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The first year of the War in Missouri.
South Carolina had just seceded and the whole country was in the wildest excitement when the General Assembly of
Missouri met at
Jefferson City on the last day of the year 1860.
Responding to the recommendations of
Governor Jackson and to the manifest will of the people of the
State, it forthwith initiated measures for ranging
Missouri with the
South in the impending conflict.
A State Convention was called; bills to organize, arm, and equip the militia were introduced; and the
Federal Government was solemnly warned that if it sent an army into
South Carolina, or into any other slaveholding State, in order to coerce it to remain in the
Union, or to force its people to obey the laws of the
United States, “the people of
Missouri would instantly rally on the side of such State to resist the invaders at all hazards and to the last extremity.”
The most conspicuous leader of this movement was
Claiborne F. Jackson, who had just been inaugurated Governor.
He had for many years been one of the foremost leaders of the Democrats of
Missouri, and had been elected Governor in August.
In the late canvass he had
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A very raw recruit. |
supported
Douglas for
President, not because he either liked him or approved his policy on the slavery question, but because
Douglas was the choice of the
Missouri Democrats, and to have opposed him would have defeated his own election; for in August, 1860, the people of
Missouri were sincerely desirous that the questions at issue between the
North and the
South should be compromised and settled upon some fair basis, and were opposed to the election to the Presidency of any man-whether
Lincoln or Breckinridge-whose success might intensify sectional antipathies and imperil the integrity of the
Union.
But while loyally supporting the candidacy of
Douglas,
Jackson abated none of his devotion to the political principles which had been the constant guide of his life.
He was a true son of the
South, warmly attached to the land that had given him birth, and to her people, who were his own kindred.
He was now nearly fifty-five years of age, tall, erect, and good-looking; kindhearted, brave, and courteous; a thoughtful, earnest, upright man; a political leader, but not a soldier.
The Governor urged the people of
Missouri to elect to the
Convention men who would place
Missouri unequivocally on the side of the
South.
He was
