Claiborne Fox Jackson
CLAIBORNE FOX JACKSON
AND THE
SECESSION CRISIS IN MISSOURI
BY WILLIAM H. LYON*
During the secession crisis in Missouri, Governor Claiborne Fox
Jackson occupied an unenviable position. After Abraham Lincoln's
election he favored secession, but awakened to discover that a
majority of Missourians did not. He then adopted a policy of
neutrality, but found himself forced back into the arms of secession
by the specter of a Union army invasion. Jackson had no alternative when Union General Nathaniel Lyon declared war on him, yet
secession was not feasible either. Union troops effectually prevented
that, establishing martial law in the State. On the other hand,
Confederate authorities seemed no more sympathetic to Jackson
than Union authorities. Confederate generals consistently refused
him military aid. President Jefferson Davis was actually hostile,
*William H. Lyon, Ph.D., is professor of History and academic chairman of the Department
of Social Science at Arizona State College, Flagstaff.
