ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 00083 0973
1^
fhf^
vim
amertcan ComntonHjealti^is*
EDITED BY
HORACE E. SCUDDER.
W iMniiltude War
3tmmcan CommontDcaJti)^
KANSAS
THE PRELUDE TO THE WAR FOR
THE UNION
LEVERETT W. SPRING
PSOFESSOB IN ENOUSH LITEBATUBE Ut THE UNITEBSITT OF KANSAS
BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COIUPANY
New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street
(Cfe Ritoersitie IDrcas, CamfcriUoe
1885
County PubBc libraif
ft. Woyne, Inteo
Copyright, 1886,
Bt levebett w. spring.
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge;
Electrotyped and Printed by II. 0. Houghton & Co.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER L
i' , Paob
Pheliminary . ' 1
CHAPTER II.
The Field ... 17
CHAPTER III.
Driving Down Stakes ....,-. 24
CHAPTER IV.
Lessons in Popolar SovEREiGNxr . , .37
CHAPTER V.
Counter-Moves 59
CHAPTER VI.
War on the Wakarusa 79
CHAPTER VII.
Some Heavt Blows 102
CHAPTER VIII.
Dutch Henry's Crossing, Black Jack, and Osawat-
OMIE 137
CHAPTER IX.
Per Aspera 163
iv CONTENTS,
CHAPTER X.
Page
The Lecompton Struggle 209
CHAPTER XL
Jayhawking . 237
CHAPTER XII,
Close of the Terkitorial Period .... 257
CHAPTER Xm.
During the War for the Union .... 268
CHAPTER XIV.
Ad Astra 306
Bibliography 323
Index 329
PREFATORY NOTE.
The limits prescribed for this volume have
not permitted a minutely detailed account of the
Kansas struggle. I have endeavored to exhibit
the logic and spirit of "the first actual national
conflict between slaveholding and free-labor im-
migrants," rather than to attempt an exhaustive
collection of facts. Newspaper files, public doc-
uments, books, manuscripts that promised to
throw light upon the subject have been carefully
examined. A large amount of material has been
derived from personal intercourse with men of
all parties who helped to make the history of
Kansas. If my version of it should not prove
to be colored with the dyes in vogue twenty-
five years ago, I beg the reader to bear in mind
that there is too much truth in what Theodore
Parker said in 1856, at the anniversary of the
Anti-Slavery Society, concerning the Kansas busi-
ness, — "I know of no transaction in human
VI PREFATORY NOTE.
history which has been covered up with such
abundant lying, from the death of Ananias and
Sapphira down to the first nomination of Gov-
ernor Gardner."
The map which accompanies this vohime is
designed to illustrate the text, rather than to
exhibit the Kansas of to-day. It shows the chief
places of historic interest, — some of which no
longer exist.
L. W. S.
State University, Lawrence, Kansas,
September, 1885.
KANSAS.
CHAPTER I.
PRELI]NrnsrARY.
The eminent Union-savers, who devised and car-
ried through Congress the compromise of 1850,
fully expected that it would drive the question of
slavery totally and permanently out of national
politics. They drained their vocabulary in ap-
plauding that wonderful specific which involved
the enactment of a stringent fugitive slave law ;
the admission of California with a free-labor
constitution ; the organization of Utah and New
Mexico as territories on the basis of popular sov-
ereignty ; and the removal of slave marts from
the District of Columbia. When at last it received
the sanction of Congress, Henry Clay, dra\^^l
from retirement by the stress of public affairs to
undertake a mission of pacification, felicitated the
country upon the peace which quickly followed
and gave promise of permanence. General Lewis
Cass did not believe that " any party could now
be built up in relation to the question of slavery."
2 KANSAS.
He even contemplated the extraordinary self-de-
nial of making no more speeches about it. To put
the matter beyond recall ; to breathe against the
great disturber
" The hopeless word of — never to return,"
forty-four members of the thirty-first Congress,
including many leading politicians of the South,
solemnly and publicly pledged themselves to op-
pose the candidacy of any man for the ofl&ce of
president, vice-president, congressman, or state
legislator who should favor "a renewal of sec-
tional controversy upon the subject of slavery."
In 1852 Whig and Democratic conventions struck
hands in eulogizing the compromise, and resolved
that mankind should be dumb in regard to the
wrongs of the negro. The triumphant election
of Franklin Pierce as president turned upon the
popular conviction, that he was more unqualifiedly
in sympathy with the policy and measures of con-
ciliation than his illustrious rival.
But the drowsy syrups of compromise were
swallowed in vain. The conflict, which no genius
of skillful temporizing could effectually stifle,
after a brief and uneasy repose broke out afresh.
Slavery, so recently and so impressively banned
from the halls of national legislation, returned
thither almost before the applause that greeted its
exile had died away. In the Senate, December
4th, 1853, A. C. Dodge of Iowa offered a bill, of
the usual form and pui-port, for the organization of
PRELIMINARY. 3
Nebraska — a measure unsuccessfully attempted
during the preceding session. After considera-
tion by the Committee on Territories, of which
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was chairman, the
bill reappeared in the Senate January 4th, 1854,
variously amended and accompanied by an elabo-
rate disquisition upon the status of slavery in the
public domain.
Though Mr. Douglas did not leave his theo-
ries in doubt, and insisted that the compromise of
1850 reposed on principles of congressional non-
action in the territories, yet he shrank from defi-
nite, downright announcement that the compro-
mise of 1820 was at an end. By the terms of
that adjustment Missouri came into the Union as
a slave state, but all unoccupied portions of the
old Louisiana province north of the parallel 36°
30' were perpetually reserved for freedom. Jan-
uary 16th, Senator Dixon of Kentucky, dissatis-
fied with the hesitation of the bill, offered an
amendment that directly assailed the Missouri
restriction. Douglas finally espoused the bolder
policy — not without reluctance and uncomfort-
able augury. "I have become perfectly satisfied,"
he said to Dixon, " that it is my duty as a fair-
minded national statesman to cooperate with you
as proposed, in procuring the repeal of the ]\Iis-
souri Compromise restriction. It is due to the
South ; it is due to the constitution ; it is due to
4 KANSAS.
that character of consistency which I have here-
tofore labored to maintain. The repeal, if we
can effect it, will produce much stir in the free
states of the Union for a season. Every opprobri-
ous epithet will be applied to me. I shall prob-
ably be hung in effigy. . . . This proceeding may
end my political career. But actmg under the
sense of duty which actuates me, I am prepared
to make the sacrifice."
Douglas recalled the bill, which was subjected
to repeated and essential revisions. In its ulti-
mate form, as reported from the workshop of the
committee February 7th, it cancelled the Missouri
Compromise ; cut Nebraska into halves — styling
the southern section Kansas and the northern
Nebraska ; and enunciated the doctrine that citi-
zens of the United States, peopling the territories,
have plenary jurisdiction over all their domestic
institutions.
The debate which instantly sprang up on the
reappearance of the slavery question in Congress
— inferior to none of its predecessors in violence
or duration of parliamentary noise — fell below the
contest of 1850 in freshness of thought and ex-
pression. It affords no exhibition of scenical and
oratorical tableaux so memorable as when Cal-
houn, -wrecked in health but with intellect and
power of will still unbroken, listened to the
reading of his last speech, thickly sown with anx-
ieties and ill-boding ; as when Daniel Webster on
PRELTMTNARY. 5
the Tth of March rallied all the splendid forces of
his oratory and renown for an assault on the anti-
slavery movement — the tendency and outcome of
■which had been " not to enlarge, but to restrain,
not to set free but to bind faster, the slave popu-
lation of the South."
Douglas did not assume a new role by leading
the crusade against congressional restriction in
the teiritories. He bore a distinguished part in
the compromise of 1850, of which popular sover-
eignty constituted a prominent if not paramount
feature. Alexander H. Stephens, who has given
in his " War between the States " interesting de-
tails not generally known of its evolution through
private conferences between representative men of
the North and the South, argues with apparent
conclusiveness that popular sovereignty " was the
compromise of that year ; " that " the other asso-
ciated measures all depended upon it." Mr. Doug-
las, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Ter-
ritories, introduced bills for the organization of
Utah and New Mexico in harmony with the con-
ference adjustments. " A few weeks afterward," he
said in a speech March 3d, 1854, " the committee
of thirteen took these two bills and put a wafer
between them and reported them back to the
Senate as one bill, with some slight amendments.
One of these amendments was that the territorial
legislatures should not legislate upon the subject
of African slavery. I objected to that provision
upon the ground that it subverted the great prm-
ciple of self-government upon which the bill had
been originally framed by the territorial commit-
tee. On the first trial the Senate refused to strike
it out, but subsequently did so, after full debate,
in order to establish that principle as the rule of
action in territorial organizations." William H.
Seward, silent on this particular point during the
earlier stages of the Kansas struggle, substantially
admitted at a later period all that Stephens and
Douglas claimed. The pacification of 1850, he
repeatedly conceded, secured for Utah and New
Mexico "the right to choose freedom or slavery
when ripened into states."
While Douglas possessed some capital qualifi-
cations for leadership ; while his resources em-
braced remarkable endowments of rude, boister-
ous, half -educated force, of invincible self-as-
sertion, of insolent and unsurpassed dexterity
in the practices of forensic gladiatorship, yet he
was weak in those essential qualities and inspira-
tions that spring out of a profound ethical convic-
tion. In regard to the moral aspects of slavery,
which stirred the conscience of the civilized world,
he affected a phlegmatic, nonchalant sentiment —
an indifference whether it was voted up or down
in the territories.
Southern congressmen, reinforced by liberal
Democratic contingents from the North, rallied
with enthusiasm in support of popular sovereignty.
PRELIMINARY. 7
This doctrine had been uncordially received by all
parties on its appearance in the arena of politics.
" Well do I remember," said Thomas H. Benton
in the House of Representatives, April 25th, 1854,
" the day when it was first shown in the Senate.
Mark Antony did not better remember the day
when Csesar first put on that mantle through
which he was afterwards pierced with three and
twenty envious stabs. It was in the Senate in
1848, and was received ... as the quintessence of
nonsense." In 1854 Southern political sentiment
blew from an opposite quarter. Then Southern
leaders accepted popular sovereignty with enthu-
siasm as a providential expedient for the defense
and extension of their social institutions. They
argued that Congress had no legitimate compe-
tency to draw lines of restriction across the public
domain, which excluded one half of the country
from fair and equal occupancy of it ; that the
Missouri Compromise was in no sense a compact,
as it lacked every element of state and party con-
sent ; that the principle of popular sovereignty,
the right of communities, state and territorial, to
legislate for themselves, is distinctly and emphat-
ically an American doctrine ; that it was the issue
at stake in the colonial struggle with Great Brit-
ain and in the crisis of 1850; that the much-quoted
anti-slavery sentimentalities of the fathers of the
republic carry little weight because notable ad-
vances in sociology have been made since their day,
8 KANSAS.
because the domestic institutions of the South,
tested by a wider experience, are seen to embody
and define the great race-subordinations of nature.
Besides, the geographical makeshift failed to tran-
quillize sectional disturbances, as it furnished abo-
litionists a precedent for intermeddling. " It is a
disunion Ime," said Representative Caskie of Vir-
gmia. " No, sir," exclaimed Senator Butler of
South Carolina, " instead of Peace standing on the
Missouri line with healing in her wings and olive-
branches in her hands, it has been Electra with
snakes hissing from her head and the torch of dis-
cord in her hand."
The champions of popular sovereignty disa-
greed as to the time when the inhabitants of a
territory might constitutionally exercise the right
" to form and regulate their domestic institutions
in their own way." Current Southern construc-
tions, which the Supreme Court afterwards con-
firmed, maintained that nothing could be done
previous to the formation of a state constitution.
Douglas insisted, on the contrary, that the peo[)le
could act legally and effectively whenever they
pleased. Among the questions propounded to
him by Abraham Lincoln in the joint debates of
1858, there was one which touched this point.
Douglas replied that as slavery could not exist a
day nor an hour anywhere, unless supported by
local police regulations which the territorial legis-
lature must establish, the people need only elect
PRELIMINARY. 9
anti-slavery representatives effectually to balk the
introduction of it, whatever course the Supreme
Court might pursue. In other words, decisions of
the highest legal tribunal could be successfully
evaded.
Congressional opposition to the Kansas-Ne-
braska legislation marshaled chiefly under three
leaders, — Sumner, Chase, and Seward. Other
well-known men, like Samuel Houston, John Bell,
Thomas H. Benton, and Edward Everett, were
among the dissenters ; but the trio, inferior to
none of their associates in ability, and representa-
tive of a more radical antagonism to slavery than
was in repute among them, passed easily and nat-
urally into leadership.
In Charles Sumner, brilliant, scholarly, persist-
ent, courageous, impassioned, at home in tasks of
rhetoric rather than of statesmanship, — suffusing
his opinions with personal intensities that some-
times passed over into intolerance, — the fiercer,
extremer phases of anti-slaveryism found fitting
utterance.
Salmon P. Chase, a man of large, roundabout,
intellectual mould, came up out of Democratic
antecedents, from the influence of which he was
never wholly emancipated. Persuaded that the
Whigs could not be roused to take the field
against Southern encroachments, he purposed to
recruit the Democratic party for that service.
The dream proved sufficiently unrealizable. Nei-
10 KANSAS.
ther Whigs nor Democrats were prepared to en-
list in anti-slavery enterprises. Despairing of the
older parties if abandoned to the impulse of in-
clination and bias, he threw himself into the Free-
Soil movement with an expectation of holding
them to the slavery problem by some balance-of-
power tactics. Though Chase's radicalism did
not fall much below Sumner's theoretically, yet
a cooler, more judicial and practical temperament
gave it less violent and exasperating tongue.
William H. Seward did not rank himself among
abolitionists, though in the debate of 1850 he
pronounced " all legislative compromises radically
wrong and essentially vicious," and enunciated the
doctrine of a higher law in which constitutions as
well as statutes must be read, — sentunents that
naturally would have driven him into their camp.
But a cool, sagacious conservatism, a corrective,
unfanatical habit of looking before and after, qual-
ified his radicalism and held it down to consti-
tutional methods. He was content to let slavery
alone so long as it remained within the ring-fence
of stipulated boundaries. Keen, adroit, felicitous
in diction, endued with unmistakable intuitions of
statesmanship, at times soaring into regions of
philosophico-poetic inspiration, he was surpassed
by no contemporary politician in comprehension
of the present or in forecast of the future.
Thpse men and their coadjutors, opponents of
the Kansas-Ntbraska bill, protested that the cir-
PRELIMINARY. 11
cumstances under which the restrictive Missouri
legislation originated, the sanction of Monroe's
administration in which Calhoun figured, the re-
peated acts of congressional recognition and re-
affirmation, all conspired to clothe it with the
moral force of a constitutional provision. That
the latest pacification wrecked the compact of
thirty years before they indignantly denied. " It
is said," remarked Benton of Missouri, "that the
measures of 1850 superseded this compromise of
1820. ... If it was repealed in 1850, why do it
over again in 1854 ? Why kill the dead ? " There
was voluminous argument that slavery existed
by virtue of local legislation only, which had no
extra-state validity ; that in the territories, under-
age wards of the general government for whom no
inconsiderable fraction of their civil machinery is
provided arbitrarily and without consultation,
popular sovereignty in the nature of things must
be fragmentary and delusive ; that the federal con-
stitution, interpreted by the utterances and meas-
ures of the men who made it, is not committed to
slavery, but dips unmistakably toward liberty.
The possible, nay probable consequences of a war
upon the Missouri settlement — consequences even
gathering, darkening, turmoiling,
" As clouds grow on the blast,
Like tower-crowned giants striding fast " —
■were luridly set forth. Unspeakable calamities
would follow this profane attempt to remove an-
12 KANSAS.
cient land-marks. " It will light up a fire in the
country," said Mr. Chase, with a touch of prophecy
in his words, " which may consume those who
kindled it."
The debate, which began in January and ter-
minated on the morning of May 26th with a con-
tinuous discussion in the Senate of thirteen hours,
was emphatically an affair in which there were
" blows to take as well as blows to give." How-
ever triumphant the anti-slavery argument may
have been along ethical and humanitarian lines, it
was not equally successful in other parts of the
field. The Missouri Compromise hinged upon de-
grees of latitude and longitude, upon the principle
of parceling unorganized portions of the country
between the North and the South. It was not, to
say the least, an ideal basis of settlement for ques-
tions surcharged with gravest moral considera-
tions. That the enemies of slavery in 1848 and
again in 1850 should have declined to expand "the
time-honored and venerated policy of a geograph-
ical line " into a rule of universal application is not
surprising. The past of the Missouri Compromise
must not be disturbed, but they moved heaven
and earth to hedge it out of an enlarged future.
In fact, their creed of territorial philosophy was
— no more slave states. The coraproiuise of 1850,
however, rejected all articles of restriction, and
sanctioned the principle of popular sovereignty.
The adoption of a new policy, applying to terri-
PRELIMINARY. 13
tories in the main but not literally, and absolutely
untouched by the elder agreement, may not have
technically snuffed out the compact of 1820,
though such eminent legal authorities as Rufus
Choate and Daniel Webster are quoted in the
affirmative. Yet, practically, the effect of it
could only be to overlay and obliterate the Mis-
souri bargain. Mr. Douglas, in the bill organiz-
ing Kansas and Nebraska, simply followed the
latest precedent.
The congressional pother, which resulted in the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill by a vote of
thirty-seven ayes to fourteen nays in the Senate
and of one himdred and thirteen ayes to one hun-
dred nays in the House of Representatives, roused
intense excitement throughout the North, where
popular sovereignty had an evil, pro-slavery repu-
tation. Conventions, town-meetings, state legis-
latures denounced the repeal of the Missouri Com-
promise. Clergymen in great numbers and of all
denominations swelled the chorus of protest, a
spectacle that caused much unfriendly comment
in conservative quarters. "Alas, alas," lamented
William M. Tweed of New York in the House
of Representatives, " such a profanation of the
American pulpit was never before known. The
head of the devout follower droops." Northern
congressmen who befriended the Nebraska busi-
ness generally found life a burden. In newspa-
})eis of the day lists of these reprobates appeared
14 KANSAS.
bordered with black lines and annotated with un-
eulogizing comments. Mr. Douglas's rueful pre-
monition that storms of indignation and wrath
would assail him was signally fulfilled. '' I could
then travel," he said in an address at Spring-
field, Illinois, during the summer of 1858, " from
Boston to Chicago by the light of my own effi-
gies."
The immediate political consequences of the
Kansas-Nebraska agitation were startling. It ut-
terly overthrew the Whig party and reduced the
Democratic party from national to sectional rank.
" Where are the men of the North," asked Repre-
sentative English of Indiana during the Lecomp-
ton debate in 1858, " who voted for the Kansas-
Nebraska bill in this House ? I look around this
hall in vain for their familiar faces. The gentle-
man from Pennsylvania and myself . . . are the
only persons voting for the bill who have retained
seats on this floor. And in the Senate I am told
but one Northern man who voted for it has been
reelected. Sir, the passage of that bill was fol-
lowed by an overwhelming defeat of the Democ-
racy in all the Northern States."
But to these destructive and crippling tenden-
cies a remarkable antithesis appeared, in the in-
tegration of Northern anti-slavery sentiment that
ensued. The pioneers of abolitionism purposely
and persistently devoted themselves to tasks of
agitation — to the creation of anti-slavery senti-
PRELIMINAMY. 15
ment in the North — a measure successfully prose-
cuted in the face of the most formidable difficul-
ties — and to the exasperation of the South, " so
that every step she takes, in her blindness, is one
step more toward ruin." Statesmen they were
in the unpartisan, ethical, future-moulding sense
of that word — politicians they declined to be.
By the very necessities of their mission they
were dedicated to comparative isolation — solitary
knights bestriding
" The winged Hippogriff, Reform."
They did not melt into the great popular move-
ments which their personal heroism, their bril-
liancy of newspaper and platform utterance, their
genius of moral intuition had made possible.
Free-Soilism is the masterpiece of later abolition-
ists, who, declining to abjure politics, entered the
arena of party-building ; but Free-Soilism reached
its highest uses in offering a convenient rallying
point for the great Northern uprising. That
memorable outburst of moral indignation against
the slave-oligarchy was no fire of straw. The
comparatively insignificant anti-slavery vote cast
in 1852 swelled, under its powerful stimulus, to
a total in 1856 of more than thirteen hundred
thousand. From this relative and partial success
the mighty revolution stormed on to a complete
triumph in the presidential election of 1860.
Beyond that decisive event lie the tremendous
10 KANSAS.
years of war for the Union. " We are on the eve
of a great national transaction," said Mr. Seward,
in the concluding hours of the Kansas-Nebraska
debate, — "a transaction that will close a cycle
in the history of our country."
CHAPTER II.
THE FIELD.
The territory of Kansas extended westward
from Missouri to the summit of the Rocky Moun-
tains and northward from the thirty- seventh to
the fortieth parallel, embracing an area of about
one hundred and twenty - six thousand square
miles. The history of this vast, mid-continent re-
gion belongs mainly to yesterday. Barely the
life-period of a single generation has elapsed since
civilization touched it otherwise than casually and
fugitively.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado is reputed to be
the first European who visited Kansas. In 1540
he set out from Mexico with a small army of
Spaniards and Indians to seize Cibola, a province
situated somewhere in New Mexico, and rumored
to abound in magnificent cities which the prose
of actual investigation discredited into a few
wretched hamlets.
Coronado's disappointments did not end at Ci-
bola. Notwithstanding that dissuasive experience,
he fell into the toils of a smooth-tongued fabling
Indian nicknamed the Turk, " on account of his
2
18 ■ KANSAS.
resemblance to the people of that nation," a ras-
cal who vapored about a country of remarkable
wealth and splendor lying far eastward across the
plains and called Quivera.
In the spring of 1541 the credulous Spaniard
Ijroke camp at Tiguex, a province of the Rio
Grande valley, near the mouth of the Puerco,
to which he retired after a bootless exploration
of Cibola, and began a new quest. In thirty-seven
days he reached the Arkansas. Here provisions
began to fail, and the bulk of the exjDedition re-
traced its steps to New Mexico. The route of
Coronado, who pushed on with a few picked men,
is bestead with uncertainties. Nothing better can
be offered in regard to it than conjectures more or
less plausible. He appears to have advanced from
southwestern Kansas " through mighty plains and
sandy heaths, smooth and wearisome and bare of
wood. . . . All that way the plains are as full of
crook back oxen as the mountain Serena in Spain
is of sheep. . . . They were a great succor for the
hunger and want of bread which our people stood
in. One day it rained in that plain a great shower
of hail, as big as oranges, which caused many
tears, weaknesses, and vows." The expedition
probably called a halt in northeastern Kansas
near the Nebraska line. One point only is abso-
lutely clear — Coronado had been duped again.
No rich spoils, no flamboyant fervors of architec-
ture, were discovered ; no imperial cities
THE FIELD. 19
" Such as vision
Builds from the purple crags and silver towers
Of battlemented cloud, as in derision
Of kingliesfc masonry."
It is doubtful whether any single feature of the
expedition afforded the Spaniards more retrospec-
tive satisfaction than the fate of the tricky Turk.
Confessing that he had lured them into the desert
to accomplish their ruin, he was promptly and it
may be presumed enthusiastically strangled. This
first reconnaissance of civilization upon Kansas
achieved nothing of practical importance.
After the departure of Coronado no Europeans
visited Kansas for an interval of more than a hun-
dred and seventy-five years. Meanwhile Louisi-
ana, a vast territory vaguely denominated as the
region drained by the Mississippi and its affluents,
passed into the possession of France. Of this
enormous tract Kansas, with the exception of some
unimportant territorial additions from the Texas
cession of 1850, formed a portion. It was not
until 1719 that Frenchmen found their way thi-
ther. In that year M. du Tissenet, acting under
orders of M. de Bienville, governor of Louisiana,
made a hasty tour of exploration, found the coun-
try "beautiful and well timbered," native war-
riors "stout, well made and great," lead mines
"abundant, . . . and erected a column with the
arras of the king placed upon it 27th of Septem-
ber, 1719."
This cursory and inconsequential visit alarmed
20 KANSAS.
the Spaniards. In New Mexico there was a
movement to save Kansas from the Frenchmen.
An armed caravan left Santa Fe in 1721 on this
errand, but it was ill-managed, and blundered into
total destruction.
To guard against danger from New Mexico in
the future, the French erected in 1722-23 a forti-
fication called Fort Orleans, upon an island in the
Missouri River near the mouth of the Osage, and
M. de Bourgmont was put in command. During
the following year Bourgmont made an extended
tour in Kansas. With the various Indian tribes
who inhabited the region he assiduously cultivated
pacific relations. There were receptions, speeches,
pipe-smokings, distributions of presents, peace-
dances, and general assurances of profound and
mutual regard. It is singular that the finale
of this much-protesting intercourse should have
been a tragedy of utter completeness and atrocity,
but such is the case. In 1725 Fort Orleans was
captured by Kansas savages and the garrison
slaughtered. Details are wholly unknown, as not
a white man survived to recount the story, and the
stolid, close-mouthed Indian never broke silence.
The massacre effectually blighted the enthu-
siasm of Frenchmen for explorations in Kansas.
Indeed, from 1725 until the United States pur-
chased it of Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1803, the ter-
ritory dropped almost completely out of the knowl-
edge of mankind — glided back into the blankness
THE FIELD. 21
and vacuity of a terra incognita. The expeditions
of Lewis and Clark in 1804-06, and of Lieutenant
Z. M. Pike in 1806-07, furnish almost the ear-
liest scientific and trustworthy information. A
portion of it was traversed in 1819-20 by a detach-
ment of Major S. H. Long's party. To these
early American explorers Kansas hardly present-
ed an attractive or promising appearance. The
beautiful prairies of the eastern border,
" Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sunshine,"
kindled their enthusiasm, but in the interior and
to the westward they found a hopeless reach of
desert, well enough for Indians — for white men
untenantable. Lieutenant Pike considered " the
borders of the Arkansaw river . . . tke paradise
(terrestrial) of our territories for the wandering
savages. ... I believe there are buffalo, elk, and
deer sufficient on the banks of the Arkansaw alone,
if used without waste, to feed all the savages in
the United States territory one century." But
the region could not support white men in large
numbers even along " the rivers Kanses, La Platte,
Arkansaw and their branches. . . . The wood now
in the country would not be sufficient for a mod-
erate share of population more than fifteen years,
and then it would be out of the question to think
of using any of it in manufactories, consequently
their houses would be built entirely of mud-brick
(like those of New Spain) or of the brick manufac-
22 KANSAS.
tured with fire. But possibly time may make dis-
coveries of coal mines, -which would render the
country habitable."
With the establishment of American occupancy
an era of migration set in through Kansas toward
the Pacific slope — a migration at first slender,
capricious, and without system, but acquiring ulti-
mately volume, method, and persistence sufficient
to imprint clear-cut trails sheer across the mighty
plains. Traders, eager to seize upon new and in-
viting avenues of commerce ; travelers, ambitious
to compel the half unknown world beyond the
Missouri to yield up its secrets ; Kearney's sol-
diers, with greedy eyes fixed on New Mexico ; Mor-
mons, fleeing into the wilderness before the wrath
of civilization ; gold-hunters, aflame with visions
of sudden wealth among the mines of California,
— such was the heterogeneous, intermittent mob
that trooped across Kansas during the years im-
mediately preceding the Kansas-Nebraska legisla-
tion.
At the time of organization the territory was an
Indian reservation, inhabited by about a score of
native and imported tribes, among which a white
population of six or seven hundred civilians had
drifted, who congregated mainly around the mili-
tary stations, the trading posts, and the half dozen
denominational mission schools. The Kansas-Ne-
braska bill ejected the Indians from their homes
and sent them elsewhere. This consideration was
THE FIELD. 23
not overlooked by its opponents. Edward Everett
protested in polished phrase. Senator Bell of Ten-
nessee denounced federal unfaith in the matter of
Indian treaties, which " set aside at our discretion
and trample under foot the most explicit and sol-
emn guarantees." General Sam Houston made
an impassioned plea in behalf of Indian rights,
but the spoliating measure could not be arrested.
The aborigines were successfully bargained out
of the way. Some of them removed at once, and
others more leisurely.
Thus in the heart of the nation there was staked
off a great territory for experiments in popular
sovereignty as a Union-saving expedient, a terri-
tory substantially unhistoried, with no intrusive,
meddlesome past that could mar the trial. Thither
hurried partisans of the North and South — repre-
sentatives of incompatible civilizations — to take
a hand in the impending struggle. It was a cross-
purposed and variorum migration, — hirelings, ad-
venturers, blatherskites, fanatics, reformers, phi-
lanthropists, patriots. That such a medley of
humanity, recruited from Moosehead Lake to the
Rio Grande, responsive to all the sectional ani-
mosities which distracted and imperiled the coun-
try, conscious after some vague sort that great
destinies might hinge upon their mission, would
transform the wilderness of Kansas into an imme-
diate Utopia was hardly to be anticipated.
" So foul a skv clears not without a storm."
CHAPTER III.
DEIYTNG DOWN STAKES.
Western Missouri, containing in 1854 fifty-
thousand slaves, worth at a moderate valuation
twenty-five millions of dollars, was fully awake
to the momentous social and political perils that
lurked in the compromise of 1820. Throughout
that region an imeasy, apprehensive, feverish state
of affairs existed. The declaration of a large and
representative pro-slaveiy convention at Lexing-
ton, Missouri, in July, 1855, that "the enforce-
ment of the restriction in the settlement of Kansas
was virtually the abolition of slavery in Missouri,"
gave formal expression to convictions that had
gradually become general.
Leadership in these graver exigencies fell mainly
upon David R. Atchison, senator from Missouri
during the years 1841-55, a man of commanding
presence, social, generous, passionate, a stump
orator of no mean order. " Senator Atchison
. . . may be considered the exponent of South-
ern opinion," said " Lynceus " in " Letters for
the People on the Present Crisis," writing at
St. Louis, September 7, 1853. " In speeches he
has been making in various portions of the State
DRIVING DOWN STAKES. 25
he is reported as taking the ground . . . that
he will fight the admission of Nebraska unless it
. . . shall come in as a slave territory, or, at
least, with the question left open and all done
to foster slavery that is possible." Atchison de-
nounced the restriction, and painted with a heavy
brush the calamities that would follow if aboli-
tionists should get a footing in Kansas. On this
point the Lexington convention faithfully echoed
his sentiments — "a horde of our western savages
with avowed purposes of destruction would be
less formidable neighbors." Atchison thought
that the interests of Missouri required nothing
beyond formal repeal of the offensive legislation
which laid restrictions upon slavery. In that
event Missouri would be able to take care of her-
self, and of Kansas also.
The Missouri border abounded in igneous and
explosive materials. Typical Southern folk of
the better grade, intelligent, hospitable, courteous,
high-minded, were not wanting. Yet other sorts
of humanity had large representation : numerous
and unhappy varieties of " white trash," demoral-
ized veterans of the Mexican war, adventurers
graduated from the plains or the mountains of Col-
orado or the mining camps of the Pacific coast,
— thoughtless, passionate, whiskey-guzzling, guf-
fawing, unconventional men
" Who meeting Caesar's self, would slap his back,
Call him ' Old horse ' aud challeii;?e to a drink."
26 KANSAS.
The border experienced a boisterous revival of
pro-slaveryism, and the reputation of abolitionists,
never very high thereabouts, sank into utter dis-
credit.
No sooner had President Pierce signed the
Kansas-Nebraska bill than companies of Missou-
rians pushed into Kansas and seized upon exten-
sive tracts of the best lands, not waiting, in some
cases, for the Indians to get out of the way. A
convenient simplicity marked their proceedings.
The laws of preemption, literally interpreted, re-
quired the erection of cabins and periods of actual
residence : but exigencies are unfriendly to restric-
tive and dilatoiy technicalities. At all events,
they must not be allowed to imperil great public
interests. That the squatter should simply notch
a few trees in evidence of occupancy, or arrange
half-a-dozen rails upon the ground and call it a
cabin, or post a scrawl claiming proprietorship and
threatening to shoot intcrmeddlers at sight, seems
to have been all that was considered absolutely
essential. These energetic first-comers were mostly
amateur immigrants, — men who bestirred them-
selves in the interest of slavery rather than at the
solicitation of personal concerns, who proposed to
reside in Missouri, but to vote and fight in Kansas
should necessity arise for such duality.
On the 10th of June, 1854, more than six weeks
before the arrival of the earliest New England
colony, though disquieting rumors of invasion
DRIVING DOWN STAKES. 27
from the East had begun to be rife, there was
a convention of pro-slavery men at Salt Creek
Valley to discuss territorial affairs. The senti-
ments of this initial Kansas convention, — forerun-
ner of an enormous brood of partisan meetings, —
sentiments loudly chorused by the whole pack of
border newspapers, took form in a series of twelve
resolutions which, in addition to considerable
frank advice for the benefit of abolitionists, an-
nounced that slavery already existed in Kansas,
and urged its friends to lose no time in strength-
ening and extending it to the utmost.
Missouri leaders perceived the necessity and the
expediency of immediately flooding Kansas with
slaves. They believed at that time and still be-
lieve, that this strategy, courageously and persist-
ently prosecuted, would have won the day. Dur-
ing the winter of 1854-55, B. F. Stringfellow
visited Washington in the interest of an extensive
slave-colonization. He unfolded the project in a
conference of prominent Southern congressmen,
and showed that servile labor could not be less suc-
cessful in Kansas than in Missouri, a notably
prosperous commonwealth ; that the territorial
crisis called as loudly for negroes as for voters.
" Two thousand slaves," urged Stringfellow, " ac-
tually lodged in Kansas will make a slave state
out of it. Once fairly there, nobody will disturb
them." This not unpromising scheme elicited
ample pledges of cooperation, not one of which
was ever redeemed.
28 KANSAS.
Several pro-slavery towns sprang up in the terri-
tory, situated principally on the Missouri River be-
tween Kansas City and the Nebraska line: Kicka-
poo, a savage, implacable little burg, containing in
its palmiest days twenty-five or thirty cabins, now
utterly collapsed ; Atchison, christened in honor of
the Missouri senator, second only to Kickapoo in
political venom, but unlike that almost expunged
hamlet surviving its early mistakes and growing
into the most important town in northeastern
Kansas; Leavenworth, ruled mainly though not
wholly by Southern sentiment, which more than
once maddened into deeds of brutal violence, sur-
passing all Kansas rivals, during the first quarter
century of its history, in population and commer-
cial importance ; Lecompton, somewhat inland,
political headquarters of the pro-slaverj'^ pfii'ty,
blighted in its downfall, rudely awakened from
brilliant dreams to the realities of a ragged,
straggling frontier village.
Early in the summer of 1854, rumors that pow-
erful capitalized societies were forming in New
England for the purpose of sending anti-slavery
colonies to Kansas alarmed the people of western
Missouri, and suggested doubts whether the re-
peal of the old restrictive compromise legislation
would eventually prove as fortunate for their in-
terests as thej-^ dreamed. They had looked upon
Kansas as an easy, inevitable prey, a likelihood
almost universally conceded throughout the North-
DRIVING DOWN STAKES. 29
ern States. " The fate of Kansas was sealed," said
" The Liberator " of July 13th, 1855, " the very
moment the Missouri Compromise was repealed."
In the midst of general despondency it oc-
curred to Eli Thayer, of Worcester, Massachusetts,
that the public had misread the situation ; that
apparent disasters were only successes disguised ;
that the calamities befallen the anti-slavery cause
in Congress might be retrieved by tactics of organ-
ized emigration, — a contest in which the South-
ern oligarchy, much-cumbered and heavily shod,
could not cope with freedom in its nimbler move-
ments. While the congressional struggle was in
progress, before the fate of the Kansas-Nebraska
bill had been settled, he wrote out a constitution
for the " Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company "
and procured a legislative charter. Thayer orig-
inally contemplated a formidable corporation,
with a capital of five millions of dollars, by which
he expected to control migration — the vast west-
ering flux of natives as well as foreigners — in the
interest of liberty ; to marshal it against the ag-
gressions of the South ; to secure the territories in
the first place, and then turn his revolutionizing
agencies upon the slave states themselves.
The public declined to embark in this wholesale
and magnificent project. Abolitionists repudiated
expedients of colonization as " false in principle,"
and able to compass at best only " a transplanted
Massachusetts," — a futile and unworthy consum-
30 KANSAS.
mation, since even " the original Massachusetts has
been tried and found wanting," — while the gen-
eral skepticism took practical and disastrous shape
in failure of contributions. The enterprise was
verging toward financial collapse when Amos A.
Lawrence, of Boston, came to the rescue and ad-
vanced out of his own pocket the funds necessary
to put life into it.
No organization was ever effected under the
first charter. It saddled objectionable monetary
liabilities upon the individuals who might associ-
ate under it, and was abandoned. The whole busi-
ness then passed into the hands of Thayer, Law-
rence, and J. M. S. Williams, who were consti-
tuted trustees, and managed affairs in a half per-
sonal fashion until February, 1855, when a second
charter was obtained and an association formed
early in March with slightly rephrased title —
" The New England Emigrant Aid Company " —
and with John Carter Brown, of Providence, Rhode
Island, as president. In the conduct of the com-
pany, the trustees who bridged the interval be-
tween the first and second charters continued to
be a chief directive and inspirational force. Mr.
Thayer preached the gospel of organized emigra-
tion with tireless and successful enthusiasm, while
Mr. Lawrence discharged the burdensome but all-
important duties of treasurer. Among the twenty
original directors were Dr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., John
Lowell, and William B. Spooner, Boston ; J. P.
DRIVING DOWN STAKES. 31
Williston, Northampton ; Charles H. Bigelow,
Lawrence, and Nathan Durfee, Fall River. The
list of directors was subsequently enlarged to
thirty-eight, and included the additional names of
Dr. S. G. Howe, Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Bos-
ton ; George L. Stearns, Medford ; Horace Bush-
nell, Hartford, Connecticut ; Prof. Benj. Silliman,
Sr., New Haven, Connecticut ; and Moses H. Grin-
nell, New York. The company in its reorganized
shape receded, at least temporarily, from all whole-
sale projects, and devoted itself to the problem of
planting free-labor towns in Kansas.
The facilities offered by the Boston organiza-
tion, in addition to the obvious advantages of as-
sociated effort, were reduction in cost of trans-
portation, oversight by competent conductors, in-
vestments of capital in mills, hotels, and other
improvements which would mitigate and abbrevi-
ate the hardships of pioneering. Though the de-
sign of the organization was frankly avowed, yet
anybody, whether in sympathy with its mission or
not, might freely avail himself of its advantages.
The obligations of the emigrants who went to
Kansas under its wing were wholly implied and
informal. Assuredly it offered no premium for
extremer types of anti-slavery men. On the con-
trary, a Ilunkerish strain of conservatism prevailed
among the colonists which naturally provoked crit-
icism. " The Liberator " of June 1st, 1855, speak-
ing of the personnel of the companies already sent
32 KANSAS.
on to Kansas, remarked that " hardly a single
abolitionist can be found among all who have mi-
grated to that country. . . . Before they emi-
grated they gave little or no countenance to the
anti-slavery cause at home. ... If they had no
pluck here what could rationally be expected of
them in the immediate presence of the demoniacal
spirit of slavery ? ... To place any reliance on
their anti-slavery zeal or courage is to lean upon a
broken staff."
The number of colonists who reached Kansas
over the lines of the Emigrant Aid Company was
not large. During the summer and autumn of
1854 five companies were dispatched, which com-
prised a total of seven hundred and fifty souls.
From the opening of na\'igation on the Missouri
River in 1855 until July as many more companies
were fitted out, though the numbers fell off to six
hundred and thirty-five. About one hundred and
forty thousand dollars were expended first and
last in prosecution of Kansas colonization.
But the work of the Boston organization cannot
be adequately exhibited by arithmetical com-
putations. A vital, capital part of it lay in spheres
where mathematics are ineffectual — lay in its
alighting upon a feasible . method, which was
copied far and wide, of dealing with a grave polit-
ical emergency, and in the backing of social and
monetary prestige that it secured for the unknown
pioneers at the front.
DRIVING DOWN STAKES. 33
If volume and bitterness of criticism afford any
trustworthy standard by which its efficiency may
be tested, the Emigrant Aid Company played no
subordinate part in the Kansas struggle. Doug-
las declared that popular sovereignty was struck
down " by unholy combinations in New England."
In the opinion of Senator J. A. Bayard, of Dela-
ware, " whatever evil or loss or suffering or injury
may result to Kansas, or to the United States at
large, is attributable as a primary cause to the ac-
tion of the Emigrant Aid Society of Massachu-
setts." Senator Green, of Missouri, said in 1861,
long after the Kansas question had been practi-
cally settled, that " but for the hot-bed plants that
have been planted in Kansas through the instru-
mentality of the Emigrant Aid Society, Kansas
would have been with Missouri this day."
The principal representative of the Massachu-
setts corporation in Kansas — the man who sus-
tained toward it the most intimate and confiden-
tial relations, and who mainly shaped its politico-
financial policy in the territory — was Dr. Charles
Robinson, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. To him
Kansas was not wholly an unknown region when
the Emigrant Aid Company commissioned him as
its agent. In 1849 he passed across it on an over-
land trip to California, and was favorably im-
pressed with the possibilities of the country. He
participated rather prominently in the stormy
experiences through which California passed in
34 KANSAS.
1849-51 — experiences which Kansas subsequently
repeated in many of their salient features. Both
contests sprang up on the border, abounded in
anomalies and expedients for which little prece-
dent could be cited, and exhibited all the law-
less, blustering, open-throated peculiarities that
distinguish such events. Not only were the types
and sorts of humanity involved substantially iden-
tical, but also, in a degree worthy of passing notice,
there was repetition among the actors. Missou-
rians in particular returned betimes from the Pa-
cific coast to mingle in a fray nearer home. Rob-
inson learned an effective lesson in the California
school for the Kansas epoch.
The Emigrant Aid Company planted a hand-
ful of towns in the territory — Hampden, which
disappeared after a little, Wabaunsee, Osawato-
mie, Manhattan, Topeka, and Lawrence. Of
these anti - slavery villages the oldest, and for a
time the chief, was Lawrence. Upon the first
day of August, 1854, the pioneer party, twenty-
nine in number, sent out by the Boston society,
reached the spot where that town was afterwards
built. The directions given to C. H. Branscomb,
conductor of tlie company, were, " proceed through
the Shawnee Reservation and select the first eli-
gible site on the south side of the Kansas River."
Six weeks later a second expedition of one hun-
dred and fourteen members arrived. In its ear-
liest and rudimentary stage the village was merely
DRIVING DOWN STAKES. 35
a little collection of tents. Then followed, in due
time, queer, grass-thatclied huts, copied appar-
ently from African kraal village models, and rude,
squat, mud-plastered log-cabins, beyond which the
line of territorial architecture advanced slowly
and with difficulty.
What the new village should be called was a
matter of some discussion. For a while it had
various names — Wakarusa, New Boston, Yankee
Town. Citizens of Worcester, Massachusetts, of-
fered a librai'y if it should be christened Worces-
ter. The name Lawrence was finally agreed upon
in honor of the treasurer of the Emigrant Aid
Company. " I think I was the first to suggest your
name for the city," Dr. Robinson wrote Mr. Law-
rence October 16th, 1854 ; " though I have never
urged it at all, as I wished every person to be sat-
isfied in his own mind. . . . Most of our people
are very much attached to it, and after I explained
your course in connection with the enterprise
. . . there was much enthusiasm manifested. . . .
A committee has been chosen to give a formal
notice of the naming of the city."
It was unavoidable that a portion of the immi-
grants fetched from New England to the outposts
of civilization, set down amidst the privations and
discomforts of pioneering and in the neighborhood
of powerful pro-slavery communities — muttevings
of great social disturbances singing in the upper
air and threatening to add unknown elements of
36 KANSAS.
peril to the hardships of tlie wilderness — should
give way to homesickness and despair. They had
dipped their hopes in the magic dyes of the im-
agination, had pictured to themselves some re-
stored paradise on the wonderland plains of Kan-
sas ; and when the raw, crude, belligerent reality
dawned upon them, they shook the dust of the
territory from their feet and returned, disgusted
with the border, to their old homes. But the
great majority of colonists, not only from New
England but also from other Northern States, —
men and women little given to irresolution, cow-
ardice, or panic, ruled by exacter, less romantic
ideas, — were not unprepared to meet the trials
of the wilderness and the inevitable hostility of
Missouri.
CHAPTER IV.
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY.
The first territorial governor of Kansas was An-
drew H. Reader, of Pennsylvania, a mild, easy,
rhetorical, admirable man, of good intellectual
parts, well reputed as a lawyer, a national demo-
crat, and an enthusiastic advocate of popular sov-
ereignty. A complete assortment of customary
officials — judges, secretaries, marshals, surveyors,
land commissioners — was fitted out in Washing-
ton. One or two gentlemen of leisure, reckoning,
though wholly without their host, on a dearth of
local candidates, accompanied these dignitaries
with design of standing for any desirable office
the territory might offer.
Reeder arrived at Fort Leavenworth October
7th, where a public reception — given by pro-slav-
ery partisans, who viewed the new governor as
nothing more than their tool — and a wordy, noisy
address of welcome awaited him. In responding,
Reeder pleasantly referred to the reception as " a
foreshadowing of kindness and confidence " which
he hoped to receive from citizens of the territory.
His talk, however, was not wholly given over to
38 KANSAS.
eulogy and congratulation. The spirit of violence
which was already beginning to stir he denounced
with the jfluent boldness and confidence of inexpe-
rience. " I pledge you," he said, " that I will crush
it out or sacrifice myself in the effort." It was
an heroic avowal that failed to kindle any enthu-
siasm whatever among the auditors.
Tlie governor sensibly prefaced his work in
Kansas by a tour of observation which consumed
some weeks. He was anxious to get his knowl-
edge at first hand — an ambition that did not fa-
vorably impress the gentry concerned in the Leav-
enworth reception. They regarded themselves as
entirely competent and were more than willing
to furnish information on any point of Kansas af-
fairs. Then followed a partition of the territory
into districts, and the election of a delegate to
Congress November 29th, 1854.
This first Kansas election never attained the no-
toriety of the second, which took place four months
afterwards, yet both experiences present the same
characteristic features — large and elaborate expe-
ditions from Missouri to stuff territorial ballot-
boxes with illegal votes. No defense or apology
has ever been put forward for these extraordinary
proceedings except the necessitarian plea of fight-
ing the devil with fire. The opinion universally
entertained on the border in 1853 and in the ear-
lier months of 1854, that the safety of slavery in
Missouri and its ultimate expansion into Kansas
L£SSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 39
would be assured simply by the repeal of restric-
tive legislation, showed unmistakable signs of
weakening in the resolutions adopted at Salt
Creek Valley. Subsequent events tended to in-
crease and exasperate the alarm. Rumors now
flew thick and fast on evil wings that the Emi-
grant Aid Company and the kindred organiza-
tions, which sprang up with a tropical luxuriance
throughout the North, were pushing " military
colonies " into Kansas, primarily to protect it from
pro-slavery inroads, and secondarily to attack IN'Iis-
souri. It is true that the Boston company, in the
enormous breadth of its original scope, mapped
out some such prospectus which gave rise to dis-
composing talk on the border. " Free-state men,"
said B. F. Stringfellow, "before we resorted to
aggressive measures, openly boasted in the streets
of Weston that they would drive slavery out of
Missouri." Discussions in Congress added fuel to
the fire, and as a consequence there was no small
stir along the border. " When the people of Mis-
souri," said Mordecai Oliver, defending his con-
stituency in the House of Representatives, " saw
these proceedings on the part of these intermed-
dlers in the affairs of Kansas and in contradiction
of the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, they
were roused — I confess it and confess it with no
spirit of humiliation, but with pride and to the
honor of my people — they were roused to an in-
dignation that knew no bounds."
40 KANSAS.
Anger is well enough in its place, but it would
have been wise for these furious IMissourians to
make sure of their ground before proceeding to
extremities. A little investigation would have
established the fact that the Emigrant Aid Com-
pany never bought a firelock or furnished its
patrons with warlike equipments of any sort ;
that it simply opened a western emigrant agency,
— a perfectly legitimate transaction which broke
none of the commandments ethical, political, or
interstate. Though at a later day — after the
first two election experiences — members of the
corporation in a private, individual way contrib-
uted freely toward the purchase of Sharpe's rifles
for the use of free-state settlers, the corporation
itself religiously held fast, through the whole
period of its operations, to the unmilitary func-
tions of an ordinary transportation bureau. Had
the Missourians followed the Massachusetts ex-
ample and poured into Kansas as actual settlers
rather than as crusading ballot-box stuffers, their
fortunes would have thrived the better.
There was comparatively little at stake in the
election of November 29th — nothing more than
the choice of a delegate to Congress, and that
for a fractional term. Besides, the pro-slavery
candidate, J. W. Whitfield, a tall, strongly-made,
rather prepossessing but thick- tongued Tennes-
sean, holding the office of Indian agent, was not
partirularly objectionable. Whatever partisan
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 41
sentiments lie may have cherished were kept out
of sight, and unquestionablj'- he would have been
elected, had the Missourians stayed at home.
But rumor and demagogues roundly abused the
ear of the border. Western Missouri was armed
and equipped to assail abolitionists in the ter-
ritory. For this purpose Blue Lodges — a species
of semi - secret, counter - Massachusetts societies
designed to operate at Kansas elections — had
been extensively organized. To allow so much
froth and fume, so much stir and alarm, to end in
nothing might present an uncomfortable parallel
to the historic feat of marching up the hill and
then marching down again. The leaders chose to
do something superfluous rather than nothing at
all. The 29th of November at all events would
afford opportunity for a little experimenting to
see what seeds of promise lay in the Blue Lodges.
So seventeen hundred and twenty-nine Missouri-
ans invaded different election districts and cast
as many gratuitous ballots for Whitfield, who
received his credentials and appeared in Wash-
ington as the first congressional delegate from
Kansas, but was not allowed to take his seat.
The incursion from Missouri was not the only
original suffrage feature of the election. Rumors
got abroad that Whitfield designed to impress an
aboriginal " Native American " vote into his ser-
vice. The fact of his being an Indian agent lent
plausibility to the canard. Some enterprising
42 KANSAS.
Yankee hit upon an expedient to forestall any ad-
vantage that the pro-slavery party might expect
from extensions of the franchise in that quarter.
Learning that a certain Delaware chief had re-
cently enunciated his views on the relative merits
of Yankees and Missouri ans — " Good man —
heap — Yankee town. Missouri — bad — heap
— heap — heap ! — d — n um " — it occurred to
him that here might possibly be a neglected field
of politics worth cultivating. Unfortunately his
bright thoughts were somewhat belated. They
did not fairly dawn upon him until the evening
before election. However, he rode over to the
Delaware Reservation in the morning, assembled
the braves, and expounded to them their unap-
preciated political privileges ; confidently argued
their right to vote, and proposed that they should
instantly assert it at the election in progress that
very day. The Indians drew off by themselves
and entered upon a council over the matter which
went on interminably without apparent signs of
conclusion. The opportunity for " Native Amer-
ican " or for any other phase of suffrage was rap-
idly disappearing, and at last the exasperated
Yankee, in no very conciliatory or complimentary
dialect, demanded some sort of answer. Finally,
the oldest chief arose and, appareled in a solemnity
never surpassed by the judiciary of Tartarus, said
— '* Tinkuni four days — den vote heap — heap-
um ! — sometime — may be I "
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 43
But the most astonishing exhibition of pop-
ular sovereignty occurred in the spring of 1855.
During the preceding February the authorities
took a census of the territory, which showed a
population of 8,601. There were figured out
2,905 voters, a majority of whom came from
slave states. Alexander H. Stephens made effec-
tive use of this fact in a speech in the House of
Representatives July 31st, 1856. " This census,"
he said, " gives the name of each resident legal
voter in the territory thirty days before the March
election. ... I have counted every name on the
census roll and noted the section of country from
which the settler migrated, and I find that of
those who were registered as legal voters of the
territory in February, a month before the elec-
tion, 1,670 were from Southern States and only
1,018 from the entire North. There were 217
from other countries. . . . The inference which I
draw from these facts is that there was a decided
majority of anti-Free-Soilers in the territory . . .
in the month of February." Mr. Stephens erred
in classing all immigrants from Southern States
as pro-slavery in sentiment. A not inconsiderable
element among them preferred that Kansas should
become a free state.
Both sides appreciated the importance of secur-
ing the legislature which was to be elected March
30th. Success in that matter would be a decisive
victory. In Missouri the excitement surpassed all
44 KANSAS.
foregoing experiences. The orators were abroad
in their most tempestuous mood, denouncing abo-
litionists and Eastern corporations that sought to
fang the heart of Missouri as with the tooth of a
viper. Voting machineries had been tested and
worked to the satisfaction of the experts who
devised them. To meet the present emergency,
it was only necessary to put on a little higher
pressure. Blue Lodges bestirred themselves en-
ergetically. There were recruitings, organizations
of companies, drills, armings, as if some great
military expedition were afoot. Those who could
not give personal attention to the preservation of
law and the purity of public franchise in Kansas
were exhorted to assist in paying the bills. At a
meeting in Boonesville, held for the purpose of
raising money and enthusiasm, a half-tipsy planter
stumbled up to the speaker's table, and, flinging
down a thousand dollars, said, — "I 've just sold a
nigger for that, and I reckon it 's about my share
towards cleaning out the dog-gauned Yankees."
The Missouri expounders of popular sovereignty
marched into Kansas to assist in the election of a
territorial legislature — an unkempt, sun-dried,
blatant, picturesque mob of five thousand men
with guns upon their shoulders, revolvers stuff! ug
their belts, bowie-knives protruding from their
boot-tops, and generous rations of whiskey in their
wagons.
Six thousand three hundred and seven votes
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 45
were polled on this memorable 30th of March elec-
tion — nearly eighty per cent, of them by Mis-
sourians, who, of course, swept the boards. In a
military point of view the expedition was man-
aged effectively, and succeeded in distributing pro-
slavery voters through the territory in such bulks
as were needed to overcome opposition. The in-
vaders did not, as a general rule, molest actual res-
idents unless they showed fight. Judges of elec-
tion who meekly accepted the situation and re-
ceived all ballots offered were seldom set aside.
In cases where they objected to Missourian the-
ories of suffrage they were promptly removed,
and their places supplied by men whose scruples
of conscience did not lie in that direction.
At Lawrence there was an illustration of the
milder sort of displacement. One of the judges
insisted that the first Missourian who presented
himself at the polls should swear that he re-
sided in Kansas. The fellow hesitated. He evi-
dently stumbled at the ethics, lately sanctioned
by high pro-slavery authority, that in dealing
with abolitionists scruples of conscience were an
impertinence. The leader of the gang, seeing
there promised to be an awkward hitch in the
programme, ordered him to retire and presented
himself at the polls, that the on-looking crowd
might have the benefit of his elucidating and in-
spiring example. " Are you a resident of Kan-
sas?" asked the election judge. "I am," the
46 KANSAS.
Missourian replied. " Does your family live in
Kansas ? " persisted the former. " It is none of
your business. If you don't keep your imperti-
nence to yourself I '11 knock your d — d head from
your shoulders." The judge, considering his use-
fulness gone, retired, and thenceforward everybody
voted who felt so disposed.
At Blooniington there was an exceptionally suc-
cessful Bedlam. The judges exhibited obstinacy
which yielded only to an active revolver and
bowie-knife treatment. They persisted in theo-
ries of suffrage altogether too illiberal and nar-
row for the times. It was intimated that their
resignations would be accepted — a hint which
they neglected to act upon. Finally, to expedite
affairs, a borderer drew his watch and announced
a five minutes' period of grace — then resignations
or death. The five minutes expired and nothing
had been done. An extension of one minute was
allowed, during which the judges decamped.
In the main there was but slight occasion for
anything beyond a savage pretense of violence.
Numbers, bluster, profanity, and a liberal display
of lighting-gear completely cowed opposition. The
visiting voters I'eturned to Missouri, feverish with
triumph — "We've made a clean sweep this time."
Border newspapers rioted in extravagances of fe-
licitation. " Abolitionism is rebuked," one of
tliL'ni srn-amed, "her fortress stormed, her Hag
draggling in the dust." But dashing into tiie ter-
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 47
ritory with a braggart, rub-a-dub publicity, and
casting four thousand nine hundred and eight
votes in a total of six thousand three hundred and
seven, turned out to be a ruinously expensive vic-
tory.
In Western Missouri the policy of invasion re-
ceived a practically unanimous support. Dissent
meant trouble for the dissenter. It drew suspicion
and unpopularity upon him if nothing worse. The
" Parkville Luminary," venturing to question dis-
tantly and mildly the expediency of forcing slav-
ery upon Kansas, was summarily quenched in the
Missouri River. Now and then an intrepid, out-
spoken man, with clearer, less jaundiced vision
than his neighbors, made head against the univer-
sal frenzy. One person of this stamp, old Tom
Thorpe, of Platte County, Missouri (a remark-
able specimen of frontier independence), appeared
before the Congressional Investigating Committee
in 1856. " Whenever there was an election in
the territory," Mr. Thorpe testified, " they were
fussin' roun' an' gettin' up companies to go, an'
gettin' bosses an' wagins. They come to me to
subscribe, but I tole 'em that I was down on this
thing of votin' over in the territoiy, an' that Tom
Thorpe did n't subscribe to no such fixins. They
jawed me too about it — they did ; but I reckon
they found old Tom Thorpe could give as good as
he got. They tole the boys they wanted to make
Kansas a slave state ; an' they tole 'em the abo-
48 KANSAS.
litionists war a commin' in ; an' that the Emigrant
Aid Society Company & Co. war pitchin' in; an'
they 'd better too. You see they took the boys
over, an' they got plenty liquor, an' plenty to eat,
an' they got over free ferry. Lots an' slivers on
'em went. A heap o' respectable folks went with
them. There 's Dr. Tibbs, lives over in Platte,
he used to go, an' you see they 'lected him. The
boys tole me one time when they come back —
says they ' We 've 'lected Dr. Tibbs to the legis-
lature ; ' an' says I ' Is it the state or the terri-
tory ? ' An' says they ' The territory.' Says I,
' Boys, ain't this a puttin' it on too thick ? It 's a
darned sight too mean enough to go over there
and vote for them fellers, but to put in a man
who don't live there is all -fired outrageous.'
There 's my own nephew — he come all the w^ay
up from Howard County to vote. He come over
to see me an' our folks as he went along. I says
to him — says I, ' Jim Thorpe, hain't you nothin'
better to do than to come way up to vote in the ter-
ritory ? ' Well he tole me that they want buisy
at home, an' that they got a dollar a day an'
liquor; an' says I, 'Stop, Jim Thorpe, that's
enough ; you can't stay here in my house to-night
an' nobody can that goes for votin' in the terri-
tory. I tell you what, boy, I 've always been
down on that kind o' thing. I ain't no abolition-
ist neither. I tell you I 'm pro-slave. I 'm dyed
in the wool an' can't make a free-soiler ; but mind
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 49
what I say, if the boys keep a cuttiii' up so I '11
come over to the territory an' 'nitiate Betsey.' "
The events of March 30th disturbed free-state
settlers profoundly, and well they might. Dr.
Robinson wrote A. A. Lawrence April 4th —
" the election is awful, and will no doubt be set
aside. So says the governor, although his life is
threatened if he does n't comply with the Missou-
rians' demands. I with others shall act as his
body-guard."
But there was no general movement of protest
against the irregularities of the election. From
six only of the eighteen election districts did
remonstrances appear. This was a negligence that
the " Democratic Review" energetically rebuked.
" What did the Free-Soilers do ? Did they pro-
test ? Did they deny the legality of the votes ?
Not a bit. . . . There was an admirable chance
for Free-Soilers to prove how much they loved or-
der, law, and regulated freedom. It could hardly
be supposed that they would miss so fine a chance
to immortalize their law-abiding tendencies. But
really and truly they let it slip. They were drowsy
over it. Jupiter nodded."
There was some excuse. It lay in the isolation
of the little towns, in difl&culties of communica-
tion necessary to concerted action, and in the haz-
ard that attended the business. One man who
was active in pushing a protest got into trouble.
William Phillips, a Leavenworth lawyer, promi-
50 KANSAS.
nent in an effort to have the election canceled,
because, among other things, " the New Lucy, a
boat, on the morning of the day of election started
for Leavenworth from Weston with citizens of
Missouri," who " did vote at the polls of the six-
teenth district, and then immediately returned
on said boat to ^Missouri," was brutally mobbed.
As a sequel to tar and feathers, head - shaving,
and riding on a rail, a negro sold the unfortunate
law^^er at auction — " How much, gentlemen, for
a full-blooded abolitionist, dyed in de wool, tar
and feathers and all ? How much, gentlemen ?
He '11 go at the first bid." This wretched out-
rage, if we may believe the "Kansas Herald,"
published at Leavenworth, sent a thrill of delight
through the community.
Rumors that Governor Reader designed to set
aside the entire election, or at least to refuse cer-
tificates to a large number of candidates whom the
judges of elections had declared elected, blasted
whatever personal popularity he might still retain
among the Missourians. The alienation which
began with the reception festivities at F'ort Leav-
enworth had constantly widened and deepened.
Now, in the waxing bitterness, pro-slavery men
freely coupled threats with denunciations. Some
talked of " hemping " the scoundrel, while others
felt more like " cutting his throat from ear to
ear."
On the 5tli of April Governor Reeder heard
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 51
protests and canvassed returns. Beweaponed gen-
try representing both factions thronged the exec-
utive office. Free -state men, with their slender
list of remonstrances, insisted that the election
should be canceled, and another ordered under
precautions which would make a second 80th
of March impossible. Charges of illegal voting
they themselves did not entirely escape, arising
mainly from the circumstance that a party of
Eastern immigrants reached Lawrence on the day
of election, some of whom, it was alleged, voted
notwithstanding the brevity of their residence in
Kansas. A few of the new-comers, alarmed by
the threatening aspect of affairs, immediately
fled the territory. It is uncertain whether any of
these fugitives went to the polls or not. Yet it
is beyond reasonable doubt that the number of
anti-slavery ballots cast by men, against whom
charges of non-residence could be sustained, was
very small. In the shifting, prospecting, to-and-
fro situation considerable laxity of suffrage could
not be escaped. But neither the Emigrant Aid
Company nor any like Northern society ever com-
mitted the stupid blunder of sending pseudo-set-
tlers half across the continent simply to vote.
The pro-slavery representatives, however, did not
find illegal voting a congenial theme. They ac-
centuated the point that the governor could not
lawfully go behind the returns — that it only re-
mained for him to authenticate them.
52 KANSAS.
Governor Reeder adopted an intermediate, half-
way policy, which failed to satisfy anybody.
Stickling unhappily for tochnicalities, he cast out
the mote of eight candidates against whom pro-
tests had been filed, and ordered new elections in
their districts, but ignored the beam of a great
systematic, wholesale fraud. Of the thirty-one
members of the legislature twenty -eight were
satisfactory to the pro-slavery managers. But
they loudly resented the governor's interference,
and their curses were almost as violent as might
have been expected had it been less ineffectual.
The little company of free-state men who went
down from Lawrence to Shawnee Mission to act
as Reeder's body-guard wished they had allowed
him to take care of himself. Dr. Robinson an-
nounced that for his part he repudiated both
governor and legislature — a declaration prophetic
of future free-state movements.
Reeder soon afterwards visited Washington,
where his reputation needed attention. President
Pierce and Jefferson Davis, secretary of war, dis-
liked the situation in Kansas, the responsibilitj'
for which they charged principally upon the gov-
ernor. Missourians posted to the capital, grew
red in the face denouncing him, and would listen
to nothing less than his removal. The president
intimated that his resignation would be accepta-
ble, and should not fail of suitable reward. Might
not the mission to China have attractions for him ?
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 53
The negotiations failed. Reeder finally declined
to present himself as a burnt-offering to the ad-
ministration and returned to Kansas.
July 2, 1855, the first territorial legislature as-
sembled at Pawnee, a town of the smallest real-
ized attainments, situated inland on the Kansas
River about one hundred and forty miles from its
mouth. Preparations to accommodate the law-
makers were of a scanty and primitive character.
Rev. Thomas Johnson, long time missionary to
the Indians at Shawnee Mission Manual Labor
School and president of the council, states that
"nearly all the members of the legislature had
to camp out in the open sun, and do their own
cooking without a shade tree to protect them;
for there were no boarding-houses in the neigh-
borhood excepting two unfinished shanties." The
gentry came prepared for roughing it, as they
brought an unprecedented assortment of legislato-
rial fixtures — pots, kettles, sauce-pans, provisions,
and tents.
The supplementary elections ordered by the
governor and held May 22d, since the pro-slavery
party did not contest them, resulted in a complete
free-state victory. At the outset, therefore, the
legislature contained twenty-eight pro-slavery and
eleven anti-slavery members. As a preliminary
move in the policy of repudiation, strong pressure
was brought to bear upon the latter to prevent
them from taking their seats. These efforts were
64 KANSAS.
unsuccessful, except in the case of Martin F.
Conway, who was finally induced, after a good
deal of reluctance and hesitation, mainly through
the insistent if not imperative urgency of Dr.
Robinson and Colonel Kersey Coates, of Kansas
City, to send in his resignation to the governor as
member of the council. Mr. Conway's highh^-
charged phrases and defiant sentiments show no
trace of the dubious, irresolute state of mind that
preceded his discussions with Robinson and Coates.
" Instead of recognizing this as the legislature
of Kansas," he wrote June 30th, 1855, " and par-
ticipating in its proceedings as such, I utterly re-
pudiate it, and repudiate it as derogatory to the
respectability of popular government and insult-
ing to the virtue and intelligence of the age. . . .
I am so unfortunate as to have been trained to
some crude notions of human rights — some such
notions as those for which, in ages past, our fool-
ish ancestry periled their lives on revolutionary
fields. . . . Simply as a citizen and a man I shall,
therefore, yield no submission to this alien legis-
lature. On the contrary, I am ready to set its as-
sumed authority at defiance, and shall be prompt
to spurn and trample under my feet its insolent
enactments whenever they conflict with my rights
or inclinations."
To the homespun, brown-fisted, doing-its-own
work legislature at Pawnee Governor Reeder ad-
dressed a sonorous and courtly message. He ex-
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 55
Lorted the statesmen there convened " to lay aside
all selfish and equivocal motives, to discard all un-
worthy ends, and in the spirit of justice and char-
ity to each other, with pure hearts, tempered feel-
ings, and sober judgments," to enter upon their
duties.
The legislature, as soon as an organization had
been effected, gave attention to the ten remaining
anti-slavery members. Nine were summaiily un-
seated and their places filled by the men to whom
Governor Reeder denied certificates. A solitary
Free-Soiler — S. D. Houston — kept his place un-
til July 22d, when he retired, as " to retain a seat
in such circumstances would be ... a condescen-
sion too inglorious for the spirit of an American
freeman," and left the legislature unvexed by po-
litical heresy or schism.
At Pawnee the legislature attempted little ex-
cept the expulsion of obnoxious members. After
a session of only four days — reports that cholera
had appeared in the neighborhood materially con-
tributing to the discontent — there was an adjourn-
ment to Shawnee Mission, where it reassembled
July 16th.
It was this adjournment which led Governor
Reeder to break with the legislature. Though
the members of it had been elected by notorious
invasions from Missouri, that scai^let political of-
fense could be absolved ; he could still hope that
they would escape all unworthy conduct, " save
66 KANSAS.
that which springs from the inevitable fallibility of
just and upright men ; " but when, in the phrase of
Toombs of Georgia, " they removed from Reeder's
town to somebody else's town," then was there
committed a monstrous and unforgivable sin. To
be in the wrong place destroyed the constitu-
tionality of the legislature. The circumstance
that Governor Reeder was financially interested
in the success of Pawnee, which the action of the
legislature ruined, furnished his enemies with a
convenient text for abusive discourse. Yet the
more probable explanation of the matter is tliat,
repenting of his blunder in failing to set aside the
March election, he took advantage of the adjourn-
ment, which was at the expense of some techni-
calities, as the most plausible excuse at hand for
parting company with the legislature.
Nothing in the work of the legislature at Shaw-
nee ]\Iission has any flavor of originality — unless
the slave-code be excepted. A natural instinct
led it to transfer to Kansas almost in bulk the
statutes of Missouri. That was in harmony with
Atchison's frank confession — ''I and my friends
wish to make Kansas in all respects like Mis-
souri." The pro-slavery managers steeped their
slave-code in despotism. Uncertain of the future,
confronted by vague, indefinite perils — perils
which, like clouds on the horizon no bigger than
a man's hand, might dissolve or blacken the heav-
ens with storm — they went nervously to work and
LESSONS IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 57
ran into absurd extremes of precaution and strin-
gency. In their code two years of imprisonment
would expiate the crime of kidnapping and selling
into bondage a free colored man, but death was
denounced against him who aided in the escape of
a slave. To question the right of slave-holding
in Kansas might draw upon the querist's head
pains of felony. A citizen could be disfranchised
should he decline taking oath to support the Fu-
gitive Slave Law — thus impertinently enlarging
the area of penalty in a federal enactment. The
statesmen at Shawnee Mission succeeded in mak-
ing " the enunciation of the great and eternal
principles of liberty a penitentiary offense."
Their code struck at the liberty of the press, at
freedom of speech, and the sanctities of the ballot-
box. And not the least singular feature of this
extraordinary legislation is that according to the
official publication of 1855 the territorial gov-
ernor had no power to pardon offenses against
it. In the act of Congress organizing the ter-
ritory of Kansas it was provided, that the gov-
ernor " may grant pardons and respites for of-
fenses against the laws of said territory, and re-
pi'ieves for offenses against the laws of the United
States until the decision of the president can be
known thereon." In " The Statutes of the Terri-
tory of Kansas," printed at Shawnee Mission in
1855, the congressional act of organization is re-
published, and from design or accident the clause
is made to read — the governor " may grant par-
58 KANSAS.
dons and respites for offenses against the laws of
the United States, until the decision of the pres-
ident can be known thereon." Free-state men
charged that the mutilation was intentional, and
one of their first measures on getting possession
of the legislature was to order the publication of
a correct copy of the organic act.
The legislature and its allies successfully prose-
cuted their quarrel with Governor Reeder, who re-
ceived notice of his removal from office August
loth. In the fight they had effective aid from
the territorial supreme court, which decided the
removal of the capital to be constitutional. The
grievances, which did duty in public as the cause
of Reeder's removal, were charges of delay in
reaching the territory and in getting the govern-
ment under way, of usurpation, lack of sympathy
with the people, and land-speculation ; but the real
dilliculty was that he did not submit tamely and
obediently to pro-slavery dictation.
Governor Reeder's administration ran its
troubled course in less than a year. It achieved
no very signal success. That were perhaps im-
possible in the condition of the territory — hope-
less as a child's freak to stamp out a spring bub-
bling up under stones. Unquestionabl}'^ it was
beyontl the reach of a man, without preeminent
endowments of insight, adaptation, or executive
force — a stranger to border life, suddenly thrust
into the wilderness with a commission to smother
outbreaks of tlie irrepressible conflict.
CHAPTER V.
COUNTER-MOVES.
MlSSOUBlANS felicitated themselves upon the
state of affairs in Kansas, upon a legislature unan-
imously, fanatically pro-slavery, upon a judiciary
not at all unfriendly, upon an executive depart-
ment purged of an obnoxious incumbent. Free-
state men certainly found themselves confronted
by a very grave question — what course shall be
pursued in the emergency? Few and beggarly
were the signs of promise visible for them. Their
cause seemed to have foundered. Something
should be done, but what ?
The line of policy adopted — repudiation of
the territorial legislature as an illegal, usurping,
" bogus " concern, and organization forthwith of a
state government and application to Congress for
admission to the Union — emanated from Robinson.
This scheme, an outgrowth and suggestion in part
of the California struggle, began to shape itself in
his thoughts on the very day that Reeder handed
over the territorial legislature to the Philistines.
The rise of a state government, independent of
the territorial government, severing all friendly
60 KANSAS.
relations with it and aiming to effect its overtlirow
— like the emergence in the Roman world of a
standing army of twenty-five legions from the
ruins of the republic — was an event of capital
importance in Kansas history.
A preliminary step in the counter-move against
Missouri was to secure a supply of Sharpe's
rifles. The reputed " military colonies " were
practically without w-eapons. Robinson lost no
time in dispatching G. W. Deitzler to New Eng-
land for arms, ostensibly to protect the polls at
the special elections May 22d, but really as the
first stroke in the projected scheme of anti-Mis-
souri operations. Sharpe's rifles, he saw, were an
absolutely essential preliminary. They would en-
sure the settlers respect and consideration which
they might not otherwise receive. One hundred
of these weapons soon reached Lawrence in pack-
ages marked " books " — a species of literatui'e that
created wide interest on the border. " Sharpe's
rifles," said the " Democratic Review," are " the
religious tracts of the new Free-Soil system."
Then it would be necessary to establish in place
of the disowned territorial government some polit-
ical organization to serve as a rallying point for
the people until the legislature could be captured
or admission to the Union secured. To provide
for this emergency a state government was de-
cided upon, which would be put into actual ser-
vice whenever Congress should authenticate it. In
COUNTER-MOVES. 61
the interval the anti-slavery portion of the com-
munity proposed to do without laws as best it
might. November 1st, 1855, Dr. Robinson wrote
A. A. Lawrence, reviewing somewhat in detail the
progress of events up to that time. "[We must
be] as independent and self-reliant and confident,"
he said, " as the Missourians are, and never in any
instance be cowed into silence or subserviency to
their dictatix)n. This course on the part of prom-
inent free-state men is absolutely necessary to in-
spire the masses with confidence and keep them
from going over to the enemy. ... I have been
censured for the defiant tone of my Fourth of July
speech, but I was fully convinced that such a
course was demanded. The legislature was about
sitting and free-state men were about despairing.
... [A few of us] dared to take a position in
defiance of the legislature and meet the conse-
quences. We were convinced that our success
depended upon this measure, and the demonstra-
tion of the Fourth was to set the ball in motion
in connection with Conway's letter to Governor
Reeder resigning his seat and repudiating the
legislature. For a while we had to contend with
opposition from the faint-hearted, but by perse-
vering in our course, by introducing resolutions
into conventions and canvassing the territory, re-
pudiation became universal with free-state men.
. . . We conceived it important to disown the leg-
islature, if at all, before we knew the character of
62 KANSAS.
its laws, believing they would be such as to crush
U3 out if recognized as valid, and believing we
should stand on stronger ground if we came out
in advance. . . . The 1st of July forms an im-
portant epoch in our history. It was about that
time that open defiance was shown our enemies.
. . . Pro-slavery bullies were daily in the streets
and insulted all free-state men whom they sup-
posed would make no resistance. This drove our
people into a secret organization of self-defense,
and it was not long before they were glad to cry
for quarters. A free-state Missourian, a regular
California bully, came among us and took them in
their own way and frightened every pro-slavery
man from the field. His name is David Evans,
and if I had a Sharpe's rifle at my disposal I
should make him a present of it. . . . To divide
into parties before our admission into the Union
would be ruinous and give our enemies the advan-
Between the 8th of June and the 15th of Aug-
ust, 1855, not including the large Fourth of July
meeting already mentioned, when Dr. Robinson
delivered an address on local and national issues,
seven so-called political conventions were held in
Lawrence. These conventions — one or two of
the first being small, impromptu affairs — were
all except one in opposition to the federal ad-
ministration and its territorial policy. On the
evening of June 27th a few Democrats assembled
CO UNTER-MO VES. 63
and resolved that " the best interests of Kansas re-
quire an early organization of the Democratic
party." The master spirit in this convention was
James H. Lane, recently from Indiana, where he
had obtained some notoriety. He participated in
the Mexican war, was elected lieutenant-governor
of Indiana in 1848, and appeared in Congress as
representative from that state in 1852. For some
cause Lane's political fortunes did not thrive in
Indiana, and in the spring of 1855 he betook him-
self to the fresh fields of Kansas, pro-slavery in
sentiment, boasting that he would as readily buy
a negro as a mule, conceding the legality of the
territorial legislature, and accepting it as a fore-
gone conclusion that Kansas would become a slave
state if its soil should prove to be adapted to ser-
vile labor. But the Democratic venture came to
nothing. It touched no responsive chord among
the people. Lane's interest in feeble minority
parties was very slight, and he soon found his way
to the opposition benches.
The various minor assemblies at Lawrence led
up to a more pretentious convention which be-
gan on the 14th of August, and continued until
the following day. The special significance of
this convention lies in the fact, that it initiated
measures looking toward the formal organization
of a political party. It declined to attempt that
task itself as being too local and unrepresentative
in its make-up, and confided it to a more compre-
64 KANSAS.
hensive assembly that should meet October 5th at
Big Springs, for the purpose of "constructing a
national platform upon which all friends of mak-
ing Kansas a free state may act in concert."
Big Springs in the autumn of 1855 was a place
of four or five shake-cabins and log-huts. To that
town repaired one hundred delegates and thrice as
many spectators, who took quarters out of doors
on the prairie. At this convention all the anti-
Missouri elements — heretofore unassociated and
without definite concert of action — got into a
kind of organic connection and denominated them-
selves the Free-State party.
The platform put forth by the new political
clanship emphatically confirmed the declaration of
"The Liberator," that no abolitionists had taken
passage for Kansas. As a matter of fact, Dr. Rob-
inson was at that time almost the only free-state
man of prominence in the territory who avowed
himself an abolitionist, and he did not happen to
be a member of the convention. And it is a sig-
nificant fact, which forcibly illustrates the absence
of any general and radical sentiment of abolition-
ism in Kansas, that so late as the year 1858 j\Iis-
sourians hired out slaves at Lawrence, received
their wages, and nobody made objection.
Though recently escaped from the stranded
Democratic movement, Lane intrigued himself
into the chairmanship of a committee of thirteen to
which the construction of a platform was intrusted.
COUNTER-MOVES. 65
The question of slavery brought on an all-night
discussion, in which he persuaded the committee
to adopt violent anti-negro principles. Only one
among the thirteen stood out to the end, — an in-
expugnable home missionary, James H. Byrd.
The platform branded the charges of abolitionism,
so industriously circulated against free-state men,
as " stale and ridiculous." , With that mischievous
and deplorable fanaticism it disavowed all sym-
pathy. " The best interests of Kansas require a
population of white men." When the time came
for the establishment of a state government, ne-
groes of every stripe, bond and free, should be
excluded. The convention adopted the platform
without dissent. At Big Springs assuredly the
anti-slaveryism was of a diluted milk-and-water
type.
The convention appointed a committee to draft
resolutions in regard to the territorial legislature.
That assembly the committee treated with pow-
erful verbal caustics. Such a course might have
been expected in an}^ case, but the fact that Gov-
ernor Reeder wrote the resolutions made assur-
ance doubly sure. After his removal from office
Reeder threw himself heartily and unreservedly
into the free-state cause. Widely and favorably
known in Eastern States, where his defense of
repudiation had great influence in the persuasion
of a conservative and law-abiding public that
this revolutionary measure must arise out of in-
66 KAXSAS.
exorable necessities, he \Tas an accession of pri-
mary importance. National as well as local con-
siderations entered into the problem pressing upon
the new free-state party. Unless the country at
large could be wakened ; unless the few hundred
men at the front could be backed by moral and
material support from non-slaveholding states, it
would be folly to risk a contest with Missouri.
Governor Reeder's chief service lay outside of
Kansas. No other man in the free-state ranks
had anything like a national reputation ; no other
man could then command a hearing so wide or so
effective.
Reeder's aggrieved personal experiences tinct-
ured his resolutions with a tang of wormwood.
Five months after fitting out the territorial leg-
islature with certificates, and couching his com-
munications to it in the most courtly phrases of
official etiquette, he describes that body as " the
monstrous consummation of an act of violence,
usui-pation, and fraud," — "a contemptible and
hypocritical mockery of republicanism," tramp-
ling down as with the hoofs of a buffalo the Kan-
sas-Nebraska bill, libeling the Declaration of In-
dependence, and staining the country with indeli-
ble disgrace. Whenever " peaceful remedies shall
fail, and forcible resistance shall furnish any rea-
sonable prospect of success," — then let the now
shrinking and reluctant hostility be pushed to " a
bloody issue." The resolutions scourging the leg-
CO UNTER-MO VES. 6 7
islature evoked a response quite as rapturous as
Lane's negrophobia.
The first and only discord that jangled the har-
monies at Big Springs occurred when a subject,
incidental and subordinate to the special purposes
of the convention, was reached — the question of
establishing a state government. It was stirring
the community — an uppermost theme in the pub-
lic thought — and could not be ignored. The
special committee, that took it under advisement,
shrank from pledging the party to the support of
so novel and venturesome an experiment. They
pronounced it " untimely and inexpedient." But
the convention thought differently, and adopted
approving resolutions.
As epilogue to the labors of the convention, and
as prologue to the opening career of the new party,
there was nomination of a delegate for Congress.
Only one man received a moment's consideration
for this honor — Reeder. The presentation of his
name called out tremendous applause. His speech
in accepting the candidacy produced a powerful
impression. " A steady, unflinching pertinacity of
purpose, never-tiring industry, dogged persever-
ance, and all the abilities with which God has en-
dowed " him — such was the service he pledged to
Kansas. Reeder's speech modulated in its closing
paragraphs into the belligerent tone of the resolu-
tions on the legislature — " when other resources
fail, there still remain to us the steady eye and the
68 KAXSAS.
strong ai'm, and we must conquer or mingle the
bodies of the oppressors with those of the op-
pressed upon the soil which the Declaration of
Independence no longer protects ! "
The convention secured unity and concert
among the detached anti-Missouri elements, which
merged into a political party as vapor-wreaths
combine into the larger cloud. But the conven-
tion unfortunately exposed itself to damaging crit-
icism. Lane's " black-law " platform and Reeder's
heated declamation gave the enemy aid and com-
fort. The unlucky " bloody - issue " phrase was
worn threadbare in Congress and out of it by the
incessant service to which administration speak-
ers put it. Douglas thundered against " the dar-
ing and defiant revolutionists in Kansas," who
were plotting " to overthrow by force the whole
system of laws under which they live." He pro-
fessed great anxiety lest, through the inefficiency
of federal processes, the insurgents should escape
the just penalty of their deeds. This government,
lie remarked, has been " equal to any emergency
. . . except the power to hang a traitor ! "
If the formation of a political party was a
matter of too considerable magnitude for the
Lawrence convention of August 14th and 15th to
enter upon, reasons still more cogent and conclu-
sive existed why it should shrink from initiating
the movement for a state government. The con-
vention met primarily and avowedly in the interest
CO UNTER~MO VES. 69
of a new political organization, and therefore could
not escape charges of partisanship, whereas it was
thought particularly desirable that the state gov-
ernment sliould have an origin at least techni-
cally unpartisan. During the progress of the
first convention a petition was circulated and
numerously signed, calling a second convention of
citizens, without regard to political affiliations,
to consider the state -government project. No
sooner had the former body adjourned on the 15th
than the latter, composed of substantially the
same membership, assembled. The recent poli-
ticians now became simply citizens, and made
brief work of the business before them. The re-
sources of talk had been pretty much exhausted
by the first convention, where the discussion took
wide range and the expenditure of words was less
than usual. Opposition to the experiment of a
state organization showed little or no strength. A
delegate territorial convention, to meet at Topeka
September 19th, was agreed upon.
The Topeka convention subjected the straw
which had been violently threshed at Lawrence
and Big Springs to a fresh flailing, with no re-
sults other than attended earlier experiments. A
constitutional convention seemed feasible, dele-
gates to which were elected October 9th. They
received in the aggregate twenty-seven hundred
and ten votes. On the same day Reeder was
elected free-state delegate to Congress and re-
70 KANSAS.
ceived all the ballots cast — twenty-eight hun-
dred and forty-nine. The territorial legislature
had also ordered an election for congressional del-
egate and selected October 1st as the date. J. W.
Whitlield received twenty - seven hundred and
twenty -one votes — only seventeen scattering
ballots disturbed the unanimity of this election —
and secured the governor's certificate. Reeder,
backed by protests from thirty-two voting pre-
cincts, contested Whitfield's seat, but did not carry
his point.
The constitutional convention continued in ses-
sion at Topeka from October 23d to November
11th. Lane was elected president, and delivered,
on taking the chair, a short address that sketched
in outline the nobler Kansas of the future. Wide
diversities of antecedents appeared among the
members of the convention who represented half
the states of the Union. Though convened for a
purpose that did not lack much of being revolution-
ary, it was a decidedly conservative assembly.
Nineteen of the thirty-four members reported
themselves democrats, six registered as whigs,
while independents, free-soilers, republicans, free-
state men, and nothingarians found representa-
tives among the remaining nine. The incidental
debates, which arose during the session on the
merits of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, showed that
a majority were frieiully to it in spite of all that
had happened in the territory.
COUNTER-MOVES. 71
The convention put together a fairly good patch-
work constitution, which adopted the boundaries
of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, pi-ohibited slavery-
after the 4th of July, 1857, conferred the right
of suffrage on "white male citizens," and on
" every civilized male Indian who has adopted the
habits of the white man," and located the capital
temporarily at Topeka. Lane still advocated the
exclusion of negroes, pleading for a free white
state, and carried the convention with him. Rob-
inson fought the " black law " iniquity stoutly,
but could make no head against it. A portion of
the convention wished to incorporate anti-negro
discriminations in the constitution, but the whole
matter was ultimately referred to the people, who
voted by a majority of nearly three to one that
colored men should be excluded from the state.
December 15th the constitution was ratified at
the polls by seventeen hundred and thirty-one
atiirmative to forty-six negative votes. The elec-
tion of officers for this tentative, empirical com-
monwealth took place January 5th, 1856, and re-
sulted in the choice of Charles Robinson as gov-
ernor. One interesting and noteworthy result fol-
lowed — whatever the philosophy of it may be —
the sudden and final extinction of black-law sen-
timent in Kansas, Silence fell upon its numerous
and active champions with the election of an
abolitionist to the governorship. That event in
its effect was like some great change of climate
72 KANSAS.
which abruptly revolutionizes the life, customs,
and habits of a people.
The elections of December 15th and of January
6th excited no general disturbance. Pro-slavery
men sneered at them as silly, scarecrow perform-
ances. At two points only did anything like
the old time violence break out — Leavenworth
and Easton. While the election was in progress
at Leavenworth, on the 15th of December, a
gang of pro-slavery roughs appeared at the polls
and demanded the ballot-box on the ground that
the election was illegal. Considering the reply
unsatisfactory, the leader, followed by the whole
brawling rout, crashed through the window where
votes were received, and caused a great panic
among the judges of election, who did not relish
that style of suffrage. " I was not right well af-
terwards," one of them complained. The raiders
captured the ballot-box and bore it away in
triumph, reducing consequently the majority in
favor of the Topeka constitution by several hun-
dred votes.
Only a single affray of any importance dis-
quieted the January election. In consequence of
rumors that the Kickapoo rangers — a pro-slav-
ery military company of bad reputation — were
planning an attack, the election at Easton did
not take place until the 17th. A few armed
free-state men from Leavenworth, led by Captain
R. P. Brown, were in attendance to lend their
CO UN TER-M VES. 7 3
friends any assistance that might be necessary.
At night there was a brief skirmish in which one
pro-slavery man was killed. Nobody on the free-
state side received serious injury. " I found a
shot in my scalp a day or two afterwards," said
an Easton man, " but I did not know it at the
time."
In the morning Brown and his men started for
Leavenworth, but were intercepted by the Kicka-
poos, who had been hastily summoned to Easton
and were in a rage to avenge the killing of the
preceding night. Their fury burned especially
against Brown, whose resolution and activity
made him very unpopular among the Kickapoos.
" We 've got him sure," one of them chuckled.
They carried him back to Easton aud confined
him in a store, while an attempt was being made
to organize a court for his trial. But some of
the savages could not brook the delays of the
rudest, most expeditious judiciary. They dis-
persed the court and dealt Brown a fatal hatchet-
stroke on the head. As he was not killed out-
right, they bestirred themselves to take him home
— a distance of several miles. It was late in the
afternoon of one of the bitterest winter days ever
known in Kansas before they set forth. " I am
very cold," groaned the dying man, who, iced with
gore, was flung upon the floor of a farm wagon
and jolted homeward for hours over the roughly
frozen roads, " Here 's Brown," the devils blurted
out as they drove up to the door of his cabin.
74 KANSAS.
The state legislature met atTopeka March 4th.
and Governor llobinson delivered his message —
a strong, sensible, cautious paper. With a mix-
ture of shrewdness, poetiy, and bathos, the legisla-
ture after a brief session adjourned to the 4th
of July. It attempted nothing beyond the pas-
sage of a few laws, the appointment of a codify-
ing committee to prepare business for the next
session, the election of Reeder and Lane as sena-
tors, and the preparation of a memorial praying
for admission to the Union under the Topeka con-
stitution. Neither officers nor laws were regarded
as having anything more than a conditional, ten-
tative existence, until favorable and validating
action could be secured on the part of Congress.
The governor was careful to say that he " recom-
mended no course to be taken in opposition to the
general government or to the territorial govern-
ment while it shall remain with the sanction of
Congress. Collision with either is to be avoided."
Thus far an unbroken prosperity had attemled
the counter-move against jNIissouri, but in Wash-
ington it experienced rough weather. April 7th,
General Cass presented in the Senate the memo-
rial of the Tojieka legislature, asking that the State
of Kansas might be admitted to the Union. The
appearance of the memorial caused a connnotion.
'' I find," said Douglas, " that the signatures are
all in one handwriting. ... I perceive on inspec-
tion various interlineations and erasures. All
COUNTER-MOVES. 75
things are calculated to throw doubt on the genu-
ineness of the document." Senator Pugh thought
the memorial appeared " as if some person who
had it in charge had watched the progress of dis-
cussion in this body, and had stricken out prop-
ositions to accommodate it to the present stage
of discussion." " Are we not aware," sneered
Benjamin, of Louisiana, " that the men whose
signatures purport to be attached to this paper
are fugitives from justice ? " The memorial was
ignominiously bundled out of the Senate. " I ask
leave to withdraw it," said Cass, " with a view to
return it to the gentleman who handed it to me."
The gentleman in question was Lane, who, in no
wise abashed, immediately began to plan a second
• effort for recognition. He resorted to the sanc-
tities of an affidavit which rehearsed the alleged
history of the memorial. It was originally the
work of a special committee, was accepted by the
legislature, and then sent back for revision as the
phraseology needed mending. The committee
delegated the editorial function to Lane, who
attended to it after his arrival in Washington.
The " sets of signatures," executed by members of
the legislature, having been " unfortunately mis-
laid," Lane's private secretary came to the rescue
and signed the names of these gentlemen to the
memorial — such was the substance of the affi-
davit.
Harlan, of Iowa, presented the memorial with
7G KANSAS.
the exphmatoiy affidavit to the Senate, but the
second reception of it was no more friendly than
the first. The shabby, deleted, interpolary con-
dition of the document, and the absence of orig-
inal signatures, neutralized the force of all ex-
planation however adroit and plausible.
Besides, the memorial was silent in reference
to the "black law" restrictions, which, though
not literally a part of the constitution, would
practically have the same effect as if they had
been incorporated in it — an omission readily
lending color to charges of concealment and dis-
ingenuousness. The infelicities of the memorial
afforded Senator Douglas opportunities for as-
sailing Lane, which he improved to the utmost.
You presented to us, he said in substance, an orig-
inal document that had no signatures, no mode of
authentication, and no date. You attempted to
palm upon the Senate an imperfect copy of the
constitution of the so-called State of Kansas. You
suppressed a material provision of that supreme
law. You witliheld what you dare not defend —
the permanent legislative instructions excluding
colored men from the state. In every line of your
expurgated and recast memorial evidences of fraud
appear I
Laue did not relish the affair, and demanded
from Douglas an explanation such as "will remove
all imputation upon the integrity of my acts or
motives in connection with the memorial," and
CO VNTER-MO VES. 11
intimated that a challenge would follow in case
his explanation should be inadequate. Douglas
replied that no exculpatory facts were within his
knowledge, and there the episode ended.
At the close of a long discussion the House of
Representatives voted by a majority of two in
favor of the admission of Kansas to the Union
with the Topeka constitution, but the hostility of
the Senate could not be surmounted.
The Topeka movement could show but little
backing of precedents. State governments had
repeatedly come into existence without enabling
acts, but never before in defiance of the territo-
rial authorities. That was the situation in Kan-
sas. Bayard, of Delaware, pronounced the con-
duct of the free-state party " incipient treason."
But if their action touched, it did not cross, the
line of treason. Had there been an appeal to
force treason would have been committed. If
the people of Kansas chose to supplement me-
morials to Congress with a state constitution un-
der which officers had been provisionally elected
and laws provisionally passed — all a dead organ-
ism until federal inspiration should breathe into
it the breath of life — they were only exercising
the primal rights of American citizens.
The Topeka government taking the field against
the Missouri legislature — a veritable, though hy-
pothetical Kansas institution warring upon an in-
terloper — was erected, as has been already re-
78 KANSAS.
marked, with a view to national, as well as domes-
tic uses. It was an emphatic method of publishing
the territorial assembly as hopelessly, intolerably
bad, and in this way it made an effective appeal to
Northern sympathy. Locally it afforded a rallying
point for the anti-slavery party, and presented at
least a show of aggressive activity which bespoke
nerve and vigor in the leadership. The legisla-
ture never passed any laws of importance, and
never put in force those which it did pass. It
was a disguised mass-meeting — a mass-meeting
shrewdly and effectively masquerading as a state
government. Whatever savage declarations and
threats it may have uttered, it took care to do
nothing illegal. The crafty scheme drew the pro-
slavery fire and held the free-state men together
until they could get possession of the legitimate
legislature.
CHAPTER VI.
WAE ON" THE WAKAKUSA.
Wilson" Shannon, of Ohio, the second gov-
ernor of Kansas, was a lawyer of good repute,
with an honorable record as governor of his native
state, minister to Mexico, and representative in
Congress, genial, companionable, his sympathies
and instincts naturally gravitating toward what-
ever is just and honorable, a tenacious, unwaver-
ing Democrat of the old school, but no iron, deci-
sive storm-queller able to rule the anarchy let
loose in the territory.
The period immediately preceding and the pe-
riod immediately following Shannon's advent Avere
not prolific in violence. The pf)litical fight — the
fence of hostile constitutional expedients, a hy-
pothetical state government matched against a
legitimatized territorial legislature — got well un-
der way.
Now and then the underlying ferment broke
out into spasmodic acts of personal violence. The
fortunes of Rev. Pardee Butler are among the
most notable experiences of discomfort during
this interval. The divine so far forgot all max-
80 KANSAS.
ims of policy as to avow free-soil opinions in the
pro-slavery town of Atchison. " I intend," said
he, " to utter my sentiments where I please." A
local bully had recently fallen upon an estrayed
abolitionist "who ventured into the region, and
had soundly thrashed him. Public sentiment ap-
plauded the act, and, as it seemed to merit special
recognition, a paper was drawn up gratefully re-
counting the bully's devotion to public interests,
the signing of Avhich became a test of political or-
thodoxy, A bright thought struck the junior ed-
itor of the ''Squatter Sovereign," a rabid, pro-
slavery newspaper published in town. It occurred
to him that this paper might be useful in taming
the doughty f ree-soiler, and he presented it to him
for his signature, which, of course, was not se-
cured. A mob of considerable size, understand-
ing the game, and gathered in anticipation of the
parson's probable decision, then took him in hand
and hurried him toward the Missouri River, ap-
parently with the purpose of tossing him into it.
After reaching the bank his face was blackened.
Then followed a long discussion — the divine be-
ing a " target at which were hurled imprecations,
curses, arguments, entreaties, accusations, and in-
terrogatories." It was suggested that the ends of
justice would be sufficiently served if lie should
immediately and ]iermanently quit the country.
These Atchison fanatics ofTerod to point out the
very tree on which he would be gibbeted in case
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 81
of return, if he felt their discourse needed the
illumination of an object-lesson. He stiffly re-
plied that he should certainly return, provided
his life were not taken and Providence permitted.
The conservators of public peace relented so far
as to consent to his remaining in the vicinity
with the understanding that he should keep his
mouth shut. "I shall speak as I choose," said
the incorrigible parson ; " I have done no wrong.
I have as good a right to come here as you. I
am but one man, you are many. Dispose of me
as you think best. I ask no favors of you."
The discussion accomplished nothing in the
way of compromise. The mob finally came to a
vote on the question — what sort of public honors
shall be conferred on the divine ? and a majority
gave their suffrages in favor of hanging — a ver-
dict that undoubtedly would have been executed,
had not the teller tampered with the returns in
the interest of humanity and misreported the re-
sult. A milder sentence took effect. Extempo-
rizing a raft out of cottonwood logs, and placing
upon it the clergyman and his baggage — the
whole tricked out with derisive placards — the
gang thrust the strange craft out into the stream,
for a down-tlie-river voyage. After floating five
or six miles, escorted a part of the distance by cit-
izens of the town who followed along the banks,
the traveler made land and escaped.
This outrage, which happened August 16th,
82 KANSAS.
■was afterwards reenacted with variations. The
Rev. Mr. Butler, undeterred by past experiences,
visited Atcliison again some months subsequent
to his voyage on the Missouri, and fell into the
clutches of a company just arrived from South
Carolina, who were determined to put him out of
the way. It was with the greatest difficulty that
the South Carolinians could be prevailed upon to
scale down the penalty from capital punishment
to a coat of tar and feathers. They finally yielded,
and the coat of tar and feathers was administered.
An elaborate pro -slavery reception awaited
Governor Shannon on his arrival at Shawnee
Mission September 3d. There was a speech by
an orator, unsurpassed and unsurpassable in high-
flying sentiment, who welcomed him to a land
where "the gentle pressure of the band attests
the cordial w'elcome of the heart ; " where no
Catilines abound, " no lank and hungry Italians
with their treacherous smiles, no cowards with
their stilettos, no assassins of reputations." In
this recovered Eden " the morning prayer is
heard on every hill, the evening orison is chanted
in every valley and glen." Doubtless the gov-
ernor was glad to learn that rogues were scarce in
Kansas, and that tiie squatters had such a ^)en-
chajit for praying. He was in accord with the
optimism of the hour. Reported disturbances, like
the misfortunes of Rev. Pardee Butler two weeks
before, he believed to have been grossly exagger-
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 83
ated for partisan purposes. " There is no state in
the Union where persons and property are more
secure than in this territory." Whatever irregu-
larities may have attended the election of the
legislature, he contended that it lias been duly
recognized by the territorial executive and the
president of the United States, and that its laws
must be enforced. " I come amongst you," the
governor said, " not as a mere adventurer to bet-
ter his fortune and then return home, but as one
desiring for himself and family a permanent loca-
tion."
Governor Shannon fell into an unfortunate er-
ror at the beginning of his administration — an
error whicb he subsequently strove to correct —
in openly and exclusively affiliating with, the Mis-
souri party. He found that faction in complete
possession of the government. Daniel Woodson,
secretary of state, who acted as governor in the
interval between Reeder's removal and Shannon's
arrival, who signed the notorious laws of the first
legislature — a manageable sort of man, easily
steered into any port — was in favor with the
pro-slavery party. They were indignant because
President Pierce did not promote him to the gov-
ernorship. For a time Shannon wholly resigned
himself to Missouri influence and policy. He
unwisely consented to preside at a convention of
" the lovers of law and order," which assembled
at Leavenworth November 14th, to formulate and
84 KANSAS.
publish to the world both their principles and their
grievances. The conduct of " certain persons pro-
fessing to be friends of human freedom " was de-
nounced as " practical nullification, rebellion, and
treason." The Topeka constitutional conven-
tion " would have been a farce if its purposes had
not been treasonable." Any instrument which
the Topeka government may present to Congress
'' ought to be scouted from its halls as an insult to
its intelligence and an outrage upon our sovereign
rights." Governor Shannon made a speech which
was received with vociferous enthusiasm. " The
president is behind you," he shouted ; •" the pres-
ident is behind you." The convention, follow-
ing tbe example of the meeting at Big Sprinc^s,
formed a political party which was called tlie
" law and order " party, and was expected to
gather up all the pro-slavery elements of the ter-
ritory. The 14th of November, said " The Kan-
sas Herald " on the 17th, " will be a day long
to be remembered, for the death-knell of the abo-
lition, nullification, and revolutionary party was
sounded."
But this mood of exultation soon passed away,
and was followed by a sense of disquiet and ap-
prehension. Tlieie began to be suspicions before
long that no decisive victory had been gained
when the legislature and the governor were cap-
tured. Free-state men managed to ignore the
bulky statutes of Shawnee Mission. They dis-
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 85
carded all the civil and legal machineries estab-
lished by the legislature — courts, justices of the
peace, probate judges, registers of deeds — and
resorted to some make-shift. In Lawrence, deeds
were recorded by a private citizen who acted with-
out authority other than a vague, indefinite public
consensus. Then these insurgents were consoli-
dating into the unity of an efficient political or-
ganization, and that circumstance began to cloud
the pro-slavery sunshine. Besides, there was the
audacious Topeka movement, an amateur consti-
tution drawing upon itself the eyes of the nation,
rousing intense passions of friendship and hostil-
ity, and actually pushing through one house of
Congress.
The Missouri border became eager to try more
vigorous and summary measures in the treatment
of territorial abolitionism than had thus far been
prescribed, to substitute for the policy of legislat-
ing the Yankees out, the policy of wiping them
out. In the indifferent, waning success of those
milder expedients which culminated at the polls,
and in the compilation of iron-clad statutes, public
opinion steadily gravitated toward an aggressive
root-and-branch policy as infolding larger buds of
promise. Why not disperse the intruders and
have a quick end of the foolishness ? Lawrence,
in particular, as the headquarters of sedition, had
acquired an evil name that giew blacker with
every turn of affairs favorable to the free-state
86 KANSAS.
cause. There came to be a general conviction
that nothing less than the destruction of this op-
probrious town would give peace and safety to the
border, and naturally enough the passion to ex-
periment upon it with the bowie-knife and re-
volver cure rose to an almost uncontrollable pitch.
Only a pretext was needed to precipitate an at-
tack, and the flimsiest would be accepted if noth-
ing better offered.
A fatal claim-dispute, November 21st, 1855, at
Hickory Point — a settlement ten miles south of
Lawrence — furnished the coveted excuse for an
appeal to arms. F. N. Coleman, a pro-slavery
squatter, assassinated Charles M. Dow, a young
neighbor of free-state proclivities, who made his
home with old Jacob Branson. Dow was " a right
peaceable man," said Branson ; " a man that I
thought as much of as any I ever got acquainted
with."
Five days after the killing, an excited band of
armed free-state men congregated about the spot
crimsoned by Dow's blood to discuss under its
dark inspiration measures of retribution. The
assassin and his friends — implicated more or less
directly in the crime — took alarm at the earliest
signs of mischief and fled to Shawnee Mission. A
proposition to fire their deserted cabins was dis-
cussed and rejected, though the adverse decision
did not save them from being burnt down at night.
The talk of the assembly befitted time and occa-
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 87
sion. It was reminiscent, furious, stygian, avenge-
ful, but no plans of practical violence were adopted
beyond the appointment of a vigilance committee,
with instructions "to ferret out and bring the
murderers and their accomplices to condign pun-
ishment." The committee exhibited more zeal
than marksmanship in the discharge of their du-
ties if Coleman may be credited. " I was not
safe in traveling through the territory," he tes-
tified before the congressional investigating com-
mittee a few months after the homicide. " I had
been shot at more than twenty times by men from
Lawrence."
Old Branson is described as " an elderly man
of most quiet and modest deportment," yet, ac-
cording to the testimony of pro-slavery neighbors,
whose evidence should be received with abate-
ments, the butchery of his friend stirred him to
great fluency of sanguinary talk. They report
him as swearing mouth-filling oaths that a certain
Harrison Buckley, who egged on the murder,
" should not breathe the pure air three minutes,"
if he could once draw a bead upon him. Buckley,
in real or simulated alarm for his life, procured a
peace warrant for Branson's arrest, which was put
into the hands of Samuel J. Jones, lately com-
missioned sheriff of Douglas County.
Sheriff Jones, a prominent figure in coming
events, was a mixture of black and white that
fairly represented the good and evil of the border
88 KANSAS.
— a man of great energy, noise, violence, courage,
and sincerity. He won his first partisan laurels
at Bloomington polls on the 30th of March, when
he succeeded in driving off two or three rather
mettlesome and plucky election judges. That ex-
ploit gave him a very odious reputation in free-
state circles.
At a late hour on the night of November 26th
a loud, unceremonious thumping saluted Bran-
son's cabin door. " "Who "s there ? " shouted the
old man. " P'riends," was the reply. So urgent
was the haste of these friends that they forced
the door before they could be invited to come in.
They told Branson to consider himself a prisoner,
and to be very careful how he behaved. Slight
indiscretions might lead to unfortunate results.
Mrs. Branson ventured to inquire of the visitors
by what authority they were pouncing upon her
husband at dead of night, when her attention was
called to a seven-shooter as a warrant singularly
effective and constitutional. Jones pulled Bran-
son out of bed, ordered him to put on his coat and
trousers, mounted him on a sharp-backed mule,
and set off for Lecompton via Lawrence.
News of the raid flew swiftly through the
neighborhood. There was a hurried rally to over-
haul Jones. On reaching Blanton he found Cap-
tain J. B. Abbott with fifteen men drawn across
the road to dispute his passage. " What 's up ? "
asked the sheriff. " That 's what we want to
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 89
know," Abbott growled. Pistols, squirrel-guns,
Sliarpe's rifles, were ready for business in a twink-
ling. One of Abbott's men, in the absence of
better armament, provided himself with two large
stones and proposed to play the part of a cata-
pult against the enemy. But, notwithstanding
the warlike aspect of affairs, volleys of words
were the deadliest missiles exchanged. " Come
out of that," somebody among the rescuers shouted
to Branson, and out of it he came,
Abbott and his men hurried to Lawrence,
where they arrived early in the morning. They
halted at Dr. Robinson's house on Mt. Oread.
" I shall never forget the appearance of the men,"
Mrs. Robinson wrote, " in simple citizen's dress,
some armed and some unarmed, standing in un-
broken line, just visible in the breaking light of a
November morning. The little band of less than
twenty men had . . . walked ten miles since nine
o'clock of the previous evening. Mr. Branson, a
large man, of fine proportions, stood a little for-
ward of the line, with his head slightly bent,
which an old straw hat hardly protected from
the cold, looking as though in his hurry of de-
parture from home he took whatever came first."
Now that the rescuers had succeeded in their
enterprise, they began to fear that it might lead
to serious consequences, and the visit to Dr. Rob-
inson was for explanation and advice. S. N.
Wood, who acted as spokesman, narrated the
90 A'.-l.VS^S.
events of the night. " Now wliat shall we do ? "
he asked in conclusion. " I am afraid the affair
will make mischief," Robinson replied. " The
other side will seize upon it as a pretext for in-
vading the territory. Go down to the town and
call a meeting at eight o'clock."
The meeting was called, and after the circum-
stances of the rescue had been set forth by Wood
and Branson, Kol)inson led off in a speech, outlin-
ing the policy which was subsequently pursued —
disavowal of all responsibility in the matter, dis-
patch of the men who were implicated out of town
without delay, and adoption of a strictly defen-
sive attitude. Conway, G. P. Lowrey, and others
followed in the same strain. A committee of
safety was appointed and clothed with autliority
to take such measures of precaution as the emer-
gency might requiie.
Upon losing his jnisoner. Sheriff Jonos rode to
Franklin distraught betwixt conflicting emotions
of rage and exultation. Tiie success of the Yan-
kees exasperated him, yet in that success he fore-
saw a sure dawn of day for the pro-slavery cause
— foresaw the overthrow of Lawrence and the
approach of that millennial period when he would
" corral all the abolitionists and make pets of
them."
Jones ha'^tcMKnl to send missives from Fianklin
to his friends in Missouri calling for hel]>. It
soon occurred to him that appeals to Missouri
WAR ON- THE WAKARDSA. 91
might have a queer look, and couriers were sent
to Governor Shannon with an exaggerated ac-
count of the troubles. In the judgment of Jones,
it would require a force of three thousand men
to deal effectually with the traitors of Douglas
County and avenge the affronts offered to justice.
The governor caught the sheriff's outlaw-crush-
ing furor, and unhesitatingly ordered militia offi-
cers to collect as large a force as possible and
march at once to Lawrence. Nobody, whether
sheriff, militia general, or governor, thought it
necessary to communicate with that town, to ask
explanations or make demands. It was not a
word and a blow, but a blow without the word.
Kansas volunteers did not respond in any large
numbers to the governor's summons. The town
of Franklin furnished a company led by Captain
Leak — a commander with unhappy, though not
disqualifying antecedents. " Mr. Leak," in the
words of a resident of Franklin, " was a traveling
gambler — he told me so himself." Other towns
in the territory furnished contingents, but prob-
ably the whole number of Kansans did not exceed
fifty. The great mass of invaders came from Mis-
souri. They straggled along in detached parties
toward Lawrence, armed with every variety of
weapons from rusty flint-locks and old-fashioned
horse-pistols to modern rifles, until twelve or fif-
teen hundred of them were concentrated in the
vicinity — encamping for the most part on the
92 KANSAS.
Wakarusa, a small affluent of the Kansas River —
an unwashed, braggart, volcanic multitude. They
laid the surrounding country under contribution,
overhauled travelers, rifled cabins, fired hay-stacks,
seized horses and cattle — in a word, filled the
region with confusion as an overture to letting
slip fiercer dogs of Avar.
The militia generals, who responded to Shan-
non's call with frolicsome alacrity that befitted a
pleasure jaunt, grew sober on reaching Lawrence.
It was found that the committee of safety had
developed an embarrassing amount of defensive
energy. The chief command they intrusted to
Dr. Robinson, with the rank of major-general,
though he had never seen military service. To
Lane they assigned a second rank. His practical
war-record would naturally have claimed the first,
but the committee, in the grave and critical junc-
ture, did not dare to risk a frothy, pictorial, un-
ballasted leadership. Five small forts covered the
approaches to the town, within the lines of which
some six hundred men — large reinforcements
having arrived from neighboring villages — drilled
incessantly. Two hundred of these men were
armed with Sharpens rifles — a vexatious circum-
stance that gave the Missourians pause. A fresh
installment of thom — the first reached Lawrence
a few weeks after the March election — was re-
ceived just as hostilities began. " I liavc only time
to thank you and the friends who sent us the
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 93
Sharpe's rifles," Dr. Robinson wrote A. A. Law-
rence December 4th, " for they . . . will give us
the victory without firing a shot."
General Eastin, editor of the pro-slavery " Kan-
sas Herald," reconnoitred Lawrence and advised
Governor Shannon that "the outlaws were well
fortified," — that an assault upon them would be
at heavy cost. He counseled recourse to the fed-
eral troops at Fort Leavenworth. His communi-
cation excited alarm at Shawnee Mission. Gov-
ei'nor Shannon, who had viewed the whole matter
as a mere bagatelle, requested permission of the
authorities at Washington to employ United States
soldiers in the emergency. He also urged Colonel
E. V. Sumner, in command at Fort Leavenworth,
to march for the scene of disturbance without
awaiting orders. This request Sumner declined
to comply with, but suggested that the great mob
enveloping Lawrence should be made to under-
stand it must confine itself wholly to defensive
operations — a hint which was promptly acted on.
The War Department placed the garrison of Fort
Leavenworth at Shannon's service, but Colonel
Sumner refused to move until orders reached him
from Washington.
If the besiegers outside of the town found them-
selves harassed by unexpected and increasing dif-
ficulties, the besieged inside of it were not free
from perplexities. The influx of reinforcements
taxed the commissariat very heavily. Whoever
94 KANSAS.
possessed supplies of food or clothing found him-
self uncomfortably circumstanced. The expres-
sion on the faces of tradesmen as they distributed
their goods among the soldiery in exchange for
worthless scrip was like lamplight glimmering on
the wall of a sepulchre. There was a general
observance of order and decorum. Most citizens
made a virtue of necessity and contributed freely
what otherwise must have been rudely confis-
cated. In a single instance a little outbreak of
violence occurred — expending itself in the sack of
a small tailor's shop. One night during the siege,
according to the story of a clerk, " about twenty
men, armed with revolvers," invaded the premises
and extinguished the lamp by firing a tobacco-box
at it. " Before I could light a eaiulle," the clerk
continued, " everything in the store was taken off
the shelves and carried away." A young woman
who had the misfortune to keep a hotel — the
Cincinnati House — in Lawrence during the im-
pecunious era of the siege, wrote a few days after
its close : " It looked strange ... to see the streets
paraded from morning till night by men in mili-
tary array ; to see them toil day and night throw-
ing uj) intrenchments ; to see them come in to their
meals each with his gun in hand and sometimes
bringing it to the table. . . . How we toiled to
feed the multitudes, sehlom snati-hing a moment
to look out upon tlie strange scenes — often ask-
ing, ' What are the prospects to-day ? ' — or at
WAR ON- TEE WAKARUSA. 95
midniglit as, worn and weary, we sought the
pillow, discussing such themes as these ... —
' There 's prospect of an attack to-night.' ' The
guard has been doubled, and we are all vigi-
lance.' "...
The sobriety of affairs in Lawrence induced the
committee of safety to open communications with
Governor Shannon. G. P. Lowrey and C. W.
Babcock set out at one o'clock on the morning
of December 6th for Shawnee Mission. Near
Franklin they encountered a picket - guard, and
were ordered to advance and give the countersign.
" We got the cork out of the only countersign we
had as soon as possible, and that passed us." The
commissioners soon stumbled upon another batcb
of sentinels. " Where are you going ? " they de-
manded. " Things are getting dangerous here-
abouts," said Babcock, " and I 've made up my
mind to scoot for Illinois." " Abolitionists scared
in Lawrence, eh? Don't believe we can let you
pass." After some discussion it was agreed that
the officer in command, who turned out to be the
traveling gambler, Captain Leak, should be con-
sulted. This worthy was reported asleep, but it
was a sort of sleep which the most energetic shak-
ing, permitted by a very lax military etiquette,
could not break, and his valuable advice was in-
accessible. The commissioners managed to pacify
the guard and worry through the lines. In gen-
eral, the Missourians were talkative and expressed
96 KANSAS.
their opinions unreservedly. Some of them fumed
over reports tliat the Lawrence outlaws had sub-
stituted a red flag for the Stars and Stripes.
Some gloried in the ruin about to fall on the abo-
lition stronghold — a ruin that would not leave
one stone upon another. Others cursed Reeder
as the author of all the trouble — '' We must
have his head even if we have to go to Pennsylva-
nia after it."
Lowrey and Babcock found Governor Shannon
in ill humor. He roundly denounced free-state
men — charged them with driving from the ter-
ritory settlers who were politically obnoxious and
firing their cabins, and with displaying a startling
spirit of insubordination and rebellion by their re-
sistance to territorial officers and their nullifica^
tion of territorial laws. The delegation from
Lawrence contended that the governor had been
deceived ; that Lawrence was no more responsible
for the rescue of Branson than for the precession
of the equinoxes ; that the question of territorial
legislation did not enter into present complica-
tions, and that he was beating about in heavy fogs
of ignorance and misapprehension concerning the
facts out of which they rose. " I shall go to Law-
rence," said Shannon, "and insist I'lpoii the people
agreeing to obey the laws and delivering up their
Sharpens rifles." " We have not resisted the
laws," the commissioners retorted. " As to the
rifles nobody would be safe in going before our
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 97
people with any proposition to deliver them up.
If you have such an idea you had better stay away
and let the fight go on."
For the first time suspicions began to haunt
Shannon that he might have been misled by his
Missouri advisers. The shrewdness, poise, and
quickness to detect an opponent's weak points dis-
played among the outlaws, whose intelligence he
had put at a paltry valuation, astonished Shannon.
They ought to have scattered like a flock of af-
frighted birds at the first rustle of danger instead
of digging trenches, learning the manual of arms,
and discovering an embarrassing skill in diplo-
macy.
The governor, on his arrival at the Wakarusa
camp, found the militia, excited by whiskey and
ignorant of free-state strength, clamoring for per-
mission to attack the town. He spared no efforts
to discourage their frenzy. In this movement
he was heartily and effectively seconded by Atch-
ison. "But for his mediatorial offices," said
Butler, of South Carolina, speaking in the Senate
March 5th, 1856, vaguely and imperfectly com-
prehending the ugly dilemma in which the over-
hasty Missourians found themselves, " the homes
of Lawrence would have been burned and the
streets drenched with blood." Senator Butler
thought that these kind offices were very inade-
quately appreciated. But let the ingrates be-
ware. " If ever D. R. Atchison shall pass the line
98 KANSAS.
again and say as Ca?sar did, ' I have passed the
Rubicon and now I draw the sword,' I should
dread the contest."
Shannon visited Lawrence December 7th, in
company with prominent Missourians, to prose-
cute negotations for peace. Robinson and Lane
received the visitors in behalf of the citizens and
of the committee of safety. The interview com-
pletely undeceived Shannon. Now the pressing
question was not how to disperse free-state out-
laws, but how, without an explosion, to disperse
the Missourians, whom the governor called " a
pack of hyenas." To accomplish this he urged the
representatives of Lawrence to be as generous as
possible in the matter of concessions. A treaty
was concluded, astutely designed to bear more
than one interpretation — a treaty in which con-
tradictory i)hrases shouldered and jostled each
other, but which succeeded amidst the confusion
in informing the Missourians that the governor
"has not called upon persons residents of any
other state to aid in the execution of the laws,
and such as are here in this territory are here of
their own choice."
Governor Shannon called a meeting of the Mis-
souri commanders at Franklin. Tliey were not
consulted about the treaty, and knew nothing of
its tenor. With the exce})tion of Atchison, who
did not relish the pass to which matters had come
and declined to attend, the principal military
WAR ON THE WAKARUSA. 99
men were present. Shannon insisted that Rob-
inson and Lane should accompany him to Frank-
lin, and assist in sugar-coating the unpalatable
treaty. The governor led off in a long talk, and
rehearsed the details of the campaign. Lane fol-
lowed, but had hardly spoken half-a-dozen sen-
tences when some arrogance of manner or impol-
icy of language gave offense, and the sensitive
gentry began to pick up their hats and revolvers.
" Wait a minute," Shannon interposed, " and hear
what Dr. Robinson has to say." Robinson suc-
ceeded in getting the attention of the restless
audience, while he expounded the unreason of the
demand, so popular among Missourians, that free-
state men should surrender their Sharpe's rifles.
They had a constitutional right to bear arms.
You, gentlemen, in your own case, would not for
an instant tolerate the impertinence of such a
claim. Further, Lawrence was not a party to
the assault upon Jones. What is more, Lawrence
has never resisted the service of a legal writ. " Is
that so, Mr. Sheriff ? " a militia colonel broke in.
The sheriff could not deny the statement. " Then
we have been damnably deceived," said the colonel.
The inevitable must be accepted, and the baf-
fled Missourians swore with a lighter accent than
might have been expected. Sheriff Jones was
disgusted at the turn of affairs. Hopes of a fu-
ture opportunity to settle with the abolitionists
gave him a little comfort. " I '11 get up another
100 KANSAS.
scrape," he said, " if I 'ra opposed in executing
the laws. No old grimny shall stop me next
time."
Atchison did not remit his efforts for peace.
" The position of General Robinson is impreg-
nable," he said in a speech to the disgusted in-
vaders, "not in a military point of view, but his
tactics have given him all the advantage as to the
cause of quarrel. If you attack Lawrence now,
you attack it as a mob, and what would be the
result? You would cause the election of an abo-
lition president and the ruin of the Democratic
party. Wait a little. You cannot now destroy
these people without losing more than you would
gain."
Saturday, December 8th, the pleasant weather
— so mild that many soldiers on both sides were
in summer clothing — suddenly changed into win-
ter. In the evening a tremendous sleet-storm set
in and extinguished among the Missourians what-
ever ardor for fighting may have survived the
frosty articles of peace. They retired sullenly,
carrying three " dead bodies — one killed by the
falling of a tree, one shot by the guard acciden-
tally, and one killed in some sort of a quarrel."
The victory of Lawrence was complete — a blood-
less victory won by strategy.
A single voice was raised in solemn and public
protest against the peace. After the treaty and
its stipulations had become known ; after speeches
WAR ON TEE WAKARUSA. 101
of felicitation on the happy subsidence of perils
that threatened to engulf the settlement in ruin
had been made, an unknown man — tall, slender,
angular ; his face clean-shaved, sombre, strongly
lined, of Puritan tone and. configuration ; his
blue - gray eyes honest, inexorable ; strange, un-
worldly intensities enveloping him like an atmos-
phere — mounted, a dry -goods box and began to
denounce the treaty as an attempt to gain by
foolish, uncomprehending make-shift what could
be compassed only by the shedding of blood.
Since that day the name of this unknown man,
plucked down from the dry-goods box with his
speech mostly unspoken, has filled the post-horns
of the world — Old John Brown.
CHAPTER VII.
SOME HEAVY BLOWS.
The winter of 1855-56 in Kansas was of a
Siberian character. For a time meteorological
woes surpassed all others in the territory. The
sleet-tempest that celebrated the close of the Wa-
karusa war faithfully foretokened the coming
months. For the most part the immigrants were
very inadequately protected against the sudden
and extreme cold. Log huts — the common type
of dwelling — had few attractions for winter res-
idence. Ordinarily they were a sorry afTair — a
floorless pen of half-hewn logs, roughly battened
witli a filling of stones, sticks, and mud — the
whole loosely roofed over, and usually containing
a single room. In the absence of anything bet-
ter, doors and windows were manufactured out of
cotton cloth. Into these rickety cabins storms
drifted from every quarter — above, beneath,
around.
" I failed to complete my log-house before the
winter of 1855-5G set in," said Captain Samuel
"Walker. "The sides were up, roofed, and partly
plastered when the Wakarusa war interrupted
SOi\fE HEAVY BLOWS. 103
work. On my return home, after the conclusion
of peace, the cold was so severe that nothing more
could be done, and we had to shift as best we
could until warm weather. Our cabin had no
floor, but we were as well off in this particular
as most of our neighbors. Chinks and fissures
abounded in roof and gables, as the green slabs
with which they were covered warped badly.
Seven of us made up the family — five children,
mostly small. At times, when the winds were
bleakest, we actually went to bed as the only es-
cape from freezing. More tlian once we woke in
the morning to find six inches of snow in the
cabin. To get up, to make one's toilet under
such circumstances, was not a very comfortable
performance. Often we had little to eat — the
wolf was never very far from our door during that
hard winter of 1855-56."
The inhospitalities of Kansas frontier life fell
with peculiar severity upon women. " He who
has seen the sufferings of men," said Victo Hugo,
" has seen nothing. Let him look upon the suf-
ferings of women." Burdened with drudgeries
in their most primitive, unrelieved shape, ex-
posed to all the anxieties and perils which a state
of anarchy implies, denied the relief of public
and aggressive service — their heroic, untrum-
peted endurance was not least heroic and worthy
among the pioneer services rendered to Kansas.
Severities of winter, that frost-bit the ill-fur-
104 KANSAS.
nished settlers, called a truce to active hostilities.
Yet warlike movements, that pointed to future in-
vasions on a more formidable scale than had
heretofore been attempted, continued along the
border. " We have reliable information," Robin-
son wrote A. A. Lawrence January' 25th, 1850,
"that extensive preparations are being made in
Missouri for the destruction of Lawrence and all
the free-state settlements. You can have no idea
of the character of the men with whom we have
to deal. We are pui-chasing ammunition and
stores of all kinds for a siege. . . . We have tele-
graphed to the president and members of Con-
gress and the Northern governors our condition,
and sent out six men to raise an army for the
defense of Kansas and the Union. ... I am do-
ing my utmost to conquer without bloodshed, and
I believe that if my suggestions are acted upon
promptly in the states we shall avoid a war. . . .
Our plans are all well laid, and if the states will
do their part promptly, I believe but little money
will be actually used, and no lives lost."
Among the six men dispatched eastward on a
mission of explanation and appeal were J. S. Em-
ery, M. F. Conway, and G. W. Smith. They left
Lawrence about the middle of January in a buggy,
which they soon found of little service on the
snow-clogged roads. Before starting the company
held a consultation concerning the safest method of
managing their credentials. Should some border-
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 105
ruffian with a turn for investigation discover these
credentials, the party would very likely receive
rough usage. In the midst of their perplexities a
bright thought struck Smith — " Boys, I 've hit
it. In Missouri everybody carries a jug. There
a jug never excites suspicion. Put the papers in
jugs with corncob stoppers and they '11 be safe."
The suggestion was greeted with applause and
immediately carried into effect. Plodding slowly
across the State of Missouri — the journey occu-
pied two weeks — masquerading under various
disguises, the travelers safely reached the Missis-
sippi River opposite Quincy, Illinois, over which
they walked on the ice. jNIidway in the river they
halted, broke the jugs, and transferred the creden-
tials to their pockets. This delegation, and other
delegations that followed, successfully pleaded the
free-state cause in the North and East.
There was also stir and excitement at the
South, from which bands of armed emigrants
reached the territory during the spring and sum-
mer of 1856. " Even in my own state," said Sen-
ator Butler, of South Carolina, " I perceive parties
are being formed to go to Kansas — adventurous
young men who will fight anybody." The sena-
tor probably had in mind the operations of Major
Jefferson Buford, of Alabama, who conducted
thither the most notorious company of Southern
immigrants. Buford issued a call for three hun-
dred men, promising them by way of inducements
106 KANSAS.
transportation, support for a year, a homestead,
and the satisfaction of a chance at the abolition-
ists. He fitted out the expedition largely from
his own resources. To reimburse tlie outlay, it
Avas understood that each member of the company
would take up a claim, one half of which should
be turned over to Buford. But the venture did
not succeed financially, as few of the company be-
came permanent residents of Kansas.
The appearance of Buford on the border encour-
aged the pro-slavery leaders. " Our hearts have
been made glad," said the managers of the La-
fayette Emigration Society, — a jNIissouri organi-
zation, — in an appeal to the South, "by the late ar-
rivals of large companies from South Carolina and
Alabama. They have responded promptly to our
call for help. The noble Buford is already en-
deared to our hearts ; we love him ; we will fight
for him and die for him and his companions. Who
will follow his noble example ? "We tell you now
and tell you frankly, that unless you come quickly
and come by thousands we are gone. The election
once lost, we are lost forever. Then farewell to
our Southern cause and farewell to our glorious
Union."
Congress shared inevitably in the disturbances
which radiated North and South from Kansas —
a word seized upon according to the " Democratic
Keview " " by the most cunning of modern magi-
cians, the abolitionists, to raise the devil with."
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 107
Numerous expedients for allaying these disastrous
agitations came to the surface. Senator Critten-
den, of Kentucky, proposed unsuccessfully that
Lieutenant-General Scott should be sent to Kan-
sas as pacificator, equipped with " the sword in
his left hand and in his right hand — peace, gen-
tle peace." Toombs, of Georgia, submitted a plan
of adjustment, the terms of which were fair and
unpartisan. It contemplated the appointment of
five commissioners — men of the highest charac-
ter and selected from both parties — who should
take an accurate census, apportion the territory
into districts, and on the 4th of November, 1856,
cause an election to be held for delegates to a con-
stitutional convention, at which all male citizens,
residents of three months' standing, might vote.
December 1st these delegates were to assemble,
take under advisement the question of establish-
ing a state government, and, should it be decided
affirmatively, enter at once upon the work.
This bill, though energetically combated by
anti-slavery senators from distrust of President
Pierce, in whose hands the appointment of com-
missioners was lodged, and from apprehensions that
in some way jNIissouri would again decisively in-
terfere, passed the Senate, but did not survive the
opposition of the House. That body originated
and sanctioned a measure known as the Dunn bill,
the leading features of which were — the election
of a new territorial leo;islature in November, the
108 KAXSAS.
dismissal of criminal prosecutions for offenses
against territorial laws, and the restoration of the
Missouri Compromise, though it Avas stipulated
that slaves, already in the territory, should not be
disturbed before. January, 1858. This scheme
failed in the Senate.
Out of the various bills, compromises, substi-
tutes, amendments, which appeared in Congress
during the spring and summer of 185G, a single
measure only emerged that reached any practical
importance — the appointment by the House of
Representatives of an investigating committee,
the members of which were William A. Howard,
of Michigan, John Sherman, of Ohio, and JNIorde-
cai Oliver, of Missouri. This committee proceeded
to the territory, held its first meeting at Kansas
City April 14th, examined three hundred and
twenty -three witnesses, who represented every
shade of political opinion, and on the 1st and 2d
of July presented a report, in which a great mass
of facts is accumulated wholly creditable to
neither side.
Early in the spring the local campaign showed
signs of life. Sheriff Jones, who had a touch of
genius for finding quarrel in a straw, led off in
the revived operations. lie still pursued the pol-
icy which barely missed success in the Wakarusa
war, fumed about Lawrence with much insolent
ado, and attempted without success to arrest S. N.
Wood, who, in addition to taking a prominent
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 109
part in the Branson matter, had made himself
still more obnoxious by doing elective free-state
service on the stump in Ohio. Jones pursued his
efforts to arrest different people at Lawrence, un-
til at last he got a sharp blow in the face from
somebody who resented his familiarities. There-
upon he rode to Lecompton and reported to Gov-
ernor Shannon that he had been assaulted in the
discharge of his duties, and demanded a military
escort for his protection. April 23d he reap-
peared in town accompanied by Lieutenant Mc-
intosh and eleven soldiers. He succeeded in ar-
resting six citizens on the charge of " contempt
of court," as they declined to assist him in
making arrests during former visits. Instead of
proceeding to Lecompton with his prisoners, he
remained in town, possibly with the hope of ex-
citing an attempt at rescue. Though threats
had been freely made against him, he chose to
spend the night in Mcintosh's tent rather than
in less exposed quarters. During the evening
Jones and the lieutenant went out to a neigh-
boring water barrel for a drink. While they were
there a shot was fired from a little knot of men
standing at no great distance. " I believe that
was intended for me," said Jones, with a shrug.
The lieutenant thought he must be mistaken as
several pistols had been discharged, apparently
into the air, since night-fall. " That was intended
for me," said Jones, when they returned to the
110 KANSAS.
tent, " for here is the hole in my pants." Tlie
lieutenant hurried out to investigate the affair.
'* 1 immediately joined the crowd," he reports,
'■'■ and while speaking to them heard another shot,
and at the same time some of my men exclaimed,
' Lieutenant, the sheriff is dead. ' " Not many
seconds later a young man — J. P. Filer by name
— with his pistol still smoking — burst into a
cabin hard by where two or three chums were sit-
ting, and said, " Boys, hide this ; I 've shot Sheriff
Jones." After a hasty consultation they decided
not to betray the culprit, and pledged themselves
by a solemn oath to silence. P^or a quarter of a
century the secret was faithfully kept.
The shooting intensified the general excite-
ment. A public meeting of the citizens of Law-
rence on the following day denounced it " as the
act of some malicious and evil-disposed individ-
ual," for whose arrest they offered a reward of
five hundred dollars. 'J'he congressional investi-
gatiug committee were in session at Lawrence, and
Whitfield, pro-slavery delegate to Congress, seized
upon the unfortunate affair as a plausible pretext
for attempting to break down tlie investigation.
He declared himself in fear for his life, expatiated
on the unreasonableness of asking witnesses to
venture into an assassin's den, and actually fled
tlie town, but crej)t back in a few days on finding
that his absence did not affect the committee.
Pro-slavei-}' newspapers eulogized Jones as a no-
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. Ill
ble patriot, " shot down by the thieving paupers
of the North." Though the wound did not prove
fatal, reports of his death were current and roused
fiercer passions upon the border than lay within
the compass of any Branson-rescue exploit. " His
murder shall be avenged," said the " Squatter
Sovereign," " if at the sacrifice of every aboli-
tionist in the territory. . . . We are now in favor
of leveling Lawrence and chastising the traitors
there congregated, should it result in the total
destruction of the Union."
At this juncture the pro-slavery cause was pow-
erfully reinforced by the appearance in the field
of the territorial judiciary. Early in May the
grand jury of Douglas County was in session at
Lecompton. This jury Judge S. D. Lecompte,
chief justice of the territory, instructed at large
in reference to the extraordinary conditions and
responsibilities under which they met. An ex-
position of the nature of treason figured in the
address, the tenor of which, the judge writes, De-
cember 31st, 1884, "has been most grossly mis-
represented."
" I have been charged with resorting to a constructive
treason as within the scope of legitimate prosecution.
I made no such flagrant departure from recognized
American authorities — I did not adopt as legitimate or
tenable the monstrous proposition of stretching by con-
struction the language of the Constitution to create a
crime not within its clear and unavoidable import. I
112 KANSAS.
remember as if it were but yesterday that I distinctly
and explicitly repudiated the doctrine of constructive
treason. I remember, too, that I explained the phrase-
ology of the Constitution on this point in the spirit, if
not in the words, of Wharton. Passing to the state of
public affairs I took up the question whether treason
could be committed against the United States by levy-
ing war upon the territorial government. I then held
and still hold such hostility to be treason against the
federal government. What constitutes hostility in this
penal sense I also expounded with careful avoidance of
adding a word beyond established doctrine. In my
opinion the jury that dealt with these questions was
not inferior to any of its successors in patriotism, fair-
ness, or intelligence. That, in the madness of partisan
strife, under the provocations of unprincipled leaders,
when the laws of the territory were denounced as
' bogus,' their authority defied, and an opposing legisla-
ture, without semblance of authority, set up, when in-
surgent military forces were organizing, equipping,
drilling — that, I say in such untoward circumstances,
the judiciary should have felt called upon to instruct the
grand jury upon the subject of treason, that the grand
jury should have made presentments, and the district
attorney preferred indictments, can hardly be a cause
for wonder."
On the list of traitors were Robinson, Reeder,
Lane, and sevci-al other men prominent in free-
state circles. A companion indictment for " nsnr-
pation of office " was also issued against Robinson.
In the reorganized campaign the first attack fell
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 113
upon Reeder, who was summoned May 6tli before
the grand jury of Douglas County, while in at-
tendance upon the investigating committee at Te-
cumseh. He declined to obey the subpcena on
the ground that it was of more importance that he
should attend the sessions of the committee than
of the grand jury. Thursday, May 8th, the com-
mittee returned to Lawrence. There Deputy Mar-
shal Fain appeared with an attachment against
Reeder for " contempt of court." Reeder refused
to be captured, and told the marshal that if he
touched him it would be at his peril — a show of
spirit that pleased the spectators, who came crowd-
ing into the room. But the situation soon grew
intolerable, and there was safety ouly in flight.
Reeder succeeded in reaching Kansas City, where
he lay concealed some days at the American House,
a hotel kept by the Eldridge brothers. The well-
known free -state character of the hotel gave it
about town a bad name, which was now blackened
especially by rumors that abolitionists were skulk-
ing there — rumors that subjected it to constant
mob - surveillance. On one occasion, suspicious
border-rufl&ans resorted to a formal search of the
premises, and it was only by the cleverest in-
genuity and presence of mind on the part of the
household that they failed to unearth the fugitive.
While concealed in the hotel, Reeder concluded
that the time had fully come to make his will,
into which he incorporated a brief but vigorous de-
114 KANSAS.
scription of the men who were frothing about his
hiding-place, "I, Andrew H. Reeder : ... in
danger of being murdered by a set of wild ruf-
fians and outlaws, who are outside of all restraints
of order, decency, and all social obligations, and
who are below the savage in all the virtues of
civilization ... in view of my deatli, which may
happen to-day or to-morrow, make this last will
and testament."
Reeder escaped in disguise. Donning a suit of
blue jean, with a battered straw hat on his head,
a clay pipe in his mouth, and an axe in his hand
— presenting the appearance of a seedy journey-
man wood-chopper — he walked out of the hotel
undetected, was rowed down the Missouri to an
out-of-the-way landing, where a friendly river
captain, who was in the secret, stopped for him.
''Get aboard, you old scallawag," shouted the
captain with simulated gruffness as the steamer
touched the landing. "I won't wait two minutes
for you ! "
The Lecompton authorities intended to act
with no less vigor in Robinson's case. The gen-
eral plan of operations came to his ears through
some defection among the grand jury. What
course ought to be pursued in the crisis was the
subject of anxious discussion. An all night con-
sultation took place in Topeka, at which John
Sherman, W. A. Howard, Charles Robinson, and
W. Y. Roberts, together with Mrs. Sherman and
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 115
Mrs. Robinson, were present, to settle upon a line
of policy. Should tlie territorial laws, "which
denounced penalties of imprisonment against the
utterance of anti-slavery sentiments, be enforced,
a wholesale locking up of free-state men would
follow. The conclusions reached at the conference
had a belligerent look. For the first and last
time, representatives of the state government se-
riously entertained purposes of resisting the ter-
ritorial authorities. The plans as outlined con-
templated further appeals to the North in hope of
stirring it to active measures of sympathy, urged
free-state men, obnoxious to the authorities, to
avoid arrest as far as possible, and recommended
the calling of an extra session of the state legis-
lature for the purpose of putting the militia on a
war-footing, in order to be prepared for emergen-
cies. A halt must be called somewhere. If pro-
slavery men were determined to force a collision,
no better spot offered for a hostile stand than
the state government. It was agreed that Gov-
ernor Robinson should proceed eastward without
delay to avoid the grand jury, as that body had
as yet taken no action in his case ; that he should
confer with anti-slavery friends, and put the testi-
mony thus far taken before the investigating com-
mittee beyond the reach of pro-slavery men, who
would have been glad to get possession of it.
The plan miscarried. Governor Robinson got
no farther eastward than Lexington, Missouri,
116 KANSAS.
where he was seized and detained. Mrs. Rob-
inson, who was allowed to proceed, delivered the
papers of the congressional committee to Governor
Chase, of Ohio, and prosecuted the political func-
tions of the embassy by visiting New England and
by attending the republican state convention of
IlHnois.
The arrest at Lexington was entirely arbitrary.
Robinson remained there under surveillance nearly
a week before the necessary legal papers could be
obtained from Kansas. When they arrived he
was handed over to Federal Colonel Preston, who
set out with him for Lecompton. The route lay
through Lawrence. "If the people of Lawrence,"
said Preston, " attempt a rescue, of which I hear
rumors, the escort will shoot you on the spot."
This communication was not kindly received.
"Well," the Colonel replied, "such are my or-
ders." Governor Shannon, apprehending trouble,
stopped the party at Franklin, and ordered it back
to Kansas City. From that point the party pro-
ceeded up the river to Leavenworth, which was
reached Saturday, May 24tli. The prisoner expe-
rienced no special ill-usage m Leavenworth until
Monday, the 26th, when there was a tremendous
ferment. During the day newspaper extras ar-
rived containing reports of free-state outrages on
the Pottawatomie — reports that pro-slavery set-
tlers in that region had been dragged from their
cabins at dead of night and butchered. The news
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 117
quickly called together an excited, angry, desper-
ate crowd. A proposition to retaliate by mobbing
the free-state governor roused general and bois-
terous enthusiasm. Thomas H. Gladstone, corre-
spondent of the London " Times," and author of
*' Kansas ; or, Squatter Life and Border Warfare
in the Far West," mingled among the rioters and
caught some of their talk : " Let us get hold of
him ; if we don't sarve him out powerful quick.
The hangin' bone villain, he may say his prayers
mighty smart now. I '11 be dog-gauned if we don't
string him up afore the day 's out. Hangin 's a
nation sight too good for him, the mean cuss. He
ought to have been shot through the head right
away — that 's how I 'd sarve him." A Mis-
sourian — an old California acquaintance whose
life Robinson had saved years before by timely
medical service in a cholera panic — called toward
evening. He seemed very much affected, and
did not speak for some minutes. "You once did
me a good turn," he finally managed to say, " and
I 've been trying to repay it all day. The boys
have decided to kill you. I 've done everything
in my power to quiet them, but it 's no use. I
thought I 'd come and tell yon about it." Only
by the greatest exertion did the authorities suc-
ceed in defeating the plans of the lynchers. The
chief justice of the territory, whose discourse on
treason before a grand jury initiated the whole
movement, a major-general of militia, and a
118 KANSAS.
United States marshal stood guard over tte pris-
oner during the night and saw him on the way
to Lecompton early in the morning before the
town was astir.
The grand jury of Douglas County wrought
great havoc among free -state leaders — Reeder
fleeing in the disguise of a wood-chopper, Rob-
inson a prisoner, Lane out of the territory, and
other men, to whom the public confidence had
been given, soon to be successfully hunted down.
But this triumphant grand jury had not yet run
its course. It found bills of indictment against
two newspapers of Lawrence — the " Herald of
Freedom" and the " Kansas Free State " — whose
inflammatory and seditious language overpassed
the limits of sufferance, and against the principal
hotel of that town, which some extraordinary ob-
liquity of vision transformed into a military for-
tress, " regularly parapeted and port-holed for the
use of cannon and small arms."
Well aware that the business in hand could not
be accomplished unless aided by a militar}'- force,
Marshal Donaldson issued a proclamation calling
upon law-abiding citizens to rally at Lecompton
for his assistance. It was time to cease dawdling.
Lawrence, that " foul blot on the soil of Kansas,"
must be humiliated ; her newspaper press, wag-
ging its tongue most vilely, silenced ; her battle-
meuted stone hotel, headquarters of abolitionism
and property of the infamous Emigrant Aid Com-
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 119
pany, demolished, and any skulking and uncaged
remnant of traitors that were harbored in the town
seized or scared out of the territory. Marshal
Donaldson's proclamation, circulated for the most
part in three or four pro-slavery towns of the ter-
ritory, and in the border counties across the river,
precipitated a large armed multitude toward the
rendezvous at Lecompton — wild, hectic, mischief-
meaning gangs, men cultivating the proprieties
more or less in Missouri, but relapsing into a state
of semi-barbarism when they touched the soil of
Kansas. Governor Shannon was not at ease over
the matter. " Had the marshal called on me for
a posse," he wrote President Pierce, " I should
have felt bound to furnish him one composed en-
tirely of United States troops." President Pierce
also was in a disquieted frame of mind. " My
knowledge of facts is imperfect," he wrote Shan-
non May 23d, " but with the force of Colonel
Sumner at hand I perceive no occasion for the
posse, armed or unarmed, which the marshal is
said to have assembled at Lecompton."
Lawrence took apprehensive note of the hostile
preparations and resorted, as during earlier trou-
bles, to a committee of safety. Great confusion
prevailed. None of the old leaders were on the
ground, and new ones had not yet won their spurs.
After many conferences and discussions the com-
mittee decided to temporize, to expostulate, to
manuoevre — in a word, to do anything except
120 KANSAS.
fight. This unwarlike diplomacy, though not par-
ticularly soul -inspiring, was doubtless politic.
When Donaldson's proclamation reached Law-
rence, the citizens held a public meeting and pro-
nounced the charges of insubordination and dis-
loyalty contained in it unqualifiedly false. They
sent messages, expostulations, appeals to Lecomp-
ton in swift, nervous succession. Nothing of
overture and concession did they leave untried.
" We only await an opportunity," pleaded these
unappreciated and despondent patriots, "to test
our fidelity to the laws of the country, the Con-
stitution, and the Union." Deprecatory and ex-
culpating talk fell unheeded. No humilities of
concession could divert the invaders from their
prey.
Discomforts and perils thickened. May 19th a
detachment of the marshal's posse shot a young
man — mainly for the sensation and satisfaction
of killing an abolitionist. Three adventurous fel-
lows, presumably intoxicated, on hearing the news,
snatched their weapons, dashed out of Lawrence
to hunt the scoundrels, and began a fusillade upon
the first travelers they encountered without any
nice preliminary investigations. The expedition
turned out unfortunately for the assailants. An-
other abolitionist was converted into " wolf-meat."
Tuesday, May 20th, was a day of quiet. Little
of the stir and confusion that naturally belong to
military operations appeared. Citizens of Law-
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 121
rence began to take heart, and to conjecture that
the peril might have been exaggerated. But
Wednesday morning they were undeceived. At
an early hour a troop of horsemen quietly took
possession of the bluffs west of town. Reinforce-
ments gradually swelled the numbers during the
morning until they reached several hundreds. It
was a representative gathering — including the
principal pro-slavery leaders, with Atchison at
their head, the recent recruits from South Caro-
lina and other states, the usual delegations of
TMissourians, and a sprinkling of actual residents
in the territory.
The town lay in Sabbatic repose at the foot of
the bluff. When it was definitely settled that
there should be no resistance, most of the arms-
bearing population whisked away like sea-birds
blown landward by a tempest. The committee
of safety instructed citizens who remained in town
to ignore with lofty unconcern the whole noxious
brood of marshals, sheriffs, and posses, and to go
about their affairs as usual. Fearing that the un-
natural quietude might hide some ambush, Atchi-
son dispatched runners from the bluff to recon-
noitre. They reported that the cowardly Yankees
would not fight — a disposition that radically sim-
plified the business of writ-service.
At eleven o'clock Deputy Marshal Fain, attended
by an escort of six coatless men with revolvers
belted about them, walked down into the village
122 KANSAS.
and arrested three men whose names were on the
treason-list. Never were fewer obstacles thrown
in the path of an officer. The alleged traitors, if
they did not actually present themselves for ar-
rest, conformed to the meekest and most inoffen-
sive models of behavior. What is more, the com-
mittee of safety handed the deputy marshal a
note addressed to Donaldson, in which they vir-
tually abandoned everything for which free-state
men contended, and whipped over upon out and
out law and order ground. But this last and un-
reserved concession availed as little as those which
preceded it.
After Deputy Marshal Fain's peaceable and
easy success in making arrests, pro-slavery leaders
— Atchison, Jones, Donaldson, General Richard-
son, of the territorial militia, Colonel Titus, of
Florida, Major Jackson, of Georgia, and others —
ventured from the bluffs and rode about town on
a tour of observation. S. W. Eldridge, proprietor
of the hotel, so ill-reputed in pro-slavery quarters,
politely asked the strolling gentry to dine, and
they cheerfully accepted the invitation. But even
a good dinner, and that without charge, carried no
more influence as a town-saver than the surren-
dering protocols.
The afternoon presented a more exciting scene.
With the successful bagging of traitors, the primal
and technical duties of the escort were concluded.
But the nuisances were not yet abated. Marshal
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 123
Donaldson and his advisers, though some of them
belonged to the legal fraternity, reposed an aston-
ishing confidence in the virtues and prerogatives
of the famous grand jury of Douglas County.
Scorning such intermediate steps as citations,
hearings, opportunities for explanation or defense,
and the like, they wrecked a hotel and threw two
printing-presses into the river, upon the authority
of a bare grand jury presentation. " That pre-
sentment," said Judge Lecompte in a letter, Au-
gust 1st, 1856, to Hon. J. A. Stewart, of Mary-
land, " still lies in court. No time for action on
it existed — none has been had — no order passed
— nothing done, and nothing ever dreamed of
being done, because nothing could rightly be done
but upon the finding of a petit jury."
But let the posse give attention. A crier is
riding about among the men shouting — "I am
authorized to say that the marshal has no fur-
ther use for you ; thanks you for the manner in
which you have discharged your duties ; asks you
to make out a statement of the number of days of
service with affidavit and you shall be paid. Now,
gentlemen, I summons you as the posse of Sheriff
Jones. He is a law and order man, and acts un-
der the same authority as the marshal."
Jones, scarcely recovered from his wound, was
received with applause. The situation pleased
him well, much better than it did Atchison, who
thundered indeed, during the months of prepara-
124 KANSAS.
tion, against the Yankees with full throated ora-
tory — outdone in verbal savageness only by the
junior editor of the " Squatter Sovereign," a mod-
ern Herod, who swore that he was prepared " to
kill a baby if he knew it would grow up an ab-
olitionist." But now, in the presence of opportu-
nities for transmuting words into deeds, Atchison
urged moderation, " I made several speeches, at
least half a dozen," he said, in an account of the
affair October, 1884, " riding horseback, to the dif-
ferent companies. I spoke in the interest of peace
— exerting myself to check, not to incite, outrage.
It was not my wish that the hotel should be de-
stroyed. I urged Jones to spare it. I told him
that it would satisfy the ends of justice if he
should throw a cannon-ball through it and there
let the matter rest. But Jones was bent on mis-
chief, and I could do nothing with him." The
" Squatter Sovereign " of June 24th, 1856, de-
nounces current free -state versions of Atchi-
son's talk as false, and gives what it alleges to be
a trustworthy text. " He exhorted the men
above everything to remember that they were
marching to enforce, not to violate, laws ; to sup-
press, and not to spread, outrage and violence."
Nor was Atchison alone in deprecating excesses.
On the day after the destruction of the town, nine
citizens of Lawrence met in Lane's cabin and
drew up a memorial to President Pierce, denounc-
ing the territorial officials as a set of men who
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 125
" attempt the administration of law on principles
of perjury and brigandage, . . . utterly ignoring
the oaths they have taken, ... at will despoiling
men of their property and lives." These nine
sharp-tongued citizens wish to put on record the
fact that many " captains of the invading com-
panies exerted themselves to the utmost for the
protection of life and property. Some of them
. . . endeavored to dissuade Samuel J. Jones from
[his fell designs]. . . . Colonel Zadock Jackson,
of Georgia, did not scruple to denounce either in
his own camp or in Lawrence the outrages. . . .
Colonel Buford, of Alabama, also disclaimed hav-
ing come to Kansas to destroy property." But
the immitigable Jones successfully faced down all
pacific talk.
It was three o'clock in the afternoon when the
great posse marched down from its camp, drag-
ging along five pieces of artillery, and began
slowly to feel its way up Massachusetts Street —
a main thoroughfare of the town. The caution
and deliberation of the movement indicated fear
that a hidden enemy might suddenly dash out from
the cabins, or deliver an unexpected volley from
behind the still extant earth-works built during
the Wakarusa war. Banners this host bore with
various devices — "South Carolina," "Southern
rights," "Superiority of the white race," "Kan-
sas the outpost." One flag was alternately striped
in black and white ; another had the national
126 KANSAS.
stripes with a tiger in place of the union. But
no ambushing enemy sprang upon the wary war-
riors. When the last rifle-pits were reached, and
all visions of peril vanished like smoke-wreaths
into the air, a yell of triumph burst from the
ranks. It was now straightforward, innoxious,
larkish business. The posse made short work of
the printing-offices — breaking up presses, rioting
calamitously among files, type, stock, exchanges ;
hurling the ruins into the street, or dumping
them into the river. Here assuredly was a legi-
ble lesson which impudent newspapers that railed
against territorial laws and spoke disrespectfully
of slavery might profitably lay to heart.
The stone hotel required more elaborate and
painstaking attention. Jones rode up in front of
it, called for S. C. Pomeroy, a representative of
the Emigrant Aid Company, and as " deputy
marshal of the United States and sheriff of Doug-
las County " demanded possession of all Sharpe's
rifles and all artillery in town. Pomeroy, after
an expeditious and fugitive consultation with the
committee of safety, replied that the rifles were
private property, and therefore beyond his con-
trol, but that a cannon had been secreted there-
abouts which would be turned over to him. The
concession was enhanced b}^ the fact of Pomeroj'^'s
consenting to act as guide to the surreptitious
arsenal. Such service ought to have put him on
good terms with the champions of law and order.
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 127
but the ingrates, so far from appreciating his ex-
ertions, had the heartlessness to discuss, though
probal)lY with no very serious intent, the question
of hanirin"- him.
Jones directed the hotel to be emptied of furni-
ture, but his order was only partially carried out.
The five pieces of artillery bristled in a row just
across the street, and opened fire upon the nui-
sance that had sinned so grievously and unforgiva-
bly against the public safety. " I counted thirty
shots," said an on-looker. The cannonade inflicted
trifling damage in the porous concrete walls, and
a swifter method of destruction was sought out.
If the building could not readily be battered
down, certainly it could be blown to pieces. A
keg of gunpowder was carried into the parlor and
a slow-match of bepowdered lard prepared. Fu-
riously did the train hiss and sizzle and splutter,
emitting great volumes of smoke, and promising a
hideous climax of devastation ; but the explosion,
which reminded the spectator, who counted the
artillery discharges, of " a blast down in a well,"
accomplished little beyond breaking a few panes
of glass. In the discomfiture of more pretentious
appliances of destruction, an elemental and prim-
itive leveler remained, to which there whs suc-
cessful resort — the torch. The sons of law and
order victoriously fired the hotel, but not until
after a careful examination of the liquor cellar.
Researches in that quarter may have been in some
128 KANSAS.
degree responsible for the turbulence with which
the nuisance-abating concluded. Stores were pil-
laged, houses rummaged, and Governor Robin-
son's residence was burnt to the ground. Nothing
escaped the curious and inquisitive marauders —
neither trunks, drawers, cupboards, nor clothes-
presses. More than one seedy wardrobe was re-
fitted out of the spoils. Gladstone encountered
some of the ruffians at Kansas City on their re-
turn, and remarked a " grotesque intermixture in
their di-ess, having crossed their native red shirt
with a satin vest or narrow dress -coat pillaged
from some Lawrence Yankee, or having girded
themselves with the cords and tassels which the
day before had ornamented the curtains of the
free-state hotel."
While these calamities were overtaking the
territory a startling pro -slavery denouement oc-
curred in Washington. Charles Sumner began
his speech on " The Crime against Kansas " ]\Iay
19th, which he concluded on the afternoon of the
20th, when the posse of Marshal Donaldson was
tightening its coils about Lawrence. The speech,
a brilliant, indignant, unmeasured, exasperating
philippic against the course of the slave-power in
Kansas, raised a violent and angry excitement.
General Cass pronounced it " the most un-Ameri-
can and unpatriotic speech that ever grated on
the ears " of Congress. " He has not hesitated
to charge more than three fourths of the Senate
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 129
with fraud, with swindling, with crime, with in-
famy, at least a hundred times over in his speech,"
roared Douglas ; " is it his object to provoke
some one of us to kick him as we would a dog in
the street, that he may get sympathy upon the
just chastisement ? " Mason, of Virginia, lamented
that public interests and usage forced association
in the Senate Chamber with " one utterly incapa-
ble of knowing what truth is " — with " one whom
to see elsewhere is to shun and despise."
Preston S. Brooks, representative from South
Carolina, reduced to practice Douglas's suggestion.
After the adjournment of the Senate, May 22d,
while Sumner remained writing at his desk. Brooks
approached, muttered out charges of libeling
South Carolina and her sons, and followed them
up by repeated blows on the head with a cane.
The senator fell insensible to the floor. This
affair was a fit companion piece to the destruction
of Lawrence.
When one more blow should be delivered —
the dispersal of the free-state legislature, which
was to meet at Topeka on the 4th of July — would
not the pro-slavery triumph be complete ? On
whom should be conferred the honor of adminis-
tering a coup de grdce to abolitionism in Kansas
was a matter of debate. The patriots who distin-
guished themselves in May were anxious to take
the field again in July. A hum of preparation
ran along the border. Buford and the Southern
130 KANSAS.
colonels put their men into training, but the au-
thorities in Washington began audibly to demur.
The suspicions and fears of President Pierce ri-
pened into convictions ; he did not wish to have
any more armed mobs convoked to enforce the
laws. It was settled that federal troops should
furnish whatever assistance territorial officers
might need in their dealings with the pin-feather
state government. These functionaries concurred
in advising a semi-heroic treatment as the mildest
recommendable course. Governor Shannon, tem-
porarily out of the territory, wrote Colonel Sum-
ner to disperse the legislature, should it assemble
— " peaceably if you can, forcibly if you must."
Sumner, though friendly to free-state interests,
disapproved the Topeka movement. " I am de-
cidedly of opinion," he wrote Acting - governor
Woodson June 28th, " that that body of men
ought not to be permitted to assemble. It is not
too much to say that the peace of the country de-
pends upon it." June 30th Woodson wrote Sum-
ner in an apprehensive strain. " There is now no
ground to doubt," he said, " that the bogus legis-
lature will attempt to convene on the 4th proximo
at Topeka, and the most extensive preparations
are being made for the occasion. The country in
the vicinity of Topeka is represented to be filled
with strangers, who are making their way toward
that point from all directions. Last evening I
received information , . . that General Lane was
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 131
on his way to Topeka with a very large force, and
was then somewhere between that place and the
Nebraska line. ... It is deemed important that
you should be at Topeka in person. . . . Judge
Cato will be on the ground, and I have addressed
a letter to the United States district attorney,
Colonel Isaacs, requesting him to come over at
once and attend in person to getting out the
necessary legal processes." Colonel Sumner left
Leavenworth for Topeka July 1st, where he con-
centrated five companies of dragoons with two
pieces of artillery. " I shall act veiy warily,"
he wrote the adjutant general, " and shall require
the civil authorities to take the lead in the matter
throughout."
The bustle of hostile preparations in federal
camps and in Missouri, as well as among terri-
torial ojBBcials, had a discouraging and unbracing
influence upon members of the state legislature.
Unless a tonic of some kind could be adminis-
tered, many of them might fail to appear in To-
peka on the 4th of July, and the whole anti-slav-
ery movement come to an inglorious collapse. To
keep up courage, to secure a general interchange
and discussion of opinion, a curious double-headed
conference began in Topeka on the 3d — an extra
and informal session of the legislature and a nu-
merously attended mass-convention. Both legis-
lature and convention wrestled with the same
perplexing question — What ought to be done in
132 KANSAS.
the present emergency? No formal and accred-
ited policy emerged from the babel of discordant
sentiments. Some members of these bodies urged
that the state legislature should meet and proceed
with business until dispersed by the federal au-
thorities ; others denounced further resistance to
the territorial laws as a blunder, and counseled
immediate submission. Governor Robinson and
the free-state prisoners confined at Lecompton ad-
dressed a letter to the legislature, deprecating the
adoption of any timorous, faint-hearted policy.
That in the disjointed condition of affairs there
might be some recognized authority, the mass-
convention appointed a " Kansas Central State
Committee," thirteen in number, and authorized
it " to assume the management and control of the
free - state party of Kansas." The general com-
mittee chose an executive committee of five : J.
P. Root, president ; H. Miles Moore, secretary ;
James Blood, William Hutchinson, and S. E.
Martin.
Colonel Sumner, on reaching Topeka, opened
communications at once with free-state men. He
sent for Captain Samuel Walker — a personal
friend and a member of the legislature. " I hear
Lane is on the other side of the river," said Sum-
ner, " and means to fight. How is that ? " " There
is n't a word of truth in the story. Lane is not
in the territory. He is somewhere in the East
making speeches." Marshal Donaldson, who was
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 133
present, listened to the conversation with interest.
" If I should get up before those legislative fel-
lows," he inquired, " to read a proclamation,
would n't some devil shoot at me ? " " Nobody,"
said Walker, " will lift a finger against you."
The convention sent a committee to confer with
Colonel Sumner. He was very anxious that the
legislature should not meet at all, as he wished
to escape the odium of coercive measures. That
point the committee refused to yield. An under-
standing, however, was reached that the legisla-
ture should assemble and begin to organize, but
quietly disperse at the command of the federal
authorities.
The 4th of July found Topeka thronged with
men, women, and children. Two free-state mili-
tary companies were also in town. A nervous,
wistful, depressed sentiment prevailed, as people
at large were not in the secret of the cut-and-
dried programme. The mass-convention, think-
ing its mission not yet fully accomplished, fearing
that at the last moment a panic might seize upon
the legislature and prevent it from assembling,
resumed its sessions in the morning and fell lus-
tily to work.
During the forenoon Marshal Donaldson, accom-
panied by Judge Rush Elmore, associate justice
of the territory, sallied forth with a batch of of-
ficial documents : President Pierce's proclama-
tion of February 11th, which commanded " all
134 KANSAS.
persons engaged in unlawful combinations against
the constituted authority of the territory of Kan-
sas ... to disperse ; " Governor Shannon's proc-
lamation of June 4th ; a proclamation fresh from
Acting - governor Woodson's own hand, forbid-
ding " persons claiming legislative powers and au-
thorities," on the point of assembling in Topeka,
to organize " under the penalties attached to all
willful violators of the laws of the land ; " and
finally a proclamation from Colonel Sumner, who
announced that he should " sustain the executive
of the territory."
Mistaking the mass-convention, gasconading in
the streets, for the legislature, Marshal Donaldson
informed the presiding officer that he had commu-
nications for the assembly. The marshal declined
to risk so doubtful an experiment as reading aloud
in public, and asked Judge Elmore to take his
place. Donaldson retired with confusion of face
when he discovered that he had pitched his bomb-
shells into the wrong camp.
As the hour of twelve, when the legislature was
to meet, approached, the dragoons, encamped on
the outskirts of the town, formed in order of bat-
tle, dashed toward Constitutional Hall and sur-
rounded it, while the two pieces of artillery, with
gunners at their posts and slow-matches burning,
commanded the principal street.
It lacked a few minutes of noon when Colonel
Sumner entered the House of Representatives.
SOME HEAVY BLOWS. 135
Roll-call soon began, but no quorum was present ;
or, rather, a majority of the members, not under-
standing that the perils which seemed so formi-
dable were of a pasteboard sort, did not answer to
their names. After some activity on the part of
the sergeant-at-arms there was a second reading of
the membership list. Only seventeen responded.
Colonel Sumner then rose and commanded the
legislature to disperse — a duty which at the be-
ginning and at the close of his brief speech he
declared to be the most painful of his whole life.
This 4th of July demonstration was accorded a
cold reception in Washington. Jefferson Davis,
secretary of war, was disturbed by the affair. " I
looked upon them [the members of the state leg-
islature]," said he, " as men assembled without
authority, men who could pass no law that should
ever be put in execution, and that the crime would
be in attempting to put the law in execution, and
in the mean time they might be considered as a
mere town meeting." Colonel Sumner did not
escape official displeasure for his part in the trans-
action. In defense he fell back upon verbal req-
uisitions of Acting-governor Woodson, who " was
personally present in my camp desiring the in-
terposition of the troops."
Missouri leaders, not sharing in the apprehen-
sions of reaction that troubled the administration,
now sunned themselves in the glow of victories
apparently decisive. " It was everywhere antici-
136 KANSAS.
pated," in the words of an address issued Janu-
ary, 1857, by the National Democracy of Kansas,
" that these events would put an end to violence
and restore the country to law and order and
quiet." But these anticipations turned out to be
delusive. Heavy blows had indeed been struck,
but they were ill-advised, misdirected blows, and
recoiled disastrously upon those who delivered
them.
CHAPTER VIII.
DUTCH HENKY'S crossing, BLACK JACK, AND
OSAWATOMIE.
John Brown is a parenthesis in the history
of Kansas. The immense vibration of his career
upon the nation had its source in the Virginia
campaign and its ill-fated but heroic sequel, rather
than in contributions to the territorial struggle.
His course there — at war with the policy which
finally defeated the slave power and saved Kansas
from its clutch, pitched to the strain of revolution,
tending to inaugurate a conflict of arms on the
border — would never have given wing to his re-
nown.
Born in Torrington, Connecticut, May 9th,
1800, and descended from substantial Puritan an-
cestors, John Brown had a youth and boyhood full
of hardships and privations. He pursued differ-
ent vocations — was successively tanner, wool-mer-
chant, and farmer — but won no_ great success in
any of these callings. Other interests absorbed
him.
" From childhood I have been possessed
By a fire — by a true fire, or faint or fierce."
138 KANSAS.
That fire was a consuming sentiment of anti-slav-
ery passion.
John Brown reached Kansas in the autumn of
1855. He came in response to appeals for arms
from his sons, five of whom preceded him to the
territory and settled at Osawatomie. He found
them in circumstances sufficiently uncomfortable :
" no houses to shelter one of them ; no hay or
corn-fodder of any account secured; shivering
over their little fires, all exposed to the dreadfully
cutting winds morning and evening and stormy
days."
It was not the purpose to make a home for him-
self in Kansas, nor to aid his sons in their wilder-
ness-struggle, that brought John Brown to the ter-
ritory, but the conviction that opportunity, long
deferred, had at last offered for a blow at the slave
system.
" 'T is time
New hopes should animate the world, new light
Should dawn from new revealings to a race
Weighed down so long."
Such were the inspirations that dictated an im-
mediate and personal response to the western sig-
nal of distress. Whatever else may be laid to his
charge — whatever rashness, unwisdom, equivoca-
tion, bloodiness — no faintest trace of self-seeking
stains his Kansas life. In behalf of the cause
which fascinated and ruled him he was prepared
to sacrifice its enemies, and if the offering proved
DUTCH HENRY'S CROSSING. 139
inadequate to sacrifice himself. He belonged to
that Hebraic, Old Testament, iron type of human-
ity in which the sentiment of justice — narrowed
to warfare upon a single evil, pursuing it with
concentrated and infinite hostility as if it epito-
mized all the sinning of the universe — assumed
an exaggerated importance. It was a type of
humanity to which the lives of individual men,
weighed against the interests of the inexorable
cause, seem light and trivial as the dust of a but-
terfly's wing. John Brown would have been at
home among the armies of Israel that gave the
guilty cities of Canaan to the sword, or among the
veterans of Cromwell who ravaged Ireland in the
name of the Lord. When the " Souldier's Pocket
Bible " — a collection of texts which lent inspira-
tion to Cromwell's veterans, and shows the " qual-
ifications of his inner man that is a fit Souldier to
fight in the Lord's Battels both before he fight, in
the fight, and after the fight " — was once put into
his hands he sat down and read it, apparently with
the most intense and absorbing interest. There
he read, " Scriptures . . . fitly applied to the Soul-
diers several occasions" — read that the soldier
must be valiant for God's cause, must put his con-
fidence in God's wisdom and strength, must pray
before he goes to fight, must love his enemies as
they are his enemies, and hate them as they are
God's enemies, and must consider that God hath
ever been accustomed to give the victory to a few !
140 KANSAS.
That such a man, an astray and out-of-season
Puritan, persuaded that God had called him, as
prophets and priests were called in ancient times,
to the work of fighting slavery, his policy one
seamless garment of force — that such a man
should stand almost alone in Kansas, should fail
to rally any large following, should touch the
general councils and activities spasmodically, in-
cidentally, was inevitable. The policy of free-
state leaders, in general harmony with the advice
of outside friends, shunned violence of every sort.
It especially avoided collision with the federal au-
thorities. This wise policy experienced compara-
tively few lapses, though at times the temptation
to abandon it was very strong. John Brown dis-
trusted peaceful methods. He was quite as ready
to fight as " the adventurous young men from
South Carolina." In his opinion all marauding
rascals from Missouri and elsewhere should be
asked to show their passports. For the disorders
of the territory (mere local eruptions of a chronic,
deadly national malady, the cure of which rather
than the salvation of Kansas haunted him) he
had one sovereign remedy — violence. Gerrit
Smith, in a speech before the Kansas Convention
at Buffalo, July 9th and 10th, 1856, gave expres-
sion to sentiments of which John Brown was a
strenuous, uncompromising exponent on the bor-
der. " You are here," he said, " looking to bal-
lots when you should be looking to bayonets ;
DUTCH HENRTS CROSSING. 141
counting up voters when you should be muster-
ing armed, and none but armed, emigrants. . . .
They [members of the convention] are here to
save Kansas. . . . But I am here to promote the
killing of American slavery."
News of the attack upon Lawrence May 21st
reached Osawatomie by courier during the day.
Two rifle companies, recently organized for the
defense of the neighborhood, and numbering fifty
or sixty men, hastily mustered under command of
John Brown, Jr., and began a forced night march
toward Lawrence. John Brown accompanied the
expedition. On the morning of the 22d they
halted and went into camp near Palmyra, where
they were joined by Captain S. T. Shore with a
number of armed men, who informed them of the
destruction of Lawrence. Here they remained
until the 23d, when they moved on to Palmyra.
Two days later Lieutenant J. R. Church with
thirteen men reached their camp.
" I came upon a body of men from Osawatomie and
the surrounding country," the lieutenant reported, " who,
as well as I could judge, numbered some seventy or
eighty, although they pretended to have about a hun-
dred and thirty. This body was commanded by a Cap-
tain Brown. . . . They had been at Palmyra two days,
and had frightened off a number of pro-slavery settlers,
and forced off, as far as I could learn, two families. I
immediately stated to Captain Brown that the assembly
of large parties of armed men, on either side, was illegal,
142 KANSAS.
and called upon bim to disperse. After considerable
talk he consented to disband his party and return home."
Two days before this interview with Lieutenant
Church, disquieting rumors reached camp from
Dutch Henry's Crossing. H. H. Williams arrived
from this neighborhood and reported that pro-
slavery men, in the absence of the rifle compa-
nies, were attempting a line of policy which Cap-
tain John Brown, Jr., prosecuted successfully at
Palmyra — the expulsion of obnoxious people.
Border-ruffian notifications to leave the country
breezed with particular violence about a timid,
nervous old shop-keeper, by the name of Morse,
who supplied the riflemen with ammunition.
Though a company of Buford's men had pitched
camp not far away, to which John Brown once
paid a visit of espial in the mask of a federal
surveyor ; though the Rev. Martin White, a de-
vout, biblical, rabid, shot-gun pro-slavery divine,
resided in the neighborhood, yet no serious dis-
turbances had hitherto broken out in the vicin-
ity of Osawatomie, or Dutch Henry's Crossing
— nothing worse than gusty, sulphurous, foul-
mouthed talk, in which both parties were remark-
ably proficient.
Williams's narrative caused the sudden organi-
zation of a secret foray into the troubled district.
Williams represents John Brown, who had joined
the group of listeners gathered about him, as say-
ing at the close of his story, " It is time to stop
DUTCH HENRY'S CROSSING. 143
that sort of thing. It has gone on long enough.
I '11 attend to those fellows." An hour or two
later Williams visited a shed near the camp, under
which stood a grindstone. A squad of men were
there sharpening their cutlasses. " What 's up ? "
asked Williams. " We are going down upon the
Pottawatomie to take care of the ruffians who are
making trouble there," somebody replied. " We
are going down," added John Brown, who was
watching operations with interest, " to make an
example. Won't you go ? " Williams declined.
The expedition was a meagre affair numerically.
Seven or eight men comprised the entire muster-
roll. They were all members of John Brown's
household with two exceptions — James Townsley
and Theodore Weiner. Early in the afternoon of
May 23d the raiders — bestowed in Townsley's
farm-wagon, except Weiner, who rode a pony —
left camp, amid a round of cheers, for Dutch
Henry's Crossing. Toward sundown, and not far
from his destination. Brown met James Blood, of
Lawrence, with whom he became acquainted dur-
ing the Wakarusa war. Brown talked for a few
minutes. His habitual reserve relented into a
nervous impetuosity of speech. The sack of Law-
rence and denunciation of the peace-policy as cow-
ardly, ignoble, ruinous were chief matters in his
discourse. "We are on a secret mission — don't
speak of meeting us," said the old man as the lit-
tle company moved on.
144 KANSAS.
At night-fall Brown encamped in a gulched,
wooded, ledgy tract about a mile north of Potta-
watomie Creek, his point of destination. Towns-
ley states, in his confessions, that it was not until
the party had reached this lair that Brown fully
disclosed to him the mission of the expedition.
Up to this time he had enveloped it in vague and
general phrases which might mean much or little.
Now he threw aside disguise, and announced his
purpose to sweep off all pro-slavery men up and
down the Pottawatomie. In this work of death
Townsley, familiar with the region and its popu-
lation, should act as guide. Townsley demurred.
This was an unexpected hitch which gave twenty-
four hours more of life to five unsuspecting pro-
slavery squatters on the Pottawatomie. During
the interval of delay, according to Townsley 's re-
port, Brown's tongue was again loosed, and he
talked at large. He said they must fall upon the
enemy with such remorseless and destructive sur-
prise as would overwhelm them with terror. Bor-
der ruffians in the service of slavery were worthy
of no more consideration than wolves that prey
upon the farmer's sheepfold. Finally, he took
refuge in the stronghold of predestination : ''I
have no choice. It has been decreed by Almighty
God, ordained from eternity, that I should make
an example of these men." Townsley, whose the-
ological education had evidently been neglected,
interrupted the discourse at one point : " If God
DUTCH HENRY'S C BOSSING. 145
is such a powerful man as you say, why does n't
he attend to the business himself? "
Saturday night, May 24th, the blow was struck,
the example made. Brown and his men stole
out of ambush and executed pro-slavery squat-
ters whose names were pricked. A compromise
was effected by abridging the death-list. This
concession appears to have allayed Townsley's
scruples. At the first cabin where the raiders
halted and knocked there was no response. "It
seemed to be empty," said Townsley, " though I
thought I heard somebody cock a rifle inside."
Three other cabins were visited, out of which five
men were dragged to sudden death in the name
of "the Northern army" — James P. Doyle and
his sons William and Drury, Allan Wilkinson,
and William Sherman. They were all mortally
hacked and slashed with cutlasses, except the
elder Doyle. Through his forehead, burned and
blackened by the proximity of the pistol, there
was a bullet-hole.
It was a misfortune that Howard and Sherman,
Republican members of the congressional investi-
gating committee, should have declined to explore
this ghastly affair, which has given rise to so much
controversy. That refusal enabled the pro-slav-
ery leaders to charge them with fear of facing the
record of anti-slavery men in the territory. "It
[the Pottawatomie massacre] revealed on the part
of their friends such a picture of savage ferocity
10
146 KANSAS.
that the committee for once blushed and stulti-
fied themselves rather than receive the testimony
as competent " — the testimony of Wilkinson's
widow "lately tendered at Westport." There
was, however, an ex parte investigation conducted
by Mr. Oliver. When the widows, children, and
neighbors of the slaughtered men gave evidence,
he said in a speech in the House of Representa-
tives — witnesses " whose tears in testifying were
streaming down their cheeks," "who gave the
greatest assurance that the words spoken came
truthfully from the heart, because chastened by
the hand of affliction and sorrow" — "my blood
ran cold at the recital." Among those who have
denounced the raid none have surpassed Andrew
Johnson in bitter, unsparing, execrative words.
" Innocent, unoffending men," he said in the Senate
of the United States, " were taken out [of their cabins],
and in the midnight hour, and in the forest, and on the
roadside fell victims to the insatiable thirst of John
Brown for blood. Then it was . . . that hell entered
into his heart — not the iron into his soul. Then it was
that he shrank from the dimensions of a human being
into those of a reptile. Then it was, if not before, that
he changed his character to a demon who had lost all
the virtues of a man ! "
In appraising the motives which underlay the
slaughter at Dutch Henry's Crossing, we are shut
up more or less completely to conjecture. John
Brown's statements were sufficiently evasive to
DUTCH HENRY'S CROSSING. 147
deceive members of his own family and personal
friends, who long denied that he led the foray,
or that he was implicated in it otherwise than
by shouldering responsibility after the event.
Measured upon the scale of the times, the five
squatters, upon whom he laid a tiger's paw, were
not exceptionally bad men. Doyle and Wilkinson
were of Northern extraction, and do not appear
to have reached any evil eminence that shot above
ordinary altitudes of border partisanship. Wil-
liam Sherman may have been more noisy and less
respectable, but the evidence fails to show that he
had done anything worthy of assassination. That
intelligence of alarming pro-slavery outbreaks on
the Pottawatomie could not have been brought to
camp by Williams, nor by anybody else, is evi-
denced by the fact that the rifle companies, organ-
ized and equipped for the defense of that particu-
lar locality, so far from speeding homeward lin-
gered at Palmyra for two days after John Brown's
departure — lingered until they were dispersed by
Lieutenant Church. Another circumstance is of
the same import. May 27th squatters upon Pot-
tawatomie Creek, " without distinction of party,"
held an indignation meeting and denounced the
killing as " an outrage of the darkest and foulest
nature," perpetrated by " midnight assassins un-
known, who have taken five of our citizens at tho
hour of midnight from their homes and families,
and murdered and mangled them in the most aw-
148 KANSAS.
ful manner." They pledged themselves "to aid
and assist in bringing these desperadoes to jus-
tice." Members of the rifle companies who saw
Townsley drive away from camp on IMiddle Creek
with his farm-wagon full of armed men, escorted
by Weiner, and who, doubtless, joined in the part-
ing round of cheers, had a hand in this meeting
for public and indignant protest. As an index of
sentiment in the community, which the massacre
purported to shield, it is decisive. If perils had
brooded over it which invited and vindicated ex-
treme measures of defensive violence, a unanimous
repudiating mass-meeting would have been impos-
sible. " It will take a great deal to jastify night
attacks and shooting men after drum-bead courts-
martial," said Thomas Hughes in a lecture at the
Working Men's College, London, on " The Strug-
gle for Kansas."
Unquestionably rumors from the Pottawatomie
wrought upon Brown, but yet more potent were
the disheartening tidings from Lawrence, He
thought the cause of freedom had been piloted
through bad seamanship of peace-policies into dan-
gerous shallows. That was the burden of his talk
in the accidental interview with James Blooc?,
where motives of family or local defense appeared
faintly, if at all. Habitually verging toward infat-
uation on the subject of slavery, belonging to the
class of men who talk on great themes — themes
which move them like the sound of a trumpet —
DUTCH HENRY'S CROSSING. 149
" in a tone perfectly level and without emphasis
and without any exhibition of feeling," he was
presumably pushed by the exigencies of the crisis
into a condition of actual mania. The occasion
called, in his overwrought judgment, for an un-
forgetable example, at once a protest against pop-
ular theories of non-resistance and a bloody lesson
to enemies. Should the outrage lead to civil war,
should it embroil the country in a conflict of arms,
that would only hasten the day of proclaiming
liberty to the captive.
" Why move thy feet so slow to what is best ■? "
The impersonal, missionary motive — remember-
ing those in bonds as bound with them — flames
like sunshine on spear-points where everything
else is hideous and ghastly. To the long list of
violences committed under worthy but misguided
inspirations must be added the massacre at Dutch
Henry's Crossing. Every great cause has ef-
fected complete conquest of impressible and un-
balanced disciples, thrown over them spells of
victorious fascination, harnessed them to its ser-
vice with absolute capitulation of self, blinded
them hopelessly to interests and methods other
than their own, and reduced to a minimum in
their estimate the sanctities and rights of those
who ran counter to their fanaticism.
Naturally the killing made a commotion among
pro-slavery squatters and territorial oflBcials in the
150 KANSAS.
vicinity of Dutch Henry's Crossing. " All is ex-
citement here," was the burden of letter-writers
who sent off appeals to Governor Shannon from
Paola, a neighboring town, on the morning of the
26th.; " court cannot go on. . . . Families are
leaving for Missouri. . . . We can perhaps mus-
ter to-day, including the Alabamians, who are
now encamped on Bull Creek, about one hun-
dred and fifty men." " These murders, it is sup-
posed," wrote General W. A. Heiskell, of the ter-
ritorial militia, " were committed by abolitionists
of Osawatomie and Pottawatomie creeks on their
return from Lawrence. How long shall these
things continue ? How long shall our citizens,
unarmed and defenseless, be exposed to worse
than savage cruelty ? . . . We have here but few
men, and they wholly unarmed. We shall gather
together for our own defense as many men as we
can ; we hope you will send us as many arms as
possible ; and if, under the circumstances, you can
do so, send as many men as you think may be nec-
essary. General Barber is here. He has sent to
Fort Scott for aid. We must organize such force
as we can, but for God's sake send arms. . . .
We hope to be able to identify some of the mur-
derers, as Mr. [James] Harris, who was in their
hands, was released, and will probably know some
of them." Harris happened to be at the house
of William Sherman on the night of May 24th,
when, as he stated, October 23d, 1857, in his
DUTCH HENRY'S CROSSING. 151
deposition before the Strickler Commission, which
was appointed by the territorial legislature to
audit claims for losses during the troubles, " an
armed body of men, in command of the notorious
Captain John Brown, ... by force and arms and
■with threats and menaces of violence and bodily
harm, took and carried away from your petitioner
one horse, saddle, bridle, and gun ; . . . your
petitioner further showeth that, being repeatedly
threatened by said Captain Brown and followers,
and living in great fear of my life, I was forced
by their menaces and threats to abandon the ter-
ritory." Minerva Selby was also at Sherman's
on the fatal evening. She testified that she saw
Harris there with his horse, but went away be-
fore the arrival of Brown's party. " Harris with
his family came to my house. He said that he
had been robbed at Sherman's the preceding
night by Brown's men ; . . . that Sherman had
been murdered the same night by Brown and
his men ; . . . that . . .he was threatened fre-
quently, and was obliged to leave his home —
the safety of himself and family required it."
The Rev. Martin White testified in a similar
strain : " I am acquainted with . . . Mr. Harris.
Saw him a short time after William Sherman had
been murdered. Know that the petitioner was
greatly alarmed ; seemed to apprehend danger
from the murderers of Sherman, as the petitioner
was at the premises of Sherman when the act was
152 KANSAS.
committed. The petitioner expressed his fears of
being killed to prevent his divulging the murder.
Believe he was in danger of being murdered. The
safety of himself and family required him to leave
his home." Judge Cato wrote from Paola May
27th ; " I shall do evei-ything in my power to
have the matter investigated, and there seems to
be a disposition on the part of the free-state men
in Franklin [county] to aid in having the laws
enforced. As soon as proper evidence can be pro-
cured, warrants will be issued for the arrest of the
parties suspected. . . . These murders were most
foully committed in the night-time, by a gang of
some twelve or fifteen persons, calling on and
dragging from their houses defenseless and unsus-
pecting citizens, and murdering, and, after mur-
dering, mutilating their bodies in a very shocking
manner." Governor Shannon promptly dispatched
a military force to the Pottawatomie. " The re-
spectability of the parties and the cruelties attend-
ing these murders," he wrote President Pierce May
31st, "have produced an extraordinary state of
excitement in that portion of the territory which
has heretofore remained comparatively quiet."
Extra-judicial agencies for redressing the Pot-
tawatomie outrages began to move at once. News-
paper extras, with sensational details of the af-
fair, set a Leavenworth mob upon Governor Rob-
inson. Captain H. C. Pate, Kansas correspondent
of " The Missouri Republican," who led " the
BLACK JACK. 153
Westport Sharpshooters " — a company recruited
largely among the rowdies of Westport, Missouri,
to assist in abating nuisances at Lawrence May
21st — was still in the neighborhood of Franklin
when the Pottawatomie massacre occurred. On
receiving intelligence of it, he hastily broke camp
for Osawatomie, to wreak vengeance upon the
perpetrators. He scoured the country in no gen-
tle fashion, but missed the main object of his mis-
sion. Saturday, May 31st, Pate went into camp
at Black Jack, three quarters of a mile west of
the village, on the edge of the prairie. A line of
wagons drawn up in front of the bivouac formed
a straggling, intermittent breastwork, while the
rear was protected by a wooded, water-rutted
ravine.
There was no lack of predatory energy in the
border -ruffian camp. A squad of Pate's men
looted Palmyra, a settlement of four or five fam-
ilies, Saturday evening. They returned with some
plunder and two prisoners.
The easy success at Palmyra stimulated further
depredations. Sunday, six of the band at Black
Jack rode over to Prairie City, — a neighboring
hamlet — in search of fun and booty. They antici-
pated nothing more serious than a profitable frolic.
But some circuit preacher had an appointment at
Prairie City for that Lord's Day. To this service
came people of the vicinity in considerable num-
bers. Apprehensive that the order of service might
1 54 KANSAS.
suddenly change from spiritual to carnal, they
brought along their guns. In the midst of wor-
ship there was an alarm — " The Missourians are
coming! " Never did religious exercises conclude
more abruptly. Six horsemen, charging into town
with rifles across their saddles, instantly absorbed
the attention of the congregation. The troopers,
surprised at the number of people in the minia-
ture village, halted before they reached the cabin
which served for a church. Two raiders, desper-
ate characters if the recollection of their captors
may be credited — one of them with blackened
face and sportmg chicken's feathers in his hat —
were bagged. The remainder, though exposed to
a random musketry, escaped.
These marauding operations stimulated the lo-
cal campaign against Pate. Old John Brown,
hearing of his anxiety to meet him, started after
the Missourian with twenty-eight men ; ten be-
longing to his own company, and the remainder to
Captain S. T. Shore's. " We did not meet them
on that day " (Sunday), said John Brown in an
account of the battle of Black Jack first printed
in Sanborn's " Life and Letters." ..." We were
out all night, but could find nothing of them until
about six o'clock, when we prepared to attack them
at once. . . • We got to within about a mile of their
camp before being discovered by their scouts, and
then moved at a brisk pace ; Captain Shore and
men forming our left, and my company the right.
BLACK JACK. 155
When within about sixty rods of the enemy, Cap-
tain Shore's men halted by mistake in a very ex-
posed situation and continued the fire, both his
men and the enemy being armed with Sharpe's
rifles. My company had no long shooters. We
(my company) did not fire a gun until we gained
the rear of a bank, about fifteen or twenty rods
to the right of the enemy, where we commenced
and soon compelled them to hide in a ravine."
There was a desultory fire for two or three hours,
during which Pate's situation grew more and more
critical. Half of his men had skulked away,
and the assailants were slowly but surely closing
in upon the remainder. Free-state i-einforcements
might appear at any moment. Pate finally sent
out a flag of truce. Brown declined to negotiate
with subordinates, and the commander of " the
Westport Sharpshooters " appeared forthwith. " I
approached," he said, " and made known the fact
that I was acting under the order of the United
States marshal, and was only in search of persons
for whom writs of arrest had been issued." But
talk of that sort had no more effect upon Brown
than the iris above a cataract on the waters plung-
ing below it. He would hear of nothing except
unconditional surrender. Trivialities like flags of
truce and writs of territorial marshals he uncere-
moniously brushed aside. Fifteen minutes were
modestly asked to consider the proposition for
capitulation. " Brown refused," said Pate in " The
156 KANSAS.
Missouri Republican," " and I was taken prisoner
under a flag of truce. ... I had no alternative
but to submit or to run and be shot. ... I
went to take Old Brown, and Old Brown took
me.
Brown captured twenty-three men — some of
them residents of the neighborhood — and commis-
sary supplies of considerable amount, all of which
were conveyed to his camp on Middle Creek. He
narrowly escaped failure in the expedition, as only
a single round of ammunition remained when the
flag of truce appeared. Just after the fight had
closed free-state reinforcements arrived from neigh-
boring towns.
The capture of Pate was not the only exploit
of Brown's company in the vicinity of Black Jack.
At St. Bernard, five miles from camp, a successful
pro-slaveiy trader had a miscellaneous store filled
with dry goods, clothing, groceries, drugs, fire-
arms, hardware, boots and shoes. A necessitous
company of guerrillas could scarcely be expected
to neglect so favorable an opportunity to supply
their wants at the expense of, a Southerner. Cer-
tainly the company encamped on Middle Creek
did nothing of the kind. About nightfall June
3d — such is the drift of testimony before the
Strickler Commission — " part of a company com-
manded by^ one John Brown," " armed with
Sharpe's rifles, pistols, bowie-knives, and other
deadly weapons, came upon the premises and
BLACK JACK. 157
attacked and rushed into the said store " — a
sudden condition of affairs so warlike that the
employees " were deterred, threatened, and over-
powered by the desperadoes, . . . who demanded
a surrender of the goods and chattels, . . . threat-
ening immediate death and destruction should the
slightest resistance be offered." Finding the prize
richer than had been anticipated and their appli-
ances of transportation inadequate, the gang re-
turned in the morning and resumed operations.
They evidently left nothing to be desired in point
of thoroughness. A young woman, into whose
private apartments the rascals forcibly intruded,
and at whom they " presented several guns,"
though perhaps unfavorably circumstanced for dis-
passionate criticism, gave her impressions concern-
ing their personal appearance. " They were des-
perate and vicious looking men," she said, . . .
"more like barbarians than civilized beings."
Black Jack was not the only disordering conse-
quence swiftly following the 24th of May. The
Missouri border rushed to arms. Whitfield, ter-
ritorial delegate to Congress, put himself in the
lead. Westport, Lexington, and Independence
raised companies for the army of invasion, which
gathered with celerity, was well equipped, and on
the 3d of June reached Bull Creek, twelve miles
east of Palmyra. It was planned that a junction
should be formed with Pate, and then the consol-
idated force would scourge every abolitionist from
158 KANSAS.
the country. This pretty campaign the disaster
at Black Jack somewhat disconcerted.
Free-state men also were astir. Their military
companies, snuffing mischief in the air, concen-
trated near Palmyra — detachments of Captain
Samuel Walker's " Bloomington Rifles," of Cap-
tain Joseph Cracklin's " Lawrence Stubbs," of
Captain J. B. Abbott's " Blue Mound Infantry,"
of Captain McWhinney's " Wakarusa Boys," and
of Captain S. T. Shore's "Prairie City Company"
— amounting altogether to about one hundred
and fifteen men. Brown lurked in the woods of
Middle Creek, fully occupied with the care of his
prisoners. June 5th Kansans and Missourians
were facing each other with arms in their hands,
and apparently on the eve of collision.
Governor Shannon became alarmed, and roused
himself into a vigorous activity. He published a
proclamation June 4th commanding all armed and
illegal organizations to disperse. Citizens " with-
out regard to party names or distinctions " were
assured of protection, and invaders warned to re-
tire. The proclamation, though a little tardy, had
the right ring. Colonel Sumner thought that if
it "had been issued six months earlier and rig-
idly maintained these difficulties would have been
avoided."
Fifty federal dragoons, with Colonel Sumner at
their head, hurriedly left Lecompton June 5th to
part the belligerents concentrating near Palmyra.
BLACK JACK. 159
" Any delay . . . will lead to fearful conse-
quences," the governor urged. Deputy Marshal
Fain, supplied, it was supposed, with a liberal as-
sortment of warrants, accompanied the expedition.
The colonel found a larger disturbance brewing
at Palmyra than his imperfect knowledge had led
him to suspect. The tone of his official report in-
dicates that in his view the main business of the
expedition was " to disperse a band of free-soilers,
who were encamped near Prairie City ; this band
had had a fight with the pro-slavery party, and
had taken twenty-six prisoners." During the day
Sumner reached the vicinity of Old John Brown's
luir, from which his approach could be distinctly
seen across the prairie. Unmistakably he in-
tended to visit the camp, and after a hurried con-
sultation it was thought prudent to send out
a messenger with proposals for an interview.
" What 's going on down there ? " Sumner asked,
pointing toward the free-soil bivouac. " Captain
John Brown has Pate and his men prisoners. He
sent me to meet you and to inquire where an in-
terview can be held." " Tell him he can see me
right here." The messenger returned and made
his report. " We must see Colonel Sumner apart
from his men," suggested Captain Shore. Brown
concurred, and the runner, though with some re-
luctance, set out again. "Well, what is it now?"
the colonel asked with evident impatience. The
request of Brown and Shore was stated. " Tell
160 KANSAS.
them," he growled, " that I make no terms with
lawless men — tell them that. Dragoons, form
a company — march." The runner flew back to
camp at a break-neck pace, and the horsemen fol-
lowed on behind. Brown and Shore sallied forth
to meet the not very welcome visitors. After
some parleying Brown led the dragoons into camp.
Colonel Sumner stated that his orders were to re-
lease Pate, and to aid the officers in serving writs.
Marshal Fain fumbled among his papers, but
finally said he could find none for the apprehen-
sion of anybody in the camp. It is reported that
Sumner afterwards took Brown aside and told
him that a warrant for his arrest had been is-
sued, but that the marshal had inadvertently mis-
laid it.
A good deal of stir and bustle ensued in setting
the prisoners at liberty, and in restoring to them
as far as possible their effects. The mere hum-
drum formality of regaining his freedom — the
bare, unadorned act of escaping from Old Brown's
lair with a whole skin — did not quite fill out
Pate's idea of what belonged to the proprieties
of the occasion. One thing was yet lacking — a
speech from himself, extenuating any infelicities,
and illuminating any obscurities that might vex
his recent record. Mounting upon a log he began
a speech, upon which, before it had fairly got under
way, came sudden extinction —
" As when a lamp is blown out by a gust of wind in a <
BLACK JACK AND OSAWATOMIE. 161
" I don't want to hear a word out of you, sir,"
thundered Sumner — " not a word, sir. You have
no business here. The governor told me so ! "
While breaking up Brown's camp Sumner
learned, with evident astonishment, " that two or
three hundred of the pro-slavery party from Mis-
souri and elsewhere were approaching," to whom
he gave attention. " I found them halted," he
reports, " at two miles distance (about two hun-
dred and fifty strong), and to my great surprise I
found Colonel Whitfield, the member of Congress,
and General Coffee, of the militia, at their head.
... I then requested General Coffee to assemble
his people, and I read to them the president's dis-
patch and the governor's proclamation." Whit-
field and Coffee made fair promises, and " moved
off," though Sumner did not feel assured they
were not bent on mischief-making somewhere.
He remained in the disquieted district until the
22d of June, when he considered the work of
pacification accomplished. Only a few freeboot-
ers kept the field. " These fellows," he reported,
" belong to both parties, and are taking advantage
of the present political excitement to commit their
own rascally acts."
The Missourians retired sullenly across the bor-
der. Their leisurely and circuitous path was
marked by the customary excesses, including the
dead bodies of two or three free-soilers. For a por-
tion, at all events, of Whitfield's expedition the
162 KANSAS.
line of return dipped southward througli the odi-
ous village of Osawatomie. So far the victims of
Dutch Henry's Crossing had been feebly and im-
perfectly avenged. To smite the town with which
John Brown was most intimately associated, in
default of larger game, would yield a qualified and
secondary satisfaction. " The abolition hole " —
containing some thirty buildings and a population
of two hundred souls — was surprised and pillaged.
The raiders expected to fij*e the town, but as fed-
eral troops were near, and free-state rangers might
be in close pursuit, nothing worse than plunder-
ing happened. A final reckoning with Osawat-
omie was deferred. The calamitous consequences
of the night raid upon the Pottawatomie had not
yet spent their fury.
CHAPTER IX.
PEE, ASPERA.
The calamities of free -state men in Kansas
were stepping-stones to final success. They moved
Northern sentiment profoundly. Speakers fresh
from the border addressed great public gatherings
and inflamed the excitement by the adventurous,
romantic, far-away interest that attached to them,
by unmeasured denunciations of the slave power,
by sensational narratives of the hardships, rob-
beries, and murders that had befallen anti-slavery
settlers in the territory. Pulpit, press, and con-
vention caught up and reverberated their impas-
sioned message. The legislatures of several North-
ern States passed resolutions recognizing the serv-
ices and sufferings of Kansas pioneers in the cause
of liberty. "We have heard," said the legislature
of Massachusetts, " the call for aid and sympa-
thy which has come up . . . from the settlers of
Kansas with the deepest solicitude ; . . . their
sufferings have touched our hearts ; and the
manly defense of their rights has won our admi-
ration."
In the autumn of 1856 two books appeared
164 KANSAS.
whicli stimulated and perpetuated public interest :
" Kansas, Its Exterior and Interior Life," by-
Mrs. Sara T. L. Robinson — a brave, graphic, real-
istic, clear-eyed narrative of border experiences,
exhibiting their social, domestic, every-day phases
as well as their turbulent, political constituents,
and running through nine editions ; " The Con-
quest of Kansas," by W. A. Phillips — a breezy,
readable book, not without sense of humor, but
marred by inaccuracies and exaggerations.
A fierce agitation flamed and roared like a prai-
rie fire from Boston to the Northwest. But the
movement did not spend itself in flame and smoke.
Societies of semi-military cast, no less willing to
furnish guns than groceries, sprang up as if by
magic, and overshadowed the earlier, more pacific
organizations. A national society, with auxilia-
ries in almost every free state except Massachu-
setts, which had a flourishing " State Kansas Com-
mittee " of its own, got afoot and harvested not
less than two hundred thousand dollars for Kansas
purposes. The Massachusetts committee secured
funds to the amount of eighty thousand dollars in
addition to large supplies. Eager, cooperative ac-
tivities woke on every side. " I know people,"
said Emerson in a speech at Cambridge, " who
are making haste to reduce their expenses and
pay their debts, not with a view to new accumula-
tions, but in preparation to save and earn for the
benefit of Kansas emigrants."
PER ASPERA. 165
" Thou hast great alh'es ;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
'And love and Man's unconquerable mind."
The volume of anti- slavery migration toward
the territory swelled like mountain streams after
heavy showers. A constant movement thither-
ward had been in progress through the spring and
early summer. Among, the companies who ar-
rived during that period were the widely-heralded
" rifle Christians " "from New Haven, Connecticut
— seventy-nine resolute men, under the conduct
of C. B. Lines, armed with bibles and Sharpe's
carbines. " We gratefully accept the bibles," said
the leader of the colony, " as the only sure foun-
dation on which to erect free institutions. . . .
We . . . accept the weapons also, and, like our
fathers, we go with the bible to indicate the
peaceful nature of our mission and the harmless
character of our company, and a weapon to teach
those who may be disposed to molest us (if any
such there be) that while we determine to do that
which is right we will not submit tamely to that
which is wrong." " We will not forget you,"
said Henry Ward Beecher, prominent in securing
for the colony an outfitting of guns. " Every
morning breeze shall cntch the blessings of our
prayers and roll them westward to your prairie
home."
Pro-slavery leaders on the border viewed with
alarm these unwonted exhibitions of Northern en-
166 KANSAS.
ergy and anger. Rumors of impending invasions
— of populous, grimy, fanatic abolitionist hordes,
with hate in their hearts and arms in their hands,
hurrying toward the frontier — flew thick and
fast. Steps must be taken at once to meet the
new and multiplying perils. Unless the great in-
flowing current of Northern life could be checked,
all hope of Southern supremacy in Kansas must
be at once and forever abandoned.
Atchison and his associates attacked the prob-
lem before them with no half-way policy. They
resolved to police the great national highway of
the Missouri River against all traflic inimical to
the interests of slavery. Steamers were over-
hauled, free-state consignments of merchandise
seized, Kansas ward travelers unable to give satis-
factory accounts of themselves arrested and sent
down the river. A. A. Lawrence and Dr. Samuel
Cabot, of Boston, shipped for the territory four
thousand dollars' worth of Sharpe's rifles, which
happened to be in transitu when the embargo
began to stiffen. These guns the volunteer river
commissioners seized. The Boston gentlemen were
naturally anxious to recover the arms, but felt a
little awkward and embarrassed in making the ef-
fort. " If we were not officers of the Emigrant
Aid Company," Lawrence wrote, " (which takes
no part in such matters • • . ) we could get them
by suit ; but whether we can do it by proxy re-
mains to be seen."
PER ASPERA. 167
The j&rst considerable party — seventy-five in
number — to which the revised code of inter-state
traffic was applied came from Chicago. They
were recruited at an immense mass-meeting in
that city May 31st, which Lane, who was a stump
orator of remarkable power, addressed with great
effect. The Chicago immigrants met with no
special annoyance until they reached Lexington,
where they were subjected to a preliminary inves-
tigation and lost their Sharpe's rifles. They then
proceeded to Leavenworth, where a second exami-
nation took place, which resulted in the capture
of " about two bushels of revolvers, pistols, and
bowie-knives." Finally, they were sent back
down the river, put ashore near Alton, Illinois, in
a drenching rain-storm, and left to shift for them-
selves.
Overland immigrants fared no better when they
touched the soil of Missouri, but encountered the
same belligerent policy that threw its obstruc-
tions across the river. This policy, it should be
remarked, commanded general though not univer-
sal credit among the valiant friends of law and
order. It was too flat and insipid for some of the
newspaper editors. "We are of the opinion,''
said " The Squatter Sovereign," " [that] if the
citizens of Leavenworth . . . would hang one or
two boat-loads of abolitionists it would do more
towards establishing peace in Kansas than all the
speeches that have been delivered in Congress
168 KANSAS.
during the present session. Let the experiment
be tried ! "
The Missourians did not succeed in their efforts
at obstruction. They could no more balk the
great Northern movement toward Kansas than
they could check the Missouri with the palm of
the hand. Perplexity, agitation, experiment,
shifting of routes, they compassed, and that was
all. Various plans for breaking the embargo on
the Missouri River were rife in Eastern anti-slav-
ery circles, such as the purchase of an armed ves-
sel to cruise upon its forbidden waters ; the as-
sembling of friendly legislatures with a vague,
undefined purpose of state interference ; a protest
of state executives against violations of consti-
tutional rights of travel prevalent in Missouri,
which Mr. Thaddeus Hyatt volunteered to carry
to every Northern governor for his signature.
None of these projects ever reached the stage
of practical experiment. The crisis was hardly
serious enough to call for heroic remedies. Mis-
souri did not command all accessible routes to
Kansas. It were easy to flank the blockade by
opening communications through Iowa and Ne-
braska. This measure was successfully accom-
plished through the energy of the " Kansas State
Central Committee," appointed by the Topeka
muss-convention. Toward the close of July the
Chicago emigrants, together with fresh companies
from Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and
PER ASPERA. 169
Wisconsin — reaching an aggregate of three hun-
dred aii<l ninety-six persons — were encamped near
Nebraska City en route for Kansas. This company
had been loudly noised abroad as Lane's Northern
army. Governor Shannon, in no little alarm,
urged General P. F. Smith, who succeeded Colonel
Sumner in command of the department, " to take
the field with the whole disposable force in the
territory," to keep this ill-reputed horde at bay,
which he declined to do on the ground that the
governor's information was untrustworthy. July
20th Dr. S. G. Howe and Thaddeus Hyatt, repre-
sentatives of the National Kansas Committee, sent
out to investigate matters, reached the Nebraska
camp. They found many of the immigrants in
a forlorn condition — ragged, almost penniless,
poorly supplied with even the scanty furniture
of a camper's outfit. Leadership had fallen into
Lane's hands, and the whole expedition became
accredited to him, though he was neither directly
nor indirectly concerned in raising more than a
fourth part of it. The committee demanded that
his connection with it should be completely sev-
ered on penalty of withholding further supplies.
Considerations which led to this summary step
were the fact that papers had been made out for
Lane's arrest — a circumstance which might lead
to complications; that in an emergency his dis-
cretion and self-command could not be trusted.
These considerations, the committee reported,
170 KAXSAS.
" conspired to create a well-grounded apprehen-
sion in our minds that by some hasty and ill-timed
splurge he would defeat the object of the expedi-
tion if suffered to remain even in otherwise de-
sirable proximity." Lane took the decision much
to heart. " If the people of Kansas don't want
me,'" he said, " I '11 cut my throat to-day." But
he sidlenly yielded, set off toward the territory
with Old John Brown, Captain Samuel Walker,
and three or four others, outrode his escort, and
reached Lawrence alone August 11th, disguised
as Captain Jo Cook. He tarried long enough in
Topeka to write the free-state prisoners at Le-
compton a note, offering to attack the federal sol-
diers who guarded them if they coidd not other-
wise escape. The so-called Northern army pursued
its way leisurely into the territory and foumded
along the line of march two towns — Plymouth
and Holton. Members of the expedition, who
did not tarry for these enterprises, reached Topeka
on the 13th of August.
Other overland parties followed. Late in Sep-
tember James Redpath, with one hundred and
thirty men, appeared on the northern boundary.
A martial, non-agricultural reputation preceded
this company. Colonel J. E. Johnston with four
companies of dragoons marched toward the Ne-
braska line to insure it a fitting reception, but
after applying suitable tests he pronounced the
travelers to be " real immicrrants."
PER ASP ERA. 171
The Redpath scare had no sooner abated than
another still more violent succeeded. Reports
reached Lecompton that six or seven hundred
men, with three pieces of artillery, were on the
point of crossing the Nebraska line. Colonel P.
St. George Cooke hurried forward reinforcements,
increasing the number of federal troops along the
frontier to five hundred strong. One heavy dis-
appointment befell the colonel during the north-
ward expedition. "I just missed the arrest of
the notorious Osawatomie outlaw, Brown,'' he re-
ported October 7th. " The night before, having
ascertained that after dark he had stopped for
the night at a house sis: miles from the camp,
I sent a party, who found at twelve o'clock he had
gone." Colonel Cooke was more successful in
catching the latest overland immigrants, who were
brought to a halt near the Nebraska line on the
morning of October 10th. The excess of men in
the company excited suspicion, as the two hun-
dred and twenty-three persons reported by the
officer of the day included only " five women of
marriageable age." •' I do not see many spin-
ning-wheels sticking out of the wagons," said
Colonel Cooke as he walked about them. Indeed,
they contained •' no visible furniture, agricultural
implements, or mechanical tools," but abounded in
'" all the requisite articles for camping and cam-
paigning purposes." Marshal Preston, in spite
of much protesting, searched the wagons and un-
172 KANSAS.
earthed a remarkaole assortment of farming im-
plements — Hall's muskets, Sharpe's carbines, re-
volvers, sabres, bayonets, fixed ammunition, kegs
of powder, and dragoon saddles. " It was raining
on the day of arrest," reported Marshal Preston,
" which subjected us all to a drenching. It was
to be regretted, but could not be prevented." The
grumbling expedition was escorted to Topeka,
where the conductors of it, S. W. Eldridge, S. C.
Pomeroy, and others, laid their grievances be-
fore the governor, resented the meddlesome inter-
ference of " one Preston, deputy United States
marshal," and disavowed with much posturing of
injured innocence every warlike purpose. These
flower-soft, unmilitary gentlemen forgot to inform
the governor, to whom the intelligence would have
been of interest, that the bulk of their formidable
military munitions had been obtained from the
Iowa state arsenal; that the authorities allowed
Robert Morrow to help himself to whatever it
contained on the not very onerous condition that
he would manage the operation discreetly ; that
Morrow seized at night three wagonloads of guns
and ammunition, and added them to the resoui'ces
of immigrants who were lustily protesting, " Our
mission to this territory is entirely peaceful."
They escaped with no severer penalties than a
lecture on the rules and maxims of behavior ap-
propriate for new-come Kansans.
When they began to comprehend in some
PER ASP ERA. 173
ure the extent and intensity of anti-slavery senti-
ment moving among the Northern States ; when
they saw great tides of hostile immigration pour-
ing around their ineffectual barriers into Kansas —
a spectacle tending to cloud the hopes of the most
confident and optimistic — pro-slavery leaders be-
gan to question the wisdom of that insolent and
contemptuous confidence which had thus far ruled
their councils. They revised their tactics so far
as even to catch a lesson from their enemies, and
attempted, though with the awkwardness of nov-
ices and of pupils to some other manner born, the
effective guise of martyrs. Atchison, B. F. String-
fellow, Buford, and others published an address,
June 21st, setting forth pathetically and volumi-
nously the calamities that were upon them : —
" Kansas they [the abolitionists] justly regard as the
mere outpost in the war now being waged between
the antagonistic civilizations of the North and South,
and, winning this great outpost and standpoint, they
rightly think their march will be open to an easy con-
quest of the whole field. Hence the extraordinary
means the abolition party has adopted to flood Kansas
with the most fanatical and lawless portion of North-
ern society, and hence the large sums of money . . .
expended to surround . . . Missourians with obnoxious
and dangerous neighbors. On the other hand, the pro-
slavery element of the law and order party in Kansas,
looking to the Bible finds slavery ordained of God.
. . . Slavery is the African's normal and proper state.
174 KANSAS.
. . . We believe it a trust and guardianship given as
of God for the good of both races. . . . This is . . .
a great social and political question of races, ... a
question whether we shall sink to the level of the
freed African and take him to the embrace of social
and political equality and fraternity ; for such is the
natural end of abolition progress. . . . That man or
state is deceived that fondly trusts these fanatics may
stop at Kansas. . . . The most convincing proof . . .
of this was recently given before the congressional in-
vestigating committee. Judge Matthew Walker . . .
testified . . . that before the abolitionists selected Law-
rence as their centre of operations their leader, Gov-
ernor Robinson, attempted to get a foothold for them in
the Wyandotte reserve. . . . Robinson, finding it neces-
sary to communicate their plans and objects, divulged to
Walker (whom he then supposed to be a sympathizer)
that the abolitionists were determined on winning Kan-
sas at any cost ; that then, having Missouri surrounded
on three sides, they would begin their assaults on her,
and as fast as one state gave way attack another, until
the whole South was abolitiouized. . . . We are confi-
dent that ... the abolition party was truly represented
by Robinson, who has always been their chief man and
acknowledged leader in Kansas. ... It was proved be-
fore the investigating committee that the abolition party
had traveling agents in the territory whose duty it was
to gather up, exaggerate, and report for publication ru-
mors to the prejudice of the law and order party. . . .
In the present imperiled state of your civilization, if
we do not maintain this outpost we cannot long main-
tain the citadel. Then rally to the rescue."
PER ASPERA. 175
The " Appeal " was printed in " De Bow's Re-
view " for August, 1856, and is much soberer, less
confident in tone, than an article which appeared
two months earlier in the same magazine under
the title " Kansas a Slave State."
" Slaves will now yield a greater profit in Kansas,"
said the writer, " either to hire out or cultivate the soil,
than any other place. . . . Those who have brought
their slaves here are reaping a rich reward, . . . and
feel as secure in their property here as in Kentucky or
Missouri. . . . Why it is that more of our friends in
the old states have not brought their slaves with them
we are at a loss to divine, unless the falsehoods and
threats of the abolitionists have frightened them. . . .
Should Kansas be made a slave state ? We say that
location, climate, soil, productions, value of slave labor
the good of the master and slave — all conspire and cry
aloud that it should be. . . . The squatters, too, have
already said three successive times, at the polls, that
Kansas should be a slave state. But if all this is not
enough, then we say, without fear of successful contra-
diction, that Kansas must be a slave state or the Union
will be dissolved. ... If Kansas is not made a slave
state, it requires no sage to foretell that . . . there will
never be another slave state. . . . Can Kansas be made
a slave state ? Thus far the pro-slavery party has tri-
umphed in Kansas in spite of the abolitionists and
their Emigrant Aid Societies. . . . We have peaceably
whipped them at the polls and forced them to beg for
quarter in the field, and proven to the world that truth
and justice are on our side. . . . The stake is surely
176 KANSAS.
worth a struggle ; and if not won by the South, God
alone can foresee the evils that are to follow. . . . Will
the South come to the rescue and make Kansas a slave
state ? We are sure she will. We know her people,
and when once aroused . . . they will fly to the rescue
of their friends in Kansas, where all the combined
forces of abolitionism will quail and skulk back to the
dark sinks and hiding-places from which they came by
the assistance of the aid societies. Such creatures can-
not stand before the forces of honest freemen. . . . Kan-
sas should, can, and will be a slave state."
These papers and others which were issued
sent a spasm of excitement through the South,
but received no such response of partisan immi-
gration as streamed into Kansas from the North.
With the sack of Lawrence, the dispersion of
the Topeka legislature, and the flight or capture of
prominent free-state leaders, the territory plunged
into chaos. So far from befriending anti-slavery
interests, the Pottawatomie massacre at once fo-
mented and embittered the struggle. A period of
lawlessness and marauding now set in that left
stains on both parties as inevitably as the snail
slimes its track. Which faction surpassed the other
in misdeeds it would be hard to say. Free- state
men seized the opportunity to rid the territory of
obnoxious persons. The experiences of Rev. Mar-
tin White, for instance, were far from griefless.
His troubles dated back to a public meeting at
Osawatomie April 16th, 1856, which passed resolu-
PER ASPERA. Ill
tions against the payment of taxes levied by the
territorial legislature.
In the course of the discussion he crossed swords
with Old John Brown. White was a furious,
unmeasured partisan, and made himself so un-
popular tliat on the night of August 13th free-
state men assailed his cabin. " I was frequently
menaced aud threatened with certain and imme-
diate destruction," he testified before the Strickler
Commission October 23d, 1857, " and was once
attacked in my dwelling by a body of armed
men, who were repulsed and driven away after a
contest of half an hour " — retiring with a booty
of seven horses. " A body of armed men com-
manded by [J. C] Holmes came to my premises,"
said one of White's sons. ..." They took what
they wanted, and inquired how many men were at
my father's, saying that when they got old Martin
White and killed him they would have all the
pro-slavery men in the neighborhood." Such was
the temper exhibited by " the outlaws and follow-
ers of Lane and Brown " that on the 14th of Au-
gust the Rev. Martin White fled precipitately to
Missouri. " In consequence of their manifest de-
termination to take my life," he said, " I was
forced to beat a hasty retreat from the territory."
The pro-slavery party had one great advantage:
the most pi'acticable avenues of communication
and traffic were in their possession. They in-
fested the country adjacent to Lawrence and To-
178 KANSAS.
peka, so that these towns might be loosely consid-
ered in a state of siege. No doubt scarcity of
provisions in some degree stimulated the maraud-
ing habit, but it had little need of artificial culti-
vation.
Topeka felt the pressure of the blockade much
less than Lawrence, yet it was the centre of a pros-
perous series of maraudings upon the surrounding
country. So great was the enterprise and success
in what one of the victims called " the roguing
business " that few pro-slavery men of the neigh-
borhood escaped spoliation. Free-state depreda-
tors, in larger or smaller gangs, scoured the re-
gion, filling the air with profanity, intimidating
pro-slavery settlers, shooting at those who were
not sufiiciently docile, and plundering right and
left. A curious observer has chronicled the con-
tents of a single foray-wagon : green corn in the
ear, surmounted by a cooking-stove, a crib-cradle,
a dining-table, clothing, bedding, and a great va-
riety of miscellaneous articles. Tecumseh in par-
ticular, a town just east of Topeka, was visited by
" robberies, plunderings, and pilferings." A wit-
ness, who testified before the Strickler Commis-
sion, happened to be in Topeka at the height of
the freebooting season, and " saw a company of
men and teams leave town and go in the direc-
tion of Tecumseh " for the indefinite purpose of
obtaining provisions. Just after the raiding of
that village, again in Topeka, " I saw quite a large
PER ASPERA. 179
amount of goods, of various kinds, being divided
out among the crowd present. ... I was invited
among others to come up and take part, and
finally did select a broom and meal sieve, thinking
that should I ever find the proper owners . . .
I would pay them." This conscientious mortal
actually carried out his purpose, and paid the Te-
cumseh shop-keeper — an event without parallel
in the territorial annals.
The pro-slavery beleaguerment of Lawrence
assumed a more serious aspect. In the vicinity
several block-houses, well situated as points of
rendezvous for operations against the town, had
been fortified and garrisoned. There was one of
these semi-forts at Franklin ; another on Wash-
ington Creek, called Fort Saunders ; another near
Lecorapton, known as Fort Titus. These " nests
of land-pirates " succeeded in cutting off supplies
to such an extent that food became scarce at
Lawrence. " The boys lived for days on ground
oats," said Captain J. B. Abbott, of the Blue
Mound Infantry — " on oatmeal unbolted and un-
sifted. It was like eating hay." S. W. Eldridge
gave the result of special inquiries in the matter
of food-supplies before the second Board of Com-
missioners, appointed by the territorial legislature
in 1859 to reopen the matter of claims for losses
in the border troubles.
"On the 14th of August, 1856," he said, "or there-
abouts, I was delegated to ascertain the quantity of sup-
180 KANSAS.
plies in the town. . . . The soldiers and citizens . . .
assembled in Lawrence were reduced to the lowest point
of sustenance : many of them for weeks together had
nothing to subsist on but green corn, squashes, wnter-
melons, and other vegetables ; hundreds had no flour,
meal, or meat of any kind for days and days together.
Sickness prevailed among those subjected to such a diet.
In Lawrence a large proportion of all here assembled
were reduced to straits, and as a matter of necessity
and self-preservation . . . the surrounding country as
well as the city itself had to furnish such means of
sustenance as the wants of the hungry and the neces-
sities of the sick demanded. On the day mentioned I
went to every store in town and every supposed depot
to ascertain what amount of flour or meal was on hand,
exclusive of such limited supplies as might be in dwell-
ing-houses for temporary family use ; after a thorough
search and examination made for the purpose of ascer-
taining the condition of the town and to calculate how
long it could sustain the existing pressure, I found there
were but fourteen sacks of flour — I repeat it, only four-
teen sacks of flour in town that could have been bought
for public or private use ; could find no meal, bacon, or
beef of any consequence ; stocks were exhausted."
Offensive operations were first directed against
Franklin. On the night of June 4th a handful of
men from Lawrence crept into that village with
the stealth of Indians, began a brisk rifle-prac-
tice in the darkness, wliich iiccomplished nothing
beyond killing one of the defenders and wounding
several. With the approach of day the raiders
PER ASPERA. 181
beat a successful retreat. But there was a second,
a more elaborate and effectual attack. Eighty-one
men, accompanied by Lane, fresh from Nebraska,
to a point sufficiently near Franklin for agreeable
spectatorship, sallied forth, August 13th, after
dark, to the attack. The block-house was flanked
on either side by a log-cabin ; one serving as a
post-office, the other as a hotel. Under cover of
night the slender army of investment got into po-
sition, and summoned the entire compound struc-
ture to surrender. The proposition was indig-
nantly declined. Thereupon followed three hours
of musketry — to no purpose beyond the hurting
of a few men. Tiring of the waste of ammuni-
tion, the assailants hit upon the expedient of ig-
niting a load of hay and wheeling it against the
house of the Franklin postmaster, " with whom,"
as pro-slavery writers put it, " a party of Southern
men were boarding." The fiery battering-ram
succeeded far better than Sharpe's rifles. " When
the flames burst forth," an eyewitness relates,
" the poltroons cried lustily for quarter." Loop-
holes became silent, and on an entrance being
effected a brass field-piece and a few muskets were
found, but no " boarders." Some of the assailants
thought that a postmaster who kept the sort of
" boarders " found in Franklin should be made an
example of. " Oh, don't shoot my husband — don't
shoot him," pleaded his wife. " He deserves to
die ; he 's a great villain," somebody blurted out.
182 KANSAS.
" I know it," was the quick retort, " and that 's
just the reason why I don't want him shot."
Two days afterwards there was a reconnais-
sance upon Fort Saunders, the intrenched " den of
thieves " on Washington Creek. The murder of
Major D. S. Hoyt by members of the gang was
the immediate occasion of the expedition. Four
hundred men, with the cannon captured at Frank-
lin, marched against the post, but the garrison fled
on their approach. The block-house stood near a
wooded gulch. Finding it deserted, Lane, who
was nominally in command, shouted, " The devils
are in the ravine — charge." Into the ravine some
of the troopers dashed, but found nobody there.
After this easy success the expedition went into
camp on Rock Creek. For reasons which he did
not take the trouble to explain, Lane, with half a
dozen companions, set out at once for Nebraska,
though less than a week had elapsed since his ar-
rival from the North. On his departure the com-
mand devolved upon Captain Samuel Walker.
There was considerable discussion as to what more,
if anything, should be done. Captain Walker ad-
vised the expedition to disband. A part of the
men followed his suggestion and started for Law-
rence, while he himself went to the cabin of a
friend some miles in the direction of Lecompton.
In the evening rumors came to the men who re-
mained on Rock Creek — in the mood of further
campaigning — that free -state prisoners at Le-
PER ASPERA. 183
compton were in peril of the gibbet. They re-
solved to attempt a rescue, and sent a runner to
notify the men who were returning to Lawrence.
Nothing of importance occurred until the expedi-
tion reached a point within six or eight miles of
Lecompton, when the advanced guard encountered
Colonel Titus and his band, who were given to the
habit of night-raids. A skirmish took place, which
frustrated the plan for surprising Lecompton.
Captain Walker, who had been summoned, per-
suaded the expedition out of attempting anything
more, and went to his own cabin, which was in
the neighborhood, for what little of the night re-
mained. The Topeka, Lecompton, and Lawrence
stage line passed his door. In the morning the
coach stopped, and the driver, taking Walker
aside, said, " I 've got Titus' wife and two children
in the stage. If you want to get the d — d scoun-
drel, now is your time." Colonel Titus, who had
distinguished himself by great activity in harrying
free-state people, was probably the most obnox-
ious border ruffian in the territory. Walker was
personally anxious to catch him, and the halted
expedition quickly broke camp. Fifty horsemen
dashed on in three divisions to surround the stout
log-cabin which went by the name of Fort Titus,
and cut off communications with Lecompton, while
the infantry made what speed they might. Fed-
eral troops were plainly in sight, but Major John
Sedgwick privately hinted to Walker a few days
184 KANSAS.
before that if lie wished to nab Titas, and would
make quick work of it, his dragoons might not be
able to reach the block-house in time to interfere.
Walker's horsemen got in position and opened fire
with Sharpe's carbines. Titus replied spiritedly,
killed one of the assailants, and wounded others.
Rifle-balls buried themselves harmlessly in the
walls of the cabin, but the arrival of footmen
with a six-pound gun put a new face upon affairs.
The cannonade was plainly audible in the federal
camp scarcely a mile distant. Mrs. Robinson says
in her " Kansas " that a stray shot whizzed past
the tent where the free-state prisoners were con-
fined. After a brief bombardment a white flag
appeared, and the whole garrison of seventeen
men capitulated. Colonel Titus presented a sorry
sight as he emerged from his battered domicile —
coatless, covered with blood, wounded in the hand,
face, and shoulder. The assailants fully purposed
to kill Titus if they caught him — to such an in-
tensity had the bitterness against him mounted.
*' But the cuss," said Captain Walker to the writer,
"got me in the right place when he surrendered. He
saw the devil was to pay, and naade a personal appeal to
me. ' You have children,' he pleaded, 'and so have I.
For God's sake save my life.' Somehow I could n't re-
sist. We had n't been on good terms at all. Not long
before the rascal had sent handbills all about offering
a reward of five hundred dollars for my head 'off or on
my shoulders.' I noticed one of them plastered upon
PER ASP ERA. 185
the side of his cabin while he was talking to me. The
boys swore they would kill him. One of them was so
obstreperous that I had to knock him down before he
would be quiet. At last I got mad and said, ' There
Titus sits. If any one of you is brute enough to shoot
him, shoot.' Not a man raised his gun."
Two inmates of Fort Titus were killed, and two
wounded. Among the free-state men the casual-
ties were one killed and six wounded. Titus was
taken to Lawrence, where a fresh rage to dispatch
him broke out, but wiser counsels prevailed, and
the mob was baffled.
Sunday, August 17th, Governor Shannon, ac-
companied by Major Sedgwick and Dr. Aristides
Rodrigue, postmaster at Lecompton, rode to Law-
rence in the interest of peace-making. Then oc-
curred an unwonted spectacle. After negotia-
tions consuming almost the entire day a treaty of
peace was consummated, involving an exchange of
prisoners and other acts customary only among
recognized belligerents standing upon an equal
footing; the high contracting parties being on the
one hand the federal government in the person of
Governor Shannon, and on the other a minority
of the sub-committee chosen out of the larger
committee appointed at the miscellaneous Topeka
convention July 4th — Colonel James Blood and
William Hutchinson, correspondent of the " New
York Times." In this transaction free-state au-
dacity reached the high-water mark of the Waka-
186 KANSAS.
rusa war treaty. The United States stipulated to
return the cannon captured by Sheriff Jones at
Lawrence May 21st, to liberate five or six men
arrested for participation in the attack on Frank-
lin, while the minority of the sub-committee
agreed to release Titus and his men.
When the treaty had been arranged. Governor
Shannon attempted to address a street-mob, com-
posed of recent immigrants from Chicago and else-
where rather than of residents of Lawrence. There
was still another outbreak of furor for shooting
Titus. Major Sedgwick, who was not given to
alai'ms nor exaggerations, described the excite-
ment as " almost uncontrollable." When Gover-
nor Shannon began to speak a tremendous yell
went up from the spectators, and revolvers were
pulled out to shoot him. Walker leaped upon a
horse, and, drawing his pistols, dashed into the
street, shouting, " The first man who insults the
governor does it over my dead body ! He shan't
be insulted. Boys, I 'm with you, but he shan't
be insulted ! " Instant silence followed. Finally
some one said, " We '11 hear him as Shannon, but
not as governor ! " The speech then went on.
When Governor Shannon returned to Lecomp-
ton he assuredly had occasion for writing the ner-
vous letter which he sent off at once to the de-
partment commander : " This place is in a most
dangerous and critical situation. . . . We are
threatened with utter extermination by a large
PER ASPERA. 187
body of free-state men. ... I have just returned
from Lawrence, where I have been this day with
the view of procuring the release of nineteen pris-
oners that were taken. I saw in that place at
least eight hundred men who manifested a fixed
purpose to destroy this town. . . . The women
and children have been mostly sent across the
river, and there is a general panic among the
people."
With the treaty at Lawrence, Governor Shan-
non's official career substantially closed. " I am
unwilling to perform the duties of governor of this
territory any longer," he wrote President Pierce
August 18th. " You will therefore consider my
official connection with this territory at an end."
He gave mortal offense to the pro-slavery leaders
in the latter days of his admmistration by declin-
ing to be a mere sounding-board for their policies.
Like Reeder he left the territory in fear for his
life. His success had scarcely been greater than
that of his predecessor. " Govern the Kansas of
1855 and '56," he once exclaimed in later years,
when he had become a resident of Lawrence and
territorial unpopularity had modulated into uni-
versal respect, — " you might as well have at-
tempted to govern the devil in hell ! "
It must not be supposed that pro-slavery people
were idle during this interval of freshened free-
state activity. Though scarcely taking the lead,
they accomplished considerable marauding, which,
188 KANSAS.
as usual, consisted in highway robbery and the
pillage of cabins interspaced with an occasional
murder. In the practical conduct of such matteis
there is wearisome sameness of method and detail,
like
" A belt of mirrors round a taper's flame."
At Leavenworth there belched forth a perfect
chaos of pro-slavery outrages, which held on into
the early days of September — a Missouri ruffian
making and winning a bet of six dollars against a
pair of boots that he would scalp an abolitionist
within two hours ; William Phillips, the lawyer
who fared roughly at the hands of a mob some
months before, assassinated,
" With twenty trenched gashes on his head,
The least a death to nature,"
one hundred and fifty men, women, and children
driven upon river-steamers, leaving all their ef-
fects behind as spoils for Captain Emory's eight
hundred pro-slavery regulators, who swore they
would expel every abolitionist from the region.
But the larger Missouri activities awoke once
more. August 16th, the day when Fort Titus was
destroyed, Atchison and the pro-slavery junta, in
an address to the public, announced the opening
of civil war, and urged all friends of law and order
" who are not prepared to see their friends butch-
ered, to be themselves driven from their homes, to
rally instantly to the rescue." The border roused
by this call, which pro-slavery newspapers caught
PER ASP ERA. 189
Up with various and inflammatory exaggerations,
again flew to arms. But the swelling hordes of
armed men paused on the Missouri side of the line.
Governor .Shannon, who had not forgotten his ex-
periences with the militia in the Wakarusa war,
declined to give them any legal pretext for cross-
ing it. On the 21st of August Secretary Woodson
succeeded him as acting governor, and the halted
but now jubilant Missourians prepared to advance.
For a third time their ideal executive was in
power. " If Mr. Atchison and his party had had
tlie direction of affairs," reported General P. F.
Smith, who succeeded Colonel Sumner in com-
mand of the depai'tment, " they could not have
ordered them more to suit his purpose." Wood-
son bestirred himself to issue a proclamation,
which appeared on the 25th, declaring the terri-
tory " in a state of open insurrection and rebel-
lion," and calling upon all patriotic citizens to rally
for the defense of law and for the punishment of
traitors. The pamphleteering cabal of Missouri
managers reinforced Woodson's proclamation by a
new manifesto. Now an irreparable blow can be
delivered. The noble Woodson occupies the exec-
utive chair, and there is a clear field. What the
character and policy of the next governor may be
is a matter of uncertainty. He may prove " a
second edition of corruption or imbecility." Such
was the energy and dispatch with which prepara-
tions were pushed, that Atchison moved into Kan-
190 KANSAa.
sas August 29tli and encamped on Bull Creek, fif-
teen miles north of Osawatomie.
To Dutch Henry's Crossing must be charged
much of the havoc and anarch}' in which the Kan-
sas of 1856 weltered. That affair was a fester-
ing, rankling, envenomed memory among pro-slav-
ery men. It set afoot retaliatory violences, which
for a while were successfully matched, and more
than matched, by their opponents, but finally is-
sued in a total military collapse of the free-state
cause. Now Osawatomie, "the headquarters of
Old Brown," lay within easy reach of Atchison's
camp. General John W. Reid, with two hundred
and fifty men, took in hand the business of de-
stroying it. He approached the town about dawn,
August 30th, under pilotage of the Rev. Martin
White, whose experiences two weeks before had
not served to promote the passive virtues. On
the outskirts of the village, the expedition met
Frederick Brown, a son of John Brown, whom
the divine shot dead — " the ball passing clean
through the body."
The entire force available for the defense of
Osawatomie was only forty-one men, seventeen
belonging to John Brown's band, and the remain-
ing twenty-four divided between the companies
of Dr. W. W. Updegraff and Captain Cline.
These twoscore men, equal to nothing more than
a resolute show of fight, took post near the town
and the line of Reid's approach, among trees and
PER ASPERA. 191
-underbrush that skirted the Marais des Cygnes.
When the enemy came within range, they opened
fire and caused some temporary confusion. The
Missourians unlimbered a field-piece and belched
grape-shot at the thicket, which crashed harm-
lessly above the heads of the concealed rifle-
men. Tiring of the inconsequent bombardment,
they charged and brought the skirmish to an
abrupt conclusion. Only one practicable course
then remained for the handful of men in the
thicket, and that was to get out of the way with
all possible dispatch. This they did without
standing upon the order of their going, and scat-
tered here and there after an every-man-for-him-
self fashion. Six free-state men were killed, in-
cluding assassinations before and after the fight,
and three wounded. Reid's loss was probably
not more than five killed — in his own account of
the affair the number is put at two — and a few
wounded. Only four cabins escaped the torch,
so completely did the raiders accomplish their
mission.
There was a retaliatory stir among the free-
state clans. Lane, after two weeks' absence in
Nebraska or elsewhere, suddenly reappeared. He
gathered up the available fighting material about
Lawrence and Topeka, amounting to three hun-
dred men, and marched against the camp on Bull
Creek. Nothing came of the expedition. The
hostile parties approached, surveyed each other,
192 KANSAS.
exchanged a few scattering shots, and retired —
Atchison toward Missouri, and Lane toward Law-
rence.
A strong counter-irritant activity burst forth
from Lecompton while Lane was campaigning
against Bull Creek. In two days seven cabins
belonging to free-state men of the neighborhood
were given to the flames. Sheriffs drove a lively
traffic in arrests and confiscations. Acting-gov-
ernor "Woodson, eager to make the most of his
brief sunshine, ordered Colonel Cooke " to invest
the town of Topeka, and disarm all the insurrec-
tionists or aggressive invaders against the organ-
ized government of the territory, to be found at or
near that point, retaining them as prisoners, sub-
ject to the order of the marshal of the territory.
All their breastworks, forts, or fortifications should
be leveled to the ground." Though the sins of
Topeka were just then at their worst, as the
maraudings heretofore mentioned were in prog-
ress, yet Colonel Cooke flatly declined to execute
the order, and was fully sustained by General
Smith in his disobedience.
Pro-slaveiy enterprise at Lecompton led to a
formidable expedition against that town. The
attacking force was divided into two columns.
One column of a hundred and fifty men, led by
Colonel J. A Harvey, marched up the north bank
of the Kansas River September 4th, and reached
its assigned position opposite Lecompton in the
PER ASPERA. 193
evening, to cut off retreat in that direction. Har-
vey waited anxiously but vainly through a cold,
rainy night, listening for the guns of the other
column which was to assail the town. Then he
concluded the expedition had been abandoned,
and returned to Lawrence.
But the main body — three hundred men with
two pieces of artillery, commanded by Lane in
person, and assigned to the southern route — de-
layed moving twenty-four hours, and did not reach
Lecompton until the afternoon of September 5th.
The advent of the belated column threw that town
into a spasm of terror. Acting-governor Wood-
son, territorial officials, and private citizens all
appealed to Colonel Cooke for protection. The
federal troops encountered the advanced guard of
Lane's column, under command of Captain Samuel
Walker, about a mile from the village. " What
have you come for?" Colonel Cooke demanded.
Walker replied that they " came to release pris-
oners " — men seized for offenses at Franklin and
elsewhere — " and to have their rights." Collect-
ing the officers — twenty or thirty responded to
his request for audience — Colonel Cooke ad-
dressed them at some length on the condition of
affairs. He deprecated the demonstration against
Lecompton, since the Missourians were dispers-
ing, the prisoners about to be set at liberty,
and things generally going in their favor. The
conference issued peacefully, and the expedition
194 KANSAS.
returned to Lawrence without firing a shot. Lane
took no part in the negotiations. When federal
dragoons appeared he seized a musket, and stepped
into the ranks as a common soldier. Rumors of
his presence reached Sheriff Jones, who clamored
for his arrest. Woodson proposed to write out
a requisition, but on second thought it was con-
cluded to let him alone. Colonel Cooke in his
official account lapsed into a forgivable rhetoric
of congratulation. " Lecompton and its defend-
ers," he said, " were outnumbered, and evidently
in the power of a determined attack. Americans
thus stood face to face in hostile aiTay and most
earnest of purpose. As I marched back over these
beautiful hills, all crowned with moving troops
and armed men, ... I rejoiced that I had stayed
the madness of the hour, and prevented, on almost
any terms, the fratricidal onslaught of country-
men and fellow-citizens."
Woodson's lease of power ran only three weeks,
but in that brief period he drew over the territory
the sorrowfulest night that had settled upon it.
Free-state men, who appealed to him, received
very cavalier treatment. Even that distinguished
minority of a sub-committee, which captured Gov-
ernor Shannon, could not tame him. " Your
troubles," Woodson wrote September 7th, in reply
to a remonstrant communication, are " the natural
and inevitable result of the present lawless and
revolutionary position in which you have, of your
PER ASPERA. 195
own accord, placed yourselves." The minority of
a sub-committee retorted with spirit : "You have
left us no alternative but to perish or fight. . . .
You have called into the field under the name of
militia a set of thieves, robbers, house-burners, and
murderers to prey upon the people you have sworn
to protect. This is the position you occupy be-
fore the country and a just God, and on you, not
on us, must rest tlie responsibility."
The only cheerful event that illuminates Wood-
son's inhospitable three weeks' incumbency, and
for that no credit accrues to him, was the release
on bail, September 10th, of Governor Robinson,
after an imprisonment of four months. This con-
summation was reached principally through the
unremitting efforts of A. A. Lawrence, who had
connections of family aSiliation as well as of per-
sonal friendship with President Pierce. " Hav-
ing been the means of sending Dr. Robinson to
Kansas," Lawrence wrote August 13th, 1856, " I
feel bound to take every measure to secure his
release. . . . ]\Ir. Pomeroy, of Kansas, is now in
Washington, and has taken from me a letter to
Mr. Pierce, with whom he has had several inter-
views ; but in regard to the prisoners he has
accomplished nothing." Pomeroj^ in his report of
negotiations, represents the president as discours-
ing copiously "about 'disobedience to law, and
punishment as the necessary consequence.' I told
him there was no treason ... in Kansas. He
1 96 KANSAS.
was very severe on the ' unauthorized ' free-state
movement in Kansas. Both of us got hot and
showed some passion. I content myself by feel-
ing that I did not show more than he did. . . .
On the whole, the interview about the prisoners
was very unsatisfactory." The untoward state of
negotiations reported by Pomeroy only stimulated
Lawrence to more vigorous mediatory efforts,
which shortly brought about a hopeful change in
the aspect of affairs. " Some action was to have
been taken yesterday at their [the cabinet's]
meeting," he writes early in September, " and a
favorable result may be looked for at once. It is
said that a letter was received from a lady — the
wife of one of the prisoners, and probably Mrs.
Robinson — which put the case in a favorable
light, and being read aloud by Mrs. Pierce to her
husband it took hold of the feelings of both."
These expectations were not disappointed. " I
have given, such orders concerning Dr. Robinson
as will please you," President Pierce informed the
Boston friends, and the " Bastile-on-the-prairies "
was broken up. Mr. Lawrence's knowledge of
the letter, a not inconsiderable factor in effecting
the modification of federal policy toward Kansas,
which now took place, and in hastening the arrival
of Woodson's successor in the territory, was not so
slender as his language might seem to imply. He
drafted the letter himself, and sent it to Mrs. Rob-
inson, who copied and forwarded it to Mrs. Pierce.
PER ASPERA. 197
The administration, after much careful search,
pitched upon John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, for
the vacant gubernatorial post in Kansas, and he
reached Lecompton September 10th, just as the
storm raised by Woodson was culminating. He
owed his selection to a reputation for great exec-
utive ability. The administration perceived that,
for political reasons, the disorders in Kansas must
be composed, and he was expected to accomplish
that feat.
Governor Geary stepped into the border tumult
with the assertive bearing of a Titan. Superb
and not wholly misplaced was his self-confidence.
That he did not idealize the situation is clear, as
he took pains to say that it could not be worse.
Not only did he fully anticipate success, but the
very desperation of affairs fascinated him. No-
vember 28tli, after more than ten weeks in the
territory, he could write to Lawrence, " I am per-
fectly enthusiastic in my mission."
The policies and measures with which Gover-
nor Geary began did him no discredit. " When
I arrived here," he confided to a friend, " I per-
ceived at once that, in order to do any good, I must
rise superior to all partisan considerations, and be
in simple truth the governor of the entire people."
He concluded to disband the militia called into
the field by Woodson, and all unauthm-ized bodies
of armed men. If there should be need for soldiers,
he would enroll actual residents of the territory
198 KANSAS.
and muster thera into the federal service. Then,
in reference to the laws, they must be obeyed un-
til expunged from the statute-book.
The proclamation which was issued ordering
the militia to disband produced less effect than
could have been wished. Lane, it is true, turned
bis face once more toward the familiar regions
of Nebraska without waiting for its appearance.
Free-state organizations were inclined to disperse,
but hesitated, feeling anxious about the move-
ments of the other side. The governor told them
under his breath that they might be leisurely in
their obedience.
The Missourians had been busy, since the re-
connaissance upon Bull Creek and the destruction
of Osawatomie, in fitting out a military force, the
most formidable in numbers and equipment that
invaded the territory during the border struggle.
If Woodson's administration could have been
stretched into a few days more of life, the com-
plete conquest of Lawrence and of Kansas would
have been assured. Neither inaugurals, nor proc-
lamations, nor explicit orders from Lecompton
brought to a halt the pro-slavery leaders. They
pushed on to Franklin. Their approach spread so
much consternation throughout the region that the
governor, accompanied by Colonel Cooke with four
hundred dragoons, set out from Lecompton for
Lawrence at two o'clock on the morning of Sep-
tember 13th, where he found two or three hun-
PER ASPERA. 199
dred men, poorly armed and completely disorgan-
ized, awaiting attack. The resuscitated fortifica-
tions did not find favor with the military folk.
" The town has some ridiculous attempts at de-
fenses," said Colonel Cooke, "with two main
streets barricaded with earth-works, which I could
ride over. . . . Few of the people had arms in their
hands." Governor Robinson wrote Mr. Lawrence
on the 16th, " I found our people in a bad fix
when I came out of confinement. We have no
provisions, and not ten rounds of ammunition to a
man." The scare was premature, as the Missou-
rians drew off under cover of darkness without
pressing an attack. Governor Geary made a re-
assuring speech, and returned to Lecompton.
But the blow was delayed, not averted. About
noon on the 14th couriers, riding at a tearing pace,
began to arrive in Lawrence with intelligence
that the enemy was advancing in force. The
town presented a scene of gloomy, almost helpless
confusion. Captain J. B. Abbott was nominally
in command, though Governor Robinson, Colonel
Blood, Captain Walker, and Captain Cracklin
acted with more or less independence of head-
quarters. Here and there Old John Brown urged
his favorite maxim, — " Keep cool and fire low."
During the afternoon a troop of the enemy's horse
pushed their reconnaissance within range of the
few Sharpe's rifies which the free-state men had.
A volley checked their advance and sent them back
200 KANSAS.
toward Franklin. The Missourians missed tlieir
opportunity if they really wished to destroy the
town. Lawrence, with its rickety fortifications
and its handful of demoralized, poorly armed de-
fenders, was utterly at their mercy. " So far as
its inhabitants were concerned,'' said Governor
Geary, " the place was almost in a defenseless
condition, and the sacking and taking of it under
the circumstances would have reflected no honor
upon the attacking party."
At sundown dispatches, apprising the governor
of the situation at Lawrence, reached Lecompton.
He immediately sent Colonel Johnston with cav-
alry and artillery to the scene of disturbance, and
proceeded thither in person next morning at an
early hour. When he arrived the advanced guard
of the Missourians was in sight and marching
toward the town. Governor Geary and Colonel
Cooke hastened to intercept it, and were escorted
to headquarters at Franklin. " Here about twenty-
five hundred men," said Colonel Cooke, " armed
and organized, were drawn up, horse and foot, and
a strong six-pound battery."
The governor summoned to a conference the
principal leaders — Atchison, Whitfield, Reid,
Titus, Jones, and others — and made a speech
flavoi-ed to the latitude. " Though held in a board
house," he said, characteristically magnifying the
occasion, "the present is the most important coun-
cil since the days of the Revolution, as its issues
PER ASPERA. 201
involve the fate of the Union then formed." The
governor assured the Missourians that as Demo-
crats they could not afford to destroy Lawrence,
and that he could take care of the abolitionists
without their help. " He promised us all we
wanted," said Atchison, and the council broke up
generally satisfied with the governor's plans and
purposes. The largest and best appointed force
Missouri ever sent into the territory dissolved, and
Lawrence was saved, solely by Geary's energy and
decision.
The governor pushed the work of pacification
effectively. One hundred free-state men — fight-
ing material that should have remained at Law-
rence in the lowering aspect of affairs — made
an expedition against Hickory Point, Jefferson
County. Lane, in his progress toward Nebraska,
stopped to chastise a pro-slavery band, which took
refuge in log-cabins at that place and bade him
defiance. He sent a courier to Lawrence for help,
who arrived September 13th, and Colonel J. A.
Harvey immediately responded with one hundred
or more men. Abandoning his campaign before
their arrival. Lane expected to meet and turn back
these reinforcements, it is said ; but they missed
him, pushed on to Hickory Point, which they
reached the next forenoon, and fought a miniature
battle in which one pro-slavery man was killed.
Then followed a treaty. Both parties agreed to
retire, and celebrated the conclusion of peace by
202 KANSAS.
passing round a demijohn of whiskey. " The
drinking was not general on either side," says
Captain F. B. Swift. " There was no carousal or
jollification, but the consequences were serious.
We had been without sleep for thirty-six hours,
and without food for twenty-four hours, and with-
out drinkable water all through that hot after-
noon's skirmish, so that the whiskey proved too
much for those who drank, and it became neces-
sary to go into camp a few miles from the scene
of the fight instead of pushing on to Lawrence."
Here they were surprised and captured by federal
Captain T. J. Wood, taken to Lecompton, and ar-
raigned before Judge Cato, whom Governor Geary
found at Franklin serving in the Missouri army.
Judge Cato refused bail, and committed eighty-
seven prisoners on charges of murder in the first
degree. A doleful experience of captivity suc-
ceeded. Trials began in October, and resulted
variously, the verdicts ranging from acquittal to
five years in the penitentiary.
Nor did Governor Geary overlook the judiciary
in his efforts for reform. He addressed communi-
cations to the judges, calling them to account for
the inefficiency of the courts — courts whose re-
straining and punitive authority over the calami-
tous course of territorial affairs had been as slight
and inappreciable as the sway of drift logs over
the Gulf Stream. Criminal offenses of every grade
shot up luxuriantly and overshadowed the teii-i-
PER ASPERA. 203
tory with their noxious umbrage — thefts, arsons,
manslaughters, murders — yet the paltry account
of criminal convictions footed up two sentences
for horse-stealing, three or four for assumption of
office, and twice that number for unlicensed sell-
ing of liquor. Chief Justice Lecompte replied at
length. He claimed that partisan bias had never
tarnished his judicial record, and insisted, with
some show of reason, that the unhappy, inhospi-
table times were answerable for the paralysis of
the judiciary.
Temporarily Governor Geary succeeded. The
territory gradually settled into something like re-
pose. Marauders of every sort, free-state and pro-
slavery, who had so successfully established a reign
of terror, abandoned the field. After a pleasant
tour of observation, which occupied twenty days,
finding " the benign influences of peace " every-
where prevalent, the governor appointed Thurs-
day, November 20th, " as a day of general praise
and thanksgiving to Almighty God." Depart-
ment commander Smith shared in his hopefulness.
" I consider tranquillity and order," h-e reported
November 11th, ''entirely restored in Kansas."
An astute, unpublic movement was also afoot
to put the peace on permanent foundations by
a transfusion of the territorial government into
the Topeka state government. " What if by
means of certain influences," Governor Robinson
wrote Mr. Lawrence December 21st, " the Topeka
204 KANSAS.
constitution should be admitted, the state gover-
nor should resign, the territorial governor be unan-
imously elected, and we should have a peaceable
free state ? Of course the Senate will need to
compromise the matter with the House by provid-
ing for submitting the constitution once more to
the people. This with an election law by Con-
gress and Governor Geary to execute it would be
no very serious objection." The short cut into
the Union offered many advantages over compet-
ing methods. It involved the resignation of Kob-
inson, the election of Geary in his place, and a
little favorable congressional action. Geary advo-
cated the scheme enthusiastically. In his anxiety
to elude observation, and not seem to be on too
friendly terms with prominent free-state men, he
made an appointment to meet Kobinson in the
attic of a log-cabin at Leconipton, a low, dingy
store-room, in which it was impossible to stand
upright except directly under the roof-tree. " I
am sure my friend Buchanan," said Geary, " will
be glad to get out of the scrape in this way." The
date of an adjourned meeting of the Topeka legis-
lature was January 6th, 1857. Robinson, who
went to Washington to engineer the consolidation
project, left behind his resignation as governor.
On the first day of the session no quorum ap-
peared. The second brought larger numbers and
organization. But at the close of business the
federal marshal, who was lying in wait, arrested
PER A8PERA. 205
a dozen members, and the legislature took a recess
until the 9th of June. Robinson's mission to
Washington did not prosper. The administration
was unfriendly, and nothing could be done. In
truth, Geary, fast falling under suspicion at Wash-
ington, had seen his brightest Kansas days. The
confusion and alarm of a reawakened anarchy
followed hard upon the poeans of his public thanks-
giving.
The territorial legislature began its second ses-
sion at Lecompton January 12th, 1857, and gave
Governor Geary plenty of wormwood to bite upon.
Substantially the council of the first legislature
reappeared, but a new and undissenting pro-slav-
ery House of Representatives had been elected.
Gihon, in his rather intemperate and heavily-col-
ored book, " Governor Geary's Administration in
Kansas," describes the legislature as chiefly a vul-
gar, illiterate, hiccoughing rout — blindly, madly,
set on planting slavery securely in the territory.
His picture, however, after all abatements and
concessions are granted, still retains large elements-
of historic fidelity. At every turn this brass-
throated legislature confronted the governor and
his fair-play policy. Not satisfied with the din
stirred up in Kansas, pro-slavery leaders sent on
men to plot and vociferate in Washington. Lo-
cally affairs came to a crisis in the death of a
young man by the name of Sherrard — well-born,
with generous traits of character, but under the
206 KANSAS.
influence of drink or bad advice a desperado.
Sberrard failed to secure an office for which he
was an applicant, and charged his disappointment
to the governor, whom he endeavored to draw into
an altercation as an excuse for shooting him. He
equipped himself for the encounter with two heavy
revolvers and a bowie-knife. Meeting Geary as
he left the legislative hall, he began to assail him
with abusive words. Geary did not notice the
insult. His coolness and self-command probably
saved his life. This ineffectual essay at assassi-
nation received, perhaps, some inspiration from
members of the legislature. In the House of Rep-
resentatives the Rev. Martin White presented
laudatory resolutions, but that body shrank from
so formal an encomium.
Governor Geary became alarmed. He applied
to the federal commander at Leavenworth for
additional troops, and was rebuffed with the an-
nouncement that they were otherwise occupied.
By this denial of protection, the fact that the ad-
ministration had abandoned him passed from hint
and conjecture into declaration. Free-state men
rallied in support of the deserted governor. There
began a series of indorsing, panegyric mass-meet-
ings, which reached a tragic conclusion at Lecorap-
ton February 18th. Here the usual resolutions
friendly to the governor were introduced, which
threw Sherrard, who took pains to be present, into
a paroxysm of rage. Leaping upon a pile of
PER ASPERA. 207
boards, he delivered a brief but clear and pithy-
address : " Any man who will indorse these reso-
lutions is a liar, a scoundrel, and a coward." One
man in the crowd did indorse them, and said so
rather loudly and defiantly. This exhibition of
frankness was resented by an appeal to pistols.
The fight spluttered and fusilladed for a time
without much execution ; then concluded abruptly
with the death of the desperado. " I saw Sher-
rard leap into the air as a bullet struck him in
the forehead," said a quiet, pacific spectator. " I
don't think anything ever happened in the terri-
tory that pleased me so much as the shooting of
that man." The fatal pistol shot also dispersed
numerous pro-slavery roughs in attendance, and
spoiled a pretty programme of mischief which
they had sketched.
Governor Geary's extraordinary hopefulness
and self-confidence temporarily gave way. The
enthusiasm for his mission, which blazed and
crackled so brilliantly three months before, now
burned feebly and intermittently like a twinkling
flame among dying- embers. " My only consola-
tion now is," he wrote A. A. Lawrence February
25th, " that my labors are properly appreciated
by, and that I have the sympathy of, very many
of the best citizens of the Union. . . . How much
longer I shall be required to sacrifice pecuniary
interests, comfort, and health in what appears al-
most a thankless work remains to be determined."
208 KANSAS.
The sacrifice continued only a few days, when the
governor abandoned the territory very hastily and
informally. The end had been predicted from the
beginning. " What you say suits us first-rate,"
said Captain Samuel Walker, an old acquaint-
ance, as he was eloquently expounding his pur-
poses to a little knot of listeners in his office at
Lecompton soon after his arrival ; " but mark my
word, you '11 take the underground railroad out
of Kansas in six months." " I '11 show you,"
Geary retorted, with the emphasis of a smart blow
on the table at which he sat, " and all the d — d
rascals that I am governor of Kansas. The ad-
ministration is behind me." The prophecy was
literally fulfilled. About midnight March lOth
a heavy knock at his cabin door roused Captain
Walker. Great was his surprise to find that the
belated visitor was Governor Geary, with two re-
volvers buckled about his waist, on his way out
of the territory. Though agitated and shaken by
the perils hounding his trail, his self-assertion was
not wholly extinguished. " I 'm going to Wash-
ington," he informed his host,." and I '11 straighten
things out."
But Geary found the authorities at Washington
deaf to his talk. Nothing remained for him but
to print a leave-taking address and make his exit,
after a stirring, egotistic, even-handed, almost
brilliant six months in Kansas.
CHAPTER X.
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE.
The presidential election of 1856, wliicli re-
sulted in a Democratic victory, turned chiefly upon
questions brought to the surface by the contest
in Kansas. Into all the national conventions —
American, Whig, Republican, and Democratic —
the territory thrust its disturbing presence. The
struggle was remarkable in many respects. Never
before did a presidential election turn so largely
upon questions of statesmanship, of ethics and the
higher law. A variety of influences contributed
to this temporary lustration of national politics,
but they all radiated from the slavery problem,
the compromise of 1850, the tempest in Kansas,
and the phenomenal currency of " Uncle Tom's
Cabin."
The Democratic campaign dealt heavily in
threat and menace. Southern orators and news-
papers drew lamentable pictures of the woes that
would succeed a Republican triumph. Such an
untoward event, they did not scruple to announce,
would certainly justify, if it did not absolutely
necessitate, a destruction of the Union. James
14
210 KANSAS.
Buchanan's election as president postponed the
date of secession.
Two days after the inauguration of Mr. Bu-
chanan, Chief Justice Taney, of the Supreme
Court, delivered the famous Dred Scott decision,
the purport of which was that slavery should have
the freedom of the public domain — that nobody
should meddle with it before the adoption of a
state constitution.
President Buchanan, alarmed by the disastrous
effect of the Kansas disturbances, immediately
cast about for some cloud-compelling successor to
Governor Geary. Robert J. Walker, a Pennsyl-
vanian, though long resident in Mississippi — an
active, shrewd, tonguey, intellectual, withered
little man, experienced and not unsuccessful in
public vocations — was selected as the best pro-
tagonist within call to invade the perilous nether
world of Kansas.
Walker's appointment indicated a change in
federal tactics and policy. It was now conceded
that Kansas could not with any likelihood be made
a slave state, but it was hoped that by a skillful
disintegration of existing parties, and the forma-
tion of an administration party out of their ruins,
it might be made a Democratic state. To this
task Walker brought a veteran political astuteness,
from which much was expected. That the work
of any constitutional convention which might con-
vene should be fully and unqualifiedly submitted
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 211
to the people for ratification or rejection was a
prominent feature of the revised programme, and
one to whicli President Buchanan gave assent.
Meanwhile the new territorial secretary, Fred-
eric P. Stanton — an able, scholarly lawyer who
had served ten years in Congress as representative
from Tennessee — proceeded to Kansas in advance
of the governor. He immediately issued an ad-
dress in which the policy of the new administra-
tion was briefly set forth. The address did not
have an enthusiastic reception. Pro-slavery ad-
herents viewed with apprehension the fact that
the secretary seemed to have a mind of his own,
while the other side preferred to withhold their
approval until the new regime should have passed
successfully a period of probation.
A pro-slavery constitutional convention had
long been preparing. The movement began in
the first territorial legislature, which submitted
the question of its expediency to the people in
October, 1856. At the polls there was a favor-
able verdict. The next legislature passed a bill
authorizing the election of delegates June 15th,
1857. Governor Geary vetoed the measure, be-
cause it failed to provide that the people should
pass upon the proposed constitution at the polls,
and because he regarded it impolitic " for a few
thousand people, scarcely sufficient to make a good
county," to set up an establishment of their own ;
but his effort to check the legislature was like
212 KANSAS.
trjang to drain an Irish bog with a sponge. The
census, prefatory to this election, turned out to be
a very imperfect affair. Apportionment of del-
egates depended on population, but nobody could
vote whose name did not appear in the registry
lists. In sixteen only out of the thirty-four or-
ganized counties was there any registration, and
the census tables showed still larger gaps. For
this condition of things the pro -slavery party
was not wholly responsible. Free-state men per-
plexed the enumeration by embarrassments of
omission and commission, and were not ill pleased
at the starved and skeleton returns. Uiifortu-
natelj^, Secretary Stanton, fresh upon the ground
and not fully cognizant of the situation, appor-
tioned delegates for the convention on the basis of
the defective census. Here was another firebrand
flung upon free-state straw. The territory was
again in a flame. After much talk and some
fruitless negotiation, the anti-slavery party con-
cluded to let the election go by default. " Men
who could expend thousands, and travel many a
weary mile to fill Kansas with rifles," said Rep-
resentative Hughes, of Indiana, " could not walk
across the street to vote." The election passed off
tamely. Less than one fourth of the nine thou-
sand two hundred and fifty-one registered voters
took part in it. The material and animus of the
convention were completely satisfactory to the pro-
slavery party.
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 213
Governor Walker reached Lecompton May 26th,
and gave his inaugural to the public the next day.
It was a diffuse, reverberating, able exposition of
the new policy which had been agreed upon in
Washington. Shortly after he made a tour of ob-
servation and of exposition. By conferences with
the people, public and private, he hoped to con-
vince them that his purposes were pacific and
honorable, and that their interests lay in discard-
ing every form of controversy except " the peace-
ful but decisive struggle of the ballot-box." He
was in Topeka June 6th, and made a cogent, un-
equivocal, manly address. In three days a session
of the state legislature, adjourned from the dis-
consolate January meeting, would begin. Should
the state legislature enact a code of laws and at-
tempt to put it in force, as some free-state men
still urged, there could be, in the opinion of Gov-
ernor Walker, only one issue — " absolute, clear,
direct, and positive collision between that legisla-
ture and the government of the United States."
In the most exi)licit and reduplicative language
he declared that henceforth the people of Kansas
were to manage their own concerns. If the forth-
coming convention, auditors asked, should decline
to subniit the new constitution to the people, what
then? " I will join you, fellow citizens," the gov-
ernor replied, " in opposition to their course. And
I doubt not that one much higher than I, the chief
magistrate of the Union, will join you."
214 KANSAS.
Walker tarried in Topeka to watch the legisla-
ture. This session, like that of July 4th, 1856,
was yoked with a mass convention which began at
an early hour June 9th, and did not dissolve until
eight o'clock at night. The convention undertook
the same functions of coaching and surveillance
as its prototype. It wrestled with the perennial
question whether the Topeka government should
be placed squarely on its feet, or merely take such
measures as would keep a breath of life in the
organization without clashing with the territorial
authorities. Though the discussions frothed and
declaimed, the conclusions were of a mild, do-
nothing order. Walker with all his astuteness did
not wholly fathom the tremendous oratory of the
convention. It was craftily handled so as to im-
press him with the conviction that unless the anti-
slavery folk should receive fair treatment, unless
constitutional conventions should remand their in-
struments to tlie polls for final adjudication, revo-
lutionary convulsions would certainly break out.
The convention accomplished its mission. Walker
wrote his superiors in Washington that had it not
been for his intervention " the more violent course
would have prevailed, and the territory imme-
diately involved in a general and sanguinary civil
war."
When the legislature assembled no quorum ap-
peared. This fact was carefully hidden from the
impressionable Walker. Governor Robinson, find-
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 215
ing the shrewd scheme of merging the territorial
in the state government impracticable, recalled
his resignation at the instance of the legislature,
and read a message before that unpopulous body,
which once more adjourned after transacting a lit-
tle harmless amateur business.
In addition to the constitutional convention an
event of no secondary importance would take
place in the autumn. That event was the elec-
tion of a new territorial legislature, preparations
for which filled the summer with tumult. The
law and order gentry, who now called themselves
" National Democrats," gathered at Lecompton
early in July, to make nominations and lay plans
for the campaign. Forty-three delegates were in
attendance, who put forth a series of moderate
resolutions compared with the highly seasoned
viands which the border palate heretofore de-
manded. Some fire-eater presented a resolution
in convention, asking Congress to receive the ter-
ritory into the Union under the forthcoming con-
stitution, whether the people would be allowed to
vote upon it or not ; but the resolution was effect-
ually disposed of by a vote of forty-two in opposi-
tion to one in the affirmative. Governor Walker,
who seldom declined invitations to make a speech,
delivered an address that was favorably received.
In free-state quarters the question now began
to be agitated, whether the policy of non-partici-
pation in territorial elections did not need revis-
216 KANSAS.
ing. Governor Walker's vehement pledges of fair
play produced an impression. The mischief of a
vicious census could not be completely undone,
yet with a square-dealing executive success was
possible in the face of it. Henry Wilson, of Mas-
sachusetts, visited the territory for the purpose
of urging upon free-state men the imperative ne-
cessity of their making an effort to capture the
legislature, and offered to raise funds among East-
ern friends to meet the campaign expenses. In
these views he was heartily supported by Gov-
ernor Robinson, who had always been ready to
meet the pro-slavery party at the polls whenever
an honest count of ballots could be assured.
A series of conventions now began which ri-
valed in noise and frequency the series of 1855.
Nearly two hundred delegates, representing the
whole territory, assembled at Topeka July 15th.
Though the special business of this gathering was
to nominate certain state government officers, that
did not preclude general discussions and the adop-
tion of resolutions which freely abused the " bo-
gus " legislature, authorized Lane to put the mili-
tia on a war-footing, and called another convention
at Grasshopper Falls to settle the question of vot-
ing or not voting.
August 26th the free-state people met at Grass-
hopper Falls. There the unanimity which pre-
vailed at Topeka two months before gave way.
A minority of indignant, impracticable radicals,
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 217
like Redpath and Conway, denounced the proposi-
tion to contest the election for members of the ter-
ritorial legislature as " a back-down in principle
and unpromising in practical results." The ig-
nominies of stultification they set forth in dark,
repulsive colors, but to no purpose, as the con-
vention went unanimously and demonstratively
against them. It was the judgment of the con-
vention that the free-state party should make an
attempt to get possession of the legislature. On
the point of consistency, little can be said in de-
fense of this conclusion. But the convention
agreed with Governor Robinson that " men who
are too conscientious and too honorable to change
their tactics with a change of circumstances are
too conscientious for politics."
The convention did not regard its work com-
plete without the preparation of an address to
the people. It confided this duty to a committee
of fourteen, which, in spite of its own bulk that
ought to have been reassuring, surveyed the fu-
ture with the bilious eyes of a Jeremiah. " We
frankly avow ourselves," said the committee, " not
sanguine of success." Voters disfranchised in
many counties ; threats of invasion from Mis-
souri ; distrust of Governor Walker ; " a hellish
system of districting and apportionment ; " elec-
tion judges mostly " border ruffians of the deepest
dye " — such were some of the calamities that
oppressed the fourteen and saddened their vision.
218 KANSAS.
Prophets of evil misread the signs of the times.
The 5th of October, on which members of the ter-
ritorial legislature were elected, proved to be a
red-letter day for freedom in Kansas. Probably
the fact that federal troops were sent into no less
than fourteen precincts, with orders to prevent all
illegal voting, discouraged invasions from Missouri.
The election was unprolific in tumults. Even the
redoubtable town of Kickapoo did not get beyond
a rather prosy brawl. At two points extensive
frauds were attempted. McGee County was then
an Indian reservation, and therefore not open to
settlement. It contained a very sparse white pop-
ulation. At the June election only fourteen votes
were cast. Yet in October twelve hundred and
sixty -six pro-slavery ballots purported to have
been polled there. The town of Oxford, Johnson
County, made a still more flagrant showing. This
paltry hamlet " of six houses, including stores,"
reported sixteen hundred and twenty -eight votes.
The Oxford and McGee returns brought on a
crisis. If they should be counted, the legislature
would remain pro-slavery ; if they should be re-
jected, it would pass into control of the opposition.
A little inspection showed them to be clumsily
executed forgeries. October 19th Walker and
Stanton issued a proclamation throwing out the
Oxford returns on the ground of teclmical infor-
malities, and in three days those from McGee
fared in the same way.
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 219
This action made a tempest among the Na-
tional Democrats. On the 23d they held an in-
dignation meeting at Lecompton, and gave vent
to their sentiments in seventeen furious but idle
resolutions. Then Judge Cato came to the res-
cue with a mandamus, ordering the governor and
secretary to issue certificates of election to the
pro-slavery candidates from Douglas and Johnson
counties ; but the judge had no better success
than the mass-meeting. Other resources failing,
Sheriff Jones, who was one of the excluded candi-
dates, attempted to get his credentials by violence.
Striding into Stanton's office with a companion,
he demanded that the papers should be at once
filled out ; but he found the secretary could not
be intimidated. This gross outrage stirred up ex-
citement. On the evening of the succeeding day
a company of mounted free-state men called upon
Stanton, and assured him that if it would be a
convenience to have Jones put out of the way,
and if the authorities would wink at the affair,
he should be strung up before morning. Their
services were politely declined. Jojjies and his
confederates escaped with a light and whimsical
penalty. The affair threw the excitable governor
into a great rage. He was sick at the time, and
could do nothing. On recovering, he made a dem-
onstration upon what he called the enemy. Arm-
ing himself with a small "pepper-box" pistol,
he began a tour of objurgation. " Come along,"
220 KANSAS.
he said to Stanton, " let us go to see the Bengal
tigers." And this puny incarnation of a tremen-
dous choler — lapse of time inflaming rather than
cooling his passion — visited the dens and drink-
ing saloons of Lecompton, and denounced their
inmates with a savage energy that Timon of
Athens could not have outdone. The governor
returned from his circumnavigation of invective,
happy in the thought that for once the " Bengal
tigers " had heard themselves described in faithful
and unmistakable English.
The proclamations of October 19th and 22d
dashed all schemes of building a victorious ad-
ministration party out of existing political or-
ganizations. The animosities, to which they im-
parted large and tempestuous vitality, defeated
the latest, craftiest strategy of the administration.
These consequences, which wrote failure in large
letters across their personal and special mission
to Kansas, were not hidden from Walker and
Stanton. They issued the crucial proclamations,
which conceded to the free-state party nine of
the thirtee* councilmen and twenty-four of the
thirty-nine representatives, with the keenest ap-
preciation of all they implied — issued them in
honorable fulfillment of public pledges that the
polls should be protected.
The pro-slavery party made one more desperate
effort to stay their foundering fortunes. Only
in the direction of the constitutional convention,
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 221
of which they had absokite control, were there
signs of promise. That body, representing a small
minority of actual voters in the territory, gath-
ered at Lecompton September 7th. Forty-four
members in a total of sixty responded to their
names. John Calhoun, surveyor general of the
territory, was elected president, with the usual
complement of subordinate officials, including a
chaplain. Some members of the convention re-
garded the employment of a man to pray foolish,
but a majority believed it " would have a good
effect on the country," however bootless it might
be locally. The convention remained in session
four days, which were principally devoted to or-
ganization, and then adjourned until October 19th.
The special motive for delay was the approach-
ing election for members of the legislature, the
issue of which would, in large measure, mould its
policy.
Lecompton was in an uproar October 19th.
Thither on that day flocked hundreds of free-state
men, inspired by the thought that " nothing is
so difiicult for a scoundrel to do as to meet the
clear, honest gaze of the man whom he is trying
to wrong." So they thronged Lecompton to look
into the eyes of members of the convention.
What they might have done in addition to this
personal scrutiny, had not the appearance of the
Walker-Stanton proclamation sweetened their tem-
per, is not entirely certain.
The demonstration impressed the convention
deeply. For three days in succession no quorum
appeared ; but on the fourth day a suflficient num-
ber of absentees for the transaction of business
was secured. The convention found itsoif tangled
in the meshes of a very perplexing task. It had
essayed to saddle a pro-slavery constitution upon
a community overwhelmingly anti-slavery. The
constitution which it made was well enough, ex-
cept in the matter of slavery, in regard to which
it took extreme ground. " The right of prop-
erty," it announced, " is before and higher than
any constitutional sanction, and the right of the
owner of a slave to such slave and its increase is
the same and as inviolable as the right of any
property whatever." This doctrine, as Mr. Douglas
said, would deprive the State of all authority to
abolish or prohibit slavery.
But it was plain as a pike-staff that the people
would make short work of the new constitution if
they should be allowed to vote upon it. In this
unhappy situation, it only remained to devise some
make-shift in tlie place of unqualified submission,
or abandon the fight. A part of the convention,
under the lead of Judge Rush Elmore, advocated
full submission, let the result be what it might,
but were voted down. Then came a compro-
mise. The entire constitution should not go before
the people, but only the slavery article. Ballots
might be cast indorsed " Constitution with slav-
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 223
ery " or " Constitution with no slavery." Should
the first proposition carry, slaverj^ with restricted
emancipation possibilities would be definitely
planted in the State. If the second proposition
prevailed, then " slavery shall no longer exist in
the State of Kansas, except that the right of prop-
erty in slaves now in this territory shall in no
manner be interfered with." Free -state men com-
monly interpreted this qualification of the no-slav-
ery alternative as utterly foreclosing all hope of
success on their part. A no-slavery victory must
not disturb the slavery which had already secured
a foothold in the commonwealth. The alternative
presented " was like submitting to the ancient test
of witchcraft, where if the accused, upon being
thrown into deep water, floated he was adjudged
guilty, taken out, and hanged ; but if he sunk and
■was diowned he was adjudged not guilty — the
choice between the verdicts being quite immate-
rial." When legitimately interpreted, however,
the proviso would probably yield no such sense as
free-state exegesis found in it. This point was
pretty conclusively established by Senator Bay-
ard, who contended that the right of property
vested in existing slaves, and not in their unborn
children. That construction, he maintained, was
forced by the general intent and scope of the
declaration, " Slavery shall no longer exist in the
State of Kansas."
The compromise divided the convention, in
224 KANSAS.
which there was a strong faction that protested
against every sort of submission. " This is a
grand humbug," said a furious Riley County dele-
gate, echoing free-state expositions of the no-slav-
ery alternative. " It is not fair. ... I tell you
this scheme of swindling submission will be the
blackest page in your history, and we will never
hear the end of it. We won't make much capital
out of it, I tell you. Those Black Republicans
will get to the bottom of it so quick that you '11
never cease to hear from this dodge. ... I 'm op-
posed to submission. I tell you these Republicans
will vote down both of them. . . . The only con-
sistent, honest, straightforward way is to make
our constitution and send it on to Congress. I
believe Congress will admit us. If it will not,
then let our defeat lie at its door. This humbug-
ging, dodging way I do not believe in. I want to
be open and above board." Another Riley County
implacable declaimed in the same strain. He said
the compromise carried " falsehood on its face in
letters of brass. ... It is a lie, cheat, and swindle.
I 'm a pro-slavery man. I want to make Kansas
a slave state. . . . The trick was concocted by
free-state Democrats. If they pass this majority
report they will make Kansas not only a free but
a Republican state. . . . The South has reached a
crisis in her fortunes and must have Kansas. . . .
Make Kansas a slave state and the abolition ele-
ment will flee out of it."
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 225
The compromise v/as carried after a stubborn
fight, and the convention dissolved November 7th.
John Calhoun issued proclamations designating
December 21st as the day for voting on the slav-
ery article, and January 4th, 1858, for election of
officers under the new constitution. The conven-
tion, contemptuously ignoring Governor Walker,
authorized its president to take such measures
as might be necessary to carry its purposes into
effect.
The sequel at Lecorapton again stirred the em-
bers. Free-state men had taken comparatively-
little interest in the convention during its earlier
stages, as they intended to dispatch at the polls
any constitution that might be put together. Now,
to their astonishment, they found that only a frag-
ment of it would be submitted, and to that frag-
ment they applied the fallacious witch-test con-
struction. The enemy were manoeuvring to turn
their flank and convert the October victory into
a barren triumph. Mass-meetings gathered here
and there in which the "robber" convention was
cursed in copious Thersitean dialect. Radicals
demanded that now, after so many empty threats,
the state government should be made something
more than a name. Among these anti-Lecompton
gatherings, the largest and most important met
at Lawrence on the 2d of December. The one
hundred and thirty delegates in attendance in-
cluded nearly all the prominent free-state leaders.
226 KANSAS.
Governor Robinson presided. Impassioned ha-
rangues evoked a vast amount of enthusiasm.
Resolutions were adopted alive with hostility to
the new constitution: "Appealing to the God
of Justice and Humanity, we do solemnly enter
into league and covenant with each other that we
will never, under any circumstances, permit the
said constitution, so framed and not submitted,
to be the organic law for the State of Kansas,
but do pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor in ceaseless hostility to the same."
Amidst the general confusion and casting
about somebody bethought himself of the recently
captured and fumigated legislature as a possible
source of deliverance, and suggested that it should
be called together. What it could accomplish
was uncertain, but it would not, at all events, fail
to make itself useful. Governor Walker had set
out in chagrin for Washington — his astute
schemes overset, execrated by pro -slavery men,
deserted by the administration. His departure
shifted all executive responsibility upon Secretary
Stanton, who was sorely beset on all sides to con-
vene the legislature. That step he finally took,
though foreseeing that it would be followed by
his dismissal from office, of which he received for-
mal notification December 16th.
The territorial legislature, " dipped into the tur-
bid waters of Black Republicanism " and made
clean, assembled at Lecompton December 7th.
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 227
There was a roistering free -state jubilee that
day in the old pro-slavery stronghold. From all
parts of the territory came throngs of people to
participate in the festivities, which comprised
speeches, resolutions, groans for the " Lecompton
swindle," and cheers for the Topeka constitution.
So powerful were outside attractions that they
thinned the legislature out of a quorum. It could
do nothing until the hurrahing pother subsided
and the rout dispersed. As a defense against pro-
slavery movements, the legislature very sensibly
ordered an unreserved submission of the consti-
tution to the people on the 4th of January. A
third ballot was added to those already author,
ized, indorsed " Against the constitution formed
at Lecompton."
The Lawrence mass-meeting of December 2d
pronounced the elections which the Lecompton
convention ordered to be unworthy of free-state
countenance. In regard to the election of De-
cember 21st, when only pro-slavery voters went to
the polls, the wisdom of its sentence was unques-
tioned. But the January matter was not so clear.
An impression got abroad that the mass-meeting
had blundered; that it would be prudent — an
anchor cast to the windward — to furnish the
Lecompton constitution with an equipment of
free-state officials as a precaution against possible
contingencies. Therefore the convention was re-
assembled on the 23d of December to review in
228 KANSAS.
part its proceedings. At this later session two
parties appeared. One faction defended and the
other combated the proposition to put a state
ticket in the field. To take possession of a pos-
sible state government, not for purposes of estab-
lishing but of destroying it, it was urged, was
a simple dictate of prudence. The radicals rang
changes upon the inconsistency of such a course
for free-state men, after calling the "Eumenides
and all the heavenly brood " to witness that they
would never recognize the " Lecompton swindle "
in any shape, and they carried the day.
The defeated party immediately resolved itself
into " a bolter's convention," named a full ticket
of state officers, and elected them. Against the
Lecompton constitution, for which anti-slavery of-
ficers were provided, ten thousand two hundred
and twenty-six votes were polled. That vote,
though it did not escape irregularities of form,
showed incontrovertibly the drift of public senti-
ment in the territory.
In the mean time a new acting-governor had
appeared in the territory — General John W.
Denver, a Virginian and a lawyer, well reputed
for successful service in the Mexican war and in
California. At the time of his appointment he
held the office of Indian Commissioner, was visit-
ing Kansas, and domiciled with Secretary Stanton.
" I had been repeatedly solicited," said Denver,
"to take the position, but I did not want it. I
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 229
used to live on the border before Kansas was
thrown open to settlement. I chummed with
Senator Atchison at Platte City, and knew per-
sonally all the leading men of western Missouri.
I was afraid, if I accepted the post, that they
might ask of me what I should not wish to do."
The more conservative free-state sentiment Den-
ver conciliated at the beginning of his term of
office, by announcing that he should carry out in
good faith the policy of his predecessor.
The elections appointed by the Lecompton con-
stitutional convention had a long appendix of in-
vestigations, which made havoc with the original
returns. A legislative committee examined them,
and reported that the alleged vote December 21st,
of six thousand two hundred and twenty-six for
the constitution with slavery, contained twenty-
seven hundred and twenty fraudulent ballots,
which were cast mostly at Kickapoo, Delaware
Crossing, and Oxford. In the contest for state
officers, January 4th, the number of fraudulent
ballots fell off to twenty-four hundred and fifty-
eight in a pro-slavery vote for governor of six
thousand five hundred and forty-five.
A curious history attaches to these election re-
turns. The legislative investigating committee
were anxious to secure them. John Calhoun,
surveyor general and president of the constitu-
tional convention, taking alarm at the situation,
prudently left the territory. The coveted ballots
230 KANSAS.
were supposed to be in the hands of L. A. Mc-
Lean, his chief clerk, who appeared before the
committee and testified that he had forwarded
them to Calhoun. February Ist a messenger
reached the cabin of Captain Samuel Walker,
then sheriff of Douglas County, bringing informa-
tion from General William Brindle that the re-
turns were secreted under a wood-pile near Mc-
Lean's office. Arming himself with a warrant
which instructed him to " diligently search for
the said goods and chattels," Walker appeared in
Lecompton the next morning and apprised Mc-
Lean of his business. " You are welcome to
search," he responded. " I have sent the returns
to Calhoun. They are not here." " I think j^ou
are mistaken," said the sheriff. " I know where
they are." " Where ? " " Under the wood-pile."
" I forbid you to search," McLean rejoined, and
began some warlike demonstrations, which were
speedily quelled. Walker dug up the returns, con-
cealed in a candle-box, and carried them to Law-
rence. Naturally the investigating committee de-
cided to recall Chief Clerk McLean, who con-
sulted Sheriff Jones as to whether he should obey
the subpoena. " I told him to come down and
face the music ; he said he was going to Missouri ;
I saw him start toward the river . . . ; I think he
got a mule from some one on the road."
President Buchanan, retreating from his pledges
to Governor Walker in obedience to Southern die-
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 231
tation, transmitted, February 2d, the Lecompton
constitution to Congress, accompanied by a special
message, in which he urged that Kansas should
be speedily admitted to the Union, though the in-
strument had not been fully submitted to the peo-
ple. Of the actual condition of Kansas he was
not ignorant. Soon after his arrival in the terri-
tory Governor Denver forwarded to Washington
by special messenger a long communication fully
setting forth the state of affaiis, and urgently
counseling the president not to present the Le-
compton constitution to Congress at all, but to ad-
vocate the passage of an enabling act and let the
people make a fresh start. Mr. Buchanan was
impressed by the letter. He said " that he was
very sorry that he had not had the information
sooner, because he had prepared his message in
relation to the Lecompton constitution, and had
shown it to several senators, and could not with-
draw it."
When the Lecompton constitution reached
Washington, the general reputation of Kansas in
pro-slavery circles was greatly depressed. " The
whole history of Kansas is a disgusting one from be-
ginning to end," said Senator Hammond, of South
Carolina. " I have avoided reading it as much
as I could." Senator Biggs, of North Carolina,
confessed to "misgivings whether the people of
Kansas are of that character from which we may
hope for an enlightened self-government." Repre-
232 KANSAS.
sentative Anderson, of Missouri, fell little behind
the North Carolinian in unfriendliness of opinion :
" No part of our Union has ever before been set-
tled by such an ungovernable, reckless people."
Mr. Atkins, representative from Tennessee, de-
scribed free-state immigrants as " struggling hordes
of hired mercenaries, carrying murder, rapine, and
conflagration in their train." But Senator Alfred
Iverson topped all competitors in screechy, fish-
wife violence of phrase ; " Why, sir, if you could
rake the infernal regions from the centre to the
circumference and from the surface to the bot-
tom, you could not fish up such a mass of infa-
mous corruption as exists in some portions of Kan-
sas ! " An estimate of the Kansas migration,
wholly antipodal and dissenting, may be found
in the "Christian Examiner" for July, 1855.
" It was reserved," says the writer, " to the pres-
ent age, and to the present period, to afford the
sublime spectacle of an extensive migration in
vindication of a principle. . . . Neither pressure
from without, nor the beckonings of ambition, nor
the monitions of avarice, control the great Kansas
migration. ... In the unselfishness of the object
lies its claim ... to the highest place in the his-
tory of migrations ! "
Arguments in defense of the Lecompton meas-
ure — the debate filled more than nine hundred
pages of the " Congressional Globe " — made the
most of technicalities. Samuel A. Smith, repre-
TBE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 233
sentative from Tennessee, stood almost alone in
advocacy of its claims to popular approval. " The
whole people of Kansas," he said, " are in favor
of the admission of the State under the Lecomp-
ton constitution," except "Lane with his ma-
rauders, his murderers, and his house-burners "
— an insignificant gang that did not "number
more than eight hundred." Foolish talk of this
sort found little favor. For the constitution there
was a single tenable line of defense — that it was
the work of a legitimate convention which had
observed all indispensable formalities. The suc-
cessive stages of its history were elaborately re-
hearsed. The constitution dates back to the first
territorial legislature which submitted to the peo-
ple the question of calling a constitutional conven-
tion. Fifteen months afterwards — a period ample
for mature consideration — they respond favora-
bly at the polls. After a lapse of three months
the question reaches the second territorial legisla-
ture, which "bows to the will of the people and
provides for the election of delegates." Then
between the legislative sanction and the election
of delegates four months intervene. Before the
delegates meet and enter upon their duties a fur-
ther delay of three months occurs. They submit
a single but vital article of the constitution to
the people for acceptance or rejection, Decem-
ber 21st, and they ratify it almost imanimously.
*'When we view these proceedings of the peo-
234 KANSAS.
pie of Kansas," said Senator Polk, of Missouri,
"in forming for themselves a state constitution,
in the successive stages of their development,
not from the low arena of partisan strife and pas-
sion, but from the elevated standpoint of a pa-
triot, . . . what a majestic spectacle is presented
— the people marching forward in stately pace
to the accomplishment of their purposes with a
movement as grand as the lapse of the tide or the
travel of a planet ! "
Though there could be no real question that
the Lecompton constitution was not " the act and
deed " of the people of Kansas ; though Douglas
and other Northern Democrats fought it, yet it
passed the Senate March 23d by a vote of thirty-
three to twenty-five. In the House the Lecomp-
ton constitution failed. There a substitute was
carried, known as the " Crittenden-Montgomery
bill," which referred it back to the people. Should
they ratify it, then Kansas would be proclaimed a
state within the Union without further ado. If
they voted it down, they were to call a new con-
vention and make a constitution that pleased them
better. The sharp-eyed " Democratic Review "
did not fail to call attention to the fact that in
espousing the Crittenden-Montgomery bill Re-
publican congressmen accepted the doctrine of
popular sovereignty. It was the same doctrine
which they stigmatized in 1854-56 " as an outrage
upon public honor, ... as a departure from justice
THE LECOMPTON STRUGGLE. 235
and from the original policy of the national gov-
ernment."
The Senate rejected the substitute, and there
was resort to a committee of conference : J. S.
Green, R. M, T. Hunter, and W. H. Seward rep-
resenting the Senate ; W. H. English, A. H.
Stephens, and W. A. Howard the House. This
committee — Seward and Howard dissenting —
elaborated a novel measure called the " English
bill." An ordinance accompanied the Lecomp-
ton constitution which asked the cession of land-
grants which were much larger than any other
state had ever received on its entrance into the
Union. In these land-grants the committee sug-
gested a change. They proposed to reduce the
twenty-three million acres of land claimed to
about one sixth of that amount. The fate of the
constitution they linked with that of the land-
grants. To accept the modified ordinance was
accounted by some curious doctrine of imputation
as approval of the constitution, and at once clothed
Kansas with the functions of a state. Rejection
of it, on the other hand, involved not only rejec-
tion of the constitution, but continuance of terri-
torial conditions until a population of ninety-four
thousand should be reached. The majority re-
port, which stoutly denied that any such thing as
submission of the Lecompton constitution to the
people lurked in this unhackneyed device, was a
very excellent piece of quibbling. The constitu-
236 KANSAS.
tion we accept, its validity we acknowledge, it was
urged, but we do not like the ordinance. AVe are
willing to waive the population rule, provided the
vexatious business can be concluded. If Kansas
should reject our overture, it ma}^ remain a ter-
ritory until better manners are learned and a
larger and more stable population is obtained.
Though objections were plenty — charges of un-
warrantable discrimination, of intervention with
inducements to control results, of violence to the
principle of popular sovereignty — yet the English
bill gave the people of Kansas opportunity to put
their heel on the odious Lecompton instrument,
and that consideration carried it through Congress.
The vote of the Senate stood, ayes, thirty-one ;
nays, twenty-two — of the House, ayes, one hun-
dred and twelve ; nays, one hundred and three.
Pro-slavery partisans espoused it ; not all of them
heartily. " I confess my opinion was," said Sen-
ator Hammond, of South Carolina, in a speech
October 29th, 1858, at Barnwell Court House,
" that the South herself should kick that [Le-
compton] constitution out of Congress. But the
South thought otherwise." In Kansas the ques-
tion came to a decision August 2d. Thirteen thou-
sand and eighty-eight votes were cast — eleven
thousand three hundred of them against the Eng-
lish proposition.
CHAPTER XI.
JAYHAWKING.
Geographically the capital events of Kansas
history in the territorial days covered a narrow
space. With Lawrence for a centre, the revolu-
tion of a radius thirty miles in length would in-
clude them all. Yet the Southeast, embracing
Bourbon, Linn, and Miami counties, though con-
tributing little to the ultimate results of the strug-
gle, is not destitute of picturesque and sanguinary
exiiibitions of border lawlessness.
At the outset, and for a considerable period, pro-
slavery settlers had a comparatively clear field in
the Southeast, as it lay off the line of Northern
immigration. " It has occurred to our friends," a
correspondent of the Kansas Association of South
Carolina wrote from Platte City, Missouri, " that
it would be better, as a matter of policy, and as
being more Southern — more agreeable to the
Southern emigrants — that a good portion of them
would settle south of the Kansas River. By this
means we will secure the southern half of the ter-
ritory before it is filled by abolitionists ; the north-
ern half will be saved by Missourians. ... I
238 KANSAS.
would suggest that you should seek, as far as pos-
sible, to induce all who have a small number of
slaves to come out. To such, this is a peculiarly-
desirable country, and they need have no fear of
slaves escaping." Fort Scott — a federal military
post from 1842 to 1854 — was the principal town
of the Southeast, and began to have some reputa-
tion as a border-ruffian stronghold in 1856. The
arrival of armed " settlers " from the South laid
the foundation of that reputation which was largely
increased afterwards by accessions from Lecomp-
ton.
As abolitionists were not plenty in the South-
east, the Southerners at first found their opportu-
nities for usefulness rather limited. But in Au-
gust, 1856, the monotony was broken by news of
General Reid's intended attack upon Osawato-
mie. Ambitious to share in the glory of destroy-
ing that town, a hundred and fifty men collected
at Fort Scott and marched northward. When en-
camped in Liberty township, eight or ten miles
south of Osawatomie, they were surprised by a
hundred free-state guerrillas just as they thought
of dining. So rude and uncivil an invitation to
fight could not be accepted, and the company fled
in the greatest confusion, " leaving," as an eye-
witness says, "their baggage and most of their
horses, boots, coats, vests, hats, and a dinner ready
cooked," not to mention a black flag on which was
inscribed in red letters " Victory or Death." The
J A YHA WRING. 5J3y
fugitives mostly fled toward Fort Scott, where
they arrived in the middle of the night, fully
persuaded that the abolitionists were at their
heels. The town was roused. Panic-stricken men
and women, believing it would be given over to
fire and sword, wildly escaped anywhere chance
or instinct might lead. Quite a large company
took refuge in a cabin at considerable distance
from the village. Soon rumors came that the
work of slaughter and pillage had actually begun,
and a scene of indescribable confusion followed.
Englishmen, harried by Northern pirates, foimd
consolation in the petition, " Good Lord, deliver
us from the Danes ; " and why should not the aid
of Heaven be invoked against Northern abolition-
ists ? A season of prayer was suggested, and the
ensuing devotions had no lack of fervor or unanim-
ity. The alarm proved groundless. When day
dawned the town was found to be safe, and no
abolitionists could be seen.
During the autumn of 1856 Indian Agent G.
"W. Clarke, with a picked-up gang of Missouri-
ans, overran portions of Linn and Miami counties
into which considerable Northern population had
sifted. He threw down fences, destroyed crops,
seized horses and cattle, burnt a few cabins, and
occasionally drove an obnoxious settler out of
the country. " Clarke's company," said one of the
victims, " took everything they wanted, and I
think they took what they did not want, to keep
240 KANSAS.
their hands in — had ribbons on their hats, side
combs in their hair, and other things they did not
need." An old soldier gave his impressions of the
raid before the Strickler Commission : " I was
in the Black Hawk war, and have fought in the
wars of the United States, and have received two
land-warrants from Washington City for my ser-
vices, but I never saw anything so bad and mean
in my life as I saw under General Clarke."
Free-state men in the Southeast, comparatively
isolated, having little communication with Law-
rence, and consequently almost wholly without
check, developed a successful if not very praise-
worthy system of retaliation. Confederated at
first for defense against pro-slavery outrages, but
ultimately falling more or less completely into the
vocation of robbers and assassins, they have re-
ceived the name — whatever its origin may be —
of jayhawkers.^
1 In Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms jayhawker is said
to be a corruption of " Gay Yorker," a phrase applied to an
eminent exemplar of the business, Colonel Jennison. A more
plausible derivation traces the word to a dare-devil Irishman, by
the name of Pat Devlin. One morning in the summer of 1856,
a neighbor is said to have met him returning from a foraging
expedition, laden with spoils. "Where have you been, Pat?"
" Jayhawking," was the reply. " Jayhawking ? What 's that ? "
" Well," continued the philological bush-ranger, " in the old coun-
try we have a bird called the jayhawk, which kind o' worries its
prey. It seemed to me as I was riding home that this was what
I had been doing." As the evidence now stands, whatever lin-
guistic honors accrue from the word " jayhawking " belong to
Pat.
JA YHA WRING. 241
The best known leader in the jay hawking ep-
isode is James Montgomery. Bora in Ohio, a
resident of Kentucky and Missouri for seventeen
years, he reached Linn County in August, 1854,
and thenceforth was a prominent figure in the
affairs of the Southeast. He was courageous, an
effective talker — a qualification that served him
to good purpose — not devoid of craft and strat-
agem, but without large mental or executive force.
Montgomery's tactics after Clarke's raid were
characteristic. To obtain a list of the men con-
cerned in it he visited Missouri in the disguise of
a teacher searching for a school, which he suc-
ceeded in obtaining and actually taught for two
weeks — long enough to get the information he
wished. That secured, the school suddenly closed,
and the school-master soon reappeared transformed
into a guerrilla chief. Twenty of the ex-raiders
were captured and pretty thoroughly spoiled of
money, weapons, and horses.
Though months of disorder followed, yet, with
the exception of the Marais des Cygnes massacre,
Clarke's raid was the last considerable dash from
Missouri into the territory until the outbreak of
the war for the Union. In these aggressions jay-
hawkers seem to have taken the lead, and they
established a freebooting reputation that fairly in-
timidated pro-slavery adherents. The accounts of
marauding incursions from Missouri, which ap-
peared in contemporary prints, were mostly ca-
242 KANSAS.
iiards circulated by jaybawkers as an excuse for
their own depredations. They occasionally dis-
patched a messenger to Lawrence with a budget
of exaggerated or manufactured pro-slavery out-
rages, to keep alive their reputation as struggling,
self-denying, afflicted patriots.
Disturbances continued intermittently until
December, 1857, when claim difi&culties of more
than ordinary consequence occurred. A delega-
tion representing the jayhawking interest had
been in Lawrence to enlist Lane in their cause, but
he was absorbed with agitations against the Le-
compton constitution, and could give them no per-
sonal assistance. However, a small company from
the vicinity of Lawrence, led by Captain J. B.
Abbott, returned with the messengers, for the pur-
pose of investigating affairs and of lending any
assistance to free-state men that might be possible
or advisable. Soon after their arrival in the vi-
cinity of Fort Scott some land dispute came to a
crisis. A Missourian was charged with " jump-
ing " the claim of a free-state settler. Whether
that was actually the case, or whether an enter-
prising jaybawker wished to drive him out of the
territory as a step preparatory to seizing his prop-
erty, is not wholly clear. At all events, the Mis-
sourian was arrested and arraigned before an im-
promptu squatters' court, the officers of which
were mostly dra^vn from the Lawi-ence party.
None of the usual judicial appurtenances — judge,
counsel, sheriff, jury — were omitted.
J A YEA WKING. 243
Intelligence of the proceedings of this uncon-
ventional court came to the ears of Federal Mar-
shal Little at Fort Scott, and he sallied forth with
a small armed escort on a reconnaissance. The
court, hearing of his approach, suddenly aban-
doned its judicial functions and prepared to fight.
When the marshal appeared and asked for expla-
nations he was assured, with all the gravity of
truth-telling, that the legislature then in session
had repealed the entire code framed at Shawnee
Mission, that a provisional committee had been
appointed to conduct the government of the terri-
tory until a new code could be framed, and that
there was, consequently, nothing for him to en-
force.
The court successfully threw dust in the mar-
shal's eyes, and he returned to Fort Scott. Soon
discovering that he had been duped. Little gath-
ered a second and larger expedition, and set out
again, determined effectually to disbar the insolent
attorneys. On his return there was a suitable
preamble of parley. " Gentlemen," he said in a
very black mood, " you will understand that you
are dealing with the United States, and not with
border rufBans. You will learn that there is a
difference between them. I order you to surren-
der and prepare to accompany me to Fort Scott."
The court scouted the idea. Half an hour was
allowed for reflection, with an intimation from
Little that if the period of grace brought forth
244 KANSAS.
no woi'ks meet for repentance hie should " blow
them all to bell.*" At the expiration of thirty-
minutes — no signs of surrender appearing — tlie
marshal ordered a charge upon the recent judi-
ciary, members of which were partly intrenched
in a log-cabin, and partly posted behind neigh-
boring trees. A dozen Sharpe's rifles responded
to the charge, and that spoiled all the fun in a
twinkling. Numerous loungers and roughs, who
accompanied the expedition as a fine lark, dis-
liked the appearance of things, and the road to-
ward Fort Scott smoked with the precipitation
of their return. Rumors of the encounter blew
about the territory with various exaggerations.
Reinforcements hurried down from Lawrence.
Marshal Little's force was considerably increased,
but belligerents finally drew off, and there was no
more fighting.
In the spring of 1858 Captain Charles A. Ham-
ilton surpassed all preceding guerrilla exploits by
a deed "which the ibis and crocodile trembled
at." Hamilton was a Georgian, of excellent fam-
ily and reared in wealth. Restless and fond of
adventure, his ear was caught by the Kansas cru-
sade proclaimed in Georgia in 1856. He set-
tled in Linn County and built a substantial log-
house, which served as political headquarters for
the vicinity. But Hamilton hardly maintained
himself against the superior prowess of the jay-
hawkers, and with the decline of the pro-slavery
J A YEA WKJNG. 245
cause in the territory soured into desperation.
He resolved that the victors should pay heavily
for their success, and compiled a list of obnoxious
men in his neighborhood whom he planned to seize
and execute. This death catalogue in some way
fell into Montgomery's hands, who immediately
took measures to kill the compiler. He caught
him in his log-house, to which he laid siege, but
was driven off by federal troops before he could
effect his purpose.
Then a lull followed, the opinion became gen-
eral that Hamilton would not push his schemes of
assassination, precautions were relaxed, and vig-
ilance grew weary ; but it was a fatal calm, —
" Like the dread stillness of condensing storms."
Hamilton suddenly appeared in the neighbor-
hood of Trading Post May 19th, 1858, with a
gang of Missourians, and began to scour the region
for his enemies, political and personal. He was
particularly anxious to capture a certain resolute,
saucy, belligerent blacksmith — Captain Eli Sny-
der — with whom he had an altercation not long
before. Snyder, armed with a shot-gun " loaded
with sixteen buckshot," encountered Hamilton
and one or two companions near Trading Post.
A spirited colloquy followed. "Where are you
going? " Hamilton demanded. "You are going
to Tiading Post." " If you know better than I
do why do you ask ? " " If you don't look out,
246 KANSAS.
I '11 blow you through," growled the Georgian.
Snyder leveled his shot-gun — " If you don't leave
I '11 tumble you from your horse." The interview
concluded abruptly. " I afterwards mentioned
the affair to Old John Brown," said Snyder, " and
he remarked — ' If you had killed Hamilton what
a mangling up it would have saved ! The Dutch
Henry business was at the right time ! ' "
Hamilton, with a small detachment of his gang,
gave personal attention to the capture of Black-
smith Snyder whom he found at work in his shop.
One of the visitors entered and made the colorless
announcement — " A man wants to see you." Sny-
der appeared — "Good morning, Mr. Hamilton."
" I 've got you," hissed the cut-throat. " Yes —
what do you want ? " retorted the blacksmith,
striking one of the horses which were crowding
around him a smart blow that threw all the pistols
out of range, and enabled him to regain the shop,
and secui-e his gun. Though severely wounded,
Snyder managed to reach his cabin a few rods
distant. His young son covered his retreat with
a double-barreled shot-gun. "Burn the devils,"
he shouted, as the boy opened fire ; " cut away
at them with the other barrel." The party re-
tired in discomfiture.
Elsewhere the desperadoes met with better suc-
cess. Out of a considerable number of prisoners
eleven were selected, marched off to a neighboring
gulch, and drawn up in line before their captors.
JA YHA WRING. 247
♦' Gentlemen," said one of the eleven, among whom
there was no flinching or parleying, " if yon are
going to shoot, take good aim." " Ready," Ham-
ilton shouted, but before he could speak the word
" Fire," a repenting ruffian turned away, and said,
with an oath — "I '11 have nothing to do with such
a piece of business as this." Hamilton discharged
his own pistol, and a general volley followed. The
entire line of prisoners went down — five of them
killed outright, five wounded, and one unharmed.
The shocking affair produced a tremendous ex-
citement far and wide. There was a hot, clatter-
ing, idle pursuit of the assassins. Justice overtook
but one of them, and that after a delay of five
years.
The authorities at Lecompton did not lay the
responsibility for a state of things that culminated
in the Marais des Cygnes assassinations wholly or
chiefly at the door of pro-slavery men. At all
events, soon after receiving intelligence of them.
Governor Denver placed warrants in the hands of
Deputy Marshal, Captain Samuel Walker for the
arrest of Montgomery. When Walker reached
Raysville, ten or fifteen miles northwest of Fort
Scott, he found a large convention in session.
" What are you after ? " asked an acquaintance
under his breath. " I 've come down to take
Montgomery." " You can't do it. That thing 's
out of the question." The marshal concluded that
it would be wise to keep his writs out of sight.
248 KANSAS.
" I don't know Montgomery," he said, " and I
don't wish to have him pointed out. If he is, I
shall have to make an effort to take him,"
The speaking, inflamed by the recent massacre,
proceeded with furious energy. Nothing less than
the extinction of Fort Scott — an infamous nest of
border ruffianism which was at that moment shel-
tering some of the Marais des Cygnes murderers —
would pacify the convention. The authorities
sent down sheriffs to arrest free-state men, but
they shunned that vile robbers' den. The sneer
brought Walker to his feet. He volunteered to
serve any warrants in Fort Scott with which he
might be furnished, and the proposal touched a
popular chord. An unexpected difficulty threat-
ened to frustrate the whole enterprise. Nobody
could be found authorized to issue the necessary
papers. "Get a common justice's writ," said
Walker, " and I '11 go, though as a federal officer
I have no business to serve it."
Walker, escorted by Montgomery incognito,
reached Fort Scott on the 30th, and proceeded
at once to the house of G. W. Clarke, who, as
leader of the Linn County raid in 1856 as well as
for other reasons, had incurred great unpopular-
ity in free -state quarters. The marslial vainly
pounded upon the door with his fist, and then tried
tlie butt of his pistol without eliciting any response.
But tlie town was astir. The street swarmed
with Clarke's friends armed to the teeth, while
JAYHAWKING. • 249
Montgomery and his band were fully prepared for
anything that might happen. Walker, having
procured some heavy iron implement from a gov-
ernment wagon standing near, was about to renew
his attack on the door when Clarke thrust his head
from a window, and offered to surrender. In a few
moments the door swung open, and he appeared
curiously accoutred. His wife clung to one arm,
and his daughter to the other, while in his hands
there was an old-fashioned cavalry carbine. Very
properly Clarke wished to examine the marshal's
])«pers, which that gentleman declined to ex-
hibit, since legally they were of no more account
than a handful of pages plucked from the life
of Jack the Giant Killer. " I '11 give you two
minutes to surrender," thundered the marshal,
drawing his pistol. " I heard the click of rifles
about me," Walker relates, " as I covered Clarke
with my revolver. There was a silence like death.
Nobody said a word. Major Williams held his
watch to count the time. I saw nothing except
the ruffian before me. I was told that pro-slavery
rifles were pointed at me while my escort aimed at
Clarke. It was a mighty solemn state of affairs.
The two minutes, I think, must have almost ex-
pired when Clarke, white as a sheet, handed me
his carbine." Walker afterwards arrested Mont-
gomery himself, but all the prisoners managed to
escape, and he returned to Leconipton empty-
handed.
250 KANSAS.
The escort retired in a soured, disappointed
frame of mind. A dramatic tableau which dis-
solved and left no rack of vengeance behind —
whatever may be said of it from a scenical point
of view — failed to satisfy the matter-of-fact ]?iy-
hawkers. Tliey projected a second expedition,
hoping to retrieve thereby the inconsequence of
the first. On the night of June 6th, Montgomery
made a descent upon the town. Quietly securing
the sentinels before they could raise an alarm, he
applied the torch to some of the public buildings
and retreated to a neighboring ravine. An alarm
was shortly raised, and citizens hurriedly collected
to extinguish the conflagration, when the maraud-
ers skulking in the ravine opened fire. Never was
a crowd taken more completely by surprise or dis-
persed more precipitately, though replying to the
attack, when some covert had been reached, with
an irregular, spluttering fusillade. The attempted
incendiarism did not prosper. It accomplished
nothing beyond a little blackening and charring.
A lively scare, houses fire -stained and bullet-
marked, an interesting exhibition of helter-skel-
tering — such is the summary of results.
Finally, Governor Denver, accompanied by Gov-
ernor Robinson, made a tour through the South-
east, with a view to composing, by personal
intervention, the difficulties which had so long
distracted it. They visited different points and
were kindly received. On the 14th of June the
JA YHA WRING. 251
trip reached a sort of climax at Fort Scott, where
there was a large mass-meeting and full service of
speeches. Governor Denver made a conciliatory-
address. " I shall treat actual settlers," he said,
" without regard to former differences. I do not
propose to dig up or review the past. Both par-
ties, I believe, have done wrong and are worthy
of censure, but I shall let all that go. My mis-
sion is to secure peace for the future." The
governor suggested the election of new county
officers, the patrolling of the border by federal
troops, delay in the execution of old writs until
they should pass the ordeal of competent judicial
tribunals, and the dispersion of all guerrilla bands.
These measures received general approval, and
introduced a few weeks of comparative repose.
Shortly after Governor Denver's peace-making
tour Old John Brown, absent for some months,
reappeared in Kansas — an untranquilizing event.
Treachery on the part of a confidant led to post-
ponement of the contemplated Virginia campaign,
and his return was a feint to throw the public off
the scent. During his absence in the East Brown
was able, with the assistance of friends, to put his
family, which remained at North Elba, New York,
on a more comfortable footing than had been
their fortune.
" For one thousand dollars cash," he wrote Mr. Law-
rence from New Haven, Conn., March I9tli, 1857, " I am
offered an improved piece of land, which, . . . might
252 KANSAS.
enable my family, consisting of a wife and five minor
children (the youngest not yet three years old), to pro-
cure a subsistence should I never return to them ; my
wife being a good economist and a real old-fashioned
business woman. She has gone through the two past
winters in our open, cold house ; unfinished outside and
not plastered. ... I have never hinted to any one else
that I thought of asking for any help to provide in any
such way for my family. ... If you feel at all inclined
to encourage me in the measure I have proposed I shall
be grateful to get a line from you. ... Is my appeal
right ? "
John Brown's final visit to Kansas lasted about
six months. That interval he spent mainly in the
Southeast. On his way thither he stopped in
Lawrence and had a talk with Governor Robin-
son — " You have succeeded," he said, " in what
you undertook. You aimed to make of Kansas a
free state, and your plans were skillfully laid for
that purpose. But I had another object in view.
I meant to strike a blow at slavery."
In the Southeast Brown attempted nothing of
importance, except an expedition across the Mis-
souri line in December, which resulted in the de-
struction of considerable property, the liberation
of eleven slaves, and the death of a slave-owner.
The raid caused great excitement, especially in
Missouri, and resulted in legislative action, which
brought the territorial jayhawking era substanti-
ally to a close. During the autumn Governor
JAYHAWKING. 253
Stewart, of Missouri, opened correspondence with
Governor Denver and with President Buchanan
in regard to the troubles. He informed Denver
that it might be " necessary to station an armed
force along the border, in Missouri, for purposes
of protection." Governor Denver promised to
leave nothing undone to suppress the outrages,
but hoped that it might not be necessary for Mis-
souri to put an armed force into the field. August
9th Governor Stewart wrote President Buchanan
that he had ordered a body of militia into Cass
and Bates counties, because they " have been sub-
jected to the repeated depredations of one or more
marauding parties from the territory of Kansas,
in consequence of which there is no security for
either life or property. Citizens of Missouri have
been driven from their homes, their property
taken or destroyed, and their farms laid waste ;
and without the protection of an armed force our
citizens have not dared to return to their homes
to reside." These measures allayed the disorders,
and there was no further serious trouble until
Brown's raid. January 6th, 1859, Governor Stew-
art sent a message to the Missouri legislature,
asking that steps be taken for redressing the
outrage. He also transmitted memorials from
thirty-five citizens of Bates and Vernon counties
to the effect that there is " a regularly organized
band of thieves, robbers, and midnight assassins
. . . upon the western border of our county," beg-
254 KANSAS.
ging him " to take into consideration the accom-
panying affidavits of citizens . . . who have been
robbed and outraged at their homes by a band of
lawless men from the territory of Kansas, sup-
posed to be headed by the notorious Brown and
Montgomery; and also the terrible situation of
the family of the late and lamented David Cruise,
who has been foully murdered in the bosom of
his family by these desperadoes." A bill was in-
troduced into the state senate authorizing the em-
ployment of a military force to patrol the border,
but referred to the committee on federal relations,
who made a singularly dispassionate and sensible
report covering the whole subject of border dif-
ficulties.
" We doubt not," said the committee, " that at least
ninety-nine out of every hundred of the citizens of Kan-
sas deplore the events under consideration. . . . The
people of Kansas and Missouri are most intimately con-
nected, not only by geographical lines, but by the tender
cords of kindred. We are the same people, impelled
by the same interest, and bound for the same manifest
destiny. . . . Even if this difficulty be winked at by
Kansas ... we would earnestly recommend the trial
of every honorable means of reconciliation before a re-
sort to extreme measures. . . . We would act with great
caution and consideration. ... If ... an army be sta-
tioned along the line of our frontier for the avowed pur-
pose of protecting our border from incursions from a
neighboring territory, it will do a greater injury to the
JAYHAWKING. 255
cause of liberal principles and confederated government
than almost any other conceivable calamity. . . . This
bill . . . provides that these troops are to be raised alone
from the counties on the border ; taken from the midst
of a people already exasperated by the murder and rob-
bing of their kindred and neighbors. Companies formed
out of such material would be hard to restrain from acts
of summary punishment, should any of these despera-
does fall into their hands ; and it would likewise be diffi-
cult to teach such troops the line of our jurisdiction, and
in the excitement of inflicting a merited punishment
on some offender it would be hard for them to compre-
hend the deplorable evils attending an armed invasion
of a sister territory by the militia of a state." " [We]
are not insensible of the obligations of the state to pro-
tect all her citizens . . . [but] we are most unwilling
that the state should run wild in the remedies applied.
We have evidence of the most satisfactory character
that outrages almost without a parallel in America, at
least, have been perpetrated upon the persons and prop-
erty of unoffending citizens of Bates and Vernon coun-
ties — their houses plundered and then burned — their
negroes kidnapped in droves — citizens wounded and
murdered in cold blood."
The committee did not recommend the use of a
military force to disperse the outlaws " that have
congregated in the southern portion of the terri-
toiy of Kansas for the last two j^ears." They
advise that rewards should be offered for the ar-
rest of jayhawking leaders, and that circuit judges
should hold special terms in the disturbed districts
256 KANSAS.
at wliich grievances miglit be investigated and re-
dressed — rational suggestions, smoking with far
less passion tlian might have been anticipated,
which the legislature wisely adopted. Governor
Stewart put a price of three thousand dollars on
Old John Brown's head, but to no purpose. He
successfully piloted the eleven liberated bondmen
northward, and saw Kansas no more.
During the summer of 1859 better days fairly
began in the lawless, turbulent, freebooting South-
east. It could not be expected that long-estab-
lished guerrilla habits would instantly lose their
charm and power. In spite of all repressive in-
fluences — federal, territorial, Missourian — their
decline was gradual. While it may be rash to
speak with confidence on a matter where so much
confusion, blur, and conflict of testimony still ex-
ists, yet the conclusion seems to be forced that in
comparison with the Missourians, whose sins are
black enough, jaybawkers, were the superior dev-
ils. But in 1859 out of subsiding anarchy there
rose a crude, rudimental order. At all events,
the people so far believed in the actual establish-
ment of peace that they devoted the 4th of July
to its celebration. Ancient enemies then took
vows of amity at Fort Scott, and promised to
raze out of memory all belligerent records and
begin anew.
CHAPTER XII.
CLOSE OF THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD.
In the town of Lawrence, on the eighth day of
January, 1858, there was an unwonted spectacle.
The territorial legislature had repaired thither
from Lecompton and the state legislature from
Topeka, that these bodies, once divided by deadly
feuds, might freely and amicably confer together
on matters of common interest. A revival of the
transfusion project, ineffectually broached during
the administration of Governor Geary, was the
business which called for these unusual facilities
of intercourse. The state legislature still dreamed
of some cross-cutting path into the Union. It still
regarded the territorial legislature, though reha-
bilitated and purged of the old leaven, as " an
obstacle to the successful execution of the will of
the people," — requested it to disperse, to vote
itself out of existence, and transfer all its rights
and prerogatives to the state organization.
The plan did not commend itself to the territo-
rial body. In the uncertainties of the situation,
as the issue of congressional agitations could not
be forecast, it would have been palpably impolitic
17
258 KANSAS.
to abandon the only law-making assembly recog-
nized by the federal authorities.
From this rebuff the Topeka legislature never
rallied. After lingering in Lawrence for a time,
with futile hopes of a more favorable response to
its overtures, it adjourned until the 4th of March.
The organization served a most important pur-
pose, but its mission had been accomplished.
When it reassembled there was no quorum. The
few free-state men, who clung to it with misspent
fidelity, printed a plaintive valedictory rehearsing
the fortunes of the defunct government, lauding
the admirable constancy to principle illustrated in
themselves, and dispersed.
The territorial legislature was now in undis-
puted mastery of the situation. Yet, though
revolutionized in political composition, the quality
of its political morality showed little betterment.
The record which it made was worse than indif-
ferent, especially in the matter of a new capital
and constitutional convention. In Lecompton,
founded by the pro-slavery party, the sensitive
assembly did not feel at home, and resolved to go
elsewhere. A town called Minneola was projected
in Franklin County. But the decisive considera-
tions stirring in the affair were neither sentimen-
tal nor patriotic. Thirty -five of the fifty -two
members of the legislature were financially inter-
ested in the venture. Under such circumstances
it was to be expected that a bill transferring the
CLOSE OF THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD. 259
capital from Lecompton to Minneola would easily
survive the governor's veto. When the removal
began to be agitated Minneola was a stretch of
untouched prairie. Not a building of any sort
existed on the proposed site of it ; nothing was
there except " prairie grass, bugle - brush, and
weeds." In a few weeks a big, bai'n-like structure,
designed for a capitol, and one or two other build-
ings were hastily and rudely flung together. The
enterprise looked feasible — at least as a financial
investment. But Governor Denver refused to
leave Lecompton, or to allow a transfer of the
records and public documents. Attorney General
Black pronounced the whole scheme unconstitu-
tional ; and this adverse decision remanded the
ambitious town -site of Minneola into common
prairie.
Nor did the effort for a new constitution prosper.
The bill authorizing a convention failed to pass
the legislature until the thirty-seventh day of the
session, which was limited by law to forty days.
Governor Denver concluded there had been con-
stitution-making enough for the present, and re-
solved to call a truce in that disquieting business.
The Lecompton constitution was still vexing Con-
gress. Irreconcilables were not wanting who clung
to the Topeka movement, and Denver decided to
kill the bill. This he was able to do, as the organic
law permitted an absolute veto of legislation which
reached him within three days of the enforced ad-
260 KANSAS.
joumment. But legislators, who originated the
enterprise of removing the capital to JNIinneola,
could not be thwarted by any such trifle as the
pocketing of a bill. Just before the close of the
session, Governor Denver received what purported
to be the bill calling the constitutional convention,
officially indorsed as having been passed over his
veto. He sent for the presiding officers of the
legislature, and exhibiting the spurious document
asked, "Who's responsible for this?" "Lane
suggested it," was the reply. " It is not the orig-
inal bill," the governor continued. " That is still
in my hands — has never been out of them. This
bill is a forgery. Now I can make trouble for you
if I choose to do it. You have certified to what
is not true. The whole statement is false. But
I have no wish to keep up the agitation. Two
courses are open to you — either to give me a paper
setting forth the fact that the original bill was
never returned to the legislature with my objec-
tions, and hence never passed over my veto, or to
destroy this counterfeit document here in my pres-
ence." "What shall we do with it?" the chief
clerk asked. " Destroy it," the Speaker of the
House promptly replied. The document was torn
in pieces and thrust into the stove.
That a bill should survive such an ordeal was
probably unprecedented, but this hardy bill did
survive it. The legislature voted unanimously
that it had passed that body m due form. March
CLOSE OF THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD. 261
9th there was an election of delegates to a con-
stitutional convention, which assembled at Min-
neola Tuesday, the 23d. But the jobbery and
other discreditable facts clouding the whole
movement got noised abroad and excited great
indignation. For a time the " Minneola swindle "
fairly divided curses with the " Lecompton swin-
dle." No sooner had the convention reached
Minneola and effected a temporary organization,
than a violent debate sprang up over the question
whether it should not immediately adjourn to
some other place. The discussion raged until five
o'clock Wednesday morning, when the convention
did adjourn to Leavenworth. There another con-
stitution was formed, which abandoned the once
popular "free white state" doctrine, and con-
fronted the intense pro - slavery doctrines of
Lecompton with an anti-slavery utterance no less
unqualified.
But the Leavenworth constitution was too heav-
ily weighted for success. When submitted to the
people May 18th, only about four thousand ballots
were cast, and one fourth of them in the negative.
The stigma of its origin destroyed an otherwise
excellent constitution.
Governor Denver, who accepted his post re-
luctantly and with the intention of retiring from
it as soon as practicable, resigned October 10th,
and was succeeded by Samuel Medary, of Ohio.
Denver is the first among the territorial governors
whose resignation was not practically forced.
262 KANSAS.
The fourth territorial legislature convened Jan-
uary 3d, 1859. In comparison with preceding
legislatures it presents a tame and uneventful rec-
ord. The most laborious task which it attempted
was the codification of the statutes. The enact-
ments of 1855 were repealed in bulk, and as that
act did not fully express public sentiment in refer-
ence to them, they were publicly burnt in the
streets of Lawrence. The general laws of 1857
were repealed, and those of 1858 liberally revised.
Undeterred by the experiences of former assem-
blies, the legislature also made provision for
another constitutional convention. The question
of calling this body was submitted to the people,
who cast five thousand three hundred and six
affirmative, and one thousand four hundred and
twenty - five negative, votes. Delegates were
chosen June 7th — thirty-five Republicans and
seventeen Democrats.
At this election a Republican party appeared
in the territory for the first time. The free-state
party was an isolated, independent organization,
wholly dedicated to a local mission. It avoided out-
side alliances lest they should distract and enfeeble
its energies. Though its record is not ideal, though
the odious black law sentiments enunciated at Big
Springs and reafiirmed when the Topeka govern-
ment was commissioned were strangely out of
harmony with its general purposes, yet the party
never faltered in its hostility to Southern institu-
CLOSE OF THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD. 263
tions. But the question of the domestic institu-
tions of Kansas was now settled. The organization
had fulfilled its special mission, and the necessity
for isolation no longer existed. A convention at
Lawrence November 11th, 1857, discussed and
negatived propositions to merge the free-state party
in the Republican party. May 18th, 1858, the
free-state combination went to pieces upon the or-
ganization of the Republican party at Osawato-
mie.
The Missouri faction was known by a variety
of names. At first it styled itself tlie pro-slavery
party. As the chances that Kansas would not
adopt Southern institutions increased, the epithet
" pro-slavery " became unpopular, and was ex-
changed for "law and order." But the revised
title had only a brief currency, and the party
finally rested its pursuit of a name in the phrase
— " The National Democracy of Kansas."
These changes in the constitution and nomen-
clature of political organizations betokened a sub-
sidence of party animosities. So strong was the
disposition to bury the past that it ultimately
took the shape of a general amnesty act, which dis-
missed all prosecutions growing out of " political
differences of opinion," and, as a consequence, a
good many people breathed freer.
The constitutional convention met at Wyan-
dotte July 5th with a membership largely com-
posed of new men. Few of the leaders who fig-
264 KANSAS.
ured at Topeka, or Lecompton, or Leavenworth
were at Wyandotte. The convention fell to work
with as much freshness and zeal as if no similar
body had ever broken ground in Kansas, and after
a session of three or four weeks produced a fairly
good instrument. In the matter of the elective
franchise it retreated from the radicalism of Leav-
enworth, which conferred the right of suffrage
upon " every male citizen of the United States,"
and adopted the language of Topeka, " every
white male person." October 4th, 1859, the peo-
ple ratified the constitution by a majority of four
thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, in a total
vote of fifteen thousand nine hundred and fifty-
one. On the 6tli of December Charles Robinson
was elected governor, J. P. Root lieutenant-gov-
ernor, and M. F. Conway representative to Con-
gress.
The debate in Congress on the Wyandotte con-
stitution lacked the bitterness and violence of ear-
lier discussions when Kansas was the topic. Sen-
ator Wigfall revived a dialect popular in the
Lecompton days. " I will not consent," he said,
" that Texas shall associate herself with such a
state as this [Kansas] would be. . . . The in-
habitants of that so-called state are outlaws and
land-pirates. The good men were abandoned by
the government and were driven out. Ruffianism
is all that is left, and are we to associate with
it ? " But outbursts of this sort were infrequent.
CLOSE OF THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD. 265
The opposition, led by Green, of Missouri, despair-
ing of ultimate success, now expended its strength
in retarding and deferring the entrance of the ob-
noxious territory into the Union. There was
much criticism of the proposed boundaries, as the
Missouri senator insisted that not more than two
sevenths of the area included within them could
be cultivated, though the western line had been
moved eastward to the twenty-fifth meridian. He
urged that thirty thousand square miles should be
taken from Southern Nebraska and annexed to
the projected state. " Without this addition . . .
Kansas," he said, " must be weak, puerile, sickly,
in debt, and at no time capable of sustaining her-
self ! "
After more than four years of fruitless endeavor
Kansas entered the Union. January 21st, 1861,
senators of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi an-
nounced the secession of these states and their
own retirement from Congress. The election of
Abraham Lincoln as president furnished a con-
venient pretext for revolt. " It has been a belief,"
said Jefferson Davis, " that we are to be deprived
in the Union of the rights . . . our fathers be-
queathed to us, which has brought Mississippi into
her present decision. . . . When you deny them,
and when you deny to us the right to withdraw
from a government which, thus perverted, threat-
ens to be the destruction of our rights, we but
tread the path of our fathers when we proclaim
our independence and take the hazard."
266 KANSAS.
The defiant Southern valediction was barely fin-
ished when Senator Seward called up the bill for
the admission of Kansas. With their depleted
ranks the opposition could now offer only a feeble
resistance, and it passed by a vote of thirty-sis to
sixteen. The House had already taken favorable
action, and on the 28th of January concurred in
Senate amendments. It was with memorable dra-
matic fitness that Kansas, the arena where the hos-
tile civilizations met, should enter the Union just
as the defeated South drew off from it.
The news reached Lawrence late at night.
Territorial officials, members of the legislature,
which was in session there, and people in gen-
eral were roused, and there followed an impromptu
jollification, to which buckets of whiskey, freely
circulated, lent inspiration. The next day saw a
more formal and decorous celebration. One hun-
dred guns were fired, making noisy proclamation
aci'oss the prairies that Kansas had at last become
a state.
The struggle for the possession of Kansas, the
loss of which to the South made secession a cer-
tainty, was essentially political and constitutional
— not military. The few skirmishes that took
place have a secondary if not tertiary importance.
In the field of diplomacy and finesse the pro-slav-
ery leaders were outgeneraled. Reckoning too
confidently and disdainfully on numbers, on near-
ness to the theatre of operations and federal sup-
CLOSE OF THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD. 267
port, they also blundered in underrating their op-
ponents, and in adopting consequently a policy
of noise and bluff. They came thundering into
the territory on the 30th of March, 1855, when
quieter measures would have served their pur-
poses far better. The dash upon the Wakarusa
turned out to be a fool's errand. In the sack of
Lawrence and the dispersion of the Topeka legis-
lature, victories were won which returned to
plague the victors. The career of the free-state
party, under the lead of Governor Robinson, who
projected and inspired the whole tactical plan of
its operations, has no parallel in American his-
tory. Composed of heterogeneous, clashing, fever-
ish elements ; repudiating the territorial legisla-
ture and subsisting without legislation — an inter-
mediate condition of vii'tual outlawry — from the
settlement of Lawrence until 1858, the party was
not only successfully held together during this
chaotic period, but by a series of extraordinary ex-
pedients, by adroitly turning pro-slavery mistakes
to account, and by rousing Northern sympathy
through successful advertisement of its calamities,
rescued Kansas from the clutch of Missouri, and
then disbanded.
CHAPTER XIII.
DXTEING THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
The border storm blew down the loosely-rooted
prosperities of the territory with sufficient havoc.
For the most part the early immigrants were
poor. A laudable ambition to mend their worldly
fortunes blended with ethical and political con-
victions in their westward venture. Though the
cause of liberty prospered, and slavery was driven
from the debatable ground, yet, at the close of the
struggle, the rudenesses, discomforts, and limita-
tions of the frontier remained with faintly miti-
gated severity. Strength and enterprise that
might have built comfortable homes, improved
farms, and established public institutions, had
been diverted to politics. The domestic expe-
riences of the Kansas pioneers during the terri-
torial days, subordinated in this volume to their
political concerns, are full of interest. Under the
most favorable circumstances, frontier life has
plenty of disagreeable, slowly bettering elements.
" Sleeping on the ground," wrote a pioneer in
1856, " is not confined to camping out, but is
extensively practiced in all our cabins. Floors
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 269
are a luxury rarely seen here [in Wabaunsee].
In our own dwelling, part of the inmates rest on
the earth, while others sleep on sacking stretched
between the timbers over our heads, access to
which is only to be had by climbing up on the
logs constituting the sides of the cabin. I no-
ticed yesterday a member of our family making
up his bed with a hoe ! " Everything was on a
primitive basis. Land had been preempted in
larger or smaller amounts and a rudimentary agri-
culture attempted. Horses, cattle, pigs, fowls —
an easy, inviting prey for raiders of every sort
— gradually increased. Food was always plain,
sometimes scanty, and occasionally unique. " We
have a pie on the table, the first of any kind I
have seen since our arrival, made of sorrel and
sweetened with molasses." Unconventional fron-
tier habits of dress were in vogue. Among the
nearly five hundred persons who presented claims
for damages before the auditing commission of
1859, very few included items of clothing. One
unpractical mortal brought to the territory a
large assortment of di*ess coats, white velvet and
satin vests, trousers, calf-skin boots, and gloves.
The wardrobe disappeared when the Missourians
sacked Lawrence in 1856, and some of the finery
which attracted Mr. Gladstone's attention on
their return to Kansas City doubtless came from
it. " I frequently spoke to Southmayd," said a
witness before the claims commission, " about
270 KANSAS.
having so much good clothing in this country ! "
Socially there was an utter democracy — no high-
est, no lowest. Everybody stood on the same
plane. For amusements the settlers were left en-
tirely to their own resources. Lecturers, concert
troupes, and shows never ventured so far into the
wilderness. Yet there was much broad, rollick-
ing, noisy merry-making, but it must be con-
fessed that rum and whiskey — lighter liquors
like wine and beer could not be obtained — had a
good deal to do with it. In the larger towns
" sprees " were by no means uncommon. Room
No. 7 in the Eldridge House obtained a reputa-
tion throughout the territory as a favorite place
for carousals, where the uproar frequently con-
tinued all night, as one party of roisterers suc-
ceeded another. Outside of the villages inconven-
iences and hardships were specially oppressive.
A woman died in a country neighborhood. " The
difficulty after her death was to provide a coffin.
There were men who could make it, but no boards
could be found. At last one person offered to use
a part of the bottom of his wagon, another fur-
nished the rest, and a box was put together." A
constant back-flowing stream of disgusted settlers
set eastward during the whole territorial period.
Some of them gave a doleful account of the coun-
try — reported Kansas not likely to " become a
free or a slave state until all the rest of the world
is over-peopled, for nobody that has strength to
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 271
walk, or money to pay for conveyance, will stay
there long. The earth ... is actually parched
and burnt to the solidity of brick by the long
droughts so that it cannot be plowed, and no vege-
tation appears." Schools, churches, and the vari-
ous appliances of older civilization got under way
and made some growth, but they were still m a
primitive, inchoate condition when Kansas took
her place in the Union.
The mischiefs which accompanied the strife of
hostile civilizations within the territory were pro-
longed and aggravated by a new woe. In 1860
a great drought began. For more than a year
little or no rain fell, and crops failed everywhere.
Probably fifteen or twenty thousand people were
thrown upon public charity. Again Kansas put
out signals of distress, to which the public made
a quick and generous response. Provisions, cloth-
ing, and money poured into the famished common-
wealth — a magnificent largess that measurably
relieved its calamities, though it did not prevent
serious depopulation.
Governor Robinson took the oath of office Feb-
ruary 9th, 1861. He found himself at a post
beset by an extraordinary complication of difficul-
ties. April 15th President Lincoln called for
seventy-five thousand volunteers to put down the
Southern rebellion. Kansas was in a condition
the most inopportune and unpromising for a fit-
ting response. With the subsidence of domestic
272 KANSAS.
troubles military organizations generally went to
pieces. The exchequer of a community whose six
years of territorial broil concluded with a fam-
ine could hardly be on a war footing. Yet Gov-
ernor Robinson, in his message to the legislature,
which met March 26th, said : " Kansas, though
last and least of the states in the Union, will ever
be ready to answer the call of her country." That
promise was nobly kept. Governor Carney, the
successor of Governor Robinson, writing Presi-
dent Lincoln May 13th, 1864, could say : " Kansas
has furnished more men according to her popula-
tion to crush this rebellion than any other state
in the Union." In all the great western cam-
paigns Kansas soldiers made an honorable record.
That record belongs to national rather than state
history, and no effort will be made here to disen-
tangle and isolate it for purposes of valuation.
Governor Robinson was probably the first state
executive to foreshadow the policy which the fed-
eral authorities ultimately adopted in reference to
slavery " A demand is made by certain states,"
he said in his message, " that new concessions and
guaranties be given to slavery, or the Union must
be destroyed. ... If it is true that the continued
existence of slavery requires the destruction of
the Union, it is time to ask if the existence of the
Union does not require the destruction of slaver}'-.
If such an issue be forced on the nation it must
be met, and met promptly."
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 273
The inevitable and legitimate difficulties which
confronted Governor Robinson — embarrassments
of poverty and of chaos — might well have stag-
gered any man of ordinary nerve, but they were
not the most formidable evils. After an exciting
contest the legislature elected J. H. Lane and S.
C. Pomeroy to the United States Senate. Lane
celebrated his departure for Washington by laying
aside the calf-skin vest and seal-skin coat, which
had done service during the whole territorial era,
and donning a respectable suit. On the realiza-
tion of his long-cherished dream a crazy passion
for power seized him — an ambition to absorb the
entire civil and military functions of the state.
Robinson stood squarely, if not defiantly, across
his path. In the territorial struggle the natural
antagonisms of these two men — antagonisms of
temperament, method, and purpose — were cir-
cumscribed and held in abeyance by the compul-
sions of the situation —
" As the wave breaks to foam on shelves,
Then runs into a wave again."
But now disguises and restrictions were flung off.
Lane, inflamed by old grudges and new provoca-
tions, by long-nursed hatreds and obstructions that
crossed his plans, broke out into violent hostilities
against Governor Robinson and his successor. By
his overshadowing prestige at Washington he was
able to wrest from them no small part of their
legitimate gubernatorial functions. Lane's singu-
274 KANSAS.
lar influence over Mr. Lincoln and the secretary of
war, Mr. Stanton, is one of the most inexplicable
and disastrous facts that concern Kansas in 1861-
65. It was the source of the heaviest calamities
that visited the commonwealth during that period,
because it put him in a position to gratify mis-
chievous ambitions, to pursue personal feuds, to
assume duties and offices that belonged to others,
to popularize the corruptest political methods,
and to organize semi-predatory military expedi-
tions. His conduct not only embarrassed the
state executive and threw state affairs into con-
fusion, but provoked sanguinary reprisals from
Missouri. In 1864 Mr. Lincoln, remai'king upon
Lane's extraordinary career in Washington to
Governor Carney, offered no better explanation
of it than this : " He knocks at my door every
morning. You know he is a very persistent fel-
low and hard to put off. I don't see you very
often, and have to pay attention to him."
Lane's intrigues in Washington against the state
administration prospered. Though recruiting was
energetically pushed by the local authorities and
three regiments were already in the field — the
first and second obtaining honorable recognition
for gallant conduct at the battle of Wilson's Creek,
Missouri — yet in August Lane, technically a
civilian, appeared in Kansas clothed with vague,
but usurping military powers. He reached Leav-
enworth on the 15th, and announced in a public
DURING THE WAR FOR TEE UNION. 275
address the extinction of all liis personal and polit-
ical enmities — a costly sacrifice laid on the altar
of his country. Two days afterwards he set out
for Fort Scott, where the Kansas brigade, compris-
ing the Third and Fourth infantry together with
the Fifth and Sixth cavalry regiments, was concen-
trating to repel attacks upon the Southeast. He
began his brief military career in this region by
constructing several useless fortifications, among
which the most considerable affair was Fort Lin-
coln, on the Little Osage River, twelve miles north
of Fort Scott. September 2d there was a skir-
mish at Dry Wood Creek, Missouri, between a
reconnoitring party and a force under the Con-
federate General Rains, which was not wholly
favorable to the Kansans, and caused a panic at
Fort Scott. Leaving a body of cavalry with
orders to defend the town as long as possible, and
then fire it, Lane retired to his earth-works on
the Little Osage. " I am compelled to make a
stand here," he reported September 2d, after get-
ting inside Fort Lincoln, "or give up Kansas to
disgrace and destruction. If you do not hear from
me again, you can understand that I am sur-
rounded by a superior force." The Confederates
did not follow up their advantage, but retreated
leisurely toward Independence, Missouri. En-
couraged by their withdrawal, Lane took the field
on the 10th " with a smart little army of about
fifteen hundred men " — reached Westport, Mis-
276 KANSAS.
souri, four days later, where he reported — " Yes-
terday I cleaned out Butler and Parkville with
my cavalry." September 22d he sacked and
burned Osceola, Missouri — an enterprise in which
large amounts of property and a score of inhab-
itants were sacrificed. He broke camp on the
27th, and in two days reached Kansas City. The
brigade converted the Missouri border through
which the march lay into a wilderness, and reached
its destination heavily encumbered with plunder.
" Eveiything disloyal," said Lane, " . . . . must
be cleaned out," and never were orders more lit-
erally or cheerfully obeyed. Even the chaplain
succumbed to the rampant spirit of thievery, and
plundered Confederate altars in the interest of
his unfinished church at home. Among the spoils
that fell to Lane personally there was a fine car-
riage, which he brought to Lawrence for the use
of his household.
From the first the local authorities, civil and mil-
itary, had regarded the brigade with apprehension.
" We are in no danger of invasion," Governor
Robinson wrote General Fremont, commander of
the Western Department, September 1st, "pro-
vided the government stores at Fort Scott are sent
back to Leavenworth, and the Lane brigade is
removed from the border. It is true small par-
ties of secessionists are to be found in Missouri,
but we have good reason to know that they do
not intend to molest Kansas . . . until Jackson
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 277
shall be reinstated as governor of Missouri. In-
deed, a short time since, when a guerrilla party-
came over and stole some property from our cit-
izens, the ofl&cers in command of the Confederates
compelled a return of the property, and offered to
give up the leader of the gang to our people for
punishment. But what we have to fear, and do
fear, is, that Lane's brigade will get up a war by
going over the line, committing depredations, and
then returning into our state. This course will
force the secessionists to [retaliation] . . . and
in this they will be joined by nearly all the Union
men of Missouri. If you will remove the supplies
at Fort Scott to the interior, and relieve us of the
Lane brigade, I will guaranty Kansas from inva-
sion . . . until Jackson shall drive you out of St.
Louis.'.'
Captain Prince, in command at Fort Leaven-
worth, wrote Lane September 9th: "I hope you
will adopt active and early measures to crush out
this marauding which is being enacted in Captain
Jennison's name, as also [in] yours, by a band of
men representing themselves as belonging to your
command." When General Hunter took charge
of the department in November the brigade, ac-
cording to the report of Assistant Adjutant-Gen-
eral C. G. Halpine, was " a ragged, half-armed,
diseased, mutinous rabble, taking votes whether
any troublesome or distasteful order should be
obeyed or defied. ... To remedy these things
278 KANSAS.
mustering officers were sent to remuster the reg-
iments of Lane's brigade. . . . Had tlie depart-
ment, as previously, been without troops from
other states, there is every probability that a gen-
eral mutiny . . . would have taken place instead
of the partial mutinies which, have been sup-
pressed." The thieving, foot-pad, devastating ex-
pedition of Lane's brigade did much to incite ani-
mosities and reprisals, whose ghastly work sent a
thrill of horror through the country.
Lane made a furious harangue at Leavenworth
October 8th in defense of his campaign. He wrote
President Lincoln the next day : " I . . . suc-
ceeded in raising and marching against the enemy
as gallant and effective an army, in proportion to
its numbers, as ever entered the field. Its opera-
tions are a part of the history of the country. . . .
Governor Charles Robinson . . . has constantly,
in season and out of season, vilified myself and
abused the men under my command as marauders
and thieves." He suggested the formation of a
new military department out of Kansas, the In-
dian TeiTitory, and portions of Arkansas, with
himself as commander, and not less than ten
thousand troops at his disposal. He would resign
his seat in Congress and accept the military ap-
pointment. In case the department should not be
created, he saw only calamities ahead. " I will
... be compelled to leave my command," he
continued, " quit the field, and most reluctantly
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 279
become an idle spectator of the great struggle,
and witness, I have no doubt, the devastation of
my adopted state and the destruction of its peo-
ple."
In November Lane returned to Washington and
at once entered upon fresh military schemes. He
projected an expedition, which he would lead in
person from Fort Leavenworth into Arkansas and
the Indian Territory — representing the move-
ment as the result of conferences between himself
and General Hunter. With this understanding,
he obtained for it the approbation of President
Lincoln and the War Department. Friends in
Kansas sent on to Washington resolutions ap-
plauding his military genius, and urging that the
most ought to be made of it. Lane, said the
"Leavenworth Conservative" "has every quality
of mind and character which belonged to the histor-
ical commanders. . . . There are no obstacles in
his path, and to him a difficulty is simply a thing
to be overcome." Refugee Indians at Fort Leav-
enworth, driven from the territory by disloyal
tribes, concurred in these sentiments. " General
Lane is our friend," said two chiefs with sesquipe-
dalian names in a communication to " Our Great
Father the President of the United States." " His
heart is big for the Indian. He will do more for
us than any one else. The hearts of our people
will be sad if he does not come. They will follow
him wherever he directs. They will sweep the
280 KANSAS.
rebels before them like a terrible fire on the dry-
prairie." Lane unfolded his plans, shaped evi-
dently by the recent experiences of his brigade,
to General McClellan. He proposed to extir-
pate disloyalty in Missouri and Arkansas. If
conciliatory methods should not be successful, he
would employ the most violent. " Sir, if I can't
do better I will kill the white rebels, and give
their lands to the loyal blacks ! "
General Hunter received communications from
the War Department in January, 1862, announcing
that a Southern expedition, consisting of eight or
ten thousand Kansas troops and four thousand
Indians had been decided upon, and implying the
existence of a definite, mutual understanding that
Lane should have the chief command. These
communications took Hunter by surprise, and in
his perplexity he wrote General Halleck, who had
succeeded General Fremont in command of the
Western Department, for information : —
" It seems . . . that Senator J. H. Lane has been
trading at "Washington on a capital partly made up of his
own senatorial position, and partly of such scraps of in-
fluence as I may have possessed in the confidence or es-
teem of the president, said scraps having been 'jay-
hawked ' by the Kansas senator without due consent of
the proper owner. ... I find that ' Lane's great South-
ern expedition ' was entertained by the president under
misrepresentations ; . . . that said ' expedition ' was the
joint design of Senator Lane and myself. . . . Never to
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 281
this hour has he consulted me on the subject, directly or
indirectly, while the authorities at Washington have pre-
served a similar indiscreet reticence. . . . Thus I am
left in ignorance, but ... I think it more than prob-
able that the veil of mystery has been lifted in your
particular case."
Some weeks before receiving Hunter's letter,
which was written February 8th, 1862, rumors
reached Halleck that Lane would be commissioned
brigadier-general, and he immediately forwarded
a remonstrance to headquarters. " I cannot con-
ceive a more injudicious appointment," he wrote
General McClellan. " It will take twenty thou-
sand men to counteract its effect in this state,
and, moreover, is offering a premium for rascality
and robbery." President Lincoln indorsed upon
Halleck's communication, which was of consider-
able length, and touched various topics — " an
excellent letter ; though I am sorry General Hal-
lec^: is so unfavorably impressed with General
Lane." Concerning the " expedition " Halleck
had no information aside from current rumors.
Yet this unofficial hearsay sufficed to rouse his
indignation. " I protested "... he wrote Hun-
ter February 13th, " against any of his [Lane's]
jayhawkers coming into this department, and said
positively that I would arrest and disarm every
one I could catch."
Lane reached Leavenworth January 26th in
high spirits. But on the next day he met a sud-
282 KANSAS.
den and stinging rebuff. Without waiting for in-
terview or explanation, without intimating to Lane
what was impending, Hunter issued an order an-
nouncing his purpose to command the " expedi-
tion " in person. The unexpected turn of affairs
nonphised Lane. He sent a telegram to Rep-
resentative John Covode : " See the president,
secretary of war, and General McClellan, and
answer what I shall do." There was nothing to
do except to retire or take a subordinate position.
He succeeded, however, in breaking up the expe-
dition. "I have been with the man you name,"
Covode telegraphed. " Hunter will not get the
men or money he requires. His command cannot
go forward. Hold on. Don't resign your seat."
Lane followed Covode's advice and returned to
Washington after addressing a public letter to the
legislature, which had passed complimentary res-
olutions : " I have been thwarted in the cher-
ished hope of my life. The sad yet simple 4uty
only remains to announce to you and through you
my purpose to return to my seat in the United
States Senate."
Lane's military intrigues reached their final
stage in his appointment July 22d, 1862, as " Com-
missioner for Recruiting in the Department of
Kansas." He proceeded to organize regiments,
completely ignoring the state authorities in whose
hands the laws and the constitution placed the
whole business. At this time he began to enlist
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 283
colored men — probably the pioneer moYement in
that direction — protesting that " a nigger can
stop a bullet as well as a white man." But Lane's
scheme did not altogether succeed. Governor
Robinson, who proposed to stand upon his con-
stitutional rights, declined to commission the offi-
cers whom Lane had appointed. The secretary
of war telegraphed that if the state executive did
not issue the commissions the War Department
would. "You have the power to override the
constitution and the laws," was the unconcilia-
tory response ; " but j^ou have not the power to
make the present governor of Kansas dishonor his
own state."
Another feature in the singular tangle was a
formidable effort to crush Governor Robinson,
whom the Lane politicians found intractable and
difficult to manage. In the autumn of 1861 these
gentry made an abortive effort to displace him
on the ground that, by the provisions of the con-
stitution, the term of state officers expii-ed Jan-
uary 1st, 1862. There was an election, but the
courts pronounced it illegal.
The failure of this first personal assault lent ad-
ditional violence and venom to the second. Jan-
uary 20th a resolution of inquiry concerning the
sale of certain state bonds was offered in the leg-
islature. The bonds in question had no quotable
market value, and a sale was effected only through
negotiations — evidently not ruled by the severest
284 KANSAS.
business maxims — with the Interior Department,
which held, in trust, Indian funds for investment.
It appeared that bonds to the amount of ninety-
five thousand six hundred dollars were delivered,
upon which the sum of fifty-five thousand dollars
was paid ; that while the sale was effected at
eighty-five per cent., only sixty per cent, reached
the state treasury, notwithstanding the law de-
clared that nothing less than seventy per cent,
should be accepted. Here was a palpable viola-
tion of the law, and the ofiicial upon whom it
could be fastened, especially if he happened to be
the governor, would fare badly. It is now well
understood that the whole movement, which pro-
ceeded from Lane, was aimed at Robinson. The
prosecution had no wish to harm the auditor and
secretary of state who went down in the fight.
Though the committee of investigation ap-
pointed by the House of Representatives discov-
ered no evidence connecting the governor with
the negotiation, they resolved to include him
among the inculpated officials. They ventured
their case on chances that the progress of the trial
might bring out criminating facts.
An intensity of excitement, unsurpassed even
in the stormiest territorial days, convulsed the
legislature when, on the 13th of February, the
committee of investigation reported resolutions
impeaching the auditor, the secretary of state,
and the governor. On the next day a vote was
DUR/NG THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 285
reached, the resolutions passed unanimously, and
there follo^ved cheers long and loud. Why these
law-makers applauded it would be difficult to say.
They had not read the voluminous report upon
which the resolutions were alleged to be based.
If it were true that the executive had brought dis-
grace upon the state and ought to be driven from
office, that would be poor cause for any outbreak of
jubilation. When at a later stage specific articles
of impeachment against the governor came before
the House the unanimity gave way, and seven
representatives are on record as voting against
them. So far as Robinson was concerned the
prosecution broke down, and he was almost unan-
imously acquitted, though a majority of the Sen-
ate belonged to the Lane faction.
That a rank growth of general freebooting
should have sprung up in Kansas during the war
was no more than might have been expected.
The boi'der naturally attracts men adapted to
shine in this calling, and the territorial period
afforded admirable training for the wider field
of spoliation opened by the war for the Union.
Early in the struggle an organization appeared
known as " Red-legs," from the fact that its mem-
bers affected red morocco leggings. It was a
loose- jointed association, with members shifting
between twenty-five and fifty, dedicated originally
to the vocation of horse - stealing, but flexible
enough to include rascalities of every description.
286 KANSAS.
At intervals the gang would dash into Missouri,
seize horses and cattle — not omitting other and
worse outrages on occasion — then repair with
their booty to Lawrence, where it was defiantly-
sold at auction. " Red-legs were accustomed to
brag in Lawrence," says one who was familiar
with their movements, " that nobody dared to in-
terfere with them. They did not hesitate to shoot
inquisitive and troublesome people. At Law-
rence the livery stables were full of their stolen
horses. One day I saw three or four Red-legs
attack a Missourian who was in town searching
for lost property. They gathered about him with
drawn revolvers and drove him off very uncer-
emoniously. I once saw Hoyt, the leader, with-
out a word of explanation or warning, open fire
upon a stranger quietly riding down Massachu-
setts Street. He was a Missourian whom Hoyt
had recently robbed." The gang contained men
of the most desperate and hardened character, and
a full recital of their deeds would sound like the
biography of devils. Either the people of Law-
rence could not drive out the freebooters, or they
thought it mattered little what might happen to
Missouri disloyalists. Governor Robinson made
a determined, but unsuccessful effoi-t to break up
the organization. The Red-legs repaid the inter-
ference by plots for his assassination, which barely
miscarried.
In the destruction of Lawrence August 21st,
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 287
1863, the irregular, predatory hostilities of the
border reached a shocking climax. The causes
which brought about that event were various, and
have been in the main already indicated — the
campaign of Lane's brigade, the depredations of
Red-legs, enmities and exasperations dating back
to the settlement of Lawrence in 1854, as well as
ordinary bushranging motives of plunder. " Jen-
nison has laid waste our homes," was the declara-
tion of more than one Missourian on the day of
the massacre, " and the Red-legs have perpetrated
unheard-of crimes. Houses have been plundered
and burned, defenseless men shot down, and wo-
men outraged. We are here for revenge — and
we have got it ! "
Quantrill, who led the raid, once lived in Law-
rence — a dullish, sullen, uninteresting knave, giv-
ing no promise of unusual bushranging genius.
Just before the war opened he was driven from
town in consequence of some misbehavior, and cast
his lot among Missouri guerrillas. The stimulus
of the great conflict developed in him unexpected
capacities for marauding. He was eager to cross
swords with Lane. " I should like to meet him,"
he said. " But then there would be no honor in
whipping him. He is a coward. I believe I would
cowhide him."
In 1862 and the earlier months of 1863 several
of the smaller Kansas towns along the Missouri
line — Aubrey, Shawnee, and Olathe — were
288 KANSAS.
sacked by ruffians under Quantrill's lead. Gov-
ernor Thomas Carne}^ who succeeded Governor
Robinson January 1st, 1863, was uneasy, and
vainly importuned the War Department for more
troops. In May he visited the Southern border,
where he found everything in confusion, and the
whole region defenseless. There was no money
in the state treasury. April 6th, 1862, Lane and
eight of his friends addressed a communication
to the secretary of war and the secretary of the
treasury, protesting " against the payment of tlie
money due to the State of Kansas for expenses in
organizing volunteer troops for the service of the
United States," and were able to stop it. In the
emergency Governor Carney raised one hundred
and fifty mounted men for police duty, and paid
expenses out of his own pocket.
That Quantrill meditated striking a blow at
Lawrence some time was well known. There
were alarms, citizens organized for defense, and
kept a sharp lookout for the ruffian, but the bush-
rangers did not appear when they were expected,
vigilance relaxed, and a fatal sense of security fol-
lowed panic.
Quantrill's preliminary movements were not
wholly enveloped in mystery. Intelligence that
great activity prevailed among his forces, and thiit
he was planning a dash into Kansas, reached fed-
eral headquarters at Kansas City, Mo., but no at-
tention was paid to it. Had scouts been dis-
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 289
patched to exposed towns and ^val■ned them of
danger the raid would have failed.
Late on the afternoon of August 20th Quan-
trill, with perhaps one hundred and seventy-five
mounted men, crossed the Missouri line into Kan-
sas. In Aubrey, five miles distant, there was a
federal force of one hundred dragoons commanded
by Captain J. A. Pike. It was not until half-
past seven in the evening that the tardy scouts
brought in news of the guerrillas' whereabouts.
Captain Pike dispatched couriers to Kansas City,
thirty-five miles distant, who arrived at half-past
eleven o'clock. Couriers might have reached Law-
rence, a ride of forty miles, about midnight, and
in that case the bushrangers would have encoun-
tered a warm reception. Or had Captain Pike
instantly started in pursuit, hanging upon their
rear, dogging their movements with menace if not
attack, Lawrence would have been saved.
It was nearly sunrise when Quantrill reached a
little swell of the plain about a mile eastward
from the doomed town. Not a whisper of his ap-
proach had reached it. Yet though the surprise
promised to be complete, the cowardly raiders
hesitated — declined to go farther. A discussion
ensued, which was ended by Quantrill's avowal
that he should go into Lawrence whatever his
men might do. This declaration revived their
fainting courage.
The bushrangers advanced within half a mile of
290 KANSAS.
the town, halted again, and called the roll. Two
horsemen, dispatched on a reconnaissance, rode
thiough the principal street, and returned with
the report that the Tillage was asleep. A strange
fatality of success attended the movements of the
guerrillas. They rode " leisurely from their hid-
ing-place in Missouri through the federal lines,
and almost within shooting distance of a federal
camp in the day-time," says H. E. Lowman in his
" Lawrence Raid " ; " then just as leisurely made
their way over forty miles of traveled road
through Kansas settlements in the night, and
halted — called the roll in the early dawn within
pistol-shot of the houses of residents of Law-
rence, and yet no warning voice . . . rang through
her quiet streets — ' Quantrill is coming.' "
There was a wild charge upon the village. The
flying column of one hundred and seventy -five
men riding with perfect horsemanship, yelling
like demons, emitted one continuous, death-deal-
ing volley as it dashed along. " I can still see the
raiders," said an eye-witness of the scene years
after the fatal morning, "as they stormed into
town with their broad-brimmed hats — much like
those which cowboys wear on the plains — with
their unshaven beards and long hair, their dirty,
greasy flannel shirts — coatless, and carrying no
weapons except side-arms."
While skirmishers instantly and completely en-
veloped the village, the main body pushed on to
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 291
seize the Eldridge House, a substantial brick
building four stories high, which could have been
successfully defended by a dozen armed and res-
olute men against the attacks of horsemen whose
heaviest ordnance was revolvers. But weapons
for the (5itizens there were none. A fussy, over-
confident mayor had locked them up safel}^ and
inaccessibly in the arsenal. At the hotel resist-
ance was apparently anticipated. The bush-
rangers drew up in front of it — surveyed it
curiously, doubtfully. Presently a window was
flung up, a white sheet displayed, and Quantrill
summoned. Surrender speedily followed upon con-
dition that the inmates of the hotel, who were
mostly strangers, should be protected. A gong
was sounded through the halls to collect them for
convoy to the Whitney House, where Quantrill
had established his headquarters. Mistaking the
clangor for a signal of attack the ruffians has-
tily fell back. But finding their fears without
foundation, and all likelihood of concerted resist-
ance at an end, they broke up into small compa-
nies, scoured the town in literal and hearty obe-
dience to the order — " Kill every man and burn
every house."
Then began a scene that cannot be matched on
the border, crimsoned as it is with blood — a
scene far surpassing Dutch Henry's Crossing and
Marais des Cygnes in scope of death-dealing pas-
sion — a scene which, like the massacre of Ennis-
292 KANSAS.
corthy, " swallowed up all distinct or separate fea-
tures in its frantic confluence of horrors." Then
began a terrible exhibition of what is best and
worst in human nature — rapacious cupidities of
successful pillage ; cowering, palsied panic ; cour-
age that defied and cursed the villains 'to their
faces ; flight, aimless and headlong or watchful
and stealthy ; pitiless revenge stung by memory
of wrongs still fresh and rankling ; affection that
freely and gladly braved death ; pistol-shots 5 tho
clatter of horsemen riding furiously ; the groans
of the dying, and the roar of conflagration. With
few exceptions the bushrangers seemed to be de-
humanized and transformed into the image of
devils. The divine nature of love and mercy, if
it ever existed, passed away, and the fiendish na-
ture took its place. Stores, banks, hotels, and
dwellings they rifled and then set them on fire.
Citizens of the town were hunted like wild beasts
and shot down indiscriminately. They pursued
Red-legs with particular earnestness, and showed
them no mercy when captured. Nor did they neg-
lect to search attentively though vainly for Lane
and the thrifty chaplain of his brigade. But the
wrath of the raiders burned without nice distinc-
tion or qualification against all the male inhabi-
tants of Lawrence, of whom one hundred and
eighty-three fell victims in the butchery.
The heroism and fertility of resources shown
by women of Lawrence on this day of blood are
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 293
worthy of mention. At no other crisis of Kansas
history does their service come into such bold and
brilliant relief — of which only an instance or two
can be set down here. Four wretches, crazed with
drink, rode to the Whitney House, swearing they
would shoot some one — it didn't matter much
whom. A young woman offered herself, remark-
ing, " They might as well kill me " — an act of
daring that temporarily arrested their murderous
designs. Another woman fairly magnetized a
brace of ruffians, and saved her husband's life by
charm of manner and tact of conversation. A
third, whose husband was particularly obnoxious
to the bushrangers, and whom they were anxious
to catch, gave him opportunity to escape by notic-
ing that the leader of the gang detailed to shoot
him and burn his house wore a flower in his hat.
" Good morning," she said cheerfully ; " you have
come to see my flowers " — the front yard w^as
full of them. " They are fine," he said, looking
about with evident admiration. " They are too
d — d pretty to be burnt. I '11 shoot the man that
touches them. March on ! "
When the work of butchery and destruction
was finished Quantrill took a lunch at the W^hit-
ney House, and ordered the bushrangers to retire.
"Ladies,'* said he, politely lifting his hat and bow-
ing, " I now bid you good morning. I hope when
we meet again it will be under more favorable cir-
cumstances ! "
294 KANSAS.
It was a sickening scene from which the guer-
rilla chief galloped away — the town in flames,
the principal street lined with corpses, many of
them so charred and blackened that they were at
first mistaken for negroes. " In handling the dead
bodies," said one of the survivors, " pieces of
roasted flesh would remain in our hands. Soon
our strength failed us in this terrible and sicken-
ing work. Many could not help crying like chil-
dren."
Early in the forenoon the bushrangers were re-
treating toward Missouri, freshly mounted on
stolen horses, and heavily accoutred with spoils.
Between nine and ten o'clock citizens who sur-
vived the butchery began to rally, and a small
company under the lead of Lane, who happened
to be in town, gave chase. The pursuers, whose
numbers were slenderly recruited as they advanced,
overtook Quantrill about noon near Brooklyn,
halted, got into line, were counted, and found to
number thirty-five men. They were mounted on
beasts of every sort — mules, half -trained colts,
and slow-paced draft-horses, as well as animals of
higher grade. Nor were their weapons less vari-
ous than their steeds. Lane put Lieutenant J. K.
Rankin in command, who attempted to execute a
flank movement by way of Prairie City and cut
off Quantrill's retreat mto JMissouri. The little
company was only fairly in motion when a courier
rode up with the message — " Major Plumb is
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 295
yonder with two hundred and fifty men and sent
me to notify you." "Tell the major that Quan-
trill is just beyond us on the prairie, and that we
shall attack him at once."
The enemy were less than a mile away, and
Lieutenant Rankin ordered a charge upon the rear-
guard. Possibl}' half of the intervening space
had been traversed, when the lieutenant found
himself almost alone. As each trooper had a gait
and speed of his own, the company was scattered
at irregular intervals along the line of advance,
and from a military point of view did not present
a very formidable appearance.
Major Plumb's force divided, one company mov-
ing upon Quantrill's rear, and the other upon
his flank. Lieutenant Rankin, seeing that little
could be expected from his thirty-five stragglers,
joined the former company, which had ridden
within striking distance of the bushrangers, and
ordered a charge, but the valiant troopers declined
to make it. Soon Lane came up and repeated the
command, — with no better result. Major Plumb
shortly arrived with his division, and there was
still opportunity to ride down the marauders. The
federal commander hesitated and missed his op-
portunity. Pursuit continued into Missouri, re-
prisals were made, and three or four border coun-
ties, in obedience to General Thomas Ewing Jr.'s
famous order No. 11, largely depopulated — but
the desperadoes escaped.
296 KANSAS.
When the full extent of the massacre dawned
upon the survivors, there rose a frantic reaction
toward revenge. Woe to the man within reach
upon whom suspicion of confederacy with the
marauders might fall. Had the troops who
brought them to bay on the prairies fully ap-
preciated the enormity of their crimes, possibly
the hideous knowledge might have strung their
courage up to the fighting point. However that
may have been, the spectacle of sons, brothers,
fathers, neighbors, slaughtered with every aggrava-
tion of cowardly brutality — of a town completely
wrecked and given over to the torch — kindled
the dead coals of desperation and revenge. There
was a luckless wight — Jake Callew by name —
against whom lay suspicions of playing the spy in
the interest of Quantrill — suspicions vague, indi-
rect, unevidenced, but sufficient to rouse a mob
that would listen to no appeals deprecating vio-
lence, or pleading for delay.
" The sea enraged is not half so deaf."
The mob seized Callew and arraigned him before
an extemporized court. A verdict was rendered
that the evidence did not prove his guilt. " You
have heard the verdict," said the judge, address-
ing the frenzied rout. " Now, gentlemen, what
will you do with the prisoner?" "Hang him,"
was the quick response. Preparations for the gib-
bet went on apace. It occurred to somebody that
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 297
the doomed man might need the consolations of
religion. Among the spectators a clergyman was
discovered. " You had better make your peace
with God for you don't stand much chance with
this crowd," said the clergyman. " You need n't
trouble ^-ourself about my soul," the unapprecia-
tive sinner replied. "■ How do you like that, old
fellow," broke in the hangman as he gave a tug at
the rope and swung the poor wretch into eternity !
The destruction of Lawrence did not allay the
feuds among Kansas officials. Lane's relations
with Governor Carney ran through the entire
gamut of variation from friendship to hostility,
from hostility to confidential intimacy. He still
struggled for absolute control of the military pat-
ronage of the state, and generally carried his point.
Carney determined to make an end of this dis-
creditable business — a senator of Kansas usurp-
ing the functions of the governor of Kansas. " No
governor with a proper self-respect," he wrote
President Lincoln . . . could or would tolerate
such interference. What other loyal state has
been thus humiliated ? . . . Kansas stands alone.
I claim for her that she shall be the equal of the
proudest of them. ... I ask the revocation of
the power conferred on J. H. Lane as recruiting
commissioner." This letter Governor Carney
followed up by an interview with President Lin-
coln, at the conclusion of which he addressed the
following note to Secretary Stanton, dated Wash-
298 KANSAS.
ington, May 28th, 1864 : " Please see and hear the
governor of Kansas with Judge Williams and Mr.
Vaughn. Will we not, at last, be compelled to
treat the governor of Kansas as we do other gov-
ernors about raising and commissioning troops?
I think it will have to be so." Governor Carney
delivered this note in person to Secretary Stanton
who read it, tore it in two, and said angrily —
" Tell the president that I am secretary of war."
Carney turned on his heel. " Wait," said Stanton,
in a milder tone. "What do you want?" An
understanding was reached, and henceforth the
governor of Kansas was to be treated like other
governors.
After the Lawrence raid Kansas experienced no
general upheaval until the attempted invasion
of General Sterling Price, who led a daring expe-
dition, in the autumn of 1864, from Arkansas
across the State of Missouri, living upon the
countr}' through which he passed, remounting
his cavalry with fresh horses, threatening St.
Louis, then deflecting toward Jefferson City, and
pushing on to the Kansas line before his advance
was successfully arrested. Great alarm prevailed.
October 8th Governor Carney called out the en-
tire militia. Ten thousand six hundred men re-
sponded, and were mostly concentrated in the
neighborhood of Kansas City — a gallant, but un-
disciplined force. The battles at Lexington, along
the Little Blue and the Big Blue, demonstrated
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 299
their inability to cope with Price. The arrival of
General Pleasanton on the 22d with seven thou-
sand cavalry and eight pieces of artillery put a
new face upon the campaign. On the next day
the battle of Westport was fought, and the bold
raiders turned southward in confusion. Their re-
treat scurried along the border, bending into Linn
Count}^ zigzagging toward Fort Scott, then turn-
ing eastward and southward until it crossed the
Arkansas.
The expedition of Price was the last Confederate
foray into Kansas. A long series of Missouri inva-
sions closed with his retreat across the Arkansas.
Bushrangers, jayhawkers. Red-legs, who played so
pi-oininent and so protracted a part on the stage
of local history, now make a leisurely exit.
The first five years of Kansas history after ad-
mission to the Union were years of intrigue, con-
fusion, alarm, and guerrillaism. With the wounds
of the territorial struggle unhealed, with a heavy
percentage of the population under arms, with the
streams of immigration almost completely dried
up, it was not possible that Kansas should make
materia] or social progress while the war for the
Union continued. The forces of repair and devel-
opment were unequal to the waste.
The man who figured so largely in Kansas af-
fairs during the rebellion did not long survive its
close. When the Republican party broke with
President Johnson, Lane declined to join in the
300 KANSAS.
attack upon him. This step gave offense to
former friends. " So far as I am concerned," he
said in the Senate April 6th, 1866, "I propose
to-day and hereafter to take my position alongside
the president." His course disposed Republican
senators to investigate discreditable rumors aliout
him that filled the air. Charges of corruption in
connection with Indian contracts had been made
vaguely in the public prints against some un-
named senator. " I propose to fill up the hiatus,"
wrote the Washington correspondent of the Bos-
ton "Commonwealth," "and let the public know
. . . that the charge refers to Senator James H.
Lane." Governor Carney, whose relations with
Lane were now on a confidential footing, hap-
pened to be at his lodgings when the mail ar-
rived containing a copy of the " Commonwealth "
— which he read and then handed to Carney.
" Oh that 's nothing," said Carney, cheerfully.
"You have been charged with about everything
on the face of the earth. That does n't amount
to much." " Does n"t amount to much ! " Lane
repeated in a very excited and tragic manner.
The next morning Carney returned and found
Lane in a pitiable plight — half-clad, his hair
erect and bristling, his small, sunken, snaky eyes
burning like live coals, his "sinister face, plain
to ugliness," figured over with desperation, and
raving that two sunshine friends whom he sus-
pected of treachery must be sent for at once, the
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 301
one to receive a challenge, the other a cowhid-
ing. The gentlemen present — Perry Fuller, the
Indian trader in whose government contracts
Lane was accused of having pecuniary interest.
Major Heath, and Governor Carney — bestirred
themselves to refute the newspaper charges. jNIa-
jor Heath wrote a corrugated oath denying that
Lane ever had financial transactions with Fuller
of greater magnitude than house-renting, and Ful-
ler signed it. Then something must be done
about the Senate. Lane felt that he could not
take his seat again without a personal explana-
tion. As he was incapable of doing the work
himself in his distraught condition, Carney and
Heath, who did not then know all the facts, wrote
out a short speech, pronouncing the " imputation
conveyed by innuendo and indirection in the Bos-
ton 'Commonwealth' ... a baseless calumny."
On the following day — May 29th — Lane read
this speech from manuscript in the Senate, and
shortly afterward returned to his lodgings. " The
speech," he said, "was just the thing. It was one
of the happiest little efforts of my life."
June 11th Lane obtained leave of absence for
ten days, subsequently prolonged until the close
of the session, to visit Kansas, where such was
the hostility which grew out of his alliance with
President Johnson, he met a cold and hostile re-
ception. Old acquaintances passed him on the
street without recognition, and political conven-
302 KANSAS.
tions denounced him. It was a reception far dif-
ferent from what had awaited him in other days.
" When Lane," said the " Leavenworth Daily
Conservative " January 28th, 1862, " touches this
soil, which his own courage, his own strategy, his
own unconquerable perseverance saved for free-
dom, a glorious halo surrounds his head, a sub-
lime inspiration fills his eye, a splendid glow lights
up his countenance ! "
After Lane's personal explanation in the Senate
Carney made a visit of some days to New York.
Upon his return to Washington he met Senator
Doolittle, chairman of the Senate committee on
Indian affairs, who showed him the copartnership
papers of the Indian traders, Fuller & Co., in
which Lane's name appeared, and a canceled
check on E. H. Gruber & Co., of Leavenworth,
which proved that, he had received twenty thou-
sand dollars from the concern.
Spending a few unhappy days in Kansas —
doubly unhappy in the case of one so eager for the
applause of men, so ambitious
" To live on their tODgues aud be their talk," —
Lane set out for Washington. He reached St.
Louis on the 19th of June. There he met Gov-
ernor Carney, and the whole situation was dis-
cussed — the fatal papers in Senator Doolittle's
possession, and the exasperation of Republican
congressmen. " Do you think," he asked, " that
I had better resign? Do you suppose Johnson
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 303
would give me a foreign mission? Could I be
confirmed ? " No light of hope appeared, " freak-
ing gloom with glow." Lane returned to Leav-
enworth, where on the 1st of July he placed the
pistol in his mouth and discharged it. Though
the bullet passed through the brain, such was his
vitality, he survived ten days.
No more unscrupulous soldier of fortune ever
posed before the public than James H. Lane. He
possessed in large measure the qualities that find
a congenial and successful field in border turmoils.
Of a slight and wiry figure, he had remarkable
physical endurance. When removed from lead-
ership of the overland "Northern army" in 1856,
he set off immediately from Nebraska for Law-
rence. Riding night and day, he arrived at his
destination alone, and without apparent fatigue.
His half-dozen companions, including Captain
Samuel Walker and Old John Brown, all gave out
by the way.
Lane was a confusion of passions grossly but
not wholly ignoble. " Nobody can study his face,"
says Mrs. Ropes in her vivacious " Six Months
in Kansas," " without a sensation very much
like that with which one stands at the edge of a
slimy, sedgy, uncertain morass." Conscienceless
and with little confidence in the truth; selfish,
grasping to the last degree, though at times and
by spasms alive with seeming generosity and pub-
lic spirit ; watching the vanes of popular senti-
304 KAI^SAS.
ment and veering with them, though occasionally
showing unexpected boldness and obstinacy of
opinion ; attracting men and managing them con-
summately ; able to pay heaviest obligations iu
the cheap coin of promises ; indomitably persis-
tent ; cowardly and courageous by turn ; a merci-
less enemy, but faithful to friends where personal
interest did not require their sacrifice. Lane be-
longed to the basest, most mischievous class of
politicians.
As a stump speaker he had no equal on the
border. " I heard him at Nebraska City in 1856,
before a hostile audience," says T. W. Higginson,
"and if eloquence consists in moving and swaying
men at pleasure I never saw a more striking ex-
hibition of it." Lane's oratory faithfully reflected
the character of the man, in which elements of
chaos and lunacy were bound up with extraordi-
nary astuteness and knowledge of human nature.
It owed little to elocutionary grace. His manner
was strained, angular, and dramatic, while his voice
vibrated between shouts and blood-curdling whis-
pers. Neither weight of thought, nor subtilty of
logic, nor elevation of sentiment, nor exceptional
range of vocabulary, appeared in his oratory.
Lane was an unlettered man. In his hands rules
of grammar fared badly. His knowledge came
from observation rather than from books. Types
can do only scant justice to oratory that is es-
sentially personal, and hence his speeches lose in
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UN TON. 305
print. Skillful adaptation to time and place ; sure
tact in humoring the prejudices and firing the
passions of an audience ; unmeasured invective ;
an intensity of utterance that sometimes reached
the verge of frenzy ; grotesque, extravagant, ring-
ing turns of phrase, and what, in the absence of a
better word, is called magnetism, seem to be the
capital elements of Lane's singularly effective
speech.
That the harm which such a man does to a
commonwealth must largely exceed the service
goes without saying. Lane's energy, enthusiasm,
and eloquence were serviceable in the territorial
struggle, but even then these admirable qualities
had a serious offset in his restless jealousy, in-
trigue, and rashness. The free-state cause would
not have been safe in his hands an hour at any
critical juncture. But if the evil was checked
and mitigated at first by the necessities of the
situation, when Lane reached the United States
Senate and gained the ear of the administration,
then his wretched policies and ambitions had
ample sea-room — policies and ambitions that de-
bauched the political morals of the commonwealth
and drew upon it a grievous train of calamities.
CHAPTER XIV.
AD ASTRA.
It is often difficult, some one has said, to man-
age the future of an heroic action — a problem no
more formidable for individuals than for states.
An exceptional, brilliant past demands a present
and a future that shall not be out of harmony or
fall into anti-climax. Kansas has a significant
and memorable history ; the territorial struggle
converted a wilderness, which had little claim
upon the interest of mankind, into historic ground.
But now we reach a different epoch. From the
date of settlement until the close of the Avar for
the Union, though in the later stages it broke
down into discreditable political intrigue and mur-
derous bushfighting, the history of Kansas pur-
sued a single theme. The war for the Union
caught up and nationalized the verdict of the ter-
ritorial broil.
In the large influx of colored people from the
South in 1878-79 there was indeed a striking af-
ter-piece of the border conflict. Out of the unset-
tled condition of affairs in the South, out of the
frictions and hardships unavoidable in a radical
AD ASTRA. 807
reconstruction of society, an extensive colored ex-
odus sprang. Reports were rife that in Kansas
— a name glorified in their minds as having
some vague connection with emancipation — better
homes, larger opportunities, kindlier treatment,
awaited them than could be expected elsewhere.
A colored convention, attended b}' delegates from
fourteen states, met at Nashville, Tennessee, May
7th, 1879, and advised colored people of the South
to " emigrate to those states and territories where
they can enjoy all the rights which are guaran-
tied by the laws and constitution of the United
States." The excitement, fanned by outrages and
demagogues, became intense. Notwithstanding
the conciliatory efforts of Southern planters and
the warnings of prominent colored leaders, who op-
posed migration as a remedy for grievances, not
less than forty thousand negroes reached Kansas
in every stage of destitution. These fugitives re-
lief societies took in charge ; provided with shel-
ter, clothing, and food ; organized into new colo-
nies, or distributed among the older communities.
On the whole, they seem to have improved their
circumstances by the flight, though at the expense
of much temporary discomfort. It was dramat-
ically befitting — a fact not destitute of pathetic
and poetic suggestion — that Southern negroes,
in the extremities of reconstruction, should have
turned their eyes toward the state where the first
blow was struck for their freedom.
308 KANSAS.
The people of Kansas in 1865 dropped the
sword and grasped the plow. " A happy nation,"
says Ruskin, " may be defined as one in which the
husband's hand is on the plow and the housewife's
on the needle." Though embarrassed from 186-1
to 1870 by Indian hostilities, in which at least a
thousand citizens lost their lives and much prop-
erty was destroyed ; though scorched by occasional
droughts ; though visited in 1874 by plagues of lo-
custs which desolated large districts, devouring
fruits, vegetables, and grains with inexhaustible
voracity, so that the familiar story of destitute,
starving Kansas was heard once more, yet few
American commonwealths have ever made so
much material progress in twenty years.
This progress appears the more remarkable
when we consider the geographical notions cur-
rent fifty years ago, not to mention those that
Senator Green, of Missouri, avowed so late as the
Lecouipton debate. Fifty years ago no agricul-
tural future was thought possible for Kansas. It
belonged to that vast Mediterranean tract, the
greater part of which Irving thought would " form
a lawless interval between the abodes of civilized
man, like the wastes of the ocean or the deserts
of Arabia. . . . Here may spring up new and
mongrel races, like new formations in geology, the
amalgamations of the debris and abrasions of for-
mer races civilized and savage ; . . . the descend-
ants of wandering hunters and trappers ; of fu-
AD ASTRA. 309
gitives from the Spanish and American frontiers;
of adventurers and desperadoes of every class and
country, yearly ejected from the bosom of society
into the wilderness."
Irving's prophecy went wide of the mark. No
mongrel races, the detritus of neighboring civili-
zations, overrun Kansas. The wastes have disap-
peared or are disappearing. And recent writers
do not hesitate to pronounce the Great American
Desert a myth.
Little was done, as has been said before, to test
the material resources of Kansas until the close
of the Rebellion. The Indians, it is true, dab-
bled in agriculture. They succeeded in raising
slender crops of corn, beans, and pumpkins. Rev.
Thomas Johnson and other missionaries tried in-
effectually to deepen their practical interest in the
soil. During the territorial period political inter-
ests compelled a paramount attention. When the
war for the Union broke out there followed a still
greater diversion from farm industry. " One half
of our entire population, between the ages of eigh-
teen and forty-five," Governor Robinson wrote
September 1st, 1862, " is in the army."
The population of Kansas in 1865 was 135,807.
In the two succeeding decades the increase reached
nearly a million souls, an immigration scarcely
precedented in volume. A corresponding agricul-
tural development followed, which placed Kansas,
according to the census of 1880, seventeenth on
310 KANSAS.
the list of states in value of farm products, and
eighth in value of live stock. In 1884 the wheat
crop was 48,050,431 bushels against 25,279,884
in 1880. The corn crop rose from 101,421,718
bushels in 1880 to 190,870,680 in 1884. Other
branches of farm industry advanced proportionally
during the years 1882-84, so that in 1884 Kansas
ranked among the foremost states in agricultural
products.
Meteorological changes have accompanied the
settlement of Kansas. However the fact may be
explained, whatever agency the sudden and ex-
tensive agiiculture or the planting of artificial for-
ests, which, including fruit-trees, were estimated
in 1884 at 171,810 acres, may have exerted, the
amount of annual rain-fall, according to the fore-
most Kansas authority in such matters. Professor
Snow, of the State University, shows an increase
of five inches in Eastern Kansas during the last
twenty years compared with a like pre-settlement
period. In this augmented precipitation the west-
ern third of Kansas has shared, but so moderately
as to promise little for agriculture. Apparently
successful farming in that region must await the
introduction of some practicable system of irriga-
tion.
The creation of a great state in the wilderness
of Kansas since 1865 is mainly a feat of the rail-
road. " If this invention," said Emerson, " has
reduced England to a third of its size by bring-
AIJ ASTRA. 311
ing people so much nearer, in this country it has
given a new celerity to time, or anticipated by
fifty years the planting of tmcts of land." With-
out the adventurous forecast and push of railway
corporations, which drew public attention to tho
resources of Kansas and put them within reach,
its settlement, like that of older states, would have
stretched over a much longer period. By a sys-
tem of advertising which skillfully seized upon
avenues of communication — newspapers, pam-
phlets, traveling agents, national and interna-
tional exhibitions — these corporations greatly
abridged the ordinary course of events. Rail-
ways now penetrate every part of the state, —
" And thatch with towns the prairies broad."
At the last national census Kansas had reached
the ninth place among the states in railway mile-
age. January, 1885, the amount of main track
exceeded four thousand miles.
Certainly Kansas is assured of whatever star-
ward energy may reside in numbers or in ma-
terial prosi>erities. That their tendency is not
altogether ennobling and uplifting social philoso-
phers have been careful to point out. Matthew
Arnold ventures his hope for the future on rem-
nants in Israel who have not bowed the knee to
Baal. Carlyle sneers at political economy, and
disparages Am.ericans in particular as a genera-
tion of dollar-hunters.
312 KANSAS.
" Oh, better far the briefest hour
Of Athens self-consumed whose plastic power
Hid beauty safe from Death in words or stone ;
Of Rome, fair quarry where those eagles crowd
Whose fulgurous vans about the world had blown
Triumphant storm and seeds of polity ;
Of Venice, fading o'er her shipless sea,
Last iridescence of a fading cloud ;
Than this inert prosperity
This bovine comfort in the sense alone ! "
Mere bigness will not do much for a state or
nation except in politics, where heavy weights
tell. Holland, with limited area and population,
is the mother of illustrious statesmen, soldiers, and
scholars, and at one time championed the cause of
freedom for the world. But while industrial and
numerical progress does not necessarily imply
progress in culture, yet it lays broad foundations
upon which culture may build. It enlarges the
scope of possibilities. The outcome of a splendid
material development will turn on the question
whether high moral, intellectual, aesthetic, and
idealizing forces mingle in it, —
" And set otir pulse in tune with moods divine."
Kansas is not wanting in these superior forces.
The New England colonists, though feebly influ-
enced by motives of technical theology, gave im-
mediate attention to the establishment of a church.
October 1st, 1854, Rev. S. Y. Lum preached at
Lawrence the first sermon delivered to white men
in the territory. The Pioneer Hotel served as
a meeting-house. "A few rough boards were
AD ASTRA. 313
bronglit for seats," Mrs. Robinson wrote, "and
with singing by several good voices among the
pioneers the usual church services were performed.
. . . The people then, as on many succeeding sab-
baths, were gathered together by the ringing of
a large dinner bell." Plymouth Congregational
Church was organized October 15th, with seven
membeis, and is the oldest in Kansas. Other
denominations began woi'k in the territory at an
early day. But as the religious history of the
commonwealth exhibits little that is exceptional,
it will not now be set forth at large. To home
missionaries — to their patient, self-denying, he-
roic and sometimes perilous service — Kansas is
heavily indebted. The State had 2046 church
organizations in 1884, with a membership up-
wards of 185,000.
Educational matters have awakened strong in-
terest in Kansas and exhibit praiseworthy prog-
ress, though the expectations of the Senate Com-
mittee on Education for 1858-9 have not as yet
been realized. "It should be the aim of the edu-
cators of Kansas," said the oi)timistic committee,
in a report recommending that the schools should
be supplied with Webster's dictionaries, " to make
this territory a model state in American lit-
erature. In this new territory we have all the
requisite elements for building up a system of
universities, colleges, schools, and seminaries of
learning unequaled by any other on the globe.
314 KANSAS.
Your committee believe it is the province of the
people of Kansas to inaugurate an educational
system which shall perfect the English language
as well as English literature." It may have been
sympathy, more or less conscious, with these lib-
eral expectations that induced the territorial leg-
islature in the sessions of 1855 60 to incorporate
eighteen universities and ten colleges! Out of
these twenty-eight institutions, twenty-five have
perished — a mortality unparalleled in the history
of education.
Governor Reeder commended the subject of
schools to the legislature assembled at Pawnee,
saying, with admirable point, " It is always bet-
ter to pay for the education of a boy than the
punishment of a man." The first territorial legis-
lature, which was more modest in the matter of
universities than most of the legislatures that fol-
lowed, since it incorporated only three, provided
for the establishment of schools in each county,
" which shall be open and free to every class of
white citizens," and directed that half the fines
paid into connty treasuries should be applied to
their support. When the legislature fell into the
hands of the free-state men in 1857, they recon-
structed and liberalized the school system, and
created the office of territorial superintendent.
Yet, as a matter of fact, almost nothmg was done
under territorial laws until 1859. January 1st,
1859, not more than five school districts had been
AD ASTRA. ' 315
organized in Douglass County which was better
circumstanced in this matter than the other coun-
ties. But before June, thirty additional districts
were organized. And dnring this period consid-
erable educational machinery was set up in the
rest of the territory.
In Lawrence private schools began at an early
date. " You have laid out gi'ounds for a college,"
Mr. Lawrence wrote Governor Robinson, Novem-
ber 21st, 1854, " and will have a good one, with-
out doubt, in due time ; but in the first place
you must have a preparatory school." On the
16th of January, 1855, a private school — the ear-
liest in the territory of any kind — was opened in
the Emigrant Aid building. It continued four-
teen or fifteen weeks, with an attendance of twenty
scholars. From its close, three terms of private
school, for three months or less, comprised all the
educational facilities of Lawrence until the 30th
of March, 1857, when a select school of larger
pretensions was opened. It continued for two
years, with C. L. Edwards as principal, and was
called the " Quincy High School," in honor of
Josiah Quincy, of Boston. " A school is now in
progress under the Unitarian Church, with two
teachers and about fifty scholars," said a letter-
writer April 17th, 1857.
In the spring of 1857 Mr, Lawrence gave ten
thousand dollars to the city of Lawrence, the in-
come of which should be devoted to school pur-
316 KANSAS.
poses. Originally a memorial college seems to
have been in mind. " You shall have a college,"
he wrote Rev. Ephraim Nute, of Lawrence, De-
cember 16th, 1856, " which shall be a school of
learning, and at the same time a monument to per-
petuate the memory of those martyrs of liberty
who fell during the recent struggles. Beneath it
their dust shall rest. In it shall burn the light
of liberty, which shall never be extinguished. . . .
It shall be called the ' Free State College,' and all
the friends of freedom shall be invited to lend
a helping hand." The dream had a touching,
though accidental and shadowy realization. No
free-state college was ever built, but in making
excavations for the main building of the State
University workmen disinterred the remains of a
dead soldier.
For a time the income of the ten thousand dol-
lars was applied to the support of the Quincy
High School. This fund attracted the attention
of religious denominations, among which no less
than three — Presbyterians, Congregationalists,
and Episcopalians — lured by hopes of obtaining
it as a nucleus for endowment, attempted the es-
tablishment of a college in Lawrence. The Pres-
byterians were first in the field, secured a site, and
laid the foundations of a college building. In the
spring of 1859 the " Circular of the Lawrence
University " appeared, announcing that an " In-
stitution of Learning of the first class has been
AD ASTRA. 317
chartered and established at Lawrence, Kansas.
. . . The institution will open on the llth of
April next [1859], and continue for a term of
three months." In the faculty "eminent teach-
ers " and " distinguished educators " were found,
so that the institution confidently promised to fur-
nish the " culture and discipline essential to suc-
cess and eminence in any walk of life." But the
undertaking did not prosper. Denominational
feuds hurt it, and failure to get possession of the
Lawrence fund completed its ruin. " We did not
feel justified as a board," wrote the secretary of
the trustees to Mr. Lawrence, " to commence a
university in Kansas at the present time without
the benefit of your fund." In 1860 the Congre-
gationalists took up the enterprise and proposed
to build a " Monumental College." An act of
incorporation was procured, a board of trustees
elected, and a subscription paper circulated. The
subscription paper met with some success. Money
and material to the amount of four thousand dol-
lars, town lots, twenty acres of land in Lawrence
and twelve hundred elsewhere were pledged, pro-
vided thirty thousand dollars should be raised
before January 1st, 1861. That sum could not
be secured, and the effort failed. Finally the
Episcopalians took the business in hand. They
effected an organization, chose trustees, and so-
licited funds to complete the " Lawrence Univer-
sity." Governor Robinson writes May 22d, 1861,
318 KANSAS.
that the "Episcopal College trustees" have pur-
chased the site and basement of the building com-
menced last year by the Presbyterians, and are
anxious to secure the Lawrence fund. But they
did not get the money, and accomplished little
beyond a partial completion of the unfinished
building.
The much-sought ten thousand dollars fell at
last to the State University, as did the assets of all
the contemplated colleges in Lawrence that pre-
ceded it, and had decisive influence in determin-
ing where it should be placed. " The legislature
has passed a law," Governor Robinson wrote Mr.
Lawrence February 23d, 1833, " locating the State
University at Lawrence, on condition that fifteen
thousand dollars shall be paid into the treasury in
six months, and forty acres of land given to the
University, If these conditions are not complied
with, then the University is [to be] located at
Emporia. ... It was with great difficulty that
the location was secured here, and nothing saved
us but the inducements of your fund."
The school system of Kansas does not require
elaborate exposition in this place. In addition to
primary and intermediate schools, the state sup-
ports three higher institutions, which are in suc-
cessful and progressive operation, the Normal
School at Emporia, the Agricultural College at
Manhattan, and the University at Lawrence.
Seven religious denominations have established
AD ASTRA. 319
colleges or universities which constitute an im-
portant factor of educational work in the state.
Among Kansas teachers, it is due them to say, a
commendable alertness, enthusiasm, and ambition
prevail. Their work gives evidence that the very
highest mission of education is not wholly unap-
preciated. That mission cannot be accomplished
b}^ processes, however admirable, of drill and ac-
quisition alone. Recognizing the fact that moral
and sentimental problems are by no means the
least important for a community ; that the first
order of citizenship is impossible without the ser-
vice of the impassioned imagination to body forth
living, vivid conceptions of ethical and sesthetical
realities, the ideal education creates vitalized in-
telligence, alive and responsive to whatever is
nobly said or done.
In the ministry of physical enviionment, which,
in its higher forms, is a perennial source of ses-
thetic, idealizing, poetic inspirations for commu-
nities as well as individuals, Kansas at once has
drawbacks and advantages. Expanses of rolling
prairie, flattening on the western border into level
plains, sparingly watered with brooks and riv-
ers, unbroken by great mountain ranges, without
the shadows, recesses, and deep seclusions of pri-
meval forests, exposed and bare to all the garish
sunshine of the year, have obvious limitations of
scenic power. Yet there are compensations. Seme
phases of beauty shine in magnificent exhibition.
320 KANSAS.
There may be seen gorgeous splendors of cloud-
glory ; lustrous starlight and moonlight in com-
parison with which northern heavens seem faded
and withdrawn ; the winter greenery of wheat
fields; the faint, delicate blush of maple buds
that sometimes give signs of life in February ; tlie
brilliant bloom of wild crab-apple and Judas trees,
greeting the spring ; expanses of landscape rich
with half tropical vegetation, figured with infinite
interplay of light and shade, —
" Vast as the sky against whose siiuset shores,
Wave after wave the billowy greeuness pours."
It only remains to note the eager, restless, pro-
gressive spirit which distinguishes Kansas. This
spirit has appeared and is appearing variously. It
is exhibited in the great and as yet unsettled tem-
perance agitation, which amended the oi'ganic law
of the state by the introduction of a prohibitory
clause ; in the admission of both sexes to the State
University from the date of its foundation; in the
service of women as county superintendents of
schools and as university regents and professors ; in
literary and art circles, which form an interesting
feature of various towns ; in the Woman's Social
Science Club, an organization that embraces Kan-
sas and Western Missouri, and holds semi-annual
meetings for tlie discussion of social, domestic,
hygienic, and literary topics. Such an aggressive
and ambitious temper, which has the nerve to
venture, to experiment, if need be, at the expense
AD ASTRA. 321
of tradition and precedent, promises effectual de-
fense against enervating influences — against the
insidious lethargy of fierce summer heats and that
" bovine comfort " of broad and teeming acres
which Lowell deprecates.
The history of Kansas which began three dec-
ades ago with a wilderness, with the fence and
skirmish that preluded a tremendous civil war,
closes with a great commonwealth rich in the
material and immaterial things essential to life.
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21
324 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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326 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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IJSTDEX.
Abbott, J. B., 88, 179, 199, 242,
Abolitionists, the early, 15.
Atchison, D. R., 24, 25 ;
Kansas, 56 ; course of in the Waka- i
rusa War, 97, 98, 100 ; at Lawrence
May 21, 1856, 121, 122, 123, 124 ; ap-
peals of to the South, 173, 174, 188,
189 ; conference of with Governor
Geary at FrankUu, 200, 201.
Atchison, town of, 28.
Atkins, Representative of Tennessee,
232.
Babcock, C. W., 95, 96.
Bayard, J. A., on Emigrant Aid Com-
pany, 33 ; on the Topeka movement,
77 ; on the Lecompton Constitution,
223.
Beecher, H. W., 165.
Bell, John, 9, 23.
Benjamin, J. P., 75.
Benton, T. H., 7, 11.
Biggs, Senator, of North Carolina,
231.
Black Jack, battle of, 154-156.
Blood, James, 132, 143, 148, 185, 199.
Blue Lodges, 41.
Bourgmont, M. de, 20.
Branscomb, C. H., 34.
Branson, Jacob, 86, 87 ; arrest and
rescue of, 88, 89.
Brindle, General William, 230.
Brooks, P. S., 129.
Brown, John, speech of at Lawrence,
100, 101 ; relation of to Kansas his-
tory, 137 ; character and theories of,
138-141 ; raid of upon the Pottawa-
tomie, 142-154; fight of at Black
Jack, 154-156; foray of upon St.
Bernard, 156, 157 ; releases Pate,
159-161 ; narrow escape of from
capture, 171 ; at Lawrence, Septem-
ber, 1856, 199; declaration of to
Captain Snyder, 244 ; letter of to A.
A.Lawrence, 251 ; interview of with
Governor Robinson, 252 ; raid of
into Missouri, 252-255.
Brown, John Carter, 30.
Brown, John, Jr., 141, 142.
Brown, R. P., 72, 73.
Buchanan, James, 210, 211, 230.
Buford, Jtfferson, 105, 106, 125.
Bulkley, Harrison, 87.
Bull Creek, 190, 198.
BushneU, Horace, 31.
Butler, A. P., 8, 97, 105.
Butler, Rev. Pardee, 79-82.
Byrd, J. H., 65.
Cabot, Dr. Samuel, Jr., 30, 166.
Callioun, John, 221, 229, 230.
CaUioun, J. C, 4.
Callew, Jake, 295, 296.
" Candle-box " election returns, the,
seizure of, 229, 230.
Carney, Governor Thomas, 271, 273,
287, 297, 298 ; confidential relations
of with Lane, 299-302.
Caskie, John S., 8.
Cass, Lewis, on the Compromise of
1850, 1 ; presents the Topeka me-
morial to the Senate, 74, 75 ; de-
nounces Sumner's speech, 128.
Cato, Judge S. G., letter to Governor
Shannon on the Pottawatomie raid,
152 ; course of toward free-state
prisoners, 202 ; a mandamus of, 219.
Census, first territorial, 43 ; second
territorial, 212.
Chase, S. P., 9, 10, 12.
Choate, Rufus, 13.
Church, Lieutenant J. R., disperses
• John Brown, Jr.'s company, 141,
142, 147.
Clarke, G. W., raid of in the South-
east, 239, 240 ; arrest of, 248, 249.
Clay, Henry, 1.
Cline, Captain, 190.
Coates, Kersey, 50.
Coleman, F. N., 86, 87.
Committees, Eastern Aid, operations
of, 164.
"Commonwealth," the Boston, 299,
300.
830
INDEX.
Compromise, the, of 1850, 1, 11.
"Conservative," the Leavenworth,
278, 301.
Constitutional Convention, the, at
Topeka, 70, 71 ; at Lecompton, 211,
220-226; at Minneola and Leaven-
worth, 261 ; at Wyandotte, 263, 264.
Convention, the, at Salt Creek Val-
ley, June, 1854, 27 ; at Lawrence,
June 27, 1855, 63 ; August 14-15, 63,
68-69 ; at Big Springs, October 5,
64-68 ; at Topeka, September 19, 69 ;
at Leavenworth, November 14, 83,
84 ; at Topeka, July 4, 1856, 131 ; at
Lecompton, July, 1857, 215 ; at To-
peka, July, 216; at Grasshopper
FaUs, August, 216, 217; at Law-
rence, December, 225-228.
Conway, M. F., 54, 90, 104.
Cooke, Colonel P. St. George, 171, 192,
193, 194, 198, 199, 200.
Coronado, 17-19.
Court, Squatter, 242-244.
Covode, John, 281.
Crittenden-Montgomery bill, the, 234.
Davis, Jefferson, 135, 265.
Debates of 1850 and 1854, comparison
of, 4.
De Bow's Review, " An Appeal " in,
175, 176.
Deitzler, G. W., 60.
Democratic party, the, changes of in
nomenclature, 263.
Democratic Review, 49, 60, 106, 234.
Denver, J. W., appointment of as act-
ing governor, 228 ; familiarity of
with the border, 229 ; letter of to
President Buchanan, 231 ; visit of
to the Southeast, 250, 251 ; refusal
of to remove from Lecompton, 259 ;
vetoes bill for a Constitutional Con-
vention, 259 ; resignation of, 260.
Dixon, Archibald, amendment of to
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 3.
Dodge, A. C, bill of for the organiza^
tion of Nebraska, 2.
Donaldson, Marshal J. B., proclama-
tion of, 118 ; at Topeka, July 4, 1856,
133, 134.
DooUttle, Senator, 302, 303.
Douglas, S. A., Chairman of Senate
Committee on Territories, 3 ; state-
ment of to Senator Dixon, 3, 4 ; re-
lation of to the Compromise of 1850,
5, 6 ; qualifications of for leader-
ship, 6 ; debates of with Lincoln,
8, 9 ; burnt in effigy, 14 ; on the
Emigrant Aid Company, 33 ; on the
convention at Big Springs, 68 ; at-
tacks the Topeka Memorial, 74, 75,
76 ; denounces Sumner, 129 ; on the
slavery clause of the Lecompton
Constitution, 222.
Dow, Charles M., 86.
Doyle, James P., 145, 147.
Dred Scott decision. The, 210.
Dunn Bill, the, 107.
Dutch Henry's Crossing, massacre at,
142-154; consequences of the raid
upon, 176, 190.
Easton, affray at, 72, 73.
Edwards, C. L., 314.
Elections, territorial, November, 1854,
40 ; March 30, 1855, 43-49 ; October
5, 1857, 218; December 21, 1357,
and January 4, 1858, 225, 228-230.
Eldridge, S. W., 172, 179, 180.
Ehnore, Rush, 133, 134, 222.
Emerson, R. "W., 164, 310.
Emery, J. S., 104.
Emigrant Aid Company, 29-33 ; towns
founded by, 34 ; rumors coucerning
on the border, 39, 40.
EngUsh Bill, the, 235, 236.
EngUsh, W. H., 14, 235.
Everett, Edward, 9, 23.
Examiner, the Cliristian, 232.
Famine of 1860, the, 271.
Fort Orleans, 20.
Fort Saunders, capture of, 182.
Fort Scott, 238, 239; expedition of
Captain Walker to, 218, 249 ; at-
tacked by Montgomery, 249, 250;
Denver's visit to, 250, 251.
Fort Titus, capture of, 182-185.
Franklin, attacks upon, 179-182.
Free-State party, the, 63, 64, 216-218,
225-228, 262, 265, 266.
FuUer, Perry, 300.
Geary, J. W., appointment of as gov-
ernor, 197 ; succors Lawrence, 198-
201 ; efforts of to reform the judi-
ciary, 202, 203 ; proclamation of for
a day of thanksgiving, 203 ; inter-
view of with Governor Robinson,
204 ; assault on, 205, 206 ; letter of
to A. A. Lawrence, 207; resigns,
208.
Gihon, J. H., on the second territorial
legislature. 205.
Gladstone, T. H., 117, 128, 268.
Green, J. S., on Emigrant Aid Com-
pany, 33 ; member of conference
committee on the Lecompton bill,
235 ; opposes the Wyandotte Con-
stitution, 264.
Griimell, Moses H., 31.
Hale, Edward Everett, 31.
Halleck, General H. W., 279, 280.
INDEX.
831
Halpine, C. G., Report of, 276.
Hamilton, Charles A., 244-246.
Hammond, Senator of South Carolina,
231,236.
Harlan, James, 76.
Harris, James, testimony of on the
Pottawatomie raid, 150.
Harvey, J. A., 192, 193, 201.
Heiskell, W. A., letter to Governor
Shannon on the Pottawatomie raid,
150, 151.
Hickory Point, Jefferson County, skir-
mish at, 201, 202.
Higginson, T. W., 303.
Houston, Samuel, 9, 23.
Houston, S. D., 55.
Howard, W. A., 108, 114, 235.
Howe, Dr. S. G., 30, 1G9.
Hoyt, Major, D. S., murder of, 182.
Hughes, Representative of Indiana,
212.
Hughes, Thomas, 148.
Hunter, General David, 276, 279-
281.
Hunter, R. M. T., 235.
Hutchmson, William, 185.
Hyatt, Thaddeus, 168, 169.
Indian chiefs, opinions of concerning
Lane, 278, 279.
Investigating Committee, the Con-
gressional, 108, 145, 146.
Irving, W., on the " Great American
Desert," 307, 308.
Iverson, Alfred, 232.
Jayhawking, note on the origin of the
word, 240.
Johnson, Andrew, remarks of upon
John Brown, 146.
Johnson, Rev. Thomas, 63, 308.
Johnston, Colonel J. E., 170, 200.
Jones, S. J., 87, 88 ; arrests Branson,
88 ; appeEils to Missouri and Gov-
ernor Shannon, 90, 91 ; on the Waka-
rusa treaty, 99, 100 ; makes arrests
in Lawrence, 108, 109 ; attempted
assassination of, 109, 110; at Law-
rence, May 21, 1856, 122, 123, 125,
126, 127 ; assails Secretary Stan-
ton, 219 ; advice of to McLean, 229,
230.
Judiciary, the territorial, 202, 203.
Kansas, territorial boundaries, 17; a
part of the Louisiana purchase, 19 ;
migrations across, 22 ; an Indian
reservation, 22 ; an arena for exper-
iments in popular sovereignty, 23 ;
Southern opinion of, 231, 232 ; ad-
mission of to the Union, 266 ; char-
acter of the struggle for, 265, 266 ;
social condition of in the territorial
period, 268-270; drouth hi, 270;
'' exodus " of negroes to, 305, 300 ;
Irving on, 307, 308 ; Indian trou-
bles in, 307 ; agricultural develop-
ment of, 308, 809 ; meteorological
changes hi, 309, 310 ; Indebtedness
to railroads, 310 ; religious progress
of, 311, 312 ; educational history of,
312-318 ; natural scenery of, 318,
319 ; spirit and temper of, 319,
320.
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 2, 3 ; its revis-
ions, 4 ; Southern views of, 7, 8 ; ar-
guments for, 6-8 ; argument against,
10, 12 ; review of the debate on, 12,
13 ; consequences of the passage of,
13, 14.
Kickapoo, 28.
Lane, J. H., 63; at Big Springs, 64,
65 ; President of the Topeka Consti-
tutional Convention, 70 ; elected
senator under the Topeka move-
ment, 74 ; in charge of the Topeka
memorial to Congress, 76, 76 ; col-
lision with Douglas, 76, 77 ; second
in command during Wakarusa War,
92 ; speech at Franklin, 99 ; "North-
em army " of, 169, 170 ; expedition
of against Fort Saimders, 182 ;
marches to Lecompton, 193, 194 ;
operations of in Jefferson County,
201 ; election of to the United States
Senate, 272 ; campaign of m 1861,
274-278 ; " Great Southern Expedi-
tion " of, 279-281 ; declarations of
to General McClellan, 279 ; appoint-
ment of as Commissioner for re-
cruiting, 281, 282 ; downfall and
death of, 298-302 ; character and in-
fluence of, 302-304.
Lawrence, Amos A., 30, 35, 49, 61, 92,
104, 166, 197, 199, 251 ; efforts of for
the release of Governor Robinson,
195, 196; Letter of to Governor
Robinson, 314 ; bequest of to the
city of Lawrence, 314 ; letter of to
Rev. E. Nute, 315.
Lawrence, founding of, 34, 35 ; siege
of in the Wakarusa War, 91 ; attack
upon. May 21, 1856, 118-128; con-
dition of in the summer of 1856,
179, 180 ; destruction of by Quan-
trill, 285-296 ; schools and colleges
at, 314-317.
Leavenworth, 28 ; election riot at, 72 ;
Emory's regulators in, 188.
Leavenworth Constitution, 259-261.
Lecompte, S. D., charge of to the grand
jury of Douglas County, 111, 112;
letter of to J. A. Stewart, 123 ; con-
332
INDEX.
troversy of with Governor Geary,
203.
Lecompton, 28; panic at, 186, 187;
recomiiiissance upon, 192-194 ; af-
fray at, 206, 207 ; free-state demon-
stration at, 221.
Lecompton Constitution, the, 211, 212,
220-225, 227-230 ; m Congress, 232-
236.
Legislature, territorial, first session
of, 53, 54-58 ; second session of,
205 ; extra session of, 227, 228 ; third
session of, 257-259 ; fourth session
of, 262.
Lewis and Clark, expeditions of, 21.
Lexinstton, Mo., Convention, 24.
Liber.itor, the, 29, 31.
Liberty township, skirmish in, 238,
239.
Lincoln, A., debates with Douglas,
8, 9 ; relations of with Lane, 274 ;
indorsement of on Halleck's letter,
280 ; letter of to Secretary Stanton,
297.
Lmes, C. B., 165.
Little, Marshal, 242-244.
Log Cabins, 102, 268.
Long, Major H. S., 21.
Lowman, H. E., 289.
Lowrey, G. P., 90, 95, 96.
Lum, Rev. S. Y., 311.
" Lynceus," 24, 25.
McClellan, General G. B., 279, 280.
McGee County, frauds in, 218.
Mcintosh, Lieutenant James, 109, 110.
McLean, L. A., 229, 230.
Marais des Cygnes Massacre, 244-
246.
Mason, James M. , 129.
Massachusetts Legislature, the resolu-
tions of, 163.
Medary, Samuel, 261.
Mmneola, 258, 259.
Missouri Compromise, 3, 7, 11-13.
Missouri Legislature, action of in ref-
erence to troubles in the Southeast,
252-255.
Missouri River, the, embargo on, 166,
167.
Missouri, Western, population of, 24,
25 ; squatters from, 26.
Montgomery, James, 240, 241 ; attempt
of to kill Hamilton, 244 ; attacks
Fort Scott, 249, 250.
Morrow, Robert, 172.
Native American Suffrage, 41, 42.
Nute, Rev. E., 316.
^ Oliver, Mordecai, apology of for his
constituents, S9 ; investigations of
concerning the Pottawatomie raid,
140.
Osawatomie, 34 ; pUlage of, 162 ; bat-
tle of, 190, 191.
Osceola, Missouri, sack of, 275.
Overland immigration, 167, 172.
Oxford, frauds at, 218.
Parkville Luminary, the, 47.
Pate, Captain H. C, 152, 153 ; surren-
ders at Black Jack, 155, 156 ; re-
leased by Colonel Sumner, 159, 161.
Pawnee, 53.
PliiUips, WilUam, 49, 50, 188.
PhOlips, W. A., \QA.
Pierce, Franklin, election of as presi-
dent, 2 ; dispatch of to Shannon,
119 ; declarations of concerning the
free-state movement, 195, 196 ; re-
leases Governor Robinson, 196.
Pike, Captain J. A., 288.
Pike, Lieutenant Z. M., 21.
Plumb, P. B., 294.
Plymouth Church, 312.
Polk, Senator of Missouri, 233, 234.
Pomeroy, S. C, 126, 172, 195, 196,
272.
Popular Sovereignty, first appearance
of in pohtics, 7 ; constitutionally ex-
ercised when, 8, 9.
Pottawatomie Massacre, the, 142-154,
162, 176, 190.
Prairie City, skirmish at, 153, 154.
Presidential Election of 1856, the,
209.
Preston, Colonel W. J., 171, 172.
Price Raid, the, 297, 298.
Pugh, George E., 75.
Quantrill, W. C, 286-294.
"Red-legs," the,
Redpath, James, 170.
Reeder, A. H., 37, 38 ; canvass of re-
turns of the March election, 1885,
49-52 ; visits Washmgton, 52 ;
breaks with the legislature, 55, 56 ;
removal from office, 58 ; character
of his administration, 58 ; at Big
Springs, 65-68 ; elected senator un-
der the Topeka movement, 74 ; at-
tempted arrest of, 113, 114.
Reid, J. W., 190, 191, 200, 238.
RepubUcan party, the, organization
of in Kansas, 262. 263.
Robinson, Charles, 33, 34 ; letters to
A. A. Lawrence, a5, 49, 61, 62, 92, 93,
104, 199, 203, 204, 314, 317 ; urges M.
F. Conway to resign his seat in the
territorial legislature, 54 ; scheme of
counter-moves, 59 ; secures Sharpe's
rifles, 60 ; an abolitionist, 64 ; elected
INDEX.
igovemor under the Topeka Consti-
tutiou, 71 ; consulted by Branson
rescuers, 89, 90 ; in command dur-
ing the Wakarusa War, 92 ; speech
at Franklin, 99 ; Atcliison on, 100 ;
plans for a visit to the East, 114,
115 ; arrested at Lexington, Mo.,
116 ; experiences of at Leavenworth,
IIG, 117 ; letter to the Topeka Leg-
islature, 132 ; Missourians on the
plans of, 174 ; interview of with
Governor Geary, "204 ; favors voting,
217, 218 ; accompanies Governor
Denver to the Southeast, 200 ; inter-
view of with old John Brown, 252 ;
leadership of, 2G6 ; message of to
the state legislature, 271 ; relations
of to Lane, 272 ; letter of to General
Fremont, 275, 27C ; reply of to Sec-
retary Stanton, 282 ; impeachment
of, 282-284.
Robinson, Mrs. S. T. L., 89, 164, 184,
196, 312.
Rodrigue, Aristides, 185.
Ropes, Mrs. H. A., 304.
Sanborn, F. B., 154.
Saunders, Fort, capture of, 182.
Sedg^vick, Major John, 183, 185, 186.
Selby, Minerva, testimony of concern-
ing the Pottawatomie raid, 151.
Seward, W. H., on the Compromise of
1S50, C ; character of, 10 ; on the
consequences of the Kansas - Ne-
braska bill, 16 ; member of confer-
ence committee on the Lecompton
biU, 235 ; caUs up the bill for the
admission of Kansas, 266.
Shannon, Wilson, 79, 83, 84; recep-
tion at Shawnee Mission, 82, 83 ;
calls out the militia, 91 ; visits Law-
rence, 98; speech at Franklin, 99;
letter of to the president, 119 ; or-
ders the dispersion of the Topeka
Legislature, 130 ; on the Pottawato-
mie raid, 152 ; proclamation of June
4, 1856, 158 ; negotiations of at Law-
rence, 185, 186 ; removal of, 187 ; on
governing Kansas, 187.
Sherman, John, 108, 114, 235.
Sherman, William, 145, 147, 150, 151.
Shore, Captain S. T., 154, 155.
Silliman, Profes.=or Benjamin, Sr., 31.
Slave-Coide of the first territorial leg-
islature, 56-58.
Smith, (Jerrit, 140, 141.
Smith, General P. F., 189, 192, 203.
Smith, Samuel A., 232, 233.
Snow, F. H., 309.
Snyder, Captain Eli, 245, 246.
Southeast, the, 237, 238, 241.
Spooner, W. B., 30.
" Squatter Sovereign," the, 111, 121,
167.
Stanton, E. M., 274, 282, 297.
Stanton, F. P., appointment of as ter-
ritorial secretary, 211 ; his appor-
tioiunent of tlie territory, 212 ; re-
jects the Oxford and McGee returns,
218 ; assailed by SlieriQ Jones, 219 ;
calls an extra session of the legis-
lature, 226.
Steams, G. L., 31.
Stephens-, A. H. , on the Compromise
of 18.50, 5 ; on the nativity of the
immigrants, 43 ; member of confer-
ence committee on the Lecompton
bill, 235.
Stewart, governor of Missouri, 252,
253.
Stringfellow, B. F., slave-colonization
project, 27 ; on the plans of free-
state men, 39 ; appeal of, to the
South, 173, 174.
Sumner, Charles, 9 ; 128, 129.
Sumner, Colonel E. V., 93 ; disperses
the Topeka Legislative, 131-135 ; on
Shannon's proclamation, 158 ; re-
leases Pate, 159-161 ; disbands Whit-
field's command, 161.
Swift, F. B., 202.
Tecumseh, forays into, 178.
Thayer, Eli, 29, 30.
Thorpe, Jim, 47^9.
Tissenet, M. du, 19.
Titus, Colonel H. T., 121, 183, 184,
186, 200.
Toombs bill, the, 107, 108.
Topeka, 34 ; freebooting in the vicin-
ity of 178, 179 ; destruction of or-
dered by Secretary Woodson, 192.
Topeka Constitution, the, 71 ; in Con-
gress, 74-77 ; character of the move-
ment, 77, 78.
Topeka Legislature, the, 74 ; disper-
sion of, 129 ; third session of, 204,
205 ; fourth session of, 214 ; session
at Lawrence, 257 ; final adjournment
of, 258.
Townsley, James, 143-145, 148.
Tweed, W. M., 13.
Updegraff, Dr. W. W., 190.
Wakarusa War, the, 91-100.
W.nlker, Mathew, 174.
Wnlker, R. J., appointed governor,
210; speech of at Topeka, 213;
watches the state legislature, 214 ;
rejects the Oxford and McGee re-
turns, 218 ; makes a tour of Le-
compton, 219, 220; departure of
from Kansas, 226.
334
INDEX.
Walker, Samuel, on the winter of
1S60-5G, 102, lOa ; consulted by Col-
onel Sumner, 132 ; captures Fort
Titus, 182-185 ; encounter of with
a free-state mob, 186 ; interview of
with Colonel Cooke, 193 ; seizes
" candlebox " election retvums, 230 ;
expedition of to Fort Scott, 247-249.
Webster, Daniel, 5, 13.
Weiner, Theodore, 143, 148.
White, Eev. Martin, 142 ; on the Pot-
tawatomie raid, 151, 152 ; driven
from the territory, 176, 177 ; shoots
a son of John Brown, 190 ; resolu-
tion of in the territorial legislatiure,
206.
Whitfield, J. W., 40, 41, 110, 157, 161,
Wigfall, senator of Texas, 264.
Wilkinson, Allan, 145, 147.
Williams, H. H. 142, 143, 147, 249,
WUliams,J. M. S., 30.
Wilson, Henry, 216.
Women, hardships of, 103 ; heroism
of, 292.
Wood, S. N., 89, 90, 108, 109.
Wood, Captain T. J., 202.
Woodson, Daniel, acting governor, 83,
189 ; letter to Colonel Sumner, 130,
131, 134 ; orders the destruction of
Topeka, 192 ; correspondence of with
the " State Central Committee,"
194, 195.
Wynndotte Constitutional Convention,
262, 263, 264 ; in Congress, 264, 265.
American Ccimmontoealtt)2.
EDITED BY
HORACE E. SCUDDER.
A series of volumes narrating the history of such
States of the Union as have exerted a positive influ-
ence in the shaping of the national government, or
have a striking political, social, or economical history.
The commonwealth has always been a positive force
in American history, and it is believed that no better
time could be found for a statement of the life inher-
ent in the States than when the unity of the nation
has been assured ; and it is hoped by this means to
throw new light upon the development of the country,
and to give a fresh point of view for the study of
American history.
This series is under the editorial care of Mr. Hor-
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of American history and as a writer.
The aim of the Editor will be to secure trustworthy
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" It is clear that this series will occupy an entirely new
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tent and aptly chosen authors, from fresh materials,
in convenient form, and with a due regard to propor-
tion and proper emphasis, they promise to supply
most satisfactorily a positive want."
The series, so far as arranged, comprises the follow-
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NOW READY.
Virginia. A History of the People. By John Esten
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Oregon. The Struggle for Possession. By William
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Professor of Palaeontology, Harvard University, re-
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and an earnest desire to do all parties and religions perfect jus-
tice. The story of the settlement of Virginia is told in full. , . .
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"OREGON."
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the Rocky Mountains. — Magazine of American History (New
York).
"MARYLAND."
In the choice of Mr. William Hand Browne as an author for a
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Maryland, the editor of this valuable series of historical volumes
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political and material development of the Province as well as the
State has enabled him to produce a work of more than usual ex-
cellence. . . . Much that has been hitherto obscure is now pre-
sented to the reader in a clear light. The book is well written
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History.
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skill, thoroughness, and the moderation that of all things befits
historical writing. His narrative, he tells us, has been written al-
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volume of such interest that the reader cannot afford to skip a
line. — A'^ew York Graphic.
"KENTUCKY."
Professor Shaler has made use of much valuable existing ma-
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given us a complete and impartial record of the various stages
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the present time. No one will read this story of the building of
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partially will be the general verdict. — Christian at Work {'iiie.w
York).
Professor Shaler has prepared a succinct, well-balanced, and
readable sketch of this " pioneer Commonwealth." Himself a
native of Kentucky, he writes with the natural affection which a
man of loyal impulses feels for his State, and yet with no ap-
parent bias. . . . The volume is in every way a worthy addition
to a series which possesses unique value and interest. — Boston
Journal.
A capital example of what a short State history should be. —
Hartford Courant.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston, Mass.
American jIHcn of i^etters^
EDITED EY
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
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This series when completed will form an admi-
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J. Fenimore Cooper. By Prof. T. R. Lounsbury.
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man and of his methods as an author, together with an
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candid book of its kind. — Literary World (London).
"NOAH WEBSTER."
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narrative is so spirited and enthraUing, its descriptions
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coloring, and its pictures so teem with the bustle, the
movement, and the activities of the real life of a by-gone
but most interesting age, that the attention of the reader
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with a sigh of regret for its brevity. — Harper'' s Monthly
Magazine.
It fills completely its place in the purpose of this se-
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"HENRY D. THOREAU."
Mr. Sanborn's book is thoroughly American and truly
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there is a racy flavor in its pages and an amount of exact
knowledge of interesting people that one seldom meets
with in current literature. Mr. Sanborn has done Tho-
reau's genius an imperishable service, — Ajnerican Church
Review (New York).
Mr. Sanborn has written a careful book about a curious
man, whom he has studied as impartially as possible ;
whom he admires warmly but with discretion ; and the
story of whose life he has told with commendable frank-
ness and simplicity. — New York Mail and Express.
It is undoubtedly the best life of Thoreau extant.—
Christian Advocate (New York).
"GEORGE RIPLEY."
Mr. Frothingham's memoir is a calm and thoughtful
and tender tribute. It is marked by rare discrimination,
and good taste and simplicity. The biographer keeps
himself in the background, and lets his subject speak.
And the result is one of the best examples of personal
portraiture that we have met with in a long time. — The
Churc/unan (New York).
He has fulfilled his responsible task with admirable
fidelity, frank earnestness, justice, fine feeling, balanced
moderation, delicate taste, and finished literary skill. It
is a beautiful tribute to the high-bred scholar and gener-
ous-hearted man, whose friend he has so worthily por-
trayed. — Rev. Williatn H. C/iau/ting (London).
"JAMES FENIMORE COOPER."
We have here a model biography. The book is charm-
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notable, and with a humor sparkling, racy, and never
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A^eTU Yoi-k Tribujie.
Prof. Lounsbury's book is an admirable specimen of
literary biography. . . . We can recall no recent addition
to American biography in any department which is supe-
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alive the interest from the first word to the last. — New
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"MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI."
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and the most intellectual of American women, which does
full justice to its subject. The author has had ample
material for his work, — all the material now available,
perhaps, — and has shown the skill of a master in his
use of it. . . . It is a fresh view of the subject, and adds
important information to that already given to the public.
— Rev. Dr. F. H. Hedge, in Boston Advertiser.
He has filled a gap in our literary history with excel-
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'^ommerciai Advertiser (New York).
"RALPH WALDO EMERSON."
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the man whom the artist thus reveals, or the artist him-
self. — Standard (Chicago).
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thies broad and deep. — Philadelphia Press.
"EDGAR ALLAN POE."
Mr. Woodberry has contrived with vast labor to con-
struct what must hereafter be called the authoritative
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Critic (New York).
The best life of Poe that has yet been written, and no
better one is likely to be written hereafter. This is high
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judgment, and the utmost catholicity of spirit. — Contfner-
cial Advertiser (New York).
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and sketching graphically his literary environment and
the main springs of his success. It is one of the best
books of an excellent series. — Buffalo Tijiies.
The work is sober, frank, honest, trustworthy, and em-
inently readable. — The Beacon (Boston).
A delightful biographical study. — Brooklyn Union.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston, Mass.
American Statesmen.
A Series of Biographies of Men conspicuous in the
Political History of the United States.
EDITED BY
JOHN T. MORSE, Jr.
The object of this series is not merely to give a
number of unconnected narratives of men in Ameri-
can political life, but to produce books v/hich shall,
when taken together, indicate the lines of political
thought and development in American history, — ■
books embodying in compact form the result of ex-
tensive study of the many and diverse influences
which have combined to shape the political history of
cur country.
The series is under the editorship of Mr. John T.
Morse, Jr., whose historical and biographical writings
give ample assurance of his special fitness for thii
task. The volumes now ready are as follows: —
John Qni?icy Adams. By John T. Morse, Jr.
Alexander Hamilton. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
y^ohn C. Calhoun. By Dr. H. von Holst.
Andreiv Jackson. By Prof. W. G. Sumner.
John Randolph. By Henry Adams.
James Mofiroe. By Pres. Daniel C. Oilman,
Thomas Jefferson. By John T. Morse, Jr.
Daniel Webster. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
Albert Gallatin. By John Austin Stevens.
James Madison. By Sydney Howard Gay,
John Adams. By John T. Morse, Jr.
John Marshall. By A. B. Magruder.
Samuel Adams. By James K. Hosmer.
IN PREPARATION.
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Martin Van Buren. By Hon. Wm. Dorsheimer.
Others to be announced hereafter. Each biography
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ESTIMATES OF THE PRESS.
"JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."
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just proportion, and judicial candor. — New York Evening
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Mr. Morse has written closely, compactly, intelligently, fear-
lessly, honestly. — New York Times.
"ALEXANDER HAMILTON."
The biography of Mr. Lodge is calm and dignified through-
out. He has the virtue — rare indeed among biographers —
of impartiality. He has done his work with conscientious care,
and the biography of Hamilton is a book which cannot have
too many readers. It is more than a biography ; it is a study
in the science of government. — St. Paul Pioneer-Press.
"JOHN C. CALHOUN."
Nothing can exceed the skill with which the political career
of the great South Carolinian is portrayed in these pages. The
work is superior to any other number of the series thus far, and
we do not think it can be surpassed by any of those that are to
come. The whole discussion in relation to Calhoun's position
is eminently philosophical and just. — The Dial (Chicago).
"ANDREW JACKSON."
Prof. Sumner has, ... all in all, made the justest long esti-
mate of Jackson that has had itself put between the covers of a
book. — AVzw York Times.
One of the most masterly monographs that we have ever had
the pleasure of reading. It is calm and clear. — Providence
yournal.
"JOHN RANDOLPH."
The book has been to me intensely interesting ... It is
rich in new facts and side lights, and is worthy of its place in
the already brilliant series of monographs on American States-
men.— Prof. Moses Coit Tyler.
Remarkably interesting. . . . The biography has all the ele-
ments of popularity, and cannot fail to be widely read. — Hart-
ford Courant.
"JAMES MONROE."
In clearness of style, and in all points of literary workman-
ship, from cover to cover, the volume is well-nigh perfect.
There is also a calmness of judgment, a correctness of taste,
and an absence of partisanship which are too frequently want-
ing in biographies, and especially in political biographies. —
American Literary Churchman (Baltimore).
The most readable of all the lives that have ever been written
of the great jurist. — San Francisco Bulletin.
"THOMAS JEFFERSON."
The book is exceedingly interesting and readable. The at-
tention of the reader is strongly seized at once, and he is carried
along in spite of himself, sometimes protesting, sometimes
doubting, yet unable to lay the book down. — Chicago Standard.
The requirements of political biography have rarely been
met so satisfactorily as in this memoir of Jefferson. — Boston
Journal.
"DANIEL WEBSTER."
It will be read by students of history ; it will be invaluable as
a work of reference ; it will be an authority as regards matters
of fact and criticism ; it hits the key-note of Webster's durable
and ever-growing fame ; it is adequate, calm, impartial ; it is ad-
mirable. — Philadelphia Press.
The task has been achieved ably, admirably, and faithfully. —
Boston Transcript.
"ALBERT GALLATIN."
It is one of the most carefully prepared of these very valu-
able volumes, . . . abounding in information not so readily ac-
cessible as is that pertaining to men more often treated by the
biographer. . . . The whole work covers a ground which the
political student cannot afford to neglect. — Boston Correspom
dent Hartford Courant.
Frank, simple, and straightforward. — New York Tribune.
"JAMES MADISON."
The execution of the work deserves the highest praise. It is
very readable, in a bright and vigorous style, and is marked by
unity and consecutiveness of plan. — The Nation (New York).
An able book. . . . Mr. Gay writes with an eye single to truth,
— The Critic (New York).
"JOHN ADAMS."
A good piece of literary work. ... It covers the ground
thoroughly, and gives just the sort of simple and succinct ac-
count that is wanted. — Evening Post (New York).
A model of condensation and selection, as well as of graphic
portraiture and clear and interesting historical narrative. —
Christian hitelligencer (New York).
"JOHN MARSHALL."
Well done, with simplicity, clearness, precision, and judg-
ment, and in a spirit of moderation and equity. A valuable ad-
dition to the series. — Netv York Tribune.
"SAMUEL ADAMS."
Thoroughly appreciative and sjTnpathetic, yet fair and criti-
cal. . . . This biography is a piece of good work — a clear and
simple presentation of a noble man and pure patriot; it is
written in a spirit of candor and humanity. — Worcester Spy.
A brilliant and enthusiastic book, which it will do every
American much good to read. — The Beacon (Boston).
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN, AND CO., Boston, Mass.
