Kansas Territory

“ Be it resolved, that we, the people of Kansas territory, in mass meeting assembled, irrespective of party distinctions, influenced by a common necessity, and greatly desirous of promoting the common good, do hereby call upon and request all bona fide citizens of Kansas territory, of whatever political views and predilections, to consult together in their respective election districts, and in mass convention or otherwise, elect throe delegates for each representative of the legislative assembly, by proclamation of Governor Reeder of date 10th March, 1855 ”

“ Kansas will be justly open to the reproach of having forgotten those to whom she is largely indebted until three of her counties bear the honored names of Reeder, Geary, and Walker—her only Federal Governors who held justice above partisanship, who enriched the history of a dark and troubled period with the record of official duties fairly, honestly and bravely discharged; who sternly kept faith with the people, and so doing fought a great battle, not for a single generation or a few thousand citizens of a sparsely-settled Territory, but for all time and for the whole Republic. ”

“ The free-state people could not step over a boundary line and be in Kansas. They lived a long way off, the trip out here was expensive, and little was known of the new Territory. It was a land without homes or towns, churches, schools, or newspapers, and the Northerners knew that people would hesitate to start to Kansas under all these difficulties. ”

“ When Kansas was made an Indian country the National Government agreed in the treaties to supply the Indians with cattle, hogs, and farming implements, and to employ persons to teach them agriculture. In accordance with this agreement several government farms were established, and both the government farmers and the missionaries taught agriculture to the Indians. By the time Kansas was organized as a Territory, in 1854, there were a number of farms in the different reservations and at the missions, and the produce was such as to show that the soil of Kansas is remarkably fertile. ”

“ The North was deeply stirred by the calamities endured by the free-state people in Kansas. Although practically all of the free-state newspapers here had been closed or destroyed, the papers in the northern and eastern states were filled with narrations of the hardships, robberies, and murders that had befallen antislavery settlers in the Territory. ”

“ And yet how vast the changes that have been wrought since the mustering here twenty-two years ago! It is doubtful if the adult male population of Kansas at that time greatly exceeded the numbers present at this reunion. The poor, harassed and feeble Territory has grown to be one of the greatest States in the Union, rich in all the elements of substantial prosperity; richer still in the imperial manhood of a citizenship which includes representatives of every regiment in the Union army. ”

“ Those who opposed the making Kansas a slave State, for the most part were far away from the battle-ground, residing chiefly in New England, more than a thousand miles from the eastern border of the Territory, and their direct way of entering it was through a country violently hostile to them. With such odds against them, and only an idea—though a grand one—to support them, it will ever be a wonder that they succeeded in making Kansas a free State. ”

“ The fighting and political strife of the Territorial period left the people little opportunity for building up the country. Statehood found frontier life but little improved. The early settlers came to secure homes and to make Kansas a free state, and were not easily discouraged. The drouth of 1859-’60 caused nearly a third of the 100,000 Kansas settlers to leave the Territory, and another third had to be given aid from the East. Immigration to Kansas was greatly decreased for a time. A good crop year followed, but Kansas had yet to pass through the Civil War before it could enjoy peace. ”

“ Many level headed men among the settlers full well realized that any attempt on the part of the settlers to create a territory was without warrant of law, and that such a government never would be recognized by Congress or any other state, but their warnings remained unheeded. Leaders in the movement insisted that the act creating Kansas territory provided that all lands to which the Indian title had not been extinguished, should not be considered within the Kansas jurisdiction. ”

“ During the years of 1853 and 1854, most of the leading Northern newspapers were not only full of glowing accounts of the extraordinary fertility, healthfulness, and beauty of the territory of Kansas, then newly opened for settlement, but of urgent appeals to all lovers of freedom who desired homes in a new region to go there as settlers, and by their votes save Kansas from the curse of slavery. ”

“ Comforts of Life Receive Little Attention. The seven Territorial years had brought freedom to Kansas, but the struggle had left the pioneers little time or strength for building better homes, improving their farms, or establishing public institutions. The energy that might have accomplished these things had been given to fighting and to politics. When Kansas became a State, the people had almost as few of the comforts of life as when they first came to the Territory. ”

“ The Ohio Shawnees were thus transferred to Kansas, and were there resident with the rest of their tribe from the time they went there, continuously, up to 1854. In the course of this term of years, the progress of civilization westward, carried numbers of white men to, around, among, and beyond them. They were thus in the midst of whites. In May of the year just mentioned, 1854, Kansas became a 'Territory' of the United States, with an organic law from Congress. ”

“ In the first place the projectors of the movement were mostly ardent free-state men, while the territorial authorities were of the opposite political faith, so that it was impossible to secure the passage of laws favorable to the work of the society. Added to this, the unsettled conditions in the territory, due largely to the political agitation for the adoption of a state constitution and the admission of Kansas into the Union, kept the public mind so occupied that it was a difficult matter to arouse sufficient interest in agriculture to place the society on a solid footing. ”

“ When a territory is organized it must be provided with a government. The people in a territory may not elect their officers as in a state; they may elect a legislature and a delegate to Congress, but the governor, secretary, judges, and certain other officers are appointed by the President.
The First Territorial Governor. In October, 1854, there arrived in Kansas the first Territorial Governor, Andrew H. Reeder, who, although he was known to favor slavery, was heartily welcomed by all the people. ”

“ It is impossible that any people could have proceeded with more regularity in the formation of a Constitution than the people of Kansas have done. It was necessary, first, to ascertain whether it was the desire of the people to be relieved from their territorial dependence and establish a State government. For this purpose the Territorial Legislature, in 1855, passed a law "for taking the sense of the people of this Territory upon the expediency of calling a Convention to form a State Constitution" at the genaral election to be held in October, 1856. ”

“ The Coming of the Free-state Settlers. As has been stated, the Missourians came into Kansas immediately after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill on May 30, but the free-state people were not far behind, for on the first day of August, just two months later, the first party of emigrants sent out by the New England Emigrant Aid Company reached the Territory. Even these were not the first free-state men to arrive ”

“ It declared the Kansas troubles to be caused by a departure from the organic act of 1787, for the government of all the territory then belonging to the republic, and which had been adhered to until 1854, since which a democratic administration had endeavored to force upon the people of Kansas a constitution abhorrent to their feelings, and to sustain in power a usurping and tyrannical minority—an outrage not to be borne by a free people. ”

“ We will now take a look at the internal affairs of Kansas, in order to see how "the people" behave when they are "left entirely free to settle their iuternal affairs in their own way." The report of the congressional committee, given in the previous chapter, furnishes a history of events down to the summer of 1856. On the 5th of May of that year, Judge Lecompte, the judicial head of the territory, delivered a charge to the grand jury of Douglas county, from which we make an extract:
"This territory was organized by an act of congress, and so far its authority is from the United States. ”

“ The struggle of the pioneers with the hardships of winter closed hostilities for a while, but it soon became evident that the Missourians were preparing more extensively than ever to invade Kansas, destroy Lawrence, and drive the free-state people from the Territory, or force them to recognize the proslavery Territorial Government. ”

“ The Territory of Kansas was saved to its prescriptive freedom. The slavery propagandists sullenly withdrew and gave up the contest. The last days of the dynasty that had meditated the conquest of the continent to slave-holding government were evidently at hand. The result of the struggle in Kansas had reversed the relation of the contesting powers. The oligarchs, who had always before been aggressive, and intended to subordinate the Union to slavery, or destroy it, found themselves suddenly thrown on the defensive ”

“ The proslavery leaders began to rally their men along the border. The following sentences are taken from one of the calls they published: “Lane’s men have arrived! Civil war is begun! And we call on all who are not prepared to see their friends butchered, to be themselves driven from their homes, to rally to the rescue.” A large number of men soon gathered on the border, anxiously awaiting permission to move into Kansas; but as Governor Shannon had dispersed the Missouri army a few weeks earlier, he now refused to issue orders for the new army to move into the Territory. ”

“ Other States [47] fought Indians and combated hunger, survived malaria, brimstone and molasses and calomel, and kept in good humor, but the settlement of Kansas was attended with battle, murder, and sudden death. The pioneers of the Northwest Territory began life in amiable accord with their neighbors; Kansas gained Statehood after a bitter war with her sister Missouri, though the contest may not be viewed as a local disturbance, but as a “curtain raiser” for the drama of the Civil War. ”

“ During a campaign of thirty years, waged by the peaceful forces 205of civilization on the prairies of Kansas, seventy-nine thousand square miles of territory have been planted in crops. Six hundred cities and towns dot the map of the State; nearly six thousand miles of rail are kept bright by the constant friction of a mighty commerce; property worth fully six hundred million dollars has been accumulated; seven thousand school houses welcome throngs of eager children; crops valued at over one hundred million dollars are annually harvested ”

“ The tribes domiciled in Kansas were rapidly moved to Indian Territory after 1868.
After the Civil War the Republicans held uninterrupted supremacy in national elections, and almost as complete control in the state government, until 1892. From about 1870 onward, however, elements of reform and of discontent were embodied in a succession of radical parties of protest. Prohibition arose thus, was accepted by the Republicans, and passed into the constitution. Woman suffrage became a vital political issue. Much legislation has been passed to control the railways. ”

“ By 1850 there was not a tribe left east of the Mississippi River. The Indians had all been moved to these western plains, and no white man could settle on any of the reservations without the consent of the Indians.
An Indian in War Dress.
Indians Removed from Kansas. According to the treaties the Indians were promised their land “so long as grass should grow or water run.” But it soon developed that the white men wanted Kansas also. In 1854 we find the tribes being again transferred, this time to the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, where the remnants of the various tribes still remain. ”

“ If her constitution on the subject of slavery or on any other subject be displeasing to a majority of the people, no human power can prevent them from changing it within a brief period. Under these circumstances it may well be questioned whether the peace and quiet of the whole country are not of greater importance than the mere temporary triumph of either of the political parties in Kansas.
Should the constitution without slavery be adopted by the votes of the majority, the rights of property in slaves now in the Territory are reserved. ”

“ While the men responsible for and active in the conduct of the "government" of the Territory of Jefferson were thus engaged in creating courts and enacting laws, a considerable portion of the citizens then living in this region, and not the least influential, absolutely refused to recognize the territorial government and the courts which had been created by the territorial constitution and the legislature. They maintained, and rightfully so, that the whole Rocky Mountain country was still a part of Kansas and that only officers elected under Kansas laws legally held office. ”