nent, but by a committee of conference a pacification was effected. The Missourians were permitted to take part in the election of officers, with the understanding that the incumbent of the Chief-Justiceship, should be retained. Thus Squatter Sovereignty reigned in tranquility for two months when it was superseded by Frank Pierce's democracy.'

Hon. Charles H. Branscombe, now member of the Missouri Legislature from St. Louis, having been sent out in July by the New England Emigrant Aid Society to select a site for its first settlement, chose the present beautiful location of Lawrence for that purpose. The first emigrants under the auspices of that Company, about thirty in number, arrived in the Territory the first of August, and laid the foundations for the first free state city of Kansas. When this little colony first encamped on the town site, but one man and his family occupied it, and some two or three Missourians had claims upon it. The New England party having succeeded in purchasing all prior improvements and claims, took possession of the town site. Having thus established themselves, they scatter out and selected in the neighborhood a quarter section of land apiece for their claims. Soon afterwards a second and larger party, numbering sixty or seventy, arrived under the supervision of Dr. Charles Robinson and Gen. S. C. Pomroy. At this time the Lawrence association was formed on the principle of Squatter Sovereignty. Their numbers were soon increased by the arrival of the third and fourth parties.-The infant city, wrapped in the swaddling of grass, thatch and canvass, was known by the name of Waukarusa, New Boston, and by the Missourians, Yankee Town, until at a meeting of the Association' it took to itself the name of its benefactorLaurence (Amos A.) The colonists first dwelt in tents, pitched upon Mt. Oread and in the valley north of it; the largest of which was a place of general rendezvous. They were in this situation of primitive simplicity when first visited by the

(1) The author gathered this account from Mr. Wakefield himself. S. N, Wood Was Secretary of those meetings. (2) July 17. (3) Two weeks. (4) Oct 6th.

Missourians. They soon applied themselves to the construction of rude homes for the coming winter. The "Pioneer Boarding House" was erected, consisting of two long rows of poles some distance apart at the base, and brought together at the top. These rafters were then thatched with prairie grass. The building, therefore, was all "roof and gable.". "This was the principal hotel of the new 'city'-the seed from which the Free State Hotel, Eldridge House No. 1, and Eldridge House No. 2 have sprung. The private dwellings were mostly log, pole and thatch houses."

The tide of emigration from the free States continued to flow in all the fall, settling various parts of the Territory, founding towns and making claims. They spread far back in the Territory and established themselves in little neighborhoods in the choicest parts of the country.

The city of Topeka was founded by Colonel C. K. Holliday, M. C. Dickey, F. W. Giles and six or seven others, in December, and, perhaps, did not number over twenty-five persons that year. In the spring they obtained a full share of the newly arrived emigrants, and the Constitution Hall, the Topeka House and several stores were erected. Topeka from the first centered her hopes upon the capital and has labored with commendable persistency to secure it. The word Topeka is of Indian origin, signifying "potato," or as the wags say, "small potatoes." It was first suggested by Mr. Webb, Secretary of the New England Emigrant Aid Society.

Manhattan, at the junction of the Big Blue and the Kansas Rivers, was first settled by a portion of the fourth New England party. Their numbers were greatly strengthened in the spring by a company from Cincinnati, Ohio, called the Manhattan Company, which gave name to the town. It is beautifully situated and has always been noted for its steady prosperity.

Grasshopper Falls was selected as a town site by Mr. Frazier. It is so named from the falls of a few feet in the Grasshopper Creek at the place where it is located. Other towns

were laid out this fall, but these are the principal and the only ones that ever acquired any considerable importance.

Of the number of free state men who emigrated to the Territory this summer and fall perhaps five hundred came under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Society. The existence of this Aid Society doubtless facilitated emigration, by scattering information respecting the Territory over the land, by calling the attention of the people to the importance of settling Kansas in order to prevent the extension of slavery, and by the assurance which they gave that mills, school houses and churches would be erected to accommodate the new country. Beyond this the work which they did towards peopling Kansas was insignificant. The only advantages which the New England Emigrant Aid Company furnished those who came under its immediate auspices, were the reduction of the fare about $5.00 and affording them the pleasure of a large company. The consequence was most people preferred to come independent of it. Not a cent was ever given by the company towards paying a single emigrant's fare; not a guarantee ever given that any person would be · supported free after arriving in the Territory.

It was the deep pervading feeling in the North that Kansas ought to be rescued from slavery which awakened this emigration. The body of them came independent of any association, upon their own resources, to peaceably and legitimately establish free institutions in this land.

Other Aid Societies labored to increase emigration to Kansas, but none of them labored as systematically and upon as extensive a scale as the New England Emigrant Aid Society. None preserved their organization intact and continued their operations until the close of the Kansas difliculties, except the one above mentioned. None organized this fall, established a colony or formed a settlement, except the New England. It was pre-eminently the largest and most thoroughly organized of all similar companies and accomplished more than all others combined. It sent out under its auspices as many as

2,000 persons. It built mills and school houses, thus strengthening the towns of Lawrence, Topeka, Ossawattomie, and at few others. In time it received town shares for the investments made. At Kansas City it built a hotel and likewise the Free State Hotel at Lawrence, which was destroyed. The company never employed over $100,000 in its expenditures, and was nothing more nor less than what it styled itself, "The New England Emigrant Aid Society," not sending, but assisting emigrants to Kansas, and extending the help of capital to better their condition after their arrival.

The first influx of free state men spread alarm among the slavery propagandists of the Border. They readily saw that they would be utterly unable to legitimately compete with the vast numbers coming from the Eastern, Middle and Northwestern States. The bright hallucination that had lit up the prospects of slavery in Kansas and rendered the people of north-western Missouri jubilantly wild, was now darkened by the swarms of "Northern cattle" that had just begun to settle in the Territory, and the coming of which vague rumor had described “as countless as the stars."

The knights of slavery disappointed, though not dismayed, resolved to terrify others from coming by threats and bluster, and persecuting those already arrived. The Platte Argus sounds the alarm thus:

"It is now time to sound the alarm. We know we speak the sentiments of some of the most distinguished statesmen of Missouri when we advise that counter organizations be made both in Kansas and Missouri to thwart the reckless course of the abolitionists. We must meet them at their very threshhold and scourge them back to their caverns of darkness. They have made the issue and it is for us to meet

and repel them."

It was now determined to excite the populace, to influence the noted rabble of the Border, until they are fit and willing for any work of barbarism. The Emigrant Aid Societies were represented as gathering the paupers of the great eastern

cities and hiring them to come out to Kansas to disturb the institutions of Missouri, to make it a free State in defiance of law and order. The press was filled with stories of fugitive slaves being run off from other States by abolitionists, meetings were held at the various towns in the first two tiers of counties, at which the most inflammatory speeches were made. The first of these, held at Weston, adopted the following resolution:

"Resolved, That this association will, whenever called upon by any of the citizens of Kansas Territory, hold itself in readiness together to assist and remove any and all emigrants, who go there under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Societies."

At another meeting assembled at Liberty, Clay County, the following preface and resolutions were passed:

"Therefore, we, the citizens of Clay County, believing selfpreservation to be the first law of nature, and learning that organizations have been effected in the Northern States for the purpose of colonizing the Territory of Kansas with such fanatical persons as composed the recent disgraceful mob in the city of Boston, where a United States officer, for simply attempting to obtain justice for a Southern citizen, was shot down in the streets; and learning, too, that these organizations have for their object the colonization of said Territory with eastern and foreign paupers,' with a view of excluding citizens of slave-holding States, and especially citizens of Missouri, from settling there with their property; and, further, to establish a trunk of the under-ground railroad, connecting with the same line, where thousands of our slaves shall be stolen from us, in thwarting their attempts upon our rights, we do

Resolve, That Kansas ought of right to be a slave State, and we pledge ourselves to co-operate with the citizens of Jackson County, and the South generally, in any MEASURE to accomplish such ENDS."

Other meetings held at various places adopted about the same resolutions.