Border Troubles in Leavenworth, Kansas

Border Troubles in Leavenworth

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In October, 1855, a Constitutional Convention was held in Topeka by Free-Staters seeking to subvert the official pro-slavery territorial legislature. The "official" territorial legislature, called the "Bogus Legislature," had been elected in March, 1855 and suffered widely from electoral fraud. At the Topeka Constitutional Convention, the Free-Staters developed the first Kansas constitution, which was approved by Free-State voters in Kansas on December 15, 1855. This document banned slavery in in the state.

However, there were a number of pro-slavery advocates who had settled in Leavenworth and just a week after the Constitutional Convention at Topeka had adjourned, a large pro-slavery meeting was held in the city on November 14, 1855. It was made the occasion for Governor Wilson Shannon's first visit to Leavenworth.

Shannon, who served as the second governor of Kansas Territory, had been appointed to the office by President Franklin Pierce and became governor on September 7, 1855. Shannon was known for his Southern sympathies, so much so, that he was described by a contemporary as "an extreme Southern man in politics, of the "border ruffian type."

Governor Wilson Shannon

When Governor Shannon arrived he was met by a committee of Leavenworth citizens before being escorted to the meeting, held in Alexander's stone building, at the southwest corner of Main and Shawnee Streets. The group elected the governor as the chairman of the meeting, who opened the meeting by denouncing the Topeka Constitution and the Free-State movement generally. Others also made speeches including General John Calhoun, Surveyor General of Kansas and Nebraska Territories, who talked long and bitterly against the Free-Soilers. The only Free-State speaker who asked to be heard was a man named Marc Parrott whose speech could not be heard over the hoots, hollers, and jests of the crowd.

A week later, the Free-Staters of Leavenworth held their own meeting and politics in the town were boiling. In the Wakarusa River Valley near Lawrence, Kansas, a confrontation known as the Wakarusa War erupted between the two factions. On December 1, 1855,

Brigadier General Lucian J. Eastin, of the Second Brigade of Kansas Militia and editor of the Kansas Herald in Leavenworth, ordered his troops to concentrate in the city "to march at once to the scene of the rebellion" and to put down the 1,000 outlaws of Douglas County. Easily, this might have made Leavenworth a portentous seat of war. However, only about 100 men assembled in Leavenworth, with about 30 more enlisting. However, many of the potential invading army was from Missouri. The invasion; however, was stalled when Governor Shannon ordered the troops disbanded.

At a State Convention held in Lawrence on December 22, 1855, two Free-State men from Leavenworth were chosen for high positions. Mark W. Delahay was chosen as the Congressional nominee, and H. Miles Moore as the candidate for Attorney General. The election was scheduled to be held on January 15, 1856, but the pro-slavery element was so strong In Leavenworth that the more timid of the Free-State citizens hesitated about holding the election for State and county officers. In fact, several days before the election was to take place, a few weak hearts met and resolved that one should not be held. In the meantime, the Free-State Mayor Thomas T. Slocum, resigned on January 8, 1856, causing considerable excitement and some indignation. George Russell also resigned as Councilman, and the seat of J. H. McCelland became vacant because he persistently absented himself. They were all Free-State men, and found their duties too difficult in these pro-slavery times. The day before the election, J. H. Day, President of the City Council, issued a municipal order forbidding it to take place. No polls were opened; however, an old stocking was presented to Free-State voters. In the end, the election did take place, though not in any normal fashion. The newly elected mayor was a strong pro-slavery man named William E. Murphy.

Meanwhile, Leavenworth wasn't the only city in Leavenworth County that was having struggles between slavery advocates and abolitionists. At nearby Easton, some ten miles to the northwest, an attack was made upon the polls, which were so vigorously defended by Free-State voters, commanded by Stephen Sparks, of Alexandria Township, that a pro-slavery man named Mr. Cook was mortally wounded. Several fights occurred, in which the pro-slavery men were generally put down.

Thousands of pro-slavery men from Missouri crossed the

border into Kansas to stuff the ballot boxes.

Among the Leavenworth people who attended the election at Easton, to see that the voting was fairly conducted, and who assisted in defending the polls, were Captain R. P. Brown, member-elect of the Legislature, Henry J. Adams, senator-elect, J. C. Green, Joseph H. Byrd, and two or three others. The next morning, as they were returning in a wagon to Leavenworth, they were met by a company of Kickapoo Rangers about half way to their destination. Led by pro-slavery Captain Martin, some 50 troops were on their way from Leavenworth to Easton to avenge the treatment of their pro-slavery friends and the death of Mr. Cook.

The Free-Staters from Leavenworth party were made prisoners, turned back to Easton, and confined in a store, where they were guarded a noisy, drunken crowd of pro-slavery soldiers. The troops' spite was particularly concentrated on Captain R.P. Brown, many of them having known him and learned to fear him in Leavenworth.

Finally, the drunken soldiers managed to get him into an adjoining building, and organized a court for his trial. Though pro-slavery Captain Martin tried to control the men, he was unable to. However, he did allow all but Captain R.P. Brown to escape. While Brown was being questioned in the mock trial, many of the drunken soldiers became impatient and broke up the "court," and took Captain Brown out of the building, pummeling him along the way. After striking Brown on the head with a hatchet, the nearly dead man was taken to his home in a wagon. Before Brown died, he could only say to his wife, "I am murdered by a set of cowards." He was buried on Pilot Knob the next day.

Thomas A. Minard, of Easton, at whose house the election was held, narrowly escaped injury at the hands of a mob a few days later. However, he barricaded his doors, and lived to be elected Speaker of the Free-State Assembly which convened on the March 4, 1856 in Topeka, Kansas. Also occurring during this meeting of the Free-State legislature, Charles L. Robinson was elected as territorial governor, which enraged President Franklin Pierce, who called the Free-State Legislature unlawful and called for the arrest of its leaders. Douglas County Sheriff, Samuel J. Jones, recorded the names of each and every member of the Free-State government, and many assumed they would soon be arrested for treason. This would happen later during and immediately following the Sacking of Lawrence.

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