The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-15
KANSAS BLEEDING DAYS
"REMINISCENCES OF THE STATE DUR
ING THE SLAVERY FIGHT.
Robert Morrow, One of the Pioneers,
Now Visiting Here-StOries
of John Brown.

mo State has so interesting beginning
as Kansas remarked a tall, white-haired
man of erect figure. throwing aside his
newspaper in the writing room of the En-
glish Hotel yesterday Afternoon 1T was on
the plains of bleeding Kansas that freedom
and slavery met in battle array, and it was
there the civil war was begun. l emigrated
to Kansas when only a handful of people
was there and the times were exciting"
The speaker was Robert Morrow, one of
the pioneers of Kansas. and one of the men
who helped to make its history. Mr.. Nor
row is The father-in-law of Landlord Criley,
Of the English Hotel. Since the new man
agement took hold of the house Mr. Nor
has come to live with his daughter.
He went to Kansas in 1855 from Wisconsin.
and was identified with the Territory until
long after it was made State. He went
there when the country was full of Indians,
buffalo and lawlessness and he can fully
appreciate the term, bleeding Kansas"
When Mr.. Morrow first became citizen
of Lawrence, Kan, it was village of sod
houses. A picturesque figure of the Terri
tory those days was Jim Lane, an In
dianian, who had gone West Immediately
after the close of his term as a congress
man from Indiana. Mr.. Morrow remembers
Jim" Lane an aggressive, ambitious pol
itician, and stanch "free-state" man. He
went to the United States Senate from
Kansas in 1861, and within two years after
ward killed himself in Leavenworth. Mr..
Morrow was a member of the first Terri
torial Legislature of Kansas, and was also
a member of the first General Assembly
after Kansas became a State in February,
1861. He recalls wildly the memorable days
when the question at issue was whether
Kansas was to be slave or free State.
Mr.. Morrow remarked yesterday that Kan
sas was hard place for governors in the
early days.
THE first Governor" he continued was
Andrew j. Reeder, a Pennsylvania lawyer,
who was appointed in 1855 by President
Pierce. An election was held shortly after
the appointment for the purpose of making
code of laws. This was memorable cleo
ton day. for an army of Missourians who
favored slavery came across the border and
drove the bona fide citizens and free-state
men away from the polls. The election and
commissioning Of officers was a great farce.
and the inhabitants almost lived as outlaws
for four years. The excitement was so in
tense that many Of the large newspapers
had correspondents the field. We had
slavery in our Constitution, and the violence
and fraud committed by the pro-slavery
party was one of the things that produced
new party which took the name of Re-
publican.
The people in power continued Mr..
Morrow. had an army of sheriffs and dep
uty sheriffs, whose authority the free-state
Branscom was arrested by one of these
sheriffs and the bona fide settlers released
him from captivity. The Governor called
out the militia, which was another name
for MiSsourians
"OLD OSAWATOMIE' BROWN.
Mr.. Morrow relates an interesting story
OF how the presence of the Missouri militia
brought on serious trouble t'Jim' Lane,
with six hundred other free-state men, as
sembled at Lawrence and threw UP breast
works The famous old John Brown, with
his three sons, came up from the Osawat-
omie bottoms in an old wagon filed with
cutlasses and muskets. Brown was in fa-
vor of the settlers going into battle Mr.
Morrow recalls the tall, gaunt form and
bushy beard of the old man as he went
from one settler to another and made his
argument in favor of battle.
During this imbroglio,' said Mr. Nor
row, Governor Reedef came over to our
side and the pro-slavery people were fur
ious. A commission had been appointed by
Congress to investigate the alleged Kansas
outrageS. The commission was in charge
of John Sherman, tall, slim and precise. 1t
had been planned by the pro-slavery party
to kill Reeder and destroy the evidence of
the commission, but neither was accom-
plSneu. MT. MOfTOW IOluf now he6Qef was
spirited to Kansas City and exchanging his
attire for a wood-choppers suit, with a
corn-cob pipe in his mouth, floated down
the river in skiff. Mr.. Morrow well re-
members the "Quantrell raid" of 1863 which
he refers to as the Lawrence massacre"
and the most exciting chapter In the his
tory of Kansas On the morning of Aug. q,
1863, Mr.. Morrow was awakened by the fir
ing of pistols. He opened a window and
saw Charles Quantrell riding at the head of
large party of men-abOut four hundred
In all The raiders were shooting in the air,
ana wherever man put his head out of
sacked the business district of Lawrence
and began to set fire to the buildings. Mr..
Morrow watched the horsemen until they
had gone up the street and then taking his
two little girls-one of whom is now Mrs.
Criley-and his little boy he started with
them to place of safety. Mrs. Morrow
remained to gather up some clothing. Her
husband had gone but a few minutes when
the desperadoeS arrived at the Morrow
home. Mrs. Morrow told them she was a
Southern woman and had brothers in the
Confederate army. This statement saved her
home. Mr.. Morrow says that on the day
of 167 men who had been killed. He owned
hotel and other buildings in Lawrence
which were burned.
MIR. Morrow says the late William Fl.
English had much to do with preventing
Kansas becoming a slave State. THE Leg
islature," said he that was elected by the
Missouri border ruftians provided for a
convention that created the Lecompton Con-
stitution admitting Kansas as a slave State.
Buchanan, who transmitted 1t to Congress
with a recommendation that it pass. This
Constitution was 80 gross a fraud against
the bona fide settlers of Kansas that many
Northern congressman arrayed themselves
against it. Among this number was Mr.
English, of Indiana Congress passed a bill
known as the English bill. submitting this
Lecompton Constitution to vote of the
people of Kansas to say whether they
wanted to become a State under it, The
people voted it down almost unanimously
and saved Kansas from becoming a slave
State in 1858. Mr.. Morrow was a member of
the first Kansas State Legislature that
made ex-United States Senator Ingalls, a
clerk.