THE LIBERTY BANK AFFAIR.
Certainly no one could say that Jesse James possessed any of the
qualities which would make him
"Like one who on a lonely road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head,
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread."
He was constituted of a different element. If he ever felt the
sense of dread, no one ever knew it, for certainly none ever saw
it exhibited in his conduct. Yet he knew that he was hunted, knew
that shrewd, bold men sought to bind him in fetters, to deprive
him of liberty, or, failing in that, rob him of life. And yet this
knowledge did not alarm him, and the very presence of his foes
did not make him afraid, though they numbered "ten strong, brave
men." Perhaps Jesse James never knew what fear meant, having never
experienced the sensation.
It was in 1866, on St. Valentine's day, February 14th, that
an event occurred at Liberty, Missouri, which created intense
excitement in that community, and a profound sensation throughout
the West. The event alluded to was the plundering of the Commercial
Bank of that city of an amount of money said to have been nearly
$70,000. The robbery was not effected in the same bold way as
characterized the raids into Russellville, Gallatin, Columbia,
Corydon and other notable incidents in the career of the James
bandits. But inasmuch as the bank was depleted of its funds, and
that the robbery was unusually bold and audacious, there were many
who secretly believed that Jesse James planned the robbery, if he
did not lead the robbers, and that the treasures of the bank had
been largely diverted to the individual possession of that noted
young man. It will be remembered that the Liberty bank robbery
occurred at a time when the James Boys were regarded only in the
light of "desperate fighters--perhaps sometimes cruel in their
vengeance," but otherwise they were believed to be honest and
honorable men. Hence men were cautious in coupling the name of any
member of the James family with an act of highway robbery.
But the conviction was strong in the minds of many people,
nevertheless, that the funds of the Liberty bank had gone to
minister to the wants and satisfy the desires of Jesse James and
his friends and confederates. No immediate action was taken against
him, but as time passed on, and other acts were committed by Jesse
James and his friends, which were not regarded as either right or
proper, the belief that they had participated in the robbery, if,
indeed, they were not the robbers themselves, became wide-spread in
the community. But in justice to Jesse James, it is but right to
say that no evidence directly implicating him in that affair has
ever been secured.
Cole Younger, when asked by a visitor to the Stillwater
penitentiary concerning the Liberty bank robbery, remarked, "I have
always had my opinion about that affair. If the truth is ever told,
many of the crimes charged to me and my brothers will be located
where they belong." Former friends of Jesse James are firm in the
belief that he was the instigator of the deed, if not the leader
of the brigands who sacked the bank. This belief, at any rate,
influenced the public mind to no small extent, and led eventually
to an effort to arrest Jesse James a year afterward, which attempt
ended in a bloody tragedy, as narrated in the next chapter.