[5] Methodist Mission. This was a mission of the Methodist Church South. Other missions of this denomination were planted among the Omahas, Kickapoos, Kansas, and Delawares. The Baptists and Quakers also had missions among the Shawnees, the Baptists to the Delawares, and the Catholics (St. Mary's) among the Kansas.
[6] Fort Leavenworth, founded by Colonel Henry Leavenworth, 1827, for whom it is named. It was the great frontier dépôt of supply for the other military posts on the Santa Fé and Oregon routes, which were converted into military roads by Government. Forts Riley, Kearney, and Scott, were similarly named for General Bennet Riley (military governor of California), General Stephen W. Kearney (conqueror of New Mexico), and General Winfield Scott (conqueror of Old Mexico).
KANSAS THE BATTLE-GROUND.
When Congress decreed that freedom and slavery should compete for control in Kansas, the decision reminds us of the judgement given by the wise king of history, who, having to decide which of two mothers a child belonged to, ordered one of his guards to cut it in two with his sword, and give the half to each claimant.
In this contest Congress and the President stood with the South. The law-making power had first removed every restriction to making Kansas a slave State, and now the executive branch was to appoint governors[1] over the people who should go there to live, and give orders to the military commanders to aid them when called upon to do so.
There was another very potent means working to the same end, which in the hands of lawless men proved a serious obstacle to the peaceful going-in of settlers from the free States. The great avenue of travel into the disputed territory was the Missouri River, whose banks were already lined with a population holding many slaves, and therefore easily aroused to active enmity by the fear that the planting of a free State next their border would cause their negroes to run away, and so deprive them of their property. Moreover, as we have already said, the Missourians had confidently looked upon Kansas as theirs whenever it should be opened to settlement, and could not bear the thought of having it snatched from them by a people whose politics they detested, and whose presence they feared.
Under these conditions the movement of settlers into Kansas began at the North and South. It was no peaceful march of peaceful citizens under the protecting hand of the nation, but was turned by sectional rivalry into a political crusade. Public meetings were held all over the North and South to encourage the going of the adventurous young men of both sections, as in time of war. Sectional passions were aroused and inflamed. Large sums were raised in the churches to arm these emigrants for the conflict which it was clear must take place sooner or later. So the war of the sections that so long had threatened the national peace was begun at last. Congress had left the question to the people to settle, less in the spirit of statesmanship than as a way out of the difficulty; and the people, seeing that its peaceful settlement was impossible, were getting ready to fight it out, not with the ballot as Douglas believed they would, but as men who are convinced that force, and force only, can decide the justice of their cause.
