What was kansas before it became a state

We have no particulars, and neither time nor space for a more extended notice this week. The Fort Scott Democrat, February 2, , felt that the new all-Republican state government would at least erase the excuse for more violence in Kansas:. The Senate amendment to the Kansas admission bill passed the House on the 28th ult.

As soon as the President's proclamation announcing the same officially, is received by Gov. Robinson, the State Government will be inaugurated; but we understand that the Legislature will not be called together before the 1st of May.

Now that we have a State Government entirely in the hands of the Republican party; our county organization under their control; and our Federal office-holders about to be appointed from their ranks, there can be no possible excuse for future outbreaks, on the ground that their enemies control the courts of justice.

We have faith in the firmness and intelligence of Gov. Robinson to believe that acts of lawlessness will receive a sterner rebuke at his hands than has ever been administered by the Federal authorities. The expenses of the State Government during the first two or three years, will be very burdensome on our people; but in the present disordered condition of our national affairs, we believe it will be for the best. A third series of celebrations and editorials followed President Buchanan's signing of the bill.

The Leavenworth Conservative, however, apparently had spent its force on the second celebration for now, January 31, it merely stated:. The Kansas Bill has received the President's signature. Conway appeared on the floor of the House and was sworn in. The Leavenworth Herald was somewhat more elated than it had been during the previous round.

On February 1, , it said:. We are proud, not to say jubilant! The only question now remaining to be considered is -- when shall we secede? Looking out upon the landscape this morning, we found the view very much the same as when Kansas was a Territory.

The same old ice-blocked river -- the same rolling prairies -- the Fort in the distance -- Pilot Knob, and South Leavenworth, all were there just as though we had not been admitted.

But it was upon the people that the change was most susceptible. Some had been suddenly converted from pigmy citizens into the ponderous proportions of State Dignitaries. Judges were thick as fleas, Secretaries were visible to the naked eye.

Probate Judges prevailed to some extent, and Legislators were a drug in the market. Every body is "clothed in the panoply" of freshly formed resolve -- no more tobacco is to be used -- no more whisky will be consumed -- vice and immorality are at a heavy discount.

Hurrah for the State of Kansas! In Lawrence the territorial legislature was in a quandary. Was it still a legally constituted body? Would the laws it was passing be binding upon the state of Kansas? And perhaps more important, would the legislators be paid? A correspondent of the Emporia News, February 2, , wrote this dispatch:.

The Leavenworth Daily Conservative of to-day has a special dispatch from Washington, informing us that the President has signed the bill admitting Kansas. This news creates great excitement here.

Everybody's in high glee, and hurrahing for the State of Kansas. Since the receipt of the news two day ago that the Kansas Bill, with the Senate amendment, had passed the House of Representatives, the two branches of the Territorial Legislature have been holding three sessions per day, and have rushed through a great many bills. Nearly every one of these bills, however, is of a private nature. The great question now, is whether any of the acts passed by the Territorial Legislature after the President signed the Kansas bill are of any force.

Beebe has said that they would receive no pay from the time we were admitted. The members generally maintain that their body is a legal one until the Governor receives official information of the fact of our admission. Both branches of the Legislature will probably adjourn to-morrow or next day. Beebe, as an institution, is no more. May the day soon arrive when as much can be said of all Democratic appointees.

Long may she wave! She has come up through much tribulation, and may kind Providence grant her and her noble and freedom-loving people a prosperous future.

The Legislature dies hard. An agony of uncertain desperation has pervaded both departments, and bills have been put through under suspension of rules with very remarkable celerity. The legislation has been mostly of a private character, and by some mysterious process, the lower House has become demoralized to such an extent that about a dozen divorce bills were granted without debate. The Lawrence Republican, February 7, , in reporting the proceedings of the legislature said: "A message was received from the Governor, with various bills which he returned without his signature, on the ground that he was unwilling to recognize them longer as a legal body.

Kansas' last territorial legislature gasped its final breath on February 2, leaving behind a physical record of 35 pages of general laws and 68 pages of private laws. Included in the latter were 20 divorces granted. Miller wrote that the representatives of his district had reached home "looking remarkably respectable considering the crowd they associated with, and the business they were engaged in," [6] while the Fort Scott Democrat declared that the "principal object of the session seems to have [been] that of securing their per diem and milage.

Regarding admission, the Lecompton Kansas National Democrat, February 7, changed from its previous air of resignation to one of condescension:. How does that look? Doesn't every one like it? Won't every one feel better when he writes it, instead of that small, petty, mean, dispicable sneaking, crawling "K. Hurrah for the new Star! In Oskaloosa the Independent, which had previously mentioned admission only in a fleeting manner, developed its thought to such length that it required two issues to say all it believed necessary.

The first of the articles appeared on February 6, The admission bell has received the signature of the President, and Kansas is a sovereign State, and stands on an equal footing with her sisters in the Confederacy.

Kansas, though the youngest, is by no means the least important of the sisterhood of States. Her central geographical position will give her at once an influence in the councils of the nation that no other new State has ever had; and the rapid development of her natural resources, a steady and increasing growth in population, the inauguration of an efficient system of free schools, the establishment of manufactories, and the proper and judicious encouragement of internal improvements, will in a few years give her a place among the first States in the Union.

Very soon the guardians of the vital interests of the young State will be called upon to enter upon the duties assigned to their several positions. Not many weeks hence the legislature will convene to whom is entrusted weighty responsibilities. Among the first and most important business that will come before them, will be the election of two Senators to represent the people of this commonwealth in the United States Senate.

It is needless to say that the wisest, most sagacious, and yet the most prudent of the prominent men of Kansas should be selected to fill these high stations of honor and trust; the good of the nation and the State alike demand that our Senators should be the best statesmen we have. We will not now suggest our preference for any individuals for the position of Senators, for we believe the combined wisdom of the State Senate and House of Representatives will elect those men who are the best qualified to fill those stations.

After the election of the Senators, it devolves upon the Legislature to enact and inaugurate a thorough, liberal, yet economical system of statutory laws. While high taxation and a heavy State debt should be studiously avoided, free schools, agricultural, mechanical and manufacturing interests, and a judicious system of railroads and other internal improvements, should receive liberal encouragement from the State government.

A proper disposition of the public lands should be made, for the benefit of the State, and not be disposed of in a way that will line the coffers of individuals with the gold that ought to fill the public treasury. Possessing the advantage of the history and experience of other States that have preceded Kansas, our legislators ought to devise a system of State government, and enact a code of laws, far in advance of any of her predecessors; thus giving her an impetus to future greatness and influence unparalleled in the history of the nation.

Long before this reaches our readers they will have heard the glad intelligence that Kansas is a State in the Union. Long and unjustly kept out by the machinations of political demagogues, she has at last triumphed, and today makes the thirty-fourth State in the Confederacy, and will add the thirty-fourth star to our national banner, on and after the Fourth of July next. Hereafter our people will have no federal governors, judges or other officers to interfere with their local affairs or throw impediments in the way of the prosperity of our State.

It is not our intention to rehearse the past grievances of Kansas; they are now matters of history, and we hope will prove a salutary lesson to generations coming after us and that their parallel will never be known in the future development of our progress as a nation.

Let the past be past, and remembered only as a warning and a guide for the time to come. We hope our Legislature will elect two good men to represent us in the United States Senate -- not mere partisans, but men of understanding and statesman like capacities and views.

They must be Men if they can stand up with the giant intellects of that body; and we would not have our young State lowered in character by the men who stand for her good name and rights in the highest deliberative body known under the constitution. Give us two good men. Doubtless we have them -- yes, a score of them.

Kansas now has her own future to make. Her destiny is in her own hands. If she is governed by wise counsels, she will soon rank among the first in the sisterhood of States, for her natural advantages are manifold, her resources unbounded, her climate one that will attract settlers and her soil inexhaustible. Let her people be wise in the selection of rulers and discreet in the management of internal policy. Emporia fired a salute to Kansas and the Union when the news came around the third time.

The News, February 2, , stated:. At last the great victory, for which the people of Kansas have fought so many hard battles against the slave power, suffered so many acts of injustice, at the hands of a corrupt and vindictive Administration, and submitted to so many sacrifices and privations, is won!

A member of the great American Union!!! A new Star in the glorious Banner of the noblest, most free and best Government in the world, the treason of Southern fire eaters, and their State Secession Ordinances to the contrary not withstanding! Let us rejoice at the auspicious event! If the Union and the Constitution of our Country are now menaced with distruction by a powerful conspiracy, let us be thankful unto God, that we have been admitted into the Union in time to co-operate in the vindication of the sanctity of its laws, by enforcing them, of the honor of its flag, by punishing those traitors, who trampled upon it, and of the inviolability of its Federal Constitution, by proclaiming it over again, if necessary, in all parts of the United States, and defending it at all hazards as the Supreme Law of the Land!!

The citizens of Manhattan celebrated the admission of Kansas in a quiet and orderly manner. The Express, February 2, , described their meeting:. At an early hour on Friday evening Feb. The meeting was called to order by Mr. After announcing the object of the meeting, the Chair introduced the Hon. Houston, senator elect from the 4th District. Houston, enumerated a few of the advantages which we should derive from our admission, and pointed through the present gloom to a prosperous future.

On retiring, Rev. Paulson was loudly called for, and on coming forward, remarked, that the long conflict between freedom and Slavery in Kansas was now forever settled. The foul conspiracy inaugurated by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the enactment of the Kansas Nebraska dodge, to fasten on this beautiful State the dark repulsive features of Slavery had signally failed.

Paulson entered into a becoming and manly vindication of the right and duty of ministers to lift up their voice against political iniquity, and severely rebuked that snivilling class of politicians, who conceive that the ministerial function and patriotism are incompatible. The meeting was subsequently addressed by Mr. Fox, Rev. Blood and others. Three rousing cheers were then given for the new State of Kansas, after which the meeting was dismissed.

The Topeka State Record, one of the papers which inaugurated the first round of statehood celebrations by announcing admission after passage of the bill by the senate, seemed to be remembering that fact when on February 2, , it reported:.

We are at last enabled to announce to our readers, the gratifying intelligence that Kansas is really admitted. As the Wyandotte Constitution is now a living instrument -- the fundamental law of the State of Kansas, which all will feel a new interest in reading, we surrender much of our space this week to its re-publication. In it are embodied the hopes and aspirations of the people of Kansas.

It has become their representative -- the embodiment of their wisdom, and their capacity for self-government upon the National Record. Born of strife and oppression, it stands forth to vindicate its people from the aspersions of venality, of which Statesmen have accused them through a rival but hated instrument, and to demonstrate their unswerving devotion, under temptations which seldom fall to the lot of man, to the enduring principles of Free Soil, Free Labor, and Free Speech.

It will stand for future time as a proud monument of the first substantial victory of the Nineteenth Century, of Freedom over Slavery, in an equal race, and will be revered by the millions who are destined, at no distant day, to people this great valley of the North American continent, as the inauguration of a new and brilliant era in American politics, when Freedom instead of Slavery will be the presiding genius of our institutions -- Democracy enthroned, and man in the abstract be clothed with equality, and his higher nature acknowledged and vindicated.

The Topeka Tribune, February 2, , followed the general line of Free-State thought but added paragraphs extolling the virtues and glorious history of the new, though supposedly temporary, capital of Kansas:.

There is no longer any doubts to be entertained with regard to our admission. The nail is clinched. Kansas is to-day a Sovereign State of the American Union. At last, our prayer has been answered. Kansas is no longer a foot-ball for partizan demagogues and unscrupulous politicians -- a bait to the whale -- and no longer will her people be made to dance and fiddle to advance the cause of a corrupt, ambitious and designing class of political aspirants.

We are in the Union, of the Union, for the Union; and what is more, have no thanks to return to any source for political influence or favor, without our own borders. The boon has been nobly fought for, and obtained by the merest exercise of justice -- dearly paid for.

Let us give praise unto-ourselves, take hope, courage, and renew our vows of devotion to our glorious country, to our adopted State and our cherished homes and hearthstones. May our dreams of coming prosperity and greatness be realized, and our future prove as glorious and peaceful as our past has been gloomy and beclouded with sorrow. Her history is coeval with that of the Territory -- with the cause of political freedom under the unhappy culminations of long continued and bitterly waged intestine partisan conflict; her name in time past has been associated with the history and struggle of the Free State cause of Kansas, and through which it has gained a celebrity second only to the name of Kansas herself.

Here it was that was held, commencing upon the 19th day of September, , the first Convention of the freemen of Kansas, having under consideration the question of adopting effective measures in behalf of our sovereign liberty and freedom as a people, and from whose deliberations arose majestically that fair yet formidable structure -- that monument to right and justice around which so determinedly rallied the sovereigns of the soil of these beautiful prairies -- the first State organization of Kansas.

Here it was that was held, convening upon the 2d day of October, , the Convention for the purpose of drafting a Constitution for the embryo State, and here it was that assembled, in the March following, the Legislature under its provisions, and enacted a code of laws for the government of its people.

Here it was that upon the 4th day of July, '56, the same Legislature assembled persuant to adjournment, and where, at the exact time of noon-day, in the presence of three thousand people, at the roll-calling of the members, it was dispersed at the point of the bayonet by Col. Sumner, at the head of government troops, acting under authority of President Pierce. Her name was the watchword in "times that tried men's souls," and to-day her influence, aside from considerations of policy or profit, is felt in every quiet nook and corner of the Territory.

Yet she can exert an influence based upon more substantial reasons. The superiority of her natural and acquired advantages, the great and most important consideration being her nearly exact central location, secured to her the seat of government under the Wyandotte Constitution, an act of justice and wisdom not to be called in question by her veriest enemies.

The town was founded in December, '54, and to-day, in point of beauty of location, of population, building, public and private, postal, express and stage arrangements, printing facilities, mercantile and manufacturing prosperity, artistic and mechanical development, general industrial pursuits, religious and educational privileges, wealth, refinement and intelligence, will compare with any city in the West.

So much for Topeka. Rommel crept through the French wire first and then called They were good-looking, crowd-pleasing Born in Boston in , Poe was orphaned at age three and went The two actors first met in the early s while working in New York City on a Broadway production of the romantic drama Picnic.

Newman had a Spencer blazed away with rifle shots from her home directly across the street from the school. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. US Government. Art, Literature, and Film History. Great Britain. Sign Up. World War I.

Following numerous long debates in both the U. Only six days after Kansas was entered into the Union as a free state, the Confederate States of America formed between seven Southern states that had seceded from the United States in the previous two months.

Though the battle for Kansas was finally over, the conflict, which for the past six years had earned the territory the nickname of Bleeding Kansas, now engulfed an entire nation. Historic People of Kansas. Kansas Destinations. Kansas History. Primary Menu Skip to content. Kansas Territory.

Plains Tribes by Karl F. Wimar, Westward Expansion by John Gast, Kansas and Nebraska, Bleeding Kansas Fight. Footer Menu Skip to content.

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