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fined society, they were not of that class who recognize labor a disgrace, and fear a virtue. While they possessed all the embellishments of education and good breeding, they regulated their conduct by common sense. Never Never upon the frontiers was there a community with women of such acquirements and genuine worth; never upon the frontiers did women perform such acts of valor and greatness as distinguished the ladies of Lawrence-not through this war only, but through many a subsequent and bloodier assault. Surely, if women should be entitled to vote anywhere, it is in Kansas.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ROBINSON AND LANE.

Governor Charles Robinson was born on the 21st of July, 1818, at Hardwick, Worcester County, Massachusetts. His parents belonged to the class of respectable poor, who labored to rear their children up in habits of industry and morality. At the age of eighteen Charles entered upon a regular collegiate course of study in Amherst College, to which he assiduously and enthusiastically applied himself. But at the end of two years he was suddenly seized with inflammation of the eyes, from which cause he was reluctantly compelled to abandon school.

When his eyes had sufficiently recovered, he began the study of medicine. He attended lectures at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Woodstock, Vermont, and graduated at the former place with distinguished honor. In 1843 he began the practice of medicine at Belchertown. While there, he first publicly exhibited that hatred for tyranny and oppression which has characterized his life. There was a religious sect, called "Perfectionists," in that vicinity, who were loudly abused and vilely slandered by others of different persuasions. Dr. Robinson, though holding no sympathy for their tenets, admiring the purity of their lives and witnessing the unprovoked attacks upon their character and religion, took a public stand in their defense. He held a debate with a preacher of another denomination, in which

he eloquently and ably defended the despised sect, and fully vindicated the reasonableness of their views and the purity of their conduct. He began his contest with system-bound doctors, who refused to countenance any man of their profession unless he followed the beaten and time-worn path of a certain school, for which reason he himself was denominated by them a "quack." He believed that professional worth should be acknowledged and respected wherever found. In 1845 he went to Springfield to look after a store which he had secured in payment of a debt, and there continued the practice of his profession. While there, he became noted for his success in the treatment of chronic diseases with the galvanic battery, and was joined in partnership by Dr. Holland, alias Timothy Titcomb, who had been his class-mate in the medical school. The following year he went to Fittsburg, Massachusetts, and engaged in the practice of medicine.

In 1849, soon after the gold excitement broke out, he started, as surgeon of a party, for California. On his way thither he passed through Kansas, was struck with its loveliness and fertility, and marked the site of Lawrence as a beautiful location for a city. Upon arriving in California, he worked in the mines a short time, then went to Sacramento and opened an eating house. He was not there long before a difficulty arose between the squatters and a class of speculators. The former had entered upon their lands by pre-emption—a title universally respected in a new country. But, the town improving rapidly, and giving promise of greatness, a class of speculators came in and secured a quitclaim title to a vast tract of country in that vicinity, including the town site, from Mr. Sutter, who held a Spanish title to 99,000 square miles in California. These speculators strengthened themselves by selling or giving lots to new comers, and soon warned those who held lots by preemption to leave the premises. Upon the latter's refusing to observe this demand, the matter was placed in the hands

of the Sheriff. In vain the squatters sought to stay any violent action by offering to give bonds for the safe keeping and use of the premises until the title was legally decided in the courts. They, therefore, determined to defend their homes, and prepared for resistance. For thus putting themselves in the attitude of self-defense, the authorities. first sought to arrest them; but they agreed to avoid arrests until the opening of the courts, by secreting themselves in various places. While thus absent from their homes the Sheriff took possession of several of their houses, whereupon the squatters collected and marched to retake them.

Dr. Robinson, from the first, had warmly espoused the cause of the squatters, and was their recognized leader, planning and shaping his policy with that prudence and sagacity which characterized him in Kansas.

The squatters, some fifteen in number, upon reaching the houses, said to be held by the Sheriff, found no one there and started to return to their respective abodes. As they retired a rencounter took place between them and a crowd headed by the Sheriff and Mayor. The latter fired, which was promptly returned by the squatters, whereupon the mob scattered and fled. One was killed on each side, and the Mayor and Dr. Robinson fell badly wounded. The doctor crept into an old house, where he remained some time, when he was taken on board a prison ship and detained for ten weeks. While there he was elected to the first Legislature, which he attended, and was highly respected and esteemed by the members for his heroic and noble stand in defense of right and justice. He contributed to the election of General Fremont to the United States Senate. He afterwards published a daily paper for a short period at Sacramento.

On the 1st of July, 1851, he sailed for home. The steamer upon which he took passage was wrecked on the Mexican coast, but the passengers narrowly escaped from a watery

grave to the land, and were compelled to travel on foot forty miles before they could again take passage on a boat. From Panama to Cuba the doctor was employed as surgeon aboard a boat filled with sick workmen, who had been engaged in the construction of the railroad across the Isthmus.

Dr. Robinson, upon reaching his native State, settled in Pittsburg and resumed the practice of medicine. About the time when Kansas first engaged the attention of the public, he published several letters relative to it, founded upon his observation in passing through the Territory to California. The attention of the Emigrant Aid Society was attracted by these letters, which at once, upon learning of his character and experience, employed him as its agent to visit the Territory. The important and conspicuous part he performed in the critical times of our Territorial difficulties, we leave the reader to note for himself.

Governor Robinson has always been very radical in his views-always favored universal' suffrage and opposed slavery, or partial legislation of any description. Though he did not endorse the higher law doctrine, still he was always a constitutional abolitionist, and believed in using every legal remedy for the removal of slavery. He was pre-eminently fitted as leader of the free state movements. With inflexible principles, great prudence, caution and sagacity, he combined unflinching courage. Never swerving from his principles in his whole life, he seldom miscalculated in shaping his plan and policy. He preserved the utmost confidence of the free state men until late in our Territorial history, when the Free State party broke up in a general scramble for office.

General James II. Lane was born, June 22, 1814, on the banks of the Ohio, in Boone County, Kentucky. His father, Amos Lane, cousin of Joseph Lane, of Oregon, was an eminent lawyer and a member of Congress. James' mother, who was a woman of superior intellectual and moral

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