\5 *^^*?7r* .^ ^ 7'-'^\ <^. ^^ 'o.\* (--T^^^ ^ V o. .^'>\, O n O ' ^^^ -p ',> .s'- ^ .N> THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS, BY MISSOURI AND HER ALLIES. A HISTORY OP THE TROUBLES IN KANSAS, FROM THE PASSAGE OE THE ORGANIC ACT UNTIL THE CLOSE OF JULY, 1856. BY WILLIAM PHILLIPS, •» SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE, FOR KANSAS. " Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave States ; since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it in behalf of Freedom. "VVe will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side that is stronger in numbers as it is in right ! " — Speech of Wm. H. Seward, in the U. S. Senate, 1854. BOSTON. PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY, 1856. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO., la the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. stereotyped by nOBART 4 R0BBIN8, Kew EDgUnd Type and Stereotype Poundcry, PREFACE. The writer deems no apology necessary in submitting the early and unhappy history of Kansas to the public. A conviction of its importance impelled him to the task, and he assumed the duty of historian under the belief that his opportunities for observation, and participation in much of what has occurred, gave him advantages over other writers less conversant with the subject. It is not the intention of this preface to make an elabo- rate assertion of impartiality. What is written is offered to the public as the simple truth, and a fair record of the events it chronicles. The writer does not claim to be impar- tial on the cause of quarrel, nor would he regard such a profession as very creditable in any other person ; yet he believes that his convictions could neither induce him to wrong an enemy, nor do a friend more than justice. The future will fully vindicate the truth of all that is written ; and, if there is one generous mind which, with the lights now before it, would incline to charge the author with i3er- version, let such a doubter know that the author, while he values the good opinion of all good men, would rather thus be suspected, than purchase a doubtful reputation for impar- tiality at the sacrifice of a truthful record. The common IV PEEFACE. trick of authors who lack independence, is, to compound between '' God and mammon,'' and, in steering exactly be- tween two opinions, to claim all the virtues, and exemption from all the vices, of both. Such a course the author does not desire to imitate. In this narrative there is a faithful record of all the im- portant documents, and the opinions of both sides have been given on many important points, although the design was to have a connected narrative, rather than a collection of statements. In the biographical sketches contained in the work the writer has treated the leaders on both sides with that close scrutiny which is the public right as regards public men. A perusal will probably exonerate from the charge of " puflSng ; '' and if some friends regard their handling as rather "candid,'' let them know that it was, at least, without malice. In descriptions of the battles, skirmishes, and other strik- ing incidents, great pains has been taken to have the out- lines and the facts correct, and to make the picture as true to nature as possible. As it was the design to give a history of the struggle, rather than a condensation or collection of outrages, very many important and outrageous occurrences have been necessarily omitted. Finally, reader, after having perused it, criticize, and censure it as much as you think you conscientiously can. In the history thus submitted, the privilege of judging men and things has been too freely exercised to be grudged to any careful reader by The Author. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Kansas before the Passage of the Organic Act — Indians and Indian Reserves — Santa Fe and California Roads — Religious Missions — Slavery Intro- duced — Kansas Nebraska Bill — Emigration — Federal Appointments — Indian Treaties — Rival Interests, 11 CHAPTER II. THE FIRST INVASION. Eastern Emigration — Threatened Attack — Border Ruffians — A Warning — Another — Prudent Valor — A Retreat — A Sharp Joke — Bogus "Nig- ger Hunter " — " Right on the Records," 27 CHAPTER III. GOV. REEDER FIRST ELECTION BLUE LODGE. Federal Appointees — A Missouri View of Reeder — Flenniken — Whitfield — Wakefield — Fall Election — Blue Lodge operates in Missouri as well as Kansas — Mr. Prince — Having Friends in Missouri — A Cross Exam- ination, 37 CHAPTER IV. SMART ELECTIONEERING TRICK. A Resolve — Abstract Democracy — Simon Pure Know-Nothing — Another — How Electioneering with Indians goes — Slavery Established by Missouri and Territorial Judges — Slavery Vindicated, 53 CHAPTER V. THE MARCH ELECTION. Kind of Population — Old-fashioned Pioneers — Modern Pioneers — Squatter Sovereignty — The Census — The Election — The Men Elected — The Fraud as certified to, 63 1# VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. WHAT KANSAS AND MISSOURI THOUGHT OF IT PROTEST MAY ELECTION. Kansas to be "kept Conquered" — Lynching of Phillips — Death of Clark — Proceedings in Missouri — Free Press and Speech Tabooed — The Pulpit under Censorship — An Original Specimen on the Stand — Parkville Press thrown into the Missouri, 83 CHAPTER VII. « THE BOGUS LEGISLATURE. Missouri Wars on Reeder — Legislature Meets — Legal Members Ejected, July 4th — Legislation — Laws relative to Slave Property — Election of Local Officers — Bogus Legislature help Themselves — Federal Courts pro- nounce in Pavor of Bogus Laws in Advance — A Memorial — An Office-seeker on the Stool of Repentance, 98 CHAPTER VIII. REEDER DISMISSED SHANNON APPOINTED BIG SPRINGS CONVEN- TION. The Excuse — Shannon — His Reception and Speech — The People Murmur — The State Movement — Reeder nominated for Delegate — His Acceptance and Speech — Resolutions — The Platform, 114 CHAPTER IX. THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION. The First Topeka Convention — A County Seat Election — October Election — The Constitutional Convention — The Constitution — Sketches of the Topeka Delegates, 125 CHAPTER X. PAT LAUGHLIN PARDEE THE MARTYR LAW AND ORDER CON- VENTION. Pat's Conversion — His Zeal — His Repentance — Death of Collins — Atchison — Border Ruffian Story — Law and Order in Leavenworth — The Governor as a Popular Delegate — Law and Order Speeches — Bogus Laws to be Enforced, 141 CHAPTER XI. RESCUE OF BRANSON. Origin of the Difficulty — Murder of Dow — Flight of the Murderer — Meeting at Hickory Point — A Plot — Jones enters the Territory with Coleman — A CONTENTS. VII Justice Manufactured — Branson Arrested — Big Threats — The Rescue Impending War, 151 CHAPTER XII. WAKARUSA WAR PREPARATIONS. Jones Fulminates — The Governor Assists — Military Orders — Proclamation — Secret Orders — Col. Boone's Despatches — Missouri in the Field, . . 162 CHAPTER XIII. WAKARUSA WAR INCIDENTS OF THE SIEGE. The First Impulse — A more Prudent Position — Organized Defence — An Alarm — An Expedition — The Invaders — Queries about "Sharpe's" Rifles — The Fillibuster Flag — An EfiFort to prevent the '< Effusion of Blood" — The Demand for Arms, 174 CHAPTER XIV. ADVENTURES WITH THE BORDER RUFFIAN CHIEFS. Expedition — A Free and Easy Guard — A RuflBan Chief — Careful Guard and a Capture — Wakarusa Camp again — A Vermonter — A Journey — Another Arrest — An Odd-Fellow — Gen. Pomeroy — The Return — How we swam the River, 187 CHAPTER XV. WAKARUSA WAR DEATH OF BARBER. Preparations for Defence — A Patrol Incident — A Spy— Indians offer their Services — The Brass Howitzer — The Ladies of Lawrence — Jones as a Scribe — A Threatening Letter — The Murder of Barber, 203 CHAPTER XVI. THE " PEACE-MAKERS." The Deputation — Shannon comes up — In Trouble — A Cautious Colonel — The Governor and his Friends — The Ghost of Banquo — Negotiations — Speeches — The Treaty — What they treated about — " Militia " Disbanded — A Row — A Storm — Breaking up of the Invading Camp — The Governor << when you know him," 216 CHAPTER XVII. MOBBING THE BALLOT-BOXES. Prisoners of War — Fruits of the War — The Peace Banquet — Volunteers Disbanded — Vote on the State Constitution — "Emigration" on the "Squatter Sovereignty" Plan — Two Heroes — An Attack — Successful — Further Threats — "Militia" Disbanded — Law and Order Speeches — Fears for a Night Attack, 229 VIII CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. SKIRMISH AT EASTON. Election Forbidden in Leavenworth — Held at Easton — Voters Molested and Polls Threatened — An Attack — A Rescue — A Fight — Taken Prisoner — Death of Capt. Brown — Nominating Convention Election, 240 CHAPTER XIX. STATE LEGISLATURE DRAGOONS SHERIFF JONES SHOT. Treason — President's Poclamation — Response to it — Assemblage of the Leg- islature — Governor's Speech — Committee of Congress — Attempted Arrests — Dragoons under Orders of Jones — Military Correspondence — Arrests — The " Assassin " — " Passin' Resolutions " — A Trick Suspected — Missouri Indignant — Outrages not mentioned by Authority — The War Begun, . 248 CHAPTER XX. MARSHAL DONALDSON DECLARES WAR. Missouri receives Allies — A Couple of Deputies — A Marshal — A Federal Court in Kansas — An Indictment against Mortar, Iron, and Paper — At- tempt to arrest Reeder — Gov. Robinson starts for the East — His Capture — Reeder's Flight — Committee leave Lawrence — Proclamation — Protests — Proposals for Defence Overruled — A New Committee of Safety — A Threatening Letter — Adventures of Free-State Men — Further Correspond- ence — Arms Taken — Murder of Jones — Death of Stewart, .... 264 CHAPTER XXI. SACKING OF LAWRENCE. The Advanced Guard — Arrests — Reinforcements — Another Appeal — A Demand — A Surrender — Law and Order Speeches — The Allied Army enter Lawrence — Printing Offices Destroyed — Hotel Bombarded and Burned — Wholesale Plunder — Pro-slavery Version, 289 CHAPTER XXII. GUERILLA WAR — THE DRAGOONS LAW AND ORDER IN LEAVEN- WORTH. Atchison passes through Lawrence — The Box Hoax — Pro-slavery Testimony — Guerilla War — "Burning" of Bernhardt — The Governor Victimized — Dragoons called out — Potawattomio AflFairs — A Notice — Law and Order Arrests, 310 CHAPTER XXIII. CAPT. WALKER THE GOVERNOR ON SHARPE'S RIFLES. Price on a Free-State Man's Head — The Alarm — The Muster — The Attack CONTENTS. IX — The Repulse — A Peace-Maker — The "Right of Search" — A "Law and Order" Governor — A Brave Little Girl — The Gallant Dragoons get in Trou- ble by Mistake — Another Alarm — A Capture — Prisoners Liberated, . 320 CHAPTER XXIV. BATTLE OF BLACK JACK. Capt. Pate's Expedition — Houses Burned and Prisoners Taken — Alliance be- tween the RufEans and Dragoons — Brutal Treatment of the Prisoners — Palmyra Plundered — A Preacher Outraged — Prisoners — Attack on Prairie City — Religion and War — A Boy Hero — The Reconnoitre — The Battle — The Surrender, 331 CHAPTER XXV. BATTLE OF FRANKLIN. State Prisoners — Franklin a Military Point — The Plan, or the "Want of One — The Attack — Major Redpath — The "Music of the Spheres" — Evacuation of the Guard House — The Wakarusa Boys — The Retreat — Lawless Arrests — Indictments, 343 CHAPTER XXVI. NIMROD WHITFIELD DEATH OF CANTRAL CAMPAIGNING IN THE WAR OF FREEDOM. A New Proclamation — The Troops after Capt. Brown — Whitfield's Invasion — The Fx-ee-State Forces — The Young Guerillas — The March on Hickory Point — The Troops enter Brown's Camp — Pate and his Fellow-prisoners Released — The Border Rufiians Dispersed "upon their honor" — Cantral taken Prisoner — Reconnoitring — A Capture — The Dragoons — The To- peka Boys at Willow Springs -r- Death of Cantral, 356 CHAPTER XXVII. SACKING OF OSAWATTOMIE. An Appeal — A Visit to the Dragoons — What the Dragoons Did — Attack on Osawattomie — A Masterly Retreat — " Holding Out " against the Abolition- ists, 370 CHAPTER XXVIII. A CHAPTER OF OUTRAGES. The Governor gets Alarmed — A Warning — Law and Order Operations on the Indians — A Letter of Invitation — Mr. Bailey's Statement — C. H. Barlow's Statement — Mr. Baldwin's Statement — A Fearful Letter — Missouri River Piracy, 377 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIX. DISPERSION OF THE LEGISLATURE. Preparations for the Fourth — Fecleral Troops supersede the Euffians — A Proclamation — Legislature Convenes — Military Correspondence — A Reso- lution — A String of Proclamations — Troops enter Topeka — Both Branches of the Legislature Dispersed — Troops Retire, 392 CHAPTER XXX. CLOSING CHAPTER ON THE STATE OF CONQUERED KANSAS. THE CONaUEST OF KANSAS. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Little more than two years ago Kansas was closed to emigra- tion. The remnants of numerous and powerful tribes were scattered over the eastern portion of the territory, on reserves given to them by government. These reserves embraced a con- siderable portion of the country adjacent to the Missouri river, and one hundred and fifty miles west of it. This is the richest and most available portion of the territory. Besides bordering on the Missouri, it includes the Kaw and its numerous tributaries ; tha head waters of the Osage and Arkansas rivers, and the many rivulets and streams which flow into them. It is prairie country, the timber being chiefly confined to the banks of the creeks and rivers. These are so abundant, that, in the portion to which I allude, the prairies are rarely more than four or five miles across. The soil is rich and deep ; a black loam, for two or three feet, on a porous clay subsoil. The prairies, are all rolling, and in some spots even hilly. The soil rests on a limestone basis. A coarse, gray, carboniferous limestone rock constitutes the upper strata. This dips out on the face and crests of the hills and prairie knolls, and the broken and detached fragments of rock mark them with a rocky belt at certain elevations. Beneath this limestone lies a blue sandstone, compact, even, and easily worked ; beneath that, a finer quality of limestone. The western and southern parts of the country I am describing rest on beds of the yellow and red sandstone. On many of the rivers and small creeks coal has already been found ; from the indications, it is probably abundant throughout the territory. The soil is loose and deep, and emi- 12 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. nently calculated to sustain cro^.s in dry weather. The climate resembles that of Southern Illinois and Indiana, only it is much more salubrious and dry. The breeze blows fresh from the moun- tains, meetiog no obstructions on the plains. There is always a breeze, often high winds. When the traveller is ascending the Missouri river, as he ap- proaches the mouth of the Kaw, he is travelling west ; at that point he first sees Kansas soil. The Kaw or Kansas river flows from the west. From its mouth the Missouri river takes a bend, and runs nearly due north for a considerable distance. From the mouth of the Kaw river, on the right bank, the boundary line between Kansas and Missouri runs directly south. The Kaw river thus runs diagonally through the eastern part of the territory. Immediately at the point of confluence between the Kaw and Missouri lies the Wyandot reserve. It is small, extending six miles from the mouth. It is densely timbered. The tribe is not numerous, but they are comparatively civilized. They have mostly good farms and good houses for the West. They are wealthy, many of them having intermarried with the whites. Immediately above the Wyandot begins the Delaware reserva- tion. The Wyandot was a purchase from the Delaware. The Delaware reserve is a large tract of country, chiefly prairie, but well timbered. It borders the Kaw on the north side, and runs up for forty miles. Ten miles wide of the northern part has • been ceded, and will be sold to the highest bidder, under treaty. This is now covered with the settlements and claims of white men. Towns and future cities have been located upon it. The Delawares have been a powerful tribe, and several thousands of them are still on the reserve. They cultivate but little land. A few good farms are scattered along the military road, and a few patches and small farms may be seen elsewhere; but they are indolent, semi- barbarous, and depend chiefly on their annuities. They are un- willing to sell the remainder of their land. I do not think they can successfully mix with the whites. Their reserve is one of the most beautiful tracts of prairie and woodland, and lies in position to give it eminent commercial value. Immediately above the Delaware reserve is a strip of land belonging to the Kaw half- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13 breeds. Above that, and on both sides of the Kaw, lies the Potawat- tomie reserve. It is a large, square tract, consisting of* the finest land and timber, and the greater part of it lies, to all intents and purposes, a wilderness. A wilderness I fear it will remain, if the blossoms and fruit of civilization are to spring from the efforts of these Indians. Thej are like the Delawares, only " much more so." The Delawares are better familiarized with the whites, and possess in more eminent degree the marks of whiskey civilization. The Potawattomies, Kaws, Sacs, and Foxes, and several other lesser tribes, are of the Indians, Indianish. They are only one remove from the tomahawk and wigwam, and, take it all in all, I do not know if that remove is for the better. The Kickapoo reserve lies between the Kaw and the Missouri. It is a tract of some ten by twenty miles. It touches the head- waters of the Grasshopper and the Stranger Creek. This is a fine prairie country, resembling in all essential points the Dela- ware reserve. The Kickapoos, unlike the " Rangers " of the same name, are comparatively civilized ; but it is Indian civilization at best. Further north, and close to the Nebraska line, which is the base line of the surveys, there are a few small tribes scattered on petty reserves, some of them on the Missouri river, and some back of it. To the south of the Kaw, and stretching upwards of thirty miles to the west from the Missouri frontier, lies the Shawnee re- serve. The reserve borders the Kaw from a point near its mouth, and stretches far enough to the southward to be nearly square. This reserve consists mostly of high-rolling prairies. The timber is not so plentiful here as on some other parts, but those most familiar with it think there is enough; Limestone rocks on the prairie hills are very plenty, although confined, as in all such cases, to narrow strips and belts. These rocky belts are more common and striking on the prairie hills along the valley of the Kaw than in other parts of the territory. The Shawnee reserve is' very fine land. I do not consider it the finest in the territory ; but its contiguity to the richest and most thickly-settled part of Missouri gives it a value. The Shawnees are semi-civilized, and are, I think, more industrious than the majority of the Indians. 2 14 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. Many of them are farmers, and, in their houses, property, and management, resemble the poorer class of settlers in the West. They are half-educated, half-evangelized, half-laborize^?, half-whis- keyfied, half- white man, and half-Indian. As no white man has been allowed to settle on these reserved lands, there are, of course, no legal preemptions upon them ; yet they have all been staked off. Scarcely a merchant or storekeeper's clerk — in fact, scarce- ly any one about Westport and Independence — but has a "claim staked out" thereabouts. These claims rest on a bowie-knife-and- revolver basis, and may prove good if the Indian and land agents are sufficiently rascally, and those who may incline to be contest- ants are sufficiently timid. These clainls have mostly been taken during the various warlike and election raids on the free-state settlers ; for the Shawnee reserve lies out from Westport, and is between the Missouri frontier and the New England settlements in the valley of the Kaw. There is a great road, leading out from Independence and West- port into the territory, which has hitherto been an important thor- oughfare. After it has entered the territory for a few miles it forks. One fork, bending up through the territory to the south- west, is the Santa Fe trail ; the other, after crossing the Shaw- nee reserve, runs up between the Kaw and Wakarusa, cross- ing the former below Fort Riley, and leading out towards Fort Laramie. It is the California road. On the first of these roads the commerce with New Mexico has passed. Along the other, for years back, there has been a stream of human life pouring out from the States, carrying with it the elements for a new empire on the Pacific. Besides these roads, there are other two main roads or trails starting from Leavenworth, which, in business, are super- seding the others ; one a California road from Leavenworth to Laramie, the other by Fort Riley to Santa Fe. The travellers from every portion of the United States, who have passed over these roads for the last few years, have noted Eastern Kansas. As they crossed its streams, and looked down from the high prai- rie knolls upon the scene of fertility and beauty, marked the feathery outlines of timber which fringe the numerous streams, and observed the deep black prairie loam, not flat, but beautifully INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15 picturesque and rolling, they saw, in these indications of natural wealth and beauty, the seat of a future empire, a glorious state, lying at the feet of a Western comriterce, long neglected, but great in the future. As they passed on through these rich valleys, and finally struck the coarse sandy soil, covered by a sparse buflPalo- grass, they halted, ere they entered the regions of plain and bar- renness, to fix on their memories a more definite picture to carry with them, and make this a future El Dorado to their wandering thoughts and wandering footsteps, which, in all their weary pere- grinations, are never fated to press a rival of this " Italy of Amer- ica and garden-spot of the world." Many of these California emigrants are now in Kansas. Amongst others. Dr. Charles Robinson, while on his overland route some years ago, left the train, while the oxen and mules were pick- ing their supper from the slopes that fall towards the Wakarusa, and took a stroll to look at the country, so new and full of in- terest. Amidst the tall prairie-grass, he traversed Mt. Oread. He stood on the spot where his house subsequently stood, and where its ashes now mark the footsteps of border ruffians, and looked down on the beautiful prairie knoll close to the river, sloping so gently in all directions. Before him was the site of the future Lawrence, then a beautiful wild, the tall trees on the left bank of the river throwing their dark shadows in the winding Kaw, which here murmured over a petty rapid. Before the California emigration this territory was regarded as an Indian wild — a trackless and worthless waste. The frontier of Missouri was considered the outpost of civilization, and all beyond set down as a region of inhospitable barrenness, where the remnants of the once powerful Indian tribes could be gathered, and where they could be left until whiskey civilization, or the inexorable hand of fate, should efi"ect their annihilation. Tribe after tribe was here located, and land set apart to them, with the promise that here they might permanently reside. A careful examination of this policy, and of the political record to trace the hands to which the country is indebted for it, will show that to the existence of the Missouri Compromise it must be attrib- uted. By that restriction Kansas was shut to slavery. Western 16 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. Missouri is the seat of slavery in that state. It is chiefly confined to the few counties that border it. Western Missouri looked with an envious eye upon Kansas. It acted as if Kansas really be- longed to it. Years before the American people heard a syllable about the repeal of the Missouri compromise, it was contemplated and discussed in Western Missouri. The propagandists, who, act- ing under the conviction that Kansas was lost to slavery, had tied it up with Indian treaties that would effectually prevent any attempted settlement, began to plan a double villany, a breach of faith with the aborigines, and a breach of the sacred compromise by which it had been hoped the vexed question was amicably set- tled. With covert and cunning movement the plot progressed ; a plot that was not only to give Kansas to slavery, but to throw open the whole national territory to its embrace. But, even while Kan- sas was guaranteed to freedom, slavery was introduced. Nearly all of the Indian agents were slavery propagandists, and many of them owned slaves. The first slavery in the territory, however, was introduced by one who came professedly to preach the Gospel. Through all of the Indian tribes missionary stations and schools were scattered. These represented different denominations, some supported exclusively by the body that sent them, others in part by a per centage from the Indian payments, their cbance for the latter being to some degree dependent on the esteem in which their " faith" and " practice " were held by the Indian agents. Close to the frontier of Missouri, and within a few miles of Westport, stands one of the oldest missions in the territory, — the celebrated " Shawnee Mission," of the Methodist Church South. Three sections of the very finest land were granted by the Shaw- nees to this mission ; besides which, no inconsiderable portion of government money and per centage on the Indian annuities have been expended in erecting three or four massive and extensive, but tasteless and filthy-looking, brick buildings, and in converting those three sections of fertile Indian land into a well-improved and beautiful farm, which I have heard estimated worth sixty thousand dollars. In the progress of events, and by a system of manage- ment which I cannot comprehend, much less explain, two sections of this farm, containing many of the best improvements, have fallen INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 17 into the hands of the present head of the mission, the Rev. Tom Johnson. Some twenty years ago, when this worthy came to Kansas, he was, as I have been emphatically told, " not worth a blanket." By " breaking the bread of life " to others, he seems haply to have acquired a reasonable portion of the baser, or "of the earth earthy," bread himself. The " laborer " was doubtless " worthy of his hire ; " but whether it was hire for preaching the great Christian doctrine, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," or in the vigorous inculca- tion of more critically orthodox doctrines on the relative duties of " servants " and " masters," is a point worth considering. The Rev. Tom Johnson is a western man. Vulgar, illiterate, and coarse, I have heard his voice ring through the dingy brick wall of the Shawnee Mission in prayer, his style being char- acterized chiefly by extreme western provincialisms and very bad grammar. A violent pro-slavery partisan, he has been a useful tool in his way. His name may be found figuring in some of the most violent of the pro-slavery partisan meetings, and he was President of the Council of the Bogus Legislature which, within the walls of his mission, in the rooms dedicated to the service of Him who is the God of justice and truth, perpetrated one of the most flagrant outrages on right and justice recorded on the page of history. The Rev. Tom was elected in a district in which white men were not allowed to reside, with the exception of the few religious missions, and federal officers in the shape of Indian agents; his constituency coming chiefly from Westport, Mo. This worthy is said to have first introduced slavery into Kansas. He introduced and held slaves at the time when the existence of the restriction rendered it a violation of the spirit of the temporal law. I conversed with one of the most intelligent of the Delaware chiefs on the political sentiments of his tribe. He told me they were nearly all free-state men, except a few on the south side of the reserve, close to the Shawnee country. On inquiry why these were pro-slavery, he shook his head, and said, " There is no sense in it ; for not one of them will ever be rich 2* 18 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. enough to own a nigger, or take care of him if they had him. It is these preachers who tamper with them. They believe every- thing they say." Does not this out- Jesuit Jesuitism ? I only mention these facts in this connection to show the means used to rob Kansas from freedom, and that the first step in the conquest was done under the shadow of the banner of the Prince of Peace. I would merely exhibit the point of all this by stating that when the treaties were arranged, a year and a half ago, the portion of the funds dedi- cated to religious uses fell into the hands of this Methodist Mis- sion; the Quaker and Baptist Missions, in the same locality, which had also labored long in the field of Shawnee heathenism, were left out. Perhaps this was because it was conceived that the positions of these bodies would sustain the more republican theory of religious support, — on the voluntary principle ; perhaps, because the agent was a pro-slavery man, and, in point of fact, a Missourian. In the fall of 1853 the plot for the conquest of Kansas ma- tured. In the struggle which ensued, the breach of faith with the Indians was comparatively lost sight of. It required no spirit of divination to foresee that, in opening the territory to a white pop- ulation, the semi-barbarous occupancy of the finest lands by the Indians would inevitably terminate in some manner. I do not know whether the originators of the Kansas Nebraska Bill con- templated an amalgamation of the whites and Indians, to vin- dicate the faith of treaties and the progress of American civ- ilization westward. If so, it was a blunder. Some few of the more intelligent and industrious Indians may be absorbed in the population of Kansas, but the great mass can neither use nor be used by civilization. There is no honorable escape from the dilemma in which the Kansas Bill places these matters. To leave the tribes on closely-guarded reserves would be a step eminently prejudicial to the best interests of a civilized commu- nity, and would be unjust and inhumane to the Indians them- selves. To permit them to hold farms in individual occupancy, and thus merge and sink their tribe in the community, although the most just arrangement, would soon, in the progress of whiskey INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 19 civilization, reduce them to a fraction of what they are, beggars and plagues to society. To deprive them of the power of selling these farms would only reduce them to the acute point of misery at an earlier date, and be a nuisance in the society they thus ob- structed. A more humane policy would contemplate the extradition of the tribes — the less civilized portion — to wilds further west, where their nomadic and indolent habits would not expose them so surely to starvation, and where they would not be thrown in con- tact with a civilization with which they were not prepared to grapple. Such are the Indian aspects of the Kansas question ; grave and important considerations, which the din of political strife has caused to be too much overlooked, but which appeal to the intel- ligent statesman and the humane citizen. That the design of the law organizing the Territory of Kansas was to make it a slave state, has since been conclusively shown by the agencies since set to work to remove the unforeseen obstacles which have arisen in the path of such a scheme. If further evi- dence were wanting, it could be obtained from the testimony of the actors themselves. Dr. Stringfellow, while under oath before the committee of Congress, stated that such " was the design of the Kansas Nebraska Bill ; " and, when reminded of the polit- ical theories by which the northern supporters of that measure attempted to vindicate this position, rejoined, " That was all Buncombe — who believes that ? " He stated that such were not only the objects of the organic law, but that the executive, and those who carried it through, so understood it, and added, that it was the expectation that the emigration from Western Missouri would quickly settle the question. He also states that it was the Eastern Emigrant Aid Societies that first threw doubt upon the success of this scheme, thereby causing trouble. But, to a question from Mr. Sherman, he admitted that the influx of any free-state settlers, sufficient to produce the same result, let them come in any way, would have caused trouble. There is not the slightest doubt but such is the true state of the case. The two policies of the free and slave states are so opposite and hostile, and they could only triumph over each other to the so 20 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. serious detriment of the defeated party, that the expedient of in- viting them to settle their respective claims on the soil of a future empire, in dispute, is madness, and preeminently stupid. It is simply a reference of the case to fraud and violence ; for intel- ligent and impartial popular voting can no more decide on the claims of these two interests, than they could decide on the claims of republicanism and absolute despotism, or decide for the delicate sentiment we call " religion of the heart." The Kansas Nebraska Bill, or Organic Law of the territory, failed to define with sufficient clearness the rights of the settlers to the soil they were thus invited to occupy. It failed to secure the purity of the elective franchise. The federal courts it provided for referred the adjudication of cases involving the lives and dear- est rights of the settlers to a set of men, the appointees of the executive, and the tools of the faction that used him. These and many other minor defects were designed, and have played an emi- nent part in the conquest of Kansas. The startling feature of the organic law of the Territory of Kansas, and one the fierce discussion of which caused many of its other dangerous features to be overlooked, is contained in the following : " That the constitution, and all laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the Territory of Kansas as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which, heiiig inconsistent icith the jyTtyicij^les of non-intervention by Con- gress with slavery in the states and territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called 'the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative aj^d void, it being the true intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery into any state or territory, or exclude it therefrom ; but to leave the people thereof perfectly /ree to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States : Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be con- strued to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 21 have existed prior to the act of the 6th of March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery." Such was the repealing clause. And in section nineteenth there occurs the following : " And when admitted as a state or states, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitutions may prescribe at the time of their admission." The organic law passed the houses of Congress after a protracted and memorable struggle. It filched northern votes from northern interests by means of a political theory styled " squatter sover- eignty." It dealt a fearful blow at the prosperity of republican institutions everywhere, under the specious plea of " saving the Union." No sooner was it passed than the struggle began. The following is from the report of the committee of Congress founded on the testimony before them : " Within a few days after the organic law passed, and as soon as its passage could be known on the border, leading citizens of Missouri crossed into the territory, held scjuatter meetings, and then returned to their homes. Among the resolutions are the following : " That we will afford protection to no abolitionist as a settler of this territory. " That we recognize the institution of slavery as already exist- ing in this territory, and advise slaveholders to introduce their property as early as possible." The leaders of the pro-slavery propaganda telegraphed to their friends in Missouri, who took steps at the earliest moment to secure many of the best locations, which they had looked out before. Treaties were secretly made with the Indians, the chiefs being taken to Washington for the purpose ; and, as soon as certain tracts of land were ceded, the information was telegraphed by the slavery extensionists, who held the executive ear, to those in Mis- souri, who were prepared to take possession of the best localities before others could know that they were open to settlement. Other tracts of ceded land, which by terms of the treaty were not properly open to squatters, were taken possession of by Mis- 22 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. sourianSj and the executive has winked at such infractions. The invasions of the Delaware lands were first made by Missourians ; but settlers from other localities, seeing that this was done with impunity, and that the whole of the land would be secured and closed against them in this way, went on to these lands also ; and, after they began to do so, went on in far greater numbers. I subjoin the protest of the Delaware chiefs : " We, the chiefs, head men and counsellors of the Delaware nation, hereby notify our white brethren that all settlements on the lands ceded by the Delaware Indians, by treaty at Washing- ton, dated 6th May, 1854, are in violation of said treaty; and that we in no wise give our will or consent to such settlement ; and if persisted in by our white brethren, we shall appeal to our great father, the President of the United States, for protection." The following are the outlines of the treaties made with the different tribes in Kansas, and the dates of such treaties. They indicate the amount still reserved for the use of the Indians : On the 25th March, 1854, a treaty was concluded with the Otoes and Missourias, by which they ceded all their land in the territory, except a tract on the Big Blue, ten by twenty-five miles. By treaty, dated March 25th, 1854, the Kickapoos ceded all their lands, except one hundred and fifty thousand acres, which were set apart for the western portion of their cession, and lie on the head waters of the Grasshopper, towards the Nebraska line. On the 30th March, 1854, the Kaskaskias, Weasteorias, and Pinckashaws, ceded all their lands, except one hundred and sixty acres for each soul in their united tribes. The tribe to have ninety days for selection after the surveys are approved. On the Gth May, 1854, the Delawares concluded a treaty, by which all their lands were ceded, except a strip along the north side of the Kansas river, ten miles wide, and running forty miles west. The ceded lands to be set up at auction after they were surveyed, and sold to the highest bidder, for behoof of the tribe ; deducting the expense of survey and sale. By treaty with the Shawnees, dated May 10th, 1854, all of their land was ceded, except two hundred thousand acres, to be selected INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 23 between the Missouri state line and a parallel thirty miles west of it. The Shawnee families located throughout the reserve are to be allowed ninety days from the approval of the surveys to locate two hundred acres for each member. These locations to be deducted from the two hundred thousand acres. By treaty, dated 18th May, 1854, the Sacs and Foxes ceded their lands, except fifty sections of six hundred and forty acres each. This is to be located in a suitable place, and in a body. By these treaties many thousand acres of land were thrown open, or will be speedily thrown open, to settlement. Claims began to dot the surface of the country. In spite of a systematic and preconcerted effort on the part of Missouri to get possession of the territory, such was the enterprising character of citizens from other states, and the wide notice given of the opening of Kansas by the fierce discussion on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, that ere long free-state settlers began to preponder- ate. Still, all the political influence, the federal offices and pat- ronage, were thrown into the hands of the slavery extensionists. One or two mistakes in these appointments were made ; but they were promptly and villanously remedied. The following editorial from the Washington Union, the executive organ, on this point, is deeply significant : " A gentleman in "Virginia calls our attention to the fact that the enemies of President Pierce in the South lay peculiar stress upon his appointment of Governor Beeder as proof of his willing- ness to favor free-soilers, and asks us whether, at the time of his appointment, Grovernor Boeder was regarded as a sound national Democrat. It is in our power to answer this question with entire confidence, and to say that down to the time that Governor Beeder went to Kansas to assume the duties of governor of the territory, there had not been, as far as we ever heard, or as far as the Pres- ident ever heard, a breath of suspicion as to his entertaining free- soil sentiments. He was appointed under the strongest assurances that he was strictly and honestly a national man. We are able to state, further, on very reliable authority, that whilst Governor Beeder was in Washington, at the time of his appointinent, he conversed with Southern gentlemen on the subject of slavery, and 24 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. assured them that he had no more scruples in buying a slave than a horse, and he regretted that he had not money to purchase a number to carry with him to Kansas. We have understood that he repeated the same sentiments on his way to Kansas. We will repeat, what we have had occasion to say more than once hereto- fore — that no man has ever been appointed by President Pierce to office who was not at the time understood by him to be a faith- ful adherent of the Baltimore platform of 1852, on the subject of slavery. If any appointment were made contrary to this rule, it was done under a misapprehension as to the appointees. We may add that the evidences of Gov. Piceder's soundness were so strong that President Pierce was slower than many others to believe him a free-soiler after he had gone to Kansas. It is, there- fore, the grossest injustice to refer to Gov. Keeder's appointment as proof of the President's willingness to favor free-soilers." While such were the preparations, on the part of Missouri and the pro-slavery propagandists, to seize Kansas and make it a slave state, they were met by conflicting elements. It is a fact, which all subsequent developments will prove, that the free-state cause has, during the struggles, rested mairily on individual enterprises.' Societies have been formed to settle the territory, and, while these had strictly no political cast, their tendencies were to send in a population favorable to a free-state policy. The following com- panies have been, and now are, in active operation. American Settlement Company, New York City. This com- pany founded the Council City settlement. The secretary is Theodore Dwight, 110 Broadway, New York. The N. England Emigrant Aid Company, Massachusetts. This company has been more instrumental than all others in facil- itating emigration, and in introducing capital and useful improve- ments into the territory. Near one half of the saw-mills in the territory were brought there by its capital. Towns have been laid off, and the process of settling a new country facilitated in an eminent degree. Never, until this and other kindred companies led the way, has capital gone ahead of labor, as a pioneer in the work of employing rich natural resources. It has also aided emi- grants in getting to the territory, by carrying on emigration at INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 25 "wholesale prices." On account of its activity, and the important results flowing from it, it lias been intensely hated and misrepre- sented by the pro-slavery propagandists. It is conducted by Messrs. William B. Spooner, J. M. S. Williams, Eli Thayer, S. Cabot, Jr., M. D., K. P. Waters, Le Baron Kussell, M. D., Charles J. Hig- ginson, and E. E. Hale. Its secretary is Thomas H. Webb ; and its agents are Gen. S. C. Pomeroy and Gen. C. Robinson. Then there were the Vegetarian Settlement Company, the New York Kansas League, the Octagon Settlement Company, and some other minor organizations to facilitate and unite emigration. By these means more good blood has been poured into the " body politic " of Kansas than has ever flowed into any other new terri- tory in its youth. Not only has capital preceded labor, but a high degree of intelligence and refinement has been introduced among the pioneers. The settlers from the Western States, also, have generally been of the better class. The coon-hunting, soft-soap- currency tribe of squatters, who have usually officiated as pioneers, have been superseded by a class who had to keep improvement oa the gallop in order to retain their former habits. The entrance of this class of settlers was reofarded with the utmost jealousy and hatred by the Missouri slavery propagan- dists. They viewed it as an infraction of their rights, and, well knowing that this class of settlers were, and would be, hostile to slavery, considered their extradition from the territory essen- tial to securing their ends. Early in July, 1854, about the time the first Eastern emigration came to the territory, the following resolutions were adopted at a meeting in Westport, Missouri. They fairly indicate a sentiment extensively prevalent in that state, and from which much of the disturbance has arisen. " Resolved, That this association will, whenever called upon by any of the citizens of Kansas Territory, hold itself in readiness together to assist and remove an}'- and all emigrants who go there under the auspices of the Northern Emigrant Aid Societies. " Resolved, That wo recommend to the citizens of other counties, particularly those bordering on Kansas Territory, to adopt regula- tions similar to those of this association, and to indicate their readiness to operate in the objects of this first resolution." 3 26 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. These were no Buncombe, effervescing resolutions ; they were the fearful index of what has proved a fearful state of affairs. They were, also, prone to regard all settlers from Eastern or Northern States — in fact all who were not in favor of slavery — as "Emigrant Aid people." Nor have they treated free-state people, whom they have learned to have no connection with any society, a whit better than the others. The amenities of life, the hospitality for which Southern people are justly reputed, were forgotten in the bitterness of the feud. When one stranger met another the question was where the other *' came from," and his politics on the slavery question. Such was the aspect of affairs when the struggle began, and what we have been describing the preliminary steps. Then began the strife provoked by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and which left no alternative but a struggle or submission ; — a warfare predicted by AVilliam H. Seward, in the United States Senate, in those memorable words : " Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states ! Since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it on the behalf of Freedom. We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side that is stronger in numbers, as j it is in right." I CHAPTER II. THE FIRST INVASION. The cabins of squatters had begun to dot the face of the country, and the music of the pioneer's axe was ringing amongst the timber that shaded the water-courses of Kansas. A code of " Squatter Laws " was adopted, which had application to the valley of the Kaw, and in which mutual assistance was pledged to sustain the "claims" taken, in the absence of other means of legalizino; these ' DO inchoate titles. It was in July, 1854, that the first company of Eastern emi- grants arrived in Kansas. They were some thirty in number, and came under the guidance of Mr. Charles Branscomb. They located on the present site of Lawrence. It is a fine prairie knoll, close on the Kaw river, and the first point at which the prairie touches the river. It stands some six miles north of the mouth of the Wakarusa, which flows four miles behind Lawrence, directly to the south. Immediately behind Lawrence, about half a mile from the river, a bold hill, or prairie promontory, rises abruptly to the altitude of some eighty or a hundred feet. This is Mount Oread. When the first Eastern settlers reached Lawrence they found that some two or three Missourians laid claim to the spot. One of these had thrown a few logs together, but was living in Missouri. The settlers succeeded in " buying out " those who appeared to have any feasible claim. They pitched their tents on the knoll, close to the river, and the members of the party immediately scattered out, locating claims. In two weeks more they were joined by a second and larger company, numbering sixty or seventy, with whom came Dr. Charles Robinson and Mr. S. C. Pomeroy. It was at this 28 THE CONQUEST OF KANSAS. time that the Lawrence Association was formed. Several Wyan- dot "floats" were located on the site, the city being laid out two miles square. These Wyandot floats are transferable rights, by which each of the Wyandot Indians could locate a section of land, six hundred and forty acres, on any unoccupied public land, and hold it in fee simple. Immediately all claims near or adjoining Lawrence were taken. A saw-mill had been brought, but was still at Kansas city. Some of the emigrants, homesick, and unused to the privations of a pioneer life, returned after but a few days' experience. Several tents were scattered on the knoll that overlooks the Kaw, and a large tent was a public or general rendezvous. Preparations were made for more durable residence; but Lawrence was in this embryo stage of nomadic simplicity when the first border ruffian expedition came against it. Ptumors of " Yankee settlements " in the valley of the Kaw had been received along the border counties of Missouri, and had awakened a bloodthirsty wish to exterminate them. These Mis- gourians regarded Kansas as delivered over to them by the Kan- sas-Nebraska bill ; hence their fury against any interlopers who might jeopardize the chances of making it a slave state. The Yankees heard of the storm that was brewing, but had not travelled all the way to Kansas to be frightened off by a rumor. Pleader, did you ever see a border ruffian? A hona fide^ Simon pure, unadulterated " Puke "?* After all, they are a good deal like the ordinary run of men, or rather like the ordinary run of " hard cases." What I mean is, they are neither one-eyed ogres nor " three-fingered Jacks." Still, they are decided char- acters. Most of them have been over the plains several times, — if they have not been over the plains, the probability is, they have served through the war in Mexico, or seen a " deal of trouble in Texas ; " or, at least, run up and down the Missouri river often enough to catch imitative inspiration from the cat- fish aristocracy, and penetrate the sublime mysteries of euchre or poker. I have often wondered where all the hard customers on * The Puke is the indignant term applied to the native of Missouri, as Hoo- sier belongs to Indiana, Sucker to Illinois,