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University Daily Kansan Monday. April 17, 1961
Jim Lane-a Giant as Friend or Foe
—Courtesy The Kansas Historical Society
Jim Lane
'Little Giant' Linked To Early Kansas
By Tom Turner
The state of Kansas owes its existence to a fiery, resourceful, yet sometimes tacitless United States Senator from Illinois named Stephen Arnold Douglas (with an accent on the "Arnold").
His motives for fighting for the formation of the territory have been questioned and debated ever since 1854, when the Nebraska-Kansas Bill was passed.
IT WAS DOUGLAS who took the House-passed bill and reworked it through his committee on territories so that it would be acceptable to the then southern-dominated Senate. It was Douglas who spent countless hours causing for the Pacific transcontinental railroad, attempting to appease both North and South.
Previously, in December 1845, Douglas was made chairman of the House Committee on Territories. When he was elected to the Senate in 1847, he transferred the House chairmanship to his close friend William A. Richardson, and was himself elected to the chairmanship of the corresponding Senate committee. Douglas continued to serve in that position for more than 10 years. Thus the framework was laid for both House and Senate approval of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
What were Douglas' motives in backing such a measure?
Some historians have expressed the belief that Douglas aspired to the Presidency and used the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as a stepping stone.
THESE HISTORIANS charge that Douglas' efforts to appease both sectional factions in his committee-revised version of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, were executed in order to gain both northern and southern support for his candidacy.
If this is true, his efforts were all in vain, for the agitation that arose as Kansas became a free
state (he spoke against the Lecompton slave constitution) and the stronger abolitionist movement that arose through "bleeding Kansas" turned the South away from him. He lost the one Presidential race he entered.
Other Douglas critics maintain that his actions were all aimed at strengthening his home state of Illinois through promotion of the transcontinental railroad and, even more specifically, at strengthening his home town of Chicago.
If this was his aim, he could not express it openly for St. Louis, the hub of southern Illinois, was also fighting to become the terminus of the railroad.
Douglas himself asserted at a St. Joseph, Mo., convention on Jan. 9, 1543, that his aims were to abolish the "Indian barrier" that was dwarting westward expansion and promote the railroad that would unify the Union.
LESS CRITICAL historians acclaim Douglas as a champion for Union solidarity and westward expansion.
Whatever his motives were, Douglas is credited with saving California for the Union by blockading a southern route for the transcontinental railroad as well as squealing Jefferson Davis' intentions of annexing all Mexico through a southern railroad route.
Although most of the hard-coored Senator's tactics backfired, he remained a dominant force in American politics for years following his loss of the Presidency.
According to Frank Heywood Hodder, former KU professor of history:
Bv Dan Felger
"In the highest degree, Douglas typified the new West, its vigor, its optimism, and its crudity . . . Douglas' motives were controlled by devotion to the development of the West. But when the supreme test came, Douglas knew neither the North nor South, East nor West, but threw all his strength into the fight for the Union."
Famous Kansans, even though they often gain stature through the years, rarely become eight feet tall. Yet Missourians of 100 years ago were convinced that such a giant lived in Kansas.
His name was Jim Lane. He fought border ruflians, served in the United States Senate, insured Lincoln's second nomination and stood tall in the hearts of Free State Jayhawkers.
And he really wasn't eight feet tall. But Missourians a century ago wouldn't have believed that if it was sworn on a stack of Bibles.
AT LEAST, some of them wouldn't. An old tale of Lane's reputation as a fighting man is told by William Essey Connellley, one of the famous Kansan's best-read biographers, about a Missouri farmer's view of the renowned Lane:
"They have a general over there," the Missourian related to Connelley during a visit to the farmer's house, "who was a colonel in the Mexican War. He is over eight feet tall, and during the Mexican War you could hear his voice above the roar of the cannon."
Of course, this was nothing more than hearsay evidence attesting to Lane's ability in foiling the border ruffians attempts to take over Kansas. For the most part, however, the border ruffians did fail because of Lane. Others who wanted to see Kansas enter the Union as a slave state were foiled by Lane, too. He licked them with the sword, and with something mightier than the sword—words.
Of Lane's entire life, it has been said that he was a politician before anything else. He proved the truth of the statement when he was sent to Kansas by Sen. Stephen Douglas of Illinois to organize the Democratic Party in this area. When he arrived in Lawrence in the spring of 1855, he found that the Democrats were outnumbered — the only major parties that existed in Kansas were,
LANE ALLIED himself with the latter, and jumped off the Democratic donkey in midstream. Then he fought for the Free State cause with zeal.
in brief, the slave-staters and the free-staters.
When Kansas came into the Union as a Free State, Lane was elected to the United States Senate. This was the goal he had sought. The ways in which his image became stamped in the minds of his constituents make good stories in themselves.
For example, he once walked thirty miles to Leavenworth to raise $500 in order to keep his paper from falling into the hands of a rival party.
He promised that the people of Kansas would have a railroad, and he got it for them — although he had to use his position as senator to bribe and coerce the owners to run the line through.
HE ONCE FACED a crowd at Wyandotte, where he had often been dared to speak. The only expressions he could see in the area of faces were scowls. Some of the men even carried ropes. Before he left, however, there were no scowls and no ropes. Jim Lane cradled the crowd in his palm as a small boy holds marbles.
It was this ability to sway men that helped insure a second nomination for Abraham Lincoln.
During his term in office, Sen Lane was a member of the Union League, a secret organization within the Republican Party. Many members of the organization, including the treacherous Secretary of War, Stanton, wished to prevent Lincoln's renomination. Throughout the meeting of the Union League in which the issue of whether or not to back Lincoln would be decided for the final time, Lane watched many important Republicans turn thumbs down on a re-n nomination.
Then the indomitable Kansan made his move.
When the presiding officer recognized him, Lane rose but did not
speak at first. Then, holding the attention of the entire body, the senator began to speak in carefully measured tones.
HE TOLD THEM that it was unfair to criticize a man when he was not present to act as his own defense. He reminded them of the patience and the foresight of the President. He coaxed their attention to focus on the national purpose again by telling them the rest of the world was watching to see if the glorious Union would suffer the same fate as the great nations of old. And then, in a way in which no one could doubt, he told them, "If we nominate any other man than Lincoln, we nominate ruin."
The rest of the Union League properly chastised for the most part, agreed.
That was perhaps the most famous performance of Jim Lane. In any event there is a possibility that he saved the Union that night. After that, Lane seemed to gradually slip from the public favor.
IN LAWRENCE, Lane had shot an old enemy in a disagreement over property seven years before, and, although acquitted by a jury, Lane was not entirely acquitted by the public. Reaction also rose against him for his vote against a civil rights bill, even though he had championed the free state cause for years.
The final blow came when Lane returned from Washington and received not even a nod of acquaintance from many of the Lawrence townfolk.
Lane couldn't understand it. This was Kansas, and he had always stood tall in the eyes of Jayhawkers, especially those in Lawrence. He couldn't understand it—so he didn't try.
On July 11, 1866, Jim Lane put a gun inside his mouth and pulled the trigger as a group of horrified friends attempted to stop him.
He always did have a flair for showmanship.
Pioneer Papers Politically Biased
The first English-language newspaper in Kansas was the Kansas Weekly Herald. It was established in what is now Leavenworth, under an elm tree, even before a building had been erected. The paper was Democratic and pro-slavery.
OTHERS SOON followed, of all political orientations and sympathies.
The history of newspapers in Kansas begins back in 1834 when Rev. Jotham Meeker, a Baptist missionary published the first newspaper. Called the Siwinowe Kesibiw (Shawnee Sun), the paper was printed in the Shawnee language on the mission in what is now northeast Johnson County.
By Jerry Musil
The press in early Kansas chose to lead and not to follow progress, as newspapers usually do. To many, the idea of starting a newspaper before there was any news to print was illogical and fantastic. Kansas newspapermen did not feel this way, and the press often preceded all usual agencies of society—the jail, church, school, or post office. The newspaper became one of the territory's greatest assets.
The time between the establishment of the first newspaper and statehood was one of political and social agitation. The pro-slavery and the free-state forces were engaged in many minor wars which saw the press in the middle. Kansas became a maker of history soon after being established as a territory. The Kansas press was extremely partisan and had no qualms about saying so. The papers were often sacked and destroved, but they would find more type, more presses and, with renewed vigor, would renew fighting for their ideals. The climax came when Kansas was admitted as a state.
THE FIRST newspaper to carry news of statehood was the Leavenworth Conservative of Jan. 31, 1861.
From the first, the Kansas press showed a tendency to disregard brotherly kindness and patience in politics. Editors were extremely partisan, establishing early a partiality for aggressive and vociferous campaigns. They enjoyed putting the candidates "under the harrow," as they called it.
Leavenworth was the only Kansas city connected with the East by telegraph.
The Lawrence Republican, established May 28. 1857, was a strong and influential Free State paper. It was extremely partisan in its views
and gave but one side of the slavery question. The style was generally flowery and rhetorical, with those who opposed freedom painted the darkest colors. Even so, the words contain a power which easily persuades a reader to the cause of freedom.
The paper contained mostly editorial expressions pertaining to the conditions in Kansas. It was written for the settlers of the day in their language. The Lawrence Journal-World takes its volume number from the Lawrence Republican. It absorbed the older paper in 1876.
—Tom Eaton