THE Fourth of July was a day of peculiar significance to early Kansas. Following the organization of the territory in 1854, Kansas, in both cause and name, became almost as suggestive of American independence as was the anniversary of the nation's birth. Not only in the territory but in the United States at large citizens were annually mindful of the cause to be settled there. Either they hoped in their Fourth of July observances for Kansas' early sharing in their own type of statehood; or they refrained from all celebration of their own blessings out of sympathy for the young territory's uncertain fate. During the first years orators in the North waxed warm over her rights to freedom; and in the South toastmasters greeted her as already secured to slavery. Later, when the question of national union superseded the territorial issue of political self-determinism, Kansas' seven-year struggle for freedom proved but a prologue that had prepared the American mind for the Civil War.*

Freedom's secret would'st thou know?
Right thou feelest rashly do.

-R. W. Emerson.

     Following the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, May 30, 1854, the wave of protest that rolled across the North spent its first force upon the Fourth of July, 1854. People everywhere were indignant. In word and act and symbol they demonstrated their feeling generally. Over a signature of three stars (***) one writer recommended devoting the day to the formation of an anti-Nebraska organization, the sole object of which should be resistance to the extension of slave territory. [1]At Lawrenceville, Pa., from fifteen hundred to two thousand persons, assembled in an orchard, actually took such a pledge. At the end of a three-hour oration by David Wilmot the audience resolved to vote for no one except "a tried and well known friend of Freedom, who had a heart and a conscience, legs of his own to stand on, and a backbone to resist" the Nebraska outrage. [2]

     *This is the second of three articles entitled "The Fourth of July in Early Kansas." Part I appeared in The Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. VIII, pp. 115-139. Part III will appear later.

     From Ontario, Ind., came the proposal to hoist the American flag at half mast, draped in black, and under it make "the firm, determined, unutterable resolve to battle manfully for Freedom." [3] In Providence, R. I., the common council directed that the bells of the churches be tolled "one hour in the morning, one hour at noon, and one hour at sundown, on account of the passage of the Nebraska bill and the recent proceedings under the Fugitive Slave act." [4] At Painesville, Ohio, a committee of sixteen, that being the number of the nominally free states, proclaimed their determined opposition to the enemies of liberty. [5] Henry Ward Beecher was the orator. [6]

     In New York City where the common council appropriated $3,800 for fire-works, powder, band music, and bell chiming, [7] Horace Greeley reminded his readers that the Revolutionary contest was still in progress when he wrote: "Alas that we could not all, on an occasion as fit as this, unite in tracing out the essential principles of our fathers' Revolutionary struggle, the fundamental ideas which led to the magnificent destiny we have inherited." [8] At Pierrepont the citizens resolved "that the bells be tolled and crepe be worn on the left arm" and that the people "concert measures to drive the dark spirit of Slavery back to the infernal regions from whence it came." [9]

     In Warsaw the bells were tolled "for one hour in solemn and sad remembrance of the spirit of freedom." [10] The citizens then "gave this banner to the breeze: No more Slave Territory! No more Slave States!! No more Slavery!!!"

     Chicago also observed the Fourth as a day of mourning, public sentiment against Douglas being so extreme that he canceled his proposed visit to the city. [11] Other Western communities also condemned the Nebraska iniquity. One was at Decorah, Iowa. Another was at St. Anthony, Minnesota territory, where the people felt the principle of the bill exposed them also to incursions of slavery, and they urged the formation of a "Holy League of Freedom." [12]

     In Massachusetts Antislavery feeling and concern for the newly opened West colored most Independence day events. [13] Boston considered humiliation and fasting with minute guns on the Common and the tolling of bells; [14] but when the day came, people marked it, "not with humiliation for the past," but with joyful hope for the actual equality of men. [15] Said the orator, the Rev. A. L. Stone, before the city authorities: "Our sons and daughters must settle these new territories; there must be no laggards in the race for freedom; we must admit no more slave states." [16]

     At Salem, Anson Burlingame answered his own question, "Can we remove the evil?" by quoting Col. James Miller at Lundy's Lane, " `We can try.," [17] Worcester would have every true son of America sign the Declaration anew. [18]

     North Woburn erected a new liberty pole and inaugurated it at 6 a. m. [19]

     In Pepperell the people burned effigies of President Pierce and Judge E. G. Loring. [20] Montague burned four effigies and had a mock slave hunt. [21]

     William Lloyd Garrison, the Abolitionist, won decided approbation at Framingham for burning Judge Loring's decision and the Fugitive Slave act itself, but his consigning of the Constitution to a similar fate met with disgust, indignation, and some hisses. [22]

     In the same meeting Henry David Thoreau took the people of Massachusetts ironically to task for their too manifest concern over Kansas and Nebraska.

I had thought that the house was on fire, and not the prairie; though several of the citizens of Massachusetts are now in prison for attempting to rescue a slave from her own clutches, not one. . . expressed regret for it. . . . It was only the disposition of some wild lands a thousand miles off which appeared to concern them. . . . There is not one Slave in Nebraska; there are perhaps a million slaves in Massachusetts. . . . What should concern Massachusetts is not the Nebraska bill nor the Fugitive Slave bill, but her own slave-holding and servility. [23]

     While Massachusetts was smarting a little from reproach of her own countryman, and the rest of the North was trying to evince its sympathy for the Kansas-Nebraska cause, the South was hastening on the burial day of its own peculiar institution. Sen. Robert

Toombs of Georgia announced a sale of 130 negroes for July 4. [24] E. Marston of Columbus, Ga., wrote Horace Greeley' July 3: "You anti-Nebraska men seem to think that you'll kill the Fourth of July dead by not celebrating it in Rhode Island; but we intend to keep it up here." [25]

     Toasts at the Southern celebrations in 1854 seemed "excessively stupid" to the Northern press. [26] A correspondent of the Boston Commonwealth, therefore, recommended for Southern use the sentiment, "The Fourth of July-'The feast of Freedom, prepared by slaves." [27]

     At Plattsburg, Mo., a large meeting of citizens in the courthouse, July 3, resolved "to countervail the machinations of the Northern Abolitionists in Kansas." [28]

     In the much discussed, newly organized territories themselves several happenings marked the arrival or passing of July 4, 1854. Only three of the events, however, were in the nature of social celebrations, and two of those were in what is now Nebraska. The one in Kansas, moreover, was under the auspices of the anti-Abolitionists of Missouri. Only the plans for it survive.

     Announced as a general territorial convention at Salt creek valley, near the trading post of Mr. Kivaly, [29] the gathering was to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence and an address by Charles Grover. [30] An ample public dinner would follow. Although the preliminary meeting at Whitehead's on June 24 had referred to the people as "settlers of Kansas Territory," the resolutions they adopted were Southern in spirit, favoring squatter sovereignty and refusing protection to any Abolitionist settler, [31] and the persons invited were "citizens of Missouri generally." Afterward one Missouri editor wrote, "The Fourth appears to have been celebrated with much spirit in all directions," [32] but he did not mention specifically the Salt Creek valley observance. Business as well as politics and pleasure no doubt marked the day, for the books of the Doniphan county commissioners show that entry number 18 for a claim

near Whitehead bears the date of July 4, the claimant, Andrew J. Branson, having begun his residence there March 28, 1854. [33] July 4, 1854, was also the day on which Sen. David R. Atchison and a few of his Platte county friends chose the site of Atchison and dedicated the new town. [34]

     For a second time on a Fourth Wm. H. Goode, who was at Shawnee mission in 1843, rode into Kansas [City, Mo.] on horseback and crossed to the Kansas side in a skiff, this year to visit the Wyandots. Kansas [City] was "now a thriving town driving a heavy trade with the plains." At the Wyandot settlement the visitor was satisfied to find the Rev. John M. Chivington, regularly appointed missionary, in possession of the Methodist mission farm. He, therefore, had no leisure to speculate upon the seemingly ominous coincidence of his arriving twice successively in Kansas City "on the day consecrated to freedom, in connection with the struggle for freedom then commencing in that region." [35]

     Jotham Meeker, who had been in Kansas for every Fourth of July since 1834, [36] set out in his wagon July 3, 1854, for Westport, in company with J. Miller. He encamped on the prairie for the night of July 3 and arrived at his son-in-law's on July 4, to visit his daughters and his grandchildren. [37]

     On this same Fourth of July eve a much larger expedition of the military encamped on Grasshopper creek, Kansas territory, en route from Fort Leavenworth to New Mexico. Under command of Col. Thos. F. Fauntleroy the party consisted of "regimental headquarters, the band, and companies B and D 1st Dragoons," with 79 civilians employed as teamsters, drovers, and overseers to care for the "400 upwards public horses" of the quartermaster department. [38] For so large an expedition both the soldiers and band must have made some due recognition of the Independence day to dawn on the morrow, but both Colonel Fauntleroy and Sgt. P. G. Lowe were too concerned over their extensive charge and their inadequate provision for its care to note the patriotic significance of the day.

Sergeant Lowe enumerated besides the troops, many officers, some families, a huge supply train, and "600 extra horses led on strings of about forty horses each." [39]

     Nebraska territory had more conventional Independence day observances. At Belleview a delightful repast at Mr. Robinson's marked the first Fourth kept in the new settlement. [40] Native and cultivated products of Nebraska constituted the meal; among them were fresh meat, new potatoes, peas, various kinds of garden sauce, wild gooseberries and raspberries, with a "good cup of coffee" and "plenty of pure ice-water." Toasts followed the food. [41]

     On the site of what is now Omaha a party of Iowans celebrated the Fourth with a bountiful picnic. [42] They requisitioned a wagon to convey their supplies to and from the ferry. The wagon also served as speaker's stand for the program. Two blacksmith's anvils were used to fire the salute. Just as H. D. Johnson had begun his oration, Indians appeared and broke up the gathering, lunch baskets and anvils being piled into the wagon and the audience fleeing toward the ferry.

In Freedom's glorious cause we stand,
Nor care to ask where man was born
W.L.G. [43]

     By July 4, 1855, the attitude of the nation toward the Kansas-Nebraska question had become largely political. Expressions of sympathy in the North were no doubt sincere, but to make their utterances efficacious, writers and speakers found it expedient to look to the polls. To the editors of the New York Tribune the question confronting the Union was a fortunate trial of its virtues. Should the unmeasured territories of the plains be peopled by representatives of Freedom or of Slavery? "We hope and pray that every citizen who hears the Declaration of Independence read this day, . . . will . . . resolve that the Fourth of July of 1856 shall find the policy of the Nation restored to the immortal principles with which it set out on the Fourth of July, 1776." [44]

New York called for a Republican state convention, D. R. Anthony being the signer from Monroe county. [45] In the interior of the state friends of Freedom and Temperance united to celebrate the national holiday "with unwonted spirit." At Ogdensburgh they planned to dig the grave of alcohol and to consecrate the altar of Freedom anew. [46] In a political address at Bedford, Mass., ex-Gov. Edward Kent of Maine asserted his determination to devote his power and means to the cause of human freedom, to redress the enormous wrong to the North, and to offer himself, if necessary, as a victim. [47] R. W. Landis, in a speech at Paterson, N. J., "characterized the recent Proslavery outrages as they deserved, and gave that antique order, the Doughfaces, such a drubbing as they will not soon forget." [48]

At Cincinnati, Ohio, the Rev. C. B. Boynton, author of A Journey Through Kansas; With Sketches of Nebraska, [49] drew editorial condemnation upon himself for a two-hour Independence day defense of the Protestant crusade against the Catholics and Infidels, too frankly a plank of the Know-Nothing platform. [50] In Painesville, Ohio, Horace Mann used liberty as "his mighty theme" for the Fourth of July oration. The local Telegraph wrote that "he quietly thrust his Ithuriel spear through those philosophers who measure a man's right to the liberties and privileges of manhood by the length of, his heel-bones, the depression of his nose, the kink of his hair, and the color of his rete mucosum." [51]

     Already in 1855, the South was divided in its keeping of the day. At Berea, Ky., "J. S. D." wrote of "a Liberty celebration of the Fourth in a slave state." In an address to a large collation of people Cassius M. Clay "for two hours set forth in bold relief and with telling power the disastrous influence of Slavery . . . and the responsibilities . . . of freemen." [52]

     Farther South, however, in Georgia, a convention was called for July 4 at Milledgeville to nominate a candidate for governor; the preliminary meeting at Columbus in June was, irrespective of party, to form a Southern party "in consideration of the spirit of Abolitionism prevalent at the North." [53]

     Many events within Kansas territory itself marked July 4, 1855. A legislature, in name, was in session at Pawnee from July 2 to July 6. The first newspaper in Topeka, a weekly, appeared July 4. In Lawrence John Speer instituted a daily that survived for one week. [54] Eight different communities made public recognition of the day. Three had conventional Fourth-of-July celebrations with reading of the Declaration of Independence, patriotic music, oration, public dinner, and toasts. One used the day for a Sabbath school festival. Another had a ball and barbecue. One tried to banish the demon liquor forever from its midst, and another found solace in its use.

     The legislature was an anomaly. Two sets of candidates claimed to have won seats at the territorial polls. The Proslavery candidates who had been elected in March and whose election had been declared invalid were now in session. They had usurped the places of legitimate representatives chosen by the citizens of Kansas territory in a subsequent election when the governor had set aside the March election for alleged fraud by Missourians at the ballot boxes [55]

     On July 4 five ousted members, bearing certificates of election from the governor, appeared in protest: John Hutchinson, Erastus D. Ladd, Philip P. Fowler, Augustus Wattles, and William Jessee. [56] S. D. Houston also spoke in their behalf. John Hutchinson made lengthy opposition to the majority report of the committee on credentials. [57] At the March election he had received 253 votes; his competitor, 800, but 600 were cast by persons from with out the territory.

     At the second election the speaker had polled "almost the unanimous vote"; on certificate of that election, he now claimed his seat.

     Though his plea was futile, his speech ended with a glowing appeal for the principle of popular sovereignty; a government that would allow invasion upon the ballot box, he said, was not a republican government. W. G. Mathias, Proslavery chairman of the committee on credentials, declared the recognized legislators would make this Fourth of July illustrious by asserting their independence of the authority usurped by the governor. "As

long as we live," he said, "this never shall be a Free State." [58] The Kansas legislature, wrote an Ohio paper thereafter, "seems to be little else than an organized mob for the benefit of Missouri slaveholders, whether residing in the State or Territory . . . and yet President Pierce is as silent as an idiot in regard to the matter." [59] The Worcester (Mass.) Transcript declared the "infamy is without a parallel. . . . It is a `cases' for a civil war"; yet it, believed the North would submit. [60]

     When the people of Lawrence first proposed to celebrate this Fourth of July, 1855, in gala way, George W. Brown wrote in an editorial, "About Face," that they were already "an enslaved people, perfectly subjugated." Rather than celebrate he thought they had better "re-adopt the principles of the declaration of independence and . . . extend those principles over Kansas at the sacrifice of `our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.' " [61]

     The next week when his paper carried notice of the committee's plans and cordially invited all persons to attend the picnic dinner and exercises, he urged the people to come, armed in defense, to give the expedition from Missouri, rumored as on the way, a warm reception. "Our motto is: If we cannot have an honorable peace, let us have an honorable war." [62]

     Seven days later he wrote, under the caption "Independence":

Independence!
If thy name belong to us, ]et us wear it honorably; And if Kansas is today the political focus of our country, what is expected of us . . . at such a post? 63

     The celebration itself, however, stirred even editorial enthusiasm. [64] "A year ago and Lawrence was not." Now, on the morning of the Fourth, her streets looked like those of a thronged city. "Congratulatory musketry" announced the dawn. visitors who had begun to arrive the night before gathered in "knots" along Massachusetts street. Families came in from their claims near by. Delaware and Shawnee Indians drove in in wagon loads. The Topeka band rode down by night to be at the levee for the parade at nine o'clock. Franklin sent its representatives in a large covered wagon, from the top of which floated the national flag, with the figures '76 among the Stars and Stripes. The Blue Mound and Wakarusa neighbor-

hoods formed a procession of their own, consisting of men and women equestrians in double column, seven double wagons driven by seven two-horse teams, and three large ox-wagons fastened together and drawn by eleven yoke of oxen. The grouping of the oxen demonstrated the proverb, "In Union is strength." The wagons were all crowded with seats, chairs, and people who waved aloft flags and colored handkerchiefs. Branches of rose trees and flowers ornamented the horses and the carriages.

     From the Governor Robinson home on Mt. Oread, Mrs. Robinson watched the groups moving in from all directions. [65] The garlands of leaves and flowers, she wrote, hid the roughness of the vehicles. Dress, distinctive of the place whence they had emigrated, characterized the different groups. Some were from the East; some, from the far West; others were from Missouri.

     An assembly of 1,500 to 2,000 participated in the festivities of the day. Two organized military companies in uniform led the procession through the chief city streets. At eleven o'clock near the Union Hotel the ladies of Lawrence presented a rich silk flag to the militia. As the procession moved toward the platform and seats in Clinton park, Indians in fantastic array fell in line. A trio of them had posts of honor on the speaker's stand. The exercises consisted of music, prayer, reading of the Declaration of Independence, speeches, and oration. One of the speeches was an address by William Hutchinson on "The Dignity of Labor." [66]

     In the oration Dr. Charles Robinson alluded to the peculiar circumstances surrounding the settlers in this new and strange country. They had come there to plant anew the institutions of the United States; but the citizens of Missouri were imposing laws, upon them to force slavery upon the territory.

It is for us to choose . . . what institutions shall bless or curse our beautiful Kansas. . . . Every pulsation in Kansas vibrates to the remotest artery of the body politic, and I seem to hear the millions of freemen and the millions of bondmen in our own land . . . Saying to the people of Kansas: "Do your duty!" [67]

     The audience cheered Dr. Robinson heartily. He had made "a most excellent oration, . . . adapted to the times." [68]

     When the audience called loudly for Indian speakers, Mr. Fish of the Shawnees and Mr. Pechalka of the Delawares responded amid "thunders of applause." [69] Chief Pechalka of the Delawares hoped that the settlers would make Kansas a free state, for he believed that "a set of men who would crush and enslave one class . . . would crush and enslave another if they had the power." [70] They were both glad to see the Northerners coming into the territory, "not with the hatchet and sounds of war," but with the "sweet fruits of peace and civilization." [71]

     Following the exercises the guests and the officers of the day marched between two lines of military and citizen soldiery to a sumptuous public dinner in the grove. Among the toasts and sentiments pronounced afterward from the speaker's stand, those on territorial themes are of chief interest today.

     Of the volunteer toasts one was on the legislature and three were on the territory itself.

     The day passed quickly, Mrs. Robinson said, but to strengthen more the bonds of social feeling, a party of one hundred or thereabouts gathered in the largest hall in town at night and enjoyed refreshments of cake and ice cream together. [73]

     Quiet and harmony had been the proud characteristics of the first Fourth of July in Lawrence. Although toward evening there was some evidence "a distillery could send its foul streams thitherward," the day closed without accident or harm. [74] The Kansas Free State criticized the celebration for having a wholly Antislavery oration for a Union celebration of Antislavery and Proslavery participants. [75] The Herald of Freedom replied that only two or three Proslavery persons could have been present, and it defended the oration for consistent sentiments upon popular sovereignty. [76] Mrs. Robinson characterized her husband's talk as a collection of opinions of Southern men upon the relative value of free and slave labor, that made "a most perfect condemnation of the whole system from their own mouths." [77]

     One Northerner, Charles Stearns, all of whose anticipations in behalf of a free Kansas had been blasted, would not unite in the celebration of independence, which for the people of Kansas no longer existed; instead, he used the leisure the holiday afforded to call upon Northern fanatics and agitators to redouble their efforts in behalf of Anti-slavery truth. [78]

     Two events marked the first Fourth of July in Topeka. E. C. K. Garvey and company began publishing the city's first newspaper, The Kansas Freeman, on this day. "The generality of the citizens" observed the holiday by wholesale destruction of the products of the distillery. Having a great antipathy to "whisky," its sale, its use, its existence, they met in the evening on the open prairie and went as a "committee of the whole," to demand of the one liquor dealer in town his entire stock. He would not give it up, but he would and did sell it to them at a stated price. They rolled out the barrels, knocked in the heads, and set fire to the fluid.

     It " `went up,' not in a `blaze of glory,' . . . but in an inglorious blaze of red, fiery rum." The newspaper commented thus:

      Without one dissenting voice let the decree go forth from our midst that the demon intemperance shall be forever banished from among us, and our city will . . . be the place of wealth and influence in Kansas Territory -founded on a basis firm as the Hill of Hills, old "Bunker Hill," and free as

the winds that sweep our own beautiful prairies-using for our motto the words of the immortal Adams: "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." [79]

     Across the river in Indianola, Samuel J. Reader referred to the event as a "Whisky Riot." [80] Spending most of his holiday in hauling stone and walling up a well, he went in the late afternoon in a wagon to take a neighbor's dog home, shot at a wolf, and saw "Delawares & Potts at Frenchman's drunk." The Indians, returning from a hunt, had patronized the liquor dealer freely. The next day, Columbra, the dealer, told Reader that the crowd had spilled three-fourths of a barrel of whisky for him. "They damn rasks."

     The Pennsylvania Emigrant Association at Washington, K. T., invited friends and neighbors to participate in formal ceremonies for the Fourth and to partake of a free dinner. "The morning opened bright and lovely, and our widespread prairies seemed to smile with delight upon the first `Independence day.'" A committee had procured a liberty pole and a flag. The program included music, prayer, reading of the Declaration of Independence, a speech by the president on principles of civil and religious liberty, and an oration by W. Y. Roberts, asserting the settlers' desire to govern themselves.

      We, . . . the bona fide citizens of Kansas, wish no law of Congress to protect us from ourselves, nor do we wish the assistance of citizens of any other State or Territory, or the "fatherly care" of aid societies, or the force of revolvers or Sharps rifles to teach us the principles or practice of self-government- . . . the people of Kansas will establish a constitution, and very soon shall this "bright particular star" of the west loom out upon our national banner, . . [81]

     Among the many toasts, both regular and volunteer, that followed the public dinner, provided by the Pennsylvania company, this one on the town itself seemed noteworthy: "Washington-May she become the capital of Kansas."

     At three-year-old Fort Riley work was under way in all branches in erection of new quarters for the cavalry. [82] Manhattan celebrated its first Fourth of July with a picnic. Chestina B. Allen, in her journal, referred also to "a dinner at Mrs. Dyer's, to which we were all invited." [83] The day, she said, passed quietly. Reminiscing

thirty-three years later, Isaac T. Goodnow recalled that on this 1855 anniversary his family had pumpkin pies though they had never had them so early since. [84] On this day, too, on the town site of Manhattan the blue stem was so high that he could tie it over his head as he sat on his pony.

     Council City, now Burlingame, held its first Independence day festival "in a lovely grove" on Dragoon river, but the seats, tables, and speaker's stand had to be inclosed and covered by green boughs.85 The attendance was about seventy-five. In addition to music, prayer, reading of Declaration of Independence, and oration, the program here had an original poem by M. C. Haven, and an original song, "Land of Priceless Liberty," by Mrs. J. M. Winchell. [86] The dinner, provided by mutual donation, was cold but abundant and excellent. "The toasts were drunk in cold water, not a drop of intoxicating liquor being allowed on the ground." Two of the toasts seemed particularly appropriate to the place and time:

Kansas Territory-Late the home of the red man . . . the land of our choice-may she soon add another to the proud constellation of our national banner.
"Council City"-A promising infant-may she soon be able to "go alone . . ."

ing drank `to their heart's content,' of the golden cup of mirth." Their toasts, no doubt spoken by their elders, hoped for Kansas, the rigid maintenance of the doctrine of non-intervention; and as for Leavenworth, "her true destiny is a commercial compeer of Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago and Buffalo." [89] Another, on "Sabbath schools," asserted that law-abiding citizens were the only salvation of Kansas.

     Delaware planned a "fine Ball and Barbecue" for its Fourth of July, 1855. [90] In Atchison, "in absence of the customary facilities for a due commemoration," the editor of the Squatter Sovereign thought "a pleasant pastime . . . would be the hanging of abolitionists." [91] Pro-slavery in sympathy, he regarded the Northern attempts at organized free settlement as "oppressions sought to be imposed upon us." Subject to such "tyrannical and arbitrary rule," he could not contemplate the holiday with any emotion of pleasure. Later he reported that "On the Fourth there was no observable difference between the Maine Law men and their opponents. Both were observed very busy in `putting down liquor.'" [92]

From the bloody plains of Kansas,
From the Senate's guilty floor,
From the smoking wreck of Lawrence,
From our Sumner's wounds and gore,
Comes our country's dying call
Rise for Freedom! or we fall.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Speak! ye Orators of Freedom,
Let your thunder shake these plains;
Write! ye Editors of Freedom,
Let your lightning rive their chains;
Up! ye Sons of Pilgrims, rise!
Strike! for Freedom, or she dies!
                 From "Song of Freedom." [93]

     Unrest characterized the spirit of the American people at the approach of July 4, 1856, and Kansas was the immediate occasion of the widespread concern. For two years the North and the South had been pouring their emigrants into the territory, each in hope of establishing its favored form of government there. In each group were willing leaders and loyal followers who welcomed the publicity attendant upon the cause they represented. Many emigrants, however, more interested in the homes they were founding than in the political destiny of the region, found themselves, literally, victims of circumstance. Caught on the chosen battlefield of the national issue, they not only had to bear indignities of local border strife but they also had to endure public sympathy and public censure. Kansans and the Kansas cause were now the common theme of the common tongue. The press pictured their hardships; editors dwelt on every new injustice; sympathetic friends gave personal letters publication; philanthropists and church societies tried to replace material losses with material gifts; and ever politicians brooded over-and talked of-the ultimate political fate.

     The eightieth anniversary of American Independence, therefore, dawned amid circumstances of peculiar solemnity. "It is the crisis of our country's existence, the turning point in her history." [94] Indorsement by the federal administration of Missourians' invasion of the Kansas ballot boxes and election of a Kansas legislature from their own number had at last stirred the nation. In the North orators and clergymen doubled their efforts in serious defense of freedom. In the South toastmasters and after-dinner speakers treated their views more lightly and briefly, but with feeling that was not all jest.

     The North took political action at once. On June 20 the Cleveland convention of Free-State Kansas committees recommended the formation of a county committee of Free-State friends of Kansas on July 4. [95] The New York State Kansas Committee invited all unorganized counties to call meetings at their courthouses on July 4 to appoint county Kansas committees to aid in the present territorial crisis and to appoint delegates to the adjourned convention to be held in Buffalo, July 9. "Prompt, energetic and concerted action can alone save our brethren in Kansas from starvation, persecution and destruction, and preserve to future generations the immense empire consecrated to Freedom by the Missouri Compromise."

     Several counties responded to this call. Eastern towns in Washington county, New York, and western towns in Rutland county, Vermont, held a mass meeting at Fair Haven and set efficient measures "on foot to render substantial aid to Kansas." [96] Ellenville,

Ulster county, celebrated the day on the platform of "Free Speech, a Free Press, and Free Territory." [97] The Onondaga county mass meeting was called at Syracuse to "mingle their sympathies with their friends and brethren in Kansas who . . . will be compelled to sit mute and mourn in silence over their Independence lost." This group also asked for a large contribution for Kansas relief. [98] Five days later, July 9, 1856, in Buffalo, the friends of Kansas, sent as delegates from the county gatherings of the Fourth, "chose a National Kansas Committee without the Territory, sixteen in number, one from each of the Free States, with supplementary working members from Illinois and Kansas." [99] This committee was to act in concert with the Central Kansas Committee of thirteen, chosen July 4, 1856, by the Free-State citizens of Kansas themselves in convention at Topeka. [100] In a Republican ratification of the nomination of John C. Fremont for President, held in Yonkers, July 11, George W. Curtis "asked if, when the merry Fourth of July bells were ringing, the people of the North did not hear the wails of their suffering-brethren in Kansas, and when everything betokened peace around them they did not feel that there was no peace." [101]

     At Paterson, N. J., July 4, A. Oakey Hall of New York, likened the present contest for freedom of a new colony in Kansas to the Revolutionary contest to free the American colonies. [102] He reviewed recent outrages in the territory, and he disapproved the President's being empowered to appoint commissioners to determine the fate of Kansas.

     Massachusetts manifested much sympathy in the cause she had already generously furthered. As early as June 1, the Rev. Edward N. Kirk of Boston proposed keeping the Fourth of July as a day of national humiliation and prayer; "for," said he, "surely we shall feel more of shame and fear than of pride and hope at the next recurrence of that day." [103]

     Reported observances seem to have been of more secular nature than Mr. Kirk recommended. At Springfield the friends of freedom and Fremont celebrated in spirited manner, [104] although Charles Sumner declined their invitation to give the

address. In Abington G. P. Lowery, private secretary of ex-Governor Reeder, addressed a political convention on the outrages to Free-State men in Kansas; John A. Andrew of Boston also spoke on the mischief of the Nebraska bill and asked for sympathy and material aid for Kansas. [105] All friends of freedom here were invited to join the Plymouth county organization. Citizens of Easthampton abandoned their arrangements for a Fourth of July celebration and appropriated the money, raised for the occasion, to Kansas; the Kansas subscription there reached nearly $1,200. [106] The North parish of Greenfield, after hearing its pastor, the Rev. Dr. Chandler, make an excellent address on Kansas affairs, contributed $23 "to aid the suffering free state emigrants in that territory." [107]

     In Vermont the impulses toward Kansas were all generous. The "Ladies of Burlington" held a Kansas levee on July 4, at which they sold food and flowers all day for the benefit of freedom in Kansas. [108] They decorated their Union Hall with wreaths of evergreen and mottoes lettered in green cedar; beneath a large spread eagle was "Love thy neighbor," "Who is my neighbor?", "Aid for Kansas," and "Remember the widow and the fatherless." Ice-cream, strawberries, and more substantial viands were the foods offered. People flocked in from adjacent towns making the lively day a "never-to-be-forgotten Fourth." The sale netted between five and six hundred dollars, "a very handsome amount which will carry relief and encouragement to many a needy dwelling in Kansas." At Danby, when the Rev. Jason F. Walker, in his Fourth of July discourse, referred to Kansas and urged upon Vermonters their duty at the ballot box, the enthusiastic response from the thousand sunburnt faces was "a glorious augury for the cause of human Liberty." [109]

     Sen. William Bigler, speaking in Independence Square, Philadelphia, on the Kansas question and the state of society in Kansas, asserted "the difficulties in Kansas were the inevitable consequences of the undue officiousness of outsiders. Fanatical abolitionists on the one hand and fire-eating Southerners on the other." [110] But Pennsylvania had become skeptical of Fourth of July celebrations,

letting them collapse. The reason, wrote "W. H. F." to the New York Tribune, "may be . . . that as a people we are not sincere. We have lied away our inheritance. When we wrote the Declaration . . . we were not prostituted to Slavery." [111]

     At Clarkville, Pa., when a clergyman tried to address a Fourth of July gathering of all parties, in "regular abolition, disunion harangue" and referred to the President as "a murderous villain," the audience simultaneously forced him to sit down. [112]

     In Washington, D. C., where the report of the Kansas investigating committee had just been published, revealing a state of things one hundred-fold worse than was expected, the day was a sad Fourth of July. "Instead of liberty," wrote "Daniel" of The Morning Star, "slavery surrounds us. . . . The Fourth of July, is it? . . . On this very day our brethren are in prison in Kansas, for speaking and acting for freedom-not for violating any law of this land!" [113]

     For a third time Painesville, Ohio, heard of the needs of Kansas on a Fourth of July. On this occasion Gov. Salmon P. Chase talked of the wrongs and the remedy. [114] The wrongs to the new territory were greater than those to the young nation eighty years ago; the effective remedy now, however, was not revolution, but the peaceful use of the ballot.

     Two Wisconsin communities manifested their sympathy July 4. The neighborhood of Waupun, Dodge county, raised "over a thousand dollars" in response to an appeal for Kansas. [115] The editor of The Sentinel, wrote: "The heart. of the people beats warmly for Freedom everywhere." In Burlington, Racine county, a political gathering sympathized with "the Freemen of Kansas in their heroic struggle to maintain those rights of American citizens," established in 1776, by reversing the national flag as a signal of distress and by resolving to support through the candidates of the Republican party the "sacred rights of Humanity, . . . . treacherously betrayed on the soil of Kansas by the Sham Democracy of Pierce, Douglas, Buchanan, & Co." [116]

     In Iowa the State Central Committee for the benefit of Free Kansas, July 4, 1856, issued a circular announcing the establishment

of the Lane trail through Iowa and Nebraska, an overland route planned by James H. Lane and other territorial leaders for safer passage of Northern emigrants to Kansas. [117] One of a party of emigrants en route to Kansas that day entered in his diary in Keokuk county, "Today . . . men on their road to Kansas are compelled to carry arms for the preservation of their rights." [118] He was Richard J. Hinton, then himself carrying arms supplied through Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

     All the Southern sentiment expressed on the Fourth of July, 1856, and now preserved, is in the form of toasts following conventional celebrations of the day. At Grahamville, S. C., the constitution of the United States was "The apple of discord"; the Union was "Nominal in form but dissolved in spirit"; and Kansas-"May her streams become rivers of blood and her forests charnel houses, before her soil shall be contaminated and her atmosphere polluted by the free soil partisans of the North." [119]

     The toasts at Healing Springs, S. C., were not only politically Democratic but frankly anti-Republican.

      Massachusetts-We have always beaten her in the debates on the Union. We have whipped her in Kansas, and we have caned her in the Senate Hall.
The Hon. P. S. Brooks-May the cause of Southern Brooks ever flourish over the growth of Northern Free Soil.
Gen. Atchison-Hoping that he may live to see Kansas a Slave State in the Union or out of the Union.

Kansas

Strike while the iron is hot
Strike with men and means;
And let the Yankees see we've got
The right to hold the reins. [120]

     The Milwaukee Sentinel commented satirically upon the "sectional" character of these sentiments voiced by the "Sham Democracy" that called itself the only "national party." [121]

     At the Sandy Level Church in the Fairfield district, South Carolina, Kansas was "The lovely spot where the issue must be decided. May the South send an enlightened and intelligent emigration thither." The Fairfield district gathering also toasted Preston S. Brooks as one of Carolina's "'distinguished representatives"; and Franklin Pierce, as "the fearless advocate of the Constitution." [122]

     Charleston held a spirited celebration. The great struggle going on in the Western territory between slavery and Abolitionism was the theme of "noble" spokesmen. They alternated praise of President Pierce and their congressmen with varied sentiments on Kansas and Kansans. Missouri, "Beset by hordes of Northern Abolitionists from without, and ingrates and traitors within," was "the Banner State of the South." South Carolina herself "Brooks no insult, and when one is offered . . . resents in a Sumnery manner." Atchison received gratitude for his faithfulness to the South and his kindness to Carolinians. Of the nine toasts on Kansas, these seemed to voice the general attitude:

Kansas-The Star in the West; it points the way to the salvation of the South.
Kansas-Clouds and darkness attend her dawn. May they not prefigure a brilliant meridian when, as a bright particular star, she enters the Southern constellation?
Kansas-It has risen like the ghost of Banquo, to sear the eyeballs of rampant fanaticism; but ere they clutch it, they must cross many Brooks whose Caney growth will resist them.
Kansas-The Marathon of Southern Institutions; when Slavery is exterminated there by Sharps rifles the South may prepare for the same kind of moral suasion for its abolition nearer home? [23]

     The last sentiment alone, and it "by the Chair," seemed understanding and prophetic.

     Within Kansas territory itself the citizens awaited the arrival of July 4, 1856, with even greater concern than had the sympathetic nation. Topeka was the center of interest, for there, at noon, was to reassemble the Free-State legislature adjourned March 1. Or wasn't it to reassemble? Thereby hung the tale; therein lay the common anxiety.

     New border warfare threatened .124 Proslavery men had arranged muster and review drills for Lecompton, Tecumseh, and Atchison on July 4. [125] Rumor to the effect that James H. Lane was bringing in a large force from the north had agitated the Missouri border to try "to march 400 Missourians of baser sort to Topeka." [126] Lieutenant McIntosh of Company E, First cavalry, intercepted this plan on July 4. [127] Meantime, federal troops from Fort Riley and Fort

Leavenworth, under command of Col. E. V. Sumner, concentrated around Topeka, presumably to maintain "Law and Order" there. When Acting Governor Woodson had first conferred with Colonel Sumner about the proposed assembly of the legislature, the colonel had advised the presence in Topeka of a justice of the peace and a marshal to join Major Sedgwick in drawing writs on all the members of the legislature the minute they assembled. Woodson, however, asked Sumner to come with two troops. Accordingly he concentrated five companies and two pieces of artillery there on July 3. [128]

     Preliminary to the legislative assembly the Free-State party met in convention in Topeka July 2-4, with headquarters in the new hotel. [129] On July 2 the delegates met by districts; on July 3-4 they held a mass convention. [130] Some 800 persons were in attendance, among them many members of the legislature. Only from the settlements near by, however, had people ventured to come in numbers. Fear of border depredation in their own communities had detained many at home. [131]

     The Free-State legislators had come to Topeka resolved to hold their legislative meeting in spite of any Border-Ruffian interference. [132] Many of them brought in arms privately, though they did not mean to appear with them unless necessary. Some laid double floors in wagon bottoms and packed weapons between; others hid them under loads of wood, hauled in "for sale." [133] Both the legislature and the assembled people, however, now resolved to offer no resistance to the government troops. Gov. Charles Robinson, in prison near Lecompton, sent instructions to make no opposition unless the troops wantonly fired on the legislature or the people; and, if ordered to disperse, they should disperse. [134]

     July 3 and 4 the mass convention carried on its business. It passed resolutions indorsing the state movement and the Topeka constitution. It elected the Kansas State Central Committee to determine, among other things, upon the management and control of

the Free-State party. It memorialized congress to admit Kansas into the Union. [135]

     On the afternoon of July 3 people learned that the military force about the town was itself to forbid the assembly of the legislature. Both branches of the legislature met on July 3 and resolved to assemble in regular session, agreeable to adjournment, at noon on July 4. [136] The business transacted here secretly, by authority of Acting Gov. John Curtis, was to be security for the perpetuation of their power lest they be prevented from meeting the next day. [137]

     Topeka was full of people both indoors and out. To one young man it "look[ed] lively, animated with the tents of volunteers, the covered wagons and camp fires scattered all about, and the scores of horses picketed in every vacant space near them." [138] Holiday celebration began on the evening of July 3 when the "ladies of Topeka" presented a banner of white silk, lettered in blue, to a military company of the city. The men wore uniforms of white pants, blue shirts, and Kossuth hats. The morning of the Fourth broke cloudily, but fresh prairie breezes soon blew the clouds away. [139] "Naturally a more beautiful, politically a more important day, never rose in Kansas," wrote James Redpath. [140] At sunrise the army artillery fired a cannon thirteen times in salute. [141]

     Flags floated from every public building. "Franklin Pierce was found hung in effigy at the back of one of the outhouses." [142] Armed, determined men filled the streets. [143] Martial music and gruff commands mingled with the tramp of drill and the roar of firearms. Half a dozen military companies paraded about. Women promenaded with little banners flying from their parasols. [144] Ladies from Lawrence waved on the tops of their sunshades the United States flag embroidered for the occasion and trimmed in mourning. [145] Gaiety and assumed indifference ill concealed the suppressed excitement with which people awaited the crucial noon hour. The convention, gathered around the hotel, however, continued the

semblance of business. About nine o'clock messengers from "the Northern States" arrived with word that "the people of the North were not prepared to stand by us in resisting the federal government," [146] At ten o'clock Marshal I. B. Donalson and Judge Rush Elmore, mistaking the assembly for the legislature, interrupted proceedings to read proclamations of the President and the governor for dismissal. [147] Learning their error, they retired in chagrin, the lanky, jean-clad figure of Donalson with "iron-grey whiskers and imbecile-looking eyes" [148] leading the way back to his Proslavery accomplices -S. D. Lecompte, Judge Sterling G. Cato, and Sec. Daniel Woodson-now in the camp of Colonel Sumner. The convention meantime resumed its business.

     Then word came that Colonel Sumner was approaching in full military array, with the battle flag flying. [149] Beside him, at the head of the procession, was the military band; and close behind were three squadrons of dragoons and two loaded brass cannon," with their muzzles pointing down the street, the gunners at their stations, and the slow matches lighted and burning." The army surgeon had his case of instruments open, ready for use. [150] A committee from the convention at once waited upon Colonel Sumner to inquire whether he meant to disperse the convention or disband the local military companies. He replied that he would disperse only the legislature. Some one then gave three cheers for Colonel Sumner; James Redpath proposed three cheers for Governor Robinson; and some one else, three cheers for Liberty. Since the camp was only 200 yards out of town, the dragoons debouched rapidly into Kansas avenue, formed into position, and pressed upon the Topeka companies at once, the latter stepping out of rank only far enough

not to be trampled on. The band played; the drummers drummed until the drumsticks nearly touched the noses of the advancing horses. One little boy beating the kettledrum, rattled it manfully without even turning to look at the dragoons. [151] As Colonel Sumner dismounted and walked toward the legislative hall, Mrs. Gates, of Lawrence, said to him, "We have met to present a banner to one of these Topeka companies on the day of our would-be-independence"; and he replied, "Madame, I hope you will be independent." [152]

     When he entered the hall to dismiss the house, "the rooms were crowded by the citizens . . . and some ladies, . . . to witness the spectacle." To secure a quorum for roll call the sergeant-at-arms had to summon absentees. Then Colonel Sumner read his order for dismissal.

Gentlemen: I am called upon this day to perform the most painful duty of my whole life. Under the authority of the President's proclamation I am here to disperse this Legislature, and therefore inform you that you cannot meet. I, therefore, order you to disperse. God knows that I have no party feeling in this matter, and will hold none so long as I occupy my present position in Kansas. I have just returned from the Borders, where I have been sending home companies of Missourians, and now I am ordered here to disperse you. Such are my orders, and you must disperse. I now command you to disperse. I repeat that this is the most painful duty of my whole life. [153]

     All contemporary reports of the occasion indicate that Colonel Sumner did his duty in a gentlemanly way. He and members of the house exchanged civilities. Judge Philip C. Schuyler asked whether they were to understand the legislature was "driven out at the point of the bayonet." Colonel Sumner replied, "I shall use all the forces in my command to carry out my orders." Then he left the hall, mounted his horse, and was about to ride away when some one reminded him that he had not dismissed the senate.

     Entering the senate chamber, he found the members had not assembled; therefore, when he read the order for dispersion, the president, T. G. Thornton, informed him that since they had not convened they could not conform. Colonel Sumner replied that his orders were to prevent their meeting. Then Marshal Donalson brought more ignominy upon himself by threatening every member with arrest, should they try again to assemble. Ignoring this "outrageous demand," several senators let Colonel Sumner know they would respect his order. J. H. Pillsbury said that since they were

in no condition to resist United States troops, they would of course have to disperse.

     As Colonel Sumner came down stairs, he recognized W. A. Phillips and nodded to him.
     "Colonel," said Phillips, "you have robbed Oliver Cromwell of his laurels."
     Sumner did not speak, but the expression of his eye clearly indicated what he thought.
     He looked startled at first, then serious, angry, and agitated.
     He , . . saw at once the full enormity of the orders he had been compelled to obey. . . [154]

     Outside some one cheered for Sumner to let him know the people did not hold him responsible for the order he had just executed. A new American flag, with an extra star in the corner but not in the Union, was hoisted over Constitution Hall. [155] Three cheers were then given for the flag, three for the orphan star-Kansas coming into the Union-three for Fremont, followed by three groans for Pierce and the present government. The three groans for Pierce, wrote Dr. John H. Gihon, "fairly shook the building and startled the horses of the soldiers," [156] making them break out of line.

     The crisis in an historically eventful day had passed. For Kansas and for the nation it was a unique Fourth of July. What was left of the holiday the people of Topeka now settled down to keep in a more traditional way. One reporter asserted Colonel Sumner was under orders to arrest any gathering of people assembled to celebrate the Fourth of July. [157] This report must have been erroneous, for he now proffered use of his cannon and gunners to make noise for a boisterous celebration." [158] Some of the boys among the rallied Free-State volunteers "begged the officers, with tears in their eyes, to be led against the dragoons." [159] Many, in their excitement, insulted the soldiers, but no collision ensued. J. S. Emery, one of the men just returned that morning from a tour of the North, said in an address in the afternoon that no great emigration would come from the East at present; people were afraid to come. The North was blind to its own interest; it might raise money, but money without men would now be nearly useless to Kansas territory. At night a throng of men and women filled the

lower room of Constitution Hall to hear LeGrand B. Cushman, "the renowned vocalist and delineator," of Bloomington, K. T., who kept them "in a roar of laughter." [160]

     While Topeka kept the day thus variously, some other communities in the territory held their own Fourth of July celebrations. Free-State groups, if near enough, were generally content to share in Topeka affairs; Lawrence willingly went there, arduous as was the twenty-eight mile trip in the heat of July, 1856. [161]

     Wabaunsee rather reluctantly gave up its first plans for the day when requested by Topeka to attend the convention, but at the last only two representatives were able to go, by saddle horses. The rest of the colony then on July 3 hastily and vigorously reconsidered its original plan for celebration. A sunrise salute from the Prairie Guard and display of the American flag ushered in the Fourth. At four o'clock the military escorted a procession of about one hundred to tables spread under an awning on the prairie. Eight women and fifteen children were in the gathering. There were no seats except the grass, but the tools were plentiful, consisting of tin plates, cups, and pans, with all the knives and forks in the company. The food, got up under great disadvantages by George Coe, Esq., consisted of roast and canned beef, cold tongue, baked Indian and rice puddings, pear and apple pies, three kinds of cake, and lemonade. Songs, numerous toasts, and an address by the president, C. B. Lines, constituted the program. At sundown the Prairie Guard fired another salute and then "the boys `cut up' in a sort of general dance, after a fiddle played by one of the old settlers." [162]

     Manhattan had its own picnic. [163] In Indianola Samuel J. Reader heard the cannon shots morning and noon. He looked through a glass at Topeka; he could see two flags; he realized the legislature was broken up. "No war. Pshaw! on it all." His regret, however, did not deter him from his private pleasures of swimming in the river, gathering berries and cucumbers and playing the fiddle. The next day he wrote, "les wars est passe" and noted, as native foods, potatoes, cucumbers, early cherries, and gooseberries. [164]

     At Lecompton observance began with a discharge of cannon to salute the rising sun; a procession, conventional exercises, a free barbecue, toasts, and sentiments filled the day, spent in a grove where "luxuriant foliage formed grateful protection against the warm beams of the meridian sun"; and at night in a hall in the Lecompton hotel "our beaux and belles engaged themselves to the fullest extent." [165]

     To keep the nation's birthday in Anderson county Free-State settlers assembled under a large oak tree at the cabin of W. L. Frankenberger, about two miles east of Garnett, where C. E. Dewey read the Declaration; H. H. Williams, Capt. Samuel Anderson, and Judge James Y. Campbell delivered orations; and the women sang patriotic songs. Judge Campbell felt a settled gloom on every one. W. A. Johnson likened the people in this "new and wild country" to the Pilgrim Fathers and commended their "Christian fortitude" in trying to found a free commonwealth."' At Osawatomie a fallen oak tree served for seats for a celebration on the open prairie. Indians of confederated tribes near by dressed in their best attire,

with as many as six silk handkerchiefs flowing from their shoulders, and came riding in on their ponies. The bountiful foods supplied by the settlers held their attention. No one had any whisky. A spring furnished cool water. [168]

     In Leavenworth the children of the different Sabbath schools, with their teachers and other men and women of the city, met at Union Church to hear "a handsome and beautiful address, appropriate to the occasion," by Dr. S. A. Marsha1. [169] Delaware City marked the day for itself and the surrounding country with a barbecue, the reading of the Declaration of Independence, and speeches; "the beauty and chivalry, the gallant beaux, the old and the young . . . would do honor to older and more densely populated cities." [170]

     Merriment and self-righteousness vied for eminence in the observances at Kickapoo and Palermo. Kickapoo centered its events in Salt creek valley which on July 4, 1856, looked "like a paradise on earth," with its waving wheat, its magnificent corn, and its variegated wild flowers .171 In this naturally charming setting, the festivities were strangely militaristic. The Fourth regiment of Kansas militia paraded through the valley. Maj. M. P. Kivally, with his staff in uniform, the Kickapoo Rangers, and the Union Guards, led the march to the barbecue grounds in "real military style." The large assembly of men and women at the stand listened to formal exercises followed by presentation by the ladies of Kickapoo of a flag, of their own workmanship, to the Kickapoo Rangers. After the dinner, sentiments and patriotic toasts were read from each end of the long table. The day closed with a grand military ball at the American Hotel, where "beauty and chivalry of town and country were in attendance." Prefacing with opinion the story of the holiday in this law-ordered, prosperous squatter area, Leavenworth editors lamented the fearful commotion now abroad in the land, the wild fanaticism prevailing in certain quarters, and the appeal of wily politicians to evil passions in men, but believed the nature of the American government would enable it to weather the crisis. [172]

     The correspondent in Palermo was more blunt, attributing the absence of "broil and battle" in his portion of the territory to freedom from "the curse of any `Aid Society' interference." The settlers had

come to this region with families, horses, cattle, and plows to improve the country and themselves. While arson and murder had run riot elsewhere, they had quietly engaged in industrial avocations and social quiet. Therefore, on July 4, they had been able to invite "the multitudes" from Doniphan, Whitehead, Wathena, and the intervening country to join with them in harmonious celebration of the birthday of the Republic. As a result the day was "an epoch in Palermo." A band from St. Joseph caused the hills to echo with soul-stirring strains. The Doniphan Blues made "the streets glitter with their polished bayonets and dizzy with their intricate revolutions." At ten o'clock the people congregated "in the shadows of some noble elms" for the conventional Independence day exercises. At noon they feasted in the spacious dining hall of the new hotel. Then they removed the cloth, drank toasts, and exchanged sentiments joyously "until that witching hour that Vesperus woos Terpsichore, when her votaries assembled in a large room above, and in the maze of dance and whirl of waltz they sped the night, as if by magic, into morning." [173]

     The Fourth of July, 1856, was over, but word of its occurrences in Kansas had yet to reach the nation. Colonel Sumner wrote, "I consider myself very fortunate in having accomplished my object without using an angry word or receiving one the slightest degree disrespectful." [174] On July 5, when he passed through Lecompton en route to Leavenworth, he called on Governor Robinson at the prison camp. The Free-State men, he said, had injured their own cause by not dispersing at the reading of the governor's proclamation. Governor Robinson replied that had he been in Topeka they would not have dispersed until the colonel fired upon them. On July 4, Mrs. Robinson had written ironically in her diary, "Was there ever such a glorious country as this, with petty tyrants made weak-headed by a little power?" Now, after the call of Colonel Sumner, her next entry was without irony: "Another scene in this dark and tragic drama of crushing out a free people has been enacted. . . . The people of this mighty nation wear sackcloth and mourning. The star-spangled banner . . . is draggled through the blood of those slain, at the bidding of a merciless administration, on Kansas plains." [175]

     In his Conquest of Kansas W. A. Phillips wrote that the territory was now politically prostrate. "But Kan-

sas, though conquered by Missouri and her allies, is not yet subdued . . . a liberty-loving people remain." [176]

"For Freedom's battle once begun
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son
Though baffled oft is ever won."
p. 93.

     On the Fourth and the days immediately subsequent the letter-writers in Kansas began their slow and laborious long-hand task of informing the press and the people of the latest territorial happenings. They wrote from Topeka and they wrote from their home towns after their return from the convention. Most of them were Northerners whose correspondence both related and interpreted events. Some of them, attached to metropolitan dailies, sent short messages by telegraph via St. Louis, but the fuller accounts had to depend upon the mails for delivery. Through July and half of August, 1856, the story of the Fourth in Topeka was current in the American press. Letters were printed and reprinted, copied, clipped, quoted and cited, until signatures became almost as well known as the stories and opinions above them.

     "Driven out at the point of the bayonet," [177] the stories read, or "dispersed at the peril of their lives." Thus had a "legislature of the people, legally and lawfully assembled," [178] yielded to Uncle Sam in his game of "playing smash"; [179] or, in the more expressive language of Stephen A. Douglas, they had "permitted themselves to be 'subdued.'" [180] "Popular sovereignty! popular sovereignty!" exclaimed one writer, "where is its realities, as promised by Douglas and Co.? " [181] Here, in the contested territory for its trial, had a United States marshal with proclamations of the President and two governors annulled "the proclamation of the people, dated July 4, 1776." [182] Four days later the same paper characterized these recent proclamations as "flummery and nonsense," and supposed the dignitaries who read them at the convention must have felt they had come on a fool's errand. [183] On the day of dispersal W. A. Phillips in Topeka wrote the New York Tribune that Franklin Pierce had today done what had been done only thrice in history: Cromwell had forcibly dissolved the Long Parliament; Napoleon with force of

arms had dispersed the National Assembly; now Pierce had employed the national troops to drive from a legislative hall the representatives of a free people. [184]

     One Proslavery eye-witness, using the signature "Kaw," wrote from Leavenworth county, July 7, in defense of the use of government troops to thwart the "treasonable" attempt of the "bogus legislature" to reassemble. The local military companies which paraded the Topeka streets under pretext of celebrating the Fourth, he said, were really there secretly to enable this legislature to enact laws and establish a government of its own. The federal interference, he believed, had been completely successful, preventing even assembly with adjournment. The episode was but "the degrading result of the efforts of the Aid Society, and the 'Free-State movement.'"As for the delegates to the Topeka convention, they were all "abolitionists." He admitted the general cheers in support of Governor Robinson and the groans for President Pierce and Governor Shannon; but he added satirically that "Notwithstanding they groaned the President in the morning, still, they in the evening, passed a resolution . . . to memorialize him." [185]

     Editors of Northern sympathy at once used the new outrage in their long-continued pleas to evoke aid for ruffian-ridden Kansas. The editor of the New York Times compared the dispersal by Pierce to the entry of Cromwell into the British Commons; but Cromwell was a usurper whereas "Our military dictation . . . is perpetrated in a Republic, under forms of law and a written Constitution, . . . an admirable comment upon the `true intent and meaning' of the Nebraska bill." [186] The New York Tribune feared that the high-handed acts of tyranny in Kansas, "each more flagitious" than the last, would in their rapid succession dull rather than waken the public sense; and in comparing the last offense to its only parallel in American history-the Dorr movement in Rhode Island in 1842-found the Free-State men of Kansas who sought to form a government where no valid government existed, less reprehensible than the Free-Suffrage Rhode Islanders who sought to supplant a legally recognized charter.187 The Detroit Advertiser asserted, in an article called "The Point of the Bayonet," that there was "no

point in geography harder to weather than that, especially for a Yankee people"; and that the American people, though slow to anger, were now indignant at the unprecedented course of government towards Kansas. [188] The Janesville Gazette felt there was still much uncertainty as to the future of this unfortunate territory. [189] The Kansas Bulletin also asserted that "The end is not yet." [190] The editors united in believing Colonel Sumner performed his revolting service with reluctance. The Bulletin quoted the New York Evening Post, and expressed doubt that he would be allowed a fair tria1. [191] Another paper saw the characteristic cowardice of the administration in its endeavor to evade the odium of the Topeka affair by throwing the whole responsibility upon the military representative. [192] The Tribune believed Colonel Sumner had no alternative but retirement from the service.[193]

     The colonel himself, meantime, spent a busy month of August, on leave in New York, corresponding with the War Department over its criticism of his conduct. [194] In Kansas territory, meantime, as life settled back into the pre-Fourth routine, the people had detached holiday reminders of varying worth. At Atchison all Proslavery sympathizers feasted jubilantly in triumph; at the head of their table was the "blood-red flag" with one lone star, the motto of "Southern Rights" on one side and "South Carolina" on the other-the same flag that first floated on the rifle pits of the Abolitionists and on the Free-State Hotel at Lawrence. They drank toasts to Kansas, which they would make a slave state or die in the attempt; to Atchison, which by the close of 1857 would be the capital of a Southern republic; to Disunion, which was the surest remedy for Southern wrongs; and to the Distribution of Public Lands, one hundred and sixty acres of which they would assign to every Proslavery settler, and to every Abolitionist six feet by two. [195] On July 5 near the hour and the place of Mrs. Robinson's diary entry about "sack-cloth and mourning . . for a crushed people," three Proslavery men shot a Free-State man named Hudson, a Quaker, as he was returning from the convention in Topeka to his home in Lecompton. [196] Two days later Governor

Robinson, still a prisoner in the camp of the United States cavalry there, wrote Colonel Sumner a letter exonerating him for carrying out the orders of the commander-in-chief before the territorial legislature July 4. [197] In Topeka, the scene of the momentous occurrence, The Kansas Tribune had space to print but brief remarks upon the proceedings. [198] It carried someone's advertisement, though, for "a green silk crepe shawl,"-lost at the celebration, and offered a liberal reward. The Garvey House politicians and pressmen began to speculate upon the political integrity of the lieutenant-governor. Philip C. Schuyler remembered to note that there was "not the least intoxication visible" in Topeka on the Fourth. [200] He also ventured that the Free-State question had now passed its most "critical crisis." On July 28, however, The Kansas Tribune, describing various robberies and attempted murders, asked the whereabouts of four valiant companies of dragoons that had been brought up in battle array before Constitution Hall on the Fourth of July. "Where are they? Echo answers, where? when they are called upon to disband a company of proslavery men" at the log fort of Coleman, on Bull creek. [201] Other crises were too obviously still ahead. On a Missouri river steamboat on August 2 a Northern letter-writer learned of one-a new "Fourth," the fourth of August, now a crucial date in Kansas for all who, according to the provisions of the Toombs bill, wanted to qualify as voters on November 4 to help decide whether Kansas was to be a free or a slave state. [202] Richard J. Hinton foresaw the outcome of that contest when he wrote that "the long drawn patient watching of centuries, with all its hopes," would not,-could not be overthrown. [203]

Though the hands that guide the nation,
Tighten every link and band,
Freedom's spirit only slumbers,
And the time is near at hand.
                     -F. B. Gage.

     National interest in independence for Kansas had spent its strength in 1856. In 1857 while the territory itself bided its time,

the solicitude of the nation slept. The New York Tribune, to be sure, recommended the use of the approaching Fourth of July by the friends of Freedom in the free states and territories "to renew their fealty to old principles, and trace out anew the old landmarks. The attempts . . . to nationalize Slavery, and sectionalize Freedom call loudly for a reassertion of the doctrines. . . . The claims of Freedom . . . should everywhere be . . . held up in contrast with Slavery, its bitter antagonist." [204] The editorial evoked little response.

     Only at Berea, Ky., does there seem to have been any Fourth of July consideration of Freedom in 1857 as it might affect Kansas. Here Cassius M. Clay "enchained the attention of the audience for 21/2 hours" by an address upon the practical superiorities of freedom over slavery. To show the tyranny of slavery, he cited the rule of the slave power in Kansas; to prove the advantage of free labor over slave labor, he used figures of the United States census. As a final result of human progress he prophesied universal freedom to all men. At the end, he and his audience of 2,000-3,000, "Resolved, that the principles of 1776 are again in jeopardy and whether attacked by a foreign or home foe, will be again defended by all constitutional means to the death." [205] Down in South Carolina, however, the militia, after toasting P. S. Brooks who "Though dead, yet liveth in the hearts of the sons of Carolina," and slavery which the "wants of society keep in existence" with negroes in the South and white slaves in the North, declared "the 'hemp crops of Kansas ought to be applied in a domestic way, to hang Free-State agitators in the Territory." [206]

     In the territory itself in 1857, the Fourth of July had wide observance. Twenty-two communities are known to have kept the day more or less formally. The territorial press recommended local festivals. Kindly recollections of times gone by, thought one editor, might not be without benefit to the people of Kansas. [207] The roar of cannon, soul-stirring music, and an oration would "refresh and invigorate the inner man," said a second; or a good dinner, the dance, or any other convivial party would strengthen feelings of fellow ship. [208] Another liked to hear spoken words of gratitude to the old veterans to whom we owe our liberty. [209] To him, moreover, "the

bright and beautiful shades of Kansas" seemed especially suitable for social gatherings. With "unprejudiced hearts" the people should assemble to rejoice over the glorious change that had come over the territory within the last twelve months. "From a disturbed and almost ruined land," Kansas now seemed to them all prosperous and at peace [210] In that spirit the people of Kansas met on July 4, 1857, to enjoy themselves and their blessings.

     Editors of the two newspapers in Lawrence urged the citizens all through June, 1857, to arrange a formal celebration of the Fourth. [211] They desisted, however, from making plans for the day itself, apparently because of a political rally at Clinton, eight miles to the southwest, that would use talent of Lawrence and no doubt draw on her citizenry for attendance. On July 3, however, the young people of Lawrence welcomed the approach of the Fourth by an anniversary ball at the Central House, which the elite of the town and of the country around attended. [212] On the same evening other citizens collected at the Morrow House to talk politics and censure persons not choosing to see things as they did. [213] On the evening of the Fourth itself a party dressed in fantastic costume paraded the streets, to the great mirth of the children and to the apparent satisfaction of themselves. [214] Since their spirit assumed a harmless form, their activity won editorial approval; not so the intemperance, which swept in on flood tide on the evening of July 3, threatening "the fair fame of Lawrence."

     The celebration at Clinton was used to vindicate the Topeka constitution. [215] T. Dwight Thacher, editor of the Lawrence Republican, who was himself the orator of the day, wrote colorfully of the occasion. He rode out in the morning with the Lawrence Cornet Band on board a four-horse wagon. Through the valley of the Wakarusa he enjoyed "the broad fertile meadows, with the waving grass . . . and fine fields of corn." Clinton he found "more ideal than actual." The events of the day included a procession of ox-teams, covered carriages, and horses, from the store to the adjoining grove, under escort of the Lawrence band; formal exercises; and a free dinner with toasts around long rustic tables beneath the shade of giant trees. Mr. Thacher praised the citizens of Clinton for their enter-

prise and energy in getting up so spirited a celebration; and he congratulated the "Kansas ladies," who with their babies formed half the audience of 1,500. To him the presence of the women and children was good indication of the present peace and prosperity of the community. [216] One accident marred the day; "premature explosion of a cannon blowed off an arm for the person loading, and severely injured him in his face." [217] Between sundown and nine o'clock the editor-orator and the band tramped wearily home by moonlight through the valley of the Wakarusa to the music of "Life on the Ocean Wave" and "Rory O'More." [218]

     Prairie City, consisting of a dozen houses, a two-story log hotel, a half-completed stone hotel, and a foundation for a church and a seminary, invited the surrounding country to join in a varied all-day observance of the Fourth. Between 500 and 600 people responded. Among the visitors were the Lawrence "Stubbs," the Ottawa Rangers, the Centropolis Sunday school, in wagons decorated with flags and banners, and three newspaper men, Wm. A. Phillips of the New York Tribune, Norman Allen of the Lawrence Republican, and William Austin of the Centropolis Kanzas Leader. [219] Early in the morning the Sabbath schools assembled at the large cloth tent, called the U. B. Church, marched to an arbor near the liberty pole with the Stars and Stripes floating on top, and listened to addresses "by three Reverends." [220] At noon all the people shared in the free dinner; people of Prairie City noted a shortage of table furniture and of some foods, but visitors called the repast bountiful. In the afternoon S. N. Wood delivered an oration on Kansas politics, and Wm. A. Phillips spoke briefly and appropriately. The evening brought out fireworks on Liberty hill. Later, one Mr. Winton opened his home to a happy company of "lads and lasses" for a dance. Both the Kanzas Leader and the Lawrence Republican felt the oration too political for the occasion; said the former, "We were celebrating the birthday of a Nation and not that of the Northern States." [221]

     Ohio City held a spirited Fourth of July celebration in 1857. [222] Making the best of their limited resources, the settlers mounted old

muskets for salute service, morning, noon, and night. [223]

     A private letter from "Louis" to "Dearest Darling `Birdie' " presents the fullest surviving account of the day. [224] After the formal morning program of Declaration read by W. E. Kibbie and oration delivered by the Hon. Dean Andrews, [225] "Louis," who was obviously an official of the Ohio City Company, took matters into his own hands. Learning that the beautiful flag just presented to the Ohio City company had been made by the young ladies of the vicinity, he ordered that the dinner already prepared by the company hotel landlord "be made free to all present." The flag was then hoisted on a tall liberty pole where it floated in the constant Kansas breeze. As further compliment to the citizens and especially to the young women flagmakers, "Louis" then ordered "the House thrown open and music furnished till twelve o'clock and we all joined in and had a regular Kansas Dance, the first Ball ever given south of Lawrence in the Territory." "Louis's" delight in the "noble-hearted young men and women" present was equal to his pleasure in the celebration at which there was no drinking except of "cold water and Lemonade." [226]

     Anderson county observed the day patriotically in a grove north of Greeley. The settlers regarded the occasion, as "a season of refreshment" where they rehearsed the hardships of 1776 and of their own days in the territory. The stream of emigration now flowing into Kansas from the North had heightened their hopes somewhat. The people generally engaged in songs and toasts; C. E. Dewey and J. Y. Campbell were among the speakers. [227]

     The people of Burlingame had a "glorious time" on the Fourth. The gathering was in a wood. Philip C. Schuyler was president. James Rogers was the orator. A free dinner preceded the toasts arranged by A. J. Parish. [228]

     The celebration farthest south in 1857 was that of the surveyors of the southern boundary of Kansas territory, encamped on the west bank of the Arkansas river near the thirty-seventh parallel. The military forces, under command of Lt. Col. Joseph E. Johnston,

fired a military salute of thirty-two guns from the howitzers at noon. [229] "A grand Fourth of July dinner" followed, at which the observatory surveyors from camp one mile north shared honors with the military officers. Eugene Bandel wrote in his diary of a parade, "a horse race in the cavalry, a few extra tunes of the fifers and drummers, and a great deal of lonesomeness." The day he found beautiful, being clear and cool. The Arkansas, already high, was still rising. The army wagon beds served as boats to ferry the surveyors across. [230] While encamped here the soldiers enjoyed fish in abundance from the swollen stream.

     Various communities to the northeast also kept Independence day, 1857. Indianola had "A horse race. Sorrel beat gray." Samuel J. Reader, who told of it, spent his morning making four tenons and two mortises at his claim, and his afternoon hoeing his potatoes, washing in the creek, writing, and reading the last of Little Dorrit. "An awful time it was." [231]

     Tecumseh made the Fourth of July memorable by laying the cornerstone of the bridge across the Kaw river. It advertised the occasion "to be one of brotherhood and friendship, to manifest the influence of peace and prosperity, and our fellow citizens of all portions of the territory, and from all parts of the Union, are invited to meet together at Tecumseh, the `Neutral Council Ground,' and have a glorious time." [232] Delegations from five Indian tribes were also invited. Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities participated in the impressive ceremonies. [233] Speakers for the occasion included L. J. Eastin, E. O. Perrin, Walter Oakley, and Dr. Stringfellow. A public dinner and a ball in the evening, got up in "hilarious style," provided lighter entertainment. To the Topeka editor the general sobriety of the occasion was gratifying.

     Wilmington, a town not yet a yearling, at the junction of the Leavenworth and Westport branches of the Santa Fe road, saluted both the sunrise and the sunset with 31 guns. At ten o'clock the neighborhood, numbering more than 100, and its visitors formed a

     New and enterprising Burlington, which marked its age only in weeks, had an old-fashioned holiday in commemoration of "the day that made us free." Its youthful patriotism was at high tide. The committee on plans had expected but a scanty gathering. With the day, however, came squatters to the number of 300; from twenty miles they came. 0. E. Learnard was the president; Wm. B. Parsons was the orator, speaking with "the polish of a scholar and the fervor of a patriot." A band of four members supplied music. The dinner at two o'clock was "in city order"; abundance and luxury were there and enough for all and to spare. Among the toasts was one by William Hutchinson of Lawrence, who spoke at length on "Kansas-The youngest and smartest child in Uncle Sam's family." At the merry dance in the evening youth and age were upon an equality. "Ladies" were "abundant." One of the most accomplished dancers was a woman of French descent, a mother of thirteen children. [235]

     Five-months-old Emporia planned its first public meeting for July 4, 1857. To disseminate good feeling and information it invited neighboring towns and communities to participate in addresses and a free dinner. Committees were to procure the necessary meat, with power to draw on the treasurer to pay for the same. Settlers were to bake and bring such provisions as suited their convenience. At the last, however, sickness in the neighborhood made public celebration inexpedient. [236]

     Settlers who had been in El Dorado but three weeks drew on nature's storehouses for food for their Independence day feasting. One of them caught a buffalo fish in Walnut creek; another shot a wild turkey; and a third brought in a deer. While the meats roasted,

the settlers with their wagons in a circle to serve as a fort against possible Indian attack, listened to an address by Judge John A. Wakefield of Lawrence .237 In the center of the circle they kept "the stars and stripes erect."

     Wabaunsee observed the national anniversary with a parade. Most of the wagons were drawn by oxen. Garlands hung from the yokes and horns. Snowy canopies decorated with floral and evergreen designs covered some of the wagons. A canopy of pink pleased the children especially. The most attractive "rig" received a prize. [238]

     The observance in Wyandotte [239] consisted of speaking and an unseasonal and extravagant assemblage of foods for free eating. George H. Hildt [240] wrote of John Diehl's hearing Governor Walker [241] and others speak. Every one received an invitation to the dinner, offering such luxuries as oysters, beef, ham, nuts, raisins, and ice cream. The affair "went off first rate," according to the report. Mr. Hildt, a Kansas pioneer from Canal Dover, Ohio, settling in Johnson county, himself "fixed up and went to Olathe" on the morning of the Fourth, and in the afternoon "went again after cattle" lost on the open range.

     Other towns, bare fact of celebrations in which survives, were Delaware, and Moneka. [242] Brownville had a pleasant gathering with speeches and singing by the Brownville musical association; among the themes for toasts there was a new one-"Taxation and Representation." [243] From Leroy someone wrote to a friend in Lawrence: "The 4th of July was here, and lots of other folks had a good time generally." [244] Just beyond Manhattan, 300 people gathered at a picnic to renew old acquaintances and form new ones; [245] a good dinner, speeches, sentiments, and song constituted the formal entertainment.

     The gayest and most sophisticated keepings of the Fourth in Kansas territory in 1857 were, as in 1855 and I856, to the northeast along the Missouri river, but the settings were in different

towns. White Cloud announced a lot sale for the day. River towns as far east as St. Louis and as far north as Council Bluffs responded enthusiastically. [246] One boat on its downward trip sold 500 tickets. The town company chartered two boats, the Watossa and the Morning Star, to bring in the prospective and pleasure-seeking buyers. [247] They engaged the St. Joseph brass band to provide music for a "grand ball" at night on the Morning Star. They brought in a "baby-waker," a 24-pound "field-piece," to provide the necessary noise. As the size of the promised crowd increased, the committee on foods added to the beeves, sheep, pigs, and fowl held in readiness for cooking. They set their tables near a good spring of water. The St. Louis (Mo.) Republican said that the barbecue would be free, that "lots of champagne would be opened, and of course drank," and that "sport, profit, Fourth of July, and music" awaited the large party from St. Louis that would spend the week en route aboard the Morning Star. [248] The St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette believed there was "no question but what White Cloud is the point in the Territory above Leavenworth City." [249]

     On the afternoon of July 3 the Morning Star picked up the band and 200 passengers at St. Joseph; more recruits boarded at Elwood, among them the senior editor of the Elwood Weekly Advertiser, who had received a free excursion ticket. [250] Fifteen miles below White Cloud the boat "hauled up at a Woodyard and lay by for the night." When music was called for, "gay lads led forth their bonnie lasses, and

"Tripped it lightly as we go,
On the light fantastic toe."

     White Cloud ushered in the Fourth by the firing of cannon. The Stars and Stripes were thrown to the breeze. People poured in from the adjacent country. About eight o'clock the report of cannon down the river announced the approach of the Morning Star. White Cloud answered with a national salute from the bluffs. The Watossa and a third boat, Emma, arrived with more visitors. [251] "Other jubilistic and patriotic demonstrations" occurred on shore. To the Elwood editor White Cloud seemed "extensively laid out, but very thinly settled." Already a large concourse of people from far and

near thronged the streets. "The rapid tread and cheering shouts of the young," he thought, "gave animation and vigor to the old." The weather was propitious. In the holiday air he sensed joy mingled with reverence for a great cause and the memory of great men. [252]

     "Business before pleasure" was the motto of the town company for the day. [253] For one and one-half hours they sold lots. Then a procession formed, and the band led the way to a grove below the sawmill where everyone partook of the barbecue of bread and meat -plenty of it, in old Kentucky style. In the "exercises of the lungs" that followed, James Craig, congressman-elect from the St. Joseph district, speaking in behalf of the town company, presented two shares of city stock to the Morning Star and one share to the Watossa; and Judge S. A. Williams of the territory gave an oration. Then the lot sale was resumed for an hour. At night two dances completed the program, one on the Morning Star, participated in by some of the townsfolk, and another in the room under the office of the Kansas Chief, where the dancers "exercised their agility to the music of the violin." The boats waited until morning to leave.

     Sol Miller felt the company's expectations were realized. He estimated the attendance at 2,000. "The crowd presented a motley array of men, women, children, babies, Indians, and niggers," he wrote, "all full of patriotism, intent upon celebrating the Fourth, and getting their dinner." He did note considerable drunkenness and a number of fights. Otherwise "everything passed off finely. So mote it always be."

     Doniphan began its celebration also on the eve of the Fourth with a dance. [254] Banners and evergreens tastefully decorated the spacious rooms of the hotel for "the light-hearted and light-footed." The junior editor of the Weekly Advertiser, who was there, wrote gaily, ". . . Give us border towns forever. No hoops to obstruct the progress of the waltz-always a hearty `yes, sir', when you propose a dance." The next day, in a shaded rural retreat, B. O'Driscoll read the "immortal Declaration" and J. R. Boyd gave the oration. The barbecue tables groaned under the loads of substantials and delicacies of the season. The editor was tempted "to ask the hand of some of the fair ones," but paying for paper and ink from St. Louis interfered too much with his paying for "pork and beans." All the celebrators at Doniphan, however, were not so

light-hearted. A Free-State man named Mitchell took issue with the orator over his Southern views. [255] "Boyd knocked Mitchell down. Mitchell challenged Boyd to a duel." The two were arrested and bound over to keep the peace. Meanwhile Col. James H. Lane and his men seized upon United States muskets and threatened Pro-slavery men, "declaring they could whip them with fists, clubs, muskets, pistols, bowie-knives, or anything else." All parties finally gave up arms, but Governor Walker was requested to issue a proclamation.

     Brown county, just west of Doniphan county, kept its first Fourth of July in 1857 with a public gathering in the wood of John Poe [256] on Mulberry creek. W. C. Foster presided. Daniel McFarland delivered the oration. Noah Hanson read the toasts. W. G. Sargent and others made appropriate speeches. Settlers to the number of 200 to 300 were present. [257]

     To chastise the Indians for their depredations on the overland routes the War Department had sent Col. E. V. Sumner to Fort Kearny and Maj. John Sedgwick along the Santa Fe trail, both en route to Fort Laramie. Although in setting out the two detachments had hoped to meet on July 4, the troops under Major Sedgwick, in camp below Fort St. Vrain, [258] were somewhat startled to have their anniversary salute of 32 guns answered by a boom of 32 guns down the river, recognized as from Colonel Sumner's command, and found afterward to be 15 miles below. The next day Sedgwick's force moved down the river and the two commands established camps side by side. [259]

     Two months later in Kansas territory P. B. Plumb, who had tried so hard for an Independence day gathering in Emporia to develop good will, wrote bitterly:

The Union is a glorious theme for buncombe Fourth of July orations and for Democratic Governors to befog and bewilder a people whom they have really come to bedevil and sink lower down into the hell of despotism. We in Kanzas know that the Union is to us a huge tyrant-that Federal officials are our worst and most baneful foes. . . . Ask of the men of Kanzas to

love the Union. The remains of the Free State Hotel, and the ruins of our printing presses laugh you to scorn. . . . Go ask the shades of Barber, Brown, Buffum, Hoyt and Hupps [260] for an answer. Turn to the Fourth of July, 1856, and to the white prison tents that gleamed on the prairie that memorable summer, guarded by the troops of the Union, and you will receive your reply. "Love the Union?" Ask not us.... Come not near us with your mockery? [261]

     To Mr. Plumb and other Kansans of his ilk the Union as it now existed was but a libel on the name.

1. New York Daily Tribune, June 6, 1854.
2. Ibid., July 10, 1854.
3. Ibid., June 30, 1854.
4. Ibid., June 6, 1854; Daily Commonwealth, Boston, June 7, 8, 1854.
5. New York Daily Tribune, June 13, 1854.
6. Ibid., June 15, 1854.
7. Ibid., June 26, 1854.
8. Ibid., July 1, 1854.
9. Ibid., June 28, 1854.
10. Ibid., July 14, 1854.
11. "Webb Scrap Books," v. I, p. 27, reprint from the New York Courier. In library of Kansas State Historical Society.
12. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1854.
13. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 6, 1854.
14. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, June 7, 8, 1854.
15. Ibid., July 4, 5, 1854.
16. Ibid., April 22, July 6, 1854.
17. Ibid., July 5, 22, 1854.
18. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 4, 1854. 19. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, July 12, 1854.
20. Ibid., July 7, 1854.
21. The National Era, Washington, D. C., August 24, 1854.
22. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, June 30, July 5, 1854.
23. New York Daily Tribune, August 2, 1854.
24. A copy of the advertisement of the sale appeared in an editorial in the Daily Commonwealth, Boston, July 14, 1854, and gave the number as between 90 and 100. See, also, New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 1854.
25. New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 1854.
26. Daily Commonwealth, Boston, July 19, 1854. 27. Ibid., July 3, 4, 1854.
28. Kansas Historical Collections, v. XV, p. 382.
29. Different records spell this name variously, as Kivally and Rively (probably M. Pierce Rively).
30. The Democratic Platform, Liberty, Mo., June 22, July 20, 1854; Industrial Luminary, Parkville, Mo., June 27, 1854, in "Webb scrap Books," v. I, p. 42; also New York Daily Tribune, July 4, 1854.
31. The Democratic Platform, July 20, 1854. Andreas, A. T., History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), pp. 472, 473, says that on June 24 they formed the "Squatter Sovereign Association."
32. The Democratic Platform, July 27, 1854.
33. Andreas, op. cit., pp, 472, 473.
34. Ibid., pp. 369, 370. On July 20, 1854, Dr. J. H. Stringfellow and other friends agreed upon the same site.
35. Goode, Wm. H., Outposts of Zion (Poe and Hitchcock, Cincinnati, 1864), pp. 248, 249.
36. Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. VIII, pp. 122-138.
37. Meeker, Jotham, "Journal," v. III, p. 144, entries of July 3, 4, 1854, in
MSS. division, Kansas state Historical society. 38. Headquarters of the Army, v. 178, pp. 21, 22; Books of Various
Departments, 1817-1861, v. 153, pp. 29, 42: General Order No. 3, Headquarters of the Army, April 7, 1854, and Special Orders Nos. 27 and 51, Department of the west, April 18 and June 20, 1854. Thos. F. Fauntleroy, letter, Grasshopper creek, Indian territory, July 3, 1854, Adjutant General's Office, Document File 119-F-1854. Notes supplied by P. M. Hamer, National Archives, Washington, D. C.
39. Lowe, Percival G., Five Years a Dragoon (Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., Kansas City, Mo., 1906), p. 158.
40. New York Daily Tribune, August 30, 1854.
41. Dick, Everett, The Sod House Frontier (Appleton-Century, N. Y., 1937), p. 75, Footnote 20.
42. Wakeley, Arthur C., Omaha: The Gate City and Douglas County, Nebraska (S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917), v. I, pp. 77, 78.
43. The Liberator, Boston, July 6, 1855, "Human Brotherhood," by William Lloyd Garrison,
44. New York Daily Tribune, July 4, 1855.
45. Wilder, D. W., Annals of Kansas (T. Dwight Thacher, Kansas Publishing House, Topeka, 1886), entry for July 4, 1855, p. 66.
46. New York Daily Tribune, June 23, 1855. 47. Ibid., July 9, 1855.
48. Ibid., July 6, 1855.
49. This was the second book written on Kansas territory. It was published December 27, 1854.
50. Type of the Times, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 14, 1855. 51. New York Daily Tribune, July 20, 1855.
52. Ibid., July 17, 1855. 53. Ibid., June 7, 1855.
54. Wilder, op. cit. (1875), p. 52. A case of cholera reported in Pawnee, July 4, was one reason given for the removal of the legislature from Pawnee, July 6.-Cf. Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, p. 365.
55. Phillips, W. A., Conquest of Kansas by Missouri and Her Allies (Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston, 1856), p. 100. The Proslavery candidates contended that the Kansas-Nebraska bill did not empower the governor to call a special election for alleged fraud. They were about to expel M. F. Conway, Free-Stater, elected in March to the senate, when he resigned. when s. D. Houston, of the house, found himself the only Free-State man remaining among the invaders, he too resigned.
56 Wilder, op. cit. (1875), p. 52.
57. The Kansas Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 14, 1855; Kansas Free State, Lawrence, July 16, 1859.
58. Kansas Free State, July 16, 1855, speech quoted in an editorial.
59. Type of the Times, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 28, 1855.
60. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 28, 1855. 61. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 16, 1855.
62. Ibid., June 23, 1855.
63. Ibid., June 30, 1855.
64. Ibid., July 7, 14, 28, 1855.
65. Robinson, Sara T. D., Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life (Crosby, Nichols and Co., Boston, 1856), pp. 69, 70.
66. Hutchinson, Wm., "sketches of Kansas Pioneer Experiences," Kansas Historical Collections, v VII, p. 391
67. Herald ofFreedom, July 7, 1855, Fourth of July "Oration" of Charles Robinson.
68. Miller, J. C., "Diary," March 13-July 4, 1855, Mss. division, Kansas State Historical Society. Entry for July 4, 1855.
69. Herald of Freedom, July 14, 1855.
70. Miller, J. D., "Diary," entry of July 4, 1855. 71. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit., p. 71.
72. Herald of Freedom, July 7, 1855.
73. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit., p. 71 ; Andreas, op. cit., p. 318, says there were two social parties at night, one at union Hall and one at Lykins' Hall, and fireworks on Massachusetts street in the evening.
74. Herald of Freedom, July 14, 1855.
75. Type of the Times, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 28, 1855, criticized The Kansas Free State (July 9, 1855), saying "there seems to have been but one opinion among them on the Slavery question."
76. Herald of Freedom, July 28, 1855.
77. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit., p. 70.
78. The Liberator, Boston, Mass., July 27, 1855. In a letter dated July 9, published in The Kansas Free State, July 23, 1855, Stearns wrote that to celebrate without alluding to Antislavery was gross hypocrisy, yet to lug the theme in with Proslavery people participating was a breach of faith.
79. Herald of Freedom, July 28, 1855, excerpts from The Kansas Freeman.
80. Reader, Samuel J. "Private Journal and Daybook," entries for July 4, 5, 1855, v. III, p. 62.-MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society.
81. Herald of Freedom, July 21, 1855.
82. Lowe, Percival G., "Recollections of Fort Riley," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, 102.
83. Allen, Mrs. Chestina B., "sketches and Journal," entry of July 4, 1855.-MSS. division, Kansas State Historical Society.
84. Goodnow, Isaac T., "Personal Reminiscences and Kansas Emigration, 1855," Kansas Historical Collections, v. IV, p. 251.
85. New York Daily Tribune, July 20, 1855; Andreas, op. cit., p. 1531.
86. Copy of this song, as written in 1855 by Mrs. Winchell, with music composed by Lillian Forrest in 1933, is now on file in the MSS. division of the Kansas State Historical Society. The music used in 1855 is not now known.
87. New York Daily Tribune, July 20, 1855.
88. The Kansas Territorial Register, Leavenworth, July 7, 1855.
89. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 7, 1855.
90. Ibid., June 29, 1855.
91. Squatter Sovereign, Atchison, July 3, 1855, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. IV, p. 254. 92. Squatter Sovereign, August 14, 1855.
93. New York Daily Tribune, July 2, 1856, poem "The Song of Freedom" commemorating the eightieth year of the Republic.
94. New York Daily Tribune, July 4, 1856. 25. Ibid., June 28, 1856.
96. Ibid., July 8, 1856.
97. Ibid., July 9, 1856.
98. "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIII, p. 227, unidentified clippings.
99. New York Daily Tribune, October 11, 1856, letter from Thaddeus Hyatt. 100. Twelve of these thirteen represented the twelve districts into which Kansas was divided; the thirteenth person was from Lawrence.
101. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856. 102. Ibid., July 8, 1856.
103. Ibid., June 24, 1856, excerpt of a sermon delivered June 1, 1856.
104. Ibid., July 8, 1856.
105. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 7, 1856, "Webb scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 89.
106. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 12, 1856, excerpt from Springfield (Mass.) Republican.
107. Springfield (Mass.) Republican, July 9, 1856, "Webb scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 138.
108. The Free Press, Burlington, Vt., July 5, 1856; The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 9, 1856; Springfield (Mass.) Republican, July 9, 1856, in ibid., pp. 75, 138, and 132.
109. New York Daily Tribune, July 14, 1856.
110. Daily Pennsylvanian, Philadelphia, July 9, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XIV, pp. 143, 144.
111. New York Daily Tribune, July 2, 1856.
112. Squatter Sovereign, Atchison, August 12, 1856.
113. Manchester (N. H.) Democrat, July 23, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 100-102.
114. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856.
115. Fountain City Herald, Fond du Lac, Wis., July 15, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XIV. v. 225.
116. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 16, 1856, in ibid., p. 236.
117. Connelley, W. E., "The Lane Trail," Kansas Historical Collections, v. XIII, pp. 268, 262; Pride, W. F., The History of Fort Riley (1926), p. 112.
118. Hinton, Richard J., "Journal," entry, July 4, 1856.-MSS. division, Kansas State Historical society.
119. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 18, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, p. 27.
120. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 26, 1856, in ibid., p. 130.
121. Ibid.
122. New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 1856.
123. Ibid.; Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, August 2, 1856.
124. Clark Edward, letter, Lawrence, June 21, 1856, to "Dear Gen'l [C. K. Holliday, Topeka]," in MSS. division, Kansas state Historical Society. Lawrence merchants offered to send a supply of flour to Topeka for use at the anniversary gathering, provided Topeka could get it safely there and could furnish water-tight storage.
125. New York Daily Tribune, July 2, 1856.
126. Daily Tribune, Detroit, Mich., July 15, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 227.
127. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 24, 1856, in ibid., v. XV, p. 111.
128. Shindler, Henry, "Manuscript of the History of Fort Leavenworth," pp. 251, 252.
129. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856.
130. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 2, 1856; Chapman, J. Butler, letter to "Dear Will," written in Kansapolis, K. T., July 5, 1856. Typescript of letters from J. B. Chapman, Printed in the Northern Indianian (July 31, 1856), supplied by George A. Nye of Warsaw, Ind., who owns the file.
131. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856. In his Conquest of Kansas, p. 393, W. A. Phillips says there were fewer than 800 Free-State men, besides the legislators in Topeka.
132. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856.
133. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, July 22, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV, p. 82.
134. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856.
135. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 9, 1856.
136. Gihon, John H., Geary and Kansas (Chas. C. Rhodes, Philadelphia, 1857), pp. 45, 46; Phillips, op. cit., p. 396.
137. Chapman, J. B., letter to "Dear Will," Kansapolis, July 5, 1856.
138. New York Chronicle, July 26, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV, p. 142.
139. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856.
140. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 17, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, p. 2.
141. New York Daily Times, in ibid., pp. 82, 83.
142. Semi-Weekly Tribune, New York, July 18, 1856, in ibid., p. 34.
143. Hartford Courant, July 23, 1856, in ibid., p. 93; Chapman, J. B., letter to "Will," July 5, 1856.
144. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. 145. Ibid., July 30, 1856.
146. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 24, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 110, 111.
147. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856. The proclamations read were three: that of Pres. Franklin Pierce, February 11, 1856, for preservation of constituted authority in the territory of Kansas; the second, the proclamation of Gov. Wilson Shannon, June 4, 1856; and the proclamation of Acting-Gov. Daniel Woodson, July 4, 1856. The Woodson proclamation is in the New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1856.
148. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 17, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 2, 3.
149. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856.
150 The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, July 18, 1856w and Burlington Free Press, July 19, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 32, 33 and 50. Also, Phillips, op. cit., p. 402.
151. Daily Tribune, Detroit, July 15, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 227. A correspondent states that Sumner directed two cannon toward Constitution Hall and four toward the principal street.
152. New York Daily Tribune, July 19, 1856.
153. Ibid.
154. Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., article by James Redpath, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 2, 3.
155. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, private letter from Topeka, in ibid., p. 81.
156. Gihon, op. cit., pp. 46, 47. see, also, clipping from the Chicago Democratic Press, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 32, 33.
157. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856, excerpt from Chicago Tribune.
158. Daily Tribune, Detroit, July 15, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 227.
159. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 24, 1856, letter from J. H. M. in ibid., v. Xv. p13. 110, 111.
160. Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 2, 1856.
161. The Daily Transcript, Worcester, Mass., July 24, 1856, letter from J. H. M. in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 110, 111.
162. Daily Palladium, New Haven, Conn., July 24w 1856, in ibid., p. 109. Also, C. B. Lines, "scrap Book," pp. 84-86.
163. Allen, Mrs. Chestina B., "sketches and Journal," entry of July 4, 1856.
164. Reader, Samuel J., "Private Journal and Daybook," v. III, p. 86, entries of July 4, 5, 1856.
165. Richmond Whig, July 22, 1856, letter from Lecompton, K. T., in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, p. 87.
166. Rice, Cyrus R., "Experiences of a Pioneer Missionary," in Kansas Historical Collections, v. XIII, pp. 308, 302.
167. Johnson w. A., History of Anderson County, Kansas (Kauffman & Iler, Garnett Plaindealer, 1877, pp. 47, 48; Campbell, James Y., First History of Anderson County (Garnett Weekly Journal Print, 1876), p. 8; Johnson, H., A History of Anderson County, Kansas (Garnett Review Co., Garnett, 1256), pp. 4, 8.
168. "Miami County Clippings," v 1, p. 3, in library division, Kansas State Historical Society. Once in the article Mr. Brown refers to the year of this celebration as 1855.
169. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, Jay 12, 1856.
170. Ibid.
171. Ibid.
172. Ibid. For M. P. Kivally see Footnote 20.
173. The Republican, St. Louis, July 11, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, pp. 174, 175.
174. Shindler, Henry, "Manuscript of the History of Fort Leavenworth," p, 253, letter from E. V. Sumner dated August 11, 1856, to adjutant general at Leavenworth.
175. Robinson, Sara T. D., op. cit., pp. 309, 310.
176. Phillips, op. cit., pp. 407, 412.
177. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 19, 1856.
178. The Courant, Hartford, July 23, 1856, in "Webb scrap Books," v. XV,
179. The Daily Spy, Worcester, July 24, 1856, in ibid., p. 111.
180. The Daily Sentinel, Milwaukee, July 25, 1856, in ibid., p. 112.
181. The Republican, Peoria, July 18, 1856, in ibid., p. 22.
182. The Atlas, Boston, Mass., July 24, in ibid., p. 111.
183. Ibid., pp. 151,
184. New York Daily Tribune, July 12, 1856. W. A. Phillips was the Kansas correspondent at this time. Sara T. D. Robinson, op. cit., p. 310, in editions of 1856, refers to the author as "Mr. P." In the edition of 1822, p. 360, she gives the full name W. A. Phillips." In all editions she quotes his Tribune article of July 12 entire.
185. The Republican, St. Louis, July 11, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 174.
186. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, July 14, 1856, in ibid., p. 223.
187. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856.
188. Daily Advertiser, Detroit, July 12, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XIV, p. 200.
189. Janesville Gazette, July 19, 1856, in ibid., v. XV, p. 42.
190. Kansas Bulletin, Tecumseh, in ibid., v. XVI, p. 101. 191. Ibid.
192. Ibid., p. 55.
193. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1856.
194. Shindler, Henry, "Manuscript of the History of Fort Leavenworth," pp. 256-259, letters of E. V. Sumner to Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, August 11, 31, 1856.
195. Phillips, op. cit., p. 411.
196. New York Daily Tribune, July 18, 1856.
197. The Semi-Weekly Times, New York, July 25, 1856, in "Webb Scrap Books," v. XV, pp. 126, 127. This letter has five other Free-State signatures: Geo. W. Smith, Gains Jenkins, John Brown, Jr., Harry H. Williams, and Geo. W. Deitzler.
198. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 9, 1856.
199. New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1856.
200. Ibid., July 30, 1856.
201. The Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 28, 1856. Coleman was the murderer of Dow.
202. New York Daily Tribune, August 25, 1856.
203. Hinton, Richard, Jr., "Journal," entry for August 29, 1856.
204. New York Daily Tribune, June 23, 1857.
205. Ibid., July 23, 1857.
206. The Wautoma (Wis.) Journal, July 25, 1857.
207. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 27, 1857.
208. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, June 20, 1857.
209. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 2, 1857.
210. Ibid., July 2, 1857.
211. Lawrence Republican, June 4, 11, 1857; Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, June 27, July 4, 11, 1857.
212. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857.
213. Ibid., July 11, 1857.
214. Ibid.
215. Ibid.
216. Lawrence Republican, July 2, 9, 1857.
217. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 11, 1857.
218. Lawrence Republican, July 9, 1857.
219. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, July 2, 1857.
220. Lawrence Republican, July 9, 1857.
221. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, July 9, 1857.
222. Andreas, op. cit., p. 618; Lawrence Republican, July 16, 1857. The Republican editor lost the story of the celebration submitted to his paper.
223. Ottawa Republican, July 26, 1877, in "Franklin County Clippings, 1856-1890," v. 1, Pp. 39-59.-Kansas State Historical Society.
224. "Louis" to "Dearest Darling 'Birdie,' " letter dated Ohio City, K. T., July 7, 1857, in Mss. division, Kansas state Historical society. "Louis," who indicates earlier in the letter that he was an engineer in the employ of Whitman and Searl, Lawrence, was evidently Louis de Steiguer, C. E., who laid out both Ohio City and Prairie City. (Cf. letter of L. de Steiguer, C. E., July 3, 1212, to R. H. Jenness, attached to correspondence of R. H. Jenness With Geo. W. Martin, May 2, through July 6, 1912.)
225. Andreas gives this title as the "Rev. Mr. Andrews."
226. "Louis" to "Birdie," letter dated Ohio City, K. T., July 7, 1857, in Mss. division, Kansas state Historical Society.
227. Johnson, W. A., op. cit., pp. 70, 71.
228. Osage City Free Press, August 18, 1876, in "Osage County Clippings," v. 1, p. 57.
229. Johnston, Joseph E., "Journal," edited by Nyle H. Miller, Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. I, pp. 115, 116; Campbell, Hugh, "Journal," edited by Martha B. Caldwell, Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. VI, p. 354; Bandel, Eugene, Frontier Life in the Army, edited by Ralph Bieber (Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale, Calif., 1932), v. II, pp. 156, 157. Miller located the military camp "slightly over five miles east of Chilocco, Okla., and Hugh Campbell wrote that the surveyor's camp was one mile north "to be nearer the parallel." The Bieber map, accompanying the Bandel diary, makes the line of survey and the parallel virtually identical at this point.
230. Bandel, Eugene, loc. cit.
231. Reader, Samuel J., "Private Journal and Daybook," v. III, p. 120, entry of July 4, 1857.
232. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857; Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 4, 1857.
233. Kansas Tribune, Topeka, July 11, 1857.
234. Ibid., July 4, 1857; The Kanzas News, Emporia, July 18, 1857.
235. Lawrence Republican, July 2, 1857; Andreas, op. cit., p. 654. In "sketches of Kansas Pioneer Experience," Kansas Historical Collections, y. VII, p. 396, wm. Hutchinson wrote of riding in from cross country 60 miles from his claim at Mapleton to Burlington, July 3 to take part in a celebration July 4, but he gave the year as 1858. Probably the trip was to the 1857 celebration.
236. The Kanzas News, Emporia, June 6, 20, July 4, 1857; Andreas, op. cit., p. 846, wrote that the first public meeting at Emporia was the Fourth of July celebration, 1857.
237. Andreas, op. cit., p. 1431.
238. Semi-Centennial Wabaunsee Congregational Church (Alma Enterprise Print., June 27, 28, 1207), pp. 6, 47.
239. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857. Mere notice of a celebration appears in this paper.
240. Hildt, George H., "Diary," entry of July, 1857, in Mss. division, Kansas State Historical Society.
241. "Governor Walker" was evidently Gov. William Walker. 242. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 4, 1857.
243. Lawrence Republican, July 9, 1857.
244. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, August 1, 1857.
245. Allen, Mrs. Chestina B., "sketches and Journal," entry of July 4, 1857.
246. White Cloud Kansas Chief, June 18, July 2, 1857.
247. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, June 27, 1857.
248. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 2, 1857, quoting the St. Louis (Mo.) Republican of June 26, 1857.
249. Ibid.
250. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 9, 1857.
251. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 9, 1857.
252. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 9, 1857.
253. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 9, 1857.
254. Elwood Weekly Advertiser, July 9, 1857.
255. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 2, 1857.
256. Harrington spells this name Powe; Andreas, Roe.
257. Ruley, A. N., History of Brown County (1930), p. 30; Harrington, Grant W., Annals Brown County, Kansas (Harrington Printing Co., Hiawatha, 1903), p. 11; Andreas, op. cit., p. 711.
258. Lowe, op. cit., pp. 262, 263; Peck, Robert Morris, "Recollections of Early Times in Kansas Territory," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VIll, p. 423, wrote that Fort St. Vrain was in ruins.
259. National Tribune, Washington, D. C., March 14, 1901, "Rough Riding on the Plains," by Robert Morris Peck, and Lowe, op. cit., pp. 261-263. Peck was with Major Sedgwick, Lowe was with Colonel Sumner. see, also, Robert Morris Peck's "Recollections of Early Times in Kansas Territory," Kansas Historical Collections, v. VIII, p. 493.
260. This is a misspelling of Hoppes.
261. The Kanzas News, Emporia, August 29, 1857.