History of Atchison County, Kansas. Sheffield Ingalls

sometime thereafter. During all of this time the Free State settlers of Atchison were very quiet and undemonstrative. They were not strong in number and aside from a few virile souls like Pardee Butler, they held their tongues and kept their own counsel. They were treated with scant courtesy and consideration by their pro-slavery neighbors, and it can be said to their credit that no set of men ever displayed greater self-restraint or suffered more for the cause of peace than the Free State settlers of this county. It doubtless unsettled their minds and disturbed their slumbers to read from time to time sentiments such as these taken from the Squatter Sovereign of June 10, 1856:

      (Upper) Atchison Hospital. (Center) Atchison County Court House. (Lower) Y. M. C. A.

      “Hundreds of Free State men who have committed no overt act, but have only given countenance to those reckless murderers, assassins and thieves, will, of necessity, share the same fate of their brethren. If Civil war is to be the result of such a conflict, there cannot be, and will not be any neutrals recognized. ‘He that is not for us is against us,’ will of necessity be the motto, and those who are not willing to take either one side or the other are the most unfortunate men in Kansas and had better flee to other regions as expeditiously as possible. They are not the men for Kansas.”

      In another issue Dr. Stringfellow said:

      “The abolitionists shoot down our men without provocation wherever they meet them. Let us retaliate in the same manner. A free fight is all we desire. If murder and assassination is the program of the day we are in favor of filling the bill. Let not the knives of the pro-slavery men be sheathed while there is one abolitionist in the territory. As they have shown no quarters to our men they deserve none from us. Let our motto be written in blood upon our flags. ‘Death to all Yankees and Traitors in Kansas.’ We have 150 men in Atchison ready to start in an hour’s notice. All we lack is horses and provisions.”

      And then follows an exhortation from Dr. Stringfellow to his friends in Missouri to contribute something that will enable his constituents to protect their lives and their families from the outrages of the assassins of the North, and ends by stating that the war will not cease until Kansas has been purged of abolitionists.

      Pro-slavery committees from Doniphan, Atchison and Leavenworth counties were organized to call on their friends in the South for arms, ammunition and provisions, and a circular letter appeared in the Leavenworth Herald, and an urgent invitation was issued to all the pro-slavery papers to give the circular wide publicity. It read, in part, as follows:

      “To our friends throughout the United States:

      “The undersigned, having been appointed a committee by our fellow citizens of the counties of Leavenworth, Doniphan and Atchison, in Kansas Territory, to consult together and to adopt measures for mutual protection and the advancement of the interests of the pro-slavery party in Kansas Territory, this day assembled at the town of Atchison, to undertake the responsible duty assigned us; and in our present emergency deem it expedient to address this circular to our friends throughout the union, but more particularly in the slave-holding states. * * * * The time has arrived when prompt action is required and the interior of Kansas can easily be supplied from various points in the above named counties. The pro-slavery party is the only one in Kansas which pretends to uphold the Government or abide by the laws. Our party from the beginning has sought to make Kansas a slave state, only by legal means. We have been slandered and vilified almost beyond endurance, yet we have not resorted to violence, but steadily pursued the law for the accomplishment of our objects. * * * * We have proclaimed to the world that we recognize the principle of the Kansas Bill as just and right, and although we preferred Kansas being made a negro slave state, yet we never dreamed of making it so by the aid of bowie-knives, revolvers and Sharpe rifles, until we were threatened to be driven out of the territory by a band of hired abolitionists, brought up and sent here to control our elections and steal our slaves. We are still ready and intend to continue so, if our friends abroad stand by and assist us. Our people are poor and their labor is their capital. Deprive them of that, which we are now compelled to do, and they must be supported from abroad, or give up the cause of the South. The Northern Abolitionists can raise millions of dollars, and station armed bands of fanatics throughout the territory and support them, in order to deprive Southern men of their constitutional rights. We address this to our friends only, for the purpose of letting them know our true condition and our wants. We know that our call will meet a ready, willing and liberal response. * * * * Heaven and earth is being moved in all the free states to induce overwhelming armies to march here to drive us from the land. We are able to take care of those already here, but let our brethren in the states take care of the outsiders. Watch them, and if our enemies march for Kansas let our friends come along to take care of them, and if nothing but a fight can bring about peace, let us have a fight that will amount to something. Send us the money and other articles mentioned as soon as practicable, and if the abolitionists find it convenient to bring their supplies, let our friends come with ours. Arrangements have been made with Messrs. Majors, Russell & Company, Leavenworth, K. T.; J. W. Foreman & Company, Doniphan, K. T., and C. E. Woolfolk & Company, Atchison, K. T., to receive any money or other articles sent for our relief, and will report to the undersigned, and we pledge ourselves that all will be distributed for the benefit of the cause. Horses, we greatly need—footmen being useless in running down midnight assassins and robbers.”

      The following residents of Atchison county signed the circular: P. T. Abell, chairman; J. A. Headley, A. J. Frederick, J. F. Green, Jr., C. E. Mason.

      This circular was signed June 6, 1856, and was published in the Lawrence Herald of Freedom, June 14, 1856.

      From this time forward the conflagration spread with ever increasing fury, and not only did the appeals for aid from the pro-slavery forces find immediate response, but likewise the anti-slavery forces throughout the whole North came to the rescue of the Free Soilers in Kansas, and during all of this great excitement Atchison county was the focal point of pro-slavery activities. The news of the “sacking” of Lawrence served to awaken the Nation in the North. It was at this time that Henry Ward Beecher, with all of the great eloquence at his command, advocated from his Brooklyn pulpit the sending of Sharpe rifles instead of Bibles to Kansas, and pledged his own parish to supply a definite number. And on and on they came to Kansas out of the North with determination in their hearts and Sharpe rifles in their hands, to help the Free Soilers in their battles against the forces of Atchison and Stringfellow and Abell. Then came Lane’s “Army of the North,” which sounded more terrible than it really was, following in quick succession the second battle of Franklin; the siege and capitulation of Ft. Titus, and the famous battle of Osawatomie. At last the mobilization of the forces of Atchison and Stringfellow not far from the outskirts at Lawrence in September, 1856, for the purpose of a final assault on that Free State stronghold, marked the collapse of the Atchison-Stringfellow military campaign. It was a critical hour for Lane. Old John Brown was there, and the citizens were ready for whatever might befall them, but further hostilities were averted by the action of Governor Geary on the morning of September 15, 1856, when he appeared in person in the midst of the Missouri camp several hours after issuing a proclamation for the Missourians to disband. He found both Senator Atchison and Gen. B. F. Stringfellow (brother of Dr. Stringfellow) there, and in the course of his speech severely reprimanded Atchison, who “from his high estate as Vice-President of the United States, had fallen so low as to be the leader of an army of men with uncontrollable passions, determined upon wholesale slaughter and destruction.”

      When Governor Geary had concluded his remarks his proclamation and order to disband the army were read and the more judicious obeyed.

      The troops thus disbanded, marched homeward. Those enlisting at Atchison returned to Missouri by way of Lecompton. This was the last organized military invasion from Missouri and ended the attempts of the pro-slavery forces to rule Kansas by martial law.

      It must not be concluded, however, that the Stringfellows and other pro-slavery leaders in Atchison county were not law-abiding citizens. They believed in the institution of slavery, as many good men of that day did, and they had the same rights to peacefully enter the territory of Kansas and endeavor to make it a slave State