USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume I > Part 41
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Senator Benton was not a man to be dictated to in such a matter. The General Assembly to be elected would either re-elect Benton or choose his successor. On the 26th of May, 1849, Benton delivered a speech at Jefferson City in which he denounced the Jackson resolutions and appealed to the people. He declared that they were "a mere copy of the Calhoun resolutions offered in the Senate." He insisted that the resolu- tions entertained "The covert purpose of disrupting the territorial union and misleading the people of Missouri into co-operation with the slave- holding states for that purpose." The campaign was one of great bitter- ness, and it ended by leaving the result in doubt. It was not certain that Benton had been beaten. The joint session of the two houses began January 10, 1851. On the 11th, a member of the house offered a reso- lution that one-half of the State of Missouri was misrepresented in the person of Thomas H. Benton in the United States Senate, and that the joint session would not adjourn until a United States Senator who would reflect the true interests of Missouri had been elected. The Whigs did not have a majority in the joint session, but each faction of the Democratic party preferred that they should win rather than that the other wing of the Democratic party should succeed. On the fortieth ballot Henry S. Geyer, a Whig, was elected United States Senator to succeed Thomas H. Benton. He won by the aid of the radical pro-slavery element in the General Assembly.
It had been supposed by the pro-slavery faction of the Missouri Dem- ocracy that the defeat of Senator Benton would mean his retirement from
2 .Judge Price often told the author that he formulated the Jackson resolutions. In a conference, at Jefferson City, of the men opposed to Benton, ways and means of eliminating him were under diseussion. All agreed that he must be beaten and politically diseredited in Missouri because of his growing aversion to slavery. The question was: How to do it. Price proposed the substance of the Jackson resolutions, saying that Benton would not obey them. Ilis refusal would put him in opposi- tion to the Democratie party of Missouri, then becoming a slave party. At first his suggestion was not accepted, but before the conference ad- journed, it had been agreed to, and Judge Price was instructed to draw up the resolutions. In the History of Clay and Platte Counties, Mo., 1885, p. 149, it is said that these resolutions were the work of Judge W. B. Napton, of Saline County. But there is no doubt that they were written by Judge Priee; JJudge Napton may have had a hand in their formulation.
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publie life. This proved to be a wrong conclusion. Senator Benton became a candidate for Representative in Congress in 1852. In his ean- vass for that office, the organization of Nebraska Territory became an issue in Missouri.
Senator Benton had long been known as the champion of that country extending west from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean. In his first publie utteranee concerning this vast territory he had been opposed to extending the limits of the United States beyond the erest of the Rocky Mountains. William Gilpin was an adherent of Senator Benton and for many years his warm personal friend. Gilpin was the apostle of the West. No other man of his day was so well informed as to the topography and resources of the regions of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. His vision of that country revealed to him a land of many states, and supporting a dense population. He saw it girded about with railroads. He traveled over it and explored it from Independence to the mouth of the Columbia. He believed the great iron highway to penetrate that country would leave the frontier of Missouri at the mouth of the Kansas River. He im- bued Senator Benton with his views; and to Gilpin more than Senator Benton is due the careful and scientific exploration of the West.
The necessity for railroad communication with the Pacific Coast was growing more pressing. California had been made a State, and the settle- ment of Utah demanded markets for products, and the importation of manufactured artieles. Benton had introduced in the Senate, in 1849, a bill for the construction of a Central National Road to the Pacific. On the 16th day of December, 1850, he introduced a much more elaborate bill for a "Central National Highway to the Pacific Ocean," which was to begin at the Mississippi, in Missouri, and end at the Bay of San Fran- eiseo.
During his eanvass for his election to the House of Representatives, the construction of this road was connected with his advocacy of the organization of Nebraska Territory. He insisted that all that part of the Platte Country not included within the boundary of specified Indian reservations, could be legally settled upon and occupied by citizens of the United States. Later he had a map prepared and published, showing the unoccupied lands, and he came to advocate the immediate settlement of these lands whether a territory was organized or not.
The continual agitation of the Nebraska question influenced the Indians living in the Platte Country, and caused them to act for them- selves. At Fort Leavenworth, in 1848, the great "Council Fire" of the Northwestern Indian Confederacy had been rekindled by the Emigrant Indian tribes. The Wyandots had been for generations the keepers of that fire, and upon its revival in the West, they had been continued in that responsible office-they stood at the head of the renewed Confederacy. In the winter of 1851-2, they petitioned Congress to establish a Territorial Government for Nebraska. No notice was accorded the petition, and they took further action, such as they supposed would compel attention. On the 12th day of October, 1852, they held, in the Council-house, in what is now Kansas City, Kansas, an election for a Delegate to Congress. Wil-
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liam Walker set down this in his journal: "Attended the election for Delegate for Congress from Nebraska Territory. A. Guthrie received the entire vote polled."
At Fort Leavenworth there was opposition to the action of the Wyan- dot Nation. The Commandant there threatened to arrest Mr. Guthrie if he persisted in having the election held. The action of this officer was inspired, no doubt, by the radical Democracy of Missouri. Seeing that Mr. Guthrie paid no heed to the opposition of the military, the power which had caused this opposition changed tactics. Mr. Banow, at the Fort, became a candidate for Delegate, and the military authorities caused another election to be called. Mr. Guthrie, though recently elected, stood in the election called by the officers at Fort Leavenworth, and defeated Mr. Banow by a vote of 54 to 16. Having been twice elected, Mr. Guthrie was not again molested.
Abelard Guthrie was a member of the Wyandot Nation. IIe was a white man who had married Quindaro Nancy Brown, an accomplished Wyandot woman. He was a native of Ohio, having been born at Dayton, in that State. During the Mexican War, he had been a paymaster in the Army. In this capacity he had traveled over that portion of Mexico traversed by the armies of the United States. He was a man of intelli- gence and character. He had been in the United States Indian service before his connection with the Army and knew many of the Wyandot Indians. When he returned from Mexico he followed them to the mouth of the Kansas River, and was there married to Miss Brown.3
Mr. Guthrie set out for Washington, November 20th. On December 1st he wrote to Governor Walker, from Cincinnati, that he had traveled from St. Louis to Cincinnati with the Missouri Senators, Atchison and Geyer, and that no assistance from them could be expected.
When Mr. Guthrie arrived in Washington he set to work with energy to accomplish the purpose for which he had been sent. On December 9th he wrote Governor Walker that Willard P. Hall,+ member of the
3 Quindaro Nancy Brown was descended from Adam Brown, who was captured by the Wyandot Indians in Greenbrier County, Virginia, in Dunmore's War. He was carried to the Wyandot country and adopted by the tribe. He married a Wyandot woman, and his descendants were numerous in the Wyandot Nation. For full accounts of Brown and the Wyandot Indians, see Connelley's Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory.
4 Willard Preble Hall was born at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, May 9, 1820. In 1840 he eame to Missouri and studied law with his brother, William A. Hall, of Randolph County. In 1841 he removed to Platte County where he engaged in the practice of law. In 1843 he removed to St. Joseph, Missouri, which was his home during the remainder of his life. In 1844 he was one of the candidates on the Democratic Electoral ticket. He was a member of Doniphan's Expedition. He and Colonel Doniphan prepared the first code of laws for New Mexico after it became part of the United States. While absent from Missouri with Doniphan, he was eleeted to Congress from the St. Joseph district. In 1861 he was chosen Lieutenant Governor of the Provisional Government of Missouri. The Governor was in feeble health much of the time and Mr. Hall fre- quently acted as Governor of Missouri during the Civil War.
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House, had prepared a bill and would introduce it the following week. The bill provided for the organization of the Territory of the Platte with the following boundaries: On the south, thirty-six thirty; on the north, the forty-third degree; on the west, the summit of the Rocky Mountains; on the east, by Missouri. So effective were Mr. Guthrie's efforts that the Chairman of the Committee on Territories assured him that if Mr. ITall did not introduce his bill, the Committee would introduce one. Mr. ITall introduced his bill on the 13th of December, and it was referred to the
ABELARD GUTHRIE [Copy of Portrait Owned by William E. Connelley ]
Committee on Territories. Hall's bill was never reported by the Com- mittee, but in lien thereof William A. Richardson, of Illinois, from the Committee, reported a bill on February 2, 1853, providing for the organi- zation of Nebraska Territory, with boundaries identical with those in Hall's bill. In the Committee of the Whole the bill met with strong opposition from Southern members and was reported baek to the House with a recommendation for its rejection, but on February 10, 1853, it passed the House by a vote of 98 to 43. On the following day it was sent to the Senate where it was referred to the Committee on Territories of which Stephen A. Douglas was Chairman. On February 17th, Mr. Doug- las reported the bill without amendment. Several unsuccessful efforts
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were made to have it taken up. The Congressional term expired by limi- tation March 4, and the bill died with the session. Mr. Guthrie believed he had a majority for it in the Senate, and eould it have been brought to a vote at an early date it might have passed the Senate.
Although he failed in securing the passage of his bill, Mr. Guthrie virtually accomplished the object sought in his eleetion. He foreed a consideration of the question of the organization of Nebraska Territory, and eonvineed the slave power that the question would have to be settled at the coming session of Congress.
It was determined by the Wyandots that a Territorial Convention for the purpose of organizing a Provisional Government for Nebraska Terri- tory should be held on the day appointed for their national festival, the Green Corn Feast. Their annual National election was often held on this aneient anniversary. In the year 1853 it was fixed to fall upon Tues- day, August 9th. The other Emigrant tribes were notified of this inten- tion, and asked to send delegates; and all white men then resident in the Territory among the Emigrant tribes were requested to be present and participate in the work. Russell Garrett says the notiees were written. Only sueh white persons as were then in the service of the Government in the capacity of Agents, Missionaries, Agency-farmers, Ageney-black- smiths, and Agency-carpenters, and the licensed Indian traders were per- mitted to live in the "Indian Territory." Colonel Benton was advised of this conclusion of the Wyandots, and he approved it, if, indeed, he had not urged it.
The determination to organize the Provisional Government of Nebraska at the Convention in the interest of the "Central Route" made it necessary that this meeting should be held in the Council-house of the Wyandot Nation. Abelard Guthrie was, perhaps, the only Wyandot noti- fied in advance of this change in the program. Governor Walker in his "Notes" says: "In the summer of 1853, a Territorial Convention was held pursuant to previous notice to be held iu Wyandot. The Convention met on the 26th of July -. " This statement does not say that the notiee was that the Convention should meet on the 26th of July. In Governor Walker's entry in his Journal, describing the Convention and its pro- ceedings, he states that he did not attend this meeting until noon and then only after he had, Cincinnatus-like, been sent for. It is more than probable that he did not know of the change in' the order of events until he arrived at the Council-house. The series of Resolutions adopted by the Convention and which served the Provisional Government as a Consti- tution bears only one resolution in his handwriting. And it was not his intention to aeeept the position of Provisional Governor. Publie office had no attractions for him. He intended that one of his brothers, either Matthew R. Walker or Joel Walker, splendid business men of great energy, and both possessing fine executive ability, and several years younger than himself, should be selected as the Provisional Governor of Nebraska Territory.5
5 William Walker was a Wyandot Indian of one-sixteenth blood. He was born in what is now Wayne County, Michigan, March 5, 1800. His
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Among the delegates to the Convention were the following persons : William Walker, Russell Garrett, Silas Armstrong, W. F. Dyer, Isaac Munday, James Findley, -- Grover, William Gilpiu (afterwards Gov- ernor of Colorado), Thomas Johnson, George I. Clark, Joel Walker, Joel W. Garrett, Charles B. Garrett, Matthias Splitlog, Tauromee, Abelard Guthrie, Matthew R. Walker, Franeis A. Hicks, John W. Gray-Eyes, Irvin P. Long, H. C. Long, and Captain Bull-Head. The Blue-Jackets and other Shawnees were present.
The only written account of the Convention and the proceedings, so far found, is that in Governor Walker's Journal, as follows :
Monday, July 25, 1853 .- Cool and elondy morning. Resumed eutting my grass. Warm through the day. Sent Harriet to Kansas | Kansas City, Mo., now] for some medieines for Mr. C., who has every other day a chill. In the evening three gentlemen rode up and enquired if W. W. resided here. Upon being assured in the affirmative they stated they wished to stay all night. I sent them to C. B. G.'s. They said they were dele- gates to the Rail Road meeting in Nebraska on the 26th inst. I would gladly have entertained them, but owing to family siekness I was com- pelled to send them where I did.
Tuesday, July 26, 1853 .- At noon a messenger was sent for me to attend the Rail-Road Convention. I saddled my horse and rode up to the Wyandott Couneil House, where I found a large collection of the habitans of Nebraska.
The meeting was called to order and organized by the appointment of Wm. P. Birney of Delaware, President, and Wm. Walker, Seey. A Committee was then appointed to prepare resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting. James Findley, -- Dyer and Silas Armstrong were appointed.
In accordance with the resolutions adopted, the following offieers were elected as a provisional government for the Territory: For provi- sional Governor, Wm. Walker ; See'y of the Territory, G. I. Clark; Coun- cilmen, R. C. Miller, Isaac Mundy, and M. R. Walker.
father, William Walker, Senior, was captured in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1781, by the Delaware Indians. He was then a small boy. The Delaware Indians gave him to the Wyandots. He was adopted into the Wyandot tribe and married Catherine Rankin, daughter of James and Mary (Montonr) Rankin. Mary Montonr was the descendent of that famous Indian woman, Madame Montour, and the daughter of Queen Esther, who slew the captives at Bloody Rock, in the Valley of Wyoming. The son of William Walker, the eaptive, was William Walker, who be- came Provisional Governor of Nebraska Territory. He was well edu- cated, having attended, at Kenyon, Bishop Chase's famous college at Gambier, Ohio. He was Head Chiel of the Wyandot Nation, at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Hle eame with his tribe to the mouth of the Kansas River in the summer of 1843. The Wyandots bought the land in the fork of the Missouri and Kansas rivers from the Delawares. William Walker built a commodious residence on the bank of Jersey Creek, in what is now Kansas City, Kansas. He was the leading man of the Wyandot Nation. He kept a Journal of his daily transactions for nearly forty years. This is one of the most valuable records relating to Kansas. A portion of his Journal is published in Connelley's Provisional Govern- ment of Nebraska Territory. William Walker is not to be confused with Robert J. Walker, who was later a Territorial Governor of Kansas. Yol. 1-20
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Resolutions were adopted expressive of the Convention's preference of the Great Central Rail Road Route.
A. Guthrie, late delegate, was nominated as the Candidate for re- election. Adjourned.
The resolutions are in the Collection of William E. Connelley. They were prepared by William Gilpin, and are in his handwriting. They served as the constitution, authority, or fundamental law of the Provi-
WILLIAM WALKER, PROVISIONAL GOVERNOR OF NEBRASKA TERRITORY [Copy of Portrait Owned by William E. Connelley ]
sional Government of Nebraska Territory. They constitute the first state paper of Kansas and of Nebraska, and are as follows:
Whereas it appears to be the will of the people of the United States that the Mississippi Valley and Pacific Ocean shall be eonneeted by railroad to be built at the national expense and for the national benefit; it becomes the duty of the people to make known their will in relation to the location of said road and the means to be employed in its construe- tion. In selecting a route "the greatest good to the greatest number" should be the first consideration and economy in the eonstruetion and in protecting the road should be the second.
In estimating the "greatest good to the greatest number," present population alone should not govern, but the eapability of the regions to be traversed by the road, for sustaining population should be considered.
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Economy in the construction will be best secured by the cultivation of a productive soil, where materials for the road exist, along and con- tiguous to the line of road whereby provisions, labor and materials can be obtained at low rates. Then the farmers with their teeming fields will ever be in advance of the railroad laborer to furnish him with abundance of wholesome food at prices which free competition always reduces to a reasonable standard. At the same time they will be a defense to the work and the workman against savage malice without the expense of keeping up armies and military posts. These, too, will be the surest and safest protectors of the road when finished and without expense to the Government. But should the road be constructed through barren wastes and arid mountains and upon the frontier of a foreign and jealous and hostile people an immense and expensive military power must be erected to protect it-a power ever dangerous to freedom and desirable only to despots. In view of these facts therefore be it
Resolved, That from personal knowledge of the country and from reliable information derived from those who have traveled over it we feel entire confidence in the eligibility of the Central Route as embracing within itself all the advantages and affording all the facilities necessary to the snecessful prosecution of this great enterprise.
Resolved, That grants of large bodies of the publie lands to corporate companies for the purpose of building railroads, telegraph lines or for any purpose whatever are detrimental to the public interests, that they prevent settlement, are oppressive and unjust to the pioneer settler and retard the growth and prosperity of the country in which they lie.
Resolved, That we cordially approve of the plan for the construction of a railroad to connect the Mississippi valley and Pacific Ocean recently submitted to the public by the Hon. Thomas H. Benton whereby the settlement and prosperity of the vast country between Missouri and California will be promoted and the construction of that great work be rendered much cheaper, more expeditious, and more universally useful.
Resolved, That it was with profound regret that we heard of the failure of the hill to organize a government for Nebraska Territory ; that justice and sound policy alike demand the consummation of this measure and we therefore respectfully but earnestly recommend it to the favorable consideration of Congress and ask for it the earliest possible passage.
Resolved, That the people of Nebraska cherish a profound sense of obligation to the Hon. Thomas H. Benton and to the Ilon. Willard P. Hall of Missouri for their generous and patriotic exertions in support of the rights and interests of our territory and that we hereby express to them our grateful acknowledgments.
Whereas it is a fundamental principle in the theory and practice of our government that there shall be no taxation without representa- tion and the citizens of Nebraska being subject to the same laws for the collection of revenue for the support of government as other citizens of the United States it is but right that they shall be represented in Congress, therefore be it
Resolved, That the citizens of Nebraska Territory will meet in their respective precincts on the second Tuesday of October next and elect one delegate to represent them in the thirty-third Congress.
Resolved, That this Convention do appoint a provisional Governor, a provisional Secretary of State and a Council of three persons. and that all election returns shall be made to the Seeretary of State and he by him opened and the votes counted in the presence of the Governor and Couneil on the second Tuesday of November next and that a certi- ficate of election shall be issued by them to the person having the largest number of votes.
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Resolved, That while we earnestly desire to see this territory organ- ized, and become the home of the white man, we as earnestly disclaim all intention or desire to infringe upon the rights of the Indians holding lands within the boundaries of said territory.
Resolved, That the people of Nebraska Territory are not unmindful of the services rendered by our late Delegate in Congress, the Hon. Abelard Guthrie, and we hereby tender him our sincere thanks and profound gratitude for the same.
Resolved. That this Convention nominate a suitable person to repre- sent Nebraska Territory in the 33rd Congress.
Resolved, That Editors of Newspapers throughout the country favor- able to the Organization of Nebraska Territory and to the Central Route to the Pacific Ocean are requested to publish the proceedings of this Convention.
Resolved, That the Editors of Newspapers throughout the country who are favorable to the organization of Nebraska Territory and to the ('entral Route to the Pacific Ocean are requested to publish the proceed- ings of this Convention.
Endorsed on the back are these words :
Preamble and resolutions to be submitted to the Nebraska Convention to meet on the 26th July, 1853.
While no boundaries were fixed for the Territory for which the Pro- visional Government was organized it was taken as a matter granted that the Territory ineluded the same area as defined in the Hall, the Richardson, and other bills.
The organization of the Provisional Government of Nebraska Ter- ritory gave general satisfaction to the people of Missouri. It had been effeeted with the assistance of the Benton faction of the Missouri Democ- raey. It was the faction which was drifting away from slavery and toward Freesoilism. Both factions became now intent on securing the Delegate to Congress to be elected in the following October. In this contest the Priec-Atehison faction had a tremendous advantage, as it controlled the patronage of the Indian Bureau of the Department of the Interior, while Mr. Guthrie, Benton's representative, could only depend upon his personal efforts and the efforts of his personal friends.
Hand-bills were printed containing the record of the proceedings of the Convention. These were distributed, and were copied into the newspapers of Missouri. In Governor Walker's Journal mention is made of this fact :
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