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James S. Rollins

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James S. Rollins

James Sidney Rollins (April 19, 1812 – January 9, 1888) was a nineteenth century politician and lawyer from Missouri. He helped to establish the University of Missouri, led the successful effort to get it located in Boone County, and gained funding for the University with the passage of a series of legislative acts in the Missouri Legislature. He was named “Father of the University of Missouri” for his efforts.[1]

As a Congressman in a border state, Rollins played a role in the U.S. Congress’s passage of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, by changing his vote to support the amendment, and speaking in support of it. Rollins was a Whig for the first 20 years of his political career, but when that party broke up, he underwent a political transition, changing parties several times before becoming a Republican late in his life. Rollins’ lifelong support of business development was compatible with Republican policies, but his situation as a major slaveowner prevented him from joining the Republican Party until well after the Civil War.[2]

Early years and family

Portrait of Rollins at age 22, by Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham

Rollins was born in Richmond, in Madison County, Kentucky. His father, Anthony Wayne Rollins, born in Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish immigrant parents, and named for the Revolutionary War hero Anthony Wayne, was a physician. His mother, Sarah Harris Rodes Rollins, was born in Virginia and was of English extraction.

Rollins attended Richmond Academy, attended Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Indiana University in 1830. The Rollins family moved from Kentucky to the Columbia, Missouri area that same year. In Columbia, Rollins studied in the law office of Abiel Leonard for two years, while helping to manage his father’s farm. In 1832, Rollins enlisted in the Black Hawk War, and was given the rank of Major. After the war, Rollins entered law school at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Upon graduating in 1834, he was admitted to the bar, and began practicing in Columbia that same year.[3]

Mary Elizabeth Hickman Rollins.

In 1837, Rollins married Mary Elizabeth Hickman. They had 11 children together, seven of whom survived to adulthood.

Early political career

Rollins began his political career as a Whig, his politics reflecting his interest in promoting business and developing state and national resources. In 1836, he purchased a Whig newspaper, the Columbia Patriot, which he edited for several years. That same year, he participated in a railroad convention in St. Louis, where his speaking skills helped get him chosen to petition Congress for land grants in Missouri for railroad development.[4]

Missouri state representative and senator

Rollins was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1838, as a Representative for Boone County. He served there and in the Missouri Senate between 1838 and 1854. Before the Civil War, he was elected Representative in 1838, 1840, and 1854, and as Senator in 1846. He was a delegate to the 1844 Whig National Convention. He ran twice for Governor of Missouri, in 1848 and 1857, but was defeated both times. Rollins was a consistent Whig from 1836 until 1855, when the party dissolved in dissension over the Kansas-Nebraska Act regarding the extension of slavery into territories and new states. As a large slaveholder in Missouri, Rollins was not an abolitionist, but he opposed the extension of slavery, and he opposed secession.[5]

The end of the Whig Party began a period of political transition for Rollins. He ran as an independent in his second try for governor, supported by Know-Nothings, Democrats who supported Thomas Hart Benton, and the remnants of the Whigs. He was defeated by Democrat Robert M. Stewart by 334 votes. When he was not in the Missouri Legislature, Rollins developed his law practice in Columbia, despite occasional ambivalence about the routine of the profession. [6]

Establishment of the University of Missouri

The first bill that Rollins drafted as a State Representative was to choose the site of the University of Missouri. The bill directed that the University be located in one of six counties in the central part of the state along the Missouri River: Boone, Callaway, Cole, Cooper, Howard, and Saline Counties. It was controversial because Cole and Howard County legislators had hoped to secure the University for their counties by direct legislation. The bill passed on February 8, 1839. Three days later, the Geyer Act, introduced by Henry S. Geyer of St. Louis, was passed, officially incorporating the University of Missouri.[7]

Rollins’ act provided for a competition among the six counties, with the county that raised the most funds to be awarded the University. Rollins himself made a significant donation of his own, and put considerable effort into raising subscriptions from fellow residents in Boone County in order to secure the school there. The competition was especially intense among Boone, Callaway, and Howard Counties. When the state commissioners visited Howard County, Rollins was there. After learning that Howard County had valued some donated land for more than it was worth, Rollins quickly sold 222 acres of his own land to Boone County for $25 an acre, which in turn valued the land at $75 an acre in its bid. The $117,921 raised by Boone County was the winning amount, and Boone County was awarded the University.[8]

Rollins’ efforts to support the University of Missouri met with limited success before the Civil War. As State Senator in 1847, he drafted a report which proposed state funding for the school and a professorship for advanced studies in “Theory and Practice of Teaching.” The Senate passed a version two years later, which provided for a more mundane “Normal Professorship.” [9]

U.S. Representative and the Thirteenth Amendment

Rollins was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1860, running as a Constitutional Unionist. He defeated Independent Democrat John B. Henderson. Rollins was elected again in 1862, running this time as a Unionist, and defeating Radical Republican Arnold Krekel.

During the American Civil War, Rollins was a committed Unionist, and advocated and voted for all war measures in Congress. But his stands on slavery and African-American rights were more conservative than those of the dominant Republican Party. He opposed a measure allowing blacks as well as Indians to enlist in the war, on the basis that this policy would offend Southerners. He also stated that the Emancipation Proclamation was legally void, and was only defensible as a military necessity.[10]

While in Congress, Rollins introduced a bill to build a transcontinental railroad, which was passed as the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862. He also advocated for the Morrill Act of 1862, providing for the funding of state agricultural colleges.

Rollins’ support of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States, played a key part in its passage by Congress, thus allowing the amendment to be sent to the states for ratification. While the Senate passed the bill easily on its first vote on April 8, 1864, the House defeated it twice in 1864 before passing it on January 31, 1865. Rollins initially voted against the bill. Shortly before the third vote, President Abraham Lincoln asked Rollins to support the amendment, as the best way to preserve the Union. Rollins agreed to do so. [11] On January 13, 1865, two days after the Missouri Constitutional Convention abolished slavery in Missouri, Rollins spoke for the first time in support of the amendment, giving a lengthy and passionate speech to Congress.[12] With Rollins’ and others’ support, when the final vote was taken, the amendment passed with the required two-thirds majority by just two votes.[13]

Later political career

Rollins did not run for Congress in 1864, but returned to Columbia. In the presidential election of that year, he endorsed the Democratic Party candidate, George B. McClellan, signaling his preference for that party’s conservative stance regarding slavery and African-American equality, and recognizing the Democratic Party’s move away from secessionism. In 1866, he was elected as a Democrat to the Missouri House of Representatives, and in 1868 to the State Senate. There, Rollins supported the mild Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson, but did not harshly denounce the efforts of the Radical Republicans in developing more stringent policies, so as not to harm funding prospects for the University of Missouri.[14]

Rollins’ support of business interests was aligned with Republican policies, but his opposition to racial equality prevented him from joining that party until Reconstruction ended and Republicans were no longer pushing for this. Now no longer in office, he broke with the Democrats in 1877 over their support of paper currency, and became a Republican, which he remained for the rest of his life.[15]

As a legislator, Rollins again focused his energy on the University of Missouri. The state had not provided funding for the school’s operations; the Civil War left the University in poor physical condition and with few students. The private, locally based funding that resulted from the original competition set a precedent for the State Legislature to ignore the school’s requests for money. As a result, the campus was small, the students were drawn largely from Boone County, and the place had more of the feel of a county school than a state university.[16]

During his years in elected office after the war, Rollins wrote, introduced, and helped to pass the following measures, which together put the University of Missouri on a stable financial footing for the first time in its history, and solidified Columbia’s hold on the University:

  • Funding of $10,000 provided for a new President’s House, and contribution of approximately $16,000 per year the University (1867).
  • Establishment of a Normal Department at the University to train school teachers (1867).
  • Establishment of Agricultural and Mechanical College. Concessions to get the bill passed included requiring Boone County to contribute part of the money for this purpose, and locating the new Missouri School of Mines away from Columbia, in Rolla (1870).
  • Investment of $122,000 from state sales of “Seminary lands” for higher education, as authorized by the Federal Government (1870). This act was augmented with a similar act in 1883.
  • Issuing of bonds totaling $166,000 to build the new School of Mines at Rolla (called Missouri University of Science and Technology as of 2008), liquidate University debt, complete the Science Building (called Switzler Hall as of 2008), and add to the permanent endowment of the school (1872).
  • Setting maximum University tuition of 10 dollars, thus putting college within easy financial reach of most students (1872). [17][18]
Mural of Rollins, by George Caleb Bingham. The mural was located in the Academic Hall of the University of Missouri.

Father of the University of Missouri

When Rollins returned to Columbia after his legislative successes benefiting the University of Missouri, students assembled and adopted a set of resolutions expressing gratitude for his work on the school’s behalf. The faculty issued a similar statement. The Board of Curators passed resolutions on May 9, 1872 giving Rollins the honorary title of “Pater Universitatis Missouriensis” (“Father of the University of Missouri”). [19][20]

University of Missouri Board of Curators President

Rollins was first named to the Board of Curators, the governing body of the University of Missouri, in 1847, and held the position until 1848, when the entire Board was removed by the State Legislature. He was again named to the Board of Curators in 1869, and was elected President of the Board that same year. He held the position until ill health forced his resignation in 1886.[21]

Friendship with George Caleb Bingham

Among his extensive acquaintances, Rollins carried on a lifelong friendship with the artist and politician George Caleb Bingham. Bingham painted numerous portraits of Rollins family members, including several of James S. Rollins himself. Rollins gave Bingham a boost early in his career by securing subscribers for Bingham to paint several portraits. He later helped Bingham procure a commission to paint portraits of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington for the Missouri State capitol.[22] These paintings were destroyed when the capitol burned in 1911.] and he helped finance printings of Bingham’s General Order No. 11. Late in Bingham’s life, Rollins helped him get a position as the University of Missouri’s first art professor.[23]

Bingham named his son James Rollins Bingham, and Rollins named one of his sons similarly after Bingham.[24] Bingham would frequently visit the Rollins home, staying for a month at a time. The two carried on an extensive correspondence for over forty-five years, until Bingham’s death, in which they discussed a variety of personal, social, and political issues.

Death

In 1874, Rollins was injured in a train wreck while traveling to St. Louis. He was bedridden for several months, and although he recovered to live for 14 more years, he never fully regained his strength after the accident. Rollins died on January 9, 1888 in Columbia, Missouri. He is buried at Columbia Cemetery in Columbia.

Notes

  1. ^ Stephens, 250.
  2. ^ Mering, 225-226.
  3. ^ Smith, 4-6.
  4. ^ Smith, 6.
  5. ^ Mering, 217-219.
  6. ^ Smith, 25.
  7. ^ Stephens, 12-14.
  8. ^ Stephens, 15-17.
  9. ^ Smith, 19-21.
  10. ^ Mering, 222-223.
  11. ^ Vorenberg, 181-182.
  12. ^ Smith, 196-221 provides text of Rollins’ speech.
  13. ^ Vorenberg, 207.
  14. ^ Mering, 223-224.
  15. ^ Mering, 225-226.
  16. ^ Stephens, 18.
  17. ^ Viles, 122-125.
  18. ^ Smith, 42-47.
  19. ^ Stephens, 250.
  20. ^ Smith, 47-49 provides the text of the resolutions.
  21. ^ Stephens, 58, 72, 249-250, 305.
  22. ^ Christ-Janer, 33-34.
  23. ^ Nagel, 141.
  24. ^ Nagel, 67.

References

  • Christ-Janer, Albert, George Caleb Bingham of Missouri, The Story of an Artist (1940). Dodd Mead and Company.
  • Mering, John V., “The Political Transition of James S. Rollins,” in Missouri Historical Review Vol. LIII, No. 3 (April, 1959), pp. 217-226.
  • Nagel, Paul C., George Caleb Bingham, Missouri’s Famed Painter and Forgotten Politician (2005). University of Missouri Press.
  • Smith, William Benjamin, James Sidney Rollins Memoir (1891). De Vinne Press.
  • Stephens, Frank F., A History of the University of Missouri (1962). University of Missouri Press.
  • Viles, Jonas, The University of Missouri, A Centennial History (1939). University of Missouri Press.
  • Vorenberg, Michael, Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (2001). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521543843.

See also

  • Rollins, Curtis B., comp., “Letters of George Caleb Bingham to James S. Rollins,” in Missouri Historical Review Vols. XXXII, Nos. 1-4 and XXXIII, Nos. 1-4 (eight part series, October 1937-July 1939).
  • Wood, James M., James Sidney Rollins of Missouri; A Political Biography (1951). Thesis (Ph.D.), Stanford University.
  • United States Congress. "James S. Rollins (id: R000412)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  • James S. Rollins at Find A Grave
  • James S. Rollins (1812-1888), Papers at Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia/University of Missouri. Online index includes biographical sketch and discussion of his correspondence.


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