Minnesota Territory

How the Outside World Influenced Territorial Development and

Political

Slides created by Terry L. Shoptaugh, Minnesota State University Moorhead

Background

Elements that determined who would control the region and how

it would be organized.

Fur TradeConducted at first by French explorers and then largely by the descendants of French men and Native American women, the fur trade in “Minnesota” was very lucrative. They exchanged furs (usually trapped by Natives or Meti) for European gods (cloth, copper kettles, steel knives, iron tools). The Native Ojibwe, Dakota, and others in the region became dependent on such goods, which the traders then used to acquire land for European posts and settlements.

American Revolution

By organizing the military expeditions that seized Forts Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and other British posts in the west, George Rogers Clark (older brother of William Clark) ensured that the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and north of the Ohio River would be ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris (1783).

Much of this land was claimed by Virginia, Connecticut, and others of the original thirteen states as part of their original grants from the British crown. The Continental Congress argued over these claims for much of the revolution.

Economic Potential•French explorers, fur traders and British mapmakers all commented on the potential wealth of the region. Furs had already been tapped, but several Europeans commented from experience that the fur population of the region would eventually be exhausted – as had happened in so many other areas already.

•The pines of the St. Croix Valley were recognized by fur traders as being of great value, but the potential was not tapped until 1837, when a crew of loggers began to cut trees and ship the logs, by water, to St. Louis. For years, logging crews in the St. Croix Valley had to import all the food they consumed from St. Louis, Chicago, or other towns along the Mississippi River.

•The land south of the Mississippi was recognized as good for farming. But fur traders resisted the idea of encouraging large numbers of settlers – for that would deplete the fur population even more rapidly.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787•Mandated that the lands west of the first 13 states, and north of the Ohio River be organized as a territory, and that 3-5 states be created from it.

•Established the process through which territories became states.

•Stated that these states “shall forever remain a part of this Confederacy of the United States of America.”

•Forbade slavery in these new states.

•Gave equal rights under Article 4 -- “whenever any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government.”

Source of the “Father of Waters”

The Treaty of Paris of 1783 had mentioned the Mississippi River as the western boundary of the land ceded by Great Britain to the United States – but where the river began was unknown. This sparked a search for the river’s source, involving explorations by such men as Zebulon Pike, Stephen Long, and Lewis Cass. The question was not settled until the mid-1830s when Henry Schoolcraft’s argument for Lake Itasca was accepted. All of the explorations had drawn attention to the area.

Organizing a Territory-- Issues•By 1800, the lands that later constituted Minnesota contained Native Americans and Europeans of French and British culture.

•The U.S. government undertook to place forts in the “old Northwest” in order to discourage the British fur trade on American soil.

•Widespread settlement could not begin until treaties had been negotiated with Natives.

American Organization of Land

The only parts of “Minnesota” that were organized by the Northwest Ordinance were those included first in the Michigan Territory.

Louisiana Purchase

The purchase of the Louisiana region from France in 1803 added to the lands that would form Minnesota. The 1818 Treaty ceding the Red River basin as far as Pembina completed the acquisition of lands.

Selkirk Colony

In 1811, Thomas Douglas – Lord Selkirk – established a farming colony along the Red River, on land transferred to him by the Hudson’s Bay Co. But trouble with Meti who, as fur traders, resist farming led many to desert the colony and move south, forming another settlement at Pembina.

Cart Trades

Enterprising Americans began using cart trains to supply residents of Pembina and the Selkirk colony with goods (in return for furs). This “cart trade” created trails from St. Paul to the Red River and further stimulated interest in the region.

Americanizing Business

In 1816, after a great deal of lobbying by American fur interests, Congress passed the Foreign Intercourse Act, which stated that agents of other countries who were engaged in “trade in the boundaries of the United States,” must become naturalized citizens or sell their interests. As a result French (or Meti) fur agents in the Mississippi-Minnesota River region had to seek American citizenship.

American Fur CompanyThe American Fur Company, controlled by John Jacob Astor (left) in St. Louis, bought out British fur interests in “Minnesota” and along the Missouri River. The Company proceeded to make a fortune in muskrat furs, and also pioneered the use of steamboats on the rivers and in the Great Lakes.

Any territory that was to be organized would have to consider the interests of the American Fur Co.

Fort Snelling

Built at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, Fort Snelling was the first major step toward settlement of the area.

Territories

After the boundaries of the State of Michigan were determined, the lands still east of the Mississippi River together with the lands as far as the Missouri River were made part of Wisconsin Territory. When the Iowa Territory was created in 1838, some efforts were made to include the lands south of the Minnesota River as part of Iowa.

Territorial ResourcesTerritorial political disputes were usually over the major three major issues:

• The resources of a region – the pine lands along the St. Croix River were quite valuable. In the 1840s, investors in Milwaukee and Madison tried to place the western boundary of Wisconsin at the Mississippi River, in order to control all the St. Croix pinelands.

•National and/or regional political issues – the growing dispute over slavery affected the lands of Minnesota because southern states did not want the slave-free balance in the U.S. Senate to be altered.

•Individual and party ambitions – a Democratic President or Democratic Congress wanted to strengthen its party’s future by selecting territorial officers (governor, non-voting representative to Congress, etc.) that would help the Democrats. Whigs (and later Republicans) took the same approach.

Land Cessions

Using trade goods, Native indebtedness to fur traders, and the implied threat of military force, agents of the U.S. Army negotiated treaties in which land was ceded by the Natives to the American government. The lands along the Minnesota and Mississippi River were the first ones opened to settlement for trade and farms.

Ojibwe cession of 1837

Dakota cession of 1851

Establishing St. PaulOnce the 1837 treaty ceding Ojibwe lands to the government was accepted by Congress, the first land rush in the Fort Snelling area began. The commander of the Fort pushed many squatters to leave the area – partly because he wanted to file a claim on land for himself. Squatters moved up and down the rivers, some filing their own claims, others simply squatting in a new spot.

Pierre Parrant, known as Pig’s Eye for his blind eye, gave his nick-name to a small settlement 4 miles downstream from the fort. In 1840, the Catholic mission of St. Paul was built on the edge of the Pig’s Eye settlement, and in 1846 the residents chose St. Paul as the designation for the Post Office placed at the site. Because it existed so near the Minnesota-Mississippi confluence, St. Paul was destined to become a major community.

River Trade

As the population along the rivers grew, so did the number of steamboats that brought settlers and goods to St. Paul and the other towns that began to develop. Soon commerce in the form of manufactured goods shipped to “Minnesota” from Illinois or Missouri began to rival furs and lumbering as sources of wealth.

St. Croix Valley

Lumbering in the St. Croix Valley became so important that more food had to be imported to the region to feed the lumber crews. Joseph Renshaw Brown, with investments in furs and timber, represented St. Croix in the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature – and acted to keep the western part of the Valley outside the State of Wisconsin

What Kind of Territory?

As Wisconsin neared statehood, various interests argued on how a Minnesota Territory should be drawn. Those who coveted lands in Canada wanted it to reach northward to the Pigeon River. Members of the Democratic Party generally liked this idea, and also wanted lumbering and trade to be a major resource.

Those who were joining the newly organized Republican Party wanted a state that would exist between the Mississippi River and the Missouri River – a state of farmers who would vote against the expansion of slavery, for a homestead land law, and for railroad development.

The old investors in furs (including Joseph Brown, Henry Sibley, Joe Rollette, and others) tended toward the Democratic Party but mostly wanted a territorial government that would honor the debts that Native Americans owed to them.

Territory EstablishedOne of the most talented young statesmen of the 1840s, Stephen Douglas (Democrat, Illinois Congressman) used his influence in 1846-47 to keep Iowa from annexing land from southern “Minnesota” and Wisconsin from annexing the St. Paul, St. Anthony’s Falls region. In calling for the creation of a “MINASOTA” territory, Douglas was trying to prevent debates that could harm his presidential ambitions – while preserving Democratic Party influence in the northwest.

Douglas got his bill passed in 1849 by giving his support for a Federal Interior Department in exchange for a Minnesota Territory.

Territorial Governor RamseyIncoming President Zachary Taylor named Alexander Ramsey as the first Territorial governor for Minnesota. Ramsey got on well with both Whigs and Democrats and played a key role in negotiating the 1851 treaties with the Sioux for cession of lands south the Minnesota River.

A critical part of the Treaty negotiations was the “traders’ papers” which Joseph R. Brown induced Dakota leaders into signing – the papers allowed the US government to give annuity payments owed the Dakota for their lands directly to fur interests as payment toward trade debts. This became a prime contributor to the “uprising” in 1861.

Organizing the Land

County boundaries – and the location of county seats – favored some and hurt the ambitions of others. The huge counties were largely laid out as administrative conveniences because few Americans lived there as yet.

Farms in the “Suland”J. Wesley Bond in 1853 called Minnesota’s climate “pure, pleasant and healthful” and predicted that it would “in time become one of the very best wheat-growing states in the whole Union.” But in the 1850s, it cost $250-300 to cultivate 10 to acres (break the ground, plant, harvest, build a home and fence, and keep livestock). Bank loans carried a 10-12% interest rate and no law yet existed for free land by “homesteading.” Early farming tended to begin by a community effort – German immigrants, “colony” groups from the east, etc.

Territory politics turned from furs and lumber toward debt, schools, and roads.

Slavery Issue

Because Dred Scott had been owned by an Army officer who served at Fort Snelling, this slave (with anti-slavery legal help) sued for his freedoms on the grounds that he had lived in a Territory that forbade slavery.

The Dred Scott decision dominated national legal and political debates in the mid-1850s. Most Minnesotans were against slavery because Southern Congressmen and Senators blocked the admission of more non-slave states. They refused to vote for a homestead law, or for Federal funds for railroads or other “internal improvements.”

Randolph Probstfield

Randolph Probstfield (with his wife Catherine) emigrated from Germany to Minnesota and became one of the earliest settlers in the Red River Valley, at the Georgetown fur station. His experiments in agriculture helped determine what could best be grown in the Valley.

Westward Ho!Minnesota entrepreneurs organized wagon trains of goods for sale in the Montana-region gold and silver mines. This profitable trade, supplementing the cart caravans into southern Manitoba, blazed routes to the west that would subsequently be used by the railroads.

Other plans for development included schemes for cutting pines in the ‘north woods’ and exploiting the large amounts of iron ore found in the northeastern part of the territory – but these would require capital and new technology.

Log structure built in the late 1850s as a freight station on the Red River, near the site later chosen for the town of Moorhead.

Opposition to Statehood“I believe as a legal proposition under the Constitution . . . that slaves may be held in these Territories. The moment you admit a Senator from this State [of Minnesota] he will be arrogant, assuming, pretentious, Free-Soilish.” -- John B. Thompson, Senator of Kentucky in opposition to granting Minnesota statehood in 1857.

As the chances of civil war grew, Minnesota statehood was blocked by southerners in Congress who were angry over the Kansas debate and the belief that no territory should be able to prevent slavery. The delay made Republicans of many Minnesota residents.

Tale of Two ConstitutionsDemocratic copy Republican Copy

By 1857, when Minnesota applied for statehood, party rivalry between Democrats and Republican were so bitter that members of neither party would sign the same constitution copy. Minnesota thus ended up with one copy signed by Democrats, the other signed by Republicans.

The 19th State

When adopted in 1893, the Minnesota State flag incorporated parts of its past (the Native American, the French “North Star” metaphor, and the importance of agriculture). But the making of the Territory and State involved contests over more resources, national and regional differences, and personal ambitions.

The Territorial experience showed that no part of the U.S. ever exists in isolation from the rest of the nation.