F 
 
 THE FIRST TWO YEARS OP KANSAS, 
 
 OR 
 
 WHERE, WHEN AND HOW THE MISSOURI BUSHWHACKER, 
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAIN AND BANK ROBBER, AND T^OSE 
 
 WHO STOLE THEMSELVES RICH IN THE NAME OF 
 
 LIBERTY, WERE SIRED AND REARED. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE W. MARTIN, 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 PAWNEE VILLAGE, REPUBLIC COUNTY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1906, 
 THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLAG IN 
 KANSAS; ALSO, BEFORE THE FIFTY-SIXERS AT 
 LAWRENCE, SEPTEMBER 14, 1907, THE FIFTY- 
 FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE INVASION 
 OF THE 2700; ALSO, AT OLD SETTLERS' 
 REUNIONS AT HIGHLAND STATION, 
 OSAGE CITY, EMPORIA, ALMA, 
 AND LINCOLN CENTER. 
 
 STATE PRINTING OFFICE, 
 TOPEKA, 1907. 
 
Glass ^J^JS^ 
 
 Book iJ^3i .. 
 
THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF KANSAS, 
 
 OR 
 
 WHERE, WHEN AND HOW THE MISSOURI BUSHWHACKER, 
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAIN AND BANK ROBBER, AND THOSE 
 
 WHO STOLE THEMSELVES RICH IN THE NAME OF 
 
 LIBERTY, WERE SIRED AND REARED. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 GEORGE w/mARTIN, 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 PAWNEE VILLAGE, REPUBLIC COUNTY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1906, 
 THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLAG IN 
 KANSAS; ALSO, BEFORE THE FIFTY-SIXERS AT 
 LAWRENCE, SEPTEMBER 14, 1907, THE FIFTY- 
 FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE INVASION 
 OF THE 2700; ALSO, AT OLD SETTLERS' 
 REUNIONS AT HIGHLAND STATION, 
 OSAGE CITY, EMPORIA, ALMA, 
 AND LINCOLN CENTER. 
 
 STATE PRINTING OFFICE, 
 TOPEKA, 1907. 
 

 one 
 
THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF KANSAS. 
 
 [This 13 a lost or forgotten chapter of Kansas history, and I d\g it up and put it on record in 
 justice to the state and her first settlers. We have put in our time abusing James H. Lane, 
 Charles Robinson and John Bro^vn. until this generatioT has lost the bsginning. while over the 
 line they have published histories, biographies and novels, and painted great pictures, with 
 vaudevilles on the road, lauding to the skies the Quantrills, the Youngers and the Jameses. I 
 will now tell you who sowed to the wind— all of us know all about the whirlwind.] 
 
 \ RECENT dispatch (June 14, 1906) from Washington, concerning the 
 '^~*- passage of the bill creating the state of Oklahoma, says it closed a 
 contest for statehood not equaled since the days of the Missouri compromise. 
 
 There can be no comparison between the peaceful, reasonable, clever 
 contest for Oklahoma and the wild and vicious fight growing out of the re- 
 peal of the Missouri compromise, covering as it did years of passionate talk 
 and murderous action, culminating in the birth of Kansas and the awful 
 civil war. How many of our people have any conception of the terror and 
 outrage which welcomed the pioneers of fifty-two years ago to the happy 
 and peaceful prairies of this most delightful commonwealth? A few may 
 have a vague notion that in the early days there was some trouble here 
 about the slavery question ; and more may know, because of the persistent 
 and exclusive talk about it, that John Brown killed some pro-slavery people 
 on Pottawatomie creek— an incident in a great conflict, which has been 
 magnified until a myriad of outrages have been overshadowed and history 
 to a great extent absolutely perverted. 
 
 Kansas has been indulging in semicentennials now for three years. And 
 from now on events worthy of such memory will multiply. A half a century 
 ago incidents of momentous interest were happening almost weekly. From 
 the spring of 1854 until the spring of 186.5— eleven years— violence covered 
 the eastern two or three tiers of counties in Kansas, and heroism and self- 
 sacrifice among the actors did much to impress succeeding generations. 
 Then came peace and a period of reconstruction which will call for semicen- 
 tennial observances fully as interesting as those suggested by the strife to 
 establish our institutions. 
 
 We have already celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of 
 the territory, and of the founding of Lawrence, Topeka, and Emporia. In 
 1906 we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the battle at Osawatomie and 
 her defender, John Brown. And above all, we celebrated in September, 1906, 
 in Republic county, the one-hundredth anniversary of the first appearance 
 in Kansas of the banner which has brought us through so many troubles. 
 
 To give you a proper and vivid view of the first two years of Kansas, I 
 must go to that place of first historical resort— the newspapers. The news- 
 paper may not always tell the truth, but it is a dead-sure reflex of the pas- 
 sions and motives of men and of communities. No adequate account of 
 those days could be given without using some of the spoken and written 
 words of the actors; and while such language may seem dreadful to-day, we 
 must consider the surroundings and the institutions which provoked it, and 
 
4 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 the years of agitation leading up to the events which occurred in the coun- 
 ties on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas state line. There was nothing the 
 matter with Kansas, and Missouri, as a whole, was not to blame for her share 
 in the trouble, the issue having divided the people of the entire country since 
 the days of Jefferson. 
 
 In 1820 the slavery question had been arbitrarily settled by the establish- 
 ment of a line north of which human slavery could not exist. But there 
 was a growing conscience in the North on the subject, and the restlessness 
 of the South had been increased by the admission of California as a free 
 state at the close of the Mexican war. At that time a schism had occurred 
 among the Northern Democrats concerning the extension of slavery into the 
 territory acquired from Mexico, which took form in a proposition advanced 
 by David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, known as the "Wilmot 
 proviso." This measure largely augmented the anti slavery feeling already 
 existing, as it provided that slavery should not be extended into this new 
 territory, Mexico having abolished slavery some twenty years before. 
 Upon the principles of this proviso ten years later the Republican party was 
 formed, and fourteen years later Abraham Lincoln was elected president. 
 The outcome of the Missouri compromise, adopted in 1820, had in the interval 
 made Kansas free soil. 
 
 In the regular order of things, that part of the Indian Territory west of 
 Iowa and Missouri, came up for statehood. The trouble was already here. 
 The slavery question disrupted the Methodist church in 1845, and the Wyan- 
 dotte Indians, who came west in 1S43, and who were all Methodists, pre- 
 cipitated the strife into Kansas in 1846. As early as 1852, David R. Atchison 
 on the stump argued in favor of the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the 
 purpose being to remove the restrictions from the then Indian Territory. 
 The South, long dissatisfied with the measure, welcomed this proposition.' 
 
 December 13, 1852, Williard P. Hall, of Missouri, introduced in Congress 
 a bill to create the Territory of Platte, embracing Kansas and Nebraska. 
 February 2, 1853. William A. Richardson, of Illinois, reported another bill 
 to create the Territory of Nebraska, including all this region. This bill 
 failed, and on the 4th of December, Senator Augustus C. Dodge, of Iowa, 
 introduced the measure again, January 23, 1854, Senator Douglas, from 
 the committee on territories, reported a substitute creating the territories 
 of Kansas and Nebraska, repealing the Missouri compromise, and suggest- 
 ing the principle of squatter sovereignty. This bill passed and was signed 
 by the President, May 30, 1854. It legalized human slavery north of lati- 
 tude 36° 30', opening to that institution 500,000 square miles east of the 
 Rocky Mountains, which had been shielded forever by the bargain forced on 
 the North in the compromise of 1820. Fourteen senators and forty-four 
 representatives from the North voted for the repeal. 
 
 And so Kansas was opened to slavery, subject to "squatter sovereignty." 
 that is, that the squatters had a right to pass on the subject— could have 
 slavery if they wanted it. The purpose was clearly to force Kansas into the 
 
 Note 1.— A Jackson. Miss., paper said. June 13. 1855: "The appointment of a governor of 
 Kansas is an act of vast consequence to the South. It suggests to us at once the restoration of 
 the equihbrium between ihe North and the South, lost in the admission of California— the exten- 
 sion of Southern area, and Southern institutions— a return to the constitution and to its faithful 
 administration." — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4. p. 206. 
 
 " Kansas was the keysione of the arch of the Union. It was of vital importance not only to 
 Missouri, but to each of the slave-holding states that it should come into the Union as a slave 
 state. The admission of California had deprived us (the South) of the balance of power in the 
 senate. Now was the time and this the occasion to restore it." — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 6, p. 194. 
 
The First Two Years of Kansas. 5 
 
 Union as a slave state. 2 And while this palpable purpose was working out 
 in Congress, the sentiment in the North expressed in the Wilmot proviso 
 was vigorously gathering for battle on the plains of Kansas. And so on the 
 26th of April, 1854, the Emigrant Aid Company was incorporated by the 
 Massachusetts legislature, with a capital stock of $5,000,000, "to assist emi- 
 grants to settle in the West." The Glasgow (Missouri) Times, of June 22, 
 1854, said: "A determined effort is to be made to introduce slavery into 
 Kansas, while there is a geneial disposition to let Nebraska be free. "3 The 
 Platte Argus said: "The abolitionists will probably not be interrupted if 
 they settle north of the fortieth parallel of north latitude, but south of that 
 line, and within Kansas territory, they need not set foot. It is decreed by 
 the people who live adjacent that their institutions are to be established; 
 and candor compels us to advise accordingly." And a meeting at Inde- 
 pendence resolved: "That we, the South, be permitted peaceably to possess 
 Kansas, while the North, on the same privilege, be permitted to possess 
 Nebraska territory."^ And so it is evident that Kansas, pledged to free 
 soil in 1820, was to be given away in the '50's through the very funny mis- 
 nomer of "squatter sovereignty." 
 
 Now, before we see how the sovereign squats acted, or how the prin- 
 ciple was applied, I desire to say again we must keep in mind the conditions, 
 surroundings, the life and teachings, and the passions of the hour. David 
 R Atchison and Benjamin F. Stringfellow were the responsible leaders of 
 the Southern element. David R. Atchison was a Kentuckian who settled in 
 Clay county. Missouri, in 1830. He was a man of inflexible will and of great 
 force of character, big-hearted, benevolent, and of convivial habits. Almost 
 from the date of his settlement until his defeat for the United States senate 
 in 1855, he was a leader in Missouri, and held many public positions. He 
 was president of the senate on the openipg of Kansas to settlement, and in 
 this position, his friends now say, he was President of the United States for 
 one day. He said he was so fatigued from several days and nights of con- 
 tinuous work that he slept during his entire term as President. The 4th of 
 March, 1849, occurred on Sunday, and General Taylor was not sworn in 
 until Monday noon. Atchison was undoubtedly the originator of the idea of 
 the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and not Stephen A. Douglas. ^ At 
 the beginning of the civil war he entered the Confederate army, but soon 
 retired because of dissatisfaction with the management. After the war he 
 
 Note 2.— The Lawrence RepuhHcan, edited by Timothy Dwight Thacher. December 17, 1857, 
 on the Lecompton constitution : "Squatter sovereignty was always a humbug and always meant 
 to be. It was a dust kicked up and thrown in the eyes of confiding . . . Northern Democrats 
 to reconcile them to that act of treachery and fraud — the repeal of the Missouri compromise. 
 The men who originated the Nebraska bill, and forced it through Congress, never meant that 
 the pfople of Kansas should exclude slavery. On the contrary, those men meant to force slavery 
 into Kansas. . . . They used the humbug of popular sovereignty as long as they needed it. 
 but now they throw off the guise and Buchanan and his cabinet determine to force a pro-slavery 
 constitution upon us at all hazards. For the sake of a few Southern nigger breeders and traders, 
 the people of Kansas must be made slaves." 
 
 Note 3.— Webb's Scrap-bnok, vol. 1, p. 41. 
 
 Note 4. — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 43. 
 
 Note 5. — Cincinnati Demorrnt. May 30. 18.55: "During the summer of 1852 our informant lis" 
 tened to speeches from General Atch'son in which he repeatdly declared upon the stump, as he 
 went from place to place, that he would work continuously to repeal the Missouri compromise 
 line and that he would leave no stone unturned to that end ; that he would rather see Kansas 
 sunk to the bottom of hell than that it should be a free state. With impassioned language, 
 amounting to absolute rage, h" stirred up the people around him— nearly all of whom held slaves, 
 few or many— to res'st the settlentient of K msas to th? knife, as a measure and event in which 
 their ruin and the utter loss of their p'-oparty was involve 1" — Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4, p. 111. 
 
 Reverend Mr. Starr, a Presbyterian minister, who was driven away from Weston in the 
 spring of 1855 because of his anti-slavery sentiments, addressed a public meeting in Rochester. 
 
6 The First Tiuo Years of Kansas. 
 
 lived in retirement, a public-spirited and patriotic citizen. He died January 
 
 26. 1886. Stringfellow early became a citizen of Kansas, and when the end 
 came, squarely and honorably acknowledged defeat. I met him frequently 
 as late as the '80's. He was a kindly gentleman of the old school, earnest 
 and efficient in all things looking to the development of the state, an in- 
 terested participant in the first Kansas railroad convention, held in 1860, and 
 author of the appeal to Congress for railroad aid." He was a director in 
 the Santa Fe Railroad Company for the years November 24, 1863, to July 
 
 27, 1865, and May 16, 1878, to August 5, 1884. When slavery lost out he 
 became a Republican. The ta k and actions of these men are to-day in- 
 credible, and can only be accounted for by the general charge all free-soilers 
 made the barbarism of slavery. Stringfellow died April 26, 1891. 
 
 And yet, amid all the bitterness in the volumes before me, I find the fol- 
 lowing from a writer in the St. Louis Democrat of September 12, 1855: "I 
 asked General Stringfellow if he had any children. I shall never forget the 
 sudden and almost terrible shadow in the expression of his face that this 
 question produced. The conversation had begun about politics, and had been 
 carried on very freely up to this point. My careless question, however, sud- 
 denly changed his expression. Never in my life did I see a broken heart so 
 vividly pictured on human face. His breast heaved ; the tears started in 
 his eyes; he could hardly articulate. He answered by monosyllables and 
 single words at a time. He told me he had lost four children last spring, 
 within a few days of each other. As he described the death of his young 
 son, at whose bedside he sat ten days without rest, he was often forced to 
 stop to suppress his rising tears and sobs. To see a strong man so moved 
 is the most terrible and affecting sight beneath the sun. It affected me 
 greatly— even to tears— not as I saw it, for its intense expression of despair 
 and grief paralyzed my own feelings, but as I recalled it in the solitude of 
 my own chamber. 'That's what makes me desperate so often,' was the 
 last remark he made in describing his domestic misfortunes. And as he 
 said so I thought if the leaders of political parties knew each other's sor- 
 rows, the hidden causes of political hate and revolutions would soon cease 
 to be a mystery." ' 
 
 In these pages I give the language used by my authorities in quotation 
 marks, because it is history, and for it I humbly apologize. This language 
 was used in public addresses and public prints, and so is a matter of record, 
 and an attempt to soften it would interfere with the main purpose of this 
 paper, and that is to show the spirit of the times, a condition which will ac- 
 
 N. Y., June 1. 1855, in which he said: "The repeal of the Missouri compromise was agritated by 
 Senator Atchison in Missouri three year-* before it was broached in Congress, and he had heard 
 that senator denounce it and the North in stump speeches in Weston with the most unsparing 
 invective." — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4. pp. 135. 136. 
 
 At a sale of lots in Atchison. David R Atchison made a speech, in which he said : "Gentle- 
 men, you make a damned fuss about Douglas— Douglas— but Douglas don't deserve the credit of 
 this Nebraska bill. I toW Douglas to introduce it. I originated it. I got Pierce committed to it, 
 and all the glory belongs to me. All the South went for it— all to a man but Bell and Houston, and 
 who are they? Mere nobodies: nobody cares for them." This was published in the Parkville 
 Luminary, but denied by the Platte Argus and Atchison's friends The young man who reported 
 it maintained that it was a true report. Atchi.ton was called to account by a nephew of John 
 Bell and he excused himself on the ground that he was in liquor at the time.— Webb's Scrap- 
 book, vol. 4. p. 147. 
 
 The Missouri compromise was first violated in 1837 by Thomas H. Benton, who had a bill 
 passed that year changing the western boundary of Missouri northward from the mouth of the 
 Kansas from the meridian line to the Missouri river. The counties of Platte. Buchanan. Andrew, 
 Nodaway, Atchison and Holt were originally free-soil, but became the hotbed of pro-slaveryism. 
 
 Note 6.- See Kan. Hist. Coll.. vol. 9. p. 476. 
 
 Note 7.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 159. 
 
The First Two Years of Kansas. 7 
 
 count for the Quantrills, the Bill Andersons, the James boys, the Younprers, 
 George Todd, Dick Yeager, and the Daltons, heroes of the border, whose 
 worshipers are surely disappearing under the light of better days. This 
 generation is entitled to know what the founders of Kansas were up against. 
 And the world is entitled to know where, when and how the Missouri bush- 
 whacker, the Missouri train and bank robber, and those who stole themselves 
 rich in the name of liberty,^ were sired and reared. Without desiring to 
 exaggerate what follows in this paper, I will say there was no yellow jour- 
 nalism in those days. 
 
 Now for the workings of squatter sovereignty. June 10, 1854, ten days 
 after the opening of the territory, a number of Missourians met on the 
 Kansas side, in Salt Creek valley, three miles from Fort Leavenworth, and 
 organized the Squatters' Claim Association. They adopted rules to govern 
 the settlement of the territory. « Here are three: 
 
 '•(8) That we recognize the institution of slavery as already existing in 
 this territory, and recommend slaveholders to introduce their property as 
 early as possible, 
 
 "(9) That we will afford no protection to abolitionists as settlers of Kan- 
 sas territory, 
 
 "(10) That a vigilance committee of thirteen be appointed to decide upon 
 all disputes." 
 
 And what was the definition of an abolitionist at that time? July 31, 
 
 1855, at Westport, Benjamin F. Stringfellow said : "The idea of a National 
 
 Democratic party in Kansas is ridiculous. Every National Democrat is an 
 
 abolitionist in disguise; such a one might not steal a nigger himself, but 
 
 would pat on the back those who do. Nine out of ten men in the world are 
 
 abolitionists. >*• We want no more importations from Pennsylvania; we have 
 
 Note 8.— This expression was made famous in a speech by Thomas Ewing, at Olathe, Kan., 
 June 2o. 1863. On the 9th of June. 1863, General Ewing was placed in command of the district 
 of the Border, with headquarters at Kansas City. The difference between conservatism and 
 radicalism made a breach of exceeding bitterness, and to quote anything from those days is of 
 use only in showing the bitterness. In the Olathe speech. Ewing said : "There are many men 
 m Kansas who are stealing themselves rich in the name of liberty. . . . They arrogate to 
 themselves and their sympathizers all the radical anti-slaveryism and genuine loyalty in Kansas. 
 Under their aegis many of the worst men that ever vexed a civilized community have flocked 
 and been protected." He said these men would not enlist because the administration was not 
 radical enough to suit them, and he was determined they should enlist and come under military 
 control. The Leavenworth Conservative accused Ewing of preferring to be a police officer in- 
 stead of a great department commander determined on protecting Kansas from the raids of 
 bushwhackers. Ewing was denounced for inefficiency, and the Wyandotte Gazette called atten- 
 tion to numerous raids, murders and robberies preceding the Lawrence massacre. August 16, 
 1863. the Leavenworth Conservative said : "The old free-state fight which we had in 1855-'56-'57 
 has been transferred to Missouri, and it is waging there with a bitterness as terrible and glorious 
 as when it reddened these new-born prairies with blood. The epithet 'bleeding' is no longer 
 prefixed to Kansas. We have done with phlebotomy and benevolently yield the word to Mis- 
 souri." August 21 the Lawrence raid came, and on August 25 Ewing issued the famous Order 
 No. 11, depopulating the counties of Jackson. Cass, Bates, and part of Vernon. Ewing was on a 
 visit at Leavenworth when Quantrill was in Lawrence "Stealing themselves rich in the name 
 of Liberty" was rung on Ewing with great sarcasm and bitternpss. It was charged that Quan- 
 trill said to Robert S. Stevens: " Ewing is in command of the district, but I run the machine." 
 James H. Lane made a speech in Leavenworth in which he expressed the hope that the counties 
 named in Ewing's Order No. 11 would be burned over so that there could be no place where a 
 bushwhacker could be harbored. Ewing was a noble man— a victim of the bitterness and cussed- 
 ness of war. General Order No. 11 was a righteous move ; it stopped the raids into Kansas, started 
 in 1855. A biographer says: " He found the Missouri border full of guerrillas and the state full 
 of robbers," a legitimate result of squatter sovereignty. In consequence of the very fierce as- 
 sault made upon him by his political enemies in Kansas and by rebel sympathizers in Missouri, 
 General Ewing asked a court of inquiry to investigate and report as to the efficiency and justice 
 of his administration, but the President refused to order the court, and at the same time en'arged 
 his command by the addition of all of Kansas north of the thirty-eighth parallel. At the time of 
 his last visit westward, about 1890, at a reception given him at the Coates House, in Kansas City, 
 he justified General Order No. 11, and said that under similar circumstances he would do it again. 
 He was first chief justice of the supreme court of the state of Kansas. He died in New York. 
 January 21, 1896, from injuries received in a street-car accident. 
 
 Note 9. — Moire's History of Leavenworth County, p. 19. 
 
 Note 10.— John Calhiun, bafore the law-and -order meeting at Leavenworth. November 15, 
 1855 : " You yield and you have the most infernal government that ever cursed a land. I would 
 
8 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 enough of the Pennsylvania popular sovereignty men if this is the way they 
 practice the doctrine. " '^ August 30, 1855. the first Kansas territorial legis- 
 ture, elected by Missouri votes, referring to a proposition to form a National 
 Democratic party in Kansas, declared, on motion of Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, 
 "Therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Council 
 concurring therein, That it is the duty of the pro-slavery party, the Union 
 loving men of Kansas territory, to know but one issue, slavery; and that 
 any party making or attempting to make any other, is and should be held 
 as an ally of abolitionism and disunionism."'^ 
 
 Was this sentiment political buncombe, or was there any backing to it ? 
 The Democratic Platform, a Missouri newspaper, in 1854 said: "We are in 
 favor of making Kansas a slave state, if it should require half the citizens 
 of Missouri, musket in hand, to emigrate there, and even sacrificing their 
 lives in accomplishing so desirable an end." And the Western Champion 
 responds: "Them's our sentiments." '3 July 11, 1854, t\\e Jackson Missia- 
 sippian said: "Kansas is now a slave territory, and will be a slave state. 
 There are already enough slave-owners interested in Kansas to whip out all 
 the abolitionists who may dare to pollute the soil with their incendiary 
 feet."'* The Platte County Self-defensive Association, an organization of 
 some very live Missouri citizens, held a meeting at Westport, Mo., July 20, 
 1854, and resolved, "First, That this association will, whenever called upon 
 by any of the citizens of Kansas territory hold itself in readiness to go 
 there to assist in removing any and all emigrants who go there under the 
 auspices of the Northern Emigration Aid Societies." '^ 
 
 If this is not sufficiently clear as to the meaning of squatter sovereignty, 
 perhaps the following speech by Benjamin F. Stringfellow, at St. Joseph, 
 March 26, 1855, as quoted by a correspondent of the New York Tribune,^" 
 may aid in clearing any obtuseness : 
 
 "I tell you to mark every scoundrel among you that is in the least tainted 
 with free-soilism or aholitionism and exterminate him. Neither give nor 
 take quarter from the damned rascals. 1 propose to mark them in this 
 house, and on the present occasion, so you may crush them out. To those 
 who have qualms of conscience as to violating laws, state or national, the 
 crisis has arrived when such impositions must be disregarded, as your rights 
 and property are in danger, and I advise one and all to enter every election 
 district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder and his vile myrmidons, and vote 
 at the point of the bowie-knife and the revolver. Neither give or take quar- 
 ter, as our cause demands it. It is enough that the slaveholding interest 
 wills it. from which there is no appeal. What right has Governor Reeder to 
 rule Missourians in Kansas? His proclamation and prescribed oath must be 
 prohibited. '^ It is to your interest to do so. Mmd that slavery is estab- 
 lished where it is not prohibited." 
 
 rather be a painted slave over in Missouri, or a serf to the Czar of Russia, than have the aboli- 
 tionists in power." The meeting- groaned and hissed Marcus J. Parrott, a Northern Democrat 
 out of the meeting because he was a free-soil man. 
 
 Note 11.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 49. 
 
 Note 12.— House Journal, 1855, p. 380. 
 
 Note 13.-Webb"s Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 44. 
 
 Note 14.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 70. 
 
 Note 15.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1, p. 112. 
 
 Note 16.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 3, p. 113. 
 
 Note 17.— Andrew H. Reeder, the first territorial governor, in his sworn testimony before . 
 the congressional committee, 1856, says: "At the election of the 30th of March more than one- 
 third of the election officers were, as I believe, pro-slavery men. Anticipating, however, an 
 Invasion of illfgal voters from the state of Missouri. I was careful to appoint in most of the dis- 
 tricts, especially in those contiguous to Missouri, two men of the free-state party and one of the 
 pro-blavery patty. Notwithstanding all my efforts, however, at fair and impartial action, my 
 
The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 9 
 
 David R. Atchison, United States senator and acting Vice-president of 
 the United States, said, in Platte City: "If we cannot get Kansas by peace- 
 ful means, we must take it at the point of the bayonet, if necessary." '» 
 
 That everybody seemed to be onto the idea of squatter sovereignty ex- 
 cept the free-soilers, read this advertisement in the Western Argus, March 
 10, 1855, and signed "Nimrod Farley and J. M. G. Brown": "Election in 
 Kansas— The Ferry that Never Stops. A report having got out that one of 
 our boats had been carried off by the ice, we take the liberty of contradict- 
 ing it. Ours is the only ferry that never stops. We keep two good boats, 
 and when one can't rua the other can. All who wish to be in Kansas in 
 time to vote, go to latan, and you will not be disappointed, for old Nim is 
 always ready." ^^ 
 
 Now if we are in doubt as to whether there may have been some fraud 
 in this, the St. Louis Democrat, a Benton paper, assures us: "The upshot 
 of the business is that the fraud by which the Missouri compromise was re- 
 pealed required to be consummated by another fraud, and a man (Atchison) 
 who made a tool of Douglas for the perpetration of the first fraud, telling 
 him that if he didn't introduce a bill for that purpose that he would resign 
 his position as president of the senate and introduce it himself, has at last 
 found it necessary to resign as president of the senate in order to superin- 
 tend the perpetration of the second fraud, "^o 
 
 While all this was going on, so far at least, there were not enough free- 
 soilers in the territory to show any symptoms of fright. The possibilities 
 though grew more appalling with the days. The Kansas Pioneer, published 
 at Kickapoo, April, 1855, said: "The Southern character is not made of 
 material that can stand every insult offered by this God-forsaken class of 
 men, and if the virgin soil of Kansas must be enriched and purified by 
 American blood, we say. ' war to the knife, and knife to the hilt, and damned 
 be he who first cries ' Hold, enough !' "^i The St. Louis Democrat thinks the 
 people of Weston, Mo , "possessed of the same devils that drove the swine 
 over the orecipice into the sea. How reasonable beings can be guilty of 
 such reckless lawlessness, we cannot divine."-- The editor of the Richfield, 
 Mo., Enterprise missed an issue of his paper, and apologized by saying that 
 he was over in the territory of Kansas workinsf for the advancement of the 
 pro-slavery cause. In his zeal he said: " We do not intend to make a threat, 
 
 person and my life were continuously threatened from the month of November. 1854. . . . 
 The election was held on the 30th of March, as ordered, and an invading- force from Missouri en- 
 tered the territory for the purpose of voting, which, although it had been openly threatened, far 
 exceeded my anticipations. About the time fixed as the return day for that election a majority 
 of the persons returned as elected assembled at Shawnee Mission and Westport. and rema'ned 
 several days, holding private caucuses at both places. I had frequent conversations with them, 
 and they strenuously denied my right to go behind the returns made by the judges of the elec- 
 tion, or investigate in any way the legality of the election. A committee called upon me and pre- 
 sented a paper, signed by twenty-three or twenty-four of them, to the same effect. Threats of 
 violence against my person and life were freely afloat in the community, and the same threats 
 were reported to me as having been made by members elect in their private caucuses. In con- 
 sequence of its being reported to me that a number of the members in their caucuses in their 
 speeches had declared that they would take my life if I persisted in taking cognizance of the 
 complaints made against the legality of the elections. I made arrangements to assemble a small 
 number of friends for defense, and on the morning of the 6th of April I proceeded to announce 
 my decision upon the returns. Upon the one sid j of the room were arrayed the members elect, 
 nearly if not quite all armed, and on the other side about fourteen of my friends, who, with my- 
 self, were also well armed."— Report of Committee on Kansas Affairs, 1856. pp. 935, 936. 
 
 Note 18.- Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 6, p. 87. • 
 
 Note 19.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 95. 
 
 Note 20.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 174. 
 
 Note 21.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 194. 
 
 Note 22.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 256. 
 
10 The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 
 
 but will say to the Eastern and Northern abolitionists and free-soilers, that 
 we have in Missouri one hemp factory employed to make suitable ropes for 
 hanging negro slaves, and by hell we will use them."23 
 
 Under such generous, mild mannered and patriotic impulses, what were 
 other people doing, and what sort of history followed? Free-soilers during 
 the second year came in slowly, pro-slavery men more slowly. There were 
 some people at work industriously in a material way, both free-soil and pro- 
 slavery, but the nation, whose trouble it was, both North and South, lashed 
 itself into a fury over the outcome in Kansas. Both sections engaged in the 
 raising of money and men to carry on the battle, and their leaders wrote 
 and spoke as vigorously as did the vanguard of slavery in Missouri, but 
 with less brutality and profanity. ^-^ The free-soil leaders in Kansas devoted 
 their energies to resisting the pro-slavery government, and were not con- 
 spicuous for any violence. One writer said that amid all the brawling 
 "You will find a Yankee, a Tennesseean, and a Missourian all cozily shel- 
 tered in the same cabin, and living together as harmoniously as a prairie- 
 dog, a rattlesnake, and an owl. They all seek to better their condition in 
 life and to secure, if it be so they can, the little lordship of 160 acres of 
 Mother Earth, whereon to propagate no matter what, but opinion least of 
 all things. The Yankee (sharne on his education) has never heard of the 
 famous Boston propaganda; the Tennesseean has barely 'hearntell' of Mr. 
 Calhoun and the rights of the South; and the Missourian thinks the rights 
 of the West will be amply vindicated if he can get his favorite quarter-sec- 
 tion. "^^ This, however, need not be taken to indicate stupidity; because it 
 is evident that all were aware of the significance of the fight that was on, 
 but all were not violent or lawless, and there were free-state emigrants 
 from the South and Missouri who were guileless enough to understand 
 squatter sovereignty to mean the vote of the bona fide settler. 
 
 But let us pursue chronologically, to some degree, the application of the 
 doctrine of squatter sovereignty from the pro-slavery standpoint. As Eli 
 Thayer had organized a $5,000,000 company to assist in settling Kansas with 
 freemen, the first thing deemed proper by his enemies was to oflfer a reward 
 of $200 for his capture and delivery to the squatters of Kansas, and so the 
 Western Reporter published such an advertisement, with the view probably 
 of nipping all the trouble in the bud. But they failed to catch him, and in 
 November Atchison and Stringfellow got busy organizing secret societies in 
 western Missouri to foray into Kansas to carry the banner of "slavery or 
 banishment. "2« This was at least seven years before a Kansas raider, a 
 Kansas red-leg, or a Kansas jayhawker was heard of. November 6, 1854, 
 Mr. Atchison made a speech in Platte county, of which the Platte Argus re- 
 ports: "When you reside in one day's journey of the territory, and when 
 your peace, your quiet and your property depend upon your action, you can, 
 
 Note 23.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4. p. 60. 
 
 Note 24.— Here are a few sentences from Gerritt Smith : "Political action is just now our 
 greatest evil. We are looking after ballots, when our eyes should be fixed on bayonets. We are 
 counting votes when we should be mustering armed men. We are looking after the interests of 
 civil rulers when we should be searching after military rulers. I only hope, sir, to hear that 
 there has been a collision at Topeka. I only hope to hear of a collision between the free-slate 
 men and the federal troops, and that Northern men have fallen ; and then will soon follow the 
 gratifying news that the Northern states have arrayed themselves against the federal govern- 
 ment in Kansas. And will that be the end? No. Missouri will be the battle-field in her time, 
 and then slavery will be driven to the wall."— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 15, p. 92. 
 
 Note 25.-Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 1. p. 162. 
 
 Note 26.-Webb'8 Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 22. 
 
The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 11 
 
 without 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. " ^' 
 
 The first election was held November 30, 1854, when Whitfield was chosen 
 by a vote of 2258 to 574 scattering. The census taken in February, 1855, 
 showed 2905 voters. Historical accuracy probably demands that 1 say that 
 the first murder in Kansas was caused by whisky, and not squatter 
 sovereignty. Returning from the polls at Lawrence on this day, Henry 
 Davis, a Kentuckian, was killed by Lucius Kibbey, from Iowa. According 
 to the testimony of two of the crowd, some one fired a small house by the 
 roadside. Kibbey, who was in a wagon, denounced the act and said he would 
 report the perpetrator to the proper authority. Davis, who was on the road, 
 full of whisky, made several attempts to reach Kibbey with a knife, when 
 the latter picked up a gun and killed him. And yet the spirit of squatter 
 sovereignty was there, for Davis said to Kibbey, as he made a lunge for him 
 with his knife: "I will report you to hell. "^s Dr. S. E. Martin, still living 
 in Topeka, says that he witnessed this murder while traveling along the 
 road a hundred feet or more behind the crowd. 
 
 The day after the election one writer, I find, sounded this warning: "One 
 thing is probable, viz., if slaveholders in Missouri insist upon interfering 
 in our affairs, they must blame no one but themselves if the underground 
 railroad should be in operation from that state to Canada via Kansas Terri- 
 tory. ... If the conduct of yesterday is repeated at our next election, 
 they must take the trouble to watch their own property and institutions 
 themselves, lest they take legs and run away when they least desire it."2» 
 This was four years before John Brown went over into Vernon county, Mis- 
 souri, and brought out eleven negro slaves. 
 
 December 25, 1854, a meeting of the citizens of Lafayette county. Mis- 
 souri, resolved as follows: *'That we, the shippers, merchants, planters, 
 and citizens generally of Lafayette county, deem it an act of injustice that 
 steamboats on the Missouri river should give their aid or countenance to the 
 base attempt to abolitionize the territory of Kansas by aiding or forwarding 
 any persons who may be sent by any abolition society thereto, or in giving 
 aid or assistance to any such object, and that in our trading, shipping and 
 traveling we will give preference to such boats as will refuse their aid and 
 comfort to such emigration as may be forwarded by any abolition society 
 for such purpose. "30 
 
 At this point the weather evidently cooled all parties off, for there was a 
 lull during January. In the months of March and April, 1855, a significant 
 •addition to the population was made, and John Brown, jr., Jason, Owen, 
 Frederick, and Salmon, sons of John Brown, settled on Pottawatomie creek, 
 eight miles from Osawatomie. They brought with them eleven head of 
 cattle, three horses, tents, plows, and other farming tools, and a lot of fruit- 
 trees and grape-vines, and their first job was to break twelve acres of prairie. 
 
 March 30, 1855, one thousand Missourians arrived in Lawrence to vote. 
 Mrs. Robinson says: "They talk loudly of 'fighting and driving out the 
 
 Note 27.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas, 2d ed., p. 52. 
 Note 28.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, pp. 59, 155. 
 Note 29.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 98. 
 NojE 30.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 2, p. 181. 
 
12 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 free-state men.' They p;o armed and provisioned. " 3i Doctor Stringfellow, 
 as editor of the Squatter Sovereign, complained because Governor Reeder 
 gave a certificate of election to Martin F. Conway, instead of Mr. Donald- 
 son in the Pawnee district, claiming that the latter had a majority of 250 
 votes, and says: "We can't stand that, certainly. Damned if we do. If 
 the legislature don't reconsider the action of the governor and give Mr. 
 Donaldson a seat, the squatter sovereigns will take the matter in hand."^^ 
 Conway received 538 votes and Donaldson 396, but the legislature heeded 
 Stringfellow, and Conway was let out. 
 
 April 14, 1855, the Parkville Luminary, George S, Parks' paper, was de- 
 stroyed and the material thrown into the river. This was because of edi- 
 torials criticising Missourians for going over into Kansas and voting. . The 
 crowd that did the job held a meeting and adopted eight resolutions, one of 
 them being as follows: "(3) That we meet here again on this day three 
 weeks, and if we find G. S. Parks* or W. J. Patterson in this town then, or 
 at any subsequent time, we will throw them into the Missouri river, and if 
 they go to Kansas to reside, we pledge our honor as men to follow and hang 
 them whenever we can take them." ^3 
 
 The following papers in Missouri opposed mob-law and denounced the in- 
 vasion of Kansas : The Boonville Observer, Independence Messenger, Jeffer- 
 son City Inquirer, Missouri Democrat, St. Louis Intelligencer, Columbia 
 Statesman, Glasgow Times, Fulton Telegraph, Paris Mercury, and Hannibal 
 Messenger. But the Squatter Sovereign, published at Atchison, approved 
 of the destruction of the Parkville Luminary, and made threats toward 
 Jefferson City and Lawrence. ^'^ A public meetingat Webster, Mo., ratified the 
 action of the mob at Parkville in destroying the Luminary, asserting "that 
 they have no arguments against abolition papers but Missouri river, bonfire 
 and hemp-rope," and "they pledge themselves to go to Kansas and help 
 expel those corrupting the slaves. "^^ 
 
 April 30, 1855, a meeting at Leavenworth adopted several resolutions 
 recognizing slavery in Kansas, and closing with this: "Resolved, That a 
 vigilance committee, consisting of thirty members, shall now be appointed 
 who shall observe and report all such persons as shall openly act in violation 
 of law and order and by the expression of abolition sentiments produce dis- 
 turbance to the quiet of the citizens or danger to their domestic relations, 
 and all such persons so offending shall be notified and made to leave the 
 territory. "38 
 
 April 30, 1855, Cole McCrea, free-state, killed Malcolm Clark at Leaven- 
 worth. The quarrel occurred at a squatters' meeting, over the right of 
 McCrea to participate and vote, and about claims on certain trust lands.* 
 The grand jury in September failed to find a bill against McCrea. Mrs. 
 
 * George S. Parks, the founder of Parkville and Park College, said: "All Northern men are 
 proscribed and ruined in their business and character who do not subscribe to their most ultra 
 doctrines. In this manner whole communities are overawed. One man said to me in Parkville: 
 'Times are worse here now than they were in France in the days of Robespierre ; ' others said it 
 was the first time they were afraid to avow their real sentiments. No one knew when his busi- 
 ness would be destroyed or he be ordered out of the country. In this way citizens are paralyzed 
 and subdued."— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4, p. 94. 
 
 Note 31.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas Interior and Exterior Life, p. 27. 
 
 Note 32.-Webb's Scrap- ook. vol. 3, p. 207. 
 
 Note 33.- Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 3, p. 158. 
 
 Note 34.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 13. 
 
 Note 35.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 3. p. 213. • 
 
 Note 36.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 59. 
 
The First Two Years of Kansas. 13 
 
 Robinson says that at an adjourned term of court, in November, the grand 
 jury, with seven new members added, indicted McCrea for murder in the 
 first degrree. Four of the counsel within the bar, including the clerk of the 
 court, were connected with the tarring and feathering of Phillips on the 
 17th day of May.-" The congressional committee -'s said that in no case of 
 crime had an indictment been found, except in the homicide of Clark by 
 McCrea— McCrea being a free-state man. Concerning this trouble, String- 
 fellow said : "Let us begin to purge ourselves of all abolition emissaries 
 who occupy our dominion, and give distinct notice that all who do not leave 
 immediately for the East will leave for eternity. "-^'J And the Leavenworth 
 Herald, a few days later, remarked : "Suffer not an armed abolitionist to 
 remain within your borders." 
 
 The vigilance committee appointed at Leavenworth on April 30, 1855, 
 gave notice to William Phillips, an active free-state lawyer in that city, to 
 leave the territory. He refused, and was seized, taken to Weston, one side 
 of his head shaved, stripped of his clothes, tarred and feathered, ridden for 
 a mile and a half on a rail, and a negro auctioneer went through the mock- 
 ery of selling him for one dollar. May 20, 1855, the Leavenworth Herald 
 says of the tarring and feathering: "Our action in the whole affair is em- 
 phatically indorsed by the pro-slavery party in this district. The joy, ex- 
 ultation and glorification produced by it in our community are unparalleled. " 
 A public meeting in Leavenworth, May 25, resolved, "That we heartily in- 
 dorse the action of the citizens who shaved, tarred and feathered, rode on a 
 rail and had sold by a negro, William Phillips, the moral perjurer." Phil- 
 lips had protested against a fraudulent election, and he was accused of be- 
 friending McCrea at the squatters' meeting, April 30. Phillips was killed 
 in his home September 1, 1856, by squatter sovereigns, led by Fred Emery. ^» 
 
 In the mad career of the sovereign squats a Missouri newspaper sounds 
 an alarm, but to no purpose. The St. Louis Intelligencer says: "If they 
 (the ruffians of the border) succeed Missouri will soon be aflame. It will 
 spread to the South, and the Union itself will perish like a burnt scroll."^' 
 
 The St, Louis News, of May 12, 1855, said: "We understand and believe 
 that David R. Atchison is at the bottom of all the troubles that have af- 
 flicted Kansas, and is the chief instigator of the meetings, mobs and cabals, 
 threats and excitements which threaten to plunge the border into a wild 
 fratricidal strife."*- 
 
 These St. Louis editors possibly had a vision of General Order No. 11, 
 when General Ewing of Kansas endeavored to put a lid on." 
 
 Note 37.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas Interior and Exterior Life, pp. 112, 113. 
 
 Note 38.— Report, 1856, p. 64. 
 
 Note 39.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 4, p. 76. 
 
 Note 40.— Moore's History of Leavenworth, p. 262. 
 
 Note 41.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 12. 
 
 Note 42.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 4, p. 27. 
 
 Note 43.— The idea embraced in General Order No. 11 was not original with General Ewing. It 
 was a southern Missouri invention, thoroughly squatter sovereign. The State Historical Society 
 has recently received a publication entitled. "A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Ar- 
 kansas," by William Monks. William Monks is a resident of West Plains, Mo. He was born in 
 Alabama. His people were Virginians, or North Carolinians, and were of revolutionary stock. 
 He settled with his father's family in Fulton county, Arkansas, in 1844. and in 1858 he became a 
 resident of West Plains, in Missouri. At the beginning of the civil war he announced himself as 
 an uncompromising Union man. but to all the rebel entreaties and threats he disclaimed all desire 
 to fight. He was finally taken prisoner by the rebels and dragged over the country, subjected to 
 all sorts of outrages and constantly threatened with death. He made his escape and enlisted in 
 the federal army. He did remarkable service as a captain in the Sixteenth Missouri, and at the 
 elose of the war was placed in command of militia to exterminate the Kuklux in his neighbor- 
 
14 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 About this time they also got a couple of tips from another quarter. June 
 25, 1855, a free-state convention participated in by J. A. Wakefield, J. L. 
 Speer, R. G. Elliott, S. N. Wood. John Brown, jr., and others, resolved: "That 
 in reply to the threats of war so frequently made in our neighbor state, our 
 answer is, 'we are ready.' " And a few days later, June 27, a convention of 
 National Democrats, participated in by James H. Lane, C. W. Babcock, James 
 S. Emery and Hugh Cameron, met in Lawrence to "kindly request the citi- 
 zens of North'^rn and Southern districts and adjoining states to let us alone;" 
 and that we "will not if in our power to prevent . . . permit the ballot- 
 box to be polluted by outsiders, or illegal voting from any quarter. "*•» 
 
 July 2, 1855, the pro-slavery legislature met at Pawnee, and made itself 
 solidly pro-slavery by unseating several free-state members. It met ac- 
 cording to adjournment, at Shawnee Mission, July 16. It passed laws which 
 General Stringfellow said "were more efficient to protect slave property 
 than those of any state in the Union, ' ' and that they ' ' will be enforced to the 
 very letter. "^^ By those laws only pro-slavery men could hold office. All 
 officials were compelled to take oath to support the fugitive-slave law." 
 According to a concurrent resolution offered by Speaker Stringfellow and 
 adopted by both houses on the adjournment, pro-slavery Whigs and pro- 
 slavery Democrats would be tolerated in Kansas; all others were enemies, 
 disunionists and abolitionists.*^ H. Miles Moore, a free-soiler, and a Demo- 
 crat from Missouri, in his History of Leavenworth County, says that to a 
 man from Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or elsewhere, claiming to be a Na- 
 tional Democrat, the noble sons of Missouri generally responded: "That 
 won't do; we have but two parties here, either pro-slavery law-and-order 
 men, or free-state abolitionists; and you make your choice and that damned 
 soon, or go down the river back to where you came from." *^ The attempt 
 to organize a Democratic party was thus squeezed out, and a few weeks 
 later we find C. W. Babcock, Marcus J. Parrott, James H. Lane, James S. 
 Emery, H. Miles Moore, and others of like belief, participating in the Big 
 
 hood. On page 86 and subsequent pages of his book we read: "After they (the confederates) 
 had hung, shot, captured and driven from the country all the Union men. they called a public 
 meeting for the purpose of taking into consideration what should be done with the families of 
 the Union men. . . . They at once appointed men. among whom were several preachers, to 
 go to each one of the Union families and notify them them that they would not be allowed to re- 
 main, because if they let them stay their men would be trying to come back. . . . Also, as 
 they had taken up arms against the confederate states, all of the property they had. both real 
 and personal, was subject to confiscation. . . . They said they might have a reasonable time 
 to make preparations to leave the country, and if they did n't leave, they would be forced to do 
 80, if they had to arrest them and carry them out. . . . The suffering that followed the women 
 and children is indescribable. They had to drive their own teams, take care of the little ones, 
 and travel thi-ough storms, exposed to all without a man to help them. On reaching the federal 
 lines all vacant houses and places of shelter were soon filled, and they were known and styled 
 refugees." This was early in 18-51. dilonel Monk's description of those days in southern Mis- 
 souri shows that Ewing's Order No. 11, in comparison, was a very tame and trifling affair. Page 
 15S : "The writer wants to say that there was not a Union man nor a single Union family left at 
 home from Batesville, Ark., to RoUa, Mo., a distance of 200 miles." Ewing's General Order No. 
 11 was a necessity caused by the most infamaus butchery in the history of warfare, while in 
 southern Missouri a similar order was enforced, with a fiendishness characteristic of the cause 
 which prompted No. 11. on people guilty only of loyalty to their government. Colonel Monk's 
 book is full of outrages perpetrated on Union people in southern Missouri, before a Kansas raider 
 was heard of. 
 
 Note 44.— Kansas Free State, July 2. 18.5.5, p. 2. 
 
 Note 45.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas. 2d ed., p. 82. 
 
 NoTR 46. — Kansas Statutes '855, ch. 117. [William W. Boyce, a member of Congress from 
 South Carolina from 1853 to 1830, said, about June 1, 185i: " We cannot defend them (the laws 
 of Kansas), we ought not to doit, and I have no respect for the man who makes the attempt."— 
 Webb's Scrap-hook, vol. 13, p. 52.] 
 
 Note 47. — House Journal. 1855, p. 380. 
 
 Note 48. — Moore's History of Leavenworth County, pp. 102, 103. 
 
The First Tiuo Years of Kansas. 15 
 
 Sprirgs convention, September 5. 1855, which organized the Free-state 
 party. 
 
 August 16, 1855, the Rev. Pardee Butler was placed on a raft at Atchison 
 and shipped down the Missouri river. Several citizens followed throwing 
 stones at him. He had the letter R legibly painted on his forehead. Mr. 
 Butler had avowed himself a free-soiler on the streets of Atchison, and a 
 committee had been appointed to wait on him, requesting his signature to 
 certain resolutions adopted by a recent pro-slavery meeting. After read- 
 ing them he declined to sign, and was instantly arrested. Various plans 
 were considered for his disposal, with the foregoing result. The Squatter 
 Sovereign closed its editorial on the affair with the words : "Such treatment 
 may be expected by all scoundrels visiting our town for the purpose of in- 
 terfering with our time-honored institutions, and the same punishment we 
 will be happy to award to all free-soilers, abolitionists, and their emissaries." 
 A flag was placed on the raft bearing the mottoes : ' ' Eastern Aid Express ' ' ; 
 "Greeley to the rescue, I have a nigger"; "'Rev.' Mr. Butler, agent to 
 the Underground Railroad."'"' 
 
 The doctrine of squatter sovereignty seems to have been closely allied 
 with the moral and spiritual condition of the people. July 25, 1855, the 
 Randolph county, Missouri, people resolved " (10) That we consider any per- 
 son holding and avowing free-soil and abolition views unfit to teach in Sun- 
 day or any other school ; that we are opposed to such person being employed 
 for that purpose."5o And a few days later a public meeting of the citizens 
 of Jackson county, Missouri, adopted a resolution warning a conference of 
 the Methodist Church North not to meet at Independence, Mo., because of 
 the "supposed anti-slavery sentiments and opinions of the ministers and 
 others who will constitute said conference. "^^ 
 
 The Squatter Sovereign, Stringfellow's paper at Atchison, August 28, 
 1855, also sounds a warning: "We can tell the impertinent scoundrels of 
 the (New York) Tribune that they may exhaust an ocean of ink, their 
 Emigrant Aid Societies spend their millions and billions, their representa- 
 tives in Congress spout their heretical theories till doomsday, and his excel- 
 lency Franklin Pierce appoint abolitionist after free-soiler as governor, yet 
 we will continue to tar and feather, drown, lynch and hang every white- 
 livered abolitionist who dares to pollute our soil." ^~ 
 
 But all their petitions and threats counted for naught, and old John Brown 
 joined his sons on the Pottawatomie during the first week of October, 1855. 
 He remained in Kansas until about February 1, 1859. His became the most 
 conspicuous world-wide Kansas name, and, singularly enough, with that of 
 Atchison a close second— John Brown because he gave his life and Atchison 
 because the stock of our greatest railroad is listed in all the money markets 
 of the world as the "Atchison." 
 
 Under all circumstances, it seems, there must be some humor in life. 
 On the 13th of October, 1855, the Leavenworth Herald, pro-slavery, rebuked 
 Missourians for coming over and voting on a purely local issue. They held 
 an election for county-seat. The election resulted in 929 votes for Dela- 
 ware, 881 for Kickapoo, and 727 for Leavenworth. Delaware and Kickapoo 
 
 Note 49.— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler, chapter 7. 
 Note 50.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 69. 
 Note 51.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 140. 
 Note 52.— Webb's Scrap-book, voL 5, p. 157. 
 
16 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 advertised free ferry, free excursion and barbecue and other inducements 
 for Missourians. "Has it come to this," says the Herald, "that Missou- 
 rians must come in at our local elections and control our county affairs? 
 . . . Can we as citizens of the territory and the county of Leavenworth, 
 who have borne the burden of settling a new country and undergone all the 
 privations and difficulties of a frontier life, sit still and permit our rights to 
 be trampled upon? No, we cannot and will not. The polls at Kickapoo 
 and Delaware must be purged of all Missouri votes. "^3 And so squatter 
 sovereignty meant one thing as applied to slavery and something else on 
 another issue, s* 
 
 It was declared to be treason by a pro-slavery law and order convention 
 at Leavenworth, November 14, 1855, to oppose the pro-slavery laws." 
 Phillip C. Schuyler, the founder of Burlingame, met several delegates to 
 this conventiort at Lawrence. One of them told him they would kill him if 
 he did not obey the pro-slavery laws ; another said he would be regarded as 
 a traitor to his country and the constitution; while a third said: "We will 
 kill you and light your souls to hell with the flames of your dwellings." 
 Schuyler protested that this was very uncivil language, and in response he 
 was denounced as a liar, a scoundrel, and a traitor, s* 
 
 Samuel Collins, free-state, was killed by Patrick McLaughlin at Doni- 
 phan, October 25, 1855. No punishment for McLaughlin. ^^ 
 
 Chas. W. Dow, free-state, killed by Franklin N. Coleman, pro-slavery, in 
 Douglas county, November 21, 1855. ^^ 
 
 November 26, 1855, the free-state men held a meeting at the spot where 
 Dow was killed. Jacob Branson, with whom Dow lived, was arrested the 
 same night for attending the meeting. Fifteen free-state men led by S. N. 
 Wood, J. B. Abbott, and S. F. Tappan, rescue Branson. ^9 
 
 November 29, 1855. — A mob from Missouri is gathering at Franklin, a 
 few miles from Lawrence.^" 
 
 December 6, 1855. — Lawrence nearly surrounded by about 1500 Missouri- 
 
 NOTE 53.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 6, p. 97. 
 
 Note 54.— H. Miles Moore, one of the six survivors of the first free-state territorial legislature, 
 which met at Lecompton December 7, 1857, in his sworn testimony before the special committee 
 on the troubles in Kansas, says: "I had believed that the Missourians had had some justification 
 for endeavoring to come and control the territorial legislation, in order to afFoid more security to 
 their slave property in Missouri, and for that reason I had come with them ; but their course with re- 
 gard to the mere local election for county-seat was so high-handed an outrage upon the rights of the 
 people of the territory, of whom I had then become one, that I came to the resolution that I would 
 not longer act with a party so regardless of the rights of others that they would interfere in a 
 matter in which they could have no personal or political interest ; I determined to act with the 
 free-state party so long as they were actuated by what I considered proper motives, though I 
 would have continued to act with the pro-rlavery party had they not acted as they did. I there- 
 fore concluded to act with the free state party so long as they were willing to act consistently 
 with the principles of the organic act and submit to the territorial laws while in force. At the 
 •election for county-seat Delaware county [precinct], with a population of not more than fifty 
 voters, polled nearly a thousand votes. A la'ge majority of the votes polled at Kickapoo were by 
 Missourians. The people of L< avenworth polled between 500 and fiOO votes, all given by actual resi- 
 dents, so far as I was able to find out. In consequence of my determination at this time to act 
 thereafter with the free-state party I became obnoxious to the pro-slavery men, both in Missouri 
 and in the territory. My per.-^on and property has been frequently threatened with violence and 
 destruction by them for six months or more past." Moore was arrested and ordered to leave the 
 territory for taking a part in the free-state movement. — Report of Congressional Committee, 
 1856, p. 422. 41 
 
 Note 55.— September 7. 1855, the Herald of Freedom was refused circulation through the 
 Atchison post-office. — Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 5, p. 178. 
 
 Note 56.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 7, p. 126. 
 
 Note 57. — Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 144. 
 
 Note 58.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 153. 
 
 Note 59.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, ch. 11. 
 
 Note 60.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 176. 
 
The First Ttvo Years of Kansas. 17 
 
 ans. Treaty of peace signed by Governor Shannon, Chas. Robinson and 
 James H. Lane, and December 8 army of invasion ordered to disband by 
 Governor Sliannon. John Brown and four sons, all armed, are in Lawrence 
 at this time. They were the best armed of the defenders. Brown was 
 given a captain's commission by Robinson. s' 
 
 Here is the first reference to the Lane Robinson feud we have found, an 
 editorial in the St. Louis Evening News of December 28, 1855: "On the 
 other hand, the abolitionists since the peace do not appear to be getting 
 along as harmoniously and affectionately as they might. General Lane and 
 Doctor Robinson, the leaders, differed about the terms of the treaty, Lane 
 being in favor of resisting the territorial laws by actual force, while Robin- 
 son was content to abide by with a protest against them until their validity 
 can be decided by ,he federal court. While the Missourians were encamped 
 before Lawrence, Lane wanted to attack them, while Robinson insisted on 
 waiting to be attacked by them. Lane was for offensive operations, and 
 Robinson for defensive, and. as both undoubtedly had personal aspirations 
 to gratify, a bitter feud sprang up between them which has seriously marred 
 the symmetry of their cause. "^2 
 
 December 6, 1855.— Thos. W. Barber, free-state, was shot and killed on 
 the road four miles southwest of Lawrence. Report on Kansas Claims, 
 1861-'62, signed by Edward Hoogland, Henry J. Adams, and Samuel A. 
 Kingman, page 62, says: "Either George W. Clark or Mr. (James N.) 
 Burnes (afterwards a member of Congress) murdered Thos. Barber. . . . 
 Both fired at him, and it is impossible from the proof to tell whose shot was 
 fatal. He, Samuel J. Jones, said Major Clark and Burnes both claimed 
 the credit of killing that damned abolitionist, and he did n't know which 
 ought to have it. If Shannon had n't been a damned old fool, peace would 
 never have been declared. He would have wiped Lawrence out. He had 
 men and means enough to do it. "^^ 
 
 December 22, 1855. — Pro-slavery men destroy Mark W. Delahay's Ter- 
 ritorial Register, a free-state paper, at Leavenworth.** The free-state 
 election on the Topeka constitution was broken up by pro-slavery men in 
 Leavenworth. *5 
 
 December 26, 1855.— The Kickapoo Pioneer says : "It is this class of men 
 that have congregated at Lawrence, and it is this class of men Kansas must 
 get rid of. And we know of no better method than for every man who 
 loves his country and the laws by which he is governed to meet in Kansas 
 and kill off this God-forsaken class of humanity as soon as they place their 
 feet upon our soil." 
 
 January 17, 1856.— Murder of Capt. R. P. Brown, free-state, at Easton, 
 Kan., by a pro-slavery mob. The Leavenworth free-state election had been 
 adjourned to Easton at this date, and the killing of Brown closed the day. 
 The Leavenworth Herald justifies the murder. Brown had three cracks in 
 his skull from a hatchet, and they spit tobacco juice in his wounds, because 
 "anything would make a damned abolitionist feel better. "*« 
 
 Note 61.— Sanborn's John Brown Letters, p. 217. Dec. 16, 1855. 
 
 Note 62.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 7. p. 233. 
 
 Note 63. — Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, p. 211. 
 
 Note 64.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 8, p. 16. 
 
 Note 65.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 8, p. 9. 
 
 Note 66.— Phillips's Conquest of Kansas, ch. 18. 
 
18 The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 
 
 The squatter sovereigns had warmed up considerably by the end of the 
 year, and we find no let-up on account of the weather in January, 1856. The 
 Kickapoo Pioneer, on the 18th, issued an extra, from which we quote : "For- 
 bearance has now indeed ceased to be a virtue, therefore we call on every 
 pro-slavery man in the land to rally to the rescue — Kansas must be immedi- 
 ately rescued from these tyrannical dogs. The Kickapoo Rangers are at 
 this moment beating to arms. . . . Sound the bugle of war over the 
 length and breadth of the land, and leave not an abolitionist in the territory 
 to relate their treacherous and contaminating deeds— strike your piercing 
 rifle-balls and your glittering steel to their black and poisonous hearts."*' 
 
 And so we had the savages who butchered at Lawrence. 
 
 January 23, 1856, Horace Greeley was twice assaulted in Washington by 
 Albert Rust, a member of Congress from Arkansas. ^^ 
 
 Fehrua.ry 20,1856.— The Squatter Sovereign says: "In our opinion the 
 only effectual way to correct the evils that now exist is to hang up to the 
 nearest tree the very last traitor who was instrumental in getting up or 
 participating in the celebrated Topeka (free-state) convention." About 
 this time also the Squatter Sovereign suggests Lexington, Mo., as a suitable 
 place for a political quarantine, "where all steamboats may be searched and 
 the infectious political paupers be prevented from tainting the air of Kan- 
 sas territory with their presence." And immediately after all boats coming 
 up the Missouri river were overhauled and searched for goods pronounced 
 contraband. At Brunswick, Mo., an armed party came on a boat and took 
 a stranger whom they were confident was Governor Robinson. They were 
 making arrangements to tie him to a log and start him down the river, but 
 letters in his trunk satisfied them that they had a friend instead of the gov* 
 ernor. He said he would never travel the river again without a passport 
 from Pierce or Douglas, endorsed by Atchison and Stringfe'low.** 
 
 And so we had the overland travel into the territory through Iowa and 
 Nebraska and the historic "Lane road." The story of Kansas will never 
 be complete without a political history of the Missouri river. 
 
 The Squatter Sovereign was still not happy, for in April, 1856, it says: 
 "If Kansas is not made a slave state, it requires no sage to tell that without 
 some very extraordinary revolution there will never be another slave state; 
 and if this is not enough, then we say, without fear of successful contradic- 
 tion, that Kansas must be a slave state or the Union will be dissolved." '" 
 
 April 30, 1856. — Pardee Butler returns from Illinois to Atchison, and is 
 stripped, tarred, and, for want of feathers, covered with cotton. August 17, 
 1855, Butler had been shipped down the river on a log and told not to come 
 
 Note 67.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 8, p. 19. 
 
 Note 68. — Greeley's Record of a Busy Life, p. 348. 
 
 Note 69.— This is further confirmed by the following from the Squatter Sovereign: "More 
 Abolitionists Turned Back. The steamer Sultan having on board contraband articles was recently 
 stopped at Leavenworth city (July 5, 1856) , and lightened of forty-four rifles and a large quantity 
 of pistols and bowie-knives, taken from a crowd of cowardly Yankees, shipped out here by Mas- 
 sachusetts. The boat was permitted to go up the river as far as Weston. Mo., where a guard was 
 placed over the prisoners, and none of them permitted to land. They were shipped back from 
 Weston on the same boat, without even being insured by the shippers. We do not approve fully 
 of sending these criminals back to the East, to be re-shipped to Kansas— if not through Missouri, 
 through Iowa and Nebraska. We think they should meet a traitor's death, and the world could 
 not censure us if we. in self-protection, have to resort to such ultra measures. We are of the 
 opinion if the citizens of Leavenworth city or Weston, would hang one or two boat-loads of abo- 
 litionists, it would do more toward establishing peace in Kan?sas than all the speeches that have 
 been delivered in Congress during the present session. Let the experiment be tried." — Webb's 
 Scrap-book, vol. 15. p. 73. 
 
 Note 70.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 11. p. 149. 
 
The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 19 
 
 back. On this day, April 30, 1856, R. S. Kelley, Stringfellow's partner, wrote 
 to a friend: "As the steamer Aubrey leaves we have just finished 'tar and 
 feathering' the Rev. Pardee Butler, who was shipped on a raft from this 
 place in August last. He escaped hanging by only one vote. Butler, you 
 know, is a rank abolitionist, and was promised this treatment should he visit 
 our town. In the event of his return, he will be hung, "^i 
 
 The scene shifts, and there is constant trouble on the Marais des Cygnes 
 after the arrival of Buford's men in April, 1856. A Vermonter named Ba- 
 ker was taken from his cabin, whipped, hanged to a tree, but cut down be- 
 fore death, and released upon his promise to leave Kansas. John Brown, 
 with his sons, Owen, Frederick, Salmon, and Oliver, with surveyor's com- 
 pass and instruments, run a line through Buford's camp. Assuming that 
 they were government surveyors, and therefore "sound on the goose," the 
 Georgians informed them "that they would make no war on them as minds 
 their own business, but all the abolitionists, such as them damned Browns 
 over there, we're going to whip, drive out, or kill." "- 
 
 Events have been coming so rapidly in the unfolding of the great squat- 
 ter sovereignty scheme, that I am able now to touch only the high places. 
 I have not produced a picture of these sovereign squats. Dr. J. V. C. 
 Smith, of Boston, a traveler through the country, describes the Missouri 
 bandits as follows: "Those I saw at Westport, whose camp was in the 
 woods only a few rods out of the territory, were young men, rough, coarse, 
 sneering, swaggering, dare-devil looking rascals as ever swung upon a gal- 
 lows. The marauders were mounted upon horses and mules, armed to the 
 teeth with pistols, long knives and carbines. ^^ They rob travelers, surprise 
 the humble residents of prairie cabins, whom they strip of their valuables, 
 and in repeated instances murder the owner. They drive off cattle, the 
 property most in request, and steal horses. They oblige a man to dismount. 
 
 Note 71.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 12. p. 163. 
 
 The wordincr of this letter, as well as its tone, leads to the suspicion that Robert S. Kelley 
 and not Doctor String-fellow was the author of the virulent editorials which graced the pages of 
 the Squatter Sovereign. Here is another of Mr. Kelley's letters, addressed to the gentlemen who 
 bought out the paper, and who had joined hands in 1857 with the Stringfellows in booming the 
 town of Atchison : 
 -Messrs. Pomeroy & McBratney : " DONIPHAN. K. T.. June 21. 1857. 
 
 "Gents (?) — I am authorized by all of the subscribers to tne Squatter Sovereign in Char\es- 
 ton, S. C, to have their papers discontinued. When they subscribed to the journal, they dime so 
 to advance the pro-slavery interest in the territory. When traitors, for gold, sell themselves and 
 their country, they do not consider themselves bound by the bargain. They are unwilling to 
 support, either directly or indirectly, traitors, abolitionists and mgro stealers. Do not further 
 insult them by continuing the paper. You also may balance the accounts of all the Doniphan 
 subscribers to the Squatter. 
 
 "May sickness, disease, and. finally, death, be the result of your connection with the Squat- 
 ter Sovereign, is the sincere wish of ROBERT S. Kelley." 
 
 Dr. John H. Stringfellow was a brother to Benjamin F. Stringfellow. The former was 
 speaker of the territorial legislature of 1855. 
 
 Note 72.— Sanborn's John Brown, p. 230. 
 
 Note 73.— This is a very gentle reference to those called "border ruffians" when compared 
 with the statements made by Thomas H Gladstone, a cousin of William E. Gladstone, the premier 
 of England, in a book entitled " Kanzas ; Squatter Life and Botd ;r Warfare in the Far West." 
 Gladstone was a correspondent of the Loi don Times, and was induced by the debates in Congress 
 and general excitement about Kansas to make a tour of the territor.v in 1856, and an investigation 
 for his own satisfact'on. His hook abounds in awful description. "I had just arrived in Kansas 
 City," he says on page 38, "and shall never forget the appearance of the lawless mob that poured 
 into the place ( it was after the sacking of Lawrence May 21. 18.5t;), inflamed with drink, glutted 
 with the indulgence of the vilest passions, displaying with loud boasts the ' plunder' they had 
 taken from the inhabitants, and thir.sting for the opportunity of repeating the sack of Lawrence 
 in some other offending place." On the same p-(ge is a sentence which has been a standing 
 sermon ever since: "Having once been taught that robbery and outrage, if committed in the 
 service of the South, were to be regarded as deeds of loyalty and obedience, these ministers of a 
 self-styled 'law and order' were slow to unlearn a doctrine so acceptable." 
 
20 The First Two Yea7's of Kansas, 
 
 and take his horse, and should he remonstrate or resist, blow his brains out 
 without apology. " "* 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher said he believed that "the Sharp's rifle was truly 
 a moral agency, and there was more moral power in one of those instru- 
 ments, so far as the slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a hun- 
 dred Bibles." "You might just as well," said he, "read the Bible to buffaloes 
 as to those fellows who follow Atchison and Stringfellow; but they have a 
 supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifles. "^^ But let 
 me emphasize again, they were but a fraction of the people of western Mis- 
 souri. No greater, more useful or patriotic people ever lived than the gen- 
 eration of Missourians who follo\Ved Doniphan, and who cut the trackless 
 waste west of them by trails of commerce. 
 
 May 5, 1856. —The grand jury of Douglas county recommends that the 
 Herald of Freedom and Kansas Free State, newspapers, and the Eldridge 
 House be abated as nuisances, and indicts Charles Robinson, Andrew H. 
 Reeder and others for high treason in organizing a free- state government.'* 
 
 May 7 and 9, 1856. —Attempt made to arrest Andrew H. Reeder. He 
 escaped and, aided by Kersey Coates and the Eldridges, gets through Kan- 
 sas City in disguise, and hires out as an Irish deck hand on a steamboat'' 
 
 A man from Massachusetts by the name of Mace gave testimony that 
 Sam Jones led a party that destroyed a ballot-box at Bloomington, and for 
 this he was waylaid and shot near the front door of his cabin. The ruffians 
 left him for dead, but he was alive, and after their departure crawled into 
 his cabin comforted by the assurance from his assailants, that "there is 
 some more damned good abolition wolf-bait. " '^ 
 
 May 5, 1856. —The grand jury in session at Lecompton is charged by 
 Judge Lecompte to indict for high treason or constructive treason certain 
 parties "dubbed governor, lieutenant-governor, etc. —or individuals of in- 
 fluence and notoriety " — meaning free-state leaders.'* 
 
 May 10, 1856. —Charles Robinson, on his way east, is arrested at Lexing- 
 ton, Mo., for treason, and brought back to Lecompton. 8" 
 
 May 11, 1856.— J. B. Donaldson, United States marshal for Kansas ter- 
 ritory, calls upon "law abiding citizens" to assist him in executing writs 
 against citizens of Lawrence. 
 
 May 13, 1856.— Citizens of Lawrence make a protest to the governor and 
 the United States marshal. 
 
 May 14, 1856.— Gaius Jenkins, Geo. W. Brown, Chas. Robinson, Geo. "W. 
 Smith. Geo. W. Deitzler, John Brown, jr., and H. H. Williams were ar- 
 rested this day or soon after, were denied bail, and, charged with high trea- 
 son, were confined in camp at Lecompton. 
 
 May 17, 1856. -C. W. Babcock, Lyman Allen, and J. A. Perry, appointed 
 by the people of Lawrence, ask the United States marshal to put a stop to 
 the depredations committed by a large force of armed men in the vicinity. «' 
 
 Note 74.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 14, p. 35. 
 
 Note 75.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 9, p. 67. 
 
 Note 76.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas, 1st ed., p. 97. 
 
 Note 77.— Kan. Hist. Coll., vol. 3, p. 205. 
 
 Note 78. — Spring's History of Kansas, p. 120. 
 
 Note 79.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas— its Interior and Exterior Life, p. 218. 
 
 Note 80.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas— its Interior and Exterior Life, p. 267. 
 
 Note 81.— Mrs. Sara T. D. Robinson's Kansas-its Interior and Exterior Life, p. 237. 
 
The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 21 
 
 May 21, 1856. — Arrests of certain free-state men having been made in 
 Lawrence during the forenoon. Sheriff Jones appeared in the afternoon with 
 a body of armed men. The Eldridge House, the offices of the Herald of 
 Freedom and the Kansas Free State were destroyed, stores were broken 
 open and pillaged, and the dwelhng of Chas. Robinson burned. A grand 
 jury, referring to the newspapers, recommended their abatement as a nui- 
 sance, and as to the hotel they "recommended that steps be taken whereby 
 this nuisance may be removed. "82 During the destruction Jones remarked : 
 "Gentlemen, this is the happiest day of my life, I assure you."^ I deter- 
 mined to make the fanatics bow before me in the dust and kiss the terri- 
 torial laws." He looked at the hotel as another round was fired, and added, 
 "I 've done it. by God, I 've done it !"84 
 
 May 22, 1856. —Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, commits an as- 
 sault on Charles Sumner in the United States senate, because of his speech 
 entitled, "The Crime A2:ain?t Kiasis " Trie Sj'iattsr Sovereign said: 
 "The assault on Sumner by Brooks is generally approved and applauded by 
 the citizens of Kansas. We think it one of the best acts ever done in the 
 senate chamber, "^s 
 
 The 28th of June was the anniversary of the Palmetto ( South Carolina) 
 Rifles, and at the celebration in Atchison a fine assortment of toasts were 
 given. Here is one : "The Hon. Preston S. Brooks— by whipping crazy 
 Sumner he has furnished a second edition of what the abolitionists call 
 'border ruffianism'— that is the determination of honorable minds to resent 
 injury and insult from a mouthpiece of fanaticism, coming from what quar- 
 ter it may. "86 On the Fourth of July following South Carolina did better, 
 thus: "May South Carolina always afford Brooks enough to cleanse such 
 wild, dastardly lepers as Sumner, Wilson & Co." 
 
 Up to this time, the spring of 1856, all the outrages committed by the 
 free-state men were purely political ; that is, resistance to the pro-slavery 
 territorial organization, and an attempt to organize under the provisional 
 Topeka movement. But now a man arose who thought it time to strike a 
 blow— that turning the other cheek had been worked long enough. 
 
 May 23, 1856. —John Brown, wiih a company of free-state men, while on 
 their way to the defense of Lawrence, were overtaken by a messenger from 
 home, telling of outrages perpetrated the previous day on their families and 
 neighbors by pro-slavery settlers on Pottawatomie creek. John Brown and 
 his four sons Owen, Fred, Watson and Oliver, his son-in-law Henry Thomp- 
 son, James Townsley, and Theodore Weiner, returned to Pottawatomie 
 creek on the 23d. On the night of the 24th they took from their homes 
 
 Note 82.— Wilder's Annals of Kansas, p. 121. 
 
 Note 83. — "Men of the South and of Missouri. I am proud of this day. I have received office 
 and honor before. I have occupied the vice-president's place in the greatest republic the light 
 of God's sun ever shown upon. but. ruffian brothers (yells) that glory, that honor was nothing, it 
 was an empty bubble compared with the solid grandeur and magnificent glory of this momen- 
 tous occasion. Here, on this beautiful prairie bluff, with naught but the canopy of heaven for 
 my covering, with my splendid Arabian charger for my shield, whose well tried fleetness I may 
 yet have to depend upon for my life, unless this day's work shall drive from our Western world 
 those hellish emigrants and paupers, whose bellies are filled with beggars' food, and whose houses 
 are stored with Beecher Bibles."— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 15, p. H3. This is but a small portion 
 of a speech made by Atchison in camp, two miles from Lawrence, the day before the assault on 
 that place. It is a half a newspaper column of the roughest stuff ever printed, and is vouched 
 for by Dr. J. P. Root, who was a prisoner in the pro-slavery camp at the time. 
 
 Note 84.-Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 12. p. 232. 
 
 Note 85.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 14, p. 72. 
 
 Note 86.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 15, p. 73. 
 
22 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 James P. Doyle and his sons William and Drury, Allen Wilkinson, and Wil- 
 liam Sherman, and killed them. John Brown admitted his responsibility for 
 the killing.^'' 
 
 In a manuscript filed with the Kansas State Historical Society by August 
 Bondi, of Salina, a Kansan of the highest repute since 1855, giving a sketch 
 of his life as a revolutionist in Austria, a partisan with John Brown in Kan- 
 sas, and a soldier in the Fifth Kansas cavalry, is the following : 
 
 "In the evening of May 23 (1856), about nine p. M., came John Grant, 
 jr., from Dutch Henry's crossing to the camp; he was a member of the 
 Pottawatomie company, but at the urgent solicitation of mother and sister 
 he had remained at home. He informed us that in the morning of the day 
 Bill Sherman (Dutch Bill) had come to their cabin, only his mother and 
 sister Mary at home, he and his father in the field, with his usual swagger- 
 ing tone had denounced the abolitionists, and then had attempted to crimin- 
 ally assault the girl. ( Mary Grant was twenty-three years old and one of the 
 best-looking and best-educated girls on the creek; the family were from 
 New York ) The outcries of the women brought father and son from the 
 field, and Dutch Bill left, cursing and swearing utter extinction of all free- 
 state men. Old John Brown heard the account and John Grant, jr. 's, ap- 
 peal for protection some way or other. About the time, also, came in a 
 runner from Lawrence with Colonel Sumner's proclamation, ordering all 
 armed bodies to disperse, and thereupon the two companies agreed to break 
 camp at dawn and return home. Old John Brown called his boys and myself 
 and Weiner and Townsley to one side and made a short speech, telling us 
 that for the protection of our friends and families a blow had to be struck 
 on Pottawatomie creek, to strike terror into the pro-slavery miscreants who 
 intended pillage and murder, and asked James Townsley, who had a team of 
 grays, whether he would haul them. Townsley assented at once. Then he 
 asked his boys, Fred, Owen, Salmon, and Oliver, and his son-in-law, 
 Thompson, and Theodore Weiner, each separately, if willing to accompany 
 him. They all assented. To me he said: 'I do not want you along; you 
 have been away all winter; you are not so well known; we need some one 
 to keep up communication with our families, so you will attend to bringing 
 news to us and carrying news to our families. You may remain behind for 
 the present, anyway; you may meet us, however, on my brother-in-law's 
 (Day) claim to-morrow night.' He gave a few more immaterial instruc- 
 tions. Townsiey had his team hitched up, the men of the expedition were 
 on the wagon, old John Brown shook hands with me. and off they started, "^s 
 
 Note 87.— Connelley's John Brown, p. 200. 
 
 Note 88. — August Bondi fell dead on a street in St. Louis September 30, and was burit-d at 
 Salina, Kan., October 3, 19U7. He told the writer frequently, in the past twenty years, that the 
 political troubles in the territory had nothing to do with John Brown's action on the Pottawato- 
 mie. He was asked why he never said anything about the cause he assigned, and he responiied 
 that he did tell the Reverend Utter, when he had his controversy with ex-Senator Ingalls, but 
 that Utter would not consider it. Probably there was no politics in the Mary Grant story, while 
 practically all men would approve of killmg in case of an a sault upon a woman. Bondi was a 
 splendid citizen, a Hebrew, and of late years an earnest and active member of the Democratic 
 party. 
 
 Mr. M. V. Jackson, the father of Hon. Fred S. Jackson, the present attorney-general of Kan- 
 sas, still living at Eureka, has a statement on file with the Kansas State Historical Society, in 
 which he says : 
 
 "We arrived in Kansas November 20, 1855, and made settlement on a claim on Pottawatomie 
 creek, four miles west of Osawatomie, and about the same distance from what is known as 
 Dutch Henry's Crossing. Early in the spring of 1856 the pro-slavery people became quite ag- 
 grressive and annoying to the few free-state settlers in that vicinity. The Shermans— three of 
 them, Dutch Henry, Bill and Pete— lived near this ford, or crossing, known as Dutch Henry's 
 Crossing. This was the headquarters of all the pro-slavery men in that vicinity, and the Sher- 
 mans appeared to be the most aggressive and took the most active part in ordering free-state 
 settlers to leave the neighborhood. Some week or ten days prior to the Pottawatomie massacre, 
 as it has been called. Dutch Pete did insult and abuse Mary Grant, and about the same time or- 
 dered Benjamin and Bondi, the parties who had charge of the little store on Mosquito branch, to 
 leave. The day before the massacre most of the free-state settlers had started to Lawrence to 
 aid the people there to repel an invasion of the border ruffians, who had congregated in consider- 
 able force near the town. They had gotten as far as Ottawa Jones, and had gone into camp on 
 Ottawa creek. Myself and a young man by the name of Glenn arrived at this camp about noon, 
 and word had just been received from Lawrence to disband, as the trouble there had been settled 
 for the present time. John Brown and his sons and Benjamin and Bondi. and a man by the 
 
The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 23 
 
 From this time on conditions changed in Kansas. It was "an eye for an 
 eye, and a tooth for a tooth." The storm started by the Salt Creek 
 Squatters' Claim Association in May, 1854, culminated in northeastern 
 Kansas in the fall of 1856, when the free-state men, following John Brown's 
 example, organized in armed bands to defend their communities. Before 
 the order of Governor Geary, dispersing all armed bodies, had come into 
 effect, they had cleared up the slate by wiping out the pro-slavery rendez- 
 vous at Washington creek, Franklin, and Hickory Point. By the spring of 
 1857 marauding, except in southeastern Kansas, had practically ceased, 
 though the official machinery set in motion by the bogus laws and supported 
 by the territorial judiciary was a source of continual insult. But there 
 were no raids from Kansas into Missouri during the two years of which I 
 speak. The western Missouri practice of squatter sovereignty was popu- 
 lar and continuous, its dire effects lasting with the people of that state un- 
 
 name of Weiner, who was said to own the little store on the Mosquito branch, was at the camp. 
 There appeared to be quite a lot of talk among the men in squads of two and three, and I made 
 some inquiry as to what it was about, and if anythii g new had happened. I did not learn any- 
 thing until I met this man Weiner, and he told me that they had just heard that since they had 
 left home Bill Sherman, with two or three other parties, had been to the store, and that 
 Dutch Bill was drunk and very abusive, and that he had abused Mrs. Benjamin and told her that 
 they must leave within the next few days or they would be killed and the store burned. Mr. 
 Weiner then stated that something had to be done, and that something was going to be done to 
 stop this abuse ot free-state men and their families. I went back home that afternoon, and 
 learned of the killing of five men about eight o'clock next morning." 
 
 S. J. Shively, an attorney at Paola. a Missourian by birth, who spent his boyhood on Mosquito 
 creek, made an address before the State Historical Society December 1, 1903, vol. 8, pages 177- 
 187, in which he says : 
 
 " Between the Pottawatomie and Mosquito creeks was a pro-slavery settlement. Just north 
 of this, between the Mosquito and the Marais dfs Cygnes. was a fiee-state settlement, and just 
 south of the Pottawatomie was a mixed complexion of politics. The Browns lived right in the 
 hot-bed of the pro slavery nest. Some free-state men have thought that Wilkinson, Sherman 
 and Doyle were unoffending, peaceable and harmless men. Wilkinson, elected by fraud and 
 violence, seated by force and usurpation in a legislature the most infamous ever known, and who 
 in that legislature voted for the black cede, could hardly be regarded as unoffending. Sherman, 
 who fed and entertained gangs of drunken, lawless invaders, could hardly be said to be peace- 
 able. Doyle, whose boys drove back old men, actual citizens, from the polls, could hardly be 
 said to be harmless. . . . Civil war had been declared by the pro-slavery papers of Missouri 
 and Kansas, and the right kind of characters were picked out to be sent to carry out their dec- 
 larations. A great many of the free-state settlers on the Pottawatomie were from Missouri 
 and other slave states, and well knew the men and methods they had to deal with. . . . Dur- 
 ing the summer and fall of 1855, Wilkinson, who kept the post-office, would often misplace the 
 mail and destroy the newspapers belonging to tree-state men. His post-office, called Sherman- 
 ville, was the concentrating point where pro-slavery men would meet and curse and abuse aboli- 
 tionists, and the ruffian conduct was sanctioned by the postmaster. . . One day in 1855 
 Poindexter Manace, after leaving the post-office, was seen with a copy of the New York Tribune. 
 He was told to throw away the damned incendiary sheet : he replied that it was the best paper 
 published, and the crowd jumped on him and nearly beat him to death. . . . Early in the 
 spring of 1856 the pro-slavery men on the Pottawatomie organized to drive out free-state men, 
 and they invited Buford's men, fresh from the South, then stopping at Fort Scott, to come and 
 help them break up the free-state settlements. . . . About the same time, while Mr. Day 
 from over on the Marais des Cygnes, was at Weiner's store, a man rode up and handed him this 
 note: 'This is to notify you that all free-state men now living on the Marais des Cygnes and 
 Pottawatomie must leave the territory within thirty days or their throats will be cut. — Law and 
 Order.' . . . James Hanway, who lived in the settlement at the time, said of the massacre 
 afterwards : ' I am satisfied it saved the lives of many free-state men. We looked up to it as a 
 sort of deliverance. Prior to this happening a ba^e conspiracy had been formed to drive out, to 
 burn, to kill. In a word, the Pottawatomie creek from its fountainhead was to be cleared of 
 free-state men.' . . . There was no intention to harm the peaceable pro-slavery men on the 
 Pottawatomie, only the obnoxious ones— the ones that gave aid and comfort to the Missouri in- 
 vaders, the Buford cut-throats, and Pate's gang. The Pottawatomie policy enabled the free- 
 state men to stay, and, by staying saved Kansas to freedom. It gave notice to Missourians that 
 no more ballot-box stuffing would be tolerated. Had the Pottawatomie policy been adopted 
 sooner, at Leavenworth, perhaps the shocking cruelties inflicted on R, P. Brown and William 
 Phillips, might have been avoided In the latter part of May, 1856, the free-state men of Kansas 
 saw their leaders in prison, their newspapers thrown into the river, a reign of terror in Atchison, 
 blood running down the streets of Leavenworth; Lawrence, their principal town, destroyed; 
 armed hordes from every Southern state marching to Kansas ; free-state families in Linn and 
 Bourbon counties leaving by the hundreds for their far eastern homes ; men all over the territory 
 going to prison for speaking their sentiments ; their champion at the national capital, Charles 
 Sumner, weltering in blood from slavery's blows for even speaking out against these crimes in 
 Kansas." 
 
 Richard J. Hinton, in his book, entitled "John Brown and His Men," page 87, says: "Henry 
 Sherman, or 'Dutch Henry,' as he was called, lived on Pottawatomie creek, and kept a store or 
 
24 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 til Governor Crittenden offered a reward of $10,000 each for Frank and 
 Jesse James, and the assassination of the latter April ;^, 1882, by Robert 
 Ford. And there was enough of the spirit of squatter sovereignty left then 
 in Missouri to drive the governor into political exile, while Kansas recovered 
 her sanity by the close of the war. And that Missouri is rapidly getting 
 there is evidenced by the fact that about four years ago Frank James was 
 a candidate for doorkeeper in the Missouri legislature, and while some still 
 believed him to be a "bigger man than old Grant," there were conserva- 
 tives enough to prevent his election, because, as they said, "it would never 
 do." 
 
 The first raid of any consequence from Kansas into Missouri was on the 
 20th of December, 1858, when John Brown went over into Vernon county, 
 Missouri, and brought out eleven slaves. The governor of Missouri offered 
 $3000 reward and President Buchanan added $250 for Brown. With this 
 bunch of negroes Brown departed from Kansas through Iowa. The History 
 of Vernon County, Missouri, 1887, pages 221, 222, says: "There were com- 
 paratively few slaves in Vernon county during the Kansas troubles; but 
 their owners were always uneasy, and it came to pass that the pro-slavery 
 men the county over were nervous and seldom retired at night without see- 
 ing that their revolvers and shotguns were fit for service. The abolitionists 
 were no longer despised; they were feared and dreaded. The Jay hawkers 
 were fond of good horses and would as soon shoot a pro-slavery owner as to 
 take his horse. They began along about 1858 to raid and harrow the bor- 
 der counties of Jackson, Cass, Bates and Vernon, but only one of the raids 
 into this county was important— the John Brown raid of December, 1858." 
 
 In the senate of the United States, James H. Lane, June 20, 1862, said: 
 "When my heart ceases to beat, and not until then, will I permit any gen- 
 tleman, here or elsewhere, to state that Kansas is to be compared to 
 Missouri in the outrages she has committed. In 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, the 
 outrages were ail upon one side ; Kansas acted exclusively upon the de- 
 fensive, and I defy that gentleman or any other gentleman to point to any 
 body of Kansans who ever invaded the territory of Missouri or stuffed her 
 ballot-boxes, or attempted to do so.^^ We have, in the discharge of our 
 
 saloon. It had become the rendezvous for the Dories and others, who were known as border ruf- 
 fians, spies, thieves and murderers. It was through them the Missourians gained all information 
 concerning the condition of the free-state men At this particular time the country was full of 
 such ruffians, who had come up here to muider our people and burn ourhomes. These men were 
 most active and bold. They ordered free-state men to leave, under pam of death if they failed 
 to comply. While our men were under arms in camp, these marauders went to the homes of the 
 settlers, where there was no one but women and children; they were abusive and indecent. On 
 one occasion they so frightened one woman who was quick with child that she gave premature 
 birth to it and came near dying. These conditions were reported, and a council was called, 
 the wliole matter discussed, and after a full investigation it was decided that ' Dutch Henry' 
 and his whole gang should be put to death, as an example and warning to the many murderers 
 who infested the territory at that time. It was believed their crimes merited it, and the safety 
 of the free-state community demanded it. I do not say that John Brown's party was chosen ; 
 probably the decision was anticipated. I do say we decided that it must be done. . . . Pro- 
 slavery men who were not border ruffians, and there were a goodly number, were soon ready 
 to aid in the protection of free-state men. They asked and were never denied protection by the 
 latter. It was the great beginning of the glorious ei.ding in Kansas. I justified it then, so did 
 Robinson and everybody else. I have had no reason to change my mind upon that subject since." 
 
 Note 89. — Hon. Frederick P. Stanton, a Tennesseean, fifth territorial (acting) governor, in 
 an address at the old settlers' meeting, Bismarck Grove, Lawrence, September 2, 1884 : 
 
 "The astounding frauds perpetrated at Oxford, in Johnson county, October 5, 1857, and sev- 
 eral precincts in McGree, soon became known. They were intended, and, indeed, would have 
 been effectual, to give the control of the new territorial legislature to the pro -slavery party, 
 which was also supreme in the Lecompton constitutional convention. It would be fatal, these 
 men perceived, to let the territorial legislature, even in its expiring days, pass into the hands of 
 the ppople, especially since the result would serve to show too plainly the insignificance of the 
 support which they actually had in the popular vote. 
 
 ' ' The returns in the case of these election precincts were nothing less than flagrant forgeries. 
 
The First Two Years of Kansas. 25 
 
 duty to the flag and the country, marched into Missouri by orders of the 
 government to crush out rebellion, since the commencement of this strug- 
 gle. Never before did Kansas invade Missouri. ... I do hope that the 
 difficulties between Missouri and Kansas may sometime be settled, and kind 
 feeling established, and 1 avail myself of this opportunity to say that I 
 traversed the borders of Kansas and Missouri from north to south, before 
 these troubles commenced, appealing to the citizens of Missouri and the 
 citizens of Kansas to remain at home and at peace with each other. I made 
 speeches to that effect along the entire border; but that counsel Missouri 
 
 They contained thousands of names of persons not present at the election. They were not re- 
 turns of votes illenally offered and received, but they were immense lists of fictitious names, 
 fraudulently entered and falsely returned, as those of actual voters. . . ." 
 
 [The poll-list of Oxford precinct, above referred to, is now in the archives department of the 
 State Historical Society. There are 1628 names on it. all cast for the pro-slavery legislative and 
 congressional ticket, except that of one person who had the nerve to vote for Marcus J. Parrott 
 for Congress. The list is dated October 5, 1857. and is signed by James H. Nounnun, C. C. Catron, 
 and Batt Jones, judges, and S. D. Barnett and G, O. Hand, clerks. By throwing out the.^e re- 
 turns, Robert J. Walker, governor, and Frederick P. Stanton, secretary, gave control of the ter- 
 ritorial legislature to the free-state party. — Secretary.] 
 
 "General Cass assumed in his letter to me that the Lecompton constitution fairly submitted 
 the slavery question to the people, and gave them an opportunity "to determine whether Kansas 
 shall be a slave state or a free state, in the very manner contemplated by its organic law.' You 
 know how far this was from the facts of the ca.se; but evidently i-eneral Cass expected me to 
 employ the army for the purpose of maintaining order and fair play at Calhoun pro-slavery 
 elections. How utterly inadequate would this have been to the demands of the occasion ! Im- 
 agine a battery of artillery pursuing Jack Henderson to Delaware Crossing to prevent the for- 
 gery committed there, or a company of dragoons fighting the notorious frauds at Oxford, 
 Kickapoo, and elsewhere. ..." 
 
 "The army of the nation was wholly incompetent to deal with these transactions, or m any 
 way to prevent them, as I have already shown. The idea of meeting the perpetrators of these 
 famous frauds with military force is supremely ludicrous. John Calhoun (president of the 
 Lecompton constitutional convention) had a company of dragoons to protect him as he carried 
 these forged returns, or their fraudulent results, out of this territory. With my own eyes I saw 
 him escorted in this way from Lecompton. I do not mean to charge that General Cass or Presi- 
 dent Buchanan intended this use of the army, but I do say that such was the perversion of its 
 functions, in spite of the better purposes proclaimed in the instructions."— Hist. Coll., vol. 3, pp. 
 345. 348, 350. 
 
 This statement'of Secretary Stanton concerning the misuse of the army recalls the fact that 
 six months or more before John Calhoun left John W. Geary, the third territorial governor, de- 
 parted in the middle of the night because he was without protection. On the 9th of February. 
 1857, Governor Geary made application to Gen. Percif er F. Smith, commanding the department at 
 Fort Leavenworth, as follows : 
 
 "There are certain persons present in Lecompton who are determined, if within the bounds 
 of possibility, to bring about a breach of the peace. During the last few days a number of per- 
 sons have been grossly insulted ; and to-day an insult has been offered to myself A person 
 named Sherrard. who some days ago had been appointed a sheriff of Douglas county, which ap- 
 pointment was strongly protested against by a respectable number of the citizens of the county^ 
 and I had deferred commissioning htm. This, it appears, gave mortal offense to Sherrard. and 
 he has made up his mind to assassinate me. This may lead to trouble. It must be prevented, 
 and that by immediate action. I require, therefore, two additional companies of dragoons, to re- 
 port to me with the least possible delay. / think this is absolutely necessary, and I trust you wiU 
 immediately comply wUh my request." 
 
 On the 11th, General Smith responded: 
 
 "Insults or probable breaches of the peace do not authorize the employment of the troops. 
 
 "Besides, all the forces here have just been designated by the secretary of war, and are 
 under orders, for other service more distant; and even the companies near you will have to be re- 
 called. They are sufficient to repress any breach of the peace, and I cannot move them until the 
 weather improves. 
 
 "But even they are to be employed to aid the civil authorities only in the contmgencies men- 
 tioned in the laws above referred to. The garrisons to be left in the territory will be available if 
 the President directs their employment." 
 
 Governor Geary had refused to commission William J. Sherrard as sheriff of Douglas county. 
 The pro-slavery legislature demanded a reason, and the governor responded that Sherrard had 
 been engaged in several drunken brawls. Geary ignored an attempted assault by Sherrard. 
 when the latter spit upon the governor. At another time he slapped the governor's private sec- 
 retary. Several attempts were made to provoke a quarrel and assassinate Geary. On the afternoon 
 of the 14th of February according to a call, the citizens of Lecompton held a meeting to expresa 
 their views concerning the insult to Governor Geary. Sherrard interrupted the meeting and be- 
 gan shooting. In the riot Sherrard was killed. Geary resigned on the 4th of March, to take 
 effect on the 20th. His letter was deposited in the office very late at night, just as the mail 
 closed, but its contents were discussed in the grog-shops of Lecompton the next morning before 
 the Bovernor was out of bed. He left Lecompton on the 10th of March, 1857. 
 
26 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 disregarded, and if Kansas is even with Missouri it is because she has been 
 true to her flag and true to her country."*'" 
 
 James H. Lane, in command of the United States troops, on the 22d 
 day of September, 1861, destroyed the town of Osceola, St. Clair county, 
 Missouri. This is generally stated as the excuse for the Lawrence massacre 
 of August 21, 1863. Lane went to Osceola on a legitimate errand of war- 
 fare—to destroy certain supplies of the enemy— Sterling Price at this time 
 having captured Colonel Mulligan at Lexington. Lane was fired on from 
 ambush, and in returning the fire he killed one man. Lane's men helped 
 women get their personal effects from their houses. Lane took the records 
 from the court-house before applying the torch, and returned them at the 
 close of the war. Lawrence had been destroyed or besieged three times— in 
 December. 1855, May 21, 1856. and September 15, 1856. This third time 
 Governor Geary arrived with United States troops and succeeded with argu- 
 ment to turn back to Missouri the 2700 invaders. Osawatomie was raided 
 and robbed by 150 Missourians June 6, and destroyed by 500 Missourians 
 August 30, 1856. The Marais des Cygnes massacre. May 18, 1858, was 
 planned at Papinsville, Bates county, Missouri, and put into awful execution 
 on the 19th.* Thus there were six raids from Missouri into Kansas before 
 John Brown made the first raid from Kansas into Missouri, December, 
 1858, when he brought out eleven negroes. The second raid from Kansas 
 into Missouri was by James B. Abbott and party, July 23, 1859, who rescued 
 John Doy from jail in St. Joseph. Lane's march upon Osceola was five 
 months after the assault upon Fort Sumter, and prior to it there was the 
 seizure of Camp Jackson, the Platte Bridge massacre, the battle of Wilson 
 Creek, the seige of Lexington, and the battle of Morristown. 
 
 There might have been a slight attempt by the settlers in the first two 
 years at "seed time and harvest," but a few sentences only would be re- 
 quired to tell it, and as for the building of homes, education, religion, and 
 any attempt at well-ordered society, all were held in abeyance, while the 
 sovereign squats of Missouri were using every means to force slavery upon 
 the territory. August 28, 1856. a party of which R, J. Hinton was a mem- 
 ber reached Topeka, coming overland through Iowa. In a diary of the trip 
 kept by Hinton, now in possession of the Kansas State Historical Society, is 
 this sentence: "Topeka contains about 100 houses, but presents the appear- 
 ance that the territory everywhere shows, of industry idle, enterprise 
 blocked, and capital lying wasted." 
 
 It is not my purpose in this paper to justify John Brown or the sovereign 
 squats of Missouri in anything that was done. What I repeat to you ap- 
 
 NOTE 90.— Congressional Globe, 2d sess. 37th Congrress, p. 2838. 
 
 •On the 18th of May. 1858, a mass meeting was called at Papinsville to incite an invasion of 
 the territory and wipe out the free state settlers of Linn county. At midnight, when they reached 
 the state line, either some conscience or a fear of James Montgomery seized the party, and all 
 backed out but about thirty. This number followed Capt. Chas. A. Hamilton over the line on 
 the morning of the 19th. They gathered up eleven citizens in Kansas, each without arms, the 
 greater number, if not all of them, having never taken part in the differences between the free- 
 state and pro-slavery parties. The prisoners were stood in line. Five were killed, and all the 
 others but one desperately wounded. See Ed R. Smith's account, in volume 6 of the Kansas His- 
 torical Collections, pages 365-370. Mr. Smith says, page 3S9: "Hamilton without further com- 
 ment ordered his nien to form in front of their victims on the side of the ravine and a little above 
 them. Old man Hairgrove, seeing the preparations for their murder, without a tremor in his 
 voice, said, 'Men, if you are going to shoot us, take good aim.' Hamilton at this gave the order 
 to ' Make ready, take aim fire! ' ' Fort Scott' [W. B.] Brockett. at this, wheeled his horseout of 
 the line and with an oath declared he 'would shoot them in a fight, but. by God! I'll have nothing 
 to do with such an act as this." It was with difficulty that Hamilton brought his gang again into 
 line, then gave the order to fire, firing the first shot himself. The entire eleven men in that line 
 went down before the deadly fire of their murderers." [See, also, Tomlinson's "Kansas in 1858." 
 chap. 5, p. 61.] 
 
The First Two Years of Kansas. 27 
 
 peared in public print hundreds of times in all parts of the United States, 
 and while some of it sounds unreasonable, so much of it actually happened 
 as to render the most absurd of it very plausible. At this late day, under 
 the political and material wonders we enjoy, we are all charitable enough to 
 excuse the individuals and cover all with the mantle so often asserted by the 
 free-soiler, "the barbarism of slavery," which then infected all things 
 
 Charles Robinson, the great free-soil leader, said in a letter to James Han- 
 way, February 5, 1878: "I never had much doubt that Captain Brown was 
 the author of the blow at Pottawatomie, for the reason that he was the only 
 man who comprehended the situation and saw the absolute necessity of some 
 such blow, and had the nerve to strike it." Verily, there had to be a blow 
 struck. 
 
 But let me go a few days over the limit of the two years to further illus- 
 trate the spirit which then prevailed. Upon the anniversary of the Palmetto 
 Rifles, June 28, 1856, celebrated at Atchison with a parade and banquet, 
 were other toasts. "At the head of the table," says one account, "hung 
 the blood-red flag, with the lone star and the motto of 'Southern Rights' on 
 the one side and 'South Carolina' on the other. The same flag that first 
 floated on the rifle-pits of ihe abolitionists at Lawrence, and on the hotel of 
 the same place, in triumph, now hung over the heads of the noble soldiers 
 who bore it so bravely through that exciting war." (This flag, captured by 
 the free-state men at Slough creek, in September, 1856, is now among the 
 relics of the Kansas State Historical Society.) Among the toasts were the 
 following applying to Kansas: "Kansas— our chosen home— stand by her. 
 Yes! sons of the South, make her a slave state, or die in the attempt!" 
 "Missouri— our ally— nobly has she stood by her younger sister. All hail to 
 the gallant 'border rufl[ians.' We owe them one." "The city of Atchison— 
 may she before the close of the year '57 be the capital of a southern repub- 
 lic. " "The Palmetto flag— we brought it here in honor, let us return it the 
 same." "The distribution of the public lands— one hundred and sixty acres 
 to every pro-slavery settler, and to every abolitionist six feet by two."*' 
 
 But July 4 following they went one better in Grahamville, S. C: 
 "Kansas— already stained with the blood of Southern martyrs in the cause 
 of justice and our most sacred rights. May her streams become rivers of 
 blood and her forests charnel houses before her soil shall be contaminated 
 and her atmosphere polluted by the free-soil partisans of the North." ^^ 
 
 Is it any wonder pandemonium was established on the border? 
 
 The Missouri idea of squatter sovereignty seems to have been generally 
 accepted. Listen to the Charleston Courier about June, 1856: "Let the 
 names therefore be published daily, that we may see who are lukewarm in 
 this vital issue— then we may see who are the people in this community who 
 require to be watched. To secure this end we will add, as a suggestion, 
 that the finance committee of the Kansas Association be also a committee 
 of assessment, and that each individual be informed of this amount before 
 his subscription be taken. We also suggest that the Kansas Association ap- 
 point a large vigilance committee, whose consultations shall be secret, and 
 who shall take in charge the conduct of delinquents and adopt such measures 
 in reference to them as the interests of the community demand."" 
 
 Note 91.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 15. p. 73. 
 Note 92.— Webb's Scrap-book. vol. 14, p. 228. 
 Note 93.— Webb's Scrap-book, vol. 14. p. 220. 
 
28 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 It has been charged that John Brown was crazy. I have two extracts 
 made from speeches of David R. Atchison, and also two extracts from a 
 speech by Stringfellow, in defense of slavery, that I had intended placing 
 alongside of some of John Brown's talk about the same time, to illustrate 
 the question as to who was the craziest; but the quotations throughout this 
 paper are sufficient to show that there was something radically wrong, men- 
 tally or morally, with the Atchisons and the Stringfellows. In the light of to- 
 day, there was then a great deal of lunacy spread over western Missouri. And 
 under the teachings of the fathers, as I have quoted them to you, inspired by a 
 United Statessenator and acting Vice-president of the United States, and an 
 ex-attorney-general of Missouri, how could it be otherwise than that western 
 Missouri would be stocked with such citizens and patriots as Bill Anderson, 
 Up Hayes, Arch Clements, the James boys, the Youngers, George Todd, 
 Dick Yeager, and the later crop of train and bank robbers, such as Dick Lid- 
 dil. Jim Cummings. Wood Hite, Bill McDaniels. and the scores of others who 
 terrorized the entire West fr^m 1866 until 1882 Surely it was insanity to 
 remove all restraint from such fellows, while at the same time urging them 
 to shoot, hang, drown and tar-and feather their fellowmen. Thank God 
 such civilization did not prevail. 
 
 I will say, however, that by the spring of 1856 the people were warming 
 up in the fight for statehood. Five years later— in 1861 — when the invent- 
 ors of squatter sovereignty abandoned the United States senate for com- 
 missions in the Confederate army, Kansas managed to squeeze in. During 
 the five years following the end of my story the seat of war was transferred 
 from the Missouri river to central Kansas, and then to southeastern Kan- 
 sas. Many people have held that it was the emigration of 1857 that saved 
 Kansas to freedom, but after the recital I have made it looks as though the 
 bracing up following the blow struck at Pottawatomie, at Black Jack, 
 Washington creek. Fort Titu^, Osawatomie and Hickory Point, Bull creek, 
 and the two skirmishes at Franklin turned the tide. It is further apparent 
 that the term "sovereign squat," as used to-day, will not apply to the 
 bona fide free-soil settlers of Kansas, but solely to a band of non-resident 
 slavery propagandists who were determined to force their institutions upon 
 the new state. 
 
 After seven years of bloody conflict Kansas became a state by default- 
 that is, those opposed to her seceded, thus placing her friends in the ma- 
 jority in the United States senate. She had 107,206 people, and in the Pike's 
 Peak country there were 34,342. Five years of raiding and counter-raiding 
 followed, when there was no growth or improvement. The only method of 
 transportation was the stage, and the ox or mule tl-ains— not a mile of rail- 
 road for six years after statehood— while Oklahoma becomes a state with 
 5143 miles of railroad, just about half of what Kansas has today, and Pull- 
 mans running everywhere. In 1900 Oklahoma and Indian Territory had a 
 population of 790,291, estimated to day at 1,500,000.9^ In the state of Okla- 
 homa there are twenty-four towns of over 3000 population, eight of them 
 running over 10,000, with water-works, electric lights, street-railways, and 
 
 Note 94.— September 15. 1907, the federal census bureau made a count of Oklahoma and In- 
 dian Territory. With four districts unreported, the population has reached a total of 1,408.732. 
 an increase of seventy-eight per cent, over 1900. The fierures show that Oklahoma, with two dis- 
 tricts lacking, has a population of 718,76.5. and Indian Territory, with two districts missing, has 
 689.937. This report shows that the twin territories are g-rowing with nearly equal pace, pfiaking 
 a wi'll-balanced population in the new commonwealth of Oklahoma. The aggregate population 
 is larger than any territory had at the time of its admission to the Union. 
 
The First Tivo Years of Kansas. 29 
 
 modern buildings; now recall the straggling dugouts and board and log shan- 
 ties composing the original towns of Kansas. In Kansas, in her first two 
 years, the Massachusetts abolitionist and the Pennsylvania democrat were 
 proscribed, a person's pronunciation sometimes being a test of citizenship, 
 while in Oklahoma the Texan, the Kansan, and the Arkansan, the negro 
 and the Indian, will enjoy squatter sovereignty in its real sense and vote 
 unquestioned in the organization of the state. Only recently it was stated 
 in the daily telegraphic dispatches that in the new state of Oklahoma the 
 Pawnee Indians had entertained their old enemies, the Sioux, for several 
 weeks with a green-corn dance and feasting. Buffalo and pony races were 
 also indulged in, and many ponies and blankets were given the Sioux visit- 
 ors by the Pawnees, and to add humor to the progress made, it was also 
 stated that the agent of the Pawnees made a trip to the scene of the festivi- 
 ties and warned the Indians that it would be a crime to give away ponies 
 and blankets that had been mortgaged. 
 
 How much the world owes to Kansas can never be computed. Since the 
 days of Abraham, the first great pioneer, no people ever met more serious 
 responsibilities, or made a more startling and lasting impression in the world's 
 progress, than the pioneers of Kansas. And, verily, Kansas is an heir to 
 the blessings promised Abraham: "I will bless thee, and make thy name 
 great; and thou shalt be a blessing." 
 
 In conclusion permit me to say that I verily believe that the Squatters' 
 Claim Association, the Platte City Regulators and the Platte County Defen- 
 sive Association were the sole progenitors— there were no ancestors behind 
 them— of the Missouri bushwacker, the Kansas raider, and those who stole 
 in the name of liberty, the Missouri train and bank robbers, and a host of 
 reckless and lawless men incited hither, for whom no principle or element 
 ciuld be held responsible, and that the Quantrill reunions are the last wrig- 
 glings of the dying snake's tail. It was better for Kansas to be the victim 
 than the persecutor— she recovered that much sooner. Her leading raider 
 was pursued and shot like a mad dog on the banks of the Marais des Cygnes 
 by Kansas troops, the second most conspicuous was dishonorably discharged 
 from the federal service, and after the close of the war a few straggling 
 horse-thieves were hung, and a well-ordered community established. 
 
 I once asked a man who was notorious on the border during the war, and 
 prominent afterward as a business man and a good citizen, to write a story 
 of his experiences for the Kansas State Historical Society, and his response 
 was, "I have two as good boys as man ever had in this world, and I do not 
 want them to know any more about their father than is necessary." 
 Nmety per cent, of the population of Kansas to-day have never heard of a 
 Kansas raider— those so known were ashamed of it and repudiated it upon 
 the coming of peace— and there never was a minute when a body of raiders 
 could find a quarter-section in Kansas on which they would be permitted to 
 hold a reunion. No descendant of a raider has ever posed in vaudeville on 
 his father's reputation for infamy. ^^ And, thank God, there are no Kansas 
 
 NoTK 95.— The writer was at Kinsley. September 3. 1907. where he made an address upon the 
 occasion of the unveiling of a Santa Fe trail-marker, it was in the afternoon, and he had a de- 
 lightful audience. The business men closed their stores, a^d about 150 school children partici- 
 pated. Jesse James was there also with a tent-show, and the night before presented on the 
 stage the deeds of his father which had induced a reward of $10,000 for him dead or alive. One 
 demonstration honored all that was splendid in manhood, and the other all that was infamous. 
 
30 The First Two Years of Kansas. 
 
 raider contributions to literature selling on the railroad-trains. And when 
 the last Quantrill reunion is held the obliteration will be c< mplete— there 
 will be no more reminders of the barbarism of slavery, and Missouri and 
 Kansas, united, will be the choicest piece of God's green earth in sentiment 
 and right living, as it has always been in all that nature gives to the com- 
 fort and profit of mankind.