Everywhere in the State began a systematic persecution of the Unconditional Union men and the bullying of the Conditional Union men. Secession flags in numbers floated from buildings in St. Louis, Rolla, Lexington, Jefferson City, Kansas City, and elsewhere. Union meetings were disturbed and broken up in all the larger towns, the Star Spangled Banner torn down and trampled upon, and the borders of Kansas and Iowa were thronged with Union refugees telling how they had been robbed, maltreated, and threatened with death, their stock killed, their houses and crops burned by the "White Trash" which the Slave Power had turned loose upon them.
When Maj. Bell had talked of "irresponsible mobs," he may have thought of premature young fire-eaters like Duke, Greene, and Champion, eager for the distinction of capturing the Arsenal, covetous of distributing its arms to their followers. Most likely, however, he had in mind forays from Illinois, or by the radical Germans of St. Louis, who were ill disposed toward seeing their enemies equipped from its stores.
Gen. Frost had the Germans in mind as early as Jan. 8, probably immediately following his interview with Maj. Bell, for he sent out a secret circular to his trusted subordinates instructing them that "upon the bells of the churches sounding a continuous peal, interrupted by a pause of five minutes, they should assemble with their men in their armories, and there await further orders." One of these circulars fell into the hands of a good Union man, who immediately took it to Frank P. Blair. It was found that it was the Catholic church bells that were relied upon to do the ringing, implying that the enthusiastic, reckless Irishmen were to take the initiative.
The Archbishop of St. Louis was immediately seen, to prohibit the bells of the churches being used as a tocsin to light the flames of civil war. Mr. Blair sent the circular with other information to Gen. Scott, with an urgent request that an officer of sounder loyalty supersede Maj. Bell, and that some troops be sent to Jefferson Barracks against an emergency. Mr. Montgomery Blair, brother of F. P. Blair, Jr., and soon to be Postmaster-General, Gov. Yates, of Illinois, and President-elect Lincoln supported this request. A fortnight later Maj. Bell was relieved, and assigned to duty in the East.
A gallant one-armed Irish First Lieutenant of the 2d U. S., one Thomas W. Sweeny, of whom we shall hear more later, was ordered to Jefferson Barracks, where it was supposed his influence with his countrymen might offset that of Mr. Champion. A small squad of Regulars was sent him from Newport Barracks.
Maj. Bell foreseeing that the Army was to be no longer a place for a quiet gentleman with business tastes, resigned his commission, to remain with his well-placed investments in St. Louis.
All this disturbed the Secessionists. They saw that the Government had an eye on the important Arsenal, and did not intend to give it up as tamely as it had other places in the South. The arrival of the Regulars was made the basis of inflammatory appeals that the Government was trying to "overawe and coerce the people." Two days later this "intimidation" became flagrant. Isaac H. Sturgeon, Assistant United States Treasurer at St. Louis, a Kentuckian and Secessionist, had for reasons of his own reported to President Buchanan that he was concerned about the safety of $400,000 in gold in his vaults. The President handed the letter to Gen. Scott, who sent an order to Jefferson Barracks which resulted in a Lieutenant with 40 men being sent to the Post Office Building to protect the removal of the gold. The city was thrown into the greatest excitement as the troops marched through the streets, the papers issued extras, and it required all the efforts of the officials and the leaders on both sides to preserve the peace.
Gov. Claiborne Jackson took advantage of the occasion to send a message to the Legislature, in which he said that this was an "act insulting to the dignity and patriotism of the people."