The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness: The World And Times Of Jesse James

The World And Times Of Jesse James - Part 2 of 3

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Family Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2014-05-05

Synopsis: In this second part of the series, Pastor John Weaver examines the historical context that shaped Jesse James and other Missouri guerrillas, arguing that government lawlessness and injustice forced otherwise peaceful men into outlawry. He details atrocities committed by Union forces and Jayhawkers against civilians, the oppressive post-war ironclad oath and ousting ordinances, and the failure of legal protection for former Confederates. The lecture emphasizes that when government denies justice, it creates outlaws, and that God demands justice from both individuals and governments.

[John Weaver] Alright, open your Bibles if you would please, Isaiah 59. And we'll read verses 12 through 15. Take a few moments to review and then take up where we left off last week. Just to let you know that I have been trying to study ahead and got a number of interesting things coming up as far as messages. I trust will be very, not only informative, but applicable to our day and time as well. Isaiah 59 verses 12 through 14, and this is the second message on the world and times of Jesse James. Notice Isaiah 59 verse 12, For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as far as our iniquities, we know them.

[John Weaver] in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, and judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Verse 15,"'Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself of prey.' And the Lord saw it, And it displeased Him that there was no judgment. Now last week I began by showing how God demands justice. And how that without justice, a society basically withers and dies. Not only that, but evil men increase worse and worse.

[John Weaver] And may I point out the fact, once again, as you and I think of history, we must understand that history is nothing less than God's eternal decree coming to pass in time. We began to understand the background of the times of Jesse James especially with the Kansas and Nebraska Act of 1854 where those pro-slavery states assumed and believed that Kansas would come in as a slave state and Nebraska would come in as a free state and therefore the balance between the slave states and the non-slaveholding states would be maintained.

[John Weaver] But, of course, that was not to be the case. And so the Immigrant Aid Society in the North began sending radical Republicans and abolitionists into Kansas to try to claim it as a free state. And, of course, border wars erupted. Those people from Missouri were known as the Border Ruffians. Those from Kansas were known as Jayhawkers or Free Soilers. or Red Legs, or Abolitionists, or Radical Republicans, just all kinds of names. And we find that the Jayhawkers basically began raiding into Missouri even as early as 1854.

[John Weaver] So there was a tremendous animosity that existed back then. I gave you a number of quotes, which I'm not going to do today, how union generals and union leaders understood how the Jayhawkers were raping, murdering, pillaging, burning, and looting from people in Missouri. Not only were they doing that to people who were slave owners, they were doing it to Southerners in general, and later on, they did not even distinguish between loyal Union men.

[John Weaver] They just simply raped, robbed, and killed any and every one that they came across. Now may I remind you, since this is in reference to Jesse James, how that when he was 15 years old, he was out plowing in the field and the soldiers came out and got him. They put a rope around him and drug him. They beat him, not only with a rope, but they also beat him with the flat edge of their sabers.

[John Weaver] They took his stepfather and hanged him by the neck three to four times, letting him down each time, and although they did not kill him, The lack of oxygen to his brain certainly diminished his capacity for the rest of his life. And he was basically destroyed mentally, so to speak. He certainly had some of his mentality left, but it certainly was diminished from that incessant hanging. At the same time, they physically abused his mother, who was pregnant, and they arrested her and threw her in jail and they mishandled and abused her so much that caused her to miscarry.

[John Weaver] Certainly the injustice of any or all of these things would be sufficient to drive an individual to seek vengeance, especially when the very government that is supposed to protect is the instigator of the atrocities. Let me deal with a word by way of introduction today, a word that you have known and have heard probably all of your life, but you've never taken the time to look up the legal definition. And that's the word vigilante. Vigilantism is a word that is usually misunderstood and misused. Whenever you hear the word vigilante or vigilantism, you automatically think of individuals who are, quote, taking the law into their own hands, end quote. In other words, here individuals just mere anarchist, they're not waiting for a trial, they just simply take the law in their own hands and do what they're going to do. Let me tell you if you will look up the word vigilante or vigilantism, you'll be amazed. Because here's what the word actually means. Listen carefully. Vigilantism refers to the creation and enforcement of law by organized extralegal groups in the supposed absence of adequate law enforcement.

[John Weaver] In other words, the word vigilante or vigilantism could have a good or a bad connotation. However, originally it had a good connotation because it was the creation and enforcement of the law by an organized, not disorderly, not anarchistic, but by an organized extra-legal group, that is, they were not necessarily the sheriff or the marshals or the government, but this organized extra-legal group came to enforce the law in the absence of adequate law enforcement.

[John Weaver] Now vigilantism, as you and I know it, actually began in the United States in 1767 in South Carolina, where backcountry people suffered from the widespread acts of criminals. Where there was no law, enforcement, there was no justice. And so what did the people do? They organized themselves and undertook to defend themselves and to effect justice as they were able to do so.

[John Weaver] Now the word vigilante or vigilanteism comes from the word vigilant or vigilance. Listen to Black's Law Dictionary definition of vigilance. Here it is. Watchfulness, precaution, a proper degree of promptness in pursuing one's rights or guarding them from infraction or in making or discovering opportunities for the enforcement of one's lawful claims and demands. Now did you hear that definition? Listen carefully. Watchfulness, precaution, a proper degree of activity and promptness in pursuing one's own rights, or guarding them from infraction, or in making or discovering opportunities for the enforcement of one's lawful claims and demands. So technically and legally speaking, all vigilantes are doing is simply protecting and guarding themselves and their rights and enforcing their lawful claims in the absence of a power that will not do it for them. It's interesting how the word has come to be misused.

[John Weaver] You see, Missourians had the right to life, liberty, and property exactly the way other states did. And when the government, and when I'm referring to the government in Missouri now, I'm referring not only to the federal, but also to the state government, when the government abused their power, usurped their authority, and refused to protect the people, then the people did what any other people would do. They defended themselves. They protected themselves. Now times were exceedingly bad during the war and in Missouri it was probably worse even after the war was over. I told you last week that someone has aptly said that the war lasted four years in most states but in Missouri it lasted 20 years. Accounting the pre-war acts and pre-war vendettas beginning in 1854 and reconstruction after the war was over Certainly, it was a long time in Missouri. Do you realize the war created great animosity? Especially in the border of Missouri and Kansas.

[John Weaver] Southern men were not just killed, they were tortured, they were mutilated, and murdered. And many of the men who were killed were not Confederate soldiers, they were not partisan rangers, they were not guerrillas, They were just simply farm men who happened to be working to acquire a decent living, and they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[John Weaver] Now, High George was one of the men who followed Quantrell, and here is the reason that he gave for joining Quantrell and fighting for the Southern Cause. He said, quote, they burned and took everything I had, killed my father, hung my brother, end quote. Many Southerners were scalped or had their ears or fingers cut off so the Jayhawkers could wear them as souvenirs. Young male members of the family were equally dealt a fatal blow.

[John Weaver] Now I want to prepare you not just for what I'm about to tell you, but I've been doing some additional studying and in a few weeks I don't know when, I'm going to bring a message entitled The War Against Women and Children. And you will be flabbergasted at what was done to women and children by the federal soldiers. But listen carefully. Here's a sampling of it. In Jackson County, Missouri, 13-year-old John Fox, who had a brother with Quantrell, was shot and killed by federal soldiers while his sister and his mother had hold of him, begging for his life, asking the soldiers to spare him, and yet they gunned him down regardless. He was charged with feeding his brother. They shot down a 13-year-old boy Federal soldiers also killed 14-year-old James Nicholson because he had two brothers serving under General Price, General Sterling Price. 35-year-old Henry Morris was serving with Colonel Upton Hayes when Federals rode up and gunned down his 11-year-old son. Why?

[John Weaver] Because their father fought with the Confederacy. Southern women were raped tortured, imprisoned, simply because they either had a husband, brother, or son who fought for the Confederacy. The Berry brothers, Dick, James, and Isaac, left their father and four sisters at home. The federal soldiers from the neighboring town of Danville raped 20-year-old Catherine, 18-year-old Nancy, 14-year-old Elizabeth and 11-year-old Sally Ann.

[John Weaver] Frank Dalton, who was a cousin to Frank and Jesse, wrote this. Now listen, I'm trying to show you the world and times of Jesse James. I want you to understand what drove and motivated some of these men. But here's the quote from Frank Dalton, the cousin of Frank and Jesse. He said, Jenison's Jayhawkers, visiting the home of the James brothers and taking the women, Aunt Zerelda, which was Jesse and Frank's mother, taking the women, Aunt Zerelda, the mother of Frank and Jesse, their sister, and my mother and sisters, and after stripping them to the waist, They tied them to trees and taking

[John Weaver] a black snake whip that they found in the stable, they whipped them until they got tired and then they rode away, leaving the women and the girls to be cut down and carried in the house by our Negro slaves who washed and bandaged their bleeding backs and bodies and put them to bed. Would it tend to upset you if your mothers and sisters were treated like that? A number of the young women, and this is what I'm going to teach on a little bit later, it is mind-boggling. But a number of the young women were rounded up and arrested and thrown into a dilapidated tenement that they used for a prison for the crime of pro-Confederate cheering.

[John Weaver] That is, they cheered for the South. Isn't that amazing? General Thomas Ewing who was a Union General, took over the District of the Border on June 16, 1863. He was the adopted brother as well as brother-in-law to General William Tecumseh Sherman. Now listen carefully, General Thomas Ewing was the adopted brother and the brother-in-law of General Sherman. Sherman had already expressed his attitude and treatment towards civilians, and I'm going to give you his exact words, and I want you to understand that Ewan had the same attitude, but here's what Sherman said, quote, talking about civilians, next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully to, and another year they may beg in vain for their lives.

[John Weaver] A people who will persevere in a way beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many people with less pernacity than the South have been wiped out of national existence. To those who submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance. But to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why death is mercy and the quicker he or she is disposed of is the better.

[John Weaver] And he's not talking just about soldiers. He's talking about civilians. He says, to the petulant and persistent secessionist, why death is mercy and the quicker he or she is disposed of, the better. Well, General Ewing embraced the same philosophy. The Union Army could not break the resistance in Missouri. So on January the 20th, 1863, General Ewing issued the infamous General Order Number 10 from the headquarters of the Department of Missouri. Listen carefully to this General Order Number 10.

[John Weaver] Quote, all persons, note the word persons, All persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or abet by furnishing food, clothing, information, protection, or any assistance whatever to any emissary, confederate officer, or soldier, partisan ranger, bushwhacker, robber, or thief shall be promptly executed." So any person who provided any food, any information, Any medical treatment for any Confederate soldier was to be promptly executed. Of course, that meant that no husband, son, or brother could expect any help or charity from his own family, not even if he happened to be dying.

[John Weaver] May I ask you a simple question? Who in his right mind would obey such a military order and allow their son or their brother or their father or their husband to starve or to suffer from want or medical attention. General Order number 10 was designed to legally execute anyone who offered Christian charity either to his own family or to a stranger. Didn't matter if it was man, woman, boy or girl. Now listen carefully. General Orders number 11 followed number 10. General Orders Number 11, which was issued on August 25, 1863, gave the general populace until September 9, 1863 to either locate to the Union outpost or leave the state. Now, what is happening under General Orders number 11. Here's what's happening.

[John Weaver] Southern people are being driven from their homes simply because they were Southerners. In other words, here was Ewing's plan. I can't whip the Confederate guerrillas, but what I can do is destroy their base of operation and their base of supply and cut off anyone who would try to sympathize with them or try to help them. Let me show you. In Cass County, Missouri, before General Ewing's order, there were 9,794 people who lived in Cass County. After his order and after his soldiers got through forcing the people out of the land, there were less than 600 who were allowed to remain. That was just in Cass County. General Orders Number 11 was designed to decimate the support of the guerrillas fighting against the Union by destroying their base of support.

[John Weaver] It was one of the harshest military measures used against civilians in American history. Now, not all Union generals agreed with General Ewing. In fact, General George Caleb Bingham, and you're going to hear his name later on, he opposed Ewing's infamous order. He was a Union general and he viewed the order for what in reality it really was. Here are General Bingham's words. He said, it was an act of purely arbitrary power directed against a disarmed and defenseless population in violation of every principle of justice.

[John Weaver] And then he went further. He continued, listen carefully, scarcely was the ink dry upon the paper, when like a pack of infuriated and starved bloodhounds, they, that is the soldiers, were unleashed and turned loose upon the horror-stricken communities. Never was a robbery so stupendous, more cunningly devised, or successfully accomplished with less personal risk to the robbers, end quote. What does he say? Those soldiers went into Missouri, killed, raped, robbed, stole, and there was no one to stop them. Let me tell you, the order was carried out with such zeal and enthusiasm that soon the border region of Missouri was given a nickname, the Burnt Region. The Burnt Region.

[John Weaver] the red leg seized upon the opportunity to burn, loot, and steal. William Gregg, who also rode with Quantrail, said this, all the wealth left by these people was either burned, appropriated by the federal government or the Kansans, for which these people never received a single cent from any source. In other words, the government, either the Kansas state government or the federal government, just simply confiscated all of their property, all of their belongings, all of their money.

[John Weaver] Elvira Scott described the Red Legs as the lowest, most desperate looking specimens of humanity it has ever been my lot to witness. Now if you think she was exaggerating, listen to this. The Red Legs broke into the home of an elderly man and hanged him from a tree in his yard to get him to tell where his money was hidden. His wife had just died and her casket was sitting on chairs in the parlor when the Jayhawkers broke open the lid and cut off her finger to steal her wedding ring. They then set the house on fire and the two daughters were forced to drag the coffin into the yard while the house burned down around them But thankfully they were able to cut their father down and nurse him back to health.

[John Weaver] One red-leg officer boasted that a squad of his men were responsible for burning more than 110 houses. Some of them worth, he said, as high as $20,000.

[John Weaver] Now lest you think a $20,000 house is not an expensive house, That was 20,000 gold dollars. One squad of men burned down 110 homes worth thousands of dollars. If one squad burned down 110 homes, what do you think all the rest of the squads did? One red leg crowed, listen carefully, the border counties of Missouri have almost as desolate an appearance as before the soil was trod by the white man. Not a man, woman, or child is to be seen in the country to which order number 11 applies.

[John Weaver] Chimneys mark the spot where once stood costly farmhomes. Cattle and hogs are fast destroying large fields of corn. Prairie fires are burning up miles of good fencing every day or two. And turn whichever way you will, everything denotes a state of utter desolation and ruin." He said, Missouri looked as if no man had ever trod the land. It was so absolutely devastating. The war was indeed devastating, not just to Missouri, but to Missourians. I'm going to tell you, I realize that people suffered in that war in many states. And some suffered on both sides. I understand that. However, let me tell you, just from my study, I believe that the bitterest, most violent, and hateful acts were committed against the people of Missouri, which of course would create more ill will once the war was over.

[John Weaver] The same radicals that had pushed the country into war after the war was over was not about to allow their defeated foe any rest, any release, or any voice in the government. Now, let me just tell you, the war is over. General Lee has surrendered at Appomattox. The fighting basically has stopped everywhere. So Jesse James and some of his men decided the best thing for them to do would be to surrender themselves and come up with an agreement so that they could peacefully return to their homes. Well, Jesse and a number of his Confederate soldiers met then with Major J.B. Rogers, who was the Provost Marshal, and they were told that they would have to surrender their horses and their arms. To which Jesse and the other men replied that they would not and they could not surrender their horses and their arms because they feared that too many Union men would try to take vengeance upon them and they needed their horses and their arms to defend themselves. Well, Major Rogers was very understanding and so he said, look, I will allow you to keep your horses and your arms and since you're willing to surrender, if you will come back tomorrow, I will have the official papers drawn up for you to sign and as far as you're concerned, the war will

[John Weaver] be over. Well, Jesse and the men left Major Rogers and as they rode out, they were met by eight federal soldiers who happened to be the advance guard of 60 federal soldiers. When the eight Union soldiers saw Jesse James and his men, they immediately pulled out their pistols and opened fire at Point Black Range. Jesse and his men then drew their revolvers and shot back, killing four and wounding two. Well by the time that little skirmish was over the other 60 soldiers were on top of them and they were now having to fight 60 additional men. During this skirmish, Jesse was wounded in the right lung. Some of the men struck out a different way and the Federals were chasing those who appeared to be getting away. Jesse and his horse both fell and thankfully his horse kind of fell on top of him. And the soldiers who rode by Jesse after he'd already been shot, still continue to take their revolvers and shoot at him as they were riding, chasing the other Confederates. Although they missed Jesse, they killed his horse.

[John Weaver] But Jesse was not dead and so he disentangled himself from the horse, got out from under the horse, and began to crawl to the woods to try to escape. Well, there were five federal soldiers who saw him and they gave chase. Well, Jesse made it to a little tree. Remember, he's wounded in the right lung now. He got a branch and he steadied himself, and he killed the first federal trooper.

[John Weaver] He shot the second one from the saddle, wounding him. The man hit the ground and began to run the other way. Then he shot the third man from his saddle, and then the other two decided they didn't want to chase him anymore, and they turned around and left. Well, Jesse then crawled to a creek where he bathed his wound and lay there for two days with a burning fever. He finally was able to get up a little strength and he crawled to a nearby field where a man was plowing. The man found him, took him to the doctor and saved his life. But it would take Jesse nearly three years to recover from that wound.

[John Weaver] Now here's a man who's tried to turn himself in. He's tried to surrender. And what does he get? He gets shot. His men get shot. Frank, the brother of Jesse, came back into Missouri. All he wanted to do was to go back to the farm, just like Jesse. When Frank came back into Missouri, he was challenged by four federal soldiers. They provoked and pushed the attack, so Frank drew his revolver, killed two of them instantly, wounded a third one, and he himself was wounded in the hip by the fourth one, who then turned and fled. And Frank's life was saved by a doctor, although his hip bothered him for the rest of his life.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to think about this. Here were men, after the war was over, returning, wanting to settle down and farm and live peacefully. Both of them were attacked by federal soldiers. In December of 1866, now remember, remember the war was over in April of 1865, okay? So in December of 1866, the federal authorities passed a law that demanded that every able-bodied man over 18 must either register for or join the state militia, which they knew the Confederates would not do.

[John Weaver] Those who refused were to be arrested, jailed, and fined 25 bucks each. they knew those Confederates would never ever join the militia. Most of these Confederate soldiers who lived in Missouri and who came back to Missouri wanted just simply to return to a normal life. In fact, Jesse and Frank did return to the farm and they did try farming. However, you've got to remember that at that particular time prices were basically at starvation level and it was almost impossible to eke out a living there on the farm. Moreover, these regulators, these federal troops and state militia were roaming the country trying to ferret out every confederate they could find and settle up old scores.

[John Weaver] Now listen, they promised to give any returning rebel a swift bullet or a short rope. This is after the war is over. Here's something that is mind-boggling. Listen, in 1866, one year after the surrender of Appomattox, 4,000 secessionists, quote-unquote, or 4,000 Southern people were murdered in Southwest Missouri. That was not the state of Missouri. That was just southwest Missouri. In one year, 4,000 southern people were murdered in one region. Not even the whole state. What was happening? The federal soldiers, the state militia, were hunting the Confederates down and killing them one by one. On February the 18th, 1867, this is nearly two years after the war was over, five state militiamen rode out to the James farm in Kearney, Missouri looking for the James boys. Why?

[John Weaver] Because Assistant Adjutant General William Clark had ordered that all guerrilla leaders were to be brought in dead or alive. The militiamen were at the James Farm in Kearney, Missouri banging on the door with the butts of their pistols demanding entry. Jesse is at home still recuperating from the gunshot in his lung. His stepfather, Dr. Samuel, rushed in and asked him what he should do. Jesse said, help me to the window. And as he helped him to the window, he looked out and he saw five horses with cavalry saddles upon them. Jesse said, now help me to the door.

[John Weaver] Because he knew it was either them or him. When Dr. Samuel helped him to the door, Jesse cocked his pistol and shot through the crack in the door and killed the militiaman who was banging with the butt of his pistol, demanding entrance. He then flung the door open. and killed two more instantly, wounded another, and the fifth one escaped in the darkness. Thus Jesse and Frank, who had come home and tried to surrender peacefully, were now forced to take to the bush and live as outlaws because of government troops and governmental regulations.

[John Weaver] Peaceful pursuits were denied the former Confederates. Harrison Trow said this, I'm quoting, Harrison Trow was a man also who rode with Quantrell, he said, the law which should have protected them was overwritten. Indeed there was no law. The courts were the instruments of plunder. The civil officers were cutthroats. Instead of a legal process there was a vigilance committee. Men were hung because of a very natural desire to keep hold of their own property.

[John Weaver] To the cruel vigor of actual war, there had succeeded the irresponsible despotism of greedy highwaymen, bustrous upon assassination. The border counties were overrun with bands of predatory plunderers. Some Confederate soldiers dared not return home, and many guerrillas fled the country.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to listen to how he described the times. Indeed, there was no law. The courts were instruments of plunder. The civil officers were cutthroats. That's almost prophetic, isn't it? James Cummings from Clay County, who attended the same Baptist church that the James boys had attended, said this. When the war was over and I wanted to settle down, they, the Federals, would not let me but they pursued me with malignant hatred.

[John Weaver] Federal vengeance was so fierce that many men were compelled to become outlaws in order to protect and provide for themselves and their families. This was so notable in Missouri that the state of Missouri obtained a nickname the outlaw state.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to listen carefully what I'm about to say. Most of our infamous and notorious outlaws that we know from history were made so by the government.

[John Weaver] Now that may surprise you Many of you do not even know that the Dalton boys, the famous Dalton gang, most of them were former deputy U.S. Marshals. There's a reason of that. The Youngers were peaceable men. In fact, Cole Youngert one time was studying for the ministry. I want to take the time to read to you a page and a half of Paul Peterson's book on Quantrell of Missouri. I want you to listen very carefully.

[John Weaver] This is so mind-boggling. But if you want to understand what motivated men like Jesse and Frank and the Dalton boys and the younger boys, listen to this. I'm quoting. The radicals began to take over Missouri politics with the ironclad oath. Make sure you jot that down, the ironclad oath. The radicals began to take over Missouri politics with the ironclad oath. Now listen, the oath excluded all but those who had been loyal citizens from participating in politics and even in some civilian professions. As an indication of the severity of the oath, it excluded anyone who might have given a cup of water to a Confederate soldier or even forage to his horse. Even those who had handed a letter to a soldier in arms against the government were at fault. Are you listening?

[John Weaver] Uttering any statement of dissatisfaction against the government was enough to mark a man as disloyal. and anyone found to be disloyal during the war was not allowed to be an officer of a public or private company or allowed to teach in the public schools or hold a leadership position in a church. In Jackson County, the oath required all voting citizens to travel to the county seat at Independence and swear to 80 conditions and to account for what they did or did not do during the war.

[John Weaver] Neighbor turned against neighbor and challenged each other's oaths and accounts of their wartime activities. In Boone County, the heart of Little Dixie, out of 4,290 qualified white voters, only 410 were allowed to vote. Less than 10 percent.

[John Weaver] Any persons attempting to practice law, vote, teach, or preach without taking the loyalty oath were to be fined not less than $500 or be incarcerated for six months or both. If accused of perjury when taking the oath, violators were to stand trial. The only marks of citizenship these rejected men had under the Drake Constitution were to pay taxes work the roads and hold their peace. The president and officers of the State University were required to take the oath or vacate their office. Presidents and managers of the railroads were put under heavy bond to employ no one but those who profess their wartime loyalty to the Union. Drake, and I'm going to tell you who he was, He was the Missouri State Senator Charles D. Drake who was head of the Constitutional Committee to reform the state constitution. So that's why we're talking about Drake's constitution.

[John Weaver] He was the man who was drafting it. State Senator Charles D. Drake. Drake's constitution had as its goal to disenfranchise anyone of questionable loyalty to the union and to add whatever constitutional amendments might be necessary to further the radicals establishment of political power in Missouri.

[John Weaver] Now it gets worse folks, listen. The ironic aspect of the ironclad oath was that the radical unionist who had called for the secessionist to return to the Union all during the war were now trying to keep them from coming back in. Thomas S. Barclay observed During the war, the radicals used to say, let the rebels lay down their arms and submit to the Constitution and law. That is all we ask of them. They have laid down their arms and asked to be permitted to have the Constitution and laws. But now the radicals reply, you shall not have the Constitution. And as for laws, we don't intend to let you have any sort of law except the tax law.

[John Weaver] And you shall have no voice in making that. Listen to this. fearful that their work might be undone by sympathetic judges. Radical members of the state convention pressed a law through the legislature called the Ousting Ordinance while the state Supreme Court was in recess. The measure vacated all positions of judges, county clerks, circuit attorneys, sheriffs, and recorders by May 1st, 1865, and stipulated that the governor would appoint men to complete any unfinished terms.

[John Weaver] In effect, the act purged all of Missouri's legally elected officials who had served from the beginning of the war. The ordinance removed more than 800 officials throughout the state When the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the ousting ordinance as unconstitutional, the radicals arrested the justices. Militia officers also seized court records. Are you listening? In one instance, the governor called out a company of black militiamen to quash efforts by some officials to retain their positions. In this way, radicals willfully and corruptly defrauded the citizens of their freedom to vote.

[John Weaver] Because the ironclad oath covered ministers of the gospel, church doors remained closed to Southern sympathizers. One radical said this, listen carefully, no class of people between heaven and earth or outside of heaven or hell deserve the curse of God more than disloyal ministers and no class deserves sympathy less than this class. So if you were a preacher who did not go along with the federal government, they were literally cursing you to hell. They went on to say if they, that is the preachers, cannot take the oath, they ought to go and seek a home elsewhere.

[John Weaver] That is, get out of Missouri. One uncompromising pastor, Pastor M.M. Modisette, wrote, I confess that I am placed in a very unpleasant situation, not because of the fear of perjury or doing violence to my feelings, or for any act of my life, by taking said oath, but on account of the seeming unreasonableness of the thing, and as I now view it, as being infringement upon religious liberty, as well as a species of tyranny to which I dislike to submit." There was an outcry from the churches about infringement upon religious liberty. to which Governor Thomas Fletcher responded, quote, religious liberty is a political right.

[John Weaver] Therefore, hundreds of priests and preachers were arrested, indicted, and tried in the civil courts for preaching the gospel. As rebels began filtering back into Missouri, they were met with animosity on every side. And many Unionists believed that all rebel property should be seized and all rebels should be hanged.

[John Weaver] Now when you think about the ironclad oath, when you think about the fact that no one could work for the railroad or hold any position public or private that had any authority or that had any means of acquiring anything without taking that oath. And when you stop and think that these radical Republicans also passed this ousting ordinance which meant they were in absolute and total control of the judicial of the legislative and of the executive offices in the land. They were basically tyrants.

[John Weaver] Grant was president by this time and the corruption in his administration, the theft of lands by the railroads and the government subsidizing of the railroads added fuel to the fire. Did you know that thousands upon thousands of acres of land were stolen, not just from Southern people, but from Indians as well. By the politicians, by the banks, by the railroads, by the government. During the time of Jesse and Frank James, hardly anyone trusted the politicians. the railroads or the government.

[John Weaver] Now in defense of the James Younger gang, to show you the attitude, when the Muncie robbery occurred, and probably the James Younger gang did indeed do this, but the Lexington Caucasian, which was a paper, on December 12, 1874, in defense of the James Younger gang robbing the bank, the paper wrote this, quote, the funds seized by the bandits were just as honestly earned as the riches of many a highly distinguished political leader and the railroad job manipulator, end quote. What were they saying? They're saying the money the James gang robbed was probably more honestly earned than the money the railroad and the political leaders earned. Now listen carefully, there were 25 robberies attributed to the James Younger gang and 25 murders. However, it was absolutely impossible for Jesse and Frank to have committed all of those murders and all those robberies. And the reason why I say it's impossible is because they were not present at the robberies in many times nor the murders and in many instances they were in other states with eyewitnesses to vouch for their whereabouts but any murder and any robbery was automatically charged to the James gang by the powers

[John Weaver] that be. Now let me make some applications today because Lord willing the message next week is going to tie everything together. You say, did the James boys kill some people? Sure they did. But some of the so-called murders were actually executions of wicked men who had previously harmed and tried to kill not just Jesse and Frank, but their families. And I'll discuss this next week. But several of those who were involved in the bombing of the family home were dealt with very harshly and very violently by the James boys. I certainly am not excusing murder or personal executions.

[John Weaver] But at the same time, you've got to remember, there was no justice in those days. The radicals were in control of the courts, the sheriffs, and the state. Therefore, if justice was to be meted out, it must be done by those who are not affiliated with a radical abolitionist government. Listen to this second application. Everyone knows about, what do we call it, couch coaching, and we talk about 2020 hindsight, it's easy for you and I to sit back and say, well, I would have never done such things. I would have left the vengeance to the state.

[John Weaver] I mean, sooner or later, I mean, you know, the wicked are going to get their due. You know, that's easy for you and I to say when we're not living under those circumstances and those situations. However, Had you been alive back then and everything that you have ever had had been legally stolen from you, your wife and your sisters raped, your family insulted and murdered, you forced into outlawry and unable to find work or make a living at anything, and men were always constantly trying to kill you,

[John Weaver] I'm probably pretty sure it began to wear on you after a while. And you might come to this conclusion, you know, if I don't protect myself, I'm not going to be protected. And if I don't fight against those who's trying to take everything I have and murder my family, no one else is going to fight for me. Do you understand why I'm saying the world and times? Listen to this. This might blow your mind. Here's the third application.

[John Weaver] Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in citizenry. Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in the citizenry. It is a fact that a lawless government produces, creates, and makes outlaws. Do you know what an outlaw is? Let me ask that another way. Do you know what the legal definition of an outlaw is? It may surprise you. If you would look in Webster's 1828 dictionary, or Black's Law Dictionary or Bouvier's Law Dictionary, you will find the definition of an outlaw. Here it is. I'm quoting. A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection. What is an outlaw? A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection.

[John Weaver] Then I looked up the word outlawry. Here it is, from Black's Law Dictionary, Bouvier's Law Dictionary, outlawing. The putting a man out of the protection of the law or the process by which a man is deprived of that protection. Essentially, all those who are denied the benefit and the protection of the law have been made outlaws. Most of us are outlaws and we don't even know it. Because we have been denied the benefit and the protection of the law. When the law is corrupt and when justice is denied, those who are outlaws endeavor to write things in their own way. Now listen, listen carefully. If you believe that it is wrong for a man to take the law in his own hands, then to be honest and fair, you must equally believe that it is wrong for a government to deny law and justice and thus force men to take the law into their own hands.

[John Weaver] The sin of the one party begets the sin of the other party. If government fulfilled its functional role of punishing the wicked and protecting the righteous, it would not be necessary for anyone to take the law into his own hands. It is government bad, unbiblical government that makes men outlaws.

[John Weaver] Fourthly, I hope you understand in this series that God does demand justice. When He said in Isaiah, truth faileth, and truth is fallen into the streets, what is the next statement? And equity cannot enter. That is, justice and judgment cannot Enter, the refusal of government to give true, accurate, and biblical justice is just as criminal and just as wicked as it is for individuals to act contrary to the law of God.

[John Weaver] You know what we've forgotten? We have forgotten that government can sin against God equally as individuals sin against God. The difference is this. An individual may harm another individual. But when governments sin, they affect and harm and reach far more people than does a single individual. God does demand justice. And people, listen, it does matter whether or not we have justice in a society. And if we do not have justice in a society, society is inevitably going to wither and die. All I can tell you this, Jesse and Frank James were outlaws, but they were made that way by the government. If it's wrong for a man to take the law into his own hands, it's wrong for government to refuse justice and judgment and force a man to take the law into his own hands. The sin is greater, I believe, on the part of the government because government can do far more harm than an individual. Let's pray.

[John Weaver] Father, we are thankful for Jesus Christ and for His grace and mercy. And Lord, as we think of the world in times of Jesse James, we cannot help but see the same things happening in our land today. How criminals and wicked and vile men are promoted and are in control and are in authority, while the righteous who try to stand for principle and truth and justice suffer. But help us to know, Lord, that we are always to obey your word and your law.

[John Weaver] And as we do so, we will never be an outlaw to you. And it's a whole lot easier, Lord, to be classed an outlaw by man than it is to be classed an outlaw by the sovereign God of heaven and earth. Give us grace, Lord, to stand for that which is right

The World And Times Of Jesse James - Part 2 of 3

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	m2S96CWbR9Y
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness: The World And Times Of Jesse James
Genre	Sermon
Date	2014-05-05
Dictation Name
Book	Book 038: The World And Times Of Jesse James — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	72

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Scripture Reading

Weaver opens with Isaiah 59:12-15, highlighting how truth fails and justice is absent, setting the stage for the message on the world and times of Jesse James.

Alright, open your Bibles if you would please, Isaiah 59. And we'll read verses 12 through 15. Take a few moments to review and then take up where we left off last week. Just to let you know that I have been trying to study ahead and got a number of interesting things coming up as far as messages. I trust will be very, not only informative, but applicable to our day and time as well. Isaiah 59 verses 12 through 14, and this is the second message on the world and times of Jesse James. Notice Isaiah 59 verse 12,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 59:12-15

"For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as far as our iniquities, we know them."

Review of Historical Background

Recaps the Kansas-Nebraska Act, border wars, and early Jayhawker raids into Missouri, establishing the pre-war animosity and violence.

And may I point out the fact, once again, as you and I think of history, we must understand that history is nothing less than God's eternal decree coming to pass in time. We began to understand the background of the times of Jesse James especially with the Kansas and Nebraska Act of 1854 where those pro-slavery states assumed and believed that Kansas would come in as a slave state and Nebraska would come in as a free state and therefore the balance between the slave states and the non-slaveholding states would be maintained. But, of course, that was not to be the case. And so the Immigrant Aid Society in the North began sending radical Republicans and abolitionists into Kansas to try to claim it as a free state. And, of course, border wars erupted. Those people from Missouri were known as the Border Ruffians. Those from Kansas were known as Jayhawkers or Free Soilers, or Red Legs, or Abolitionists, or Radical Republicans, just all kinds of names. And we find that the Jayhawkers basically began raiding into Missouri even as early as 1854.

So there was a tremendous animosity that existed back then. I gave you a number of quotes, which I'm not going to do today, how union generals and union leaders understood how the Jayhawkers were raping, murdering, pillaging, burning, and looting from people in Missouri. Not only were they doing that to people who were slave owners, they were doing it to Southerners in general, and later on, they did not even distinguish between loyal Union men.

Atrocities Against the James Family

Describes how Union soldiers beat young Jesse James, hanged his stepfather, and abused his pregnant mother, causing a miscarriage, illustrating personal injustice.

They took his stepfather and hanged him by the neck three to four times, letting him down each time, and although they did not kill him, the lack of oxygen to his brain certainly diminished his capacity for the rest of his life. And he was basically destroyed mentally, so to speak. He certainly had some of his mentality left, but it certainly was diminished from that incessant hanging. At the same time, they physically abused his mother, who was pregnant, and they arrested her and threw her in jail and they mishandled and abused her so much that caused her to miscarry. Certainly the injustice of any or all of these things would be sufficient to drive an individual to seek vengeance, especially when the very government that is supposed to protect is the instigator of the atrocities. Let me deal with a word by way of introduction today, a word that you have known and have heard probably all of your life, but you've never taken the time to look up the legal definition. And that's the word vigilante. Vigilantism is a word that is usually misunderstood and misused. Whenever you hear the word vigilante or vigilantism, you automatically think of individuals who are, quote, taking the law into their own hands, end quote. In other words, here individuals just mere anarchist, they're not waiting for a trial, they just simply take the law in their own hands and do what they're going to do. Let me tell you if you will look up the word vigilante or vigilantism, you'll be amazed. Because here's what the word actually means. Listen carefully. Vigilantism refers to the creation and enforcement of law by organized extralegal groups in the supposed absence of adequate law enforcement.

Definition and Origin of Vigilantism

Explains the legal definition of vigilantism as organized extralegal enforcement of law in the absence of adequate law enforcement, tracing its roots to 1767 South Carolina.

In other words, the word vigilante or vigilantism could have a good or a bad connotation. However, originally it had a good connotation because it was the creation and enforcement of the law by an organized, not disorderly, not anarchistic, but by an organized extra-legal group, that is, they were not necessarily the sheriff or the marshals or the government, but this organized extra-legal group came to enforce the law in the absence of adequate law enforcement. Now vigilantism, as you and I know it, actually began in the United States in 1767 in South Carolina, where backcountry people suffered from the widespread acts of criminals. Where there was no law enforcement, there was no justice. And so what did the people do? They organized themselves and undertook to defend themselves and to effect justice as they were able to do so.

Now the word vigilante or vigilanteism comes from the word vigilant or vigilance. Listen to Black's Law Dictionary definition of vigilance. Here it is. Watchfulness, precaution, a proper degree of promptness in pursuing one's rights or guarding them from infraction or in making or discovering opportunities for the enforcement of one's lawful claims and demands. Now did you hear that definition? Listen carefully. Watchfulness, precaution, a proper degree of activity and promptness in pursuing one's own rights, or guarding them from infraction, or in making or discovering opportunities for the enforcement of one's lawful claims and demands. So technically and legally speaking, all vigilantes are doing is simply protecting and guarding themselves and their rights and enforcing their lawful claims in the absence of a power that will not do it for them. It's interesting how the word has come to be misused.

Wartime and Post-War Injustice in Missouri

Details General Orders No. 10 and 11, the burning of the border region, and the continued persecution of Confederates after the war, including the murder of 4,000 Southerners in southwest Missouri in 1866.

And he's not talking just about soldiers. He's talking about civilians. He says, "to the petulant and persistent secessionist, why death is mercy and the quicker he or she is disposed of, the better." Well, General Ewing embraced the same philosophy. The Union Army could not break the resistance in Missouri. So on January the 20th, 1863, General Ewing issued the infamous General Order Number 10 from the headquarters of the Department of Missouri. Listen carefully to this General Order Number 10. Quote, "all persons," note the word persons, "all persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or abet by furnishing food, clothing, information, protection, or any assistance whatever to any emissary, confederate officer, or soldier, partisan ranger, bushwhacker, robber, or thief shall be promptly executed." So any person who provided any food, any information, any medical treatment for any Confederate soldier was to be promptly executed. Of course, that meant that no husband, son, or brother could expect any help or charity from his own family, not even if he happened to be dying.

May I ask you a simple question? Who in his right mind would obey such a military order and allow their son or their brother or their father or their husband to starve or to suffer from want or medical attention. General Order number 10 was designed to legally execute anyone who offered Christian charity either to his own family or to a stranger. Didn't matter if it was man, woman, boy or girl. Now listen carefully. General Orders number 11 followed number 10. General Orders Number 11, which was issued on August 25, 1863, gave the general populace until September 9, 1863 to either locate to the Union outpost or leave the state. Now, what is happening under General Orders number 11. Here's what's happening.

Southern people are being driven from their homes simply because they were Southerners. In other words, here was Ewing's plan. I can't whip the Confederate guerrillas, but what I can do is destroy their base of operation and their base of supply and cut off anyone who would try to sympathize with them or try to help them. Let me show you. In Cass County, Missouri, before General Ewing's order, there were 9,794 people who lived in Cass County. After his order and after his soldiers got through forcing the people out of the land, there were less than 600 who were allowed to remain. That was just in Cass County. General Orders Number 11 was designed to decimate the support of the guerrillas fighting against the Union by destroying their base of support.

It was one of the harshest military measures used against civilians in American history. Now, not all Union generals agreed with General Ewing. In fact, General George Caleb Bingham, and you're going to hear his name later on, he opposed Ewing's infamous order. He was a Union general and he viewed the order for what in reality it really was. Here are General Bingham's words. He said, "it was an act of purely arbitrary power directed against a disarmed and defenseless population in violation of every principle of justice." And then he went further. He continued, listen carefully, "scarcely was the ink dry upon the paper, when like a pack of infuriated and starved bloodhounds, they," that is the soldiers, "were unleashed and turned loose upon the horror-stricken communities. Never was a robbery so stupendous, more cunningly devised, or successfully accomplished with less personal risk to the robbers," end quote. What does he say? Those soldiers went into Missouri, killed, raped, robbed, stole, and there was no one to stop them. Let me tell you, the order was carried out with such zeal and enthusiasm that soon the border region of Missouri was given a nickname, the Burnt Region. The Burnt Region.

The red leg seized upon the opportunity to burn, loot, and steal. William Gregg, who also rode with Quantrill, said this, "all the wealth left by these people was either burned, appropriated by the federal government or the Kansans, for which these people never received a single cent from any source." In other words, the government, either the Kansas state government or the federal government, just simply confiscated all of their property, all of their belongings, all of their money. Elvira Scott described the Red Legs as "the lowest, most desperate looking specimens of humanity it has ever been my lot to witness." Now if you think she was exaggerating, listen to this. The Red Legs broke into the home of an elderly man and hanged him from a tree in his yard to get him to tell where his money was hidden. His wife had just died and her casket was sitting on chairs in the parlor when the Jayhawkers broke open the lid and cut off her finger to steal her wedding ring. They then set the house on fire and the two daughters were forced to drag the coffin into the yard while the house burned down around them. But thankfully they were able to cut their father down and nurse him back to health.

One red-leg officer boasted that a squad of his men were responsible for burning more than 110 houses. Some of them worth, he said, as high as $20,000. Now lest you think a $20,000 house is not an expensive house, that was 20,000 gold dollars. One squad of men burned down 110 homes worth thousands of dollars. If one squad burned down 110 homes, what do you think all the rest of the squads did? One red leg crowed, listen carefully, "the border counties of Missouri have almost as desolate an appearance as before the soil was trod by the white man. Not a man, woman, or child is to be seen in the country to which order number 11 applies."

"Chimneys mark the spot where once stood costly farmhomes. Cattle and hogs are fast destroying large fields of corn. Prairie fires are burning up miles of good fencing every day or two. And turn whichever way you will, everything denotes a state of utter desolation and ruin." He said, Missouri looked as if no man had ever trod the land. It was so absolutely devastating. The war was indeed devastating, not just to Missouri, but to Missourians. I'm going to tell you, I realize that people suffered in that war in many states. And some suffered on both sides. I understand that. However, let me tell you, just from my study, I believe that the bitterest, most violent, and hateful acts were committed against the people of Missouri, which of course would create more ill will once the war was over.

Failed Surrender and Forced Outlawry

Recounts how Jesse and Frank James attempted to surrender peacefully but were attacked by federal soldiers, forcing them into outlawry for self-protection.

The same radicals that had pushed the country into war after the war was over was not about to allow their defeated foe any rest, any release, or any voice in the government. Now, let me just tell you, the war is over. General Lee has surrendered at Appomattox. The fighting basically has stopped everywhere. So Jesse James and some of his men decided the best thing for them to do would be to surrender themselves and come up with an agreement so that they could peacefully return to their homes. Well, Jesse and a number of his Confederate soldiers met then with Major J.B. Rogers, who was the Provost Marshal, and they were told that they would have to surrender their horses and their arms. To which Jesse and the other men replied that they would not and they could not surrender their horses and their arms because they feared that too many Union men would try to take vengeance upon them and they needed their horses and their arms to defend themselves. Well, Major Rogers was very understanding and so he said, look, I will allow you to keep your horses and your arms and since you're willing to surrender, if you will come back tomorrow, I will have the official papers drawn up for you to sign and as far as you're concerned, the war will

be over. Well, Jesse and the men left Major Rogers and as they rode out, they were met by eight federal soldiers who happened to be the advance guard of 60 federal soldiers. When the eight Union soldiers saw Jesse James and his men, they immediately pulled out their pistols and opened fire at point blank range. Jesse and his men then drew their revolvers and shot back, killing four and wounding two. Well by the time that little skirmish was over the other 60 soldiers were on top of them and they were now having to fight 60 additional men. During this skirmish, Jesse was wounded in the right lung. Some of the men struck out a different way and the Federals were chasing those who appeared to be getting away. Jesse and his horse both fell and thankfully his horse kind of fell on top of him. And the soldiers who rode by Jesse after he'd already been shot, still continue to take their revolvers and shoot at him as they were riding, chasing the other Confederates. Although they missed Jesse, they killed his horse.

But Jesse was not dead and so he disentangled himself from the horse, got out from under the horse, and began to crawl to the woods to try to escape. Well, there were five federal soldiers who saw him and they gave chase. Well, Jesse made it to a little tree. Remember, he's wounded in the right lung now. He got a branch and he steadied himself, and he killed the first federal trooper. He shot the second one from the saddle, wounding him. The man hit the ground and began to run the other way. Then he shot the third man from his saddle, and then the other two decided they didn't want to chase him anymore, and they turned around and left. Well, Jesse then crawled to a creek where he bathed his wound and lay there for two days with a burning fever. He finally was able to get up a little strength and he crawled to a nearby field where a man was plowing. The man found him, took him to the doctor and saved his life. But it would take Jesse nearly three years to recover from that wound.

Now here's a man who's tried to turn himself in. He's tried to surrender. And what does he get? He gets shot. His men get shot. Frank, the brother of Jesse, came back into Missouri. All he wanted to do was to go back to the farm, just like Jesse. When Frank came back into Missouri, he was challenged by four federal soldiers. They provoked and pushed the attack, so Frank drew his revolver, killed two of them instantly, wounded a third one, and he himself was wounded in the hip by the fourth one, who then turned and fled. And Frank's life was saved by a doctor, although his hip bothered him for the rest of his life.

Now, I want you to think about this. Here were men, after the war was over, returning, wanting to settle down and farm and live peacefully. Both of them were attacked by federal soldiers. In December of 1866, now remember, remember the war was over in April of 1865, okay? So in December of 1866, the federal authorities passed a law that demanded that every able-bodied man over 18 must either register for or join the state militia, which they knew the Confederates would not do. Those who refused were to be arrested, jailed, and fined 25 bucks each. They knew those Confederates would never ever join the militia. Most of these Confederate soldiers who lived in Missouri and who came back to Missouri wanted just simply to return to a normal life. In fact, Jesse and Frank did return to the farm and they did try farming. However, you've got to remember that at that particular time prices were basically at starvation level and it was almost impossible to eke out a living there on the farm. Moreover, these regulators, these federal troops and state militia were roaming the country trying to ferret out every confederate they could find and settle up old scores.

Now listen, they promised to give any returning rebel a swift bullet or a short rope. This is after the war is over. Here's something that is mind-boggling. Listen, in 1866, one year after the surrender of Appomattox, 4,000 secessionists, quote-unquote, or 4,000 Southern people were murdered in Southwest Missouri. That was not the state of Missouri. That was just southwest Missouri. In one year, 4,000 southern people were murdered in one region. Not even the whole state. What was happening? The federal soldiers, the state militia, were hunting the Confederates down and killing them one by one. On February the 18th, 1867, this is nearly two years after the war was over, five state militiamen rode out to the James farm in Kearney, Missouri looking for the James boys. Why?

Because Assistant Adjutant General William Clark had ordered that all guerrilla leaders were to be brought in dead or alive. The militiamen were at the James Farm in Kearney, Missouri banging on the door with the butts of their pistols demanding entry. Jesse is at home still recuperating from the gunshot in his lung. His stepfather, Dr. Samuel, rushed in and asked him what he should do. Jesse said, "help me to the window." And as he helped him to the window, he looked out and he saw five horses with cavalry saddles upon them. Jesse said, "now help me to the door."

Because he knew it was either them or him. When Dr. Samuel helped him to the door, Jesse cocked his pistol and shot through the crack in the door and killed the militiaman who was banging with the butt of his pistol, demanding entrance. He then flung the door open and killed two more instantly, wounded another, and the fifth one escaped in the darkness. Thus Jesse and Frank, who had come home and tried to surrender peacefully, were now forced to take to the bush and live as outlaws because of government troops and governmental regulations.

The Ironclad Oath and Political Disenfranchisement

Explains how the ironclad oath and ousting ordinance stripped former Confederates of voting rights, employment, and even church leadership, creating a tyrannical radical government.

This is so mind-boggling. But if you want to understand what motivated men like Jesse and Frank and the Dalton boys and the Younger boys, listen to this. I'm quoting. "The radicals began to take over Missouri politics with the ironclad oath." Make sure you jot that down, the ironclad oath. "The radicals began to take over Missouri politics with the ironclad oath. Now listen, the oath excluded all but those who had been loyal citizens from participating in politics and even in some civilian professions. As an indication of the severity of the oath, it excluded anyone who might have given a cup of water to a Confederate soldier or even forage to his horse. Even those who had handed a letter to a soldier in arms against the government were at fault." Are you listening?

"Uttering any statement of dissatisfaction against the government was enough to mark a man as disloyal. And anyone found to be disloyal during the war was not allowed to be an officer of a public or private company or allowed to teach in the public schools or hold a leadership position in a church. In Jackson County, the oath required all voting citizens to travel to the county seat at Independence and swear to 80 conditions and to account for what they did or did not do during the war." "Neighbor turned against neighbor and challenged each other's oaths and accounts of their wartime activities. In Boone County, the heart of Little Dixie, out of 4,290 qualified white voters, only 410 were allowed to vote. Less than 10 percent."

"Any persons attempting to practice law, vote, teach, or preach without taking the loyalty oath were to be fined not less than $500 or be incarcerated for six months or both. If accused of perjury when taking the oath, violators were to stand trial. The only marks of citizenship these rejected men had under the Drake Constitution were to pay taxes, work the roads, and hold their peace. The president and officers of the State University were required to take the oath or vacate their office. Presidents and managers of the railroads were put under heavy bond to employ no one but those who profess their wartime loyalty to the Union." Drake, and I'm going to tell you who he was, he was the Missouri State Senator Charles D. Drake who was head of the Constitutional Committee to reform the state constitution. So that's why we're talking about Drake's constitution.

He was the man who was drafting it. State Senator Charles D. Drake. Drake's constitution had as its goal to disenfranchise anyone of questionable loyalty to the union and to add whatever constitutional amendments might be necessary to further the radicals establishment of political power in Missouri.

Now it gets worse folks, listen. "The ironic aspect of the ironclad oath was that the radical unionist who had called for the secessionist to return to the Union all during the war were now trying to keep them from coming back in. Thomas S. Barclay observed, 'During the war, the radicals used to say, let the rebels lay down their arms and submit to the Constitution and law. That is all we ask of them. They have laid down their arms and asked to be permitted to have the Constitution and laws. But now the radicals reply, you shall not have the Constitution. And as for laws, we don't intend to let you have any sort of law except the tax law.'"

"And you shall have no voice in making that." Listen to this. "Fearful that their work might be undone by sympathetic judges, radical members of the state convention pressed a law through the legislature called the Ousting Ordinance while the state Supreme Court was in recess. The measure vacated all positions of judges, county clerks, circuit attorneys, sheriffs, and recorders by May 1st, 1865, and stipulated that the governor would appoint men to complete any unfinished terms." "In effect, the act purged all of Missouri's legally elected officials who had served from the beginning of the war. The ordinance removed more than 800 officials throughout the state. When the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the ousting ordinance as unconstitutional, the radicals arrested the justices. Militia officers also seized court records." Are you listening? "In one instance, the governor called out a company of black militiamen to quash efforts by some officials to retain their positions. In this way, radicals willfully and corruptly defrauded the citizens of their freedom to vote."

"Because the ironclad oath covered ministers of the gospel, church doors remained closed to Southern sympathizers. One radical said this, listen carefully, 'no class of people between heaven and earth or outside of heaven or hell deserve the curse of God more than disloyal ministers and no class deserves sympathy less than this class.' So if you were a preacher who did not go along with the federal government, they were literally cursing you to hell. They went on to say 'if they, that is the preachers, cannot take the oath, they ought to go and seek a home elsewhere.'"

Applications: Government Lawlessness Creates Outlaws

Argues that lawless government produces lawless citizens, defines 'outlaw' as one deprived of legal protection, and asserts that God demands justice from both individuals and governments.

Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in citizenry. Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in the citizenry. It is a fact that a lawless government produces, creates, and makes outlaws. Do you know what an outlaw is? Let me ask that another way. Do you know what the legal definition of an outlaw is? It may surprise you. If you would look in Webster's 1828 dictionary, or Black's Law Dictionary or Bouvier's Law Dictionary, you will find the definition of an outlaw. Here it is. I'm quoting. "A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection." What is an outlaw? A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection.

Then I looked up the word outlawry. Here it is, from Black's Law Dictionary, Bouvier's Law Dictionary, outlawing. "The putting a man out of the protection of the law or the process by which a man is deprived of that protection." Essentially, all those who are denied the benefit and the protection of the law have been made outlaws. Most of us are outlaws and we don't even know it. Because we have been denied the benefit and the protection of the law. When the law is corrupt and when justice is denied, those who are outlaws endeavor to write things in their own way. Now listen, listen carefully. If you believe that it is wrong for a man to take the law in his own hands, then to be honest and fair, you must equally believe that it is wrong for a government to deny law and justice and thus force men to take the law into their own hands.

The sin of the one party begets the sin of the other party. If government fulfilled its functional role of punishing the wicked and protecting the righteous, it would not be necessary for anyone to take the law into his own hands. It is government bad, unbiblical government that makes men outlaws. Fourthly, I hope you understand in this series that God does demand justice. When He said in Isaiah, "truth faileth, and truth is fallen into the streets," what is the next statement? "And equity cannot enter." That is, justice and judgment cannot enter. The refusal of government to give true, accurate, and biblical justice is just as criminal and just as wicked as it is for individuals to act contrary to the law of God.

You know what we've forgotten? We have forgotten that government can sin against God equally as individuals sin against God. The difference is this. An individual may harm another individual. But when governments sin, they affect and harm and reach far more people than does a single individual. God does demand justice. And people, listen, it does matter whether or not we have justice in a society. And if we do not have justice in a society, society is inevitably going to wither and die. All I can tell you this, Jesse and Frank James were outlaws, but they were made that way by the government. If it's wrong for a man to take the law into his own hands, it's wrong for government to refuse justice and judgment and force a man to take the law into his own hands. The sin is greater, I believe, on the part of the government because government can do far more harm than an individual. Let's pray.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Government Injustice as the Root of Outlawry

Summary: The lecture argues that the oppressive actions of the federal and state governments, including military atrocities and legal disenfranchisement, forced men like Jesse James into outlawry.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in citizenry... a lawless government produces, creates, and makes outlaws.' He details how the government denied protection and justice, leaving individuals to defend themselves.

The Demand for Divine Justice

Summary: God requires justice from both individuals and governments; when truth and equity are absent, society withers.

Evidence: Weaver cites Isaiah 59:14-15 and says, 'God does demand justice... if we do not have justice in a society, society is inevitably going to wither and die.'

The Corruption of Post-War Reconstruction

Summary: Radical Republicans used the ironclad oath and ousting ordinance to seize total political control, disenfranchising and persecuting former Confederates.

Evidence: Weaver reads from Paul Peterson's book, detailing how the oath excluded anyone who aided a Confederate, and how the ousting ordinance removed over 800 elected officials.

Vigilantism as a Response to Failed Government

Summary: Vigilantism is legally defined as organized extralegal enforcement of law when government fails to provide adequate protection, not mere anarchy.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Black's Law Dictionary: 'Vigilantism refers to the creation and enforcement of law by organized extralegal groups in the supposed absence of adequate law enforcement.'

The Personal Suffering of the James Family

Summary: The brutal treatment of Jesse James and his family by Union soldiers served as a catalyst for his later actions.

Evidence: Weaver describes how Jesse was beaten and his stepfather hanged, and his mother abused until she miscarried.

Key Arguments

Government Atrocities Justified Self-Defense

Summary: The federal government's refusal to protect citizens and its active persecution forced individuals to take the law into their own hands for survival.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If government fulfilled its functional role of punishing the wicked and protecting the righteous, it would not be necessary for anyone to take the law into his own hands.'

The Ironclad Oath Was a Tool of Tyranny

Summary: The oath disenfranchised and economically crippled former Confederates, making peaceful reintegration impossible.

Evidence: Weaver reads that the oath excluded anyone who 'might have given a cup of water to a Confederate soldier' and that only 410 out of 4,290 voters were allowed to vote in Boone County.

Post-War Violence Was State-Sponsored

Summary: Even after the war, federal and state militias hunted and killed former Confederates, as seen in the 4,000 murders in southwest Missouri in 1866.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'In 1866, one year after the surrender of Appomattox, 4,000 secessionists... were murdered in Southwest Missouri.'

Jesse James Attempted Peaceful Surrender

Summary: Jesse and Frank James tried to surrender and return to farming but were attacked by federal soldiers, leaving them no choice but to fight back.

Evidence: Weaver recounts the meeting with Major Rogers and the subsequent ambush, noting Jesse was shot in the lung and took years to recover.

The Definition of 'Outlaw' Implies Government Failure

Summary: Legally, an outlaw is one deprived of the law's protection; thus, the government itself created outlaws by denying justice.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Black's Law Dictionary: 'A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection.'

Scripture References

Isaiah 59:12-15

Context: Weaver reads these verses at the beginning to illustrate how truth fails and justice is absent, paralleling the times of Jesse James.

Historical References

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Context: Mentioned as the legislative background that led to border wars between pro-slavery and free-state settlers.

General Thomas Ewing

Context: Union general who issued General Orders No. 10 and 11, leading to the depopulation and burning of Missouri border counties.

General William Tecumseh Sherman

Context: His harsh views on civilians are quoted to show the philosophy embraced by Ewing.

General Orders No. 10 and 11

Context: Military orders that authorized execution of anyone aiding Confederates and forced evacuation of civilians, devastating Missouri.

The Ironclad Oath

Context: Post-war oath that disenfranchised former Confederates and barred them from professions, churches, and voting.

Ousting Ordinance of 1865

Context: Legislation that removed over 800 elected officials in Missouri, consolidating radical Republican control.

Charles D. Drake

Context: Missouri state senator who led the constitutional committee that drafted the ironclad oath provisions.

Quantrill's Raiders

Context: Guerrilla group that included many Missourians who fought against Union forces; referenced as context for the James brothers' involvement.

The Burnt Region

Context: Nickname for the devastated Missouri border area after General Order No. 11 was enforced.

Important Quotes

Vigilantism refers to the creation and enforcement of law by organized extralegal groups in the supposed absence of adequate law enforcement.

Significance: Provides the legal definition that frames the lecture's argument that vigilantism can be a legitimate response to government failure.

all persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or abet by furnishing food, clothing, information, protection, or any assistance whatever to any emissary, confederate officer, or soldier, partisan ranger, bushwhacker, robber, or thief shall be promptly executed.

Significance: Illustrates the extreme measures taken by the Union government that criminalized basic Christian charity and family loyalty.

the law which should have protected them was overwritten. Indeed there was no law. The courts were the instruments of plunder. The civil officers were cutthroats.

Significance: Harrison Trow's description of the post-war lawlessness that justified outlawry.

A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection.

Significance: The legal definition of 'outlaw' used to argue that the government itself created outlaws by denying protection.

Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in citizenry.

Significance: The central thesis of the application section, linking government sin to individual sin.

Discussion Questions

How does the legal definition of vigilantism challenge our modern assumptions about taking the law into one's own hands?

Context: Weaver explains that vigilantism originally referred to organized extralegal enforcement of law when government fails.

In what ways did General Orders No. 10 and 11 violate biblical principles of justice and charity?

Context: The orders criminalized providing food or aid to family members, which Weaver argues forced people to choose between obeying God or man.

How does the ironclad oath illustrate the danger of using loyalty tests to disenfranchise political opponents?

Context: The oath excluded anyone who had even given a cup of water to a Confederate, effectively silencing a large portion of the population.

What responsibility does government have to provide justice, and what are the consequences when it fails?

Context: Weaver argues that when government refuses justice, it forces individuals to seek it themselves, leading to societal breakdown.

How should Christians respond when they are denied legal protection and justice by their own government?

Context: The lecture implies that self-defense and extralegal justice may be necessary, but also emphasizes obedience to God's law.

Applications

Recognize that government can sin and create outlaws

Summary: Believers should understand that when government denies justice, it forces citizens into lawlessness, and the government's sin is greater because of its wider impact.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'The sin is greater, I believe, on the part of the government because government can do far more harm than an individual.'

Uphold God's demand for justice in society

Summary: Christians must advocate for true, biblical justice, knowing that a society without it will wither and die.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'God does demand justice... if we do not have justice in a society, society is inevitably going to wither and die.'

Obey God rather than man when laws conflict

Summary: The lecture implies that obeying God's law may lead to being classed an outlaw by man, but it is better than being an outlaw to God.

Evidence: Weaver prays, 'it's a whole lot easier, Lord, to be classed an outlaw by man than it is to be classed an outlaw by the sovereign God of heaven and earth.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:32:04Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T00:41:13Z

Clean Transcript

The World And Times Of Jesse James - Part 2 of 3

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Alright, open your Bibles if you would please, Isaiah 59. And we'll read verses 12 through 15. Take a few moments to review and then take up where we left off last week. Just to let you know that I have been trying to study ahead and got a number of interesting things coming up as far as messages. I trust will be very, not only informative, but applicable to our day and time as well. Isaiah 59 verses 12 through 14, and this is the second message on the world and times of Jesse James. Notice Isaiah 59 verse 12, "For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as far as our iniquities, we know them."
#1 | 0:23 to 1:22 | cleaned
"In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, and judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Verse 15, "Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself of prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment." Now last week I began by showing how God demands justice. And how that without justice, a society basically withers and dies. Not only that, but evil men increase worse and worse.
#2 | 1:23 to 2:11 | cleaned
And may I point out the fact, once again, as you and I think of history, we must understand that history is nothing less than God's eternal decree coming to pass in time. We began to understand the background of the times of Jesse James especially with the Kansas and Nebraska Act of 1854 where those pro-slavery states assumed and believed that Kansas would come in as a slave state and Nebraska would come in as a free state and therefore the balance between the slave states and the non-slaveholding states would be maintained.
#3 | 2:11 to 2:53 | cleaned
But, of course, that was not to be the case. And so the Immigrant Aid Society in the North began sending radical Republicans and abolitionists into Kansas to try to claim it as a free state. And, of course, border wars erupted. Those people from Missouri were known as the Border Ruffians. Those from Kansas were known as Jayhawkers or Free Soilers, or Red Legs, or Abolitionists, or Radical Republicans, just all kinds of names. And we find that the Jayhawkers basically began raiding into Missouri even as early as 1854.
#4 | 2:54 to 3:37 | cleaned
So there was a tremendous animosity that existed back then. I gave you a number of quotes, which I'm not going to do today, how union generals and union leaders understood how the Jayhawkers were raping, murdering, pillaging, burning, and looting from people in Missouri. Not only were they doing that to people who were slave owners, they were doing it to Southerners in general, and later on, they did not even distinguish between loyal Union men.
#5 | 3:37 to 4:13 | cleaned
They just simply raped, robbed, and killed any and every one that they came across. Now may I remind you, since this is in reference to Jesse James, how that when he was 15 years old, he was out plowing in the field and the soldiers came out and got him. They put a rope around him and drug him. They beat him, not only with a rope, but they also beat him with the flat edge of their sabers.
#6 | 4:13 to 4:38 | cleaned
They took his stepfather and hanged him by the neck three to four times, letting him down each time, and although they did not kill him, the lack of oxygen to his brain certainly diminished his capacity for the rest of his life. And he was basically destroyed mentally, so to speak. He certainly had some of his mentality left, but it certainly was diminished from that incessant hanging. At the same time, they physically abused his mother, who was pregnant, and they arrested her and threw her in jail and they mishandled and abused her so much that caused her to miscarry.
#7 | 4:38 to 5:23 | cleaned
Certainly the injustice of any or all of these things would be sufficient to drive an individual to seek vengeance, especially when the very government that is supposed to protect is the instigator of the atrocities. Let me deal with a word by way of introduction today, a word that you have known and have heard probably all of your life, but you've never taken the time to look up the legal definition. And that's the word vigilante. Vigilantism is a word that is usually misunderstood and misused. Whenever you hear the word vigilante or vigilantism, you automatically think of individuals who are, quote, taking the law into their own hands, end quote. In other words, here individuals just mere anarchist, they're not waiting for a trial, they just simply take the law in their own hands and do what they're going to do. Let me tell you if you will look up the word vigilante or vigilantism, you'll be amazed. Because here's what the word actually means. Listen carefully. Vigilantism refers to the creation and enforcement of law by organized extralegal groups in the supposed absence of adequate law enforcement.
#8 | 5:25 to 6:49 | cleaned
In other words, the word vigilante or vigilantism could have a good or a bad connotation. However, originally it had a good connotation because it was the creation and enforcement of the law by an organized, not disorderly, not anarchistic, but by an organized extra-legal group, that is, they were not necessarily the sheriff or the marshals or the government, but this organized extra-legal group came to enforce the law in the absence of adequate law enforcement.
#9 | 6:51 to 7:36 | cleaned
Now vigilantism, as you and I know it, actually began in the United States in 1767 in South Carolina, where backcountry people suffered from the widespread acts of criminals. Where there was no law enforcement, there was no justice. And so what did the people do? They organized themselves and undertook to defend themselves and to effect justice as they were able to do so.
#10 | 7:37 to 8:06 | cleaned
Now the word vigilante or vigilanteism comes from the word vigilant or vigilance. Listen to Black's Law Dictionary definition of vigilance. Here it is. Watchfulness, precaution, a proper degree of promptness in pursuing one's rights or guarding them from infraction or in making or discovering opportunities for the enforcement of one's lawful claims and demands. Now did you hear that definition? Listen carefully. Watchfulness, precaution, a proper degree of activity and promptness in pursuing one's own rights, or guarding them from infraction, or in making or discovering opportunities for the enforcement of one's lawful claims and demands. So technically and legally speaking, all vigilantes are doing is simply protecting and guarding themselves and their rights and enforcing their lawful claims in the absence of a power that will not do it for them. It's interesting how the word has come to be misused.
#11 | 8:06 to 9:34 | cleaned
You see, Missourians had the right to life, liberty, and property exactly the way other states did. And when the government, and when I'm referring to the government in Missouri now, I'm referring not only to the federal, but also to the state government, when the government abused their power, usurped their authority, and refused to protect the people, then the people did what any other people would do. They defended themselves. They protected themselves. Now times were exceedingly bad during the war and in Missouri it was probably worse even after the war was over. I told you last week that someone has aptly said that the war lasted four years in most states but in Missouri it lasted 20 years. Accounting the pre-war acts and pre-war vendettas beginning in 1854 and reconstruction after the war was over. Certainly, it was a long time in Missouri. Do you realize the war created great animosity? Especially in the border of Missouri and Kansas.
#12 | 9:35 to 10:50 | cleaned
Southern men were not just killed, they were tortured, they were mutilated, and murdered. And many of the men who were killed were not Confederate soldiers, they were not partisan rangers, they were not guerrillas. They were just simply farm men who happened to be working to acquire a decent living, and they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
#13 | 10:51 to 11:16 | cleaned
Now, High George was one of the men who followed Quantrill, and here is the reason that he gave for joining Quantrill and fighting for the Southern Cause. He said, quote, "they burned and took everything I had, killed my father, hung my brother," end quote. Many Southerners were scalped or had their ears or fingers cut off so the Jayhawkers could wear them as souvenirs. Young male members of the family were equally dealt a fatal blow.
#14 | 11:17 to 11:54 | cleaned
Now I want to prepare you not just for what I'm about to tell you, but I've been doing some additional studying and in a few weeks I don't know when, I'm going to bring a message entitled The War Against Women and Children. And you will be flabbergasted at what was done to women and children by the federal soldiers. But listen carefully. Here's a sampling of it. In Jackson County, Missouri, 13-year-old John Fox, who had a brother with Quantrill, was shot and killed by federal soldiers while his sister and his mother had hold of him, begging for his life, asking the soldiers to spare him, and yet they gunned him down regardless. He was charged with feeding his brother. They shot down a 13-year-old boy. Federal soldiers also killed 14-year-old James Nicholson because he had two brothers serving under General Price, General Sterling Price. 35-year-old Henry Morris was serving with Colonel Upton Hayes when Federals rode up and gunned down his 11-year-old son. Why?
#15 | 11:55 to 13:23 | cleaned
Because their father fought with the Confederacy. Southern women were raped, tortured, imprisoned, simply because they either had a husband, brother, or son who fought for the Confederacy. The Berry brothers, Dick, James, and Isaac, left their father and four sisters at home. The federal soldiers from the neighboring town of Danville raped 20-year-old Catherine, 18-year-old Nancy, 14-year-old Elizabeth and 11-year-old Sally Ann.
#16 | 13:24 to 14:03 | cleaned
Frank Dalton, who was a cousin to Frank and Jesse, wrote this. Now listen, I'm trying to show you the world and times of Jesse James. I want you to understand what drove and motivated some of these men. But here's the quote from Frank Dalton, the cousin of Frank and Jesse. He said, "Jenison's Jayhawkers, visiting the home of the James brothers and taking the women, Aunt Zerelda, which was Jesse and Frank's mother, taking the women, Aunt Zerelda, the mother of Frank and Jesse, their sister, and my mother and sisters, and after stripping them to the waist, they tied them to trees and taking
#17 | 14:07 to 14:56 | cleaned
a black snake whip that they found in the stable, they whipped them until they got tired and then they rode away, leaving the women and the girls to be cut down and carried in the house by our Negro slaves who washed and bandaged their bleeding backs and bodies and put them to bed." Would it tend to upset you if your mothers and sisters were treated like that? A number of the young women, and this is what I'm going to teach on a little bit later, it is mind-boggling. But a number of the young women were rounded up and arrested and thrown into a dilapidated tenement that they used for a prison for the crime of pro-Confederate cheering.
#18 | 14:56 to 15:41 | cleaned
That is, they cheered for the South. Isn't that amazing? General Thomas Ewing who was a Union General, took over the District of the Border on June 16, 1863. He was the adopted brother as well as brother-in-law to General William Tecumseh Sherman. Now listen carefully, General Thomas Ewing was the adopted brother and the brother-in-law of General Sherman. Sherman had already expressed his attitude and treatment towards civilians, and I'm going to give you his exact words, and I want you to understand that Ewing had the same attitude, but here's what Sherman said, quote, talking about civilians, "next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully too, and another year they may beg in vain for their lives."
#19 | 15:42 to 16:46 | cleaned
"A people who will persevere in a way beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many people with less pertinacity than the South have been wiped out of national existence. To those who submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance. But to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why death is mercy and the quicker he or she is disposed of is the better."
#20 | 16:48 to 17:15 | cleaned
And he's not talking just about soldiers. He's talking about civilians. He says, "to the petulant and persistent secessionist, why death is mercy and the quicker he or she is disposed of, the better." Well, General Ewing embraced the same philosophy. The Union Army could not break the resistance in Missouri. So on January the 20th, 1863, General Ewing issued the infamous General Order Number 10 from the headquarters of the Department of Missouri. Listen carefully to this General Order Number 10.
#21 | 17:18 to 18:07 | cleaned
Quote, "all persons," note the word persons, "all persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or abet by furnishing food, clothing, information, protection, or any assistance whatever to any emissary, confederate officer, or soldier, partisan ranger, bushwhacker, robber, or thief shall be promptly executed." So any person who provided any food, any information, any medical treatment for any Confederate soldier was to be promptly executed. Of course, that meant that no husband, son, or brother could expect any help or charity from his own family, not even if he happened to be dying.
#22 | 18:07 to 18:58 | cleaned
May I ask you a simple question? Who in his right mind would obey such a military order and allow their son or their brother or their father or their husband to starve or to suffer from want or medical attention. General Order number 10 was designed to legally execute anyone who offered Christian charity either to his own family or to a stranger. Didn't matter if it was man, woman, boy or girl. Now listen carefully. General Orders number 11 followed number 10. General Orders Number 11, which was issued on August 25, 1863, gave the general populace until September 9, 1863 to either locate to the Union outpost or leave the state. Now, what is happening under General Orders number 11. Here's what's happening.
#23 | 19:00 to 20:15 | cleaned
Southern people are being driven from their homes simply because they were Southerners. In other words, here was Ewing's plan. I can't whip the Confederate guerrillas, but what I can do is destroy their base of operation and their base of supply and cut off anyone who would try to sympathize with them or try to help them. Let me show you. In Cass County, Missouri, before General Ewing's order, there were 9,794 people who lived in Cass County. After his order and after his soldiers got through forcing the people out of the land, there were less than 600 who were allowed to remain. That was just in Cass County. General Orders Number 11 was designed to decimate the support of the guerrillas fighting against the Union by destroying their base of support.
#24 | 20:16 to 21:24 | cleaned
It was one of the harshest military measures used against civilians in American history. Now, not all Union generals agreed with General Ewing. In fact, General George Caleb Bingham, and you're going to hear his name later on, he opposed Ewing's infamous order. He was a Union general and he viewed the order for what in reality it really was. Here are General Bingham's words. He said, "it was an act of purely arbitrary power directed against a disarmed and defenseless population in violation of every principle of justice."
#25 | 21:25 to 22:02 | cleaned
And then he went further. He continued, listen carefully, "scarcely was the ink dry upon the paper, when like a pack of infuriated and starved bloodhounds, they," that is the soldiers, "were unleashed and turned loose upon the horror-stricken communities. Never was a robbery so stupendous, more cunningly devised, or successfully accomplished with less personal risk to the robbers," end quote. What does he say? Those soldiers went into Missouri, killed, raped, robbed, stole, and there was no one to stop them. Let me tell you, the order was carried out with such zeal and enthusiasm that soon the border region of Missouri was given a nickname, the Burnt Region. The Burnt Region.
#26 | 22:04 to 23:04 | cleaned
The red leg seized upon the opportunity to burn, loot, and steal. William Gregg, who also rode with Quantrill, said this, "all the wealth left by these people was either burned, appropriated by the federal government or the Kansans, for which these people never received a single cent from any source." In other words, the government, either the Kansas state government or the federal government, just simply confiscated all of their property, all of their belongings, all of their money.
#27 | 23:04 to 23:41 | cleaned
Elvira Scott described the Red Legs as "the lowest, most desperate looking specimens of humanity it has ever been my lot to witness." Now if you think she was exaggerating, listen to this. The Red Legs broke into the home of an elderly man and hanged him from a tree in his yard to get him to tell where his money was hidden. His wife had just died and her casket was sitting on chairs in the parlor when the Jayhawkers broke open the lid and cut off her finger to steal her wedding ring. They then set the house on fire and the two daughters were forced to drag the coffin into the yard while the house burned down around them. But thankfully they were able to cut their father down and nurse him back to health.
#28 | 23:42 to 24:36 | cleaned
One red-leg officer boasted that a squad of his men were responsible for burning more than 110 houses. Some of them worth, he said, as high as $20,000.
#29 | 24:39 to 24:52 | cleaned
Now lest you think a $20,000 house is not an expensive house, that was 20,000 gold dollars. One squad of men burned down 110 homes worth thousands of dollars. If one squad burned down 110 homes, what do you think all the rest of the squads did? One red leg crowed, listen carefully, "the border counties of Missouri have almost as desolate an appearance as before the soil was trod by the white man. Not a man, woman, or child is to be seen in the country to which order number 11 applies."
#30 | 24:52 to 25:36 | cleaned
"Chimneys mark the spot where once stood costly farmhomes. Cattle and hogs are fast destroying large fields of corn. Prairie fires are burning up miles of good fencing every day or two. And turn whichever way you will, everything denotes a state of utter desolation and ruin." He said, Missouri looked as if no man had ever trod the land. It was so absolutely devastating. The war was indeed devastating, not just to Missouri, but to Missourians. I'm going to tell you, I realize that people suffered in that war in many states. And some suffered on both sides. I understand that. However, let me tell you, just from my study, I believe that the bitterest, most violent, and hateful acts were committed against the people of Missouri, which of course would create more ill will once the war was over.
#31 | 25:37 to 26:42 | cleaned
The same radicals that had pushed the country into war after the war was over was not about to allow their defeated foe any rest, any release, or any voice in the government. Now, let me just tell you, the war is over. General Lee has surrendered at Appomattox. The fighting basically has stopped everywhere. So Jesse James and some of his men decided the best thing for them to do would be to surrender themselves and come up with an agreement so that they could peacefully return to their homes. Well, Jesse and a number of his Confederate soldiers met then with Major J.B. Rogers, who was the Provost Marshal, and they were told that they would have to surrender their horses and their arms. To which Jesse and the other men replied that they would not and they could not surrender their horses and their arms because they feared that too many Union men would try to take vengeance upon them and they needed their horses and their arms to defend themselves. Well, Major Rogers was very understanding and so he said, look, I will allow you to keep your horses and your arms and since you're willing to surrender, if you will come back tomorrow, I will have the official papers drawn up for you to sign and as far as you're concerned, the war will
#32 | 26:44 to 28:27 | cleaned
be over. Well, Jesse and the men left Major Rogers and as they rode out, they were met by eight federal soldiers who happened to be the advance guard of 60 federal soldiers. When the eight Union soldiers saw Jesse James and his men, they immediately pulled out their pistols and opened fire at point blank range. Jesse and his men then drew their revolvers and shot back, killing four and wounding two. Well by the time that little skirmish was over the other 60 soldiers were on top of them and they were now having to fight 60 additional men. During this skirmish, Jesse was wounded in the right lung. Some of the men struck out a different way and the Federals were chasing those who appeared to be getting away. Jesse and his horse both fell and thankfully his horse kind of fell on top of him. And the soldiers who rode by Jesse after he'd already been shot, still continue to take their revolvers and shoot at him as they were riding, chasing the other Confederates. Although they missed Jesse, they killed his horse.
#33 | 28:27 to 30:03 | cleaned
But Jesse was not dead and so he disentangled himself from the horse, got out from under the horse, and began to crawl to the woods to try to escape. Well, there were five federal soldiers who saw him and they gave chase. Well, Jesse made it to a little tree. Remember, he's wounded in the right lung now. He got a branch and he steadied himself, and he killed the first federal trooper.
#34 | 30:06 to 30:31 | cleaned
He shot the second one from the saddle, wounding him. The man hit the ground and began to run the other way. Then he shot the third man from his saddle, and then the other two decided they didn't want to chase him anymore, and they turned around and left. Well, Jesse then crawled to a creek where he bathed his wound and lay there for two days with a burning fever. He finally was able to get up a little strength and he crawled to a nearby field where a man was plowing. The man found him, took him to the doctor and saved his life. But it would take Jesse nearly three years to recover from that wound.
#35 | 30:32 to 31:21 | cleaned
Now here's a man who's tried to turn himself in. He's tried to surrender. And what does he get? He gets shot. His men get shot. Frank, the brother of Jesse, came back into Missouri. All he wanted to do was to go back to the farm, just like Jesse. When Frank came back into Missouri, he was challenged by four federal soldiers. They provoked and pushed the attack, so Frank drew his revolver, killed two of them instantly, wounded a third one, and he himself was wounded in the hip by the fourth one, who then turned and fled. And Frank's life was saved by a doctor, although his hip bothered him for the rest of his life.
#36 | 31:23 to 32:16 | cleaned
Now, I want you to think about this. Here were men, after the war was over, returning, wanting to settle down and farm and live peacefully. Both of them were attacked by federal soldiers. In December of 1866, now remember, remember the war was over in April of 1865, okay? So in December of 1866, the federal authorities passed a law that demanded that every able-bodied man over 18 must either register for or join the state militia, which they knew the Confederates would not do.
#37 | 32:17 to 33:00 | cleaned
Those who refused were to be arrested, jailed, and fined 25 bucks each. They knew those Confederates would never ever join the militia. Most of these Confederate soldiers who lived in Missouri and who came back to Missouri wanted just simply to return to a normal life. In fact, Jesse and Frank did return to the farm and they did try farming. However, you've got to remember that at that particular time prices were basically at starvation level and it was almost impossible to eke out a living there on the farm. Moreover, these regulators, these federal troops and state militia were roaming the country trying to ferret out every confederate they could find and settle up old scores.
#38 | 33:02 to 33:54 | cleaned
Now listen, they promised to give any returning rebel a swift bullet or a short rope. This is after the war is over. Here's something that is mind-boggling. Listen, in 1866, one year after the surrender of Appomattox, 4,000 secessionists, quote-unquote, or 4,000 Southern people were murdered in Southwest Missouri. That was not the state of Missouri. That was just southwest Missouri. In one year, 4,000 southern people were murdered in one region. Not even the whole state. What was happening? The federal soldiers, the state militia, were hunting the Confederates down and killing them one by one. On February the 18th, 1867, this is nearly two years after the war was over, five state militiamen rode out to the James farm in Kearney, Missouri looking for the James boys. Why?
#39 | 33:55 to 35:14 | cleaned
Because Assistant Adjutant General William Clark had ordered that all guerrilla leaders were to be brought in dead or alive. The militiamen were at the James Farm in Kearney, Missouri banging on the door with the butts of their pistols demanding entry. Jesse is at home still recuperating from the gunshot in his lung. His stepfather, Dr. Samuel, rushed in and asked him what he should do. Jesse said, "help me to the window." And as he helped him to the window, he looked out and he saw five horses with cavalry saddles upon them. Jesse said, "now help me to the door."
#40 | 35:15 to 36:06 | cleaned
Because he knew it was either them or him. When Dr. Samuel helped him to the door, Jesse cocked his pistol and shot through the crack in the door and killed the militiaman who was banging with the butt of his pistol, demanding entrance. He then flung the door open and killed two more instantly, wounded another, and the fifth one escaped in the darkness. Thus Jesse and Frank, who had come home and tried to surrender peacefully, were now forced to take to the bush and live as outlaws because of government troops and governmental regulations.
#41 | 36:07 to 36:51 | cleaned
Peaceful pursuits were denied the former Confederates. Harrison Trow said this, I'm quoting, Harrison Trow was a man also who rode with Quantrill, he said, "the law which should have protected them was overwritten. Indeed there was no law. The courts were the instruments of plunder. The civil officers were cutthroats. Instead of a legal process there was a vigilance committee. Men were hung because of a very natural desire to keep hold of their own property."
#42 | 36:52 to 37:26 | cleaned
"To the cruel vigor of actual war, there had succeeded the irresponsible despotism of greedy highwaymen, blustering upon assassination. The border counties were overrun with bands of predatory plunderers." Some Confederate soldiers dared not return home, and many guerrillas fled the country.
#43 | 37:27 to 37:47 | cleaned
Now I want you to listen to how he described the times. "Indeed, there was no law. The courts were instruments of plunder. The civil officers were cutthroats." That's almost prophetic, isn't it? James Cummings from Clay County, who attended the same Baptist church that the James boys had attended, said this. "When the war was over and I wanted to settle down, they, the Federals, would not let me but they pursued me with malignant hatred."
#44 | 37:50 to 38:27 | cleaned
Federal vengeance was so fierce that many men were compelled to become outlaws in order to protect and provide for themselves and their families. This was so notable in Missouri that the state of Missouri obtained a nickname the outlaw state.
#45 | 38:29 to 38:51 | cleaned
Now I want you to listen carefully what I'm about to say. Most of our infamous and notorious outlaws that we know from history were made so by the government.
#46 | 38:54 to 39:13 | cleaned
Now that may surprise you. Many of you do not even know that the Dalton boys, the famous Dalton gang, most of them were former deputy U.S. Marshals. There's a reason for that. The Youngers were peaceable men. In fact, Cole Younger one time was studying for the ministry. I want to take the time to read to you a page and a half of Paul Peterson's book on Quantrill of Missouri. I want you to listen very carefully.
#47 | 39:17 to 39:57 | cleaned
This is so mind-boggling. But if you want to understand what motivated men like Jesse and Frank and the Dalton boys and the Younger boys, listen to this. I'm quoting. "The radicals began to take over Missouri politics with the ironclad oath." Make sure you jot that down, the ironclad oath. "The radicals began to take over Missouri politics with the ironclad oath. Now listen, the oath excluded all but those who had been loyal citizens from participating in politics and even in some civilian professions. As an indication of the severity of the oath, it excluded anyone who might have given a cup of water to a Confederate soldier or even forage to his horse. Even those who had handed a letter to a soldier in arms against the government were at fault." Are you listening?
#48 | 39:58 to 41:08 | cleaned
"Uttering any statement of dissatisfaction against the government was enough to mark a man as disloyal. And anyone found to be disloyal during the war was not allowed to be an officer of a public or private company or allowed to teach in the public schools or hold a leadership position in a church. In Jackson County, the oath required all voting citizens to travel to the county seat at Independence and swear to 80 conditions and to account for what they did or did not do during the war."
#49 | 41:09 to 41:50 | cleaned
"Neighbor turned against neighbor and challenged each other's oaths and accounts of their wartime activities. In Boone County, the heart of Little Dixie, out of 4,290 qualified white voters, only 410 were allowed to vote. Less than 10 percent."
#50 | 41:52 to 42:05 | cleaned
"Any persons attempting to practice law, vote, teach, or preach without taking the loyalty oath were to be fined not less than $500 or be incarcerated for six months or both. If accused of perjury when taking the oath, violators were to stand trial. The only marks of citizenship these rejected men had under the Drake Constitution were to pay taxes, work the roads, and hold their peace. The president and officers of the State University were required to take the oath or vacate their office. Presidents and managers of the railroads were put under heavy bond to employ no one but those who profess their wartime loyalty to the Union." Drake, and I'm going to tell you who he was, he was the Missouri State Senator Charles D. Drake who was head of the Constitutional Committee to reform the state constitution. So that's why we're talking about Drake's constitution.
#51 | 42:18 to 43:25 | cleaned
He was the man who was drafting it. State Senator Charles D. Drake. Drake's constitution had as its goal to disenfranchise anyone of questionable loyalty to the union and to add whatever constitutional amendments might be necessary to further the radicals establishment of political power in Missouri.
#52 | 43:25 to 43:48 | cleaned
Now it gets worse folks, listen. "The ironic aspect of the ironclad oath was that the radical unionist who had called for the secessionist to return to the Union all during the war were now trying to keep them from coming back in. Thomas S. Barclay observed, 'During the war, the radicals used to say, let the rebels lay down their arms and submit to the Constitution and law. That is all we ask of them. They have laid down their arms and asked to be permitted to have the Constitution and laws. But now the radicals reply, you shall not have the Constitution. And as for laws, we don't intend to let you have any sort of law except the tax law.'"
#53 | 43:48 to 44:33 | cleaned
"And you shall have no voice in making that." Listen to this. "Fearful that their work might be undone by sympathetic judges, radical members of the state convention pressed a law through the legislature called the Ousting Ordinance while the state Supreme Court was in recess. The measure vacated all positions of judges, county clerks, circuit attorneys, sheriffs, and recorders by May 1st, 1865, and stipulated that the governor would appoint men to complete any unfinished terms."
#54 | 44:33 to 45:13 | cleaned
"In effect, the act purged all of Missouri's legally elected officials who had served from the beginning of the war. The ordinance removed more than 800 officials throughout the state. When the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the ousting ordinance as unconstitutional, the radicals arrested the justices. Militia officers also seized court records." Are you listening? "In one instance, the governor called out a company of black militiamen to quash efforts by some officials to retain their positions. In this way, radicals willfully and corruptly defrauded the citizens of their freedom to vote."
#55 | 45:14 to 46:08 | cleaned
"Because the ironclad oath covered ministers of the gospel, church doors remained closed to Southern sympathizers. One radical said this, listen carefully, 'no class of people between heaven and earth or outside of heaven or hell deserve the curse of God more than disloyal ministers and no class deserves sympathy less than this class.' So if you were a preacher who did not go along with the federal government, they were literally cursing you to hell. They went on to say 'if they, that is the preachers, cannot take the oath, they ought to go and seek a home elsewhere.'"
#56 | 46:10 to 47:02 | cleaned
That is, get out of Missouri. One uncompromising pastor, Pastor M.M. Modisette, wrote, "I confess that I am placed in a very unpleasant situation, not because of the fear of perjury or doing violence to my feelings, or for any act of my life, by taking said oath, but on account of the seeming unreasonableness of the thing, and as I now view it, as being infringement upon religious liberty, as well as a species of tyranny to which I dislike to submit." There was an outcry from the churches about infringement upon religious liberty, to which Governor Thomas Fletcher responded, quote, "religious liberty is a political right."
#57 | 47:05 to 48:00 | cleaned
Therefore, hundreds of priests and preachers were arrested, indicted, and tried in the civil courts for preaching the gospel. As rebels began filtering back into Missouri, they were met with animosity on every side. And many Unionists believed that all rebel property should be seized and all rebels should be hanged.
#58 | 48:05 to 48:37 | cleaned
Now when you think about the ironclad oath, when you think about the fact that no one could work for the railroad or hold any position public or private that had any authority or that had any means of acquiring anything without taking that oath. And when you stop and think that these radical Republicans also passed this ousting ordinance which meant they were in absolute and total control of the judicial, of the legislative, and of the executive offices in the land. They were basically tyrants.
#59 | 48:41 to 49:30 | cleaned
Grant was president by this time and the corruption in his administration, the theft of lands by the railroads and the government subsidizing of the railroads added fuel to the fire. Did you know that thousands upon thousands of acres of land were stolen, not just from Southern people, but from Indians as well. By the politicians, by the banks, by the railroads, by the government. During the time of Jesse and Frank James, hardly anyone trusted the politicians, the railroads or the government.
#60 | 49:33 to 50:21 | cleaned
Now in defense of the James Younger gang, to show you the attitude, when the Muncie robbery occurred, and probably the James Younger gang did indeed do this, but the Lexington Caucasian, which was a paper, on December 12, 1874, in defense of the James Younger gang robbing the bank, the paper wrote this, quote, "the funds seized by the bandits were just as honestly earned as the riches of many a highly distinguished political leader and the railroad job manipulator," end quote. What were they saying? They're saying the money the James gang robbed was probably more honestly earned than the money the railroad and the political leaders earned. Now listen carefully, there were 25 robberies attributed to the James Younger gang and 25 murders. However, it was absolutely impossible for Jesse and Frank to have committed all of those murders and all those robberies. And the reason why I say it's impossible is because they were not present at the robberies in many times nor the murders and in many instances they were in other states with eyewitnesses to vouch for their whereabouts but any murder and any robbery was automatically charged to the James gang by the powers
#61 | 50:23 to 52:06 | cleaned
that be. Now let me make some applications today because Lord willing the message next week is going to tie everything together. You say, did the James boys kill some people? Sure they did. But some of the so-called murders were actually executions of wicked men who had previously harmed and tried to kill not just Jesse and Frank, but their families. And I'll discuss this next week. But several of those who were involved in the bombing of the family home were dealt with very harshly and very violently by the James boys. I certainly am not excusing murder or personal executions.
#62 | 52:06 to 52:58 | cleaned
But at the same time, you've got to remember, there was no justice in those days. The radicals were in control of the courts, the sheriffs, and the state. Therefore, if justice was to be meted out, it must be done by those who are not affiliated with a radical abolitionist government. Listen to this second application. Everyone knows about, what do we call it, couch coaching, and we talk about 2020 hindsight, it's easy for you and I to sit back and say, well, I would have never done such things. I would have left the vengeance to the state.
#63 | 53:00 to 53:56 | cleaned
I mean, sooner or later, I mean, you know, the wicked are going to get their due. You know, that's easy for you and I to say when we're not living under those circumstances and those situations. However, had you been alive back then and everything that you have ever had had been legally stolen from you, your wife and your sisters raped, your family insulted and murdered, you forced into outlawry and unable to find work or make a living at anything, and men were always constantly trying to kill you,
#64 | 53:57 to 54:33 | cleaned
I'm probably pretty sure it began to wear on you after a while. And you might come to this conclusion, you know, if I don't protect myself, I'm not going to be protected. And if I don't fight against those who's trying to take everything I have and murder my family, no one else is going to fight for me. Do you understand why I'm saying the world and times? Listen to this. This might blow your mind. Here's the third application.
#65 | 54:35 to 55:10 | cleaned
Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in citizenry. Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in the citizenry. It is a fact that a lawless government produces, creates, and makes outlaws. Do you know what an outlaw is? Let me ask that another way. Do you know what the legal definition of an outlaw is? It may surprise you. If you would look in Webster's 1828 dictionary, or Black's Law Dictionary or Bouvier's Law Dictionary, you will find the definition of an outlaw. Here it is. I'm quoting. "A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection." What is an outlaw? A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection.
#66 | 55:12 to 56:30 | cleaned
Then I looked up the word outlawry. Here it is, from Black's Law Dictionary, Bouvier's Law Dictionary, outlawing. "The putting a man out of the protection of the law or the process by which a man is deprived of that protection." Essentially, all those who are denied the benefit and the protection of the law have been made outlaws. Most of us are outlaws and we don't even know it. Because we have been denied the benefit and the protection of the law. When the law is corrupt and when justice is denied, those who are outlaws endeavor to write things in their own way. Now listen, listen carefully. If you believe that it is wrong for a man to take the law in his own hands, then to be honest and fair, you must equally believe that it is wrong for a government to deny law and justice and thus force men to take the law into their own hands.
#67 | 56:31 to 57:38 | cleaned
The sin of the one party begets the sin of the other party. If government fulfilled its functional role of punishing the wicked and protecting the righteous, it would not be necessary for anyone to take the law into his own hands. It is government bad, unbiblical government that makes men outlaws.
#68 | 57:41 to 58:03 | cleaned
Fourthly, I hope you understand in this series that God does demand justice. When He said in Isaiah, "truth faileth, and truth is fallen into the streets," what is the next statement? "And equity cannot enter." That is, justice and judgment cannot enter. The refusal of government to give true, accurate, and biblical justice is just as criminal and just as wicked as it is for individuals to act contrary to the law of God.
#69 | 58:07 to 58:41 | cleaned
You know what we've forgotten? We have forgotten that government can sin against God equally as individuals sin against God. The difference is this. An individual may harm another individual. But when governments sin, they affect and harm and reach far more people than does a single individual. God does demand justice. And people, listen, it does matter whether or not we have justice in a society. And if we do not have justice in a society, society is inevitably going to wither and die. All I can tell you this, Jesse and Frank James were outlaws, but they were made that way by the government. If it's wrong for a man to take the law into his own hands, it's wrong for government to refuse justice and judgment and force a man to take the law into his own hands. The sin is greater, I believe, on the part of the government because government can do far more harm than an individual. Let's pray.
#70 | 58:42 to 1:00:24 | cleaned
Father, we are thankful for Jesus Christ and for His grace and mercy. And Lord, as we think of the world in times of Jesse James, we cannot help but see the same things happening in our land today. How criminals and wicked and vile men are promoted and are in control and are in authority, while the righteous who try to stand for principle and truth and justice suffer. But help us to know, Lord, that we are always to obey your word and your law.
#71 | 1:00:26 to 1:01:16 | cleaned
And as we do so, we will never be an outlaw to you. And it's a whole lot easier, Lord, to be classed an outlaw by man than it is to be classed an outlaw by the sovereign God of heaven and earth. Give us grace, Lord, to stand for that which is right.
#72 | 1:01:19 to 1:01:39 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:32:04Z

The World And Times Of Jesse James - Part 2 of 3

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

In this second part of the series, Pastor John Weaver examines the historical context that shaped Jesse James and other Missouri guerrillas, arguing that government lawlessness and injustice forced otherwise peaceful men into outlawry. He details atrocities committed by Union forces and Jayhawkers against civilians, the oppressive post-war ironclad oath and ousting ordinances, and the failure of legal protection for former Confederates. The lecture emphasizes that when government denies justice, it creates outlaws, and that God demands justice from both individuals and governments.

Introduction and Scripture Reading

Weaver opens with Isaiah 59:12-15, highlighting how truth fails and justice is absent, setting the stage for the message on the world and times of Jesse James.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 59:12-15

"For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as far as our iniquities, we know them."

Review of Historical Background

Recaps the Kansas-Nebraska Act, border wars, and early Jayhawker raids into Missouri, establishing the pre-war animosity and violence.

Atrocities Against the James Family

Describes how Union soldiers beat young Jesse James, hanged his stepfather, and abused his pregnant mother, causing a miscarriage, illustrating personal injustice.

Definition and Origin of Vigilantism

Explains the legal definition of vigilantism as organized extralegal enforcement of law in the absence of adequate law enforcement, tracing its roots to 1767 South Carolina.

Wartime and Post-War Injustice in Missouri

Failed Surrender and Forced Outlawry

Recounts how Jesse and Frank James attempted to surrender peacefully but were attacked by federal soldiers, forcing them into outlawry for self-protection.

The Ironclad Oath and Political Disenfranchisement

Explains how the ironclad oath and ousting ordinance stripped former Confederates of voting rights, employment, and even church leadership, creating a tyrannical radical government.

Applications: Government Lawlessness Creates Outlaws

Argues that lawless government produces lawless citizens, defines 'outlaw' as one deprived of legal protection, and asserts that God demands justice from both individuals and governments.

The World And Times Of Jesse James - Part 2 of 3

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	m2S96CWbR9Y
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness: The World And Times Of Jesse James
Genre	Sermon
Date	2014-05-05
Dictation Name
Book	Book 038: The World And Times Of Jesse James — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	72

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Scripture Reading: Weaver opens with Isaiah 59:12-15, highlighting how truth fails and justice is absent, setting the stage for the message on the world and times of Jesse James.
Review of Historical Background: Recaps the Kansas-Nebraska Act, border wars, and early Jayhawker raids into Missouri, establishing the pre-war animosity and violence.
Atrocities Against the James Family: Describes how Union soldiers beat young Jesse James, hanged his stepfather, and abused his pregnant mother, causing a miscarriage, illustrating personal injustice.
Definition and Origin of Vigilantism: Explains the legal definition of vigilantism as organized extralegal enforcement of law in the absence of adequate law enforcement, tracing its roots to 1767 South Carolina.
Wartime and Post-War Injustice in Missouri: Details General Orders No. 10 and 11, the burning of the border region, and the continued persecution of Confederates after the war, including the murder of 4,000 Southerners in southwest Missouri in 1866.
Failed Surrender and Forced Outlawry: Recounts how Jesse and Frank James attempted to surrender peacefully but were attacked by federal soldiers, forcing them into outlawry for self-protection.
The Ironclad Oath and Political Disenfranchisement: Explains how the ironclad oath and ousting ordinance stripped former Confederates of voting rights, employment, and even church leadership, creating a tyrannical radical government.
Applications: Government Lawlessness Creates Outlaws: Argues that lawless government produces lawless citizens, defines 'outlaw' as one deprived of legal protection, and asserts that God demands justice from both individuals and governments.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Government Atrocities Justified Self-Defense

The federal government's refusal to protect citizens and its active persecution forced individuals to take the law into their own hands for survival.

Weaver says, 'If government fulfilled its functional role of punishing the wicked and protecting the righteous, it would not be necessary for anyone to take the law into his own hands.'

The Ironclad Oath Was a Tool of Tyranny

The oath disenfranchised and economically crippled former Confederates, making peaceful reintegration impossible.

Weaver reads that the oath excluded anyone who 'might have given a cup of water to a Confederate soldier' and that only 410 out of 4,290 voters were allowed to vote in Boone County.

Post-War Violence Was State-Sponsored

Even after the war, federal and state militias hunted and killed former Confederates, as seen in the 4,000 murders in southwest Missouri in 1866.

Weaver states, 'In 1866, one year after the surrender of Appomattox, 4,000 secessionists... were murdered in Southwest Missouri.'

Jesse James Attempted Peaceful Surrender

Jesse and Frank James tried to surrender and return to farming but were attacked by federal soldiers, leaving them no choice but to fight back.

Weaver recounts the meeting with Major Rogers and the subsequent ambush, noting Jesse was shot in the lung and took years to recover.

The Definition of 'Outlaw' Implies Government Failure

Legally, an outlaw is one deprived of the law's protection; thus, the government itself created outlaws by denying justice.

Weaver quotes Black's Law Dictionary: 'A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection.'

Scripture References

Isaiah 59:12-15: Weaver reads these verses at the beginning to illustrate how truth fails and justice is absent, paralleling the times of Jesse James.

Historical References

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: Mentioned as the legislative background that led to border wars between pro-slavery and free-state settlers.
General Thomas Ewing: Union general who issued General Orders No. 10 and 11, leading to the depopulation and burning of Missouri border counties.
General William Tecumseh Sherman: His harsh views on civilians are quoted to show the philosophy embraced by Ewing.
General Orders No. 10 and 11: Military orders that authorized execution of anyone aiding Confederates and forced evacuation of civilians, devastating Missouri.
The Ironclad Oath: Post-war oath that disenfranchised former Confederates and barred them from professions, churches, and voting.
Ousting Ordinance of 1865: Legislation that removed over 800 elected officials in Missouri, consolidating radical Republican control.
Charles D. Drake: Missouri state senator who led the constitutional committee that drafted the ironclad oath provisions.
Quantrill's Raiders: Guerrilla group that included many Missourians who fought against Union forces; referenced as context for the James brothers' involvement.
The Burnt Region: Nickname for the devastated Missouri border area after General Order No. 11 was enforced.

Important Quotes

Vigilantism refers to the creation and enforcement of law by organized extralegal groups in the supposed absence of adequate law enforcement.

Provides the legal definition that frames the lecture's argument that vigilantism can be a legitimate response to government failure.

all persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or abet by furnishing food, clothing, information, protection, or any assistance whatever to any emissary, confederate officer, or soldier, partisan ranger, bushwhacker, robber, or thief shall be promptly executed.

Illustrates the extreme measures taken by the Union government that criminalized basic Christian charity and family loyalty.

the law which should have protected them was overwritten. Indeed there was no law. The courts were the instruments of plunder. The civil officers were cutthroats.

Harrison Trow's description of the post-war lawlessness that justified outlawry.

A person excluded from the benefit of the law or deprived of its protection.

The legal definition of 'outlaw' used to argue that the government itself created outlaws by denying protection.

Lawlessness in government produces lawlessness in citizenry.

The central thesis of the application section, linking government sin to individual sin.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does the legal definition of vigilantism challenge our modern assumptions about taking the law into one's own hands?

[Context]

Weaver explains that vigilantism originally referred to organized extralegal enforcement of law when government fails.

[Question]

In what ways did General Orders No. 10 and 11 violate biblical principles of justice and charity?

[Context]

The orders criminalized providing food or aid to family members, which Weaver argues forced people to choose between obeying God or man.

[Question]

How does the ironclad oath illustrate the danger of using loyalty tests to disenfranchise political opponents?

[Context]

The oath excluded anyone who had even given a cup of water to a Confederate, effectively silencing a large portion of the population.

[Question]

What responsibility does government have to provide justice, and what are the consequences when it fails?

[Context]

Weaver argues that when government refuses justice, it forces individuals to seek it themselves, leading to societal breakdown.

[Question]

How should Christians respond when they are denied legal protection and justice by their own government?

[Context]

The lecture implies that self-defense and extralegal justice may be necessary, but also emphasizes obedience to God's law.

Applications

Format deepseek deepseek-v4-pro structured study JSON | Source Commentary.net transcript enrichment

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T00:41:13Z