8
THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
Tuesday, July 9,1968
In pre-Civil War days
First governor raided
By Eric Kramer Journalism Camp Reporter
Journalism Camp Reporter Under a bush by the special education building on Louisiana Street south of the campus, in the corner of the lawn is a marker saying, "Site of the first home of Governor Robinson, burned by Sheriff Jones, May 21, 1856."
Charles Robinson was the first governor of Kansas. He came to Lawrence with the Emigrant Aid Society. His house which was built on Oread Hill was destroyed in a raid that came before the famous Quantrill Raid.
Throughout early Kansas history the Governor fought both pro-slavery people and radical abolitionists like John Brown and General Lane.
Before 1856 pro-slavery, Missourians took advantage of the government policy called popular sovereignty by crossing the border and voting in the territorial election. Under popular sovereignty, the people in a territory were to determine whether they would enter the union as a slave or free state. The free-state men represented a majority of the people of Kansas, but with the votes from Missouri, the proslavery men won the election and set up the Lecompton Constitution.
In 1856 it was to be different. Busy emigrant societies poured hundreds of settlers into Kansas. These men were free-staters determined that fair elections would be held and free-state men elected so that Kansas would enter the union as a free state.
The pro-slavery party, still in power but sensing that Kansas would become a free state if something was not done, decided to try to make the free-staters go against federal authority.
Jones, the pro-slavery sheriff of Douglas County, came to Lawrence, the center of free-state activity, with warrants to arrest several anti-slavery leaders.
Purdue prof to work with KU writers
William H. Gass, Purdue University philosophy professor whose latest work has been reviewed broadly and favorably, will be here Oct. 21-Nov. 8 as writer-in-residence.
Gass published his first book, "Omensetter's Luck," at age 42. only two years ago, and won almost immediate acclaim from literary peers.
Reviewing his second and latest book of fiction—"In the Heart of the Heart of the Country and Other Stories"—Van Allen Bradley, literary editor of the Chicago Daily News recently predicted:
"It should be taken for granted that if the future is to give us another Joyce or Faulkner or emingway he will not write it. Joyce or Faulkner or Hemingway; he will be a man who has developed a style of his own.
"I tha we may have such a man in William H. Gass.
"... br. Gass is an original.
He may be one of the two or three writers we have today."
BRAVEY CALLS that first work "a novel of stunning power and realism" and says it "should have got considerably more recognition than it received."
At K. Glass will give at least one public lecture and work with Prof. Edward Wolfe's class in fiction writing, which brings in professional writers to work with advanced writing students for a period of one to three weeks each.
Gass also is a regular reviewer for the bi-weekly New York Review of Books.
The citizens of Lawrence would not let Jones make the arrests so he returned the next day with a possee. The sheriff couldn't find the men he wanted so he decided to spend the night in town. That night he was wounded by a sniper. Jones left Lawrence but he was determined to get revenge on the city.
Sheriff Jones returned with the federal marshal and federal troops. When the group was positioned outside of town, the sheriff announced that he would burn down the Eldridge house and destroy the office of the Herald of Freedom, one of the first newspapers in Kansas.
The Eldridge house, a hotel, was burned because it belonged to the Emigrant Aid Society. This was the first burning of the Eldridge House. The Hearld was destroyed because it was antislavery in viewpoint.
During the burning, the sheriff decided that the home of Governor Robinson should also be burned. The house, which sat on Oread Hill, was burned and looted by the sheriff's men.
Because the federal marshal and the sheriff were not defied by the citizens of Lawrence, the pro-slavery plot failed and Kansas was closer to becoming a free state.
Robinson veted a bill that would have built KU at Manhattan. The legislature was then forced to build KU at Lawrence.
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