USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume I > Part 49
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I thank you, sir, and those whom you represent on this occasion, for the cordial manner in which you have welcomed me to your Terri- tory, and for the encomiums which you have so eloquently bestowed- encomiums which I must be allowed to say are attributable more to your own courtesy and partiality than to any merit of mine. Coming, as 1 do come, into a position of high and solemn responsibility in a strange land, to exercise most important functions among men who as yet know me not, you may well imagine that I am cheered and encouraged by the foreshadowing of confidence and kindness exhibited in this our first interview. I am sensible of the difficulties that may beset my official career, and I must rely on the friendship and kindly feeling which you have professed, for indulgence to my deficiencies. But, whilst I shall now elaim in advance your leniency for my inexperience of your country and your people, for my shortcomings in wisdom and ability, I claim no margin, and ask for no indulgence, in respect to the earnestness and sineerity of my efforts, to make the great good of the Territory and the Vol. 1-24
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advancement of its substantial prosperity and welfare, the chief end of my official action.
It shall be my pride and pleasure, always to keep in view that single end, despite all sinister considerations or adverse circumstances. Our Territory is indeed a land of great interest and of glorious promise, and, although, now a frontier country demanding at our hands strong con- tinued effort and no small privations, yet, we are cheered on by the conviction that another frontier is approaching us from the Pacific, and that when the inevitable destiny of this Union shall have filled up its limits with civilized population and thrifty enterprise, Kansas will be territorially the very heart of the Republic, and in the highway of its trade. Much of its progress, its prosperity and its future destiny will depend upon the impress that we shall make upon its early develop- ments. That we shall have difficulties to meet and overcome. varied in their character and formidable in their number and extent. it were worse than folly to deny and conceal. Whatever they may be, however, there is no fear that they cannot all be solved by prudent care,-by tolerance and charity for difference of opinion among ourselves-by calm but unquailing moral courage in asserting our own rights of action or opinion-and by the most serupulons eare to avoid encroachment on the rights of others. First of all, Kansas must, and with God's help it shall be, a country of law and order. No man must be allowed to cast contempt npon the law-to unsettle the foundations of society, to mar our future destinies-to cause us to be shunned and avoided by good citizens-and to turn us upon the retrograde path toward barbarism, by substituting his own unbridled passions for the administration of justice, and by redressing his real and imaginary wrongs by the red and cowardly hand of assassination or the ruffianism of the outlaw. So far as it shall come within my province to deal with this spirit. I pledge you that I will crush it out or sacrifice myself in the effort. Every one of our millions of fellow-citizens who may choose to exercise his unquestionable right to plant himself, his family and his property on our soil, to swell its strength and develop its resources, must feel that the broad aegis of the law shelters him and his from outrage, and that its sword is keen and ready to punish him summarily and un- failingly, for outrage of the rights of others. We must, too, do our duty in cementing and preserving our glorious Union, by the strictest adherence to our constitutional and legal obligations, and a constant readiness to aid our fellow-citizens of other States, in securing to them all the rights which that constitution and those laws have sacredly guaranteed to them for the management of their own affairs, whilst at the same time, we must, with the most vigorous and determined firmness, preserve unimpaired and unquestioned, to every citizen of our Territory, freedom of opinion in the regulation of our own. The principle of the bill for erecting our Territory, I need scarcely tell you has my hearty approval. Fiercely as it has been assailed, it has its foundation deep in the doctrine of true republicanism. Under these doctrines the whole Union, North, South, East and West, has invited ns to come here and mold our own institution, as to us it shall seem good. We have accepted the invitation, and with "POPULI VOCE NATA" on our banner, we are prepared to give one more proof of the ability of our people for self- government, by going to the ballot-box-there coneeding to each other the right of free discussion and opinion which we elaim for ourselves. and sacrifieing to the all-powerful will of the majority. all our interests and feelings and prejudices, whatever question may be involved in the decision. Thus and thus only can we discharge our duty to ourselves- show our appreciation of the principle of our Territorial bill, and con-
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tribute to its permanency as a means of easy solution, for all future time, of a dangerous and exciting question in our National Councils.
Thus, with law and order reigning in our midst, mutual tolerance strengthening our hands and accelerating our progress-fanaticism dis- armed and the Union sustained by a cheerful and determined observance of the constitution that binds it together-by preserving unimpaired the purity of the ballot-box and deciding there as freemen should, the questions which the nation has properly referred to it, each man calmly, fearlessly and dispassionately expressing his opinion and casting his vote in conformity to the dictates of his conscience and understanding and by bowing submissively to the will of the majority when properly ascer- tained, we shall have done our whole duty and may expect to reap its pleasant fruits.
Governor Reeder immediately opened the Executive offices at Fort Leavenworth, after which he proceeded in his duties in a deliberate manner. He seems to have taken no one completely into his confidence. It had been the expectations of the Pro-Slavery men that he would immediately eall an election for members of the Territorial Legislature. The Governor saw no need for haste in that matter. He decided first to make a tour of the Territory. In view of what later developed it is certain that he intended at that time to make his future home in Kansas. He had accepted the position of Territorial Governor believ- ing it would give him an opportunity to make profitable investments for himself and his Pennsylvania friends. Kersey Coates, of Chester County, that State, was already located at Kansas City. He was a fine business man, and was long one of the principal citizens of his adopted town. Robert T. Van Horn, another Pennsylvanian, had founded the Kansas City Journal. There were other Pennsylvanians at the mouth of the Kansas River, and it is more than probable that Governor Reeder consulted them as to his procedure in Kansas. And it was bnt natural that he should wish to explore the territory to some extent before he committed himself on many of the issues which were sure to arise. Of this period of his administration he later made a statement to the special Congressional Committee appointed to investigate the Kansas troubles in 1856. His experience between the date of his arrival and the date of this statement, no doubt influenced his review of the whole of his administration.
I landed at Fort Leavenworth on Saturday, the 7th day of October (1854), and made it my first business to obtain information of the geography, settlements, population and general condition of the Terri- tory, with a view to its division into districts; the defining of their boundaries ; the ascertainment of snitable and central places for elections. and the full names of men in each district for election officers, persons to take the census, Justices of the Peace, and Constables. In a very few days, I discovered that the procurement of this knowledge, in conse- quence of the newness of the population, was utterly impossible, by any other means than by a tour through the Territory. I found that. nnlike most new Territories, the settlements of which cluster along a single line, the small population of Kansas was sparsely distributed over a surface of about 20,000 square miles. With some trouble, arising from the want of traveling facilities, I made the necessary arrangements, and.
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on the 14th of October, I left, with two of the Territorial Judges, Messrs. Elmore and Johnson, the District Attorney, Mr. Isaaes, the United States Marshal, Mr. Donaldson, and my private Secretary, Mr. Williams, for a trip into the interior, to procure the requisite information. The Seere- tary and Chief Justice had not then arrived in the Territory. I took in the route the payments of the Pottawatomie and Kansas Indians, where a large number of whites as well as Indians were assembled ; and, having made full notes of all the information procured from Indians and whites, I completed my trip, and arrived at Fort Leavenworth on the 7th of November. I then saw that if the election for delegate to Congress (which required no previous eensus), should be postponed till an election could be had for legislature, with its preliminary eensus and apportionments the greater part of the session, which would terminate on the 4th of March, would expire before our congressional delegate could reach Washington; and I deemed it best to order an election for a delegate to Congress as early as possible, and to postpone the taking of the census till after that election. I was more convinced of the propriety of this course, by the fact that the common law and many of the United States Statutes were in force over the Territory, and could well be admin- istered through the courts established by Congress, and the Justices whom I was authorized to appoint: and by the additional fact that whilst the citizens of Missouri were vehemently urging an immediate election of the legislature, the citizens of the Territory were generally of the opinion that no immediate necessity for it existed. I prepared, without delay, a division of the Territory into election distriets, defined by natural boundaries, easily understood and known, fixed a place of election in each, appointed election officers for each poll, and ordered an election for congressional delegate, to take place on the 29th of November, 1854, and by the 15th of November my proclamations were issued, containing a description of the distriets, with all the neeessary information and forms.
In his tour of the territory, as reviewed above, he visited Fort Riley, Council Grove, Lawrence, and other important settlements of the Terri- tory. He was tendered a reception at Lawrence, and his address on that occasion differed little from what he had said upon the occasion of his reception. His survey of the Territory oceupied two weeks, when he returned to Fort Leavenworth. There he occupied himself with the matter of the cleetion of a Delegate to Congress. His proclamation for the election was issued on the 10th day of November, 1854, and the elec- tion was set for the 29th of November. In his journey through the country he had selected points where the voters should meet. He divided the Territory into sixteen distriets. In the schedule to his proelama- tion, these districts are described, and the places of election specified as follows :
SCHEDULE
LIST OF ELECTION DISTRICTS AND PLACES OF HOLDING ELECTIONS
First District .- Commeneing at the Missouri State line, on the south bank of the Kansas River; thenee along the south bank of said river to the first tributary or watered ravine running into the Kansas above the Town of Lawrenee, thenee up that tributary to the head thereof; thenee in a direct line to the west side of Rolf's house; and thence,
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by a due south line, to the Santa Fe road; thence by the middle of said road to the Missouri State line; and thence by said State line to the place of beginning.
Place of election, the office of Dr. Charles Robinson, in the Town of Lawrenee.
Judges, Nathaniel T. Johnson, Oliver A. Hanscome, William Miller.
Second District .- Commencing at the mouth of Big Spring Branch on the south bank of the Kansas River; thenee up said branch to its farthest source; thenee by a southerly line, crossing the Wakarusa River on the east side of the house of Charles Mattingly, to the middle of the Santa Fe road; thenee along the middle of said road to the line of the First Distriet; thence by the same along the west side of the house of
Rolf to the head of the first tributary of the Kansas, above the Town of Lawrence; and thence by the said tributary to the Kansas River and up the south bank of said river to the mouth of Big Spring Branch, the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Paris Ellison, in Douglas City.
Judges, Jonathan Cranmer, O. H. Browne, Andrew MeDonald.
Third District .- Commencing at the mouth of Big Spring Branch, on the south side of the Kansas River; thence up the same to its furthest source; thence by a southerly line to the north bank of the Wakarusa River, on the east side of the house of Charles Mattingly ; thenee up said river and its main branch to the line of the Pottawatomie reservation ; and thenee by the southern and western line of said reservation to the Kansas River, and down the said river to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Thomas Stinson, in the Town of Tecumseh. Judges, John Horner, L. D. Stateler, Anthony Wood.
Fourth District .- Commeneing at the Missouri State line, in the middle of the Santa Fe road; thence along the middle of said road to Rock Creek, near the sixty-fifth mile of said road; thenee south to the line of the late Shawnee reservation ceded by the treaty of 1854; thenee due east along the south line of said reservation and the north line of the existing reservations of the Sacs and Foxes, the existing reservations of the Chippewas and Ottawas and the late reservations of the Piaukesaws, Weas, Peorias and Kaskaskias to the Missouri State line; thenee up the Missouri State line to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Dr. - - Chapman.
Judges, Dr. Chapman, James J. Powell, Joseph Barnard.
Fifth District .- Commeneing at the Missouri State line, at the south- ern boundary of the Fourth Distriet; thence east [west] along the same to the northwest corner of the Sae and Fox reservation; thenee due south along the western line thereof and due south to the south branch of the Neosho River, about seventy miles above the Catholic Osage Mission ; thenee down the said river to the north line of the reserve for New York Indians, and east along said line to the head waters of Little Osage River. or the nearest point thereto; and thence down said river to the Missouri State line, and up said line to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Hy. Sherman, on the old John Jones im- provement, on Pottawatomie Creek.
Judges, James Moore, John Van Horn, Thomas Polk.
Sixth District .- Commeneing on the Missouri State line, in Little Osage River; thence up the same to the line of the reserve for the New York Indians. or the nearest point thereto; thenee to and by the north line of said reserve to the Neosho River, and up said river and the south branch thereof to the head, and thenee by a due south line to the southern line of the Territory ; thence by the southern and eastern lines of said Territory to the place of beginning.
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Place of election, house of H. T. Wilson, at Fort Scott.
Judges, Thomas B. Arnott, H. T. Wilson, William Godefrey.
Seventh District .- Commeneing at the east side of the house of Charles Mattingly, on the Wakarusa River; thence due south to the middle of the Santa Fe road; thence westwardly along the middle of said road to Rock Creek, near the 65th mile of said road; thence due south to the north line of the Sac and Fox reservation; thence along the north and west lines thereof. and due south to the Neosho River; thence up said river to a point due south of the month of Elm Creek; thence due north to the mouth of Elm Creek, and up said creek to the Santa Fe road, and thence by a direct line in a northerly direction to the southwest corner of the Pottawatomie reservation; thence along the southern line of said reservation to the head-waters of the Wakarusa River, or the point nearest thereto; thence to and down the said river to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Fry McGee at One Hundred and Ten-Mile Creek, on the Santa Fe road.
Judges, Fry McGee, S. W. Boughton, David Burge.
Eighth District .- Commencing at the mouth of Elm Creek, one of the branches of Osage River; thence up the same to the Santa Fe road; thence by a direct northerly line to the southwest corner of the Potta- watomie reservation; thence up the western line thereof to the Kansas River ; thence up said river and the Smoky Hill Fork, beyond the most westerly settlements; thence due south to the line of the Territory; thence by the same to the line of the Sixth District; thence due north to the head of the south branch of the Neosho River; thence down said river to the line of the Seventh District; thence due north to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Ingraham Baker, on the Santa Fe road.
Judges, Thomas Hoffaker, Charles Withinton, Ingraham Baker.
Ninth District .- Commencing on the Smoky Hill Fork, beyond the most westerly settlements; thence down the same and to the Kansas River to the mouth of Wild Cat Creek; thence up said creek to the head-waters thereof; thence due north to the Independence emigrant road ; thence up said road to the north line of the Territory; thence west along the same to the most westerly settlements; and thence due south to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Mr. Reynolds, near the crossing of Seven- Mile Creek.
Judges, Robert Wilson, Hannibal A. Low, Thaddeus K. Mills.
Tenth District .- Commeneing at the mouth of Wild Cat Creek, thence up the same to the head waters thereof, thence due north to the Inde- pendence emigrant road; thence down said road, crossing the Big Blue by the old route below Marysville to the Vermillion River; thence down said river to the mouth thereof; thence up the Kansas River to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of S. D. Dyer, at the crossing of the Big Blue River.
Judges, S. D. Houston. Franeis Burgereau, S. D. Dyer.
Eleventh District .- Commencing at Vermillion River in the middle of the Independence emigrant road; thence up said river to the head of the main branch ; thenee due north to the northern line of the Terri- tory ; thence by the same to the middle of the Independenee emigrant road ; thence down said road, crossing the Big Blue by the old route below Marysville to the place of beginning.
Place of election, Trading house of Marshall and Woodward at Marys- ville.
Judges, William Giveus, R. C. Bishop. S. M. B. Holmes.
MisSOU
+ Marysvillei
14
. St. Joseph
6.8
11
ig
Blue
Vermillion R.
12
415
House of
Kickapoo City
9
- Ft. Leavenworth
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R
-
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16
Kansas
House of Mr. Reynolds
Kan
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River
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Smoky
8 Council Grove + Ingraham Baker
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House of
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Little
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Fort Scott"
6
Verdigris
Osage Mission
River
River
MAP OF EASTERN KANSAS IN NOVEMBER, 1854, SHOWING BOUNDARIES OF FIRST ELECTION DISTRICTS ESTABLISHED, PLACES OF VOTING ETC.
1
4
River
7
2
\Dr. Chapman
House of
*'House of
ver
Wakary
a R. Lawrence,
+ Tecumseh
Big Stranger Cr.
10
House of
R. C. Miller
Soldier
Paschael Pensinequt o
omon
Big
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Osawkee.
& Wyandot ov
Kansas
3 opekar
-Douglas City
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House of
Fry McGee at 110
f Pottawatomie Cr.
Arkansas
River
House of Mr. Harding
Grasshopp
Rive'
Republican
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KANSAS AND KANSANS
Twelfth District .- Commencing at the mouth of Soldier's Creek ; thence up said creek to the head of the main branch; thence due north to the northern line of the Territory; thence by the same west to the eastern line of the Eleventh District; thence south along the same to the head of the Vermillion River and down said river to the mouth thereof; thence down the north bank of the Kansas River to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of R. C. Miller.
Judges, R. C. Miller, E. G. Booth, R. C. Wanton.
Thirteenth District .- Commencing in the Kansas River, three miles above the mouth of Stranger Creek; thence in a northwardly direction by a line three miles west of said Creek, and corresponding to the courses thereof until it shall strike the southern line of the late Kickapoo reser- vation ; thence along the southern and western line of said reservation, and the western line of the late Sac and Fox reservation to the north line of the Territory ; thence west along said line to the line of the Twelfth District; thence by the same and down Soldier's Creek to the mouth thereof, and down the Kansas River to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of G. M. Dyer, at the town of Ozawkee.
Judges, W. H. Tibbs, G. M. Dyer, D. M. Railey.
Fourteenth District .- Commencing at the month of Independence Creek ; thenee up said creek to the head of the main branch, and thence due west to the line of the late Kickapoo reservation ; thence north along said line and the line of the late Sac and Fox reservation to the north line of the Territory, thence along said line eastwardly to the Missouri River, and down said river to the place of beginning.
Place of election, the house of Benjamin Harding, on the St. Joseph and Oregon road.
Judges, J. W. Foreman, Benjamin Harding, and Samuel Irvin.
Fifteenth District .- Commencing at the month of Independence Creek ; thence up said creek to the Military road, and along the middle of said road to the lower crossing of Stranger Creek; thence up said creek to the line of the late Kickapoo reservation, and thenee along the southern and western line thereof to the line of the Fourteenth District ; thence by the same, and down Independence Creek to the mouth thereof, and thence down the Missouri River to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Paschal Pensanean, on the Fort Leaven- worth and Oregon road.
Judges, II. B. Jolly, James Frazier, A. G. Boyd.
Sixteenth District .- Commencing at the mouth of Salt Creek : thence up said creek to the Military road ; thence along the middle of said road to the lower erossing of Stranger Creek : thence up said creek to the line of the late Kickapoo reservation, and thence along the said line to the Thirteenth District, and thence by the same along a line corresponding to the courses of Stranger Creek, and keeping three miles west thereof, to the Kansas River; thence down the Kansas River to the Missouri River to the place of beginning.
Place of election, house of Keller & Kyle. in Leavenworth City.
Judges, D. Z. Smith, B. H. Twombly, J. M. Alexander.
In this same schedule, Governor Reeder defined the qualifications for suffrage at the election. These qualifications developed the differ- ence between Governor Reeder's conception of what was necessary to be done in Kansas Territory. and what the Pro-Slavery party had deter- mined upon as necessary. This did not appear at once, but the issue between the Governor and that wing of his party he was to deal with, and account to, was made. These qualifications were as follows:
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QUALIFICATIONS OF VOTERS
By the Territorial Bill it is provided as follows:
That every free white male inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years, who shall be an actual resident of said Territory, and shall possess the qualifications hereinafter preseribed, shall be entitled to vote at the first election ; Provided, that the right of suffrage and of holding office. shall be exercised only by citizens of the United States, and those who shall have deelared on oath their intention to become such, and shall have taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act; And Provided further, that no officer, soldier, seaman or marine, or other person in the army or navy of the United States, or attached to troops in the service of the United States, shall be allowed to vote or hold office in said Territory, by reason of being on service therein.
The requisites of age and color are easily understood. That of resi- denee is well defined in the law, and means the actual dwelling or inhabiting in the Territory, to the exclusion of any other present domicile or home, coupled with the present bona fide intention of permanently remaining for the same purpose.
When a voter is not a native of the United States, the proof of his right to vote must be the production of his certificate of his naturali- zation ; or of his deelaration of intention under the seal of the court, and the want of it cannot be supplied by his oath.
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