Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/294

 CHAPTER XV STATEHOOD ATTAINED Petition for Organization as a State — Bill to Organize a State Government — The Slavery Controversy — The Tallmadge Amendment — Debate Over the Amendment — Deadlock of the Two Houses — The Missouri Compromise — Feeling in the State — The Constitutional Convention — Members from the Southeast — The Constitution in Congress — Further Opposition to Admission — The Debate — Clay's Compromise — The Solemn Public Act — The President's Proclamation Admitting the State — Pe- culiarities op the Transaction^State Boundaries — Missouri — Arkansas — "Wolf Island. The territory of Missouri grew, as we have seen, verj^ rapidly in wealth and population. The people, though living since 1816 under the third or highest form of territorial gov- ei"nment, desired to be organized as a state and to be admitted to the Union. Accord- ingly, we find that in 1817 a number of peti- tions were drawn up and circulated among the people of the territory asking Congress to authorize the organization of a state govern- ment. Most of these petitions were lost, but recently Mr. Bartholdt, a member of Congress from St. Louis, found one of the copies and had it framed and preserved. It is set out below : ' ' ]Iemorial of the Citizens of Missouri Ter- ritory — To the Honorable, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled : — The pe- tition of the undersigned inhabitants of the Territory of Missouri respectfully showeth: That your petitioners live within that part of the Territory- of Missouri which lies between the latitudes of 36 degrees and 30 minutes and 40 degrees north, and between the Missis- sippi river to the east and the Osage boundary to the west. They pray that they may be admitted into the Union of the states with these limits. "They conceive that their numbers entitle them to the benefits and to the rank of a stafe government. Taking the progressive increase during former years as the basis of the calcu- lation they estimate their present numbers at 40,000 souls. Tennessee, Ohio and the Missis- sippi state were admitted with smaller num- bers, 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 govern- ment, five in the second ; they have evinced their attachment to the honor and integrity of the Union during the late war and they with deference urge their right to become a 234