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The capture of Camp Jackson produced great consternation among the secessionists at
Jefferson City, the capital of the
State, where the Legislature was in session.
A military bill was immediately passed, by which a fund for war purposes was decreed.
The Governor was authorized to receive a loan of five hundred thousand dollars from the banks, and to issue State bonds to the amount of one million dollars. He was also authorized to purchase arms; and the whole military power of the
State was placed under his absolute control, while every able-bodied man was made subject to military duty.
A heavy extraordinary tax was ordered; and nothing was left undone in preparations for actual war.
Soon after
General Harney returned to his command, he issued a proclamation,
in which he characterized this military bill as an indirect secession ordinance, even ignoring the forms resorted to by the politicians of other States, and he told the people of
Missouri that it was a nullity, and should be regarded as such by them.
Yet he was anxious to pursue a conciliatory policy, to prevent war. He entered into a compact
with
Sterling Price (
President of the late Convention, and then a General of the
State militia), which had for its object the neutrality of
Missouri in the impending conflict.
Price, in the name of the
Governor, pledged the power of the
State to the maintenance of order; and
Harney, in the name of his Government, agreed to make no military movement, so long as that order was preserved.
The loyal people were alarmed, for they well knew the faithlessness to pledges of the
Governor and his associates, and they justly regarded the whole matter as a trick of
Jackson and other conspirators to deceive the people, and to gain time to get arms, and prepare for war. Fortunately for the
State and the good cause, the
National Government did not sanction this compact.
Captain Lyon had been commissioned a brigadier-general
in the mean time, by an order dated the 16th of May, several days before this treaty with
Price.
General Harney was relieved of command, and on the 29th he was succeeded by
Lyon, who bore the title of
Commander of the Department of Missouri.
Most of the prisoners taken at Camp Jackson had concluded to accept the parole first offered them, and they were released.
Governor Jackson paid no attention to the refusal of the
National Government to sanction the compact between
Harney and
Price, but proceeded as if it were in full force.
The purse and the sword of
Missouri had been placed in his hands by the Legislature, and he determined to wield both for the benefit of the “Southern Confederacy.”
He issued a proclamation, in which he declared that “the people of
Missouri should be permitted, in peace and security, to decide upon their future course,” and that “they could not be subjugated” Finally, on the 11th of June,
General Lyon,
Colonel Blair,
