The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-26

Kansa s-Nebraska bill and the repeal of
] the Missouri compromise and made
Kansas free state. They conceived
4 the Idea that they would promote inn
| migration into Kansas from the north
ern states of men having no sympathy
with slavery, under the auspices of the
Emigrant Aid society, and that they
/ would increase the anti-Slavery ele-
ment in Kansas to such a point that
/ they must make her free. The violence
with which their efforts were OBJ
/ structed, the desperate methods re-
sorted to by the Missouri cabaI that
sought to prevent this emigration and
/ the bloody laWlessness that prevailed
/ Tor full five years in Kansas present
a picture that finds no counterpart
anywhere else in the settlement Of this
country.
LAS soon as it was seen that vio-
lence was TO be used to prevent settle
ment by northern anti-slavery men,
Mr.. Lawrence furnished the funds for
to the anti-slavery men to maintain
themselves against the violence of their
opponents. Mr.. Thayer effected their
transportation to Kansas, while Mr..
Robinson perfected the organization to
use them.
These men, strong as were their
sympathies with abolition, did not take
the position of abolitionists. They
found that it was impossible for them
to succeed in that way, and like the
sensible, clear-headed men they were,
they called to their ranks all those
gard to whether they were opposed to
the negro or not. So often is a moral
cause injured by the extreme views of
the men who support it, that this phase
of the policy of Robinson, Thayer and
Lawrence deserves comment as note
worthy.
Under an enabling act which pro-
posed to leave to the people the de-
rfz5 jr77r, a r1f
this, it was natural for the factions
themselves to attempt to organize
state government and invite the ac-
ceptance by congress of the result of
their voluntary conventions and their
voluntary elections. A territorial leg
islature had been elected with the
fraudulent use of voters from Missouri
but it did not commend itself to any
one by it's legislation or it's conduct
and the history of the five years is
history of voluntary conventions, or
unauthorized state legislatures ana
governments, and of proposed consti-
tutions, none of them within the law,
but all with the hope of finding a legal
status through the acceptance of con-
gress.
Finally, the Lecompton constitution
was adopted, known as such because
adopted at Lecompton, in which the
issue of slavery or nonslavery was le1t
to the voters, and was overwhelmingly
defeated. Robinson, at the head OF the
Tree state InONGDl0Illg SA4AD4NC0 a WA
derful shrewdness and nerve in keep
ing keeping together the naturally war
ring elements that were in favor OF
free state, and be used his influence
on every occasion to prevent an ap-
pearance of lawless assault and violence
on the part of the free state men.
John Brown Thrills Nation.
Charges Of violence were mace
against the free state men and doubt-
less had much Of truth to sustain them
John Brown sent a thrill of horror
through the state and aroused to the
highest indignation the pro-slavery men
by an expedition which he planned, IN
which four or five pro-slavery men
were killed. He disclaimed par1clpa-
ton in the free state movement as
such but insisted that his eHorts Were !
toward the abolition of slave
ri His course was wholly out OF keep |
ing with the one which Robinson hao
marked out for his party, ana instead |
of aiding the cause, 1t aroused enerseuc
action on the part of its opponents ana
halted progress. Still the unjustihable
acts of Brown led the pro-slavery men /
to other and more extreme measures
each one Of which Robinson was aple
to illuminate and exploit throughout the
north and to fire that section with a
sense of burning injustice that increas-
ed the immigration into the state Tor
the purpose of sustaining the free state
When "Jim'' Lane Came.
I'm the constantly changing picture
OF conventions and elections, of dis
turbance and violence, of actual oattle
in arms, Of tarring and feather1ng, ana
of iayhaWking, many curious cnardc-
ters came TO the front, none more dlfn-
cult to paint than that of James h
Lane of Indiana. He appeared in Kan
sas as a pro-slavery man; hao peen d
member of congress from Indiana, ana
lieutenant governor of that state; hao
been in the Mexican war After ne
reached Kansas he concluded to change
from the pro-slavery side to the Iree
state and he did. He was man OF
power as a speaker, courage as a con-
spirator, and an inciter of violence
He was not an educated nor a renneo
man. He was not man or hlgn prln-
ciples but a man of inordlnate am
bitfon. and he seemed to influence men
70 have confidence in him. Robinson
worked with him, although a1ter the
admission of the state, tney zen away
from each other, as Lanes selfish am
bition and violent, domineering meth
ods made it necessary. But Lane was
man Of force and Robinson could use
him. SO for the time they worked TO-
sReeder, the first governor of the
territory. coming out as a representa-
i've of Franklin Pierce, naturally SD
ed with the Democratic party and the
oro-slaverv party. But he soon quar-
-eled with the territorial legislature
and. finding himself without support,
vent over to the free state men and
worked with them.
Kansas Made History.
kansas was the issue from 1856 to
1850. The bloody encounters IN tnat !
state. giving her the name of Bleed
nr Kansas furnished the material
,or the political debates in congress-
furnished the reason for the appoint
nent of committees of Investigation
rom the lower house, which visited ,
Kansas to take evidence as to the con- ,
litfons there existing; furnished the Z