Biographies - Andrew Horatio Reeder

July 12, 1807 - July 5, 1864

Andrew Horatio Reeder was commissioned the first governor of Kansas Territory in 1854. Reeder supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and was "soft" on the issue of slavery. He was described as "a simple-minded Pennsylvania Democrat," and was, in all likelihood, mainly interested in investment opportunities.

Soon after assuming his duties in the troubled territory, however, he began exhibiting a streak of independence, antagonizing proslavery Kansans and their Missouri allies. The governor became identified with the free-state cause, describing himself as a "Douglas Democrat" and seeking to give popular sovereignty a fair trial in Kansas. When the proslavery men in Kansas and Missouri perpetrated blatant electoral fraud, Reeder refused to certify the results and called a new election to fill the vacancies. He designated the town site of Pawnee, in which he had a financial interest, as the meeting place for the first territorial legislature. After only four days, and over the governor's veto, legislators adjourned to reconvene at Shawnee Mission, where they adopted Missouri's harsh slave code as their own and petitioned President Franklin Pierce for Reeder's removal. The president was already moving in this direction, and he fired the Kansas governor for furthering his "private speculative interests."

Reeder remained in Kansas for a time, supporting the free-state movement. This extra-legal junta elected Reeder and Jim Lane to the U.S. Senate, positions they were to assume as soon as Kansas was admitted to the Union under the Topeka Constitution-something that never occurred. Facing an indictment for high treason issued by a proslave grand jury, Reeder fled the territory disguised as a woodchopper in May 1856. Soon, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he practiced law and was active in Republican Party politics until his death in 1864.