uri to achieve prominence at the
bar, and as early as 1848 had come to the front as the unflinching
advocate of Emancipation and the conversion of Missouri into a Free
State. Against his perfect panoply of courage and resource all the
lances of the Slaveowners were hurled in vain. Their violence recoiled
before him, their orators were no match for him upon the stump, and
their leaders not his equal in party management. In 1852 he was elected
to the Missouri Legislature as a Free Soiler, was re-elected in 1854,
and in 1856 to Congress. His value to the Union was immeasurable, for
he was a leader around whom the Union men could rally with the utmost
confidence that he would never weaken, never resort to devious ways, and
never blunder. As a Southerner of the best ancestry, he was not open to
the charge of being a "Yankee Abolitionist," which had so much effect
upon the Southern people of his State.

[Illustration: 056-General Francis P Blair]

20

A very dangerous element was composed of a number of leaders who
belonged to the Pro-Slavery wing, but desiring to be elected to offices,
masked their designs under the cover of the Douglas Democracy. The most
important of these was Claiborne F. Jackson, a politician of moderate
abilities and only tolerable courage, but of great partisan activity. He
professed to be a Douglas Democrat, and as such was elected Governor at
the State election. Born in Kentucky 54 years before, he had resided in
Missouri since 1822. A Captain in the Black Hawk War, his service had
been as uneventful and brief as that of Abraham Lincoln, who was two
years his junior, and he was one of the Pro-Slavery clique who had
hounded the great Thomas H. Benton out of politics on account of his
mild Free Soilism. In person he was tall, erect, with something of
dignity in his bearing. He essayed to be an orator, had much reputation
as such, but his speeches developed little depth of thought or anything
beyond the customary phrases which were the stock in trade of all the
orators of his class south of Mason and Dixon's line.

21

The fermentation period culminated in the Presidential campaign of 1860,
the hottest political battle this country had ever known.

The intensity of the interest felt in Missouri was shown by the bigness
of the vote, which aggregated 165,618. As the population was but
1,182,012, of which 114,965 were slaves, it will be seen that
substantially every white man went to the polls.