Lawrence's Bid for University Reflected Strife of Civil War
Manhattan lost by a veto. Emporia lost by one vote. Council Grove apparently didn't enter into the contest much more seriously than writing a "Letter to the Editor."
Those were some of the highlights in the early 1860's before Gov. Thomas Carney signed on Feb. 20, 1863, a bill designating Lawrence as the site of the University.
It was a bitter legislative struggle, fought against the backdrop of an even more dramatic and fundamental conflict—the war between the Union and the Confederacy.
In this, the University's Centennial year, it is noteworthy to recall that there was serious consideration given to the name Free State University for the school.
THE FLAVOR OF the times was graphically eronicled by Gov. Samuel J. Crawford in his memoirs, "Kansas in the Sixties," published in 1911.
Crawford, a young lawyer in Garnett, was elected to the first Kansas Legislature in 1859 following the Wyandotte Convention. In 1861, just after Kansas achieved statehood, President Lincoln called for volunteer troops.
Crawford obtained a leave of absence from the House of Representatives and successfully recruited a company of volunteers in Anderson and Franklin counties for the Second Kansas Regiment.
HE WAS ELECTED captain of Company E and while camped near Lawrence that spring waiting for orders to go to the front, "I visited Topeka to see how the Legislature was behaving, and to help the Lawrence boys on their University Bill."
Capt. Crawford and a Lawrence friend drove to Topeka behind "a span of wild fiery horses," conversed with legislators, and headed back to Lawrence at 2 the next morning.
The young legislator's efforts on behalf of the Lawrence boys did not carry the day, for soon after that both houses passed a bill locating the university at Manhattan. But Gov. Charles Robinson, a resident of Lawrence decreed that this legislative action was "premature" and vetoed the bill.
IN HIS MESSAGE to the 1863 Legislature, Gov Carney of Leavenworth listed the establishment of a state university as a "must" on his program. The battle lines were drawn. Manhattan was still very much in the picture, but Lawrence seemed to have the inside track at the beginning of the session in early January. By the end of the month, however, Emporia had moved into strong contention.
The Council Grove bid for recognition came in the form of a letter published Jan. 7, 1863, in the Topeka State Record and signed by SNW. The claims of the other cities were taken apart piece by piece, and Council Grove was eloquently advertised as the ideal choice.
Finally the contest narrowed to Emporia and Lawrence, and the din of lobbying efforts and of newspaper charges and countercharges was loud and heated.
THE 1863 Legislature also had to select a site for a State Insane Asylum (this was resolved by appointing a commission to make the final choice), and there was bitter friction about the proposed location of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad lines through Kansas. "The Lawrence boys" were accused of forming a coalition with counties interested in those issues.
On the other side, Harvey E. Lowman, editor of the Lawrence State Journal, complained that Rep. C. V. Eskridge of Emporia was guilty of "wholesale vilification of the people of Lawrence and Douglas County."
The night of Feb. 9 the university bill came to a final vote in the House of Representatives. It resulted in a tie. Rep. Ed. Russell of Doniphan County was in the chair and he cast the deciding vote for Lawrence.
THE BILL PASSED the State Senate by a large majority.
The fight was over. Manhattan was more than satisfied when the 1863 session designated it the site of the land grant agricultural college. Emporia was selected to be the home of the State Normal School, the present State Teachers College.
There was still more hard work and money raising to be done on the part of Lawrence boosters before the doors of the University of Kansas first opened Sept. 12, 1866, but the signing of the University Act climaxed more than 10 years of efforts by citizens of the community to establish an institution of higher learning.
IMPETUS WAS given to the movement as early as 1856 when Amos A. Lawrence of Boston, Mass., made $10,000 in notes, plus accrued and future interest, available for the purpose of a college or university. Lawrence, one of the founders of the Emigrants Aid Company, which encouraged the settlement of Kansas by those of anti-slavery sentiments, made it clear that his donation was available only if Kansas became a Free State. This donation was the first instance of private giving to the University.
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Friday, October 8, 1965
North College Hall at KU in 1866