Dakota Territory History, 1885

	This information appears in Chapter LVII of "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 322-325 and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Joy Fisher, http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031

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CHAPTER LVII

THE TURN OF THE TIDE IN 1885.

	With 1885 the high level of the boom was passed.  Naturally this fact was 
not realized at the time. Every Dakotan believed that this favored land was to 
go forward, ever mounting higher and higher, advancing materially and morally, 
without let or reaction, but as we look back upon the course of events from this 
distance of time we realize that the palmy days of the great boom were over and 
that the territory was entering upon a long reactionary period which was to try 
out the timid and the weaklings. 

	The legislature met in its first session at the new capital at Bismarck on 
January 13th and organized by electing South Dakota men to both chairmanships, 
J. H. Westover, of Hughes county, being made president of the council and George 
Rice, of Flandreau, speaker of the house. The choice turned clearly upon the 
North and South Dakota issue and the South Dakotans had a walkaway.  Upon all of 
the committees the idea was carried out, South Dakota having a working majority 
upon each. It was a particularly strong legislature from the South Dakota 
standpoint.  Among the prominent South Dakota members were Senator Pettigrew, 
John R. Gamble, John A. Pickler, Eben W. Martin, A. M. Bowdle and A. Sheridan 
Jones. It was the intention of the South Dakotans to promptly remove the capital 
back to South Dakota, Pierre being the chief candidate for the honor, but local 
jealousies prevented the carrying out of the project, even could it have been 
passed by the almost certain veto of Governor Pierce. Bills were passed for the 
establishment of a Central Dakota University at Ordway and a reform school at 
Plankinton, which were vetoed by the Governor. The county seat of Spink county 
was located at Ashton, subject to a vote at the next general election.

	Through the efforts of Major Pickler, a bill passed both houses conferring 
the right of suffrage upon women, but it was vetoed by the Governor because it 
did not submit the question to the people, holding that such an act was in the 
nature of a constitutional amendment and should not become binding without the 
referendum. The appropriation bills were rather large, aggregating more than 
four hundred thousand dollars.  On the whole very little was accomplished by the 
session.  Governor Pierce appointed Ernest W. Caldwell, of Sioux Falls, 
territorial auditor, George Rice, attorney general, and Joseph Ward, 
superintendent of public instruction.  The legislature provided for a 
constitutional convention for South Dakota.

	At Huron, in February, the Farmers' Alliance was formally organized with 
J. L. Carlisle, of Brown county, president, and William F. T. Bushnell, of 
Huron, secretary.  This organization, which was destined to exert a powerful 
influence upon the affairs of South Dakota, was the outgrowth of two years' 
agitation for better grain markets.  It was entirely non-partisan in its origin.

	Under the provision made by the legislature for a constitutional 
convention for that portion of the territory south of the forty-sixth parallel, 
an election was held for delegates on June 30th and the convention assembled at 
Sioux Fails, in Germania Hall, at noon on September 8th. Hon. Alonzo J Edgerton, 
of Yankton, was chosen president and his presence gave added dignity to the 
deliberations of a body of dignified men. All of the counties were represented, 
but a few of the delegates from counties adjoining the prop6sed division line 
were opposed to division. Accordingly as soon as the convention was organized, 
Henry Niell, a delegate from Grant county, moved that the convention adjourn 
sine die.  Theodore D. Kanouse at once moved to table the motion to adjourn, 
which prevailed, but twelve votes being favorable to adjournment, four of which 
came from Brown county, where it was hoped the capital of an undivided Dakota 
might be located.  The convention proceeded with calm deliberation, the only 
deviation from this rule being in the discussion of a paragraph of the bill of 
rights, proposed by Hugh J. Campbell, the leader of the most revolutionary of 
the delegates.  This paragraph recited that governments are founded in the will 
of the governed, who have the inherent rights to change the form of government 
at their pleasure.  Judge Edgerton took the floor to oppose this suggestion and 
with that ponderous eloquence for which he was renowned declared  "I protest 
against the declaration. It is not my declaration.  I desire that we shall 
present to congress a constitution which will receive the approbation of 
congress; to appeal to them; not to declare that we have an absolute right to 
establish a different form of government. We should appeal to congress for our 
rights, and not come before it as rebels, with the statement that we have the 
absolute right to abolish our territorial form of government."

	Judge Edgerton ever spoke with an impressiveness which always makes his 
simple words, independent of his personality, appear tame and colorless and 
there was an intensity in his eloquence at this time which held every hearer 
with bated breath.  General Campbell replied with some excitement: "There was a 
time when such sentiments as were just now presented to us from the lips of our 
president were considered loyal and the opposition doctrine was considered 
rebellion.  There was a time when it was considered revolutionary to assert that 
the power of the government rested upon the consent and authority of the people, 
but, sir, from the time that Patrick Henry made his speech for Virginia; from 
the time the constitution was adopted by the people; from the time the 
Declaration of In-dependence was framed, in which our forefathers did not 
hesitate to say that government was based upon the authority of the people; from 
that time to this I have never heard that authority disputed.  I hope the time 
will never come when the people of Dakota will have less spirit than did their 
fathers.  There are men here whose beards are turning gray, who were boys in 
1860, who remember when the Democratic congress to whom some men would have us 
bow as before demigods to whom they would have us bend the knee and bow the head 
as if they were czars, as if we were not people of the American government-said 
to the people of Kansas, You have no power to act until we grant that power.'  
And the people of Kansas replied by turning out the legislature set up by 
congress and thrust down its throat the iniquitous Lecompton constitution, and 
when that congress ended the Democratic party went out of power not to return 
for a quarter of a century.  The people of Kansas hurled back at the Democratic 
congress the declaration that they must wait for congress to confer the power to 
act. If this declaration is treason, I pray God that I may always be a rebel."

	These addresses well illustrate the two extremes of opinion represented in 
the convention and the popular opinion of the state as well. The fact is that 
the situation was well nigh intolerable and it required all the wisdom of the 
conservatives to prevent an open revolution.

	The constitution as adopted contained all of the salutary provisions of 
the present document embodying General Beadle's long-contended-for ten-dollar 
minimum price for the school lands with the wise provision for the protection of 
the funds.  Prohibition of the liquor traffic and minority representation were 
submitted as separate articles.  Provision was made for the submission of the 
constitution to the people at the election in November and for the election of a 
full complement of state officers.  After the election the legislature was to be 
assembled and United States senators were to be elected, when the legislature 
should adjourn and everything held in abeyance until admission was accomplished.  
Dakota was to be the name of the state.

	The Republican state convention met at Huron on the 21st of October and 
placed in nomination a full state ticket, as follows:  For congress, Oscar S. 
Gifford and Theodore D. Kanouse; governor, Arthur C. Mellette; lieutenant 
governor, A. E. Frank, of Deadwood; secretary of state, Hugh S. Murphy of 
Elkton; auditor, Frank Alexander, of Mound City; Treasurer, D. W. Diggs, of 
Milbank; attorney general, Robert Dollard, of Scotland; superintendent of 
schools, A. Sheridan Jones, of Olivet; commissioner of school lands, W. H. H. 
Beadle; judges of the supreme court, A. G. Kellam, of Chamberlain, Dighton 
Corson, of Deadwood, and John E. Bennett, of Clark.  There was a large 
attendance at the convention and a determined campaign for the nominations.

	The Democratic state committee met at Mitchell on the 25th and resolved to 
ignore the constitution and take no part in the election.  This was in accord 
with the policy of the administration of President Cleveland, which opposed both 
division and admission for political reasons, as the Dakota representatives. 
whether from one or two states, would presumably oppose the administration.

	The election occurred November 3d and of course resulted in the election 
of all the Republican candidates for state and legislative offices, there being 
no opposing tickets.  The temporary seat of government was also at issue in this 
election, and Huron, Pierre, Alexandria, Sioux Falls and Chamberlain were 
candidates.  31,652 votes were cast.  The constitution received 25,132, with 
6,522 opposed. Prohibition prevailed by 334 majority and minority representation 
was lost by more than five thousand votes.  For the capital Huron won with 
twelve thousand one hundred forty-six votes.  Pierre received 10,305; 
Chamberlain, 3,167; Sioux Falls, 3,337, and Alexandria, 1,374.

	The legislature convened according to the terms of the constitution at 
Huron on December 15th and organized with Thomas V. Eddy, of Watertown, speaker 
of the house.

	The message of Governor Mellette was declared to be without a peer as a 
state document in Dakota.  Its most significant sentence declared:  "The people 
of Dakota are a state by the supreme right of creation.  They have carved the 
new state out of the wilds of the prairie in a half decade of years at a touch 
of the magical wand of progress.  The state is the creature of the people, not 
of congress.  While congress alone can endow with life, the people alone can 
create.  *  *  *  Kansas struggled to statehood through blood, but her course 
can never excite the sympathy of intelligent statesmanship, as has the contempt 
so persistently shown to the people of Dakota.  The state has not only shown 
herself capable of administering and maintaining government, being a very hive 
of industry and thrift, presenting throughout her domain a model of law and 
order, sustained virtually without courts, the admiration of right minded and 
liberty loving people. While constitutional liberty is still against the steel 
hand of the invader, it is as delicate as the petal of the rose to the touch of 
injustice from within.  Robbed of justice it is robbed of respect; robbed of 
respect it is robbed of power: robbed of power it is robbed of life.  'Outrage, 
contempt and death' is the epitaph inscribed upon the tablets of liberty adown 
the mausoleum of time.  A wrong to the state is a wrong to the Union.  While 
injustice injures her directly, the gangrene of her wounds is absorbed into 
every fiber of the body politic of which she is a member.  Amputation is 
deformity.  The only remedy is to heal and the only ointment, righteous justice.  
She no longer solicits a favor within the power of congress to grant or to 
withhold.  She demands a right granted by law which congress cannot legally 
refuse.  If her people are content with less than justice, they are unworthy to 
be free.  If the nation offers less it is unworthy to exist under the name of 
constitutional liberty.  Dakota is a state with every prerequisite fulfilled, a 
fact which she knows and will cause congress to know." 

	The legislature effected a complete organization and elected Judge Alonzo 
J. Edgerton and Col. Gideon C. Moody United States senators. Hugh J. Campbell 
was the only opposing candidate,  The legislature then adjourned subject to the 
call of the Governor.

	Governor Mellette's message and declaration that "We are a state," 
subjected him to much criticism from the Democrats and from the conservative 
Republicans, but when congress ignored our claims to admission year after year 
the revolutionary spirit well nigh prevailed. 

	Judge Edgerton having resigned as chief justice of the territory, Bartlett 
Tripp was appointed by President Cleveland to fill the vacancy. Cleveland to a 
large extent filled tile appointive positions in the territory with Dakotans.  
In October, however, Seward Smith, judge of the third district, was removed, and 
Louis K. Church, of New York, was appointed to the place. Smith was elected by 
the divisionists judge of the Aberdeen circuit: he was in poor health and 
somewhat erratic and to the surprise of every one announced himself a candidate 
for the senate. Even then the true state of his mind was not apprehended, but 
soon he showed unmistakable signs of insanity and he was taken by his Iowa 
friends to a sanitarium where he died.

	Aside from the constitutional movement, the year was not especially 
eventful. On February 25th, seven days before the close of his term, President 
Arthur had by executive order opened to settlement all of the Crow Creek 
reservation lying on the east side of the Missouri, above Chamberlain, which had 
not been taken in severalty by the Indians.  Very many settlers thronged in and 
located upon these lands.  On April 17th President Cleveland, deeming that 
Arthur's order opening the lands conflicted with the treaty rights of the 
Indians, revoked the same and ordered the settlers to vacate.  This was deemed 
by the people a very great hardship and was one of the grievances against the 
Cleveland administration to which Dakotans of the period were wont to point.  
The Cleveland order, however, was really founded in justice.  If the lauds were 
to be opened the Indians were entitled to the accruing benefits and should have 
been paid for them as were the Sissetons and Yanktons for their surplus lauds in 
after years.  After several years, during the Harrison administration, the 
government did reimburse the Crow creek settlers for their losses.

	On September 29th a great territorial fair was held at Huron, the first to 
he held after the great development of the northern and central portions.  It 
was considered a success, largely due to the energy of Secretary W. F. T. 
Bushnell.

	At Pierre on the 15th of April, a sensational tragedy occurred.  On the 
4th of the preceding December Forrest G. Small, a young lawyer of Harrold, had 
been foully murdered by another lawyer of the village, J. W. Bell.  Small had 
been elected county attorney of Hughes county, a fact which made Bell, his 
business competitor, inordinately jealous and upon the date named he met Small 
on the road between Harrold and Blunt and killed him with a hatchet and buried 
the body in a field of breaking.  Bell had an accomplice who confessed the crime 
and both were arrested and lodged in the jail at Pierre, where on the morning of 
April 15th, Bell was taken from the jail by a party of Small's neighbors from 
Blunt and Harrold and hanged to the flag hole in the front yard.

	On July 15th a terrific storm, approaching a cyclone in character and 
intensity, swept over the country from Holabird to Ree Heights. Holabird, then a 
village of two hundred inhabitants, was practically destroyed and great damage 
was wrought at Highmore and to the farms throughout the region. Fortunately no 
lives were lost.

	Peyler H. Acton, editor of the Sioux Falls Leader, died on March 25th.  He 
was a writer of brilliance, and had achieved a wide reputation for his writing, 
both in newspaper work and as a contributor to the standard periodicals, being 
one of the first Dakotans to win literary notice.