mi ^^ 3 1833 02664 4630 R1YN0L08 H'CJTORICAL SlNiALOOY COLLECTION 208 cAS) 4TH S1^f-I lONG PEACH, CAU-. 90-12 mONt- (213) 436.44j7 / J <«< fea^i^i^^. m ' " ' — m^^l i % ^s la A HTSTOKY OF KANSAS. Noble L. Prentis, »F THE "Kansas City Stai Prp.TJSHKD i!v Carolin'k Prkntis, Toi'KKA, Kan. IIS!)!). - NOBLE L. PRENTIS, Kansas City, Mo. PREFACE. 1692874 The attempt has been made, in preparing this volume, to give, within a convenient compass, the most interesting and material occurrences and events in the history of the rise of a great Free State from a wilderness. Harrowing details and discreditable happenings have been purposely omitted. The story has been told as a record of courage and steadfastness, and increasing devotion to the princi- ples of human freedom and national union. Events have been arranged, as nearly as possible, in the order of the years, with an occasional arrange- ment of the years in periods or groups, with no further classification or subdivision. No attempt has been made to ' ' write down ' ' to the supposed intellectual capacity of children. Students old enough to enter ui)on the study of the history of an American State, it is believed, will find all the statements and conclusions comprehensible. b PREFACE. It is to be hoped that the reader or student will consider this small and necessarily limited history of one State, as a help and introduction to the study of the history of the American Union, which should be the pride and privilege of every American citizen in youth and age. NOBLE L. PEENTIS. CHAPTER I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. • XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. CONTENTS. PAGE Natural Kansas 9 French and Spanish Kansas 12 The Discovered Country 15 The Great Highway 24 The Indian Territory 31 The Kansas-Nebraska Act 41 The Beginning of Government 49 War and Rumors of War 58 A Glimpse of Light 65 The Lecompton and Leavenworth Constitu- tional Conventions 69 Events of 1858 73 The Wyandotte Constitutional CoisIvention. 77 The Tragedy of John Brown 82 Last of Territory and First of State ... 87 The First Legislature . 93 'Cradled in War '96 Quantrell's Raid 105 The Closing Scene . HO Peace and Honor 120 Building the State 123 The Indian Wars 133 Immigration 140 The Centennial Year 150 Events of the Decade • • • 156 7 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER PA(4E XXV. After Twenty-Five Years 164 XXVI. The Happenings of 1887 174 XXVII. A Prosperous Year 180 XXVIII. 1889.— The Developing Resources 188 XXIX. Kansas and Oklahoma 194 XXX New Political Forces 198 XXXI. The Legislature and Chronicles of 1891 . 205 XXXII. Annals of 1892 216 XXXIII. Legislation and Other Events of 1893 ... 220 XXXIV. Passing of the Pioneers 231 XXXV. The Story of 1895-96 240 XXXVI. The Years 1897 and 1898 248 XXXVII. Kansas in the War 256 XXXVIII. Events of 1899 271 XXXIX. A Chapter on Capitols 277 XL. Man and Nature 283 XLI. Kansas Literature 291 APPENDIX. Description of Counties ; 301 Organic Act 326 Admission Into the Union 332 Constitution 336 Kansas Territorial Officers— 1854-1861 362 State Officers of Kansas— 1861-1899 363 Kansas in the Spanish War ,369 A HISTORY OF KANSAS. CHAPTER I. NATURAL KANSAS. 1. Character of Surface. — Kansas has been described by geologists as a part of tlie gi-eat plain stretching from the Mississippi river on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west. It is approximately 200 by 400 miles in extent, and should be looked upon as a (block in the great plain, constituting an essential part of it, and not specially differ- ent from other portions lying on either side of it. The average elevation above sea level of the eastern end is about 850 feet, with Bonita, 1,075 feet above, as the highest point, and the Union Depot at Kansas City, 750 feet, the lowest. The northern boundary line rises steadily and uniformly westward from the Missouri river. The southern boundar}- rises and falls. At Coffey ville, the elevation is 734 feet, six- teen feet lower than at Kansas City. At the point of crossing the Flint Hills west of Independence, the elevation is 1,700 feet, declining to the westward. The elevation at Arkansas City is 1,066 feet. The lowest part of the State is where the southern line crosses the Verdigris valley. From Arkansas City, west, the ascent is gradual to the southwest corner. The western boundary varies slightly from north to south, but is between 3,500 and 4,000 feet above sea level. 2. Appearance to Observer.— The general effect is that of an immense prairie, rising westward into a very high prairie, but the appearance is not that of a flat and bound- less plain. The waters of the State, which generally flow eastward, have an average fall for the whole State of nearly 10 HISTORY OF KANSAS. eight feet to the mile. Although the surface is a great plain sloping eastward, its minute topography is often rugged and varied ; valleys 200 feet deep, bluffs and mounds with precipitous walls 300 feet high; overhanging rocky ledges and remnants of cataracts and falls in numerous Scene on the Marmaton, Bourbon Co., Kan. streams, giving a variety of scenery, are to be observed all over the eastern part of the State, and to even a greater extent in some portions of the west. 3. Effect on Kansas Literature.— All the natural fea- tures of this great rectangle; all the varying aspects of the earth, as touched by the shaping hands of the seasons; all NATURAL KANSAS. 11 the shifting panorama of the skies; all the myriad voices of the winds; the shine of shallow, wide and wandering streams; the fringing trees that watch the waters as they pass ; the lovely charm of each rocky promontory that looks out upon the sea of grass, all these have proved to be the inspiring and informing spirit of Kansas literature. 4. Story of Kansas Nature Told in Prose and Verse.— In all that has been wi'itten in prose and verse since first the wide wilderness heard the cautious but advancing feet of the pioneer, the story of Kansas nature has been told. The reader of books written in, by, and for Kansas, will find the journals of the' Kansas year, with the impressions made on the minds and hearts of eye-witnesses by sun and cloud, by drouth and rain, and calm and storm. Such readers witness the procession of the days of the Kansas year. Days when, as one has written, "the broad, wintry landscape is flooded with that indescribable splendor that never was on sea or shore — a purple silken softness that half veils half discloses .the alien horizon, the vast curves of the remote river, the transient architecture of the clouds, and daj^s without clouds and nights without dew, when the effulgent sun floods the dome with fierce and blinding radi- ance, days of glittering leaves and burnished blades of corn, days when the transparent air, purged of all earthly exhala- tion and alloy, seems like a pure, powerful lens, revealing a remoter horizon and a profounder sky." SUMMARY. 1. In the north the surface rises uniformly from Missouri river, while in the south it both rises and falls. 2. To an observer the surface is rugged and varied, and remnants of cataracts are found. CHAPTER II. FRENCH AND SPANISH KANSAS. 5. Kansas in Louisiana Purchase.— The present State of Kansas, with the exception of a small fraction in the southwest corner, which continued to belong to Spain, then to Mexico, and was finally ceded by Texas in 1850, formed part of the Louisiana purchase made by Presixlent Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France. 6. Beg'inriing' of Political History.— The political his- tory of Kansas was set in the way of beginning on the April day in 1803, when Napoleon said, with passion and vehemence, as was his wont: "Irresolu- tion and deliberation are no longer in reason. It is not only New Orleans that I will cede, it is the whole colony with- out reservation." 7. United States Occupies Terri- tory. — The treaty which made Kansas American soil was concluded April 30, 1803, but St. Louis, and the province of Upper Louisiana, remained in the hands of the Spanish until March 9, 1804, nearly a year after. On that day Major Amos Stoddard, of the United States army, appeared at St. Louis, and acting as agent and commissary of the French Republic, received from Don Carlos Dehault Delassus, the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor, the fonnal cession of the province from Spain to France. The Spanish 12 FRENCH AND SPANISH KANSAS. 13 Regiment of Louisiana moved out, a detachment of the First United States Artillery marched in, the American flag was raised, and the next day, March 10, 1804, Major Stoddard began the rule of the United States under the title of (commandant. Coronado Crossing the lerntorj in 1541. 8. First American Ruler.— Major Amos Stoddard, who was the descendant of the great divine, Jonathan Edwards, and grand-uncle of Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio, was the fii'st American ruler of Kansas He was a good man and brave soldier, and was mortally wounded in ^the defence of Fort Meigs, in Ohio, during the last war with Great Britain. 14 HISTORY OF KANSAS. 9. Evidence of Spanish Exploration.— The Kansas that belonged to Spain and France was not entirely unknown or un visited. It is believed that Coronado reached the country from New Spain in 1541. Various French and Spanish parties marched to and through the countrj^ in some cases erecting crosses in token of sovereignty. They met the Indians, the Osages, the Pawnees, and the Kansas or Kaws, sometimes in peace, sometimes in war, but these expeditions left no trace behind more than does the fish in the water, the bird in the air. 10. Few Spanish or French Names.— The French trappers and voyageurs gave names to a few of the streams and islands, but neither Frenchman nor Spaniard contrib- uted perceptibly to the nomenclature of Kansas; while to the east of the river in Missouri, French names wiU remain while water runs in the Chariton, the Femme Osage, the' Pomme de Terre, the Moniteau and many more, in Kansas the slight French occupation left few traces on the map. Neither do the Indians who inhabited Kansas seem to have l)een town-builders or name- givers. If the rivers of Kansas ever bore Indian names, the appellations of most have been changed, or so corrupted as to have become unrecognizable. SUMMARY. 1. Kansas, except a small portion in the southwest, formed part of Louisiana Purchase. 2. The United States takes possession of Territory, March 10, 1804. 3. Coronado crossed the Territory in 1541. 4. A few points bear French names, given by trappers. CHAPTER III. THE DISCOVERED COUNTRY. 11/ Lewis and Clark Expedition Planned by Jeffer- son. — With the acquisition of Upper Louisiana by the United States, came the spirit of enterprise and exploration. In the latter direction the new government set the example. Mr. Jefferson was full of interest and curiosity about the new empire of which so little was really known, and wrote with his own hand the directions governing the expedition which was to set out under Capt. William Clark, brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark, the conqueror of Illinois, and Capt. Merri wether Lewis, who had been the President's private sec- retary. He selected both these guides and leaders from personal acquaintance; both were Virginians, and from his own neigh- borhood. 12. Reached Kansas River. — The expedition reached the rendezvous near St. Louis early in the spring, and before the Spaniards were willing to acknowledge the Missouri as an American river. After the formal transfer the expedition, on the 10th of May, 1804, started up the turbid Missouri, and on June 27th reached the mouth of the Kansas river, landed and made a camp within the present limits of Kansas City, Kan. 15 Capt. William Clark. 16' HISTORY or KANSAS. 13. Independence Day at Atchison.— Proceeding up the stream, the different journals kept by the voyagers noted objects on either shore which may still be recognized by the description. On the 4th of July, 1804, the party landed at or near the present site of Atchison at noon, and made brief observance of their country's natal day. Among those who joined in this first Fourth of July celebration in Kansas, was George Shannon, a brother of Wilson Shannon, afterwards to be a Territorial Governor of Kansas. The party named a small stream near their landing place, Fourth of July Creek, and going on up capt. Merriwether Lewis. ^^^ ^.^^^^ f^^j. miles, Called another Kansas stream Independence Creek, a name which it bears to this day. So the Fourth of July came to Kansas. 14. Expedition West to Pacific. — A few days later, and the boats had passed beyond the limits of Kansas, and the voyagers were on their way to the ' 'land of the Dakotas, ' ' to the unknown springs of the Missouri, to the untrodden passes of the Rocky Mountains, to the far Columbia, on to the sounding surges of the Pacific, to return after two years, with but the loss of a single man in all the perils of the waste and wild, each voyager to his appointed fate — William Clark to live for many years a prosperous gentle- man and fourth Territorial Governor of Missouri, and Merriwether Lewis to die a mysterious death in a Tennessee wilderness. ^15. Pike's Expedition Starts.— On July 16, 1806, two years and two months after the Lewis and Clark expedition had gone up the Missouri, another expedition left Bellefon- THE DISC'OVEEED COUNTRY. 17 taine under the command of Lieut. Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a young and active officer of the United States Ai'my, who, in the summer of 1805, had departed on an expedition to the head waters of the Mississippi. He had returned to St. Louis in April, 180G,,and now, in July, was ordered on a mission destined to last longer, and to be fraught with more important consequences than he could have imagined. 16. Purpose and Route Planned.— His instructions were to take back to their tribe on the upper waters of the Osage river, some Osages who had been redeemed from cap- tivity among the Pottawatomies ; then to push on to the Pawnee Republic on the upper waters of the Republican river, then to go south to the Arkansas, and to the Red river, interviewing on the way the Comanches. 17. Osag-e Villag-e Reached.— Pike followed the Mis- souri, and turned into the Osage (a continuation of the Kansas Marais des Cygnes), at that time, and for long- afterward, a waterway to southern Kansas and Texas. He followed that picturesque stream to the Osage villages near the present line of Kansas and Missouri. He met there a chief named White Hair, who survived to the present gen- ei-ation of Kansas. Procuring horses at the Osage villages. Pike mounted his party of some twenty, officers and soldiers, and a number of Osages, and started to execute the remainder of his mission. i>/, 18. Beauty of Kansas Country.— Lieut. Pike entered "ansas in what is now Linn county, and kept on to the southwest, and climbing a high rise, came upon a sight which has delighted millions of eyes since his. "The prairie rising and falling in beautiful swells as far as the Lieut. Zebnlon Montgomery Pike. THE DISCOVERED COUNTRY. 19 sight can extend." The party came to a high ridge, which Pike describes as the dividing line between the waters of the Osage and the Arkansas (which Pike spells Arkansaw) . Still marching westward, the" party reached the Neosho, and crossing it followed the divide, as Pike says, between the Neosho and the Verdigris. On the 17th of September, going northward, they arrived at the main southwest branch of the Kansas river, the Smoky Hill, and, two days later, a large branch of the Kansas river strongly impregnated with salt. 19. Crosses Trail of Spanish Troops.— It was at about this time that Pike discovered that he was not alone in Kansas. He came across the trail of 300 Spanish troops. The Spanish authorities in New Spain, hearing from St. Louis of his departure, had sent Lieut. Malgares with a large party to intercept him. Malgares had gone down Red river, thence north to the Arkansas, and so on to the Saline, but the parties had missed each other. Lieut. Pike was destined to meet Lieut. Malgares later. 20. Pawnee Village.— Pike's party reached the Pawnee village on the 25th of September, 1806. The site of the village has been a matter of some discussion, but the latest investigation would locate it on portions of sections 2 and 3, township 2, range 5 west, in White Rock township. Republic county, Kan. 21. "Stars and Stripes" Replaces Spanish Flag.— The spot was made memorable. Pike had but sixteen white soldiers, his Osage allies he probably did not count for much, since he describes them as "a faithless set of poltroons, incapable of a great and generous action," but with his little force he overawed the sullen and hostile village. He 20 " HISTOKY OF KANSAS. met in council 500 Pawnee warriors. He found the Spanish fiag flying from a pole in front of the council lodge, and he ordered it lowered, and the American flag raised in its place. It was done, and the Stars and Stripes for the fli'st time was given to the Kansas breeze. Regardless of the temper of the Indians, he remained in the neighborhood until- the 9th of October, when he marched ofl^ in the direc;- tion of the Great Bend of the Arkansas. 22. Party Divided at Arkansas River.— Arrived at the Arkansas, Pike divided his party. Boats were constructed, one canoe made of four buifalo hides and two elk skins, and a wooden canoe of green cotton wood, and in these Lieut. Wilkinson, son of Gen. James Wilkinson (under whose orders Lieut. Pike had set out), six soldiers and two Osages embarked with the intention of reaching Fort Adams on the Mississippi. The party were soon obliged to abandon their canoes and make their way on foot, suffering greatly from the cold. Lower down the river, they made some wooden boats, and, greatly hindered by sand bars and by floating- ice, managed to reach Arkansas Post in safety by the yth of January, 1807. 23. Re-crosses Spanish Trail to Westward.— Pike, with the remainder of his party, now stood on the low, bleak shore of the Arkansas, in the last of October, with snow falling every day. Why he did not march south t<:» Red river, according to his instructions, has never been made clear; instead, he moved up the Arkansas, climbing the long slope to the Rocky Mountains. The country was full of wild horses; Indians were met frequently, and again the Spanish trail was crossed that Pike had encountered in Northern Kansas. THE DISCOVERED COUNTRY. 21 24. Mexican Mountains Sig"hted.— On the 15111 of November, Pike saw something- else. "At two o'clock in the afternoon," he writes, "I thought I could distinguish a mountain to our right, which appeared like a small blue cloud; viewed it with a spy glass, and was still more con- firmed in my conjecture, yet only communicated it to Dr. Pike's Peak. Robinson, who was in front of me, but in half an hour it api)eared in full view before us. When our small part>- arrived on the hill, they, with one accord, gave three cheers for the Mexican Mountains." /V 25. Pike's Peak.— What Pike saw at first as a "small l)lue cloud," was the Great White Mountain of the Span- iards, the majestic eminence afterward called, in his honor. Pike's Peak. He measured the altitude of the mountain, 22 HISTORY OF KANSAS. making it 18,581 feet above the sea, and made efforts to reach the mountain itself, but without success. Afterwards he records, "In our wanderings in the mountains it was never out of our sight, except when we were in the valley." 26. Pike Taken Prisoner.— These "wanderings" en- tailed fearful suffering from cold on the thinly-clad soldiers and the animals Pike reached the west fork of the Rio Grande del Norte and built a stockade, and here he was captured by a party of Spanish soldiers, as an intruder on Spanish territory. His instruments and papers were taken from him, and the command were marched as prisoners to Santa Fe, but were everywhere treated with kindness by the people. The escort, as it might be called, was com- manded for some time by Lieutenant Malgares, who had sought for Pike in Kansas. The young American officer, treated more as an honored guest than a prisoner, was taken to Chihuahua, then a fine' city of 60,000 inhabitants; thence he was taken to within three days' march of the American frontier and liberated, reaching Natchitoches, Louisiana, on the 15th of July, 1807, nearly a year after he left Belief ontaine. . 27. His Death— Toronto.— After his return to his own country, he continued in the army, where his rise was rapid. In the thirty-fourth year of his age he was a brigadier- general in service on our Northern frontier, and we were at war with Great Britain. He planned and carried out an attack on York, now Toronto, Canada, on the 27th of April, 1813, and was fatally wounded at the moment of victory. At his request, the flag of the captured garrison was placed beneath his head, and the chronicler of the time wi-ote, "He happily expired on the conquered flag of the foe. " THE DISCOVERED COUNTRY. 23 28. Prominent in Kansas History.— The name of Zebulon Montgomery Pike forms a part of the history of Kansas, and shonld be mentioned with honor, because he was the first intelligent American explorer of the interior of Kansas, and the first to raise the flag of the United States within its present borders, and the first to record observations of the Great Plains country of which Kansas is a part. His journal was published in this country in 1810, and an abridgement afterward published in London, and the story of natural Kansas was thus spread about the world. 29. Papers Preserved at Larned.— A few years since many of the papers of General Pike, including the precious scrap on which were written the last words he addressed to his wife, were still carefully preserved by his niece, the venerable Mrs. Sturdevant, of Larned, Kansas. 30. Long-'s Expedition.— The expedition of Pike was followed by that of Major Stephen H. Long, who, in 1S19, ascended the Missouri in the first steamboat, the Wfstern Engineer. Pike's narrative, however, continued to be for a long time the most complete account of the regions em- braced in Kaflsas, Colorado and Northern Mexico. SUMMARY. 1. Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark expedition across Territory. 2. Fourth of July, 1804, was celebrated at Atchison. 3. Pike's expedition crossed Territory in 1806. 4. Spanish soldiers had not yet been withdrawn. 5. Spanish flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes raised at the Pawnee village. Supposed to be in what is now Republic county. 6. Pike's Peak was sighted at 2 o'clock, P. M., November 15, 1806. CHAPTER IV. THE GREAT HIGHWAY. OKJ 31. Kansas Receives Eastern Boundary.— By tlie organization of Missouri as a State of the Union, Kansas, which was before without form as part of Louisiana, received an eastern "boundary. The west line of Missouri, as ^ first established, followed a meridian line north and south drawn through the mouth of the Kansas river at Kansas City to the Iowa line. This line was really a line between white settlement and Indian occupation. The portion of Indian ground between the Missouri line and the Missouri river was ceded by the Sacs and Foxes in 1836, and became a part of the State of Missouri under the name of the Platte Purchase, and the Missouri river became the boundary, but Kansas remained Indian ground. 32. Limitation of Settlement Theory. — It seems to have been con- sidei-ed that the Missouri was the limit of possible white settlement. Pike had written of Kansas in his journal in 1806, " From these immense prairies may arise one great advantage to the United States, viz.: the restriction of our population to certain limits, and therel)y a continuation of the Union. Our citizens being so prone to rambling and extending themselves on the frontiers, will, through necessity, be constrained to limit their extent on the West to the borders of the Missouri and Mississippi, while they leave the prairies, incapable of cultivation, to the wandering aborigines of the country." 24 THE (4RKAT HIGHWAY. SO 33. Prediction not Realized.— The prediction of Pike was not destined to be realized; it was rendered impossible of acconiplisliment by the Louisiana Purchase. Under French or Spanish rule the ramblings of citizens on the frontiers might have been restricted, under American rule it was impossible that a great habitable and tillable area in the heart of the country should remain a wilderness devoted to wild beasts and wilder men. The signal to the buffalo and the savage to move on, was really given when the ti-eaty of Paris, ceding Louisiana, was signed. Missouri continued to fill up with settlers, mainly from Virginia, Kentucky, Ten- nessee and North Carolina, and the settlers extended them- selves toward the western l)order. 34. Interest Aroused in New Mexico.— Pike, in his narrative, had descril)ed the ancient city of Santa Fe, the oldest city in the present United States. He was the first not only to give intelligible account of Kansas, but of Colo- rado, New Mexico and the northern provinces of Mexico, then New Spain. Pike's relation aroused interest in those countries, and many individual attempts were made to open up commercial intercourse between the Missouri border and Santa Fe. These attempts generally resulted in disaster. The Spanish Government repressed all such, and desired no intercourse. ^^35. Effect of Mexican Revolution.— The Mexican revolution, which began in 1811 and triumphed in 1821, broke down the non-intercourse rule, and in 1824 the first wagon train passed over the road from the Missouri to Santa Fe. There had been a Santa Fe trail before, but it had been made by caravans, small trains of pack animals, buiTOs and mules, but with the passage of this wagon train came 26 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. the real Santa Fe trail, the first broad mark made by civili- zation across the face of Kansas. It was a great road, 700 miles long, of which 400 miles were in Kansas, a hard, smooth thoroughfare from sixty to 100 feet wide, it had not a bridge in its whole length, was the best natural road of its length ever known in the world, and in token that it had come to stay," the broad-faced yellow sunflower, since chosen by Kansas people as the emblem of their State, sprang up on either side where the wheels had broken the soil, from end to end. 36. Eastern Terminus of Santa Fe Trail.— The eastern starting point of the Santa Fe traffic was, at first, Franklin, Mo., on the Missouri river, which years ago undermined and swept the town away. Later the seat of the trade was removed to Independence, Mo., which, as early as 1832, was recognized as the great outfitting point for the Santa Fe traders, and of the great fur companies. In time the business was divided with Westport, a newer town built on or near the line of Kansas. From the Missouri river landing for Westport has since grown Kansas City. 37. Opening" of Trail Through Kansas.— After the laying out of this highway, Kansas was no longer a solitude. Kansas had been set apart for Indians, the Act of Congress of May 26, 1830, formally defined Kansas as part of the Indian Territory. The opening of the Santa Fe trail was like the dedication of a business street through a wilderness. 38. Fires Gleam Nig-htly Along- Road.— A stream of human life was, as it were, set to flowing through the country. Trains going and coming in, over the long road, were seldom out of sight of each other, or of the gleam of the nightly fires. Millions of dollars' worth of property THE GREAT HIGHWAY. 27 were transported by the pack trains and wagon trains. An army of men was employed to drive and care for a host of animals. This army included, beside Americans, many Mexicans as teamsters and "packers," an art in which they stood unrivaled, and the dark features and soot-black hair of the "greaser" were made familiar from the Missouri to the mountains. The Spanish words incorporated in the English, as spoken in Kansas at this day, date back to the days of the Santa Fe trail. 39. Route Branches at Great Bend.— Taking the his- tory of the Santa Fe trail as part of the history of Kansas, it furnishes a long and exciting chapter. Leaving the Missouri line, the trail led a little south of west to Council Grove, long a meeting place of whites and Indians, and then across the country to strike the Arkansas at the center of the arc of the Great Bend, where one road continued to follow the river into what is now Colorado, while at the Cimarron crossing a shorter road bore off to the southwest to the Cimarron river and to New Mexico. 40. Pawnee Rock a Dang-erous Point.— The traveler who now follows the trail by railroad, reaches the once (lark and blood}^ ground at the bend of the Arkansas, where is now the town of Great Bend; thence west every mile has witnessed conflicts between the Indians and the caravans of traders, or between different tribes of Indians. At Pawnee Rock station are seen the now scarcely visible remains of the Rock., once a landmark known from one end of the trail to the other, and considered one of the most dangerous points on the long and perilous road. The railroad bridge, says Inman, crosses the Pawnee Fork at the pre- cise spot where the old trail did, and here was a favorite L>8 HISTORY OF KANSAS. battle jj-i-ound l>etween the tri])es tlieinselves, and the savages and all passers-by, the traders, the overland coaches, and every thing that attempted to ford the stream. On an island near Larned, according to Major Inman, the latest historian of the trail, occurred a savage battle between the Pawnees and Cheyennes, in which the latter were severely defeated, and so on through scenes of blood to where onc§ was old Fort Aubrey. It may be said that the four hundred miles of the Santa Fe trail in Kansas, in the more than forty yeai'S that it was traversed by all classes of travelers, from the soli- , , _o j_ j_ Pawnee Rouk tary horseman or story to marching armies, witnessed the display of all the great human qualities, patience, fortitude, and the most heroic courage, as contrasted with the darkest treachery and the most cowardly ferocity. 41. Oreg-on Trail.— The Santa Fe trail while, perhaps, the most important, was not the only great highway existing in Kansas before it was recognized as a white man's country. The Oregon trail was a great thoroughfare, leading to the valley of the Platte in Nebraska. There was the road made through what became the northern tier of Kansas counties to the crossing of the Blue at Marysville, by which a great emigration moved on to California. The river valleys, as 30 HISTORY OF KANSAS. the Smoky Hill, served as road beds. It has been said that the valleys of the Kansas river and of the Arkansas were the first to be used as thoroughfares by civilized men in Kansas. But the great geographical truth was early dis- covered that Kansas was in the center of the great highway from the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri to the Mountains and the Pacific. 42. A Trail from the South.— In the days of the Cali- fornia emigration a road, long visible after it ceased to be used, was that coming from Fayetteville, Ark., northwest- ward, and joining the Santa Fe trail at Turkey creek, in McPherson county. 43. Dog" Trail became "White Man's Road."— The faintest trail made, and perhaps the earliest, was that by the Indian dog dragging lodge poles from place to place; then came the first "white man's road," the trace of the packers' loaded horses, mules, and burros; then the wide roads made by the traders' trains and the army wagons. All these left their mark in Kansas in the years while it was not an undiscovered country, but lying open and void, waiting for the rising of the Star of Empire. SUMMARY. 1. American rule permitted the settlement of the territory, which would not have been allowed by Spain. 2. The Santa Fe trail was a well-traveled, natural road, some sixty feet wide, and 700 miles long, lined on either side with sun- flowers, and its main branch extending from Independence, Mo., directly across the territory to the Great Bend of the Arkansas; thence by two branches, one by way of the Rocky Mountains, the other directly to Santa Fe, N. M. CHAPTER V. THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 44. Occupied by Four Tribes.— The oldest authorities, Marquette and others, represent the country now called Kansas as occupied principally by four great tribes of Indians, the Osages, the Pawnees, the Kansas, and a tribe that no longer exists, and, in fact, has not been heard of since the first quarter of the 18th century, the Padoucas. These tribes seem to have claimed Kansas among them, and U) have extended widely beyond its present limits. The story of their wars, and huntings, and migrations, has little interest to civilized people. When they moved away from Kansas and from the earth, they left nothing except mounds of earth, rings on the sod, fragments of pottery, rudeweapons and ruder implements. They fought each other, disputed possession with the wild beasts, were stricken down with fell diseases, but their history never became of interest or importance to the world, because they did nothing for the world. 45. The Removal Policy.— As early as 1824, the United States Government had entered upon a policy of removing the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi, to a country which Typical Indian. 32 HISTORY OF KANSAS. should be their own, and where they should cultivate the habits of civilized life and live happily ever afterward. The Osages ceded nearly all their land in Missouri in 1808, and were all located in Kansas by 1825, and the Shawnees removed to Kansas in the same year. War Bauce ia the Interior of a Kanza Lodge. The general removal of Indians to the West was deter- mined by the Act of Congress of May 26, 1830, by which an Indian Territory, with the following metes and bounds, was organized: Beginning on the Red river east of the Mexican boundary, and as far west as the country is habit- able, thence down the Red river eastwardly to Arkansas Territory; thence northwardly along the line of Arkansas Territory to the State of Missouri; thence north along its THE INDIAN TEERITOKY. 33 "westwardly line to the Missouri river; thence up the Mis- souri river to Puncah river; thence •westwardly as far as country is habitable; thence southwardly to place of beginning. This gave a country 600 miles north and south approximately, and 200 miles east and west, as the country was not considered habitable over 200 miles west of the Missouri line, on account of the absence of timber. 46. Indians Assured Permanent Homes.— These limits included the present State of Kansas, and from -the passage of this Act of May 26, 1830, for twenty-four years after- ward, Kansas was a part of the Indian Territory. In this Act of 1830 the In- dians were assured , in almost affectionate language, that these lands which were given in exchange for those they were already occupying, should be theirs forever, and that the United States would give them patents for them if they so desired. 47. Northern Part of Territory Occupied.— In 1832 the Cherokees and other southern tribes, from Georgia and other States, were removed to the present Indian Territory, and the movement to fill the northern part of the Territory began." The Kansas Indians, whose name was later given to the State, once lived on the banks of the Missouri, where Lewis and Clark saw the remains of their villages, but they were driven westward to the Blue, Their former territory Indian Peace Medals, 1837. 34 HISTORY OF KANSAS. was occupied by the immigrating Indians. In 1831 the Delawares came from- the James Fork of White river, in Missouri, and occupied their afterwards famous reserve in Kansas. In 1836 the Ottawas removed from Ohio to their Kansas reservation, watered by the Marais des Cygnes. In 1842 the Wyandottes sold their lands in Ohio and removed to the forks of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. In 1837 the Pottawatomies began to gather in the Indian Ter- ritory, and in 1847 a tract of 576,000 acres lying in the present counties of Shawnee, Pottawatomie, Wabaun- see and Jackson was occupied by them . Here they were reinforced by Col. Henry Leavenworth. Michigan Pottawatouiics in 1850. The years 1846 and 1847 saw the location of the Miamis of the Wabash valley, in the limits of the Kansas countj^ that now bears their name. In 1836 the Sacs and Foxes removed from the Missouri to the Kansas side of the river. The year 1832 saw the removal of the Kickapoos from the Osage river in Missouri to the neighborhood of Fort Leavenworth, The Cherokees were granted lands in Kansas, but never occupied them in force. Several small tribes, the Weas and the Piankeshaws, the lowas and the Muncies, the Peorias and the Kaskaskias, and a small l>and of Chippewas, were granted lands in Kansas. 48. Forts Established.— In consequence of the presence of the Indians, Fort Leavenworth was established as Cantonment Leavenworth, in 1827, by a detachment of the Third United States Infantrv, and named in honor of Col. THE INDIAN TERRITOEY. 35 Heniy Leavenworth, of that regiment. Fort Scott was located in 1842, and named in 1843. Fort Riley, the third important post in Kansas, was not established till 1853, and was named for Gen. Bennett Riley, who guarded the Santa Fe trail and fonght in Mexico. 1692874 Baptist Mission, established in 1831. Here Heeker's printing press was first set np in 1833. 49. Deg-rees of Tribal Civilization.— In the days between 1830 and 1854, the principal figures in Kansas were the regular ai-my officer, the Indian trader, and the mis- sionary. All these had important business with the Indian, and seem to have been kind to him. In the Indian tribes residing in the Territory there were great differences in con- dition and character. The Wyandottes, the Shawnees, the Delawares, and the Ottawas were far advanced on the road to civilization; at least, that was the opinion of their 36 HISTORY OF KANSAS. Rev. Maurice Gailland, S. J. enthusiastic friends, the missionaries. The Pottawatomies had long been neighbors of the white people, and many bore French names and showed French blood. In Kansas they divided, those desiring to live as civilized people settling about the Missions, those ^-«j^ who preferred the old ways going apart j^^ as the Prairie band. Other tribes af- f?3B'.«urpt fected but a shabby civilization, which was readily dissolved and dissipated in whisky; many individual Indians re- mained, to the last, uncaring barbarians. But for all Kansas Indians the govern- ment farmer ploughed, the government blacksmith heated his forge, the mis- sionary preached in English and Indian, and sang and prayed, and printed and taught. 50. Pioneer Missionary Work.— The first Catholic baptisms of Kansas Indians were admin- istered by Father Charles La Croix, who had labored with the Missouri Osages, and who came to the Osages on the Neosho in Kansas, where the Presby- terians had already established their Harmony Mission, was given by them a room for a chapel, and baptized several Osage children. Later came to the Neosho the Rev. John Schoenmakers, with several other missionaries and Sisters of Loretto, and began what proved for him a life- time of labor for the spiritual and temporal benefit of the Both these objects were sought at all missions, '-m. Father John Schoenmakers. THE INDIAN TERRITOKY, 37 Protestant and Catholic. At the Mission were, beside the chapel and the school, a saw mill and a grist mill. However little the Indian may have cared, the labor in his behalf was incessant. There is in the annals of Kansas no story of more ntter devotion than that of Rev. Jotham Meeker, who was aided in all his labors by his wife. Mr. Meeker, called by the Indians, "He that speaks good words," labored first in Michigan with the Ottawas and Chipi^ewas. He came to the Shawnees, in Indian Territory, 1833, and later went to the Ottawas, in Franklin county, Kan. He was a practical printer, and brought to . ^ . . Rev. Jotham Meeker. Kansas the first printing press and type. He printed the first book in Kansas, and published an Indian newspaper and many books in the Ottawa language. Mr. Meeker, largely assisted by one of his converts, Mr. J. T. "Tawa" Jones, gathered a church, a school, and opened a fine farm. After years of patient labor, Jotham Meeker died in 1854, and was followed in two years by his wife, and both rest where they fell in the cause of religion and civili- zation. 51. St. Mary's Mission.— While the Protestant mission- aries established their centres, the Catholic missionaries established their principal headquarters at St. Mary's, on the Kansas river, and thence missionary priests visited the different tribes while they remained. In Doniphan county, Rev. Samuel M. Irvin began a Presbyterian Mission among the lowas in 1837, erected substantial buildings, and wrote a grammar of the Iowa language. A daughter of Missionary Irvin is believed to have been the first white girl born in 38 HISTOEY OF KANSAS. Isaac HcCoy. Kansas, as a son of Missionary Thomas Johnson, Alexander S. Johnson, was the first white boy. With Mr. Irvin in the labor of the Mission was associated Rev. Wm. Hamilton. 62. McCoy's Advanced Explorations.— On the mis- sionary roll of honor no name is to be written above that of Isaac McCoy. He began his work among the Miamis in Indiana, in 1817, continned it among the Pottawatomies near Fort Wayne, and fol- lowed that tribe to Michigan, where he also labored with Mr. Meeker and Dr. Lykins at the Ottawa Mission. Mr. McCoy was the effective advocate of the Act of 1830, for the removal of the Indians to the West. He preceded the Indians to Kansas and explored and surveyed their reservations. He was known to all the tribes. He firmly believed in the possibilit> of the Indian, and worked to that end to the close of his life, which came at Louis- ville, Ky., in 1846. 53. Shawnee Mission School.— The Wyandottes attracted the good offices of the Friends as long ago as the date of their treaty with 'William Penn, and among the religious teachers of these people, Henry Harvey was honorably distinguished both in Ohio and Kansas. Perhaps the most ambitious attempt at mission building in Kansas, in the pre-territorial period, was the erection, in 1839, of the Shawnee Mission Manual Labor School, two miles from Westport, Mo. This was the work of Rev. Thomas Johnson, who, with his wife, had THE INDIAN TEKEITORY. 39 taught the Shawnees of the neighborhood siuee 1829. This Mission became famous as the meeting place of the first Territorial Legislature, Mr. Johnson himself being President of the first Ter- ritorial Council. The fine Kansas county of Johnson was named in his honor. 54. Indian Language Written.— But there were many names which should be kept in honor — of Chapman and Vinall, and Robert Simerwell and his wife; Francis Barker and Ira D. Blanchard, and Mrs. Webster and Miss Harriet H. Morse, and Rev. Moses Merrill and wife; the Hadleys, father and son; the Rev. E. T. Peery and Mrs. Peery; John G. Pratt, who was the printer of the Shawnees and the Delawares; and of Father Gailland, long at the head of the Mission at St. Mary's. All these and many more labored for the Indians. They invented phonetic alphabets, they created written languages. Father Gailland wrote a Pottawatomie dictionary ; Father Hoeken published a Pottawatomie prayer book; Father Ponzilione wrote an Osage _ prayer book. Mrs. Robert Simerwell. Tj^^ ^^.^^ church-goiug bell that ever sounded in Kansas was a Mission bell. It was brought to the Baptist Mission near the present Mount Robert Simerwell. 40 HISTORY OF KANSAS. Muncie Cemetery, Leavenworth, and hung in the fork of a tree. SUMMARY. 1. Kansas was originally occupied by four great tribes of Indians: the Osages, the Pawnees, the Kansas, and the Padoucas or Comanches. 2. The Government adopts the policy of removing the eastern and southern tribes to the Territory. 3. Fort Leavenworth was established 1827, Fort Scott 1842, and Fort Riley 1853, to afford protection to the frontier. 4. Missionaries aid in the advance of civilization by reducing the Indian languages to writing. 5. St. Mary's was founded by the Catholics, and Shawnee Mission by Protestants. Implements and Ornaments of Kansas Aborigi CHAPTER VI. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 55. Population Centres. — At the opening of the year 1853, the white population of Kansas was, as it had been for twenty years, concentrated about the forts, trading posts, missions, and reservations, from the Missouri to Council Grove. The population of these centres ranged from ten upwards, the largest number probably being located in and around Uniontown, in what is now Shawnee county. The population was small, scattered, and uninterested in public affairs. 56. Deleg"ate not Received.— There were, from 1852, occasional feeble attempts to induce action at Washington, and, in 1853, Abelard Guthrie was nominated as delegate in Congress by a convention at Wyandotte, while Rev. Thomas Johnson was put in nomination at the Kickapoo village. The latter was elected and went to Washington, but was not received. 57. Doug'las' Bill. — The crisis came with the report, on January 24, 1854, from the Committee on Territories, by its chairman, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, of an amended bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, afterward to be known in history as the Kansas- Nebraska Act, though, at the time of its introduction, it was commonly called the Nebraska Bill. The main feature of this long bill of thirty-eight sections, was, that it abrogated the agreement of the Missouri Com- 41 42 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. promise of 1820, prohibiting (as the price of the admission of Missouri as a Slave State) slavery north of the line 36° 30\ and, in place of pro- hibiting, left the question of slavery or no slavery to the people of the respecti\(' Territories when they should come to frame their Stat(^ Constitutions . This bill was discussed in Congress for four months, and passed the Senate at four o'clock on th<' morning of March 4, 1854, and the House at midnight of May 22d, by a vote of 113 to 100, and was signed by President Franklin Pierce on the 30th of May— since chosen as Decoration Day with all its memories. 58. Opposition to Bill.— The passage of the bill was fought at every step, and its triumph was received throughout the North with demonstrations of grief and anger, because a great number of American citizens, after the experiences of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott decision, and the Compromise of 1850, did not believe that the bill meant an honest submission of the question of slavery to the hona fide settlers of Kansas, or meant anything except a determined purpose to force slavery upon Kansas, and upon every Territory of the United States. 59. Author's Motive.— Senator Douglas, himself a native of Vermont, and a Senator from the great Free State A Meeker Title Page. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 43 of Illinois, disclaimed this as a purpose, and declared that his main desire was to take from Congress the decision of a local domestic question, and leave it to the people vitally interested. For himself he declared that he did not care whether slavery was voted up or voted down. If the pur- pose of the enactment was to quiet the agitation of the slavery question, it signally failed. The direct result of the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to bring on a discussion more violent and widespread than had ever been before known in the country. As far as the conflict affected the Nation at large, the details belong to the general political history of the United States. The centre and most perilous spot in the field was soon transferred to Kansas Territory. 60. Derivation of " Kansas."— The Kansas- Nebraska Act defined the boundaries of the new Territory, and gave to it the name of Kansas. The spelling and definition of the word Kansas have been the cause of much discussion. Prof. Dunbar, formerly of Kansas, a most accomplished Indian linguist, states that the name of the Kansas river is derived from the Kansas Indian word Kanza, meaning "swift." 61. Kansas Boundary.— The following are the limits of the Territory as given in the act: Beginning at a point on the western boundary of Missouri, where the thirty- seventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to the eastern boundary of New Mexico ; thence north on boundary to lati- tude thirty-eight north latitude, thence following said boundary westward to the east boundary of the Territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence northward on said summit to the fortieth i)arallel of lati- tude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary 44 HISTORY OF KANSAS. of the State of Missouri, thence south with the western boundary of said State to the place of beginning. The south line was not made to conform with the line of the Missouri Compromise, 36° 30', but Was fixed at the thirty-seventh parallel, the boundary between the reserva- tions of the Cherokees and the Osages . The fortieth parallel , Catholic Church at Osage Mission, built in 1847. the north line, was established in 1853, the meridian point being fixed at the Missouri river by Capt. Thomas J. Lee, United States Engineers, and the line westward surveyed by Mr. John P. Johnson, for many years, and until his death, an honored citizen of Highland, Doniphan county, Kan. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 45 62. Indian Land Opened to Settlers.— For months prior to the passage of the Nebraska Act, the Goverument of the United States had been engaged in securing the cession of the lands of various Indian tribes in Kansas. The tract purchased of the Shawnees alone amounted to 1,600,000 acres. On the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act the lands acquired by the Government became open to public settlement and hundi'eds of persons from Missouri crossed over and staked claims, some to remain as hona fide settlers, more to return at once to Missouri. These squatter claims became a sufficient source of difficulty N, ^ among claimants, had there been no other. 63. Societies for Coloniza- tion. — Taking the language of the Kansas- Nebraska Act to mean what it said, and " Popular Sovereignty" as a contemplated fact, both parties to the con- troversy began to make preparation for the occupation of the disputed country. The border counties of Missouri rang with the note of preparation. "Defensive Associations," "Squatters' Associations," "Blue Lodges," and various secret and open societies were formed on the border for the purpose of occupying Kansas, and the repel- ling of invaders of the abolition variety, and on the other hand the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society procured its charter April 24, 1854, after the passage of the Kansas- Nebraska Act by the House, but before its passage by the Baptist Indian Mission, Shawnee County. Erected in 1848. 46 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. Senate. The Emigrant Aid Societj' of New York and Con- necticut was chartered in July. A lengthy "report" issued in May, 1854, set out at great length the objects of the New England Society. One article urged the forwarding of saw mills, grist mills and other machinery to the new country. ' 'At the same time it is desirable, ' ' said the report, "that there should be sent out a printing press ,^ and a news- paper established. This would be the organ of the com- pany's agents, and be from the start the index of that love of freedom and good morals, which it is hoped may charac- terize the State now to be formed." 64. Invitation to Settlers.— There is indeed a "real estate" flavor, which has lingered about descriptions of the country ever since, in the following article: "It is to be remembered that all accounts agree that the region of Kansas is the most desirable part of America now open to the emigrant. It is accessible in five days' continu- ous travel from Boston. Its crops are very bountiful ; its soil being well adapted to the staples of Virginia and Ken- tucky, and especially to the growth of hemp. In the east- ern section the woodland and prairie land intermix in proportions very well adapted to the purpose of the settler. Its mineral resources, especially its coal, in the central and western parts, are inexhaustible. A steamboat is already plying on the Kansas river, and the Territory has an unin- terrupted steamboat communication with New Orleans and all the tributaries of the Mississippi." . 65. Strug-g-le Between North and South.— The two emigration societies mentioned were not all; there was, ))eside, the Union Emigration Society organized in the city of Washington. The large associations organized auxiliary THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 47 societies throughout the North. The issue was joined. The border counties of Missouri stood for the South, far oflf and remote . Behind the Emigrant Aid societies stood the North , according to the lines of communication, nearer, in popula- tion and wealth vastly more powerful. The advocates of Lawrence, Kan., 1855. slavery had no issue except the establishment of human bondage in a new, an unwilling country, and apparently no conception of any means of accomplishing that end except by force. The result may have been doubted, but it was never doubtful. In the ears of those who marched to Kansas from the conquering North, sounded a watch- word which has always rung in men's ears like the note of a trumpet, or breathed as the voice of a siren, it was — "Freedom." 48 HISTORY OF KANSAS. 66. Towns Founded.— President Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on the 30th of May, 1854. On the 13th of June the Leavenworth town company was organ- ized at Weston, Mo. On the 17th of July, the first party of Free State emigrants left Boston and Worcester, arriv- ing at the mouth of the Wakarusa eleven days later. The party numbered thirty, under the direction of Mr. Charles H. Branscomb. Two weeks later they were followed by a larger party under the direction of Dr. Charles Robinson and Samuel C. Pomeroy. The Atchison town company was formed in Missouri, July 27th. Events moved rapidly. In September the Lawrence Association was formed for the government of the new city. In the same month the first newspaper in Kansas, the Herald, was printed under a tree in Leavenworth. In September the first sale of lots oc- curred in Atchison. One Free State and two Pro- slavery towns started, and the battle begun. Topeka, an addition to the Free State strongholds, was founded December 5, 1854. SUMMARY. 1. Rev. Thomas Johnson was elected, in 1853, delegate to Congress, but was not received. 2. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill was passed May 30, 1854. 3. Professor John B. Dunbar states that the word Kansas was derived from Kanza, which means "swift." 4. The Governmeni secured large tracts of Indian lands. Settlers immediately began to move to the Territory. 5. Societies of the op|x>sing parties were formed for the occupa- tion of the Territory. 6. Among the events of 1854 were the founding of Leavenworth, Lawrence, Atchison, and Topeka. 7. The first newspaper was printed at Leavenworth. CHAPTER VII. THE BEGINNING OP GOVERNMENT. 67. First Territorial Governor.— Andiew H. Reeder, first Governor of the Territory of Kansas, arrived at Fort Leavenworth on the 7th of October, 1854. He was a Penn- sylvania lawyer of high standing in his native county of Northampton, from whence he came to Kansas, and through- out the State, but had never held public office. He had always been a member of the Democratic party, and thor- oughly indorsed the doctrine of the Kansas- Nebraska Act. 68. Other Officers of Territory.— The other appointed officers of the Territory arrived at intervals. The Secretary of the Territory, whose office was most important, since under the organic act he assumed in the Governor's absence all his powers and functions, was Daniel Woodson, of Virginia; the Chief Justice of the Territor}^ was Samuel got. a. h. Reeder. " D. Lecompte, of Maryland; the Associate Justices, Saunders W. Johnson, of Ohio, and Rush Elmore of Alabama; United States Marshal, Israel B. Donalson of Illinois. Some of these names were destined to a lasting recollection in Kan- sas: one of them, that of Secretary Woodson, to a place on the map of Kansas. Notwithstanding the amount of explosive material lying about, Gov. Reeder received a 49 50 HISTORY OF KANSAS. hearty welcome at Leavenworth, and his reception was quite as kindly at Lawrence, which he soon after visited. He took a tour of observation through the Territory to inform himself concerning its topography and population. He was urged to order an election of members of the Legislature, lint took the ground that the common law, and the laws of tlie United States, extended over the Territory, and that there was no pressing need of legislation, and himself sat as a magistrate in the case of a man charged with attempt to kill, and Ijouiid the party over. 69. Election of Deleg-ate.— On the 10th of November, Gov. Reeder issued his proclamation for an election for delegate to Congress on the 29th of the same month. This was the first election held in the Territory. The candidates were Gen. John W. Whitfield, Pro-slavery; R. P. Flenniken, Administration Democrat, and John A. Wakefield, Free State. On the day of the election, as was afterwards reported by an investigating committee, a large number of persons came over from Missouri and voted, but Gen. Wliitfield received a legal plurality. As this would have happened, and he would have received a certificate of election without it, the invasion was a causeless and senseless outrage, which had no further effect than to inflame the North, in which the determination that Kansas should not be a slave State was daily growing more resolute. The name which assumed the most prominence in the leadership of the Pro-slavery movement was that of David R. Atchison, a United States Senator from Missouri, Presi- dent of the Senate and acting Vice-President of the United States THE BEGINNING OF GOVERNMENT. 51 70. First Census.— In February, 1855, Gov. Reeder caused the lirst eensus of the Territory to be taken. It showed a population of 8,501 persons, and 2,905 voters. 71. Fraudulent Voting". — Governor Reeder divided the territory into districts, appointed judges of election and ordered an election for a Territorial Legislatvire to be held Mai'ch 30, 1855. At the election of March 30th most of the voting places in the territory were occupied by armed men from Missouri. At Lawrence the invading force was estimated at 1,000 men, and they brought two pieces of artillery. This force being larger than was deemed neces- sary, squads were detached and sent to other voting places. The judges of election appointed by the Governor were driven from the polling places or resigned their offices. The census of the • preceding month of February gave Kansas Territory 2,905 voters. At this March election (5,318 votes were cast, of which 1,410 were legal and 4,908 were fraudulent. The day after this election the actual facts were known all over the Territory; within the week, in every corner of the United States. The result was fuel to the roaring fire; every means which had been before used in the warfare against slavery was redoubled. The betrayed people who had gone to the Territory under the implied promise of the Kansas-Nebraska Act that the l)eople of the Territories should be allowed to regulate their institutions in their own wa}', became throughout the Free States the objects of boundless sympathy; the story of the invasion of March 30th was told in song and story, and by artist's pencil, and still the Free State emigrants iiressed into the Territory' of Kansas. 52 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. 72. Governor Reeder's Action.— Governor Reeder set aside the elections in certain districts for informality, and ordered an election to be held May 22d, to fill vacancies. Governor Reeder had, according to his instructions, removed his ofifice from Fort Leavenworth to the Shawnee Manual Labor School, two miles west of Westport, Mo. i i|n Territorial Capitol, Shawnee, 1855. He ordered the first Legislature of the Territory to con- vene at Pawnee, a town which had been laid out near Fort Riley. After his decision in regard to the elections, and his proclamation for the meeting of the Legislature, Governor Reeder went East to meet charges which the Pro- slavery leaders had made in asking his removal. At the election to fill va{!ancies in the Legislature, neither the Pro- THE BEGINNING OF GOVERNMENT. 53 slavery voters in the Territory or in Missonri took part. The Free State voters alone participated. 73. First Legfislature.— The members of the Legisla- ture met at Pawnee on July 2, 1855. The Pawnee town company had erected a stone building for the use of the Legislature, which stood for many years afterward within sight of the Union Pacific railroad track. There was also a hotel and some other conveniences. The Legislature came, went into camp, remained four days, unseated the Free State members, seated the members declared elected on the 30th of March, and passed a bill ' ' to remove the capital temporarily to Shawnee Manual Labor School," which act was vetoed by the Governor and passed over his veto, and the Legislature adjourned. On the re- assembling of the Legislature at the Shawnee Manual Labor School, Governor Reeder informed the body that it was in session where it had no right, in contraven- tion of the Act of Congress, and that he could give no sanction to any act it might pass. 74. Gov. Reeder Removed. — The Legislature, in both branches, memorialized the President of the United States to remove Governor Reeder, and on the 31st of July his removal was officially announced, and on the 16th of August the Governor announced his removal to the Legislature, and so ended the term of the First Territorial Governor of Kansas . Governor Reeder was informed that he was removed for some irregular purchases of public lands. The departure of Governor Reeder made Secretary Woodson acting Gover- nor. His signature is affixed to all the laws passed by what the Free State party called the "Bogus Legislature." This 54 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. Leg-islature adopted the body of Missouri statutes, but added thereto a series of "black laws" exceeding in ferocity WM. BLAIR LORD. JOHN UPTON. HON. MORDEf'AI OLIVER. HON. WM. A. HOWARD. HON. JNO. .SHERMAN. Congressional Investigation Committee.* anything ever before known in the United States. Anti- slavery men were disqualified from holding office. ♦Represents the members and two of the otflcers of the Kansas Con- gressional Investigating Committee of 185(i. The committee was appointed under a resolution of the House of Representatives, passed March 19, 1856, with Instructions to "Proceed to Inquire Into and collect evidence in regard to the troubles in Kansas generally, and particularly In regard to any fraud or force attempted or practiced in reference to any of the elec- tions which had taken place In the Territory, etc." THE BEGINNING OF GOVERNMENT. 55 75. Capital Located.— The Legislature organized a large number of counties, and provided that every officer in the Territory, executive and judicial, was to be appointed by the Legislature, or by some officer appointed by it. These appointments to hold until after the general election of 1857. No session was to be held in 1856. The Legislature fixed upon Lecompton as the Territorial seat of government. 76. Topeka Government Org-anized.— The reply of the unorganized Free State people of the Territory to the Pro- slarery Legislature was organization. Whenever there was a meeting, or a set of resolutions adopted — and there were many meetings, and many resolutions — the Shawnee Legis- lature was denounced as the offspring of fraud and force, and its enactments of no validity. The movement finally ended in what came to be known as the Topeka Govern- ment. Delegates to the Topeka Constitutional Convention were elected October 1, 1855. The Convention met on the 23d of October, completed the Topeka Constitution, the first constitution of Kansas, on the 11th of November. The constitution was submitted to a vote on.the 15th of Decem- ber. At Leavenworth the poll books were destroyed by a Pro-slavery mob, and also the office of a Free State news- paper. Outside of Leavenworth 1,731 votes were cast for the constitution, and 46 against it. The 4th of March, 1856, was set for an election of State officers under the Topeka Constitution. The Topeka Constitution provided, "There shall be no slavery in this State, or involuntary servitude except for 56 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. Wilson Shannon. 77. Shannon, Second Governor.— In September, 1855, Wilson Shannon, of Ohio, Second Territorial Governor of Kansas, appeared at Westport, Mo. Unlike Governor Reeder, Governor Shannon had been much in public life. He had been Governor of Ohio, United i States Minister to Mexico, and Member of the House of Representatives, where he had voted for the Kansas- Nebraska Act. 78. Election of Delegate Not Rec- ognized. — On the 1st of October there occurred an election for delegate in Congress. The Free State voters took no part in this election, and John W. Whitfield received 2,721 votes. On the 9th of October the Free State voters cast 2,849 votes for Andi-ew H. Reeder. Congress refused to seat either contestant. 79. Mob Violence at Atchison.— During the spring and summer of 1855 there was much disturbance. Many of the collisions were doubtless incited by private and personal enmity, but the outrages which created the most profound impression throughout the country were those committed for opinion's sake. Rev. Pardee Butler was seized at Atchison, in August, and sent down the river on a raft made of two logs, with many circumstances of injury and insult. Returning the following spring, he was stripped, tarred, and covered with cotton. He was a peaceable settler of the county, he had only expressed his opinion upon a question which, under the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was left to the determination of the lawful voters of the Territory. His story was told all through the North and roused a THE BEGINNING OF GOVERNMENT. 57 determination of resistance. While Pardee Butler was going down the river on his raft, John Brown was moving along the road to Kansas with his rifle. SUMMARY. Gov. Reeder and other territorial officers arrive. First election for members of the Legislature takes place, attended by invasion, fraud, and violence. First Legislature meets at Pawnee, and removes to the Shawnee Manual Labor School. Gov. Reeder is succeeded by Gov. Shannon. The first Constitution of Kansas was completed at Topeka, November 11, 1855, and provided, "there shall be no slavery in this State, or involuntary servitude except for crime." Map of that portion of the Indian Territory West of the Mississippi, within the present bounds of Kansas. CHAPTER VIII. WAR AND RUMORS OF WAR. 80. Contest Precipitated. — Governor Shaimon soon found that the office of Governor of Kansas Territory was not a bed of roses. On the 21st of November, 1855, at Hickory Point, ten miles south of Lawrence, a Free State settler named Dow was killed by a Pro-slavery .man named Coleman. Dow, whose body lay in the road for hours, was buried by his Free State friends, who, at his funeral, declared they would ferret out the murderer and his accomplices. That night, Coleman, the slayer, having fled, his cabin was burned down, and that of a friend of his named Buckley. This man, in common parlance, "swore his life against" Jacob Branson, a Free State man, a friend of Dow's. Sheriff Jones (who, though a resident of Westport, Mo., was, by appointment of the Territorial Legislature, Sheriff of Douglas county, Kan.), with a posse, took Branson into custody on the night of November 22. When the Sheriff's l)arty had arrived near Blanton's Bridge, they were met by a party of Free State men, among whom Major J. B. Abbott and Samuel N. Wood were prominent, and the prisoner, with little show of violence, was taken from his captors. 8 1 . The Wakarusa War.— Sheriff Jones rode to Franklin, a Pro-slavery outpost, dispatched a messenger to Missouri, and notified Governor Shannon that a rebellion had broken 58 WAR AND EUMORS OF WAR. 59 out in the Territory, and that 3,000 men were required to suppress it. This was the beginning of the " Wakarusa War." Tlie Governor ordered Generals Richardson and Strickler, of the Territorial militia, to march to Lecomp- ton, and report to the Sheriff all the force they could collect. In the meautime, the Missouri border was stirred with appeals, and a large force was raised to organize another invasion. A formidable Pro-slavery force collected at Franklin. Free State companies gathered from the vicinity, and joined the garrison of Lawrence . Sheriff Jones came into Lawrence , but failed to find the rescuers of Branson. Governor Shannon wearied of the Missourians who had arrived to assist the Sheriff, and besought them to disband and depart, and in the meantime called on Colonel Sumner, of the United States army, to bring troops. The Free State leaders succeeded in opening up com- munication with Governor Shannon,^ and as a final result the invaders in the interest of "law and order" started back to Missouri, the beleaguered garrison of Lawrence was relieved, and Governor Shannon affixed his signature to a treaty signed by Cl^arles Robinson and James H. Lane, and a few evenings later met these gentlemen at an evening party given by the ladies of Lawrence, at which even Sheriff Jones was an invited guest. 82. Thomas W. Barber a Martyr.— But the "Wakar- usa War" was not destined to end without bloodshed. Thomas W. Barber, a young man, who had been among the Colonel E. V. Sumner. 60 HISTORY OF KANSAS. defenders of Lawrence, was on his way home with two friends, when they were confronted by two horsemen, who detached themselves from another party, and Barber was killed. Murders had not been uncommon, but this excited unusual horror. The funeral of Barber was attended by every demonstration of respect, Charles Robinson and James H. Lane speaking beside the coffin. Whittier afterwards wrote the "Burial of Barber:" Not in vain a heart shall break, Not a tear for freedom's sake Fall unheeded; God is true. The Kansas county of Barber commemorates his name. 83. Whitfield Elected to Congress.— In October, 1855, an election was held for delegate to Congress, in which Free State men did not participate, and General John W. Whitfield received 2,721 votes. 84. Election of State Officers.— On the 15th of January, 1856, occurred the election of State officers under the Topeka Constitution: Charles Robinson was chosen Governor; W. Y. Roberts, Lieutenant-Governor; P. C. Schuyler, Secretary of State; G. A. Cutler, Auditor; John A. Wakefield, Treas- urer; H. Miles Moore, Attorney- General; M. Hunt, M. F. Conway, G. W. Smith, Supreme Judges; E. M. Thurston, Reporter of Supreme Court; S. B. Floyd, Clerk of Supreme Court; John Speer, Public Printer; Representative in Con- gress, M. W. Delahay. • 85. First Session of Topeka Leg-islature.— On the 4th of March, 1856, was held the first session of the Topeka Legislature. Governor Robinson presented a message. James H. Lane and Andrew H. Reader were chosen United WAR AND RUMORS OF WAR. 61 States Senators, and a memorial was prepared asking admis- sion into the Union. The Legislature adjourned to meet on the 4th of July. 86. Topeka Constitution in Congress. — The Topeka Constitution was presented in the Senate of the United States, by Senator Lewis Cass, on March 24th, and in the House by Hon. Daniel Mace, of Indiana. 87. Disbanding- of Topeka Legislature.— On the re-as- sembling of the Legislature at Topeka, on the 4th day of July, 1856, Colonel E. V. Sumner, U. S. A., appeared with five companies of United States di-agoons and two pieces of artillery. Colonel Sumner entered the halls of the Senate and'House, and told the members that the Legislature must disperse, and they obeyed. Colonel Sumner was accom- panied by United States Marshal Donalson. Colonel Sumner acted under the orders of Acting- Governor Woodson, and Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis. The Topeka Legislature re-assembled in January, 1857, when some of the officers and members were arrested by a Deputy United States Marshal, and taken to Tecumseh. The Legislature again met in January, 1858, and adjourned to Lawrence, and asked the Territorial Legislature, then in session, to substitute the State for the Territorial organiza- tion, which they refused to do. On the 4th of March, 1858, the Legislature under the Topeka Constitution met, found itself without a quorum, and adjourned to meet no more. This was the end of the "Topeka movement." On the 3d of July, 1856, the House of Representatives passed a bill for the admission of Kansas under the Topeka Constitution, by a vote of ninety-nine to ninety-seven. The 62 HISTORY OF KANSAS. opposition of the Senate to any five Constitution was invincible. 88. Treason Progrramme. — The administration of President Pierce, and that of Kansas Territory, early took the position that adherence to the Topeka Government, or non- obedience to the Shawnee Missouri Legislature, constituted some form of treason and insurrection. The numberless troubles of 185G had their origin in the attempts of the National and Territorial authorities to arrest, prosecute and punish Free State men for rebellion and high treason. By May, the treason suppression ' programme was far advanced. Governor Robinson , Governor Reeder, and many others were indicted for high treason. Governor Reeder, who was in the Territory in attendance on the Congressional Investigating Committee, commonly called the "Howard Committee," refused arrest, and made his way to Kansas City, Mo., whence he escaped, in disguise, down the Missouri, on the deck of a steamboat. Many persons were arrested, during May, at different points, refused bail by Judge Lecompte, and confined at Lecompton. Governor Robinson, while traveling with his wife, was arrested at Lexington, Mo., was brought back to Lecompton, and held a prisoner for four months. 89. Events at Lawrence. — By the 17th of May, 1856, a large armed force had collected in the vicinity of Lawrence. On the 21st of May, Sheriff Jones entered the town with armed followers, and by virtue of writs out of the First District Court of the United States for Kansas Territory, burned and battered down the Free- State hotel, and destroyed the offices of the Herald of Freedom, and the Kansas Free State newspapers. Stores were broken open. WAR AND RUMORS OF WAR. 63 and robbed, and the residence of Cliarles Robinson was l)urned. The force employed was some 800 cavahy and infantry, with four pieces of cannon. Conspicuous on this occasion, and in counseling and directing destruction, was General David R. Ateliison, of Missouri. The cavalry was commanded by Colonel H. C. Titus, recently of Florida. A considerable part of the force consisted of South Carolinians, under the X3ommand of Major Buford. There w^as planted on the walls of the Hentld of Freedom office, before its destruction, a blood red flag, bearing a lone star and the words "South Carolina and Southern Rights." The Government of the United States was directly represented, on this occasion, by Deputy United States Marshal Fain. ^ 90. John Brown Appears. — Among the witnesses of these transactions of the 21st of May, was John Brown, his five sons, and a son-in-law. On the night of the 24th of May, on Pottawatomie creek, in Franklin county, James P. Doyle, his two sons: William Sherman, commonly called "Dutch Henry," and Allen Wilkinson, a member of the Shawnee Mission Legislature, were called out of their cabins and killed. John Brown led the party that did the deed. After this, Brown captured, at Black Ja(!k, Captain H. Clay Pate and twenty-eight of his party who had started out to capture Brown. 91. A Reig-n of Violence.— The Free State men attacked the Pro-slavery headquarters at Franklin, wounded several defenders, and took a considerable quantity of munitions of war. On the other side, a party of Missourians under General John W. Whitfield, plundered Osawatomie. 64 HISTOEY OF KANSAS. Early in August, the Free State men broke up a camp of Georgians near Osawatomie. On the 12th of August they made a second attack on Franklin, smoked out the block- house, and compelled the garrison to surrender. On the 16th of August, Captain Sam Walker, with the loss of one man, captured the fortified house, near Lecompton, of Colonel Titus, of Florida, and twenty prisoners. Prior to this, a Free State party had captured a Georgia headquarters on Washington creek, called "Fort Saunders." The war never ceased in Linn county, and in August, in a fight at Middle creek, the Free State partisans, under Captains Anderson, Cline and Shore, routed a Pro- slavery detachment under Captain Jesse Davis. On the 30th of August, 400 men from Missouri, under General John W. Reid, attacked Osawatomie. The place was defended by forty- one men, under John Brown. In this action, Frederick Brown, a son of John Brown, was killed by Rev. Martin White. All the houses in Osawatomie save four were burned. In Leavenworth, a Pro-slavery mob murdered William Phillips, a Free State lawyer, who had been tarred and feathered the year before, and a Vigilance Committee com- pelled Free State citizens to leave the city. SUMMARY. 1. The border troubles. 2. Whitfield elected to Congress. .3. First session of Topeka Legislature, March 4, 1856. 4. The sacking of Lawrence, and acts of retaliation. 5. Action under the Topeka Constitution, and dispersal of the Topeka Legislature. 6. The treason arrests. 7. Free State citizens compelled to leave Leavenworth. C) CHAPTER IX. A GLIMPSE OF LIGHT. 92. Release of Three State Prisoners. — On the 5th of September, 1856, a force from Lawrence with two guns appeared at Lecompton on the heights about the town, and were met by Colonel Phillip St. George Cooke, with a detachment of United States troops, who demanded the errand of the approaching army. It was explained that the release of Free State prisoners, not the "treason pris- oners ' ' who were held by United States authorities, but all others, was demanded, and that the general protection of the Free State population from robbery and murder was the object of the demon- stration. As a result of this interview an exchange of prisoners was effected. 93. Accession of Governor Geary. — On the 21st of August, 1856, Governor Shannon received notice of his removal. On the 7th of September he met his succes- sor at Glasgow, Mo., coming up the Missouri river, and on the 9th of September, John W. Geary, third Gover- nor of Kansas Territory, arrived at Fort Leavenworth. He immediately reported to the President that he had to contend against "armed ruffians and brigands"; that the town of Leavenworth was in the hands of bodies of men, 65 Governor John W. Geary. HISTORY OF KANSAS. who, calling themselves militia, perpetrated the most atro- cious outrages under the shadow of authority from the Territorial government. 94. The Hickory Point Fig-ht. — Governor Geary arrived at Lecompton on the lOtli of September, 1856. The next day, Captain Har- vey, a Free State partisan, surprised a Pro-slavery force at Slough creek, in Jeffer- son county, and captured the blood-red South Carolina flag, which had been raised at the sacking of Lawrence in May, and which is now South caroiiua Flag. ^j^ possessiou of the Kan- sas State Historical Society. Captain Harvey, two days after, captured Hickory Point, in Jefferson county. The 101 men under Harvey were taken prisoners by Colonel Cooke, U. S. A., who marched them to Lecompton, where they were held by Judge Cato for trial on the charge of murder in the first degree. Twenty of these were after- wards sentenced to five years in the penitentiary, though they never were incarcerated. 95. Governor Geary's Action. — Governor Geary's ^ first act was to issue a proclamation disbanding the Terri- torial militia, and ordering all other armed men to quit the Territory. The Governor proceeded to Lawrence and found the town in arms in prospect of another invasion. He left United States troops there, and went to the junction of the Wakarusa and the Kansas rivers, where he found a force of 2,700 men from Missouri under the command of General A GLIMPSE OF LIGHT. 67 Atchison, General Reid, General Whitfield, Sheriff Jones, and others. This force he ordered to disband, and it disappeared. 96. Tpeason Cases Abandoned.— Prior to Governor Geary's arrival, the " treason prisoners" were released on bail by Judge Lecompte in the sum of $5,000 each. Governor Robinson gave bail just four months from the day he was taken prisoner. Of the remaining j prisoners, some were tried and acquitted, some escaped, and a nolle was entered in the cases of others. 97. The Road Opened.— The Mis- souri river had been for some time closed against Free State travel, and Governor Robt. j. Waiker. large parties of Free State immigrants had been entering the Territory via Iowa and Nebraska. In October, a party was arrested by Colonel Cooke and a Deputy United States Marshal. Governor Geary met the immi- grants and ordered their release. Afterward, immigration was free. 98. Governor Geary Retires. — The Second Territorial Legislature met at Lecompton. Governor Geary vetoed some of the bills, which were passed over his veto. After continuous troubles with the Legislature, and being con- stantly threatened with personal violence, Governor Geary announced that he would be absent from Lecompton for awhile, left* the Territory quietly and never returned. Many years after, in grateful remembrance of Governor Geary's course in Kansas, the name of Davis county was changed to Geary. 68 HISTORY OF KANSAS. 99. Walker's Appointment. — James Buchanan became President of the United States, March 4, 1857. Shortly after the departure of Governor Geary, Robert J. Walker was appointed Governor of Kansas, March 26, 1857. He was preceded in the Territory by Frederick P. Stanton, Secretary of the Territory, who became Acting Governor. Governor Walker arrived in May. He com- menced his labors to induce the entire mass of voters to participate in the election for delegates to the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, for which the late Legislature had provided. The Free State voters generally declined the invitation, and at the election in June, 1857, but 2,071 votes were cast for delegates. SUMMARY. 1. Free State prisoners liberated. 2. John W. Geary appointed Governor. 3. Governor Geary disbands militia, and orders armed men to leave the Territory. 4. Treason prisoners released. 5. Immigration made free. 6. Governor Geary leaves the Territory. 7. Walker appointed Governor. 8. Governor Walker urges citizens to vote for delegates to the Leeompton Constitutional Convention, but the Free State people decline to do so. CHAPTER X. THE LECOMPTON AND LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS. 100. The Lecompton Convention. — The Lecompton Coustitutioual Convention met and framed the second Con- stitution of Kansas between the 11th of September and the 3d of November, 1857. It was provided that the vote should be taken on the "Constitution without slavery," or the "Constitution with slavery," no vote being allowed against the Constitution. The vote, taken on the 21st of December, according to John Calhoun, President of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, stood, "for the Constitution with slavery, ' ' 6,226 ; ' 'for the Constitution without slavery, ' ' 569. At this election the Free State party did not vote, and an enormous fraudulent vote was cast. 101. Territorial Election. —In October, while the Lecompton Convention was in session, the regular election for members of the Territorial Legislature, and a delegate in Congress had taken place, and resulted in the election of a majority of Free State members of both branches of the Legislature, and of Marcus J. Parrott, Free State, as delegate. Oxford precinct, near the Missouri line, a pre- cinct containing eleven houses, cast 1,628 Pro- slavery votes. Governor Walker and Secretary Stanton issued a proclama- tion rejecting the whole return from Oxford precinct. This settled the Free State character of the lawful returns. 70 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. 102. Special Session of the Legislature.— On the 7th of December, the Legislature was called together in special session at Lecompton. A message was received from Sec- retary Stanton, Governor Walker having left the Territory, in which he urged the submission of the whole Constitution. But the chance of the Lecompton Con- stitution had passed away. 103. Second Submission. — Under an act of the special session, a vote was ordered, for or against the Constitution, on the 4th of January, the same day set for the election of State officers under the Lecompton Constitution. A portion of the Free State party supported a State ticket. The vote on the Constitution as declared by Secretary and Acting Governor Denver, who had suc- ceeded Mr. Stanton, was 10,288 against the Constitution to 138 for it. Marcus J. Parrott was elected Member of Con- gress, and, in spite of frauds, the Free State ticket received a small majority. The ticket was as follows: Governor, George W. Smith; Lieutenant-Governor, W. Y. Roberts; Secretary of State, P. C. Schuyler; Auditor, JoelK. Goodiu;' Treasurer, A. J. IMead. 104. Third Territorial Leg-islature.— The Free State officers chosen, innnediately prepared a memorial to Con- gress, disavowing all intention to serve under the Lecompton Constitution, and urging that body not to admit Kansas into the Union under it. The third Territorial (and first GoTernor Frederick P. Stanton. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS. 71 Free State) Legislature, met in regular session at Lecomptou the 4tli of January. 1858 organized, and on the Gtli adjourned to Lawrence. The Territorial Legislature remained in session at Lawrence for forty days. It passed bills to repeal the slave code, and to abolish slavery in the Territory, over the veto of Governor Denver, and an act to remove the Capital of the Territory to Minneola, Franklin county. It also provided for . the election of delegates to meet in a Constitutional Convention. 105. The Leavenworth Constitution.— The Conven- tion assembled at Minneola on March 23d, and adjourned to Leavenworth, re-assembling on the 25th. The Leaven- worth Constitutional Convention adopted a Constitution which did not contain the word white . " The following ticket was nominated for State officers under the Leavenworth Constitution : Gov- ernor, Henry J . Adams ; Lieutenant- Governor, Cyrus K. Holliday; Sec- retary of State, E. P. Bancroft; Treasurer, J. B. Wheeler; Auditor, George S. Hillyer; Attorney-Gen- eral, Charles A. Foster; Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, J. M. Walden; Connnissioner of School Lands, J. W. Robinson; Represen- tative in Congress, M. F. Conway; Supreme Judges, William A. Phillips, Lorenzo Dow, and William McKay; Reporter of Supreme Court, Albert D. Richardson; Clerk of Supreme Court, W. F. M. Arny. At the election of May 18th, the Leavenworth Constitution Governor James W. Denver. 72 HISTORY OF KANSAS. and the officers nominated received an aggregate of 3,000 votes. It was presented, but never voted on by either House of Congress. Minneola, at which the Convention first assembled, did not remain the capital of Kansas Territory. The bill remov- ing the capital thither was declared illegal by Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney- General of the United States. 106. Failure of Lecompton Constitution.— It was evident by the beginning of 1858, that slavery could never be established in Kansas with the consent of the people, yet, nevertheless, President Buchanan urged upon Congress the acceptance of the Lecompton Constitution, declaring that Kansas was "already a slave State, as much as Georgia or South Carolina." In this policy he was vigorously opposed by Senator Douglas. After much discussion the Lecompton Constitution was sent back to the Kansas people. The vote was taken August 2, 1858, under the propositions of the "English bill," and again the Constitu- tion was repudiated by 11,812 to 1,926 votes. SUMMARY. 1. Free State party refused to vote for delegates to the Lecomp- ton Constitutional Convention. 2. Members of Territorial Legislature and delegate to Congress elected by Free State party. 3. After special session of the Legislature, the Lecompton Consti- tution was again submitted, and again defeated. 4. The Third Territorial Legislature prepared a memorial to Congress, and passed bills to abolish slavery. 5. The Leavenworth Constitution adopted, and State officers nominated. 6. The Lecompton Constitution submitted again in 1858, and for the last time defeated. CHAPTER XI. ^/ EVENTS OF 1858. 107. Governors of 1858.— James W. Denver, who succeeded Frederick P. Stanton (removed for calling the special session of the Territorial Legislature), served as Acting- Governor until the resignation of Governor Walker, in May, 1858, when he became Governor, with Hugh S. Walsh as Secretary. Governor Denver resigned in September, his resignation to take effect October 10, 1858. After his depart- ure, Secretary Walsh acted as Governor until the arrival of Governor Samuel Medary, in December. 108. The Marais des Cygcnes Mas- Governor Hugh s. waish. sacre. — On May 19, 1858, occurred near Trading Post, in Linn county, the tragedy known in Kansas annals as the Marais des Cygnes massacre. A party of twenty- five men from across the border, headed by Captain Charles Hamil- ton, collected eleven Free State settlers, stood them up in a line in a ravine and fired upon them. Five fell dead and all the others save one were badly wounded; the five wounded and one unwounded man feigned death and escaped. The murdered men were William Stilwell, Patrick Ross, William Colpetzer, Michael Robinson and John F. Campbell. The wounded were William Hairgrove, Asa 73 74 HISTORY OF KANSAS. Hairgrove, B. L. Reed, Amos Hall and Asa Snyder; the unharmed man was Austin Hall. The place of the bloody deed is now marked by a public monument, and its memory will be forever preserved by the lines of Whittier, with their final prophecy: LE MARAIS DU CYGNE. A blush as of roses Where rose never grew! Great drops on the bunch grass, But not of the dew! A taint in the sweet air For wild bees to sWn! A stain that shall never Bleach out in the sun! Back, steed of the prairies! Sweet song-bird, fly back! Wheel hither, bald vulture! Gray wolf, call thy pack! The foill human vultures Have feasted and fled; The wolves of the border Have crept from the dead. In the homes of their rear- ing, Yet warm with their lives. Ye wait the dead only. Poor children and wives! Put out the red forge fire, The smith shall not come; Unyoke the brown oxen. The plowman lies dumb. Wind slow from the Swan's Marsh, dreary death-train. With pressed lips as bloodless As lips of the slain! Kiss down the young eyelids. Smooth down the gray hairs ; Let tears quench the curses That burn thro' your prayers. ' From the hearths of their cabins. The fields of their corn. Unwarned and unweaponed, The victims were torn — By the whirlwind of murder Swooped up and swept on To the low, reedy fenlands, The Marsh of the Swan. ' With a vain plea for mercy No stout knee was crooked; In the mouths of the rifles Right manly they looked. How paled the May sunshine, Green Marals dvi Cygne, When the death-smoke blew over Thy lonely ravine. EVENTS OF 1858. 75 Strong man of the prairies, Mourn bitter and wild! Wail, desolate woman! Weep, fatherless child! But the grain of God springs up From ashes beneath. And the crown of His harvest Is life out of death. Not in vain on the dial The shade moves along To point the great contrasts Of right and of wrong; Free homes and free altars And fields of ripe food; The reeds of the Swan's Marsh, Whose bloom is of blood. On the lintels of Kansas That blood shall not dry, Henceforth the Bad Angel Shall harmless go by! Henceforth to the sunset, Unchecked on her way, Shall liberty follow The march of the day." 109. Retribution. — William Griffith, one of the mur- derers, was arrested in Platte county, Mo., in 1863; was tried, and convicted of murder at Mound City, Linn county, Kan. He was executed October 30, 1863. William Hair- grove, one of the survivors of the tragedy, acted as executioner. 110. Fourth Territorial Leg"isla- ture. — Governor Medary's position re- quired him to pass in review the acts of the Fourth Territorial Legislature. That body met at Lecompton, and adjourned at once to Lawrence. It repealed the "Bogus Statutes" of 1855, which were , , -1 . , 1 , , T Governor Samuel Medary. afterwards burned m the streets; made provision for a Constitutional Convention and a State Gov- ernment if the people decided for it at a preliminary elec- tion, and passed an act of amnesty for offenders in certain counties who had been fighting over political differences. Notwithstanding this peaceful measure, Captain James 76 HISTORY OF KANSAS. Montgomery and his men continued the war with the Pro- slavery people in Linn and Bourbon counties, and Captain John Brown carried off a number of persons lawfully bound to servitude in Missouri, to freedom elsewhere. SUMMARY. Political c'hang'es of 1858. The Marais des Cygnes' massacre. Whittier's commemorative poem, "Le Marafs du Cygne." The Wyandotte Convention and Constitution provided for. ^r??>-^. The Old WinanuU at Lawrence. CHAPTER XII. THE WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. ' 111. The Convention. — The vote on the proposition to hold a Constitutional Convention at Wyandotte was held March 28, 1859. The total vote was 6,731; 5,036 being cast "for a Constitution," and 1,425 "against a Constitu- tion." The election of delegates to the Convention occurred on the 7th of June, 1859. The Convention which was to frame the Constitution under which Kansas was destined to enter the Union of the States, assembled at Wyandotte, July 5, 1859. It was composed of fifty-two delegates. In the election of these, the old appellations of "Free State" and "Pro-slavery" were abandoned, and the elected delegates were classified as thirty-five Republicans and seventeen Democrats. It was the first Constitutional Con- vention in Kansas which contained members of both political parties. Historians of the Convention have recorded that few of the heretofore prominent leaders of political action in the Territory- were present in the Conven- tion, and that a large proportion of the members were young men. Many of the delegates were destined to distinction in the civil and military history of Kansas in the years to follow. 112. Officers. — The Convention was organized by the choice of Samuel A. Kingman, as temporary President, and 77 78 HISTORY OF KANSAS. John A. Martin, as Secretary. A permanent organization was effected by the choice of James M. Winchell, as Presi- dent; John A. Martin, as Secretary; J. L. Blanchard, Assistant Secretary; George F. Warren, Sergeant- at- Arms; J. M. Funk, Doorkeeper; Rev. Werter R. Davis, Chaplain; President pro tem., Solon O. Thacher. 113. The Model.— The Constitution of the State of Ohio was adopted as a model or basis of action." 1 14. Sixth Section. — The Convention was for freedom. The Sixth Section of the Bill of Rights was made to read "There shall be no slavery in this State, and no involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." A proviso to suspend this section, for one year after the admission of the State, was voted down, twenty-eight to eleven. This was the last suggestion made to allow slavery to exist in Kansas, for a , T ■,,,. ,, . , , Samuel A. Kingman. day or an hour. Well said a member of the Convention, "the Constitution will commend itself to the good and true everywhere, because through every line and syllable there glows the generous sunshine of liberty." 115. Boundary and Capital. — The Convention rejected a proposition to embrace, in the new State, a portion of Nebraska south of the Platte, and fixed the western line at the twenty-fifth meridian, cutting off the Territorial county of Arapahoe, which was afterwards embraced in the Territory and State of Colorado. Thus, the boundaries of Kansas were finally and permanently determined. The temporary seat of Government was located at Topeka. THE WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 79 The Convention ^substantially completed its work in twenty-one days. 116.. The Constitution Adopted.— On the 12th of September, 1859, James M. Winchell, President, and John A. Martin, Secretary, called an election on the Wyandotte Constitution, to ratify or reject it. The vote was taken on the 4th of October, 1859, and stood: for the Constitution, 10,421; against the Constitution, 5,530. The "homestead clause" was submitted separately, and received 8,788 votes, as against 4,772. So the free people of Kansas adopted the Wyandotte Constitution. 117. Men of the Convention.— The Wyandotte Con- stitutional Convention has maintained a high place in the regard of the people of Kansas, on account of the strong and steadfast character of its membership, and the solid quality of its work. Its labors were followed, inside of two years, by the admission of Kansas as a State, and by the outbreak of a war in which the existence of the State, and of the Union of the States had to be maintained. In the councils of the civil state, and in its armed defense, the members of the Wyandotte Convention bore a high and honorable part. In the organization of the State's first Supreme Court, Samuel A. Kingman served as an Associate Justice, and after, as its Chief Justice. Benjamin F. Simpson was chosen the first Attorney- General of the State, and Samuel A. Stinson, another member, was elected to that office in 1861. Two of the framers of the Wyandotte Constitution, John J. Ingalls and Edmund G. Solon 0. Thacher. 80 HISTORY OF KANSAS. Ross, lived to serve Kansas in the Senate of the United States. John A. Martin, the youthful Secretary, was twice chosen Governor of the State. Two of the lawyers of the body, Solon O. Thacher and William C. McDowell, were chosen District Judges at the first election under the Con- stitution. These and many others served the State long and well in various places of responsibility, in the first and subse- quent Legislatures, on the bench, and in other capacities. W. R. Griffith, the first State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was a member of the Con- vention. When "war's wild deadly blast was blown," the members of this Convention rallied to the standard. James G. Blunt entered the service at once and became a major-general. John P. Slough became a brigadier- general, and Simpson, Ross, Hippie, Martin, Ritchie,. Burris, Nash, Werter R. Davis, and Middleton, officers and members of the Wyandotte Conven- tion, entered the army as line and field officers of the Kansas regiments. 118. Convention Stood for Law and Liberty.— The Wyandotte Convention contained few of those who had prior to its assemblage been recognized and conspicuous leaders in controlling public opinion in the Territory, but it framed a Constitution that met the Kansas idea of the rights of man, the protection of the home, the establishment of justice. A Kansas woman, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, attended daily the sessions of the Convention, and coun- seled for those provisions that protect the sacred rights of THE WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 81 the wife, the mother, the woman citizen. The spirit of the Wyandotte Constitution has been preserved. None of the amendments added to it have weakened or restricted its original purpose. It remains, after forty years, the charter of liberty, and the basis of law in Kansas. SUMMARY. 1. The Wyandotte Constitutioual Convention convened at Wyan- dotte, July 5, 1859. 2. The members of the Convention were for the first time from both political parties. 3. James M. Winchell was chosen President of the Convention. 4. The Constitution of Ohio was the model for the Constitution of Kansas. 5. The Sixth section stood for freedom. 6. The capital was located temporarily at Topeka. 7. The Constitution was accepted by the people October 4, 1859. Golden medal presented in 1874 to Mrs. Mary A. Brown, widow of John Brown, by Victor Hngo and otkers. CHAPTER XIII. THE TRAGEDY OF JOHN BROWN. 119. His Mig-ration and Settlement. — On the 2d of December, 1859, Jobu Brown was executed at Charlestown, Va. It was on the 23d of August, 1855, that John Brown, born at Torrington, Conn., May 9, 1800, a man then fifty- five years of age, started from Chicago, 111., with a heavily loaded one-horse wagon for Kansas. He walked beside his wagon, shot game for food, passed through Rock Island, Illinois; Iowa, and Missouri, aud reached a point on or near Pottawatomie creek, and eight miles from Osa- watomie, Kansas Territorj^ on the 6th of October, 1855. He settled in the neighborhood of his sons, John Brown, Jr., Salmon, Frederick, Jason, and Owen Brown, who had come to the Territory with their families early in the year. From the day of his arrival, his name became attached, for weal or woe, for glory or for shame, with that of Kan- sas. He was very generally known first as "Osawatomie Brown." His first public appearance in the John Brown. troublcs of the Territory appears to have been at Lawrence during the "Wakarusa War," in December, 1855. That disturbance was ended by a 82 THE TRAGEDY OF JOHN BEOWN. 83 "treaty," as it was called, but "Osawatomie Brown" wanted no treaty, and counseled resistance. On the 21st of May, 1856, when occurred the "sacking of Lawrence," and the destruction of the Free State hotel, and the Herald of Freedom and Free State newspaper offices, John Brown, his sons, and a son-in-law, were in Lawrence and witnessed all that happened, and on the night of the 24th of May, five Pro-slavery settlers on Pottawatomie creek were killed. This was the "Pottawatomie Massacre," over John Brown's complicity in which there has been much controversy. John Brown, when asked by his son, Jason Brown, who was horrified by the deed, "Father, did you have anything to do with that bloody affair on the Pottawatomie?" said, "I approved it." 120. John Brown in the Field. — From this time for- ward, John Brown may be said to have taken and kept the field. He seldom joined himself with what may be called the masses of the Free State party. He did not aspire to the civil or military leadership of that party, but, with a small and chosen company, he kept the wood and prairie; attacking and attacked. A few days after the "Potta- watomie Massacre," Captain H. Clay Pate, a Deputy United States Marshal, with a posse, captured John Brown, Jr., and Jason Brown. They were turned over to the United States troops and marched to Lecompton, prisoners. On the road they were treated with such severity that John Brown, Jr., was di-iven insane. On the 2d of June, Cap- tain John Brown, at Black Jack, captured Captain Pate and twenty- eight of his party, and held them prisoners till they were taken from him by United States troops, but treating them, as Captain Pate himself stated, with 84 HISTORY OF KANSAS. huraanitj'. On the 3()th of August occurred the second attack on Osawatomie. John Brown, with forty-two mei^, unavailingly fought the assailants, the town was burned, and his son Frederick was shot down in the road. 121. John Brown in Massachusetts. — In February of the next year, 1857, John Brown appeared before a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature and told of the suffering in Kansas as he had seen it, the burnings, the robberies, the murders, the houseless people, the fire, smoke and desolation. 122. John Brown in Missouri. — After this Eastern visit he appeared again in Kansas, made a raid into Missouri, brought out fourteen slaves, and went away to the North with them. The Governor of Missouri offered $3,000 reward for him, and the President of the United States $250. An attempt made to capture Brown on his northward way at Holton, Kan., was a failure. 123. The Parallels. — In the early days of January, there appeared in a Kansas paper, the Lawrence Bepublican, a communication signed by Brown, and usuall}'' called ' 'John Brown's Parallels." It was his farewell to Kansas. He recited his action in carrying off the slaves from Missouri, and contrasted it with the "Marais des Cygnes Massacre," which had happened in the May previous. When this article appeared. Brown had gone from Kansas. In March, 1859, he reached Canada with twelve fugitive slaves. The rest of his histor\^ belongs to that of the country and of the world. 124. The Defense. — One rainy Sunday night, at the Kennedy farm house, he said to his eighteen men: "Men, get on your arms, we will proceed to the Ferry," and so THE TRAGEDY OF JOHN BROWN. 85 they went. On the 1st of November, 1859, Captain Brown stood up in court at Charlestown, Virginia, to answer, if he might, why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, and he drew some further "parallels." "I have another objection, and that is, that it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner in which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, or mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right, and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worth}^ of reward rather than iDunishment. "This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or, at least, the New Testament. That teaches me that all things 'Whatsoever I would that men should do unto me, I should do even so to them. ' It teaches me further, 'to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.' I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country, whose rights are 86 HISTOKY OF KANSAS. disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit, so let it be done." 1 25. He Lives in the Hearts of Kansans.— In Kansas, the name of John Brown is held in remembrance in many ways, both by the old who knew his face, and the young who have but heard his name. In 1877 a marble monument was reared to his name at Osawatomie, near the old field of fearful odds. In the collection of the State Historical Society are preserved the garments he wore, and some of the last lines he is known to have written. A Kansas poet, Eugene F. Ware, has written of him: From boulevards, O'erlooking both Nyanzas, The statued bronze shall glitter in the sun, With rugged lettering: "John Brown, of Kansas; He dared begin; He lost. But losing, won." SUMMARY. 1. John Brown arrived in Kansas, October 6, 1855, a day memor- able in the chronicles of freedom. 2. John Brown active in attack and defense at and near Osa- watomie. 3. He pleads before a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature in behalf of the suffering of Kansas. 4. He took fourteen slaves from Missouri to the North. 5. In court at Charlestown, Va., he gave as his defense, "I believe that to have interfered as I have done, in behalf of the despised poor, was not wrong but right." 6. His memory in Kansas. ^ CHAPTER XIV. r; LAST OP TERRITORY AND FIRST OF STATE. 126. Action of Cong-ress.— The people of Kansas had spoken, bnt the will of the people was not yet to be consum- mated. The admission of Kansas as a Free State was yet to be opposed in the Senate of the United States. On the 11th of April, 1860, the House passed the bill admitting Kansas under the Wyandotte Constitution. The bill went to the Senate and was there rejected. On the 21st of January, 1861, Jefferson Davis and other Southern Senators announced their withdrawal from the Senate of the United States. On the same day William H. Seward called up in the Senate the bill for the admission of Kansas and it was passed, 36 to 16. It was then returned to the House and passed out of the regular order, 117 to 42, and on the 29tli of January, the Act was signed by James Buchanan, Presi- dent of the United States, and that January day was there- after "Kansas Day." 127. Action of Leg-islature.— The fifth and last Terri- torial Legislature of Kansas met at Lecompton on the 2d of January, 1860, and in spite of the protestsof Governor Medary , adjourned to Lawrence . The Governor and Secretary remain- ing at Lecompton, the Legislature adjourned sine die. The Governor called the Legislature to meet in special session at Lecompton. The Legislature met and passed a bill adjourn- ing to Lawrence; the Governor vetoed the bill and it was passed over his veto, and the Legislature assembled in 87 88 HISTORY OF KANSAS. Lawrence. The Legislature passed a bill abolishing slavery in the Territory. Governor Medary vetoed the bill and wrote a long message. The bill was passed over his veto. This was the last. Governor Medary resigned in December, 1860, and was tendered a public dinner at Lawrence, in token of the appreciation felt for the dignity, firmness and impar- tiality with which he had performed his duties. George M. Beebe, Secretary of the Territory, became acting Governor, in which capacity he continued until the inauguration of the State Government, February 9, 1861. 128. Territorial Governors. — With Samuel Medary ended the succession of Kansas Territorial Governors. They had nearly all been in a way distinguished men prior to their appearance in Kansas. Andrew H. Reeder, before his appointhient as Governor of Kansas, had never held office, but had been for years one of the most eminent lawyers in Pennsylvania. Wilson Shannon had been twice elected Gov- ernor of Ohio, and a Representative in Congress, and had served as American Minister to Mexico. John W. Geary was a business man and the youngest of the company, but had served in the war with Mexico. He became, after the Kansas days, a Major-Genera;l in the Union array and Governor of Pennsylvania. Robert J. Walker had been a United States Senator from Mississippi, and Secretary of the Treasury during President Polk's administration. During the Civil War Robert J. Walker was the devoted advocate of the Union, and negotiated the sale of $250,000,000 of United States bonds abroad. James W. Denver had represented California in Congress, and had served as Commissioner of Indian affairs. Samuel Medary was an editor of national reputation, and had served as Commissioner of Indian affairs. LAST OF TERRITORY AND FIRST OF STATE. 89 129. Pony Express.— In April, 1859, started from St. Joseph, Mo., and across Kansas, the first "Pony Express" for San Francisco, to span the gap which then existed between the Missouri river and the Pacific coast, when the settlers demanded better mail and express facilities. The plan was to carry the mail on horseback, and, as rapid time was required, relays were stationed every twenty-five miles, at which fresh horses and riders were kept. The mail carrier, mounted on a spirited Indian pony, would leave St. Joseph at break-neck speed for the first relay station, swing from his pony, vault into the saddle of another standing ready, and dash on toward the next station. At every third relay a fresh rider took the mail. Through rain and sunshine, night and day, over mountain and plain, the wild rider con- tinued solitary and alone. The distance, 1,996 miles, was made in ten daj's. Then came the Wells & Fargo Express, next the Butterfield Overland Stage Company, and then the great railways. 130. Lincoln Heralds the New Star.— The morning of the 30th of January, 1861, found Kansas a Free State of the Union. The first time the fiag of the United States wa:s raised over Independence Hall, with the added star of Kansas in the field, was on the 22d of February, 1861. In raising the flag. President-elect Lincoln said: "I am invited and called before you to participate in raising above Inde- pendence Hall the fiag of our country with an additional star upon it. I wish to call your attention to the fact that, under the blessing of God, each additional star added to that flag has given additional prosperity and happiness to this country." The star of Kansas was raised above the ^yhl^^hx