loaned in aid of any individual association or corporation,
except that, for the purpose of expediting the construction of
the lines of railroads, in aid of which the congress of the
United States has granted lands to the Territory of Minnesota,
the governor shall cause to be issued and delivered to each of
the companies in which said grants are vested by the legislative
assembly of Minnesota the special bonds of the state, bearing an
interest of seven per cent per annum, payable semi-annually in
the city of New York, as a loan of public credit, to an amount
not exceeding twelve hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or an
aggregate amount to all of said companies not exceeding five
millions of dollars, in manner following, to-wit:"
The amendment then prescribes that, whenever ten miles of railroad was
graded so as to be ready for the superstructure, it should receive
$100,000 of the bonds, and when ten miles should be completed with the
cars running, the company so completing should receive another $100,000
of the bonds until each company had received its quota. The bonds were
to be denominated "State Railroad Bonds," for the payment of which the
faith and credit of the state was to be pledged. The railroad companies
were to pay the principal and interest of the bonds, and to secure such
payment they were to pledge the net profits of their respective roads,
and to convey to the state the first two hundred and forty sections of
land they received, and to deliver to the state treasurer an amount of
their first mortgage bonds equal to the amount of bonds received by them
from the state, and mortgage to the state their roads and franchises.
This was all the security the companies could give, but the underlying
difficulty was that it had no value whatever. There were no roads, no
net or other profits. The lands had no value whatever except such as lay
in the future, which was dependent on the construction of the roads and
the settlement of the country. The bonds of the companies, of course,
possessed only such value as the property they represented, which was
nothing, and the mortgages were of the same character. The whole scheme
was based upon hopes, which the slightest application of sober reasoning
would have pronounced impossible of fulfillment. But the country was
hungry, and willing to seize upon anything that offered a semblance or
shadow of relief.
The proposed amendment was to be submitted to the people for adoption
or rejection, at an election to be held on the fifteenth day of April,
1858. In order to fully comprehend the condition of the public mind, it
should be known that the constitution, with all the safeguards that I
have mentioned, had only been in force since Oct. 13, 1857, a period of
about six months, and had been carried by a vote of 30,055 for to 571
against its adoption.
The campaign preceding the election was a very active one. The railroad
people flooded the state with speakers, documents, pictures, glee clubs
singing songs of the delights of "Riding on the Rail," and every
conceivable artifice was resorted to to carry the amendment. It was
carried by a vote of 25,023 in favor of its passage, to 6,733 against.
To give an idea of the intense feeling that was exhibited in this
election, it is only necessary to state that at the city of Winona there
were 1,102 votes cast in favor of the amendment and only one vote
against it. This negative vote, to his eternal honor be it said, was
cast by Thomas Wilson, afterwards chief justice of the state, and now a
citizen of St. Paul.
In the execution of the requirements of the amendment, the railroad
companies claimed that they could issue first mortgage bonds on their
properties to an indefinite amount and exchange them with the state for
its bonds, bond for bond, but the governor, who was Hon. Henry H.
Sibley, construed the amendment to mean that the first mortgage bonds of
the companies which the state was to receive must be an exclusive first
lien on the lands and franchises of the company. He therefore declined
to issue the bonds of the state unless his views were adopted. The
Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company, one of the land grant
corporations, applied to the supreme court of the state for a writ of
mandamus, to compel the governor to issue the bonds. The case was heard,
and two members of the court holding the views of the applicants, the
writ was issued. I was a member of the court at that time, but
entertaining opposite views from the majority, I filed a dissenting
opinion. Anyone sufficiently interested in the question can find the
case reported in Volume II. of the Minnesota Reports, at page 13. This
decision was only to be advisory, as the courts have no power to coerce
the executive.
The railroad companies entered into contracts for grading their roads,
and a sufficient amount of grading was done to entitle them to about
$2,300,000 of the bonds, which were issued accordingly, and went into
the hands of the contractors to pay for the work done. It, however, soon
became apparent that no completed railroad would ever result from this
scheme, even if the whole five millions of bonds were issued. What
should have been known before was made clear when any of these state
bonds were put on the market. The credit of the state was worthless, and
the bonds were valueless. The people became as anxious to shake off the
incubus of debt they had imposed upon their infant state as they had
been to rush into it.
Governor Sibley, in his message, delivered to the second legislature in
December, 1859, said, in speaking of this issue of bonds:
"I regret to be obliged to state that the measure has proved a failure,
and has by no means accomplished what was hoped for it, either in
providing means for the issue of a safe currency, or of aiding the
companies in the completion of the roads."
At the election, held on Nov. 6, 1860, the constitution was again
amended, by expunging from it the amendment of 1858 authorizing the
issue of the state railroad bonds, and prohibiting any further issue of
them. An amendment was also made to section 2 of Article IX. of the
constitution at the same time, by providing that no law levying a tax,
or making any other provisions for the payment of interest or principal
of the bonds already issued, should take effect or be in force until it
had been submitted to the people, and adopted by a majority of the
electors.
It was very proper to prohibit the issuance of any more of the bonds,
but the provision requiring a vote of the people before those already
out could be paid was practically repudiation, and the state labored
under that damaging stigma for over twenty years. Attempts were made to
obtain the sanction of the people for the payment of these bonds, but
they were defeated, until it became unpleasant to admit that one was a
resident of Minnesota. Whenever the name of Minnesota was heard on the
floor of congress as an applicant for favors, or even for justice, it
was met by the charge of repudiation. This was an era in our history
very much to be regretted, but the state grew steadily in material
wealth.
On March 2, 1881, the legislature passed an act, the general purpose of
which was to adjust, with the consent of the holders, the outstanding
bonds, at the rate of fifty cents on the dollar, and contained the
curious provision that the supreme court should decide whether it must
first be submitted to the people in order to be valid or not, and if the
supreme court should not so decide, then an equal number of the judges
of the district court should act. The supreme court judges declined to
act, and the governor called upon the district court judges to assume
the duty. Before any action was taken by the latter, the attorney
general applied to the supreme court for a writ of prohibition to
prevent them from taking any action. The case was most elaborately
discussed, and the opinion of the supreme court was delivered by Chief
Justice Gilfillan, which is most exhaustive and convincing. The court
holds that the act of 1881 is void, by conferring upon the judiciary
legislative power, and that the amendment to the constitution providing
that no bonds should be paid unless the law authorizing such payment was
first submitted to and adopted by the people was void, as being
repugnant to the clause in the constitution of the United States, that
no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts. With
these impediments to a just settlement of this question removed, the
state was at liberty to make such arrangements with its bond creditors
as was satisfactory. John S. Pillsbury was governor at that time. He had
always been in favor of paying the bonds, and removing the stain from
the honor of the state, and finding his hands free, it did not take him
long to arrange the whole matter satisfactorily, and to the approval of
all the parties. The debt was paid by the issue of new bonds, at the
rate of fifty per cent of the principal and interest of the outstanding
ones and the surrender of the latter. This adjustment ended a
transaction that was conceived and executed in folly, and was only
prevented from eventuating in crime by the persistent efforts of our
most honorable and thoughtful citizens throughout the state. The
transaction has often been called by those who advocated repudiation,
"An old Territorial fraud," but there was nothing in it but a bad
bargain, made under the extraordinary pressure of financial
difficulties.
THE FIRST RAILROAD ACTUALLY BUILT.
The state was restored to all the lands and franchises of the various
companies by means of foreclosure, and on March 8, 1861, passed an act
to facilitate the construction of the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad, by
which act the old railroad was rehabilitated, and required to construct
and put in operation its road from St. Paul to St. Anthony on or before
the first day of January, 1862. The company was required to deposit with
the governor $10,000 as an earnest of good faith. Work was soon
commenced, and the first ten miles constructed as required. This was the
first railroad ever built and operated in Minnesota. The first
locomotive engine was brought up the river on a barge, and landed at the
St. Paul end of the track in the latter part of October, 1861. This
pioneer locomotive was called the "William Crooks," after an engineer of
that name who was very active and instrumental in the building of the
road. This first ten miles of road cost more energy and brain work than
all the rest of the vast system that has succeeded it. It was the
initial step in what is now known as the Great Northern Railway, a road
that spans the continent from St. Paul to the Pacific, and reflects upon
its enterprising builders all the credit due to the pioneer.
It was not long before the Northern Pacific Railroad Company was
incorporated by act of congress, passed on July 2, 1864. This road was
to extend from the head of Lake Superior to Puget Sound, on a line north
of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, with a branch via the
valley of the Columbia river to Portland, Ore. The company had a grant
of land of twenty alternate sections through the states. It was
commenced shortly after its incorporation, but met with financial
disaster, and was sold under foreclosure of a mortgage, and underwent
many trials and tribulations, until it was finally completed on the
eighth day of September, in the year 1883, and has been in successful
operation ever since. As the Northern Pacific has its eastern terminus
and general offices in St. Paul, it is essentially a Minnesota road. The
same may be said of the Great Northern, although both are
transcontinental roads.
From the small beginning of railroad construction in 1862 have grown
thirty-seven distinct railroad corporations, operating in the state of
Minnesota 6,062.69 miles of main tracks, according to the official
reports of 1898, with quite a substantial addition in course of
construction. These various lines cover and render accessible nearly
every city, town and village in the state.
The method of taxation of railroad property adopted by the state is a
very wise and just one. It imposes a tax of three per cent upon the
gross earnings of the roads, which, in 1896, yielded the comfortable sum
of $1,037,194.40, the gross earnings of all amounting to $36,918,741.71.
This plan of taxation gives the state a direct interest in the
prosperity of the roads, as its taxes are increased when business is
good and the roads are relieved from oppressive taxation in time of
business depression.
The grading which was done and for which the bonds of the state were
issued was, as a general thing, utilized in the final construction of
the roads.
THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE.
In 1842 the country north of Iowa and west of the Mississippi as far
north as the Little Rapids, on the Minnesota river, was occupied by the
M'day-wa-kon-ton and Wak-pe-ku-ta bands of Sioux. The Wak-pe-ku-ta band
was at war with the Sacs and Foxes, and was under the leadership of two
principal chiefs, named Wam-di-sapa (the "Black Eagle") and Ta-sa-gi.
Wam-di-sapa and his band were a lawless, predatory set, whose
depredations prolonged the war with the Sacs and Foxes, and finally
separated him and his band from the Wak-pe-ku-tas. They moved west
towards the Missouri, and occupied the valley of the Vermillion river,
and so thorough was the separation that the band was not regarded as
part of the Wak-pe-ku-ta when the latter, together with the
M'day-wa-kon-tons, made their treaty with the government at Mendota in
1851.
By 1857 all that remained of Wam-di-sapa's straggling band was about ten
or fifteen lodges under the chieftainship of Ink-pa-du-ta, or the
"Scarlet Point," or the "Red End." They had planted near Spirit lake,
which lies partly in Dickinson county, Iowa, and partly in Jackson
county, Minnesota, prior to 1857, and ranged the country from there to
the Missouri, and were considered a bad lot of vagabonds.
Between 1855 and 1857 a small settlement had sprung up about forty miles
south of Spirit lake, on the In-yan-yan-ke or Rock river.
In the spring of 1856 Hon. William Freeborn of Red Wing (after whom the
county of Freeborn in this state is called) had projected a settlement
at Spirit lake, which, by the next spring, contained six or seven
houses, with as many families.
About the same time another settlement was started some ten or fifteen
miles north of Spirit lake, on the head waters of the Des Moines, and a
town laid out which was called Springfield. In the spring of 1857 there
were two stores and several families at this place.
These settlements were on the extreme frontier, and very much isolated.
There was nothing to the west of them until you reached the Rocky
Mountains, and the nearest settlements on the north and northeast were
on the Minnesota and Watonwan rivers, while to the south lay the small
settlement on the Rock river, about forty miles distant. All these
settlements, although on ceded lands, were actually in the heart of the
Indian country, and absolutely unprotected and defenseless.
In 1857 I was United States Indian agent for the Sioux of the
Mississippi, but had lived on the frontier long enough before to have
acquired a general knowledge of Ink-pa-du-ta's reputation and his
whereabouts. I was stationed on the Redwood and Yellow Medicine rivers,
near where they empty into the Minnesota, and about eighty miles from
Spirit lake.
Early in March, 1857, Ink-pa-du-ta's band was hunting in the
neighborhood of the settlement on the Rock river, and one of them was
bitten by a dog belonging to a white man. The Indian killed the dog. The
owner of the dog assaulted the Indian, and beat him severely. The white
men then went in a body to the camp of the Indians and disarmed them.
The arms were either returned to them or they obtained others, I
have never ascertained which. They were probably given back to them on
condition that they should leave, as they at once came north to Spirit
lake, where they must have arrived about the 6th or 7th of March. They
proceeded at once to massacre the settlers, and killed all the men they
found there, together with some women, and carried into captivity four
women, three of whom were married and one single. Their names were Mrs.
Noble, Mrs. Marble, Mrs. Thatcher and Miss Gardner. They came north to
the Springfield settlement, where they killed all the people they found.
The total number killed at both places was forty-two.
I was the first person to receive notice of this affair. On the 9th of
March a Mr. Morris Markham, who had been absent from the Spirit lake
settlement for some time, returned, and found all the people dead or
missing. Seeing signs of Indians, he took it for granted that they had
perpetrated the outrage. He at once went to Springfield, and reported
what he had seen. Some of the people fled, but others remained, and lost
their lives in consequence. It has always been my opinion that, being in
the habit of trading with these Indians occasionally, they did not
believe they stood in any danger; and, what is equally probable, they
may not have believed the report. Everyone who has lived in an Indian
country knows how frequently startling rumors are in circulation, and
how often they prove unfounded.
The people of Springfield sent the news to me by two young men, who came
on foot through the deep snow. The story was corroborated in a way that
convinced me that it was true. They arrived on the 18th of March,
completely worn out and snow-blind. I at once made a requisition on
Colonel Alexander, commanding at Fort Ridgely, for troops. There were at
the fort five or six companies of the Tenth United States Infantry, and
the colonel promptly ordered Capt. Barnard E. Bee of Company "A" to
proceed with his company to the scene of the trouble. The country
between the fort and Spirit lake was uninhabited, and the distance from
eighty to one hundred miles. I furnished two experienced guides from
among my Sioux half-breeds. They took a pony and a light traineau, put
on their snowshoes, and were ready to go anywhere. Not so with the
soldiers, however. They were equipped in about the same manner as they
would have been in campaigning in Florida, their only transportation
being heavy wheeled army wagons, drawn by six mules. It soon became
apparent that the outfit could not move straight to the objective point,
and it became necessary to follow a trail down the Minnesota to Mankato
and up the Watonwan in the direction of the lake, which was reached
after one of the most arduous marches ever made by troops, on which for
many miles the soldiers had to march ahead of the mules to break a road
for them. The Indians, as we expected, were gone. A short pursuit was
made, but the guides pronounced the camp fires of the Indians several
days old, and it was abandoned. The dead were buried, and after a short
stay, the soldiers returned to the fort.
When this affair became known throughout the territory it caused great
consternation and apprehension, most of the settlers supposing it was
the work of the Sioux nation. Many of the most exposed abandoned their
homes temporarily. Their fears, however, were allayed by an explanation
which I published in the newspapers.
I at once began to devise plans for the rescue of the white women. I
knew that any hostile demonstration would result in their murder. While
thinking the matter out an event occurred that opened the way to a
solution. A party of my Indians had been hunting on the Big Sioux river,
and having learned that Ink-pa-du-ta was encamped at Lake
Chan-pta-ya-tan-ka, and that he had some white women prisoners, two
young brothers visited the camp and succeeded in purchasing Mrs. Marble,
and brought her into the Yellow Medicine agency, and delivered her to
the missionaries, who turned her over to me. I received her on the 21st
of March, and learned that two of the other captives were still alive.
Of course, my first object was to rescue the survivors, and to encourage
the Indians to make the attempt, I paid the brothers who had brought in
Mrs. Marble $500 each. I could raise only $500 at the agency in money,
and to make up the deficiency I resorted to a method, then novel, but
which has since become quite general. I issued a bond, which, although
done without authority, met with a better fate than many that followed
it,--it was paid at maturity.
As it was the first bond ever issued in what is now Minnesota, the two
Dakotas, Montana, and, I may add, the whole Northwest; it may be
interesting to give it in full:
"I, STEPHEN R. RIGGS, Missionary among the Sioux Indians, and I,
CHARLES E. FLANDRAU, United States Indian agent for the Sioux,
being satisfied that Mak-piya-ka-ho-ton and Si-ha-ho-ta, two
Sioux Indians, have performed a valuable service to the
Territory of Minnesota and humanity, by rescuing from captivity
Mrs. Margaret Ann Marble, and delivering her to the Sioux agent,
and being further satisfied that the rescue of the two remaining
white women who are now in captivity among Ink-pa-du-ta's band
of Indians depends very much on the liberality shown towards the
said Indians who have rescued Mrs. Marble, and having full
confidence in the humanity and liberality of the Territory of
Minnesota, through its government and citizens, have this day
paid to said two above named Indians, the sum of five hundred
dollars in money, and do hereby pledge to said two Indians that
the further sum of five hundred dollars will be paid to them by
the Territory of Minnesota or its citizens within three months
from date hereof.
"Dated, May 22, 1857, at Pa-ju-ta-zi-zi, M. T.
"STEPHEN R. RIGGS,
"Missionary, A. B. C. F. M.
"CHAS. E. FLANDRAU,
"U. S. Indian Agent for Sioux."
I immediately called for volunteers to rescue the remaining two women,
and soon had my choice. I selected Paul Ma-za-ku-ta-ma-ni, the president
of the Hazelwood Republic, An-pe-tu-tok-cha, or John Otherday, and
Che-tan-ma-za, or the Iron Hawk. I gave them a large outfit of horses,
wagons, calicos, trinkets of all kinds, and a general assortment of
things that tempt the savage. They started on the twenty-third day of
May, from the Yellow Medicine agency, on their important and dangerous
mission. I did not expect them to return before the middle of June, and
immediately commenced preparations to punish the marauders. I went to
the fort, and together with Colonel Alexander, we laid a plan to attack
Ink-pa-du-ta's camp, with the entire garrison, and utterly annihilate
them, which we would undoubtedly have accomplished had not an unexpected
event frustrated our plans. Of course, we could not move on the Indians
until my expedition had returned with the captives, as that would have
been certain death to them; but just about the time we were anxiously
expecting them, a couple of steamboats arrived at the fort with
peremptory orders for the whole garrison to embark for Utah to join Gen.
Albert Sydney Johnson's expedition against the Mormons, and that was the
last I saw of the Tenth for ten years.
My expedition found that Mrs. Thatcher and Mrs. Noble had been killed,
but succeeded in bringing in Miss Gardner, who was forwarded to me at
St. Paul, and by me formally delivered to Governor Medary on June 23,
1857. She was afterwards married, and is now a widow, Mrs. Abbie Gardner
Sharpe, and resides in the house from which she was abducted by the
savages, forty-three years ago. I paid the Indians who rescued her $400
each for their services. The territory made an appropriation on the
fifteenth day of May, 1857, of $10,000 to rescue the captives, but as
there were no telegraphs or other speedy means of communication, the
work was all done before the news of the appropriation reached the
border. My outlay, however, was all refunded from this appropriation. I
afterwards succeeded, with a squad of soldiers and citizens, in killing
one of Ink-pa-du-ta's sons, who had taken an active part in the
massacre, and that ended the first serious Indian trouble that Minnesota
was afflicted with.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.