CHAPTER XVIII

DAKOTA TERRITORY

CREATION OF DAKOTA TERRITORY-STEPS LEADING UP TO THE LEGISLATION-ACTIVITIES OF CAPTAIN TODD AND ASSOCIATES-THE BILL REPORTED BY THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON TERRITORIES-PASSED AND SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT-THE HOMESTEAD LAW-VETOED BY BUCHANAN-PASSED BY THE NEXT CONGRESSAPPROVED BY LINCOLN--THE ORGANIC ACT OF DAKOTA, APPROVED BY BUCHANAN.

THE DAKOTA BILLS

Bills were introduced in the Thirty-fifth Congress by Senator Graham A. Fitch of Indiana, and Alexander H. Stevens of Georgia, for the creation of Dakota Territory, but failed to receive consideration beyond reference to the proper committees.

The Thirty-sixth Congress convened December 5, 1859. A short time before its meeting, Capt. John B. S. Todd and Gen. Daniel M. Frost, who had been in Washington in the interest of Dakota Territorial Organization, made urgent appeals to the people of Dakota to hold meetings and formulate petitions for the organization of the territory.

Meetings were accordingly held at Yankton and Vermilion, November 8, 1859. Downer T. Bramble was president and Moses K. Armstrong secretary of the Yankton meeting. Gen. Daniel M. Frost of St. Louis, was present and urged a strong memorial to Congress. Capt. John B. S. Todd, Obed Foote and Thomas S. Frick were members of the committee on resolutions, George D. Fiske, James M. Stone and Capt. John B. S. Todd were appointed a committee to draft a memorial. Joseph R. Hanson, John Stanage, Henry Arend, Horace T. Bailey, Enos Stutsman, J. S. Presho, George Pike, Jr., Frank Chapell, Charles F. Picotte, Felix Le Blanc and Lytle M. Griffith were present.

The memorial formulated and adopted at this meeting was also adopted by the meeting at Vermilion,-at the house of James McHenry-of which J. D. Denton was chairman and James McHenry secretary, Doctors Caulkins and Whitmers and Samuel Mortimer were appointed a committee on resolutions. The meeting adopted the Yankton Memorial, which was signed by 428 citizens of Dakota, and was presented to Congress by Capt. John B. S. Todd at its meeting in December.

A bill was introduced in Congress early in December, 1859, by Senator Henry M. Rice, of Minnesota, but when brought up for consideration the slavery question being involved, the bill was tabled, and no further action was taken at that session. Congress adjourned June 20, 1860.

A second convention was held at Yankton, January 15, 1861, in response to the urgent appeals of Captain Todd, who was then in Washington and another memorial was forwarded bearing 478 signatures, comprising practically all of the citizens of Dakota.

A bill was pending in the House providing for the admission of a delegate to Congress under the Sioux Falls organization and for the creation of the office of surveyor-general. This bill was bitterly antagonized by Galusha A. Grow, who claimed that organization was no more entitled to respect than a vigilance committee; at the same time stating that he was in favor of the organization of a territorial form of government for Dakota and that in due time a bill would be reported for that purpose.

February 15, 1861, Senator James S. Green reported from the Senate Committee on Territories, Senate Bill 562, for the creation of the Territory of Dakota; also the bill for the creation of the Territory of Nevada. The bill was made a special order for the next day. On February 26th, it was called up by Senator Green and passed without objection. March 1st, Mr. Grow called up the bill in the House, moved the previous question, which was seconded and the bill passed without debate and without opposition. The bill was approved by President James Buchanan on March 2, 1861. Its companion bill, Nevada, was passed and approved at the same time. The Arizona and Colorado bills were passed at the same session, the four, largely through the masterly management of Galusha A. Grow, the father of the Homestead Law.

THE HOMESTEAD LAW

The agitation for the Homestead Law commenced in 1846. In the Thirtysixth Congress it was introduced in the Senate by Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, Senate Bill No. 1, and carried to a successful issue by Mr. Johnson in the Senate and Mr. Grow in the House, January 20, 1860, but was vetoed by President Buchanan, January 22, 1860, on the theory that Congress had no right to give away public property. The bill was reintroduced at the second session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, passed in the Thirty-seventh Congress and approved May 20, 1862, by President Abraham Lincoln.

Captain Todd has been mentioned frequently in previous chapters. It will be remembered that he resigned his commission in the United States army to become identified with D. M. Frost & Co., or Frost, Todd & Company, as it was for a time called, in the fur trade.

Gen. Daniel Marsh Frost, a general in the Missouri State Militia and in the Confederate army, 1861-5, was a native of New York, appointed to the military academy in 1840 and commissioned a lieutenant in the United States army, resigning in 1853 to engage in trade. He was the head of the firm bearing his name, with headquarters at St. Louis, where he died, October 29, 1900.

Next to General Frost and captain, afterwards general, John B. S. Todd, Dakota is indebted to Senator James S. Green and Galusha A. Grow for its organization as a territory.

Senator James S. Green was born in Virginia, moved to Alabama and then to Missouri, where he commenced the practice of law at Canton in that state. He was a presidential elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in 1844 and elected. to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses; was charge d'affairs to Colombia

in 1853 and appointed minister to Colombia, but did not present his credentials. He was elected to the United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1855, and served to March 3, 1861. He died at St. Louis, January 19, 1870.

Galusha A. Grow, a representative from Pennsylvania, was a native of Connecticut, admitted to practice law in 1847, elected to the Thirty-second, Thirtythird and Thirty-fourth congresses as a free soil democrat and to the Thirtyfifth, Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh congresses as a republican. He was speaker of the House in 1857, and in the Thirty-seventh Congress. He was re-elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth and Fiftyseventh congresses, declining a renomination. He died March 31, 1907, at Scranton, Pa. The Homestead Law was the crowning achievement of his political life.

Rev. John P. Williamson, mentioned in connection with the Sioux, states that the word Dakota, in the Sioux language means friends or allies, the Dakota nation being a nation of friends; that Minnesota might be translated hazy water, not muddy water as held by some, nor many waters, as translated by others; that the Sioux name for the Missouri River was Minne-sho-she, meaning muddy water, and from the mouth of the Yellowstone to its confluence with the Mississippi, it justifies that name.

Dakota Territory, as created, extended from the Red River of the north and the western boundary of Minnesota, to the eastern boundary of Washington and Oregon. It included all of Montana and most of Idaho, embracing 350,000 square miles, containing, according to the census of 1860, a white population (including mixed bloods) of 2,376, of whom 1,606 were in Pembina County.

March 3, 1863, the Territory of Idaho was created, extending from the twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington, to the eastern boundary of Washington and Oregon, and May 26, 1864, Montana was created from Idaho Territory, and at the same time the Black Hills region and the greater part of Wyoming, including the Wind River and Big Horn country, was attached to Dakota Territory. Wyoming Territory was created July 25, 1868, and a part of Dakota was later attached to Nebraska, leaving a territory of approximately 149,000 square miles.

In Minnesota territorial days, Blue Earth County embraced nearly all of South Dakota. Pembina County was directly north of Blue Earth County, taking in all of the present North Dakota, part of South Dakota, extending east to Rainy Lake and Lake Winnipegoosis, taking in about one-third of Minnesota Territory.

In 1856 Pembina County was the Seventh Legislative District in Minnesota Territory and was represented by Joseph Rolette in the Council and R. Carlisle Burdick in the House of Representatives.

Blue Earth County was in the Tenth Legislative District and was represented in the Council by Charles E. Flandrau and Parsons K. Johnson, and by Aurelius F. de la Vergue and George A. McLeod in the House of Representatives. In 1857 P. P. Humphrey was elected to the Council, Joseph R. Brown, Francis R. Baasen and O. A. Thomas to the House of Representatives. In the Seventh District Joseph Rolette was returned to the Council; Charles Grant and John B. Wilkie were elected to the House of Representatives.

In the Minnesota Constitutional Convention, the Seventh District was represented by James McFetridge, J. P. Wilson, J. Jerome, Xavier Cautell, Joseph

Rolette and Louis Wasseur. The Tenth District was represented by Joseph R. Brown, Charles E. Flandrau, Francis Baasen, William B. McMahon and J. H. Swan.

The Organic Act of Dakota is as follows:

AN ACT TO PROVIDE A TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT FOR THE TERRITORY OF DAKOTA, AND TO CREATE THE OFFICE OF SURVEYOR GENERAL THEREIN.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, namely: commencing at a point in the main channel of the Red River of the North, where the 'forty-ninth degree of north latitude crosses the same; thence up the main channel of the same, and along the boundary of the State of Minnesota, to Big Stone Lake; thence along the boundary line of the said State of Minnesota to the Iowa line; thence along the boundary line of the State of Iowa to the point of intersection between the Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers; thence up the Missouri River, and along the boundary line of the Territory of Nebraska, to the mouth of the Niobrara or Running Water River; thence following up the same, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the mouth of the Keha Paha or Turtle Hill River; thence up said river to the forty-third parallel of north latitude; thence due west to the present boundary of the Territory of Washington; thence along the boundary line of Washington Territory, to the forty-ninth degree of north latitude; thence east, along said forty-ninth degree of north latitude, to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, organized into a temporary government, by the name of the Territory of Dakota : Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of person or property now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the boundaries and constitute no part of the Territory of Dakota, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States to be included within the said Territory, or to affect the authority of the Government of the United States to make any regulations respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent for the Government to make if this act had never passed: Provided, further, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the Government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion thereof to any other Territory or State.

SEC. 2.

And be it further enacted, That the executive power and authority in and over said Territory of Dakota, shall be vested in a governor, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States. The governor shall reside within said Territory, shall be commander-in-chief of the militia thereof, shall perform the duties and receive the emoluments of

superintendent of Indian affairs, and shall approve all laws passed by the legislative assembly before they shall take effect; he may grant pardons for offences against the laws of said Territory, and reprieves for offences against the laws of the United States until the decision of the President can be made known thereon; he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office under the laws of said Territory, and shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there shall be a secretary of said Territory, who shall reside therein, and hold his office for four years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States; he shall record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the legislative assembly hereinafter constituted, and all the acts and proceedings of the governor, in his executive department; he shall transmit one copy of the laws, and one copy of the executive proceedings, on or before the first day of December in each year, to the President of the United States, and, at the same time, two copies of the laws to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate, for the use of Congress; and in case of the death, removal, or resignation, or other necessary absence of the governor from the Territory, the secretary shall have, and he is hereby authorized and required, to execute and perform all the powers and duties of the governor during such vacancy or necessary absence, or until another governor shall be duly appointed to fill such vacancy.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the legislative power and authority of said Territory shall be vested in the governor and a legislative assembly. The legislative assembly shall consist of a council and house of representatives. The council shall consist of nine members, which may be increased to thirteen, having the qualifications of voters as hereinafter prescribed, whose term of service shall continue two years. The house of representatives shall consist of thirteen members, which may be increased to twenty-six, possessing the same qualifications as prescribed for members of the council, and whose term of service shall continue one year. An apportionment shall be made, as nearly equal as practicable, among the several counties or districts for the election of the council and house of representatives, giving to each section of the Territory representation in the ratio of its population, (Indians excepted) as nearly as may be; and the members of the council and of the house of representatives shall reside in, and be inhabitants of, the district for which they may be elected, 1espectively. Previous to the first election, the governor shall cause a census or enumeration of the inhabitants of the several counties and districts of the Territory to be taken; and the first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner, as the governor shall appoint and direct; and he shall, at the same time, declare the number of the members of the council and house of representatives to which each of the counties or districts shall be entitled under this act. The number of persons authorized to be elected, having the highest number of votes in each of said council districts, for members of the council, shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected to the council; and the person or persons authorized to be elected having the greatest number of votes for the house of representatives, equal to the number to which each county or district shall be entitled, shall be declared by the governor to be elected members of the house of representatives: Provided, That in case of a