# Alexander Ramsey *Minnesota territorial governor (1849–1853), state governor (1860–1863) and U.S. senator (1815–1903).* Alexander Ramsey (September 8, 1815 – April 22, 1903) was a Pennsylvania-born politician. He held office as the first governor of Minnesota Territory, then as the state's second governor after statehood, and later sat in the U.S. Senate.[^1][^2] He was elected first as a Whig and, from 1857, as a member of the [[Republican Party (United States)]], and he held a series of offices from the 1840s into the 1880s.[^2] In 1851 Ramsey was a United States commissioner at the treaties of [[Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, 1851|Traverse des Sioux]] and [[Treaty of Mendota|Mendota]], under which the [[Dakota]] ceded land to the United States.[^3][^4] In 1854 the U.S. Senate exonerated him on Dakota allegations arising from those treaties. MNopedia describes that exoneration as made despite "evidence uncovered in its own investigations".[^5] On September 9, 1862, he told a special session that the Dakota "must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State."[^6] Ramsey was the first president of the [[Minnesota Historical Society]] and began donating his own papers to it in the 1860s.[^6] The Society now operates his home, the [[Alexander Ramsey House]], as a museum.[^2] Its account of his 1862 address records that the extermination sentence was not in the prepared manuscript but "appeared in all published versions."[^6] ## Early years and family Ramsey was born on September 8, 1815, in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. He was the first of five children of Elizabeth Kelker and Thomas Ramsey, a blacksmith.[^2] After his father died in 1826, the family separated, and Ramsey went to live with an uncle in Harrisburg.[^2] He left Lafayette College before finishing, then read law and attended John Reed's law school in Carlisle. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1839.[^2] In 1844 he married Anna Earl Jenks. Of their three children, only a daughter, Marion, lived beyond childhood.[^2] His brother, Justus Cornelius Ramsey, sat in the Minnesota Territorial Legislature.[^2] ## Career Pennsylvania voters sent Ramsey to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Whig. He sat in the 28th and 29th Congresses, from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1847.[^2] He then held office as Minnesota's first territorial governor, as a Whig, from June 1, 1849, to May 15, 1853.[^1][^2] ### The 1851 treaties and the 1854 Senate report Ramsey was one of three U.S. commissioners at the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, signed July 23, 1851; the other two were [[Luke Lea]] and [[Henry Hastings Sibley|Henry Sibley]].[^3] With Lea, he was also a commissioner at the Treaty of Mendota, signed August 5, 1851, at [[Pilot Knob]].[^4][^7] MNopedia's entry on the Traverse des Sioux treaty gives the cession as about 24 million acres at roughly 7½ cents an acre. The same entry describes a reservation ten miles wide on each side of the [[Minnesota River]].[^3] The project's companion table assigns the same acreage and price to the two 1851 treaties taken together. The entry also records that the [[traders' paper]] was signed by all but two Dakota leaders and was "never read aloud or translated."[^3] At Mendota, [[Little Crow]] (Ta-oya-te-duta), [[Wabasha]] and roughly eighty other [[Mdewakanton]] and [[Wahpekute]] signers ceded, in the treaty's words, "all their right, title and claim to any lands whatever."[^4] Dakota alleged intimidation and fraud in the 1851 transactions, and Ramsey was among the principal figures accused.[^5] A federal investigation, the [[Young commission]] of 1853, made an adverse finding. In 1854 the U.S. Senate exonerated Ramsey.[^5] MNopedia states that the Senate acted despite "evidence uncovered in its own investigations".[^5] The project's merged master dates the Senate report to February 24, 1854. It quotes the report as finding Ramsey "not only free from blame, but highly commendable and meritorious." That wording traces only to W. W. Folwell's reproduction in *A History of Minnesota*, vol. 1, App. 8. The printed U.S. Senate Executive Journal of the 33rd Congress has not yet been checked against it.[^5] The record therefore shows both the adverse 1853 finding and the 1854 exoneration. It does not establish the Senate's reasons. ### Carver and Saint Paul In 1854 Ramsey was a member of the Carver Land Company, a St. Paul investment group. The group bought the first settlement at Carver, and Ramsey named the town.[^8] MNopedia's entry on explorer [[Jonathan Carver]] records that Ramsey proposed the town name in 1854 and that the county took the name in March 1855.[^9][^10] In 1855 Ramsey served a one-year term as mayor of [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|Saint Paul]].[^2] In 1857 he joined the newly organized Republican Party. On September 10, 1857, he accepted the party's unanimous nomination for governor, and he lost the election to Henry Hastings Sibley by 240 votes.[^2] ### Governor of Minnesota Ramsey defeated George Loomis Becker in the 1859 election. He held office as [[Governor of Minnesota]], the second after statehood, from January 2, 1860, to July 10, 1863.[^1][^2] Wikipedia's account credits him as the first Union governor to commit troops in the American Civil War. He was in Washington when Fort Sumter was fired on, went to the White House, and offered Minnesota's services to [[Abraham Lincoln]]. On April 17, 1861, he pledged at least 1,000 Minnesota men to the Union Army.[^2] ### U.S.-Dakota War During the Dakota War of 1862, Ramsey called for the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota to be killed or removed from the state.[^2] In his September 9, 1862, address to a special session, he said that the Dakota "must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State."[^6] The Minnesota Historical Society records that this sentence was absent from the prepared manuscript but "appeared in all published versions."[^6] ## Legacy The Minnesota Historical Society maintains the Alexander Ramsey House as a museum. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.[^2] Places named for Ramsey include [[Ramsey County, Minnesota]], Ramsey County, North Dakota, and the city of Ramsey, Minnesota.[^2] Two schools have dropped his name: - In the 2016–17 school year, a student-initiated effort renamed Ramsey Middle School in Minneapolis after Minnesota Supreme Court justice [[Alan Page]].[^2] - In the 2021–2022 school year, a Saint Paul school became Hidden River Middle School with St. Paul School Board approval, after staff and students had called for the change in spring 2021.[^2] The [[Ramsey County Historical Society]]'s land acknowledgement statement names Ramsey and quotes his 1862 line. It lists six commitments but states no adoption date, budget line or metric for them.[^11] ## Omissions in official accounts Ramsey County was founded on October 27, 1849, during Ramsey's territorial governorship. Its original boundaries took in present-day Anoka, Isanti and Kanabec. The county government's own *History of Ramsey County* does not name Alexander Ramsey,[^12] for whom the county is named.[^2] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Alexander Ramsey, U.S. commissioner at the 1851 treaties, with Luke Lea and Henry Sibley.[^3] - The U.S. Senate, which exonerated Ramsey in 1854.[^5] ### What - The 1851 Dakota treaty-fund matter at Traverse des Sioux and Mendota.[^5] ### When - July 23, 1851: the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was signed.[^3] - August 5, 1851: the Treaty of Mendota was signed.[^7] - February 24, 1854: the date of the Senate report, per the project's master (Folwell reproduction; primary not yet pulled).[^5] - September 9, 1862: Ramsey's special-session address.[^6] ### Where - Traverse des Sioux, and Mendota at Pilot Knob.[^3][^4] ## Notes [^1]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Governor Alexander Ramsey* (biography) — Ramsey's office and identity as Governor of Minnesota. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/mngov/govbio?govid=37 [^2]: Wikipedia, *Alexander Ramsey* (rev. 1378401697, retrieved 2026-10-25) — birth, family, education, offices and dates, 1857 race, Civil War pledge, 1862 policy, Ramsey House, namesakes and school renamings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Ramsey [^3]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, 1851* (MNopedia) — signed July 23, 1851; commissioners Luke Lea, Henry Sibley and Alexander Ramsey; about 24 million acres at about 7½ cents an acre; reservation ten miles wide on each side of the Minnesota River; traders' paper "never read aloud or translated." https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/event/treaty-traverse-des-sioux-1851 [^4]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Treaty of Mendota* (U.S.-Dakota War) — signed Aug. 5, 1851, at Pilot Knob; commissioners Luke Lea and Alexander Ramsey; Little Crow, Wabasha and roughly eighty Mdewakanton and Wahpekute signers; cession text. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/treaty-mendota [^5]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Ramsey, Alexander (1815–1903)* (MNopedia) — Dakota allegations; 1854 Senate exoneration despite evidence from the Senate's own investigations. The Feb. 24, 1854 date and the report's wording are from the project's master, which relies on Folwell's reproduction (*A History of Minnesota*, vol. 1, App. 8; primary Senate journal not yet pulled). https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/ramsey-alexander-1815-1903 [^6]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Alexander Ramsey* (U.S.-Dakota War) — September 9, 1862 address, with the sentence absent from the prepared manuscript; first president of the Society; donor of his own papers from the 1860s. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/alexander-ramsey [^7]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Treaty of Mendota, 1851* (MNopedia) — treaty of August 5, 1851. https://www.mnopedia.org/event/treaty-mendota-1851 [^8]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Carver Historic District* (MNopedia) — 1854 sale of the settlement to the Carver Land Company, a St. Paul group including Ramsey, who named the town. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/carver-historic-district [^9]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Carver, Jonathan (1710–1780)* (MNopedia) — Ramsey proposed the town name in 1854; the county took it in March 1855. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/carver-jonathan-1710-1780 [^10]: MinnPost/MNopedia, *Jonathan Carver: explorer, mapmaker, author — and subject of controversy* (Jan. 2014) — corroborating account of the Carver entry. https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2014/01/jonathan-carver-explorer-mapmaker-author-and-subject-controversy/ [^11]: Ramsey County Historical Society, *Land Acknowledgement Statement* — names Ramsey; quotes the 1862 line; lists six commitments with no adoption date, budget line or metric. https://rchs.com/about/land-acknowledgement-statement/ [^12]: Ramsey County, *History of Ramsey County* — county founded October 27, 1849; original boundaries; does not name Alexander Ramsey. https://www.ramseycountymn.gov/your-government/about-ramsey-county/history-ramsey-county