the thirteen million dollars of our permanent school fund, and the State University. The simple enactment by Congress that sections 16 and 36 in each township of all the public domain in the territory and future states growing out of this region should be set apart for school purposes has brought about this result. Now to whom is that due in the main, to the greatest extent? Unquestionably to the first delegate from Minnesota who was there present, giving direction to legislation for our territory at that time, General H. H. Sibley. Thence followed the marvelous educational growth which has since appeared. It was the touch of the wand of the magician to the whole territory. Hitherto it had continued as it was in the beginning. Its only inhabitants had been untutored savages. Six thousand years had passed away without making any material changes, excepting here and there a mound to mark the burial places of a departed race. There is little that I can say in regard to the part performed by Minnesota in the administration of the powers vested in Congress, except what was said by my predecessor, Governor Pillsbury, that she has always been thoroughly true and loyal to the federal government. Minnesota has always voted for the patriotic use of every power vested in the Congress of the United States, when it has been exerted for the preservation and development of our national life, and for the upbuilding and advancement of the whole country. At the same time there has been constant watchfulness for all the interests of the Northwest and of this State. There have been fifteen United States senators from Minnesota, and about three times as many representatives, forty-three, in the House of Representatives; but in no instance has the vote of the State been adverse to the loyal and patriotic exercise of any power granted by the Constitution to Congress or to any department of the federal government. When the civil war commenced, the Minnesota senators were Morton S. Wilkinson, a republican, and Henry M. Rice, a democrat. Both were most ardent supporters of the government. To my astonishment, I heard Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, chairman of the committee of military affairs, say to Mr. Rice, long years after the war, "I don't know how we could ever have mobilized our armies, if you had not been on the military committee of the United States Senate;" and he went on to state that they got more information and knowledge from Mr. Rice, as to what was required to move a regiment or any organized force of the army, than from all other sources combined, and admitted that Mr. Rice had drawn all the provisions of the law for that purpose. That was the greatest crisis through which the nation has ever passed. It was the time when all these powers which I have referred to, and which are enumerated by the Constitution, were exercised. There was scarcely a power vested in Congress, or in any department of the government, that was not exercised to the fullest extent for four years during that war. Times come in our national history when every such power has to be exercised, when no power can be neglected; and so far as Minnesota's conduct was concerned, in that great struggle for our national existence, she is entitled to the highest praise and to the congratulation of this generation. You may think it strange I have not a word to add concerning the representatives of Minnesota subsequent to the civil war, and now, in our national Senate and House of Representatives. You are, all of you, as familiar with what they have accomplished as I am myself. You know that by their standing and their efforts Minnesota has acquired a name and a reputation not only throughout this country but throughout the whole earth. It is a source of everlasting commendation and gratitude that the people have been so intelligent as to promote men so able as they have been to these exalted positions. Looking forward, I can only express the hope that during the next fifty years this State may be as loyal, and may be as ably represented in both branches of the Congress of the United States, as it has been during the past fifty years. THE WORK OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY THROUGH FIFTY YEARS IN PRESERVING MINNE- BY COL. WILLIAM P. CLOUGH. Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: I am in the same position as General Sanborn. I am a substitute, called in just at the eve of battle. The Anniversary Committee desired that this last address in celebration of the completion of a half century of this Historical Society should endeavor to make the public better acquainted with what it has done for the State, and with our manifest duty that this work shall continue and widen during the future years. The first legislature of Minnesota, which met in this town fifty years ago, in September, 1849, was only small in numbers. There were twenty-seven members, all together, nine in the Council, and eighteen in the House. But they must have been a very remarkable body of lawgivers. They sat during eight weeks and four days. They had under their jurisdiction a territory almost as large as Germany or France. At that time Minnesota extended from the St. Croix, as it does now, at its eastern boundary, to the Missouri river at its western. It was without organized government of any kind, excepting that provided by the United States in accordance with the act establishing the Territory of Minnesota. It was without provision for the transfer and holding of property and the recording of titles. And still, in the short period of less than nine weeks, that small legislature completely organized the government in the Territory. It provided for its courts, for the administration of justice, for the transfer of property, for the care of the estates of deceased persons, for the education of the youth, for the necessary roads and means of communication, and it did that all in the small space of forty-three acts. Why, legislatures much larger and supposed to be composed of men of much greater experience and ability need that today merely for the purpose of rubbing off the corners of previous legislation. But that first body of Minnesota lawgivers did its great work, accomplished all its purposes, taking legislation as a blank and filling it up completely, in forty-three acts and in fifty-two days of session. But that legislature passed one other act, to incorporate the Historical Society of Minnesota, which was placed last in the publication of the laws passed during the session. This society was a somewhat feeble institution in its infancy. Everything was on a comparatively small scale in those days. But still the legislative act provided for a complete society for the purposes that were named by it in a somewhat general way. As was told you this afternoon, the society organized upon that basis and proceeded with its work. It received a new impulse in the year 1856, when two further acts were passed regarding this society, and defining the work which it was to perform. Before, in the act of 1849, in a brief and general way the work and purposes and scope of the society were mentioned. In the first act passed in 1856, those purposes were expressed at somewhat greater length; but the. second act in that year contained the following provision, which has been really the breath of life of the society. I will trouble you with the reading of it. It is very short and it tells the story in itself. "Section 1. There shall be annually appropriated to the Minnesota Historical Society the sum of five hundred dollars, to be expended by said society in collecting, embodying, arranging and preserving in authentic form a library of books, pamphlets, maps, charts, manuscripts, papers, paintings, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of Minnesota; to rescue from oblivion the memory of its early pioneers, to obtain and preserve narratives of their exploits, perils, and hardy adventures; to secure facts and statements relative to the history, genius, progress or decay of our Indian tribes; to exhibit faithfully the antiquities and the past and present resources of Minnesota; also to aid in the publication of such of the collections of the society as the society shall, from time to time, deem of value and interest; to aid in binding its books, pamphlets, manuscripts and papers, and in paying the necessary incidental expenses of the society." This act is important, not merely for the small pittance which was all that it was thought could be afforded at that time from the slender revenues of the Territory for this work, but also for its recognition of a great fact, that among the educational institutions of the Territory and afterwards of the State, the Historical Society holds a prominent place. The appropriation, you will observe, was perpetual. It has since been continued, I think, without any interruption, and of late years it has been increased, although not nearly to the amount, as we think, which should be expended upon such work. Besides the great tasks of administration of the constantly growing library, museum, and collection of portraits, another principal duty of the society, to which it has given continual attention, is the collecting and writing of history, especially the history of the State of Minnesota. The study of history is not merely a thing of pleasure and a pastime. It is a study that is indispensable for success in the life of the individual and of the state. It is a thing which no civilized people can leave out from education and from daily use. Everything that we see in physical nature is the result of something that preceded it. For example, the grass that grows under our feet does so because other grass grew there last year and in the years past. The beasts that walk the earth have the same forms, instincts, and habits, as their progenitors. This is a truth, so far as the physical world is concerned, which is absolute and universal. Practically, it is also universal in what we call the moral world, that is, the world of thought, of ideas, of impulses, of purposes, and consequently of men's actions. Nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand of the things that every man does every day he does merely because he has previously done the same thing, or because somebody else has done the same thing before him. Is not that |