that perchance could have elected Judge Douglas
President; nor was it by accident that Beriah Magoffin, a vain, weak
man, the creature, adjunct, and echo of Breckenridge, filled the office
of governor of Kentucky, nominated thereto by Breckenridge's personal
intercession. And lastly, to return to the special theatre of this
sketch, it was not by accident that Claiborne F. Jackson, the original
mover for Benton's destruction, was at this remarkable juncture found
occupying the governor's chair, with Thomas C. Reynolds for his
lieutenant governor, a native of South Carolina, an acknowledged
missionary of the nullification faith to a State that required to be
corrupted, and that he had, during his residence, zealously endeavored
to corrupt.

We have now reached the turning point in the history of Missouri. The
State is about to be plunged into the whirlpool of civil war.
Undisguised disunionists are in complete possession of the State
government, and the population is supposed to be ripe for revolt. Only
one spot in it, and that the city of St. Louis, is regarded as having
the slightest sympathy with the political sentiments of the Free States
of the Union. The State is surely counted for the 'South' in the
division that impends, for where is the heart in St. Louis bold enough,
or the hand strong enough, to resist the swelling tide of pro-slavery
fanaticism that was about to engulf the State? Years ago, when it was
but a ripple on the surface, it had overborne Benton, with all his fame
of thirty years' growth. What leader of slighter mold and lesser fame
could now resist the coming shock? In tracing the origin and growth of
rebellion in Missouri, it is interesting to gather up all the threads
that link the present with the past. It will preserve the unity of the
plot, and give effect to the last acts of the drama.

The first visible seam or cleft in the National Democratic party
occurred during the administration of President Polk, in the years
1844-48. Calhoun appeared as Polk's Secretary of State. Thomas Ritchie
was transferred from Richmond, Va., to Washington, to edit the
government organ, in place of Francis P. Blair, Sr. The Jackson _regime_
of unconditional and uncompromising devotion to the 'Federal Union' was
displaced, and the dubious doctrine of 'States' Rights' was formally
inaugurated as the chart by which in future the national government was
to be administered. But the Jackson element was not reconciled to