Missouri's War: The Civil War in Documents

Timeline

243 Timeline 1820 March President James Monroe approves the Missouri Enabling Act, which authorized the Missouri Territory to form a state constitution and government. July Missouri’s first state constitution is adopted. October Thomas Hart Benton is elected as Missouri’s first senator; although he could attend Senate sessions, he had no vote. 1821 August Missouri comes into the Union as a slave state. September William Becknell, a Missouri trader, opens the Santa Fe Trail at Council Grove. December Jefferson City is chosen as the first capital of Missouri; St. Charles remains the capital from 1821 to 1826. 1824 December The Missouri Assembly passes the freedom law, which provides that persons illegally held in slavery may sue for their freedom. 1831 July Mormon leader Joseph Smith brings his followers to Independence, Missouri, which he claims is the place for building the temple and awaiting the second coming of Jesus Christ. 1837 November Abolitionist and St. Louis newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy is murdered by a mob in Alton, Illinois. 1838 October Governor Lilburn Boggs issues an executive order driving all Mormons from Missouri. 244 Timeline 1846 April Dred and Harriet Scott initiate a suit for freedom in St. Louis, claiming that because they had resided in Wisconsin, a free territory, they were entitled to their liberty. 1847 February The Missouri Assembly passes legislation prohibiting free black people from settling in the state and forbidding the establishment of schools for free black people. December First trans-Mississippi telegraph connection reaches St. Louis. 1848 March After the discovery of gold in California, the cities of St. Louis, St. Joseph, and Independence, Missouri, become jumping-off points for western emigrants. August Liberty Party organizes in opposition to the extension of slavery into territories gained from the war with Mexico. 1849 January– A cholera epidemic in St. Louis leaves more than four thousand September people dead. 1850 January Senator Henry Clay introduces various compromise provisions in Congress in an effort to settle the dispute over the entry of California into the Union. September President Millard Fillmore signs the Fugitive Slave Act. 1851 July St. Louis celebrates the groundbreaking for the Pacific Railroad from St. Louis to Jefferson City. 1852 March Harriet Beecher Stowe’s serialized story Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published in book form and soon becomes a national best seller. Timeline 245 1854 January Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas introduces the Kansas-Nebraska Act in Congress, providing for “popular sovereignty” and threatening to overturn the Missouri Compromise. May President Franklin Pierce signs the Kansas-Nebraska Act, setting off years of border violence between Kansas and Missouri. 1855 September Steamboat Arabia sinks at Westport Landing, Missouri. December In Kansas, the antislavery Topeka Constitution is ratified but is later rejected by Congress. 1856 November Republican John C. Frémont runs for president against Democrat James Buchanan, who wins the election. 1857 March Dred Scott case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Roger B. Taney hands down a decision declaring that Scott is not free and that black people are not citizens of the United States. December In Kansas, the proslavery Lecompton Constitution passes (fraudulently ). 1858 May In Kansas, the Leavenworth Constitution is ratified but is later rejected by Congress. 1859 October In Kansas, the Wyandotte Constitution is ratified. November John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. 1860 April The Pony Express begins its first run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. 246 Timeline May Missouri Democrats endorse Stephen A. Douglas for president. The Democratic Party splits into three factions supporting three different candidates for the November presidential election. November Abraham Lincoln is elected sixteenth president of the United States. December South Carolina secedes from the Union. Kentucky senator John Crittenden proposes the “Crittenden Compromise ,” extending the 3630' line to the Pacific and offering compensation for escaped slaves. 1861 January Kansas enters the Union as a free state. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi secede from the Union. A crowd of young men prevents the sale of seven slaves on the courthouse steps by disrupting the auction. This will be the last slave auction in St. Louis. February Confederate States of America is established, with President Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, and Vice-President Alexander Stephens, of Georgia, at the helm. Texas secedes from the Union. March Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated. The Missouri State Convention moves from Jefferson City to the Mercantile Library in St. Louis, establishes the Board...