It is now one-third of a century since Kansas began to be settled.
Great as has been the progress of the States of this Union within this
period, the progress of Kansas has been exceptionally and peculiarly
so. Its chief glory is not in its large agricultural and mineral
resources; it is not in its railroads and lines of telegraph; it is
not in the rapidly increasing population of educated men and women,
but it is in this, that it was not only the first State in the nation,
but the first Commonwealth in the world, to solve the problem of the
drink evil, the giant curse of Christendom, by incorporating
prohibition into its fundamental law.
In union there is strength. Jesus said so. He said, "Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation." And so evidently
does this principle commend itself to the common sense of men, that we
have engraved on our national ensign the motto, "_E Pluribus Unum_"
--one out of many.
How did such growth in Kansas come to be? Not in division, but in
union. We have thought it would do us good to look squarely in the
face that hard, cruel, and bloody period when it seemed the business
of the people to cut each other's throats. But cutting each other's
throats does not create such growth as we have had in Kansas.
Two peoples came together in Kansas, one from the South and one from
the North. They were of one original stock, but circumstances had
intervened and made them two peoples. For two years this bloody strife
had been going on. It is said that in revolutions men live fast. It
was two years, if we count the time by the revolutions of the earth
around the sun, but if we count by the experience men had gained, it
was many years.
Dr. Gihon tells that when Gov. Geary disbanded this Missouri army on
the Wakarusa, there grew up a marked antagonism of sentiment among its
leaders. He says: "Some of the more judicious of the officers were not
only willing but anxious to obey this order, whilst others, resolved
upon mischief, yielded a very reluctant assent." There was really a
large majority that accepted the result with hearty good will, but
there was also a small and malcontent minority determined on mischief.
Gen. B. F. Stringfellow, because of the vehement zeal with which he
had addicted himself to the enterprise of making Kansas a slave State,
had won for himself a national notoriety. He had staked life and good
fame and everything on the final issue of his work, yet himself and
his law partner, Peter T. Abell, went back from the Wakarusa never to
lift a finger again in that business. Mr. S. is a high-spirited,
hot-blooded, proud-spirited Virginian. His law partner, Col. Abell,
had a temper as unbending as Andrew Jackson, and did to the day of his
death hold a faith in the institution of slavery as abiding as John C.
Calhoun. But he was a wise and a just man, and both himself and Mr.
Stringfellow recognized the fact that, with such a population as had
come into Kansas, its becoming a free State was only a question of
time; and both these men were too sagacious to be found fighting
against fate. Mr. S. had always relished a joke, and, when rallied by
his friends on his sudden abandonment of this enterprise, he
facetiously replied: "Yes, I did try to make Kansas a slave State; but
I could not do it without slaves, and the South would not send slaves,
and so I had to give it up." From the time these gentlemen returned
from the Wakarusa there was a general softening of the asperities of
feeling of the people of Atchison and vicinity, and one year after
they were prepared to announce to the Free State people, "You deal
fairly with us, and we will deal fairly with you"--and they made their
words good by deeds, for they took Free State men into partnership
with themselves in the management of the Atchison Town Company.
But by this change Robert S. Kelley found "Othello's occupation
gone," and the control of the _Squatter Sovereign_ passed into the
hands of John A. Martin, now Governor of Kansas, and "Bob Kelley"
shook off the dust of his feet and walked away, respected for his
bravery and for his outspoken honesty and sincerity, even by those
that did not love him.
The writer will tell of his last interview with the South Carolinians
in a future chapter of these Recollections.
Peter T. Abell and Gen. B. F. Stringfellow were State's rights men in
their political opinions, and, therefore, according to the light that
was in them, owed their allegiance to the State of Kansas; and from
that allegiance they never swerved to the breadth of a hair. Still,
the people of the South were their brethren, and they gave to them
their profoundest sympathy during that bloody struggle that was to
decide whether the South should be an independent nation. Let us admit
that this did put these gentlemen in a strait betwixt two, like Paul,
the Apostle, but they never swerved to the right hand nor to the left.
We have, with some particularity, drawn out the history of the two
most distinguished of the Southern leaders, because that, with slight
change, it would be the biography of a great number of citizens of
Kansas that came from the South. Now, who does not see that here is
the basis of hearty co-operation, whether in the church or in the
world, of men from the South or from the North? provided always we can
take into our hearts the law of love: "All things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law
and the prophets."
In further illustration of this remark we will relate an incident
concerning a Disciple, who will come prominently before us in the
formation of our first missionary society. Spartan Rhea was from
Missouri, and belonged to a family intensely Southern in their
convictions. He was commissioned a justice of the peace by the
Territorial authorities. A horse had been stolen by the Kickapoo
Rangers from Gains Jenkins, of Lawrence. Gov. Geary requested Bro.
Rhea to recover the horse, and he did so with some peril to himself,
and made a journey to Lawrence to restore the animal to its proper
owner. He sought to make it evident that the men of his party wanted
justice done.
But Dr. Gihon also tells us that there was at the Wakarusa a small
faction of irreconcilables, who, if they could do nothing else, could
at least curse.
"Gen. Clarke said he was for pitching into the United
States troops rather than abandon the objects of the expedition. Gen.
Maclean didn't see any use of going back until they had whipped the
Abolitionists. Sheriff Jones was in favor, now that they had
sufficient force, of wiping out Lawrence and all the Free State towns.
And these and others cursed Gov. Geary for his interference in their
well-laid plans.
"The broad ground assumed by these rabid leaders of the Pro-slavery
party in Kansas was, that an equilibrium of the slave power must be
maintained at any sacrifice in the American Union, and this could only
be effected by increasing the slave States in proportion with the
free. Whilst, therefore, the South was willing to give Nebraska to the
North, they demanded that Kansas should be ceded to the South. It was
of little consequence what number of Northern men located in
Kansas--they had no right to come unless with the intention to make it
a slave State."
This malcontent minority did, therefore, become a dangerous and
revolutionary faction, entertaining criminal purposes, which they were
ready to carry out by desperate methods. They were also in possession
of dangerous elements of power. They controlled the Territorial
Legislature, and all the Territorial judges were parties in this
conspiracy. Dr. Gihon testifies that "every federal officer in the
Territory, and every Territorial officer from the supreme judges to
the deputy marshals, sheriffs and clerks, were wedded to the slave
power, and pledged at all hazards to its extension."
But daylight had already begun to dawn. Some of the wisest Pro-slavery
men in the Territory were beginning to call a halt, and to say: "We
will travel no further in this road in which we are being led by these
desperate and scheming adventurers."