Evening star., 1945-12-02

TolUnsfok and neighbOrs or
his first Uisit home after takin!
western tier was where the James boys
Jesse and Frank-came from. Farther
north still, at st. Joseph on the Missouri
River, was where Jesse, living an osten-
sibly respectable existence as "Mr. How
ard" was shot and killed. The deed
was done by Bob Ford, "the dirty little
coward who shot Mr. Howard. He laid
poor Jesse in his grave" That's how
the ballad goes.
The site of Mr.. Truman's town of In
dependence is said to have been seen
first through the eyes of white man
by Daniel Boone. Many of old Daniels
descendants and kin live in the State.
Bridgehead to the West
Years ago independence was the
bridgehead to the West. the staging area
for expeditions southwest to Santa Fe
and northwest along the Oregon Trail.
Even today farmers plow up strange
foreign coins and learn they are the
Spanish money the early traders
brought back from Mexico.
The western counties knew turmoil
and bloodshed even before the Civil
War came to cut through old friendships
and family ties. They knew the fanatic
John Brown and his bloody brutalities
before Harpers Ferry became acquaint-
ed with him. There were the Kansas
Jayhawkers and the Red Legs Said
the Kansas City Star recently: Mis-
souri, would lose something if the Civil
War were ever entirely settled, but even
the sons of interlopers from Illinois or
Ohio join up to keep watchful eye on
Kansas
The term late unpleasantness" for
the Civil War grew out of the necessity
for not stirring up the rancor which
that war had engendered in divided
State. And it has been only in COM
paratively recent years that battlefelds
have been marked.
During the Civil War the town of In
dependence was fought over. Quantril
and his guerrillas operated in that area
Twice the town was held by the Confed-
crates.
of the readers, an attitude which re-
fleets the need of reconciling divided
opinions And they have honored men
who counseled restraint at critical times
when temperS flared,
Politics and Art
One of these men was the artist,
George Caleb Bingham, who, after his
term as State treasurer, lived in indie
pendence and there painted his famous
picture Order No. H." which has been
exhibited here at the National Art Gal
lery. Incidentally, Missouri sees no in
congruity in joining politics and art
or politics and anything else, for that
matter. Besides being State treasurer
during the Civil War, Bingham had
served in the General Assembly, ad
dressed political meetings and even was
president of the Kansas City Police
Board at one time. And Missouri's
recall, is a grand nephew of Senator
Thomas Hart Benton and bears the
same name.
Order No. II, the subject of the paint
ing, was issued by Gen. Thomas Ewing,
a brother-in-law of Gen. Sherman, who
was Union commander in the border
district. The order expelled Southern
sympathizers from their homes in part
of that area. Bingham was Union man
Also but he protested the severity of the
measure. He told Ewing if he carried it
out he would make him infamous with
pen and brush" After the war he set out
to do just that. The picture shows the
election of Southern family from its
stately home 1t is dramatic propa-
ganda piece. Thousands of Missourians
grew up in homes where an engraving
of the picture looked down from the
walls. Frank James, turning from his
more active pursuits to art criticism,
said, That's picture that talks"
The picture talked even in Ohio in the
election for Governor in 1879. Ewing
was defeated.
Harry Truman's campaigns in Mis-
souri,, of course, carried him throughout
the State. If he went directly across to
st. Louis he retraced the course of those
who went into the Indian country for
furs, who went to Oregon and Califor-
mia and to Santa Fe. The road lies
through what is now known as Little
Dixie" the banner Democratic counties
along the Missouri with their mansions
of pre- War days.
Highway No. 40 makes one of its two
crossings of the Missouri River at
Boonville. Four miles below Boonville
was fought the first land battle of the
Civil War, on June II, 1861.
The road takes the traveller through
horse and mule country. through great
cornields, through college towns. across
the rich country which calls itself
proudly the Kingdom of Galloway"
and across the Missouri again at st.
Charles. st. Charles lis an old French
town that saw Lewis and Clark 60 up
the river and come back again, and
contributed its men to other expeditions
for furs, for land, for gold, and for
adventure.
Down to ST. Louis the traveller comes.
There Mr.. Truman has passed the busy
boulevard Intersection on which .