CW Politics

Politics in Civil War Era Springfield
by
Jeff Wells

The Civil War reshaped Springfield history like no earlier event. Before the war, the community served primarily as a market center for the surrounding agricultural areas and its efforts at economic expansion were frustrated. It was a destination for a few Scotch-Irish pioneers who came via the Springfield Road. These settlers maintained ties to their old homes in the upper South and voted sympathetically by supporting the Democratic Party. Then the war devastated Springfield’s population. Physically, however, the city escaped with relatively little destruction considering the fierce fighting that occurred in or near it during the war’s first two years. A dramatically different Springfield developed during the period of national Reconstruction and Radical rule in Missouri. The city became economically dependent and linked with the fate of the North. Its politics became more diverse, but a conservative bias remained. The railroad finally arrived and the city went from a destination to a layover. The population grew and civic improvement projects flourished. This paper primarily examines Springfield’s political transformation during the Civil, but developments in other areas, particularly military movements, are briefly mentioned.

The state of Missouri established Greene County in 1833 and the four-year old creation of John P. Campbell was selected as county seat. Like Campbell, most migrants to Springfield came from the upper South. The residents had emotional and often familial ties to Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina. [1] The population remained small until the 1850s. The city had 411 residents at the beginning of the decade, but in 1860 it would have 3,442. [2] The 1854 Graduation Act made land in the Ozarks available and affordable. Although Springfield was growing rapidly before the war, its economic and social concerns remained confined to Greene County. A drive to attract the railroad that would link their city to the national economy preoccupied civic boosters. [3]

The election results of 1856 reflected the city's homogeneity. The county voted for James Buchanan, Democrat, for president. The first presidential candidate for the Republican Party, John C. Fremont, received no votes. The elections held in 1860 prove that Republicans or liberals still had little, if any, influence in Springfield. John Bell, of the Constitutional Union Party garnered 986 votes, followed by Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge (414 votes) and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas (298 votes). Republican Abraham Lincoln, the national victor, received only 42 votes. [4] The vote for Bell, the Constitution Party candidate, suggests that the area may have been home to former Whigs and moderate Democrats. The four factions also contested the Missouri gubernatorial race. The leading candidate in Greene County was resident and Constitutional Union candidate Sample Orr. Orr won 1,337 votes to statewide winner and Douglas Democrat Claiborne Fox Jackson’s 502 votes and Breckinridge Democrat Hancock Jackson’s 137 votes. Republican James Gardenshire received only one vote. [5] Voters in Greene counties also picked Constitutional Unionists for state representative. [6]

The Civil War tore at the fabric of Missouri more than any other state. The fighting was especially bitter in the Ozarks. Union and Confederate forces alternated control of Springfield initially. In July 1861, Union forces under Nathaniel Lyon entered the city, but abandoned it August 10 after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek southwest of the city. Confederate and pro-Southern Missouri State Guard forces under Sterling Price occupied the city until removed in late October. The Union quickly withdrew after the recall of commander John C. Fremont. Price returned and held the city until spring when he retreated to Arkansas. After successfully defending the city in the Battle of Springfield January 8, 1863, Union troops ruled without challenge. In addition to the regular forces operating in the vicinity the Springfield area also hosted partisans from both camps. Another group of men attacked their neighbors not out of principle, but for the carnal pleasures derived from terrorism. This fighting almost totally depopulated many counties south of Springfield. [7]

Missouri’s state government under Jackson went with the South. The regime was driven from the state and replaced with a pro-Union government who installed a loyalty oath for voting. The first election held with the oath was 1862. The election, perhaps because of the loyalty oath or because it occurred after the Union forces returned in October 1862, brought increased radicalism to southwest Missouri. Greene County elected a Radical to Congress (during and immediately after the war the political factions in Missouri were known as Radicals and Conservatives rather than Republicans and Democrats). [8] Greene County voters again favored the Radicals in a race for the state supreme court in 1863. [9]

The Radicals swept the fall 1864 elections. Voters also approved a new state convention to consider the abolition of slavery. The results were not surprising considering the election occurred two weeks after Price had led a raid into the state by Confederate regulars. Voluntary or forced exile and disfranchisement because of the loyalty oath decreased voting participation across the state. [10] Greene County supported the constitutional convention with 1,651 votes to 302 votes. [11] The county also supported Lincoln with 2,223 votes over Democrat George McClellan’s 346 votes. [12]

After the war, continued unrest encouraged Radical Charles D. Drake and his faction to propose a new state constitution that would encourage tranquility by politically weakening the Conservatives. The controversial document also introduced several reforms, improvement projects, and disenfranchised many of Drake’s opponents. [13]

The disenfranchisement was in effect for the election of the constitution. Greene County approved the new constitution 1,059 votes for to 208 votes opposed. [14] “Drake’s Constitution” won approval statewide only with the aid of purposely-collected military votes.

Radicals definitively proved their triumph over conservatism in Greene County in 1868 by approving a constitutional amendment granting black’s suffrage. There were few slaves in southwest Missouri in 1860. The slave population of Greene County was between 10 and 14 percent. [15] The black population, however, increased after the war with the establishment of a Freedman’s Bureau camp. The measure failed statewide, but won in Greene County with 1,114 to 848. [16] Radicals continued to dominate in the 1868 election. In the race for governor, Greene County supported Radical Joseph McClurg (1,239 votes) over Springfield Democrat John S. Phelps (793 votes). [17] Greene County also favored Republican Ulysses Grant (1,304 votes) for the presidency over Democrat Horace Greeley (740 votes). [18]

The lives voting patterns of Springfield and Greene County residents changed during the Civil War. The exact cause of their switch from being moderately conservative to moderately radical is difficult to determine. The war continued occupation of Union forces probably created some radical votes. The loyalty oaths and disenfranchisement provisions certainly suppressed more dissenting votes. The Honest Men’s League, established in 1866, also “encouraged” Radical votes. [19] According to historian Charles K. Piehl, the post-war residents of Springfield did not directly influence their economic fortunes. [20] If Piehl’s hypothesis is accepted, did Springfieldians economic frustration influence their politics or did the events of the Civil War permanently alter their views? A look at Greene County voting patterns in the 1870s and beyond could answer this question.

1: Charles Piehl, “The Race of Improvement: Springfield Society, 1865-1881,” Missouri Historical Review 67 (4): 492.

2: H. Craig Miner, “Hopes and Fears: Ambivalence in the Anti-Railroad Movement at Springfield, Missouri, 1870-1880,” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 27 (2), 133.

3: Piehl, 485, 487.

4: Sceva Bright Laughlin, "Missouri Politics During the Civil War," n.p.: Missouri Historical Review, 1930., 27.

5: Ibid., 26.

6: Ibid.,, 23. Missourians also elected a new State Senate in 1860, however because Senate districts encompassed several counties the vote revealed less about the voters in each county. The district including Springfield and Greene County elected a Breckenridge Democrat.

7: Fred DeArmond, “Reconstruction in Missouri,” Missouri Historical Review 61 (3), 365, 367.

8: William Parrish, Missouri Under Radical Rule, 1865-1870., Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1965, 2-3; Laughlin, 74.

9: Laughlin, 89.

10: Parrish, 187-189.

11: Laughlin, 90, 107-111.

12: Ibid., 96.

13: DeArmond, 369, 371; Piehl, 489.

14: Laughlin, 96, 107-111.

15: Ibid., 2.

16: General Election Abstracts, 3 Nov. 1868, Office of Secretary of State, Elections Division, Election Returns, Record Group 5, Box 11, Folders 31, 33, 35-38, 40, Box 12, Folder 5, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, Missouri.

17: General Election Abstracts, 3 Nov. 1868, Office of Secretary of State, Elections Division, Election Returns, Record Group 5, Box 11, Folders 31, 33, 35-38, 40, Box 12, Folder 5, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, Missouri.

18: General Election Abstracts, 3 Nov. 1868, Office of Secretary of State, Elections Division, Election Returns, Record Group 5, Box 11, Folders 31, 33, 35-38, 40, Box 12, Folder 5, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, Missouri.

19: Elmo Ingenthron, Borderland Rebellion: A History of the Civil War on the Missouri-Arkansas Border. Branson, Mo., The Ozarks Mountaineer, 1980, 308-309.

20: Piehl, 484-485.