THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS
Eli Thayer and His Emigrant Aid Scheme--Reports in Regard to its
Character and Purposes--The Missouri "Border Ruffian" of
1854--Nebraska for the North and Kansas for the South--General
Atchison--Dr. Charles Robinson--The First Party of Emigrants--The
"Platte County Self-defensive Association"--The Founding of
Lawrence--First Invasion of the Missourians--Governor A. H.
Reeder--The Second Invasion of the Missourians and the Election of the
Delegate to Congress--The Indignation of the North--The Republican
Party--The Third Invasion of the Missourians--Governor Reeder and the
Territorial Elections--The Organization of the First Legislature of
Kansas Territory--The Topeka Constitution--The Removal of Governor
Reeder; and His Election as Congressional Delegate--Establishment of
the "Free-state" Government--The First Violence--The "Free-state"
Government and the Administration--The New Governor, Shannon, and the
"Law and Order" Party--John Brown--The President's Proclamation--The
Congressional Committee to the Territory--Application for
Admission--The "Treason Indictments"--The Sacking of Lawrence--The
Attack on Senator Sumner--The Pottawattomie Massacres--The Battle at
Black Jack--The Governor's Proclamation, Enforced by United States
Soldiers--The Passage of the Bill for the Admission of Kansas by the
House--Dispersal of the "Free-state" Legislature by Colonel
Sumner--The "Free-state" Directory--The Treaty of August 17th--The New
Invasion from Missouri--General Smith's Attitude Toward Invaders--The
failure of "Popular Sovereignty" in the Territories--The New Governor
Establishes Peace by Means of the Army of the United States--The
Judicial Contribution to Kansas History.
The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the purchase of nearly fifty
thousand square miles of territory {408} from Mexico on the Southern
boundary of New Mexico, and the issue of a manifesto from Ostend by
the Ministers of the United States to Great Britain, France, and
Spain, Messrs. Buchanan, Mason, and Soule, advising the acquisition of
Cuba by the United States, together with the preparation of
filibustering expeditions in the South for the execution of this and
similar designs, all coming within the same year, 1854, seemed to be
sufficient evidence of a fixed plan among the slaveholders for the
extension of slavery and the increase of the number of slaveholding
Commonwealths in the Union, and roused the people of the North to an
appreciation of the impending danger and to extraordinary exertions
for meeting the same and warding it off.
[Sidenote: Eli Thayer and his emigrant aid scheme.]
During the debate upon the Kansas-Nebraska bill in Congress, it does
not seem to have been generally appreciated that it might, after all,
turn out to be a Free-soil measure, and that the question whether it
would be such or not in a specific case resolved itself into the
problem of immigration. There lived, however, in the town of
Worcester, Mass., a shrewd, far seeing business man, with whose
shrewdness, however, ideality and patriotism were mingled in an
uncommon degree, who immediately comprehended the situation from this
point of view. This man was the now well known and universally honored
Eli Thayer. Before the Kansas-Nebraska bill had become law, the idea
in his mind had ripened into a wide-reaching plan. This plan was the
organization of an emigrant aid society, with an immense capital, the
purpose of which should be to foster emigration from the Northern
Commonwealths and the European states into the Territories and the
slaveholding Commonwealths of the Union, to the end that a Free-soil
population should gain control of them, and prohibit or abolish
slavery in them by their {409} own local acts. Mr. Thayer reasoned
with himself that masters would be very timid about immigrating into a
Territory with their slaves until the question should be determined
whether slavery should have a legal existence in the Territory, while
men without such impediments would go boldly forward and occupy the
country, and vote the free status for the Territory; and again, that
with only about one-fourth of the white population of the slaveholding
Commonwealths pecuniarily interested in slavery, the immigration of a
few thousand active anti-slavery men into these would finally turn the
balance at the polls against the further existence of the institution
in the slaveholding Commonwealths themselves. The plan was so
comprehensive that most of Mr. Thayer's friends thought it visionary,
and he modified it, after having obtained his charter from the
legislature of Massachusetts, limiting it to the settlement of the
Territories, and especially to that of Kansas Territory, by
anti-slavery men. The organization, as thus finally effected, counted
among its directors some of the purest, most patriotic, and most
capable men of the country--Mr. A. A. Lawrence, Dr. Samuel Cabot, Mr.
John Lowell, Mr. Moses H. Grinnell, Rev. Edward E. Hale, Rev. Horace
Bushnell, Professor Benjamin Silliman, and others of the like fame and
fortune. The way in which they proposed to accomplish their purpose
was by lessening the hardships of the journey to the distant country,
and the hardships of life in the new country. They proposed to
organize the emigrants into companies, procure transportation for them
at the most favorable rates, build hotels, boarding-houses, mills,
school-houses, churches--in a word to send capital in advance of
population, in order to attract a good, law-abiding population by
planting for them the advantages and conveniences of civilization in
the new country. It was a {410} noble scheme, and none the less so
because of the idea of making it pay ultimately as a business venture.
[Sidenote: Not an entirely new thing in American history.]
[Sidenote: Denunciations of it as an odious innovation.]
It cannot be said that it was a movement entirely new in American
history, although this was charged by many of the politicians, both of
the North and of the South. A number of the American colonies were
originally planted under the auspices of corporations in the
motherland, and others were formed by companies of immigrants for the
purpose of securing more freedom than the Old World afforded. It is
difficult to see how any objection could have been found to such an
association, animated with such motives and purposes, and operating
through such means, and yet it was charged, even by Northern men, with
the responsibility for all the outrages perpetrated in Kansas during
the stormy period of 1855-56. Even the President of the United States
denounced it with great severity.
The view held by the President and his friends, both of the North and
of the South, was that no aid should be allowed to be given, and no
incentive offered, by any person or organization to any other person,
to go to, and settle in, the common Territories of the Union, but that
every emigrant should go entirely upon his own impulse, and be
sustained entirely by his own means. This they regarded as the only
natural and fair method for carrying into effect the principle of
popular sovereignty in the Territories. Such a view was a perfect
travesty of popular liberty, and manifests the tyranny which slavery
was imposing upon the minds of freemen.
[Sidenote: The organization of Mr. Thayer's company.]
Mr. Thayer's company was never organized under its original charter,
but under a charter obtained in 1855. During the period when the
counter movements, to be described, were set on foot against it in
Missouri, it had no corporate existence at all, but was a movement
{411} conducted by three private gentlemen, Mr. Thayer, Mr. Lawrence,
and Mr. J. M. S. Williams. Moreover, the establishments which they
founded in Kansas were open to use by immigrants from any and every
part of the Union, or of the world, without distinction. Such was the
organization which was made the justification, or better the
subterfuge, for excesses, which had never before been committed in the
history of the building of the Commonwealths of the Union.
[Sidenote: Reports in regard to its character and purposes.]
During the early summer of 1854, exaggerated and false reports in
regard to the character, purposes, and means of the proposed Emigrant
Aid Company were circulated through Missouri and the entire South. It
was said that an organization, chartered by the legislature of
Massachusetts, possessing an immense capital, was preparing to
abolitionize Kansas by means of military colonies, recruited from the
slums of the Eastern cities, and planted in Kansas with all the
munitions of war, to be used not only when necessary for their own
defence, but for keeping out immigrants from the South. The notorious
B. F. Stringfellow, co-editor with one Kelly of the _Squatter
Sovereign_, a paper published at Atchison, which professed to be the
organ of the Washington Government in western Missouri, rang the
changes upon these misrepresentations in his newspaper, and advised
that the emigrants sent out by the Aid Society be met with the weapons
of their choice, which he charged were those of violence.
[Sidenote: The Missouri "border ruffian" of 1854.]
[Sidenote: Nebraska for the North and Kansas for the South.]
The population of western Missouri was then such as to receive ready
impression from such representations, and respond heartily to such
counsel. This region was then the frontier between civilization and
savagery, and into it had gathered a horde of desperate characters,
{412} vulgar, fearless, brutal, without respect for civilization or
reverence for God, usually inflamed with whiskey and stained with
tobacco, gambling by day and jayhawking by night, always ready for any
adventure which promised fun, blood, or booty. It is true that they
had no special interest in slavery. They were simply the ready
material out of which the slaveholders of Missouri might recruit their
mercenaries for any villainous work which might be found necessary.
Such was the Missouri "border ruffian" of 1854. It must not be
understood that western Missouri contained no other sort of people.
There were many generous-hearted, fair-minded, upright men there,
among both the slaveholders and the non-slaveholders, who would no
sooner have done wrong than suffered wrong. Most of them felt,
however, that Kansas for the South and slavery, and Nebraska for the
North, was the fair thing, the only fair thing, the thing understood
and intended in the organization of the two Territories by one Act,
and that any attempt on the part of the North to make Kansas a
non-slaveholding Territory was a breach of faith, which ought to be
resisted by the South, and especially by Missouri.
[Sidenote: General Atchison.]
General D. R. Atchison was such a man, and such was his view of the
case. He was, at the time, the leading man of western Missouri, had
represented Missouri in the Senate of the United States, and had been
president _pro tem._ of the Senate. His opinion and his advice
naturally determined the course which the people of western Missouri
would pursue toward Kansas. In justice to his memory, however, it must
be said that, while he was resolved to make Kansas a slaveholding
Territory, and then a slaveholding Commonwealth, his presence and
counsel exerted a moderating influence upon his fierce and reckless
followers. He {413} left Washington soon after the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, and repaired to the scene of the coming conflict,
for the purpose of organizing and conducting his forces.
[Sidenote: Dr. Charles Robinson.]
In June of 1854, Mr. Thayer, Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Williams invited
Dr. Charles Robinson, of Fitchburg, Mass., to meet them in council, in
regard to the projects of the Emigrant Aid Company. Dr. Robinson was a
prominent "forty-niner," and the leader of the California squatters in
the war against the Sutter land claims. He was shrewd, calm,
courageous, and full of expedients. These qualities, together with his
large experience in organizing the forces of an embryonic
Commonwealth, fitted him exactly for the work which Mr. Thayer and his
colleagues were seeking to accomplish. Dr. Robinson was not an
Abolitionist, and neither was Thayer, Lawrence, nor Williams. They
were simply working to prevent the extension of slavery. They were all
Whigs or Free-soil Democrats. They were thus by their moderation in
principles and their conservatism in character admirably fitted to
undertake the great work of making Kansas a free Commonwealth.
[Sidenote: Mr. C. H. Branscomb.]
The conference resulted in the sending of Dr. Robinson to the front to
inspect the Territory of Kansas and make arrangements for settlements.
Accompanied by Mr. C. H. Branscomb, a young lawyer, of Holyoke, Mass.,
he started for Kansas in the last days of June, 1854. They went by way
of St. Louis and Kansas City. When they arrived in Missouri they found
the excitement in reference to the reported doings of the Emigrant Aid
Company already at a high pitch. They heard threats that no
anti-slavery man would be allowed to settle in Kansas, and they heard
of rewards offered for the head of Eli Thayer. They found also that a
goodly number of pro-slavery Missourians had already {414} immigrated
into the Territory, had held a popular convention or assembly at Salt
Creek Valley, at which they had declared slavery to be an existing
institution in the Territory, and called upon its friends to aid in
its firmer establishment and its wider extension.
[Sidenote: Dr. Robinson and Mr. Branscomb in Kansas.]
From Kansas City Mr. Branscomb proceeded alone up the Kansas River to
Fort Riley, while Dr. Robinson went up the Missouri to Fort
Leavenworth. The Doctor found surveyors laying off a town near Fort
Leavenworth, despite the fact that the Government at Washington had
not yet opened the country for purchase. He immediately returned to
Kansas City, where he received a letter from Boston informing him that
the first party of emigrants was on the eve of starting for Kansas,
and instructing him to join them at St. Louis. Upon meeting them at
St. Louis, a letter was handed him asking for his immediate presence
in Boston. He wrote to Mr. Branscomb to join the party at Kansas City
and lead them to a settlement, while he himself hurried to Boston.
[Sidenote: The first party of emigrants.]
Mr. Branscomb and a Colonel Blood, of Wisconsin, who had also been
sent out by Mr. Lawrence, met the emigrants at Kansas City, and, after
a good deal of deliberation, led them to the spot on the Kansas River,
above the confluence of the Wakarusa with the Kansas, on which the
town of Lawrence was afterward built.
[Sidenote: The "Platte County self-defensive association."]
A few days before this first party of emigrants had arrived from the
East, a meeting of residents of Platte County in Missouri took place
at Weston, and, under the lead of B. F. Stringfellow, an organization
was formed, which called itself the "Platte County Self-defensive
Association," with the declared purpose of aiding in the removal of
all persons from the soil of Kansas who might go there through {415}
the aid or protection or guidance of emigrant aid societies in the
North. Other such associations were formed in other localities of
western Missouri, and before the autumn of 1854 had hardly opened,
from five to ten thousand persons, mostly desperate and reckless
characters, were organized in the border counties of western Missouri,
and ready to invade Kansas for the purpose of protecting the settlers
in the Territory from Missouri and the South generally in the
exclusive possession of the Territory.
[Sidenote: The founding of Lawrence.]
In September, the little party of about thirty men, who had pitched
their tents upon the site of the present city of Lawrence, were joined
by Dr. Robinson and S. C. Pomeroy, with the second party from the
East, numbering some two hundred men. Upon the arrival of these the
work of laying out and building the town was begun, and the place was
named, in honor of the strong financial supporter of the Emigrant Aid
enterprise, Lawrence.
[Sidenote: First invasion of the Missourians.]
When the first party arrived at the site they found it occupied by a
single settler, named Stearns. Mr. Branscomb immediately purchased
Stearns' claim and improvements for the company. The Missourians had,
however, rushed into the Territory, at the earliest moment after the
passage of the organic Act, and marked all the best lands as taken,
leaving very little for bona fide settlers. As the result of this
procedure, another claimant to the site of Lawrence soon appeared, one
John Baldwin, and ordered the Yankees to decamp. Robinson proposed
that each settler be left in possession until some authorized tribunal
could pass upon the claims, and declared that his party would hold
possession until removed by a legal act. Baldwin and his party
rejected the proposition, and summoned their Missouri friends to
assist them. Some came, {416} but not enough to overcome the Yankees.
The Yankees stood firm and the Missourians retired, declaring that
they would come again, and breathing out threats of war and bloodshed
upon their return. This was October 6th, 1854, and such was the first
invasion of the Missourians.
[Sidenote: Governor A. H. Reeder.]
On the next day, the Governor of the Territory, the President's
representative, the Hon. A. H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, arrived at
Fort Leavenworth, and began his regime in the Territory. From this
time forward the history of the Territory is the resultant of four
elemental forces in contact with each other--the general Government,
the pro-slavery inhabitants, the anti-slavery inhabitants, and the
Missourians.
Governor Reeder was a genial, intelligent, upright man, a good lawyer
and a fine orator. He was a Union-loving Democrat, and a firm believer
in the doctrine of home rule in the Territories. He declared that he
would maintain peace and order in the Territory, and immediately set
out on a tour of inspection through the Territory. After having
finished this, he caused the Territory to be districted, and ordered
the election of a delegate to Congress.
[Sidenote: The second invasion of the Missourians and the election of
the delegate to Congress.]
There is little question that at the moment a majority of the bona
fide settlers in the Territory were pro-slavery, and would have
elected the delegate to Congress without any outside aid, but the
pro-slavery men in Kansas and Missouri had become excited by the
rumors of the vast schemes in the East for planting anti-slavery
military colonies in the Territories, and also in the slaveholding
Commonwealths, and were in no state of mind to think quietly and act
calmly. They felt that they must make sure of all of the elements of
government in {417} Kansas at the outset. The Missourians consequently
committed the fatal and unnecessary blunder of going over into Kansas,
to the number of some seventeen hundred or more, and voting for the
pro-slavery candidate for Congress, J. W. Whitfield, who was thus
elected by a large majority. Without the vote of the Missourians,
Whitfield had still a substantial majority, but this travesty of the
principle of home rule in the Territories, this pollution of
republican principles at the very fountain-head, roused the North to
the highest pitch of indignation.
[Sidenote: The indignation of the North.]
This election took place on November 29th, 1854. Had it occurred
before the Congressional elections of that year, it would most
probably have caused a much more rapid development of the Republican
party than happened, and the election of the Republican candidate for
the presidency two years later. As it was, the struggle over the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and its final passage, had started the
amalgamation of the Northern Whigs, the Free-soilers, and the Northern
Democrats who opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, into the
Republican party, and had, in the Congressional elections of 1854,
been the chief cause in changing a Democratic majority of more than
eighty in the House of Representatives into a minority by more than
seventy.
[Sidenote: The Republican party.]
Of course the disintegration of the two old parties would, under
ordinary conditions, proceed slowly. The members of neither were
willing to enter the organization, or bear the name, of the other. As
the Northern Whigs had unanimously opposed the repeal of the
restriction of 1820 upon slavery in the Territories, it was not
unnatural that they should at first feel that they were already the
anti-slavery-extension party, and that all persons holding to that
principle should be {418} willing to march under their banner. Some of
the more liberal minds among them in the Northwest, especially in
Wisconsin and Michigan, had, already in the summer of 1854, joined
with the Free-soilers, and the Democrats who opposed the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise, to form a new party, under a new name, the
Republican party, which, indeed, had no other principle than that
already represented by the Northern Whigs, but which did not repel the
Democrats by requiring them to desert to their old enemy. The great
majority of both Whigs and Democrats were, however, rather waiting to
see how home rule in the Territories would work, and were in the
meantime busying themselves, in large degree, with other questions,
chief among which was the question whether the country ought not to be
preserved against foreign Roman Catholic immigration, the question
which gave rise to the short-lived Know-nothing party, with its
principle of America for Americans, the only real service of which
movement was the aid which it lent to the dissolution of the Whig
party, and to the preparation of the way for the union of the Northern
Whigs with the anti-slavery-extension elements of the other parties
into the Republican party.
The interference of the Missourians in the first election in Kansas,
demonstrating the impracticability of "popular sovereignty" in the
Territories, was the very thing necessary to hasten the development of
the Republican party, but it came too late to influence the elections
of 1854, and the shock which it caused lost some of the sharpness of
its effect before the autumn of 1856.
The Congress to which Whitfield presented his credentials was the one
whose House of Representatives had been chosen in 1852. His claim to
his seat was at first not resisted, and the first step in the
programme for making Kansas a slaveholding Territory was thus
successful.
{419} [Sidenote: The Territorial legislature.]
Of far more importance, however, than the election of the delegate to
Congress was the election of the members of the first Territorial
legislature, since, according to the principle of "popular
sovereignty" in the Territories, it would have the power probably of
determining primarily the legality or illegality of slavery in Kansas.
In February of 1855, the Territorial authorities took a census of the
inhabitants of the Territory, and it was estimated that there were
between eight and nine thousand bona fide settlers in the Territory,
about three thousand of whom were voters. It was also found that about
four-sevenths of the legal voters had emigrated from the South. It is
not probable, however, that all of these were pro-slavery men.
[Sidenote: The third invasion of the Missourians.]
March 13th following was the day appointed for the election. All
through the month the Missourians of the border counties were
assembling in their "Blue Lodges," arming, organizing and drilling. On
the day of the election some four or five thousand of them marched,
fully armed, to the voting places in the more eastern districts of the
Territory, and compelled the acceptance of their ballots by the
regular judges of the elections, or by judges appointed by themselves.
About six thousand three hundred votes were cast at this election, and
it was estimated that three-fourths of them were cast by the Missouri
invaders. Some of them pretended to be residents of the Territory, but
most of those who thought it necessary to justify the procedure at all
claimed that the Emigrant Aid Company had sent out men for the sole
purpose of voting, and that their own action was retaliatory. The
invasion was a notoriously public deed. The Missourians came in
companies, with music and banners, and made no attempt at concealment.
The {420} Governor of the Territory resided, at the time, near the
Missouri border, and probably had ocular proof of the outrage. The
anti-slavery men thought that he would set the entire election aside.
He did call for protests, and appointed April 5th as the time for
hearing the same and canvassing the returns.
When the day arrived protests had been received from only six or seven
of the eighteen election districts, and affected the elections of not
more than three of the thirteen persons returned as elected to the
upper house, and of not more than nine of the twenty-six persons
returned as elected to the lower house, of the Territorial
legislature.
[Sidenote: Governor Reeder and the Territorial elections.]
Dr. Robinson and the anti-slavery men who had gathered about the
Governor as a sort of body-guard wanted the Governor to declare the
entire election null and void, but the Governor was a good lawyer, and
he quickly determined that he could not pronounce an election null and
void in a district from which no charges of fraud were presented, on
account of fraud charged in some other district, and that he could not
refuse his certificate to any one elected on the face of the returns,
if nobody disputed the regularity of his election. Upon examining the
disputed cases he decided to refuse his certificate to eight of the
twelve persons chosen on the face of the disputed returns. Thirty-one
members were thus duly qualified to take their seats, and new
elections for eight seats were ordered. Of these thirty-one,
twenty-eight were counted as pro-slavery men, a large majority in both
houses.
Dr. Robinson and the anti-slavery men found great fault with the
Governor, and charged him with being frightened out of his original
purpose to set the entire election aside, but it is difficult to see
how he could have done this without protests against the return of
each {421} and every person. It would certainly have been an arbitrary
procedure to have done so. If the anti-slavery men were not brave
enough to protest, it certainly did not become them to taunt the
Governor with backing down, when they gave him nothing upon which to
base the refusal to issue his certificates.
[Sidenote: The new elections to the legislative seats unfilled at the
first elections.]
The 22nd day of the following month (May) was appointed for holding
the elections for the seats declared unfilled by the Governor. The
anti-slavery candidates were elected to all of them. The pro-slavery
men ignored the election. This meant that those holding the Governor's
certificate by virtue of this election would be rejected by the
legislature itself, and those returned as elected at the first
election would be seated, under the power of the legislature to
determine finally upon the legitimacy of its members. This happened as
soon as the legislature assembled and organized itself in the first
days of July.
[Sidenote: The organization of the first legislature of Kansas
Territory.]
The legislature as thus organized contained only a single anti-slavery
man, a Mr. Houston, and he voluntarily vacated his seat a few weeks
later in great disgust. From a technical point of view this
legislature was a legitimate body, but from a moral and a political
point of view it did not represent the people of the Territory. It
represented simply the pro-slavery party, and used its powers in utter
disregard of justice and right reason.
[Sidenote: The problem for the anti-slavery men. Dr. Robinson's plan.]
The great problem for the anti-slavery men now was to repudiate the
jurisdiction of this legislature without rebelling against the general
Government and its agent in the Territory, the Governor. Dr. Robinson
had had the experience in California of aiding to make a Commonwealth
in the Union, without the transitional period of {422} Territorial
organization. He now applied this experience to the solution of the
Kansas question.
The idea of Dr. Robinson and his colleagues was, to hold a convention
of the people of the Territory for the purpose of framing an organic
statute for Commonwealth government, which, after adoption by the
people, should be sent to Congress, with a petition for the admission
of Kansas into the Union as a Commonwealth. They proposed in the
meantime to get on without any Territorial government as best they
could.
Their idea was, in the second place, to ignore the Territorial
government altogether as bogus, but to yield obedience to the
officials of the general Government in the Territory. This distinction
might be made, so far as the Territorial legislature was concerned,
upon the "popular sovereignty" principle. The difficulty was in
applying it to the Governor and the Territorial judges appointed by
the President. To distinguish between their functions in such a way as
to deny their authority when administering the acts of the Territorial
legislature, and yield to it when administering the acts of Congress
in the Territory, was certainly a very delicate procedure, if possible
at all. Such distinctions would have to be very clearly understood,
and very correctly applied in each case, in order to avoid the charge
of rebellion and treason.
[Sidenote: Conflict between the Governor and the Territorial
legislature.]
Had the Governor remained true to the legislature it is possible that
this plan of rebellion against the Territorial government might have
been suppressed at the outset, but such was not to be the course of
history. He called the legislature to assemble at Pawnee on July 2nd.
It remained in session there only four days. It did little more than
unseat the persons holding the Governor's certificate by virtue of the
second election, and seat {423} those to whom he had denied his
certificate on account of fraud at the first election. It then
adjourned itself to Shawnee Mission, a place nearer the Missouri
border. The Governor denied the power of the legislature to do this,
since by the Act organizing the Territory, the legislature must first
meet at the time and place appointed by the Governor, and was vested
by the Act with power, thereafter, only over the time of commencing
its regular sessions. The Governor vetoed the proposition of the
legislature to change its place of meeting. The legislature passed the
project over his veto, and removed to Shawnee Mission; after which the
Governor broke off all official connection with it. There is little
doubt that the pro-slavery legislature wanted to be where it could be
easily supported by the Missourians, and that the Governor considered
this a menace to his own independence, and an outrage upon the people
of Kansas, and upon the principle of "popular sovereignty" in the
Territories.
[Sidenote: Sharpe's riles.]
The attitude now assumed by the Governor toward the legislature at
Shawnee Mission was a great encouragement to the anti-slavery men. Dr.
Robinson had already sent to Mr. Thayer for Sharpe's rifles, and, at
the time of the Governor's quarrel with the legislature, a sufficient
number of these had arrived to furnish almost every anti-slavery man
with a good outfit.
[Sidenote: Factional movements among the anti-slavery men suppressed.]
Dr. Robinson had, at the same time, overcome the attempts of James S.
Lane to separate the anti-slavery men into parties, by the
organization of a Democratic party in Kansas. In a powerful speech at
Lawrence, on July 4th, 1855, the Doctor convinced his hearers of the
necessity for all anti-slavery men standing together until Kansas
should be admitted into the Union as a {424} non-slaveholding
Commonwealth. It was in this address that the Doctor repudiated the
existing legislature as a Missouri institution, advising resistance to
the execution of its acts, and made his noted declaration, that, if
slavery in Missouri was impossible with freedom in Kansas, then
slavery in Missouri must die in order that freedom in Kansas might
live.
[Sidenote: Excitement in Missouri and throughout the country over the
"Free-state" movement.]
These bold utterances startled the North and the South, the people of
Kansas and, especially, the people of Missouri. This speech, together
with the letter of M. F. Conway to Governor Reeder, resigning his seat
in the legislature and repudiating that body "as derogatory to the
respectability of popular government and insulting to the virtue and
intelligence of the age," set the "Free-state" scheme in motion.
[Sidenote: The enactments of the Territorial legislature.]
The enactments of the Territorial legislature greatly aided the
movement by demonstrating to the people what they had to expect from
the dominance of that body. They made the decoying, or aiding therein,
of a slave away from his master in the Territory grand larceny,
punishable by death. They made the decoying into Kansas of any slave
away from his master in any other place, for the purpose of effecting
his freedom, grand larceny, punishable by death. And they made the
denial of the right to hold slaves in Kansas, either by word of mouth
or in writing or printing, a felony, punishable by imprisonment at
hard labor for not less than two years.
[Sidenote: The North aroused by this legislation.]
When the knowledge of this infamous legislation spread throughout the
North, it roused that section of the country to new efforts for
peopling Kansas with anti-slavery men, who would rescue the Territory
from the reign of such laws and such law-makers. The necessary
reinforcements {425} were being assembled in the North when the
creation of the "Free-state" government was begun.
[Sidenote: The Topeka constitution.]
A series of conventions, beginning with the convention at Lawrence on
August 14th, and culminating with that assembled at Topeka on the 23rd
day of October, 1855, consolidated the anti-slavery men in the
Territory into the "Free-state" party, constructed a temporary
election machinery, and produced, finally, a proposed Commonwealth
constitution, which, in addition to the provisions for the structure
of a Commonwealth government for Kansas, contained a clause
prohibiting slavery in Kansas after July 4th, 1857, and excluding
negroes from residence in Kansas after that date.
[Sidenote: The removal of Governor Reeder; and his election as
Congressional delegate.]
In the meantime Governor Reeder had been removed by the President from
the governorship of the Territory, and the Secretary of the Territory,
one Daniel Woodson, a pro-slavery man, had become acting Governor for
the time being. Ex-Governor Reeder now went over to the anti-slavery
men, and was chosen by them on October 9th, at the same election at
which the delegates to the Topeka convention were chosen, as delegate
to Congress. Over twenty-seven hundred votes were cast at this
election.
[Sidenote: The ratification of the Topeka constitution; and the
establishment of the "Free-state" government.]
On December 15th, the Topeka constitution was submitted to the
suffrages of the people. Seventeen hundred and thirty-one votes were
cast in favor of its adoption, and forty-six votes against it. The
pro-slavery men took no part in the voting. It is probable, however,
that a majority of the legal voters in Kansas ratified this
constitution. On January 5th, 1856, the elections for the legislative
members and officials of the government provided by this constitution
were held, and Dr. Robinson was chosen Governor.
{426} [Sidenote: The first violence.]
It was at this election that the conflict of arms between the
"Free-state" government and the Territorial government began. A
Territorial military company, called the Kickapoo Rangers, threatened
to interfere with the elections at the town of Easton. A captain, R.
P. Brown, organized a company of "Free-state" men at Leavenworth, and
went to Easton to protect the ballot box. As the evening drew on a
fight ensued, in which a Territorial man was killed. The next day the
Leavenworth company was attacked, on their return, by the Kickapoo
company, and Captain Brown was taken prisoner. Some movements were in
progress for trying him, when one of the ruffians put an end to the
matter by striking him on the head with a hatchet.
[Sidenote: The "Free-state" government and the Administration.]
Two local governments of Kansas were now in existence. One, the
Territorial, had been recognized as legitimate by the Washington
Government. What, then, was the other? Was it a body of
insurrectionists? If so, must the general Government suppress it? And,
if the general Government must suppress it, must it do so at once, or
should it wait until the insurrectionists should undertake to exercise
some governmental power? These were knotty problems for the
Administration at Washington, but they were problems which had to be
solved. From the inaction of the Washington authorities we must
conclude that the prevailing view with them was that the new
government in Kansas must do something before it could be dealt with.
[Sidenote: The acts of the "Free-state" legislature.]
The "Free-state" legislature met March 4th, 1856. It prepared a
memorial to Congress, praying for the entrance of Kansas as a
Commonwealth into the Union, under the Topeka constitution. It elected
Reeder and Lane United States Senators. It appointed a committee to
put the {427} legislative business into shape for the next session.
And it passed a few laws.
None of these acts were treasonable. Treason, by the Constitution, is
levying war against the United States or any of the "States," or
adhering to those who are doing so, giving them aid and comfort; and
levying war has been defined by the Supreme Court to be the actual
assembly of armed men for the treasonable purpose. Not even the
voluntary submission to the laws passed by the "Free-state"
legislature was treason or rebellion. The danger point would be
reached when the "Free-state" government should undertake to enforce
its laws, or should interpose armed resistance to the enforcement of
the laws of the United States, or of the acts of the Territorial
government, which government had been recognized as legitimate by the
general Government, which was, in fact, but the local agent of the
general Government.
[Sidenote: Governor Robinson's message.]
Governor Robinson understood the situation. In his message to the
legislature he recommended "no course to be taken in opposition to the
general Government, or to the Territorial government, while it shall
remain with the sanction of Congress."
[Sidenote: The new Governor, Shannon, and the "law and order" party.]
In the midst of these movements by the "Free-state" men, the
pro-slavery men organized themselves more closely for aggressive
action. The new Governor appointed by the President, Wilson Shannon,
ex-Governor of Ohio, a man of intelligence and high character, arrived
at Shawnee Mission on September 3rd, 1855. The pro-slavery men did not
like his appointment. They wanted the acting Governor, Woodson, to be
made Governor. However, they received the new Governor with much pomp
and ceremony, and succeeded in imposing upon him, at the outset, their
view of the situation. On {428} November 14th, they held a pro-slavery
convention at Leavenworth. They called it an assembly of "the lovers
of law and order." The Governor presided over it, and made a rather
violent speech, in which he declared that the Territorial government
had the support of the Administration at Washington. The practical
work of this convention was the organization of the "law and order"
party; that is, the party for enforcing the acts and authority of the
Territorial government.
[Sidenote: The attempt to enforce the Territorial laws upon the
"Free-state" men.]
Naturally a dispute about a land claim furnished the occasion for
trying the powers of the Territorial government. In the course of this
quarrel, which took place in the latter part of November, 1855, a
pro-slavery man, named Coleman, killed a "Free-state" man, named Dow.
The friends of Dow gathered about the spot where his dead body was
found, and indulged in threats of vengeance. Among them was one Jacob
Branson, who uttered threats against one Buckley, as the instigator of
the murder of his friend. Buckley secured a peace warrant against
Branson, and put it in the hands of one S. J. Jones, the sheriff,
under the Territorial government, of Douglas County. The arrest of
Branson under this warrant inaugurated the contest for imposing the
authority of the Territorial government upon the "Free-state" men.
[Sidenote: The Branson rescue.]
Sheriff Jones arrested Branson, and started for Lecompton with him, by
way of Lawrence. His purpose in going through the head-quarters of the
"Free-state" men was undoubtedly to tempt them to the rescue of
Branson. But Branson was rescued several miles away from Lawrence by a
company of "Free-state" men, under the lead of a Captain Abbott. This
party, however, immediately repaired to Lawrence, while the sheriff
went to Franklin, and from {429} this place summoned his Missouri
friends to his aid, and then reported his trouble to the Governor, and
asked for his support.
[Sidenote: The advance of the Missourians on Lawrence.]
The Governor immediately ordered the officers of the Territorial
militia to collect the forces, and march to Lawrence. Although the
sheriff asked for three thousand men, not one hundred residents of the
Territory answered the call of the militia officers; but a great horde
came from Missouri. By December 5th, 1855, more than a thousand
Missourians had arrived, and had encamped upon the Wakarusa, a few
miles to the east of Lawrence. General Atchison was with them.
Naturally the people of Lawrence were much excited, and set about
preparing for defence. They constructed several small forts, and
organized a military force of some six or seven hundred men, pretty
well armed and equipped. They stood a very good chance to win in the
trial of battle, but they resolved, most wisely, to rely upon the
justice of their cause more than upon the power of their arms.
[Sidenote: Lawrence's demand of protection from Governor Shannon.]
The committee of safety, which was directing matters in Lawrence, sent
commissioners to Governor Shannon to enlighten him, from the point of
view of the "Free-state" men, in regard to the situation. They made
their way to Shawnee Mission, where they were coldly received by the
Governor, who charged the "Free-state" men with rebellion against his
government. The commissioners disputed his charge, told him that
nobody in Lawrence had had anything to do with the rescue of Branson,
that his rescuers had been warned out of the town as soon as they came
into it, and had obeyed the warning, and gave him the committee's
message demanding his protection against the invaders.
{430} [Sidenote: Shannon at Lawrence, and his agreement with the
"Free-state" men.]
The Governor was somewhat staggered by these statements, and decided
to go to Lawrence himself, and examine affairs on the spot. This was
just what the "Free-state" men wanted. He arrived in Lawrence on
December 7th. Dr. Robinson and Colonel Lane immediately stated the
situation and the views of the "Free-state" men to him. The Governor
saw, at once, that they were in the right, and could not be attacked.
He recognized, at once, that his task was to send the Missourians out
of the Territory. He entered into a sort of written agreement with the
citizens of Lawrence, in which the people of Lawrence pledged
themselves not to resist the legal service of any criminal process,
but to aid in the execution of the laws, when called on by proper
authority, and the Governor declared that he had no authority to call
upon non-residents of Kansas to aid him in the execution of the laws,
had not done so, and would not do so. The last clause provided that
nothing in the agreement should be taken as a recognition of the
validity of the acts of the Territorial legislature by the
"Free-state" men.
[Sidenote: The retreat of the Missourians.]
The Governor felt that he would have difficulty in reconciling the
Missourians to his agreement, and insisted that Dr. Robinson and
Colonel Lane should accompany him to Franklin, and aid him in his
task. The calm statements of the Governor and of Dr. Robinson
prevailed, and the Missourians saw the error into which they had been
betrayed by the inconsiderate pro-slavery zeal of Sheriff Jones.
General Atchison told his followers plainly that Dr. Robinson's
position was impregnable, and that if they should persist in an attack
upon Lawrence, contrary to the Governor's orders, they were only a
mob. He added, that such a movement was not only without show of
legality, but would ruin the Democratic {431} party, and cause the
election of an Abolitionist President the next year. By these efforts
and representations on the part of the Governor, Dr. Robinson, and
General Atchison, the Missourians were induced to break camp and turn
their faces homeward.
[Sidenote: John Brown.]
At the moment of this victory of the "Free-state" men, won by moral
forces and diplomatic address, appeared the Loki of Kansas
"Free-state" history, John Brown. He mounted a box in one of the
streets of Lawrence, railed and ranted against the settlement which
had been reached, and breathed out words of slaughter and pillage,
until some man of common sense pulled him down, and stopped his
murderous canting babble.
[Sidenote: Shannon's report to the President.]
The Governor reported the affair to the President, expressed to him
his forebodings as to the future, and suggested that he be allowed to
call upon the United States troops stationed at Fort Leavenworth at
his discretion, as a call for the militia would only end in a party
struggle. This communication seems to have opened the eyes of the
President, for the first time, to the true situation.
[Sidenote: The appeal of the "Free-state" men to the President.]
The "Free-state" men now addressed the President and demanded his
protection against another invasion from Missouri, which they claimed
was in preparation. On January 23rd, 1856, the leaders at Lawrence
telegraphed the President that the outrage was on the point of
consummation, and besought the President to issue his proclamation, at
once, forbidding the invasion. At the same time, they informed certain
members of Congress and the Governors of certain Northern
Commonwealths of the impending danger; and they sent commissioners
into the Northern Commonwealths to inform the people of the {432}
North in regard to the situation in Kansas, and to appeal to them to
emigrate thither in sufficient numbers to save the Territory against
the pro-slavery movement.
[Sidenote: The President's proclamation.]
The agitation became now so general throughout the country, that the
President felt constrained to interfere. On February 11th, he issued
his proclamation, in which he warned all persons concerned that "an
attempted insurrection" in the Territory of Kansas or "an aggressive
intrusion into the same" would be resisted by the employment of the
United States troops in Kansas, as well as the local militia; and
called upon all good citizens outside of Kansas to abstain from
intermeddling with the local affairs of the Territory, and upon all
good citizens in Kansas to render obedience to the laws.
[Sidenote: The situation made more embarrassing for the "Free-state"
men.]
The "Free-state" men did not regard the proclamation as particularly
friendly to them. While it forbade invasion, it commanded obedience to
the existing Territorial government within. They were afraid that they
would not be allowed to organize their "Free-state" government,
created by the Topeka constitution. But, as we have seen, the day came
and went for this, without any interference on the part of the
President or the Governor against the movement, although the President
had authorized the Governor to call upon the United States troops at
Fort Leavenworth at his discretion. Under these circumstances it was
certainly the part of wisdom for the "Free-state" men to do nothing
superfluous or sensational in the organization of the new government,
and to delay operations under it for the time being. The question of
the recognition of the "Free-state" movement was before Congress,
under the issue of the contest between Whitfield and Reeder for the
seat in the House of Representatives. The policy, therefore, {433} of
representing the organization of the new government as tentative, and
as conditioned upon the presumption of Congressional recognition, and
as holding its powers in abeyance until that recognition should be
secured, was wise and necessary.
[Sidenote: The Congressional committee to the Territory.]
The discussion of Kansas affairs in the House of Representatives
revolved about the question of the admission of Whitfield or Reeder
from the middle of February to March 19th, 1856, when it was voted to
send a special committee of investigation to the Territory. The
gentlemen selected were Mr. Howard, of Michigan, Mr. Sherman, of Ohio,
and Mr. Oliver, of Missouri. They proceeded to the Territory and
opened their investigations about the middle of April.
[Sidenote: Application for admission.]
A week before this, the memorial from the "Free-state" legislature
praying for the admission of Kansas, as a Commonwealth, under the
Topeka constitution, was presented in both Houses of Congress, and
placed upon the calendar in each. The slavery question was herewith
again before Congress in both principle and detail. The measure which
was intended to put its discussion out of the halls of Congress had
thus, in less than two years, proved itself an utter fiasco.
[Sidenote: Sheriff Jones again at Lawrence; and the attempts to
assassinate him.]
[Sidenote: The outrage repudiated by the "Free-state" men.]
In the Territory the pro-slavery men pursued their policy of bringing
the "Free-state" men into conflict with the general Government. The
"Free-state" men sought just as diligently to avoid it. Both sides
recognized this as the crucial test. By the middle of April, some of
the men who participated in the rescue of Branson had made their way
back to Lawrence, and Sheriff Jones laid his plans for arresting them.
On April 19th, he rode into Lawrence and served a writ upon S. N.
Wood, but the crowd jostled them apart, and Wood escaped. The {434}
Sheriff returned on the next day with more writs, and undertook to
arrest S. F. Tappan. Tappan resisted and struck the Sheriff. Jones
went at once to the Governor, and the Governor gave him a detachment
of United States soldiers. With these he returned to Lawrence, but
they could find no one for whom the Sheriff had a writ. The party
pitched tent at Lawrence to spend the night. After darkness came on,
some wretch, then unknown to the "Free-state" leaders, approached the
tent and shot the Sheriff, wounding him dangerously. This was an
almost irreparable blow to the "Free-state" cause. The very thing
which the "Free-state" leaders had sought most earnestly to avoid had
been thrust upon them by the criminal deed of some meddlesome crank.
The "Free-state" men recognized at once the seriousness of the
situation, and, on the morning following the event, held a meeting, at
which the outrage was repudiated and denounced, and a reward of five
hundred dollars offered for the apprehension of the criminal. Colonel
Sumner, the commander of the United States troops in Kansas, wrote to
Dr. Robinson, urging him to use every effort to move the citizens of
Lawrence to bring the assassin to justice, as his act would be charged
by the pro-slavery men upon the whole community. The Doctor replied at
once that the community repudiated the foul deed, and would certainly
bring the guilty party to justice if he could be found. There was no
municipal government in Lawrence at the time, and Dr. Robinson acted,
in his reply to Colonel Sumner, as a sort of self-constituted
representative of the citizens. He certainly represented the views of
the large majority of them, but there were some who, at the time, knew
who the guilty person was, and gave no sign which would aid in his
discovery.
{435} [Sidenote: Judge Lecompte's charge to the Grand Jury.]
The Sheriff's wound was not fatal, but it was reported that he was
dead, and the Missourians began to organize for another invasion.
Before they were ready, the Territorial judiciary came to their
assistance. Chief Justice Lecompte charged the Grand Jury of Douglas
County, in the early part of May, that resistance to the Territorial
laws was high treason against the United States, and that entering
into combinations for the purpose of making such resistance was
constructive treason, and instructed the body to find true bills
against all persons guilty of such offences. This was a most
astounding piece of jurisprudence. It looked like nothing but a trick
to deprive the "Free-state" men of their leaders, since one arrested
for treason was considered as not having the privilege of bail.
[Sidenote: The "treason indictments."]
The Grand Jury found indictments against nine or ten persons, among
them Robinson, Reeder, and Lane, and also against two newspapers
published in Lawrence, and the Emigrant Aid Company's hotel there. The
indictments were put in the hands of the United States Marshal for the
Territory, J. B. Donaldson. On May 11th, Donaldson issued a
proclamation, declaring that the service of these writs by his deputy
had been resisted in Lawrence, and calling "the law-abiding citizens
of the Territory to appear at Lecompton, as soon as possible, and in
numbers sufficient for the proper execution of the law." As a matter
of fact, only Reeder had resisted service, and had succeeded in
escaping. All the others, except Lane and Wood, were taken into
custody without difficulty. Reeder's justification was that he was at
the moment in attendance, as a witness, upon the Congressional
committee sent to the Territory, and was, therefore, legally exempt
from arrest at the time.
{436} [Sidenote: The Marshal's proclamation in Lawrence.]
The Marshal did not publish his proclamation in Lawrence, but a copy
of it fell into the hands of a Lawrence citizen, who hastened to make
known to the people the peril which was impending. The citizens
already knew of forces being organized, both in the Territory and in
Missouri, against Lawrence, and had demanded the Governor's protection
against them. The Governor had replied that he knew of no force near
or approaching Lawrence, except the posse under the orders of the
United States Marshal and the Sheriff of Douglas County, who had writs
to serve in Lawrence, and that he should not interfere.
[Sidenote: The action of the citizens of Lawrence.]
The citizens of Lawrence now held a meeting and passed formal
resolutions, declaring that the charges contained in the Marshal's
proclamation were untrue, and that the citizens were not only ready to
acquiesce in the service of any judicial writs against them by the
United States Marshal, but to furnish him a posse, if required, to aid
him in the discharge of his duty. And after receiving the Governor's
reply, they appealed to the Marshal, asking him to state his demands,
promising not to resist the service of his processes, but to aid him
in the discharge of his legal duties, and praying his protection
against the lawless bands collecting about their town for the purpose
of its destruction.
[Sidenote: The Marshal's reply.]
The Marshal replied in a flippant and sarcastic manner, saying that
his correspondents must be strangers in Lawrence if they were ignorant
of the demands against the citizens of the town, referring in
exaggerated language to the shooting of Jones, and Reeder's resistance
to his deputy, and to the military organization and equipment of the
people of Lawrence, and declaring that he should execute all processes
in his hands in his own time and way.
{437} [Sidenote: Appeal of the citizens to the Marshal and the
Governor.]
Three days later, on May 17th, the citizens communicated again with
the Marshal, calling his attention to the depredations committed by
the bands around Lawrence, asking if he was responsible for these
bodies, and demanding protection from him against them. At the same
time, the managers of the hotel appealed to the Governor to protect
their property, and carried with them an offer from the citizens to
give up their arms to Colonel Sumner, if he would station a detachment
of United States soldiers in the town for their protection.
[Sidenote: The hotel and the printing offices.]
The Marshal and the Governor thought favorably of this proposition.
They were willing to guarantee the safety of the citizens and their
individual property, but they thought they must consult with the
captains of the squads composing the posse before they could give such
assurances in regard to the hotel and the printing offices. These
persons were found to be determined on the destruction of the printing
offices, certainly, and of the hotel, probably. Colonel Titus, of
Florida, declared that the South Carolina boys in the posse would be
satisfied with nothing short of the destruction of the printing
offices.
The hotel managers and the representatives of the citizens turned
again to the Governor and implored him to send the United States
soldiers for the protection of the town, but he again refused to
interfere; and, finally, when they said to him that they feared the
citizens would be compelled to defend themselves by armed power, and
precipitate the horrors of civil war, he answered angrily, while
striding out of their presence: "War then it is, by God!"
[Sidenote: The sacking of Lawrence.]
On the morning of the 21st, the Marshal's armed force appeared upon
one of the heights overlooking the town, displaying first a white
flag, then a red one, and, lastly, {438} the flag of the United
States. The Deputy-marshal then entered the town with a small posse,
and called the managers of the hotel and several of the citizens to
join his posse and assist him in the service of his writs. They
obeyed, and two persons were arrested. The Deputy, with his force and
his prisoners, returned to the camp. Colonel C. W. Topliff, a
prominent citizen, went with them, bearing a communication from the
committee of safety of Lawrence to the Marshal, in which the promise
of obedience to his processes was again made, and his protection
claimed.
It was hoped that the crisis was now passed. The Marshal dismissed his
posse. But the Sheriff immediately reorganized the bands as _his_
posse. This was most ominous of evil. The Sheriff was burning with
passion for personal revenge. In the middle of the afternoon (May
21st), he rode into the town at the head of his army, and, in spite of
every plea and remonstrance, caused the contents of the printing
offices to be scattered through the streets and the hotel to be
burned, and allowed the pillage, and even the burning, of private
houses.
[Sidenote: Repudiation of the deed by Atchison and others.]
The atrocious and disgraceful deed of sacking Lawrence was denounced
by many of the persons who had joined the Marshal's posse. General
Atchison tried to prevent the Sheriff from thus wreaking his
vengeance, and denounced his deed afterward. Jackson, the leader of
the Georgians, and Buford, the captain of the Alabama squad, also
denounced the vile procedure, and declared that they had not come to
Kansas to destroy property.
Atchison knew well enough that a great blow had been given to the
prospects of the Democratic party in the now approaching presidential
election. What, then, must have been his despair upon learning that an
attack, {439} even more outrageous than the sacking of Lawrence, had
been made, at the same time, upon the defender of "Free-state" Kansas
in the Senate chamber at Washington?
[Sidenote: The attack on Senator Sumner.]
The debate on the bills for the admission of "Free-state" Kansas had
progressed from day to day, in both Houses of Congress, with
increasing earnestness and excitement. At length, on May 19th and
20th, Mr. Sumner delivered his fierce philippic on the "Crime against
Kansas." It was not only an unvarnished statement of the case from the
Abolitionist point of view, but it was a personal arraignment of
several of the Senators. The attack contained in it upon Senator
Butler, of South Carolina, a gentleman of great refinement and
politeness, and much honored and esteemed by his associates, was
especially coarse and brutal. Almost all the Senators felt the attack
to be more than a discourtesy. Senator Butler was in ill health and
was absent from his seat, both of which circumstances made the affair
all the more exasperating. For two days the Capital rang with
denunciations of the insulting speech, when Preston S. Brooks, a
nephew of Senator Butler, and a member of the House of
Representatives, demanded and took satisfaction of Mr. Sumner for the
attack upon his kinsman. Had he carried out his purpose in a brave and
manly way, he would have been generally applauded for it, but being no
match physically for Sumner, Brooks had recourse to a method which
stamped him as a coward, and his attack upon Sumner as a brutal
outrage. He entered the Senate chamber on May 22nd, after the
adjournment of the body, and approaching Mr. Sumner, who was seated
and bending over his desk, charged him with libel on South Carolina
and her sons, and struck him with a cane upon the head {440} until the
Senator became helpless and unconscious. With this, Sumner's outrage
upon Butler was entirely lost sight of in Brooks's far more brutal
outrage upon Sumner.
The cowardly deed was looked upon everywhere in the North as the fit
companion-piece to the sacking of Lawrence. The indignation of the
North was roused to the highest pitch, and it seemed as if the
elections of 1856 must bring the anti-slavery party into the seats of
power.
[Sidenote: The Pottawattomie massacres.]
But just at this most critical juncture, when everything depended on
calmness and moderation on the part of the "Free-state" men to secure
immediate victory, and when immediate victory, thus pursued, was, so
far as human eye can discern, within their grasp, an outrage was
perpetrated by a gang of men, or rather fiends, who claimed some sort
of relation to the "Free-state" party, which so far overshadowed in
cruel atrocity all that had gone before as to produce a revulsion of
feeling most damaging to the "Free-state" cause. On May 23rd, John
Brown, with six or seven others, all, except two, members of his own
family, went to the settlement about Dutch Henry's Crossing on the
Pottawattomie Creek, and, on the night of the 24th, took five men,
innocent of anything which could even justify arrest by proper
authorities, from their cabins, and murdered them, cutting and
slashing their bodies with cutlasses, until their savage thirst for
blood was partially satiated. So barbarously atrocious was the deed,
so calculated to rouse the sentiment of the whole country against the
"Free-state" cause in Kansas, that the Republican members of the
Congressional committee of investigation in the Territory refused to
make the event a part of their inquiry. The Democratic member, Mr.
Oliver, investigated it, and reported it to Congress and to the
public.
{441} No sane mind can find the slightest justification, excuse, or
palliation for this atrocious crime. It was murder, pure and simple.
And when we consider the purpose for which, as well as the mind with
which, it was committed, it became, in addition to common crime, also
public crime of the most grievous nature. Dr. Robinson says it was
done for the purpose of involving the North and the South in war
against each other. Thus to the murderous mind was added the seditious
purpose. Some men have professed to find virtue in this noxious
compound, but such minds have lost their moorings, and are roaming
without star or compass over the border lands between reason and
insanity. To murder, Brown and his vile brood added robbery; but this
was so slight a crime in comparison with the other that it may be
passed without further notice.
[Sidenote: The excitement produced by them.]
The inhabitants of the region were thrown into the greatest
consternation and excitement. The pro-slavery and the anti-slavery men
assembled together, denounced the horrible deed as foulest murder, and
resolved to act together as men of reason and common sense for the
maintenance of peace and order and the suppression of crime.
[Sidenote: The battle at Black Jack.]
[Sidenote: The Governor's proclamation, enforced by United States
soldiers.]
For a few days it was not known who the authors of these murders were,
but suspicion soon pointed to Brown and his gang, and steps were taken
to procure warrants for their arrest. The Governor, also, sent down a
body of troops to the scene of the massacre. The troops were
volunteers, chiefly Missourians, commanded by a Captain Pate. Pate's
force met Brown's at Black Jack, and Brown captured Pate and his men.
This was June 2nd. With nothing to hinder him for the moment, Brown
now robbed and pillaged all around. By the 3rd, however, the
Missourians, led by Whitfield, were rallying to the aid of their
pro-slavery friends in {442} Kansas, and by the 5th, battle was
impending between the Missourians and the "Free-state" men, who had
gathered in the neighborhood of the excitement. The Governor had at
last comprehended the serious character of the situation. He issued
his proclamation warning invaders to retire, and commanding armed and
illegal organizations to disperse. And he sent Colonel Sumner with a
company of regular cavalry to the scene of action.
Sumner rescued Pate and his men, dispersed Brown's gang, and ordered
the Missourians to get out of Kansas. He did not arrest Brown, because
he had no warrant for his apprehension, and did not know, at the time,
that he was the author of the Pottawattomie murders. Sumner remained a
fortnight or more in southern Kansas until the excitement was somewhat
spent, and then returned to Fort Leavenworth. Brown disappeared, and a
measure of peace was momentarily restored.
[Sidenote: The "Free-state" cause greatly injured by Brown's deeds.]
[Sidenote: The passage of the bill for the admission of Kansas by the
House.]
The Pottawattomie murders, and the robberies succeeding them, had,
however, greatly damaged the "Free-state" cause. The great advantage
which had accrued to it through the sacking of Lawrence and the
outrage upon Senator Sumner was now largely lost again. Still,
emigration from the Northern Commonwealths to Kansas continued in
great activity, and the House of Representatives at Washington was
steadily advancing toward the passage of the resolution for the
admission of "Free-state" Kansas into the Union, although the flight
of its committee of investigation from the Territory, in consequence
of the excitement following the murders on the Pottawattomie, and the
two reports which its members made of the situation in Kansas,
exercised an unfavorable influence on the movement. The House passed
the bill, {443} however, on July 3rd, by a majority of two votes, but
it would admit neither of the claimants to a seat in the House.
[Sidenote: Dispersal of the "Free-state" legislature by Colonel
Sumner.]
On the other hand, Colonel Sumner, while personally in sympathy with
the "Free-state" cause, felt it to be his official duty to disperse
the "Free-state" legislature which assembled at Topeka on July 4th.
The President and the Secretary of War, Mr. Jefferson Davis,
subsequently disapproved of this act, and denied that the authority
for it was either expressed or implied in any of their instructions to
Colonel Sumner. The Colonel thought the contrary, and felt that the
unpopularity of the procedure throughout the North had caused the
President and the Secretary to disavow a responsibility for it which
was rightfully their own. A careful reading of the dispatches leads to
the conclusion that the Colonel did exceed his powers. He was,
doubtless, led to do so unconsciously by the violent deeds of men
professing connection with the "Free-state" party. The
misunderstanding led finally to the retirement of Colonel Sumner from
the command of the United States forces in Kansas, and the assignment
of General P. F. Smith to that duty.
[Sidenote: The "Free-state" Directory.]
After the dispersion of the "Free-state" legislature, the "Free-state"
men, who were gathered in Lawrence, held a convention, and elected a
committee, whose duty it should be to look after the interests of the
people. This committee selected from among its members a sub-committee
of five, and transferred all of its powers and duties to this
sub-committee. The "Free-state" government had now become a
directorial board of five persons, chief among whom were William
Hutchinson and James Blood. The seat of this Directory was Lawrence.
{444} [Sidenote: The organization of the "Free-state" military.]
The Directory organized a strong military force under the command of
Colonel Walker. This force attacked and broke up three pro-slavery
bands during the month of August, the last one at Fort Titus, near
Lecompton, and commanded by the noted Colonel Titus himself. Titus and
his men were captured.
[Sidenote: The Treaty of August 17th.]
[Sidenote: Resignation of Shannon.]
The Governor now became alarmed for his own safety. Accompanied by
Major Sedgwick, he went to Lawrence, on August 17th, and concluded
with the Directory the noted agreement of that date, the terms of
which were, that the "Free-state" men should keep the arms which they
had captured from the pro-slavery bands; that the howitzer taken from
Lawrence should be returned to the town; that all persons arrested by
the United States Marshal, under charge of participating in the attack
upon the pro-slavery band at Franklin, should be delivered unharmed to
the Directory; that the Governor should disband the Territorial
militia, order all bands of armed men to disperse, and command all
armed bands of nonresidents to leave the Territory. The Directory
engaged, upon its side, to release Titus and his men. The Governor
virtually surrendered to the Directory. He then returned to Lecompton,
resigned his office, and made his way back to Ohio.
[Sidenote: Woodson's proclamation, and the new invasion from
Missouri.]
Secretary Woodson was now again in the Governor's chair, and this, of
itself, was notice to the Missourians to come on. They had already
gathered on the border. On August 25th, Woodson published a
proclamation, in which he declared the Territory to be "in a state of
open insurrection and rebellion," called "upon all law-abiding
citizens of the Territory to rally to the support of their country and
its laws," and commanded "all officers, {445} civil and military, and
all other citizens of the Territory, to aid and assist by all means in
their power in putting down the insurrectionists."
The Missourians took this as an invitation to advance. They entered
the Territory again, on the 29th, and pitched their camp on Bull
Creek. Atchison was in command. On the 13th, a detachment of them
attacked and destroyed Ossawattomie. About a dozen men were killed in
the fight.
[Sidenote: General Smith's attitude toward invaders.]
General Smith now issued instructions that the United States troops
should not "interfere with persons who may have come from a distance
to give protection to their friends or others, and who may be behaving
themselves in a peaceable and lawful manner." This attitude seemed at
first view to be friendly to the pro-slavery men; but the friends of
the "Free-state" men were now pouring into the Territory by way of
Iowa and Nebraska, and Smith's order worked ultimately to their
advantage. Unquestionably the General intended to be impartial.
[Sidenote: Marching and counter-marching.]
The attack on Ossawattomie roused the "Free-state" men to new
exertions. Three hundred of them, commanded by Lane, advanced upon the
camp at Bull Creek. The two forces drew up in battle array, but, after
a slight skirmish, they both drew off.
Acting Governor Woodson now ordered Colonel Cooke to attack Topeka
with United States troops, but the Colonel refused to obey the order,
and General Smith sustained him.
The "Free-state" men now planned an attack upon Lecompton. They moved
in two separate columns, one commanded by Harvey and the other by
Lane. The attack was to be made on September 4th, but the failure of
Lane's column to arrive until the 5th enabled the {446} United States
soldiers to reach the town first. When the "Free-state" men learned
that the regulars were in the town, they returned to Lawrence.
[Sidenote: The failure of "Popular Sovereignty" in the Territories.]
The Missourians were now roused to serious and decided action. An army
of some three thousand of them had gathered on the border, and was on
the point of marching in for the purpose of destroying every
"Free-state" settlement in the Territory. Only one thing could now
save the Territory from thoroughgoing and relentless civil war, and
that was the interference of the United States army. The fiasco of
"popular sovereignty" in the Territories was at last complete. The
general Government must assume control.
[Sidenote: Release of the "treason prisoners," and appointment of
Geary.]
[Sidenote: The new Governor establishes peace by means of the army of
the United States.]
The President's eyes had at last been opened to the fact, that if he
allowed things to drift any farther in Kansas, the Republicans would
win the presidential election in November. He, therefore, resolved to
put the government of the Territory into impartial hands. He ordered
the United States Marshal to release Robinson and his colleagues;
appointed J. W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, a man of strong character,
Governor of the Territory; and authorized Geary to call the United
States troops to his assistance. Geary arrived at Lecompton on
September 10th. On the 12th, he went to Lawrence, and, after promising
the "Free-state" men protection against the Missourians, returned to
Lecompton. On the 14th, the force advancing on Lawrence arrived in the
neighborhood of the town. Word was immediately sent to the Governor.
The Governor summoned a detachment of United States soldiers, and set
out for the scene of action. On the morning of the 15th, he met the
army of Missourians and interposed the United States army between
{447} them and Lawrence. The Governor informed the Missouri leaders
that they must leave the Territory. They dared not put themselves in
an attitude of hostility to the military power of the Union, and
quickly retreated back to Missouri. With this the warfare inaugurated
by the murders on the Pottawattomie ended. The Governor had at last
brought peace to the distracted Territory, but at the expense of the
principle of home rule in the Territory, and upon the point of the
sword of the Union.
[Sidenote: Geary and the Administration.]
The establishment of order in Kansas saved the Democratic party,
according to the general opinion, from the threatened defeat in the
November election, and made Buchanan, instead of Fremont, President.
After the danger was over, the Administration became less hearty in
its support of Geary; and when Geary virtually espoused the
"Free-state" cause, as he did during the winter of 1856-57, the
Administration became largely estranged from him. He resigned in
disgust on the day of Buchanan's inauguration to power.
[Sidenote: The judicial contribution to Kansas history.]
The next contribution to the history of the struggle for Kansas was to
come from an entirely new quarter. The new President indicated, in his
inaugural, whence it was to come, if not what it was to be. He said:
"A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time
when the people of a Territory shall decide this question"--the
question of slavery--"for themselves. This is, happily, a matter of
but little practical importance. Besides it is a judicial question,
which legitimately belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States,
before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily
and finally settled." The President referred to the Dred Scott case,
which had been twice argued before the {448} Supreme Court, and
decision upon which, it was understood, would be published to the
world in a few days. We must, therefore, break the thread of Kansas
history here for a moment, and trace the history of this case down to
the point where it becomes connected with the further history of the
Territory.
{449}