Autograph letter signed, from a Free State settler, on the political situation in Kansas, the Lecompton Constitution, and an armed conflict with a group of pro-slavery Missourians on the little Osage river in southern Kansas after the false arrests of Free Staters

(Kansas) Pollard, Charles W.

Edité par Lawrence, Kansas, 1857

A propos de cet article

2pp. Small folio. The author of this letter, Charles W. Pollard, came to Kansas as an anti-slavery Free Stater in 1854 and was said to be an associate of John Brown. He writes: ".there has been a convention in Lawrence which has taken up my time, both day and night. The Convention was called for the purpose of deciding whether the Free State men should or should not enter in to the election to be held Jan. 4th & it was decided not to enter it. There has been a small war down on the little Osage River. The Pro Slavery people at Fort Scott aided by the United States Marshall Little undertook to arrest Free State men under the Rebellion act which was repealed by the Ter[ritorial] Legislature at its last sitting. There was a fight & ten Free Men put to flight 70 Missourians after killing Marshal [John H.] Little & 3 others. Gen. J. H. Lane went down and has settled the difficulty & released 8 Free State men held in [?] at Ft. Scott, who were taken under the Rebellion act before the fight. I started to go down but as the troubles were settled I had to turn back. Joe what do you think of S.A. Douglas opposing James Buchanan on the ground of the illegality of the Lecompton Constitution. Do you not begin to falter in your high estimation of that man who now occupies the highest office in the gift of the People. Examine his great message on the affairs in Kansas, that he shows a fairness which is astonishing toward that accursed instrument the Lecompton Constitution which contrary to squatter sovereignty submitted only a part, a slavery clause, which left in the body of the work a section which made slaves here in servitude (even if this remained here) forever which was making Kansas virtually a slave state. Gov. Walker was decapitated for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution, or had to resign." The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created those territories with the provision that the region's settlers would decide whether slavery would be lawful. The border state of Kansas thus became a breeding ground for anti- and pro-slavery conflict. Pro-slavery Missourians, known as border ruffians, flooded into the eastern half of the state, specifically along the Missouri River where slave-based agriculture would be feasible. Anti-slavery forces rallied, sending settlers from the North, with most coming from New England. Free state settlements were created in Topeka and Lawrence, with the border ruffians establishing their capital at Lecompton. The Lecompton Constitution's main provisions protected slavery in the state and excluded free people of color from exercising the basic rights extended to White people. The constitution was passed by the territorial legislature under suspicious circumstances in December 1857 and only lasted a handful of months when it was voted out overwhelmingly later in 1858.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Autograph letter signed, from a Free State settler, on the political situation in Kansas, the Lecompton Constitution, and an armed conflict with a group of pro-slavery Missourians on the little Osage river in southern Kansas after the false arrests of Free Staters
• Éditeur: Lawrence, Kansas
• Date de parution: 1857
• Reliure: 2pp. Small folio
• État de l'article: Usual folds
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Americana