Washington County, Minnesota - Chapter 23: Events from A. D. 1854 to Tiie Admission of Minnesota to Tub Union, 1881

Chapter 23: Events from A. D. 1854 to Tiie Admission of Minnesota to Tub Union

Fifth LafUUiure - Execution of VuhaaM - Sillli legislature First hrij(* over llie Miuiwip|.t - Arctic Explorer - Seventh U-giaUture - luUiau girl killed ucai Bloomington Kerry - Eighth legislature - Attempt to Remove the Capital- Special Session of the legit lalure - Convention In frame a State Constitution - Admission of Minnesota to the Uaiou.

The fifth session of the legislature was com¬ menced in the building just completed as the Capitol, on January fourth, 1854. The President of the Council was S. B. Olmstead, and the Speak¬ er of the House of Representatives was N. C. 1). Taylor.

Governor Gorman delivered his first annual message on the tenth, and as his predecessor, urged the importance of railway communications, and dwelt upon the necessity of fostering the in¬ terests of education, and of the lumbermen.

The exciting bill of the session was the act in¬ corporating the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company, introduced by Joseph It. Brown. It was passed after the hour of midnight on the last day of the session. Contrary to the expectation of his friends, the Governor signed the bill.

On the afternoon of December twenty-seventh, the first public execution in Minnesota, in accord¬ ance with the forms of law, look place. Yu-liazee, the Dalikotah who had been convicted in November, 1852, for the murder of a German woman, above Shokpay, was the individual. The scaffold was erected on the open space be¬ tween an inn called the Franklin House and the rear of the late Mr. J. W. Selby's enclosure in St. Paul. About two o'clock, the prisoner, dressed in a white shroud, left the old log pris¬ on, near the court house, and entered a carriage with the officers of the law. Being assisted up the steps that led to the scaffold, he made a few remarks in his own language, and was then exe¬ cuted. Numerous ladies sent in a petition to the governor, asking the pardon of the Indian, to which that officer in declining made an appro¬ priate reply.

The sixth session of the legislature convened on the third of January, 1855. W. P. Murray was elected President of the Council, and James S. Norris Speaker of the House.

About the last of January, the two houses ad¬ journed one day, to attend the exercises occa¬ sioned by the opening of the Hint bridge of any kind, over the mighty Mississippi, from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. It was at Falls of Saint Anthony, and made of wire, and at the time of its opening, the patent for the laud on which the west piers were built, had not been issued from the Laud Office, a striking evi¬ dence of the rapidity with which the city of Minneapolis, which now surrounds the Falls, lias developed.

On the twenty-ninth of March, a convention was held at Saint Anthony, which led to the formation of the Republican party of Minnesota. This body took measures for the holding of a territorial convention at St. Paul, which con¬ vened on the twenty-fifth of July, and William It. Marshall was nominated as delegate to Con¬ gress. Shortly after the friends of Mr. Sibley nominated David Olmsted and Henry M. Rice, the former delegate was also a candidate. The contest was animated, and resulted in the elec¬ tion of Mr. Rice.

Alnnit noon of December twelfth, 1856, a fourhorse vehicle was seen driving rapidly through St. Paul, and deep was the interest when it was announced that one of the Arctic exploring party, Mr. James Stewart, was on his way to Canada with relics of the world-renowned and worldmourned Sir John Franklin. Gathering together the precious fragments found on Montreal Island and vicinity, the party had left the region of ice¬ bergs on the ninth of August, and after a con¬ tinued land journey from that time, had reached

Proposed Removal Of The Seat Of Government

The seventh session of the Legislative Assem¬ bly was begun on the second of January, 1850, and again the exciting question was the Minne¬ sota and Northwestern Railroad Company.

Tliis year was comparatively devoid of interest. The citizens of the territory were busily engaged in making claims in newly organized counties, and in enlarging the area of civilization.

On the twelfth of June, several Ojibways entered the farm house of Mr. WhaUon, who re¬ sided in Hennepin county, on the banks of the Minnesota, a mile below the Bloomington ferry. The wife of the farmer, a friend, and three child¬ ren, besides a little Dahkotah girl, who had been brought up in the mission-house at Kaposia, and so changed in manners that her origin was scarcely perceptible, were sitting in the room when the Indians came in. Instantly seizing the little Indian maiden, they threw her out of the door, killed and scalped her, and fled before the men who were near by, in the field, could reach the house.

The procurement of a state organization, and a grant of lands for railroad purposes, were the topics of political interest during the year 1857.

The eighth Legislative Assembly convened at the capitol on the seventh of January, and J. B. Brisbin was elec-led President of the Council, and J. W. Furber, Speaker of the House.

On Saturday, February twenty -eighth, Mr. Balcorabe offered a resolution to report the bill for the removal of the seat of government, and should Mr. Rolette, chairman of the committee, fail, that W. W. Wales, of said committee, report a copy of said bill.

Mr. Setzer, after the reading of the resolution, moved a call of the Council, and Mr. Rolette was found to be absent. The chair ordered the ser¬ geant at anus to report Mr Rolette in his seat.

Mr. Balcombe moved that further proceedings under the call be dispensed with ; which did not prevail. From that ti me until the next Thursday afternoon, March the fifth, a period of one hun¬ dred and twenty-three hours, the Council re¬ mained in their chamber without recess. At that time a motion to adjourn prevailed. On Friday another motion was made to dispense with the call of the Council, which did not prevail. On Saturday, the Council met, the president declared the call still pending. At seven and a half p. m., a committee of the House was announced. The chair ruled, that no communication from the House could be received while a call of the Coun¬ cil was pending, and the committee withdrew. A motion was again made during the last night of the session, to dispense with all further pro¬ ceedings under the call, which prevailed, with one vote only in the negative.

Mr. Ludden then moved that a committee be appointed to wait on the Governor, and inquire if he had any further communication to make to the Council.

At twelve o'clock at night the president re¬ sumed the chair, and announced that the time limited by law for the continuation of the session of the territorial legislature had expired, and he therefore declared the Council adjourned and the seat of government remained at Saint Paul.

The excitement on the capital question was in¬ tense, and it was a strange scene to see raemlrers of the Council, eating and sleeping in the hall of legislation for days, waiting for the sergeant-atarms to report an absent member in his seat.

On tire twenty-third of February, 1857, an act passed the United States Senate, to authorize the people of Minnesota to form a constitution, preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states.

Governor Gorman called a special session of the legislature, to take into consideration measures that would give efficiency to the act. The extra session convened on April twentyseventh, and a message was transmitted by Sam¬ uel Medary, who had been appointed governor in place of W. A. Gorman, whose term of office had expired. The extra session adjourned on the twenty-thinl of May ; and in accordance with the provisions of the enabling act of Con¬ gress, an election was held on the first Monday in June, for delegates to a convention which w;is to assemble at the capitol on the second Monday in July. The election resulted, as was thought, in giving a majority of delegates to the Republi¬ can party.

At midnight previous to the day fixed for the meeting of the convention, the Republicans pro¬ ceeded to the capitol, because the enabling act had not fixed at what hour on the second Mon¬ day the convention should assemble, and fear¬ ing that the Democratic delegates might antici¬ pate them, and elect the officers of the body. A little before twelve, a. m., on Monday, the secretary of the territory entered the speaker's rostrum, and began to call the body to order ; and at the same time a delegate, J. W. North, who had in his jHissession a written request from the majority of the delegates present, proceeded to do the same thing. The secretary of the ter¬ ritory put a motion to adjourn, and the Demo¬ cratic members present voting in the affirmative, they left the hall. The Republicans, feeling that they were in the majority, remained, and in due time organized, and proceeded with the business specified in the enabling act, to form a constitu¬ tion, and- take all necessary steps for the estab¬ lishment of a state government, in conformity with the Federal Constitution, subject to the approval and ratification of the people of the proposed state.

After several days the Democratic wing also organized in the Senate chamber at the capitol, and, claiming to be the true hotly, also proceeded to form a constitution. Roth parties were re¬ markably orderly and intelligent, and everything was marked by i>erf ect decorum. A fter they had been in session some weeks, moderate counsels prevailed, and a committee of conference was appointed from each body, which resulted in both adopting the constitution framed by the Democratic wing, on the twenty-ninth of Auggust. According to the provision of the consti¬ tution, an election was held for state officers and the adoption of the constitution, on the second Tuesday, the thirteenth of Oetolier. The constitution was adopted by almost a unanimous vote. It provided that the territorial officers should retain their offices until the state was ad¬ mitted into the Union, not anticipating the long delay which was experienced.

The first session of the stale legislature com¬ menced on the first Wednesday of Dccemlier, at the capitol, in the city of Saint Paul; and during the month elected Henry M. Rice and James Shields as their Representatives in the United States Senate.

On the twenty-ninth of January, 1858, Mr. Douglas submitted a bill to the United States Senate, for the admission of Minnesota into the Union. On the first of February, a discussion arose on the bill, in which Senators Douglas, Wilson, Ciwin, Ilale, Mason, Green, Brown, and Crittenden participated. Brown, of Mississippi, was opposed to the admission of Minnesota, un¬ til the Kansas question was settled. Mr. Crit¬ tenden, as a Southern man, could not endorse all that was said by the Senator from Mississippi; and his words of wisdom and moderation during this day's discussion, were worthy of reme.nbrance. On April the seventh, the bill passed the Senate with only three dissenting votes; and in a short time the House of Representatives concurred, and on May the eleventh, the Presi¬ dent approved, and Minnesota was fully rec¬ ognized as one of the United States of America.