History of Atchison County, Kansas

by Sheffield Ingalls

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 under the principle of Squatter sovereignty, as Dr. Charles Robinson, and Lane, and John Brown did to make the territory a free State. It would not only be unjust to the memory of the Stringfellows and their compatriots, but unjust to posterity also to leave the impression that they had no semblance of justification, for many of their acts, which the impartial historian will admit, were very frequently in retaliation of wrongs and outrages suffered. The terrible stress and strain under which good men on both sides labored in those critical days led them to extremes, and in the midst of the discordant passions of good men, the bad men—those who are the lawless of every age and clime—flourished and their lawlessness only served to complicate the dangerous and ever threatening situation. Calm judgment may not have been lacking in the territory in and around Atchison and Lawrence in the days between 1854 and 1857, but if it existed at all it was lost in the riot of partisan feeling and did not evince itself until later.

Following the disbanding of the “Territorial” militia before Lawrence, General Atchison seemed to have somewhat recovered his composure and in an address to the troops after Governor Geary had retired, he said:

“As was well known to all present the gentlemen composing this meeting had just been in conference with Governor Geary, who in the strongest language had deprecated the inhuman outrages perpetrated by those whom he characterized as bandits, now roving through the territory, and pledged himself in the most solemn manner to employ actively all of the force at his command in executing the laws of the territory and giving protection to his beloved citizens, and who had also appealed to us to dissolve our present organization and stand by and co-operate with him in holding up the hands of his power against all evil doers, and who had also retired from the meeting, with a request that he would consult and determine what course would be taken. Now the object of the meeting was thus to consult and determine what should be done.”

General Atchison also impressed the meeting with the solemnity and importance of the occasion and said that it was time for men to exercise their reason and not yield to their passions and also to keep on the side of the law which alone constitutes our strength and protection. These words of General Atchison breathed a far different message than his strong language of a few years before and indicated more plainly than anything else the general trend of pro-slavery sentiment.

After the cessation of military movements in the territory, more or less peaceful elections, sessions of the legislature and conventions, at which constitutions were framed and voted upon, took place, and the work of preparing the territory to become a State went forward.