The Kansas Conflict

Front matter

The Kansas Conflict BY CHARLES ROBINSON K late governor of Kansas NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE Copyright, 1892, by Charles Robinson. AU rights reserved. H>eDicateD TO ELI THAYER WHO conceived and executed the plan of organized EMIGRATION BY WHICH A FREE STATE IN KANSAS WAS MADE POSSIBLE AND TO HIS CO-OPERATORS IN THE STATES; AND ALSO TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FREE STATE PARTY BY WHOSE COURAGE, FIRMNESS, PRUDENCE, SAGACITY AND SUFFERING WAS ACHIEVED A VICTORY AGAINST OPPRESSION SECOND TO NONE IN THE ANNALS OF HISTORY

Preface

. An apology may be due to the reading public for submit ting to it the pages that follow. In an address before the Kansas State Historical Society, on retiring from the office of president, in the winter of 1881, I said: " The time for writing the true history of Kansas has not yet arrived, and will not arrive till the historian shall be so far removed from the actors and passions of the hour as to be able to survey calmly the whole field, and to discern clearly, not only events, but causes and effects as well. Distance lends enchantment to a view, and clearness to the vision of the historian. A corporal might narrate with ac curacy the exploits of his foraging squad, but he would be a poor historian even of his company. The part he played with his squad would be more important to him than all the other exploits of the larger body, however brilliant, and, in fact, would prevent him from seeing what his comrades were doing.

The colonel of a regiment might relate with great fidelity the achievements of his regiment, but he in turn would be a poor historian of the brigade. A general of brigade or division might be well qualified to furnish facts connected with his immediate command, but the more strictly he attended to his own duties the less would he be compe tent to write the history of the army. So the General-in-chief could tell accurately, perhaps, of the movements which he had ordered and which had been made according to his direction, but before a true history of the war could be writ-

PREFACE.

. VI ten, the powers behind the General must be consulted. The War Secretary, the Commander-in-chief of all the forces, the Congress that directs the commander, the people who make the Congress, with the influences and motives that con trol the people themselves — must all be taken into the account. " The actors in any struggle are unfitted to be the histo rians of that struggle, and this unfitness extends to all their sympathizers and partisans. Should an actor attempt to write history, the attempt would necessarily result in magnify ing the part he had acted or witnessed, at the expense of all others, while a sympathizer or partisan would be incapable of treating all the actors with impartiality. The worst of all historians is he who selects his own hero, and makes all events revolve about him, as the planets around the sun.

Such a person may write tolerable romance or fiction founded on fact, but history, never." This being my belief, I make no pretense that this book, while it gives the conflict in Kansas from my point of view, is a complete history of that struggle. It is written for two reasons : The first is the importunity of persons who were actors or sympathizers in making a free State of Kansas ; and the second, that no writer thus far has taken the view that seems to me the true one of the movements made by the Free-State party, and of the causes and reasons for the same. In May, 1868, Hon. D. W. Wilder, who has always taken a deep interest in Kansas history, wrote asking for a paper upon this subject, saying: "The point I aim at is to give the man's own version of the scenes in which he has been actor or witness — and that is what History will go back to when she at last takes up her impartial pen to tell this story."

Such, in the main, is this book. It is simply an account of the struggle as witnessed by one of the actors. It was intended to give details at length and the part taken by individuals in different movements, but it was found that to do so would

PREFACE.

. VII extend the work beyond desirable limits, and much matter of this nature has been stricken out. There are many of the actors whose names deserve high honor, and whose deeds would fill a volume, who have been passed by with but a word, or perhaps not even mentioned. To have done com plete justice to individuals would have obscured or abbre viated the outlines of the general conflict which I aimed to give. While the contest between the Free-State and Slave-State men was most earnest, and casual observers would be induced to believe most bitter, the writer of this book can truthfully say that he never permitted his personal feelings to become enlisted from first to last. No uncivil word or act was heard or witnessed between myself and the most violent of the opposite party. Our personal intercourse was at all times most courteous.

The same is true of factional differences among Free-State men. Not an uncivil word ever passed between myself and Lane, Brown, or any other partisan. The work in which all were engaged was too important for the workers who were actuated by principle to engage in personalities. The conduct of the War of the Rebellion is perhaps treated with too little respect for great names, but there is not the least bitterness of feeling. Believing that there was the most inexcusable, unnecessary, and wanton destruction of life and property, I have characterized conduct as I think it merits, without other feeling than that of regret and a just indigna tion that such outrages should be permitted by those who had the power to prevent them. It is very likely that the reader will find many shortcom ings, many important matters omitted and some things said that might have been said better or, perhaps, should not have been said at all ; but if anything has been written that shall aid the disinterested historian in getting at the truth of the most important conflict of this age and country, I shall feel abundantly rewarded for my labor.

PREFACE.

. That some readers will be disturbed and displeased is also very likely. Oliver Wendell Holmes says : " You never need think you can turn over any old false hood, without a terrible squirming and scattering of the horrid little population that dwells under it. Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of some body or other." C. Robinson. CONTENTS. PAGE

PREFACE.

v

Appendix

INTRODUCTION.

. For years myself and others within and without the State have been urging Governor Robinson to write what he knows about the early history of Kansas. " Perseverance conquers all things," and at last the history is written. And, to my great surprise, I am complimented and honored with an invitation to write the introduction. Any history of Kansas without Governor Robinson as the prominent figure would be like the "play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out." He has an array of facts and information that no other man has, without which any history of Kansas would be incomplete. I first met Governor Robinson (then Dr. Robinson) in Boston, March 5, 1855, on the eve of leaving for Kansas with the Manhattan Colony, and was especially indebted to him for valuable suggestions. I was pe culiarly impressed with his qualifications for a great leader.

He was tall, well-proportioned, commanding in appearance, yet winning in manner ; with a clear, keen, blue eye ; a countenance that denoted culture and intellect, and a will that few would care to run against. He would pass any where as a good-looking man, and in any crowd would com mand attention. With perfect control of himself, he could rule in the midst of a storm. His magnetism would inspire men to do and to dare in the cause of human Liberty, and the establishment of the great principles of Republican government. In the history of the world, Providence has raised up men qualified for particular work. Where would British India have been to-day without Lord Clive, though at the com-

INTRODUCTION.

. mencement of the great struggle he was a merchant's clerk ! What would the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock have done without the cool and brave Miles Standish? And in our Revolution who could have led us to the victory except George Washington f And still later on, who could have conquered the Rebellion but the indomitable Grant ? While Eli Thayer, providentially the founder of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, was flying over the North like a flaming meteor, stirring up the people for money and recruits in his grand crusade for the freedom of Kansas, Charles Robinson, his trusty lieutenant, wonderfully prepared for it by a like Providence by his California experience, was sternly holding the helm amid the storms and breakers in Kansas. Without Eli Thayer the emigrants would not have come, and without Charles Robinson it would have been in vain that they did come !

Cool, clear-headed, and brave, he could see the end from the beginning, and the sure way to reach it. While others were all excitement, he was perfectly self-possessed, and knew the right thing to do, and did it. To his mind two things were perfectly clear : First, there was to be no resistance of the United States Government. Secondly, the territorial laws made by a bogus Legislature were to be ignored. To carry out these principles required clear heads and many times a passive resistance worthy of the early martyrs. His great idea was in every case so to manage that the Pro-Slavery men should be in the wrong and the Free-State men in the right. The first must be the aggressor, and the second the passive sufferer, or act only in self-de fense. In this way alone he could secure the united sympathy and support of the North.

The New England Emigrant Aid Company, without which Kansas could not have been saved, was composed of a remarkable body of men. Eli Thayer says : " No other cor poration ever formed in this country can compare at all in ability, character, influence, and wealth with the Directors of the Emigrant Aid Company." And through his genius, skill,

INTRODUCTION.

. XV and forethought it was created and made effectual in its great and glorious work. In his valuable book, " The Kansas Crusade," published in 1889, he has written a wonderful history of his grand and noble work which made it possible to save Kansas from slavery by outside work. And now we have Governor Robinson's history, which tells how Kansas was saved to freedom by inside work. They constitute two of the most important histories yet written, which tell how Kansas was made a free State. Let every Kansan read them. Governor Robinson has brought to the work honesty, conscientiousness, ability, and independence. Never did Dr. Robinson appear to greater advantage than in the Waka rusa war of December, 1855. Governor Shannon, inspired by Sheriff Jones and other pro-slavery leaders, issued a proclamation for volunteers to enforce the bogus laws, and in response some 1900 Missourians assembled at Franklin to wipe out Lawrence, the hotbed of rebellion against the supremacy of slavery.

Dr. Robinson was the diplomatist who devised the policy adopted to thwart the enemy. Shan non's good sense and legal mind enabled him, on arriving at Lawrence, at once to grasp the situation. A treaty was made and the tables were turned. The army of Sheriff Jones was ordered to disperse, and a legal force found itself at once a mob, while Robinson and his force became law-abiding citizens, and were recognized by Governor Shannon to be so. By request of the Governor, who seemed to distrust his own power of persuasion, Dr. Robinson and General Lane accompanied him to Franklin to explain to the Mis sourians the true condition of affairs. Lane first spoke, but unfortunately provoked instead of conciliated, and the meeting was on the point of breaking up in confusion when Dr. Robinson was called out, and by an appeal to facts and their common sense, he conquered their prejudices and the victory was won. During this negotiation, as on other important occasions, came in the disturbing element of John Brown

INTRODUCTION.

. XVI and a few followers who were as ready to fight the United States Government as they were the border ruffians. Brown himself wished to go out and open the fight with the enemy, and was only kept quiet by a threat from Robinson that he would place him under arrest. It was while Dr. Robinson was a prisoner under a guard of United States soldiers at Lecompton, that General Lane proposed to release him and the other Free-State prisoners by force, when the General was very decidedly requested to keep quiet. Their liberation without force soon followed. It was while he was a prisoner that John Brown, with some half dozen men, in the night, on Pottawatomie Creek, called out and assassinated three men and two boys in a shocking manner. At a mass meeting called soon after by both par ties, the act was denounced and disowned.

Brown was condemned even by his own son Jason, with whom I rode a long distance on his way to California, in 1884. Neverthe less, that massacre was the commencement of those terrible atrocities that followed in south-eastern Kansas, and beyond the control of Dr. Robinson. Had his statesmanship prevailed everywhere, very little bloodshed would have attended the making of Kansas a free State. For Dr. Robinson the border ruffians had great respect, and when at Lawrence they had seized the polls and driven all other Free-State men away, on his approach they cried out, " Here comes the Doctor ; let him vote," and the way was cleared. Even in that terrible massacre during the Lawrence raid, and when. the Doctor slowly retired from his barn to the brow of Mt. Oread, near where several of Quantrell's men were on guard, they did not molest him.

There was a certain something, a strange, commanding influence, a presence that neutralized for the time being any power to do him harm. In all of his Kansas experience, both when free and when for four months a prisoner, I never heard of his receiving a personal insult. The same was true of his California experience. He would meet hundreds of men single-handed and prevent the de-

INTRODUCTION.

. XVII struction of the squatters' property without a blow being struck. While I have always looked upon Governor Robinson as raised up and specially qualified as the man, and the only man, within the territory to lead on to certain victory, I have never thought him a good politician. He is too honest and outspoken ; his sentiments, whether popular or unpopular, are never concealed. With the highest appreciation of his services in saving Kansas, and with a personal regard that has few equals, it has so happened, fortunately or unfortunately, that ever since the war we have in most cases voted on opposite sides, yet without disturbing our personal relations. The world will never be quite right till we allow other people the same freedom of thought and action that we claim for ourselves. Before closing I wish to quote from several contempo raries.

G. Douglas Brewerton, correspondent N. Y. Herald, who was in Kansas in December, 1855, and January, 1856, thus speaks of Charles Robinson : " In Kansas politics Gen eral Robinson was a member of the State constitutional convention, is chairman of the Free-State executive commit tee, and in addition to this holds the military rank of Major- General and Commander-in-chief of the Kansas Volunteers, as the Free-State army of Kansas style themselves. He may be regarded as the real head — the thinking one, we mean — and mainspring of the Free-State party, or, to speak more correctly, of all that party who are worth anything. We believe him to be a keen, shrewd, far-seeing man, who would permit nothing to stand in the way of the end which he desired to gain. He is, moreover, cool and determined, and appears to be endowed with immense firmness; we should call him a conservative man now, but conservative rather from policy than from principle.

He seems to have strong common sense, and a good ordinary brain, but no brilliancy of talent. In fact, to sum Governor Robinson up in a single sentence, we consider him the most dangerous l;

INTRODUCTION.

. enemy which the pro-slavery party have to encounter in Kansas. In person he is tall and well-made, and more than ordinarily handsome, gentlemanly, but by no means winning in his manners, with one of those cold, keen blue eyes that seem to look you through." S. S. Prouty sums up the character of Governor Robinson in an address January 27, 1881, before the Kansas State Historical Society, as follows : " One of the most conspicuous and influential leaders of the Free-State party was Charles Robinson, the first Gov ernor of the State of Kansas. He was noted for his sterling common sense, firmness, coolness, and courage. Though an uncompromising anti-slavery man, there was no sentiment or gush in his composition. He was regarded as a conservative man and too business-like and practical by the ideal ists.

He fancied fighting as well as any other man when it was absolutely necessary, or when it would benefit the Free- State cause. But he did not believe in sanguinary strife simply for the love of it, or for ends but remotely associated with the Kansas contest. Such men as Governor Robinson were needed to hold in check the reckless and imprudent, to bring order out of chaos, and secure the fruits of victory." October 30, 1 851, he married Miss Sara T. D. Lawrence, daughter of Hon. Myron Lawrence, an eminent lawyer and statesman of Massachusetts. Her mother was Clarissa (Dwight) Lawrence. She was of the New England family of Dwights, of western Massachusetts, of which President Dwight, of Yale College, is a worthy scion. She is the author of " Kansas ; its Interior and Exterior Life," a book which in its time was a not unworthy rival of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and did scarcely less in its sphere, to rouse the Northern heart, in the early years of the Kansas struggle.

They have no children. Eli Thayer, in his " Kansas Crusade," * speaks of his first meeting with Charles Robinson as follows : * "Kansas Crusade," page 33.

INTRODUCTION.

. XIX " It was at one of the Chapman Hall meetings (in Boston) that I first saw Charles Robinson (afterwards Governor of Kansas), and engaged him to act as agent of the Emigrant Aid Company. A wiser and more sagacious man for this work could not have been found within the borders of the nation. By nature and by training he was perfectly well equipped for the arduous work before him. A true Demo crat and a lover of the rights of man, he had risked his life in California while defending the poor and weak against the cruel oppression of the rich and powerful. He was willing at any time, if there were need, to die for his principles. In addition to such brave devotion to his duty, he had the clearest foresight and the coolest, calmest judgment in deter mining the course of action best adapted to secure the rights of the Free-State settlers.

No one in Kansas was so much as he the man for the place and time. He was a deeper thinker than Atchison, and triumphed over the border ruffians and the more annoying and more dangerous self-seekers of his own party. The man who ' paints the lily and gilds refined gold ' is just the one to tell us how Charles Robinson might have been better qualified for his Kansas work. But his character, so clearly defjned in freedom's greatest struggle, superior to the help or harm of criticism, reveals these salient points of excellence — majesty of mind and humility of heart, stern justice and tender sympathy, heroic will and sensitive conscience, masculine strength and maidenly modesty, leonine courage and womanly gentleness, with power to govern based on self-restraint, and love of freedom deeper than love of life.

With such a man at the head of the Free-State cause it is not strange that I felt no uneasiness about its management. I never troubled him with letters of advice about Kansas matters, which he was in a position to under stand so well. In the three years' conflict very few letters passed between us. He never knew where or when a letter would reach me, as I was speaking all the way from the Penobscot to the Schuylkill, and from the seaboard to the

INTRODUCTION.

. XX lakes. It was my mission to raise men and money for the security of freedom in the Territory, and to combine the Northern States in this work. I did not doubt Robinson's ability or fidelity in the use of means." Colonel S. F. Tappan, a member of the pioneer party from Massachusetts, in 1854 ; a Branson rescuer ; newspaper correspondent ; Clerk of the State Legislature who was calling the roll of the House when that body was dispersed by Col onel Sumner ; descendant of the famous Tappan families of New England and New York ; Colonel of the First Colorado Regiment during the war, and member of the Indian Peace Commission afterwards, wrote to the Denver Tribune of September 9, 1883, a communication in which he said: " Having referred to the early history of Kansas, the long protraCted struggle of its people to consecrate its soil to freedom, efforts at last rewarded by the admission of Kansas into the Federal Union as a free State, it seems appropriate to make a brief reference to the man who more than any other — in fact, more than all others — by being patient as well as herioc — patient under the most adverse and trying circumstances, patient when persecuted, patient when victorious, patient in council, patient in battle, and more than all, patient in prison — so shaped and directed the policy of the Free-State men as to bring about the most desired object, the freedom of Kansas.

When the first party of emigrants to Ivansas from New England — as early as July, 1854 — reached the city of St. Louis en route, they there met one who had preceded them to Kansas and made a selection of a location — now Lawrence — on the Kansas River, just west of the limits of the Shawnee reservation, about forty-five miles west of Kansas City, as a place for this party to make a settlement. He then returned and met them at St. Louis, further to aid them in their purchases for their new homes. This man had been a pioneer in a new country, one of the earliest of those who went to California, and while there was shot through the body while endeavoring to vindicate the

INTRODUCTION.

. XXI rights of the settlers to the land, commanding and leading them against a monster monopoly which was seeking to obtain and control all of the public domain. After being shot, he was placed on board a prison-ship and there retained until the people had elected and called upon him to represent them in the Legislature. Upon the passage of the Kansas- Nebraska bill, he emigrated to Kansas, and ever since has been closely and prominently connected with its interests. Upon the commencement of hostilities between the Free- State men and the invaders, he was called upon to take command of the former. Had it simply been a question between the Free-State men and the Missourians, it would have soon been settled by a decisive action. But the ques tion at issue was more than this ; it was not local, but national.

The Missourians were encouraged and sustained at the outset by the entire force of the Federal Government, by the slave power of the South, and their allies at the North. The Federal judiciary and the Federal army were also ar rayed on their side and against the Free-State men. These were potent, because on the ground and ready to be applied in behalf of the invader. Under these adverse circumstances the cause of free Kansas seemed at first sight lost forever. To fully comprehend the situation and the best means of averting the storm required a man of the greatest patience, judgment, coolness, and courage ; one able to consolidate and control the Free-State element in such a way as to pre vent a direct conflict with the Federal authority, and at the same time to maintain a determined position of resistance to the invader of the Territory and oppressor of the settlers ; one able to shape the policy of the people and direct it to ward a final victory upon the appearance of every new movement of the enemy.

Kansas had such a man, who proved himself equal to every emergency. When the invader had, by violence, obtained absolute control of the first Legislative Assembly, and had enacted an infamous slave code for the government of Kansas, this man then advised an open repu-

INTRODUCTION.

. diation of the concern and the immediate formation of a constitution and the organization of a government under it of the people, by the people, and for the people, which was done. This movement proved a check upon the pro-slavery party. Then the Administration determined to destroy this new government, using the Federal judges and the Federal army for the puipose. This man was indicted, arrested, and imprisoned upon the charge of treason, held for months as a prisoner, restrained of his liberty by a company of United States troops. Colonel Sumner, with his regiment, dispersed the Legislature at the point of his sword. Free-State men were arrested, manacled, and in some instances driven for miles across the prairie by detachments of Federal troops. The army had become fully identified with the invaders and determined upon the enslavement of Kansas.

It was a crisis in affairs. One false movement on the part of the people would jeopardize everything. But their leader, although a prisoner in a Federal camp, still directed affairs and con trolled events. When the young men, smarting under the indignities heaped upon them — when they saw the army and flag of their country prostituted to the service of the slave party, imperilling the freedom of Kansas, felt impelled to rise up in armed resistance, attack the prison camp, and release their General, he said, ' No ; under no circumstances do you permit yourselves to fire upon the army or the flag of our common country.' Like the great discoverer Columbus, who had been arrested and put in irons by order of the tyrannic Governor of Hispaniola, Bobadilla, and sent to Spain, when importuned by the captain of his guard and the master of the ship to permit them to remove the manacles from his limbs, said, ' No ; they were placed upon me by order of my sovereigns, and there they must remain until removed by their command.' Our Kansas Columbus, in the same spirit, replied, ' These bonds were placed upon me by authority of the Government, and must remain until removed by the same power,' which was done, and this man

INTRODUCTION.

. XXIII became the first executive of free Kansas ; its war Governor, the organizer of its heroic army that went forth to maintain the Federal Union and uphold its flag and authority against a colossal armed rebellion, in which 3420 Kansas men laid down their lives, that our Government might live." The early settlers well understood Dr. Robinson and rallied to his support. That he was appreciated is fully shown by his almost unanimous election to the highest office within the gift of the people, that of the first Governor of the State. And well did he earn his title of " the War Governor of Kansas." Isaac T. Goodnow. Manhattan, Kansas, June 1, 1891.

Chapter I. Slavery And Anti-slavery

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. LIBERTY AND FREE- SOIL PARTIES. On Kansas soil was gained the first decisive victory against the slave power of this nation. Had her pioneers failed to make Kansas a free State, slavery to-day would have been national and freedom sectional. From the year 1820 to 1854 the triumphal march of the slave power had been unin terrupted, and the time seemed at hand when the defiant threat of a Southern planter, that he would call the roll of his slaves under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument, would be fulfilled. This may seem an extravagant claim, but it is susceptible of proof. Before this nation was born, while the Pilgrim Fathers were fleeing from the oppression of the Old World, and seeking liberty on the rock-bound coast of New England, a cargo of twenty African slaves was landed in Virginia, in the month of August, 1619.

From this seed thus planted sprung the upas tree that overshad owed the land. At first no Mason and Dixon's line divided the country, but nearly all the Colonies had more or less slaves, not excepting New York and Massachusetts. The slave trade, carried on in Spanish, English, and Dutch ships, was very lucrative, and plied with energy till the question of holding slaves became one of public consideration. Good men from the first deplored the existence of slavery, and hoped for its early disappearance. Among them were Wash ington, Jefferson, Rush, Franklin, Jay, Hamilton, Hopkins, Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, and others. As early as 1688 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 2 the Quakers of Pennsylvania protested against the " buying, selling, and holding men in slavery." In 1696 the yearly meeting advised that " the members should discourage the introduction of slavery, and be careful of the moral and intellectual training of such as they held in servitude."