CHAPTER IV

REPRESSION AND INVASION

IN the repression of Missouri the measures of the United States were less diplomatic and more radical than in the case of Kentucky. In fact direct resort to force was used from the beginning. President Lincoln seemed to have learned the lesson of the statistics and to comprehend that he was dealing with a population of which eighty-three per cent was of foreign and Northern birth or parentage, while only seventeen per cent was of Southern birth or parentage.

The larger element of the population of Kentucky was Southern. Its members loved the South and revolted at the thought of making war on the South. The bridle could not be put upon them until after they had been blindfolded. No such measures were necessary with Missouri. A large number of the people were Northern in sympathy; but the peculiar circumstances of Missouri's history had made it the political ally of the South, and the Southern element of the people added to political alliance social sympathy and love. This Southern element had from pioneer times furnished its leaders in politics. As new elements had been added to the population they fell in with the current of sentiment, but they were born of stubborn and steadfast parents and never entirely outgrew their early prejudices.

The pioneers and their descendants had not forgotten the bitter and unjust warfare made by the North against Missouri's admission as a State. They remembered with

gratitude how the South stood by them and felt that they owed statehood itself to Southern support. They had united with the South in the long-fought battle in defence of slavery and States Rights. Their newer immigrant population had united with them in the fight. Even as recently as 1860 the vote of Missouri stood in the presidential election as follows: For the Douglas electors, 58,801; for the Bell electors, 58,373; for the Breckinridge electors, 31,317; for the Lincoln electors, 17,165.

The newly elected governor, Hon. Claiborne F. Jackson, was a Democrat, of Virginia descent and a native of Kentucky. The lieutenant-governor, Hon. Thomas C. Reynolds, was a native of South Carolina, and was likewise of Virginia descent. The legislature was strongly Democratic and Southern. The following analysis of its membership is given by Colonel John C. Moore:

"The General Assembly of Missouri met at Jefferson City on the 2d day of January, 1861, and the Southern element organized both Houses with scarcely a show of opposition. There was but one Republican in the Senate, and in the House there were eighty-three Democrats, thirtyseven Bell men, and twelve Republicans. It was conceded that the Secessionists controlled the legislative branch of the government. All that was required to put the State in line with the other Southern States was prompt and decisive action. The people of the State expected such action would be taken and were prepared to uphold the legislature in taking it."

The retiring governor, Robert M. Stewart, was a Northerner, a native of New York, and a fair type of the Northern Democrat. In his message, transmitted to the two Houses on January 3d, he urged the legislature to adhere to the Union and closed as follows:

"I would here, in my last official act as governor of Missouri, record my solemn protest against such unwise or hasty action, and my unalterable devotion to the Union so long as it can be made the protector of equal rights."

The inaugural address of the incoming governor, Hon. Claiborne F. Jackson, was widely different in tone, as is indicated by the following extract:

"Missouri will, in my opinion, best consult her own interests and the interests of the whole country by a declaration of her determination to stand by her sister slaveholding States, in whose wrongs she participates and with whose institutions and people she sympathizes."

Governor Jackson recommended that the militia of the State be organized, and a Constitutional Convention be called. Accordingly, a bill was introduced for organizing the militia; it passed the Senate, but was not acted upon in the House. An act was passed to call a Constitutional Convention, the delegates to be elected February 18th, and the Convention to meet February 28th. The legislature also adopted a resolution which seemed to pledge the State to secession. It was offered by Mr. George G. Vest. It declared the position of Missouri in the following clause:

"We regard with the utmost abhorrence the doctrine of coercion as indicated by the action of the States aforesaid [New York and others], believing that the same would end in civil war and forever destroy the hope of reconstructing the Federal Union. So believing, we deem it our duty to declare that if there is any invasion of the slaveholding States for the purpose of carrying such doctrine into effect, it is the opinion of this General Assembly that the people of Missouri will instantly rally on the side of their Southern brethren to resist the invader at all hazards and to the last extremity."

The General Assembly and State officers had been elected before the secession of South Carolina, and at a time when attention was directed to protecting the interests of the slaveholding States by the ballot. Thus far the eighty-three per cent of the foreign and Northern elements of the population had cheerfully cooperated. Now the question of secession and war was presented, and the inherited prejudices of birth and the social ties of nativity began to

assert themselves, and the scene changes. The election for delegates to the Convention was the first test. "When the Convention met," states Colonel John C. Moore, "the most remarkable thing about it was that there was not an avowed Secessionist among its members." The majority against secession was eighty thousand. The Secessionists were greatly surprised at this result, and attributed it to fraud, violence, and to all causes but the true one. The census explains it.

Another remarkable thing about this Convention, which soon gave proof of its devotion to the Union, was the fact that the Union voters, still retaining their old habit of placing the Southern men in political lead, had selected as delegates, for the most part, Union Southern men, of whom there were a few in the State. Curiously enough, eightytwo of the ninety-nine delegates were natives of Northern States, three were Germans, and one was an Irishman. The Convention met on the appointed day, February 28, 1861, at Jefferson City, and adjourned to meet in St. Louis, March 4th. Ex-Governor Sterling Price, soon to become conspicuous as the Commander of the Missouri militia, and subsequently a Confederate general, but then elected as a Conditional Union man, was made president.

The political situation had developed three parties in the State: the Secessionists, the Conditional Unionists, and the Unconditional Unionists. In the convention the Secessionists had no representative. The Unconditional Unionists were the controlling faction. This may be seen from the following action. The Committee on Federal Relations submitted a series of resolutions, accompanied by a report from which the following extract is quoted:

"The position of Missouri in relation to the adjacent States which would continue in the Union would necessarily expose her, if she became a member of a new Confederacy, to utter destruction whenever any rupture might take place between the different republics. In a military aspect, secession and connection with a Southern confederacy is annihilation for Missouri. The true position for her to assume

is that of a State whose interests are bound up in the maintenance of the Union and whose kind feelings and strong sympathies are with the people of the Southern States with whom they are connected by ties of friendship and blood." A strong effort was made to supplement the resolutions by "a declaration that if the Northern States refused to accept the Crittenden Compromise and the other border slaveholding States should thereupon secede, Missouri would not hesitate to go with them." Only twenty-three members of the convention voted for this motion. One after another the convention voted down all amendments or modifications of the report of the committee, and after a short discussion adopted it as a whole. It then adjourned, subject to the call of a committee which was appointed to decide where another meeting should be held. This was evidently done to await the development of the policy of President Lincoln and to be ready to thwart any movement of the State government, a work which this convention a little later performed.

It must be borne in mind that all this occurred before any invasion of the State and before any coercion was used. The action of this convention clearly reflected the sentiment of a large majority of the people of the State. It was a surprise and humiliation to the Southern element. They saw that the crisis was approaching when they would be compelled to engage in war with their kindred of the South unless something could be done to avert the calamity. They did not intend to become invaders of Southern soil, and they were men that were not accustomed to yield. The Secession party now turned to the State government. Governor Jackson, all the State officers, and the legislature still warmly sympathized with the South. Early in March, as before mentioned, the House refused to pass the bill for the organization of the militia, which had passed the Senate, but an act was passed for the relief of St. Louis. By this act the power was taken out of the hands of the Republican mayor and placed in the hands of a Board of Police Commissioners appointed by the governor. About this time an