Claiborne Fox Jackson (April 4, 1806 – December 6, 1862) was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was forced out by the Unionist majority in the legislature, after planning to force secession of the state. Before the war, Jackson worked with his father-in-law, John Sappington, to manufacture and sell

patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...

s, in the form of

quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to '' Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...

pills, to treat and prevent

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...

. He became quite wealthy and politically influential, deeply involved in the Democratic party in Saline County and central Missouri. He served twelve years in the Missouri House of Representatives, twice as Speaker. In 1848 he was elected to the State Senate. To win votes in the 1860 election, Jackson claimed to be anti-secession, but he was secretly planning a secessionist coup in league with Confederate President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as ...

. Nathaniel Lyon, Union commander of the arsenal in St. Louis, was suspicious of the governor's intentions and raided a state militia camp outside the city, where the force had been accumulating arms; Lyon's troops took many of the militia members as prisoners. As the latter were marched through the city, a riot broke out, and both soldiers and civilians were killed. Jackson declared Missouri to be a free republic. In July, the majority Unionist members of the Missouri State Legislature voted to remove him from office, but the governor refused to accept the action and went into exile in Arkansas, from whence he and his colleagues intended to organize a new invasion of Missouri. Before such action could take place, Jackson died in Little Rock.

Early life

Claiborne Fox Jackson, son of Dempsey Carroll and Mary Orea "Molly" (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Pickett) Jackson, was born in 1806 in Fleming County, Kentucky. He had several older brothers. His father was a wealthy tobacco planter and slaveholder. He was likely tutored at home and taught to be a planter.

Migration to Missouri – career and marriages

In 1826 Jackson moved with several of his older brothers to Missouri, settling in the Howard County town of Franklin. The Jackson brothers established a successful general mercantile store. In early 1831, Jackson married Jane Breathitt Sappington, daughter of Dr. John Sappington, a prominent frontier physician, and his wife, Jane, in Arrow Rock, Missouri. From Maryland and Nashville, Tennessee, Sappington had met his wife in Kentucky. She was a sister of future Kentucky Governor John Breathitt and two other politically connected brothers. After living in

Franklin, Tennessee Franklin is a city in and county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About south of Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020, its population was 83,454 ...

, they migrated to Missouri in 1817, settling in Arrow Rock a couple of years later. In addition to developing businesses, Sappington eventually acquired thousands of acres of land and became a major slaveholder. But Jane Jackson died a few months after the wedding. That year her father established the Sappington Cemetery on his plantation for family burials, perhaps because of his daughter Jane's death. Claiborne Jackson continued to work with his brothers after his wife's death, until 1832 and the outbreak of hostilities in the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", cross ...

.Christensen, Lawrence O., ''Dictionary of Missouri Biography,'' University of Missouri Press, 1999, pp. 423–425 As a young widower, Claiborne Jackson organized, and was elected captain of, a unit of Howard County volunteers for the conflict. After returning from the war, Jackson decided to make a change, moving to nearby Saline County, where his father-in-law lived. He worked for him for a time in the family businesses. This was also part of the region along the Missouri River known as " Little Dixie." In 1833 Jackson married Louisa Catherine Sappington, a younger sister of his late wife. He worked with his father-in-law and brother-in-law Erasmus Sappington in the manufacture and sale of "Dr. Sappington's Anti-Fever Pills",Glassman, Steve. ''It Happened on the Santa Fe Trail''. Globe Pequot Press. 2008. pp. 67–68 a

preventative and treatment for

. The pills were filled with

, which Sappington manufactured from ground

cinchona ''Cinchona'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are reportedly nat ...

bark imported from

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. He developed wide distribution of the pills, which became best sellers. Malaria was prevalent throughout the Missouri and Mississippi valleys, as were

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by '' Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects chi ...

, and

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...

. Saline County was relatively near the head of the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, ...

in neighboring Howard County. Traders and emigrants traveling through the area were also eager to buy pills to treat malaria. Subsequently, both men and their entwined, extended families became quite wealthy and influential in the region. In May 1838, Jackson's second wife, Louisa, died, likely from complications of childbirth. Their infant son, Andrew Jackson, died the next month. That same year Jackson married again, to the widowed Elizabeth (Eliza) Whitsett (Sappington) Pearson, also a daughter of his parents-in-law. They had two daughters together, Louisa Jane (1841-1918) and Annie E. Jackson (1844-1926).

Political career

Through his family connections with Dr. Sappington, Jackson, along with his brother-in-law Meredith M. Marmaduke, became deeply involved with Missouri Democratic Party politics. Jackson was first elected in 1836 to the Missouri House of Representatives, where he represented Saline County. He moved to the Howard County seat of

Fayette, Missouri Fayette is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 2,803 at the 2020 census. History Fayette was laid out in 1823. Th ...

—then a center of political power in the state—in 1838 and worked for the local branch of the state bank. This would pay great political dividends later in his career. Claiborne Jackson served a total of twelve years in the Missouri House, including terms as Speaker in 1844 and 1846. In 1840 Jackson nearly became involved in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and ...

over politics; duels had been prohibited. Writing anonymously to a Fayette, Missouri newspaper, Jackson made accusations that John B. Clark, the Whig candidate for Missouri Governor that year, was guilty of election fraud. The men exchanged more harsh words, and Clark challenged Jackson to a duel. The matter was settled without gunplay. Later, after Clark had switched party allegiance to the Democrats, he and Jackson became political allies. Jackson was elected to the state senate in 1848. As leader of the pro-slavery Democrats, he headed efforts to defeat US

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Thomas H. Benton, a powerful politician who was pro-Union. This was an event with both personal and political implications for Jackson, as his father-in-law and Benton had a longtime friendship. Until that time, like his father-in-law and brother-in-law Marmaduke, Jackson had been an ardent backer of Benton. Marmaduke chose to side with Benton, as his views on slavery and related issues had changed since the 1840s. This likely cost him the chance to be elected governor in his own right (he had served ten months in the role to fill the term following the suicide of Thomas Reynolds.) The estrangement with Jackson and his other in-laws led to disruption in the extended family. Amidst increasing tensions related to slavery in the state and nation, Missouri State Senator and Judge Carty Wells of Marion County introduced what were first known as the Calhoun resolutions, developed by US Senator

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...

(D-SC) for all slaveholding states. These were referred to the committee on foreign relations, which Jackson chaired. He is credited with introducing them to the whole state senate on January 15, 1849. They were afterward known as the "Jackson Resolutions." Asserting that Congress had no constitutional right to legislate on slavery in the states, the resolutions rejected the

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a Slave states an ...

and any effort by outside forces to determine slavery in a territory, but said to preserve harmony it would accept extension of the Compromise to all new territories. It stated that Missouri had much in common with other slaveholding states and needed to resist Northern encroachment. It mandated that the state's U.S. Senators and Congressmen support these resolutions. US Senator Thomas Hart Benton had rejected Calhoun's resolutions in the Senate and strongly opposed the effort to introduce them at the state. But Jackson and the anti-Benton faction had their way. The joint convention of the legislature to vote for US Senator (as was the custom at the time) voted for Whig Henry S. Geyer, and Benton lost his office. Benton supporters retaliated by derailing Jackson's attempts to secure the Democratic nomination for U.S. Congress in 1853 and again in 1855. In 1857, Jackson was appointed by the governor as Banking Commissioner of Missouri. In that position he established a system of six State Banks, with branch locations. This proved an advantage to business and the general public alike by stabilizing temporary currency shortages that had happened from time to time, especially in the more rural areas of the state. As Commissioner, Jackson traveled to various locations around the state inspecting banking facilities. He used these occasions to build a power base for his next attempt at elected office, as a candidate for Governor of Missouri.

Governor of Missouri

In the fall of 1860 Jackson resigned as Banking Commissioner to run for governor. Jackson campaigned, and was elected as, a Douglas Democrat, supporting presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas's anti-

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...

platform. Jackson defeated his nearest challenger, Sample Orr, by nearly ten thousand votes. Immediately after his election, however, Jackson began working behind the scenes for Missouri's secession.Phillips, ''Missouri's Confederate''. pp. 201, 230, 235. Jackson assumed the governor's office on January 3, 1861. During his inaugural address, he declared that Missouri shared a common bond and interest with other states that allowed slavery and could not separate herself from them if the Union should be dissolved. He called for a state convention to decide the issue. On February 18, Missourians voted to have a special state convention to decide on secession and other matters. The convention delegates voted overwhelmingly 98–1 against secession, despite lobbying by Jackson. Jackson announced that he would continue the policy of his predecessor, Governor Robert M. Stewart, whereby Missouri would be an "armed neutral." The state would refuse to provide arms or men to either side in the approaching Civil War. After the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12–13, President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

issued a proclamation for the states to call up their militia and provide 75,000 troops to the Federal government to suppress the rebellion. He sent specific requests to all states, including Missouri. Jackson responded,

Sir: Your dispatch of the 15th instant, making a call on Missouri for four regiments of men for immediate service, has been received. There can be, I apprehend, no doubt that the men are intended to form a part of the President's army to make war upon the people of the seceded states. Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its object, inhuman, and diabolical and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any unholy crusade.

In this period, Jackson was carrying on secret correspondence with Confederate President

, making plans to take Missouri out of the Union by a military coup. The key asset was the U.S. Arsenal in St. Louis, which contained large stocks of arms and ammunition. Jackson plotted to seize the Arsenal, and asked Davis to send artillery to breach the Arsenal's walls. The commander of the Arsenal was

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Nathaniel Lyon, a pro-Union

regular Army A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following: * a standin ...

officer. On April 26, 1861, under orders from Secretary of War Simon Cameron, Lyon worked with Missouri Volunteers and Illinois troops to secretly move 21,000 weapons (of 39,000 small arms held in the Arsenal) across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

Alton, Illinois Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is a p ...

, in order to protect them.

Capture of Camp Jackson

On May 3, 1861, Jackson ordered the Missouri Volunteer Militia to assemble at various encampments throughout Missouri, including St. Louis, for six days of training. They assembled in Lindell's Grove on the city's western outskirts, in an encampment now called Camp Jackson. Governor Jackson's order to assemble the militia was legal according to the Missouri state constitution, if the encampment was intended only for training, and not for offensive action against Federal forces. But, the St. Louis Militia was commanded largely by secessionists, and had recently enlisted a new regiment (2nd Regiment MVM) composed almost completely of secessionists. Also, Confederates had shipped artillery seized from the U.S. Arsenal in

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counti ...

. Arriving by steamboat, the artillery was secretly shipped delivered to Camp Jackson. Lyon responded to the perceived threat to control of the Arsenal with force. On May 10, 1861, Lyon surrounded Camp Jackson with pro-Union volunteer "Home Guards" (mostly drawn from the German immigrants of St. Louis), and took the Militia prisoner. As the prisoners were marched to the Arsenal, a riot broke out on the streets. During two days of rioting and gunfire, several soldiers, prisoners, and civilian bystanders were killed. Alarmed by the incident, the Missouri Legislature immediately acted on Governor Jackson's call for a bill dividing the state into military districts and authorizing a

State Guard In the United States, state defense forces are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government. State defense forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state. ...

American Civil War

On May 11, 1861, Jackson appointed

Sterling Price Major-General Sterling "Old Pap" Price (September 14, 1809 – September 29, 1867) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War. Prior to ...

to be

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

of the Missouri State Guard; he ordered him to resist action by federal forces and Missouri Unionist Volunteers in Federal service. On May 12, Price met with General William S. Harney, the Federal commander in Missouri. They agreed to the Price-Harney Truce, which permitted Missouri to remain neutral for the moment. Theoretically, Price promised that the state forces, and the state government, would hold the state for the Union and prevent the entry of Confederate forces. But, at the same time Governor Jackson had secretly dispatched envoys to CSA President Jefferson Davis and Confederate commanders in Arkansas asking for an immediate invasion of the state. He promised that the State Guard would cooperate with the Confederate Army in a campaign against Federal forces to effect the "liberation" of St. Louis. In addition, Lieutenant Governor Thomas C. Reynolds traveled to Richmond, with the agreement of Major General Price, to ask President Davis to order an invasion of the state. Missouri Unionists were dismayed at what they perceived as Harney's one-sided adherence to the "truce," and petitioned for Harney's removal from command. Harney was removed on May 30, and temporarily replaced with Lyon. He was promoted from captain to brigadier general of

volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

. On June 11, 1861, Jackson met with Lyon, hoping to extend the truce, but Lyon refused. Lyon marched on Jefferson City with his forces, entering on June 13. Jackson and other pro-Confederate officials fled to

Boonville, Missouri Boonville is a city and the county seat of Cooper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 7,964 at the 2020 census. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the Civil War, on July 17, 1861. Union forces defeated the Missouri S ...

. Union forces routed the State Guard, commanded by Jackson's nephew

John Sappington Marmaduke John Sappington Marmaduke (March 14, 1833 – December 28, 1887) was an American politician and soldier. He served as the 25th governor of Missouri from 1885 until his death in 1887. During the American Civil War, he was a senior office ...

, at Boonville on June 17. At

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

on July 5, Jackson took command of 6,000 State Guardsmen (becoming the second sitting U.S. Governor to lead troops in battle after Isaac Shelby of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

did so during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

), and drove back a much smaller Union detachment led by Colonel Franz Sigel. But, the Union forces held a dominating position, and Lyon chased Jackson and Price to the far southwest of the state.

Exile

On July 22, 1861, the Missouri State Convention reconvened in Jefferson City. The convention again voted against secession, and on July 31, it declared the governor's office vacant. The same day the convention appointed Hamilton R. Gamble, former Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, as provisional governor. He acted as governor for the remainder of the war. Jackson did not recognize their actions; on August 5 he issued a proclamation declaring that Missouri was a free republic, and dissolving all ties with the Union. He traveled to

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, to meet with Confederate President Davis to seek support for General Price's militia forces and official recognition by the Confederate government. On October 28, 1861, in Neosho, Missouri, some secessionist members of the

Missouri General Assembly The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Senate and a 163-member House of Representatives. Members of both houses of the General Assembly are ...

met (with Jackson present) and passed an

ordinance of secession An Ordinance of Secession was the name given to multiple resolutions drafted and ratified in 1860 and 1861, at or near the beginning of the Civil War, by which each seceding Southern state or territory formally declared secession from the United ...

. On November 28, 1861 the Confederacy recognized Missouri as its twelfth state, with Jackson as governor. The Neosho group elected senators and representatives to the Confederate Congress. But, Union forces occupied almost all of Missouri at the time, making the recognition and elections moot. Jackson took refuge in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

with General Price and the Missouri militia. They were soundly defeated by Union forces at the

Battle of Pea Ridge The Battle of Pea Ridge (March 7–8, 1862), also known as the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, took place in the American Civil War near Leetown, Arkansas, Leetown, northeast of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. United States, Federal f ...

in March 1862. Jackson traveled to southern Arkansas in the spring of 1862 to regroup and meet with other wealthy Missouri secessionists who had fled south. They discussed organizing a new campaign to retake Missouri, but Jackson died of pneumonia and stomach cancer before such actions took place. The invasion was never mounted.

Death

His health grew increasingly poor throughout 1862, Jackson traveled to

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

, in November of that year for military planning meetings for the aforementioned campaign. On December 6, 1862 Jackson died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

at age 56 in a Little Rock rooming house, as he had become weakened from stomach cancer. He was initially denied a burial in Missouri because of having led a secession movement. Jackson was buried in Little Rock's Mount Holly Cemetery. Following the end of the Civil War, he was exhumed, and reinterred in the family Sappington Cemetery of his in-laws in

Saline County, Missouri Saline County is located along the Missouri River in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,370. Its county seat is Marshall. The county was established November 25, 1820, and named for the region's salt spr ...

. All three of his wives are buried there as well. In 1967 the cemetery was acquired by the state as part of an effort to recognize the burial places of the state's governors. It has been preserved as a State Historic Site. Jackson's brother-in-law and governor

Meredith Miles Marmaduke Meredith Miles Marmaduke (August 28, 1791 – March 26, 1864) was an American politician who served as the 8th governor of Missouri in 1844, to fill out the term of Governor Thomas Reynolds, who had committed suicide. A member of the Demo ...

also died during the Civil War and was buried here. Their father-in-law, John Sappington, had founded the two-acre cemetery in 1831, and it has 111 plots.

Legacy

A provisional camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Caimito, Panama, was named after Claiborne Jackson.

References

External links

Claiborne Fox Jackson
at the National Governors Association
Claiborne Fox Jackson
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Claiborne Fox 1806 births 1862 deaths 19th-century American politicians American military personnel of the Indian Wars American militia officers American people of the Black Hawk War Burials in Missouri Confederate States of America state governors Deaths from pneumonia in Arkansas Democratic Party governors of Missouri Exiled politicians Farmers from Missouri Missouri State Guard Democratic Party Missouri state senators People from Fayette, Missouri People from Fleming County, Kentucky People of Missouri in the American Civil War Speakers of the Missouri House of Representatives Democratic Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives