Missouri Constitutional Convention (1861-63)
Encyclopedia
The Missouri Constitutional Convention (1861–63) was a constitutional convention
held in the state of Missouri
during the American Civil War
. The convention was elected in early 1861, and voted against secession
. When open fighting broke out between Pro-Confederate
governor Claiborne Fox Jackson
and Union authorities, and Union forces occupied the state capital, the convention formed a provisional state government, and functioned as a quasi-legislature for several years. The convention never did produce a new constitution; that task was delegated to a new convention, elected in 1864.
The 1820 constitution provided for minor revisions to be made by amendment, but required that any general revision be carried out by an elected special convention. When secession was proposed, the Missouri General Assembly
(the state legislature) voted that such a drastic change in the status of Missouri was comparable to such a general revision, that the General Assembly was not empowered to decide the issue, and called a convention.
The bill calling the convention passed on 17 January. The election was scheduled for 18 February, with three delegates chosen from each state senate district (99 total). In addition, by an amendment submitted by Charles H. Hardin, a secession declaration by the convention would have to be ratified in a referendum by a majority vote of the state's qualified voters. Hardin's amendment passed the state senate by only two votes, 17 to 15.
Three groups contended for the convention seats. One group called for Missouri to follow the Deep South slave states such as South Carolina
by declaring secession immediately - not even waiting for Abraham Lincoln
to take office as President.
Another group opposed secession at any time; they were the Unconditional Union Party
.
A third group opposed immediate secession, but was willing to consider secession unless the various slavery-related political questions were resolved on terms acceptable to the slave states. These men were "conditional Unionists".
The two Unionist factions won nearly all the seats.
At that time, both outgoing governor Robert Marcellus Stewart
and incoming governor Jackson had declared that Missouri should remain neutral in any conflict between the Union and Confederacy.
, the state capital. 82 of the 99 delegates had been born in slave states, including 53 from Virginia
and Kentucky
.
On 1 March, the convention chose as chairman former governor Sterling Price
, a conditional Unionist.
The convention then adjourned, and reassembled on 4 March in Mercantile Library
ib St. Louis
.
On March 21 the convention voted 98-1 against secession. The convention resolved that:
The convention established a Federal relations committee, with Unconditional Unionist Hamilton Rowan Gamble
as chairman. The committee declared that while Missourians might sympathize with the South, secession was too dangerous.
The convention then adjourned.
, and on 15 April President Lincoln declared a state of rebellion and called for the states to provide troops to put down rebellion. This included a request for several regiments from Missouri.
Governor Jackson rejected the request. On 20 April a secessionist mob in seized the U.S. Arsenal
in Liberty, Missouri
. Jackson plotted to seize the St. Louis Arsenal
as well. He called up the state militia, appointed secessionist officers to command it, and secretly obtained artillery from the Confederacy.
Union forces under U.S. Army
Captain Nathaniel Lyon
responded on 10 May by taking several hundred militia prisoner in the Camp Jackson Affair.
This drastic action prompted the General Assembly to pass a military bill proposed by Governor Jackson, which reorganized the militia as the Missouri State Guard
. Jackson appointed Sterling Price
as commander of the Guard.
Price and General William S. Harney
, the top Union commander in Missouri, agreed to the Price-Harney Truce
, which lasted until Lyon replaced Harney.
Lyon then marched on Jefferson City, entering on 15 June. The executive committee of the convention called a new session to meet on July 22. 20 of the original members were now in retreat with Jackson and Price (the original chairman. Vice chairman Robert Wilson
became chairman.
The convention then declared the state's offices vacant and then named new provisional officers including:
The convention also declared all offices of the Missouri General Assembly vacant, and that an election was to be held in November to fill both the executive and legislative offices.
The convention adjourned on July 31.
, received 70% in the 1864 election
.)
In 1861, General John C. Frémont
had issued an emancipation decree
for Missouri. Lincoln rescinded it as a dangerous measure which would alienate Unionists in Missouri and Kentucky
. Now in 1862, the convention tried unsuccessfully to abolish slavery in Missouri.
freed the slaves in all rebel-held territory, but not in those slave states which had not seceded, such as Missouri. The final session of the convention met in June 1863 with the goal of eliminating slavery in the state. The major obstacle was a provision in the existing constitution that required permission of the slave's owners and payment of compensation. The state did not have the money for such payments. The convention passed an ordinance for the gradual emancipation of slaves with compensation, the process to be completed on 4 July 1870.
Lincoln's inaction in this issue became a grievance for the Radicals, and in the election of 1864, a group of Radicals nominated Frémont for President, hoping to supplant Lincoln. (Frémont however dropped out a few weeks later.)
The Radicals also arranged for elections to an entirely new constitutional convention. In November 1864, Radicals won two-thirds of the seats to this convention, and Radical leader Thomas Clement Fletcher
was elected governor of Missouri.
The new convention met in the Mercantile Library
on 6 January 1865. On 11 January, the convention, by a 60 to 4 vote, abolished slavery in the state with no compensation for owners. A month later the convention approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
to abolish slavery throughout the U.S. The convention also wrote a new constitution for the state, which remained in force until 1875.
Constitutional convention (political meeting)
A constitutional convention is now a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution...
held in the state of Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The convention was elected in early 1861, and voted against secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
. When open fighting broke out between Pro-Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
governor Claiborne Fox Jackson
Claiborne Fox Jackson
Claiborne Fox Jackson was a lawyer, soldier, and Democratic politician from Missouri. He was the 15th Governor of Missouri in 1861, then governor-in-exile for the Confederacy during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
and Union authorities, and Union forces occupied the state capital, the convention formed a provisional state government, and functioned as a quasi-legislature for several years. The convention never did produce a new constitution; that task was delegated to a new convention, elected in 1864.
Background
Missouri has had four constitutions:- 1820 (when the state entered the Union)
- 1865 (at the conclusion of the Civil War)
- 1875 (at the end of Reconstruction)
- 1945 (in the wake of the toppling of the Pendergast MachineTom PendergastThomas Joseph Pendergast controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri as a political boss. "Boss Tom" Pendergast gave workers jobs and helped elect politicians during the Great Depression, becoming wealthy in the process.-Early years:Thomas Joseph Pendergast, also known to close friends as...
).
The 1820 constitution provided for minor revisions to be made by amendment, but required that any general revision be carried out by an elected special convention. When secession was proposed, the Missouri General Assembly
Missouri General Assembly
The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Senate, and a 163-member House of Representatives. Members of both houses of the General Assembly are subject to term limits...
(the state legislature) voted that such a drastic change in the status of Missouri was comparable to such a general revision, that the General Assembly was not empowered to decide the issue, and called a convention.
The bill calling the convention passed on 17 January. The election was scheduled for 18 February, with three delegates chosen from each state senate district (99 total). In addition, by an amendment submitted by Charles H. Hardin, a secession declaration by the convention would have to be ratified in a referendum by a majority vote of the state's qualified voters. Hardin's amendment passed the state senate by only two votes, 17 to 15.
Three groups contended for the convention seats. One group called for Missouri to follow the Deep South slave states such as South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
by declaring secession immediately - not even waiting for Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
to take office as President.
Another group opposed secession at any time; they were the Unconditional Union Party
Unconditional Union Party
The Unconditional Union Party was a loosely organized political entity during the American Civil War and the early days of Reconstruction. First established in 1861 in Missouri, where secession talk was strong, the party fully supported the preservation of the Union at all costs...
.
A third group opposed immediate secession, but was willing to consider secession unless the various slavery-related political questions were resolved on terms acceptable to the slave states. These men were "conditional Unionists".
The two Unionist factions won nearly all the seats.
At that time, both outgoing governor Robert Marcellus Stewart
Robert Marcellus Stewart
Robert Marcellus Stewart was the 14th Governor of Missouri from 1857 to 1861, during the critical years just prior to the American Civil War.-Early years:...
and incoming governor Jackson had declared that Missouri should remain neutral in any conflict between the Union and Confederacy.
First session
The convention met on 28 February 1861, in Jefferson CityJefferson City, Missouri
Jefferson City is the capital of the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Cole County. Located in Callaway and Cole counties, it is the principal city of the Jefferson City metropolitan area, which encompasses the entirety of both counties. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,079...
, the state capital. 82 of the 99 delegates had been born in slave states, including 53 from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
.
On 1 March, the convention chose as chairman former governor Sterling Price
Sterling Price
Sterling Price was a lawyer, planter, and politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, who served as the 11th Governor of the state from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican-American War, and a Confederate Army major general in the American Civil...
, a conditional Unionist.
The convention then adjourned, and reassembled on 4 March in Mercantile Library
St. Louis Mercantile Library
The St. Louis Mercantile Library, founded in 1846 in St. Louis, Missouri, was originally established as a subscription library, and is the oldest extant library west of the Mississippi River. Since 1998 the library has been housed at the University of Missouri-St. Louis...
ib St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
.
On March 21 the convention voted 98-1 against secession. The convention resolved that:
- no adequate cause [existed] to impel Missouri to dissolve her connections with the Federal Union.
The convention established a Federal relations committee, with Unconditional Unionist Hamilton Rowan Gamble
Hamilton Rowan Gamble
Hamilton Rowan Gamble was the chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court at the time of the Dred Scott Decision in 1852, when his colleagues voted to overturn the 28-year precedent in Misssouri of "once free always free". He wrote a dissenting opinion...
as chairman. The committee declared that while Missourians might sympathize with the South, secession was too dangerous.
- "The position of Missouri in relation to the adjacent States which would continue in the Union, would necessarily expose her, if she became a member of a new confederacy, to utter destruction whenever any rupture might take place between the different republics. In a military aspect, secession and connection with a Southern confederacy is annihilation for Missouri. The true position for her to assume is that of a State whose interests are bound up in the maintenance of the Union, and whose kind feelings and strong sympathies are with the people of the Southern States with whom they are connected by ties of friendship and blood."
The convention then adjourned.
Second session
Missouri could remain inactive, and effectively neutral, as long there was no fighting between the Union and the Confederacy. However, on 13–14 April, Confederate forces bombarded and captured Fort SumterFort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
, and on 15 April President Lincoln declared a state of rebellion and called for the states to provide troops to put down rebellion. This included a request for several regiments from Missouri.
Governor Jackson rejected the request. On 20 April a secessionist mob in seized the U.S. Arsenal
Liberty Arsenal
The Liberty Arsenal was an United States Army arsenal at Liberty, Missouri in Clay County, Missouri, that was seized by Confederate sympathizers on April 20, 1861, being an early occurrence in a sequence of skirmishes and battles that was to define Missouri in the American Civil War...
in Liberty, Missouri
Liberty, Missouri
Liberty is a city in Clay County, Missouri and is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. At the 2007 population estimate, the city population was 29,993...
. Jackson plotted to seize the St. Louis Arsenal
St. Louis Arsenal
The St. Louis Arsenal is a large complex of military weapons and ammunition storage buildings owned by the United States Army in St. Louis, Missouri. During the American Civil War, the St...
as well. He called up the state militia, appointed secessionist officers to command it, and secretly obtained artillery from the Confederacy.
Union forces under U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Captain Nathaniel Lyon
Nathaniel Lyon
Nathaniel Lyon was the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War and is noted for his actions in the state of Missouri at the beginning of the conflict....
responded on 10 May by taking several hundred militia prisoner in the Camp Jackson Affair.
This drastic action prompted the General Assembly to pass a military bill proposed by Governor Jackson, which reorganized the militia as the Missouri State Guard
Missouri State Guard
The Missouri State Guard was a state militia organized in the state of Missouri during the early days of the American Civil War. While not initially a formal part of the Confederate States Army, the State Guard fought alongside Confederate troops and, at times, under regular Confederate...
. Jackson appointed Sterling Price
Sterling Price
Sterling Price was a lawyer, planter, and politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, who served as the 11th Governor of the state from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican-American War, and a Confederate Army major general in the American Civil...
as commander of the Guard.
Price and General William S. Harney
William S. Harney
William Selby Harney was a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars. He was born in what is today part of Nashville, Tennessee but at the time was known as Haysborough....
, the top Union commander in Missouri, agreed to the Price-Harney Truce
Price-Harney Truce
The Price-Harney Truce was a document signed on May 21, 1861 between United States Army General William S. Harney and Missouri State Guard commander Sterling Price at the beginning of the American Civil War....
, which lasted until Lyon replaced Harney.
Lyon then marched on Jefferson City, entering on 15 June. The executive committee of the convention called a new session to meet on July 22. 20 of the original members were now in retreat with Jackson and Price (the original chairman. Vice chairman Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (Missouri)
Robert Wilson was a United States Senator from Missouri.-Biography:Born near Staunton, Virginia, he moved to Howard County, Missouri in 1820 and taught school. In 1825 he was probate judge of Howard County and was clerk of the circuit and county courts from 1829 to 1840...
became chairman.
The convention then declared the state's offices vacant and then named new provisional officers including:
- Governor - Hamilton Rowan GambleHamilton Rowan GambleHamilton Rowan Gamble was the chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court at the time of the Dred Scott Decision in 1852, when his colleagues voted to overturn the 28-year precedent in Misssouri of "once free always free". He wrote a dissenting opinion...
- Lt. Governor - Willard P. Hall
- Secretary of State - Mordecai OliverMordecai OliverMordecai Oliver was an attorney and two-term U.S. Representative from Missouri.Born in Anderson County, Kentucky, Oliver attended the common schools and then studied law....
- Treasurer - George Caleb BinghamGeorge Caleb BinghamGeorge Caleb Bingham was an American artist whose paintings of American life in the frontier lands along the Missouri River exemplify the Luminist style. Left to languish in obscurity, Bingham's work was rediscovered in the 1930s...
The convention also declared all offices of the Missouri General Assembly vacant, and that an election was to be held in November to fill both the executive and legislative offices.
The convention adjourned on July 31.
Third session
The constitutional convention met for the third time in St. Louis on 10 October 1861. They abolished many state offices, cut the salaries of state employees by 20 percent, postponed the planned state election to August 1862, created provisions for a state militia, and enacted a loyalty oath requirement for state officials.Fourth session
The convention held its fourth session time in Jefferson City in June 1862. In this session, the convention imposed its loyalty oath on teachers, attorneys, bank officers, and preachers, and on voters, thereby ensuring a strong Union vote in future elections. (Lincoln, who received 10.3% percent of the Missouri vote in the 1860 electionUnited States presidential election, 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election, held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout the 1850s on questions surrounding the...
, received 70% in the 1864 election
United States presidential election, 1864
In the United States Presidential election of 1864, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected as president. The election was held during the Civil War. Lincoln ran under the National Union ticket against Democratic candidate George B. McClellan, his former top general. McClellan ran as the "peace candidate",...
.)
In 1861, General John C. Frémont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
had issued an emancipation decree
Frémont Emancipation
The Frémont Emancipation was part of a military proclamation issued by Major General John C. Frémont on August 30, 1861 in St. Louis, Missouri during the early months of the American Civil War...
for Missouri. Lincoln rescinded it as a dangerous measure which would alienate Unionists in Missouri and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. Now in 1862, the convention tried unsuccessfully to abolish slavery in Missouri.
Fifth session
Lincoln's Emancipation ProclamationEmancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
freed the slaves in all rebel-held territory, but not in those slave states which had not seceded, such as Missouri. The final session of the convention met in June 1863 with the goal of eliminating slavery in the state. The major obstacle was a provision in the existing constitution that required permission of the slave's owners and payment of compensation. The state did not have the money for such payments. The convention passed an ordinance for the gradual emancipation of slaves with compensation, the process to be completed on 4 July 1870.
Constitutional convention of 1865
This plan for gradual emancipation infuriated Radical Republicans, who wanted slavery abolished at once. They took their grievances to Lincoln. Lincoln however refused to take sides in the dispute. Gamble offered to resign, but the convention refused. He died in office on 31 January 1864.Lincoln's inaction in this issue became a grievance for the Radicals, and in the election of 1864, a group of Radicals nominated Frémont for President, hoping to supplant Lincoln. (Frémont however dropped out a few weeks later.)
The Radicals also arranged for elections to an entirely new constitutional convention. In November 1864, Radicals won two-thirds of the seats to this convention, and Radical leader Thomas Clement Fletcher
Thomas Clement Fletcher
Thomas Clement Fletcher was the 18th Governor of Missouri during the latter stages of the American Civil War and the early part of Reconstruction. He was the first Missouri governor to be born in the state....
was elected governor of Missouri.
The new convention met in the Mercantile Library
St. Louis Mercantile Library
The St. Louis Mercantile Library, founded in 1846 in St. Louis, Missouri, was originally established as a subscription library, and is the oldest extant library west of the Mississippi River. Since 1998 the library has been housed at the University of Missouri-St. Louis...
on 6 January 1865. On 11 January, the convention, by a 60 to 4 vote, abolished slavery in the state with no compensation for owners. A month later the convention approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On...
to abolish slavery throughout the U.S. The convention also wrote a new constitution for the state, which remained in force until 1875.