Robert Marcellus Stewart

Background

Robert was born on March 12, 1815 at Truxton, Cortland County, New York, United States, the son of Charles and Elisabeth (Severance) Stewart.

Education

At Truxton he obtained an academic education and also studied law.

Career

The lure of the West drew him to Louisville, Kentucky, and finally to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he settled in 1840. Here he soon developed a satisfactory law practice, and in 1845 was chosen a delegate to the Missouri constitutional convention. The following year he was elected to the state Senate, where he served until 1857.

He inaugurated and financed the preliminary survey of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, became its attorney, and by lobbying at Washington obtained a grant of some 600, 000 acres of choice federal land for his company.

In January 1859 the state assembly, at his request, voted him $30, 000 with which to protect the western border of Missouri against a "band of thieves, robbers and midnight assassins" from Kansas. When the secession issue grew hot, Stewart took middle ground by upholding the Crittenden compromise proposals.

He asserted, however, that Southerners had a right to take their slaves into Kansas territory. In an attempt to please the other camp he ridiculed "nullification, secession, disunion and all radical Southern fire-eating propositions".

After he retired from the governorship, he was elected a delegate to the state convention "to consider the relations between the Government of the United States and the Government and people of the State of Missouri", and veered round to his true convictions by taking a strong stand for the Union. He did not, however, favor coercing the seceding states.

Stewart edited the St. Joseph Journal until 1863 when Governor Hamilton R. Gamble gave him a commission to recruit a brigade of Union men, but because of his excessive drinking General Halleck relieved him of his command.

He died on September 21, 1871 in St. Joseph.

Achievements

• Governor of Missouri, Stewart championed the founding of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad in northern Missouri, which resulted in the creation of the Pony Express and the rise of Kansas City, Missouri as a metropolitan region. He also had to deal with the Bloody Kansas border skirmishes of that time.

Politics

As governor he stressed the material interests of the state, especially favoring a liberal policy toward railroad development. The problem of "bleeding Kansas" also absorbed much of his attention.

Views

Quotations: In his final message to the legislature (January 3, 1861) he straddled the issue by asserting that: "Missouri will hold to the Union so long as it is worth an effort to preserve it. . She cannot be frightened by the past unfriendly legislation of the North, nor dragooned into secession by the restrictive legislation of the extreme South".

Personality

Except when his mind was clouded by alcohol, Stewart was an able executive. He was tall and handsome, with dark hair. He was considered quite eccentric, including a famous instance of riding his horse into the governor's mansion.

Connections

Stewart remained a bachelor all his life.

Father:

Charles Stewart

Mother:

Elisabeth (Severance) Stewart

References

• Missouri the Center State, 1821-1915 Volume 4
• Missouri: A Bone of Contention