USA > Kansas > Kansas : the prelude to the war for the union > Part 13
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In addition to the constitutional convention an event of no secondary importance would take place in the autumn. That event was the elec- tion of a new territorial legislature, preparations for which filled the summer with tumult. The law and order gentry, who now called themselves " National Democrats," gathered at Lecompton early in July, to make nominations and lay plans for the campaign. Forty-three delegates were in attendance, who put forth a series of moderate resolutions compared with the highly seasoned viands which the border palate heretofore de- manded. Some fire-eater presented a resolution in convention, asking Congress to receive the ter- ritory into the Union under the forthcoming con- stitution, whether the people would be allowed to vote upon it or not ; but the resolution was effect- ually disposed of by a vote of forty-two in opposi- tion to one in the affirmative. Governor Walker, who seldom declined invitations to make a speech, delivered an address that was favorably received.
In free-state quarters the question now began to be agitated, whether the policy of non-partici- pation in territorial elections did not need revis-
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ing. Governor Walker's vehement pledges of fair play produced an impression. The mischief of a vicious census could not be completely undone, yet with a square-dealing executive success was possible in the face of it. Henry Wilson, of Mas- sachusetts, visited the territory for the purpose of urging upon free-state men the imperative ne- cessity of their making an effort to capture the legislature, and offered to raise funds among East- ern friends to meet the campaign expenses. In these views he was heartily supported by Gov- ernor Robinson, who had always been ready to meet the pro-slavery party at the polls whenever an honest count of ballots could be assured.
A series of conventions now began which ri- valed in noise and frequency the series of 1855. Nearly two hundred delegates, representing the whole territory, assembled at Topeka July 15th. Though the special business of this gathering was to nominate certain state government officers, that did not preclude general discussions and the adop- tion of resolutions which freely abused the "bo- gus " legislature, authorized Lane to put the mili- tia on a war-footing, and called another convention at Grasshopper Falls to settle the question of vot- ing or not voting.
August 26th the free-state people met at Grass- hopper Falls. There the unanimity which pre- vailed at Topeka two months before gave way. A minority of indignant, impracticable radicals,
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like Redpath and Conway, denounced the proposi- tion to contest the election for members of the ter- ritorial legislature as "a back-down in principle and unpromising in practical results." The ig- nominies of stultification they set forth in dark, repulsive colors, but to no purpose, as the con- vention went unanimously and demonstratively against them. It was the judgment of the con- vention that the free-state party should make an attempt to get possession of the legislature. On the point of consistency, little can be said in de- fense of this conclusion. But the convention agreed with Governor Robinson that "men who are too conscientious and too honorable to change their tactics with a change of circumstances are too conscientious for politics."
The convention did not regard its work com- plete without the preparation of an address to the people. It confided this duty to a committee of fourteen, which, in spite of its own bulk that ought to have been reassuring, surveyed the fu- ture with the bilious eyes of a Jeremiah. " We frankly avow ourselves," said the committee, " not sanguine of success." Voters disfranchised in many counties ; threats of invasion from Mis- souri ; distrust of Governor Walker ; " a hellish system of districting and apportionment; " elec- tion judges mostly " border ruffians of the deepest dye " - such were some of the calamities that oppressed the fourteen and saddened their vision.
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Prophets of evil misread the signs of the times. The 5th of October, on which members of the ter- ritorial legislature were elected, proved to be a red-letter day for freedom in Kansas. Probably the fact that federal troops were sent into no less than fourteen precincts, with orders to prevent all illegal voting, discouraged invasions from Missouri. The election was unprolific in tumults. Even the redoubtable town of Kickapoo did not get beyond a rather prosy brawl. At two points extensive frauds were attempted. McGee County was then an Indian reservation, and therefore not open to settlement. It contained a very sparse white pop- ulation. At the June election only fourteen votes were cast. Yet in October twelve hundred and sixty - six pro-slavery ballots purported to have been polled there. The town of Oxford, Johnson County, made a still more flagrant showing. This paltry hamlet " of six houses, including stores," reported sixteen hundred and twenty-eight votes.
The Oxford and McGee returns brought on a crisis. If they should be counted, the legislature would remain pro-slavery; if they should be re- jected, it would pass into control of the opposition. A little inspection showed them to be clumsily executed forgeries. October 19th Walker and Stanton issued a proclamation throwing out the Oxford returns on the ground of technical infor- malities, and in three days those from McGee fared in the same way.
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This action made a tempest among the Na- tional Democrats. On the 23d they held an in- dignation meeting at Lecompton, and gave vent to their sentiments in seventeen furious but idle resolutions. Then Judge Cato came to the res- cue with a mandamus, ordering the governor and secretary to issue certificates of election to the pro-slavery candidates from Douglas and Johnson counties ; but the judge had no better success than the mass-meeting. Other resources failing, Sheriff Jones, who was one of the excluded candi- dates, attempted to get his credentials by violence. Striding into Stanton's office with a companion, he demanded that the papers should be at once filled out ; but he found the secretary could not be intimidated. This gross outrage stirred up ex- citement. On the evening of the succeeding day a company of mounted free-state men called upon Stanton, and assured him that if it would be a convenience to have Jones put out of the way, and if the authorities would wink at the affair, he should be strung up before morning. Their services were politely declined. Jones and his confederates escaped with a light and whimsical penalty. The affair threw the excitable governor into a great rage. He was sick at the time, and could do nothing. On recovering, he made a dem- onstration upon what he called the enemy. Arm- ing himself with a small "pepper-box " pistol, he began a tour of objurgation. " Come along,'
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he said to Stanton, "let us go to see the Bengal tigers." And this puny incarnation of a tremen- dous choler - lapse of time inflaming rather than cooling his passion - visited the dens and drink- ing saloons of Lecompton, and denounced their inmates with a savage energy that Timon of Athens could not have outdone. The governor returned from his circumnavigation of invective, happy in the thought that for once the " Bengal tigers " had heard themselves described in faithful and unmistakable English.
The proclamations of October 19th and 22d dashed all schemes of building a victorious ad- ministration party out of existing political or- ganizations. The animosities, to which they im- parted large and tempestuous vitality, defeated the latest, craftiest strategy of the administration. These consequences, which wrote failure in large letters across their personal and special mission to Kansas, were not hidden from Walker and Stanton. They issued the crucial proclamations, which conceded to the free-state party nine of the thirteen councilmen and twenty-four of the thirty-nine representatives, with the keenest ap- preciation of all they implied-issued them in honorable fulfillment of public pledges that the polls should be protected.
The pro-slavery party made one more desperate effort to stay their foundering fortunes. Only in the direction of the constitutional convention,
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of which they had absolute control, were there signs of promise. That body, representing a small minority of actual voters in the territory, gath- ered at Lecompton September 7th. Forty-four members in a total of sixty responded to their names. John Calhoun, surveyor general of the territory, was elected president, with the usual complement of subordinate officials, including a chaplain. Some members of the convention re- garded the employment of a man to pray foolish, but a majority believed it "would have a good effect on the country," however bootless it might be locally. The convention remained in session four days, which were principally devoted to or- ganization, and then adjourned until October 19th. The special motive for delay was the approach- ing election for members of the legislature, the issne of which would, in large measure, mould its policy.
Lecompton was in an uproar October 19th. Thither on that day flocked hundreds of free-state men, inspired by the thought that " nothing is so difficult for a scoundrel to do as to meet the clear, honest gaze of the man whom he is trying to wrong." So they thronged Lecompton to look into the eyes of members of the convention. What they might have done in addition to this personal scrutiny, had not the appearance of the Walker-Stanton proclamation sweetened their tem- per, is not entirely certain.
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The demonstration impressed the convention deeply. For three days in succession no quorum appeared; but on the fourth day a sufficient num- ber of absentees for the transaction of business was secured. The convention found itself tangled in the meshes of a very perplexing task. It had essayed to saddle a pro-slavery constitution upon a community overwhelmingly anti-slavery. The constitution which it made was well enough, ex- cept in the matter of slavery, in regard to which it took extreme ground. " The right of prop- erty," it announced, "is before and higher than any constitutional sanction, and the right of the owner of a slave to such slave and its increase is the same and as inviolable as the right of any property whatever." This doctrine, as Mr. Douglas said, would deprive the State of all authority to abolish or prohibit slavery.
But it was plain as a pike-staff that the people would make short work of the new constitution if they should be allowed to vote upon it. In this unhappy situation, it only remained to devise some make-shift in the place of unqualified submission, or abandon the fight. A part of the convention, under the lead of Judge Rush Elmore, advocated full submission, let the result be what it might, but were voted down. Then came a compro- mise. The entire constitution should not go before the people, but only the slavery article. Ballots might be cast indorsed " Constitution witlı slav-
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ery " or " Constitution with no slavery." Should the first proposition carry, slavery with restricted emancipation possibilities would be definitely planted in the State. If the second proposition prevailed, then "slavery shall no longer exist in the State of Kansas, except that the right of prop- erty in slaves now in this territory shall in no manner be interfered with." Free-state men com- monly interpreted this qualification of the no-slav- ery alternative as utterly foreclosing all hope of success on their part. A no-slavery victory must not disturb the slavery which had already secured a foothold in the commonwealth. The alternative presented " was like submitting to the ancient test of witchcraft, where if the accused, upon being thrown into deep water, floated he was adjudged guilty, taken out, and hanged ; but if he sunk and was drowned he was adjudged not guilty - the choice between the verdicts being quite immate- rial." When legitimately interpreted, however, the proviso would probably yield no such sense as free-state exegesis found in it. This point was pretty conclusively established by Senator Bay- ard, who contended that the right of property vested in existing slaves, and not in their unborn children. That construction, he maintained, was forced by the general intent and scope of the declaration, " Slavery shall no longer exist in the State of Kansas."
The compromise divided the convention, in
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which there was a strong faction that protested against every sort of submission. " This is a grand humbug," said a furious Riley County dele- gate, echoing free-state expositions of the no-slav- ery alternative. " It is not fair. ... I tell you this scheme of swindling submission will be the blackest page in your history, and we will never hear the end of it. We won't make much capital out of it, I tell you. Those Black Republicans will get to the bottom of it so quick that you 'll never cease to hear from this dodge. . . . I'm op- posed to submission. I tell you these Republicans will vote down both of them. . . . The only con- sistent, honest, straightforward way is to make our constitution and send it on to Congress. I believe Congress will admit us. If it will not, then let our defeat lie at its door. This humbug- ging, dodging way I do not believe in. I want to be open and above board." Another Riley County implacable declaimed in the same strain. He said the compromise carried " falsehood on its face in letters of brass. ... It is a lie, cheat, and swindle. I'm a pro-slavery man. I want to make Kansas a slave state. . . . The trick was concocted by free-state Democrats. If they pass this majority report they will make Kansas not only a free but a Republican state. . . . The South has reached a crisis in her fortunes and must have Kansas. Make Kansas a slave state and the abolition ele- ment will flee out of it."
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The compromise was carried after a stubborn fight, and the convention dissolved November 7th. John Calhoun issued proclamations designating December 21st as the day for voting on the slav- ery article, and January 4th, 1858, for election of officers under the new constitution. The conven- tion, contemptuously ignoring Governor Walker, authorized its president to take such measures as might be necessary to carry its purposes into effect.
The sequel at Lecompton again stirred the em- bers. Free-state men had taken comparatively little interest in the convention during its earlier stages, as they intended to dispatch at the polls any constitution that might be put together. Now, to their astonishment, they found that only a frag- ment of it would be submitted, and to that frag- ment they applied the fallacious witch-test con- struction. The enemy were manœuvring to turn their flank and convert the October victory into a barren triumph. Mass-meetings gathered here and there in which the "robber " convention was cursed in copious Thersitean dialect. Radicals demanded that now, after so many empty threats, the state government should be made something more than a name. Among these anti-Lecompton gatherings, the largest and most important met at Lawrence on the 2d of December. The one hundred and thirty delegates in attendance in- cluded nearly all the prominent free-state leaders.
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Governor Robinson presided. Impassioned ha- rangues evoked a vast amount of enthusiasm. Resolutions were adopted alive with hostility to the new constitution: "Appealing to the God of Justice and Humanity, we do solemnly enter into league and covenant with each other that we will never, under any circumstances, permit the said constitution, so framed and not submitted, to be the organic law for the State of Kansas, but do pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor in ceaseless hostility to the same."
Amidst the general confusion and casting about somebody bethought himself of the recently captured and fumigated legislature as a possible source of deliverance, and suggested that it should be called together. What it could accomplish was uncertain, but it would not, at all events, fail to make itself useful. Governor Walker had set out in chagrin for Washington - his astute schemes overset, execrated by pro - slavery men, deserted by the administration. His departure shifted all executive responsibility upon Secretary Stanton, who was sorely beset on all sides to con- vene the legislature. That step he finally took, though foreseeing that it would be followed by his dismissal from office, of which he received for- mal notification December 16th.
The territorial legislature, " dipped into the tur- bid waters of Black Republicanism " and made clean, assembled at Lecompton December 7th.
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There was a roistering free- state jubilee that day in the old pro-slavery stronghold. From all parts of the territory came throngs of people to participate in the festivities, which comprised speeches, resolutions, groans for the "Lecompton swindle," and cheers for the Topeka constitution. So powerful were outside attractions that they thinned the legislature out of a quorum. It could do nothing until the hurrahing pother subsided and the rout dispersed. As a defense against pro- slavery movements, the legislature very sensibly ordered an unreserved submission of the consti- tution to the people on the 4th of January. A third ballot was added to those already author. ized, indorsed " Against the constitution formed at Lecompton."
The Lawrence mass-meeting of December 2d pronounced the elections which the Lecompton convention ordered to be unworthy of free-state countenance. In regard to the election of De- cember 21st, when only pro-slavery voters went to the polls, the wisdom of its sentence was unques- tioned. But the January matter was not so clear. An impression got abroad that the mass-meeting had blundered ; that it would be prudent-an anchor cast to the windward - to furnish the Lecompton constitution with an equipment of free-state officials as a precaution against possible contingencies. Therefore the convention was re- assembled on the 23d of December to review in
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part its proceedings. At this later session two parties appeared. One faction defended and the other combated the proposition to put a state ticket in the field. To take possession of a pos- sible state government, not for purposes of estab- lishing but of destroying it, it was urged, was a simple dictate of prudence. The radicals rang changes upon the inconsistency of such a course for free-state men, after calling the "Eumenides and all the heavenly brood " to witness that they would never recognize the "Lecompton swindle " in any shape, and they carried the day.
The defeated party immediately resolved itself into " a bolter's convention," named a full ticket of state officers, and elected them. Against the Lecompton constitution, for which anti-slavery of- ficers were provided, ten thousand two hundred and twenty-six votes were polled. That vote, though it did not escape irregularities of form, showed incontrovertibly the drift of public senti- ment in the territory.
In the mean time a new acting-governor had appeared in the territory - General John W. Denver, a Virginian and a lawyer, well reputed for successful service in the Mexican war and in California. At the time of his appointment he held the office of Indian Commissioner, was visit- ing Kansas, and domiciled with Secretary Stanton. " I had been repeatedly solicited," said Denver, "to take the position, but I did not want it. I
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used to live on the border before Kansas was thrown open to settlement. I chummed with Senator Atchison at Platte City, and knew per- sonally all the leading men of western Missouri. I was afraid, if I accepted the post, that they might ask of me what I should not wish to do." The more conservative free-state sentiment Den- ver conciliated at the beginning of his term of office, by announcing that he should carry out in good faith the policy of his predecessor.
The elections appointed by the Lecompton con- stitutional convention had a long appendix of in- vestigations, which made havoc with the original returns. A legislative committee examined them, and reported that the alleged vote December 21st, of six thousand two hundred and twenty-six for the constitution with slavery, contained twenty- seven hundred and twenty fraudulent ballots, which were cast mostly at Kickapoo, Delaware Crossing, and Oxford. In the contest for state officers, January 4th, the number of fraudulent ballots fell off to twenty-four hundred and fifty- eight in a pro-slavery vote for governor of six thousand five hundred and forty-five.
A curious history attaches to these election re- turns. The legislative investigating committee were anxious to secure them. John Calhoun, surveyor general and president of the constitu- tional convention, taking alarm at the situation, prudently left the territory. The coveted ballots
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were supposed to be in the hands of L. A. Mc- Lean, his chief clerk, who appeared before the committee and testified that he had forwarded them to Calhoun. February 1st a messenger reached the cabin of Captain Samuel Walker, then sheriff of Douglas County, bringing informa- tion from General William Brindle that the re- turns were secreted under a wood-pile near Mc- Lean's office. Arming himself with a warrant which instructed him to " diligently search for the said goods and chattels," Walker appeared in Lecompton the next morning and apprised Mc- Lean of his business. " You are welcome to search," he responded. " I have sent the returns to Calhoun. They are not here." "I think you are mistaken," said the sheriff. "I know where they are." " Where ?" "Under the wood-pile." " I forbid you to search," McLean rejoined, and began some warlike demonstrations, which were speedily quelled. Walker dug up the returns, con- cealed in a candle-box, and carried them to Law- rence. Naturally the investigating committee de- cided to recall Chief Clerk McLean, who con- sulted Sheriff Jones as to whether he should obey the subpoena. " I told him to come down and face the music ; he said he was going to Missouri ; I saw him start toward the river . . .; I think he got a mule from some one on the road."
President Buchanan, retreating from his pledges to Governor Walker in obedience to Southern dic-
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tation, transmitted, February 2d, the Lecompton constitution to Congress, accompanied by a special message, in which he urged that Kansas should be speedily admitted to the Union, though the in- strument had not been fully submitted to the peo- ple. Of the actual condition of Kansas he was not ignorant. Soon after his arrival in the terri- tory Governor Denver forwarded to Washington by special messenger a long communication fully setting forth the state of affairs, and urgently counseling the president not to present the Le- compton constitution to Congress at all, but to ad- vocate the passage of an enabling act and let the people make a fresh start. Mr. Buchanan was impressed by the letter. He said " that he was very sorry that he had not had the information sooner, because he had prepared his message in relation to the Lecompton constitution, and had shown it to several senators, and could not with- draw it."
When the Lecompton constitution reached Washington, the general reputation of Kansas in pro-slavery circles was greatly depressed. "The whole history of Kansas is a disgusting one from be- ginning to end," said Senator Hammond, of South Carolina. "I have avoided reading it as much as I could." Senator Biggs, of North Carolina, confessed to "misgivings whether the people of Kansas are of that character from which we may hope for an enlightened self-government." Repre-
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sentative Anderson, of Missouri, fell little behind the North Carolinian in unfriendliness of opinion : " No part of our Union has ever before been set- tled by such an ungovernable, reckless people." Mr. Atkins, representative from Tennessee, de- scribed free-state immigrants as " struggling hordes of hired mercenaries, carrying murder, rapine, and conflagration in their train." But Senator Alfred Iverson topped all competitors in screechy, fish- wife violence of phrase ; "Why, sir, if you could rake the infernal regions from the centre to the circumference and from the surface to the bot- tom, you could not fish up such a mass of infa- mous corruption as exists in some portions of Kan- sas ! " An estimate of the Kansas migration, wholly antipodal and dissenting, may be found in the "Christian Examiner " for July, 1855. " It was reserved," says the writer, " to the pres- ent age, and to the present period, to afford the sublime spectacle of an extensive migration in vindication of a principle. . .. Neither pressure from without, nor the beckonings of ambition, nor the monitions of avarice, control the great Kansas migration. . . . In the unselfishness of the object lies its claim ... to the highest place in the his- tory of migrations ! "
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