1859.] A HARD COUNTRY FOR GOVERNORS.

The taken from the posse were United States arms. guns captors retained them; to the victors belonged the spoils.

151

The

Fighting and speech-making were the two essentials of a Kansas excitement. Now that one was over the other followed. The crowd, swollen to a thousand people, gathered in front of the Eldridge House and called for the Territorial governor, Samuel Medary. He was an old Ohio journalist and politician who had succeeded Denver. Thus far he had been popular, and he was now received with cheers. He commenced by condemning the violent proceedings; and insisted that the captured guns should be given up. Many of these guns were visible in the crowd, but Medary's demand was received with universal shouts of 'No, no, no.'

The angry governor reiterated that the arms were Territorial property and should be surrendered if it took twelve months and the United States army to accomplish it. Sidney Smith's friend who had once voyaged to the polar regions, and ever afterward bored everybody about them, one day met a literary acquaintance upon the street. The great reviewer, hurried and impatient, submitted to be button-holed until he heard the stereotyped beginning: 'When I was at the North Pole'-and then irascibly broke away, ejaculating:

'Oh, d-n the North Pole!'

Shocked and appalled, the poor explorer walked on until he met the immortal wit, who proved a patient listener to the story of his wrongs, and after its rehearsal remarked solemnly:

'It was just like ; he is the most irreverent man I ever knew. Why I have heard him speak disrespectfully of the equator!'

The Kansans were equally reckless; they had no mite of respect even for the equator. The governor's threat caused shouts of derisive laughter, with sarcastic suggestions that his excellency should take the guns at once! Medary saw that he was on dangerous ground, and after a few general patriotic remarks, retired from the rostrum.

Then there was a spontaneous call for Lane. That old war horse emerged from the crowd, threw off the black shaggy bearskin overcoat which he invariably wore, mounted a wagon and spoke for half an hour, drawing a shout of laughter or a round

152

KIDNAPPING OF JOHN DOY.

[1859. of applause with almost every sentence. Lane was distinctively a vessel of wrath. He had long hated Medary politically, and owed him a personal grudge, because in an official communication the governor had addressed him as Mr.' instead of 'General.' The grim adventurer now wreaked his revenge in a most fierce and withering excoriation. He seemed to have studied Medary's entire biography and recited an appalling catalogue of his political crimes for the last twenty years; first in Ohio, and afterward as Territorial governor of Minnesota where he was charged with conniving at gross election frauds in the remote Pembina regions.

Medary was in his hotel, within ear-shot, while Lane thus paid up old scores and left a large margin for the future. Then speeches were made by other leading Free State men, and the meeting adjourned. The guns were never given up.

It was reported that Medary, by direction of President Buchanan, had offered a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars for the capture of old John Brown. Brown retorted by offering a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars for Buchanan's head. He said he would have proposed it for Medary's head if he had not feared that some of his men would actually take it!

Brown was now residing in Kansas. I never met him though I heard much of him from followers, friends and enemies. He seldom participated in public meetings, always declaring himself ready when any fighting was to be done, but adding that there was too much talking, and too little shooting. The Free State men knew his unbounded bravery and perfect integrity, but regarded him as partially insane; and there were well-grounded reports that he had approved of some dreadful reprisals in the form of killing unarmed Pro-slavery settlers.

A

During this winter Dr. John Doy of Lawrence was conducting thirteen negro fugitives across the Territory toward Iowa. party of Missourians, without legal process, captured him in Kansas, fifty miles from the State line, and by force carried him to St. Joseph, where he was tried on the charge of enticing away slavesa felony punishable with death.

The kidnapping of Doy caused much excitement in Kansas, and the legislature voted a thousand dollars to secure legal coun

1859.]

HIS RESCUE BY JOHN BROWN.

153

sel for him. I attended the trial in St. Joseph. One of the coun. sel for the State, Colonel Doniphan, of Border Ruffian renown, said in addressing the jury:

'If we allow our negroes to be stolen with impunity, our fair skinned daughters must be reduced to the contemptible drudgery of the kitchen !'

Ex-governor Shannon of Kansas, another of the counsel, with great gravity, and without the least intention of satire, announced that he had learned during a long residence near the border of Virginia, that slaves would sometimes run away of their own volition!

The indictment charged the offense as committed in Platte county, Missouri, though the prosecution was unable to prove that Doy had ever been within thirty miles of that State till he was kidnapped. On the first trial the jury failed to agree. At the next term of the court the prisoner was convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary. But one dark night old John Brown and a party of followers crossed the Missouri, broke open the jail, rescued Doy, and carried him safely back into Kansas-beating the kidnappers at their own game.

Old settlers of Kansas preserve many traditions of John Brown's shrewdness, daring and religious enthusiasm. At Osawattomie, in 1856, when Henry Clay Pate with his Missouri soldiers attempted to capture Brown, the old Spartan captured him and his entire command. On another occasion he escaped unperceived from a house which his pursuers beseiged and guarded for three more days and nights, supposing him still there and not daring to enter. Again and again he captured officials who had been sent in pursuit of him. He so inspired his followers with his own religious enthusiasm, that they deemed themselves under the direct protection of the Almighty, and seemed absolutely fearless of death. Hundreds of runaway slaves were led by that little band through the perils of Kansas, to the freedom and safety of Iowa; and in camp every morning their captain read a chapter in the bible and knelt down in prayer before starting on their day's march.

In December, 1857, I spent eight days upon a little steamer ascending the Missouri to Kansas. The tedious hours were pleas

154

KANSAS TAPPED BY THE RAILWAY.

[1859. antly abbreviated by a pair of bright eyes from Connecticut, owned by a maiden bound on a music-teaching mission to Missouri. 'That teaching was a very clever subterfuge' said everybody, 'she was really an Abolition emissary in pursuit of a Border Ruffian husband.' Miss Fanny was indignant; but she met such badinage with all the denials in her vocabulary. Finally, one dreary evening we left the little pilgrim on the muddy shores of her new world; and desolate but undaunted she went on her way.

In March 1859, in the cabin of a steamer near St. Joseph, I encountered a little lady making laudable pretenses of matronly dignity. It was the Miss Fanny of our memory—the Madam Fanny of our prophecies, accompanied by the Border Ruffian of her fancy as well as ours. Like many other mortals, her intentions. were good, but destiny was too strong for her.

Early in the spring of 1859 the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad was completed across the State of Missouri, placing Kansas in direct communication with the eastern States. With the railroad came the telegraph; and we were no longer isolated from the world.

How marvelous are the changes of half a century-changes witnessed by some who read these lines! Go back with me forty years to one of our Atlantic cities, and imagine that Mr. Smith of Boston finds it necessary to take a trip to what has since become known as Kansas. Smith looks forward to the journey as a most solemn affair. For weeks the feminine members of his household are employed upon his wardrobe; it will hardly do to start with less than a year's outfit. Intelligence of his proposed trip creates a great sensation, and everybody looks upon him as a daring fellow.

What solemnity pervades

The hour of departure draws near. his domestic circle! Finally, having completed his preparations, settled up his business, and made his will, Smith bids his weeping family a long farewell, and starts on his perilous journey. What untold dangers are before him! Hardships by land, sea, canal and river-in stage coaches, in sloops, in canal boats, on horseback, and in batteaux propelled by human power against the strong current of the mad Missouri. If no hostile Indian steals his scalp, he reaches Kansas after a journey of three months. He remains