a great triumph, however, and made much jubilation throughout the State.
The election for members to the Convention was fixed for Feb. 18, and
the Convention was to meet on the last day of the month. This act was
followed by the adoption of a joint resolution which expressed profound
regret that the States of New York and Ohio had tendered men and money
to the President for "the avowed purpose of coercing certain sovereign
States of the South into obedience to the Federal Government," and
declaring that the people of Missouri would rally to the side of their
Southern brethren to "resist the invaders and to the last extremity."
Only 14 votes were cast against this resolution.

The main interest now centered upon the election of delegates to the
Convention. New political lines ran among the people, dividing them into
Secessionists, "Conditional Union" men and "Unconditional Union" men.

49

Blair's leadership was able to efface the Republican Party for the time
being, and carry all of the members over to the Unconditional Unionists.
The result of the election was a blow to the Secessionists, not one of
whose candidates was elected.

In St. Louis the Unconditional Union candidates were elected by over
5,000 majority.

The bitterly-disappointed Secessionists denounced the majority as
"Submissionists," and threatened all manner of things.

The election occurred on the same day that Jefferson Davis was
inaugurated President of the Southern Confederacy.

When the State Convention met at Jefferson City, it was found that of
its 99 members 53 were natives of either Virginia of Kentucky, and all
but 17 had been born in Slave States. Only 13 were natives of the North,
three were Germans, and one an Irishman. A struggle at once ensued for
the organization of the Convention, which resulted in a victory for the
Union men, ex-Gov. Sterling Price being elected President by 75 votes,
to 15 cast for Nathaniel W. Watkins, a half-brother of Henry Clay, and
a strenuous advocate of Southern Rights. As soon as the Convention
completed its organization it adjourned to St. Louis, to avoid the
badgering of the pronounced Secessionists, who constituted the State
Government, and the clamorous bullying of the crowd assembled in the
State Capital to influence its action.

50

On assembling at St. Louis the Convention immediately addressed itself
to the duty for which it had assembled. Judge Hamilton R. Gamble,
a Virginian, leader of