The Commissioner made a long address, in which he said that the Union had been dissolved, could never be reconstructed; that war was inevitable, and the people of Mississippi earnestly invited those of Missouri to unite with their kindred for common defense and safety. A few days later the Legislature adopted a resolution against coercion, and another introduced by George Graham Vest, of the Committee on Federal Relations, afterwards Senator in the Confederate House from Missouri, and for 24 years representing Missouri in the Senate of the United States. This resolution declared that so "abhorrent was the doctrine of coercion, that any attempt at such would result in the people of Missouri rallying on the side of their Southern brethren to resist to the last extremity." There was only one vote against this in the Senate, and but 14 in the House. The eager young Secessionists were impatient to emulate their brethren farther south, and strike a definite blow--seize something that would wreck the sovereignty of the United States. Forts there were none. In the historic old Jefferson Barracks, below St. Louis, there were only a small squad of raw recruits, and a few officers, mostly of Southern proclivities, whom it would be cruel to turn out of house and home while they were waiting "for their States to go out." 36 There were but two Arsenals in the State; a small affair at Liberty, in the northwest, near the Missouri River, which contained several hundred muskets, a dozen cannon, and a considerable quantity of powder. The other was the great Arsenal at St. Louis, one of the most important in the country. It covered 56 acres of ground, fronting on the Mississippi River, was inclosed by a high stone wall on all sides but that of the river, and had within it four massive stone buildings standing in a rectangle. In these were stored 60,000 stands of arms, mostly Enfield and Springfield rifles, 1,500,000 cartridges, 90,000 pounds of powder, a number of field pieces and siege guns, and a great quantity of munitions of various kinds. There were also machinery and appliances of great value. The Arsenal was situated on rather low ground, and was commanded from hills near by. At the beginning of 1861 the only persons in it were some staff officers, with their servants and orderlies, and the unarmed workmen. The officer in command was Maj. Wm. Haywood Bell, a North Carolinian, graduate of West Point, and Ordnance Officer, but who had spent nearly the whole of his 40 years' service in Bureau work, attending meanwhile so providently to his own affairs that he was quite a wealthy man, with most of his investments in St. Louis.