Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/430

KANSAS. operated as a virtual repeal of the Missouri restriction.

Before the bill had passed through Congress, immigrants from Missouri and Arkansas and from the Northern States entered Kansas, and the struggle for its possession began. On June 10th a pro-slavery meeting declared slavery existent in the Territory. In September immigrants from Missouri and Arkansas founded Leavenworth and Atchison, while colonists from New England sent out by the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society settled before the end of that year at Lawrence, Topeka, Osawatomie, and other towns. On October 7th, A. H. Reeder, appointed Federal Governor of the Territory, arrived in Kansas. In the same month a force of Missourians made an unsuccessful attempt to drive the anti-slavery men from Lawrence. On November 29, 1854, at an election held for the choice of a Territorial delegate to Congress, armed bodies of men from Missouri took possession of the polls and cast 1700 votes out of a total of 2843. On March 30, 1855, an attempt was made to elect a Territorial Legislature, and again the Missourians appeared in large numbers and elected pro-slavery delegates from every district. The number of pro-slavery votes was 5427 out of a total of 6218, though it was well known that the number of legal voters in the Territory was less than 3000. Governor Reeder set aside the returns from six of the districts and ordered new elections, which resulted in the choice of free State delegates. The first Territorial Legislature assembled at Pawnee, July 2, 1855. The Pro-Slavery Party had a majority in this body, and expelled the members who had been chosen at the second election ordered by the Governor. The statutes of Missouri were adopted in the main. Acts were passed making it a capital offense to assist slaves in escaping either to or from the Territory, and felony to circulate anti-slavery publications, or to deny the right to hold slaves; also requiring all voters to swear to support the Fugitive Slave Law. In July, Governor Reeder broke off all relations with the Legislature, and became an active partisan of the Free State Party. He was succeeded, on July 31st, by Wilson Shannon, who in turn gave way to John W. Geary in September, 1856. The Free State men, meanwhile, refusing to acknowledge the legality of the Territorial Government, initiated a movement for establishing a State Government without an enabling act on the part of Congress. A convention of Free State men met at Topeka, October 23, 1855, and adopted a State Constitution prohibiting slavery after July 4, 1857, but excluding negroes from the State. An election was held December 15th, and the Constitution was accepted. The Pro-Slavery Party, however, abstained from participation. An election for State officers and a Legislature under this Constitution was held January 15, 1856, and Charles S. Robinson was chosen Governor. It was the object of the Free State Party to avoid armed hostilities with the pro-slavery Government of the Territory, so as not to come into conflict with the United States authorities. The attempt, however, of the Territorial sheriff to seize a prisoner at Lawrence resulted in his being shot. The leaders of the Free State men were thereupon indicted for treason, and imprisoned, and on May 21st a mob of pro-slavery men sacked the town

of Lawrence. The massacre of five men on Pottawatomie Creek by John Brown and his sons, on May 23, 1856, marked the beginning of civil war, which continued through the month of June till the United States troops suppressed the combatants. On July 4, 1856, the Free State Legislature met at Topeka, but was dispersed by the Federal forces. A second attempt on the part of the Legislature to convene at Topeka, January 6, 1857, led to the arrest of its members. Governor Robert J. Walker, who had replaced Governor Geary in March, 1857, succeeded in making terms with the Free State men, who abandoned the Topeka Constitution and agreed to take part in the election for a Territorial Legislature in October, 1857. The Free State Party triumphed at the polls; but the Pro-Slavery Party had in the meanwhile summoned a convention which, on November 7, 1857, adopted the (q.v.), guaranteeing the possession of all slave property already in Kansas, and submitted to the electors (December 21st) that clause only which legalized slavery for all times. The provision was accepted by the Pro-Slavery Party, the Free State men declining to vote; but when the Lecompton Constitution as a whole was submitted to the people, January 4, 1858, it was decisively rejected and defeated indirectly, for the second time, on August 2d, at an election ordered by Congress on the so-called English Bill, a compromise measure. Immigration from the North, in the meanwhile, had made the Free State men overwhelmingly preponderant. In the same election in which the Lecompton Constitution was rejected for the first time, they succeeded in capturing the Territorial Government. On July 5, 1859, a constitutional convention met at Wyandotte, and adopted a constitution prohibiting slavery (July 27th). This was ratified October 4th by a vote of 10,421 to 5530. On November 8th, delegates to Congress and members of the Territorial Legislature were chosen, and on January 29, 1861, Kansas was admitted into the Union.

In the Civil War Kansas sent into the field a larger number of soldiers, in proportion to its population, than any other State. The eastern part of the State lay exposed to the incursions of Confederates from Missouri. On August 23, 1863, Quantrell's guerrillas raided the town of Lawrence and killed a large number of the inhabitants. The cessation of war was followed immediately by a great influx of immigrants, who swept steadily westward, unchecked by the repeated assaults of the hostile Indian tribes. Railway development began in 1868, and by 1872 there were more than 2000 miles of railway track in operation. The settlers coveted the broad tracts of land included within the Indian reservations, and the process of extinguishing Indian titles was actively prosecuted. Between 1878 and 1880 widespread excitement and dissatisfaction among the negroes of the South led to the migration of 40,000 of their number to Kansas. Prohibition became an important question in politics after 1880; the movement encountered great opposition in the beginning, but by 1890 the principle was well established in the State, though in the large cities the anti-liquor laws were not zealously enforced. The influence of the (q.v.) after 1888 brought the State into conflict with the railway