Qass 
 
 Book 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
wentietb Century 
 » 0a$$ic$ * 
 
 Vol. I. No. 2. 
 
 October, 1899. 
 
 W/ 
 
 James 
 Henry 
 Lane 
 
 LJl 
 
 Issued Monthly. 
 
 Price, $1 per year. 
 
 CRANE & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 110-112 EAST EIGHTH STREET, TOPEKA, KAN. 
 
THE 
 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY 
 CLASSICS. 
 
 Issued monthly, under the editorial supervision of W. M. Davidson, 
 Superintendent of Schools of the city of Topeka. 
 
 The object is to furnish special reading of a high order for the use of 
 high schools, teachers, and for select reading. 
 
 The first year's work will be divided into three groups, and be given 
 entirely to the following local series : 
 
 History . . i. John Brown of Kansas. 
 
 2. Jim Lane of Kansas. 
 
 3. Eli Thayer and the Emigrant Aid Society. 
 
 4. Territorial Governors of Kansas. 
 Literature, i. Kansas in Poetry and Song. 
 
 2. Selections from Ironquill. 
 
 3. Kansas in Literature. 
 
 4. Kansas in History. 
 
 Nature . . i. Plants and Flowers of Kansas. 
 Study 2. Birds of Kansas. 
 Group. 3. Geography of Kansas. 
 4. Minerals of Kansas. 
 
 Subscription price will be $1.00 per year in advance, postage paid. Sin- 
 gle numbers, 10 cents. Clubs of six will be entitled to one subscription 
 free. 
 
 We invite subscriptions. No expense will be spared by the editorial 
 management or by the publishers to make this series of the highest 
 standard. 
 
 CRANE & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 
 TOPEKA. 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 AND SCHOOL READINGS 
 
 UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OK 
 
 W. M. DAVIDSON 
 
 » 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF TOPEKA, KANSAS 
 
 JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS AND SCHOOL READINGS 
 
 JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 THE "GRIM CHIEFTAIN" OF KANSAS 
 
 WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY 
 
 Author of " The Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory ' 
 
 " Before Ood, I believe I shall see the day ivhen this black and brutal party shall 
 be broken in pieces, and from the waters of the Yellowstone to the warm reaves of the 
 Chilf one long line of free States shall rear themselves, an impenetrable barrier, against 
 which the Western waves of slavery sliall dash themselves in vain. UNTIL THEN J 
 AM A CRUSADER FOR FREEDOM !^^— J a^es Henkt Lane. 
 
 Crane & Company, Publishers 
 
 ToPEKA, Kansas 
 
 1899 
 
-^0^ 
 
 X 
 
 vfc^ 
 
 48556 
 
 Copyrighted by 
 
 Crane & Company, Topeka, Kansas 
 
 1899 
 
 TWO COPIES RI-CEIVED, 
 
 .<^^ cr ron, 
 
 
 SECOND COPY, 
 
 ( Nui/ L 6 im 
 
 ♦ // 
 
 
OPPORTUNITY. 
 
 Master of human destinies am I. 
 
 Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait. 
 
 Cities and fields I walk ; I penetrate 
 Deserts and seas remote, and passing by 
 
 Hovel and mart and palace — soon or late 
 
 I knock unhidden once at every gate! 
 If sleeping, wake — if feasting, rise before 
 
 I turn away. It is the hour of fate. 
 
 And they who follow me reach every state 
 Mortals desire, and conquer every foe 
 
 Save Death; but those who doubt or hesitate, 
 Condemned to failure, penury, and woe. 
 
 Seek me in vain and uselessly implore. 
 
 I answer not, and I return no more! 
 
 — John James Inqalls. 
 
 (5) 
 
^^ Kansas will stamp upon the civilization of the age a hundred years 
 of history before another parallel is produced to that iveird, mysterious 
 and partially insane, partially inspired, and poetic character, James 
 H. Lane. It is not strange that his birthplace should be questioned. 
 It is in keeping with his wayward, fitful life of passion and strife, of 
 storm and sunshine — a mysterious existence that now dwelt on the 
 mountain-tops of expectation and the very summit of highest realiza- 
 tion, and anon in the valley of despondency and deepest gloom. Seven 
 cities claim the honor of Horner^ s birth. . . . I do not think a great 
 man ever lived who was not born of a strong, naturally intellectual, 
 poetic and emotional mother." — Milton W. Reynolds. 
 
 (6) 
 
PREFATORY. 
 
 ** States are not great 
 
 Except as men may make them ; 
 
 Men are not great except they do and dare. 
 
 But States, like men, 
 
 Have destinies that take them — 
 
 That bear them on, not knowing why or where." 
 
 The high order of Kansas society is the result of the 
 great intelligence and the exalted genius of the founders of 
 the State. Men of education, high moral worth and refined 
 taste, came to Kansas at the very first— even with immi- 
 grating Indian trihes when it was still a part of the " In- 
 dian country," and " Missouri Territory/' It would seem 
 that the land always had a fascination for men of talent, 
 learning, genius. To herself Kansas has always tied her 
 children with an attachment which amounts to devotion. 
 One of the causes for this is, that the history of Kansas is 
 an inspiration. This State was born of a struggle for 
 liberty and freedom. So fierce were the fires kindled here 
 in these causes that they purified the nation. It is only 
 necessary for us to be well informed in the history of our 
 State to make us love her, to make us devoted to her, to 
 make us patriotic. The history of Kansas is full of men 
 
 who will grow in stature as long as man loves liberty. 
 
 (7) 
 
8 PREFATORY 
 
 Tlie jDrocesses of the evolution of so glorious a common- 
 wealtli from chaos and disorder are worth our closest atten- 
 tion. Thej deserve from us devoted study and contempla- 
 tion. By the deeds and achievements of our fathers should 
 we be inspired to a faithful performance of every duty 
 demanded for the preservation of our liberties, secured to 
 us by their sacrifices, their tears, and their blood; and 
 sacredh" intrusted to us to be guarded for the coming gen- 
 erations. 
 
 The enlightened citizen is a good citizen. When every 
 citizen is a sovereign, liberty can only be preserved and 
 transmitted to posterity by an intelligent and educated 
 jDCople knowing well how it was secured and what it cost. 
 In this principle lies the foundation of our system of 
 popular and universal education. The genius of our insti- 
 tutions makes it a crime against the national life to permit 
 a child to grow up in ignorance. Men are patriotic as they 
 are enlightened, devoted to the institutions of their country 
 as they understand and appreciate them. Old systems and 
 ancient nations perished because the great masses of their 
 people were kept in ignorance, servitude, and penury. 
 
 Great men leave the impress of their genius upon the 
 institutions they help to found. To rightly understand the 
 institutions of our State, it is necessary that we should have 
 some knowledge of the men who builded it. In this view 
 the study of the life of the late Senator James Henry Lane 
 becomes to us a duty. 
 
PREFATORY 
 
 9 
 
 That Senator Lane did service so valiant, so vital in the 
 noble cause of freedom that he should be accorded the grati- 
 tude and love not only of this but of all the coming genera- 
 tions in Kansas and the nation, has long been the almost 
 unanimous opinion of the people of this State. The con- 
 sciousness that this is true, grows. 
 
 There were giants in those days ; and in the " imminent, 
 deadly breach " towered the form of James Henry Lane 
 above them all. His life is interwoven with that of our 
 State. As she grows in power and place, so must grow his 
 fame. 
 
 In the preparation of this paper I have had the kindly 
 assistance of Judge F. G. Adams, x^o work on Kansas 
 subjects can be written, if it requires any research what- 
 ever, without diligent search in the mines of material 
 accumulated in the archives of the State Historical Society 
 by the long and toilsome labor of Secretary Adams. 
 
 W. E. C. 
 
 ToPEKA, Kansas, October 7, 1899. 
 
THE FORMATION OF KANSAS 
 TERRITORY. 
 
 " Than in our State 
 No illustration apter 
 Is seen or found of faith and hope and will. 
 Take up her story : 
 Every leaf and chapter 
 Contains a record that conveys a thrill." 
 
 The genius and indomitable will of Lane liberated a 
 land. 
 
 Let ns follow the development of the Territory from the 
 purchase of Louisiana from France. This was April 30th, 
 1803. Possession of Louisiana was delivered to the United 
 States December 20th, 1803, at 'New Orleans. The United 
 States did nothing toward exercising authority in Louisiana 
 until March 10th, 1804, when Amos Stoddard assumed the 
 duties of Governor of " Upper Louisiana." On March 
 26th, 1804, Congress divided the territory acquired by the 
 purchase of Louisiana into two parts. One of these was 
 named the Territory of Orleans, and comprised that part 
 of the country south of the north line of the present State 
 of Louisiana. The remainder of this vast expanse was 
 erected into the District of Louisiana and attached to 
 Indiana Territory for the purposes of government. On 
 
 (11) 
 
12 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 March 3d, 1805, Congress changed the name of the " ])is- 
 trict of Louisiana " to that of the " Territory of Louis- 
 iana/' and detached it from Indiana Territory. Presi- 
 dent Jefferson appointed James Wilkinson its Governor. 
 
 It retained this status until June 4th, 1812, when Con- 
 gress changed its name to Missouri Territory, and formu- 
 lated for it a system of government. The common law 
 of England was declared by the Legislature to be the law 
 of the land. In 1819 the Territory of Arkansas was 
 formed with the present boundaries of that State. In 
 1820-21 Missouri was admitted as a State with its present 
 boundaries, except that it did not include the ^^ Platte 
 Purchase," which was added in 1836, in violation of the 
 terms of the Missouri Compromise. The residue of the 
 vast area remained de facto as well as de jure Missouri 
 Territory. It extended from Texas to British ]^orth Amer- 
 ica, and was bounded west by the watershed of the Valley 
 of the Mississippi, It had no capital — no seat of govern- 
 ment, and very few white inhabitants. 
 
 This old Missouri Territory was divided by act of 
 Congress June 30th, 1834. It was declared " Indian coun- 
 try," — ^what it had in fact always been, — and came to be 
 spoken of as the '^ Indian Territory." The south division 
 was that portion south of the north line of the lands as- 
 signed to the Osages produced east to the west line of the 
 State of Missouri; and was attached to Arkansas. The 
 remainder of the Territory of Missouri was placed under 
 the jurisdiction of the United States District Court of 
 Missouri. In 1834 a joart of Missouri Territory, on the 
 north, was set off to the Territory of Michigan. What re- 
 mained was still the Territory of Missouri, and so remained 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 13 
 
 until the passage of the Kansas-N^ebraska bill, May 30, 
 1S54. Then its existence Avas terminated. All tliese j'cars 
 it had a government, although an extremely limited one, 
 with all its functions condensed into the dicta of tlie 
 United States District Court of Missouri. 
 
 The want of a more effective government was recog- 
 nized. In 1844 the Secretary of War recommended the 
 organization of a Territory. A bill for this purpose was 
 introduced in the Senate, but not passed. Another effort 
 in this direction was made in 1848, and failed. Up to 
 this time there had been no absolute need for a Territorial 
 government. But in the years 1849 and 1850 it is esti- 
 mated that one hundred thousand persons passed over the 
 plains to California. Such a knowledge was obtained of 
 the beauty and fertility of the land, that popular clamor 
 arose for its opening to settlement. Even the emigrant 
 tribes of Indians began an agitation in this direction, in 
 which the Wyandots at the mouth of the Kansas river took 
 the lead. During the first session of the Thirty-second 
 Congress, in the winter of 1851-52 and in the spring of 
 1852, these people petitioned Congress for a Territorial 
 organization. IS^o attention being paid to their petitions, 
 they decided to elect a delegate to the second session of this 
 Congress, and did so elect Abelard Guthrie, October 12th, 
 1852. Toward this action was first shown the opposition 
 of the slave pow-er to the erection of a Territory west of 
 Missouri. 
 
 Guthrie secured the passage through the House of a bill 
 to organize ISTebraska Territory, with bounds which include 
 Kansas and ^Nebraska as now constituted, and also portions 
 of Colorado and Wyoming. This bill failed in the Senate, 
 
14 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 but by a comparatively close vote. It forced the attention 
 of the country and Congress to the demand of the people 
 for a Territorial government. 
 
 Senator Benton, of Missouri, introduced in the Senate, 
 in 1850, a bill for the location and construction of a " great 
 national highway '' to the Pacific ocean. The discovery of 
 gold in California made the building of this road impera- 
 tive. Two routes were proposed for this road. Senator 
 Benton favored the one leading up the Kansas river. Illi- 
 nois, Iowa and the free States generally favored Council 
 Bluffs as the starting-point. Fort Smith had been proposed 
 as an initial point, also, but it was soon seen that the road 
 must be built either up the Platte or the Kansas valleys. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie acted for Senator Benton in his movement 
 for a government for " I^ebraska," as the country was be- 
 ginning to be called. He was a Wyandot by marriage and 
 adoption. Upon his return from Washington his tribe de- 
 termined to organize a Provisional government for Ne- 
 braska Territory at the anniversary of their Grreen Corn 
 Peast, August 9th, 1853. Afterwards it was resolved to 
 form the Provisional government at an earlier date, which 
 was done; the date being July 26th, 1853. The conven- 
 tion was held in the Wyandot council house, in what is now 
 Kansas City, Kansas. William Walker was selected as 
 Provisional Governor. A preamble and resolutions were 
 adopted which served the Provisional government as a Con- 
 stitution. An election for Delegate to Congress was held. 
 Three men claimed the election, but no Delegate was ad- 
 mitted to a seat. However, all appeared there, and urged 
 the establishment of Nebraska (Kansas) Territory. 
 
 [The foregoing account is condensed from Connelley's ** Provi- 
 sional Government of Nebraska Territory."] 
 
JAMES IIENKY LANE 15 
 
 II. 
 
 At the assembling of Congress in 1853 it was realized 
 that something mnst bo done with ISTebraska (Kansas). 
 Some action by Congress was demanded from every quar- 
 ter. What that action should be was the question with the 
 extremists of the slave power. The action by the people 
 themselves had. been opposed by the partisans of the radi- 
 cal Democracy in Missouri. True, they had not broken 
 over the border in savage and brutal bands ; that was re- 
 served for a later day. But they had threatened Guthrie 
 Avith arrest at Fort Leavenworth ; and also to use the 
 military if necessary to prevent or suppress the movement 
 for a Provisional government. 
 
 The South was not averse to the opening of the country 
 to settlement, nor to the erection of Territorial govern- 
 ments, if slavery could in some way be made a fundamental 
 institution of some of them. 
 
 The pledged faith of the nation in the form of the 
 Missouri Compromise confronted them. Their objections 
 to opening the country to settlement could be overcome 
 onl}^ by the repeal of this sacred compact. As no other 
 way appeared, to this unwelcome and dangerous step did 
 Senator Douglas now set himself. The two things which 
 nerved him were the extreme and radical element now con- 
 trolling the South, and on his part a desire to attain to the 
 Presidency. Pie hoped the one would become the means 
 of securing the other, lie was in trepidation as to the 
 effect in the ISTorth, but without the support of the South 
 his ambition were better flung away altogether. 
 
 Time for decisive action was at hand. The matter 
 
16 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 pressed. As to who first entertained tlie idea of proposing 
 the measure of repeal, we are not concerned. In 1852 
 Senator Atchison, of Missouri, expressed the belief that 
 the slaves then in ^Nebraska (Kansas) were free by the 
 operation of the Missouri Compromise, and asked its repeal 
 before he would consent to have anything done by Congress 
 for the country. Some believed that it had been in effect 
 repealed by the Compromise of 1850, when the doctrine 
 of popular sovereignty was first enacted into law. Senator 
 Douglas finally embodied this idea in a bill. 
 
 This bill he introduced in January, 1854. It provided 
 for the erection of but one Territory, to be called l^ebraska, 
 embracing Kansas and ]^ebraska and the country west of 
 them to the Rocky Mountains. This bill was recalled by 
 Senator Douglas, who then brought i:i another, the now 
 famous ^^ Kansas Nebraska Bill," providing for two Terri- 
 tories, Kansas and ISTebraska. It became a law May 30th, 
 1864. 
 
 Kansas here took definite form. Its eastern, northern 
 and southern boundaries were as they remain to-day; its 
 western limit was the summit of the Kocky Mountains. 
 
THE LAND 
 
 "Now Nature hangs her mantle green 
 On every blooming tree, 
 And spreads her sheets o' daisies white 
 Out o'er the grassy lea." 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 It may be well for its to inquire what this country is 
 like, which was so unexpectedly made an entity and prom- 
 ised a place in the sisterhood of the Rej^nblic. 
 
 At the time of which we write the wild man possessed it. 
 To him its undulating fertility was of no value except to 
 that degree in which it produced wild animals for him to 
 pursue. In its solitude it was a land of plenty. The Osage 
 and Kansas Indians were required to make so little effort 
 to obtain food that they became too lazy to maintain the 
 set forms of their language. Words were shortened and 
 sentences abbreviated. Rolling herds of buffalo grazed 
 on the swelling prairies, rising and falling like the billows 
 of the sea. When stampeded their hoof -beats rumbled like 
 low and distant thunder. The wild flowers flamed on the 
 meadow-grass. The leaves of the cottonwood quaked and 
 shimmered on the borders of the serpentine streams. The 
 broad-headed, sliort-boled bur-oak made the prairies along 
 the streams and the rich bottom lands look like orchards. 
 The autumnal sumac set every hill aflame. Where the 
 swarthy squaw tilled the soil Avith a bone ho<", a harvest 
 -3' (17) 
 
18 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 bloomed and the yellow maize liung the Indian lodges with 
 a golden tapestry. 
 
 " The cheeriness and charm 
 
 Of forest and of farm 
 Are merging into colors sad and sober ; 
 
 The hectic frondage drapes 
 
 The nut trees and the grapes — 
 September yields to opulent October. 
 
 "The cotton woods that fringe 
 The streamlets take the tinge ; 
 
 Through opal haze the sumac bush is burning ; 
 The lazy zephyrs lisp, 
 Through cornfields dry and crisp, 
 
 Their fond regrets for days no more returning." 
 
 The Valley of the Kaw is more fertile than that of the 
 Nile, and its bursting- granaries furnish loaves for all peo- 
 ples. Great as has been our progress, the possibilities of 
 this State are not realized to-day. The land is sim-kissed, 
 and no disease is indigenous to its plains. 
 
 Man is destined to reach the highest intellectual plane 
 on the prairies of Kansas, and in our progress how much 
 do we owe to the heroic deeds of our fathers ! Well might 
 they say: 
 
 " We have made the State of Kansas, 
 
 And to-day she stands complete — 
 First in freedom, first in wheat; 
 And her future years will meet 
 Ripened hopes and richer stanzas." 
 
 The boys and girls of the Kansas homes are most fortu- 
 nate. The generous and fertile farms pour golden streams 
 into bursting barns. The school-house and the' church 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 19 
 
 crown every hill. Xo saloon desecrates the dale. The 
 rich landscape inspires the poet to son^\ 
 
 " O ]\[arniaton ! O ^Marmaton ! 
 From out the rich autumnal west 
 There creeps a misty, pearly rest, 
 
 As through an atmosphere of dreams. 
 Along thy course, O Marmaton, 
 
 A rich September sunset streams. 
 Thy purple sheen, 
 Through prairies green, 
 From out the burning west is seen. 
 I watch thy fine. 
 Approaching line. 
 
 That seems to flow like blood-red wine 
 Fresh from the vintage of the sun." 
 
 The Kansas-Xebraska hill dedicated this land to human 
 slavery. Another people, than our fathers thought to find 
 a home here, and foist slavery ui^on the State forever. 
 Senator Ingalls pictures the land as they would have made 
 it: 
 
 "■ It is appalling to reflect what the condition of Kansas 
 would have been to-day had its destiny been left in the 
 hands of Shang^ and those of his associates who first did 
 its voting and attenqjted to frame its institutions. A few 
 hundred mush-eating chawbacons, her only population, 
 would still have been chasing their razor-backed hogs 
 through the thickets of black-jack, and jugging for cattish 
 in the chutes of the Missouri and the Kaw." 
 
 *A name by which the Missourian is contemptuously described by the Senator. 
 
BLACKENING SKIES. 
 
 men 
 
 ' Who meeting Caesar's self, would slap his back, 
 Call him 'Old Horse' and challenge to drink.' " 
 
 The white population of tlie South in the days of slav- 
 ery was antithetical. The aristocratic planter was edu- 
 cated, refined, high-minded, gallant, gracious. This class 
 constituted an aristocracy based upon slavery and the 
 wealth produced by the cultivation of large plantations. 
 The wealth of the entire South, outside of the Appalachian 
 Mountain districts, belonged to this class. Educated, bred 
 in the belief in the slavery of human beings, they saw 
 naught but right in this monstrous institution. This aris- 
 tocracy taught that labor was degrading; any white man 
 who labored was regarded by them with contempt, hatred. 
 
 Where slaves were numerous there resided a class of 
 poor whites contemptuously called by the master and slave 
 alike ^^ poor white trash." Slavery, while leaving them 
 free, had reduced them to a social degradation even below 
 that of the slaves themselves. Low as was their social 
 plane, their moral plane was beneath it. Their opposition 
 to education and refinement extended to a detestation of 
 persons aspiring to or possessing them. So irresponsible 
 were they that the laws of the land or those intrusted with 
 their execution permitted this class to be a law unto them- 
 selves, and took no more note of their petty crimes than of 
 
 (30) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 21 
 
 the habits of the starved and scrawny swine they herded. 
 The origin of this people has been the enigma of the times, 
 but it is now believed they are the descendants of the 
 mongrel folk dumped on the eastern shores of North Caro- 
 lina from the slums and prison-houses of all Europe in the 
 founding of that colony. They possessed none of the quali- 
 fications necessary for hardy pioneers, and drifted aim- 
 lessly, a menace to every community in their path.^* 
 
 While this people possessed no slave, it was the most 
 persistent believer in the righteousness of slavery. Held 
 in the deepest contempt by the aristocracy, these dregs of 
 humanity were ready to do their every command. Murder 
 and arson ^vere for them a pastime, and these were commit- 
 ted with impunity at the bidding of their masters, who con- 
 trolled them as absolutely and with more ease than they 
 did their actual slaves. By the year 1850 these poor 
 whites were drifted against the western State line of Mis- 
 souri in great numbers. With them were demoralized and 
 degraded men from every walk of life. Senator Ingalls 
 says they hated an ^^ abolitionist," and feared him next to 
 a free negro. 
 
 Upon the passage of the Kansas-lSTebraska bill this 
 human driftwood floated in over the eastern portions of 
 Kansas. They broke over the State line by thousands, and 
 selected " claims.'^ They selected the choice lands, and 
 often pretended to select " claims " for others, who could 
 not come. That the Indian tribes still owned mucli of the 
 land mattered not at all to them. Having " located,'' many 
 of them returned to Missouri, leaving some of their number 
 to murder any who dared to molest their illegally made se- 
 lections, or " claims." A part of the history of Douglas 
 
 *See notes — 1 to 7 — at end of this chapter. 
 
22 
 
 TWENTIETH CENTUItY CLASSICS 
 
 county is an account of the ruffianly actions of these same 
 men in relation to ^^ claims/' and their efforts to prevent 
 Free-State men from settling tliere, and to drive away such 
 as did scuttle. ^ 
 
 This class acted under orders from such men as Price, 
 Atchison, and Stringfellow. 
 
 The indignation aroused in the ^N'orth hy the passage of 
 the Kansas- T^Tebraska bill and the manifest intention of the 
 South to make Kansas a slave State at all hazards, caused 
 the organization of societies in many of the Northern 
 States having as their object the assistance of emigrants 
 into Kansas who were opposed to slavery. The l^ew Eng- 
 land Emigrant Aid Society was the only one of these which 
 came to be a factor of any potency in the winning of Kan- 
 sas. Its organization and its public and published declara- 
 tion that it proposed to make Kansas a free State, were 
 notice to the South and to the advocates of slavery that the 
 free States of the ^North and their people would contest for 
 the soil of Kansas. 
 
 ^N^orthern emigrants to Kansas preceded the arrival of 
 Governor Keeder by the time from July to October. Indi- 
 viduals had arrived before the first company came in July. 
 They usually avoided the Missouri border in the selection 
 of homes, and sought the interior of the Territory; they 
 settled in greatest number south of the Kansas river. They 
 carried with them little property, but tliey brought some- 
 thing of infinitely greater value — simple and blameless 
 lives and high moral purposes. Two things they came for : 
 one to find homes for themselves and their children, the 
 other to make a free State of the land in which these homes 
 were cast. And to sustain these they possessed the spirit 
 
.TAMKR HENRY T.ANE 23 
 
 which inspiml tlic iiiartvrs. 'Vhvy sncce('(hMl. In llic stern 
 and forbidding- face of an opposition such as lias raivlv 
 l)oen encountered hy a migrating people^ and Ix'ing, too, 
 always in tlie minority/^- they stamped the institutions of 
 their chosen land with the. aggressive spirit and ideas of the 
 Puritans. They set their faces against the evil of the cen- 
 tury. The two extreme, antagonistic principles of our gov- 
 ernment met and battled for the mastery of the Republic 
 here on the Plains. The Puritan idea with its unconquer- 
 able vitality triumphed."^ 
 
 In the coming of Governor Reeder did the pro-slavery 
 people see the arrival of their champion— their salvation. 
 He was awaited with hot and feverish impatience. ]\ris- 
 sourians and their partisans expected him to become at 
 onco the mouthpiece of their creed, the promulgator of 
 their views, the sheet-anchor of their hopes in the fixing 
 of slavery permanently in Kansas, now so happily estab- 
 lished there in theory and in law. They assumed that as a 
 matter of course all the machinery and power of the Ad- 
 ministration would be exerted to this end through Governor 
 Reeder's administration of the Territorial government. 
 That he would for a moment dare to run counter to their 
 wishes had not entered their minds. It was supposed and 
 believed that he would consult their leaders, Price, Atclii- 
 son, Stringfellow, and others, to see what they desired, then 
 act accordingly. 
 
 The first intimation that they might be disappointed, to 
 an extent at least, came when Governor Reeder made a tour 
 of the Territory to fjrocure information. Information, m- 
 
 *That is, the New England people were never a majority. 
 
24 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 deed ! What he desired of information which could not be 
 supplied by the slave leaders of the border, w^as beyond the 
 comprehension of the turbulent Missourian. 
 
 The Governor tells us that the citizens of Missouri were 
 vehemently urging the immediate election of a legislature, 
 but that for good reasons (which he gives) he determined 
 to first call an election for Delegate to Congress. It was 
 called for JSTovember 29th, 1854. 
 
 General Atchison gave expression to the policy to be pur- 
 sued by the Missourians in this election. He said : 
 
 ^^ The organic law of the Territory vests in the people 
 who reside in it the power to form all its municipal regula- 
 tions. They can either admit or exclude slavery ; and this 
 is the only Question that materially affects our interests. 
 
 " Upon this subject it would be unnecessary for me to 
 say one word, if things had been left to their ordinary and 
 natural course. Men heretofore migrated and settled new 
 Territories upon this continent, from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific ocean, following the parallels of latitude, and carry- 
 ing with them their habits, customs and institutions. But 
 now new laws are to govern ; new lines, new habits, customs 
 and institutions are to be substituted, and that, too, by 
 force of money and organization. 
 
 ^^ The ^N'orth is to be turned to the South, and all the 
 Territories of the United States to be abolitionized ; colo- 
 nies are to be j^lanted in all places where slavery and slave 
 institutions can best be assailed ; and Kansas is now a favor- 
 ite position, from whence they can now assail Missouri, 
 Arkansas, and Texas. Men are being sent from Massa- 
 chusetts and elsewhere for the avowed purpose of excluding 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 25 
 
 slaveholders from Kansas, and, as a matter of course, to 
 steal and protect fugitive slaves. The first thing, however, 
 they have come to do is to throw into Kansas a majority of 
 votes to control the ballot-boxes. 
 
 "' This is the policy of the abolitionists. These means 
 are used by them. Their money and all other influences 
 they can bring to bear are to be exerted for this purpose." 
 
 Gen. Atchison said further : " My mission here to-day is 
 if possible to awaken the people of this county to the danger 
 ahead, and to suggest the means to avoid it. The people of 
 Kansas, in their first elections, will decide the question 
 whether or not the slaveholder is to be excluded, and it 
 depends upon a- majority of the votes cast at the polls. 
 'Now, if a set of fanatics and demagogues, a thousand miles 
 off, can afford to advance their money and exert every nerve 
 to abolitionize the Territory and exclude the slaveholder, 
 when they have not the least personal interest in the matter, 
 what is your duty? ^Vlien you reside within one day's 
 journey of the Territory, and when your peace, your quiet 
 and your property depend upon your action, you can, with- 
 out an exertion, send 500 of your young men who will vote 
 in favor of your institutions. 
 
 " Should each county in the State of Missouri only do 
 its duty, the question will be decided quietly and peaceably 
 at the ballot-box. If we are defeated, then IMissouri and the 
 other Southern States will have shown themselves recreant 
 to their interests, and will have deserved their fate. The 
 abolitionists will have nothing to gain or lose. It is an ab- 
 straction with them. We have much to gain and much to 
 
 lose. 
 
 " If you burn my barn, I sustain a great loss, but you 
 
26 
 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 gain nothing. So it is with the colonization societies and 
 the dupes they send to abolitionize Kansas. 
 
 " If these abolitionists steal your negroes, they gain noth- 
 ing. The negroes are injured; you are ruined. So much 
 greater is the motive for activity on your part. 
 
 " Fellow-citizens, we should not be apathetic when so 
 much is involved. We should be up and doing. We must 
 meet organization with organization. We must meet those 
 philanthropic knaves peaceably at the ballot-box and out- 
 vote them. 
 
 "^ If we cannot do this, it is an omen that the institution 
 of slavery must fall in this and the other Southern States, 
 but it will fall after much strife, civil war and bloodshed. 
 
 "■ If abolitionism, under its present auspices, is estab- 
 lished in Kansas, tliere will be constant strife and bloodshed 
 between Kansas and Missouri. Xegro-stealing will be a 
 princi]de and a vocation. It will be the policy of philan- 
 thropic knaves, until they force the slaveholder to abandon 
 Missouri ; nor will it be long until it is done. You cannot 
 watch your stables to prevent thieves from stealing your 
 horses and mules ; neither can you watch your negro quar- 
 ters to prevent your neighbors from seducing away and 
 stealing your negroes. 
 
 " If Kansas is abolitionized, all men who love peace and 
 quiet will leave us, and all emigration to Missouri from the 
 slave States will cease. We will go either to the i^orth or 
 to tlie South. Kor myself, I can gather together my goods 
 and depart as soon as the most active among you. I have 
 neither wife nor child to impede my flight. In a hybrid 
 State we cannot live ; we cannot be in a constant quarrel — 
 in a constant state of suspicion of our neighbors. This 
 
JAMES ITENRY LANE 27 
 
 feeling is ciitoi-taiiicd ])\ a lar<;(' ])()rti()ii of iiiankind ('V<'ry- 
 where. 
 
 ^' To Ruoceed in iiiakini>' Tvaiisas a slave Territory, it is 
 not sufficient for the South to talk, Init to act; to go peact;- 
 ably and inh.ahit tlie Territory", and peaceably to vote and 
 settle the question according to the principles of the Doug- 
 las bilk"* 
 
 Such speeches were made everywhere in western Mis- 
 souri. Many of them were more radical and inflammatory. 
 The organization resorted to was the secret society which 
 met in "" Blue Lodges." Money was contributed with wdiich 
 to buy whisky and hire men to come from long distances to 
 vote and de1)auch Kansas. At this election the border- 
 ruffians first voted in Kansas, as it was their first opportu- 
 nity to do so. Fifty miles inland they seized the polls and 
 voted for Whitfield, the pro-slavery candidate, who was 
 elected by practical unanimity. The madness and folly of 
 the action of the ruffians are best realized when we see that 
 Whitfield would have been elected by a large majority had 
 they remained at home. 
 
 In January following, Governor Keeder caused an enu- 
 meration of the inhabitants of the Territory to be made for 
 the basis for an apportionment for members of the legisla- 
 ture shortly to be elected. In the meantime the leaders in 
 Missouri were perniciously active. They sought by every 
 means to iniiame the j^assions of their motley and brutal 
 following. Exaggerated accounts of the army of " aboli- 
 tionists " coming into the Territory at the instance and by 
 the aid of Northern organizations were industriously circu- 
 lated. All the border counties of Missouri were organized 
 
Jio TWENTIETH CENTtTRY CLASSICS 
 
 for resistance to what was termed the " ragged, miserly, 
 nigger-stealing crew, who skulk behind the name Free- 
 State.'^ The '* Blue Lodges " were found as far east as 
 Boonville. The degree to which they had aroused their 
 following may be judged from the tone of their news- 
 papers : 
 
 " We hate a deceiver. And a party like this . . . 
 we hold in meaner contempt than we do the immediate and 
 avowed pupils of Lloyd Garrison. Their Janus-faced, 
 double-dealing conduct must make them abhorred of God 
 as they are despised by honorable men, and their last end 
 will be down, like the dog, bereft of a soul to rise, but 
 secure in earthly preservation, for no ^ creeping thing ' of 
 God's make will work in their accursed carcasses. 
 
 " It cannot be that such wretches will triumph over all 
 right and justice. We know the spirit of the West too well 
 to admit of it. We will to the rescue, with lead and steel if 
 necessary, for triumph our enemies shall not, imless God 
 forsakes us, and this country is too new to deserve the judg- 
 ments of Sodom and Gomorrah. Missourians, remember 
 the 30th day of March, A. D. 1855, as Texans once re- 
 membered the Alamo.'' ^ 
 
 The election was held March 30th. The agitation of the 
 previous weeks along the border had been effective. It bore 
 fruit on this day. To such a pitch had the passions of the 
 Missourians been wrought that they came over by hundreds 
 and thousands to vote in Kansas. Their conduct all along 
 the line can be described best by telling what occurred at 
 the house of Harrison Burson, in the second district, now 
 in Douglas county; 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 29 
 
 " Claiborne Y. Jackson addressed the crowd, sayin«2,' that 
 lie had come there to vote; and that he had a riglit to vote, 
 if he liad been tlierc but five minutes, and tliat he ^vas uu- 
 williuff to c:o liome witliout voliui;-; wliich Avas received with 
 cheers. Jackson then called upon them to form into little 
 bands of fifteen or twenty, vhich they did, and went to an 
 ox-wagon filled with guns, which, were distributed among 
 them, and they proceeded to load some of them on the 
 ground. 
 
 " In pursuance wdth Jackson's request, they tied white 
 tape or ribbons in their button-holes, to distinguish them 
 from the " abolitionists." They again demanded that the 
 judges should resign; and upon their refusing to do so, 
 smashed in the window, sash and all, and presented their 
 pistols and guns to them, threatening to shoot them. Some 
 one on the outside cried out to them not to shoot, as there 
 were Pro- Slavery men in the house with the judges. They 
 then put a pry under the corner of the house, which was a 
 log house, lifted it up a few inches and let it fall, but de- 
 sisted on being told there were Pro-Slavery men in the 
 house. During this time the crowd repeatedly demanded 
 to be allowed to vote without being s^vorn, and Mr. Ellison, 
 one of the judges^ expressed himself willing, but the other 
 tw© judges refused ; thereupon a body of men headed by 
 [Sheriff] Jones rushed into the judges' room with cocked 
 pistols and drawn bowde-knives in their hands, and ap- 
 proached Burson and Eamsay. Jones pulled out his watch 
 and said he would give them five minutes to resign in or 
 die. When the five minutes had expired and the judges 
 did not resign, Jones said he would give them another min- 
 ute and no more. Ellison told his associates that if they did 
 
30 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 not resign, there wonld be 100 shots fired in the room in less 
 than fifteen niinntes, and then, snatching np the ballot-box 
 ran out into the crowd, holding up the ballot-box and hur- 
 rahing for ]\[issouri. About that time, Burson and Ram- 
 say were called out by their friends, and not suffered 
 to return. As Mr. Burson went out, he put the ballot 
 poll-books in his pocket and took them with him, and as 
 he was going out, Jones snatched some papers from him, 
 and shortly afterward came out, holding them up, and cry- 
 ing, ^ Hurrah for Missouri ! ' After he discovered that 
 they were not the poll-books, he took a party of men with 
 him and started off to take the poll-books from Burson. 
 When Mr. Burson saw them coming, he gave the books to 
 Mr. Umbarger and told him to start off in another direc- 
 tion so as to mislead Jones and his party. Jones and his 
 party caught Mr. Umbarger, took the poll-books away from 
 him, and Jones took him up behind him on a horse and 
 carried him back a prisoner. Afterwards they went to the 
 house of Ramsay and took Judge John A. Wakefield [the 
 Free-State candidate for Representative] prisoner, and car- 
 ried him to the place of election, and made him get up on a 
 Avagon and there make a speech; after which, they put a 
 white ribbon in his button-hole and let him go. Then they 
 chose two new judges and proceeded with the election." ^' 
 
 It was the same everywhere. The legal, resident voters 
 of the Territory had no rights which the Missourians con- 
 sidered it their duty to respect, and the Free-State men had 
 little representation in the Legislature. Governor Reeder 
 was aware of the frauds, but was powerless to prevent or 
 correct them. He refused certificates to some of the per- 
 
JAMES HEXRY LANE 31 
 
 sons elected. The Missouri opinion of this act is expressed 
 in the following' newspa]:>er coninicnt : 
 
 " We just learn as we go to press, that Reeder lias re- 
 fused to give certificates to four Coiincilnien and tliirteen 
 members of the House. Tie has ordered an election to fill 
 their places on the 22d of May. This infernal scoundrel 
 will have to be heniped yet." " 
 
 Governor Reeder's refusal to issue certificates to the 
 fraudulently elected members of the Legislature marks the 
 beginning of complete anarchy in Kansas Territory. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 1. " This Carolinian section was originally settled by a far 
 more diversified population than that which formed the colonies 
 to the northward. This was especially the case in North Carolina. 
 This colony was originally possessed by a land company, which 
 proposed to find its profit in a peculiar fashion. This company 
 paid contractors so much a head for human beings put ashore in 
 the colony. One distinguished trader in population, a certain 
 Baron de Graffenried, settled several thousand folk at and about 
 New Berne, on the swampy shores of the eastern sounds. They 
 were from a great variety of places: a part from England, others 
 from the banks of the llhine, otliers again from Switzerland. 
 There was a great mass of human driftwood in Europe at the 
 close of the seventeenth century, the wreck of long -continued 
 wars; so it was easy to bring immigrants by the shipload if they 
 were paid for. But the material was unfit to be the foundation of 
 a State. From this settlement of eastern North Carolina is de- 
 scended the most unsatisfactory population in this country. The 
 central and western parts of North Carolina had an admirable 
 population, that principally came to the State through Virginia; 
 but this population about Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, tliough 
 its descendants are numerous, perhaps not numerically much in- 
 
32 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 ferior to that which came from the Virginia settlements, is vastly 
 inferior to it in all the essential qualities of the citizen. From 
 the Virginia people have come a great number of men of national 
 and some of world-wide reputation. It is not likely that any other 
 population, averaging in numbers about five hundred thousand 
 souls, has in a century furnished as many able men. On the other 
 hand, this eastern North Carolina people has given no men of 
 great fame to the history of the country, while a large part of the 
 so-called ' poor white ' population of the South appears to be de- 
 scended from the mongrel folk who were turned ashore on the 
 eastern border of North ^Carolina."— [Narrative and Critical His- 
 tory of America, Vol. IV, p. xxviii, — Introduction.] 
 
 2. "Those unacquainted with the inhabitants of the Border at 
 that time cannot well comprehend how that public sentiment 
 could so easily be swayed and shaped by drunken, vulgar and in- 
 flammatory speeches. First, there were the native Missourians, 
 who were a singular class of people, and have not, perhaps, their 
 prototypes in the world — certainly not in the United States. 
 Their fathers were chiefly renegades from the Eastern States, who 
 had fled to escape the just desert for crimes committed. They in- 
 herited all the vices of their ancestors, and had learned many new 
 ones. They were incredulous and suspicious of strangers and 
 easily excited against them. When enraged they were as furious 
 as a mad dog and as cowardly and unmanly as a jackal. They had 
 no conclusions, but only beliefs. They never knew anything but by 
 rumor. They had few ideas and opinions of their own, but gath- 
 ered them from their leading men. No matter how clearly a 
 stranger might demonstrate a truth to them, they would not be- 
 lieve it. No matter how absurd a proposition advanced by one of 
 their favorite leaders might be, they would embrace it as coming 
 from the Oracle of Truth. Utter strangers to principle, they were 
 never happier than when in meanness. Loud in their professions 
 for law and order, there was not a week passed during which 
 robberies, murders and disturbances were not committed. When- 
 ever an individual became unpopular in community, he was ac- 
 cused of all kinds of misdoings and evil designs, warned to leave 
 — which failing to observe, he was attacked by a mob, his prop- 
 erty destroyed, and lucky he was if he escaped with his life. . . . 
 Whisky was held in high esteem by all classes. ... Of native 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 33 
 
 Missourians there were two classes — the wealthy and the poor — 
 holding about the same relation to each other as did the planters 
 and the poor whites of the South. The poor were much more nu- 
 merous ; but being ignorant and pecuniarily dependent upon tlieir 
 wealthy neighbors, they were the pliant tools of the latter. . . . 
 ''Both classes of native Missourians along the Border were 
 at that time alike unscrupulous, ungenerous and ignoble. The 
 wealthy, highly aristocratic, possessed all the cravings to rule of 
 Southern slave-masters. Though full of blarney and suavity, with 
 the exterior polish of gentlemen, they would not shrink from any 
 measure to attain their ends. . . . 
 
 "There were also a peculiar, though pow^erful, class along the 
 Border, composed chiefly of native Missourians, who might justly 
 be termed the loungers and loafers. They accompanied trains 
 across the Plains, went on hunting expeditions, and had generally 
 been through the Mexican War. They were a powerful class — 
 the military of the Border. They formed the mobs, did the steal- 
 ing and a good share of the drinking. They were ever ready for 
 any adventure, anything wild and daring." — [History of Kansas 
 Territory ; p. 98. By John N. Holloway.] 
 
 3. "The Puritan idea is aggressive. It has an unconquerable 
 vitality. Assailed, it grows stronger ; wounded, it revives ; buried, 
 it becomes the angel of its own resurrection." — [ Senator Ingalls,] 
 
 4. Andreas' History of Kansas, p. 93. 
 
 5. Andreas' History of Kansas, p. 95. 
 
 6. Andreas' History of Kansas, p. 95. 
 
 7. Andreas' History of Kansas, p. 
 
SLAVERY. 
 
 ''There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
 Would men observingly distill it out." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 What was this institution against which Kansas rose and 
 revolted ? 
 
 In the early stages of man's existence his normal condi- 
 tion was a state of warfare. In this age of his development 
 he slew his captives. It came to be seen when man began to 
 till the soil, that a captive might be made to be of use and 
 service in the performance of labor for his master. His 
 life was spared upon this discovery, and instead of receiv- 
 ing death for his misfortune he Avas enslaved. Thus human 
 slavery was a reform when first established, and an indica- 
 tion of advancement in society. It was practiced by al- 
 most all ancient peoples. For their times, the Jewish 
 system was humane. A period beyond which a slave could 
 not be held was fixed. A jubilee was established. 
 
 Human slavery began in America at Jamestown, Vir- 
 ginia, in 1619, the Dutch selling negroes to the planters 
 there in that year. It spread over the whole country ; but 
 as it was unprofitable on the sterile hills of the North, it 
 finally came to exist only in the South. Jefferson wrote 
 it down that the slaves were certain to be free at some time 
 in the future. The fathers of the Kepublic could not deal 
 wiih the question, for no arrangement could have been de- 
 
 (34) 
 
JAMES 3IENKX LANE 
 
 35 
 
 vised for its settlement at that time. As the sentiment 
 against slavery grew in the ISTorth, slave labor grew mor(^ 
 remnnerative in the Sonth, and consequently the sentiment 
 in its favor increased there. After the Missouri Com- 
 promise, the ideas, slavery and anti-slavery, came to 1)0 
 recognized as the two antagonistic principles of our govern- 
 ment. More than once did the efforts to advance the one 
 or the other endanger the life of the Union. All its prac- 
 tices were abhorrent to the enlightened mind. Infants 
 ^vcrc torn from their mothers and sold away. Husbands 
 Avere sold away from Avives, children from parents and 
 from one another, and carried away amid Avails, groans, and 
 tears. Slave-drivers carried heaA^y Avhips Avitli Avhich to 
 flay the backs of their hapless victims ; into these Avounds 
 salt Avas forced, or Avater Avithlicld from stiffening, black- 
 euing, festering gashes. 
 
 While it Avas the torment of the danmed to tlie slaves, 
 it Avas even a greater ca^I to their oAvners. The conscience 
 died. The nature of man became brutalized. Political 
 decay and barbarism, perhaps savagery, are the sure states 
 of those countries Avhich do not rise above human slavery. 
 
 But hoAV inscrutable are the Avays of Providence ! An 
 eminent Trench Avriter avers that ultimate good must arise 
 from every evil custom of a people. Virtue and chastity 
 of Avomen, he affirms, are the result of long ages of the 
 brutal selfishness of man, and his inhuman treatment of 
 her. And from these actions of primitiA^e man, too horri- 
 ble to record, Ave haA^e to-day, and have had for thousands 
 of years, the chaste and continent home, the family, Avhich 
 is the unit and foundation of our CA^ery social and political 
 institution. 
 
36 TWENTIETH OE'NTURT CLASSICS 
 
 So it was with human slavery in N^orth America. It 
 was born of the selfish g-reed, nurtured and protected by 
 the violation of every laAv of mercy, justice, and humanity ; 
 planted here by the uprooting and destruction of whole 
 peoples ; murder foul ; horrors too black to write. But in 
 its abolition here, men discussed freedom. A higher liberty 
 than man had enjoyed came to be our ideal. We cast off 
 this evil with groans, at the expense of blood and treasure, 
 but from the struggle we emerged with broader views. We 
 come now to be the champions of this high ideal of liberty. 
 We insist that it is the birthright of all men everywhere. 
 It is our boast that we enjoy the highest degree of liberty 
 of any people in the world. 
 
 In the destruction of slavery in Kansas we made it im- 
 possible of existence anywhere in America. And it should 
 be the pride of Kansans that their fathers began this con- 
 flict for universal freedom. To blot out and burn away 
 this plague-spot and foul leprosy of the nation did the peo- 
 ple of Kansas set themselves. And the result was anarchy 
 on the border and in Kansas Territory. Their blazing 
 homes lighted up the prairies. 
 
 Within a month after the election of the Legislature 
 there came into Kansas a strange man. That man was 
 James Henry Lane, knoAvn in Kansas history as the " Grim 
 Chieftain of Kansas,'' and familiarly among his friends 
 as " Jim Lane " — long afterwards a Senator froni Kansas, 
 a General in the Civil War, and an intimate, friend of the 
 martyred Lincoln. He bore a heroic part in that pre- 
 liminary struggle. We shall see more of him in the pages 
 wdiich follow. 
 
THE MAN. 
 
 "Yea, tliis man's brow, like a title-loal", 
 Foretells the nature of a tragie volume." 
 
 The precise date of the arrival of James Henry Lane in 
 Kansas is not known. It was sometime in the month of 
 April, 1855.1-^ 
 
 Let us look at this man who came in honorahle poverty 
 into Kansas Territory on the eve of the great events here, 
 and of greater in the nation than had before been wit- 
 nessed since its founding. He was tall, and like Cassius, 
 bore " a lean and hungry look.'' 
 
 " Meager were his looks, 
 Sharp misery had worn him to the bones." 
 
 He was poorly clad ; he cared little for his personal ap- 
 pearance. His cowskin overcoat and calfskin vest (both 
 with the hair of the animals still on them) came to be 
 proverbs in Kansas. 
 
 His eyes were dark and restless, and when he was aroused 
 they burned with the depth and intensity of charcoal fires. 
 His features were good, — forehead high, nose finely cut, 
 mouth firm but with some lines of weakness, chin and jaw 
 square and heavy. His arms were long, and every old-time 
 Kansan will tell of his long and bony forefinger and its 
 potency in all Kansas affairs in which he engaged. His 
 presence was commanding. We are assured by all who 
 
 * See notes — 1 to 5 — at end of this chapter. 
 
 (37) 
 
38 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 kneAV him personally that no mere word-description of 
 him can ever be made to convey any adeqnate idea of the 
 man. Plis energy was boundless, limitless ; his personality 
 was strong, potent, overpowering; his tenacity of purpose 
 was persistent, indomitable; his whole organism one of 
 vigor, cogenc}'-, magnetism. 
 
 It is uncertain whether he was born in Kentucky or In- 
 diana. The probability is that he was born in Lawrence- 
 burg, Indiana, June 22, 1814. It is possible that it may 
 be yet determined by research that he was born in Boone 
 county, Kentucky, It is well established that he often 
 claimed Kentucky as his native State. In the sketch of his 
 life written by himself, he says he was born on the bank of 
 the Ohio river, but does not say upon which bank.^ 
 
 His father was Amos Lane, and came of that stock called 
 by Prentis ^^ the from everlasting to everlasting Scotch- 
 Irish.'' It is claimed that lie was a native of l^ew York. 
 It is almost certain that he was born in Guilford county, 
 ^orth Carolina. From the best accounts it seems that the 
 Lane family were originally Pennsylvanians. From this 
 State some of tliem went to Virginia, some to North Car- 
 olina, and some to 'New York. Amos Lane went to New 
 York when a young man, and was there a clerk in a store 
 for some time. At Ogdensburg he met and married Miss 
 Mary Foote, at that time a teacher. She was born in Con- 
 necticut, and was of a distinguished New England family. 
 She was a woman of piety. She was for forty years a 
 member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She was pos- 
 sessed of more than an ordinary share of good common- 
 sense, and a desire to accomplish sometliing in the world. 
 She was the inspiration of her husband's efforts to enter 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 39 
 
 the practice of law. For many years they were very poor, 
 but they labored diligently, — she at teaching, he at any- 
 thing he could find for his hands to do. He was a Demo- 
 crat, and is said to liave been a friend if not an acquaint- 
 ance of Thomas Jefferson. This was made a reason for 
 not admitting him to the bar when he first came to Indiana. 
 He came from ISTew York to Cincinnati as early as 1804. 
 In the spring of 1808 he moved to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. 
 It was here he was refused admittance to the bar. He then 
 crossed the river into Kentucky, and after further moving 
 about, returned to Lawrenceburg in 1814.^ 
 
 Amos Lane was elected to the first Legislature of In- 
 diana, in 181G; was the Speaker of the House. He was 
 elected to other terms in the Legislature, and in 1833 was 
 elected to Congress, where he served several years. He 
 was an ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson, with whom 
 he was upon terms of close friendship. Until his death in 
 1850 he was the ruling power in politics in southern In- 
 diana, in the Democratic party. He was a famous orator, 
 shrewd, and not always governed by the highest motives, 
 especially in his political transactions. 
 
 But it was to his mother that James Henry Laije owed 
 most of his genius. She was in every sense a superior wo- 
 man, and she has been spoken of as having " a coal of fire 
 in her heart," so ambitious, so restless, and full of energy 
 was she. What education her son obtained she imparted. 
 She designed him for the ministry in the church of her 
 faith. Her life was one of constant effort in his younger 
 days. While her husband traveled over the country to at- 
 tend the migratory ^^ Circuit Court," she kept boarders and 
 taught school '^ in her own cabin." A very eminent man 
 
iO TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 has said that it is a prerequisite to success to be bom right, 
 and James H. Lane was richly endowed by heredity. 
 
 In the days of his boyhood, Indiana was the frontier. 
 He was born during the War of 1812, and only a year 
 before the battle of the Raisin. Men are not educated 
 wholly in school-rooms. If they have not the faculty of 
 gaining knowledge in the broader school of life, " book- 
 learning " is wasted iipon them. The noisy, turbulent, 
 often dangerous frontier is a school better equipped to 
 develop strength of character, self-reliance, resource in 
 emergency, than any other. Here society is rude and un- 
 settled — in the process of taking definite form. Theory 
 counts for little — action for everything. In such, a fron- 
 tier schooling did Lane become familiar with the motives 
 and forces that move men — especially frontiers-men. 
 The exaggerated style of speech, the boisterous and ag- 
 gressive manner, the personal courage, the iron constitu- 
 tion, the remarkable and tireless persistency in the prose- 
 cution of an enterprise once engaged in, — these were the 
 inheritance from his environment on the frontier, where 
 a strong and independent people were laying broad and 
 well the foundation of a great State. In this school was 
 Lane well learned. His faults (and he had many) were 
 also those of the frontier, where they were not considered 
 of so great consequence as in older and better ordered so- 
 ciety. In this same school was Lincoln learned, and one 
 of the reasons for the strong attachment between these two 
 most remarkable men was their graduation from the fron- 
 tier life of southern Indiana. 
 
 While he was well learned in the rude school of the fron- 
 tiers-men, it must not be supposed that he was unlettered. 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 41 
 
 He possessed a fair knowledge of the elementary branches 
 of learning. This was meager enough, and as has been 
 said, he owed most of it to the personal attention given 
 by his mother. After all, the mother is a great teacher. 
 It is not so much the amount of knowledge imparted, as 
 the degree of enthusiasm inspired, that tells in the later 
 life of the pupil. Her noble aspirations and the tender 
 solicitude for her family, her devotion to every duty and 
 the constancy of her life purposes, touched his heart; of 
 this he gave evidence all through his life. In no institu- 
 tion of learning could he have been so well fitted for the 
 leadership of men and movements as in the schools of his 
 mother and the frontier of the Republic. 
 
 For some years he was engaged in trade in Lawrence- 
 burg,^ in company with a brother-in-law. It seems to have 
 been a pork-packing establishment, combined with the for- 
 w^arding of the produce of the country to market. In 
 those days ISTew Orleans was the only market of conse- 
 quence for the products of the Ohio valley. He, like Lin- 
 coln, pushed his o^vn flatboat back and forth, to and from 
 that mart. But in this vocation he was handicapped by 
 his peculiar bent of mind. Such occupations are ever irk- 
 some to natures contented only to lead. The nearest mart 
 is too far away and the road to it too quiet and common- 
 place for them. In their view, the result is not worth the 
 effort. They long for excitement, for opportunity for 
 leadership. Lane was a born leader of men. His environ- 
 ment and training had vastly developed his natural abili- 
 ties. He saw in politics a field exactly to his liking; per- 
 haps his tendency in this direction was inherited. He 
 says he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and prac- 
 ticed in partnership with his father. 
 
42 
 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 His entrance into politics was in a small way — an elec- 
 tion to the common council of his native village. He was 
 repeatedly re-elected. He made his first public speech in 
 3 832, in favor of General Jackson. He was but eighteen, 
 and it is said that his effort was a very creditable one. 
 He was elected to the Legislature in 1845, and in the win- 
 ter following was a candidate before the convention of his 
 party for the nomination for the office of Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor ) he was defeated by one vote. 
 
 In the fall of 1842 he was married to Miss Mary E. 
 Baldridge, a granddaughter of General Arthur St. Clair. 
 
 In July, 184G, Lane raised a company of volunteers 
 in Lawrenceburg for the Mexican war. He informs us 
 that this was before the requisition of the President had 
 reached the State of Indiana. He marched his conjpany 
 (of which he had been elected captain) to ITew Albany. 
 There it was made a j^art of the Third Ttcgimcnt, Indiana 
 Volunteers, and Lane was elected Colonel of the regiment. 
 The regiment hurried to Mexico, and was a part of Gen- 
 eral Taylor's command. Colonel Lane served under Tay- 
 lor until the spring of 1847. At the battle of Buena Vista 
 he distinguished himself as a brave soldier and an able offi- 
 cer. In this battle the command of a large part of the 
 army devolved upon him. 
 
 Colonel Lane returned to Indiana in Julj^, 1847, and 
 raised the Fifth Indiana Regiment, of which he was elected 
 the Colonel, and which he took to Mexico. This regiment 
 was placed under General Butler, and did not reach the 
 City of Mexico until after its capture by General Scott. 
 When peace was concluded his regiment was discharged. 
 He arrived in Indiana in July, 1848. His record as a 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 43 
 
 soldier in the Mexican War was both creditable and honora- 
 ble. He did his duty faithfully and well, and won the 
 confidence and praise of his superiors in command. 
 
 In 1849 the Democratic party of Indiana nominated him 
 for the office of Lieutenant-Governor, and he was elected by 
 a large majority. His party made him an Elector-at-large 
 in the Presidential campaign of 1852. lie was elected, 
 and cast the vote of the State of Indiana for Franklin 
 Pierce for President. He w^as elected by the Democratic 
 party to the Thirty-second Congress, and voted for the 
 Ivansas-lSTebraska bill. He afterwards reported that he 
 voted for the bill because he had been instructed to do so. 
 There was for many years in Kansas a persistent repetition 
 of the terms of an agreement said to have been made be- 
 tween him and Douglas. It A\'1as said to have been on this 
 wise: Lane was at first opposed to the Kansas-Xebraska 
 bill. Douglas succeeded in convincing Lane that the pas- 
 sage of the bill would make him (Douglas) President. 
 Lane was to go to Kansas, organize the Democratic party 
 there, and when the Territory should be admitted as a 
 State he was to be elected L^nited States Senator, and con- 
 trol the patronage of the State under the Administration 
 of Douglas. In the meantime he was to control the Pcd- 
 eral patronage of the Administration then in power, so far 
 as the influence of Douglas could make it possible. The 
 facts concerning the truth or falsity of this agreement 
 cannot now be learned. Many of the old-time Kansans yet 
 living insist that such an agreement existed. The proba- 
 bility is that Lane did not think of coming to Kansas until 
 his attention was attracted to it by the debates in Congress 
 on the Douglas bill. It is not improbable that some ar- 
 
44: TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 rangement was discussed between Lane and Douglas; 
 whether it reached to the dignity of an agreement or not 
 is very doubtful. 
 
 Whether he came to Kansas alone or was accompanied 
 by his family seems to be a question, also. On his arrival 
 he immediately built a cabin on his claim adjoining Law- 
 rence. Here Mrs. Lane soon joined him.* 
 
 The latest biographer of Lane leaves it in doubt as to 
 where he intended to fix his residence in the Territory, 
 and intimates that it was purely accidental that he stopped 
 at Lawrence.^ 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 1. Speer says, "One bright morning in April, 1855."— [Life of 
 James H. Lane, p. 12, by John Speer.] 
 
 Andreas' History of Kansas says, "As early as April [1855] a 
 most remarkable man had, unheralded and comparatively un- 
 known to his neighbors, come to Kansas and settled near Law- 
 rence."— [See page 106.] 
 
 2. This sketch was published in the Crusader of Freedom, Feb- 
 ruary 3, 1858. The paper was published at Doniphan, by James 
 Redpath, Only one chapter was published, as the paper was dis- 
 continued. 
 
 The majority of authorities say that he was born in Boone 
 county, Kentucky. As Kentucky was a slave State, he could have 
 had no object to serve in stating that he was born there if it was 
 true that he was born in Indiana. Almost all his friends believed 
 he was born in Kentucky. The theory that he was born in Indiana 
 is of later date. Until 1860 we find it rarely stated that he was 
 born in Indiana, and almost always that he was born in Kentucky. 
 His earliest friends say Kentucky. 
 
 3. The authorities for the statements in this paragraph are 
 many, from the newspaper files and clippings in the library of the 
 
JAMES HENEY LANE 45 
 
 Historical Society to the statements of the associates and friends 
 of General Lane. V. J. Lane, Esq., of Kansas City, Kansas, is of 
 the same family ; he is a Pennsylvanian, and came to Kansas from 
 Indiana. 
 
 4. In the History of Kansas by Andreas, p. 106, it is stated that 
 " he left behind him a family which he did not love." He says in 
 his sketch in the Crusader of Freedom that Mrs. Lane and the chil- 
 dren accompanied him from AVashington City, but that she be- 
 came dissatisfied with frontier life and its hardships and returned 
 to Indiana, but that no harsh feelings were entertained by either. 
 They were divorced and remarried. 
 
 5. See Speer's Life of Gen. James H. Lane, p. 12. 
 
BEGINS WORK. 
 
 *' Kansas is richer in historic lore than any other region of the 
 Great AVest. Its traditions go back to the time of the ]Montezumas 
 and the Spanish conquest of Mexico." 
 
 James II. Lane came to Kansas a Democrat ; lie had 
 never been anything else. His party in Indiana had hon- 
 ored him with high positions. He had no intention of 
 transferring his allegiance to another political party when 
 he arrived in Kansas. In his Chicago siDcech he says he 
 came to Kansas to organize the Democratic party. It is 
 said that he made a sj)eech at Westport, llo., where he had 
 stopped while on his way to Kansas, in which he said that 
 he wonld as soon bny a negro as a mnle, and that the ques- 
 tion of the success of slavery in Kansas depended upon the 
 suitability of the country to produce hemp. This reference 
 to the ^^ negro and the mule'' was a favorite form of express- 
 ing assent to slavery ; it has been attributed to other men, 
 at other times and places, among them, Governor Keeder. 
 Lane afterwards admitted that when he came to Kansas he 
 cared nothing about the great question of slavery. Paul 
 was the greatest Apostle of Christianity, 3^et in the begin- 
 ning he persecuted the Church. People generally sup- 
 posed that the question of freedom or slavery in Kansas 
 was almost settled when the Kansas-^Rebraska bill was 
 passed. But far-seeing men like Seward, Sumner, Thayer, 
 
 (46) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 47 
 
 and Ivobinson saw in this bill the beginning of the end of 
 slavery. Lane saw the same thing, and gave expression to 
 it in the address in which he announced that '^ Until then 
 I am a crusader for Freedom." But when he arrived in 
 the Territory there was comparative quiet. Only men well 
 informed upon local and national conditions could foresee 
 the whole conflict at that time ; even these did not compre- 
 hend its magnitude and its consequences. Of the intentions 
 of the Missourians he had probably heard, and, too, of their 
 actions in the beginning; but no man could fully realize the 
 conditions existing here until he came and saw for himself. 
 Many a man came to Kansas in favor of slavery, and, like 
 Lane, was made a crusader for freedom by the course of 
 the Missourians. 
 
 On July 27th, 1S55, a number of Democrats met in 
 Lawrence for the purpose of organizing the Democratic 
 party in Kansas Territory. Lane was president of the 
 meeting. An address was formulated ; it urged the neces- 
 sity of the organization of the Democratic party upon 
 national grounds, disclaimed the intention or right of the 
 party to interfere with any domestic institution, aflirmed 
 the right of the people to manage their own affairs, de- 
 nounced ballot-box stufiing, and invited people from all 
 sections of the country to come and live in Kansas and help 
 to manage its aifairs. It was supposed that a strong party 
 on the lines suggested could restore order and harmony. 
 But these men misread the Missourians ; only the exclusion 
 of settlers from the free States could restore order satisfac- 
 torily to them. 
 
 One of the causes of the failure of this movement was 
 tlie fact that at the time there were no national parties. 
 
48 TWENTIETH CENTURY CIiASSICS 
 
 The passage of the Kansas-!N'ebraska bill reduced the Dem- 
 ocratic party to the rank of a sectional party; from the 
 same cause the Whig party was in the process of dissolution. 
 Butler says that Buchanan was elected by means of frauds 
 committed by his party in Pennsylvania. Conditions of 
 national strength or decay manifest themselves on the 
 frontiers of a country before they can be observed else- 
 where. In Kansas at this time there was the party of 
 slavery and ruffianism, and the party of resistance to its 
 campaigns of rapine and murder. In the latter were 
 many Democrats — some from the extreme South. 
 
 The effort to organize the national Democratic party in 
 Kansas was a flat failure ; it met with no response from the 
 people. They saw no hope for relief from its existence. 
 The so-called Democratic newspapers of the border ridi- 
 culed the movement. Its advocates saw the futility of tem- 
 porizing measures. 
 
 Lane was a politician by nature and education. His 
 efforts to establish the national Democracy in Kansas, 
 while consistent and legitimate, gave color to the rumor 
 that he had come to the Territory as the vice-regent of 
 Douglas, and to retrieve his political fortunes ruined in 
 his old home by his support of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. 
 Upon the failure of this movement he abandoned the Dem- 
 ocratic party. And this left him open to the charge of 
 changing his party for the purpose of obtaining office. 
 However, his abandonment of the Democratic party and 
 his subsequent association with the Free-State movement 
 should no more be considered a change of party for political 
 preferment by Lane than it should of the men in the effort 
 with him. Most of them became afterwards prominent 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 4:9 
 
 members of the Free-State party, and did valiant service 
 in the battle for freedom. 
 
 The first Free-State convention in the Territory having 
 a tendency to the formation of a distinct party was licld 
 in Lawrence, Angnst 14th, 1855. Many meetings had 
 been previously held under the auspices of calls from 
 '^ Many citizens,'' and other similar names. One of con- 
 siderable importance was held on Jime 25th, but it was 
 more for the purpose of defying and denouncing the acts 
 of the bogus Legislature and to announce that the true 
 residents of Kansas would resist, and to declare for a free 
 Territory and a free State, than to formulate a policy for 
 future action. 
 
 Lane met with the convention of August 14th, and ad- 
 dressed it. His address was not well received. He was a 
 stranger. Two weeks previously he had issued the national 
 Democracy manifesto. And in his remarks he affirmed 
 that he w^ould again vote for the Kansas-IN'ebraska bill. 
 He said, however, that he was as anxit)us as any member 
 for a free constitution for Kansas and for Kansas to be- 
 come a free State. He counseled moderation. He seemed 
 the only man present who saAv into the future and clearly 
 comprehended the conditions of the whole country and 
 the relations the conflict beginning in Kansas bore to it. 
 Events of the preceding sixty days had revealed to him 
 what others here did not see. " There is the existence 
 of a Union hanging upon the action of the citizens of 
 Kansas," he said. 
 
 Dr. Eobinson reported a preamble and resolutions which 
 w^ere strong and conservative. They repudiated the bogus 
 — 4 
 
50 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 Legislature then in session at Shawnee Mission, and coun- 
 seled resistance to its acts. Lane opposed the resolutions 
 as reported, and advised opposition to the Legislative acts 
 in a legal way. Complete harmony, however, came of the 
 wrangling, and the resolutions were adopted as Dr. Rob- 
 inson had reported them. A delegate convention of Free- 
 State men was recommended to be held at Big Springs on 
 the 5th of September. 
 
 Lane was not a man to enter any cause with half a heart. 
 Once enlisted, he worked with an energy such as no other 
 man of his time possessed. His resolutions were suddenly 
 formed ; he was quick to decide ; and to resolve was to act. 
 He was not satisfied with his reception by the convention. 
 With intuition he saw the true way to the hearts of the 
 people. As the convention was adjourning he had it an- 
 nounced that he would speak that night in the hall in which 
 it had met. He would, he said, denounce a noted leader of 
 the ruffians who came to Kansas to despoil her settlers of 
 their rights and liberties — often their lives. 
 
 Speer relates an incident in this connection, '^ which 
 showed Lane's j)i'esence of mind. The meeting was in 
 Robinson Hall, second floor. As he spoke to an audience 
 charmed with his invective frontier eloquence, the building 
 gave way. Instantly bringing his arms do^ai with empha- 
 sis, he exclaimed, ^ Stand still ! ' ISTot a soul moved. ^ ^NTow,' 
 he continued, 'let two of our best mechanics go quietly 
 out, examine the building, and report.' They did so, and 
 reported that it had sunk three or four inches, but the 
 foundation was solid and the building safe. The meeting 
 Avent on." 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 61 
 
 This address was the first he delivered in Kansas in the 
 style which was all his own. It created a sensation. It 
 revealed to the people a man of wonderful powers. From 
 the delivery of this address may be dated the beginning of 
 his ascendency in Kansas. It is fittingly described by one 
 of his old acquaintances : 
 
 " He electrified a Free- State audience in Lawrence by 
 announcing that he would speak the next evening on the 
 political issues of the day, championing the Free-State 
 cause. The crowd was immense. They came from their 
 cabins on the prairies, from the valleys and the hills. 
 They wanted to know from his own mouth the ^Grim Chief- 
 tain's ' position on political questions. The hour came. 
 Lane was in his best mood. He was prepared for a 
 vituperative, sarcastic, ironical and intensely personal 
 speech. Such the crowd usually likes, or used to in the 
 early frontier days, when men were ^ walking arsenals ' 
 and crept over ^ volcanoes.' Such an analysis of character 
 was never heard before or since in Kansas. It was equal 
 to John Kandolph's best effort in that line. His late Demo- 
 cratic associates were dcnoimced, burlesqued, ridiculed and 
 pilloried in a hysteria of laughter by an excited, cyclonic 
 crowd. 'No one ever afterwards doubted where Lane stood. 
 He crossed with a leap the Kubicon of radical politics and 
 burned all bridges behind him. He was not baptized, — he 
 was immersed in the foaming floods of radicalism. As the 
 whitccaps rose higher and higher on the stormy and tu- 
 multuous political sea, Lane contended the stronger, and 
 baffled them." 
 
THE BIG SPRINGS CONVENTION, 
 
 " Strike — for your altars and your fires ; 
 Strike — for the green graves of your sires, 
 God — and your native land." 
 
 The extent of this paper will not allow us to consider all 
 the events by which Kansas was made free. "Nov will it 
 suffer us to give even a short acount of all the eminent ser- 
 vices of General Lane- 
 
 The convention held bj the Free-State men at Big 
 Springs, September 5th, has become historic. It was here 
 that the men of Kansas, making party subservient to prin- 
 ciple, rose above partisanship and became patriots. 
 
 Lane desired to be appointed delegate to this convention 
 from Lawrence. He was opposed, but the opposition was 
 not successful in defeating him. Many citizens of the 
 Territory were not only against slavery, but were hostile 
 to the negro, whether bond or free, and were in favor of 
 laws which would forever exclude him from the State, 
 whatever his condition. Lane held to this view. A great 
 majority of the citizens of the Territory were of the same 
 opinion, and were called " black-law " men. But the most 
 radical opposition to the prevailing sentiment was in Law- 
 rence, and this ^^ black-law " tenet was the one thing urged 
 against Lane^s selection as a delegate. 
 
 Big Springs was a celebrated camping-ground on the 
 trail to California. It is in Douglas county, eleven miles 
 
 (53) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 53 
 
 east of Topeka. But two persons with their families lived 
 in its vicinity in September, 1855. They were W. Y. Rob- 
 erts and W. R. Frost. The delegates, knowing that they 
 would find no accommodations in the neighborhood, came 
 prepared to camp on the ground. Their place of meeting 
 was the open plain, and no fitter place to formulate a plan 
 to battle for liberty than the broad prairie upon which tlie 
 convention met could have been found. 
 
 Here were men from the refinements of New England 
 homes, and with college diplomas in their pockets. New 
 York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, — almost all the States north 
 of Mason and Dixon's line were represented. Men from 
 Missouri and from the foot-hills of the Cumberland Moun- 
 tains were there. To some the name " abolitionist " was a 
 reproach too vile to be borne; others gloried in it. Some 
 were not opposed to the institution of slavery ; others were 
 for excluding all negroes. Some would have indorsed the 
 bogus Legislature then in session ; others would have taken 
 up arms to drive its members out of the Territory into 
 Missouri, where many of them lived. Some would have 
 been content with the assurance of no further molestation 
 from the rufiians; others would have exalted the flag to 
 the stars, nor held back the crusade for freedom as long 
 as a shackle bound a slave in America. 
 
 These diverse elements met for a definite purpose — to 
 form a party to act in concert in the making of a free State. 
 To harmonize these men with opinions so different and 
 political principles so divergent and to enlist them in a 
 common cause was no light task. For a long time it seemed 
 impossible that it could be accomplished. Freedom trem- 
 bled in the balance. 
 
54 TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 
 
 Miicli of the work to be done was assigned to committees. 
 To a most delicate and difficult position was James Henry 
 Lane assigned — that of chairman of the committee on 
 resolutions. It was his duty to evolve a declaration of 
 principles to which all would adhere in the coming struggle, 
 liere inaugurated, and to which all would subscribe now 
 and be bound by in the dark and terrible days to come. 
 In its preparation he consulted with every member of the 
 convention, now reasoning with one, now pleading with an- 
 other, and labored the whole night through. 
 
 The platform was reported by Lane on the morning of 
 the second day of the convention. Beyond a few remarks, 
 general in their nature, and explanatory of the work sub- 
 mitted, Lane did not indulge himself on reporting it. The 
 resolutions were bitterly attacked and warmly discussed. 
 Failure seemed imminent. "At this critical crisis Judge 
 Smith arose and began a speech of great earnestness and 
 feeling. With his white locks trembling in the wind, and 
 tears streaming down his furrowed cheeks, he besought 
 them in the spirit of a patriarch and a patriot, to cast 
 aside all minor differences, and to unite in one common 
 struggle toward rescuing Kansas from the vile dominion 
 of slavery." Then Lane arose, the last man to speak, and 
 delivered a thrilling, telling speech which swayed the men 
 of the convention as the wind sways the grass of the prai- 
 rie. And the historian records that the platform was 
 adopted unanimously and with enthusiastic cheers. Every 
 boy and girl in Kansas should study it carefully, for on its 
 declaration of principles did the fathers of Kansas stand 
 before the world, confident of the ultimate triumph of their 
 cause. It stated the wrongs they had suffered and the end 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 55 
 
 they hoped to accomplish. And time justified their hopes 
 and vindicated their action. 
 
 Another committee reported resolutions. Its chairman 
 Avas the late Judge James S. Emery, of Lawrence. It had 
 been appointed to consider the attitude to be assumed by 
 the people of the Territory toward the bogus Legislature. 
 The report eloquently recited the usurpations and out- 
 rages perpetrated by that illegal and bogus body, and de- 
 clared " we will endure and submit to these laws no longer 
 than the best interests of the Territory require, as the 
 least of two evils, and will resist them to a bloody issue 
 as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail, 
 and forcible resistance shall furnish any reasonable pros- 
 pect of success." 
 
 A candidate for Delegate to Congress w^as nominated. 
 This honor was bestowed upon Governor Reeder, who 
 made a brilliant address in accepting it, in which he quoted 
 effectively the lines at the head of this chapter. 
 
 The convention to be held in Topeka on the 19 th of 
 September to consider the propriety of forming a State con- 
 stitution w^as indorsed. 
 
 A committee consisting of James H. Lane, Samuel C. 
 Pomeroy (afterwards Lane's colleague in the United States 
 Senate), and G. W. BroA\m, was appointed to wait on Gov- 
 ernor Shannon and deliver to him a coj^y of the proceed- 
 ings of the convention. 
 
 The Hon. II. Miles Moore was one of the delegates to 
 the Big Springs convention, and sums up the results of its 
 work in the following eloquent statement : 
 
 " It had in truth and in fact accomplished a great and 
 glorious work for the Free-State cause in Kansas: it had 
 
J 
 
 56 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 fully organized the party in the Territory, put forth its 
 platform, nominated a Delegate to Congress, appointed a 
 day for his election, and indorsed the constitutional conven- 
 tion called to he held at Topeka on the approaching 19th 
 of Septemher. It had flung its banner to the breeze in- 
 scribed in letters of living light : Kansas must and shall 
 
 BE FEEE, PEACEABLY IF WE CAN, BUT FOECIBLY IF WE 
 MUST. 'No SLAVE SHALL LONGEE CLANK HIS CHAINS ON 
 
 HER viEGiN SOIL. The days of secret Free-State meetings 
 called by ' Many Citizens,' ^ Sundry Citizens,' etc., held 
 in Lawrence or elsewhere, with the names of the partici- 
 pants suppressed or not announced, was past, thank God! 
 From this time henceforth their names were to be pub- 
 lished broadcast and knoT\ai and read of all men ; no skulk- 
 ing now, but a fight in the open and to the death if need be. 
 The Big Springs convention had given new life and inspira- 
 tion to the Free-State settlers throughout the Territory, 
 where before a spirit of despondency and apathy had pre- 
 vailed. Hope and courage took on new life. Free-State 
 meetings were held in many towns and settlements in the 
 Territory." 
 
 From this date Lane was the recognized leader of the 
 Free-State movement in Kansas. He threw his soul into 
 the work of the liberation of his adopted Territory from 
 the usurpers who had sworn to enslave her. He was here, 
 there, everywhere. Sometimes he could not hire a horse 
 to ride; then he would walk miles and miles to attend a 
 Free-State meeting- He went about speaking as one hav- 
 ing authority. A stranger in the Territory in April, he 
 was known to the whole people in October. They came to 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 57 
 
 depend upon him and upon his superhuman efforts in 
 their behalf. They hurrahed for Jim Lane. They seemed 
 to have known him all their lives. It was only necessary 
 to have it known that Lane was to be in a certain to^vn or 
 at a certain cross-roads at a certain time ; all the people in 
 reach were sure to be there to hear him. He never failed 
 with a Kansas audience. And woe to the man who had 
 maligned him or the cause he represented ! 
 
 'No other man who ever lived in Kansas had the power 
 over an audience possessed by Lane. His oratory affected 
 men differently, as they were differently constituted. 
 Some wept; some whooped and yelled; some cursed and 
 swore; some must needs leave the room and walk about 
 in the fresh air, to such a pitch were they wrought ; some 
 sat transfixed and mute, so absorbed that they were obliv- 
 ious to every external thing, even to their own existence, 
 hanging upon his every word and action. Upon one point 
 all were agreed : they believed whatever he said — they did 
 whatever he commanded. 
 
 It was said that he should never speak in Wyandotte. 
 One day he appeared there, without having sent previous 
 notice. In the afternoon it was noised abroad that Lane 
 was in to^Mi. It was with the utmost difficulty that a hall 
 could be secured for him. Trouble began as soon as he 
 left his hotel to repair to the place of meeting. He was 
 surrounded by a mob, some armed with ropes, others with 
 pistols and knives. On a street corner it became neces- 
 sary for him to appeal to the mob to postpone its vengeance 
 until it had heard what he had to say. He had not a 
 dozen friends in the audience which assembled. He began 
 his speech amid jeers and howls of execration, and was 
 
58 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 urged " to make it brief," as they wanted to escort him to 
 a neighboring cottonwood tree for a further and final 
 interview. Eut gradually a calm settled upon his audi- 
 ence. At the end of ten minutes he had won but a single 
 applause; then came another; and still another; then a 
 full round of applause ; and in a quarter of an hour he was 
 master of the situation. In half an hour every man was 
 whooping and hurrahing for Jim Lane, and would have 
 turned their ropes, their pistols and their knives upon 
 anyone he might have suggested, had occasion arisen. In 
 this meeting was the famous Grey-Eyes incident ; it is too 
 well known to require repetition here. It is well told in 
 Speer's Life of Lane. 
 
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 
 KANSAS TERRITORY. 
 
 " Nations are the same as children — 
 
 Always living in the future, 
 Living in their aspirations and their hopes ; 
 
 Picturing some future greatness, 
 
 Keaching forth for future prizes. 
 With a wish for higher aims and grander scopes." 
 
 The delegate convention at Topeka, September 19 th, 
 1855, did an important work for Kansas. It fixed the 
 date for the election of delegates to form a constitution 
 upon which admission as a State was to be sought. It 
 fij^ed, also, the date of the meeting of the Constitutional 
 Convention. 
 
 Lane did not arrive in time to attend the session of the 
 first day. His imexplained absence was construed by some 
 to indicate a weak adherence to the Free-State cause. 
 But all day he was liastening toward the convention; he 
 arrived at dark, having ridden sixty miles since daylight. 
 While tying his horse a crowd began to assemble around 
 him; in ^ve minutes he was addressing a street audience 
 of large size where but a few moments before there was 
 only an occasional passer-by. 
 
 In addition to its other duties this convention provided 
 for the appointment of a committee of seven men " to have 
 a general superintendence of the affairs of the Territory 
 
 (59) 
 
60 
 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 SO far as regards the organization of a State Government, 
 which committee shall be styled The Executive Committee 
 of Kansas Territory.'' 
 
 Those appointed upon this most important committee 
 were James H. Lane, Joel K. Goodin, Cyrus K. Holliday, 
 Marcus J. Parrott. Philip C. Schuyler, George W. Smith, 
 and George W. Brown. The committee organized by the 
 election of James H. Lane as president and Joel K. 
 Goodin as secretary. By its powers this committee was 
 virtually a Provisional Government of Kansas Territory. 
 Upon it devolved the power to call elections, and to declare 
 the results thereof. It was to find the ways and means to 
 make Kansas a free State, should the movement now en- 
 tered upon result in her admission to the Union. In the 
 meantime it was to lead in the battle with the cohorts from 
 Missouri who were planning their subjugation. 
 
 Kansas was now entering upon the most critical and 
 crucial period of her history. On the 3d of October the 
 pro-slavery people met in Leavenworth and took the pre- 
 liminary steps in the formation of the " Law and Order 
 party.'' The bold stand made by the Pree-State people 
 for their rights and their announced intention to not obey 
 the laws of the bogus Legislature indicated that the subju- 
 gation of Kansas was to be more of a task than at first sup- 
 posed. It was realized by the advocates of slavery that the 
 " Blue Lodges " of Missouri must be supplemented in their 
 work by a strong organization upon the soil of Kansas ; it 
 was hoped that the full and free cooperation of the two 
 bodies might result in the accomplishment of the object 
 they so devoutly prayed for. 
 
 On the 14th of !N"ovember the Law and Order party was 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 61 
 
 organized in Leavenworth, pursuant to a call issued by a 
 committee appointed at the preliminary meeting. Gover- 
 nor Shannon was made president of the meeting which 
 formed this party. The resolutions adopted denounced 
 the work of the Constitutional Convention which had met 
 at Topeka October 23d, as treasonable. The true intent 
 of the party thus organized was set forth by one of the 
 speakers when he said : " We must enforce the laws, though 
 we resort to the force of arms ; trust to our rifles and make 
 the blood flow as freely as do the turbid Avaters of the 
 Missouri." And the sentiment expressed in this explicit 
 statement bore fruit at a later day, as the ruined homes 
 and murdered Free-State men did testify. 
 
 The Executive Committee conducted the affairs of the 
 Territory in a conservative w^ay in the interest of the Free- 
 State people, a majority of the actual settlers in Kansas. 
 But the legal government, the one having the recogni- 
 tion of the Federal Government, was vested in Governor 
 Shannon and the oflicers appointed by the President. This 
 made the government of the Executive Committee and that 
 under the Topeka Constitution which succeeded it revolu- 
 tionary or semi-revolutionary governments. It required 
 great tact, ability and address to avoid a conflict with the 
 Federal authorities. The safety of those representing the 
 governments called into being by the " Topeka movement " 
 lay in the common knowledge that they were only trying 
 to establish a State Government in accordance with all the 
 rights of American citizens, and working to secure the rec- 
 ognition of the Federal Government by lawful and peaceful 
 means. "No attempt to exercise any administrative func- 
 tions of the governments established was ever made, l^one 
 
62 TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 
 
 was ever contemplated until the assent of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment liad been obtained. 
 
 Lane was elected president of the Topeka Constitutional 
 Convention, which met October 23d. It continued in ses- 
 sion until the 11th of ISTovember. The constitution framed 
 bj it was a good one, and was ratified December 15th, 
 1855. On January 15th, 1856, State ofiicers and a Legis- 
 lature were elected. The Legislature convened on the 4th 
 of March, and established all the forms of a State Govern- 
 ment. Governor Charles Robinson sent in an able message. 
 The Legislature elected as United States Senators James 
 H. Lane and Andrew H. Reeder. 
 
 The meeting of the Legislature terminated the existence 
 of the Executive Committee of Kansas Territory. It 
 made a report of its doings, and closed up its affairs. 
 It incurred expenses amounting to $15,265.90, and issued 
 ^' scrip " in payment. It had led the Free-State cause 
 through the ordeal of establishing a State Government^ 
 and through the Wakarusa War. This committee was 
 composed of the ablest men of the Territory, and Lane 
 was the moving spirit in it. It " did in a most wonder- 
 fully efficient manner the work of a provisional and semi- 
 revolutionary government, through the darkest and most 
 disordered and dangerous period of the Territorial his- 
 tory. ... It seemed to have within itself the com- 
 bination of qualities required to plan and execute what- 
 ever the exigencies of the times demanded in the interest 
 of the Free-State party." 
 
 The records of the Committee are in the archives of the 
 State Historical Society. 
 
THE WAKARUSA WAR. 
 
 " One more look at that dead face, 
 Of his murder's ghastly trace ! 
 
 One more kiss, oh, widowed one ! 
 Lay your left hands on his brow, 
 Lift your ri^ht hands up, and vow 
 That his work shall yet be done ! " 
 
 — Whitticr's "The Burial of Barber." 
 
 The darkest hours of Kansas history were those from 
 ^N'ovember 20th, 1855, to January 1st, 1857,— a little more 
 than one year. What the noble and devoted people of the 
 Territory suffered in this short time can never be written. 
 Some enumeration of deeds can be made, but the murder, 
 pillage, and rapine were not the only evils, great as they 
 were. The terror of the lone wife as she waited in intense 
 agony for the return of the husband gone to the assistance 
 of the neighbor being despoiled of his rights — perhaps his 
 life; the dread that brutal bands might break in and 
 murder herself and her children in his absence ; the despair 
 of the widow, and her grief and her tears when her hus- 
 band was borne to his desolate cabin stark and cold in 
 death; — these things cannot be recorded in the books of 
 men. 
 
 The period indicated includes the Wakarusa War, and 
 the war of the summer of 1856, in which Lawrence was 
 destroyed by Sheriff Jones and TJ. S. Senator David R. 
 Atchison, with their hordes of border-ruffians. By the 
 
 (03) 
 
64 TWEITTIETH CEITTtrRT CLASSICS 
 
 summer of 1857 the Free-State settlers were so increased 
 in numbers that life and property were more safe. From 
 that time .the Missourians became less fierce in their at- 
 tacks, if even a little more expert in their stealing, and 
 gradually abandoned the contest, leaving Kansas to get to 
 the stars without their assistance. 
 
 It has been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed 
 of the church. The trials of the Free-State settlers, their 
 sufferings, their blood crying from the ground, were some 
 of the causes which enabled them to finally triumph over 
 all obstacles. The outrage and injustice heaped upon 
 them gave them the sympathy of all the I^orthern States. 
 The triumph of the people over such barriers is an achieve- 
 ment without a parallel in history. These were the diffi- 
 culties which Kansas surmounted to reach the stars. 
 
 The border-ruffians supposed that each invasion had con- 
 quered Kansas and the ^^ abolitionists." But no sooner 
 were they across the border than resolutions were passed 
 condemning their actions. These were sent East and pub- 
 lished in newspapers in sympathy with the Free-State 
 movement. This was a strange kind of warfare and de- 
 fense to people who regarded a knowledge of the alphabet 
 a crime next in heinousness to that of being an " aboli- 
 tionist." At first they ridiculed it, but finally it became 
 a grievance hard to be borne. One of the reasons which 
 they gave for sacking Lawrence was, that " they passed 
 resolutions there and published them in Yankee news- 
 papers." The brave and manly actions of the Free-State 
 men in those troublous times is a heritage richer than 
 gold and pearls, and more valuable to coming generations 
 than rubies and fine sco^ 1. Seward said that when men 
 
TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 65 
 
 forgot the lessons of liberty they should come to Lawrence 
 to re-learn them. 
 
 *' Kansas with her woes and glory " 
 
 is destined to live in song- and story. 
 
 The postmaster of Westport, Mo., was a certain Jones. 
 It was his one cherished ambition to be instrumental in 
 " wiping out " the Free-State town of Lawrence. To this 
 desire is directly due the Wakarusa War. The murder cf 
 Charles W. Dow and the events growing out of that hor- 
 rible deed are well known to all.* He was a good citizen, 
 an inoffensive and peaceable man who had committed no 
 crime greater than coming to the prairies of Kansas a Free- 
 State man to make himself a home. His murderer, a 
 Missouri ruffian, fled to Westport. He surrendered him- 
 self to the said Jones, who had recently been appointed 
 by the bogus Legislature as sheriff of Douglas county, 
 where Dow was murdered. The ideas of justice enter- 
 tained by the " Law and Order party " may be compre- 
 hended when it is known that instead of taking measures 
 to punish the murderer, Jones caused a warrant to be 
 issued for the arrest of the next friend of the murdered 
 man. 
 
 Jones had a purpose in this. He undoubtedly instigated 
 the murder. His purpose was to so exasperate the Free- 
 State men that they would rescue his prisoner, which 
 would give him a pretext to call for the military and with 
 it work his will on Lawrence, where he designed that the 
 rescue should occur. The rescue, however, was not made 
 in that town, but on a road some miles away. This, while a 
 disappointment, did not stop Jones. Even if the rescue 
 
 * Read Spring's "Kansas," p, 86, and following. 
 — 5 
 
66 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 liaci not occurred in Lawrence, he was sure the rescuers 
 would go there, and this was sufficient for his purpose. 
 He could still have some color of excuse for his revenge. 
 
 Jones immediately sent a runner to Westport to cry for 
 aid. Later he made a requisition upon Governor Shannon 
 for three thousand men ^^ to carry out the laws." The Gov- 
 ernor ordered General Richardson to collect as large a 
 force as possible and with it report to Jones. Inflammatory 
 and false statements were spread along the border. A 
 forged letter purporting to have been written by Secretary 
 (afterward acting Governor) Woodson was sent into 
 Platte coimty to further arouse the Missouri ans. In re- 
 sponse, General Atchison hastened to the field. It was 
 said in Missouri that pro-slavery settlers in Kansas were 
 being murdered by the Free-State men. The fury of the 
 Free-State men was said to be terrible. Governor Shannon 
 issued a proclamation. Men and money were raised all 
 along the border ^^ to help Jones." Missourians from every 
 walk of life hastened to arms. One bloodthirsty editor 
 left his paper, taking only time to pen a hasty notice that 
 he was off to the war and expected to wade waist-deep in 
 the blood of " abolitionists." 
 
 The Free-State people at Lawrence appointed a Com- 
 mittee of Safety, and took what precautions they could to 
 protect their homes from the fury of the lawless ruffians 
 gathering to overwhelm them with complete destruction. 
 Dr. Ivobinson was appointed commander-in-chief of the 
 forces mustered for defense. Lane was appointed second 
 in command, and given charge of the field. He fortified 
 the town, and constantly drilled the Free-State settlers who 
 
JAMES IIENKY LANE 
 
 67 
 
 caiiio in to assist in repcllini;" the invaders should tlicy 
 attack the town, as it was expected they would. 
 
 The determined stand of the Lawrence people and their 
 resolution not to stand meekly and be butchered was nnex- 
 pected by the border-ruffians, who had been taught that tho 
 '' abolitionists '' could not fight, and Avould not if they 
 could. They hesitated to attack, and most of them re- 
 mained in their camp at Fraidvlin, four miles away. 
 Another cause for their hesitation was their dread of the 
 Sharps' rifles with which the Fi'cc-State men were armed. 
 These rifles had been sui^plied to them by the Emigrant 
 Aid Society and other similar associations. The terror in- 
 spired by these guns Avas really frightful. It Avas believed 
 they could be fired sixty times a minute, and that they 
 w^ould kill a man a mile away. 
 
 The Eree-State men sent a deputation to wait upon Gov- 
 ernor Shannon, who was by it first informed of the merits 
 of the pretensions of Jones. To his credit be it said, that 
 Governor Shannon did what he could to amend the errors 
 into wdiich he had fallen. He went to Franklin, and finally 
 to Lawrence, in the role of a peace-maker. 
 
 On December Gtli Thomas W. Barber Avas wantonly 
 murdered in a most outrageous manner as he was returning 
 to his home from LaAvrence, Avhere he had been laboring i]i 
 the trenches and drilling in the ranks of her defenders. 
 He Avas shot by George W. Clark, Indian Agent, probably 
 for the sole purpose of exasperating the Free-State men to 
 attack the camp of ruffians at Franklin. If they became 
 the aggressors, Jones's course Avould be justified. A most 
 concise account of this murder can be found in Wilder's 
 Annals of Kansas. Suitable tablets in the ISTational Hall 
 
68 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 of Kepresentatives at Washington and in the Hall of Repre- 
 sentatives in the Capitol huilding at Topeka commemorate 
 the martyrdom of Barher. His innocent blood crying from 
 the ground moved men to seek a deep revenge in after years. 
 The efforts of Governor Shannon, and the Sharps' rifles 
 in the hands of Free-State men, bore fruit. A treaty of 
 peace was concluded at Lawrence on the 8th of December, 
 1855, signed by Shannon, and, on behalf of the Free-State 
 men, by Robinson and Lane. The Missourians returned 
 to their lairs, and the defenders of Lawrence were dis- 
 charged. They were addressed by Robinson and Lane. 
 Lane said in part: 
 
 " Fellow-Soldiers : You assembled to vindicate the 
 right — to defend this city and inhabitants of the Terri- 
 tory against threatened destruction. Well and gallantly 
 have you discharged that duty. The tocsin of war is no 
 longer heard from the besieging army ; they have returned 
 across the border from whence they came ; our fortifications 
 are not demolished ; those beautiful buildings still remain 
 to ornament our city and to accommodate our citizens. You 
 still retain the rifles you know so well how to use. The 
 ladies — God bless them ! — are still among us, to encourage 
 manly and chivalric deeds. 
 
 " You have won a glorious victory by your industry, 
 skill, courage and forbearance. In these fortifications, 
 wrought as if by magic, you took your position, there de- 
 termined never to surrender while a man was left alive to 
 pull a trigger; with a desperate and wily foe almost in 
 your midst, you restrained your fire — determined to con- 
 tinue them in the wrong, and compel them to commence 
 hostilities — to take all the responsibility of a battle which 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 69 
 
 you believed would shake the Union to its very basis. The 
 besieging army had time to ascertain our true position — ■ 
 found that position just and honorable ; that there was no 
 good cause of complaint against us ; and having marched 
 into Kansas, marched out again, leaving us occupying the 
 identical position we did when the invasion was made. 
 
 " While congratulating ourselves upon our success, let 
 us not forget the gallant Barber, who fell in the discharge 
 of his duty. lie was a noble spirit, worthy of the cause 
 for which he bled. Had he fallen upon the battle-field in 
 manly combat, we could not have complained. While we 
 forgive, we cannot forget his cowardly and brutal murder. 
 Long may liis manly bearing be remembered by all true 
 men. ... 
 
 " For days and weeks we were impressed with the belief 
 that our hands were to be imbrued with the blood of 
 our brethren, while we were determined manfully and to 
 the death to defend our hearthstones. Our hearts bled in 
 contemplating the dreadful alternative. The fearful crisis 
 is past, and, we hope, never to return. Our Missouri 
 friends understand us and our cause better than when they 
 came, and will not again permit themselves to be stirred 
 up in anger against us. 
 
 " That beloved Union, for the safety of which we trem- 
 bled, will not again, we trust, be imperiled by a foreign 
 force from a sister State invading our Territory. . . ." 
 
LANE IN THE EAST. 
 
 " I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 
 AVould harrow up thy soul." 
 
 Sometime in ^^rarcli, 1S5G, Lane left Kansas to make a 
 tour of the principal cities of the Free States in the inter- 
 est of the Free-State settlers. Other Free-State men went 
 on a similar mission — some of them with Lane. One noble 
 woman engaged in this work — Mrs. Sara T. L. Tlobinson, 
 wife of Dr. Charles Eobinson. 
 
 But one meeting can be noticed here — that held in 
 Chicago, Saturday evening, May 31st. Tliis chapter is 
 composed of extracts from the speech delivered by Lane 
 upon this occasion, and comments thereon, and is quoted 
 from Andreas' excellent history of Kansas — a work long 
 since out of print. This account will be found on pages 
 136-137. 
 
 One of the earliest and most enthusiastic Kansas meet- 
 ings held was at Chicago, Saturday evening. May 31st, in 
 Court-House Square. The Kansas speakers were Colonel 
 James H. Lane and Mr. Ilinman, " fresh from the smoking 
 ruins of Lawrence. '^ The Chicago Daily Tribune, June 2, 
 gave a two-column report of the meeting imder such head- 
 lines as these: "Illinois Alive and Awake!'' "10,000 
 Freemen in Council ! " " 2,000 Old Hunkers on Hand ! " 
 " $15,000 Subscribed for Kansas ! " 
 
 (70) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 71 
 
 Hon. ^N'orman Jiidcl presided, and made the opening 
 speech. ITe was followed by Francis A. Hoffman. J. C. 
 Vanghan, in an oloqnent speech, presented the claims of 
 Kansas for inimodinto relief, and offered the following 
 resolntions : 
 
 ''Resolved, Tliat the people of Illinois will aid tiie Frefnlom oj 
 Kansas, 
 
 "Resolved, That they will send a colony of 500 actual settlers to 
 that Territory, and provision them for one year. 
 
 "Resolved, That these settlers will invade no man's rights, but 
 will maintain their own. 
 
 "Resolved, That we recommend the adoption of a similar policy 
 to the people of all the States of the Union, ready and willing to 
 aid; and also a thorough concert and cooperation among them, 
 through committees of correspondence, on this subject. 
 
 "Resolved, That an Executive Committee of seven, viz., J. C. 
 Vaughan, Mark Skinner, George AV. Dale, I. N. Arnold, N. B. Judd, 
 and E. I. Tinkham, be appointed, with full ])owers to carry into 
 execution these resolutions. 
 
 "Resolved, That Tuthill King, R. M. TTough, O. B. Waite, J. 11. 
 Dunham, Dr. Gil)bs, J. T. Ryerson and W. B. Egan be a finance 
 committee to raise and distribute material aid." 
 
 Following the reading of the resolntions, they were sec- 
 onded by Peter Page, Esq., and passed amidst the most 
 enthusiastic and prolonged cheering. 
 
 ^ext, Hon. W. B. Egan, one of the most eloquent Irish 
 orators of the city, spoke to his Irish fellow-citizens, rous- 
 ing them to tlie highest pitch of excitement. 
 
 The President then introduced Col. James II. Lane, of 
 Kansas. As he rose up and came forward, he was greeted 
 Avith an outburst of applause from the crowd that contin- 
 ued for some minutes, during which time he stood statue- 
 like, with mouth firm set, gazing witli those Avondrous eyes 
 down into the very heart of the excited throng. Before the 
 
72 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 applause had subsided sufficiently for liis voice to be beard, 
 tbe fascinating spell of his presence had already seized upon 
 the whole vast audience, and for the next hour he controlled 
 its every motion — moving to tears, to anger, to laughter, 
 to scorn, to the wildest enthusiasm, at his will. ISTo man 
 of his time possessed such magnetic power over a vast mis- 
 cellaneous assembly of men as he. With two possible 
 exceptions (Patrick Henry and S. S. Prentiss), no Ameri- 
 can orator ever equaled him in effective stump-speaking, 
 or by the irresistible power by which he held his audience 
 in absolute control. On that night he was at his best. 
 It was doubtless the ablest and most effective oratorical 
 effort of his life, l^o full report of it was given at the time. 
 One of the hundreds of young men made ^^ Kansas crazy " 
 by the speech, and who forthwith left all and followed him 
 to Kansas, thus wrote of it twenty years after : * 
 
 " He was fresh from the scenes of dispute in the belliger- 
 ent Territory. He made a characteristic speech, teeming 
 with invective extravagance, impetuosity, denunciation and 
 eloquence. The grass on the prairies is SAvayed no mort 
 easily by the winds than was this vast assemblage by the 
 utterances of this speaker. They saw the contending fac- 
 tions in the Territory through his glasses. The Pro- 
 Slavery party appeared like demons and assassins; the 
 Free-State party like heroes and martyrs. He infused 
 them with his warlike spirit and enthusiastic ardor for 
 the practical champions of freedom. Their response for 
 his appeals for succor for the struggling freemen was im- 
 mediate and decisive." 
 
 * Col. S. S. Prouty. 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 73 
 
 It is doubtful if the writer of the ahove, or any other of 
 the ten thousand hearers of that night, can recall a single 
 sentence of his speech. The emotions aroused were so 
 overwhelming as to entirely obliterate from meinory the 
 spoken words. A few broken extracts are preserved below. 
 He began : 
 
 "I have been sent by the people of Kansas to plead 
 their cause before the people of the ISTorth. Most people 
 have a very erroneous idea of the people of Kansas. They 
 think they are mostly from Massachusetts. They are 
 really more than nine-tenths from the ISTorthwestern States. 
 There are more men from Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, than 
 from all New England and ISTew York combined." 
 
 Speaking of the President, he said: 
 
 " Of Franklin Pierce I have a right to talk as I please, 
 having made more than one hundred speeches advocating 
 his election, and having also as one of the Electors of Indi- 
 ana, cast the electoral vote of tliat State for him. Frank 
 was, in part, the creature of my own hands ; and a pretty 
 job they made of it. The one pre-eminent wish of mine 
 now is that Frank may be hurled from the \Vhite House ; 
 and that the nine memorials sent him from the outraged 
 citizens of Kansas detailing their wrongs, may be dragged 
 out of his iron box." 
 
 Of the climate of Kansas, he said : 
 
 " Kansas is the Italy of America. The corn and the 
 vine grow there so gloriously that they seem to be glad and 
 to thank the farmers for planting them. It is a climate 
 
74: TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 like that of Illinois, but milder. Invalids, instead of going 
 to Italy, when the country became known would go to Kan- 
 sas, to gather new life beneath its fair sky and from its 
 balmy airs. The wild grapes of Kansas are as large and 
 luscious as those that grow in the vineyards of southern 
 France." 
 
 He alluded to Col. W. IT. Bissell, then the Kepublican 
 candidate for Governor of Illinois, as follows : 
 
 " It is true, I was side by side with your gallant and 
 noble Bissell at Buena Vista and in Congress. I wish I 
 could describe to jo\i the scene on the morning preceding 
 that glorious battle. On a ridge stood Clay, Bissell, Mc- 
 Kee, Hardin, and myself. Before us were twenty thou- 
 sand armed enemies. It was a beautiful morning, and the 
 sun shone bright upon the polished lances and muskets 
 of the enemy, and their banners waved proudly in the 
 breeze. In our rear the lofty mountains reached sky- 
 ward, and their bases swarmed with enemies ready to rob 
 tlie dead and murder the wounded when the battle was over. 
 Around us stood five ragged regiments of volunteers, — two 
 from Illinois, two from Indiana, and one from Kentucky; 
 they were bone of your bone, blood of your blood, and it 
 was only when you were near enough to look into their 
 eyes that j^ou could see the d — — 1 was in them. It did 
 not occur to me then that I should be indicted for treason 
 because I loved liberty better than slavery." 
 
 He then gave a warm and glowing tribute to Col. Bis- 
 sell, his brother-in-arms. 
 
 Then followed a most vivid and awful narrative of the 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 76 
 
 outrages perpetrated upon the Free States' men by the 
 Missouri ruffians; so vivid that the Osawatomie murders 
 seemed but merited retaliation, and most sweet revenge 
 to liis excited hearers. 
 
 " The Missourians [said he] poured over the border 
 in thousands, with bowie-knives in their boots, their belts 
 bristling with revolvers, their gims upon their shoulders, 
 and three gallons of whisky per vote in their wagons. 
 When asked where they came from, their reply was, ' From 
 Missouri;' when asked, ^ What are you here for?' their 
 reply was, ' Come to vote.' If anyone should go there 
 and attempt to denj^ these things, or apologize for them, 
 the Missourians would spit upon him. They claim to 
 own Kansas, to have a right to vote there and to make its 
 laws, and to say wliat its institutions shall be." 
 
 Col. Lane held up the volume of the Statutes of Kansas, 
 then proceeded to read from it, commenting as he read : 
 
 " The Legislature first passed acts virtually repealing 
 the larger portion of the Constitution of the United States, 
 and then repealed, as coolly as one would take a chew of to- 
 bacco, provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Of this 
 bill I have a riglit to speak — God forgive me for so enor- 
 mous and dreadful a political sin — I voted for the bill. I 
 thought the people were to have the right to form their 
 own institutions, and went to Kansas to organize the Demo- 
 cratic party there, and make the State Democratic, but 
 tho IMissouri invaders poured in — the ballot-boxes were 
 desecrated — tho bogus Legislature was elected by armed 
 mobs : you know the rest. 
 
 " The Pro-Slavery fragment of the Democratic party 
 
76 TWENTIETH CEKTURY CLASSICS 
 
 talk much about Knownothingism. It is their song day 
 and night. Well, these Kansas law-makers have gone to 
 work and repealed at once the clause in the ^Nebraska 
 Bill that gave the right to vote to foreigners in Kansas on 
 declaring their intention to become citizens, and made 
 it requisite for them to have lived in the Territory five 
 years and to take the final oath ; and at the same time, they 
 made all Indians who adopted the habits of the white men, 
 voters at once. And what was the distinguishing habit 
 of white men? Why, it was understood to be drinking 
 whisky. All that was necessary to naturalize a Kansas 
 Indian was to get him drunk. What Kno^vnothing lodge 
 ever went so far in their nativism as this ? — ^made foreign- 
 ers in the Territory wait five years to become citizens, and 
 enfranchising the drunken, thieving Indians at once, one 
 and all ! 
 
 " The Pro-Slavery fragment of the Democratic party 
 also delights in the term ^negro-worshipper,' to desig- 
 nate Free-State men. I will show you that these Pro- 
 Slavery men are of all negro-worshippers the most abject. 
 According to the Kansas code [Col. Lane read from the 
 book, giving page and section], if a person kidnaps a 
 white child, the utmost penalty is six months in jail — if 
 a negro baby, the penalty is death. Who worships negroes, 
 and slave negro babies at that ? To kidnap a ^hite child 
 into slavery — six months in jail; to kidnap a negro into 
 
 freedom — death ! " 
 
 \ 
 He concluded his scathing review of the infamous co'de 
 as follows : 
 
 " Is there an lUinoisan who says enforce these mon- 
 strous iniquities called laws? Show me the manl The 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 77 
 
 people of Kansas never will obey them. They are being 
 butchered, and one and all will die first ! As for myself, 
 I am going back to Kansas, where there is an indictment 
 pending against me for high treason. Were the rope 
 about my neck, I would say that as to the Kansas code, it 
 shall not be enforced — never — nevee ! " 
 
 Following, he argued, elaborately and conclusively, the 
 right of Kansas to come into the Union as a Free State 
 " now." He closed his speech with a detailed account of 
 the murders and outrages perpetrated upon the Free- 
 State settlers, giving, with a masterly power of tragic 
 delineation which brought each particular horror, blood- 
 red and distinct, before the eyes of the excited throng. 
 He knew of fourteen cases of tar and feathering — " the 
 most awful and humiliating outrage ever inflicted on 
 man." He told of Dow, shot dead while holding up his 
 hands as a sign of his defenselessness ; lying, like a dead 
 dog, in the road all the long day, until in the evening his 
 friends found his body, dabbled in his life-blood, and bore 
 it away. Barber, unarmed, shot on the highway, brought 
 dead to Lawrence, where his frantic wife, a childless 
 Avidow, 'mid shrieks of anguish, kissed the pallid lips that 
 to her were silent evermore. Brown, stabbed, pounded, 
 hacked with a hatchet, bleeding and dying, kicked into 
 the presence of his wdfe, where in agony he breathed out 
 his life — she, now a maniac. A voice from the crowd 
 called, " Who was Bro\vn ? " Lane continued : 
 
 " Brown was as gallant a spirit as ever went to his God ! 
 And a Democrat at that — not one of the Pro-Slavery frag- 
 ment, though. For the blood of free men shed on the soil 
 
78 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 of Kansas — for the blood now flowing in tlic streets of 
 Lawrence — for every drop wliicli has been shed since the 
 people asked to be admitted as a State, the Administration 
 is responsible. Before God and this people I arraign 
 Frank Pierce as a murderer! 
 
 " In conclnsion, I have only this to say : The people of 
 Kansas have undying faith in the justice of their cause — in 
 the eternal life of the truths maintained — and they ask 
 the people of Illinois to do for them that which seems to 
 them just." 
 
 The Chicago Tribune, in its report of the meeting, 
 
 June 2, says : 
 
 " We regret we can only give a meager outline of the elo- 
 quent and telling effort of Col. Lane. He was listened to 
 with the deepest interest and attention by the vast throng, 
 and as he detailed the series of infamous outrages inflicted 
 uj^on the free men of Kansas, the people Avere breathless 
 with mortification and anger, or wild with enthusiasm to 
 avenge those wrongs. During Col. Lane's address, he waj> 
 often interrupted by the wildest applause, or by deep 
 groans for Pierce. Douglas, Atchison, and the doughfaces 
 and ruffians who had oi^pressed Kansas, and by cheers for 
 Sumner, Kobinson, and other noble men who have dared 
 and suffered for liberty. . . . 
 
 ^^ Language is inadequate to give the reader a conception 
 of the effect of the recital of that tale of woe Avhicli men 
 from Kansas had to tell ; the flashing eyes, the rigid mus- 
 cles, and the frowning brows told a story to the looker-on 
 that types cannot repeat. Prom the fact that an immense 
 crowd kept their feet from 8 till 12 o'clock, that even then 
 
JAMES 3IENKY LANE 79 
 
 they were unwilling the sjoeakers shoiikl cease, or thtit the 
 contributions should stop ; from the fact that workingmen, 
 who have only the wages of the clay's bread, eniptic.'d the 
 contents of their pockets into the general fund ; that sailors 
 threw in their earnings ; that widows sent up their savings ; 
 that boys contributed their pence; that those who had no 
 money gave what they had to spare; that those who had 
 nothing to give offered to go as settlers and do their duty to 
 Freedom on that now consecrated soil; that every bold 
 declaration for liberty, every allusion to the Revolution of 
 '76, and to the possibility that the battles of that period 
 were to be fought over again in Kansas, were received as 
 those things most to be desired — something of the tone and 
 temper of the meeting may be imagined. . . 
 
 " The effect of the meeting will be felt in deeds. Be the 
 consequences what they may, the men of Illinois are re- 
 solved to act. . . . 
 
 " Take it with its attending circmnstances — the short- 
 ness of the notice, the character of the assembled multi- 
 tude, and the work which was accomplished — it was the 
 most remarkable meeting ever held in the State. We 
 believe it will inaugurate a new era in Illinois. We believe 
 it is the precursor of the liberation of Kansas from the 
 hand of the oppressor, and of an all-pervading political 
 revolution at home. 
 
 "About half-past 12, Sunday having come, the meeting 
 unwillingly adjourned, and the crowd reluctantly Avent 
 home. At a later hour, the Star-Spangled Banner and the 
 Marseillaise, sung by bands of men whose hearts were full 
 of the spirit of these magnificent hymns, were the only 
 evidences of the event that we have endeavored to de- 
 scribe." ' j ' « 
 
LANE'S ARMY OF THE NORTH. 
 
 '' Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, 
 Or close the wall up with our English dead ! 
 In peace there 's nothing so becomes a man 
 As modest stillness and humility ; 
 But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 
 Then imitate the action of the tiger : 
 Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 
 Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage ; 
 Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; 
 Let it pry through the portage of the head 
 Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'er whelm it 
 As fearfully as doth a galled rock 
 O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 
 Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean." 
 
 The effect of the campaign in the N^orth began to mani- 
 fest itself on the border, where the ruffians were ever on 
 guard. Upon the resumption of navigation on the Mis- 
 souri river in the spring of 1856, emigrants to Kansas 
 began to arrive at the border towns. They were from the 
 free States, and at first were in parties so small that the 
 pro-slavery people did not molest them. A small quantity 
 of ammunition and some guns may have reached the Free- 
 State settlers by this route. 
 
 Humor had borne into the dark recesses of ruffianism 
 some intimation of the magnitude of Lane's work in the 
 l^orth. The emigrants passing up the river to Kansas 
 were taken as a sort of advance guard of what came to be 
 known as " Lane's Army of the E'orth." It was decided 
 
 (80) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 81 
 
 that they must be stopped. Boats were searched; emi- 
 grants for Kansas were turned back or made prisoners. 
 The arms consigned t ) the Free-State men were confiscated. 
 The tide thus early setting toward Kansas was temporarily 
 checked. But it found a new route, througli Iowa and 
 N'ebraska, and came into Kansas from the northward. 
 The arms intended for the Free-State settlers were con- 
 signed by way of this route; some of them reached their 
 destination. 
 
 In Kansas affairs were approaching a white heat. Jones 
 was furious wdien his prey was snatched from his paws by 
 Shannon's conclusion of the Wakarusa war, though it is 
 doubtful whether he would have attacked Lawrence when 
 he found the Free- State men so determined to protect 
 themselves, armed as they were with Sharps' rifles. But 
 he pretended that he would. He raged in the ^^ Blue 
 Lodges " of Missouri, and fumed against Shannon's action. 
 He sought another occasion to try the ^' bowie-knife and 
 revolver cure " for ^' abolitionism " upon the hated Law- 
 rence. In this he had recourse to his unserved writs. Two 
 of the party which rescued Branson w^ere Samuel N". 
 Wood and Samuel J. Tappan. He went to Lawrence to 
 arrest them, and was resisted by a half- jovial, half-in-ear- 
 nest crowd of Free-State men who jostled him and per- 
 mitted his prisoners to escape. At night he was shot, 
 though not dangerously hurt. The assassin acted upon 
 his own responsibility, and was unknown to the people of 
 the town. They disavowed his action, condemned it, and 
 offered a rcAvard for his arrest. 
 
 The attempted assassination of Jones was the opportu- 
 nity of the Missourians. Jones was reported dead. The 
 border was aflame. 
 
82 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS ' 
 
 At this time, too, it was determined to devote some at- 
 tention to the officers elected under the Topeka Constitu- 
 tion. These officers had attempted to perform none of the 
 functions of the offices which thej held, and it was well 
 known that thej had no intention of doing so until so 
 authorized bj an enabling act of Congress. In May the 
 grand jury of Douglas county was instructed to indict 
 them for treason, and did so. It was thought that Dr. Kob- 
 inson could be of great service to Kansas by making a 
 tour of ISTew England. On his way there he was arrested 
 at Lexington, Mo., but Mrs. Kobinson was allowed to pro- 
 ceed. She did a noble work for the Free-State cause, 
 accomplishing fully that which had been assigned to her 
 husband. Dr. Robinson Avas returned to Kansas, and, 
 with others, held a prisoner for four months at Lecompton. 
 Governor Reeder fled in disguise. It was a matter of con- 
 cern along the border that Reeder escaped, that Lane could 
 not be arrested, and that there existed no sufficient excuse 
 for the immediate murder of Dr. Robinson. 
 
 The United States Marshal issued a proclamation May 
 11th, 1856, calling for "law-abiding" citizens to appear 
 at Lecompton " in sufficient numbers for the execution of 
 the law." Kansas was invaded again by Missourians. 
 The hordes poured again over the border. Free-State 
 settlers were everywhere arrested and distressed. J^one of 
 their leaders were in position to organize resistance, being 
 absent from the Territory or under arrest. The long- 
 desired opportunity to destroy Lawrence was at hand. 
 On May 21, Jones led in a body of armed men and de- 
 stroyed the Free-State hotel. He also burned the dwell- 
 ing of Dr. Robinson, and destroyed the offices of the Free- 
 State newspapers. Tlie town was pillaged. 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 83 
 
 The Topeka Legislature was dispersed July 4, and the 
 Congressional Committee of Investigation was threatened 
 with hanging by " Captain Hemp." It was virtually 
 driven from the Territory. Anarchy reigned. 
 
 By August 1st armed bands of Missourians and their 
 allies from other slave States were in almost undisputed 
 possession of Kansas Territory. They were encamped 
 and fortified at various points. Osawatomie was at the 
 mercy of a company of Georgians a short distance away, 
 who lived by pillaging the Free-State men. Twelve miles 
 southwest of Lawrence, on Washington creek, on the claim 
 of J. P. Saunders, the Missourians had fortified them- 
 selves in what they called " Fort Saunders." At Frank- 
 lin they had a blockhouse, defended with a cannon. This 
 Avas a sort of headquarters from which bands went forth 
 to raid the settlers, and to which they carried their plun- 
 der. Two miles south of Lecompton Col. H. T. Titus 
 turned his house into a fort and garrisoned it with Mis- 
 sourians. These posts had been maintained by the Mis- 
 sourians all summer. Each was a center from which 
 armed bands harried the surrounding Free-State settlers, 
 and to which the fruits of robbery were carried. 
 
 The policy of inaction, and the role of non-combatants 
 and martyrs, could no longer be borne by the Free-State 
 men. It seemed that their extermination had been de- 
 cided upon by the relentless Missourians. John Brown 
 took the field. As long as Free-State settlers could be mur- 
 dered with impimity in Kansas, murder was lightly re- 
 garded by the pro-slavery invaders. When John BroAvn 
 with his Bible and his gun stood in the breach, it became a 
 different matter. When he met the Missourians at Black 
 
84 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 Jack and administered Cromwellian knocks to ruffian 
 pates, pro-slavery people everywhere were shocked at his 
 impiety. Whitfield, the dull and heavy pro-slavery Dele- 
 gate to Congress, took the field with a large band of cut- 
 throats at his heels, and pretended to be searching for 
 Brown ; he was very careful not to find him. 
 
 The Free-State men made a demonstration against the 
 fort of the Georgians near Osawatomie, August 5th. They 
 outnumbered their assailants, but fled in haste to Fort 
 Saunders, leaving a portion of their supplies. Thus re- 
 inforced. Fort Saunders became a formidable point. Free- 
 State settlements in its vicinity Avere uprooted. 
 
 This was the condition of Kansas when the Missourians 
 were again troubled by rumors. Lane abandoned his cam- 
 paign for Fremont and Kansas in the I^orth, and hastened 
 home to take the field against the border-ruffians. He came 
 at the head of some six hundred emigrants, three hundred 
 of whom were armed, some of them very poorly. He led 
 them over the route afterwards called " Lane's Trail," 
 and sometimes known as the " Iowa route." He arrived 
 August Yth. He was disguised after reaching the Kansas 
 line, and was known as " Joe Cook." 
 
 Major D. S. Hoyt was an estimable citizen of Lawrence 
 who deplored the existing conditions, and who supposed 
 that some arrangement might be concluded with Col. 
 Treadwell, commander of Fort Saunders, whereby order 
 would be restored in Douglas county. Against the pro- 
 tests of his friends he proceeded unarmed to the fort 
 upon this mission. He was received with apparent cor- 
 diality and good feeling. Upon his return, two men were 
 sent a short distance with him. Arriving at a wood near 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 85 
 
 the fort, they murdered him, mutihated his body with a 
 corrosive substance, and partly Imried it. This brutal and 
 treacherous murder occurred only a day or two after Lane 
 arrived in Lawrence, and before his presence was known 
 to any except his most trusted friends. The Free-State 
 men were exasperated. Their leaders determined to at- 
 tack Franklin; this intention was kept secret from the 
 citizens of Lawrence. On the evening of the 12th of 
 August, eighty-one men commanded by Captain Joseph 
 Cracklin left Law^rence to attack and if possible destroy 
 the blockhouse at Franklin, and to gain possession of the 
 cannon with which it was defended. This was under- 
 taken by Lane's advice. He accomj)anied the attacking 
 party, and as the column was nearing Franklin made 
 himself know^n to his men, who, it is said, " seemed now 
 to think everything would go right.'' 
 
 The attack was successful. The Free-State men drew 
 a wagon loaded with hay to the blockhouse, and fired it. 
 The Missourians fled, and the panic they were in can be 
 inferred when it is kno\\ai that they left their whisky, 
 several barrels of which were found and destroyed by the 
 attacking party. The cannon was secured and carried to 
 Lawrence; as no ammunition for it was captured, the 
 Free-State men took the type of the Herald of Freedom 
 and cast it into balls for this piece of artillery. 
 
 On the 13th of August the Chicago company arrived in 
 Topeka ; it consisted of thirty men. Lane ordered it to 
 report to the Free-State camp some three miles from 
 Fort Saunders. They arrived at 2 o'clock the morning of 
 the 14th. This increased the Free-State force to some 
 four hundred men. During the day the body of Major 
 Hoyt was found, and, gathered around it, the Free-State 
 
86 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 men swore revenge. On tlie morning of the IStli Lane 
 sent out scouts, and tlie men demanded to be led at once 
 to the attack, which had been fixed for the following 
 morning. The demand of the men was complied with, 
 and at 2 o'clock in the afternoon they were led against 
 the fort, which they found deserted. The ruffians had 
 fled, leaving much plunder, and forty muskets. The fort 
 was burned. 
 
 The Free-State men began the return march to Law- 
 rence, but on their way were informed that the Missou- 
 rians under Titus were raiding the Free-State settlers. 
 Upon the receipt of this intelligence the force turned 
 towards Lecompton. On the 16th the fortified house of 
 Titus was bombarded with the cannon taken at Franklin. 
 At every fire the Free-State men would call out, " There 
 is a new edition of the Herald of Freedom for you ! '' 
 The fort and its garrison were surrendered. The fort 
 was burned, and the prisoners taken to Lawrence. The 
 roar of the cannon was heard in Lecompton, and the Ter- 
 ritorial officers hid themselves. Governor Shannon was 
 found embarking on a scow to flee across the river. 
 
 The following day Governor Shannon appeared in Law- 
 rence, and concluded a peace with the Free-State men. 
 Prisoners were exchanged. This step angered the Mis- 
 sourians, who had lost their prey once before by a treaty 
 of peace. They were resolved not to be foiled in like 
 manner again. They took the matter into their own 
 hands. The presence of Lane in the Territory became 
 known to the Missourians at this time. August 16th 
 their leaders issued a call which ran thus: 
 
 " To THE Public : It has been our duty to keep correctly 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 87 
 
 and fully advised of the movements of the Abolitionists. 
 We know that since Lane commenced his march the Al)o- 
 litionists in the Territory have been engaged in stealing 
 horses to mount his men, and in organizing and prepar- 
 ing immediately on their arrival to carry out their avowed 
 purpose of expelling or exterminating every pro-slavery 
 settler. We have seen them daily become more daring as 
 Lane's party advanced. We have endeavored to prepare 
 our friends to the end, which was foreseen, and which we 
 now have to announce — Lane's men have arrived! — 
 
 CIVIL AVAR HAS BEGUN ! " 
 
 Lane's name was in the mouth of every Missourian, 
 and a terror to their hearts. Missourians were appealed 
 to and asked to reinforce their brethren in Kansas, as 
 ''Lane was in the -field!'' Clark, the murderer of Bar- 
 ber, fled, and reported that — 
 
 "An army of Lane's men have demolished Franklin; 
 six to eight hundred strong, attacked Col. Titus near Le- 
 compton. . . . 
 
 " They attacked the guard of the United States troops 
 who had in charge Robinson and the other prisoners, who 
 surrendered without firing a gun, and are now in the hands 
 of Lane's men. It is impossible to state in a letter all the 
 outrages committed by these marauders. We have had 
 ^YQ expresses from different parts of the Territory since 
 this morning, from Iowa Point to Lecompton. They are 
 driving all the pro-slavery men out of Douglas county. 
 . . . The fugitive's are arriving every hour. 
 
 " We call upon our friends in Missouri, in the name of 
 humanity, to come to the rescue, witli men and provisions 
 
88 TWEl^TIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 
 
 to support tliem. Ws have determined to clean the Terri- 
 tory or fall in the attempt ... To arms! at once, 
 and come to the rescue." 
 
 The Kansas Herald Extra had these headlines. They 
 show the panic and consternation caused by the presence 
 of Lane and his army : 
 
 ^^ War and Desolation ! — Lecompton taken by Lane's 
 Men ! — Col. Titus's Company Held as Prisoners ! — Sheriff 
 Jones's House Threatened- by the Outlaws ! — Murder and 
 Butchery ! " 
 
 An account of the storming and taking of Titus's house, 
 and the general devastation by Lane's men, closed as 
 follows : 
 
 ^^ Is there a heart in the breast of any Law-and-Order 
 man in Kansas that will not respond to the following ear- 
 nest and touching ajipeal. Let the cry be — To arms ! 
 To arms ! ! 
 
 " ]^EAR Lecompton, August 16^ 1856. 
 
 ^^ To Col. Payne and Others, Friends of Law and 
 Order: The Abolitionists have come on us this morning 
 about daylight, whipped and taken prisoners our men. 
 Lecompton is taken, and deserted by the women and chil- 
 dren. These are Lane's men, about eight hundred strong. 
 The United States troops are also whipped and beaten. 
 Will you come to our rescue before we are all murdered ? 
 We are out of powder and lead and every kind of ammuni- 
 tion. Our friends are now stationed in Sheriff Jones's 
 house, as many as can, and will fight to the last. Will you 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE S9 
 
 help US ? If so, come at once. Unless we get help we will 
 all be murdered. Yours, 
 
 L. J. Hamilton. 
 <' p. S. — Col. Titus and his men arc all taken prisoners." 
 
 Governor Shannon resigned and Secretary Woodson 1)c- 
 came Acting Governor August 21st. As it was known that 
 he would aid in every way the Missourians in their work 
 of exterminating the Free-State men, the ruffians deter- 
 mined to make the most of their opportunity. It was not 
 known when Governor Shannon's successor would arrive, 
 and it was hoped that the Free-State settlers could be 
 destroyed or conquered before his presence could prevent 
 so desirable a consummation. Their leaders issued a 
 manifesto August 26th, setting forth reasons why this 
 should be accomplished. The ruffians were urged to '' Let 
 the watchword be ' extermination, total and complete.' " 
 United States Senator Atchison and B. F. Stringfellow 
 were at this time at Little Santa Fe, Mo., with a force 
 of about one thousand men. These they organized under 
 the name of " The Army of Law and Order in Kansas," 
 and Atchison was made commander of it. This army 
 moved into the Territory on the 29th, and camped some 
 fifteen miles from Osawatomie, to which towm they sent a 
 detachment of about three hundred and fifty men. The 
 detachment arrived at the town on the morning of the 
 30th. The village was defended by John Erown with 
 about thirty-five men ; they were forced to retreat after a 
 heroic defense. Brown's son and another man were killed, 
 as were also some of the attacking party. The town was 
 pillaged and burned. 
 
90 TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 
 
 A force of Free-State men of about three hundred, under 
 the advice of Lane, marched against the camp of the in- 
 vaders. Upon their approach the ruffians fled to Missouri, 
 when their pickets had exchanged shots with the advance- 
 guard of the Free-State men. 
 
 Having dispersed the army of Atchison and String- 
 fellow, the Free- State men marched against Lecompton in 
 two columns, one on each bank of the Kansas river, com- 
 manded by Harvey on the north and Lane on the south 
 bank. Lane was delayed, and did not arrive until Harvey 
 had retired. But the demonstration was a success; it se- 
 cured the release of the Free- State prisoners, and the dis- 
 bandment of one division of the Missourians. 
 
 The ruffians met with more success in Atchison, Jeffer- 
 son and Leavenworth counties. The Free-State men were 
 in a minority, and they were unorganized. They could 
 oifer no effective resistance to the robbery and murder 
 daily perpetrated against them. Governor Shannon re- 
 ported that dead bodies could be seen along all the high- 
 ways. Murder was so common that it ceased to cause 
 comment — it was taken as a matter of course. Many 
 refugees from these counties came to Lawrence for safety, 
 and to seek for assistance to expel the Missourians and 
 to regain their homes. 
 
 A meeting of the principal Free-State men was held in 
 Lawrence, and it was determined to cross the river and 
 drive out the border-ruffians prowling and murdering in 
 Leavenworth and Jefferson counties. It was determined 
 to march on the city of Leavenworth when the coimtry 
 was cleared. Lane, Harvey and John Brown attended the 
 meeting, and the command of the column to march on 
 
JAMES HENEY LANE 
 
 91 
 
 Leavenworth was tendered Brown. He declined it, as it 
 would have been necessary for Colonel Harvey to take a 
 subordinate place, which he did not believe would be sat- 
 isfactory to Harvey's men. A successful campaign was 
 begim. The chief command devolved upon Lane. At 
 Slough creek Major Harvey surprised a number of the 
 ruffians and captured almost all of them, with their arms 
 and baggage. He was then ordered by Lane to march to 
 Hickory Point and attack a band encamped in a black- 
 smith shop. The shop was fired with a load of burning 
 hay, when a truce was declared, flags exchanged, and hos- 
 tilities between them ceased. Lane heard of the arrival of 
 Governor Geary, and ordered Colonel Harvey to return to 
 Lawrence; but not receiving this order, he went to Oska- 
 loosa, where he and his force were arrested on a charge of 
 murder. Lane escaped from the Territory. 
 
 Lane had been in the Territory little more than a month ; 
 victory after victory rested with the Free-State men after 
 his arrival. One of his friends afterwards wrote of this 
 short campaign: 
 
 " This short, brilliant, decisive and successful campaign 
 ^vas glorious in its inception ; glorious in its execution, and 
 most glorious in its results. On it the freedom of Kansas 
 and the stability of our free institutions and the Kepublic 
 itself was staked, and most nobly were they defended. 
 . . . This was the last attempt on the part of the people 
 of Missouri to make Kansas a slave State by force of arms. 
 The only reliance now of the conspirators was on the 
 administration at Washington and ^ ballot-box stuffing ' 
 and other frauds in elections; and failing in that they 
 attempted secession, which ended in the destruction of 
 
92 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 slavery. . . . This campaign was the crowning glory 
 of the Grim Chieftain's career, and placed him on the top 
 of the temple of fame in Kansas." 
 
 It is onr belief that his friend correctly weighed his 
 deeds, and that the campaign begnn in Chicago in May 
 and ended in Kansas in September, 1856, liberated Kansas 
 from the dominion of slavery and saved her to a nation 
 made wholly free by the fires kindled against the foul 
 institution on her ot\ti soil, made sacred by the blood of 
 her noble sons. 
 
 DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BORDER-RUFFIANS. 
 
 At the close of the civil war that class of Missourians 
 known as " border-ruffians " began to seek their favorite 
 haunts — the extreme frontier of the Great West. Sheriff 
 Jones w^ent to ^NTew Mexico, and many of them followed 
 him there. Yery few of them remained in Missouri. With 
 peace came the development of the farms and mines, the 
 shops and railroads, the towns and cities of both States. 
 Many Missourians settled in Kansas, and are staunch and 
 patriotic Kansans. Many Kansas people live in Mis- 
 souri, and where strife and bloodshed once were, streets 
 and business blocks now are, and fraternity and prosperity 
 prevail. The development of the two States is in the same 
 direction, and Kansas City, Mo., is a Kansas town, built 
 by Kansas enterprise, Kansas industries, and Kansas pro- 
 ducts. Harmony exists, and we are here, as everywhere 
 in the Republic, a happy, united and patriotic people. 
 The Missourian of the " border-ruffian days '' is now known 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 93 
 
 only to history. These pages have had much to say of him. 
 Kansas history cannot he recounted without relating his 
 deeds of ruffianism. But in his stead has arisen a citizen- 
 ship), patriotic, industrious, progressive. The Missouri 
 of to-day is an Empire State of the Union. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SECOND 
 NOMINATION. 
 
 "I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts; 
 I am no orator, as Brutus is ; 
 But as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, 
 That loves my friend ; and that they know full well 
 That gave me public leave to speak of him : 
 For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth. 
 Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, 
 To stir men's blood t I only speak right on : 
 I tell you that which you yourselves do know." 
 
 The Union League Avas a secret political organization. 
 It was composed of Republicans, and was organized in the 
 interests of the Republican party during the war of the 
 Rebellion. Many of the most prominent members of the 
 party belonged to it. It took secret action, and worked out 
 its plans through the influence of its members in the party. 
 For a year before the meeting of the convention to nom- 
 inate candidates for President and Vice-President, many 
 of the influential members of this Leag-ue had been work- 
 ing secretly against the renomination of Mr. Lincoln. 
 General Lane was a member of the League, and a delegate 
 to the Grand Council of the order, which met on the niglit 
 before the meeting of the iN'ational Convention. A very 
 great number of the delegates to the convention were mem- 
 bers of the League, and if that body had decided to oppose 
 the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, he could not have been 
 
 (94) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 95 
 
 made the candidate of the Republican party in 1864. The 
 following account of the meeting of the Grand Council is 
 taken from Speer^s Life of Lane, page 279, and following. 
 ^h\ Speer was a delegate to the Grand Council ; 
 
 " It was a terrible body in its malignity toward the 
 President. Fortunately, I am saved the attempt to de- 
 scribe it. That eminent statesman and author, ITon. 
 W. O. Stoddard, who was Lincoln's private secretary, 
 and who wrote a ^ Life of Lincoln,' ' Lives of the Presi- 
 dents,' and many other works both in prose and poetry, 
 has given its history most graphically, (see ^ Story of a 
 l^omination,' 'North American Review, 1884, Vol. 13G, 
 p. 263,) from which I quote: 
 
 ^' ' The Grand Council assembled at an early hour, and 
 its doors were sternly closed to all but those with absolute 
 right to enter. The Grand Council was a dignifiedly sim- 
 ple gathering. There were no press reporters present. 
 No brass bands made music. No time was lost in prelim- 
 inary or other organization, and no committees were re- 
 quired. The ample platform contained only three men^ — - 
 the Grand President and the Grand Recording and Corre- 
 sponding Secretaries. There was all the more time for the 
 transaction of business, and this began the moment the 
 meeting Avas called to order. There had been both prepara- 
 tion and consultation among the intending assailants of 
 the Administration. These arose to speak in rapid, but not 
 conflicting succession, in different parts of the hall. Per- 
 haps the severest attack upon the President and the con- 
 duct of the. war was made by one of the United States 
 Senators from Missouri; but there were others whom he 
 
96 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 little surpassed in vehemence. The charges made were ap- 
 palling, and it was well that their eloquent utterance was 
 to form no part of the published proceedings of the Balti- 
 more Convention. Had they been openly uttered in the 
 convention, to go forth to the country, whether they were 
 true or false, that body could afterward have reached no 
 peaceful agreement by ballot, nor could it have adopted 
 any platform of resolutions upon which it could have placed 
 Abraham Lincoln before the people as a candidate for the 
 Presidency. There vvere not many faults possible to the 
 ruler of a free people whereof Mr. Lincoln was not accused, 
 before the excited patriots made an end of their '^ speeches 
 for the prosecution " of the public criminal whose course 
 in office they were denouncing. 
 
 " ^ Once more it seemed as if a rising tide were sweeping 
 all before it. iNot a voice had been raised in defense of 
 Mr. Lincoln. This may have been, in part, from lack of 
 oj)portunity. The Grand President, Judge Edmunds, was 
 a devoted friend of Mr. Lincoln, and yet, as if with malice 
 aforethought, he sat there behind his desk on the raised 
 platform, calmly ^^ recognizing,'' as presiding officer of the 
 Grand Council, only the known enemies of his friend, until 
 it seemed as if most of them must have been heard. 
 
 ^^ ^ There came a liJl in the storm, and " Jim '' Lane of 
 
 Kansas arose, near the front, in the middle aisle of the 
 
 hall. He was instantly recognized by the chairman ; but he 
 
 stood in silence for a moment, until he had deliberately 
 
 turned around and locked all over the room. The substance 
 
 of his remarks was nearly as follows : 
 
 " ^Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Grand Council: For a man to 
 produce pain in another man by pressing upon a wounded spot 
 requires no great degree of strength, and he who presses is not 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 97 
 
 entitled to any emotion of triumph at the agony expressed by the 
 sufferer. Neither skill nor wisdom has been exercised in the bar- 
 baric process. For a man, an orator, to produce an effect upon 
 sore and weary hearts, gangrened with many hurts, worn out with 
 many sacrifices, sick with long delays, broken with bitter disap- 
 pointments; so stirring them up, even to passion and to folly, 
 demands no high degree of oratorical ability. It is an easy thing 
 to do, as we have seen this evening. Almost anybody could do it. 
 '' 'For a man to take such a crowd as this now is, so sore and 
 sick at heart, and now so stung and aroused to passionate folly ; 
 now so infused with a delusive hope for the future, as well as 
 with false and unjust thoughts concerning the past; for a man to 
 address himself to such an assembly, and turn the tide of its pas- 
 sion and excitement in the opposite direction, — that were a task 
 w^orthy of the highest, greatest effort of human oratory. I am no 
 orator at all; but to precisely that task have I now set myself, 
 with absolute certainty of success. All that is needful is that the 
 truth should be set forth plainly, now that the false has done its 
 worst. 
 
 " ^ He had gained in a minute all that could be won in 
 an audacity bordering upon arrogance. Rapid and vivid 
 sketches followec', presenting in detail the leading features 
 of the history of Mr. Lincoln's Administration. Each was 
 made complete in itself, and at the end of each chapter 
 came some variation of this formula : 
 
 " 'I am speaking individually to each man here. Do you, sir, 
 know in this broad land, and can you name to me, one man whom 
 you could or would trust, before God, that he would have done 
 better in this matter than Abraham Lincoln has done, and to 
 whom you would be more willing to trust the unforeseen emer- 
 gency or peril which is to come ? That unforeseen peril, that 
 perxilexing emergency, that step in the dark, is right before us, 
 and we are here to decide by whom it should be made for the 
 Nation. Name your other man. 
 
 " ^ Very little time was wasted upon the general list of 
 charges; for they had spent themselves in making; but a 
 masterly picture of Mr. Lincoln's long-suffering, patience, 
 
 —7 
 
98 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 faithful toil, utter imselfisliiiess, and of the great advances 
 already gained under his leadership, was followed by a 
 sudden transfer of the thoughts of all to the scene in the 
 great wigwam on the morrow : 
 
 *' * We shall come together to be watched, in breathless listen- 
 ing, by all this country, — by all the civilized world; and if we 
 shall seem to waver as to our set purpose, we destroy hope ; and 
 if we permit private feeling, as to-night, to break forth into dis- 
 cussion, we discuss defeat; and if w^e nominate any other man 
 than Abraham Lincoln, we nominate ruin. 
 
 '"Gentlemen of the Grand Council of the Union League, I am 
 done. 
 
 " ^ The Senator sat down, but no man rose to reply. His 
 speech had not been a very long one, but it had been enough 
 to accomplish all he proposed for it. The resolution ap- 
 proving the Administration was adopted with but few dis- 
 senting voices, many not voting. Another vote declared 
 the voice of the Union League to be in favor of President 
 Lincoln's reelection, and the greatest political peril then 
 threatening the United States had disappeared. Thirty 
 days later,- it would have been a hard task to find a man 
 who would confess to having ever entertained a doubt as to 
 that result; but then the delegates to the Grand Council 
 were not in a position to make remarks or answer ques- 
 tions.' " 
 
A WORD AT THE CLOSE. 
 
 **A great man owes as much to his defects as to his good (juali- 
 ties. The hardness and brutal abruptness which so iritelligil)ly 
 shock our friend M. Taine in Napoleon were part and parcel of his 
 force. Had he been as well-bred, as polite and unassuming as we 
 are, he would not have got on ; he would have been as powerless 
 as we are." — Re nan. 
 
 It was never the intention to make this paper a biograpliy 
 of General Lane. Many of his eminent services to Kansas 
 and humanity must be passed over without so much as a 
 mention. Some of these are the most prominent of his 
 imperishable labors. He performed services sufficient to 
 make his name immortal. Many of these we have not had 
 space to notice at all. But writers have been unjust to him. 
 It has been our desire to call attention to his part in tlic 
 struggle in Kansas for liberty and freedom. His life miglit 
 be divided into three periods: 
 
 First. Til at ending with his arrival in Kansas. 
 
 Second. That in Kansas, ending Avith his election to tlic 
 Senate of the United States. 
 
 Third. Tliat embracing his lal)ors in the United States 
 Senate, and the renomination of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 His achievements in either period are sufficient to make 
 him famous. Those of the second period make his name 
 immortal. 
 
 It is not our purpose to convey the impression that Gen- 
 eral Lane had no faults. He had many. A great man 
 
100 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 cannot be imitated in his genius ; the faults of all are to 
 be avoided. Cromwell ran his thumb along the edge of 
 his sword while he prayed ; he broke Irish heads and tram- 
 pled on Irish rights ; he was accused of many evils in his 
 day. The faults of David are not concealed by the divine 
 Word. 
 
 General Lane was a politician before he was a statesman. 
 It may perhaps be said that he was always a politician; 
 tliat he became a statesman. He desired a seat in the 
 United States Senate. This was his object; his ambition 
 in life. A man without a purpose accomplishes nothing. 
 He was a man with a purpose — and a definite one. A seat 
 in the United States Senate was always before his mind's 
 eye. It was his pole-star. To reach this mark, this goal, 
 in Kansas, was his every energy bent ; and each and every 
 resource of a mind, the equal of which in resource has not 
 been seen since his day, was marshaled with an intensity 
 we could but say was impossible had it not been witnessed 
 and well attested. Circumstances which would have ruined 
 another man turned to his advantage and were stepping- 
 stones to his success. His perseverance and tenacity are 
 illustrated by his trip to Leavenworth to raise the neces- 
 sary five hundred dollars by Avhich means he saved his 
 newspaper at Lawrence from falling into the hands of his 
 political enemies. Alone, poverty-stricken, afoot on the 
 wind-swept prairies, struggling among snow-drifts, bent 
 on a mission hopeless to any other mortal and well-nigh so 
 to himself, this set purpose, this ambition, this high mark 
 was his guiding star. 
 
 But it is of faults that we are speaking. His political 
 methods were not always honorable or just. He was often 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 101 
 
 1111 scrupulous, but he did not resort to bribery. His word 
 was often broken ,vithout cause. He neglected his friends 
 upon many occasions. Some of tlie political metliods ho 
 inaugurated still exist in the Kansas of to-day. lie had no 
 desire to accumulate money; he was never trustworthy in 
 the matter of paying debts, and left many debts unsettled. 
 In liis early days in Kansas he could not pay. He was 
 sometimes extremely bitter and ifnjust towards his political 
 enemies ; he carried his enmity to Dr. Robinson to excess, 
 and deeply wronged him. 
 
 But his services to Kansas and to luimanity far outweigli 
 lus faults were they multiplied a hundred fold. In the 
 warfare of the border he was to Kansas what Francis 
 Marion was to South Carolina in the war of the Revolution. 
 Their methods of fighting w^ere similar. He did much by 
 the mystery of his movements, and his name carried terror 
 and panic to his enemies as did that of the Revolutionary 
 liero. 
 
 It may be set down as a truth almost beyond dispute, 
 that most movements for reformation and advancement in 
 human progress are first led by men, or women, supposed 
 by their associates to be erratic and eccentric if not 
 insane. The sunlight first lights" up the craggy mountain- 
 top. At some point in every age there stands a man who 
 discerns the coming light while those in the valleys below 
 are wrapped in darkness. He recognizes what they cannot 
 see: that systems and institutions are worn out, have be- 
 come fossilized and inflexible, insuflicient and intolerable. 
 It has been said that Christ's answer to the woman at the 
 well was the most revolutionary utterance ever made in the 
 history of the world ; that it contains the principles of com- 
 
102 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 plete liberty of both soul and body for all mankind for all 
 time. Yet how slow is the growth of an idea ! Almost two 
 thousand years later it was necessary to kindle fires on the 
 prairies of Kansas to burn away human slavery in America. 
 In a reformatory revolution such as the fathers of Kan- 
 sas inaugurated; the prudent man, the conservative man, — 
 I had almost said the just man, — cannot lead. He is 
 hedged about with a scrupulous regard for conventionalities 
 and obsolete ritualisms imposed upon his age by some 
 advance in the upward growtli of man in a long-gone 
 preceding age. He does not discern that society is about 
 to exercise its highest right, and readjust itself to the 
 higher plane made necessary by the changed environment. 
 He fortifies himself with Shakespeare's " modern instan- 
 ces." And the glcrv of the Anglo-Saxon people is that 
 this is so. It has given them a genius for the establishment 
 of stable governments possessed by no other people. It is, 
 too, their higher glory that they have never failed at the 
 proper hour to produce the man who discerned the coming 
 change and rose to the occasion of its execution. Such men 
 were Cromwell, and Washington, and Franklin, and Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, and James Henry Lane. 
 
SELECTED MISCELLANY. 
 
 " There vvns a Brutus once, that would have brookM 
 The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome." 
 
 THE TERROR OF HIS NAME IN MISSOURI. 
 
 The terror of his name in Missouri was really frightful 
 and inconceivable. The writer had some business about 
 that time over in Missouri, and stayed all night with a 
 farmer, though not a slaveholder, not far north of Platts- 
 burg. After supper he began conversation by asking the 
 writer where he came from and where he was going. Very 
 pointed questions under the circumstances, the) writer 
 thought, but after answering in a manner that he flattered 
 himself the great Talleyrand would have envied, could he 
 have heard it, the Missourian seemed satisfied, and contin- 
 ued the conversation in a very frank and friendly manner. 
 Soon he remarked : " They are having great trouble over in 
 Kansas." This news appeared to be very astonishing, and 
 the writer inquired where Kansas was, if it was in Mis- 
 souri. ^^ ]^o," said he, looking as though he pitied the 
 writer's knowledge of geography, " Kansas is the Territory 
 west of Missouri. Congress gave it to the South for a 
 slave State, but the abolitionists have gone there in great 
 numbers to make it an a])olition or free State. And as it 
 could not be made a slave State while tliey were there, our 
 
 .(103) 
 
104 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 people went over to drive them out. I never went over, 
 but I was afraid they would make me go. The abolitionists 
 fought our men and drove them back. They have a General 
 who was a Colonel in the Mexican war for a leader or com- 
 mander. He is over eight feet high and well built in pro- 
 portion, and when he was commanding in Mexico his voice 
 could be heard all over the battle-field above the roaring of 
 the cannon. Stranger, this is God's truth I'm telling you. 
 He has his men armed with Yankee guns, called Sharps' 
 rifles, that will shoot sixty times a minute and kill a man a 
 mile away. Our people thought they could drive them out 
 with cannons, but they have now got cannons over there, 
 some Yankee invention, I suppose, that they load by putting 
 the balls in a hopper, the same as a miller puts grain in a 
 hopper, to grind — I can't describe it to you or tell you how 
 it works. I do not think the abolitionists can be got out, 
 and the South must lose Kansas." 
 
 Another night the writer was told that when the Chief- 
 tain took any of the Missourians as prisoners he made them 
 dig their own graves, and then had them shot and buried 
 them in the graves which they themselves had dug. — [The 
 Grim Chieftain, p, 85.] 
 
 HOW HE ARMED HIS MEN. 
 
 On one occasion he made a call for men to drive out a 
 company of Missourians, who were building a blockhouse 
 and molesting and running off Free-State settlers from that 
 neighborhood. Many men came without arms, expecting 
 that he could in some way furnish them. Apparently 
 taking no notice of the fact, he gave the command to fall 
 
JAMES HENEY LANE 
 
 105 
 
 in and follow him. When they had marched some distance, 
 Capt. Asaph Allen and some one else, supposing that it 
 was an oversight that the men were not provided with arms, 
 souglit the Chieftain at tlie head of the colnmn and asked : 
 " "\Yliat are the men going to do for arms ? '' Suddenly 
 stopping and looking them sternly in the face as though 
 he was perfectly surprised at their stupidity, replied: 
 " Why, take them from the enemy,'' and marched on. 
 When he came near to the camp of the enemy, he sent a 
 Free-State man ahead, and instructed him to run into 
 their camp and tell them he was coming with his whole 
 army, and also to offer his service to them, and tell them 
 he had served during the Mexican war as a gunner, and 
 request to be put in charge of a cannon which the Chief- 
 tain knew they had. The Free- State man did as instructed, 
 and took charge of the cannon without waiting to be for- 
 mally installed as gunner, saying he was going to blow the 
 abolitionists to pieces while they were coming up the road, 
 and began giving orders to the men what they should do. 
 Just then the Free-State men came in sight " on the 
 double-quick." Everything in that camp w^as confusion 
 worse than confounded. The cannon by some means went 
 off prematurely, tearing the top of the blockhouse off, 
 while the Missourians started " pell-mell, helter-skelter " 
 for their lives, leaving most of their arms and all their 
 camp equipments and baggage. When the arms were dis- 
 tributed to the Free-State men, the Chieftain walked up 
 to Captain Allen, as cool and unconcerned as though noth- 
 ing unexpected had occurred, and said : " E'ow, you see 
 how it is done." — [The Grim Chieftain, p. 79.] 
 
EXCERPTS FROM SMITH'S SKETCH 
 OF "JIM LANE." 
 
 [ Verres Nicholas Smith was a newspaper man in Kansas in the 
 sixties. He was a Democrat. He was an elegant and accom- 
 plished writer, and was for a time associated with Hon. John Speer 
 in a newspaper enterprise. He was a large and fine-looking man, 
 and dressed like a dandy. He possessed a finished education, and 
 his ideas were impracticable. He could never comprehend or 
 understand Western life and manners. He was the butt of ribald 
 jests of the crowds of ''unwashed" in the frontier towns. He was 
 a fine speaker, but his language was Greek to some of his audi- 
 ences. Hon. George W. Martin, of Kansas City, Kansas, tells of 
 an instance which illustrates this. Smith married Ida, the daugh- 
 ter of Horace Greeley. 
 
 Mr. Smith was politically opposed to General Lane, and did him 
 injustice in telling only half the truth. He shows us but one side 
 of his character — the side of the politician. But his sketch is 
 one of the best to be found in the style in which it is written. It 
 was published in Lippincott's Magazine, March, 1870, and signed 
 "Jacob Stringfellow." A few extracts from his paper are given. 
 Those in quotation-marks are quotations from General Lane's 
 speeches . 1 
 
 The late Senator Lane was the most finished actor I 
 ever saw. He was a sporadic Frenchman of the eighteenth 
 century, strangely out of time. 
 
 " They say Jim Lane is illiterate " (looking an exclama- 
 tion-point with every sentence) — " that he is ignorant, 
 and not fit for the United States Senate! Why, men of 
 Kansas, his mother was a Connecticut schoolmarm and a 
 
 (106) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 107 
 
 most devout ]\rethodist, and from his youth up he was most 
 carefully educated for the Christian ministry; but his 
 modesty, his insuperable " (long drawn out) " modesty, 
 kept him out of the pulpit ! '' 
 
 ^^ They say Jim Lane is profane." (The biographical 
 was his chosen style.) " Great God ! What! Jim Lane 
 an irreligious man ? Why, I never swore in my life ! Yes, 
 though" (in tragic bass), ^^once! once! It was at the 
 head of my Indiana regiment in Mexico, at the battle 
 of Bueny Visty." (He knew better than this.) " I looked 
 to my front, and there were acres and acres of Mexicans " 
 (taking off his coat) ; " to my rear, and there their cavalry 
 were drawn up, their richly caparisoned steeds and their 
 murderous spears glistening in the morning sun " (jerking 
 off his cravat) ; "and to my right and left, and there were 
 more acres and acres of Mexicans." (Tragic bass again.) 
 " Then, in the excitement of the moment, and forgetful " 
 (accent on /o/-) — " and forgetful of my religious princi- 
 ples, I exclaimed to my brave Indiana boys " (a shrill 
 tenor), " ^ Charge on 'em,' (with a strong oath) ^ charge on 
 'em!'" (Tragic bass.) ^^ The only time I ever swore 
 in my life I " 
 
 Wliat this magnetism was may be guessed when men 
 of calm blood like the late George L. Stearns, on leaving 
 him would say, " What a captivating man Senator Lane 
 is ! His tones are as sweet as a woman's." Flushed with 
 triumph or confident of success, he was irresistible, his 
 voice soft and musical and his manner confiding. His 
 presence could be as distinctly felt as a register, and there 
 
108 TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 
 
 was companionship even in his silence. It will astonish 
 some to whom his nam© was once an imprecation and a 
 terror, to know that scholarly men and men of travel would 
 pronounce him the most pleasing person they ever met, 
 though there was not a common thought between them. 
 If in the plenitude of his power he was surrounded by 
 knaves and vagabonds, it was not only because power is 
 warming and grateful, but the animal spirits of a suc- 
 cessful man are themselves a charm. 
 
 Like that versatile Chelonian, the mud-turtle, . . . 
 he contained within his shell the flavor of every creature 
 dear to the palate of man — fish, flesh, or fowl. In the 
 midst of Christians, he had been carefully educated for 
 the Church; among scoffers, religion was but a cloak for 
 hypocrisy. In Kansas he wore the fells of wild beasts; 
 in Boston he appeared in black broadcloth and white cravat, 
 and whined through his nose as religiously as the melodeon 
 of a country parsonage. Among ^ew-Englanders, his 
 mother was a " Connecticut schoolmarm " ; with South- 
 erners he was a Kentuckian; among Western men, a 
 Hoosier : and thus his real origin was as great a mystery 
 as the source of the 'Nile. 
 
 " What ! " said he, meeting on the roadside a member 
 of a Bourbon county convention packed against him — 
 " what ! vote against Jim Lane, and come from Indiana ! '' 
 in his most wheedling notes and a smile that fairly lifted 
 the subject out of his boots. Enough. The fellow went 
 into the convention next day and logrolled for Lane. 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 109 
 
 What Henry (Slay was to the early Kentuckians was 
 Lane to the pioneers of Kansas. 
 
 Still, neither friends nor enemies dreamed how formi- 
 dable Lane was. That unconquerable embodied will walked 
 one bitter day in the winter of 18 GO from Lawrence to 
 Leavenworth, thirty-five miles, with the snow full knee- 
 deep, to look after the snares laid for the next Senatorial 
 election. A printing-press was to be sold in Lawrence. 
 Eive hundred dollars must be had to snatch it from his foes. 
 The errand was well-nigh hopeless. In Leavenworth the 
 hospitality of the taverns, that opens to but golden keys, 
 shut him out. Mine host of the Renick, who had been 
 coaxed into forgiveness of more than one reckoning, was 
 hardened to flint. Lane's friends had lost faith in his star. 
 He reached Leavenworth at bedtime, and looking down, 
 like a famished Russian wolf, upon the unconscious town, 
 with its long rows of wooden houses, uniform as a marmot 
 village, he saw but one that he felt would give him a de- 
 cent w^elcome — the home of an old Republican from Mary- 
 land. There he slept, if his busy brain could know sleep. 
 Li the morning a last appeal was made to his adher- 
 ents, the money raised, a buggy ruinous as his own for- 
 tunes procured, and he came down like Encke's comet upon 
 the enemy at Lawrence. 
 
 Such was the personnel of the foremost candidate from 
 south of the Kaw at Topeka in 1861. Frederick Stanton 
 and a dozen others were his competitors. For days preced- 
 ing the election. Lane worked with the perseverance of 
 the saints and the energy of despair. He waylaid the 
 
110 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 vacillating Solons in the dark, decoyed them into the out- 
 skirts and bound them with appalling oaths. The hazel- 
 bnish that girded the town was rife with whispered cau- 
 cuses. On the eve of the balloting, all night long, from 
 room to room of the Capitol House he went, restless as the 
 Wandering Jew, exhorting, cajoling, encouraging his wa- 
 vering followers with the promises of future benefit, and 
 teaching some other candidate his helpless dependence 
 upon Jim Lane by a lesson in the objective method. Sit- 
 ting over the fire, and taking the charred cottonwood poker 
 meditatively in his hand, he would sketch a map of Kan- 
 sas on the floor ; then tearing bits of paper, designated by 
 the names of the several candidates, would lay them upon 
 it : " Here's Jim Lane, and Charley Robinson, and Fred 
 Stanton, south of the Kaw (WinchelFs out of the ring) ; 
 and there's Parrott, and Ewing, and Pomeroy, north." 
 Then, maneuvering his paper men to suit the particular 
 case, he would demonstrate to a geographical certainty 
 that the only hope of his eager listener lay in a steady ad- 
 herence to Jim Lane and his fortunes. 
 
 He neither slept nor allowed the unhappy Legislature 
 to sleep. Into the arms of one sturdy henchman, six feet 
 high and hairy as a buffalo, he threw himself, declaring in 
 his most mellifluous notes that when he ceased to remem- 
 ber him the mother would forget her babe. Exhausted by 
 such emotional outbursts, he would rush into his own room 
 and throw himself on the bed, from which feverish anxi- 
 ety soon roused him. Toward midnight a fresh idea 
 seized him. He convened in the parlor the bar-tenders, 
 the waiters, scullions, cooks — the whole tavern's crew — • 
 and any stragglers who would listen to a final persuasive 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 111 
 
 effort. There, ranged against the wall, in the baleful 
 light of a tallow candle, on their haunches they sat, like 
 the Peruvian mummies in the Temple of tlie Sun, listen- 
 ing to the eloquence of desperation. He painted the future 
 glory of Kansas under his fostering care, and poured his 
 heaping cornucopia of promises at their feet, until the 
 very shoeblack rolled the whites of his eyes in an ecstatic 
 vision of empire. 
 
 One drowsy member from south of the Kaw had slunk 
 into his room from the persecutions of Lane, Just before 
 day, when poets say it is darkest, and the prosaic, who are 
 never awake at that hour, sleep soundest, he felt the grim 
 chieftain creep into his bed. Resistance was useless, and 
 in that time and place, sacred to the counsels of Giant 
 Despair and his amiable spouse, and the entertaining 
 course of lectures by Mrs. Caudle, the half -conscious mem- 
 ber pledged himself for the ten-thousandth time to stand 
 firm. 
 
 Martin F. Conway, the member of Congress and can- 
 didate for re-election, was there. Conway was a timid 
 man of genius, and had drunk aesthetic tea in Beacon 
 street. Sorely pressed was he by the importunities of 
 Lane. The ultimatum scared him. For Lane or against, 
 he soliloquized, until, half-distracted, and mindful of 
 Boscobel oak and Alfred's neatherd, he sought an evasive 
 peace in the solitude of a neighboring hayloft. Lane's 
 all-searching eyes found him out, and gathering half a 
 score of Conway's retainers, he mounted the cockloft and 
 burst upon his affrighted gaze as he lay dreaming in a bed 
 of fodder. Without a moment's delay for the recovery of 
 his sleeping faculties, Lane besought him to obey the wish 
 
112 TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 
 
 of his own friends and declare for Jim Lane. (These 
 same friends had never taken a thought of that collateral 
 issue.) The man of books struggled for a moment, but 
 dragged up, so to speak, by the hair of his head, he gave, 
 with one spasm of inward pain, an unequivocal pledge of 
 support. 
 
 Lane's fortunes had crouched low for a mighty spring. 
 His election was announced to him by a breathless clans- 
 man as he sat on a sofa in the Capitol House. He ran his 
 fingers nervously through his hair, and the tears flowed 
 freely. 
 
 How he redeemed his lavish promises to pay, let him 
 tell: 
 
 " Of the fifty-six men in the Legislature who voted for 
 Jim Lane, five-and-forty now wear shoulder-straps. 
 Doesn't Jim Lane look out for his friends ? " 
 
 Without the loss of time he hurried to the capital, with 
 a rabble at his heels, simultaneously w^ith the incoming 
 President and a threatened attack by the enemy. The 
 place was without defenders, except his own jayhaAvkers 
 and a regiment of ofiice-seekers commanded by Cassius 
 M. Clay. These slept at night in the East Room of the 
 White House, on arms borrowed from the arsenal. The 
 prestige of first defending the President's sacred person 
 was one secret of his boundless influence with Mr. Lin- 
 coln.* 
 
 In the fall of '61, just before the snufiing out of Fre- 
 mont's great expedition into southwest Missouri, Lane 
 
 *Read Speer's Life of Lane, page 341. 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 113 
 
 made a blustering campaign into the same devoted region. 
 . . . " Everytliing disloyal/' said lie, " from a Dur- 
 ham cow to a Shanghai chicken, must be cleaned out." 
 Faithfully was this obeyed. Even the chaplain was seized 
 with a pious zeal to complete his unfinished church from 
 the spoils of ungodly altars. One day on the homeward 
 march, the army, borne down with fatigue and plunder, 
 was suddenly commanded to deflect. Upon inquiry be- 
 ing made as to the cause^ Lane, pointing in solemn mirth 
 to a spire that rose in the distance, said, '^ See that steeple 
 yonder ? If we go the chaplain Avill try to steal it, and 
 we will never get home in the world." 
 
 The renomination of Mr. Lincoln at Baltimore was his 
 work. . . . Lane was lord over the hearts of men, 
 . . . and he quickly demolished those coalitions against 
 the President built in the eclipse of that disastrous year. 
 
SKETCH OF JAMES H. LANE BY 
 MILTON W. REYNOLDS. 
 
 [I find this in one of my old scrap-books. It was written for 
 the Kansas City Times, by "Kicking Bird." It seems to have 
 been one of a series of papers on "Kansas Statesmen," by that 
 writer, published in that newspaper. The precise date is un- 
 known; but it was written sometime in 1885.] 
 
 Kansas will stamp upon the civilization of tlie age a 
 hundred years of history before another parallel is pro- 
 duced to that weird, mysterious, and partially insane, 
 partially inspired, and poetic character, James H. Lane. 
 iN^one other than himself can equal him. It is not strange 
 that his birthplace should be questioned. It is in keeping 
 with his wayward, fitful life of passion and strife, of 
 storm and sunshine, of tempest and calm — a mysterious 
 existence that now dwelt on the mountain-tops of expecta- 
 tion and the very summit of highest realization, and 
 anon in the valley of despondency and gloom. Seven 
 cities claimed the honor of Homer's birth. 
 
 Two States claim parentage for the child of genius and 
 an unbalanced brain, Jim Lane. And Avhat adds to the 
 strangeness of this mythical character and fabulous birth- 
 right is the fact that Lane was born of quite illustrious par- 
 entage. His father, Amos Lane, was a lawyer of considera- 
 bly more than local celebrity, a cousin of the distinguished 
 Joe Lane of Oregon, a man long in politics. Speaker of the 
 
 (114) 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 
 
 115 
 
 House of the first Indiana Legislature, and a member of 
 Congress in Jackson's time. Brewerton, in his book, "The 
 War in Kansas," published in 1856, says James IT. T.ane 
 Avas born in Boone county, Kentucky, on June 22, 1822. 
 Brewerton claims that he got the information from Lane 
 himself. Lane was a smart lad, and was present on the in- 
 teresting occasion of his birth, and wouldn't equivocate 
 about a matter of this kind. Wilder's Annals corroborate 
 this statement of Brewerton, though admitting that Lane 
 often conveyed the impression, or allowed it to be conveyed, 
 that he was born in Indiana. Hon. John Speer, who long 
 edited Lane's home organ, and was one of his nearest 
 friends, in a biographical sketch written in 1878, says 
 Lane was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, June 22, 1814. 
 HoUoway's History of Kansas says : " General James H. 
 Lane was born June 22, 1814, on the banks of the Ohio, 
 in Boone county, Kentucky." 
 
 Lane came of good stock ; if not from the blue blood of 
 the bluegrass region where statesmen and fine horses are 
 grown, he must at least have been born not far from such 
 surroundings and inspirations. His father, as already 
 stated, was a lawyer and politician of note. Speaker of the 
 Indiana House of Representatives, and member of Con- 
 gress in Jackson^s time ; and his mother was a woman of 
 rare acomplishments and very strong intellectual attain- 
 ments, with the highest moral and emotional sensibilities. 
 There have been a considerable number of public men, even 
 great men, born of fool fathers. I don't think a great man 
 ever lived who was not born of a strong, naturally intel- 
 lectual, poetic, and emotional mother. A woman does not 
 have to be educated or bookish to be intellectual. The in- 
 
116 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 spired Joan d'Arc was a poor peasant girl. Yet so inspired 
 was she that she could control dynasties, lead armies and 
 mould masses of men by the power of her enthusiastic and 
 magnetic will. What a grand crop of statesmen, Caesars, 
 Alexanders and iN'apoleons Joan d'Arc could have raised ! 
 Some such woman was the mother of Lane. 
 
 Jim Lane, up to and for some months subsequent to his 
 arrival in Kansas, had been a Democrat of the straitest 
 sect — an Indiana Democrat. He was learned in the school 
 of Jackson, and had been taught the teachings of 
 Jefferson and the fathers and founders of Democracy. 
 He supported Douglas's Kansas-and-!N"ebraska bill in Con- 
 gress with all the vigor^ ability and enthusiasm of his 
 ardent and impassioned nature. Mythical stories are told 
 of Douglas sending him out to Kansas to organize the Dem- 
 ocratic party upon a national platform with Douglas as 
 the central figure, and the occupancy of the White House 
 by the great Illinoisan as both the primary and ultimate 
 object, and Lane his spokesman and the leader in the 
 Senate from the young State of Kansas of the recon- 
 structed, materialized, victorious and invincible Democ- 
 racy. These stories can for the most part be classed as 
 myths, fictions, and vain imaginings of those who would 
 further mystify the character and thus elevate in some 
 quarters an estimation of this strange being. There is 
 this to be said in this connection: had this been Lane's 
 mission and his destiny had been rounded and filled in 
 this manner, the position of Kansas in the van of civiliza- 
 tion would not have been essentially different from what 
 it now is, and the condition of the country itself would 
 not have been radically different from what it now is, as 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE HT 
 
 most philanthropists and philosophers would suppose. It 
 was the destiny of this country to be either all slave or all 
 free. The tAvo forces were irreconcilable, the conflict irre- 
 pressible. Slavery would have been extinguished under the 
 Douglas plan of popular sovereignty, but not so rapidly as 
 under the radical war plan. Shut out from the Territories, 
 the new States hostile and ineradicably opposed to the insti- 
 tution, it would have been segregated, cribbed and confined 
 to the sterile lands of the Southeast and the few rich 
 remaining lands soon to be wasted and worn out in the 
 Southwest, and would have died a slow, lingering, but 
 certain death. The teachings of the fathers, the civilization 
 of the age, modern Christianity, were against it, and 
 against such forces hell, earth and sky cannot contend 
 successfully. 
 
 But Lane could not wait for such slow processes. 
 Fruit grown only in hothouses could satisfy his quick- 
 ened tastes. He came to Kansas in April, 1855. He 
 remained quiet but three short months. He kept his dexter 
 finger carefully, cautiously but continuously upon the 
 public pulse. He studied at least the surface of politics 
 most diligently. He presided at a Democratic Territorial 
 convention in July, 1855, called to nationalize the party, 
 thus giving coloring to the imaginations of those who had 
 pictured Lane as the vice-regent of Douglas, initiating a 
 plan for the capture of Kansas and the whole country under 
 Democratic methods and auspices. The movement met 
 with an early and flat failure. It was ridiculed by the 
 Democratic organs in the country, and Lane saw at once 
 the futility of fighting for fame and the rewards of destiny 
 on that line. The criticisms of old party associates irri- 
 
118 TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 
 
 tated him. He sought new alliances. He electrified a 
 Free-State audience in Lawrence bj announcing that he 
 would speak the next evening on the political issues of the 
 day, championing the Free-State cause. The crowd was 
 immense. They came from their cabins on the prairies 
 (now palaces), from the valleys and the hills. They 
 wanted to know from his own mouth the '' Grim Chief- 
 tain's" position on political questions. The hour came and 
 the people to hear. Lane was in his best mood. He 
 was prepared for a vituperative, sarcastic, ironical and 
 intensely personal speech. Such the crowd usually likes, 
 or used to in the early days, when men were walking 
 arsenals and crept over volcanoes. Such an analysis of 
 character was never heard before or since in Kansas. 
 It was equal to John Randolph's best effort in that line. 
 His late Democratic associates were denounced, bur- 
 lesqued, ridiculed and pilloried in a hysteria of laughter 
 by an excited, cyclonic crowd. 'No one ever afterward 
 doubted where Lane stood. He crossed with a leap the 
 Rubicon of radical politics and burned all his bridges 
 behind him. He was not baptized, — he was immersed in 
 the foaming floods of radicalism. As the whitecaps rose 
 liigher on the stormy and tumultuous political sea, Lane 
 contended the stronger and baffled them. Robinson, the 
 safe and conservative leader, slowly but gradually faded 
 from public view, and finally was distanced and downed 
 by this erratic son of destiny, — ^but not until the victories 
 were won and all had been achieved that was meant by 
 the Kansas idea, at least so far as Kansas was concerned ; 
 and in the great future it matters little whether Caesar has 
 his party, and Anthony has his party, and Pomeroy has his 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE lli> 
 
 party, if so he the Commonwealth has a party. Lane's 
 services for the Free-State cause are imperishable. They 
 cannot be overestimated by his nearest partisans and 
 friends. Prof. Spring, in his book on ^^ Kansas," in tlic 
 Commonwealth Series, belittles Lane and does him rank 
 injustice. He canie to Kansas fifteen years or more after 
 Lane was the great leader, after he and Robinson had 
 done so much for the Free-State cause. lie does well to 
 exalt Robinson, but the attempt to belittle Lane, to dis- 
 parage his services and underestimate his talents, is rank 
 injustice and manifestly absurd. The mere statement of 
 Prof. Spring's attempt to prove Lane a coward by quoting 
 Quantrell as authority, is a sufficient refutation of all 
 that the Professor says and wants to say of Lane's work 
 in Kansas. He was erratic, eccentric, at times extravagant 
 and unreliable in statement, but his personal courage is 
 as well established as any other fact in Kansas history. 
 
 Kansas being admitted a free State, Lane at once went 
 for what he came for — a United States Senatorship. He 
 was poor. Lie had nothing but promises to offer. He 
 could not pay his board bill at Topeka during his Sen- 
 atorial canvass. He was owing his butcher at Lawrence. 
 Just at that time he had no visible means of meeting 
 current family expenses on the smallest scale. But his 
 magnetism rarely failed him. He never failed with a 
 crowd. He was as personally magnetic and successful 
 with a budding statesman in the Legislature as Douglas 
 or Blaine or Henry Clay. He was elected. The con- 
 summation of liis life's work and ambition was realized. 
 Lie was United States Senator. He drew the short term, 
 ending in 1865. In the Senate he soon noquired a ])rom- 
 
120 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 inence and distinction. General Lane, United States 
 Senator-elect from Kansas, was not an inconspicuous fig- 
 ure in the country in those exciting days of 1861. He 
 got such a mastery over Mr. Lincoln, and such influence 
 with Stanton in spite of his cold-blooded and tyrannical 
 disposition, that he fairly usurped the rightful power of 
 the State's Executive in military matters. He organized 
 regiments, among them Governor Crawford's First Kan- 
 sas Colored, and had almost unlimited political influence 
 with Kansas soldiers. It was an easy matter to throw the 
 soldier vote for Governor to the gallant Colonel of the 
 First Kansas Colored, Samuel A. Crawford. Lane was 
 as radical as Zach. Chandler, but more practical in pro- 
 posing definite plans and purposes to secure direct and 
 desired ends. The utilization of the colored brother to 
 stop the bullets of the enemy was a Lane idea. The emanci- 
 pation plan generated in the fecund and fertile brain of 
 Lane long before Mr. Lincoln formulated his proclamation 
 of combined threat and promise in this direction to the 
 end that the Union might be preserved and peace restored. 
 A year before Mr, Lincoln by steady and gradual pro- 
 cesses came to the proclamation of freedom as a war 
 necessity, Jim Lane had thundered from Missouri's prin- 
 cipal southwestern cit}^, Springfield, these words: 
 
 ^^ Let us all be bold ; inscribe ^ Freedom to all ' upon our 
 banners, and appear just what we are — the opponents to 
 slavery. It is certain as if written in the book of fate, that 
 this point must be reached before the war is over. Take the 
 stand and enthusiasm will be' inspired in the ranks. In 
 steadiness of purpose and courage each soldier will be a 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 121 
 
 Spartan hero. The spirit of the Crusader will be united 
 with the iron will of the Roman, and an army of snch 
 soldiers is invincible." 
 
 Lane's efforts in the Senate were not confined to a dis- 
 cussion of war themes. He turned frequently to indus- 
 trial affairs that should build up his State and add to his 
 own depleted finances. He had eaten of the bitter bread 
 of poverty. When upbraided for a declared purpose to 
 appoint a man to office who was denouncing him, he re- 
 plied: "Well, he has a right to. He favored me when I 
 was in adversity and was so poor that I couldn't buy a 
 loaf of bread, and I have neglected him in his poverty." 
 He made many similar appointments, — proofs of the high- 
 est eccentricity, most politicians would say. He paid his 
 debts when he could remember them, but was almost as 
 forgetful of money matters as Daniel Webster. Walking 
 the streets of St. Louis arm-in-arm with General Haider- 
 man, shortly after his election — he never hugged men, but 
 frequently " clutched " them and brought them near to his 
 heart — he said : " Were I General Halderman and you 
 Senator Lane of Kansas, I would not see my Senator walk 
 the streets in those slovenly shoes." The first boot-and-shoe 
 store reached, the Senator wore a $20 pair of boots. 
 When I came to Lawrence Lane* was owing my brother, 
 among other things, some choice lots. He could never 
 think to make out the deeds. Upon my arrival my brother 
 said to him : " Lane, my brother has come out here, a young 
 newspaper man, from Detroit. I think it would be good 
 policy for you to make out a deed to at least 100 feet 
 front of your best lots to him before the sun goes dov^Ti, 
 
122 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 and ni credit the same to our lot trade." " Certainly," 
 replied Lane; ^' it will afford me the supremest pleasure." 
 He came around in his carriage, the lots were selected, and 
 the house I then built I now live in. The ground was a part 
 of the famous quarter-section that Lane pre-empted, but a 
 short distance from the well where he killed Gains Jenkins, 
 the land being a claim contest between Lane and Jenkins. 
 Public sentiment at the time was divided. Lane was 
 acquitted before a local court, and obtained the land. Both 
 were occupying the quarter-section peaceably. Jenkins 
 was warned not to come to Lane's well. He should have 
 stayed away. It was a piece of foolhardy recklessness, 
 and he suffered the consequence. 
 
 The railroad question Lane devoted much attention to. 
 It is doubtful whether Kansas would have gotten the 
 Pacific Kailroad at all but for him ; and it is certain that 
 he was the chief instrumentality in booming the Leaven- 
 worth, Lawrence & Galveston road, now the Kansas South- 
 ern. Lawrence, it is very certain, but for Lane, would 
 not have gotten the Kansas Pacific road. He forced Hallet 
 under threats and coercion to bring the road, and spurned 
 and defied their attempts to blackmail the county out of 
 $300,000 to come there. 
 
 lane's suicide. 
 On this subject Mr. Blaine in his second volume uses 
 the following language : 
 
 " The defection of Senator Lane of Kansas from the 
 ranks of the most radical Republicanism caused great 
 surprise to the country. He had been so closely identified 
 with all the tragic events in the prolonged trouble to keep 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 123 
 
 slavery out of Kansas, that he was considered to be an 
 irreconcilable foe to the party that tolerated or in any way 
 apologized for its existence. The position he had taken in 
 voting against the Civil Rights bill worried and fretted 
 him. He keenly felt his separation from the sympathy of 
 such men as Sumner, Chandler, Wade, and the whole host 
 who had nobly fought the battle of Kansas in the halls of 
 Congress. He felt still more keenly the general and some- 
 what indignant disapproval of his action freely expressed 
 by the great mass of his constituents. One of his intimate 
 friends said that on the very day of his vote he received a 
 telegram warning him that if he voted against the bill it 
 would be the mistake of his life. The telegram reached 
 him after the roll had been called. He said excitedly: 
 " The mistake has been made. I would give all I possess 
 if it were undone." He was still further disturbed by 
 imputations upon his integrity in connection with some 
 transactions with the Indian Bureau; imputations which 
 were pronounced baseless by the two Senators from In- 
 diana — Thomas A. Hendricks and Henry S. Lane, one a 
 political opponent and the other a political friend, who 
 had impartially examined all the facts. But under the 
 mortification caused by parting with old political asso- 
 ciates and the humiliation to which he was subjected by 
 groundless imputations upon his character, his mind gave 
 way, and on July 11, 18G6, he committed suicide." 
 
 The above is a fair but friendly presentation of the 
 facts. It was on July 1, 1866, that General Lane shot 
 himself, at the Government farm at Fort Leavenworth. 
 He was stopping with his brother-in-law, Captain McCall. 
 On that morning, in company with Captain McCall and 
 
124 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 Colonel Adams, lie rode out, and coming to one of the gates 
 of the farm, he jumped out, apparently to open the gate, 
 and putting a pistol to his mouth, fired, saying, " Good- 
 bye, gentlemen/' He had for several days shown unmis- 
 takable signs of mental aberration. The immediate cause 
 of this was undoubtedly the intense political excitement 
 of the time, and overwork. It was not remorse at voting 
 to sustain Johnson. Trumbull and Fessenden and Grimes 
 were doing the same thing. It was an open question 
 whether Mr. Lincoln's policy would not have been identi- 
 cal with that of Mr. Johnson, but his methods of securing 
 its adoption would of course have been different. Lane 
 was bitterly piqued by the reception given him when he 
 came home. Hon. Sidney Clarke, a political child of 
 Lane, had quarreled with his master. He was a rising 
 young statesman of great promise. It was natural, living 
 in the same town, to see in the downfall of Lane the up- 
 rising of another political star. Clarke, upon his return 
 from Washington, was received with banners and the band. 
 Music welcomed him, and the plaudits of the people indi- 
 cated that he had struck a strong popular chord. Lane, 
 ^^ the Grim Chieftain," came back to the scene of his 
 former triumphs and victories and was received with 
 cold and clammy indifference. 'No music welcomed him. 
 Fawning sycophancy uttered not a word of praise. No 
 crowds escorted him to his home. Old friends rather 
 avoided him. They spoke hurriedly, and hastened on to 
 their business. A sensitive soul would naturally shrink 
 from such treatment. It consumed the very vitals of Lane, 
 and chilled his heart's blood. It set his brain on fire. 
 A naturally unequally poised intellect trembled in the 
 
JAMES HENRY LANE 125 
 
 balance. It was unfortiinate ; it was foolish for a man 
 who knew so well the varying moods of the fickle populace 
 to be thus moved. But the eccentricities of great men it is 
 as difficult to account for as the loves of woman. Thus 
 Lane fell, and it was as if Lucifer, child of the morning, 
 had fallen. 
 
 " If thou beest he ; but O how fall'ii ! how changed 
 From him, who, in the happy realms of light 
 Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
 Myriads, though bright ! " 
 
 So much of personal history and characteristics of the 
 Sunflower statesman have been woven in this sketch, that 
 little remains to be said on this score. He has been now 
 twenty years dead next July, and his memory is as fresh 
 in the minds of Kansans as ever. Indeed, there was so 
 much of mystery about him; he was so individualized, 
 unique, and peculiar, that curiosity will rather increase 
 than diminish as the years come and go, to know more of 
 the character of Lane. Born of good parentage, he might 
 have been educated, but men he always preferred to study 
 rather than books ; so that his education was limited, and 
 his reading miscellaneous, general and superficial. He 
 had an ideal and poetic nature, and his imagination did 
 for him splendid service. He was a gallant soldier in the 
 Mexican War, and in the late war if he had seriously en- 
 tered upon military duty as a fact of science, he might 
 have achieved the highest distinction. He had a stronger 
 personal party than any man in Kansas ever had. Indeed, 
 politics were divided on the issue of Lane and anti-Lane. 
 
 Lane had two sons, James H. jr. and Thomas, and two 
 daughters, Ella and Anna, the former the wife of Col. 
 
126 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
 
 Adams and the latter Mrs. A. D. Johnson, of Kansas City. 
 Mrs. Adams is dead. The girls were highly accomplished 
 and refined. The boys will never equal their distinguished 
 father. Mrs. Lane died about three years ago. She was a 
 very remarkable woman as well as a very accomplished 
 lady. She was a born politician. They were divorced and 
 remarried. Poverty the most abject, the highest summit 
 of personal distinction; misery complete, happiness su- 
 preme, this noble woman saw and witnessed; and shared 
 in the varied fortunes of her waysvard, eccentric, but in 
 many respects truly great husband — the ideal Kansan — 
 
 James H. Lane. -r^ -d 
 
 Kicking Bird. 
 
A REQUEST. 
 
 It is our design to prepare a complete biography of 
 General James H. Lane. All persons possessing it are 
 requested to write out at length any and all information 
 about him, his family, his life, his military operations, 
 his political campaigns, his addresses and speeches. His 
 old associates In politics and military service are particu- 
 larly requested to write out their recollections of him — 
 all kinds of incidents and reminiscences. Due credit will 
 be given for all information received. We ask this for 
 the purpose of preserving many facts which can be thus 
 saved to history. Send all information to the author, at 
 Topeka, Kansas. 
 
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