Eli Thayer

**Eli Thayer** (June 11, 1819 – April 15, 1899) was an educator, , legislator and  of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. He was instrumental in the politics of Kansas during the period known as Bleeding Kansas. When Congress passed the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, the question of whether Kansas would become a slave-state or free state was left to the voters of Kansas. pro-slavery supporters, abolitionists and free-staters all rushed to settle in the Kansas Territory. All were trying to gain power so as to determine the status of slavery in Kansas. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1857 to 1861. After serving in Congress Thayer became a businessman. He attended the local public school, then Bellingham High School. He attended the Academy of Amherst and in 1840 graduated from Worcester Academy. Thayer received a percentage of all the money collected by the company. He was an   for election to Congress in 1872. It described the violence happening in the Kansas territory during the mid to late 1850s. The idea behind Thayer's Emigrant Aid Company was to level the playing field with the southern pro-slavery advocates. The company was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts for the purpose of "assisting emigrants to settle in the West." Thayer's idea worked to both settle New Englanders in Kansas to prevent slavery and to remove the surplus of New Englanders and Immigrants. Thayer realized there was more money available in the North than in the South. By forming the Company he felt settlers would be well rewarded with the "comforts of civilization". The company would be well rewarded with a good dividend on their investments. It was a win-win situation. He thought once Kansas was free, their attentions could be turned south and colonize it in a similar manner. By investing in the Company it would be the "snort of the steam engine instead of the crack of the blacksnake (whip)". Thayer's slogan became "Saw-mills and Liberty!" and was widely proclaimed in the New England press. Between 1854 and 1856, Thayer's Company sent about 2,000 emigrants to Kansas Territory. By May 1857 many members of the Company felt it had reached its goals in Kansas. Thayer began other projects. He helped found the free labor colony of Ceredo, Virginia (now West Virginia). But after John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry many investors and potential settlers were scared away. The outbreak of the Civil War ended the project.

In the North, Thayer was credited with helping to make Kansas a slave-free state. He was also called a  by others for having caused the bloodshed and violence that followed sending immigrants to Kansas. In the South, the company was often called "Eli Thayer & Co.," and a price was placed on Thayer's head in more than one place. In Missouri and the South, Thayer was charged with the "crime" of making Kansas a free state. In 1887, Thayer wrote a book *A History of the Kansas Crusade: Its Friends and Its Foes* where he claimed a good deal of the credit for Kansas becoming free of slavery.

## References 
## Other websites 
* Eli Thayer papers; Kansas Historical Society
* Eli Thayer, *A History of the Kansas Crusade: Its Friends and Its Foes* (full text)