Annual Message of Governor William Jayne.

[Yankton, Dakota Territory]: [N.p.], 1862. 8vo., original printed gold wrappers. 16 pp.

The first pamphlet printed in Dakota Territory, and the second item listed in Allen’s Dakota Imprints.

This message delivered by the Territory’s first governor before the Council and House of Representatives is a virtual paean to the numerous advantages and resources, and the possibilities for growth, agricultural and otherwise, in Dakota Territory. Jayne advises that “It is well for you to remember that you are not legislating alone for to-day, but, also, for an indefinite future--not for a few thousand now resident in the Territory, but for the tens of thousands who will soon be attracted within our limits…In judging correctly of the future, and calculating upon the coming wants and necessities…it is proper to examine our surroundings…” He describes the land as, “a beautiful and undulating prairie, free from marsh, swamp, or slough; traversed by many streams and dotted by innumerable lakes of various sizes, whose wooded margins, and rocky shores, and gravel bottoms afford the settler the purest of water, and give to the scenery of the Territory much of its interest and fascination. West of the Missouri the country is more rolling and gradually becomes broken, hilly and finally mountainous, as the western limits are reached and terminated by the Rocky mountains.”

He continues:

Our Territory possesses a climate especially conducive to health and longevity. Occupying an elevated section of the country, we are free from humid, raw, chilly weather often prevailing in central Western States. We have a dry, bracing atmosphere, which gives tone and vigor to the physical system. We have a temperature sufficiently high in July and August to insure the rapid growth and maturity of all cereal products; yet our hot weather is not continuous enough to engender those malarious diseases, ague, billious fevers and dysentery, which prevail in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri....The Black hills and the mountain ranges at the sources of the Wind River, Yellowstone and Missouri are rich beyond conception in mineral resources of coal, copper, iron and gold…

Jayne exhorts the Territorial legislators to encourage settlement, institute a just system of laws, and make provisions for the education of the populace. He offers unwavering support for the union cause and urges the legislature to outlaw slavery in the Territory: “I hope that the free air of Dakota may never be polluted or her fair, virgin soil pressed, by the footprint of a slave.”

Born in Springfield, Illinois, William A. Jayne (1826-1916) earned a medical degree from the University of Missouri, graduating in 1849. He returned to Springfield to practice medicine, where he served as Abraham Lincoln’s personal physician. He entered politics, becoming Mayor of Springfield in 1859 and a member of the State Senate in 1860. Lincoln appointed him Governor of Dakota Territory in 1861, in which capacity he served until 1863.

A rare and exceptionally early Dakota imprint.

REFERENCES: Allen, Dakota Imprints, #2. Not in Eberstadt, Streeter, Graff, or Americana Exchange. No copies recorded in American Book Prices Current (1975 to present). OCLC locates four copies, and Allen an additional three.

CONDITION: Good, small loss to the upper left corner of upper wrapper, a few small chips at lower edges of wrappers, two vetical creases and relatively light damp-staining throughout.