maintain the peace of the
State, and declare their purposes to resist outrages upon loyal citizens
of the Government, and repress insurrections against it, and in case of
violent combinations, needing co-operation of the United States
troops, they should call upon or accept such assistance, and in case of
threatened invasion the Government troops took suitable posts to
meet it, the purposes of the Government would be subserved, and no
infringement of the State rights or dignity committed. He would take
good care, in such faithful co-operation of the State authorities to
this end, that no individual should be injured in person or property,
and that the utmost delicacy should be observed toward all peaceable
persons concerned in these relations."

Gen. Lyon based himself unalterably upon this proposition, and could not
be moved from it by anything Price or Jackson could say.

Gov. Jackson entered into the discussion again to suggest that they
separate and continue the conference further by correspondence; but
Lyon, who felt vividly that the main object of the Secessionists was to
gain time to perfect their plans, rejected this proposition, but said
that he was quite willing that all those present should reduce their
views to writing and publish them; which, however, did not strike
Jackson and Price favorably. As to the close of the interview, Maj.
Conant says:

115

"As Gen. Lyon was about to take his leave, he said: 'Gov. Jackson,
no man in the State of Missouri has been more ardently desirous of
preserving peace than myself. Heretofore Missouri has only felt the
fostering care of the Federal Government, which has raised her from the
condition of a feeble French colony to that of an empire State. Now,
however, from the failure on the part of the Chief Executive to comply
with constitutional requirements, I fear she will be made to feel its
power. Better, sir, far better, that the blood of every man, woman and
child of the State should flow than that she should successfully defy
the Federal Government.'"

Col. Snead has published this account of the close of the conference:

"Finally, when the conference had lasted four or five hours, Lyon closed
it, as he had opened it. 'Rather,' said he (he was still seated, and
spoke deliberately, slowly, and with a peculiar emphasis), 'rather than
concede to the State of Missouri the right to demand that my Government
shall not enlist troops within her limits, or bring troops