Missouri Secession - Neosho Legislature and Secession Ordinance

Neosho Legislature and Secession Ordinance

In the fall, Jackson's government set up a provisional capital and convened in the town of Neosho, Missouri. On October 28, the legislature took up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union, citing various "outrages" committed against the state and the overthrow of its government by Lyon. The bill was passed on October 30, and on October 31, it was signed by Governor Jackson.

The Neosho Secession Ordinance has long been a source of mystery for historians due to the unusual circumstances surrounding it. Ironically, the authority to secede had originally been given by the legislature to the State convention based upon the idea that a constitutional rewrite might have been needed for an ordinance of secession to be passed. It is unclear whether the legislature had the authority to secede under State, if not Federal law, without the direction of the convention. At the same time, however, it is questionable as to whether the State Constitutional convention had the legal power to expel both the entire executive and legislature from office and appoint new State officers, especially considering that at that specific point in time, no ordinance of secession had been passed, and it was legally nebulous whether any of the previous officers had committed treason or any other impeachable offense. Questions remain unresolved to this day as to whether Jackson's secessionist government or Gamble's provisional government was the legitimate government of Missouri. Jackson supporters claimed their status as the popularly elected government of Missouri to bolster their legitimacy, whereas Gamble had control of the old state capitol and had also been placed in office by a body elected by the state to determine the state's place in the Union.

Perhaps the biggest mystery of Neosho is whether or not Jackson's legislature had a quorum to permit it to convene — a mystery that has prompted many historians to dismiss the Neosho government as a "rump" legislature.

The controversy exists for two reasons. First, surviving letters from earlier in the fall indicate that the vote was delayed until the end of October to obtain a quorum, which had been lacking. Second, the journals of the legislature that would contain that information disappeared sometime during the war. The Senate journal was rediscovered in recent years among artifacts at the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, and the House journal has only recently been found.