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2 Missouri’s Precedents and Lobbyists In the battle for claims indemnification, Missouri was a victim of its own success. Much of the state had endured war firsthand through either pitched battles or bloody guerrilla conflict. The cost of the war to the state government was inordinately high, and Missouri would eventually possess the largest claims of any state. To its credit, Missouri wasted no time or effort in working for its reimbursement. By the end of 1862, Missouri achieved victories in Congress and the treasury that also set precedents for other states to follow. Better yet, in 1867 alone the United States Treasury reimbursed Missouri over $6 million. It was an amount that made other states jealous and Missouri anxious for more. Though Missouri continued to generate claims following the war, the Show Me State would never again see such a dollar figure. Just as bureaucratic tendencies in Washington would influence how much money a state could get, so too would a number of state and local issues. In Missouri’s case, nothing would shape the claims more than the clamor for retrenchment, intragovernmental squabbles, interest-group politics, and political scandal. The demand for retrenchment was very acute in Missouri. The war had drained the state of its financial resources. Stricken by numerous Confederate invasions and possessing a substantial number of proConfederate citizens, Missouri had to fund a wide variety of militia for home defense. Frequent diversions of Union troops to other theaters of the war increased the state’s reliance upon its citizen soldiers. In fact, by the end of 1865 the Missouri government had gone bankrupt supporting 52,000 militiamen. Few other states had called up that large a militia, and even fewer were in such dire financial trouble.1 1 It is difficult to compare the numbers of militia mobilized because the states tended to categorize their troops differently. Perhaps the only state that exceeded MISSOURI’S PRECEDENTS AND LOBBYISTS 35 By itself, Missouri’s wartime expenditures were not that unusual. The midwestern states in particular spent far beyond what they possessed to help prosecute the war. However, unlike the other midwestern states, Missouri started the war in a bankrupt condition. At the end of December 1861 Governor Hamilton Gamble was pained to note that Missouri carried a debt of $24.7 million. Of this debt, only $700,000 was for costs associated with the war. The remainder represented state bond issues floated to finance antebellum railroads. At different times Missouri had provided these bonds to various railroad companies with the understanding that the railroads would assume both the principal and interest on the bonds when they came due. Unfortunately for Missouri, most of the railroads went bankrupt, leaving the state liable. Aside from the principal, this left Missouri in the unenviable position of having to pay over $5 million per year in interest.2 The outbreak of the war created an even greater burden upon the state’s economy. Both the general economy and the public treasury suffered. Agriculture witnessed the loss of men to the army and slaves to emancipation. Bushwhackers disrupted all forms of business and commerce outside of the major population centers, and as early as November 1860 all of the state’s banks suspended specie payments . Missouri had quickly become a cash-starved state that soon saw postage stamps substituted for coins, and banks flooding the streets with bank notes and fractional paper currency.3 Missourians readily sensed the government’s dire financial position . This was especially true of young loyal men. Many stayed away from the militia because of the state’s inability to pay for their services . All too frequently, young men anxious to serve enlisted in volunteer and regular regiments only after being told by federalized officers and recruiters that the state of Missouri would not pay its militia. Against such a background, and given the state’s already diMissouri ’s numbers was Ohio, which mobilized 50,000 men in 1863 to fend off John H. Morgan’s raid. See Robert S. Chamberlain, ‘‘The Northern State Militia,’’ Civil War History 4 (1958): 108–10. 2 Ibid.; Grace Avery and Floyd Shoemaker, eds., The Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of the State of Missouri, vols. 3, 4, 5 (Columbia: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1922–1924), 3:438–39; 4:23–24. 3 William E. Parrish, A History of Missouri, Volume 3, 1860–1875 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1973), 55, 80. [3.137.161.222] Project MUSE...

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