Recently, President Biden traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma and gave a speech commemorating the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
In his speech he stated, “We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, everything. That’s what great nations do: They come to terms with their dark sides. And we’re a great nation.
On Thursday, April 11, 1861, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, gave the order to open fire on Fort Sumter, a federal fort situated at the mouth of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. This engagement triggered the beginning of the Civil War.
The casualties of this war took a higher percentage of the American population than any war we have ever fought. The problem was, no matter who died, Union or Confederate, an American died.
President Abraham Lincoln immediately called on the states to supply 30,000 troops. The Governor of Missouri received this request, and this was his response.
“Mr. President, your request is illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical, and cannot be complied with. Not a man will the state of Missouri furnish to carry out such an unholy crusade!”
So, how did we get to this position? Let me tell you a story.
I’m told that’s what I do best. Tell stories. So, let’s start with this rogue Governor.
Claiborne Fox Jackson, was a democrat in the Missouri House of Representatives, prior to being elected Governor. An interesting fact about the Governor is that he had married the daughter of Dr. John Sappington of Fayette. At the time, the governor was a young man with a successful mercantile business there in Fayette, Missouri.
Unfortunately, Jackson’s wife died of a fever. So, he married the second daughter of Dr. Sappington. Several years later, Jackson’s second wife also died of a fever. So, what did he do? You guessed it. He went back and married Dr. Sappington’s third daughter! Dr. Sappington is said to have stated at the wedding, “Don’t come back again, ‘cause you can’t have my wife!
Jackson was elected Governor in August of 1860 and ran on a platform that stated he would keep Missouri in the Union in the event of Civil War. He won by a margin of 139,000 to 17,500.
So, it was clear where the majority of Missourian stood. Stay in the Union… Or so it appeared.
In the presidential election at the same time, there were 4 candidates.
Abraham Lincoln who was opposed to slavery.
John Bell who wanted to preserve the Union at all costs even if it meant slavery continued in the South.
John Breckenridge who was pro-slavery.
Stephen Douglas who pushed for popular sovereignty (Let the people of the state decide)
So, you had clear platforms on which to vote in the presidential election of 1860.
In Missouri, Stephen Douglas (popular sovereignty) took first.
John Bell (save the Union) took second. Breckenridge (pro-slavery) took third and Abraham Lincoln (opposed slavery) came in dead last.
As you can see, it is hard to tell exactly where Missouri stood. We elected a Governor who would keep us in the Union, but we voted for a president who would let the people of the state decide and rejected Lincoln’s anti slavery position.
Here is a key point. Slavery was the trigger to the Civil War, but the true underlying issue was state’s rights. Does the Federal Government have the right to tell a state what it can and cannot do? The Supreme Court had ruled that a slave is property, and the US Constitution guarantees citizens the right to life, liberty, and property.
If an issue is not specifically called out in the US Constitution, the states have jurisdiction. So, does the federal government have the right to tell a state they can’t have slaves (property)?
Don’t get me wrong. Slavery was an abominable practice. However, at that time, a slave was simply property and if the federal government could take your slaves, what would be next? My horse, my cattle?
As soon as Governor Jackson was elected he stated in his inaugural address “We owe it to our southern brethren to come to the aid of the South.” In other words, Jackson had tricked the people of Missouri and was a closet secessionist!
He now called on the people of Missouri to meet in Jefferson City and to bring whatever arms they had to form a militia.
By May 3, 1861, 800 members of Jackson’s militia had set up camp in north St. Louis in preparation to take the federal arsenal. However, St. Louis was dominated by a powerful pro-union politician, Frank Blair.
Mr. Blair now called upon the local union military commander, Captain Nathaniel Lyon, and the gentlemen now recruited 4 regiments of union soldiers made up of local St. Louis citizens, primarily of German descent.
On May 10, 1861, Captain Lyon’s 3000 union forces marched north and surrounded the 800 Missouri militia men forcing them to surrender. The union forces then marched their prisoners south, through the streets of St. Louis, headed for the Gratiot Street prison. The citizens of St. Louis now lined the streets watching as the Missouri militia was forced at bayonet point toward their destination.
This did not sit well with the people of St. Louis. It is one thing to say you will stay in the union. It is something altogether different when the federal government is taking control of state authority.
As a result, people along the route of the forced march now started shouting and throwing stones at the union forces.
More and more people now joined in and Captain Lyon, fearing he would lose control of his prisoners, now gave the order to fire into the crowd. That’s right. Federal troops shooting Missouri citizens!
When the smoke cleared, 15 unarmed St. Louis citizens lay dead, including women and children. This became known as the St. Louis Massacre.
As word spread throughout the state of what had happened, many people who had sat on the fence now sided with the pro-south Governor.
On June 11, 1861, Governor Jackson and Sterling Price decided to travel to St. Louis to discuss the situation with Captain Lyon and Frank Blair. They met for four hours. Governor Jackson said he would stay in the union provided all federal troops are removed from the state of Missouri. To Frank Blair this was totally unacceptable, and the discussion turned into a shouting match.
Captain Lyon now stated, “If I have to kill every man, woman, and child in the state of Missouri to keep it in the Union I will do so!” He then turned to his second in command and said “This means war. Escort these men out of my lines!”
Think about that. The Federal government is telling our governor that he must do what Washington says or they will kill every Missourian!
This being the case, on October 30, 1861, the Missourians under Price and Jackson formally joined the Confederate cause by holding a meeting of the state legislature in Neosho, Missouri. There, they passed a resolution voting in favor of secession and named Jackson, Governor of the Confederate State of Missouri. There is still question today as to whether this was legal since all members of the legislature were not present for the vote.
Governor Jackson headed south with the politicians and established a Missouri state government in exile in Marshall, Texas.
On August 30, 1861, Union General Freemont had declared martial law in Missouri, making the Union military, judge, jury, and executioner throughout the state.
All civil authority was now suspended and handed over to military courts. He also sent 40,000 Union soldiers into the state to hunt down and kill anyone supporting the Confederacy.
This is where the people of Missouri now rose up and formed guerilla bands to fight the federal occupation of our state.
Guess what. Our resistance fighters were so successful that the Federal government gave the Union military permission to make war on the citizens of Missouri.
The reason being that the Military couldn’t defeat the guerillas militarily, so they figured they must be getting their support from the people of Missouri.
We are now under martial law and the military, as judge, jury and executioner has the full backing of the federal government.
In other words, all of your rights under the constitution have been suspended.
The military now went after the citizens through a series of what were known as General orders. Here are a few.
General Order # 32 Anyone caught in the act of sabotage will be immediately shot. No quarter, no trial. By Union General Halleck dec 21 1861.
General Order #19 “every able-bodied man capable of bearing arms and subject to military duty is hereby ordered to repair without delay to the nearest military post and report for duty. (so, you can’t be neutral, If you don’t have a Union uniform. You must be a guerilla)
Another clause of General Order #19 stated that to arm the military, The Union forces had the right to sieze all guns.This offered an excellent excuse for Union forces to enter private homes and take what they wanted.
Shortly thereafter, on August 12, 1862, General Schofield issued General Order #9 which stated that while the Union army was in the field, they could help themselves to any supplies they needed from any citizens they felt were not loyal to the union.
Brigadier General Thomas Ewing now becomes Commander of Union forces in the western half of Missouri.
He too decided that the guerillas couldn’t be defeated as long as the citizens kept helping them, so he now went after all the citizens of Missouri whether you were Union, pro south, or neutral. It didn’t matter.
He started by arresting and imprisoning the wives, moms, and sisters of the guerrillas. They were rounded up and put in makeshift jails in KC.
Gen Ewing soon realized he didn’t have enough jail space for all of them, so he now proposed the removal of all guerilla families from Missouri.
On August 14, 1863 an old building on Grand avenue in KC, being used as a prison, collapsed. Inside were the relatives of Quabtrill’s men.
On the same day the prison collapsed, General Ewing issued General Order # 10 stating “The wives and children of known guerrillas and also women who are heads of families and are willfully engaged in aiding guerrillas will be notified by such officers to remove out of this district and out of the state of Missouri forthwith.”
This was the final straw for Quantrell and his men. They now mounted up and headed for Lawrence Kansas and conducted the now famous sack of Lawrence on August 21, 1863.
All the male citizens of Lawrence were killed and the town was burned to the ground.
In response, General Thomas Ewing now issued General Order # 11. On August 25, 1863 which called for:
The forced removal of all Missouri citizens in Jackson, Bates, Cass, and ½ of Vernon county. Again. You could be the wife of a Union soldier at home with your kids. It didn’t matter, you are a Missourian.
You have 15 days to get out or you will be shot.
For hundreds of miles every home, barn and structure was then burned to the ground and all the fields set afire. For years after the war, these 4 counties were known as the burnt district.
General Order #23 had been established back in December 1862. To implement martial law. It created a Provost Martial General in St. Louis, and District Provost Martilas throughout the state.
Provost Marshall had complete authority to arrest and imprison people at their will.
Provost Marshalls now came up with a system of loyalty oaths. You had to swear and oath of loyalty to the Union and post $1000 bond.
Don’t have the money? No problem, we will take the deed to your home and hold it as bond.
Now it is simply the Provost Mashall’s word vs. yours if you are loyal to the union and you could lose everything.
In April 1863 The KC Journal stated that the Provost Marshall held bonds totaling over 27 million dollars.
If you didn’t take the oath, you were arrested and imprisoned.
If you broke the oath, you were shot.
Remember, no jury trial, no representation.
Some entire towns vanished because everyone was arrested.
In June of 1863 General Schofield issued general orders stating that for every union soldier killed, $5000 would be assessed and collected from the people living in the community where the death occurred.
Opposition to the union cause by utterance or through the press was forbidden between 1861 and 1865. Orders were sent out that all newspapers had to be sent to the military for inspection prior to publication and all newspaper editors were to take an iron clad oath of loyalty to the US. So much for freedom of the press.
On Sept 17, 1863 General Schofield issued General Order # 96 that basically stated that it was against the law to incite rebellion through published material and if you are found guilty of doing so, it was punishable by fine and imprisonment and the paper will be shut down.
So, between 1861 and 1865 in Missouri, we saw our federal government impose martial law, establish military commissions, arrest and imprison people at will, seize their property and their guns, banish people from the state and eliminate the people’s right to free speech.
President Biden, you say you are in favor of reparations for former slaves and the victims of the Oklahoma Race Riots? While you are doling out money, please include the families of the St. Louis Massacre, and the descendants of all Missouri families who suffered under the atrocities of martial law in Missouri between 1861 and 1865.
I will finish with your quote Mr. President, “We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, everything. That’s what great nations do: They come to terms with their dark sides.
Look at Missouri history if you are looking for a dark side Mr. President.