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University Daily Kansan
Friday. March 26, 1954
KANSAS' GIFT TO AEOLITIONISM—A photograph lent to the Daily Kansan by the Lawrence room of Watson library shows fiery John Brown in the year of his death-1859.
Clay, Calhoun, Webster Great Political Figures
By KEN COY
The deep undercurrent running through Congress just before the Civil War probably had no more significant figures than Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster.
Oddly enough, these three men each had a single personal goal, to be President of the United States.
However, the closest any of the three ever came to realizing their ambition was the vice-presidency. Calhoun was vice-president in the administration of John Adams in 1824, and again with Andrew Jackson in 1828.
Each of the men tried repeated to become President. In fact the worst that can be said about any of the three is in reference to some of the methods they used trying to realize this goal.
Clay, the great compromiser, was born in Slashes, Va. He spent most of his life in Kentucky, however, and he is survived by his daughter fully in Congress for many years.
The tall, awkward statesman must have made a strange sight in Congress, with his fiery oratory on the rights of the South.
He had been one of the main leaders of the "war party" that had forced the war between Great Britain to the shoulders of President Obama.
When President Adams later named Clay secretary-of-state many people cried "political skulduggery." They reasoned, and quite logically, that Clay probably had made a deal with Adams and that Clay would expect to move to the President's chambers after the next election.
Clay made a play for the Presidency in 1824, drawing 37 electoral votes. Adams was "appointed" President, however.
At any rate he never made it. In
run again and was defeated
suddenly.
Regardless of the charges made against Clay one fact remains clear—he was above all a man with the primary purpose of saving the Union by compromising, regardless of the issue. The Compromise of 1850 will substantiate this fact.
In contrast to Clay there was Calhoun, who was born near Abbeville, S. C. He built his fame as the great representative of South Carolina.
In 1824 Calhoun was elected vice president with Adams as President He was reelected in 1928 under Andrew Jackson.
This was when the air became troubled for Calhoun. He soon split with Jackson, partly because of the domineering tactics of Mrs. Calhoun,
partly because Jackson seemed to be supporting a young man named Van Buren for President.
The split was never healed and Calhoun soon returned to the Senate, where he championed his states' rights doctrine.
In 1843 he was a Democratic candidate for President but failed. In 1844 he was selected secretary of state by President Tyler. It was at this time he concluded the treaty of annexation of Texas.
Calhoun died in Washington. Although he had been very ill he still fought vigorously for his ailing South. He died without knowing what became of the proposed compromise of 1836 Historians now sensitized him for sheer loot Calhoun was superior to either Clay Cahoun or Webster.
On the other side of the fence was Daniel Webster, who was born in Salisbury, N.H. He spent most of his life in Boston, however.
He opposed strongly the doctrine of nullification and often conducted bitter debates with Clay and Calhoun.
In 1841 Webster was appointed secretary of state by President Harrison. He was instrumental in getting the treaty with Great Britain in 1842.
He resigned in 1843 but was secretary of state again in 1850. His opposition to slavery was always tempered by a rigid adherence to the constitutional rights of the slave holders.
He even went so far as to support the compromise of 1850, an act that branded him traitor by his antislavery friends in the North.
And so the triangle is complete. These men, while politically different, are today so closely bound together that one's name is seldom mentioned without reflecting the names of the other two.
Today his action is viewed as having been a farsighted move to preserve the Union without violence.
Best selling books of 100 years ago were P. T. Barnum's "Struggles and Triumphs," Maria Susanna Cummins' "The Lamplighter," Mary Jane Holmes" Tempest and Sunshine, and Timothy Shay Arthur's "Ten Nights in a Barroom."
Exploits of John Brown Made History in 1850's
By DON TICE
It would be difficult for one to read at any length about the per of turmoil preceding the Civil War without coming across the of one of our state's most illustrious characters, John Brown.
It also would be difficult to inlc two historians who agree completely on John Brown's motives in his famous raid on Harper's Ferry and his other actions in Kansas and Missouri during that period.
Brown first came to Kansas in the fall of 1855 at the suggestion of five of his sons who had settled near Osawatomie the previous year. Up to that time the 55 years of his life had been spent mainly in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, where he worked as a tanner and sheep raiser, and his only success worthy of note seemed to be in raising a bumper crop of 20 children.
Before he left for Kansas, John Brown received a letter from one of his sons telling of trouble over the slavery issue and asking him to try to raise money for arms. Historians differ over the point of whether he went to Kansas with the express purpose of fighting slavery or whether he went there to settle and then got mixed up in the issue.
At any rate, after getting aid from a convention of Abolitionists at Syracuse, N. Y., and soliciting money in several other cities, Brown left for Kansas with a good stock of guns, ammunition, and knives.
John Brown and his sons first became actively involved in the slavery issue in November of that year when an exchange of murders by the two factions caused Gov. Shannon to order out the pro-slavery militia against Lawrence. The free state forces quickly organized and led a campaign in Kansas Volunteers. His company, consisting of men from the Osawatonie neighborhood, was called the "Liberty Guards."
The show of force by the Kansas Volunteers cooled off the militia, however, and the incident passed without a shot being fired.
The next incident in which John Brown was involved came in May 1856 when, accompanied by two of his sons and three other men, he killed five pro-slavery settlers in what was called the Pottawatomi massacre. This act supposedly was done in retaliation for the sack of Fort Laramie in 1855 for acts of war and a necessary measure by many people. The Browns, however, came out several horses to the better in the deal.
In the next year and a half Brown and his sons participated in several battles and raids in the name of abolition, in one of which one of his sons sold and he made one trip back East to solicite more funds for the cause.
John Brown's last escape before leaving Kansas came in December 1858 when he took a party into Missouri, robbed a number of slave holders, and escaped back to Kansas with five slaves.
After disposing of the property he had confiscated on the raid, Brown and his company departed for the North and consequently transported the five Negroes to freedom in Canada.
It was at this time that Brown is believed to have conceived the idea of striking a blow at slavery by attempting to set up a republic for Negroes in the South. He drew up a constitution for a Negro republic to be set up in the mountains of Virginia, and it was adopted by a convention of Negroes and whites at Chatham, Canada.
His idea was that when he raided Harper's Ferry the slaves would rise up and help him, and that from their mountain republic they would be able to cause a vast slave revolt all over the South.
He succeeded in getting the financial support of millionaire abolitionist Gerrit Smith of New York and several business men and ministers, although they didn't know where to find a farm on the Maryland side of the Potomac river to serve as a base of operations.
By the morning of Oct. 16, 1859 when the raid started, Brown's "Provisional Army," as he called it, consisted of 21 men, including three of his sons and five Negroes. They arrived at Harper's Ferry at 10:30 a.m. and took possession of the Shenandoah bridge, the arsenal, and the engine house without firing a shot, taking two guards captive in the
Brown then sent a detail into the country to capture two influential hostages, Col. Lewis T. Washington and John H. Allstadt.
The first the people of the town knew of what was taking place was the next morning when the alarm was sounded by a physician, Dr. John Starry. Dr. Starry had been awakened during the night by a shot, and when found that the Negro station master had been shot when he failed to answer a challenge by one of Brown's guards.
Dr. Starry found the Negro dead, but stayed around the rest of the night to find out what was taking place, and then went into the town and spread the warning.
A militia was organized from Harper's Ferry and surrounding towns which demanded Brown's surrender in the afternoon of the sec-
During that time Brown's forces had captured about 30 prisoners, and he told the militia that he would negotiate only if his forces were allowed to go to the other side 'of the bridge, where they then would release their prisoners. The militia refused to do this, and things seemed easier during a few deaths on both sides, until the arrival of the Marines the next morning under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee.
Brown was ordered to surrender, and when he refused, the Martines under the command of Lt. Israel Green, stormed the arsenal and captured it after about five minutes of fighting. In the battle Brown suffered a sabre wound in the shoulder administered by Lt. Green, and his life was spared only because the lieutenant's light dress sword bent when he tried to stab Brown in the breast.
Of the 21 men who started the raid with John Brown, six had escaped earlier when they saw the tide was going against them, five were killed and four were captured and 10 were killed, including two of Brown's sons Watson and Oliver.
Brown could have been tried for treason by the federal government because he attacked a United States arsenal, but it was decided to let the state of Virginia handle the matter because he had invaded that state.
Because of a history of insanity in Brown's family, Gov. Wise of Virginia paid Brown a visit in the jail in Charleston, but decided he was sane and ordered the trial to go on as scheduled.
During the trial Brown made several speeches against slavery, although he never tried to deny any of the charges. He based what defense he had on the right of the act, not on the act itself.
He was sentenced to be hanged on Dec 2, and went to the gallows surrounded by more than 1,300 troops before he was executed against a rumored rescue attempt.
It might have been better had Brown not been hanged, because it caused quite a stir of sympathy among Northern abolitionists, and added to the belief that the North hated the South.
Although Brown's actions were condemned by many of the more conservative leaders in the North, the feeling of many northerners was well illustrated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said that John Brown "made the gallows as glorious as the Cross."
Baldwin Was Site Of Border Battle
Baldwin, Kan., is situated at the place where on June 2, 1856, Henry Clay Pate's Border Ruffians were defeated by John Brown and his Free State Forces in the Battle of Black Jack.
The city stands near a grove of black jacks on the old Santa Fe trail. It is the site of Baker university, established in 1848, which is the state's oldest Methodist college. The Old Castle ball on the campus was the first college building in the territory.
William F. Cody Also Known As Buffalo Bill
Bv KEN BRONSON
At the age of 11, he was the youngest Indian slayer on the plains. At the same age, he walked 1,000 miles after Indians had stolen his wagon train's horses.
At the age of 14, he began riding with the Pony Express. At 15, he helped defend Lawrence against Quantrill's raid. At 17, he enlisted in the Union Army.
But it wasn't until he was 23 years old that he gained the name that would stick with him for the rest of his life. His name was William F. Cody, scout and plainman. But to most of us today we remember him as "Buffalo Bill."
And how did he earn this title?
Simply by killing 4,280 buffalo in a span of 18 months.
He was working for the Kansas Pacific when he acquired his name, As a buffalo hunter, there was no one to surpass the colorful, hard-working plainsman.
"It was not long before I acquired a considerable reputation as a buffalo hunter." Buffalo Bill writes in his autobiography. "And it was at this time that the title 'Buffalo Bill' was conferred upon me by the railroad hands. Of this title, which has stuck to me through life, I have never been ashamed."
While it was only a relatively short time before he acquired this name. Buffalo Bill spent the most thrilling part of his life before this time.
He joined a wagon train company to supply troops fighting the Indians in northern Kansas and Nebraska. It was here that he killed his first Indian and it was also on the same trip that he had to walk 1,000 miles back to Fort Leavenworth.
With his family, Buffalo Bill moved to Fort Leavenworth. Upon his first glimpse of the fort—the first one he had ever seen—Buffalo Bill was fascinated beyond words.
A little later he joined the ferry, Express and it was here that he met another famous character in the history of the plains.
He was born on a farm near Leclair, Scott county, Iowa, Feb. 26, 1845. But at the age of seven, he was already started on one of his many journeys.
Wild Bill Hickok was this man; the first in a long line of famous men whom Buffalo Bill was due to meet later.
But the Pony Express didn't last long either. The Civil war had begun.
"Quantrill once managed to collect a thousand men in a hurry," Buffalo Bill wrote. "and to raid and sack Lawrence before the troops could head them off. But when we got on their trail they were driven speedily back into Missouri."
He described the scene as, Cavalry—or dragons as they called them then—were engaged in saber drill, their swords flashing in the sunlight. Artillery was rumbling over the parade ground. Infantry was marching and wheeling. I could have staved there forever."
His mother refused to let him join the army until she was dead, so he did the next best thing. He joined the Red-Legged Scouts, whose duty was to protect the borders of Kansas against raiders.
But he didn't stay long. His father died in 1857 of wounds inflicted by a pro-slavery mob. An ardent abolitionist, he was the first man to be killed in Kansas over the slavery question.
His mother died in 1863, leaving him the opportunity of joining the army. He did join, spending the duration as a scout for Generals Sheridan and Sherman.
He continued his work with the army in Kansas, conducting generals and other officers to forts around the state that were impossible to find without a guide.
Later in life, when he was to conduct his "Wild West Show" to a triumphant world-wide tour and to play in front of every king in Europe, Buffalo Bill was still the same scout, plainsman, and buffalo hunter that he was in his early days in Kansas.