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The Fourth of July in Early Kansas, 3

by Cora Dolbee

May 1942 (Vol. 11, No. 2), pages 130 to 173.
Transcribed by lhn;
digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society.

THE keeping of the Fourth of July from 1858 to 1861 continued to reflect the relation of the Kansas struggle to the approaching Civil War. Friends of freedom, both within and without the state, were still resolute as to Outcome. Liberty was the only issue. Kansas was but the Bataan of the long-testing time. [1]

1858

Where'er a wind is rushing,
Where'er a stream is gushing,
The swelling sounds are heard,
Of man to freeman calling,
And, like the carol of a cageless bird,
The bursting shout of Freedom's rallying word. [2]

National remark on the Fourth of July, 1858, was platitudinous. The editor of the New York Daily Tribune perceived a general tendency throughout the country to slight recognition of the day. [3] The reasons, he believed, were two: one was the general disposition to abolish ceremonials; the other was the diminished regard paid by the ruling party and the federal government to the original principles of the nation. Every radical proposition the Declaration of Independence enunciated was now practically denied and despised. Boston's plans for two festivals for the day drew from the same pen satire upon the "sundry good people of eminent perspicacity-[who] in view of the perils which environ the land," determined to "do the Fourth brown" by profuse consumption of powder and patriotism. [4] In gigantic sentences of fourteen lines and more, lugubrious Rufus Choate repainted a look-out, lurid with despair; and ultra-loyal Edward Everett had "visited every portion of Our blessed country, and . . . found nothing to condemn." [5]

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In April, New York clergymen proposed keeping the Fourth of July, 1858, as a day of humiliation and prayer.6 Some one suggested making it a day of thanksgiving. Neither plan developed. On the steps of the city hall in Brooklyn on Monday, July 5, Henry Ward Beecher ventured to define anew the boundaries of patriotism. One by one he named the states to be included. Impatiently someone listening called out: "New Jersey and Kansas." "Yes Kansas Beecher replied, "and all the states named or unnamed. It must be a patriotism . . . that shall take them all in, and give to every One that foundation that was given by our Revolutionary struggle-liberty! . . . This is that patriotism that shall save our land!" 7 Out in Cincinnati, however, Sen. George E. Pugh was credited with making "a good speech, as he almost always does when not talking about Kansas." 8 In the same city a thousand persons, representing all denominations, answered the call of the Presbyterians for a national union prayer meeting on the morning of the Fourth of July, and listened to an Episcopalian and a Baptist make most disparaging allusions to slavery, praying that "this hallowed institution . . . might absolutely be done away!" [9] Down in Georgia, however, where a master allowed his Negroes to hold a Fourth of July carnival, Big Nathan, the orator, who knew little of politics, "took a very bold position in favor of his master and the ladies of color and the excellence of his corn crop." [10] His conception of his master's plantation as the "land of Beulah" was a rebuke to Abolitionism. Kansas herself was again politically astir in July, 1858. The right to determine her own form of government was in imminent jeopardy. Slowly but steadily her people were mustering their strength for self assertion and repeal of the Lecompton constitution. One of the anniversary orators alluded to the duty of killing the English proposition on election day. Another spoke on the importance of activity and self-sacrifice in founding the institutions of their embryo state. [11] Most editors urged wide holiday preparations and liberal participation in events. [12] Such occasions were of benefit to the people, bodily and mentally. One writer felt that On this, its first Fourth, free of mercenary armies to Overawe and oppress, the territory could really

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rejoice in Independence day festivals. [13] His Proslavery rival, however, quoted satirically, "What can't be cured must be endured," and belittled all attempts to keep the day. [14] One regretted the falling of the day on Sunday and the inability, for want of right facilities in the territory, to celebrate in Eastern style with "bonfires and illumination"; but he believed solid reflection in the minds of the people would lead to the formation of good purposes and resolutions. [15] Throughout the nation, heretofore, men had risen in hours of need to lead the people; could not the citizens of Kansas territory harmoniously and patriotically now carry out their destiny so that "no pent-up Utica" would contract their powers?

If celebrations of Independence day, 1858, were the answer, even that editor must have characterized the reply as affirmative. Extant records note twenty observances of the day in the Kansas region. They extended from Wyandotte to "Fontaine qui bouille" beyond Bent's Fort, and from White Cloud to Lebanon, Bourbon county. If none of them maintained the traditional Eastern style, they set suitable Western standards of their own. As Wm. P. Tomlinson wrote, the settlers suited their plans "to their straightened means and circumstances." [16] They displayed great variety and some ingenuity. Of all but two, full stories survive. Even the contemporary reporter could not tell whether the picnic to be given by one Mr. Palmer, north of Hickory Grove on the Branson-Lawrence road, was "private or gratuitous." [17] He also merely noted a proposed holiday fishing excursion to the Osage by "several ladies and gentle men of Prairie City." [18] Authors of two books refer to the day at Fontaine qui bouille: one was Wm. B. Parsons, author of The New Gold Mines of Western Kansas, who in the summer and fall of 1858 accompanied the Lawrence company in exploration of the Rocky Mountain mining regions of western Kansas; [19] the others were James Redpath and Richard J. Hinton, who collaborated upon the Hand-Book to Kansas Territory and the Rocky Mountains' Gold Region. [20]

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Lawrence, still known to the Northern element of the population as "the heart of the Territory," had a most elaborate celebration in 1858. Believing in keeping Sunday a day of rest, the Independent Order of Good Templars which had charge of the plans, chose Saturday, July 3, for the festivities and invited the neighboring lodges at Tecumseh, Big Springs, and Topeka to participate. [21] The program for the day consisted of a procession through the downtown streets of Lawrence and across the river by ferry to the grove on the Delaware Indian reservation on the north shore, formal exercises, and a picnic dinner, with toasts. Citizens of Lawrence had subscribed to a fund to defray expenses. They chartered the ferries so that all persons in the procession might have free rides to the grove; they also contributed the foods for the picnic dinner. Three thousand people were in attendance. The Delawares came in large numbers. The procession of Templars, school children, and citizens was a quarter of a mile long. The band led the procession and played lively music while the numerous boat loads crossed the ferry. The city painters had made tasteful banners for the ladies of Lawrence to present to the lodges. The site for the exercises and prairie dinner was ideal. "The magnificent trees sheltered the throng from the burning sun," and the prairie breeze blowing from the south across the river gave free circulation of air. [22]

The orator, Champion Vaughan, editor of the Leavenworth Times, divided his attention between temperance [23] and the position of Kansas in the national struggle for freedom. He referred to the struggle in Kansas as the second American revolution, the point of which was to be the wresting of the national government from those who had usurped it; Kansas was the key to all Western soil and must forever stand on the side of freedom. To keep it there would be the work of youth. [24]

Two flaws marred the day's program. While the orator was speaking, an outcry in the brush near by drew the attention of some of the audience to a fracas between a white man and an Indian. The Indian had "cut and hacked up" the head of the white man with a tomahawk, in revenge for the latter's having enticed the Indian's wife away. Assisting in care of the unconscious white man was W. C. Quantrill, who had been living with the Delawares on his way

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east after being teamster for the government in an expedition against the Mormons. [25]

The second flaw in the day's program was a deficiency in food, more people participating in the dinner than contributing to it. In toasts, however, and original themes for the same, there was no shortage. Five were of especial interest:

The Day We Celebrate.-May the bud which bloomed on the 4th of July, 1776, yet blossom into full and living beauty, and we, over whom Slavery's sirocco has swept, ere another anniversary rolls round, eat of its ripened fruit, in perfect peace and complete freedom.
The Memorable 21st of May.-The darkest and the brightest day in the history of KanSas. May it ever be remembered, teaching us the blessings of freedom, and Strengthening the hatred of slavery that should exist in the breast of every American, and especially of those living on our fair soil. From our history, freemen may learn that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.!"
The Ladies of Kansas: . . . "Let us worship beauty with the knightly faith of old, Oh! chivalry of labor, toiling for the age of gold."
The Common Schools of Kansas--Fit nurseries of a free people. . . . The White House, and the Niece of Mr. Buchanan.-All that remains of dignity to the nation. [26]

Following the last toast which was a substitute for "The President of the United States," the band played a funeral dirge, the people groaned, and the band brayed through its instruments.

The day as planned passed pleasantly, without liquor or the effects of it on the grounds. At night, however, "after the pale faces left," the Indians had a celebration of their own, in which "they imbibed rather too freely for their good." In South Lawrence in the evening boys of the town "turned out in quite respectable numbers in the `fashionable' costume of the `Antiques and Horribles,' " to make merriment through the streets with their twenty-foot trumpet and mammoth sheetiron-drums. [27]

Minneola, which promised "to do big things . . . hugely" by offering sacrifices in memory of the veterans of 1776, on July 5 invited people of Prairie City, Palmyra, Black Jack, Ottawa City, Peoria City, the Sac agency, and Willow Springs, to share in formal patriotic exercises through the day, a free dinner, and "a grand ball" at the Capitol House at night. The orator announced in advance was T. Ewing, Jr., [28] but Gov. Charles Robinson had credit for the delivered oration. [29]

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Osawatomie marked the anniversary on July 5 by a representation in the morning of the "terrible 30 of August, 1856," by a select picnic in the afternoon, and by a ball at night. To one resident, Sarah M. C. Everett, "the forenoon's exercises seemed surprisingly inappropriate," but the picnic party was the pleasantest she ever attended in Osawatomie .30 The beauty of Lykins county graced the ballroom, "no less than 300 ladies [being] present." [31]

Wyandotte on July 3 also held a picnic, partly for the children of its three Sabbath schools and partly for the grown-ups. The program for the day here began and ended with a procession. The exercises were both religious and patriotic. Gov. Wm. Walker gave "a most excellent and elegant oration." After a sumptuous repast "of almost every conceivable luxury," he responded to a toast on the superior judgment and taste of the Delawares and their uncles the Wyandots in selecting this beautiful spot for their permanent home. [32]

Lecompton waited until late afternoon of July 5 to begin its festivities. Then at four o'clock its people gathered around a sumptuous collation at the American Hotel, got up "in elegant Style" by the proprietor, S. O. Hemenway. The board was richly laden with the good things of earth, and the local editor reported "His wines were the best we have ever drank in Kansas." A patriotic program of reading, talks, music, and toasts followed removal of the cloth. Col. Samuel Young gave an address on the march of empire westward. The last toast was to the "Prince and Princess of Hotel Keepers." In the evening "the beauty and fashion of city and country assembled to `trip the light fantastic toe., Joy reigned unconfined, nor did it abate until the old clock told the hour for retiring." [33]

The entertainment at Brownville on July 5 featured James H. Lane whose arrival with his family at ten o'clock in front of Hale's Hotel brought forth three hearty cheers from the assembled crowd. At eleven o'clock they proceeded to a bower on "the brow of a beautiful eminence" overlooking the town, where he and others made forcible addresses recalling scenes of 1776. Then the procession repaired to the hotel for a dinner and toasts. In the "early eve" the "young and mirthful" met again in enjoyment of the dance. [34]

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Manhattan was the gathering place on July 3 for 1,000 citizens from Riley, Pottawatomie, Richardson, and Davis counties. The Waubonsa Cornet Band, in a carriage drawn by four horses, "discoursed eloquent music through the streets." At ten o'clock the ladies of Manhattan presented a beautiful national flag to the city authorities at the courthouse; in accepting, the mayor hoped "the star of free Kansas" would soon be upon it. Then the crowd formed a half-mile procession to the grove on the banks of the Kaw for a patriotic program and a picnic dinner. "The way the fixins disappeared" before sharp appetites "was truly wonderful." Toasts, regular and volunteer, followed. The first toast, wrought of evergreens, on a banner placed on the stage was "We Will Be Free." [35]

For a second time Emporia made elaborate preparation for the Fourth of July and this time carried out its plans. It extended an invitation to "everybody and his family," in its own and in all adjoining counties, to drop all jealousies of place and politics and unite in an old-fashioned entertainment with Declaration, orations, and a free dinner. The gathering occurred on July 5. By July 3 the two bowers were nearly ready, one for the speaking and one for the eating, and the provisions had been cooked for the dinner. Early Monday morning people thronged the Emporia streets.36 Estimates of the number varied from 1,000 to 1,500.37 From Eagle creek came "one team with seventeen pairs of oxen attached, ornamented with flags." L. D. Bailey was president of the day; M. F. Conway was the orator. An original poem, "Words of Welcome," by "Mary Posey," was a feature of the program; saluting the guests as stout tillers of "Free Kanzas' soil," the author opened wide Emporia's arms "to every rival town" and offered "high Festival for Freedom's triumph won," over "the Neb-raskality" and "Lecompton's hellish plot." At the dinner the edibles were not quite equal to the attendance, but they made up in quality what they lacked in quantity. Two of the toasts were memorable:

Kanzas.-"The new Canaan of our Israel."-Tried in the furnace of persecution and affliction, she has proven as fine gold
James Buchanan-The Ahab of our Israel-Let his days be few, and let another take his office. [38]

At night the young folk and part of the old went to Americus for a feast and dance at the Americus House. The local editors com-

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mended the day's events for the harmony of feeling they promoted, though one pious individual had refused to assist in the exercises because some finishing strokes had been put on one of the bowers on the Sabbath. [39]

Southern Kansas had two celebrations of the Fourth. On July 3 Mound City, or Sugar Mound, held exercises consisting of a much-applauded oration by J. B. Danford and singing that "was nothing to boast of." [40] The party then marched to the dinner ground. On either side of the table a military company paraded to keep order. Suspended on poles, over a burning log heap, was a roasted ox. When taken down and carved he "supplied the table bountifully with beef, mutton, pork, and veal, all from one ox." When word was given to "pitch in," the poor ox had to suffer. In every direction "beef [was] climbing for the brush." The day generally was disorderly.

Lebanon, or Raysville, Bourbon county, observed the anniversary more conventionally on July 5. At daylight boys' firing of the national salute wakened people all along the Little Osage. Shortly after sunrise they began moving into Lebanon. The gathering finally numbered around 1,000. [41] The program for the long day included a procession, exercises with another oration by Doctor Danford, the presentation by "the ladies of the Little Osage" of a new $50 suit of clothes to Capt. James Montgomery in consideration of his kind protection during recent border troubles, a brief response, of much feeling, by the captain, a dinner bountifully supplied with Kansas dainties, toasts that pleased the intellect, supper at a town house, and a cotillion party at Ray's Hall, lasting until sunrise July 6. The feeling manifest in all events here was said to be better than at any other point as yet in southern Kansas. Judge Williams of the third judicial district and Captain Montgomery marched to dinner arm in arm. The afternoon gathering broke up with the singing of "From All That Dwell Below the Skies," to the tune of "Old Hundred." [42]

Communities to the northeast near the Missouri river again had

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the most pleasureful gatherings and the longest. In 1858, too, more of them kept the Fourth. Leavenworth had three separate events during the day of July 5 for its different groups of citizens, and at night, two dances: the Methodist Sunday schools with teachers and ministers held a picnic and patriotic exercises in South Leavenworth; Shields' Guards in full dress uniform had another program and refreshments in Cincinnati at the west city limits; the Turners marched to the Flora Gardens for the day, spending the morning in gymnastic exercises with stirring music and the afternoon in listening to an oration by J. P. Hatterscheidt and addresses by J. C. Vaughan and Dr. Chas. F. Kob. In the evening the Turners held a merry dance in the Stone building, and Shields' Guards had "a grand ball." The oration for the Turners told of the purposes of the Turner Bund to promote the moral, the social, and the political condition of members, showed the similarity of its principles to those of the Declaration of Independence, and pledged its best efforts for the well-being of the land. Most Germans, the orator asserted, had emigrated to the United States to fulfill their love of liberty. [43] Kickapoo planned a full day for July 5. Addresses by distinguished speakers were scheduled to be followed by a free barbecue and dance at noon time. Supper at the American Hotel was to precede a "magnificent ball" at night. [44] On the same day in Sumner the Turners were to march up Washington avenue to the gymnasium grounds where they were to engage in various exercises. They were also to read the Declaration of Independence and to listen to speeches. A new flag for the occasion drew forth a formal expression of thanks to the local merchants for the materials and the workmanship. "God bless the Germans," wrote the Sumner editor, D. D. Cone. "They are true to freedom." [45]

to Falls City, Neb., on July 5. The trip was to be by boat up the Nemaha river as far as practicable, thence by land conveyances to the exercises and a free dinner. The ferry boat White Cloud was fitted up for the occasion with a roofing over the stern, a soda fountain on board, and accommodations for 150 to 200 passengers. Fare was $1 the person. Taking on passengers at Forest City and Oregon, the boat left White Cloud at nine a. m. to return the same evening, but trouble with some of the braces on one of the wheels and later overhanging trees

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a drift finally stopped the boat about sundown before the party had reached Falls City and the "dinner." The captain sought the city by land and by two a. m. provisions had arrived. Passengers obtained a little sleep, despite the mosquitoes, and the party returned home the next day. [46]

The towns of Hamlin and Hiawatha kept the "glorious Fourth" for Brown county. Exercises through the day occurred in the grove of Benjamin Winkles at Hamlin. The Rev. R. D. Parker was one of several Speakers. Afterward, the collation, prepared by ladies of Hamlin, Padonia, and Carson, was "comme il faut." Singing by Peebles' quartette club made "a right happy time." At night twenty-five couples repaired to Hiawatha, the "shire" town, where they at once vowed

They'll not go home till morning,
Till daylight doth appear.

And they kept their word. All went off as "merry as a marriage bell." [47]

Monrovia had the most extensive celebration of all. From the adjacent countryside settlers thronged in on horseback, on foot, in heavy ox-wagons, and on a stone drag. In rural glory they danced the day in and they danced it out. Beginning on the evening of July 2, the ball in the new hotel "went briskly on" through the night and continued with constant new additions until noon of July 3. At twelve o'clock the dancers paused for a "bounteous repast." Then in shade provided by frames covered with green boughs of trees, on the banks of "silver-watered" Stranger creek, the assembly awaited the arrival of the three orators advertised to speak: J. H. Stringfellow, John P. Wheeler, and J. W. Whitfield. When no one of these appeared, the committee on arrangements supplied the defect by calling from the audience seven speakers who were present and whose "suddenly-conceived speeches" won enthusiastic applause. Among those men were J. G. McQuade, of Pennsylvania, A. D. Richardson, of Sumner, and S. J. H. Snyder, of Monrovia, poet of the occasion. During the entire program a matronly-looking woman, a Missourian, dressed in solemn black, sat in the midst of the gathering, "listening attentively, and calmly smoking a cigar!" After the exercises the more sober portion of the crowd "gathered in clusters" to discuss topics of passing interest. The younger portion repaired to the ball room where the music and dance "went lively on" through the night, impressing the Eastern corre-

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spondent, A. D. Richardson, as "a striking example of human endurance." Referring to the episode nine years later in his book, Beyond the Mississippi, he wrote that the Monrovians danced "perseveringly from Friday night until Sunday morning." [48]

The most Western Fourth of July record for the territory in 1858 came from Fontaine qui Bouille river near Pike's Peak where the Lawrence company of gold prospectors arrived on Independence day. The company consisted of 40 persons, among them Wm. B. Parsons. Having left Lawrence May 25, they camped in a grove of cottonwoods, near the present site of Fountain City, on the night of July 4. There they celebrated in "true frontier style," and Parsons, in "a spread-eagle speech," ventured to predict that some of the company would live to see "10,000 people in this region and a weekly mail." [49]

Meantime, the Lecompton party, which started ahead of the Lawrence company, spent the day on the site of what is now Denver. There, on July 3, they made a survey of streets, alleys, blocks, and lots, for a town of 640 acres and gave it the temporary name of "Mountain City." [50]

To the north, beyond the Medicine Bow Mountains, Company A engineers, en route from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Bridger, made a fatiguing march of fourteen and one-half miles through dust six inches deep in the unbroken sage brush country. "Not a green thing was visible," wrote Wm. P. Seville, "to cheer the aching eyes, half-blinded by the glaring light which was reflected by the heated sand." Encamping at night on the North Fork of the Platte, where bluffs of sandstone resembled the buildings of a city in outline, they had an unappetizing holiday supper of sage hen stew. A few of the men found a flat boat which upset, throwing them in the rapid current of the Platte and subjecting men and rifles to a cold bath. As partial protection from the mosquitoes the crew had worn handkerchiefs over their faces and gloves on their hands, but they suffered a considerable loss of blood, nevertheless.51

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1859

As the breeze from the mountain sweeps over the river,
So, chainless and free, shall our thoughts be for ever.
-J. G. Whittier. [52]

People kept the Fourth of July, 1859, independently. "And why not?" asked the New York Daily Tribune. "It is Independence day, and the largest possible measure of independence may justly be accorded in its observance." [53] Northern orations were few. In Boston George Sumner ventured to present new ideas of the relation of foreign governments to the American Revolution and to denounce the Dred Scott decision, so antagonizing the Boston common council that only after "acrimonious debate" did it pass a resolution of thanks by a vote of 25 to 17. [54] For its July 4 Worcester scheduled a floral procession for its juveniles. Several other Massachusetts towns also held flower festivals to inform children of the gratitude shown Washington at Trenton at the close of the Revolution when women dressed in white to greet him and children cast roses in his path. Framingham held its usual anti-slavery celebration at which Abolitionists found it good to be; Wendell Phillips was the "eloquent and scathing" orator and T. W. Higginson presided. In New York William Cullen Bryant disposed editorially of the calumnies against George Sumner for his impartial liberty. [55] In Buffalo Senator Doolittle of Wisconsin discussed the final destiny of the colored race in the United States, advocating its ultimate colonization in Central America. [56] In the orator's home state, however, the Wautoma (Wis.) Journal recommended that "in silent humility we penitently mourn over the deception which induced the false belief that we were either a free, a Christian, or a heroic people." [57] The Northern colony at Ceredo, Va., founded by Eli Thayer, celebrated its first Fourth merrily With a parade of "Antiques" and regular exercises with toasts.58 In the penitentiary at Washington, D. C., the convicts had a formal program with a murderer reading the Declaration of Independence, a forger making the address, and other evil-doers singing patriotic songs. [59]

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The South had two spokesmen of discordant views. Alexander H. Stephens, at Augusta, Ga., spoke for two hours to an enthusiastic audience. As he saw it, "Fanaticism might be spreading at the North, but Slavery is getting stronger, and will continue to get stronger, whether in the Union or out of it." He continued:

".. . there is very little prospect of the South settling any territory outside of Texas; in fact, little or no prospect at all, unless we increase our African stock." [60] On the other hand, Robert Barnwell Rhett, of South Carolina, held the South was already so enfeebled that sooner or later the death knell of the Union must toll [61]

Amid popping champagne corks enthusiastic South Carolinians at Hickory Grove toasted the African slave trade "regarded by some as a step towards dissolution. If it be that thus the Union will be dissolved, in God's name, we say, let the step be taken." [62] At Charleston, S. C., the governor himself forwarded the sentiment for "The 4th of July, 1861.-May that anniversary find us in the full enjoyment of equality in the Union, or a noble southern republic, commanding the respect and admiration of the world." [63]

Within Kansas territory people approached the Fourth of July, 1859, with gratitude and with hope. Were they to be worthy inheritors of the liberty established by their fathers, they must, once annually, call to mind the peculiar trials and triumphs of 1776. [64] Communities where border war had been rampant were thankful for the era of good feeling recently restored. [65] Elwood believed it "no bad occasion to quietly celebrate our own recently achieved territorial independence in conjunction with the national affair." [66] Lawrence "enlarged the Union" on its flag by the addition of two new stars representing Minnesota. and Oregon. With "Kansas still knocking," G. W. Brown hoped by the next Fourth that another star would be added for her. [67] G. O. Chase believed it took "Young America, after all, to arouse the drooping patriotism of the country." [68] The proposed sale of three million acres of Kansas land promised, too, to revive lagging national interest in the territory. [69] Lawrence had a gay Fourth in 1859. Bells were rung; guns were

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fired; flags were displayed. At night citizens set off fireworks. Three events made the day unforgetable. Mabie's circus of "fine living specimens of wild animals" and clever clowns gave three exhibitions at a pavilion. "Our country cousins were in in immense numbers, and the elephants, the tall woman, the fat man, the serpents, and the monkeys were almost stared out of countenance. The circus had a fat day, and the men who had the gold watch and trinket raffles had a rich harvest of halves and quarters." The gallant military company, the Stubbs, held a parade, led by their own band of four drums; the men made an especially neat appearance in black frocks, white pants, blue sashes, and fatigue caps. They carried their original Sharps rifles. An unexpected explosion of fireworks in the show window of Frazer and Hughes in the Eldridge House caused a sudden display and a terrific cracking. All the combustibles in the window burned, damaging watches, clocks, jewelry, and fine instruments; the loss amounted to $400 or $500. [70]

Topeka kept the day in new way for the territory. The booming of cannon wakened citizens long before daybreak to prepare for a balloon ascension. Business houses closed part of the day, but opened after noon to accommodate country folk who wished to trade. "The spirit was here on the Fourth." People had an exceedingly good time. At night the young folk "figured extensively" in an elaborate display of fireworks. [71]

Tecumseh held an all-day program in a grove near Copeland Spring east of town. The exercises, all markedly patriotic, included readings, an oration, several talks, and the singing of a glee to the tune of "Hail Columbia." James M. Newsom and J. S. Ridley were the most eloquent speakers. Toasts and sentiments both preceded and followed the "magnificent dinner" to which people were summoned by a bell. The toast to the memory of John Adams was "drank in silence," but to the state of Oregon, for which a new star was tacked to the banner above the speakers' rostrum, the response was tumultuous applause. Thirty-two guns were fired here in honor of the states. At sundown the assembly disbanded to prepare for the evening ball in the illuminated courthouse; for the Tribune correspondent this event was a failure, music not stirring so strong a feeling in him as patriotism. "Sic transit gloria die." But he who wrote for the Herald of Freedom noted that the dance lasted until

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the grey streaks of dawn, and added that only the location of the capitol at Tecumseh could make the people rejoice so much again. [72] Auburn had a parade of the Auburn Guards with drill and exercises to martial music supplied by Auburn and Burlingame. Patriotic exercises followed in the hall, and the band played "Yankee Doodle" creditably. The dinner, in the dining room of the hotel, "spoke well for the untiring efforts of our worthy landlord, Daniel Foltz." Toasts interspersed with music provided a pleasant afternoon in the hall. A display of fireworks and an orderly dance for the youngsters were the entertainments of the evening. [73]

Nearly every community about Emporia kept the Fourth in some special way for the "hardy and intelligent settlers." In Emporia itself people planned to dance, sing, speak, read, and eat big dinners to "work off their `pent up patriotik phelinks."' The Rev. E. Evans invited the community at large to hear a religious lecture by himself and an address by the Rev. Mr. Fraker. Five prominent citizens, L. D. Bailey, P. B. Plumb, A. G. Procter, L. T. Heritage, and D. Alexander, went on a hunting and exploring expedition to the Walnut, Whitewater, and Cow creek countries, stopping at Chelsea for Mr. Bailey to deliver a Fourth of July oration. The Chelsea program of formal exercises in the grove followed by a dinner, passed off quietly. Forest Hill planned a picnic. W. H. Mickel of Waterloo gave a cotillion party on the evening of the Fourth, with supper "one of the best we have set down to in Kansas." Fremont held an all-day gathering, noteworthy for "no swearing, no whisky, and no fighting." A procession and formal exercises preceded a "feast of fat things" so abundant that not half of what was provided was eaten on the ground. Of the sixteen toasts one is now of interest: "The citizens of Kansas, . . . Too proud to beg admission into the Union-too courteous to decline it if honestly offered." [74] Although Cottonwood Falls had no formal observance of the Fourth, many of the citizens remembered the day in becoming manner. The firing of guns and the ringing of cow bells greeted the dawn. Pertinent speeches and toasts, drunk in cold water, were other holiday features. [75]

On a journey to Wyandotte, July 4, 1859, S. N. Wood, editor of The Kansas Press, "spent 45 miles of the best Fourth" he ever saw. Sleeping on the floor, fighting bed bugs, and dining on "slap jacs" along the way, made him think of Washington and his hardships on

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the Delaware. At Uniontown [76] at noon he found 500 prosperous-looking men, women, and children listening to an oration that concluded with the "startling announcement that `there is a great deal of political corruption in the country,' which remark we understood applied only to Johnson county, and the populous town of Oxford." [77] J. Lockhart, of Uniontown, wrote that the celebration was two-fold: Sabbath-school and national. The Reverends Mr. Beach of Olathe and Mr. Storrs of St. Louis spoke for the school; Dr. W. A. Brown and the Hon. P. Graves of Uniontown were the orators. The collation, "of the luxuries of life," provided by the women, was abundant, the sixty-foot table being burdened at four different times. [78] The number of groceries in Uniontown surprised the visiting editor, S, N. Wood, who journeying on, had tea in Olathe and arrived at Shawnee at dark. There at the Shawnee House a large cotillion party was "trip[p]ing the light fantastic toe" to the tune of "Washington's Grand March." White folk and Indians united in the dance. "At midnight we `set down' (or rather stood up) to one of the best suppers ever gotten up in Kansas." At one or two o'clock he retired, this time to a couch.

Another traveler in the territory in 1859, the Rev. Nathan Taylor, wrote that "on Monday morning about 5 o'clock, in company with a number of others, en route for Leroy, to celebrate the 4th, I started [from Ottumwa and] got to Bro. Earnhea[r]ts at 2 o'clock." The day being remarkably warm, the traveler was exceedingly glad to reach a place where he might rest his weary limbs and refresh his exhausted frame. So, he presumed, was Bill, his horse. [79]

One-year-old Humboldt planned a celebration on a large scale, to "wind up" with a ball at the Humboldt House, kept by Barbee and Sphar. Invitation cards went out to citizens of southern Kansas. [80]

Fort Scott boasted of a "Vast concourse" collecting in the Plaza in the early morning of the holiday to hear roaring cannon, spirit-stirring drums, ear-piercing fife, exploding Chinese crackers, and shouting, laughing youth. At 11 o'clock the people marched to martial music to grounds set apart for formal, patriotic exercises. Next they "addressed themselves" to a dinner spread by "the fair ones" on board tables that groaned with substantials and delicacies. Then

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they listened to fourteen regular toasts, each of which was followed by different patriotic music. Two toasts were singularly appropriate:

Our Own Kansas.-Emancipated from the reckless domination of unprincipled demagogues and their minions of both extremes. . . . Music, "Rural Felicity."
The Union of the States.-Forever palsied be the hand, that would seek to break the ties which bind them in a sacred brotherhood. . . . Music, "Firm United Let Us Stand."

At dusk the assembly dispersed, some to their homes, some to the ball and banquet in the Fort Scott Hotel. There the gallant and gay from every part of Bourbon county, "chased the glowing hours with flying feet, until after the `Wee short hour ayont the twal.' " So successful was the day's entertainment that visitors went away believing "that a portion at least, of the citizens of Fort Scott, were neither BORDER RUFFIANS nor JAYHAWKERS." [81]

Linn county communities with the exception of Brooklin united in one celebration in a grove one and one-half miles from Moneka. The people were "well-dressed, respectable and intelligent," a large portion being "fine looking women." T. Dwight Thacher of Lawrence was the orator, using for his theme not the freedom of the American nation but the manner of acquiring that freedom. A military band furnished stirring music. Over 800 people partook of the free dinner served from long tables arranged to enclose a circle and "tastefully adorned" with bouquets of wild prairie flowers. John O. Wattles was toastmaster. The sentiments were "piquant and appropriate." One, to Capt. James Montgomery as "a model hero of modern times," elicited rapturous cheers. Montgomery, as marshal of the day, responded, reviewing the struggle of southeastern Kansas to become free of the slave power. No man stood higher in Linn county, said the visiting editor-orator, "than the brave though persecuted James Montgomery." [82]

Leavenworth had a hot, oppressive Fourth. To the Lawrence correspondent, "Wauzee," the city only half-roused from its Van Winklish dormancy for any of the holiday events. The firing of cannon preceded "the plumed troop, the neighing steed and all the quality, pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war," visible from the Esplanade. Then people whistled "Yankee Doodle," eulogized the flag, glorified the American eagle, and tried to drown their own discomfort in sherry cobblers and lager. At noon the city ran out of ice and the von Swartz thermometer "bust." The Hibernian Associa-

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tion dancing upon the hills beyond South Leavenworth looked like water-nymphs. "Towards evening three small boys let off a firecracker, and a gentleman on Delaware street attempted to read the Declaration of Independence but relapsed into a placid slumber on arriving at the seventh line." A Dutchman tried to institute a sausage lottery but his speculation fizzled. At the National at night, in a performance of Macbeth, Shakespeare shared the fate of Duncan and Banquo. [83]

At the Delaware crossing of the Kaw river a volunteer orator entertained his "feller-citizens" with the question as to who "on this prognostic anniversary" can sit supinely down and not revert "to the great epochs of the Revolution-to the blood be-spangled plains of Bunker Hill, Lexington, New Orleans, Boney Vista, and Black Jack," and not follow the heroes of those times to the enjoyment of present-day privileges that "fall like heavenly dew on every American citizen, from the forests of Maine to the everglades of Florida, and from the fisheries of the Atlantic coasts to the yellow banks of Pike's Peak." Cheers and prolonged shouts followed each local allusion. Then the crowd repaired to the corner grocery for a free treat. [84]

Atchison kept the Fourth in two ways in 1859. Business men generally closed their shops. The Sunday schools had a procession under the direction of Gen. S. C. Pomeroy to a grove for exercises and "a sumptuous dinner . . . for Old and Young America." In the evening "the beauty and fashion of the city" joined in a dance at the Massasoit House. [85]

Elwood had exercises of more political significance than any other Kansas community. F. P. Stanton was the orator of the day. D. W. Wilder read the Declaration of Independence. Plans for the day were elaborate. A salute of 33 guns and the ringing of bells announced the advent of the Fourth, and fireworks at night concluded the entertainment. The ferry ran free, allowing every one to cross and recross with "not a cent out." The "good old-fashioned Free Dinner" was provided by city council appropriation and citizen subscription. Although the wide reputation of the orator did not actually draw so large an attendance as Elwood had prepared for, the great mass of citizens "from our own back country" gratified the editor who wrote in approval of ex-Secretary Stanton, his ability, and most of his utterances, but not of his position on slavery. Reference to slavery as "God-ordained" and as of "temporary service"

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to the nation, led the editor to conclude the oration would not meet with general approval in the North or in the South.

The orator had argued, however, that the institution would ultimately disappear; the political constitution of the people, he said, would do away with it as an obstacle to progress. He would now leave the disputed question to the territories to be settled, there as elsewhere, by the people; "even if this [privilege] be not a matter of absolute right, it is a small concession to be made for the sake of peace and harmony." He added that he did not believe that the South would ever re-open the African slave trade to "fill our country with cannibal Africans." At the end he urged upon the people forbearance for the sake of the Union, in emulation of the spirit of its founders. [86]

The observance farthest west in 1859 was in Denver. W. H. Goode, who spent his third Fourth of July in Kansas territory there, wrote of the occasion as "the first Rocky Mountain celebration of our national independence." The formal exercises consisted of prayer, reading of the Declaration of Independence, "a chaste and appropriate oration," enlivening band music, and a benediction. Absence of all drinking, swearing, and carousing was gratifying to the missionary who elsewhere described Denver as having 150 houses and shanties with liquor stands in abundance and gambling on large scale. [87] Near Golden City, A. F. Garrison, writing on July 4, however, did not even note the significance of the day, so impressed was he by the thrifty scene around Gregory's diggings where within six square miles there were from 400 to 600 cabins, and where at least 10,000 men were at work mining daily from $30,000 to $50,000. [88] Toward Jackson's diggings, Sylvester Davis noted that "the Miners burnt some Powder this Morning but worked about all day & some of them untill 12 o'clock at night." Prospecting had not paid in this neighborhood, yielding but 10 to 30 cents the pan [89] Still in the Rockies but farther west, en route from Laramie to South Pass, on his overland journey, Horace Greeley spent an unhappy Fourth, being ill from having drunk bad creek water and from having lost his trunk and carpet bag in Sweetwater river. "I would rather have sunk a thousand dollars there," he wrote. [90]

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1860

A band of FREEMEN we go forth
To battle with the foe;
From East to West, from South to North,
We'll lay the monster low:
We'll lay the monster low; hurrah!
We'll lay the monster low;
From East to West, from South to North,
We'll lay the monster low.
-R. Thayer [91]

In 1860 the approaching national campaign colored the Fourth of July celebrations throughout the country, including the territory of Kansas. The Philadelphia (Pa..) Ledger noted that "the penny- a-liners who write Fourth of July orations to order" found the demand limited this year. [92] At the North, however, there was no dearth of patriotic talk, of slightly more independent origin. As ever before, it all reverted to the "Faith of the Fathers," expressed in the Declaration of Independence, but the reversions now were avowedly political and Republican. In the campaign documents of the new party the penny-a-liners might well have found their rival in the North. At the South, though, the Fourth of July had lost its natural savor. The principles of the Declaration no longer had significance enough there for sincere remembrance. Notations of Southern holiday events were, in consequence, few and but doubtfully patriotic.

Kansas was still a bone of political contention. Two successive federal administrations had failed to make her a slave state. The house had now voted to admit the territory under her own constitution, but the senate committee on territories, under the chairmanship of Sen. James S. Green, refused to recommend the bill unless the boundaries were changed to include again the Rocky Mountain gold region. He claimed Kansas would be a weak, inefficient state without the western desert. The Republicans asserted this position was but a "low pettifogging trick" of the Sham Democratic party, the real reason for their opposition lying in Kansas' having "turned out not only a Free-Labor but a Republican State." "To make her stretch like a tape-worm over tens of thousands of square miles of woodless, waterless desert, . . . consecrated by eternal fitness as well as immemorial use to the lean wolf, the prairie-dog; and the rattle-snake," was to Horace Greeley,

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"a dodge at once atrocious and contemptible." The people of would-be Kansas had by their constitutional action, rejected this naked waste; the Pike's Peakers were vehemently repugnant to the idea of being linked at all in statehood with Kansas. To the editor, the senatorial plan was but a flimsy, transparent "thimble-rig" of the Democratic party to continue the wholesale system of fraud begun in the squatter-sovereignty clause of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. [93] Silence on the Fourth of July, 1860, was, therefore, expedient for the Democrats; but so nearly did public sentiment through the North approach unanimity with the main doctrines of the Republican party that spokesmen generally felt it no discourtesy there to speak out. So germane to the occasion were their views that they believed they spoke the truth, not as partisans but as brothers.

Massachusetts boasted of keeping the Fourth better than any other section of the country. Edward Everett, in a right-about-face now declared the American experiment successful. George Lunt attributed all progressive social and political revolutions to the free discussion provided by the press. C. F. Adams saw an excellent opportunity to crush out squatter sovereignty and all its supporters. Henry Wilson agreed with Lincoln that we must as a nation regard slavery as wrong. Charles Sumner thought that the time had come to make "natural rights . . . legal rights." [94]

Lincoln's son, Robert, read the Declaration of Independence at Stratham Hill, N. H. [95] At Montpelier, Vt., a small girl remembered that Kansas deserved a banner in the circlet of "thirty-four." [96] New York was variously mindful of the national anniversary in 1860. Celebrations ranged from tight-rope ascensions in fire over Niagara to jubilant praise of liberty. Newspaper correspondence revived Douglas' remark that the signers of the Declaration must have referred to the white race alone and not to the African in declaring all men created free and equal. G. W. Curtis, in "The Faith of the Fathers," declared that the equality of men was the eternal, essential American idea. [97] At North Elba friends of freedom from far and wide gathered over the grave of John Brown. Thaddeus Hyatt was the orator; Richard J. Hinton also spoke as an Abolitionist. [98]

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In far-away California the Rev. T. Starr King believed the United States was now "in the forenoon of the glorious day." [99] In Nebraska territory, however, an inglorious Indian raid characterized this Fourth, Sioux Indians attacking and destroying the Pawnee village at Genoa when nearly all the Pawnee braves were absent. [100]

In the South the press generally wrote extravagantly of lighthearted, care-free celebrations, [101] but The Tobacco Plant of Clarksville, Va., hoped the case of the master who on July 4 whipped his Negro woman Jane to death, tying her to a tree at eight o'clock and flogging her at intervals until eleven o'clock, would appear less shocking and barbarous when the facts were known. [102] In Washington President Buchanan passed the Fourth in the executive mansion, unintruded upon "by the people, being left to seriously contemplate the present distracted State of the country, and the disgrace which his unfortunate Administration has brought upon it." [103]

Within Kansas territory itself twenty-five communities are recorded as having planned to keep the day appropriately. William Hutchinson wrote that the observances were wanting in enthusiasm, the citizens naturally asking, "What have we as Kansas men to celebrate on that day?" [104] Nevertheless, editors and orators reasserted the American principles of 1776, and they urged the inculcation in territorial youth of the same eighty-four old doctrines. Through May and June the local press agitated suitable celebration. Topeka wanted an old-fashioned festival to kindle anew the fires of patriotism and to show her loyalty to the union; she also feared that otherwise her youth would "find a place of deposit for a couple of hundred dollars in loose change, in Auburn, Tecumseh, or some other sea-port." [105] The "Southerners" at Indianola who had found out for what the Fourth was remarkable had fixed for "one grand celebration" to dedicate their lives anew to the glorious cause. [106] Burlington tried to make every man and woman a committee of one to impress holiday visitors with its hospitality; for guidance of its youth, the editor wanted to "let the germs be inoculated with the ideas of Union, Liberty, and Progress!" [107] The editor of the Fort

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Scott Democrat explained that the "lack of matter in this week's paper" was due to its being Fourth of July week.108 Iola planned magnificently to entertain a "multitude," including the citizens of Fort Scott. For its "dancing men" it arranged a cotillion party, as did Mound City. [109] In Lawrence one editor would "upon this national Sabbath, let us `to the law and to the testimony' to establish us immovably in the faith of our fathers." [110] And Wyandotte would assemble its patriots to demonstrate the impossibility of dissolving the union. [111]

Citizens of Bloomington kept the Fourth of July, 1860, with much spirit, but without firecrackers or drunkenness. Convening in the walnut grove of J. C. Steele at an early hour, they had a morning program, a basket picnic, volunteer toasts, an afternoon address, and an evening dance. The morning prayer of the Rev. John Copeland thanked God for liberty enjoyed and implored Him for the blessing to be extended to the millions in our own land wickedly deprived of it. The oration of T. D. Thacher [112] embraced a rapid survey of the progress made by our country in territorial expansion, commerce and art, useful inventions, literature, including the press, and of the progress of liberal sentiments throughout the world during the period of our national existence. In a short, spirited address to children and youth the Rev. Richard Cordley inculcated the idea that character is at the bottom of all true progress and greatness. At noon the assemblage separated into a hundred little groups more or less, to enjoy unrestrainedly the foods each had provided. The toasts were to "The Day We Celebrate," to "The Heroes of '76, and the Kansas Heroes of '56," to "The Pacific Railroad," to "The Territory of Kansas and Its Natural Beauty," and to "The Freedom of the Press." The afternoon address by Judge John A. Wakefield was of political cast, in favor of Lincoln; the speaker knew Lincoln personally, both having fought in the Black Hawk war. The large, airy upper room of the steam mill was setting for the Independence dance. [113]

Baldwin City also had a day and evening celebration. Students of Baker University were in high glee, tedious examinations just being over. At dawn of the morning of the Fourth "the boys with

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their Sunday coats, bright eyes, horses, drums, and other fixings were up, out, and eager for the sport." At nine o'clock the camp ground and grove took on an academic appearance as college faculty, students, a dozen or so clergy, and Gen. J. H. Lane, orator of the day, arrived for the forenoon exercises. Students described as "in fine trim for the rostrum," delivered orations and read essays, interspersed with vocal and instrumental music, which was good but not adequate "for the open air on a windy day." In the afternoon General Lane "did his best, and he can do considerable when he tries. Some of the ladies thought his eulogy upon woman a little suspicious, because so lavishly put on." Later in the afternoon processions arrived from Prairie City and Blackjack. In the evening "Mrs. President Davis gave a party to the Philoputhean Society and visitors . . . which was a grand time." [114]

Three-year-old Blackjack gathered 800 or 900 enterprising energetic people from the surrounding thickly-dotted prairies for its all-day festival. At sunrise people began to assemble. At nine o'clock they raised a pole for the flag of the Union. The Sunday school of Blackjack, headed by the band, welcomed visiting Sunday schools with greetings and cheers. At 10:30 the Rev. Mr. Aspenwall of Palmyra made an address to the Sunday school children "replete with good moral instructions to the youth, and very appropriate to the occasion." Dr. O'Neil spoke to them on the principles of civil liberty and the Declaration of Independence. At twelve Marshal S. H. Shaw and Capt. D. Fearer escorted the audience to an arbor where a free dinner was served under the management of Colonel Jewitt of Leavenworth. After numerous toasts, read by the secretary, the people formed "a grand march" to Baldwin City to escort the speaker of the afternoon, General Lane, to Blackjack. About thirty wagons, several buggies, and other vehicles, accommodating over 500 passengers, joined in the march. On their return all sat comfortably in the shaded arbor to listen to the Declaration of Independence, read by A. W. Smith, and the hour address of General Lane, delivered "amid the plaudits of his hearers." [115]

At Gardner, Johnson county, the Hon. John Lockhart, in a Fourth of July talk, reviewed the history of American Independence, discussed the obligations and responsibilities upon citizens of all times, and challenged youth to rise to responsibility from low positions as have Henry Clay, Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Webster, and Benjamin Franklin. [116]

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The Fourth of July in Topeka, in spite of all preliminary editorial exhortations to patriotism, proved unusually quiet, most citizens going to neighboring towns for the day. A few family groups marked the occasion in their own domiciles, apparently believing that

Mid pleasures and palaces although we may roam,
Be it ever rso humble, there is no place like home. [117]

To the editor of the Tribune the day seemed so remarkably still that "unmistakable sensations of ennui were visible in all who . . . were seen in the street." Five packs of firecrackers and five rockets constituted the fireworks. "The most entertaining feature of the day was a spotted dog which we saw running down the avenue. He hadn't any tail, but we thought he had ought not to be blamed for that, and remarked the same to a friend, who said he thought as much." [118] In the evening the women of Topeka gave a well attended festival in Museum Hall from which they realized $60 toward the re-erection of the Congregational church. [119]

Celebrations near by that especially attracted the citizenry of Topeka were those at Tecumseh, Rochester, Indianola, and Auburn. The "camp ground" near Tecumseh creek, where a Methodist conference was in session "eclipsed" all other Fourth of July celebrations about. The place was a "gay, sprightly land of mirth and social joy," with a goodly gathering, ranging from rosy-cheeked juveniles to grey-haired, wrinkle-faced age. The Sunday school children of Topeka carried a "beautiful banner" made by the Topeka church. [120] At Rochester the people enjoyed a quiet picnic in an oak and walnut grove on the bank of Soldier creek; it was "just the place for a `feast of reason and a flow of soul.' " Indianola held a free barbecue in which nearly one thousand people participated. Both the food and the patriotic speeches were reported as abundant. [121] A "phite" supplied part of the "phun," in which Topeka folk invested heavily. Some Indianola gentlemen had engaged "W. Hisky and B. Randy." [122] Samuel J. Reader reviewed the day's events tellingly in his diary.

Up early. Fired cannon in town 10 or 12 times & played drum & fife. I blew on clarionet & flute. Shot revolver, rifle & shot gun. . . . The

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flag rope cut. I helped carry water. . . . All formed in procession. All on ground. Not seats enough. . . . Button prayed long & loud; then Jack Thompson got up and read his awfully sublime speech of 24 pages. Very tedious. Got done at last. Old Mathews got me to hold the drum while he beat. . . . A fat Rev. Spoke a few minutes, then all to tables. I waited till there was room. Got bread and meat. Scarce at that. . . . A ball at Pucket's. "Sarpint" here yet. . . [123]

Auburn varied the usual routine of a patriotic Fourth of July celebration by unrolling for the first time to spectators the "Panorama of Kansas," a part of a 3,000 square yard canvas painting delineating Kansas villages and scenery. "Auburn was all smiles on the occasion . . . winding up with a ball in the evening." [124]

Three-year-old Mission creek settlement, twenty miles west of Topeka, held formal patriotic exercises, followed by a bountiful picnic collation, "highly creditable to the originators, and still more satisfactory to the eaters." A never-to-be-forgotten dance on the flowery green concluded the entertainment. The State Record described the event as "a real mass celebration," every individual in the settlement being present to the number of nearly 300. [125]

Emporia planned long for a proper celebration of July 4, 1860. Every one was invited to participate, even in the arrangements. Breckinridge (now Lyon) county was on hand en masse; Madison, Chase, and Morris counties sent numerous representatives. Among the officers of the day were twelve vice-presidents from twelve different towns. The festivities occupied the entire day and evening. Three bowers constructed for the occasion provided shelter for the speaking, for the dinner, and for the dancing. People came "singly, in couples, and crowds," from a 35-mile radius. From twenty-five hundred to three thousand persons were in attendance. A formal program occupied the morning. J. H. Watson was the orator. The dinner was "unexceptionable," in kind, in preparation, and in quantity with considerable bread, beef, ham, and chicken to spare. Politics had its place among the Democrats of Breckinridge county who met and moved to regard with contempt the appointment of E. Goddard, Republican, as deputy marshal of Breckinridge and Madison counties. A display of fireworks constituted general evening entertainment. Fifty couples of young folk enjoyed the dance until the "wee sma' hours." High wind unexpectedly prevented the ascension of a large paper balloon, constructed for the occasion by George

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Wait. So impressive was the anniversary gathering of three-year-old Emporia that prospectors recently come from the states resolved to look no further for locations. [126]

In Manhattan the various religious denominations united in a Sunday school picnic on the Fourth. In the morning the children marched to the spacious, umbrageous grove of T. J. Roosa to listen to a program that was both religious and patriotic, to enjoy refreshments supplied by each family present, to hear toasts and sentiments, and to participate in a "general sing." At night Messrs. Beebe and Briggs gave a successful ball in the Peoples' Hall. Messrs. Pipher and Newell assisted on the floor. The cool evening, the silvery moonlight, the commodious, brilliantly-illuminated hall, and the temporary restaurant dispensing ice cream and other delicate luxuries all conspired to satisfy the seventy-five happy couples present. Many of the guests came from neighboring towns. [127]

Citizens of Wabaunsee listened to a Fourth of July oration, prepared on less than a week's notice, by W. C. Dunton of the Manhattan bar. After reviewing the establishment of the Union, the speaker read from the letter of John Adams of July 5, 1776, in which he predicted the celebration of the Fourth by the firing of cannon, by bonfires, and by illuminations. The speaker then praised the individual members of the Continental Congress who "still live-live in our institutions and in the hearts of our countrymen." The Manhattan editor recommended the perusal of the elegant Fourth of July oration. [128]

Junction City planned an appropriate celebration for itself and vicinity. A procession through the city streets was to lead to the park where a patriotic program was to take place. Maj. W. W. Herbert was the chosen orator; he accepted but apologized, in advance, "for being, most likely, unable to entertain you on that occasion." The procession was to return from the park to the hall where J. F. Schmidt would serve the collation. The toast committee consisted of Dr. J. B. Woodward, J. R. McClure, S. B. Garrett, and Sam A. Medary. The Fort Riley band was to render appropriate music. [129]

At the residence of Harry Custard on Drywood, near Fort Scott, was an enthusiastic patriotic celebration. Under an arbor of refresh-

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ing shade were tables "laden with substantials and delicacies sufficient to have fed a crowd five times as large as the one there assembled." In one corner the host dealt out ice-cold lemonade and other beverages to thirsty customers. M. A. Redfield of Vernon county, Missouri, presided over the program of several speeches, impromptu toasts, and music. Two of the toasts seem now of especial significance for the place and the year.

Our Country.--May she always be right; but right or wrong-our country.
New England.-- The father and birthplace of Freedom, and KanSas the youngest child and pet.

Fireworks intended for the occasion exploded accidentally but without injury to any one. "A merry dance in the evening, and a moonlight drive home," wrote the Fort Scott reporter, "terminated our patriotic labors." [130]

Iola had a model celebration with free barbecue dinner served from tables 168 feet long. Ice-cold lemonade flowed "free as water." Two thousand people were in attendance. Good feeling was manifest. The procession at 10 o'clock, composed of two- and four-horse teams, was one and one-fourth miles long. C. P. Twiss of Iola was president of the day. William Jones was marshal. C. W. Blair of Fort Scott was the orator. Music by the Carlile and Iola glee clubs interspersed a program of thirteen toasts and sentiments. "A large and interesting concourse of ladies" gave spirit to the occasion. A "hop" in the evening at the Ross House, with "elegant refection" that was recherche, concluded the festivities. [131]

Wyandotte arranged for an assembly of patriots at Castle Garden in 1860 to demonstrate the impossibility of dissolving the union of states. The neighboring towns of Leavenworth, Atchison, Kansas City, and Westport were invited to attend. Gov. Wm. Walker was to preside. Salutes of thirty-three guns were to be fired at daybreak and again at sunrise. A procession to form at Garno House under the direction of Marshal J. R. Parr and four assistants was to promenade to the grove where Gov. J. P. Root would read the Declaration of Independence and Wm. Y. Roberts would deliver the oration. The Wyandotte glee club and brass band would supply the music. The grand national ball at night would be in Castle Garden Hall. [132] At sunset on the evening of the Fourth a severe wind and hailstorm sweeping up the Missouri river, blew down a building and

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tree and damaged one span of the Kaw river bridge in Wyandotte and wrought considerable destruction in Quindaro. [133]

At Columbus, Doniphan county, the citizens on two days' notice arranged a barbecue, a procession, and a patriotic program for the Fourth. By 10 o'clock the crowd gathered in the streets "bringing their gifts to the altar of their common country." The brass band "discoursed eloquent music." Dr. S. Brown was president of the day. L. Silence read the Declaration. With "unalloyed satisfaction" the people listened to the orator, E. J. Jenkins, in patriotic vindication of the principles and purposes of the fathers of the Republic. [134]

Although Elwood began early to make plans to entertain three thousand visitors on the Fourth, it abandoned its arrangement in deference to St. Joseph. At night, however, it had a pleasant party at the Great Western, though heavy showers diminished the attendance. Through the day the town had the excitement of a robbery; one Hiram Howell stole a valuable gold watch of one Absalom Grooms and an officer was in pursuit of the thief. The Elwood editor who spent the day in St. Joseph reported "the jolliest set of knock-downs we have ever witnessed. Knives and revolvers were scattered round loose, and everybody had a good time." [135]

Monrovia planned a plain, unpretentious celebration. It invited the Sunday schools and some private individuals from Atchison and Grasshopper Falls. At 10 o'clock on the public square a procession of officers, children with their teachers, ladies and gentlemen on foot in double line, buggies, and wagons, moved down main street to the grove. They had ample supplies of ice-water and of food in baskets. For four hours, two before and two after dinner, "this large assembly of all ages, from the hoary head down to the nestling infant," gave "noiseless attention" to the exercises. Rope swings suspended from the trees took the place of crackers and guns. Mr. Snyder, superintendent of the Sunday school and General Pomeroy of Atchison made addresses. The occasion seemed a general neighborhood reunion, so pure and kindly was the social intercourse. [136] White Cloud also had a Sunday school gathering. Citizens, outsiders, and strangers joined in the morning exercises in the grove south of town. The Rev. Mr. Trickett of Holt county, Missouri, addressed the children. V. D. Markham delivered the oration. The choir rendered vocal music. At the dinner "there were by far more

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consumers than producers." At night the Odd Fellows had a ball at the City Hotel, for which the ferry boat brought guests and a martial band from Forest City and Oregon. The large company danced "until broad daylight," July 5. The supper was "A, No. 1." [137]

Atchison did not keep July 4, 1860, in any public way, but some of its citizens attended a pleasant picnic party in a grove on Deer creek. Others enjoyed events at Mt. Pleasant, St. Joseph, or Leavenworth. [138] One happening in Atchison, however, made the day memorable for the citizens who stayed at home. The steam wagon, built in the winter of 1859-1860 by Thomas L. Fortune of Mt. Pleasant, to expedite overland travel, made a trial trip on the city streets, July 4. The wagon was 20 feet long by eight feet wide, with wheels 12 inches wide and eight feet in diameter. Ornamented with flags and loaded with a crowd of anxious men and boys, the conveyance traveled along the street safely until it failed to turn a corner and ran into A. S. Parker's outfitting house, breaking in the side of the one-story cottonwood structure. A second engineer then backed the wagon into the street and guided it into open stretches where it made a speed of eight miles an hour. On soft ground, however, when standing still, the ponderous wheels sank so deeply into the mud that use for prairie travel was impracticable. The spectators were disappointed, and Mr. Fortune, the inventor, was disgusted after his great expenditure of time and money. [139]

New settlements in the Rocky Mountain gold region kept the Fourth generally. However far from home, immigrants there had not wandered beyond the pale of "that good old national institution, the Fourth of July." "The best of spirits prevailed among the miners," wrote A. D. Richardson to the New York Tribune, but "I allude to the animal spirits, and not to the atrocious whisky which circulated freely." To the Lawrence Republican he said that the large amount of bad whisky made the hilarity somewhat boisterous. The exercises embraced orations and social festivities. Golden City decorated a spacious hall "with the aromatic boughs of the fir and pine, fresh from the mountains which overhang the town." There addresses by former residents of eastern Kansas supplied the rhetorical patriotism and the women of Golden City provided an excellent free dinner. In Denver both religious folk and desperadoes marked

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the day. Guns fired a national salute at dawn, at noon, and at sunset. A procession of Sabbath school children, of Masons and German Turners in uniform, of ladies riding in a dozen carriages, and of band, paraded the streets to Parkinson's grove to listen to an oration by Mayor John C. Moore and to see the presentation of a flag by the ladies of Denver to the pioneer club. The president of the club, who was the oldest inhabitant, having actually dwelt in Denver "something more than twelve months," responded. At noon the children enjoyed a rich collation. On the race course in the afternoon James Ennis, a gambler from Camp Floyd, shot and wounded John Teef dangerously. By aid of his fellow gamblers who gave him a mile on which to leave the country, the desperado escaped arrest. The episode made Denver consider formation of a vigilance committee. 140 In the Pike's Peak region Indian depredations had led a committee to wait upon the Arapahoes and to ask the Secretary of War for a government agent. "One humane individual was in favor of celebrating `the Fourth' by `wiping out' all the Indians; but the original suggestion was not adopted." [141]

1861

Yet better than they think men sometimes act;
They strike for symbols, and the world gains truth;
If these draw back the nation to her youth,
With half her stars and all her faith intact,
Something is gained to Freedom which we want:
Each boldly claims for self a sovereign throne;
And that "a man's a man" 's a truth, alone
Worth some grand sacrifice, we widely grant.
-A. P. C. [142]

The Fourth of July, 1861, was generally conceded to be the most important anniversary of the day in the history of the nation; and it was also the most significant for Kansas, for on January 29 she had at last acquired her statehood. Facing the nation was the question of its continuance as the United States; and confronting Kansas now was the responsibility of sharing in the military defense of the Union. Everywhere people awaited the dawn of the Fourth seriously. Even the gayer features of the traditional celebrations took on deeper import. Music was martial and prolific. Powder was no longer an idle plaything; flags, drums, crackers now evoked no

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sneers; reading of the Declaration of Independence was no where this day a funny old joke. Liberty and right were real, personal desires today; and the sacrifices of the Fathers entailed actual human suffering. Every feature of the 1861 anniversary stirred active sympathy. [143]

The English press saw more appreciatively the full meaning of the situation than did the domestic writers. "Nothing like this Fourth of July," said the London News, "was indeed ever before seen." Hitherto the hot summer day had opened similarly from end to end of the Union. Although in the North young citizens had made the rejoicings and in the South slaves had draped the flags and put up the inscriptions to liberty which they could not read, both sections had too generally been content with a glorification in which some Pharisee exulted hypocritically in the free, united American nation. A few Northern Abolitionists had alone refused to countenance such deception. Today the whole North had come around to their point of view; and the Free States had risen as a man to defend the political organization of the country. The South, with its heads of families already in camp, now trembled between the alternatives of its own military despotism and submission to the national constitution; yet to its people, too, this Fourth of July, emblematic of danger, pain, and sacrifice, was "a proud and happy day." [144] In Washington, where military tents whitened every eminence , [145] William Howard Russell, correspondent of the London Times, saw the incongruity of grave-faced men carrying long wands with bulging, bright-colored rockets on the eve of the Fourth that was to assemble the most important congress in American history, the thirty-seventh. On the day itself unaccustomed martial pomp filled public streets as New York regiments passed in review before President Lincoln and his ministers at the White House. In the senate the President's demand for men and money received silent approbation; congress "would have swallowed twice the totals readily." The only gaiety was at night in the lamp-lighted camps of soldiers where crowds of people strolled among the lines or danced to band music. [146] "To us who war for our constitution and government," wrote William Hutchinson, who was one of the "Frontier Guard" chosen by President Lincoln for White House duty April 18, "this anniversary seems more

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dear than all former ones, while in at least thirteen states its prestige has become a mockery. . . ." [147]

The basic theme of spokesmen throughout the North was allegiance to the Union. In the national house of representatives Speaker-Elect Galusha A. Grow referred to the Southern rebellion as "the most causeless in the history of the race." The Union once destroyed, he said, would be a shattered vase that no human power could reconstruct. Lincoln, in his message, reminded congressmen that the Union was older than the states, it having created them as states and having procured for them, by conquest or purchase, whatever of independence and liberty they had enjoyed. The very act, declared Alexander W. Bradford, at Mamaroneck, which brought the states into being, made the union of states perpetual. In New York, at Cooper Institute, E. H. Chapin recognized the right of revolution as "the last right of a crushed people," but closed with the more renowned sentiment of "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," and at the Academy of Music Edward Everett found "The sympathy of the civilized world is on our side . , for the Success of our arms." [148]

The border states displayed varying sentiments. In Columbus, Ohio, Samuel Medary, late governor of Kansas territory, and now editor of The Crisis, was writing:

"What sort of a Fourth of July is this?" Let the inquiry go round and each one answer for his own conscience-like the sentiment "Drank Standing and in silence" to the departed. But in the midst of death we look to a resurrection of greater glory. . . [149]

Later, in his extempore oration for a local celebration of the Fourth, the ex-governor asserted that the foundation of our liberties was built upon the ballot and not the bullet-that peace and not war was the basis of our human freedom. A holiday toast pronounced "Our Federal Government-very sick and consumptive. Old Doctor Democracy, her only hope for a cure." [150]

Affairs in Missouri were uncertain. At Jefferson City, three weeks ago in secession but now a Union city, Col. Henry Boernstein, leader of the German population, made an Independence day speech in praise of the loyalty of German citizens to the federal government, followed by three cheers. In Kansas City, where "secession is not killed but badly scotched," citizens had an all-day conven-

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tional patriotic Fourth with procession, music, program, and picnic; Wm. Quarles and E. M. McGee were among the speakers. At St. Joseph the Second regiment of Iowa volunteers startled "sleepy Secessionists" into recognition of the day by firing 34 rounds. Flags waved throughout the day from turret and dome, steamer and coach, man and horse, until the city looked like "the flag-city of Missouri." In the words of a little slave girl, "It was the Fourth of July all over town." But the display made an older contraband "feel mighty onsartain bout tings now-a-days. . . . I want dis ting settled. Las year ole mass he git offered for me jist fifteen hundred dollar, and dis year, he git, may be, four hundred. I jist want de ting doned fixed, so as I be worth noting or full price: jist one or toder." [151]

At Yorktown, Va., Thomas A. Phelps of New Orleans, another slave, was taking the settlement into his own hands. In a letter to his mother on July 4 he wrote: "I am well and doing well. We are looking out for a fight on the 5th of July. . . . I have not time to write. . . . Good by to the white folks until I kill a Yankee." [152]

Kansas, "conceived in a storm and born in a wreck," had not, according to ex-Governor Medary, been in worse condition to assume the responsibilities of state government than in January, 1861, [153] yet on July 4, the five-months-old state found war encroaching upon her southeastern border. Her western frontier was unprotected. Although her legislature had voted $20,000 to repel invasion, nearly all her men had enlisted and gone to the front and her militia was unarmed and inefficient. Rebel spies were trying to bribe Indians into secession service. But at last the prospect for crops was good. With plenty to eat Kansas hoped she was done bleeding and done begging, and ready to begin living like her elder sister states. [154] Today her first senators-elect were being sworn into the United States congress, James H. Lane for the short term and Samuel C. Pomeroy for the long. [155] For six weeks local editors urged upon Kansans suitable celebration of the national birthday as due the Union from its youngest member. When South Carolina by legislative act erased the Fourth of July from her list of holidays, Sol. Miller of White Cloud plead for reverent celebration of the anni-

164 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

versary by "every loyal city, town and hamlet throughout the land." 156 Said the Fort Scott Democrat, of June 8, "Cottondom has ignored the Fourth of July, let us not forget it." The Emporia News, June 29, longed to hear of the Northern army's hanging the great traitor, Jeff Davis, in the streets of Richmond or Montgomery. In Atchison, though business was dull and prospects were not at all flattering, W. H. Adams urged a local celebration creditable to the city. [157] The Kansas State Journal at Lawrence was most persistent in its pleas, asserting that celebration in every town might smooth the troubled waters of the nation. Did not Kansas as a people owe some manifestation of joy and patriotism to the national flag, on this day receiving her glittering star, its thirty-fourth?

Most communities responded to the editorial pleas. Printers in service in the First and Second Kansas regiments themselves issued a paper, the Clinton Journal, from a rebel office in Clinton, Mo. [158] The Kansas First, arriving at Clinton that day, had raised the Stars and Stripes on a secession pole and fired salutes of thirty-four guns at noon and at three o'clock, [159] In southeastern Kansas Captain Jennison with a force of "thirteen picked men well armed and mounted," marched, on July 4, from Mound City to Fort Scott, en route to southwestern Missouri, professedly to form a company of Union men for the temporary protection of the Kansas border and of Northern sympathizers in Missouri. [160] Kansans, however, both those in the regular army and those at home, were already looking askance upon this self-assumed authority of Jennison and Montgomery. The Clinton Journal of July 4 called them "lawless banditti" to be treated as outlaws. A correspondent from the Kansas Third, July 15, referred to them as "Jay Hawkers," a name Montgomery and Jennison had made honorable with the friends of freedom but terrible to its enemies, [161] Leonard Swingley on July 7 wrote that Montgomery's men called their stolen property "contraband of war" but appropriated it to their individual interest. [162] Fort Scott itself had a gala military celebration. Frontier Guards Nos. 1 and 2 invited the cavalry company of Drywood and the in

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fantry company of Mill creek to join them in march and drill. The soldiers appeared neatly dressed and marched with "firm and decided steps" to excellent field music. Capt. John Hamilton drilled the cavalry; E. A. Smith, the infantry. The companies were "mutually pleased with the Fourth of July and each other." They had wasted little powder "in making useless din, it being deemed more expedient to reserve it for the enemies of our country." [163]

Topeka kept the Fourth of July, 1861, for surrounding counties and towns. Officials of the day, chosen from the "ladies and gentlemen," included thirteen vice-presidents. J. G. Otis was the orator. The musicians, from Tecumseh, Manhattan, Auburn, and Topeka, rendered "vocal and instrumental music . . . the finest it has been our fortune to hear in the State." Guns at sunrise began the day's events. At ten o'clock the procession formed and moved to the grove near the river. There the formal program ended with a "dinner of baskets," "seasoned with ice cream and social chat, lemonades and jeu d' esprit." "The `wood' was alive." Under every tree happy, smiling folk enjoyed the rich picnic collation. On the warm breeze rang out the clear tone of a youth-"here's where to get your hot coffee." In the afternoon a trio of plantation dancers, contrabands from Arkansas, edified "de white folks with a regular `nigger hoe-down.'" Fireworks filled the evening. A ball at Museum Hall with supper at the Chase House, concluded the day. About 1,500 people enjoyed the events. [164]

Over in Indianola Samuel J. Reader heard the cannon shots at Topeka, but he plowed until ten o'clock. The rest of the day he gave up to pleasure in his own community. After a good dinner he went to Pucket's where he saw "a lot of carpenters men drunk. One said; `This is the first time I've been drunk in Kansas, and I tell you it feels good!'" Back at home Reader himself ate nuts that he found upstairs. [165]

Emporia editors for a month plead for local celebration of the national birthday in 1861, but in vain. [166] Seven communities thereabouts, however, kept the occasion in variously befitting ways. Allen (better known as Charley Withington's), at the crossing of 142 creek on the Santa Fe road, had a flag salute and discharge of rifles by the Waterloo Rangers, formal exercises, and a barbecue dinner. From 350 to 600 persons gathered around the 165-foot

166 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

table laden with meats, vegetables, and pyramids of pastries. An "entire ox, delicately roasted and brought upon the table whole," was flanked by "roasted grunter" and flocks of chickens, roasted, stuffed and trussed. People ate "without remorse of conscience or fear of nightmare." Water was the only beverage. visiting women from Council Grove presented cakes to the Waterloo Rangers and to the Masonic fraternity of Allen. Concluding the daytime entertainment were toasts to the farmers of Kansas, who were to make the plain blossom as the rose; to the ladies of Kansas, who were "worthy daughters of the mothers of '76"; to Gen. J. H. Lane, a brave man on whom the state had conferred her richest gift; to "Kansas-Her reception by the loyal States-the baby is always the pet," and to Allen, the nucleus of a future city, and an aspiring capital of Kansas. From early eve to midnight the votaries of Terpsichore danced in a pavilion covered with boughs and enclosed with canvas. Then the host, C. H. Withington, and the Waterloo Rangers ordered the dancers to retire to tables groaning under good things to eat. [167]

The people of Americus and Fremont held a joint celebration in the grove of Dempsey Elliott on Allen creek. "About 10 o'clock people began to pour in from all quarters, to the amount of from three to five hundred, with baskets, boxes, tubs, and trunks, filled with almost innumerable articles for the dinner." The exercises of the day were a serious consideration of the welfare of the nation. Beginning with prayer for the support of the government and the liberties of the people the assemblage voted thanks to the states for having fed and clothed needy Kansans through the drought of 1860 and resolved to uphold "the old `flag of our Union' . . . at whatever cost and at all hazards." They went to a sumptuously laden table and devoured the eatables with a relish; afterward they again came to order to give toasts to liberty, the birthright of man; to the common schools, the safeguard of our liberties; to the United States army, which, though "the mudsills of society," would flourish long after the super-structure of Slavedom was demolished; and to President Lincoln, whose wisdom and discretion should enroll his name with that of the "Father of our Country." The day ended with a ball in a bower sixty feet long. [168]

Waterloo celebrated with a picnic, speaking, and music near the

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residence of R. W. Cloud. P. G. D. Morton, of Chelsea, and P. B. Plumb, of Emporia, were the orators. [169]

Madison Center began the day by raising a Union flag amid enthusiastic cheers. The formal exercises included two orations. Women of the vicinity served a bounteous dinner, "in splendid style," with "knick-knacks too numerous to mention." In the evening two talented violinists, E. J. Duke and Thomas D. Kelley, made the dance enjoyable. [170]

At Elmendaro military companies from Hartford and Florence joined the Elmendaro Light Guards to escort the procession to the grounds chosen for the program. People gathered from every direction for the event. Orations and speeches, interspersed with patriotic music and the richest of Kansas foods, filled the entire day. The speakers represented many communities - Elmendaro, Emporia, Hartford, Neosho Rapids, Ottumwa, Burlington, and Coffey county. Doctor Calloway of Burlington received enthusiastic cheers for saying that "the worst abolitionists on God's earth were in the South! There they have abolished the Fourth of July." When Doctor Hawkens of Ottumwa offered to read speeches from Jeff. Davis and Gov. Henry A. Wise of Virginia, the audience gave three groans, followed by three deafening cheers for the Union. [171]

Citizens of Greenwood county enjoyed "the glorious old Fourth" on Willow creek, thirty miles south of Emporia. Formal exercises preceded a dinner. Judge Keyes reviewed the history of Kansas and praised the North for its liberality "in feeding us" during the recent drought. The warm-hearted citizens then gave three cheers for the Northern brethren. [172]

Chase county commemorated the day at Cottonwood Falls. Citizens to the number of 350 assembled at a bower on the public square where the women presented the board of county commissioners with an American flag, which was then hoisted on a sixty-foot hickory pole. The three rousing cheers for the Union were believed by one writer to be the heartiest ever given east "of the Rocky Mountains." When the orators of the day failed to appear, S. N. Wood of Council Grove substituted with a "short, pithy speech." The Chase County Skirmishers, a newly organized military company, led the procession to a grove one-fourth mile distant, where the women had provided

168 KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

a free feast. A young beef, barbecued on the spot, the table 100 feet long, and loaded with a variety of good things, provided more than enough to eat; the surplus was divided among the sick and the poor and the visitors who had brought no food with them. At night the dancers tried to out-dance one another at the home of the Journal correspondent, J. W. M., "until the crowing of the cock warned them that they were stealing time from the fifth to add to the fourth." [173]

Council Grove arranged an anniversary ball at the Union Hotel for the evening of July 4. Friends everywhere about were expected to attend the party. Tickets were $1.50 per couple; in addition every one had to take care of his own horse, or pay extra if he had it fed at the stable. Friends in Emporia volunteered to join in celebration of this "day of our maturity as a nation." [174]

The Fourth of July, 1861, was the greatest day ever known at Grasshopper Falls. Around 1,100 people enjoyed the events. By eight o'clock they began arriving "on foot and on horseback, in lumber wagons, market wagons, carriages and buggies drawn by gay and festive thorough-breds, sprightly ponies, plowing teams, or oxen." The delegation from Oskaloosa and McClenny's ridge, numbering 34 wagons and headed by the Oskaloosa Guards, were met at the border of town by the Jefferson Rifles and three assistant marshals for escort. Delegations from the east came by way of the old ford, where two marshals awaited them; 74 vehicles crossed the ford; 670 persons passed on foot over the high trestle of the new bridge. The most attractive group here was the Centre Sunday School of "121 counted individuals" preceded by a banner with the motto, "God Save the Union," and followed by the Stars and Stripes. Edward Lynde presided at the dinner and gave the oration. Patriotic toasts evoked short, pithy responses. At night "sweet music and light feet made merry hearts" at two small parties. [175]

Out of deference to the celebrations of neighboring communities, Lawrence, like Emporia, refrained from any formal observance of July 4, 1861. Returning the repeated calls of country friends would improve the town folk, the press believed. Seven communities about had patriotic programs. [176]

Lecompton kept the anniversary at length. A flag raising, a procession, a picnic and barbecue, addresses, and toasts filled the daylight hours. The attendance numbered 800. At night Rowena Hall,

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under the management of "Uncle John," was scene of the pleasing evening party, where guests all had their money's worth.

The hotel at Minneola, having one of the best dancing halls in the state, held an anniversary ball in the evening, for which the pleasant drive from Lawrence promised good patronage. But one sentiment from the day's events at Baldwin City impressed the correspondent:

Jeff. Davis-May the number of his days equal the number of his righteous deeds. May his laurels be like unto Benedict Arnold's, and may his death be surrounded by circumstances similar to those with which Virginia surrounded the death of John Brown.

Kanwaca, Bloomington, and Clinton planned a joint celebration, the weather permitting, of daytime picnic and program .at Jesse's ford and an evening party in Judge Wakefield's barn. Rain, however, necessitated separate gatherings. At Kanwaca the Stars and Stripes waved from a staff 90 feet in height. Under a bower of rails, boughs, and prairie grass a large audience listened to readings and addresses by E. D. Ladd, Richard Cordley, J. S. Brown, S. O. Thacher, and Judge J. A. Wakefield. Alfred Whitman delivered a poem written for the occasion by "Mr. Sanford of Mass." At night 50 couples participated in the "rousing big hop" in Judge Wakefield's barn. About 600 persons from Clinton and Bloomington assembled together in a beautiful grove south of Bloomington. "Neatly dressed . . . for a refreshing day's pleasure," they had a morning program of heartfelt song, of clear reading of the Declaration by a woman, Miss Gardner, of speech that "took" by the pedagogue S. M. Thorp, and of original poem by H. Greene of Twin Mound. Toasts and responses followed the picnic dinner. At the mill in the evening was an impromptu hop dance.

The entire program at Blue Mound was patriotic. In formal exercises at noon the women of the vicinity presented a beautiful flag to the committee. Children of the Franklin Sunday School sang a patriotic song. of the talks that followed, the oration by E. S. Lowman had fullest report; whereas celebrations of the Fourth had hitherto been an empty pageant, he said, the day this present year was an epoch in the history of the country, but constitutional liberty would be preserved. Following the program men, women, and children formed in line and marched from the mound to the valley where under the cool shade of an over-arching arbor a sumptuous dinner awaited them. More patriotic speeches by H. H. Moore and S. N. Simpson closed the day's events. [177]

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At Mansfield, Linn county, one Mrs. Mitchell gave a "social party" at her residence in the evening. Leonard J. Swingley wrote of the pressing invitation he received from the hostess in person while he was at work in his harvest field in the morning. Of the gathering itself he said, "Their was but few their. however we had a very pleasant little time." [178]

Wyandotte displayed its patriotism in parades, processions, speeches, and toasts. The "grand feature" was an oration by Judge Gray which "had the ring of the true metal in every line of it." Two of the toasts were timely; Judge Woodworth spoke on "The People vs. Jeff. Davis"; and L. S. Blachly saw in "The Comet" a special messenger from space watching over the great American contest; "Let the stars shout for joy when the glad word goes back, `Slavery vanquished-Freedom universal!'" [179]

On the Delaware Indian reservation (near present Edwardsville, Wyandotte county) two missionary teachers, Clara Gowing and Elizabeth S. Morse, gave the Indian children their first picnic on July 4. Miss Gowing was in charge of the girls and Miss Morse, of the boys. The girls carried flags and the boys, drums. The boys were allowed to cross a creek for part of their excursion, but one had to be tied to a tree there for trying to hunt birds' nests. For supper the group had bread and butter, carried from the mission house in a bushel basket, a few blackberries picked in the wood, and water from a spring. Afterward they sang songs, cheered, shouted, and laughed, and then marched home single file. "If making a great noise is being patriotic and comprises a good time," wrote Miss Gowing, "surely the Delaware Indian children were both patriotic and happy. . . ," [180]

Leavenworth summoned "everybody and his friend" to help in the public recognition of July 4, 1861. Organizations, benevolent, social, civic, and military, assembled for the procession. The fire companies followed in the order of their seniority. The Germans marched in a body. Five groups of local guards preceded a car of pretty, laughing girls representing the states with flags, flowers, and ribbons in the national colors. Two brass bands furnished the music. The parade was "splendid." The oration by M. J. Parrott was full

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of "stirring eloquence and sound erudition." The dinner at Planter's Hotel ended with patriotic toasts and sentiments. [181]

Atchison had an all-day celebration beginning with the national salute at sunrise and ending with a cotillion party at night at the Massasoit House. People gathered early from all parts of the country. They came in wagons, on horseback, and on foot, with flags flying and banners streaming. Merchants had been requested to close their places of business, but they decorated the stores with evergreen wreaths. A salute of 34 guns at seven a. m. honored the states of the Union. So at nine a. m. in the parade, did the 34 young ladies representing the 34 states. The procession to the picnic grounds included the Kansas Mounted Rangers, the brass band, the Home Guards, "scholars" of the Sabbath schools, the civic societies, municipal officers, the orator, the reader of the day, and citizens. The exercises were conventional and patriotic, beginning and ending with prayer. John A. Martin read the Declaration. Albert H. Horton was the orator. The songs were "The Red, White, and Blue," and "The Star-Spangled Banner." To the Home Guards, the ladies of Atchison presented a flag. The evening entertainment at Massasoit House was highly delightful. [182]

In spite of the desire of Sol. Miller to instill deep reverence throughout the loyal North for the national holiday, now discarded and scoffed at in the South, his own community had but small group gatherings and he himself celebrated by hoeing his garden. In White Cloud the Sunday school held "a very nice little pic-nic in the grove, . . . another party went on a pie-nic excursion on the Indian reservation, raised the American Flag over the Council House, and had the Indians to give three cheers for the Stars and Stripes. . . ." Many citizens of White Cloud spent the day in Hiawatha, where the military display of Captain Lacock's company evoked their praise. [183]

Kansas editors generally approved the Fourth of July observance they had themselves encouraged. Celebration had been extensive and the people solemnly appreciative. The Kansas State Journal found all the events of the day of high order. The State Record believed Kansas had demonstrated far beyond every other state in the Union her realization of the issue now upon the country and her

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loyalty to the nation. [184] Some papers ventured criticism. The Weekly Bulletin, of Atchison, devoted its front page to printings of the "Declaration of Independence" and of the "President's Message to the Senate and the House of Representatives, July 4, 1861"; then, in an editorial of one and one-fifth columns, it frankly dis agreed with many of the President's statements. [185] In "My Fourth of July Speech," submitted as a letter to the Press, the correspondent "Loquacity" satirized the Kansas propensity for the superlative, obvious this early.

. . . is not Kansas a great State? The biggest prairies, the most buffaloes, the richest lands, the dryest dry weather, the wettest wet weather, the hottest hot weather, the coldest cold weather, the biggest crops of a good season, the meanest of a bad season; . . . the best farmers and mechanics, and the poorest; the biggest liars, and the most truthful men; the worst drunkards, and the most zealous temperance men; . . . the hardest winds, and the calmest still weather; the loudest thunder and the biggest hail; and the biggest bragging the world ever produced. [186]

Notes

1. This is the third of three articles entitled "The Fourth of July in Early Kansas." Part I was published in this magazine in v. VIII, pp. 115-139, and Part II in v. VIII, pp. 34-78.
2. Quoted by wm. Wells Brown at Independence day celebration at Framingham Grove, Massachusetts, July 5, 1858.
3. New York Daily Tribune, July 5, 1858.
4. Ibid., July 3, 1858.
5. Ibid., July 7, 1858.
6. Ibid., April 15, 1858.
7. Ibid., July 7, 1858.
8. Ibid., July 13, 1858.
9. Ibid., June 28, July 13, 1858.
10. Ibid., July 31, 1858.
11. Ibid., July 17, 1858
12. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 3, 1858; Lawrence Republican, June 24,
13. Leavenworth Times, July 10, 1858.
14. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 3, 1858.
15. Kansas Weekly Press, Elwood, July 3, 1858.
16. Tomlinson, Wm. P., Kansas in Eighteen Fifty-Eight (H. Dayton, New York, 1859), p. 265.
17. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, June 24, 1858.
18. Ibid.
19. Parsons, Wm. B., letter, Lawrence, October 19, 1858, in New York Daily Tribune, November 1, 1858. The first edition of his book appeared in December, 1858; the second in 1859.
20. Redpath, James, and Hinton, Richard J., Hand-Book to Kansas Territory and the Rocky Mountains' Gold Region . . . (J. H. Colton, New York, 1859), p. 122.
21. Leavenworth Times, July 10, 1858; Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 3, 1858.
22. Ibid., July 10, 1858.
23. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, June 24, July 8, 1858. The contemporary press referred to the occasion as a temperance celebration in which every temperance order and every friend of temperance would participate. Masonic and Odd Fellow lodges were expected to aid the Good Templars, too. Also, Herald of Freedom, July 10, 1858.
24. Leavenworth Times, July 10, 1858.
25. Clarke, Henry S., "W. C. Quantrill in 1858," in Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, p. 219.
26. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 10, 1858.
27. Ibid.
28. Freemen's Champion, Prairie City, June 24, July 1, 1858.
29. Ibid., July 8, 1858.
30. Everett, Sarah M. C., "Diary," entry of July 12, 1858.-MS. property of a son, J. E. Everett, Brewster, N. Y.
31. Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, Mo., July 10, 1858.
32. Western Argus, Wyandott[e], June 24, July 8, 1858. 33. Kansas National Democrat, Lecompton, July 8, 1858. 84. Lawrence Republican, Lawrence, July 8, 1858.
35. Ibid., July 15, 1858.
36. The Kansas News, Emporia, May 22, June 12, 19, July 3, 24, 1858. 37. The News of July 24, 1858, gave the number as 1,000. The New York Daily Tribune, August 6, recorded the number at 1,500.
38. The Kansas News, Emporia, July 24, 1858.
39. Ibid., October 30, 1858.
40. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 31, 1858. Andreas, A. T., and Cutler, W. G., History of the State of Kansas, p. 1108, stated that w. P. Tomlinson was the orator and that the ox "proved to[o] small to feed the assembled multitude." The attendance was estimated at one thousand. Tomlinson in Kansas in Eighteen Fifty-Eight, pp. 265, 266, gave the attendance as "several hundred," and named Captain Montgomery as a speaker on the same spot where in 1856 he had confronted Captain Clarke and had been forced to flee for his life. Montgomery now thanked the "Great supreme" for the blessings of peace, and noted the need of schools, churches, and a regular ministry.
41. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 31, 1858; Lawrence Republican, July 22, 1858; Tomlinson, op. cit., pp. 266-269.
42. Ibid.; New York Daily Tribune, August 2, 1858.
43. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, June 28, July 3, 1858; Leavenworth Times, July 10, 1858.
44. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, July 3, 1858.
45. The Sumner Gazette, July 8, 1858.
46. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 1, 18, 1858.
47. Ibid., July 15, 1858; Harrington, Grant W., Annals of Brown County, Kansas, p. 18.
48. Richardson, A. D., Beyond the Mississippi . . (American Publishing Company, Hartford, Conn., 1867), p. 131; New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1858; Freedom's Champion, Atchison, July 10, 1858.
49. Parsons, Wm. B., "The Mines As They Really Are," letter written in Lawrence, October 19, 1858, and published in the New York Daily Tribune, November 1, 1858, and letter dated "Denver, October 1, 1884," from the Chicago Tribune,
reprinted in The Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, pp. 451, 452;
Redpath-Hinton, op. cit., p. 122.
50. Moore, Ely, "The Lecompton Party Which Located Denver," reprinted from the Denver (Colo.) Post, June 23, 1901, in Kansas Historical Collections, v. VII, p. 449. Cf. v. XIII, p. 72.
51. Seville, William P., Narrative of the March of Co. A, Engineers From Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Fort Bridger, Utah, and Return, May 6 to October 3, 1858, rev. by Lt. John W. N. Schulz (Washington Barracks, D. C., Press of the Engineer school, 1912), pp. 21, 22.
52. From "Freedom's Gathering."
53. New York Daily Tribune, July 2, 1869.
54. Ibid., July 23, September 22, 28, 1859; Emporia News, August 27, 1859; Worcester (Mass.) Daily Spy, July 9, 1859.
55. Ibid., July 4, 6, 9, 1859. An editorial cites the Bryant editorial from the New York Evening Post.
56. New York Daily Tribune, July 13, 1859. 57. Wautoma (Wis.) Journal, July 6, 1859.
58. Worcester (Mass.) Daily Spy, duly 20, 1859.
59. Ibid., July 9, 1859; Atchison Union, September 3, 1859.
60. New York Daily Tribune, July 6, 11, 1859.
61. Ibid., July 14, 1859. 62. Worcester Daily Spy, July 16, 1859.
63. Ibid., July 11, 1859.
64. Topeka Tribune, June 9, 1852.
65. Fort Scott Democrat, July 14, 1859.
66. The Free Press, Elwood, July 2, 9, 1859; New York Daily Tribune, July 23, 1859.
67. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 9, 1859.
68. Atchison Union, July 2, 1859.
69. Redpath-Hinton, op. cit., p. 108.
70. Lawrence Republican, July 7, 1859; Herald of Freedom, July 9, 1859.
71. The Topeka Tribune, July 7, 1859.
72. Ibid.; Herald of Freedom, July 23, 1859.
73. Lawrence Republican, July 28, 1859.
74. The Kansas News, Emporia, May 28, July 2, 9, 16, 1859.
75. The Kansas Press, Cottonwood Falls, July 11, 1859.
76. Uniontown was at the head of Bull creek on the Santa Fe trail in Johnson county. It was also known as McCamish.
77. The Kansas Press, Cottonwood Falls, July 25, 1859. 78. Lawrence Republican, July 14, 1859.
79. Taylor, Nathan, "Diary," entry of July 4, 1859.-MSS. division, Kansas Historical Society.
80. Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, Mo., June 11, 1859.
81. Fort Scott Democrat, July 14, 1859. Marmaton is said also to have had a celebration.
82. Lawrence Republican, July 14, 1859.
83. Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, July 16, 1859, letter dated July 5 and signed "Wauzee."
84. The Kansas News, Emporia, July 30, 1859.
85. Atchison Union, July 2, 9, 1859.
86. The Elwood Free Press, June 25, July 2, 9, 1852; New York Daily Tribune, July 11, 13, 23, 1859.
87. Goode, William H., Outposts of Zion . . . (Cincinnati, 1864), pp. 420-422.
88. New York Daily Tribune, July 21, 1859.
89. "Diary of Sylvester Davis," April 21 to October 27, 1859. New Mexico Historical Review, Santa Fe, N. M., v. VI, pp. 397, 398, entries of July 4, 5, 1859.
90. Greeley, Horace, An Overland Journey, From New York to San Francisco, in the Summer of 1859 (C. M. Saxton, Barker, & Co., New York, 1860), pp. 186, 187.
91. From "Freedom's Battle Song."
92. New York Daily Tribune, July 7, 1860. 93. Ibid., June 7, 9, 1860.
94. Ibid., July 7, 9, 10, 1860. See articles quoting C. F. Adams, G. W. Curtis and Charles Sumner.
95. Ibid., July 7, 1860; Elwood Free Press, July 21, 1860.
96. Hutchinson, Wm., letter dated July 16, 1860, in Vermont Watchman, Montpelier."Scrapbook of Wm Hutchinson," v. II, in library, Kansas Historical Society.
97. New York Daily Tribune, June 27, 29, July 9, 1860.
98. Ibid., July 12, 1860; The Neosho Valley Register, Burlington, August 4, 1860.
99. Emporia News, March 16, 1861.
100. The Neosho Valley Register, Burlington, August 11, 1860.
101. New York Daily Tribune, July 9, 1860; Fort Scott Democrat, September 29, 1860. 102. New York Daily Tribune, July 18, 1860.
103. Ibid., July 7, 1860, a reprint from The Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pa.
104. Hutchinson, wm., correspondence dated July 7, 1860, over signature of "Vigil," to Chicago Press and Tribune, in "scrapbook of Wm. Hutchinson," v. II.
105. Topeka Tribune, May 19, June 9, 16, 1860.
106. Ibid., June 23, 1860.
107. The Neosho Valley Register, Burlington, June 9, 30, 1860.
108. Fort Scott Democrat, July 7, 1860.
109. Ibid., June 9, 23, 1860.
110. Lawrence Republican, July 5, 1860.
111. The Weekly Western Argus, Wyandotte, June 23, 1860.
112. The Emporia News, June 30, 1860, said Governor Reeder would deliver the oration at Bloomington. 113. Lawrence Republican, June 21, 28, July 12, 1860.
114. Ibid., July 12, 19, 1860.
115. Ibid., June 28, July 19, 1860.
116. Ibid., July 19, 1860.
117. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 7, 1860.
118. Topeka Tribune, July 7, 1860. The Elwood Free Press, of July 14, 1860, quotes this story and in editorial comment says: "Now that was a celebration worth talking about. Good dog, too; but he hadn't no tail. . . . And he was a spotted dog."
119. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 7, 1860.
120. Ibid., June 30, July 7, 1860.
121. Ibid., July 7, 1860.
122. Topeka Tribune, July 7, 1860.
123. "Samuel J. Reader's Diary," v. V, entry of July 4, 1860.-MSS. division, Kansas Historical Society.
124. Kansas State Record, Topeka, June 23, July 7, 1860.
125. Ibid., July 7, 1860.
126. Emporia News, May 5, June 2, 16, 23, 30, July 7, 14, 1860. Owing to business engagements Thomas Ewing, Jr., of Leavenworth had been unable to comply with an invitation to give the Fourth of July address at Emporia.-See letter of Thomas Ewing, Jr., to L. Weil, June 5, 1860, in "Letter Press Book" of Thomas Ewing, Jr., May 15, 1860, to January 3, 1861, p. 38.-MSS. division, Kansas Historical Society.
127. Manhattan Express, June 30, July 7, 1860.
128. Ibid., July 28, 1860.
129. The Kansas Statesman, Junction City, June 30, 1860.
130. Fort Scott Democrat, July 7, 1860.
131. Ibid., June 9, July 7, 14, 1860.
132. The Weekly Western Argus, Wyandotte, June 16, 23, 1860.
133. Emporia News, July 21, 1860.
134. Elwood Free Press, July 14, 1860.
135. Ibid., June 16, 23, July 7, 1860.
136. Freedom's Champion, Atchison, July 14, 1860.
137. White Cloud Kansas Chief, July 12, 1860.
138. Freedom's Champion, Atchison, July 7, 1860.
132. Root, Frank A., and Connelley, Wm. E.., The Overland Stage to California (Topeka, 1901), pp. 430, 431; Ingalls, Sheffield, History of Atchison County (Lawrence, 1916), pp. 183, 184. Root gave the dimensions of the wheels as 12 inches wide and eight feet in diameter, Ingalls had them 20 inches wide and eight feet in diameter. 140. New York Daily Tribune, July 13, 23, 1860; Freedom's Champion, Atchison, July 21, 1860; Lawrence Republican, July 26, 1860.
141. New York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1860.
142. From "War and slavery," written July 4, 1861, for the New York Tribune.
143. New York Daily Tribune, July 4, 1861.
144. Ibid., July 12, 1861.
145. Hutchinson, Wm., correspondence to The Kansas State Journal, and over signature of "Quill," on July 4, in "scrapbook of Wm. Hutchinson," v. II.
146. New York Daily Tribune, August 15, 1861.
147. "scrapbook of Wm. Hutchinson," v. II.
148. New York Daily Tribune, July 6, 13, 1861. See, also, issues of July 9, 11, 15, 17, August 8, 1861.
149. The Crisis, Columbus, Ohio, July 4, 1861.
150. Ibid., July 11, 1861.
151. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 23, 1861.
152. Ibid., August 7, 1861.
153. The Crisis, Columbus, Ohio, February 7, 1861.
154. New York Daily Tribune, July 10, August 6, 1861.
155. Ibid., July 6, 1861; Emporia News, July 13, 1861.
156. White Cloud Kansas Chief, June 13, 1861.
157. Atchison Union, June 22, 1861.
158. Wilder, D. W., Annals of Kansas (Topeka, 1875), p. 266; Clinton (Mo.)
Journal, published by United States forces under command of Maj. S. D. Sturgis, July 4, 1861.
159. Ibid.; The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 11, 1861.
160. New York Daily Tribune, July 22, 1861.
161. The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 18, 1861, letter from Mound City.
162. Swingley, Leonard J., letter to "Most worthy Friend Mollie [Mary Brown, Law- rence], dated Mansfield, Line county, July 7, 1861, in Mss.. division, Kansas Historical Society. W. A. Mitchell's Historic Linn," in La Cygne Journal, April 12, 1895, reports that in the territorial days Swingley was one of the highly respected Proslavery citizens who stayed through all the trouble.
163. Fort Scott Democrat, July 6, 1861.
164. Topeka Tribune, June 15, 22, 22, July 6, 1861; Kansas State
Record
, Topeka, June 22, July 6, 1861.
165. Reader, Samuel J., "Diary," v. V, entry of July 4, 1861.
166. Emporia News, June 8, 22, 29, 1861.
167. Ibid., July 13, 1861; Council Grove Press, July 13, 1861.
168. Emporia News, June 29, July 13, 1861.
169. Ibid.
170. Ibid.
171. Ibid., July 20, 1861.
172. Ibid.
173. Ibid., July 13, 1861; The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 18, 1861.
174. Council Grove Press, June 1, 22, 1861.
175. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 13, 1861.
176. The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 4, 11, 1861.
177. Ibid.
178. Swingley, Leonard J., letter to "Most worthy Friend Mollie," July 7, 1861.
179. Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 13, 1861.
180. Gowing, Clara, "Life Among the Delaware Indians," in The Kansas Historical Collections, v. XII, pp. 183-193.
181. Leavenworth Daily Conservative, July 2, 6, 1861; Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 13, 1861.
182. The Weekly Bulletin, Atchison, July 4, 11, 1861; Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 13, 1861.
183. White Cloud Kansas Chief, June 13, July 11, 1861.
184. The Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, July 11, 1881; Kansas State Record, Topeka, July 13, 1861.
185. The Weekly Bulletin, Atchison, July 11, 1861. 186. Council Grove Press, July 20, 1861.