While the governorship of Minnesota has from the beginning been regarded as a most honorable position, the chief prize to be won in her political battles has been the United States senatorship. Around this the successive contests have been hot and fierce. One of these occurred in the winter of 1865. Senator Morton A. Wilkinson had cut no inconsiderable figure at the seat of government, and had so won the confidence of President Lincoln that he wrote an open letter recommending a reëlection. Mr. Wilkinson, however, had not retained to a sufficient degree the allegiance of Republican leaders at home. It was alleged that he had allowed his colleague, Senator Rice, to obtain an undue share of good things. Whether true or not, this was an unpardonable offense, and Mr. Wilkinson’s friends found themselves, after many ballotings in caucus, in a hopeless minority. In the field against him was Mr. Rice, and there is a tradition that the nomination might have fallen to him had he been willing to exchange the colors of War Democrat for those of Republican. He had been loyal and ardent in support of the Union cause.
As the result of repeated ballotings, and a combination difficult of analysis, the nomination fell to Daniel A. Norton of Winona, who had gained some distinction as a member of the state senate. When President Andrew Johnson went over to the opposition fold, Mr. Norton followed him. His career was necessarily obscure, and he died in office in 1870.
In spite of the absence of a large proportion of her men of working age and capacity in the armies; in spite of the Indian ravages of 1862 and the fears of others which happily did not come; in spite of the tardy extension of railroads, the war period was one of advance for Minnesota. Her population of 172,023 in 1860 arose, according to the state census of 1865, to 250,099, an increase of forty-five per cent. The accessions were greatest in the river counties, and next in those lying immediately beyond. High prices for farm produce in paper money enabled the farmers to wipe out their debts and improve their homes.
The homestead act of 1862 contributed not a little to the extension of settlements in the state. The original bill for that act, passed in 1860 after bitter opposition from Southern senators and representatives, had been vetoed by President Buchanan on the ground that the government had no power under the constitution to give away property of the people held by it in trust. Cyrus Aldrich, one of Minnesota’s members, introduced and actively supported the later bill, which became law on February 28, 1862, and took effect January 8, 1863. In the three years following, 9529 homestead entries were made in Minnesota, thirty-six per cent. of the whole number. There can be no question that the operation of the homestead act was beneficial so long as confined to arable lands. The use made of its provisions in later years to obtain possession of timber and mineral lands by processes morally, if not technically, criminal, depriving the nation and states of untold millions of value, gives room for regret that President Buchanan’s judgment had not governed his successor.