A history of Kansas, Part 4

Author: Prentis, Noble L. (Noble Lovely), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : C. Prentis
Number of Pages: 394


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9 90. John Brown Appears .- Among the witnesses of these transactions of the 21st of May, was John Brown, his five sons, and a son-in-law. On the night of the 24th of May, on Pottawatomie creek, in Franklin county, James P. Doyle, his two sons: William Sherman, commonly called "Dutch Henry," and Allen Wilkinson, a member of the Shawnee Mission Legislature, were called out of their cabins and killed. John Brown led the party that did the deed.


After this, Brown captured, at Black Jack, Captain H. Clay Pate and twenty-eight of his party who had started out to capture Brown.


91. A Reign of Violence .- The Free State men attacked the Pro-slavery headquarters at Franklin, wounded several defenders, and took a considerable quantity of munitions of war. On the other side, a party of Missourians under General John W. Whitfield, plundered Osawatomie.


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


Early in August, the Free State men broke up a camp of Georgians near Osawatomie. On the 12th of August they made a second attack on Franklin, smoked out the block- house, and compelled the garrison to surrender. On the 16th of August, Captain Sam Walker, with the loss of one man, captured the fortified house, near Lecompton, of Colonel Titus, of Florida, and twenty prisoners. Prior to this, a Free State party had captured a Georgia headquarters on Washington creek, called "Fort Saunders."


The war never ceased in Linn county, and in August, in a fight at Middle creek, the Free State partisans, under Captains Anderson, Cline and Shore, routed a Pro-slavery detachment under Captain Jesse Davis. On the 30th of August, 400 men from Missouri, under General John W. Reid, attacked Osawatomie. The place was defended by forty-one men, under John Brown. In this action, Frederick Brown, a son of John Brown, was killed by Rev. Martin White. All the houses in Osawatomie save four were burned.


In Leavenworth, a Pro-slavery mob murdered William Phillips, a Free State lawyer, who had been tarred and feathered the year before, and a Vigilance Committee com- pelled Free State citizens to leave the city.


SUMMARY. .


1. The border troubles.


2. Whitfield elected to Congress.


3. First session of Topeka Legislature, March 4, 1856.


4. The sacking of Lawrence, and acts of retaliation.


5. Action under the Topeka Constitution, and dispersal of the Topeka Legislature.


6. The treason arrests.


7. Free State citizens compelled to leave Leavenworth.


CHAPTER IX.


A GLIMPSE OF LIGHT.


92. Release of Three State Prisoners .- On the 5th of September, 1856, a force from Lawrence with two guns appeared at Lecompton on the heights about the town, and were met by Colonel Phillip St. George Cooke, with a detachment of United States troops, who demanded the errand of the approaching army. It was explained that the release of Free State prisoners, not the "treason pris- oners "' who were held by United States authorities, but all others, was demanded, and that the general protection of the Free State population from robbery and murder was the object of the demon- stration. As a result of this interview an exchange of prisoners was effected. Governor John W. Geary.


93. Accession of Governor Geary .- On the 21st of August, 1856, Governor Shannon received notice of his removal. On the 7th of September he met his succes- sor at Glasgow, Mo., coming up the Missouri river, and on the 9th of September, John W. Geary, third Gover- nor of Kansas Territory, arrived at Fort Leavenworth. He immediately reported to the President that he had to contend against "armed ruffians and brigands"; that the town of Leavenworth was in the hands of bodies of men,


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


who, calling themselves militia, perpetrated the most atro- cious outrages under the shadow of authority from the Territorial government.


94. The Hickory Point Fight .- Governor Geary arrived at Lecompton on the 10th of September, 1856. The next day, Captain Har- SOUTH CAROLINA vey, a Free State partisan, surprised a Pro-slavery force at Slough creek, in Jeffer- son county, and captured the blood-red South Carolina flag, which had been raised at the sacking of Lawrence in May, and which is now South Carolina Flag. in possession of the Kan-


sas State Historical Society. Captain Harvey, two days after, captured Hickory Point, in Jefferson county. The 101 men under Harvey were taken prisoners by Colonel Cooke, U. S. A., who marched them to Lecompton, where they were held by Judge Cato for trial on the charge of murder in the first degree. Twenty of these were after- wards sentenced to five years in the penitentiary, though they never were incarcerated.


95. Governor Geary's Action .- Governor Geary's first act was to issue a proclamation disbanding the Terri- torial militia, and ordering all other armed men to quit the Territory. The Governor proceeded to Lawrence and found the town in arms in prospect of another invasion. He left United States troops there, and went to the junction of the Wakarusa and the Kansas rivers, where he found a force of 2,700 men from Missouri under the command of General


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A GLIMPSE OF LIGHT.


Atchison, General Reid, General Whitfield, Sheriff Jones, and others. This force he ordered to disband, and it disappeared.


96. Treason Cases Abandoned .- Prior to Governor Geary's arrival, the "treason prisoners " were released on bail by Judge Lecompte in the sum of $5,000 each. Governor Robinson gave bail just four months from the day he was taken prisoner. Of the remaining prisoners, some were tried and acquitted, some escaped, and a nolle was entered in the cases of others.


97. The Road Opened .- The Mis- souri river had been for some time closed against Free State travel, and Governor Robt. J. Walker. large parties of Free State immigrants had been entering the Territory via Iowa and Nebraska. In. October, a party was arrested by Colonel Cooke and a Deputy United States Marshal. Governor Geary met the immi- grants and ordered their release. Afterward, immigration was free.


98. Governor Geary Retires .- The Second Territorial Legislature met at Lecompton. Governor Geary vetoed some of the bills, which were passed over his veto. After continuous troubles with the Legislature, and being con- stantly threatened with personal violence, Governor Geary announced that he would be absent from Lecompton for awhile, left. the Territory quietly and never returned. Many years after, in grateful remembrance of Governor Geary's course in Kansas, the name of Davis county was changed to Geary.


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


99. Walker's Appointment .- James Buchanan became President of the United States, March 4, 1857.


Shortly after the departure of Governor Geary, Robert J. Walker was appointed Governor of Kansas, March 26, 1857. He was preceded in the Territory by Frederick P. Stanton, Secretary of the Territory, who became Acting Governor. Governor Walker arrived in May. He com- menced his labors to induce the entire mass of voters to participate in the election for delegates to the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, for which the late Legislature had provided. The Free State voters generally declined the invitation, and at the election in June, 1857, but 2,071 votes were cast for delegates.


SUMMARY.


1. Free State prisoners liberated.


2. John W. Geary appointed Governor.


3. Governor Geary disbands militia, and orders armed men to leave the Territory.


4. Treason prisoners released.


5. Immigration made free.


6. Governor Geary leaves the Territory.


7. Walker appointed Governor.


8. Governor Walker urges citizens to vote for delegates to the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, but the Free State people decline to do so.


CHAPTER X.


THE LECOMPTON AND LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.


100. The Lecompton Convention .- The Lecompton Constitutional Convention met and framed the second Con- stitution of Kansas between the 11th of September and the 3d of November, 1857. It was provided that the vote should be taken on the "Constitution without slavery," or the "Constitution with slavery," no vote being allowed against the Constitution. The vote, taken on the 21st of December, according to John Calhoun, President of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, stood, "for the Constitution with slavery," 6,226; "for the Constitution without slavery,"' 569. At this election the Free State party did not vote, and an enormous fraudulent vote was cast.


101. Territorial Election. - In October, while the Lecompton Convention was in session, the regular election for members of the Territorial Legislature, and a delegate in Congress had taken place, and resulted in the election of a majority of Free State members of both branches of the Legislature, and of Marcus J. Parrott, Free State, as delegate. Oxford precinct, near the Missouri line, a pre- cinet containing eleven houses, cast 1,628 Pro-slavery votes. Governor Walker and Secretary Stanton issued a proclama- tion rejecting the whole return from Oxford precinct. This settled the Free State character of the lawful returns.


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


102. Special Session of the Legislature .- On the 7th of December, the Legislature was called together in special session at Lecompton. A message was received from Sec- retary Stanton, Governor Walker having left the Territory, in which he urged the submission of the whole Constitution. But the chance of the Lecompton Con- stitution had passed away.


103. Second Submission .- Under an act of the special session, a vote was ordered, for or against the Constitution, on the 4th of January, the same day set for the election of State officers under the Lecompton Constitution. A portion of the Free State party Governor Frederick P. Stanton. supported a State ticket. The vote on the Constitution as declared by Secretary and Acting Governor Denver, who had suc- ceeded Mr. Stanton, was 10,288 against the Constitution to 138 for it. Marcus JJ. Parrott was elected Member of Con- gress, and, in spite of frauds, the Free State ticket received a small majority. The ticket was as follows: Governor, George W. Smith; Lieutenant-Governor, W. Y. Roberts; Secretary of State, P. C. Schuyler; Auditor, Joel K. Goodin; Treasurer, A. J. Mead.


104. Third Territorial Legislature .- The Free State officers chosen, immediately prepared a memorial to Con- gress, disavowing all intention to serve under the Lecompton Constitution, and urging that body not to admit Kansas into the Union under it. The third Territorial (and first


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CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.


Free State) Legislature, met in regular session at Lecompton the 4th of January. 1858 organized, and on the 6th adjourned to Lawrence.


The Territorial Legislature remained in session at Lawrence for forty days. It passed bills to repeal the slave code, and to abolish slavery in the Territory, over the veto of Governor Denver, and an act to remove the Capital of the Territory to Minneola, Franklin county. It also provided for . the election of delegates to meet in a Constitutional Convention.


105. The Leavenworth Constitution .- The Conven- tion assembled at Minneola on March 23d, and adjourned to Leavenworth, re-assembling on the 25th. The Leaven- worth Constitutional Convention adopted a Constitution which did not contain the word "white." The following ticket was nominated for State officers under the Leavenworth Constitution : Gov- ernor, Henry J. Adams; Lieutenant- Governor, Cyrus K. Holliday; Sec- retary of State, E. P. Bancroft; Treasurer, J. B. Wheeler; Auditor, George S. Hillyer; Attorney-Gen- eral, Charles A. Foster; Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, J. M. Walden; Commissioner of School Lands, J. W. Robinson; Represen- Governor James W. Denver. tative in Congress, M. F. Conway; Supreme Judges, William A. Phillips, Lorenzo Dow, and William McKay; Reporter of Supreme Court, Albert D. Richardson; Clerk of Supreme Court, W. F. M. Arny. At the election of May 18th, the Leavenworth Constitution


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


and the officers nominated received an aggregate of 3,000 votes. It was presented, but never voted on by either House of Congress.


Minneola, at which the Convention first assembled, did not remain the capital of Kansas Territory. The bill remov- ing the capital thither was declared illegal by Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney-General of the United States.


106. Failure of Lecompton Constitution .- It was evident by the beginning of 1858, that slavery could never be established in Kansas with the consent of the people, yet, nevertheless, President Buchanan urged upon Congress the acceptance of the Lecompton Constitution, declaring that Kansas was "already a slave State, as much as Georgia or South Carolina." In this policy he was vigorously opposed by Senator Douglas. After much discussion the Lecompton Constitution was sent back to the Kansas people. The vote was taken August 2, 1858, under the propositions of the "English bill," and again the Constitu- tion was repudiated by 11,812 to 1,926 votes.


SUMMARY.


1. Free State party refused to vote for delegates to the Lecomp- ton Constitutional Convention.


2. Members of Territorial Legislature and delegate to Congress elected by Free State party.


3. After special session of the Legislature, the Lecompton Consti- tution was again submitted, and again defeated.


4. The Third Territorial Legislature prepared a memorial to Congress, and passed bills to abolish slavery.


5. The Leavenworth Constitution adopted, and State officers nominated.


6. The Lecompton Constitution submitted again in 1858, and for the last time defeated.


CHAPTER XI. V EVENTS OF 1858.


107. Governors of 1858 .- James W. Denver, who succeeded Frederick P. Stanton (removed for calling the special session of the Territorial Legislature), served as Acting-Governor until the resignation of Governor Walker, in May, 1858, when he became Governor, with Hugh S. Walsh as Secretary. Governor Denver resigned in September, his resignation to take effect October 10, 1858. After his depart- ure, Secretary Walsh acted as Governor until the arrival of Governor Samuel Medary, in December.


108. The Marais des Cygnes Mas- Governor Hugh S. Walsh. sacre .- On May 19, 1858, occurred near Trading Post, in Linn county, the tragedy known in Kansas annals as the Marais des Cygnes massacre. A party of twenty-five men from across the border, headed by Captain Charles Hamil- ton, collected eleven Free State settlers, stood them up in a line in a ravine and fired upon them. Five fell dead and all the others save one were badly wounded; the five wounded and one unwounded man feigned death and escaped. The murdered men were William Stilwell, Patrick Ross, William Colpetzer, Michael Robinson and John F. Campbell. The wounded were William Hairgrove, Asa


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


Hairgrove, B. L. Reed, Amos Hall and Asa Snyder; the unharmed man was Austin Hall. The place of the bloody deed is now marked by a public monument, and its memory will be forever preserved by the lines of Whittier, with their final prophecy :


LE MARAÍS DU CYGNE.


" A blush as of roses Where rose never grew! Great drops on the bunch grass, But not of the dew! A taint in the sweet air For wild bees to shun! A stain that shall never Bleach out in the sun!


"Back, steed of the prairies! Sweet song-bird, fly back! Wheel hither, bald vulture! Gray wolf, call thy pack! The foul human vultures Have feasted and fled; The wolves of the border Have crept from the dead.


" In the homes of their rear- ing,


Yet warm with their lives, Ye wait the dead only, Poor children and wives! Put out the red forge fire, The smith shall not come; Unyoke the brown oxen, The plowman lies dumb.


" Wind slow from the Swan's Marsh,


O dreary death-train, With pressed lips as bloodless As lips of the slain! Kiss down the young eyelids, Smooth down the gray hairs; Let tears quench the eurses That burn thro' your prayers.


"From the hearths of their cabins,


The fields of their corn, Unwarned and unweaponed, The victims were torn -- By the whirlwind of murder Swooped up and swept on To the low, reedy fenlands, The Marsh of the Swan.


" With a vain plea for mercy No stout knee was crooked; In the mouths of the rifles Right manly they looked. How paled the May sunshine, Green Maraís du Cygne, When the death-smoke blew over Thy lonely ravine.


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EVENTS OF 1858.


" Strong man of the prairies, Mourn bitter and wild!


Wail, desolate woman! Weep, fatherless child! But the grain of God springs up From ashes beneath, And the crown of His harvest Is life out of death.


" Not in vain on the dial The shade moves along To point the great contrasts Of right and of wrong;


Free homes and free altars And fields of ripe food; The reeds of the Swan's Marsh, Whose bloom is of blood.


" On the lintels of Kansas That blood shall not dry, Henceforth the Bad Angel Shall harmless go by!


Henceforth to the sunset, Unchecked on her way,


Shall liberty follow The march of the day."


109. Retribution .- William Griffith, one of the mur- derers, was arrested in Platte county, Mo., in 1863; was tried, and convicted of murder at Mound City, Linn county, Kan. He was executed October 30, 1863. William Hair- grove, one of the survivors of the tragedy, acted as executioner.


110. Fourth Territorial Legisla- ture .- Governor Medary's position re- quired him to pass in review the acts of the Fourth Territorial Legislature. That body met at Lecompton, and adjourned at once to Lawrence. It repealed the "Bogus Statutes" of 1855, which were afterwards burned in the streets; made Governor Samuel Medary. provision for a Constitutional Convention and a State Gov- ernment if the people decided for it at a preliminary elec- tion, and passed an act of amnesty for offenders in certain counties who had been fighting over political differences. Notwithstanding this peaceful measure, Captain James


-


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


Montgomery and his men continued the war with the Pro- slavery people in Linn and Bourbon counties, and Captain John Brown carried off a number of persons lawfully bound to servitude in Missouri, to freedom elsewhere.


SUMMARY.


1. Political changes of 1858.


2. The Marais des Cygnes massacre.


3. Whittier's commemorative poem, "Le Marais du Cygne."


4. The Wyandotte Convention and Constitution provided for.


The Old Windmill at Lawrence.


CHAPTER XII.


THE WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.


+ 111. The Convention .- The vote on the proposition to hold a Constitutional Convention at Wyandotte was held March 28, 1859. The total vote was 6,731; 5,036 being cast "for a Constitution," and 1,425 "against a Constitu- tion."


The election of delegates to the Convention occurred on the 7th of June, 1859.


The Convention which was to frame the Constitution under which Kansas was destined to enter the Union of the States, assembled at Wyandotte, July 5, 1859. It was composed of fifty-two delegates.


In the election of these, the old appellations of "Free State" and "Pro-slavery" were abandoned, and the elected delegates were classified as thirty-five Republicans and seventeen Democrats. It was the first Constitutional Con- vention in Kansas which contained members of both political parties. Historians of the Convention have recorded that few of the heretofore prominent leaders of political action in the Territory were present in the Conven- tion, and that a large proportion of the members were young men. Many of the delegates were destined to distinction in the civil and military history of Kansas in the years to follow.


112. Officers .- The Convention was organized by the choice of Samuel A. Kingman, as temporary President, and


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


John A. Martin, as Secretary. A permanent organization was effected by the choice of James M. Winchell, as Presi- dent; John A. Martin, as Secretary; J. L. Blanchard, Assistant Secretary; George F. Warren, Sergeant-at-Arms; J. M. Funk, Doorkeeper; Rev. Werter R. Davis, Chaplain; President pro tem., Solon O. Thacher.


113. The Model .- The Constitution of the State of Ohio was adopted as a "model or basis of action."


114. Sixth Section .- The Convention was for freedom. The Sixth Section of the Bill of Rights was made to read "There shall be no slavery in this State, and no involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."


A proviso to suspend this section, for one year after the admission of the State, was voted down, twenty-eight to eleven. This was the last suggestion made to allow slavery to exist in Kansas, for a day or an hour. Well said a member Samuel A. Kingman. of the Convention, "the Constitution will commend itself to the good and true everywhere, because through every line and syllable there glows the generous sunshine of liberty."


115. Boundary and Capital .- The Convention rejected a proposition to embrace, in the new State, a portion of Nebraska south of the Platte, and fixed the western line at the twenty-fifth meridian, cutting off the Territorial county of Arapahoe, which was afterwards embraced in the Territory and State of Colorado. Thus, the boundaries of Kansas were finally and permanently determined.


The temporary seat of Government was located at Topeka.


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THE WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.


The Convention substantially completed its work in twenty-one days.


116. The Constitution Adopted .- On the 12th of September, 1859, James M. Winchell, President, and John A. Martin, Secretary, called an election on the Wyandotte Constitution, to ratify or rejeet it. The vote was taken on the 4th of October, 1859, and stood: for the Constitution, 10,421; against the Constitution, 5,530. The "homestead elause" was submitted separately, and received 8,788 votes, as against 4,772. So the free people of Kansas adopted the Wyandotte Constitution.


117. Men of the Convention .- The Wyandotte Con- stitutional Convention has maintained a high place in the regard of the people of Kansas, on account of the strong and steadfast character of its membership, and the solid quality of its work. Its labors were followed, inside of two years, by the admission of Kansas as a State, and by the outbreak of a war in which the existence of the State, and of the Union of the States had to be maintained. In the councils of the civil state, and in its armed defense, the members of the Wyandotte Convention bore a high and honorable part. In the organization of the State's first Supreme Solon 0. Thacher. Court, Samuel A. Kingman served as an Associate Justice, and after, as its Chief Justice. Benjamin F. Simpson was chosen the first Attorney-General of the State, and Samuel A. Stinson, another member, was · elected to that office in 1861. Two of the framers of the Wyandotte Constitution, John J. Ingalls and Edmund G.


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HISTORY OF KANSAS.


Ross, lived to serve Kansas in the Senate of the United States. John A. Martin, the youthful Secretary, was twice chosen Governor of the State. Two of the lawyers of the body, Solon O. Thacher and William C. McDowell, were chosen District Judges at the first election under the Con- stitution. These and many others served - the State long and well in various places of responsibility, in the first and subse- quent Legislatures, on the bench, and in other capacities. W. R. Griffith, the first State Superintendent of Publie Instruction, was a member of the Con- vention.


When "war's wild deadly blast was Mrs. 0. I. H. Nichols. blown," the members of this Convention rallied to the standard. James G. Blunt entered the service at once and became a major-general. John P. Slough beeame a brigadier-general, and Simpson, Ross, Hipple, Martin, Ritchie,. Burris, Nash, Werter R. Davis, and Middleton, officers and members of the Wyandotte Conven- tion, entered the army as line and field officers of the Kansas regiments.


118. Convention Stood for Law and Liberty .- The Wyandotte Convention contained few of those who had prior to its assemblage been recognized and conspicuous leaders in controlling publie opinion in the Territory, but it framed a Constitution that met the Kansas idea of the rights of man, the protection of the home, the establishment of justice. A Kansas woman, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, attended daily the sessions of the Convention, and coun- seled for those provisions that protect the sacred rights of


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THE WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.


the wife, the mother, the woman citizen. The spirit of the Wyandotte Constitution has been preserved. None of the amendments added to it have weakened or restricted its original purpose. It remains, after forty years, the charter of liberty, and the basis of law in Kansas.


SUMMARY.


1. The Wyandotte Constitutional Convention convened at Wyan- dotte, July 5, 1859.


2. The members of the Convention were for the first time from both political parties.


3. James M. Winchell was chosen President of the Convention.


4. The Constitution of Ohio was the model for the Constitution of Kansas.


5. The Sixth section stood for freedom.


6. The capital was located temporarily at Topeka.


7. The Constitution was accepted by the people October 4, 1859.


Golden medal presented in 1874 to Mrs. Mary A. Brown, widow of John Brown, by Victor Hugo and others.




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