1918 KANSAS AND KANSANS | Chapter 29 | Part 1 |
PRELIMINARY
The manner in which the Wakarusa war had ended was wholly unsatisfactory to the Border-Ruffians. They left their camps on the Wakarusa and about Lecompton threatening to return. Atchison had assured his followers, that, while they could not fight then, that they would return to fight another day.
The winter of 1855-56 was extremely cold. The weather had been mild until Saturday, December 8th. On that day there came down from the North, what was later termed a blizzard. The weather grew extremely cold. The discomfort caused by the storm was one of the contributing causes to the acceptance by the Border-Ruffians of the terms of the Treaty of Peace negotiated by Shannon with the Free-State men. The wind came across the naked prairies like a gale at sea. It chilled and pierced to the very marrow. The frail shelters of the Border-Ruffians afforded little protection against this extreme weather.
The correspondent of the Missouri Republican had this to say of the storm.
It is said that, on account of the cold, many of the Missourians started home before the announcement of the conclusion of peace. Severe as this cold spell was, it was only the forerunner of more extreme weather. On the 22nd of December there was a heavy fall of snow. The storm continued until the 24th, when the thermometer registered seventeen degrees below zero. On the 25th it fell as low as thirty degrees below zero. It continued cold until the 22nd of February, when the winter broke up and there was an early spring. To this extreme cold, the Free-State men attributed their immunity from another invasion of the Border-Ruffians.
The election for the adoption of the Topeka constitution was held, as we have seen, on the 15th of December. General L. J. Eastin notified his militia command to muster at Leavenworth on that day to be paid for their services in the Wakarusa war and discharged. The majority of this Kansas militia resided in Platte County, Missouri. They began crossing the river early in the day. At noon there were several hundred of them in Leavenworth. Their Colonel was one Payne, a member of the bogus Legislature, and who had been appointed by that body as Judge of Leavenworth County. One Dunn, a keeper of a whisky shop in Leavenworth, was also an officer of this Kansas Militia. After noon this mob assaulted the judges of the election. Two of the election officials escaped without injury. A third, named Weatherill, threw the ballot box under the counter of the store in which the election was being conducted, and ran out of the building. When he reached the street, he was knocked down, trampled in the mud and beaten. Two Free-State men, together with a Pro-Slavery man, rescued him. The mob had gone into the store and secured the ballot boxes, which they carried at the head of their column as they paraded the streets uttering fierce whoops and yells. The Territorial Register, conducted by M. W. Delahay was threatened with destruction. In the afternoon the Ruffians were formed in military ranks, where they were addressed by Judge Eastin, who commended their zeal in the interest of Law and Order. The Territorial Register, having fallen under the displeasure of the Ruffians, was not long permitted to remain unmolested. On the Saturday night after the election, the Platte County Regulators came to Leavenworth in force. They crossed the river at Kickapoo and descended upon Leavenworth under the command of Captain Dunn, Dr. Royal, James Tyler and G. W. Purkins. Mr. Delahay was not in Leavenworth at the time. He had recently refused to go to the aid of Lawrence, knowing the danger in which he stood, but he had been a delegate to the Big Springs Convention, and was a staunch Free-State man. The Regulators destroyed the office of his paper, throwing the press and the type into the Missouri River.
The election for officers, under the Topeka constitution, was held on the 15th of January, 1856. At Easton, in Leavenworth County, the activity of the Kickapoo Rangers, a Border-Ruffian organization, caused the postponement of the election for two days. The election was held on the 17th at the house of a Mr. Minard, about half a mile from Kickapoo. Eight persons went there from Leavenworth in a wagon to vote. Captain E. P. Brown was one of these men. To protect themselves, they were armed. The number of votes cast at that precinct was seventy-two and there was no disturbance. After the polls were closed and darkness was coming on, thirty mounted Ruffians went to Minard's house. The Free-State men came out and confronted them. They retreated but later demanded the ballot boxes. At two o'clock the next morning, the Free-State men heard that Stephen Sparks, one of their number, had been made prisoner at Easton. Captain Brown with fifteen men started to rescue him. They came upon a mob holding Sparks and his son at bay in a fence corner. Upon the appearance of the Free-State men, the Missourians dispersed. Later the two parties began firing on each other. One Pro-Slavery man was killed and two Free-State men wounded. When this skirmish was over, the Free-State men returned to Minard's house.
The Leavenworth parties set out for home about nine o'clock. Six miles away they met two wagons filled with Border-Ruffians. In a few minutes a body of mounted Ruffians appeared. They were armed with hatchets, bowie knives, guns and revolvers. They made prisoners of the Leavenworth party. The Free-State men were taken to Easton where the news of the killing of the Pro-Slavery man had just been spread abroad. The prisoners were placed in a small store and closely guarded. In about an hour, Captain Brown was taken out for trial. The other Free-State men were permitted to escape. It was finally determined to take Brown to Leavenworth and confine him there to await trial. On the announcement of this conclusion, the mob demanded that he be punished at once. The Ruffians broke down the door and attacked Brown with hatchets and knives. He was dragged out, stabbed and chopped until near death. He was then carried in a wagon into the Salt Creek Valley. It was seen that he could not recover and he was thrown into a wagon and taken home. He expired there in a few minutes; the only words spoken by him being, "I have been murdered by a gang of cowards in cold blood without any cause." Brown was a member of the Free-State Legislature, which passed resolutions of condolence with his family, and condemnation of the acts of the Ruffians.
The Law and Order men were not entirely satisfied even with the death of Brown. They determined to drive the Free-State men from that part of the Territory, warning them all to leave by written notices signed by some twenty of their number. The Free-State men gathered in a body to defend themselves and called for help from Topeka and Lawrence. A company was sent to their assistance and the Ruffians dispersed. A Pro-Slavery paper had this to say about the murder of Brown.
Rally! Rally! . . . Forbearance has now ceased to be a virtue. Therefore we call upon every pro-slavery man in this land to rally to the rescue. Kansas must be immediately rescued from the tyrannical dogs. The Kickapoo Rangers are at this moment beating to arms. A large number of the pro-slavery men will leave this place for Eastin in twenty minutes. The war has again commenced, and the abolitionists have again commenced it. Pro-slavery men, law and order men, strike for your altars! strike for your firesides! strike for your rights! Avenge the blood of your brethren who have been cowardly assailed, but who have bravely fallen in the defense of southern institutions. Sound the bugle of war over the length and breadth of the land, and leave not an abolitionist in the Territory to relate their treacherous and contaminating deeds. Strike your piercing rifle balls and your glittering steel to their black and poisonous hearts! Let the war cry never cease in Kansas again until our Territory is wrested from the last vestige of abolitionism. |
It will be remembered that General Atchison had comforted the Platte County Rifles with the assurance, that, while they could not exterminate Lawrence because of the position the Free-State men had assumed, they might rest assured that they would be led back to fight on a future day. On the 4th of February at Platte City, he made a speech, from which this extract is made.
Sheriff Jones had sullenly retired from Lawrence upon the negotiation of the Treaty of Peace by Governor Shannon. He had not relinquished the intention to wipe out Lawrence. He constantly sought an opportunity to renew hostilities. On the 15th of January he addressed a communication to Robinson and Lane here given:
Those gentlemen made this reply:
During the winter armed bodies of the Law and Order party scoured the Territory, harrying the Free-State settlers. This continued into the spring. Horses were stolen, fields wasted, houses burred, and other outrages perpetrated. Dr. Stringfellow, in his Squatter Sovereign, said this: "We say if the Abolitionists are able to whip us and overturn the government that has been set up here, the sooner it is known the better; and we want to see it settled. We want to see it determined whether honest men or rogues are to rule here."
It is to be regretted that no more particulars of the organization of promoted emigration from the South has been preserved. In the winter of 1855-56, there was an extensive movement in aid of this emigration There is little doubt that the public prints of that day would reveal a good many of the particulars of this movement. In January, the State of Alabama appropriated $25,000 to aid in the work. Colonel Jefferson Buford of the same State, contributed a like amount. Judge Quitman of Mississippi contributed $2,500. Many Southern planters gave liberally to this fund. On the 19th of January, 1856, Colonel Buford published an address in the Alabama Spirit of the South, in which he outlined his plan.
Dr. Walker, a long resident of its borders, and of high character and intelligence, says:
"As far as health, climate, and profits of labor are concerned, Kansas is better than any part of the Union. There is no country where a man can be more independent, and make his bread and meat with less capital, than here; ten or twelve furrows will make ten barrels of corn to the acre. One thousand pounds hemp per acre is a common crop. There are swarms of cattle and good markets for everything." |
Another distinguished resident of Western Missouri, in his letter of the 30th December to me, says:
"Planters are making twice the money per hand that they are in any part of the
Union. One hand will raise five tons of hemp, and this don't interfere with the
corn, wheat, and oat crop; planters have no supplies to purchase, but everything
to sell. A near neighbor last years, with fourteen hands, men, women, and boys,
averaged eight hundred and thirty-six dollars per hand - negro fellows, field
hands, hire for $300 per annum - mechanics, $600; white men, $25 per month; any
number of young men in the spring can find ready employment at that price, and
then they have other advantages."
Kansas is the starting point for California, Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico thousands of wagons leave every spring; they carry three millions of goods per annum to New Mexico, besides immense government supplies to pay Indians and sustain our military posts, etc. Let every one wishing to go urge his neighbors to hold meetings who will appoint agents to solicit every man's contribution, either in money or note, payable after the emigrants are taken out. Contributions must not be to individual members, but for the common benefit. I could by the last of March raise five thousand men, if the contributions reached, say $10 per head - for that would enable me to furnish all with their military and agricultural outfit. I am asked, "What military and other service do I require?" None, except that when he gets to Kansas, the emigrant shall begin some honest employment for a living - if it be working on his claim - that will give him credit to buy bread on. On his way there he is expected to be orderly and temperate, to attend the reading of the Scripture and prayer, night and morning, learn to fear God, to be charitable to our enemies, gentle with females and those in our power, merciful to slaves and beasts, and just to all men. All who intend to go will please write me immediately. W. P. Belcher, Esq., Abbeville C. H., S. C., and Capt. E. B. Bell, Graniteville, Edgefield, S. C., I understand, are raising companies to join me. They, doubtless, can get free transportation for them to Columbus, Ga., and Carolina emigrants might do well to come with one of them. All editors friendly to the enterprise, it is hoped, will copy this address in full. |
EUFAULA, ALA., JAN 19, 1856. | J. BUFORD. |
Colonel, E. B. Bell, of South Carolina, about the same time published in the Edgefield Advertiser, a notice that he intended to raise a company to go to Kansas.
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A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans , written and compiled by William E. Connelley, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, 1998.