military treatment of the great Rebellion in the State
of Missouri. He will not attempt to make an episode of any part of this
history, because of the supposed vigor or brilliancy of the martial
deeds occurring in the time. Least of all would he take the 'Hundred
Days,' which another pen has chosen for special distinction, as
representing the period of heroism in that war-trampled State. Any
'hundred days' of the rebellion in Missouri have had their corresponding
_nights_; and no one can be bold enough yet to say that the day of
permanent triumph has dawned. Humiliation has alternated with success so
far; and the most stunning defeats of the war in the West marked the
beginning and the close of the hundred days named for honor. This fact
should teach modesty and caution. For while justice to men requires us
to admit that the greatest abilities do not always command success,
devotion to principle forbids that a noble cause should be obscured to
become the mere background of a scene in which an actor and popular idol
is the chief figure. It is with a consciousness of such partialities as
are common to men, but with an honest purpose, so far as the writer is
able, to subordinate men to principles, that this review of the origin
and chief incidents of the rebellion in Missouri is begun.

The close connection of the State of Missouri with the slavery agitation
that has now ripened into a rebellion against the government of the
United States, is a singular historical fact. The admission of the State
into the Union was the occasion of vitalizing the question of slavery
extension and fixing it as a permanent element in the politics of the
country. It has continued to be the theatre on which the most important
conflicts growing out of slavery extension have been decided. It will be
the first, in the hope and belief of millions, to throw off the fetters
of an obsolete institution, so long cramping its social and political
advancement, and to set an example to its sister slave-holding States of
the superior strength, beauty, and glory of Freedom.

The pro-slavery doctrines of John C. Calhoun, after having pervaded the
democracy of all the other slave-holding States, and obtained complete
possession of the national executive, legislative and judicial
departments, finally, in 1844, appeared also in the State of Missouri.
But it was in so minute and subtle a form as not to seem a sensible
heresy. Thomas H. Benton, the illustrious se