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 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
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the Yankees eat in hay-time, and that is three regular meals a day and a luncheon between. And a solemn convention it would be, too, with Dr. Chas. Robinson, President; Geo. W. Brown, Secre- tary (with now and then Joel K. Goodin or John Speer for Secre- tary); and about a dozen awfully ragged, deplorably forlorn look- ing cusses (who wanted to get back east again, and hadn't the money to take them there,) to make up the audience. And that convention would solemnly resolve, like the three tailors of Lon- don, that we, the people of Kansas Territory, resolve that we will make this a free State. And Wm. A. Phillips, Jim. Redpath and Hinton would report it, and it would make two and a half and sometimes three columns in the New York Tribune.
I remember, among the early conventions, the celebrated Sand-bank Convention. Gen. James H. Lane came to the Ter- ritory and stopped at Lawrence to get a jug of-water. He did not want to get contaminated by abolition principles, but when he came to get the jug of-water he was pleased with the Yankee set- tlement and concluded to stop. Then followed a series of cau- cuses, as we would call them-" private seances" such as no one ever saw outside of Indiana. Then began the trouble of making him a good settler ; he did not become a convert just then, but he did afterward. Well, they had the famous Sand-bank Convention -a Democratic affair. I was a little tinctured in those days with the same peculiar disease, but somehow I did not take kindly to that sand-bank conclave. It was composed of Dr. Wood, James Christian, Joel K. Goodin, (he doesn't answer?), Joe Speer and old Judge Curtis, a handsome gentleman who looked like Presi- dent Lincoln. There was also a young fellow named Jas. S. Em- ery, whom they used to call "the young man eloquent from Maine," who addressed the Sand-bank Convention on the question of the dissolution of the Union, saying, in substance, that if South Carolina or Louisiana should take umbrage at the action of the Abolitionists in Kansas, and should go out of the Union, there would be a conflict of arms and a fratricidal war such as no history had ever recorded; and denouncing in strong terms the action of the Abolitionists. Old Judge Curus (who had one tooth protrud- ing three or four inches and tobacco juice running down each side of his mouth) sat in solemn dignity during that speech, gave an occasional twist to the little wampum that he had about his neck and saying, "Well, I think you are about right, but I don't care a d-n what you do." Joe Speer made a speech, but Joe Speer was not as conservative as Lane. My friend Emery was not very con- servative; he was a staunch Douglas man, and expected to get Kansas into the Union as a Douglas Democratic State. But, when he had finished his speech and the others were talking, he amused himself by picking up pebbles and skipping them on the river. A young man, who was lying on the bank above the con- vention, at this point shouted, "Y-y-u b-bet-better q-qui-quit this thing," and the convention adjourned. That was the only attempt
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to make a Democratic organization until after Kansas had become a free State. Then there were not offices enough for all the aspi- rants in the Republican party. That young man, by the way, is worthy of more notice. He came to this State with one who has since become distinguished as a newspaper man. He says that when they reached Chicago the gentleman had $700-more money than he ever dreamed of having. (The young man had "nary a red.") They stayed in an hotel, and, before retiring, piled up all the fur- niture in the room against the door, and says the anxious possessor of the $700: "Charlie, what shall I do with this money ? If I should lose this $700, I never could start a printing office in Law- rence!" The young man replied : "John, I'll t-tell y-you w-what ; you g-go to bed and s-sl-sleep on the ba-back side, a-an-and if any-b-body c-co-comes in to rob us th-they w-will try me f-first and ge-get dis discouraged and g-go away." This sagacious young man was afterward employed in a printing office in Topeka, during the Topeka constitutional convention. A man by the name of Dickey died and a eulogy had been pronounced upon him, which, among other expressions, contained something like the following : "Let us gather around the grave of our departed friend and shed a tear to his memory." In "setting up" the article, the meter of that sentence did not suit the ideas of the young printer, so he changed it and read the proof himself; and in the morning, when the paper came out, the solemn sentence read: "Let us gather around the grave of our departed friend, Dickey, and shed a tear or two, or, perhaps three, to his memory."
I came here to-day expecting to hear impromptu speeches, but those devilish reporters have compelled the fellows to write out their speeches, and, at the suggestion of those reporters, they have written ones that would take me at least a month or six weeks to get up. So what I have to say will simply consist of reminiscences of the past.
As I said in the beginning, there were but few who realized the work they were doing. There were but few who realized that they were active participants in a conflict which was to settle the momentous question of freedom or slavery. Men seldom know the ultimate purpose for which they are moved to act. So the men in those early days scarcely dreamed of the ultimate result of their actions. Governor Robinson will pardon me for telling something which was private once, but is public now. The Gover- nor is and always has been a cold-water man.
Well, I remember that at an entertainment given in honor of Fred Stanton, the Gov- ernor gave the following toast which he drank in cold water, but which I want you to understand some of us drank in whisky : " Here is in for making the tin !" And there was as much truth as poetry in that, for ten to one-yes, a hundred to one- came to this Territory to better their conditions, financially, rather than from any motive of philanthropy or abolition principles. Men came here as Democrats-men came here as pro-slavery men-who
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have performed work and accomplished deeds in the cause of free- dom that entitle them to be perpetuated in history as much as those who came here imbued with no other sentiment than that of antag- onism to slavery. There was Gen. James H. Lane, for instance, (and I was never counted among his friends, politically,) who came here as near a pro-slavery man as a man could come and come from a northern State. He came here with the conviction that all that portion of the country in which rice, cotton, tobacco and hemp could be raised, and which he regarded as only pro- ducts of slave labor-putting in the word hemp-rightfully belonged to slavery, and it was only when he became convinced that the first three products could not be raised successfully here that he dreamed of espousing the free state cause. Still, no man ever lived in Kansas who left behind him a more glorious history, even with all his errors and shortcomings. No man ever left behind him a history of which his widow, his children and his grandchil- dren could be more proud than that of Gen. James H. Lane. I say this, detracting nothing from my friend, Governor Robinson, who came here imbued with the New England sentiment that sla- very was wrong under all circumstances and all pretensions, in all climes and in all times. I take nothing from his history of which he has reason to be proud and of which future generations will ever feel proud. As I said on another occasion, (and not at Doniphan, either, for I am going to quit on that speech,) there are three men in Kansas whose history never can be forgotten. Their names are Governor Chas. Robinson, Gen. James H. Lane and old Osa- watomie Brown. The balance of us in those days were privates and will sink into oblivion; they alone form specks on the great ball of revolving time.
Nevertheless I am glad to be here to-day. I am happy to have the opportunity of talking to you, for I can only talk. I can't make a set speech. I have not the power in my weak, di- minutive frame to send the ponderous words rolling forth as did my friend, the stalwart Crawford, this afternoon. Nor was I suf- ficiently a mechanic to adjust that arch stone of which the Gover- nor spoke, or even view the performance "with a critic's eye." But I came here to have a good time, to be free and easy, and not to be "gawked at" and scared to death. But I would not hold a manuscript up before you, as some of my illustrious prede- cessors have done, for all the world. The only time in my whole life that I ever saw Governor Robinson scared, was to-day. When he pulled out that manuscript his knees actually knocked together. My friend Holliday did better, but that was owing to the fact that in his youth he wore good clothes. Good clothes give a young man an entre to good society, and in good society one gets used to being stared at. So he passed through the trying ordeal without shaking much. But Crawford quivered-and I don't know which made him quiver the most-the sight of all of you folks looking at him or the thunder of his own big words. Well, taking up the
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broken thread of my reminiscences of early times: Long years ago I came to this Territory, like a great many others responsive to the sentiment of Governor Robinson's toast. I came here with a few dollars and I have a few left to night, but not quite enough to pay that fellow for bringing us over. I got trusted for that. I have seen a great many things. I remember the Wakarusa war and a great many of its incidents. I remember that it was a sci- entific affair. You see I am a scientific fellow. I happened to be running a township line, of the public survey, and I ran it right through that celebrated camp of Sheriff Jones' Missouri militia. I knew Sheriff Jones and wanted to know what he was doing up here. He said : "I have come up to find those G -- d d -- d Yankees. I came up here as sheriff of Douglas county and arrest- ed an old man by the name of Jacob Branson, and they rescued him from me." I left my outfit in the Wakarusa bottom and came up to Lawrence where I found the people in council. I talked with Governor Robinson and found out that they were getting ready to fight, and I thought I would turn in and help them. The Waka- rusa war was fought, and I am sorry that as a matter of history, my friend Governor Robinson said to-day that Major Clark shot this young man Barber, just outside of Lawrence. He never shot him at all. Jim Burns was a young man full of blood and hell, and retains all the hell yet, and was over here with Sheriff Jones' militia, and Major Clark was not the man who shot Barber, but Jim Burns was, and was indicted by a pro-slavery grand jury for shooting him. Right is right. I was here to take Major Clark's place, and had it not been for you Abolitionists, I should have had it. You decoyed me into one of your abolition meetings and I was like all the other fellows, ass enough to go to making speeches. I told them I wanted this a free State, but I wanted it a Democratic State. George W. Brown was then publishing a pa- per here. He was a fellow with a good deal of distinction. He called me " Gen. Legate, of Mississippi." He induced me to de- liver a speech, which he afterward published in his paper, in which I said that I was a free state Democrat, (which was true,) but that when the time came, that by voting I could make Kansas a free State, I was ready to perform my part of the task. There was a fellow in Washington, who went from Mississippi, by the name of Ed. Wright, who was taking Geo. Brown's paper, and after seeing that speech of mine in it, he wrote to me that my cake was all dough. Had it not been for that speech, I might have been the same Indian agent that Major Clark was. I immediately went up to see Calhoun and got a job surveying.
The Wakarusa war taught the Missourians that they were meeting a force in this Territory with as great determination, and as daring a spirit as their own, which they must overthrow before they could take slaves to the Territory of Kansas. It disheartened them. Governor Shannon-the newly made Governor-had just come fresh from Ohio, imbued with all the sentiments of pro-
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slaveryism, and they expected that he would use not only the power of the Territory, but also that of the general government, to crush out the spirit of liberty and put, in its place, the in- stitution of slavery. Near the conclusion of that bloodless war, (with the exception of the death of young Barber,) he came to Lawrence, filled to the brim with the spirit of which you may guess. However, Governor Robinson and Lane were more sa- gacious than either Shannon or his advisors, so they made a treaty. The army was disbanded, and the Missourians went home dis- gusted alike with Governor Shannon and the prospects of making Kansas a slave State. There was also a convention up here at Big Springs, and another set of resolutions and another report to the eastern press. This convention was the basis of the Topeka constitutional convention which framed the first constitution for free Kansas. Reeder contested the seat of J. W. Whitfield, the proslavery delegate elected October 1, 1855. I rode over the Territory with G. P. Lowrey, taking testimony. Sometimes I was Justice of the Peace, and sometimes he was Notary Public, without any seal, but the testimony was good all the same. Out of that contest came the investigation by Congress. The Topeka constitution had been submitted to the people and adopted. A list of officers had also been elected under that constitution. It was about time for the assembling of the Legislature. I was honored, as I have been oftentimes, by holding distinguished positions in the State of Kan- sas, by being a member of a grand jury, and what a sweet- scented(?) jury it was! Uncle Jimmie McGee and myself were members from Lawrence. We had a caucus semi-occasionally. There were seventeen members all told. Uncle Jimmie and I were temperate, but there were at least fifteen bottles of whisky in the room all the time. The first and most important case to be decided by that grand jury was the indictment of Sam Wood and John Speer. I have forgotten whether it was John Speer for as- suming to hold an office that he was not legally elected to, and Sam Wood for resisting an officer, or vice versa. Attorney Gen- eral Isaacs was sent for. Like a great many Yankees, I was in- quisitive, and it was a very important question to be decided, in my mind. So I said to him: "You have John Speer charged with treason. Under what law or circumstances do you make his offense treason ?" "Well, sir," said he, taking hold of the flask of whisky, "the facts are these : A man who pretends to hold an of- fice, having once held that office, and is defunct, and assumes to still hold it against the constituted authorities, commits treason." Said I, " What about Sam Wood?" He replied : " If a man un- dertakes to carry out the decrees of such an officer, he commits treason also." I thought that was good enough. There were thirteen votes-Stewart not voting. Uncle Jimmie McGee and I voted no. It came up again, when Robinson, George W. Smith, George W. Deitzler, Gaius Jenkins, George W. Brown and Governor Reeder were indicted. We discussed
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it in all its forms, but we indicted them. The next thing was this " cussed" Emigrant Aid Society. They had built a hotel here in Lawrence with about a foot and half of wall above the roof, and fitted it up with port holes, and they called that the Fort. It was de- signed to protect the town against the officers of the law from ex- ecuting the decrees of court, they said. About that time I re- membered that I had a pressing engagement out at old Judge Wakefields. So I went out a-foot, (that is the way we used to ride a good deal in those days,) and got a pony and saddle there, rode up to Tecumseh, where I had a talk with John Sherman, Gov. Robinson and Mr. Howard, and I gave them a pretty clear idea of what was going on-that is, I intimated it to them. I then went back to Judge Wakefield's, slept about an hour, walked over to Lecompton, and was arrested for contempt of court. I went into the court room and the court wanted to know what ex- cuse I had. I gave a truthful answer, as I always do. I said I went over to Judge Wakefield's, went to sleep and had overslept my- self. I was excused and I went back to Judge Wakefield's, got
the pony and came over to Lawrence. I do no: think Governor Robinson was there at the time. I believe he had pressing duties which called him east, and he went as far as Lexington, where he found a stopping place. He came back by way of Leavenworth to Lecompton. They made some arrests in Lawrence, and then they went about abating the nuisance of the Fort Hotel. They had a cannon on the opposite side of the street, and old Atchison got down on his knees, took deliberate aim at the hotel, but shot clear over it and struck the hill near where a crowd of women were who had left the town for safety. Their gunners were so good(?) that they could not hit the whole side of a hotel across the street. However, they finally demolished it.
I give another incident coming under my observation illustra- tive of those time.
Governor John W. Geary had a little fellow by the name of Jones for one of his secretaries. I happened to be in Lecompton on a certain day after the Governor had had a little difficulty with a fellow by the name of Sherrard. He had spit upon the Gover- nor-a little matter of indignity. They were having a little indig- nation meeting there, and I happened to be on the list of the men to whom the subject of resolutions was referred. I believe it was myself, Dr. Wood, a man by the name of Stewart, and some oth- ers, I cannot think now who they were. I got up some resolu- tions expressive of my sentiments. Stewart reported them to Sherrard, who sent word back that he would kill any man who would read those resolutions. I was not on the die worth a cent, so I went up there and read the resolutions, holding them in one hand and a revolver in the other. I was not as large as I am now, but I stood still. I have seen some ludicrous things. I remem- ber one young fellow who thought there was more safety in flight than standing and looking on, so he ran and hid behind one of
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those machines that were designed for use in constructing the cap- ital building. He had got right under it when whack ! whack ! came a couple of bullets against it, and he rolled out crying, " Oh ! oh ! don't ! don't !" I was here when Quantrill came. I got out. I was the best pleased man in the State when I got on this side of the Kaw. The last time I ever saw Charlie Hart, alias Quantrill, was in the hotel, and I gave him ten dollars to get medicine. I believed him to be honest, and I believed him to be a second John
Brown. But I was mistaken. Well, as I said before, I was here when he came to Lawrence. I had a little colored boy who came into the room where myself, wife and children were, saying that " the bushwhackers are in town." I got up in less than a minute. My wife said : "Now don't be scared." I was not scared, but I could not find the button holes in my clothes. I did not like the looks of things. I got on my clothes, went out into the street and saw them butcher three men, firing shot after shot into them. I heard these men plead for their lives in tones that would penetrate hearts of steel, and yet I felt so paralyzed that no emo- tion of pity, sympathy, or anything akin to it, sprang from my heart, notwithstanding the piteous pleadings of these poor victims for even one moment more of life. I walked around until I got a good opportunity to get into a house and then walked into it in a hurry. It was full of women-Swedes, Ger- mans and Americans. One would say something in one language and another would make a reply in some other language. I went through that house as if there was something in the back yard that I wanted. There were four rows of corn in that yard and I took the middle row. I did not take the outside row. I kept right on, and if there is any race horse that can make better time than I made, I would like to see him. I went down through the tall hemp and corn, and then through some tall grass and bushes and all at once I came upon a man lying on his back, who threw up his hands and feet and cried out, "Oh ! don't! oh ! don't !" and I was more scared than he was, but I said : " Who are you before you die?" And he said: " Why, Legate, it's So- lon ! Don't you know Solon ?" We made friends in a moment, for it was a time when we had to make friends quickly. I contin- ued my race and he followed. When we got to the river we were in a terrible stew about getting across, the only way being to swim. He turned and went back and I jumped into the river, but I no- tice I backed up under the bank so closely that even a mosquito could not find me. Several of the bushwhackers came along and I heard them talking, oh, so sweetly(?) They saw the tracks lead- back into the bushes, so they turned back and I struck out. I made the best time possible, and I am certain that no Missouri river boat ever ploughed the water quicker than I did. They came back after awhile and amused themselves by shooting at me. They leveled a very large gun at me, resting it against a tree, and took deliberate aim. I could see clear to the bottom of the bar-
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rel, and could see the ball shining down there, but strange as it may appear, I was just as certain that it was not going to hit me as I ever was of anything in this world. I got out all right and started for Leavenworth at once, where I had some pressing business. I went to an old Indian woman and asked for a horse, and she replied in a lot of Indian gibberish, and that was all I could get out of her. So I went out and gobbled a horse and started for Leavenworth. I do not want to stop to crit- icise the actions of Tom Ewing, but I believe to-day as I believed then, that if Tom Ewing, now of Ohio, but then a general in the army, had taken my advice he would have captured Quantrill. There were seven steamboats at Leavenworth which he could press into service to transport his eleven hundred men to Kansas City, where he could head Quantrill off, but he went to De Soto instead, and got there just in time to see that noted bushwhacker and his men go out of the State.
I have detained you longer than I intended. I am like Geo. Crawford, when I get to talking I do not know when to stop. I expect to be here at another twenty-five year celebration. I ex- pect Gov. Robinson to be here also. And I know Geo. Crawford and Emery will be. And John Speer will be here for seventy-five years ; twenty-five years after I am dead. I hope that this meet- ing will serve to refresh the memory of the old settlers and im- press on the minds of the new, the trials through which the early settlers passed to make Kansas a free State. The making of Kan- sas a free State made the nation a free nation. I hope it will serve to give every man a generous reward for his deeds in those days; believing, as I do, that there is a Power above and be- yond men that guides, directs and controls; believing that neither the Emigrant Aid Society, Governor Robinson, Gen. Lane, John Brown, or anybody else is entitled to that enormous credit that some men seem ready to accord, but thinking that each and all were but instruments in the hands of a Power Unseen, whose pur- pose was to take from this country that relic of barbarism, the curse of slavery. That is all there is in it. I thank you all, la- dies and gentlemen, for your kind indulgence and flattering atten- tion.
ADDRESS BY COL. S. N. WOOD.
Mr. SPEER : We have an old resident among us this eve- ning who is well known to all of you. He came to this State dur- ing its darkest hours and has passed through some very narrow places since that time. I mean Col. S. N. Wood, and I have the pleasure of introducing him to you now.
Mr. Wood spoke as follows :
Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen :
I do not know why I am called upon to make a speech. I came here by accident. I had no intimation until yesterday morn-
5
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ing that I was expected to say anything on this occasion, or I would have done like my friend, Legate, and prepared a speech two hours long and committed it to memory. And then, after the whole history of Kansas has been mapped into one speech, if I had undertaken to say anything, Legate would get up here and say I was copying some of his speeches ; so that it places me in a very embarrassing position. There is another reason why I should not talk here-I was not sent to Kansas by the Emigrant Aid Com- pany ; I did not come from Boston, and I never was a Pennsylva- nia Democrat. And these are at least two good reasons why I should not say anything. I don't expect there ever was as big a coward in Kansas as I was in its early settlement, because I never got into a fight-if I did, I never got killed. I want to say right here that I expect to attend the next Quarter Centennial, and I expect to listen to my friend Legate giving the history of the next twenty-five years at the Centennial.
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