MISSOURI. 



487 



office till 1R02. when the people would decide 

 whether the change shall be permanent. It 

 proposed to abolish the State Legislature, and 

 ordain that in case before the 1st of August, 

 1862, the Governor chosen by the Convention 

 should consider that the public exigencies de- 

 manded, he should order a special election for 

 members of the State Legislature. It recom- 

 mended the passage of an ordinance repealing 

 the following bills, passed by the Legislature 

 in secret session in the month of May previous: 

 the military fund bill, the bill to suspend the 

 distribution of the school fund, and the bill for 

 cultivating friendly relations with the Indian 

 tribes. It proposed to repeal the bill authoriz- 

 ing the appointment of one major of the Mis- 

 souri militia, and revive the militia law of 1859. 

 The report was adopted. 



The act relative to the school fund directed 

 the Superintendent of Schools to postpone its 

 apportionment for the year, and to let it remain 

 in the Treasury, subject to the order of the 

 General Assembly. This fund consisted of 

 twenty-five per cent, (about $200,000) of the 

 general revenue ; the dividends on the State's 

 ptock in the Bank of the State of Missouri, and 

 other amounts, the proceeds of fines and forfeit- 

 ures, the whole amounting to about $250,000 

 per annum. This sum had for years been ap- 

 portioned to the common schools of the State, 

 and had been the chief support of those schools, 

 rendering efficient service in the cause of edu- 

 cation. The report of this committee was 

 adopted. At the same time a resolution was 

 passed that a committee of seven be appointed 

 by the President of the Convention to prepare 

 an address to the people of the State. 



The report of the State Treasurer, in accord- 

 ance with the instructions of the Convention, 

 was made. The amount of money in the Treas- 

 ury on the 24th of July was a little over 

 $57,000. The disbursements since the adjourn- 

 ment of the last session of the Legislature, had 

 been over $600,000. 



A resolution was offered that there was no 

 excuse, either in the present or future condition 

 of the State, for default of payment of the in- 

 terest on the State debt, and that it was pre- 

 eminently her duty to pay it. After a lively 

 discussion, several substitutes were offered, 

 when the matter was referred. 



On the 30th of July the Convention declared 

 vacant the offices of Governor, Lieutenant- 

 Governor, and Secretary of State by a vote of 

 56 to 25. The seats of the members of the 

 General Assembly were also declared vacant 

 by a vote of 52 to 28. On the next day the 

 following officers were elected: Hamilton E. 

 Gamble, Provisional Governor ; Willard P. 

 Hall, Lieutenant-Governor ; Mordecai Oliver, 

 Secretary of State. These officers were at once 

 inaugurated, amid general rejoicing. 



The first Monday in November was fixed as 

 the day for the election by the people of State 

 officers. 



After the transaction of some unimportant 



business, and the presentation of an addr. 

 the people of the State by the Convention, it 

 adjourned until the third Monday in Deoemlic-r. 

 unless sooner called together by the new Gov- 

 ernment, if the public safety demanded it. 



The address to the people of the State by the 

 Convention, which was adopted on the 31st of 

 July, states the action of the Convention and 

 the necessity that existed for it, and closes 

 with a vindication of its lawful power to per- 

 form what it had done. The necessity for its 

 action arose out of the condition of aflairs, 

 which is thus described : 



We have assembled in Jefferson under circum- 

 stances widely different from those that existed when 

 the Convention adjourned its session at St. Louis. 



We find high officers of the State Government en- 



aged in actual hostilities with the forces of the United 

 tales, and blood has been spilt upon the soil of Mis- 

 souri. Many of our citizens have yielded obedience 

 to an ill-judged call of the Governor, and have assem- 

 bled in arms for the purpose of repelling the invasion 

 of the State by armed bands of lawless invaders, as 

 the troops of the United States are designated by the 

 Governor in his proclamation of the 17th day of June 

 last. 



We find that troops from the State of Arkansas 

 have come into Missouri for the purpose of sustain- 

 ing the action of our Governor in his contest with 

 the United States, and this at the request of our Exec- 

 utive. 



"We find no person present, or likely soon to be pres- 

 ent, at the seat of Government, to exercise the ordi- 

 nary functions of the Executive Department, or to 

 maintain the internal peace of the State. 



We find that throughout the State there is imminent 

 danger of civil war in its worst form, in which neigh- 

 bor shall seek the life of neighbor, and bonds of soci- 

 ety will be dissolved, and universal anarchy shall 

 reign. If it be possible to find a remedy for existing 

 evils, and to avert the threatened horrors of anarchy, 

 it is manifestly the duty of your delegates, assembled 

 in Convention, to provide such a remedy ; and, in or- 

 der to determine upon the remedy, it is necessary to 

 trace very briefly the origin and progress of the evils 

 that now'afflict the State. 



It is not necessary that any lengthy reference should 

 be made to the action of those States which have se- 

 ceded from the Union. We cannot remedy or recall 

 that secession. They have acted for themselves, and 

 must abide the consequences of their own action. So 

 far as you have expressed your wishes, you have de- 

 clared your determination not to leave the Union, 

 and your wishes have been expressed by this Con- 

 vention. 



Any action of any officer of the State in conflict 

 with your will, thus expressed, is an action in plain 

 opposition to the principle of our Government, which 

 recognizes the people as the source of political power, 

 and their will as the rule of conduct for all their offi- 

 cers. It would have been but a reasonable compliance 

 with your will, that after you had, through this Con- 

 vention, expressed your determination to remain in 

 the Union, your Executive and Legislative officers 

 should not only have refrained from any opposition to 

 your will, but should have exerted all their powers to 

 carry your will into effect. 



We have been enabled to ascertain by some corre- 

 spondence of different public officers, accidentally made 

 public, that several of these officers not only entertained 

 and expressed opinions and wishes against the con- 

 tinuance of Missouri in the Union, but actually engaged 

 in schemes to withdraw her from the Union, contrary 

 to j~our known wishes. 



After the adjournment of your Convention, which 

 had expressed your purpose to remain in the Union, 

 Governor Claib'orne F. Jackson, in a letter addressed 



