Stark Mad Abolitionists
Page 26
146 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 123.
147 Frank W. Blackmar, Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, 1 (Chicago: Standard Publishing, 1912), 270.
148 Robinson’s letter (August 16, 1856) is at: www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_transcript&document_id=100176SCREEN=keyword&submit=&search=&startsearchat=0&searchfor=&printerfriendly=&county_id=&topic_id=&document_id=100176&selected_keyword=Treason.
149 Lawrence, Amos Lawrence, p. 111.
150 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 126–37.
151 Letter from Charles Robinson to Sara Robinson (September 20, 1856) is found at: www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_transcript&document_id=101131SCREEN=keyword&submit=&search=&startsearchat=75&searchfor=&printerfriendly=&county_id=&topic_id=&document_id=101131&selected_keyword=Robinson,%20Charles,%201818–1894.
152 Wilson, Charles Robinson, 48
153 Herald of Freedom, November 1, 1856.
154 Quoted in Howard N. Meyer, The Magnificent Activist: The Writings of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) (New York: Da Capo Press, 2000), 79.
155 Ibid., 82.
156 Ibid., 88.
157 Ibid., 98–100.
158 The definitive work on the Whig Party is Michael F. Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
159 “Presidential Result,” Herald of Freedom, November 15, 1856.
160 Until the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, the presidential inauguration took place on March 4.
161 Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 137.
162 Robinson, Kansas Conflict, 339–40.
163 The full text of Buchanan’s Inaugural Address can be found at: www.bartleby.com/124/pres30.html.
164 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 141–42; in the April 18, 1857 edition of the Herald of Freedom, George Brown ran several stories about the appointment of Walker as governor, his biography, and a note that he hoped Walker would not give in to pressure from the pro-slavery faction, but would be balanced in his administration.
165 “Filling Up,” Ibid.; the Reverend Ephraim Nute, the Unitarian minister in Lawrence, reported similar numbers of daily arrivals, with estimates as high as three thousand per day, cited in Johnson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 241.
166 Quoted in Ibid., 251.
167 The text of Lawrence’s letter can be found at: www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_document&document_id=101698&SCREEN_FROM=keyword&selected_keyword=Lawrence,%20Amos%20Adams,%201814–1886&startsearchat=30.
168 “Introductory,” Lawrence Republican, May 28, 1857; “Has the Herald of Freedom at All Times Sustained the Position and Policy of the Free State Party in Kansas?” Lawrence Republican, June 25, 1857; “A Partisan Press for Partisan Purposes Are Laboring to Crush It,” Herald of Freedom, June 27, 1857.
169 We will visit the Eldridge Hotel again a little later in this volume during the Quantrill Raid in 1863. In modern Lawrence, another Eldridge Hotel stands on the same spot as the Free State Hotel, and several websites claim it is haunted, one going so far as to call it a “hotel with a boo!”
170 “No Vote,” Herald of Freedom, May 2, 1857.
171 Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 145–49.
172 The text of the Dred Scott decision can be found at: https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/DredScott.html
173 “The Grasshopper Falls Convention,” Herald of Freedom, September 5, 1857.
174 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 148–51; “Fraudulent Returns,” Herald of Freedom, October 17, 1857.
175 “The Time for Legislation,” Ibid.
176 The text of the Lecompton Constitution can be found at: http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/90818.
177 T. Dwight Thatcher, who was a delegate to the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention (it meets later), recalled the process of creating the Kansas Constitution in his address as he was leaving his position as president of the Kansas State Historical Society in 1883. His speech is included in Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, Territorial History, Part 54, the “Story Retold,” found at: http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/terrhist/terrhist-p54.html#THE_STORY_RETOLD
178 Quoted in www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/pdf/tko_lesson_pop_sov.pdf.
179 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 159–60.
180 Charles Robinson, The Kansas Conflict, 378–80.
181 Diane Miller, “To Make Men Free: The Underground Railroad in Bleeding Kansas” (May 2008), found at: www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/discover_history/upload/UGRR-in-Kansas.pdf, 10–13.
182 Charles Robinson, The Kansas Crusade, 380.
183 Ibid, 277–80; Miller, “To Make Men Free,” 13.
184 Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence, 122–30.
185 Ibid, 135–38.
186 Dr. Doy’s description is in his Narrative of John Doy, 25–115. There is a well-done documentary of his adventure available on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1–4T2xh61s0.
187 There were discrepancies in the story. Doy had Fisher’s barbershop in Lawrence; Nute in Leavenworth. Doy had his pursuers shooting at him; Nute did not.
188 Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 204; James B. Abbott, “The Rescue of Dr. John W. Doy,” in Sheridan, Freedom’s Crucible, 22.
189 Ibid., 25.
190 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 163.
191 Richard Cordley, Pioneer Days in Kansas (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1903), 122–36.
192 Dennis M. Dailey, “Josiah Miller, an Antislavery Southerner: Letters to Father and Mother,” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 36 (Summer 2013): 71.
193 Richard B. Sheridan has put together a wonderful book on the Underground Railroad in Lawrence and Douglas County, Kansas. He compiled all of the documents he could find, and in the ending commentary, he answers as many questions as he can about the railroad. Richard B. Sheridan, Editor and Compiler, Freedom’s Crucible: The Underground Railroad in Lawrence and Douglas County, Kansas, 1854–1865 (Lawrence: University of Kansas, Division of Continuing Education, 1998).
194 Ibid., 67–74.
195 Ephraim Nute to Unknown Recipient (February 24, 1859). Full text of the letter can be found at: http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_document&document_id=102721&SCREEN_FROM=keyword&selected_keyword=Fisher,%20Charley&startsearchat=0.
196 Robinson, Kansas Conflict, 383
197 The full text of the Leavenworth Constitution can be found at: www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_document&document_id=102076&SCREEN_FROM=keyword&selected_keyword=Leavenworth%20Constitution&startsearchat=0.
198 William E. Connelly, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans (Chicago and New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1918), transcribed by Carolyn Ward, for the Internet version, at: skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1918ks/v2/945.html.
199 Data here comes from: www.kshs.org/kansapedia/wyandotte-constitutiona-convention/17884.
200 Ibid, 19–20: also, an article in the Kansas State Historical Society describes Lincoln’s visit in more detail: www.kshs.org/kansapedia/abraham-lincoln-in-kansas/12132; Another more detailed book on Lincoln’s visit and his connection with Kansas is Carol Dark Ayres, Lincoln and Kansas: Partnership for Freedom (Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 2001).
201 “The Herald of Freedom,” Lawrence Republican, December 29, 1859.
202 Kansas State Historical Society, Wyandotte Constitution, at: www.kansasmemory.org/item/90272.
203 “Glorious Intelligence! Kansas in the Union!” Lawrence Republican (January 31, 1861).
204 Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence, 152–167.
205 Robert E. May, The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854–1861 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002), 216–217, 243.
206 Ibid., 183–206; James McPherson devoted a chapter to the New England Brahmins in his book, The Mighty Scourge:
Perspectives on the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 145–154. McPherson was fascinated that of the 578 Harvard graduates, most of whom served in the 2nd Cavalry and the 20th Massachusetts Infantry, and most who likely could have avoided service, ninety, or nearly sixteen percent, were killed in action.
207 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 179–80. In the military hierarchy of the Civil War, regiments were the primary units. A full regiment was made up of one thousand men, divided into ten companies of one hundred men each. A colonel generally was the commander of a regiment. Three to five regiments would make up a brigade, generally commanded by a brigadier general. Two to four brigades would make a division; multiple divisions made a corps; and multiple corps made an army.
208 Richard W. Hatcher III and William Garrett Piston, eds., Kansans at Wilson’s Creek: Soldiers Letters from the Campaign for Southwest Missouri, Volume 3, Studies of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi Theater (Springfield, MO: Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Foundation, 1993), 8–9.
209 Ibid. This volume features letters written by Leavenworth-area soldiers and one correspondent to the Leavenworth Daily Times, leading up to and including the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Most of the correspondents are identified, but for this particular letter, the writer is identified simply as “M.” The editors speculate that “M” likely was Sgt. Mentzer through a process of elimination.
210 “Whipping Volunteers Under Major Sturgis,” Lawrence Republican (July 15, 1861).
211 “A Soldier Executed,” Lawrence Republican, from the collection at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, nd.
212 Statistics can be found at: http://www.kshs.org/p/civil-war-sesquicentennial/16839. By comparison, New York State contributed just over 9 percent of its entire population.
213 Quoted in Richard B. Sheridan, “The Contrabands in Lawrence and Douglas County,” in Sheridan, ed., Freedom’s Crucible, 107.
214 Richard Cordley, “The Contrabands in Lawrence, Kansas,” in ibid., 98.
215 Quoted in ibid., 99–101.
216 Ibid., 102–103; Nathan Wilson, “Congregationalist Richard Cordley and the Impact of New England Cultural Imperialism in Kansas, 1857–1904,” Great Plains Quarterly 24 (Summer 2004): 190–92.
217 These excerpts are from a collection of letters from Lt. Levant L. Jones to his wife, Hattie Jones, in the Missouri State Historical Society. The letters were written between June 8 and August 9, 1861.
218 William Garrett Piston and Richard Hatcher, Wilson’s Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 338–339.
219 Edward R. Nash to Hattie Jones, August 18, 1861, included in the collection of letters from Levant L. Jones to Hattie Jones, Missouri State Historical Society.
220 These statistics are taken from the 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, regimental history, which can be found at: http://www.kansasguardmuseum.org/dispunit.php?id=3. The National Park Service states that the 1st Kansas Infantry Regiment is seventh on the list of Northern units suffering the largest number of killed, wounded, or mortally wounded in any one engagement during the Civil War. But it has a different number of casualties with 106. National Park Service, “Facts About the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, August 10, 1861.”
221 Hatchet and Piston, Kansans at Wilson’s Creek, 78fn.
222 “The Martyrs of Freedom,” Lawrence Republican, August 29, 1861.
223 In 1944, Kirke Mechem had fun, noting that “several weeks ago that noble myth, the Kansas Jayhawk, was attacked on the grounds that it is attempting to become a real bird. A group of educators had discovered that one of their own textbooks not only tells little children that it is real but that it is a native of this locality. Faced with this dilemma, the school men naturally appointed a committee. As a result, an open season was declared on the Jayhawk and for a time there was a good deal of excited shooting, principally in the newspapers. When the smoke cleared away it was hard to tell from appearances whether the educators were the hunters or the hunted. Although they claimed they saw feathers fly the only trophy they brought back was the statement out of the textbook, which they announced they would stuff and mount above the committee-room door. But even this turned out to be not completely dead, and from last reports the Jayhawk will still perch in the text, metamorphosed, however, once more into a myth.” Kirke Mechem, “The Mythical Jayhawk,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 13 (February 1944): 1; Another, more recent piece on the Jayhawk was written by Frank Baron. Baron argues that August Bondi, the Jewish radical abolitionist, was the first person to describe the term Jayhawk, and he further claimed that Lane was the first one to use the term. Frank Baron, “James H. Lane and the Origins of the Kansas Jayhawk,” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 34 (Summer 2011): 114–27.
224 “The Kansas War, the Disturbances in Southern Kansas—Brown and Montgomery.” New York Times (January 28, 1859); “Origin of the Word Jayhawking,” in “Application to the People of Kansas. Incidents in the Early History of the Territory,” The Allen County Courant (Iola, Kansas) (May 23, 1868).
225 www.ku.edu/about/traditions/jayhawk/
226 Quoted in William Connelly, Quantrill and the Border Wars (Cedar Rapids, IA: The Torch Press. 1910), 412.
227 Stephen Z. Starr, Jennison’s Jayhawkers: A Civil War Cavalry Regiment and Its Commander (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973). 27–29.
228 James Montgomery was featured in the film Glory (1989) as a racist, revenge-seeking commander of African American troops in South Carolina, who was nearly as unbalanced as John Brown. thttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/.
229 Quoted in http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/cool-things-proslavery-leader-s-desk/10309.
230 Starr, Jennison’s Jayhawkers, 30.
231 Ibid., 31.
232 John Speer, The Life of Gen James H. Lane: The Liberator of Kansas, with Corroborative Incident of Pioneer History (Garden City, KS: John Speer, Printer, 1897), 227.
233 Bryce D. Benedict, Jayhawkers: The Civil War Brigade of James Henry Lane (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009), 34–35; Lane’s leadership of the “Frontier Guard” is described in Erich Langsdorf, “Jim Lane and the Frontier Guard,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 9 (February 1940), 13–25.
234 Quoted in Ibid., 37.
235 The American Battlefield Protection Program (under the National Park Service) description of the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, September 2, 1861, found at: http://www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/mo005.htm.
236 Life of Gen. James H. Lane, 252.
237 Robinson, Kansas Conflict, 434–35.
238 Beccy Tanner, “150 Years Later, Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence Still Stirs Deep Emotions—On Both Sides,” Wichita Eagle (July 21, 2014).
239 Nicole Etcheson, “Jennison’s Jayhawkers,” New York Times (Opinionator) (December 28, 2011), found at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/jennisons-jayhawkers/?_r=0.;“Seventh Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry (regimental history),” excerpts from Cutler’s History of the State of Kansas 1883, transcribed by Kathleen Roper, and found at: http://www4.pair.com/justfolk/RegHst1htm.
240 Ibid.
241 Quoted in Etcheson, “Jennison’s Jayhawkers.”
242 Benedict, Jayhawkers, 192–202.
243 Speer, Life of Gen. James H. Lane, 253.
244 Ibid., 261–62.
245 Chris Tabor, “Skirmish at Island Mound,” posted at: islandmound.tripod.com/casualties.htm.
246 http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/content/1st-kansas-colored-volunteers-later-79th-us-colored-infantry. Today, the Battle of Island Mound is commemorated in a Missouri State Historic Site: https://mostateparks.com/park/battle-island-mound-state-historic-site
247 Hunter, soon after he arrived in Georgia, issued an order freeing all slaves in the vicinity. That order was quickly rescinded by President Lincoln, as was his second order to recruit former slaves to fight for the Union cause. Eventually, Congress and th
e president did allow him to start recruiting former slaves into the Union army.
248 Lu Ann Jones and Robert K. Sutton, The Life and Legacy of Robert Smalls of South Carolina’s Sea Islands (Fort Washington, PA: Eastern National, 2012), 24–25.
249 “The Guerrilla Under Quantrel [sic] Have Taken and Plundered Olathe,” Lawrence Journal (September 11, 1862); “Quantrell [sic] There Have Been Fugitive Reports for Weeks,” Ibid. (November 6, 1862).
250 Cordley, History of Lawrence, 190.
251 “The Boldest Raid Yet!,” Lawrence Journal (May 14, 1863).
252 Among his soldiers, one who gained fame—or, better stated, infamy—later on was Cole Younger, who along with his brothers and the James brothers were outlaws after the war. Younger related the story of his adventures with Quantrill in his autobiography later in life: from the Amazon.com Kindle edition, Cole Younger, The Story of Cole Younger, By Himself (1903). For this book, and for later references to Younger’s autobiography, I use the Amazon.com Kindle edition, at: www.amazon.com/Story-Cole-Younger-Himself-ebook/dp/B004TPC6Y0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425493959&sr=1–1&keywords=cole+younger+autobiography. John McCorkle was another guerrilla who recorded his experiences later. He told this story as fact in his reminiscences, John McCorkle, and O. S. Barton, Three Years with Quantrill, A True Story, from the Amazon Kindle edition: www.amazon.com/Three-Years-Quantrill-Western-Frontier/dp/0806130563/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425597665&sr=1-1&keywords=john+mccorkle%2Bquantrill. Edward Leslie tells the story, in his biography, but points out that the story is incorrect. Edward E. Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William Clarke Quantrill and His Confederate Raiders (New York: Random House, 1996), 35–36.
253 McCorkle, Three Years with Quantrill: his story is true and well-documented, and can be found at numerous sources, including, Ibid. 64–81; and www.lawrence.com/news/2006/aug/14/morgan_walker_raid/.
254 Cited in Albert Castel, William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times, new edition (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 23; Castel goes on to say that William E. Connelly, in his Quantrill and the Border Wars (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1910), wrote one of the early biographies of Quantrill, which was heavily biased against the bushwhacker. Connelly included any story, such as Quantrill’s sadism as a child, that put Quantrill in a negative light. On the other hand, John Newman Edwards, in his Noted Guerrillas, or The Warfare on the Border (St. Louis: Bryan, Brand and company, 1877), put Quantrill in a completely different light. Edwards perpetuated the myth that the guerrillas were Robin Hood–like characters.