Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

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The 4th of January, 1861, was an unfortunate day for Missouri. On that day Claiborne F. Jackson, an unscrupulous politician, and a conspirator against the Republic, was inaugurated Governor of the State. In his message to the Legislature, he insisted that Missouri should stand by its sister Slave-labor States in whatever course they might pursue at that crisis. He recommended the calling of a State Convention to consider “Federal relations;” and on the 16th,

January, 1861.

the Legislature responded by authorizing one, decreeing, however, that its action on the subject of secession should be submitted to the vote of the people. The election resulted in the choice of a large majority of Union delegates

Claiborne F. Jackson.

by a heavy majority of the popular vote. They assembled at Jefferson City on the 28th of February. Their proceedings will be considered hereafter.

Adjoining Missouri on the south, and lying between it and Louisiana, is Arkansas, a rapidly growing Cotton-producing State. The people were mostly of the planting class, and were generally attached to the Union; and it was only by a rigorous system of terrorism that they were finally placed in an attitude of rebellion.

An emissary of treason, named Hubbard, was sent into Arkansas at the middle of December, by the Alabama conspirators. He was permitted to address the State Legislature

December 20, 1860.

assembled at Little Rock, when he assured them that Alabama would soon secede, whether other States did or did not, and advised Arkansas to do the same. Ten days afterward there was an immense assemblage of the people at, Van Buren, on the Arkansas River, in the extreme western part of the State. They resolved, on that occasion, that separate State action would be unwise, and that co-operation was desirable. It was evident, from many tests, that nine-tenths of the people were averse to the application of secession as a remedy for alleged evils.

On the 16th, the Legislature of Arkansas provided for the submission of the question of a State Convention to the people, and if they should decide to have one, the Governor was directed to appoint a day for the election of delegates. A majority of twelve thousand voted in favor of a convention. An election was held, when, out of about forty thousand votes, there was a popular majority of about six thousand for Union delegates. How that Convention was managed by the conspirators, and the people were cheated, will be considered hereafter.

We have now observed the revolutionary movements in the Slave-labor States down to the so-called secession of seven of them;

February 1, 1861.

their preparations for a General Convention, at the beginning of February, to form a confederacy; and the construction of machinery, in the form of State conventions, for sweeping most of the other Slave-labor States into the vortex of revolution. Let us see what, in the mean time, was done in the matter in the Free-labor States, beginning with New England.