USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 5
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Laughlin shot Collins and killed him on the spot and was slightly wounded himself. This affair occurred October 25, 1855. No attempt was made by the appointed peace officers of the territory to bring the guilty parties par- ticipating in the Pardee Butler outrage or the murder of Collins to justice. Shortly after Laughlin recovered from his wound he secured a position in a store in Atchison and lived there for many years.
This condition of affairs could not long exist without an open rupture between the two opposing forces and from this time on there was a succes- sion of personal encounters of wide significance, and in addition there was the war along the border in which Atchison county played a conspicuous but not a glorious part. The activities here at that crucial period were largely in the interest of the pro-slavery forces. It was at this juncture that the im- mortal John Brown appeared on the scene to begin his work of driving the slavery advocates from Kansas and making it and the Nation free. His first appearance among the Free State men was December 7, 1855. but he had been in the territory several months before that with his four sons. John Brown did not reach Atchison county during his stormy career in Kansas. The nearest he ever came was in 1857 when he passed through Jackson county with a party of slaves which he was taking from Missouri to Nebraska for the purpose of setting them free. In the historical edition of the Atch- ison Daily Globe of July 16, 1894, there appears the following short refer- ence to this excursion :
"In 1857 John Brown made a trip from Missouri into Nebraska with a party of slave negroes which he intended to set free. His route was through Jackson county, Kansas, and up by where the town of Centralia now stands. A lot of the pro-slavery enthusiasts in Atchison heard of the affair and went out to intercept Brown. They came up with him near Centralia, but Brown had heard of their coming and captured the entire party. One of the men in the pro-slavery party 'was named George Ringo; afterwards he sol- diered with Dwight Merlin in the Thirteenth Kansas and often talked of the trip to Merwin around their camp fires. Ringo says that James T. Her- ford was another member of the pro-slavery party, and a man named Cook was another. John Brown looked at Cook critically after the capture and asked his name. Cook said his name was Thomas Porter. "I believe you are lieing. I believe your name is Cook and if I was certain of it I would kill you," Brown said. Cook was one of the men accused of killing Brown's son at Osawatomie, but Brown was not certain of his identity and let him go with the others. George Ringo says that Brown held a prayer meeting in his camp every evening and asked a blessing at every meal.
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"One night when the Atchison party was in the custody of Brown, Brown asked Jim Herford to pray. 'I can't pray,' Herford replied. 'Didn't your mother teach you to pray?' Brown inquired. 'She taught me to say, "Now I lay me down to sleep," that was all,' Herford answered. 'All right,' Brown said, 'get down on your knees and say, "Now I lay me down to sleep.'" Herford did as he was requested, being afraid to refuse and Brown soon rolled himself in a blanket and went to sleep."
As the activities of Brown increased so likewise the activities of the pro-slavery forces increased under the leadership of Senator Atchison, of Missouri, and Dr. Stringfellow, editor of the Squatter Sovereign. The Squatter Sovereign, about which more will appear in a subsequent chapter, was published in Atchison and was largely supported by government adver- tising patronage. It was the leading pro-slavery newspaper organ of the territory. Senator Atchison's activities were of the most pronounced sort. He not only urged his Missouri constituents to invade the territory in all their might and capture the Yankees, but he went himself. At Platte City, Mo., February 4, 1856, Senator Atchison made a speech which gives some idea of the language he employed in urging the people of western Missouri to join in the invading of Kansas. He said :
"I was a prominent agent in repealing the Missouri Compromise and opening the territory for settlement. The abolition traitors drummed up their forces and whistled them onto the cars, and whistled them off again at Kansas City ; some of them had 'Kansas and Liberty' on their hats. I saw this with my own eyes. These men came with the avowed purpose of driv- ing or expelling you from the territory. What did I advise you to do? Why, to beat them at their own game. When the first election came off I told you to go over and vote. You did so and beat them. Well, what next? Why, an election of members of the legislature to organize the territory must be held. What did I advise you to do then? Why, meet them on their own ground and at their own game again ; and, cold and inclement as the weather was, I went over with a company of men. The abolitionists of the North said, and published it abroad, that Atchison was there with bowie-knives, and by God, it was true. I never did go into that territory-I never intend to go into that territory-without being prepared for all such kinds of cattle.
"They held an election on the fifteenth of last month and they intend to put the machinery of the State in motion on the fourth of March. Now you are entitled to my advice, and you shall have it. I say, prepare your- selves. Go over there. Send your young men, and if they attempt to drive
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
you out, then, damn them, drive them out. Fifty of you with your shotguns are worth 250 of them with their Sharpe's rifles. Get ready-arm your- selves; for, if they abolitionize Kansas you lose one million dollars of your property. I am satisfied that I can justify every act of you before God and a jury."
All of the pro-slavery papers were open in their advocacy of an immedi- ate war of extermination. The Squatter Sovereign in its issue just after the election of January 15, commenting on certain disturbances at Easton and a murder at Leavenworth, did not condemn what took place at Easton and had no word of apology or pity to offer for the murdered man. On the con- trary it upheld those who committed the murder and gave them encourage- ment in their campaign of killing abolitionists. Dr. Stringfellow employed his violent rhetoric to give vent to his feelings and the opening paragraph of his leading editorial in the issue of the Squatter Sovereign he used the following language :
"It seems now to be certain that we will have to give the abolitionists at least one good thrashing before political matters are settled in this territory. To do so we must have arms; we have the men. I propose to raise funds to furnish Colt's revolvers for those who are without them. We say if the abolitionists are able to whip us and overturn the government that has been set up here, the sooner it is known the better, and we want to see it settled."
During the whole of the following winter preparations for attack and defense went quietly on. There was drilling along the border and disquiet- ing rumors came from time to time of companies that had been organized and equipped to move into Kansas as soon as spring opened to uphold the rights of the Southerners.
Atchison county took a prominent part in the border warfare. The bold attitude assumed by the Free State forces in and around Lawrence ; the Waka- rusa war; the Free State elections, and the determination of the Free State party to convene their legislature in March, 1856, kept the partisan pro- slavery sentiment in Atchison in a constant tumult. In March large numbers of South Carolina emigrants, armed and equipped with the avowed purpose of enforcing southern rights in Kansas, arrived on all the incoming steam- boats. Capt. F. G. Palmer, of Atchison, commanded one of the earliest if not the earliest company of these emigrants. Robert De Treville was first lieutenant. The home company had been formed prior to the arrival of the South Carolinians. Dr. John H. Stringfellow was captain; Robert S. Kel- ley, first lieutenant ; A. J. G. Westbrook, second lieutenant, and John H.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Blassingame, third lieutenant. Their arms were supplied from Ft. Leaven- worth and by the last of April they were ready and waiting for the assault and the subsequent "sacking" of Lawrence. The whole countryside was aflame with the passion of war. By May I quite a large army of pro-slavery sympathizers was organized. The South Carolinian Company, from Atch- ison, was among the first to start the assault upon Lawrence and it was not long before "its flag was planted upon the rifle pit of the enemy." Dr. String- fellow was there and Robert S. Kelley, his able assistant on the Squatter Sovereign, was also there. In an account of the assault the following ap- peared in the Squatter Sovereigns
"The flag was carried by its brave bearer and stationed upon the Her- ald of Freedom Printing office, and from thence to the large hotel and for- tress of the Yankees, where it proudly waived until the artillery commenced battering down the building. Our company was composed mostly of South Carolinians, under command of Capt. Robert De Treville, late of Charleston, S. C .. and we venture the prediction that a braver set of men than are found in its ranks never bore arms."
The Squatter Sovereign continued to be without fear the most hitter and uncompromising pro-slavery organ in the territory. Its watch-word was "Death to all Yankees and traitors in Kansas." At a large mass meet- ing at Atchison, held in June, 1856, Robert S. Kelley, its assistant editor, was nominated as the "commander-in-Chief of the forces in town," but for some reason now lost to view Kelley declined the honor and it was passed on to Capt. F. G. Palmer who accepted it without remorse and without apologies. Senator Atchison was present at this mass meeting and made a speech, and so was Col. Peter T. Abell, afterwards president of the Atch- ison Town Company, and Captain De Treville, and others not so famous, and they all made speeches.
During that summer, because of the continued activities of old John Brown and the agitation which those activities created in the breasts of the pro-slavery sympathizers in Atchison, another military company was formed, called the Atchison Guards, of which John Robertson was the commander. who was so prominent in the Battle of Hickory Point, and Atchison county continued to take a prominent part in the border warfare which continued for sometime thereafter. During all of this time the Free State settlers of Atchison were very quiet and undemonstrative. They were not strong in number and aside from a few virile souls like Pardee Butler, they held their tongues and kept their own counsel. They were treated with scant courtesy
(Upper) Atchison Hospital. (Center) Atchison County Court House. (Lower Y. M. C. A.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
and consideration by their pro-slavery neighbors, and it can be said to their credit that no set of men ever displayed greater self-restraint or suffered more for the cause of peace than the Free State settlers of this county. It doubt- less unsettled their minds and disturbed their slumbers to read from time to time sentiments such as these taken from the Squatter Sovereign of June 10, 1856:
"Hundreds of Free State men who have committed no overt act, but have only given countenance to those reckless murderers, assassins and thieves, will, of necessity, share the same fate of their brethren. If Civil war is to be the result of such a conflict, there cannot be and will not be, any neutrals recognized. 'He that is not for us is against us,' will of necessity be the motto, and those who are not willing to take either one side or the other are the most unfortunate men in Kansas and had better flee to other regions as expeditiously as possible. They are not the men for Kansas."
In another issue Dr. Stringfellow said :
"The abolitionists shoot down our men without provocation wherever they meet them. Let us retaliate in the same manner. A free fight is all we desire. If murder and assassination is the program of the day we are in favor of filling the bill. Let not the knives of the pro-slavery men be sheathed while there is one abolitionist in the territory. As they have shown no quarters to our men they deserve none from us. Let our motto be writ- ten in blood upon our flags, 'Death to all Yankees and Traitors in Kansas.' We have 150 men in Atchison ready to start in an hour's notice. All we lack is horses and provisions."
And then follows an exhortation from Dr. Stringfellow to his friends in Missouri to contribute something that will enable his constituents to pro- tect their lives and their families from the outrages of the assassins of the North, and ends by stating that the war will not cease until Kansas has been purged of abolitionists.
Pro-slavery committees from Doniphan, Atchison and Leavenworth counties were organized to call on their friends in the South for arms, am- munition and provisions, and a circular letter appeared in the Leavenworth Herald, and an urgent invitation was issued to all the pro-slavery papers to give the circular wide publicity. It read, in part, as follows :
"To our friends throughout the United States :
"The undersigned. having been appointed a committee by our fellow citizens of the counties of Leavenworth. Doniphan and Atchison, in Kansas Territory, to consult together and to adopt measures for mutual protection
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
and the advancement of the interests of the pro-slavery party in Kansas Ter- ritory, this day assembled at the town of Atchison, to undertake the respon- sible duty assigned us ; and in our present emergency deem it expedient to address this circular to our friends throughout the union, but more partic- ularly in the slave-holding states. * * The time has arrived when prompt action is required and the interior of Kansas can easily be supplied from various points in the above named counties. The pro-slavery party is the only one in Kansas which pretends to uphold the Government or abide by the laws. Our party from the beginning has sought to make Kansas a slave state, only by legal means. We have been slandered and vilified almost beyond endurance, yet we have not resorted to violence, but steadily pursued the law for the accomplishment of our objects: *
* We have proclaimed * * to the world that we recognize the principle of the Kansas Bill as just and right, and although we preferred Kansas being made a negro slave state, yet we never dreamed of making it so by the aid of bowie-knives, revolvers and Sharpe rifles, until we were threatened to be driven out of the territory by a band of hired abolitionists, brought up and sent here to control our elections and steal our slaves. We are still ready and intend to continue so, if our friends abroad stand by and assist us. Our people are poor and their labor is their capital. Deprive them of that, which we are now compelled to do, and they must be supported from abroad, or give up the cause of the South. The Northern Abolitionists can raise millions of dollars, and station armed bands of fanatics throughout the territory and support them, in order to deprive Southern men of their constitutional rights. We address this to our friends only, for the purpose of letting them know our true condition and our wants. We know that our call will meet a ready, willing and liberal response. * Heaven and earth is being moved in all the free states to induce overwhelming armies to march here to drive us from the land. We are able to take care of those already here, but let our brethren in the states take care of the outsiders. Watch them, and if our enemies march for Kan- sas let our friends come along to take care of them, and if nothing but a fight can bring about peace, let us have a fight that will amount to something. Send us the money and other articles mentioned as soon as practicable, and if the abolitionists find it convenient to bring their supplies, let our friends come with ours. Arrangements have been made with Messrs. Majors, Rus- sell & Company, Leavenworth, K. T .; J. W. Foreman & Company, Doni- phan, K. T., and C. E. Woolfolk & Company, Atchison, K. T., to receive any money or other articles sent for our relief, and will report to the under-
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
signed, and we pledge ourselves that all will be distributed for the benefit of the cause. Horses, we greatly need-footmen being useless in running down midnight assassins and robbers."
The following residents of Atchison county signed the circular :. P. T. Abell, chairman; J. A. Headley, A. J. Frederick, J. F. Green, Jr., C. E. Mason.
This circular was signed June 6, 1856, and was published in the Law- rence Herald of Freedom, June 144, 1856.
From this time forward the conflagration spread with ever increasing fury, and not only did the appeals for aid from the pro-slavery forces find immediate response, but likewise the anti-slavery forces throughout the whole North came to the rescue of the Free Soilers in Kansas, and during all of this great excitement Atchison county was the focal point of pro-slavery activities. The news of the "sacking" of Lawrence served to awaken the Nation in the North. It was at this time that Henry Ward Beecher. with all of the great eloquence at his command, advocated from his Brooklyn pul- pit the sending of Sharpe rifles instead of Bibles to Kansas, and pledged his own parish to supply a definite number. And on and on they came to Kan- sas out of the North with determination in their hearts and Sharpe rifles in their hands, to help the Free Soilers in their battles against the forces of Atch- ison and Stringfellow and Abell. Then came Lane's "Army of the North," which sounded more terrible than it really was, following in quick succession the second battle of Franklin ; the siege and capitulation of Ft. Titus, and the famous battle of Osawatomie. At last the mobilization of the forces of Atch- ison and Stringfellow not far from the outskirts at Lawrence in September, 1856, for the purpose of a final assault on that Free State stronghold, marked the collapse of the Atchison-Stringfellow military campaign. It was a crit- ical hour for Lane. Old John Brown was there, and the citizens were ready for whatever might befall them, but further hostilities were averted by the action of Governor Geary on the morning of September 15, 1856, when he appeared in person in the midst of the Missouri camp several hours after issuing a proclamation for the Missourians to disband. He found both Sen- ator Atchison and Gen. B. F. Stringfellow (brother of Dr. Stringfellow) there, and in the course of his speech severely reprimanded Atchison, who "from his high estate as Vice-President of the United States, had fallen so low as to be the leader of an army of men with uncontrollable passions, de- termined upon wholesale slaughter and destruction."
When Governor Geary had concluded his remarks his proclamation and
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
order to disband the army were read and the more judicious obeyed.
The troops thus disbanded, marched homeward. Those enlisting at Atchison returned to Missouri by way of Lecompton. This was the last organized military invasion from Missouri and ended the attempts of the pro-slavery forces to rule Kansas by martial law.
It must not be concluded, however, that the Stringfellows and other pro-slavery leaders in Atchison county were not law-abiding citizens. They believed in the institution of slavery, as many good men of that day did, and they had the same rights to peacefully enter the territory of Kansas and endeavor to make it a slave State under the principle of Squatter sovereignty, as Dr. Charles Robinson, and Lane, and John Brown did to make the ter- ritory a free State. It would not only be unjust to the memory of the String- fellows and their compatriots, but unjust to posterity also to leave the im- pression that they had no semblance of justification, for many of their acts, which the impartial historian will admit, were very frequently in retaliation of wrongs and outrages suffered. The terrible stress and strain under which good men on both sides labored in those critical days led them to extremes, and in the midst of the discordant passions of good men, the bad men-those who are the lawless of every age and clime-flourished and their lawlessness only served to complicate the dangerous and ever threatening situation. Calm judgment may not have been lacking in the territory in and around Atchi- son and Lawrence in the days btween 1854 and 1857, but if it existed at all it was lost in the ribt of partisan feeling and did not evince itself until later.
Following the disbanding of the "Territorial" militia before Lawrence, General Atchison seemed to have somewhat recovered his composure and in an address to the troops after Governor Geary had retired, he said :
"As was well known to all present the gentlemen composing this meet- ing had just been in conference with Governor Geary, who in the strongest language had deprecated the inhuman outrages perpetrated by those whom he characterized as bandits, now roving through the territory, and pledged himself in the most solemn manner to employ actively all of the force at his command in executing the laws of the territory and giving protection to his beloved citizens, and who had also appealed to us to dissolve our present or- ganization and stand by and co-operate with him in holding up the hands of his power against all evil doers, and who had also retired from the meeting. with a request that he would consult and determine what course would be taken. Now the object of the meeting was thus to consult and determine what should be done."
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
General Atchison also impressed the meeting with the solemnity and importance of the occasion and said that it was time for men to exercise their reason and not yield to their passions and also to keep on the side of the law which alone constitutes our strength and protection. These words of Gen- eral Atchison breathed a far different message than his strong language of a few years before and indicated more plainly than anything else the general trend of pro-slavery sentiment.
After the cessation of military movements in the territory, more or less peaceful elections, sessions of the legislature and conventions, at which con- stitutions were framed and voted upon, took place, and the work of prepar- ing the territory to become a State went forward.
Four constitutions were framed before Kansas was admitted to the Union.
The Topeka constitution, which was the first in order, was adopted by the convention which framed it November 11, 1855, and by the people of the territory at an election December 15, 1855.
The Lecompton constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it November 7, 1857, and was submitted to a vote of the people December 21, 1857, and the form of the vote prescribed was: "For the constitution, with slavery," and "For the constitution, without slavery." As no oppor- tunity was afforded at this election to vote against the constitution the free State people did not participate in it. The Territorial legislature was sum- moned in extra session and passed it without submitting this constitution to a vote of the people, January 4, 1858, and at that election 138 votes were cast for it and 10,226 against it. In spite of this overwhelming vote against the constitution it was sent to Washington and was transmitted by President Buchanan to the Senate who urged the admission of Kansas under it, thus starting the great contest which divided the Democratic party, the election of Abraham Lincoln as President, and the final overthrow of the slave party. The bill to admit Kansas under this constitution failed, but a bill finally passed Congress, under the provisions of which the constitution was again submitted to the people August 4, 1858, with the result that there were 1,788 votes cast for it and 11,300 votes cast against it.
The convention which framed the Leavenworth constitution was pro- vided for by an act of the Territorial legislature, passed in February,' 1858, at which time the Lecompton constitution was pending in Congress. The Leavenworth constitution was adopted by the convention April 3, 1858. and by the people May 18, 1858.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
The Wyandotte constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it July 29, 1859, and adopted by the people October 4, 1859. It was under the Wyandotte constitution that the State was admitted into the Union January 29, 1861.
In this last convention Atchison county played a very important part. Three members were sent from this county : Caleb May, to whom reference has been made before, a farmer, born in Kentucky, and residing near the now abandoned townsite of Pardee; John J. Ingalls, a lawyer at Sumner, who ar- rived in Kansas from Massachusetts, October 4, 1858, exactly one year pre- vious to the adoption of the constitution by the people of the Territory, and Robert Graham, a merchant at Atchison, who was born in Ireland. John A. Martin, the editor of Freedom's Champion, the successor to the Squatter Sovereign, at Atchison, was secretary of the convention.
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