ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
FIRST     HOUSE     AT 
strong  to  control  the  election;  and 
by  these  misrepresentations  the  whole 
border  was  wrought  up  into  the  fervor 
of  a  pro-slavery  crusade.  When  the 
30th  of  March,  election  day,  finally 
arrived,  the  conspiracy  had  once 
more  mustered  its  organized  army  of 
invasion,  and  five  thousand  Missouri 
Border  Ruffians,  in  different  camps, 
bands,  and  squads,  held  practical 
possession  of  nearly  every  election 
district  in  the  territory.*  Riot,  vio- 
lence, intimidation,  destruction  of 
ballot-boxes,  expulsion  and  substi- 
tution of  judges,  neglect  or  refusal 
among  other  things  that  the 
judges  should  be  sworn,  that 
constables  should  attend  and 
preserve  order,  and  that  voters 
must  be  actual  inhabitants  to 
the  exclusion  of  any  other 
home. 
All  his  precautions  came  to 
nought.   This  election  of  a  ter- 
ritorial  legislature,   which,   as 
then  popularly  believed,  might 
determine    by   the    enactment 
of  laws  whether  Kansas  should 
become  a  free  or  a  slave  State, 
was  precisely  the  coveted  opportunity  for  which 
the  Border  Ruffian  conspiracy  had  been  or- 
ganized.    Its   interference  in  the  November 
election  served  as  a  practical  experiment  to 
demonstrate  its  efficiency  and  to  perfect  its 
plans.  The  alleged  doings  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Societies  furnished  a  convenient  and  plausible 
pretext ;   wild  and  extravagant  assertions  were 
now  circulated  as  to  the  plans  and  numbers  of 
the  Eastern  emigrants;  it  was  industriously  re- 
ported that  they  were  coming  twenty  thousand 
OLD    SCHOOL    BUILDING     OCCUPIED     BY     FIRST    TERRITORIAL     LEGISLATURE. 
to  administer  the  prescribed  oaths,  vivd  voce 
voting,  repeated  voting  on  one  side,  and 
obstruction  and  dispersion  of  voters  on  the 
other,  were  common  incidents ;  no  one  dared 
to  resist  the  assertions  or  acts  of  the  invaders, 
since  they  were  armed  and  equipped  and 
commanded  in  frontier  if  not  in  military  fash- 
ion, in  many  cases  by  men  whose  names  then 
or  afterwards  were  prominent  or  notorious. 
Of  the  votes  cast,  141  o  were  upon  a  subse- 
*"  Howard  Report,"  pp.  9  to  44.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
quent  examination  found  to 
have  been  legal,  while  4908 
were  illegal.*  Of  the  total  num- 
ber, 5427  votes  were  given  to 
the  pro-slavery  and  only  791 
to  the  free-State  candidates.  At 
such  an  election  the  candidates 
of  the  conspiracy  claimed  to 
have  been  chosen  a  legislature 
for  the  territory  of  Kansas. 
Upon  a  careful  collation  of 
evidence  the  investigating  com- 
mittee of  Congress  was  of  the 
opinion  that  the  vote  would 
have  returned  a  free-State 
legislature  if  the  election  had 
been  confined  to  the  actual  set- 
tlers ;  f  as  conducted,  however, 
it  showed  a  nominal  majority 
for  every  pro-slavery  candidate 
but  one. 
Governor  Reeder  had  feared 
a  repetition  of  the  November 
frauds;  but  it  is  evident  that  he 
had  no  conception  of  so  ex- 
tensive an  invasion.  It  is  prob- 
able, too,  that  information  of 
its  full  enormity  did  not  im- 
mediately reach  him.  Mean- 
while the  five  days  prescribed 
in  his  proclamation  for  receiv- 
ing notices  of  contest  elapsed. 
The  governor  had  removed  his 
executive  office  to  Shawnee 
Mission.  At  this  place,  and  at 
the  neighboring  town  of  West- 
port,  Missouri,  only  four  miles  distant,  a  ma- 
jority of  the  persons  claiming  to  have  been 
elected  now  assembled  and  became  clamor- 
ous for  their  certificates.!  A  committee  of 
their  number  presented  a  formal  written  de- 
mand for  the  same;  they  strenuously  denied 
his  right  to  question  the  legality  of  the  elec- 
tion, and  threats  against  the  governor's  life  in 
case  of  his  refusal  to  issue  them  became  alarm- 
ingly frequent.  Their  regular  consultations, 
their  open  denunciations,  and  their  hints  at 
violence,  while  they  did  not  entirely  overawe 
the  governor,  so  far  produced  their  intended 
effect  upon  him  that  he  assembled  a  band  of 
*  Ibid,  p.  30. 
t  Ibia,  p.  34. 
%  Reeder's  testimony,  "Howard  Report,"  pp.  935-9; 
also  Stringfel low's  testimony,  p.  355. 
§  Namely,  because  of  a  viva  voce  vote  certified  in- 
stead of  a  ballot,  and  because  the  prescribed  oath  and 
the  words  '  lawful  resident  voters  "  had  been  openly 
erased  from  the  printed  forms.  In  six  districts  the 
governor  ordered  a  supplementary  election,  which 
was  duly  held  on  the  22d  of  May  following.  When 
that  day  arrived,  the  Border  Ruffians,  proclaiming  the 
election  to  be  illegal,  by  their  default  allowed  free- State 
men  to  be  chosen  in  all  the  districts  except  that  of 
REV.    THOMAS    JOHNSON     (i860,    AGED    59). 
FROM  AN   AMBROTYPE   IN    POSSESSION    OF   HIS  SON,   A.    MONROE  JOHNSON. 
his  personal  friends  for  his  own  protection. 
On  the  6th  of  April,  one  week  after  election, 
the  governor  announced  his  decision  upon 
the  returns.  On  one  side  of  the  room  were 
himself  and  his  armed  adherents;  on  the  other 
side  the  would-be  members  in  superior  num- 
bers, with  their  pistols  and  bowie-knives  equal- 
ly ready.  Under  this  virtual  duress  the  gov- 
ernor issued  certificates  of  election  to  all  but 
about  one-third  of  the  claimants ;  and  the  re- 
turns in  these  cases  he  rejected,  not  because 
of  alleged  force  or  fraud,  but  on  account  of 
palpable  defects  in  the  papers.§ 
This  issue   of  certificates   under  a  virtual 
Leavenworth,  where  the  invasion  and  tactics  of  the 
March  election  were  repeated  now  for  the  third  time  and 
the  same  candidates  voted  for.  "  Howard  Report,"  pp. 
35-36.  Indeed,  the  Border  Ruffian  habit  of  voting  in 
Kansas  had  become  chronic,  and  did  not  cease  for  some 
years,  and  sometimes  developed  the  grimmest  humors. 
In  the  autumn  of  that  same  year  an  election  for  county- 
seat  took  place  in  Leavenworth  county  by  the  acci- 
dental failure  of  the  legislature  to  designate  one.  Leav- 
enworth city  aspired  to  this  honor  and  polled  six 
hundred  votes  to  obtain  it ;  but  it  had  an  enterprising 
rival  in  Kickapoo  city,  ten  miles  up  the  river,  and  an- 
other, Delaware  citv,  eight  miles  down  stream.    Both
S76 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
FOUNDATION     OF     THE     OLD     TERRITORIAL     CAPITAL,    LECOMPTON   LANE     UNIVERSITY     IN     THE     BACKGROUND. 
compulsion  was  a  fatal  error  in  Governor 
Reeder's  action.  It  endowed  the  notoriously 
illegal  legislature  with  a  technical  authority, 
and  a  few  weeks  later,  when  he  went  to  Wash- 
ington City  to  invoke  the  help  of  the  Pierce 
administration  against  the  usurpation,  it  en- 
abled Attorney-General  Cushing  (if  current 
report  was  true)  to  taunt  him  with  the  reply, 
u  You  state  that  this  legislature  is  the  creature 
of  force  and  fraud ;  which  shall  we  believe 
—  your  official  certificate  under  seal,  or  your 
subsequent  declarations  to  us  in  private  con- 
versation ?  " 
The  question  of  the  certificates  disposed  of, 
the  next  point  of  interest  was  to  determineat 
what  place  the  legislature  should  assemble. 
Under  the  organic  act  the  governor  had 
authority  to  appoint  the  first  meeting,  and  it 
soon  became  known  that  his  mind  was  fixed 
upon  the  embryo  town  of  Pawnee,  adjoining 
the  military  post  of  Fort  Riley,  situated  on 
Kansas  River,  a  hundred  and  ten  miles  from 
were  paper  towns  —  "  cottonwood  towns,"  in  border 
slang  —  of  great  expectations  ;  and  both  having  more 
unscrupulous  enterprise  than  voters,  appealed  to  Platte 
county  to  "come  over."  This  was  an  appeal  Platte 
county  could  never  resist,  and  accordingly  a  chartered 
ferry-boat  brought  voters  all  election  clay  from  the 
Missouri  side,  until  the  Kickapoo  tally-lists  scored 
eight  hundred  and  fifty.  Delaware  city,  however,  was 
not  to  be  thus  easily  crushed.  She  too  not  only  had 
her  chartered  ferry-boat,  but  kept  her  polls  open  for 
three  days  in  succession,  and  not  until  her  boxes  con- 
tained nine  hundred  ballots  (of  which  only  fifty  were 
the  Missouri  line.  Against  this  exile,  however, 
Stringfellow  and  his  Border  Ruffian  law-mak- 
ers protested  in  an  energetic  memorial,  asking 
to  be  called  together  at  the  Shawnee  Mission, 
supplemented  by  the  private  threat  that  even  if 
they  convened  at  Pawnee,  they  would  adjourn 
and  come  back  the  day  after.*  If  the  governor 
harbored  any  remaining  doubt  that  this  bogus 
legislature  intended  to  assume  and  maintain 
the  mastery,  it  speedily  vanished.  Their  hos- 
tility grew  open  and  defiant;  they  classed 
him  as  a  free-State  man,  an  "  abolitionist," 
and  it  became  only  too  evident  that  he  would 
gradually  be  shorn  of  power  and  degraded 
from  the  position  of  territorial  executive  to 
that  of  a  mere  puppet.  Having  nothing  to 
gain  by  further  concession,  he  adhered  to  his 
original  plan,  issued  his  proclamation  f  con- 
vening the  legislature  at  Pawnee  on  the  first 
Monday  in  July,  and  immediately  started  for 
Washington  to  make  a  direct  appeal  to 
President  Pierce. 
probably  legal)  did  the  steam  whistle  scream  victory! 
When  the  "returning  board"  had  sufficiently  weighed 
this  complicated  electoral  contest,  it  gravely  decided 
that  keeping  the  polls  open  for  three  days  was  "an  un- 
heard of  irregularity."  (Holloway's  "History  of  Kan- 
sas," pp.  192-4).  This  was  exquisite  irony;  but  a  local 
court  on  appeal  seriously  giving  a  final  verdict  for  Dela- 
ware, the  transaction  became  a  perennial  burlesque 
on  "Squatter  Sovereignty." 
*"  Squatter  Sovereign,"  June  5th,  1855. 
t  April  16th,  1855.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
How  Governor  Reeder  failed  in  this  last 
hope  of  redress  and  support,  how  he  found 
the  Kansas  conspiracy  as  strong  at  Washing- 
ton as  on  the  Missouri  border,  will  appear 
further  along.  On  the  second  of  July  the 
governor  and  the  legislature  met  at  the 
town  of  Pawnee,  where  he  had  convoked 
them — a  magnificent  prairie  site,  but  contain- 
ing as  yet  only  three  buildings,  one  to  hold 
sessions  in,  and  two  to  furnish  food  and  lodg- 
ing. The  governor's  friends  declared  the 
accommodations  ample ;  the  Missourians  on 
the  contrary  made  affidavit  that  they  were 
compelled  to  camp  out  and  cook  their  own 
rations.  The  actual  facts  had  little  to  do  with 
the  predetermination  of  the  members.  String- 
fellow  had  written  in  his  paper,  the  "  Squatter 
Sovereign,"  three  weeks  before,  "  We  hope  no 
one  will  be  silly  enough  to  suppose  the  gov- 
ernor has  power  to  compel  us  to  stay  at  Pawnee 
during  the  entire  session.  We  will,  of  course, 
have  to  '  trot '  out  at  the  bidding  of  his  Ex- 
cellency,—  but  we  will  trot  him  back  next  day 
at  our  bidding."  * 
The  prediction  was  literally  fulfilled.  Both 
branches  organized  without  delay,  the  House 
choosing  John  H.  Stringfellow  its  Speaker. 
Before  the  governor's  message  was  delivered 
on  the  following  day,  the  House  had  already 
passed,  under  suspended  rules,  "  An  act  to  re- 
move the  seat  of  government  temporarily  to 
the  Shawnee  Manual  Labor  School,"  f  which 
act  the  council  as  promptly  concurred  in.  J 
The  governor  vetoed  the  bill,  but  it  was  at  once 
passed  over  his  veto.§  By  the  end  of  the  week 
the  legislature  had  departed  from  the  budding 
capital,  to  return  no  more.  || 
The  governor  was  perforce  obliged  to  follow 
his  migratory  Solons,  who  adhered  to  their 
purpose  despite  his  public  or  private  protests, 
and  who  reassembled  at  Shawnee  Mission,  or 
more  correctly  the  Shawnee  Manual  Labor 
School,  on  the  16th  of  July.  Shawnee  Mission 
was  one  of  our  many  national  experiments  in 
civilizing  Indian  tribes.  This  philanthropic 
institution,  nourished  by  the  Federal  treasury, 
was  presided  over  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  John- 
son. The  town  of  Westport,  which  could 
boast  of  a  post-office,  lay  only  four  miles  to 
the  eastward,  on  the  Missouri  side  of  the  State 
line,  and  was  a  noted  pro-slavery  stronghold. 
There  were  several  large  brick  buildings  at  the 
*  "  Squatter  Sovereign,"  June  5th,  1855. 
t "  Kansas  Territory  House  Journal,"  1855,  p.  12. 
X  "  Journal  of  Council,"  p.  12. 
§  "  Kansas  House  Journal,"  1855,  p.  29. 
||  Ibid,  p.  30. 
IT" Squatter  Sovereign," July  17th,  18*  q. 
**  Ibid,  June  19th,  1855.       ^    Z  M 
ft  "House  Journal  Kansas  Territory,"  1855,  p.  12. 
XX  Its  phraseology  was  adroit  enough  to  call  forth  a 
sneering  compliment  from  Speaker  Stringfellow,  who 
Vol.  XXXIIL— 112-113. 
Mission  capable  of  accommodating  the  legisla- 
ture with  halls  and  lodging  rooms;  its  nearness 
to  an  established  post-office  and  its  contiguity 
to  Missouri  pro-slavery  sentiment  were  ele- 
ments probably  not  lost  sight  of.  Mr.  Johnson, 
who  had  formerly  been  a  Missouri  slaveholder, 
was  at  the  March  election  chosen  a  member  of 
the  Territorial  Council,  which  in  due  time  made 
him  its  presiding  officer;  and  the  bogus  legis- 
lature at  Shawnee  Mission  was  therefore  in  a 
certain  sense  under  its  own  "  vine  and  fig-tree." 
The  two  branches  of  the  legislature,  the 
Council  with  the  Rev.  Thomas  Johnson  as 
President,  and  the  House  with  Stringfellow 
of  the  "  Squatter  Sovereign  "  as  Speaker,  now 
turned  their  attention  seriously  to  the  pro- 
slavery  work  before  them.  The  conspirators 
were  shrewd  enough  to  realize  their  victory. 
"  To  have  intimated  one  year  ago,"  said  the 
Speaker  in  his  address  of  thanks,  "  that  such  a 
result  would  be  wrought  out,  one  would  have 
been  thought  a  visionary ;  to  have  predicted 
that  to-day  a  legislature  would  assemble,  al- 
most unanimously  pro-slavery,  and  with  myself 
for  Speaker,  I  would  have  been  thought  mad."  ft 
The  programme  had  already  been  announced 
in  the  "  Squatter  Sovereign"  some  weeks  before. 
"The  South  must  and  will  prevail.  If  the 
Southern  people  but  half  do  their  duty,  in  less 
than  nine  months  from  this  day  Kansas  will 
have  formed  a  constitution  and  be  knocking 
at  the  door  for  admission.  .  .  .  In  the  session 
of  the  United  States  Senate  in  1856,  two  Sen- 
ators from  the  slaveholding  State  of  Kansas 
will  take  their  seats,  and  abolitionism  will  be 
forever  driven  from  our  halls  of  legislation."  ** 
Against  this  triumphant  attitude  Governor 
Reeder  was  despondent  and  powerless.  The 
language  of  his  message  ft  plainly  betrayed  the 
political  dilemma  in  which  he  found  himself 
caught.  He  strove  as  best  he  might  to  couple 
together  the  prevailing  cant  of  office-holders 
against  "  the  destructive  spirit  of  abolitionism" 
and  a  comparatively  mild  rebuke  of  the  Mis- 
souri usurpation.  \\ 
Nevertheless,  the  governor  stood  reasonably 
firm.  He  persisted  in  declaring  that  the  legis- 
lature could  pass  no  valid  laws  at  any  other 
place  than  Pawnee,  and  returned  the  first  bill 
sent  him  with  a  veto  message  to  that  effect. 
To  this  the  legislature  replied  by  passing  the 
bill  over  his  veto,  and  in  addition  formally 
wrote  to  the  "  Squatter  Sovereign  "  :  "  On  Tuesday  the 
governor  sent  in  his  message,  which  you  will  find  is  very 
well  calculated  to  have  its  effect  with  the  Pennsylvania 
Democracy.  If  he  was  trustworthy  I  would  be  disposed 
to  compliment  the  most  of  it,  but  knowing  how  corrupt 
the  author  is,  and  that  it  is  only  designed  for  political 
effect  in  Pennsylvania,  he  not  expecting  to  remain  long 
with  us,  I  will  pass  it  by. "  —  "  Squatter  Sovereign,"  July 
17th,  1855.
*7* 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
raising  a  joint  committee  "  to  draw  up  a  me- 
morial to  the  President  of  the  United  States 
tt'ullv  demanding  the  removal  of  A.  H. 
Reeder  from  the  office  of  governor";*  and, 
as  if  this  indignity  were  not  enough,  holding  a 
joint  session  for  publicly  signing  it.  The  me- 
morial was  promptly  dispatched  to  Washington 
by  special  messenger ;  but  on  the  way  this 
envoy  read  the  news  of  the  governor's  dis- 
missal by  the  President. 
This  event  appeared  definitely  to  sweep 
away  the  last  obstacle  in  the  path  of  the  con- 
spirators. The  office  of  acting  governor  now 
devolved  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Territory, 
Daniel  Woodson,  a  man  who  shared  their 
views  and  was  allied  in  their  schemes.  With 
him  to  approve  their  enactments,  the  parlia- 
mentary machinery  of  the  "  bogus  "  legisla- 
ture was  complete  and  effective.  They  had 
at  the  very  beginning  summarily  ousted  the 
free-State  members  chosen  at  the  supplement- 
al election  of  May  22d,  and  seated  the  pro- 
slavery  claimants  of  March  30th;  and  the 
only  two  remaining  free-State  members  re- 
signed  in  utter  disgust  and  despair,  and  to 
avoid  giving  countenance  to  the  flagrant  usur- 
pation by  their  presence.  No  one  was  left 
even  to  enter  a  protest. 
This,  then,  was  the  perfect  flower  of  Doug- 
las's vaunted  experiment  of  "  popular  sov- 
ereignty,"—  a  result  they  professed  fully  to 
appreciate.  "  Hitherto,"  said  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  House  in  a  long  and  gran- 
diloquent report,!  "  Congress  have  retained  to 
themselves  the  power  to  mold  and  shape  all 
the  territorial  governments  according  to  their 
own  peculiar  notions,  and  to  restrict  within 
very  limited  and  contracted  bounds  both  the 
natural  as  well  as  the  political  rights  of  the 
bold  and  daring  pioneer  and  the  noble,  hard- 
fisted  squatter."  But  by  this  course,  the  argu- 
ment of  the  committee  continued,  "  the  pillars 
which  uphold  this  glorious  union  of  States 
were  shaken  until  the  whole  world  was  threat- 
ened with  a  political  earthquake,"  and  "  the 
principle  that  the  people  are  capable  of  self- 
government  would  have  been  forever  swal- 
lowed  up  by  anarchy  and  confusion,"  had 
not  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  "  delegated  to 
the  people  of  these  territories  the  right  to 
frame  and  establish  their  own  form  of  gov- 
ernment." 
■  "  House  Journal  Kansas  Territory,'  '1855.  Appen- 
dix, p.  10. 
t  Report  Judiciary  Com.,  "House  Journal  Kansas 
Territory,"  185^.     Appendix,  p.  14. 
t  Report  Judiciary  Com.,  "  I  louse  Journal  Kansas 
Territory/'  185 S-     Appendix,  p.  18. 
$  Report  Judiciary  Com.,  "  House  Journal  Kansas 
Territory,"  1855.     Appendix,  p.   18. 
||  Report  Judiciary  Com.,  "  House  Journal  Kansas 
Territory,"  1855.     Appendix,  p.  14. 
What  might  not  be  expected  of  law-makers 
who  begin  with  so  ambitious  an  exordium, 
and  who  lay  the  corner-stone  of  their  edifice 
upon  the  solid  rock  of  political  principle  ? 
The  anti-climax  of  performance  which  fol- 
lowed this  philosophical  promise  would  be 
laughably  absurd,  indeed,  were  it  not  marked 
by  the  cunning  of  a  well-matured  political 
plot.  Their  first  step  was  to  recommend  the 
repeal  of  "  all  laws  whatsoever,  which  may 
have  been  considered  to  have  been  in  force  " 
in  this  territory  on  the  1st  day  of  July,  1855, 
thus  forever  quieting  any  doubt  "  as  to  what 
is  and  what  is  not  law  in  this  territory  " ;  % 
secondly,  to  substitute  a  code  about  which 
there  should  be  no  question,  by  the  equally 
ingenious  expedient  of  copying  and  adopting 
the  Revised  Statutes  of  Missouri.§ 
These  enactments  were  made  in  due  form; 
but  the  "  bogus "  legislature  did  not  seem 
content  to  let  its  fame  rest  on  this  single 
monument  of  self-government.  Casting  their 
eyes  once  more  upon  the  broad  expanse  of 
American  politics,  the  Judiciary  Committee 
reported : 
"  The  question  of  slavery  is  one  that  convulses  the 
whole  country,  from  the  boisterous  Atlantic  to  the 
shores  of  the  mild  Pacific.  This  state  of  things  has 
been  brought  about  by  the  fanaticism  of  the  North 
and  East,  while  up  to  this  time  the  people  of  the 
South,  and  those  of  the  North  who  desire  the  perpetu- 
ation of  this  Union  and  are  devoted  to  the  laws,  have 
been  entirely  conservative.  But  the  time  is  coming  — 
yea,  it  has  already  arrived  —  for  the  latter  to  take  a 
bold  and  decided  stand  that  the  Union  and  law  may 
not  be  trampled  in  the  dust,"  ||  etc.,  etc. 
The  "  Revised  Statutes  of  Missouri,"  rec- 
ommended in  bulk,  and  adopted  with  hasty 
clerical  modifications,  fl"  already  contained  the 
usual  slave-code  peculiar  to  Southern  States. 
But  in  the  plans  and  hopes  of  the  conspira- 
tors, this  of  itself  was  insufficient.  In  order 
to  "  take  a  bold  stand  that  the  Union  and 
law  might  not  be  trampled  in  the  dust,"  they 
with  great  painstaking  devised  and  passed  "  an 
act  to  punish  offenses  against  slave  property."  *  * 
It  prescribed  the  penalty  of  death,  not 
merely  for  the  grave  crime  of  inciting  or  aid- 
ing an  insurrection  of  slaves,  free  negroes,  or 
mulattoes,  or  circulating  printed  matter  for 
such  an  object,  but  also  the  same  extreme 
punishment  for  the  comparatively  mild  of- 
fense of  enticing  or  decoying  away  a  slave 
UTo  guard  more  effectually  against  clerical  errors, 
the  legislature  enacted:  "  Sec.  I.  Wherever  the  word 
'  State '  occurs  in  any  act  of  the  present  legislative 
assembly,  or  any  law  of  this  territory,  in  such  con- 
struction as  to  indicate  the  locality  of  the  operation  of 
such  act  or  laws,  the  same  shall  in  every  instance  be 
taken  and  understood  to  mean  '  territory,'  and  shall 
apply  to  the  territory  of  Kansas." — "  Statutes  of  Kan- 
sas," 1855,  p.  7i8.] 
**  "  Statutes  Territory  of  Kansas,"  1855,  p.  715.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
or  assisting  him  to  escape ;  for  harboring  or 
concealing  a  fugitive  slave,  ten  years'  impris- 
onment; for  resisting  an  officer  arresting  a 
fugitive  slave,  two  years'  imprisonment. 
If  such  inflictions  as  the  foregoing  might 
perhaps  be  tolerated  upon  the  plea  that  a  bar- 
barous institution  required  barbarous  safe- 
guards, what  ought  to  be  said  of  the  last  three 
sections  of  the  act  which,  in  contempt  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  annulled  the  free- 
dom of  speech  and  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
and  invaded  even  the  private  sanctity  of  indi- 
vidual conscience  ? 
To  write,  print,  or  circulate  "any  statements, 
arguments,  opinions,  sentiment,  doctrine,  ad- 
vice, or  innuendo,  calculated  to  produce  a  dis- 
orderly, dangerous,  or  rebellious  disaffection 
among  the  slaves  of  the  territory,  or  to  induce 
such  slaves  to  escape  from  the  service  of  their 
masters,  or  to  resist  their  authority,"  was  pro- 
nounced a  felony  and  punishable  by  five  years' 
imprisonment.  To  deny  the  right  of  holding 
slaves  in  the  territory,  by  speaking,  writing, 
printing,  or  circulating  books  or  papers,  was 
likewise  made  a  felony,  punishable  by  two  years' 
imprisonment.  Finally  it  was  enacted  that "  no 
person  who  is  conscientiously  opposed  to  hold- 
ing slaves,  or  who  does  not  admit  the  right  to 
hold  slaves  in  this  territory,  shall  sit  as  a  juror 
on  the  trial  of  any  prosecution  for  any  viola- 
tion of  any  of  the  sections  of  this  act."  Also,  all 
officers  were,  in  addition  to  their  usual  oath, 
required  to  swear  to  support  and  sustain  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  and  the  Fugitive-Slave 
Law.  * 
The  spirit  which  produced  these  despotic 
laws  also  governed  the  methods  devised  to  en- 
force them.  The  legislature  proceeded  to  elect 
the  principal  officers  of  each  county,  who  in 
turn  were  empowered  by  the  laws  to  appoint 
the  subordinate  officials.  All  administration, 
therefore,  emanated  from  that  body,  reflected 
its  will,  and  followed  its  behest.  Finally,  the 
usual  skeleton  organization  of  a  territorial  mili- 
tia was  devised,  whose  general  officers  were 
in  due  time  appointed  by  the  acting  governor 
from  prominent  and  serviceable  pro-slavery 
members  of  the  Legislature.f 
Having  made  their  present  domination  se- 
cure, they  did  not  omit  to  provide  as  well  as 
lay  in  their  power  to  perpetuate  their  political 
ascendency  in  the  territory.  They  ingenious- 
ly prolonged  the  tenure  of  their  various  ap- 
pointees, and  to  render  their  success  at  future 
elections  easy  and  certain  they  provided  that 
candidates  to  be  eligible,  and  judges  of  elec- 
tion, and  voters  when  challenged,  must  swear 
•Ibid,  1855,  p.  516. 
t"  Kansas  Territory  Journal  of  Council,"  1855,  p. 
248. 
to  support  the  Fugitive-Slave  Law.  %  This 
they  knew  would  virtually  disfranchise  many 
conscientious  antislavery  men;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  enacted  that  each  inhabitant 
who  had  paid  his  territorial  tax  should  be  a 
qualified  voter  for  all  elective  officers.  Under 
so  lax  a  provision  Missouri  invaders  could  in 
the  future,  as  they  had  done  in  the  past,  easily 
give  an  apparent  majority  at  the  ballot-box 
for  all  their  necessary  agents  and  ulterior 
schemes. 
In  a  technical  sense  the  establishment  of 
slavery  in  Kansas  was  complete.  There  were 
by  the  census  of  the  previous  February  already 
some  two  hundred  slaves  in  the  territory. 
Under  the  sanction  of  these  laws,  and  before 
they  could  by  any  possibility  be  repealed,  some 
thousands  might  be  expected,  especially  by 
such  an  organized  and  united  effort  as  the 
South  could  make  to  maintain  the  vantage 
ground  already  gained.  Once  there,  the  ag- 
gressiveness of  the  institution  might  be  relied 
on  to  protect  itself,  since  all  experience  had 
shown  that  under  similar  conditions  it  was  al- 
most ineradicable. 
After  so  much  patriotic  endeavor  on  the 
part  of  these  Border  Ruffian  legislators  "  that 
the  Union  and  law  may  not  be  trampled  in 
the  dust,"  it  cannot  perhaps  be  wondered  at 
that  they  began  to  look  around  for  their  per- 
sonal rewards.  These  they  readily  found  in 
the  rich  harvest  of  local  monopolies  and  fran- 
chises which  lay  scattered  in  profusion  on  this 
virgin  field  of  legislation,  ready  to  be  seized 
and  appropriated  without  dispute  by  the  first 
occupants.  There  were  charters  for  railroads, 
insurance  companies,  toll-bridges,  ferries,  coal 
mines,  plank  roads,  and  numberless  privileges 
and  honors  of  present  or  prospective  value 
out  of  which,  together  with  the  county,  dis- 
trict and  military  offices,  the  ambitious  mem- 
bers might  give  and  take  with  generous  lib- 
erality. One-sixth  of  the  printed  laws  of  the 
first  session  attest  their  modest  attention  to 
this  incidental  squatter's  dowry.  §  One  of  the 
many  favorable  opportunities  in  this  category 
was  the  establishment  of  the  permanent  teiri- 
torial  capital,  authorized  by  the  organic  act, 
where  the  liberal  Federal  appropriation  for 
public  buildings  should  be  expended.  For 
this  purpose,  competition  from  the  older  towns 
yielding  gracefully  after  the  first  ballot,  an  en- 
tirely new  site  on  the  open  prairie  overlook- 
ing the  Kansas  River  some  miles  west  of  Law- 
rence was  agreed  upon.  The  proceedings  do 
not  show  any  unseemly  scramble  over  the 
selection,  and  no  tangible  record  remains  of 
the  whispered  distribution  of  corner  lots  and 
%  "  Statutes  Territory  of  Kansas,"  1855,  p.  332. 
%  Colfax,  Speech  in  H.  R.  June  21st,  1856.
58c 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
contracts.     It  is  only  the  name    which  rises 
into  historical  notice. 
v  >ne  ot"  the  actors  in  the  political  drama  of 
Samuel  Dexter  Lecompte,  Chief- 
Justice  of  the  territory.  He  had  been  ap- 
pointed from  the  border  State  of  .Maryland, 
and  is  represented  to  have  been  a  diligent 
lent,  a  respectable  lawyer,  a  prominent 
Democratic  politician,  and  possessed  of  the 
>nal  instincts  and  demeanor  of  a  gentle- 
man. Moved  by  a  pro-slavery  sympathy  none 
the  less  objectionable  that  it  may  have  been 
sincere,  J  udge  Lecompte  lent  his  high  author- 
ity to  the  interests  of  the  conspiracy  against 
Kansas.  He  had  already  rendered  the  bogus 
legislature  the  important  service  of  publish- 
ing an  extra-judicial  opinion,  sustaining  their 
adjournment  from  Pawnee  to  Shawnee  Mis- 
sion.* Probably  because  they  valued  his  of- 
ficial championship  and  recognized  in  him  a 
powerful  ally  in  politics,  they  made  him  a 
member  of  several  of  their  private  corpora- 
tions, and  gave  him  the  conspicuous  honor  of 
naming  their  newly-founded  capital  Lecomp- 
ton.  But  the  intended  distinction  was  transi- 
tory. Before  the  lapse  of  a  single  decade,  the 
town  for  which  he  stood  sponsor  was  no 
longer  the  capital  of  Kansas. 
THE    TOPEKA     CONSTITUTION. 
The  bogus  legislature  adjourned  late  on  the 
night  of  the  30th  of  August,  1855.  They  had 
elaborately  built  up  their  legal  despotism, 
commissioned  trusty  adherents  to  adminis- 
ter it,  and  provided  their  principal  and  un- 
doubted partisans  with  military  authority  to 
see  that  it  was  duly  executed.  Going  still  a 
step  further,  they  proposed  so  to  mold  and 
control  public  opinion  as  to  prevent  the  or- 
ganization of  any  party  or  faction  to  oppose 
their  plans.  In  view  of  the  coming  Presiden- 
tial campaign,  it  was  the  fashion  in  the  States 
for  Democrats  to  style  themselves  "  National 
ocrats";  and  a  few  newspapers  and  speak- 
ers in  Kansas  had  adopted  the  prevailing  po- 
litical name.  To  stifle  any  such  movement, 
both  hous  «  legislature  on  the  last  night 
of  their  session  adopted  a  concurrent  resolu- 
tion declaring  that  the  proposition  to  organ- 
Xational  Democratic  party,  having 
already  misled  some  of  their  friends,  would 
divide  pro-slavery  Whigs  from  Democrats  and 
weaken  their  party  one-half;  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  tl  avery,  Union-loving  men  of 
Kansas"  to  know  but  one  issue,  slavery;  and 
that  any  party  making  or  attempting  to  make 
any  other  should  be  held  as  an  ally  of  aboli- 
tionism and  disunion/' f 
'  "  House  Journal  Kansas  Territory,"  1855.   Appen- 
dix, p.  3. 
Had  the  conspiracy  been  content  to  pros- 
ecute its  designs  through  moderate  measures, 
it  would  have  inevitably  fastened  slavery 
upon  Kansas.  The  organization  of  the  inva- 
sion in  western  Missouri,  carried  on  under 
pre-acknowledged  leadership,  in  populous 
counties,  among  established  homes,  amid 
well-matured  confidence  growing  out  of  long 
personal  and  political  relationship,  would 
have  been  easy  even  without  the  powerful 
bond  of  secret  association.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  union  of  the  actual  inhabitants  of  Kan- 
sas, scattered  in  sparse  settlements,  personal 
strangers  to  each  other,  coming  from  widely 
separated  States,  and  comprising  radically 
different  manners,  sentiments,  and  traditions, 
and  burdened  with  the  prime  and  unyield- 
ing necessity  of  protecting  themselves  and 
their  families  against  cold  and  hunger,  was 
in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  slow  and  dif- 
ficult. But  the  course  of  the  Border  Ruf- 
fians created  a  powerful  and  determined  op- 
position, which  now  became  united  in  support 
of  what  is  known  to  history  as  the  Topeka 
Constitution;  or,  in  other  words,  the  free- 
State  party  of  Kansas. 
It  is  a  noteworthy  historic  incident  that 
this  free-State  movement  originated  in  Dem- 
ocratic circles,  under  Democratic  auspices. 
The  Republican  party  did  not  yet  exist. 
The  opponents  of  the  Kansas- Nebraska  Act 
were  demoralized  and  scattered  among  the 
Whigs,  Know- Nothings,  and  Free-soilers  in 
the  States,  and  had  no  national  affiliation, 
although  they  had  won  overwhelming  tri- 
umphs in  a  majority  of  the  Congressional  dis- 
tricts in  the  fall  elections  of  1854.  It  so 
happened  that  nearly  if  not  quite  all  the  free- 
State  leaders  originally  went  to  Kansas  as 
friends  of  President  Pierce,  and  as  believers 
in  the  dogma  of  "  popular  sovereignty." 
Now  that  this  usurping  legislature  had  met, 
contemptuously  expelled  the  free-State  mem- 
bers, defied  the  governor's  veto,  set  up  its 
ingeniously  contrived  legal  despotism,  and 
commissioned  its  partisan  followers  to  execute 
and  administer  it,  the  situation  became  suffi- 
ciently grave  to  demand  defensive  action.  The 
real  settlers  were  Democrats,  it  was  true ;  they 
had  voted  for  Pierce,  shouted  for  the  platform 
of  '52,  applauded  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act, 
and  emigrated  to  the  territory  to  enjoy  the 
new  political  gospel  of  popular  sovereignty. 
But  the  practical  Democratic  beatitudes  of 
Kansas  were  not  calculated  to  strengthen  the 
saints  or  confirm  them  in  the  faith.  A  Demo- 
cratic invasion  had  elected  a  Democratic 
legislature,  which  enacted  Democratic  laws, 
under  whose  practical  "  non-intervention  "  a 
t"  House  Journal  Kansas  Territory,"  1855,  p.  380; 
"Council  Journal,"  1855,  P-  253-
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
88 1 
Democratic  marshal  bringing  a  writ  from 
a  Democratic  judge  might  fasten  a  ball  and 
chain  to  their  ankles  if  they  should  happen  to 
read  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  a 
negro,  or  carry  Jefferson's  "  Notes  on  Vir- 
ginia "  in  their  carpet-bags.  Neither  Kansas 
Democrats  nor  Northern  State  Democrats 
could  tolerate  or  defend  such  open  outrages 
upon  right  and  decency. 
The  official  resolution  which  the  bogus 
legislature  now  proclaimed  as  a  final  political 
test  left  no  middle  ground  between  those  who 
were  for  slavery  and  those  who  were  against 
slavery — those  who  were  for  the  bogus  laws 
in  all  their  enormity,  and  those  who  were 
against  them.  Before  this  pressure,  doubt, 
hesitation,  party  bias,  and  personal  jealousy 
gradually  melted  away,  and  all  who  were  not 
willing  to  become  active  co-workers  with  the 
conspiracy  were  forced  to  combine  in  self- 
defense. 
It  was  in  the  town  of  Lawrence  that  the 
free- State  movement  naturally  found  its  be- 
ginning. The  settlers  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Society  were  comparatively  few  in  number ; 
but  supported  by  money,  saw-mills,  printing- 
presses,  boarding-houses,  they  became  from 
the  very  first  a  compact,  self-reliant  governing 
force.  A  few  preliminary  meetings,  instigated 
by  the  disfranchised  free-State  members  of 
the  legislature,  brought  together  a  large  mass 
convention.  The  result  of  its  two  days'  de- 
liberations was  a  regularly  chosen  delegate 
convention  held  at  Big  Springs,  a  few  miles 
west  of  Lawrence,  on  the  5th  of  September, 
1855.  All  doubt  and  hesitation  on  the  part  of 
the  leaders  had  by  this  time  vanished.  More 
important  than  all,  perhaps,  was  the  pres- 
ence and  active  participation  of  Ex-Governor 
Reeder  himself,  who  wrote  the  resolutions, 
addressed  the  convention  in  a  stirring  and 
defiant  speech,  and  received  by  acclamation 
their  nomination  for  territorial  delegate.  The 
platform  adopted  repudiated  in  strong  terms 
the  bogus  legislature  and  its  tyrannical  en- 
actments, and  declared  "  that  we  will  endure 
and  submit  to  these  laws  no  longer  than  the 
best  interests  of  the  territory  require,  as  the 
least  of  two  evils,  and  will  resist  them  to  a 
bloody  issue  as  soon  as  we  ascertain  that 
peaceable  remedies  shall  fail,"  etc.    It  also 
recommended  the  formation  of  volunteer 
companies  and  the  procurement  of  arms. 
The  progressive  and  radical  spirit  of  the  con- 
vention is  illustrated  in  its  indorsement  of 
the  free-State  movement,  against  the  report 
of  its  own  committee.  The  strongest  point, 
however,  made  by  the  convention  was  a  de- 
termination, strictly  adhered  to  for  more  than 
two  years,  to  take  no  part  in  any  election 
under  the  bogus  territorial  laws.  As  a  result 
Whitfield  received,  without  competition,  the 
combined  pro-slavery  and  Border  Ruffian  vote 
for  delegate  on  the  first  of  October,  a  total 
of  2721  ballots.  Measures  had  meanwhile 
been  perfected  by  the  free-State  men  to  elect 
delegates  to  a  constitutional  convention.  On 
the  9th  of  October,  at  a  separate  election, 
held  by  the  free-State  party  alone,  under  self- 
prescribed  formalities  and  regulations,  these 
were  duly  chosen  by  an  aggregate  vote  of 
2710,  Ex-Governor  Reeder  receiving  at  the 
same  polls  2849  votes  for  delegate. 
By  this  series  of  political  movements,  car- 
ried out  in  quiet  and  orderly  proceedings, 
the  free-State  party  was  not  only  fully  con- 
stituted and  organized,  but  was  demonstrated 
to  possess  a  decided  majority  in  the  territory. 
Still  following  out  the  policy  agreed  upon, 
the  delegates  chosen  met  at  Topeka  on  the 
23d  of  October,  and  with  proper  deliberation 
and  decorum  framed  a  State  Constitution, 
which  was  in  turn  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the 
people.  Although  this  election  was  held  near 
midwinter  (Dec.  15th,  1855),  and  in  the  midst 
of  serious  disturbances  of  the  peace  arising 
from  other  causes,  it  received  an  affirmative 
vote  of  1 731,  showing  a  hearty  popular  in- 
dorsement of  it.  Of  the  document  itself  no 
extended  criticism  is  necessary.  It  prohibited 
slavery,  but  made  reasonable  provision  for 
existing  property-rights  in  slaves  actually  in 
the  territory.  In  no  sense  a  radical,  subver- 
sive, or  "  abolition  "  production,  the  Topeka 
Constitution  was  remarkable  only  as  being 
the  indignant  protest  of  the  people  of  the 
territory  against  the  Missouri  usurpation.* 
The  new  constitution  was  transmitted  to  Con- 
gress and  was  formally  presented  as  a  petition 
to  the  Senate  f  by  General  Cass,  on  March  24, 
1856,1  and  to  the  House  some  days  later. 
The  Republican  Senators  in  Congress  (the 
*  Still  another  election  was  held  by  the  free-State 
party  on  January  15th,  1856,  to  choose  State  officers  to 
act  under  the  new  organization,  at  which  Charles 
Robinson  received  1296  votes  for  governor,  out  of  a 
total  of  1 706,  and  Mark  W.  Delahay  for  Representative 
in  Congress,  1628.  A  legislature  elected  at  the  same 
time,  met,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  newly  framed 
constitution,  on  the  4th  of  March,  organized,  and 
elected  A.  H.  Reeder  and  Jas.  H.  Lane  United  States 
Senators. 
t "  Congressional  Globe,"  1856,  March  24th,  p.  698. 
%  Later,  on  April  7th,  General  Cass  presented  to  the 
Senate  another  petition,  purporting  to  be  the  Topeka 
Constitution,  which  had  been  handed  him  by  J.  H. 
Lane,  president  of  the  convention  which  framed  it  and 
Senator-elect  under  it  ("Cong.  Globe,"  1856,  April 
7,  p.  826).  This  paper  proved  to  be  a  clerk's  copy, 
with  erasures  and  interlineations  and  signatures  in 
one  handwriting,  which  being  questioned  as  probably 
spurious,  Lane  afterward  supplied  the  original  draft 
prepared  by  the  committee  and  adopted  by  the  con- 
vention, though  without  signatures ;  also  adding  his
88a 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
Republican  party  had  been  definitely  organ- 
ized a  few  weeks  before  at  Pittsburg)*  now 
urged  the  immediate  reception  of  the  Topeka 
Constitution  and  the  admission  of  Kansas  as  a 
State,  citing  the  cases  of  Michigan,  Ar- 
kansas. Florida,  and  California  as  justifying 
precedents,  f  For  the  present,  however,  there 
was  no  hope  of  admission  to  the  Union  with 
i'opeka  Constitution.  The  Pierce  admin- 
istration, under  the  domination  of  the  South- 
ern States,  had  deposed  Governor  Reeder. 
Both  in  his  annual  message  and  again  in  a 
special  message,  the  President  denounced  the 
Topeka  movement  as  insurrectionary.  In  the 
Senate,  too,  the  application  was  already  pre- 
i  idged  :  the  Committee  on  Territories  through 
Douglas  himself  as  chairman,  in  along  par- 
tisan report,  dismissed  it  with  the  assertion 
"  that  it  was  the  movement  of  a  political  party 
instead  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people  of 
Kansas,  conducted  without  the  sanction  of 
law,  and  in  defiance  of  the  constituted  author- 
ities, for  the  avowed  purpose  of  overthrowing 
the  territorial  government  established  by 
Congress."  %  In  the  mouth  of  a  consistent  ad- 
vocate of  "popular  sovereignty"  this  argu- 
ment might  have  had  some  force ;  but  it  came 
with  a  bad  grace  from  Douglas,  who  in  the 
same  report  indorsed  the  bogus  legislature 
and  sustained  the  bogus  laws  upon  purely 
technical  assumptions.  Congress  was  irrecon- 
cilably divided  in  politics.  The  Democrats  had 
an  overwhelming  majority  in  the  Senate;  the 
opposition,  through  the  election  of  Speaker 
Banks,  possessed  a  working  control  of  the 
House.  Some  months  later,  after  prolonged 
debate,  the  House  passed  a  bill  for  the  ad- 
mission of  Kansas  under  the  Topeka  Consti- 
tution; but  as  the  Senate  had  already  rejected 
it,  the  movement  remained  without  practical 
result.  § 
The   staple  argument  against  the  Topeka 
free-State  movement,  that  it  was  a  rebellion 
against  constitutional  authority,  though  per- 
haps correct  as  a  mere  theory  was  utterly  re- 
futed by  the  practical  facts  of  the  case.  The 
Big  Springs  resolutions,  indeed,  counseled 
resistance  to  a  "  bloody  issue  "  ;  but  this  was 
only  to  be  made  after  "  peaceable  remedies 
shall  fail."  History  must  credit  the  free-State 
leaders  with  the  high  renown  of  pursuing  their 
peaceable  remedies  and  forbearing  to  exercise 
their  asserted  right  to  resistance  with  a  patience 
unexampled  in  American  annals.  The  bogus 
territorial  laws  were  defied  by  the  newspapers 
and  treated  as  a  dead  letter  by  the  mass  of 
the  free-State  men;  as  much  as  possible  they 
stood  aloof  from  the  civil  officers  appointed 
by  and  through  the  bogus  legislature,  recorded 
no  title  papers,  began  no  lawsuits,  abstained 
from  elections,  and  denied  themselves  privi- 
leges which  required  any  open  recognition  of 
the  alien  Missouri  statutes.  Lane  and  others 
refused  the  test  oath,  and  were  excluded  from 
practice  as  attorneys  in  the  courts ;  free-State 
newspapers  were  thrown  out  of  the  mails  as 
incendiary  publications ;  sundry  petty  perse- 
cutions were  evaded  or  submitted  to  as  special 
circumstances  dictated.  But  throughout  their 
long  and  persistent  non-conformity,  for  more 
than  two  years,  they  constantly  and  cheerfully 
acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  organic 
act,  and  of  the  laws  of  Congress,  and  even 
counseled  and  endured  every  forced  submis- 
sion to  the  bogus  laws.  Though  they  had  de- 
fiant and  turbulent  spirits  in  their  own  ranks, 
who  often  accused  them  of  imbecility  and 
cowardice,  they  maintained  a  steady  policy 
of  non-resistance,  and,  under  every  show  of 
Federal  authority  in  support  of  the  bogus  laws, 
they  submitted  to  obnoxious  searches  and 
seizures,  to  capricious  arrest  and  painful  im- 
prisonment, rather  than  by  resistance  to  place 
themselves  in  the  attitude  of  deliberate  out- 
laws. || 
They  were  destined  to  have  no  lack  of 
explanatory  affidavit  ("Cong.  Globe,"  App.,  1856,  pp. 
378-9),  to  the  effect  that  the  committee  had  devolved 
upon  him  the  preparation  of  the  formal  copy,  but  that 
the  original  signatures  had  been  mislaid.     The  official 
action  of  the  Senate  appears  to  have  concerned  itself 
exclusively  with  the  copy  presented  by  General  Cass 
on  March  24th.    Lane's  copies  served  only  as  texts  for 
angry  debate.      As   the  Topeka  Constitution  had  no 
origin  or  quality,  technical  defects  were  of  little 
ally  in   view  of  the  action  by  the 
State  voters  of  Kansas  at  their  voluntary  elections 
legates  on   October  9th,  and  to  ratify  it  on  De- 
cember 15th,  1856. 
-ruary  22d,  1856. 
t  They  based  their  appeal  specially  upon  the  opinion 
of  the  Attorney-General  in  the  case  of  Arkansas,  that 
citizens  of  territories  possess  the  constitutional  right 
to  assemble  and  petition  Congress  for  the  redress  of 
grievances  ;  tha.  the  form  of  the  petition  is  immaterial ; 
and  that  '  as  the  power  of  Congress  over  the  whole 
subject  is   plenary,  they  may  accept  any  constitution, 
however  framed,  which  in  their  judgment  meets  the 
sense  of  the  people  to  be  affected  by  it." 
%  Douglas,  Senate  Report  of  March  12th,  1856,  p.  32. 
%  Nevertheless,  the  efforts  of  the  free-State  party 
under  this  combination  were  not  wholly  barren.  The 
contest  between  Whitfield  and  Reeder  for  a  seat  in  the 
House  as  territorial  delegate  not  only  provoked  search- 
ing discussion,  but  furnished  the  occasion  for  sending 
an  investigating  committee  to  Kansas,  attended  by  the 
contestants  in  person.  This  committee  with  a  fearless 
diligence  collected  in  the  territory,  as  well  as  from  the 
border  counties  of  Missouri,  a  mass  of  sworn  testi- 
mony amounting  to  some  twelve  hundred  printed 
pages,  and  which  exposed  the  Border  Ruffian  invasions 
and  the  Missouri  usurpation  in  all  their  monstrous  ini- 
quity, and  officially  revealed  to  the  astounded  North, 
for  the  first  time  and  nearly  two  years  after  its  begin- 
ning, the  full  proportions  of  the  conspiracy. 
||  See  Governor  Robinson's  message  to  free- State 
Legislature,  March  4th,  1856.  Mrs.  Robinson's  "  Kan- 
sas," pp.  352  and  364.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
provocation.  Since  the  removal  of  Reeder,  all 
the  Federal  officials  of  the  territory  were 
affiliated  with  the  pro-slavery  Missouri  cabal. 
Both  to  secure  the  permanent  establishment 
of  slavery  in  Kansas,  as  well  as  to  gratify  the 
personal  pride  of  their  triumph,  they  were  de- 
termined to  make  these  recusant  free-State 
voters  "  bow  down  to  the  cap  of  Gessler."  Des- 
potism is  never  more  arrogant  than  in  resent- 
ing all  insults  to  its  personal  vanity.  As  a 
first  and  necessary  step,  the  cabal  had  pro- 
cured, through  its  powerful  influence  at  Wash- 
ington, a  proclamation  from  the  President 
commanding  "  all  persons  engaged  in  unlaw- 
ful combinations  against  the  constituted  au- 
thority of  the  territory  of  Kansas  or  of  the 
United  States  to  disperse,"  etc.*  The  lan- 
guage of  the  proclamation  was  sufficiently 
comprehensive  to  include  Border  Ruffians  and 
emigrant  aid  societies,  as  well  as  the  Topeka 
movement,  and  thus  presented  a  show  of  im- 
partiality ;  but  under  dominant  political  influ- 
ences the  latter  was  its  evident  and  certain 
object. 
With  this  proclamation  as  a  sort  of  official 
fulcrum,  Chief-Justice  Lecompte  delivered  at 
the  May  term  of  his  court  a  most  extraordi- 
nary charge  to  the  grand  jury.  He  instructed 
them  that  the  bogus  legislature,  being  an  in- 
strument of  Congress,  and  having  passed  laws, 
"  those  laws  are  of  United  States  authority 
and  making."  Persons  resisting  these  laws 
must  be  indicted  for  high  treason.  If  no  re- 
sistance has  been  made,  but  combinations 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  them, 
"then  must  you  still  find  bills  for  constructive 
treason,  as  the  courts  have  decided  that  the 
blow  need  not  be  struck,  but  only  the  inten- 
tion be  made  evident."  f  Indictments,  writs, 
and  the  arrest  of  many  prominent  free-State 
leaders  followed  as  a  matter  of  course.  All 
these  proceedings,  too,  seem  to  have  been  a 
part  of  the  conspiracy.  Before  the  indictments 
were  found,  and  in  anticipation  of  the  writs, 
Robinson,  the  free-State  governor-elect,  then 
on  his  way  to  the  East,  was  arrested  while 
traveling  on  a  Missouri  River  steamboat,  at 
Lexington  in  that  State,  detained,  and  finally 
sent  back  to  Kansas  under  the  governor's 
requisition.  Upon  this  frivolous  charge  of 
constructive  treason  he  and  others  were  held 
in  military  custody  nearly  four  months,  and 
finally,  at  the  end  of  that  period,  discharged 
upon  bail,  the  farce  of  longer  imprisonment 
having  become  useless  through  other  events. 
Apprehending  fully  that  the  Topeka  move- 
*  February  ulh,  1856.  "Statutes  at  Large,"  Vol. 
XL,  p.  791. 
t  "  Governor  Geary's  Administration,"  Gihon,  p. 
77;  also  compare  copies  of  indictments,  Phillips's 
"  Conquest  of  Kansas,"  pp.  351-4. 
ment  was  the  only  really  serious  obstacle  to 
their  success,  the  pro-slavery  cabal,  watching 
its  opportunity,  matured  a  still  more  formida- 
ble demonstration  to  suppress  and  destroy  it. 
The  provisional  free-State  legislature  had,  after 
organizing  on  the  4th  of  March,  adjourned, 
to  reassemble  on  the  4th  of  July,  1856,  in  or- 
der to  await  in  the  mean  time  the  result  of  their 
application  to  Congress.  As  the  national  holi- 
day approached,  it  was  determined  to  call  to- 
gether a  mass  meeting  at  the  same  time  and 
place,  to  give  both  moral  support  and  per- 
sonal protection  to  the  members.  Civil  war, 
of  which  further  mention  will  be  made  in  the 
next  chapter,  had  now  been  raging  for  months, 
and  had  in  its  general  results  gone  against  the 
free-State  men.  Their  leaders  were  imprisoned 
or  scattered,  their  presses  destroyed,  their  ad- 
herents dispirited  with  defeat.  Nevertheless, 
as  the  day  of  meeting  approached,  the  rem- 
nant of  the  legislature  and  some  six  to  eight 
hundred  citizens  gathered  at  Topeka,  though 
without  any  definite  purpose  or  pre-arranged 
plan.  Governor  Shannon,  the  second  of  the 
Kansas  executives,  had  by  this  time  resigned 
his  office,  and  Secretary  Woodson  was  again 
acting  governor.  Here  was  a  chance  to  put 
the  free-State  movement  pointedly  under  the 
ban  of  federal  authority  which  the  cabal  de- 
termined not  to  neglect.  Reciting  the  Presi- 
dent's proclamation  of  February,  Secretary 
Woodson  now  issued  his  own  proclamation 
forbidding  all  persons  claiming  legislative 
power  and  authority  as  aforesaid  from  assem- 
bling, organizing,  or  acting  in  any  legislative 
capacity  whatever.  At  the  hour  of  noon  on 
the  4th  of  July  several  companies  of  United 
States  dragoons,  which  were  brought  into 
camp  near  town  in  anticipation  of  the  event, 
entered  Topeka  in  military  array,  under  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Sumner.  A  line  of  battle 
was  formed  in  the  street ;  cannon  were  planted, 
and  the  machinery  of  war  prepared  for  instant 
action.  Colonel  Sumner,  a  most  careful  and 
conscientious  officer  and  a  free-State  man  at 
heart,  with  due  formality,  with  decision  and 
firmness,  but  at  the  same  time  openly  express- 
ing the  painful  nature  of  his  duty,  commanded 
the  legislature,  then  about  to  assemble,  to  dis- 
perse. The  members,  not  yet  organized,  im- 
mediately obeyed  the  order,  having  neither 
the  will  nor  the  means  to  resist  it.  There  was 
no  tumult,  no  violence,  but  little  protest  even 
in  words.  It  might  have  been,  instead  of  a 
real  event,  merely  a  holiday  parade  enacting 
a  travesty  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
There  were  cheers  for  Sumner,  cheers  for 
Robinson,  cheers  for  liberty,  from  the  free- 
State  men  assembled ;  but  the  despotic  pur- 
pose, clothed  in  forms  of  law,  made  a  none 
the  less  profound  impression  upon  the  assem-
884 
THE  ENCHANTRESS. 
bled  citizens,  and  later,  when  the  newspapers 
spread  the  report  of  the  act,  upon  the  indig- 
nant public  mind  of  the  Northern  States  of 
the  Union. 
From  this  time  onward,  other  events  of 
paramount  historical  importance  supervene 
to  crowd  the  Topeka  Constitution  out  of  view. 
In  a  feeble  way  the  organization  still  held 
a    considerable  length  of  time. 
together  for 
About  a  year  later  the  legislature  again  went 
through  the  forms  of  assembling,  and  although 
Governor  Walker  was  present  in  Topeka,  there 
were  no  proclamations,  no  dragoons,  no  can- 
non,  because  the  cabal  was  for  the  moment 
defeated  and  disconcerted  and  bent  upon 
other  and  still  more  desperate  schemes.  The 
Topeka  Constitution  was  never  received  nor 
legalized;  its  officers  never  became  clothed 
with  official  authority;  its  scrip  was  never  re- 
deemed; yet  in  the  fate  of  Kansas  and  in  the 
annals  of  the  Union  at  large  it  was  a  vital 
and  pivotal  transaction,  without  which  the 
great  conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery, 
though  perhaps  neither  avoided  nor  delayed, 
might  have  assumed  altogether  different 
phases  of  development. 
THE    ENCHANTRESS. 
IN  a  land  beyond  the  ocean, 
In  the  ages  long  ago, 
Lived  a  lady  like  a  lily, 
With  a  breast  and  brow  of  snow. 
From  far  countries,  kings  and  princes 
To  behold  her  beauty  came  ; 
And  it  pleased  her  that  they  loved  her, 
To  whom  love  was  but  a  name. 
Gallant  knights  with  plumes  and  pennons, 
Pallid  beggars  at  the  door  — 
On  whomever  fell  her  glances 
They  were  lost  forevermore. 
And  they  died  of  hopeless  passion, 
Or  they  lived  her  abject  slaves; 
So  the  air  was  full  of  sighing, 
And  the  hilltops  thick  with  graves. 
But  one  day  unto  the  gateway 
Of  her  palace  came  a  youth, 
With  a  length  of  golden  tresses 
And  a  face  as  fair  as  truth. 
Not  to  pay  her  beauty  homage, 
And  to  fall  beneath  its  spell, 
Did  he  come;  but  he  was  weary, 
So  he  rested  by  the  well. 
Riding  forth  that  summer  morning 
With  a  merry  cavalcade, 
The  enchantress  saw  him  sleeping 
By  the  fountain,  in  the  shade. 
As  she  passed  with  tinkling  harness, 
She  looked  down  in  sweet  surprise, 
And  he  lifted  silken  lashes 
From  his  blue  and  starry  eyes. 
All  that  day  with  knights  and  maidens, 
Through  the  forest  arches  dim, 
Rode  she  in  a  happy  silence 
And  a  blissful  dream  of  him. 
And  at  eve  returning,  eager 
Leaning  forward  from  her  place, 
Sought  the  gleam  of  golden  tresses 
At  the  crystal  fountain's  base. 
But  its  waters  sparkled  coldly 
In  the  moonbeams,  chill  and  wan, 
And  a  nightingale  sung  near  it, 
But  the  youth  —  the  youth  was  gone ! 
Yet  upon  his  stony  pillow 
He  had  carved  in  letters  deep 
"  Love  "  —  his  name  —  and  to  her  chamber 
The  enchantress  passed  to  weep. 
Nevermore  beneath  the  eagles 
O'er  the  gateway  carven  bold, 
Rode  she  forth  to  pain  or  pleasure, 
Rode  she  forth  in  heat  or  cold. 
But  she  paced  the  narrow  limits 
Of  her  marble  courts  by  day, 
And  upon  a  restless  pillow 
Wept  the  weary  night  away. 
Travelers  passing  by  the  portal 
Used  to  tell  in  after  years 
Of  a  wan  and  white-haired  woman 
Wasted  with  a  life  of  tears. 
Aged  crones  would  wisely  whisper : 
"  Through  the  land  her  praises  rung, 
And  men  called  her  the  enchantress, 
In  the  days  when  we  were  young." 
Minna  Irving.
PERSONAL   RECOLLECTIONS   OF  LOUIS  BLANC. 
LOUIS     BLANC.        (FROM     A     PORTRAIT     BY     A.     GILBEN.) 
Louis  Blanc  felt  keenly  the  manner  in  which 
he  was  neglected  when  his  old  friend  Grevy 
became  President  of  the  Republic.  He  was 
placed  under  the  ban  of  the  Opportunists  who 
now  are  prepared  to  crowd  flowers  upon  his 
tomb.  Being  fond  of  England  he  wished  to  be 
sent  to  London  as  ambassador.  When  Challe- 
mel  Lacour  was  gazetted  to  that  post,  Louis 
Blanc  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  to  die.  He 
ceased  to  struggle  against  terrible  infirmities. 
The  painful  illness  and  death  of  his  brother 
Charles  was  a  blow  from  which  he  never  re- 
covered. Death,  as  Victor  Hugo  said,  was,  in 
the  case  of  Louis  Blanc,  a  deliverance. 
Charles  Blanc  had  died  early  in  1882.  The 
two  brothers  were  known  to  be  bound  up  by 
a  fraternal  love  of  extraordinary  warmth.  It 
is  said  that  when  Louis  Blanc,  before  the  Rev- 
olution of  1848,  was  the  object  of  a  murderous 
attack,  Charles,  living  far  away  in  another  part 
of  France,  exclaimed  almost  at  the  same  hour 
that  some  dreadful  accident  must  have  hap- 
pened to  his  brother — which  indeed  turned  out 
to  be  true.  Whatever  the  explanation  of  this 
occurrence  may  be,  Dumas  made  use  of  the 
oft-repeated  story  in  his  "  Corsican  Brothers  " ; 
the  Blancs  being,  as  before  stated,  of  Corsican 
descent  from  the  mother's  side. 
Vol.  XXXIV.— 12. 
Karl  Blind.
[BEGUN    /.V    THE    NOVEMBER    NUMBER.] 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  :     A    HISTORY.* 
I  V      OHN    G 
NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT 
THE     BORDER     CONFLICT. 
ER     AN     ENGRAVING     BY    T.    DONEY.) 
KANSAS    IN    CIVIL    WAR. 
UT  of  the  antagonistic  and 
contending  factions  men- 
tioned in  the  last  two  chap- 
ters, the  bogus  legislature 
and  its  Border-Ruffian  ad- 
herents on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  framers  and  sup- 
porters of  the  1  opeka  Con- 
stitution on  the  other,  grew  the  civil  war  in 
Kansas.  'Lie  bogus  legislature  numbered 
thirty-six  members.  'I  hese  had  only  received, 
all  told.  619  legal  bond  fide  Kansas  votes; 
but,  what  answered  their  purposes  just  as  well, 
4408   Missourians  had  cast  their    ballots  for 
them,  making  their  total 
constituency  (if  by  discard- 
ing the  idea  of  a  State  line 
we  use  the  word  in  a  some- 
what strained  sense)  5427. 
This  was  at  the  March 
election,  1855.  Of  the  re- 
maining 2286  actual  Kan- 
sas voters  disclosed  by 
Reeder's  census,  only  791 
cast  their  ballots.  That  sum- 
mer's emigration,  however, 
being  mainly  from  the  free 
States,  greatly  changed  the 
relative  strength  of  the  two 
parties.  At  the  election  of 
October  1st,  1855,  in  which 
the  free-State  men  took  no 
part,  Whitfield,  for  delegate, 
received  2721  votes,  Bor- 
der Ruffians  included.  At 
the  election  for  members  of 
the  Topeka  Constitutional 
Convention,  a  week  later, 
from  which  the  pro- slavery 
men  abstained,  the  free- 
State  men  cast  2710  votes, 
while  Reeder,  their  nomi- 
nee for  delegate,  received 
2849.  For  general  service, 
therefore,  requiring  no  spe- 
cial effort,  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  factions  was 
about  equal;  while  on  ex- 
traordinary occasions  the 
two  thousand  Border- Ruf- 
fian reserve  lying  a  little  farther  back  from 
the  State  line  could  at  any  time  easily  turn 
the  scale.  The  free-State  men  had  only  their 
convictions,  their  intelligence,  their  courage, 
and  the  moral  support  of  the  North ;  the 
conspiracy  had  its  secret  combination,  the 
territorial  officials,  the  legislature,  the  bogus 
laws,  the  courts,  the  militia  officers,  the  Presi- 
dent, and  the  army.  This  was  a  formidable 
array  of  advantages;  slavery  was  playing  with 
loaded  dice. 
With  such  a  radical  opposition  of  sentiment, 
both  factions  were  on  the  alert  to  seize  every 
available  vantage  ground.  The  bogus  laws 
having  been  enacted,  and  the  free-State  men 
having,  at  the  Big  Springs  Convention,  resolved 
right  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886.     All  rights  reserved.
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 
on  the  failure  of  peaceable  remedies  to  resist 
them  to  a  "  bloody  issue,"  the  conspiracy  was 
not  slow  to  cover  itself  and  its  projects  with 
the  sacred  mantle  of  authority.  Opportunely 
for  them,  about  this  time  Governor  Shannon, 
appointed  to  succeed  Reeder,  arrived  in  the 
territory.  Coming  by  way  of  the  Missouri 
River  towns,  he  fell  first  among  Border- Ruffian 
companionship  and  influences;  and  perhaps 
having  his  inclinations  already  molded  by  his 
Washington  instructions,  his  early  impressions 
were  decidedly  adverse  to  the  free-State  cause. 
His  reception  speech  at  Westport,  in  which  he 
maintained  the  legality  of  the  legislature,  and 
his  determination  to  enforce  their  laws,  de- 
lighted his  pro-slavery  auditors.  To  enlist 
further  his  zeal  in  their  behalf,  a  few  weeks 
later  they  formally  organized  a  "  law-and-order 
party  "  by  a  large  public  meeting  held  at  Leav- 
enworth. All  the  territorial  dignitaries  were 
present;  Governor  Shannon  presided;  John 
Calhoun,  the  Surveyor-General,  made  the  prin- 
cipal speech,  a  denunciation  of  the  "  aboli- 
tionists "  supporting  the  Topeka  movement ; 
Chief-Justice  Lecompte  dignified  the  occasion 
with  approving  remarks.  With  public  opinion 
propitiated  in  advance,  and  the  governor  of 
the  territory  thus  publicly  committed  to  their 
party,  the  conspirators  felt  themselves  ready 
to  enter  upon  the  active  campaign  to  crush 
out  opposition,  for  which  they  had  made  such 
elaborate  preparations. 
Faithful  to  their  legislative  declaration  they 
knew  but  one  issue,  slavery.  All  dissent,  all 
non-compliance,  all  hesitation,  all  mere  silence 
even,  were  in  their  stronghold  towns,  like  Leav- 
enworth, branded  as  "  abolitionism,"  declared 
to  be  hostility  to  the  public  welfare,  and  pun- 
ished with  proscription,  personal  violence, 
expulsion,  and  frequently  death.  Of  the  lynch- 
ings,  the  mobs,  and  the  murders,  it  would  be 
impossible,  except  in  a  very  extended  work,  to 
note  the  frequent  and  atrocious  details.  The 
present  chapters  can  only  touch  upon  the  more 
salient  movements  of  the  civil  war  in  Kansas, 
which  happily  were  not  sanguinary ;  if,  how- 
ever, the  individual  and  more  isolated  cases  of 
bloodshed  could  be  described,  they  would 
show  a  startling  aggregate  of  barbarity  and 
loss  of  life  for  opinion's  sake.  Some  of  these 
revolting  crimes,  though  comparatively  few 
in  number,  were  committed,  generally  in 
a  spirit  of  lawless  retaliation,  by  free-State 
men. 
Among  other  instrumentalities  for  execut- 
ing the  bogus  laws,  the  bogus  legislature  had 
appointed  one  Samuel  J.  Jones  sheriff  of 
Douglas  county,  Kansas  Territory,  although 
that  individual  was  at  the  time  of  his  appoint- 
*  Phillips,  "Conquest  of  Kansas,"  p.  152,  et.  seq. 
t  Shannon,  order  to  Richardson,  Nov.  27th,  1855. 
ment,  and  long  afterwards,  United  States  post- 
master of  the  town   of  Westport,  Missouri 
Why  this  Missouri  citizen  and  Federal  official 
should  in  addition  be  clothed  with  a  foreign 
territorial  shrievalty  of  a  county  lying  forty  or 
fifty  miles  from  his  home  is  a  mystery  which 
was  never  explained  outside  a  Missouri  Blue- 
Lodge.  A  partial  solution  is  afforded  in  the  fact 
that  Jones  was  apparently  a  born  persecutor, 
overflowing  with  zeal  for  slavery.  Whether 
chosen  by  accident  or  design,  his  fitness  to  be- 
come the  active  agent  of  the  conspiracy  gives 
his  name  and  acts  a  lamentable  prominence 
in  Kansas  history. 
A  few  days  after  the  "law-and-order*'  meet- 
ing in  Leavenworth,  there  occurred  a  murder 
in  a  small  settlement  thirteen  miles  west  of 
the  town  of  Lawrence.  The  murderer,  a  pro- 
slavery  man,  first  fled  to  Missouri,  but  returned 
to  Shawnee  Mission  and  sought  the  official 
protection  of  Sheriff  Jones;  no  warrant,  no 
examination,  no  commitment  followed,  and  the 
criminal  remained  at  large.  Out  of  this  inci- 
dent, the  officious  sheriff  managed  most  in- 
geniously to  create  an  embroilment  with  the 
town  of  Lawrence.  Buckley,  who  was  alleged 
to  have  been  accessory  to  the  crime,  obtained 
a  peace-warrant  against  Branson,  a  neighbor 
of  the  victim.  With  this  peace-warrant  in  his 
pocket,  but  without  showing  or  reading  it  to  his 
prisoner,  Sheriff  Jones  and  a  posse  of  twenty- 
five  Border  Ruffians  proceeded  to  Branson's 
house  at  midnight  and  arrested  him.  Alarm 
being  given,  Branson's  free-State  neighbors, 
already  exasperated  at  the  murder,  rose  under 
the  sudden  instinct  of  self-protection  and  res- 
cued Branson  from  the  sheriff  and  his  posse 
that  same  night,  though  without  other  violence 
than  harsh  words.* 
Burning  with  the  thirst  of  personal  revenge, 
Sheriff  Jones  now  charged  upon  the  town  of 
Lawrence,  because  that  was  the  stronghold  of 
the  free-State  men  of  the  territory,  the  viola- 
tion of  law  involved  in  this  rescue,  though 
Lawrence  immediately  and  earnestly  disa- 
vowed the  act.  But  for  Sheriff  Jones  and  his 
superiors  the  pretext  was  all-sufficient.  A  Bor- 
der-Ruffian foray  against  the  town  was  hastily- 
organized.  The  murder  occurred  November 
21st,  the  rescue  November  26th.  November 
27th,  upon  the  brief  report  of  Sheriff  Jones, 
demanding  a  force  of  three  thousand  men  "to 
carry  out  the  laws,"  Governor  Shannon  issued 
his  order  to  the  two  major-generals  of  the 
skeleton  militia.  "  to  collect  together  as  large 
a  force  as  you  can  in  your  division,  and  repair 
without  delay  to  Lecompton,  and  report  your- 
self to  S.  J.  Jones,  sheriff  of  Douglas  county."! 
The  Kansas  militia  was  a  myth;  but  the  Bor- 
Same  order  to  Strickler,  same  date.     Senate  Docs.,  3d 
Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  II..  p.  53.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
SNAL,    LIBERTY.       (REDRAWN     FROM     PHOTOGRAPHS     IN     POSSESSION     OF     COLONEL    NATHANIEL    GRANT.) 
der  Ruffians,  with  their  backwoods  rifles  and 
shot-guns,  were  a  ready  resource.  To  these 
an  urgent  appeal  for  help  was  made;  and  the 
leaders  of  the  conspiracy  in  prompt  obedi- 
ence placarded  the  frontier  with  inflammatory 
hand-bills,  and  collected  and  equipped  compa- 
.  and  hurried  them  forward  to  the  rendez- 
vous without  a  moment's  delay.  The  United 
States  Arsenal  at  Liberty,  Missouri,  was  broken 
into  and  stripped  of  its  contents  to  supply  can- 
non, smn  11  arms,  and  ammunition.  In  two  days 
after  notice  a  company  of  fifty  Missourians 
•  the  first  camp  on  W'akarusa  Creek,  near 
Franklin,  four  miles  from  Lawrence.  In  three 
or  four  days  more  an  irregular  army  of  fifteen 
hundred  men,  claiming  to  lie  the  sheriff's  posse, 
was  within  striking  distance  of  the  town.  Three 
orfourhundred  of  these  were  nominal  residents 
of  the  territory  :*  all  the  remainder  werecitizens 
of  Missouri.  They  were  not  only  well  armed 
and  supplied,  but  wrought  up  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  partisan  excitement.  While  the  gov- 
ernor's proclamation  spoke  of  serving  writs,f 
the  notices  of  the  conspirators  sounded  the  note 
of  the  real  contest.   "  Now  is  the  time  to  show 
*  Shannon,  dispatch,  Dec.  nth,  1855,  to  President 
Pierce.  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.  Vol.  II., 
P-  63. 
game,  and  if  we  are  defeated  this  time,  the  ter- 
ritory is  lost  to  the  South,"  said  the  leaders.J 
There  was  no  doubt  of  the  earnestness  of  their 
purpose.  Ex- Vice- President  Atchison  came  in 
person,  leading  a  battalion  of  two  hundred 
Platte  county  riflemen. 
News  of  this  proceeding  came  to  the  people 
of  Lawrence  little  by  little,  and  finally,  becom- 
ing alarmed,  they  began  to  improvise  means 
of  defense.  Two  abortive  imitations  of  the 
Missouri  Blue  Lodges,  set  on  foot  during  the 
summer  by  the  free-State  men,  provoked  by 
the  election  invasion  in  March,  furnished 
them  a  starting-point  for  military  organiza- 
tion. A  committee  of  safety,  hurriedly  insti- 
tuted, sent  a  call  for  help  from  Lawrence 
to  other  points  in  the  territory  "for  the  pur- 
pose of  defending  it  from  threatened  invasion 
by  armed  men  now  quartered  in  its  vicinity." 
Several  hundred  free-State  men  promptly  re- 
sponded to  the  summons.  The  Free-State  Hotel 
served  as  barracks.  Governor  Robinson  and 
Colonel  Lane  were  appointed  to  command. 
Four  or  five  small  redoubts,  connected  by  rifle- 
pits,  were  hastily  thrown  up ;  and  by  a  clever 
t  Shannon,  proclamation, 
p.  56. 
X  Phillips,  p.  168. 
N. 
29th,  1855.     Ibid.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
artifice  they  succeeded  in  bringing  a  twelve- 
pound  brass  howitzer  from  its  storage  at  Kansas 
City.  Meantime  the  committee  of  safety,  ear- 
nestly denying  any  wrongful  act  or  purpose, 
sent  an  urgent  appeal  for  protection  to  the 
commander  of  the  United  States  forces  at  Fort 
Leavenworth,  another  to  Congress,  and  a  third 
to  President  Pierce. 
Amid  all  this  warlike  preparation  to  keep 
the  peace,  no  very  strict  military  discipline 
On  one  point  especially  the  Border  Ruffians 
had  a  wholesome  dread.  Yankee  ingenuity 
had  invented  a  new  kind  of  breech-loading 
gun  called  "Sharpe's  rifle."  It  was,  in  fact, 
the  best  weapon  of  its  day.  The  free-State 
volunteers  had  some  months  before  obtained 
a  partial  supply  of  them  from  the  East,  and 
their  range,  rapidity,  and  effectiveness  had  been 
not  only  duly  set  forth  but  highly  exaggerated 
by  many  marvelous  stories  throughout  the  ter- 
JAMES    H.    LANE.       (BY    PERMIS 
TROWBRIDGE     LITHOGRAPHING    CO.) 
could  be  immediately  enforced.  The  people 
of  Lawrence  without  any  great  difficulty  ob- 
tained daily  information  concerning  the  hostile 
camps.  They,  on  the  other  hand,  professing  no 
purpose  but  that  of  defense  and  self-protection, 
were  obliged  to  permit  free  and  constant  in- 
gress to  their  beleaguered  town.  Sheriff  Jones 
made  several  visits  unmolested  on  their  part, 
and  without  any  display  of  writs  or  demand 
for  the  surrender  of  alleged  offenders  on  his 
own.  One  of  the  rescuers  even  accosted  him, 
conversed  with  him,  and  invited  him  to  dinner. 
These  free  visits,  however,  had  the  good  effect 
to  restrain  imprudence  and  impulsiveness  on 
both  sides.  They  could  see  with  their  own 
eyes  that  a  conflict  meant  serious  results. 
With  the  advantage  of  its  defensive  position, 
Lawrence  was  as  strong  as  the  sheriff's  mob. 
ritory  and  along  the  border.  The  Missouri 
backwoodsmen  manifested  an  almost  incredi- 
ble interest  in  this  wonderful  gun.  They  might 
be  deaf  to  the  "  equalities  "  proclaimed  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  or  blind  to  the 
moral  sin  of  slavery,  but  they  comprehended 
a  rifle  which  could  be  fired  ten  times  a  minute 
and  kill  a  man  at  a  thousand  yards. 
The  arrivals  from  Missouri  finally  slackened 
and  ceased.  The  irregular  Border-Ruffian 
squads  were  hastily  incorporated  into  the  skel- 
eton "Kansas  militia."  The  "posse"  became 
some  two  thousand  strong,  and  the  defenders 
of  Lawrence  perhaps  one  thousand. 
Meanwhile  a  sober  second  thought  had 
come  to  Governor  Shannon.  To  retrieve  some- 
what the  precipitancy  of  his  militia  orders  and 
proclamations,  he  wrote  to  Sheriff  Jones,  De-
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
cember  2d,  to  make  no  arrests  or  movements 
unless  by  bis  direction.  The  firm  defensive 
attitude  of  the  people  oi  Lawrence  had  pro- 
duced its  effect.  The  leaders  oi  the  conspiracy 
became  distrustful  of  their  power  to  crush  the 
town.  One  oi  his  militia  generals  suggested 
that  the  governor  should  require  the  "  outlaws 
at  1  awrence  and  elsewhere'*  to  surrender  the 
Sharpe's  rules;*  another  wrote  asking  him  to 
call  out  the  Government  troops  at  Fort  Leav- 
enworth. The  governor,  on  his  part,  becoming 
doubtful  of  the  legality  oi  employing  Missouri 
militia  to  enforce  Kansas  laws,  was  also  eager 
to  secure  the  help  oi  federal  troops.  Sheriff 
Jones  began  to  grow  importunate.  In  the  Mis- 
souri camp  while  the  leaders  beeame  alarmed 
the  men  grew  insubordinate.  "  I  have  reason 
to  believe,"  wrote  one  of  their  prominent  men, 
"that  before  to-morrow  morning  the  black 
flag  will  be  hoisted,  when  nine  out  of  ten  will 
rally  around  it,  and  march  without  orders 
upon  1  .awrence.  The  forces  of  the  Lecompton 
camp  fully  understand  the  plot  and  will  fight 
under  the  same  banner." t 
After  careful  deliberation  Colonel  Sumner, 
(  ommanding  the  United  States  troops  at  Fort 
Leavenworth,  declined  to  interfere  without  ex- 
plicit orders  from  the  War  Department.!  These 
failing  to  arrive  in  time,  the  governor  was 
obliged  to  face  his  own  dilemma.  He  hastened 
to  Lawrence,  which  now  invoked  his  protection. 
I  [e  directed  his  militia  generals  to  repress  dis- 
order and  check  any  attack  on  the  town.  In- 
terviews were  held  with  the  free-State  com- 
manders,  and  the  situation  was  fully  discussed. 
A  1  ompromise  was  agreed  upon,  and  a  formal 
treaty  written  out  and  signed.  The  affair  was 
pronounced  to  be  a  "  misunderstanding";  the 
Lawrence  party  disavowed  the  Branson  rescue, 
denied  any  previous,  present,  or  prospective 
nization  for  resistance,  and  under  sundry 
provisos  agreed  to  aid  in  the  execution  of 
"  the  laws  "  when  called  upon  by  "  proper  au- 
thority." Like  all  compromises,  the  agreement 
was  half  necessity,  half  trick.  Neither  party 
was  willing  to  yield  honestly  or  ready  to  fight 
manfully.  The  free-State  men  shrank  from 
forcible  resistance  to  even  bogus  laws.  The 
Missouri  cabal,  on  the  other  hand,  having 
three  of  their  best  men  constantly  at  the  gov- 
ernor's side,  were  compelled  to  recognize  their 
lack  of  justification.  They  did  not  dare  to  ig- 
nore upon  what  u  ridiculously  shadowy  pre- 
SHARPE  S    RIFLE. 
(ORIGINAL  IN  POSSES SION  OI    THE  KANSAS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.) 
COLONEL     E.     V.     SUMNER. 
(FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH     BY     KEET    &    GEMMILL.) 
text  the  Branson  peace-warrant  had  grown 
into  an  army  of  two  thousand  men,  and  how, 
under  manipulation  of  Sheriff  Jones,  a  question- 
able affidavit  of  a  pro-slavery  criminal  had 
been  expanded  into  the  casus  belli  of  a  free- 
State  town.  They  consented  to  a  compromise 
"  to  cover  a  retreat." 
When  Governor  Shannon  announced  that 
the  difficulties  were  settled,  the  people  of 
Lawrence  were  suspicious  of  their  leaders, 
and  John  Brown  manifested  his  readiness  to 
head  a  revolt.  But  his  attempted  speech  was 
hushed  down,  and  the  assurance  of  Robinson 
and  Lane  that  they  had  made  no  dishonora- 
ble concession  finally  quieted  their  followers. 
There  were  similar  murmurs  in  the  pro- slavery 
camps.  The  governor  was  denounced  as  a 
traitor,  and  Sheriff  Jones  declared  that  "  he 
would  have  wiped  out  Lawrence."  Atchison, 
on  the  contrary,  sustained  the  bargain,  ex- 
plaining that  to  attack  Lawrence  under  the 
circumstances  would  ruin  the  Democratic 
cause.  "  But,"  he  added  with  a  significant 
oath,  "  boys,  we  will  fight  some  time!  "  Thir- 
teen of  the  captains  in  the  Wakarusa  camp 
were  called  together,  and  the  situation  was 
duly  explained.  The  treaty  was  accepted, 
though  the  governor  confessed  "  there  was  a 
silent  dissatisfaction  "  §  at  the  result.  He  or- 
dered the  forces  to  disband;  prisoners  were 
liberated,  and  with  the  opportune  aid  of  a 
furious  rain-storm  the  Border- Ruffian  army 
gradually    melted    away.     Nevertheless    the 
*  Richardson  to  Shannon,  December  3d,  1855;  Phil- 
lips, "Conquest  of  Kansas,"  p.  185. 
t  Anderson  to  Richardson;  Phillips,  "  Conquest  of 
Kansas,"  p.  210. 
t  Sumner  to  Shannon,  December  1st,  1855  ;  Phillips, 
p.  184. 
vS  Shannon  to  President  Pierce,  December  nth,  1855. 
Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  II.,  p.  63.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
"  Wakarusa  war 
sting  to  rankle 
left  one  bitter 
in  the  hearts  of 
the    defenders    of  Lawrence,  a 
free-State  man  having  been  killed 
by  a  pro-slavery  scouting  party. 
The  truce  patched  up  by  this 
Lawrence  treaty  was  of  compar- 
atively short  duration.    The  ex- 
citement which  had  reigned  in 
Kansas  during  the  whole  sum- 
mer of  1855,  first  about  the  en- 
actments of  the  bogus  legislature, 
and  then  in  regard  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Topeka  Constitution, 
was  now  extended  to  the  Amer- 
ican Congress,  where  it  raged  for  two  long 
months  over  the  election  of  Speaker  Banks. 
In  Kansas  during  the  same  period  the  vote 
of  the  free-State  men  upon  the  Topeka  Con- 
stitution and  the  election  for  free-State  officers 
under  it  kept  the  territory  in  a  ferment.  Dur- 
ing and  after  the  contest  over  the  speakership 
at  Washington,  each  State  legislature  became 
a  forum  of  Kansas  debate.  The  general  public 
interest   in    the  controversy   was    shown    by 
discussions  carried  on  by  press,  pulpit,  and 
in  the  daily  conversation  and  comment  of  the 
people  of  the  Union  in  every  town,  hamlet, 
and  neighborhood.   No  sooner  did  the  spring 
weather  of  1856  permit,  than  men,  money, 
arms,    and    supplies    were    poured    into    the 
territory  of  Kansas  from  the  North.     In  the 
Southern  States  also  this  propagandism  was 
active,  and  a  number  of  guerilla  leaders  with 
followers  recruited  in  the  South,  and  armed 
and  sustained  by  Southern  contributions  and 
appropriations,  found    their  way  to   Kansas 
in  response  to  urgent  appeals  of  the  Border 
chiefs.    Buford  of  Alabama,  Titus  of  Florida, 
Wilkes  of  Virginia,  Hampton  of  Kentucky, 
Treadvvell    of    South    Carolina,  and    others, 
brought  not  only  enthusiastic  leadership,  but 
substantial  assistance.  Both  the  factions  which 
had  come   so    near  to   actual   battle  in   the 
"  Wakarusa  war,"  though  nominally  disband- 
ed, in  reality  preserved  and  continued  their 
military    organization, —  the    free-State    men 
through  apprehension  of  danger,  the  Border 
Ruffians  because  of    their  purpose  to  crush 
out  opposition.    Strengthened  on  both  sides 
with    men,  money,   arms,  and    supplies,   the 
contest  was  gradually  resumed  with  the  open- 
ing spring. 
CANNON     USED     IN     THE     ATTACK     ON     LAWRENCE. 
(ORIGINAL     IN     POSSESSION     OF    THE     KANSAS     HISTORICAL     SOCIETY.) 
FREE-STATE     BATTERY     (1856).        (REDRAWN     FROM    A     DAGUERREOTYPE     IN 
POSSESSION     OF    THE     KANSAS     HISTORICAL     SOCIETY.) 
The  vague  and  double-meaning  phrases  of 
the  Lawrence  agreement  furnished  the  earliest 
causes  of  a  renewal  of  the  quarrel.  "  Did  you 
not  pledge  yourselves  to  assist  me  as  sher- 
iff in  the  arrest  of  any  person  against  whom  I 
might  have  a  writ?"  asked  Sheriff  Jones  of 
Robinson  and  Lane  in  a  curt  note.  "  We 
may  have  said  that  we  would  assist  any 
proper  official  in  the  service  of  any  legal  proc- 
ess," they  replied,  standing  upon  their  inter- 
pretation.* This  was,  of  course,  the  original 
controversy  —  slavery  burning  to  enforce  her 
usurpation,  freedom  determined  to  defend  her 
birthright.  Sheriff  Jones  had  his  pockets 
always  full  of  writs  issued  in  the  spirit  of 
persecution,  though  often  baffled  by  the 
sharp  wits  and  ready  resources  of  the  free- 
State  people,  and  sometimes  defied  out- 
right. Little  by  little,  however,  the  latter 
became  hemmed  and  bound  in  the  meshes  of 
the  various  devices  and  proceedings  which  the 
territorial  officials  evolved  by  hook  and  crook 
out  of  the  bogus  laws.  President  Pierce,  in 
his  special  message  of  January  24th,  declared 
what  had  been  done  by  the  Topeka  movement 
to  be  "  of  a  revolutionary  character"  which 
would  "  become  treasonable  insurrection  if  it 
reach  the  length  of  organized  resistance." 
Following  this  came  his  proclamation   of 
February  nth,  leveled  against " combinations 
formed  to  resist  the  execution  of  the  territorial 
laws."    Early  in  May  Chief-Justice  Lecompte 
held  a  term  of  his  court,  during  which  he  de- 
livered to  the  grand  jury  his  famous  instruc- 
tions on   constructive  treason.     Indictments 
were  found,  writs  issued,  and  the    principal 
free-State  leaders  arrested  or  forced  to  flee 
from  the  territory.    Governor  Robinson  was 
arrested    without    warrant 
on  the   Missouri  River,  and 
brought  back  to  be  held  in 
military  custody  till  Septem- 
ber.    Lane    went    East   and 
recruited     additional      help 
for  the  contest.     Meanwhile 
*  Holloway.  pp.  275.  276.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
ROBINSON     IN     CUSTODY    OF    CAPTAIN     MARTIN,     OF    THE     KICKAPOO    RANGERS.'-* 
(FROM    A     DAGUERREOTYPE     IN     POSSESSION     OF     MRS.    ROBINSON.) 
nor  Robins', n  being  on  his  way  East,  the 
steamboat  on  which  he  was  traveling  'stopped  at 
Lexington,  Missouri.  An  unauthorized  mob  induced 
the  governor,  with  that  gentle  persuasiveness  in  whi(  h 
the  border  Ruffians  had  become  adepts,  to  leave  the 
boat,  detaining  hirn  at  Lexington  on  the  accusation 
that  he  was  fleeing  from  an  indictment.  In  a  few  days 
an  officer  came  with  a  requisition  from  Governor  Shan- 
non, and  took  the  prisoner  by  land  to  Westport,  and 
afterward-,  from  there  to  Kansas  City  and  Leavenworth. 
Here  he  was  placed  in  the  custody  of  Captain  Martin, 
of  theKickapoo  Rangers,  who  proved  a  kind  jailer,  and 
materially  assisted  in  protecting  him  from  the  danger- 
ous intentions  of  the  mob  which  at  that  time  held 
Leavenworth  under  a  reign  of  terror. 
Mrs.  Robinson,  who  has  kindly  sent  us  a  sketch  of 
the  incident,  writes:  "On  the  night  of  the  28th  [of 
May]  for  greater  security  General  Richardson  of  the 
militia  slept  in  the  same  bed  with  the  prisoner,  while 
Judge  Lecompte  and  Marshal  Donaldson  slept  just 
outside  of  the  door  of  the  prisoner's  room.  Captain 
Martin  said,  '  I  shall  give  you  a  pistol  to  help  protect 
yourself  with  if  worse  comes  to  worst !  '  In  the  early 
morning  of  the  next  day,  May  29th,  a  company  of
ABRAJJAM  LINCOLN. 
Sheriff  Jones,  sitting  in  his  tent  at  night, 
in  the  town  of  Lawrence,  had  been  wounded 
by  a  rifle  or  pistol  ball,  in  the  attempt  of 
some  unknown  person  to  assassinate  him. 
The  people  of  Lawrence  denounced  the 
deed;  but  the  sheriff  hoarded  up  the  score 
for  future  revenge.  One  additional  incident 
served  to  precipitate  the  crisis.  The  House 
of  Representatives  at  Washington,  presided 
over  by  Speaker  Banks,  and  under  control 
of  the  opposition,  sent  an  investigating 
committee  to  Kansas,  consisting  of  Wm.  A. 
Howard  of  Michigan,  John  Sherman  of 
Ohio,  and  Mordecai  Oliver  of  Missouri, 
which,  by  the  examination  of  numerous  wit- 
nesses, was  probing  the  Border-Ruffian  in- 
vasions, the  illegality  of  the  bogus  legislature, 
and  the  enormity  of  the  bogus  laws  to  the  very 
bottom.  Ex-Governor  Reeder  was  in  attend- 
ance on  this  committee,  supplying  data,  point- 
ing out  from  personal  knowledge  sources  of  in- 
formation, cross-examining  witnesses  to  elicit 
the  hidden  truth.  To  embarrass  this  damaging 
exposure,  Judge  Lecompte  issued  a  writ  against 
the  ex-governor  on  a  frivolous  charge  of  con- 
tempt. Claiming  but  not  receiving  exemption 
from  the  committee,  Reeder  on  his  personal 
responsibility  refused  to  permit  the  deputy 
marshal  to  arrest  him.  The  incident  was  not 
violent,  nor  even  dramatic.  No  posse  was 
summoned,  no  further  effort  made,  and  Reeder, 
fearing  personal  violence,  soon  fled  in  dis- 
guise. But  the  affair  was  magnified  as  a 
crowning  proof  that  the  free-State  men  were 
insurrectionists  and  outlaws. 
It  must  be  noted  in  passing  that  by  this 
time  the  territory  had  by  insensible  degrees 
drifted  into  the  condition  of  civil  war.  Both 
parties  were  zealous,  vigilant,  and  denuncia- 
tory. In  nearly  every  settlement  suspicion 
led  to  apprehension,  apprehension  to  combi- 
nation for  defense,  combination  to  some  form 
of  oppression  or  insult,  and  so  on  by  easy  tran- 
sitions to  arrest  and  concealment,  attack  and 
reprisal,  expulsion,  theft,  house-burning,  cap- 
ture, murder,  and  massacre.  From  these,  again, 
sprang  barricaded  and  fortified  dwellings, 
camps  and  scouting  parties,  finally  culminat- 
ing in  roving  guerilla  bands,  half  partisan, 
half  predatory.  Their  distinctive  characters, 
however,  display  one  broad  and  unfailing 
difference.  The  free-State  men  clung  to  their 
prairie  towns  and  prairie  ravines  with  all  the 
obstinacy  and  courage  of  true  defenders  of 
their  homes  and  firesides.    The  pro-slavery 
dragoons  with  one  empty  saddle  came  down  from  the  fort, 
and  while  the  pro-slavery  men  still  slept,  the  prisoner 
and  his  escort  were  on  their  way  across  the  prairies  to 
Lecomptoninthe  charge  of  officers  of  the  United  States 
Army.  The  governor  and  other  prisoners  were  kept 
on  the  prairie  near  Lecompton  until  the  ioth  of  Septem- 
ber, 1856,  when  all  were  released."— The  Authors. 
Vol.  XXXIV.—  13. 
parties,  unmistakable  aliens  and  invaders, 
always  came  from  or  retired  across  the  Mis- 
souri line.  Organized  and  sustained  in  the  be- 
ginning by  voluntary  contributions  from  that 
and  distant  States,  they  ended  by  levying 
forced  contributions,  by  "  pressing "  horses, 
food,  or  arms  from  any  neighborhood  they 
r 
L  »■ 
ANDREW    H.    REEDER     IX     DISGUISE.       (FROM     PHOTOGRAPH 
IN    POSSESSIOX    OF    THE     KAXSAS    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY.) 
chanced  to  visit.  Their  assumed  character 
changed  with  their  changing  opportunities  or 
necessities.  They  were  squads  of  Kansas 
militia,  companies  of  "  peaceful  emigrants." 
or  gangs  of  irresponsible  outlaws,  to  suit  the 
chance,  the  whim,  or  the  need  of  the  moment. 
Since  the  unsatisfactory  termination  of  the 
u  Wakarusa  war,"  certain  leaders  of  the  con- 
spiracy had  never  given  up  their  project 
of  punishing  the  town  of  Lawrence.  A  pro- 
pitious moment  for  carrying  it  out  seemed 
now  to  have  arrived.  The  free-State  officers 
and  leaders  were,  thanks  to  Judge  Lecompte's 
doctrine  of  constructive  treason,  under  indict- 
It  will  interest  our  readers  to  know  that  the  former 
editor-in-chief  of  The  Century,  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland, 
formed  a  partnership  with  Dr.  Robinson  in  1S45,  and 
opened  with  him  a  hospital  in  Springfield.  Massachu- 
setts. Circumstances,  however,  soon  led  to  the  dis- 
continuance of  this  enterprise. — Editor  Century.
9o 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
\\v.    PLAIR   LORD,    STENOGRAPHER. 
JOHN   UPTON,  SERGEANT-AT-ARMS. 
MORDECAI   OLIVER.  WM.   A.    HOWARD,  CHAIRMAN.  JOHN   SHERMAN. 
KANSAS     INVESTIGATING     COMMITTEE.       (FROM     PHOTOGRAPH     IN     POSSESSION    OF    THE     KANSAS     HISTORICAL    SOCIETY.) 
ment,  arrest,  or  in  flight;  the  settlers  were 
busy  with  their  spring  crops;  while  the  pro- 
slavery  guerillas,  freshly  arrived  and  full  of 
zeal,  were  eager  for  service  and  distinction. 
The  former  campaign  against  the  town  had 
failed  for  want  of  justification  ;  therefore  they 
now  took  pains  to  provide  a  pretext  which 
would  not  shame  their  assumed  character  as 
defenders  of  law  and  order.  In  the  shoot- 
ing of  Sheriff  Jones  in  Lawrence,  and  in  the 
refusal  of  ex-Governor  Reeder  to  allow  the 
deputy-marshal  to  arrest  him,  they  discov- 
ered grave  offenses  against  the  territorial 
and  United  States  laws.  Determined  also 
no  longer  to  trust  Governor  Shannon,  lest  he 
might  again  makepeace,  United  States  Mar- 
shal Donaldson  issued  a  proclamation  on 
his  own  responsibility,  on  May  nth,  1856, 
commanding  "  law-abiding  citizens  of  the 
territory"  "to  be  and  appear  at  Lecompton, 
as  soon  as  possible  and  in  numbers  sufficient 
for  the  execution  of  the  law."  *   Moving  with 
*  Memorial,    Senate   Docs.,   3d    Sess.   34th    Cong. 
Vol.  II.,  p.  74. 
t  Phillips,  "Conquest  of  Kansas,"  p.  289-290. 
all  the  promptness  and  celerity  of  preconcert, 
ex- Vice-President  Atchison,  with  his  Platte 
County  Rifles  and  two  brass  cannon,  the  Kick- 
apoo  Rangers  from  Leavenworth  and  Wes- 
ton, Wilkes,  Titus,  Buford,  and  all  the  rest  of 
the  free  lances  in  the  territory  began  to  concen- 
trate against  Lawrence,  giving  the  marshal  in 
a  very  few  days  a  "  posse  "  of  from  five  hundred 
to  eight  hundred  men,  f  armed  for  the  greater 
part  with  United  States  muskets,  some  stolen 
from  the  Liberty  arsenal  on  their  former  raid, 
others  distributed  to  them  as  Kansas  militia  by 
the  territorial  officers.  The  governor  refused 
to  interfere  to  protect  the  threatened  town,! 
though  urgently  appealed  to  do  so  by  its  citi- 
zens, who  after  somewhat  stormy  and  divided 
councils  resolved  on  a  policy  of  non-resistance. 
They  next  made  application  to  the  marshal, 
who  tauntingly  replied  that  he  could  not  rely 
on  their  pledges,  and  must  take  the  liberty  to 
execute  his  process  in  his  own  time  and  man- 
ner^ The  help  of  Colonel  Sumner,  command- 
X  Memorial,  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.   Vol. 
II.,  p.  75. 
§  Ibid.,  p.  77.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
m  i  m  m  m 
I  I.I  J  IS 
,^  IS  II II 
THE    FREE-STATE   HOTEL,    LAWRENCE,    KANSAS.       (FROM    A    PHO- 
TOGRAPH IN  POSSESSION  OF  THE  KANSAS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.) 
ing  the  United  States  troops,  was  finally  in- 
voked, but  his  instructions  only  permitted  him 
to  act  at  the  call  of  the  governor  or  marshal.* 
Private  parties  who  had  leased  the  Free-State 
Hotel  vainly  besought  the  various  authorities 
to  prevent  the  destruction  of  their  property. 
Ten  days  were  consumed  in  these  negotia- 
tions ;  but  the  spirit  of  vengeance  refused  to 
yield.  When  the  citizens  of  Lawrence  rose  on 
the  21st  of  May  they  beheld  their  town  in- 
vested by  a  formidable  military  force. 
During  the  forenoon  the  deputy  marshal 
rode  leisurely  into  the  town  attended  by  less 
than  a  dozen  men,  being  neither  molested  nor 
opposed.  He  summoned  half  a  dozen  citizens 
to  join  his  posse,  who  followed,  obeyed,  and 
assisted  him.  He  as  leisurely  continued  his 
pretended  search  and,  to  give  color  to  his 
errand,  made  two  arrests.  The  Free-State 
Hotel,  a  stone  building  in  dimensions  fifty  by 
seventy  feet,  three  stories  high,  and  handsome- 
ly furnished,  previously  occupied  only  for 
lodging-rooms,  on  that  day  for  the  first  time 
opened  its  table  accommodations  to  the  pub- 
lic, and  had  provided  a  free  dinner  in  honor 
of  the  occasion.  The  marshal  and  his  posse, 
including  Sheriff  Jones,  went  among  other  in- 
vited guests  and  enjoyed  the  proffered  hos- 
pitality. As  he  had  promised  to  protect  the 
hotel,  the  reassured  citizens  began  to  laugh  at 
their  own  fears.  To  their  sorrow  they  were 
soon  undeceived.  The  military  force,  partly 
rabble,  partly  organized,  had  meanwhile  moved 
into  the  town.  To  save  his  official  skirts  from 
stain,  the  deputy  marshal  now  went  through 
the  farce  of  dismissing  his  entire  posse  of  citi- 
zens and  Border  Ruffians,  at  which  juncture 
Sheriff  Jones  made  his  appearance,  claiming 
the  "posse"  as  his  own.  He  planted  a  com- 
pany before  the  hotel,  and  demanded  a  surren- 
der of  the  arms  belonging  to  the  free-State 
military  companies.  Refusal  or  resistance  be- 
ing out  of  the  question,  half  a  dozen  small  can- 
non were  solemnly  dug  up  from  their  buried 
concealment  and,  together  with  a  few  Sharpe's 
rifles,  formally  delivered.  Half  an  hour  later, 
turning  a  deaf  ear  to  all  remonstrance,  he  gave 
the  proprietors  until  five  o'clock  to  remove  their 
families  and  personal  property  from  the  Free- 
State  Hotel.  Atchison,  who  had  been  ha- 
ranguing the  mob,  planted  his  two  guns  before 
the  building  and  trained  them  upon  it.  The  in- 
mates being  removed,  at  the  appointed  hour 
a  few  cannon-balls  were  fired  through  the  stone 
walls.  This  mode  of  destruction  being  slow 
and  undramatic,  and  an  attempt  to  blow  it  up 
with  gunpowder  having  proved  equally  unsat- 
CANNON    SURRENDERED    AT    LAWRENCE,    MAY   21  ST,    1856. 
(ORIGINAL  IN  POSSESSION   OF  THE   KANSAS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.) 
isfactory,  the  torch  was  deliberately  applied, 
and  the  structure  given  to  the  flames. f  Other 
squads  had  during  the  same  time  been  sent  to 
the  several  printing-offices,  where  they  broke 
the  presses,  scattered  the  type,  and  demolished 
the  furniture.  The  house  of  Governor  Robin- 
son was  also  robbed  and  burned.  Very  soon 
the  mob  was  beyond  all  control,  and  spreading 
itself  over  the  town  engaged  in  pillage  till  the 
darkness  of  night  arrested  it.  Meanwhile  the 
chiefs  sat  on  their  horses  and  viewed  the  work 
of  destruction  with  open  delight. 
If  we  would  believe  the  chief  actors,  this 
was  the  "  law-and-order  party,"  executing  the 
mandates  of  justice.  Part  and  parcel  of  the 
affair  was  the  pretense  that  this  exploit  of  prairie 
buccaneering  had  been  authorized  by  Judge 
Lecompte's  court,  the  officials  citing  in  their 
defense  a  presentment  of  his  grand  jury,  de- 
claring  the  free-State   newspapers    seditious 
*  Sumner  to  Shannon,  May  12th,  1S56.  Senate  Docs., 
3rd  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  V. 
stums  of  the  free-state  hotel,    (from  a  photograph         t  Memorial,  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.   Vol. 
IN    POSSESSION    OF    THE    KANSAS    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY.)  II.,    pp.    73-85.
9- 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
BREAKING    UP    A    PRO-SLAVERY    CAMP. 
publications,  and  the  Free-State  Hotel  a  re- 
bellious fortification,  and  recommending  their 
abatement  as  nuisances.*  The  travesty  of 
American  government  involved  in  the  trans- 
action is  too  serious  for  ridicule.  In  this  inci- 
dent, contrasting  the  creative  and  the  de- 
structive spirit  of  the  factions,  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Society  of  Massachusetts  finds  its  most 
honorable  and  triumphant  vindication.  The 
whole  proceeding  was  so  childish,  the  misera- 
ble plot  so  transparent,  the  outrage  so  gross,  as 
to  bring  disgust  to  the  better  class  of  Border 
Ruffians  themselves  who  were  witnesses  and 
accessories.  The  free-State  men  have  recorded 
the  honorable  <  onduct  of  Colonel  Zadock 
Jackson  of  Georgia,  and  Buford  of  Alabama, 
as  well  as  of  the  prosecuting  attorney  of  the 
county,  i'Ii  of  whom  denounced  the  pro- 
<  eedings  on  the  spot.f 
JEFFERSON    DAVIS    OX    REBELLION. 
While  the  town  of  Lawrence  was  yet 
undergoing  burning  and  pillage,  Governor 
Shannon  wrote  to  Colonel  Sumner  to  say 
that  as  the  marshal  and  sheriff  had  finished 
making  their  arrests,  and  he  presumed  had 
by  that  time  dismissed  the  posse,  he  required 
a  company  of  United  States  troops  to  be  sta- 
tioned at  Lawrence  to  secure  "  the  safety  of 
the  citizens  in  both  persons  and  property,"! 
asking  also  a  like  company  for  Lecompton 
and  Topeka.  The  next  day  the  citizens  of 
Lawrence  had  the  opportunity  to  smother 
their  indignation  when  they  saw  the  smol- 
dering embers  of  the  Free-State  Hotel  and 
the  scattered  fragments  of  their  printing- 
presses  patrolled  and  "  protected "  by  the 
Federal  dragoons  whose  presence  they  had  so 
vainly  implored  a  few  days  before.  §  It  was 
high  time  the  governor  should  move.  The 
sack  of  Lawrence  had  unchained  the  demon 
of  civil  war  in  good  earnest.  The  guerilla 
bands  with  their  booty  spread  over  the  coun- 
try, and  the  free-State  men  rose  in  a  spirit  of 
fierce  retaliation.  Assassinations,  house-burn- 
ings, expulsions,  and  skirmishes  broke  out 
with  frightful  speed  in  all  quarters.  The  sud- 
den shower  of  lawlessness  fell  on  the  just  and 
the  unjust;    and,  forced  at  last  to  deal   out 
*  Holloway,  p.  334. 
t  Memorial  to  the  President. 
X  Shannon  to  Sumner,  May  21st,  1856.  Senate  Docs., 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  38. 
§   Sumner  to  Howard,  May  16th,  1856.    Ibid.,  p.  37.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
equal  protection,  the  governor  (June  4th)  is- 
sued his  proclamation  directing  military  or- 
ganizations to  disperse,  "  without  regard  to 
party,  names,  or  distinctions,"*  and  empower- 
ing Colonel  Sumner  to  enforce  the  order.t 
That  careful  and  discreet  officer,  who  had 
from  the  first  counseled  this  policy,  at  once 
proceeded  to  execute  the  command  with  his 
characteristic  energy.  He  disarmed  and  dis- 
persed the  free-State  guerillas, — John  Brown's 
among  the  earliest, —  liberated  prisoners,  drove 
the  Missourians,  including  delegate  Whitfield 
and  General  Coffee  of  the  skeleton  militia, 
back  across  their  State  line,  and  stationed  five 
companies  along  the  border  to  prevent  their 
return.  He  was  so  fortunate  as  to  accomplish 
all  this  without  bloodshed.  "  I  do  not  think," 
he  wrote,  June  23d,  "  there  is  an  armed  body 
of  either  party  now  in  the  territory,  with  the 
exception  perhaps  of  a  few  freebooters."! 
The  colonel  found  very  soon  that  he  was 
only  too  efficient  and  faithful.  "  My  measures 
have  necessarily  borne  hard  against  both  par- 
ties," wrote  Sumner  to  the  War  Department, 
"  for  both  have  in  many  instances  been  more 
or  less  wrong.  The  Missourians  were  perfectly 
satisfied  so  long  as  the  troops  were  employed 
exclusively  against  the  free-State  party ;  but 
when  they  found  that  I  would  be  strictly 
impartial,  that  lawless  mobs  could  no  longer 
come  from  Missouri,  and  that  their  interfer- 
ence with  the  affairs  of  Kansas  was  brought 
to  an  end,  then  they  immediately  raised  a 
hue  and  cry  that  they  were  oppressed  by  the 
United  States  troops."  §  The  complaint  had 
its  usual  prompt  effect  at  Washington.  By 
orders  dated  June  27th  the  colonel  was  super- 
seded in  his  command,  and  Brigadier-General 
P.  F.  Smith  was  sent  to  Leavenworth.  Known 
to  be  pro-slavery  in  his  opinions,  great  advan- 
tages were  doubtless  expected  by  the  conspir- 
acy from  this  change.  But  General  Smith 
was  an  invalid,  and  incapable  of  active  ser- 
vice ;  and  so  far  as  the  official  records  show, 
the  army  officers  and  troops  in  Kansas  con- 
tinued to  maintain  a  just  impartiality  in  their 
dealings  with  the  vexed  political  quarrel  of 
the  day. 
The  removal  of  Governor  Shannon  a  few 
weeks  after  Colonel  Sumner  once  more  made 
Secretary  Woodson,  always  a  willing  instru- 
ment of  the  conspiracy,  acting  governor.  It 
was  under  this  individual's  promptings  and 
proclamation,  Shannon  being  absent  from  the 
territory,  that  Colonel  Sumner,  before  the  ar- 
rival of  the  orders  superseding  him,  forcibly 
*  Shannon  Proclamation,  June  4th,  1856.  Senate 
Docs.,  3d.  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  47. 
t  Shannon  to  Sumner,  June  4th,  1856.    Ibid.,  p.  45. 
t  Sumner  to  Cooper,  June  23d,  1856.   Ibid.,  p.  50. 
Vol.  XXXIV.— 14. 
dispersed  the  free-State  legislature  on  the  4th 
of  July,  as  narrated.  For  this  act  the  cynical 
Secretary  of  War,  Jefferson  Davis,  was  not 
slow  to  send  the  colonel  an  implied  censure, || 
perhaps  to  justify  his  removal  from  com- 
mand ;  but  not  a  word  of  reproof  went  from 
President  or  Secretary  of  State  to  the  acting 
governor. 
It  has  already  been  stated  that  for  a  con- 
siderable length  of  time  after  the  organization 
of  Kansas  Territory  the  Missouri  River  was  its 
principal  highway  of  approach  from  the  States. 
To  antislavery  men  who  were  unwilling  to 
conceal  their  sentiments,  this  had  from  the 
very  first  been  a  route  of  difficulty  and  danger. 
But  now  that  political  strife  culminated  in 
civil  war,  the  Missourians  established  a  com- 
plete practical  blockade  of  the  river  against 
Northern  men  or  Northern  goods.  Recently, 
however,  railroads  had  been  pushed  forward 
across  Iowa,  and  the  Northern  emigration  to 
Kansas  little  by  little  found  a  new  route 
through  that  State  and  Nebraska. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  great  conster- 
nation was  created  in  pro-slavery  circles  by  the 
report  that  Lane  had  arrived  at  the  Iowa 
border  with  a  "  Northern  army,"  exaggerated 
into  fabulous  numbers,  and  intent  upon  fight- 
ing his  way  to  Kansas.  Parties  headed  by 
Lane  and  others  and  aggregating  some  hun- 
dreds had  in  fact  so  arrived,  and  were  more 
or  less  provided  with  arms,  though  they  had 
no  open  military  organization.  While  spies 
and  patrols  were  on  the  lookout  for  marching 
companies  and  regiments,  they,  concealing 
their  arms,  quietly  slipped  down  in  detached 
parties  to  Lawrence.  Thus  reenforced  and  in- 
spirited, the  free-State  men  took  the  aggress- 
ive, and  by  several  bold  movements  broke  up 
a  number  of  pro-slavery  camps  and  gatherings. 
Greatly  exaggerated  reports  of  these  affairs 
were  promptly  sent  to  the  neighboring  Mis- 
souri counties,  and  the  Border  Ruffians  rose 
almost  to  a  man  for  a  third  military  invasion 
of  Kansas. 
Governor  Shannon,  not  yet  notified  of  his 
removal,  reported  to  General  Smith  that 
Lecompton  was  threatened  with  an  attack. 
General  Smith,  becoming  himself  alarmed, 
called  together  all  available  force  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  territorial  capital,  and  reported 
the  exigency  to  the  War  Department.  All  the 
hesitation  which  had  hitherto  characterized 
the  instructions  of  Jefferson  Davis,  the  Secre- 
tary of  War,  in  the  use  of  troops  otherwise 
than  as  an  officer's  posse,  instantly  vanished. 
§  Sumner  to  Cooper,  Aug.  nth,  1S56.  Senate  Docs., 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  58. 
||  Sumner  to  Cooper,  Aug.  nth,  1856.  Endorsement, 
Aug.  27th,  1856.  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong. 
Vol.  III.,  p.  59.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
The  whole  Kansas  militia  was  placed  under 
the  orders  of  General  Smith,  and  requisitions 
were  issued  for  two  regiments  from  Illinois  and 
two  from  Kentucky. 
"  The  position  of  the  insurgents,"  wrote  the  Secre- 
•■  as  shown  by  your  letter  and  its  inclosures,  is 
f  open  rebellion  against  the  laws  and  constitu- 
tional authorities,  with  such  manifestation  of  a  purpose 
to  spread  devastation  over  the  land  as  no  longer  justi- 
fies further  hesitation  or  indulgence.  To  you,  as  to  every 
soldier,  whose  habitual  feeling  is  to  protect  the  citizens 
of  his  own  country,  and  only  to  use  his  arms  against  a 
public  enemy,  it  cannot  be  otherwise  than  deeply  pain- 
ful to  be  brought  into  conflict  with  any  portion  of  his 
fellow-countrymen.  But  patriotism  and  humanity  alike 
require  that  rebellion  should  be  promptly  crushed, 
and  the  perpetration  of  the  crimes  which  now  disturb 
the  peace  and  security  of  the  good  people  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Kansas  should  be  effectually  checked.  You 
will  therefore  energetically  employ  all  the  means 
within  your  reach  to  restore  the  supremacy  of  the  law, 
always  endeavoring  to  carry  out  your  present  pur- 
pose to  prevent  the  unnecessary  effusion  of  blood."  * 
The  cold-blooded  Secretary,  who  could  read 
a  description  of  the  sack  of  Lawrence  unmoved, 
had  probably  cast  his  eye  upon  the  Platte  coun- 
ty battle-call  in  the  "  Weston  Argus  Extra," 
which  formed  one  of  the  general's  inclosures. 
"  So  sudden  and  unexpected  has  been  the  attack  of 
the  abolitionists  that  the  law-and-order  party  was  un- 
prepared to  effectually  resist  them.  To-day  the  bogus 
free-State  government,  we  understand,  is  to  assemble 
at  Topeka.  The  issue  is  distinctly  made  up  ;  either  the 
free-State  or  pro-slavery  party  is  to  have  Kansas.  .  .  . 
Citizens  of  Platte  county!  the  war  is  upon  you,  and 
at  your  very  doors.  Arouse  yourselves  to  speedy  ven- 
geance and  rub  out  the  bloody  traitors."  t 
It  was  perhaps  well  that  the  pro-slavery 
zeal  of  General  Smith  was  less  ardent  than 
that  of  Secretary  Jefferson  Davis,  or  the  Amer- 
ican civil  war  might  have  begun  in  Lawrence 
instead  of  Charleston.  Upon  a  little  fuller  in- 
formation and  more  mature  reflection,  the  gen- 
eral found  that  he  had  no  need  either  of  the 
four  regiments  from  Illinois  and  Kentucky  or 
Border- Ruffian  mobs  led  by  skeleton  militia 
generals,  neither  of  which  he  had  asked  for. 
Both  the  militia  generals  and  the  Missourians 
were  too  eager  even  to  wait  for  an  official  call. 
"General"  Richardson  ordered  out  his  whole 
division  on  the  strength  of  the  "Argus  Extra" 
and  neighborhood  reports,!  and  the  entire  bor- 
der was  already  in  motion  when  Acting  Gov- 
ernor Woodson  issued  his  proclamation  §  de- 
claring the  territory  "  to  be  in  a  state  of  open  in- 
surrection and  rebellion."  General  Smith  found 
it  necessary  to  direct  his  first  orders  against 
the  Border-Ruffian  invaders  themselves. 
*  Jefferson  Davis,  Secretary  of  War,  to  General 
Smith,  Sept.  3d,  1856.  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th 
Cong.     Vol.  HI.,  p.  29. 
t  August  18th,  1856.  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th 
Cong.    Vol.  III.,  pp.  76-7. 
t  Richardson  to  General  Smith,  August  18th,  1856. 
Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.     Vol.  III.,  p.  75. 
"  It  has  been  rumored  for  several  days,"  he  wrote 
to  his  second  in  command,  "  that  large  numbers  of 
persons  from  the  State  of  Missouri  have  entered  Kan- 
sas, at  various  points,  armed,  with  the  intention  of  at- 
tacking the  opposite  party  and  driving  them  from  the 
territory,  the  latter  being  also  represented  to  be  in 
considerable  force.  If  it  should  come  to  your  knowl- 
edge that  either  side  is  moving  upon  the  other  with 
the  view  to  attack,  it  will  become  your  duty  to  ob- 
serve their  movements  and  prevent  such  hostile 
collisions."  || 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Cooke,  upon  whom  this 
active  field  Avork  devolved,  because  of  the  gen- 
eral's ill  health,  concentrated  his  little  command 
between  Lawrence  and  Lecompton,  where  he 
could  to  some  extent  exert  a  salutary  check 
upon  the  main  bodies  of  both  parties,  and 
where  he  soon  had  occasion  to  send  a  remon- 
strance to  the  acting  governor  that  his  "  mili- 
tia" was  ransacking  and  burning  houses.^} 
To  the  acting  governor's  mind,  such  a  remon- 
strance was  not  a  proper  way  to  suppress  re- 
bellion. He  therefore  sent  Colonel  Cooke  a 
requisition  to  invest  the  town  of  Topeka,  dis- 
arm the  insurrectionists,  hold  them  as  prison- 
ers, level  their  fortifications,  and  intercept 
aggressive  invaders  on  "  Lane's  trail ";  *  *  all 
of  which  demands  the  officer  prudently  and 
politely  declined,  replying  that  he  was  there 
to  assist  in  serving  judicial  process,  and  not 
to  make  war  on  the  town  of  Topeka.f  t 
If,  as  had  been  alleged,  General  Smith  was 
at  first  inclined  to  regard  the  pro-slavery  side 
with  favor,  their  arrogance  and  excesses  soon 
removed  his  prejudices,  and  he  wrote  an  un- 
sparing report  of  the  situation  to  the  War 
Department. 
"  In  explanation  of  the  position  of  affairs,  lately  and 
now,  I  may  remark  that  there  are  more  than  two  op- 
posing parties  in  the  territory.  The  citizens  of  the 
territory  who  formed  the  majority  in  the  organization 
of  the  territorial  government,  and  in  the  elections  for 
its  legislature  and  inferior  officers,  form  one  party. 
The  persons  who  organized  a  State  government,  and 
attempted  to  put  it  in  operation  against  the  authority 
of  that  established  by  Congress,  form  another.  A 
party,  at  the  head  of  which  is  a  former  Senator  from 
Missouri,  and  which  is  composed  in  a  great  part  Ot 
citizens  from  that  State,  who  have  come  into  this  ter- 
ritory armed,  under  the  excitement  produced  by  re- 
ports exaggerated  in  all  cases,  and  in  many  absolutely 
false,  form  the  third.  There  is  a  fourth,  composed  of 
idle  men  congregated  from  various  parts,  who  assume 
to  arrest,  punish,  exile,  and  even  kill  all  those  whom 
they  assume  to  be  bad  citizens;  that  is,  those  who  will 
not  join  them  or  contribute  to  their  maintenance. 
Every  one  of  these  has  in  its  own  peculiar  way  (except 
some  few  of  the  first  party)  thrown  aside  all  regard  to 
law,  and  even  honesty,  and  the  territory  under  their 
sway  is  ravaged  from  one  end  to  the  other.  .  .  . 
Until  the  day  before  yesterday  I  was  deficient  in  force 
§  August  2$th,  1856.    Ibid.,  p.  80. 
||  Deas,  A.  A.  G. ,  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cooke,  August 
28th,  1856.     Ibid.,  p.  85. 
If  Cooke  to  Deas,  August  31st,  1856.  Senate  Docs., 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  89. 
*  *  Woodson  to  Cooke,  Sept.  1st,  1856.  Ibid.,  p.  90. 
1 1  Cooke  to  Woodson,  Sept.  2d,  1856.  Ibid.,  p.  91.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
to  operate  against  all  these  at  once ;  and  the  acting 
governor  of  the  territory  did  not  seem  to  me  to  take 
a  right  view  of  affairs.  If  Mr.  Atchison  and  his  party 
had  had  the  direction  of  affairs,  they  could  not  have 
ordered  them  more  to  suit  his  purpose."  * 
All  such  truth  and  exposure  of  the  conspir- 
acy, however,  was  unpalatable  at  Washing- 
ton ;  and  Secretary  Jefferson  Davis,  while 
approving  the  conduct  of  Colonel  Cooke  and 
expressing  confidence  in  the  general,  neverthe- 
less curtly  indorsed  upon  his  report : 
"The  only  distinction  of  parties  which  in  a  military 
point  of  view  it  is  necessary  to  note  is  that  which  dis- 
tinguishes those  who  respect  and  maintain  the  laws 
and  organized  government  from  those  who  combine 
for  revolutionary  resistance  to  the  constitutional  au- 
thorities and  laws  of  the  land.  The  armed  combina- 
tion of  the  latter  class  come  within  the  denunciation  of 
the  President's  proclamation  and  are  proper  subjects 
upon  which  to  employ  the  military  force."  t 
Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  the  third 
governor  of  Kansas,  newly  appointed  by  Pres- 
ident Pierce,  arrived  in  the  territory.  The  Kan- 
sas pro-slavery  cabal  had  upon  the  dismissal  of 
Shannon  fondly  hoped  that  one  of  their  own 
clique,  either  Secretary  Woodson  or  Surveyor 
General  John  Calhoun,  would  be  made  execu- 
tive, and  had  set  on  foot  active  efforts  in  that 
direction.  In  principle  and  purpose  they  en- 
joyed the  abundant  sympathy  of  the  Pierce 
administration ;  but  as  the  presidential  elec- 
tion of  1856  was  at  hand,  the  success  of  the 
Democratic  party  could  not  at  the  moment  be 
endangered  by  so  open  and  defiant  an  act  of 
partisanship.  It  was  still  essential  to  placate 
the  wounded  antislavery  sensibilities  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  other  Northern  States,  and  to 
this  end  John  W.  Geary  of  the  Keystone  State 
was  nominated  by  the  President  and  unani- 
mously confirmed  by  the  Senate.  He  was  a 
man  of  character  and  decision,  had  gone  to 
the  Mexican  War  as  a  volunteer  captain,  and 
had  been  made  a  colonel  and  intrusted  with  an 
important  command  for  merit.  Afterwards  he 
had  served  as  postmaster,  as  alcalde,  and  as 
mayor  of  the  city  of  San  Francisco  in  the  tur- 
bulent gold  excitements  of  1848-9,  and  was 
again  made  a  funding  commissioner  by  the 
California  legislature.  J  Both  by  nature  and 
experience,  therefore,  he  seemed  well  fitted  to 
subdue  the  civil  commotions  of  Kansas. 
But  the  pro-slavery  leaders  of  the  territory 
were  very  far  from  relishing  or  desiring  quali- 
fications of  this  character.  In  one  of  their 
appeals  calling  upon  the  Missourians  for  "  as- 
sistance in  men,  provisions,  and  munitions,  that 
we  may  drive  out  the  'Army  of  the  North,'" 
they  had  given  the  President  and  the  public  a 
piece  of  their  mind  about  this  appointment. 
"  We  have  asked  the  appointment  of  a  successor," 
said  they,  "who  was  acquainted  with  our  condition," 
with  "  the  capacity  to  appreciate  and  the  boldness  and 
integrity  requisite  faithfully  to  discharge  his  duty  re- 
gardless of  the  possible  effect  it  might  have  upon  the 
election  of  some  petty  politician  in  a  distant  State.  In 
his  stead  we  have  one  appointed  who  is  ignorant  of  our 
condition,  a  stranger  to  our  people ;  who,  we  have  too 
much  cause  to  fear,  will,  if  no  worse,  prove  no  more 
efficient  to  protect  us  than  his  predecessors.  .  .  .  We 
cannot  await  the  convenience  in  coming  of  our  newly 
appointed  governor.  We  cannot  hazard  a  second  edi- 
tion of  imbecility  or  corruption  !  "  $ 
Animated  by  such  a  spirit,  they  now  bent 
all  their  energies  upon  concentrating  a  suf- 
ficient force  in  Kansas  to  crush  the  free-State 
men  before  the  new  governor  could  interfere. 
Acting  Governor  Woodson  had  by  proclama- 
tion declared  the  territory  in  a  state  of  "  open 
insurrection  and  rebellion,"  ||  and  the  officers 
of  the  skeleton  militia  were  hurriedly  enroll- 
ing the  Missourians,  giving  them  arms,  and 
planting  them  in  convenient  camps  for  a  final 
and  decisive  campaign. 
It  was  on  September  9th,  1856,  that  Gov- 
ernor Geary  and  his  party  landed  at  Leaven- 
worth. Even  on  his  approach  he  had  already 
been  compelled  to  note  and  verify  the  evi- 
dences of  civil  war.  He  had  met,  fleeing  from 
the  territory,  Governor  Shannon,  who  drew 
for  him  a  direful  picture  of  the  official  inheri- 
tance to  which  he  had  come.^j  While  this  in- 
terview took  place,  during  the  landing  of  the 
boat  at  Glasgow,  a  company  of  sixty  Missouri 
Border  Ruffians  was  embarking,  with  wagons, 
arms,  and  cannon,  and  with  the  open  declara- 
tion that  they  were  bound  for  Kansas  to  hunt 
and  kill  "  abolitionists."  *  *  Similar  belligerent 
preparations  were  in  progress  at  all  the  river 
towns  they  touched.  At  Kansas  City  the  vigi- 
lance committee  of  the  blockade  boarded  and 
searched  the  boat  for  concealed  "abolitionists." 
Finally  arrived  at  Leavenworth,  the  governor 
saw  a  repetition  of  the  same  scenes, —  parades 
and  military  control  in  the  streets,  fugitives 
within  the  inclosure  of  the  fort,  and  hundreds 
of  minor  evidences  of  lawlessness  and  a  reign 
of  terror. 
Governor  Geary  went  at  once  to  the  fort, 
where  he  spent  the  day  in  consultation  with 
General  Smith.  That  same  evening  he  wrote 
to  Secretary  of  State  Marcy  a  report  of  the 
day's  impressions  which  was  anything  but 
reassuring  —  Leavenworth  in  the  hands  of 
armed  men  committing   outrages  under  the 
*  Smith  to  Cooper,  Sept.  10th,  1856.    Senate  Docs.,        t"  Washington  Union,"  August  1st,  1856. 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  80.  %  Gihon,  p.  130. 
t  Sec.   War,  endorsement,   Sept.    23d,  on  letter  of  -~  ||  Woodson,  Proclamation,  August  25th,  1S56.    Sen- 
Gen.  Smith  to  A.  G.,  Sept.  10th,  1856.    Senate  Docs.,  ate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  80. 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.   Vol.  III.,  p.  83. 
U"  Gihon,  p.  104. 
Gihon, 
PP-  104-5-
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
shadow  of  authority ;  theft  and  murder  in  the 
streets  and  on  the  highways;  farms  plundered 
and  deserted :  agitation,  excitement,  and  utter 
insecurity  everywhere,  and  the  number  of 
troops  insufficient  to  compel  peace  and  order. 
All  this  was  not  the  worst,  however.  Deep  in 
the  background  stood  the  sinister  apparition  of 
the  Atchison  cabal. 
••  I  find,"  wrote  he,  "  that  I  have  not  simply  to  con- 
tend against  bands  of  armed  ruffians  and  brigands 
whose  sole  aim  and  end  is  assassination  and  robbery 
—  infatuated  adherents  and  advocates  of  conflicting  po- 
litical sentiments  and  local  institutions  —  and  evil-dis- 
posed persons  actuated  by  a  desire  to  obtain  elevated 
positions  ;  but  worst  of  all,  against  the  influence  of 
men  who  have  been  placed  in  authority  and  have  em- 
ployed all  the  destructive  agents  around  them  to  pro- 
mote their  own  personal  interests  at  the  sacrifice  of 
every  just,  honorable,  and  lawful  consideration.  .  .  . 
Such  is  the  condition  of  Kansas  faintly  pictured.  .  .  . 
In  making  the  foregoing  statements  I  have  endeavored 
to  give  the  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  I  deem  it 
important  that  you  should  be  apprised  of  the  actual 
state  of  the  case;  and  whatever  may  be  the  effect  of 
such  revelations,  they  will  be  given  from  time  to  time 
without  extenuation."* 
Discouraging  as  he  found  his  new  task  of 
administration,  Governor  Geary  grappled  with 
it  in  a  spirit  of  justice  and  decision.  The  day 
following  his  interview  with  General  Smith 
found  him  at  Lecompton,  the  nominal  capital 
of  the  territory,  where  the  other  territorial  of- 
ficials, Woodson,  Calhoun,  Donaldson,  Sheriff 
Jones,  Lecompte,  Cato,  and  others,  constituted 
the  ever-vigilant  working  force  of  the  Atchi- 
son cabal,  precisely  as  had  been  so  truthfully 
represented  to  him  by  General  Smith,  and  as 
he  had  so  graphically  described  in  his  yester- 
day's letter  to  Marcy.  Paying  little  heed  to 
their  profusely  offered  advice,  he  adhered  to 
his  determination  to  judge  for  himself,  and  at 
once  issued  an  inaugural  address,  declaring 
that  in  his  official  action  he  would  do  justice 
at  all  hazards,  that  he  desired  to  know  no  party 
and  no  section,  and  imploring  the  people  to 
bury  their  past  strifes,  and  devote  themselves 
to  peace,  industry,  and  the  material  develop- 
ment of  the  territory,  t  As  an  evidence  of  his 
earnestness  he  simultaneously  issued  two  proc- 
lamations, t  one  disbanding  the  volunteer  or 
Missouri  militia  lately  called  into  service  by 
Acting  Governor  Woodson,  and  the  other 
commanding  the  immediate  enrollment  of 
the  true  citizen  militia  of  Kansas  Territory, 
this  step  being  taken  by  the  advice  of  General 
Smith.  § 
He  soon  found  that  he  could  not  govern 
Kansas  with  paper  proclamations  alone.  His 
sudden  arrival  at  this  particular  juncture  was 
evidently  an  unexpected  contretemps.  While  he 
was  preaching  and  printing  his  sage  admoni- 
tions about  peace  and  prosperity  at  Lecompton, 
and  laboring  to  change  the  implements  of  civil 
war  into  plowshares  and  priming-hooks,  the 
Missouri  raid  against  Lawrence,  officially 
called  into  the  field  by  Woodson's  proclama- 
tion, was  about  to  deal  out  destruction  to  that 
town.  A  thousand  Border  Ruffians  (at  least 
two  eye-witnesses  say  twenty-five  hundred), 
led  by  their  recognized  Missouri  chiefs,  were 
at  that  moment  camped  within  striking  distance 
of  the  hated  "  New  Boston."  Their  published 
address,  which  declared  that  "  these  traitors, 
assassins,  and  robbers  must  now  be  punished, 
must  now  be  taught  a  lesson  they  will  remem- 
ber," that  "  Lane's  army  and  its  allies  must  be 
expelled  from  the  territory,"  left  no  doubt  of 
their  errand. 
This  news  reached  the  governor  about  mid- 
night of  his  second  day  in  Lecompton.  One 
of  the  brigadiers  of  the  skeleton  militia  was 
apparently  in  command,  and  not  yet  having 
caught  the  cue  of  the  governor's  intentions, 
reported  the  force  for  orders,  "in  the  field, 
ready  for  duty,  and  impatient  to  act."||  At 
about  the  same  hour  he  received  a  message 
from  the  agent  he  had  sent  to  Lawrence  to 
distribute  copies  of  his  inaugural,  that  the 
people  of  that  town  were  arming  and  prepar- 
ing to  receive  and  repel  this  contemplated 
attack  of  the  Missourians.  The  governor  was 
dumfounded  at  the  information.  His  prom- 
ises and  policy,  upon  which  the  ink  was  not 
yet  dry,  were  already  in  jeopardy.  Instead  of 
bringing  peace  his  advent  was  about  to  open 
war. 
In  this  contingency  the  governor  took  his 
measures  with  true  military  promptness.  He 
immediately  dispatched  to  the  Missouri  camp 
Secretary  Woodson  with  copies  of  his  inaugu- 
ral, and  the  adjutant-general  of  the  territory 
with  orders  to  disband  and  muster  out  of 
service  the  Missouri  volunteers,  fi  while  he 
himself,  at  the  head  of  three  hundred  dragoons 
and  a  light  battery,  moved  rapidly  to  Law- 
rence, a  distance  of  twelve  miles.  Entering 
that  town  at  sunrise,  he  found  a  few  hundred 
men  hastily  organized  for  defense  in  the  im- 
provised intrenchments  and  barricades  about 
the  place,  ready  enough  to  sell  their  lives,  but 
vastly  more  willing  to  intrust  their  protection 
to  the  governor's  authority  and  the  Federal 
*  Geary  to  Marcy,  Sept.  9th,  1856.  Senate  Docs., 
3d  Sess   34th  Cong.    Vol.  II.,  p.  88. 
t  Geary,  Inaugural  Address,  Sept.  nth,  1856.  Senate 
Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  116. 
t  Geary,  Proclamation,  Sept.  nth,  1856.  Ibid.,  Vol. 
II.,   pp.  93-4. 
§  Geary  to  Marcy,  Sept.  12th,  1856.    Ibid.,  p.  95. 
||  General  Heiskell  to  Geary,  Sept.  nth  and  12th, 
1856.    Gihon,  pp.  136-7. 
IF  Geary  to  Marcy,  Sept.  16th,  1856.  Senate  Docs., 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  II.,  p.  107.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
troops.*  They  listened  to  his  speech  and 
readily  promised  to  obey  his  requirements. 
Since  the  Missourians  had  officially  re- 
ported themselves  to  him  as  subject  to  his 
orders,  the  governor  supposed  that  his  in- 
junctions, conveyed  to  them  in  writing  and 
print,  and  borne  by  the  Secretary  and  the  adju- 
tant-general of  the  territory,  would  suffice  to 
send  them  back  at  once  to  their  own  borders, 
and  he  returned  to  Lecompton  to  take  up  his 
thorny  duties  of  administration.  But  though 
forewarned  by  ex- Governor  Shannon  and  by 
General  Smith,  the  governor  did  not  yet  real- 
ize the  temper  and  purpose  of  either  the  cabal 
conspirators  or  the  Border- Ruffian  rank  and 
file.  He  had  just  dispatched  a  military  force 
in  another  direction  to  intercept  and  disarm 
a  raid  about  to  be  made  by  a  detachment  of 
Lane's  men,  when  news  came  to  him  that  the 
Missourians  were  still  moving  upon  Lawrence 
in  increased  force,  that  his  officers  had  not  yet 
delivered  theirorders,  and  that  skirmishing  had 
begun  between  the  outposts. 
Menaced  thus  with  dishonor  on  one  side 
and  contempt  on  the  other,  he  gathered  all 
his  available  Federal  troops,  and  hurrying  for- 
ward posted  them  between  Lawrence  and  the 
invaders.  Then  he  went  to  the  Missouri 
camp,  where  the  true  condition  of  affairs  be- 
gan to  dawn  upon  him.  All  the  Border-Ruffian 
chiefs  were  there,  headed  by  Atchison  in  per- 
son, who  was  evidently  the  controlling  force, 
though  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  the 
State  of  Missouri,  named  Reid,  exercised 
nominal  command.!  He  found  his  orders 
unheeded  and  on  every  hand  mutterings  of 
impatience  and  threats  of  defiance.  These 
invading  aliens  had  not  the  least  disposition 
*  Colonel  Cooke  to  Porter,  A.  A.  G.,  Sept.  13th,  1856. 
Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,  p.  113. 
t  Wilder,  p.   108;   Gihon,  p.  152. 
%  Colonel  Cooke  to  Porter,  Sept.  16th,  1856.  Senate 
Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.     Vol.  III.,  p.  121. 
fife.. 
HOUSE     OCCUPIED     BY    GOVERNOR    GEARY. 
JOHN     W.     GEARY     (1866). 
(FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH     BY     DRAPER    &    HLSTED.) 
to  receive  commands  as  Kansas  militia ;  they 
invoked  that  name  only  as  a  cloak  to  shield 
them  from  the  legal  penalties  due  their  real 
character  as  organized  banditti. 
The  governor  called  the  chiefs  together  and 
made  them  an  earnest  harangue.  He  explained 
to  them  his  conciliatory  policy,  read  his  in- 
structions from  Washington,  affirmed  his  de- 
termination to  keep  peace,  and  appealed  per- 
sonally to  Atchison  to  aid  him  in  enforcing  law 
and  preserving  order.  That  wily  chief,  seeing 
that  refusal  would  put  him  in  the  attitude  of  a 
law-breaker,  feigned  a  ready  compliance,  and 
he  and  Reid,  his  factotum  commander,  made 
eloquent  speeches  "calculated  to  produce 
submission  to  the  legal  demands  made  upon 
them."  J  Some  of  the  lesser 
captains,  however,  were  mu- 
tinous, and  treated  the  gov- 
ernor to  choice  bits  of  Border- 
Ruffian  rhetoric.  Law  and 
violence  vibrated  in  uncertain 
balance,  when  Colonel  Cooke, 
commanding  the  Federal 
troops,  took  the  floor  and  cut 
the  knot  of  discussion  in  a 
summary  way.  "  I  felt  called 
f  upon  to  say  some  words  my- 
self," he  writes  naively.  "  ap- 
pealing to  these  militia  officers 
as  an  old  resident  of  Kansas 
and  friend  to  the  Missourians 
to  submit  to  the  patriotic  de- 
mand that  thev  should  retire. 
Vol.  XXXTV.  —  i4*
9» 
assuring  them  of  my  ported  confidence  in  the 
inflexible  justice  of  the  governor,  and  that  it 
would  become  my  painful  duty  to  sustain  him 
at  the  cannon's  mouth."  *  This  argument  was 
decisive.  The  valiant  border  chiefs  felt  will- 
ing enough  to  lead  their  awkward  squads 
against  the  slight  barricades  of  Lawrence, 
but  quailed  at  the  unlooked-for  prospect  of 
encountering  the  carbines  and  sabers  of  half  a 
regiment  o\  regular  dragoons  and  the  grape- 
shot  of  a  well-drilled  light  battery.  They  ac- 
cepted the  inevitable :  and  swallowing  their 
g  and  still  nursing  their  revenge,  they  con- 
sented perforce  to  retire  and  be  "  honorably  " 
mustered  out.  But  for  this  narrow  contin- 
gency Lawrence  would  have  been  sacked  by 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
of  a  "  muster  out,"  rather  than  the  fine,  im- 
prisonment, or  halter  which  the  full  execution 
of  their  design  would  render  them  liable  to, 
another  detachment  of  Federal  dragoons  was 
enforcing  the  bogus  laws  upon  a  company  of 
free-State  men  who  had  just  had  a  skirmish 
with  another  detachment  of  this  same  invad- 
ing army  of  Border  Ruffians,  at  a  place  called 
Hickory  Point.  The  encounter  itself  had  all 
the  usual  characteristics  of  the  dozens  of  simi- 
lar affairs  which  occurred  during  this  prolonged 
period  of  border  warfare  —  a  neighborhood 
feud ;  neighborhood  violence ;  the  appearance 
of  organized  bands  for  retaliation  ;  the  taking 
of  forage,  animals,  and  property;  the  fortifying 
of  two  or  three  log-houses  by  a  pro- slavery 
the   direct   agency   of  the  territorial  cabal  a 
second  time. 
Nothing  could  more  forcibly  demonstrate 
the  unequal  character  of  the  contest  between 
the  slave-State  and  the  free-State  men  in 
Kansas,  even  in  these  manoeuvres  and  conflicts 
of  civil  war,  than  the  companion  exploit  to 
this  third  Lawrence  raid.  The  day  before 
Governor  Geary,  seconded  by  the  "cannon" 
argument  of  Colonel  Cooke,  was  convincing 
the  reluctant  Missourians  that  it  was  better  to 
accept,  as  a  reward  for  their  unfinished  expedi- 
tion, the  pay,  rations,  and  honorable  discharge 
"  Cooke  to  Porter,  Sept.  16th,  1856.    Senate  Docs., 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  III.,    p.  122. 
company  then  on  its  way  to  join  in  the  Law- 
rence attack,  and  finally  the  appearance  of  a 
more  numerous  free-State  party  to  dislodge 
them.  The  besieging  column,  some  three 
hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  had  brought  up 
a  brass  four-pounder,  lately  captured  from  the 
pro-slavery  men,  and  with  this  and  their  rifles 
kept  up  a  long-range  fire  for  about  six  hours, 
when  the  garrison  of  Border  Ruffians  capitu- 
lated on  condition  of  being  allowed  "  honor- 
ably "  to  evacuate  their  stronghold  and  retire. 
The  casualties  were  one  man  killed  and  several 
wounded. f 
t  Examination,  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong. 
Vol.  II.,  pp.  156-169.
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 
The  rejoicing  of  the  free-State  men  over 
this  not  too  brilliant  victory  was  short-lived. 
Returning  home  in  separate  squads,  they 
were  successively  intercepted  by  the  Federal 
dragoons  acting  as  a  posse  to  the  Deputy 
United  States  Marshal,  *  who  arrested  them 
on  civil  writs  obtained  in  haste  by  an  active 
member  of  the  territorial  cabal,  and  to  the 
number  of  eighty-nine  f  were  taken  prisoners 
to  Lecompton.  So  far  the  affair  had  been  of 
such  frequent  occurrence  as  to  have  become 
commonplace  —  a  frontier  "  free  fight,"  as 
they  themselves  described  and  regarded  it. 
But  now  it  took  on  a  truly  remarkable  aspect. 
Sterling  G.  Cato,  one  of  the  pro-slavery 
territorial  judges,  had  been  found  by  Gov- 
ernor Geary  in  the  Missouri  camp  drilling 
and  doing  duty  as  a  soldier,  \  ready  and 
doubtless  more  than  willing  to  take  part  in 
the  projected  sack  of  Lawrence.  This  Federal 
judge,  as  open  a  law-breaker  as  these  Hickory 
Point  prisoners  (the  two  affairs  really  forming 
part  of  one  and  the  same  enterprise),  now 
seated  himself  on  his  judicial  bench  and  com- 
mitted the  whole  party  for  trial  on  charge  of 
murder  in  the  first  degree ;  §  and  at  the  Octo- 
ber term  of  his  court  proceeded  to  try  and 
condemn  to  penalties  prescribed  by  the  bogus 
laws  some  eighteen  or  twenty  of  these  prisoners, 
for  offenses  in  which  in  equity  and  good  morals 
*  Captain  Wood  to  Colonel  Cooke,  Sept.  16th,  1856. 
Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.  Vol.  III.,  pp.  123- 
126. 
t  Geary  to  Marcy,  October  1st,  1856.  Senate  Docs., 
3d  Sess.  34th  Cong.    Vol.  II.,  p.  156. 
%  Gihon,  p.  158. 
%  Record  of  examination,  Senate  Docs.,  3d  Sess. 
34th  Cong.    Vol.  II.,  p.  169. 
GENERAL  P.  ST.  GEORGE  COOKE  (l86l). 
(FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN  BY  WHITEHURST.) 
DRAWN    BY   WILLIAM    BREYMAN. 
IN    LECOMPTON    PRISON.       (IN    POSSESSION    OF    THE    KANSAS    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY.) 
LITHOGRAPHED    BY
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
IOI 
he  was  personally particeps  criminis  —  some  of 
the  convicts  being  held  in  confinement  until 
the  following  March,  when  they  were  par- 
doned by  the  governor.  *  Inter  arma  silent 
leges,  say  the  publicists;  but  in  this  particular 
instance  the  license  of  guerilla  war,  the  fraudu- 
lent statutes  of  the  territory,  and  the  laws  of 
Congress  were  combined  and  perverted  with 
a  satanic  ingenuity  in  furtherance  of  this 
wretched  conspiracy. 
The  vigorous  proceedings  of  Governor 
Geary,  the  forced  retirement  of  the  Missou- 
rians  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  arrest  and  con- 
viction of  the  free-State  partisans  on  the  other, 
had  the  effect  to  bring  the  guerilla  war  to  an 
abrupt  termination.  The  retribution  had  fallen 
very  unequally  upon  the  two  parties  to  the 
conflict,  f  but  this  was  due  to  the  legal  traps 
and  pitfalls  prepared  with  such  artful  design 
by  the  Atchison  conspiracy,  and  not  to  the 
personal  indifference  or  ill-will  of  the  gover- 
nor. He  strove  sincerely  to  restore  impartial 
administration;  he  completed  the  disband- 
ment  of  the  territorial  militia,  reenlisting  into 
the  Federal  service  one  pro-slavery  and  one 
free-State  company  for  police  duty.  By  the 
end  of  September  he  was  enabled  to  write  to 
Washington  that  "  peace  now  reigns  in  Kan- 
sas." Encouraged  by  this  success  in  allaying 
guerilla  strife,  he  next  endeavored  to  break 
up  the  existing  political  persecution  and  in- 
trigues. 
It  was  not  long,  however,  before  Governor 
Geary  became  conscious,  to  his  great  surprise 
and  mortification,  that  he  had  been  nominated 
and  sent  to  Kansas  as  a  partisan  manoeuvre, 
and  not  to  institute  administrative  reforms; 
that  his  instructions,  written  during  the  presi- 
dential campaign,  to  tranquillize  Kansas  by 
his  "  energy,  impartiality,  and  discretion,"  \ 
really  meant  that  after  Mr.  Buchanan  was 
elected  he  should  satisfy  the  Atchison  cabal. 
In  less  than  six  months  after  he  had  come 
to  the  territory,  clothed  with  the  executive 
authority,  speaking  the  President's  voice,  and 
representing  the  unlimited  military  power  of 
the  republic,  he,  the  third  Democratic  governor 
of  Kansas,  was,  like  his  predecessors,  in 
secret  and  ignoble  flight  from  the  province 
he  had  so  trustfully  come  to  rule,  contemned 
and  execrated  by  his  party  associates,  aban- 
doned and  disgraced  by  the  Administration 
which  had  appointed  him,  and  without  pro- 
tection to  guard  him  from  the  assault  of  high- 
wayman or  assassin.  Humiliating  as  was  this 
local  conspiracy  to  plant  servitude  in  Kansas, 
a  more  aggressive  political  movement  to 
nationalize  slavery  in  all  the  Union  was  about 
to  eclipse  it. 
THE  CONVENTIONS  OF   1856. 
In  the  State  of  Illinois,  the  spring  of  the  year 
1856  saw  an  almost  spontaneous  impulse  to- 
ward the  formation  of  a  new  party.  As  already 
described,  it  was  a  transition  period  in  politics. 
The  disorganization  of  the  Whig  party  was  ma- 
terially increased  and  hastened  by  the  failure, 
two  years  before,  to  make  Lincoln  a  Senator. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  election  of  Trumbull 
served  quite  as  effectively  to  consolidate  the 
Democratic  rebellion  against  Douglas  in  his 
blind  determination  to  make  the  support  of 
his  Nebraska  'bill  a  test  of  party  orthodoxy. 
Many  of  the  Northern  counties  formed  "  Re- 
publican "  organizations  in  the  two  previous 
years ;  but  the  name  was  entirely  local,  while 
the  opposition,  not  yet  united,  but  fighting 
in  factions  against  the  Nebraska  bill,  only 
*  Gihon,  pp.  142-3.  Geary,  Executive  Minutes,  Sen- 
ate Docs.,  1st  Sess.  35th  Cong.    Vol.  VI.,  p.  195. 
t  The  Kansas  territorial  legislature,  in  the  year 
1859,  by  which  time  local  passion  had  greatly  sub- 
sided, by  law  empowered  anon-partisan  board  of  three 
commissioners  to  collect  sworn  testimony  concerning 
the  ravages  of  the  civil  war  in  Kansas,  with  a  view  of 
obtaining  indemnity  from  the  General  Government 
for  the  individual  sufferers.  These  commissioners, 
after  a  careful  examination,  made  an  official  report,  from 
which  may  be  gleaned  an  interesting  summary  in  num- 
bers and  values  of  the  harvest  of  crime  and  destruction 
which  the  Kansas  contest  produced,  and  which  report 
can  be  relied  upon,  since  eye-witnesses  and  participants 
of  both  parties  freely  contributed  their  testimony  at  the 
invitation  of  the  commissioners. 
_  
The  commissioners  fixed  the  period  of  the  war  as  be- 
ginning about  November  1st,  1 855,  and  continuing  until 
about  December  1st,  1856.  They  estimated  that  the  en- 
tire loss  and  destruction  of  property,  including  the 
cost  of  fitting  out  the  various  expeditions,  amounted  to 
an  aggregate  of  not  less  than  $2,000,000.  Fully  one- 
half  of  this  loss,  they  thought,  was  directly  sustained  by 
actual  settlers  of  Kansas.  They  received  petitions  and 
took  testimony  in  463  cases.  They  reported 41 7  cases  as 
X  Marcy  to  Geary,  August 
entitled  to  indemnity.    The  detailed  figures  and  values 
of  property  destroyed  are  presented  as  follows  : 
"Amount  of  crops  destroyed,  $37,349.61  ;  number 
of  buildings  burned  and  destroyed,  78;  horses  taken 
or  destroyed,  368 ;  cattle  taken  or  destroyed,  533. 
Amount  of  property  owned  by  pro-slavery  men,  $77,- 
198.99;  property  owned  by  free-State  men,  $335,- 
779.04;  property  taken  or  destroyed  by  pro-slavery 
men,  $318,718.63;  property  taken  or  destroyed  by 
free-State  men,  $94,529.40." 
About  the  loss  of  life  the  commissioners  say,  "  Al- 
though not  within  our  province,  we  may  be  excused  for 
stating  that,  from  the  most  reliable  information  that 
we  have  been  able  to  gather,  by  the  secret  warfare  of 
the  guerilla  system,  and  in  well-known  encounters, 
the  number  of  lives  sacrificed  in  Kansas  during  the 
period  mentioned  probably  exceeded  rather  than  fell 
short  of  two  hundred.  .  .  .  That  the  excitement  in 
the  Eastern  and  Southern  States,  in  1S56,  was  insti- 
gated and  kept  up  by  garbled  and  exaggerated  ac- 
counts of  Kansas  affairs,  published  in  the  Eastern  and 
Southern  newspapers,  is  true,  most  true ;  but  the 
half  of  what  was  done  by  either  party  was  never  chroni- 
cled!"—  House  Reports,  2d  Sess.  36th  Cong.  Vol. 
III.,  Part  1,  pp.  90  and  93. 
26th,  1856.    Gihon,  p.  272.
102 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
acknowledged  political  affinity  under  the  gen- 
eral term  of  the  u  Anti-Nebraska  "  party. 
In  the  absence  of  any  existing  party  ma- 
chinery, some  fifteen  editors  of  anti-Ne- 
braska newspapers  met  for  conference  at 
Decatur  on  the  2 2d  of  February  and  issued 
a  call  for  a  delegate  State  convention  of  the 
"Anti-Nebraska  party,"  to  meet  at  Bloom- 
ington  on  the  29th  of  May.  Prominent  lead- 
ers, as  a  rule,  hesitated  to  commit  themselves 
by  their  presence  at  Decatur.  Not  so  with 
Mr.  Lincoln.  He  could  not  attend  the  delib- 
erations as  an  editor;  but  he  doubtless  lent 
his  suggestion  and  advice,  for  we  find  him 
among  the  distinguished  guests  and  speakers 
at  the  banquet  which  followed  the  business 
session,  and  toasts  to  his  candidacy  as  "  the 
next  United  States  Senator"  show  that  his 
leadership  had  suffered  no  abatement.  The 
assembled  editors  purposely  set  the  Bloom- 
ington  convention  for  a  somewhat  late  day 
in  the  campaign,  and  before  the  time  arrived, 
the  political  situation  in  the  State  was  already 
much  more  clearly  defined. 
One  factor  which  greatly  baffled  the  calcu- 
lations and  forecast  of  politicians  was  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Know-Nothing  or  American 
party.  It  was  apparent  to  all  that  this  order 
or  affiliation  had  during  the  past  two  years 
spread  into  Illinois,  as  into  other  States.  But 
as  its  machinery  and  action  were  secret,  and  as 
no  general  election  had  occurred  since  1854  to 
exhibit  its  numerical  strength,  its  possible  scope 
and  influence  could  only  be  vaguely  estimated. 
Still  it  was  clearly  present  as  a  positive  force. 
Its  national  council  had  in  February  at  Phila- 
delphia nominated  Fillmore  and  Donelson  as 
a  presidential  ticket ;  but  the  preponderating 
Southern  membership  forced  an  indorsement 
of  the  Kansas- Nebraska  act  into  its  platform, 
which  destroyed  the  unity  and  power  of  the 
party,  driving  the  Northern  delegates  to  a  bolt. 
Nevertheless  many  Northern  voters,  indifferent 
to  the  slavery  issue,  still  sought  to  maintain  jts 
organization;  and  thus  in  Illinois  the  State 
Council  met  early  in  May,  ratified  the  nom- 
ination of  Fillmore  for  President,  and  nomi- 
nated candidates  for  governor  and  other  State 
offices.* 
The  Democratic  party,  or  rather  so  much  of 
that  party  as  did  not  openly  repudiate  the  pol- 
icy and  principle  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act, 
made  early  preparations  for  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign. The  great  loss  in  prestige  and  numbers 
he  had  already  sustained  admonished  Douglas 
that  his  political  fortunes  hung  in  a  doubtful  bal- 
ance. But  he  was  a  bold  and  aggressive  leader, 
to  whom  controversy  and  party  warfare  were 
rather  an  inspiration  than  a  discouragement. 
Under  his  guidance,  the  Democratic  State  con- 
*  "  History  of  Illinois,"  Davidson  and  Stuve,  p.  648. 
vention  nominated  for  governor  of  Illinois 
William  A.  Richardson,  late  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  which  body  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories  he 
had  been  the  leader  to  whom  the  success  of 
the  Nebraska  bill  was  specially  intrusted,  and 
where  his  somewhat  unscrupulous  parliament- 
ary management  had  contributed  materially  to 
the  final  passage  of  that  measure. 
Thus  the  attitude  of  opposing  factions  and 
the  unorganized  unfolding  of  public  opinion, 
rather  than  any  mere  promptings  or  combina- 
tions of  leaders,  developed  the  cause  of  the 
an ti- Nebraska  men  of  Illinois.  Out  of  this 
condition  sprang  directly  one  important  ele- 
ment of  future  success.  Richardson's  candi- 
dacy, long  foreshadowed,  was  seen  to  require  an 
opposing  nominee  of  unusual  popularity.  He 
was  found  in  the  person  of  Colonel  William 
H.  Bissell,  late  a  Democratic  representative 
in  Congress,  where  he  had  denounced  disunion 
in  1850,  and  opposed  the  Nebraska  bill  in  1854. 
He  had  led  a  regiment  to  the  Mexican  war, 
and  fought  gallantly  at  the  battle  of  Buena 
Vista.  His  military  laurels  easily  carried  him 
into  Congress;  but  the  exposures  of  the  Mex- 
ican campaign  also  burdened  him  with  a  disease 
which  paralyzed  his  lower  limbs,  and  compelled 
retirement  from  active  politics  after  his  second 
term.  He  was  now,  however,  once  more  recov- 
ering; and  having  already  exhibited  civic  tal- 
ents of  a  high  order,  the  popular  voice  made 
light  of  his  physical  infirmity,  and  his  friends 
declared  their  readiness  to  match  the  brains 
of  Bissell  against  the  legs  of  his  opponents. 
One  piece  of  his  history  rendered  him  spe- 
cially acceptable  to  young  and  spirited  Western 
voters.  His  service  in  Congress  began  amid 
exciting  debates  over  the  Compromise  meas- 
ures of  1850,  when  the  Southern  fire-eaters 
were  already  rampant  and  reckless.  Seddon 
of  Virginia,  in  his  eagerness  to  depreciate  the 
North  and  glorify  the  South,  affirmed  in  a 
speech  that  at  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  "  at 
that  most  critical  juncture  when  all  seemed 
lost  save  honor,"  amid  the  discomfiture  and 
rout  of  "  the  brave  but  unfortunate  troops  of 
the  North  through  a  mistaken  order,"  "  the  no- 
ble regiment  of  Mississippians  "  had  snatched  ^
victory  from  the  jaws  of  death,  t  Replying 
some  days  later  to  Seddon's  innuendo,  Bis- 
sell, competent  by  his  presence  on  the  battle- 
field to  bear  witness,  retorted  that  when  the 
2d  Indiana  gave  way,  it  was  McKee's  2d 
Kentucky,  Hardin's  1st  Illinois,  and  Bissell's 
2d  Illinois  which  had  retrieved  the  fortunes 
of  the  hour,  and  that  the  vaunted  Mississippi 
regiment  was  not  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of 
the  scene  of  action.  Properly  this  was  an  is- 
sue of  veracity  between  Seddon  and  Bissell,  of 
t  January  23d,  1850;  "  Globe,"  app.  78.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
easy  solution.  But  Jefferson  Davis,  who  com- 
manded the  Mississippi  regiment  in  question, 
began  an  interchange  of  notes  with  Bissell 
which  from  the  first  smelt  of  gunpowder. 
Were  his  reported  remarks  correct  ?  asked 
Davis  in  substance.  Bissell  answered,  repeat- 
ing the  language  of  his  speech  and  defining 
the  spot  and  the  time  to  which  it  applied,  add- 
ing, "  I  deem  it  due,  in  justice  alike  to  myself 
and  the  Mississippi  regiment,  to  say  that  I 
made  no  charge  against  that  regiment."  Davis 
persisting,  then  asked,  in  substance,  whether  he 
meant  to  deny  General  Lane's  official  report 
that  "  the  regiment  of  Mississippians  came  to 
the  rescue  at  the  proper  time  to  save  the  for- 
tunes of  the  day."  Bissell  rejoined,  u  My  re- 
marks had  reference  to  a  different  time  and  place 
from  those  referred  to  by  General  Lane." 
At  this  point  both  parties  might  with  great 
propriety  have  ended  the  correspondence. 
Sufficient  inquiry  had  been  met  by  generous 
explanation.  But  Davis,  apparently  determined 
to  push  Bissell  to  the  wall,  now  sent  his  chal- 
lenge. This  time,  however,  he  met  his  match 
in  courage.  Bissell  named  an  officer  of  the 
army  as  his  second,  instructing  him  to  suggest 
as  weapons  "muskets,  loaded  with  ball  and 
buckshot."  The  terms  of  combat  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  formally  proposed  be- 
tween the  friends  who  met  to  arrange  matters, 
but  they  were  evidently  understood ;  for  the 
affair  was  hushed  up,  with  the  simple  addition 
to  Bissell's  first  reply  that  he  was  willing  to 
award  the  Mississippi  regiment  "  the  credit 
due  to  their  gallant  and  distinguished  services 
in  that  battle." 
The  Bloomington  convention  came  togeth- 
er according  to  call  on  the  29th  of  May.  By 
this  time  the  active  and  observant  politicians 
of  the  State  had  become  convinced  that  the 
anti-Nebraska  struggle  was  not  a  mere  tem- 
porary and  insignificant  "  abolition  "  excite- 
ment, but  a  deep  and  abiding  political  issue, 
involving  in  the  fate  of  slavery  the  fate  of 
the  nation.  Minor  and  past  differences  were 
therefore  generously  postponed  or  waived  in 
favor  of  a  hearty  coalition  on  the  single  dom- 
inant question.  A  most  notable  gathering  of 
the  clans  was  the  result.  About  one-fourth 
of  the  counties  sent  regularly  chosen  delega- 
tions ;  the  rest  were  volunteers.  In  spirit  and 
enthusiasm,  therefore,  it  was  rather  a  mass- 
meeting  than  a  convention;  but  every  man 
present  was  in  some  sort  a  leader  in  his  own 
locality.  The  assemblage  was  much  more 
representative  than  similar  bodies  gathered  by 
the  ordinary  caucus  machinery.  It  was  an 
earnest  and  determined  council  of  five  or  six 
hundred  cool,  sagacious,  independent  thinkers, 
called  together  by  a  great  public  exigency,  led 
and  directed  by  the  first  minds  of  the  State. 
Not  only  did  it  show  a  brilliant  array  of  emi- 
nent names,  but  a  remarkable  contrast  of  for- 
mer antagonisms:  Whigs,  Democrats,  Free- 
soilers,  Know-nothings,  Abolitionists;  Judd, 
Yates,  Peck,  Swett,  Trumbull,  Davis,  Lovejoy, 
Browning,  Codding,  Williams, and  many  more. 
Chief  among  these,  as  adviser  and  actor,  was 
Abraham  Lincoln. 
Rarely  has  a  deliberative  body  met  under 
circumstances  more  exciting  than  did  this  one. 
The  Congressional  debates  at  Washington  and 
the  civil  war  in  Kansas  were  each  at  a  cul- 
mination of  passion  and  incident.  Within  ten 
days  Sumner  had  been  struck  down  in  the 
Senate,  and  the  town  of  Lawrence  sacked  by 
the  guerilla  posse  of  Atchison  and  Sheriff 
Jones.  Ex-Governor  Reeder,  of  that  suffering 
territory,  addressed  the  citizens  of  Bloomington 
and  the  earliest-arriving  delegates  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  28th,  bringing  the  very  atmosphere 
of  the  Kansas  conflict  into  the  convention 
itself. 
The  convention  met  and  conducted  its 
work  with  earnestness  and  dignity.  Bissell, 
already  designated  by  unmistakable  popular 
indications,  was  nominated  for  governor  by 
acclamation.  The  candidate  for  lieutenant- 
governor  was  named  in  like  manner.  So  little 
did  the  convention  think  or  care  about  the 
mere  distribution  of  political  honors  on  the 
one  hand,  and  so  much,  on  the  other,  did  it 
regard  and  provide  for  the  success  of  the  cause, 
that  it  did  not  even  ballot  for  the  remaining 
candidates  on  the  State  ticket,  but  deputed  to  a 
committee  the  task  of  selecting  and  arranging 
them,  and  adopted  its  report  as  a  whole  and  by 
acclamation.  The  more  difficult  task  of  draft- 
ing a  platform  was  performed  by  another  com- 
mittee, with  such  prudence  that  it  too  received 
a  unanimous  acceptance.  It  boldly  adopted 
the  Republican  name,  formulated  the  Repub- 
lican creed,  and  the  convention  further  ap- 
pointed delegates  to  the  coming  Republican 
national  convention. 
There  were  stirring  speeches  by  eloquent 
leaders,  eagerly  listened  to  and  vociferously  ap- 
plauded ;  but  scarcely  a  man  stirred  from  his 
seat  in  the  crowded  hall  until  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
been  heard.  Every  one  felt  the  fitness  of  his 
making  the  closing  argument  and  exhortation, 
and  right  nobly  did  he  honor  their  demand.  A 
silence  full  of  emotion  filled  the  assembly  as 
for  a  moment  before  beginning  his  tall  form 
stood  in  commanding  attitude  on  the  rostrum, 
the  impressiveness  of  his  theme  and  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  occasion  reflected  in  his  thought- 
ful and  earnest  features.  The  spell  of  the  hour 
was  visibly  upon  him  ;  and  holding  his  audi- 
ence in  rapt  attention,  he  closed  in  a  brilliant 
peroration  with  an  appeal  to  the  people  to  join 
the  Republican  standard,  to
104 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
"  Come  as  the  winds  come,  when  forests  are  rended  ; 
Conic  as  the  waves  come,  when  navies  are  stranded." 
The  influence  was  irresistible;  the  audience 
rose  and  acknowledged  the  speaker's  power 
with  cheer  upon  cheer.  Unfortunately  the 
speech  was  never  reported;  but  its  effect  lives 
vividly  in  the  memory  of  all  who  heard  it,  and 
it  crowned  his  right  to  popular  leadership  in 
his  own  State,  which  thereafter  was  never  dis- 
puted. 
The  organization  of  the  Republican  party 
for  the  nation  at  large  proceeded  very  much 
in  the  same  manner  as  that  for  the  State 
of  Illinois.  Pursuant  to  separate  preliminary 
correspondence  and  calls  from  State  commit- 
tees, a  general  meeting  of  prominent  Repub- 
licans or  anti- Nebraska  politicians  from  all 
parts  of  the  North,  and  even  from  a  few  bor- 
der slave  States,  came  together  at  Pittsburgh 
on  Washington's  birthday,  February  2 2d. 
Ohio,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania  sent  the 
largest  contingents ;  but  around  this  great  cen- 
tral nucleus  were  gathered  small  but  earnest 
delegations,  aggregating  between  three  and 
four  hundred  zealous  leaders,  representing 
twenty-eight  States  and  territories.  It  was 
merely  an  informal  mass  convention;  but  many 
of  the  delegates  were  men  of  national  char- 
acter, each  of  whose  names  was  itself  a  suf- 
ficient credential.  Above  all,  the  members 
caught  the  inspiration  of  wisdom  from  their 
opportunity;  they  were  cautious,  moderate, 
conciliatory,  and  unambitious  to  act  beyond 
the  requirements  of  the  hour.  They  contented 
themselves  with  the  usual  parliamentary  rou- 
tine; appointed  a  committee  on  national  or- 
ganization; issued  a  call  for  a  delegate 
convention  ;  and  adopted  and  put  forth  a  stir- 
ring address  to  the  country.  Their  resolutions 
were  brief,  and  formulated  but  four  demands: 
the  repeal  of  all  laws  which  allow  the  intro- 
duction of  slavery  into  territories  once  conse- 
crated to  freedom;  resistance  by  constitutional 
means  to  slavery  in  any  United  States  terri- 
tory; the  immediate  admission  of  Kansas  as 
a  free  State,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  present 
national  Administiation. 
In  response  to  the  official  call  embodied  in 
the  Pittsburgh  address,  the  first  national  con- 
vention of  the  Republican  party  met  at  Phil- 
adelphia on  the  17th  of  June,  1856.  The 
character  and  dignity  of  the  Pittsburgh  pro- 
ceedings assured  the  new  party  of  immediate 
prestige  and  acceptance;  with  so  favorable 
a  sponsorship  it  sprang  full-armed  into  the 
political  conflict.  That  conflict  which  opened 
the  year  with  the  long  congressional  contest 
over  the  speakership,  and  which  found  its  only 
solution  in  the  choice  of  Banks  by  a  plurality 
vote,  had  been  fed  by  fierce  congressional  de- 
bates, by  presidential  messages  and  proclama- 
tions, by  national  conventions,  by  the  Sumner 
assault,  by  the  Kansas  war;  the  body  politic 
throbbed  with  activity  and  excitement  in  every 
fiber.  Every  free  State  and  several  border 
States  and  territories  were  represented  in  the 
Philadelphia  convention;  its  regular  and  ir- 
regular delegates  counted  nearly  a  full  thou- 
sand of  eager  local  leaders,  full  of  the  zeal  of 
new  proselytes. 
The  party  was  too  young  and  its  prospect 
of  immediate  success  altogether  too  slender 
to  develop  any  serious  rivalry  for  a  presiden- 
tial nomination.  Because  its  strength  lay 
evidently  among  the  former  adherents  of  the 
now  dissolved  and  abandoned  Whig  party, 
Seward  naturally  took  highest  rank  in  leader- 
ship ;  after  him  stood  Chase  as  the  represen- 
tative of  the  independent  Democrats,  who, 
bringing  fewer  voters,  had  nevertheless  con- 
tributed the  main  share  of  the  courageous 
pioneer  work.  It  is,  however,  a  just  tribute  to 
their  sagacity  that  they  were  willing  to  wait 
for  the  maturer  strength  and  riper  opportu- 
nities of  the  new  organization.  Mr.  Justice 
McLean  of  the  Supreme  Bench,  an  eminent 
jurist,  a  faithful  Whig,  whose  character  happily 
combined  both  the  energy  and  the  conserva- 
tism of  the  great  West,  also  had  a  large  follow- 
ing; but  as  might  have  been  expected,  the 
convention  found  a  more  typical  leader,  young 
in  years,  daring  in  character,  brilliant  in  ex- 
ploit ;  and  after  one  informal  ballot  it  nomi- 
nated John  C.  Fremont  of  California.  The 
credit  of  the  selection  and  its  successful  man- 
agement has  been  popularly  awarded  to  Fran- 
cis P.  Blair,  senior,  somewhat  famous  as  the 
talented  and  powerful  newspaper  lieutenant 
of  President  Jackson ;  but  it  was  rather  an 
intuitive  popular  choice,  which  at  the  moment 
seemed  so  indisputably  appropriate  as  to  pre- 
clude necessity  for  artful  intrigue. 
There  was  a  dash  of  romance  in  the  per- 
sonal history  of  Fremont  which  gave  his 
nomination  a  high  popular  relish.  Of  French 
descent,  born  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  orphaned 
at  an  early  age,  he  acquired  a  scientific  edu- 
cation largely  by  his  own  unaided  efforts  in 
private  study;  a  sea  voyage  as  teacher  of 
mathematics,  and  employment  in  a  railroad 
survey  through  the  then  wilderness  of  the 
Tennessee  Mountains,  developed  the  taste 
and  the  qualifications  that  made  him  useful 
as  an  assistant  in  Nicollet's  scientific  explora- 
tion of  the  great  plateau  where  the  Missis- 
sippi River  finds  its  sources,  and  secured  his 
appointment  as  second  lieutenant  of  topo- 
graphical engineers.  These  labors  brought 
him  to  Washington,  where  the  same  Gallic 
restlessness  and  recklessness  which  had  ren- 
dered the  restraint  of  schools  insupportable 
brought  about  an  attachment,  elopement,  and
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 
MILLARD     FILLMORE.       (FROM    A    DAGUERREOTYPE.) 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Senator  Ben- 
ton of  Missouri. 
Reconciliation  followed  in  good  time ;  and 
the  unexplored  great  West  being  Benton's 
peculiar  hobby,  through  his  influence  Fre- 
mont was  sent  with  an  exploring  party  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  Under  his  command  sim- 
ilar expeditions  were  repeated  again  and 
again  to  that  yet  mysterious  wonderland ;  and 
never  were  the  wildest  fictions  read  with  more 
avidity  than  his  official  reports  of  daily  adven- 
ture and  danger  and  discovery,  of  scaling  un- 
climbed  mountains,  wrecking  his  canoes  on 
the  rapids  of  unvisited  rivers,  parleying  or 
battling  with  hostile  Indians,  or  facing  star- 
vation while  hemmed  in  by  trackless  snows. 
One  of  these  journeys  had  led  him  to  the 
Pacific  coast  when  our  war  with  Mexico  let 
loose  the  spirit  of  revolution  in  the  then 
Mexican  province  of  California.  With  the 
abandon  of  a  petrel  in  a  storm,  Fremont 
joined  his  little  company  of  explorers  to  the 
insurrectionary  faction,  organized  the  revolt, 
improvised  and  took  command  of  a  mounted 
regiment,  overturned  the  tottering  local  Mexi- 
can authority  and  put  her  remnant  of  officials 
to  flight,  setting  up  instead  a  temporary  gov- 
ernment under  a  declaration  of  independence. 
Vol.  XXXIV.— 15. 
With  others  he  skillfully  assisted  in  turning 
this  movement  into  a  conquest  of  the  country 
for  the  United  States;  and  when  through 
the  famous  gold  discoveries  California  was 
soon  afterwards  organized  and  admitted  as 
a  new  State  of  the  Union,  Fremont  became 
for  a  brief  period  one  of  her  first  United  States 
Senators. 
So  salient  a  record  could  not  well  be  with- 
out strong  contrasts,  and  of  these  unsparing 
criticism  took  advantage.  High  romance  was 
changed  to  merciless  ridicule  by  thousands  of 
sharp  newspaper  quills  in  the  savage  dissec- 
tions to  which  presidential  candidates  are  sub- 
jected. Hostile  journals  delineated  Fremont 
as  a  shallow,  vainglorious,  "  woolly-horse," 
"mule-eating,"  "free-love,"  "nigger-embrac- 
ing" black  Republican;  an  extravagant,  in- 
subordinate, reckless  adventurer;  a  financial 
spendthrift  and  political  mountebank.  As  the 
reading  public  is  not  always  skillful  in  winnow- 
ing truth  from  libel  when  artfully  mixed  in 
print,  even  the  grossest  calumnies  were  not 
without  their  effect  in  contributing  to  his  de- 
feat. To  the  sanguine  zeal  of  the  new  Re- 
publican party,  however,  Fremont  was  for  the 
hour  a  heroic  and  ideal  leader;  for  upon  the 
vital  point  at  issue,  his  antislaverv  votes  and
io6 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
clear  declarations  satisfied  every  doubt  and 
inspired  unlimited  confidence. 
However  picturesquely  Fremont  for  the 
moment  loomed  up  as  the  standard-bearer  of 
the  Republican  party,  future  historical  interest 
centers  upon  the  second  act  of  the  Philadel- 
phia convention.  It  shows  us  how  strangely 
to  human  wisdom  vibrate  the  delicately  bal- 
anced scales  of  fate  ;  or  rather  how  inscrutable 
being  scattered  among  thirteen  other  names.1* 
The  dominating  thought  of  the  convention 
being  the  assertion  of  principle,  and  not  the 
promotion  of  men,  there  was  no  further  con- 
test;! and  though  Mr.  Dayton  had  not  re- 
ceived a  majority  support,  his  nomination  was 
nevertheless  at  once  made  unanimous.  Those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  eccentricities  of  nomi- 
nating conventions  when  in  thislistless  and  drift- 
lllllll 
JOHN    C.    FREMONT. 
and  yet  how  unerring  are  the  far-reaching 
pro<  esses  of  divine  providence.  The  principal 
candidate  having  been  selected  without  con- 
tention or  delay,  the  convention  proceeded 
to  a  nomination  for  Vice-President.  On  the 
first  informal  ballot  William  L.  Dayton  of 
New  Jersey  r>-<  eived  259  votes  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  of  Illinois   no;  the  remaining  votes 
For  David  Wilmot  of  Pennsylvania,  43 ;  Preston 
King  of  New  York,  9;  Charles  Sumner  of  Massachu- 
setts, 36;  Thomas  II.  Ford  of  Ohio,  7;  Cassius  M.Clay 
of  Kentucky,  3;  Jacob  Collamer  of  Vermont,  15;  Will- 
iam  F.Johnston  of  Pennsylvania,  2;  Nathaniel  P.  Banks 
of  Massachusetts, 46 ;  Henry  Wilson  of  Massachusetts, 
7;  William  Pennington  of  New  Jersey,  1 ;   Carey  of 
New  Jersey,  3;  S.  C.  Pomeroy  of  Kansas,  8;  J.  R.  Gid- 
ingmood  know  how  easily  an  opportune  speech 
from  some  eloquent  delegate  or  a  few  adroitly 
arranged  delegation  caucuses  might  have  re- 
versed this  result ;  and  imagination  may  not 
easily  construct  the  possible  changes  in  his- 
tory which  a  successful  campaign  of  the  ticket 
in  that  form  might  have  wrought.  What  would 
have  been  the  consequences  to  America  and 
dings 
Maine f  Ohio,  2.  The  vote  in  detail  for  Lincoln  was  : 
1;  New  Hampshire,  8;  Massachusetts,  7; 
Rhode  Psland,  2 ;  New  York,  3 ;  Pennsylvania,  1 1 ;  Ohio, 
2;  Tndiana,26;  Illinois, 33;  Michigan, 5;  California,  12. 
t  Mr.  T.  S.  Van  Dyke,  son  of  one  of  the  delegates  to 
Philadelphia, kindly  writes  us  :  "  Nothing  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln has  ever  written  is  more  characteristic  than  the 
following  note  from  him  to  my  father  just  after  the
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
humanity  had  the  Rebellion,  even  then  being 
vaguely  devised  by  Southern  Hotspurs,  burst 
upon  the  nation  in  the  winter  of  1856,  with 
the  nation's  sword  of  commander-in-chief  in 
the  hand  of  the  impulsive  Fremont,  and  Lin- 
coln, inheriting  the  patient  wariness  and  cool 
blood  of  three  generations  of  pioneers  and  In- 
dian-fighters, wielding  only  the  powerless  gavel 
of  Vice-President  ?  But  the  hour  of  destiny  had 
not  yet  struck. 
The  platform  devised  by  the  Philadelphia 
convention  was  unusually  bold  in  its  affirma- 
tions, and  most  happy  in  its  phraseology.  Not 
only  did  it  "deny  the  authority  of  Congress,  or 
of  a  territorial  legislature,  of  any  individual  or 
association  of  individuals,  to  give  legal  exist- 
ence to  slavery  in  any  territory  of  the  United 
States ;"  it  further  "  Resolved,  that  the  Consti- 
tution confers  upon  Congress  sovereign  power 
over  the  territories  of  the  United  States  for 
their  government,  and  that  in  the  exercise  of 
this  power  it  is  both  the  right  and  the  duty  of 
Congress  to  prohibit  in  the  territories  those 
twin  relics  of  barbarism, —  polygamy  and  sla- 
very." At  Buchanan,  recently  nominated  by 
the  Democratic  National  Convention  in  Cin- 
cinnati, it  aimed  a  barbed  shaft :  "  Resolved, 
that  the  highwayman's  plea  that '  might  makes 
right,'  embodied  in  the  Ostend  circular,  was  in 
every  respect  unworthy  of  American  diploma- 
cy, and  would  bring  shame  and  dishonor  upon 
any  government  or  people  that  gave  it  their 
sanction."  It  demanded  the  maintenance  of  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
of  the  Federal  Constitution,  of  the  rights  of  the 
States,  and  the  union  of  the  States.  It  favored 
a  Pacific  railroad,  congressional  appropria- 
tions for  national  rivers  and  harbors ;  it  af- 
firmed liberty  of  conscience  and  equality  of 
rights ;  it  arraigned  the  policy  of  the  Admin- 
istration; demanded  the  immediate  admis- 
sion of  Kansas  as  a  State,  and  invited  "the 
affiliation  and  cooperation  of  men  of  all  parties, 
however  differing  from  them  in  other  respects, 
in  support  of  the  principles  declared." 
The  nominees  and  platform  of  the  Phila- 
delphia convention  were  accepted  by  the  oppo- 
sition voters  of  the  free  States  with  an  alacrity 
and  an  enthusiasm  beyond  the  calculation  of 
even  the  most  sanguine;  and  in  November 
a  vote  was  recorded  in  their  support  which, 
though  then  unsuccessful,  laid  the  secure  foun- 
dation of  an  early  victory,  and  permanently  es- 
tablished a  great  party  destined  to  carry  the 
country  through  trials  and  vicissitudes  equal  in 
convention  —  not  for  publication,  but  merely  as  a  pri- 
vate expression  of  his  feelings  to  an  old  acquaintance  : 
"  '  Springfield,  III.,  June  27,  1856. 
"  '  Hon.  John  Van  Dyke. 
" '  My  Dear  Sir  :  Allow  me  to  thank  you  for  your 
kind  notice  of  me  in  the  Philadelphia  convention. 
WILLIAM    L.    DAYTON. 
(FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH     BY    MOSES    E.    ERTZ.) 
magnitude  and  results  to  any  which  the  world 
had  hitherto  witnessed. 
In  the  present  year  none  of  the  presiden- 
tial honors  were  reserved  for  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois. While  Lincoln  thus  narrowly  missed  a 
nomination  for  the  second  place  on  the  Repub- 
lican ticket,  his  fellow-citizen  and  competitor, 
Douglas,  failed  equally  to  obtain  the  nomina- 
tion he  so  much  coveted  as  the  candidate 
of  the  Democratic  party.  The  Democratic 
national  convention  had  met  at  Cincinnati 
on  the  2d  day  of  June,  1856.  If  Douglas 
flattered  himself  that  such  eminent  services 
as  he  had  rendered  the  South  would  now  find 
their  reward,  his  disappointment  must  have 
been  severe.  A  frequent  phenomenon  of  hu- 
man nature  again  occurred.  While  the  bene- 
fits he  had  conferred  were  lightly  estimated 
or  totally  forgotten,  former  injuries  inflicted  in 
his  name  were  keenly  remembered  and  re- 
sented. But  three  prominent  candidates,  Bu- 
chanan, Pierce,  and  Douglas,  were  urged  upon 
the  convention.  The  indiscreet  crusade  of 
Douglas's  friends  against  "  old  fogies  "  in  1852 
had  defeated  Buchanan  and  nominated  Pierce; 
now,  by  the  turn  of  political  fortune,  Buchan- 
an's friends  were  able  to  wipe  out  the  double 
score  by  defeating  both  Pierce  and  Douglas. 
The  bulk  of  the  Southern  delegates  seem  to 
have  been  guided  by  the  mere  instinct  of  pres- 
ent utility;  they  voted  to  renominate  Pierce, 
" '  When  you  meet  Judge  Dayton  present  my  respects, 
and  tell  him  I  think  him  a  far  better  man  than  I  for 
the  position  he  is  in,  and  that  I  shall  support  both  him 
and  Colonel  Fremont  most  cordially.  Present  my  best 
respects  to  Mrs.  V.,  and  believe  me,    Yours  truly. 
"'A.  Lincoln.''  "
ioo 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 
because  ot  his  subservient  Kansas  policy,  for- 
getting that  Douglas  had  not  only  begun  it, 
but  was  their  strongest  future  ally  to  continue 
it.  When  after  a  day  of  fruitless  balloting  they 
changed  their  votes  to  Douglas,  Buchanan,  the 
so-called  "old  fog v,"  just  returned  from  the  Eng- 
lish mission,  and  therefore  not  handicapped 
by  present  personal  jealousies  and  heart- 
burnings, had  secured  the  firm  adhesion  of  a 
decided  majority,  mainly  from  the  North.* 
The  "two-thirds  rule"  was  not  yet  fulfilled, 
but  at  this  juncture  the  friends  of  Pierce  and 
Douglas  yielded  to  the  inevitable,  and  with- 
drew their  favorites  in  the  interest  of  "  har- 
mony." On  the  seventeenth  ballot,  therefore, 
and  the  fifth  day  of  the  convention,  James 
Buchanan  of  Pennsylvania  became  the  unan- 
imous nominee  of  the  Democratic  party  for 
President,  and  John  C.  Breckinridge  of  Ken- 
tucky for  Vice-President. 
The  famous  "Cincinnati  platform"  holds  a 
conspicuous  place  in  party  literature  for  length, 
for  vigor  of  language,  for  variety  of  topics,  for 
boldness  of  declaration ;  and  yet,  strange  to 
say,  its  chief  merit  and  utility  lay  in  the  skill- 
ful concealment  of  its  central  thought  and 
purpose.  About  one-fourth  of  its  great  length 
is  devoted  to  what  to  the  eye  looks  like  a 
somewhat  elaborate  exposition  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  party  on  the  slavery  question. 
Eliminate  the  verbiage  and  there  only  re- 
mains an  indorsement  of  "  the  principles 
contained  in  the  organic  laws  establishing 
the  Territory  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska"  (non- 
interference by  Congress  with  slavery  in  State 
and  territory,  or  in  the  District  of  Columbia) ; 
and  the  practical  application  of  "the  Princi- 
pe "  is  thus  further  defined  : 
"  Resolved,  that  we  recognize  the  right  of  the  peo- 
ple  ofall  the  territories,  including  Kansas  and  Nebraska, 
acting  through  the  legally  and  fairly  expressed  will  of 
a  majority  of  actual  residents,  and  whenever  the  num- 
ber of  their  inhabitants  justifies  it,  to  form  a  Constitu- 
tion with  or  without  domestic  slavery,  and  be  admitted 
into  the  Union  upon  terms  of  perfect  equality  with  the 
other  States." 
We  have  already  seen  how  deliberately  the 
spirit  and  letter  of  "the  principle "  was  vio- 
lated by  the  Democratic  national  administra- 
tion of  President  Pierce,  and  by  nearly  all  the 
Democratic  Senators  and  Representatives  in 
Congress  ;  and  we  shall  see  how  the  more  ex- 
plicit resolution  was  again  even  more  flagrantly 
*  On  the  sixteenth  ballot  Buchanan  received  168 
votes,  of  which  1 2 r  were  from  the  free  States  and  47 
from  the  slave  States;  Douglas  received  122  votes,  of 
which  49  were  from  the  free  States  and  73  from  the 
slave  States;  Cass  received  6  votes,  all  from  the  free 
States  ;  Pierce  had  been  finally  dropped  on  the  previous 
ballot. — "  Proceedings  of  Cincinnati  Convention,"  p. 
45- 
t  The  vote  more  in  detail  was  :  For  Buchanan,  slave 
States,  Alabama,  9 ;  Arkansas,  4 ;  Delaware,  3  ;  Flor- 
violated  by  the  Democratic  national  adminis- 
tration and  party  under  President  Buchanan. 
For  the  present,  however,  these  well-rounded 
phrases  were  especially  convenient ;  first,  to 
prevent  any  schism  in  the  Cincinnati  conven- 
tion itself,  and,  secondly,  to  furnish  points  for 
campaign  speeches  ;  politicians  not  having 
any  pressing  desire,  nor  voters  the  requisite 
critical  skill,  to  demonstrate  how  they  left  un- 
touched the  whole  brood  of  pertinent  queries 
which  the  discussion  had  already  raised,  and 
which  at  the  very  next  national  convention 
were  destined  to  disrupt  and  defeat  the  Dem- 
ocratic party.  For  this  occasion  the  studied 
ambiguity  of  the  Cincinnati  platform  made 
possible  a  last  cooperation  of  North  and  South, 
in  the  face  of  carefully  concealed  mental  res- 
ervations, to  secure  a  presidential  victory. 
It  is  not  the  province  of  this  work  to  de- 
scribe the  incidents  of  the  national  canvass, 
but  only  to  record  its  results.  At  the  election 
of  November,  1856,  Buchanan  was  chosen 
President.  The  popular  vote  in  the  nation  at 
large  stood:  Buchanan,  1,838,169  ;  Fremont, 
1,341,264;  Fillmore,  874,534.  By  States  Bu- 
chanan received  the  votes  of  fourteen  slave 
States  and  five  free  States,  a  total  of  174  elec- 
tors ;  Fremont  the  vote  of  eleven  free  States, 
a  total  of  114  electors ;  and  Fillmore  the  vote 
of  one  slave  State,  a  total  of  eight  electors. t 
Our  recital  has  carried  us  forward  beyond 
the  regular  order  of  chronological  events; 
we  must  therefore  turn  back  and  once  more 
take  up  the  thread  of  local  political  history  in 
the  State  of  Illinois.  Among  the  other  work 
of  the  Bloom  in  gton  convention  was  the  nom- 
ination of  a  full  ticket  of  Presidential  electors, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  placed  Abraham 
Lincoln.  While  this  was  a  gratifying  mark  of 
honor,  it  was  also  a  somewhat  onerous  post 
of  duty,  involving  a  laborious  campaign  of 
speech-making  in  support  of  the  Republican 
presidential  ticket.  This  duty  Mr.  Lincoln 
performed  with  faithful  zeal,  making  about 
fifty  speeches  before  election.  Among  the  ad- 
dresses which  he  thus  delivered  in  the  differ- 
ent counties,  it  is  interesting  to  read  a  frag- 
ment of  a  speech  he  made  at  Galena,  Illinois, 
discussing  the  charge  of  "  sectionalism,"  the 
identical  pretext  upon  which  the  South  inaugu- 
rated its  rebellion  against  his  administration 
four  years  afterward : 
ida,  3  ;  Ceorgia,  10  ;  Kentucky,  12  ;  Louisiana,  6;  Mis- 
sissippi, 7 ;  Missouri,  9  ;  North  Carolina,  10 ;  South 
Carolina,  8;  Tennessee,  12;  Texas,  4 ;  Virginia,  15. 
Free  States,  California,  4 ;  Illinois,  II;  Indiana,  13; 
New  Jersey,  7;  Pennsylvania,  27.    Total,  174. 
For  Fremont,  free  States,  Connecticut,  6  ;  Iowa,  4; 
Maine,  8;  Massachusetts,  13  ;  Michigan,  6;  New  Hamp- 
shire, 5  ;  New  York,  35  ;  Ohio,  23  ;  Rhode  Island,  4; 
Vermont,  5;  Wisconsin,  5.   Total,  114. 
For  Fillmore,  slave  State,  Maryland,  8.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
Buchanan  and  Breckinridge, the  Americans, or 
Know-Nothings,  askingvotes  for  Fillmore  and 
Donelson,  and  the  Republicans  making  pros- 
elytes for  Fremont  and  Dayton  —  the  political 
campaign  of  1856  was  one  of  unabated  activ- 
ity and  excitement.  In  the  State  of  Illinois 
the  contest  resulted  in  a  drawn  battle.  The 
American  party  held  together  with  tolerable 
firmness  in  its  vote  for  President,  but  was 
largely  disintegrated  in  its  vote  on  the  ticket 
for  State  officers.  The  consequence  was  that 
Illinois  gave  a  plurality  of  9164  for  Buchanan, 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  President,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  gave  a  plurality  of  4729 
for  Bissell,  the  Republican  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor.! 
Half  victory  as  it  was,  it  furnished  the  Illinois 
Republicans  a  substantial  hope  of  the  full  tri- 
umph which  they  achieved  four  years  later. 
About  a  month  after  this  election,  at  a  Repub- 
lican banquet  given  in  Chicago  on  the  10th  of 
December,  1856,  Abraham  Lincoln  spoke  as 
follows,  partly  in  criticism  of  the  last  annual 
message  of  President  Pierce,  but  more  espe- 
cially as  an  unsleeping  leader  and  prophet 
sounding  a  new  battle-call  and  pointing  out 
the  rising  star  of  promise  : 
"  We  have  another  annual  presidential  message. 
Like  a  rejected  lover  making  merry  at  the  wedding  of 
his  rival,  the  President  felicitates  himself  hugely  over 
the  late  presidential  election.  He  considers  the  result 
a  signal  triumph  of  good  principles  and  good  men,  and 
a  very  pointed  rebuke  of  bad  ones.  He  says  the  peo- 
ple did  it.  He  forgets  that  the  '  people,'  as  he  com- 
placently calls  only  those  who  voted  for  Buchanan,  are 
in  a  minority  of  the  whole  people  by  about  four  hun- 
dred thousand  votes  —  one  full  tenth  of  all  the  votes. 
Remembering  this,  he  might  perceive  that  the '  rebuke  ' 
may  not  be  quite  as  durable  as  he  seems  to  think  — 
that  the  majority  may  not  choose  to  remain  perma- 
nently rebuked  by  that  minority. 
"  The  President  thinks  the  great  body  of  us  Fre- 
monters,  being  ardently  attached  to  liberty,  in  the  ab- 
stract, were  duped  by  a  few  wicked  and  designing  men. 
There  is  a  slight  difference  of  opinion  on  this.  We 
think  he,  being  ardently  attached  to  the  hope  of  a  sec- 
ond term,  in  the  concrete,  was  duped  by  men  who  had 
liberty  every  way.  He  is  the  cat's-paw.  By  much  drag- 
ging of  chestnuts  from  the  fire  for  others  to  eat,  his  claws 
are  burnt  off  to  the  gristle,  and  he  is  thrown  aside  as 
unfit  for  further  use.  As  the  fool  said  of  King  Lear, 
when  his  daughters  had  turned  him  out-of-doors, '  He's 
a  shelled  peascod.'    [That's  a  sheal'd  peascod.  ] 
"  So  far  as  the  President  charges  us  'with  a  desire  to 
change  the  domestic  institutions  of  existing  States,'  and 
of 'doing  everything  in  our  power  to  deprive  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  laws  of  moral  authority,'  for  the  whole 
party  on  belief,  and  for  myself  on  knowledge,  I  pro- 
nounce the  charge  an  unmixed  and  unmitigated  false- 
hood. 
"  Our  government  rests  in  public  opinion.  Whoever 
can  change  public  opinion  can  change  the  govern- 
ment practically  just  so  much.  Public  opinion,  on  any 
subject,  always  has  a  'central  idea,'  from  which  all  its 
minor  thoughts  radiate.  That '  central  idea '  in  our  polit- 
*  Galena  "Advertiser,"  copiedinto  the  Illinois  "State  mont    (Rep.),   96,180;   Fillmore    (Am.),  37,451.   For 
Journal,"  August  8th,  1856.  Governor,  Richardson  (Dem.),  106,643  ;  Bissell  (Rep.), 
tFor  President,   Buchanan  (Dem.),  105,344;   Fre-  111,372;   Morris  (Am.),  19,241. 
Vol.  XXXIV.— 16. 
"You  further  charge  us  with  being  disunionists.  If 
you  mean  that  it  is  our  aim  to  dissolve  the  Union,  I 
for  myself  answer  that  it  is  untrue ;  for  those  who  act 
with  me  I  answer  that  it  is  untrue.  Have  you  heard 
us  assert  that  as  our  aim?  Do  you  really  believe  that 
such  is  our  aim  ?  Do  you  find  it  in  our  platform,  our 
speeches,  our  conventions,  or  anywhere  ?  If  not,  with- 
draw the  charge. 
"  But  you  may  say  that  though  it  is  not  our  aim, 
it  will  be  the  result,  if  we  succeed,  and  that  we  are 
therefore  disunionists  in  fact.  This  is  a  grave  charge 
you  make  against  us,  and  we  certainly  have  a  right  to 
demand  that  you  specify  in  what  way  we  are  to  dissolve 
the  Union.    How  are  we  to  effect  this? 
"The  only  specification  offered  is  volunteered  by 
Mr.  Fillmore  in  his  Albany  speech.  His  charge  is  that 
if  we  elect  a  President  and  Vice-President  both  from 
the  free  States  it  will  dissolve  the  Union.  This  is  open 
folly.  The  Constitution  provides  that  the  President 
and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  of 
different  States  ;  but  says  nothing  as  to  the  latitude  and 
longitude  of  those  States.  In  1828  Andrew  Jackson 
of  Tennessee  and  John  C.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina 
were  elected  President  and  Vice-President,  both  from 
slave  States;  but  no  one  thought  of  dissolving  the 
Union  then  on  that  account.  In  1840  Harrison  of 
Ohio  and  Tyler  of  Virginia  were  elected.  In  1841 
Harrison  died  and  John  Tyler  succeeded  to  the  presi- 
dency, and  William  R.  King  of  Alabama  was  elected 
acting  Vice-President  by  the  Senate  ;  but  no  one  sup- 
posed that  the  Union  was  in  danger.  In  fact,  at  the 
very  time  Mr.  Fillmore  uttered  this  idle  charge,  the 
state  of  things  in  the  United  States  disproved  it. 
Mr.  Pierce  of  New  Hampshire  and  Mr.  Bright  of 
Indiana,  both  from  free  States,  are  President  and  Vice- 
President,  and  the  Union  stands  and  will  stand.  You 
do  not  pretend  that  it  ought  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
and  the  facts  show  that  it  won't ;  therefore  the  charge 
may  be  dismissed  without  further  consideration. 
"  No  other  specification  is  made,  and  the  only  one 
that  could  be  made  is,  that  the  restoration  of  the  restric- 
tion of  1820  making  the  United  States  territory  free 
territory  would  dissolve  the  Union.  Gentlemen,  it  will 
require  a  decided  majority  to  pass  such  an  act.  We, 
the  majority,  being  able  constitutionally  to  do  all  that 
we  purpose,  would  have  no  desire  to  dissolve  the 
Union.  Do  you  say  that  such  restriction  of  slavery 
would  be  unconstitutional,  and  that  some  of  the  States 
would  not  submit  to  its  enforcement  ?  I  grant  you  that 
an  unconstitutional  act  is  not  a  law ;  but  I  do  not  ask 
and  will  not  take  your  construction  of  the  Constitution. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  the  tribunal 
to  decide  such  a  question,  and  we  will  submit  to  its 
decisions  ;  and  if  you  do  also,  there  will  be  an  end  of 
the  matter.  Will  you  ?  If  not,  who  are  the  disunionists, 
you  or  we  ?  We,  the  majority,  would  not  strive  to  dis- 
solve the  Union ;  and  if  any  attempt  is  made  it  must 
be  by  you,  who  so  loudly  stigmatize  us  as  disunionists. 
But  the  Union,  in  any  event,  will  not  be  dissolved. 
We  don't  want  to  dissolve  it,  and  if  you  attempt  it  we 
won't  let  you.  With  the  purse  and  sword,  the  army 
and  navy  and  treasury  in  our  hands  and  at  our  com- 
mand, you  could  not  do  it.  This  government  would  be 
very  weak  indeed  if  a  majority  with  a  disciplined  army 
and  navy  and  a  well-filled  treasury  could  not  preserve 
itself,  when  attacked  by  an  unarmed,  undisciplined, 
unorganized  minority.  All  this  talk  about  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union  is  humbug,  nothing  but  folly.  We 
do  not  want  to  dissolve  the  Union;  you  shall  not."  * 
With  three  presidential  tickets  in  the  field  — 
with  the  Democrats  seeking  the  election  of
no 
KEATS. 
tea]  public  opinion  at  the  beginning  was,  and  until  re- 
cently has  continued  to  be,  '  the  equality  of  men.'  And 
although  it  has  always  submitted  patiently  to  whatever 
ol  inequality  there  seemed  to  be  as  matter  of  actual 
necessity,  its  constant  working  has  been  a  steady  prog- 
ress towards  the  practical  equality  of  all  men.  The 
late  presidential  election  was  a  struggle  by  one  party 
to  discard  that  central  idea  and  to  substitute  for  it  the 
opposite  idea  that  slavery  is  right  in  the  abstract,  the 
workings  of  which  as  a  central  idea  may  be  the  per- 
petuity of  human  slavery  and  its  extension  to  all  coun- 
tries and  colors.  Less  than  a  year  ago  the  Richmond 
'  Enquirer,'  an  avowed  advocate  of  slavery,  regardless  of 
color,  in  order  to  favor  his  views,  invented  the  phrase 
■  -  e  equality,'  and  now  the  President,  in  his  mes- 
idopts  the  'Enquirer's'  catch-phrase,  telling  us 
the  people  'have  assertedthe  constitutional  equality  of 
each  and  all  of  the  States  of  the  Union  as  States.'  The 
President  flatters  himself  that  the  new  central  idea  is 
completely  inaugurated ;  and  so  indeed  it  is,  so  far  as 
the  mere  fact  o(  a  presidential  election  can  inaugurate 
it.  To  us  it  is  left  to  know  that  the  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple have  not  yet  declared  for  it,  and  to  hope  that  they 
never  will.  All  of  us  who  did  not  vote  for  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan, taken  together,  are  a  majority  of  four  hundred 
thousand.  But  in  the  late  contest  we  were  divided  be- 
tween Fremont  and  Fillmore.  Can  we  not  come  to- 
gether for  the  future  ?  Let  every  one  who  really  believes, 
and  is  resolved,  that  free  society  is  not  and  shall  not 
be  a  failure,  and  who  can  conscientiously  declare  that 
in  the  past  contest  he  has  done  only  what  he  thought 
best,  let  every  such  one  have  charityto  believe  that  every 
other  one  can  say  as  much.  Thus  let  bygones  be  by- 
gones ;  let  past  differences  as  nothing  be ;  and  with 
steady  eye  on  the  real  issue,  let  us  reinaugurate  the 
good  old  '  central  ideas '  of  the  Republic.  We  can  do 
it.  The  human  heart  is  with  us,  God  is  with  us.  We 
shall  again  be  able  not  to  declare  that  '  all  States  as 
States  are  equal,'  nor  yet  that  *  all  citizens  as  citizens 
are  equal,'  but  to  renew  the  broader,  better  declaration, 
including  both  these  and  much  more,  that  '  all  men  are 
created  equal.'  "  * 
*  Illinois  "  State  Journal,"  December  16th,  1856. 
[We  are  indebted  for  much  valuable  aid  in  preparing  the  Kansas  illustrations  to  Judge  F.  G.  Adams,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Kansas  State  Historical  Society. —  Ed.  C.  M.] 
V^Z**  tfl 
-y\A^ 
KEATS. 
DEATH  hath  his  fancies,  and  why  not  ?  A  So  Keats  was  brought,  and  when  his  strain 
king  beguiled 
So  great  as  he  must  have  his  royal  whim, —  The  sad-faced  king  and  his  brave  company 
Sometimes  a  fool,  sometimes  the  wailing  string  To   strange,  unwonted  tears  —  Death  kindly 
Of  some  slain  minstrel's  harp,  must  humor  smiled, 
him.  Approving  his  unequaled  minstrelsy. 
There  was  a  youthful  singer  once,  a  soul 
Loved  of  the  gods,  and  hence  not  loved  of 
men, 
Who  sang  too  well,  and,  shame  to  say,  the 
whole 
Small  race  of  songsters  rose  against  him  then. 
And  all  the  critics  too  —  like  daws  that  peck 
Some  lustrous  jewel  from  its  golden  set- 
ting- 
Beaked  his  fair  lines,  so,  hastening  on  to  wreck 
The  fragile  bark  that  every  flaw  was  fretting. 
Love,  also,  with  his  barbed  baby  spear 
Racked  all  the  chambers  of  his  heart  with 
anguish  ; 
But  bravely  through  it  all,  more  strong  and 
clear, 
Went  up  his  matchless  song  that  would  not 
languish. 
And  when  at  times  his  watchful  eye  could  trace 
The  swiftly  passing  spasm  of  fierce  pain 
Which  swept  across  the  minstrel's  pallid  face, 
He  quickly  cried,  "  Thy  songs  were  not  in 
vain; 
"  Fixed  in  the  world's  large  memory  they  shall 
live, 
Undying  as  that  beauty  to  whose  shrine 
Thy  kneeling  soul  brought  all  thou  hadst  to 
give; 
All  things  of  which  thy  heart  once  di  earned 
are  thine : 
"  As  thou  didst  leave  them  they  shall  picture 
thee 
Both  to  thine  own  and  far-off  other  lands, 
And  while  men   sing,  thy  name  shall  never 
be 
Forgotten  in  their  songs."  And  so  he  stands, 
And  all  so  well  he  pleased  the  sable  king, 
Though  many  a  famous  bard  sang  at  his  call, 
That  straight  he  sent  his  messenger  to  bring 
This  tortured  soul  which  pleased  him  best 
of  all. 
A  fair-formed  image  of  immortal  youth 
Breasting  the  steep  hillside  of  life's  endeavor; 
A  white-robed  herald  of  eternal  truth 
Shouting  a  message  from  the  gods  forever. 
Robert  Bums  Wilson.