Missouri

“ The Missouri is a doleful stream, shallow, with huge sandbanks in the middle, and great swamps at the side, but striking green bluffs rising above on the east bank under which we went; and behind them I saw the sun rise in great beauty. We just crossed the river to Omaha to say we had been in Missouri and seen the terminus of the Union-Pacific Railway, and a fine go-ahead place it is, like Dubuque, only twice as big and finely situate on hills above the Missouri River. ”

“ By this act you have proclaimed to the world that the people of Missouri have risen above those prejudices and narrow-minded notions which are so apt to cloud the judgment of politicians, and that Missouri throws wide open her gates to all who have the heart and will and ability to coöperate in achieving the great destinies of the country, offering them a hearty welcome with full assurance of generous appreciation. ”

“ The true banks of the Missouri are from two to twenty miles apart, and two or three hundred feet in perpendicular height, sometimes rising in pinnacles and terraces studded with glittering fragments of gypsum, making a splendid show in the full blaze of the sun, and variegated with broad parallel stripes of red, yellow, and gray, where the stratas of different soils appear in their natural position laid bare by the heavy rains. ”

“ We can whip Lyon, and we will whip him and drive the enemy out of Missouri, and all the honor and all the glory shall be yours, All that we want is to regain our homes and to establish the independence of Missouri and the South. ”

“ The Missouri is a deceptive river. Though its heaving, eddying, swift flow is apparently without obstructions, yet it has a voice—an insistent, deep, plaintive voice that rises and falls and makes the listener imagine things ”

“ Missouri might now have been a peaceful and orderly region, inhabited by settlers as creditable to their country as those of the neighbouring free states, instead of being a nest of vagabond slavedealers, rapacious slavedrivers, and ferocious rioters. ”

“ If you never learned manners in Missouri, we’ll teach you that gentlemen are not to be imposed upon by a nigger-driver. You cannot kidnap men here, if you do in Missouri; and if you attempt it here, there’s a committee in this grove that will sit on your case; and, sir, it is the highest tribunal in the United States, as from its decision there is no appeal! ”

“ The good citizens of Missouri have risen up to demand “that the scandalous and alarming brigandage and ruffianism which so long a time have been permitted to disgrace the fair name of this State shall at last be rooted out by the strong hand of power honestly wielded; that the farmer shall feel safe in the solitude of his forest or prairie home, and that the traveller on every high- and by-way of the State shall be without fear of assault and robbery ”

“ It is a great place, and every thing about it is GREAT. The Missouri, than which a large or more dreadful river, (with its muddy face always scowling,) is not on earth, rushes rapidly from near the 49th to about the 39th degree of north latitude, hurrying along with it, its numerous relatives, and tributaries, from the vast prairies, that lay spread out like an empire, and passes into the State of Missouri, as the President of rivers. ”

“ The comparison is just, for while Missouri has increased since 1810 in wealth and population, much more rapidly than any of the Slave States, there are several Free States whose relative advance has exceeded that of Illinois. The rapid growth of Missouri is owing to her immense area, her fertile soil, her mighty rivers (the Mississippi and Missouri) , her central and commanding position, and to the fact that she has so small a number of slaves to the square mile, as well as to the free population. ”

“ The population of Missouri differs in some respects from that of any other State. There is a greater variety of nationalities blended, of blood mingled, and of national, political, social, domestic and religious characteristics crossed and intermixed than can be found in any other State. ”

“ The Missouri, since the treaty of Paris, the Illinois and northern branches of the Ohio, since the cession to Congress, are no longer within our limits. Yet having been so heretofore, and still opening to us channels of extensive communication with the western and north-western country, they shall be noted in their order.
The Missouri is, in fact, the principal river, contributing more to the common stream than does the Mississippi, even after its junction with the Illinois. It is remarkably cold, muddy, and rapid. Its overflowings are considerable. ”

“ The Missouri, in compliance with the usage of boatmen, hunters, &c., has been usually considered under two divisions; the lower extending from the {148} Mississippi to the confluence of the Platte, and the upper, comprehending all above that point. As might be expected, the influx of so large and so peculiar a river as the Platte, gives a new character to the Missouri below. It is more rapid, more difficult of navigation, and the water more turbid than above. ”

“ An old citizen of Missouri, a member of no church—friendly to all—a Union man from first to last, speaking, working and fighting to restore and preserve the supremacy of the Federal government, he would make affidavit to-day that, to the best of his knowledge, the three facts above stated are fully vindicated in the Fabius Township and all similar meetings held for similar purposes in Missouri. Thousands of the best citizens of the State are ready to affirm the same facts and vindicate the good people of Missouri against the aspersions of the Northern press. ”

“ Distrusted by men of worth and influence in Missouri, flattered by speculators, it is little wonder that the charge was made that the department of Missouri was managed for purpose of making private fortunes rather than for the country’s weal. ”

“ The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from the Mississippi. ”

“ Can you tell me whether Missouri will go out?"
"I cannot," replied Shepard. "No man can. But many of us are at work."
"What do you think?" persisted Colonel Talbot.
"I am hoping. Missouri is really a Southern state, the daughter of Kentucky, and she ought to join her Southern sisters. ”

“ Next to maintaining our finances and the public credit, followed by decisive victories in the field, the speedy success of emancipation in Missouri is most important. Missouri is larger by more than 6,000 square miles than any State east of the Mississippi, and occupies a central position between the North and the South, the East and the West. ”

“ Nearly all the nationalities of Europe, and many of Asia, are represented in Missouri, but only a few years’ residence is sufficient to either destroy or modify their national characteristics.
49The social and domestic peculiarities of every State in the Union, with many foreign states, are exotics here; while many of them die out altogether and are abandoned, others compromise and intermingle, until the type of social and domestic life is somewhat of a hybrid, and is peculiarly Missourian. ”

“ The State of Missouri seems to be not only one of the largest States of the Union, but one of the richest also, as regards natural beauty and natural resources. They speak of its northern portion as of the natural garden of the West; it possesses westward, lofty mountains, rich in metals, interspersed with immense prairies and forest; southward, towards Arkansas, it becomes boggy, and abounds in morasses. To the west of the State lies the Indian Territory, the people of which have embraced Christianity and civilisation. ”

“ The bulk of the old population of the State was from Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio, with a respectable number from Indiana, Illinois and New York. Up to 1855 and ’56 the types of social life existing in these several States were scarcely disturbed in Missouri. After the passage by Congress of the somewhat notorious “Kansas-Nebraska bill,” in 1854, and the organization of these Territories, the population of Missouri increased rapidly and became of a more general character. ”

“ The prairie region embraces, accordingly, somewhat more than “northern” Missouri—i.e. the portion of the state north of the Missouri river—and somewhat more than a third of the state. It is a beautiful, rolling country, with a great abundance of streams; more hilly and broken in its western than in its eastern half. The elevation in the extreme north-west is about 1200 ft. and in the extreme north-east about 500 ft., while the rim of the region to the south-east, along the border of the Ozark region, has an elevation of about 900 ft. The larger streams have valleys 250 to 300 ft. ”

“ It was an easy matter to send men from Missouri into the adjacent Territory of Kansas—to vote there and then to return to their homes across the Mississippi.
The New York Herald of April 20, 1855, published the following letter from a correspondent in Brunswick, Missouri:
From five to seven thousand men started from Missouri to attend the election, some to remove, but the most to return to their families, with an intention, if they liked the Territory, to make it their permanent abode at the earliest moment practicable. ”

“ Is that your war-cry which echoes through the land? Are you coming? Fifty thousand men! Missouri shall move to victory with the tread of a giant! Come on, my brave boys, 50,000 heroic, gallant, unconquerable Southern men! We await your coming.
{289}
Sterling Price established his headquarters again at Osceola, on the banks of the Osage, but sent forward Gens. Rains and Steen to Lexington, the best point on the Missouri to hold the river and afford a passage for recruits coming in from the northern part of the State. ”

“ Among the remarkable objects in the vicinity of St. Louis are the ancient Indian barrows, the traces of which I had hitherto in vain attempted to find on the whole course of the Missouri. In order to take a view of them, we crossed the Missouri in a steam-ferry, where there is room for the horses and carriage, and in the upper story of its pavilion, a light, airy chamber. On the opposite bank are a good many houses, inns, and shops, under the shade of lofty old trees. Fish, turtles, vegetables, and other provisions, are daily sent from this place to the market in the town. ”

“ Jackson, no man in the State of Missouri has been more ardently desirous of preserving peace than myself. Heretofore Missouri has only felt the fostering care of the Federal Government, which has raised her from the condition of a feeble French colony to that of an empire State. ”

“ Missouri is a Slave State. But it seems at this moment to maintain the institution of slavery rather out of bravado than from any belief in its necessity. It has no products which might not be cultivated by white labourers, as its climate does not belong to the hot south. Missouri also sells its slaves assiduously “down south.”
“Are you a Christian?” ”

“ We proceeded up the Missouri in a direction parallel with the river, leaving Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush on our right hand, and taking the way to Ruhptare which runs along the edge of the high Plateau, below which there is a valley extending to the Missouri, covered with the maize plantations of the Mandans, with some willow thickets and high reeds. On the left hand [Pg 21] the prairie extended to the hills: it was covered with low, withered, yellowish grass, and presented a barren, desolate appearance. ”

“ The Missouri Compromise provided that Missouri should be a slave state; this was to satisfy the South. On the other hand, it declared that all the western territory north of the line which formed the southern boundary of Missouri, should forever be free; this was to appease the North. ”

“ Everybody knows that the pacification of Missouri is complete. Under such circumstances, the Republican majority in the legislature resolved, by submitting to the people certain amendments to the State constitution, to give the people an opportunity to wipe out from the fundamental law of the State all prescriptive features and to make this a commonwealth of equal citizens. ”

“ Louis, the commercial capital of Missouri, already had many great merchants and enterprising manufacturers, who were not only throwing out their lines of trade into every part of the State, but also into all the surrounding States and territories. It was linked by the Mississippi and Missouri, fed by numerous and important affluents, with a vast territory which was probably the richest on the earth’s surface. ”

“ In the internal regulations of the affairs of Missouri, the counties in some respects are nearly as independent of each other as the several states of the Union. No considerable number of men armed can pass out of one county into or through another county, without first obtaining the permission of the judges of the county court, or some one of them ”

“ Missouri lies very frequently in the dangerous quadrant of the great cyclonic storms passing over the Mississippi valley—indeed, northern Missouri lies in the area of maximum frequency of tornadoes.
Agriculture.—Few states have so great a variety of soils. This variety is due to the presence of different forms of glacial drift, and to the variety of surface rocks. The northern half of the state is well watered and extremely fertile. The south-eastern embayment is rich to an exceptional degree. ”