Stark Mad Abolitionists

by Robert K. Sutton

  Several Lawrence residents purchased and erected prefabricated houses. Hinkle, Guld, and Company of Cincinnati introduced ready-made houses in the West, and advertised that they would cost 30 percent less than other construction. The first prefabricated house appeared in Lawrence in May 1855 and others followed. But again, the problem was transportation. The first house was shipped to Lawrence on board the Hartford, a river steamer. It grounded, however, and never made a return trip.

  By far the largest and most important building project in Lawrence was the Free State Hotel. The Emigrant Aid Company had committed to building the hotel, which would serve as temporary housing for new residents as well as a gathering place for the community. It was large, fifty by seventy feet at its base, and three and a half stories in height. Construction began in November 1854, stopped and started again, and finally was scheduled for completion by May 1, 1856. As the project was underway, several features—a parapet at the top and loopholes in the walls for firing at attackers—were added, so it would also serve as a fortress. It was built of concrete, with fireproof roofing materials, and thus built to last.114

  While calm prevailed, the Free-State Party elections were held on January 22, 1856, and Robinson was elected governor by a nearly three-to-one margin. A free-state territorial legislature and other executive officers, such as attorney general, were elected as well. For the most part, these elections were peaceful. The exception was the election in the Leavenworth region, where pro-slavery Kickapoo Rangers did all they could to disrupt the elections. There were several pro- and antislavery skirmishes and one fatality. Pro-slavery ruffians captured a free-state man, R. P. Brown, brutally beat him, put him in a wagon, and delivered him to his house, where he died. The free-state side had another martyr.

  The free-state election was clearly illegal. The legal process for creating a new territory, and ultimately a new state, generally had been an orderly process during the previous seventy-five years. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established a three-stage process for the admission of new states, which continued as the formula with minor modifications. In the first phase, the president would appoint a governor, secretary, and judges to rule the territory, confirmed by the Senate. In the next phase, the territory could elect its own legislative assembly. Finally, as the population grew, the citizens could draft a constitution and apply for admission to the Union.

  The Kansas-Nebraska Act essentially followed the framework of the Northwest Ordinance. The major variation was that the citizens could decide whether or not they wanted slavery. Another difference was that the governor could veto laws passed by the territorial legislature, and the legislature could override those vetoes. The governor and other territorial officials served at the pleasure of the president; thus, President Pierce’s removal of Governor Reeder was perfectly legal. On the other hand, the election of the territorial legislature, under the requirements of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, specified that only “actual residents of said Territory” could vote.115 The pro-slavery legislature was elected by Missourians who had no intention of permanently residing in Kansas, so, in a strictly legal sense, the members were serving illegally, but for the time being, they held the power.

  The political situation in Kansas did not escape Amos Lawrence. He was particularly concerned about the free-state elections. He wrote several letters to Charles Robinson at the beginning of 1856,116 focusing on the sovereignty of the federal government. He was worried that Robinson and others might cross a fine line that might put the Emigrant Aid Company’s efforts in Kansas in jeopardy. In a letter dated January 31, 1856, Lawrence implored Robinson to “not under any circumstances resist any legal representative of the U[nited] States, nor allow our people to do it.” He continued, “the Fabian policy is the true one…. This you must adopt, or rather you have only to keep on as you have done. You must gain time, & so strength.” While Lawrence was concerned that Robinson and others were on the precipice of going too far in defying the territorial government, he also assured Robinson that he would continue writing to his half-cousin, President Pierce. Even so, he had “small hopes of [it] doing any good.” Because he was convinced that the president was “struck [in his own] blindness.”117

  Lawrence warned Robinson and others not to challenge the federal government, but he recognized that the free-state citizens in Kansas needed the means to defend themselves. To that end, he continued to dip into his own pocket to supply Kansans with weapons. He and his fellow board members were careful to keep the weapon funds and the operating funds for the Emigrant Aid Company separate. Dr. Samuel Cabot was placed in charge of buying rifles and other armaments for Kansas. Not only did Amos Lawrence continue to spend a significant amount of his own money on the venture, he encouraged his brothers, James and William, to contribute as well. Dr. Cabot arranged to ship guns and ammunition to Kansas, but he also made it as easy as possible for new emigrants to purchase Sharps rifles at significant discounts. He negotiated a price of $26 a piece from the company, which was $4 less than the wholesale price the government paid. Dr. Cabot also was flexible with the terms of purchase. If an emigrant did not have the full $26, he would take partial payment, and in other cases, Cabot would simply provide the weapon with a promise to pay later, with the understanding that payment was not absolutely mandatory.118

  Lawrence redirected his money to weapons because the financial picture of the Emigrant Aid Company was improving. News spread that the free-state residents of Lawrence had successfully stared down the Border Ruffians in the Wakarusa War. “Border Ruffians” was a contemporary term used by both the pro-slavery Missourians and the free-state Kansas to describe the pro-slavery paramilitary faction, who had no qualms against using violence to make Kansas a slave state. With the news that the free-state side seemed be gaining the upper hand in Kansas, in the early months of 1856, money started pouring into the company’s coffers. The account stood at $45,835 in November 1855, but by May 1856 it jumped to $98,940. This did not include the weapon fund nor a new relief fund created to help Emigrant Aid Company Kansas residents who were victims of the Wakarusa War.119

  In part to heed Amos Lawrence’s concerns about going too far with Free-State Party politics, and mostly as a smart strategic move, Charles Robinson and the Free-State Party hired Mark W. Delahay as its representative to Washington. Delahay’s job was to test the winds in Washington to determine what might happen next. On February 16, 1856, he wrote to Robinson and Lane, reporting that Governor Shannon had just left Washington for Kansas after meeting with President Pierce. His understanding was that “he [Governor Shannon] is directed to arrest and punish all who may take part in the making and [the enforcing of] any law in opposition to the Territorial laws now upon the Statute Book.” Delahay further advised Robinson to not call the free-state legislature into session. There were some rumblings that Congress would take some action on the status of the territory that might benefit the free-staters. But even if Congress acted, and if the Free-State Party continued its activities, Delahay understood that “the Gov[ernmen]t has private orders to command the regular troops & to arrest any and all persons that may take part in the organization of the Independent State Gov[ernmen]t.”120

  By the time Delahay sent his report to Robinson and Lane, President Pierce had already issued a proclamation warning free-state Kansans to behave themselves. On February 11, 1856, he wrote that “all persons engaged in unlawful combinations against the constituted authority of the Territory of Kansas” could expect to face the local militia or “any available force of the United States.” The main target of his message was the Free-State Party, but he also warned the pro-slavery residents of Missouri to not use force in Kansas. His proclamation also included a veiled threat for the Emigrant Aid Company, saying that if “agencies of emissaries” interfered in the territory, such actions “will constitute the fact of insurrection.”121 The president wanted to remove any possible doubt as to whether Governor Shannon, other territorial officers, the territorial legislature
, and the army made up the legally sanctioned government in Kansas. Any circumvention of that federal authority would not be tolerated.

  Charles Robinson chose to ignore Delahay’s warning and the president’s proclamation, and went ahead and called the Free-State Party’s elected legislature into session on March 4, 1856, in Topeka. Free-state Kansans continued to call the official pro-slavery Kansas territorial legislature “bogus,” although it was the official, legal entity. In fact, the free-state legislature really was the “bogus” body because it had no authority to do business. The “legislators” elected former governor Reeder and James Lane as future US senators. They sent Lane to Washington to deliver a copy of the Topeka Constitution written and approved months earlier, along with message seeking admission to the Union. When Lane arrived in Washington, he convinced Galusha A. Grow, an antislavery Congressman from Pennsylvania, to submit the Topeka Constitution along with a bill for Kansas’s admission to the US House of Representatives. It passed the House by a vote of ninety-nine to ninety-seven on July 3, 1856, but it was defeated in the Senate.

  Although the bill for Kansas’s admission failed, the US House of Representatives wanted to find out more about what was happening in Kansas and it appointed a special committee to investigate. William Howard, a Republican from Michigan, was the chair. John Sherman, a Republican from Ohio was the other majority member, and Mordecai Oliver, a Democrat from Missouri, was the minority member. They arrived in Kansas on April 18, 1856, and started taking testimony. Their findings were published in the Howard Report, which provided the most detailed firsthand account of the events in Kansas up to that time. It was published in 1856 and ran to over 1,200 pages of testimony.

  At the end of their investigations, Representatives Howard and Sherman concluded that the elections held under the “organic or alleged Territorial law” were illegal, in that citizens from outside the territory voted, and prevented many legal citizens from voting. Since in their opinions, the elections were illegal, the “alleged Territorial legislature was an illegally constituted body,” thus all laws and enactments it passed were “null and void.” Further, the elections of both delegates to Congress, John W. Whitfield, elected under the authority of the Territorial legislature, and Andrew H. Reeder, elected under the auspices of the Free-State Party, were illegal, and thus neither should be seated as delegate to Congress. They recommended a new census for the territory, followed by new elections, to be held under the supervision of the United States military at each polling place. They noted that while the Topeka Constitution created by the Free-State Party at its convention was voted on by citizens in Kansas and embodied “the will of a majority of the people,” they did not believe they had the authority to declare that it should be the basis for admission to the Union. They concluded that while they were in sympathy with the free-state residents, they were not “in a position to suggest remedies for the existing troubles in the Territory of Kansas.”

  For his part, the minority member of the committee, Congressman Oliver from Missouri, offered a very different view of the situation in Kansas. He concluded that the elections under the organic act to establish the Territory of Kansas were perfectly legal, and thus all laws established by the territorial legislature were valid. Further, the election of John W. Whitfield as the territory’s delegate to Congress was legal as well; whereas the election of Andrew H. Reeder was illegal.122

  Lawrence remained calm in early 1856. Sara Robinson reported that even though there appeared to be no imminent threat of violence, the town’s citizens were on daily alert for possible attacks. To prepare for that eventuality, they reinforced the barricades they had erected for the Wakarusa War. She also reported that the cold spell continued. When the free-state legislature convened in Topeka, she noted that attention turned to its activities. On March 31, she noted that the town was “still all quiet.”

  The calm that had settled over Lawrence for the past several months, however, was about to end. On April 19, 1856, Sheriff Jones returned to Lawrence to arrest Samuel Wood, the leader of the Branson rescue mission. Sheriff Jones, probably at the behest of Governor Shannon, was exerting the increased authority given to the territorial government by President Pierce. Wood and the free-state party who had rescued Branson months earlier could not be allowed to snub territorial authority.

  Wood had traveled to Ohio, where he spoke to numerous groups, raised money, and recruited about one hundred new emigrants to settle in Kansas. When Wood returned to Lawrence, Sheriff Jones succeeded in arresting him, but Wood managed to escape. The sheriff returned the next day and tried to recruit a posse from the town’s residents—no one volunteered—and when he could not find Wood, he instead tried to arrest Samuel Tappan, a coconspirator in the Branson rescue. But Tappan punched the sheriff in the face and escaped as well. Then, on April 23, Sheriff Jones again appeared in town, but this time he brought along a squadron of soldiers, requisitioned under the new powers granted by President Pierce. In addition to the warrants to arrest Wood and Tappan, he carried warrants for the citizens who had refused to join his posse. The sheriff planned to spend the night in Lawrence, but while walking the streets, he was shot in the back by an unknown assailant.123 Jones survived the shooting. In an attempt to maintain the peace, the citizens on Lawrence quickly offered a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the would-be assassin.124

  With the additional powers granted to the official territorial government and the military by President Pierce, and with the assassination attempt on Sheriff Jones, the situation for free-state leaders quickly became more precarious. During the first week of May, a pro-slavery grand jury convened in Lecompton in the US District (territorial) Court and issued indictments for treason against Charles Robinson, Andrew Reeder, James Lane, Samuel Wood, and others for establishing a government outside the legal territorial government. The promise of peace and quiet that ushered in 1856 in Lawrence was short-lived. It did not take long for things to heat up again.

  7 It Was the Grossest Outrage Ever Perpetrated

  IN EARLY 1856, THE SENSE of unease in Lawrence was palpable. Because of the constant concern for the town’s and citizens’ safety, church services and classes often were canceled or postponed, sometimes for weeks. At times, church services were interrupted when men were called out to defend the town. One church minister later recalled that “all the public buildings [were] turned into barracks, the preaching hall with the rest, and nothing [was] thought of but the best means of defense.”125

  The unease in Lawrence reached a crescendo when the indictments for “high treason in levying war against the United States” were issued for Charles Robinson, Andrew Reeder, James Lane, Samuel Wood, George Brown, George Deitzler, George Smith, and Gaius Jenkins on May 20, 1856. George Brown had just published his Herald of Freedom three days earlier on May 17. He was arrested the same day the indictment was issued. Gaius Jenkins and George W. Smith were arrested one day later. George Smith was an early settler in Kansas who moved to Lawrence from Pennsylvania as an attorney. He quickly became involved in free-state politics and served as chair of the Big Springs convention. Gaius Jenkins was a native of New York, who moved Lawrence in 1854 and settled on a farm. He later became a colonel in the Free-State Militia. George Deitzler came to Lawrence in 1855 and built one of the town’s sawmills. He also was a commander of Lawrence’s defenses during the Wakarusa War.126

  Former Governor Reeder claimed immunity as the elected Free-State Party delegate to Congress, but since the “legal” territorial government recognized neither his appointment nor the Free-State Government, his claim of immunity was ignored. He escaped from the territory disguised as an Irish woodcutter. James Lane fled the territory and avoided arrest as well. Charles Robinson and his wife tried to escape, but Charles was taken off a river steamer in Lexington, Missouri, arrested, and returned to Kansas on May 26. In Leavenworth, he was nearly lynched by a pro-slavery mob, but he was protected and hustled off to Lecompton, where he was imprisoned along wi
th the other accused free-state men. Sara Robinson was allowed to continue on her journey.127

  Sara Robinson chronicled the early settlement of Lawrence and Kansas in her Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life (1856). Beyond her literary talents, Sara was a woman to be reckoned with. Southern sympathizers called her a Spartan woman, which was anything but a compliment. In describing her reaction to her husband’s arrest, one pro-slavery account said she pulled a dagger and a gun from her bosom, fell on her knees, and begged her husband to defend himself to the death, rather than surrender to his arrest. This story was untrue, but it added to Sara’s Amazon-like image.128

  Sara was the most well known of Lawrence’s antislavery women, and from her writings, she made it clear that living on the frontier of Kansas was a difficult life. But she also was passionate about her mission and partnership with her husband to rid the nation of slavery, and above all to make Kansas a free state. In the introduction for her Kansas book, she noted the important contributions of women in the American Revolution. Now, she implored women to rise up again to ensure that Kansas was not “thrown open to the foul inroads of slavery.”129

  Margaret Wood was another committed female abolitionist. She was the wife of Samuel Wood, who had an arrest warrant for treason with Charles Robinson and the others but managed to elude capture and head to Ohio. The abolitionist cause was not new to Margaret. She formed a lifelong partnership with her future husband—a fellow Quaker—when he delivered a wagonload of escaped slaves to her father’s house in Ohio. Their shared passion to rid the nation of slavery led the couple to Kansas, where they continued their Underground Railroad activities. While Samuel was in Ohio, Margaret sent letters providing news on the pro-slavery activities in Kansas, which Samuel reported to antislavery sympathizers in Ohio to stir up support for the antislavery cause in Kansas.130