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 8
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I really do not know what to talk about here to-night. We have heard a great deal about Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington-and I want to say a word here for Thomas Jefferson. I recollect, in the early history of Virginia, that he said, "Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever." Yet I do not think that Virginia is entitled to any credit for making Kansas a free State; neither do I think that the Pennsylvania Democrats are entitled to any credit for making Kansas free, for I want to say right here that what we used to call "The Stubbs" did more to make Kansas free than all the governors that ever came here from Pennsylvania. Why, all that can be s id of those old gover- nors is that they were not as bad as we expected, and as they were understood to be; and after they got here and became acquainted with us, they found we were not near as bad as they had expected. I recollect when the word came from Shawnee Mission, in 1855, that Governor Reeder wanted to see some of his friends at Shaw- nee Mission, two wagon loads of us went down. We understood they were going to force him to issue certificates of election to men elected by force and fraud. We were ready to meet them, force with force. But the certificates were issued all the same, with two or three exceptions ; and they might just as well have been. Reeder lacked moral courage; but he got right, finally, and so did Geary and the rest. They came here all wrong, and we had to convert every one of them. They did not come here with very much that was good about them, as I recollect them.
I was going to say that during our Wakarusa war, there were two ladies here who went where men dare not go-through the border-ruffian lines, across the Wakarusa, and procured information and returned to Lawrence. They did more to make Kansas free than all the Democratic governors that ever came here from Penn- sylvania. I recollect the ladies of Lawrence who used to meet at my house, day after day, and make cartridges; and these ladies,
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and the men who fought, are the ones who converted the Demo- cratic governors of Pennsylvania and made Kansas free. Now I never was a Democrat-I never expect to be.
I came here from Ohio. I have not heard Ohio mentioned, I believe, in this celebration ; and it always did occur to me that there was her Chase, who helped to make Kansas free, and her Giddings and Wade-God bless them ! We had about as many Ohioans in Kansas as people from any other State. I think, in 1860, when the census was taken, that we had more Ohio people here than all New England had. I recollect very distinctly that in the first free state Legislature we ever had, there were more Ohioans in the Legislature than there were members from any other State-and Ohioans never want office, either. I can prove that by President Hayes, at any time.
If you will allow one word of egotism here, I want to men- tion a circumstance-so Legate can put it in his next speech. When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was pending before Congress, we had an indignation meeting in the town where I lived, in Ohio. I was studying law, at the time, with a firm, both of whom were Democrats. I took an active part in that meeting. I denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and squatter sovereignty.
Mr. Brumback said: "The bill will pass, and then what will you do about it?"
I said: "If that bill passes, I, for one, will go to Kansas and help fight the fight over again!" [Applause.]
I recollect I was cheered, but I did not think what I was say- ing at the time. I had no idea, then, of going to Kansas, but in the course of the next thirty days the question was asked me fre- quently when I was going to start. It became evident to me, as to everybody else, that the bill was going to pass. One night I went home and told my wife, as quick as the bill passed, I was going to Kansas, and asked her what she would do. She said if I went she was going also. The bill passed on the 30th of May, and, on the 6th of June, we-that is, myself, wife and two chil- dren-were on the road to Kansas. And we had never heard of the "Emigrant Aid Company," either.
When we came up into Kansas, Mrs. Wood and myself and the children, (we came in a wagon which we had brought with us from Ohio, by Cincinnati and up the river-we drove up on the old California road,) I remember we met two good free state men, Mr. White and Mr. Yates. We camped with them; the next morning they showed us their claims, which now take in all the country where the towns of Bloomington and Clinton are built. We thought there was considerable land to the acre. We went back to Independence, Missouri, by the Santa Fé road. I was raised a Quaker and opposed to fighting-on principle. We camped one night on Bull creek, and it rained very hard; in the morning, all around was cold and wet. McCamish, who kept a trading house, came down to see if we wanted breakfast, and invited us to
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his house to dry and warm. We met a stranger, I afterward learned, Mr. Brady, of Missouri. He evidently took us to be Missourians. I let him do all the talking, answering with mono- syllables. Just as I was getting up from the table he said :
"There are some men who say we have no right to bring our slaves here, and hold them as property."
I said : " That is my position exactly."
He says : "Explain."
I said : "You bring your slaves into Kansas. I swear out a writ of habeas corpus requiring you to bring your slaves before some court, to show by what authority you hold them. You can't plead the constitution of the United States, for that don't say any- thing on the subject. You can't plead the laws of Missouri, for they have no jurisdiction in Kansas. You can't plead the laws of Kansas, for we have passed none, and your slaves would go free."
He replied that he had but one reply to make to such argu- ment, and that was with his revolver and a rifle.
Before he had the words hardly out of his mouth I had my revolver out, and at his breast and said :
" God damn you, I would just as soon argue in that way as any other."
He then politely informed me that he did not intend anything personal.
We used to have a good deal of fun in those old times. I do not think that we realized what we were doing, half of the time. I recollect when I first came to Kansas, I had been to Westport. They had held a meeting there and resolved to hang every white- livered abolitionist that dared set foot in Kansas, and every man north of Mason's and Dixon's line is an abolitionist. I wrote it up. It was the first letter that was ever written from a free state stand- point, from Kansas. It was published in the National Era, Wash- ington, in June or July, 1854 It was copied into the Missouri Republican. I was in Westport when the Republican came with it in, and heard the letter denounced on all sides, and threats to kill the author. It was copied extensively throughout the States. That night I staid with an old man between Westport and Independ- ence, and he spent the whole evening almost in reading that letter to me. He said to me : "If I ever set eyes on that man I will shoot him at sight." I came very near telling him that he was lying about it, but I did not, fearing it might prove true, and let him go.
I think the first emigrants sent out by the Emigrant Aid Soci- ety came here in August, 1854. We were living about two and a half miles west of where Lawrence is now located. We had but few squatters before that time. We had already, however, organ- ized a squatters' association. At the first meeting we had fifteen squatters present. We came near having some trouble in it. Just about the time we had met, and were getting ready to commence business, up came about thirty armed men from Missouri, who wanted to know where the meeting was to be held. We were
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attending a house-raising and busy at work at the time. There was not a man at that house that knew anything about the meeting. But after they had got tired of waiting, and we had asked them to help us, they finally left. After they had gone, and we had got through raising the house, we had the meeting and appointed our officers. Before our next meeting the first New England emigrants came, and we re-organized.
I have ridden through Westport time and time again, when I was pointed at, and heard the remark, " There goes that abolition- ist." One time I had been to Kansas City with Judge Wakefield. On our return we stopped at the post-office for mail. The Judge staid in the buggy. I went into the post-office. Dr. Earl was post-master. The office was in the back end of a drug store. Whilst getting the mail, for the settlement, the drug store filled up, and the talk was about me. I knew I' must face it, and finally, adjusting my revolver, stepped into the drug store, with my arms full of mail matter. A large, tall man said, "here comes this damned stinking abolitionist."
" Now," I said, "if you were not a damned stinking puppy, I would notice you."
He made a lunge for me. I stepped aside and he passed me before he could gather himself up. I laid my mail down, clinched, and raised him from the floor, and threw him backward. He grabbed for my hair, and scratched my face a little. I grabbed his hair with my left hand, and struck him in the face with my right fist. He bled furiously, and cried " Take him off," And I was raised from him. Judge Wakefield came in puffing, and said :
" Mr. Wood has been in bed sick a week."
I laughed at the idea, took up my mail, and asked the Judge if he was ready to go. He said, "Yes."
I bowed and said : "Good-night, gentlemen," and we were soon at the Quaker Mission. I was never insulted in Westport afterward. This was the first time in my life that I ever hurt a man for telling the truth, but I went on the idea that the truth would not do to tell on all occasions.
After the first New England Emigrants came to Mt. Oread, the Border Ruffians undertook to scare them badly. I remember word was sent to my house (the same word was sent to the party on the hill), that unless we left before a certain night, that we would all be tarred and feathered. But we did not go. And when I met one of the men the next day, who had made the threat, I asked him why they had not done what they said they were going to do. He said the reason was that they could not find the feathers.
I said : " We have got two feather-beds. If you will furnish the tar, we will furnish the feathers and see who will get the most of it." (Laughter.)
I had loaned all my arms to the Yankees on the hill, and, on the second night, I told my wife I would go down and camp with
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the Yankees, thinking if they were frightened, or driven off, we should all have to go, but the first attempt would be made on the Yankees, if made at all. I got down there about dusk, and we put matters at the tents in order. Sam F. Tappan and myself went on picket duty. It was very dark. We were in a ditch at the road- side. A small body of horsemen passed us. We knew from their conversation that an attempt would be made to frighten the Yan- kees. They were joined by two others at the next house, when they returned. We remained until they were opposite us, and within twenty feet, when both of us sprung up, and I ordered :
" Make ready ! Take aim ! Fire !"
Bang, bang, went our pistols in the air, and the whole party left on a gallop. I do not know but they are running yet.
There is one other incident that I must relate in our early history. It was the attempt to cut down Governor Robinson's house. Robinson was building a house on Mount Oread, near where the old University stands. Colonel Deitzler (it was the first time I had met the Colonel-as true a man as ever lived) came to me, and said, " Dr. Wood, Babcock and Co. have gone up to cut Dr. Robinson's house down."
I asked : " Where is the doctor ?"
He said : "'He is away from home."
I said : "They ought not to cut the house down in Robinson's absence."
He said : "Well, what shall be done ?"
I said : " If you will stand by me it shall not be done."
He said : "I am with you."
I said : " Say nothing, but get your arms and meet me at my house in five minutes." I went at once to my house, put on my hat and two navy revolvers. By that time Colonel Deitzler was at my house, and we started for Mount Oread. As we ascended the hill I looked back, and the whole city seemed to be following. Babcock was chopping on the southeast corner-post-Dr. Wood the south center. There were some fifteen of them. The carpen- ters had quit work. I left Col. Deitzler at the corner, with Bab- cock, and stepped to the center-post, where Dr. Wood was chop- ping. I stepped between him and the post, and facing him, looked him square in the face, with his axe raised as if to strike again, which he could not do without hitting me. He asked: "What does this mean ?"
I replied : " It means that not another blow can be struck on the building. You were too cowardly to make the attempt when Robinson was here, and you shan't cut his building down in his absence." "Not another blow, gentlemen," said I. There was much swearing and threats. We said : "We know nothing about the merits of the case. Won't argue it, but you shan't cut down this house." Dr. Wood swore he would fight a duel with Dr. Robinson. I said : " I am Dr. Robinson's friend. I will accept the challenge now and name the weapons. You shall take a box
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of pills of your own make, Dr. Robinson the same, and sit straddle of a log, and see who can eat the most of his own pills and live." It turned the storm into a laugh, on all sides, and the fight was over, and the house saved, until afterward burned by Jones' posse, when the Free State Hotel was burned.
Ladies and gentlemen, my five minutes are up! I don't want to occupy your time any longer to-night. [Cries of "Go on, go on ! "}
When we old Kansas men get to talking about Kansas times, it is hard to stop. And it is almost impossible to give the history of those old times without giving our own personal history, to some extent. We have saved Kansas to freedom. Slavery has been wiped out in this whole country, and I am satisfied with the work that I have done toward it.
I believe that I built the first frame house, built in Lawrence. My Yankee friends were camping about in tents and log sheds, and I went to work and built a frame house. I built that house 14 by 16, with two rooms in it, one down stairs and one up stairs. But it was never full. We lodged in that house as high as twenty-five in one night. It was all of split timber and split boards.
A great many hardships were endured in those times, and the reason that we succeeded was because all that we had was dedicated to the cause of freedom in Kansas.
Eli Thayer, and the "Emigrant Aid Society," made a great excitement in Missouri, and especially about Westport. I repre- sented that 40,000 New Englanders were coming out, and excite- ment ran high. At one time I had been to Kansas City, and on my return to the settlement I stopped at the noon station, on a stream between Westport and the Wakarusa, and while my horses were eating I went out to the road, and took my axe and peeled off an elm tree and wrote on it that,
" Eli Thayer claims forty miles square for the New England Emigrant Aid Society, of which this is the center."
The Missourians soon got the idea that Thayer was in the State, and $1,000 reward was offered for him dead or alive. I went to Westport with D. R. Anthony, and when a Missourian wanted to see Thayer, I said :
" I am Eli Thayer, what do you want ?"
He wanted nothing.
One of the first suits that I had in the Territory was when a man named Adams had claimed a piece of land that Dr. Harring- ton had settled on. The Governor recollects it well. Almost everybody turned out to the trial. I reasoned this way: Adams was a Missourian, and if he can get Harrington's claim, some other Missourian will come and claim any piece of land that any of the Yankees here settled on. And we have got to beat Adams at all hazards.
Only two of the six jurymen drawn were present. We agreed to try with three men. Of the others, one was a free state man
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and one a pro-slavery. The great point to be gained was the other juryman. Every lawyer knows how important it is to get a jury that you can rely on in the trial of any cause. And this was no exception to the rule, I assure you. We both tried every way that we could think of, to get the other juryman to suit ourselves, but could not make it.
Finally, Adams said: "Make us a fair proposition."
I suggested to him that we would name all the men we wanted as witnesses, he do the same, and then the Judge should name three men from the bystanders that were left, and not witnesses. This seemed to please him, and he assented. I asked them to name their witnesses. They did so. I spent a few minutes mark- ing down the names of our witnesses, and when I was done I had got every man down as a witness that I did not want on the jury. From the bystanders Judge Wakefield named three. They marked off one and we one. And in this way I succeeded in getting the jury I wanted, and gained the case. It would have gained almost any case.
Now, it has been said that we are going to have another Quarter Centennial, twenty-five years from now. I expect to be at it. And I think we have got about as much work to do in the next twenty-five years as we have done in the last twenty-five years. I do not think that labor is more than about half free now. We have got to go to work to save the country from the money power, as we did from the slave power.
Thanking you all for your kind attention, I bid you good- night. (Great applause.)
ADDRESS BY H. MILES MOORE.
MR. SPEER :- I want to introduce to you now a man whose service to the free state cause was valuable beyond all estimation ; because, coming from Missouri where he was prominent for his ability and public spirit, he took up his residence at Leavenworth among the first settlers of the place, and there boldly avowed him- self a free state man; and there maintained his opinions against the fury and hate of a pro-slavery population, three to one against the free state men. That man is .H. Miles Moore, and I now ask him to come forward and speak to you.
Mr. Moore made the following remarks :
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and I may be pardoned if I add, Old Friends :
I see before me many old and familiar faces, whom I have known here in Kansas for the past quarter of a century, during all those days that " tried men's souls." To many of us, then young, the silver threads of age are mingling among the gold. The late- ness of the hour will not justify me in making any extended re-
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marks, as I might have done, had the time or occasion permitted. I have listened during the day and evening with no little interest to the labored and in some instances tiresome speeches of some of those who were apparently forgetful of the true objects which have brought this people together on this memorable occas on-this family reunion of the "Old Settlers " of Kansas and their friends-this " love feast " as the good old Methodist would call it. The sweet refrain of most of those who have already sung their song, has been to glorify the great and good Governor Reeder and other Demo- crats of Eastern Pennsylvania, also the " Emigrant Aid Society," of Massachusetts. A stranger unacquainted with the facts and listening to these speeches and addresses, could not avoid coming to the conclusion that to Gov. Reeder and the "Emigrant Aid Society," all the credit was due and all the glory was won, which saved Kansas to freedom and the right, and cast a halo of light along the pathway of her brave sons and daughters, many of whom suffered untold pe ils, and some even death that we might be free. I would be untrue to history, untrue to humanity, untrue to free- dom and the memory of her slaughtered sons, untrue to myself and my God, were I to allow this occasion (though brief it may be) to pass without opening my mouth in defense of the memory of those brave men whose bodies lie mouldering on the bleak hill-side of " Pilot Knob," near Leavenworth, or like the lonely grave of poor Roberts, by the road-side, unmarked even by a single stake, which the good old Indian Tonganoxie covered with stones, that the coy- otes might not rob it of its treasure. These, and a hundred other brave men laid down their lives that we of Kansas might enjoy the blessings of this day ; not one of them came to Kansas under the auspices of, or received one dollar of assistance from the " Emi- grant Aid Society," in any manner or form whatever. No doubt that association did a vast amount of good in its way. It assisted many to come to Kansas who would never have been able to reach here with their own unaided resources. It erected mills and ma- chinery, and furnished settlers with implements of trade and hus- bandry ; it cultivated, to a certain extent the arts of war and peace. True, many who came out from New England under its guidance, made but a temporary stay in the Territory. They knew nothing of the trials which beset the pathway on every hand of settlers in a new land, and especially in " Early Kansas," they were not pre- pared to wrestle with the stern realities of a border life. Soon dis- gusted with its iron rigor, with desperation they seized their grip- sacks, and the same Missouri River steamboat that brought them to our shores, on its return from up the river, sped them on their homeward way. The vessel that bore Cæsar and his fortunes car- ried but an ignoble load compared with those brave heroes and their luggage. True, some of these noble souls returned many long years after to greet us, and even now, and here, perchance, are boasting of their early settlement in Kansas, and of their valiant deeds for her welfare, most of which, however, were done at a re-
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spectful and safe distance from danger, among the rugged hills of their beloved New England. Let not any one on this occasion seek, even by comparison, to rob the brave sons of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and last but not least of our sister State Missouri, of their prop- er share of the glory of redeeming Kansas from the thralldom of slavery. Many from the latter State settled in the border counties, some with their slaves, and at least if not prejudiced in favor of the " peculiar institution," were willing and anxious that the vexed question should be settled under the provisions of the Kansas-Ne- braska bill, by the bona fide settlers in the Territory, and not by armed hordes from Missouri or elsewhere. The outrages perpetra- ted upon their political rights by these invaders at the first and sec- ond elections in the Territory, and the threats then made by those ruffians, advertised them of what they might reasonably expect at future elections, and they were not disappointed. A hundred brave men at least, in Leavenworth city and county alone, mostly from Missouri, banded themselves together and resolved that they would not longer lend their aid or even countenance such outrages upon the freedom of the ballot box. For an honest expression of their opinions in this behalf, they were persecuted by day and by night, and finally driven from their homes, hunted like wild beasts; others were murdered in cold blood, like Brown and Bimmerlee, Phillips and the lion hearted Shoemaker, and a score of other brave and gallant spirits, who gave up their lives at Leaven- worth alone, for opinions' sake. It was an easy matter in those sad days of 1855 and '56 to be a free state man or even an abolitionist at Lawrence, where all were of one mind and thought, but a very different question to entertain, much more to express free state opinions at Leavenworth, where four-fifths of the people were most violent pro-slavery zealots, and he who dared to assert his manhood boldly and bravely, carried his life in his hands, at the muzzle of his trusty revolver, each hour of his life, by day and by night. This is no fancy sketch of a vivid imagination, but stern realities of every-day life. The most sacred ties of friendship and of blood were basely disregarded. The sacred obligations taken at the fraternal altar were ruthlessly trampled under foot, and those who dared but allude by word or sign to those sacred obligations, were denounced as traitors, spurned with contempt, and driven like dogs out of the town to Fort Leavenworth, or aboard steam- boats at the levee.
Those who came from Missouri had no place of refuge or safety to flee to but to Lawrence, and there they aided those people in their troubles, with their strong arms and willing hands. And right here may I not add (by way of parenthesis) that never on a single occasion did Lawrence send out her Macedonian cry to Leavenworth for aid to assist her to beat back the hordes of fiends incarnate that threatened her with destruction, that the true men of Leavenworth did not right heartily, and with alacrity, respond to that cry. From the day of the "Wakarusa War," in December,
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