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Title: David Rice Atchison
Description: Daguerreotype of Missouri politician David Rice Atchison, taken by photographer Mathew Brady at the United States Capitol at Washington, D.C., March 1849. On October 3, 1855, Atchison and other proslavery activists met at Leavenworth, Kansas to form the Law & Order Party, which cited criminal violence as justification to target, attack, and arrest persons associated with the Free-State cause.
Object Type: Image
Date: March, 1849

Title: From James Griffing to Augusta
Description: This April 6, 1855 letter was written by James Griffing in Wakarusa, Kansas, to Augusta. James has been helping some new “pioneer friends” stake a claim and become settled in Kansas Territory, remarking, “You can hardly think how fast the emigration is pouring in from the free states.” James describes a recent episode of election fraud: “armed forces from Missouri came and took possession of the ballot boxes and pretty much carried on the election as they pleased. Their proceedings will only work against them.”
Date: April 6, 1855

Title: From James Griffing to Unknown
Description: This letter, dated January 10, 1854 but presumably written January 10, 1855, was sent by James Griffing in Wyandotte County, Kansas to an unknown recipient. James discusses pioneer life in Kansas Territory, claiming that it is not at all dangerous: “Our society is mostly all from the East, and you feel just as much composed as when in New England.” Although James believes Missourians are more dangerous than the American Indians, he insists “there is no more reason for a person who attends to his own business to be afraid here” than anywhere else.
Date: January 10, 1855

Title: Amos Adams Lawrence
Description: Portrait of Amos A. Lawrence, namesake of Lawrence, Kansas.
Object Type: Image

Title: From J. Locke Hardeman to George R. Smith
Description: On June 10, 1855, J. Locke Hardeman writes from Saline County, Missouri to George R. Smith in Georgetown, Missouri. Hardeman asserts that he differs "very widely" from Smith in his opinion on the Kansas question. "If Kansas be settled by Abolitionists," Hardeman asks, "can Missouri remain a slave state? If Missouri goes by the board what will become of Kentucky[,] Maryland, Virginia?...I know that Abolition & Union can not stand together."
Object Type: Letter
Date: June 10, 1855

Title: Petition to Set Aside Election for Delegate
Description: This petition, addressed to Kansas Gov. Andrew Reeder, concerns the November 29, 1854 election for Congressional Delegate. The petitioners argue that a large number of Missouri citizens illegally voted in the Kansas election. They ask Reeder to either cast out the votes from the district where Missourians voted, or to nullify the entire election. The petition is signed by 77 residents of Kansas Territory.
Object Type: Petition
Date: 1854

Title: From William Clarke Quantrill to William W. Scott
Description: William Clarke Quantrill writes a letter from Olathe, Kansas to William W. Scott on January 22, 1858. Quantrill reports the results of a recent election on the Lecompton Constitution, which he refers to as the "Lecompton swindle." He mentions a recent skirmish at Fort Scott and declares it "a pity" that the Kansas settlers "had not shot every Missourian that was there." He also calls James Henry Lane "as good a man as we have here" and describes Kansas Democrats as "rascals."
Date: January 22, 1858

Title: A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand
Description: This is a copy of Abraham Lincoln's speech, "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand", delivered on June 16, 1858 at the Republican State Convention in Springfield, Illinois. This speech is preserved here in its entirety with original italics as part of a 1936 publication that includes an introduction by Douglas C. McMurtrie.
Object Type: Speech
Date: June 16, 1858

Title: Diary Entries
Description: These unsigned diary entries discuss the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the election of the Bogus Legislature and subsequent protests, the arrest of John Brown, and violent Bushwhacker raids. The author describes the “tragic + bloody + exciting scenes” of life on the border of Kansas and Missouri.
Object Type: Diary
Date: 1854-1855

Title: Sara Tappan Lawrence Robinson
Description: Portrait of Sara Robinson taken in 1857. The wife of Dr. Charles Robinson, Sara Robinson was a notable Free-State activist and author of Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1857

Title: Kansas - Col. Sumner Arriving at Constitution Hall
Description: Wood engraving of Col. Sumner dispersing the Topeka Legislature on July 4, 1856. The Topeka legislature met to draft a request to Congress for the admission of Kansas as a free state, but federal soldiers under command of Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner dispersed the assembly. The Topeka Constitution was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, but the U.S. Senate rejected it by two votes.
Object Type: Image
Date: July 26, 1856

Title: Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, Kansas
Description: Stereograph by Alexander Gardner depicting Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence, Kansas. Founded by members of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society (later renamed the New England Emigrant Aid Company) in 1854, Lawrence was a center of Free-State activism during the Border War.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Title: New England Emigrant Aid Company Sign
Description: Sign advertising the New England Emigrant Aid Company.
Object Type: Image

Title: From James Griffing to Augusta
Description: This letter, dated June 8, 1855, was sent to Augusta by James Griffing at Walnut Cabin. James discusses frontier life and news of friends in the area, and says that he plans to dispose of his current claim and secure one near Topeka, Kansas. He reassures Augusta that Kansas remains safe despite a violent episode of election fraud perpetrated by “a gang of drunken, worthless villains.”
Date: June 8, 1855

Title: Shawnee Indian Mission, Wyandotte County, Kansas
Description: Photograph of the Shawnee Indian Mission, where the Bogus Legislature met on May 30, 1855.
Object Type: Image
Date: July 6, 1940

Title: Resolutions Presented to the Missouri State Convention
Description: This document presents resolutions drafted ca. March 7, 1861 by Abram Comingo for the Missouri State Convention held in Jefferson City, Missouri. Comingo declares, “we are warmly attached to the Federal Union, and…we will not cease our efforts for its preservation,” but warns that Missouri “will resist and oppose any attempt that may point to the coercion of the seceded States.” Comingo proposes a meeting of representatives from the border states for the purpose of “presenting a plan of adjustment” to the states that have not seceded.
Object Type: Government Document

Title: John W. Whitfield
Description: Photograph of John W. Whitfield, the first Congressional delegate from Kansas Territory. The first election in Kansas Territory, held november 29, 1854, was won by Democrat John W. Whitfield, a proslavery settler and veteran of the Mexican-American War. Free-Staters complained about fraudulent voting by Misourians who crossed the border to cast their ballots and intimidate antislavery voters, especially in proslavery towns such as Leavenworth.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: From Josiah Miller to Dear Father and Mother
Description: This letter, dated January 25, 1856, is from Josiah Miller in Lawrence, Kansas to his parents living in a Southern state. Miller tells his parents about a recent election for Kansas state officers that ended in a skirmish between Free State men and proslavery men, including some from Missouri. He predicts that "this slavery question" will result in civil war, and urges his parents to move to a free state.
Object Type: Letter
Date: January 25, 1856

Title: From Silas Reed to Mrs. Abner Stone
Description: This letter, dated August 16, 1854, is from Silas Reed in Missouri to Mrs. Abner Stone. He mentions the conflict over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and says that he hopes New Englanders will "resolve that Kansas shall be on the side of freedom" and immigrate there to help the cause. He tells Mrs. Stone that thirty men from Massachusetts have already arrived in Kansas to start a free colony, and adds, "If I were a young man I would go there at once."
Date: August 16, 1854

Title: From William Rachel to Josiah Miller
Description: This letter, dated March 2, 1858, is from William Rachel in New Orleans to Josiah Miller in Kansas. He expresses disappointment that many members of the Kansas Free State Party chose not to vote in the recent election on the Lecompton Constitution. He criticizes the constitution, referring to it as "the Lecompton Swindle," but predicts that Stephen Douglas and "the northern Democrats" will encounter trouble for opposing it.
Date: March 2, 1858

Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865

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