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FEDERAL AFFAIRS IN THE STATE.

FEDERAL COURTS.

The United States is divided into nine supreme court circuits, to each of which one of the supreme court judges is assigned. Missouri is now in the eighth circuit, which includes Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, MISSOURI, Nebraska and Colorado; and George W. McCrary, of Iowa, who was secretary of war, in President Hayes' cabinet, is now the judge of this circuit. Missouri is divided into an east and west United States judicial district; and Samuel Treat, of St. Louis, is United States judge of the east district, while Arnold Krekel, of Jefferson City, presides over the west district.

FEDERAL REVENUE.

Missouri paid the following amounts of internal revenue to the United States during the year ending June 30, 1880: On distilled spirits, $2,151,643.98; on tobacco, $2,391,989.93; on fermented liquors, $711,654.53; on banking, $182,929.25; on other items, $1,360.27. Total, $5,448,344.83. Illinois, Kentucky, New York and Ohio were the only states which paid a larger sum of revenue on spirits; Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia paid larger on tobacco; Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin paid larger on fermented liquors (chiefly lager beer); California, New York and Pennsylvania are the only states which paid larger on banking transactions.

In 1878, Missouri paid $115,729.64 as penalties for violation of U. S. internal revenue laws, which was the highest amount on this item paid by any state-the next highest being Pennsylvania, which was "caught at it" to the amount of $27,867.20.

U. S. LANDS AND LAND OFFICES.

There are now three U. S. land offices in Missouri, to-wit: at Boonville, Ironton and Springfield. The report of the general land office for 1879 showed 41,836,931 acres of government land still open to homestead entry in Missouri.

LEGAL TENDER IN MISSOURI.

Gold coins of the United States (unmutilated), and the "greenback" paper currency are legal tender for the payment of any possible amount of indebtedness. Silver coins are legal tender for any amount not exceeding $10 at one payment-but the standard silver dollar is legal tender for

any amount, unless the contract specially provides otherwise. The baser coins of nickel, copper and alloy (3 cent pieces), are legal tender for any sum not exceeding 25 cents. The "trade dollar," and national bank notes are not legal tender; neither is any foreign coin, either of gold or silver, nor the "stamped bullion" gold pieces of California.

U.S. CUSTOM HOUSE.

St. Louis is a port of entry for foreign goods; and the imports received here during the year 1880, amounted to (foreign value), $1,401,180; on which the import duties paid was $537,257.83. A fine custom house building is in process of erection, and will be completed in 1881.

MILITARY.

In the south part of St. Louis, on the river, there is a United States arsenal, and six miles below the city, Jefferson Barracks are situated, a station for a small part of the regular army. A few squares from the arsenal there is a United States marine hospital.

MISSOURI'S DISTINGUISHED MEN.

Within our allotted space we can only give a brief sketch of those citizens of Missouri who have so pre-eminently distinguished themselves as to have achieved a solid national, and in some cases a world-wide fame. First among these is

DANIEL BOONE. The adventures of this famous hunter and Indian fighter have become a staple part of the world's perennial stock of daring exploits and hair-breadth escapes. He was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1735; emigrated to North Carolina and there married. In 1773 he emigrated with his own and five other families to Kentucky, and founded the present town of Boonesborough. In 1795 he removed to the Missouri river country, and settled in St. Charles county, about forty-five miles west of St. Louis, where he died in 1820, aged 85. His remains, together with those of his wife, were many years afterward removed to Boonesborough, Kentucky, and a monument reared over them.

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THOMAS H. BENTON. Col. Benton was, in his lifetime, recognized as one of the foremost statesmen of the nation, and the hearts of all good Missourians kindle with pride at the mention of his name. He was a specimen type of the best sort of Democrat; he always stood with Gen.

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Jackson and opposed the state-rights doctrines of John C. Calhoun; in congress he opposed the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise;" and during Gen. Jackson's presidency Col. Benton was so vigorous a champion of hard money, as against the old U. S. bank swindle, that he came to be familiarly known all over the United States as "Old Bullion." Col. Benton was born near Hillsborough, North Carolina, March 14, 1782; studied law at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1810. In the war of 1812 he served as a Colonel under Gen. Jackson; settled at St. Louis in 1815. In 1820 he was elected as the first U. S. Senator from Missouri, and continued to be re-elected every term for thirty years; the longest period that any man in the nation has filled a senatorial seat. In 1852-3 he served one term as member of congress from the first district. In 1856 he was defeated in his candidacy for governor by the state-rights party, to whose doctrines he was strongly opposed, from the time of the nullification acts of South Carolina in 1832, up to the day of his death. In 1854 he published his great work, "Thirty Years in the United States Senate," in two large volumes, and these are held in high esteem as standard authority by politicians and statesmen of every class. Col. Benton died April 10, 1858, mourned by the whole nation as one of her worthiest sons."

JAMES B. EADS, a citizen of St. Louis. His marvelous achievements as a civil engineer have made his name familiar in all civilized countries on the face of the earth; and his last great work, the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi river, has revolutionized the commerce of three continents. Mr. Eads was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, May 28, 1820; emigrated with his parents to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1829; and in 1833 settled at St. Louis. In July, 1861, the government advertised for seven gun-boats of about 600 tons burden, drawing not over six feet of water, plated with iron 2 inches thick, to steam nine miles an hour, and carry thirteen guns.* Mr. Eads contracted to build those seven vessels in sixty-five days. At this time the timber for them stood uncut in the forest; the iron for their plating was still in the mines, and no machine yet in existence of capacity to roll such enormous plates; and not a pound of iron or steel yet wrought or cast for the construction of the twenty-one steam engines and thirtyfive boilers required to propel the fleet. But within twenty-four hours from the signing of the contract at Washington, he had all the iron works, foundries and machine shops of St. Louis, started on the work; and inside of two weeks he had more than 4,000 men working in alternate gangs by night and day, Sundays included, so that not an hour should be lost. The boats were built at St. Louis, but the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri were all drawn upon for material, while large works in Cincinnati and Pittsburg were also whirling every

*See Major Boynton's "History of the United States Navy."

wheel to hasten forward the great undertaking, all being under the direction and control by telegraph or in person of this one man; and he filled the contract. The world's history shows no parallel to the wonderful mastery of resources and the tremendous vigor of executive and supervisory talent which this achievement involved. He projected, planned and built the magnificent railroad bridge across the Mississippi river at St Louis, which ranks among the greatest works of its kind on this round globe. He projected and built the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi, which enable the largest sea-going vessels to pass in and out freely, thus making possible the barge system of shipping grain and other products from St. Louis and Kansas City direct to foreign countries, and which has within two years revolutionized the entire international commerce of the Mississippi and Missouri valley states. He is now engaged in developing a ship railway across the Isthmus of Panama, which will take the heaviest loaded ships into a dry-dock on wheels and trundle them from ocean to ocean, as easily and safely as they are now towed through the ship canal at Suez.

CARL SCHURZ. Born near Cologne, Prussia, March 2, 1829; educated at the University of Bonn; took part in the revolutionary agitations of Europe in 1848 and following years, involving Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, etc.; and in which Kossuth in Hungary, and Garibaldi in Italy were prominent leaders, whose names are familiar to and honored by all Americans. Mr. Schurz came to the United States in 1852; settled as a lawyer at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1859; in 1861 was appointed minister to Spain; resigned and came home, and in 1862-3-4, was a major-general of volunteers in the Union army. In 1867 he settled at St. Louis as editor of the Westliche Post; was United States senator from Missouri from 1869 to 1875, and was secretary of the interior in President Hayes' cabinet. Mr. Schurz has thus won the highest positions ever held in the United States by any foreign-born citizen, and has reflected honor upon Missouri, his adopted state, by his masterful ability as a public speaker, and his strong, earnest, humanitarian efforts as an executive offi

cer.

PROF. CHARLES V. RILEY, was born in London, England, September 12, 1843; came to the United States in 1860. In 1868 established in St. Louis, in company with Benjamin D. Walsh, a scientific journal called the American Entomologist, and was the same year appointed state entomologist of Missouri; this position he filled to the great benefit and honor of the state for eight years; then he was called to come up higher, and took position as entomologist of the national department of agriculture at Washington. Prof. Riley's valuable investigations and discoveries with regard to the Colorado beetle (potato bug), the Rocky Mountain locust

(grasshoppers), the cotton worm, and the phylloxera, or grape insect, have placed his name in the foremost ranks in the world of science, and among the greatest of benefactors to the agricultural and horticultural industries of the world. This he achieved while serving Missouri as state entomologist, and through the publication by the state of his annual reports. Hence, the name and good repute of our noble commonwealth is inseparably associated with his honor and fame, which has reached the farthest confines of every land where potatoes, cotton or grapes are cultivated.

MISSOURI IN THE CIVIL WAR.

Missouri was powerfully agitated by the controversy on the slavery question in 1818-19-20, which resulted in the "Missouri Compromise.” This was a compact, mainly carried through congress by the eloquence and influence of the great senator, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, by which it was agreed that Missouri should be admitted to the Union as a slaveholding state; but that slavery should be forever excluded from any states which might thereafter be formed out of new territory west of the western boundary of Missouri, and north of the parallel of 36 degrees, 30 minutes of north latitude. This line practically corresponds with the southern boundary of Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Utah, as they now stand.

In May, 1854, congress passed a bill organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in which it was declared that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 did not apply to them. This was an indirect way of repealing or rendering nugatory the bargain made between the northern and the southern states in that compromise; and the floodgates of angry debate, contention and strife were at once opened. This became the issue upon which all elections turned. Instead of slavery being prohibited, as the compromise of 1820 had declared it should be, it was thrown open for the territorial legislature to decide whether it should be free or slave territory. In view of this, there was a rush and race of settlers from the free states and the slave states into Kansas, to see which party should get control of the first territorial legislature; and in this movement Missouri, as a slave state, took a prominent part. It was a border country conflict, and there. was illegality and violence on both sides, making a chapter in our state history the details of which might profitably be dropped out and forgotten. Suffice to say, the free state party carried the clection; and this conflict. was a precursor of the great civil war.

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