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LIFE OF 
 
 GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 FOUNDER OF SEDALIA, MO. 
 
 IN ITS RELATIONS TO THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE OF SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI, 
 
 BEFORE AND DURING THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 By 
 SAMUEL BANNISTER HARDING, Ph.D. 
 
 Junior Professor of History in Indiana University 
 
 SEDALIA, MO. 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 
 1904 
 
^;& 
 
 "5^^ 
 
 UBRARY of 30N(SS£SS 
 Iwu Oopiesi rteuiivtfoi 
 
 APR 24 iyU5 
 
 30Dyn«;ni tntry 
 
 OUiSS if AXc. Noj 
 
 COPY 'o. 
 
 Copyright, 1904, by 
 MRS. M. E. SMITH and MRS. S. E. COTTON 
 
To 
 
 THE UNION MEN OF THE SOUTH 
 
 This Book is Dedicated 
 
 -iSj) X\t £)attg:I)terfii of ©ne of X\t\x g^umbrr 
 
 In honor of those heroes who, in the hour of the Nation's 
 
 peril, rose above the influence of environment and 
 
 Hneage, and vv^ere true to their national duty 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The preparation of this work was undertaken by 
 the author at the request of Mrs. M. E. Smith and 
 Mrs. S. E. Cotton, daughters of General Smith. 
 What value it has as a picture of the community 
 and times with which it deals is largely due to the 
 loving insight and literary skill with which they 
 have set down their own memories of those van- 
 ished days, and to the patient care with which, dur- 
 ing more than a score of years, they have preserved 
 and accumulated materials for this biography. 
 "This object," wrote Mrs. Smith, ''has been con- 
 stantly in our hearts since our father's death. When 
 an edifice is built, the corner-stone that lies hidden 
 in the darkness is equally important with the spire 
 that pierces the heavens ; so also with the structure 
 of the society and government of a community, with 
 the culture of a people, with the Christian manhood 
 of its citizens. Whatever humble part his life con- 
 tributed, we desire to record, — plainly, for we can 
 do it in no other way ; truthfully, for he would 
 scorn any other." This is the spirit in which the 
 book was conceived, and this is the spirit in which 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 it has been executed. It is hoped that the result will 
 be found not merely a monument of filial piety, but 
 a history of some value as a record of the growth 
 and action of American life and character amid 
 scenes that have now passed away. 
 
 That this hope is not wholly unwarranted, is 
 evidenced by the testimony of competent authori- 
 ties. In a letter dated September i8, 1894, the 
 perusal of which had much to do with the pres- 
 ent author's undertaking his task, Dr. Edward 
 Everett Hale wrote : "Say to any gentleman whom 
 you see, that I have looked over these papers with 
 much interest. Say that I was myself engaged in the 
 affairs of the Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas 
 before the war, so that I knew already something 
 of the very remarkable circumstances which sur- 
 rounded your father's life. Say that, if I were 
 twenty-five years younger, I should certainly un- 
 dertake such a book as you propose myself, and 
 that I consider that there are materials here for 
 preparing a very instructive and entertaining chap- 
 ter of American history, which ought to be written." 
 
 Judge Albion W. Tourgee, after looking through 
 the papers collected for this biography, wrote Octo- 
 ber 21, 1894: "I want to thank you for introducing 
 me to your father, his struggles and his time. . . . 
 It is a fine, strong, unique life, cast in a mold of 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 circumstance as rare and exceptional as itself. I 
 am glad of these things, — first, that it was strong 
 and rough ; second, that it was bloodless ; third, 
 that he was not a political success ; fourth that he 
 was good enough to be admirable, and not good 
 enough to awaken doubt as to his verity. I like 
 men ; I am not fond of marvels." 
 
 Under date of February 8, 1901, after having 
 examined the manuscript of this biography. Dr. 
 Hale wrote again : "I am much more interested 
 in the memorial than I could have thought possible. 
 The ground which it covers seems to me of great 
 importance, and I am glad that Mr. Harding has 
 not shirked the extreme difficulty of working out 
 the early chapters. . . . He has made what 
 seems to me a very valuable contribution to the his- 
 tory of our country, on lines which historians gen- 
 erally shirk." 
 
 And Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, after reading care- 
 fully this manuscript, wrote March 15, 1901 : ''I 
 agree with those ladies that it is every way de- 
 sirable 'that each locality should have its history 
 written, especially in its development from embry- 
 onic conditions' ; and it is this feature of the book, 
 after its illustrations of a heroic but practical char- 
 acter, which is specially to be praised. Few of this 
 century can appreciate the state of society that 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 existed even in the older States seventy-five years 
 ago ; and still fewer can understand the primitive 
 conditions under which Jefferson's grand acquisi- 
 tion of unlimited Louisiana was added to the realm 
 of civilization. This volume gives details of that 
 condition, and carries along the story of the process, 
 up to the end of the century in which Jefferson's 
 ever-germinating influence more and more pre- 
 vailed. . . . The tragedy at which our genera- 
 tion, and that earlier one of General Smith assisted, 
 culminated in the renascence, not the fall, of a glori- 
 ous State, and this glorious Missourian had no 
 small share in the new birth of Liberty, east and 
 west of the great rivers in Jefferson's Louisiana. 
 The political vicissitudes that preceded our Revo- 
 lution of 1 86 1 — no less important for the cause of 
 Freedom than the Revolution of 1775 — are in this 
 volume dwelt upon with more detail than might 
 seem necessary to a New England reader. But 
 considering how little is known by us of the critical 
 struggle in Missouri through 1861 and the years 
 immediately preceding, and how partial and mis- 
 leading is the story told by Lucien Carr in his 
 Missouri and by Leverett Spring in his Kansas, — 
 both volumes in the 'American Commonwealth 
 Series,' — these tell-tale letters and speeches will not 
 be thought too much." 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 In conclusion the author wishes, in his own be- 
 half and that of General Smith's daughters, to make 
 acknowledgment of favors received from the Public 
 and Mercantile Libraries of St. Louis, from the 
 Adjutant-General's office at Jefferson City, and 
 from the Hon. A. A. Lesuer, Secretary of State of 
 Missouri, who furnished him with copies of several 
 journals of the General Assembly and of the Con- 
 stitutional Convention of 1861. Many of the ma- 
 terials used in this biography were collected by the 
 late Mr. Bacon Montgomery, and Mr. L Mac. 
 Demuth, both of Sedalia ; and a number of General 
 Smith's former friends and associates furnished 
 sketches or information for this work. Finally, 
 public thanks should be returned to Dr. Hale and 
 to Judge Tourgee for suggestions and advice gen- 
 erously given Mesdames Smith and Cotton, and to 
 Mr. F. B. Sanborn for a helpful revision of the 
 manuscript. 
 
 Bloomington, Indiana, 
 
 November 5, 1904. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Youth and Early Manhood; Life in Ken- 
 tucky (1804-33) ..... I 
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 Removal to Missouri ; Founding of George- 
 town (1833-37) 14 
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 Old Missouri Life . . . . '3^ 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Business ; the Mormon War ; Politics 
 
 (1835-44) 56 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Mail and Freighting Contracts (1842-52) 90 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Political Correspondence (1845-49) . • 113 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 The Struggle for the Pacific Railroad 
 
 (1849-53) ^53 
 
xiv CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 In THE Legislature (1854-55) . . . 176 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Slavery and the Kansas Troubles 
 
 (1S54-55) 210 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 State and National Politics (1856-58) . 240 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Founding of Sedalia; Eve of the War 
 
 (1856-61) 279 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 The Civil War in Missouri (1861-65) • • 3^4 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Years of Triumph, and Life's Close 
 
 (1866-79) 365 
 
 INDEX 393 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 -y 
 
 George R. Smith, at the age of seventy-three, jFrontispiece 
 
 From a steel engraving 
 
 George R. Smith, aged aV^a thirty . . . Facing p. 2>2 
 
 From a daguerreotype 
 
 Map of Missouri, showing State-aided 
 
 Railways " 156 ' 
 
 George R. Smith, aged fifty-one .... " 210 
 
 From a daguerreotype 
 
 Mrs. George R. Smith, aged forty-nine . " 296 
 
 From a daguerreotype 
 
 General Smith's Residence In Sedalia 
 
 During His Last Years " 378 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD I LIFE IN KENTUCKY 
 (1804— 1833) 
 
 Ancestry — Birth, and removal to Kentucky — Death of his 
 mother— His early years— Schooling — Influence of Elder 
 Barton W. Stone — Origin of his anti-slavery views — 
 Death of his father, after freeing his slaves — Studies law 
 — Deputy Sheriff— Marries — His children — Loss by bank's 
 failure — Resolve to move to Missouri. 
 
 George Rappeen Smith, founder of the city of Se- 
 dalia, Mo., was born August 17, 1804, in Powhatan 
 county, Virginia. Of his maternal ancestry but lit- 
 tle is known beyond the fact that his mother, Sally 
 Heydon, was born September 3, 1777, of Ezekiel 
 and Sarah Heydon, and that she was the second 
 wife of Mr. Smith's father, who was her sec- 
 ond husband. Of the paternal ancestry and early 
 years of Mr. Smith the following account is given 
 by his daughter, Mrs. M. E. Smith: 
 
2 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Our father was the fourth in immediate Hneal de- 
 scent from George Smith, — the first of the family 
 of whom we have any authentic record, — who set- 
 tled in Powhatan county, Virginia, some time early 
 in the eighteenth century. It is said by the accounts 
 from which we get information that he emigrated 
 in his boyhood from his home in the eastern part of 
 the colony, and that he amassed a considerable for- 
 tune in lands and negroes. 
 
 Thomas, the only known son of George and Ann 
 Smithy was born December 29, 1719, and died Sep- 
 tember 25, 1786, aged sixty-six years and nine 
 months ; he succeeded to his father's estate and 
 spent his entire lifetime at the homestead in Pow- 
 hatan county. Thomas was the father of six chil- 
 dren, having three times married, a son and a 
 daughter being the fruit of each union. The young- 
 est son was named James ; the two older sons were 
 each named George : the one was called George 
 Stovall Smith, and the other (our grandfather) 
 was known among his friends and associates as 
 ''Mill-pond George," from the fact that his father's 
 home was located near a large pond known as ''the 
 mill-pond." He was born March 15, 1747, and 
 died August 9, 1820, aged 73 years and 5 months. 
 
 When the Baptists first preached in that neighbor- 
 hood the two older sons were among the converts to 
 the new faith. When the Methodists followed at a 
 somewhat later period, the remaining members of 
 the family were among the first fruits of their 
 preaching. The father, who had been an adherent 
 of the church of England, now became a zealous 
 supporter of the doctrines of Methodism, and the 
 conference of 1780 was held at his house. James, 
 the youngest son, became a Methodist minister, and 
 attained considerable eminence among that people 
 for his eloquence and piety. 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 3 
 
 The two older sons, meanwhile, had become ex- 
 horters and ministers to the Baptist faith. In 1780 
 George Stovall Smith moved from Virginia to Jes- 
 samine county, Kentucky, where he assumed the 
 care of a church. Five years later he was visited 
 by his brothers George and James, and the visit was 
 repeated by James in 1795, and by both brothers in 
 1797. Interesting journals of the scenes and in- 
 cidents of these trips to Kentucky and back were 
 kept by both George and James Smith. The journal 
 of the former was destroyed by fire after the re- 
 moval of his son to Missouri, but the journal of the 
 latter is still in existence. Mention in it is made of 
 the sermons preached by the reverend travelers at 
 different points along the way ; it records much 
 friendly controversy touching religious differences 
 between the two, but in every page it glows with 
 expressions of fervent piety and brotherly love. 
 
 George Smith, our grandfather, succeeded to the 
 care of Powhatan (Baptist) church in 1784, upon 
 the removal of the former pastor to Kentucky. He 
 also became pastor of Skinquarter and Tomahawk 
 churches in Chesterfield county. These continued 
 under his ministry until 1804, when he removed to 
 Kentucky, after having previously visited that coun- 
 try, according to our accounts, ten times. He first 
 stopped in Woodford county, but shortly afterwards 
 bought land in Franklin county and removed there. 
 Here he was separated from William Hickman, his 
 old friend and yoke-fellow in the church, only by 
 Elkhorn creek. In their younger days the two had 
 been knit together in soul, like David and Jonathan ; 
 and thenceforth the two old veterans of the Cross 
 lived together like brothers indeed until they were 
 separated by death. At the time when grandfather 
 Smith arrived in Kentucky there was much excite- 
 ment about the slavery question. He warmly 
 
4 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 espoused the anti-slavery side and gave his full 
 strength to its advocacy. This made him somewhat 
 unpopular among the Kentucky churches ; but he 
 continued to preach from time to time. 
 
 Our grandfather Smith, like his father, was mar- 
 ried three times. His first wife was Judith Guer- 
 rant, daughter of Peter and Magdalene Guerrant 
 (born October 17, 1745; married October 20, 1765; 
 died July 4, 1801), by whom he had two children — 
 Mary Ann (born April 16, 1767; married to 
 William Forsee, September 20, 1783 ; died Janu- 
 ary I, 1806, aged 38 years) and Esther (born 
 April 19, 1768; married to James Martin, September 
 '22, 1785; died November 28, 1808, aged 40 years, 
 7 months). Our father, the only son of our grand- 
 father, was the child of the second wife, Sally Hey- 
 don, to whom he was married March 31, 1803. She 
 died December 5, 1804; and on December 10, 1805, 
 he married Elizabeth Dupuy, the widow of James 
 Fogg (daughter of Bartholomew and Mary Dupuy; 
 born August 31, 1766; married to James Fogg, De- 
 cember II, 1799). A daughter, Martha Ann, whose 
 short life came to an end in less than two years, was 
 the sole fruit of this union. 
 
 Our father was born at the old home in Virginia 
 on August 17, 1804, and was christened George 
 Rappeen (or Rapin) Smith. Within a few weeks 
 after this event the family started on their journey 
 to Kentucky. The rough roads occasioning severe 
 jolting to the occupants of the wagons, the kind- 
 hearted old negro nurse of the infant volunteered to 
 carry him in a basket. The mother of the babe did 
 not survive the establishing of the new home in the 
 West. At the tender age of four months the child 
 was left motherless, and was then transferred to the 
 care of his half-sister Esther, wife of Mr. James 
 Martin, who, having a son of about the same age, 
 
REMOVAL TO KENTUCKY 5 
 
 became his foster mother. In the latter part of the 
 same year, this sister with her family moved to the 
 adjoining county of Woodford, taking the babe with 
 them ; and there he remained until the death of Mrs. 
 Martin, about three years later. In the meantime 
 the Rev. George Smith married his third wife, and 
 after the death of Mrs. Martin the child was again 
 taken to the home of his father. 
 
 In the active and healthy life of a pioneer Ken- 
 tucky homestead were laid the foundations for the 
 physical stature, the robust frame, and the mental 
 vigor of a stalwart manhood. Of schooling the boy 
 was given all that his time and the locality could 
 offer. His father, a man of strong and liberal mind, 
 possessed intellectual attainments of a superior or- 
 der, and doubtless gave personal attention to his 
 son's education. The work of the father was sup- 
 plemented by a school in the vicinity ; but when we 
 remember the nature of the education given in even 
 the best of the rural schools of this epoch, it will be 
 evident that stress must not be laid on this factor. 
 Importance, also, should not be attached to the ad- 
 vantages offered by the "old-field school," kept by 
 Thomas Henderson at Great Crossing, in Scott 
 county, to which the lad was sent when he had 
 outgrown the meager facilities of the school nearer 
 home. It was from the next school to which he was 
 sent — that at Georgetown, the county seat of Scott 
 county — that his education was most largely de- 
 rived. 
 
 The master of this school, Elder Barton W. Stone, 
 
6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 was a man of noble character and liberal views, 
 whose influence at that time was very marked in 
 the intellectual and religious life of central Ken- 
 tucky. Born in Maryland, graduated from a famous 
 academy at Guilford, North Carolina, he had taught 
 for awhile in a Georgia college (or academy), and 
 had then entered the Presbyterian ministry, and had 
 become pastor of the churches at Caneridge and 
 Concord, Kentucky. Not long after, he was caught 
 up by the waves of a movement which was then 
 causing an upheaval of religious thought in many 
 of the Southern and Middle States. This was the 
 revolt against the dogmas of Calvinism, which had 
 set in with the closing decade of the eighteenth 
 century, and which ultimately resulted in the for- 
 mation of the Christian denomination, or "Church 
 of the Disciples." Stone joined in this movement 
 and became leader of one branch of it ; and when the 
 liberalizing clergy of Kentucky were condemned by 
 the Lexington synod, in 1803, Elder Stone seceded 
 with them from the Presbyterian church. The re- 
 volt, once on foot, spread rapidly, and many new 
 churches were founded by him and his co-workers 
 in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. After the seces- 
 sion. Stone refused to receive pay for his ministra- 
 tions, and for a livelihood he again turned to teach- 
 ing — a work for which he had much aptitude — and 
 established his academy at Georgetown, Kentucky. 
 It was to this school that young Smith was sent, 
 in 1818, soon after he had attained his fourteenth 
 year. There he gained a fair knowledge of mathe- 
 
EDUCATION 7 
 
 matics, Latin, and similar studies. More impor- 
 tant, however, than the knowledge which he gained 
 from his instructors was the influence of the latter 
 in shaping his character and emphasizing the re- 
 ligious training already received from his father and 
 his earlier environment ; it was to the forces brought 
 to bear in this formative period of his life that Mr. 
 Smith owed some of the impressions which subse- 
 quently ripened into the strongest convictions of his 
 character. The seed sown in the heart of the boy 
 in his teens matured in after life into an unswerving 
 faith in that interpretation of the Scriptures taught 
 by his revered teacher, and he deemed it one of the 
 greatest privileges of his life that he had been under 
 the instruction of Barton W. Stone. 
 
 An anecdote told by one of Smith's old school- 
 fellows will illustrate the character of the boy and 
 at the same time the influence of the master. Young 
 Smith was then, as always, of an eager and impetu- 
 ous temper, ever ready to champion the cause of 
 those whom he considered ill used. The result was 
 that he had his full share of rough and tumble fisti- 
 cuffs. After one such encounter Smith and his an- 
 tagonist were found to be considerably bruised and 
 scratched about their faces ; and when they returned 
 to "books" at the close of the recess period, Elder 
 Stone "called them up, and looking first at one face 
 and then at the other, lectured them most affection- 
 ately, the tears flowing from the old man's eyes. 
 Presently [continues this informant] George began 
 to sob ; and the bovs shook hands and made friends. 
 
8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 After dismission George was asked why he cried. 
 'How could I help it ?' he exclaimed ; 'I be hanged 
 if I wouldn't rather take a whipping than to have 
 that good old man preach to me and cry.' " (Letter 
 of Jno. Allen Gano, Sr., of Georgetown, Ky., July 
 i6, 1881.) 
 
 It was during this formative period, also, that 
 the basis was laid in the boy's mind of those anti- 
 slavery principles which found expression in his 
 later life. The elder Smith, like his brother James 
 (who had emancipated his slaves in 1798, before 
 emigrating to Ohio) was a strong opponent of 
 slavery, and had already determined to give his ne- 
 groes their liberty at the first fitting opportunity. 
 At his home, men of similar views often assembled 
 and discussed the important subject of slavery. 
 Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, lay in Fayette 
 county, near by, and the well-known advocacy by 
 this great statesman of a policy of gradual emanci- 
 pation doubtless served to confirm the impressions 
 made upon the mind of the youth by the discussions 
 in his father's house. Not without its influence in 
 this direction, too, was the teaching and example 
 of Elder Stone himself. The latter's hatred of 
 slavery had been imbibed many years before among 
 the South Carolina plantations ; and his practice was 
 shown to be in harmony with his preaching by the 
 voluntary acceptance of a legacy of slaves from his 
 mother's estate, in place of one of money, in order 
 that he might transport them to Kentucky and set 
 them free. In the influences that surrounded the 
 
DEATH OF HIS FATHER 9 
 
 boy may be found the germ of much of the action 
 of the man in later years. 
 
 In 1820, when George R. Smith had been under 
 the charge of Elder Stone for about two years, the 
 boy was called home by the dangerous illness, fol- 
 lowed by the death, of his father. The latter, ap- 
 parently, had carried out his determination to free 
 the most of his negroes, numbering about forty, 
 some time before. When his will was opened it was 
 found to contain the following provisions : 
 
 Third. I give to my son, George R. Smith, forty- 
 five shares of stock in the Bank of Kentucky, one 
 thousand dollars in cash, the Franklin mare, my 
 silver watch and silver spoons, to him and his heirs 
 forever ; and further I give and bequeath unto my 
 son, George R. Smith, an equal share in my prop- 
 erty that shall be sold, together with all my out- 
 lands that remain unsold, to him and his heirs for- 
 ever. . . . 
 
 Sixth. It is my wish that one hundred dollars 
 in cash be paid to negro man Jack, and fifty dol- 
 lars in cash to Molly, whom I set free some time 
 past. 
 
 Annexed to the will was found a codicil of the 
 same date, January 8, 1820, containing the follow- 
 ing provisions : 
 
 Inprimis, it is my will and desire that my negro 
 man Caesar be free on the eighth day of January, 
 1820. Secondly, it is my desire that my negro man 
 Mose, and my negro girl Araminter also be free on 
 the eighth day of January, 1820. 
 
 The "outlands" referred to above seem to have 
 
10 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 consisted chiefly of certain tracts of land which the 
 father had located before removing to Kentucky. 
 The title to these lands, however, was still in dis- 
 pute, and had already occasioned some, as it was yet 
 to give rise to more, litigation. The total inherit- 
 ance of the young man may be estimated at about 
 six thousand dollars. By the will his uncle Benja- 
 min Davis, of Scott county, was made his guardian 
 and curator, and with him he now made his home. 
 
 After his father's death (August 9, 1820), several 
 years more were spent by the young man in the 
 school of Elder Stone. When at last he left the care 
 of that good man he continued his studies for a 
 while at Frankfort, under the direction of Kane 
 O'Hara, an Irish political exile and a member of a 
 family of some poetic fame. There, in addition to 
 other studies, young Smith began the study of law, 
 which he continued until he had fitted himself for 
 the bar. 
 
 When he had attained the age of twenty years he 
 returned once more to the home of his uncle, and 
 soon secured the appointment as deputy sheriff of 
 Scott county. By a rather singular law in force in 
 Kentucky at this time, the senior magistrate (there 
 being usually about twenty magistrates to a county) 
 was entitled to the honors and emoluments of the 
 office of sheriff, the actual duties of the office being 
 performed by deputy. It was by such an arrangement 
 as this that Mr. Smith, before he had attained his 
 twenty-second year, became practically sheriff of 
 Scott county. The duties of this office were dis- 
 
HIS MARRIAGE ii 
 
 charged to the satisfaction of all concerned ; but 
 when called upon to inflict capital punishment upon 
 a condemned criminal, his kindness of heart led him 
 to refuse personally to perform the duty, and a sec- 
 ond term of the office was declined. 
 
 On April 24, 1827, Mr. Smith, then aged twenty- 
 three, was married to Melita Ann Thomson, the 
 daughter of his neighbor. General David Thomson. 
 In 1828 a son, named David Thomson Smith after 
 his maternal grandfather, was born to the young 
 couple, but the child lived less than a year (June 28, 
 1828, to January 2J, 1829). Two daughters — Mar- 
 tha EHzabeth (Mrs. M. E. Smith), born January 10, 
 1830, and Sarah Elvira (Mrs. S. E. Cotton), born 
 October i, 1831, — complete the offspring of the 
 union. 
 
 His marriage profoundly affected the life of Mr. 
 Smith, for it not only gave him domestic happiness, 
 but it brought him into intimate relations with a 
 man of strong and virile character and liberal views. 
 General Thomson, the descendant of Scotch Ana- 
 baptists who had emigrated to America in 171 7, was 
 born at Richmond, Virginia, August 21, 1775. 
 When his widowed mother removed to Kentucky, 
 in 1789, he accompanied her and developed into one 
 of the substantial men of central Kentucky. He 
 purchased land in the neighborhood of Georgetown, 
 Ky., and here, besides carrying on his farm, he 
 built and operated with the labor of his negroes, "a 
 merchant mill and paper mill." In politics he was 
 an old-line Whisr, and from 181 1 to 1820 he was a 
 
12 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 member of the Kentucky State Senate. In October, 
 1793, he gained his first military experience as a 
 volunteer under General Scott in a campaign against 
 the Indians. From 1800 to 1820 he held various im- 
 portant positions in the Kentucky militia. At the 
 battle of the River Thames in 1813, he commanded 
 the second battalion of Richard M. Johnson's 
 mounted regiment; later (January 21, 1814) he was 
 promoted to the command of the Sixth brigade, and 
 finally was made General for the Third Division of 
 Kentucky militia. This was the man with whom 
 Mr. Smith was now brought into intimate connec- 
 tions. He was pre-eminently a man of energy and 
 experience in affairs, and his advice and example 
 may have determined to a considerable degree the 
 subsequent course of Mr. Smith's life. 
 
 In the midst of the happiness occasioned by his 
 marriage came a blow which wiped out at a stroke 
 a large part of Mr. Smith's estate, through the fail- 
 ure of the bank in which the inheritance left by his 
 father was invested. The financial depression of 
 1828-29 proved too much for this institution, and 
 after a period of weakness and decline^ it finally 
 suspended payments entirely, and every dollar of the 
 amount invested was lost. The blow was a severe 
 one ; but the whole estate of the young couple was 
 not involved in the ruin. General Thomson, in ac- 
 cordance with his custom, had settled upon his 
 daughter, at her marriage, a sufficient portion in 
 land, money, and negroes to enable them to start in 
 life ; and this, together with some portion of Mr. 
 
A FINANCIAL REVERSE 13 
 
 Smith's own inheritance, was saved from the gen- 
 eral wreck. 
 
 Soon after this time General Thomson and Mr. 
 Smith arrived at a resolution which brings us to the 
 next chapter of our story, — a resolution to remove 
 with their families to the new State of Missouri. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 REMOVAL TO MISSOURI I FOUNDING OF GEORGETOWN 
 (1833— 1837) 
 
 The frontier in American history — Participation of Mr. 
 Smith's ancestors in westward expansion — Decision to 
 remove to Missouri — Persons taking part in the migra- 
 tion — Preparations for removal — The coach — The cara- 
 van of goods and negroes — Shower of meteors — Frontier 
 civilization — Establishing new homes — Burning of Mr. 
 Smith's cabin — Extent of the disaster — Agitation for the 
 removal of the county seat — Georgetown founded and 
 made capital of the county — Mr. Smith takes contract 
 for building court-house — Description of it. 
 
 "Up to our own day," says a recent writer, 
 "American history has been in a large degree the 
 history of the colonization of the Great West. The 
 existence of an area of free land, its continuous re- 
 cession, and the advance of American settlement 
 westward, explain American development. 
 The peculiarity of American institutions is the fact 
 that they have been compelled to adapt themselves 
 to the changes of an expanding people — to the 
 changes involved in crossing a continent, in win- 
 ning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of 
 its progress out of the primitive economic and polit- 
 
 14 
 
FRONTIER INFLUENCE 15 
 
 ical conditions of the frontier into the complexity of 
 city life. . . . American development has ex- 
 hibited not merely advance along a single line, but a 
 return to primitive conditions on a continually ad- 
 vancing frontier line, and a new development for 
 that area. American social development has been 
 continually beginning over again on the frontier. 
 This perennial new-birth, this fluidity of American 
 life, this expansion westward with its new oppor- 
 tunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of 
 primitive society, furnishes the forces dominating 
 American character. The true point of view in the 
 history of this nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is 
 the great West. ... At first the frontier was 
 the Atlantic coast. It was the frontier of Europe in 
 a very real sense. Moving westward, the frontier 
 became more and more American. . . . Thus 
 the advance of the frontier has meant a steady 
 movement away from the influence of Europe, a 
 steady growth of independence on American lines. 
 And to study this advance, the men who grew up 
 under these conditions, and the political, economic, 
 and social results of it, is to study the really Amer- 
 ican part of our history."^ 
 
 In the foregoing extract is presented one of the 
 important view-points from which the life of the 
 subject of this sketch should be regarded. In the 
 never-ceasing westward expansion, the ancestors of 
 Mr. Smith had already borne their part. The first 
 
 ^Professor Frederick J. Turner, in Report oi American Historical 
 Association for 1893, pp. 199-201. 
 
i6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 George Smith of whom we have record had moved, 
 "with tomahawk, rifle, and buffalo robe," from the 
 coast-lands of Virginia westward to Powhatan 
 county. His grandson, George Smith, in obedience 
 to the same impulse had taken up the line of march 
 from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into 
 the ''dark and bloody ground" of Kentucky. Now 
 the latter's son, under the operation of the same 
 forces, was to migrate from Kentucky to Missouri, 
 there to take his part in the building of the newer 
 community, as his father had done in the older one 
 of Kentucky.^ 
 
 The attention of Mr. Smith seems first to have 
 been turned to Missouri by his father-in-law. With 
 that large faith in the boundless possibilities of our 
 country which underlies all land speculation and 
 migration to new territory. General Thomson had 
 made several trips to Illinois and Missouri, with a 
 view to purchasing desirable government lands at 
 the cheap prices at which they were then offered. 
 In an old commonplace book, made from paper man- 
 ufactured in his own mill, brief entries of these 
 journeys are to be found. For the winter of 1825- 
 26, a trip to Vandalia, Illinois, is recorded, and the 
 purchase of "seventy-eight quarter sections of 
 land, fifty-three at public sale for the taxes and 
 twenty-five at private sale." In the fall of 1826 a 
 
 ^ It is not without interest to note in tiiis connection that on the dis- 
 covery of gold in California in 1849, the project was seriously discussed 
 by Mr. Smith and the Thomsons of removing in a body to that country; 
 and some members of the family did move thither. See letter of M. V 
 Thomson, Feb. 4, 1849 (p. 150 below). 
 
LAND PURCHASES 17 
 
 second trip to Vandalia is described, with its exten- 
 sion into Boone county, Missouri, and ''the upper 
 part of the State." In 1830 another trip to IlHnois 
 is mentioned, in company with his son-in-law, Mr. 
 Smith, "to look at lands in Illinois." In October 
 and November of the next year, a trip is related, in 
 company with another son-in-law, Lewis Redd Ma- 
 jor, to Saline county, Missouri, where (General 
 Thomson adds) "Mr. Major and myself purchased 
 six hundred acres of land each of us, for which we 
 paid $1.25 per acre." Finally in March and April, 
 1833, a trip to Missouri is mentioned, on which 
 General Thomson and Mr. Major went by boat — all 
 of the former trips having been made on horse- 
 back — from Frankfort to Louisville, Louisville to 
 St. Louis, and thence by "hack" and horseback to 
 their destination. The lands purchased in 183 1 are 
 now described as in Pettis county, which had been 
 set off from Saline county in 1832. The party not 
 only inspected the lands already purchased, doubt- 
 less with a view to a speedy removal thither, but 
 entered others ; and returned, by the same route, to 
 their Kentucky home. 
 
 Pettis county, in the early thirties, was almost at 
 the limits of western settlement; but immigration 
 was steadily setting in, and prospects were good for 
 speedy development. When General Thomson pro- 
 posed to his two sons-in-law that they should all 
 join the westward movement, and take up their 
 abodes in the new State, where larger possibilities 
 existed for all, a ready assent seems to have been 
 
i8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 given. But the preparations took some time. The 
 mills and other property of General Thomson had to 
 be disposed of, the business interests of Mr. Smith 
 had to be arranged — no easy task, as it turned out, 
 and one which entailed a succession of suits, extend- 
 ing over a period of years, for debts due him, — and 
 lastly transportation had to be furnished for a con- 
 siderable number of negroes. The make-up of the 
 company, the means of transportation, and the de- 
 tails of the settlement in Missouri, together with 
 some of the incidents of the journey itself, are thus 
 described by Mrs. M. E. Smith, at that time a child 
 of three years : 
 
 In October of the year 1833, our grandfather and 
 grandmother left their home near Georgetown, in 
 Scott county, Kentucky, with eight of their chil- 
 dren, to make a new home in Missouri. Three 
 children had already married. Manlius V. Thomson, 
 the oldest child, who was practicing law in George- 
 town, remained behind. Mildred Elvira, the next 
 oldest, had married Mr. Lewis Redd Major, and 
 they, with their four children and a large family of 
 negroes, decided to emigrate to the new country. 
 Melita Ann, the third child and second daughter, 
 was married six years previously to our father, and 
 with us two little girls also took seats in her fath- 
 er's commodious carriage to make the long tedious 
 journey of seven hundred miles. Besides ourselves 
 there were two other little girls to accompany this 
 party : our aunts, Marion, a lovely child of ten sum- 
 mers, and Melcena, the baby sister of eight, the two 
 youngest children of General and Mrs. Thomson. 
 
 Martha Vienna, one of their ten children, had 
 married and died ; and Mentor, the fourth child and 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR REMOVAL 19 
 
 second son, had chosen his bride to bear him com- 
 pany to the far-away home. He had won the hand 
 of Miss Cora Woolridge, of Hopkinsville, Ken- 
 tucky, a sparkhng young woman of beauty and ac- 
 compHshments. It was said of her that her industry 
 was much more than ordinary in those days of 
 slave labor, when the young ladies were taught to 
 depend on their dusky maidens for the every-day 
 services of life. The young couple did not, however, 
 make the trip at the time we did, but came some 
 months later. The other three boys who complete 
 our grandfather's family were Milton, Morton, and 
 Monroe — aged respectively nineteen, seventeen, 
 and fifteen years. Milton, the oldest, was detailed 
 by his father to take charge of the slaves, of whom 
 there was a large company, and the two younger 
 boys were to accompany him. 
 
 Our mother and grandmother, our two young 
 girl aunts, my sister and myself, all traveled in one 
 large carriage, with a negro man Jackson driving, 
 and grandpa on horseback to find the roads and 
 judge of the crossings over muddy places. The car- 
 riage was a great yellow coach, closed all around 
 from air and light except for the windows in the 
 doors. It sat high up on the springs, and had fold- 
 ing steps by which to ascend into its broad deep- 
 cushioned seats. On the outside was a driver's seat 
 high up above the horses, and behind was another 
 large seat, that hung by broad belts of leather, for 
 an outrider whose duty it was to open gates and at- 
 tend the family. 
 
 The whole was drawn by a pair of horses capar- 
 isoned with the ponderous trappings of the times ; 
 and a saddle horse accompanied the party which 
 was used alternately by the ladies to relieve the 
 monotony and tedium of the journey. In another 
 party went the caravan of covered ox-wagons con- 
 
20 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 taining the furniture, looms, spinning-wheels (big 
 and little), tableware, etc.; together with the 
 negroes and their families. The whole company of 
 emigrants consisted of eighty-eight persons, of 
 whom seventy-five were slaves. 
 
 Before the final good-byes were spoken there 
 were many things to do. Among the most impor- 
 tant of these was the arranging to take or to leave 
 entire slave families together, so that there might 
 be no involuntary separation. 
 
 The slaves had intermarried with the neighbors' 
 negroes, and our grandfather, being humane in his 
 feeHngs, was unwilling to separate them ; so to over- 
 come this difficulty, he had to buy where he could, 
 and sell where he must. This was no little task 
 among a number of thirty or forty people, but final- 
 ly it was accomplished as far as possible, and the 
 caravan set out. The negroes — men and women, the 
 babies and the gray-haired grandparents — were to 
 follow their master. There were five or six very old 
 ones — Aunt Creasy, Aunt Kizzy, Uncle Toby, Aunt 
 Rachel, and Uncle Jack — who, as I remember them, 
 were oracles of wisdom, holding direct communica- 
 tion with spirits, wizards, and witches ; and who 
 would on occasion deal out some of their mysterious 
 spells to us listening wondering children, in the 
 long quiet evenings that followed our settlement in 
 the new country. Dear old ''Kaintucky" memories 
 were to them hallowed things of the beautiful, irrev- 
 ocable past ; and their faltering, trembling voices, 
 their heavy lips, and wrinkled faces only made their 
 pathetic stories the more sacred and the more ten- 
 der to our too credulous ears. 
 
 Our father was to follow, after the settlement 
 of some business at Georgetown. Of the incidents 
 of the trip we must remain ignorant almost entirely, 
 as the writer (one of the babies in the carriage) 
 
THE REMOVAL 21 
 
 can only remember a place called Purgatory, in Illi- 
 nois, where the road led through a swamp ; and the 
 memory goes that it really was a "Purgatory," as 
 the image of the floundering horses is vividly before 
 her. Another scene that was impressed indelibly, is 
 the crossing of the river in the ferry-boat at St. 
 Louis, and how frightened our mother and grand- 
 mother were. The rest of the journey is lost in the 
 baby memories of the mind that is trying to record 
 these incidents. 
 
 Our Uncle Milton, who had charge of the ne- 
 groes, was moving on slowly, but was not long after 
 us in reaching the place of our destination. Our 
 party, after tarrying with relatives for several weeks 
 in Calloway county, arrived in Pettis on the evening 
 of the twelfth of November, 1833, ^^^ went into 
 camp (so our grandfather's journal says) in the 
 Lamine river bottom, at what is now known as 
 Scott's Ford. From about ten o'clock in the evening 
 until daybreak they witnessed the celebrated dis- 
 play of meteors in the heavens. Dear old Peggy, 
 who was cook for our grandfather in his later life, 
 and died in 1898, at the age of seventy-seven, told 
 vividly how frightened the negroes were at the fall- 
 ing of the stars. 'We were in camp by the Lamine 
 river," she said, ''and we-all thought judgment had 
 come. Could hear the stars falling like hail on the 
 tops of the tents. The old folks all prayed, and we 
 children 'hollered.' The elements were ablaze. It 
 done lasted for hours, and we-all never expected to 
 see daylight no more." 
 
 Having reached their destination, the travelers 
 found themselves in the midst of a typical frontier 
 region. Boonville, the nearest trading town on the 
 Missouri river, was thirty-five miles distant. From 
 
22 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 that point alone could the new settlers get their 
 supplies. What roads existed were atrocious, 
 being mere bridle-paths through forest and prairie, 
 abounding in quagmires and rough with stumps 
 and hillocks. Settlers at first were few and far 
 between. Beyond the meridian of the mouth of 
 the Kansas river (that being, until after 1837, the 
 western limit of the State throughout its length) 
 lay the unorganized territory of the United States, 
 to which the Indian title was not yet extinguished; 
 and there roamed the Foxes and the Sacs, the Kan- 
 sas and the Shawnees, the Osages and Cherokees. 
 The Missouri of that day was a wild region, con- 
 taining but a crude civilization. The cabins of the 
 settlers were almost always constructed of unhewn 
 logs daubed with clay, with clapboard roofs, and 
 stick-and-clay chimneys. At the time of the settle- 
 ment there was not one house in the neighbor- 
 hood that had window-glass in it. If the owner 
 was of an aristocratic turn, he might indulge 
 in the luxury of a puncheon floor ; if not, the 
 bare earth, beaten hard, sufficed. The house- 
 hold furniture, for the most part, was home- 
 made. The bedsteads were usually of the "one- 
 post" sort, formed by planting a single upright 
 or fork in the floor of the room, connecting this with 
 the two adjoining walls by poles let into the logs, 
 and weaving a platform of poles and hickory bark 
 (or clapboards) across for the couch; on this was 
 then thrown a few deer-skins, and such bedding as 
 the parties could afford. Articles of clothing were 
 
PIONEER LIFE 23 
 
 almost entirely of home manufacture, and lucky was 
 the settler who came already equipped with cards, 
 spinning-wheels, looms, and the other apparatus 
 needed for spinning and weaving. "Our neighbors 
 called," writes General Thomson's daughter Marion, 
 "arrayed in buckskin trousers and jackets decorated 
 with fringes of the same material. You ask. How 
 were the ladies dressed? I think there were just 
 three in the county. They wore expensive dresses 
 when they called, made of calico at twenty-five cents 
 a yard. The wolves often howled 'round about the 
 cabins with perfect impunity, with none to molest 
 or make them afraid. You could scarcely walk a 
 mile without seeing herds of deer. Flocks of wild 
 turkeys filled the woods and a superabundance of 
 rattlesnakes crawled about the premises. All we had 
 to do to get a supply of 'sweetening' was to fell a 
 bee-tree, and we could cut out bushels of honey." 
 By co-operation alone could the settlers "raise" their 
 buildings. Of this, an early settler says : "When 
 we had a house or stable to 'raise,' our neighbors to 
 the distance of eight or ten miles up and down 
 Muddy were on hand, each with his gun and dog, 
 and a deer or turkey lashed on behind him. After 
 the work was done a great feast would follow, and 
 often a long-necked gourd filled with apple or peach 
 brandy would be produced and partaken of, while 
 stories of hair-breadth escapes by flood and field 
 would be narrated by each in turn." ^ 
 
 This was the region, and such the culture into 
 
 '^History of Pettis County (1882). 
 
24 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 which the new-comers from Kentucky were now 
 introduced. The Thomson-Smith colonists brought 
 considerable wealth with them and were able to live 
 much more luxuriously than their neighbors. To 
 continue from the reminiscences of Mrs. M. E. 
 Smith : 
 
 Among our grandfather's colored men were a 
 carpenter, a stone-mason, and a millwright, besides 
 the farm-hands; and among the women a weaver, 
 a spinner, cooks, and housemaids, so that the ele- 
 ments of a rude civilization were in the family. On 
 a tract of timber land which our grandfather had 
 bought on Muddy creek, several cabins were ready ; 
 and into these we moved with our grandfather. A 
 little later our mother's oldest sister, her husband, 
 Redd Major, and their little family of three girls 
 and one boy, located not far away. These were very 
 pleasant days to me, and in the golden retrospect 
 there is no want of any luxury or happiness in the 
 dear humble homes, lighted as they were by my 
 mother's and grandmother's gentle faces and Aunt 
 Elvira's good cheer, that made all the children 
 happy. Dear Aunt Marion and Aunt Melcena, and 
 Cousins Ann and Evelyn, the oldest of Aunt El- 
 vira's daughters ! I looked with the envy of a child 
 at their rapidly advancing womanhood, and a kind 
 of reverence came over me, as I thought that mine 
 with its privileges would never come. The other 
 children of Aunt E. were ''Bine" or Vienna — some- 
 what older than myself, — and "Johnny," the young- 
 est of all except my baby sister. 
 
 The cabins which were occupied during the first 
 winter were rude and crowded. The next year our 
 grandfather built some better and more commodi- 
 ous ones on the southwest quarter of section seven, 
 
HIS CABINS BURNED 25 
 
 which Hes about three miles northwest of George- 
 town. These were arranged in a row, two and two 
 together, connected by an open passage-way roofed 
 over. His own family occupied two of them until he 
 could build a better house ; this, when built, in 1840, 
 was christened Elm Spring, and became our grand- 
 father's permanent home.^ The boys, Morton and 
 Monroe, were sent back to Georgetown, Kentucky, 
 to complete their education. Later Milton taught 
 school in a log-house built for the purpose about 
 half way between our Uncle Major's and our grand- 
 father's, where the children of both families first 
 started to school in the new country. Here he had 
 as pupils the neighbors' children, as well as his 
 own little sisters, Marion and Melcena, and the 
 nieces and nephews. 
 
 When our grandfather removed from the cabins 
 on the Muddy he sold them and the land about 
 them to our father. We had been living there 
 about a year, when one day a great misfortune 
 befell us. Our mother and father, with sister, 
 had gone to visit our Uncle Mentor, who had 
 just brought his bride to a log-cabin home in our 
 locality. While they were away our dear little house 
 took fire and burned to the ground, destroying all 
 that we had. It was a serious loss. It was our little 
 all, brought at a great expenditure from our old 
 home in Kentucky, and each piece had its precious 
 associations. All the relics and heirlooms from our 
 Grandfather Smith were destroyed. We were left 
 destitute, indeed. Nothing was saved, not even an 
 article of clothing. I happened to be at my grand- 
 father's about a mile away for a few days and had 
 a change of clothing. Except for this, we were de- 
 prived of everything and had to begin anew. My 
 
 1 The house, and the tree for which the place was named, are 
 doing good service still. (August, 1904.) 
 
26 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 only memory of the sad event is that of seeing my 
 mother weep when she and my father, after 
 turning away from their home, came to my grand- 
 father's for refuge. The tableau of the negroes and 
 white people is vividly impressed on my memory, 
 all looking toward the red smoke that was still go- 
 ing up in the west. A kind neighbor, Mrs. Reece, 
 who lived about a half mile from us, gave to my 
 little sister a white cotton dress, home-grown, home- 
 spun, and home-woven. My mother's eyes would 
 fill with tears to the last day of her life, when she 
 would speak of this neighborly act. 
 
 After this disaster, Mr. Smith and his small 
 family took up their residence once more, for a 
 time, with General Thomson. Preparations, how- 
 ever, were begun and prosecuted through the en- 
 suing winter for the building of a new house. Of 
 this period his daughter writes : 
 
 The calamity which had overtaken us was the 
 more serious because there were no stores within 
 our reach from which to replenish our household 
 goods ; but from our good grandmother's supply, 
 our lost bedding was partially restored, and 
 our father's deft fingers and willing heart soon sup- 
 plied a more homely, perhaps, but more precious 
 set of furniture from the black-walnut trees that 
 skirted the stream near by. Two walnut chests I 
 recall, to the depths of which I often had to go, 
 standing on tip-toe — the one for clean bedding, the 
 other for the laundried cotton underwear, which al- 
 ways had to go through a second airing on chairs 
 in front of the fire before being used. Well do I re- 
 member, also, the bedstead with short upright posts 
 that served for pa and mother ; and the lower one. 
 
GEORGETOWN FOUNDED 27 
 
 the little trundle-bed, with its rollers, both of which 
 might be called awkward in the present stage of 
 civilization, but which served well their purpose in 
 that day. That same little bed gave many a sacred 
 repose to our child forms, and many an uneasy rest- 
 ing (or unresting) place when we were shaken up 
 by the ague, from which none of us escaped. 
 
 Even before the burning of their cabin, Mr. Smith 
 had begun to entertain projects for a removal of his 
 family from their first location on the banks of the 
 Muddy ; and their misfortune gave readier oppor- 
 tunity for the change. But before we pass to this 
 we must glance at the growth of the larger organi- 
 zations — the county and especially the county-town 
 — with which the next home-founding was to be 
 connected. 
 
 Pettis county had only been organized a year 
 when General Thomson and his sons-in-law took 
 up their residence there. Most of the "settlements" 
 of that time were made on the creeks, where timber 
 for building abounded, and where springs provided 
 palatable water. The county seat was first estab- 
 lished at such a settlement on Muddy creek, where 
 Mr. Thomas Wasson had erected a water-mill, and 
 a store had been opened by Clifton and Watson 
 Wood ; there a blacksmith shop was also soon in 
 full blast. This little hamlet was named St. Helena, 
 but it came almost universally to be spoken of as 
 'Tinhook" or "Pinhook Mills," owing apparently 
 to the fact that the natives were given to fishing 
 in the mill-pond with hooks made of bent pins. This 
 location for the county seat proving inconvenient. 
 
28 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 as settlement advanced its removal to a point nearer 
 the center of the county was decided upon. Two of 
 the chief citizens of the county, Messrs. Ramey and 
 Wasson, both members of the county court, offered 
 to give a tract of land to the county, provided a town 
 should be laid out and the county seat established 
 thereon. This tract was near the center of the 
 county and offered a beautiful site of rolling ground 
 covered with a natural growth of trees ; best of all, 
 it afforded two never-failing springs, on the north 
 and on the south sides of the proposed town, so that 
 the water supply of prospective inhabitants was 
 assured. These advantages led to the acceptance of 
 the offer, and the new town was laid out. General 
 Thomson being allowed to name the settlement, 
 called it Georgetown, in honor of his old Kentucky 
 home. An act of the legislature was procured by 
 which the county seat was removed from St. Helena 
 to the latter place; where it remained until 1865, 
 when again, by an act of the legislature, it was re- 
 moved to Sedalia, its present location. 
 
 Before the county seat could actually be trans- 
 ferred to Georgetown, it was necessary to erect a 
 building in which to house the county records and 
 hold the sessions of the county court. With this Mr. 
 Smith was especially connected, as will be seen from 
 the following reminiscences of his daughter, Mrs. 
 M. E. Smith : 
 
 When the question of building a court-house came 
 up, the people, because of the poverty of the com- 
 munity, wanted a log one ; but they were persuaded 
 
BUILDS THE COURT-HOUSE 29 
 
 — by our father, as Major Gentry told me — to build 
 a brick one. When this was first proposed, it met 
 with great opposition, for no brick had ever been 
 made in that portion of the country, and it was 
 thought there was no one there who understood the 
 art. To overcome this opposition, our father and 
 Judge Ramey made a wTitten proposition to the 
 court to manufacture the brick and erect the build- 
 ing within tw^o years ; and on December 26, 1835, 
 they were awarded the contract. 
 
 The building was erected handsomely and sub^ 
 stantially within the time allowed,^ and the square 
 was inclosed with a fence and shaded with locust 
 trees selected and planted gratuitously by our grand- 
 father. To my eyes there never was a prettier house. 
 It was square, with a large door in the center of each 
 of three sides, and a large window on each side of 
 the doors. The north side had the two windows but 
 no door, the space between being occupied by the 
 judge's bench. This was a platform about four feet 
 high with chairs on it, and terminated at the tw^o 
 windows with four or five steps. A balustrade fol- 
 lowed the whole length of steps and platform, and 
 continued at right angles, inclosing a square in the 
 center of the building which had benches just in- 
 side the railing. This space was floored, and served 
 some grand purpose for the primitive courts ; where 
 justice, I trust, was meted out with a little more 
 regard to her blind prerogative than is done now 
 with our advanced civilization when the penalty pur- 
 sues the poor friendless culprit, but the rich man is 
 lionized, even honored, by our laws and judges! 
 But to return. The rest of the floor was brick, with 
 some benches. A stairway, which I suppose now 
 was a common one, led magnificently with its balus- 
 
 ^ Accepted by the county court, and the contractors discharged from 
 their bond, December i6, 1837. 
 
30 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 trade to the second story; and as my young feet 
 proudly ascended its lofty height, I looked on the 
 assembled multitudes with awe and admiration that 
 have not come to me since, even in the palaces of 
 Europe. The roof was beautiful, not simply a board- 
 covered comb, like our common cabin homes, but 
 square and shingled, and terminated at its top with 
 a lovely octagonal observatory, with green shutters 
 hung to white posts ; and this also had a beautiful 
 shingled roof. The cupola in turn was surmounted 
 by a tapering spire that held a gilded globe with an 
 arrow above, on which was pivoted a fish of gold 
 that turned with the wind. How could anything be 
 prettier ! That lovely red brick wall, with its painted 
 windows and doors, that splendid roof, and that 
 beautiful cupola, up two stories high ! And the 
 ladies could go in, too ; for within its walls they had 
 big meetings, great revivals of religion, dancing 
 schools and day schools, and sometimes temperance 
 speeches and lyceums. At these societies, balls, 
 parties, and May Day celebrations, you can have no 
 idea how the sun shone on the court-house, and how 
 lovely the moonlight fell and played its soft caress- 
 ing touches about the great locust trees our grand- 
 father had planted ! . . . No, you can never 
 know ! . . . Dear old Georgetown ! 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 OLD MISSOURI LIFE 
 
 Removal to Georgetown — The new cabin — Household 
 life — Growth of the community — Chills and fever, and 
 their treatment — Doctors — Taverns and travel — Churches 
 and religious life — Education — Efforts to secure an acad- 
 emy for young ladies — The first piano — Slavery, drink, 
 and their attendant evils — The position of women. 
 
 When Georgetown was laid out, Mr. Smith re- 
 moved thither with his family. He did not like 
 farming, and by removing to the new town there 
 was a prospect that he might be able to turn to ac- 
 count the knowledge of law which he had acquired 
 in Kentucky. This expectation, however, was not 
 realized. As Mrs. Smith says : "There was no 
 occasion to use his knowledge of law. In this new 
 country there was no litigation. Everybody was 
 everybody's friend. They helped each other. If a 
 house was to be built, all the neighbors went to the 
 'raising.' If any were sick, the neighbors helped 
 take care of the invalid. Any misfortune to one 
 called forth the sympathy of the neighborhood." 
 
 So the chief occupation of Mr. Smith, for some 
 years after his removal to Georgetown, continued to 
 be the management of his farm. His land adjoined 
 
 31 
 
32 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the town, and extended south for about a mile; it 
 was soon inclosed by a worm or rail fence, and a 
 portion of it was planted with an orchard of fine 
 peach and apple trees. The cabin which he erected 
 on this land was the second one erected in George- 
 town, the first having been built by George Heard, 
 a lawyer, who taught the first school there. ^ Both 
 were built of square-hewn logs instead of round 
 ones, as was usually the case, and had glass win- 
 dows. The following details are given by Mrs. 
 Smith : 
 
 With the assistance of our grandfather's negroes 
 and the neighbors, our cabin was "raised" and was 
 soon ready for occupancy. Our grandfather's stock 
 of household goods, as has before been stated, was 
 opened to our mother for a frugal supply of the 
 necessary articles, especially bedding and tableware. 
 Our thoughtful mother made this the occasion for 
 adding to our live-stock a flock of geese, from which 
 our feather-beds — indispensable articles at that time 
 — were to come ; these, with the straw under-mat- 
 tresses, often renewed, furnished beds that were 
 both soft and comfortable, and our new cabin be- 
 came a thing of joy if not of beauty. We moved 
 into it in 1835. Our latch-string was thenceforth 
 out again; and many were the little parties, candy- 
 pullings, and companies of various kinds that gave 
 joy to the place. 
 
 Our cabin consisted of one large room, twenty 
 feet square, and a kitchen of the same size, with an 
 entry between the two to make it comfortable and 
 convenient. Usually the kitchens were built about 
 twenty or thirty feet from the "house" ; why I do 
 
 ^Mr. Heard was the father of Hon. John T. Heard, now of Sedalia. 
 
GEORGE R. SMITH 
 Aged circa Thirty 
 
HIS GEORGETOWN HOME 33 
 
 not know. Our dear little mother always had her 
 kitchen near the ''house," as she was vigilant in 
 overseeing the proceedings of both the kitchen and 
 the house, and being very delicate could not endure 
 exposure. The house was built of hewn logs, with 
 neat white-lime pointings between. It was unplas- 
 tered at first; but the floor was covered with fresh 
 rag-carpeting as soon as Aunt Rachel, our grand- 
 mother's weaver, could weave it for us ; and a large 
 white crumb cloth, made of ''Osnaburg," and fre- 
 quently washed, was lightly tacked over the carpet, 
 under the table. When a big roaring fire sparkled 
 in the capacious fire-place, the little room seemed to 
 us luxurious as a king's palace. In the evening when 
 the supper cloth had been removed and we four 
 gathered, in the mellow light of the candles, around 
 the table in the middle of the floor, it was a picture 
 for an artist ; and when the trundle-bed was drawn 
 from its hiding-place under our mother's bed, and 
 we knelt with her to say our prayers, our little 
 cabin became a sanctuary. So the dear little room 
 was as well adapted to all the functions of life as a 
 large modern house. 
 
 Our smoke-house, hen-house, and stables made 
 up the requirements for outside buildings. I must 
 not forget to mention the "bed-bench." This was 
 a frame about fifteen feet square and two and 
 one-half feet high, with broad, heavy planks or 
 ''slabs" laid over the top of it. On no account was 
 anything to touch the ground, so exacting was our 
 mother's idea of neatness. There the carpets were 
 shaken and the bedding aired ; and what a time we 
 had hunting for stray moths when the woolen 
 clothing was brought out before being put away for 
 the summer. 
 
 There were no stoves then in our part of the 
 country, but the great open wooden-chimneyed fire- 
 
34 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 places, in which roared and blazed harmlessly- 
 splendid flames that leapt from a mass of burning 
 coals, served in "the house" for warmth and good 
 cheer, and in the kitchen for the old-fashioned cook- 
 ing that was done by the darkies in heavy cast-iron 
 ovens, skillets, and frying-pans. On ** johnny cake" 
 boards, made of wood, delicious cakes were baked 
 by simply setting them in front of the fire. In using 
 the ovens for baking bread, the coals were drawn 
 out on the broad stone hearth, and often a blaze 
 of burning brush was built on the top of the heavy 
 lid or cover ; whilst back in the smoke and heat of 
 the chimney hung the crane, always ready to do 
 duty when a big boil was on hand, whether for 
 dinner or a clothes-washing. 
 
 About the same time that Mr. Smith established 
 his family at Georgetown, his brother-in-law, Men- 
 tor Thomson, settled on a large farm southwest of 
 the town. Thus the Smith-Thomson connection 
 made quite a colony. They visited among each 
 other, were hospitable to all comers, and as the 
 children, Marion and Melcena, grew up they were 
 sent away to a school at Boonville, taught by Mr. 
 Chinn. So the foundations were laid of a commu- 
 nity in and about Georgetown which was charac- 
 terized by prosperity and happy associations ; and 
 thus this region became a desirable location for the 
 emigrants who followed. Speaking of the growth 
 of the community, Mrs. Smith writes : 
 
 It was in 1840 that my grandfather built his new 
 brick house at Elm Spring, just in front of the lit- 
 tle cabins which he had first erected. He had al- 
 ready planted a fine orchard and established a grist 
 
GROWTH OF THE SETTLEMENT 35 
 
 and saw-mill on Muddy creek. Before this the peo- 
 ple had to send their corn forty miles to mill, or else 
 grate it on tin graters — none but those who have 
 tried it can have any idea how delicious bread is 
 made from meal grated in this fashion. My grand- 
 father also built a covered bridge over the creek 
 near the mills, and was helping to make the wilder- 
 ness blossom as the rose. Georgetown, in the mean- 
 time, was improving. Two brothers, Watson and 
 Clifton Wood, brought their dry-goods store up 
 from "Pin-hook," and with their familes located in 
 the town, adding greatly to the social and religions 
 life of the community. 
 
 In charming fashion the sketches from which 
 these quotations have been made continue, with 
 their description of the Hfe of this region in the 
 thirties and the forties. No better setting than is 
 here afforded can be found for the life and acts of 
 those times. The hand that holds the pencil, it is 
 true, is a loving one, and the scenes depicted are 
 viewed through the glorifying mists of fond recol- 
 lection and filial affection. This does not rob the 
 picture of its value, but enhances it rather, for it 
 insures to the scenes described insight and under- 
 standing. And the narrator is not blind to the som- 
 ber shadows which he on the landscape; — she does 
 not fail to observe the shortcomings and the sins, 
 alas ! of that time and that community. 
 
 Of the physical discomfort and suffering that too 
 often attended the good cheer of pioneer life, a de- 
 scription is given : 
 
 When our people first reached Missouri, there 
 
36 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 were no physicians nearer than Arrowrock or Boon- 
 ville, and no way to reach them except by a lonely 
 horseback ride of twenty-six miles to the one and 
 thirty-eight miles to the otlier. There was a great 
 deal of malaria then, though we did not know it by 
 that name. The whole family, one by one, and some- 
 times two, four, or six at a time, would be down 
 with chills. By heroic measures the attacks might be 
 made less vigorous, or the monster for a time kept 
 at bay ; but usually we carried the disease latent in 
 our systems. It would apparently let its victims go 
 for a while, only to arouse itself with greater force 
 than ever when they were least expecting it. Then 
 it would shake them until their chattering teeth, 
 quivering limbs, and rolling eyes would make you 
 think a very demon had possession of them. When 
 it had spent its strength it would leave them pros- 
 trate and weak from very exhaustion. In spite of 
 all they could do, people went about sallow and pale, 
 showing that the monster malaria had the better of 
 them. 
 
 In our father's drawer there were always fa- 
 miliar bottles of quinine and the little paper pack- 
 ages of calomel, with accompanying medicine scales. 
 In our mother's cupboard was a rival collection of 
 bunches of dried boneset, rue, mint, nervine, hoar- 
 hound, lobelia, ipecac, and rhubarb. These were the 
 remedies of different schools, and it was a question 
 which was the safer, and should have the ascend- 
 ency. Quinine administered by home talent was 
 perhaps the remedy most used in mild cases ; though 
 the herbs named above — 'Tndian remedies" as they 
 were styled, from the so-called Indian doctors who 
 used them — were grown with the greatest care in 
 every prudent housewife's garden. Often we were 
 compelled, by our grandmother or mother, to drink 
 quarts or gallons of these bitter teas ; until we would 
 
AGUE REMEDIES 37 
 
 be forced to disgorge. Then the chill or fever would 
 generally surrender ; and a fine, much-desired 
 "sweat" would lull the patient into a refreshing 
 slumber, from which he would often awaken cured. 
 Stomach cleansed and fever gone, a fine appetite 
 usually followed, which would do the rest of the 
 healing. But often the chills and fever were obsti- 
 nate, and would assert themselves periodically for 
 months. The dread disease was no respecter of 
 persons, and attacked black and white alike. The 
 negroes — bless the memory of their child-like help- 
 lessness ! — were always getting sick and coming to 
 *'Mistis" (our grandmother) for a little boneset tea, 
 and going back from her sweet sympathetic face 
 comforted and strengthened for the shadowed life 
 of hopeless servitude before them. 
 
 When there was a case of serious fever to contend 
 with, and a doctor became absolutely necessary, a 
 man had to be dispatched on horseback to Arrow- 
 rock on the Missouri river, for Dr. Sappington or 
 Dr. Penn. The despondent were always relieved 
 when these men entered the door, for they were very 
 successful, and we yet bless their memories.^ Final- 
 ly our fame and the report of our needs reached our 
 neighbor States, and we began to have accessions 
 
 1 The following prescription for fever, given by Dr. Penn about 1848, is 
 not without interest : " Twelve grains quinine, 2 grs. opium, 6 grs. cam- 
 phor, made into 12 pills. Upon an attack of chills and fever give one 
 pill every two hours until three or four hours before the chill comes on ; 
 then give them every hour, together with sage or snake-root tea. In 
 bilious fever, after the stomach and bowels have been evacuated, give 
 one pill every three hours, regardless of fever. When there is a violent 
 attack, give two or three doses calomel, commencing the pills after suf- 
 ficiently reducing the patient or the disease. If much sickness at the 
 stomach upon the attack, give an emetic, then purge. If the fever is 
 very high, give a teaspoonful sweet spirits niter combined with the 
 same quantity of paregoric, every three hours, in one-half teacupful 
 warm tea, dispensing with the pills until the fever is a little subdued by 
 the febrifuge." 
 
38 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 from the medical and law schools of Kentucky and 
 Virginia. Dr. Wilkins Watson, a man noted for 
 culture and skill in his profession, came with his 
 family — a wife and two sweet little girls — and set- 
 tled among us in 1838. He was a native of the Old 
 Dominion, but had graduated in Cincinnati. There 
 was a wide field for his services, as climatic fevers, 
 pneumonia, and pleurisy were becoming very com- 
 mon. Some time after, other systems of medicine 
 began to be represented by various people — Dr. 
 Morse of the Botanic, and Dr. Snoddy of the Eclec- 
 tic schools. We had now many interesting families 
 who had moved in from various places, and society 
 began to take on an aristocratic air. About 1841 or 
 '42 the family of Dr. Spedden came. They were re- 
 fined people, and contributed no little to our society. 
 They were Episcopalians and had no sympathy with 
 the prevailing religions of the place. Drs. Spedden 
 and Watson had all they could do in the neighbor- 
 hood attending the sick. Dr. Watson's home was a 
 social center, for all knew and loved him as their 
 physician, and his good wife, a sweet gentle woman, 
 and his two daughters, made all welcome. 
 
 With reference to travel and taverns, and the 
 festivities which group themselves about public 
 houses of entertainment, the narrative continues : 
 
 I must not forget to mention good old Captain 
 Kidd, who presided over the only hostelry there was 
 in Georgetown. We had no stages, nor other means 
 of transportation for travelers than horseback ; and 
 our mails were carried in the same slow and unsatis- 
 factory way. The captain's visitors were generally 
 of the equestrian. The obscurity of our coun- 
 try, and the absence of large cities made travelers 
 very rare ; but people were communicative, and in 
 
TRAVEL AND TAVERNS 39 
 
 half an hour after a visitor had been received and 
 the horse ''taken," the entire story of his intentions 
 was known. Curiosity, or it may be interest, made 
 each side mutually inquisitive and confiding. Woe 
 betide a reticent man ! He was at once suspected 
 and became a proper object of scrutiny. The cap- 
 tain was a good man ; and he and his estimable wife, 
 and their eight charming daughters, made a happy 
 resort for the young people on public days. Barbe- 
 cues and protracted meetings ; parties, balls, etc. ; 
 " 'lection days," — those afflictions that had to come 
 to all towns, like whooping-cough and measles to 
 children, and which usually meant brawls and 
 fights ; — all were managed by that dignified pair, as 
 well as the most exemplary citizens could desire. 
 
 The churches and religious life of the new com- 
 munity are also described. The Baptist church 
 which is mentioned was apparently the first church 
 of any denomination organized in Pettis county, and 
 was established some time prior to 1834. It be- 
 longed to the "Hard-Shell" or "Anti-Mission" 
 branch of the Baptists, a division that had separated 
 from the main body of the denomination about 1827. 
 The peculiarity of its doctrine was the acceptance 
 of the ultra-Calvinistic view of a limited atonement, 
 and of unconditional election and reprobation, from 
 which followed the uselessness of all missionary en- 
 terprises, of Sabbath schools, and of education for 
 ministers. It may also be stated that the impressions 
 derived by Mr. Smith in his boyhood days from 
 Elder Stone were reinforced by the preaching in 
 1842 of Elder Allen Wright, under whose minis- 
 trations Mrs. Smith and the elder daughter united 
 
40 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 with the church ; and later, in 1847, of Elder Samuel 
 S. Church, both ministers of the Christian denomi- 
 nation. In 1847 Mr. Smith and his younger daughter 
 were also baptized into that communion. 
 
 When we first came to Missouri there was a Bap- 
 tist church, consisting of about twelve members, 
 who worshipped in a log * 'meeting-house" about a 
 mile north of Georgetown. It was presided over by 
 a divine of the appropriate name (if a little face- 
 tiousness is admissible on such grave subjects) of 
 Wolf. My Uncle Major and my grandmother were 
 both members of that church ; and it was pleasant, 
 even in the rude way in which it was practiced, to 
 find some effort toward worshipping the Eternal 
 Father, and to have some one who felt himself 
 specially called to minister to the dying and to lay 
 away the dead. 
 
 About the year 1842, Allen Wright came to 
 Georgetown from Springfield, Mo., and held a 
 series of meetings. He interpreted the Bible in har- 
 mony with the ideas of Alexander Campbell. Elder 
 Wright was a man of great force and won many fol- 
 lowers. He was a fine expounder of this new-old 
 Gospel, and won over a large portion of the com- 
 munity from their prejudices. At first many came 
 to scoff, but were convicted under the overwhelming 
 eloquence and earnestness with which he told the 
 story of redemption. His voice was, indeed, like 
 John's preaching in the wilderness, when he showed 
 that Christ was more ready to forgive and to re- 
 ceive, than they were to ask ; and that there was no 
 need for ''miraculous experiences," sights, visions 
 and dreams, such as were claimed by the old-fash- 
 ioned Baptists ; and that the moment a sinner was 
 convicted of sin, Christ with open arms was ready 
 to receive him, and there was no necessitv for 
 
MINISTERS AND CHURCHES 41 
 
 wrestling with our crucified Savior. Elder Wright 
 was in the habit of coming to Georgetown from 
 time to time to preach in the court-house, beginning 
 the services generally at ''the early lighting of a 
 candle." He would continue his meetings for per- 
 haps two weeks, baptizing in the primitive mode in 
 Cedar creek, north of Georgetown. A church or- 
 ganization was effected w'hicli was reinforced by Dr. 
 Ferris, George W. Longan, S. S. Church, Dr. Hop- 
 son, and others. A number of my grandfather's 
 children and grandchildren were converted ; but he 
 himself, although an attentive listener, a constant 
 Bible reader, and most exemplary in his character, 
 never made a confession of religion. 
 
 Between the years 1848 and '50, Mr. Marvin, a 
 Universalist minister of great talent,, came to 
 Georgetown, and, with his fascinating doctrine led 
 many from the faith. He was eloquent, elegant in 
 manner, and delivered his captivating theme with so 
 much earnestness, it is no wonder that many were 
 convinced. He plead for a higher life based on the 
 motive of love instead of fear. My grandfather 
 loved to hear him, and it was thought that he em- 
 braced the doctrine without saying so to his family, 
 who looked upon Universalism as being in direct 
 disobedience to the teachings of the Bible. One or 
 two of his children openly avowed their faith in the 
 universal salvation of men. 
 
 Despite some positive injunctions in the State 
 constitution, little was done for the cause of popular 
 education by Missouri prior to 1854. As early as 
 1839 a general school law was passed, providing for 
 a system of ''free schools," for which funds might 
 be derived alike from the State, county, and town- 
 ship, and from voluntary contributions ; but the 
 
42 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 amount of these funds was small. A prejudice, in- 
 deed, lingered in many quarters against schools that 
 were denominated "free." What higher education 
 was to be had in the State was furnished by a few 
 denominational colleges, and by such academies for 
 young men and for young ladies as the bounty of 
 the citizens established. Primary education, too, was 
 provided for in the main by voluntary contributions ; 
 and the picture given by Alexander Campbell of 
 "the round-log school-house, with its paper win- 
 dows and its squalid urchins grinning over their 
 monotonous and uproarious A, B, C," may be taken 
 as typical of the condition of the usual schools of 
 Missouri at the close of the first half of the century.^ 
 The school furniture consisted of long backless 
 benches, made of inverted puncheons mounted on 
 legs, and of wide planks fastened to the wall for 
 writing desks ; while of educational appliances and 
 apparatus there was an almost total lack. The sub- 
 jects taught were of the most limited range, and "the 
 highest aim of the youth of the common schools in 
 the pioneer days of Pettis county," it is said, "was 
 to write a fair hand, spell orally, and solve mathe- 
 matical puzzles.^ 
 
 The locality in which Mr. Smith settled was 
 rather more fortunate, with respect to education, 
 than most of the interior counties. The first teachers 
 of Pettis county seem to have been men of ability 
 
 '^ Millennial Harbinger, for 1853, p. 72. For a detailed description of 
 frontier scliools, and a defense of the method of learning lessons aloud 
 see Drake, Pioneer in Kentucky, pp. 141-177. 
 
 ' History of Pettis County, p. 320. 
 
SCHOOLS 43 
 
 and character. George Heard was the first teacher 
 of the county, the second being Mr. Smith's 
 brother-in-law, Milton Thomson. Of the efforts to 
 secure some provision for higher education, Mrs. 
 M. E. Smith writes : 
 
 Our father's admiration for intellectual culture at 
 that early day, when his surroundings were so ad- 
 verse, shows the energy of the man and the aspira- 
 tions of his nature. With whatever native talent for 
 public speaking he had, he endeavored to promote 
 the cause of higher education. He urged the im- 
 portance of having schools in which the higher 
 branches might be taught in our own town. He be- 
 gan his efforts as early as 1836; but at that time 
 nothing came of it. He was obliged to see his chil- 
 dren growing into womanhood without the advan- 
 tages that he deemed necessary. By his own efforts, 
 so far as his busy life outside would permit, he en- 
 deavored to remedy this defect ; and the quiet home 
 hours with wife and children were spent in paint- 
 ing such enchanting pictures of literature, art, and 
 science, that we were led to attack with hearty good 
 will the pages of ancient and modern history, over 
 a row of barrels which served the double purpose 
 of a cellar for our fruit, and a desk for the young 
 ideas that were vainly struggling toward the light. 
 
 Something of the interest which our father took 
 in the cause of education may be gathered from the 
 following fragment of a speech, which was found 
 among his papers after his death. It was probably 
 delivered about 1840. It reads as follows, begin- 
 ning in the middle of a sentence : 
 
 ". . . will all soon crumble into dust and 
 nothing be left of the shattered and dilapidated re- 
 mains to tell to whose memory they were erected. 
 Not so with our enterprise. We by our efforts this 
 
44 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 day perpetuate in the hearts of countless generations 
 the noble and patriotic actions that stimulate us to 
 the enterprise ; we elevate the human mind from 
 things trivial to things of importance ; we establish 
 the everlasting dominion of literature and of civili- 
 zation ; we alienate the affections from vice, from 
 sin, from worldly lucre, and place them upon our 
 God ; we elevate the soul and gladden the listless 
 hours of the desponding. We bequeath a rich inher- 
 itance to our children, and by them it will be trans- 
 mitted from sire to son, from mother to daughter, 
 through countless ages, until the last trump of the 
 archangel shall sound announcing that time shall be 
 no more. Beyond this, fellow citizens, I will not at- 
 tempt to go, save to remark that wiser heads than 
 mine have supposed we occupy here only the prepar- 
 atory department in the grand college that meets 
 above, and according to the progress we make here 
 our stations will be assigned us there ; if so, when 
 the dark curtain shall unveil the still darker reali- 
 ties of eternity upon us, the welcome plaudits of 
 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' may be 
 awarded to us. Fellow citizens, no possible contin- 
 gency can present itself to my mind that the whole 
 community should not with one voice unite in de- 
 fence of the cause we this day plead. 
 
 "To the ladies, we say we expect your undivided 
 co-operation. In times of yore, the literary acquire- 
 ments of your sex (and it is too much the case now) 
 were treated as stanch pedantry or vain pretensions. 
 The literary acquirements of your sex have been 
 stigmatized as inconsistent with domestic affections 
 and virtues which constitute the charm of society. 
 Abundant homilies have been read upon your amia- 
 ble weakness and sentimental delicacy, upon your 
 timid gentleness and submissive dependence. By 
 these prejudices mothers have been denied the 
 
SPEECH ON EDUCATION 45 
 
 power of instructing their children ; wives have not 
 been permitted to share the intellectual pursuits of 
 their husbands. And [it was taught] that most 
 women had no character at all beyond that of purity 
 and devotion to their families. These times and 
 these things are passing or have passed away. The 
 prejudices which dishonored the sex have yielded 
 to truth. Wherever polite literature has cast its 
 beneficial influence upon society, there woman's in- 
 fluence is felt. It is to you we appeal ; it is directly 
 your sex we wish to elevate, in doing which — ours 
 being so indissolubly connected with yours — our 
 progress will be in the same ratio. Fashion has not 
 excluded you from the society of the learned be- 
 cause we were accustomed to regard you as inferior 
 in intellectual importance. Your literary attain- 
 ments w^ere not expected to equal theirs ; heretofore 
 you have only been permitted to sip at the Pierian 
 fountain, whilst we could drink deep and slake our 
 thirst. This is not the only occasion we have sought 
 your influence wdien ours had failed. Your example 
 can do more than perhaps you are aware. We court 
 your influence, we expect your co-operation. Your 
 smiles, your approbation will cheer us on, in our 
 effort to strengthen and adorn your minds with in- 
 tellectual graces, to give to your voice the music of 
 enlightened and eloquent discourse, clothe your 
 mind with dignity, grace your soul with the en- 
 chanting notes of literature and knowledge. Then 
 man wall approach you with profound respect ; he 
 will not enter your presence till he can be assim- 
 ilated to your attributes. His mind will of necessity 
 be elevated to your principles, give purity and ele- 
 gance to his manners and language, that he may 
 taste with you the refined joys of knowledge. It is, 
 fellow citizens, to quote the language of another, on 
 the platform of female education where the moral 
 
46 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 lever must be placed to move the world to a more 
 elevated orbit of intellectual and moral glory." 
 
 After many years of effort, he finally secured the 
 co-operation of a few citizens in the project of estab- 
 lishing a female academy in Georgetown. He 
 would call meetings of the trustees every week or 
 two to consider the best ways and means of fur- 
 thering the project. A charter of incorporation was 
 obtained in 1841. By a deed which bears date May 
 19, 1845, h^ donated two acres of land in the south- 
 ern suburbs of Georgetown for the site of the acad- 
 emy, besides which he gave money. A few others 
 subscribed to the enterprise, and the work of build- 
 ing was begun. The structure was of brick, and it 
 progressed as far as the completion of the walls 
 and the roofing in ; then the generosity of the people 
 relapsed, and the building stood idle a few years, a 
 monument to our indifference and our poverty. 
 Finally the building and ground were put up at sale 
 by the trustees, and our father bought them. He 
 then had the building finished for a residence and 
 moved into it in December, 1849. 
 
 In January he hired a teacher from Boston, 
 Miss Munroe, and used one of the rooms as a 
 schoolroom for ourselves and a few other girls. 
 So in 1850 "the academy," as it had always been 
 called, was both occupied by our family and 
 used for a school. A merry winter it was for us 
 girls and our young teacher. She was a bright, 
 beautiful young woman of twenty-three years, con- 
 scientious in the highest degree, but full of fun and 
 merriment. She and her pupils were diligent dur- 
 ing study hours ; and she always opened the morn- 
 ing session of the school with Bible reading, prayer, 
 and the singing of a hymn. In the evening and dur- 
 ing the recesses of the day, when the weather was 
 too inclement for out-door exercise, one of the farm- 
 
THE FIRST PIANO 47 
 
 hands — a Spaniard whom our father had brought 
 from Santa Fe, where he was freighting — would be 
 called in with his violin, and the large schoolroom, 
 with its chairs set back, would be used as a dancing 
 hall. In this amusement our amiable teacher was 
 our leader, as well as in our studies ; and our 
 father and mother, though they were both earnest 
 professors of Christianity, w^ere so far from being 
 averse to innocent enjoyment for their children, that 
 they encouraged by their presence this delightful 
 pastime. 
 
 Of the advent of the piano into their household, 
 the following description is given : 
 
 In those days the only piano in Georgetown was 
 that possessed by Dr. Watson, whose two daugh- 
 ters, who were educated at Boonville, were for that 
 time beautiful players and singers. There was in 
 addition an instrument made by an ingenious local 
 cabinet-maker which, with its peculiar harmony, 
 adorned the little cottage of Mr. Dorrell D. Fear. 
 Our father's ambition led him on one of his business 
 trips to St. Louis in 185 1 to buy a piano, which was 
 brought up the river by boat as far as Jefferson 
 City. He there hired a wagon and brought it 
 through the muddy roads over a journey of sixty- 
 five miles to Georgetown. His purpose was kept 
 from the family, and the carrying out of the project 
 delayed him several days beyond his usual time. 
 The mails were tardy, but we tried to suppress our 
 uneasiness and keep cheerful. He had often been 
 delayed in his return, and almost always arrived 
 after midnight ; so we tried to flatter ourselves that 
 all was well. But at last, not being able longer to 
 stand the anxiety, my sister and I had our horses 
 saddled and started out, hoping to meet him. We 
 
48 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 tried to talk cheerfully as our horses plunged 
 through the mud, but our real feelings must have 
 been revealed when the sight of a slowly-moving 
 covered wagon was discovered approaching in the 
 distance, its wheels digging deeply into the mud. 
 Our suspense increased as we neared it, not know- 
 ing what might be in store, and we lapsed into per- 
 fect silence. Before we were near enough to dis- 
 tinguish our father under the shadow of the cloudy 
 sky and the cover of the wagon, his great cheery 
 voice of greeting reassured us ; and when he ex- 
 plained that a piano was behind him in the wagon, 
 our joy was unbounded. Our dear mother's delight 
 may be imagined when, in addition to finding our 
 father well and happy, the explanation of his delay 
 was made. The colored man Henry, and others, 
 were called, and the ponderous burden became an 
 article of furniture and of delight in our house. This 
 was the second real piano in Georgetown and it cre- 
 ated a sensation. The young girls in the little school 
 began the study of music. But the enterprise so 
 happily begun was destined to an early decline ; for, 
 in a short time, Miss Munroe had to return to Bos- 
 ton, and the happy associations were broken up. 
 There was now no teacher for us, and the academy 
 lapsed into a home. Thus our hopes again were 
 baffied, but the piano remained a joy forever. 
 
 The life in the new country was in many respects 
 very primitive, though good cheer and wholesome 
 pleasure were mingled with toil, privation, and suf- 
 fering. Kindliness and helpfulness characterized 
 the community, and there was all the inspiration 
 that goes with the building up of a new country. 
 But amid the harmonies of that life a discordant 
 note would often sound and an ominous chord be 
 
SLAVERY 49 
 
 struck. Death came, with its heartaches and sor- 
 row. Mr. Major, a choice member of the original 
 little colony, fell a victim to typhoid fever ; and not 
 long afterward his daughter Vienna sickened and 
 died. But, sadder than the inevitable passing from 
 their circle of loved friends and relatives, were the 
 shadows cast by slavery, drink, and their attendant 
 evils. 
 
 In the midst of the fancies and visions that sur- 
 rounded our simple lives like a halo, making the fu- 
 ture wholly bright [continues our chronicler], the 
 ominous clouds that we failed to see, or seeing did 
 not know how to avert, gathered about us. One of 
 these was slavery, which brought luxury, almost 
 princely life, to us even in our cabins, because we 
 were exempt from the drudgery of labor, and 
 had really nothing to do except to look after the so- 
 cial amenities and to see that the slaves were duly 
 cared for and made to work. It is melancholy to 
 remember, as the thought now obtrudes itself, that 
 Uncle Toby, Uncle Jack, and other gray-haired men 
 and women, as well as the younger ones, were com- 
 pelled to have written permission to leave home, and 
 would come even to me, a little child, when the older 
 members of the family were too busy, to give them a 
 written pass to go to town. The law of the country 
 was to keep the patrol out for the purpose of detect- 
 ing negroes who might leave home without a pass ; 
 and all, the good and the bad, had to obey. When 
 the officer would meet a negro, he would always 
 demand his pass. The date and name of the master 
 were carefully noted, so that if any duplicity was 
 practiced they would find it out, arrest the negro, 
 and send him home. The negroes often had Satur- 
 day "evenings," as the afternoons were called, in 
 
50 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 which to do a Httle work for themselves ; and what 
 they made during this time they could sell and so 
 get a little money. For money, however, they had 
 little need, as they had no opportunities for higher 
 life. Our Eden was nursing the serpent slavery, 
 which was whispering a syren song into the ears of 
 pride and luxury, but which at no distant day was 
 to fill our country with the blackness of despair. 
 Our young men had nothing to do and our young 
 women had no aim in life except marriage, and it 
 was considered almost a disgrace to be an old maid. 
 Twenty-five years of maidenhood constituted an old 
 maid; and thirty years cut her off from hope, hap- 
 piness, and respectability. Slavery was conducive 
 to indolence and immorality. God has so ar- 
 ranged this life that if we are bread-eaters, we must 
 be bread-winners ; each individual for himself, must 
 earn his bread "by the sweat of his brow." If he 
 does not have to make his money, he can sweat a 
 little over its expenditure, — a no less arduous task, 
 if properly and conscientiously done, than the 
 making of it. 
 
 Other clouds were drink and tobacco-using. Our 
 little hamlet very soon had its "grocery," where to- 
 bacco and whiskey were among the staples dealt 
 out. Our politicians and influential men of the coun- 
 try indulged in both freely; and on election days, 
 whiskey would flow like water, and our sturdy 
 men would sometimes wallow in the mud like swine. 
 The two political parties then were the Whigs and 
 the Democrats, the latter prevailing largely. As 
 time went on, the two elements warred with one 
 another; different issues came up in the political 
 field, and our little district, apparently pure at first, 
 began to contribute its quota of evil to the world. 
 The preachers were preaching and the good people 
 trying, after their fashion, to bring their children up 
 
DRINK AND TOBACCO 51 
 
 in the way they should go ; but slavery, tobacco, 
 and whiskey were doing their demoniacal work ; and 
 so it went on. Men were intoxicated, murders com- 
 mitted, and shadows fell darkly on the brightness 
 of many lives. So our little community followed in 
 the wake of other civilizations. The evil multiplied ; 
 God seemed to have deserted us. The auction of 
 humanity, and drunkenness were making their 
 sorry record. It was against the law to educate the 
 negroes. . . . Let us draw the veil. 
 
 Intelligence and slavery can not exist together. 
 The one enforced wrong of ignorance compels the 
 other. But the homes of the slaveholders, to the 
 superficial looker on, often seemed happy. The ig- 
 norant creatures, with no aim in life, could have no 
 ambition. The masters were usually humane, and 
 there was often real affection between master and 
 slave — very often great kindliness. There were 
 merciful services from each to the other ; there was 
 laughter, song, and happiness in the negro quarters ; 
 but it was the happiness of ignorance. It was an 
 edifice founded upon sand, — an unnatural condition, 
 — and the violation of God's law brings its own ret- 
 ribution. The house was toppling ; it had to fall. A 
 picture of greater beauty lies nowhere in my child- 
 hood memory than the one at my grandfather's 
 home. The older negroes had their comfortable 
 houses, where each family would sit by their own 
 great sparkling log-fires. The younger negroes were 
 engaged, in the day-time, at the work of their mas- 
 ter, while the children out in the sunshine laughed, 
 played, and frolicked their time away. Like the 
 lilies of the field, they were all without thought 
 for food or raiment ; indeed, of raiment they often 
 had but little! They sang their plantation songs, 
 grew hilarious over their corn shuckings, and did 
 the bidding of their gracious master. Their doc- 
 
52 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 tor's bills were paid; their clothing bought, or wo- 
 ven by themselves in their cabins, and made by their 
 mistress ; their sick nursed ; and their dead laid 
 away, — all without any thought or care from them- 
 selves as to expense. 
 
 To the unthinking it seemed a happy picture ; but 
 where was the justice and where the mercy in such 
 an aimless life ? The one people with no thought ; 
 the other thinking only to keep the former in sub- 
 jection. Perhaps it was God's plan to elevate the 
 negro ; who can tell ? But the fruit was ripening, 
 the time of the harvest was approaching. Our 
 young men, — whom God made beautiful, and to 
 whom he gave the power to grow into his likeness 
 by deeds of mercy and humanity, — rapidly fell into 
 debaucheries. Our colleges often turned them out 
 from their walls dissipated. Our young farmers, 
 not having the advantages of free schools, were 
 ignorant and immoral. Society was on a false basis, 
 and there was a sad want of honesty between men 
 and women. Our young women, kept by the strict- 
 est surveillance from all opportunity for evil, were 
 also shut off and out from usefulness and opportu- 
 nity for work. Sunbonnets, veils and gloves were 
 worn to protect the complexion. They were too 
 modest to sing or read in public ; and speaking or 
 praying before an audience would have been breach 
 of decorum. Reticence, modesty, and virtue formed 
 the triple crown of a true and noble woman. They 
 were kept in ignorance of the responsibilities and du- 
 ties of womanhood, and were encouraged to be deli- 
 cate and absurdly modest. They were simply toys. 
 Innocent, beautiful, frail in girlhood, they were re- 
 quired to face the gravest problems of life as the 
 wives of unreasonable and dissipated men. Many 
 w^ere the sweet young girls into whose dear faces 
 my memory now looks, who with the trust and in- 
 
POSITION OF WOMEN 53 
 
 nocence of babes, gave their hands in marriage to 
 these roues, and whose hearts and Hves were 
 wrecked, and whose premature aging and often 
 death alone gave to the world the unwritten and 
 unspoken agony of their lives. The slightest suspi- 
 cion condemned a woman ; but a man's barefaced 
 immoralities were condoned, and he was received 
 into the most elegant families, though known to be 
 secretly immoral. 
 
 The public roads leading from our town often 
 witnessed the spectacle of prominent men reeling 
 on their horses as they rode to their homes. Fortu- 
 nately, there was no drunkenness in our family, and 
 to us a drunken man was the embodiment of all that 
 was terrible and awful. 
 
 One of our intelligent farmers, at the close of 
 ''election day," was found to be too much intox- 
 icated to keep on his horse. He was a man well-to- 
 do, hospitable, genial, and sensible when sober. As 
 the night was cold and dark, our father told his 
 neighbors to leave him until morning at our house 
 as they passed. He failed, however, to get to us 
 first with the explanation ; and when we saw three 
 or four men bringing in the body of a man, we were 
 very much frightened. We knew enough of drunk- 
 enness to be afraid of it. One of the bearers came 
 to the door (which we had carefully and emphat- 
 ically locked when we saw them coming) and said 
 
 that old man was going to stay all night. We 
 
 told him tremblingly to take the man to the kitchen ; 
 and when our father came, he was shocked to see 
 his old friend sitting with our negroes in a stupor 
 by the kitchen fire. He explained the matter to us, 
 had the doors opened, and brought him in ; where he 
 was fed and cared for until the next morning. When 
 the effects of the whiskey had passed off, he was 
 (with some secret chagrin, let us hope) as much of 
 
54 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 a gentleman as anybody; and I suppose felt and 
 tried to act, as he neared his home the next day 
 where his wife, children, and negroes awaited him, 
 as though he were living up to the full stature of a 
 man. For it was no disgrace then to be besotted 
 with whiskey, if chance or good friends prevented 
 criminal conduct while drunk. 
 
 General Smith was an ardent advocate of temper- 
 ance. Among his papers is the draft of a speech 
 which he delivered in 1843 ^^ ^ meeting to form a 
 temperance society. In this he draws a vivid picture 
 of a delicate wife turned out into the winter's cold 
 by a drunken husband, and exhorts parents by their 
 love of their children to further the movement. 
 "This," he continues, alluding to the picture he has 
 just drawn, "is no fancy sketch. A thousand, yes, ten 
 thousand of such instances have occurred, and who 
 among you can tell but this may be the case with 
 your daughters. Is there then no appeal to you, you 
 who sacrifice no pleasure, no wish? I know it is 
 frequently argued that for me to join a temperance 
 society is idle ; / am not in the habit of drinking ; / 
 do not crave it ; indeed, / do not even think of it un- 
 less some friend invites, and then only quaff the 
 nectared poison to pledge my friendship to a friend. 
 Fellow citizens, remember that he whose haggard 
 look, whose bloated cheek, whose tottering tread, 
 whose palsied limbs, whose loathsome and detested 
 form announce the drunkard in his most detested 
 shape, once too, like you, cared not for the accursed 
 drop. ... Go visit the dungeons and the cells 
 in your prison houses, . . . ask what has 
 
A TEMPERANCE SPEECH 55 
 
 brought them there. . . . The answer perhaps 
 in ahnost every case is, Intemperance. Your exam- 
 ple, then, fellow citizens, is everything; and who 
 amongst you here would not join this society if by 
 doing so you could avert the impending demon's 
 grasp from one of your children, from one of your 
 relatives, or from one of your acquaintances — or, in- 
 deed, from any fellow being? . . ." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 BUSINESS : THE MORMON WAR I POLITICS 
 
 (1835-1844) 
 
 Business ventures — The Mormon war of 1838 — Appointed 
 brigadier-general of militia — Political affiliations — Un- 
 willingness to compromise his views — Elected justice of 
 the peace, 1836 — Unsuccessful canvass for the legisla- 
 ture, 1836 and 1840 — Whig rejoicing at the election of 
 Harrison — Application for federal office — Effect of Presi- 
 dent Harrison's death — Appointed receiver of public 
 moneys at Springfield, Mo., by President Tyler — His re- 
 lations with Tyler managers — Removed from office by 
 President Polk. 
 
 In the life of this vigorous young community — a 
 life sound and healthy at the core, though tainted 
 with the plague spot of slavery and its attendant 
 ills — the subject of this narrative played a conspic- 
 uous part. In a new country where men are not 
 hampered by the burdens of monarchical courts, 
 hereditary aristocracies, and official priesthoods, the 
 stimulus given by equal opportunities is such as 
 naturally leads to the absorption of the mass of men 
 in a struggle for wealth, as a means of social and 
 material betterment. In the case of Mr. Smith a pe- 
 culiar incentive was given. His father-in-law, Gen- 
 
 56 
 
BUSINESS VENTURES 57 
 
 eral Thomson, was throughout Hfe a practical, en- 
 ergetic man of business, trying his hand in turn or 
 simultaneously at paper-, grist- and saw-milling, 
 land speculation, contracting for government sup- 
 plies, stock and produce shipping, — all in addition to 
 his regular farming operations, and all attended with 
 a good degree of success. Mr. Smith, too, from his 
 early manhood actively engaged in business ven- 
 tures. After energetically starting the farm hands 
 in the spring, he would leave the farm work to his 
 overseer, and his activity would find vent in some 
 broader and larger enterprise. "It was a standing 
 joke among his neighbors — and was true," says 
 Mrs. Smith, ''that he had to buy feed for his cattle 
 and family every year. Nothing daunted by this, 
 he would try again the next spring, with the same 
 results." 
 
 Even before moving to Missouri he undertook one 
 speculative venture, floating a lot of produce, in 
 183 1 or 1832, in flatboats down the Ohio and Mis- 
 sissippi rivers, and disposing of it at Pensacola. 
 After settling at Georgetown, Missouri, as we have 
 seen, he was a partner in the contract for building 
 the court-house ; and though this was largely from 
 public-spirited motives, the successful completion 
 of the work is a mark of sound business capacity. 
 In 1836, he acted as agent for his brother-in-law, 
 Manlius V. Thomson, of Georgetown, Kentucky, in 
 purchasing pork for the United States navy yards. 
 In 1839 h^s correspondence with the same person 
 shows that they were jointly engaged in business in 
 
58 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Columbia and Nashville, Tennessee. In 1840 he 
 engaged with several partners in a venture to sup- 
 ply with provisions the Indians who had just been 
 transported from further south to their new reserva- 
 tion in Indian Territory ; and he took a large drove 
 of hogs from Pettis county through the unsettled 
 country to Fort Gibson, where they were disposed 
 of at a good profit. At various times in the next 
 eight or ten years we find him in similar specula- 
 tions, — shipping pork and other provisions down 
 the Mississippi river, seeking beef and pork con- 
 tracts from the government, sending mules to the 
 New Orleans market, and buying land-warrants is- 
 sued to Mexican War volunteers. 
 
 Truly American in this respect, he was equally 
 American in his disregard of his personal business 
 considerations when higher issues were in question. 
 This trait he exemplified, on a small scale, in the 
 miniature civil war which broke out in Missouri in 
 1838 — the so-called ''Mormon War," whch resulted 
 in the expulsion of the Mormons from the State. Jo- 
 seph Smith, the "Seer, Revelator, Translator and 
 Prophet" of this faith, had settled with his follow- 
 ers, in 1 83 1, in the western part of the State, near 
 the town of Independence. They had been driven 
 thence, in a couple of years, and had then settled 
 north of the Missouri river in Clay and Carroll 
 counties ; and from this region again they had been 
 forced, and had settled in what became Caldwell 
 county, where they built a town called Far West. 
 In this and adjoining counties they are said to have 
 
THE MOR^ION WAR 59 
 
 opened two thousand farms ; and the most conserv- 
 ative estimate places their number in Caldwell 
 county in 1838 at four thousand persons, the whole 
 population of the county being not more than five 
 thousand. A thinly disguised hostility — founded in 
 part, it was said, on the desire of some of the Gen- 
 tiles to get possession of the Mormons' lands — con- 
 tinued to mark the relations of the two parties, until, 
 in 1838, the attack of an armed mob (according to 
 the Mormons' view) or of a sheriff's posse, in ex- 
 ecution of due process of the courts (according to 
 the Gentile version), precipitated an armed conflict. 
 Once begun, the conflict was made the occasion to 
 expel the Mormons entirely from Missouri soil. 
 The militia was called out by Gov. Boggs ; the Mor- 
 mons resisted, and at first gained some slight suc- 
 cesses. Then a proclamation was issued calling for 
 volunteers from central and western Missouri ; and 
 in the face of the overwhelming numbers against 
 them, the Mormons were obliged to surrender their 
 arms, give up their leaders for trial, and withdraw 
 from the State. 
 
 Blame for the outbreak of the struggle must be 
 shared in fairly equal parts by ]\Iormon and Gentile ; 
 but the tenets and practices of these "Latter Day 
 Saints" were so obnoxious to the people of ^lissouri 
 that, when the struggle was once begun, a wave of 
 enthusiasm for the war swept over the State. In 
 central Missouri the response to the call for volun- 
 teers was particularly marked. In Pettis county a 
 company of cavalry was raised, and in this Mr. 
 
6o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Smith enrolled as a private, refusing any higher 
 post. The company twice marched to Carroll county 
 and back, and endured some hardships ; it was not 
 engaged in action, for the Mormon surrender took 
 place the very day the Pettis county troop arrived in 
 camp. The company was kept under arms for a 
 month, after which it was disbanded. In order to be 
 better prepared for future emergencies, Gov. Boggs 
 reorganized the state militia ; and George R. Smith 
 was offered and accepted the position of Brigadier- 
 General in command of the troops of Cooper, Ben- 
 ton, Pettis, and Saline counties. This organization 
 was largely due to the fear that the Mormons would 
 not quietly abide by their agreement. Though this 
 fear proved groundless the militia organization was 
 kept up for many years, meeting regularly on the 
 ''muster days," which not only served as occasions 
 for drilling the troops, but as a means to facilitate 
 social intercourse among the farmers of the sparsely 
 settled country. It was from this commission in the 
 State militia that Mr. Smith, in accordance with 
 Southern custom, was given the title of General by 
 which in after life he was universally addressed, 
 both in public and in private. 
 
 General Smith's absorption in business did not pre- 
 vent him from taking an eager and an active inter- 
 est throughout life in political matters. By charac- 
 ter, early training, and marriage connections alike, 
 he was a liberal, if not a radical in politics ; and we 
 find him adhering, in every contingency, to that one 
 of the two parties which, under various names, has 
 
MADE BRIGADIER-GENERAL 6t 
 
 always represented the more liberal, nationalizing 
 element. At first a National Republican, he became 
 a Whig when that party arose. When the Whig 
 party broke into pieces on the slavery question, he 
 became a member of the American or "Know 
 Nothing" party. And when palliatives failed and the 
 inevitable conflict came, he became a Republican in 
 the later sense. Judged from the standpoint of prin- 
 ciple, his political career was singularly consistent 
 throughout. At every epoch he stood for a broad 
 interpretation of the constitution ; for a strong na- 
 tional government ; for a policy favorable to banks, 
 internal improvements, and manufactures ; and for 
 the Union as against the States. 
 
 Col. Richard M. Johnson — who, for more than a 
 score of years was Representative and United 
 States Senator from Kentucky, and was in 1837 
 chosen by his colleagues of the Senate to be Vice- 
 President with Van Buren — was a relative of Gen- 
 eral Smith's wife, and lived on an adjoining farm in 
 Kentucky. Mr. Smith was well acquainted with Colo- 
 nel Johnson, and the story goes that just before the 
 migration to Missouri, Johnson, who was an ardent 
 Democrat, said to Mr. Smith : "Now, George, when 
 you go to Missouri, if you will only turn your coat, 
 and get on the right side of politics, you may one 
 day become President of the United States." ^ This 
 
 ^ An anecdote told by one of Mr. Smith's early school-fellows and 
 comrades shows the young man's relations with the Johnsons, and at 
 the same time is interesting because of its allusion to a once-famous 
 poem. "When he [Smith] was acting I think as deputy sheriff of Scott 
 county," says this informant, " R. J. Ward, a lawyer, legislator, etc., a 
 
62 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 admonition, half serious, half jocular, no doubt, 
 Mr. Smith indignantly resented. The story well 
 illustrates his positive character, especially where 
 principle was concerned. It was in large part this 
 unwillingness to deviate one inch from what he con- 
 sidered to be the path of political probity in the ad- 
 vocacy of unpopular views, that cost him again and 
 again the suffrages of his fellow citizens and led to 
 his passing his life in comparative political ob- 
 scurity. 
 
 In 1836 Mr. Smith was elected justice of the 
 peace, and the same year he was the candidate of the 
 "Old Line Whig Party" to represent Pettis county 
 in the legislature. Charles E. Cravens, the sitting 
 member, was his opponent ; and as the Democrats 
 outnumbered the Whigs two to one in the county, 
 Cravens was successful, though Mr. Smith made a 
 spirited and creditable canvass. In the presidential 
 campaign of 1840 — in some ways the most remark- 
 able one that our country has ever experienced — 
 General Smith took an active part. In order to keep 
 his party organization intact, though with little hope 
 
 nephew of Col. R. M. Johnson and a very popular young man, gave a 
 card and wine party during a term of court to all the lawyers, etc. 
 George was invited ; it was in the days of our youth. One Emmons was 
 present, who had recently published a poem extremely eulogistic of Col. 
 Johnson, to whose coat tail he was hanging. G. S. became very deeply 
 interested in a game he was playing for amusement, and forgetful of his 
 surroundings (many of the Johnsons being present) as he threw a card, 
 exclaimed: ' Rumpsy, bumpsy. Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh,' quot- 
 ing from the poem of Emmons a sentence all were familiar with. So kind 
 was his heart, so far was he from a willingness to wound those whose 
 hospitality he was enjoying, he could scarce forgive his inadvertence." 
 (John Allen Gano, Sr., July i6, 1881.) 
 
POLITICAL VIEWS 63 
 
 of being elected, he again undertook to make the 
 race for representative. As in the former contest, 
 he was defeated, though now as before, his personal 
 popularity and effectiveness as a public speaker en- 
 abled him to run ahead of his ticket. 
 
 Of the plans conceived and expectations enter- 
 tained by the Whigs at the national capital, as the 
 presidential election of 1840 drew near, Mr. Smith 
 was apprised in the following letter, dated Washing- 
 ton, January 28, 1839, from Col. James H. Birch, 
 one of the Missouri members of Congress : 
 
 You will have seen from the papers that but little 
 business of general interest has, even as yet, been 
 transacted in either house of Congress, the sub- 
 treasury defalcations and the manner of renewing 
 the official connection between the government and 
 the "monster" [United States Bank] having occu- 
 pied almost as exclusive attention within as without 
 the walls of the Capitol. To compensate, in some 
 degree at least, for this dearth of mere law-making, 
 the Whigs have reason to congratulate themselves 
 and the country that never in the history of the gov- 
 ernment has the triumph of an opposition been more 
 signally exemplified, nor the waning prospect of an 
 administration more unerringly denoted, than in the 
 manner of appointment and subsequent composi- 
 tion of the Swartwout committee. Having every 
 desirable facility for obtaining reliable information 
 from the most eminent political sources and circles, 
 I feel authorized to repeat that enough is known 
 already to arouse and startle the honest-minded 
 of all parties, and of itself to cause the overthrow of 
 a dozen administrations having no stronger hold on 
 the moral sense of their constituency than this one 
 
64 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 has — ^particularly when the official development, 
 which I have no doubt will be wisely evolved and 
 spread before the country, shall place it beyond the 
 power of the Globe or its allies to gainsay or fritter 
 them away. 
 
 If, however, anything were still wanting to ren- 
 der more certain and indubitable the displacement 
 of the corrupt and the corrupting banditti who have 
 gotten hold of the government, it is gratifyingly 
 furnished in the gradual abatement of the appre- 
 hensions heretofore founded on an anticipated 
 rivalry between the respective friends of General 
 Harrison and Mr. Clay. 
 
 It is now very generally conceded by the intelli- 
 gent and reflecting portions of every personal di- 
 vision of the opposition, that sound policy but con- 
 curs with strict justice in indicating a magnanimous 
 and strenuous effort in favor of rendering to the 
 former distinguished citizen the honor, and to the 
 country the advantage, of the single term to which 
 he has publicly restricted his period of magistracy. 
 Than Henry Clay himself, no man in the Union will 
 be more advantageously availed of the successful 
 fulfilment of this purpose. I have heard him and 
 seen him with the other giants of the Senate, and 
 while all things considered I regard him as the 
 ablest and the noblest of them all, I am not only 
 certain that his time is not now, but that it will 
 as surely arrive in '44 as that General H. will judi- 
 ciously administer the government during his term, 
 and thus commend a continuation of Whig policy. 
 
 Mr. Rives of \^irginia, and Mr. Talmadge of 
 New York, are severally and most prominently 
 spoken of in connection with the Vice Presidency, 
 and as the Conservatives are now fully and fairly 
 allied with us (at least so far as concerns the ejec- 
 tion of Mr. V. B. and the defeat of his leading 
 
ELECTION OF HARRISON 65 
 
 measure) it is perhaps but evincing a proper spirit 
 of reciprocity that the selection of the second of- 
 ficer be made from their ranks. Mr. Rives being the 
 more eminent and able man of the two, and being 
 withal a slaveholder, the propriety of presenting 
 at least as acceptable a ticket as our adversaries in 
 reference to this interminable excitement will be 
 too apparent to permit any hesitation as to the most 
 proper selection. 
 
 The news of the election of Harrison caused 
 widespread rejoicing among the Whigs ; for it was 
 their first presidential victory, indeed the first elec- 
 tion to that office for many years that had been 
 carried by any candidate of broad-construction and 
 nationalizing views. The sentiments of the Smith- 
 Thomson connection may be gathered from a letter 
 from Manlius V. Thomson, with whom Mr. Smith 
 was usually in full political harmony. "On the 
 subject of politics," he writes from Kentucky, Jan- 
 uary 18, 1841, "I think it must be admitted that we 
 have given the 'Loco-Focos' [Democrats] the most 
 awful drubbing that any party ever received, just 
 about such a one as they deserved. You can't imag- 
 ine how tame they are in Kentucky, especially in 
 the neighborhood of the Great Crossings. Certain 
 people are now quite polite to me, who were wont 
 to be quite distant and cold. They even acknowl- 
 edge I am kin to them." 
 
 Success achieved at the polls, efiforts were at 
 once made to procure the spoils of victory. General 
 Smith first comes into this movement late in No- 
 vember, 1840, as the recipient of a circular letter 
 
66 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 from the Tippecanoe Club of Howard county, urg- 
 ing that the Whigs of Missouri, in behalf of Colonel 
 J. H. Birch, the chairman of their State Central com- 
 mittee, try to secure for him the position of Commis- 
 sioner of the Land Office at Washington. This was 
 expected to prove ''one of the most effectual means 
 of appropriating and improving the victory, even 
 in Missouri," as it would materially assist the lan- 
 guishing Whig cause in that State by placing "the 
 club of Benton in our hands." The letter was 
 sent to General Smith's individual address, rather 
 than to that of the local Whig organization, "as well 
 to avoid the espionage of the post-office, as from 
 the conviction amongst the friends of Colonel B. 
 that it could not be sent to any gentleman in your 
 county, more likely to give it that necessary and 
 prompt attention and direction, without which its 
 object, and our object, may be defeated." 
 
 Mr. Smith was already on terms of political in- 
 timacy with Colonel Birch, as is evidenced by let- 
 ters received from him during the years 1839 ^^^ 
 '40; and he willingly furthered the latter's applica- 
 tion by all the means that lay within his power, as 
 is shown by the following letter : 
 
 FayeUe, December 3 [1840]. 
 
 Dear General : Returning yesterday evening, I 
 met your most kind and flattering letter "per Judge 
 Brown," and regret that the hurry and complexity 
 of my engagements will not permit me to write you 
 a long and "good letter" of thanks for the past 
 and promises for the future. Surely no man has 
 better, more indulgent, or manly-minded friends 
 
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE 67 
 
 than I have "the State over" ; for I have met with 
 nothing but kindness and co-operation in reference 
 to this design of associating me with the adminis- 
 tration at Washington. BeHeve me, my dear friend, 
 a recollection of this, and a desire, which has now 
 ripened into a passion, to see Missouri throw off 
 the bad men who have trodden on her for years, 
 will stimulate me to be "more than myself" in what- 
 ever department of the public service may be made 
 acceptable to me. 
 
 Be pleased to make to General Thomson my most 
 grateful acknowledgments for the kindness and 
 confidence implied in his letter to General Harrison ; 
 and add that the service will be complete if, when 
 I am in that position in the administration in which 
 my opinions will be called for in reference to men 
 and measures in Missouri, I may have, from time 
 to time, the preliminary advice of such men as he 
 and yourself. I shall expect this, particularly, in 
 reference to all local appointments. In reference 
 to you yourself, personally, I hope I need not pro- 
 test my readiness to serve you — in any proper 
 manner. 
 
 Your kindness in showing the letter of the club 
 here to General Thomson, and his kindness in 
 writing to the President, suggests the practicability 
 of your being able to serve me still further in a 
 similar way. Many of the letters I have are from 
 gentlemen in different parts of the State to their 
 friends in one or the other House of Congress, in 
 speaking of and urging my association with the ad- 
 ministration in such terms and by such arguments 
 as are dictated by their feelings and their judg- 
 ment. You may have some such friend, General 
 Thomson may have some, and numerous acquaint- 
 ances may have such. Such letters, as they will 
 evince the strength and generality of the desire of 
 
68 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the Whigs of the State, will go far to sustain me 
 against any rivalry with which I may meet. Will 
 you be good enough to turn your eyes a little in that 
 direction? Let any letter you may procure to be 
 written to members be sent direct to Washington, 
 and be kind enough to advise me, by letter to that 
 place, who has been written to, and by whom. Let- 
 ters to General Harrison will be surest to reach him 
 at Cincinnati. I believe I have already said that I 
 shall start in ten or twelve days, taking Cincinnati 
 and Frankfort in my route. If you have time, I will 
 be pleased to have a line from you before I start. 
 Very truly, your friend, 
 
 J. H. Birch. 
 
 Into the contest for office, Mr. Smith himself en- 
 tered. More than two years before, he had written 
 to his Democratic friend and former neighbor, Vice- 
 President Johnson, asking his influence to secure 
 the position of Receiver of Public Moneys, or of 
 Register of Land Titles, at Fayette, Mo. In both 
 particulars his application had failed, owing to the 
 reappointment of the incumbents ; otherwise, wrote 
 Colonel Johnson, "it would have given me pleasure 
 to have recommended you for either office." Now 
 that his own party was in the ascendency, he again 
 sought office, and joined his fortunes to those of 
 Colonel Birch. The following passage from a letter 
 of Manlius V. Thomson, under date of January i8, 
 1841, illustrates the efforts made by General Smith 
 in response to the foregoing letter, and the pros- 
 pects at that time entertained of their joint success: 
 
 Colonel Birch passed through here about the first 
 
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE 69 
 
 inst. and I gave him seven or eight letters to Mr. 
 Clay and our other members of Congress. So far 
 as my influence can go, it shall be exerted on his 
 behalf to the fullest extent. And in so doing I 
 suppose I am promoting the views of yourself and 
 Morton in reference to the land offices spoken of. 
 He has concluded to prefer his claims to be Com- 
 missioner of the General Land Office, and in case 
 of his appointment (which I think is quite prob- 
 able), I judge you can have matters pretty much 
 your own way in regard to the offices which you 
 desire. 
 
 I have not written to General Harrison, Mr. Clay, 
 or anyone else in reference to your wishes on the 
 subject, because it is understood that General Har- 
 rison is decidedly displeased by such early solici- 
 tations for office, and consequently I should have 
 injured your cause by writing to him. Besides, 
 there is no use in writing to Mr. Clay and others on 
 the subject until they can approach the President 
 advantageously. When the proper time arrives, I 
 will write not only to General Harrison, but Mr. 
 Clay, Mr. Crittenden, and others who will probably 
 be able to exert some influence in your behalf. It 
 would be well for pa to write to General Harrison, 
 too, as he is fond of his old comrades in arms, and 
 especially those of Johnson's regiment, who were 
 disposed to do him justice in the late canvass. I 
 know that he recollects pa well, because he made 
 inquiries of me about him and I told him where he 
 lived, what his politics were, etc., etc. You had 
 better write yourself to John J. Crittenden, too, as 
 you were well acquainted with him, and he will 
 probably remain at Washington as Attorney-Gen- 
 eral. I do not doubt he would promote your views 
 with great cheerfulness. Let all your letters reach 
 Washington about the first of March. 
 
70 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Webster will be Secretary of State, Ewing Post- 
 master-General, the other Cabinet ministers not yet 
 certainly agreed on. Mr. Clay will take no office, 
 but will remain in the Senate for a year or two, 
 for the purpose of adjusting the tariff, passing his 
 land bill, and establishing a National Bank. He 
 will then retire and be a candidate for the succession. 
 
 President Harrison's death just one month after 
 his inauguration carried with it the downfall of 
 many hopes, and seriously affected those of Colonel 
 Birch and Mr. Smith. 
 
 When Tyler succeeded to the presidency it be- 
 came a question what his attitude would be toward 
 Whig measures and Whig party rewards. What 
 that actually was, is well known ; but as illustrating 
 the effect of the change on Mr. Smith's prospects 
 of securing office, the following letters may be cited : 
 
 The first is from M. V. Thomson, and is dated 
 February i8, 1842: 
 
 Soon after I reached home, in the month of 
 September, I renewed my solicitations to the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, Mr. Crittenden, Governor 
 Morehead, and others, in reference to your views 
 about the land office at Springfield, and when I left 
 in the month of October for Mississippi, I had not 
 received any replies to my letters. Indeed, I have 
 never yet had an answer from any of them except 
 Mr. Morehead, who informed me that Tyler had 
 wholly separated himself from the Whigs, and that 
 neither he nor any person who held to the true Whig 
 faith could exercise any influence with the Presi- 
 dent or heads of departments, or procure the ap- 
 pointment of any friend to an office. Efforts were 
 
TYLER AND THE WHIGS 71 
 
 made as long as it was thought they would do any 
 good, and then the President was given up with 
 contempt and scorn. Since the date of your last let- 
 ter, and since I have been at Frankfort, I have made 
 another effort to get you the Springfield office 
 through the agency of Judge Underwood and C. A. 
 Wickliffe. I wrote to Underwood myself, and got 
 Colonel Hodges of this place, who has always been 
 a particular friend of Wickliffe, to write to him. 
 Judge U. writes me that he fears he can do nothing 
 for you, as he is not in favor at court ; and Mr. 
 Wickliffe has not replied at all. The Judge will, 
 however, do what he can, but candor compels me to 
 say that I think the case rather hopeless. Neverthe- 
 less, I shall continue to look after the matter and ac- 
 complish your object for you, if possible. 
 
 The second letter is from John Wilson, one of the 
 regular Whig leaders of Missouri in this period; it 
 is dated at Fayette, August 4, 1842 : 
 
 I am at home again [he writes], after an ab- 
 sence of eight months. I have, of course, lost the 
 run of political aft'airs in our State. Indeed, from 
 all I see it were better so to be at present, both as 
 to State and national politics. Things are all going 
 to the d — 1 ; as to whose fault, that is a different 
 question. I spent much time last summer and fall 
 at Washington during the fiercest contest for polit- 
 ical ascendency ever fought in the Union by the 
 leaders of that contest. I was an eye-witness, in 
 fact to a slight degree an actor. I gave all my 
 aid, until the second veto, in favor of a reconcilia- 
 tion of the Whigs and the President ; that desirable 
 result would have been effectually secured but for 
 a coup de main of the Locos in going in a body to 
 worship (as it appeared) him. He being a weak 
 
72 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 and vain old simpleton, this made him believe that 
 he was the first of mankind ; and from that day he 
 resolved on a course, as self-willed as it is dishon- 
 orable, of leaving his friends who placed him there ; 
 and thereby has rendered himself not only a dis- 
 grace to the station which he fills, but dishonorable 
 to him as a man; and when he has found out that 
 both parties scorn such a traitor, he recklessly ad- 
 ministers the government on principles more dis- 
 honest and disreputable than has any other man in 
 the nation. I am glad to learn that there is some 
 probability (for I fear it is only probability) of 
 your getting the land office at Springfield. If I 
 can serve you in any way in the matter (except 
 going to the President — for that I would not do, as 
 I consider him a knave), command me. You know 
 I have not been a very strong Clay man for years, 
 although as to Mr. C.'s leading measures I am and 
 always expect to be with him ; but now I see no 
 other man around whom the friends of a National 
 Bank and tariff can so well rally, and therefore 
 I am for Clay. I have objections, and one of the 
 most prominent is that he is grown very absolute 
 and dogmatical, from long abuse. His patronage 
 will, too, go into the hands of personal friends, so 
 I believe, and these are strong objections to any 
 president. But then the country is now destroyed, 
 and will so remain if we get not a bank and tarifif; 
 and therefore as he is in my opinion most likely to 
 succeed on these measures, I am for him, or any 
 other good Whig who shall be taken up by the 
 Whigs. I do not write to engage you in politics ; 
 for if you get that office, as I hope you will, it will 
 be not only your duty, but I am sure also your in- 
 clination, to cease to meddle in elections. 
 
 In spite of the unfavorable prophecy in his broth- 
 
PROSPECTS OF OFFICE 73 
 
 er-in-law's letter — colored doubtless by partisanship 
 for President Tyler's chief antagonist, Mr. Clay — 
 General Smith's prospects, as they turned out, were 
 by no means hopeless. On June 14, 1841, before 
 the breach between the President and the Whig 
 members of Congress had become irreparable. 
 Col. J. H. Birch was able to write Mr. Smith from 
 Washington that circumstances continued to ''jus- 
 tify the belief that everything I have recommended 
 will be done — but as to how I am to come out my- 
 self there is probably more doubt." And again, 
 under date of August 29 — not many days after the 
 veto of the first bank bill — the same correspondent 
 wrote from Fayette as follows : 
 
 As it was "all arranged" in reference to your ap- 
 pointment as Register at Springfield before I left 
 Washington, I have looked for its official announce- 
 ment every mail, and can only account for the delay 
 on the ground that many older nominations have 
 not yet been reached by the Senate. So it is ; you 
 may regard it as certain, together with all the other 
 nominations I made to the President. In reference 
 to yourself as well as the others, I did not hesitate 
 to assure him that you would not embarrass him in 
 the contingency which has been forced upon him, 
 and which is so utterly repugnant to the spirit of the 
 compromises at Harrisburg. I did not believe you 
 were a Federalist, and that no matter what your in- 
 dividual opinions might be, you would at least act 
 in that spirit of good faith to others who helped to 
 fight the battle as to respect such at least as were 
 matters of conscience with them, tho' not with you. 
 I am gratified that I have heard nothing to induce 
 
74 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 any regret in reference to the pledge with which 
 I stand connected with the President. 
 
 Having faithfully fulfilled every duty growing 
 out of my general or personal relations to the Whig 
 party or its members, I feel the less embarrassed, 
 in the split which has been forced upon it, in taking 
 my stand where my education, principles, and sym- 
 pathies all point out ; and amongst the Whigs of the 
 State I know none with whom it would grieve me 
 more to differ than George R. Smith. 
 
 For some reason — perhaps owing to the increased 
 tension between Congress and the Executive which 
 followed the veto on September 9, 1841, of the bank 
 bill — the appointment was not at this time made, 
 nor was this particular office ever given to Mr. 
 Smith. The failure, however, seems not to have 
 been due to any dissatisfaction with his qualifica- 
 tions or politics, or to any cooling toward him of his 
 political friends. Under date of December 11, 1841, 
 Colonel Birch, then on the eve of a second departure 
 for Washington, wrote : 
 
 I know not how I may find affairs now in refer- 
 ence to the offices at Springfield, but I write to say 
 that I shall continue to assure the President that 
 your appointment, besides being proper and popular 
 in itself, will by no means embarrass him in refer- 
 ence to the Republican measures of his adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 Soon after his return Colonel Birch wrote again, 
 under date of April 20, 1842, mentioning for the 
 first time the office to which Mr. Smith was eventu- 
 ally appointed : 
 
PROSPECTS OF OFFICE 75 
 
 Shortly after my arrival at Washington it was 
 agreed that Mr. Vaughan (an old neighbor and 
 friend of the President), must have the Register's 
 place at Springfield, and Mr. Cady (late of the Bul- 
 letin), that at Palmyra. Your own claims and those 
 of Mr. Allen were under discussion for the Receiv- 
 ership at Springfield about the time your letter (un- 
 der cover to Morehead) came to hand. This I for- 
 warded (handed) to the President, along with an 
 endorsement of my own, to the effect that you were 
 one of the original nominations I had made, and 
 that I would again call his attention to it as the 
 time approached for filling the place. This will be 
 either when Campbell is nominated for Congress 
 (and resigns) or when his time expires, which will 
 be the 21st day of January next. At one of these 
 times, or the other, if you remain as denoted by your 
 letter which I handed him, you will be appointed 
 Receiver. Your other letter (from St. Louis) never 
 reached me. 
 
 Whether it will be better for you to strengthen 
 your application or not, I can only answer by say- 
 ing that a man can not be too strong. I have told 
 the President, in so many words, that you were able 
 to promote the interests of his administration, and 
 too honorable to accept (much less solicit, or per- 
 mit your friends to solicit) an office from him, with- 
 out having the concurrence of your judgment and 
 feelings to do so. Unless contrariwise informed, I 
 shall repeat this assurance to him when I again 
 write (as promised) at the proper time. I have not 
 yet deceived him in that respect, and I know you 
 have too high and reciprocal a regard for your own 
 and for my honor, to permit my assurance in any 
 respect to be falsified. 
 
 To the encouraging reports given by Colonel 
 
76 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 i 
 
 Birch, the following was added by his brother, Wes- 
 ton F. Birch, in a letter written June 22, 1842, on J 
 his way home from Washington : 
 
 It is my decided and honest opinion you will be 
 appointed. I talked to the President on the sub- 
 ject. He recollected you as having been presented 
 by J. H. Birch ; asked me to leave a written state- 
 ment of my conversation, which I did, and handed 
 to him from my own hands. He assured me he 
 would give it his attention. 
 
 When I see you I will tell you a good deal. 
 
 In spite of the favorable prospect thus depicted, 
 when the appointment was finally made it was found 
 that another ^'General Smith" was named for the 
 place. This miscarriage, as it turned out, was due 
 to mistaken identity ; and when this fact became 
 suspected, George R. Smith determined on a trip 
 to Washington, in order to push in person his claims 
 to some office under Tyler's administration. In this 
 resolve he was supported by the advice of W. F. 
 Birch, who wrote him (January 27, 1843) • ''You 
 shall be let right square into all things, here and at 
 Washington. I will inclose you such a letter to 
 Ellis and Colonel Churchill as will make this sure." 
 This promise was faithfully fulfilled ; and Mr. 
 Smith's reception at Washington was satisfactory, 
 as is shown by a letter from W. F. Birch, dated 
 March 24, 1843 • 
 
 I received your letter from Washington of the 4th 
 [he says], in due time, and another from St. ■ 
 Louis of the 19th, by last night's mail. I am truly 
 
APPOINTED RECEIVER yj 
 
 delighted with the reception you met with from the 
 President, and more with the answer he gave you 
 in relation to your supposed appointment at Spring- 
 field. It turns out just as I expected and believed 
 from the first. By the mail which will leave here on 
 Monday morning, being the first, I will write to the 
 President in no equivocal style, and you must per- 
 mit me to hope that all will turn out right. The 
 President, I am sure, will do justice in this and in 
 every other case, when correctly informed. 
 
 The result of these efforts was that the office 
 given the other General Smith was vacated, and 
 then (April 15, 1843), General George R. Smith 
 was at last given the post of Receiver of Public 
 Moneys at Springfield, Missouri. 
 
 From the foregoing letters it would seem that the 
 only obligations General Smith had taken upon him- 
 self in regard to Tyler were, in the first place, "not 
 to embarrass him [the President] in reference to the 
 Republican measures of his administration" — that 
 is, not actively to oppose him because of his strict- 
 constructionist interpretation of the Constitution ; 
 and secondly, in a general though undefined man- 
 ner, to "promote the interests of his administra- 
 tion." In view of the circumstances of the election 
 in 1840, these were pledges which a good Whig 
 might consistently give. That election was fought 
 and won by a combination of Whigs and anti-Van 
 Buren Democrats (or Republicans), of whom Tyler 
 was one, after a campaign in which questions of 
 constitutional principle were sedulously kept in the 
 background, in order that the latent differences be- 
 
78 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 tween the two elements might have no opportunity 
 to develop. President Tyler, therefore, though far 
 from presenting a heroic or statesman-like figure, 
 could not be accused of bad faith in entertaining 
 strict-constructionist views on the questions of in- 
 ternal improvements, a bank, and a protective tariff. 
 His views were what they had always been; and 
 he could not be deemed morally blameworthy for 
 acting on his convictions, now that chance or destiny 
 had placed him in a position where some action 
 was necessary. Moreover, Clay and the Whig lead- 
 ers generally were clearly in the wrong in trying to 
 domineer over the President as they did. Tyler was 
 by no means alone responsible for the breach in the 
 ranks of those who won the election of 1840; and 
 it was quite possible for a good Whig so far to sym- 
 pathize with the President, in the position in which 
 he was placed, as to be willing to take office under 
 him and pledge him that negative support to which 
 alone General Smith was committed. 
 
 This, however, was not all that Tyler's satellites 
 wished to extort from Federal officeholders. Almost 
 from the moment of his accidental succession to the 
 Presidency, Mr. Tyler was possessed of a desire to 
 secure a second term, and his political managers and 
 adherents consistently set to work to achieve this. 
 Col. J. H. Birch seems to have been an exception to 
 the rule in this particular. Immediately after his 
 own appointment, in 1843, ^^ Register of the Land 
 Office at Plattsburg, Missouri, he wrote Mr. Smith 
 (April 7) that he was ''determined to live within 
 
TYLER MANGEUVERS 79 
 
 the spirit as well as the decency of the rule respect- 
 ing officeholders" ; and that in his new office he 
 would "have neither time nor inclination for pol- 
 itics." 1 
 
 The active Tyler managers, however, were deter- 
 mined to secure for their chief the coveted second 
 term, even at the cost of open and complete surren- 
 der to the Democrats ; and to their attempts Federal 
 officeholders were now exposed. 
 
 Dr. Silas Reed, Surveyor-General for Missouri, 
 wrote General Smith from St. Louis, May 20, 1843, 
 as follows : 
 
 Your letter of the 19th April came to hand some 
 time since, but found me so overwhelmed with offi- 
 cial duties that I put off answering it from day to 
 day, until this time. In the meantime, however, I 
 took care to write our friends at Washington in 
 your behalf, and so also did Mr. Ellis. I had a 
 conversation with the President the day before I left 
 Washington (21st March) relative to you, and said 
 all it was proper for me to say. I have now to con- 
 
 ^ Colonel Birch felt keenly the criticism which was passed by Whigs 
 upon his political course. In a letter dated May 13, 1843, he wrote : "You 
 know in the first place, that it was but natural for me to be a Tyler Whig, 
 after my course on General Jackson's veto and my uniform opposition to 
 any bank similarly constituted. It was fortunate, moreover, in the way 
 of getting out some of the old officers and getting other and better ones 
 in their places, that I did stand in the relation to the Whig party and 
 also to the President that I did. Yet some of the disappointed and un- 
 reflecting are (most probably) doing all in their power to prejudice Crit- 
 tenden and Morehead against me, notwithstanding all I have done and 
 am yet doing (in my own way) to bring about a change of things in Mis- 
 souri. ... I should be deeply mortified, after having got several 
 Whigs appointed to office in this State, and having several more on the 
 road, to have my rejection by a Whig Senate thrown up to me by Loco 
 Focos." 
 
8o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 gratulate you on being appointed as Receiver at 
 Springfield, which is a most important, excellent, 
 and honorable office, and if I do not mistake your 
 character, I think you will satisfy the President and 
 his friends that his confidence is not misplaced in 
 your case. I hope you will stir them up in and 
 about Springfield, and do not allow yourself to feel 
 under too much restraint in the expression of your 
 opinions in favor of the President merely because 
 you have taken office. Your own good judgment 
 will determine you how far it will be proper to go. 
 
 Let us know what the Register is about as soon 
 as you become fully acquainted with his views and 
 preferences. 
 
 If the President's friends are energetic and move 
 discreetly, they will secure his nomination by the 
 National [Democratic] Convention in May, 1844; 
 and it is best to take a conciliatory course toward 
 Calhovm's and Johnson's friends, as they will aid us 
 in laying Van Buren upon the shelf. 
 
 We are, however, organizing a Tyler Democratic 
 association here, and thus do all we can for the 
 man we prefer, until after the decision of the Na- 
 tional Convention. 
 
 I shall be pleased to hear from you often, and 
 shall now have more leisure to reply promptly. 
 
 The following letter is from V. Ellis, who was 
 editor of the Old School Democrat and a leading 
 support of Tyler in Missouri ; it is dated at St. 
 Louis, June 3, 1843 • 
 
 You can form no idea of the hurry and confusion 
 I am in, trying to arrange my affairs to go East. I 
 have fifty letters lying by me unanswered. I will 
 see Dr. R. and converse with him on the subject of 
 J. D. Hogan and Colonel Thomson as agents for the 
 
TYLER MANCEUVERS 8i 
 
 Sioux and Osage Indians. I can not say what can be 
 done ; these are difficult matters to handle ; we must 
 have patience as well as hope. 
 
 Bear one thing in mind, that is that whilst I may 
 not always find time to answer your letters prompt- 
 ly, I shall always note their contents, and do all that 
 can be done to gratify your wishes. I have given 
 you proof that I am not idle in matters connected 
 with the President's interests. If things don't go 
 right it shan't be my fault. 
 
 We have much to do in Missouri, and we have an 
 artful foe to combat. Whilst our flag flies for Tyler 
 and we keep his name always on our tongues, we 
 must pull hard and strong for Johnson, in order to 
 break down Benton. Johnson is the only man in 
 Missouri who can carry this State against Van 
 Buren and Benton. W^e must rally on him to help 
 him to do this, and his friends will be available to us 
 in the National Convention. We must go strongly 
 for district elections of delegates to the convention 
 at Baltimore. We must aid the Johnson men to 
 elect delegates in the different counties in each elec- 
 toral district as laid off last winter, to meet at some 
 central point in the district and elect a delegate to 
 the Baltimore convention in May, 1844. 
 
 I hope you will be able to extend the circulation 
 of the Old School Democrat so far as to give light 
 to the extreme border of the section in which you 
 have jurisdiction! As I am acquainted with you 
 and you only in that quarter of Missouri, I corre- 
 spond with no one else in the whole Southwest. I 
 will do what I can toward having your lands sur- 
 veyed, etc., etc. I trust to you to have a talk with 
 Haden and all others in your section. 
 
 The following extract from a letter of W. F. 
 Birch to General Smith, bearing date May 29, 1843, 
 
82 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 may be appended by way of comment on the above 
 letter : 
 
 I hope you and Mr. Haden will make an exertion 
 to circulate the Old School Democrat in the South- 
 west. Generally speaking, the President's course 
 is imperfectly understood, and there is no means of 
 explaining it so well as by the circulation of news- 
 papers friendly to his position and principles. In 
 addition to this, I fear the paper is published at a 
 loss, and until a large subscription can be procured 
 I have not hesitated to contribute in money — deem- 
 ing it proper that several and not one friend should 
 meet it, as Ellis is already poor and unable to throw 
 away a single farthing. 
 
 An effort is being made to cast odium upon all 
 who hold office under the President, and this effort, 
 induced by an improper spirit, I intend to combat 
 by circulating and defending the principles and pol- 
 icy of the administration. When I do this, I defend 
 my own position, and hurl back the anathemas at- 
 tempted to be cast upon us all. In this I hope to 
 have your concurrence. 
 
 Under date of July 5, 1843, marked "Private," 
 Ellis again wrote : 
 
 I am glad to hear favorably from Mr. Haden. Ru- 
 mor says he is a Bentonian-Van Buren man. Such 
 we can not have any fellowship with. I hope you are 
 not mistaken in him. Benton's days are numbered. 
 Van Buren has no chance for the nomination. John- 
 son will sweep Missouri and Illinois, and we must 
 pull in that direction with all our power. Will Mr. 
 Haden openly and unhesitatingly throw off Benton 
 and go for Johnson? Johnson's friends will do 
 "justice to John Tyler" when they got into conven- 
 
TYLER AIANCEUVERS 83 
 
 tion. I am corresponding with him. Go with all 
 your force for district elections of delegates to the 
 Baltimore convention, and Johnson will help us 
 break down Benton when his election comes on 
 again. If we can get district elections of delegates 
 we are safe. Benton will visit the Southwest to put 
 things right in a few weeks. Arouse the people to 
 the true consideration of his daring impudence in 
 this matter ! The Representative mistrust the peo- 
 ple ! That is a beautiful idea ! 
 
 I do not know what can be done in the way of 
 Indian agencies, there are so many applicants and 
 so few vacancies. But communicate freely your 
 wishes, and it shall not be my fault if things do not 
 work right. Select Democrats in all cases, and such 
 as are opposed to Benton. 
 
 The following letter from Dr. Reed, dated Janu- 
 ary 12, 1844, and similarly marked "Private," gives 
 further evidence of the efforts made to force Gen- 
 eral Smith into complete political subjection: 
 
 I have at last reached your letter of the 6th Sep- 
 tember last, from Springfield. It was received dur- 
 ing my absence at Washington, with numerous 
 others, and filed away until I should find time to 
 answer it and them. My absence of six weeks at a 
 time, when most of my surveyors were returning 
 from the field, and when both my quarterly and an- 
 nual reports were required to be made out, threw me 
 back so far that I was not able to overtake my cur- 
 rent business, and discharge my duty to my private 
 and political friends, until the time arrived for en- 
 gaging in my next quarterly report at the close of 
 last month. Even now I discover in my files before 
 me letters some weeks older than yours, and which 
 really ought to have been answered months since. 
 
84 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 I dislike apologies, and my constant application 
 to business ought to prevent the necessity of ever 
 making any on the score of neglect or delay ; but 
 really the duties of my office are so arduous that I 
 can not do justice to it and my family, without de- 
 lays in my private correspondence. 
 
 I was the more anxious to write you, from the 
 fact of having learned from some quarter that you 
 either thought or had heard that I was unfriendly 
 to you. 
 
 This is not so. Several attempts have been made 
 to induce the belief that you were a Clay Whig in 
 disguise, and possessed no Democratic views or sym- 
 pathies ; in short, that you were not a political friend 
 of Mr. Tyler. To this I never gave ear, for the lit- 
 tle I saw of you at Washington led me to believe 
 that you would not stoop to the practice of duplicity, 
 and that you were in reality what you professed to 
 be. I still think so, and though the restless ultra 
 leaders on both sides may endeavor to throw you 
 overboard, I feel that you may be relied upon as an 
 advocate of Old School Republicanism and a fast 
 friend of our much abused and excellent President. 
 
 I must give you a word as to politics, though you 
 can gather about as much as I can furnish you from 
 the Madisonian. The endorsement of the Globe 
 by the House has proved an insult to the President 
 and his friends, which together with other outrages 
 of the Van Buren men has determined all friends of 
 the Administration to have nothing to do with the 
 Baltimore nominee, if he be Van Buren. The dis- 
 cussions of the tariff question, and the probable con- 
 summation of a treaty with Texas for annexation, 
 will break down M. V. B., and tend to bring for- 
 ward Mr. Tyler, as the champion of Southern and 
 Western interests, and of a practical system of 
 national finance. 
 
TYLER MANCEUVERS 85 
 
 If the current of events this winter does not in- 
 duce the Democratic party to nominate Mr. Tyler, 
 I think his friends will insist upon his running as 
 an independent candidate, and thereby carry the 
 election to the House, an event greatly to be depre- 
 cated, but preferable to the despotic rule of an irre- 
 sponsible Jacobin Club. 
 
 If Mr. Tyler will not allow himself to be run by 
 his friends as an independent candidate, then they 
 have only to stand still and let Van be beaten in a 
 worse manner than he was in 1840. 
 
 There is much opposition making to Mr. Haden, 
 and if he is true to the President, as I believe he is, 
 you must tell him to keep himself right with the 
 President in case he is willing to cut loose from the 
 trickery and machinery that are likely to make M. 
 V. B. the nominee. 
 
 In the meantime, I hope it will be in your power 
 to aid us in sustaining the Old School Democrat 
 and if possible extend its circulation in your vicinity. 
 
 Present my compliments to ]\Ir. Haden and Mr. 
 Joshua Jones, and say to Mr. H. that he is repre- 
 sented at Washington as the organ of Benton and 
 tne clique in the Southwest, but which I do not, of 
 course, believe. 
 
 The two letters following are of interest as show- 
 ing the extent to which the President's own house- 
 hold was concerned in the attempt to enlist Federal 
 officeholders in support of his candidacy for a sec- 
 ond term. The signature to the first letter is that 
 of the President's son. The second is written on 
 the same sheet with the first, and derives additional 
 significance from that fact : 
 
86 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 (Private.) President's House, 27 February, 1844. 
 
 Dear Sir : Accompanying this is a letter from my 
 friend Mr. Abell in relation to his Life of the Presi- 
 dent. The work well merits the countenance of all 
 our friends. It is compiled from the public records 
 and may be relied on for its correctness. It is be- 
 lieved by us to be fully sufficient to refute the many 
 charges made against the President reflecting on his 
 personal character, and its circulation thro'out the 
 country would constitute but a simple act of justice. 
 Any aid, therefore, which you furnish Mr. Abell 
 will be esteemed as a kindness. I wish, however, 
 that you should do nothing inconsistent with your 
 own sense of propriety, and hope you will regard 
 the matter in a private and not a political light. 
 I am, Sir, very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 John Tyler, Jr. 
 
 George R. Smith, Esq., Receiver, Springfield, Mo. 
 
 Washington, February 27, 1844. 
 
 Dear Sir : A life of Mr. Tyler, containing his 
 principal speeches when in Congress, and other pub- 
 lic papers, messages, etc., compiled from the best 
 possible sources, has just been issued by Harper & 
 Brothers, New York. The volume is an octavo, of 
 some 300 pages, finely printed, with a portrait of the 
 President, and in view of the large sale confidently 
 expected is furnished by the publishers at the low 
 price of $50 per hundred. Believing that it will 
 give you pleasure to assist in placing fairly and 
 truthfully before the people the public acts of a man 
 to whose lot has fallen more of calumny and mis- 
 representation than to that of any other in our coun- 
 try, I have no hesitation in asking that you will lend 
 your aid, and procure that also of our friends in 
 your quarter, to ensure a liberal dissemination of 
 
SMITH'S ATTITUDE 87 
 
 the work. Your order sent to me here for such 
 
 number of copies as you may desire, with the 
 
 amount of subscription, will be promptly supplied. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Alex A. Abell. 
 
 (Note on opposite page) : Please address me under 
 cover to Hon. Thos. H. Blake, Commissioner, General 
 Land Office. 
 
 It is difficult, owing to the absence of his own let- 
 ters, either to ascertain General Smith's views of 
 the justice of Tyler's cause, or the attitude which he 
 assumed toward these overtures. On both points 
 the following letter from his brother-in-law, Man- 
 lius V. Thomson, indirectly throws some light ; it is 
 dated October 22, 1843, froit^ Lake Washington, 
 Miss., where he had a plantation: 
 
 Your letter of the 2d inst. was received at George 
 town, Ky., so shortly before I left for this place that 
 I did not find time to reply. It is true as you sup- 
 pose that we were a good deal disappointed at your 
 not visiting us during either of your trips to Ken- 
 tucky, more especially the last, as you had to pass 
 us twice within a day's travel. I suppose, however, 
 that your apology is a good one and that we must 
 take the will for the deed, especially if you make 
 amends when another opportunity offers by paying 
 us a visit that shall count. 
 
 I am glad to hear that Tylerism has made no 
 progress with you, although the Captain [Tyler] 
 has thought proper to give you an appointment. It 
 might be well enough, however, for you to be some- 
 what prudent in your expressions of disgust toward 
 him before those who would report the facts to your 
 injury. The Captain's time is short, but you had as 
 
88 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 well hold on to the end of his term, if you can. 
 Colonel Benton's threat that your nomination 
 should not be confirmed, will be entirely harmless 
 if the matter is properly attended to. I have con- 
 versed with Crittenden and Morehead both on the 
 subject, besides having written sundry letters to 
 them. They will both endeavor to have the nomi- 
 nation confirmed. I shall write to one of them 
 again about the first of December to remind him of 
 the case ; and it would be well for you to do the 
 same in a modest way. 
 
 Mr. Smith was too good a Whig and too down- 
 right a character not to feel strong repulsion at the 
 administration's attempts to lead or force Federal 
 officeholders into the ranks of the Democracy; but 
 this was no good reason why he, a true Whig, ap- 
 pointed after a great Whig triumph, should lay 
 down his office. He continued to be a staunch Whig 
 in politics, but during his continuance in office he 
 doubtless acted with some of that caution now de- 
 manded by the rules of the civil service. It is cer- 
 tain that he continued to be recognized by the Whigs 
 as one of their leaders in his section. As such, dur- 
 ing the campaign of 1844, he was invited by several 
 Whig clubs to deliver addresses before them ; and 
 in particular he was urged, as the representative of 
 his party in Pettis county, to confidential corre- 
 spondence with the St. Louis Clay Club, on all 
 topics connected with the Whig cause in Missouri. 
 
 With the inauguration of a purely Democratic ad- 
 ministration under President Polk, General Smith's 
 tenure of office came to an end. As a Whig, his res- 
 
REMOVAL BY POLK 89 
 
 ignation was at once demanded and presented ; and 
 he was ordered to turn over the funds of his office 
 to his successor. 
 
 Thus closed, for the time, his career as a Federal 
 officeholder. His experience was not altogether a 
 pleasant one, but he had gained much from it. He 
 had widened the circle of his political and personal 
 friends ; he had more firmly established his leader- 
 ship in his own section ; and he had gained an ex- 
 perience of financial operations on a large scale. 
 The future was to test the value of his experience 
 and of his new political connections. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 MAILING AND FREIGHTING CONTRACTS 
 
 (1842 1852) 
 
 Contracts for carrying mail, Jefferson City to Warsaw, 
 and Warsaw to Springfield, 1842 — Manner of life during 
 this period — The mails made tri-weekly — Extra compen- 
 sation refused him — Act for his relief, March 3, 1849 — 
 Further experience with mail contracts — Trip to Wash- 
 ington, 1846 — Letters to his wife and daughter — Secures 
 part of a government freighting contract to Santa Fe, 
 1849 — Sketch of the Santa Fe traffic — Letter to his daugh- 
 ter, 185 1 — Cholera in the train, 1849 — Retires from the 
 freighting business, 1852. 
 
 While he filled the position of Receiver of Pub- 
 lic Moneys at Springfield, General Smith was a busy 
 man. In addition to his duties and responsibilities 
 in that office, he superintended the management of 
 his farm at Georgetown, where his family continued 
 to reside ; this necessitated frequent trips on horse- 
 back between that point and Springfield. He was 
 also engaged in various business speculations, and 
 these, with his political aspirations, made large de- 
 mands upon his time and strength in the way of cor- 
 respondence. But all this proved insufficient to 
 consume his restless energy. To these activities he 
 added yet another, and during the whole of his offi- 
 cial term, and for some months before and after, he 
 
 90 
 
MAIL CONTRACTS 91 
 
 was actively engaged on contracts with the govern- 
 ment for transporting the mails. 
 
 In 1842 he put in a number of bids for mail con- 
 tracts in Missouri. Though he was unsuccessful on 
 many routes, on two he proved to be the lowest bid- 
 der, and was awarded the contracts. These covered 
 the first stages of the newly established route from 
 Jef¥erson City to Fayetteville, Arkansas. The first 
 stage led southwest from Jefferson City to Warsaw, 
 in Benton county, and was about eighty miles in 
 length ; the second led an equal distance almost due 
 south from Warsaw to Springfield, the capital of 
 Greene county, where was the land ofiice in which 
 General Smith was Receiver. The contracts com- 
 menced on the first of January, 1843, ^^^ terminated 
 on the 30th of June, 1846. The mail was to be car- 
 ried twice a week and back, in two-horse post 
 coaches, and the compensation for the service was to 
 be $1,400 and $1,200 a year, respectively. 
 
 The region through which these routes led was a 
 sparsely settled prairie district, and several of the 
 counties into which it is now formed were not yet 
 organized. When General Smith made the first sur- 
 vey over the proposed route he found it necessary 
 to plow a deep furrow, a good part of the distance, 
 to serve as a trail for his carriers ; and this line be- 
 came the chief public road between the points 
 named. Besides carrying the mails, the stages 
 served also to transport passengers. 
 
 Of General Smith's activity in this venture, Mrs. 
 Smith writes : 
 
92 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 The same indefatigable energy in business charac- 
 terized him in this as in all other efforts to make 
 something more than the mere living at farming to 
 which even the most ambitious of our citizens were 
 restricted in that day, hemmed in as they were by 
 the waste of country that separated them, from the 
 Missouri river, by which alone they could find a 
 market for their crops. And the same ardent devo- 
 tion to his little family shone out, if possible, with 
 more than its accustomed force during this time, 
 when storm and tempest, cold and heat, day and 
 night alike, might find him in the saddle, either go- 
 ing to his business at Springfield or returning to his 
 Georgetown home. My mother's health was frail, 
 and she did not wish to leave her parents at George- 
 town. With a keen sense of the responsibility rest- 
 ing upon him, both in his business and domestic re- 
 lations, our father braved all to be with her, regard- 
 less largely of food, sleep, or comfort. While others 
 slept by comfortable fires shut in from the wintry 
 blasts, he was riding through dark and dangerous 
 places, through wide uninhabited districts, often lost 
 in the trackless prairies, over which he had to pass 
 for miles and miles without a glimmer of light, ex- 
 cepting at long intervals a flicker from some log- 
 cabin window, or the gleam of a friendly star steal- 
 ing out for a moment through broken rifts of cloud 
 that hung darkly above. At such times, reaching 
 home at midnight, or in the "wee sma' hours," his 
 voice was tremulous with anxiety until reassured by 
 the actual grasp of our mother's hand, and her voice 
 telling him that all was well with herself and her lit- 
 tle ones. Then shaking off the snow or the sleet 
 from his heavy boots, overcoat and hat, dofling 
 his leggings and the long comforter that was often 
 fastened by icicles to his beard and hair, he would 
 sit by the open log fire recounting in happy mood 
 
MAIL CONTRACTS 93 
 
 the incidents of his trip. The dangers now were 
 trifles and the trials Hght as air. Then he was a 
 happy man ; and while Henry, the faithful slave, 
 was attending to the jaded horse at the stable, our 
 father would grow eloquent before the warm fire, 
 in painting to his wife and children, aroused from 
 their sleep by his entry, the better times that were in 
 store for them. All toil was forgotten, and his sleep 
 after such a trip would be sweet and undisturbed. 
 
 Mails twice a week proved too infrequent, and the 
 Postoffice Department was importuned, in 1844, to 
 make these routes tri-weekly. This fact, and the ap- 
 pearance of a rival competitor for General Smith's 
 contracts, led the First Assistant Postmaster Gen- 
 eral to write, under date of May 7, 1844, as follows : 
 
 Otho Hinton, of St. Louis, Missouri, proposes to 
 transport the mail on routes from Jefferson City to 
 Springfield, Missouri, three times a week, at present 
 pay. Notice of this proposition is hereby given in 
 order to inform you, that unless you will give equal 
 service without additional pay, the Postmaster Gen- 
 eral will transfer the routes to Mr. Hinton. Please 
 advise us of your decision without delay. 
 
 This letter was not received by Mr. Smith until 
 June 16. That same day he wrote the Department 
 in reply, saying: 
 
 I have understood before that Hinton was making 
 some efforts to get my lines. Sooner than I will 
 give up the line to him, I will carry it at the same 
 price ($2,600) three times a week. 
 
 This letter was construed by the Department to 
 
94 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 signify his consent to perform the additional serv- 
 ice without increased compensation. A third trip 
 each week was accordingly ordered by the Depart- 
 ment, and was regularly made by the coaches of 
 General Smith, from the 15th day of August, 1844, 
 to the expiration of his contract with the close of 
 the month of June, 1846. General Smith, however, 
 did not consider that the Department had the right 
 to demand, nor that he had legally consented, that 
 this extra service should be rendered without extra 
 pay; and he made application for additional com- 
 pensation for this work, which was rejected by the 
 Department. Then General Smith carried the mat- 
 ter to Congress ; and finally, after much trouble and 
 delay, a joint resolution of the two houses was, on 
 the very last sessional day of President Polk's ad- 
 ministration, passed and signed granting him the 
 sum of $780 "as full compensation for carrying the 
 mail once per week oftener than originally contract- 
 ed by him" on the routes in question during the 
 period named. ^ 
 
 Twice again General Smith was concerned in mail 
 contracts, and in each instance the connection 
 brought him vexation and annoyance. In Decem- 
 ber, 1850, the death of his friend and business as- 
 sociate, James Brown, of Georgetown, threw upon 
 him a good deal of labor in arranging for the settle- 
 ment of the mail contract from Independence, Mis- 
 
 1 House Report No. 717, 29th Cong, ist Session, Vol. IV; House Re- 
 port No. 103, 30th Cong. 1st Session, Vol. I ; and Act approved March 3, 
 1849. 
 
MAIL CONTRACTS 95 
 
 souri, to Salt Lake City, which Mr. Brown held in 
 connection with S. H. Woodson, of Independence. 
 In this matter General Smith seems to have been 
 concerned only as a friend of the family ; but about 
 the same time he again had experience as principal 
 in mail contracts. Some months before, he bid upon 
 and was awarded contracts for the following routes, 
 all for a period of four years : Jefferson City to 
 Warsaw, 82 miles, tri-weekly; Boonville to Pisgah, 
 2y miles, weekly ; Boonville to Versailles, 46 miles, 
 twice a week ; Boonville to Independence, 120 
 miles, tri-weekly ; -Marshall to Warrensburg, 50 
 miles, weekly ; Lexington to Harrisonville, 50 miles, 
 weekly ; Warsaw to Wagonsville, 80 miles, weekly ; 
 Warsaw to Oceola, 28 miles, twice a w^eek. 
 
 By the time the award was made, General Smith 
 had changed his mind about the contracts for some 
 reason, and did not wish to execute them ; but the 
 Postoffice Department insisted that the w^ork be 
 performed in accordance with the bids he had en- 
 tered. He was obliged to accept the contracts, and 
 apparently to execute them until he could find 
 some one to take them off his hands. It was not 
 until June 5, 1851, that he was rid of the last of 
 them. 
 
 In April, 1846, General Smith made a second trip 
 to Washington, on business connected with his mail 
 contracts. His wife accompanied him to Cincin- 
 nati, where she remained for medical treatment un- 
 til his return. The following letter from General 
 Smith to her at that place, and her reply, are of 
 
96 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 especial interest for the light they throw on the 
 deep and abiding affection which bound together 
 husband and wife : 
 
 Cumberland, Md., 24th April, 1846. 
 My Dear Wife : 
 
 I have just reached this place, and will take the 
 cars at 8 : 00 o'clock to-morrow morning for Wash- 
 ington. If I but knew that you were well I should 
 be contented ; but as it is, I must permit my gloomy 
 forebodings to distract me until I can hear from 
 you. I had only left Cincinnati a very short time 
 before I was wretched because I did not caution 
 you against taking too largely of lobelia, and pros- 
 trating yourself with it. You know how it affected 
 you last summer. . . . Do not continue the 
 steaming too long ; take it by degrees, and when you 
 find that you can stand it (but of this I would be 
 sure), then carry it farther. If you find that it weak- 
 ens you, I would not take the steam. I think you 
 will derive much benefit from riding out every day. 
 Dr. Curtis can make an arrangement for you by 
 which he can secure a carriage for you daily ; that 
 will not cost much. I have said this iDecause I know 
 you will be disposed to economize, — perhaps too 
 much economy. Don't confine yourself, but take 
 exercise, either on foot or in a carriage. Write to 
 me every day or two and let me know how you are 
 getting along. I shall be miserable until I hear from 
 you. 
 
 I had a wretchedly disagreeable trip up the Ohio. 
 We left ten minutes before the Caucasian, a boat 
 that has been running in opposition to the Messen- 
 ger (the boat I travel on) for some weeks. It was 
 a race from the instant we left until we reached 
 Wheeling. Both crowded with passengers, burning 
 tar, rosin, coal, etc., and raising steam as high as 
 
FAMILY LETTERS 97 
 
 their machinery could bear. I expected one or the 
 other to blow up every moment ; they went safe to 
 Wheeling, but they will not go many trips more. 
 Some accident will happen to one or the other be- 
 fore they will be satisfied. You can form some idea 
 of how they did, when I tell you they burnt tar, 
 rosin and coal, from Cincinnati to WheeHng. It was 
 said (whether true or not I do not know) that the 
 Caucasian burnt several barrels of rosin. I would 
 not travel on either again. 
 
 I have had a pleasant trip over the mountains and 
 a very pleasant company, — three ladies and three 
 gentlemen from Lexington, Kentucky, one of them 
 the Rev. Dr. Bascom, with whom I am much 
 pleased. 
 
 To-day I have meditated much upon the events 
 that have occurred in the last nineteen years. This 
 is the anniversary of our wedding day. Nineteen 
 years ago I was by your side, happy in the enjoy- 
 ment of her I prized above every human being upon 
 earth; happy in anticipation of a bright and joyous 
 future. Now I am on the eastern side of the Alle- 
 g-hany mountains, on the head, the very head- 
 waters, of the Potomac, separated by nearly i,ooo 
 miles. Then I was with friends and so were you, 
 you under a father's roof ; now both are among 
 strangers, and separated from friends, the one 
 seeking health, the other how he can best provide 
 for means of administering to the wants and com- 
 forts of a family. O how devoutly I pray that your 
 wishes may be gratified ! 
 
 But I must close ; it is near midnight. Take care 
 of yourself, and let me hear from you as soon as 
 possible. Had you not better write Solon and let 
 him come and attend to you in my absence ? I want 
 you to make up your mind to go to Kentucky on our 
 way home; it is but a day's travel to Georgetown. 
 
98 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 I can not say when I will be in Cincinnati; in my 
 next I will be able to inform you. Give my love to 
 Marion and Ev. ; tell them to write to Betsy and 
 Sarah and give them minute details of their trip. 
 Until you hear from me again, I remain, 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 G. R. Smith. 
 
 P. S. I am so tired after being jolted that I can 
 hardly write. 
 
 The following is Mrs. Smith's reply : 
 
 My Dear Husband : 
 
 I read your letter with mingled emotions of pain 
 and pleasure, joy and regret. Your affectionate al- 
 lusion to the day of our marriage created feelings 
 altogether indescribable. Happy indeed am I to find 
 that those early impressions (though too bright, too 
 ephemeral to last) still retain a place in your mem- 
 ory ! Delusive hope presented to your mind a cloud- 
 less future, a long life of undisturbed happiness, but 
 alas ! your fondest hopes were blasted, your bright- 
 est prospects faded, the joyous visions of youth too 
 early vanished, leaving in their stead the sad reali- 
 ties of life. But should we not look upon our re- 
 verses as blessings in disguise? In what better way 
 could we be brought to a sense of our dependence 
 upon a Supreme Being? "He chasteneth whom He 
 loveth" ; should not this be consolation under all 
 circumstances? Yes, with an unwavering reliance 
 upon the wisdom and goodness of God, we may tri- 
 umph over the darkest trial; we may rejoice in the 
 hour of deepest gloom. 
 
 I hope you will not allow yourself to suffer from 
 unnecessary apprehension. We are doing very well. 
 You need not disturb yourself about my taking too 
 much medicine ; my fear is that I will not get 
 
FAMILY LETTERS 99 
 
 enough. If you think it best to stay until the 24th of 
 May, do so. 
 
 I have not heard from the children ; expecting a 
 letter daily. You must not be disappointed if I fail 
 to write as often as you requested. Ev. and Marion 
 are very well satisfied here ; but are willing to go 
 home whenever you return. 
 
 My delicate health is sufficient apology for this 
 scribble. I know my husband will make all due al- 
 lowances. Write whenever you can find time. Your 
 devoted wife, Melita A. Smith. 
 
 The following letter to his daughters gives some 
 additional details of General Smith's Washington 
 trip. It is noteworthy for the keen interest which 
 he here manifests in the railroad and the telegraph, 
 — the one just taking its first westward strides, and 
 the other but new-born, — and for the affectionate 
 care which he shows that his daughters may im- 
 prove every opportunity for intellectual advance- 
 ment and culture : 
 
 Washington City, 26th April, 1846. 
 My Dear Children : 
 
 I promised you in my last that I would write to 
 you from Cincinnati if we reached that point safely, 
 but upon our arrival there I neglected to do so, for 
 several reasons ; and indeed my stay there was so 
 short (two days) that I hardly had time. 
 
 We had a pleasant trip from St. Louis ; the rivers 
 were in fine shape. We left St. Louis on the date of 
 my letter (I wrote on board the steamboat) and ar- 
 rived in Cincinnati on Sunday morning, the 19th. 
 Your mother was not much alarmed and she slept 
 finely. We had a large number of passengers, which 
 
 Lof 
 
100 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 is rather unpleasant for steamboat or indeed for any 
 kind of traveling. At Louisville we parted with Mr. 
 Watkins and his sister. Upon our arrival at Cin- 
 cinnati, I left the ladies on the boat and went in 
 search of Dr. Curtis. I was agreeably surprised 
 when I found him ; he is quite a pleasant, accom- 
 plished gentleman, differing very much from all the 
 steam doctors I have ever seen. He consented to 
 take us in as boarders, and the ladies I left at his 
 house. I am very much in hopes he will restore your 
 mother. 
 
 After dinner on Monday I hired a carriage and 
 driver, and we took a ride through a portion of the 
 city and out on the hills on the north side of the 
 town. Here we saw some of the most beautiful coun- 
 try residences I have ever seen ; our whole company 
 was delighted. Upon our return we had as fine a 
 view of the city as perhaps we could have had from 
 any of the enormously high hills with which Cin- 
 cinnati is surrounded. 
 
 The town, as you know, is situated on the north 
 bank of the Ohio and is built on the first and second 
 banks of the river, forming a beautiful bottom of 
 some several hundred acres of land. To give you a 
 more definite idea of the town, I will remark that 
 the distance to the foot of the hill from the river is 
 about one mile at its greatest width. This hill lies 
 in a circular form, commencing at the upper part of 
 the town almost at the water's edge, and terminating 
 in the same manner some distance below. The dis- 
 tance from the upper point of the hill, inclosing 
 the bottom to the lower, is perhaps four or five 
 miles. The ground then upon which the town is 
 built is somewhat in the shape of a half-moon, and 
 contains a population of some 75,000 or 80,000 per- 
 sons. Here are some princely fortunes, and not a 
 few of them ; you may readily suppose, then, there 
 
FAMILY LETTERS loi 
 
 are some magnificent buildings both in town and 
 country. I think there are more fine houses in this 
 place than any I have ever seen. If you except the 
 public buildings of Washington City, nothing I 
 have ever seen can compare with them. 
 
 I left our company on Tuesday (all delighted 
 with their domiciliation) for this place. I took a 
 boat that has been racing all the season with an- 
 other boat that left just as we did, and they raced 
 from there to Pittsburg; I left at Wheeling. Such 
 fizzing and whizzing of steam I have never before 
 witnessed, burning tar and rosin and raising the 
 steam as high as the machinery could possibly bear. 
 It was said the boat we ran against burnt eighteen 
 barrel of rosin; I suppose we did as much. I will 
 never again, if I know it, travel on boats that are 
 racing. One of these boats will, if they don't stop 
 their foolery, blow up. 
 
 I had a very pleasant trip over the mountains, 
 traveling altogether in daylight. At Cumberland, 
 on Saturday morning, I took the cars. We left at 8 
 o'clock and a few minutes to 12 we were at Harper's 
 Ferry, a distance of ninety-seven miles in four 
 hours; pretty rapid, that. From Harper's to this 
 place, no miles, we did not travel quite so fast, as 
 they have a different rail ; we were six hours. Upon 
 this end of the road they have the old-fashioned flat- 
 bar iron, but upon the other end they have what is 
 called the T-rail, taking its name from the resem- 
 blance of the rail to a T. You will readily under- 
 stand what the T-rail is, when I tell you that an im- 
 pression made with the end of the bar, upon some- 
 thing soft would leave the shape of a very heavy 
 short T. 
 
 To-day (Sunday) has been a gloomy, dark, cold, 
 rainy day. After breakfast I walked up to the Cap- 
 itol. Its magnificence I can not describe ; it so far 
 
102 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 surpasses anything I have ever seen that I have 
 nothing with which to compare it; the State-house 
 at Jefferson City being as a mean log-cabin hut to 
 this. The pleasure grounds around it are large, in- 
 terspersed with wide gravel and paved walks of 
 polished stone, with marble reservoirs of water in 
 which are to be seen the gold-fish that seem to be 
 domesticated, and other kinds of fish. The whole 
 ground is covered with trees, shrubbery, and flow- 
 ers. This of itself is worth a trip to Washington, 
 and as soon as you finish your education I want you 
 to visit the East. But when you do I want you to be 
 able to converse fluently upon all subjects and with 
 the most distinguished men and women, for you will 
 meet them. How important, then, that you should 
 apply yourselves diligently and energetically to your 
 studies. Now is the time for you to acquire infor- 
 mation ; and however tempting society may be now, 
 you should resolve and determine that, let others do 
 as they may, for yourselves you will acquire, if in 
 your power, all the knowledge that is possible for 
 you to obtain. To do this you will find it greatly to 
 your advantage to divide your time, apportioning 
 certain hours to your books and others to recreation, 
 and at least eight to sleep. Dr. Franklin said eight 
 hours for sleep, eight for study, and eight for labor. 
 
 Tell your grandpa that the whole city is full of 
 mail contractors, — more, it is said, than was ever 
 here before ; and what will be the result of my ef- 
 forts I can not say. I have three days to make out 
 my bids. I shall endeavor to learn all I can and do 
 the best I can. 
 
 Monday, 27th. — To-day I went to the Patent 
 Office; it, too, like the Capitol, is a magnificent 
 building, as indeed are all the public buildings in 
 this place. In this office is a collection of almost 
 everything you can think of, and of all countries. 
 
FAMILY LETTERS 103 
 
 Here I saw the uniform worn by General Washing- 
 ton, a part of his tent and camp equipage, stuffed 
 skins of animals, fowls, etc., of every climate and 
 country, many of which I never saw before. Some 
 of the sea monsters were to me particularly interest- 
 ing. Fowls of various kinds, among which are cer- 
 tainly some that surpass in beauty anything I have 
 ever imagined. Here, too, are the various inventions 
 (models) of our citizens, from the most simple to a 
 steam-engine. I also visited the office of the tele- 
 graph. This invention unquestionably surpasses all 
 that has ever yet been discovered, or perhaps that 
 ever will be. I remember that a remark has fre- 
 quently been made of the wonders of steam in anni- 
 hilating space, and bringing two countries remote 
 from each other almost to the same vicinity. It has 
 certainly done wonders in this way, and if our fath- 
 ers could rise from their graves they would certainly 
 be astonished at our improverrients in this science ; 
 but the magnetic telegraph is ne plus ultra of our 
 age. With this, not only countries but worlds are 
 brought in immediate contact ; and you could con- 
 verse with an absent friend (if the lines could be ex- 
 tended) as readily and almost as speedily in China 
 as you could if they were in the same room. The 
 estimate is that it would take the twentieth part of a 
 second to communicate intelligence around the 
 globe. I gave the manager my name to be sent to 
 Baltimore; which he did, and the answer returned 
 in less than one-half a minute. I have purchased a 
 book which will give you much information upon 
 this subject. 
 
 I think I will come home in a few days. Dr. 
 Watson will receive the appointment of Register at 
 Clinton in the place of General Monroe. I have not 
 yet heard from home since I left. 
 
 Yours affectionately, G. R. Smith. 
 
104 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Before he was finally rid of the last of his mail 
 contracts, General Smith had become engaged on 
 Santa Fe freighting contracts for the government. 
 It was, perhaps, the growth of his interests in this 
 direction, demanding all of his surplus time, energy, 
 and capital, that led him to seek relief from the mail 
 contracts, as above related. 
 
 The history of the traffic by the old Santa Fe 
 trail between the western parts of Missouri and the 
 entry ports of northern Mexico, constitutes an inter- 
 esting and romantic chapter in American history. 
 Beginning in the adventurous wanderings of hardy 
 pioneers, undertaken almost contemporaneously 
 with that expedition of Lewis and Clarke (1804- 
 1806) which for the first time made known the 
 newly-purchased western country to the States, it 
 was stimulated to a hazardous activity by the re- 
 ports of the El Dorado in the Southwest brought 
 back by Captain Pike, in 1807, from his exploring 
 expedition to the upper courses of the Arkansas 
 and the Rio Grande. After the liberation of Mex- 
 ico from Spanish rule, in 1821, the trade was put 
 upon a solid foundation, and thenceforth, for a score 
 of years, was vigorously carried on. The profits of 
 the trader upon his calicoes, domestic cottons, hard- 
 ware, etc., were great enough, even allowing for the 
 very considerable fall of prices in the latter half of 
 the period, amply to compensate for the hardships 
 and hazards of the trip. After 1831, the dangers 
 and difficulties of the Santa Fe adventurer were 
 much reduced by the establishment of a clearly 
 
SANTA FE TRAFFIC 105 
 
 marked trail through a better watered region, by 
 the more efficient protection from Indians afforded 
 by the Government, and by the better organization 
 of caravans. Then came the friction between the 
 United States and Mexico, growing out of the re- 
 volt of Texas, leading in 1843 to a decree of Pres- 
 ident Santa Anna closing the New Mexican custom 
 houses. This stopped for a time the Santa Fe traf- 
 fic; but the war which followed put New Mexico 
 into our own hands. All customs restrictions were 
 thus removed, and new demands were created for 
 American goods by the establishment of garrisons 
 at various points in the newly-acquired territory. 
 The result was an enormous increase in the freight- 
 ing business on the Santa Fe trail ; and it was in 
 this, as sub-contractor for the transportation of 
 government stores, that General Smith was now, in 
 the period of 1847-52, to be engaged. 
 
 In this new venture General Smith was associated 
 for the greater part of the time with John S. Jones, 
 a shrewd practical man of affairs, who made up for 
 lack of education by his hard common-sense and his 
 intimate acquaintance with frontier life. Owing to 
 his wife's delicate health, General Smith was not 
 able at any time to make the trip to Santa Fe in 
 person. This portion of the work was usually left to 
 others, while General Smith attended to the in- 
 tricate financial details of the business at the Mis- 
 souri end of the route. 
 
 Early in their partnership, the new firm entered 
 into relations with the great freighting house of 
 
io6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Jabez Smith & Co., of Independence, Mo. ; and 
 during 1848-49, Smith and Jones, according to the 
 accounts of the firm preserved by the family of Gen- 
 eral Smith, were sub-contractors on contracts held 
 by that house. After May, 1849, ^ P^^t at least of 
 their freighting was under a contract with the gov- 
 ernment in the name of James Brown and William 
 H. Russell, awarded April 30, 1849. ^7 i^s terms 
 the contractors were to transport "such stores as 
 might be given to them" in wagons from Fort Leav- 
 enworth, just across the Missouri boundary in the 
 Kansas country, to Santa Fe ; the compensation be- 
 ing fixed, according to the published report of the 
 Quartermaster-General, at $9.88 ^ for one hundred 
 pounds, ''with the addition of five per cent, to the 
 weight of bacon." Mr. Brown, — the same person 
 for whose estate General Smith was soon to under- 
 take the disposition of the Salt Lake mail contract, 
 — received several government contracts for freight- 
 ing to New Mexico, and on a number of these, as 
 on the one described above, the name of George R. 
 Smith appears as one of the bondsmen. It may be 
 that in some of these contracts also General Smith 
 was a sharer ; in this one, at any rate, the intention 
 to divide the work seems evident from the begin- 
 ning. 
 
 The document given below indicates the share of 
 Smith and Jones in the above contract : 
 
 An agreement between George R. Smith and John 
 
 ^Compare sub-contract below, where the compensation is fixed at 
 
SANTA FE TRAFFIC 107 
 
 S. Jones, entered into the 5th day of May, 1849, ^^^ 
 transportation of freight from Fort Leavenworth to 
 Santa Fe. The said Smith and Jones agree to divide 
 the freight equally, if there should be as much as 
 two hundred thousand pounds to the share of one- 
 third part of the contract, the contract for freight 
 being in the name of James Brown and W. H. Rus- 
 sell, they having two-thirds of the freight. Should 
 there be an excess, or more than six hundred thou- 
 sand pounds, then the said Jones is only to have one 
 hundred thousand pounds, and the said Smith the 
 remainder. It is further agreed that the said Smith 
 and Jones are each to be liable and responsible for 
 the delivery separately to the said Brown and Rus- 
 sell, and bear them harmless against any loss they 
 may sustain. The said Smith and Jones are to re- 
 ceive nine dollars and ninety-eight cents per hun- 
 dred pounds, and each to draw his money separately 
 for his own freight. 
 
 The chief outfitting point for this traffic was In- 
 dependence, a thriving town twelve miles from the 
 Indian border, on the Missouri river. There, each 
 spring saw gathered a motley crowd of Santa Fe 
 merchants and freighters ; Rocky Mountain traders 
 and trappers ; invaHds seeking health from the pure 
 air and rigorous life of a prairie journey, emigrants 
 to the Oregon country; and, after 1849, throngs of 
 eager, impatient men, of all ranks and conditions, 
 seeking "sl hazard of new fortunes" in the golden 
 fields of California. In April and early in May, 
 traders and wagoners began to flock into the land; 
 and until the middle of May, by which date the short 
 buffalo grass of the plains was sufficiently grown to 
 furnish pasturage, the town was a scene of bustle 
 
io8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 and active business. Not merely Independence and 
 its surrounding country, but the 'Vhole State of 
 Missouri, more or less," in the language of Alex- 
 ander Campbell, who traveled through this region 
 in 1853, was ''much enriched" by the plains traffic. 
 Supplies of bacon, flour, and other provisions were 
 to be laid in ; mules or oxen to be purchased and 
 broken to harness ; and the wagons — great ''prairie 
 schooners" made mostly in Pittsburg and covered 
 with "Osnaburg" — were to be carefully loaded, each 
 with its five thousand and odd pounds of freight, 
 tightly and securely packed, so that the jolting of 
 the rough ways might not displace the contents nor 
 the storms and rains of the plains do them damage. 
 Oxen or mules were used in preference to horses ; 
 and eight, ten, or even twelve animals were often 
 needed for a single wagon. Mules were the better, 
 owing to their greater speed and endurance. The 
 tender feet of the oxen suffered sadly, unless mocca- 
 sined with rawhide, from the slipperiness of the dry 
 grass of the plains. Many, however, preferred the 
 oxen, because of their greater cheapness, and of their 
 superior strength when it became necessary to ex- 
 tricate the wagon from quagmires and quicksands, 
 or to ascend steep river-banks, or to traverse broken 
 hillocks. Beneath each wagon hung a log or timber 
 for the repair of any part which might give way on 
 the journey. With the exception of narrow fringes 
 of timber along the streams, there were neither 
 trees nor habitations of men for more than five hun- 
 dred miles of the way. A water cask of at least five 
 
SANTA FE TRAFFIC 109 
 
 g^allons capacity was also a necessary part of the 
 equipment of each wagon, for along some portions 
 of the route there was no water for many miles. 
 
 In the early years of this traffic, the trail — espe- 
 cially for the forty miles that lay between the 
 Arkansas and Cimarron rivers — was but poorly 
 marked ; and many tales w^ere told of caravans lost 
 in this waterless waste and perishing from thirst 
 and the attacks of crafty Indians. After 1834, a 
 year marked even in this region by copious rains, 
 the trail was cut deep and broad, throughout its 
 course of 800 miles, by the wear of wagon wheels 
 and countless cattle hoofs. By 1849 ^^e difficulties 
 of the route were much reduced. Traders on the 
 regular route were rarely molested by Indians, and 
 losses of animals by theft or stampede were few. 
 The way nevertheless was a long and weary one. 
 The road abounded in quagmires and rough and 
 difficult places ; the rivers were unbridged, and the 
 fords in many places treacherous. Drizzling, pene- 
 trating rains, and in some parts thunder- and hail- 
 storms, were frequent. The buffalo, upon which 
 dependence was placed for fresh meat, were a pre- 
 carious reliance ; and everywhere rattlesnakes 
 abounded, in some places in colonies of tens and 
 hundreds, a constant menace to men and animals. 
 
 The starting of a caravan called for great eft'ort 
 from General Smith in person. In the following 
 letter we get a glimpse of him in the midst of the 
 manifold preparations which preceded and accom- 
 panied the starting of such a train. The letter is 
 
no LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 also of interest for the light which it throws on the 
 aflfectionate care of the father for his daughters, 
 now become young ladies of sixteen and seventeen 
 years. It is addressed to the elder daughter, at that 
 time staying at Mt. Hope, Lafayette county : 
 
 Independence, 27th April, 1851. 
 Dear Bet : 
 
 Strange as it may seem, your mother and myself 
 reached this place at 12 o'clock to-day. Your 
 mother is perfectly delighted with the country and 
 the town ; indeed, it is enough to captivate any one. 
 
 I have come up to make arrangements to start my 
 train, purchase my oxen, etc., etc. I have set the 
 20th next month to get off, but I am fearful I shall 
 not be able to do so. We left home on Friday ; your 
 Aunt Sarah was with Sed, and will remain until we 
 return. Your mother wants you to go to Marshall, 
 if you have any disposition to do so. I think it will 
 be the best, for with Mrs. Hutchinson you will learn 
 more than with any one else. Before we left home 
 a Mr. Clark called at our house and tuned the piano, 
 played several tunes, and (what I suppose will be 
 encouraging to you) he said it was the purest-toned 
 instrument he had seen west of St. Louis. He told 
 me you played and sang for him, and that your 
 voice was equal to any he had ever heard ; indeed, 
 he seemed to be perfectly captivated with your sing- 
 ing, and said if you would cultivate your voice it 
 was equal to any one's. Had you not better do so ? 
 We will leave here in the morning for West Port, 
 and on Tuesday for home, where if we have good 
 luck we will be on Wednesday. Your mother sends 
 her love to your Aunt Marion and Mr. Gunell; my 
 respects to all. I write in great haste. 
 
 Your father, G. R. Smith. 
 
CHOLERA III 
 
 The years 1848-49 were marked by a terrible 
 epidemic of cholera in many sections of the country, 
 especially in the more southerly States ; and from 
 the visitation of this disease General Smith's caravan 
 of 1849 was not exempt. The usual train of prairie 
 schooners, loaded with army stores for Santa Fe, 
 had been sent out in the early summer of that year ; 
 and soon after leaving Fort Leavenworth, the dis- 
 ease manifested itself. General Smith had not yet 
 left the train to proceed on its way, after seeing it 
 started, or else he was recalled when it developed 
 that cholera was in the camp. At all events it was 
 under his personal direction that the fight against 
 the disease was made. In the weakened condition 
 of the train it was impossible to continue the jour- 
 ney ; the wagons were therefore corralled, and there 
 the company remained until the disease had spent 
 its force. In the nursing and care of the sick 
 General Smith took charge, acting at once as physi- 
 cian, hospital steward, spiritual adviser and chap- 
 lain, all in one ; and many were the testimonies to 
 his unselfish devotion and Christian fortitude offered 
 by the survivors upon their return to civilization. 
 From a prescription dating from this period, which 
 is preserved among Mr. Smith's papers, it would 
 seem that chief reliance in combating the disease 
 was placed upon pills compounded of calomel, 
 opium, camphor, and cayenne pepper, and injections 
 of a solution of sugar of lead, laudanum, and gum 
 Arabic ; this treatment, however, being supple- 
 mented by the use of mustard plasters, and blister- 
 
112 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 ing. Whatever may be the opinion of medical sci- 
 ence to-day of such treatment, only two men of the 
 whole train succumbed to the disease. After two 
 or three weeks, the danger was mostly past. General 
 Smith had now been absent from home for nearly 
 six weeks, a very unusual occurrence ; and knowing 
 the anxiety to which his wife and daughters would 
 be subjected by his prolonged absence, he determined 
 to leave the train in charge of his manager, a Mr. 
 Dan McClannahan, of Saline county, and return 
 home. The strain put upon his system by the 
 watching and anxiety, together with a slight attack 
 of the disease itself, had been so great that he was 
 left in a very weakened and debilitated condition; 
 and had it not been for the fortunate meeting with a 
 friend, who found him on the plains worn out and 
 lying in the shadow of his tired mule, and furnished 
 him with a fresh horse for the journey, the results 
 of the adventure for General Smith would have been 
 serious. 
 
 General Smith remained in the freighting business 
 for about four years. Towards the end of 1852, he 
 decided to quit it, and sold off his stock, wagons, 
 and other outfit. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE 
 (1845— 1849) 
 
 General features of the period — The Oregon treaty — Scott 
 or Taylor for the Presidency? — The American party — 
 Congressional canvass in Missouri — Smith's withdrawal 
 from the race — Whig plans for the senatorship — Smith 
 urged to become a candidate for Congress — Plans for 
 Whig organization — Progress of Taylor movement — 
 Candidates for State elections — State aid to internal im- 
 provements — The late date for the Whig convention — 
 Difficulty in getting Whig candidate for Governor — Con- 
 gressional canvass of 1848 — The campaign for Taylor — 
 Account of an interview with General Taylor — The lat- 
 ter's policy — Closing scenes of Polk's administration — 
 Letters from Col. Manlius V. Thomson — Campaigning 
 in Mexico — The election of Taylor — Hopes of political 
 preferment — Projected removal to California — Death of 
 Colonel Thomson, 
 
 The period covered by the years 1845-52 was a 
 momentous epoch in the history of the American 
 people. Within that period, in many lines of de- 
 velopment, occurred the beginning of far-reaching 
 changes. In the field of finance and industry, there 
 was a general advance of the arts, due to the multi- 
 plication of labor-saving inventions ; a rapid growth 
 
 113 
 
114 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 of the railway system and of ocean communication ; 
 the re-estabHshment of the independent treasury, 
 and the "free-trade" tariff of 1846; the opening of 
 new territories as a resuh of the Mexican War, 
 and the discovery of gold in California — both con- 
 tributing to a strong and steady drift of population 
 to the West and Southwest ; and a growth also in 
 the demand for Federal and State aid to internal 
 improvements. In the world of politics occurred 
 the peaceable settlement of the long-pending dis- 
 putes with Great Britain over the Oregon boundary ; 
 the annexation of Texas; the "War of Polk the 
 Mendacious" with Mexico ; and a repudiation of the 
 Missouri Compromise in the Kansas-Nebraska act. 
 This last was both cause and evidence of a new 
 stage in a stormy struggle. Political parties now 
 became more sectional, and the Protestant churches, 
 with few exceptions, tended to spUt asunder into 
 Northern and Southern sections. 
 
 The Whig party suffered most from these political 
 changes. In the presidential election of 1844, an 
 ominous lesson might have been read from the fact 
 that the scale between Clay and Polk was turned by 
 the 64,000 votes cast for Birney, the "Liberty party" 
 candidate ; a great number of which would probably 
 have been cast for Clay, but for the declaration ex- 
 torted from him that he favored the annexation of 
 Texas. There was thus a portion of the people 
 willing to put fidelity to principle, in the matter of 
 the opposition to slavery extension, above all hopes 
 of party success. Consciously or unconsciously, 
 
THE POLITICAL SITUATION 115 
 
 these represented the spirit of Garrison when he 
 said, 'T will not equivocate ; I will not excuse ; I will 
 not retreat a single inch ; and I will be heard.'' 
 Their importance consisted in the fact that they 
 held the balance of power between the political par- 
 ties. Both the old parties suffered through the 
 growth of the new one ; but the net loss of the Whigs 
 was greater, because the defection of Free-Soil 
 Democrats was more than balanced by the accession 
 of Pro-Slavery Whigs to their opponents, while the 
 Whig losses were accompanied by no compensating 
 gains. 
 
 That slavery was a waning cause had not yet be- 
 come apparent to the old party leaders. It was a 
 difficult question, involving considerations alike of :i 
 moral, constitutional, social, and economic character. 
 That the average man of affairs, especially if his 
 interests and associations drew him to the side of 
 the South, could not foresee the inevitable struggle 
 was but a natural result of his position. 
 
 So the Whigs went their way, seeking to maintain 
 a hold upon North and South alike, — condemning 
 the haste, duplicity, and bad faith of President Polk 
 in bringing on the Mexican War, but vigorously 
 supporting it. Long before the war was ended 
 they were committed to the nomination of General 
 Taylor, a slave-holding hero of the war, for the 
 presidency in 1848. Senators Clayton, Crittenden, 
 and Mangum had pronounced Clay out of the ques- 
 tion, and thenceforth it was merely a question of his 
 successor. General Scott was at first the choice of 
 
ii6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the political leaders; but in the early summer of 
 1846 the name of General Taylor was presented by 
 meetings held at Trenton and New York, "without 
 regard to party limits or party questions." As he 
 became more and more the popular hero, the move- 
 ment spread ; and it became apparent that Taylor 
 must be the standard-bearer of the Whigs, and that 
 the enthusiasm which his name everywhere evoked 
 must insure his election. 
 
 In this campaign for Taylor, and in the organiza- 
 tion of the Whigs in Democratic Missouri, General 
 Smith, as his correspondence shows, played an 
 active and conspicuous part. 
 
 The following letter from a leading Missouri 
 Whig gives the gossip of the National Capital in 
 1846, the feeling over the settlement of the Oregon 
 question, the relative merits of Scott and Taylor as 
 candidates, the prospects of the tariff bill, the Dem- 
 ocratic use of the spoils, the growth of the "Amer- 
 ican" party, and the attitude which Missouri Whigs 
 should take towards that movement. The relation 
 of the military situation to politics should be borne 
 in mind; for though the war was of Democratic 
 origin, the administration was obliged to stand by 
 and see its chief laurels won by Whig officers. Tay- 
 lor was thought by Democrats the least formidable 
 as a presidential rival, and although he was Scott's 
 junior in rank, preference was given to him over 
 the latter in assigning commands. General Scott 
 too was betrayed by the intrigues of the administra- 
 tion into writing an injudicious letter in which he 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 1 1 7 
 
 used the phrase "a hasty plate of soup ;" and the 
 letter was welcomed and turned into ridicule by his 
 enemies. Coupled with Taylor's brilliant successes 
 and freedom from objectional personal qualities, 
 this served to destroy what chance General Scott 
 had of political advancement. 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Washington City, 10 July, 1846. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I do not believe there is much that I can 
 tell you here beyond what you may have seen in the 
 newspapers. There is almost universal satisfaction 
 with the treaty about Oregon. Even the ''54-40's" 
 breathe freer than they did, and the fun of the 
 matter is that little Jimmie [President Polk] robbed 
 himself of all its glory by calling upon the Senate, 
 as if saying, 'T promised to strike that fellow ; I 
 wish you would hold me." They did hold him ; the 
 result is, his backers brand him not only as a coward 
 but a braggart traitor, and the bystanders laugh at 
 him as a poltroon (in politics). The whole country 
 rejoices that a perplexing difficulty of thirty years' 
 standing has been so amicably settled. 
 
 You will have seen that "a. hasty plate of soup" 
 has totally put into the shade that pompous aristo- 
 crat and brainless aspirant for the Presidency who 
 in 1840 thwarted the legitimate views of the Whigs, 
 and who ever since has been a constant thorn in the 
 side of the Whig party by continually thrusting for- 
 ward his vapid pretensions a la Mexique upon the 
 Presidency. Thanks so far to the results of the 
 Mexican war, it has enabled the Whigs to shovel 
 out with the spoon one who was likely to lead them 
 to certain defeat. We are united again ; for it is a 
 fact, Scott was about to be taken up as a candidate 
 
ii8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 when this Marshal 'Tureen" dipped his hand into 
 the dish with his "enemies behind." The result has 
 been glorious, for it has produced the passage of the 
 act that will clear us of all these sore-toed Generals, 
 by dismission at the end of the war ; which I fondly 
 hope old Zack will entirely put an end to, as soon 
 as he reaches Monterey. 
 
 The tariff, you see, has passed the House ; this too 
 will bring glorious results, for in the Senate all 
 hands will have to show their hand for good or for 
 evil. I was exceedingly afraid it would have been 
 defeated in the House. The good luck that it was 
 not gives me stronger evidence that Whig interests 
 are decidedly in the ascendant; and such is my full 
 conviction after an eight months' residence here 
 v^ith pretty good chances, as you know, to find out 
 jur prospects. Scott's downfall will be exceedingly 
 beneficial to us ; for he was not only in our way, but 
 his friends (such impudent scamps for instance as 
 Col. Webb of the regular army) — nothing would do 
 them but he must be at once nominated, although 
 very many even of those who had placed themselves 
 so as not to object still felt that it was a forlorn hope. 
 Now we shall wait results, while the public gaze 
 will be at old ''Rough and Ready." While the 
 country is thus waiting in expectancy, results will 
 present themselves, and we shall have a better 
 chance to see who will make the most available 
 candidate ; for depend upon it, that is the word here- 
 after. We fight men who are governed by avail- 
 ables in toto, and if we expect to defeat them (they 
 being in power) we must use an available candi- 
 date ; when in, we may then use the proper candi- 
 date. Should Taylor meet with and play off an- 
 other "chaparal" fight at Monterey, he will be Presi- 
 dent by acclamation. If he fails to get out as ex- 
 pected of him, he will not be in the way ; and my 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 1 19 
 
 present impression is that Judge McLean will be the 
 man. 
 
 My own opinion is, the tariff will be defeated. 
 Yet you must not suppose I have any real knowledge 
 on that subject you do not possess. At most there 
 is a tie, as now appears, and it is believed the '42's 
 will not give way. It is known and has indeed been 
 admitted here by the organ, that there is a screw 
 loose in the Senate ; and you well know a single 
 screw may jar the whole machinery. And a jar 
 operates in favor of the tariff of '42 like the equal 
 division of the court of error operates for him who 
 has judgment below; so in this instance any dis- 
 turbance in Loco faithfulness saves the tariff of '42. 
 The suspected screws are indeed not a few, each 
 particular faction pretending, and some of them with 
 reason, to suspect some particular one. Cass, for 
 instance, the leader of the forlorn hope of fifty-four- 
 forties ; how can he get a nomination with Pennsyl- 
 vania against him? And how easy it is for him to 
 show that only for the wool even New York would 
 be dead against the new bill. He, of course, could 
 go the whole on the wool and sustain Pennsylvania 
 iron, coal, etc. — Haywood, for instance. They of 
 North Carolina are beginning to feel their mines 
 and even manufactories are considerable now, and 
 will be greatly increased. And then the war is run- 
 ning us in debt, and we need all the revenue and 
 more than the act of '42 will give ; and then, too, it 
 is too soon to see its full operation ; the country, 
 really, has rapidly thriven under it. — Yes, there is 
 this singular man of the queue from Florida, who 
 does not like to be thought a mere follower ; who can 
 tell what he will say to it? He may go for raising 
 even that of '42 till the war is over, as we ought not 
 go into debt. — Then Old Bullion [Senator Thomas 
 H. Benton, of Missouri], even he is suspected; of 
 
120 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 him it is said he must rule or ruin, and that his 
 action may depend on Calhoun's course ; about 
 whom already bets are offered and taken that he 
 will oppose the new bill. Those who affirm this 
 refer to his billing and cooing with this "great inland 
 arm of the sea," this Memphis convention, roads and 
 canals, — especially the gradation bill as a prepara- 
 tory coaxing to his own mind that protection is at 
 last the thing. And then others say, or think, this 
 will depend on the fact whether Benton gets the 
 control of Polk which is being very much suspected 
 of late. His formidable "forty-niner" speech made 
 him, it is supposed, a colossus in the eyes of Polk, 
 Walker, etc., who had been staggering, blundering, 
 and children-like trying to walk alone, especially to 
 avoid Old Bullion ; but at last they were glad to hold 
 forth their tiny hands for support to one who, al- 
 though they had avoided him, was still gallant and 
 condescending when thus appealed to ; and up went 
 our son-in-law [Colonel Fremont, who had married 
 Benton's daughter] from Lieutenant, in the engi- 
 neer corps, I believe, to Lieutenant-Colonel, over 
 the heads of half the officers in the army. — And 
 who knows but that gallant little hotspur Hanne- 
 gan, the disinterested "fifty-four-forty" man, may 
 take it into his head to bury the new tariff bill, as he 
 did Jimmy Polk, so deep that the hand of resurrect 
 tion will never reach it? 
 
 With all these screws thus played in the fabric, 
 composed of such different and to each other non- 
 conducting metals (to use a galvanic expression), 
 and when common sense, the common interest of the 
 country are all in our favor, there is some hope that 
 the tariff of '42 is safe now, and if now, for a long 
 time to come. — These Loco's, you know, are, how- 
 ever, skillful compositionists, can melt down ma- 
 terials ever so discordant, and by skillful tempering. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 121 
 
 by the application of government pap (and they 
 have heaps of that to dispense), and therefore cool 
 them down, at least to adhere for one election, ex- 
 pecting the next to renew the process of melting, so 
 as to produce a metal of another color, because every 
 new election requires with them a new color at 
 least, leaving the maw of the animal, only enlarged 
 by glutinous indulgence, more capacious than before 
 and more inexorable in their demands for pap. — We 
 had a small evidence of this the other day in the 
 Brinkerhoff Rebellion. He is one of Pharaoh's 
 lean kine who, after they had swallowed the fat of 
 the land, were lean and hungry still ; but after they 
 made him feel the rod, due to so bold a move, they 
 soon found the only way to appease Loco Foco de- 
 mands was to stuff in the pap. He soon kissed the 
 rod that inflicted the blow, and all was well again, 
 for a time. 
 
 I see our friends in St. Louis are pursuing their 
 old folly in dividing our forces and therefore being 
 beat. Our "Native" friends seem to me to have 
 taken the field properly, as they already had a sep- 
 arate organization ; and I think our Whig friends 
 ought to have joined in their support, as they had 
 nominated all good Whigs. But it seems they will 
 not now. I suppose there is a screw loose there, 
 and in looking out for its location, at this distance 
 it is somewhat difficult to fix upon the precise one. 
 Yet I shall not be surprised if our A. B. C.'s fur- 
 nished a cue to its development. I am afraid there 
 is too much self in these matters. — Campbell and 
 Wright may be too far advanced for our A. B. C.'s 
 to look with satisfaction on their growing strength. 
 For me and my house I intend to go for the Whig 
 party, so long as they will go for extension of the 
 naturalization laws and against frauds in voting, so 
 as to keep our government in American hands. If 
 
122 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 they desert me in this, I shall cling to American 
 control of our own government. I trust you are at 
 work, according to our understanding when you 
 were here, to cause the Whigs of our State to adopt 
 on our banners this American doctrine. It will be 
 hazardous to abandon our old name. If we can get 
 our old friends to go on with us, as I feel but little 
 doubt they will, then our State at least will be soon 
 arrayed on the American side — not as the Phi'ans, 
 but as Americans ; not as religious bigots, but as 
 Christian tolerants ; — in fact, to the foreigner all 
 that we are ourselves, except a longer time before 
 they can vote. Your friend, 
 
 John Wilson. 
 
 The following letter deals with the congressional 
 canvass in the district to which Pettis county be- 
 longed. Two candidates were in the field — Phelps, 
 a Bentonian, or "hard," and Campbell, a "soft," or 
 anti-Benton Democrat. The names "hard" and 
 "soft" refer primarily to the currency question, on 
 which Benton's position had won for him the nick- 
 name "Old Bullion." General Smith at first en- 
 tered the canvass as the Whig candidate, but soon 
 withdrew in order to ensure the success of Phelps. 
 The letter shows General Smith's standing among 
 the Whigs of his district, and the hopes that had 
 been entertained by his friends for his election. 
 
 [Joel H. Haden to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Springfield, Mo., July nth, 1846. 
 My Dear General : 
 
 The Softs, both in the Democrat and the Whig 
 ranks, consider that they have gained a great victory 
 in your retiring from the congressional canvass. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 123 
 
 The Softs, you know, can outlie all creation and 
 outbrag both Jews and Gentiles. They have com- 
 menced lying about Phelps' votes relative to the 
 soldiery of the country ; and by that stratagem 
 Campbell is drawing off divers votes from Phelps ; 
 and if their lies will operate on the north side of the 
 Osage as much to the prejudice of Phelps as they 
 seem to do here, then and in that case, had you con- 
 tinued on the field, I say your election would have 
 been sure and certain. But "it is as it is,^' as the 
 old saying is ; and now Phelps, though he will beat 
 Campbell, will not do it with such a respectable and 
 overwhelming vote as he would had he beat with 
 you on the field. I do insist that it is right that we 
 should hold you — (when I say we, I mean the 
 friends of Phelps, of both parties) — should and do 
 hold you responsible to a certain degree for the 
 Whig vote of Pettis and Saline ; at least to be held 
 off to a large extent from Jack, if not to come on to 
 Phelps. You I presume will say this is right. . . . 
 Do, if you please, write me on the receipt of this 
 how things are going in the two counties, between 
 Campbell and Phelps ; or whether there has been 
 any change to any amount since I left. 
 Will you believe me to be devotedly 
 
 Your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 Joel H. Haden. 
 
 General G. R. Smith. 
 
 The following letter from Wilson shows the 
 Whig plans in Missouri with reference to the sen- 
 atorship, and the active part which General Smith 
 was called upon to play in all Whig movements : 
 
124 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Fayette, 27th October, 1846. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I am at last at home for a few days only, as I 
 leave for New Orleans, between this and the loth 
 of next month, for the winter. Our friends in Con- 
 gress have made extensive arrangements to do their 
 best between this and the fall of '48, under a firm 
 conviction that a favorable result will be had. One 
 part of their plan is to flood [with Whig documents] 
 the country, or at least New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Indiana, Iowa, A/[issouri, and Florida in particular, 
 and other parts of the Union as circumstances shall 
 dictate. In the State first named, they hope for 
 favorable results by great exertions. In our State 
 they hope (if possible) to put in a Whig Senator in 
 the place of Atchison, or at the worst to replace Old 
 Bullion in '51. To do this latter, it is thought it is 
 necessary to commence now (at the beginning of 
 Congress in December) to do all we can before A.'s 
 re-election ; so that at the worst we can bring him 
 to some kind of contract, if we can't beat him. To 
 do this, our friends have agreed to flood our State 
 with documents. To enable them to do this they 
 demand of the Whig party to furnish them with 
 proper names. The Hon. Truman Smith (to whom 
 I believe I introduced you while you were in Wash- 
 ington) is at the head of the committee of our 
 friends who have this matter in charge ; and a better 
 hand or a more thorough Whig or diligent man is 
 not in Congress. I have promised to urge our 
 friends to send to him (by the beginning of the 
 session) proper names from all the counties. I now 
 in part perform this pledge by urging you to see 
 that a proper list is not only sent from your county, 
 [but from] all those south and west of you. You 
 know our leading friends in that range of country. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 125 
 
 and I do not ; therefore I apply to you, in the full 
 belief you will see it done. Have I your promise? 
 If I were not going to the South on compulsion, I 
 would take the matter in hand and see it done if I 
 had to ride nearly over the State to do it. My own 
 opinion is we are too remiss in this matter ; nothing 
 but the utmost diligence, and far beyond that degree 
 of it ever used by the Whigs of Missouri, can expect 
 success ; and that ere long will insure it. Our 
 friends think we ought to send them at least 14,000 
 names. They will send plenty of documents if we 
 furnish the names ; for their arrangements are very 
 extensive, and they are determined to push every- 
 thing to extremity. They sent from the adjourn- 
 ment till the I5tli of September about 3,000 daily. 
 Democracy got the alarm and tried for a week or 
 two to get up a like committee, but it was no go ; and 
 then they turned 'round and construed the Post- 
 office law that no member could frank in vacation 
 anybody's speech but his own. This put an end to 
 the daily exertions of the committee till Congress 
 assembles. When this took place our committee 
 had on hand printed and folded about 160,000 
 speeches ready for franking, which they had several 
 (five I believe) clerks constantly endorsing, and 
 members enough to frank them attended daily and 
 labored like good fellows. The best they could do 
 was to send them in boxes to their friends as mer- 
 chandise, relying on them to give them circulation. 
 They have informed me that they have sent to my 
 address about seven or eight thousand as our portion 
 of those on hand. I expect them in a few days. 
 How shall we put them in the hands of the people? 
 How shall I send some to you? Write me at once, 
 that I may give proper direction to this matter. 
 The manner of sending the names is pretty much 
 left to us ; but they propose first that the names and 
 
126 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 titles (such as Judge, General, Colonel, etc.) be 
 plainly and fully written, with the postoffice, county, 
 etc. ; that the list be composed of two separate lists, 
 headed one Whig and the other Democrat, and I 
 counsel that the Democrat list be the longest by two 
 to one ; that these be selected as far as is practicable 
 of honest, reasonable Locos, if to be found. I am 
 quite satisfied we have been all wrong on this sub- 
 ject, in sending to those who are already with us. 
 By sending them to ''Colonel," "General" and 
 "Judge" (Democrats), franked with some man they 
 don't think knows them, they will consider it a com- 
 pHment. If this does not do good, what will ? We 
 ought also to send to enough Whigs to not give 
 offense. These are my views ; how do you like 
 them? . . . Raise the shout for "Old Rough 
 and Ready" for next President. That is our game 
 here, at all events, and so in the Union. 
 
 Your friend, John Wilson. 
 
 P. S. — I hope I shall hear from you on this sub- 
 ject at once, and let me know how many counties 
 you will be responsible for. 
 
 A second candidacy for Congress was urged upon 
 General Smith, and a more effective organization 
 for the Whig party in Missouri was proposed, in 
 the following letter : 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Fayette, i6th November, 1846. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 To-day I leave for New Orleans, where I shall 
 expect to receive an answer to this, as well as many 
 more during the winter. I have ordered you the 
 speeches, etc. ; and suppose they are already at 
 Boonville, as you directed. I hope you will make 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 127 
 
 extensive as well as good use of them. I have writ- 
 ten the Hon. T. Smith, if he wishes any special in- 
 formation at any time from here, to call on you, and 
 have promised your efficient attention to it. 
 
 I wrote you on the subject of preparing the way 
 for being a candidate for Congress at next election 
 nozu; I hope you will not only consider me serious, 
 but actually engage in the matter now. If you will 
 send me a list of names of your principal personal 
 and political friends, I will take occasion to write 
 them on the general subject, and so manage the 
 affair as to turn their attention to that subject. 
 
 At all events I think you had better get up com- 
 mittees all over the district, State, etc., with a view 
 of managing our political affairs till the election in 
 '48 ; and take care that our true men are upon them. 
 This ought to be attended to all over the State. 
 This winter — now — is the time to begin. Depend 
 on that, and I know no place more proper than in 
 Pettis ; for to begin is the matter. You ought first 
 get as early as possible your committees, and then 
 press a general convention of our friends, expressly 
 to make up organizations for '48, — a central com- 
 mittee for the State to superintend all general elec- 
 tions, one in each congressional district to attend 
 to that, and one in each county. These ought all to 
 be fixed between this and spring; for in May the 
 campaign will begin to move and show its head. 
 Get all your friends to write to St. Louis to our 
 American (Native) paper, and urge them now to 
 come out for Taylor. In relation to organization, 
 these are the views of our friends to the East gen- 
 erally. Our Eastern friends always have these com- 
 mittees. I am opposed to them on principle, but 
 there is no way for us to get along without them. 
 You set fire to stop fire. 
 
 Your friend, John Wilson. 
 
128 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 The progress which the movement for Taylor was 
 making, and the effort for a Whig -Taylor organ- 
 ization in Missouri, are seen in the following letter : 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 St. Louis, 23rd April, 1847. 
 Dear General : 
 
 I am just here on my way down again to New 
 Orleans, where I expect to leave again for home 
 about the middle of June. 
 
 You will see our proceedings at Fayette, as well 
 as my hand in it. I am entirely sanguine in the 
 belief that we can not only carry Taylor (for he is 
 elected already), but Governor and legislature of 
 our State, if our friends will at once seize this 
 favorable moment and organize with vigor and 
 energy. If we do this, Old Zack will carry us. All 
 we have to do is to fan the flame that the battles of 
 Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and 
 Buena Vista have kindled ; and Loco Focoism will 
 be not only consumed, but its very remains will be 
 scattered to the four winds of heaven. Therefore, 
 I beg you in the name of your country, for the love 
 of liberty, and for the sake of the reform of Loco 
 Focoism, which Whig success insures — Organize — 
 Organize! Make that organization broad enough, 
 while it seems a Taylor meeting, to take in a State 
 organization, — Governor, Lieutenant - Governor, 
 Congress (in the several districts) ; as for instance, 
 a State convention for Governor and Lieutenant- 
 Governor, and when they are assembled let the 
 members from each congressional district decide 
 who shall be the Whig candidate for Congress in 
 that district. Or, if you prefer it better, a separate 
 set of conventions for each district; no odds, so 
 there is an efficient and immediate organization. 
 Let us raise all the noise we can. These are my 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 129 
 
 views. Act at all events, in the way you see best ; 
 only act, and at once. Your friend, 
 
 John Wilson. 
 
 In the next letter the plans of the Missouri Whigs 
 for 1848 are seen developing from the question of 
 a national leader to the choice of local candidates 
 and the advisability of making a strong stand for a 
 liberal policy in granting charters for railroads and 
 other internal improvements. On all these ques- 
 tions General Smith was freely consulted. On the 
 question of railroads, although his letters in this 
 correspondence have not been preserved, there can 
 be no doubt from his known opinions that his an- 
 swer was a hearty affirmative. 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Fayette, Mo., i6th July, 1847. 
 Dear General : 
 
 I have just returned from New Orleans, and 
 expect to be at home most of the summer. It is 
 probable I shall make a trip in August to Spring- 
 field, Mo., and Fayetteville, Ark. — There seems to 
 be a general disposition amongst our friends to run 
 Doniphan for Governor. What say you to that? 
 Write me your views. The general views which I 
 entertained in the winter, when I saw you last, are 
 still those which I entertain now ; some new devel- 
 opments have added to their strength in my opinion. 
 That we ought to make the race on old "Rough and 
 Ready," and internal improvements of the State as 
 our only watchword, is to me entirely evident. The 
 masses of our State, I feel sure, are in favor of both. 
 Like it was in 1828, everybody knew all about 
 General Jackson ; so now more than everybody 
 
I30 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 knows all about General Taylor. On the other 
 hand, the low stage of the Missouri river for two 
 years, the high freight, not to say impossibility of 
 sending produce to market at all, has at once 
 brought all minds to consider the importance of in- 
 ternal improvements. There is now a general fever 
 in favor of such projects. It is true, different parts 
 of the State ask different improvements ; and all 
 taken together they would amount to more than 
 could be made at short notice. But it will be a 
 great oversight in our friends if they do not take 
 vigorous hold of this f eehng ; and if added to Tay- 
 lor and Doniphan, we shall surprise ourselves in the 
 final result. The Loco Foco party (its leaders) 
 must go against internal improvements ; at least they 
 will oppose any practical plan. And first, while 
 they declare generally that they are in favor of the 
 system, they will in advance declare themselves to 
 be opposed to running the State in debt for these 
 improvements, and with great glibness cite Illinois, 
 Mississippi, etc. I am also opposed to running the 
 State largely in debt, which it would require to 
 make all that is wanted ; and consequently I shall 
 propose that our friends do not insist on the State 
 making them. And therefore, to avoid an issue 
 with them on that point, and make one with them 
 on the subject of private corporations, let us insist 
 that the necessary railroads, slack-water navigation 
 to our smaller rivers (as the Osage), can be made 
 by private corporations ; and let the tug of war come 
 between us upon the provisions of the charters to 
 the companies. The faithful, you know, will insist 
 on the personal liability clause ; while we ought to 
 declare that, if companies can be got to take such 
 charters, we will prefer it, but that rather than 
 not make these improvements, we go the usual 
 clause of old corporations, making only the stock- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 131 
 
 owners liable to the amount of their stock. By 
 showing up the great loss we have sustained in con- 
 sequence of the want of these improvements (which 
 I intend to undertake in some newspaper articles 
 this summer), I feel sure that we can sustain our- 
 selves amongst the sovereigns in making this an 
 absolute test to all our candidates for the legisla- 
 ture. The immense loss sustained the last year 
 even, will make many of the heretofore faithful 
 desert them. . . . 
 
 I think we had better get some Loco who goes 
 for old Zack and internal improvements to run with 
 Doniphan as Lieutenant-Governor. Who can w^e 
 get? Campbell is crazy for internal improvements 
 ( I came up from New Orleans with him to Jefferson 
 City) ; whether he goes for Taylor is yet a matter 
 to be decided on, as he may hereafter see his way. 
 He is anxious for a trade with the Whigs to aid him 
 to beat Phelps. I sounded him only thus far, not 
 knowing what was our state of political feeling. 
 He made me promise to stay a few days at his house 
 when I go out, and then I can see how the cat hops. 
 Write me your views : what his force is amongst 
 the faithful ; does Haden go with him ; and would 
 he make a preaching journey to aid us? If we 
 agreed to take up Campbell, would it be best to run 
 him for Congress or Lieutenant-Governor? There 
 is Claude Jones ; I am told that he is preparing him- 
 self to run as an independent candidate for Gov- 
 ernor ! Strange as that seems, yet I am not so cer- 
 tain that he can not do more good amongst the rank 
 and file in that part of the State, which of all others 
 is against us. But you know more what he can do 
 than L How would he do for Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor? Quien sabef Who knows? Write me on 
 this. He was at Jefferson as I came up ; he heard 
 I was aboard and sought me, evidently to see what I 
 
132 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 had to say on political matters. The bell just rang 
 to start; our interview lasted only half a minute. 
 It resulted in an agreement that when I came out 
 there I was to call on him and talk over affairs. 
 There is also English of Cape Girardeau; Carte 
 Wells of Lincoln ; the Rylands up above ; and Hall 
 here (if he don't get the judgeship) ; and several 
 others whose position with their party render it 
 quite probable a bargain might be struck with them. 
 Let me hear from you. Campbell's hobby for a 
 railroad is from Springfield down along the divide 
 between the waters of the Osage and Gasconade to 
 the Missouri river. Your friend, 
 
 John Wilson. 
 
 The late date fixed for the Whig State conven- 
 tion, the disastrous results therefrom, General 
 Smith's candidacy for Congress, the difficulty of 
 getting Whigs to make the almost hopeless race for 
 the governorship, and the well-worn theme of a 
 more effective organization, are the topics of the 
 following letter from General Wilson : 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Fayette, Mo., ist October, 1847. 
 Dear General : 
 
 What has become of you that I hear not from 
 you for so long a time? What are you Whigs in 
 Pettis about? Are you going to organize the first 
 of November, in obedience to the suggestions of 
 our central committee ? I hope you will ; much 
 good may come of it. Heretofore our friends have 
 done too little towards organization, too little in 
 action, and hence our overwhelming defeat. Times, 
 it seems to me, are now propitious to attempt a 
 complete organization. And if this is followed by 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 133 
 
 energetic, united action, my opinion is success to a 
 great and desirable extent will follow our efforts. 
 I fear, however, that our organization will be upon 
 paper, by resolves and resolutions, not followed by 
 action. My mind is made up that in this election 
 (I mean that of '48) that the Whigs in this State 
 will either make a great gain, or a great loss. If 
 we organize and follow it up with untiring action, 
 such as the Democrats did in "hickory bush" times, 
 we shall succeed ; if we only organize on paper and 
 sleep on our oars, as I fear will be the case, then our 
 attempts at organization will do us great harm and 
 we shall come out loser. We have so long prom- 
 ised our people a triumph, if we now let things go 
 by default our forces will despair and leave us. 
 
 I fear our central committee have postponed our 
 convention too late, but I am inclined to the opinion 
 a majority of our friends approve of the time, and 
 this no doubt justifies their act; but if it had been 
 left to me, I should have fixed December greatly in 
 preference. The main designed good they expected 
 to obtain by so late a day was a knowledge of what 
 our opponents did and who they nominated. I con- 
 fess that there is or may be something gained by 
 this ; but am very certain we shall lose double that 
 we thus gain by the delay. Already the campaign 
 amongst the Locos is under full headway ; all their 
 people are fully engaged in electioneering. In each 
 neighborhood, almost certainly in every district of 
 country, there is "a Richmond in the field" for Gov- 
 ernor, and indeed all else. These are all as busy as 
 nailers, reining in the people to a pledge for them 
 first, and then for somebody second ; but all finally 
 for the nominee of the convention. Thus, while 
 they have the field to themselves (for we have and 
 can have nobody out till the convention nominates 
 them), they are going about renewing the faith of 
 
134 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 their old partisans, many of whom are ready to fail 
 away ; but as no one of our people is in the field to 
 draw a distinction or to give them courage to refuse, 
 many now sick of "Polk-stalk" rule will again 
 pledge themselves to their old associates. Even if 
 some of them have the courage to suggest that they 
 go for internal improvements, which is now being 
 got up into a fever, — (this reminds me of my scrib- 
 bling over the signature of "Missouri" in the 
 Times; the first number was begun on the 21st of 
 August and so continued ; there will be eleven num- 
 bers ; get them republished in your town if you have 
 a paper, if not your nearest paper), — these Demo- 
 crats will laud internal improvements to the skies, 
 and swear the Whigs will go for plunging the State 
 in debt twenty or thirty millions to make them ; and 
 yet if our candidates were soon on the field, they 
 would be enabled to show both these matters false. 
 If now any of the Locos show signs to their leaders 
 of going over to Taylor, why they assure them upon 
 honor Mr. Clay is to be run. In these and various 
 other ways we shall be constantly losing votes that, 
 if we were early in the field, we might and would 
 gain. Our committee have not given time enough 
 to canvass the State. No candidate can do it in less 
 than seven months ; they have allowed only half 
 the time. . . . Have we not always been beaten ? 
 Do we not know we must have of their forces over 
 3,000 men before we can expect to succeed? 
 
 . . . Are you going to run for Congress in 
 your district? Jack Campbell wants to do so 
 against Phelps. Who shall we get for Governor, 
 etc. ? Doniphan is out of the way, it seems ; he 
 won't run. This is according to his creed ; he will 
 not allow his friends to use him in a doubtful race. 
 For my part, in sure times I am for rewarding the 
 man who lays his shoulder to the wheel when asked 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 135 
 
 by his friends in times of doubt. Them's my senti- 
 ments. Yours, John Wilson. 
 
 P. S. — Our friends ought to raise money to pay 
 the actual expenses of Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor, etc., besides for other expenses in printing, 
 sending documents, etc., for the Governor and Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor have such a herculean task ; if they 
 quit their business for several months, this is all we 
 ought to expect of them. 
 
 The next letter, from Mr. Haden, throws light on 
 the congressional canvass of 1848. General Smith 
 had been proposed but had withdrawn from the 
 contest of 1846; since that time there had been fre- 
 quent talk among his friends of a renewal of his 
 candidacy, and his name was still being mentioned 
 by the Whigs in connection with the office. 
 
 [Joel H. Haden to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Springfield, Mo., March 9th, 1848. 
 My Dear General : 
 
 Yours of the ist inst. came to hand by due course 
 of mail, and we were delighted to hear that you were 
 all in good health. 
 
 I feel fully persuaded in my mind that the man 
 who goes to our convention strongest will not be the 
 more likely to be the nominee. I think it certain 
 that a compromise will be had on a second choice ; 
 and should not the nominee be made on this side of 
 the river, from what I can learn of public feeling in 
 the Southwest, they will be more likely to unite on 
 King than any other Northern man. I do not 
 flatter myself that I will be successful ; but I am 
 bound to make a respectable show, and while the 
 ball is rolling it may possibly come to me. The 
 friends of Phelps in the Southeast are anxious 
 
136 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 that the Southeast and Southwest should operate 
 together in harmonious action. About Acock and 
 his friends I know but Httle ; only that some of his 
 friends are my violent enemies, and others of them 
 are my warm, zealous friends ; and there is no doubt 
 but I will share largely in his five counties, unless 
 some new ball is put in motion to defeat me. Upon 
 the whole, I view the final result quite problematical 
 and uncertain. I talked with Brother R. C. Craw- 
 ford, shortly after I saw you, and found him zealous 
 in favor of his county going for you. But he in- 
 formed me all pegs were stuck for Winston, and I 
 suppose he found that he could not pull up those 
 stakes ; and I am told the county went for Winston. 
 
 On Monday last the Whig meeting came off in 
 this county. They passed but two resolutions : one 
 in favor of General Taylor for the Presidency, and 
 the other was that it is inexpedient for the Whigs 
 to run a candidate in this congressional district, etc. 
 How fully in character with the Bailey dynasty ! 
 But in that, the Dr. Perham and Garry wings of the 
 Whig party most cordially co-operated. So you 
 will perceive that there is nothing new under the 
 sun at Springfield ; for the two factions united upon 
 Taylor as the only available man (all at the same 
 time having a decided preference for Clay), and 
 that it was bad policy to run a candidate for Con- 
 gress in this district. 
 
 I think I see the handwriting upon the wall. 
 Your information about Campbell is altogether 
 wrong. No county has or will instruct for him. 
 Neither has he said he will go into convention, that 
 I know of. He has been gone now for four or five 
 weeks to Texas and (report says) to the island of 
 Cuba, with his two daughters. But he is to return 
 by or before the first of May ; and from what I could 
 discover before he left, by the repeated and constant 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 137 
 
 caucusings of himself and a faction in the Whig 
 party, I incline to think it is understood that on his 
 return he will set out with the aid of the Whigs to 
 break down the nominee, be he who he may. I do 
 not speak this by authority, but by conjecture alone ; 
 but still I think I see the handwriting on the wall. 
 
 Jack will do or risk anything to break down 
 Phelps, and I think there is but little doubt of his 
 being the nominee for the district, having now eight 
 counties instructed in his favor, — and they are 
 strong counties. We of the Southwest have been 
 apprised of the manoeuvers of other aspirants and 
 their friends to break him down. There is only a 
 bare possibility of it as things now stand, yet we 
 think we will get several other counties in the 
 Southwest. 
 
 I believe I have given you all the information you 
 asked for and perhaps more. But this letter is for 
 your own eye. . . . 
 
 Will you be at our State convention? I would 
 like to see you there. If I leave home under favor- 
 able circumstances, I intend staying over and being 
 at yours, in order to inform myself how the **coons" 
 act in convention. . . . Do let me hear from 
 you upon receipt of this, and believe me to be your 
 friend, devotedly, fraternally, and in the hope of a 
 better resurrection to eternal life. Farewell. 
 
 Joel H. Haden. 
 
 General G. R. Smith. 
 
 Preparations for the presidential canvass had 
 meanwhile gone actively on. In May, 1848, the 
 Democratic national convention met in Balti- 
 more, and nominated Cass of Michigan and Butler 
 of Kentucky on a strict-constructionist platform, 
 which was non-committal on the power of Congress 
 
138 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 to exclude slavery from the territories. In June 
 the Whig convention met in Philadelphia. There 
 the contest was between Webster, Clay, Scott, and 
 Taylor ; with the result that Taylor was nominated 
 on the fourth ballot, with Fillmore of New York for 
 Vice-President. No platform was adopted by the 
 convention, the delegates voting down resolution 
 after resolution as soon as offered; and as Taylor's 
 advisers both before and after his nomination care- 
 fully imparted a tone of vague elusiveness to all his 
 political utterances, the campaign was fought by 
 the Whigs, in the language of Professor Von Hoist, 
 on the basis of the systematic "abandonment of all 
 principles on principle." 
 
 The following is the first letter received by Gen- 
 eral Smith from his friend Wilson after the presi- 
 dential nomination ; an active organized canvass of 
 the State for Taylor is its theme : 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Fayette, Mo., 29th July, 1848. 
 Dear General : 
 
 We have the opinion here that a vigorous and 
 well-directed effort will carry the State for Taylor. 
 I write you now, that as soon as the State election is 
 over you may consider this matter and let me know 
 your views. In the event we mxake the attempt, the 
 first act in the drama would be a grand State mass 
 meeting at Jefferson City, Boonville, or elsewhere ; 
 one of the same kind afterwards in each electoral 
 district; the impetus of these will insure them in 
 each county, and this will carry the State for "Old 
 Zack." In such an attempt our electors would take 
 the stump day and night till November, and all our 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 139 
 
 Whig speakers be detailed for like services as assist- 
 ants and forced to act. 
 
 If we can carry the State for Taylor, with the 
 divisions amongst the Democrats we can elect a 
 Whig to the United States Senate. See your Whig 
 friends, as far as you can ; correspond with the rest, 
 and let us hear your views. Your friend, 
 
 John Wilson. 
 
 General Wilson acted as one of the chief man- 
 agers of the Taylor campaign in Missouri. The 
 election over and the victory won, he sought his re- 
 ward in an appointment under the new administra- 
 tion. The following letter, written to General Smith 
 in pursuance of that object, is interesting for its 
 account of Wilson's correspondence with and visit 
 to the President-elect on his Louisiana plantation. 
 It was sent from New Orleans some time in Jan- 
 uary, 1849: 
 
 [John Wilson to G. R. Smith.] 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Allow me to trouble you with some politics, and 
 also something as to myself, — the latter in partic- 
 ular. Self, you know, is the nearest to one's self ; 
 next our friends. 
 
 Last spring and summer, while here, I formed a 
 pretty familiar acquaintance with General Taylor. 
 Through the summer and fall, after I went home, 
 I kept up a pretty fair running correspondence with 
 him, in the course of which he frequently thanked 
 me for information, etc., I gave him. All this seemed 
 pretty fair ; and when I came down here this fall I 
 ventured to write him a very long letter on two sub- 
 jects, making such suggestions as I thought would 
 
140 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 be right for him to adopt, giving my reasons as full 
 as a letter would allow. 
 
 The subjects on which I addressed him were 
 two : — What his inaugural address should contain ; 
 how he should choose and govern his Cabinet. As 
 to the first, I proposed the Allison letters as the ba- 
 sis/ and the only specification I urged was that he 
 should declare in a bold and emphatic manner that 
 meddling with elections by government officers was 
 a high political offense worthy of removal, and that 
 he should consider it his duty to remove both those 
 who had or should thus meddle ; and quote General 
 Jackson's first inaugural as authority. As to his 
 Cabinet, they should be highly moral, sober, work- 
 ing men, who considered that they had yet political 
 capital to earn, and not any of the old Hunker folks, 
 who thought themselves at the top of the political 
 ladder ; that he should take no old Cabinet men, but 
 all new men ; that when selected he and they should 
 agree on a few general rules for their government, 
 and after that leave each to manage his own depart- 
 ment in his own way ; and they could in moderation 
 turn out the most prominent offenders at once, 
 and as to lesser ones let them put them out ; and 
 then let it be kept in view that the Locos had had 
 the offices for twenty years, and on that ground put 
 in Whigs till something like equality existed ; but 
 proscription for opinion's sake ought not to be 
 adopted. He forthwith answered me, in effect : 
 "Them's my sentiments, and I hope to carry them 
 out, but will of course consult my Cabinet, and what 
 we agree on I will carry out, even if not exactly as I 
 
 ^The second letter to Allison (September 4, 1848) was the platform on 
 which Taylor's campaign was fought. This was written at Washington 
 by Stephens, Toombs, and Crittenden, and forwarded to the General, 
 "who then gave it to the world as his letter to Allison."— Von Hoist, 
 History of the United States y III, p. 379. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 141 
 
 wish." He ended his letter by inviting me to go up 
 to Baton Rouge to visit him; where, he said, "we 
 could talk over more at leisure the many very inter- 
 esting political questions mentioned in your let- 
 ter," etc. 
 
 I went, and no one could have received, appar- 
 ently (and old Zack has not yet learned to be deceit- 
 ful) a more frank and welcome reception. He 
 opened his whole mind on all subjects to me; there 
 was not anything that he could think of as connected 
 with his duties as President that he did not speak 
 about. In particular he stated his views about the 
 private and political character of nearly all our 
 leading men, — his objections to them, the reasons 
 wdiy he felt favorable or unfavorable, etc., etc. It 
 is impossible that he should have confided more to 
 any man than he did to me ; and yet he never said : — 
 *'Sir, you will not speak of this" ; although much he 
 said, especially about men, should not be told. In- 
 deed, it was confidential, except he will insist on 
 good private character, etc., especially sobriety, be- 
 fore he can or will appoint anybody. They must 
 possess energy and industry; as to talents, he says 
 there are plenty. 
 
 Being just in that position with him, you know 
 he can not know much about my standing, etc., at 
 home, nor how I am reputed there by our friends. 
 Now, if the Whigs of Missouri should think me 
 worthy, and will at once — right now — fully indorse 
 me as of good character, pretty good capacity, and 
 entirely acceptable to the Whigs of Missouri, rec- 
 ommending me at large as fit for anything, if they 
 can say so, speaking of me for no specific office ; 
 and if our Whig members in the legislature will 
 join to do this, — all this, and my present start with 
 him, will put me in a position to do much for my 
 friends, and perhaps something for myself. They 
 
142 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 may do this the more readily as, if I seek any office, 
 so far as now advised, I shall seek one out of the 
 State. Whatever is done, I should like to have done 
 at the earliest possible day, for reasons I will ex- 
 plain to you when I see you. Let them all be in- 
 closed to the Hon. Truman Smith, member of Con- 
 gress from Connecticut, at Washington, saying only 
 — not that I requested them to be sent, — but say 
 that it was understood we were personal friends. 
 If he gets them by the 20th February, or sooner, he 
 may make a more powerful use of them than he 
 could afterwards. 
 
 It is easy for letters to be written as desired, if 
 the signers can be had, and send them off. I have 
 asked aid in this from Mr. Campbell, Nat Pascal, 
 Colonel Young of Boone county, Weston F. Birch, 
 John B. Clark, Ned Samuel of Clay, with my broth- 
 ers Robert and William; and now I ask aid from 
 you, if you can give it. I ask your active aid in get- 
 ting all the letters you possibly can get, at the earli- 
 est day ; and to be forwarded to Mr. Smith. I sup- 
 pose they had better be directed to General Taylor, 
 but enclosed without being sealed to Mr. Smith ; he 
 can seal them. Now I ask help from none but those 
 I am willing to help. I know not whether I deserve 
 it or not ; I know I wish it and, if agreeable, will 
 like to have it, and be thankful at that. I would like 
 for you to see as many of those letters as possible, 
 or suggest their contents. If you will give yourself 
 considerable trouble I will try and repay it. The 
 earliest date they can be sent, the better. 
 
 John Wilson. 
 
 The closing scenes of Polk's administration are 
 sketched, and the first news of the passage of the 
 bill for the relief of General Smith is given, in the 
 following letter from the wife of Congressman 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 143 
 
 Phelps. As a Democrat, she could not be expected 
 to sympathize with the inauguration of a Whig ad- 
 ministration : 
 
 [Mrs. Mary Phelps to G. R. Smith.] 
 
 Washington, Sunday morning, March 4th, 1849. 
 My Dear Brother Smith : 
 
 I have sat down to inform you that Congress ad- 
 journed this morning at seven o'clock. I remained 
 at the Capitol until one o'clock. Such confusion 
 never was seen before at one place. In the Senate 
 there was one fight : the parties, Mr. Foot, Mr. 
 Cameron. In the House two fights : the parties, Mr. 
 Mead, Mr. Giddings ; Mr. Fricklen, Mr. Johnson of 
 Arkansas. This is the commencement of a Whig 
 administration. 
 
 I think the people will be sorry before this ad- 
 ministration closes. The civil and diplomatic bill 
 passed, and was signed by Mr. Polk this morning 
 at five o'clock. Mr. Benton and Mr. Allen refused 
 to vote after twelve o'clock. 
 
 The House bill for your relief passed the Senate 
 at eleven o'clock last night. My husband has been 
 after the Senators from our State since the setting 
 of Congress. Mr. P. says, as he has no power of at- 
 torney to draw your money, he will make an effort 
 to have the Treasurer send you a draft. 
 
 We expected to see you here, certainly, at the in- 
 auguration of Old Zack. Do you not intend to come 
 in for your portion of the spoils? The city is over- 
 flowing. Strangers can not get places to sleep, and 
 hardly a roof to cover their heads. 
 
 General Taylor has been here since Friday week, 
 and all the time so pressed with company that he 
 could not walk into the street to get the fresh air. 
 I predict before four years shall have passed into 
 oblivion he will wish himself in the camp. You will 
 
144 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 see by the papers before this letter reaches you who 
 are the Taylor Cabinet. 
 
 We shall leave here on Tuesday morning for 
 home. I never was so worn out in my life, and I 
 think when I get home again I shall be willing to 
 stay there. I hope your family are well ; give my 
 love to them and accept my best wishes for yourself. 
 My husband wishes to be remembered. He would 
 have written you this morning, but he was so much 
 fatigued after his night's labor he had to go to bed. 
 Your friend and sister in the Lord, 
 
 Mary Phelps. 
 
 Below are given the letters received in this period 
 from ManHus V. Thomson, of Georgetown, Ky., a 
 brother-in-law of General Smith, who served in the 
 Mexican War and achieved an honorable record. 
 Under date of September 12th, 1847, ^^^ writes : 
 
 [Manlius V. Thomson to George R. Smith.] 
 
 Georgetown, Ky., 12th Sept., 1847. 
 General George R. Smith : 
 
 You will have seen, before this reaches you, no 
 doubt, that I have been appointed Colonel of the 
 3rd Regiment Ky. Vol. Infantry. This will some- 
 what surprise you all in Missouri, I suppose ; but 
 the deed is done, and I expect my regiment to ren- 
 dezvous at Louisville about the first of next month. 
 Our destination is not certainly known, but there 
 seems to be no doubt that we shall be ordered to 
 join General Scott's columns. If so, we shall have a 
 very pleasant time of it, seeing that the sickly season 
 will be over before we shall reach Vera Cruz, and 
 that the winters in Mexico are as pleasant as the 
 month of May in this climate. We have volunteered 
 for the war, quite an indefinite period truly; still I 
 
LETTERS OF M. V. THOMSON 145 
 
 think some arrangements for peace will certainly 
 be made in less than twelve months. The expense 
 of holding the whole country would be too great, 
 and public opinion in the United States will com- 
 pel an adjustment of some sort. I think the chances 
 are in favor of our returning before the next sum- 
 mer. 
 
 My family will remain in Georgetown during my 
 absence, in order that the children may go to school. 
 Volney will probably go with me, attached to the 
 sutler's department. Lewis Postlewaite is sutler; 
 John Rodes Smith, Captain of the company from 
 this county, and Ben. F. Bradley, First Lieutenant. 
 Thomas L. Crittenden is Lieutenant-Colonel (son 
 of John J.) ; and John C. Breckinridge (son of Ca- 
 bell) is Major. They will make first-rate officers, 
 and are very agreeable gentlemen. 
 
 Yours truly, M. V. Thomson. 
 
 October 27th, 1847, ^ second letter from Colonel 
 Thomson was sent to General Smith ; its material 
 portion follows : 
 
 [Manlius V. Thomson to George R. Smith.] 
 
 Louisville, Kentucky, 27th October, 1847. 
 Your letter of the 26th September found me at 
 this place some two or three weeks ago, and I have 
 delayed replying in the hope of giving you some 
 definite news in relation to my movements, etc. At 
 the time you wrote there seemed to be good prospect 
 for peace ; but it was soon dispelled, and the end of 
 the war seems now to be farther off than ever. The 
 consequence is that we have been making our prep- 
 arations for proceeding to the City of Mexico, and 
 the day of our departure from this city is fixed for 
 Monday next, the first of November. We might 
 
146 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 have gone two weeks sooner, but we are under the 
 orders of General Butler, who has command of a 
 division composed of two Tennessee, two Kentucky, 
 and one Indiana regiments, three of which were not 
 ready, and he was desirous they should all move at 
 the same time. He is not willing to wait longer for 
 the tardy regiments, and has fixed our departure for 
 Monday next. We expect to leave then without 
 doubt, and shall go direct to Vera Cruz, and then, I 
 suppose, to General Scott's headquarters. 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 M. V. Thomson. 
 
 In a letter to General Smith's daughter Sarah, 
 Colonel Thomson gives his impressions of Mexico : 
 
 [Manlius V. Thomson to Miss Sarah E. Smith.] 
 
 City of Mexico, 26 April, 1848. 
 Dear Sed : 
 
 I was quite gratified to receive some days ago 
 your letter of the 4th ult., with a short postscript by 
 Betty. Although I am so far away from you all in 
 Missouri, I had by no means forgotten you, and was 
 much pleased to hear that you were all well and that 
 the State of Missouri was populating fast. Four 
 boys in the family in so short a time would seem to 
 indicate that Missouri will be a great State one of 
 these days, particularly if those of you who remain 
 single should get married soon. 
 
 You ask me how I like the country, the people, 
 etc. ; and how it looks after all the battles and 
 bloodshed. The people are last-rate, the country 
 indifferent. I want nothing more to do with either. 
 God forbid that they should ever become annexed 
 to, or part of, our Union. The people lack intelli- 
 gence, industry, morals, and courage. The country 
 seems to me to have been made for them. It has the 
 
LETTERS OF M. V. THOMSON 147 
 
 appearance of never having been finished, or having 
 been worn out. A large portion of it is nothing but 
 volcanic mountains, entirely destitute of vegetation 
 and timber. There are some fine rich valleys, but 
 they constitute a very small part of the country. 
 There is no wood in the valleys and but little on 
 the mountains. But this does not seem to be as great 
 a defect as you might suppose, as the climate is so 
 mild that there is very little use for fuel. When our 
 army came into the city, there was not a fireplace 
 in it. We have built one or two, so that we have 
 done something for them to offset the harm. The 
 people generally are very degraded. A fevv are in- 
 telligent and wealthy. The great mass are Indians, 
 no better than those west of Missouri. Many of 
 them go half naked all the year. The women wear 
 no bonnets and many no shoes or stockings. They 
 have more churches and less religion than any peo- 
 ple in the world, yet they are all true Catholics and 
 very intolerant of all other creeds. 
 
 There are, however, a good many curiosities 
 in the country worth seeing, — the mountains, 
 churches, mines, caves, and tropical fruits. We 
 have had watermelons, oranges, cucumbers, toma- 
 toes, and many other vegetables all winter. The 
 mountains of Popocatapetl, Itazicuwaltl, and Orizaba 
 are always covered with snow, even in midsummer, 
 and I have seen them all three at one view, though 
 perhaps 150 miles apart. I haven't time to describe 
 them at present. 
 
 Tell Betty she must take this as an answer to 
 her note also, as it is now past eleven o'clock at 
 night. Give my love to your father and mother, 
 grandpa, grandma and all the family. I should be 
 glad to hear from you all frequently. 
 Your affectionate uncle, 
 
 M. V. Thomson. 
 
148 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Soon after, Colonel Thomson and his regiment 
 embarked for the North, and by the middle of July 
 were again on Kentucky soil. The following letter 
 gives the details of his return trip : 
 
 [Manlius V. Thomson to George R. Smith.] 
 
 Louisville, i8th July, 1848. 
 Dear George : 
 
 As you see from the above, I am once again on 
 the soil of Old Kentucky. I arrived here on Sunday 
 morning with my regiment on the steamer Mis- 
 souri, in seven days from New Orleans. We had 
 quite a favorable trip from the City of Mexico, con- 
 sidering the season of the year, and the climate 
 through which we had to pass. We left the city on 
 the first day of June, and had the sun vertical over 
 our heads during the entire month of June ; that is 
 to say it was vertical at noon, or nearly so, all the 
 time. For a portion of the time it was to the north 
 of us, throwing our shadows on the south side of 
 us. Nevertheless the heat was not so great as you 
 would suppose, in fact not greater than it fre- 
 quently is here. The reason of this- is that the coun- 
 try is so elevated as to counterbalance the effect of 
 the sun ; besides, at that season of the year it rains 
 almost every day in that part of Mexico, which 
 serves to keep the air cool. These rains fell almost 
 every day in the afternoon, while we made our 
 marches before 10 o'clock a.m., so that while they 
 served to cool the air and lay the dust, they did not 
 interfere with our march. We arrived near Jalapa 
 on the tenth day, and had to remain in that neigh- 
 borhood at Encorro (Santa Anna's hacienda) two 
 weeks, before the transports were ready for us. As 
 we went down from Encorro we called and staid a 
 day at Santa Anna's other hacienda, Mango de 
 
LETTERS OF M. V. THOMSON 149 
 
 Clavo. These are both very fine residences, but a 
 good deal injured by our troops in the course of the 
 war. On the 28th of June, having marched the three 
 last days through mud and water, we arrived at 
 Vera Cruz, and embarked the same day on sail-ves- 
 sels for New Orleans. We had quite a pleasant 
 voyage across the Gulf, arrived in New Orleans on 
 the morning of the 5th of July, and left that city 
 the evening of the 8th. Considering the season of 
 the year and the unhealthfulness of Vera Cruz and 
 New Orleans, we considered ourselves very fortu- 
 nate in escaping without any yellow fever or other 
 malignant disease. We were again quite fortunate 
 in finding a rise in the Ohio precisely at the time to 
 enable us to come on to Louisville without reship- 
 ping. We arrived in pretty good health, although 
 generally somewhat reduced in flesh by the heat of 
 the weather and the fatigue of the march. 
 
 I believe I am satisfied with military life, and 
 quite willing to yield my claims to some younger 
 man for the next war. In fact I became quite tired 
 of the service, having nothing to do and no prospect 
 of anything, even if the war should have been in- 
 definitely postponed. Under this state of the case 
 you may well suppose that we all became weary of 
 the monotony of garrisoning a large city. 
 
 I have no news of my family since I arrived here, 
 but they were well a week ago. Give my love to 
 Melita, Betsy and Sarah, and all my kin, partic- 
 ularly to pa and ma. Yours truly, 
 
 M. V. Thomson. 
 
 In a letter of August 23rd, 1848, from George- 
 town, Kentucky, Colonel Thomson has this to say 
 of politics : 
 
 We have nothing of much note in the way of 
 news. You have seen the result of our election, 
 
150 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 which is quite satisfactory to the Whigs. They ex- 
 pect to carry the election of Taylor easily. Van Bu- 
 ren's running, it is supposed, will insure Taylor's 
 election. Van will probably not carry any State, but 
 will so divide the Democrats as to give the most of 
 the Northern Democratic States to Taylor. At all 
 events we think there is little doubt of Taylor's 
 election. 
 
 The acquisition of California as a result of the 
 Mexican War, the discovery of gold there in 1848, 
 and the election of a Whig President, operated as a 
 powerful stimulus to the Smith-Thomson connec- 
 tion. Large hopes of political preferment were en- 
 tertained by Colonel Thomson, and lesser hopes by 
 General Smith ; at the same time subsidiary plans of 
 removal to California were mooted pro and con. 
 Colonel Thompson wrote, November 19, 1848, from 
 Georgetown, Kentucky: 
 
 You have heard before now of Old Zack's 
 greatest victory of all, I mean his victory over the 
 Loco Focos. It is a grand affair, eclipsing Buena 
 Vista. Pa has written me in relation to our going to 
 California and reaping our share of the spoils. I 
 have no objections, if everything is made to suit. I 
 have written to pa at length on the subject and he 
 will doubtless show you my letter. Let me hear 
 from you on this subject during the winter. 
 
 Again, February 4, 1849, he wrote from his Mis- 
 sissippi plantation: 
 
 In relation to the California movement, I am 
 willing to be governed by the decision of the 
 family. If they are willing, I will go along; if they 
 
LETTERS OF M. V. THOMSON 151 
 
 decide to stay, I will stay, too. Unless, peradventure, 
 I should be made Governor of the Territory, which 
 I think is not improbable in case General Taylor 
 should have the appointment in the first instance. 
 It is yet uncertain, however, whether there will be 
 a territorial government at all, and if there should 
 be one who will make the nomination of the Gov- 
 ernor, Polk or Taylor. If I can get the appointment 
 of Governor, I am decidedly in favor of all hands 
 going out. Otherwise I confess I am rather indif- 
 ferent. Milton writes me that Monroe is going next 
 spring, I suppose to look at the country ; and you 
 intend to take a train of wagons over, if you can 
 get a job of transportation ; so that I suppose by 
 next fall we shall have both of you back to give an 
 account of that country. It would be impossible for 
 me to get ready before that time. But if all the rest 
 of you conclude to go and should go next spring, 
 why I will follow as soon as I can get ready. 
 
 In reference to the Indian agency which you 
 wish to obtain from General Taylor, I can only say 
 that the way to learn what can be done is to make 
 the experiment. I'm inclined to think he will not 
 make a clean sweep as you suggest, but still there 
 will no doubt be a good many removals, particularly 
 when any fault is found with the present incum- 
 bent. If the person now in office has faithfully dis- 
 charged the duties of the office, and not interfered 
 improperly in politics, I think there is but little rea- 
 son to anticipate a removal. On the contrary, if he 
 is liable to either of these charges, I should think 
 he is pretty sure to fall. I shall be glad to serve you 
 in the matter, and would suggest that you obtain 
 the recommendations of some prominent Whigs in 
 your State, and forward them to Washington, to 
 be held there by some friend until such time as we 
 may think the move ought to be made. Write me 
 
152 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 at Georgetown, Kentucky, where I shall be till the 
 loth of April, letting me know what measures you 
 have alopted and how I can serve you. All the let- 
 ters of recommendation should be presented at once. 
 
 Touching the appointment in General Taylor's 
 Cabinet which you suggest that I should endeavor 
 to obtain, it seems to me that I ought not to accept 
 it, if tendered to me ; and I don't suppose I could 
 get it if I was to try. At all events it is now too late 
 for me to act in the matter, and I don't suppose my 
 friends will take it in hand. Some of my friends in 
 Kentucky were talking of proposing me for the 
 Senate when I left home, but I think it is doubtful 
 whether they will do so. I would prefer that station 
 to a seat in the Cabinet. Besides, it would enable 
 me to serve my friends as well as the other plan. 
 But I don't count on either. . . . 
 
 We have no news in this region of any note. The 
 cholera appears to have nearly disappeared. It has 
 not shown itself on the plantation so far. 
 
 My love to Melita, Betty, Sarah, and all the kin. 
 
 This, it seems, was the last letter which Mr. Smith 
 received from Colonel Thomson. The eldest son of 
 General Thomson, he achieved an honorable career 
 as lawyer, soldier, planter, educator, and statesman, 
 being elected in 1840 Lieutenant-Governor of Ken- 
 tucky, and serving for a number of years as Presi- 
 dent of the Baptist College at Georgetown. What 
 would have come of the plans discussed above can 
 only be conjectured; for on July 22, 1850, occurred 
 the death of Colonel Thomson, in his forty-eighth 
 year. He was one of General Smith's closest friends 
 and political sympathizers, and his loss was keenly 
 felt. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PACIFIC RAILROAD 
 
 (1849-1853) 
 
 Missouri's interest in railroads — The Pacific Railroad char- 
 tered, 1849 — Rival routes west of Jefferson City — General 
 Smith champions the inland route — Secures vote of 
 $100,000 from Pettis county — Inland route provisionally 
 chosen by the legislature, December, 1852 — Calls con- 
 vention at Georgetown — Grants of aid refused at Au- 
 gust election, 1853 — Campaign of education by Messrs. 
 Smith, Grover, and Woodson — Part played by General 
 Smith — The inland route definitely chosen by the Com- 
 pany — Importance of this step. 
 
 The part played by General Smith in the strug- 
 gle to secure the location and completion of the 
 Pacific railroad, brings us to the greatest efifort of 
 his life, crowned by his most signal achievement. 
 
 To Missouri, in the middle of the century, the 
 railroad question wore three aspects — local, nation- 
 al, and sectional. Locally, the people of Missouri 
 were interested in building railroads as carriers for 
 their produce and for the industrial development of 
 the State. As members of the nation who were in- 
 timately concerned by their territorial position, they 
 were interested in seeing a railroad built to bind the 
 
 153 
 
154 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Eastern States to that golden West recently ac- 
 quired by war and treaty. Sectionally, as members 
 of a slave-owning community, it was their interest 
 that no route to the Pacific be chosen which should 
 build up the territory destined by nature and the 
 Missouri Compromise to freedom, more rapidly 
 than that portion of the public domain still open to 
 slave colonization. Had the sectional interest alone 
 been concerned, Missouri's influence would have 
 been cast in favor of the routes proposed which 
 took Memphis, or some other point well within the 
 slave belt, for the Mississippi terminus. As it was, 
 the local and the purely sectional interests were at 
 variance ; and from an early period the influence of 
 the State was given to the central route, which had 
 the merit of traversing Missouri soil. 
 
 It was the purely local interest which produced 
 the first movement within the State for railroad 
 building. In April, 1836 — when not a mile of rail- 
 way was in operation west of the State of Ohio, and 
 even in New England railways were but three years 
 old — a railroad convention of about sixty persons 
 assembled at St. Louis ; and resolutions were 
 adopted foreshadowing roughly the system of rail- 
 ways in Missouri as it exists to-day. The movement, 
 however, was in advance of the time, and fifteen 
 years were to elapse before the first iron rail was laid 
 west of the Mississippi. 
 
 The development of the national interest in a 
 transcontinental line greatly stimulated the railroad 
 movement in the West. Americans were quick to 
 
RAILROADS CHARTERED 155 
 
 see the peculiar advantages to them of railways ; 
 and as early as 1832 — within two years after the 
 opening of the first important line in England — the 
 suggestion of a transcontinental railway from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific was made. By 1838 the idea 
 had ceased to be a novelty and become a question of 
 ways and means; and the decade between 1840 and 
 1850 saw many schemes publicly advocated and em- 
 bodied in petitions to Congress. In many ways 1849 
 was a climacteric year in the movement, for in that 
 year conventions assembled in Boston, Memphis, 
 St. Louis, and other places, all concerned with fur- 
 thering some form of a Pacific railway. 
 
 Influenced by this active interest, local and na- 
 tional, the State of Missouri, between 1847 ^^'^ 
 1855, granted charters for seven railroads, all of 
 which received State aid in construction.^ These 
 were, in the order of their incorporation, the Han- 
 nibal and St. Joseph, chartered February 16, 1847; 
 the Pacific railroad (now the Missouri Pacific), 
 chartered March 12, 1849; the Northern Missouri, 
 and the St. Louis and Iron Mountain, chartered 
 March 3, 1851 ; the Southwest Branch of the Pacific 
 road, authorized December 25, 1852; the Platte 
 County railroad, incorporated February 24, 1853 ; 
 and the Cairo and Fulton road, chartered February 
 20, 1855. These lines were designed to serve not 
 merely as parts of a local railroad system, center- 
 
 ^ The most valuable work on the relations of the State of Missouri 
 to railroad construction is John W. Million's State Aid to Railways in 
 Missouri {Economic Studies of the University of Chicago). Chicago, 1896. 
 
156 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 ing in St. Louis and tributary to Mississippi river 
 traffic; but also, in the case of the Pacific road, as 
 the first stage, west of the Mississippi, of a great 
 transcontinental railway. 
 
 By the charter of 1849, ^^ amended March i, 
 1 85 1, the Pacific Railroad Company was authorized 
 to ''construct a railroad from the Mississippi river, 
 or any other point in the city of St. Louis, on any 
 route the said Company may deem most advanta- 
 geous, to any point on the western line of the State 
 which the said Company may select." What that 
 route would be, in its first half, was rendered certain 
 by the geography of the State, for it would naturally 
 follow the valley of the Missouri river as far as Jef- 
 ferson City. Beyond that point at least two routes 
 were open to the Company. The road might con- 
 tinue to follow the windings of the river, keeping 
 in touch with the thriving little towns that dotted 
 either bank ; or it might take the more inland route, 
 through Pettis and Johnson counties, leading it 
 more directly, but through a more sparsely settled 
 country, to its western terminus. 
 
 Along both routes preliminary surveys were 
 made; and, on July 12, 185 1, the report of the Chief 
 Engineer was published in the Jefferson City En- 
 quirer. The beauty and fertility of the country 
 along the inland route were set forth ; but the cost 
 of constructing the road on that location, according 
 to the estimates presented, would be $168,923 more 
 than on the other. The opinion of the Chief En- 
 gineer, it was evident, inclined toward the choice of 
 
rv, 
 
MAP 
 
 OF MISSOURI, SHOWING STATE-AIDED RAILWAYS 
 
 Reproduced with alterations from Professor John W. Million's StaU 
 
 A d to Railways in Missouri, by permission of the University of Chicago Press. 
 
SUPPORTS INLAND ROUTE 157 
 
 the river route. Both routes, however, had ardent 
 advocates ; and the supporters of the inland route 
 set actively to work to secure the location of the 
 road along the line which they favored. 
 
 It is at this point that the services of George R. 
 Smith became of prime importance. For several 
 years before the chartering of the Company he had 
 taken a keen interest in all discussions looking to- 
 ward railroad building; and when that charter was 
 voted he gave the project his cordial support. As 
 early as October 22, 1850, he entered into corre- 
 spondence with Thomas Allen, President of the 
 road, urging the latter to visit Pettis county and ad- 
 dress the people. Early in 1851, at Allen's sugges- 
 tion, he procured signatures to a petition addressed 
 to the Pettis county representative in the legisla- 
 ture, instructing him to support the application of 
 the Company for a loan of State credit for building 
 the road. Now that the question had become a con- 
 test between the rival routes, he threw himself 
 with ardor into the struggle. The river counties 
 already possessed an outlet by water for their pro- 
 duce. To the inland counties victory meant indus- 
 trial salvation. No one was better acquainted with 
 Central Missouri, and the country west and south- 
 west, with all its latent possibilities, than General 
 Smith. Since 1834, he had ridden again and again 
 over half the land of Central and Southwestern Mis- 
 souri. He knew the industrial resources of Western 
 Missouri, and also of the Kansas region and the In- 
 dian territory ; he knew intimately the prairies and 
 
158 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 ridges, the valleys and river bottoms, the swamps 
 and forests, along each of the routes in competition. 
 In his mind's eye was a map of much of the coun- 
 try concerned, graven by days of weary travel and 
 hardship. He knew the region better than the en- 
 gineers of the survey ; and he felt that in many 
 ways the advantages of the river route were less 
 than was indicated by the report. What advantages 
 it did possess the inland counties might overcome by 
 liberal grants in aid of the road. The river counties 
 were richer and better able to make subscriptions 
 than those along the inland route ; but the need of 
 the latter was the greater. Energy and persever- 
 ance might win the road for that route ; and to the 
 task General Smith set himself with all the vehe- 
 mence of his ardent nature. 
 
 His first move was to summon a meeting of the 
 citizens of Pettis county at Georgetown, in January, 
 1852, to consider the question of voting a subscrip- 
 tion to the road. The people in general were 
 apathetic or opposed to the project, and from short- 
 sighted economy, or narrow-minded conservatism, 
 seemed likely to take no effective action in the 
 matter; yet by active solicitation in person and by 
 letter, General Smith succeeded in getting a good 
 attendance. But when a proposition was made that 
 Pettis county should subscribe $75,000 to the stock 
 of the Company, it was voted down by a decided 
 majority. Various propositions were then made and 
 negatived, until at last a motion to subscribe even 
 $10,000 was emphatically rejected. 
 
PETTIS COUNTY VOTES AID 159 
 
 General Smith could never quite shake off a cer- 
 tain diffidence in public speaking, and had remained 
 silent up to this point. Now he came forward, and 
 in a speech of two hours so wrought upon his audi- 
 tors that the temper of the meeting was entirely 
 changed. His varied information of the possibilities 
 of the country, his intimate knowledge of the char- 
 acter and habits of thought of his people, his 
 native Kentucky eloquence, and above all his busi- 
 ness common-sense, enabled him to present urgent 
 and convincing arguments in favor of the road. 
 The very men who had just voted down a grant of 
 $10,000 now joined in voting a subscription of 
 $100,000. An election at which the matter was to 
 be finally voted on by the county was set for next 
 August, and General Smith promised to canvass 
 the county before election day. This promise he 
 more than made good. Leaving his other business 
 to take care of itself, he mounted his horse and 
 rode into every township, urging the people every- 
 where to vote the grant. The result of his seven 
 months' labor was that when election day came the 
 citizens of the county, whose whole assessed valua- 
 tion was not over $500,000, voted by a majority of 
 nearly five to one to grant $100,000 to the new road. 
 
 The other counties along the inland route voted 
 sums which raised the total subscription for this 
 route to several hundred thousand dollars. In view 
 of this liberal aid to the road, the next legislature, 
 by an act approved December 25, 1852, located the 
 road along the inland route. This action, however, 
 
i6o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 was only secured after a hard fight. "The decided 
 majority," wrote ex-Governor Thomas C. Fletcher 
 of those events in 1892, "favored the river route. 
 Senator Grover and George R. Smith unitedly made 
 such a fight for the present location as at last pre- 
 vailed. Grover succeeded in getting on an amend- 
 ment, with the assistance of General Smith, which 
 made the act voting the bonds in aid of the road 
 conditional that the road should go through John- 
 son county and consequently through Pettis county. 
 I was a mere youth then, acting as an amanuensis 
 or clerk for the promoters of the railroad at Jeffer- 
 son City. There was what is called by parliamentary 
 solicitors 'some hard work' after adjournment and 
 before the meeting of the House and Senate, — vul- 
 garly called 'lobbying.' The co-operation of Grover 
 and Smith put the railroad where it is to-day. 
 Grover led the fight in the Senate, and Smith did 
 the general management outside as well as inside 
 the halls of legislation." 
 
 The action of the legislature was conditioned on 
 the seven counties concerned (Cole, Moniteau, 
 Cooper, Pettis, Johnson, Cass, and Jackson), rais- 
 ing an additional subscription of $400,000 before 
 the end of 1853. This portion of the act reads as 
 follows : 
 
 § II. The Pacific railroad shall be deemed a rail- 
 road beginning in the city of St. Louis and running 
 westwardly by the way of Jefferson City ; and 
 thence along the best and most practicable inland 
 route through the county of Johnson, and termi- 
 nating at any point in Jackson county which may 
 
PROVISIONAL LOCATION i6i 
 
 be designated by the said Company, anything con- 
 tained in the charter thereof to the contrary not- 
 withstanding ; provided, the counties west of Jeffer- 
 son City through which said road shall run, and 
 those contiguous thereto, and individuals in the 
 same, shall subscribe in good faith four hundred 
 thousand dollars to the capital stock of said Com- 
 pany, in addition to the amount already subscribed ; 
 and if said four hundred thousand dollars additional 
 stock should not be subscribed in good faith to said 
 Company within twelve months from and after the 
 passage of this act, the said Pacific Railroad Com- 
 pany shall be free to select any location they may 
 deem expedient ; and provided further, that the right 
 of way can be obtained upon said route upon as 
 good terms as any other. . . And for the pur- 
 pose more effectually of securing the completion 
 of the said Pacific railroad, the Governor of the 
 State shall cause to be issued and delivered to said 
 Compan}'-, upon their application and acceptance, in 
 addition to the amount authorized to be loaned to 
 said Company by the first section of the act approved 
 February 22d, 1851, fifty thousand dollars of 
 the State bonds for every fifty thousand dollars 
 of the money of said Company actually expended in 
 the construction of said Pacific railroad, whether 
 the said money be collected from the capital stock, 
 or derived from any other source other than the 
 proceeds of sales of State bonds, upon the like 
 proof, terms, conditions, and liabilities, and of the 
 like character and denominations, as prescribed in 
 the act aforesaid ; provided that the total amount of 
 State bonds to be issued to said Company under this 
 section shall not exceed one million of dollars, and 
 the said Company shall complete the said line to its 
 terminus in Jackson county, and put the same in 
 operation, within five years after the passage of 
 this act. 
 
i62 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 News of the action of the legislature is contained 
 in a letter from President Allen dated January i, 
 1853. In this, the resources of the road are enum- 
 erated. There was $1,900,000 in county and other 
 subscriptions, together with 150,000 acres of land 
 estimated as worth $375,000, making a total (as 
 figured by Mr. Allen) of $2,375,000. To secure 
 the full amount of State aid voted the road, $625,- 
 000 in private and county subscriptions must still 
 be raised. "This," continues President Allen, "will 
 very nearly build the road. The rest we hope to 
 make up by our credit, and contractors who will 
 take ten per cent, of their work in stock. Our road 
 will be open to Franklin county in the spring, and 
 we shall be working this way all the year. Let the 
 friends of the road work, and we will put it through 
 quicker than many people imagine." 
 
 General Smith set to work to raise the additional 
 $400,000 needed to assure the inland route. By his 
 exertions a "Pacific Railroad Committee for Pettis 
 County" was organized, of which he was chosen 
 chairman ; a railroad convention was called at 
 Georgetown for the second Monday in February, 
 1853 ; an address to the people was prepared, Gen- 
 eral Smith and Judge H. P. Gray being the authors ; 
 and printed copies of this, with invitations to attend 
 the proposed convention, were sent to all the promi- 
 nent men in the counties concerned. The response 
 to this appeal was gratifying. Two men in par- 
 ticular, S. H. Woodson of Jackson county, and 
 B. W. Grover of Johnson, were enlisted in the 
 
EFFORTS FOR INLAND ROUTE 163 
 
 movement, and became, with General Smith, the 
 staunchest workers for the inland route. Both 
 announced their intention of attending the conven- 
 tion ; but two days before it assembled, Mr. Grover 
 found that his duties as State Senator would detain 
 him at Jefferson City, and was obliged to content 
 himself with sending a letter of advice and admoni- 
 tion : 
 
 Having responded to your invitation to attend 
 the proposed Railroad Convention at Georgetown 
 [he wrote], and my public duties being such as to 
 deny me the pleasure of meeting with you on that 
 occasion as I had hoped and expected, I beg leave 
 to offer a few suggestions, in reference to the duty 
 of the counties interested in the inland location of 
 the Pacific railroad. 
 
 In the first place, it must not be overlooked that 
 the river counties have not yet despaired of securing 
 the location of the road. To that end, for the next 
 two years, they intend to strain every nerve — relax 
 no exertion — spare no efforts — to outbid us, as well 
 as out log-roll us in the next General Assembly to 
 dislocate the road. Their hopes are hung upon the 
 isolated proposition that the Company will not be 
 able to build the road farther west than Jefferson 
 City by the meeting of the next General Assembly ; 
 that then the means of the Company will make it 
 necessary to rely upon the large river subscription to 
 complete the road. Such, I understand from reliable 
 sources, is the argument used at Lexington and 
 Boonville. 
 
 Now what, under such circumstances, ought we 
 to do? It seems to me that our duty is not only 
 plain, but imperative; and that is, to come forward 
 without delay at the earliest possible moment, and 
 
i64 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 subscribe the additional stock made necessary by the 
 law to fix and forever settle the question as to the 
 location of the Pacific railroad. That amount is 
 $400,000 on the part of individuals and counties 
 through which the road may pass and those contig- 
 uous thereto, in addition to the present amount of 
 the capital stock of said Company. Now, I take it. 
 when the counties have complied with the requisi- 
 tion of the eleventh section of the law, and these 
 subscriptions are entered upon the stock book of the 
 Company, then, and then only, will rights vest in 
 these counties which can not be affected by any 
 future legislature without their assent. 
 
 Our action, therefore, ought to be prompt and 
 immediate. Our additional subscription ought by 
 all means to be entered on the stock book of the 
 Company, if possible, before the annual meeting of 
 the Board of Directors, which is, I believe, on the 
 fourth Monday of March next. 
 
 To that end I respectfully suggest that immediate 
 steps be taken, in all the counties interested, to cir- 
 culate petitions to the several county courts, pray- 
 ing the subscription of the additional stock con- 
 templated by the eleventh section of the bill to which 
 I have referred. 
 
 Looking to the immense stake we have in this 
 great question, I hope whatever action may be de- 
 termined upon by the united counsels of the conven- 
 tion will secure the great object we have in view^ 
 and its results may then contribute a just proportion 
 to the development of the resources and prosperity 
 of those whose interests you represent. 
 
 On the day of the convention about thirty per- 
 sons interested in the work were present. After a 
 preliminary organization. General Smith explained 
 the purpose of their meeting, and moved the 
 
DISAPPOINTMENTS 165 
 
 appointment of a committee of two delegates from 
 each county to apportion the $400,000 needed in sub- 
 scriptions among the counties, towns, and individ- 
 uals interested. This was done, and the committee 
 reported an apportionment based on the assessed 
 valuation of property for taxation. The report was 
 unanimously adopted, and before separating, sub- 
 ject to call, the members pledged themselves to use 
 their utmost endeavors to see that the people of 
 their counties should vote at the August elections 
 the amount apportioned to each. 
 
 Between February and election day (August i), 
 General Smith continued unremittingly his efforts. 
 When the vote was counted it was found that Pettis 
 county had voted her quota of $70,000 additional 
 subscription by a good majority. In all the other 
 counties, where equal efforts had not been made, an 
 emphatic negative was returned at the polls. 
 
 When this discouraging news was received it was 
 hoped, for a time, that the Company might still 
 select the inland route. This illusion was dispelled 
 by the following letter from President Allen to Mr. 
 Grover, dated August 8, 1853 : 
 
 In regard to the probabilities of location of the 
 Pacific railroad west of Jefferson City, we are only 
 waiting for action under the law, and have to give 
 time until Christmas. My opinion is that if the 
 $400,000 should be raised as required, and in good 
 faith, the location will go on the Johnson county 
 route. But if it is not raised as required, and in 
 good faith, I am inclined to think the river or Boon- 
 ville route will be taken. These are merely opinions. 
 
i66 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 I agree with you in the importance of settling the 
 question, in order not only to relieve the public 
 mind, but to get the entire line under contract. We 
 shall, however, want all the stock you can raise. We 
 have not succeeded as yet with our loan, and may 
 not possibly for some time. This makes additional 
 subscriptions absolutely necessary. The more sub- 
 scriptions we get, the better our chances of effecting 
 a loan. You will perceive, therefore, that we confi- 
 dently rely upon increased subscriptions, and that 
 there is not only no reason for abating efforts to 
 get them, but new reasons for increased and per- 
 severing exertions. With our present stock we can 
 not carry the road beyond Jefferson City. There is 
 every inducement, therefore, for exertion to those 
 who want the road beyond. 
 
 To a subsequent letter of inquiry addressed by 
 General Smith to Luther M. Kennett, one of the di- 
 rectors, the latter replied, August 22, in these terms : 
 
 Your letter of 15th instant is before me. Have 
 delayed replying that I might see Mr. Allen, the 
 President of the Company, and be able to give you 
 all the information possible. Your newspapers are 
 abusing the Board of Directors of the Pacific rail- 
 road without stint, and utterly without reason. 
 Previous to the examination of the river route, the 
 feeling of the Board, as I informed you, was in favor 
 of the inland route almost unanimously. The sur- 
 veys and report of the Engineer have, however, 
 raised a doubt in the minds of some of the Directors 
 as to which line is preferable. Nevertheless, I am of 
 opinion, and so is the President, that the legisla- 
 ture have virtually located the road, provided you 
 comply with the condition imposed, and that the 
 Board of Directors are both legally and morally 
 
ATTITUDE OF COMPANY 167 
 
 bound to respect that location. In other words, that 
 the road will be located on the inland route, if the 
 counties and individuals on that line subscribe $400,- 
 000 in addition to what they had previously sub- 
 scribed. 
 
 So far as we are advised, you have only yet made 
 up additional $50^000 in Pettis, $25,000 in Moniteau, 
 and $50,000 in Johnson — $125,000 in all, and leaving 
 you still $275,000 to raise, instead of $75,000 as you 
 state. This difficulty can not be got over by with- 
 drawing your original county subscriptions and 
 making new ones, and then counting all as addi- 
 tional, as some think may be done. Even with the 
 $400,000 additional subscriptions required by the 
 act of the legislature, you will have only a little 
 over $600,000 on your line, whilst the subscriptions 
 on the river line w411 be nearly $900,000. The 
 Company can not build the road without means, and 
 will go where the means can be had, — indeed must 
 do it ; so there is no hope for you, unless you can 
 make up at least what the act of the legislature 
 requires. There is more of the road now under con- 
 struction, from Franklin Station, thirty-seven miles 
 from St. Louis, to Jefferson City, than we have 
 provision to pay for, using State credit as fast as 
 we can avail ourselves of it ; so that you see the hue 
 and cry about not locating the whole road at once, 
 and going to work upon it, is all nonsense. Besides, 
 we are bound to wait the twelve months from 
 December last, to see if the inland route makes up 
 her subscription and claims the road. As you seem 
 to think this will require a great effort (believing 
 only $75,000 necessary), I fear it will look squally 
 when you set out to get $275,000. Mr. Allen 
 informs me he has written all these things in full 
 to Messrs. Woodson and Grover, with whom you 
 will doubtless confer. 
 
i68 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Messrs. Smith, Grover, and Woodson had not; 
 awaited this letter before setting to work again on 
 the agitation for additional subscriptions. The 
 means taken to secure these are indicated in a letter, 
 dated August 12, from Mr. Grover to General 
 Smith : 
 
 I enclose you a notice of railroad meetings on the 
 line of the inland location of the Pacific railroad, 
 which, after mature deliberation and consultation 
 among the friends of the road, is believed to be the 
 only feasible and speedy plan to raise the balance 
 of the stock. You will perceive that these appoint- 
 ments are made under the sanction of the central 
 committee, to whom I request you to show it and 
 get their co-operation. I have made the appoint- 
 ments without first consulting them, because I was 
 anxious to secure the aid and services of Woodson, 
 who will co-operate with us. I expect to be with you 
 at all of the places appointed, and hope you will 
 make your arrangements to attend all the meetings. 
 I will have the notices published in the Lexington 
 Express and Occidental M^.?^^;i^^r (Independence), 
 and will rely upon you and the central committee 
 giving sufficient publicity to it on your end of the 
 line. Send copy to Seely's store (Tipton), and 
 Elkton, and have sufficient notice given in your 
 county. I have made these appointments to meet my 
 own and Woodson's convenience, and hope they 
 will also suit yours. 
 
 In this campaign, circumstances forced General 
 Smith to take the chief part. The strain of the 
 work proved too much for the health of Mr. 
 Grover, and he was obliged to give over the task 
 
A NEW CAMPAIGN 169 
 
 for a number of weeks. Woodson, too, found the 
 necessities of his private affairs such that he wrote 
 (September 13) to Smith: "I am now, and will 
 be for three weeks to come, necessarily confined 
 here at Independence by the session of our Circuit 
 Court ; and the burden must yet longer remain on 
 the shoulders of yourself and our excellent friend 
 Grover." And again, on September 24 : "It requires 
 yet more of the same energy, industry, and perse- 
 verance that have characterized your efforts for 
 some time past ; and we shall all look to Grover 
 and yourself to complete the work commenced and 
 prosecuted by you with so much vigor and success." 
 Despite discouragements^ General Smith pressed 
 on with dogged resolution, passing from town to 
 town, from hamlet to hamlet, speaking wherever he 
 could get a handful of people together, and every- 
 where imparting to his hearers some share of his 
 own enthusiasm. The counties along the inland 
 route were poor and sparsely settled, the toal pop- 
 ulation of the eight being only 85,540 ; and three of 
 them (Cole, Moniteau, and Jackson) were almost 
 equally interested in either route. Of Jackson Mr. 
 Woodson wrote July 23, 1853 : ''Our county is 
 peculiarly situated in regard to the road, and can 
 not be expected to feel the same interest in the ridge 
 route as the people of your county and Johnson, but 
 I think a large majority are anxious that it should 
 run upon the ridge ; and it is only necessary for me 
 to assure you that my interest in that route is 
 unabated. I am ready at almost any sacrifice to 
 
I70 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 devote myself to the work of raising the required 
 amount." In the river counties, including the three 
 just named, the census of 1850 showed 16,422 more 
 persons than in the counties of the inland route. The 
 river counties, moreover, had been settled for years ; 
 they were comparatively well improved ; the rich 
 slave owners lived there, raising hemp and tobacco, 
 corn, hogs and cattle ; and they had almost at their 
 doors one of the finest rivers in the world to bear 
 their produce to market. They were in a far better 
 position to subscribe liberally to the road than were 
 the inland counties. They felt the road was already 
 theirs, not dreaming that the inland counties would 
 comply with the conditions of the law. Yet in the 
 face of all this, General Smith made headway. On 
 his return from his first canvass, he published a call 
 for a second meeting of the convention ; and when 
 that body reassembled on September 28th, he 
 reported that at nearly every place of importance 
 wdiere he had spoken he had succeeded in getting 
 signatures to powers of attorney authorizing him to 
 subscribe, in the name of the signers, for varying 
 amounts of stock. 
 
 This success revived the drooping spirits of the 
 convention, and the members went home resolved 
 for more vigorous action. In the river counties also 
 the news aroused the people to greater exertions. 
 Some bitterness accompanied the rivalry, and Gen- 
 eral Smith was pained at times to find distorted re- 
 ports of his speeches made the ground for news- 
 paper attacks upon him by his opponents. In the 
 
RIVER RIVALRY 171 
 
 main, however, the struggle was an amicable one, as 
 is shown by the following extract from a letter 
 dated October 11, from his old friend and former 
 associate in the freighting business, W. H. Russell : 
 
 How gets on the railroad? Our prospect seems 
 to brighten, and if so yours must be on the wane. 
 Do not despair, for we will not be outdone in kind 
 offers ; if successful on the river, you shall certainly 
 be allowed the privilege you so generously offered 
 to us, that of tapping our road with one of plank, 
 which will enable you to get your produce to market 
 with much less labor than on the present mud-road 
 system. 
 
 After another month's labor, the convention 
 assembled on October 25th, and again a favorable 
 report was made, though the total subscriptions 
 pledged were not yet equal to the amount required. 
 The advocates of the inland route set to work once 
 more with renewed determination to complete the 
 task. 
 
 Along the inland route itself, differences of 
 opinion and interest developed as to the exact loca- 
 tion of the road ; and prospective subscribers some- 
 times wished to make their subscriptions conditional 
 upon the road taking this or that particular course. 
 The following correspondence indicates this, and is 
 of interest also because the reply of General Smith 
 is almost the only letter of his, other than those to 
 members of his own family, which has been pre- 
 served. Under date of November 15, 1853, Thos. S. 
 McChesney wrote : 
 
172 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 I received your line after my arrival home from 
 Jackson county, and could not be at your last rail- 
 road meeting- at Wagon Knob. After the meeting 
 at Chapel Hill, I rode a day soliciting subscriptions 
 of the capital stock; but I found the folks in my 
 bounds very unwilling to assign any amount of 
 importance, but wishing to take large stock con- 
 ditional. I therefore concluded not to send my list 
 unless positively necessary to fill the requirements 
 of the law locating the inland route. I am there- 
 fore appointed to say to you, for the Board of Direc- 
 tors of the road, that we can make some $30,000 to 
 $50,000 in forty-eight hours in good faith to the 
 capital stock of said road, on the condition that the 
 road will be located on the Singleton Wagon Knob 
 route. So, sir, if you think it prudent or advisable to 
 do so, you will please send me a form of subscription 
 and any directions you may think necessary, and 
 your opinion fully on that subject. This route will 
 suit you as well as either route, as it will diverge 
 west of Georgetown; and we suppose the largest 
 bid will probably take the road. Sir, please to 
 let us hear at your earliest convenience from you 
 that we ma}^ know how to act. 
 
 General Smith replied, December 8: 
 
 I received yours sometime since in relation to 
 siibscribing stock to the Pacific railroad. I can not 
 tell what effect it might have upon the location of 
 the road if you, who are anxious for its location on 
 the Simpson Ridge would come forward with a 
 heavy subscription ; it might go far towards secur- 
 ing the location upon the ridge. I can only say 
 what course I should take if I occupied the position 
 of the friends of that route; and that would be 
 to offer in the way of subscription an amount suf- 
 
SUBSCRIPTION COMPLETED 173 
 
 ficient to induce them to survey that route. I was 
 informed several times, and by several different 
 persons, that $50,000 or $75,000 could be readily 
 raised if the road would take that route. The latter 
 amount, no doubt, would have considerable weight, 
 especially if it is a fact, as I was told it was, that 
 the Simpson Ridge is nearer and the grades easier 
 than the Chapel Hill route. Next spring there will 
 be a corps of engineers on the road, and the location 
 definitely fixed. In the meantime, I can see no 
 injury that can result by an effort of the friends 
 of the Simpson Ridge to subscribe an amount suf- 
 ficient to induce the location, if possible, on that 
 route. The friends of the present survey having 
 subscribed liberally will, as a matter of course, have 
 considerable influence in adopting that survey. 
 
 In November a final meeting of the convention 
 was called by General Smith, and all persons hold- 
 ing powers of attorney authorizing subscriptions 
 were notified to send them to him at Georgetown. 
 The convention reassembled with a large attend- 
 ance. The powers of attorney, together with a 
 list of all subscriptions, were turned over to a com- 
 mittee to examine and compute the total amount ; 
 and it was found that subscriptions had been made 
 (in addition to the amounts subscribed prior to the 
 act of December 25, 1852) of $412,000. 
 
 The battle — hard to the point of hopelessness — 
 seemed won. But a new difficulty arose when, 
 upon reporting the subscriptions to the Directors, 
 a flaw was found by them in the subscriptions of 
 Jackson county. By reason of the short interval 
 before the expiration of the time fixed by law, the 
 
174 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 whole matter was thus thrown into jeopardy. Again 
 General Smith proved equal to the emergency, and 
 by personally guaranteeing, with some other gen- 
 tlemen, the amount of the Jackson county subscrip- 
 tion, the difficulty was overcome. 
 
 At last, on November 14, 1853, the Directors 
 passed this vote, definitely locating the road on the 
 inland route : 
 
 Whereas, the counties contiguous to and along 
 the line of the inland route of the Pacific railroad, 
 and the citizens of said counties, having in good 
 faith as we believe secured to the Company the free 
 right of way and raised the additional subscription 
 of Four Hundred Thousand Dollars, as required 
 by the eleventh section of the act of the legislature 
 approved December 25, 1852, therefore 
 
 Resolved, that said Pacific railroad west of Jeffer- 
 son City be and the same is hereby located along 
 the inland route through Johnson county to such 
 termination in Jackson county as shall be hereafter 
 fixed by the Company, in accordance with the pro- 
 visions of the eleventh section of the act above 
 recited. 
 
 The importance of this success to the counties of 
 the inland route can scarcely be overestimated. That 
 region was thus assured an outlet through one of 
 the fi^st railroads constructed west of the Mis- 
 sissippi ; and priority in time counts for much in 
 such matters. They were assured, too, of being in 
 the line of a direct route to the Pacific coast. Before 
 the road was completed across Missouri, Kansas 
 took up the task of construction ; and though the 
 
FINAL LOCATION 175 
 
 Civil War checked the progress of the work, and 
 after that the enormous bounty of Congress to the 
 Union Pacific road enabled that line first to reach 
 the Western Ocean, yet the Missouri Pacific was 
 still to become a road of the first magnitude, and 
 one of the main routes to the Pacific coast. The 
 location of the road on this route meant the found- 
 ing of new towns in the counties concerned, includ- 
 ing Sedalia, the especial creation of General Smith ; 
 it meant also the rapid development of many old 
 towns, and a large increase of the whole region in 
 wealth and population. It is not too much to say 
 that in great part the exceptional prosperity of this 
 section of Missouri is due to the location of the 
 Pacific road on the inland route. That this was 
 done, as has already been shown, was chiefly due 
 to the energy, courage, and ability of George R. 
 Smith. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 IN THE LEGISLATURE 
 
 (1854-1855) 
 
 Election to the legislature — Personnel of the Assembly — 
 Organization and committees. (I) Rival candidates for 
 United States senatorship — Cause of Democratic opposi- 
 tion to Benton; the Jackson resolutions — General Smith's 
 attitude in the senatorial contest — Inability of Whigs to 
 elect Doniphan — Failure to elect a Senator. (II) The 
 railroads and the legislature — General Smith's contin- 
 ued services in the interest of the Pacific road — 
 Elected member of its Board of Directors — Report of 
 joint committee of the two houses on railroads — Conflict 
 between the Southwest Branch and the Pacific road — 
 General Smith's speech — Union of railroad interests in 
 the railroad bill of the second session — Prospects of the 
 bill — General Smith's services in securing its passage — Its 
 final passage over the Governor's veto. 
 
 The vigorous aid which General Smith gave to 
 the Pacific road while the project was before the 
 people, he was soon in a position to supplement by 
 equally vigorous action in the legislature. Twice 
 before he had been the Whig candidate for repre- 
 sentative from Pettis county, but had suffered de- 
 feat at the polls. In 1854, with the prestige of his 
 brilliant railroad campaign, he for a third time made 
 
 176 
 
CANDIDATE FOR LEGISLATURE i;; 
 
 the race, and, aided by the mutual jealousies of the 
 Benton and anti-Benton wings of the Democratic 
 party, was elected by a good plurality. 
 
 While the campaign was still on, General Smith 
 received the following letter from his friend, John 
 S. Jones. It is dated Washington, D. C., June 30, 
 1854, and shows admirably the feelings against 
 which a Whig in Central Missouri at this time had 
 to contend : 
 
 I hope you will make a respectable race for the 
 legislature, but hope a good Democrat will beat you 
 by a small majority. I don't want you beat so bad as 
 to mortify your feelings at all; for I do think as 
 clever a man as you are ought to have kept up with 
 the times, and you should have now been a good 
 Democrat. There is no such thing recognized here 
 as a Whig party south of Mason and Dixon's line ; 
 there is only a sectional Whig party at war on the 
 institutions of the South. Governor Jones of Ten- 
 nessee has declared himself separated from the 
 party, and that no such party exists in the South, 
 only to co-operate with Free-Soilers and Abolition- 
 ists. 
 
 You have taken back all you ever said about Ben- 
 ton ; now come out, General, in the same manner 
 about Wliiggery. Throw yourself loose from Free- 
 Soilism ; for every Whig elected South is consid- 
 ered an Abolition victory here. I know you are 
 wedded to the old name Whig, but still I think you 
 have patriotism enough to overcome that, if pride 
 was not in the way. But conscience ought to over- 
 rule pride, and you should come out a good Demo- 
 crat. 
 
 Poor old Bullion, he has gone clear over. He is 
 
178 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 now down on the administration, and thrown him- 
 self in the arms of Free-Soilers and xA^bohtionists. 
 His vote you will have already seen on Giddings' 
 resolution to expel the editors of Union from the 
 House. Benton voted with a small minority not to 
 lay the resolution on the table. 
 
 By General Smith's political opponents it was 
 charged, during his legislative term, that he occu- 
 pied his position as representative from Pettis 
 county ''by accident rather than by the choice of the 
 people." To this he replied with a letter, dated May 
 S, 1855, to the editor of the Soiithzvest Democrat^ 
 in which the following account of his nomination 
 and election was given : 
 
 In April, 1854, a mass meeting of the Whigs of 
 Pettis county was called. Notice of the meeting 
 was posted at all the public places in the county, 
 calling on the Whigs to meet on the first day of our 
 Circuit Court, for the purpose of appointing dele- 
 gates to the congressional convention, and also to 
 select a candidate to represent us in the State 
 legislature, and to select candidates for the county 
 offices. Well, sir, the convention met on the day 
 proposed in the advertisements, and, with only one 
 exception, it was decidedly the largest political 
 gathering I have ever seen in the county, of any 
 party. I was absent from the county for some 
 weeks before the convention came off, and did not 
 return until the day before it assembled. I had 
 nothing to do with the call for the convention, nor 
 any of my friends, so far as I know. It was stated 
 to me on the morning of the convention by several 
 of my friends that it had been called to defeat me, 
 
NOMINATED AND ELECTED 179 
 
 and that the last Whig in the county who was 
 known to be opposed to me was in the town, and 
 they feared my defeat was certain. Well, sir, the 
 convention met and was organized. A gentleman 
 in every sense of that term, a decided and a very 
 prominent Whig, enjoying the confidence of all men 
 of all parties, and myself, were nominated, and I 
 was selected by (as I was informed, for I did not 
 attend the convention) an overwhelming majority, 
 the lowest I have ever heard it stated was six to 
 one. I was waited upon the same day, and in- 
 formed of the result. I accepted the nomination 
 and announced myself a candidate, — was the first 
 candidate announced by some two or three weeks, 
 and continued upon the track until the close of the 
 election. \^arious efforts were made by the oppo- 
 site party to defeat me. Several conventions were 
 called ; finally two candidates were run against me, 
 Benton and anti-Benton. The two together, I think, 
 beat me some ten or fifteen votes. Many of the 
 anti-Benton party declared their intention to vote 
 for me, if there was the slightest prospect of the 
 election of the Benton candidate, whilst many more 
 of the Benton party declared their intention to vote 
 for me, if there was the slightest prospect of the 
 election of the anti-Benton candidate. 
 
 The Assembly of which General Smith was a 
 member was distinguished for the large number of 
 men it contained who were then or have since be- 
 come notable in State or national affairs. Among 
 numerous testimonies to this effect, that of Judge 
 J. C. Fagg may here be cited : 
 
 My acquaintance with General George R. Smith 
 [wrote Judge Fagg in 1892, in response to in- 
 
i8o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 quiries from General Smith's family] began early 
 in the month of January, 1855. I can not separate 
 the incident of my introduction to him from the fact 
 that it was the beginning of my own experience in 
 public affairs and my first contact with the promi- 
 nent men of the State. I have had some knowledge 
 of every legislative body that has convened at the 
 State capital since that time. The circle of my per- 
 sonal acquaintance, and association with, the men 
 who have been conspicuous in the political arena as 
 well as in the legal profession has greatly enlarged 
 in the thirty-seven years that have intervened, and 
 my conviction is that the legislature of 1854-55 con- 
 tained a greater number of able and experienced 
 representatives than have ever assembled in council 
 at Jefferson City since. It will be necessary to men- 
 tion only the names of a portion of them to satisfy all 
 who are familiar with the political history of the 
 State that this statement is true. General Alexander 
 W. Doniphan represented Clay county. Francis P 
 Blair, Jr., George W. Goode, Samuel M. Brecken- 
 ridge, B. Gratz Brown, Richard J. Barret, and Al- 
 bert Todd were from St. Louis. Major James S. 
 Rollins and General Odon Guitar were the mem- 
 bers from Boone county. Charles H. Hardin was 
 one of the representatives from Callaway, George 
 Medley of Cole, General John W. Reid of Jackson, 
 General George R. Smith of Pettis, and Louis V. 
 Bogy of Ste. Genevieve. ... In the long list of 
 members, I have constantly carried in memory the 
 names of a large number of others not so conspicu- 
 ous in the debates, but who were nevertheless able 
 and efficient legislators. I may mention Colonel Joe 
 Davis of Howard, Colonel James H. Britton of Lin- 
 coln, Colonel Marcus Boyd of Green, Cyrus H. 
 Frost of Texas, Colonel Robert Acock of Polk, John 
 Doniphan of Platte, and many other hard-working 
 
MAKE-UP OF ASSEMBLY i8i 
 
 intelligent members. In the Senate there were 
 Henry T. Blow of St. Louis, C. C. Ziegler of Ste. 
 Genevieve, Robert M. Stewart of Buchanan, Gen- 
 eral John D. Stevenson of Franklin, Colonel Robert 
 Wilson of Andrew, Peter Carr of Pike, Charles 
 Simms of Cass, and others equally able and worthy. 
 
 Politically the lower house was about equally di- 
 vided between the Whigs, the Benton, and the anti- 
 Benton Democrats, — the Whigs having a slight 
 plurality over either of the others. With tlie aid of 
 Benton votes, the Whigs for the first time in a 
 generation elected their candidate, William New- 
 land of Ralls county, as Speaker. General Smith 
 received the compliment of Mr. Newland's ov/n 
 vote for Speaker throughout the contest ; and he 
 was appointed to the important committees on elec- 
 tions and on internal improvements. His name 
 further appears as chairman for the House of the 
 joint committee to examine the condition and man- 
 agement of the Penitentiary. 
 
 The question of immediate political importance 
 before this Assembly was the election of a United 
 States Senator. Of this contest, and General Smith's 
 attitude toward the factional struggles to which it 
 gave rise, Judge Fagg writes^ in the account before 
 quoted : 
 
 Colonel Thomas H. Benton, Missouri's great 
 Senator for six lustrums, was asking a re-election 
 as a Democrat. The term of General David R. 
 Atchison was also about to expire, and these two 
 leaders of opposing elements in the Democratic 
 
i82 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 party were for the first time arrayed against each 
 other as candidates for the same senatorial term. 
 Colonel Benton's term had expired in March, 1851, 
 and the Hon. Henry S. Geyer of St. Louis was 
 elected to succeed him.^ The Whig party was nomi- 
 
 ^ An account of the election of Geyer was given to General 
 Smith by A. M. Coffy, Representative from Pettis county, in a 
 letter written at intervals January 17th to 19th, 1851: 
 
 "Last evening we completed the twenty-fifth ballot for United 
 States Senator without any change in the result except an addition 
 to our strength of three votes, viz. : Stewart from Buchanan, Hun- 
 ter, and Doherty, all anti-Benton. 
 
 "We are in the midst of an excitement such as has not been 
 witnessed at Jefferson City for many years. The hotels are filled 
 with visitors, and the outsiders are as much engrossed in the elec- 
 tion as members, and are indeed exercising an unfortunate influ- 
 ence at this juncture. Many are made to hold on by threats and 
 denunciations. The Antis — a majority of them, I mean — desire the 
 election of Geyer; and but for the imprudence of two or three 
 Whigs he would now have been the Senator. 
 
 "10:30 a.m. — The twenty-sixth vote is just commenced; result: 
 Geyer 70, Benton 54, Green 31 — a gain to Geyer upon the vote of 
 last evening of three — Frost, and Harrison, and , Antis. 
 
 "January 18. — We had but one balloting yesterday, the result 
 of which I gave you. In the progress of the ballotings the last two 
 days a wide latitude has been taken by various persons in discuss- 
 ing the merits of the various candidates, to the great detriment and 
 delay of important public business. Our country is cursed, — all 
 parties are cursed, — with designing aspiring demagogues, who seek 
 their own advancement, reckless of their country's interests; and 
 I shall not be surprised if the pursuit of this object shall not 
 only defeat the election of Senator, but other important measures. 
 Last night the two wings of Democracy held a joint meeting. All 
 except Democratic members were excluded. I am, however, in a 
 condition to know what transpires at the meetings of the Antis, 
 or in their joint meetings. It is agreed among them that neither 
 Benton nor Green can succeed, but a jealousy of each other has 
 so far prevented the suggestion of any other name. Each is striv- 
 ing for the vantage ground, and if the leaders can control they 
 will permit the State to go unrepresented rather than elect a Whig. 
 
 "January 19. — Since the adjournment of the House another effort 
 has been made to unite the two wings, but without success; and 
 I can now almost give assurance that on to-morrow, Monday, Henry 
 S. Geyer will be announced by the cannon's thunder and the 
 
BENTON AND SLAVERY 183 
 
 nally united and was represented in the senatorial 
 contest by General Alexander W. Doniphan of Clay 
 county. No correct idea of General Smith's career 
 as a public man can be had without a knowledge of 
 the character and political status of the men with 
 whom he was in contact, and the influences that 
 were then shaping the legislation of the State. 
 
 From the time of Colonel Benton's appeal to the 
 people from the resolutions adopted by the Missouri 
 legislature in 1849, down to the election of mem- 
 bers in 1854, there had been the most bitter and 
 fierce political warfare ever waged in the State. To 
 understand it thoroughly we should have to go 
 back to the very beginning of the controversy about 
 the admission of slave property into the territories. 
 But my purpose is to begin with what is known as 
 the "Jackson resolutions." Claiborne F. Jackson, of 
 Howard, was the reputed author, and they will 
 always be known in the history of the State by his 
 name. They assumed that the Northern portion of 
 the United States had made war upon the institu- 
 tion of slavery, and that the refusal of Congress to 
 recognize and protect slaves as property in the ter- 
 ritories was but the initiatory step towards its ulti- 
 mate extinction in the States. This movement, be- 
 ginning with what is known in the history of the 
 times as the "Wilmot Proviso," was denounced as 
 an encroachment upon the rights of the South, and 
 
 winged lightnings as the successor of Thomas H, Benton. My knowl- 
 edge of what transpires in their caucuses enables me to predict this re- 
 sult with much confidence." 
 
 After his defeat for the Senate, Benton secured an election to the 
 lower house of Congress from the St. Louis district, but was de- 
 feated for re-election in 1854 by a former Whig, who ran as a "Know 
 Nothing." Though upwards of seventy years of age and feeble in 
 health, Benton renewed the contest for the Senate in 1854. In 1856 
 he was an independent candidate for Governor, and died in 1858. 
 
i84 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the fifth in the series of resolutions pledged the 
 State to an unconditional co-operation with the 
 Southern States in such measures as might be 
 deemed necessary to resist it.^ 
 
 Colonel Benton, with his usual promptness and 
 vigor, denounced them at once as ''a fire-brand" 
 thrown out to kindle the flames of rebellion and 
 disunion. The opposition to him was led by some 
 of the ablest men in the State, including Jackson of 
 Howard, Hudson of St. Louis, Bogy of Ste. Gene- 
 vieve, Stewart of Buchanan, Medley of Cole, and a 
 great many others. I do not propose to write the 
 history of that struggle among the leading Demo- 
 crats of the State, nor shall I attempt to describe 
 the bitter proscriptive spirit by which it was char- 
 acterized. The tyranny of opinion connected with 
 the institution of slavery had never so fiercely as- 
 serted itself before, and its power fell with crush- 
 ing force upon every opposing obstacle. Nominally 
 a fight inside of the Democratic party, it nevertho- 
 less extended itself into the ranks of the Whig 
 
 2 These resolutions may be found in full in Carr's Missouri, 
 pp. 223-5, and in Switzler's Missouri, 265-268. They declare: That 
 any attempt of Congress to legislate "so as to affect the institution 
 of slavery in the States, in the District of Columbia, or in the 
 territories " is a violation of the principles upon which the Con- 
 stitution was founded; that any organization of the territories 
 which precluded inhabitants of the Southern States removing 
 thither with their slaves, "would be an exercise of power by Con- 
 gress inconsistent with the spirit upon which our federal compact 
 was based, insulting to the sovereignty and dignity of the States 
 thus affected, and calculated to alienate one portion of the Union 
 from another, and tending ultimately to disunion"; that the people 
 alone of the territory, at the time of forming a State government or 
 subsequently, can prohibit slavery in that territory; and finally, that 
 "in the event of the passage of any act of Congress conflicting 
 with the principles herein expressed, Missouri will be found in 
 hearty co-operation with the slaveholding States, in such measures 
 as may be deemed necessary for our mutual protection against the 
 encroachments of Northern fanaticism." 
 
SMITH'S ATTITUDE 185 
 
 party, and threatened its integrity also. The anti- 
 Benton element in the Democratic party not only 
 questioned the soundness of Benton's followers 
 upon the slavery question, but in their newspapers 
 and in their public discussions tried to force every 
 Whig candidate for office to take sides in the con- 
 troversy. It was a trying ordeal through which 
 they were compelled to pass as well as the Demo- 
 crats. 
 
 There were many faint-hearted, cowardly men, 
 who tried to evade the issue and to profit by the 
 dissensions in the Democratic ranks ; but General 
 Smith was not one of them. He was a Kentucky 
 Whig after the model of Henry Clay. His South- 
 ern birth and education, however, did not extin- 
 guish the national impulses and patriotic fire that 
 burned in his heart. He loved his whole country, and 
 his life was consecrated to the purpose of holding 
 the States together in one common bond of union, 
 and in promoting the best interests and developing 
 to the largest extent and in the most rapid manner 
 every element of material wealth within its bound- 
 aries. Whilst he was a pronounced partisan and 
 clung with great tenacity to the creed and policy of 
 his party, he did not seek a place in the State legis- 
 lature for political purposes. He met courageously 
 every political issue involved in the campaigns of 
 1854, and did not deceive any portion of his constit- 
 uency in regard to his position upon the admission 
 of slaves into the territories. He was not himself 
 deceived as to the true purpose and object of the 
 Kansas-Nebraska bill, and knew that the Southern 
 wing of the Whig party was really in sympathy 
 with the advocates of that measure. He enter- 
 tained grave fears as to the ability of his own party 
 to avoid disruption from the same cause that had 
 produced a division of the Democrats. But none 
 
i86 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 of these things moved him. The object that en- 
 grossed his attention and commanded his best 
 thoughts and energies was the development of the 
 resources of the State of Missouri. His home and 
 his interests were all here. He had examined care- 
 fully the vast area of fertile lands lying west of the 
 State capital and extending from the Missouri river 
 to the southern boundary of the State. He saw 
 that the key to that territory was neither the Mis- 
 souri nor the Osage rivers ; that the settlement and 
 improvement of that vast body of rich land could 
 only be secured within a reasonable time by the 
 building of a main line of railway from east to 
 west through the best portion of it. He knew that 
 when that was accomplished branches would be 
 thrown out in various directions, and that other 
 lines would cross or intersect it at such points as 
 would in a short time reach every portion of the 
 great Southwest. Then this main line must of 
 necessity pass through his county and be within 
 reach of his own domicile. It is true that he must 
 have seen that the line west of Jefferson City and 
 running in the direction of Kansas City would 
 necessarily be so located as to benefit him individ- 
 ually ; but he was too broad and liberal in his views 
 to have been controlled by mere selfish considera- 
 tions. An enlightened self-interest has been the 
 great motive power by which some of the largest 
 public benefits have accrued to the world. Individ- 
 ual victories and successes in the promotion of pub- 
 lic improvements are the incidents which rightfully 
 belong to the enterprising men who devote their 
 time and energies to the work. General Smith was 
 not indifferent to the poHtical questions of the day. 
 He did not lose his interest in the plans and exped- 
 ients which were deemed necessary to the success 
 of his own party organization ; but as a State legis- 
 
THE RAILROAD CAUSE 187 
 
 lator he had a desire and a purpose which domi- 
 nated for the time being all other aims connected 
 with his legislative career. It was the main purpose 
 for which he had sought and obtained a seat in 
 the legislature, and to its accomplishment he bent 
 all his energies and directed all his thoughts. 
 
 How near the railroad cause was to General 
 Smith's heart, and how completely it overshadowed, 
 in his view, all other issues for Central Missouri, 
 may be seen from a letter to friends of the road in 
 Cooper county. As few of his letters to others 
 than members of his family have been preserved, it 
 is given entire. 
 
 Georgetown, June 12th, 1854. 
 Dear Sirs : 
 
 Before this reaches you, you will have heard 
 what we have done with our railroad. We have let 
 the whole route from Jefferson City to its western 
 terminus in Jackson county. In order that we may 
 be enabled to complete it, we have yet much to do, 
 not only by additional subscriptions, but by legisla- 
 tive aid. 
 
 I have been requested by the Directors to enter 
 again upon the task, — to appeal to the friends of 
 the road, and ask them once more to come forward 
 and aid in this great enterprise. I shall in due 
 time send out my appointments, so that you all shall 
 know the times and places where I will address you. 
 There is nothing wanting but one vigorous united 
 efifort, and in three years (perhaps less) we shall 
 have the whole road completed to Kansas, or wher- 
 ever we may wish to terminate. I believe your 
 county can be induced to subscribe $100,000 of stock 
 to the road. There is no longer any question of 
 
i88 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 location ; that is settled. Many who were for Boon- 
 ville will now, I doubt not, go for subscribing in 
 their corporate capacity, in order that they may have 
 the advantages of the road. 
 
 The limits of a letter will not allow me room to 
 present all I wish. You have your candidates out ; 
 it will be worse than suicidal for the friends of the 
 road to vote for anyone. Whig or Democrat, who 
 will refuse legislative aid to the road. It may be, 
 one single vote may defeat us in the legislature; 
 then how important it is that we should look well 
 to the feelings, opinions, and capacity of those we 
 bring forward to represent us ! We want the best 
 men, and it matters not whether they are Whigs or 
 Democrats, so they are right upon this subject. 
 
 There can be no objection to a vote at your next 
 election whether your county shall take stock in the 
 road or not. Catechize your candidates upon this 
 subject, and if both are not for it, and also for legis- 
 lative aid, run those who will go for it. I intend to 
 visit your county and discuss the question. If your 
 candidates are right, the task will be an easy one ; if 
 they are against it, no effort of mine or anyone else 
 can change or induce your county to take stock. 
 
 If we move forward as we should, all is safe ; the 
 road can easily be made. If divisions exist, and re- 
 fusals of friends to aid us, all I fear is lost. I am, 
 Very truly, your friend, 
 
 G. R. Smith. 
 
 Col. A, K, Longan, and others. 
 
 From a previous letter it is evident that General 
 Smith's opposition to Benton had largely disap- 
 peared. It is probable that the staunchness with 
 which the latter was upholding the cause of the 
 Union against Southern aggression and disunion- 
 
BENTON AND THE RAILWAY 189 
 
 ist tendencies, was one of the reasons for this 
 change of attitude; but other and perhaps more 
 potent considerations are revealed in the letter 
 given below. It is from John D. Stevenson, of 
 Union, Mo., dated June 5, 1853, and reads in part 
 as follows : 
 
 The conclusion of your letter leads me to infer 
 that the devotion of Old Bullion to Missouri's true 
 interests is not unnoted by you. There is no doubt 
 of one fact, that every man in the State of Missouri 
 who desires at heart that the great national highway 
 shall traverse Missouri's soil, involuntarily turns to 
 Benton, and in him they recognize the most able 
 champion of that great work. The return of Ben- 
 ton to the Senate of the United States has now be- 
 come a State necessity, a question of vastly more 
 importance than any of the political issues presented 
 by himself or enemies ; and must be the controlling 
 question in our next State elections, for the rea- 
 son that the prosperity of Missouri in every point 
 of view is dependent upon the accomplishment of 
 this work. Incidentally Benton's return will be con- 
 sidered a party triumph ; and rightly it should be so, 
 because the anomalous position of his opponents, — 
 opposing to a man the central route, which is the 
 hope of Missouri, thus antagonistical to her most 
 vital interests, — would, it seems to me, force every 
 man in the State who can look at the true interests 
 of the State to desire the overthrow of such a party 
 as is organized against Benton. 
 
 These anti-Benton men, — and with us they are to 
 a man in favor of a southern route, — look to their 
 success as another spoke in the secession and dis- 
 union wheel, and oppose the central route because 
 they know it will more closely cement the bonds that 
 
190 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 bind this Union together. It seems to me, then, that 
 it is a solemn duty, to be discharged by every man 
 who has for one instant looked at the true interests 
 of the State, and in whose heart there is one pulsa- 
 tion of devotion to this Union, to be found at work 
 for the central highway, for Missouri's true policy, 
 for Benton, — all of which, in my estimation, are 
 synonymous. 
 
 In spite of this exhortation, General Smith sup- 
 ported the Whig candidate, against both Benton 
 and Atchison, on every ballot in which he partici- 
 pated.^ Forty-one ballots were cast before adjourn- 
 ing the first session of the Eighteenth General As- 
 sembly ; on the last the vote stood much as it had 
 on the first, namely — for Atchison 58, for Benton 38, 
 for Doniphan 56. 
 
 The apparent inability of the Whigs to elect Doni- 
 phan, led some of them to consider the substitution 
 of some person who might win enough votes to pro- 
 cure an election. Such a suggestion was made to the 
 Pettis county representatives in a letter from John 
 C. McCoy, one of their constituents, under date of 
 January 17, 1855 : 
 
 I like the course the Whigs have taken thus far 
 [he writes], but I believe that some other name 
 would, at this time, gain some votes. I have been 
 traveling through several counties since the first of 
 December. I have heard the subject discussed nu- 
 merous ways, and within the two last days, I have 
 
 ^ He was absent from Friday, January 26, 1855, to Wednesday the 
 31st, during which time the twenty-seventh to the thirty-seventh 
 ballots, inclusive, were taken. 
 
BALLOTING FOR SENATOR 191 
 
 seen several Democrats on their way home from 
 Jefferson ; and I hear but one opinion from them, 
 and that is, that J. S. RolHns of Boone, or J. G, Mil- 
 ler of Cooper, would receive enough Benton votes 
 to elect ; and if so, I can not see why Rollins is not 
 as acceptable to the Whigs as Doniphan. I have seen 
 him carry the Whig flag as independently, and do 
 as good battle for the cause, — yes, and once when 
 Doniphan refused to carry it ; and so of Mr. Miller. 
 I think a Whig who doubts the Whiggery of either 
 of them is himself tainted with some foreignism, 
 and has affinities for abstractions. All the Whigs I 
 have conversed with on the subject have a little more 
 confidence in Rollins or Miller than in Doniphan ; 
 and think that the party owes more to Mr. Rollins 
 than to any Whig in the State ; and believe him as 
 true a Whig, — yes, just a little better, — and as com- 
 petent. And I think the idea of getting reliable sup- 
 port from the Anti's is all moonshine. They made 
 great pretensions when you were a candidate, — had 
 great desires to promote your election, — but the poll- 
 book tells a different story. And so in all their con- 
 tests. They have but one idea ; that is, get office, 
 get power, promote self. I heard our Sheriff Burns 
 say to-day that from what he could learn Rollins 
 could be elected, as he thought the Bentons would 
 vote for Rollins enough to elect him. He left Jeffer- 
 son City Tuesday, and he feels sure that such is the 
 fact. I will only add, I am a Whig and will always 
 vote for a Whig when possible. I hate Loco Focos, 
 and snakes with angular flat heads. I always viewed 
 them as being more dangerous when alive than 
 dead. 
 
 General Smith's mind had probably already turned 
 toward John G. Miller, at that time the Whig repre- 
 sentative in Congress for the Pettis county district. 
 
192 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Toward the end of January he addressed a letter to 
 him at Washington City, to which the following re- 
 ply, dated February 8, was received : 
 
 I feel very much gratified to know that your kind 
 feelings and generous confidence have suggested my 
 name to you for the United States Senate. I have 
 watched with deep interest the progress of your 
 joint sessions, was gratified to see the union which 
 prevailed, at first, among our friends, and pained to 
 know at last defection should show itself. I do not 
 believe from the indications that you will make an 
 election at your present sitting. Should you adjourn 
 until autumn, something may then be effected. I do 
 not believe the Democracy can harmonize, and my 
 conviction has been for some time that we should 
 have a Whig or no Senator in Atchison's place. 
 
 Mr. Miller's forecast of the outcome of the sena- 
 torial struggle proved correct. Owing perhaps to 
 the "protracted illness" from which he was then suf- 
 fering, and which within a few months ended his 
 life, his own name was not seriously considered. 
 After the forty-first ballot, taken on February i, no 
 further ballots were taken at this session; and on 
 March 5, 1855, the General Assembly adjourned, to 
 meet again the first Wednesday in November, with- 
 out having chosen a Senator. When the legislature 
 reassembled, the struggle began anew, with few new 
 features. General Smith wrote from Jefferson City 
 (November 27) to his wife: "It is said there is a 
 trade going on with the Anti's and Doniphan by 
 which they intend to elect two Senators instead of 
 
NO ELECTION 193 
 
 one; whether it is true or false, I of course do not 
 know." If such a measure was in contemplation it 
 failed, as did all other attempts to break the dead- 
 lock; and when the legislature finally adjourned, 
 December 13, 1855, no joint session had been held 
 and no election had taken place. 
 
 We turn now to the consideration of a matter 
 which, in the view of General Smith, was more im- 
 portant than any purely political question, — ^the aid- 
 ing of the nascent railroad system of the State. 
 
 Judge Fagg well says, in speaking of General 
 Smith's labors for the Pacific railroad, that it was 
 "the pet scheme of his life, and the one upon which 
 he lavished all the wealth of his time, talents, and 
 most devoted attachment." The zeal, ability, and 
 success with which he had carried through the cam- 
 paign for the location of the road on the inland 
 route, led the Directors, in January, 1854, to appoint 
 him their agent to collect the subscriptions west of 
 Jefferson City. This work he pursued with energy 
 and success, until relieved by the appointment of 
 other agents, June 13, 1855. He made a canvass of 
 the counties concerned, speaking at a number of 
 places and explaining the need of responding readily 
 to the calls issued by the Company against the sub- 
 scriptions. "Rumors," he wrote in a letter to the 
 Lexington Express, ''are rife through the country 
 of repudiation and refusal to pay" ; these he set him- 
 self to counteract. In a subsequent letter to this 
 newspaper (February 20, 1854) he gives an encour- 
 
194 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 aging report of his progress ; up to that time he 
 knew of "but one man who refuses to pay his call," 
 and this he understood "arises from a misconception 
 on his part of the object of the call." His collections 
 far surpassed his expectations. Soon after this the 
 Treasurer of the Company wrote that he was "grat- 
 ified to hear" that he had met with such success, and 
 hoped that it would "continue to the end." This 
 hope was not wholly fulfilled ; but the task of the 
 Company was certainly made easier by General 
 Smith's labors. From this time on he was gradually 
 taken more and more into consultation by the officers 
 of the road. On May 12, 1854, the Secretary wrote 
 informing him that contracts for the construction of 
 the third and fourth divisions were to be let, and so- 
 liciting him to be present at the meeting of the 
 Board to consider them. Soon after he was formally 
 made a member of the Board of Directors, a position 
 which he held for several years. 
 
 The needs of the roads, and the plans devised for 
 meeting them, are indicated in the following extract 
 from a report to the General Assembly presented by 
 a joint committee on internal improvements, of 
 which General Smith was a member : 
 
 The joint committee of the Senate and House of 
 Representatives on internal improvements have had 
 under consideration several measures proposed for 
 aiding the completion of the railroads of the State. 
 It was evident that the railroads had not progressed 
 as rapidly as had been expected, and that some 
 means must be devised to help them. It did not seen' 
 
REPORT ON RAILROADS 195 
 
 prudent for the State to assume the construction of 
 the roads, or to advance to individuals the large 
 amount necessary. The whole capital needed not 
 being available in the State, a great portion must be 
 borrowed from the accumulation of foreign wealth. 
 A little examination showed the committee that the 
 source of difficulty was in the lien held by the State 
 on the different roads, and thus necessarily retarded 
 the negotiation of loans abroad. The committee be- 
 lieve that the principle on which State aid was orig- 
 inally given to the railroads was correct, viz : one 
 dollar from the State (to a fixed amount) for every 
 dollar from private sources, and that the State 
 should have priority of claim. But the committee 
 also believe, that this priority of lien of the State 
 should be on the private stock, and not on the road 
 itself, and that the road itself, so fast as built, should 
 be used as a credit on which to borrow money from 
 abroad, for their construction and completion. 
 
 A bill was therefore proposed in which the lead- 
 ing ideas were as follows : no increase of State credit 
 to roads to which aid had been extended, except to 
 equalize the Iron Mountain railroad ; authority 
 given to the companies to make first mortgage on 
 the road for money borrowed, to be only applicable 
 to the construction of the particular road ; for every 
 dollar of bonds from the State, a dollar to be paid 
 in from stock, without lien on road ; deposit with the 
 Governor of guaranteed or preferred stock, to insure 
 prompt payment of interest ; State to have two Di- 
 rectors ; Board of Public Works, having no control 
 over management of the works, but with power to 
 examine into the construction and management, and 
 in case not satisfied, they, with the Governor, may 
 stop issue of more bonds, and may, through the Su- 
 preme Court, enjoin all bonds; the private stock 
 (equal in amount to the State aid) not to get profits. 
 
196 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 interest, or dividend, from any means of the com- 
 panies, whether directly or indirectly, until all lia- 
 bilities have been provided for, including State aid, 
 sinking fund, etc. 
 
 In the campaign to secure a release of the State 
 lien, General Smith took an active part ; and at the 
 request of the publisher, Mr. William J. Mayo, he 
 wrote a series of articles for the Osceola paper. But 
 the subject was one which afforded aspiring poli- 
 ticians too excellent an opportunity "to play the dem- 
 agogue as the peculiar protectors of the people from 
 increased taxation, which they contend would be the 
 necessary result of the release of the State lien" 
 (letter of William J. Mayo, May 30, 1855; and the 
 movement was foredoomed to failure. In a letter 
 dated September 19, 1855, Mr. A. S. Mitchell, of 
 the St. Louis Intelligencer, sets forth the situation 
 as follows : 
 
 Yours of the thirteenth is received, containing 
 your earnest protest against the remarks of the In- 
 telligencer of the eighth inst. in regard to the 
 release of lien. I sympathize in your surprise and 
 regret at the tone of the article complained of, but I 
 assure you the lines were written with a perfect 
 conviction that the release of lien is impossible. But 
 the roads will not therefore fail. They will go for- 
 ward rapidly. I am satisfied that the release would 
 not be politic, and that better measures will be 
 adopted to complete our system of roads. 
 
 Two of the St. Louis county Senators have de- 
 clared against the release. So has Brown of the 
 House (of the Democrat), and you may set down 
 
STATE LIEN RETAINED 197 
 
 the Benton Representatives of this county the same 
 way. Parks, of St. Charles, is here, and against the 
 release. Carson has been instructed against it. 
 Twenty papers in the State have avowed opposition, 
 — two in St. Louis, the Democrat and the Mirror; 
 the Republican doggedly neutral. The lien is lost, 
 and it was before we admitted the fact in the Intelli- 
 gencer. But the roads will not stop, be assured. 
 
 By the year 1855, the State had voted the issue 
 of bonds in aid of the railroads to the amount of 
 $9,000,000, of which amount $3,000,000 were for 
 the Pacific road. The progress of construction on 
 the roads up to the close of that year, is thus sum- 
 marized : "The Pacific railroad had almost reached 
 Jefferson City, and had consumed the entire amount 
 of State aid and almost all the city and county aid 
 received. The North Missouri Railroad Company 
 had completed the first division of its line, extend- 
 ing from St. Louis to St. Charles, and had com- 
 menced a second division, extending from St. 
 Charles to a junction w^ith the Hannibal and St. 
 Joseph ; and had drawn $600,000 of the State grant. 
 The Hannibal and St. Joseph Company had some- 
 thing over one hundred miles in process of con- 
 struction, but no part completed ; it had drawn 
 $580,000 of the State bonds granted. The St. Louis 
 and Iron Mountain Company, although it had a 
 'considerable portion' of its road under construc- 
 tion, had completed no part of it ; of the State grant, 
 $400,000 had been received. Taking into considera- 
 tion the length of time that had elapsed since the 
 
198 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 beginning of the work of construction, it is thus 
 seen that very Httle had been accomphshed. Only 
 one road, the Pacific, had really made progress at 
 a rate that could be called desirable, and this road 
 had cost twice as much as had been estimated at 
 the beginning of the enterprise. And . . . the 
 cost of the work on all the other roads aided, so far 
 as the companies had proceeded with the construc- 
 tion, had already demonstrated that each of them 
 would cost from 30 to 100 per cent, more than was 
 originally estimated."^ 
 
 Further grants of State aid to the roads seemed 
 imperatively necessary, but conflicting interests 
 jeopardized the success of the attempts to secure 
 them. The Southwest Branch especially threatened 
 to make trouble for the advocates of the main line 
 of the Pacific railroad. The matter came to a head 
 February 28, 1855, on a motion to amend a bill to 
 aid the construction of the Pacific road. In resist- 
 ing this attempt General Smith, — overcoming what 
 he confesses to be his "established habit and well- 
 known disposition to avoid debates," and despite 
 the fact that he had already, the day before, in- 
 dulged in "protracted remarks" on the subject, — 
 made a speech of much length and force : 
 
 They [the friends of the Southwest Branch] are 
 loud and long in what they think is a want of good 
 faith ; and to test that good faith, they come up and 
 offer an amendment to this bill of ours in which 
 we ask $300,000 more State credit to be applied 
 
 ^ Million, State Aid to Railways in Missouri, pp. 89-90. 
 
SOUTHWEST RIVALRY 199 
 
 west of Jefferson City, when we have $850,000 of 
 stock subscribed, $300,000 of which, as I stated 
 distinctly on yesterday, is with conditions such as 
 prevent us from using it, but which will be worth to 
 the Company the amount. We state the reason of 
 this request, and it is this : If the State will loan us 
 $300,000 it gives us double the amount of money we 
 now have to expend upon the road, and it enables us 
 to continue the hands we now have on the road, 
 numbering about 400. It will enable us to push on, 
 slowly to be sure, but it enables us to go on with the 
 work ; and we only ask one dollar in State credit for 
 three dollars in private stock subscribed, and a large 
 amount actually paid in. And a proposition so equi- 
 table and just the gentleman ryders with an amend- 
 ment (to test the good faith and sincerity of the 
 Company) modestly asking that the legislature shall 
 give to the Southwest one million of State credit, re- 
 versing our proposition. We have three dollars in 
 stock subscribed to one we ask credit for, and they 
 very modestly ask three dollars of State credit to one 
 they have subscribed ; and announce to us that tbis 
 is the ultimatum, and if the friends of the Pacific 
 road refuse this, thev will defeat this meritorious 
 proposition. And this, they tell us, will test our good 
 faith to the Southwest. . . 
 
 Sir, I am wiUing to do, as gentlemen can bear 
 testimony, more than any disinterested man will say 
 I ought. But, sir, there is a point beyond which I 
 will not go, though the road fail. That point is 
 reached. . . 
 
 The gentleman doubts much the Pacific Railroad 
 Company, and he thinks if they cared anything about 
 the interest of the Southwest, they would have sub- 
 scribed $150,000, the amount they lack to make up 
 the $500,000 in order that they can have an equal 
 amount of State credit. 
 
200 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Sir, I tell the gentleman that if he will go home 
 and use some of the zeal there to procure sub- 
 scriptions that he does here to defeat the subscribers 
 west of Jefferson, we would not hear their denuncia- 
 tions against the Company. Sir, what has he done? 
 I know where he lives and I know something of his 
 property, and I know gentlemen who have not one- 
 tenth of his means, living as far from the road as he 
 does, who have taken from one thousand to twenty- 
 five hundred dollars stock in this road ; and counties 
 situated further from the road than his county 
 (Polk) that have taken $50,000, whilst his has only 
 taken $20,000. And the little county I have the 
 honor to represent takes $170,000, whilst Greene 
 county, which pays three times the revenue of Pettis, 
 and has more than three times her wealth, takes the 
 pitiful sum of $100,000. And now they have not the 
 sum necessary to secure the advantages the law gave 
 them; and now that they have not raised funds 
 enough to secure the contract, they ask to tack on to 
 our bill a proposition, such as has never been made ; 
 and we are asked to legislate one million to gentle- 
 men who have failed to help themselves ; and we are 
 told and threatened that if we refuse they will defeat 
 this bill. 
 
 I have confidence in the good sense of this House. 
 I have found wherever I have been a disposition in 
 man to aid to the utmost those who have made ef- 
 forts to help themselves. I appeal to gentlemen from 
 all quarters to come up and help us, if those who 
 ought to be our friends have turned our ene- 
 mies. 
 
 The opposition to the amendment was successful, 
 and the bill was passed in form acceptable to the 
 Pacific road, but failed to receive the Governor's 
 assent. 
 
THE ''OMNIBUS" BILL 201 
 
 When the legislature reassembled after the sum- 
 mer recess, the whole question of additional aid 
 to the roads was reopened ; and means were now 
 found to reconcile all claims in a single bill, appro- 
 priating the credit of the State to the amount of 
 $10,000,000 to the various railroads, of which 
 amount the Pacific road was to receive $3,000,000. 
 
 Much has been said and written [writes Judge 
 Fagg in this connection] against omnibus legisla- 
 tion. Men have been greatly censured for their art 
 in combining different interests and opposing ele- 
 ments in order to secure the success of a measure 
 which could not stand by its own strength. Much 
 was said during the session of that legislature 
 against the combination of a large number of pro- 
 jected railroads in the State in order to secure the 
 building of one or two lines of acknowledged public 
 necessity. But the fact is, if it was right for the 
 State in its corporate capacity to lend aid and as- 
 sistance to the business of building railroads at all, 
 not a dollar should have been voted without looking 
 to a general system that sooner or later would fur- 
 nish every section of the commonwealth with rail- 
 road facilities. General Smith was honest in his 
 convictions that the basis for such a system was a 
 line starting from the city of St. Louis, the great 
 commercial center of the Mississippi valley, and ex- 
 tending westward toward the Pacific coast. Such a 
 line was in no sense antagonistic to any other pro- 
 posed line of road in the State. But then there was 
 the Southwest, the Southeast, the Northeast and the 
 Northwest, all entitled to a share in the State's 
 bounty, and all anxious to reach the same common 
 center. The work was really a unit, and no one pro- 
 ject could be favored to the exclusion of the others. 
 
202 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 There was only one road that could be said to be in 
 any sense antagonistic to the others, and that was 
 the Hannibal and St. Joe. However, properly speak- 
 ing, there was no antagonism between that and the 
 other lines, as it would give the most rapid develop- 
 ment to the Northwest that could have been ob- 
 tained, and so that was also taken into the system. 
 
 The prospects of the bill at first were far from 
 flattering. Only two of General Smith's letters to 
 his family, during the time of his legislative service, 
 are extant. Both of these deal with the prospects 
 of the bill ; and from one we learn the following de- 
 tails : 
 
 When I reached here [he writes to his wife, No- 
 vember 27, 1855] a bill was before the Senate for 
 our railroads. The friends of the measure had their 
 hands full to electioneer with those who were looked 
 upon as doubtful. The bill, if it becomes a law, will 
 build our road to Georgetown in two years. Last 
 evening it passed the Senate, where it originated. 
 This morning it was reported to our House. Its pass- 
 age here I do not regard as certain. The prospects 
 are, however, favorable ; but it is said the Governor 
 will veto it. If so, it will be very difficult to pass it 
 over his head. There is one thing certain ; if we fail 
 to pass some relief for our road, the whole subject 
 of railroad building is at an end, for some years at 
 least. We will take up the bill to-morrow. 
 
 In the quiet work of influencing members who 
 were adverse to the bill, General Smith was at his 
 best. His early connection with the Pacific road, 
 his membership in its Directory, his earnest zeal for 
 
SMITH'S PART 203 
 
 the material betterment of IMissouri, and his native 
 eloquence, all served to make him a leader. A 
 graphic account of the situation, and of General 
 Smith's services at this critical juncture, is given by 
 Judge Fagg, who was himself a member of this 
 legislature : 
 
 It would be difficult to say who was the chief 
 leader in the work done by that legislature towards 
 the building of railroads in Missouri. I could not 
 for the life of me tell who rendered the greatest 
 amount of aid or the most efficient labor in the work 
 of constructing the system or in arranging the de- 
 tails of the legislation which was finally agreed upon 
 by the railroad men at that session. But one thing 
 I can truthfully say : no man was more devoted, — 
 more constant, — more untiring in his labors and 
 withal more hopeful of success than George R. 
 Smith. He worked whilst other men slept. He had 
 courage when others faltered. He had undoubting 
 faith and confidence when others despaired of suc- 
 cess ; and when the triumph finally came there was 
 no heart in Jefiferson City so completely filled with 
 proud satisfaction and joy as his. 
 
 General Sterling Price, the then Governor of the 
 State, was known to be opposed to what was de- 
 nounced as a wild and visionary system of public 
 improvements to which the State was asked to loan 
 its credit; and the great fear was that, if a majority 
 of the two houses could be induced to pass the bill, 
 still it would be vetoed, and the required number 
 could not be obtained to put it through notwith- 
 standing the objections of the Governor. The veto 
 was the one thing most dreaded of all others. Noses 
 had been carefully counted in both houses, and it 
 seemed to be reasonably certain that when the final 
 
204 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 vote came there would be a small majority in favor 
 of granting State aid. But when the Governor, with 
 the assistance of the best legal talent that he could 
 command, should come to put his objections upon 
 paper and gravely state his constitutional doubts 
 and scruples, and especially to arraign the members 
 before their constituents for the wild and ex- 
 travagant expenditure of public money without any 
 sufficient security for its return ; they knew that 
 many knees would tremble, many a heart would 
 grow faint, and that many a voice that had timidly 
 and hesitatingly responded ''Aye" upon the passage 
 of the bill would, when the final question should be 
 put, answer "No." 
 
 The situation was a grave one. Various influences 
 were brought to bear upon the Governor to induce 
 him to change his views. It seemed, however, that 
 after everything had been tried he was fixed and 
 immovable in his purpose not to put his signature 
 to the bill. A banquet was finally arranged for at the 
 City Hotel to which the Governor and every mem- 
 ber of the legislature were invited, except those who 
 were believed to be unalterably opposed to the bill. 
 Some of the ablest men of each house were selected 
 beforehand to present the claims of the bill and to 
 furnish the facts and figures upon which, together 
 with the argument of the constitutional questions 
 involved, the doubting Thomases could go back to 
 their constituents and justify a vote in favor of the 
 law. There were many interesting and able speeches 
 made during the evening; many that seemed to 
 cover every point and to present the entire subject 
 in the clearest manner possible. And yet when Gen- 
 eral Smith spoke I was satisfied that no clearer or 
 more forcible argument was made during the whole 
 evening. It was not an occasion for oratorical dis- 
 play. There were no studied phrases and no rhetor- 
 
A VETO ANTICIPATED 205 
 
 ical figures of speech ; but the power and duty of the 
 State to aid its people in developing the agricultural 
 and mineral resources, which were so abundant and 
 accessible, were presented by him in a way that was 
 almost irresistible. I am sorry that that speech has 
 not been preserved. It would furnish a most accu- 
 rate and life-like picture of the man, and give a bet- 
 ter idea of his work in the legislature, than could 
 ever be given by others. 
 
 Governor Robert ]\I. Stewart, under date of Sep- 
 tember 16, 1859, wrote, at General Smith's request, 
 the following statement concerning the course of the 
 latter in this legislature : *'As I offered the bill 
 which passed at the session, known as the Omnibus 
 bill, and was the chairman of the joint committee 
 which recommended its passage (of which commit- 
 tee you were a member), I could not well be ignor- 
 ant of the course pursued by the members of that 
 committee, who were earnest and prominent in their 
 efforts in behalf of or in opposition to the proposed 
 legislation, — calculated, in my opinion, to foster and 
 aid the paramount interests of and indispensable to 
 preserve the honor and credit of the State. In re- 
 sponse to your request, therefore, I am glad to be 
 able to state that I well remember your course as 
 having been characterized by a warm and consistent 
 friendship for the railroad enterprises of the State, 
 and a zealous and efficient advocate of the policy of 
 granting State aid to our great trunk roads. You 
 were the firm friend of the (so-called) Omnibus 
 bill ; and so far as I have observed, you have ever 
 
2o6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 advocated a liberal and enlightened policy in regard 
 to our internal improvement interests." 
 
 The situation before the decision of Governor 
 Price was made known is depicted in the following 
 note from General Smith : 
 
 Jefferson City, December loth, 1855. 
 My Dear Wife : 
 
 We are still in doubt and fear for our bill. We 
 have heard nothing from the Governor. It is sup- 
 posed he will send in his veto to-morrow. My opin- 
 ion is, he will not veto our bill. I think there is no 
 doubt but we can pass it over his head. This may 
 make him approve the bill. Never, perhaps, before 
 were there such efforts made to carry a measure 
 as we are making for this. I think there is but little 
 doubt but that we will pass the bill. 
 
 Kiss the children ; will be at home about Thurs- 
 day, if I can get off. Affectionately, 
 
 G. R. Smith. 
 
 As to the Governor's decision General Smith's 
 guess proved incorrect, but his confidence in the 
 ultimate passage of the bill was well founded. The 
 account of this action may be given in the words of 
 Judge Fagg: 
 
 The veto came at last and with it the most intense 
 excitement that was ever witnessed in the hall of 
 Representatives. The message was read and listened 
 to in the most profound silence on the part of the 
 members. When the ballot was taken and the 
 Speaker announced the passage of the bill,^ there 
 
 ^ December 10; the vote on reconsideration stood, in the Senate, 
 20 to 1 1 ; in the House, 67 to 49. 
 
PASSED OVER VETO 207 
 
 was the wildest scene that I have ever witnessed in 
 any assembly of men. Members ran across the hall 
 and clasped each other in their arms, and laughed 
 and shouted until they were hoarse. General Smith's 
 chair seemed to be the center of hilarity, hand- 
 shakings, and congratulations. At the suggestion of 
 ]\Iajor James S. Rollins, I attempted a pencil sketch 
 of the General as he lay back in his chair, his feet 
 extended upon the desk before him and his whole 
 frame convulsed with laughter. The picture had no 
 merits except as a part of the ludicrous scene pre- 
 sented by the entire body. George C. Bingham, the 
 Missouri artist, was present and after giving it some 
 finishing touches wrote underneath, "The passage 
 of the railroad bill." He was kind enough to say 
 in my hearing that there were some evidences of 
 neglected genius about it. 
 
 "I well remember my father coming home after 
 the session," says Mrs. AI. E. Smith, in speaking of 
 these events, ''bringing with him two of the mem- 
 bers, B. Gratz Brown and A. J. Blakey, to spend 
 the Christmas holidays. They were flushed with 
 victory, and right royally did they recount around 
 our fireside the ways and means that led to its 
 achievement, yiy sister and I were young ladies, 
 and like the girls of the period little accustomed to 
 mingle in politics ; and whilst in the result we were 
 sympathetic and exultant, I can not now give the 
 details which they day by day related at the table 
 and fireside. Our mother, dear blessed saint, took 
 it all in ; and that our parents endorsed it was 
 enough for us to feel that it was all right." 
 
 The rejoicing was somewhat premature, as it 
 
2o8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 proved, for the constitutionality of the grant was 
 questioned by the Governor and Attorney-General, 
 and had yet to stand the test of the Supreme Court 
 of the State. Information of this new development 
 was conveyed to General Smith in a letter from B. 
 Gratz Brown, written on his return to Jefferson 
 City, and dated January i, 1856: 
 
 I write in accordance with my promise to you im- 
 mediately upon my arrival in this city. It is with 
 deep regret that I have to inform you that I have 
 within the last half-hour had a conversation with 
 Mr. Gardenhire the Attorney-General, who informs 
 me that the Governor has called upon him for his 
 opinion, which he is now writing out. That opin- 
 ion is to the effect that the manner of the passage 
 of the Omnibus bill was entirely unconstitutional, 
 and he therefore recommends the Governor not to 
 issue the bonds. Under these circumstances the 
 Governor will no doubt refuse to issue them, and we 
 may all prepare for a contest before the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 My very best regards to Mrs. Smith, and also to 
 Miss Bettie and Miss Sed. We had quite a pleasant 
 trip down, and met with neither action nor deten- 
 tion. 
 
 Fortunately the decision of the Supreme Court 
 was not long deferred. Under date of January 31, 
 1856, Thomas L. Price wrote to General Smith from 
 the capital : 
 
 The country is again safe ! The Court is unani- 
 mous that the railroad law is constitutional. Your 
 town ought to celebrate the occasion. Call a meet- 
 
THE ACT CONSTITUTIONAL 209 
 
 ing ; pass strong resolutions ; say what you please 
 about captious opposition, etc., etc., by the Governor ; 
 and send to Lusk for publication. Do not fail. 
 
 Under the same date, James Lusk himself wrote 
 from Jefferson City : 
 
 I have just returned about one hour from the 
 Capitol. The decision of the Supreme Court was 
 given this morning in favor of the constitutionality 
 of the law, — Judge Ryland concurring. Judge Leon- 
 ard dissenting as to the jurisdiction of the Court, 
 but agreeing in the constitutionality of the law. 
 
 This is a glorious day for Missouri. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SLAVERY AND THE KANSAS TROUBLES 
 
 (1854-1855) 
 
 The Kansas-Nebraska bill — Rival colonizations of the Ter- 
 ritory — Senator Atchison and Governor Price on the 
 situation — Missouri interference in Kansas elections — 
 General Smith defines his position — Reception of his 
 letter — Rise of civil war in Kansas — Missouri sentiment 
 — General Smith urged to use his influence to restore 
 order — Effects of Kansas troubles upon his interests — 
 The Spencer incident. 
 
 The attack upon General Smith's position as Rep- 
 resentative of the people of Pettis county, mentioned 
 in the preceding chapter, was due mainly to dis- 
 satisfaction with his attitude on the Kansas trou- 
 bles, and a feeling that he was "unsound" on the 
 question of slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska bill re- 
 ceived President Pierce's signature and became law 
 May 30, 1854. 'Tt is safe to say," writes a recent 
 historian of this period, "that, in the scope and con- 
 sequences of the . . . act, it was the most mo- 
 mentous measure that passed Congress from the day 
 that the Senators and Representatives first met, to 
 the outbreak of the Civil War. It sealed the doom 
 of the Whig party ; it caused the formation of the 
 
 210 
 
GEORGE R. SMITH 
 Aged Fifty -One 
 
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT 211 
 
 Republican party on the principle of no extension 
 of slavery ; it roused Lincoln and gave a bent to his 
 great political ambition. It made the Fugitive Slave 
 law a dead letter at the North; it caused the Ger- 
 mans to become Republicans ; it lost the Democrats 
 their hold on New England ; it made the Northwest 
 Republican ; it led to the downfall of the Democratic 
 party."^ 
 
 By its provisions, the Missouri Compromise was 
 in express terms repealed ; and the principle of 
 "popular sovereignty," as it was styled by Douglas, 
 the author of the bill, was declared to be the policy 
 of Congress on the question of slavery in the Ne- 
 braska country. At once rival streams of immigra- 
 tion began to pour in, and rival settlements were 
 formed. The people of Western Missouri were 
 strongly pro-slavery, and determined that Kansas 
 should be a slave State; while the people of New 
 England, stirred up by the Emigrant Aid Com- 
 pany, were equally determined that it should be free. 
 At first the immigration on both sides was bona 
 fide, and peaceful ; it was not until later, when force 
 was needed to meet force, that Sharpe rifles were 
 furnished the free-Sta,te men by their friends, and 
 howitzers became a part of the equipment of free- 
 State settlements. In October, 1854, began the 
 formation in Missouri of numerous secret societies 
 called *'Blue Lodges," whose object was, legally or 
 illegally, to secure the extension of slavery into 
 
 ^ Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 
 1850, 1, p. 490. 
 
212 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Kansas.^ These at once put a different face on the 
 struggle. The position assumed by the slaveholders 
 of Missouri, thenceforth, is revealed in a speech de- 
 livered by Senator D. R. Atchison at a meeting in 
 Platte City. 
 
 General Atchison [reports the Platte Argus of 
 November 6, 1854] said his mission here was if 
 possible to awaken the people of this county to the 
 danger ahead, and to suggest the means to avoid 
 it. The people of Kansas in their first elections 
 would decide the question whether or not the slave- 
 holder was to be excluded ; and it depended upon a 
 majority of the votes cast at the polls. Now, if a 
 set of fanatics and demagogues a thousand miles off 
 could afford to advance their money and exert every 
 nerve to abolitionize the Territory and exclude the 
 slaveholders, when they have not the least personal 
 interest, what is your duty, when you reside in 
 one day's journey of the Territory, and when your 
 peace, your quiet, and your property depends upon 
 your action? You can without exertion send five 
 hundred of your young men, who will vote in favor 
 of your institutions. Should each county in the State 
 of Missouri only do its duty, the question will be 
 decided quietly and peaceably at the ballot box. If 
 
 1 The circumstances of General Smith's refusal to join such a 
 lodge have been preserved. He was spending the evening with a 
 personal and political friend, in a neighboring town, when he was 
 informed there was a secret organization that met that evening in 
 the Court House. He was asked to join it, as it was for the pro- 
 tection of all, and he was told he would be greatly pleased with it. 
 He accompanied his friend to the place, and found the society to 
 consist of some forty members. A Bible was produced, and it was 
 proposed to swear him to do all in his power to make Kansas a 
 slave State. This he at once declined; and when they attempted 
 to argue with him, he only replied: "I am not a fit subject for 
 your organization, and by your leave I will retire." 
 
PRO-SLAVERY POSITION 213 
 
 we are defeated, then Missouri and the other South- 
 ern States will have shown themselves recreant to 
 their interests, and will deserve their fate.^ 
 
 The perverted view of the anti-slavery agitation 
 which is contained in this speech, is more clearly 
 revealed in the message which Governor Price sent 
 to the General Assembly, December 2J, 1854: 
 
 It is with pain and solicitude [he said, towards 
 the close of that document] that I announce to you, 
 that our relations to our sister States, and to the 
 Union, are not such as to give us assurance that the 
 Constitution will be held sacred, and the Union per- 
 petuated. More than thirty years ago, emissaries 
 were dispatched into the Northern States and very 
 recently into the Southern States, by the enemies of 
 constitutional liberty in Europe, furnished with 
 means to propagate slander and falsehood, and ex- 
 cite the meanest and most degraded prejudices of 
 the human heart. These agents have performed the 
 task allotted to them with unceasing vigilance and 
 determined perseverance. A brief space of time only 
 had elapsed, before they succeeded in rallying 
 around them a party of desperate and unprincipled 
 men w^ho, assuming the office of missionaries, have 
 continued to preach a crusade against the institution 
 of slavery. Emboldened by their success in mislead- 
 ing the ignorant and unwary, and exciting a morbid 
 and fanatical religious sentiment, they have not hesi- 
 tated recently to avow themselves open enemies of 
 the Constitution and the Union. Such is the origin, 
 such the character and the purpose of the Abolition 
 party. 
 
 The success of this treasonable design rendered 
 
 ^ Switzler, History of Missouri, p. 492. 
 
214 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 it an object with desperate and corrupt politicians 
 in the Northern States to obtain the votes of the 
 aboHtionists. For this purpose, a new party was or- 
 ganized, under the specious name of the Free-soil 
 party. Professing, in their public proceedings, ad- 
 hesion to the Constitution, and yet constantly advo- 
 cating unconstitutional schemes to further the de- 
 signs of their abolition allies, they have acquired 
 the confidence of that traitorous faction, whilst they 
 have seduced into their toils large numbers of good 
 men, who do not comprehend the inevitable conse- 
 quences of the policy they advocate. 
 
 This combination of heterogenous elements seems 
 to have an elective affinity for all the ephemeral fac- 
 tions that are engendered by local conflicts or tem- 
 porary causes. There is an instinctive propensity 
 that when these petty combinations are disbanded 
 by the progress of events, their constituent elements 
 must unite with the anti-slavery party. Their policy 
 has been cautious and plausible. They affect to ad- 
 mit that Cong-ress has no power to interfere with 
 slavery in the States ; and yet if that is not the ulti- 
 mate object, their whole system of operations is ab- 
 surd. The chief ends aimed at hitherto, have been 
 the exclusion of slavery from the Territories, and 
 where they have failed in this, the exclusion of slave 
 States from the Union, and the abrogation of the 
 clause in the Constitution providing for the reclama- 
 tion of fugitive slaves. 
 
 They know well that success in these objects 
 would give them a preponderance in our national 
 councils, and enable them to violate the Constitu- 
 tion still more grossly, in reference to the institution 
 of slavery in the States. 
 
 This message, with its distorted version of the 
 origin and objects of the anti-slavery agitation, was 
 
ATTACK ON SMITH 215 
 
 printed by order of the House of Representatives 
 in both English and German, and twelve thousand 
 copies were distributed throughout the State. The 
 results of such utterances as those of Senator Atchi- 
 son and Governor Price, in conjunction with the 
 formation of the Blue Lodges, were speedily ap- 
 parent in a heightening of pro-slavery ardor and in 
 more vigorous measures with respect to Kansas. In 
 the election held November 29, 1854, for a terri- 
 torial delegate, 1,729 Missourians are credibly 
 stated, in the report of the congressional investigat- 
 ing committee, to have come over into Kansas to 
 swell the pro-slavery vote. And in the election 
 (March 30, 1855) of a territorial legislature, a regu- 
 larly organized army of some five thousand armed 
 men, are reported by the Democratic Governor of 
 the Territory to have come over from Missouri, 
 taken possession of the ballot boxes, and made a 
 legislature to suit their wishes. 
 
 The political attack upon General Smith had its 
 connection with these events. In the same article 
 in which he was stated to hold his seat "by accident 
 rather than by the choice of the people," this charge 
 was made : 
 
 A Kansas meeting, or a meeting of the citizens 
 of that county intending to emigrate to Kansas 
 Territory, was called some weeks since at the court 
 house, in Georgetown, where General Smith, as we 
 understand, took occasion to denounce the action of 
 the meeting, and used language altogether objection- 
 able to his constituents ; and it is understood that 
 
2i6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 petitions are now circulating in that county, praying 
 him to resign his seat in the legislature. 
 
 General Smith's reply to this charge was as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Your informant certainly could not have told 
 you what I did say in that Kansas meeting, for, sir, 
 had he done so, I doubt not but that you would en- 
 dorse what I did say ; and here I state that it is my 
 deliberate opinion that I am sustained by a very 
 large majority of the people of this county. On the 
 day on which the Kansas meeting came off, I was 
 met by several warm personal friends, and urged 
 not to go into the meeting, stating that I would be 
 called upon to define my position, and unless I went 
 the whole length, that I would be crushed under 
 this perfect avalanche of public feeling; and as they 
 know that my opinions did not harmonize with some 
 of the getters-up of that meeting, they thought it 
 was best for me to stay away. This I preferred not 
 to do. I went to the court house and found the meet- 
 ing organized. After the object of the meeting was 
 explained, it was stated by one of the speakers that 
 he saw the Representative of the county in the 
 house, and he desired to hear from him his views 
 upon this subject. I then addressed the meeting, 
 and Mr. Editor, here is about what I did say. I 
 stated that I had been born in a slave State ; that I 
 was born the owner of slaves, and had always owned 
 them. That the larger portion of my property con- 
 sisted in slaves, and that I presumed it was not 
 necessary for me to make long and loud professions 
 of my loyalty to the institutions of the South. That I 
 desired to see Kansas a slave State ; that if it should 
 not be, we would have non-slaveholding States upon 
 three sides of us, and that slave property would be 
 
HIS REPLY 217 
 
 almost valueless in Missouri ; the ease with which 
 our slaves could go to Kansas, the protection they 
 would receive from the abolitionists, made me de- 
 sire as much as anv one in that meeting that Kansas 
 should be a slave State. That this consideration, 
 however important to me as I regarded it in a pe- 
 cuniary point of view, was nothing in comparison to 
 obligations under which I was then placed ; I was 
 then and am now under an oath to support the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, the Constitution of 
 Missouri, and demean myself faithfully in office. If 
 the object of that meeting was to induce settlers to 
 move into Kansas, as we have emigrated to Mis- 
 souri, bona -Rde settlers, then I am as warmly in 
 favor of the movement as any gentleman here, and 
 will aid as liberally as any one to induce such to go 
 to Kansas. 
 
 But if the object is to induce persons to go to 
 Kansas merely to vote, and who never intend to be- 
 come citizens of that Territory, and who are citizens 
 of Pettis and intend to remain such, — and such I 
 understood to be the position of the gentleman, sir, 
 who had explained the object of the meeting, — then, 
 sir, I am opposed to this movement, and my advice 
 to every one who hears me is to stay at home and at- 
 tend to his own business, and not add to that too 
 highly excited sectional feeling already, by inter- 
 fering in the internal regulations of a community 
 in which he never intends to live. Important as I 
 considered it to my own interests in slaves that 
 Kansas should be a slave State, I would not violate 
 the laws of my country to make it so, nor would I 
 advise others to do so ; that if I were to do so, I 
 should at least regard myself as having violated my 
 solemn oath to support the Constitution and laws of 
 my country, however others might regard it. I pre- 
 ferred the approbation of my own conscience to that 
 
2i8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 of any earthly tribunal, and I here declare my de- 
 termination to oppose any infraction of the laws of 
 mv country, either by persons residing in slave or 
 non-slaveholding States. I commented upon the vio- 
 lent denunciations we had that day heard against 
 the North. I endeavored to show the deep prejudice 
 we must implant in the hearts of the youth who 
 must soon take our places, by the violent denuncia- 
 tion we had that day heard ; and I asked then, and 
 now, how long can this glorious Union be preserved 
 if we teach our children and neighbors such lessons ? 
 I avowed my purpose to be to save my country from 
 dissolution, which must inevitably follow unless far 
 more temperate counsels prevailed than had been 
 given on that day. In conclusion I read the dying 
 warning of the father of his country ; and as it 
 comes from one whom all have been taught to rever- 
 ence, I will copy what he says, that those who per- 
 haps may have forgotten what he says may read the 
 rich legacv he has left us. Here it is : 
 
 "In contemplating the causes which may disturb 
 our Union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern 
 that any ground should have been furnished for 
 characterizing parties by geographical discrimina- 
 tions, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and West- 
 ern, whence designing men may endeavor to excite 
 a belief that there is a real difference of local inter- 
 ests and views. One of the expedients of party to 
 acquire influence with particular districts, is to mis- 
 represent the opinions and aims of other districts. 
 You can not shield yourselves too much against the 
 jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from 
 these representations ; they tend to render alien to 
 each other those who ought to be bound together by 
 fraternal affection." 
 
 I endeavored to impress upon those who heard 
 me the importance of heeding the dying injunction 
 
HIS REPLY 219 
 
 of Gen. George Washington. For myself, I stated, 
 I would follow blindly where he led, and so long as 
 I lived I was the sworn enemy of all who dared, 
 with ruthless hand, to efface from the hearts of my 
 countrymen his dying admonitions. 
 
 And now, Mr. Editor, after calmly reviewing my 
 course upon the occasion that brought your con- 
 demnation, I reindorse every word and sentence 
 then uttered, and I solemnly swear upon the altar 
 of my country, under the broad stripes and bright 
 stars of that flag, baptized in the blood of the mar- 
 tyrs of the Revolution, to discountenance, when- 
 ever, wherever, and by whomsoever made, any and 
 every attempt to alienate one portion of this Union 
 from the other. One word more, sir, and I shall 
 have done. I have already said that I believed a 
 large majority of the county sustained me in my 
 course. I have heard that one or two gentlemen 
 talked of getting up a petition to me to resign. I 
 have stated that I will cheerfully do so whenever 
 requested by a majority of my constituents. I do 
 not believe that fifty persons can be found to sign 
 such a petition ; I shall, however, as cheerfully re- 
 tire as any one of whom you ever heard, whenever 
 a majority of my constituents will signify their wish 
 for me to do so. 
 
 There is a ring of sincerity here which makes it 
 impossible to doubt that it represents General 
 Smith's exact convictions at the time. The influ- 
 ences, referred to in an earlier chapter, which had 
 been brought to bear upon him as a lad in Ken- 
 tucky, had fixed in him an opposition to slavery in 
 the abstract, which change of environment, growth 
 of pecuniary interest in the institution, political am- 
 bition, and the development of the Southern view 
 
220 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 that slavery was "a. good in itself for both races," 
 had not been able to eradicate. Had he been a 
 Northern man, surrounded by Northern influences, 
 he would undoubtedly have become a Free-soiler or 
 an Abolitionist ; had it not been for the influences 
 to which he had been exposed in the formative pe- 
 riod of his life, he might have held the ordinary 
 Southern view. As it was, he was forced to take an 
 intermediate position, which though to some extent 
 difficult for a Northern man was in the highest de- 
 gree honorable for one whose every interest, — pe- 
 cuniary, social, and political, — demanded a more 
 Southern opinion. None but a zealot or a fanatic 
 could, in General Smith's position and with his ante- 
 cedents, have come out in 1855 and advocated the 
 immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. 
 What he did not hold at this time, as well as what 
 he did, are alike marks of the soundness of his po- 
 litical and moral character. 
 
 The views expressed in this public letter were re- 
 peated in many private utterances, and met with 
 varying responses from his friends and corre- 
 spondents. His old political associate and colleague 
 in the legislature, J. Locke Hardeman of Saline 
 county, thus met them, in a letter of June 10, 1855 : 
 
 Your letter dated 31st May is to hand, and ac- 
 companied by a number of the Jef¥erson City En- 
 quirer containing your letter to the editor of the 
 Southzvest Democrat. I had seen it before in the 
 Boonville Observer and Lexington Express, as pub- 
 lished by your request. 
 
ITS RECEPTION 221 
 
 Having set yourself right before the pubhc in the 
 communication referred to, I presume that you de- 
 sire my individual opinion on the Kansas question 
 and the duty of the citizens of Missouri. Unhappily 
 you and I differ very widely in the latter case. 
 
 When Missourians have seen her citizens robbed 
 of their property, and themselves insulted and im- 
 prisoned for merely appealing to the laws of the 
 land that professed to guarantee the rights of prop- 
 erty; — when they have seen the officers of the law 
 shot down while in the discharge of their duty ; — 
 have seen the legislative assembly ''address" a faith- 
 sworn magistrate out of office because he would not 
 violate his oath of office ; — legislative charters to 
 Aid Societies whose avowed object was to colonize 
 our frontier with those whose only object was to 
 enact the same scenes of robbery and murder in our 
 midst ; — what should Missourians do ? Shall they 
 hear first the cries of murdered citizens ; the public 
 declaration of war upon our legal rights ; see the 
 marshalling of the forces ; witness their march 
 through our very midst who are neutral territory 
 because of the law, — yet they not respecting the 
 rights of these neutrals, but aid in speeding away 
 our slaves ; — finally, see them take up a commanding 
 position, fortify it, unfurl their banner, and "let 
 slip the dogs of war?" Shall we like babes cry for 
 kindness, sympathy, and protection of the devour- 
 ing tiger that knows no mercy, as we who have ap- 
 pealed to violated laws before those who know no le- 
 gal restraints? Or shall we, "like men who know 
 their rights, and knowing dare to maintain them," 
 meet the foemen upon their own ground and out- 
 posts, dispute every inch of the way, and if neces- 
 sary raze their fortifications to the ground ? 
 
222 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 "In peace there's nothing so becomes a man 
 As modest stillness and humility; 
 But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 
 Then imitate the action of the tiger." 
 
 The only question then is, Have we peace or 
 war ? For war obliterates all treaties and obligations 
 of law between belligerents. I think that war does 
 exist ; that the most dangerous foes we have are 
 those who, having a common interest with us, yet 
 give moral aid to those who are preparing to de- 
 stroy us and lay our country in waste, — ''crying, 
 'Peace, peace !' when there is no peace." Nor are 
 they to be prevailed on to keep quiet ; but as if they 
 were real emissaries, "still attribute the tramp of the 
 advancing enemy to the wind ;" and would lull us 
 into a fatal security. I can not see why any man 
 loyal to the institutions of his country should do so. 
 If under peculiar restraints, if his oath of office re- 
 quires him to keep quiet, let him do it ; but not in- 
 terfere to paralyze the efiforts of those who would 
 protect his and their rights by a manly effort and 
 without fraud. 
 
 By the Nebraska bill every man who happened 
 to inhabit the territory at the time of the election 
 was a qualified voter. No man was ever sworn that 
 he would not go away. Then our men stood behind 
 the law, as securely as those who march through 
 our midst but to open fire upon us when they have 
 sufficiently chosen their ground of attack. 
 
 In conclusion, I would respectfully ask, If Kan- 
 sas be settled by Abolitionists, can Missouri remain 
 a slave State? If Missouri goes by the board, what 
 will become of Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia? And 
 with these last, what will be the end of all this, and 
 the consequences to the South? If the end must be 
 disunion, a civil and servile war, is it not better to 
 
ITS RECEPTION 223 
 
 strike the blow now while the South is less weak- 
 ened and there yet remains some love of country 
 at the North? Perhaps this once glorious Union 
 may survive the shock of a civil war ! This, God in 
 His Providence only knows ; I know that Abolition 
 and Union can not stand together. 
 
 P. S. — In the foregoing you have a rather free 
 and perhaps loose expression of my views on some 
 of the points touched upon in your letter. You 
 further refer to D. R. Atchison's course, and speak 
 of conservatives. You know my course in the legis- 
 lature has been made the subject of comment.^ I 
 did then as I thought was right, and still think so. 
 Yet I think that we of Missouri should never let 
 Massachusetts colonize our frontier with the worst 
 of her citizens, who are no lovers of the Union ; and 
 if war must come, let the consequences be upon the 
 heads of those who force it upon us. I however do 
 not expect a public war. I expect that blood will 
 flow — must flow — freely, before that conservative 
 apathy will be overcome which you invoke. Indi- 
 vidual and popular outbreaks will occur ; the North 
 will see then that the demon of Nullification sits at 
 her door to rob her children of their inheritance, of 
 peace, and prosperity. It is impossible to abolish 
 slavery and save the Union ; and both the North and 
 South must suffer unheard-of evils in the contest. 
 With the fall of the Union will be heard the knell 
 of liberty ; and the experiment of republican gov- 
 ernment will be proven to be a failure. Thrones now 
 tottering will become firm ; while we, having lost 
 our liberty, will have to struggle through centuries 
 of border wars, and at last find peace, like France, 
 in despotism. 
 
 ^ This refers, apparently, to Hardeman's voting throughout, 
 in the Senatorial contest, for the Whig candidate Doniphan, and 
 
 against Atchison. 
 
224 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 War makes way for ignorance, then superstition, 
 and Roman Catholicism — itself a despotism of the 
 souls and consciences of men. Happily for you and 
 I, our days have been spent in the palmier days of 
 the model republic, the like of which the world 
 never saw before, nor ever will again. 
 
 Take away the slave products of the nation, and 
 we are commercially poor. Poverty begets depend- 
 ence, and ignorance follows in its train with all its 
 evils. 
 
 Excuse the freedom of my style. In private and 
 friendly letters, amendments and erasures are out 
 of place. 
 
 The above letter, with its misconception of facts 
 and principles, was typical of the sentiments of the 
 better class of the ardent advocates of Missourian 
 intervention in Kansas. The strength of such senti- 
 ments was probably greater than General Smith at 
 this time knew. But he was not left alone in his 
 fight against violence and fraud. The men whose 
 opinions he most prized, and whose aid he most cov- 
 eted, were largely on his side, as will be seen from 
 the letters which follow, — the first of which, under 
 date of May 24, 1855, was from Major James S. 
 Rollins, of Columbia : 
 
 Your favor of the 17th inst. was duly received, 
 and also your printed letter to the Southwest Demo- 
 crat. I read both with great satisfaction, and it is 
 unnecessary for me to add that I endorse your posi- 
 tion throughout, and commend you for having the 
 courage to take it. Unless the conservative men of 
 the country stand firm, and resist the spirit of reck- 
 less and unprincipled fanaticism which a few dan- 
 
ROLLINS' ATTITUDE 225 
 
 gerous demagogues are now inciting, there is posi- 
 tively no predicting what is to become of our 
 institutions. The most unobservant must have wit- 
 nessed for years past the utter disregard for all 
 proper legal restraint which was springinQf up over 
 the country, leading to mobs, to slander, to destruc- 
 tion of propertv, and even corrupting the public 
 mind so far as to incite the getting up of armed ex- 
 peditions against peaceful foreign governments.^ 
 Sir, if these continue, 'twill not be long before our 
 beloved country will be wrapped in the flames of 
 civil war. And when that evil day shall come, in the 
 name of God, who other than Omnipotence can di- 
 rect the current ? Where is the pilot who will guide 
 the vessel of State over the stormy billows? The 
 French Revolution, confined to narrow territory, 
 
 ^ General Smith was cordially at one with Major Rollins in his 
 abhorrence of mob violence under any circumstances. The follow- 
 ing incident, narrated by the late Senator George G. Vest, in a let- 
 ter bearing date February 2, 1885, clearly shows this: 
 
 "I was present in the court house at Georgetown when the 
 negro Sam was taken out by a mob at the head of which was George 
 Anderson. The negro had committed the crimes of rape and mur- 
 der, and the best men in Heath's Creek township were in the mob 
 that took him out of the hands of the officers. This was in July, 
 1853, the crimes having been committed on Sunday, which I think 
 was the thiru day of the month, I was a very young lawyer then, 
 and this was the first case in which I ever appeared. 
 
 "When the negro was taken out of the court house, it was the 
 intention of the crowd to hang him at once in the court house 
 yard, but General Smith, Elder De Jarnatt and others pleaded 
 with them to let the law take its course, and the matter was 
 finally compromised by the keys of the county jail being taken 
 from the sheriff, Mr. Killebrew, and the incarceration of the 
 negro in jail with old Billy Rutledge as jailer for the mob. The 
 negro made a full confession on the second day after he was put 
 in jail, and in twelve days afterwards he was burnt at the stake 
 in a hollow just north of Georgetown on the Heath's Creek road. 
 General Smith did all that anyone could do to prevent any viola- 
 tion of the law, and was conspicuous in his attempts to have the 
 negro regularly tried; but the mob was composed of cool, deter- 
 mined men, and all appeals to them were in vain." 
 
226 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 will have been a passive scene compared to that 
 which we may encounter even in our day, in this 
 boasted land of Liberty! I pray sincerely when I 
 say, May God avert from us these terrible calami- 
 ties! 
 
 The demagogues are doing all in their power to 
 get up excitement in this locality. Thus far they 
 have not succeeded. They renew their effort on the 
 second of June, when a public meeting is called in 
 
 this place. The principal instigators here are , 
 
 old (ex- Judge), and , the Irishman at the 
 
 head of the College. I hope the conservative men 
 will be out in full force. Let me tell you that no 
 man is doing more to corrupt the pubUc mind of 
 Missouri on these exciting questions than the afore- 
 said , and I hope, in considering his merits, you 
 
 will not let your religious prejudices outweigh your 
 patriotism. 
 
 I had the pleasure to receive from General Robert 
 Wilson a letter yesterday. He assures me that the 
 fillibusters will make no impression in Buchanan, 
 Andrew, Holt, or Atchison counties ; that the excite- 
 ment is confined chiefly to Platte, Clay, and Jack- 
 son ; that there will be no change in Atchison's favor 
 from that quarter. We should not hesitate to make 
 the issue which Atchison and his mobocrats have 
 tendered; and if the law-abiding conservative por- 
 tion of Missouri, those indeed the real slave-owners, 
 most deeply interested in this question, are over- 
 powered, it will only be that much worse for them 
 and the country. But I do not believe that in such a 
 contest we would fail; the "sober second thought" 
 contains in it a powerful retribution. Let us act ; if 
 we err, it will be on the side of patriotism and of 
 duty. 
 
 Especially laudatory was a letter from Mr. C. A. 
 
OTHER LETTERS 227 
 
 Tabler, of Lafayette county, who wrote, July 15, 
 
 1855: 
 
 I take the opportunity to express my approval and 
 admiration of the stand you took in relation to the 
 Kansas "wolf-hunt," more especially as you were 
 the first man (as far as my observation went) who 
 had the moral firmness to assume the right position. 
 This proof of elevated principle will place you far 
 above the demagogue in the estimation of honorable 
 men ; but what is more important, is the example 
 it furnishes. 
 
 From Mr. Joe Davis, of Fayette, came the follow- 
 ing letter, dated May 31, 1855 : 
 
 Yours of the seventeenth is at hand, and I am 
 truly glad to hear from you, and sincerely regret 
 with you that a blind fanaticism has seized upon the 
 public mind and is likely to run the country blindly 
 into ruin. Atchison is succeeding to a "t" in get- 
 ting the wind up for his re-election to the United 
 States Senate ; and from the fever here now, I do 
 not know that my seat in the General Assembly may 
 not be vacated before November next, upon petition 
 — as was threatened in your case. I saw your com- 
 munication in the Enquirer, and heartily accord with 
 all your views ; but the rage is running over us, and 
 I say, Let it go. A meeting is to be held here next 
 Monday to whitewash the Parkville mob and the 
 Kansas voting, and they will resolve both here, and 
 have things their own way. I believe I shall just 
 let them go, and see how far they will go before 
 they stop. 
 
 The voting in Kansas by citizens of this State 
 was practical nullification, call it by what name they 
 
228 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 may; and as to the justification, it is a very meager 
 one that because you offend or disregard a public 
 law of Congress, that gives me an excuse to do the 
 same. 
 
 Many Whigs who voted for me are now amongst 
 the foremost men in the voting affair in Kansas, — 
 have gone off after Atchison's lead ; and Atchison, 
 who is at the head of this whole matter, may raise 
 the wind, but is there not a reaction to come over 
 this thing? These men who voted for Pierce may 
 well run crazy now that he has shown the world that 
 he is an abolitionist and sent Governor Reeder to 
 Kansas, to make that a free State, in order to serve 
 the cause of Abolitionists at the expense of the citi- 
 zens of Missouri and Arkansas. We well told them 
 of this thing before they voted for Pierce ; but the 
 word ''Democracy" cured everything, and that great 
 hero and patriot. General Scott, was beaten by the 
 rotten "Yankee," Franklin Pierce. 
 
 Now, sir, the government of this nation is totter- 
 ing, and will fall unless the North holds her hand. 
 They have nothing at stake but an imaginary phi- 
 lanthropy which bids them Christianize and liberal- 
 ize the world. We have our vested positive rights 
 of property in our slaves. We can not surrender ; 
 they must pause and recede, or all is gone. 
 
 Meanwhile, the inflammation in Kansas came to 
 a head. On the one side were "poor whites of the 
 slaveholding States, and the adventurous spirits of 
 Western Missouri, assisted to some extent by South- 
 ern money, and led by Atchison and Stringfellow, 
 who were playing a political game ;" on the other 
 were "men from the North, actual settlers, and the 
 same kind of people that we have seen in our own 
 day leave their homes and emigrate to Southern 
 
CRISIS IN KANSAS 229 
 
 California and Dakota."^ Governor Reeder, who 
 had declared at the time of his appointment that he 
 would have "no more scruples in buying a slave 
 than in buying a horse," found it impossible to get 
 along with the pro-slavery legislature of the Terri- 
 tory, and was removed by the President. A code of 
 laws was adopted in which the provisions relating 
 to slaves, according to the congressional investigat- 
 ing committee, were of a ''character intolerant and 
 unusual even for that class of legislation." The free- 
 State settlers, refusing to recognize the territorial 
 government, held a convention of their own, adopted 
 what is known as the Topeka Constitution, organ- 
 ized a State government under it, and petitioned 
 Congress for admission to the Union. So far there 
 had been no collision between the opposing forces. 
 Late in November, however, the opportunity was 
 presented for a blow at Lawrence, the chief free- 
 State settlement, by the rescue of a free-State 
 prisoner from the hands of a pro-slavery sheriff. 
 Appealing first to Missouri for aid, then to the pro- 
 slavery Governor of the Territory, the sheriff 
 raised an army of some twelve hundred men, with 
 which Lawrence was besieged. This constitutes the 
 so-called "Wakarusa War," which came to an end 
 December 7, 1855, with the loss of one life. The 
 Missourians were obliged to leave the Territory; 
 and the substance of victory remained with the men 
 of Lawrence. 
 
 ^ Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. loi. 
 
230 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 The alarm which these events excited in the minds 
 of conservative men in Missouri, and the wild talk 
 indulged in by the more radical and irresponsible of 
 the "border ruffians," are indicated in a letter to 
 General Smith from Brinksly Hornsby, who resided 
 near Independence, in the extreme Western part of 
 the State. He had previously written him (August 
 25) a letter of congratulation on the reaction which 
 then seemed to be taking place, saying: 'T believe 
 the people in this section award to George R. Smith 
 no small part in putting the ball in motion, and if 
 I am not mistaken will properly appreciate his valu- 
 able services." Under date of December 11, 1855, 
 in a letter marked by some incoherence and bad 
 spelling, both corrected here, he expressed a more 
 apprehensive view : 
 
 I want to write to you, but it is uncertain whether 
 you will get it. I suppose you know more about the 
 events up here than I do, but I know more than I 
 want to know. All is confusion here. We heard 
 yesterday that they were still fighting at Lawrence, 
 though it may all be false. There is one thing cer- 
 tain, that nothing is allowed to pass the Wakarusa ; 
 everything is stopped or destroyed. I started a drove 
 of hogs to Kansas, and before getting them into the 
 Shawnee nation had to turn them back. 
 
 I do not pretend to say that the people of the Ter- 
 ritory are all right; but there is one thing certain: 
 the destruction of Lawrence has been threatened 
 for months, and I have heard of several men saying 
 that Lawrence would be burned on the 6th inst. 
 Certain individuals were threatened to be killed in 
 the neighborhood of Lawrence. 
 
CRISIS IN KANSAS 231 
 
 It is intimated, or has been, that operations, if suc- 
 cessful in Kansas, are to be commenced in Missouri. 
 and every man be expelled or killed that it not right. 
 This may seem a strange notion to you, but it is 
 not more strange than other things. G. R. Smith, 
 F. P. Blair, B. G. Brown, Missouri Democrat, Jef- 
 ferson Enquirer, and some others are marked ob- 
 jects down your way. This is from common report. 
 It is all a notion about the political atmosphere being 
 calm, and it does seem to me that the legislature 
 ought to take immediate and decisive action. There 
 is certainly danger in delay; the feeling is getting 
 intense both ways. 
 
 The situation, which was bad at the close of 1855, 
 became worse in 1856. On May 21st came the de- 
 struction of Lawrence, by "a swearing, whiskey 
 drinking, ruffianly horde, seven hundred and fifty 
 in number. The irony of fate," writes the historian 
 Rhodes, "had made them the upholders of the law, 
 while the industrious, frugal community of Law- 
 rence were the law-breakers."^ The next day 
 Charles Sumner was struck down on the floor of the 
 United States Senate, by a brutal and cowardly as- 
 sault, because of the vehemence of the language used 
 by him in his speech on the "Crime against Kansas." 
 Two days later, John Brown perpetrated the cold- 
 blooded "Massacre on the Pottawatomie." These 
 events precipitated a state of civil war, in which 
 some two hundred lives and two million dollars 
 worth of property were lost before the end of the 
 year, free-State "jay-hawkers" vying with pro- 
 
 '^ History of the United States, II, p. 158. 
 
2Z2 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 slavery "border-ruffians" in plundering settlers of 
 the opposite party. 
 
 These occurrences naturally were not without 
 their influence in Missouri. A minister of hign 
 standing and eminent piety — a dear friend of Gen- 
 eral Smith, whose attitude was (in part) defined by 
 his characterization of a certain newspaper as *'cor- 
 rupt and abominable ; I would sooner indorse the 
 New York Tribune" — wrote from a neighboring 
 town on June 12, 1856, as follows : ''The recent 
 events in Kansas excited our people after the old 
 style for a moment, but it was only for a moment. 
 The reaction has already taken place, and the con- 
 servative feeling is now stronger and more openly 
 avowed than it has ever been." From Lexington, on 
 the other hand, R. C. Ewing wrote, June 18, 1856: 
 ''You had as well try to oppose an avalanche as to 
 influence this Kansas excitement." And from Mr. 
 Hornsby, whose report of threats in the West has 
 already been given, came the following exhortation, 
 under date of August 18, 1856: 
 
 Knowing your position on the present unsettled 
 state of the public mind, I take the liberty to address 
 you a small note on the subject. It is well known 
 by those who take the pains to inform themselves 
 that things are transpiring in Kansas, and even in 
 Missouri, that unless checked must certainly lead 
 to a great deal of serious difficulty and bloodshed; 
 and knowing you to be acquainted with many of the 
 leading conservative men of the State, can you and 
 they not start a movement by holding public meet- 
 ings, or in some other way, to call out the conserva- 
 
EFFECTS 2^^ 
 
 tive sentiment of the country and put a stop to the 
 threatened catastrophe? Anything that I can do, 
 tho' e'er so humble, will be done. If such a course 
 be undertaken, I think Johnson county as a general 
 thing will be right, of which I suppose you have no 
 doubt. What are J. S. Rollins, F. P. Blair, and 
 other conservative men doing? Do you feel like en- 
 gaging in the work to restore peace, harmony, and 
 union, and brotherly kindly feelings, as it was three 
 years ago? Let me hear from you. 
 
 It is not necessary to trace further the course of 
 the Kansas troubles, or the influence which they ex- 
 erted on Missouri affairs, save to point out certain 
 ways in which they affected General Smith's inter- 
 ests. The building of the Pacific road, which he had 
 so much at heart, was checked by the inability of 
 the Company to borrow money abroad. This was 
 due, in part, as President McPherson wrote to Gen- 
 eral Smith from London (October 20, 1856), to 
 **the Kansas question and the exaggerated stories 
 they have about Missourians in Kansas, going there 
 to vote and control the elections, stopping emigrants 
 on the way, and driving out settlers, etc., which they 
 get here with all the coloring of the New York pa- 
 pers ; and it makes it almost hopeless to talk about 
 our railroad securities." Also, as will soon be seen, 
 General Smith's outspoken views on the Kansas 
 question cost him an election to Congress in 1856. 
 Finally, the existence of a strong and growing com- 
 munity of anti-slavery settlers in the neighboring 
 Territory, led to an occurrence which cost the Gen- 
 eral the services of three of his slaves, and inci- 
 
234 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 dentally throws much light on his character. This 
 episode may best be told in the words of his 
 daughter, Mrs. M. E. Smith : 
 
 One hot September day in 1857, ^ young man 
 named Henry Spencer called at our house, with 
 knapsack on his back, and asked for a drink of 
 water. It was noon ; dinner was on the table. The 
 lad w^as well-dressed and his appearance indicated 
 refinement. As he seemed tired, my father and 
 mother with their usual hospitality asked him to sit 
 down to dinner. The boy was communicative, as 
 any boy of sixteen would be. Full of enthusiasm, 
 and elated with his exploits, he began to relate his 
 story. 
 
 His father, it developed, was the American consul 
 at Paris, and had been sorely tried by his son's be- 
 havior. The boy's home was in Philadelphia, and he 
 had been kept most of his short life in school, for 
 which he had a strong aversion. Once before he had 
 run away to escape it ; his mother was heartbroken, 
 but his father was inflexible, and had said that if he 
 ever did so again he would disown him. The boy's 
 importunities had at last overcome his parent's oppo- 
 sition, and much against their wishes and judgment 
 he had been allowed to leave school and home. A 
 good position had been obtained for him in a mer- 
 cantile house in Cincinnati, with which the boy had 
 seemed contented. The next thing heard from him, 
 he had left Cincinnati, — ''under most disgraceful 
 circumstances," as an uncle wrote General Smith, — 
 and was on his way to Kansas. 
 
THE SPENCER INCIDENT 235 
 
 Our father and mother [continues Mrs. Smith] 
 tried to persuade the boy to abandon his trip to Kan- 
 sas and go back to his parents. They told him of 
 the great privations he would have to endure, and 
 gave him an invitation to stay at our house, while 
 father wrote to Mr. Spencer, telling him that his 
 son was with them, and that they were willing to 
 keep him until he could make his peace once more. 
 They told the boy that he might be perfectly at 
 home for as long a time as was needed for such 
 negotiations. Our father's letter reached Mr. 
 Spencer just before he sailed for Paris. The only 
 reply he ever sent was a cold cruel letter, saying 
 that if our father befriended the boy it must be at 
 his own expense, as he would never compensate 
 him. Cruel, cruel words ! 
 
 Under the arrangement which had been made, the 
 lad stayed with us for three weeks. He was de- 
 lighted with the little negroes and the horses, and 
 made no difference apparently between slaves and 
 owners, — was just as happy with one as the other. 
 The days were filled with joy in his new experi- 
 ences. The horses, not being in use on the farm at 
 that season, were at his service ; and he roamed over 
 the fields, and galloped in boyish fashion over the 
 roads. We were amused one morning at his ignor- 
 ance. Our father had been much annoyed that 
 morning to find that someone had tied the horses to 
 a tree in the meadow where they had been turned 
 out to graze over night. One after another of the 
 negroes, when questioned, had replied : "I didn't, 
 master." As the examination was coming to an end, 
 young Spencer descended from his morning slum- 
 bers, and as soon as he understood what was in 
 question, he called out: "Why I did it;" adding 
 triumphantly that it was thus so easy to catch them 
 when wanted. At another time, when trying to play 
 
236 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the gallant, he vainly struggled to adjust the saddle 
 to the horse's back, with the horn turned towards 
 the tail. I can still see my father's wink and smile, 
 as he signalled to us to let the boy alone to find out 
 his mistake in his own way. 
 
 One morning, at the end of three weeks, while 
 our father was in St. Louis, we were surprised to 
 find Juliet our cook — the mother and young grand- 
 mother of all our negroes, except Henry — crying in 
 the kitchen. On asking what was the matter, she 
 said : "Henry is gone, and Harriet is gone, and 
 Nancy is gone, and all the horses are gone." We 
 found that young Spencer was also gone, and that 
 our saddles were gone — a very suggestive state of 
 affairs. My mother and I went over to the village 
 and told the news, which spread through the sleepy 
 little hamlet ; and before noon a dozen men, armed 
 and mounted, had gone out in different directions 
 in search of the fugitives. 
 
 They were found on the western border of Mis- 
 souri, — like Moses of old, just in sight of the prom- 
 ised land. They were speedily halted and made to 
 retrace their steps ; the captors, with much self- 
 sacrifice, having decided to wait till they reached 
 home before they lynched the offender — the daring 
 and damnable Yankee ! The latter was made to ride 
 with his face toward the tail of the horse, which T 
 have no doubt impressed him simply as a novel idea ; 
 and when they reached Georgetown, the whole party 
 were lodged in jail. A telegram had been sent our 
 father, and he reached home the same afternoon the 
 fugitives were brought back. He and our mother 
 visited the jail and decided, as they had thought 
 before, that the negroes had run off with the boy in- 
 stead of his running off with them. According to 
 the story told by one of the negroes and admitted 
 by the boy, he wanted to take the carriage, so as to 
 
THE SPENCER INCIDENT 237 
 
 take all the children. But the negroes knew better ; 
 they were afraid of discovery. He seemed to think 
 they had as much right to a pleasure trip, or to their 
 freedom, as anybody. 
 
 Our father and mother contributed to the boy's 
 comfort by sending him bed clothes and food of 
 better quality than that furnished the prisoners. 
 They condoned his crime, very much to the disgust 
 of the people who had undertaken to punish him. 
 One of our mother's brothers said : ''If your father's 
 house were on fire the people ought to let it burn, 
 if he defends this boy." But with our father's ideas 
 of the boy's ignorance of the relation between mas- 
 ter and slave, the boy's age and love of adventure, 
 and our negroes' strong desire for freedom, together 
 with his abhorrence of human bondage, he did de- 
 fend him. The press throughout the country, of 
 course, gave prominence to the occurrence ; and the 
 boy's relatives saw a clipping in one of the city pa- 
 pers telling of the affair. This last escapade was con- 
 cealed from his poor stricken mother, who was al- 
 ready wild with solicitude for her child. Her cousin, 
 Samuel L. Clement of Philadelphia, was sent to in- 
 tercede for the boy ; and knowing from the papers 
 our father's kindness toward him, he came at once 
 to us. Our father's heart was all that he could wish 
 in sympathy for the young man's mother, and he 
 joined the gentleman in a petition to the Gov- 
 ernor to ask his intercession in behalf of the mis- 
 guided youth. Certificates were produced to show 
 that the lad was undeveloped and immature in in- 
 tellect, and deficient in moral principles and discern- 
 ment. When these were shown the Governor he at 
 once granted the pardon, which was signed the same 
 day (December 17). Even then it was necessary to 
 use caution, and get the boy out of the way before 
 news of his release was spread abroad. By collu- 
 
238 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 sion with the jailer, John Griffin, this was done ; and 
 the boy was stolen out of jail before day, and sent 
 to our house to await the stage, by which he was 
 conveyed to Jefferson City on his way home. 
 
 The verdict which the biographer must pass upon 
 General Smith's action in this matter is the same as 
 that contained in a letter from the lad's uncle in 
 New York. "The relatives of young Henry Spencer 
 here," the latter wrote, "all feel that without your 
 aid the lad could not have been thus released and 
 restored to his friends. They desire me to return 
 you their most grateful thanks for your kindness in 
 the matter, a kindness which can hardly be overesti- 
 mated when they remember that the boy had deeply 
 injured you, and that to render any aid to him made 
 it necessary for you not only to forget the injury, 
 but to encounter a very strong popular prejudice 
 which prevailed among your neighbors and ac- 
 quaintances, and which well might have kept a less 
 magnanimous person than yourself silent and inac- 
 tive." It is doubtful, indeed, whether the boy's rela- 
 tives entirely realized the extent of the blow which 
 had been inflicted upon the Smith household. The 
 slaves concerned had all been reared from infancy 
 in the family. Two of them had to be sold to ap- 
 pease the outraged feeling of the community; but 
 the elder of the women the General refused to sell, 
 because she had children, and he would not part 
 mother and child. "I well remember the shadow 
 that fell upon our household," writes Mrs. Cotton, 
 "when those two negroes were taken from our 
 
THE SPENCER INCIDENT 239 
 
 midst. My father sat by the fireside like one who 
 had buried dear friends ; and as I write of it even 
 now, the spell comes over me." Of the same event 
 Mrs. Smith wrote more than forty years afterwards : 
 'Tt makes my heart sick now to think of Henry. We 
 never heard of him after he was sold. I hope to 
 meet him in Heaven and be forgiven the injustice 
 of keeping him in slavery. He must have passed 
 into eternity before the war, or he would have come 
 to let us hear from him." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 STATE AND NATIONAL POLITICS 
 .(1856-1858) 
 
 The political situation — Republican and "American" par- 
 ties — General Smith becomes a member of the latter — 
 Plans for the State elections of 1856 — Smith suggested 
 for Governor — Ewing nominated by the convention — Dis- 
 satisfaction with the ticket ; its defeat — Smith seeks the 
 American nomination for Congress in 1856; is twice de- 
 feated — Influence of his slavery views in this result — 
 Major Rollins' candidacy for the governorship in 1857 — 
 Smith's part in the campaign — Apathy of the American 
 party and zeal of the Benton men — Defeat of Rollins — 
 Frank Blair on Congress and the Lecompton constitution 
 — Plans for 1858 — Smith advised to seek the nomination 
 for Congress — Announces himself an independent can- 
 didate — His canvass and defeat. 
 
 Through the years 1856-58 the bitter struggle in 
 Kansas continued, w^ith the advantage, in spite of 
 Federal interference, slow^ly shifting to the free- 
 State side. In the nation the sectional antipathies 
 of North and South settled into an antagonism that 
 was hurrying the country into civil war. In Mis- 
 souri, efforts were made to consolidate into one 
 party all the elements of opposition to the dominant 
 wing of the Democratic party; and agencies were 
 
 240 
 
POLITICAL SITUATION 241 
 
 thus prepared by which, when the struggle came, 
 the secessionists were circumvented, and the State 
 kept true to the Federal Union. 
 
 Into the attempts to overthrow the Democracy, 
 General Smith threw himself heart and soul. He 
 was a good hater, — of principles, if not of men ; 
 and the principles for which the anti-Benton Demo- 
 cracy stood, he cordially detested. They advocated 
 an ultra pro-slavery policy ; his tendencies were anti- 
 slavery. They had opposed an extensive scheme of 
 internal improvements ; he had been urgent in its 
 behalf. They were unsound on the money question 
 and hostile to the State Bank; he had joined with 
 Benton in opposition to financial heresies. Political 
 offices were at this time looked upon as the legiti- 
 mate spoils of political victory ; but in the use of 
 power the dominant party had been so unprincipled, 
 and had placed in office men so corrupt and unfit, 
 that no words were strong enough to voice the in- 
 dignation which he felt. 
 
 The Democratic overthrow, it was evident by 
 1856, could never be effected by the old Whig party. 
 Irremediably split on the slavery question by the 
 compromise legislation of 1850, the doom of that 
 party was sealed by the Kansas -Nebraska act. 
 "Four years ago," said Seward in 1855, i^ his 
 famous Albany speech, "it w^as a strong, vigorous 
 party, honorable for energy, noble achievements, 
 and still more for noble enterprises. . . Now 
 there is neither Whig party or Whig, south of the 
 Potomac." The only question its former members 
 
242 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 might decide was the party to which they would give 
 their allegiance as its successor. In the South many 
 united with their former antagonists and became 
 Democrats. For those who did not, the choice was 
 open between two new parties, each untrammeled 
 by old names and old traditions. In these all men 
 might stand on the same footing. One was the Re- 
 publican party, whose basic principle was opposi- 
 tion to the extension of slavery ; starting in the 
 Northwest in 1854, its first national convention was 
 held at Pittsburg in February, 1856. The other was 
 the Native American, or "Know Nothing" party, 
 whose characteristic principles were the exclusion of 
 foreigners from office, the extension of the term of 
 residence required for naturalization, and the main- 
 tenance of the Federal Union. 
 
 The latter party was a natural outcome of the 
 large increase of foreign immigration in the middle 
 of the century, of the growth in political and re- 
 ligious importance of the new-comers, and of the 
 disunionist tendencies excited by the slavery con- 
 troversy. The movement in opposition to foreigners 
 began some years before ; but it was only the organi- 
 zation of the Native American sentiment into a great 
 secret society, with oaths, grips, and passwords, that 
 made the movement politically formidable. In 1854 
 the order startled the poHtical world by the strength 
 which it showed in the elections of Pennsylvania, 
 Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts. On the slav- 
 ery question its position was undetermined ; and in 
 the South it was joined in large numbers by former 
 
THE "AMERICAN" PARTY 243 
 
 Whigs, and by Democrats who refused to follow 
 their party in its ultra pro-slavery policy. It thus 
 became the chief hope of the conservative, patriotic 
 men of the South, who had not yet despaired of the 
 attempt by compromising the extreme claims of 
 North and South to save the Union. 
 
 It was only natural that General Smith should be 
 numbered among these. His opposition to slavery 
 aggression, and his adherence to the doctrine 
 "America for Americans," have already been made 
 plain. Just when he definitely became a member of 
 the order is difficult to say. In the debates in the 
 legislature of 1854-55 on printing the Governor's 
 message in German, he had said, ambiguously, "of 
 the Know-Nothings spoken of he knew nothing and 
 cared less." In his correspondence of 1856, he was 
 constantly addressed as a member of the order. Un- 
 der date of April 25, "the delegate from Independ- 
 ence (Mo.) Council to the American congressional 
 convention at Georgetown" is introduced to General 
 Smith ; and in the margin of the letter, in the latter's 
 handwriting, is a memorandum of the number of 
 the Council, and the number of its membership — 
 information which would not be revealed to an out- 
 sider. His membership in the order it would seem, 
 must date from some time in 1855-56. 
 
 The views which prevailed among the leaders of 
 the opposition to the Democracy, may be seen in 
 the following letter from Major James S. Rollins. 
 It was written from the latter's home, at Columbia, 
 and bears date January 30, 1856 : 
 
244 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Ours is a routed army ; the soldiers scattered like 
 the stars in the firmament ; everything- lost — sen- 
 atorship, speakership, Bank directors, public print- 
 ers, all gone ! Without a leader, all is dismay and 
 confusion ! Next summer we have a new Governor 
 to elect, all the judges, and one member of Con- 
 gress. Can we regain any part of that which is lost ? 
 If not, we may at least preserve a nucleus around 
 which to rally once more in i860. 
 
 These matters were much canvassed whilst I was 
 in Jefferson City. If the opposition could only be 
 united, we have now the State ! But can this be 
 done? For one, I greatly doubt it. Frank [Francis 
 P. Blair, Jr.] is for starting a Benton man for Gov- 
 ernor; but I have learned enough to know that we 
 can not unite the Americans on such an one. That 
 arrangement would be acceptable to me, but I do 
 not believe it would win. On the other hand, it may 
 be quite hard to get the Irish and German vote for 
 a Know-Nothing. My impression is that if an 
 American is started, he ought to withdraw from the 
 order. 
 
 Now, who should he be? To me it is a matter of 
 indifference, so he is a true man. If Frank can't get 
 a Benton man, he prefers you or me, and as you are 
 the oldest soldier I defer to you. It is a place I do 
 not covet. The severe labor of such a canvass, the 
 surroundings at Jefferson if elected, the strong 
 probability of defeat, are all terrors to me. With 
 stronger nerves than most men, these things would 
 rather urge you to the contest. If you, or Broad- 
 head, or some other good American of the right 
 stamp, could not be commanded, and the public 
 sentiment pointed to me in so marked a manner as 
 to convince me I ought to take the race, why I might 
 be induced to go it. And rest assured that, once on 
 the track, I would strike for the stakes. And rest 
 
POLITICAL PLANS 245 
 
 assured further that, once at Jefferson City, a course 
 of poUcy would be pursued that would unite all the 
 elements of opposition, and that would build up a 
 powerful and victorious party in the State for the 
 future. Oh that our side, — and when I speak of our 
 side I mean the American and Benton side, — had a 
 little discretion ! Next week the Railroad bill will 
 be up ; I want to be in Jefferson at that time. If at 
 all convenient, come down there and let us talk ail 
 these matters over. 
 
 The letter is important as showing the high posi- 
 tion held by General Smith in the councils of the 
 opposition ; it is also interesting as an expression of 
 the sentiments of those who, with Smith himself, 
 would sacrifice slavery, when the time came, to the 
 preservation of Union and the overthrow of Demo- 
 cratic rule. The next letter represents the view of 
 those whose opposition to the Democracy, as time 
 proved, was less powerful than their attachment to 
 the "domestic institutions" of the South. It is from 
 S. H. Woodson, and bears date February 23, 1856: 
 
 What are you doing in Pettis for the great Amer- 
 ican cause, — that which is alone worthy, in this 
 hour of national peril, the attention of all patriotic 
 politicians? The spirit of '76 is reanimating the 
 chaos of politics in this section, and a new creation 
 in its primitive purity is evolved and stands forth 
 worthy of the light of our republican institutions. 
 If the American party succeeds, the Union is safe, 
 and our domestic institutions will remain un- 
 touched ; but if it fails, the horrors of intestine 
 war, and all the appalling consequences of disunion, 
 must ensue. I do not know whether you have joined 
 
246 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the party, but I know that I write to a patriot whose 
 heart is in the right place. 
 
 In a letter from Elder Allen Wright (from Lex- 
 ington, Mo., February 28) we get another point of 
 view, — that, namely, of an able, pure-minded minis- 
 ter of the Christian denomination, who loved the 
 Union, but followed his community in supporting 
 slavery. After an exhortation to "give all diligence 
 to make your calling and election sure," he writes 
 of politics thus : 
 
 Watchman, what of our country? Is this great 
 republic to fall, that is the light of the world and 
 the dread and abhorrence of despotism? Shall the 
 stars and stripes of Liberty trail in the dust, and 
 the last hope of the political redemption of the 
 world perish? Shall the Union of these States be 
 dissolved, and shivered into shreds and factions ; 
 and anarchy, confusion, and despotism triumph? 
 These are questions that obtrude themselves upon 
 my mind. I am no politician, — never have been and 
 never expect to be ; but I love my country, the 
 happiest and most glorious upon the footstool of 
 the Almighty Father. Where and what is the rem- 
 edy? Is there purity and patriotism enough among 
 us to avert the dangers that menace us? Where is 
 the pilot equal to the task of guiding the ship of 
 state, freighted with the hopes of millions of our 
 race, safe to port upon the present stormy and mucn 
 agitated sea? 
 
 In the meantime, the telegraph announces that 
 Millard Fillmore is the nominee of the American 
 party for the Presidency. What think ye of this? 
 In my soul, I find a hearty response and say, 
 
POLITICAL PLANS 247 
 
 Amen ! The next question is, can we elect him 
 over black Republicanism, and all the little dirty 
 "isms" combined ? Perhaps you are ready to ex- 
 claim, ''Know Nothing! Know Nothing!'' Stop 
 sir ! not so fast. I am a life member, so far as I 
 understand their aims and objects. I am not one 
 of them, but am one n'lth them ; and if alive and 
 well, expect on the day of the fight to record my 
 vote in favor of the sentiment, "None but Ameri- 
 cans shall rule America." What say you to this? 
 Are you one of the American party, or are you a 
 Whig still, poor fellow ! Or are you meditating 
 upon the propriety of joining the hard or soft wing 
 of Demagogy — pshaw ! I nearly spoiled it, — De- 
 mocracy ? There ! that is it. 
 
 The plans formerly broached by Major Rollins 
 for a joint ticket of the opposition are returned to 
 by him March 5th, 1856, in a letter which shows 
 the scheme gradually taking on definiteness : 
 
 The ball opens handsomely for the American 
 party. Fillmore and Donelson will be a powerful 
 ticket with the people, and especially at the South. 
 What will the Republicans do ? 
 
 Now, General, we should see to it that in the 
 State convention of the American party none but 
 the right men are put on the ticket. It ought to be 
 divided between Whigs and Democrats ; and in 
 selecting Whigs, at least for the higher posts, we 
 should get real genuine old-liners. Can't you think 
 of, and write out and propose, such a ticket, all 
 properly located, and send it to the Intelligencer? 
 The truth is, the Democratic material is rather 
 scanty to choose from ; but it is good, what there is 
 of it. Fagg, Rains, Henry, must go upon it. If a 
 
248 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Whig is taken for Governor, we must have a true 
 man, — one who will look to all the arrangements 
 proper to be made next winter at Jefferson City. 
 Now, you or I would do first rate ; but the question 
 is, would we be acceptable to the convention, or 
 those who will control it ? I hope you will see to it, 
 — you and Blakey and Crooks, — that first-rate men 
 are sent from all your region of country ; and that 
 you will be on hand yourself like a thousand of 
 brick. I will endeavor to be there myself. 
 
 I have hoped all the time that you would take the 
 race for Congress in your district. Why not an- 
 nounce yourself at once as a candidate ? Would this 
 be improper ? I think not ; we know Miller can not 
 again make the race, and certainly I know of no one 
 else having better claims than yourself upon the 
 district, or upon the Whig-American and Benton 
 parties. I repeat, therefore, if you feel like running 
 just announce yourself subject to the approval of 
 the American district convention. I do believe it 
 would be a good move. You can beat Reid^ to death. 
 If you will do this, and they should lick you for 
 Congress, and should elect me Governor, I will 
 have patronage enough in my hands to take good 
 care of you. 
 
 One more important suggestion. We must have 
 a first-rate internal improvement man for Gover- 
 nor. You see the trials thro' which our system has 
 been forced to pass by having a jackass in the 
 gubernatorial chair. 
 
 1 am glad that Frank and Gratz^ will be satisfied 
 
 ^Candidate for the Democratic nomination; in the Eighteenth 
 General Assembly he had voted against the Railroad bill. 
 
 2 F. P. Blair and B. Gratz Brown, both Benton Democrats, 
 were among the most active Union men in Missouri. The former 
 was the vice-presidential candidate with Seymour in 1868, and the 
 latter with Greeley in 1872. 
 
POLITICAL PLANS 249 
 
 with Americans, if thereby they can accomplish the 
 overthrow of the Nuhifiers. This again proves that 
 we ought to have a true man for Governor. I re- 
 peat, therefore, attend to your side of the river. 
 
 The State convention was held at St. Louis late 
 in April. Messrs. Smith and Rollins were both 
 there, and were active in the party consultations. 
 Political "machines" were far less developed at 
 that time than now ; and such organization as then 
 existed was less close and regular in the West than 
 in the East. Nevertheless, secret councils and 
 caucuses of the leaders were inevitable ; and such 
 appear in the following letter from William H. Rus- 
 sell, dated June 5, 1856: 
 
 I have seen the miserable and contemptible effort 
 of some anonymous, irresponsible scribbler, that 
 charges Mr. Blair with making a dishonorable 
 proposition to me as presiderrt of our late nomi- 
 nating convention ; but I thought it utterly unwor- 
 thy of notice. But now that such esteemed friends 
 as yourself and Major Rollins seem to attach some 
 importance to it, I will as- an act of justice to Mr. 
 Blair so far notice it as to give to it the lie direct. 
 
 Your recollection of the very pleasant conversa- 
 tion in my room in which Messrs. Blair, Grover, 
 Burden, you, and myself took part, is to the letter 
 correct. Mr. Blair, in my judgment, is incapable of 
 making a base proposition to anyone ; and if he was 
 so disposed, he is entirely too good a judge of hu- 
 man nature to have selected such men and such an 
 occasion to submit it. 
 
 I feel myself now called upon as an honorable 
 man to give publicly the true version, which I will 
 
250 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 do throug-h our friend, Major Rollins, and substan- 
 tially just as you have stated it. I do not believe 
 that I ever spoke of the conversation except to a 
 few bosom friends of Major Rollins ; and if at all, 
 in no other Hght than as you regarded it. 
 
 The allusion here is to some project for procur- 
 ing the nomination of Rollins for Governor. But 
 Major Rollins was not nominated by the conven- 
 tion, and the ticket put forth was one which only 
 partly met his approval and that of his political 
 friends. Under date of May 21, 1856, he writes to 
 General Smith : 
 
 There are some good men on the State ticket, but 
 it is not such an one as the American party ought to 
 have presented. But we have got it and must press it 
 thro', — which I believe we can do by a thorough ef- 
 fort. You are greatly mistaken when you say old 
 ''Just So" is politically dead. He had more to do in 
 fixing up the State ticket than any ten men in the 
 convention. Ewing was his man ; for if elected, he 
 knew he could serve him at Jefferson, and if de- 
 feated, he knew he would not be in his way. From 
 all I can learn, I think we have every prospect of 
 carrying the State ; but unless I am greatly mis- 
 taken, you will find at Jefferson City next winter 
 precisely the same combinations of political ele- 
 ments that we had to contend with last winter, and 
 it will result most probably in some fishy unreliable 
 American, and contemptible "rotten" [being elected] 
 to the United States Senate. Even should "Old 
 Bullion" come home and canvass the State for the 
 benefit of the American party, the result would not 
 be different. They would accept his services, and 
 d — n him for having rendered them. In view of 
 
CONGRESSIONAL ASPIRATIONS 251 
 
 this opinion, you will see the importance of send- 
 ing up good men to the legislature ; and if you de- 
 cline going to Washington, you will at least be 
 prompt in having yourself returned again to Jef- 
 ferson City. 
 
 Elsewhere in this letter Major Rollins says: "The 
 policy of the American party ought to be to defeat 
 the 'rottens.' Therefore, in the Southwest, where 
 we can not choose our own men, let them throw off 
 on the Bentons. Such a favor will doubtless be re- 
 ciprocated in cases where they can not elect." 
 
 The suggestion that General Smith run for Con- 
 gress had been made by his friends again and again. 
 Ten years before (in 1846), and again in 1848, the 
 attempt had been made to give him the Whig nomi- 
 nation ; but in the first instance he had withdrawn 
 his name, and in the second he failed of nomination. 
 The suggestion, when renewed by Major Rollins, 
 was repeated from all sides. Certainly there was no 
 one, as stated by the latter in his letter of March 5, 
 who had "better claims . . . upon the district, 
 or upon the Whig- American and Benton parties" ; 
 and although, as a man of downright character and 
 outspoken habit, he had many enemies, he had also 
 many warm friends, even among those politically 
 opposed to him. 'T am not a member of the Know 
 Nothing order," wrote one of these, "nor do I ever 
 expect to be. Yet I am a friend to General G. R. 
 Smith, and will support him. I have but little in- 
 fluence, but all I have is yours, — from personal con- 
 siderations alone." (A. G. Blakey, May 16, 1856.) 
 
252 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Nevertheless, there was deep distrust of him, due 
 to his lukewarmness in the slavery cause, and his 
 ardor for internal improvements ; and the district 
 convention of the American party, although held 
 in his own town, passed him by and gave to Col. 
 i5. H. Woodson the nomination for the next con- 
 gressional term. 
 
 When news came soon after of the death of Mr. 
 Miller, then Representative in Congress, an effort 
 was made to induce Mr. Smith to become a candi- 
 date for his unexpired term : 
 
 Upon seeing the death of John G. Miller an- 
 nounced [wrote Major Rollins in a portion of his 
 letter of May 21, not before quoted] a number of 
 your friends in St. Louis and at Jefferson City ex- 
 pressed a strong desire that you should become a 
 candidate to fill the vacancy. Why not? You and 
 Woodson could then aid each other along, and 
 bring about the best state of feeling. In view of 
 the fact that the present Congress will most likely 
 have to elect the President, the vacancy of Miller 
 is a much more important post than to succeed him. 
 I place my desire to see you run chiefly on this 
 ground ; but I may add, the compliment of a seat in 
 Congress is eminently your due, and at the hands 
 of the American party. If this letter reaches you 
 in time, therefore, and it is at all compatible with 
 your feelings, just announce yourself at once for 
 the vacancy. I'll promise to make several speeches 
 for you in Cole, Moniteau, and Cooper, and along 
 the river, where you will most need help. Certainly 
 the railroad on the ridge and the river interest com- 
 bined, ought to carry you thro'. 
 
PRO-SLAVERY OPPOSITION 253 
 
 For this office also, General Smith's claims did 
 not go uncontested, even within his own party. 
 Against the veteran of fifty-two years, worn with 
 services for his district and his party, was put up 
 a stripling of twenty-four, — at that hour actually 
 too young to be eligible to a seat in Congress, — 
 whose chief recommendations were his ready tongue 
 and the lack of any taint of heresy on the slavery 
 question. Thomas P. Akers, of Lexington, Lafa- 
 yette county, was the rival ; and in the support 
 which he received in the river counties, may be 
 traced a lingering hostility to General Smith for the 
 defeat of the river route for the Pacific road. 
 
 In a letter from Lexington, dated May 2'], 1856, 
 William S. Field writes : 
 
 The contest for Congress will rest between your- 
 self and Mr. Akers, as Woodson desires that he 
 shall have help in the field, and does not desire to 
 run for both places. Many are trying to slay you 
 on the negro question, which is unjust and wrong; 
 and I have and do thus express myself at all times 
 and under any circumstances. And you shall not be 
 slain on that question if I can avoid it ; believing as 
 I do that you are a sound, conservative pro-slavery 
 man. Akers is powerful on the stump, and is popu- 
 lar ; and to be candid — which is the office of a 
 friend — I believe he can get the nomination from 
 this county, not only over yourself, but over any 
 man in the district ; and he has said if nominated he 
 will run. 
 
 General Smith set to work to secure this nomina- 
 tion, writing to his friends, responding to calls to 
 
254 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 address local councils of the order, and using like 
 means. From William H. Russell, president of the 
 late State convention, his letter of May 28, stating 
 his wishes, called forth the following reply, dated 
 June 5, 1856: 
 
 I am decidedly in favor of your being the candi- 
 date for Congress to fill the vacancy created by the 
 death of Mr. Miller, and I think the better plan is 
 for your friends to announce you without the in- 
 tervention of a convention, which would most likely 
 be productive of bad feeling and discord rather 
 than of harmony or strength. I shall myself act 
 upon this principle, and so announce you in our 
 county paper. 
 
 In the contest for this nomination. General Smith 
 was warned of the injury which his views on slavery 
 were doing him. From Lexington he was in- 
 formed by Field, on June 10, of the "howl of free- 
 soilism" against him, which led the local council to 
 instruct its delegate for Akers. Notwithstanding 
 this, his correspondent continued, if Smith should 
 receive the nomination he would *'get a heavy ma- 
 jority" in Lexington, as he had many friends there, 
 the council being divided 20 to 25 between him 
 and Akers. R. C. Ewing, writing from the same 
 place eight days later, more than confirms the view 
 that the opposition to General Smith was chiefly 
 due to his views on slavery. The feeling on that 
 question about Lexington, he wrote, was "strong 
 and all-absorbing." 
 
HIS DEFEAT 255 
 
 I apprehend [he continues] it will be felt in the 
 nomination next Monday. Your reported opinion in 
 relation to Kansas is doing you a deal of damage In 
 Saline, Lafayette, and Jackson. Those who control 
 matters here say they are afraid of the effect of 
 compromising anything on the slavery question ; and 
 with this feeling" I apprehend the three counties 
 mentioned will oppose your nomination. I learn that 
 your position in reference to this question has been 
 fully discussed, and that the leading influences of 
 the three counties are against you. 
 
 In the end Akers secured the nomination, and ul- 
 timately his election, as also Woodson. Indignant 
 at what he deemed base misrepresentation of him- 
 self, General Smith charged Woodson with "med- 
 dling" with the nomination for the vacancy, and 
 declaring publicly that Smith was "as great an 
 abolitionist as there was in Massachusetts or the 
 North." These charges Colonel Woodson denied, 
 in a letter dated July i, saying that he had "invari- 
 ably spoken of [him] as a gentleman in whom [he] 
 had the utmost confidence, and for whom [he] en- 
 tertained the highest personal regard" ; adding that 
 he was grieved that their friendly relations should 
 be thus strained by mere rumor. But there can be 
 no doubt, from Woodson's subsequent course in 
 Congress, that he was secretly rejoiced that a man 
 whose views on slavery were unsafe, from the 
 Southern point of view, was not to precede him in 
 his congressional seat. 
 
 News of General Smith's defeat in the convention 
 was conveyed to Russell in a letter of June 15, to 
 
256 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 which the latter repHed, two months later (August 
 2.^, 1856), on his return from an extended trip 
 through the East, in a letter commenting upon the 
 Whig defeat at the August elections, and the pros- 
 pects and qualities of the presidential candidates. 
 The results of the late State election he considered 
 a demonstration that ''our great and glorious party, 
 originating for the patriotic purpose of rebuking 
 office-seekers, has itself degenerated into one of ex- 
 clusive personal benefit and extreme selfishness." 
 Akers' triumph over Smith proved "that merit has 
 to give way to supposed expediency, and long-tried 
 service to the pert, impudent pretensions of a 
 stranger." Ewing's defeat for Governor he regrets ; 
 and in spite of a former prejudice against him, he 
 now fully concurs with General Smith in his opin- 
 ions of Ewing's merits. Concerning national poli- 
 tics, he writes : 
 
 I have now scarcely a hope of our ability to elect 
 our good candidate Fillmore, and it pains me to the 
 very core to think of taking in his stead such a 
 poltroon as old Buck, and his right bower Douglas 
 and Company. I came through Boone, and talked 
 much with our friend Rollins and others ; and we 
 have resolved not to be transferred to the car of a 
 deceitful politician like old Buck. For my part, I 
 consider Fremont, — objectionable as he is on ac- 
 count of the company that he at present consorts 
 with, — as less objectionable than Buchanan, and if 
 compelled to choose between the two I shall take 
 Fremont as the least of the evils. 
 
 I go down to St. Louis on the first of October, 
 as a grand juror of the Federal Court. Suppose you 
 
ROLLINS FOR GOVERNOR 257 
 
 meet me there and consult together on some meas- 
 ure of safety. . . I have nothing encouraging 
 from the East for Fillmore. 
 
 This passage is of interest as affording the first 
 evidence of a disposition, among those with whom 
 General Smith was acting, to go the length of voting 
 for the Republican candidate, in order to defeat the 
 distrusted and detested Democratic party. Whether 
 General Smith at this time was willing to do this, 
 is not apparent; but when once the struggle be- 
 tween the forces of union and disunion should com- 
 pel a decision, without a third alternative, between 
 the Republican and the Democratic parties, there 
 could be no doubt as to his choice. Even now his 
 fundamental principle was "never to vote for any- 
 one not ardently in love with this glorious Union." 
 (Quoted by Eldridge Burden in a letter of August 
 16, 1856.) 
 
 The next political situation worthy of note is that 
 created by the resignation of Governor Trusten 
 Polk, upon his election, early in 1857, to the United 
 States Senate. At once the "Union" party — using 
 the term, applicable in a two-fold sense, to designate 
 the forces opposed to the "soft" wing of the Demo- 
 cracy — determined to revive Major Rollins' candi- 
 dacy for the office, but this time without the doubt- 
 ful intervention of a convention. 
 
 News of this and of the part which General 
 Smith was expected to play in the campaign, was 
 conveyed, together with much information of a po- 
 litical character, in a letter from B. Gratz Brown, 
 
258 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 from Jefferson City, March 3, 1857. Brown was 
 then editor of the Missouri Democrat, and Repre- 
 sentative from St. Louis in the legislature. That 
 body, he informs General Smith, would adjourn on 
 Wednesday for the summer recess. The Bank bill, 
 his correspondent would be glad to learn, had be- 
 come a law. The Railroad bill, giving the Pacific 
 road a million dollars additional when it should 
 have spent five hundred thousand west of Jefferson 
 City, had passed both houses and would receive the 
 signature of the acting Governor. 
 
 In regard to politics [the letter continued] I be- 
 lieve that I may say we are at last united in name 
 as well as reality. Rollins is to be the candidate for 
 Governor independent of party nominations. The 
 Americans have recommended him as their first 
 choice, and desired him to make the race on those 
 terms. The Benton Democracy have formally pro- 
 nounced him their first choice, and appointed a com- 
 mittee of five to address him a letter calling upon 
 him to announce himself as an independent candi- 
 date. A few of the old-line Whigs — Wilson, Corn- 
 wall, Carson — agree to do the same thing. Thus 
 you see the sentiment seems to be united, and the 
 whole opposition concentrated. Rollins will enter 
 upon the canvass with vigor, and visit every county 
 in the State. He will begin at once, so you may as 
 well go to work in Pettis and get the combination 
 perfected. We are all quite sanguine here that we 
 can beat Stewart by a good majority, with proper 
 exertion. Everything, however, depends upon tak- 
 ing matters at the start and getting the ball in mo- 
 tion before our friends shall get committed. The 
 bogus Republican [of St. Louis] will be against 
 
GRATZ BROWN'S VIEWS 259 
 
 us, and I am glad of it ; for it would be no victory 
 to me if the honor were to be shared with that sheet. 
 Mayo [of Osceola] will go with the Nullifiers, and 
 it will be necessary at once to start a press down 
 in that section of the State, as well as at Springfield. 
 I had a long talk with Rollins a few days ago, and 
 before anything was done. He is keen for the cam- 
 paign, and pledges himself to do the work of the 
 canvass in a masterly style. So do not let things go 
 wrong in vour division. Remember, you are com- 
 mander of the left wing of the allied army ! 
 
 You will see from documents I have sent you all 
 along pretty much what has been doing this session, 
 and can judge of the demoralized state to which we 
 have reduced the lately so victorious enemy. Within 
 the last fortnight I have carried the House against 
 the Anti leaders upon three of their most important 
 party propositions, and defeated them by crushing 
 votes. They were principally extravagant stealing 
 operations, designed to bolster up their strikers and 
 furnish funds for the summer campaign ; so that 
 they are very much cast down. Reid and Henderson 
 are much reduced in flesh, and I think it will not be 
 long before a split occurs in the camp of the Nulli- 
 fiers on the plunder questions, quite as serious as on 
 the Palm question.^ 
 
 I sent you a few days since a copy of my remarks 
 upon the Emancipation resolutions, and would be 
 glad to hear from you upon the developments there- 
 in contained. It was a startling speech to the House 
 in some respects, and took the opposition members 
 by surprise. In St. Louis, I hear it has raised quite 
 a furor, and my advices are that we shall carry the 
 county in April by three thousand majority, and in 
 
 ^ Palm, "an avowed emancipationist," according to Brown, had 
 secured the pro-slavery endorsement for a directorship in the Bank, 
 which was afterwards repudiated. 
 
26o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 August Rollins will have six thousand over Stewart. 
 It was framed principally, as you will see from read- 
 ing it, to suit my own meridian ; but I am sanguine 
 enough to hope it will not be without good effect 
 even in other counties of Missouri.^ 
 
 Confirmation of Major Rollins' determination to 
 be an independent candidate, together with an ur- 
 gent request for Smith's aid, came in a letter from 
 Rollins himself, dated from his home in Columbia, 
 April 23, 1857: 
 
 After much debate with myself and more with 
 my wife I have this morning (improvidently, I ex- 
 pect) flung out my banner to the breeze as a candi- 
 date for Governor. The step is taken ; it is now too 
 late to look back ; and in the language of Lord By- 
 ron, I have only to say : 
 
 "Whatever sky's above me 
 Here's a heart for every fate." 
 
 To tell you the truth, I am in a bad fix for a good 
 race. Dr. Pope, whilst I was at St. Louis, ex- 
 tracted a large wen from my leg, and at this time 
 I am unable to ride. I am confined to my room, 
 but I shall be out just as soon as the physical man 
 will allow. In the meantime I shall put forth a neat 
 and well-turned circular. 
 
 The reports are of the most encouraging char- 
 acter from every quarter; and I firmly believe if 
 the Americans will stand firm and give me the vote 
 which Ewing got, I shall be elected with ease. Tom 
 Anderson has agreed to take the stump for me; 
 
 ^ See chapter xii for an account of this speech. 
 
ROLLINS' CANVASS 261 
 
 Doniphan is all right ; ex-Governor King is right. 
 I got a letter from John Wilson ; I still hope he will 
 give me the field. Did you write to him ? 
 
 Now, my dear General, whilst I intend and am 
 every hour doing my best for our common cause, I 
 must rely upon good friends to aid me along. Your 
 extensive and popular acquaintance along the line 
 of the Pacific road, and indeed in the whole South- 
 west, will enable you to do a great deal for me. Just 
 say to our friends along both branches of your road, 
 that if I am Governor both must go thro', and that 
 before the end of my term I'll take the cars for 
 Kansas and the beautiful valley of the Neosho! 
 Write to Boyd, Hendricks, and Richardson at 
 Springfield. 
 
 Again let me impress upon you the necessity of 
 dropping a line now and then to the Intelligencer, 
 Statesman, Express, Tribune (Liberty), Times 
 (Glasgow), Enquirer (Jefferson), giving an ac- 
 count of the prospects all over the Southwest. Just 
 a few lines in the way of a letter will encourage and 
 arouse our friends. 
 
 I can not now say when I will be in Pettis. Rest 
 assured I'll do the very best I can. The truth is I 
 have the work of two men now, just answering 
 letters, — and which must be answered or else offence 
 may be given. 
 
 To your family present our kind regards, and say 
 to the young ladies that I hold them both to their 
 promise to throw over this canvass, and in my favor, 
 the charm of their graceful and unerring influence. 
 
 Into the canvass thus begun in behalf of his po- 
 litical and personal friend. General Smith threw 
 himself with his customary energy. His promi- 
 nence in the party was daily becoming greater. In 
 
262 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 May he was appointed a delegate to the National 
 Council of the American party to be held at Louis- 
 ville, June 2 ; but could not attend. From Cass 
 county, Russell wrote him that they were up in 
 arms for Rollins, and that Pettis must look out or 
 Cass would wrest from her the honor as the banner 
 county. But not all the news was of so encouraging 
 a character. On June 29, Rollins wrote : 
 
 There is considerable apathy on the part of our 
 friends. Of my success I would not entertain a 
 doubt if they were generally only as active as your- 
 self ; and if this election is lost, it will be for the 
 want of a fair effort with our party. I intend to do 
 my whole duty, — and if my friends will not act, why 
 then let the party be defeated and be — damned ! 
 
 You have seen Benton's letter to Branch. It is 
 all right. In the next Enquirer there will also be one 
 from T. L. Price, a capital one, and into which he 
 incorporates Benton's letter. Now it occurs to me 
 if this letter of Price's were struck off by itself, 
 and with Benton's letter extensively circulated in 
 the Benton counties, it would be the very best thing 
 to promote our objects. I will have the matter at- 
 tended to on this side of the river. 
 
 Branch will publish a similar one, as he writes to 
 me to say. He is an efficient and working man, and 
 writes to me the most encouraging news from the 
 Northwest. I trust any commendable activity on 
 the part of the Benton men will not have the effect 
 to drive off any of our Whig and American friends. 
 
 In the Southeast I met with much encouragement 
 and only regretted that I could not spare more time 
 to visit in that quarter some other counties. 
 
 The apathy complained of was due in part to the 
 
ROLLINS' CANVASS 263 
 
 specter Abolition, which Southern men at this time 
 saw stalking in every movement and behind every 
 m.an who did not avowedly put slavery above Union, 
 and profess its protection and extension to be the 
 chief end of government. His cordial agreement 
 with the position which General Smith occupied on 
 this question has already been pointed out; but 
 greater tact and caution in his public utterances had 
 prevented Rollins from incurring the odium which 
 had fallen on his friend. For this reason the influ- 
 ence of the slavery question in the contest was not 
 so great as one might expect, as appears by a letter 
 from Woodson to Smith, dated Independence, July 
 26, 1857: 
 
 Rollins is sweeping everything before him in this 
 part of the State. I have no doubt that his speeches 
 in this county have made a difference in his favor of 
 at least two hundred votes. His position and past 
 personal history upon the slavery issue, though 
 highly conservative, are altogether acceptable to the 
 most ultra pro-slavery men of our party ; and I be- 
 lieve he will not lose five old-line Whigs in our 
 county, even among the many who voted for Bu- 
 chanan. The Benton men will support him without a 
 single exception, and the combined opposition to the 
 Antis are enthusiastic in his behalf. He has more 
 than realized the expectations of his warmest ad- 
 mirers, and has astonished and captivated all who 
 had never before heard him. Bets are freely made 
 here upon him without odds, and the Antis are 
 greatly alarmed. The election of Rollins will be a 
 virtual transfer of the State to the Americans ! 
 
 This result, however, was not to be. An "excel- 
 
264 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 lent majority" was returned for Rollins in Pettis, 
 but for the State as a whole his opponent, R. M. 
 Stewart, defeated him by 334 votes. It was much 
 honor, no doubt, to have cut the Democratic ma- 
 jority down to so small a figure;^ but Rollins natu- 
 rally felt sore when he thought how a little less 
 apathy on the part of the Americans would have in- 
 sured his election. In reply to General Smith's as- 
 surances of sympathy, he wrote, September i, 1857: 
 
 It is hard indeed that I should have been per- 
 mitted to be defeated, after the severe labor and 
 sacrifice which I made, and for the good of the 
 cause. The opposition to the National Democracy 
 know not what they have lost in not electing me, for 
 with my election the State would have been ours 
 for many years to come. As it is, I doubt whether 
 the opposition can ever be cemented and made a 
 compact, united, and solid party. Upon this subject, 
 your views and my own are identical. It is worth 
 the effort to bring about the union, — and I shall 
 work strenuously for it. Switzler has taken the right 
 direction, in the last number of the Statesman. 
 
 I hope to meet you somewhere this fall, — if not 
 at St. Louis, at Jefferson City during the sitting of 
 the legislature, — when with others we can have a 
 full talk, in the arrangement of a programme for 
 the future. 
 
 I can not say that I am not disappointed ; but I 
 can say, with all truth, that I am neither disheart- 
 ened nor dismayed, but I am more than ever ready 
 to do all in my power to unite the fragments of the 
 opposition and build up a great party in opposition 
 
 ^ When a candidate for Governor, in 1848, Rollins was defeated 
 by King by i4,953- 
 
ROLLINS DEFEATED 265 
 
 to the corrupt scoundrels who have possession of the 
 government, State and National. . . . 
 
 One result of the election was to show the futility 
 of putting chief reliance on the American party. 
 That organization had already run its brief course. 
 Its history had shown that neutrality in the slavery 
 contest was but the shadow of a dream. "Because 
 thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot," was 
 the verdict of the nation, North and South, "I will 
 spue thee out of my mouth." Inevitably men of 
 General Smith's views were forced into yet more 
 pronounced hostility to the dominant Democracy, 
 and the principles which it represented; and this 
 process, in course of time, was to lead them into the 
 Republican fold. 
 
 At first, the tendency was merely towards a 
 closer union with the Benton men. "My plan," 
 wrote Russell to Smith, September 10, 1857, "is to 
 enter heart and soul with our Benton allies, and ?.t 
 once to satisfy them of our high appreciation of 
 their recent services by selecting from among them 
 our principal standard-bearers in the fight to come 
 off next August." The position in national politics 
 which the Benton men took, and the energy with 
 which they proposed to act, are indicated in a letter 
 from Frank Blair, written December 16, from 
 Washington, where he was serving in Congress. 
 The Lecompton constitution, it may be noted in ex- 
 planation, was the disgraceful scheme of govern- 
 ment which the pro-slavery party, backed by all the 
 authority and cajolery of Buchanan's administra- 
 
266 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 tion, sought to force upon Kansas, allowing the set- 
 tlers in that Territory to vote merely upon the ques- 
 tion of taking it with or without slavery. 
 
 We have got the National Demagogues split irre- 
 trievable on the Lecompton constitution, and now we 
 shall go on conquering and to conquer. You must 
 begin at once to look after Missouri at the next 
 August election. We want candidates in every 
 county in the State for every office to be filled at 
 that election. We must have a committee at Jeffer- 
 son to correspond w^ith the men in every county, 
 and arrange for candidates upon principles of com- 
 promise and conciliation among the opposition, and 
 death to the Demagogues. 
 
 Acting upon this exhortation, General Smith 
 wrote Major RoUins, January 6, 1858, to concert 
 plans for the coming elections. In this letter he 
 sounded his friend with regard to his (Smith's) 
 once more seeking an election to Congress. Rollins' 
 answer, dated January 13, was non-committal; he 
 had so recently experienced the difficulty of com- 
 bining the diverse elements of the opposition, that 
 he was loath to recommend the experiment to his 
 friend. 
 
 Unfamiliar as I am with the public feeling in 
 your district, — and to some extent, also, with the 
 relative party strength of the Bentons and Ameri- 
 cans, I am not prepared to say who ought to be the 
 candidate, but this I have to remark : I don't know 
 where they would find a better Benton man than 
 yourself ; and as to your Americanism I believe I 
 can say as it was said of Mary at the tomb of our 
 
NEW PLANS 267 
 
 Savior, that you were the first to arrive and the last 
 to leave. And as to your hatred to the National 
 Pirates — alias Demagogues — alias Black Demo- 
 crats, — I can certify that it is both terrible and un- 
 relenting. I have received several letters from your 
 district in regard to the candidacy ; your name has 
 been mentioned in all them. I have responded to all 
 as I now say to you : Go on, and in a fair and liberal 
 spirit select, in view of the state of parties, the 
 strongest man ; take him who will be most accept- 
 able to those from whom we expect our support ; 
 let there be no jarring or discordant feeling; work 
 to the single point, and that is, the overthrow of the 
 
 Demagogues ; and all will be ? When the choice 
 
 is made, upon whomsoever it may fall, — whether 
 upon you or a less deserving man, — I will be in the 
 thickest and hottest of the fight, rallying our forces 
 by pen and tongue to the rescue. 
 
 The day after he had written to Rollins, General 
 Smith wrote to Russell, now removed from Cass 
 county to Independence, with the same end. In his 
 reply, dated the 24th, Russell refers to his letter of 
 September 10, before quoted, as foreshadowing 
 every sentiment contained in Smith's present com- 
 munication. He agreed in the view that it was de- 
 sirable to make a change in their standard-bearers, 
 but he wished to effect it so as not to give offence. 
 
 If, strictly inter nos [he continues] , it is our policy 
 not to run Colonel Woodson again, we should so 
 manage it as not to mortify or wound his feelings; 
 for he is both entitled to sincere respect, and has 
 the power of being severely felt if it is unjustly 
 withheld from him. Could not our friend Blair at 
 Washington be made the medium of inducing him 
 
268 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 to withdraw his pretentions to another race, with- 
 out offending his pride or self-respect? If so it 
 would be a great point gained. 
 
 General Smith proceeded to act upon the sug- 
 gestion with reference to Blair, but without the de- 
 sired result. The situation in Congress, and the 
 reason why it was impossible to do anything with 
 Woodson, are indicated in Blair's letter of Febru- 
 ary 6, 1858: 
 
 I received your kind letter many days since, and 
 thank you for it. We have got our feet on the necks 
 of the National Demagogues. The House has been 
 sitting since twelve o'clock of the 5th ; it is now one 
 o'clock of the 6th, and the probability is that we 
 shall remain in session two or three days without 
 intermission. We are trying to force them into a 
 vote on the essence of the Lecompton swindle and 
 the President's message to a select committee. They 
 are interposing motions to adjourn, calls of the 
 House, etc., etc. ; but we beat them on every motion, 
 and intend to hold their noses to the grindstone 
 until we grind them off. The d — ^ned rascals feel 
 lost; they know that when we do reach a vote, we 
 shall beat them. 
 
 I think you ought to have the race for Congress. 
 Neither Price nor Lusk are fit to be elected, and 
 can't be. I think the best plan for you is to get the 
 nomination from the Know Nothings and start out 
 on the track. I don't know that anything can be 
 done with Price or Lusk by me, but I will write to 
 Gardenhire and others to try and beat some sense 
 into their heads. Woodson and Anderson vote 
 steadily with the Demagogues. I have tried my best 
 to prevent their making d — fools of themselves, 
 but I can do nothing with them. They may go to 
 
BLAIR'S VIEWS 269 
 
 the devil their own road, because we have the dead- 
 wood on them in this House of Representatives, and 
 I think the Administration will not be able to carry 
 another measure this Congress. You must send lists 
 of people all over your district, and I will send 
 them the documents. 
 
 Best regards to all friends in Missouri. You 
 must try your d — nedest to harmonize matters in 
 the State, and especially your district. We must 
 carry Missouri next August. 
 
 In a letter written February 20, Major Rollins 
 reads the signs of the times in national and State 
 politics with much shrewdness. 
 
 I think we shall see some strange shifting of the 
 political scenes in a short time ; and whilst we should 
 fight steadily and with courage in Missouri, what- 
 ever may be the result of the race here, I think we'll 
 floor the scoundrels in the next national contest. 
 The signs of the times look that way. If the Le- 
 compton constitution be rejected, as I most sin- 
 cerely hope it will be, the Nullifiers may take some 
 decisive step toward a dissolution of the Union; 
 and we shall then, for the first time in Missouri, 
 have the rascals where I have been desiring to get 
 them. They must either join us, or they must go 
 for disunion with the Nullifiers ; and taking either 
 shoot, I think we can crush them. 
 
 On the 6th of March, Blair wrote, replying to a 
 letter from General Smith, in terms which must 
 have cheered his heart : 
 
 The better opinion here is that we shall beat Le- 
 compton in the House notwithstanding the defec- 
 
270 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 tion of Messrs. Anderson and Woodson. They have 
 lost all character here, and are not even respected 
 by the Democrats, who use them. It is often said 
 that the Americans in the Southern States might 
 as well send Democrats at once to Congress, as to 
 send men who always vote with the Administration. 
 It is certainly a very useless trouble for the opposi- 
 tion to elect men to vote with the Administration; 
 and therefore it is to be hoped that if you run any 
 opposition ticket at all, it will be composed of men 
 who really belong to the opposition, and not of men 
 who are essentially and in every respect as good 
 Administration men as any in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 I hope you will have no trouble in getting the 
 nomination in your district. Having served with 
 you in the legislature, I know that you will be found 
 against these scamps ; but I presume you won't need 
 my endorsement to help you in your district. Write 
 me often and keep me advised of everything that 
 happens. All eyes are turned upon Missouri, and 
 if we can defeat the Nullifiers next August, we 
 shall be circled with a halo of glory. I rely upon 
 you and Jim Rollins for the 26. and 5th districts ; 
 and I want you to write to your friends in the 4th 
 district to support Branch and to force old King 
 off the track. He is not fit to be elected ; you know 
 that he would sell out the district after his election 
 to Old Buck. 
 
 With such encouragement from his political 
 friends, General Smith pursued his canvass for the 
 congressional nomination. Every legitimate influ- 
 ence was used by him. Among others, he wrote his 
 nephew John A. Martin, then a young lawyer of 
 Cass county, with a request that he write to the 
 
CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS 271 
 
 papers of that section in his interest. From Martin's 
 reply (March 16), it seems that he lent a half- 
 hearted compliance with the request, but forebore 
 openly to espouse the cause, lest it should com- 
 promise himself with the Democratic party. ''Uncle, 
 I do not know but what my friendship for you," he 
 writes, ''is leading me somewhat beyond the latitude 
 of an honest Democrat ; for I must say that I am a 
 Democrat to the backbone, without the slightest 
 taint of Republicanism, Know Nothingism, Benton- 
 ism, or any other ism but conservativism. At the 
 same time, I must admit that I would be greatly re- 
 joiced to see you elected to Congress from this dis- 
 trict." This was the attitude taken by many of the 
 General's friends in the district. From personal 
 considerations they would like to see him elected, 
 but they would not turn their hands over to effect 
 this end. General Smith's most cordial support 
 came from political leaders in distant parts of the 
 State; in his own immediate community, narrow- 
 minded jealousy, distrust of his blunt and impetuous 
 nature, and blind and selfish conservatism fought 
 against him. 
 
 The outcome was that, in spite of the opposition 
 of his wife and daughters, he resolved to come out 
 as an independent candidate, without regard to 
 party nominations. Taking advantage of the ab- 
 sence of his family at McAllister Springs, he issued 
 the following card through the local papers : 
 
272 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Georgetown, Mo., July 12, 1858. 
 To the voters of the Fifth Congressional District: 
 
 Fellow Citizens, — In reply to solicitations from 
 numerous friends in every part of the district, I now 
 announce myself an independent candidate to repre- 
 sent the 5th Congressional District in the next As- 
 sembly. Thus long have I waited with a hope that a 
 better state of feeling would exist among the op- 
 ponents of the present dominant party ; and that 
 the causes which have operated to prejudice the po- 
 sition of the present incumbent might be removed. 
 Instead however of this, I find that ill state of feel- 
 ing deepening and widening. And in Colonel Wood- 
 son's card announcing himself a candidate, there is 
 presented unmistakable cause for dissatisfaction, 
 strong and uncompromising. In his canvass of 
 1856, he distinctly and unqualifiedly denounced the 
 so-called ''National Democratic party," as sectional 
 in its organization and principles ; — to use his own 
 language, "Democracy stunk in the nostrils of the 
 nation," and that the American party alone was na- 
 tional in principle and organization, and conservative 
 and patriotic in feeling and purpose. But in his 
 circular, without any new circumstances or addi- 
 tional reason for so strange and sudden a revolution 
 in his views, he boldly tells the same people that this 
 same Democratic party is national in its organiza- 
 tion and disposed to do equal and exact justice to 
 all. Join this strange but significant declaration 
 with the no less strange conduct of the two sham 
 Democratic conventions recently held at George- 
 town, and the strong endorsements and extravagant 
 laudations given by the Anti-Benton press of the 
 district and State, and we are irresistibly driven to 
 the conclusion that either Colonel Woodson, or that 
 party who in '56 "stunk in the nostrils of the na- 
 tion," have changed positions. Two brief years only 
 
HIS CARD 273 
 
 have passed since the Democratic papers of the 
 whole State, as well as their politicians upon the 
 hustings, apparently vied with each other in their 
 proficiency in the use of billingsgate and bitter de- 
 nunciations of Colonel Woodson, as the exponent of 
 the American Conservative party. Recently they 
 have discovered that he is ''one among ten thousand 
 and altogether lovely," and far preferable to any 
 man of their own party. Although they did not 
 formally nominate him as their candidate at either 
 of the two conventions, yet enough is known to sat- 
 isfy every honest mind that it was the controlling 
 sentiment of that Convention ; — so much so, that of 
 late the Colonel never speaks or writes of his politi- 
 cal glory without grateful reference to the endorse- 
 ment of the "Democratic convention of George- 
 town." This fact is no less startling than the reason 
 thereof is apparent. 
 
 Fellow citizens, I honestly conceive that Colonel 
 Woodson's whole object and design is to force upon 
 this people false and unnecessary issues. He comes 
 home, still warm from the fierce and heated contest 
 between the fanatic of the North and the demagogue 
 of the South, — a struggle in which there is no prin- 
 ciple involved so controlling and powerful as self- 
 promotion and aggrandizement, — and he attempts 
 to disturb the peace and good of this people by ex- 
 citing dreadful apprehensions of danger that really 
 has no existence. He is before the people an agi- 
 tator ; — canvassing a question that only tends to 
 arouse feelings of hostility among our fellow broth- 
 ers of the South, — creating discord, where other- 
 wise there would be union of feeling, union of ac- 
 tion, and union of purpose. For I am persuaded that 
 the security of the domestic institution of slavery 
 greatly depends upon the non-agitation of that sub- 
 ject. Experience dictates such a policy; and he who 
 
274 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 loves most this institution discusses it least. I now, 
 as I always have, deprecate the agitation of this 
 question. No good can come of it. And for the un- 
 happy position of this matter before the nation, the 
 present Democratic party is alone responsible. In 
 their platform, adopted immediately preceding the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise, agitation was 
 disclaimed and denounced. The repeal of that meas- 
 ure was to effect the same end. In their Cincinnati 
 platform, allegiance to non-agitation was as sacredly 
 pledged, and the election of Mr. Buchanan was to 
 bring about the same "consummation so devoutly 
 wished for." Yet the nation is convulsed with the 
 slavery agitation, and there is no peace to this peo- 
 ple. And Colonel Woodson, as if thoroughly in- 
 oculated into the instincts and practices of this Dem- 
 agoguing party, makes this canvass upon what Colo- 
 nel Benton truthfully characterized as the "senseless 
 wolf-howl." With Colonel Woodson's vote upon 
 the Lecompton bill, I have no controversy. I was 
 always opposed to making this pet of the Adminis- 
 tration a test in the American party ; and. I am as 
 strenuously opposed to having this issue forced upon 
 me. And herein is the grievance occasioned by Colo- 
 nel Woodson. He denounces as co-operators of the 
 Black Republican party all who did not vote with 
 the Administration upon this bill. And he makes 
 this race upon the record made by him the present 
 session. That now is a dead issue, and any attempt 
 to revive it can look to, nor have for its object, no 
 other end than self-promotion at the sacrifice of the 
 best interests of the common good. 
 
 As I live, fellow citizens, I will dissemble noth- 
 ing; I have not, nor do I now entertain any politi- 
 cal opinion which I fear to avow. I discounten- 
 ance fanaticism and sectionalism wherever found, 
 whether at the North or at the South. Neither the 
 
HIS CARD 275 
 
 Black Republican of the North nor the Sectional 
 Democrat of the South find any sympathy with me. 
 Nor have I any sympathy whatever with any Eman- 
 cipation movement here. And I denounce all men 
 and all papers who charge me with consorting and 
 co-operating with the friends of Emancipationism 
 in Missouri or elsewhere, as base calumniators and 
 slanderers. I was born in a slave State, educated in 
 pro-slavery sentiments, have always been a slave- 
 holder, and to-day have five times more interest in 
 slaves than all of the slandering Anti-Benton editors 
 in the State of Missouri. 
 
 Fellow citizens, if I should be elected as your 
 Representative, it will be my highest ambition and 
 proudest glory to pursue that policy that will best 
 promote the interest of my constituents and this 
 great country. I shall oppose with "a will of iron" 
 the worse than European extravagance of this Ad- 
 ministration. I shall do all that in me lies to revive 
 the interests and just claims of our own Central 
 route for a railroad to the Pacific, — a measure that 
 was so dear to, and ably and eloquently advocated 
 by that great spirit, Thomas H. Benton. I shall co- 
 operate most cheerfully in any and every laudable 
 attempt to crush out every feeling and suppress 
 every discussion the tendency of which is to alienate 
 one portion of this Union from another. With the 
 promise to visit as many counties as I possibly can, 
 and give my views upon any and all questions that 
 may concern the voters of this district, 
 
 I am, your most obedient servant, 
 
 G. R. Smith. 
 
 The issue was now squarely made. Three times 
 before General Smith had tried to secure the party 
 nomination, and each time this or that influence had 
 snatched it from his grasp. Now he appealed to the 
 
276 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 people direct, and upon their decision was to hang 
 his chance of playing a part on the larger fields of 
 politics. 
 
 What the result would have been had his card 
 been issued earlier, is uncertain ; as it was, barely 
 three weeks remained before the polling of votes. 
 This interval he used with his customary energy in 
 canvassing the district. The progress of the fight is 
 indicated in two letters written by J. F. Philips, 
 then a young lawyer of Georgetown, to General 
 Smith while the latter was on his canvass. Both 
 are undated, but they were evidently written late 
 in July. ''A powerful reaction," writes Mr. Philips 
 in the first, *'is going on here. Betting is strong. 
 Your letters nearly all reached me too late for good. 
 I am the only man that's fighting very strong for 
 you here. You will get a good vote in Pettis." In 
 the second, rather fuller details are given. 
 
 I am just in receipt of your missive from Knob 
 Noster, and hasten to drop you a line at Cole Camp. 
 I am exceedingly gratified to learn of your good 
 cheer and success, but mortified to hear of the de- 
 linquency of your appointments and circulars. It is 
 too late, I fear, now for them to reach the upper 
 counties. The unusual haste of your canvass is 
 greatly to be regretted. Had you come out one 
 month sooner, or were the election off three weeks, 
 your success would be sure. A great revolution is 
 manifest here. I am persuaded that Woodson's 
 strong vote will be in Pettis and Cooper. The at- 
 tachment of some of his new-made political friends 
 even here is weakening some. Captain Montgomery 
 had hundreds of copies of your Lexington speech 
 
HIS DEFEAT 277 
 
 struck off and scattered fast and far. It is doing 
 you noble service. Its sentiments commend them- 
 selves to every fair-minded and patriotic heart. 
 
 , the vile hypocrite and slanderer, is doing his 
 
 wonted dirty work in this fight. Assassin as he is, as 
 soon as your back was turned he attempts to stab you 
 by slyly reading a letter he got from Frank Blair, 
 in which Frank says : "Tell Smith to hump him- 
 self ; now is the time for us." He shows that letter 
 and makes the impression that he recently received 
 it, when in fact he received it more than a year ago, 
 when Rollins and Stewart were running for Gov- 
 ernor. I wish you was here to lash him. Forbes is 
 taking no active part against you; he knows that 
 danger lurks there. . . . Vest is up here, and 
 seeks, I think, an opportunity of making a speech 
 for Sam Woodson. If he makes one, I am in readi- 
 ness to give him a reply that will cool his political 
 ardor. 
 
 As it turned out, General Smith was able to go 
 over only half of the district. The fight was a tri- 
 angular one, John W. Reid having been nominated 
 by the Democrats against both Smith and Wood- 
 son. The election took place early in August, and in 
 a light vote Smith was defeated and Woodson 
 elected. 
 
 Thus again General Smith's political ambitions 
 were brought to naught. And again, with a persist- 
 ence worthy of the highest respect, the task was re- 
 sumed of consolidating heterogeneous elements of 
 opposition on a basis of compromise and concilia- 
 tion. The preservation of the Union was to these 
 men the chief immediate object of political action; 
 
278 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 and the middle course which they took was the only 
 road, in their view, to that end. 
 
 Already these words had been uttered : "A house 
 divided against itself can not stand. I believe this 
 g-overnment can not endure permanently half slave 
 and half free." But in a slaveholding State such 
 doctrine could have few followers. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 FOUNDING OF SEDALIA I EVE OF THE WAR 
 (1856— 1861) 
 
 Railroad affairs — Dissatisfaction with the management of 
 the Pacific road — Attempt to elect General Smith its 
 president — Georgetown life — The road threatens its pros- 
 perity — Ineffectual efforts of General Smith — Plans the 
 foundation of a new town — Location of a depot — The 
 first months of the town — The name Sedalia — Comple- 
 tion of the Pacific road to it — Death of Mrs. Smith — 
 Tributes to her memory — Political views, 1858-60 — Sup- 
 ports Bell and Everett — As to the liberation of his 
 slaves. 
 
 The years 1856-58, full as they were for General 
 Smith of political labors and anxiety, were also 
 years of active business life. His farm at George- 
 town required constant attention and supervision; 
 and to affairs of the Pacific road he gave much of 
 his time. In these years also the plans were con- 
 ceived and the foundations laid for the city of Se- 
 dalia, the chief pride of his life and his most fitting 
 monument. 
 
 The management of the Missouri railroads in 
 these earlier years seems not to have been satis- 
 factory. Doubtless the expectations of the people 
 were too roseate, and they did not sufficiently take 
 
 279 
 
28o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 into account the difficulties of financing and con- 
 structing such enterprises, especially in the infancy 
 of railway management. They expected miracles in 
 rapid construction ; and in these they were encour- 
 aged, ignorantly it may be, by the officers of the 
 roads. When the miracles failed of performance the 
 people murmured. They saw million after million 
 voted in State credit, and call after call made upon 
 private and county subscriptions, while the roads, 
 in their view, made no commensurate progress. 
 "The people," wrote one of General Smith's cor- 
 respondents from Jackson county, ''have got it into 
 their heads that the [Pacific] road will never be 
 built west of Jefferson, and they are unwilling to 
 have their money expended down there where they 
 won't be benefited." 
 
 It would have been impossible for the ablest and 
 most painstaking set of officials to have avoided 
 creating dissatisfaction in some quarter. Even with 
 all due allowance, much legitimate cause for dissat- 
 isfaction with the management of the roads re- 
 mained. Twenty-four millions of bonds were voted 
 to the roads as loans by the State in the course of 
 eight years, and upon this sum the roads engaged 
 to pay the interest. One only of the roads, the Han- 
 nibal and St. Joseph, lived up to its agreement ; and 
 for the entire sum upon which default was made, 
 amounting in the aggregate to some twenty million 
 dollars, the State became bound. This was a heavy 
 load for the people to carry, especially when supple- 
 mented by the burden of the war ; but the prosperity 
 
RAILROAD TROUBLES 281 
 
 which ultimately enabled the State to manage both 
 burdens, was chiefly due to the development which 
 the railroads gave to it. 
 
 The Pacific road shared in the reaction of dis- 
 satisfaction caused by this mismanagement. Gen- 
 eral Smith was for a number of years one of the Di- 
 rectors of the road, but this did not prevent his shar- 
 ing in the dissatisfaction. The feeling that prevailed 
 west of Jefferson City, at this time, is indicated by 
 a letter from Thomas L. Price, dated March 8, 
 
 1858: 
 
 What is the move with the Pacific Railroad Com- 
 pany ? They tell me they are going to stop the road 
 at Round Hill [now Tipton] to remain there for 
 considerable time. I can't see the necessity for that ; 
 is there not something else at work? My opinion 
 is that McPherson and Miller [the President and 
 Chief Engineer] are at work to accomplish an- 
 other object, even if it is at the expense of the 
 wishes of the people west. I make these suggestions 
 for your reflection, without saying more. I may 
 be mistaken, but I think not. Would it not be well 
 for you and other friends to be at the election the 
 29th inst., and in fact to be there several days be- 
 fore? Unless prompt action is had, you will not see 
 the road go any further west than Round Hill for 
 some time. A word to the wise is sufficient. 
 
 General Smith's friends had already urged him, 
 the foremost champion of the road in Central Mis- 
 souri, as a candidate for its presidency. Such 
 oflices were largely political at this time; and his 
 experience with business ventures, and his services 
 
282 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 to the road, constituted strong claims on the practi- 
 cal side, while his downright honesty was such that 
 there was no fear of trickery or ulterior purpose if 
 he was elected. His candidacy received the cordial 
 support of able and far-seeing men, like Rollins and 
 Blair. "Some ten days ago," wrote the former in his 
 letter of February 20, 1858, ''I received a letter from 
 a number of gentlemen in your neighborhood, urg- 
 ing your name warmly for the presidency of the 
 Pacific road. I need not assure you how warmly this 
 suggestion met my approbation ; and whatever I can 
 do will be done to promote this object. And I only 
 have to regret that I am not in a position to exert 
 an influence that would place it beyond a doubt. I 
 have already written to St. Louis upon this subject, 
 and beg of you to make to me free suggestions as to 
 what I ought or can do to promote your success." 
 To the same effect was Blair's letter of March 6. 
 "In regard to the Pacific railroad Directory," he 
 wrote, "I will, as you request, write to Mr. Wyman, 
 and I have no doubt that he will co-operate with you 
 in that election." The Directors, thirteen in number, 
 were elected annually on the last Monday in March 
 in stockholders' meeting; and the Directors then 
 chose from among their number one to act as Presi- 
 dent. When the meeting of stockholders was held 
 this year. General Smith was again chosen to the 
 Directory; but the hopes which his friends enter- 
 tained of securing his election to the higher post, 
 were disappointed. 
 
 As the building of the railroad progressed, it 
 
PROGRESS OF THE ROAD 283 
 
 exerted its influence, immediate and prospective, on 
 the social life of the community. Of this subject 
 Mrs. M. E. Smith writes : 
 
 The preliminaries for the building of the road 
 necessitated the bringing of engineers from the 
 Eastern cities ; and our father's interest and en- 
 thusiasm brought him into pleasant relations with 
 them, both in the legislature and in St. Louis, so- 
 cially and otherwise. It became a delightful privi- 
 lege, when they were sojourning in the region of 
 Georgetown, to entertain them at our house. They 
 were gentlemen of culture and refinement. They 
 often brought their wives with them, and would 
 visit us for two or three weeks at a time. They 
 seemed to appreciate our hospitality, and we cer- 
 tainly did their society. We revelled in dreams of 
 the future — dreams which we have now realized — 
 when we should see the same culture brought into 
 our own land, and we could furnish our own engi- 
 neers, our own teachers, and so on, — when ours 
 should be a land of free schools ; a land wholly free 
 from negro slavery ; a land progressing toward the 
 millennium ; a land also of freedom for women. 
 
 In another place she writes of their first trip on 
 the advancing railroad : 
 
 When the trains had first reached Washington 
 (Mo.), our father was so anxious to enjoy to its 
 fullest extent the benefits and pleasure that were to 
 be derived from the railroad, that on one of his 
 trips he invited our mother, my sister, and myself 
 to go with him in a carriage over the Osage hills 
 to Washington, so that we could ride from there 
 on a train to St. Louis. The trip was fraught with 
 many adventures, owing to the primitive settle- 
 
284 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 ments and bad roads at that time ; but the short 
 journey on the cars amply repaid us for all our 
 privations during the three days' carriage ride. The 
 last night before reaching Washington we spent in 
 a one-room cabin containing three beds, with a big 
 open fire-place, and a feeble flicker of light from 
 an iron lard-lamp stuck in the wall over the fire- 
 place. There were the husband and wife, and the 
 old mother-in-law who sat in one corner on a pallet, 
 and five or six grown sons and daughters, — all to 
 be accommodated in that one room. We had trav- 
 eled six or eight miles after night to reach this 
 house, refusing the hospitality of two or three 
 places that we had passed where the hogs and cows 
 were in pens at the front door, and the landlady 
 was clad in homespun and wooden shoes, and the 
 smell of onions was strong in the road, coming 
 from the preparation of the evening meal. We were 
 tired and hungry, but went on by the dim Hght of 
 the moon, seeking this ''American" house, where 
 we hoped to find cleanliness and appetizing food. 
 And this was the result ! 
 
 They asked us what we would have for supper, 
 and we smothered our hunger and answered, "Noth- 
 ing." We sat down about the fire, with the one hope 
 of somehow or somewhere closing our eyes in the 
 forgetfulness of sleep. It is needless to say that we 
 did not make an elaborate toilet before going to 
 bed. My sister begged the privilege of sleeping 
 behind, promising to stay awake all night and watch 
 over me in my dangerous location. I jokingly said: 
 "Whichever gets in first shall get behind ;" but I 
 courageously indulged her whim. Spreading our 
 wraps and shawls over us and not removing any of 
 our garments, we slept the sleep of the righteous ; 
 and next morning;' we awoke with the sun blazing 
 in on us through the cracks in the wall. Our father 
 
PROGRESS OF THE ROAD 285 
 
 very modestly asked for boiled eggs and baked 
 potatoes for breakfast, after which frugal meal we 
 began our Sabbath-day's journey to the much de- 
 sired goal. About eleven o'clock our eyes were 
 greeted by the sight of a farmhouse, cool and sweet 
 in its shady nook, its doors wide open, and rag car- 
 pets telling their story of civilization and comfort. 
 The father and mother of the household were at 
 church, but a rosy-cheeked lass, who seemed beauti- 
 ful to us by contrast with our hosts of the night be- 
 fore, responded in the affirmative to our request for 
 dinner; and the meal which she served, it has al- 
 ways seemed to us, was fit for the gods. 
 
 That night we reached Washington, and the next 
 day the wonderful ride was ours. We were actually 
 beginning to see and realize the fruition of our 
 father's hopes of having the steam-cars in Missouri. 
 This repaid us for all our trouble. 
 
 These were halcyon days for the General's fam- 
 ily, made doubly bright in the retrospect by con- 
 trast with suffering and sorrow. "Georgetown at 
 that time," writes Mrs. Smith, "was smiling in the 
 blessed sunshine of God's love, and to us it was the 
 dearest spot on earth." Their grandfather Thom- 
 son was one of the original founders of the place, 
 which had become a flourishing little town of some 
 fifteen hundred inhabitants. They had a large farm 
 and a comfortable brick house, which had replaced 
 the cabin in which they had at first dwelt, and de- 
 sirable people had begun to pour in from Kentucky, 
 affording them social opportunities and making 
 Georgetown a pleasant place of residence. 
 
 Nevertheless, as work advanced on the road, and 
 
286 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the surveys approached finaHty, it was apparent to 
 General Smith that, unless a strenuous effort was 
 made, Georgetown was doomed. The line of the 
 road passed three miles south of the town. To his 
 clear vision it was evident that, unless the officers of 
 the Company could be prevailed upon to bring the 
 road to the town, the latter would surely decay, and 
 a new and more thriving community spring up at 
 the depot point. 
 
 These convictions he voiced in no uncertain 
 prophecies ; and with all his power he sought to 
 move the people, in private and in public meetings, 
 to make the sacrifices needed to bring the road to 
 their doors. ''Open your eyes and see the friend 
 that is coming to aid you ; hold out your hands and 
 welcome it ; give of your means to quicken its move- 
 ments toward you," he is represented by a historian 
 of Sedalia as saying. At one of the last railroad 
 meetings held in the court house at Georgetown, he 
 said that, unless they took immediate steps to pre- 
 vent it, they would live to see the day when "the 
 bats and the owls would make their home in the 
 court house, while a flourishing town would be 
 growing at their suburbs."^ But the people were 
 blind, or would not see. ''Contented and happy," 
 writes Mrs. Smith, "they looked upon his ideas as 
 Utopian. They laughed at him and went on with 
 their improvements, even beginning to macadamize 
 the streets — a thing which had never been done be- 
 fore — and erect a stone drug-store ; and in various 
 
 ^History of Pettis County (1882), p. 402. 
 
GEORGETOWN D00:MED 287 
 
 ways they manifested their confidence in the dear 
 old town. Our father found it impossible to con- 
 vince them of what was so palpable to him, and 
 was compelled to put into execution alone the ideas 
 that burned within him." 
 
 Failing to bring the road to the town, his plan 
 was to take the town to the road. On the line sur- 
 veyed were certain lands, owned in part by Absa- 
 lom McVey, and in part by his minor heirs by a de- 
 ceased wife. Realizing that these must in any event 
 increase in value, and that in case a town were lo- 
 cated upon them they would increase a thousand- 
 fold, General Smith sought to interest his friends in 
 their purchase. There was no difficulty with the 
 vendor ; the only trouble was to raise the funds. "The 
 old system of credit," writes Mrs. Smith, ''pre- 
 vailed in those times to such an extent that mer- 
 chants' and grocers' bills and all expenses of the 
 family were settled up only once a year, and some- 
 times not so often. The consequence was, every- 
 body was in debt. Our father was not an exception." 
 He had not the means at hand, and his immediate 
 neighbors either could not or would not go into the 
 venture with him. The country was then in the ex- 
 citement of overtrading which within a few months 
 brought on the panic of 1857, ^^^ money was hard 
 to get even at high rates of interest. After many 
 attempts, General Smith succeeded in negotiating a 
 loan from Mr. Fayette McMullen of $5,000, on 
 the basis of six per cent, interest and one-half of the 
 profits. With this money and what he himself pos- 
 
288 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 sessed, he purchased from McVey, on February i8, 
 1856, 337 acres of land, at the rate of $13 an acre. 
 On March 4th he added to this purchase 166 acres 
 belonging to McVey's minor heirs, which the latter, 
 as their guardian and curator, on proper authoriza- 
 tion of the county court, and after due appraisal, 
 sold to him at private sale. Out of this sale, in time, 
 grew a troublesome lawsuit, which will be described 
 later ; it is only necessary to point out here that the 
 lands were appraised at only $1,248.75, and General 
 Smith paid for them $2,140.46, or a fraction less 
 per acre than the price paid for the lands included 
 in the former sale. 
 
 General Smith next proceeded energetically to se- 
 cure the location of a depot on the tract. Many ob- 
 stacles were met with before the matter was settled. 
 As early as February 22, 1858, he thought he had 
 secured his object ; but it was only on March 2, 1859, 
 after a grant to the road for ninety-nine years of 
 every fourth lot in twenty-six blocks, — being all that 
 part of the original plat of the town lying north of 
 its right of way, — that the Company definitely agreed 
 to locate and permanently maintain a depot on the 
 town site. The first plat of the town, under the 
 name of ''Sedville," comprising a part of the above 
 purchases, was acknowledged and filed for record 
 by G. R. Smith on November 30, 1857; <^" October 
 16, i860, a second plat, including another portion 
 of the land, was filed and recorded. On March 15, 
 1858, an undivided one-fourth interest in the whole 
 tract of 505 acres was sold by General Smith to 
 
"SEDVILLE" FOUNDED 289 
 
 Dr. W. L. Felix. This partnership continued until 
 March 2 of the next year, the date upon which the 
 deed to the Pacific road was executed. On that day 
 Dr. Felix, not being in sympathy with the measures 
 of his partner, and losing faith in the enterprise, 
 sold his one-fourth interest to Mr. D. W. Bouldin. 
 Dr. Felix afterwards bought land at Farmer City, 
 thinking that the most favorable location for a new 
 town. 
 
 The surveys completed, General Smith advertised 
 a sale of lots in his "city," where nothing was to be 
 seen but tall prairie grass. This action occasioned 
 astonishment, not unmixed with ridicule, on the 
 part of the contented inhabitants of Georgetown and 
 vicinity. 
 
 They were moving on in the even tenor of their 
 way [writes Mrs. M. E. Smith], visiting their neigh- 
 bors, making additions to their homes, attending 
 their little church meetings and sabbath schools, 
 while his busy brain was active day and night and 
 his great tireless form was almost always in the 
 saddle, ever on the alert to work out his new and 
 inspiring dream. His railroad and political affairs 
 led him frequently into the surrounding towns and 
 neighborhoods, and threw him among the people. 
 The new town was his constant theme ; but the peo- 
 ple laughed and ridiculed, and he, in jocular mood, 
 would retort happily and sarcastically, and push on 
 his enterprise. Boonville had been our resort for 
 merchandise, for the education of our young ladies, 
 and for all the higher social functions. In that town 
 especially he had familiar friends with whom the 
 jests ran high. He predicted, in his own inim- 
 
290 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 itable way, the downfall of their town and their 
 turning to us for all these good things, as we had 
 for so many years turned to them. They called him 
 crazy, and the jests went on and on. 
 
 Finally, the day came for the first public sale of 
 lots (September 4, 1858), and out of amusement 
 and curiosity the people flocked to the prairie town. 
 The bidding began, and some lots were sold ; but 
 sold at prices that now seem incredibly low. 
 Seventy-five and fifty dollars were considered 
 good prices for lots that would now bring ten, fif- 
 teen, and twenty thousand dollars. Another sale 
 was announced for the near future (October 20), 
 and at this the bidding was more spirited than at 
 the first. By the people of Georgtown his warnings 
 even yet were unheeded ; and when he ofifered his 
 own home there, ''The Academy," for sale, they 
 were astonished beyond measure. An enterprising 
 Kentuckian became the purchaser, even in the face 
 of our father's assertion that the decline of George- 
 town was the cause of his selling. 
 
 To help on the growth of the new town he bought 
 a tract of timber-land on Flat creek, about three 
 miles from the site of the town, and erected a saw- 
 mill to saw lumber for building operations. The 
 first output of this mill was used for building his 
 own house. My mother and sister, in full sympathy 
 with him, moved into the little cottage in May, 1859. 
 I was married just when we left Georgetown, and 
 made my new home in Saline county. The isolated 
 life of the prairie was a contrast for my mother and 
 sister from the old-time busy social life of George- 
 town; but they enjoyed it no less than our father 
 did. The haste to begin the new town was so great 
 that they moved to the cottage before fences — then 
 very necessary — were built, and before outhouses 
 (except the smoke-house, which was temporarily 
 
THE NAME "SEDALIA" 291 
 
 occupied by the negroes) were erected. But they did 
 not mind the primitive Hfe, and were happy in 
 dreams of the future, enjoying the jokes and at- 
 tempted fun at their expense from the old George- 
 town people and the Heath's creek settlers ; for the 
 neighborhood of Flat creek, where the new town 
 was located, was not so pretentious socially. The 
 rich Kentuckians of Heath's creek opposed Sedville, 
 because if it materialized it would take the county 
 seat a few miles farther from them. When our 
 family would visit Georgetown they were met with 
 the salutation, ''How are you, Flat creek?" They 
 enjoyed these jokes, because their faith was such 
 that they thought the joke would soon be the other 
 way. Our father would say laughingly to the 
 Georgetown people, "You will all soon pull down 
 your houses and move them out to the new town." 
 
 The name of the new town was quite a puzzle, 
 and gave our family great pleasure in its selection. 
 Our father and mother decided to name it for my 
 sister, laughingly saying to me, "Bet, we once 
 named a flat-boat for you, and we will name the 
 town for your sister." Her pet name was "Sed," so 
 they called the town "Sedville." Often my sister 
 and I would accompany our father on his business 
 trips to St. Louis in the interest of the Pacific rail- 
 road. There our father had delightful friends, and 
 among them was Mr. Josiah Dent. He became very 
 much interested in the new town and in its name. 
 The "ville" was decidedly objectionable, as it did not 
 comport with the large and flourishing city of his 
 dreams. Mr. Dent suggested the termination "alia" 
 in its place, and this so delighted him that it was at 
 once accepted. Since then the town has been called 
 Sedalia. 
 
 The new mill meanwhile was busy helping to 
 build up the town, all the lumber being sawed from 
 
292 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the native trees. Our own house was speedily en- 
 larged, and cabins built for the negroes. But people 
 from the Eastern States, together with a few from 
 Missouri, came pouring in so rapidly that the 
 capacity of our house, even with its enlarged pro- 
 portions, was not enough to accommodate those who 
 came to buy lots. We had to enlarge again to take 
 in the strangers, until they could erect temporary 
 shanties in which to house themselves while build- 
 ing for their families. Georgetown people were still 
 happy, improving their town and laughing at us. In 
 a few months I came back from Saline, and became 
 one of the prairie family. 
 
 Our little cottage was a marvel of sweetness, 
 sanctity, and industry. The former environment of 
 our lives, daily personal contact with neighbors and 
 friends, the routine duties of a settled home, were 
 given up for this apparently wild enterprise of locat- 
 ing in the prairie, with only a dream of the on- 
 coming city. The broad prairie stretched itself out 
 to the horizon on all sides, without shrub or tree ; 
 and all that summer the sun poured its torrid rays 
 unobstructedly upon us. Our father labored and 
 toiled in his department; and our mother and my 
 sister would take the negro boys that were unem- 
 ployed, with the carriage and horses, to Flat creek, 
 where they would pull up, and dig up out of the 
 ground, little sprouts of maple, elm, and other trees, 
 and bring them home to plant in the yard. As the 
 season was already far advanced, they would pro- 
 tect the little sprouts by putting chairs and driving 
 down sticks around them, over which were spread 
 sheets and blankets to protect them from the heat. 
 At night they were disrobed of their covering and 
 carefully watered ; and the same process was re- 
 peated day after day throughout the summer. When 
 the autumn came on, the little trees were ready for 
 
THE NEW HOME 293 
 
 stronger rooting and this constant care was re- 
 laxed. A large inclosure had now been made for 
 the garden ; and they again went to the woods in the 
 autumn, bringing this time walnut, hickory nut, per- 
 simmon, plum, and crab-apple trees ; these they 
 planted in the garden for future orchards. 
 
 In the fall the cattle that had been transferred 
 from Georgetown had been accommodated in tem- 
 porary inclosures. There were no quarries open 
 yet, and we were so far from everything that our 
 house was still without "underpinning." The hogs 
 often escaped from their pens, and seeking the only 
 available shelter from cold and storm, they would 
 pile themselves up under the house until they would 
 shake the little fabric to its foundation ; and their 
 midnight music is more agreeable to remember than 
 it was then to endure. The snow fell mercilessly 
 that winter ; and the winds, blowing their wild 
 diapason, were often a prelude to the foot-weary 
 traveler's entrance, in his journey across the bleak 
 prairie, asking food and shelter, and even raiment, 
 which he always found ; it flowed from our sweet 
 mother's heart and hand like honey from the honey- 
 comb. 
 
 When the following spring opened, we were 
 happy and joyous as the sunshine, at the promise 
 of advancing civilization ; and the sound of the ham- 
 mer and the saw and the hum of progress were a 
 panacea for all our discomforts. A touch of romance 
 was put into the hardest toil, and lifted the eye to 
 the contemplation of pictures beyond the actual and 
 the real, and elevated the soul to beatific vision. 
 Every stroke of the hammer was music, every nail a 
 seal of compact between the imperfect present and 
 that vast illimitable future which no human concep- 
 tion could forecast or bound. 
 
 The first house built that year was on the north 
 
294 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 side of the railroad ; and there a Httle baby was 
 born, who was most appropriately named "Sedalia." 
 Where now is little Sedalia Skinner? Perhaps she 
 is become the mother of future fathers of towns, 
 and of still further progress ; a dame of forty years 
 and more : let us hope she is doing credit to her 
 birthplace somewhere in the great hive of humanity. 
 In the following summer our harmonies were dis- 
 turbed ; for then the war of the Rebellion com- 
 menced weaving its net and drawing its cords of 
 death so tightly around us that hope began to die. 
 
 All this while the railroad was slowly advancing. 
 At every little town east of Sedalia, as it became 
 temporarily the termination of the line, the people 
 fancied that that would be the place for the concen- 
 tration of the trade of the Southwest, and that it 
 was to become a great city. Stores and houses were 
 built accordingly, only to be torn down and trans- 
 ferred to the next station as the road moved on. 
 The excitement often ran high. Five miles east of 
 Sedalia, where Dr. W. L. Felix had hoped to found 
 a town, the tracks were torn up in a vain attempt 
 to hinder the further progress of the road. This 
 brings us to January, 1861. The war of the Re- 
 bellion was now coming upon us, and more serious 
 things than railroads began to occupy the attention 
 of the people. 
 
 The year 1861 was a somber one for General 
 Smith. In the hostile clash of arms he saw his most 
 cherished political principles and his fondest ma- 
 terial hopes placed at once in jeopardy. The preser- 
 vation of the Union of the States, the speedy com- 
 pletion of the Pacific road, the building up of his 
 new city, — were all put to hazard, with the chances 
 
HIS WIFE'S DEATH 295 
 
 at least even against a favorable result. To these 
 perplexities and anxieties there was added severe 
 family affliction and grievous sorrow. 
 
 All this while [writes Mrs. Smith, in continua- 
 tion of her narrative] our blessed mother was 
 watching and waiting to see the outcome of her hus- 
 band's prophecy, and re-creating in her new home 
 the old-time charm of the home we had left. In the 
 midst of her enthusiastic labors she was taken with 
 pneumonia ; and on the 226. of April, — eight days 
 after the fall of Fort Sumter, and just as the clar- 
 ion blast of the locomotive whistle announced the 
 departure of the morning train, — the White Angel 
 came into our little home and claimed her spirit. 
 Her work was finished, and we laid her away ; while 
 we who remained, with saddened hearts, took up 
 again the burden of labor for the future. It was 
 well for us, perhaps, that total abandonment to grief 
 was not possible, and that our sorrow was sanctified 
 and perhaps mitigated by the overwhelming and 
 rapidly changing events of our country's history. 
 In the consternation which these aroused within 
 us, we were sometimes almost glad that the sweet 
 little mother had been removed from the perils of 
 the hour. 
 
 In less than three months my own bright-eyed 
 little boy followed her; and in our home, now 
 doubly darkened, we three, — my father, my sister, 
 and myself, — were left alone. . . . But we 
 must shut our personal darkness and scatter only 
 sunshine from the leaves of this book. 
 
 The death of his wife touched General Smith in 
 the tenderest depths of his nature. The affliction was 
 not one from which he easily recovered. Fifteen 
 
296 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 years later, in speaking of these events, he said: 
 "She is as present with me now as when she was 
 Hving. If it had not been for her, I should not have 
 been worth anything, either morally or financially. 
 She had more wisdom than any woman I ever 
 knew." 
 
 Her children, looking back through the two-score 
 years that have intervened since her death, bear wit- 
 ness to her wisdom and goodness. Mrs. Cotton 
 writes : 
 
 I remember her in my childhood's early days as 
 one I could not easily get around ; a woman keen, 
 vigilant, and austere in the management of her 
 household and her children ; a mother tender and 
 loving, kind and sagacious ; a wife faithful and true ; 
 strict in discipline and holding wisely the reins of 
 power. 
 
 As a neighbor she was kind and obliging, but she 
 never fell into that familiarity that breeds contempt. 
 Refusing to borrow under almost any circum- 
 stances, she held the esteem and love of her next- 
 door neighbor ; scorning gossip, she kept largely at 
 home, feeling that her hands were full in training 
 her children and servants. 
 
 Her children, she had determined, should not be 
 victims to the evils of slavery as she felt she had 
 been ; and to this end she bent her daily efforts. 
 Not wishing us to be idle, she found something for 
 us to do in learning to knit, to sew, to wind yarn 
 (cotton especially, as in those days the negroes wove 
 much of the cloth they wore), and a thousand other 
 domestic duties, — many times inventing them just 
 to keep us busy. Once when she was making us 
 work and wait on ourselves, while a slave stood idly 
 
^ ^ 
 
 MRS. GEORGE R. SMITH 
 Aged Forty-nine 
 
HER CHARACTER 297 
 
 by, a sister-in-law remonstrated with her, saying: 
 "Sister AleHta, you will ruin that negro." But our 
 mother pleasantly replied : "Well, I had rather ruin 
 the negro than ruin my children." I remember one 
 experience in winding yarn that tried my impatient 
 soul most severely. I had permitted it to tangle, and 
 I think my mother kept me at that "hank" for almost 
 a week. I have forgotten just how long it was; but 
 I know that no snarl of yarn or silk now appals me, 
 for I feel equal to the task. Whether this discipline 
 was wise or not, I dare not say in the multitude of 
 latter-day opinions ; but I am sure it taught me pa- 
 tience. 
 
 I was a wayward child, and thought then that our 
 mother was giving us more work than was neces- 
 sary. I once tried to argue with her, and asked for 
 a reason. She said she wished us to love work ; and 
 I, in my cause, most earnestly replied : "Well, if 
 that is what you want, mother, you can never, never, 
 never make me love it !" She of course smiled, and 
 pursued the even tenor of her way, nothing daunted 
 in her courage. Time has proved that my mother 
 knew best, and I thank her to-day for what then 
 chafed my idle spirit and curbed my youthful folly. 
 
 When we rebelled we were sure of a time of retri- 
 bution. She never would strike us hastily with her 
 hand, but would make the punishment so delicate 
 and circumstantial that the final administration, 
 though a trifle, was to our child hearts very, very 
 bad. She would send for a switch bv one of the 
 servants, and thus give us a time of anticipation 
 and horror. The capital offense was going outside 
 our large door-yard to play. Our mother kept us in 
 strict surveillance and held us within its limits, ex- 
 cept by special permission when we had good com- 
 pany. 
 
 I remember her as somewhat fond of dress, 
 
298 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 though compared to my aunt Elvira, for whom I 
 was named, and who dressed beautifully, she was 
 very plain in costume. But in my love of colors I 
 remember her in pink and white and blue and white 
 ginghams, in olive green in winter, and in white in 
 summer. She did not like black, and would never 
 wear it, even as mourning for the nearest and dear- 
 est of her family. She thought gladness and bright- 
 ness the important thing, and her cheerfulness was a 
 great feature in her life. She would keep us busy 
 in some way during the day, and when twilight came 
 she would romp and play with us. These seasons of 
 recreation were such bright spots in the daily life 
 that they still give special charm for me to the 
 gloaming. 
 
 In the period that elapsed between General 
 Smith's defeat for Congress in August, 1858, and 
 the beginning of the war in April, 1861, his polit- 
 ical opinions were in a transition state. He in com- 
 mon with Rollins and others was coming to despair 
 of the attempt to build up a compromise party to 
 avert the danger of a sectional struggle between 
 North and South. The conflict, it was becoming ap- 
 parent, was "irrepressible." They must choose be- 
 tween the absolute dominance of the pro-slavery 
 Democracy, and some party which could center in 
 itself the Northern strength. But that party could 
 only be the reviled Republican party ; and its suc- 
 cess must lead to secession, and secession to war. 
 It was nothing strange to find Southern Union men, 
 before the irrevocable cast of the die, hesitating be- 
 tween two opinions. 
 
 At the beginning of the period it was the neces- 
 
POLITICAL TRANSITION 299 
 
 sity of consolidating the opposition strength that 
 was most evident. September 9, 1858, Rolhns 
 wrote : 
 
 I watched your movements last summer with a 
 great deal of interest. The idea of a third party is 
 preposterous now. We have to meet the question, 
 and we had as well do it at once. If there must be 
 a sectional fight, we can at least say it has not been 
 provoked by us, or by our party. The signs look 
 encouraging for a national union of the opposition. 
 If this is effected, our triumph in i860 will be easy. 
 
 The treason of Anderson and Woodson has great- 
 ly damaged us in Missouri ; so much so that I fear 
 the opposition can not be consolidated here. We 
 must, however, not give it up ; we must continue 
 to make an earnest effort to accomplish a thorough 
 union for the great trial of i860. 
 
 In these sentiments it is probable that General 
 Smith concurred. His opposition to sectionalism 
 and his love of the Union were fundamental ; but 
 so too was his hatred of the ignorance, the arro- 
 gance, the duplicity, and the continual aggression 
 of the slave-barons of the Democratic party. He 
 hated that party with a stalwart hatred ; but it was 
 a hatred without malice or personal rancor. His 
 own experience with politics in recent years had 
 taught him the futility of half-way measures ; his 
 own strong feelings must have inclined him to any 
 measures that promised success ; but the habits of 
 a life-time, the influence of environment, and the 
 prejudices founded on perverse report and malign- 
 ing rumor, caused him to hesitate to become that 
 
300 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 most despicable of beings in Southern eyes, a 
 "Black Republican." 
 
 Hence arose a period of political indecision, when 
 old instincts and feelings were slowly dying, new 
 habits of thought were arising, and throughout all 
 was the anxious waiting on the turn of the political 
 wheel. He and his friends had tried their utmost 
 and failed ; now they waited, — in silence, for the 
 most part, — to see the outcome. They formed no 
 definite plans, and had but little heart for political 
 correspondence. General Smith was engrossed with 
 far-reaching schemes of material betterment, and 
 the griefs of personal bereavement. In these facts, 
 and in the disorder attendant upon establishing a 
 new home, is to be found the explanation of the 
 almost total lack of political correspondence in the 
 two years immediately preceding the war. 
 
 What part to play in the election of i860, when 
 at last parties and candidates arrayed themselves, 
 was necessarily a matter of anxious thought to 
 General Smith. Breckinridge, the candidate of the 
 ultra pro-slavery Democracy, was out of the ques- 
 tion. Douglas, in spite of his ringing declarations 
 that he would "do all in [his] power to aid the 
 government of the United States in maintaining 
 the supremacy of the laws against all resistance to 
 them, come from what quarter it might," was dis- 
 trusted. Lincoln, if not entirely, in Mr. Bagehot's 
 language, "Statesman X" (an unknown quantity), 
 was feared as the leader of a fanatic and sectional 
 party. After a period of long and careful delibera- 
 
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES 301 
 
 tion, General Smith determined to support Bell of 
 Tennessee, and Everett of Massachusetts, — ^the 
 nominees of the old-line Whigs and Americans un- 
 der the name of the Constitutional Union party, — 
 whose platform was, ''the Constitution of the coun- 
 try, the Union of the States, and the enforcement 
 of the laws." This remedy for the national ills may 
 have been, in Mr. Rhodes' metaphor, a plaster 
 where cauterization rather was needed ; but the can- 
 didates certainly were ''men of honesty and ex- 
 perience," and the nominations and platform ap- 
 proved themselves to thousands of patriotic and 
 conservative citizens, North and South. In spite of 
 many pressing and exacting business affairs con- 
 nected with the founding of the new town, General 
 Smith, as usual, took an active part in the cam- 
 paign, and delivered at least one speech for Bell 
 and Everett. This was at Otterville, then the ter- 
 minus of the Pacific road. According to Mr. 
 George S. Grover, — the son of General Smith's old 
 friend and collaborer in political and railroad af- 
 fairs, who was at that time clerk in the Otterville 
 depot, — the speech was "soul-stirring" and was 
 delivered "from the depot platform to a large 
 crowd. . . In response to a question as to his 
 position on the slavery question, he said that slavery 
 was a blight and a curse to a nation, which would 
 sooner or later have to be destroyed in order to save 
 the Union ; and when asked if he was not a slave- 
 holder himself, promptly replied that he had been, 
 having inherited them ; but that he had voluntarily 
 
302 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 emancipated them, and never intended to own an- 
 other human being. This statement," concludes 
 Mr. Grover, ''made a powerful impression on me, 
 and went far towards confirming anti-slavery opin- 
 ions already formed." 
 
 Mr. Grover's recollection must be at fault in rep- 
 resenting General Smith as saying, in i860, that he 
 had already emancipated his slaves. *'Our father," 
 writes Mrs. Smith, "liberated his slaves in this way. 
 When Fort Sumter was fired upon, and war was 
 actually upon us, he explained the situation to our 
 slaves, told them they would be free, and told them 
 they could do as they pleased nozv. They were de- 
 lighted of course. The boys left us that summer, 
 some hiring themselves to officers of the Govern- 
 ment as body-servants. The women stayed perhaps 
 a year later, doing as they pleased." 
 
 In Pettis county Lincoln received only two votes ; 
 the Douglas Democrats carrying the day, with the 
 Constitutional Union party second. As Pettis 
 county went, in this case, so went the State. Of the 
 165,000 votes cast in Missouri, the bulk was almost 
 equally divided (58,801 to 58,372) between the 
 Douglas and Bell-Everett tickets ; Breckinridge and 
 Lincoln received 31,317 and 17,028 votes respec- 
 tively. General Smith's own vote is doubtful. His 
 daughters are agreed that he was too advanced to 
 go enthusiastically for Bell and Everett. One thinks 
 he did not vote at all, the other is uncertain. As the 
 ballot had now superseded viva voce voting in Pettis 
 county, there is a bare possibility that one of the two 
 
LINCOLN ELECTED 303 
 
 votes cast for Lincoln may have represented the 
 eleventh hour conversion of General Smith to his 
 cause. At all events his conversion to Republican- 
 ism, — and that of the most radical type, — was not 
 far distant. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE CIVIL WAR IN MISSOURI 
 (1861— 1865) 
 
 Character of the war in Missouri — Party positions on slav- 
 ery and Union — Gratz Brown's speech on emancipation, 
 1857 — Governor Stewart's address, and Governor Jack- 
 son's inaugural, 1861 — The Missouri Convention votes 
 against secession — Refusal of Governor Jackson to abide 
 by its decision — The war begun — General Smith's atti- 
 tude — Appointed Adjutant-General after Jackson's ex- 
 pulsion — Letters of J. F. Philips and T. T. Crittenden — 
 Resigns — Financial difficulties — Letters to his daughters, 
 1862 — Unsuccessful candidacy for the legislature, 1862 — 
 Radicals and Conservatives — Unsatisfactory action of the 
 latter on the slavery question — The Radical or "Char- 
 coal" convention of 1863 — Member of the Radical em- 
 bassy to President Lincoln — The latter's attitude — Polit- 
 ical victory of the Radicals, 1864 — In the State Senate, 
 1864-5 — His prominence in the Radical party — Speech 
 advocating the vacation of State offices held by disloyal 
 persons — The final abolition of slavery by the Conven- 
 tion, 1865 — Accepts office of Assistant United States As- 
 sessor, and his seat in Senate vacated — Governor Fletch- 
 er's summary of his course. 
 
 In no State was the preliminary contest between 
 the advocates of Union and Secession, in the winter 
 and spring of 1860-61, more warmly waged than in 
 Missouri ; and in none did the subsequent struggle 
 
 304 
 
CHARACTER OF THE WAR 305 
 
 more clearly partake of the character of a civil war. 
 There neighbor was often literally arrayed against 
 neighbor, brother against brother. Few States can 
 show an equal proportion of troops regularly en- 
 rolled, on the one side and the other ; while over and 
 above the destruction of property and of life by the 
 regular forces of Union and Confederacy, were the 
 secret killing and wanton devastation inflicted by 
 lurking Confederate ''bushwhackers" and irrespon- 
 sible Federal "jayhawkers." "We question whether 
 the people of any portion of the Union, not even ex- 
 cepting the loyal inhabitants of East Tennessee," 
 said the Missouri Democrat, February 21, 1865, 
 "have endured as much in the maintenance of their 
 principles as the loyal men and women of South- 
 western Missouri. They have at no time been secure 
 — have been allowed no rest since the war began — 
 have almost constantly been engaged in meeting and 
 repelling, or at least opposing, rebel raids from Ar- 
 kansas and the Indian Territory. To their infinite 
 credit must it be said that their exposure and hard- 
 ships have at no time produced the least relaxation 
 in their fidehty, or caused them to lose heart in the 
 contest. No more loyal and determined people can 
 anywhere be found to-day, plundered and impover- 
 ished as they have been, than in Southwestern Mis- 
 souri." One result of the trial and suffering to 
 which the loyal element of the State was subjected, 
 was the deepening of political animosities. In no 
 State were the unconditional Union men wrought 
 up to a higher pitch of bitterness against the luke- 
 
3o6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 warm adherents of their cause ; and in none was 
 more dissatisfaction felt and expressed with what 
 was thought to be the too cautious and conservative 
 pohcy of President Lincoln. 
 
 Despite the existence of a strong and intolerant 
 pro-slavery sentiment in the State, as shown in the 
 Kansas troubles, despite, too, the social and family 
 ties which bound her people to the South, Missouri 
 was by geographical position and economic inter- 
 ests destined to take her place in the list of non- 
 slaveholding commonwealths. With the growth of 
 population westward and the development of Mis- 
 souri's natural resources, the cause of Slavery 
 steadily declined, and that of Freedom rose in the 
 scale. In 1857, ^ St. Louis paper had styled the ex- 
 istence of an emancipation party in the State "an 
 impossibility, an impertinence, a nuisance, and a 
 humbug,"^ but this was mere whistling to keep up 
 one's courage. Such a party, or at least the elements 
 out of which it was to be formed, actually did exist, 
 and was outspoken in its utterances. "Every emi- 
 grant from the East or Europe," said the Missouri 
 Democrat editorially, in reply to the foregoing as- 
 sertions, "every mile of railroad constructed in the 
 State, and every mine opened, is the auxiliary of 
 that party. It will summon its recruits from the 
 factory, the work-shop, and the field ; and so far 
 from being a political and economic blunder . . 
 it is the organization which of all others conforms 
 
 ^ St. Louis Intelligencer, quoted by the Missouri Democrat, 27 
 February, 1857. 
 
AN EMANCIPATION PARTY 307 
 
 most strictly to the principles of political and eco- 
 nomic science." 
 
 The occasion for the foregoing utterances was 
 the speech on emancipation delivered by B. Gratz 
 Brown in the Missouri House of Representatives, 
 alluded to in his letter to General Smith, of March 
 3, 1857 (see p. 259). The speech was called forth 
 by the introduction in the House of a Senate joint 
 resolution, declaring that ''the emancipation of the 
 slaves held as property in this State would be not 
 only impracticable, but that any movement having 
 such an object in view would be inexpedient, im- 
 politic, unwise, and unjust, and should in the opin- 
 ion of this General Assembly be discountenanced by 
 the people of the State." The introduction of this 
 resolution, Browm declared, removed all restraints 
 upon the opponents of slavery from discussing the 
 subject, and "made emancipation henceforth and 
 forever an open question." 
 
 Slavery would be aboHshed, he continued, not as 
 an act of humanity to the slave, but out of regard for 
 the free white laborer. "It will be here, as elsewhere, 
 a conflict of race; and I do say that the increase of 
 free white population, together with the white emi- 
 gration from the other States coming to Missouri 
 will, whenever and wherever the labor of the white 
 man meets the labor of the slave, beside the same 
 plowshare, in the same harvest field, face to face, 
 not only be entitled to demand, but will receive, the 
 preference ; and that the labor of the white man will 
 force the labor of the slave to give place and take 
 
3o8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 itself off." By reference to statistics he showed that 
 *'the extinction of slavery as a system in our midst is 
 at this moment in the course of rapid accomplish- 
 ment." ''Missouri must, ere long, from the opera- 
 tion of natural causes, rid herself of the institution. 
 In all our domestic relations, as well as in our rela- 
 tions as a State of this confederacy, Missouri would 
 be benefitted by the liberation and riddance of every 
 slave within her borders." He warned his fellow 
 Representatives that while they were "higgling 
 . . for the endorsement of an effete system of 
 slavery, the empire of the world" was gliding from 
 their grasp, and passing to the free States on their 
 borders. "Missouri," he added, "has nothing in 
 common with the South, either in national or home 
 concerns. Nor does she owe any debt of gratitude" 
 to that section.^ 
 
 With these views Blair and other leaders of the 
 Benton Democracy fully concurred. In St. Louis 
 and vicinity, where the population was largely Ger- 
 man, the anti-slavery sentiment was pronounced ; it 
 was there that the Republican party showed its chief 
 strength in the election of i860. Blair, by that date, 
 was acting in full accord with the latter party, and 
 is credited with originating the "Wide Awakes," 
 which played so important a part in the Lincoln 
 campaign. When it became evident that the South 
 would not abide by the decision of the election, 
 Blair threw himself energetically into the work of 
 
 ^ The speech is given in full in the Missouri Democrat, Febru- 
 ary — , 1857. 
 
CONDITIONAL UNIONISTS 309 
 
 consolidating adherents of Lincoln, Bell, and Doug- 
 las, into one Unconditional Union party whose ob- 
 ject was to resist the intrigues of the Secessionists, 
 — by political action preferably, by force if need 
 were. 
 
 The number of the Unconditional Union men was 
 small at first; but their leaders hoped that enough 
 Conditional Union men might be won over to their 
 side, when the crisis came, to carry the day. The 
 attitude assumed by the latter may be seen in the 
 speech which Governor Stewart, himself a Northern 
 man by birth, addressed to the General Assembly of 
 the State, at the opening of its session, December 
 31, i860: 
 
 Missouri loves the Union while it is the pro- 
 tector of equal rights, but will despise it as the 
 instrument of wrong. She came into the Union 
 upon a compromise, and is willing to abide by a fair 
 compromise still ; not such ephemeral contracts as 
 are enacted by Congress to-day, and repealed to- 
 morrow; but a compromise, assuring all the just 
 rights of the States, and agreed to in solemn Con- 
 vention of all the parties interested. . . 
 
 As matters are at present, Missouri will stand by 
 her lot, and hold to the Union as long as it is worth 
 an effort to preserve it. So long as there is hope of 
 success she will seek for justice within the Union. 
 She can not be frightened from her propriety by the 
 past unfriendly legislation of the North, nor be 
 dragooned into secession by the extreme South. If 
 those who should be our friends and allies, under- 
 take to render our property worthless by a system 
 of prohibitory laws, or by reopening the slave-trade 
 
3IO LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 in opposition to the moral sense of the civihzed 
 world, and at the same time reduce us to the posi- 
 tion of an humble sentinel to watch over and protect 
 their interests, receiving all of the blows and none 
 of the benefits, Missouri will hesitate long before 
 sanctioning such an arrangement. She will rather 
 take the high position of armed neutrality. She is 
 able to take care of herself, and will be neither 
 forced nor flattered, driven nor coaxed, into a 
 course of action that must end in her own destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 If South Carolina and other cotton States persist 
 in secession, she will desire to see them go in peace, 
 with the hope that a short experience at separate 
 governments, and an honorable readjustment of the 
 Federal compact, will induce them to return to their 
 former position. In the meantime, Missouri will 
 hold herself in readiness at any minute to defend 
 her soil from pollution and her property from plun- 
 der by fanatics and marauders, come from what 
 quarter they may. The people of Missouri will 
 choose this deliberate, conservative course, both on 
 account of the blessings they have derived from the 
 Union, and the untold and unimagined evils that 
 will come with its dissolution. 
 
 . . Whilst I would recommend the adoption of 
 all proper measures and influences to secure the just 
 acknowledgement and protection of our rights, and 
 in the final failure of this a resort to the last pain- 
 ful remedy of separation ; yet, regarding as I do the 
 American confederacy as a source of a thousand 
 blessings, pecuniary, social, and moral, and its de- 
 struction as fraught with incalculable loss, suffer- 
 ing, and crime, I would here, in my last public of- 
 ficial act as Governor of Missouri, record my solemn 
 protest against unwise and hasty action, and my 
 
SECESSIONISTS 311 
 
 unalterable devotion to the Union so long as it can 
 be made the protector of equal rights.^ 
 
 Representative of the views of the Secessionists 
 was the speech delivered to the Assembly, a few 
 days later, by Claiborne F. Jackson, Stewart's suc- 
 cessor in the governorship. He was a Southerner 
 of the pronounced type, and as chairman of the 
 legislative committee on Federal relations in 1849, 
 had given his name to the famous "Jackson reso- 
 lutions"' which split the Democracy on the slavery 
 question. 
 
 The destiny of the slaveholding States of this 
 Union [he now said] is one and the same. 
 The identity rather than the similarity of their do- 
 mestic institutions, their political principles, and 
 party usages ; their common origin, pursuits, tastes, 
 manners, and customs ; their territorial contiguity 
 and commercial relations, — all contribute to bind 
 them together in one sisterhood. And Missouri 
 will, in my opinion, best consult her own interests, 
 and the interests of the whole country, by a timely 
 declaration of her determination to stand by her 
 sister slaveholding States, in whose wrongs she 
 participates and with whose institutions and peoples 
 she sympathizes. 
 
 . . If the Northern States have determined to 
 put the slaveholding States on a footing of in- 
 equality, by interdicting them from all share in the 
 Territories acquired by the common blood and 
 treasure of all ; if they have resolved to admit no 
 more slaveholding States into the Union; and if 
 they mean to persist in nullifying that provision of 
 
 ^ Snead, The Fight for Missouri, pp. 14-17. 
 
312 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the Constitution which secures to the slaveholder 
 his property when found within the limits of States 
 which do not recognize it, or have aboUshed it ; then 
 they have themselves practically abandoned the 
 Union, and will not expect our submission to a gov- 
 ernment on terms of inequality and subordination. 
 
 We hear it suggested in some quarters that the 
 Union is to be maintained by the sword. . . The 
 first drop of blood shed in a war of aggression upon 
 a sovereign State will arouse a spirit which must 
 result in the overthrow of our entire Federal sys- 
 tem, and which this generation will never see 
 quelled. . . 
 
 I am not without hope that an adjustment alike 
 honorable to both sections may be effected, . . 
 but in the present unfavorable aspect of public af- 
 fairs it is our duty to prepare for the worst. We 
 can not avoid danger by closing our eyes to it. The 
 magnitude of the interests now in jeopardy demands 
 a prompt but deliberate consideration ; and in order 
 that the will of the people may be ascertained and 
 effectuated, a State Convention should, in my view, 
 be immediately called. . . In this way the whole 
 subject will be brought before the people at large, 
 who will determine for themselves what is to be 
 the ultimate action of the State. ^ 
 
 Although elected as a Douglas Democrat, Gov- 
 ernor Jackson was resolved that Missouri should 
 take her place with the Southern States on the ques- 
 tions pending. With him, in this aim, acted Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor Reynolds, who as president of the 
 Senate lent effective aid, the Speaker of the House, 
 most of the State officers. General Daniel M. 
 
 1 Snead, The Fight for Missouri, pp. 18-25. 
 
A CONVENTION CALLED 313 
 
 Frost, commander of the most efficient body of 
 State militia, and both United States Senators ; 
 while a majority of the members of the General As- 
 sembly, as their votes and actions showed, were not 
 averse from the movement. 
 
 The combined Lincoln, Douglas, and Bell vote 
 showed a decided Union majority in i860, but these 
 leaders believed that if the question of secession 
 were submitted to the people of Missouri now, an 
 overwhelming majority in favor of disunion and al- 
 liance with the Confederate States, would be the re- 
 sult. According-ly a bill was passed (January 18, 
 i860) for a Convention ''to consider the then exist- 
 ing relations between the government of the United 
 States the people and governments of the different 
 States, and the government and people of Missouri ; 
 and to adopt such measures for vindicating the sov- 
 ereignty of the State and the protection of its insti- 
 tutions, as shall appear to them to be demanded/'^ 
 L^n fortunately for these plans, the voters of the 
 State, largely as a result of the active work of the 
 St. Louis Committee of Safety (composed of Oliver 
 D. Filley, Francis P. Blair, John How, James O. 
 Broadhead, Samuel T. Glover, and Julius J. Wit- 
 zig), declared against secession by a majority of 
 80,000. Not one avowed secessionist was chosen to 
 the Convention ; and when that body assembled, on 
 February 28, 1861, it proceeded to pass a series of 
 resolutions of which the most significant were the 
 
 ^ See Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 
 1900, pp. 87-103 (Harding, "Missouri Party Struggles in the Civil 
 War Period.") 
 
314 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 first — declaring that "at present there is no adequate 
 cause to impel Missouri to dissolve her connection 
 with the Federal Union," — and the fifth — which en- 
 treated ''as well the Federal government as the se- 
 ceding States to withhold and stay the arm of mili- 
 tary power, and on no pretense whatever bring upon 
 the nation the horrors of civil war."^ 
 
 This unexpected refusal to be led into the Con- 
 federate camp disconcerted the less radical of the 
 Secession party. Not so however with Governor 
 Jackson and the more ardent leaders. To the action 
 of the "sovereign" Convention which they them- 
 selves had called, George G. Vest, then a member 
 of the State House of Representatives, replied from 
 the floor of that Assembly : 'T defy the Convention. 
 They are political cheats, jugglers, and charlatans, 
 who foisted themselves upon the people by ditties 
 and music and striped flags. They do not represent 
 Missouri. They have 'crooked the pliant hinges of 
 the knee that thrift might follow fawning.' As for 
 myself, . . I will never, never, never submit to 
 Northern rule and dictation."^ And when President 
 Lincoln, on the day after the fall of Fort Sumter, 
 issued his call for 75,000 men to repossess the forts 
 and places seized from the Union, Governor Jack- 
 son replied with a telegram, saying : "Your requisi- 
 tion, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, 
 and revolutionary in its objects, inhuman and dia- 
 bolical, and can not be complied with. Not one man 
 
 ^Journal and Proceedings of the Convention, etc., p. 55-8. 
 * Snead, The Fight for Missouri, pp. 93-4. 
 
SECESSION FRUSTRATED 315 
 
 will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any 
 such unholy crusade."^ 
 
 Already plans had been formed for attacking the 
 United States arsenal at St. Louis and securing the 
 arms stored therein, that troops might be armed to 
 fight against the Union. In accordance with this 
 design, mortars and siege guns were secretly asked 
 from the Confederacy, and a military post, styled 
 "Camp Jackson" in honor of the Governor, was es- 
 tablished in the neighborhood of the arsenal. It was 
 with great difficulty that these intrigues were frus- 
 trated ; and the credit for the achievement belongs 
 chiefly to Blair and the St. Louis Committee of 
 Safety, acting in conjunction with Captain Nathan- 
 iel Lyon, who alone possessed the energy, insight, 
 and loyalty to overcome the "imbecility or vil- 
 lainy'-' of his immediate superiors. But frustrated 
 they were. On May 10, Camp Jackson was cap- 
 tured by Lyon. On June 12, Lyon, at last in com- 
 mand of the Department, closed an interview with 
 Governor Jackson at St. Louis in this fashion, as 
 narrated by one of the Governor's staff: 
 
 "Rather," said he (he was still seated, and spoke 
 deliberately, slowly, and with peculiar emphasis), 
 "rather than concede to the State of Missouri the 
 right to demand that my Government shall not en- 
 list troops within her limits, or bring troops into 
 the State whenever it pleases, or move its troops at 
 its own will into, out of, or through the State ; 
 rather than concede to the State of Missouri for one 
 
 ^ War of the Rebellion, A Compilation of the Official Records, 
 Series III, Vol. i, p. 83. 
 
3i6 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 single instant the right to dictate to my Government 
 in any matter, however unimportant, 1 would" (ris- 
 ing as he said this, and pointing in turn to every one 
 in the room), "see you, and you, and you, and you, 
 and you, and every man, woman, and child in the 
 State, dead and buried." Then turning to the Gov- 
 ernor, he said : "This means war. In an hour one 
 of my officers will call for you and conduct you out 
 of my lines." And then, without another word, 
 without an inclination of the head, without even a 
 look, he turned upon his heel and strode out of the 
 room.^ 
 
 The next day appeared Governor Jackson's proc- 
 lamation calling for 50,000 men to drive the Federal 
 troops from the State. With this began in Missouri 
 the Civil War, — a war waged by the Governor of 
 the commonwealth and his abettors, against the 
 highest constituted authorities of State and Nation. 
 
 General Smith's course in these trying times was 
 one of outspoken and strenuous denunciation of 
 every movement which looked directly or remotely to 
 a dissolution of the Union. Although a slaveholder 
 himself, he warned his fellow slave-owners that 
 if they persisted in entering upon an unholy warfare 
 against the life of the Nation, it would result in "the 
 track of the last slave in Missouri being washed out 
 by the blood of the white man." At a mass-meeting 
 held at Georgetown in February, 1861, after several 
 Conditional Union men had spoken. General Smith 
 was called on to express his sentiments. In the 
 
 ^ Snead, The Fight for Missouri, pp. 199-200. 
 
HIS UNIONISM 317 
 
 course of his remarks he declared himself an un- 
 qualified Union man. This declaration called forth 
 some hisses. Nettled by this, he proceeded to de- 
 clare in still more emphatic tones, that he was not 
 only unqualifiedly a Union man, but that he was 
 heart and soul, then and forever, "unconditionally" 
 for the Union, as our fathers had bequeathed it to 
 us, adding : "The South has needed a whipping, to 
 my certain knowledge, for thirty years ; and I pray 
 God for her treason she may get a good one !" It 
 was a common saying of his, at this time, that if 
 Southern men brought on war, they might "have 
 his negroes for three bits a dozen." The only way 
 they knew they had a government, he was fond of 
 saying, was by the protection it gave them. His 
 brother-in-law, Mentor Thomson, was a candidate 
 for the Convention, and took the position that if the 
 majority of the people of Missouri were in favor of 
 seceding he would vote for secession, but if they 
 favored staying in the Union he w^ould vote for 
 staying in. Some of General Smith's auditors, lis- 
 tening to his vehement denunciations of secession, 
 sought to attack him through his well-known family 
 affections, and asked him if he did not intend to vote 
 for Mr. Thomson. To this he replied in thunderous 
 tones : "No ! If a rope were tied around Mentor 
 Thomson's neck, and my vote would save him, I 
 would not vote for him. Furthermore, if every man, 
 woman, and child in the State should vote for going 
 out, I would vote for staying in ; and if every State 
 in the Union should go except Massachusetts, I 
 
3i8 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 would go to Massachusetts, if I had to crawl on my 
 hands and knees to get there!" 
 
 When news came of the firing on Fort Sumter, 
 he was active in the effort to enlist troops for the 
 Federal cause. Although unable himself to bear 
 arms, he became a prime mover in raising the first 
 Union company in Pettis county, that commanded 
 by Captain Samuel Montgomery. A good picture of 
 General Smith's zeal for the Union cause in those 
 days is given in the narrative already mentioned by 
 Mr. George S. Grover: 
 
 A day or two after the fall of Fort Sumter, 
 I was alone in the Sedalia depot one night read- 
 ing a letter just received from home, when the 
 General came in and asked me when I was going to 
 join the Union forces, then being recruited with 
 great danger and difficulty in that section. I read 
 to him a portion of my father's letter in which he 
 stated that he was then actively at work enrolling 
 the Union men of Johnson county with the view of 
 organizing a regiment, and told him of my purpose 
 to start for Warrensburg in the morning to enlist in 
 that command. He was greatly pleased, and sat 
 down at my desk and wrote a long letter to my fa- 
 ther, which he entrusted to me for delivery. 
 
 We entered the service on the first day of May, 
 1861, recruiting one company (Co. K, Captain F. 
 L. Parker) from Sedalia, and were soon actively 
 and busily engaged in Johnson and adjoining 
 counties; so that, until July, 1861, when we were 
 ordered to report at Jefferson City to Colonel U. S. 
 Grant, then commanding that post, we did not meet 
 General Smith. But as we then marched through 
 Sedalia en route to Jefferson City, the General was 
 
AIDS COMMITTEE OF SAFETY 319 
 
 the first man there to greet us, and vehemently in- 
 sisted on the whole regiment living at free quarters 
 on his home place while there. This my father, who 
 was then in command, would not permit, and he 
 also refused a pressing invitation to stay at the Gen- 
 eral's house that night. So, as a compromise, 
 General Smith took supper at our mess-table, drink- 
 ing black coffee and eating hard-tack and bacon 
 with us ; and that night we were drawn up in a line 
 near the corner of what is now Main and Ohio 
 streets in Sedalia, where the General made a rous- 
 ing speech to the regiment. 
 
 In September, 1861, our first news of my father's 
 mortal wound at the siege of Lexington was a tele- 
 jsram to that effect sent me by General Smith from 
 Jefferson City. In December, 1861, as we passed 
 through Sedalia, going southwest with the expedi- 
 tion under General John Pope, General Smith 
 searched the camp until he found me, and shed tears 
 like a child as he talked of my father, his departed 
 friend. 
 
 Just after the capture of Camp Jackson, while the 
 attitude of the Governor and his followers was still 
 in doubt. General Smith went to St. Louis to con- 
 sult with Lyon and the leaders of the Unconditional 
 Union party concerning the condition of affairs in 
 Central Missouri. This visit was probably an out- 
 come of the circular signed by O. D. Filley, of the 
 Committee of Safety, and sent to loyal men through- 
 out the State. It urged them to write frequently to 
 St. Louis, and give such information as they might 
 have concerning the organization of troops under 
 Governor Jackson ; asked them to report any out- 
 rages perpetrated by Secessionists on Union men ; 
 
320 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 and recommended that they organize ''as fast as 
 possible — with arms if to be had, if not without 
 them."^ In Lyon, General Smith found an acquaint- 
 ance whom he had been able to assist in some mis- 
 hap which had befallen him, several years before, 
 while passing through Georgetown with a detach- 
 ment of soldiers. Of the men who were at this time 
 managing the Union cause in Missouri, and General 
 Smith's relations to them, Thomas C. Fletcher, Gov- 
 ernor of the State in the closing year of the war, 
 wrote (1892) as follows: 
 
 It makes me feel sad and old when I recall that 
 time and how few of us are left. Governor Gamble, 
 Frank Blair, Gratz Brown, Sam Glover, George R. 
 Smith, John How, O. D. Filley, Dr. Sutton, John 
 S. Phelps, Willard P. Hall, — all gone ! They were 
 the men of '61 whom Lyon trusted, and who loved 
 and trusted Lyon. Broadhead, John D. Stevenson, 
 John B. Henderson, Giles Filley, James E. Yeat- 
 man, and a few others of us are all that are left. 
 General Smith came to St. Louis from Sedalia with 
 Lyon, and told us on his arrival that Lyon was the 
 man we could rely upon. He had talked with him 
 and fully understood him. Lyon formed a great es- 
 teem for General Smith, and their attachment was 
 mutual. I was present when General Smith received 
 the intelligence of Lyon's death ; his emotion was 
 that of a strong man on learning the sudden death 
 of a brother or a son. It was his opinion that if 
 Lyon had survived the battle of Wilson's Creek, he 
 would have been the great general of the war. I al- 
 ways shared that opinion. 
 
 ^ Carr, Missouri, p. 310. 
 
STATE OFFICERS DEPOSED 321 
 
 The contest for the control of the State, mean- 
 while, took on new aspects. The commencement of 
 hostilities between Governor Jackson and the Fed- 
 eral forces led to the reassembling of the Conven- 
 tion at Jefferson City on July 22. Its business was 
 to deal with the crisis caused by the ''conspiracy" 
 which the high officers of the State had formed to 
 dissolve the connection of Missouri with the Fed- 
 eral Government and to establish through the forms 
 of legislation a military despotism. Resolutions 
 were adopted by the Convention declaring : ( i ) that 
 the offices of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, 
 and Secretary of State were vacated, and their suc- 
 cessors would be appointed by the Convention; (2) 
 that the seats of members of the General Assembly 
 were vacated, and their successors should be elected 
 by the people; and (3) that certain "odious laws" 
 passed by the last Assembly, in the interest of Se- 
 cession, were repealed. On July 31st, the last day of 
 this session, the Convention appointed Hamilton R. 
 Gamble Governor, Willard T. Hall Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor, and Mordecai Oliver Secretary of State. 
 
 Governor Jackson had now returned to the 
 southwestern corner of Missouri, where he gathered 
 troops and solicited aid from the Confederate au- 
 thorities. While the Convention was still in session, 
 the advance movement of a combined force of Mis- 
 sourians and Confederates was begun, under Gen- 
 erals Price and McCulloch. At Wilson's Creek, in 
 the neighborhood of Springfield, General Lyon op- 
 posed the march of their 10,000 men with a force 
 
322 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 of but half that number. There on the loth of Au- 
 gust was fought the first important battle of the 
 war on Missouri soil. After a bloody conflict, Lyon 
 was killed while leading a charge, and soon after 
 the Federal troops withdrew. 
 
 The condition of the State about this time [wrote 
 the Adjutant-General in his report for 1863] was 
 deplorable. General Lyon was killed, and his heroic 
 little army driven back to RoUa, leaving a large 
 number of its wounded in the hands of the enemy. 
 General Fremont, so lately come into the charge of 
 the Department, of the wants of which he knew so 
 little, found himself called upon for troops to defend 
 threatened points not only in the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi, but upon the Potomac. The general up- 
 rising of the enemies of the Government throughout 
 the State, resulting from the defeat of Lyon, who 
 used all the appliances usually put forth by des- 
 perate men to intimidate those who were of more 
 moderate views, produced a reign of terror, of the 
 extent of which only those who witnessed it can ap- 
 preciate. 
 
 It was at this juncture that the new State govern- 
 ment under Governor Gamble entered office, and in 
 this, as at first organized, George R. Smith held the 
 post of Adjutant-General. 
 
 Sedalia, like the rest of the southwestern portion 
 of the State, was left exposed by the disaster at 
 Wilson's Creek to Confederate attack, and to the 
 "uprising of the enemies of Government" just men- 
 tioned. "Desperadoes," writes Mrs. Smith, "were 
 turned loose ; Union men were in hiding ; farms 
 
BECOMES ADJUTANT-GENERAL 323 
 
 were deserted ; slaves were jEleeing from their mas- 
 ters ; the sacredness and security of home were 
 gone. Life was becoming a chaos." Threats were 
 made against General Smith, and friends urged 
 upon him the duty of leaving home for a time. 
 Yielding to these entreaties he took his two daugh- 
 ters in the family carriage and started to drive 
 through to Jefferson City. 'Tt was a sad ride," con- 
 tinues the foregoing narrative. "We left our ne- 
 groes at the deserted home, save one of the younger 
 boys who came with us to drive the carriage, and 
 take it back home as soon as our father could send 
 troops to protect the town. The whole country 
 through which we passed was full of returning 
 rebels, and their wild bravado and yells saluted us 
 on every hand. We begged our fathei to get on the 
 back seat of the carriage, for his position was 
 known throughout the State from his frequent 
 political speeches, and we trembled for his safety. 
 This he persistently refused to do. At Syracuse we 
 stayed over night at Dr. Moore's, whose family were 
 very dear friends of ours, though opposed politi- 
 cally. They told us next morning that we were in 
 great danger, and that if we stayed longer it was at 
 our father's peril. We went on, and reached Jeffer- 
 son City in the afternoon of the third day. There, 
 after leaving us at the hotel, our father, without 
 waiting to brush the dust from his clothes, sought 
 Governor Gamble at the Capitol, saying : 'Governor, 
 I have had to leave my home with my children. My 
 only crime is loyalty to my country ; and now I am 
 
324 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 ready for whatever you can give me to do.' The 
 office of Adjutant-General was vacant at this time; 
 the salary which attached to it was only $200 a year. 
 It was offered and accepted at once. The Govern- 
 ment was soon transferred to St. Louis, and he 
 took us with him there and boarded us at Barnum's 
 hotel. That place, and indeed the whole of St. 
 Louis, was then the scene of much military glare 
 and glory. But our father wore no uniform. I was 
 sick and under the doctor's care. The times were 
 for him too sad, and besides he intended to resign 
 as soon as it should be practicable." 
 
 General Smith entered upon the duties of his 
 office "with the rank of Brigadier-General and Ad- 
 jutant-General," August 24, 1 86 1. That same day 
 Governor Gamble issued a proclamation calling into 
 the active service of the State, under the old militia 
 law, 42,000 men to serve for six months. The or- 
 ganization and equipment of this force was General 
 Smith's first task. The records of his office had 
 been carried off with Governor Jackson ; and all 
 arms, supplies, and other munitions of war had 
 been seized by the latter to equip the force which he 
 was raising under the "odious laws" passed by the 
 General Assembly. Nevertheless, General Smith 
 proceeded energetically with the work in hand. The 
 business of the office was organized ; and general 
 orders were issued for the enlistment and organiza- 
 tions of troops under Governor Gamble's proclama- 
 tion. The difficulties which attended the task — 
 growing out of the absence of arms and munitions, 
 
HIS ACTIVITIES 325 
 
 the lack of a legislative body to pass needed meas- 
 ures, and the apathy of General Fremont, the Com- 
 mander of the Department — seemed endless. "As 
 yet we have few arms, and they have been distrib- 
 uted," General Smith was obliged to write one mus- 
 tering officer, October i, 1861 ; but "the interest 
 manifested everywhere in the State gives promise 
 of a full response to the call of the Governor." To 
 another, October 4, he wrote that the State had no 
 means at that time to pay for horses for cavalry 
 companies ; but if the men would furnish their own 
 horses, the inspector was authorized to appoint men 
 to appraise them, and they would ultimately be paid 
 for by the United States government. Every meas- 
 ure was used to expedite the enlistment and equip- 
 ment of the forces; for, as he wrote September 20, 
 "if our troops were to-day in the field, they would 
 tell powerfully in giving quiet to the State. "^ 
 
 Of General Smith's activities at this time, Gov- 
 ernor Fletcher contributes the following account in 
 the sketch before quoted : 
 
 The first commissions issued to officers of the 
 Missouri troops, in 1861, bear the signature of 
 George R. Smith as Adjutant-General. I was on 
 duty at the time in the Provost-Marshal-General's 
 office and assisted General Smith's clerk of nights 
 in filling out those commissions. Many of them are 
 treasured by their possessors above all other earthly 
 possessions. . . As showing the generous-heart- 
 ed patriotism of General Smith, I recall an instance 
 
 ^ From letter-books in the Adjutant-General's office, at Jefferson 
 City. 
 
326 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 in the spring or summer of 1861. A regiment was 
 completed and mustered in as the 13th Infantry, as 
 I now recollect. The commissions were made for 
 the officers ; they received them from General Smith 
 and he said : ''Now go, be mustered in and get your 
 uniforms at once." When some of them remarked 
 that they had neither money nor credit to get uni- 
 forms, swords, etc., he said: "Well, boys, — here, I 
 will give you an order to a tailor and assume per- 
 sonal responsibility for you." He gave at least a 
 dozen of them such orders, and they went away 
 happy and secured fine uniforms. How many of 
 them he had to pay for I never knew, but some of 
 them were soon after killed in battle, and of course 
 he paid for the uniforms of those. 
 
 The private letters preserved by General Smith 
 from this period are few, but among them are two 
 that may be quoted. The first is from Colonel John 
 F. Philips, his fellow-townsman, who later rendered 
 excellent service to the Union cause in the field, but 
 who was then a refugee in Kentucky. It is dated 
 Danville, Ky., September 16, 1861 : 
 
 Your good letter was duly received, for which f 
 am under renewed obligations to you. I am sad 
 over the lamentable condition of Missouri, and pray 
 God that the day of her deliverance mav not be far 
 in the future. I trust that a hearty and energetic 
 co-operation between the Federal and State forces 
 may result speedily in the complete overthrow and 
 demolition of the Jackson despotism in Missouri, 
 and that peace may once more be restored to her 
 people by their recognition of the majesty and 
 beneficence of the American government. Surely 
 the people of Missouri must be sick of their fatal 
 
HIS ACTIVITIES 327 
 
 Saturnalia, and have learned from bitter experience 
 that the government of their fathers is far better 
 than their present state of transition to monarchy. 
 
 I regret that you are unable at present to accom- 
 modate me with a desirable post ; yet it is gratifying 
 to know, from all posts being filled, that the men of 
 Missouri are coming forward, at least for the haz- 
 ard of distinction. 
 
 Kentucky is now convulsed with excitement to 
 the very center of her great heart. In addition to 
 the occupation of Hickman and Columbus by the 
 Confederates, we are notified this morning, by spe- 
 cial messenger, that the Tennesseeans with a large 
 force have invaded Kentucky at Cumberland Gap. 
 This arouses the people, and thousands of true sol- 
 diery will instantly report themselves ready to 
 march against the invaders. You will learn from 
 the legislative proceedings at Frankfort how Ken- 
 tucky stands, and how she will regard her recreant 
 sons. 
 
 The second letter is from T. T. Crittenden, of 
 Lexington, Mo., who also became a colonel on the 
 Union side, and rendered honorable service in the 
 field. It bears date Lexington, Ky., September 22 ; 
 and like the letter of Colonel Philips, is in reply to 
 one from General Smith acknowledging the receipt 
 of the offer of his services in the Missouri militia : 
 
 I felt, General, when reading your letter, that it 
 was almost from my beloved father, who has slept, 
 as you are well aware, with the dead for twenty- 
 five years ; and it will ever be retained and treas- 
 ured as a precious relic . . . from one who is 
 with heart and hand struggling patriotically to 
 rescue this beloved land of ours from the worse 
 
328 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 than Vandal wreckers. The past has never re- 
 paid you for what you have done ; the future 
 will, when the impartial historian performs his 
 duty. I appreciate the difficulties with which you 
 have had and still are having- to contend ; it will be 
 only the more important that you should exert your- 
 self and develop those high talents with which God 
 has so amply blessed you. Since my acquaintance 
 with you, I have thought an opportunity was all that 
 was necessary, and you would be the man for the 
 occasion. Now is the time; you are the man; Mis- 
 souri is the subject; and the unity of our States as 
 one grand whole is the problem. . . 
 
 I am perfectly willing to do what I can to sustain 
 my Government, which I am for unconditionally, 
 regardless of what falls before it in its desperate 
 struggle for future existence, and regardless of who 
 are to be its future problematical rulers. And all I 
 ask for now is a place to work, a work to do ; and if 
 there is not more cowardice in my heart than I sup- 
 pose, it shall be done. . . It is my opinion, as 
 well as Uncle John Crittenden's, that as I live in 
 Missouri and expect hereafter to do so — unless she 
 is dragged into the Confederate States — I should 
 return there to do my fighting. . . 
 
 The storm is rapidly coming on in poor old neu- 
 tral Kentucky, at last. . . John C. Breckinridge 
 has fled to Tennessee, — is a violent traitor. Our 
 legislature is at last acting boldly. Uncle John Crit- 
 tenden is full of fight. His old eye glistens with its 
 wonted beauty when he converses about Tennessee 
 invading Kentucky. Time will soon place all things 
 right. 
 
 General Smith held the office of Adjutant-Gen- 
 eral for a little over three months, — to be exact, 
 from August 24, to November 30, 1861. Those were 
 
HIS PROPERTY DESTROYED 329 
 
 the trying days of the war in Missouri, when the 
 provisional State government was getting started, 
 and the vanity, incapacity, and poHtical ambition of 
 General Fremont were exposing Missouri to the last 
 extremity of Confederate invasion and bushwhack- 
 ing depredation. General Smith saw from the be- 
 ginning that one of the first duties of the Federal 
 forces was to reoccupy Sedalia, the terminus of the 
 Pacific road, and so dominate the western and south- 
 western sections of the State. But, as Lincoln was 
 regretfully forced to admit, Fremont had "abso- 
 lutely no military capacity ;" and against the apathy 
 and red-tape of the Commander of the Department, 
 little could be done. Fremont was relieved of his 
 command October 24, 1861 ; but by this time new 
 difficulties had arisen to beset General Smith. His 
 personal affairs at Sedalia were going from bad to 
 worse. General Franz Sigel had now advanced with 
 Union forces and occupied that place, and the ne- 
 cessities of the troops and animals in his command 
 led him to requisition supplies of all sorts from the 
 neighborhood. As stated by General Smith in a 
 speech two years later, they ''had stripped his farm 
 and laid his premises waste. Three thousand cords 
 of wood had been taken. . . A number of acres 
 of hay and oats, and a large quantity of corn had 
 been removed. Nearly all the rails had been stripped 
 from his place, and hardly anything was left but his 
 house and yard."^ 
 
 ^ St. Louis Republican, September 2, 1863. Damages to the ex- 
 tent of $7,500 were awarded General Smith by a military commis- 
 sion; but, as he stated, he "hadn't got the money and didn't know 
 
330 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Moreover, differences of opinion with respect to 
 the poHcy to be pursued by the State government 
 had sprung up between General Smith and Gov- 
 ernor Gamble. The latter, as characterized by the 
 Missouri Democrat on November 2y, 1861, 'Svas in 
 the first place a Conditional Union man, afterwards 
 an 'armed neutrality' man, and now is, as always, 
 a 'conservative' citizen." Already the differences be- 
 tween Conservatives and Radicals, in Missouri, were 
 beginning to make themselves felt ; and in the politi- 
 cal struggle which ensued the Governor and his Ad- 
 jutant-General were found in opposite camps. Gov- 
 ernor Fletcher tells of a meeting which took place 
 at Barnum's Hotel, in St. Louis, in the course of 
 which Governor Gamble charged Smith with being 
 ''too radical." To this the latter epigrammatically 
 and forcibly replied : "If a man is right, he can not 
 
 whether he ever would." The claim was still unpaid in 1873, as is 
 evidenced by the following communication from General Sigel to 
 the Quartermaster-General of the United States, under date of 
 December 19 of that year: 
 
 "I have the honor to acknowledge the papers in regard to G. R. 
 Smith, late Adjutant-General of the State of Missouri, which papers 
 are herewith returned. I am fully aware of having appointed the 
 committee mentioned in the claim, and can certify to the fact that 
 the troops under my command were encamped near Sedalia, that 
 we were compelled to recur to requisitions for the troops and ani- 
 mals, that on account of the inclemency of the weather boards 
 had to be used for flooring the tents, and on account of the scarcity 
 of fire-wood in the neighborhood of Sedalia fence rails had to be 
 taken. I also can state that General Smith was known to be a 
 very good Union man. For these reasons I consider the claim as 
 assessed and corrected by the committee not exorbitant, and the 
 claimant deserving of the consideration of the Government. In 
 my statement of the claim I used the word 'damages' as a general 
 term relating to what was taken from the farm and used for mili- 
 tary purposes." 
 
RESIGNS OFFICE 331 
 
 be too radical, and if he is wrong he can not be too 
 conservative." 
 
 The opportunity for General Smith's retirement 
 came in the reorganization of the Missouri militia, 
 which was effected as the result of a personal agree- 
 ment between Governor Gamble and President Lin- 
 coln. The nature of this agreement may be gathered 
 from the following letter to General J. W. Noel, 
 bearing date October 24; it is the last of the letters 
 in the records of the Adjutant-General's office which 
 bears General Smith's name, the signature alone 
 being in his handwriting: 
 
 I am instructed by Governor Gamble to say that 
 no more commissions will issue to field officers un- 
 der the call for six months' volunteers until he re- 
 turns from Washington City, for which place he 
 leaves to-day. His object is to get the President to 
 accept the volunteers from Missouri for service in 
 the State, for six months or during the war in Mis- 
 souri, and to arm, clothe, subsist, and pay the troops 
 raised for our defense. 
 
 I have no doubt of his success ; in which event 
 we shall at once be able to supply the urgent de- 
 mands from every part of the State for arms, cloth- 
 ing, etc., etc. 
 
 We are using every effort in our power; but 
 stripped as our State has been by those heretofore 
 in power, we find it a very difficult matter to provide 
 for a contingency demanding an enormous outlay 
 of ready cash, which we have not got, nor the credit 
 to procure. 
 
 This is not intended to interfere with the enlist- 
 ments made, but to request of Division Inspectors 
 to explain the reasons for withholding commissions 
 
2,1,2 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 for the present. As soon as the Governor returns, 
 a General Order will be issued and instruction given 
 that will, I trust, at once fill up our regiments to the 
 quota called for by the proclamation. 
 
 Possibly it was the determination of Governor 
 Gamble to limit the use of the Missouri forces to 
 service within the State that crystallized General 
 Smith's resolution to resign. Doubtless he felt that 
 his immediate task was done, and that younger 
 hands might now be found to carry on the work. At 
 all events, in the St. Louis Nezvs of November 29, 
 1 861, appeared a brief item, announcing without 
 comment his resignation, and the appointment of 
 Colonel Chester Harding as his successor ; and the 
 next day his tenure of office came to an end. 
 
 Our father was now at liberty to go home [writes 
 Mrs. Smith] taking my sister and myself with 
 him ; and there with heart, soul, and body, he 
 still served his country. Our house was cheerfully 
 and freely given up to his old friends as head- 
 quarters for Union recruiting purposes. Colonel 
 Philips, Mr. Henry Neal, and other persons equally 
 enthusiastic in their patriotism, used our home in 
 this way. Refugees also came in from unprotected 
 places, and were more than welcome to this uncere- 
 monious and unconstrained hospitality. Our father 
 was in frequent demand by the military officers who 
 were in charge of the place, and was often called 
 upon to assist them in determining who were and 
 who were not in open rebellion. 
 
 For some time thereafter, aside from such in- 
 formal assistance to the Union cause, General Smith 
 
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES 333 
 
 took no part in public affairs. His own private busi- 
 ness fully occupied his attention. His plans for 
 Sedalia were threatening to turn out badly. The 
 town grew with considerable rapidity in the early 
 months of 1861 ; but when hostilities had begun, and 
 the inhabitants were exposed to depredations from 
 rival forces, all building operations ceased. "Not a 
 nail was driven," according to an old resident of the 
 town, "after the first of May, 1861."^ Mr. Bouldin, 
 at that time his partner in the venture, was a rebel 
 sympathizer, and fled South when the Union troops 
 occupied Sedalia; and the political differences be- 
 tween him and General Smith led to endless business 
 tangles and legal complications. General Smith also 
 saw himself threatened with the loss of the whole of 
 his interest in the new town by execution for debt. 
 To purchase the land on which it was located he had 
 borrowed some $5,000 in 1858 ; and when the un- 
 settled state of affairs made it impossible to sell 
 property or to raise money, he was confronted with 
 a judgment of court for the principal and interest 
 of his note, amounting to $6,937.33. The holder, 
 Fayette McMullin, had espoused the Confederate 
 side and cordially detested General Smith for his 
 political views. No mercy was to be expected from 
 him ; and it was only the stoppage of all processes 
 of court in this section during the war, that delayed 
 the settlement of the matter to the closing months 
 of the conflict. 
 
 In the summer of 1862, General Smith and his 
 
 ^ History of Pettis County, p. 409. 
 
334 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 daughters visited Ohio, where relatives Uved near 
 Lebanon. Of a visit to the family of one of these, 
 this account is given by Mrs. Smith : 
 
 Coming from Missouri, it was naturally expected 
 that we were Southern sympathizers, and the family 
 speculated the night before we came what should be 
 done with ''those rebels." Father had not been able 
 to join us that day, but we were escorted courteously 
 to the home, where a noon dinner awaited us. The 
 families of the married sons living in the village, and 
 the son and daughter of the household, with their 
 venerable father and mother, made a considerable 
 party for the introduction of these apparently diverse 
 elements, North and South. We found them delight- 
 ful people. The curiosity of our cousin, the Judge, 
 hastened the disclosure of our respective politics. 
 In a lull of the conversation I heard the Judge's 
 question, ''Well, Cousin Sarah, is your father a 
 Whig or a Democrat." "He is a Democrat," was 
 the answer I heard. Thinking to correct her strange 
 mistake, I vehemently said, "Why, Sister, he is not 
 a Democrat, and never was." It was rather ludi- 
 crous for these two "suspects" to be contradicting 
 each other so flatly on a point so vitally important ; 
 but my sister jocosely said, "Sister, you never would 
 let me have any fun. It had not occurred to me be- 
 fore that by any possible combination of circum- 
 stances our father could be taken for a Democrat; 
 and I wanted to see how it would feel." This led to 
 explanation and more hilarity, and the visit passed 
 pleasantly. 
 
 In a week or two our father himself came ; he was 
 about the same age as Judge Smith, and they delved 
 into the past. Thrown together, after many years, 
 from the two sides of a hitherto impassable gulf 
 between the North and the South, they found they 
 
VISIT TO OHIO 335 
 
 had been exactly together in all the important 
 national issues ; although one cousin had been sur- 
 rounded by Southern Democrats, who cherished a 
 venomous hatred of the Northern "Yankee," and the 
 other environed with the ideas of the North, they 
 were equally bold and aggressive. Both had worked 
 for the great cause wdiich the nation was defending 
 in civil war ; and it w^as beautiful to see Western 
 bluntness mingling with Eastern culture on this lofty 
 ground of righteousness. Afterwards we visited 
 other relations near by, who were Northern Demo- 
 crats, reaching this family July 3d. The next day. In- 
 dependence was to be celebrated at Camp Denison, 
 and my father and sister accompanied the family. 
 The special exercises being over, it became known 
 that a gentleman from Alissouri was accidentally 
 present. Supposing him to be a Democrat, there 
 arose loud cries for a speech, at which General 
 Smith arose, reluctantly, but spoke in his usual de- 
 nunciatory language. It was soon manifest by the 
 loud cheers of the Union soldiers, and the long faces 
 of the Democrats, that the wrong passenger had 
 been waked up. Like most of his speeches, this was 
 impromptu, and was not preserved. But the news- 
 papers caught at the incident, and it went round the 
 press entitled, "The Vallandighamers caught a Tar- 
 tar." 
 
 The General's daughters remained in Ohio after 
 his return to Missouri, and from letters which he 
 wrote to them at this time some idea may be de- 
 rived of the conditions by which he was surrounded 
 and the opinions he held. August i, 1862, he wrote : 
 "From the tone of your letters, I judge you want 
 to come home. There is too much excitement and 
 too much uncertainty here for you to come now. 
 
336 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 You are removed now from this unholy rebelHon, 
 and I intend you to remain so, until you determine 
 to come. I have no wish to have you here until the 
 country is quiet, or at least more so than it is at 
 present. There is considerable trouble in the ad- 
 joining counties, none in this; there is too large a 
 force here for that." And again, August 14: *T 
 wrote you last night, and have thought to-day you 
 might be uneasy about my letter. There was great 
 apprehension last night that we would be attacked. 
 Our force has increased, and I think there is now 
 no danger. . . There is much excitement in 
 Missouri now. The sympathizers with the rebellion 
 and the scoundrels all over the State are doing 
 everything they can in robbing and assassinating. 
 I think, however, all will soon be right. Missouri 
 will soon be one vast military camp, and it will be 
 too hot for Southern sympathizers. God grant that 
 the work of death could be staid! If I could stop 
 it, I would. What a spectacle ! What a commentary 
 upon civilization !" Three days later he wrote from 
 St. Louis : "There has been and still was very great 
 excitement at Sedalia, and indeed all over the west- 
 ern part of Missouri, many persons expecting 
 hourly an attack at Sedalia. Yesterday a force of 
 eight hundred Federals was attacked twelve miles 
 this side of Lexington, and completely routed, kill- 
 ing and wounding two hundred. The rebel force 
 was said to number from 2,500 to 4,000. Major 
 Foster, of Philips' regiment, who was in command, 
 was mortally wounded. Our Government seems to 
 
LETTERS 337 
 
 be gradually waking up from a sleep that has well 
 nigh destroyed us. I met to-day one regiment and a 
 company of artillery going to Sedalia ; they will get 
 there by 9 o'clock to-night. I understood this morn- 
 ing, when I left, that several thousand men were 
 marching from Kansas and Clinton to Sedalia, If 
 so, there will be there to-night six or eight thousand 
 troops. It is to be hoped they will overhaul the 
 rebels who made the attack on Foster yesterday." 
 
 General Smith's re-entrance into public affairs 
 came in 1862. It was due in part to the dissatisfac- 
 tion which may be traced in the foregoing letter with 
 the prosecution of the war; but in still larger part 
 it was due to the feeling that on the slavery ques- 
 tion a more radical policy was needed than that 
 which the Government adopted. 
 
 At the very beginning of the conflict, Blair ex- 
 perienced difficulty in getting the anti-slavery Re- 
 publicans, who were mainly Germans, and had voted 
 for Lincoln, to unite in the choice of delegates to 
 the Convention with the Douglas and the Bell- 
 Everett men, who supported the Union but were 
 favorable or at most neutral on the subject of slav- 
 ery. The differences between the two factions de- 
 veloped rapidly as the months went bv. The ques- 
 tion upon which they differed most, though there 
 were many subsidiary points of difference, was that 
 of slavery. The prominence given this question was 
 partly the natural result of its importance, partly 
 also it was due to special causes. One of the most 
 noteworthy of the latter was Fremont's famous 
 
338 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 proclamation of August 31, 1861. In this, as com- 
 mander of the mihtary Department of the West, he 
 not only assumed "the administrative powers of the 
 State," declared ''martial law throughout the State 
 of Missouri," threatened all persons taken with 
 arms in their hands within his lines with trial by 
 court-martial and military execution ; but he also 
 announced that "the property, real and personal, of 
 all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take 
 up arms against the United States, or who shall 
 be directly proven to have taken an active part with 
 their enemies in the field, is declared to be confis- 
 cated to the public use, and their slaves, if any they 
 have, are hereby declared free men."^ 
 
 Although this proclamation was, within a fort- 
 night, modified by President Lincoln's orders to 
 conform to the policy enacted by Congress on Au- 
 gust 6, 1 86 1, it was still of prime importance in con- 
 solidating the radical and anti-slavery sentiment. 
 The attitude of the Radicals in Missouri at this 
 time is indicated in the following reminiscences of 
 Governor Fletcher ; despite some slight errors of 
 chronology, due doubtless to the lapse of a third of 
 a century, the account is substantially correct : 
 
 In December, 1861, the question arose among 
 the loyalists in Missouri as to what we would do 
 in regard to the slavery question. Up to that 
 time we had only considered the question of the 
 preservation of the Union. About that time the 
 question was presented to us squarely. Would we 
 
 ^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, IV, pp. 416-17. 
 
EMANCIPATION FAVORED 339 
 
 preserve the Union, or preserve slavery? We all 
 recognized the fact that we had to give up one or 
 the other. I made a speech at Union, in Franklin 
 county. Mo., in which I said that "having arms in 
 our hands we never intended to lay them down 
 while slavery existed." General Halleck called me 
 to account for the statement, and threatened to dis- 
 miss me from the service for it. I found few men 
 to stand by me in the position which I took. Fore- 
 most among them was General George R. Smith. 
 He was acting as Adjutant-General of Missouri at 
 the time, under Governor Gamble, who was not yet 
 ready to join in the decree of the abolition of slav- 
 ery. General Halleck reprimanded me and Gov- 
 ernor Gamble was incensed against me, but General 
 George R. Smith came to my rescue and stood up 
 boldly and said : *'We must give up slavery or give 
 up the Union, and I am for the Union first and last 
 and all the time." He came to me and said : "I will 
 stand by you ; you are right." Frank Blair came to 
 see me and said he would stand by me, and among 
 others cited General George R. Smith as one we 
 could rely upon. Charles D. Drake made a speech 
 July 4, 1 86 1, in which he went so far as to proclaim 
 that slavery was the cause of the war. General 
 Smith told him that we had got way beyond that 
 long ago. 
 
 In the political campaign of 1862, General Smith 
 came forward as a Radical candidate for the legis- 
 lature, but was unsuccessful. His address announc- 
 ing his candidacy was issued from St. Louis on 
 October 30, 1862, and set forth his position in the 
 following terms : 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — I have been compelled to re- 
 main here longer than I expected. I will not be able 
 
340 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 to get home in time for the election. I am a candidate 
 to represent the county of Pettis in the lower branch 
 of the State legislature. My past history you know. 
 I have been from the beginning of this unholy re- 
 bellion unconditionally for the Union, in favor of 
 whipping the South into submission — unconditional 
 submission — and am now in favor of prosecuting the 
 war with all the vigor that can be infused into our 
 army and especially into the Major-General. I am 
 for showing no quarter to rebels and traitors in 
 arms against the best government on earth. I en- 
 dorse the President's Emancipation Proclamation, 
 and am in favor of the acceptance of his proposition 
 to the Border States, with compensation to loyal 
 owners for their slaves. 
 
 I appeal to Union men, and only to Union men, 
 to stand by and uphold the Government. We have 
 many men claiming to be Union. Every traitor in 
 the country claims that he is par excellence a Union 
 man, whilst he is cautiously feeling for the fifth rib 
 to plunge the assassin's dagger into the vitals of the 
 Government. I make no appeal to them, or to open, 
 blatant traitors. 
 
 To Union men let me say, If you are not now 
 upon my platform you will be before this war ends. 
 The longer you hesitate, the longer this war will 
 last. If elected, I shall take great pleasure in ad- 
 vising our antedeluvian Congressmen that straight- 
 out Union men think traitors have no rights in a 
 government they are trying to destroy, and shall 
 urge them to act accordingly. They are either 
 afraid they might make the traitors mad, excite 
 them, and drive them to desperation, or they still 
 have some lingering love for them. I have none. 
 If you expect the rose-water policy to be pursued by 
 me, as it is called, don't vote for me. I shall go 
 energetically to work, if elected, to crush out treason 
 and punish the traitors. 
 
RADICALS AND CONSERVATIVES 341 
 
 The view to which the Conservatives clung, even 
 so late as the close of 1862, is indicated by Governor 
 Gamble's message of December 30, on emancipation. 
 Prefacing his discussion with the remark that, as he 
 had always lived in a slave State, he had no preju- 
 dice against the institution, he proceeded to show 
 why, at that time, Missouri should take steps for 
 the emancipation of her slaves. In the first place, 
 the material interests of the State would be pro- 
 moted by the substitution of free labor for slave; 
 secondly, the announcement of an emancipation res- 
 olution would serve to extinguish the desire of the 
 Confederate States to force Missouri into the Con- 
 federacy; and third, the Rebellion had operated to 
 diminish the number of slaves in Missouri anyway, 
 and to render their tenure so insecure that even if 
 the war were to end at that moment no considerable 
 migration of slave-owners into the State could be 
 expected. Therefore, in his view, some measure 
 looking toward gradual emancipation — such as 
 would serve to give the assurance that this would 
 ultimately be a free State — ought to be adopted, 
 with a view to the encouragement of immigration 
 from the non-slaveholding States.^ 
 
 By the beginning of 1863, both parties had come 
 to the conviction that slavery must go; their only 
 difference was as to ways and means. Acting on the 
 recommendations of the Governor, the Conserva- 
 tives wished to reconvene the existing Convention 
 and have it initiate emancipation ; while the Radi- 
 
 ^ Journal of House of Representatives, Regular Session, 1862-3. 
 
342 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 cals advocated the election of an entirely new Con- 
 vention. Measures embodying each policy failed in 
 the legislature ; whereupon Governor Gamble took 
 the step of calling the old Convention by proclama- 
 tion to meet on June the 15th. The Conservative 
 majority of the Convention, when it met, dealt with 
 the subject in an eminently conservative way. "They 
 indeed devised and adopted a scheme of emancipa- 
 tion, but it was one which, in the new condition of 
 public opinion, seemed vitiated with a spirit of self- 
 ishness and an after-thought of evasion. The ordi- 
 nance adopted provided in substance that slavery 
 should cease in Missouri in the year 1870, and pro- 
 hibited sales to non-residents after that date, pro- 
 vided that all slaves so emancipated should remain 
 in servitude, those over forty years of age during 
 their lives, those under twelve until they became 
 twenty-three, and all others until July 4, 1876. 
 Thus the institution of slavery in Missouri would 
 have remained untouched for the period of seven 
 years, with of course the contingent possibility of a 
 change of public sentiment and a repeal of the ordi- 
 nance before any right to freedom could accrue. 
 . . The period of postponement was long, and no 
 provision was made to prevent slaves being sold out 
 of the State in the interim. Another objectionable 
 provision was that slave property was exempted 
 from all further taxation. It was to be expected 
 that such a dilatory and half-hearted measure as this 
 would receive popular acceptance."^ 
 
 * Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII, p. 209. 
 
THE "CHARCOAL CONVENTION" 343 
 
 The agitation was continued by the Radicals, and 
 the movement assumed the form of an organized 
 protest against the whole Conservative rule. The 
 cold-blooded massacre, by Quantrell and his Mis- 
 souri bushwhackers, on August 21, 1863, of some 
 two hundred unoffending Union men at Lawrence, 
 Kansas, and the destruction of the town, added fuel 
 to the flames; and on September i, a mass conven- 
 tion of Radicals, of which General Smith was a 
 member, met at Jefferson City to denounce the Con- 
 servative government and demand more radical 
 measures. 
 
 The opinions which Missourians formed of this 
 meeting — the "Charcoal Convention" as it was 
 styled, from the name by which the Radicals were 
 sometimes called — differed according to their politi- 
 cal point of view. By the Conservative organ of St. 
 Louis it was characterized as a "meeting of con- 
 spirators against the peace of this State; of those 
 who propose to put out of office, by force, the pres- 
 ent State government and to improvise a new gov- 
 ernment on its ruins ; of those who are not satisfied 
 with the Ordinance of Emancipation, or rather with 
 that amendment of the Constitution which wipes out 
 slavery in this State in less time than it was ever 
 accomplished in any other State of the Union; of 
 that class who propose radical change in this Mili- 
 tary Department, — and failing that, to denounce the 
 President and his Cabinet for refusing to carry out 
 their insane and treasonable projects."^ The Radi- 
 
 ^ St. Louis Republican, September i, 1863. 
 
344 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 cal organ, on the other hand, viewed it as *'the most 
 successful and most important poHtical convention 
 ever held in the State." **The convention derives 
 its importance," said this sheet, "from the position 
 which it has taken upon the questions of the day. 
 The ground it has seen fit to occupy will command 
 at once the national attention and respect. For the 
 first time in the history of the Nation a great party 
 has adopted a platform of unconditional freedom as 
 the basis of a thorough State organization in a slave 
 State. The party which has done this holds the 
 destinies of Missouri in its hands." ^ 
 
 In the organization of the convention, General 
 Smith was chosen one of eighteen vice-presidents. 
 At the evening meeting, September i, he was the 
 chief speaker, and made a speech which the opposi- 
 tion paper characterized as "radical enough in all 
 conscience." It adds : "He said he didn't care if 
 the Copperheads lost all their slaves, and he had got 
 to that point where he didn't care much if his Union 
 friends lost theirs also." ^ 
 
 At the meeting next morning, General Smith was 
 called to take the chair. Before taking his seat he 
 made a second speech, in which he dealt with the 
 efforts that had been made to secure a change of 
 policy in Missouri from the Administration at Wash- 
 ington. Individual Radicals, and small committees, 
 he said, had been able to do nothing because they 
 were regarded as a mere faction. For his part he 
 
 ^Missouri Democrat, September 3 and 4, 1863. 
 2 St. Louis Republican, September 2, 1863. 
 
RADICAL RESOLUTIONS 345 
 
 thought there were enough true Union men in 
 every county to pay the expenses of one of their 
 number to Washington; accordingly, he urged the 
 appointment of a committee to consist of one dele- 
 gate from each county, to go to Washington and lay 
 their grievances before the President, proving by 
 their numbers that they were not a mere faction. 
 This proposition was received with enthusiasm, and 
 the committee, with General Smith as one of its 
 members, was appointed, and in due time made the 
 trip. 
 
 The platform and resolutions adopted by the con- 
 vention may be found in the Missouri Democrat for 
 September 3. The members of the convention 
 styled themselves "the loyal people of Missouri in 
 mass convention assembled;" and after resolving 
 that they sustain the Government in a vigorous 
 prosecution of the war to a final completion, they 
 declared : 
 
 2. That we deprecate and denounce the military 
 poUcy pursued in this State, and the delegation by 
 the General Government of military powers to a pro- 
 visional State organization, the whole tendency of 
 which is to throw back our people under the control 
 of pro-slavery and reactionary influences, to paralyze 
 the Federal power in suppressing the rebellion, and 
 to prolong a reign of terror throughout large sec- 
 tions of the State, and to extend aid and comfort 
 to those who are meditating hostility to the national 
 authority in other States. 
 
 3. That we do most heartily indorse the princi- 
 ples first enunciated by General Fremont in his 
 proclamation of freedom of August 31, 1861, and 
 
346 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 afterwards sanctioned and embodied in the Presi- 
 dent's proclamation of September 22, 1862, and 
 January i, 1863 ; that the salvation of the Union de- 
 mands the prompt execution of said proclamation in 
 spirit and in letter ; that in all forthcoming struggles 
 we shall recognize no man as our standard-bearer 
 who is not pledged emphatically for said, principles ; 
 and that those liberated under such proclamations 
 can not be reduced to slavery again, and that we will 
 not sustain any reorganization of the country that 
 does not embody the freedom principles therein con- 
 tained. ... 
 
 5. That we arraign the provisional government 
 as untrue to the loyal people of this State : First, 
 as having usurped power and exercised it for sinis- 
 ter ends. Second, as having prostituted an assumed 
 independent military power to the purpose of main- 
 taining policies antagonistic to the General Gov- 
 ernment and an institution hostile to the welfare of 
 the State. Third, as having imprisoned loyal men 
 for expressing sentiments in opposition to the State 
 Government. Fourth, as having issued orders dis- 
 arming the loyal population in disturbed districts, 
 and having tolerated avowed and enrolled disloyal- 
 ists everywhere. Fifth, as having issued orders in 
 distinct violation of the articles of war, in conflict 
 with the orders of the War Department, and having 
 refused to co-operate with the General Government, 
 in cases of direct invasion, by withdrawing its 
 troops from the service. Sixth, as having refused 
 to permit enlistments into the United States volun- 
 teer forces by disqualifying orders. Seventh, as 
 having used persistent efforts to have removed from 
 command officers displaying energetic action in the 
 suppression of the rebellion, and to have suspended 
 all orders levying assessments against disloyalists, 
 finally refusing to co-operate in their execution. 
 
RADICAL RESOLUTIONS 347 
 
 Eighth, as having enrolled, commissioned, and 
 brought into active service known and avowed dis- 
 loyalists. Ninth, as having issued orders in viola- 
 tion of the Constitution and the laws. 
 
 6. That we demand a policy of immediate eman- 
 cipation in Missouri, because it is necessary not only 
 to the financial condition of the State and the prose- 
 cution of its industrial enterprises and material 
 improvements, but especially because it is essential 
 to the security of the lives of our citizens, the peace 
 of our homes, and the quiet of our communities. 
 
 7. That we are in favor of a constitutional enact- 
 ment for the disfranchisement of all those who have 
 taken up arms or levied war against the Govern- 
 ment, or adhered to the enemies thereof in the pres- 
 ent rebellion ; that to allow them the free and 
 unrestricted use of the ballot-box would be making 
 them more dangerous than they were in the field, 
 and would tend directly to the subversion and de- 
 struction of the Government. 
 
 8. That we demand of our General Assembly to 
 call a Convention of the people, to take into con- 
 sideration the grievances under which the State 
 now labors, and to redress the wrongs which have 
 been inflicted upon it by usurped authority; and 
 that if our General Assembly shall refuse so to do, 
 we will take such measures as will elicit the voice 
 and action of the people of this State. 
 
 9. That Conventions are in the nature of sover- 
 eign remedies, applied by the people for the redress 
 of grievances ; that they are extra-constitutional, 
 and while the custom has been to signify the will 
 of the people for such call through their General 
 Assembly, yet in the default of action on the part 
 of the General Assembly, or in case of their refusal 
 to obey instructions, nothing can derogate from the 
 right of the people to act in their capacity. 
 
348 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Supplementary resolutions were adopted, among 
 others, calling upon Governor Gamble and Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor Hall to vacate their positions ; urging 
 the President to remove General Schofield, then in 
 command of the Department; and expressing hor- 
 ror at "the late atrocious massacre of innocent and 
 unoffending Union men at Lawrence." 
 
 These resolutions sufficiently indicate the views 
 and the demands with which the committee ap- 
 pointed by the convention, seventy in number, went 
 to Washington to see the President. A delegation 
 from Kansas, with much the same objects, joined 
 the Missouri delegation, and the two were given a 
 joint audience by President Lincoln on September 
 30, 1863. The chairman of the committee, Hon. 
 Charles D. Drake, of St. Louis, read to the Presi- 
 dent their long, studied address ; and after the 
 President had given a reply to some of the points 
 presented, an informal discussion took place in 
 which various members of the committee expressed 
 their views. Addresses supplementary to that of 
 September 30 were presented by the committee on 
 October 3 ; and on the 5th, President Lincoln made 
 his final reply. The demand that at elections per- 
 sons might not be allowed to vote who were not 
 entitled by law so to do, was conceded ; but the 
 requests for the removal of General Schofield, and 
 the substitution of National forces for the Missouri 
 Enrolled Militia, were refused. The President ad- 
 mitted the suffering and wrong done to the Union 
 
LINCOLN'S ATTITUDE 349 
 
 men, but failed to see that General Schofield or the 
 Enrolled Militia were responsible. 
 
 The whole can be explained [he said] on a more 
 charitable and, as I think, a more rational hypothe- 
 sis. We are in civil war. In such cases there is al- 
 ways a main question ; but in this case that question 
 is a perplexing compound — Union and Slavery. It 
 thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, 
 but of at least four sides, even among those who 
 are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are 
 against it. Thus, those who are for the Union with, 
 but not zvithout, slavery, — those for it, ivithout, but 
 not zvith, — those for it zi'ith or without, but prefer 
 it with, — and those for it with or without, but pre- 
 fer it without. Among these again is a subdivision 
 of those who are for gradual but not for immediate, 
 and those who are for immediate, but not for grad- 
 ual extinction of slavery. It is easy to conceive that 
 all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be 
 sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men. 
 Yet, all being for the Union, by reason of these dif- 
 ferences each will prefer a different way of sus- 
 taining the Union. At once sincerity is questioned, 
 and motives are assailed. Actual war coming, blood 
 grows hot, and blood is spilled. Thought is forced 
 from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds 
 and thrives. Confidence dies and universal sus- 
 picion reigns. Each man feels an impulse to kill 
 his neighbor, lest he be first killed by him. Revenge 
 and retaliation follow. And all this, as before said, 
 may be among honest men only. But this is not all. 
 Every foul bird comes abroad and every dirty rep- 
 tile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong 
 measures deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, 
 such men make worse by maladministration. Mur- 
 ders for old grudges, and murders for pelf, proceed 
 
350 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 under any cloak that will best cover for the occa- 
 sion. These causes amply account for what has 
 occurred in Missouri, without ascribing it to the 
 weakness or wickedness of any general. . . 
 
 I concur in the propriety of your request in re- 
 gard to elections, and have, as you see, directed 
 General Schofield accordingly. I do not feel justi- 
 fied to enter upon the broad field vou present in re- 
 gard to the political differences between Radicals 
 and Conservatives. From time to time I have done 
 and said what appeared to me proper to do and say. 
 The public knows it all. It obliges nobody to follow 
 me, and I trust it obliges me to follow nobody. The 
 Radicals and Conservatives each agree with me in 
 some things and disagree in others. I could wish 
 both to agree with me in all things ; for then they 
 would agree with each other, and would be too 
 strong for any foe from any quarter. They, how- 
 ever, choose to do otherwise, and I do not question 
 their right. I, too, shall do what seems to be my 
 duty. I hold whoever commands in Missouri, or 
 elsewhere, responsible to me, and not to either Radi- 
 cals or Conservatives. It is my duty to hear all ; 
 but at last I must, within my sphere, judge what 
 to do and what to forbear.^ 
 
 Nowhere, perhaps, is Lincoln more clearly re- 
 vealed, in the language of Lowell, as 
 
 "The kindly-earnest, brave, forseeing man, 
 Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame." 
 
 He was obliged to refuse the demands of these Rad- 
 icals, and to let them know that the reins of mastery 
 lay in his hands. But his own sympathies were with 
 
 ^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII, p. 22. 
 
RADICAL SUCCESSES 351 
 
 them, because of the integrity and sincerity of their 
 poHtical views. Some weeks later, as recorded by 
 his secretary, Mr. Hay, he gave utterance to a re- 
 mark which may be accepted as the most fitting 
 characterization of this party. "I beheve after all," 
 he said, "those Missouri Radicals will carry their 
 State, and I do not object to it. They are nearer to 
 me than the other side in thought and sentiment, 
 though bitterly hostile personally. They are the 
 unhandiest fellows in the world to deal with; but 
 after all, their faces are set Zionward."^ 
 
 President Lincoln's forecast of the political re- 
 sults in Missouri proved correct. At the election 
 held November 3, 1863, the Radicals made some 
 gains and won a slight victory, the soldiers' vote 
 being cast almost unanimously for their ticket. In 
 January, 1864, occurred the death of Governor 
 Gamble, the most conspicuous leader of the Con- 
 servatives. This materially weakened the party, and 
 as the Presidential election of that year came on, 
 the Conservatives as an organization practically 
 went to pieces. The voters of Democratic ante- 
 cedents returned to the Democratic fold, and sup- 
 ported McClellan, on the Chicago platform which 
 declared the war a failure ; while those of Whig and 
 Republican origin, little by little fused with the 
 Radicals. The hostility of the latter to Lincoln 
 proved more a matter which concerned the leaders 
 than the rank and file ; and despite the opposition of 
 some German Fremonters, Lincoln carried the State 
 
 ^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII, p. 220. 
 
352 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 by 40,000 majority. At this election, for the first 
 time since the beginning of the war, State officers 
 were chosen ; and the entire Radical ticket, with 
 Governor Thomas C. Fletcher at its head, was 
 elected by a similar vote. In the elections to the 
 General Assembly, the Radicals secured a majority 
 of the Senate, and three-fourths of the lower house. 
 And finally it was decided that a new Constitutional 
 Convention be called, whose first action should be to 
 pass an immediate emancipation ordinance; and of 
 the delegates chosen to this body, three-fourths 
 were taken from the Radical party. 
 
 General Smith was one of the electors on the Lin- 
 coln ticket at this election, and took an active part 
 in the canvass. He was also chosen to a seat for 
 the Sixteenth district in the State Senate. In the 
 organization of that body his long and unswerving 
 devotion to Radical Union views procured for him 
 the unanimous election as president pro tern.; he 
 was also appointed to the committees on claims, 
 State lands, and county records, and was made 
 chairman of the committee on elections. His rela- 
 tions with Governor Fletcher were intimate and 
 cordial. "Circumstances placed me in the most 
 prominent position at that time in Missouri," wrote 
 the latter in after days, "and upon the judgment, 
 discretion and heroic patriotism of General George 
 R. Smith, I reHed as much as upon that of any 
 other man in Missouri." "When the days of recon- 
 struction came," he continues in another place, 
 "among those with whom I conferred was General 
 
IN THE STATE SENATE 353 
 
 Smith ; and he said to me : 'Tell the President that 
 we will do our own reconstruction.' I so told Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, and we did our own reconstruction." 
 
 On January 24, 1865, General Smith introduced 
 into the Senate the concurrent resolution which fol- 
 lows, the object of which was to vacate certain civil 
 and military offices in the State, the holders of which 
 were lukewarm in the support of the war : 
 
 Whereas, The loyal people of this State, on the 
 8th day of November last, by more than forty thou- 
 sand majority, emphatically declared in favor of the 
 unity of these United States, and a speedy suppres- 
 sion of this unholy war, begun and now carried on 
 by Southern traitors and Northern sympathizers ; 
 
 And zL'hereas, A large number of this latter class 
 are known to occupy important civil as well as mili- 
 tary offices in this State ; therefore. 
 
 Be it resolved, By the Senate, the House of Rep- 
 resentatives concurring therein. That the Constitu- 
 tional Convention now in session in the city of St. 
 Louis be requested to pass an ordinance vacating all 
 the civil offices of this State, the incumbents of 
 which were elected or appointed previous to the 8th 
 day of November last, and that his Excellency, the 
 Governor of the State, is hereby respectfully re- 
 quested to have dismissed from any of the military 
 offices of this State all persons who, in any manner, 
 sympathized with the South in 1861, so that the 
 rights of Union men may be secured in this Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The resolution was referred to the Committee on 
 Judiciary, and was reported February 4, with the 
 
354 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 recommendation that it do not pass. On the loth 
 the resolution was called up by General Smith, who 
 advocated its passage in "a lengthy and argumenta- 
 tive speech." The address which he delivered at 
 this time was published in pamphlet form, after 
 undergoing some revision ; and from this, the fol- 
 lowing extracts are taken : 
 
 I have not introduced this resolution to advance 
 a single personal claim or to manufacture one 
 jot of political capital. My position, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, as far as I am known, is and always has been 
 well understood ; I have nothing to make and noth- 
 ing to lose by the present avowal of my opinions. 
 So long and so intimately have I been connected 
 with the Radical party, that its glory is in part mine, 
 and no ungrateful hand could, if it would, wrench 
 it from me ; nor can I evade its responsibilities. But 
 if ever its day of shame shall come — and come it 
 may — I shall enter into the shadow of its red mantle 
 without a murmur. 
 
 One principle, Mr. President, and one alone, 
 prompts me ; that, sir, is to correct an outrage, — • 
 such an outrage as every Union man in Missouri 
 will bear me out in saying has been and is to-day 
 a disgrace — a burning shame — a damning outrage 
 — upon the Union party, most reluctantly and griev- 
 ously borne by us ever since this unholy and iniqui- 
 tous war was forced upon our Government by a 
 bloated and effete aristocracy. 
 
 Go where you may, throughout this State — and 
 I understand the same facts exist in every other 
 State — and you will find in all the departments of 
 Government, either civil or military, in many, very 
 many — perhaps a majority — of the offices, incum- 
 bents, clerks, or employes, who were known rebels 
 
SPEECH 355 
 
 or rebel sympathizers in 1861, and who are now 
 only ostensibly loyal through self-interest. . . . 
 And now, Mr. President, I appeal to Senators upon 
 this floor — I implore them — to give this subject their 
 serious consideration. Shall this condition of things 
 longer exist, without an effort at reform ? I am not 
 bold in declaring, what is on the lips of every truly 
 loyal man, that this class of officials cast the weight 
 of their office and their personal influence on the 
 side of treason. Yielding obedience to the letter of 
 law, they violate its spirit. . . 
 
 Do they never declare for the rebellion? Equally 
 reticent are they in behalf of our Government. Do 
 they not build bonfires over rebel successes? They 
 are alike stoical when a Union victory electrifies the 
 heart of the nation. Does our Government find it 
 necessary to encroach upon the ancient and hereto- 
 fore recognized rights of the South (rights no 
 longer, however) ? With what "holy horror" do 
 these hypocritical pharisees roll their eyes Heaven- 
 ward, and shudder for the fate of the blessed "chiv- 
 alry !" But when civilization is outraged, as at Fort 
 Pillow, Lawrence, and Centralia, and when the 
 scalping knife of the guerilla is seen all over our 
 devoted State, — when flags are at half mast, and a 
 black pall is upon our land, and we miss our Lyons, 
 our Bakers, our McPhersons, and our thousands of 
 other noble dead ; what one of these galvanized 
 Union men was ever known to recoil from such 
 barbarism, or propose a monument to the departed 
 great? Be not deceived. Remember Price's last 
 raid. Their hearts are deceitful above all else, and 
 desperately wicked. 
 
 Mr. President, during the continuance of this re- 
 bellion men of this stripe can not be — ought not to 
 be — trusted in office. No one can faithfully serve 
 two masters at the same time, even though both be 
 
356 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 after the manner of his liking; much less can he 
 love the one and serve the other. 
 
 Sir, the duty of every American citizen is at war 
 with neutrality toward this rebellion, and obliges 
 him to lend the energies of his heart and hand to 
 its suppression. He must be more than as a stranger 
 to its interests ; he must be its active enemy. This is 
 the service every citizen owes his Government ; and 
 it is absolutely impossible and incompatible with a 
 single emotion of love or sympathy for treason. 
 Every officer under our Government is in duty 
 "bound to wield all the power in his hands against 
 the traitors who are striving to blot out our nation- 
 ality. . . 
 
 Grant, however, that thus burdened we can still 
 outride the storm. Is it wise? Is it just? These 
 are important questions that the members of this 
 body can not consider too gravely. Is not rebellion, 
 in a bad cause against a humane Government, a 
 serious crime? Can a nation let crime go unpun- 
 ished with impunity? Is disloyalty a virtue, with a 
 virtuous claim upon the patronage of the Govern- 
 ment against which it has raised the fratricidal 
 hand ? Can any Government afford to disregard de- 
 voted loyalty and offer a premium for treason ? . . 
 
 Sir, there is one fact known to us all that makes 
 the practice against which this resolution militates 
 especially obnoxious. It is this : Throughout our 
 whole State there are thousands of men whose loy- 
 alty breathes the spirit of martyrdom, whom this 
 war has reduced to penury and unspeakable suffer- 
 ing, and whose wives and daughters eke out a 
 miserable existence, supporting themselves by 
 drudgeries hitherto unknown to them. Let your 
 eyes sweep over our prairies, our valleys, and our 
 hills, and see the desolated condition of our State ; 
 behold the thousands of solitary chimneys, charred 
 
SPEECH 357 
 
 monuments testifying in their mournful solitude 
 that here was once the abode of a family who lived 
 in comfort, perhaps in affluence, guiltless of treason, 
 therefore broken up, scattered, beggared — nay 
 more, their fathers, husbands, and sons, in many 
 cases, murdered; their bones lie unburied upon the 
 soil they loved so well ; their crime was devotion to 
 the Government their fathers bequeathed them. 
 
 Let us deal thoughtfully and kindly with those 
 who remain. Go west and southwest of my home, 
 through what may be appropriately termed the Val- 
 ley of Death. Occasionally may be seen a farm- 
 house still standing, the farm unmolested, the family 
 still in peace. Nine cases out of ten, that family are 
 rebels — a father or son, perhaps, in the rebel army. 
 And now, sir, I appeal to the good sense of this 
 legislature in behalf of these long oppressed, down 
 trodden, suffering loyalists. Through refining fires 
 and sore trials of revolution they have remained 
 true and faithful to this glorious Union. Is it right 
 that they should go needy while the wealth of the 
 Government is lavished by thousands, nay millions, 
 upon those who were armed rebels or rebel sympa- 
 thizers in 1 86 1, and who are now only loyal so far 
 as self-interest and oaths constrain them ? If wrong 
 (and I honestly believe we are), in the name of 
 God who has so long scourged us for our sins, let 
 us do right; let patriots be rewarded and traitors 
 punished. 
 
 On the 8th day of last November the Radical 
 Union party took possession of this State and en- 
 tered upon its control. Its destiny, for weal or woe, 
 is in our keeping. Two of the departments of the 
 Government are now under the control of the Radi- 
 cal party. As one of that party, I am free to declare 
 that, as we are to be responsible for its administra- 
 tion, that administration should be in its own hands. 
 
358 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 I am aware that in ordinary times this could not be ; 
 but now it so turns out that the people, in Conven- 
 tion assembled, have the power to do all that is 
 necessary for the safety and prosperity of the State. 
 I would not have the offices referred to in the reso- 
 lution now before us vacated for my party's sake, 
 except to secure the good of this great State. I be- 
 lieve in no other way can we so effectually protect 
 our citizens and secure harmony in all the depart- 
 ments of State. I believe we owe it, in justice, to 
 the long-suffering Unionists of the land ; I believe 
 it richly merited by those upon whom it may fall. 
 With traitors I have no fellowship, and desire none. 
 I know no grades in loyalty. "He who is not for us 
 is against us ;" and here, Mr. President, I do most 
 solemnly declare, that so far as my acts as a legisla- 
 tor are concerned, I will vote for no bill or resolu- 
 tion that accords to traitors or sympathizers with 
 treason equality with loyalists. They may return 
 to some of the privileges of citizenship, but must 
 be content with an humble position. They have, by 
 their own act, forfeited every right once enjoyed 
 in our Government, and no act of mine shall restore 
 them again to the proud title of American citizens. 
 I may forgive the erring beardless boys, not fully 
 citizens ere they became traitors, but not now ; no, 
 sir, not now. Born and educated as I was, in what 
 has been known in common parlance as "the South," 
 and all my associations and teachings "South" — 
 never having so much as visited a free State previ- 
 ous to this rebellion — I know well how adroitly, 
 cunningly, and designedly the poison of sectional 
 prejudice has been instilled into the minds of our 
 youth. Therefore it is that I can make some allow- 
 ance for them ; but not yet. They must do penance 
 for a season, that they may fully appreciate the 
 proud declaration, "I am an American citizen." 
 
SPEECH 359 
 
 Mr. President, in further justification of the reso- 
 lution under consideration, let me very briefly refer 
 to some of the results of this unholy war. 
 
 In the spring of 1861, just previous to the out- 
 break of this rebellion, our State was never in so 
 prosperous a condition. Her wealth was founded 
 upon the most productive agriculture ; her com- 
 merce was daily enlarging its dominions ; her manu- 
 factures were advancing to place and influence ; her 
 mountains of iron, her beds of other minerals and 
 coal, enough to supply the demands of the whole 
 world, were being rapidly developed; her railroads 
 progressing rapidly to completion ; her universities, 
 colleges, seminaries, and schools were filled with 
 the youth of the country ; her churches, for the wor- 
 ship of the only true and living God, were increas- 
 ing in numbers and influence ; every branch of in- 
 dustry met a profitable and rich reward. In a word, 
 all was peace, contentment, and happiness. But in 
 an evil hour, an ambitious and unscrupulous Gov- 
 ernor issued his proclamation for fifty thousand 
 troops to make war against the General Govern- 
 ment. No grievance was complained of, — none 
 could be specified. The citizens of Missouri had re- 
 ceived from that Government nothing but kindness ; 
 they had abundant cause to be grateful, — none 
 whatever for enmity. But O, ingratitude ! stronger 
 than traitors' arms. I need not hesitate to tell the 
 truth ; the world knows our dishonor. With pain 
 and mortification we must confess that thousands of 
 our citizens responded to the call of the arch-traitor, 
 and locked bayonets in deadly strife with those who, 
 for their country, "dared to do and die." 
 
 From thence dates the work of death and devasta- 
 tion. Union men were tortured and shot in the pres- 
 ence of their wives and children. Many of us were 
 compelled to leave our homes and seek safety among 
 
36o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 strangers for our lives, our only crime being devo- 
 tion to that Union our fathers had bequeathed *'as 
 a rich legacy unto their issue." I will not attempt to 
 depict, if I could, the horrors that ensued and are 
 still perpetrated upon Union men. You all know 
 them. Did every wrong have a tongue, the melan- 
 choly story of violence and blood, and "bitter, burn- 
 ing wrongs we have in our hearts' cells shut up," 
 must still go unrelated. Now, as the bloody tragedv 
 seems drawing to a close, what is the condition of 
 our State, so prosperous when first her peace was 
 broken by the clangor of arms? Our people have 
 been wantonly murdered, robbed, and driven from 
 the State ; our agricultural, mechanical, commercial, 
 and mineral interests lie prostrate ; our railroads 
 torn up, bridges burned, and we unable to re-build 
 them; our universities, colleges, and schools aban- 
 doned and ruined; our children uneducated and 
 ignorant ; our asylums for the unfortunate of our 
 race despoiled, robbed, and the unfortunates multi- 
 plied; our churches are become hospitals for the 
 sick and wounded of this war, and we have no more 
 Sabbaths ; our people are ruined by taxation, and 
 the cry for bread is heard in our land ; the farmer 
 is still shot down at his plow, and armies are still 
 eating out our substance. 
 
 Mr. President, this is but a glimpse of the long 
 train of evils entailed upon our people by this most 
 foul and unnatural rebellion, of an unprincipled set 
 of slaveholders and their minions, to extend the 
 area of human slavery. They have dishonored the 
 hitherto unsullied name of America ; they have 
 crushed the prosperity of the commonwealth; they 
 have plunged millions of honest people into the 
 depths of earthly miseries, and cast upon our people, 
 for generations to come, the burden of oppressive 
 taxation ? And why, sir, have they done these 
 
SPEECH 361 
 
 things? Only that the strong might oppress the 
 weak; only that one race of common humanity 
 might break in pieces the image of God in another, 
 and crush out the virtue of the hearts of millions of 
 their fellow creatures. Does not the blood of our 
 murdered brothers cry to us for vengeance? And is 
 not vengeance meet when mercy rewards crime? 
 Does not posterity call to us from the bosom of the 
 future to guard them against a curse like ours, by 
 affixing a penalty to treason that shall for all time 
 be a terror to traitors? Is it urged that those at 
 whom this resolution is directed were but slightly 
 hostile, and but partially culpable? I answer, the 
 punishment proposed is exceedingly light, and far 
 less than they deserve. It only requires them to de- 
 scend from places they hold against the will of the 
 people, as expressed by an overwhelming popular 
 verdict at the last election, and return to more hum- 
 ble spheres, in atonement for ungenerous treatment 
 of misplaced confidence and betrayal of their coun- 
 try. 
 
 I believe the resolution a judicious one, and that 
 the great mass of the Union party of Missouri de- 
 sire its passage. I urge upon their representatives 
 here not to disappoint them, but by their unanimous 
 approval, apply to the State Convention, and to his 
 Excellency, the Governor, to execute the behest it 
 embodies. I have said what I have in its favor from 
 no personal motive ; although, in common with 
 others, I have felt the heavy hand of oppression. 
 Not my own wrongs, but the wrongs of my coun- 
 trymen and my country constitute my sole apology 
 for so long occupying the time of the Senate. . .^ 
 
 In his advocacy of the above resolution, General 
 
 ^ speech of Gen. Geo. R. Smith, delivered in the Missouri State 
 Senate on the lOth of February, 1865. (St. Louis, 1865; 10 pages.) 
 
362 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Smith was joined by half a dozen other Senators, 
 who spoke in favor of its spirit ; but the matter was 
 finally disposed of by a vote, 19 to 9, to lay the reso- 
 lution on the table. The matter was therefore left 
 to the Convention without instruction. 
 
 The final and complete abolition of slavery in the 
 State of Missouri came while General Smith was a 
 member of this Assembly. The Constitutional Con- 
 vention which had been voted at the November elec- 
 tion, 1864, met in St. Louis on January 5, 1865 ; 
 and on the nth the expected ordinance of emanci- 
 pation was passed in the following form : 
 
 Be it ordained by the People of the State of Mis- 
 souri in Convention assembled, That hereafter in 
 this State there shall be neither slavery nor invol- 
 untary servitude, except in punishment of crime 
 whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; 
 and all persons held to service or labor as slaves, 
 are hereby declared free. 
 
 This ordinance was immediately telegraphed to 
 Governor Fletcher at Jefferson City; and on the 
 same day he transmitted to the Senate his proclama- 
 tion embodying and enforcing it. An outburst of 
 the wildest enthusiasm followed. The celebration 
 lasted far into the night. "Every window of the 
 Capitol was illuminated," says one report, "and the 
 very hills of Jefferson were made to lift up their 
 heads and rejoice." Meetings were held at which 
 speeches were made by State Senators and others, 
 and "John Brown" was sung, as the report states, 
 amid immense applause.^ 
 
 ^Annual Cyclopedia, for 1864, p. 554. 
 
SLAVERY ABOLISHED 363 
 
 General Smith's service did not extend beyond 
 the first session of this Assembly. The financial 
 difficulties which had sprung up about him as a re- 
 sult of the war seemed to be growing worse. His 
 income was small, while his expenses were very 
 heavy, the taxes alone on his property in Sedalia 
 amounting to about $10,000 a year. Accordingly, 
 when the post of Assistant United States Assessor 
 was offered him, he thought it best to accept. As a 
 result, a resolution vacating his seat was introduced 
 into the Senate early in November, 1865 ; and on 
 November 23 the resolution was passed, the Gov- 
 ernor was asked to issue the writ for an election to 
 the vacant seat, and a successor to General Smith 
 in the office of president pro tern, of the Senate was 
 soon chosen. With this act his legislative career 
 definitely closed. 
 
 In reviewing General Smith's course in the trying 
 period from 1861 to 1865, no more fitting summary 
 can be found than that given in a letter from Gov- 
 ernor Fletcher, bearing date May 25, 1892: "He 
 was one of the substantial men of Central Missouri 
 who gave his influence to the promotion of every 
 cause that had a tendency to the development of the 
 resources, and the upbuilding of every enterprise 
 for the promotion of the higher and better destiny, 
 of the State. When the war came he exhibited a 
 patriotism that made us all honor and love him. 
 In the dark hours when we were organizing our 
 forces under General Lyon, he came to us earnest 
 and helpful, and cheered us on and aided us in every 
 
364 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 way possible. When we drove Claib. Jackson out 
 of the State, and saved Missouri from being chained 
 to the car wheel of nullification, secession, and re- 
 bellion, he stood beside us a stalwart and fearless 
 Unionist. And when the Convention chose another 
 Governor, he stood beside him, and accepted the po- 
 sition of Adjutant-General of the State, and largely 
 contributed to bring order and system out of the 
 chaos which existed at the time. Later on his great- 
 est service was in the Senate, when the closing 
 scenes of the war came and the days of reconstruc- 
 tion were upon us ; when we required cool and de- 
 liberate judgment, and the nerve that comes from 
 a high intellectual comprehension of the condition 
 of affairs and a firm resolve to dare and do right. 
 . . His hatred of rebellion and disunion men and 
 measures was intense, but his charity for his fellow 
 man in distress and his kind and forgiving nature 
 made him most merciful to a fallen foe ; and we 
 loved him not less for his goodness of heart than 
 for his broad patriotism." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 YEARS OF TRIUMPH, AND LIFE's CLOSE 
 (1866— 1879) 
 
 Radical resolutions, 1866 — Removed from office by Presi- 
 dent Johnson — Settlement of an old financial difficulty — 
 Arbitration of differences with D. W. Bouldin — Suit 
 concerning title to Sedalia lands — Political feeling after 
 the war — The negro boy and the Sunday-school — Dr. 
 William Watson on the issue of the war — State politics, 
 1865-70 — General Smith's course — Liberal-Republican 
 candidate for Congress, 1870 — Candidate for the legisla- 
 ture, 1872 — Mayor of Sedalia, 1864; alderman, 1874-75 — 
 Growth of Sedalia, 1861-79; its influence in Missouri — 
 Last days and death of General Smith — Character and 
 personality — His kindliness, coupled with vehemence of 
 expression — His sense of humor — His religious views — 
 His family life — His political character — Sedalia's tribute' 
 to his memory. 
 
 In the contest over reconstruction, which Presi- 
 dent Johnson provoked after Lincoln's assassina- 
 tion, General Smith as a Radical sided with Con- 
 gress. He was an officeholder under Johnson, but he 
 did not allow that fact to hamper the free expression 
 of his opinions. Among his papers is preserved the 
 draft of a series of resolutions adopted at a meeting 
 in August or September, 1866, of which he was 
 probably the presiding officer. It should be said, to 
 
 365 
 
366 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 understand the occasion, that the Constitution adopt- 
 ed by the Missouri Convention in 1865 contained 
 such rigid quahfications for the suffrage that some 
 20,000 Southern sympathizers were disfranchised 
 and deprived of civil rights ; that the return of tur- 
 bulent spirits to Missouri after the war led to the 
 organization of several bands of marauders who 
 continued the bushwhacking which had so dis- 
 tressed the State during war-times; and that the 
 Convention at New Orleans, to which reference is 
 made, was the reconvened Louisiana Convention of 
 1864, summoned to meet July 30, 1866. Its leaders, 
 according to General Sheridan, the commander of 
 that Department, were "political agitators and revo- 
 lutionary men, and the action of the Convention was 
 liable to produce breaches of the peace ;" but the 
 suppression of it by the mayor and police "with 
 fire-arms, clubs, and knives" was "in a manner so 
 unnecessary and atrocious as to compel [him] to 
 say that it was murder." In these circumstances it 
 is not surprising to learn that "political feeling 
 never ran higher in Missouri," than in the campaign 
 in the fall of 1866.^ This intensity of feeling may 
 easily be seen in the resolutions which follow : 
 
 Whereas, in the wisdom of God, traitors were 
 permitted to crown the crime of treason with the 
 infamy of assassination, whereby the defenders of 
 liberty and humanity were deprived of their honored 
 and trusted leader, and the enemies of Freedom and 
 equal human rights were supplied in the person of 
 
 ^Annual Cyclopedia, for 1866, under "Louisiana" and "Missouri." 
 
RADICAL RESOLUTIONS 367 
 
 Andrew Johnson with a sympathizing friend and 
 leader; and whereas, the fall of Abraham Lincoln 
 and the elevation of Andrew Johnson to power have 
 encouraged the spirit of treason and forced the peo- 
 ple into a new contest to secure the great results of 
 the late war; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, (i) That in the great Union party of 
 the country, whose counsels safely guided the Na- 
 tion through the late conflict of arms and who con- 
 quered the war power of the Rebellion, we recog- 
 nize the party whose principles alone can be relied 
 upon with safety in the reconstruction of the re- 
 bellious States. 
 
 Resolved, (2) That we cordially endorse the 
 policy of Congress with reference to the restoration 
 of the State Governments destroyed by the Rebel- 
 lion ; that we fully approve of the Amendment to 
 the Constitution of the United States submitted for 
 ratification to the people by the XXXIX Congress. 
 
 Resolved, (3) That we heartily approve the stand 
 taken by our Representative (Colonel McClurg) in 
 Congress in demanding equal justice for the colored 
 soldier ; that men who have proved true in camp, on 
 picket, and on the field of battle will do to trust at 
 the polls ; that traitors have no right to vote while 
 loyal citizens are excluded. 
 
 Resolved, (4) That the statesmanship of Andrew 
 Johnson has again raised the rebel flag over the city 
 of New Orleans ; that "my policy" has engendered 
 the demon fury which prompted pardoned traitors 
 in Louisiana to the massacre of a "Convention whose 
 members were conspicuous for their loyalty during 
 the years of war," and that we endorse the senti- 
 ment of General Banks when he said, "Their blood 
 shall be avenged, and in this as in all trials of good 
 men the blood of the martyrs will be the sustenance 
 of the church." 
 
368 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Resolved, (5) That we recognize in Governor 
 Fletcher a true and tried standard-bearer, and en- 
 dorse his late proclamation ; that we pledge our- 
 selves before high heaven to stand by the Constitu- 
 tion and laws of Missouri, and to stand by our own 
 rights as Union men against traitors, Copperheads, 
 and bushwhackers, whether under the lead of rebel 
 or ex-Union officers. 
 
 Resolved, (6) That the widows and orphans of 
 our Union defenders who fell in the war against the 
 slaveholders' Rebellion have our warmest sympa- 
 thies, and we hereby pledge to them our united as- 
 sistance, and never while we live shall it be said 
 they lacked a kindness we could do them. 
 
 Resolved, (7) That a copy of the proceedings of 
 this meeting be published in the Missouri Democrat 
 and Sedalia Times, with the request that loyal pa- 
 pers please copy. 
 
 Whatever part General Smith took in drawing 
 up these resolutions, they certainly represent his 
 views. He felt President Johnson's quarrel with 
 Congress intensely; and he let no opportunity pass 
 of denouncing what seemed to him the President's 
 "traitorous" course. The result was not difficult to 
 foresee. He was notified that he had been removed 
 from his post as Assessor of Internal Revenue ; and 
 on September 30, 1866, he vacated the office, after 
 having held it for a little over a year. 
 
 Shortly before this time General Smith's financial 
 affairs were put on a safer footing. The judgment 
 in favor of Fayette McMullen had hung over him 
 during the years of the war; and when the ma- 
 chinery of the civil courts was set in operation again 
 
DIFFICULTIES SETTLED 369 
 
 in 1864, levy was made upon his property and sale 
 advertised in satisfaction of the judgment. It 
 seemed as though he had exhausted his last re- 
 sources in the attempt to pay the amount or pro- 
 cure delay; but on the day of sale, his friend and 
 neighbor, Major William Gentry, arrived with a 
 considerable sum of money, obtained from the sale 
 of cattle at St. Louis. "Here is property," said the 
 General to him, in explaining his plight, "that will 
 bring over a hundred thousand dollars inside of six 
 months^ about to be sold to pay a comparatively 
 small indebtedness." The whole amount, he ex- 
 plained, was only some $7,000, and he had already 
 raised $2,500. Major Gentry advanced the balance, 
 and the property was bid in, at the amount of the 
 judgment and costs, in General Smith's name. Thus 
 the results of the labor of the past ten years were 
 saved ; and for this neighborly kindness of Major 
 Gentry, General Smith never ceased to be most 
 grateful. 
 
 In 1867 a settlement was also reached in the tan- 
 gled legal relations which had existed since the be- 
 ginning of the war between General Smith and his 
 partner in the Sedalia venture, Mr. D. W. Bouldin. 
 In the interests of the parties, including: those of the 
 town itself, it was agreed to submit all differences 
 to arbitration. General Smith chose as his repre- 
 sentative Major William Gentry ; Mr. Bouldin 
 selected Mr. Reese Hughes, and these chose as the 
 third Mr. Mentor Thomson. To this board the 
 differences of the parties were submitted ; and after 
 
370 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the examination of a mass of papers, the arbitra- 
 tors practically waived the attempt to strike a bal- 
 ance between conflicting claims, and decided that 
 neither party owed the other anything. It was some- 
 thing, no doubt, to have the mass of claims and 
 counter-claims cleared away ; but General Smith 
 always felt that justice was not rendered him in the 
 matter. 
 
 In this connection mention should be made of a 
 suit concerning the lands which General Smith 
 bought in 1856 of the McVey heirs. A tract of a 
 hundred and sixty-six acres in extent had been sold 
 at private sale by Absolom McVey, as guardian and 
 curator for his minor children, at a price consider- 
 ably in excess of its appraised value ; and upon this 
 tract the city of Sedalia was laid out. In 1866, ten 
 years after the purchase, when the lands in ques- 
 tion had greatly increased in value, suit was 
 brought, nominally on behalf of the McVey heirs, 
 to set aside the sale. It was claimed that the report 
 of the sale by Mr. McVey, as curator, had not been 
 made to the proper term of the county court ; that 
 the appraisement was invalid for the reason that 
 the appraisers' names were not appended to the 
 certificate ; and that the order of sale was void, as 
 the county court had no authority to order a pri- 
 vate sale. 
 
 Many lots in this tract had been sold by General 
 Smith to other persons, and the holders of these 
 found their titles threatened. Meetings were held 
 to devise means of compromising the matter, but 
 
WINS LAND SUIT 371 
 
 they were told that nearly $50,000 was demanded 
 before quit-claim deeds would be granted. General 
 Smith would listen to no suggestion of compromise, 
 and fought the case from court to court. The mat- 
 ter was finally carried to the Supreme Court of 
 Missouri, and an opinion was rendered in 1869, 
 establishing the legality of the sale. The closing 
 paragraph of the opinion, which was given by 
 Judge Morgan, embodies the gist of the matter : 
 
 The property was regularly appraised by the 
 curator, and it sold for largely more than the ap- 
 praised value; and the purchaser has long since 
 paid the purchase money. That money went into 
 the hands of the curator, and constituted, a portion 
 of the funds of his ward. The curatorship is stiil 
 open and unsettled, and the curator is competent to 
 act. One party has got the money, and the other 
 party is entitled to the lands. The parties have not 
 changed their condition, and no other equitable 
 rights have intervened. By carrying out the con- 
 tract and approving the sale, equal justice is meted 
 out to all. Whereupon, in my opinion, the judgment 
 of the circuit court should be reversed, and that of 
 the county court sustained. 
 
 This suit caused General Smith much expense 
 and anxiety. Mr. McVey, from whom the land was 
 purchased, was living at the time, but refused to be 
 a party to the litigation. 'T acted as I then thought 
 and now think," he wrote in a controversy which 
 subsequently arose in the public press, "for the best 
 interests of my children. They are as dear to me 
 as 's children are to him. General Smith paid 
 
372 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 me a fair price for the land ; he acted honorably and 
 fairly in that transaction, as he has in every one he 
 has had with me, and I desire to do the same by 
 him." 
 
 The bitter legacy of heartburnings and hatreds 
 which civil war leaves, is one of its saddest features. 
 The very intimacy of former intercourse lends in- 
 tensity to the struggle, and its memory afterward 
 keeps alive the old rancors. Peace is observed only 
 in outward acts. The desire for revenge and re- 
 taliation lingers on. Actual hostilities cease ; but 
 neither party can forget nor immediately forgive 
 the losses, pecuniary and personal, which it has 
 suffered at the hands of its antagonist. 
 
 These considerations go far to explain the rela- 
 tions which subsisted during and after the war be- 
 tween General Smith and his fellow-townsmen of 
 Southern sympathies. They held him responsible, 
 in some sort, for the losses they had sustained and 
 the humiliations that had been put upon them. He 
 could only view them — as a class — as "abominable 
 scoundrels," and "traitors." But the picture is not 
 without its brighter side. When approached for 
 alms by a discharged Confederate soldier, General 
 Smith could upbraid the man, in his characteristic 
 fashion, as "one of the abominable scoundrels who 
 sought to break up the country, and who ought to 
 be hanged;" but his practical goodness of heart 
 would not permit him to let the man go without the 
 aid he asked. 
 
THE NEGRO BOY :,yz 
 
 The following anecdote narrated by Mrs. Smith, 
 while illustrating the tension of feeling at the time, 
 shows also some marked features of General Smith's 
 character : 
 
 In the little old church that first attested the faith 
 of the Christian people after their removal from 
 Georgetown, there was enacted in 1868 a scene that 
 will illustrate, better than anything I can think of, 
 the feeling that existed between the two political 
 parties — of those, namely, who had been loyal and 
 willing to stand by the Government, no matter to 
 what sacrifice it led; and those who had thought 
 only of their rights and the preservation of slavery. 
 
 Among the negroes who had been left on our 
 hands when our slaves left us, was a little boy 
 about eight years of age, whose mother had deserted 
 him. This boy became the pet of our household. 
 We kept him in "the house" with us and cared for 
 him, washing and dressing him ourselves. We de- 
 lighted to teach him ; and as we knew the old fa- 
 miliar words of tfie Bible so well from our mother's 
 constant teaching, it was easy for us to hear him 
 read from its pages while we were at work. In this 
 way he became very familiar with the simple stories 
 of the Old Testament, and with the touching pathos 
 of the teachings of Christ and his apostles. Our 
 father talked much at the fireside on the subjects 
 of religion and politics, in both of which he realized 
 fully and equally his responsibility to his Creator; 
 and the little fellow, impressed by the earnestness 
 of his deliverances, often attracted our attention by 
 repeating verbatim his words, with his gestures and 
 vehemence. The "botheration" of our father, and 
 "the abominable scoundrels who are breaking up 
 our government," were amusing as they fell from 
 
374 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 the lips of the Httle Ethiopean ; and when he would 
 quote the wonderful and beautiful words of the 
 Bible it was none the less interesting. 
 
 He was very bright, and my sister took especial 
 delight in dressing him nicely, and taking him with 
 her to the Sunday-School. In a little green velvet 
 cap and jacket, with brass buttons shining no less 
 than his bright eyes and teeth, he sat behind the 
 door, just at the entrance, where he could Hsten to 
 the singing. The superintendent, a man recently 
 from Indiana, was of like sentiments with ourselves. 
 He would permit the boy to take a little book every 
 Sunday, and return it the next, but the prejudice 
 against educating negroes was so great that soon an 
 outcry arose. The people, both officers and scholars, 
 tired of his attendance, talked of his expulsion, and 
 the boys threw stones at him when school was over. 
 At last our father, unwilling to stand this, appeared 
 before the church and told them there was one 
 thing he wanted to say, when they talked of putting 
 that boy out of Sunday-School. He wanted them 
 distinctly to understand that he was a part of his 
 family, and that when that boy was put out, he and 
 his family would go, too. 
 
 All this while an aunt of ours, who was strongly 
 vSouthern in her feelings, was bringing a little negro 
 girl to church with her as an attendant every Sun- 
 day; and this girl would go up to the stove and sit 
 down with the white children to warm herself, and 
 nothing was thought of it. But she was not a pu- 
 pil ; they were not educating her. It was this, it 
 seemed, which made the one case endurable and 
 the other objectionable. 
 
 It was natural that social and political intoler- 
 ance should linger long after the war came to . an 
 end. It is refreshing to find pro-slavery men who 
 
SOUTHERN OPINIONS 375 
 
 frankly accepted the issue of the contest, and sought 
 to make the best of matters. Such was Dr. Wilkins 
 Watson, who (July 30, 1865) wrote General 
 Smith : 
 
 You were wiser than us all ! In saying this I am 
 free from any desire to flatter you. I but render a 
 tribute to Truth, the deity at whose shrine none but 
 fools are ashamed to worship. I accept the situa- 
 tion. I was a pro-slavery man decidedly, but no 
 secessionist ; and I never can forget or forego a 
 certain "solemn obligation" to be a "quiet citizen" 
 of the State, and faithful to the government that is 
 over me, refusing to engage in plots and conspira- 
 cies. Government is a human necessity, and may 
 and must bear lightly or heavily on the governed 
 according as exigencies may require. 
 
 The negroes are free! and the material element 
 of discord removed, never to be replaced. How 
 these populations are to get along together may be a 
 difficult problem to solve. Of one thing I am con- 
 vinced ; and that is the agricultural labor necessary 
 in the South will be as cheap, or cheaper, perhaps, 
 than heretofore. Men like myself, raised in the 
 South, are disposed to think it impossible to do 
 without slaves ! They are startled from their pro- 
 priety by the suggestion. They must and will very 
 soon surrender the fallacy, taught by an experience 
 somewhat bitter, but salutary. 
 
 In the summer of 1868, General Smith took his 
 elder daughter, Mrs. Smith, to the East for medical 
 treatment. A few months before (February 20), 
 his younger daughter, Sarah Elvira, had married an 
 estimable gentleman, Mr. Henry S. Cotton, and to 
 them he now wrote the following letter : 
 
376 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Washington, D. C, June ii, 1868. 
 My dear Children : 
 
 Heretofore I have rehed on your sister to keep 
 you advised of our whereabouts ; now that I have 
 left her, I must attend to that duty myself. 
 
 I reached here this evening from Philadelphia, 
 where I spent two nights and a day with Mr. 
 Clement and his family [relatives of the lad Spen- 
 cer, who, in 1857, had run off with some of General 
 Smith's slaves]. They were very kind and hospit- 
 able. It is pleasant to meet such generous, cordial 
 hospitality. They have five children, two of them 
 daughters. The oldest of the family is a daughter, 
 who spent last year in Europe. Her father made her 
 read me some of her letters home ; they were equal, 
 if, indeed, they did not surpass anything I have 
 ever seen. She is highly educated, but — like all the 
 ladies I have seen in this country — not handsome. 
 
 I shall leave for home next Monday ; will stop a 
 day in St. Louis, and if I have good luck will be at 
 home Friday or Saturday following. Write to me 
 at St. Louis, directing to the care of B. F. Hick- 
 man, Esq. Your sister thought she was improving. 
 Farewell. G. R. Smith. 
 
 From 1865 to 1870 the Republican party was 
 in control of the State, largely by virtue of the 
 disfranchising clauses in the Constitution of 1865. 
 As disorder and war hatreds died down, an agitation 
 arose for universal amnesty and the repeal of the 
 "iron-clad" oath for voters, jurymen, ministers, 
 lawyers, teachers, etc. The result was a division of 
 the party into two opposing factions, the Radicals 
 and the Liberals. The Democrats, because of dis- 
 franchisement, were in a hopeless minority at the 
 
STATE POLITICS 377 
 
 polls; they thought it the part of wisdom, in the 
 election of November, 1870, to refrain from nomi- 
 nations of their own, and to support the Liberal 
 ticket. The combination was successful, B. Gratz 
 Brown being elected Governor over Joseph W. Mc- 
 Clurg, who was candidate for re-election on the 
 Radical ticket. At the same time the disfranchising 
 clauses of the Constitution were repealed by a ma- 
 jority of 111,000 votes, — the Liberal party having 
 "declared unequivocally" in favor of repeal, and 
 the Radicals, ''concurring in the propriety" of the 
 submission of the question to the people, having 
 recognized ''the right of any member of the party 
 to vote his honest convictions." In spite of the en- 
 franchisement of the negro by the Fifteenth Amend- 
 ment, proclaimed in March of the same year, this 
 put the control of the State completely into the 
 hands of the Democratic party, a control which w^as 
 cemented by a revision of the Constitution in 1875. 
 During these years General Smith took but little 
 part in politics, as compared with his former activ- 
 ity. He was now getting along in years ; and his 
 business interests made constantly enlarged de- 
 mands upon his attention. It was impossible, how- 
 ever, for him to lose his interest in political mat- 
 ters, or to refrain wholly from participation. Upon 
 the incorporation of Sedalia in 1864, he was named 
 in the charter as its first mayor, serving until the 
 election in April, 1864. In 1868, his name was men- 
 tioned for the governorship. At this time he was 
 still a thorough-going Radical. In national politics, 
 
378 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 in common with many Republicans of the day, he 
 ascribed "the failure to kick Johnson out of the 
 Presidency" on impeachment, to *'the treachery of 
 a few bought-up Senators ;" and upon J. B. Hen- 
 derson, Senator from Missouri, who was one of the 
 five Republicans whose votes acquitted the Presi- 
 dent, he wished to see visited "the infamy he so 
 richly deserves" for his independent course. "I* 
 have never had any faith in him," he wrote Mrs. 
 Cotton, May 28, 1868, "and I hope no honest 
 Radical will ever trust him again." 
 
 In 1870 General Smith joined the Liberal Re- 
 publican movement ; and after the wuiidrawal of 
 Colonel E. S. King, of Jefferson City, he entered 
 the contest with S. S. Burdett, the regular Repub- 
 lican nominee, for Congress. The latter was ranked 
 as one of the best orators of the West, and General 
 Smith began his canvass, as in 1858, only a few 
 weeks before the election. He made an able cam- 
 paign, but was defeated by a small majority, carry- 
 ing his own county by 250 votes. Soon after this, 
 he returned to the regular branch of the Republi- 
 can party. In 1872 he was nominated as candidate 
 for the legislature, but made little effort to secure 
 an election, and was again defeated. In 1874, and 
 in 1875, he was elected alderman of Sedalia, seek- 
 ing the office with a view to exposing what he con- 
 ceived to be frauds in the tax assessments. Except 
 for this service, he may be considered to have re- 
 tired from politics after the campaign of 1872. He 
 was now upwards of sixty-eight years of age, and 
 
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GROWTH OF SEDALIA 379 
 
 from his first coming to Missouri, forty years be- 
 fore, had labored assiduously for liberal political 
 principles and the material betterment of the com- 
 munity and section in which he lived. He had 
 earned his release from the burdens of politics, and 
 might well leave the struggle to younger men. 
 
 During these years General Smith had seen Se- 
 dalia grow and flourish until it approached the city 
 of his dreams. The stagnation which attended tlie 
 outburst of war lasted until the summer of 1862. 
 Thenceforth, till peace was declared, the place was 
 a military post, and in spite of occasional rebel 
 raids a thriving business developed. The town be- 
 came and remained, until about 1870, the depot for 
 a considerable trade with the country lying to the 
 west and southwest, in which hides, furs, pelts, and 
 cattle were exchanged for the supplies needed in 
 those regions, untouched as yet by railroads. At the 
 close of the war, the population of Sedalia was only 
 1,000, and the little town bore every mark of its 
 newness. By the date of General Smith's death, in 
 1879, it had developed into a city of nearly ten thou- 
 sand inhabitants, with paved streets, gas and water 
 works, an opera house, and three railroads, making 
 it the distributing center for an extensive region. 
 In this development he had borne his part, being 
 active in the negotiations to bring the Lexington 
 and St. Louis, and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas 
 railroads to Sedalia. But in working now for the 
 development of the community, he was not left 
 to bear the burdens so nearly alone. The new 
 
38o LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 settlers who had come to SedaHa since the war 
 were largely of Northern lineage, and were pos- 
 sessed of greater energy and business capacity than 
 the Georgetown settlers and the Heath creek aristo- 
 crats of former days. Younger men were ready to 
 assume the labor of these undertakings and carry 
 them through with efficiency and dispatch. Build- 
 ing on the foundations already laid, and working in 
 many cases along lines already marked out, the re- 
 sult was the establishment, on Southern soil, of a 
 town of a new type. Sedalia became an outpost of 
 Northern business ideas and habits ; and from it as 
 from a center radiated an influence which materially 
 aided the transition from a regime of slavery to 
 one of free labor, and placed Western and South- 
 western Missouri in the path of prosperity, intelli- 
 gence, and happiness. 
 
 For some years before his death General Smith 
 was troubled with a painful disease, but charac- 
 teristically sought to keep all knowledge of his suf- 
 fering from his family. Neglect caused the disease 
 to grow worse, until finally it took a fatal turn. 
 After an illness of sixteen days, it ended his life 
 on July II, 1879. Of these last days Mrs. Cotton 
 gives the following account : 
 
 On the morning of the 25th of June I was awak- 
 ened by my father's voice calling to me and say- 
 ing : 'T am going to Hughesville to-day." I sprang 
 up and urged him to wait for his breakfast; he re- 
 plied that he would get breakfast in Hughesville — 
 that he had barely time to meet the train. So, bid- 
 
ILLNESS AND DEATH 381 
 
 ding me good-by, he rushed out of the house with 
 his accustomed vim. 
 
 The day wore on with its torrid heat. When the 
 train was due at 11 :oo p.m., the man brought him 
 home. I was waiting and greeting him with : ''How 
 are you, Pa?" He repHed, 'T am sick; let me have 
 a good drink of water, and I will go to bed." Think- 
 ing it a passing malady, we too went to bed. Dur- 
 ing the night he called up his ''boy." I went into 
 his room and urged him to have a doctor ; he re- 
 plied : "If I am not better at daybreak, I will send 
 for Dr. Trader." The morning found him no better. 
 The doctor came, and was surprised to find him so 
 ill. Day after day we watched anxiously at his bed- 
 side, and day after day his strength failed; but so 
 slowly did it go that we did not realize his condi- 
 tion. His sick-room was one where his friends loved 
 to gather ; he was so peaceful and cheerful we could 
 not feel that his life was going. 
 
 On the 4th of July the doctors realized that his 
 condition was very critical. That day he said to his 
 nephew, Mr. Wilkerson : "I am fully aware of the 
 situation ;" but he did not want anything said to his 
 children about it. So, day after day, in the full pos- 
 session of his powers and faculties, he waited for 
 death. He asked for no prayers, called for no at- 
 torneys ; but like a child on its mother's bosom, he 
 passed out beyond the bar into the fathomless ocean 
 of eternity. Yet who can know what spirit-friends 
 were around that bed of death — what tender tokens 
 of love the Elder Brother gave that dying soul? 
 Some little things there were that warrant these 
 fancies ; but they are too sacred — too sweet — to be 
 here set down. 
 
 His life had been a benediction to his friends. He 
 had been strength to the weak, and a power for 
 
382 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 good all the days of his three score and fifteen years. 
 And at last, when he passed from this life, he went 
 
 ". . . not like the quarry-slave at night, 
 Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed 
 By an unfaltering trust, [approached his] grave 
 Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
 About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 
 
 It remains to present some estimate of the char- 
 acter and personality of the man. 
 
 General Smith was of large mold in every way, — 
 large and generous in heart, as well as of noble 
 presence and physique. He was upwards of six 
 feet in height, and from his broad chest proceeded 
 a deep and resonant voice. His features were of 
 the expressive sort that light up with laughter and 
 joviality, or darken with wrath and denunciation. 
 The underlying and never-failing trait of his char- 
 acter was kindliness. Despite his vehement denun- 
 ciations of men and measures, his hatreds were all 
 in the abstract. ''He and I differed widely in poli- 
 tics," wrote a friend in 1889, "yet there was no man 
 whom I approached more readily, and whose opin- 
 ion was more cherished on any and all subjects than 
 that of General Smith. . . . Although at times 
 erratic in expression, he was at heart one of the best 
 men I ever knew ; having a heart, when rightly ap- 
 proached, as tender as a child's. Suffering in ani- 
 mal or man touched the very innermost feelings of 
 his noble heart, and no one ever responded more 
 cheerfully toward its relief. Those of us who 
 
HIS CHARACTER 383 
 
 knew him well knew that one of the prime charac- 
 teristics of the man was that when he was the most 
 intense in expression towards those who differed 
 with him in political or religious sentiments, he 
 could be the most easily reached, and his influence 
 secured towards any relief asked for." *'He had a 
 forcible way of expressing himself," wrote Rev. 
 John H. Miller, a ministerial friend, "especially 
 when warmed with the excitement of debate or con- 
 troversy, which would lead any one not acquainted 
 with him to attribute to him feelings which he did 
 not possess. When talking about the Civil War 
 and the men who fought on the Confederate side, 
 he has often been heard to say : 'If I had had my 
 way every one of the abominable rascals would have 
 been hung.' And yet, those who knew him best 
 knew that his heart was so tender that he could not 
 have been induced to do anything which would 
 have given pain and suffering to a single human 
 being. His heart was easily touched by the suffer- 
 ing of others. A poor woman with several children 
 came into a public dining-room one evening near 
 dusk. She had landed with her little ones from a 
 train on the M. K. and T. R. R. near at hand, and 
 wandered in, not knowing where to go. Her con- 
 dition was one of pity indeed, if she told the truth. 
 Without waiting to hear whether her story was true 
 or not, he reached into his pocket and drew forth 
 a bill of no small denomination, and pressing it into 
 her hand, advised her to seek shelter for herself and 
 children where they would be comfortable." 
 
384 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 Stories similar to the above might be multipUed 
 almost indefinitely. A well developed sense of hu- 
 mor, and love for a good story, were also traits of 
 his character. Of these Mr. Miller writes : 
 
 His mind was well stored with reminiscences and 
 stories of the early times in Missouri, and by his 
 manner and conversation he made himself a very 
 pleasant companion. His appreciation of wit was 
 keen, and he enjoyed a good story or a joke. The 
 idiosyncrasies of some of the singular characters 
 he had come in contact with amused him, and he de- 
 lighted to speak of them to his intimate friends. I 
 have often enjoyed a hearty laugh at his delinea- 
 tion of the church officer he once knew who was 
 given to the habit of profane swearing, but who 
 believed in paying his debts as he went along; and 
 so, after every oath, would pause long enough to 
 say ''God forgive me," and then proceed to swear 
 again, and again exclaim in an aside, like the actor 
 on the stage, "God forgive me ;" and so continue to 
 swear and pray for forgiveness ad iinem. He en- 
 joyed relating this as a jocular hit at me; because, 
 as he said, this particular offender was an officer in 
 a church of my denomination. 
 
 He was especially fond of denouncing, in a good- 
 natured way, the fact that there are so many de- 
 nominations among christians, and used to declare 
 there should be but one, and, of course, that one 
 should be the church of which he was a member, 
 the Christian church. More than once he has said : 
 "Suppose that Paul, the apostle, should come here 
 some Saturday night. He would stop at the Ives 
 House all night. In the morning, as soon as he had 
 had his breakfast, he would say to the clerk, 
 "VVhere is the church?" The clerk would sav, 
 
HIS CHARACTER 585 
 
 "Which church?" Paul would reply, "Why the 
 church where people go to worship God." The 
 clerk would then say, "Well, there is the Methodist 
 church." "The Methodist church?" Paul would 
 say; "I never heard of the Methodist church when 
 I was on the earth." "Then there is the Presby- 
 terian," the clerk would say. "The Presbyterian? 
 What is that?" Paul would ask. "And then there 
 is the Baptist," the clerk would add. "Baptist? 
 Baptist? I do not know anything about a Baptist 
 church ; never heard of one in my life," Paul would 
 say. "Then there are the Episcopalian, the Cath- 
 olic, and the Christian churches." "The Christian, 
 did you say?" Paul would answer. "That is the 
 church for me ; I will go there." 
 
 From preceding chapters it will have been seen 
 that General Smith was essentially a family man. 
 "His memory of his wife," writes Mr. Miller, 
 "was exceedingly beautiful. She had been dead 
 some years before I knew him, but he always re- 
 ferred to her with a tender devotion that showed 
 that when he thought of her he felt that he was 
 standing on holy ground." The loyal attachment 
 to his memory which his daughters have shown in 
 the twenty-five years that have elapsed since his 
 death, constitutes one of the most striking trib- 
 utes to his worth and nobility as a man, and his af- 
 fection as a father. The moderate fortune which 
 he left them, they have tried to administer in his 
 spirit of philanthropic usefulness, with zeal for the 
 best interests of the city which he founded. Their 
 private and public benefactions, equally with this 
 biography, constitute so many tributes to his mem- 
 
386 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 ory ; and their recollections of him are sacred and 
 tender. 
 
 His nature [writes Mrs. Cotton] was ardent and 
 loving, full of the altruism that leads a man to sac- 
 rifice himself for his fellow man ; and with that 
 spirit he filled every post of duty, both at home and 
 abroad, in private and in public life. To my child- 
 hood's fancy he seemed a veritable Cid Campeador. 
 Nothing daunted his indomitable spirit. My timid 
 little mother dreaded the spirited horses which he 
 delighted to drive; but he would say, ''Shut your 
 eyes, and I will carry you safely." This to my 
 young ears was all assuring, and my eyes would 
 close in peaceful serenity. He would laughingly 
 boast that he could drive from Georgetown to 
 Frankfort on ''knitting needles." His riding horse 
 at the time of his marriage was called Patrick 
 Henry; mounted on him he thought he had the 
 world in a sling. He always spoke with pride of 
 being in the company detailed as an escort for the 
 Marquis de Lafayette on his visit to Kentucky. 
 
 He was the incarnation of kindly and loving 
 thoughts. His home was fragrant with the rich 
 perfume of warm affections ; for love filled his soul 
 with its beauty and bloom, and shed its sweetness 
 about him. His nature was full of sympathy and 
 tenderness. Little children, who at first were awed 
 by his stentorian voice, learned to love him and 
 counted him a companion. They would ride with 
 him, walk with him, play with him, and talk with 
 him, in preference to other companions. A radi- 
 ance of sunshine was about him. To each and all 
 there fell from his lips some kindly greeting, 
 whether in the street, at home, or among his serv- 
 ants. If sorrow came across his pathway, he was 
 
HIS CHARACTER 387 
 
 ready with sympathetic words, or, if need be, some 
 more tangible evidence of his interest. 
 
 The wife and children cherished by his great 
 heart were happy ; how could they be otherwise 
 when his strong arm was drawn so closely and lov- 
 ingly about them? In the days before the war, 
 though we lived in a cabin, the luxuries of a palace 
 were ours ; for the big-hearted husband and father 
 would return from his frequent business trips, 
 laden like Santa Claus with surprises and delights 
 for the wife and children at home. His pet names 
 for us children were "father's child" and "father's 
 woman ;" and whenever his eyes fell on us there 
 was a caress, a sweet word of affection, an over- 
 flowing of the full heart. Never were wife and 
 children loved more tenderly than were we ! 
 
 Finer still is the picture which the elder daugh- 
 ter draws of the infinite love and care of the father 
 when, almost at a blow, there came the loss of her 
 little boy, the disruption of her home, and ill-health, 
 the prelude to forty years of invalidism. 
 
 Just after our return home in the fall of 1861, 
 a darker cloud than ever before threw its pall about 
 me ; but my father's deep, divine love, without re- 
 proach, without vituperation for any one, went into 
 the shadow with me, and I was safe. Even with 
 my grief, eternally safe ; and I thank the Maker of 
 all beautiful things that I ever knew such a father. 
 
 Thereafter, my wonderfully tender and beautiful 
 father watched me closely ; and fearing that he saw 
 decline in the face that I tried for his sake to keep 
 cheerful, he came to me and said : "Wherever you 
 want to go, or whatever you want to do, it shall be 
 done." And he never permitted me, in the years 
 
388 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 that he lived, to go away from home, or to come 
 back, alone. He took me to many physicians, in 
 the East as well as the West, and tried hard to re- 
 store me to health ; and through it all he watched 
 over me as though I were a little child. Hence- 
 forth I was his charge. In all the beautiful nine- 
 teen years that followed, I never seemed for one 
 moment a burden to him. Generous, grand, beau- 
 tiful, he served me with a tenderness, chivalry, and 
 devotion that was sweet and marvelously patient. 
 Again I thank God for such a father, such a friend ! 
 
 In politics as in private life General Smith was 
 incapable of dissimulation ; and it may be said that 
 he was ever true to himself, his principles, and his 
 friends. "You always knew exactly where to find 
 him," wrote one who had known him from his 
 Kentucky boyhood days. 
 
 No man's political creed [wrote Judge Fagg] 
 was more firmly fixed in his own mind or more 
 conscientiously and faithfully adhered to than his. 
 He was a strong partisan, it is true, but he was a 
 partisan from principle, and not from mere feeling 
 or prejudice. His conclusions were always intelli- 
 gently reached, after the most patient and thor- 
 ough investigation. He always had the courage of 
 his convictions and the ability to defend them. He 
 was a man, as I read him, of broad views and lib- 
 eral spirit. ... In public life he was always 
 prompt and faithful in the discharge of his duties. 
 With a becoming dignity in his deportment, he was 
 nevertheless easy of approach and exceedingly kind 
 and courteous to all with whom he came in contact. 
 It is a great gratification to me to be able to num- 
 ber General George R. Smith among my personal 
 
HIS CHARACTER 389 
 
 friends, and to know that he received such a large 
 share of the confidence and respect of those who 
 knew him best. I am especially glad to know that 
 he lived to see so many of his hopes and anticipa- 
 tions in life fully gratified. He not only lived to 
 see his pet scheme of the Missouri Pacific railroad 
 finished to the western boundary of the State, but 
 under its influence he saw literally the "desert bloom 
 and blossom as the rose." He saw with feelings of 
 proud satisfaction the spot upon which he had fixed 
 his own domicile covered by a beautiful and pros- 
 perous city — his dearly loved city of Sedalia. He 
 lived to see his country free from the horrors of 
 war, and with a gentle smile of peace and prosper- 
 ity resting upon every hill and valley. It has been 
 the lot of few men in life to have reached the same 
 measure of success and to have passed away with a 
 more sincere regret of their friends and fellows. 
 
 The impression made by General Smith's per- 
 sonal appearance and bearing is indicated in the 
 following statement (dated April 14, 1904) from 
 Dr. Alexander Hamilton Laidlaw, of New York: 
 
 To be in the company of a hero is an inspiration. 
 This fact I never felt so keenly as when I first met 
 General George R. Smith. He had come to New 
 York from Sedalia to place one of his daughters 
 .under my professional care. This was nearly forty 
 years ago. I had seen many heroes before, — brave 
 men, soldiers and civilians in plenty, who had made 
 records of daring; but there was something in 
 General Smith's personality that eclipsed them all, 
 and this feeling was confirmed by many later in- 
 terviews. A giant in stature, with a look of daring 
 capable of dangerous work, and with the bearing of 
 
390 LIFE OF GEORGE R. SMITH 
 
 a man who had won in many hazardous fields of 
 life, he exhibited in his appearance and manner all 
 those qualities that "give the world assurance of a 
 man." A few years before I met him, he had liber- 
 ated his slaves. Democracy was on his side finan- 
 cially; Republicanism was on the side of his coun- 
 try. He was a fierce politician, but he was a greater 
 patriot. His patriotism, at this time, not only di- 
 minished his fortune, but it endangered his life. 
 In talking over this period of his life with him, I 
 know of no words in history which so exactly ex- 
 press his decision, as the words of Martin Luther 
 at the Diet of Worms : ''Here I take my stand. I 
 can do no otherwise, so help me God !" 
 
 As a closing tribute to his memory may be quoted 
 the words in which Sedalia, the city of his pride and 
 love, mourned his loss. In resolutions adopted 
 July 14, 1879, the Common Council of the city de- 
 clared: "General George R. Smith, . . . the 
 founder of our beautiful city, . . . has been 
 thoroughly identified with every material interest, 
 and has been the promoter and active supporter of 
 everything that has tended to build up and make 
 prosperous and happy the people of Sedalia. He 
 was the staunch friend and substantial helper of 
 the poor and the distressed in every time of need ; 
 and while positive in his convictions and resolute 
 and determined in advocating the right and defend- 
 ing against the wrong, yet his great heart of love 
 went out in sympathy and deeds of kindness to the 
 oppressed and needy, without regard to affiliations 
 by blood, or party lines, religion, or otherwise. He 
 
HIS CHARACTER 391 
 
 has been an exceedingly active man, very aggres- 
 sive in his nature, frequently called to fill important 
 positions of public trust. Yet in his varied and ex- 
 tended relations with society as a private citizen he 
 has won the good will and esteem of all ; and in his 
 capacity as a public man he has invariably re- 
 deemed the confidence reposed in him. At the end 
 of a busy life of three-quarters of a century, he 
 goes down to his grave with the escutcheon of his 
 honor untarnished, and respected and loved by all 
 who ever knew him." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abell, Alex. A., 86-7. 
 Acock, Robert, 136, 180. 
 Akers, Thomas P., 253-5. 
 Allen, Thomas, 157, 161-2, 
 
 165-6. 
 Anderson, Thomas, 260, 268, 
 
 270, 
 Atchison, Senator David R., 
 
 124, 181, 190, 212-3, 228. 
 
 Barret, Richard J., 180. 
 
 Benton, Senator Thomas H., 
 66, 81, 82, 83, 88, 1 19-20, 124, 
 177, 181-5, 189-93, 250, 275. 
 
 Bingham, George C, 207. 
 
 Birch, James H., 63, 66-8, 
 73-4, 76, 78-9. 
 
 Birch,Weston F., 75, 76, 81-2, 
 142. 
 
 Blair, Francis P., 180, 231, 
 244, 248, 249, 265-6, 268-70, 
 277, 282, 308,313, 315, 320, 
 
 339- 
 Blakey, A. J., 207, 248. 
 Blow, Henry T., 181. 
 "Blue Lodges," 21 1-2. 
 Bouldin, D. W., 289, 333, 369- 
 
 70. 
 Boyd, Marcus, 180. 
 Breckenridge, Samuel M., 
 
 180. 
 Breckinridge,JohnC., 145,328. 
 
 Britton, James H., 180. 
 Broadhead,JamesO.,3i3,320. 
 Brown, B. Gratz, 180, 196, 
 
 207, 208, 231, 248, 257-60, 
 
 307-8, 320, 377. 
 Brown, James, 94, 106-7. 
 Burden, Eldridge, 249, 257, 
 
 Campbell, "Jack", 75, 121, 
 123, 131, 132, 134, 136, 142. 
 
 Carr, Peter, 181. 
 
 "Charcoal convention", 334-8. 
 
 Church, Rev. Samuel S., 41. 
 
 Clark, John B., 142. 
 
 Clement, Samuel L., 237, 376. 
 
 Cotton, Mrs. Sarah E., 1 1, 1 10, 
 146-7, 238, 296-8, 334, 375, 
 378, 380-2, 386-7. 
 
 Cravens, Charles E., 62. 
 
 Crittenden, John J., 328. 
 
 Crittenden, T. T., 327-8. 
 
 Davis, Benjamin, 10. 
 Davis, Joe, 180, 227-8. 
 Dent, Josiah, 291. 
 Doniphan, AlexanderW., 130, 
 
 134, 180, 183, 190-2, 261. 
 Doniphan, John, 180. 
 Drake, Charles D., 339, 348. 
 Dupuy, Elizabeth, 4, 5. 
 
 Ellis, v., '](>, 79, 80-1, 82-3. 
 Ewing, R.C., 232,250,254,256. 
 
 393 
 
394 
 
 INDEX 
 
 FaggJ.C, 179-87, 193,201-2, 
 203-5, 206-7, 247. 388-9. 
 
 Felix, Dr. W. L., 289, 294. 
 
 Filley, Giles, 320. 
 
 Filley, Oliver D.,313,319,320. 
 
 Fletcher, Gov. Thomas C, 
 160, 320, 325-6, 330, 338-9, 
 352-3, 362. 
 
 Fogg, Mrs. Elizabeth (Du- 
 
 puy), 4, 5- 
 Forsee, William, 4. 
 Fremont, John C, 120, 256, 
 
 322,325,329,337-8,345. 
 Frost, Cyrus H., 180. 
 Frost, Daniel M., 313. 
 
 Gamble, Gov. Hamilton R., 
 320, 321, 323-4, 330-1, 332, 
 
 339,341,342,348,351- 
 Gano, John Allen, Sr., 8, 61 
 
 (note). 
 Gardenhire, James B., 208, 
 
 268. 
 Gentry, William, 369. 
 Georgetown (Mo.) founded, 
 
 27-30; life in, 31-55, 285-6; 
 
 decline of, 286. 
 Geyer, Senator Henry S., 
 
 182-3. 
 Glover, Samuel T., 313, 320. 
 Goode, George W., 180. 
 Gray, H. P., 162. 
 Grover, B. W., 162-4, 165, 
 
 168, 249, 318, 319. 
 Grover, George S., 301-2, 
 
 318-9. 
 Gunell, Mrs. Marion (Thom- 
 son), 18,23, 24, 34, no. 
 
 Guerrant, Judith, 4. 
 Guitar, Odon, 180. 
 
 Haden, Joel H., 81, 82, 85, 
 
 122-3, 131, 135-7. 
 Hall,WillardP.,32o,32i,348. 
 Hardeman, J. Locke, 220-4. 
 Hardin, Charles H., 180. 
 Harding, Chester, 332. 
 Heard, George, 32, 42. 
 Henderson, Senator John B., 
 
 320, 378. 
 Henderson, Thomas, 5. 
 Heydon, Ezekiel, i. 
 Heydon, Sally, i, 4. 
 Hickman, William, 3. 
 Hinton, Otho, 93. 
 Hogan, J. D., 80, 
 Hornsby, Brinksly, 230-1, 
 
 232-3- 
 How, John, 313, 320. 
 Hughes, Reese, 369. 
 
 Jackson, Claiborne F., 183, 
 184,311-2, 314-6, 321, 324. 
 
 Jackson resolutions, 183-4. 
 
 Johnson, Richard M., 61-2, 
 68,80,81. 
 
 Jones, Claude, 131. 
 
 Jones, John S., 105-7. 
 
 Jones, Joshua, 85. 
 
 Kansas, disturbances in, 
 
 210-233. 
 Kennett, Luther M., 166-7. 
 
 Laidlaw, Dr. Alexander H., 
 389-90. 
 
INDEX 
 
 395 
 
 Lincoln, President, on Mis- 
 souri politics, 349-51. 
 
 Longan, George W., 41. 
 
 Lusk, James, 209, 268. 
 
 Lyon, General Nathaniel, 
 315-6, 319, 320, 321-2. 
 
 McChesney, Thomas S., 
 
 171-2. 
 McClannahan, Dan, 112. 
 McCoy, John C, 190-1. 
 McMullen, Fayette, 287, 333, 
 
 368-9. 
 McVey, Absalom, 287, 288, 
 
 370, 371-2. 
 Major, Lewis Redd, 17, 24, 
 
 40, 49.^ 
 Martin, Mrs. Esther (Smith), 
 
 4-5- 
 Martin, James, 4. 
 Martin, John A., 270-1. 
 Mayo, William J., 196. 
 Medley, George, 180, 184. 
 Miller, John G., 191-2, 248, 
 
 252. 
 Miller, Rev. John H., 383, 
 
 384-5- 
 Mitchell, A. S,, 196-7. 
 
 Montgomery, Samuel, 318. 
 Mormon War, The, 58-60. 
 
 Neal, Henry, 322. 
 Newland, William, 181. 
 Noel, J. W., 331. 
 
 O'Hara, Kane, 10. 
 Omnibus bill, in aid of Mis- 
 souri railroads, 201-9. 
 
 Pacific railway, 155-75, 186, 
 187-8, 193-209, 261, 280, 
 281-3, 288, 294. 
 
 Phelps, John S., 122-3, 131, 
 
 I35» 137. 143-4, 320. 
 Phelps, Mrs. Mary, 143-4. 
 Philips, J. F., 276-7, 326-7, 
 
 332. 
 Polk, Gov. Trusten, 257. 
 Price, Gov. Sterling, 202, 
 
 203-4, 206, 208, 213-4, 321. 
 Price, Thomas L., 208-9, 262, 
 
 268, 281. 
 
 Railways, ioi, 130, 153-75, 
 
 193-209, 279-82. 
 Reed, Dr. Silas, 79, 83-4. 
 Reid, John W., 180, 277. 
 Rollins, James S., 180, 191, 
 
 207, 224-6, 243-5, 247-9, 
 
 250-1, 252, 256, 257-64, 270, 
 
 282, 299. 
 Russell, W. H., 106-7, 171. 
 
 249, 254, 255-7, 262, 265, 
 
 267-8. 
 
 Santa Fe, traffic, 104-12. 
 Scott, General Winfield S., 
 
 II 7-8. 
 Sedalia, founded, 287-94; 
 
 origin of the name, 291; 
 
 effect of the war, 322, 333; 
 
 growth, 379-80. 
 Sigel, General Franz, 329- 
 
 30- 
 Simms, Charles, 181. 
 Smith, Ann, 2. 
 Smith, George, 2, 15-6. 
 
39^ 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Smith, George R., ancestry, 
 1-4; birth, 1,4; removal to 
 Kentucky, 4; death of his 
 mother, 4; education, 5-10; 
 death of his father, 9-10; 
 deputy sheriff, lo-ii; mar- 
 ried, 11; loss of patrimony, 
 12-13; removal to Mis- 
 souri, 17-21; his first cabin 
 burned, 25; settles at 
 Georgetow^n, 31-4; builds 
 the court-house, 28-30; 
 joins the Christian church, 
 40; speech on education, 
 43; tries to establish a fe- 
 male academy at George- 
 town, 46; occupies building 
 as residence, 46; speech on 
 temperance, 54-5; business 
 ventures, 57-8; serves in 
 the " Mormon war," 60; 
 made brigadier-general of 
 militia, 60; elected justice 
 of the peace, 62; twice de- 
 feated for the legislature 
 (1838, 1840), 62; appointed 
 Receiver of Public Mon- 
 eys at Springfield, Mo., 77; 
 removed by President 
 Polk, 89; mail contracts, 
 91-5; trip to Washington 
 (1846), 95; letter to his wife, 
 96-8; letter to his daugh- 
 ters, 99-103; contract for 
 carrying army stores to 
 Santa Fe, 105-7; letter to 
 his daughter, no; fights 
 cholera in the camp, 1 1 1-2; 
 
 quits freighting business, 
 112; seeks Whig nomina- 
 tion for Congress, 122-3, 
 127; secures location of 
 Pacific railroad on the in- 
 land route, 157-75; elected 
 to Missouri House of Rep- 
 resentatives (1854), 176-9; 
 in the legislature, 179-209; 
 further aid to Pacific rail- 
 road, 186-8, 193-209; re- 
 fuses to join a"BlueLodge," 
 212 (note); opposes Mis- 
 souri interference in Kan- 
 sas, 215-20; reception of 
 his Kansas views, 220-33; 
 views on slavery (1854), 
 216-7, 219-20, (1858) 275, 
 (1861)339,(1862)340.(1863) 
 344; attempted escape of 
 three of his slaves (1854), 
 234-9; joins American or 
 " Know Nothing " party, 
 243; twice defeated for 
 American nomination to 
 Congress ( i 8 5 6), 251-5; 
 runs as independent candi- 
 date (1858), 271-5; is de- 
 feated, 277; director of 
 Pacific railroad, 281-2; ef- 
 forts to elect him president 
 of the road, 281-2; foresees 
 ruin of Georgetown, 286; 
 founds Sedalia, 287-94; 
 death of his wife, 295; sup- 
 ports Bell and Everett 
 (i860), 301 ; his slaves freed, 
 302; "unconditionally" for 
 
INDEX 
 
 397 
 
 the Union in i860, 316-7; 
 aids Union cause, 318-20, 
 332, 363-4; Adjutant-Gen- 
 eral of Missouri, 322-32; 
 visit in Ohio (1862), 334-5; 
 becomes a "Radical," 330, 
 339; unsuccessful candi- 
 dature for the legislature, 
 33Q-40; vice-president of 
 the " Charcoal" convention 
 (1863), 343-8; member of 
 Radical committee sent to 
 confer with Lincoln, 348- 
 51; presidential elector on 
 Lincoln ticket (1864), 352; 
 elected to State Senate, 
 352; introduces resolution 
 for vacating State offices 
 held by Rebel sympathiz- 
 ^I'Sj 353; his speech advo- 
 cating same, 354-61; ac- 
 cepts office of Assistant 
 Assessor of Internal Rev- 
 enue, 363; Radical resolu- 
 tions ( 1 866), 365-8 ; removed 
 by President Johnson, 368; 
 financial difficulties set- 
 tled, 368-9; differences with 
 D. W. Bouldin arbitrated, 
 369-70; wins suit concern- 
 ing Sedalia lands, 370-1; 
 Liberal Republican candi- 
 date for Congress (1870), 
 378; candidate forthe legis- 
 lature (1872), 378; last ill- 
 ness and death, 380-2; per- 
 sonality and character, 
 382-90. 
 
 Smith, Mrs. George R., 11, 
 
 18, 33. 39, 92, 95-9, no; 
 death of, 295; character, 
 296-8. 
 
 Smith, George Stovall, 2-3. 
 
 Smith, James, 2-3, 8. 
 
 Smith, Martha Elizabeth 
 (Mrs. M. E. Smith), 11, 18, 
 24, 26, 28, 31, 32, 34, 39, 
 91-3, 207, 239, 283-5, 289- 
 94, 295, 302, 322-4, 332, 
 
 334-5, 373-4, 375, 387-8. 
 Smith, " Millpond " George, 
 
 2-5, 9-10, 16. 
 Smith, Sarah Elvira. See 
 
 Mrs. S. E. Cotton. 
 Smith, Thomas, 2. 
 Spencer, Henry, 234-9. 
 Stevenson, John D, 181, 189- 
 
 90, 320. 
 Stewart, Gov. Robert M., 181, 
 
 184, 205-6, 258, 264, 309-11. 
 Stone, Rev. Barton W., 5-10. 
 
 Tabler, C. a., 2, 267. 
 Taylor, President Zachary, 
 
 118, 126, 127, 128, 129, 139- 
 
 42, 143-4. 
 Thomson, General David, 1 1- 
 
 12, 16-7, 17-24, 25, 41, 57, 
 
 67, 285. 
 Thomson, Manlius V., 18, 57, 
 
 65, 68, 70-1, 87-8, 144-52. 
 Thomson, Marion (Mrs. Gun- 
 ell), 18, 23,24, 34, no. 
 Thomson, Martha Vienna, 18. 
 Thomson, Melcena, 18, 24, 
 
 34. 
 
398 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Thomson, Melita A. See 
 
 Mrs. George R. Smith. 
 Thomson, Mentor, i8, 25, 34, 
 
 317, 369- 
 Thomson, Mildred Elvira 
 
 (Mrs. Louis Redd Major), 
 
 18, 298. 
 Thomson, Milton, 19, 21, 43. 
 Thomson, Monroe, 19. 
 Thomson, Morton, 19, 69, 80. 
 Todd, Albert, 180. 
 Tyler, President John, 70, 71, 
 
 72, 75. n^ 78, 79. 80, 81, 82, 
 
 84, 85, 86, 87. 
 Tyler, John, Jr., 86. 
 
 Van Buren, President Mar- 
 tin, 80, 81, 82, 84. 
 
 Vest, George G., 225 (note), 
 277. 314. 
 
 Watson, Dr. Wilkins, 38, 47, 
 
 375. 
 Wells, Carte, 31. 
 Wickliffe, C. A., 71. 
 Wilson, John, 71-2, 117-22, 
 
 124-6, 128-35, 138-42, 261. 
 Wilson, Robert, 142, 181, 226. 
 Wilson, William, 142. 
 Witzig, Julius J., 313. 
 Wood, Watson and Clifton, 
 
 27. 35- 
 
 Woodson, Samuel H., 95, 162, 
 169, 245-6, 252, 255, 263, 
 267, 268-9, 270, 272-4, 276. 
 
 Woolridge, Cora (Mrs. Men- 
 tor Thomson), 19. 
 
 Wright, Rev. Allen, 39, 40-1, 
 121, 246-7. 
 
 Yeatman, James E., 320. 
 
 Wasson, Thomas, 27. 
 
 ZlEGLER, C. C, 181. 
 
 C 5« 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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