Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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Price's character had become well known by 1840 and in August of that year his neighbors sent him to the Legislature. He was at once elected speaker, and again in 1842. Judge Fagg, late ofthe Missouri Supreme Court, in a recent memorial address, speaks of Price as a parliamentarian. The State in all its history of more than eighty years has never furnished a man of more dignified appearance or one possessed of the same qualifications to direct the proceedings of a legislative body. After four years as Speaker, Sterling Price was elected to Congress in 1844 on the Democratic ticket. In the spring ot' 1846 war was declared with Mexico, and Price resigned his scatvl' to accept Polk's appointment to the colonelcy of a volunteer regiment of mounted Missourians. He would not, however, assume the command until the men ofthe regiment had ratified the choice. The Mis- :souri troops, styled the H Army ot' the West H-about 1600 strong-were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Leavenwoxth, above Kansas City, under General Kearney. Thence these troops proceeded in June, 1846, over the Santa Fe trail to Santa Fe, New Mexico, an important distributing centre, the entrepot of the overland trade with Missouri. Missourians had done much to develop the country and they were now to secure it as a part ofthe United States. More than one man who later was to figure in the fight tor Missouri had a share in this subiugation of New Mexico. In September General Kearney rather highhandedly promulgated aconstitution drawn up by Col. Doniphan and Private 'W. fHal1l. Charles Bent was appointed governor and Francis P. Blair attorltey '.gen'cral. These men were all Missourians. Having signal- ized by a constitution the presence of the Anglo-Saxon, General Kearney set out for California, September '25, 1846, .and on the follwing day 'Colonel Price fSecond Missouri Mounted Volunteersj arrived at Santa Fe to relieve Colonel Doniphan, ordered on his extraordinary expedition to Chihuahua. Naturally there was bad blood in New Mexico. The patriotism ofthe moment was styled conspiracy by those who were shortly to resent on the best. ot' constitutional grounds the name ot' rebel. Christmas day, 1846. was fixed by the ti insurgents as a date for an uprising. Colonel Price made a lbw arrests and the danger Seemed passed. But on Jan. 1.9, 1847, Governor Bent was killed at Taos, seventy miles northeast of Santa Fe. Colonel Price immediately moved against the rebels, fighting the battle ot' Canada on the 24th, with tlu'ee hundred and fifty men, and dislodging the enemy in February from Taos. The march to that place had been through deep snow, and it was no slight task to force the Mexicans to surrender their fortified adobe houses. There was no discussion of terms until Tomas, chief -offender, had been delivered up. Unrest still continuing in the territory, Colonel Price asked for reinforce- ments in July, 1847. Several lnonths later the forces in New Mexico numbered 1 Jelferson Davis resigned at the same time to accept a colonel's commission. I4

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BIOGR PHIC L , QE HISTORIC Chrnrral Sirrling lgrirv N THE THIRTIES Virginia lands were beginning to be conspicuously worn, H :Q and it was ilush times in the West t W3 and the Southwest- Missouri, Ala- s bama, Mississippi, and Texas. Many Virginians in those years sold their ' - WJ plantations and moved to the Missis- sippi Valley and beyond. From the Recollections ofa Mississippi Planter l' we learn how Mr. Dabney of Eastern Virginia, about 1835, took his family and a large number of slaves to that more bountiful region. Among this class of emigrants was Pugh Price, who left Prince Edward county for Missouri in 1831. XVith him went his son, Sterling, who was born in 1809, the year of great men, had been a student at Hampden-Sidney, and had studied law under the tamous chancellor Creed Taylorili Settling in Chariton county, a river county inthe northern part of the State, Pugh Price resumed the plantcr's lite, probably leaving the management of affairs to his son who seems never to have followed the law as a profession. For ten years, until his entrance upon public life, Sterling Price was disciplined in the old school for public nicn-the business of a country gentleman with a legal equipment. From the Hrst he was a man that people could trust. Colonel Snead, writing of the Missouri Convention of 1861, says ff Price was elected with great unanimity, as he would have been had he taken tl1e contrary opinion. i'Sterling Price was born about two and a half miles from Farmville. His father's house stood on the road which crosses the Little Buffalo, southwest of Farmville. The house is not now stand- ing. It is not certain that Price took a degree at Hampden-Sidney. He was a member of the Union Society. He wrote for a time in the office of Branch Worsham, Esqr., clerk of the county. I3

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three thousand men, every regiment but one Missourians, under Price, now brig- adier-general by commission of President Polk. Jefferson Davis refused a similar commission because of his belief in the unconstitutionality of the act. By the end of the year the subiugation of New Mexico was an accomplished fact to which the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 1848, Ollly gave legal sanc- tion. New Mexico to all intents and purposes was already a territory of the United States, and if we except a few companies, it was made so by Missouri volunteers. Of the seven thousand men whom she sent to the war, over six thousand were employed in the conquest and paeification of this territory. His solid services in New Mexico over, General Price went home to Chariton county. He found the Democratic party in Missouri split on the question of Kansas. The Claiborne Jackson resolutions, of January 18-17, had declared that Congress must not legislate as to slavery in a territory, that the people of the territory should decide. In the Compromise State the Democrats found it hard to get together on so clear cut an issue. Thomas H. Benton, for one, stood out in opposition and never regained the hold he lost in consequence. General Price, as the man for whom all could vote, was nominated by the party for the governorship in 1852, and was elected by a large majority, defeating Colonel Winston, a grandson of Patrick Henry. Price was governor of Missouri from 1853 to 1857-a Conservative Demo- crat. It was a time of turmoil across the western border, and Missouri, although not oflicially concerned, could not fail to be involved. There were 100,000 slaves in the State, worth some Pll535,000,000. The Kansas Bill, of May 1854, set aside the Compromise of 1850 and left the choice to Kansas whether the territory should ne slave or free. If Kansas 'chose-tor freedom, Missouri would become a slave peninsular thrusting to the north and property, people thought, would de- preciate. The rabid abolitionists got at once to work with various colonization schemes. Emigrant aid companies imported into Kansas many citizens, armed with Sharps rides, agricultural implements were not a necessary part of their outfits. Those superior devils, the Jayhawkers, were busy. On the other hand the Blue Lodges of Missouri, west of Jetterson City, instituted counter proceedings. The James Boys, and the Quantrells and the Youngers weie very active. We know John Brown's part in these things. During such troublous years Governor Price, whose sympathies in the nature of the case were obvious, was a prudent executive. It is to be remarked that he vetoed an omnibus bill for public improvements, a graft measure, which was passed over his veto, en- tailing heavy and long lasting taxation. Besides, Governor Price recommended that the salary of the governor should be made 355,000 instead of 852,500 The bill was passed and the governor refused the supplement for his term. The present administration in Missouri is not the first in that commonwealth to regard public office as a public trust. I5