The Fall of 1817 is the earliest known period when territorial citizens began circulating petitions for statehood (also referred to as “prayers”). These petitions were as wide and varied as the territorial inhabitants. Some called for the geographical division along the Missouri river while other petitions proffered various other geographical boundaries.
Prior to his March “prayer” (at which time he offered petitions with competing interests concerning geographical boundaries), Scott had previously presented a petition to Congress on February 2.
And, on January 8, 1818 petitions reached the congressional floor when Speaker of the House Henry Clay presented “prayers” requesting statehood for a geographical area centered, north to south, along the Missouri River. The several petitions presented that day were identical; suggesting a concerted and organized movement.
One reason for the proposed boundary was to avoid creating states that were “skinny” along the Mississippi; the petition argues minimal frontage along the Mississippi River, along with statehood requirements, would require creation of states that would have to stretch far west into the plains towards the Rocky Mountains.
The following text is excerpted from those identical petitions presented to Congress on January 8, 1818:
That your petitioners live within that part of the Territory of Missouri which lies between the latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes south and 40 degrees north, and between the Mississippi River to the East and the Osage boundary line to the West. They pray that they may be admitted to the Union of the states within these limits.
They conceive that their numbers entitle them to the benefits and the rank of state government. Taking the progressive increase during former years, as a basis of the calculation, they estimate their present numbers at upwards of 40,000 souls. Tennessee, Ohio, and the Mississippi state were admitted with smaller numbers, and the Treaty of Cession guarantees this great privilege to your petitioners as soon as it can be granted under the principles of the Federal Constitution. They have passed eight years in the first grade of territorial government, five in the second; they have evinced their attachment to the honour and integrity of the Union during the late war, and they, with deference, urge their right to become a member of the great Republic.
The boundaries which they solicit for the future state, they believe to be the most reasonable and proper that can be devised. The southern limit will be an extension of the line that divides Virginia and North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. The northern will correspond nearly with the north limit of the territory of Illinois and with the Indian boundary line, near the mouth of the River Des Moines. A front of three and one-half degrees upon the Mississippi will be left to the South, to form the territory of Arkansas, with the River Arkansas traversing its center. A front three and one-half degrees more, upon a medium depth of two hundred miles, with the Missouri River in the center, will form the State of Missouri. Another front of equal extent, embracing the great River St. Pierre, will remain above, to form another state, at some future day.
The boundaries, as solicited, will include all the country to the north and west to which the Indian title has been extinguished.
They will include the body of the population.
They will make the Missouri River the center, and not the boundary of the state.
Your petitioners deprecate the idea of making the civil divisions of the states to correspond with the natural divisions of the country. Such divisions will promote that tendency to separate, which it is the policy of the Union to counteract.
The above described boundaries are adapted to the localities of the country.
The woodland districts are found towards the great rivers. The interior is composed of vast regions of naked and sterile plains, stretching to the Shining Mountains. The states must have large fronts upon the Mississippi, to prevent themselves from being carried into these desert.
Besides, the country north and south of the Missouri is necessary each to the other, the former possessing a rich soil destitute of minerals, the latter abounding in mines of lead and iron, and thinly sprinkled with spots of ground fit for cultivation.
Your petitioners hope that their voice may have some weight in the division of their own country, and in the formation of their state boundaries; and that statesmen, ignorant of its localities, may not undertake to cut up their territory with fanciful divisions which may look handsome on paper, but must be ruinous in effect.
Sources
- McReynolds, Edwin C. Missouri: A History of the Crossroads State. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
- Shoemaker, Floyd Calvin. Missouri’s Struggle for Statehood 1804-1821. Jefferson City: The Hugh Stephens Printing Company, 1916.
- Stevens, Walter B. Missouri (The Center State): One Hundred Years in the Union 1820-1921. Volume 1. St. Louis: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1921.
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