USA > Kansas > Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Voilume I > Part 65
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The polls were crowded all day and the Missourians forced the free- state men to pass through two lines before reaching the polls. During
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the day some free-state voters were driven away and prevented front voting. Although the district had but 369 voters, according to the census, 1,034 votes were cast and a careful examination showed that only 232 were legal. (See Border War.)
Samuel J. Jones was appointed sheriff of Douglas county by the first territorial legislature, and the county was organized on Sept. 24, 1855, when the county commissioners assembled at Lecompton in response to a proclamation of the sheriff. The first commissioners were Dr. John Wood, chairman and ex-officio probate judge; John M. Banks and George W. Johnston. James Christian was appointed clerk; Hugh Cameron, treasurer; Peter Crockett, coroner; A. C. W. Stafford, attor- ney; and O. H. Browne, assessor. The commissioners divided the county into the municipal townships of Lecompton, Lawrence, Franklin. Washington and Louisiana. The county seat, by the first act organiz- ing the county, was designated as Lecompton, which by the same legis- lature was made the capital of the territory, and it remained the county seat and territorial capital as long as the pro-slavery party was in power. In 1858 an act was passed by the legislature removing the county seat to Lawrence, where it has since remained. For a number of years the county offices were located in different business blocks but when the city hall was built in 1869, offices for the use of the county were rented there. In 1903 a fine new court-house was erected on the corner of Massachusetts and Quincy streets at a cost of $85,000. The county jail and sheriff's house are located just back of the court-house on Hancock street. This building was erected at the same time as the court-house at a cost of $22,000. The money for the county buildings was raised by direct tax levy.
That the people of the county were interested in agriculture is demon- strated by the fact that a fair association was started in Douglas county as early as 1868. The race track was laid out where Woodland Park is now located, and the present track is the old one repaired. After a few years this pioneer organization died out and was suc- ceeded by the Western National Fair Association, which had grounds a mile and a half northeast of Lawrence laid out in 1879. It ran for several years and was followed by several organizations which tried to form a Douglas County Fair Association but no great success was achieved until the present fair association was formed in 1905. The race track at Woodland is used and it is expected that within a few years permanent buildings will be erected.
The first railroad in Douglas county was the Union Pacific, con- structed in 1864.' In 1869 the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston was built south from Lawrence into Franklin county, and subsequently the road along the south bank of the Kansas river was constructed. Both of these roads now belong to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe system. The Union Pacific runs along the northern border of the county on the north bank of the Kansas river; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe tra- verses the entire county east and west along the south bank of the river ;
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a branch of the same system runs south from Lawrence, so that the eastern and northern portion of the county have excellent transporta- tion facilities. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific operates its trains over the Union Pacific tracks from Kansas City to Topeka. There are over 55 miles of main track railroad in the county.
Lawrence, the seat of justice, is located on the south bank of the Kansas river, in the north central portion, 40 miles west of Kansas City. The state university is located there and has property valued at over $1,500,000. Haskell Institute, an industrial school maintained by the government of the United States for the Indians, is situated just south of Lawrence. Baldwin, Eudora and Lecompton are incorporated towns of more or less importance.
According to the U. S. census for 1910 the population of Douglas county was 24,724. The assessed value of the property for taxation in the same year was $33,800,845, and the value of all farm products was $3,039,086-of field crops alone, $2,032,119. The five leading crops were as follows: Corn, $1,218,068; hay, $295,228; wheat, $182,355; oats, $142,236; Irish potatoes, $120,232.
Douglas, Stephen Arnold, statesman, United States senator from Illinois at the time the Territory of Kansas was organized in 1854, was born at Brandon, Vt., April 23, 1813. His father, a physician, died in June, 1813, and he lived with his mother on a farm near Brandon until he was fifteen years of age. He then went to Middlebury, Vt., to learn the trade of cabinet-maker, but after eighteen months his health became impaired and he gave up the occupation. After attending the academy at Brandon for one year, he removed with his mother to New York state. In Dec., 1832, he began the study of law. The following year he visited the cities of Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Ky .; St. Louis, Mo., and Jacksonville, Ill., in quest of remunerative employ- ment, and in March, 1834, he began the practice of law at Jacksonville. Two weeks later he made his first political speech, in which he defended the administration of President Jackson. This was the turning point in his career. His courageous support of the president aided him to build up a clientage among Jackson's friends, and when the legislature met he was elected attorney-general, although not yet twenty-two years old. This office he resigned in Dec., 1835, having been elected to the lower branch of the Illinois legislature, in which he was the youngest member. Below the medium height, with a slight physical frame at that time, but ready in debate, he acquired the sobriquet of the "Little Giant." In 1837 he was appointed register of the United States land office at Springfield, Ill .; was defeated for Congress in 1840; became one of the justices of the Illinois supreme court in Feb., 1841; was elected to Congress in 1842 and was twice reëlected; and on March 4, 1847, he became a member of the United States senate, where he served until his death. In 1852 and again in 1856 he received support in the Democratic national conventions for the presidency, and was nominated for that office by the convention in 1860, but a split in the party caused
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his defeat and the election of Abraham Lincoln. While a member of the national house of representatives, he was for two years chairman of the committee on territories, at that time a position of great import- ance on account of the agitation of the slavery question, and after enter- ing the senate he was for eleven years chairman of the same committee in that body. During this period he reported bills for the organization of the territories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washing- ton, Kansas and Nebraska (see Kansas-Nebraska Bill), and for the admission of the states of Iowa, California, Minnesota and Oregon. He opposed the Wilmot proviso and supported the compromise measures of 1850, for which he was denounced as a traitor by the Chicago city council on Oct. 22, 1850. The next evening (Oct. 23) Douglas spoke in the same hall in defense of his attitude, and on that occasion promul- gated the dogma that later became so widely known as the doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty" (q. v.). In the session of 1857-58 he opposed the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, denouncing that instrument on the ground that "it is not the act of the people of Kansas, and does not embody their will." In the session of 1860-61 he was a member of the "committee of thirteen," and did all he could in an honorable way to avert civil war, and up to the time of his death gave an unequivocal support to President Lincoln's administration. Mr. Douglas died at Chicago, Ill., June 3, 1861.
Douglass, an incorporated town of Butler county, is located on the Walnut river and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 24 miles southwest of Eldorado, the county seat. It was settled in 1869 and in 1910 reported a population of 657. Douglass has 2 banks, a weekly newspaper (the Tribune), modern public school buildings, churches of several denominations, an international money order postoffice with three rural routes, express and telegraph offices, telephone connections, general stores, jewelry, drug and hardware houses, an opera house, a good hotel, and its location makes it an important shipping point for a rich section of the Walnut river valley.
Dover, a village of Mission township, Shawnee county, is located on Mission creek about 18 miles southwest of Topeka, the county seat, and 9 miles south of Willard, which is the nearest railroad station. It has a money order postoffice, telephone connections, and is a trading center for that portion of the county. The population in 1910 was 175.
Downer's Station .- (See Fort Downer.)
Downs, an incorporated city of Osborne county, is situated in Ross township on the Solomon river and at the junction of two lines of the Missouri Pacific R. R., 10 miles east of Osborne, the county seat. The city owes its origin to the construction of the Central Branch R. R., . which was completed to this point in 1879. Downs was platted by John A. Beal and A. Z. Blunt in Aug., 1879, and the following Decem- ber the town was incorporated with the following officers: Mayor, J. B. Craney ; clerk, J. G. Poole; councilmen, John Parish, O. Denton, L. F. Pennington, J. E. Kentzel and G. W. Howell. The railroad com-
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pany made Downs a division point and erected a roundhouse and repair shop, which gave the place an impetus. On Feb. 9, 1880, Thomas G. Nicklin issued the first number of the Downs Times, and in Aug., 1880, bonds were voted for the erection of a modern school building. Churches and lodges of various fraternal orders were established, and the growth of Downs has been steady and substantial from the start.
In 1910 Downs reported a population of 1,427, a gain of 489 during the preceding ten years. The city is equipped with electric lights, a fire department, waterworks, well kept streets, etc. It has 2 banks, an international money order postoffice with three rural routes, express and telegraph service, a telephone exchange, a public library, an opera house, 2 weekly newspapers (the Times and the News), an ice and cold storage plant, flour mills, grain elevators, brick and tile works, the railroad machine shops, good mercantile establishments, and the pro- fessions are well represented.
Doy, John, Rescue of .- In 1859 Dr. John Doy, a free-state man, was arrested near Lawrence, and carried to St. Joseph, Mo .. where he was tried upon the charge of abducting slaves from that state. He was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for five years. Doy's friends all knew that the charges were false, as he had not been in Missouri for some time prior to the escape of the slaves, and Maj. James B. Abbott organized a party of ten men to rescue the doctor from the jail at St. Joseph. The rescuing party consisted of James B. Abbott, Silas Soule, Joseph Gardiner, Charles Doy, two men named Lennox and Hayes, Thomas Simmons, Joshua A. Pike, John E. Stewart and S. J. Willis. They assembled at Lawrence and from there by dif- ferent routes, in order to avoid attention, went quietly to Elwood, a town opposite St. Joseph, where they arranged a plan of action. As all the men were total strangers in Elwood and St. Joseph they pro- ceeded with great caution. The only man who knew of their mission was Dr. Grant, the editor of the free-state paper, who proved a valu- able friend and rendered assistance. When mingling with the people of the two towns some of the men of the rescuing party represented themselves as miners, others as men from the east on their way to the mines and when meeting each other acted as strangers.
Several plans of rescue were discussed, and finally they determined to break into the jail by force. It was necessary to inform the prisoner of this plan and Silas Soule represented himself as coming from Doy's wife. He was admitted to the jail and delivered his message. With him Soule carried a note saying, "tonight at twelve o'clock," wrapped with a piece of twine and by diverting the attention of the jailer man- aged to throw this behind him upon the floor of Doy's cell. That night a small stone attached to the string hanging from Doy's window apprised the party that he was ready. Soule reported that it would take at least three hours to break into the jail, showing that such a plan was quite impractical; so the men decided to take a prisoner to jail upon the charge of horse stealing. The day was one of driving rain.
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but the men familiarized themselves with the streets and the different routes to the river where two boats had been secured, for the jail was in the heart of the town. At Io o'clock p. m. Maj. Abbott assigned the men their positions and told each what he was to do. Simmons was chosen for the thief. His wrists were apparently bound by heavy thongs of buffalo hide, but in the hollow of his right hand, attached to the thong, he held a leaden egg, which was an excellent weapon in the hands of such a powerful man and under the desperate circum- stances he would be placed during the rescue., Gardiner, a man six feet and four inches in height and proportionately powerful, and Willis, almost as strong, led the thief to the jail entrance, where they rapped. The jailer asked what was the matter and upon receiving a reply that the men had a horse thief whom they had pursued all day and captured, he said that he would be down. The jailer asked Gardiner and Willis if they had a warrant for the arrest of the thief, and upon learning that they did not, said he disliked putting Simmons in jail, but that Sim- mons looked like a thief and he would risk.it.
The three men entered with the jailer, and Abbott slipped into the lower room to hear what followed as well as to be ready to render assistance. The jailer unlocked the door of the cell, but Simmons refused to enter, saying: "I won't go in there among niggers," a signal previously agreed upon. The jailer said the negroes were on the floor below and opened the door where Doy was confined. Gardiner inquired where the negro abductor was and the jailer replied, "Here he is." The three men then told the jailer they had come for the pur- pose of taking Doy with them. The jailer realized the situation but too late to close the door, being covered by the revolvers of Gardiner and Willis. He told the rescuers that if Doy was left in the jail he would get another trial, while if they carried him off he would be liable to seizure at any time. The decision was left to Doy, who said: "I will go with my friends."
Other prisoners attempted to avail themselves of the opportunity to get out, but were driven back by the Kansas men, who said that they had not come to release thieves and murderers but to free an innocent man. The rescuing party left the jail just as the theater let out. They mingled with the crowd on the street, in order to avoid attention from the police, and on reaching the river divided into two parties to reach their boats. Doy's party was even followed and watched by two police- men as they bailed out their boat. They shoved off into the stream, soon crossed the Missouri to the Kansas side, where friends met them with teams and a guide, and they were soon on their way to safety. The next night was spent at Grasshopper Falls, and on the afternoon of the second day they reached home, where friends had already learned of the success of the expedition in the St. Joseph newspapers, but the men of the party were not known. They had been followed by a posse from St. Joseph and one of the scouts overtook them, but on nearing Lawrence the Missourians turned back and the eleven men reached
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their destination without further pursuit. This was regarded as one of the bravest and most daring exploits of the free-state men of the territory.
Draft of 1864 .- Although Kansas had furnished more than her quota of men under the calls for volunteers during the early years of the war, the provost marshal general, Brig .- Gen. James B. Fry, on Dec. 19, 1864, ordered a draft on the state for more troops. While the draft was in progress, Gov. Crawford was inaugurated in Jan., 1865. During the session of the legislature he acquainted himself with actual conditions, having the adjutant-general of the state prepare a complete list of all enlistments, reenlistments, etc., and on March 2, 1865, the day follow- ing the adjournment of the legislature, the governor set out for Wash- ington, D. C., to convince the national authorities that the draft was unjust and not warranted by the actual state of affairs. After encoun- tering a number of obstacles, he succeeded in obtaining credit for 3,039 men more than were shown on the state's muster rolls at Washington, thus placing the state 2,000 men in excess of all calls and demands.
Prior to that action on the part of the governor, a number of men had been drafted and some had been assigned to duty in the field. The secretary of war refused to discharge these men, offering as an excuse for his refusal the fact that other states were making similar claims. Gov. Crawford then went to Gen. Fry, who ordered the draft suspended. The adjutant-general's report, 1861-65, gives three lists of drafted men. On page 646. vol. I, are the names of 34 men unassigned to companies ; on page 989, same volume, are the names of 35 men assigned to new Company C, Tenth Kansas infantry ; and on page 993 are the names of 50 men assigned to new Company D of the same regiment. The Tenth Kansas was at that time in Gen. Canby's command in the Red river country.
Upon Gov. Crawford's return to Kansas, he learned that some of the drafted men were still held at Fort Leavenworth, and on April II tele- graphed to Gen. Fry asking their release. An order to that effect was received on the 15th and those conscripts at the fort were discharged from further service. In June the governor made another trip to Wash- ington and obtained an order for the discharge of the men under Gen. Canby, but the war was already ended and they were mustered out with the regiment.
The most charitable view that can be taken of the draft on Kansas is that in the work of raising, organizing and equipping the great Union army errors occurred in the records, causing a misunderstanding as to the actual number of men furnished by the state. But the fact remains that the draft was unmerited and calculated to place the state in a false light. The men of Kansas answered every call, and once mustered into service they disharged their duties with credit to themselves and honor to the state.
Dred Scott Decision .- On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, of the United States supreme court, handed down an opinion
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.
which perhaps occasioned more comment from the press and more excitement among the people than any other decision ever rendered by that court. The events leading up to the decision had their beginning more than twenty years before. Dr. Emerson, a resident of Missouri, was appointed surgeon at the military post at Rock Island, Ill., in 1834, and upon assuming his duties there took with him a negro slave named Dred Scott. The next year the doctor was assigned to duty at Fort Snelling, Minn., whither Scott accompanied him. Not long after his arrival at Fort Snelling, Dr. Emerson bought a negro girl named Harriet, who subsequently became the wife of Scott. A child was born to the couple at Fort Snelling, and in 1838 Dr. Emerson returned to Missouri, taking the colored family-father, mother and child-along with him. A few years later Dr. Emerson died, and in 1848 Scott, who in the meantime had been sold to a man named Sand- ford, brought suit in the circuit court of St. Louis county, Mo., to estab- lish his freedom.
In filing this suit, Scott's contention was that the Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in Illinois; that the Missouri Compromise express !: prohibited it in that part of the Louisiana purchase north of the line of 36° 30', and that his residence at Rock Island and Fort Snelling annuled all rights of ownership which his master might have had prior to the removal into free territory. The circuit court decided in his favor, but an appeal was taken to the Missouri supreme court, which in 1852 ruled against him, on the ground that his return to Missouri, without resistance or objection on his part, restored to his master any right of ownership which might have been forfeited by the temporary resi- dence in territory declared free by the acts cited. The case was then taken to the United States circuit court, where in 1854 the state supreme court was sustained, though it was admitted that Scott was a citizen and could be a party to an action in the Federal courts.
As soon as this decision was rendered, several prominent anti-slavery lawyers offered to carry the case through the United States supreme court, without charging Scott any fees for their services, and the result was the decision of Mr. Taney, which was concurred in by the other members of the supreme bench except Justices Curtis and McLean. The first question to be decided was that of citizenship. In this part of his opinion the chief justice said: "It is difficult, at this day, to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the constitu- tion was framed and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior race, and altogether unfit to associate with the white races, either in social or political relations ; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."
(I-35)
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Having thus elaborately settled the question of citizenship adversely to Dred Scott and all his race, Judge Taney next proceeded to efface the Missouri Compromise as follows: "It is the opinion of the court, that the act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the constitution, and is therefore void." And by referring to the case of Strader et al. vs. Graham, where a slave had been taken from Kentucky to Ohio and returned, he disposed of the Ordinance of 1787 in a similar way.
The immediate effect was that the slaveholders of the South found reasons for rejoicing in the decision of the court in thus declaring unconstitutional the laws prohibiting slavery within certain bounds ; that slaves, being property, were entitled to protection under the con- stitution; and that Congress had no power to enact laws prohibiting the slave holder from taking his chattels anywhere he pleased. This part of the opinion was regarded by many of the leading attorneys of the country as extra-judicial-a sort of obiter dictum-and without direct bearing on the case at issue, but it gave encouragement to the slave power to know that a majority of the members of the supreme court held such views.
Then came the reaction. Goldwin Smith says: "By this presenta- tion of the iniquity, naked and in its most repulsive form, Taney did no small harm to the party which he intended to aid. It has been said that slavery plucked its ruin on its own head by its aggressive violence. It could not help showing its native temper, nor could it help feeding its hunger of land, insisting on the restoration of its run- aways, or demanding a foreign policy such as would fend off the approach of emancipation. But Taney's judgment was a gratuitous aggression and an insult to humanity at the same time, for which, sup- posing the Southern leaders inspired it, they paid dear. If the slave was mere property, his owner might be entitled to take him anywhere, and thus slavery might be made national. The boast of a daring partisan of slavery might be fulfilled, that the day would come when men might be bought and sold in Boston as freely as any other goods. The issue, which all politicians had striven to keep out of sight, was presented in its most startling and shocking form."
For a moment the abolitionists of the North were paralyzed. Then they seized with avidity upon the expression, "The negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect," and made it their slogan. Although this expression had been used by Mr. Taney in the nature of a quotation, merely to show the social status of the black race dur- ing the century preceding the founding of the American republic, it was part of the decision of the court, and there is little room for doubt that the use of this "war cry" had much to do with crystallizing the anti-slavery sentiment in the Northern states.
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