The publication of these two handsome volumes is made possible by the William Keeney Bixby Fund. They contain, says the editor, all that is of "interest to the public" in the collection of Bates's manuscripts owned by the Missouri Historical Society. Frederick Bates was one of that numerous class of cultured Virginians who in the closing decade of the eighteenth and the first quarter of the nineteenth century identified their fortunes with the western frontier. In 1797, at the age of twenty, he became connected with the quartermaster's department of the army of the Northwest, with headquarters at Detroit. Thereafter he held various important offices in Michigan Territory—deputy postmaster at Detroit, receiver of public monies, land commissioner, and finally associate judge of the new territory. In 1807 he was appointed Secretary of the Territory of Louisiana—meaning all the territory owned by the United States between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains north of the present State of Louisiana, which was then known as the Territory of Orleans. More than six hundred of the seven hundred pages in these volumes relate to Bates's career on this far western frontier. He was Secretary of the Territory from 1807 to 1820, acting much of the time as Governor. During the same years, and until 1824, he was recorder of land titles. In 1824 he was elected Governor of Missouri, and died during incumbency in August, 1825.
For some years after Bates's arrival in Missouri, settlement was confined to the southeast corner of the present State, extending from St. Louis to New Madrid and pushing westward to the lead mines in Washington County. Thus the Bates Papers traverse the area and the period of the first four hundred pages of The Austin Papers, published by the American Historical Association in 1924. The two collections supplement each other and together provide material for a social and economic history of the place and time. Naturally, there is much of politics, too, in Bates's correspondence because of his official position, but the main interest is social and economic—relations with the Indians, trading licenses, disputed land titles, racial mixtures, personalities, and the ups and downs of individual fortunes.
Being asked by a correspondent for a description of the country three months after his arrival, Bates replied : "If I had a description of chaos, by one of the Heathen Philosophers, I would send you an extract from it. But as my own weak powers are inadequate to the mighty theme, I must beg to be excused." Fortunately, he became less reserved as leisure and acquaintance ripened, and drew many pictures of the land and its inhabitants. The district of Saint Genevieve, in which the lead mines were situated, frequently stimulated his pen: "On these resources of unbounded wealth, Speculators of the most daring cast of character are making continual intrusions. From the collision of interests in these fraudulent pursuits, very imbittered contests have arisen, and the contending parties are always armed for attack as well as defense with Pistols and Durks and sometimes with Rifles also. . . . Some of these men disdain a submission to the Laws, and appear determined to carve their way thro' life with Rifle, Pistol and Daggers—the public sentiment has acquired an astonishing degree of ferocity." This was written in 1807. It was confirmed two months later by a lessee of a government mine who wrote Bates about a visit from one "Edward Cheetham with a party of four men, sweetly armed, with Knives, Dirks, and Pistols" to carry off the mineral dug by the lessee.
Moses Austin's antagonist, Colonel John Smith T, was usually the head and front of the turbulent doings at the mines, and he is the most vivid figure, with the exception of Bates himself, revealed by these Papers. Here is one of the scenes in which he appears : "He is now confined to his bed, from several severe wounds, received in a late Rencontre, in which it is said that he acted on the defensive. He will recover altho he has one Rifle Ball, thro' his body and a deep gash in the thigh. His antagonist was dreadfully mangled and expired on the spot."
All this is typical of a phase of frontier life at its worst, but to single out such * incidents for quotation misrepresents, in a measure, both Missouri and the book. Other letters describe the marvelous fertility of the land, the yield of the crops, industries and institutions; and illuminate the operation of territorial government. They are the fundamental and indispensable raw material for the historian and the dramatist delving in the heroic period of Missouri history.
Bates appears as an able executive, very human and deservedly popular. Professor Marshall contributes a sketch of his life in forty pages. It might well be expanded into a sizable book. Most of the material for such a book is ready to hand in these volumes, and it is to be hoped that Professor Marshall may feel impelled to undertake it. Bates's official difficulties were aggravated by long and frequent vacancies in the governor's office during which he acted as governor. He acted decisively and firmly, and apparently with good judgment, but his measures were always subject to reversal by incoming governors, and sometimes were reversed. Much insight into his character and personality is afforded by a brief paragraph which he wrote to his brother : "Richard, this is a strange world, in which we live !
I had thought that my habits were pacific; yet I have had acrimonious differences with almost every person with whom I have been associated in public business. I have called myslef to a very rigid account on this head, and before God, I cannot acknowledge that I have been blamable in any one instance. My passions blind me I suppose."
The editing is ample and unimpechable. More than eight hundred notes explain obscure allusions in the text and identify a multitude of characters. Professor Marshall is to be contratulated on the production of this useful and highly interesting collection. He has laid students of the frontier under a lasting debt of gratitude.
EUGENE C. BAKER
How to cite:
"The Life and Papers of Frederick Bates.", Volume 030, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 157 - 160. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v030/n2/review_11.html
[Accessed Mon Nov 23 10:03:42 CST 2009]
