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047 - Politics · History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, Part 1

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  Speaker 1: Section forty seven of the History of Minnesota and Tales
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  Speaker 1: of the Frontier, Part one. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Mark Sando. The History of Minnesota and Tales of
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  Speaker 1: the Frontier, Part one by Charles E. Flandrau, Section forty seven. Politics.
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  Speaker 1: In writing the history of a state, no matter how
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  Speaker 1: short or limited such history may be, its politics seem
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  Speaker 1: to be an essential element of presentation. And on this
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  Speaker 1: assumption alone, I will say, of very few words concerning
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  Speaker 1: that subject. I do not believe that the question of
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  Speaker 1: which political party has been dominant in the state has
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  Speaker 1: exerted any considerable influence on its material prosperity. The great
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  Speaker 1: first cause of its creation was so generous in its
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  Speaker 1: award of substantial blessings that it placed the state beyond
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  Speaker 1: the ability of a man or his politics to seriously
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  Speaker 1: injure or impede its advances towards material success. In any
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  Speaker 1: of the channels that promote greatness, soil, climate, minerals, facilities
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  Speaker 1: for commerce and transportation consisting of great rivers, lakes, and harbors.
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  Speaker 1: All these combined to defy the destructive tendencies so often
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  Speaker 1: exerted by the ignorance and passions of man. It has
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  Speaker 1: resisted every folly of its people, and they have been
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  Speaker 1: many every onslaught of its savage inhabitants, and they have
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  Speaker 1: been more formidable than those experienced by any other state.
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  Speaker 1: And even the cataclysms with which it has occasionally been
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  Speaker 1: visited arising from natural causes. The fact is Minnesota is
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  Speaker 1: so rock rooted in all the elements of material greatness
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  Speaker 1: that it must advance regardless of all known obstructions. When
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  Speaker 1: the territory was organized in eighteen forty nine, General Zachary Taylor,
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  Speaker 1: a Whig, was the President of the United States, and
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  Speaker 1: he appointed Alexander Ramsay, also a Whig, as governor to
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  Speaker 1: set its political machinery in motion. He remained in office
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  Speaker 1: until the national administration changed in eighteen fifty three. In
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  Speaker 1: front of Glen Pierce, a Democrat, was chosen president. He
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  Speaker 1: appointed General Willis A. Gorman, a Democrat, as governor, to
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  Speaker 1: succeed Governor Ramsay. On the fourth of March eighteen fifty seven,
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  Speaker 1: James Buchanan, a Democrat, succeeded President Pierce and appointed Samuel Mederi,
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  Speaker 1: a Democrat, as governor of Minnesota. He held this position
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  Speaker 1: until the state was admitted into the Union in May
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight, when Henry H. Sibley, a Democrat, was
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  Speaker 1: elected governor for the term of two years and served
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  Speaker 1: it out. On the admission of the state into the Union,
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  Speaker 1: two Democratic United States Senators were elected, Henry M. Rice
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  Speaker 1: and General James Shields. General Shields served from May twelfth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight to March third, eighteen fifty nine, and
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  Speaker 1: mister Rice from May twelfth, eighteen fifty eight to March third,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, he having drawn the long term. The
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  Speaker 1: state also elected three members to the United States House
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  Speaker 1: of Representatives, all Democrats, James M. Cavanagh, W. W. Phelps
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  Speaker 1: in George L. Becker, but it was determined that we
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  Speaker 1: were only entitled to two, and mister Phelps and mister
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  Speaker 1: Kavanaugh were admitted to seats. With this state and federal representation,
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  Speaker 1: we entered upon our political career. At the next election
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  Speaker 1: for governor in the fall of eighteen fifty nine, Alexander Ramsay, Republican,
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  Speaker 1: was chosen and there has never been a governor of
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  Speaker 1: the state of any but Republican politics since until John
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  Speaker 1: Lynde was elected in the fall of eighteen ninety eight.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Lynde was chosen as a Democrat with the aid
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  Speaker 1: of other political organizations which united with the Democracy. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Lynde now fills the office of governor. It will be
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  Speaker 1: seen that for thirty nine years the state has been
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  Speaker 1: wholly in the hands of the Republicans. During the interval
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  Speaker 1: between the administration of Governor Sibley and Governor Lynde, the
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  Speaker 1: state has had twelve governors, all Republican. In its federal representation, however,
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  Speaker 1: the Democrats have fared a trifle better. The growth of
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  Speaker 1: population has increased our membership in the Federal House of
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  Speaker 1: Representatives to seven. An occasion, only a Democrat or member
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  Speaker 1: of some other party has succeeded in breaking into Congress.
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  Speaker 1: From the first district. W. H. Harries, a Democrat, was
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  Speaker 1: elected in eighteen ninety From the third district, Eugene M. Wilson,
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  Speaker 1: Democrat was elected in eighteen sixty eight, Henry Poehler Democrat
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy eight, John L. MacDonald Democrat in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty six, An O. M. Hall Democrat in eighteen ninety
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  Speaker 1: and again in eighteen ninety two from the fourth district.
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  Speaker 1: Edmund Rice Democrat was elected in eighteen eighty six and
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  Speaker 1: James N. Castle Democrat in eighteen ninety from the sixth district. M. R.
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  Speaker 1: Baldwin Democrat was elected in eighteen ninety two. From the
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  Speaker 1: fifth district. KITTL. Halverson Alliance was elected in eighteen ninety.
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  Speaker 1: From the seventh district. Haldoor E. Bonne Pupil's Party was
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  Speaker 1: elected in eighteen ninety two. Since Henry M. Rice and
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  Speaker 1: James Shields, all the United States senators have been Republican.
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  Speaker 1: They were Morton S. Wilkinson, Alexander Ramsay, Daniel S. Norton,
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  Speaker 1: William Wyndham, O. P. Stearns, S. J R. McMillan, A. J. Edgerton, D. M. Sabin, C. K. Davis, W. D. Washburn,
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  Speaker 1: and Knute Nelson. Some of these have served two terms,
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  Speaker 1: and some very short terms to fill vacancies. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the state had its complement of other officers, but as
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  Speaker 1: their duties are more of a clerical and business character
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  Speaker 1: than political, it is unnecessary to particularize them. It is
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  Speaker 1: a subject of congratulation to all citizens of Minnesota that
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  Speaker 1: out of all the state officers that have come and
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  Speaker 1: gone in the forty years of its life, there has
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  Speaker 1: been but one impeachment, which was of a state treasurer,
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  Speaker 1: mister William Seeger, who was elected in eighteen seventy one.
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  Speaker 1: Although he was convicted, I have always believed and do
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  Speaker 1: now that he was personally innocent and suffered for the
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  Speaker 1: sins of others. The state of Minnesota has always, since
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  Speaker 1: the adjustment of its old railroad bond debt, held a
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  Speaker 1: conservative position in the Union. Financially, socially, patriotically, and commercially.
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  Speaker 1: Its credit is the best, its prospects the brightest, and
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  Speaker 1: it makes very little difference which political party dominates its future,
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  Speaker 1: so long as it is free from the taint of
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  Speaker 1: anarchy and is guided by the principles of honor and justice.
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  Speaker 1: The only thing to be feared is that some political
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  Speaker 1: party may gain control of the government of the nation
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  Speaker 1: and either degrade its currency, involved in disastrous complications and
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  Speaker 1: wars with other nations, or commits some similar folly, which
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  Speaker 1: may reflectively or secondarily act injuriously on Minnesota as a
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  Speaker 1: member of the national family of states. Otherwise Minnesota can
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  Speaker 1: defy the vagaries of politics and politicians. She has very
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  Speaker 1: little to fear from this remote apprehension, because the American people,
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  Speaker 1: as they ever have been, will no doubt continue to
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  Speaker 1: be on second thought, true to the teachings and traditions
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  Speaker 1: of the founders of the Republic. Minnesota, for so young
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  Speaker 1: a state, has been quite liberally remembered in the way
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  Speaker 1: of diplomatic appointments. General C. C. Andrews represented the United
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  Speaker 1: States as Minister to Sweden and Norway, and the Honorable
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  Speaker 1: Samuel R. Thayer and Honorable Stanford Newell at the Hague,
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  Speaker 1: the latter of whom now fills the position. Mister Newell
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  Speaker 1: was also a member of the World's Peace Commission, recently
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  Speaker 1: held at the Hague. Lewis Baker represented the United States
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  Speaker 1: as Minister to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and San Salvador. The
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  Speaker 1: state has also been honored by the appointment of the
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  Speaker 1: following name gentlemen from among its citizens, as Councils General
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  Speaker 1: to various countries. General C. C. Andrews to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
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  Speaker 1: Honorable Hans Matson to Calcutta, India. Doctor J. A. Leonard
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  Speaker 1: to Calcutta and also to Shanghai, China, and Honorable John
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  Speaker 1: Goodnow to Shanghai, China. We have had a full complement
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  Speaker 1: of councils to all parts of the world, the particulars
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  Speaker 1: of which are unnecessary. In this connection. The state has
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  Speaker 1: also had three cabinet officers. On December tenth, eighteen seventy nine,
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  Speaker 1: Alexander Ramsay was appointed Secretary of War by President Hayes,
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  Speaker 1: and again on December twenty, eighteen eighty he was made
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of the Navy. The latter office he held only
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  Speaker 1: about ten days until it was filled by a permanent appointee.
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  Speaker 1: William Wyndham was appointed Secretary of the Treasurer by President Garfield,
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  Speaker 1: and again to the same position by President Harrison. He
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  Speaker 1: died in the office. General William G. LeDuc was appointed
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  Speaker 1: Commissioner of Agriculture by President Hayes, which was a quasi
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  Speaker 1: cabinet position, and was afterwards made a full and regular one.
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  Speaker 1: The General was afterwards made a member of the National
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  Speaker 1: Agricultural Society of France, of which Washington, Jefferson and Marshall
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  Speaker 1: were members. Senator Cushman K. Davis, who was chairman of
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  Speaker 1: the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate was appointed
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  Speaker 1: by President McKinley one of the commissioners on the part
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  Speaker 1: of the United States to negotiate the Treaty of Peace
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  Speaker 1: with Spain after the recent Spanish War. Governor William R.
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  Speaker 1: Merriam was appointed by President McKinley as Director of the
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  Speaker 1: Census of nineteen hundred, and is now busily engaged in
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  Speaker 1: the performance of the arduous duties of that office. They
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  Speaker 1: are not diplomatic, but exceedingly important. President Cleveland appointed John W.
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  Speaker 1: Riddle as Secretary obligation to the Embassy of Constantinople, where
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  Speaker 1: he has remained to the present time. End of Section
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  Speaker 1: forty seven