1918 KANSAS AND KANSANS |
Chapter 25 |
Part 2 |
Second Day.
The first business taken up was the report of the Committee on Platform, and
Colonel Lane made the report. In some accounts of the convention it is said that
the resolutions were bitterly attacked and warmly discussed. Failure of the
whole plan seemed imminent. One of the delegates has left this record.
At this critical crisis Judge Smith arose and began a speech of great
earnestness and feeling. With his white locks trembling in the wind, and tears
streaming down his furrowed cheeks, he besought them in a spirit of a patriarch
and a patriot, to cast aside all minor differences, and to unite in one common
struggle toward rescuing Kansas from the vile dominion of slavery.
Colonel Lane was the last man to speak. He delivered a thrilling speech which
swayed the men of the convention as the wind sways the grass of the prairies. At
the conclusion of his address the platform was adopted unanimously with great
enthusiasm. In the account of the convention in the Kansas Free State
there is no mention of dissension concerning the platform. It says, "the report
was adopted by three prolonged hearty cheers and adopted with but two dissenting
votes." The platform is here given in full:
THE FIRST FREE STATE PLATFORM |
WHEREAS, The Free-state party of the Territory of Kansas are about to originate
an organization for concert of political action in electing our officers and
molding our institutions; and whereas, it is expedient and necessary that a
platform of principles be adopted and proclaimed to make known the character of
our organization and to test the qualifications of candidates and the fidelity
of our members; and whereas, we find ourselves in an unparalleled and critical
condition, deprived by superior force of the rights guaranteed by the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the
Kansas Bill; and whereas, the great and overshadowing question whether Kansas
shall become a free or a slave State must inevitably absorb all other issues
except those inseparably connected with it; and whereas, the crisis demands the
concerted and harmonious action of all those who from principle or interest
prefer free labor to slave labor, as well as of those who value the preservation
of the Union and the guarantee of republican institutions by the Constitution;
therefore,
(1) Resolved, That, setting aside all minor issues of partisan politics,
it is incumbent upon us to proffer an organization calculated to recover our
dearest rights, and into which Democrats and Whigs, native and naturalized
citizens, may freely come without any sacrifice of their respective political
creeds, but without forcing them as a test upon others. And that when we shall
have achieved our political freedom, vindicated our rights of self-government,
and come as an independent State upon the arena of the Union, where those issues
may become vital where they are now dormant, it will be time enough to divide
our organization by those tests, the importance of which we fully recognize in
their appropriate sphere.
(2) Resolved, That we will oppose and resist all non-resident voters at
our polls, whether from Missouri or elsewhere, as a gross violation of our
rights and a virtual disfranchisement of our citizens.
(3) Resolved, That our true interests, socially, morally and pecuniarily,
require that Kansas should be a free State; that free labor will best promote
the happiness, the rapid population, the prosperity and the wealth of our
people; that slave labor is a curse to the master and the community, if not the
slave; that our country is unsuited to it, and that we will devote our energies
as a party to exclude the institution and to secure for Kansas the constitution
of a Free State.
(4) Resolved, That in so doing, we will consent to any fair and
reasonable provision in regard to the slaves already in the Territory, which
shall protect the masters against total loss.
(5) Resolved, That the best interests of Kansas require a population of
free white men, and that in our State organization we are in favor of stringent
laws excluding all negroes, bond and free, from the Territory, but that,
nevertheless, such measure shall not be regarded as a test of party orthodoxy.
(6) Resolved, That we will discountenance and denounce any attempt to
encroach upon the constitutional rights of the people of any State, or to
interfere with their slaves, conceding to their citizens the right to regulate
their own institutions, and to hold and recover their slaves without any
molestation or obstruction from the people of Kansas.
(7) Resolved, That the stale and ridiculous charge of abolitionism, so
industriously imputed to the Free-state party, and so pertinaciously adhered to
in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, is without a shadow of truth to
support it; and that it is not more apparent to ourselves than it is to our
opponents, who use it as a term of reproach to bring odium upon us, pretending
to believe in its truth, and hoping to frighten from our ranks the weak and
timid who are more willing to desert their principles than they are to stand up
under persecution and abuse with a consciousness of right.
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Judge James S. Emery of Lawrence submitted the report of the Committee on Late
Legislation. The report consisted of a series of resolutions stating the
Free-State position and attitude, as follows:
Resolved, That the body of men who, for the last two months have been
passing laws for the people of our Territory, moved, counseled and dictated to
by the demagogues of Missouri, are to us a foreign body, representing only the
lawless invaders who elected them, and not the people of the Territory - that we
repudiate their actions as the monstrous consummation of an act of violence,
usurpation and fraud, unparalleled in the history of the Union, and worthy only
of men unfitted for the duties and regardless of the responsibilities of
Republicans.
Resolved, That having, by numerical inferiority and want of preparation,
been compelled to succumb to the outrage and oppression of armed and organized
bands of the citizens of a powerful State of the Union - having been robbed by
force of the right of suffrage and self-government, and subjected to a foreign
despotism, the more odious and infamous because it involves a violation of
compacts with sister States more sacred than solemn treaties, we disown and
disavow with scorn and indignation the contemptible and hypocritical mockery of
a representative government into which this infamous despotism has been
converted.
Resolved, That this miscalled Legislature, by their reckless disregard of
the Organic Territorial Act, and other Territorial Legislation, in expelling
members whose title to seats was beyond their power to annul, in admitting
members who were not elected, in altering the pre-emption laws and the
naturalization laws, and in legislating at an unauthorized place - by their
refusal to allow the people to elect any of their officers - by imposing upon us
their own appointees, down to the most insignificant officers, many of whom were
unquestionably residents of Missouri at the time - by leaving us no elections
save those prescribed by Congress, and therefore beyond their power to abrogate,
and even at these, selling the right of suffrage at our ballot-boxes to any
non-resident who chooses to buy and pay for it, and compelling us to take an
oath to support a United States law, invidiously pointed out, by stifling the
freedom of speech and of the press, thus usurping a power forbidden to Congress,
have trampled under foot the Kansas Bill, have defied the power of Congress,
libeled the Declaration of Independence, violated the Constitutional Bill of
Rights, and brought contempt and disgrace upon our republican institutions at
home and abroad.
Resolved, That we owe no allegiance or obedience to the tyrannical
enactments of this spurious Legislature - that their laws have no validity or
binding force upon the people of Kansas, and that every freeman amongst us is at
full liberty consistently with all his obligations as a citizen and a man, to
defy and resist them if he chooses so to do.
Resolved, That we will resist them primarily by every peaceable and legal
means within our power, until we can elect our own Representatives, and sweep
them from the Statute-book, and, as the majority of the Supreme Court have so
far forgotten their official duty - have so far cast off the honor of the lawyer
and the dignity of the judge as to enter, clothed with the judicial ermine, into
a partisan contest, and by by[sic] an extra-judicial decision giving
opinions in violation of all propriety, have pre-judged our case before we could
be heard, and have pledged themselves to these outlaws in advance, to decide in
their favor, we will therefore take measures to carry the question of the
validity of these laws to a higher tribunal where judges are unpledged and
dispassionate - where the law will be administered in its purity, and where we
can at least have the hearing before the decision.
Resolved, That we will endure and submit to these laws no longer than the
best interests of the Territory require, as the least of two evils, and will
resist them to a bloody issue as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies
shall fail, and forcible resistance shall furnish any reasonable prospect of
success; and that, in the meantime, we recommend to our friends throughout the
Territory, the organization and discipline of volunteer companies and the
procurement and preparation of arms.
Resolved, That we cannot and will not quietly submit to surrender our
"Great American Birthright" - the elective franchise: which, first by violence,
and then by chicanery, artifice and weak and wicked legislation, they have so
effectually accomplished to deprive us of, and that with scorn we repudiate the
"Election Law" - so-called - and will not meet with them on the day they have
appointed for the election, but will ourselves fix upon a day for the purpose of
electing a Delegate to Congress.
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Colonel Lane moved to amend the resolutions by striking out that part impeaching
the actions of the Supreme Court, but his motion was lost. Mr. Guthrie offered a
substitute for one of the resolutions, but his motion was laid on the table. The
question was then put on the adoption of the report, and carried with but one
dissenting voice.
The Committee on State Organization made the following report:
The Committee, after considering the propriety of taking preliminary steps to
framing a Constitution and applying for admission as a State into the Union, beg
leave to report that, under the present circumstances, they deem the movement
untimely and inexpedient.
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The people of the Territory had not yet accepted the idea of forming a State
constitution and this resolution expressed the sentiment of a great majority of
the Free-State people in the Territory. The discussion of this report developed
serious difference of opinions. It was participated in by Colonel Lane, Mr.
Houston, Judge Wakefield, Mr. Vail, Mr. Curtiss and P. C. Schuyler. It seemed
that there was no hope of harmonious action, and the convention took a recess
for one hour. When it reassembled the discussion was continued, those speaking
being Mr. Tuton, Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Smith. It being impossible
to come to an agreement, Mr. Hutchinson offered the following as a substitute
for the report, which was agreed to:
Resolved, That this Convention, In view of its recent repudiation of the
acts of the so-called Kansas Legislative Assembly, respond most heartily to the
call made by the People's Convention of the 15th ult., for a Delegate Convention
of the people of Kansas Territory, to be held at Topeka on the 19th inst., to
consider the propriety of the formation of a State Constitution, and such other
matters as may legitimately come before it.
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The Committee on Congressional Election submitted the following report, which
was adopted:
WHEREAS, The citizens of Kansas Territory were prevented from electing members
to a Territorial Legislature, in pursuance of the Proclamation of the Executive
on the 30th of March last by armed mobs who came into the Territory and forced
upon the people the votes of non-residents and others inimical to the interests
of the resident voters of Kansas Territory, thereby defeating the objects of the
Organic Act, which, among other things, provided that after the first election
the Legislature shall provide for the Election of a Delegate to Congress. And
whereas, the Legislative body lately sitting at Shawnee Mission were not at a
place where valid laws could be made, and where consequently no valid provision
for the coming election could be made; the people are driven to the necessity of
meeting in their sovereign capacity to provide for said election. Therefore,
Resolved, By the citizens of Kansas in Convention assembled, that an
election shall be held in the several election Districts in this Territory, on
the 2nd Tuesday of October next, under the regulations prescribed for the
election of the 30th March last, in reference to the places and manner of
holding the same and the manner of making the returns as well as all matters
relating to the formula of the election, excepting the appointment of officers
and the persons to whom returns shall be made which shall be determined by this
Convention; for the purpose of electing a Delegate to represent this Territory
in the 34th Congress of the United States.
The reasons which have induced your Committee to recommend the separate
Election, are several: First, to vote upon the same day at the same polls would
be an acknowledgment of the right of the late Legislature to call an election.
This objection might be obviated, should we go to the polls in obedience to the
decision of this Convention only, but then another difficulty arises. - From
evidence going before us, we are convinced that a large portion of the
Free-State Party will decline to vote at the expense of an oath to support
special named laws, - nor is this sentiment confined to the opposers of the
Fugitive Slave Law and others mentioned, but extends to the believers in the
Justice and propriety of that enactment, among whom are some members of your
Committee.
Second, should we be disposed to vote on the day appointed by the Legislature,
past experience tells us that we shall by force be prevented from exercising
that right of freemen, while by the adoption of a second day, we avoid
unnecessary disturbance, and may send our Delegate to claim his seat, confident
that the last fact taken with the various legal grounds, why the Legislature
were incapacitated from making binding laws will claim the favorable attention
of Congress. We would also recommend the appointment of a Committee to draft a
memorial to Congress setting forth more elaborately the reasons which have
induced this course, and which may be placed at each poll on the day of election
finally appointed by the Convention so it may be signed by every voter. We also
recommend that duplicate copies of the returns be made and one copy be presented
to the Governor of the Territory for his signature and the seal of the
Territory, and if he refuses the other duplicate copy may be sent to the Speaker
of the House of Representatives
Upon the other subject referred to the Committee, they recommend the following:
Resolved, That this Convention vote for Delegate, viva
voce. |
G. P. LOWRY, Chair'n.
WM. S. ARNOLD, Sec y. |
The Committee on Miscellaneous Business brought in the following report:
MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS |
Resolved, That the alleged cause for the removal of Gov. Reeder and other
Territorial officers, has no sufficient foundation in truth or plausibility;
that the purchase of the half breed lands was a fair and honorable transaction
which can tarnish the reputation of no man; that it was for a fair and full
consideration, and characterized by no concealment or impropriety; that the
vendors were fully competent to make their own bargains and protect their own
interests, and were allowed abundant time to consult their friends and
neighbors; that the contract was made with the full knowledge of the Agent and
Interpreter, and was subjected to the supervision of the President, and as the
President has refused to respond to the earnest and pointed request to say what
law or rule has been transgressed, we are compelled to believe that it was in
violation of no law or artificial regulation.
Resolved, That the specification of an interest in Pawnee City, which was
only furnished after the removal had taken place, and, therefore, had precluded
any opportunity for explanation or reply, is as unfortunate and unfounded as the
other; as it is a well-known fact that Governor Reeder had no participation in
the laying out of the town; that it was laid out and located before his arrival
in the Territory, and that his first connection with it w as the voluntary and
unsolicited transfer by the original stockholders of an interest therein to the
five Territorial officers who had then arrived, among whom, of course was the
Governor; that the town was then, and for some time before and after, outside of
the Military Reserve, having been excluded by the experienced and intelligent
officer in command at the post, although since included by the Secretary of War.
Resolved, That the demand to answer to the vague charge of "other
speculations in the lands of the Territory," without further explanations or
specifications, and the refusal of the President to state what was alluded to by
him, or to give the name of the accuser, and his giving the specification only
after the removal was made, are strong and unmistakable indications that the
removal was a foregone conclusion, and the demand of explanation merely an empty
ceremony, adopted because it could not be evaded.
Resolved, That the doctrine asserted in the letter of removal, that a
public officer, when called on to explain accusations affecting his official
tenure and private reputation, has no right to ask specifications - to ask such
a statement of the charge as to render it intelligible - is as novel as it is
monstrous and unjust.
Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to wait upon the Hon.
Wilson Shannon, Governor of Kansas, and present him with a copy of the
proceedings of this meeting; to ask the aid of the Executive in putting the same
in active operation.
Resolved, That the Free State Committee take steps to collect such facts
relative to the political constitution of the Territory which will be valuable
and needed in Congress at its coming session; and that each member of the Free
State Party be requested to collect and forward to some member of the Committee
all the well authenticated facts which they may collect.
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When the report had been read, Colonel Lane said that he had not the slightest
knowledge of the facts recited in the resolutions and was unwilling to express
an opinion thereon, nor was he willing to enter into the quarrel between
Governor Reeder and the Administration, but the report was adopted.
NOMINATION OF DELEGATE TO CONGRESS
When Governor Reeder was apprised of the arrangements for the Big Springs
convention, he was making his preparations to return to his home in
Pennsylvania. A day or two before the convention met he was at the Free-State
Hotel, in Kansas City, Missouri. He concluded to attend the convention, and
borrowed a carpet-bag from Colonel S. W. Eldridge, proprietor of the Hotel. Into
this he packed some papers and clothing and set out for Lawrence. He attended
the convention and inspired the report of the committee on the late legislation.
Indeed, it is said that he wrote the report. He was indignant at the treatment
he had received at the hands of the Administration and the Legislature. The
phrase - "that we will endure and submit to these laws no longer than the best
interests of the Territory require, as the least of two evils, and will resist
them to a bloody issue" later made much trouble for the Free-State men in
Kansas. When the matter of nominating a candidate for Congress came up, Mr.
Conway moved that Andrew H. Reeder, late Governor of Kansas, be nominated by
acclamation, as the candidate of the Free-State party. The Kansas Free
State reports the action of the convention as follows: "The motion was
carried by nine deafening cheers." Mr. Reeder was then called for. He came
forward and delivered an eloquent speech, substantially as follows:
Mr. President and Gentlemen:
I thank you for the friendship and support which your applause evinces. Such
applause and approval well repays any man for all the injustice that can be
heaped upon him. You all will do me the justice to say that your nomination has
been given entirely without solicitation from me or my friends. To accept it
will seriously interfere with my private engagements, and on that ground I have
continually refused it when urged until told by men from all parts of the
Territory that my name was essential to success. I now accept the nomination, on
the condition that it shall not be required or expected of me to canvass the
Territory in person. To do so would not be consonant with my feelings, as, in
case of an election, I desire to enter the halls of Congress able to say, "I
come here with clean hands - the spontaneous choice of the squatters of Kansas."
In giving me this nomination, in this manner, you have strengthened my arms to
do your work, and in return, I now pledge to you a steady, unflinching
pertinacity of purpose, never-tiring industry, dogged perseverance and all the
abilities with which God has endowed me to the righting of your wrongs, and the
final triumph of your cause. I believe, from the circumstances which have for
the last eight months surrounded me, and which have at the same time placed in
my possession many facts, and bound me, heart and soul, to the oppressed voters
of Kansas, that I can do much toward obtaining redress for your grievances.
Day by day a crisis approaches us. In after times posterity will view this as a
turning point - a marked period - such as to us now are the adoption of the
Declaration of Independence, and the era of the alien and sedition laws. We
should take each step carefully, so that each shall be a step in the way of
progress, and so that no violence be done to the tie that binds the American
people together. If any one supposes that any institutions or laws can be
imposed by force upon a free and enlightened people, he never knew, or has
forgotten, the history of our forefathers. American citizens bear in their
breasts too much of the spirit of other and trying days, and have lived too long
amid the blessings of liberty to submit to oppression from any quarter, and the
man who, having once been free, can tamely submit to tyranny is only fit to be a
slave.
I urge the Free-state men of Kansas to forget all minor issues and pursue with
determination the one great object, never swerving, but ever pressing on, as did
the wise men who followed the star to the manger, looking back only for fresh
encouragement.
I counsel first, that peaceful resistance be made to the tyrannical and unjust
laws of the spurious Legislature; that appeal be had to the courts, to the
ballot-box and to Congress for relief from this oppressive load - that violence
be deprecated so long as a single hope of peaceable redress remains; and, at
last, should all peaceful efforts fail - if, in the proper tribunals, there is
no hope for our dearest rights, outraged and profaned if we are still to suffer
that corrupt men may reap harvests watered by our tears, then there is one more
chance for justice. God has provided in the eternal frame of things, redress for
every wrong, and there still remains to us the steady eye and the strong arm -
and we must conquer, or mingle the bodies of the oppressors with those of the
oppressed upon the soil which the Declaration of Independence no longer
protects. I am not apprehensive that such a crisis will ever arrive. I believe
that justice may be found far short of so dreadful an extremity, and, even
should an appeal to arms come, if we are prepared, that moment the victory is
won. Our invaders will never strike a blow in so unjust a cause.
"Thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just."
Let the Proclamation from the people calling the election be signed by every
voter; let the legal requirements of an election be strictly observed. Our
position should be only that of asking that the law be carried out.
When Ethan Allen was asked at Ticonderoga by whose authority he demanded the
fort, he replied: "In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental
Congress." I expect that you will so prepare me, that, to a similar question, I
may boldly answer: "The great Jehovah and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill Congress." .
. . Let no rashness endanger the Union which we all love, and to which we all
cleave.
I am reluctant to believe that the correct public sentiment of the South
indorses the violent wrongs which have been perpetrated by Missourians upon the
people of this Territory, and I wait to hear its rebuke. Should it not come, and
all hope of moral influence to correct these evils be cut off, and the tribunals
of our country fail us, while our wrongs still continue, what then? Will they
have grown easier to bear from long custom? God forbid that any lapse of time
should accustom freemen to the duties of slaves, and, when such fatal danger as
that menaces, then is the time to
"Strike for our altars and our fires,
Strike for the green graves of our sires,
God and our native land."
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The address exerted a powerful influence on the convention and it is said that
many of the delegates were in tears. The convention adjourned without any formal
motion. Some committees had been appointed by the convention; one consisting of
S. C. Pomeroy, James H. Lane and G. W. Brown was to wait upon Governor Wilson
Shannon, who had recently arrived in the Territory, and communicate to him the
action of the convention. The Kansas Free State Executive Committee was
appointed by the Big Springs convention, and its members were, Charles Robinson,
Chairman; Joel K. Goodin, Secretary; George W. Smith, John A. Wakefield, L.
Macy, Fry W. Giles, William Phillips, Charles A. Foster, J. P. Fox, J. D.
Stockton, W. K. Vail, John Brown, Jr., W A. Ely, George F. Warren, John
Hamilton, Hamilton Smith, Lotan Smith, Martin F. Conway, Samuel D. Houston, L.
R. Adams, Luther R. Palmer, John E. Gould, Abelard Guthrie.
Honorable H. Miles Moore, delegate from Leavenworth, later wrote of the Big
Springs Convention as follows:
It had in truth and in fact accomplished a great and glorious work for the
Free-State cause in Kansas; it had fully organized the party in the Territory,
put forth its platform, nominated a Delegate to Congress, appointed a day for
his election, and indorsed the constitutional convention called to be held at
Topeka on the approaching 19th of September. It had flung its banner to the
breeze inscribed in letters of living light: KANSAS MUST AND SHALL BE FREE,
PEACEABLY IF WE CAN, BUT FORCIBLY IF WE MUST. NO SLAVE SHALL LONGER CLANK HIS
CHAINS ON HER VIRGIN SOIL. The days of secret Free-State meetings called by
"Many Citizens," "Sundry Citizens," etc., held in Lawrence or elsewhere, with
the names of the participants suppressed or not announced, was past, thank God!
From this time henceforth their names were to be published broadcast and known
and read of all men; no skulling now, but a fight in the open and to the death
if need be. The Big Springs convention had given new life and inspiration to the
Free-State settlers throughout the Territory, where before a spirit of
despondency and apathy had prevailed. Hope and courage took on new life.
Free-State meetings were held in many towns and settlements in the Territory.
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A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans , written and
compiled by William E. Connelley, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, 1998.