USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 17
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The saddest feature of these proceedings was that this movement to deprive the Indian of his happy hunting ground was inangurated in his own village. Uniontown has long passed away; not one elapboard is left upon another; the Indians are all gone. There are only a farm house and a few graves of emigrants to California who were overtaken far out on the prairies by the cholera where once was Uniontown.
THE FIRST ELECTION.
In the fall of 1852-it was October 12th-an election was held in Wyandotte and thirty-seven votes were cast for Abelard Guthrie for
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delegate to the Thirty-second congress. The men who cast their votes at that first election were: Charles B. Garrett, Jose Antonio Pieto, Abelard Guthrie, Cyrus Garrett, Edward B. Hand, Russell Garrett, Nicholas Cotter, Isaac Long, James Garlow, George I. Clark, Matthew R. Walker, Henry Garrett, Presley Muir, Isaac Brown, John Lynch, John W. Ladd, Edward Fifer, Henry Porter, Isaac Barker, Henry C. Norton, Henry C. Long, Francis Cotter, Francis A. Hicks, Samuel Ran- kin, Joel W. Garrett, Thomas Coon Hawk, William Walker, Benjamin N. C. Anderson, Samuel Prestly, William Gibson, Joel Walker, James Long, William Trowbridge, Daniel MeNeal, and Peter D. Clark. Guth- rie went to Congress, but was refused admission principally for the reason that at the date of the election there wasn't any Kansas to be a delegate from.
A "BOLTING" CONVENTION.
But the Wyandot Indians were not to be defeated in their purpose of obtaining territorial government. In July, 1853, a conven- tion was held at Wyandotte, and a territorial government was organized. The resolutions adopted in that convention served as a constitution and William Walker, a Wyandot Indian, was elected provisional governor. Abelard Guthrie was nominated for delegate to congress over the Rever- end Thomas Johnson, head of the Shawnee mission. The Reverend Mr. Johnson, however, was not satisfied with the decision of the delegates in that convention. He went to Kickapoo village up the Missouri river, and was nominated in September. The issue in the campaign was "Benton" and "anti-Benton," Mr. Guthrie being the Benton candi- date and Mr. Johnson favoring General Atchison. Mr. Benton and Mr. Atchison, it may be proper to explain, were running for office in Missouri. Mr. Johnson was not admitted as a delegate for the same reason that prevailed in the case of Mr. Guthrie.
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL PASSED.
These movements had the effect of advancing the cause of terri- torial government for Kansas and on May 26, 1854, ten months after the convention in Wyandotte, came the announcement that the United States senate at Washington had passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill at 1:15 in the morning. The date is usually given as May 25th, because the passage took place during the extension of the session of that day. On the 30th of May, 1854, President Pierce signed the bill, and after that it made no difference to the Indians whether in Kansas the grass grew or the water ran or not.
On Saturday, October 7, 1854, Governor Andrew II. Reeder arrived at Fort Leavenworth, which had been made, by the Kansas-Nebraska act,
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the temporary seat of government. He came up on the "Polar Star," and was the first of the long and unhappy procession of Kansas terri- torial governors-Reeder, Shannon, Geary, Walker, Denver and Medary. In the intervals of their unhappy reigns, when they were absent from the territory from choice of necessity, Secretaries and Acting Governors Stanton, Woodson, Walsh and Beebe reigned in their stead. None of them died in office; several resigned and some ran. All lived happy and respected after they got through with Kansas, But one-Governor Shannon-remained steadfastly by Kansas to the end and was buried in her soil. But nobody was predicting these woes when Governor Reeder came up on the "Polar Star."
WELCOME TO GOVERNOR REEDER.
"At 3 o'clock in the 'evening,'" according to the editor of the Kansas Weekly Herald, which had got started under a tree a month before the governor's arrival, "the citizens of Kansas, from Leaven- worth, Salt Creek and the country for miles around, gathered at the fort to pay their respects to Governor Reeder. The concourse was large and highly respectable and most enthusiastic in their gratification of his arrival. Our citizens in a body called upon the governor at the quarters of Captain Hunt and a general introduction took place, during which many kindly expressions of welcome were indulged on the part of the people and reciprocated by the governor with the republican frankness and honest cordiality so agreeable to western men."
This was the way Governor Reeder came up on the "Polar Star" and entered Kansas. How he went ont later may be seen portrayed in a great painting displayed in the Coates house in Kansas City, dis- gnised as a laboring man with an ax on his shoulder, a pipe in his mouth and supposed to represent an Irishman.
With Governor Reeder the following officers made the full terri- torial administration : secretary, Daniel Woodson of Virginia; United States marshal, Israel B. Donaldson, of Illinois; United States attorney, Andrew J. Isacks of Louisiana; surveyor general. JJohn Calhoun, of Illinois; territorial treasurer, Thomas J. B. Cramer, of Illinois, chief justice, Madison Brown, of Maryland, who, not accepting the appoint- ment, was succeeded by Samnel D. Lecompte, of Maryland; associate justices, Saunders N. Johnston, of Ohio, and Rush Elmore, of Alabama.
THE GOVERNOR ORDERS AN ELECTION.
Kansas was now equipped with a full set of officers and was ready to do business as a territory, and Governor Reeder ordered the first election in Kansas-and elections have been a favorite pastime of the people ever since-to be held on the 29th of November for a delegate to congress to serve until the following 4th of March. He divided the territory into seventeen election districts.
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The whole country had been in a state of intense excitement ever since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which it was announced would quiet the "slavery agitation." The excitement reached its highest point when Kansas was fairly enrolled as a territory and ready to participate in the fray. The Emigrant Aid Societies were organized in New England and the east, and sent out their parties to locate town sites and occupy the country. Lawrence was founded by a party from New England, which, by the way, came up like Governor Reeder on the "Polar Star," arriving August 1, 1854. This was the foundation of what was called afterwards the "citadel of freedom." Atchison was established by a town company organized in Missouri, on the 20th of July, 1854. So both parties went into the citadel business. Every town started was either Free-State or Pro-Slavery. Societies were organized in Missouri to "down" the Abolitionists and make Kansas a slave state. The doctrine was proclaimed from the first that "slavery existed already in the territory" and was insisted on with great zeal until some years later slavery, on one fine day, ceased to exist anywhere The Free-State emigrants brought sawmills and as soon as possible after their arrival they started school houses. The New England Emigrant Aid Society made a specialty of school houses. It is a pity that this point was not absolutely settled and given up during the "Kansas troubles ;" but it was not, and the "tie" had to be "shot off" from 1861 to 1865.
CANDIDATES FOR TERRITORIAL DELEGATE.
The bad blood which had been growing culminated at the first election. Three candidates appeared before the people for territorial delegate-General John W. Whitfield, Robert P. Flenneken and John A. Wakefield. General Whitfield was the straight Pro-Slavery eandi- date; Robert P. Flenneken was announced as a friend of Governor Reeder's, an administration Democrat with Free State leanings, and John A. Wakefield proclaimed himself the only bona fide resident of the territory running, and a straight Free State man. The day before the election, the "Blue Lodge" voters began crossing the border; on elee- tion day they voted and Whitfield was elected. The vote as returned was: Whitfield, 2,258; Flenneken, 305; Wakefield, 248; scattering, 22. General Whitfield was admitted to his seat on the certificate of Governor Reeder, there being no protest. This was first blood for the Pro- Slavery party, but in December, the month after, the first Free State meeting was held in Lawrence; in January the first school was opened, and early in 1855 there were three Free State newspapers published in that town.
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THE FIRST INVASION.
In Jannary and February, 1855, Governor Reeder caused an enumeration of the inhabitants to be taken. The total population was found to be 8,601, of whom 2,905 were legal voters. On the 8th of March an election was called, to be held March 30th, to choose thirteen members of the council and twenty-six members of the house. The election was the scene of invasion and violence on a seale unknown at the November contest. A thousand Missourians drove away the judges and voted at Lawrence; at Bloomington five hundred voted; at Tecumseh, sixty miles from the border, a great crowd appeared and took possession of the polls. General Atchison led a party of sixty armed men to the Nemaha distriet. The whole country rang with the story.
Governor Reeder threw out the returns from Lawrenee and five other precinets and ordered a new election for May 22, 1855. He went to Washington to tell his story, and the road to Washington has ever since been kept hot by Kansas. The adjourned May election was held without interference or molestation, the Pro-Slavery people taking no part in it. The legislature met at Pawnee near Fort Riley, July 2, 1855. It contained eighteen Pro-Slavery and eight Free State mem- bers of the house, and ten Pro-Slavery and three Free State members of the council. On the 6th of July it adjourned to Shawnee Mission, two miles and a half from Westport, Missiouri. This ended Pawnee as a capital. An old ruined rough stone house, with a large hole in it, marks the spot.
THE EYES OF A NATION ON SHAWNEE MISSION.
The first legislature of Kansas re-assembled at Shawnee Mission on the 16th of July, 1855, in spite of the veto of Governor Reeder, and was officered as follows :
Ilouse-Speaker, John H. Stringfellow; speaker pro tem, Joseph C. Anderson ; chief elerk, James M. Lyle ; assistant elerk, John Martin, later United States senator from Kansas; sergeant-at-arms, T. J. B. Cramer.
Council-President, the Rev. Thomas Johnson ; president pro tem, R. R. Iless ; chief elerk, John A. Halderman ; assistant clerk, Charles H. Grover; sergeant-at-arms, C. B. Whitehead; doorkeeper, W. J. Godefroy.
Before adjourning from Pawnee the house unseated all the Free State members except Cyrus K. Holliday absent, and S. D. Houston, protested and resigned, and of the conneil, all save Martin F. Conway, who resigned. The places of these members were filled with pro-slavery candidates at the election of March 30th. This legislature received from the Free State party the appellation of "Bogus," a name originally applied to counterfeit money from an eminent dealer in that article; it
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was posted and placarded all over the world as the "Bogus Legislature." It was held in old Shawnee Methodist Mission in what is now the county of Johnson, named in honor of the Rev. Thomas Johnson, the original missionary.
THE "BOGUS" LAWS.
The Shawnee Mission legislature was an industrious body. The volume of its laws when published made 1,058 pages. Although con- sidered by a large portion of the people of Kansas as "bogus" legisla- tion the acts of this legislature constitute the beginning of law in Kansas and still form a portion of its statutes; it gave the older counties of Kansas the names which, with few exceptions, they still bear, and in- corporated the cities of Lawrence and Leavenworth, the town company of Atchison and many more besides. The most remarkable legislative
GOVERNOR CHARLES ROBINSON. (FIRST GOVERNOR OF KANSAS.)
achievement of the body was the passage of an act "to prevent offences against slave property." This was pronounced more "efficient" than anything existing in any slave state in the Union. This act, which was afterward discussed in congress, created indignation against the Pro- Slavery cause in Kansas, and tended to bring about its final defeat. The legislature took upon itself to appoint all the officers, executive and judical, in the territory to hold over until after the election of 1857, and thus counties found themselves supplied with officers whom the people had nothing to do with electing.
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The year 1855 was full of noise and violence, and fraught with disaster to the Free State party. But the territory kept filling up and before the end of the year three men had arrived whose names were destined to fill many pages in the history of Kansas.
THREE MAKERS OF KANSAS HISTORY.
Dr. Charles Robinson, a practicing physician, came to Kansas in 1854 and located at Lawrence. He was a native of Massachusetts, born in 1818 in the town of Hardwick. He was a fine specimen of the New Englanders descended from the stoek that landed at Plymouth Rock. Appearing in Kansas as a promoter of the plan to fill Kansas with Free State settlers, through the troublesome years he was leader of the Free State party-a statesman, a diplomat and an organizer. He origi- nated the "Topeka movement" that consolidated the Free State senti- ment and held it together, and when the fight was over was made gover- nor of the Free State of Kansas.
. James H. Lane came to Kansas in 1855. IIe had been a lieutenant
"JIM" LANE. (KANSAS WAR-TIME SENATOR.)
governor, member of congress and colonel of an Indiana regiment in the Mexican war. General Lane, who bore the military title and even exercised its functions in war times without a commission, was not like Governor Robinson, from or of New England. He was born in Southern Indiana, and at the time of his eoming to Kansas was in his forty-first year. As a member of congress he had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska
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bill and his mission in Kansas was to set up a Free State government. ITis faults were many, but he was a leader and rallied about him a fol- lowing that displayed for him a devotion inspired by no Kansas "chief- tain" since. He was a "roarer, " a magnetizer, and a "natural" orator -meaning thereby one who, rising up and addressing his fellow ereatures, moves them by voice and gesture, glance and glare of his eve, so that they eheer, hurrah, yell, even though opposed to him, for him and his side of the question. His "animating powers" were given as a rule to the Free State party. He went after some preliminary "moves" for Freedom. and took his clarion with him. Ilis most active and eventful years were after the admission, when he achieved the object of his life-long ambition, the United States senate. It all ended in his dying by his own hand.
And then in the month of August, 1855, came to Kansas, John Brown, whose name soon was to fill the world. The first mention made of him in Kansas annals, he appeared in Lawrence with his sons on the night of the excitement following the killing of Thomas W. Barber. They were all armed. John Brown had studied and pondered, and talked and written and praved about slavery all his life. John Brown joined the Free State party, not as a leader or counselor, but as a terror to its foes. He loved not conventions, or compromises, or constitutions. Ile and his sons and followers abode in the wilderness and came forth at the notes of the conflict, as the eagles to the slaughter, and then went away. When the fighting and killing in Kansas seemed over, he dis- appeared, to appear again upon the height of a scaffold, where all the world could see him to curse or bless. His name came to be sung by thousands of armed and marching men and his rude farmer's features to be made familiar to all the world in painting and sculpture. It is true, though, that all might have been different had there been less of brutal intolerance in Missouri and Kansas in 1855.
GOVERNOR SHANNON TO THE FRONTIER.
Governor Reeder did not recognize the validity of the Shawnee Mission legislature, claiming that it was in session where it had no legal right to be, and in the summer he was removed from office by the presi- dent of the United States. After an interval by Secretary and Aeting Governor Daniel Woodson, Wilson Shannon of Ohio came in the fall of 1855, to take charge of the affairs of the then turbulent territory. Governor Shannon was said to have delivered his inaugural address at Westport. Missouri, but when he reached Shawnee Mission, the then "capital" of Kansas territory, he was welcomed by Hon. O. H. Brown with the following address that was remarkable for its eloquence :
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"Governor Shannon: In the name of the people of Kansas, I am proud to welcome you to our prairie home. Coming from every state in the Union-from almost every civilized country on the globe-the people of Kansas have mingled their sympathies and combined their energies to protect our infant republic. Kansas, the offspring of Missouri, the hope and pride of America, will ever imitate the excellence and rival the beauty of her illustrious parent. When you grasp the hands of the pioneers you may trust your honor in their custody. With them the gentle pressure of the hand attests the cordial welcome of the heart. We have no Catalines here, no lank and hungry Italians with their treacherous smiles-no cowards with their stilettoes-no assassins of reputation. Here man walks abroad in the majesty of his Maker. Ile breathes the pure air, surveys the beanty, and reaps the produets of nature. His heart expands with gratitude and devotion. The morning prayer is heard on every hill; the evening orison is chanted by the glad tenants of every valley and glen. What earthly power can retard the progress of such a people? They must be great-great in all the attri- butes of sovereign power. In the name of such people, welcome, Governor Shannon."'
Governor Shannon began his administration by committing himself to the cause of slavery for the new territory.
Meanwhile the Free State people were not idle. Numerous public meetings and conventions were held. All of these culminated in the Big Springs convention in September, 1855, at which James H. Lane reported a platform in which the exclusion of all negroes, bond and free, from the territory was recommended. Governor Reeder was nomi- nated for delegate to congress and the convention resolved in favor of holding another convention which should provide for a constitutional convention.
THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION.
The convention that framed the Topeka constitution met in Topeka Ortober 22, 1855, and it was in session sixteen days. Of the men in that convention Governor Robinson, in an address twenty years after, said : "Eighteen of the members gave their polities as Democrats, six as Whigs, four as Republicans, two as Free Soilers, one Free State and one Independent. The Democratic party being in power at that time, the lines were distinctly drawn between the conservative and the radical members from the first. The radicals wasted no thought on the offices, as they accepted the conclusion that no radical could be made available for office. None but Democrats, Whigs of the old school, or blackmen could be fellowshipped. Men who had anti-slavery convictions, who would tolerate free negroes in the state, and especially such as would vote to enfranchise them were regarded as abolitionists of the darkest dve and likely to be fit subjects for an insane asylum before one could be provided for their accommodation. Evening sessions were held for the purpose of discussing a resolution or approving of the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The Democrats and Conservatives were desirous of being loyal to their party and insisted that the troubles in
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Kansas were not the legitimate fruits of the bill, but in consequence of the violation of its spirit. The Radicals denounced the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and declared the pretense of squatter sovereignty was a sham and a mockery and was so intended to be by its authors. The convention was nearly equally divided on this question, there being seventeen aves to fifteen noes."
Out of the Topeka constitutional convention came the Topeka state government and the Topeka legislature. The officers elected under the Topeka constitution were: Governor, Charles Robinson; lieutenant- governor, W. Y. Roberts; secretary of state, P. C. Schuyler; anditor, G. A. Cutler; treasurer, J. A. Wakefield; attorney general, II. Miles Moore ; supreme judges, M. Hunt, S. N. Latta, M. T. Conway ; supreme court reporter, E. M. Thurston ; clerk of the supreme court, S. B. Floyd ; state printer, John Speer ; representative in congress, M. W. Delahay.
THIE WAKARUSA WAR.
There was an abundance of noise and blister in the territory, but the killing near Doniphan of Collins, a Free State man, by Langhlan, a Pro-Slavery man, October 20, 1855, started things. This had been preceded by the lynching of William Phillips and Pardee Butler. Under title of the "Law and Order" party the Pro-Slavery forces at- tempted to govern the territory. The killing of Dow by Coleman, a Pro-Slavery man, led to the arrest of Branson, a Free State man. The arrest was made by Samuel Jones, sheriff of Donglas eonnty, Kansas, by appointment of the Shawnee Mission legislature. Jones was also post- master of Westport, Missouri. A party of Free State men, led by Sam Wood, famous in Kansas for many years, rescued Branson from the sheriff. Branson took refuge in Lawrence. The sheriff, "in the name of law and order," called on the governor to call out the militia. About fifteen hundred Missourians answered the call and moved to the mouth of the Wakarusa river near Lawrence. Something like eight hundred Free State men assembled at Lawrence called on the president, congress and Charles Summer to protect the right. Governor Shannon appeared in Lawrence and tried to quell the storm. He visited the armies and finally ordered the "law and order" militia to disperse. At this stage appeared in Lawrence old John Brown and his four sons, disgusted with Governor Shannon's efforts to restore peace and crying out for war.
So the close of the year 1855 found not only Kansas, but the United States, in an upheaval. The Republican party, organized the year before in Michigan, rose rapidly to power in the north and it championed the cause of Free Kansas.
The year 1856 was only fifteen days old when the election of state officers under the Topeka constitution was held. This brought face to
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face in Kansas the two governments, the Free State government and the Territorial government. President Pierce in a special message to con- gress, in January, recognized the Pro-Slavery legislature and declared the Topeka government treasonable and rebellious. In February Nathaniel P. Banks was elected speaker of the house of representatives, and that body afterwards voted to admit Kansas under the Topeka constitution.
The Topeka legislature, after meeting on the 4th of July, dispersed on the order of Colonel E. V. Sumner. afterwards a distinguished geu- eral in the Union army, backed by a strong foree of cavalry and artil- lery. The federal authorities affected to regard the Topeka movement as treasonable, and many men engaged in it were arrested and confined in a stockade at Lecompton. "Law and order" produced its custo- mary results and the United States marshal and his deputies made ar- rests right and left.
THE EMIGRANT AID SOCIETIES.
As the north had organized Emigrant Aid Societies and sent emi- grants to Kansas, so parties were sent from Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia. As the northern states had made appropriations, so Ala- bama appropriated $25,000 to aid her "Kansas emigrants." These new settlers were active in the affairs of the territory. In May, 1856, Law- rence was invaded by a large force, commanded by General Atchison, and the Eldridge House and the Herald of Freedom and the Kansas Free State newspaper offiees were destroyed under the direction of the sheriff and by the finding of the grand jury. It was all in conformity with the law-such as it was. The United States marshal was in general charge of operations.
After this, old John Brown was heard from on the other side. .James P. Doyle, his two sons, William Sherman and Allen Wilkinson, Pro-Slavery settlers on Pottawatomie creek, were called to their doors at night and hacked to death. The next month Brown and his party met II. Clay Pate at Black Jack. Captain Pate told the story very neatly afterwards.
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