USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume I > Part 54
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It follows then that the Legislative Assembly has no right to preseribe where the office of the Executive shall be held, except by means of the establishment of a seat of government, and that they are confined to the fixing of a permanent and not a temporary one, and it would seem equally elear that as Congress has provided for the place of their first meeting, for the temporary seat of government, and also for the perma- nent seat of government, that it was their intention that the Legislature should sit only at one place of the three.
Conelusive as this view of the case appears, I may add that I cannot perceive the expedieney of the bill. The effect will be at once to adjourn your present session to the place mentioned, and whilst I am prepared to admit that the Legislative Assembly are satisfied of the existence of sufficient reasons for this step, their reasons are not apparent or eon- vineing to me; and on the other hand, it is the loss of the time (more valuable because limited) which our organie law allots to the Legislative session, and because it will involve a pecuniary loss in view of the ar- rangements which have been made at this place for our accommodation.
A. H. REEDER, Governor.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, July 6, 1855.
The bill was promptly passed over his veto. The Legislature then adjourned to meet at the Shawnee Mission on the 16th day of July. This was the eulmination of the contest between Governor Reeder and the Territorial Legislature.
Governor Reeder was deeply humiliated, and realized that it woukl be impossible for him to aet in conjunction with the Legislature at its fortheoming session. He was completely defeated. The Legislature had shown that it did not intend to be governed by his suggestions, and that his official actions would be entirely ignored. He, however, went to the Shawnee Mission, and was present at the opening of the session on the 16th day of July. The Legislature had in mind one thing while the Governor had in mind an entirely different thing. He designed a code of laws for the good of the Territory, and under which the Territory
PLAT OF SHAWNEE MISSION GROUNDS JOHNSON COUNTY KANS. RESTORATIVE OF THEIR CONDITIONS ABOUT 1855.
REFERENCE
1. School building and dormatory, Used by Kansas legislature in 1855, the upper house meeting in chapel and the lower, in room above
2. Superintendants home and boarding house
3. Female word, used also as superintendent's house, and by legislature and state officers. Built by Berryman.
4. Wash house. 5. Smake house G. Carpenter's shop 7. Old mill. 8. Lag cabin.
Rail tences. XXX
Board
LL
Picket .
12. Stable.
13. Carriage house
14 Wood house and Bee house
15. Spring house. 16. Walled spring
17. Store room.
N-
1
No. 14 18 :30
40* 120
No. 12
35 x 135
No. 3
ROAD
No. 11 20x 50
No 19 20:30
No.17 20×60
60
20
No. 2
No. 16
No. 1
No.15 12 x 12
35× 120
No 4 40,40
30
No 6 16.20
No 5 24136
No 8 /8×20
2 4
No. 9 30:30
No 7 º
No. 10 28 × 36
24
9. Blacksmith shop. 10. Wagon shop 11. Wagen shed.
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KANSAS AND KANSANS
might develop and determine for itself in the usual way what its institu- tions would be. The Legislature had determined that it would establish slavery in Kansas through the legal machinery, under the Organic Act, that machinery being its own body. No one was deeeived as to what it would attempt to do. Every thing else was subordinate to this intention. The first bill passed at the adjourned session was for the establishment of a ferry over the Missouri River at the town of Kickapoo. When this bill was laid before the Governor, be immediately wrote a message over- throwing it. In his message he informed the Legislature that it was an illegal body and had no right to enact any legislation whatever. Ilis ground for that conclusion was that the Legislature had taken itself from the legally established seat of government and gone into session at a place not the seat of government. This message was dated at Shawnee Methodist Mission, July 21, 1855. Upon this issue the Legislature requested the decision of the United States Court of the Territory. The question was submitted through the United States District Attorney, and the decision was handed down by Chief Justice Lecompte. This decision settled the legality of the aetion of the Legislature in favor of that body, and, while it was always contended by the Free-State people that the Legislature was, in fact, no Legislature, and had no right to enaet laws for Kansas Territory, there is now no doubt but that it was a legally con- stituted body, having the recognition of the President, and having the right to enact laws.
Having thus fortified itself, the Legislature determined to secure the removal of Governor Reeder, if it were possible to do so. A Memorial to President Pieree was drawn up preferring various charges against the Governor and asking for his removal from office. The Governor was vulnerable, and many of his actions had been laid before the President for investigation prior to his visit to Washington. Senator Atchison had determined upon the removal of Reeder immediately after the elee- tion for Delegate to Congress. In his interview with the President, Governor Reeder had been compelled to admit that he owned lots in the towns of Leavenworth, Lawrence, Tecumseh, Pawnee and divers other projected towns in Kansas Territory. These lots he had seenred at a low rate, which, even then, was probably much in excess of their true value. Some of these towns probably gave the Governor lots hoping to seeure his influence in their aspiration to become the capital of the Territory. Ile had purchased land near Topeka and near Lawrence, and his friends had invested in property in the Territory. He had notified the Pawnee Town Association in December, 1854, that he would make that town the capital of Kansas. He had secured, or had taken steps to seeure, a eon- siderable body of land near that town. It is very unfortunate that he had entered into this speeulation, for it was now seized on by his enemies as an excuse for his removal. There was nothing wrong about his having secured this property, for there is no doubt that he had as good a right to invest his money in Kansas as did any other eitizen. When he left the President in this last interview, Mr. Pieree had told him that if he removed him, it would be because of his land speculation, saying. "Well.
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I shall not remove you on account of your political actions. If I remove you at all it will be on account of your speculation in the lands of the Territory." The President had urged him to resign, promising him another position. This the Governor did not wish to accept. He returned to Kansas and took up the fight with the Legislature, as we have seen. The Memorial from the Legislature to the President, requesting the removal of Governor Reeder, was as follows:
To His Excellency, Franklin Pierce, President of the United States:
The undersigned, your memorialists, members of the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Kansas, respectively repre- sent that a crisis has at length arrived in the affairs of this Territory which makes it imperative that you should interpose, so that our Gov- ernment (the wheels of which have been dragging so heavily heretofore, and which have at last come to a stand) may be relieved of the clog which has been attached to it, and be enabled to move once more in its regular course. A brief history of our Territory written and unwritten, since its organization, will enable you to see the causes which have conduced to this end; and the remedy being in your own hands, we trust and believe you will not hesitate immediately to apply it.
On the 30th of May, 1854. more than one year since, the bill opening the Territory for settlement, west of Missouri and Iowa, was passed. The public, excited by the glowing descriptions of those who had been in the Territory, and by the debates in Congress regarding the future political destiny of this newly-opened country, immediately rushed in by thousands from every quarter of our widespread Union. No Terri- tory, ever organized by this Government, has been peopled with balf the rapidity of this, save California, owing to the unnatural stimulus above alluded to. A people thus numerous-thus diversified from birth, education, previous associations, and present intention and object re- quired, it seems to us, for their government, the most prompt action on the part of those called on to preside over them. From the month of May until October, there were no officers here; the Governor appointed to organize the Territory under the provisions of the bill, arriving in the latter month. So soon as it was ascertained, by rumor, that he had arrived (for he never in any way made it public), it was presumed that he would immediately order the census of the Territory to be taken, an election for members of the Legislative Assembly to be held, and call them together at once, so that laws might be enacted for the preservation of the public peace and weal. But what was the course pursued by that official ? The citizens of our Territory received him with open arms, and even in Missouri, the State bordering on our line, he was tendered a supper on the day of his arrival, to enable him to meet with the dis- tinguished gentleman of that section of Missouri, together with the private citizens of the vicinity.
Received thus frankly and cordially, both in Kansas and on the border, urged time and again to provide for the election of a Legisla- ture-the people knowing of no laws in force. and the Governor, having no settled opinion upon the subject, appointing Justices of the Peace in various sections of the Territory, some of whom enforced the Penn- sylvania, some the Ohio and some the Missouri code, acting, as a matter of course, under his instructions-still with all these various imperative necessities urging his compliance, he heeded them not. but assumed him- self to act as the law-making power, by prescribing the various codes above, and usurping the powers of the judiciary in issning the writs, and sitting as an examining court upon a charge of "assault with intent to
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kill," the prisoner being at the time incarcerated within the walls of a prison, and before discharging him demanding his reeognizanee, which was taken however by a Judge whose district had, as yet, not been assigned him. In the midst of all this confusion, turning eoolly from those who had thus warmly welcomed him, associating with those only from one partienlar section of the Union, persisting in not adopting that course which alone eould produce order from this chaos, it is not singular that loud complainings should be heard, and that sinister motives should be attributed to him for his eondnet.
The Governor then commenees his eourse of speeulation, beginning by arraying himself directly in opposition to the opinions of the General Government, as expressed by the Attorney General in relation to Delaware lands, by purchasing property on those lands, and stating that the opinions of the law officer of the General Government were ineorreet, and of no foree if correct, thus setting an example of insubordination to those less informed, and which may end in a conflict between the people of this Territory and the General Government, unless the rights of the squatters on those lands are recognized in conducting the sales of them. He then commences a tour of observation through the Territory for the ostensible purpose of preparing for a census, ete., but which from his subsequent conduct, proved to be only one of speculation, for he was known to be a large shareholder in many of the various town companies throughout the Territory. Finally, in the month of February, when the snow was some two feet in depth, he ordered a census to be taken (the herculean task which had so mueh alarmed him), and it was so taken in about three weeks, umder the unfavorable circumstances above stated.
A proclamation was then issued for an election of members to the Legislative Assembly to be held on the 30th of March, 1855, said proe- lamation containing a section elaiming by the Governor the right to decide contested eleetions, thereby virtually claiming the right to over- ride the will of the people, as expressed through the ballot box, and to fill the Legislature with whomsoever he chose-virtually disfranchising every man in Kansas Territory, and also enacting a Maine Liquor Law, by providing for the destruction of liquor under certain eireumstanees. After the contest was over, and the result known, he delayed the assem- bling of the body until the 2d day of July, more than three months afterward, and that, too, when the whole Union was convulsed on account of alleged outrages in Kansas Territory, and yet no law for the punish- ment or prevention of them. When at last they did meet upon the call of the Governor, at a point where they had previously in an informal manner protested against being called, with an avowal of their intention to adjourn to the point at which they are now assembled, for the reasons that the requisite accommodations could not be had; where there were no facilities for communicating with their families or constituents; where they could not even find the common food to eat, unless at an enormous expense, there being no gardens yet made by the squatters; where the house in which we were expected to assemble, had no roof or floor on the Saturday preceding the Monday of our assembling, and for the completion of which the entire Sabbath, day and night, was desecrated by the continued labor of the mechanics; where at least one-half of the members, employes and almost all others who had assembled there for business or otherwise, had to eamp out in wagons and tents during a rainy, hot season, and where cholera broke out as a consequence of the inadequate food and shelter, and where under all these eireumstanees of annoyance, they finally passed an act adjourning to this point, where ample accommodations are provided, and where the Governor himself had previously made it the seat of government, they were met by his
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veto, which is herewith transmitted. The bill was reconsidered by the House in which it originated, and passed by the majority prescribed by the organic act, then acted upon by the other House, and also passed by the same prescribed majority-a copy of which proceedings is herewith transmitted. Upon our assembling at this point. in accordance with a concurrent resolution passed as contemplated by the law, transmitted to you, we passed various bills, which were sent to the Governor for his approval. On the 21st of July, he returned the hills with his objec- tions to signing them (all of which we herewith transmit), addressed to the "House of Representatives of Kansas Territory," and "to the Council of the Territory of Kansas," respectively-by which he assumes that we are not the "House of Representatives of Kansas Territory," nor the "Council of the Territory of Kansas," which to say the least of it, is a glaring inconsistency, yet not more so than the rest of the doenment, which you will perceive by reading the points made by him. We will briefly state them, without an argument to show their utter fallacy, so shown by himself as we are confident that you will perceive them at a glance. One point is that Fort Leavenworth is the seat of government, made so by the organic act, that a law passed anywhere else than at the seat of government would be illegal.
That he had the right to call the Legislature to meet at a point not the seat of government (that is, Pawnee), and that laws enacted there (though not the seat of government) would be legal, thereby destroying the preceding proposition.
That we could have passed an act at Pawnee, though not the seat of government, and therefore illegal, establishing a permanent seat of gov- ernment, and by an ILLEGAL ADJOURNMENT-because passed at a point not the seat of government-have met at sueh permanent seat of govern- ment, and there have made legal and binding statutes; or, by the same ILLEGAL process, have adjourned to Fort Leavenworth, the seat of govern- ment, and there have made legal and binding statutes.
We would respectfully represent that if the above are the honest opinions of Governor Reeder, you must admit his utter incompetency to discharge the high duties imposed upon him, and he should be removed. If they be not his honest opinions, then he is acting with the sinister design of defeating the whole object for which we are assembled.
If he believes that Fort Leavenworth is the seat of government, and that laws passed anywhere else than at that point would be illegal and void, then to call us to Pawnee to legislate is a willful, deliberate and base attempt to render all our acts, of whatever character, wholly illegal and void, because, by his own showing, Pawnee is not the seat of gov- ernment, and acts passed anywhere else than at the seat of government are of necessity void, and for which he should be removed.
We will not proceed further with this, but will simply aver that, from the action of Congress, Fort Leavenworth is not now the temporary seat of government. The bill provides, in the 31st seetion, that Fort Leavenworth shall be the temporary seat of government, and that such buildings as may not be needed for the purpose of the military shall be used by the Governor and Legislative Assembly. A subsequent clause of an appropriation bill provides for the appropriation of $25,000 to be expended upon the contingency, or rather the appropriation made upon the contingency, that the requisite buildings could not be obtained from the military or War Department.
That appropriation having been made and paid over, proved con- clusively that the contingency mentioned has arisen, and that the build- ings are refused. A subsequent appropriation made on the 3d of March, 1855, provides that the sum of $25.000 be appropriated, and that, in
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addition to the amount already appropriated, shall be expended in making suitable buildings at the permanent seat of government. Now, if Fort Leavenworth is the seat of government and the place for the Legislature to meet and transact business, then this absurd consequence follows: That they must meet and transact business at Fort Leavenworth ; that they shall not use any of the buildings already ereeted there; and that they shall not have any of the money to erect other buildings which could be occupied.
Now, as the law never contemplated an absurdity such as this, foreing a Legislative Assembly, even though composed of squatters, to meet out of doors, and forbid their erecting houses, we infer that the 31st seetion of the bill is virtually repealed; and having no seat of government created by competent authority, the selection of the point for the tem- porary seat of government legitimately belongs to the Legislative As- sembly whenever and wherever convened. And we further submit that. aeeording to the spirit and letter of the law, we have that right, even if Fort Leavenworth be the seat of government. We submit that as all government is for the good of the governed, and as this is one of the legitimate subjeets of legislation vested in the people of every State in the Union, and as there could have been no intention on the part of the wise and good men who framed this bill, when they fixed the seat of government temporarily, to have done so other than for the comfort and convenience of the sovereigns; that they never intended to fix an arbitrary rule which the people could not alter, if found convenient ; that it was more a permission granted by Congress that we might have the use of those buildings or sit at that point than a command that we should not select another point, if more desirable.
We will and do further represent that the position assumed by the Governor is a despotie and tyrannieal one, calculated to lead to the worst consequences if he is not forthwith removed.
Already threats in advance have been made that no respeet will be shown to any act passed by this Legislative Assembly, whensoever and wheresoever such act or acts may be passed. Several papers in the Territory boldly advocate this position. A man professing to have been eleeted to this Legislature (M. F. Conway), who afterward tendered his resignation, advocates this doctrine of resistance. The Governor is, and has been, on terms of intimaey with these very persons; and with him as their leader, they may be led to the commission of acts which will inevitably result in widespread strife and bloodshed.
Now, we submit that the course pursued by the Governor is un- warrantable and faetious, even if he be right in the opinions advanced, that our acts are illegal and void. The courts are the tribunals to decide this issue,' and no man, Governor or private citizen, has a right to set the laws at defiance, even if unconstitutional and void, until so decided by the proper courts.
This principle is so well understood that we are not prepared to imagine that Gov. Reeder is ignorant of it, even taking his own argu- ments as an index of his intelligence: and there must be a willful and base design to lead the less informed into the commission of treasonable acts, for which he should be removed.
In conclusion. we charge the Governor, A. H. Reeder, with willful neglect of the interests of the Territory; with endeavoring by all the means in his power to subvert the ends and objects intended to be accomplished by the "Kansas and Nebraska Bill"; by negleeting the publie interests and making them subservient to private speenlation ; by aiding and encouraging persons in factious and treasonable opposi- tion to the wishes of the majority of the citizens of the Territory and
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the laws of the United States in force in said Territory; by encouraging persons to violate the laws of the United States, and set at defiance the commands of the General Government; by inciting persons to resist the laws which may be passed by the present Legislative Assembly of this Territory ; and, finally, by a virtual dissolution of all connection with the present Legislative Assembly of this Territory.
For these, and many other reasons, we respectfully pray Your Ex- celleney to remove the said A. II. Reeder from the exercise of the functions now held by him in said Territory; and represent that a con- tinuance of the same will be prejudicial to the best interests of the said Territory. And as in duty bound, we will ever pray, etc., etc.
THOS. JOHNSON, President of the Council. JOHN H. STRINGFELLOW, Speaker of the House.
Members of the Council-William Barbee, A. M. Coffey, D. A. N. Grover, Richard R. Rees, H. J. Strickler, E. Chapman, John W. Forman, A. MeDonald.
WILLIAM P. RICHARDSON, Secretary of Council. J. 1. HALDERMAN ( Attest).
Members of the House-Joseph C. Anderson, O. H. Brown, A. S. Johnson, M. W. MeGee, Samuel Scott, George W. Ward, James Whitlock, 1I. W. Younger, John M. Banks, D. L. Croysdale, R. L. Kirk, H. D. MeMeekin, W. II. Tebbs, Thomas W. Watterson, Samuel A. Williams, F. J. Marshall, Joel P. Blair, H. B. C. Harris, William G. Mathias, A. Payne, A. B. Wade, Jonah Weddell.
A. WILKINSON, Clerk of the House. JAMES M. KYLE (Attest).
The letter removing Governor Reeder was dated July 28, 1855, and is as follows :
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, JULY 28, 1855.
Sir: Your communication of the 26th of June has been received, and submitted to the President. In reply, he directs me to say that. after due consideration of the explanations which you offer in regard to your purchases of Kansas half-breed lands, and the facts in the case as reported to him and communicated to you by the department of the interior, he finds nothing in those explanations to remove the impressions which he had previously entertained of the character of the transaction. Hle directs me further to say, that your communication is not less un- satisfactory in what it altogether omits to explain. The letter addressed to you by this department on the 11th ultimo distinctly mentioned other grave matters of acensation of the same class. You assume that, when circumstances exist in the conduct of a publie officer which require the question of his dismissal from office to be considered, it is the duty of the executive to make formal specifications of charge, and upon this erroneous presumption you withhold explanation in regard to the matters alluded to, although they were peculiarly within your own knowledge, and you could not but be well aware that some of them, more especially the undertaking of sundry persons, yourself included, to lay out new cities on military or other reservations in the territory of Kansas, were undergoing official investigation within that territory.
The incompleteness of that investigation at that time prevented its being spoken of explicitly by this department; but it was taken for granted that yon would have cheerfully volunteered explanations upon this subjeet, so far as you were concerned. more particularly as you had summoned the legislative assembly of the territory to meet at one of the places referred to, denominated in your official proclamation
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