USA > Missouri > Missouri the center state, 1821-1915 > Part 34
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"To this delightful place, on the 23d day of August, 1856, Gratz Brown and his friends repaired. Etiquette required that Reynolds' second, Colonel Kennett, should receive them, which he did with princely hospitality, and they were at once domiciled and surrounded with every attention and luxury possible. The night before leaving St. Louis, Reynolds remained at the house of Isaac H. Sturgeon, and slept so soundly that Sturgeon had to call to him loudly the next morning before arousing him. He had in the meantime procured the services as surgeon of Dr. J. H. Shore, a distinguished physician of St. Louis, who, together with Reynolds, Kennett and Hudson, passed over into Illinois by the North St. Louis ferry. They proceeded down leisurely to a point opposite Selma Hall, passing the intermediate night at a friend of Kennett's, and reaching their destination at about twelve o'clock on the second day.
"On Monday evening, August 25th, Reynolds crossed over to Selma Hall, accepting the hospitality of G. W. Chadbourne, now President of the St. Louis Shot Tower Company, but then living on the river bank, a few hundred yards from Kennett's elegant mansion. For a week Kennett had been in his element. Nothing pleased him so well as a duel, if a duel had to be fought, and he made all of his preparations with that exact and scrupulous care so necessary in giving an air of elegance and aristocracy to the whole performance. Not a single detail was omitted. Two cushioned and commodious skiffs were launched into the Mississippi on the morning of Tuesday, August 26th, 1856. Into one Reynolds and his friends took their seats-into the other Brown and his friends. A stalwart negro oarsman in each rowed them to a sand-bar in the Mississippi river, midway between the States of Illinois and Missouri. The upper end of this bar was covered with a growth of young cottonwood. In the branches of these trees were singing birds that made the morning vocal.
"It was not yet sunrise. No cloud anywhere over the face of the sky hid the great, tender eyes of the dawn. It was a summer morning. The gorgeous robes of nature adorned all the trees with green. Not a land breeze shook the dew dimples out from the cheeks of the sleeping river. The whole earth smelt sweet with living. The cottonwoods and the oaks were jubilant as a hive. In their branches there was the noise of many wings -- among their leaves the rippling of a thousand summer songs.
"As they went down to the skiffs together, Kennett took a long look at the panorama spread out before him-at the river unrolling a curtain of silver to the sea-at the orchards white and pink with fruit-at the glimpses of woodland and valley woven into warp and woof by the God of the Universe, and he turned to grim old Mitchell and said, curtly :
"'It is beautiful overhead and underfoot. Would you like to be shot today?'
"'As well one day as another. Why?'
"'It is so sweet to live when the sap is in the trees and the birds abound in their branches. It looks like tempting Providence.'
"'It may be, but Providence blesses him who shoots first and pulls the steadiest trigger.'
"Between these two there was no further conversation until they reached the bar.
"The principals stepped from the boats as men who were going to a dance-and that dance a waltz. Reynolds was then in his thirty-fifth year, and Brown was several years younger. The first had a wife whom he had left in total ignorance of the duel, the last was unmarried. Nothing could be cooler than the bearing of each. Brown was dressed scrupulously in black, with his coat buttoned up to his chin-Reynolds in a light gray suit, scarcely distinguishable from the sand of the river. The terms had all been arranged. They
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were to fight with dueling pistols, carrying an ounce ball, were to face each other, and were to stand twelve paces apart. The drop shot had been accepted by both; that is to say, the pistols were to be held, muzzle upwards, until the word was given, when they were to be lowered and fired. This was understood to be the most deadly way of fighting.
"It was now a little after sunrise. All the east was red as with fire. A little breeze had arisen with the sun, just enough to shake the dew-drops from the leaves and give to the waves a speech as they broke on the bar.
1 "Kennett took a silver half dollar from his pocket and turned towards Mitchell, saying :
" 'Shall we toss for the position?'
"'Yes, up with it.'
"Kennett won. He tossed again for the word, and won that.
"Walker drew nearer to Hudson, and remarked :
" 'Reynolds is lucky. How about the pitcher which goes so often to the well?'
"'It gets broken at last, the proverb says. I hope we all may get safely out of this with- out a verification of that adage.'
"'We shall see.'
"The choice of position was not of much advantage, however, as the sun was too low to affect either. The word remained with Kennett, and he was to call out : 'Fire-One-Two- Three-Stop!' The principals were not to lower their pistols before the word 'Fire,' and not to shoot after the word 'Stop.'
"Kennett and Mitchell measured the ground carefully. Each turned after he had finished and threw a keen glance along the tawny track, and then looked into the eyes of the other. They did not speak audibly, yet both said in their hearts:
" 'It is close.'
"And it was. Too close for two such men, who had only between them the unpleasant memories of a political quarrel.
"They were placed face to face. Brown looked straight at his adversary, a pleasant half-smile on his lips. Not a muscle quivered. He stood as if carved from the sand, immovable and yet so full of bountiful life. Reynolds' attitude was none the less superb. The Kentuckian and the South Carolinian were to fight as their ancestors had fought before them for an hundred years. They recognized the code, and it was well. By the code they would be judged fairly, standing or falling.
"The pistols were brought and loaded carefully. A grain of powder more or less might sacrifice a life. They were ugly looking weapons to say the best of them, and of English make. On each barrel was the word 'London' engraved. The stocks were of mahogany, and of the 'saw-handle' shape. They had hair-triggers, double-sights, were smooth-bores, and carried each an ounce ball. The barrels were full six inches long, and were dark looking and ominous.
"It was now between six and seven o'clock. The negro oarsmen looked on in sober wonderment. The surgeons arranged their instruments and bandages. The respective friends of each principal took their positions, and when everything was in readiness, Kennett called out in a clear and distinct voice :
"'Gentlemen, are you ready?'
"So nearly together as to sound as one voice, both Brown and Reynolds answered:
" 'Ready !'
"Kennett then cried out :
"'Fire!'
"Before the word 'One' was heard, Reynolds lowered his pistol and fired. Brown fired almost simultaneously with his adversary. Indeed, the two reports were blended so nearly as to be indistinguishable and the seconds looked from one to the other to see if either was hit. Reynolds stood perfectly still, with the smoking pistol in his hand, while Brown shifted his weight from one leg to the other as if suffering pain.
"Hudson walked up to Reynolds and said to him:
"'I fear Brown is wounded in the groin.'
"Reynolds replied :
"'You must be mistaken, for I aimed at his knee.'
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"Hudson then went nearer to Brown, returning in a short time to his principal remarking :
''You are right. He is shot in the knee.'
"'I was certain of it,' replied Reynolds. 'The wound will not be dangerous.'
"Brown's friends, in the meanwhile, had approached him, and led him to one side, while the surgeons examined his wound. He was as cool as a grenadier. Although suffering extreme pain and scarcely able to stand, he sternly demanded another fire, insisting on his ability to remain upon the field. The surgeons overruled his wishes, and immediately a con- ference took place between all the friends of each, which was communicated to the prin- cipals, and Reynolds instantly advanced to where Brown was lying, the pain of the wound having forced him to the ground, and offered his hand in a frank and friendly manner. Brown took it in the same spirit, and they had some friendly conversation together. Mutual expressions of esteem were exchanged, and the mutual withdrawal of everything offensive that had taken place between them.
"Just at that time the steamer Editor, from Memphis, heavily loaded and crowded with passengers, came in sight down the river. She was at once hailed and stopped to take the party on board. Brown had to be removed in a blanket, the ball having split the bone of the right leg just upon the edge of the knee joint, causing profuse hemorrhage and intense pain. A state room was placed at once at his disposal, and he received the most generous attention from all.
"Naturally rejoiced that the duel had terminated no more unfavorably, a jolly time was had on board the boat. Several games of poker were improvised. Reynolds' purse was appropriated by one of his friends, and in a very short time its contents were entirely absorbed.
"All kinds of reports had preceded them to St. Louis, which they reached in the after- noon. Some had Brown killed and some Reynolds. One was mortally wounded, and the other dying. Neither had been struck within less than a fraction of an inch of the heart. The mayor and a squad of police were promptly on board, but having no jurisdiction, they of course made no arrests. Brown was carried at once to his lodgings, and Reynolds carried directly home, where he found his brave wife suffering greatly, yet fully resolved to bear the worst. She believed in fighting duels when duels were necessary, and like the Spartan matron would have buckled on her husband's armor and bidden him go forth to the fight and return on his shield or come not back dishonored.
"Both Reynolds and Brown were most excellent shots. Perhaps the first had the' advantage of practice. Just before the duel, he had gone in company with Col. Wm. A. Linn to the grounds of the Marine Hospital in order to have a little exercise with the drop shot, with rapidity of firing, and with a low aim. While engaged in this kind of practice, Reynolds told Linn that he intended to hit Brown in the knee, so as not to wound him seriously. Linn remonstrated and said it was a dangerous business as Brown was a splendid shot.
" 'Your life,' he continued, 'may depend upon a fatal wound.'
"Reynolds replied :
" 'I am very sure of my quickness in firing, and were it otherwise, I would never consent to take any man's life for a mere political quarrel. If I can disturb Brown's aim by shooting him first, it will be all I desire.'
"Some difference of opinion existed as to the direction of Brown's bullet. Reynolds declared that he heard it whistle by his head, while Kennett was equally positive that it glanced from Reynolds' breast and told him afterwards that if he had not fired so quickly and so surely, Brown would have squarely hit him in the chest. Brown took his wound like a soldier, only gathering himself together once, and compressing his lips as a man does in extreme bodily pain."
The articles as first drawn provided that the second who "gave the word" should call, "Fire-one-stop" in a deliberate manner, "with an interval not ex- ceeding one minute between words." Later the interval was cut down to one-half minute, but before the parties went to the sandbar the half minute was changed to one second. This required that the pistol which was held upright, be lowered and
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fired very quickly. Kennett made the changes and probably prevented a fatal termination. Brown was lamed for life.
The Two Careers.
Political honors and official duties came thick and fast to both Brown and Rey- nolds after the duel. Brown distinguished himself the following winter at Jeffer- son City by the boldness of his utterances on the anti-slavery side in the legisla- ture. He uttered sentiments which were of national comment. Reynolds took the nomination for lieutenant governor on the "regular" Democratic ticket in 1860 and was elected. Brown was in the councils of Blair, Lyon and other uncondi- tional Union men before the capture of Camp Jackson. Reynolds presided over the state senate in the session of 1861, and shared with Governor Claiborne F. Jackson in the planning for the secession of Missouri.
He published a notable letter against Federal coercion of the sovereign State of Missouri. Brown was made colonel of one of the Union regiments raised in St. Louis in the spring of 1861, previous to the call of President Lincoln for troops to suppress the Confederacy. His regiment participated in the capture of Camp Jackson. When Governor Jackson left Jefferson City to try to take Missouri out of the Union, Reynolds had preceded him. The convention, which met after the departure of Jackson and Reynolds, organized a new state government. Jackson and Reynolds, moving from place to place with the state troops under Sterling Price, organized a traveling legislature and went through the forms of election of senators and representatives to the Confederate Congress at Richmond. Jack- son died.
Reynolds became the Confederate governor of Missouri without a capital. Part of the time he marched with the army, and part of the time he was in Richmond, issuing occasional proclamations and messages to the people of Mis- souri and to his traveling legislature. Brown was made a brigadier general in the Union army. In 1863 he became United States Senator from Missouri. Before the convention of 1864, he supported the ordinance for emancipation of slaves in Missouri.
Toward the close of the war Reynolds did staff duty with General Shelby. After the war he went with Shelby and a considerable force of Missourians to Mexico, remaining in that country several years. In 1868 Reynolds returned to St. Louis. Two years later the Liberal Republican movement was inaugurated with Brown as the nominee for governor. The platform was restoration of civil rights to ex-Confederates. The Democrats made no nominations. Brown was elected and served two years. In 1872 the effort was made to give the Missouri idea national application and Brown was put forward for the Presidential nomina- tion. The convention, held in Cincinnati, gave first place to Greeley and put Brown on the ticket for Vice President. In 1874 Reynolds, with his civil rights restored by the movement which Brown had headed, was elected to the Missouri legislature from St. Louis. During the administration of President Arthur he was appointed the Democratic member of a commission sent to investigate possible improvement of commercial relations with Latin-American countries.
Brown and Reynolds were on friendly terms after the war. From having been as far apart as possible politically, they came to have common political purposes.
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During the closing years of their lives their professional work was similar. They performed such duties as masters in chancery and commissioners.
Political Honors Not Satisfying.
Brown and Reynolds gave the best of their years and talents to politics. When age came on, neither felt that his career had brought a satisfying degree of suc- cess. Brown thought he should have devoted himself to mathematics. He had a natural bent in that direction. A treatise on algebra which he wrote attracted much notice. "Governor Brown," said Enos Clarke, who knew him intimately, "should have been a college professor. He would have done honor to the chair of mathematics at any American university."
Reynolds was a linguist of no ordinary ability. He possessed natural aptitude for acquiring other languages. During the high tide of German immigration to St. Louis, he used his knowledge of that language to considerable effect in local political campaigns. He made many German speeches. William E. Curtis, the traveler and writer, was one of Reynolds' colleagues of the Central and South American Commission. He told of the surprise which Reynolds caused, as the commission went from capital to capital, by his responses in several languages to the addresses of welcome. Reynolds replied officially in English and then trans- lated his remarks into one language after another until everybody present under- stood him.
Reynolds was a man of much sentiment. At the time of the death of his first wife, he wrote a sketch of her life, had it printed and sent copies to his intimate friends. In the spring of 1887 he went to the Federal building ostensibly on legal business ; he was found at the bottom of an elevator shaft. A short time before his death he wrote this memorandum :
"I am troubled with insomnia and frequent nervousness. I suffer from per- sistent melancholy. My mind is beginning to wander. I have hallucinations and even visions, when I am awake, of materialized spirits of deceased ancestors, urging me to join them in another world. Life has become a burden to me. I am now still sound of mind and I write down this statement so that should I do anything rash, my friends may feel assured it was done in some temporary dis- order of mind. In that event I commend myself to the mercy of God and the charitable judgment of men, soliciting for my excellent and devoted wife the sympathy of my friends."
CHAPTER XIII.
MISSOURI IN 1861.
"You Can't Coerce a Sovereign State"-An Extraordinary Vote-Advice from Two Gover- nors-The Secession Program-Three Kinds of Democrats-The Contest for the Arsenal -General Frost's Report-Archbishop Kenrick Applies Scriptures-The Committee of Public Safety-Home Guards and Minute Men-Isaac H. Sturgeon's Warning-An In- .sult to Missouri-Harney Restores Quiet-The Testing of Sweeny-A Commissioner Before the Legislature-John D. Stevenson Interrogates Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds -A Loaded Military Bill-General Lyon Arrives-The State Convention-Election of Delegates-Missouri Goes Union by 80,000 Majority-Dismay of the Southern Rights Democrats-Blair's Appeal to Lincoln-John F. Philips on the Delegates-Sterling Price Elected President-Minute Men Raise a Secession Flag-Riotous Scenes in Front of Headquarters-The Legislature Refuses to Pass the Military Bill-Prompt Action by the Convention-Secession "Is Annihilation for Missouri"-Colonel Broadhead's Prediction -Price to Shackleford-The Convention Denounced in the Legislature-Police Control Taken from St. Louis-Lyon Promises Arms to Home Guards-The April Election.
There never was in this world a struggle in which time was more the essence of things than in the fight for Missouri. The people were divided into something like three equal parts-one for the Union, another for secession, while the minds of the third were not made up, but were in a plastic condition. This halting, wavering third became decisive of the contest. To control it Blair and his opponents waged a hattle royal. If, in the beginning, Blair could have aroused the federal government to a realization of the vast strategic importance of Missouri and to the necessity for early action, his task would have heen easy. If, in the beginning, his antagonists could have aroused the Missouri legislature to a comprehension of the situation and could have induced the state authorities to seize the United States arsenal at St. Louis before General Nathaniel Lyon was placed in command, their task would have been easy; but when Lyon appeared upon the scene, their one golden opportunity was gone .- Champ Clark.
South Carolina had passed the ordinance of secession on the 20th of December. Other Southern States were preparing to follow in January. What shall Mis- souri do? All Missourians were asking that when the new state administration came in. "You can't coerce a sovereign State," echoed through the valleys and ran like flame over the prairies. "Armed neutrality" was the slogan that winter of 1861.
The Presidential election of 1860 brought to the polls nearly the entire voting population of Missouri. The census that year gave the State 1, 182,912. Of this population 114,935 were slaves. A vote was cast for every six white persons, an extraordinary proportion to be accounted for by the intense interest felt in the issues. But the vote was divided in a most remarkable manner. Douglas carried the State, yet he received only about one-third of the votes cast, 58,801. This was the strength of those Missourians who believed in "squatter sovereignty"-in giving to the Territories and new States the right to decide for themselves whether they would have slavery. The anti-slavery party cast 17,028 votes for Lincoln, nearly all of them in St. Louis and by Germans. "Southern Rights Democrats," as they preferred to be called, Missourians who sympathized with the South, believed in the right to secede and were willing to join in this movement, polled
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MISSOURI, THE CENTER STATE
only 12,000 more votes than the Republicans. They joined issue with the Douglas Democrats by declaring in favor of protecting "property" in every part of the Union. They gave John C. Breckinridge 31,317 votes. But there was another element in Missouri. It was almost as strong as the Douglas following. It cast 58,372 votes for John Bell and "Constitutional Union." These Bell men held that agitation of the slavery question was not only unnecessary but dangerous. Some of them had been Whigs. Others had been Benton men. All of them were against the extremists, whether Republicans or Southern Rights Democrats. While 17,000 Missourians were against extension of slavery and 31,000 demanded extension of slavery or secession, 117,000 Missourians were against the two extreme minorities. Five-sevenths, or nearly that, of the Missouri body politic, was hostile to the radical elements of the North and the South. Thus it was that Missouri, at the beginning of 1861, presented conditions of public sentiment that were unlike those of any other State.
Conflicting Advice from Two Governors.
Missouri changed state administrations on the 3d of January, 1861. The retiring governor, Robert M. Stewart, and the incoming governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, in their messages, had much to say of what Missouri should do. "Bob" Stewart was a Northern Democrat, a New Yorker by birth, but long a resident of Missouri. "Claib" Jackson was of Kentucky descent, a tall, fine-looking man, with a dignified bearing and considerable power on the stump. He had led the anti-Benton fight against free-soilism. Stewart didn't like slavery, but he had strong conviction that the Constitution guaranteed to slaveholders protection of their "property" and that they had the right to take that "property" into the Territories. South Carolina had seceded. Other Southern States were preparing to follow when Stewart, on the 3d of January, said in his retiring message:
"As matters stand 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 cannot 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 undertake to render our property worthless by a system of prohibitory laws, or by re-opening the slave trade in opposition to the moral sense of the civilized world, and at the same time reduce us to the position of an humble sentinel to watch over and protect their interests, receiving all 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 destruction."
On the same day that the retiring governor defined the position of Missouri on the question of secession, his successor took the ground that the slaveholding States should stand together. In his inaugural Governor Claib. Jackson said of the Republican party which had triumphed in the election of Lincoln :
"It is purely sectional in its locality and its principles. The only principle in- scribed upon its banner is Hostility to Slavery-its object not merely to confine slavery within its present limits ; not merely to exclude it from the Territories and prevent the formation and admission of slaveholding States; not merely to
LUCAS PLACE, THE RESIDENCE SECTION OF ST. LOUIS AT THE TIME OF THE CIVIL WAR
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MISSOURI IN 1861
abolish it in the District of Columbia, and interdict its passage from one State to another; but to strike down its existence everywhere; to sap its foundation in public sentiment ; to annoy and harass, and gradually destroy its vitality, by every means, direct or indirect, physical and moral, which human ingenuity can devise. The triumph of such an organization is not the victory of a political party, but the domination of a section. It proclaims in significant tones the destruction of that equality among the States which is the vital cement of our federal Union. It places fifteen of the thirty-three States in the position of humble recipients of the bounty, or sullen submissionists to the power of a government which they had no voice in creating, and in whose councils they do not participate. It cannot, then, be a matter of surprise to any-victors or vanquished-that these fifteen States, with a pecuniary interest at stake reaching the enormous sum of $3,500,- 000,000 should be aroused and excited at the advent of such a party to power. Would it not rather be an instance of unprecedented blindness and fatuity, if the people and governments of these fifteen slaveholding States were, under the cir- cumstances, to manifest quiet indifference, and to make no effort to avoid the destruction which awaited them?"
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