Given that pro-secessionist forces were already seizing US forts, stealing federal property and threatening unionists, one can be skeptical of such professions. It's the kind of boilerplate that politicians use to conceal what's really going on.
Certainly the seizure/occupation of forts in Confederate territory was no secret. The great majority of these passed under Confederate control with no clash of arms. At the same time, Confederates relinquished their interests in northern US forts which had been paid for in part with Southern monies, but by their locations should properly have remained under Northern rule.
Stealing federal property? Perhaps it was a form of popular eminent domain by the states involved, LOL. South Carolina offered to negotiate for the forts they took over. Texas was careful at the time to document what had been taken over by state forces.
Threatening unionists? Yes, that happened in places and was typically the action of individuals or groups of local people. Sort of like the mobs up North that had prevented people from recovering fugitive slaves and on occasion killed the people claiming the slaves?
It's the kind of boilerplate that politicians use to conceal what's really going on.
What secret conspiracy is it that you see? Tell us what you think was really going on.
Then what were the Missouri Wide Awakes doing when they appeared in arms with a federal officer and U.S. troops to confront and disarm the Missouri Militia?
The Militia, remember, are a constitutionally protected entity, the People in arms.
What was a federal officer doing, pretending to arrest the People? What were the Wide Awakes doing helping him?