USA > Kansas > Douglas County > Lawrence > The Kansas memorial, a report of the Old Settlers' meeting held at Bismarck grove, Kansas, Sept. 15th and 16th, 1879 > Part 10
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
ADDRESS BY REV. C. H. LOVEJOY.
MR. SPEER : There are very few old citizens who do not know the speaker whom I am about to introduce. He was the chaplain of the first free state territorial Legislature, and gave the Lord the first official notice that the Legislature was legally elected-I mean Rev. C. H. Lovejoy.
Mr. Lovejoy said :
I do not rise, Mr. President, to make a speech. As has been said by friend Speer, I had the honor of being elected three times to the Legislature of Kansas. Two of these Legislatures were declared illegal; one was the first free state territorial Legislature. Of this Legislature, our friend, H. Miles Moore, was one of the members of the House of Representatives, and I was employed to pray for that body of men, and I tried to do the best I could. Sometimes I felt as though it was rather up-hill business, and at other times I succeeded tolerably well. I took my place, usually, at the right hand of the speaker of that body, Col. Geo. W. Deitz- ler. Miles Moore sat near by, at my left. They all sat, usually, when I prayed, but I stood; it was customary for Methodist min- isters to kneel. I did as well as I knew how in presenting the case of that body of men to the throne of grace. I took occasion to refer to the difficulties that we had been passing through ; and, as has been already remarked by friend Speer, in my prayer I said that the Lord well knew the difficulties we had to contend with in this country in establishing a free government, and took occasion to be thankful, as I was, that we had been successful thus far. When I got through with my prayer, Miles Moore whispered in my ear that that was the first time the Almighty had been notified, officially, of our difficulties in Kansas. That is all I want to say at this time.
ADDRESS BY R. A. VAN WINKLE.
MR. SPEER : We have not the original Rip Van Winkle with us to-night, but we have here one of his descendants, an old resident of Atchison county, and he will address you now.
Mr. Van Winkle said :
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I am not in a very good condition to make a speech-I am not in very good health, rather feeble and hoarse-but I will say a few words. I should think, from my experience and observation, that the free state men of Kansas have done a work for America and the world that we ought to be proud of. I have had the honor of acting with them since 1855. I found them an honorable, upright and straight forward people; I found them energetic; I have found them always right and defending the right. They have never failed to honor a call in behalf of right and justice.
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
True, I never had any occasion to be in any of these fights. I lived in a portion of Kansas which escaped the troubles, and I am entitled to no honor for saving Kansas to freedom. I am a Kentuckian, and Kentucky was between the two fires during the war and achieved no honor in the war. I do not speak of Ken- tucky to humiliate her and place her beneath her sister States. She once had an honorable record. No State has so good a record as Kansas in the great struggle. I see those present from many other States-from all parts of this country-from Massachusetts, from Vermont, from everywhere. But the contest against slavery commenced here, and through the courage and sacrifices of the people of Kansas, the contest culminated in the destruction of slavery. I must differ from my friend Legate. He says that he believes in an over-ruling power ; I say this is the progress of humanity. It is the natural progress of humanity to fight these fights, right or wrong, and right will in the end prevail. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention.
ADDRESS BY GEN. JOHN RITCHIE.
MR. SPEER : Our next speaker will be Gen. John Ritchie, and I know you want to hear from him before we close this meet- ing.
Mr. Ritchie's remarks were as follows :
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :
As I am called upon to say something in this "Old Settlers' Meeting," I will say a word about what has been claimed as having saved Kansas. It was neither the Emigrant Aid Society, nor the Pennsylvanians, nor any other class or organization that made Kan- sas a free State. I say it took us all-backwoodsmen from Indiana, Ohio and all the Western States, as well as the men of principle sent out by the Aid Society of New England, and the politicians from Pennsylvania. There was need for all classes; and every Kansas man knows, or ought to know, that the rough hewn wes- tern men and boys, who went in on their instincts as to what was right and wrong, as to what was square and fair in squatter's rights, took a full hand in all that was done in beating down the pro-slavery power on the soil of Kansas. I don't want to take any just credit from any society, nor from any State, in this thing; but I remem- ber once, in the spring of 1855, on one occasion, about forty high- toned men, who came out to Topeka from the far East to fight against slavery on principle, when they heard of the approach of a force of border-ruffians to "sack" the town of Topeka, those forty men of principle took to their heels and left the Territory, running through grass as high as their heads and declaring, as they went, that Kansas was a barren country that wouldn't produce anything. An education of mere principle didn't give men back- bone ; but I don't mean to say it weakened anybody. Some of us came out to make our homes here, if we liked the country, and to
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fight slavery out if it undert ok to crowd in here. Others came simply to make their homes, without any thought of a fight of any kind; but, when the fight came on, there were as many of these as of any kind, who just went in and stood up to the rack and did a full share of the work till Kansas was made a free State. These classes of the " saviors of Kansas" have not quite a fair share of silver tongued orators to speak for them here to-day, so I thought I would put in my little say-so in their behalf.
ADDRESS BY E. A. COLEMAN.
MR. SPEER :- It is getting late but before we close I want you to listen to a few words from another old settler, and then we will adjourn for the night. I have the pleasure of introducing Captain E. A. Coleman, of Douglas County.
Mr. Coleman spoke as follows :
Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens :
I do not know that I have got anything to say, but if I had it seems to me that at this late hour it would be better not to say it. I would like to talk to you five or ten minutes though. As this is a sort of a love feast, we talk about what we know. There are a thousand and one things that tend to make up the history of the State during the last twenty-five years, that never will be known unless they be thrown out on some occasion like this. There are quite a number of things that I would like to tell many of the new- comers, and many of the old, things they do not know. In some things I disagree with my friend Legate and others. I want to say to my friend Legate and others that nineteen-twentieths of all the people who came here to settle in Kansas in 1854, did not come here to make "tin," as has been insinuated here to-night. There was a great principle that underlay it all. The day the news was received in Boston that the Kansas-Nebraska bill had been put before Congress, I went to call on an old gentleman in Boston and he asked me what I thought of Kansas. I replied that if that bill passes, I will be one of the first men to go to fight for Kansas. You know that bill did pass. I fitted up and started as quick as I could. I came here not to better my condition. I had a good business and was making money. I brought my little all and I spent it you know how. I said that slavery was local and not national, that it ought to be shut in and it would die out where it was of its own disease. That is why I came to Kansas ; to check the spread of slavery. I always did everything that I could to make Kansas a free State. My house was always open. I have met lots of men here to-day who have slept in my house in con- cealment, up stairs night after night.
I was one of the first settlers in Kansas, coming here in Oc- tober, 1854. I want to say to you that on the roth of April, 1855, (mark the time,) I was in Missouri stopping over night with a
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
Baptist minister, not a Methodist, but a Baptist minister. On Sunday morning, he says that he could not be with me over Sun- day. He showed me his library, and said he had to preach that day. He says, "You can amuse yourself as best you can and I will get through as quick as I can and return, as I want to talk with you." When he came back supper was all ready ; I sat down to the table on his right. He said, " Mr. Coleman, I was up at Brother So-and-So's to-day, at Independence, and what do you think he said after I told him I had a couple of Yankees stopping with me ?" I said that I guessed he said we would steal all your negroes before you got back. "That is exactly what he did say," replied my host; " he said that we must raise a committee of 200 men and go up to Kansas and drive you fellows out." I barely remarked, you can tell him the next time you see him that he can send up all the committee that he wants to-that there is one man who will not leave under any circumstances-but, before he comes, he had better read Yankee history well.
Adjourned.
FORENOON SESSION.
The meeting, Tuesday morning, Sept. 16th, was called to order by Vice-President John Ritchie, and was opened with prayer by Rev. C. H. Lovejoy. Mr. Joshua Davis was introduced and said that in coming from Leavenworth to Lawrence in 1856, he was met by three gangs of border ruffians. He was tied to a wagon by one of them, but on giving the Masonic sign he was liberated. They returned to him his Sharpe's rifle, but the next gang took it away from him, swearing he was an Abolitionist. He escaped, got to Lawrence, obtained some of the scattered type from the Abolition press, melted them into bullets, and shot them afterward into the ranks of the enemy.
Rev. J. W. Clock was called out, and referred humorously to his ten years experience in Kansas. Could not quite say, as one did yesterday, that he would not give one square inch of Kansas for the whole of the particular State (Pennsylvania) glorified by G. A. Crawford, but he liked Kansas and was here to stay.
ADDRESS BY MRS. LUCY B. ARMSTRONG.
COL. RITCHIE :- It is a good time now for some of the ladies to speak in this meeting, and I take pleasure in presenting to you one of the very oldest settlers and one of the best of the pioneer women of Kansas, Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong of Wyandotte.
Mrs. Armstrong said :
I think that I, of all who are assembled here this morning, have the most reason to be proud. When a discussion was held
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among the people of the Wyandotte nation, during all of one night in 1848, in reference to the stand they should make on the slavery question, George I. Clark said, " Let us hold on in our opposition to the slave power; and in fifty years we will be proud of it." They did hold on and this morning I am proud of it.
The Wyandottes brought themselves to the Territory; and as the United States Government failed to furnish them lands they bought land and provisions for themselves ; Silas Armstrong being their contractor. There were among them two hundred church members, in a population of seven hundred. Where else has been the colony, in which there was so large a proportion of church members ? They bought the land for their new home in October, 1843, and in April, 1844, they had built and occupied their first church-the first church built by the people in the Territory. Broth- er Speer in the Kansas City Times of Sept. 7th, says that the first free state school ever established in the Territory was estab- lished at Lawrence in January, 1855. The first school establish- ed in the Territory was at Wyandotte, and my husband, J. M. Armstrong, was contractor for the school house, and taught the first school in it; commencing July Ist, 1844. He was a lawyer, but could not practice law then, the Territory not being organized. The school was free-white children in the neigh- borhood were permitted to attend. The Wyandottes were the first in the Territory, except a few of our Baptist brethren to oppose slavery. In the winter of 1843 and 1844, the Wyandotte council enacted a law forbidding the introduction of slaves into their nation. We had our border ruffian war before you had yours. We were mobbed; and after my husband's death, the ruf- fians would sometimes shoot into my yard and call us abolitionists. More than three-fourths of the Wyandottes were anti-slavery. Those who were pro-slavery were descendants of Virginians who had been taken prisoners.
The Wyandottes sympathized with you in your struggle and a Wyandotte was the messenger that warned Lawrence of the invad- ers in December, 1855.
In May, 1856, when Lawrence was besieged, the border ruffians in our neighborhood were elated and encouraged in their persecution of free state people. That day I started to Ohio and the next day one of them came to my house and asked for that - abolitionist. He was answered that I had started to Ohio. Doubting it, he searched the premises, but not finding me returned to the house, and as he passed out of the door through which he had first entered, he stabbed the wall next the door three times, saying with an oath, that if that abolitionist were there he " would run her through that way." God preserved my life by leading me to start to Ohio the day before.
The Wyandottes were always true to the Government of the United States. They were efficient soldiers and scouts in the war
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of 1812. Some were in the Mexican war, and almost all their young men were in the war for the preservation of the Union.
I taught a Wyandotte school for four years after my husband's death, and almost all the boys that were my pupils enlisted in the United States service for that war. One dear, good boy was killed in the battle of Wilson's creek, another was afterward wounded and taken prisoner by the rebels and died, it is supposed, and a number contracted consumption by exposure in the army and died.
I am not in the habit of making speeches, but I do sometimes speak in love-feast, and wanted to speak in this one. Indeed, I felt last night like doing it voluntarily as we do in our church, for I wanted to say that the Wyandottes were among the first settlers of Kansas, and that they were first in opposing slavery.
ADDRESS BY MRS. LOVEJOY.
COL. RITCHIE :- I have another lady, one of the earliest of the pioneers, whom I will now introduce, Mrs. Lovejoy.
Mrs. Lovejoy said :
I am not accustomed to speaking in camp-meetings, but I have a good Methodistical voice and strong lungs, and I believe I can make these ladies and gentlemen hear me to the farthest por- tions of the building. God bless these old settlers, these old Kan- sans, these old pioneer wives. We women really thought you were not going to give us a chance for our lives. We have gone through just as much as any of you. As the alpine traveler, when he gets down to the foot, can stop and look back and glance over the path and see the perilous places he has passed through, and the deep dangers he has escaped in more than one instance in safety, so we can look back now and see what great difficulties we have passed through in our early days. My mind goes back with lightning rapidity through twenty-five years past, and takes in what has been wrought here. In 1854 we christened Kansas, and oh ! I remem- ber it well. Everybody seemed to be enthused with the spirit of freedom's crusade. I remember the great political camp-meeting in 1854, down in New Hampshire, where the men of the entire country were assembled, and the question was : "Who will go to Kansas; who will volunteer to rescue that Territory from the clutches of the slave power ; who will turn back slavery and save the country from its blighting influences for all time ?" We finally reached Kansas among the crusaders, and oh, I am so glad I am here to-day. We mothers have passed through a trying or- deal, but we can look back over the ground with a swell of pride in our hearts when we think of the glorious results as we have them before us now. I hope I may be able to live long enough to attend another of these meetings, and to meet my friends as I have done since I have been here.
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
ADDRESS BY CAPTAIN THOMAS BICKERTON.
It was announced that the Captain of the old free state artillery was present, and in response to the announcement he was loudly called for, and in his address he said :
Ladies and Gentlemen :
I am glad to be here and to meet my old comrades on this occasion. It is my opinion that the first settlers of Kansas with the education they had had, and the instincts for freedom and jus- tice they possessed, could not help doing just what they did do. The same number of men and women from any other part of the world, with the same ideas of right and wrong, would have done precisely what we did, and the results would have been the same. In my opinion we, as a nation, have little to be proud of when we come to consider that we had to resort to the wholesale murder of each other to right such awful wrongs and abuses as were being perpetrated upon that portion of the human race we had so long held in slavery. I believe that the time will come when the future generations will look back upon the present as among the barbar- ous ages; I mean the age in which we live now, for there is not a civilized nation yet on the whole earth. Nations who settle their disputes by killing men have no claim to civilization.
Mr. President, I cannot make a speech to-day. I believe in works more than words. I would like to make a remark or two by way of advice, and as I am very radical, you will be left to do as you choose with regard to the advice. First with regard to tem- perance. Let me assure you that the shortest road to that end is to allow the women to vote. Vote for female suffrage. Mix up a few women with the men that you send to Washington, and the thing is done. Study God more, and money making less, in order that the coming generations may be born with strong healthy bodies and sound minds, and with high moral instincts. Let me assure you that it is better to give your children the teachings of God and nature, than all the artificial stuff that you could give them from now on to the end of the world. Now that we have done a good thing here in Kansas, about which we rejoice, let us go on, and endeavor so to live and act as to become loyal to ourselves, and hasten on the good time when all the present evils of the human race shall be known no more in the land.
DISPATCH FROM JAY GOULD.
Gov. ROBINSON :- Ladies and Gentlemen : I would like to read a dispatch just received from S. T. Smith, General Superin- tendent of the Kansas Pacific Road, in answer to a dispatch for- warded from this place to Jay Gould, asking his presence here to represent one of the material interests of our State. The dispatch is as follows :
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
KANSAS CITY, Sept. 15, 1879.
Hon. Charles Robinson :
Mr. Gould is in Chicago, and requests me to convey his thanks for your kind invitation to attend the re-union of the old settlers of Kansas, now in progress at Bismarck Grove, but his arrangements are all made to go west via Omaha, and he will be unable to accept.
S. T. SMITH.
LETTERS FROM ABSENT FRIENDS.
Gov. ROBINSON : - We have a programme that has been printed. I am sorry to interrupt this love-feast. We hope that every man who has a word to say will have an opportunity to say it before we get through. For myself, I like the love-feast better than anything else. But we have some public men from abroad who have been a part of our history, and I think we ought to give them an opportunity to say something, and I think we will all have an opportunity to hear them. In the course of the arrangements for this celebration, the committee of invitation received letters from a number of distinguished friends of Kansas in the early times, who were invited to be with us, and who could not come. Hon. James S. Emery, Chairman of the Committee, will read some of these letters.
Judge Emery then read the following letters :
LETTER FROM COL. H. T. WILSON.
Hon. Charles Robinson : I am pleased to address you as an old settler of Kansas. I am a Kentuckian by birth. I joined my bro- ther Thomas at Ft. Gibson. He was sutler at that post in 1834. Ft. Gibson is located on the east bank of the Grande River, one mile from its mouth, where it enters into the Arkansas River, in the Cherokee Nation, 50 miles west of the Arkansas state line. Fort Gibson was occupied by twelve companies of the 7th Infantry, commanded by General Arbuckle. Whilst at Fort Gibson I had to do a great deal of riding through the Cherokee and Creek na- tions; also the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. The two first- named nations lay on each side of the Arkansas River. The two last-named nations border on the Red River, which is the line of the State of Texas. This is a fine farming country, as also a fine stock country. Some of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, when slavery existed, raised and shipped 150 bales of cotton per year, down Red River, to market. While at Fort Gibson, I learned to talk the Cherokee and Creek languages. I remained with my brother Thomas nine years at Fort Gibson. Fort Scott was located in 1842 as a military post. The officers then here knew me, and
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invited me here to be sutler at Fort Scott. I came to Fort Scott in 1843, and was appointed sutler. I found the post in command of Major Graham. Ft. Scott was occupied by three companies- one of dragoons and two of infantry. Very soon fine frame quarters were built for the officers and men. Ft. Scott was pleasantly located, five miles west of the Missouri state line, and was designed as a check on the Osage tribe of Indians, who were then located on the Neo- sho River, forty miles west of Fort Scott. Here I learned to talk the Osage language, in selling them goods and purchasing their buffalo robes and buffalo tallow. Some of this tribe were pretty hard customers. After occupying Ft. Scott a few years the Gov- ernment, through its officers of the army, found there was no great necessity to occupy it, and it was abandoned as a military post. The Government had expended upward of $200,000 here in improvements, and neglected to take a military reserve, which is equal to a deed or patent. Ft. Gibson and Ft. Leavenworth have military reserves. The buildings at Ft. Scott, a few months after the troops left, were advertised for sale through the newspapers : " The houses without lands." At this sale there were but few persons, because of the wording of the notice of the sale-"the houses without land." But few persons wanted to purchase a house without land.
A military post is a pleasant place to live; the officers of the army are pleasant gentlemen to be with, and do business with. In advance of the day of sale I prepared a protest-protesting against the sale of the houses-claiming the land where the building stood, under the pre-emption law of 1842. Major Howe, of the army, came with his auctioneer from Ft. Leavenworth to make the sale. The Major called to see me, and stopped with me and my family. I found the Major a gentleman. He allowed my protest to be read before the sale of the buildings commenced. The sale was com- pleted and title given to the purchaser. The sale of all the Gov- ernment buildings was less than $5,000. This ended the military claim to Ft. Scott.
The West is a large country and filling up fast by emigration from the older States, and the day is not far distant when the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations of lands will become a new Territory, giving to all heads of families in the four named nations a quarter section of land, including his or her im- provements, without charge for the land, the government ceasing to pay them annuities. This, in my judgment, will soon take place. This is a fine country of lands and climate, and will some day be a fine State. There is more intelligence in these four named nations of Indians than many persons would suppose. The whites are not allowed to settle in these four nations, except by marriage or as laborers.
Kansas is a good State of lands and climate. Emigration to Kansas will soon make it a densely populated State.
While a Kentuckian I lived under the senatorship of the Hon.
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THE KANSAS MEMORIAL.
Henry Clay, one of the most able men of his day in Congress. The day has come when we had better lay politics aside, and select able men to represent us regardless of party. Life is a lottery. With great respect,
H. T. WILSON.
AN INDIAN VOCABULARY.
Mr. Wilson appended the following list of Indian words and phrases and their translation :
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