would hesitate to perform the award. If these bonds were void in their inception for any reason, or if they were procured by fraudulent representations or unfaithful performance of conditions precedent, or if there is a class of unfortunate persons who invested in good faith, for value, without notice, so that the last named defence is not applicable to them, or if they are wholly due, let us meet each responsibility as becomes a great state, holding its honor dearer than anything else.

I am aware that an over-prudent calculating judgment might not prompt a public man to whom the immediate commendations of those who have honored him are very gratifying, to speak such words. But I know that there is a higher rule of action which requires that states no less than men shall do justice, no matter how onerous may be the performance. This rule bears upon our people now. It contains forces of self-assertion against which no operation not founded in right can stand with any permanency. We have disregarded it too long.

Having now performed this final act, I close my connection with the high position with which the people have honored me, with the expression of an earnest wish for the prosperity of the state, and that the eminent citizen who has been chosen as my successor may receive your most efficient aid in making his administration beneficial to the people and honorable to him.

Other published writings and addresses of Governor Davis, in their chronologic order, are:

The Railroad Question, an address at Rochester, Minn., October 9, 1873; a newspaper report, pasted to form a pamphlet of 11 pages, in the Minnesota Historical Society Library.

The Permanency of our Institution, an oration at the Centennial Celebration at St. Paul, July 4, 1876; 226 220published in “Our National Centennial Jubilee,” edited by Frederick Saunders, New York, 1877, pages 837-848.

Closing Argument for the Respondent in the matter of the Impeachment of Sherman Page, Judge of the Tenth Judicial District, Minnesota; pamphlet of 113 pages, St. Paul, 1878. This argument, delivered on June 25 and 26, 1878, before the State Senate in its session for the impeachment trial, is also published, the same as by the pamphlet (which is a reprint, with new page numbering), in the “Impeachment of Sherman Page” (three volumes), Journal of the Senate, twentieth session, 1878, as pages 146-255 of its Volume III.

Eulogy on the Life of Governor Gorman, at a meeting of the Ramsey County Bar Association, May 24, 1876; in the Minnesota Historical Society Collections, Volume III, 1880, pages 328-332.

Oration, July 3, 1880, in Minneapolis, at the Celebration by the Minnesota Historical Society of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of the Falls of Saint Anthony in 1680, by Father Louis Hennepin (M. H. S. Collection, Volume VI, 1894, pages 39-55).

Hamlet; Madame Roland; Lectures. 102 pages; St. Paul, 1882.

The law in Shakespeare, 303 pages; St. Paul, 1883, and second edition, 1884.

Oration of Comrade C. K. Davis, Ex-Governor of Minnesota, delivered at the Fifteenth Annual Observance of “Memorial Day,” in St. Paul, May 30th, 1884; a pamphlet of seven pages, published by Acker Post 227 221No. 21, Department of Minnesota, G. A. R., reprinted from a newspaper.

Address at the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, held at Lake Minnetonka, Minn., August 13, 1884; in the Report of the Proceedings of the Society, 1884-87, published in Cincinnati, 1893, pages 69-84.

Address at the opening of the Minneapolis Exposition, August 23, 1886; pamphlet of 18 pages.

Admission of South Dakota, Speech in the Senate of the United States, April 11, 1888. 30 pages; Washington, 1888.

Address, September 14, 1889, in Minneapolis, on the 251st Anniversary of the First Swedish Settlements in America; pamphlet of 13 pages.

The Claims of the Northwest for the Improvement of St. Mary's River and Hay Lake Channel, Speech in the Senate of the United States, January 9, 1890. 16 pages; Washington, 1890.

Against the United States Subsidizing the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua in the Sum of One Hundred Millions of Dollars, Speech in the U. S. Senate, February 20, 1891. 16 pages; Washington, 1891.

Relations with Hawaii, Speech in the U. S. Senate, January 10-11, 1894. 48 pages; Washington, 1894.

Speech in the Senate of the United States, July 10, 1894, in Reply to Senator Peffer and to Senator Kyle's Resolution [relating to the great railroad strike]. 16 pages; Washington, 1894.

Progress of the United States during the Half Century, an address in the Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Organization of the Minnesota Historical Society, in the Capitol, St. Paul, November 15, 1895; M. H. S. Collections, Volume IX, 1901, pages 617-622.

The Monroe Doctrine, Speech in the U. S. Senate, February 17, 1896. 14 pages; Washington, 1896.

An address to the Citizens of Saint Paul, August 4, 1896 [relating chiefly to national coinage questions]; a pamphlet of 15 pages, reprinted from a newspaper.

An address at Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1897, at the Unveiling of the Statue erected by the State of Minnesota to commemorate the Charge made by the First Regiment of Minnesota Infantry Volunteers on the second day of July 1863; a pamphlet of ten pages.

Lectures on International Law before the Faculty and Students of the University of Minnesota, October, 1897; pamphlet of 80 pages, St. Paul.

An address at St. Paul, July 27, 1898, at the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Capitol of Minnesota; a pamphlet of 23 pages, and also a part (pages 15-28) in Proceedings at the Laying of the Corner Stone, etc. (St. Paul, 1898).

Speech at Minneapolis, September 7, 1898 [relating to party issues in the state political campaign]; a pamphlet of 16 pages.

The Treaty of Paris, Speech before the Union League Club of Chicago, February 22, 1899; pamphlet, 14 pages.

Speech before the Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, June 12, 1900; in The Alumni Register, July, 1900.

A Treatise on International Law, including American Diplomacy, with Introduction by Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge; annotated and revised by Peter J. Healey. 368 pages; St. Paul, 1901.

The Pillsbury tribe for more than one hundred years has been considered a virile race in New Hampshire. They were of Puritan stock. William Pillsbury is the name which first appears in this country, coming to Boston, Mass., from England in 1640 or 1641. Micajah Pillsbury, who had served in the Revolutionary War, removed from Amesbury, Mass., to Sutton, N. H., in 1795. Three of his sons were representatives of that town in the state legislature. The youngest of these, John Pillsbury, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a manufacturer, a mechanic, and subsequently a farmer, a man quite prominent in local and state politics. He lived till 1856, and left behind him a good reputation for practical ability and manly honor. His wife was Susan Wadleigh, and to this union there came five children, four sons and one daughter. John Sargent Pillsbury was the third son, and was born in Sutton, Merrimack county, N. H., July 29, 1827.

He received but a New England common school education. His college was the great world, its stirring scenes, events, men, and business. As a youth, he began 233 228his practical education by learning the painter's trade. But a taste for commercial life and business dominated his purposes, and at as early an age as sixteen he entered on a mercantile career. He was first a clerk for his brother, George A. Pillsbury, at Warner, N. H., in a general country store, where he remained until he became of age. At that time he entered into co-partnership with Walter Harriman, at Warner, which continued for two years. This business associate afterward became governor of New Hampshire. Young Pillsbury then removed to Concord, N. H., where he engaged in the business of merchant tailoring, and here he remained four years.

His experience as an apprentice, a clerk in a country store, a partner in larger business operations, gradually developed that business capacity which was the marked characteristic of his life. But in 1853 he listened to the voice of Horace Greeley which said “Go West, young man,” and he made an extended tour of observation into the great Northwest, seeking a more desirable arena for his ambitious nature. Finally, in June, 1855, he visited Minnesota, saw the Falls of St. Anthony, and in his vision beheld the future possibilities of that wonderful spot, and there found home and destiny for the rest of his life.

He engaged in the hardware business on a continually enlarging scale, with Gorge F. Cross and Woodbury Fisk, the latter being a brother of is wife. This firm continued to prosper until the panic of 1857 came, 234 229and with it a loss of nearly $38,000 by fire without insurance. The combined blow would have completely paralyzed an ordinary man, but it only nerved him to greater activity and strengthened his courage. Pillsbury was always at his best in trying ordeals. With his indomitable will and indefatigable energy, within five years he had met every obligation and greatly enlarged his business. He possessed two assets which always carried the day with his creditors, energy and scrupulous honesty. His business yearly increased in magnitude and became very lucrative.

He continued in the hardware business until 1875, when he withdrew from that specialty to engage in other and larger enterprises. He had already entered into the milling business in 1873. He had associated with him his nephew, Charles A. Pillsbury, a young man of ability and energy who was destined to be a marked figure in the business circles of Minneapolis. Later on this firm included his brother, George A. Pillsbury, and another nephew, Fred C. Pillsbury. This firm became noted throughout the whole country, and their fame extended to Europe. They erected several large flouring mills with the very latest improvements, and first introduced the roller process in the Northwest. One of the mills was mentioned at that period as the largest in the world, with a daily capacity of 7,000 barrels. In 1890 this gigantic business, now swollen beyond all precedent, was sold to an English syndicate, though John S. Pillsbury and his nephews were given the management of these 235 230mills at Minneapolis, they retaining a large interest in the stock.

During the development of this great industry, Mr. Pillsbury was called by his fellow citizens to several public duties. In 1858 he was elected a member of the city council of St. Anthony, a position he held for many years. In 1863 he was elected a state senator from Hennepin county, and was re-elected for the five following terms. He must have proved a very efficient member to be so repeatedly honored.

When the Civil War broke out, he did royal service in aiding in the formation of several regiments, and at the outbreak of Indian hostilities, in 1862, he raised and equipped a mounted company for that service. This set the seal of patriotism on his character as a citizen.

Fortunately for the state and the State University, in 1863 Mr. Pillsbury was appointed one of its regents, and he at once began to examine into its condition. In 1851 Congress had granted 46,000 acres of land in the then territory of Minnesota to aid in the establishment of a university. To secure the erection of necessary buildings, this land had been mortgaged for $40,000, and when the main building was completed, in 1857, a mortgage of $15,000 was placed upon it. The financial crash which came in 1857 found the university overwhelmed with debt, and the trustees were in despair. No more money could be raised, and the legislature at that period was unable to come to its assistance.

In 1862 the legislature authorized the regents to “convey any and all of the lands” of the state university to pay its enormous debts, and to let its creditors take all its assets. But Mr. Pillsbury resolved differently. He lived near by the University. He made its desperate situation a personal matter. Without a collegiate or even academic education, he resolved that the youth of his adopted state should have opportunities which had been denied to him. He studied every detail of the situation. He gave to its affairs the same study and care as to his own private business. A near Board of Regents at his instance was organized by the legislature, March 4, 1864, to conduct all its business affairs. This act gave full power to the new board. This was the turning point in the fate of the university. Mr. Pillsbury now put forth a supreme personal effort. He visited all the creditors, traveled far and wide, and, in the end, fully discharged all debts, liens, and judgments the university, and saved some thirty thousand acres of the land grant, and secured, free from all incumbrances, the present site of the university, its buildings, and its splendid campus. From that time on the university has prospered, marching forward till it ranks with the greatest and best of the collegiate institutions of the land. He was its friend and savior; through all succeeding years, so long as he lived, he was its powerful protector and promoter; and when he died, it seemed as though the university had gone into a state of orphanage.

Mr. Pillsbury, as were all his tribe, was a strict Republican in politics. Wonderful success had come to him in all his business affairs. Not only his milling but his lumber business had increased many fold. His splendid management of the affairs of the state university had been admiration of the state. His comprehensive views and practical sagacity during his long service in the state senate brought and kept him before the public. Thus it seemed very naturally to happen that, in 1875, he was, apparently without effort on his part, nominated for governor of the state. He was elected to that position by nearly twelve thousand majority over his principal competitor, the Hon. D. L. Buell, the latter receiving 32,275 votes. R. F. Humiston received 1,669 votes for governor. Pillsbury's total vote was 47,073.

It seemed that the time was opportune for the state to have a business governor. The people of the state were oppressed with local debts; they were scourged with grasshoppers; agriculture was depressed; mortgages covered the land; the old Five Million Loan indebtedness hung like a pall over the commonwealth. It does not often happen that lawyers and politicians are practical business men. At this epoch the affairs of the state were generally in a bad situation. What was wanting was a strong, vigorous, practical and sagacious business governor. With John S. Pillsbury, the hour and the man had come. His business career justified popular expectation, and inspired the people with hope.

His inaugural address met the approbation of all classes. It evinced a clear apprehension of the needs of the people. The more direct control of railways was one of the exciting questions of the hour. Governor Pillsbury took firm ground for governmental control of these highways, and this position was subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States. He took strong ground for legislative economy, and resolutely vetoed reckless extravagance made in defiance of the condition of the public finances.

But perhaps the most remarkable feature of his first message was that wherein he pleaded for the honor of the state, with the force and earnestness, for the proper and speedy adjustment of the long standing and off repudiated old railroad bonds. It was not a popular measure. The people had rejected several propositions for the settlement of these old obligations, and ordinary politicians did not dare to touch the vexed question. But John S. Pillsbury was not an ordinary man. Nerve was a family trait. The legislature to which this first earnest appeal was made was not yet ready to give it effect. But the governor was persistent in his efforts to wipe this stain from the escutcheon of the state. Year by year, and message by message, he returned to the attack, till finally, by an act dated March 3, 1881, his efforts were crowned with victory, and he had the pleasure of signing the bill which all now acknowledge to have been one of obvious public justice, 239 234and one with which his name will always be distinctly identified.

It was during his administration that the great scourge of grasshoppers visited our frontier, and with insatiable appetite devoured every green thing. It is quite impossible for the reader of today to realize the destruction which came from these pests. For three successive years they renewed their ravages and desolated entire counties. The governor sought to device some practical plan for public relief. He opened correspondence with scientific men, and issued invitations to the governors of such states and territories as had suffered most. He secured a meeting of these dignitaries at Omaha, in October, 1877. He was chosen chairman of the assemblage. They memorialized Congress for aid in a thorough scientific investigation with a view to protection. They elicited a large fund of information, and general instructions were disseminated through the scourged districts in accordance with the knowledge obtained.

The winter of 1876-77 witnessed the most extreme suffering in the counties of southwestern Minnesota, the result of this scourge, that any portion of our people have ever endured. Not satisfied with the information gleaned from his agents, the noble-hearted governor resolved to go in person and see for himself. For the purposes of more accurate information, he went incognito. In the middle of December, in zero weather, over the bleak prairies the brave governor prosecuted his search, and discovered hundreds on the verge of starvation; 240 235and the people of the more prosperous portions of the state believed his reports, and organized aid poured in upon the sufferers.

His message to the legislature of 1877 is known as the “grasshopper message,” and is filled with practical recommendations for the counteracting of the scourge and the relief of its victims. With returning spring came returning apprehensions of a renewal of the fearful scourge. Many religious bodies expressed a wish for a day of fasting and prayer, and with the inspiration of his Puritan blood and strong religious convictions, the governor issued his celebrated proclamation asking the merciful Father for his sovereign interposition in behalf of an afflicted people. This executive utterance attracted wide attention and discussion. The recommendation was generally heeded over all the state. As the season progressed, it was found that the insects had disappeared, and thousands of good people firmly believed that the hand of a special Providence had not been invoked in vain.

The Republican convention of 1877 renominated Governor Pillsbury by acclamation, and he was re-elected for his second term by an increased majority of eighteen thousand over his opponent, the Hon. William L. Banning, of St. Paul. The vote stood as follows: J. S. Pillsbury, 57,071; W. L. Banning, 39,147; and William Meigher, 2,396. This second inauguration was marked by unusual public demonstrations and took place in the opera house in St. Paul. His message was marked by 241 236many practical recommendations, among which may be mentioned the establishment off a high school board; the creation of the office of public examiner; further provision for the care of the insane; the construction of another state prison; additional aid to the impoverished victims of the grasshopper scourge; a renewed recommendation for biennial sessions of the legislature by constitutional amendment; and again, for the third time, he urged the speedy adjustment of the old railroad bonds. The wisdom of all these suggestions was well appreciated, and all of them were duly enacted into law.

In 1879 political excitement was once more renewed. Who should be governor, was the question pressed upon the general public. Governor Pillsbury had not yet secured by legislative enactment all his practical suggestions, and especially the old railroad bond question was yet unsettled. The feeling was strongly in favor of giving the governor a third term to enable him to complete his good work. The nomination was therefore pressed upon him, and he reluctantly accepted this extraordinary mark of honor. His opponent was the Hon. Edmund Rice, of St. Paul, a most estimable gentleman, with popular family connections, and widely known over the state. Governor Pillsbury was, however, re-elected by a large majority. This was the first and only instance in our history where a governor was given a third term. But the people had such confidence in him that all precedent was brushed aside in his favor. In this election Pillsbury received 57,524 votes, and Rice, 41,524.

The proposition for biennial sessions of the legislature having carried, there was no legislature in 1880. It was at this period that the hospital for the insane at St. Peter was burned. Winter was approaching and prompt action was required. But Governor Pillsbury was equal to the emergency. He advanced money out of his own pocket, as he had done before to aid the grasshopper sufferers. The work was speedily done, and the helpless insane were provided for.

The new legislature convened in 1881. The old battle for the payment of the unadjusted railroad bonds was renewed. The governor's untiring appeals for a settlement of this vexed problem had resulted in good educational work. The Pioneer Press, under the control of that fearless apostle of the state's honor, Joseph A. Wheelock, did mighty service in convincing the people of the wisdom of purging its record of the great stain resting upon its honor. Religious bodies joined in swelling the appeal for delayed justice. Public sentiment itself grew stronger, so that the race of evading politicians who yet resisted the cleansing of the state's dishonored record were overwhelmed. The limits of this work will not admit of our pursuing the long and tortuous story of the state's final vindication. Suffice it to say that the closing days of Governor Pillsbury's administration were crowned with a noble triumph; the haunting specter or reputation was driven away; and the proud young commonwealth, purged and purified, took its place in the sisterhood of honorable states. The 243 238victory was due more to the supreme efforts of John Sargent Pillsbury and Joseph A. Wheelock than to other instrumentalities, however valiant others may have been.

It was during the closing period of Governor Pillsbury's last administration that the old territorial capitol, completed in 1853, was destroyed by fire. It was on the night of March 1, 1881, during the last days of the legislative session of that year. A thorough inspection of the ruins was made, and a new building was found necessary. Plans secured by Governor Pillsbury were adopted, and the foundation was laid in the summer of 1881. The fire had not ceased burning when the city of St. Paul, through its mayor and city council, generously tendered to Governor Pillsbury the large, new market house for the use of the state, pending the construction of the new building; and almost at the hour for its meeting on the following day the legislature and all the officers of the state were there engaged in their regular order of work. That building for twenty-two months became the home of the state government. It was there, January 10, 1882, that Governor Pillsbury bade adieu to the cares and perplexities of gubernatorial life, which for six consecutive years he had so faithfully met and nobly performed.

For the years following to the date of his death, he was industriously engaged in managing his large and prosperous private business. He was now president of the board of regents of the state University, and gave to that institution most faithful and paternal care. In 244 239company with Judge Greenleaf Clark , he went East in 1883 to search for a new president Professor W. W. Folwell having resigned from the presidency after service during fourteen years. To this question he gave great care and consideration, and made a wise and fortunate selection in securing Professor Cyrus Northrop of Yale College.

April 16, 1889, was made memorable when, in the presence of the legislature, state officers, and board of regents, he took them all with complete surprise by his great gift of $150.000 to erect and complete Science Hall for the university, which has since been named Pillsbury Hall by the regents. This large and munificent donation was fully appreciated, for it came at a time when the financial condition of the state made it impossible for the legislature to care further for the present necessities of the university. The residue of his life was marked by many public duties and adorned with private benefactions.

In September, 1900, the year before he died, his statue in bronze by Daniel Chester French, was placed in front of the library and administration building of the University, as the gift of many of its students, alumni, faculty, and friends.

His last benefaction to his city was to provide for the erection of a beautiful library, as a branch of the city public library for East Minneapolis, which was built after his death.

It was during Pillsbury's last term as governor, in 1880, that a very exciting congressional contest in the First District occurred. Hon. Mark H. Dunnell, a man of much force of character, was serving his fifth term in Congress, and much discontent was manifest in the district. It was alleged that he had built a “machine,” and it was the object of the opposition to break it in pieces. The result was a bitter and malignant contest such as is seldom seen. Every county in the district became involved, and two conventions were held in the same opera house at Waseca, July 7, 1880. Hon. W. G. Ward was nominated by one convention, and Mark H. Dunnell by the other. The contest was thence carried to the people. An appeal was finally made to the state central committee, to decide which of the two possessed the merit of regularity. The committee decided in favor of Dunnell, and the machinery of the party prevailed and Dunnell was elected.

Still another bitter internecine political war occurred later, in 1882, during the closing of the Pillsbury administration. Hon. Knute Nelson and C.F. Kindred were both Republican candidates for Congress in the Fifth Congressional District, composed of twenty-eight northern counties. The rivalry for the nomiantion assumed the most intense form. Kindred was a wealthy man and spent money freely. It also resulted in a double-headed convention, held at Detroit, July 12th, 1882. Brass bands, shouting processions and yelling delegates, as if pandemonium had broken loose, were 246 241the order of the day. While there was no absolute violence, the air was thick with basest adjectives. Again the authority of the Republican state central committee was invoked to settle the question of regularity, and the decision was in favor of Nelson. But Kindred was not subdued. He spent money lavishly, established newspapers, and had an expensive literary bureau. With brass bands, torch-light processions, special trains, the campaign blazed with intense heat. With a shattered fortune, Kindred emerged from the campaign a defeated candidate. Never before nor since has the state witnessed such a political plunger. In November the vote stood Nelson, 16,956; Kindred, 12,238; and E.P. Barnum, Democrat, 6,248. “Regularity” and the Scandinavian vote did the work for Nelson, and ushered into our state politics a virile Norseman, who, ever since, has not only maintained but steadily increased his political power.

It was during the administration of Governor Pillsbury, that the country was shocked by the assassination of President Garfield, an act abhorrent to the civilized world. William Windom, an honored son of Minnesota, was the successful Secretary of the United States Treasury, and his brilliant financial policy reflected great honor upon the state. The counties of Beltrami, Norman, Kittson, Marshall, Pipestone and Kanabec, were organized.

One of the notable incidents during this administration was the trial and impeachment of E. St. Julien Cox, judge of the Ninth Judicial District. Intemperate 247 242habits, while on the bench and in the discharge of official functions, were the gist of the charges, which were sustained by the court of impeachment, and he was deposed from office.

Governor Pillsbury was in all respects a remarkable man. Like Alexander Ramsey, he possessed that rarest of all faculties, common sense. His services to the state were truly valuable. He displayed firmness, ability, and wonderful business sagacity in the important scenes in which he performed so conspicuous a part. He was not, like Ramsey or Sibley, one of the original constructors of the state, but he was the great Conservator of the commonwealth. He was more, not only preserving from loss or injury, but augmenting and improving every department of the state government. He never demeaned himself by pandering to political prejudices. The arts of a demagogue never were his. He never quailed before public opinion. He possessed the faculty of doing great work easily; his self control was admirable.

Of all our governors he was the most paternal. He cared for the people like a good father. His sympathies were tender and sweet. His personal qualities were not such as to compel special admiration, he was no orator nor even public speaker. But when it came to practical administrative ability, he ranked with the highest. Pillsbury and Hubbard were much on a level in this regard. The end of all government is the comfort and happiness of the people, and these things Governor Pillsbury studied with assiduous care. He seemed to be animated 248 243solely with the desire of furthering the public good. His judicial and other important appointments were all above party bias, and won the good opinion of all parties.

Governor Pillsbury possessed a strong religious nature, and had profound respect for all religious matters. Though not a member of any church, he joined his wife in regular attendance at the First Congregational church, of which he was an officer, and she a devoted member.

Aside from the multidudinous details of lesser matters which commanded time and attention during his long service as governor, but which, important as they were, will be speedily forgotten, there are two things which will ever stand as enduring monuments to his honor and fame: That the University exists at all, and has prospered till it has become a state benediction; this, and the proud achievement of placing the state on the solid basis of financial honor. These alone will ever preserve his name in grateful remembrance.

Governor Pillsbury died at his home in Minneapolis, October 18th, 1901.

He was married in Warner, N.H., November 3, 1856, to Miss Mahala Fisk. Her family, on both sides, were very prominent people, with a noble New England ancestry. She was well educated and was a graduate of Sanbornton Seminary at the age of nineteen, when she became a teacher, and only retired from that profession to become the wife of John Sargent Pillsbury, and at once removed to the far West. She shared all her husband's trials and final success, and was ever his safe and 249 244prudent counselor. Her annual receptions at her home to the students of the senior class of the University will ever be remembered as unique and enjoyable occasions. She still resides at the family homestead, number 1005 Fifth street southeast, in Minneapolis.

Mrs. Pillsbury is noted for many noble qualities, and is a woman of fine culture and tenderness of heart. Her broad and Christian charities mark well her kindly nature.

To the marriage of this goodly couple there came three children, two daughters, Susan M. (Mrs. Fred B. Snyder) and Sarah Belle (Mr. Edward C. Gale), and a son, Alfred Fisk. They also had an adopted daughter, Addic A. (Mrs. Charles M. Webster), who died April 2, 1885.

The inaugural message of Governor Pillsbury to the state legislature, January 7, 1876, was published as a pamphlet of 28 pages, and as the second paper in the Executive Documents of Minnesota for the year 1875 (St. Paul, 1876). The opening paragraphs read thus:

In making, for the first time, that communication to you touching the condition of the State, which both the constitution and invariable custom enjoin upon the Executive, I desire to express my deep sense of the responsibility I have assumed, and to invoke your aid and co-operation in the faithful performance of the duties which the people have devolved alike upon us.

The period we have reached in the development of our State affords an occasion both for congratulation and for warning. We cannot but indulge feelings of pride and gratitude when we reflect that where, a quarter of a century ago, there was an unbroken wilderness, inhabited only by the wild beasts 250 245and savage men, there exits today a vigorous young commonwealth of 600,000 people, blest with all the appliances and comforts of civilized life; that solitary wastes have been supplanted by illimitable grain fields; that idle rivers have been bound to the myriad uses of productive industry; that the young State, which, upon her admission to the Union, imported breadstuffs to feed the speculators in her unproductive lands, is, in her eighteenth year, the first wheat State of the Sisterhood; that where fourteen years ago there was not one mile of completed railroad, 2,000 miles are now taxed to their utmost to carry off the surplus products; and that everywhere throughout the State, church and school-house, thriving cities and busy industries, mark the abode of a prosperous, energetic and happy people. For progress so unexampled, and prosperity so bountiful, our grateful thanks are due to Almighty God, who has wonderfully upheld us in adversity, and brought us to the verge of great opportunities; but, while thankful for such blessings, we should not be unmindful of those opportunities, nor of the responsibilities which they impose.

The annual message delivered January 4, 1877, was published as the first paper in the Executive Documents for 1876 (St. Paul, 1877), and in the same form as a pamphlet, 42 pages. The unpaid railroad bonds, long a vexed question, are treated in four pages; and the devastations by grasshoppers are the theme of five pages. Concerning the state school system, Governor Pillsbury said in this message:

Perhaps the most inevitable conclusion to which a study of our school system leads, is the necessity that its various departmental agencies and appointments should form auxiliary parts of a harmonious whole; that its successive steps should constitute a regular gradation from the alphabet to collegiate maturity, and that, like the rills and streams which, however differing in character and varying in course, reach a comman goal in the ocean, the primary instruction in the common school should lead by easy stages to the crowning scholarship of the university. All alike are the gift of the State to her people dictated by the enlightened policy which qualifies the citizen for the duties demanded of him, and which sows and nourishes according to the bounty of the expected harvest. * * *

To the end desired it is therefore essential that in every stage of instruction and in every variety of school, the purpose, or at least the possibility, of this ascending continuity should 251 246be kept constantly in view, and especially that the finishing course elsewhere should fit pupils for freshmen at the university. This is essential to the highest efficiency whether in the lower or higher branches. It would save the time, labor and means now comparatively wasted in special preparatory schools, and furnish a perennial supply of trained pupils to push forward without interruption to the coveted goal of a complete education. The advantages are obvious to all concerned, and although unhappily the majority must fall out by the way, diverted by the exigencies of business pursuits, it should ever be a leading and cherished object of our educational system to afford at least a standing opportunity to the more fortunate and persistent, for an unobstructed pursuit in the pathway of learning from the beginning to the end of a complete education. I invoke at your hands such fostering care of the educational institutions of the State as will ensure a growth commensurate with a proud material development, and adequate to the wants of an expanding future.

January 11, 1878, Governor Pillsbury delivered his third message to the legislature, published as a pamphlet of 36 pages and as pages 13-48 in Volume I of the Executive Documents of Minnesota for 1877 (Minneapolis, 1878). On the subject of retrenchment and careful economy in public and private expenditures, he said:

* * * Now that we are emerging from a period of what is termed hard times, there is danger that our best men, impelled by a renewed spirit of enterprise, may plunge into renewed excesses. This is the periodical liability, especially of energetic communities. The facility with which immediate results may be reached by entailing their cost upon posterity, is a constant incentive to premature undertakings. If these were prosecuted only as fast as they could be paid for in cash, they would be limited to the urgent need of the hour, and extravagant expenditures and resulting oppressive taxation would be effectually checked. Hence the obvious policy of discountenancing the contraction of debt and the consistent obligation of all good citizens to curtail their private expenses and live within their means.

With all the financial skill and boasted progress of the age, no short cut has yet been discovered as an escape from the time-honored necessity to spend less than we make, as the first essential to real success. Whatever may be said for 252 247our material and political prosperity, it is not flattering to our vaunted civilization that we possess so little social wisdom; that we encumber our neighborly intercourse with the costly follies and affections of a bedizened society; that we hamper our social freedom with the machinery of needless conventionality, and jeopard both our peace of mind and financial standing, to support the mockery of social parade.

Pillsbury's message of January 9, 1879, to the twenty-first legislature, the last holding an annual session, was published in 25 pages, as a pamphlet and as the first paper in Volume I of the Executive Documents for 1878 (Minneapolis, 1879). He presented arguments in favor of holding only biennial elections as follows:

The constitutional amendment providing for biennial, in lieu of annual, sessions of the Legislature will necessitate much adjustment of administrative machinery to correspond there-with. In effecting this, great care will be required to include practical details of an essential nature pertaining to the several branches of the government. The changes required and the examination necessarily given to the subject, would seem to afford a suitable opportunity for the consideration of another question of importance. The extraordinary frequency of elections has long been deemed by reflecting men one of the most serious evils pertaining to our form of government. The differing duration of our State offices requiring elections to fill some of them annually, and the different seasons in which township and municipal elections are held, leave intervals so short that the public finds little repose from the distractions of political warfare. The deleterious effect of these constant disturbances is manifest. They are unfavorable to public order, to the pursuit of private business, and to the dispassionate discussion of questions concerning the common welfare; they increase the aversion to political duty entertained by orderly and busy men, through whose default had men are elected to office; while the expenses attending such frequent elections entail a heavy burden upon the people. In view of these evils, I suggest the inquiry whether an obvious public interest would not be subserved by providing for such amendments to the laws and Constitution as would require biennial elections only. For this purpose it would be necessary to cause our State elections to take place the same year as that in which members of Congress are elected, which would conform to that in which members of the Legislature are now biennially chosen, and also to the year in which the Presidential election alternately takes place. * * *

The first biennial session of the legislature began January 4, 1881, and on January 6 Governor Pillsbury delivered his message, which forms thirty pages as a pamphlet and also as the first paper in the Executive Documents for 1880 (published in 1881). The last four pages relate to the deferred settlement of the state debt in its dishonored railroad bonds.

As a result from an act passed in that session, to provide for redemption of these bonds, and from decisions later given by the State Supreme Court, the governor summoned this legislature to an extra session, in which, on October 12, 1881, he presented a message that was published as a pamphlet of ten pages. In the closing part he said:

The act of the last Legislature, proposing an amendment to the Constitution devoting the proceeds of the Internal Improvement Lands to the payment of the adjustment bonds has been rendered inoperative by the decision of the Supreme Court. It will therefore be necessary to promptly re-adjust and reenact its provisions to conform to the new action to be taken, in order to submit the proposed amendment to the people at the approaching general election. The average price realized thus far for the lands sold is about $7 per acre; and the fund from such sales already amounts to $800,000. In view of the rapid settlement of the country it is believed that the total sum which will be finally realized from the sale of these lands will reach $4,000,000, a sum nearly or quite sufficient to pay the whole indebtedness without recourse to taxation. That there may be no wrong impression on your minds regarding the whole amount due on these bonds, I would say that by a former decision of our Supreme Court, past-due coupons draw interest, as well as the bonds to which they are attached, and should interest be computed in accordance with this decision the whole debt would amount, on December 1, 1881, to about $8,200,000, and, should the pending proposition be consummated, the saving to the State will thus be about $4,000,000.

If this opportunity be not immediately embraced, I am fully persuaded it will never occur again, for it cannot longer be expected that partial payment will hereafter be accepted 254 249by the holders of these obligations in view of the ability of the State to pay in full and the verdict of its highest court assigning to the Legislature the duty to provide for payment. * * *

For the enduring welfare of the fair State we have chosen as our home; as we would justly share in that national heritage of financial honor which is the wonder of the world; that we may deserve the reward of a generous prosperity, and invoke the blessings of Almighty God—I entreat you as a parting word to perform a simple act of justice which shall forever put at rest the haunting spectre of repudiation, and place our young commonwealth irrevocably in the sisterhood of honorable States.

Under date of June 1, 1892, a convenient reference book of 132 pages, compiled by Governor Pillsbury, was published in Minneapolis, entitled “A Compilation of National and State Laws relating to the University of Minnesota; also a description of the unsold lands granted by Acts of Congress for the endowment of said University, including a statement of the permanent University fund at interest, etc., etc.”

July 13, 1892, Governor Pillsbury gave an address in his native town, which was published in a volume of 171 pages, entitled “Dedication of the Pillsbury Memorial Hall in Sutton, N. H.” (printed in Concord, N. H. 1893). This address, forming a part of the dedicatory exercises, is in pages 73-100. It reviews the marvelous growth of the United States during the forty-eight years from the spring of 1844, when Pillsbury as a youth of seventeen years left his boyhood home. The gift of the Memorial Town Hall, by Governor and Mrs. Pillsbury, he noted in these words:

And so, gentlemen, selectmen, and officers of my native town, I have returned here today, with her who for more 255 250than a generation has been my companion, my helper, my wife, and I feel that it is fitting that she who during these long intervening years has shared with me all the burdens and experience of life, and with me has passed through the shadows and sorrows of life, as well as its joys and sunny places, who joined her heart to mine when all we possessed was the mutual love we bore each other, should share with me in making this gift to the town of Sutton. Through you, gentlemen, and in the name of my honored parents, whose sacred ashes repose in this town, we present to the town of Sutton a deed of this building and we now deliver to you its keys. This gift we make without conditions or reservations. It is our hope that this building may remain many generations after we and our children have passed away. It is our desire that you use it not only for all your public meetings and assemblies, but as a town hall, where not only your citizenship may be exercised, but where all matters which make for the common good may have a full and fair hearing, where patriotism and individual ambition may be incited and stirred, and where the young who shall come after us shall be led on to a higher manhood and a great enthusiasm for whatever will advance mankind.

The following is a copy of the title-page of a pamphlet of 33 pages, which gives a concise history of a large part of Governor Pillsbury's public services and also states quite as fully the work of his associates: “An Address delivered by Hon. John S. Pillsbury, before the Alumni of the University of Minnesota, at the West Hotel, Minneapolis, June 1st, 1893, being a sketch of the growth and development of the University for the thirty years in which he has been a regent. Published by the Alumni Association of the University of Minnesota.”

Another and probably the last of his pubic addresses was delivered in St. Paul, November 15, 1899, in the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the organization of the Minnesota Historical Society, published in its Collections, Volume IX, pages 597-601.

Among the names that adorn our gubernatorial gallery, few stand higher in practical good sense, in personal character, political integrity, and in patriotic devotion to his country in its most trying crisis, than Lucius Frederick Hubbard, the ninth governor of our state.

He directly followed another governor of practical and sagacious administrative ability, John Sargent Pillsbury, and that era of eleven years may be denominated the era of sound common sense in the administration of the state government. There is a royalty in that sterling good sense which is the best genius for mankind. You look in vain for its possessors to do a foolish thing; but wisdom guides their councils, and good judgment, with corresponding good results, crowns their public career with the happiest consequences.

Conscious as every one must feel how naturally our judgment may be biased by long personal friendship in the opinions we form of public men, yet I have most strenuously endeavored to treat each and all in this 259 254series of our governors with the historian's unbiased judgment as to themselves and their relation to their times and to public measures. It is the constant object of these pages to record only just and true history. Some, therefore, may be crowned with honor; others may at times suffer a shade to their discredit; but all should be clothed in the garments of truth. Public men must learn that it is their ultimate fate to be weighed and estimated both by their personal character and their public performances, for the private life of every public man will tinge his reputation, and no apparent public virtue can suppress the story of tainted private morals. These observations are a salutary lesson to those ambitious politicians whose eyes should often turn towards an impartial posterity.

Lucius Frederick Hubbard was born January 26th, 1836, at Troy, New York. He was a descendant, on the father's side, of that Hubbard family (George Hubbard and Mary Bishop) that emigrated from England to this country and settled in Connecticut in the seventeenth century. On the mother's side (Van Valkenburg) he came of the Holland Dutch stock that have occupied the valley of the Hudson river since its earliest history. His great grandfather was Israel Hubbard, who was a delegate to the Provincial Congress in Massachusetts Bay from the town of Sunderland in 1774, and in many active ways contributed to the work of preparing for the Revolution. His grandmother, on the mother's side, Margaret Van Cott, was a cousin of President 260 255Martin Van Buren. Young Hubbard was well blooded on both sides of the ancestral tree.

His father was Charles F. Hubbard, sheriff of Rensselaer county, N. Y., a man of high standing and influence. His mother was Margaret Van Valkenburg.

His father died when he was only three years old, and his mother died when he was ten years of age. The young orphan on the death of his father was sent to live with an aunt at Chester, Vermont, where he attended the district school for three years. Subsequently he attended an academy at Granville, N. Y. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a tin smith, and gave his attention to his trade till he was eighteen years of age. He then, in 1854, went to Chicago, where he worked at his trade for three years. Caught in the current of emigration then setting to the great Northwest, he removed to Red Wing in July, 1857. With literary and political predilections, and having brought with him a printing press and type, he established in that young and promising city the “Red Wing Republican,” the first number of which was issued September 4, 1857, and which has had a continuous existence since that date. He continued as the publisher and editor of that paper till he enlisted in the war.

He came to Red Wing in time to experience the trials and rugged battles of frontier life. The admission of Minnesota Territory as a state was then being agitated, and party strife was warm over the control 261 256of the first administration. The Kansas-Nebraska bill and Squatter Sovereignty were in the heat of discussion, and the extension of slavery was the burning question. These conditions made party strife strenuous indeed. Politics was the one great business of life, for the resources of the country had not yet appeared. Then came the climax of financial disaster in the panic of 1857. Following this was the era of “wildcat” banking, with its speedily discredited issued. Town lots lost alike their intrinsic and inflated values. The “Five Million Loan Bill,” to aid in the building of land grant railroads, appeared upon the scene, but, instead of bringing financial relief, resulted in imposing a lasting debt upon the state. Money reached the appalling usury of “five per cent a month.” These were some of the experiences of the pioneer of that day. But in a few years the clouds which lowered over the young state passed away, the sun of a prosperity which has never since failed sent its cheerful rays over the land.

Young Hubbard was nursed under these conditions and strengthened for the battles before him. In his new home he was surrounded by men of strong personality, who required manly men to compete with them.

There was Colonel William Colvill, of the First Minnesota Regiment, whose courage in battle was second to no man's in the Civil War. There was William Freeborn, a typical pioneer, who delighted to live on the outer fringe of civilization, and for whom a noble 262 257county was named. There also was Joseph A. Thatcher, the “farmer statesman” of Zumbrota, whose ability sent him often to the legislature, where he was an efficient and strong man. There also should be mentioned Judge Eli T. Wilder, a noble and stately character, whose sterling integrity and decided ability made him a valuable asset in Red Wing. Theodore B. Sheldon should be justly named, who was a true representative of the business and commercial interests of the place; who left a large fortune and bequeathed to the city a noble auditorium building as a token of his affectionate regard. In this list of compeers should be noticed the Hon. William W. Phelps, afterward a member of Congress from the new state, a man of ability, culture and popularity. With him was associated the genial and humorous C. C. Graham. These ardent spirits controlled the United States land office, which was the center of business in that day.

One of the striking characters of the Hubbard period was Samuel P. Jennison. He was private secretary to Governor Hubbard, and he had been private secretary to Governors Ramsey and Marshall. He was secretary of state from 1872 to 1876. He was a decided factor in politics from his part of the state, and was one of the brainy men of the day. He achieved signal honors in the military fields. Entering the service as adjutant of the Second Minnesota, he was speedily promoted for gallantry at the battle of Mill Springs to be lieutenant colonel of the Tenth Minnesota. Being 263 258in command of that regiment at the battle of Nashville, he was severely wounded, and was made brevet brigadier general for his conspicuous gallantry. He is a man who will long be remembered in his part of the state. He now resides at Covina in southern California.

One morning in April, 1861, the thunder of hostile cannon on American soil thrilled every patriot's heart. The young, the brave, the loyal, by a common impulse sprang to arms. Among those prompt to follow the flag was Lucius Frederick Hubbard. December 19, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company A, Fifth Minnesota Infantry. His zeal and usefulness caused him to be elected captain of the company February 5, 1862. Thence began a military career which for incessant activity, the number of campaigns and engagements in which he participated, and the courage he displayed, has no superior, if any equal, in the great army of officers who served in the civil war from the state of Minnesota. This is a high encomium, but the official record sustains the eulogy.

His promotions were rapid but well deserved. He was made lieutenant colonel March 24, 1862; colonel, August 31, 1862; mustered as a veteran, February 12, 1864; and brevetted as a brigadier general, December 16, 1864, for “conspicuous gallantry in the battle of Nashville, Dec. 15 and 16,” 1864.

Seven companies of the Fifth Minnesota regiment (the three other remaining in the service against the hostile Sioux) were ordered South under Colonel Hubbard, 264 259and on the 24th of May, 1862, reported to General John Pope in the field before Corinth. Scarcely had the regiment establishment its camp and realized its surroundings, before it was brought into action. Four days after it reached the front it was precipitated into the battle of Farmington, an engagement which led up to the siege and capture of Corinth. Here the regiment received its first baptism of fire, and its gallant conduct was attested by its list of killed and wounded. Among the wounded was Colonel Hubbard. After this came the battle of Iuka; then weary and burning marches till they confronted the rebels at Corinth.

There are many events in Governor Hubbard's military career especially worthy of mention. But what was done at Corinth, Mississippi, October 3 and 4, 1862, must not be omitted. The charge of the Fifth Minnesota in the streets of Corinth was one of the most important features of that battle, for according to General Stanley, who commanded the division, it saved the day. This fact was fully confirmed by general Rosecrans, in command of the army, and by Archbishop Ireland's testimony, who, as regimental chaplain, was on the ground and witnessed the prompt and effective action of the Fifth at the critical point in the tide of battle. “Veterans could not have done better,” said General Rosecrans.

It is very proper to remark here that the Rev. John Ireland, a neophyte priest of St. Paul, made his entrance into public life with Colonel Hubbard, as 265 260chaplain of the Fifth Minnesota Volunteers. This remarkable man, earnest, holy, and heroic, signalized his advent into the great would by an act of devotion of his imperiled country. In his young manhood, ere the cares of life had ploughed his forehead, he demonstrated then, as now, his earnest patriotism. He has grown in stature till he has become one of the leading characters in influence in this country and in the world. No prelate in his church overtops him in public esteem. Ireland is, indeed, the patriotic prelate. America feels that no dignitary of his church could be more appropriately decorated with the cardinal's red hat, than the Rev. John Ireland, archbishop of St. Paul.

The Fifth Minnesota regiment was now a part of the Fifteenth Army Corps, the organization of the army into corps occurring early in 1863. Colonel Hubbard commanded the brigade which included the Fifth regiment after the battle of Corinth, during the siege of Vicksburg, that Gibraltar of the West, and continuously till the close of the war.

After the fall of Vicksburg, Colonel Hubbard being in command of his old brigade, it was assigned to the Sixteenth Army Corps under that fiery soldier, General A. J. Smith. Hubbard took part in the fated expedition in the Spring of 1864 under General Banks up the Red river where the valor of his brigade was illustrated on many hard fought fields, and where precious blood was poured out without avail because of the general incompetence of the unfortunate leader of that illstarred 266 261expedition. There brave men fought and won seven battles, but lost the campaign.

Following this campaign, Colonel Hubbard commanded the Second brigade of the First Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps. After the return, a campaign was made during the Autumn of 1864 in Northern Mississippi, across Arkansas, and into Missouri in pursuit of General Price.

Previous to the Red River Expedition, the members of the Fifth Minnesota regiment had been re-enlisted as veterans at Black River Bridge, Mississippi, February 12, 1864.

After this date Colonel Hubbard was not in immediate command of his regiment again during the war; but the regiment was fortunately included in the Second brigade before noted as under his command.

At this era of the war General Sherman, now a victor at Atlanta, was the center of every military eye in the nation. His marvelous campaign, “smashing things to the sea,” was determined upon. But in his rear was a veteran Confederate army, more than 50,000 strong, under General John B. Hood, a born fighter, whose purpose was to draw Sherman from Atlanta, and neutralize his splendid Atlanta campaign. This force now seemed headed for the Ohio river. But General George H. Thomas, under orders from Washington, sounded his trumpet, calling every scattered regiment within reach, to retard Hood's advance and to protect Sherman's rear. Among these regiments were the Fifth, 267 262Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Minnesota Infantry. Hence it came that Minnesota had more of her troops represented in the great battle soon to follow than in any other contest of the war.

These Minnesota regiments were attached to the First Division, commanded by General John McArthur. The Second brigade included the Fifth and Ninth Minnesota, and was commanded by Colonel Hubbard. While this hurried organization and these dispositions were being effected by General Thomas' order, General Schofield interposed a valiant little army against Hood's advance at the village of Franklin. There occurred what was perhaps the bloodiest battle of the war. Hood again and again fiercely attacked the light entrenchments of Schofield, but his columns were hurled back by a prodigious fire, and the wreck off guns and the dead and dying told of the carnage which was wrought. Schofield accomplished the imperious purpose of the battle, holding Hood in check while Thomas was gathering and organizing his scattered forces for the great battle of Nashville.

Sherman fought no important battles in his march from Atlanta to the sea. These were all fought by the “Rock o Chickamauga” in the one engagement at Nashville. For two tempestuous days, December 15 and 16, 1864, the battle raged. The four Minnesota regiments, by the chance of war, were all signed upon the same front, and were all fired with the same unconquerable resolution to win the victory. When that intrepid 268 263Scotchman, General McArthur, gave the final order for the grand charge, the Minnesota regiments seized the initiative, and never lost it, though smitten with a tempest of shot and shell, till the enemy was driven from his entrenchments and practically destroyed, and four Minnesota flags were floating from Hood's abandoned ramparts. That day the sons of Minnesota wrote the story of their unshaken valor upon Southern soil. The gallantry of her men and officers was the theme of all tongues.

Hubbard's brigade had captured nine pieces of artillery, seven stands of colors, and many prisoners. It is officially recorded that Hubbard had three horses shot under him, and was himself wounded. For his gallant conduct in this memorable battle, upon the recommendation of Generals Thomas, Smith, and McArthur, a golden star was placed upon his shoulder.

Subsequently his brigade was one of the foremost in the siege and capture of Spanish Fort and Mobile.

The campaign against Mobile was practically the close of General Hubbard's career as a soldier in the Civil War. His regiment and brigade, with him as commander, had traversed six rebel states, participated in thirteen campaigns, five sieges, and thirty-four battles and important engagements, and had lost quite as many men in the casualties of the service as were numbered in the ranks of the brigade when it first reported at the front.

Seldom, if ever, has it fallen to the lot of any other field officer to possess a record of such remarkable activity. General John B. Sanborn, of the Fourth Regiment, was in very many engagements and battles, but numerically much less than Hubbard. While the “Old First” possesses a glorious record of many great battles, yet no one of its illustrious officers can parallel the engagements of the colonel of the Fifth. Twenty battle fields were emblazoned on the flag of the First; thirty-four on the flag of the Fifth. The military history of our Minnesota regiments in the Civil War is justly a matter of state pride, and is the exemplification of a Roman courage, in this their virgin effort in “embattled ranks,” which stamps, for all time, the character of her sons for dauntless valor. The pass of Thermopylae, the graves of Marathon, the plain of Bannockburn, still attract the admiration of the generous and brave among men. So the field of Gettysburg, the slopes of Nashville, the bloody heights of Missionary Ridge, will render the name of Minnesota immortal in the annuals of the world's patriot battles, not only for the luster ever waiting on lofty courage, but for the moral grandeur of that patriotism which inspired her soldiers in a truly just and noble cause. When the battles of Napoleon are but the shadow of aa remembrance, these patriot combats will shine in undecaying luster in our state history.

From men like General Hubbard we learn the adaptability, the skill, the aptitude of the American volunteer to be speedily converted into the thorough soldier. Yesterday 270 265a country editor, scarcely having fired a gun; today a private soldier; within less than six months holding a colonel's high commission, leading a regiment of a thousand men with judgment, with coolness, and by strict military tactics, as though bred a soldier from his youth. The genius of the American volunteer was proven equal to the extraordinary demand, guided by intelligence and fired by that patriotism which is planted eternally in every American bosom.

This is why a great standing army is not essential in the United States of America. There is a phantom army forever bivonacked on our hills and in our valleys, which needs but the touch of a just cause to rise, clothed with flesh and blood, in multitudinous and resistless power, to effect the overthrow of any adversary. It is the duty of the historian to let no occasion pass in commemorating the courage, skill, consummate ability, and glowing patriotism of the American volunteer.

General Hubbard was mustered out of service September 6, 1865, when he returned to his old home at Red Wing. He at once engaged in the pursuits of peace, and embarked extensively, in 1866, in the grain business, and subsequently added the milling industry to his activities. In 1871 and 1873 he was elected as a Republican to the state senate, where he had an industrious and honorable career. In 1874 he was appointed by the legislature one of the arbitrators to settle the dispute between the state and prison contractors; and also he was appointed by Governor Marshall one of the commissioners 271 266to investigate the embarrassing question of the proper adjustment of the old state railroad bonds. In 1877-78, in association with two other gentlemen, he contracted the building of the “Midland Railroad,” from Wabasha to Zumbrota. This road has since become a part of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul system. In 1880-81 he became president of the Cannon Valley Railroad, a line leading from Red Wing to Mankato, which has since become a part of the Chicago and Great Western system. Subsequently, in 1887, he superintended the construction of the Duluth, Red Wing and Southern Railroad, and for several years was general manager of its operations. This line was afterward absorbed by the Chicago and Great Western.

These varied pursuits illustrate the activity of General Hubbard after the close of his war service. Never for one moment idle, he was always absorbed in important enterprises which were for the upbuilding of his city and locality. His energy and constant industry did much, if not more than that of any other single individual, to assure the growth and prosperity that has given Red Wing its well deserved high rank among the most progressive and delightful cities of the state.

His career as mechanic, editor, state senator, soldier, grain merchant and miller, railroad contractor and manager, with the attending wide experiences of men and business,—these educational forces and dramatic life on a frontier,—led him up to the next important event in his varied life.

There was a good deal of politics abroad in Minnesota in 1881, although the state was solidly Republican. The preceding political campaign had enthused itself about the celebrated “brass kettle,” a two-quart measure used by buyers for grading wheat. By the manipulation of this measure, it was claimed, by Ignatius Donnelly and his followers, that the farmers were systematically swindled. Under the restless Donnelly's skillful management, it precipitated a strenuous campaign. Originally a Republican, Donnelly became the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Third District, and made one of the most active campaigns the state had yet witnessed. But W. D. Washburn was elected by a good majority, and Donnelly, as usual, was turned down.

The excitement aroused by this campaign served to warm the people to political action, though no great interests were really at stake. John S. Pillsbury had been governor three terms, and a good governor he had been. Party usages, however, decided that he should now be retired and a new man sought. A flock of ambitious men appeared in the field, but the lead, from the beginning, was conceded to General Lucius F. Hubbard, of Goodhue county, and he was nominated on the first formal ballot.

Hubbard's competitor was General Richard W. Johnson, of St. Paul, a gentleman of culture and good ability, and a Democrat of high standing, with a good military record in the Civil war. General Hubbard was elected by a vote of 65,025, against 37,168 for Johnson. This 273 268vote illustrates the relative strength of the two parties at that period, as well as the popularity of Hubbard.

Some intestine contentions disturbed the harmony of the Republican party at the time of Hubbard's advent to power, but none of them reflected upon the Governor himself. The senatorial term of the Hon. William Windom was about to expire (March 4th, 1883). Senator Windom, it was alleged, had been chiefly instrumental in defeating Hon. Mark H. Dunnell for Congress in the First District the year before. Dunnell was an active and vigorous political worker, with four years of Congressional experience and well versed in tactical politics. His work, as the fight went on, foreshadowed Window's overthrow. The result was the nomination of a “dark horse,” the Hon. Dwight M. Sabin, an entirely new man, with but little legislative experience, but with a warm personal following. The shadow of an unfortunate business career darkened the political prospects of Sabin. Otherwise he was strong as a political organizer, possessed of a fine personality and agreeable manners, and was in every way an attractive man. After one term in the senate he was retired into private life, from which he never again emerged.

William Windom was one of the noted political characters of the Hubbard period, though his political activities extended through many years. In the defeat here mentioned, he went to his overthrow, never again to receive the endorsement of his state. Over confident, 274 269he had remained in Washington till victory slipped from his grasp.

Windom lacked the grand talents and culture of Davis, the genial good-nature of Ramsey, and the practical ability of a Pillsbury or a Hubbard. His greatest political asset was his unblemished personal character. He lived in that enchanted circle where political and personal morality dwell together. Even the nation at large was permeated with the conviction that Windom was an exceptionally pure man. A commanding presence, a fair speaker, of great industry and clean life, these were his gifts. Minnesota may justly by proud to have William Windom in the roster of her public men. According to the best standard of official life, though not exempt from errors, he was a noble example of dignity and virtue, and possessed those talents and principles by which public life is made honorable. Two presidents manifested their faith in him, and he surely conferred high honor upon his state. Sit tibi terra levis.

Lucius F. Hubbard was governor of Minnesota during five years, from January 10, 1882, to January 5, 1887. His opponent in 1863 was Adolph Biermann, who received 58,251 votes, against Hubbard's 72,462.

The second term of Hubbard's governorship was extended to three years, as were other state and county offices, in connection with the changes from annual to biennial sessions of the State Legislature, by a legislative act and a constitutional amendment which made 275 270the biennial state elections coincide every fourth year with the national elections. 1

The old Territorial Capitol, completed in 1853, had been destroyed by fire on the night of March 1st, 1881. The flames from the burning had not yet ceased to illuminate the locality, before the city of St. Paul, through its authorities, tendered to Governor Pillsbury the new Market Building, a large and commodious structure, for the use of the legislature and state officers. In this building, Governor Hubbard was inaugurated and exercised the functions of his office for about one year. But in January, 1883, the state offices, with the legislative body, were transferred to the new capitol, where he delivered his first biennial message.

This message, delivered January 4, 1883, is replete with an ample digest of the financial and general condition of state affairs. He especially invited attention to the necessity of imposing restraints upon the management of railroads, urging this in such an impressive manner as secured legislative attention and action. The result was the important measure creating the railroad commission as now existing. In response, also, to his recommendation, the present existing system of state grain inspection was organized.

These measures were radical and far reaching in their operation and influence. They established upon a sound and enduring basis the true theory of the control 276 271of those two vital interests of the state, the railways and the safe method of marketing grain. The system, as then established, has been modified and amended as experience has suggested, but the principles then put in operation are permanent. If nothing else marked Governor Hubbard's administration, these measures alone would give lasting value to his public service. With these was associated state inspection of diary products, under the guiding and inspiring influence of which the state has forged to the very front of the world's production of butter. Minnesota can now say in the words of Ford, the old English poet: “I know what's what; I know on which side My bread is buttered.”

To his recommendation we are also largely indebted for the present system of sanitary organization for the protection of the public health; for the establishment of the State Agricultural Society on its present prosperous basis, for its location on the present grounds, and the appropriation of the first $100,000 for its use; for the establishment of the State School at Owatonna, the idea of which originated with him; for the organization of the state national guard; and for the beneficent change from annual to biennial elections. He inspired a reduction in the tax levies, while the public debt was materially decreased. These practical measures, though unattractive to the public eye, illustrate the value of a safe, prudent, capable administrator, as Governor Hubbard always demonstrated he was.

His urgent recommendation was chiefly instrumental in securing the Soldiers' Home, for disabled and indigent veterans of the Civil War, of which he is at this writing one of the trustees. It stands at Minnehaha Falls, as a monument to the honor and patriotism of Minnesota.

He was ever the faithful friend of that invaluable institution, the Minnesota Historical Society, established by Ramsey and Sibley, whose interests have been cherished and promoted by every governor the state has had.

January 5, 1887, Governor Hubbard retired from the gubernatorial office with the cordial good wishes of the people of the state without distinction of party. As a testimonial of his high standing and excellent work as governor and his stainless record as a public man, a noble and prosperous county was named for him Hubbard County, which will perpetuate his good name through the coming years.

Governor Hubbard is a member of Acker Post, G. A. R., the Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion, the Minnesota Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, the Society of American Wars, and the Red Wing Commandery of Royal Arch Masons. He was a member for Minnesota of the Republican National Committee in the campaign of 1896.

During the Spanish War his high character as a military officer was duly recognized by President McKinley, 278 273and on June 6, 1898, he was appointed a brigadier general, and served throughout that war in command of the Third Division, Seventh Army Corps.

In 1889 he was appointed by the legislature of the state on a commission to compile and publish a history of the Minnesota military organizations in the Civil and Indian wars, a most valuable record in two large volumes.

As the administration at Washington had entertained the idea of recognizing, in some important way, the fitness and just claims of Governor Hubbard for federal honors and service, he, at the instance of strong friends, became in 1897 a candidate for the position of Ambassador to Italy. The justice of his claim was promptly and warmly recognized by our senators and members of Congress. Archbishop Ireland, among others, was his strong and active friend. It seemed that he was quite sure of success, when suddenly a change came from favorable to adverse conditions. This occasioned much surprise among his many friends. The facts in the case were gradually developed by correspondence and statements involving many noted public men. The allegations made were intended to cast a shade upon the business integrity of Governor Hubbard. They came from a noted intermeddler in state and national politics, who was a member of a political party not in sympathy with Governor Hubbard, and who has too often sought to dominate political interests and party politics and to crush those not comformable to his will.

In vindication of his personal integrity, the Governor presented to the President an array of testimony which was overwhelming in its character, and which left him without stain or censure. These vindicatory documents are all now in the possession of the writer, and are so complete as to command admiration. But strangely enough, and with retributive justice, the prosecution of the Governor's vindication brought to light one of the most atrocious efforts at bribery and corruption, on the part of the very accusant of Governor Hubbard, of which we have any knowledge in the history of our state, and the utter failure of which doubtless inspired, in the spirit of revenge, the attack upon his spotless character. The vindication, however, came too late, for the appointment was made pending this affair; but Governor Hubbard's character was maintained inviolate, receiving a notable endorsement by the national administration itself in his appointment as brigadier general of Volunteers by President McKinley in 1898.

As relating to this subject, it is proper and creditable to mention the fact that in 1884 large corporations with which the Governor had previously had business connections became involved and assigned. He had, prior to his inauguration as governor, severed his official connection with these companies, and was neither an officer nor director. He was, however, unfortunately an endorser of their paper, which at times was floated to a large amount. To meet this catastrophe, for which he was in no wise responsible and for much of which 280 275he was without legal liability, he surrendered his entire fortune and also the property of his wife, to such an extent that not a single personal creditor lost a dollar by him, and every obligation for which he became responsible, of whatever nature, was, in the end, settled and discharged on an honorable basis, and he enjoys the proud satisfaction of leaving an unsullied heritage to his children.

In 1896 Governor Hubbard was elected a delegate to the National Republican convention at St. Louis, at which William McKinley was first nominated for president; and Hubbard was named by that convention as a member of the Republican National Committee for Minnesota. That was the notable year in which sound money as against free silver was the battle cry, and in which memorable contest William Jennings Bryan went down to defeat. To this campaign Governor Hubbard gave much time and attention, and was intimately associated with Hon. Marcus A. Hanna, chairman of the National Republican Committee, in the conduct of the same.

During the next year, 1897, Cushman K. Davis began to assert his power in national politics at Washington. His ability and culture were fully recognized, and Minnesota took pride in her senator.

It was during Governor Hubbard's second term that the Hon. S. J. R. McMillan was elected to the United States Senate for a second term. He was originally elected to that office in 1875 as a compromise candidate, 281 276a “dark horse,” and was taken from the supreme bench for that purpose. He was in no sense a politician, and, though an upright and conscientious man, he did not rank as a statesman. He had an honorable career, was a good jurist, but was never in any sense a strong man as a politician.

Other than those referred to, there were few and unimportant political events transpiring during the period of Governor Hubbard's administration. The Republican party was firm in its hold of political power. There was, however, one sharp contest in the Fourth Congressional District for congressional honors in 1884. The Hon. W. D. Washburn had been in Congress for three terms from the Minneapolis district, and now other aspirants presented themselves. The Hon. Loren Fletcher, of Minneapolis, and the Hon. Albert Scheffer, of St. Paul, appeared in the arena. The old contest between St. Paul and Minneapolis was distinctly manifest. It developed quite a notable battle, with the usual results in such cases. A compromise candidate was sprung at an opportune moment, and the Hon. John B. Gilfillan, of Minneapolis, was nominated and elected. But this contest was so sharp, so well fought, that it riveted the eyes of the whole state and was regarded as a shrewd piece of political work.

Few men have retired from the position of governor who were held in as high regard and esteem by the people of the state as Governor Hubbard. His practical good sense, the important measures he proposed and 282 277achieved, the steadiness and cleanness of his administration, his open and manly nature, all conspire to give him an elevated place in the affections and memory of the people of Minnesota. He removed from Red Wing to St. Paul in 1901, where he now resides, happy in his intercourse with his numerous friends, serving on boards and commissions of an important public character, and cheerfully performing the duties ever devolving upon a good citizen. His honorable and useful life, both in war and peace, brings him that reward which is better than a ducal coronet, and crowns him with a laurel which will not wither.

Governor Hubbard was married in Red Wing. May 17, 1868, to Miss Amelia Thomas, daughter of Charles and Amelia Thomas. The Thomas family were lineal descendants of Sir John Moore. Of this union three children were born: Charles F., in 1869; Julia M., in 1871, now Mrs. Charles H. McGill; and Lucius V., in 1873. The children, at this writing, are all living.

The first biennial message of Governor Hubbard to the legislature, January 4, 1883, was published in 30 pages as a pamphlet and as the first paper in the Executive Documents of Minnesota for 1882 (Minneapolis, 1883). The loss of the first capitol by fire in 1881, and the building of a new capitol, then occupied by the state officers and the legislature, are the subjects of the first four pages of this message. Among other subjects 283 278that receive lengthy consideration are the railroads and needed legislation for reducing and equalizing their freight rates, on which the governor wrote in part as follows.

* * * While we recognize the fact that these corporations confer great benefit upon the country, that they are mighty in their influence for the spread and development of our civilization, and should receive the cordial support of public sympathy in the exercise of their reasonable and legitimate functions, yet they should on their part feel that they are the servants and not the masters of the public; that, like the citizen, they are amenable to laws whose majesty at once affords them protection and commands them to respect its restraints. They should be reminded that they are creatures of the authority of the State; that it has endowed them with valuable franchise and enormouse subsidies, and that it affords them that protection and enjoyment of possession which gives to all property its greatest value. They should be impressed with the fact that their legitimate resources are wholly derived from the patronage of the public, and that their proper and legal relation to the public can only be maintained by dispensing exact justice to every individual and locality with which they have to deal.

That the State has power to exercise control, within reasonable limits, over these corporations, is a principle long since established, and that it has not exercised such control to a greater degree is due to the patience and forbearance of the public. * * *

Governor Hubbard's second biennial message, January 7, 1885, formed a pamphlet of 44 pages, published also as the first paper in the Executive Documents for 1884. State inspection of grain, for its grading in a scale of prices, legislation on the management of elevators and warehouses, and state regulation of railroad freight rates and train service, are again recommended to the attention of the legislature. Concerning needed reforms of railroad transportation, the message said:

* * * The duty of the railroad companies as common carriers is to transport for all alike, with reasonable dispatch 284 279and at reasonable rates. What are reasonable rates and reasonable dispatch depends on the circumstances of the case, but the obligation to carry for all alike is absolute under all circumstances. No increased dispatch, no reduced rate to some, will justify any practice which works discrimination, or a restriction of his free right, to any.

The people look to you to adopt laws which shall interdict and terminate all these practices. The details of the legislation which will accomplish it, will be yours to elaborate. It is my duty to recommend that you aim to secure, at every station, an open and unrestricted market, the right of shipment for any and all, without partially or preference, and transportation for all without discrimination at equal and reasonable rates, to any desired destination. * * *

The third and last biennial message by Hubbard to the legislature, delivered January 5, 1887, at the end of his administration as governor, was published as a pamphlet of 40 pages and as the first paper in the Executive Documents for 1886-7. In reviewing that period and its legislation, he said:

During the five years it has been my privilege to occupy the executive office Minnesota has experienced a development unprecedented in her history, and hardly equaled by that of any other community of the country for a like period of time. Her growth in population has been nearly 60 per cent, and her assessed real and personal estate has increased from $271,138,961, in 1881, to $458,424,777, in 1886. The industries and business interests of her people have kept pace in their development with this growth in population and wealth, and the foundations have been broadened and strengthened for that greatness of empire which is the abundant promise of our future destiny. * * *

Probably the most important measures of reform, more far reaching in their future influence for relief to the people than any that have been instituted in recent years, are those which constitute our present policy respecting the control and regulation of railway corporations. The legislation of 1885 upon this subject, and also that respecting state supervision of warehouses and the inspection of grain, was hailed by the people of the State at large as the dawn of their deliverance 285 280from monopolistic exactions and oppression. I believe the reasonable expectations of the people have not been disappointed in the result thus far in the administration of this new policy. Recognizing it as the agency through which their ultimate emancipation will be worked out, they patiently await such action at your hands as shall make it fully and completely effective to that end.

An article on “The Progress of Minnesota” was contributed by Governor Hubbard in the North American Review, January, 1887 (Volume CXLIV, pages 22-28).

By an act of the Legislature, April 16, 1889, Governor (and General) Hubbard was appointed a member of a board of commissioners for preparing and publishing a history entitled “Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, 1861-1865.” In this work of two volumes he contributed the “Narrative of the Fifth Regiment,” forming pages 243-281, and followed by the roster of this regiment in pages 282-299, of Volume I (St. Paul, 1890, and second edition, 1891).

Other papers by General Hubbard relating to the Civil War are the following:

The Red River Expedition, read November 7, 1888, before the Minnesota Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, published in its “Glimpses of the Nation's Struggle,” second series, pages 267-279 (St. Paul, 1890).

Five papers, entitled as follows, read at meetings of the Minnesota Historical Society, January, 1907, to February, 1908, to be in Volume XII of its Collections:

Minnesota in the Battles of Corinth, Mississippi, May to October, 1862.

Minnesota in the Campaigns of Vickburg, November, 1862, to July, 1863.

Minnesota in the Red River Expedition, Louisiana, and the Price Missouri Raid, 1864.

Minnesota in the Battles of Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864.

Minnesota in the Campaign of Mobile, March and April, 1865.

The first of these five papers was published separately in a pamphlet of 29 pages, 1907, including remarks by Archbishop Ireland and Gen. M. D. Flower.

The second paper, on the Vicksburg campaigns, was also published as a part of a pamphlet of 64 pages 1907. Ensuing parts of this pamphlet comprise the Report of the Minnesota Vicksburg Monument Commission, consisting of General Hubbard, General, C. C. Andrews, and Major T. P. Wilson; the addresses given at the dedication of the Minnesota Memorials in the Vicksburg National Military Park, May 24, 1907, by General Hubbard, Governor Johnson of Minnesota, and Governor Vardaman of Mississippi; and acts of the Minnesota Legislature and of the United States Congress, relating to this military park.

Additional papers by Hubbard in the Minnesota Historical Society Collection are:

Memorial Address in honor of Governor Ramsey (Volume X, 1905, pages 748-750).

Early Days in Goodhue County (Volume XII, 1908, pages 149-166).

Within one week of each other, two unique personalities departed to the impenetrable beyond,—Governors Andrew McGill and Horace Austin. They were the Damon and Pythias of our executives, the Gemini of the gubernatorial constellation. Their departure from this life, so nearly together, recalls the fact that Adams and Jefferson died upon the same day. All their lives they were the most intimate friends. Each had his rise and development in the same city of St. Peter, a city famous for its governors. It has already furnished the state four executives, Swift, Austin; McGill, and Johnson. If Virginia was the mother of presidents, surely St. Peter is the prolific mother of governors.

But really there was something dramatic in the lives of these two governors. Their unexpected departure to the “pale realms of shade,” so nearly at the same time, recalls facts in their history, showing how they had traveled life's dusty paths together, in sympathy and cooperation.

When Governor McGill was buried, Governor Austin was one of the honorary pall bearers, and was the very last person to remain at the grave, looking where lay his old-time friend; and on the same day only one week later, was himself consigned to mother earth.

As they respected and honored each other, so the writer respects and honors both.

Andrew Ryan McGill was born in Saegerstown, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, February 19, 1840. He was of Irish ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Patrick McGill, came from near Belfast, Ireland, to the United States in 1774, when twelve years of age. Both the grandfather and an older brother served in the army of the Revolution. After the war, the brothers settled in Pennsylvania in Northumberland county. But in a few years the entire family emigrated to the western part of the state, where Patrick McGill secured a large tract of land in what is now called Crawford county. This land became the “Old Homestead” of the McGill family, and here children and grandchildren were born. Charles Dillon McGill was the youngest son, and the father of Andrew, the future governor.

The mother of Andrew was Angeline Martin. She came from Waterford, Pennsylvania. Her father's name was Armand Martin, and he had been a soldier in the war of 1812. Her grandfather, Charles Martin, of English birth, served in the Revolutionary War, and was honored after the struggle with an appointment by George Washington as a lieutenant in the Second United 291 287States Infantry. This position he resigned, and was appointed a major general in the state troops of Pennsylvania, a position of much importance at that time. Andrew McGill's mother appear to have been not only an exemplary woman, but a person of strong character and a thorough Christian, and withal a handsome woman. Her family were all Methodists, and she was a devout member of that church till her death. She inculcated lessons of duty and morality which bore their impress during life, though she died when Andrew was but eight years of age.

Andrew was reared in what was known as the Venango Valley, a beautiful and picturesque region on the banks of French creek, a stream made historic because of its having formed part of the route taken by Washington in 1753, when acting as a messenger from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to the French commandant at Fort Le Boeuf. There were good schools in his native town, and he was a good scholar. At the early age of nineteen, in 1859, he assumed control of his own course in life and determined to strike out in the world for himself, notwithstanding inducements made to him by his father to remain at home on the farm. His first effort for himself was in teaching school far from his home. Then, like Governor Swift, he turned his footsteps to the South, and going to Kentucky he also there engaged in teaching school, for which pursuit he was well qualified. He met with good success, but in a short period the Civil War occurred, and his pronounced 292 288Union sentiments made his abode unpleasant, and on the actual beginning of hostilities he turned to the North. Fortunately directed by an old friend, he came to Minnesota and settled in St. Peter, June 10, 1861.

The trip having exhausted his funds, he again, within a month, resorted to the schoolroom. Through his active energy he opened a select High School July 7, 1861, which he conducted as principal with ability, and many citizens of Minnesota today recount that their early education was under his instruction.

Something of the coming men is indicated in a letter which he wrote home to his oldest sister about this time (July 14, 1862): “My aspirations are to go up higher, and I presume I shall spend a lifetime in trying to improve my mind. I am studying law and pursuing other studies of importance.”

But the tocsin of war roused his patriotic heart, and we find him leaving the school room and enlisting as a private in Captain Asgrim K. Skaro's Company D of the Ninth Minnesota regiment, August 19, 1862, at the age of twenty-two. He was elected first sergeant. His service was on the frontier against the Sioux Indians in their memorable outbreak. He was afterward posted at St. Peter, and was present as a guard at the hanging of the condemned Sioux at Mankato, December 26, 1862, where the writer, who was in command at that most extraordinary execution, first knew young McGill. He served with fidelity for one year, and was discharged for serious disability August 18, 1863. This was none 293 289too soon, for only nursing and care during weeks and months brought him back to health, but not to a degree to make it advisable for him to re-enlist, which was to him then and afterwards a great regret.

In this connection, it may be added that eleven of Minnesota's governors, rendered service in the Union army during the Civil War, or during the Sioux Indian War in this state, these being Gorman, Sibley, Swift, Miller, Marshall, Austin, Davis, Hubbard, McGill, Nelson, and Van Sant.

Returning to his home in St. Peter, McGill was elected as superintendent of schools for Nicollet county, in which capacity he served two terms. This signalized his advent into public life. Subsequently, in 1864, he purchased the St. Peter Tribune, of which he became the editor. Following this, he was elected clerk of the District Court, and during the occupancy of this office he availed himself of much leisure to study law in the office of Charles S. Bryant. He was admitted to the bar May 8, 1869, by Judge Horace Austin.

One year later, Judge Austin became governor of the state, and he appointed McGill as his private secretary. In December, 1873, shortly before the expiration of his term of office, Governor Austin appointed him Insurance Commissioner. In later years, when, in the shifting scenes, McGill became governor, he had the pleasure of reciprocating this appointment by naming ex-Governor Austin as one of the Railroad Commissioners.

Mr. McGill held the office of Insurance Commissioner for thirteen years, having been reappointed successively by Governors Davis, Pillsbury, and Hubbard. His work in this office was valuable to the state, and through his wide information he became a recognized authority on all insurance matters.

He had now truly become a public man and possessed a general acquaintance throughout the state. Quiet, unostentatious and dignified in character, he possessed those personal and public virtues which gave him a large and intelligent following. In 1886 his friends announced him as a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor. The convention met at St. Paul September 22. His competitors were Charles A. Gilman, of St. Cloud, John L. Gibbs, of Albert Lea, and Albert Scheffer, of St. Paul. They were men of ability, with many friends.

Singularly, there were no nominating speeches made by the convention, and they proceeded to ballot, no candidate being named. On the fifth ballot McGill was duly nominated, receiving 190 out of 361 votes.

McGill's Democratic opponent was Dr. Albert A. Ames, of Minneapolis, a man who at that time possessed a remarkable popularity, especially with the laboring classes. The canvass of 1886 was vigorous and exciting and was unlike that of any campaign conducted in the state before or since that time. A High License bill had been before the legislature of 1885, with every prospect of becoming a law, but was finally defeated through the 295 291organized efforts of the liquor interests. The Republican can party had in consequence declared in its platform at the convention September 22, 1886, for high license and local option, thus concentrating the liquor interests in a solid phalanx against it; and those representing these interests arrayed themselves with the Democratic party, with Ames as their leader.

The Prohibitionists, whose candidate for governor was James E. Child, of Waseca, practically and politically gave aid to the Democrats by polling a vote of 9,030, because they could not consistently “compromise with evil” by voting with the Republicans for the better regulation of the liquor traffic. The fight in the campaign was for and against high license,—all other questions were secondary. The excitement became intense. Ames conducted a notable and aggressive warfare, and the result appeared in much doubt. A riot in Minneapolis the night preceding the election, which it was claimed had been instigated by Democrats, is said to have cost Ames so many votes that it lost him the election. McGill received 107,064 votes, and Ames 104,464, making McGill's plurality over Ames only 2,600. Counting also the Prohibition vote, he lacked 3,216 from a majority of all the votes cast, and thus became a minority governor.

But under all the circumstances McGill's election must be regarded as a triumph for the high stand taken by the Republican party in that campaign, no less than for the man himself who so thoroughly possessed “the 296 292courage of his convictions,” and so gallantly advocated the principles of his party which he defended to the end. The lofty character and manly deportment of McGill throughout this bitter campaign is worthy of all praise.

Andrew R. McGill was inaugurated as governor January 5, 1887. A careful examination of his inaugural address and the regular biennial address January 9, 1889, exhibits the character and purpose of the man in an exalted light. With unfaltering resolution he intelligently maintained his principles. The record shows great accomplishments.

The High License fight was resumed in the legislature of 1887. There were visible signs of weakening on the part of members who had been elected on that issue. The liquor interests, with their forces well organized, lobbied in season and out of season on the floor of both houses, and were ready to expend any amount of money to block legislation against the measure. Mass meetings were held in both St. Paul and Minneapolis to express in no uncertain terms the sentiments of the people that the demand for High License must prevail. Governor McGill did the very unusual thing of presiding at the St. Paul meeting, and was untiring in his efforts to stimulate his party to redeem their pledge. No question was ever more hotly contested, and on the days set for its consideration people thronged to the Capitol. Finally, after several struggles and amidst great excitement, the High License bill passed the Senate February 297 2934, 1887, and the House five days later, and immediately received the Governor's signature. This law was subsequently the model for similar bills in other states, and the point of view so changed that soon those who had been its bitterest enemies became its ardent supporters. This law remains unchanged upon our statute books today.

Governor McGill's administration was characterized by faithful and meritorious work in many other directions. He urged the simplification of the tax laws, the abolishment of contract prison labor, and the establishment of that noble institution, the Soldier's Home. These all stand to his favor and credit. The wisdom of these measures is more and more apparent a time advances, and their repeal has never been attempted. He advocated greater supervision of railroads as to freight and passenger rates, and was the first governor to recommend the abolishing of the issuance of free passes.

His friends may well be proud of his fearless and manly record, and the judgment of posterity will crown his name with honor. No odor of jobbery, no fumes of the political pit, rise against him; no private or public scandal ever raised a whisper against his good name.

The convention for the nomination of Governor McGill's successor was held September 5 and 6, 1888. It is quite impossible, at this distance of time, to fully comprehend just why Governor McGill, with his unexceptional record, was not entitled to the operation of that unwritten law of party usage, a renomination. 298 294Surely he had made good in every way as governor. His friends could point with pride to his clean and satisfactory administration, and to his spotless personal character.

It was urged by those opposed that he was not popular with the people; that he had failed to receive a majority of the votes cast at his election; that with his avowed position on the temperance question he was no longer available. These subterfuges, used by designing and ambitious men who could not wait two years longer for their opportunity, were loudly paraded to the public and had their effect.

Chief among those entered the field against McGill was William R. Merriam, who had been speaker of the House of Representatives in 1887, and was president of a bank. An eager desire for preferment was the besetting political sin of Mr. Merriam. Young in years, be could have bided his time with becoming patience.

Charles A. Gilman, of St. Cloud, John L. Gibbs, of Albert Lea, and Albert Scheffer, of St. Paul, were also pitted against McGill. They were men of ability, and each had many friends. McGill had done no wrong; there were no charges of errors of administration; but he was to be unseated because the competitors could not wait their turn for the gubernatorial mantle.

A platform of principles preceded the nomination. It endorsed the administration of Governor McGill in complimentary terms, saying, “The Republican party points with pride to the pure and clean administration 299 295of Governor McGill and to the measures he commended.”

The convention, having thus cordially endorsed Governor McGill, proceeded to stultify itself by rejecting his unqualified right, under all party usages, and by every sense of personal justice, to a renomination. It is not too much to characterize the action of the convention as the most flagrant piece of wrong ever perpetrated by a political party in the state of Minnesota. It was simply a transcendent injustice, which had its basis in the corruption of delegates, if we credit the newspapers of the day. 1

To this sentiment was given further expression on March 15, 1907, during the eulogistic addresses to his memory in the Senate Chamber, when Senator L. O. Thorpe, of Willmar, said: “Parties, like men, have their sins of omission and commission to account for, and one of the dark spots on the Republican party in this state was the treatment of Governor McGill. * * * Although for the time being apparently discredited by his party, he became more popular and has ever since been held in higher esteem than ever before.” Notwithstanding that he had been set aside in respect to renomination by this party, he remained its earnest and loyal supporter and resumed his wonted place in the ranks of citizenship, conscious that he had served his party faithfully and was willing to be judged by 300 296the record he had made. Many subsequent rewards came to him by reason of his dignified and manly course.

On this retirement from the executive chair, Governor McGill, for a short time, engaged in a banking and trust business.

In 1898, and again in 1902, he was elected state senator for the Thirty-seventh Senatorial District. His legislative career was marked by a close application to duty and a conscientious exercise of his senatorial prerogatives. He was the pronounced enemy of all vicious legislation and the friend of all needful reforms. He was the spokesman of the old soldier on the floor of the senate. It was chiefly through his influence that the noble monument was erected to the Minnesota soldiers who fell at Vicksburg.

He participated influentially in the movement to organize Acker Post, No. 21, G. A. R., and always took an active interest in all its proceedings. He was, on the recommendation of the Hon. C. K. Davis, appointed postmaster of St. Paul by President McKinley in 1900. He thus occupied, by a suspension of the presidential rule,the dual offices of state senator and postmaster. He took a profound interest in the public schools, and had served as president of the St. Paul Board of Education.

Governor McGill was justly esteemed as a citizen and a man. His affections bound him to his country and to his friends and family. Always kind and considerate of friend or foe, with a personal deportment beyond 301 297the reach of criticism, his constant civilities won upon all. Anger and resentment were unknown to him in his conduct of life. He was always, and at all times, and above all, a gentleman. He was truly the gentleman in politics. Modest by nature, he was truly indifferent to publicity and notoriety. Above all, he possessed a spotless character; and character, like gold coin, passes current among all men and in all countries. His private life was pure and sweet, and his friendship a benediction.

The deaths of Andrew Ryan McGill and Horace Austin, in immediate proximity, with the story of their mutual devotion, were indeed dramatic. Death close all questions and hides all faults; but it is probable that these two friends had as little to cover conceal as any two public men in the state. Their unexpected departure, the quick severance of all earthly ties, the sudden “loosing of the silver cord,” while cruel for friends to bear, I fully believe was in complete accord with the personal desire of each.

Governor McGill was twice married. His first wife was Miss Eliza E. Bryant, daughter of Charles S. Bryant, a lawyer and an author of considerable repute, who wrote the “Indian Massacre in MInnesota,” a history of the Sioux War of 1862, which is a valuable work. She was an excellent woman, wife, and mother. She died in 1877. She was survived by two sons and one daughter, as follows: Charles H., born in 1866: Robert C. born in 1869; and Lida B., born in 1874.

He was again married in 1879 to Miss Mary E. Wilson, a most estimable, accomplished, and highly educated lady. She was a daughter of Dr. J. C. Wilson, a prominent physician of Edinborough, Pa. To this happy union survive two sons, Wilson, born in 1884, and Thomas, born in 1889.

Governor McGill died suddenly on the morning of October 31, 1905, at his residence, 203 Scudder Avenue, St. Anthony Park, with scarcely a premonition of his end. An affection of the heart, with which he had suffered for years, was the cause of his death. His wish that he might be at home when the end came was gratified.

By order of the government of the state, the flags on both the old and new capitols were dropped at half-mast, and the governor's office was appropriately draped in black. His funeral rites were very simple, in strict accordance with his own often expressed wish. There were no public services, and the Rev. Samuel G. Smith, pastor of the People's Church, officiated at the family residence. Four men who have been governors of Minnesota were among the honorary pall bearers, namely, Horace Austin, L. F. Hubbard, S. R. Van Sant, and John A. Johnson. Members of Acker Post, G. A. R., attended in a body, as did also the postoffice employees. The interment was at Oakland Cemetery.

Thus passed into the silence of the dead one of Minnesota's most honored and loyal sons, suddenly cut down in the midst of a useful and noble life.

The inaugural address of Governor McGill to the legislature, January 5, 1887, was published as a pamphlet of 22 pages, and also as pages 41-62 of the Executive Documents of Minnesota for 1886 (St. Paul, 1887). In this message the subject of the liquor traffic received considerable attention, as follows:

You will be called upon at this session to consider measures looking to the further regulation of the liquor business in this State. The people have pronounced in favor of “high license, local option, and the rigid enforcement of the laws relating to the liquor traffic,” and now turn to you in the hope and expectation that you will in the form of suitable legislation, give effect to the verdict which they found. Outside of the limited number engaged in the liquor traffic in this State, the people, by a very large majority and without regard to political parties favor the measures proposed. I can see no reason why the desired legislation should not be promptly enacted. It is undoubtedly true that while the question of high license does not properly relate to party politics, it is one of intense interest to the liquor vendors of the State, and in our cities and large towns has become the predominant issue at every election. The liquor interests are organized as a compact power for the avowed purpose of combatting all efforts looking to the further regulation of the liquor traffic. The effect of such an organization in such a case cannot be otherwise than harmful. All questions are made secondary to that of high license, and every man who stands for office—and more particularly a legislative office—is required to pledge himself against it, or stand the brunt of their united opposition, in many cases meaning utter defeat from the outset. In all candor I submit to you if this is not a pernicious influence on the legislation of the State. Two years ago a high license bill was before the legislature, with every prospect of becoming a law, but was finally defeated through the organized efforts of the liquor interests. This organization is much stronger today than it was then, and will no doubt oppose with zeal worthy of a better cause the measures proposed. But I trust this legislature, elected on the issue of “high license and local option,” is also stronger on this subject than its predecessor, and that it has the courage and independence to refuse to be bound and controlled by the liquor dealers. I have no word to utter against these men—I am willing to concede that many of them regard the proposed measures as an infringement on their personal rights and liberty, but in the name of that great body of our citizens who believe in 304 300sobriety, in law and order, and who recognize and deplore the evils traceable to the liquor traffic, I protest against that interest being permitted to dominate the legislation of the State. It is not only your province but your duty to eliminate as far as practicable these evils. It is believed that high license and local option will minimize them. Sharing in this belief, and desiring to keep faith with the people, I recommend the enactment of suitable and efficient legislation to carry the proposed measures into effect.

McGill served as governor only one term, and therefore presented only one biennial message, which was delivered January 9, 1889, and was published as a pamphlet of 40 pages, and also as the first paper in Volume I of the Executive Documents of Minnesota for 1888 ( St. Paul, 1889). He recommended the creation of a Pardoning Board as follows:

One of the most exacting of the many duties pertaining to the chief executive office in this state is that growing out of the pardoning power conferred upon the governor by the constitution. That power is complete. He can pardon and turn loose every prisoner in the state if he so wills, and is responsible only to the people of the state for his acts. The wisdom of centering in one person this important prerogative is questioned by many, and by a limited number it is thought the pardoning power should not exist at all. My own judgment is that it should exist, and that its proper lodgment is with the chief executive officer of the state. But I am convinced from a brief experience in its exercise that in justice both to the governor and the applicant for pardon an advisory board of the pardons should be created and established by law, to whom all applications for pardon should be referred, and whose duty it should be after due investigation and consideration to pass upon the merits of each application and report their findings and recommendations to the governor for his use and guidance. The applications for pardon in this state are already so numerous, and the duties of the governor so exacting in other directions, that he cannot find the time necessary to give them the careful and patient investigation demanded by the merest considerations of justice. In common fairness to the prisoner, at any rate, this should be done. And to the end that the governor may be relieved as fully as possible from responsibility in exercising the pardoning power, the board should be entirely free, both in its creation and 305 301tenure of office, from obligations or responsibilities to him. If duly authorized so to do, the chief justice of the supreme court might very appropriately name the members to constitute the board from persons nominated for the positions by the judges of the district courts. It is important that this board, if created, shall be as independent of political influence as possible, and semi-judicial in character. I do not think any state or judicial officer, or any officer connected with any of the prisons of the state, should be eligible to appointment on it. The freer it can be made from political, partisan or outside official influences the better, in my judgment. But these are matters of detail which I shall not discuss. The main thing is the creation of the board, and this I earnestly recommend.

The governor also referred at length to the effects of of the High License laws which had been passed during his administration, saying:

The passage by the last legislature of the act commonly known as the high license law (and related legislation) marked an epoch in temperance reform in Minnesota, and set an example to other states of the Union from which some of them have already profited and others in all probability soon will. There was no subject before the legislature in which the people generally felt so deep an interest, and its consideration therefore attracted the attention of the public in an unusual degree. * * * While no official data have been gathered, information of a character to be relied upon shows a decrease of fully one-third in the number of saloons and an increase of one quarter in the revenue derived from license. The consumption of liquor has been lessened and the cause of temperance materially promoted. * * *

Concerning proposed examinations for appointments and promotions in civil service, Governor McGill wrote in this message:

With the growth of the state and increase of public business it becomes all the more important, on grounds of true economy, that new appointments of officers and employees be made solely with reference to their qualifications. The states of New York and Massachusetts have for four years past administered their civil service on non-partisan principles with good results. * * * The examinations are required to be practical in their character and to relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the 306 302persons examined, to discharge the duties of the service into which they seek to be appointed.

The system thus briefly outlined encountered some prejudice before it was fully understood, but it is now strongly sustained by the sentiment of both political parties in each state named. It would be a distinction for Minnesota to place herself abreast of these enlightened and experienced states on this important subject. Character and high qualifications should be the tests of fitness for public position rather than zeal in party manipulations, or ability to serve the partisan interests of any person or faction. And in a government by the people the highest office in the public service should be open to the honorable ambition of every honest citizen, no matter how humble his position in life.

From 1874 to 1886, inclusive, Mr. McGill, as the Insurance Commissioner of this state, published thirteen annual reports, the third to the fifteenth of that department. They are largely made up of statistics of the fire and life insurance companies doing business in Minnesota, and in size they vary between 300 and 400 pages each.

Under date of July 27, 1883, he published a quarto pamphlet of statistics, 10 pages, entitled “Experience of Thirty-three Insurance Companies in Minnesota for a Period of Ten Years.

June 9, 1886, he gave an address at the Interstate Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, at Lake City, Minn., which was published as a pamphlet of 15 pages.

The Merriams were an influential family in Minnesota, and of honorable descent. They possessed vigor of mind, high social standing, and great business activity. Few families ever became so interwoven with the concerns of the people in so young a state. When we consider all that John L. Merriam (the father), Amherst H. Wilder (the uncle), and their business associates, were to our young commonwealth, and the young governor, William Rush Merriam, to our financial, social and political life, it seem quite incredible that they should all have passed from our vision and disappeared from our affairs, save in history. Yet such is the fate of many of the oldest and formerly most vigorous families of the state. They are perpetuated in history, not in descendants.

In Massachusetts the Adamses, the Lawrences, the Emersons, and the Hawthornes, founded families and perpetuated themselves. In New York the Livingstons, Schuylers, Hamiltons, Jays, Roosevelts, Astors, Vanderbilts, and scores of others, founded families and have 310 306left continuous tribes, endowed with money and with brains. But many of our early noted and strong men, save in their noble and useful lives, are perpetuated only in names of counties and towns. Possibly the Washburns may prove an exception.

The progenitors of William R. Merriam's family on the paternal side were of Scotch origin; on the maternal side they were French. John L. Merriam, father of the governor, traced his ancestry to that William Merriam who was born at Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1750, and served with the “Minute Men” in the war of the Revolution. He took part in the memorable fight at Concord Bridge, April 19, 1775. He was chairman of the Board of Select Men in Bedford, 1777. He was a prominent and well known citizen. The members of this particular branch of the Merriams located in northern New York. The father of the governor was born in Essex county, in 1828, and in time became a merchant at Wadham's Mills, and was also engaged in the iron trade, as were many others of the family. At one time, 1857, he was the treasurer of the county. His wife, Mahala De Lano, who, as the name indicates, was of French descent, was a woman of many estimable qualities, and strong, vigorous character.

To this excellent couple was born William Rush Merriam, the future governor, July 26, 1849, in Essex county, N. Y., a region of beautiful and picturesque scenery. His birthplace was in a small village, called Wadham's Mills, where there were iron mills and manufacturing 311 307industries, and the few citizens were intelligent, industrious, and thrifty.

His middle name, Rush, was for the celebrated Dr. William Rush, of Philadelphia, a family relative, of Revolutionary fame.

When William was but twelve years of age, in 1861, his father removed to Minnesota and settled at once in St. Paul. It was years before the advent of railroads, and in connection with those vigorous pioneers, James C. Burbank, Captain Russell Blakeley, and Colonel Alvaren Allen, he engaged in the stage and transportation business, under the name of the “Minnesota Stage Company.” This firm secured all the mail contracts of the Northwest, and, with their passenger and express business, were men of great business affairs. John L. Merriam at once exhibited the pushing, energetic business qualities which made him eminently successful. In 1870 he was elected to the legislature, and again in 1871, and in both sessions he was made Speaker of the House. The son, as events proved, followed the footsteps of his father.

Colonel John L. Merriam was known as one of the most enterprising and valuable citizens, whose unblemished character and fine social qualities gained him the esteem of all.

From the time of the family's arrival in St. Paul till he was fifteen years of age, young William led an uneventful life, and was habitually in attendance at the public schools. In 1864 he was sent to school at Racine, 312 308Wisconsin, for a course at the Academy. Subsequently he entered Racine College, where in due time he completed the regular college course. He and Governor Davis were the only ones of our governors who were college graduates.

Merriam was held to be a very excellent student at college, and he was exceedingly fond of all athletic sports and diversions. At the close of each college year he stood at the head of his classes, and his average proficiency was so high, that in 1871, in the order of general merit, he was assigned to the high honor of delivering the valedictory address.

He returned home, proud of his collegiate record, and ambitious for duty in the big world of the Northwest. Marking out for himself a business career, he engaged as a clerk in the First National Bank, at a salary of $50 per month. His work gave great satisfaction to his employers and secured the commendation of the officers of the bank. In 1873, when the Merchant's National Bank of St. Paul was organized, he was elected as its first cashier, although only twenty-four years of age. His promotion was rapid, but his work wa good, and his strong family influence did the rest.

In 1880 he was chosen vice president of this bank, and four years later was elected to the presidency, which position be held until he was promoted, in the political world, to be head of th state government. His advancement in commercial circles was regarded as rapid, and some doubted the propriety of his swift elevation.

Meantime, he took a lively interest in the affairs of the city of St. Paul, whose growth had been contemporaneous with his own. He had inherited from his father Republican principles, and was an active member of that party. He was heartily identified with various Republican clubs, and his active interest in political matters caused him to be regarded as one of the leading young Republicans of the state. In 1882 he was nominated by his party and elected from the Twenty-seventh District to the Legislature of 1883. He was appointed a member of the Committee of Finance nd Banks, and was chairman of the Committee of Appropriations. He was, as yet, considered but a tyro in political affairs.

During this session of the legislature, there occured a bitter fight in the election of a United States senator, when then Hon. William Window was defeated, and Dwight M. Sabin succeeded him. Young Merriam was an ardent supporter of Sabin. The limitations of this sketch do not admit of a discussion of the causes which led to the defeat of Mr. Windom; but it has long been admitted that the state made a serious mistakes in dispensing with the services of so capable and faithful a public servant as Senator Windom had proven himself to be.

In 1886 Mr. Merriam was again elected to the legislature from St. Paul. On the assembling of that body he was nominated and duly chosen, as his father had been sixteen years before, Speaker of the House. His 314 310career in that elevated position was considered as generally commendable.

Ignatius Donnelly, for the time acting with the Republicans, may be truly said to have given Merriam his real start in political life. The farmers did not suffer at the hands of the young Speaker, for Donnelly, representing the Farmers' Alliance, supported Merriam. At the end of the session, Merriam received the full endorsement of the House for his administration of the important functions of his high office, and for the fair and generous treatment he accorded to friends and political foes alike. As a presiding officer over the popular branch of the legislature, a position requiring intelligence, address, and promptness, his decisions were uniformly fair, and his course commendable. In making up the committees, it was distinctly noticeable that he gave the farmers a very liberal share.

In 1886 he was chosen vice president of the State Agricultural Society, and in 1887 he was elected president of that body, and his marked executive ability made his administration a decided success.

September 5 and 6, 1888, the regular Republican convention for the purposes of nominating state officers was held in St. Paul. The Hon. A. R. McGill, then governor, was a candidate to succeed himself. By an unwritten political law, his administration having been clean and honorable, he was entitled to the endorsement of a second term. He had been in his first campaign the champion of high license, which the Republican party 315 311had made the issue. On this issue McGill had been elected, though with a reduced majority. He urged high license in his message to the legislature, and in every way he was identified with the measure.

Others ambitious of gubernatorial honors thought they saw a weakness in McGill's position, and stood ready to sacrifice the champion of high license on the altar of their ambition.

Albert Scheffer, of St. Paul, Charles A. Gilman, of St. Cloud, and William R. Merriam, of St. Paul, were the contestants of Governor McGill. This contest proved to be very bitter in the way it was waged. The attacks on Governor McGill were exceedingly ungenerous and unfair, for in every way he had been an acceptable official and was personally without reproach.

William R. Merriam was young and could afford to bide his time and be generous. Had he done so, he would undoubtedly have been the nominee two years later, without controversy and perhaps without opposition, and it would have left him without heartaches and grievances which probably materially barred his future political success.

There were vigorous and trenchant comments on the character and conduct of the convention, and upon the political integrity of some of the members; and many of the Republican papers of the state were unusually severe upon methods which, it was alleged, characterized the proceedings. But these matters, doubtless 316 312exaggerated, have passed into forgetfulness, and there is no occasion to revive them now.

It was the rural districts which gave Merriam his nomination, for he always stood well with the farmers. There were four formal ballots, and on the fourth the ex-Speaker was nominated, receiving 270 out of 448 votes, 225 being necessary to a choice. He had made a vigorous canvass and maintained his hold on the rural masses. His Democratic opponent was Hon. Eugene M. Wilson, of Minneapolis, an able lawyer, a man of great personal popularity, and once a member of Congress. The only other nominee was Hugh Harrison, Prohibitionist. Merriam was elected by a majority of 24,104 over Wilson, who received 110,257 votes, while Harrison received 17,026, and Merriam 134,355. His general administration as governor was quite satisfactory to his party, and his renomination followed, in 1890, with less opposition.

The Democrats in 1890 ran against him the Hon. Thomas Wilson, of Winona, once a member of the Supreme Bench of the state, and a gentleman of fine culture, marked ability, and well known throughout the state. The situation was, however, essentially different from the former contest. The Farmers' Alliance movement had gained cohesion and was now at the height of its power, and it presented a candidate of its own in the person of S. M. Owen, editor of the Farm, Stock and Home, an agricultural journal, a resident of Minneapolis. The tri-party election was close, the Republicans suffering severe loss. Merriam received 88,111 votes; 317 313Wilson, 85,844; and Owen; 58,513. James P. Pinkham also ran as a Prohibitionist, and received 8,424 votes. Merriam's plurality over his leading opponent was 2,267. Merriam thus became a minority governor, and it was the second instance, since the organization of the state, in which the Republican candidates had not received a majority over all competitors.

Governor Merriam's career as chief executive was marked by an intelligent conception of the important duties and responsibilities of the office. His messages, during the four years, are excellent state papers, vigorous, clear and comprehensive. His recommendations were all practical and well received by the legislature and by the people also. He evidently had at heart the general welfare, was proud of his state, and indulged high hopes of its splendid future. The public business was transacted with a promptness characteristic of a business man. When it is remembered that he was, in years, next to the youngest governor in the Union, and the youngest this state has ever had, we can take pride in the good judgment and sound discretion which characterized his administration.

During his incumbency of the office, several important measures were passed; among others, the election law based on the Australian system, the law for leasing the iron ore lands belonging to the state school fund, and for refunding the state debt at a lower rate of interest.

As a citizen of St. Paul, Merriam was regarded as one of its worthiest and most valuable men. He took an active part in all its local concerns. He was president of the Merchants' National Bank; a member of the Chamber of Commerce; treasurer of the Board of Education; a vestryman of St. Paul's church; and was largely connected and interested in various local business enterprises.

He was always concerned in agricultural matters. He was vice president of the State Agricultural Society in 1886, and in 1887 and 1888 was its president. His management brought success and prosperity to the Society. His active temperament made him fond of athletic sports and diversions, and he was the first president of the Minnesota Boat Club. He was ever an admirer and owner of good horses. It is a more intelligent passion to love a good horse than an automobile.

It is very difficult in a work of this sort to fully consider the conduct and merits of living men, and to give them their proper place in history. To the living it is like reading their own obituaries. But one can obtain many interesting opinions of one's life by reading contemporaneous journals, especially those of the opposition. It is not always necessary to wait till the undertaker has, with grim joy, arranged the flowers and decorated the casket, to find something of the final estimate of a public man. Pre-obituaries are constantly being written by enthusiastic journalists, who so often handle public men with ungracious confidence and merciless 319 315method. Somewhere midway between the extravagant eulogies of a partisan press and the frailties and faults discovered by unfriendly journals, there is a line of justice and truth. It is the manifest duty of the non-partisan biographer to follow the intervening course. As Ovid well says, “Medio tutissimus ibis.”

From the beginning of his career Governor Merriam very much coveted the honors and exhilarations of politics. That he never achieved his most ambitions desires, is due chiefly to his unwillingness to wait with patience and bide his time. The machinations of his friends to set aside a predecessor, Governor McGill, without sufficient cause, were plainly ungenerous, and the more so when the aspirant was possessed of youth and health and could await his turn, which surely would have come without contention or injustice. The result of this impatience left behind it sores which were never healed, and which presented obstacles to all his future aspirations. The consensus of opinion is now that the setting aside of McGill for a second term was a tactical mistake for the party and all concerned in it, being a blemish on the fair dealing which so generally characterized the Republican party in the state. It is not the purpose of historical composition simply to eulogize men and carry them on to posterity with garlands of flowers, but to tell the truth, to the end that the youth of the state be forewarned, and that every public life be made a teacher of political wisdom.

The parts which fell to Governor Merriam in the drama of political life were always important and often conspicuous. In 1896, together with Governor L. F. Hubbard, Robert G. Evans, and George Thompson, he was sent as one of the delegates to the National Republican Convention which nominated William McKinley for President. The great contest in that convention was what was termed the “Battle of the Standards.” The scheming and contention pending the adoption of the platform was sharp, and results were very uncertain. Many prominent Republicans wear “weak-kneed” on the question of sound money. Even William Mckinley was in doubt as to the best policy. While Senator Hanna was sound in his personal views, he was in serious doubt as to the policy of the party. “Free Silver” was then in its “run of fever.” It really appeared at one time that the committee on resolutions would report a mongrel plank, which would admit of a bi-metallic construction and thus “straddle” the question.

The Minnesota delegation was decidedly for the gold standard. Governor Merriam had been designated as the member of the committee on resolutions, and he was especially instructed by his delegation to vote for a gold standard. But he was known to be largely under the influence of Senator Hanna, whose final action was yet in doubt. So the delegation riveted Minnesota's position to the gold standard by positive instructions. This was strictly in accord with previous instructions by the Republican State Convention. Merriam, as a banker, was 321 317surely personally in favor of sound money; but the delegation took no chances, and sealed their position by instructions. This was Minnesota's part in the adoption of the gold standard in the national platform of 1896.

It is the general belief of our ablest politicians that Mr. Mckinley's election would not have followed had not the gold standard been unequivocally adopted. After his election, a wave of confidence swept over the country, as a consequence of the adoption of the gold standard, which resulted in continuous and unparalleled prosperity such as never before was the happy lot of any people. It is proper to remark that Governor Merriam was selected as one of the sub-committee to prepare the platform, and did good work on that important document. His influence counted strongly in favor of sound money, which at once became the shibboleth of the party.

In 1893, when the late Senator Davis was candidate for re-election to the United States Senate, it is of record that he came near being defeated. Among those who opposed Davis' re-election, even after his nomination by a Republican caucus, was Governor Merriam, who was himself a contingent candidate for the place, for which he received two votes. In the final vote Davis received eighty-five votes, the exact number necessary to a choice. It will thus be seen that his danger was imminent. It was claimed by Senator Davis and his friends that he was greatly embarrassed in his canvass by the action of Governor Merriam, and they changed him with being the head of the conspiracy for the defeat of Davis. 322 318A coolness naturally followed between these two prominent men, and thenceforth their political friendship ceased.

This alienation proved unfortunate for Governor Merriam. Senator Davis, by his ability, culture, and the sum of many distinguishing qualities, had now advanced to the very highest position in the Senate and in the councils of his party. His influence had become potent. In the course of events during the administration of President McKinley, it came to pass that Governor Merriam, or his friends, was anxious to have him nominated for a first-class position aborad, and even urged him for a seat in the Cabinet. The embassy to Austria was named as the first, and the Interior Department as the latter. But though Governor Merriam, as it was understood, was strongly favored by so powerful a senator as Marcus Hanna, yet Senator Davis was potent enough to prevent either of these appointments from being made. But resentment will not always abide in a great and generous heart. A partial reconciliation took place between these two noted men, as subsequent events proved.

Fortunate, indeed, was it for the government and the country, when Governor Merriam was appointed Director of the Census by President McKinley, March 7, 1899. He was promptly confirmed by the assent of Minnesota's great senator. His special fitness for this important work was demonstrated by his complete success in the administration of the office. It was here that Governor Merriam did the best work of his public 323 319life. Dr. S. N. D. North, Merriam's successor in the office and the present Director of the Census, has kindly furnished me with a favorable notice of Governor Merriam's work in that difficult Bureau, and I have no hesitation in using this just tribute to a competent and vigorous official, with thanks to Dr. North:

The law for the taking of the Twelfth Federal Census had been approved March 3 prior. This law provided that the census should be taken as of June 1, the following year. The governor was thus given a period of twelve months only, in which to organize a work which, apart from wars, is the most gigantic and the most difficult undertaken by the government. He organized it out of nothing, in the nature of things, because the machinery under which the Eleventh Census was taken had entirely disappeared. There was at first some criticism of the appointment of Governor Merriam, on the ground that he was not a statistician, and could not therefore produce a scientific and satisfactory census. It was President McKinley's theory, in appointing him that the census had grown to be so large an undertaking, by reason of the tremendous growth of the country, that business experience rather than expert knowledge had come to be the prime factor in its successful outcome. The result completely justified his judgment. Governor Merriam immediately drew about him, in the important positions of chief statisticians in charge of the five great branches of decennial census work, the five men who were recognized as knowing more from study and experience about the best method of handling the work in each of these branches, than any one else in the country. He told these men, when he appointed them, that he would hold them individually responsible for their work; that he would not interfere with them, except to see that everything was done in proper business ways. The result was extraordinary, when judged by our previous census experiences. The Twelfth Census was not only the best census ever compiles in the United States, from the point of view of accuracy and comprehensiveness, but it was also the most economical, tested on the per capita basis, and what is even more important, the most expeditions in the publication of the results.

The census law required that these results must be made public within two years from the date of the enumeration. This was actually accomplished, and it was due to the business energy which Governor Merriam brought to the work, and with which he inspired all his subordinates and of which he set the daily example.

One other remarkable achievement distinguished Governor Merriam's administration of the Census Office. It is to his effort and influence chiefly that the country is indebted for the establishment of the permanent Census Office. The movement for such a law was started more than thirty years ago. It had the earnest support, during this entire period, of practically all the teachers and students of economies, sociology, and statistics; but it made no headway. Bill after bill was introduced in Congress and pigeonholed in committee. Early in his administration, Governor Merriam became convinced that a permanent statistical bureau, always available for the compilation of any statistics that might be wanted, as the basis of intelligent legislation by Congress, was a prime requisite of the government. He turned his energies to the accomplishment of this end before he had completed the reports of the Twelfth Census. The first bill introduced to establish the permanent census was defeated in the House. Undismayed, Governor Merriam kept at it; and finally, on March 6, 1902, he had the satisfaction of witnessing the President's signature to the law under which the bureau he had organized so carefully and successfully was made permanent. It was Governor Merriam's personality, which made this result possible. A practical politician himself, he knew how to enlist the support of practical politicians who comprise the rank and file of both Houses of Congress. He marshaled all his resources to accomplish a result which appealed to him as vital to the full development of governmental statistical science; and he succeeded when a scientific statistician, in the position he occupied, would most certainly have failed. And so it happens that this great science of statistics,—as yet largely undeveloped and capable of infinite improvement,—owes more, in the matter of its future advance in the United States, to this business man, untrained in statistics, than to all the statisticians combined. That he was wholly disinterested in his attitude Governor Merriam proved by resigning the Directorship very shortly to re-enter business life.

For the reasons above stated, future commentators will be compelled to agree that the science of governmental statistics in the United States owes more to Director Merriam than to any of his predecessors in charge of the decennial census.

In 1903 Governor Merriam resigned from the Census office to take an active part in the management of a large corporation, and at this time he is president of two corporations with his headquarters in the city of Washington, where, with his family, he now resides.

Whether Governor Merriam purposes to retire from active politics, we are not fully advised. When a man of energetic persistency abandons a long cherished purpose and bows to the force of public sentiment and to the logic of events, he is entitled to great credit. Having left this state, and again entered into large business connection, he has made it quite impracticable to re-enter the political arena in Minnesota, where new combinations have been formed and new dispositions effectually made. Governor Merriam is yet in the prime of active manhood, being but fifty-eight years of age, and mentally and physically in vigorous form.

To those who have followed the career of William Rush Merriam, there is much that is interesting and dramatic. The first of our governors reared upon our soil, the youngest in years, his character formed by a purely Minnesota environment, he came upon the stage as the representative of the young Republicans of Minnesota. Well born, with intellectual capacity, finely educated, ambitious and full of energy, he aspired to greater things than he ever achieved. His besetting hindrance was his constant impatience. He was too eager in his ambitions, and, in the excitement of contests and heat of battle, not always prudent and above criticism in their promotion. He was not satisfied with a life spend in the dubious routine of the commercial world, hence he leaped into politics as a stimulant and feeder of his ambition. Born at an earlier period, in obedience to the “Call” of blood, he might have successfully followed Sherman to 326 322the sea, or Grant to Vicksburg, in satisfaction of his restless energy, as well as from patriotic motives.

Mr. Merriam was married at St. Paul, October 2, 1872, to Miss Laura E. Hancock, a most estimable and cultivated woman, daughter of Colonel John Hancock, of Washington City, and niece of the celebrated General Winfield Scott Hancock of the Union army.

Col. John Hancock was adjutant on his brother's staff during the war. It was in that capacity that he carried a despatch to Gen. Meade after General Hancock was wounded, urging him to follow Lee after the fight at Gettysburg. Had Meade followed this advice and pushed his advantages, the war might have practically ended then and there.

Mrs. Merriam's mother was a direct descendant of John Adams, of Massachusetts. She was born in the city of Philadelphia. She was of a fine lineage. highly cultured, and especially well qualified for the duties of the best society.

The Governor had erected a goodly mansion on what was called “Merriam Hill,” a sightly spot, overlooking the city of St. Paul. Here his admirable wife dispensed the most elegant hospitality, and made the home the center not only of a brilliant social circle, but of a happy family. Unfortunately, this mansion was totally destroyed by fire in 1896, and was never rebuilt.

To this marriage there were born five children: John Hancock Merriam, July 16, 1874; Mabel de Lano 327 323July 31, 1876; William Hancock, May 5, 1878; Amherst Wilder, January 31, 1888, deceased; and Laura Beatrice, February 15, 1892.

The inaugural address of Governor Merriam, January 9, 1889, was published as a pamphlet of 24 pages, and as the second paper (pages 41-64) in Volume I of the Executive Documents of Minnesota for 1888 (St. Paul, 1889). In this address he said, in part:

The highest obligation devolving upon citizen is to carefully and loyally serve their state or country. To be called upon by our fellow men to make a administer their laws, or to be selected as the guardian of some one of the many public trusts, should be esteemed a high honor.

More special is this true is a government like our own, founded upon republican principles, and maintained by the popular voice; and yet in the midst of the active and busy life that is the lot of most of us, we are too apt to overlook our duty to the state, and to leave to others the care and management of its affairs.

Among these public trusts and duties none more honorable, or more important, can be imposed upon a citizen by his fellows than to intrust him with the enactment of laws for the protection of life and property, for guarding the unfortunate, and for defending the weak as against the strong.

Economy in the disbursement of the public funds is no less important and necessary to the welfare and prosperity of of the state than is the fidelity and integrity of those to whom is committed the trust of caring for its revenues.

No state in the Union possesses more economical, thrifty and law abiding citizens than does Minnesota, and as their representatives, it will undoubtedly be your desires, as it is clearly your duty, to guard the public fund, and to see that no unnecessary or useless expenditure is made of the money which, for the most part, represents the tribute paid by honest foil for the common good.

January 14, 1891, Governor Merriam delivered his biennial message to the twenty-seventh legislature. It was published as a pamphlet of 18 pages, and also as pages 33-50 of Volume I, Executive Documents of Minnesota for 1890 (Minneapolis, 1891).

His second and last biennial message, delivered to the Legislature of January 4, 1893, was published as the first paper (pages 19-31) in the first volume of the Executive Documents for 1892 (Minneapolis, 1893), and also as a separate pamphlet of 13 pages. In this message he said, referring to the need of a new capitol buildings:

The last legislature selected a commission to inquire into the desirability of selecting a site upon which to place a new building for the use of the state officers. In my judgment, the time has now arrived, in view of the present crowded condition of our capitol building, to seriously contemplate the necessity of providing for the future uses of the executive officers of the State. The present structure is entirely inadequate for the needs of the officials charged with the performance of the public duties of various kinds, and as some years would necessarily elapse before a new building could be completed, it would be well to provide during the present session for the future uses of the State in this regard. * * * The building would necessarily by designed with a view to the future growth of the State, and to that end could be constructed with the purpose of having it ready for use eight or ten years hence. The amount collected year by year would be so small as to be hardly felt by the taxpayers, and by the time the building was an absolute necessity we should be possessed of a handsome edifice entirely proportionate to the importance of the State. I sincerely commend to you the desirability of prompt consideration and action upon this subject.

An address by Governor Merriam before the State Farmers' Alliance at its annual meeting in St. Paul, March 4, 1890, was published as a pamphlet of thirteen pages, including reprints (pages 9-13) of editorial articles, 329 325commenting on this address, from the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Journal.

An article entitled “The Currency of the Future,” suggesting modifications of the national banking system, published by Governor Merriam in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, was reprinted at St. Paul under the date of March 17, 1892, in a pamphlet of fifteen pages, of which the last five pages are press comments of St. Paul and Minneapolis newspapers. This article was also reprinted in Rhodes' Journal of Banking for September, 1892 (pages 1015-1020).

As the director of the Twelfth Census of the United States, taken in the year 1900, Governor Merriam published its large series of Bulletins and Reports, comprising eighteen quarto volumes, issued at Washington in the years 1900 to 1903.

During the same years and in connection with this great work, he contributed the following articles in magazines:

The Census of 1900; in the North American Review, volume 170, pages 99-108, January, 1900.

Taking of the Census; in the Independent, vol. 52, pp. 1235-6, May 24, 1900.

Suffrage, North and South; in the Forum, vol. 32, pp. 460-5, December, 1901.

Need of a Permanent Census Office; North American Review, vol. 174, pp. 105-112, January, 1902.

“Trusts” in the Light of Census Returns; Atlantic Monthly, vol. 89, pp. 332-9, March, 1902.

Evolution of American Census-Taking; Century Magazine, vol. 65, pp. 831-42, April, 1903.

Noteworthy Results of the Twelfth Census; Century Magazine, vol. 66, pp. 712-23, September, 1903.

The Census in Foreign Countries; Century Magazine, vol. 66, pp. 879-86, October, 1903.

The frozen North has contributed of the vigor of its Scandinavian blood to enrich that of the Saxon race in the United States, especially in the Northwest. In that brotherhood of virile races which blend in American to its advantage, the Norseman is in a high degree conspicuous. Every billow in the great North Sea has rocked men, as in a cradle, who were destined to come to American. And truly, the immigrant from the land of Bjornson, Ibsen, Kielland, Welhaven, Ericsson, and Ole Bull, has been gladly welcomed to our shores. His desirability as an immigrant is unquestioned. He comes here to settle permanently, and not to hoard his savings and return to spend them in his native land. His good moral character, his honest way of doing things, his frugal habits, commend him as a worthy citizen. “You Yonson” comes as determined to stay as did the Pilgrim Fathers. The second generation is as thoroughly American as the rest of us, so rapidly do they assimilate. Soon their blood will be 334 330as fully infused with ours as that of the Knickerbockers of New York or of the Cavaliers of Virginia. 1

Of the Norsemen, Minnesota has received its share. We had in 1905 in the state 237,894 Swedes and Norwegians; of these 111,611 are from Norway. The city of Minneapolis, alone, has a Scandinavian population (1905) of 42,418. It is within the easy memory of many of us, when Germany furnished the heaviest portion of our foreign population. But she has (in 1905) but 119,868, as compared with the Scandinavian immigration noted above. This numerical strength carries with it the element of political power, which, if not always judiciously, has been pretty extensively exercised.

Knute Nelson was born February 2, 1843, on the rugged coast of Norway, near the “Whirlpool,” as given in the geographies of our childhood. He was the only son and child of a poor farmer, who lived at the Vosse Elven, a place located between the glassy fjords and the storm swept mountains, a little margin of land next to the sea.

His father owned the soil he tilled. When not engaged on the farm, he was a sailor on the sea. The Norwegians of the coast took to the water like ducks, and sea enterprises were the natural order of things. When the writer pushed the Senator as to his early 335 331progenitors, he replied, “Don't pursue my genealogical lines too far, or you may run into the roughest nest of pirates that ever infested the North Sea. I am not so much concerned as to what my grandfather was as to what my grandson will be.” He knows but little about his family centuries back, but is solicitous as to their future in the free land to which they have been transplanted for the centuries to come.

His father died when Knute was an infant. His widowed mother gathered together her scanty means, and with her boy of six years cam to American, following a brother who had come before her. For a year or more she supported herself and boy by hard work in the City of Chicago, and there the youthful son did his first work in selling newspapers on the street. She removed to Dane county, Wisconsin, not far from the city of Madison, where by hard work and great frugality she supported herself and child on a small farm. On this sandy farm young Nelson grew to manhood. Through all his boyhood and youth they were poor, and in the hayfield and the harvest he aided in the support of his mother. He had a hard road to travel, but he had inherited a good constitution and indomitable perseverance. It is veracious history to say that Knute Nelson was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

One Mary Dillon, who taught the district school, gave his life perhaps its definite direction. She was a cultivated woman, and became much interested in the humble fortunes of the boy's family. She urged him 336 332to educate himself, and told him he might become a distinguished man. “You can't be President, “ she sa