Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/210

 150 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Upper Louisiana, and it was assumed by the inhabitants that since the right was not ex- pressly taken away, they still possessed it. This memorial prayed that this right should be expressly recognized. Another thing asked for was that funds and lands should be set aside by the Government of the United States for the support of a French and English school in every county of the district, and that further provision should be made at once for the establishment of a seminary where in- struction should be given in the higher branches of learning. This memorial was signed by the following persons: Richard Jones Waters and Eligius Promentin of New Madrid, Christopher Hays, Stephen Byrd, Andrew Ramsay and Frederick Bollinger of Cape Girardeau, J. S. J. Beauvais and P. Detchmendy of Ste. Genevieve, Charles Gra- tiot, P. Provenchere, August Chouteau, Rich- ard Caulk, David Musiek and Francis Cot- tard of St. Louis, Warren Cottle, A. Reynol, P. Saucier and Timothy Kibby of St. Charles; Choteau and Promentin were ap- pointed as deputies and agents to present the petition to the Congress of the United States. It will be easily seen here that the men here represented as petitioners were among the most prominent and influential to be foiuid in all, of Upper Louisiana. Promentin, who was one of the agents for the presentation of the petition was one of the most distinguished scholars in the whole territory. He occupied a number of positions and in 1812 was made a senator of the United States from Louisiana. The petition was presented to Congress on January 4th, 1805. After some discussion and delay, a bill was passed on the third day of March, 1805, which regulated affairs in the territory. By the terms of this bill all of Upper Loiiisiana was made into a separate tcrritoiw of the first or lowest grade and was called the Territory of Louisiana. It was provided in the act that the governor and three judges should be appointed with power to make such rules and regulations concern- ing affairs within the territory as should seem to them to be necessary for its government. The act was silent on some of the matters that were set out in the petition. We have already seen that the Indian question was practically settled by the action of the United States in regard to the Sacs and Foxes, which action evinced the determination of the government to remove the Indians to the far west, but the other questions raised by the petitioners and the other complaints put in by them were not adjusted by the Act of Congress. No pro- ision was made for confirming the disputed land grants and it is quite probable that the question of land grants was of all the ques- tions concerning the territory the one most pressing and most troublesome. It is rather peculiar that this matter was not fully settled luitil April, 1814. At that time Congress passed an act which confirmed the title of the grants made by Spain previous to the 9th day of March, 1804, that is, previous to the final reliu(iuishment of the territory to the United States. This action, though it was long de- layed, finall.y settled the question of the valid- ity of the grants made from 1802 to 1804, l.'ut the question of these particular grants was by no means the only question regarding the Spanish lands, in fact there existed for a great length of time considerable uncertainty as to the validity of most of these grants. There seemed to be no way of finally determ- ining their validity, except by the action of the courts and it required a long period of time to dispose of the question of these land grants in a final and satisfactory way. The act of 1805 which created the territory