In 1831 the advance guard of the Mormons settled around Independence. As their numbers increased friction with the "Gentile" settlers developed and they were driven successively from Jackson and Clay counties. The legislature created a special county of Caldwell for them but with the arrival of their leader Smith and the main body of the church, they spread into the surrounding counties. In the end, in 1838-39, the antagonism became so acute that the militia were called out and after some skirmishing the Mormons withdrew to Nauvoo, Ill. (q.v.). Mis souri furnished a large element in the early settlement of Texas. In the Mexican War Doniphan led a regiment of mounted militia to Santa Fe and went on to Chihuahua, finally reaching Taylor's army at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Two other Missouri regi ments held Santa Fe throughout the war.
senator in 182o and re-elected until i851. Missouri voted for Clay in 1824. In 1828 every county voted for Jackson, but not until 1836 was discipline and soli darity established in the Demo cratic Party. The Clay-Adams group supported candidates who were nominally Jackson men, but favoured the bank and the "American System" of Clay, thus electing Buckner senator (1830) and Ashley representative (1831 36). By 1839 the Whigs had developed a definite organization and party politics prevailed.
The Whigs were to be found chiefly in St. Louis (the commercial element) and in the older richer slave-holding river counties; from 1836 to 185o they were the minority party. Benton (q.v.) was defeated in 1851 but fought to regain control until his death in 1857, splitting the Democratic Party. Political confusion was increased in the '5os by the civil war in Kansas (q.v.) and the beginnings of the Republican Party.
During the decade 1850-60 St. Louis grew rapidly due to the development of the upper Mississippi country and the Southern trade; the Irish, German and free State immigration increased until these elements comprised two-sevenths of the total popula tion in 186o. Slaves fell to one-tenth of the total population in this decade, the institution holding its own only in some 25 counties along the Mississippi and Missouri. Railway building was aided by State loans of over $23,000,000 ; and the Hannibal and St. Joseph was completed across the State. On the eve of the Civil War, Missouri was losing her Southern characteristics but the ruling classes had strong Southern traditions and sentiments, and the Benton fight had driven the Democratic leaders into a close alliance with the Southern wing of the party.
of 186o, Douglas received the electoral vote of the State, the only one he carried in the Union. When the question of secession was submitted to the people in Feb. 1861, they elected a convention which voted 8o to 1 against immediate secession. But there was a very strong sentiment for compromise or even neutrality. The governer, Claiborne F. Jackson, indignantly repudiated Lincoln's call for troops, and intrigued to gain possession of the U.S. arsenal at St. Louis and to put the State on a war footing. Nathaniel Lyon and the Federal troops, with Blair's support, broke up an encampment of State militia at Camp Jackson, St. Louis, and began open hostilities with the driving of the governor out of Jefferson City. In August Lyon was defeated and killed by State and Confederate forces at Wilson's creek near Springfield, but next spring these forces were driven into Arkansas and defeated.
Meanwhile the convention re-assembled in 1861, ousted Gov ernor Jackson and the legislature, and elected Hamilton R. Gam ble provisional governor. Until his death in 1864 he maintained, with Lincoln's support, a loyal State Government accepted by the majority of Missourians, in the face of lack of funds and the im patience of Federal military authorities. In 1861 a minority of the fugitive legislature adopted an ordinance of secession and Missouri was admitted to the Confederacy. Gen. Fremont's emancipation proclamation issued at St. Louis in Aug. 1861 was promptly repudiated by Lincoln. However the convention after refusing Lincoln's plan of emancipation with compensation in 1863 enacted a plan of gradual emancipation. It also provided an oath of loyalty for officials and voters. Records show that 109,111 men were mustered into the Federal service while perhaps 5o,000 served in the Confederate armies. In the election of 1864 the more radical elements swept the State and in 1865 a new con vention abolished slavery immediately and without compensa tion. It also drew up a new Constitution which included an ex tremely rigorous test oath, covering in great detail all sympathy or indirect aid to the Confederacy, and imposed not only on voters but on professional men also. Although the latter sections were declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, the whole sale disenfranchisements and the rigid registration laws main tained the radicals in control until 1870. In that year Carl Schurz led a revolt of the more liberal Republicans and with the support of the reorganized Democratic Party elected B. Gratz Brown governor, repealing the test oaths. In 1872 the Democrats secured control of the State Government and retained it until 1908.