1918 KANSAS AND KANSANS | Chapter 20 | Part 2 |
The charge made by the Missourians that the Emigrant Aid Company was also importing voters seems to be established by the above and by the following taken from The Andreas History of Kansas, page 99:
"Dr. Robinson started with the first Kansas party in 1855, from Boston, March 13. It consisted of nearly two hundred persons - men, women and children. It was his laudable intention to get his party through before the election came off, and he succeeded. They reached Kansas City on the 24th; and were all in the Territory on or before the 30th. The departure of this party was noted in the Eastern papers, commenting on which the Squatter Sovereign fired the heart of Missouri with the following:
"It is charitable to believe that, ignorant of the facts, the majority of the Missourians who overran Kansas at the election of March 30 were honest in the belief that they were performing a duty they owed to their own State, in defense of her vital interests, being put in jeopardy by unfair methods on the part of the Emigrant Aid societies and kindred Free-state organizations; and that, with the light they had, they found full justification in the words of a Missourian, who, being asked if, as such, he thought he had a right to vote in Kansas, replied: 'As such as a man from Massachusetts - why not?'"
The number of Missourians coming into Douglas County, as later established, was estimated at one thousand, and this estimate was later sustained by sworn testimony. They were commanded by Colonel Samuel Young, of Boone County, and Claiborne F. Jackson, of Saline County. They wore white ribbons in the button-holes of their coats. They boasted that they had come to the Territory to elect a Legislature to suit themselves, as such a Legislature as the people of the Territory might elect would not suit them. They claimed that they had a right to make Kansas a slave state, because the people of the North had sent out persons to make it a free state. Finding that they had more men than was necessary, they sent companies to Tecumseh, Hickory Point, Bloomington, and other places. They organized the polls to suit themselves and voted. Claiborne F. Jackson was in command of the company sent to Bloomington. They held a mass meeting at which the Reverend Thomas Johnson, of the Shawnee Mission, was elected Governor in the place of Reeder.
Judge James Hale, of Lexington, Missouri, wrote the following letter to this author, detailing what he saw and what he did on this occasion.
Many of the Free-State men did not vote. The exact number of legal votes cast in the Territory was fourteen hundred and ten, not quite half the number shown by the census. The returns of the election are shown in the following tables:
No.
Repre- sentative district | No.
of election district | Precincts and place of Voting | No.
of Representatives | Pro-Slavery Candidates | Their vote
in election district | Their vote in Rep. district | Free-State Candidates | Their vote
in election district | Their vote in Rep. dist. |
1 | 4 | Dr. Chapman's | 1 | A. S. Johnson | 77 | ... | A. F. Powell | 3 | ... |
17 | Shawnee Mission | .. | A. S. Johnson | 43 | 120 | A. f. Powell | 16 | 19 | |
2 | 1 | Lawrence | 3 | James Whitlock | 780 | ... | John Hutchinson | 252 | ... |
J. M. Banks | 781 | ... | E. D. Ladd | 253 | ... | ||||
A. B. Wade | 781 | 781 | P. P. Fowler | 254 | 253 | ||||
3 | 2 | Bloomington | 2 | G. W. Ward | 318 | ... | Isaac Davis | 12 | ... |
O. H. Browne | 318 | 318 | E. G. Macy | 12 | 12 | ||||
4 | 3 | Tecumseh | 1 | D. L. Croysdale | 366 | 366 | C. K. Holliday | 4 | 4 |
5 | 7 | I. B. Titus's | 1 | M. W. McGee | 210 | ... | H. Rice | 23 | ... |
8 | Council Grove | .. | M. W. McGee | 12 | 222 | A. I. Baker | 25 | 49 | |
6 | 6 | Fort Scott | 2 | Joseph C. Anderson | 315 | ... | Jno. Hamilton | 35 | 35 |
S. A. Wiliams | 313 | 315 | William Margraves | 16 | ... | ||||
7 | 5 | Bull Creek | 4 | W. A. Heiskell | 377 | ... | John Serpell | 9 | ... |
Allen Wilkinson | 375 | ... | Adam Pore | 9 | ... | ||||
Henry Younger | 375 | ... | S. H. Houser | 9 | ... | ||||
Samuel Scott | 377 | ... | Wm. Jennings | 9 | ... | ||||
Pottawatomie Creek | .. | Wm. A. Heiskell | 198 | ... | John Serpell | 61 | ... | ||
Allen Wilkinson | 198 | ... | Adam Pore | 54 | ... | ||||
Henry Younger | 198 | ... | S. H. Houser | 64 | ... | ||||
Samuel Scott | 198 | ... | Wm. Jennings | 62 | ... | ||||
Big Sugar Creek | .. | W. A. Heiskell | 74 | ... | John Serpell | 17 | ... | ||
Allen Wilkinson | 74 | ... | Adam Pore | 16 | ... | ||||
Henry Younger | 74 | ... | S. H. Houser | 17 | ... | ||||
Samuel Scott | 74 | ... | Wm. Jennings | 17 | ... | ||||
Little Sugar Creek | .. | Wm. A. Heiskell | 33 | ... | John Serpell | 62 | ... | ||
Allen Wilkinson | 32 | ... | Adam Pore | 62 | ... | ||||
Henry Younger | 35 | ... | S. H. Houser | 64 | ... | ||||
Samuel Scott | 35 | 684 | Wm. Jennings | 66 | 152 | ||||
8 | 9 | Pawnee | 1 | Russell Garrett | 18 | ... | S. D. Houston | 56 | ... |
10 | Big Blue | .. | Russell Garrett | 21 | ... | S. D. Houston | 43 | ... | |
Rock Creek | .. | Russell Garrett | 2 | 41 | S. D. Houston | 21 | 120 | ||
9 | 11 | ......... | 1 | Fr. J. Marshall | 328 | ... | |||
12 | Silver Lake | .. | Fr. J. Marshall | 12 | ... | H. McCartney | 19 | ... | |
St. Marys | .. | Fr. J. Marshall | 4 | 344 | H. McCartney | 7 | 26 | ||
10 | 13 | Hickory Point | 1 | Wm. H. Tebbs | 237 | 237 | C. Hard | 3 | ... |
11 | 14 | Wolf River | .. | John H. Stringfellow | 57 | ... | G. A. Cutler | 15 | ... |
R. L. Kirk | 52 | ... | John Landis | 8 | ... | ||||
Doniphan | .. | J. H. Stringfellow | 313 | ... | J. Ryan | 8 | ... | ||
R. L. Kirk | 292 | ... | G. A. Cutler | 33 | ... | ||||
John Landis | 25 | ... | |||||||
18 | Nemaha | .. | J. H. Stringfellow | 48 | ... | Joel Ryan | 18 | ... | |
R. L. Kirk | 50 | 420 | G. A. Cutler | 14 | ... | ||||
12 | 14 | Burr Oak | 2 | Joel P. Blair | 256 | ... | John Landis | 13 | 54 |
Thomas W. Waterson | 258 | 258 | John Fee | 2 | ... | ||||
13 | 15 | .......... | 2 | H. B. C. Harris | 412 | ... | ..... | ... | ... |
J. Weddell | 412 | 412 | ..... | ... | ... | ||||
14 | 16 | Leavenworth | 2 | Wm. G. Mathias | 889 | ... | Felix G. Braden | 59 | ... |
H. D. McMeekin | 889 | ... | Samuel France | 59 | ... | ||||
Archy Payne | 895 | 897 | F. Browning | 59 | 59 |
RETURNS OF ELECTION, BY ELECTION DISTRICTS, MARCH 30, 1855 | |||||||||
Census 1855 | |||||||||
No.
of Districts | Precinct | Pro- Slavery Votes | Free State Votes | Scat- tering | Total | Total legal votes | Total illegal votes | No. of Votes | No.
of Resi- dents |
1 | Lawrence ............ | 781 | 253 | .. | 1,094 | 232 | 802 | 369 | 962 |
2 | Bloomington .......... | 318 | 12 | 11 | 341 | 30 | 316 | 199 | 519 |
3 | Stinson's or Tecumseh.. | 360 | 4 | 2 | 372 | 32 | 338 | 101 | 282 |
4 | Dr. Chapman's ....... | 78 | 2 | .. | 80 | 15 | 65 | 47 | 177 |
5 | Bull Creek | 377 | 9 | .. | 386 | 15 | 380 | 442 | 1,407 |
5 | Pottawatomie .......... | 190 | 65 | .. | 264 | 75 | 191 | ||
5 | Big Sugar Creek...... | 74 | 17 | 7 | 98 | 32 | 59 | ||
5 | Llttle Sugar Creek.... | 34 | 70 | .. | 104 | 134 | .. | ||
6 | Fort Scott .......... | 315 | 35 | .. | 350 | 100 | 250 | 253 | 810 |
7 | Isaac B. Titus.. | 211 | 23 | .. | 294 | 25 | 209 | 53 | 118 |
8 | Council Grove .. | 17 | 17 | .. | 37 | 37 | .. | 39 | 83 |
9 | Pawnee ......... | 23 | 52 | .. | 75 | 75 | .. | 36 | 86 |
10 | Big Blue ......... | 27 | 42 | .. | 69 | 48 | 21 | 63 | 151 |
10 | Rock Creek .. | 2 | 21 | .. | 23 | 23 | .. | ||
11 | Marysville ....... | 328 | ... | .. | 328 | 7 | 321 | 24 | 36 |
12 | St. Mary's ....... | 4 | 7 | .. | 11 | 11 | .. | .. | .. |
12 | Silver Lake ..... | 12 | 19 | 2 | 33 | 33 | .. | 78 | 144 |
13 | Hickory Point .. | 233 | 6 | .. | 239 | 12 | 230 | 96 | 284 |
14 | Doniphan ............ | 313 | 30 | 3 | 346 | 200 | 530 | 334 | 1,167 |
14 | Wolf Creek ...... | 57 | 15 | 6 | 78 | ||||
14 | Burr OaK ........ | 256 | 2 | 48 | 306 | ||||
15 | Hayes ............. | 412 | ... | 5 | 417 | 80 | 337 | 208 | 873 |
16 | Leavenworth ...... | 899 | 60 | 5 | 964 | 150 | 814 | 385 | 1,183 |
17 | Gum Springs ...... | 43 | 16 | .. | 59 | 59 | .. | 50 | 150 |
18 | Moorestown ..... | 48 | 14 | .. | 62 | 17 | 45 | 28 | 99 |
Totals ............ | 3.427 | 791 | 89 | 6,307 | 1,410 | 4,908 | 2,905 | 8,001 |
1918 Kansas and Kansans | Previous Section | Next Section |
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans , written and compiled by William E. Connelley, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, 1998.