USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume I > Part 58
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WHEREAS, Certain persons from the neighboring State of Missouri have, from time to time, made irruptions into this Territory, and have by fraud and force driven from and overpowered our people at the ballot-box, and have forced upon us a Legislature which does not rep- resent the opinions of the legal voters of this Territory, many of its members not being even residents of this Territory, but having their homes in the State of Missouri; and
WHEREAS, Said persons have used violence toward the persons and property of the inhabitants of the Territory; therefore,
Resolved, That we are in favor of making Kansas a free Territory, and as a consequence a free State.
Resolved, That we urge upon the people of Kansas to throw away all minor differences and issues, and make the freedom of Kansas the only issue.
Resolved, That we claim no right to meddle with the affairs of the people of Missouri or any other State, but that we claim the right to regulate our own domestie affairs, and, with the help of God, we will do it.
Resolved, That we look upon the conduct of a portion of the people of Missouri in the late Kansas eleetion as a gross outrage on the eleetive franchise and our rights as freemen, and a violation of the principles of popular sovereignty; and, inasmuch as many of the members of the present Legislature are men who owe their election to a combined system of force and fruud, we do not feel bound to obey any law of their enaeting.
Resolved, That the legally eleeted members of the present Legisla- ture be requested, as good and patriotic eitizens of Kansas, to resign and repudiate the fraud.
Resolved, That in reply to the threats of war so frequently made in our neighboring State, our answer is, WE ARE READY.
Resolved, That the people of Kansas are opposed to the establishment of slavery here, and if established it will be contrary to the wishes of three-fourths of our people.
Resolved, That Kansas has a right to, and does hereby, invoke the aid of the General Government against the lawless course of the slavery propaganda with reference to this Territory.
Resolved, That a FREE STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE be appointed, and that each election distriet shall be entitled to one member, and each dis- triet having two Councilmen shall be entitled to two members.
The Free-State members did not resign as requested by this meeting, but forted the Legislature to expel them, thereby giving them and the Free-State men in the Territory, a stronger position before the people of the country. There was, at this meeting, some idea of general organi-
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zation in the Territory of the Anti-Slavery forces, and it was direeted that a Free State Central Committee should be appointed, which was later done, with Dr. Robinson as Chairman.
The preliminary meeting which called the Big Springs Convention was held at Lawrence on the 17th of July, 1855, and was the result of a conclusion reached by Josiah Miller and R. G. Elliott, editors and proprietors of the Kansas Frec State. It was designed to have a meeting or convention of all the Free-State elements in the Territory for the purpose of forming a platform for a Free State party. There was at that time factions among the Anti-Slavery residents of Kansas, one of which, had taken up the plan of forming a state government upon which to apply for admission into the Union. It was composed of the most radical element. Those desiring to pursue a more conservative course wished to frame a platform of principles broad enough to embrace all Anti-Slavery people, and trust time and circumstances to harmonize differences and eventually defeat the Missourians at the polls as the population increased.
This preliminary meeting was held on the bank of the Kansas River, at the head of New Hampshire Street, under a large cottonwood-tree, where lumber for a warehouse had been deposited. It was known as the Sand Bank Convention and was well attended. John A. Wakefield was the Chairman and R. G. Elliott, the Secretary. A review of the early proceedings of the Free-State people in Kansas would indicate that no other man was ever Chairman of so many meetings, as Judge Wakefield. The Sand Bank meeting made the call for the convention at Big Springs to be held on the 5th of September. The delegates to the Big Springs convention were to be elected on the 25th of August. The election dis- triet in which Lawrence was situated, extended South to the Santa Fe Trail, and the voting place was fixed at Blanton's Bridge. At 2 o'clock the meeting was called to order by James H. Lane, and G. W. Smith was elected Chairman. J. S. Emery was chosen Secretary. The voting was delayed about an hour to give time for the arrival of all who wished to participate in the election of delegates. The delegates elected were G. W. Smith, R. F. Miller, Turner Sampson, H. Barricklow, Dr. A. Still, J. H. Lane, M. Hunt, W. Duncan, J. S. Emory, J. Hutchinson, J. D. Barnes, William Yates, R. G. Elliott, John Curtiss, and James McGee. The whole number of votes cast was one hundred and thirty-one. The delegates, by resolution of the voters, were given power to fill vacancies which might occur in the delegation. John Speer moved the following resolution, which was adopted :
Resolved, That discarding all other issues, this convention desires perfect amity and harmony amongst all Free-State men and that for the purpose of securing this end, our delegates are hereby instructed to use their influence in the Big Springs convention to reject all issues other than that of the prohibition of slavery in Kansas.
On motion of Dr. Robinson, the voters adjourned to meet the follow- ing Friday at 2 o'clock, P. M., in Lawrence, to organize the Free-State
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party for that election district. Eleetions for delegates were held in the other districts of the Territory on the same day. ,
Another meeting had been called for the 14th of August by the ex- pelled members of the Legislature, who had assembled in Lawrence on the 11th of July. The meeting was one of the largest which had ever assembled in the Territory. There had been no agreement between the parties calling this meeting and those calling the Big Springs Conven- tion, and while the 14th of August meeting had not been so designed, it, in fact, proved a sort of preliminary meeting for the convention held at Big Springs, and which had been called by the Sand Bank meeting, as we have seen. There was great interest in the meeting and delegates were present from all parts of the Territory. The meeting was called to order at 10 o'clock, A. M. Phillip C. Schuyler, of Council City, was elected president. The vice presidents were G. W. Smith, M. F. Conway, .J. A. Wakefield, R. Mendenhall, A. F. Powell, and others whose names were not recorded in the proceedings. The secretaries were G. W. Brown and John Speer. The Committee on Resolutions were C. Robin- son, G. W. Dietzler, John Hutchinson, G. W. Smith, of the first district : William Jessee and Samuel Walker of the second district ; F. W. Giles and C. K. Holliday of the third district; S. F. Shore of the fourth dis- triet ; C. A. Foster, W. K. Vail, W. A. Ely, and W. Partridge of the fifth district; I. T. Goodenough of the sixth district; M. F. Conway and Jones of the ninth district; George F. Warren of the fourteenth district ; R. Mendenhall of the seventeenth district. At the afternoon meeting, James H. Lane made his first appearance in a Free-State con- vention as has been already noted. The preamble and resolutions were reported by Dr. Robinson at the afternoon meeting as follows :
WHEREAS, By act of Congress, approved May 30, 1854, organizing a government for the Territory of Kansas, a grant of legislative power was made to the lawful inhabitants of said Territory to enable them to make such laws and establish such institutions as would be most suitable to themselves; and, in order to accomplish this the said in- habitants were by said act empowered and directed to elect, according to a preseribed mode, a Territorial Legislature, with competent juris- diction and capacity to act, under certain specific restrictions, over all rightful subjects of legislation; and, whereas, while exercising the authority thus conferred to elect members of a Territorial Legislature, the Territory was invaded and the inhabitants overwhelmed by large and numerous bands of armed men from a foreign State, who violently took possession of nearly all places through the Territory, at which said election was being held; who ruthlessly abolished the legally established mode of conducting the same, and who, according to their own mode, and by virtue of their own rights, in utter disregard of the act of Congress, organizing a government for the Territory, held an election for members of the Kansas Legislature, and elected certain persons as members of said Legislature, thus, to all intents and purposes, divesting the lawful inhabitants of the entire grant of legislative power which had been made to them by the Congressional charter; and, whereas, the Legislature thus elected is now in session on the borders of the State of Missouri, making laws for the government of the inhabitants and citizens of Kansas : having re-composed its two bodies after its assemblage
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and organization, the majority expelling the minority, and authorizing and admitting other persons to fill the places of those expelled; having filled a vaeaney, arising in consequence of a resignation (S. D. Houston) by their own self act, without regard to the rights of the people to eleet; having fixed a temporary seat of government at the Shawnee Mission ; and in pursuance of this, abandoned the place of meeting to which they had been convened by executive authority; having now before them a bill which they will probably enaet into a law, making the right of suffrage in the Territory dependent upon the payment of the sum of $1, without reference to the matter of inhabitaney, thus attempting to give up the ballot-box by law for all future time to persons from foreign States; having now before them a bill which they will probably enact into a law for the election of themselves of a board of permanent overseers, to be sent out in all the distriets of the Territory with power to levy taxes to any amount, and otherwise exact from, drive and oppress the people ; all, over and above, and in direet and meditated violation and open defiance of the aet of Congress organizing a govern- ment for the Territory of Kansas, and an act supplementary thereto; therefore,
Resolved, by those of the people of the Kansas Territory now here in mass meeting assembled:
(1) That we regard the invasion of our Territory on the 30th of March last, as one of the greatest outrages upon the laws of the land and the rights of free citizens, ever attempted in this country, and the Legis- lature now in session on the borders of Missouri, the offspring of that invasion, and the inheritor of all its qualities of insolence, violence and tyranny-as a living insult to the judgment and feelings of the Ameri- ean people, and derogatory to the integrity and respectability of the Federal authority.
(2) That we indignantly repel the pretensions of that Legislature to make laws for the people of Kansas, that we regard it as aeting entirely withont the authority of law, not only in consideration of its having been elected against law, and in violation of the rights and will of the people, by armed men from a foreign State, but because its course, since its meeting and organization, has been utterly regardless of those conditions and requirements of the organie aet, essential to a valid dis- charge of legislative functions, and such as has effected a complete forfeiture of any technicality of law by which, at first, it may have been supported.
(3) That, as men, born in a land of liberty, trained to precepts of freedom, and alive to those inspiring sentiments which have prompted in all ages heroie resistance to tyrants: as descendants of those, who, in 1776 braved the power of the mightiest monarchy on earth, rather than submit to foreign thraldom. we repudiate this insolent attempt to impose upon us a government by foreign arms, and pledge to each other, as our fathers did of old, "our lives, our fortunes, and our saered honors," to a resistance of its authority.
(4) That we regard it, in this erisis, as ineumbent upon the people of Kansas to set aside all differences of political opinion, to eultivate a comprehensive and intimate intercourse with each other, effect a thorough union, and otherwise prepare for the common defense.
(5) That we consider the attempts to establish a Territorial form of government in this Territory, as, thus far, an utter failure; and that the people of the Territory should, at some convenient period, assemble at the several places of holding elections in the various distriets in the Territory, and elect delegates to a convention to form a State constitu- tion for the State of Kansas, with the view of an immediate State
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organization and application, at the next session of Congress, for admission into the American Union, as one of the States of the American Confederacy.
(6) That the people of Kansas ean never be unmindful of the deep debt of gratitude they owe to Andrew H. Reeder for the firmness, ability and integrity shown in the discharge of his duty as Executive officer of this Territory.
As set out above the resolutions are in the form as modified later by the convention. As first brought in they eaused much dissatisfaction and created some feeling. The sixth resolution was not in the first draft. A minority report was presented by Mr. J. Hutehinson, which endorsed the first four resolutions, but opposed a resolution calling a Free-State convention to form a constitution. The debate continued all the after- noon and was not concluded when the meeting adjourned. After the ad- journment the delegates, as individuals, entered into an earnest discussion of the affairs of the Territory in an informal and friendly manner. The principal men sought to harmonize the divergent views and elements, and with good results. On the morning of the 15th of August, upon the reassembling of the meeting, the preamble and resolutions as reported by Dr. Robinson, and modified as above mentioned, were adopted amid great enthusiasm. The following resolution offered by John Speer eom- mitted the meeting to the Big Springs Convention.
And historians have failed to look back of this resolution to find the first inception of the Big Springs movement.
Resolved, That in conformity to past recommendations, the Terri- torial Free State Executive Committee be requested to call a conven- tion of five delegates to each representative to be appointed in the several districts of Kansas on the 25th day of August, to meet at Big Springs on the 5th day of September next, for the purposes recommended in a call previously issued, and to take such other aetion as the exigeneies of the time may demand.
BIG SPRINGS CONVENTION
Big Springs was a celebrated camping-ground on the California Road. It is in Douglas County, eleven miles east of Topeka. But two persons with their families lived there in September, 1855. They were W. Y. Roberts and W. R. Frost. Unfinished cabins were in view, how- ever, in every direction. Many of the delegates supposing the aeeommo- dations would be inadequate for so large an assembly, eame prepared to camp out. Their place of meeting was on the open plain, and no more appropriate place to formulate a plan to battle for liberty than the broad prairies on which the convention met could have been found. Here were men from the refinements of the New England homes and with college diplomas in their pockets. New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois,-almost all the states north of Mason and Dixon's line were repre- sented. Men from Missouri and from the foot hills of the Alleghany Mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina, were there.
The convention was ealled to order at eleven o'clock, A. M. W. Y. Roberts was temporary Chairman and D. Dodge, Secretary. A eommit- Vol. 1-29
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tee on credentials was appointed, with instructions to report immediately. It was composed of John Hutchinson, R. Riddle, A. Hunting, P. C. Schuyler, P. Laughlin, W. Pennock, John Fee, A. G. Adams, J. Hamil- ton, J. M. Tuton, R. Gilpatrick, J. M. Arthur, and Isaac Wollard. A committee on permanent organization was appointed, consisting of S. D. Houston, G. F. Warren, J. D. Barnes, William Jessee, A. G. Adams, E. Fish. John Hamilton, William Jordan, B. Ilarding, Isaac Wohlard and S. Mewhinney. The convention then adjourned until 2:30 o'clock P. M.
The afternoon session met pursnant to adjournment. The committee on credentials reported the following persons as duly elected delegates to the convention :
First District .- G. W. Smith, J. H. Lane, John Curtiss, J. Emery, John Hutchinson, Turner Sampson, M. Hunt, R. G. Elliott, J. D. Barnes, William Yates, A. Still, H. Barricklow, B. W. Miller, W. Duncan, James McGee.
Second District .- J. M. Tuton, J. A. Wakefield, A. Curtiss, H. Y. Baldwin, H. Burson, William Jessee, Samuel Walker, T. Wolverston, J. C. Archibald, Charles Wright.
Third District .- William Y. Roberts, William Jordan, A. G. Adams, James Cowles.
Fourth District .- S. Mewhinney, J. T. Javins, E. G. Scott, A. J. Miller, W. Moore.
Fifth District .- A. P. Wyckoff. James Osborne, James M. Arthur, D. F. Park, William G. Nichols, Dr. R. Gillpatrick, G. W. Partridge. Isaae Wollard, Charles A. Foster, James Todd, Robert H. Brown, Enos Show. William K. Vail, Enos Strawn. Hamilton Smith.
Sirth District .- John Hamilton, James Johnson, F. M. Morris.
Seventh District .-- P. C. Schuyler, George Bratton, Dr. J. D. Wood. Dr. A. Bowen, E. Fisk.
Eighth District .- J. E. Hohenick, Daniel B. Iliatt.
Ninth District .- S. D. Houston, William S. Arnold, James P. Wilson. Inke P. Lincoln, Dr. A. Hunting.
Tenth District .- William Pennock, J. B. Pennock, J. H. Boyd. George F. Warren, P. Dowlin, R. II. Phelan, D. Dodge, H. M. Hook, James Salisbury, E. Castle, J. Parrott. John Wright, A. Guthrie. R Riddle.
Eleventh District .- M. F. Conway. C. Junkens.
Twelfth District .- James Wilson, John Anesworth, Nathan Adams.
Fourteenth District .- S. Collins, John Fee, P. Laughlin, N. Carter. George W. Bryan, Benjamin H. Broek, William Poepges, B. Harding, A. Grooms. C. W. Stewart.
Fifteenth District .- William Crosby. H. J. Stout. J. C. Ridgeway. Elijah Pieree.
Seventeenth District .- R. Mendenhall, D. W. Mendenhall, G. P. Lowry.
The following letter was read to the convention.
WAKARUSA, SEPT. 5. 1855.
To the Free State Convention at Big Spring.
Gents :- I regret very inneh that private engagements have placed it out of my power to be with you today. It is only left me to hope and pray that you may be all of one mind. for the good of Kansas. Let our platform be broad and liberal, well defined. and beyond the reach of misrepresentation.
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In this immediate vicinity there are forty Free State voters, only five of that number will vote for a Free State with negroes admitted, and more than half will vote for a Slave State, if they are not excluded. In the Northern part of the Territory, the same sentiment prevails, in about the same proportion. However anti-Democratic such sentiments at first glance may seem to be, they can be sustained by the best of anti- slavery arguments. And next to being cut off from a Slave market, they are most feared by the pro-slavery party.
But I have not time for the argument here. I ask for myself, and in behalf of Western and Southern Free Soilers, that our platform be such that all who would confine slavery to its present limits may act in harmony, until interest compels the Slaveholder to think right thoughts. Let Kansas he free, and her children white.
Respectfully, J. D. WOOD.
The committee on permanent organization reported for Chairman, G. W. Smith ; for Vice-presidents, John A. Wakefield, John Fee, Dr. A. Hunting, and James Salisbury; for Secretaries, R. G. Elliott, D. Dodge and A. G. Adams. On motion of Mr. Roberts committees to consist of thirteen members each, apportioned to the council distriets were ap- pointed on the following subjects :
First .- A Committee to report a Platform. Second .- A Committee on Congressional Election.
Third .- A Committee on State Organization. Fourth .- A Committee on the Acts of the Legislature. Fifth .- A Committee on Miscellaneous Resolutions.
After a reeess of thirty minutes the Chairman named the committees as follows :
Committee on Platform .- P. Laughlin, S. Collins, J. A. Wakefield, J. II. Lane, A. Still, D. Dodge, J. HI. Byrd. J. Hamilton, W. Crosby, W. Y. Roberts, M. F. Conway, C. A. Foster, R. Gilpatrick.
Committee on State Organization .- B. H. Brock, A. Grooms, J. M. Tuton, R. G. Elliott, R. Mendenhall, II. M. Hook, E. Castle, J. Hamilton, H. J. Stout, A. Bowen, S. D. Ilonston, J. M. Arthur, Isaae Wollard.
Committee on Late Legislature .- John Fee, N. Carter, W. Jesse, J. S. Emery, H. Barricklow, W. Pennock, J. Wright, M. Duncan, P. C. Schuyler, E. Pierce, Dr. Hunting, W. G. Nichols, G. W. Partridge.
Committee ou Congressional Election .- G. W. Bryan, B. HIarding, H. Burson, W. Yates, G. P. Lowry, G. F. Warren, R. H. Phelan, J. Johnson, J. C. Ridgeway, J. Cowles, W. S. Arnold, A. P. Wyckoff, J. Osborn.
Committee on Miscellaneous Duties .- C. W. Stewart, W. Poepges, C. Curtiss, S. Mewhinney, J. Curtiss, J. Parrott, R. Riddle, W. Jordan, J. P'. Wilson, J. Todd, D. F. Park, F. M. Morris.
A Committee on Order of Business and Rules made the following report.
1st. In nominating a candidate for Delegate to Congress, the vote shall be east by Representative Districts, and caeh District shall be entitled to as many votes as it is to Delegates in the Convention.
2d. A majority of all the votes shall be necessary to eleet a Candidate. 3d. Parliamentary rules shall govern this Convention, and speeches
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shall be limited to fifteen minutes, and speakers shall speak but once on the same question.
On motion of Mr. Conway the first order was amended by substituting the words "upon all questions which may come before the convention" in the place of "in nominating a candidate for Delegate to Congress." Upon motion of J. H. Lane the convention adjourned to meet at nine o'clock A. M., September 6th.
Second Day.
The first business taken up was the report of the Committee on Plat- form, and Colonel Lane made the report. In some accounts of the con- vention it is said that the resolutions were bitterly attacked and warmly discussed. Failure of the whole plan seemed imminent. One of the delegates has left this record.
At this critical crisis Judge Smith arose and began a speech of great earnestness and feeling. With his white locks trembling in the wind, and tears streaming down his furrowed cheeks, he besought them in a spirit of a patriarch and a patriot, to cast aside all minor differences, and to unite in one common struggle toward rescuing Kansas from the vile dominion of slavery.
Colonel Lane was the last man to speak. He delivered a thrilling speech which swayed the men of the convention as the wind sways the grass of the prairies. At the conclusion of his address the platform was adopted unanimously with great enthusiasm. In the account of the con- vention in the Kansas Free State there is no mention of dissension con- cerning the platform. It says, "the report was adopted by three pro- longed hearty cheers and adopted with but two dissenting votes." The platform is here given in full:
THE FIRST FREE-STATE PLATFORM
WHEREAS, The Free-state party of the Territory of Kansas are about to originate an organization for concert of political action in electing our officers and molding our institutions; and whereas, it is expedient and necessary that a platform of principles be adopted and proclaimed to make known the character of our organization and to test the quali- fieations of candidates and the fidelity of our members; and whereas, we find ourselves in an unparalleled and critical condition, deprived by superior force of the rights guaranteed by the Declaration of Inde- pendence, the Constitution of the United States and the Kansas Bill; and whereas, the great and overshadowing question whether Kansas shall become a free or a slave State must inevitably absorb all other issues except those inseparably connected with it; and whereas, the «risis demands the coneerted and harmonious action of all those who from principle or interest prefer free labor to slave labor, as well as of those who valne the preservation of the Union and the guarantee of republican institutions by the Constitution; therefore,
(1) Resolred, That, setting aside all minor issnes of partisan polities, it is incumbent upon us to proffer an organization calenlated to recover
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