Claiborne Fox Jackson (April 4, 1806 – December 6, 1862) was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was forced out by the Unionist majority in the legislature, after planning to force secession of the state.
Before the war, Jackson worked with his father-in-law, John Sappington, to manufacture and sell patent medicines, in the form of quinine pills, to treat and prevent malaria.
He became quite wealthy and politically influential, deeply involved in the Democratic party in Saline County and central Missouri. He served twelve years in the Missouri House of Representatives, twice as Speaker. In 1848 he was elected to the State Senate. During the 1860 election, Jackson professed to be a Unionist. However, in 1861, after the Missouri Convention rejected secession, Jackson secretly planned a secessionist coup in league with the Confederate government.[citation needed]
Jackson's plot was thwarted in May, when Union forces under Nathaniel Lyon (commander of the US Arsenal in St. Louis) surprised and captured state militia troops camped near the city. Lyon then marched on the state capital in June. Jackson fled south, and in July was voted out of office by the Unionist majority in the Convention.
Jackson refused to accept the action and formed an exile government in Arkansas. He died in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1862.
