Background
Stewart, Robert Marcellus was born on March 12, 1815 in Truxton, Cortland County, New York, United States. Son of Charles and Elisabeth (Severance) S. Admitted to Kentucky bar, 1838.
governor of Missouri railroad executive
Stewart, Robert Marcellus was born on March 12, 1815 in Truxton, Cortland County, New York, United States. Son of Charles and Elisabeth (Severance) S. Admitted to Kentucky bar, 1838.
In 1838, Stewart moved to Buchanan County, Missouri. In 1856 Trusten Polk was elected as governor. And then United States. Senator at the beginning of 1857.
Polk opted for the Senate, and Stewart then ran for the governorship.
Governor Stewart championed the founding of the Hannibal & Saint 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.
When Stewart left office in January 1861, he urged Missouri to adopt an armed neutrality in the impending Civil War and not to provide men or arms to either side, though his own preference was for preserving the Union. In his final message as governor, he said:
As matters are at present Missouri will stand by her lot, and hold to the Union as long as it is worth an effort to preserve lieutenant
She is able to take care of herself, and will be neither forced nor flattered, driven nor coaxed, into a course of action that must end in her own destruction.
Stewart"s successor as governor, Claiborne Jackson, claimed to support the armed neutrality stance though he also stated that be believed Missouri"s course was tied to the other slave states of the Confederacy. When Missouri was forced to take sides after Governor Jackson was removed from office by the Missouri State Convention in July 1861, Stewart attempted to join the Union army. However, his failing health kept him from any active service.
On September 3, 1861, between 17 and 20 passengers died and 100 were injured when the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad bridge over the Platte River (Missouri River) was sabotaged in the Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy.
Those responsible allegedly were attempting to assassinate Stewart. Stewart remained a bachelor all his life and was considered quite eccentric, including a famous instance of riding his horse into the governor"s mansion.
He died in Saint Joseph in 1871 and is interred in Mount Mora Cemetery.
In the mean time Missouri will hold herself in readiness, at any moment, to defend her soil from pollution and her property from plunder by fanatics and marauders, come from what quarter they may.
Stewart was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1845, and served as a member of the state senate for ten years.