Missouri History
Radical Rule and the Events Immediately after the Civil War
Missouri may have remained part of the Union during the Civil War, but it would experience an identity crisis during those early days following the conflict. We know that many of those early residents of the Show-Me State came from Southern states, such as Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Virginia. Some were slave owners and many maintained their sympathies for their place of origin.
Reconstruction was hard on Missouri. The legislature was a body of Radical Republicans, holding the constitutional convention for a new constitution in April 1865, allowing for the freedom of former slaves. But those early feelings were not forever gone. A test oath, commonly referred to as the “Ironclad Oath” was created and prevented about one-third of the state’s population for the qualifications to vote. One Missouri representative even proposed in Congress a bill to prevent interracial marriage by law. These conflicting opinions would bring the rise of groups such as the James-Younger Gang.” Southerners vengefully robbed banks and trains of Unionist money, while some times sparing former Confederates.
In time, the tender tensions left over from the war would ease and some former Confederates would hold prominent positions in state and national leadership. Some became Senators and Congressmen. John Sappington Marmaduke was elected governor of the state in 1884. His platform held reconciliation while exposing the horrors of Union occupation and Reconstruction.
The main arena in which the Radicals hammered out their program was the new state convention that met in January 1865. Most of its delegates lacked political experience. Only three had served in the wartime convention. Two-thirds of the members were under the age of fifty. There was about an equal number of farmers, lawyers, merchants, and doctors.
One of these men was Charles D. Drake. Drake reviewed and outlined the needs of the existing state constitution to be modified. He looked at other constitutions for ideas. Many of the Radicals in rural Missouri supported him in any of his suggestions. His influence in the changing of the state constitution led to it being known as “Drake’s Constitution.”
Drake and his helpers established broad guidelines for the General Assembly to follow in encouraging industrial growth and corporate development, developing Missouri’s resources, and providing a broad-based public education system for both races. They shorted the terms of the governor and other officials from four to two years and gave the voters more of a chance to influence government policy through the referendum power. Restrictions were placed on the power of the General Assembly to pass special-interest legislation.
Drake was concerned that blacks were not getting full freedom. He tried to get an amendment to the emancipation ordinance giving blacks full civil rights short of the ballot and the right to hold office. The proposal failed but Drake kept fighting. He held back on voting and office holding because he feared that might keep the constitution from every being approved by voters.
Lawlessness and Vigilantes
In the midst of the crazy political activity in the state, Missourians faced renewed lawlessness similar to the things they experienced with the bushwhackers during the war. Readjustment after such a conflict is never easy. Those who had remained loyal might resent the return of former neighbors who had served the Confederacy, and vice versa. Some communities posted notices that former rebels would not be welcome regardless of how sorry they might be.
Given these circumstances and the economic difficulties in the state, it is not too far-fetched to realize that many Confederate veterans returned to the bush. Reports of robbery and occasional murder began appearing in print. A group of armed men rode into Liberty in February 1866 and held up the Clay County Savings Association. The bandits got away with $60,000 and killed a boy who ran into the street giving an alarm. Major Ransom, the Radical Republican clerk of the circuit court was gunned down in a Kansas City street in July. Isaac Fowley, a black man, was tied to a tree and horsewhipped near Jefferson City a few weeks later. Many similar events would happen during these years.
As violence increased, voluntary groups of “regulators” sprang up in many western Missouri counties. Consisting of Radicals, they took the law into their own hands and dealt out heavy-handed justice. Groups such as the Honest Men’s League of Greene County frequently acted first and asked questions later. The governor had to call up the militia and appeal for federal troops at times to help keep order.
The Equal Rights League
St. Louis developed a small but active free black community in the days before the war. This group now took the lead in organizing the Missouri Equal Rights League in October 1865 to secure voting rights for blacks. They received the support of the governor and a number of Radical legislators. Early in 1866 they brought in John M. Langston, a prominent black attorney from Ohio to conduct a speaking tour.
Out of this league came the strongest of Missouri’s postwar black leaders, J. Milton Turner. Turner was born a slave and had his freedom bought by his father. Educated at secret black schools and Oberlin College before the war, Turner had established a strong friendship with the governors’ family. Turner played an active role in every crusade of the black community’s drive for fulfillment. He frequently met hostility and attacks.
Radical Republicans and Education
Education was a big issue during these days. Black leaders realized the importance of schools in helping gain economic, political, and social advancement. St. Louis blacks had established their own board of education during the war. By the end of the war they employed eight teachers for some 600 students. Blacks preferred teachers of their own race, regardless of their qualifications. Out-state private schools run by various charitable groups operated in Columbia, Rolla, St. Charles, St. Joseph, Sedalia, Warrensburg, and Weston during these early days.
The General Assembly acted in 1866 to provide a thorough and detailed public school system for both races. It gave local boards the authority to build schools and tax their districts to cover the costs of a four-month term without having to submit the levy to the voters for approval. With this ability, as one administrator said “frame school houses sprang up like mushrooms in the night.
Each township or city board of education had to establish and maintain one or more separate schools for black children within their boundaries if they had twenty of more black children. These schools had to be kept open in the same winter term as the white schools.
Many Radicals were instrumental in the growth of education in the state and the nation. Susan Blow and William Torrey Harris established the first public kindergarten in the United States in the St. Louis area in 1873. This was an innovation borrowed from some of the German private schools. There was also an emphasis placed on qualifications of teachers.
Missouri’s State Superintendent of Schools, Thomas A. Parker worked to provide an adequate staff of teachers. He reorganized the Missouri State Teachers Association and toured the state, holding clinics and institutes. He lobbied for the organization of state normal schools or teacher’s colleges. The legislature established two such institutions in 1870, one at Kirksville and one at Warrensburg. State aid would be provided for the Lincoln Institute at Jefferson City to prepare black teachers. This facility was founded in 1866 by the donations of black Missouri Civil War veterans to provide for the education of their own race. The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 would provide for the start of the University of Missouri at Columbia. Representative James S. Rollins of Columbia launched the campaign that led to this school landing in Columbia. The Morrill Land Grant Act designated funds for the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical college. The state legislature would add additional moneys to establish the school in 1870.
Radical Rule and the Events Immediately after the Civil War
Missouri may have remained part of the Union during the Civil War, but it would experience an identity crisis during those early days following the conflict. We know that many of those early residents of the Show-Me State came from Southern states, such as Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Virginia. Some were slave owners and many maintained their sympathies for their place of origin.
Reconstruction was hard on Missouri. The legislature was a body of Radical Republicans, holding the constitutional convention for a new constitution in April 1865, allowing for the freedom of former slaves. But those early feelings were not forever gone. A test oath, commonly referred to as the “Ironclad Oath” was created and prevented about one-third of the state’s population for the qualifications to vote. One Missouri representative even proposed in Congress a bill to prevent interracial marriage by law. These conflicting opinions would bring the rise of groups such as the James-Younger Gang.” Southerners vengefully robbed banks and trains of Unionist money, while some times sparing former Confederates.
In time, the tender tensions left over from the war would ease and some former Confederates would hold prominent positions in state and national leadership. Some became Senators and Congressmen. John Sappington Marmaduke was elected governor of the state in 1884. His platform held reconciliation while exposing the horrors of Union occupation and Reconstruction.
The main arena in which the Radicals hammered out their program was the new state convention that met in January 1865. Most of its delegates lacked political experience. Only three had served in the wartime convention. Two-thirds of the members were under the age of fifty. There was about an equal number of farmers, lawyers, merchants, and doctors.
One of these men was Charles D. Drake. Drake reviewed and outlined the needs of the existing state constitution to be modified. He looked at other constitutions for ideas. Many of the Radicals in rural Missouri supported him in any of his suggestions. His influence in the changing of the state constitution led to it being known as “Drake’s Constitution.”
Drake and his helpers established broad guidelines for the General Assembly to follow in encouraging industrial growth and corporate development, developing Missouri’s resources, and providing a broad-based public education system for both races. They shorted the terms of the governor and other officials from four to two years and gave the voters more of a chance to influence government policy through the referendum power. Restrictions were placed on the power of the General Assembly to pass special-interest legislation.
Drake was concerned that blacks were not getting full freedom. He tried to get an amendment to the emancipation ordinance giving blacks full civil rights short of the ballot and the right to hold office. The proposal failed but Drake kept fighting. He held back on voting and office holding because he feared that might keep the constitution from every being approved by voters.
Lawlessness and Vigilantes
In the midst of the crazy political activity in the state, Missourians faced renewed lawlessness similar to the things they experienced with the bushwhackers during the war. Readjustment after such a conflict is never easy. Those who had remained loyal might resent the return of former neighbors who had served the Confederacy, and vice versa. Some communities posted notices that former rebels would not be welcome regardless of how sorry they might be.
Given these circumstances and the economic difficulties in the state, it is not too far-fetched to realize that many Confederate veterans returned to the bush. Reports of robbery and occasional murder began appearing in print. A group of armed men rode into Liberty in February 1866 and held up the Clay County Savings Association. The bandits got away with $60,000 and killed a boy who ran into the street giving an alarm. Major Ransom, the Radical Republican clerk of the circuit court was gunned down in a Kansas City street in July. Isaac Fowley, a black man, was tied to a tree and horsewhipped near Jefferson City a few weeks later. Many similar events would happen during these years.
As violence increased, voluntary groups of “regulators” sprang up in many western Missouri counties. Consisting of Radicals, they took the law into their own hands and dealt out heavy-handed justice. Groups such as the Honest Men’s League of Greene County frequently acted first and asked questions later. The governor had to call up the militia and appeal for federal troops at times to help keep order.
The Equal Rights League
St. Louis developed a small but active free black community in the days before the war. This group now took the lead in organizing the Missouri Equal Rights League in October 1865 to secure voting rights for blacks. They received the support of the governor and a number of Radical legislators. Early in 1866 they brought in John M. Langston, a prominent black attorney from Ohio to conduct a speaking tour.
Out of this league came the strongest of Missouri’s postwar black leaders, J. Milton Turner. Turner was born a slave and had his freedom bought by his father. Educated at secret black schools and Oberlin College before the war, Turner had established a strong friendship with the governors’ family. Turner played an active role in every crusade of the black community’s drive for fulfillment. He frequently met hostility and attacks.
Radical Republicans and Education
Education was a big issue during these days. Black leaders realized the importance of schools in helping gain economic, political, and social advancement. St. Louis blacks had established their own board of education during the war. By the end of the war they employed eight teachers for some 600 students. Blacks preferred teachers of their own race, regardless of their qualifications. Out-state private schools run by various charitable groups operated in Columbia, Rolla, St. Charles, St. Joseph, Sedalia, Warrensburg, and Weston during these early days.
The General Assembly acted in 1866 to provide a thorough and detailed public school system for both races. It gave local boards the authority to build schools and tax their districts to cover the costs of a four-month term without having to submit the levy to the voters for approval. With this ability, as one administrator said “frame school houses sprang up like mushrooms in the night.
Each township or city board of education had to establish and maintain one or more separate schools for black children within their boundaries if they had twenty of more black children. These schools had to be kept open in the same winter term as the white schools.
Many Radicals were instrumental in the growth of education in the state and the nation. Susan Blow and William Torrey Harris established the first public kindergarten in the United States in the St. Louis area in 1873. This was an innovation borrowed from some of the German private schools. There was also an emphasis placed on qualifications of teachers.
Missouri’s State Superintendent of Schools, Thomas A. Parker worked to provide an adequate staff of teachers. He reorganized the Missouri State Teachers Association and toured the state, holding clinics and institutes. He lobbied for the organization of state normal schools or teacher’s colleges. The legislature established two such institutions in 1870, one at Kirksville and one at Warrensburg. State aid would be provided for the Lincoln Institute at Jefferson City to prepare black teachers. This facility was founded in 1866 by the donations of black Missouri Civil War veterans to provide for the education of their own race. The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 would provide for the start of the University of Missouri at Columbia. Representative James S. Rollins of Columbia launched the campaign that led to this school landing in Columbia. The Morrill Land Grant Act designated funds for the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical college. The state legislature would add additional moneys to establish the school in 1870.