Page 3
Both branches of the legislature recommended Coffee for a captaincy in the First U.S. Army Cavalry Regiment. He accepted the commission in May 1855, and commenced recruiting in Southwest Missouri before reporting to his duty post at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He resigned his senate seat on August 24, 1855. (16) Four months later on December 20, 1855, Coffee relinquished his military commission due to illness. He promptly returned to his Greenfield home, located on the town commons, which also served as his law office.
In 1856, the question of whether Kansas would be admitted into the Union as a slave or free state plagued Missouri and the rest of the nation. Coffee, by this time, had become one of the most influential men in Dade County and a recognized political leader in Southwest Missouri. A staunch states' righter and owner of at least one slave, Coffee adamantly opposed the abolitionist activities occurring in Kansas.
On the evening of August 26, 1856, a citizens meeting took place at the Dade County Courthouse. A committee of seven men from Dade and Lawrence counties, including Coffee, were appointed to draft resolutions expressing "the sense of the meeting." The drafted preamble and resolutions denounced "abolitionists and hired marauders ... ravaging Kansas Territory, robbing the law and order citizens, burning down their houses ...." Immediate action was necessary and delay would prove:
fatal to Southern rights and the maintenance of law in Kansas, and that it is the duty of every pro-slavery man in our county to render such aid as he consistently can without serious injury to himself or family.... (17)
Coffee spoke afterwards to the crowd and proposed "squatter sovereignty" as a solution to the Kansas problem. (18)
In June 1857, Coffee and two other Dade Countians acquired the weekly Greenfield American Standard. Originally an anti-Benton paper, the former owners, in 1856, had begun to support the Know-Nothing party. The new owners changed the newspaper's name to the Greenfield Southwest, dropped its Know-Nothing affiliation and published it as an "Independent in politics." In 1859, the Southwest ceased publication, but while it existed, it furthered Coffee's leadership as an independent Democrat after he withdrew from the national Democratic party. (19)
As an independent in 1858, Coffee offered himself as a Democratic candidate in the Seventeenth State Senate District. (20) He lost the nomination to the regular Democratic candidate, B.H. Cravens of Cedar County. Coffee then considered running in the general election as an independent candidate but reconsidered. He decided that his candidacy might prove injurious to the Democratic party. This decision foretold his forthcoming nomination as a candidate for repressentative of Dade County. Coffee won the election and immediately allied himself with pro-Southern leaders Sterling Price and Claiborne Fox Jackson. This alliance insured his slection to the office of speaker of the house for the 20th General Assembly. Coffee received 97 of the 117 votes cast. (21)
During the 20th General Assembly, Coffee sponsored internal improvement bills for Southwest Missouri, just as he had done a few years earlier as a state senator. He also introduced bills to incorporate Masonic lodges, a new school district, the Dade County Agricultural and Mechanical Association, and bills to legalize land transactions. (22) He voted for a constitutional amendment to limit the state debt to $30,000,000 and spoke in favor of postponing the vote on the state's revenue bull until after the legislators had discussed it with their constituents. (23)
1 |
2 | 3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
Next Page
Fair Use Notice: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, and so on. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
