by Rebecca Springer Originally titled  "Intra Muros" Published 1922

Within the Gates   About the Author     Rebecca Ruter Springer was born on November 8, 1832, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and died in 1904. She was the daughter of Rev. Calvin W. Ruter, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1850 she graduated from Wesleyan Female College, in Cincinnati, Ohio. On December 15, 1859, she married William McKendree Springer. Besides Intra Muros (or Within the Gates, 1898), she wrote Beechwood (1873, a novel), Self (1881, a novel), Songs of the Sea (1889, poetry), and Marcus and Miriam (1908).          Her husband, William McKendree Springer, was born on May 30, 1836, in New Lebanon, Sullivan County, Indiana. From 1858-1862, he was a newspaper editor and correspondent. In 1859, the same year he and Rebecca were married, he was admitted to the bar. In 1862, he was named Secretary of the Illinois State Constitutional Convention, and in 1872 he was elected to the Illinois state legislature. In 1875, he was elected to the US Congress, where he served until 1895. During that time, he was chairman of several prestigious committees, including Ways and Means, Territories, and Banking and Currency. He was the author of the Springer bill, which organized the Oklahoma Territory and created a judicial system for the Indian Territory. He was also the author of the bill which admitted Washington, Montana, and North and South Dakota as states to the Union. He also was responsible for introducing a House resolution declaring the precedent of retiring from presidential office after two terms (though the constitutional amendment was not passed till many years later); this resolution was adopted by a large margin and contributed materially to keeping the widely believed dishonest President Grant from being renominated for a third term.         From 1895-1899 (this was the time at which Rebecca wrote Intra Muros) he served as a US judge in the Northern District of the Indian Territories and was the chief justice of the US Court of Appeals in the Indian Territories. In 1900, he returned to Washington and resumed his law practice. He died in 1903.

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