Today in History:

418 Series I Volume III- Serial 3 - Wilson's Creek

Page 418 OPERATIONS IN MO., ARK., KANS., AND IND. T. Chapter X.

every shade of political opinion. When these desirable results are secured, there will no longer be a necessity for the presence of armed forces in North Missouri. It is therefore the purpose of the general commanding in this region of country, before removing the military forces under his command from their present stations, to visit with a considerable force every county seat and considerable town in North Missouri, and in each to appoint a committee of public safety of persons selected from those of all parties who have social, domestic, and pecuniary interests at stake. Each committee shall consist of not more than five persons, and wherever it can consistently be done, the proper county officers shall be selected as members. No one thus appointed shall be permitted to decline or shall fail to perform his duties, under such penalties as the commanding general shall affix. These committees shall be charged with the duty of maintaining peace and order in their respective counties, and shall have power to call out all citizens of the county, to assemble at such times and places, and in such numbers, as may be necessary to secure these objects. Any one who shall refuse to obey such call will be turned over to the military authorities. If the people of the counties respectively are not willing or able to enforce the peace among themselves, and to prevent the organizing of companies to make war upon the United States, the military force will perform the service, but the expenses must be paid by the county in which such service is necessary. To secure their prompt payment, a levy of a sufficient amount of money will be at once made and collected by the officer in command. Upon the call of a majority of the committee of public safety in each county, troops will be sent to keep the peace, but as such expeditions are for the benefit of the people concerned, who have in nearly every case the power to discharge the service themselves, the troops thus sent will be quartered upon them, and subsisted and transported by the county in the manner above specified for the whole period it may be necessary for them to remain. If, in consequence of disturbance not reported by the committee, the general commanding finds it necessary to send a force into any county to restore order, they will be in like manner billeted upon the county, unless the combination against the peace were too powerful to be resisted, or the parties engaged were organized in other counties, and brought on the disturbances by actual invasion. It is not believed that the first case can arise in any county of North Missouri; and, in the second, the forces will be marched into the county or counties where the marauding parties were organized or whence they made the invasion, and will in like manner be quartered upon them. Where peace and good order are preserved, the troops will not be required; where they are disturbed, they will be restored at the expense of the county. To preserve the peace is the duty of all good citizens, and as all will suffer alike from the breach of it, men of every shade of political opinion can act cordially together in the discharge of a duty as full of interest to one as to another. By performing this simple service as in times past, and which it is certainly as much their interest and their duty to discharge to-day, the people of this section of the country will be spared the anxiety, uneasiness, and apprehension which necessarily attend the presence of armed forces in their midst, and will again enjoy that security of person and property which has hitherto been their privilege. All persons who have heretofore been led away to take up arms against the United States are notified that by returning and laying down their arms at the nearest military post, and by performing their duty hereafter as peaceful and law-abiding citizens, they will not be molested by the military forces, nor, so far as


Page 418 OPERATIONS IN MO., ARK., KANS., AND IND. T. Chapter X.