USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
638
KANSAS AND KANSANS
ritory was one H. J. Strickler. The Governor gave him strict orders on the 12th of September to disarm and disband the "Kansas militia." Notwithstanding, the officials of the Territory, including Strickler, wholly disregarded these orders, and those who should have been in the field hung around Lecompton in open defiance of the Governor.
Woodson kept the Governor in ignorance of his "open insurrection and rebellion" proclamation, and proceeded about his duties of Secre- tary with sueh complacency, affability, suavity, and withal bore such an air of confident satisfaction, that the Governor was for the moment deceived as to the magnitude of the storm gathering along the borders of Missouri. The studied contempt and disobedience of the militia offi- cers made it necessary for Governor Geary to take steps to ascertain for himself the true state of affairs in the part of the Territory border- ing on Missouri. He now began to realize the significance of the warn- ing he had received at the hands of the Ruffians while in Jefferson City, to the effect that if he dared to interfere with the Law and Order party in its set plans to exterminate the Free-State party in Kansas he would be assassinated. He suspected treachery in the official circles at Leeompton, and not only did this develop, but contempt for the Governor and his orders manifested itself from the first. He reprimanded the militia officers for their disregard of his orders, and dispatched sneh messengers as he eould repose confidence in with instructions to aseertain and report the condition of affairs along the border.
Before daylight on the morning of September 13th the true con- dition of affairs began to come to the Governor's knowledge. William A. Heiskell, commanding the First Brigade of the Southern Division, Kansas Militia, with the rank of Brigadier-General, reported by special courier that in pursuance of Acting-Governor Woodson's proclamation he had at the time of the writing of his message (September 11), at Mission Creek, eight hundred men, "who are now in the field, ready for duty, and impatient to act." An hour later a second courier arrived, suffering from extreme exhaustion as the result of having rid- den a horse almost to death in his haste to have the sanction of the Governor conveyed to the gallant commander of the Ruffians, who were "impatient to act." The second dispatch of the valiant Heiskell, who doubtless expected proper commendation for such manifest dili- gence, stated, "I now report one thousand men as Territorial militia, called into the field by the proclamation of Acting-Governor Wood- SO11."
The invasion of Kansas progressed as favorably as the Pro-Slavery leaders could expect. By the 15th of September there were twenty- seven hundred men surrounding Lawrence, under the command of Atchison, Stringfellow, Reid, and others. The number of volunteers the Free-State men were able to assemble to oppose this army of inva- sion did not exceed three hundred. Brown was offered the command of these, but declined. Ile preferred to fight in the ranks. But he was looked upon as the most capable military man present, and the
639
KANSAS AND KANSANS
people relied upon him for their safety should they be attacked. Brown assembled them one afternoon and addressed them as follows:
Gentlemen : It is said there are twenty-five hundred Missourians down at Franklin, and that they will be here in two hours. You can see for yourself the smoke they are making by setting fire to the houses in that town. Now is probably the last opportunity you will have of seeing a fight, so you had better do your best. If they should come up and attaek us, don't yell and make a great noise, but remain perfectly silent and still. Wait till they get within twenty-five yards of you ; get a good object ; be sure you see the hind sight of your gun,-then fire. A great deal of powder and lead and very precious time is wasted by shooting too high. You had better aim at their legs than at their heads. In either case be sure of the hind sights of your guns. It is from the neglect of this that I myself have so many times escaped; for if all the bullets that have been aimed at me had hit, I should have been as full of holes as a riddle.
As the Adjutant-General of Territorial militia had failed to disband these troops, the Governor resolved to do so himself, and he accordingly wrote a dispatch stating to Heiskell that he would see him on the "fol- lowing day," i. e., on the same day as soon as daylight would permit him to start, or, if he could not come, the Secretary of the Territory or the Adjutant-General would be sent.1 This dispatch was not com- pleted before the Governor received a communication from one of his confidential messengers conveying the intelligence that Lawrence was threatened by an armed force then marching against it from Mis- souri, three hundred of which had been seen. The Governor took three hundred United States troops under the command of Colonel P. St. George Cooke, together with four pieces of artillery, and with this force arrived in Lawrence at sunrise on the 13th. Ile found the eity fortified and defended by three hundred men. Ile addressed the people at considerable length, and was cheered. He was the unexpected friend, the people of Lawrence having ceased to regard the Territorial officers as having any other desire than to "wipe them out," or at least as being entirely willing to permit it to be done. As the danger was not so imminent as had been supposed, the Governor and troops returned to Lecompton.
A erowd of fugitives greeted Governor Geary upon his return to the capital. These people were from the vicinity of Hickory Point, in Jefferson county, where the Free-State forces were operating under the command of Captain Harvey by orders of Lane, who had retired to Nebraska. He had ordered Harvey to cease hostilities at the same time, but the order had not reached Harvey in time to prevent some opera- tions by his forces after the arrival of the Governor. The Governor directed Colonel Cooke to capture or disperse this foree. On the 15th the United States troops came upon Harvey's men and captured them ;
1 It was then one o'clock A. M., and the Governor meant that he would start at daylight or before. As he arrived at Lawrence at sunrise, he must have set out some hours before daylight.
640
KANSAS AND KANSANS
they numbered one hundred and one men, and were commanded by Captain Biekerton. Harvey was absent, and escaped capture. They were taken to Lecompton and by Judge Cato (a villain in ermine) com- mitted on a charge of murder in the first degree. A murderer in cold blood, if he belonged to the Law and Order party, was always admitted to bail on bonds known to be absolutely worthless by this Jeffreys and his equally corrupt associate and superior, Lecompte. It could not but have been known that many of these prisoners were innocent of any crime, but bail was denied in each case. They were confined in a tumble- down house in the outskirts of Lecompton, and guarded by militia. Here they were starved, insulted, almost frozen in winter, and overrun with vermin. They fell into the hands of one man who did the best he could for them. He was a humane Kentuckian named Hampton.2 For
2 Levi J. Hampton was born in Boyd County, Kentucky. The old fam- ily homestead is on the Big Sandy River, three miles above Catlettsburg. This Hampton family is a part of the distinguished family of the same name so widely scattered in the South. Levi J. Hampton was cousin to the mother of this author, whom he visited before starting to Kansas. His family was quite wealthy and owned slaves. The writer's mother was an Abolitionist. Her parents were Virginians, and her ancestors, the MeCartys and Elzeys, had been vestrymen with Washington at the old Episcopal Church, at Alexandria, as a reference to Sparks' Life of Washington will show. IIer immediate ancestor, Richard MeCarty, enlisted in Captain Slaughter's Company, in Culpeper, to go on Brad- dock's Expedition. That company is still in existence at Culpeper, with an unbroken succession. Richard MeCarty was its Captain in the Vir- ginia line in the Revolution. Notwithstanding this relation with the first families of Virginia, she desired to see freedom in all America. When Levi J. Hampton visited her to say good-bye before going to Kansas to help force slavery ou that Territory, she urged him to remain at home, saying that it was monstrous to engage in such an enterprise. Hampton, however, was determined to go to Kansas in the interest of slavery. There are numerous references to him and his actions in the early newspapers of Kansas, and they are all complimentary. At one time he led a force against a company under the command of Gen- eral James H. Lane. Hampton had succeeded in passing the Free-State lines, and found Lane lying on some straw under a wagon. He had a personal acquaintance with Lane. Lane demanded to know what Hamp- ton was doing at that time in his camp. Hampton replied that he had some thoughts of killing Lane. Lane came out and stood by Hampton and said, "No man can avoid assassination. To assassinate me, Hamp- ton, would not stop the Free-State movement. No one man is essential to a great cause. I believe it would be better for you to take your men, go on baek to your camp, and endeavor to fight this war out on the prin- ciples of war." Hampton felt humiliated that he had entertained any such purpose, and so informed Lane. Ile went back to his eamp and from that day determined to abandon the Pro-Slavery cause as soon as he could find an opportunity to leave Kansas. When he returned to Kentucky he made the family of this author a visit and reported the facts above stated, among a great many others, and he said to his cousin that she had been right and that he had been wrong. It had taken the trip to Kansas and the participation in the troubles to convince him that she was right. His views were completely changed. When the Civil War eame on. he enlisted in the 39th Kentucky Volunteers and was made
2
1
....
7
12
BAD Springs
1
12
7
13
13
14
2
1
11
12
7
IS
14
3
31
2
1
7
15
2 17
641
KANSAS AND KANSANS
his kindness to these prisoners his removal from office was demanded by the chief Ruffians, Sheriff Jones, Surveyor Calhoun, and his chief clerk, one Maclean. The Governor commended him, but the Ruffians found a way to deprive him of his office.
The prisoners were tried in October. Most of them were acquitted, but others were convicted of various degrees of manslaughter. Those convicted were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, and to wear the "ball and chain." Sheriff Jones had hoped that he should have the pleasure of hanging all of them, but not being gratified in this, made requisition upon the Governor for the balls and chains with which to manacle them. The Governor did not furnish them; for this he was denounced by Jones, Stringfellow, "Candle-box" Calhoun, and other bright and shining lights of the Law and Order party. In the follow- ing March these prisoners were pardoned by Governor Geary, as was supposed, but the fury of the Ruffians and their expressed intention to assassinate him caused him to flee from the Territory in such haste that he did not issue the pardon.3
The Ruffians were in the meantime assembling in great force for the purpose of destroying Lawrence and the other Free-State towns. On the 14th of September the Governor again visited Lawrence with United States troops. These he stationed in a way to prevent the Missourians from entering the town. The conditions existing there are thus described :
About three hundred persons were found in arms, determined to sell their lives at the dearest price to their ruffian enemies. Among these were many women, and children of both sexes, armed with guns and otherwise accoutred for battle. They had been goaded to this by the courage of despair. Lawrence was to have been their Thermopylae, and every other Free-State town would have proved a Saragossa. When men determine to die for the right, a hecatomb of victims grace their immola- tion ; but when women and children betake themselves to the battle-field, ready to fight and die with their husbands and fathers, heroism becomes the animating principle of every heart, and a giant's strength invigorates every arm. Each drop of blood lost by such warriors becomes a dragon's tooth, which will spring from the earth, in all the armor of truth and justice, to exact a fearful retribution.
On the 15th, early in the morning, the Governor having stationed the United States troops for the protection of Lawrence, sought the camp of the Ruffians. He met the advance guard out a distance from
Quartermaster of the regiment. He was taking some supplies up the Big Sandy River when his detachment was attacked at Wireman's Shoal, about ten miles above Paintsville, by a Confederate force under Jenkins. The Union force was small and most of it was captured. Hampton had received an injury to one of his ankles a day or two before and could not get away. He sat down on the hillside and surrendered, but when the Confederates came up they disregarded his surrender and shot him dead.
3 This follows Wilder's Annals. Dr. Gihon states positively that the persons were pardoned by Governor Geary, on March 2d. If so, they were then released. Vol. II-4
642
KANSAS AND KANSANS
Franklin, "marching to 'wipe out' Lawrence and every abolitionist in the country." These men were with difficulty turned from their purpose. Arriving at the camp he found twenty-seven hundred men under arms, animated with the sentiments of the advance guard. They had artillery and whisky, and black flags of extermination were flying from many places, indicating that neither age nor sex should escape in the contemplated slaughter of the Lawrence people and those of other Free-State towns. The sight of the Governor infuriated the Ruffians, and he was treated to threats and assassination as he passed among them to the quarters of the commanders.
The General in command was John W. Reid, at the time a member of the Missouri Legislature. As subordinate commanders he had Senator Atchison, Stringfellow, MacLean, Whitfield, Clarke (the murderer of Barber), Heiskell, and other Ruffians who had won their honors in the murder, rapine and pillage committed or instigated by them on the Free-State settlers of Kansas Territory. One of them, Stringfellow, declared that he could never be happy until he had killed an aboli- tionist. "If," said he, "I can't kill a man, I'll kill a woman; and if I can't kill a woman, I'll kill a child!" The commissary was one MacLean, chief clerk in the office of Calhoun, the Surveyor-General. He afterwards told the Governor how he provisioned the Ruffians. It is told in the following quotation from Dr. Gihon's book :
Maclean : I was lying in my tent, one night, on the broad of my back, smoking my pipe, and enjoying myself over a bottle of good whisky, when Generals Reid and Strickler, and several other officers, entered, apparently in great distress. They said they had over a thousand men to feed, and not a d-d ounce of rations for the next day. After much talk, I consented to act as commissary. They wanted me to get up and go to work, but I kept my place as though utterly unconcerned, and con- tinued to whiff away at my pipe; telling them that the rations would all be ready at an appointed hour in the morning. They didn't know what to make of my coolness-thought I was either drunk or crazy, and went off somewhat disappointed and evidently vexed.
Gov. Geary : Well, were the rations ready ?
Maclean : Yes [with an oath] ! Ready that morning, and every other, so long as we were in camp, about two weeks.
Governor: But how did you manage it?
Maclean : That was d-d easy. I was up before daylight; got out a number of wagons, and started parties in every direction, with orders to go to stores and dwellings, get all the provisions they could find, and drive in all the cattle; and they returned with a pretty generous supply.
Governor: How did you raise the funds to pay for all this?
Maclean : Funds! [with a number of choice oaths] we didn't pay a cent. We "pressed" it all. In these expeditions, which were con- tinued every day, we got some useful information, too. We seized the mails going to and from Osawatomie, and more than a half-bushel of letters fell into my hands, in examining which, I found many of them directed to, and others written by, some of the most wealthy and influen- tial citizens of Boston and other parts of the Northern and Eastern States.
The Governor convened this hopeful gang of cut-throats and ad- dressed them on the subject of their infamous and atrocious conduct,
643
KANSAS AND KANSANS
reprehensible and diabolical from every point of view. He was particu- larly severe in his remarks to Atchison. He called attention to his proclamation ordering all armed bands to disperse. He ended by ordering them to disband and return home.
Here was a turn in affairs and a display of courage never con- templated by the Missourians. Twice before had Lawrence been snatched from the jaws of these same ravening Ruffians by the Executive, but in each instance he had made his interposition effective more by whee- dling and helpless pleading than by the assertion of authority. Here was an Executive of a different stamp. He assembled them, recounted their unlawful actions, and ended by ordering them to disband. They encountered here unexpectedly a man with firm convictions of right and duty, and the courage to stand for them in the face of threats of assassination which he had every reason to believe would be carried out. There was nothing to do but submit. But some excuse must be found for letting so favorable an opportunity to "wipe out" Lawrence slip through their fingers. They called a meeting of their chief Ruffians to devise such an instrument. The Governor's assurance that all should be protected in their rights, whoever they were, was made the basis of their apology for disbanding. Some of the commanders had been mis- led, and were anxious to disband their men and send them home. But others were not of the same mood, and submitted with much smothered growling. Clarke was the most rabid; he was for fighting the United States troops if that were a necessary prelude to the gratification of their yearnings to "wipe out" Lawrence. Jones vapored about, and was for "wiping out" Lawrence first, and then all the other Free-State towns. These cursed the Governor deeply and loudly. But there was no other way than to obey, and return to Missouri and there scatter the copies of their apology, which they had misgivings would be poorly received. So they sullenly took their way out of the Territory, but as a terrible protest to being foiled of their prey, left murdered citi- zens, burning dwellings, plundered communities, the wailings of the widow and the cries of the orphan in the wake of their retreat to Missouri.
This was the last organized effort of the Missourians to subjugate Kansas by force of arms. The Law and Order party gradually aban- doned this idea, and turned to the constitutional field as one affording facilities for their manner of waging warfare upon free institutions in the Territory. They formed their plans carefully, and worked them out under Governor Walker's administration, after taking the pre- liminary steps in the Legislature over Governor Geary's veto. As to the Governor, it was the intention to make his position intolerable. This began in an incident in the retreat of the Ruffians from the Territory.
The greater number of the "Kansas Militia" returned to Missouri by the way of Westport. The band known as the "Kickapoo rangers" came to Lecompton and forded the Kansas River at that point. They still car. ried their black flags of extermination, and were as desperate and villain- ous a band as ever congregated at the eall of the leaders of the Law and
644
KANSAS AND KANSANS
Order party. When six miles west of Lawrence, on their road to Atehi- son, six of this band left the main body for the purpose of murder and robbery. They found a lame man named David C. Buffum plowing in a field. They robbed him of his horse, and when he protested, one of them, Charles Hays, shot him, inflicting a mortal wound. They then stole a pony belonging to a little girl and rejoined the main body of marauders. Governor Geary and Judge Cato soon passed by, and dis- covered Buffum weltering in his blood. At the direction of the Governor the Judge took the dying man's statement of the murder. The Governor caused a warrant to be issued for the arrest of the murderer, whose name was then unknown. Finding it impossible to get the officers to execute this warrant, or even make an effort to do so, the Governor sent secret agents to Atchison to learn the murderer's identity, and at the same time offered a reward for his apprehension and conviction. This resulted in the diselosure of the dastard, and his arrest. A grand jury composed of his partisans found a true bill against him for murder in the first degree. Judge Lecompte immediately admitted him to bail, accepting as his bondsman the redoubtable Sheriff Jones, a man noto- riously bankrupt. The Governor eaused Hays to be re-arrested, but Le- compte immediately released him the second time. Harvey's command of one hundred and one men could not be admitted to bail when it was well known that almost all of them had not committed any erime beyond self-defense, but here was a man of the Judge's party with innocent blood on his hands and with the presumption of his guilt so great that even a jury of his partisans dare not ignore it, set at liberty in violation and defiance of all law and precedent, and this, too, by the Chief Justice of the Territory! The ineident revealed to the Governor his true posi- tion. In the administration of justice in the Territory he stood alone. The condition was even worse: arrayed on the side of lawlessness, mur- der, robbery, anarehy, stood those intrusted with the construction and the administration of the laws!
Having cleared the Territory of armed bands, the Governor now turned his attention to the partisan, prejudiced, and inefficient judiciary. Judge Cato had been found by the Governor bearing arms in the noble army of invasion, and shortly afterwards, while engaged in the appro- priation of the arms of the Free-State prisoners, was shot in the ankle by a revolver in the hands of a worthless, drunken fellow named Hull. The shooting was aecidental, Hull being engaged in the same repre- hensible appropriation as the Judge. Cato was the constant companion and associate of Clarke, Maclean and JJones, and was the mess-mate and bed-fellow of the latter and one Bennett, the editor of the Lecompton Union. He was accused of writing the seurrilous artieles which appeared in that disreputable sheet. Of the law he had little knowledge; of the sense of justice he was entirely destitute.
Judge Burrell devoted no time at all to his duties beyond that re- quired in the collection of his salary.
Chief Justice Lecompte was a politieal jaekleg from Maryland, and spent his time in the accumulation of property, of which he possessed
645
KANSAS AND KANSANS
a goodly share at the time. He was a better lawyer than Cato, which is saying little in his favor, but it is all that can be said. It was said that he adjourned the spring term of his court to plant his potatoes; the summer term had to stand adjourned to allow him to hoe his potatoes; the necessity for digging his potatoes disposed of the fall term; and in the winter he could not hold court because he had to remain at home to sell his potatoes. Crimes were constantly committed by members of the Law and Order party, but they were never, or were very sel- dom, made the subject of judicial inquiry. Burrell died, and the other two judges spent much of their time attending the councils of the Law and Order party, planning to force slavery on Kansas. Crowds of per- sons daily besieged the Governor erying for justice at the hands of the courts, while the judges were closeted with Calhoun, Jones, MaeLean, and others, in the concoction of schemes for the oppression of the settlers of the Territory.
The Governor ealled the judges before him and reviewed the situa- tion with them. He suggested that they devote some time to their duties, to which they consented; but no improvement being visible the Governor addressed each of them a note, asking them to report to him what had been accomplished during the terms, respectively, of their offices. In any other condition of society than that which prevailed under the rule of ruffianism, this sharp reprimand would have produced beneficial results. But here it fell upon heedless ears. Beyond arousing the Chief Justice to some indignation and a wordy defense of his own course and the beauties of slavery, it accomplished nothing. Any sem- blance of justice in the courts of the Territory disappeared, and partisan- ship, prejudice and partiality were contemptuously flaunted in the faces of outraged citizens, and boasted of. The Governor himself did not escape from it, as he found to his sorrow in the ease of the murderer of Buffum.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.