Chapter V: Territorial Times

TERRITORY ACQUIRED FROM FRANCE IN 1803—ORGANIZATION OF TERRITORY—
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT—IMMIGRATION TO KANSAS—TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT—
FREE STATE AND PRO-SLAVERY CONFLICT—FIRST ELECTION—SECRET
POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS—BORDER WAR ACTIVITIES AND OUTRAGES—
CONTESTS OVER ADOPTION OF CONSTITUTION—KANSAS ADMITTED TO THE
UNION.

Kansas is as rich in historic lore and resources as any other region of the great West. George J. Remsburg, who has contributed two chapters of this history, has, with great care and accuracy, put into readable form an account of prehistoric times, Indian occupancy and the record of earlier explorers in northeastern Kansas. It is a tale of absorbing interest to those who would go back to the dawn of civilization here and study the force and character of men who paved the way for the developments that came after. To the intrepid Spanish conquerors of Mexico of the sixteenth century, and the hardy French explorers, two centuries later, we are indebted for the opening up of the Great American Desert, into which American pioneers, the century following, found their way. Thousands of years before these came, Atchison county had been the abode of hunting tribes and the feasting place of wild animals. Then came the ceaseless flow of the tide of civilization, which swept these earlier denizens from the field, to clear it for the “momentous conflict between the two opposing systems of American civilization, then struggling for mastery and supremacy over the Republic.” It was in Kansas that the war of rebellion began, and it was in the northeastern corner along the shores of the Missouri river—in Atchison county—“that the spark of conflict which had irritated a Nation for decades burst into devastating flames.”

It is a delicate task to convey anything approaching a truthful account of the storm and stress of opinions and emotions which accompanied the organization of Kansas as one of the great American commonwealths, and the part played by the citizens of Atchison county in that tremendous work, but sixty years have served to mellow the animosities and bitternesses of the past, and it is easier now to comprehend the strife of that distant day and pass unbiased judgment upon it.

When the United States acquired from France, in 1803, the territory of which Atchison county is a part, slavery was a legalized institution, and many of the residents held slaves. In the treaty of cession, there was incorporated an expressed stipulation that the inhabitants of Louisiana “should be incorporated into the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and in the meantime they should be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which they professed.” Thus it came to pass for over fifty years after the time that vast empire was acquired from France the bitter contest between the anti-slavery and the pro-slavery advocates ebbed and flowed, and amidst a continual clash of ideas and finally after the shedding of blood, Kansas, and Atchison county, were born.

It was in the Thirty-second Congress that petitions were presented for the organization of the Territory of the Platte, viz: all that tract lying west of Iowa and Missouri and extending west to the Rocky mountains, but no action on the petitions was taken at that time. December 13, 1852, Willard P. Hall, a congressman from Missouri, submitted to the House of Representatives a bill organizing this region. This bill was referred to the committee on territories, which reported February 22, 1853, through its chairman, William A. Richardson, of Illinois. A bill organizing the territory of Nebraska, which covered the same territory as the bill of Mr. Hall, was met by unexpected and strong opposition from the southern members of Congress, and was rejected in the committee of the whole. The House, however, did not adopt the action of the committee, but passed the bill and sent it to the Senate, where it was defeated March 3, 1853, by six votes. On the fourteenth day of December, 1853, Senator Dodge, of Iowa, submitted to that body a new bill for the organization of the territory of Nebraska, embracing the same region as the bill which was defeated in the first session of the Thirty-second Congress. It was referred to the committee on territories, of which Stephen A. Douglas was chairman, on January 4, 1854.

It was during the discussion of this bill that the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise was foreshadowed. The story of the action of Senator Douglas in connection with the slavery question has appeared in every history since the Civil war. It is neither necessary nor proper to dwell at length upon his career in connection with the history of Atchison county. However, it was following a bitter discussion of the slavery question that the bill was passed, creating Kansas a territory. The provisions of the bill, as presented, were known to be in accordance with the wishes and designs of all the Southern members to have been accepted before being presented by President Pierce by a majority of the members of his cabinet, and to have the assured support of a sufficient number of Northern administration Democrats, to insure its passage beyond a doubt. The contest over the measure ended May 27, 1854, by the passage of the bill, which was approved May 30, 1854, by President Pierce.

The act organizing Nebraska and Kansas contained thirty-seven sections. The provisions relating to Kansas were embodied in the last eighteen sections, summarized as follow: