USA > Kansas > Kansas : the prelude to the war for the union > Part 15
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Finally, Governor Denver, accompanied by Gov- ernor Robinson, made a tour through the South- east, with a view to composing, by personal intervention, the difficulties which had so long distracted it. They visited different points and were kindly received. On the 14th of June the
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trip reached a sort of climax at Fort Scott, where there was a large mass-meeting and full service of speeches. Governor Denver made a conciliatory address. "I shall treat actual settlers," he said, " without regard to former differences. I do not propose to dig up or review the past. Both par- ties, I believe, have done wrong and are worthy of censure, but I shall let all that go. My mis- sion is to secure peace for the future." The governor suggested the election of new county officers, the patrolling of the border by federal troops, delay in the execution of old writs until they should pass the ordeal of competent judicial tribunals, and the dispersion of all guerrilla bands. These measures received general approval, and introduced a few weeks of comparative repose.
Shortly after Governor Denver's peace-making tour Old John Brown, absent for some months, reappeared in Kansas - an untranquilizing event. Treachery on the part of a confidant led to post- ponement of the contemplated Virginia campaign, and his return was a feint to throw the public off the scent. During his absence in the East Brown was able, with the assistance of friends, to put his family, which remained at North Elba, New York, on a more comfortable footing than had been their fortune.
" For one thousand dollars cash," he wrote Mr. Law- rence from New Haven, Conn., March 19th, 1857, " I am offered an improved piece of land, which, . . . might
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enable my family, consisting of a wife and five minor children (the youngest not yet three years old), to pro- cure a subsistence should I never return to them ; my wife being a good economist and a real old-fashioned business woman. She has gone through the two past winters in our open, cold house ; unfinished outside and not plastered. . . . I have never hinted to any one else that I thought of asking for any help to provide in any such way for my family. ... If you feel at all inclined to encourage me in the measure I have proposed I shall be grateful to get a line from you. . . . Is my appeal right?"
John Brown's final visit to Kansas lasted about six months. That interval he spent mainly in the Southeast. On his way thither he stopped in Lawrence and had a talk with Governor Robin- son - " You have succeeded," he said, " in what you undertook. You aimed to make of Kansas a free state, and your plans were skillfully laid for that purpose. But I had another object in view. I meant to strike a blow at slavery."
In the Southeast Brown attempted nothing of importance, except an expedition across the Mis- souri line in December, which resulted in the de- struction of considerable property, the liberation of eleven slaves, and the death of a slave-owner. The raid caused great excitement, especially in Missouri, and resulted in legislative action, which brought the territorial jayhawking era substanti- ally to a close. During the autumn Governor
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Stewart, of Missouri, opened correspondence with Governor Denver and with President Buchanan in regard to the troubles. He informed Denver that it might be "necessary to station an armed force along the border, in Missouri, for purposes of protection." Governor Denver promised to leave nothing undone to suppress the outrages, but hoped that it might not be necessary for Mis- souri to put an armed force into the field. August 9th Governor Stewart wrote President Buchanan that he had ordered a body of militia into Cass and Bates counties, because they " have been sub- jected to the repeated depredations of one or more marauding parties from the territory of Kansas, in consequence of which there is no security for either life or property. Citizens of Missouri have been driven from their homes, their property taken or destroyed, and their farms laid waste; and without the protection of an armed force our citizens have not dared to return to their homes to reside." These measures allayed the disorders, and there was no further serious trouble until Brown's raid. January 6th, 1859, Governor Stew- art sent a message to the Missouri legislature, asking that steps be taken for redressing the outrage. He also transmitted memorials from thirty-five citizens of Bates and Vernon counties to the effect that there is " a regularly organized band of thieves, robbers, and midnight assassins . . upon the western border of our county," beg-
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ging him "to take into consideration the accom- panying affidavits of citizens . .. who have been robbed and outraged at their homes by a band of lawless men from the territory of Kansas, sup- posed to be headed by the notorious Brown and Montgomery; and also the terrible situation of the family of the late and lamented David Cruise, who has been foully murdered in the bosom of his family by these desperadoes." A bill was in- troduced into the state senate authorizing the em- ployment of a military force to patrol the border, but referred to the committee on federal relations, who made a singularly dispassionate and sensible report covering the whole subject of border dif- ficulties.
" We doubt not," said the committee, "that at least ninety-nine out of every hundred of the citizens of Kan- sas deplore the events under consideration. . . . The people of Kansas and Missouri are most intimately con- nected, not only by geographical lines, but by the tender cords of kindred. We are the same people, impelled by the same interest, and bound for the same manifest destiny. . . Even if this difficulty be winked at by Kansas . . we would earnestly recommend the trial of every honorable means of reconciliation before a re- sort to extreme measures. We would act with great caution and consideration. . . . If . .. an army be sta- tioned along the line of our frontier for the avowed pur- pose of protecting our border from incursions from a neighboring territory, it will do a greater injury to the
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cause of liberal principles and confederated government than almost any other conceivable calamity. . .. This bill ... provides that these troops are to be raised alone from the counties on the border ; taken from the midst of a people already exasperated by the murder and rob- bing of their kindred and neighbors. Companies formed out of such material would be hard to restrain from acts of summary punishment, should any of these despera- does fall into their hands ; and it would likewise be diffi- cult to teach such troops the line of our jurisdiction, and in the excitement of inflicting a merited punishment on some offender it would be hard for them to compre- hend the deplorable evils attending an armed invasion of a sister territory by the militia of a state." "[We] are not insensible of the obligations of the state to pro- tect all her citizens . . . [but] we are most unwilling that the state should run wild in the remedies applied. We have evidence of the most satisfactory character that outrages almost without a parallel in America, at least, have been perpetrated upon the persons and prop- erty of unoffending citizens of Bates and Vernon coun- ties - their houses plundered and then burned - their negroes kidnapped in droves - citizens wounded and murdered in cold blood."
The committee did not recommend the use of a military force to disperse the outlaws " that have congregated in the southern portion of the terri- tory of Kansas for the last two years." They advise that rewards should be offered for the ar- rest of jayhawking leaders, and that circuit judges should hold special terms in the disturbed districts
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at which grievances might be investigated and re- dressed - rational suggestions, smoking with far less passion than might have been anticipated, which the legislature wisely adopted. Governor Stewart put a price of three thousand dollars on Old John Brown's head, but to no purpose. He successfully piloted the eleven liberated bondmen northward, and saw Kansas no more.
During the summer of 1859 better days fairly began in the lawless, turbulent, freebooting South- east. It could not be expected that long-estab- lished guerrilla habits would instantly lose their charm and power. In spite of all repressive in- fluences - federal, territorial, Missourian - their decline was gradual. While it may be rash to speak with confidence on a matter where so much confusion, blur, and conflict of testimony still ex- ists, yet the conclusion seems to be forced that in comparison with the Missourians, whose sins are black enough, jayhawkers, were the superior dev- ils. But in 1859 out of subsiding anarchy there rose a crude, rudimental order. At all events, the people so far believed in the actual establish- ment of peace that they devoted the 4th of July to its celebration. Ancient enemies then took vows of amity at Fort Scott, and promised to raze out of memory all belligerent records and begin anew.
CHAPTER XII.
CLOSE OF THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD.
IN the town of Lawrence, on the eighth day of January, 1858, there was an unwonted spectacle. The territorial legislature had repaired thither from Lecompton and the state legislature from Topeka, that these bodies, once divided by deadly feuds, might freely and amicably confer together on matters of common interest. A revival of the transfusion project, ineffectually broached during the administration of Governor Geary, was the business which called for these unusual facilities of intercourse. The state legislature still dreamed of some cross-cutting path into the Union. It still regarded the territorial legislature, though reha- bilitated and purged of the old leaven, as " an obstacle to the successful execution of the will of the people," - requested it to disperse, to vote itself out of existence, and transfer all its rights and prerogatives to the state organization.
The plan did not commend itself to the territo- rial body. In the uncertainties of the situation, as the issue of congressional agitations could not be forecast, it would have been palpably impolitic
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to abandon the only law-making assembly recog- nized by the federal authorities.
From this rebuff the Topeka legislature never rallied. After lingering in Lawrence for a time, with futile hopes of a more favorable response to its overtures, it adjourned until the 4th of March. The organization served a most important pur- pose, but its mission had been accomplished. When it reassembled there was no quorum. The few free-state men, who clung to it with misspent fidelity, printed a plaintive valedictory rehearsing the fortunes of the defunct government, lauding the admirable constancy to principle illustrated in themselves, and dispersed.
The territorial legislature was now in undis- puted mastery of the situation. Yet, though revolutionized in political composition, the quality of its political morality showed little betterment. The record which it made was worse than indif- ferent, especially in the matter of a new capital and constitutional convention. In Lecompton, founded by the pro-slavery party, the sensitive assembly did not feel at home, and resolved to go elsewhere. A town called Minneola was projected in Franklin County. But the decisive considera- tions stirring in the affair were neither sentimen- tal nor patriotic. Thirty -five of the fifty - two members of the legislature were financially inter- ested in the venture. Under such circumstances it was to be expected that a bill transferring the
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capital from Lecompton to Minneola would easily survive the governor's veto. When the removal began to be agitated Minneola was a stretch of untouched prairie. Not a building of any sort existed on the proposed site of it; nothing was there except " prairie grass, bugle - brush, and weeds." In a few weeks a big, barn-like structure, designed for a capitol, and one or two other build- ings were hastily and rudely flung together. The enterprise looked feasible - at least as a financial
investment. But Governor Denver refused to leave Lecompton, or to allow a transfer of the records and public documents. Attorney General Black pronounced the whole scheme unconstitu- tional ; and this adverse decision remanded the ambitious town - site of Minneola into common prairie.
Nor did the effort for a new constitution prosper. The bill authorizing a convention failed to pass the legislature until the thirty-seventh day of the session, which was limited by law to forty days. Governor Denver concluded there had been con- stitution-making enough for the present, and re- solved to call a truce in that disquieting business. The Lecompton constitution was still vexing Con- gress. Irreconcilables were not wanting who clung to the Topeka movement, and Denver decided to kill the bill. This he was able to do, as the organic law permitted an absolute veto of legislation which reached him within three days of the enforced ad-
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journment. But legislators, who originated the enterprise of removing the capital to Minneola, could not be thwarted by any such trifle as the pocketing of a bill. Just before the close of the session, Governor Denver received what purported to be the bill calling the constitutional convention, officially indorsed as having been passed over his veto. He sent for the presiding officers of the legislature, and exhibiting the spurious document asked, " Who's responsible for this?" "Lane suggested it," was the reply. " It is not the orig- inal bill," the governor continued. "That is still in my hands - has never been out of them. This bill is a forgery. Now I can make trouble for you if I choose to do it. You have certified to what is not true. The whole statement is false. But I have no wish to keep up the agitation. Two courses are open to you - either to give me a paper setting forth the fact that the original bill was never returned to the legislature with my objec- tions, and hence never passed over my veto, or to destroy this counterfeit document here in my pres- ence." "What shall we do with it?" the chief clerk asked. "Destroy it," the Speaker of the House promptly replied. The document was torn in pieces and thrust into the stove.
That a bill should survive such an ordeal was probably unprecedented, but this hardy bill did survive it. The legislature voted unanimously that it had passed that body in due form. March
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9th there was an election of delegates to a con- stitutional convention, which assembled at Min- neola Tuesday, the 23d. But the jobbery and other discreditable facts clouding the whole movement got noised abroad and excited great indignation. For a time the " Minneola swindle" fairly divided curses with the " Lecompton swin- dle." No sooner had the convention reached Minneola and effected a temporary organization, than a violent debate sprang up over the question whether it should not immediately adjourn to some other place. The discussion raged until five o'clock Wednesday morning, when the convention did adjourn to Leavenworth. There another con- stitution was formed, which abandoned the once popular "free white state " doctrine, and con- fronted the intense pro - slavery doctrines of Lecompton with an anti-slavery utterance no less unqualified.
But the Leavenworth constitution was too heav- ily weighted for success. When submitted to the people May 18th, only about four thousand ballots were cast, and one fourth of them in the negative. The stigma of its origin destroyed an otherwise excellent constitution.
Governor Denver, who accepted his post re- luctantly and with the intention of retiring from it as soon as practicable, resigned October 10th, and was succeeded by Samuel Medary, of Ohio. Denver is the first among the territorial governors whose resignation was not practically forced.
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The fourth territorial legislature convened Jan- uary 3d, 1859. In comparison with preceding legislatures it presents a tame and uneventful rec- ord. The most laborious task which it attempted was the codification of the statutes. The enact- ments of 1855 were repealed in bulk, and as that act did not fully express public sentiment in refer- ence to them, they were publicly burnt in the streets of Lawrence. The general laws of 1857 were repealed, and those of 1858 liberally revised. Undeterred by the experiences of former assem- blies, the legislature also made provision for another constitutional convention. The question of calling this body was submitted to the people, who cast five thousand three hundred and six affirmative, and one thousand four hundred and twenty - five negative, votes. Delegates were chosen June 7th - thirty-five Republicans and seventeen Democrats.
At this election a Republican party appeared in the territory for the first time. The free-state party was an isolated, independent organization, wholly dedicated to a local mission. It avoided out- side alliances lest they should distract and enfeeble its energies. Though its record is not ideal, though the odious black law sentiments enunciated at Big Springs and reaffirmed when the Topeka govern- ment was commissioned were strangely out of harmony with its general purposes, yet the party never faltered in its hostility to Southern institu-
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tions. But the question of the domestic institu- tions of Kansas was now settled. The organization had fulfilled its special mission, and the necessity for isolation no longer existed. A convention at Lawrence November 11th, 1857, discussed and negatived propositions to merge the free-state party in the Republican party. May 18th, 1858, the free-state combination went to pieces upon the or- ganization of the Republican party at Osawato- mie.
The Missouri faction was known by a variety of names. At first it styled itself the pro-slavery party. As the chances that Kansas would not adopt Southern institutions increased, the epithet " pro-slavery " became unpopular, and was ex- changed for "law and order." But the revised title had only a brief currency, and the party finally rested its pursuit of a name in the phrase - " The National Democracy of Kansas."
These changes in the constitution and nomen- clature of political organizations betokened a sub- sidence of party animosities. So strong was the disposition to bury the past that it ultimately took the shape of a general amnesty act, which dis- missed all prosecutions growing out of " political differences of opinion," and, as a consequence, a good many people breathed freer.
The constitutional convention met at Wyan- dotte July 5th with a membership largely com- posed of new men. Few of the leaders who fig-
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ured at Topeka, or Lecompton, or Leavenworth were at Wyandotte. The convention fell to work with as much freshness and zeal as if no similar body had ever broken ground in Kansas, and after a session of three or four weeks produced a fairly good instrument. In the matter of the elective franchise it retreated from the radicalism of Leav- enworth, which conferred the right of suffrage upon "every male citizen of the United States," and adopted the language of Topeka, "every
white male person." October 4th, 1859, the peo- ple ratified the constitution by a majority of four thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, in a total vote of fifteen thousand nine hundred and fifty- one. On the 6th of December Charles Robinson was elected governor, J. P. Root lieutenant-gov- ernor, and M. F. Conway representative to Con- gress.
The debate in Congress on the Wyandotte con- stitution lacked the bitterness and violence of ear- lier discussions when Kansas was the topic. Sen- ator Wigfall revived a dialect popular in the Lecompton days. "I will not consent," he said, "that Texas shall associate herself with such a state as this [Kansas] would be. ... The in- habitants of that so-called state are outlaws and land-pirates. The good men were abandoned by the government and were driven out. Ruffianism is all that is left, and are we to associate with it ?" But outbursts of this sort were infrequent.
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The opposition, led by Green, of Missouri, despair- ing of ultimate success, now expended its strength in retarding and deferring the entrance of the ob- noxious territory into the Union. There was much criticism of the proposed boundaries, as the Missouri senator insisted that not more than two sevenths of the area included within them could be cultivated, though the western line had been moved eastward to the twenty-fifth meridian. He urged that thirty thousand square miles should be taken from Southern Nebraska and annexed to the projected state. "Without this addition Kansas," he said, " must be weak, puerile, sickly, in debt, and at no time capable of sustaining her- self ! "
After more than four years of fruitless endeavor Kansas entered the Union. January 21st, 1861, senators of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi an- nounced the secession of these states and their own retirement from Congress. The election of Abraham Lincoln as president furnished a con- venient pretext for revolt. " It has been a belief," said Jefferson Davis, " that we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights . . . our fathers be- queathed to us, which has brought Mississippi into her present decision. . . . When you deny them, and when you deny to us the right to withdraw from a government which, thus perverted, threat- ens to be the destruction of our rights, we but tread the path of our fathers when we proclaim our independence and take the hazard."
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The defiant Southern valediction was barely fin- ished when Senator Seward called up the bill for the admission of Kansas. With their depleted ranks the opposition could now offer only a feeble resistance, and it passed by a vote of thirty-six to sixteen. The House had already taken favorable action, and on the 28th of January concurred in Senate amendments. It was with memorable dra- matic fitness that Kansas, the arena where the hos- tile civilizations met, should enter the Union just as the defeated South drew off from it.
The news reached Lawrence late at night. Territorial officials, members of the legislature, which was in session there, and people in gen- eral were roused, and there followed an impromptu jollification, to which buckets of whiskey, freely circulated, lent inspiration. The next day saw a more formal and decorous celebration. One hun- dred guns were fired, making noisy proclamation across the prairies that Kansas had at last become a state.
The struggle for the possession of Kansas, the loss of which to the South made secession a cer- tainty, was essentially political and constitutional -not military. The few skirmishes that took place have a secondary if not tertiary importance. In the field of diplomacy and finesse the pro-slav- ery leaders were outgeneraled. Reckoning too confidently and disdainfully on numbers, on near- ness to the theatre of operations and federal sup-
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port, they also blundered in underrating their op- ponents, and in adopting consequently a policy of noise and bluff. They came thundering into the territory on the 30th of March, 1855, when quieter measures would have served their pur- poses far better. The dash upon the Wakarusa turned out to be a fool's errand. In the sack of Lawrence and the dispersion of the Topeka legis- lature, victories were won which returned to plague the victors. The career of the free-state party, under the lead of Governor Robinson, who projected and inspired the whole tactical plan of its operations, has no parallel in American his- tory. Composed of heterogeneous, clashing, fever- ish elements ; repudiating the territorial legisla- ture and subsisting without legislation -an inter- mediate condition of virtual outlawry - from the settlement of Lawrence until 1858, the party was not only successfully held together during this chaotic period, but by a series of extraordinary ex- pedients, by adroitly turning pro-slavery mistakes to account, and by rousing Northern sympathy through successful advertisement of its calamities, rescued Kansas from the clutch of Missouri, and then disbanded.
CHAPTER XIII.
DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
THE border storm blew down the loosely-rooted prosperities of the territory with sufficient havoc. For the most part the early immigrants were poor. A laudable ambition to mend their worldly fortunes blended with ethical and political con- victions in their westward venture. Though the cause of liberty prospered, and slavery was driven from the debatable ground, yet, at the close of the struggle, the rudenesses, discomforts, and limita- tions of the frontier remained with faintly miti- gated severity. Strength and enterprise that might have built comfortable homes, improved farms, and established public institutions, had been diverted to politics. The domestic expe- riences of the Kansas pioneers during the terri- torial days, subordinated in this volume to their political concerns, are full of interest. Under the most favorable circumstances, frontier life has plenty of disagreeable, slowly bettering elements. " Sleeping on the ground," wrote a pioneer in 1856, " is not confined to camping out, but is extensively practiced in all our cabins. Floors
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