The Seal:
The Great Seal of the State of Missouri was officially adopted by the General Assembly on January 11, 1822. Judge Robert William Wells, who was also a congressman, designed the seal. The center of the seal contains the bald eagle symbol of the nation on the right side, and, on the left, symbols representing the state. A grizzly bear represents strength and bravery; a crescent moon represents the newness of statehood and the potential for growth. Surrounding these symbols is the motto "United we stand, divided we fall". Two mighty grizzly bears support this center shield. A scroll carries the state motto, "Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto", or "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law." Missouri's date of statehood, 1820, is placed in Roman numerals below the scroll. A star representing each of the other states of the Union (Missouri became the 24th) graces the top portion of the seal. The outer circle of the seal bears the words "The Great Seal of the State of Missouri".

The helmet above the shield represents state sovereignty, and the large star atop the helmet surrounded by 23 smaller stars signified Missouri's status as the 24th state. The cloud around the large star indicates the problems Missouri had in becoming a state. The whole state seal is enclosed by a scroll bearing the words, "The Great Seal of the State of Missouri."

El Sello
El gran sello del estado de Missouri fue adoptado oficialmente por la Asamblea General el 11 de enero de 1822. Fué diseñado por el Judge Robert William Wells, que era también miembro del Congreso. El centro del sello contiene el águila calva el simbolo de la nación a la derecho y a la izquierda, los símbolos que representan al estado. Un oso gris representa fuerza y valor; una luna en creciente representa la novedad de la estadidad y el potencial para el crecimiento. Rodean estos símbolos el lema "Unidos nos sostendremos, divididos caeremos". Dos poderosos osos grises apoyan el escudo des centro. Un pergamino lleva el lema del estado, " Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto ", o " dejen que el bienestar de las personas sea la suprema ley." La fecha de la estadidad de Missouri, 1820, se pone en los números romanos debajo del pergamino. Una estrella representa cada uno de los otros estados de la unión (Missouri se convirtió en el 24to) adorna la porción superior del sello. El círculo externo del sello lleva las palabras " el gran sello del estado de Missouri".

El casco sobre el escudo representa soberanía del estado, y la estrella grande encima del casco rodeado por 23 estrellas más pequeñas significó el estado de Missouri como el 24to estado. La nube alrededor de la estrella grande indica los problemas Missouri tenía en convertirse en un estado. El sello entero del estado es incluido por una voluta que lleva las palabras, " el gran sello del estado de Missouri."

History

Missouri is a midwestern state of the United States, located near the country's geographic center at the confluence of the two longest rivers in the United States--the Mississippi and the Missouri. Situated where North meets South and where the industrial East gives way to the plains of the West, Missouri exhibits characteristics of all these areas. It is bordered on the north by Iowa; on the east by Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee; on the south by Arkansas; and on the west by Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. During the 19th century Missouri served as a springboard for countless westward-bound settlers, and the state's cities were long the westernmost outposts of U.S. civilization. Missouri, an Algonquian word meaning "people with big canoes," was the name given to the Indians living near the mouth of the Missouri River.

European exploration began with the passage of Father Jacques Marquette and the trader Louis Jolliet down the Mississippi in 1673. In 1682 the Mississippi Valley was claimed for France by Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle*, who named the territory Louisiana. The first permanent white settlement in what is now Missouri was made by the French at Sainte Genevieve in the 1740s.

French settlement in the 18th century was based on lead mining and fur trading, of which St. Louis (founded 1764) became the center. France ceded the region to Spain in 1762, but Spanish control was never more than superficial. The Spanish did, however, permit settlement from east of the Mississippi, and by 1800 most of the new settlers were from Kentucky and Tennessee.

Spain retroceded the region to France in 1800, and in 1803, Missouri, along with the rest of the Louisiana territory, was sold to the United States ( SEE LOUISIANA). Missouri was made a U.S. territory in 1812.

Statehood was achieved in 1821 by way of the Missouri Compromise** (1820), which permitted Missouri's entry into the Union as a slave state. In 1837 the six northwestern counties were purchased from the Indians and added to the state by the Platte Purchase.

The Civil War and Economic Growth

By the mid-19th century slavery was becoming uneconomical, and immigrants from free states and from Europe, especially Germany and Ireland, had modified the social structure. Nonetheless, slavery remained a controversial issue in the state. The case of Dred Scott v. Sandford***, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856-57, began in Missouri. The moderate antislavery stance of Missouri's longtime (1821-51) senator, Thomas Hart Benton, cost him his political career.

Despite the strong block of proslavery sentiment, a Missouri state convention voted against secession in 1861. Several major Civil War battles took place in the state, however, and guerrilla fighting was bitter, bloody, and statewide. Violence continued after the war in the activities of such outlaws as Jesse James****. The state government was troubled by extremist groups immediately after the war, but stability was achieved in the 1870s.

After the Civil War, railroad building and the renewed westward movement of Americans encouraged industry and urban growth. Following a new influx of foreign immigrants, St. Louis grew to become the nation's fourth-largest city in 1900.

* The French fur trader and explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, was the European discoverer of the lower Mississippi.

**The Missouri Compromise of 1820-21 was an attempt to solve the sectional disputes between free and slave states in the United States.

*** The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Dred Scot v. Sandford (1857) held that a black slave could not become a citizen under the U.S. Constitution. Dred Scott (c.1795-1858), a slave in Missouri, had been taken by his owner, John Emerson, into Illinois, where slavery had been prohibited by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and into the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise.
After his return to Missouri, Scott brought suit (1846) against Emerson's widow, claiming that he was free by reason of his residence in free territory. The Missouri supreme court ruled against him, but after his ownership was transferred to Mrs. Emerson's brother, John F. A. Sanford (the name was misspelled in legal records) of New York, Scott brought a similar suit in federal court, based on diversity of state citizenship. That court found (1854) that Scott was Sanford's slave, but Scott's lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court, which finally heard the case in 1856-57.
Its decision was awaited with much interest by the nation because it had crucial bearing on the sectional controversy concerning slavery in the territories. The court's decision, reached by a seven-to-two vote, was that Scott was not a citizen and thus had no right to sue in the federal courts.
Although all nine justices wrote opinions, that of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, delivered as the opinion of the court, was the most important. He made three points. ----First, he observed that Negroesslave or freewere not included and were not intended to be included in the category of "citizen" as the word was used in the U.S. Constitution for the purpose of suing in the federal courts. Second, he argued that Scott had not become free by virtue of his residence in a territory covered by the Missouri Compromise, since that legislation was unconstitutional. Third, whatever may have been the temporary effect of Scott's sojourn in Illinois, Scott had ultimately returned to Missouri, where his status depended on Missouri law.
This was viewed as a proslavery decision by the abolitionists, and the case probably hastened the coming of the Civil War. That issue aside, it was the second time that the Court had declared an act of Congress unconstitutional, the first having occurred 54 years earlier, in Marbury v. Madison.

**** Jesse James, b. Clay County, Mo., Sept. 5, 1847, d. Apr. 3, 1882, one of the most famous outlaws of the American West, acquired a Robin Hood reputation among the people of his region. At the age of 15, during the Civil War, he joined a band of pro-Confederate guerrillas led by William C. Quantrill. After the war he formed a gang with his brother, Frank, and several other men.