protection of her people, and that therefore the Legislature should
"place the State at the earliest practicable moment in a complete state
of defense." As this is what the Legislature had expected, and what it
had met for, no time was lost in going into secret session to carry out
the program.

89

The first of these was the odious Military Bill, the passage of which
was stubbornly resisted, step by step, by the small band of Union men.
This, it will be recollected, put every able-bodied man into the
Militia of Missouri, under the orders of officers to be appointed by
the Governor; compelled him to obey implicitly the orders received from
those above him, and prescribed the heinous crime of "treason to
the State," which extended even to words spoken in derogation of the
Governor or Legislature. Offenses of this kind were to be punished by
summary court-martial, which had even the power to inflict death. Other
bills perverted the funds for the State charitable institutions into the
State military chest, seized the school fund for the same purpose, and
authorized a loan from the banks of $1,000,000 and another of $1,000,000
of State bonds, to provide funds by which to carry out the program.

On the evening of Friday, May 10, while these measures were being fought
over, the Governor entered the House with a dispatch which he handed to
Representative Vest, afterwards United States Senator from Missouri, who
sprang upon a chair and thrilled all his hearers by reading that "Frank
Blair, Capt. Lyon and the Dutch" had captured Camp Jackson, seized
all the property there, and marched the State troops prisoners to the
Arsenal. The wild scene that followed is simply indescribable. For many
months there had been much talk about "firing the Southern heart," and
here was something of immediate and furnace heat.

As soon as the members recovered from the stun of the blow, they went
into paroxysms of passion. In a few minutes the Military Bill was rushed
through, followed by the others, and a new one to appropriate $10,000
for the purpose of securing an alliance with the Indians on the borders
of the State. This done, the members bolted out in search of weapons
with which to arm themselves, as there was a rumor that the awful Blair
and Lyon with their "mercenaries" were on the march to subject the
Legislature to the same treatment that they had Frost's Militia.

90

Muskets, shotguns, rifles, pistols and pikes were brought