The penalty for homicide in the first degree had, from the beginning of organized government in Minnesota, been death without alternative. An act of March 5, 1868, laid on the trial jury the duty of deciding whether the convicted murderer should suffer death or imprisonment for life. Governor Davis in two messages strongly denounced this leaving the penalty for murder to the caprice of juries, citing a case in which one of three convicts equally guilty was put to death, while the others received a sentence of life imprisonment. A tragical incident brought the attention of a later legislature to the matter and caused a return to traditional policy. On September 6, 1876, eight men from Missouri, armed and mounted, rode into the village of Northfield in Rice County. Two of their number entered the bank and ordered Heywood, the cashier, to deliver the money. On his refusal they shot him dead and wounded his assistant. Securing a small amount of booty, the robbers passed out to find their companions engaged in a fusillade with citizens who had found arms and chosen points of vantage. One unarmed citizen had fallen, and two of the bandits had dropped dead from their horses. The survivors rode away with all possible speed, firing at citizens who showed themselves on the streets. After a pursuit of some days, four of the bandits were surrounded in a swamp near Mankato. One was killed and three brothers named Younger were captured. Two had evaded pursuit and escaped from the state. Upon arraignment the three Youngers pleaded guilty, and, as there was no occasion for a jury, received sentences of life imprisonment. They were model prisoners. One died in 1889, another committed suicide in 1902, and the third was pardoned in 1903.
The political campaign of 1878 in the third (the Minneapolis) district, was diversified by a personal contest of more than local interest. The Republican candidate for representative in Congress was William D. Washburn, who had been an aspirant in 1868, but declined the candidacy because of the great defection led by Ignatius Donnelly. The Democrats, doubtless according to an understanding, made no nomination, thus virtually throwing the party vote over to Mr. Donnelly, who had been named as the candidate of the Greenback Labor party. Ignoring national issues, Mr. Donnelly appeared as the champion of the Minnesota farmers oppressed by the railroads and the Minneapolis Millers’ Association. It was charged and widely credited that this organization was fixing the prices of wheat at every railroad station in the state. This it was doing by direct dictation to buyers, and also indirectly through the making of grades. There was in use for inspection and grading a small cylindrical vessel of brass with an attached scale beam, which the farmers were told could be so manipulated by a practiced hand that it would yield three grades of wheat from the same bag full. It was charged that the association buyers not only undergraded, but also reduced the prices for lower grades out of all just proportion. Mr. Donnelly never had a finer opportunity for the exercise of his unequaled powers of ridicule and invective. He denounced his opponent as the willing tool of the corporations and the Millers’ Association. He perambulated the district haranguing great crowds, whom he convulsed with scornful tirades upon “the swindling brass kittle.”