[Illustration: PORTRAIT AND SIGNATURE OF A. LINCOLN.]
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
A HISTORY
BY JOHN G. NICOLAY AND JOHN HAY
VOLUME TWO
New York
The Century Co.
1890
ILLUSTRATIONS
VOL. II
ABRAHAM LINCOLN (_Frontispiece_)
From an ambrotype taken for Marcus L. Ward (afterwards Governor of
New Jersey) in Springfield, Ill., May 20, 1860, two days after Mr.
Lincoln's nomination.
GENERAL JOHN W. GEARY
From a photograph taken, in 1866, by Draper and Husted.
MILLARD FILLMORE
From a daguerreotype.
CHARLES SUMNER
From a daguerreotype.
ROGER B. TANEY
From a daguerreotype.
SAMUEL NELSON
From a photograph.
ROBERT J. WALKER
From a daguerreotype.
FREDERICK P. STANTON
From a photograph by Brady.
JOHN CALHOUN
From a painting by D.C. Fabronius, after a photograph by Brady.
ANSON BURLINGAME
From a photograph by William Shaw.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
From a daguerreotype.
DAVID COLBRETH BRODERICK
From a photograph by Brady.
JOHN BROWN
From a photograph by J.W. Black & Co.
HOUSE IN WHICH JOHN BROWN WAS BORN, TORRINGTON, CONNECTICUT
From a photograph lent by Frank B. Sanborn.
CALEB CUSHING
From a photograph by Brady.
W.L. YANCEY
From a photograph by Cook.
GENERAL JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE
From a daguerreotype taken about 1850, lent by Anson Maltby.
FACSIMILE OF LINCOLN'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE
JOHN BELL
From a photograph by Brady.
GENERAL HENRY A. WISE
From a photograph by Brady.
THE WIGWAM AT CHICAGO IN WHICH LINCOLN WAS NOMINATED
GENERAL ROBERT ANDERSON
From a photograph by Brady.
JAMES BUCHANAN
From a photograph by Brady.
LEWIS CASS
From a photograph by Brady.
GENERAL ROBERT TOOMBS
From a photograph.
JUSTIN S. MORRILL
From a photograph by Brady.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOL. II
CHAPTER I. JEFFERSON DAVIS ON REBELLION
Civil War in Kansas. Guerrillas dispersed by Colonel Sumner. General
P.F. Smith supersedes Sumner. Governor Shannon Removed. Missouri River
Blockaded. Jefferson Davis's Instructions on Rebellion. Acting-Governor
Woodson Proclaims the Territory in Insurrection. Report of General
Smith. John W. Geary Appointed Governor. Inaugural Address. His Military
Proclamations and Measures. Colonel Cooke's "Cannon" Argument. Hickory
Point Skirmish. Imprisonment of Free State Men. End of Guerrilla War.
Removal and Flight of Governor Geary.
CHAPTER II. THE CONVENTIONS OF 1856
Formation of the Republican Party in Illinois. The Decatur Convention.
Action of the "Know-Nothing" Party. Nomination of Fillmore and
Donelson. Democrats of Illinois Nominate William A. Richardson for
Governor. The Davis-Bissell Challenge. The Bloomington Convention.
Bissell Nominated for Governor. Lincoln's Speech at Bloomington. The
Pittsburgh Convention. The Philadelphia Convention. Nomination of
Frémont and Dayton. The Philadelphia Platform. Lincoln Proposed for
Vice-President. The Cincinnati Convention. The Cincinnati Platform.
Nomination of Buchanan and Breckinridge. Buchanan Elected President.
Bissell Elected Governor. Lincoln's Campaign Speeches.
CHAPTER III. CONGRESSIONAL RUFFIANISM
Sumner's Senate Speech on Kansas. Brooks's Assault on Sumner. Action
of the Senate. Action of the House. Resignation and Reelection of
Brooks. Wilson Challenged. Brooks Challenges Burlingame. Sumner's
Malady. Reelection of Sumner. Death of Butler and Brooks. Sumner's
Re-appearance in the Senate.
CHAPTER IV. THE DRED SCOTT DECISION
The Dred Scott Case. Its Origin. The Law of Slavery. Preliminary
Decisions of the Case. Appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Case Twice
Argued. Opinion of Justice Nelson. Political Conditions. Mr. Buchanan's
Announcement. The Dred Scott Decision. Opinions by all the Judges.
Opinion of the Court. Dred Scott Declared Not a Citizen. Slavery
Prohibition Declared Unconstitutional. Language of Chief-Justice Taney.
Dissenting Opinions.
CHAPTER V. DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN ON DRED SCOTT
Political Effects of the Dred Scott Decision. Douglas's Springfield
Speech on the Dred Scott Decision. He Indorses Chief-Justice Taney's
Opinion. Freeport Doctrine Foreshadowed. Lincoln's Speech in Reply to
Douglas. Uses of Judicial Decisions. Prospects of the Colored Race in
the United States, Principles of the Declaration of Independence.
CHAPTER VI. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION
Constitutional Convention Called by the Legislature. Resignation and
Flight of Governor Geary. Walker Appointed Governor. Promises of
Buchanan and his Cabinet. Walker's Kansas Policy. Action of the
Free-State Mass Meeting. Pro-slavery Convention at Lecompton. Election
of Delegates. Governor Walker favors Submission of the Constitution to
Popular Vote. Protests from Southern States. The Walker-Buchanan
Correspondence. Lecompton Constitutional Convention. The October
Election. The Oxford and McGee Frauds. The Lecompton Constitution.
Extra Session of the Legislature. Secretary Stanton's Removal.
Governor Walker's Resignation.
CHAPTER VII. THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS
Douglas's Quarrel with Buchanan. Buchanan's Silliman Letter. His Annual
Message. Douglas's Speech on Lecompton. Lecompton Constitution Declared
Adopted. Buchanan's Special Message. The Pro-slavery Reaction.
Buchanan's Views on Cuba. The Lecompton Constitution in Congress. The
Crittenden-Montgomery Substitute. The English Bill. The Opposition of
Douglas. The Administration Organ.
CHAPTER VIII. THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES
Growing Republican Chances. Illinois Politics in 1858. Candidates for
Senator. The Senatorial Campaign. Lincoln's "House Divided Against
Itself" Speech. Republican Sympathy for Douglas. Horace Greeley's
Attitude. Lincoln on Greeley and Seward. Correspondence Between
Lincoln and Crittenden. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
CHAPTER IX. THE FREEPORT DOCTRINE
The Debate at Ottawa. The Debate at Freeport. The Freeport Doctrine.
Benjamin's Speech on Douglas. The November Election, Douglas Reëlected
Senator. Cause of Lincoln's Defeat. Lincoln's Letters on the Result.
Douglas Removed from the Chairmanship of the Senate Committee on
Territories.
CHAPTER X. LINCOLN'S OHIO SPEECHES
Douglas's Tour Through the South. His Advanced Views on Slavery.
Senate Discussion Between Brown and Douglas. Douglas's Letter to
Dorr. Lincoln's Growing Prominence. Lincoln's Correspondence with
Schuyler Colfax. Letter to Canisius. Letter to Pierce and Others.
Douglas's "Harper's Magazine" Article. Lincoln's Ohio Speeches. The
Douglas-Black Controversy. Publication of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
CHAPTER XI. HARPER'S FERRY
John Brown. His Part in the Kansas Civil War. His Plan of Slave
Liberation. Pikes and Recruits. The Peterboro Council. The Chatham
Meeting. Change of Plan. Harper's Ferry. Brown's Campaign. Colonel
Lee, and the U.S. Marines. Capture of Brown. His Trial and Execution.
The Senate Investigation. Public Opinion. Lincoln on John Brown.
Speakership Contest. Election of William Pennington.
CHAPTER XII. LINCOLN'S COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH
Lincoln Invited to Lecture in New York. The Meeting in Cooper Institute.
Public Interest in the Speaker. Lincoln's Speech. His Definition of
"The Question." Historical Analysis. His Admonition to the South. The
Right and Wrong of Slavery. The Duty of the Free States. Criticisms
of the Address. Speeches in New England.
CHAPTER XIII. THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION
The Democratic Party. Its National Convention at Charleston.
Sentiments of the Delegates. Differences North, and South. Douglas as
a Candidate. The Jefferson Davis Senate Resolutions. Caleb Cushing
made Chairman. The Platform Committee. Majority and Minority Reports.
Speech of William L. Yancey. Speech of Senator Pugh. Speech of Senator
Bigler. Second Majority and Minority Reports. Minority Report Adopted.
Cotton State Delegates Secede. Yancey's Prophecy.
CHAPTER XIV. THE BALTIMORE NOMINATIONS
Nomination of Douglas Impossible. Charleston Convention adjourned to
Baltimore. Seceders' Convention in St. Andrew's Hall. Adjourns to meet
at Richmond. Address of Southern Senators. The Davis-Douglas Debate.
Charleston Convention Reassembles at Baltimore. A Second Disruption.
Nomination of Douglas. Nomination of Breckinridge. The Constitutional
Union Convention. Nomination of John Bell.
CHAPTER XV. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION
The Republican Party. The Chicago Convention. Lincoln's Fairness to
Rivals. Chances of the Campaign. The Pivotal States. The Wigwam.
Organization of the Convention. Chicago Platform. Contrast between the
Charleston and Chicago Conventions. The Balloting. Lincoln Nominated
for President. Hamlin Nominated for Vice-President.
CHAPTER XVI. LINCOLN ELECTED
The Presidential Campaign. Parties, Candidates, and Platforms. Pledges
to the Union. The Democratic Schism. Douglas's Campaign Tour. The
"Illinois Rail-splitter." The "Wide Awakes." Lincoln during the
Canvass. Letters about "Know-Nothings." Fusion. The Vote of Maine. The
October States. The Election. The Electoral College. The Presidential
Count. Lincoln Declared Elected.
CHAPTER XVII. BEGINNINGS OF REBELLION
Early Disunion Sentiment. Nullification. The Agitation of 1850. The
Conspiracy of 1856. The "Scarlet Letter." "The 1860 Association."
Governor Gist's Letter to Southern Governors. Replies to Governor
Gist. Conspiracy at Washington.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE CABINET CABAL
Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet. Extracts from Floyd's Diary. Cabinet Conferences
on Disunion. The Drayton-Gist Correspondence. Mr. Trescott's Letters.
Floyd's Sale of Arms. Secretary Thompson's Mission. Jefferson Davis and
the Governor of Mississippi. Jefferson Davis and President Buchanan's
Message.
CHAPTER XIX. FROM THE BALLOT TO THE BULLET
Governor Gist's Proclamation. Caucus of South Carolinians. Governor
Gist's Message. The Disunion Cult. Presidential Electors Chosen.
Effect of Lincoln's Election. Disunion Sentiment. Military
Appropriation. Convention Bill Passed. Charleston Mass-Meeting.
CHAPTER XX. MAJOR ANDERSON
Buchanan and Secession. General Scott and Nullification. "Views"
Addressed to the President. The President's Criticism. Scott's
Rejoinder. The Charleston Forts. Foster's Requisition. Colonel Gardner
asks for Reënforcements. Fitz-John Porter's Inspection Report. Gardner
Relieved from Command. Anderson sent to Charleston.
CHAPTER XXI. THE CHARLESTON FORTS
Anderson's Arrival at Charleston. His Tour of Inspection. Report to
the War Department. The Forts and the Harbor. Anderson asks
reënforcements. Discouraging Reply from Washington. Insurrectionary
Sentiment in Charleston. Floyd's Instructions to Anderson. Colonel
Huger. Anderson's Visit to the Mayor of Charleston.
CHAPTER XXII. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Mr. Buchanan's Opportunity. Cabinet Opinions on Disunion. Advice to
the President in Preparing his Message. The Message. Arguments on
Slavery. Recommends a National Convention. Arguments on Disunion. The
Powers and Duties of Congress. Coercion Denied. Criticisms of the
Message.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE CHARLESTON CONSPIRATORS
Debate on the Message. Adverse Criticisms. Buchanan's Doctrines and
Policy. Movements of Secession. South Carolina Legislation. Magrath's
Comments. Non-Coercion and Coercion. Fort Moultrie. Intrigue for its
Capture. Governor Gist's Letter. South Carolina's Complaints and
Demands.
CHAPTER XXIV. MR. BUCHANAN'S TRUCE
Return of the _Brooklyn_. The President's Interview with the South
Carolina Delegation. Mr. Buchanan's Truce. Major Buell's Visit to
Anderson. The Buell Memorandum. Character of Instructions.
CHAPTER XXV. THE RETIREMENT OF CASS
Failure of the Concession Policy. Movements towards Secession.
Resignation of Secretary Cobb. Cobb's Secession Address. Resignation
of Secretary Cass. The Buchanan-Floyd Incident. The Conspirators
advise Buchanan. Cass demands Reënforcements. The Cass-Buchanan
Correspondence.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE SENATE COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN
Secession Debates in the Senate. Speeches of Clingman, Brown, Iverson,
Wigfall, Mason, Jefferson Davis, Hale, Crittenden, Pugh, Douglas.
Powell's Motion for a Select Committee. Speeches of King, Collamer,
Foster, Green, Wade. Senate Committee of Thirteen Appointed.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE HOUSE COMMITTEE OF THIRTY-THREE
The President's Message in the House. Compromise Efforts. Motion to
Appoint a Committee of Thirty-Three. Committee Appointed. Corwin made
Chairman. Sickles's Speech. Vallandigham's Speech. McClernand's
Speech. Compromise Propositions. Jenkins's Plan. Noell's Plan. Andrew
Johnson's Plan. Vallandigham's Plan.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CONSPIRACY PROCLAIMED
Hopes of Compromise. Party Pledges to the Union. President Buchanan's
Advice. Nullification and Secession. Estrangement between North and
South. Cabinet Treachery and Intrigue. The Congressional Debates.
Compromise Committees. The Conspirators' Strategy. Elements of
Disturbance. Hopes of Peaceable Secession. Dunn's Resolution. Mr.
Buchanan's Proclamation. Secession Proclaimed.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE FORTY MUSKETS
Captain Foster. His Arrival in Charleston. Condition of Fort Moultrie.
Temporary Defenses. Foster Requests Forty Muskets. The Question of
Arming Workmen. Foster Receives Forty Muskets. Their Return Demanded.
The Alleged Charleston Excitement. Floyd Orders the Muskets Returned.
Foster's Compliance and Comment.
CHAPTER I
JEFFERSON DAVIS ON REBELLION
[Sidenote] Sumner to Howard, May 16, 1856. Ibid., p. 37.
[Sidenote] Shannon to Sumner, May 21, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess.
34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 38.
[Sidenote] 1856.
[Sidenote] Shannon to Sumner, June 4, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess.
34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 45.
While the town of Lawrence was undergoing burning and pillage,
Governor Shannon wrote to Colonel Sumner to say that as the marshal
and sheriff had finished making their arrests, and he presumed had
by that time dismissed the posse, he required a company of United
States troops to be stationed at Lawrence to secure "the safety of
the citizens in both, person and property," asking also a like company
for Lecompton and Topeka. The next day the citizens of Lawrence had
the opportunity to smother their indignation when they saw the embers
of the Free-State Hotel and the scattered fragments of their
printing-presses patrolled and "protected" by the Federal dragoons
whose presence they had vainly implored a few days before. It was time
the Governor should move. The guerrilla bands with their booty spread
over the country, and the free-State men rose in a spirit of fierce
retaliation. Assassinations, house-burnings, expulsions, and
skirmishes broke out in all quarters. The sudden shower of lawlessness
fell on the just and the unjust; and, forced at last to deal out equal
protection, the Governor (June 4) issued his proclamation directing
military organizations to disperse, "without regard to party names, or
distinctions,"[1] and empowering Colonel Sumner to enforce the order.
[Sidenote] Sumner to Cooper, June 23, 1856. Ibid., p. 50.
[Sidenote] Sumner to Cooper, August 11, 1856. Ibid., p. 59.
That careful and discreet officer, who had from the first counseled
this policy, at once proceeded to execute the command with his
characteristic energy. He disarmed and dispersed the free-State
guerrillas,--John Brown's among the earliest,--liberated prisoners,
drove the Missourians, including delegate Whitfield and General Coffee
of the skeleton militia, back across their State line, and stationed
five companies along the border to prevent their return. He was so
fortunate as to accomplish all this without bloodshed. "I do not
think," he wrote, June 23, "there is an armed body of either party now
in the Territory, with the exception perhaps of a few freebooters."
The colonel found very soon that he was only too efficient and
faithful. "My measures have necessarily borne hard against both
parties," wrote Sumner to the War Department, "for both have in many
instances been more or less wrong. The Missourians were perfectly
satisfied so long as the troops were employed exclusively against the
free-State party; but when they found that I would be strictly
impartial, that lawless mobs could no longer come from Missouri, and
that their interference with the affairs of Kansas was brought to an
end, then they immediately raised a hue and cry that they were
oppressed by the United States troops." The complaint had its usual
prompt effect at Washington. By orders dated June 27 the colonel was
superseded in his command, and Brigadier-General P.F. Smith was sent
to Leavenworth. Known to be pro-slavery in his opinions, great
advantage was doubtless expected by the conspiracy from this change.
But General Smith was an invalid, and incapable of active service,
and so far as the official records show, the army officers and troops
in Kansas continued to maintain a just impartiality.
[Sidenote] 1856.
The removal of Governor Shannon a few weeks after Colonel Sumner
once more made Secretary Woodson, always a willing instrument of the
conspiracy, acting Governor. It was under this individual's promptings
and proclamation, Shannon being absent from the Territory, that
Colonel Sumner, before the arrival of the orders superseding him,
forcibly dispersed the free-State Legislature on the 4th of July, as
narrated. For this act the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, was not
slow to send the colonel an implied censure, perhaps to justify his
removal from command; but not a word of reproof went from President
or Secretary of State to the acting Governor.
It has already been stated that for a considerable length of time
after the organization of Kansas Territory the Missouri River was its
principal highway of approach from the States. To anti-slavery men who
were unwilling to conceal their sentiments, this had from the very
first been a route of difficulty and danger. Now that political strife
culminated in civil war, the Missourians established a complete
practical blockade of the river against the Northern men and Northern
goods. Recently, however, the Northern emigration to Kansas had
gradually found a new route through Iowa and Nebraska.
It was about this time that great consternation was created in
pro-slavery circles by the report that Lane had arrived at the Iowa
border with a "Northern army," exaggerated into fabulous numbers,
intent upon fighting his way to Kansas. Parties headed by Lane and
others and aggregating some hundreds had in fact so arrived, and were
more or less provided with arms, though they had no open military
organization. While spies and patrols were on the lookout for marching
companies and regiments, they, concealing their arms, quietly slipped
down in detached parties to Lawrence. Thus reënforced and inspirited,
the free-State men took the aggressive, and by several bold movements
broke up a number of pro-slavery camps and gatherings. Greatly
exaggerated reports of these affairs were promptly sent to the
neighboring Missouri counties, and the Border Ruffians rose for a
third invasion of Kansas.
Governor Shannon, not yet notified of his removal, reported to General
Smith that Lecompton was threatened with an attack. General Smith,
becoming alarmed, called together all his available force for the
protection of the territorial capital, and reported the exigency to
the War Department. All the hesitation which had hitherto
characterized the instructions of Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of
War, in the use of troops otherwise than as an officer's posse,
instantly vanished. The whole Kansas militia was placed under the
orders of General Smith, and requisitions were issued for two
regiments from Illinois and two from Kentucky. "The position of the
insurgents," wrote the Secretary, "as shown by your letter and its
inclosures, is that of open rebellion against the laws and
constitutional authorities, with such manifestation of a purpose to
spread devastation over the land as no longer justifies further
hesitation or indulgence. To you, as to every soldier, whose habitual
feeling is to protect the citizens of his own country, and only to use
his arms against a public enemy, it cannot be otherwise than deeply
painful to be brought into conflict with any portion of his
fellow-countrymen. But patriotism and humanity alike require that
rebellion should be promptly crushed, and the perpetration of the
crimes which now disturb the peace and security of the good people
of the Territory of Kansas should be effectually checked. You will
therefore energetically employ all the means within your reach to
restore the supremacy of the law, always endeavoring to carry out
your present purpose to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood."[2]
The Secretary had probably cast his eye upon the Platte County
battle-call in the "Weston Argus Extra," which formed one of the
general's inclosures: "So sudden and unexpected has been the attack
of the abolitionists that the law-and-order party was unprepared to
effectually resist them. To-day the bogus free-State government, we
understand, is to assemble at Topeka. The issue is distinctly made up;
either the free-State or pro-slavery party is to have Kansas....
Citizens of Platte County! the war is upon you, and at your very doors.
Arouse yourselves to speedy vengeance and rub out the bloody
traitors."[3]
[Sidenote] Woodson, proclamation, Aug. 25, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d
Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 80.
It was perhaps well that the pro-slavery zeal of General Smith was less
ardent than that of Secretary Jefferson Davis, or the American civil
war might have begun in Lawrence instead of Charleston. Upon fuller
information and more mature reflection, the General found that he had
no need of either the four regiments from Illinois and Kentucky, or
Border-Ruffian mobs led by skeleton militia generals, neither of which
he had asked for. Both the militia generals and the Missourians were
too eager even to wait for an official call. General Richardson ordered
out his whole division on the strength of the "Argus Extra" and
neighborhood reports,[4] and the entire border was already in motion
when acting Governor Woodson issued his proclamation declaring the
Territory "to be in a state of open insurrection and rebellion."
General Smith found it necessary to direct his first orders against
the Border-Ruffian invaders themselves. "It has been rumored for
several days," he wrote to his second in command, "that large numbers
of persons from the State of Missouri have entered Kansas, at various
points, armed, with the intention of attacking the opposite party and
driving them from the Territory, the latter being also represented to
be in considerable force. If it should come to your knowledge that
either side is moving upon the other with the view to attack, it will
become your duty to observe their movements and prevent such hostile
collisions."[5]
[Sidenote] Woodson to Cooke, Sept. 1, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess.
34th Cong. Vol. III., pp. 90, 91.
[Sidenote] Cooke to Woodson, Sept. 1, 1856. Ibid., pp. 91, 92.
Lieutenant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke, upon whom this active field
work devolved, because of the General's ill health, concentrated his
little command between Lawrence and Lecompton, where he could to some
extent exert a salutary check upon the main bodies of both parties,
and where he soon had occasion to send a remonstrance to the acting
Governor that his "militia" was ransacking and burning houses.[6] To
the acting Governor's mind, such a remonstrance was not a proper way
to suppress rebellion. He, therefore, sent Colonel Cooke a requisition
to invest the town of Topeka, disarm the insurrectionists, hold them
as prisoners, level their fortifications, and intercept aggressive
invaders on "Lane's trail"; all of which demands the officer prudently
and politely declined, replying that he was there to assist in serving
judicial process, and not to make war on the town of Topeka.
If, as had been alleged, General Smith was at first inclined to regard
the pro-slavery side with favor, its arrogance and excesses soon
removed his prejudices, and he wrote an unsparing report of the
situation to the War Department. "In explanation of the position of
affairs, lately and now, I may remark that there are more than two
opposing parties in the Territory. The citizens of the Territory who
formed the majority in the organization of the territorial government,
and in the elections for its Legislature and inferior officers, form
one party. The persons who organized a State government, and attempted
to put it in operation against the authority of that established by
Congress, form another. A party, at the head of which is a former
Senator from Missouri, and which is composed in a great part of
citizens from that State, who have come into this Territory armed,
under the excitement produced by reports exaggerated in all cases, and
in many absolutely false, form the third. There is a fourth, composed
of idle men congregated from various parts, who assume to arrest,
punish, exile, and even kill all those whom they assume to be bad
citizens; that is, those who will not join them or contribute to their
maintenance. Every one of these has in his own peculiar way (except
some few of the first party) thrown aside all regard to law, and even
honesty, and the Territory under their sway is ravaged from one end to
the other.... Until the day before yesterday I was deficient in force
to operate against all these at once; and the acting Governor of the
Territory did not seem to me to take a right view of affairs. If Mr.
Atchison and his party had had the direction of affairs, they could
not have ordered them more to suit his purpose."[7]
All such truth and exposure of the conspiracy, however, was
unpalatable at Washington; and Secretary Jefferson Davis, while
approving the conduct of Colonel Cooke and expressing confidence
in General Smith, nevertheless curtly indorsed upon his report: "The
only distinction of parties which in a military point of view it is
necessary to note is that which distinguishes those who respect and
maintain the laws and organized government from those who combine for
revolutionary resistance to the constitutional authorities and laws of
the land. The armed combinations of the latter class come within the
denunciation of the President's proclamation and are proper subjects
upon which to employ the military force."[8]
[Sidenote] "Washington Union," August 1, 1856.
Such was the state of affairs when the third Governor of Kansas, newly
appointed by President Pierce, arrived in the Territory. The Kansas
pro-slavery cabal had upon the dismissal of Shannon fondly hoped that
one of their own clique, either Secretary Woodson or Surveyor-General
John Calhoun, would be made executive, and had set on foot active
efforts in that direction. In principle and purpose they enjoyed the
abundant sympathy of the Pierce Administration; but as the presidential
election of 1856 was at hand, the success of the Democratic party could
not at the moment be endangered by so open and defiant an act of
partisanship. It was still essential to placate the wounded anti-slavery
sensibilities of the Northern States, and to this end John W. Geary, of
Pennsylvania, was nominated by the President and unanimously confirmed
by the Senate. He was a man of character and decision, had gone to the
Mexican war as a volunteer captain, and had been made a colonel and
intrusted with an important command for merit. Afterwards he had
served as postmaster, as alcalde, and as mayor of the city of San
Francisco in the turbulent gold excitements of 1848-9, and was made a
funding commissioner by the California Legislature. Both by nature and
experience, therefore, he seemed well fitted to subdue the civil
commotions of Kansas.
[Sidenote] Gihon, p. 131.
But the pro-slavery leaders of the Territory were very far from
relishing or desiring qualifications of this character. In one of
their appeals calling upon the Missourians for "assistance in men,
provisions, and munitions, that we may drive out the 'Army of the
North,'" they had given the President and the public a piece of their
mind about this appointment. "We have asked the appointment of a
successor," said they, "who was acquainted with our condition," with
"the capacity to appreciate and the boldness and integrity requisite
faithfully to discharge his duty regardless of the possible effect it
might have upon the election of some petty politician in a distant
State. In his stead we have one appointed who is ignorant of our
condition, a stranger to our people; who, we have too much cause to
fear, will, if no worse, prove no more efficient to protect us than
his predecessors.... We cannot await the convenience in coming of our
newly appointed Governor. We cannot hazard a second edition of
imbecility or corruption!"
Animated by such a spirit, they now bent all their energies upon
concentrating a sufficient force in Kansas to crush the free-State
men before the new Governor could interfere. Acting Governor Woodson
had by proclamation declared the Territory in a state of "open
insurrection and rebellion,"[9] and the officers of the skeleton
militia were hurriedly enrolling the Missourians, giving them arms,
and planting them in convenient camps for a final and decisive
campaign.
[Sidenote] Gihon, p. 104.
[Sidenote] Gihon, pp. 104-6.
It was on September 9, 1856, that Governor Geary and his party landed
at Leavenworth. Even on his approach he had already been compelled to
note and verify the evidences of civil war. He had met Governor
Shannon fleeing from the Territory, who drew for him a direful picture
of the official inheritance to which he had come. While this interview
took place, during the landing of the boat at Glasgow, a company of
sixty Missouri Border Ruffians was embarking, with wagons, arms, and
cannon, and with the open declaration that they were bound for Kansas
to hunt and kill "abolitionists." Similar belligerent preparations
were in progress at all the river towns they touched. At Kansas City
the vigilance committee of the blockade boarded and searched the boat
for concealed "abolitionists." Finally arrived at Leavenworth, the
Governor saw a repetition of the same scenes--parades and military
control in the streets, fugitives within the inclosure of the fort,
and minor evidences of lawlessness and terror.
[Sidenote] Geary to Marcy, Sept. 9, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess.
34th Cong. Vol. II., p. 88.
Governor Geary went at once to the fort, where he spent the day in
consultation with General Smith. That same evening he wrote to W.L.
Marcy, Secretary of State, a report of the day's impressions which was
anything but reassuring--Leavenworth in the hands of armed men
committing outrages under the shadow of authority; theft and murder in
the streets and on the highways; farms plundered and deserted;
agitation, excitement, and utter insecurity everywhere, and the number
of troops insufficient to compel peace and order. All this was not the
worst, however. Deep in the background stood the sinister apparition of
the Atchison cabal. "I find," wrote he, "that I have not simply to
contend against bands of armed ruffians and brigands whose sole aim and
end is assassination and robbery--infatuated adherents and advocates of
conflicting political sentiments and local institutions--and
evil-disposed persons actuated by a desire to obtain elevated
positions; but worst of all, against the influence of men who have been
placed in authority and have employed all the destructive agents around
them to promote their own personal interests at the sacrifice of every
just, honorable, and lawful consideration.... Such is the condition of
Kansas faintly pictured.... In making the foregoing statements I have
endeavored to give the truth and nothing but the truth. I deem it
important that you should be apprised of the actual state of the case;
and whatever may be the effect of such revelations, they will be given
from time to time without extenuation."
[Sidenote] Geary, proclamation, Sept. 11, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d
Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., pp. 93-4.
[Sidenote] Geary to Marcy, Sept. 12, 1856. Ibid., p. 95.
Discouraging as he found his new task of administration, Governor Geary
grappled with it in a spirit of justice and decision. The day following
his interview with General Smith found him at Lecompton, the capital of
the Territory, where the other territorial officials, Woodson, Calhoun,
Donaldson, Sheriff Jones, Lecompte, Cato, and others, constituted the
ever-vigilant working force of the Atchison cabal, precisely as had
been so truthfully represented to him by General Smith, and as he had
so graphically described in his letter to Marcy of the day before.
Paying little heed to their profusely offered advice, he adhered to his
determination to judge for himself, and at once issued an inaugural
address, declaring that in his official action he would do justice at
all hazards, that he desired to know no party and no section, and
imploring the people to bury their past strifes, and devote themselves
to peace, industry, and the material development of the Territory.[10]
As an evidence of his earnestness he simultaneously issued two
proclamations, one disbanding the volunteer or Missouri militia lately
called into service by acting Governor Woodson, and the other commanding
the immediate enrollment of the true citizen militia of Kansas Territory,
this step being taken by the advice of General Smith.
He soon found that he could not govern Kansas with paper proclamations
alone. His sudden arrival at this particular juncture was evidently an
unexpected _contretemps_. While he was preaching and printing his sage
admonitions about peace and prosperity at Lecompton, and laboring to
change the implements of civil war into plowshares and pruning-hooks,
the Missouri raid against Lawrence, officially called into the field by
Woodson's proclamation, was about to deal out destruction to that town.
A thousand Border Ruffians (at least two eye-witnesses say 2500), led
by their recognized Missouri chiefs, were at that moment camped within
striking distance of the hated "New Boston." Their published address,
which declared that "these traitors, assassins, and robbers must now be
punished, must now be taught a lesson they will remember," that "Lane's
army and its allies must be expelled from the Territory," left no doubt
of their errand.
This news reached Governor Geary about midnight of his second day in
Lecompton. One of the brigadiers of the skeleton militia was apparently
in command, and not yet having caught the cue of the Governor's
intentions, reported the force for orders, "in the field, ready for
duty, and impatient to act."[11] At about the same hour the Governor
received a message from the agent he had sent to Lawrence to distribute
copies of his inaugural, that the people of that town were arming and
preparing to receive and repel this contemplated attack of the
Missourians. He was dumfounded at the information; his promises and
policy, upon which, the ink was not yet dry, were already in jeopardy.
Instead of bringing peace his advent was about to open war.
In this contingency the Governor took his measures with true military
promptness. He immediately dispatched to the Missouri camp Secretary
Woodson with copies of his inaugural, and the adjutant-general of the
Territory with orders to disband and muster out of service the Missouri
volunteers,[12] while he himself, at the head of three hundred dragoons
and a light battery, moved rapidly to Lawrence, a distance of twelve
miles. Entering that town at sunrise, he found a few hundred men
hastily organized for defense in the improvised intrenchments and
barricades about the place, ready enough to sell their lives, but
vastly more willing to intrust their protection to the Governor's
authority and the Federal troops.[13] They listened to his speech and
readily promised to obey his requirements.
Since the Missourians had officially reported themselves to him as
subject to his orders, the Governor supposed that his injunctions,
conveyed to them in writing and print, and borne by the secretary and
the adjutant-general of the Territory, would suffice to send them
back at once to their own borders, and he returned to Lecompton to
take up his thorny duties of administration. Though forewarned by
ex-Governor Shannon and by General Smith, Governor Geary did not yet
realize the temper and purpose of either the cabal conspirators or
the Border-Ruffian rank and file. He had just dispatched a military
force in another direction to intercept and disarm a raid about to be
made by a detachment of Lane's men, when news came to him that the
Missourians were still moving upon Lawrence, in increased force, that
his officers had not yet delivered his orders, and that skirmishing
had begun between the outposts.
[Sidenote] D.W. Wilder, "Annals of Kansas," p. 108. Gihon, p. 152.
Menaced thus with dishonor on one side and contempt on the other, he
gathered all his available Federal troops, and hurrying forward posted
them between Lawrence and the invaders. Then he went to the Missouri
camp, where the true condition of affairs began to dawn upon him. All
the Border-Ruffian chiefs were there, headed by Atchison in person,
who was evidently the controlling spirit, though a member of the
Legislature of the State of Missouri, named Reid, exercised nominal
command. He found his orders unheeded and on every hand mutterings of
impatience and threats of defiance. These invading aliens had not the
least disposition to receive commands as Kansas militia; they invoked
that name only as a cloak to shield them from the legal penalties due
their real character as organized banditti.
The Governor called the chiefs together and made them an earnest
harangue. He explained to them his conciliatory policy, read his
instructions from Washington, affirmed his determination to keep peace,
and appealed personally to Atchison to aid him in enforcing law and
preserving order. That wily chief, seeing that refusal would put him in
the attitude of a law-breaker, feigned a ready compliance, and he and
Reid, his factotum commander, made eloquent speeches "calculated to
produce submission to the legal demands made upon them."[14] Some of
the lesser captains, however, were mutinous, and treated the Governor
to choice bits of Border-Ruffian rhetoric. Law and violence vibrated in
uncertain balance, when Colonel Cooke, commanding the Federal troops,
took the floor and cut the knot of discussion in a summary way. "I felt
called upon to say some words myself," he writes naïvely, "appealing to
these militia officers as an old resident of Kansas and friend to the
Missourians to submit to the patriotic demand that they should retire,
assuring them of my perfect confidence in the inflexible justice of the
Governor, and that it would become my painful duty to sustain him at
the cannon's mouth."[15] This argument was decisive. The border chiefs
felt willing enough to lead their awkward squads against the slight
barricades of Lawrence, but quailed at the unlooked-for prospect of
encountering the carbines and sabers of half a regiment of regular
dragoons and the grape-shot of a well-drilled light battery. They
accepted the inevitable; and swallowing their rage but still nursing
their revenge, they consented perforce to retire and be "honorably"
mustered out. But for this narrow contingency Lawrence would have been
sacked a second time by the direct agency of the territorial cabal.
[Illustration: GENERAL JOHN W. GEARY.]
[Sidenote] Examination, Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong.
Vol. II., pp. 156-69.
Nothing could more forcibly demonstrate the unequal character of the
contest between the slave-State and the free-State men in Kansas, even
in these manoeuvres and conflicts of civil war, than the companion
exploit to this third Lawrence raid. The day before Governor Geary,
seconded by the "cannon" argument of Colonel Cooke, was convincing the
reluctant Missourians that it was better to accept, as a reward for
their unfinished expedition, the pay, rations, and honorable discharge
of a "muster out," rather than the fine, imprisonment, or halter to
which the full execution of their design would render them liable,
another detachment of Federal dragoons was enforcing the bogus laws
upon a company of free-State men who had just had a skirmish with
a detachment of this same invading army of Border Ruffians, at a
place called Hickory Point. The encounter itself had all the usual
characteristics of the dozens of similar affairs which occurred
during this prolonged period of border warfare--a neighborhood feud;
neighborhood violence; the appearance of organized bands for retaliation;
the taking of forage, animals, and property; the fortifying of two or
three log-houses by a pro-slavery company then on its way to join in
the Lawrence attack, and finally the appearance of a more numerous
free-State party to dislodge them. The besieging column, some 350 in
number, had brought up a brass four-pounder, lately captured from the
pro-slavery men, and with this and their rifles kept up a long-range
fire for about six hours, when the garrison of Border Ruffians capitulated
on condition of being allowed "honorably" to evacuate their stronghold
and retire. The casualties were one man killed and several wounded.
[Sidenote] Gihon, p. 158.
[Sidenote] Record of examination, Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong.
Vol. II., pp. 156-9.
The rejoicing of the free-State men over this not too brilliant
victory was short-lived. Returning home in separate squads, they were
successively intercepted by the Federal dragoons acting as a posse to
the Deputy United States Marshal,[16] who arrested them on civil writs
obtained in haste by an active member of the territorial cabal, and to
the number of eighty-nine[17] were taken prisoners to Lecompton. So
far the affair had been of such frequent occurrence as to have become
commonplace--a frontier "free fight," as they themselves described and
regarded it. But now it took on a remarkable aspect. Sterling G. Cato,
one of the pro-slavery territorial judges, had been found by Governor
Geary in the Missouri camp drilling and doing duty as a soldier, ready
and doubtless more than willing to take part in the projected sack of
Lawrence. This Federal judge, as open a law-breaker as the Hickory
Point prisoners (the two affairs really forming part of one and the
same enterprise), now seated himself on his judicial bench and
committed the whole party for trial on charge of murder in the first
degree; and at the October term of his court proceeded to try and
condemn to penalties prescribed by the bogus laws some eighteen or
twenty of these prisoners, for offenses in which in equity and good
morals he was personally _particeps criminis_--some of the convicts
being held in confinement until the following March, when they were
pardoned by the Governor.[18] _Inter arma silent leges_, say the
publicists; but in this particular instance the license of guerrilla
war, the fraudulent statutes of the Territory, and the laws of
Congress were combined and perverted with satanic ingenuity in
furtherance of the conspiracy.
The vigorous proceedings of Governor Geary, the forced retirement of
the Missourians on the one hand, and the arrest and conviction of the
free-State partisans on the other, had the effect to bring the
guerrilla war to an abrupt termination. The retribution had fallen
very unequally upon the two parties to the conflict,[19] but this was
due to the legal traps and pitfalls prepared with such artful design
by the Atchison conspiracy, and not to the personal indifference or
ill-will of the Governor. He strove sincerely to restore impartial
administration; he completed the disbandment of the territorial
militia, reënlisting into the Federal service one pro-slavery and one
free-State company for police duty.[20] By the end of September he was
enabled to write to Washington that "peace now reigns in Kansas."
Encouraged by this success in allaying guerrilla strife, he next
endeavored to break up the existing political persecution and
intrigues.
[Sidenote] Marcy to Geary, August 26, 1856. Gihon, p. 272.
It was not long, however, before Governor Geary became conscious, to
his great surprise and mortification, that he had been nominated and
sent to Kansas as a partisan manoeuvre, and not to institute
administrative reforms; that his instructions, written during the
presidential campaign, to tranquillize Kansas by his "energy,
impartiality, and discretion," really meant that after Mr. Buchanan
was elected he should satisfy the Atchison cabal.
In less than six months after he went to the Territory, clothed with
the executive authority, speaking the President's voice, and
representing the unlimited military power of the republic, he, the
third Democratic Governor of Kansas, was, like his predecessors, in
secret flight from the province he had so trustfully gone to rule,
execrated by his party associates, and abandoned by the Administration
which had appointed him. Humiliating as was this local conspiracy to
plant servitude in Kansas, a more aggressive political movement to
nationalize slavery in all the Union was about to eclipse it.
----------
[1] Shannon, proclamation, June 4, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d
Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 47.
[2] Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, to General Smith, Sept. 3,
1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 29.
[3] August 18, 1856. Senate Executive Documents, 3d Session 34th
Congress. Vol. III., pp. 76-7.
[4] Richardson to General Smith, August 18, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc.,
3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 75.
[5] George Deas, Assistant Adjutant-General to Lieut.-Colonel Cooke,
August 28, 1856. Senate Executive Documents, 3d Session 34th
Congress. Vol. III., p. 85.
[6] Cooke to Deas, August 31, 1856. Ibid., p. 89.
[7] Smith to Cooper, Sept. 10, 1856. Senate Executive Document,
3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., pp. 80, 81.
[8] Sec. War, indorsement, Sept. 23, on letter of Gen. Smith to
Adjutant-General Cooper, Sept. 10, 1856. Senate Executive
Documents, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 83.
[9] Woodson, proclamation, August 25, 1856. Senate Executive Documents,
3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 80.
[10] Geary, Inaugural Address, Sept. 11, 1856. Senate Executive
Documents, 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 116.
[11] General Heiskell to Geary, Sept. 11 and 12, 1856. Senate Ex.
Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., p. 97.
[12] Geary to Marcy, Sept. 16, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. 34th
Cong. Vol. II., p. 107.
[13] Colonel Cook to Porter, A.A.G., Sept. 13, 1856. Ibid., Vol.
III., pp. 113, 114.
[14] Colonel Cooke to F.J. Porter, Sept. 16, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc.,
3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 121.
[15] Cooke to Porter, Sept. 16, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess.
34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 122.
[16] Captain Wood to Colonel Cooke, Sept. 16, 1856. Senate Ex.
Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III, pp. 123-6.
[17] Geary to Marcy, October 1, 1856. Senate Executive Documents,
3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., p. 156.
[18] Gihon, pp. 142-3. Geary, Executive Minutes, Senate Ex. Doc.,
No. 17, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. Vol. VI., p. 195.
[19] The Kansas Territorial Legislature, in the year 1859, by which
time local passion had greatly subsided, by law empowered a
non-partisan board of three commissioners to collect sworn testimony
concerning the ravages of the civil war in Kansas, with a view of
obtaining indemnity from the general Government for the individual
sufferers. These commissioners, after a careful examination, made an
official report, from which may be gleaned an interesting summary in
numbers and values of the harvest of crime and destruction which the
Kansas contest produced, and which report can be relied upon, since
eye-witnesses and participants of both parties freely contributed
their testimony at the invitation of the commissioners.
The commissioners fixed the period of the war as beginning about
November 1, 1855, and continuing until about December 1, 1856. They
estimated that the entire loss and destruction of property, including
the cost of fitting out the various expeditions, amounted to an
aggregate of not less than $2,000,000. Fully one-half of this loss,
they thought, was directly sustained by actual settlers of Kansas.
They received petitions and took testimony in 463 cases. They reported
417 cases as entitled to indemnity. The detailed figures and values of
property destroyed are presented as follows:
"Amount of crops destroyed, $37,349.61; number of buildings burned
and destroyed, 78; horses taken or destroyed, 368; cattle taken or
destroyed, 533. Amount of property owned by pro-slavery men,
$77,198.99; property owned by free-State men, $335,779.04;
property taken or destroyed by pro-slavery men, $318,718.63;
property taken or destroyed by free-State men, $94,529.40."
About the loss of life the commissioners say: "Although not within our
province, we may be excused for stating that, from the most reliable
information that we have been able to gather, by the secret warfare of
the guerrilla system, and in well-known encounters, the number of
lives sacrificed in Kansas during the period mentioned probably
exceeded rather than fell short of two hundred.... That the excitement
in the Eastern and Southern States, in 1856, was instigated and kept
up by garbled and exaggerated accounts of Kansas affairs, published in
the Eastern and Southern newspapers, is true, most true; but the half
of what was done by either party was never chronicled!"--House
Reports, 2d Sess. 36th Cong. Vol. III., Part I, pp. 90 and 93.
[20] We quote the following from the executive minutes of Governor
Geary to show that border strife had not entirely destroyed the
kindlier human impulses, which enabled him to turn a portion of the
warring elements to the joint service of peace and order:
"September 24, 1856. For the purpose of obtaining information
which was considered of great value to the Territory, the Governor
invited to Lecompton, Captain [Samuel] Walker, of Lawrence, one of
the most celebrated and daring leaders of the anti-slavery party,
promising him a safe-conduct to Lecompton and back again to
Lawrence. During Walker's visit at the Executive Office, Colonel
[H.T.] Titus entered, whose house was, a short time since,
destroyed by a large force under the command of Walker; an offense
which was subsequently retaliated by the burning of the residence
of the latter. These men were, perhaps, the most determined
enemies in the Territory. Through the Governor's intervention, a
pacific meeting occurred, a better understanding took place,
mutual concessions were made, and pledges of friendship were
passed; and, late in the afternoon, Walker left Lecompton in
company with and under the safeguard of Colonel Titus. Both these
men have volunteered to enter the service of the United States as
leaders of companies of territorial militia."--Geary, Executive
Minutes. Senate Executive Documents, 3d Session 34th Congress,
Vol. II., pp. 137-8.