Nothing legislates so firmly and finally as a successful sword-blow for the right. Gen. Lyon's capture of Camp Jackson was an epoch-making incident. In spite of the protests of the wealthy and respectable Messrs. Gamble, Yeatman, and others, it was the right thing, done at the right time, to stay the surging sweep of the waves of Secession. It destroyed the captivating aggressiveness of the "Disunionists," and threw their leaders upon the defensive. Other people than they had wants and desires which must be listened to, or the Loyalists would find a way to compel attention. The Secessionists must now plead at their bar; not they in the court of those who would destroy the Government. 88 [Illustration: 088-The Scott-Harney Agreement] CHAPTER V. THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT The General Assembly of Missouri met at Jefferson City, in obedience to the Governor's call, on the 2d of May, and the Governor, after calling attention of the body to the state of the country, made an out-and-out appeal for Secession, saying that the interests and sympathies of Missouri were identical with those of other Slaveholding States, and she must unquestionably unite her destiny with theirs. She had no desire for war, but she would be faithless as to her honor and recreant as to her duty if she hesitated a moment to make complete preparations for the protection of her people, and that therefore the Legislature should "place the State at the earliest practicable moment in a complete state of defense." As this is what the Legislature had expected, and what it had met for, no time was lost in going into secret session to carry out the program. 89 The first of these was the odious Military Bill, the passage of which was stubbornly resisted, step by step, by the small band of Union men. This, it will be recollected, put every able-bodied man into the Militia of Missouri, under the orders of officers to be appointed by the Governor; compelled him to obey implicitly the orders received from those above him, and prescribed the heinous crime of "treason to the State," which extended even to words spoken in derogation of the Governor or Legislature. Offenses of this kind were to be punished by summary court-martial, which had even the power to inflict death. Other bills perverted the funds for the State charitable institutions into the State military chest, seized the school fund for the same purpose, and authorized a loan from the banks of $1,000,000 and another of $1,000,000 of State bonds, to provide funds by which to carry out the program.