Kansas University Weekly.
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to lead in the movement. He came out with the second Boston company in September, 1854, and made his home in lawrence. Thus these immigrants had the benefit of his large experience and wise counsel, which were of great service to them. But the unique service he rendered which tested the man and proved his capacity in statesmanship was in the political complications of the next three years. The story has been told so often that it seems like repeating household phrases to tell it again, yet I must tell again in briefest outline, to make the point I am aiming at: March 30, 1855, an election was ordered by Governor Reeder for members of the first territorial legislature, who were to frame the first laws for the new commonwealth. Of course all regarded this as a very important election. The result of it might settle the whole question. How that election would have resulted if the people had been left to themselves, no man can tell. They were not left to themselves. Men from Missouri, in large companies, and armed to the teeth, poured into all parts of the territory, took possession of the polls in every precinct of any consequence and voted, electing the legislature in defiance of the people. The number of votes cast exceeded by more than two to one the entire voting population of the territory. Here in Lawrence there were 1,034 votes cast, while the entire voting population was only 369. So here in Lawrence where the community was almost unanimously free state, the pro-slavery candidates were chosen by a majority larger than the whole legal vote of the place. The legislature thus elected by Missouri votes, very consistently adopted the Missouri code of laws entire. In the matter of slavery, however, they went beyond their model. They enacted a more extreme slave code than existed in any state of the union. To aid in the escape of a slave was made a crime to be punished with death, while to express an opinion adverse to slavery was made a felony to be punished by at least five years in the penitentiary. The whole thing was an outrage unparalleled in history.
What could the free state men do? To submit to the outrage and live under such laws would be a degradation not to be thought of. To resist them by force would be mad-men. The legislature had the forms of law. Their work was recognized by the territorial officials and was recognized also by the national administration at Washington in which Franklin Pierce was president and Jefferson Davis was secretary of war. If carried to the supreme court of the United States it would have been sustained there, for Chief Justice Taney voiced the judgment of that court. The gloom of despair settled upon not only the free state men of Kansas, but upon
the friends of freedom all over the country. It seemed as if the matter were settled and Kansas was already a slave state.
In the midst of this bewildering perplexity, Dr. Robinson's judgment rose to its supreme height. He proposed the masterly policy of repudiation without resistance. "Let us denounce the election as an outrage, the legislature as a usurpation, and the laws passed as a foreign imposition. But let us commit no crime, and let us use no violence. Let us ignore their laws, neither appealing to them, nor using them, nor in any way recognizing them, but let us carefully abstain from everything that shall put us in the position of law breakers. Let us stand firmly in our position, and suffer whatever may come upon us in consequence. Then let us wait till we can get a hearing from the larger court of the American people. Let us suffer wrong if we must, but let us not do wrong." A favorite phrase of his was: "Suffer and be strong."
This became essentially the policy of the free state men. They just ignored what they denounced as the bogus laws "They stood aloof from the leghl machinery devised by them. They brought no suits into their courts; they attended no elections called by their authority; they paid no attention to their county organizations; they offered no estates to their probate judges, they tried no causes by their justices of the peace. they paid no tax levies made by their authority. Yet they were careful to do no act which should lay them liable to the laws they contemned." Thus the free state community stood for two years, practically a distinct commonwealth within the commonwealth, ignoring the laws back of which stood the territorial government, the national administration and the army of the United States. Yet so wisely did they maintain themselves that the "overt act" for which their enemies were watching, which should subject to the penalty of treason, was scrupulously avoided. So in two years they accomplished a successful revolution and wrested the power from the hands of the desperate men who were determined to enslave the state.
It was a difficult position to maintain. The temptation was a most irresistible, on one side to temporize and lose the vantage ground they had gained, and on the other side to rush into excesses which would precipitate a conflict. To stand firm in their chosen policy and yet avoid excesses required a clear and steady hand. They had them both in Dr. Robinson. He never wavered nor flinched. Yet his counsel was always for moderation and peace. The result of this policy was, that what they called the "bogus laws" were practically nullified. No slave holder dared bring his slaves into Kansas notwithstanding the severe laws
protecting slave property. When the time came to repeal the slaye code there was no slavery existing in the territory to embarrass the situation. There were exasperations hard to bear, and complications hard to unravel, but the moderate middle ground chosen at the beginning was never swerved from to the end. The wisdom and courage which led through those turbulent years, avoiding the dangers on either side, is worthy a place in the record of the world's diplomacy and statesmanship. The man whose steady counsel, more than anything else, accomplished this result was Governor Robinson. When history comes to measure events by their importance, she will put the name of Charles Robinson high in the scales of diplomatic generalship. Whether any other policy would have made Kansas free no man can tell. But the policy that did accomplish that result was suggested by Governor Robinson, and was matured and interpreted and applied by him during the two turbulent years when the question was at issue. He will always, therefore, be a marked figure in the history of Kansas.
The qualities which were so conspicuous in those turbulent times always characterized him in practical affairs. Men will differ as to his political career, and as to the soundness of his speculative opinions. But as to the soundness of his judgment in practical emergencies there will be no difference of opinion among those who knew him. If any difficult thing were to be done you could safely trust Governor Robinson to do it. In the bye-gone days, whenever this community came to a serious emergency they always turned to Governor Robinson for counsel, and he never failed to find a safe solution. A writer who attended one of the great free state conventions in 1855, has this to say of Governor Robinson: "The president of the convention was Governor Charles Robinson. From the first he had been considered the leader of the free state movement, and was looked to for counsel in every difficult emergency. He was always cool and clear-headed in the midst of danger, and no emergency ever disconcerted him. He was a man of fine presence and large experience. In the popular sense of the word, he was not eloquent, but he had a way of talking to a crowd in such a plain, straightforward manner, that few men carried conviction more readily than he. He was usually conservative, preferring to gain his end by management rather than by force. It was largely due to the moderate counsel of such men as he that there was not more violence and bloodshed during those critical times. He was a good presiding officer, and in the stormiest debate he was never bewildered."
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