Life of Gen. James H. Lane, "the liberator of Kansas"; with corroborative incidents of pioneer history

Preface

Tlie tirst sentence in the preface to (Inuit's Memoirs rends: "Man proposes and ( nnl disposes." If this is true tf (irujit's ^reat work in tlie American conflict, liow much more empliatic the sentence seems when applied to the earlier struggle where the whole question of slavery progression was fought over and the victory locally won wiiich finally warranted and demanded the Emancipation Proclamation and culminated in the surrender at Appamattox, and tlie overthrow of the institution. This victory was won in Kansas; and I write of one who led the forlorn liope against an oligarchy whicii had ruled the Nation from its foundation, and up to that period seemed strengthening from year to year, till some of its leaders boasted in tlie hails of Congress that they would live to call the roll of their slaves in the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument. W'iien James II. Lane threw his life, his fortunes and his honor into the conflict, tlie people of Kansas were but a handful of unorganized men with hostile Indians on the west and more hostile white men on the east. This seems strange language now; but previously to Lane's enlistment in the cause an enactment had been placed upon our statute books by invaders of our country warrantiim this declaration, and the puljlic sentiment of our oppressors more than sustained it 'n barbarity.

"Man pro|H)ses and (rod disposes" truly. The gift of j)ropliecy never gave to tlie pioneers of Kansas a twinkle of light upon what was to come. No human being had predicted the results nor foreseen the outcome — the bravest struggle and the grandest outcome in the history of the world.

My opportiniities in forty-two years of Kansas life have l)rougIil to me quite a number of solicitations to write on tiie occurrences of that period; and among them I venture to (luote from two characteristic but antagonistic great men: one. Rev. Samiki. Okcott, of New Haven; the other, Hon. .Iamks N. Biknks, of 8t. Joseph, Mo. — tiie Connecticut historian and divine and the Missouri statesman, written when I was engaged on the Kansas Biographical Dictionary. Mr. Orrcott says :

Vlll PKEFACE.

Mr. J. Speer — Dear Sir: ... I like the appearance of

the sheets you have sent me. Tlie wliole appearance of your work is agreeable and pleasing. . . I have no objection to the work, and like it very much, except John Brown's picture, in which the true character is gone, as to my thinking. The article as a whole is per feet — the medal picture fitting most charmingly. . . I should be glad to commend you to any fair opportunity to do something more for humanity and the future. I have not seen a history of Kansas. If there is none full and complete, you would do well to go at it. No history of a Westei*n State would sell in the East like that, in my judgment. Is not now the time ? Connect the leading families with their ancestors; fill it out carefully with historical notes and the like, and you would be in time, if there is no historical work on that State. A'ery truly, Samuel Orcott.

Col. Burxes, in a very complimentary letter in regard to Kansas and Missouri history, dated December 6, 1877, said :

Having taken the liberty of saying this much, I feel that it will not be considered impertinent for me to add, that a book of anecdotes and incidents in the life you have lived, bearing upon the social and private life of the public men of the border, laughable, ridiculous, non-partisan — just such stories as you can tell in asocial way all day LoxG — will give you such pecuniary rewards as make book-writing a success. Your idea may be far better than mine ; but I thought it might not be hurtful to have you think the matter over carefully, as to the elements and character of your book. Tlie world is not interested much in any of the men, great or small, who have " flourished or faded" in our two States; but it is always interested in a good story, and will buy tickets liberally in a lottery of laughter.

In the present effort I am taking the advice of neither of these distinguished men ; and only quote to show some of the incentives to write. I am attempting what I conceive to be justice to a great man with many eccentricities. I once met a negro emancipated by Lane's command, and asked him how he came to be free. His quick response was: " God sent Jim Lane and his army for me — I don't care what anybody says." This faith of the poor slave differed very little from Grant's: "Man proposes and God disposes." If no other good resulted from the INIexican War, which was man's "proposal" for slavery extension, than the raising up of Jim Lane, as he called himself, as a "Crusader of Freedom," the whole civilized world now prays,. " The Lord's will be done." Joirx Speer.

TABLK OF CONTEXTS.

Patto.

II. Repeal of ^Missouri Compromise — Excitement over

Slavery — Outrages on Settlers 17

III. Movement for a Constitutional Convention, . . . .'J4

IV. The AVakarusa War — Attempted Subjugation, . . 49 V. Speeches that Still Speak 66

YI. Continued Outrages in the Winter of 1855-6, ... 72

VII. Anecdotes of Lane and his Compeers, S4

VIII. General Lane's (Campaign for Fremont, I'll

IX. Lane's ^lilitary Defense of Kansas in 1856, .... lU'J

X. The Free-State Triumph, 135

XI. "A Turbulent and Dangerous Military Leader," . . 152

XII. Gov. Denver's Assault upon Lane and his Staff, . 163

XIII. The Leavenworth (Constitution, 175

XIV. The Homicide of Gains .lenkins, 187

XV. A Period Fruitful of Important Results, .... 219

XVI. Elected to tlie United States Senate, 227

XN'II. Bivouac in the Presidential .Mansion, 234

XVIII. (Jen. Denver's Kansas Campaign, 242

XIX. Delahay's Appointment as United States Judge, ' 244 XX. General Lane on the Vigorous Prosecution of tlie War

and on ('olored Troops, 247

XXI. (iuantrill's Massacre at Lawrence 265

XXII. Location of tlie Union Pacific Kailwav 272

XXIII. The Second Nomination of Lincoln 279

XXIV. The Price Paid and Political Campaign of 1864, . . 285 XXV. Senator Ingalls on Lane — Lane's Southern Expedition

— Tlie Henderson Amendment, .302

XXVI. The Causes of (xeneral Lane's Deatli 313

XXVII. (k)ngressional Eulogies upon his Death, .... 317 XXVIII. Glimpse at Events — Lane's Acts and Characteristics, 327

JOHN J-TEER.

LIFE OF GEN. JAMES H. LANE.

Chapter I

In attcini)tiiiu- :i skctcli of this iviiiai'kahlc man, we must rcnifnilx'i- ilir cii-cuinstanccs and (.-(•nditions of tlio l)erio(l in wliicli hv acted. I>oni at Lawi-cnceburn-li, Indiana, .June 2-2, 1.S14, liis vciy birtli was in tlic midst of the I'xc'iteinonts and dcniofalization following the War of 1812. The first sounds u^^on his infant ear were the shouts and revelry of the rude Hoosiers and wihhM- Kentuekians cheei-ing and di-iid<in<;- in honor- of tlie JJattle of New Orleans and in eon ii;ratu hit ions over the Treatv of (ihent. And yet this man, the ehild of the fi'ontier of (•ivilizati(»n, the advance hei-ald of two wars, the leader in the Kansas Conllict against Slavery, was one of the most abstemious men I ever saw. So remarkable was this as a characteristic, that, in speaking of it to his daughter, she t'xpressed surprise at the idea that he ever partook of liipior at all.

It was my ])rivilege to have spent a portion of my life (in 1S42) at Corydon, Indiana, the capital of that State from 1SK5 till 1824, and to learn much by ti-adition of his parentage, where his parents spent much of tlieir

10 ANCESTRY.

time after the admission of Indiana as a State in 1816. The father, Hon. Amos Lane, was the first Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, and was afterwards a Judge and a member of Congress ; and, at that time, anecdotes were almost as numerous and unique as those of the son in the pioneer days of Kansas. Manypersons were there then living who had intimately known both the parents. The father had the reputation of the trickiness of the wily politician, and the mother that of a lady eminent for piety, amiability, charity and every womanly virtue — a member of the Methodist Episcopal church ; and both these attributes of character were brought to Kansas where the first marked Methodist emigration settled ; and at no place were Lane's triumphs of oratory and political success greater than at Baldwin City among that good people. The father was of Scotch- Irish descent — the mother of New England Puritanical stock. She was descended from the Foote family of Connecticut, one of whom was Governor of that State and United States Senator — a family distinguished in its State history. -But little seems to be known of the an- C(s:;ors on the paternal side beyond the father, Amos Lane ; but the parents were married at Ogdensburgh , New York ; and Gen. Lane's daughter, Annie, now Mrs. D. A. Johnson, of Kansas City, Mo., frequently visits the Connecticut kindred, and informs me that the old house -in which her grandparents were married is still standing in a good state of preservation, where she has been shown the room in which the ceremony was

A mother's influence. 11

performed. Gen. Lane himself gave me all I know of Ills father's nationality. Talking with Lane once, on politics, I happened to tell him I got my first practical ideas on political organization from Newton Gunn, a trusted, earnest friend and comjDeer of Thurlow Weed. "Newton Giinn ! Where did you know Newton Gunn? He was my cousin." I found that he and Newton Gunn, a Connecticut youth, had been fellow clerks in the store of Judge Geer, of Ithaca, New York, and that from such sources he had gotten much information. Contrary to general belief, he had various opportunities for culture among eminent men, though liis education had been limited to common schools. But his mother was a woman of culture. Connecticut was famous for its advancement in education many years before she was born, and she had all its advantages in some of its most advanced schools for female education. In that rude settlement in Indiana, she took to her own home a few of the children of her neighbors, and taught school, her own children being a portion of her pupils, and her teachings were probably the most useful and instructive of his life. Thurlow Weed was one of his ideals of a great man, and opportunities with such a man we may readily imagine would never be lost on such a pupil. Whether in the evolution of humanity these criss-cross characteristics of parentage influenced the eccentricities or idiosincrasies of the son, I leave to scientists who may read his history.

The writer had further opportunities of knowing of

12 SETTLES IN .KANSAS.

the son in the fact that he was in Indiana when the Mexican War broke out, and passed through his native town when the first news of the victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma were received, and the rally was on for volunteers, and James H. Lane stepped from the multitude into the ranks as a private, and was spontaneously proclaimed the leader of the regiment, and made colonel by acclamation. Leading that regiment with great acceptance, he not only gallantly led these brave men through all its engagements up to the ensanguinary Battle of Buena Vista, but rallied the demoralized regiment of Col. Bowles, the latter retrieving much of their lost honors under his leadership ; and after the expiration of the term of this regiment, he returned to his home, and organized another regiment, participating in the battles around the city of Mexico, honorably commanding till the close of the war. He was Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, Elector-at-Large and member of Congress.

"With these honors, he came to Kansas. One bright morning in April, 1855, as he was passing with his team over the hill where the State University now stands, he halted and walked into the little hamlet now called Lawrence, named but without a charter, carrying a jug to fill with water to pursue his journey westward, but meeting a man named Edward Chapman, who offered to sell him a "claim," he purchased and ended his journey.

He was a Democrat, and always had been, with the odium of having voted in Congress for the Kansas-Nebraska bill. That bill, the precursor of the slavery agi-

VIEWS ON SLAVERY. 13

tation, was considered by the people among wliom he settled the acma of pro-slavery tyranny. His democracy might have been forgiven ; but the sin of breaking down the " Missouri Compromise " and turning the tide of slavery northward through Kansas, where a considerable number of slaves were already held, could not be palliated. Was he a pro-slavery man? The ultra abolition type of agitators regarded him in that light. They believed that the whole democratic administration was sold and delivered to slavery. He was, however, no more pro-slavery than Pierce, Buchanan, Douglas, Logan and Grant. He believed in what they all called the "compromises of the constitution." He was no more a pro slavery man than Henry Clay, who said he would rather be instrumental in relieving his country of the great stain of slavery than to be a conquering hero. He was with Douglas in favor of "squatter sovereignty." These men only espoused anti-slavery ideas according to the advanced thought of Garrison, Thaddeus Stevens and Chase after slave-holders arose in rebellion to sustain the Dred Scott decision that slavery was national and that slaves were property to be taken all over the Union acccording to the volition of the owner. If we had tabooed all men holding the views of Lane, Grant and others, we would have had neither statesmen, nor army, nor navy. The sentiment which triumphed grew out of results ; but in the very incipiency of the conspiracy against Kansas, the conspirators laid down the proposition that they were neither Whigs nor Democrats, but a

14 WEAK IN NUMBERS STRONG IN PRINCIPLE.

distinctive Pro-Slavery party. On the other hand, Lane, Emery, Goodin and others attempted to organize the Democratic party, and were denounced as abolitionists and enemies of the institution of slavery. The opponents of slaveiy met them upon this ground, if they did not jDrecede them, but that can hardly be claimed ; for the friends of a Free State never chrystalized into a solid party until the Big Springs Convention September 5, 1855, when they made provision for another convention at Topeka, September 19, 1855, wiiich appointed an Executive Committee and called an election for Delegates to the Topeka Constitutional Convention.

Still, the small consolidation at Lawrence and a few other places, weak in numbers, but strong in the principles of universal liberty, dates back further. The very first effort at the trial of strength was November 29, 1854, when the anti-slavery men were badly routed, the vote standing ; Flenneken, Democrat, 805 ; Wakefield, Anti-Slavery, 248; Whitfield, Pro-Slavery, 2, 258, for the election of Delegate to Congress. At this election the Pro-Slavery men showed their determination to conquer the new Territory by invasion and ballot stuffing. The first homocide occurred that day, when Davis, Pro-Slavery, assaulted Kibbe, Free-State, and by the latter was killed in self-defense ; which was the first murder trial in Kansas, in preliminary hearing before Judge Lecompte on writ of habeas corpus, with a view to bail. The case was never tried. It was reported in full by John Speer for the Kansas Tribune and Free State.

THE CONI'I.KT I NA l* iT H ATKD. 15

The next contest was Marcli 30, 1855, when one thousand men from Missouri and other States, with guns, revolvers and a cannon, boldly camped at Lawrence the e\ ening before the election, and marshalled a portion of them for other points, besides liaving oth^r bands enter the Territory at KickapoO, Leavenworth, Atchison and elsewhere. It was the boldest, wickedest assault upon the ballot-box ever made in a country pretending to popular siitlrage. The selection of a Pro-Slavery legislature succeeded this outrage, and laws were passed rendering a fair election an impossibility. Practically all opponents of slavery were disfranchised.

This outrage, hoAvever, aroused a spirit of resistance that linally became unconquerable. But, to avoid bloodshed, a general determination was evolved to hold an election for Delegate to Congress on a separate day from that selected by what w^as denounced as the "bogus Legislature." But it is not the purpose of this work to go into historical incidents beyond what is necessary to elucidate the character on whom we are writing. The history of the Legislature thus imposed upon the people was characterized by an infamy unparalleled by any other in the annals of the Republic. The worst characters in the slaveholding oligarchy had failed to make precedents severe enough to satisfy the vengeance of these usurpers for punishments against the " abolitionists," and they made the mere declaration of opinion that "slavery does not legally exist in this Territory" a penalty of not less than two years in the penitentiary,

16 ESPOUSES FREE-STATE PRINCIPLES.

and. harboring or feeding a man whom they declared to be a slave was death.

With all this, however, Gen. Lane had nothing to do. He liad thus far been quiescent, except in a futile attempt to organize the Democratic party. It was in the initiator}' effort to resist this tyranny that he literally broke loose in all his power, fury and energy. Thence onward he was indomitable and unconquerable.

Chapter II. Repeal Of Missouri Compromise Excitement Over

SLAVERY OUTRAGES ON SETTLERS.

The original provocation for conflict was in what was known as the repeal of the ''Missonri Compromise," embraced in the act ' ' to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas," which became a law by the signature of President Pierce May 30, 1854. This act repealed the law which '^ forever prohibited" slavery ''north of thirty degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the State" of Missouri, in what was known as the '' Louisiana Purchase," acquired under the administration of President .Jefferson in 1804.

Tnat compromise law had been considered a sacred compact between the Nortli and the South for a third of a century, the preserver of x)eace between the slave- and free States.

This action renewed all the hostilities that ever existed between the slave- and non-slaveholding States, and opened up a contest for supremacy which eventually resulted in the war and the entire annihilation of slavery, and threw the whole burthen of the conflict upon the settlers of Kansas.

18 AGGRESSIONS OF SLAVERY.

The animosities were aroused from the introduction of the bill. The theory of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the author of the bill, was in the right of the people to " regulate their own domestic institutions in their own way," and the friends of the measure attempted to popularize it as ** squatter sovereignty," but the ghost of slavery was too transparent. Mr. Douglas' first bill was to organize the Territory of Nebraska; but at the next session, he modified his measure by the act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, in hopes that the idea of one slave- and one free State would concilliate the excitement. The result is written in history, and speaks from the graves of the martyrs of the greatest war the world ever saw. The Northern emigrants to Kansas met the aggressions of slavery at every step. They were boldly told that " the abolitionists might take Nebraska, but if they got Kansas, they would have to fight for it; and most emphatically they carried out their threats. The best ** claims " were staked out and marked with the names of pro-slavery men, many of whom had never seen the land. My first night's experience will illustrate the situation. Six of us Northern men slept upon the prairies. We were aroused by the yells of a pro-slavery man, as distinct and definable as the rebel yell became afterward. My comrades suggested, as I was a Western man, that I should do the talking. I hailed from Kentucky, where I had once lived. He greeted me with gladness, and informed me that ''too many infernal abolitionists are getting into the country, and for my part, I am for

THE TRYING HOUR. 19

tarring and feathering and gutting and hanging and drowning the scoundrels till not an abolition thief shall be found in Kansas!" Congratulating my Kentucky friend on his levelheadedness, he departed. Long after, I met him as a Union man, and a jolly good fellow he was.

The trying hour came in the election of March 30, 1855, for members of the Territorial Legislature, when 1,000 men invaded the polls at Lawrence, principally from Missouri, but with no inconsiderable portion from other slave States. This was the main central object of the invasion , but they came in sufficient number to overthrow the legal vote at Leavenworth, Atchison, Kickapoo, and in fact all along the border, while no part of the settled interior was neglected. It was an invasion with arms and all the munitions of war, with a cannon for the emergency of having to batter down a log house occupied for a polling place ; and they did, indeed, upset a house and capture the judges at Clinton, having detailed two or tliree hundred men from Lawrence for that purpose.

Gov. Reeder, though appointed by President Pierce, whose every act had been to establish slavery, was a man of honest purposes and did all he could to right the wrong by throwing out illegal returns, and proclaiming a new election to fill vacancies thereby created ; but there not being enough tlirown out to give the Free-State members a majority in eitlier branch, the Pro-Slavery men did not go to the trouble or expense of a second invasion and ballot usurpation, and the Legislature paid no attention to the legal election, but summarily ousted all the

20 FREE-STATE MEN ALL OUSTED.

members elected at the second election and seated the members in both houses previously declared by the Governor not to have been elected at all. Martin F. Conway, a Free-State man, clearly elected a member of the Council, axidressed a letter to that body denouncing it as constituted by fraud, and refused to act with it. S. D. Houston, a Free-State member of the House also uncontested, remained in the House but a short time, when he withdrew in disgust and contempt, denouncing them as usurpers and tyrants. This left both bodies unanimously pro-slavery ; and they gave to the Territory a code of laws which had no parallel for infamy in the history of American civilization.

The causes which led up to the war are too little understood. The sufferings and trials of the pioneers in the anti-slavery cause in Kansas can hardly be realized in the present period of comparative comfort and ease ; yet they enjoyed the excitements, laughed at their calamaties, and rejoiced in their successes.

A single section of "An act to punish offenses against slave property," (Statutes of Kansas Territory, 1855, page 117, section 12,) will suffice as a specimen :

Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold shxves in this Territory, or shall introduce into this Territory, print, publish, write, circulate or cause to be introduced into this Territory, written, printed, published, or circulated in this Territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this Territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two years.

THE ACM A OF TYRANNY. 21

Three of the sections of this infamous enactment prescribe death for their violation ; three imprisonment for not less than ten years, or death at the discretion of the jury ; three imprisonment for not less than five years ; two imprisonment for not less than two years.

No enactment so severe had found its way into any of the American slave States. These statesmen had one merit — originality in barbarity. Under a jury of slaveholders, it might have been as bloody as the code of Draco.

With these aggravations, would it be wonderful if the victims of such laws should feel the spirit of revenge?

With all this, the Kansas troops were as humane as any body of similar troops that ever entered the army. They never sought Kansas for other than honorable purposes, and to them the field of battle was the field of honor.

The organization of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, while peaceful and patriotic in its purposes, was made the pretext for more outrage upon the people from the slavery propogandists than against all other classes and combinations . It was the theme of denunciation in every campaign, and pro-slavery men traversed the Territory justifying all their aggressions, invasions and murders, on the ground that that company had invaded the rights of the slave States. It helped the country financially ; it aided the immigration by securing cheaper transportation both for passengers and freight ; it built mills, hotels, schools and churches ; and it is safe to say

22 THE EMIGRANT-AID SOCIETY.

provoked many quarrels and brought unjust accusations against the people of colonizing men from the East for the sole purpose of voting, which was by no means its object. There might have been isolated cases of men who availed themselves of its advantages for corruption only, but its purposes were humane and honorable.

The Aid Society wera not long in realizing the danger of such antagonism to their property ; for when they built the original stone building generally called the Free State Hotel, but changed to the Eldridge House by Col. Eldridge, they raised the walls above the roof and made portholes in it as in blockhouses. The walls were built by placing boxes above the work and filling them with stone , something like concrete , except larger stone . The roof was as near flat as consistent with good watershed, and the walls projected above the roof. In the walls were placed boxes as if for molding sunk into the wall within about two inches of the outer surface, covered with mortar to hide the outside view ; but the butt of a gun could instantly knock it out, and armed men would thus be ready for defense, either by firing through these holes or over the walls.

This building is thus described by Mr. Ben. Johnson,

who erected the house :

Ottawa, Kansas, October 21, 1894.

Friend Speer: I received a line fi*oin you asking about the walls of the Free-State Hotel. The building was fifty by eighty feet, four stories high. The basement walls were two feet thick ; first story twenty inches ; the balance eighteen inches thick. The parapet walla in front above the roof were two feet, running bevel all around the

PORTHOLES AND SHARP's RIFLES. 23

building, making the sides and rear from two to six feet high, with portholes six feet apart, sixteen inches large on the inside, and four inches on the outside, mortared over to prevent observation from without side. Shape of opening: B.JOHNSON.

While this house was going up, just following the election outrages of March 30, the Aid Society representatives, as individuals, and others sent Geo. W. Deitzler (afterwards more famously known as Gen. Deitzler) to Boston for Sharp's rifles, and he returned under the assumed name of Crocker up the Missouri on the steamer Vienna, and up the Kansas on the Emma Harmon, and it began to dawn upon the Puritan that he must not only ** trust in God, but keep his powder dry."

Whether these " parapets " and " portholes " had anything to do w^tli causing the following indictment in 1856, is submitted to show how hard it was for Free- State men to build anything to advance civilization without encountering the direst enmity of the slaveholding oligarchy and its adherents :

The Grand Jury sitting for the adjourned term of the First District Court, in and for the county of Douglas, in the Territory of Kansas, beg leave to report to the honorable court, that, from evidence laid before them showing that the newspaper known as the Herald of Freedom, published at the town of LawTence, has from time to time issued publications of the most inflammatory and seditious character, denying the legality of the Territorial authorities, advising and commending forcible resistance to the same ; demoralizing the popular mind, and rendering life and property unsafe, even to the extent of %dvising assassination as the last resort.

24 AN INFAMOUS INDICTMENT.

Also, that the paper known as the Kansas Free State has been similarly engaged, and has recently reported the resolutions of a public meeting in Johnson county, in this Territory, in which resistance to the Territorial laws, even unto blood, has been agreed upon. And that we respectfully recommend their abatement as a nuisance.

Also, that we are satisfied that the building known as the Free-State Hotel, in Lawrence, has been constructed with the view to military occupation and defense, regularly parapeted and portholed for the use of cannon and small arms, and could only have been designed as a stronghold of resistance to law, thereby endangering the public safety and encouraging rebellion and sedition in this country ; and respectfully recommend that steps be taken whereby this nuisance may be removed.

Whatever may have been the '* provoking " causes, the worst speech ever made, considering its source, and the occasion, threatening murder, rapine, arson, and all their concomitant evils, was that made by David R. Atchison, Acting Vice President of the United States, as he nerved the ruffians to the assault upon Lawrence, in conformity to that indictment :