The disloyal members of the Legislature held a session at Neosho, Newton county, in the extreme south-western portion of the State, and on the 19th of November passed an ordinance of secession, and sent their Commissioners to the Confederate Congress at Richmond. Missouri, as represented by them, was admitted to the Confederacy on the 27th of November. On the 30th of November, General Price, then at Neosho, issued a proclamation to the people of Missouri, calling upon them in the most earnest manner for recruits to the rebel army. He called for fifty thousand men, who might rendezvous at headquarters with anything in the shape of arms that they could find; and if unarmed, to enroll themselves, and they would be supplied. He represented the hopelessness of the cause, and the certain defeat of the rebel army unless immediately reinforced. His appeals had some effect in promoting sedition, and in securing enlistments, but they fell far short of the number he demanded. On the 1st of December, Gen. Price was at Osceola, with 18,000 men. On the 6th of December, Independence was entered by a band of rebels, who seized several citizens and compelled them to take an oath not to bear arms against the Southern Confederacy. On the 13th of the same month, Governor Jackson, at New Madrid, issued a proclamation to the insurgent army, in which he attempted a defence of the rebellion, and asserted that the people of Missouri were in favor of secession. Unfortunately for the veracity or the knowledge of Governor Jackson, wherever the people of the State were delivered from the terrorism of the rebels and marauders, they adhered to the Union, as was verified by the fact, that up to the 20th of January, 1862, no less than 33,882 Missourians had entered the Federal service for three years, and 6,000 had volunteered for three months. Major-General Henry W. Halleck was now in command of the Department. He was compelled to adopt rigorous measures in some cases in consequence of the pertinacious conduct of the secessionists. A memorable event of the month of January was the annual election for officers of the Mercantile Library Association, in which loyalty and secession were antagonistic elements. General Halleck officially announced that each officer of the Association would be expected to take the oath of allegiance within ten days from the date of his order, and in default thereof the officers failing should be deemed to have resigned their offices. Any officer refusing to take the oath of allegiance, who should exercise or attempt to exercise the functions of his office, should be arrested and dealt with under the laws of war.