Radicals Treatment of Conservatives in Missouri

Radical treatment of conservatives in Missouri Sat, Aug 11, 1866 – 2 · Daily Missouri Republican (St. Louis, Missouri) · Newspapers.com

In my previous post “Frank Valle: A Perry County Secessionist That Bollinger Countians Wanted to Elect” I noted that:

“The radicals of the era , as they referred to themselves, imposed harsh treatment of Southern sympathizers both during and after the war. In fact, after the war, they turned on the Germans.”

Proof of this can be found in the August 11, 1866 edition of the Daily Missouri Republican newspaper which published the following account of Radical Republican rule in Missouri:

“Intolerant as any portion of the South may have been in former days, in the matter of free speech it never rivalled the intolerance of the Radical party in Missouri, whose professions of devotion to freedom are proved to be hypocrisy and mockery by the brutal violence prescribed by them, unrebuked in any Radical question restraining the political opponents from a free utterance of their opinions.”

Radicals have shot down Conservatives in public meetings. They have murdered Conservative clergymen on the road.

August 11, 1862 Daily Missouri Republican

The paper continued:

“Radicals have shot down Conservatives in public meetings. They have murdered Conservative clergymen on the road. They have driven clergymen from their pulpits. They have intimidated hundreds from attending Conservative meetings. They are supplied with arms provided by Governor Fletcher to restrain free speech, silence Conservative speakers, break up Conservative meetings, disturb the peace of Conservative neighborhoods, provoke broils, quarrels and murders and carry the fall elections.”