(Describer) Title: Living STL.

[soft music]

Next year, 2021, is Missouri's bicentennial, 200 years of statehood. But this year, well, it's the bicentennial of the agreement that made it possible. In March of 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise, which was really all about slavery. It did not resolve the big issue facing the country, but it did push it down the road. We asked Bob Moore, the historian at the Gateway Arch National Park, to talk about just what was at stake, and about the decision that granted Missouri statehood. So let's talk about 1820 Missouri Compromise. What's the "compromise"? Okay, so the compromise was to try to maintain a balance of power in the U.S. Senate, basically. So the idea of having an equal number of states that allowed slavery and states that did not allow it was really thought to be essential, especially to Southern interests, to the slaveholding states' interests. So when Missouri applied for statehood, there were 11 slave states and 11 free states. And it was thought to be a dangerous situation by the people in those Northern states that didn't allow slavery to have, you know, one more state that allowed slavery, because Missouri's application for statehood included the fact that they wanted to continue to be able to hold slaves here. It seems to me that this is really the first time that the United States has to deal with this issue in terms of what we now consider westward expansion. Louisiana is a slave state and already in the union, but everything west of the Mississippi and the old Louisiana Purchase, they have to figure out how this goes. Right, it was all a new thing.

(host) New York Congressman James Tallmadge had an idea. He attached an amendment to the Missouri statehood bill, which would allow it to enter the union as a slave state, but that eventually it would transition to a free state. And what the Tallmadge Amendment said was that there would be no further introduction of enslaved workers in Missouri, and that the children of enslaved workers would become free. So, eventually, it would phase out slavery entirely within the state.

(host) The amendment passed in the House where free states had a majority, but it was blocked in the equally divided Senate, and Missouri statehood was going nowhere. Into the fray stepped the man who would become known as The Great Compromiser.

(Bob) The solution to the problem was worked out by Henry Clay, who was the Speaker of the House at the time. And his idea was that there was a section of Massachusetts which had been agitating to split away from the state of Massachusetts, it wasn't contiguous with the state, and we know it as Maine today, the state of Maine. So the idea was that there were people in what is now Maine who wanted to become their own state. They would not allow slavery. So allowing one slave state and one free state to come in would keep that balance of power in the U.S. Senate. -Then there's the 36-30 line. -Mm-hmm. How does that play into this then? Well, that was a caveat of the actual compromise. There would be the latitudinal line of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, and that would be, that's actually the southern border of the state of Missouri. Anything south of that line, they would allow slavery; anything north of the line, slavery wouldn't be allowed. I know they can't look into the future, but if we look on a timeline, I was thinking about this, Missouri Compromise comes about halfway between the establishment of the United States -and the Civil War. -Mm-hmm. And it worked out well... not "well," certainly, for African Americans, but well for the keeping the peace because it lasted for 30 years.

(host) Fifteen years later, Arkansas, below the 36-30 line, was admitted as a slave state. Michigan came in as a free state. But things would get more complicated with the country's continued expansion. And in 1850, Henry Clay, now a senator from Kentucky, was at it again, working out another complex give and take compromise over Texas and territory won in the war with Mexico. Four years later, the rules changed with Kansas and Nebraska.

(Bob) And so it wasn't until the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was overridden.

(host) No longer would Congress decide, but the settlers themselves as to whether or not to allow slavery, setting off the so-called Border War, a prologue to the Civil War. And in 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in St. Louis' Dred Scott case that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional, because the court said the federal government never had the power to limit the expansion of slavery. And in 1861, the slave states and the free states were at war with each other.

(Describer) Soldiers pack a long trench.

Two hundred years ago, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 allowed two new states and preserved the status quo, but it did not heal the deep division in the country or in the chamber, where every state has equal power. And I think, you know, that many people might be listening to this and thinking, that seems awfully familiar, you know? I mean, various periods in our history, we've had a very close representation where issues that are very divisive for the country as a whole are kind of equally represented in our legislature, and these are the times when things, you know, kind of come to a head and when big decisions have to be made.

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(Describer) In artwork, Clay addresses fellow senators.

Let's go from 200 years ago to just 100 years ago. 1920 was an election year, and for a time, St. Louis's David R. Francis was being talked about as a possible vice presidential candidate. Well, it didn't happen. And if it had, and if the Democrats had won, which they didn't, Francis almost certainly would've taken Philip Jordan with him to Washington.

(Describer) An outdoor sculpture is revealed.

-[crowd applauding] -(speaker) Alright, there it is.

(host) A statue of David R. Francis was unveiled in 2018 in Francis Park on land he donated to the city. He was one of Missouri's most prominent citizens-- mayor, governor, cabinet member, World's Fair president, ambassador to Russia. Philip Jordan, well, wasn't the kind of guy who would get a statue. an African-American who was originally hired as a servant in the Governor's Mansion, but he became much more than that over the years. And in the midst of the Russian Revolution, he became indispensable. It was a story that was brought to light by Francis' biographer, Harper Barnes. It's a great story to retell in Black History Month. The United States was sending off to Russia in 1916 not an experienced diplomat or Russian expert. What David Francis was was a good politician and a smart businessman, and that's what President Wilson thought he needed in St. Petersburg. Russia was potentially a huge market for American agricultural goods, the things that Francis had made his fortune buying and selling. The President's top priority for the new ambassador? Negotiate a new trade treaty with the Czar.

(Describer) Workers unload cargo.

Francis was also an experienced public servant, a former governor and cabinet member, and a man who had dealt with plenty of world leaders during his days running the World's Fair. Still, in St. Petersburg, many considered him a lightweight political appointee at best. This was a field dominated by Ivy League Americans and European aristocrats. And while Francis may have been as rich or richer than most of them, he was a plain spoken, cigar-smoking Missourian in a world where ambassadors were still expected to put on buckled shoes and feathered caps in the court of the Czar.

(speaker) And Francis didn't want to look like that. And so he said, "I'll wear a suit. "I'm not gonna wear these pantaloons and all of this stuff." And he was criticized for that. Drove around St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, in a Model T Ford.

(host) This is really the story of two men from Missouri-- David Francis, the ambassador, and the man who's driving his car, Philip Jordan. He had been with the Francis family on and off for 30 years since he was first hired on at the Missouri Governor's Mansion.

(Describer) Harper Barnes.

(speaker) Philip Jordan was an extraordinary man. In another world, David Francis might have worked for Philip Jordan. Philip Jordan was a Black man from Jefferson City who was uneducated, had grown up in the slums near the capital in something called Hog Alley, was a street fighter, an alcoholic.

(host) Good street fighter. And a champion street fighter, despite the fact he was-- he couldn't have weighed more than 125 pounds.

(host) Jordan's toughness, resourcefulness, and intelligence would prove to be invaluable, because it was soon clear that this was no ordinary, cushy, diplomatic assignment.

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Francis quickly found out that the Czar had much bigger things to worry about than trade treaties. America was still neutral in World War I, but Russia was fighting for its life against Germany in the West. The Russian Army was disorganized, demoralized, and weakened by starvation and desertions. And in March, 1917, the first revolution came. The Czar was deposed, and a provisional socialist government, headed by Alexander Kerensky, took power. To Francis, this was the good revolution.

(Harper) Francis by then had come to understand that the Russian people were tremendously oppressed. I mean, when this outpouring of rage against this dictatorial regime, and Francis saw it as 1776 all over again.

(host) But the revolution wasn't over, and a lot of people would feel that David Francis was in over his head in dealing with the political complexities... -[gunshots booming] -and the coming power of Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. While David Francis was in the midst of all this diplomatic intrigue, Philip Jordan had put himself in the midst of the revolution. He had quickly learned Russian, and he found that his slightly dark complexion and accent blended right into the Russian hodgepodge of ethnicities and nationalities. And Jordan's street smarts were now at their most valuable.

(Harper) And he would go to the markets and haggle for food. And you have to remember, this is not just World War I, but a time of revolution. Food was very difficult to get. And Jordan would go around to all of these markets and feed everybody at the embassy.

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(Describer) Well-dressed people crowd a streetcar.

(host) Philip Jordan saw firsthand what was happening in the streets, and probably took most of the pictures now in the Francis Collection at the Missouri Historical Society. He also wrote accounts of what he saw back home to St. Louis to Mrs. Francis, the woman who had taught him how to read and write years ago. Philip Jordan knew that he was in the middle of history, and he couldn't get enough of it.

(Harper) I mean, he was always there. He saw the Winter Palace being stormed by the Bolsheviks and taken over. And I think Francis came more and more to depend upon Philip Jordan for advice. Jordan knew what the people felt, and he would communicate this to Francis, and I think he was very valuable, probably more valuable than any number of spies.

(host) If Jordan was at his best in the streets, Francis was at his best improvising, going with his gut, and his gut told him that if the Bolsheviks were taking over, he and other ally diplomats should get out of town. He led a number of embassy staffs to the city of Vologda, 350 miles away, and he set up the U.S. Embassy in an old wooden clubhouse building. Francis did not want to abandon Russia altogether, for he hoped Kerensky could still be restored to power with the help of American troops.

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(Describer) Ships approach a harbor in archival footage.

And in what is now a footnote in the history of World War I, American troops were sent to the Russian port of Arkhangelsk, and David Francis was there. The official purpose was to prevent American military equipment from falling into the hands of the Germans. But this was in fact an intervention, even if it was not quite the allied invasion that Francis was hoping for. David Francis was determined and deeply involved, and it nearly killed him. Here he has seen in Arkhangelsk after meeting with local government officials and allied military leaders. But he was seriously ill, needing medical care that he could not get here. Philip Jordan was here as well, and as usual, standing in the background ready with a box of the boss's cigars.

(Describer) As Francis shakes the last hand, Jordan extends the box.

[solemn orchestral music]

Only when it became clear that he was going to die did David Francis allow himself to be evacuated to London, where he underwent a lifesaving prostate operation. He vowed to return to Russia, but never did. The Bolshevik solidified control, and the socialist Arkhangelsk escaped into exile. As always takes place after great events, the debate would rage over what we did right and where we went wrong.

[light music]

David Francis died in 1927. Philip Jordan retired, but continued to live with the Francis family until his death in 1941.

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(Describer) A sepia-toned photo of Francis and Jordan in heavy coats and bowler hats.

Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

(Describer) Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.