MISSOURI (ante) was a part of the vast territory claimed by the French as original discoverers and settlers, which, in the grant of Louis XIV. in 1712, was called Louisiana. The states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska were also a part of this great region. the northern portion of which was called upper Louisiana. As early as 1720 the lead mines of Missouri attracted attention, but it was not until 1755 that the first settle ment in the territory was made at St. Genevieve. In 1762 France ceded all that portion of the territory w. of the Mississippi to Spain, and that on the e. to England. In 1800 the region w. of the Mississippi was retroceded by Spain to France, and in 1803 it was sold by the latter to the United States. In 1755 St. Louis was known as a fur-trade station, with less than 1000 inhabitants, while St. Genevieve had about half that number. These and the smaller settlements grew very slowly until Louisiana and upper Louisiana alike came into possession of the United States. The vast region was then divided by con gress into the territory of Orleans and the district of Louisiana—Missouri being included in the latter, which in 1803 was erected by congress into a territory, with St. Louis as its seat of government. In 1812, when a part of the territory of Orleans was admitted as a state to the union under the name of Louisiana, the name of the territory of Louisiana was changed to Missouri. The limits on the w. were enlarged from time to time by treaties with the Indian tribes. In 1810 the population numbered 20.845, of whom all but 1500 were within the present limits of Missouri. In 1817 the total population hav ing increased to 60,000, while St. Louis was a town of 5,000 inhabitants, the territorial legislature asked leave of congress to frame a constitution with a view to the admission of the territory into the union as a state. This application led to a tierce excitement, n at only in congress, but throughout the country. A very large number of the people of the free states were earnestly opposed to the admission of any more slave states to the union, while the people of the slave states were resolved that Missouri should not be excluded on this account. The subject was debated in congress with such heat that many citizens were alarmed lest it-should lead: to. a dissolution of the union. Indeed, it was openly declared by some of the champion8 of slavcry that the country would be disrupted and the national government overthrown if the petition of Missouri were rejected. These threats so terrified some of the northern representatives that yielded to the southern demands, and Missouri was admitted to the union in 1820 under conditions set forth in what has ever since been known as " the Missouri compromise." and which, as an offset for the addition of another slave state to the union, solemnly enacted that the system of slavery should be forever excluded from all that part of the territory of the United States lying n. of 36' 30'. The admissiou was consummated by a presidential proclamation dated Aug. 10, 1821. The growth of the state was thence forth rapid. At the time of the rebellion in 1861 the people were about equally divided in sentiment, one portion adhering to the union, the other to the southern confederacy. The struggle between these two parties was very severe. The friends of secession, hav ing control of the state senate, induced that body to call a state convention, but the body so summoned proved favorable to the maintenance of the union, and the scheme of the secessionists was defeated. Union troops having entered the state in considerable num
bers, gov. Jackson, June 12, 1861, issued a proclamation calling into service 50,000 of the state militia "for the purpose of repelling invasion, and for the protection of the lives, liberty, and property of the citizens." The governor, in thus assuming that the presence of the union troops was an " invasion" of the rights of the slate, endangering the lives, liberty, and property of the citizens, proclaimed himself iii rebellion against the national government. Gen. Lyon, with a force of 1500 men, having taken possession of Jefferson City, the capital, in the name of the United States, and gov. Jackson and the other secession state officers having fled, the state convention again assembled, and on July 30 filled with loyal men the vacancies thus created. On Aug. 1 the new gov ernor (Gamble) was inaugurated, and on the 5th the deposed governor issued from New Madrid a proclamation that the state was out of the union. Confederate troops in large numbers having assembled iu the s.w. part of the state, gen. Lyon advanced from Boone ville to Springfield to resist them. A battle took place Aug. 10, in which gen. Lyon was killed. The union forces, under gen. Sigel, retired to Rolla. On Aug. 1 gen. Fremont, commanding the department of the west, declared martial law throughout the state. Aug. 20 the rebel general Price compelled the federal forces, numbering 3,000, to retire from Lexington. Fremont thereupon hastened from St. Louis to Jefferson City, but the confederates, numbering 20,000, under gen. Price, retreated to Springfield and still further south. Fremont thereupon moved to the s.w. in five divisions, under Bens. Hunter, Pope, Sigel, Asboth, and MeKinstry. Nov. 2 Fremont was succeeded by gen. Hunter, and ou the 18th gen. Halleck took command of the western department. Meanwhile a quorum of the legislature elected before the contest began, having assem bled at _Neosho, Newton co., passed an act declaring the state to be a part of the confed eracy. Early, however, in 1862 a strong federal force under gen. Curtis drove the confederates into Kansas. During the rest of the year the state was disturbed by a guer rilla war, kept up by secessionists who had not removed within the confederate lines. In the summer of 1863 the state convention elected in 1861, and which had beim kept alive by successive adjournments, passed an ordinance providing for the emancipation of all the slaves of the state in 1870. In 1864 gen. Price again invaded Missouri, threatening St. Louis, and traversing a large part of the state; but lie was soon driven back again to Arkansas. The first state election since the war was held Nov. 4, 1864, and on Jan. 6, 1865, a state convention assembled in St. Louis and framed a new constitution, which in the following June was ratified by the people by a vote of 43,670 to 41,808. During the war the state furnished to the federal armies more than 108,000 troops. In 1869 the leg islnture ratified, by a large majority, the 15th amendment to the constitution of the United States. The population of the state in 1875, according to a state census, was a little short of 2,000,000. Pop. '80, 2,103,804. .