HAMILTON R. GAMBLE, MISSOURI'S WAR GOVERNOR 25
HAMILTON R. GAMBLE, MISSOURI'S WAR
GOVERNOR
BY MARGUERITE POTTER
At an early hour on the morning of Janury 12, 1861, St.
Louis was buzzing with excitment. Main street was a brilliant spectacle; flags of every size and description, busts of
Washington, Clay, and Webster, and huge banners bearing
the words "John J. Crittenden's Compromise," decked it
from one end to the other. At twelve o'clock, a salute of
thirty-three guns was fired from the levee and another at two
in the afternoon. At noon, all business houses closed, and
crowds thronged the streets. Fourth street from Market
to Chestnut was a living sea of people. Never before had
St. Louis beheld such a meeting; never before had the West
displayed such an interest in the fate of the country. By
two o'clock, the vast throng was surging around the speaker's
stand. Enthusiastic applause greeted the tall, slender, distinguished gentleman who rose to address them. He had the
carriage of a general, the sensitive face of a scholar. When he
began to speak in slow, deep, resonant tones, the crowd was
hushed. Then and there Missourians heard Hamilton R.
Gamble, for forty years respected, admired, and trusted
throughout the State, take his stand for compromise and
against secession.1
Thus, at a critical time in Missouri history, there returned to her political stage the leader whose statesmanship
was to prove a dominant force in shaping the destiny of the
State and perhaps, to a lesser degree, of the nation. He came
back to St. Louis at a critical moment when people there, as
elsewhere in Missouri, were halting between union and secession, and when amid the confused thinking of the time, the
persuasive voice of one constructive thinker could formulate
and sway public opinion. Tied to the South as he was by
blood and sympathy, Gamble overcame his prejudices and
placed his loyalty where reason and common sense told him
1 Missouri Republican (St. Louis), January 15, 1861.
