Missouri the Center State

CHAPTER XX.

MISSOURI CAMPAIGNS.

Bingham's County Election-An Incident at Old Chariton-The Man Who Broke a TieWhen Abraham Lincoln Shocked Missouri Whigs-How Providence Elected a Congressman-The Jackson Resolutions—Benton's Defiance-John Scott's Letter-Sterling Price and the Governorship-Three Good Stories from Walter Williams—How Rollins Got the Best of Henderson-Senator Schurz and Eugene Field-"Bully" Pitt-The Know Nothing Days-St. Louis Riots-Boernstein and the Forty-eighters-A Reporter's Impressions of Polk, Rollins and Stewart-Missouri's Longest Campaign-Claiborne F. Jackson's Opportunity-A Newspaper Ultimatum-William Hyde's Graphic Narrative-One of Fayette's Greatest Days-John B. Clark, the Political AdviserSample Orr, the Unknown-A Moonlight Conference-Douglas or Breckinridge?— Jackson Declares His Position-A Campaign of Oratory-Blair's First Speech After the War-A Thrilling Scene at the Pike County Forum-Blair at Mexico-The Republican Split of 1870-Birth of the Possum Policy-Holding the Wire-Freedom of SuffrageJudson on the Liberal Movement-New Parties in Missouri-Greenbackers and Wheelers-Campaign Stories-How Telegrams Saved an Election-Vest on Party LoyaltyChamp Clark on Politics and Oratory-The Barber Shop Barometer.

You jolly brave boys of Missouri,
And all ye old Jackson men, too,

Come out from among the foul party,
And vote for old Tippecanoe,

And vote for old Tippecanoe.

-From a Missouri Campaign Song of 1840.

Thomas Shackelford, in an address before the Missouri Historical Society in 1901, told the story of Bingham's historical painting, the County Election. "The Sappington family were Democrats, and the sharp contest between Darwin Sappington as Democrat and George C. Bingham as Whig, ended by the election of Bingham by one vote. Sappington contested and he was given the place by the dominant party. Bingham was an artist, and immortalized this election by a painting called the 'County Election.' Elections were then held viva voce, and any man from any other township in the county could vote, but he had to swear that he had not and would not vote in any other precinct during the present election. The man administering this oath in the picture is the likeness of Col. M. M. Marmaduke, brother-in-law of Darwin Sappington, who stands to the left and has his hat off bowing to the voter who is casting his vote for him. The man with the stoop shoulders is O. B. Pearson, trying to get the voter to vote for his friend Sappington. The man with his head tied up was a well-known character of whom alcohol had gotten the better. The others are well-known characters of that day. Young America is playing 'mumble the peg.' In these early contests men of different parties went around and alternately addressed the crowd.

Vol. II-1

"A ludicrous event happened in one of these contests. Thomas Reynolds, afterwards governor, had addressed the people at Old Chariton. His competitor had taken a little too much stimulant, and when he attempted to mount the goods box from which Reynolds spoke, failed to get up. But he was equal to the occasion; he turned around and said, 'I disdain to stand above my constituents,' and so made a telling speech from the ground.

"During the time when we voted viva voce, an amusing occurrence happened in a contest, in Howard County, for the office of justice of the peace. The Whig, John Harvey, at the close of the polls had voted for his opponent and made a tie. His opponent, Snyder, went up to vote and discovered that if he voted for his opponent it would elect him. He stood for several moments contemplating the situation, then his covetousness got the better of his judgment, and he slowly said, 'I believe I will give Snyder a pop,' and thus he elected himself. It is needless to say that this was the last time he was ever elected."

Lincoln and the St. Louis Whigs.

In 1840 the St. Louis Whigs had an experience with Abraham Lincoln in striking contrast with the esteem in which he was afterwards held. There was assembled a mass meeting of the party at Belleville in April of that year. The arrangements were in the hands of Colonel Edward Parker. The attendance was described as "immense." Lincoln came down from Springfield by invitation to be one of the speakers.

The Presidential campaign was opening with coonskins, log cabins and hard cider as the party emblems of the supporters of "Old Tippecanoe." Lincoln was introduced as the first orator. He began his speech with frequent references to "coonskins," "log cabins" and "hard cider." He was in hearty sympathy with the homeliness of the campaign. By way of showing how much he felt at home in such a campaign, he described himself as having been "raised over thar on Irish potatoes and buttermilk and mauling rails." The crowd laughed and cheered uproariously.

Speakers had been invited to represent the Whigs of St. Louis. They were John F. Darby and Wilson Primm. John F. Darby was the mayor of St. Louis. Primm was considered one of the most polished speakers of the city. The two visitors from the city agreed that Lincoln was carrying the funmaking too far. They consulted and decided that a different turn must be given to the spirit of the day. Mayor Darby went to Colonel Baker and said: "We are making this thing ridiculous enough, anyhow, with our 'coonskins' and 'hard cider' emblems and representations; but when Lincoln goes to weaving in his buttermilk, Irish potatoes and rail mauling, it would seem as if we are verging too much onto the ridiculous."

The protest was effective, it appears, for Mr. Darby, in his account of what followed, wrote: "We succeeded in getting Lincoln down from the stand, and got up another speaker who seemed to have more judgment in managing the canvass."

"The enthusiasm was great," Mr. Darby added.

When Providence Intervened.

In 1846 Leonard H. Sims of Greene County was elected to Congress through an act of Providence. The contest was between the Hards and the Softs. Sims

was a Soft candidate—that is, he favored the issue of paper money of small denominations. The Hards were for coin or large bills redeemable in coin. They carried the State. But shortly before election day one of the Congressional candidates, D. C. M. Parsons of Pike County, died. The state committee put on John G. Jameson. At that time the Congressmen were elected at large. News of the change in nominees traveled slowly by boat and by stage. Enough of the Hards voted for the dead man to let Sims in on a plurality.

The Jackson Resolutions.

In January, 1849, Senator Claiborne F. Jackson reported to the state senate the resolutions which caused the Benton split and which became historic as "the Jackson resolutions." These resolutions denied any right "on the part of Congress to legislate on the subject so as to affect the institution of slavery in the States, in the District of Columbia or in the Territories." They asserted "the right to prohibit slavery in any territory belongs exclusively to the people thereof and can only be exercised by them in forming their constitution for a state government or in their sovereign capacity as an independent state."

These Jackson resolutions declared "that in the event of the passage of any act of Congress conflicting with the principles herein expressed, Missouri will be found in hearty cooperation with the slaveholding states in such measures as may be found necessary for our mutual protection against the encroachments of northern fanaticism."

The resolutions "instructed" Senators in Congress and "requested" Representatives "to act in conformity to the foregoing."

Senator Atchison presented the Jackson resolutions in the United States Senate and they were read on the 3rd of January, 1850. Senator Benton repudiated the instructions in a vigorous speech. Among other things he said: "This is the proper time for me to say what I believe to be the fact, that these resolutions do not express the sentiments of the people of Missouri. They are a lawabiding and Union-loving people, and have no idea of entering into combinations to resist or to intimidate the legislation of Congress. The general assembly has mistaken the sentiment of the State in adopting these resolutions, and many members who voted for them, and the governor who signed them, have since disavowed and repudiated them."

Senator Atchison immediately replied to Senator Benton, but in very few words: "I have but one word to say, and that is merely to express an opinion. that the people of the State of Missouri, when the time arrives, will prove to all mankind that every sentiment contained in these resolutions, from first to last, will be sustained by them."

The binding force of instructions by the legislature on the United States Senators was a live issue in Missouri politics for many years. Benton's position in appealing from such instructions in 1849 prompted John Scott to write a letter to a committee which had invited him to address a meeting at Perryville:

"Having long since, and frequently, declined being a candidate for public life or office, I feel at liberty the more freely to say what I think and know in relation to the course and principles of the Senator on whose conduct you are about to pass. He was not admitted to a seat in the Senate in 1820, though then from Missouri, but he was as loud and clamorous then against the same principles for which he now contends as any southern man at Wash

ington, and he was one of the very first, in connection with Duff Green, to put afloat an impression upon the people of Missouri of the falsehood and the enormity of my offense in having refused, as they stated, and failed to obey the instructions of the legislature in regard to casting the vote of Missouri in the Presidential election, when in truth and in fact no instructions were given me, as the journal of 1824-5 will, on examination, show.

"I merely mention these facts to show the consistency when office is wanted. If there was any defect in the framers of the constitution, and perhaps the Missouri compromise, it was in not making the compromise and principles of that instrument and law prospective in regard to future acquisitions of territory. (Signed) JOHN SCOTT."

How Sterling Price Became Governor.

In his Memoir, preserved in manuscript by the Missouri Historical Society, Thomas C. Reynolds traced the course of political events from 1852 to 1857. Reynolds was bitterly hostile to Price at the time he wrote, which was at the close of the war.

"After the Mexican war, General Price's prominent reappearance in politics was his nomination for the governorship in the spring of 1852. The history of his nomination was given me by Hon. John M. Krum at St. Louis in February, 1861. The Benton and antiBenton Democrats had agreed upon a fusion in that convention of 1852, on the basis that the former being a majority of the party, the candidate for governor should be a Benton man; that for lieutenant governor, an anti-Benton, and so on alternately to the end of the ticket. But the fused convention as a whole was to select the candidates, and not each wing of the party select its share of the ticket. The anti-Benton minority at once took measures to secure the fruits of this advantage. General Thomas L. Price was the choice of the great body of the Benton men, but especially distasteful to the anti-Benton men. Accordingly in a caucus of some leaders of the latter, Judge Krum was selected to have an interview with General Sterling Price, a Benton delegate to the convention, and conspicuous for the ardent support he had given Colonel Benton not only before but since the division in 1849 in the Missouri Democracy on the subject of that Senator. Judge Krum's report of the interview, concerning the policy which General Sterling Price, if elected governor, would pursue in regard to both the men and the measures of the anti-Benton Democracy, being entirely satisfactory to the caucus, it was resolved to support him in the convention. The solid vote of the anti-Benton minority, added to a small portion of the Benton majority, secured him the nomination over General Thomas L. Price. Dr. Brown, a zealous antiBenton man, was nominated for lieutenant governor.

"Colonel Benton promptly denounced the ticket as a fraud, a bargain and sale, and 'spit upon the platform'-all publicly in his speeches. But the fusion was maintained. General Price acted with consummate discretion, keeping very quiet and making no general canvass. The entire fusion ticket was elected. Thenceforward, as governor in 1853-7, Price vigorously opposed Colonel Benton and sustained the anti-Benton Democracy. The election of 1856 completely demolished the Benton party in Missouri. Of its remnants some returned to the reunited national Democracy; the others joined the newly established Republican party.

"In January, 1857, the Missouri legislature met with an overwhelming Democratic majority in each branch. Two senators were to be elected, one for the short term ending March 3, 1861, and the other for six years commencing March 4, 1857. For the short term, General Price, whose gubernatorial term had just expired, Hon. James L. Green, elected member of Congress, and Hon. Willard P. Hall were candidates for the nomination before the Democratic caucus. The two latter had been anti-Benton Democrats since the division in the party in 1849, Mr. Hall, however, being considered the least decided of the two in his states' rights principles. In the caucus Mr. Hall received the largest vote, but not a majority; Mr. Green came next, and Governor Price last, with a vote so small as to render his chance hopeless. He promptly withdrew and his late supporters joined those of Mr. Green, who received the nomination over Mr. Hall and was elected by the legislature. For the long term Governor Trusten Polk was elected Senator over Mr. Phelps, the latter being urged, as was Governor Price, for the admittedly immense service in abandoning Colonel Benton some months after Governor Price."

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Missouri the Center State: 1821-1915, Bind 2