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Conspiracy had been working with untiring persistence in every Slave State since, and even before, the formal secession of the
Cotton States in January, and had everywhere made considerable advances, notably in the
State of Missouri.
Governor Jackson, of that State, had leagued himself with the secession plot, though still concealing his purpose with outward professions of loyalty.
Many subordinate officers and members of the Legislature were secretly aiding him. Together they were leading
Missouri through the usual and well-established paths to ultimate treason, by means of official recommendations from the
Governor and various shrewdly devised laws passed by the Legislature.
They made a serious miscalculation, however, in the stereotyped and hitherto always successful expedient of a State Convention.
When that body was elected and met (February 28th), it showed such an overwhelming majority of Union members, that the plotters of treason were quite willing to hide their defeat in joining certain pointed declarations by the convention against secession, and adjourning its sittings to the following December, trusting their chances to a more pliant and treasonable legislature; hoping to bring about a policy of arming the
State under pretence of local defence, and committing it to a neutral attitude under plea of
