Martyrdom in Missouri, Volume 1 (of 2)

Border Slave State—Missouri State Convention—The Last Hope—Virginia Convention—Missouri would not Secede—Rights in the Union—Disappointment—Anomalous Position—Governor Jackson and General Price—Great Excitement—Ministers Embarrassed—One False Step Fatal—The Sword vs. Sympathy—Why the Innocent and Helpless Suffered more in Missouri than Elsewhere—Constructive Sympathy—Predatory Bands—Hon. Luther J. Glenn Commissioner from Georgia—The Effect of the Fall of Fort Sumter and President Lincoln’s Proclamation—The State Officers, Legislature and Militia Adhere South—Assemble at Neosho, Pass an Act of Secession, Elect Delegates to the Confederate Congress, etc., etc.—Preparations for War—Union vs. Price’s Army—State Convention Meets Again—Its Acts and Doings—Two State Governments—Sympathy, Property and Plunder—Ministers Again—Their Course—Days of Fasting and Prayer—Conferences—Meeting in St. Charles—Resolutions—Prudence and Prayer—The Press—Anti-Christ Abroad—Central Christian Advocate and a few Facts—Rev. Mr. Gardner—“Men and Brethren Help”—State Convention again in October—The First Oath for Ministers.

The people of Missouri contemplated the possibilities of civil war with the peculiar interests of a border State, fearing that when it came the border slaveholding States would be the main theatre of strife. They looked with the deepest solicitude to every plan for the peaceful adjustment of the troubles, and not until the failure of the “Crittenden Compromise” did they consider the result inevitable. The much talked of “Border States Convention” inspired hope in the less informed, but when nothing came of it the last hope perished.

The Missouri Legislature, by an act, “approved January 21, 1861,” called a State convention “to consider the then existing relations between the Government of the United States and the people and Government of the several States and the Government and people of Missouri, and to adopt such measures for vindicating the sovereignty of the State and the protection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded.”

This convention assembled in Jefferson City February 28, 1861, and organized and proceeded to the work for which it was called.

By the time of its session no less than seven of the Southern States had, by their conventions, adopted ordinances of secession, declaring themselves separated from the Government of the United States, and organized for themselves a distinct national confederation. Other States were in a greatly disturbed condition, had called State conventions, and would inevitably follow their sister Southern States. War was imminent and preparations for it were active—alarming.

Many still clung to the delusion that the national difficulties would be settled without bloodshed, and that the very preparations for war would prevent it.

Virginia, “the mother of Presidents,” had a State convention then either in session or about to assemble, and the deepest anxiety was felt throughout the whole country as to the course that sturdy old State would take. It was believed that the action of Missouri and Virginia would either prevent or precipitate war, by determining the true position of all the border slave States; consequently, every act of these conventions, and every sentiment uttered in them, was watched and weighed with an interest and eagerness never before known in the history of the country.

In Missouri the liveliest interest was taken by all the people in the debate on the report of the committee on Federal Relations, and not until it became an ordinance of the Convention could the majority of the people in the rural districts believe that the State would not secede from the Federal Union and unite her fortunes with the Southern Confederacy. The simple fact that Missouri was a slaveholding State was sufficient in the minds of many to determine her Federal relations, or at least the policy of secession. Rights in the Union were considered possible by the few; rights out of the Union were considered the only hope by the many.

The fact that the State officers and Legislature, elected just the fall before, were so nearly unanimous in their Southern sympathies that they could, and did, secede in a body without disorganization, and without taking the State with them, shows how strong must have been the Southern feeling at the time of their election. Sectional issues were as clearly and distinctly made in the State as in the Presidential election, and with a unanimity rare in the history of elections the people endorsed the pro-slavery party.

The action of the State convention in February, 1861, put the State in an anomalous condition. The effect was to detach the State government from the State and vacate the several departments of the State government without a vacating ordinance. The representatives in the State Legislature found themselves without a Constitution and the people without representatives. It was soon evident that neither Governor C. F. Jackson and his cabinet nor the majority of the General Assembly were in sympathy with the action of the Convention. The President of the Convention, Hon. Sterling Price, and a respectable minority dissented in their feelings from the action of a majority, and conscientiously believed that the true interest of the State was in political and commercial alliance with the Southern Confederacy.

Notwithstanding the majority of the people were loyal to the Federal Government when the delegates to the State Convention were elected, in January, 1861, yet the course pursued by Governor Jackson, General Price, and those high in authority who were associated with them, very greatly unsettled the people of the State in their political faith, and produced such general excitement amongst all classes, that the greatest fears were entertained from the first of an intensity and bitterness of strife in Missouri to which other States would not be subjected.

No one not then residing in the State can fully appreciate the condition of things which this complication of public policy developed. Ministers of the gospel and other non-combatants wore not prepared to meet the novel exigencies arising out of such an anomalous state of things, in consequence of which many of them were placed in very embarrassing circumstances, and not a few found themselves forced into positions which their cooler and better judgment afterward condemned. The pride of some kept them in positions where their indiscretion had placed them, and from which their sober judgment would fain extricate them; and in this way many non-combatants were made combatants, and many were forced from their families, their homes, their property and their country. The people were all unused to civil revolutions and inexperienced in the art of adjustment and adaptation. One false step in youth may be fatal to all the objects and aims of life, blast all its hopes and promises, and cause all its plans and purposes to miscarry—may be irretrievably disastrous. So in the first stages of civil revolutions, a mistake may be fatal; and fatal mistakes are common. Men who were not secessionists found themselves fighting for secession, and men who were not Union men were forced by a combination of circumstances to fight for the Union. A man’s sword often cut through his sympathies, and his sympathies often formed the scabbard for his sword; while the “aiding and abetting” was as often by constraint and coercion as by choice. Even the regimental colors of opposing armies did not always and faithfully reflect the true sentiment of field and staff, rank and file. Sympathy was too confused and policy too unsettled to admit of either infallible prescience in choice or fidelity in the execution in all cases. Hence many good men suffered for principles not their own, and sacrificed life and all for a cause with which they were not in sympathy.

Popular excitements are never favorable to deliberate prejudgment or right action, and in Missouri more than elsewhere the intensity of excitement at this time dethroned judgment and defeated action. It is believed that much suffering and many of the most shocking features of the war could have been prevented by the party leaders on both sides in Missouri.

It is confidently believed that when a true history of the war is written, it will appear that, in its recklessness of life and wantonness of destruction, and in all its most shameless, and revolting, and nameless crimes perpetrated upon the unoffending, the innocent and the helpless, the non-combatant population of Missouri has suffered more than any other class of people in any State. And much of the sufferings of this class of people is justly chargeable to those into whose hands the conduct of the war in this State was first placed. The just judgment of posterity and the just retributions of eternity will hold to a righteous accountability those who, under whatever pretense, made war upon ministers of the gospel, unoffending old men, and helpless women and children, dragging them to prison and to death, while the pretext for it was found only in the hasty expression of sympathy, or the constructive connection with one side or the other based upon church affiliations.

For instance, Southern Methodists, and Southern Baptists, and Southern Presbyterians were by the Union men and forces constructively identified with secession and rebellion, and put in sympathy with the Southern cause. The first from the beginning, the last two after the virtual disruption of those respective churches.

Under the heat of party passion many innocent victims suffered the spoiling of their goods, and often the loss of life itself, only upon this constructive evidence.

The principal portions of the State were always held by the Union forces, and their subordinate officers and independent, predatory bands were either commissioned to make war upon these innocent and defenseless people or they did it without commission. Certain it is that it was done, and done, too, relentlessly and indiscriminately. How far this state of things is due to the converse action of the legitimate State Legislature and the legitimate State Convention—the one elected in November, 1860, and the other elected in January, 1861, and both assuming to reflect the will of the people—and how far it is due to the course pursued subsequently by Governor Jackson, General Price, and the whole State Government, with the legislative branch thrown in, adhering South, may be determined by others. The people of the State, who were not accustomed to a long search after remote causes, were free—and many of them are still free—to attribute these most inhuman features of the war to those who were put in command of the Federal forces in this department, the officers and men of the State militia, and the “Kansas Redlegs,” as they were generally called.

The first session of the State Convention did very little more than discuss and determine the Federal relations of the State. The State of Georgia had an accredited commissioner present in the person of Hon. Luther J. Glenn, a distinguished citizen of that State, asking Missouri to secede and join the Southern Confederacy. The Convention heard him respectfully, but, after due deliberation, rejected the proposition, and resolved to remain in and try to preserve the integrity of the Union.

The Convention also appointed a Commission to attend the “Border States Convention,” and adjourned to await results.

The people of the State were still in much of a dilemma until after the fall of Fort Sumter, the proclamation of President Lincoln, and the capture of Camp Jackson. Then it was discovered that the State Government, with Governor Jackson at the head, was in sympathy with the South, and would adhere South in defiance of the Convention. It was also discovered that the “Missouri State Guard,” which had been raised, officered, armed and equipped by the Legislature the previous winter, would adhere South, with General Sterling Price in command. These revelations excited and alarmed the people all over the State, and presented new difficulties and embarrassments, which were greatly complicated and enhanced by the simultaneous appearance in different parts of the State of the U. S. forces equipped for war. Indignation and consternation alternated in the public mind, until some definite line of policy was disclosed and the people knew what to expect.

Governor Jackson fled the capital of the State with his officers and army, taking the great seal of State and the official records of the several State Departments with him, as far as it could be done. He convened the Legislature in Neosho, organized and put into operation the several Departments of the State Government. “An Act of Secession” was passed by the General Assembly; delegates were elected to the Confederate Congress; a proclamation was issued to the people of Missouri, and many other things were done to force the State out of the Union and commit her destinies to the fate of the Southern cause. This meant war; and the wisest men abandoned for ever the idea of a peaceful adjustment of the difficulties, and prepared for that which neither the counsels of the prudent nor the prayers of the good could avert.

For the next few months the preparations for war on both sides were active and general. Plows were left standing in the furrows; wheat stood unshocked and ungarnered in the fields; mechanics and artisans closed their shops and exchanged hammers and saws for guns and swords; merchants dismissed their clerks and manufacturers their hands, and all prepared for the war; saddleries, foundries and gunsmiths were pressed out of measure with work, and the country was ransacked for mules and horses for service. The policy was, “He that hath no sword, let him sell his coat and buy one.”

President Lincoln’s call upon Governor Jackson for the quota of troops from this State to help the Federal Government put down insurrection and rebellion had been promptly and curtly declined by that official, and yet ten times more than the President asked for stood ready to respond to the call in defiance of Governor Jackson.

The cities and towns along the railroad lines especially turned out a heavy surplus population for the Union army, while the river towns and rural districts supplied men and material for “Price’s army,” as it was familiarly called.

The state of things thus presented made it necessary to convene the State Convention again, which was done by the Committee appointed for that purpose at its first session. In pursuance of the call of a majority of said Committee the State Convention assembled again in Jefferson City, July 22, 1861.

A very different state of things existed now in the State, and the Convention had to meet new questions and provide for new exigencies. The Governor of the State, the president and many members of the Convention, and the Legislature that originated and provided for the Convention, had all cut themselves loose from the Convention and the people represented by the Convention.

The State was virtually without a Governor, and the Governor was without a State. The Convention did not hesitate in meeting these novel exigencies promptly and decidedly. On the seventh day the Convention passed “An Ordinance providing for certain Amendments to the Constitution,” which ordinance vacated the offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State and members of the General Assembly, provided for the election of the first three by the Convention immediately, and then ordered a general election the following November. Hon. Hamilton R. Gamble was elected provisional Governor, Hon. Willard P. Hall Lieutenant-Governor, and Hon. Mordecai Oliver Secretary of State. Henceforth the people of the State had two State Governments, and the divisions and strifes were distinct and complete.

The effect of this state of things was to unsettle the people more than ever, and the lines were clearly drawn. The policy of the Federal and State authorities was more positive and decided. “He that is not for us is against us” was not only of frequent utterance, but of dogged application. It was assumed that all men had sympathies for one party or the other, and an expression of them in any way was sure to provoke the hostility of those who assumed the guardianship of human sensibilities. Property belonging to persons of opposing sympathies was confiscated and appropriated to the use of the officers and men taking it; and at this stage of the war the effort was made to force the sympathies of men through their property. Many a well stocked farm was stripped of everything that could be carried off and the dwellings burned to the ground, because it was said the family had Southern sympathies; and many a helpless man and woman, too, had to prove themselves innocent of crimes of which they were assumed to be guilty to save them from an uncoffined grave.

Armed brigands came down from Kansas and Iowa, and over from Illinois, to plunder and rob the rich farmers of Missouri, and many of the poor ones, too, in the name of the Union, and to preserve the Constitution. They carried away wagons, horses, mules and stock of every description, plundered houses of silver plate, jewelry, beds and bedding, carpets, clothing of men, women and children—even the mementoes of ladies and the toys of children—everything that could gratify their cupidity or vex and mortify the original owners. All this for the preservation of the Union, by enriching the houses and pockets of men who cared for no higher distinction.

Ministers of the gospel suffered in common with others, especially those of the Southern Methodist Church, and others who were suspected of disloyal sentiments. Many of them had to “take the spoiling of their goods joyfully,” or otherwise, and were wholly broken up and reduced to penury and want, and yet many of them were honestly and earnestly laboring to abate the feverish excitement, allay the bitterness of feeling and promote “on earth peace and good will toward men.”

The Annual Conferences of the M. E. Church, South, in the fall of 1860, recommended to all Christian people the observance of a “day of fasting, humiliation and prayer” for the peace of the country and the amicable adjustment of existing difficulties. This had been generally observed throughout the State the week before the Presidential election, and, doubtless, did much good in humbling the Church before God, and in directing the hearts and faith of the people to the only “refuge and strength and present help in time of trouble.”

After actual hostilities had been in progress a little more than one month a number of ministers of different churches assembled in St. Charles, Mo., May 21, 1861, and, after prayer and deliberation, adopted the following:

“Whereas, In the Providence of God our country is now involved in a civil war, which has already brought upon us many calamities, and still threatens to introduce a state of ill will, discord and desolation utterly inconsistent with our condition as a Christian land; therefore,

“Resolved, 1. That we meet together on this day in the fear of God, and with a firm reliance on his divine Providence as a Christian people, communicants of the respective churches in this city, to observe such means as will at least tend to promote good will among ourselves during the continuance of this war.

“2. That we regard all war as a sore calamity, contrary to the spirit and teaching of the gospel, and more especially a civil war, as revolting to our Christian teaching, unnatural, abhorrent to all our Christian instincts, and subversive of the cause of Christ, whose blessed mission was to establish peace on earth.

“3. That, as ministers of the Christian churches, irrespective of our private opinions, we do hereby pledge ourselves, one to another, ministers and people, to abstain as far as possible from all bitter and exciting controversy upon the questions now agitating the public mind, but will, each within the sphere of our influence, endeavor to promote a spirit of brotherly love, and by calm and judicious counsel, animated by the Spirit of Christ, our peaceful Master, suppress every act among ourselves which may have a tendency to increase the present difficulties.

“4. That we call upon the Christians of our land to band together to stay, if possible, the further shedding of fraternal blood, etc., etc.

“5. That we will not forget our best refuge—prayer—and therefore humble ourselves before God and supplicate our Heavenly Father to quell the madness of the people and put away from us all bitterness, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, and animate us with the gentle spirit of peace on earth and good will toward men.

“6. That, with trustful resignation and humble faith in the strength of the Lord of Hosts, we do cordially recommend to all Christian churches to set apart Thursday, June 6, 1861, as a day of private and public supplication, with fasting, humiliation and prayer,” etc.

Similar meetings were held in other places to avert the calamity of war, or to abate some of its bitterness, and promote peace and good will amongst neighbors and non-combatants.

Very few ministers, comparatively, espoused actively the cause of either party, but pursued with a singleness of purpose their legitimate calling, ministering to all alike, and seeking only to make the gospel the “power of God unto salvation.” Individual ministers and ecclesiastical bodies felt deeply the importance of prudence, quietness and ministerial fidelity to the Church of Jesus Christ, over which the Holy Ghost had made them pastors; that the ministry be not blamed, that the cause of the Master be kept above reproach, and that a pure Christianity might always conserve the public peace.

Notwithstanding the good intentions and laudable efforts made by the ministry of Missouri generally to promote the public peace, the press of the State, both secular and religious, did very much to break the force of their well-meant endeavors, and seemed determined either to drag the Church into the most ultra partisan support of the war, or, in case of failure, to place both under the suspicion and surveillance of the military authorities.

The spirit of anti-Christ, which had been increasing and spreading for years in Missouri, now assumed a boldness and a defiance that hesitated not to use the party hatred of religious editors and preachers to make a bold advance upon the doctrines and services of those who represented a pure, non-political, unsecular Christianity. It was not uncommon for the plainest facts to be perverted, if, by so doing, the cry of persecution for loyalty’s sake could be raised and the most reckless passions of men could be fired. In this kind of business the Northern Methodist preachers and papers were more expert than others, and the hope of wreaking a mean vengeance on the M. E. Church, South, supplied sufficient motive. Such a declaration should not be made unless demanded and supported by the plainest facts. Unfortunately they are not wanting, and a few only must be selected from the many.

The Central Christian Advocate, published in St. Louis for the M. E. Church, North, and edited by Dr. C. Elliott, seized every event that could be tortured into an occasion for an inflammatory article against the ministers and members of the M. E. Church, South.

Some time in September, 1860, the Northern Methodists held a camp meeting not far from Utica, in Livingston county, North Missouri. The preacher in charge was one Rev. Mr. Gardner, who had already rendered himself obnoxious to the people by intermeddling with politics, tampering with slaves and unministerial conduct in the social circle. This camp-meeting was broken up on a Monday without service and in great confusion. The cause was no matter of conjecture, nor of its authenticity were the people permitted to doubt.

The Rev. Mr. Gardner had, the night before, been found in the wrong tent, from which he was summarily ejected by the ladies. The public indignation was too intense the next day to allow services to be held, and the crime of the preacher was made too apparent by the separation of a man and wife, the latter of whom had made herself rather conspicuous by her great zeal in the service of Gardner and the Church.

The Central Christian Advocate published it as a “great outrage,” and made the breaking up of that meeting do good service in the persecution of the ministers of the M. E. Church by the ministers and members of the M. E. Church, South. The editor of that paper said so much about it that good, honest, reliable men went to the place and investigated the matter. It was afterward ventilated through the public prints, to the infinite humiliation of the profession which the man disgraced and the reproach of the cause which he shamelessly belied.

Many other things of similar character did much good service for the party and the Church during the following winter and spring, doubtless designed to manufacture prejudice against the people of the State, and especially the Southern Methodists.

The Central, of May 15, 1861, contained the following:

“Men and Brethren, Help!

“One of our preachers, last Sabbath week, some thirteen miles from this city, was struck down, his meeting broken up, and members of the M. E. Church, South, had oversight of the assault, which was conducted under their superintendence. So said Bro. Miller, the preacher, and a member of our Church, a Missourian, whose father and mother were buried in Missouri, and in which he proposes to be buried, whether killed by others or dying in the natural way.”

While the editor should be excused for writing a paragraph so awkward and bungling, the real object will not be mistaken. It is only necessary to state that an intelligent gentleman who was present pronounces the whole thing utterly false. The meeting was not broken up, the preacher was not knocked down, and there was but one member of the M. E. Church, South, present at the service, and he left before the trouble, which occurred outside of the church after services were closed, and grew out of some insulting language used by the preacher to a gentleman present, which was resented with only one slight blow which scarcely reached the reverend offender. They were separated before any damage was done, and left the Central to do all the damage.

In this case, as in the Gardner case, the Southern Methodists were not implicated; but for these and many other things of which they were wholly innocent they had to suffer deeply and grievously, as these pages will show.

During the summer of 1861 a number of ministers in different portions of the State were robbed of all that they possessed of this world’s goods, some were driven into exile, and some arrested and put into military prisons. But more of these hereafter.

The State Convention assembled again, October 10, 1861, in St. Louis, passed several vacating ordinances, and provided for the more efficient prosecution of the war and the establishment of a more reliable sympathy between the State and the Federal Administration. Amongst other things it was ordained that all the civil officers of the State should take, subscribe and file with County Court Clerks an oath of allegiance or loyalty to support the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Missouri, and not to take up arms against the Government of the United States or the Provisional Government of this State, nor give aid or comfort to the enemies of either, and maintain and support the Provisional Government established by the State Convention of Missouri. This oath of allegiance was required of ministers of the gospel, as such.