Missouri suffered severely in the war, but not through important
campaigns or great battles. Persistent secession conspiracy, the Kansas
episodes of border strife, and secret orders of Confederate agents from
Arkansas instigating unlawful warfare, made Missouri a hotbed of
guerrilla uprisings and of relentless neighborhood feuds, in which armed
partizan conflict often degenerated into shocking barbarity, and the
pretense of war into the malicious execution of private vengeance.
President Lincoln drew a vivid picture of the chronic disorders in
Missouri in reply to complaints demanding the removal of General
Schofield from local military command:
"We are in civil war. In such cases there always is a main question; but
in this case that question is a perplexing compound--Union and slavery.
It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but of at least four
sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those
who are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union _with_, but not
_without_, slavery--those for it _without_, but not _with_--those for it
_with_ or _without_, but prefer it _with_--and those for it _with or
without_, but prefer it _without_. Among these again is a subdivision of
those who are for _gradual_ but not for _immediate_, and those who are
for _immediate_, but not for _gradual_ extinction of slavery.
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