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Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Mother
Description: Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes a letter to his mother in Massachusetts on June 15, 1856. He voices disappointment with James Buchanan and predicts that if John C. Fremont is not elected president, Kansas will be admitted to the Union as a slave state. Yet he expresses optimism that “the death knell of slavery has been tolled.” He reports that Colonel Sumner has been gathering troops in Palmyra, Kansas, and he predicts that violence will ensue. He adds that in Lawrence, a number of Free State men have been robbed, and that “Men are being found dead more or less every little while.”
Date: June 15, 1856

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes a letter on August 25, 1856 to his parents, who live in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Edward argues that Hopkinton, his hometown, should pay him for his contributions to the Free State cause in Kansas. He adds that a lot of his neighbors also need financial help and don’t have enough food or clothing. He writes that he recently attended the funeral of Captain Shombre, who was fatally wounded at the Battle of Fort Titus, and mentions that Major David S. Hoyt was killed the same week in an attack at Washington Creek.
Object Type: Letter
Date: August 25, 1856

Title: Reynolds's Political Map of the United States
Description: Printed on map: "Designed to exhibit the comparative area of the free and slave states and the territory open to slavery or freedom by the repeal of the Missouri compromise. With a comparison of the principal statistics of the free and slave states, from the census of 1850." Political map delineating the slave states, free states, and open territories, ca. 1856. The maps were created as political propaganda for the first Republican Party candidate for President, John C. Fremont, whose likeness is visible in the upper left corner of the map.
Object Type: Map

Title: John R. Boyd Handbill
Description: This handbill, signed by John R. Boyd, urges the citizens of Buchanan County, Missouri to join arms and fight against the “usurping invader, Fremont.” Boyd instructs them to bring their shot guns and rifles to Rock House Prairie, where hundreds of men have set up camp and plan to fight until they achieve freedom, “or be buried beneath the dead bodies of men who would rather die than be slaves.”
Object Type: Leaflet

Title: John C. Fremont
Description: Glass plate negative of military officer, explorer, and politician John C. Fremont in profile, circa 1855-1865.
Object Type: Image

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