POLITICS PART OF MISSOURI HISTORY

A primary election was held on Tuesday in preparation for the November general election, and on Monday Missouri will observe its 171st anniversary of statehood.

The desire of Missourians to join the Union started in 1817 but took four years to materialize. There was great rejoicing throughout the state on Aug. 10, 1821, when residents learned that after many disappointments Missouri would be represented as the 24th star on the American flag. Missouri voters would have a voice in government.

President George Bush, the 41st president of the United States, and Vice President Dan Quayle, Republicans, face as their rivals Bill Clinton, governor of Arkansas, and Albert Gore, a senator from Tennessee, Democrats. Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire, decided against running as an independent July 16. His excuse was in a three-way race he would have no chance to win because he could not prevail over a two-party system, especially since it would throw the election in all probability into the House of Representatives where he would have no chance of winning.

It did not take long before both the Republicans and Democrats were scrambling to win Perot's backers, claiming they were for the same changes in government Perot was advocating.

Perot must have been aware of the condition that surfaced when John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts became president in the election of 1824. Adams was the sixth president of the United States. That year the presidential race had four nominees: Henry Clay of Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, Adams, and a last-minute contestant, William Crawford.

Clay polled the most electoral votes, 2,042; Jackson polled 1,166; and Adams 218. Crawford's vote is not known. None of the men received a majority of the electoral votes, so the choice for president went to the House of Representatives as specified in the Constitution.

It was at this point of the conflict that the new state of Missouri entered the picture As far back as 1824 the country "Woke Up to Missouri." John Scott of Ste. Genevieve had been elected a Missouri congressman. When it came time for the members of the House to vote, Scott decided to cast Missouri's lone vote for Adams. This was not to Sen. Thomas Hart Benton's liking; he had been backing Jackson.

Scott was impressed with Adams' ideas and he admired him. Clay also liked Adams and backed him when Clay saw he could not win. It was Scott's vote that decided Adams' election. Benton was furious. Benton and David Barton were Missouri's first two senators.

Missouri's politics became a contest of wits and strategy, and Benton of St. Louis became the leader of a new political party movement. He displayed his power, among his other talents in backing certain men for high government positions. He backed Spener Pettis for Congress and John Miller for governor of Missouri. Miller served from 1825-1833, and while he was in office Lafayette returned to this country and visited St. Louis on April 29, 1825.

Adams followed James Monroe as president and served one term from 1825-1829. In 1825 the Democrats and Republicans split into separate parties. These parties are not the same as the two major parties that function today.

Benton then promoted Jackson for president the second time, and he won and was inaugurated at age 61. He served two terms, 1829-1833, and was the seventh president of the United States. The population of the country had increased to 12,565,145. Jackson, Mo., the county seat of Cape Girardeau County, is the first city named for Jackson, in 1815, according to historical records. Jackson ran in the election of 1828 against Adams. Jackson polled 8,375 votes; Adams 3,407.

Cape Girardeau gained prominence in 1830 when Barton, one of Missouri's first two senators, was defeated and Alexander Buckner of Cape Girardeau was elected to the U.S. Senate. Buckner was not in sympathy with either Jackson's or Benton's proposals, but he did not have an opportunity to push his ideas because he died in office of cholera in 1833, when the epidemic swept the country. He and his wife are buried in Old Lorimier Cemetery.

From Missouri's early history it had political power in Washington. This was due to prominent and influential men from the south and east who took up residence in the new land west of the Mississippi and were impressed with the possibilities for growth. They wanted to guide and serve the territory that became a state in 1821 because they could see it was a "Land of Promise."