It is rather a curious circumstance that, at the crisis
just alluded to, the nearest approach to original
Abolitionism that was to be found, was in a slave
State. In Missouri there was an organized opposition
to slavery that had been maintained for several years,
and which was never abandoned. The vitality displayed
by this movement was undoubtedly due in large measure
to the inspiration of the man who was its originator,
if not its leader. That man was Thomas H. Benton.
Whether Benton was ever an Abolitionist or not, has
been a much-disputed question, but one thing is certain,
and that is that the men who sat at his feet, who
were his closest disciples and imbibed the most of
his spirit—such as B. Gratz Brown, John
How, the Blairs, the Filleys, and other influential
Missourians,—were Abolitionists. Some
of them weakened under the influence of the national
administration, but not a few of them maintained their
integrity. Even in the first days of the Civil
War, when all was chaos there, an organization was
maintained, although at one time its only working and
visible representatives consisted of the members of
a committee of four men—a fifth having
withdrawn—who were B. Gratz Brown, afterwards
a United States Senator; Thomas C. Fletcher, afterwards
Governor of the State; Hon. Benjamin R. Bonner, of
St. Louis, and the writer of this narrative.
They issued an appeal that was distributed all over
the State, asking those in sympathy with their views
to hold fast to their principles, and to keep up the
contest for unconditional freedom. To that appeal
there was an encouraging number of favorable responses.
And thus it was that when Abolitionism may be said
to have been lost by merger elsewhere, it remained
in its independence and integrity in slaveholding
Missouri, where it kept up a struggle for free soil,
and in four years so far made itself master of the
situation that a constitutional State convention,
chosen by popular vote, adopted an ordinance under
which an emancipationist Governor issued his proclamation,
declaring that “hence and forever no person within
the jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to
any abridgment of liberty, except such as the law
shall prescribe for the common good, or know any master
but God.”
The writer entered on this work with no purpose of
relating or discussing the story of the Republican
party, in whole or in any part. His subject was
Abolitionism, and his task would now be completed but
for the movement in the State of Missouri, to which
reference has just been made. That manifestation,
he thinks, is deserving of recognition, both on its
own account and as a continuation of the original
movement, and he is the more inclined to contribute
to its discussion because he was then a Missourian
by residence, and had something to do with its successful
prosecution.
