Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

subpoena witnesses, employ clerks and other assistants. Henry J. Adams, E. L. Taylor, Thomas Ewing, J. B. Abbott, Ely Moore and Dillan Pickering, were appointed members of this board. They faithfully and fully performed the duties imposed upon them. They began their labors on the 19th of January, and closed them on the 15th of February. They examined seventy-four witnesses, fully and clearly established the frauds, a summary of whose report we have given.

Provisions were made for the election of delegates in March, to frame a State Constitution a full account of which will be given in the proper order of events.

An act was also passed, locating the seat of government at Minneola, then a paper town, a few miles south of Prairie City, and granted a charter to this embryo metropolis, enabling the town company to hold two thousand acres of land. The Governor vetoed the bill, and, though it was passed over his veto, he never recognized it as valid, nor did any succeeding Legislature. Corruption marked it. in the face, and public opinion universally contemned it.

The Legislature was composed chiefly of men inexperienced in legislating, and hence they moved slowly and awkwardly. Most of their time was consumed upon local questions and laws.

They failed to repeal the Missouri code or remove many of its obnoxious features. Even the apportionment of members to the Legislature, which had occasioned so much complaint, was not remedied. They followed too closely the example of their predecessors, in enacting laws for their own pecuniary advantage. They failed to meet the expectations of the people, and were subject to much censure from all parties. But they had a difficult task in the way of legislation. The greater portion of the people had been without law since the organization of the Territory. Innumerable enactments had been passed by the former Legislatures, some good and some bad, and

it was difficult for young and inexperienced legislators to determine how to proceed. They broke the ice, however, and opened the way for their successors. They set out with the design of enacting a new code of laws, but failed to complete the work laid out, for want of time.

CHAPTER XLV.

TROUBLES IN SOUTH-EASTERN KANSAS.

About the time General Denver was appointed Secretary, difficulties of an alarming character in Lynn and Bourbon counties began to attract attention. The origin of these disturbances is coeval with the settlement of that country. As in other portions of the Territory, the two antagonistical elements-slave-state and free-state-met together there to decide the question of supremacy. The Missourians, whose autocrats had declared, "Kansas is ours and we will have it; peaceably if we can, forceibly if we must," taking advantage of their proximity to the Territory, first passed over and took possession of the best claims the country afforded. Emigrants from the free States subsequently came in, either entered upon entirely new claims, or purchased those which had been previously occupied.

As Captain James Montgomery is the principal actor in the Territorial history of South-eastern Kansas, it is proper that a short account of his life and character should be given, He was born, December 22d, 1814, in Astabula county, Ohio, of highly respectable parentage, and is cousin of General Richard Montgomery, who fell at the storming of Quebec. Having received an excellent academical education, he emigrated to Kentucky in 1837, where he engaged in school teaching. Here he married his first wife, who, subsequently dying, he again, after the lapse of a considerable time, entered the matrimonial alliance. In 1852 he

removed to Pike county, Missouri, where he remained one year and then came to Jackson county, preparatory to entering Kansas as soon as it should be open to settlement. Here he made the acquaintance of Dr. Thornton, a prominent citizen of that county, who, on learning his design, advised him not to go to Kansas, as he would certainly meet with trouble there; that the Missourians were determined that no free state man should be allowed to settle in the Territory; but, on the other hand, he urged him to go to Bates county, Missouri, where he could find better unoccupied land, which he could securely hold without molestation. Agreeable with this friendly admonition, he went to Bates county the latter part of July, 1854, where he spent a week in looking at the country. Not satisfied with what he saw there, and his high sense of honor stung by reflecting upon the reasons which had turned him from his plan of entering Kansas, he rose suddenly one morning from the breakfast table and, without a moments hesitation, made a straight march for the Territory, "From that moment henceforth," is his own expressive language, "I was a man."

The first place he halted was in the vicinity of Mound City, where he found many of the Missourians, dissatisfied with the country and growing weary in watching to keep out abolitionists, preparing to return to their native State,

He purchased a claim from a family of this class, on "Little Sugar," for $11.00-all the money he had with him, except a few cents. He moved his family upon his new possessions that fall but remained himself in Missouri, engaged in building a barn for Dr. Thornton. In this way he made $300, which he invested in cows and calves, and with them, in the spring, returned to Kansas, where he has continued to reside ever since.

Colonel Montgomery is a humane man, nothing fierce or savage in his character; a devout christian, and believes in the practical supremacy of the Higher Law. Although a

resident of a slave State for a number of years, he has always been bitterly opposed to slavery extension, but never sought to interfere with it in slave States. He is about six feet high, slim and nimble as a deer, with intelligent features, high forehead, large nose and a most piercing and penetrating eye; a tenacious memory, sound logic, talks fluently with an agreeable voice, and in the best selected and arranged words. His courage is unquestioned; he is fearless yet wary; valorous in battle, yet generous in victory. When the war for the Union broke out he became Colonel of the 3d Kansas Regiment, and acting commander of a brigade. He was afterwards Colonel of the 2d South Carolina Negro Regiment, and distinguished himself in the army of the East. When the war was over he returned to his family on his beautiful farm near Mound City.

Thus far Montgomery had attracted little or no attention from the pro-slavery men, who knowing that he came from Missouri, supposed him all "sound on the goose." But it was not long before the opportunity presented itself for them to discover the sentiments and character of the man. Soon after his return from Missouri, in April, he happened to go down to Mound City, only five miles distant, and was surprised to find a convention in session for the purpose of nominating candidates for the Legislature. The question of making Kansas a slave or free State had never been raised by the settlers who had not yet been in an election, and had been intent upon the construction of their homes. It was the policy of the political'aspirants of that day not to allow this "distracting issue" to arise, but to keep it out of the canvass, and thus secure votes from both parties. Such was the design of Colonel J. P. Fox, the prime mover in this convention. This gentleman had wiliy evaded the issue by telling the people that the time had not yet come to raise that question, and would not until a convention should be called to frame a State Constitution; that all the

« ZurückWeiter »