Excerpt from The Civil Government of the United States and the State of Missouri, And, the History of Missouri From the Earliest Times to the Present In offering this little History for use in public and other schools I am not without the hope that it may aid in inspir ing the young with a purpose to make Missouri the bright est and best of the constellation of States. Our State at this time has a population almost as large as all the States had at the time of the formation of the Union in 1789. Our peo ple have come from every State and almost every nation. This may be indicative of strength or of weakness. It is a heterogeneous people that should become homogeneous in feeling, purpose and State-pride. But this is far from the case. Many Virginians who have lived on our soil for a quarter of a century are yet Virginians; immigrants from New England are yet New Englanders; and the same is true of the settlers from almost every State and country. We still go to other States for our leading preachers, judges, lawyers and educators. This ought not to be. We need to exalt our State by relying more on our own right arm, by believing more in each other. It is also true that we have a history of which we mayjustly be proud. Few States have so charming and important a story. But it has rarely been told. The children in our schools know far more of the history of the Atlantic States than of their own. It is the Opinion of the author that a fuller acquaintance with Missouri's history will make her population a much stronger, a more patriotic and a happier people. Knowledge of our own deeds and convictions and glory will create mutual con fidence and admiration, and then business enterprise, moral culture, and intellectual emulation will follow, and more rapidly than ever before. As a native of the State, I may be permitted to wish that this volume will do its share in helping toward these good results. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.