Topics in Kansas History: Politics & GovernmentEssay on Territorial GovernmentTerritorial Kansas (1854-1861) was often a violent place. Bands of free-state and proslavery men fought and murdered their opponents in support of their respective causes. Meanwhile, ordinary settlers tried to avoid the conflict whenever possible and pursued their daily task of surviving on the frontier. Armed Pioneers Missourians flocked into Kansas Territory as soon as it was opened for white settlement in 1854. They were most interested in staking land claims for their personal benefit. Many were also driven by the desire to extend slavery to the west. Some Missourians, called "Border Ruffians," continued to live in their native state but influenced Kansas politics by swarming into the territory at election time. Free-state emigration started slowly but rapidly increased after 1855. Often these settlers came in groups supported by such antislavery organizations as the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Competition was fierce to see which side, proslave or free-state, could bring the more of its people into Kansas. The Planter's Hotel was built late in 1856 as a luxurious gathering place for Leavenworth's strong proslavery element. Later its political atmosphere changed, as did that of the city itself. It hosted such anti-slavery champions as Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley. Eli Thayer Thayer worked hard to offset the proslavery influence in Kansas. As president of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, he gathered funds in the East to support such free-state settlements as Lawrence, Topeka, and Manhattan.
Robinson came to Lawrence in 1854 as an agent for the New England Emigrant Aid Company. In 1855, he was elected governor of Kansas under the free- state Topeka Constitution. This government was in conflict with the federally-sanctioned proslavery government of Kansas Territory. Robinson was arrested by the proslavery officials and was tried for treason in 1856. To everyone's amazement, he was found not guilty by a generally proslavery jury. In 1861 he became the first governor of the State of Kansas. Sara Robinson Sara Robinson, wife of Gov. Charles Robinson, supported her husband's work for the free-state cause. She agonized with him during his long imprisonment by the territorial government. Women seldom participated directly in the political and military battles between proslavery and free-state forces, but they suffered the consequences of these battles. The killing of family members, the confiscation of food supplies, and the destruction of property all took their toll. A few women are known to have fought to protect their homes with everything from rifles to boiling water. Beecher Bible and Rifle Church A group of free-state colonists from New Haven, Connecticut, settled at present-day Wabaunsee in 1856. They called themselves the Connecticut Kansas Colony. They came equipped with bibles and Sharps rifles furnished by such New England antislavery activists as Henry Ward Beecher. The community was far enough west that it escaped most of the conflict of "Bleeding Kansas." However, the people of Wabaunsee later commemorated their sometimes stormy heritage by naming this building "The Beecher Bible and Rifle Church."
In 1854, Reeder was appointed the first governor of Kansas Territory. He soon found himself at odds with the strongly proslavery legislature because of his more moderate views. He was removed from office by President Pierce in 1855. In all, seven governors and three acting governors served during the territorial period. They struggled to carry out the wishes of the President, work with a difficult legislature, and bring peace between the warring factions. All failed in that impossible task.
Fort Leavenworth briefly was the home of the territorial government, but the site was changed to the Shawnee Methodist Mission before the convening of the first legislature in 1855. The mission continued to function as the capital of Kansas until 1856 when Lecompton was chosen as the official seat of govenment.
In the summer of 1855, Governor Reeder tried to move governmental operations to Pawnee near Fort Riley. The legislature reluctantly met for four days in this building, which was an unfinished warehouse. Then it moved back to the Shawnee Mission where facilities were more comfortable. Reeder was forced to follow. Fort Saunders Fort Saunders was one of several proslavery strongholds scattered between Kansas City and Lecompton. It was destroyed in 1856 by a strong free-state force that also won victories at Franklin and Fort Titus in Douglas County. Samuel J. Jones In 1855, Jones, a Virginian, was appointed sheriff of Douglas County by the proslavery government. He tried to enforce laws which were hated by the large free-state population. Therefore, Jones became one of the most despised figures in the history of the Lawrence area. He repeatedly took posses into the town in usually futile attempts to arrest citizens who had been charged with various crimes, often of a political nature. Once while camped near Lawrence, Jones was shot in the back by an unknown gunman. Upon his recovery, in May of 1856, he led a strong force into the town and destroyed the Emgirant Aid Company's Free State Hotel and two newspaper offices. "Ruins of the Free State Hotel" When cannon balls and explosives failed to bring down the hotel, which may have been intended to serve also as a fort, Sheriff Jones and his men resorted to fire for its destruction. The present Eldridge Hotel stands on this same site.
Brown came to Kansas in 1855 to support the free- state cause. His sons had already formed a small settlement southeast of present-day Princeton in Franklin County. He responded to Sheriff Jones's assault on Lawrence by attacking proslavery settlers who lived along the upper Pottawatomie Creek. On the night of May 24, 1856, Brown and a few followers rounded up five men and hacked them to death with swords. This event became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre. It was denounced by most Kansans, free-state as well as proslavery. Later, Brown received more notoriety for his actions in southern Kansas and western Missouri where he fought to free slaves and to disrupt the slave system. This activity prepared him for his famous raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, for which he was hanged. James H. Lane Lane was the most controversial of the free-state leaders. An experienced Democratic politician from Indiana, he quickly became one of the most radical of the Kansas free-state men after his arrival in 1855. His political opponents accused him of championing the free-state cause more for personal gain than because of personal conviction. Nevertheless, his fiery oratory and his military leadership made Lane's name feared in proslavery circles. His troops attacked proslavery strongholds throughout eastern Kansas and kept the famous "Lane's Trail" from the Nebraska border to Topeka open for free-state emigrants. "The Cavalry Engagement at Hickory Point" Free-state troops routed the enemy at Hickory Point in unintentional defiance of an order from Governor John Geary that both sides disband their forces throughout the territory. The next day, September 14, 1856, federal troops captured 101 of the free-state men and imprisoned them at Lecompton, the territorial capital. Gradually, over the next several months, the prisoners escaped from the poorly guarded jail until only a few remained. These received pardons from the governor.
In 1855 and 1856 the U.S. Congress appropriated $50,000 for the construction of a territorial capitol building in Lecompton. Governor Wilson Shannon contracted with a number of St. Louis firms for designs and building materials and with Dr. Aristides Rodrique of Lecompton to serve as principal contractor. Impressive plans were drawn up, but the building rose no higher than the first-floor windows before funds ran out. The seat of government was moved to Topeka in 1861. The unfinished Lecompton capitol stood as a monument to the ruined dreams of the proslavery territorial government. Twenty-five years later, part of the building was finished as the main hall of Lane University.
Sheriff Samuel Jones built this structure late in 1856. It housed a wide variety of operations during the territorial period, among which were the local Masonic chapter, the Second District Court, the U.S. land office, and the territorial assembly. Most important historically was the Lecompton Constitutional Convention which met upstairs in the fall of 1857. Here was produced the notorious Lecompton Constitution which would have made Kansas a slave state. Despite its support by the Buchanan Administration, free-state legislators prevented the constitution from being ratified by Congress and, in 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state under the Wyandotte Constitution. James Montgomery Following the bloody days of 1856 and the relative calm of 1857, new strife broke out along the Missouri border in Linn and Bourbon counties. James Montgomery, a Campbellite preacher, and his Jawhawkers burned the cabins and crops of their proslavery neighbors in an attempt to drive them from the territory. John Brown and some of his men joined the fray which erupted into general guerrilla warfare.
Proslavery guerrillas, under the leadership of Charles A. Hamelton, rounded up eleven free-state settlers near Trading Post on May 19, 1858. In cold blood the captors opened fire, killing five and severely wounding five others. One escaped injury by pretending to be dead. The Marais des Cygnes Massacre, as this atrocity became known, inflamed public opinion much as John Brown's Pottawatomie Massacre had two years before. John Doy and His Rescuers By 1859 the free-state element had firm control of the Kansas territorial legislature. Most of the radical proslavery leaders had moved to more hospitable localities, and the issue of slavery was nearly dead in Kansas. However, agitation continued because of federal attempts to recapture escaped slaves who often sought refuge on Kansas's free soil. Dr. John Doy, one of the original settlers of Lawrence, tried to escort a group of Blacks to greater safety in Iowa. The group was captured in northeastern Kansas by a band of Missourians. Doy was taken to St. Joseph for trial and, subsequently, was imprisoned. This well-armed free-state force rescued him from jail in July 1859.
Site of the proslavery Lecompton constitutional convention in 1857, Constitution Hall was built by Sheriff Samuel Jones as a financial venture. It housed the U. S. land office, law offices, the district court, the territorial legislature, and a Masonic lodge. Much of the building material was native walnut lumber, sawn at Jones' own sawmill. Its severely plain exterior was given a simple grace by the Greek Revival pediment and moldings on the facade. Back to Topics in Kansas History: Politics & Government: Territorial Government. |
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