the Indians, it became necessary to define the territories of the
different tribes to avoid collision between them and the newcomers as
much as possible. To accomplish this end, Governor Clark of Missouri and
Governor Cass of Michigan, on the nineteenth day of August, 1825,
convened, at Prairie du Chien, a grand congress of Indians, representing
the Dakotas, Chippewas (then called Ojibways), Sauks, Foxes, Menomonies,
Iowas, Winnebagoes, Pottaiwatomies and Ottawas, and it was determined by
treaties among them where the dividing lines between their countries
should be. This partition gave the Chippewas a large part of what is now
Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the Dakotas lands to the west of them; but
it soon became apparent that these boundary lines between the Dakotas
and the Chippewas would not be adhered to, and Governor Cass and Mr. T.
L. McKenney were appointed commissioners to again convene the Chippewas,
but this time at Fond du Lac, and there, on the fifth day of August,
1826, another treaty was entered into, which, with the exception of the
Fort Snelling treaty, was the first one ever made on the soil of
Minnesota. By this treaty the Chippewas, among other things, renounced
all allegiance to or connection with Great Britain, and acknowledged the
authority of the United States. These treaties were, however, rather of
a preliminary character, being intended more for the purpose of
arranging matters between the tribes than making concessions to the
whites, although the whites were permitted to mine and carry away metals
and ores from the Chippewa country by the treaty of Fond du Lac.
The first important treaty made with the Sioux, by which the white men
began to obtain concessions of lands from them, was on Aug. 29, 1837.
This treaty was made at Washington, through Joel R. Poinsette, and to
give an idea of how little time and few words were spent in
accomplishing important ends, I will quote the first article of this
treaty:
"Article I.--The chiefs and braves representing the parties
having an interest therein cede to the United States all their
land east of the Mississippi river, and all their islands in
said river."
The rest of the treaty is confined to the consideration to be paid, and
matters of that nature.
This treaty extinguished all the Dakota title in lands east of the
Mississippi river, in Minnesota, and opened the way for immigration on
all that side of the Mississippi; and immigration was not long in
accepting the invitation, for between the making of the treaty, in
1837, and the admission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union, in
1848, there had sprung into existence in that state, west of the St.
Croix, the towns of Stillwater, St. Anthony, St. Paul, Marine, Arcola,
and other lesser settlements, which were all left in Minnesota when
Wisconsin adopted the St. Croix as its western boundary.
Most important, however, of all the treaties that opened up the lands of
Minnesota to settlement were those of 1851, made at Traverse des Sioux
and Mendota, by which the Sioux ceded to the United States all their
lands in Minnesota and Iowa, except a small reservation for their
habitation, situated on the upper waters of the Minnesota river.
The Territory of Minnesota was organized in 1849, and immediately
presented to the world a very attractive field for immigration. The most
desirable lands in the new territory were on the west side of the
Mississippi, but the title to them was still in the Indians. The whites
could not wait until this was extinguished, but at once began to settle
on the land lying on the west bank of the Mississippi, north of the
north line of Iowa, and in the new territory. These settlements extended
up the Mississippi river as far as St. Cloud, in what is now Stearns
county, and extended up the Minnesota river as far as the mouth of the
Blue Earth river, in the neighborhood of Mankato. These settlers were
all trespassers on the lands of the Indians, but a little thing like
that never deterred a white American from pushing his fortunes towards
the setting sun. It soon became apparent that the Indians must yield to
the approaching tidal wave of settlement, and measures were taken to
acquire their lands by the United States. In 1851, Luke Lea, then
commissioner of Indian affairs, and Alexander Ramsey, then governor of
the Territory of Minnesota and ex-officio superintendent of Indian
affairs, were appointed commissioners to treat with the Indians at
Traverse des Sioux, and, after much feasting and talking, a treaty was
completed and signed, on the twenty-third day of July, 1851, between the
United States and the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux, whereby
these bands ceded to the United States a vast tract of land lying in
Minnesota and Iowa, and reserved for their future occupation a strip of
land on the upper Minnesota, ten miles wide on each side of the center
line of the river. For this cession they were to be paid $1,665,000,
which was to be paid, a part in cash to liquidate debts, etc., and five
per cent per annum on the balance for fifty years, the interest to be
paid annually, partly in cash and partly in funds for agriculture,
civilization, education, and in goods of various kinds; which payments,
when completed, were to satisfy both principal and interest, the policy
and expectation of the government being that at the end of fifty years
the Indians would be civilized and self-sustaining.
Amendments were made to this treaty in the senate, and it was not fully
completed and proclaimed until Feb. 24, 1853.
Almost instantly after the execution of this treaty, and on Aug. 5,
1851, another treaty was negotiated by the same commissioners with two
other bands of Sioux in Minnesota, the M'day-wa-kon-tons and
Wak-pay-koo-tays. By this treaty these bands ceded to the United States
all their lands in the Territory of Minnesota or State of Iowa, for
which they were to be paid $1,410,000, very much in the same way that
was provided in the last-named treaty with the Si-si-tons and
Wak-pay-tons. This treaty, also, was amended by the senate, and not
fully perfected until Feb. 24, 1853.
Both of these treaties contained the provision that "The laws of the
United States, prohibiting the introduction and sale of spirituous
liquors in the Indian country, shall be in full force and effect
throughout the territory hereby ceded and lying in Minnesota until
otherwise directed by congress or the president of the United States." I
mention this feature of the treaty because it gave rise to much
litigation as to whether the treaty making power had authority to
legislate for settlers on the ceded lands of the United States. The
power was sustained. These treaties practically obliterated the Indian
title from the lands composing Minnesota, and its extinction brings us
to the
TERRITORIAL PERIOD.
It must be kept in mind that, during the period which we have been
attempting to review, the people who inhabited what is now Minnesota
were subject to a great many different governmental jurisdictions. This,
however, did not in any way concern them, as they did not, as a general
thing, know or care anything about such matters; but as it may be
interesting to the retrospective explorer to be informed on the subject,
I will briefly present it. Minnesota has two sources of parentage. The
part of it lying west of the Mississippi was part of the Louisiana
purchase, made by President Jefferson from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803,
and the part east of that river was part of the Northwest Territory,
ceded by Virginia, in 1784, to the United States. I will give the
successive changes of political jurisdiction, beginning on the west side
of the river.
First, it was part of New Spain, and Spanish. It was then purchased from
Spain by France, and became French. On June 30, 1803, it became
American, by purchase from France, and was part of the Province of
Louisiana, and so remained until March 26, 1804, when an act was passed
by congress, creating the Territory of Orleans, which included all of
the Louisiana purchase south of the thirty-third degree of north
latitude. This act gave the Territory of Louisiana a government, and
called all the country north of it the District of Louisiana, which was
to be governed by the Territory of Indiana, which had been created in
1800 out of the Northwest Territory, and had its seat of government at
Vincennes, on the Wabash.
On June 4, 1812, the District of Louisiana was erected into the
Territory of Missouri, where we remained until June 28, 1834, when all
the public lands of the United States lying west of the Mississippi,
north of the State of Missouri, and south of the British line, were, by
act of congress, attached to the Territory of Michigan, under whose
jurisdiction we remained until April 10, 1836, when the Territory of
Wisconsin was created. This law went into effect July 3, 1836, and
Wisconsin took in our territory lying west of the Mississippi, and there
it remained until June 12, 1838, when the Territory of Iowa was created,
taking us in and holding us until the State of Iowa was admitted into
the Union, on March 3, 1845, which left us without any government west
of the Mississippi.
The part of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi was originally part
of the Northwest Territory. On May 7, 1800, it became part of the
Indiana Territory, and remained so until April 26, 1836, when it became
part of the Wisconsin Territory; and so continued until May 29, 1848,
when Wisconsin entered the Union as a state, with the St. Croix river
for its western boundary. By this arrangement of the western boundary of
Wisconsin all the territory west of the St. Croix and east of the
Mississippi, like that west of the river, was left without any
government at all.
One of the curious results of the many governmental changes which the
western part of Minnesota underwent is illustrated in the residence of
Gen. Henry H. Sibley, at Mendota. In 1834, at the age of twenty-two, Mr.
Sibley commenced his residence at Mendota, as the agent of the American
Fur Company's establishment. At this point Mr. Sibley built the first
private residence that was erected in Minnesota. It was a large,
comfortable dwelling, constructed of the blue limestone found in the
vicinity, with commodious porticos on the river front. The house was
built in 1835-36, and was then in the Territory of Michigan. Mr. Sibley
lived in it successively in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Territory
and State of Minnesota. He removed to St. Paul in the year 1862. Every
distinguished visitor who came to Minnesota in the early days was
entertained by Mr. Sibley in this hospitable old mansion, and, together
with its genial, generous and refined proprietor, it contributed much
towards planting the seeds of those aesthetic amenities of social life
that have so generally flourished in the later days of Minnesota's
history and given it its deserved prominence among the states of the
West. The house still stands, and has been occupied at different times
since its founder abandoned it as a Catholic institution of some kind
and an artists' summer school. The word Mendota is Sioux, and means "The
meeting of the waters."
It was the admission of Wisconsin into the Union in 1848 that brought
about the organization of the Territory of Minnesota. The peculiar
situation in which all the people residing west of the St. Croix found
themselves set them to devising ways and means to obtain some kind of
government to live under. It was a debatable question whether the
remnant of Wisconsin which was left over when the state was admitted
carried with it the territorial government, or whether it was a "no
man's land," and different views were entertained on the subject. The
question was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that the territorial
governor, Governor Dodge, had been elected to the senate of the United
States from the new state, and the territorial secretary, Mr. John
Catlin, who would have become governor ex-officio when a vacancy
occurred in the office of governor, resided in Madison, and the delegate
to congress, Mr. John H. Tweedy, had resigned; so, even if the
territorial government had, in law, survived, there seemed to be no one
to represent and administer it.
There was no lack of ability among the inhabitants of the abandoned
remnant of Wisconsin. In St. Paul dwelt Henry M. Rice, Louis Roberts, J.
W. Simpson, A. L. Larpenteur, David Lambert, Henry Jackson, Vetal
Guerin, David Herbert, Oliver Rosseau, Andre Godfrey, Joseph Rondo,
James R. Clewell, Edward Phalen, William G. Carter, and many others. In
Stillwater and on the St. Croix were Morton S. Wilkinson, Henry L. Moss,
John McKusick, Joseph R. Brown, etc. In Mendota resided Henry H. Sibley.
In St. Anthony, William R. Marshall; at Fort Snelling, Franklin Steele.
I could name many others, but the above is a representative list. It
will be observed that many of them were French.
An initial meeting was held in St. Paul, in July of 1848, at Henry
Jackson's trading house, to consider the matter, which was undoubtedly
the first public meeting ever held in Minnesota. On the fifth day of
August, in the same year, a similar meeting was held in Stillwater, and
out of these meetings grew a call for a convention, to be held at
Stillwater, on August 26th, which was held accordingly. There were
present about sixty delegates.
At this meeting a letter from Hon. John Catlin, the secretary of
Wisconsin Territory, was read, giving it as his opinion that the
territorial government of Wisconsin still existed, and that if a
delegate to congress was elected he would be admitted to a seat.
A memorial to congress was prepared, setting forth the peculiar
situation in which the people of the remnant found themselves, and
praying relief in the organization of a territorial government.
During the session of this convention there was a verbal agreement
entered into between the members, to the effect that when the new
territory was organized the capital should be at St. Paul, the
penitentiary at Stillwater, the university at St. Anthony, and the
delegate to congress should be taken from Mendota. I have had reason to
assert publicly this fact on former occasions, and so far as it relates
to the university and the penitentiary, my statement was questioned by
Minnesota's greatest historian, Rev. Edward D. Neill, in a published
article, signed "Iconoclast;" but I sustained my position by letters
from surviving members of the convention, which I published, and to
which no answer was ever made. The same statement can be found in
Williams' "History of St. Paul," published in 1876, at page 182.
The result of this convention was the selection of Henry H. Sibley as
its agent or delegate, to proceed to Washington and present the memorial
and resolutions to the United States authorities. It was curiously
enough stipulated that the delegate should pay his own expenses.
Shortly after this event the Hon. John H. Tweedy, who was the regularly
elected delegate to congress from the Territory of Wisconsin, no doubt
supposing his official career was terminated, resigned his position, and
Mr. John Catlin, claiming to be the governor of the territory, came to
Stillwater, and issued a proclamation on Oct. 9, 1848, ordering a
special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
Delegate Tweedy. The election was held on the thirtieth day of October.
Mr. Henry H. Sibley and Mr. Henry M. Rice became candidates, neither
caring very much about the result, and Mr. Sibley was elected. There was
much doubt entertained as to the delegate being allowed to take his
seat, but in November he proceeded to Washington, and was admitted,
after considerable discussion.
On the 3d of March, 1849, the delegate succeeded in passing an act
organizing the Territory of Minnesota, the boundaries of which embraced
all the territory between the western boundary of Wisconsin and the
Mississippi river, and also all that was left unappropriated on the
admission of the State of Iowa, which carried our western boundary to
the Missouri river, and included within our limits a large part of what
is now North and South Dakota.
The passage of this act was the first step in the creation of Minnesota.
No part of the country had ever before borne that name. The word is
composed of two Sioux words, "Minne," which means water, and "Sota,"
which means the condition of the sky when fleecy white clouds are seen
floating slowly and quietly over it. It has been translated, "sky
tinted," giving to the word Minnesota the meaning of sky-tinted water.
The name originated in the fact that, in the early days, the river now
called Minnesota used to rise very rapidly in the spring, and there was
constantly a caving in of the banks, which disturbed its otherwise
pellucid waters, and gave them the appearance of the sky when covered
with the light clouds I have mentioned. The similarity was heightened by
the current keeping the disturbing element constantly in motion. There
is a town just above St. Peter, called Kasota, which means "cloudy sky;"
not stormy or threatening, but a sky dotted with fleecy white clouds.
The best conception of this word can be found by pouring a few drops of
milk into a glass of clear water, and observing the cloudy disturbance.
The principal river in the territory was then called the St. Peters
river, but the name was changed to the Minnesota.
EDUCATION.
An act organizing a territory simply creates a government for its
inhabitants, limiting and regulating its powers, executive, legislative
and judicial, and in our country they generally resemble each other in
all essential features. But the organic act of Minnesota contained one
provision never before found in any that preceded it. It had been
customary to donate to the territory and future state, one section of
land in each surveyed township for school purposes, and section 16 had
been selected as the one, but in the Minnesota act, the donation was
doubled, and sections 16 and 36 in each township were reserved for the
schools, which amounted to one-eighteenth of all the lands in the
territory; and when it is understood that the state as now constituted
contains 84,287 square miles, or about 53,943,379 acres of land, it will
be seen that the grant was princely in extent and incalculable in value.
No other state in the Union has been endowed with such a magnificent
educational foundation. I may except Texas, which came into the Union,
not as a part of the United States' public domain, but as an
independent republic, owning all its lands, amounting to 237,504 square
miles, or 152,002,560 acres, a vast empire in itself. I remember hearing
a distinguished senator, in the course of the debate on its admission
into the Union, describe its immensity by saying, "A pigeon could not
fly across it in a week."
It affords every citizen of Minnesota great pride to know that, under
all phases and conditions of our territory and state, whether in
prosperity or adversity, the school fund has always been held sacred,
and neither extravagance, neglect nor peculation has ever assailed it,
but it has been husbanded with jealous care from time to time since the
first dollar was realized from it until the present, and has accumulated
until the principal is estimated at $20,000,000. The state auditor, in
his last report of it, says:
"The extent of the school land grant should ultimately be about
three million acres, and as the average price of this land
heretofore sold is $5.96 per acre, the amount of principal alone
should yield the school fund not less than $17,000,000. To this
must be added the amount received from sales of timber, and for
lease and royalty of mineral lands, which will not be less than
$3,000,000 more. It is not probable that the average sale price
of this land will be reduced in the future, but it may increase,
especially in view of the improved method of sale inaugurated by
the new land law."
The general method of administering the school fund is to invest the
proceeds arising from the sale of the lands, and distribute the interest
among the counties of the state according to the number of children
attending school; the principal always to remain untouched and
inviolate.
Generous grants of land have also been made for a state university,
amounting to 92,558 acres; also, for an agricultural college to the
extent of one hundred thousand acres, which two funds have been
consolidated, and together they have accumulated to the sum of
$1,159,790.73, all of which is securely invested.
The state has also been endowed with five hundred thousand acres of land
for internal improvements, and all its lands falling within the
designation of swamp lands. An act of congress, of Feb. 26, 1857, also
gave it ten sections of land for the purpose of completing public
buildings at the seat of government, and all the salt springs, not to
exceed twelve, in the state, with six sections of land to each spring,
in all seventy-two sections. The twelve salt springs have all been
discovered and located, and the lands selected. The salt spring lands
have been transferred to the regents of the university, to be held in
trust to pay the cost of a geological and natural history survey of the
state. It is estimated that the salt spring lands will produce, on the
same valuation as the school lands, the sum of $300,000. Large sums will
also be gained by the state from the sale of timber stumpage, and the
products of its mineral lands. Some idea of the magnitude of the fund to
be derived from the mineral lands of the state may be learned from the
report of the state auditor for the year 1896, in which he says that
during the years 1895-96 there was received from and under all mineral
leases, contracts and royalties, $170,128.83.
It will be seen from this statement that the educational interests of
Minnesota are largely provided for without resort to direct taxation,
although up to the present time that means of revenue has to some extent
been utilized to meet the expenses of the grand system prevailing
throughout the state.
THE FIRST TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
The organization of the territory was completed by the appointment of
Alexander Ramsey of Pennsylvania as governor, Aaron Goodrich as chief
justice, and David Cooper and Bradley B. Meeker as associate justices,
C. K. Smith as secretary, Joshua L. Taylor as marshal, and Henry L. Moss
as district attorney.
On the 27th of May, 1849, the governor and his family arrived in St.
Paul; but there being no suitable accommodations for them, they became
the guests of Hon. Henry H. Sibley, at Mendota, whose hospitality, as
usual, was never failing, and for several weeks there resided the four
men who have been perhaps more prominent in the development of the state
than any others,--Henry H. Sibley, Alexander Ramsey, Henry M. Rice and
Franklin Steele, all of whom have been honored by having important
counties named after them and by being chosen to fill high places of
honor and trust.
The governor soon returned to the capital, and on the 1st of June, 1849,
issued a proclamation, declaring the territory duly organized. On the
11th of June he issued a second proclamation, dividing the territory
into three judicial districts. The county of St. Croix, which was one of
the discarded counties of Wisconsin, and embraced the present county of
Ramsey, was made the first district. The second was composed of the
county of La Pointe (another of the Wisconsin counties), and the region
north and west of the Mississippi river, and north of the Minnesota, and
of a line running due west from the head waters of the Minnesota to the
Missouri. The country west of the Mississippi and south of the Minnesota
formed the third district. The chief justice was assigned to the first,
Meeker to the second and Cooper to the third, and courts were ordered
held in each district as follows: At Stillwater, in the first district,
on the second Monday, at the Falls of St. Anthony on the third Monday,
and at Mendota on the fourth Monday, in August.
A census was taken of the inhabitants of the territory, in pursuance of
the requirements of the organic act, with the following result. I give
here the details of the census, as it is interesting to know what
inhabited places there were in the territory at this time, as well as
the number of inhabitants:
Total
Inhabitants.
Stillwater 609
Lake St. Croix 211
Marine Mills 173
St. Paul 840
Little Canada and St. Anthony 571
Crow Wing and Long Prairie 350
Osakis Rapids 133
Falls of St. Croix 16
Snake River 82
La Pointe County 22
Crow Wing 174
Big Stone Lake and Lac qui Parle 68
Little Rock 35
Prairieville 22
Oak Grove 23
Black Dog Village 18
Crow Wing (east side) 70
Mendota 122
Red Wing Village 33
Wabasha and Root River 114
Fort Snelling 38
Soldiers, women and children in forts 317
Pembina 637
Missouri River 85
------
Total 4,764
On the seventh day of July the governor issued a proclamation, dividing
the territory into seven council districts, and ordering an election
for a delegate to congress, nine councillors, and eighteen
representatives, to constitute the first territorial legislature, to be
held on the first day of August. At this election Henry H. Sibley was
again chosen delegate to congress.
COURTS.