O'Fallon, Missouri

Or was it, sir, that in the exercise of the same power, expressly admitted in favor of this Convention by themselves, we removed from office that Legislature who, in secret midnight session, with but half their number present, passed so-called "Acts," in utter and treasonable defiance of their sworn duty under the State and National Constitutions ? Do we we not know, both from the official journals of that secret session, and from the clear and authentic statement made at our July session by a delegate who was a loyal member of that Legislature, (Mr. Welch,) that a test vote was forced upon them and defiantly carried by their traitor majority, upon a proposition which was a declaration of war against the United States ? You remember, sir, that section 167 of that infamous "Military Bill" made it the sworn duty of every officer and soldier of the " Missouri State Guard" to attack, disperse and disarm every assemblage of men in this State " having the semblance of an armed organization," which was not organized under that Military Bill itself. You remember that with the express purpose of testing the intent of this provision, an amendment was offered, excepting from its terms the troops of the United States, within any post or arsenal within this State, so long as they conducted themselves lawfully, and until the State of Missouri, by a vote of her people, should change her relations with the Union- And you know that that amendment was voted down ; and that this vote was had before the socalled " outrage at Camp Jackson" had occurred.

Passage source: Journal of the Missouri State Convention, Held at the City of St. Louis, October, 1861, published 1861.

" IMs proper for me, v/hile calling your attention to this subject of the election, to remind you that when I was chosen to fill my present position of Provisional Governor, I was chosen to exercise the executive functions until the first Monday of November ; yet as the words of the ordinance are, 'and until his successor ghall be duly elected and qualified/ the effect of a postponement of the election will be to continue me in office for a longer period than was contemplated by the Convention when I was chosen, or by me when I accepted the office. It is proper, therefore, that you should at this time select a person to discharge the executive duties during the prolonged period that will elapse before an election can be held. In making such selection, you will remember that you have the whole State from which to make the choice, without confining yourselves to the members of the Convention. It is not necessary that I remind you, that the only basis of a safe choice is the good of the people, without regard to personal predilections or party relations. The motto on our State arms, ' Salus populi supremo, lex esto,' furnishes a safe guide in all our public action.

Passage source: Journal of the Missouri State Convention, Held at the City of St. Louis, October, 1861, published 1861.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on St. Louis City - it names this place 1 more 1 time.