Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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three thousand men, every regiment but one Missourians, under Price, now brig- adier-general by commission of President Polk. Jefferson Davis refused a similar commission because of his belief in the unconstitutionality of the act. By the end of the year the subiugation of New Mexico was an accomplished fact to which the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 1848, Ollly gave legal sanc- tion. New Mexico to all intents and purposes was already a territory of the United States, and if we except a few companies, it was made so by Missouri volunteers. Of the seven thousand men whom she sent to the war, over six thousand were employed in the conquest and paeification of this territory. His solid services in New Mexico over, General Price went home to Chariton county. He found the Democratic party in Missouri split on the question of Kansas. The Claiborne Jackson resolutions, of January 18-17, had declared that Congress must not legislate as to slavery in a territory, that the people of the territory should decide. In the Compromise State the Democrats found it hard to get together on so clear cut an issue. Thomas H. Benton, for one, stood out in opposition and never regained the hold he lost in consequence. General Price, as the man for whom all could vote, was nominated by the party for the governorship in 1852, and was elected by a large majority, defeating Colonel Winston, a grandson of Patrick Henry. Price was governor of Missouri from 1853 to 1857-a Conservative Demo- crat. It was a time of turmoil across the western border, and Missouri, although not oflicially concerned, could not fail to be involved. There were 100,000 slaves in the State, worth some Pll535,000,000. The Kansas Bill, of May 1854, set aside the Compromise of 1850 and left the choice to Kansas whether the territory should ne slave or free. If Kansas 'chose-tor freedom, Missouri would become a slave peninsular thrusting to the north and property, people thought, would de- preciate. The rabid abolitionists got at once to work with various colonization schemes. Emigrant aid companies imported into Kansas many citizens, armed with Sharps rides, agricultural implements were not a necessary part of their outfits. Those superior devils, the Jayhawkers, were busy. On the other hand the Blue Lodges of Missouri, west of Jetterson City, instituted counter proceedings. The James Boys, and the Quantrells and the Youngers weie very active. We know John Brown's part in these things. During such troublous years Governor Price, whose sympathies in the nature of the case were obvious, was a prudent executive. It is to be remarked that he vetoed an omnibus bill for public improvements, a graft measure, which was passed over his veto, en- tailing heavy and long lasting taxation. Besides, Governor Price recommended that the salary of the governor should be made 355,000 instead of 852,500 The bill was passed and the governor refused the supplement for his term. The present administration in Missouri is not the first in that commonwealth to regard public office as a public trust. I5

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Price's character had become well known by 1840 and in August of that year his neighbors sent him to the Legislature. He was at once elected speaker, and again in 1842. Judge Fagg, late ofthe Missouri Supreme Court, in a recent memorial address, speaks of Price as a parliamentarian. The State in all its history of more than eighty years has never furnished a man of more dignified appearance or one possessed of the same qualifications to direct the proceedings of a legislative body. After four years as Speaker, Sterling Price was elected to Congress in 1844 on the Democratic ticket. In the spring ot' 1846 war was declared with Mexico, and Price resigned his scatvl' to accept Polk's appointment to the colonelcy of a volunteer regiment of mounted Missourians. He would not, however, assume the command until the men ofthe regiment had ratified the choice. The Mis- :souri troops, styled the H Army ot' the West H-about 1600 strong-were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Leavenwoxth, above Kansas City, under General Kearney. Thence these troops proceeded in June, 1846, over the Santa Fe trail to Santa Fe, New Mexico, an important distributing centre, the entrepot of the overland trade with Missouri. Missourians had done much to develop the country and they were now to secure it as a part ofthe United States. More than one man who later was to figure in the fight tor Missouri had a share in this subiugation of New Mexico. In September General Kearney rather highhandedly promulgated aconstitution drawn up by Col. Doniphan and Private 'W. fHal1l. Charles Bent was appointed governor and Francis P. Blair attorltey '.gen'cral. These men were all Missourians. Having signal- ized by a constitution the presence of the Anglo-Saxon, General Kearney set out for California, September '25, 1846, .and on the follwing day 'Colonel Price fSecond Missouri Mounted Volunteersj arrived at Santa Fe to relieve Colonel Doniphan, ordered on his extraordinary expedition to Chihuahua. Naturally there was bad blood in New Mexico. The patriotism ofthe moment was styled conspiracy by those who were shortly to resent on the best. ot' constitutional grounds the name ot' rebel. Christmas day, 1846. was fixed by the ti insurgents as a date for an uprising. Colonel Price made a lbw arrests and the danger Seemed passed. But on Jan. 1.9, 1847, Governor Bent was killed at Taos, seventy miles northeast of Santa Fe. Colonel Price immediately moved against the rebels, fighting the battle ot' Canada on the 24th, with tlu'ee hundred and fifty men, and dislodging the enemy in February from Taos. The march to that place had been through deep snow, and it was no slight task to force the Mexicans to surrender their fortified adobe houses. There was no discussion of terms until Tomas, chief -offender, had been delivered up. Unrest still continuing in the territory, Colonel Price asked for reinforce- ments in July, 1847. Several lnonths later the forces in New Mexico numbered 1 Jelferson Davis resigned at the same time to accept a colonel's commission. I4

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The four years from 1857 to 1861 General Price spent quietly at home. His platform was States' Rights within the Union. The year 1860 approached, when principles of that sort, in a border state like Missouri, were to be tested. In the election of 1860 Lincoln polled only 17,000 votes in Missouri, Douglas and Bell about 58,000 each, and Breekinridge 31,000 Although the Breck- inridge, or Southern Rights men, were in a minority in the State, even when com- pared with the supporters of Douglas, in the Legislature they outnumbered either ofthe other parties. Not being numerous enough, however, to effect an organi- zation by themselves, they united with the Douglas men, and by this means they secured the election of their candidate for speaker. l' Claiborne Jackson, the in- coming governor, was of their party as was also the lieutenant governor, Thomas C. Reynolds. With the executive, and the committees of both houses, of their complexion, the Southern party was strong. tt And but for the fact that they voluntarily relinquished their power into the hands of a Constitutional Conven- tion, it was possible for them to have given the course of legislation a very differ- 'ent direction from that which it was eventually made to take. Rhetorically, the issue was drawn for Missourians in December, 1860. The retiring governor, Robert M. Stewart, denounced the heresy of secession and took the ground thatno matter what the other slave states might do,it was Missouri's duty and her interest to remain within the Union. Governor Jackson Qborn in Kentucky of Virginia parent-agej in his inaugural address stated that Missouri 4' would best maintain her own interests and the interests of the whole country by a timely declam- tion of' her determination to stand by her sister slave-holding states. Stewart :and Jackson were at one up to the hypothetical point of' coercion by the North. Few people thought the issue would be actually drawn. Among those who did was Francis Preston Blair, son of Francis Preston Blair of Virginia. Governor Jackson had recommended that the state militia should be thoroughly organ- ized to resist aggression. Blair began at once to make ready for the part he in- tended to play in the drama which he felt would be bloody: his 4' Wideawakes, Union clubs formed in St. Louis during the campaign of 1860, were drilled regu- larly. Nevertheless it seems probable that Jackson might have seized the St. Louis arsenal at any time during the first three weeks of 1861. Instead, after the secession of the Cotton States, the Legislature passed a bill for a Constitutional Convention 'tto consider the relations between the government of the United States and the govermnent and people ofthe State of Missouri. The Southern party contented themselves with adopting a measure which not o11ly committed them to a course of delay when instant action was necessary to the success of their cause, but which involved on their part a relinquishment of the power of legislation upon the very question that was at issue. This fatal step might be 'termed the Third Missouri Compromise. Delegates to the convention, for or against secession, were to be elected on I6