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Title: From George M. Beebe to Jefferson Davis
Description: George M. Beebe writes a letter from Doniphan County, Kansas to Jefferson Davis on June 9, 1860. Beebe reacts to the news that Davis and A.G. Brown have "indefinitely postponed" his confirmation as Secretary of Kansas Territory. He defends his status as a Democrat, insisting that accusations of his alliance with the Free State Party are false. He claims that he has fought in favor of slavery and remains committed to the cause.
Date: June 9, 1860

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Father
Description: This unsigned May 20, 1858 letter is presumably from Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas to his father in Massachusetts. Fitch criticizes the Lecompton Constitution and the English Bill due to their proslavery stance. He fears that those in the Kansas territory will accept the English Bill since it offers large amount of public lands to Kansas settlers. Though Fitch fears Kansas' entrance into the Union as a slave state, he ends his letter in an optimistic tone, remarking that it would be as impossible to make Kansas into a slave state “as it would be to make Hell out of Heaven.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 20, 1858

Title: Another Abolition Outrage
Description: The St. Louis Daily Bulletin printed this article on December 11, 1860, announcing that a party of abolitionists tried to steal forty slaves from Morgan Walker in Independence, Missouri. J.H. McMurray, author of the article, writes: "Walker told them to take the negroes, and commenced shooting. One of the gang fell dead on the steps; one was taken prisoner, and the messenger thought two others were killed."
Object Type: Newspaper Article
Date: December 11, 1860

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: This undated letter was written by Florella Brown Adair to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair. Florella describes her recent trip to Ashtabula, Ohio to visit friends and relatives. She writes of visiting the “great oil county where all seemed to be alive pumping oil from the bowels of the earth…Their are now five hundred wells sunk & most in opperation, they are worked by steam engines & yeald from five to therty barrels of oil in its crude state.”

Title: From Calvin Iserman to Brother William
Description: In this letter of October 3, 1858, Calvin Iserman writes from Independence, Missouri to his brother William. Calvin wants to leave Independence, where non-slaveholders are “counted just nobody at all," and “a poor man, and mechanic is looked upon as no better than a slave.” He declares that “any man East that upholds Slavery…should be made to live in a Slave State all of his life time.” Calvin plans to go to Kansas Territory and “take a look around.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: October 3, 1858

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: Edward Fitch writes a letter to his parents from Lawrence, Kansas on May 5, 1861. He tells them that if Missouri secedes, Kansas will have to fight. He asks how people in Massachusetts feel about the war, and expresses hope that the “Yankees” will go to battle with the South and not stop until slavery is eradicated. “War is terrible,” he says, “but sometimes it is necessary for the good of the whole world.”
Date: May 5, 1861

Title: From James Montgomery to George L. Stearns
Description: James Montgomery writes a letter from Mound City, Kansas to George L. Stearns on May 8, 1861. He reports that, “We are in a perilous position here, and have not ammunition enough to make a respectable fight.” He says that he has organized a regiment to help defend Kansas against pro-slavery Missourians, whose troops are camped along the border of Linn and Bourbon counties. He mentions that an Osage Indian chief attacked some of these troops, then “tied them with ropes to the Horns of his Saddles and dragged them out of the country.” Montgomery asks for Stearns’s assistance in acquiring arms and declares that, “If we have to fight, we will carry the war out of Kansas.”
Date: May 8, 1861

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: Dividing the National Map
Description: Satirical illustration parodying the four candidates of the 1860 presidential election. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas tear at the western part of the country, John C. Breckinridge tears at the southern part of the map, while John Bell attempts to glue the map back together with a comically small jar of glue.
Object Type: Image

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 Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: This letter was written on August 20, 1860 by Florella Brown Adair in Grafton, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair in Osawatomie, Kansas. Florella says that she has become something of a local celebrity as a “Kansas ‘Lion,’” and that people often stop by to visit her. She says that she met many old friends and classmates at a gathering in Oberlin. Florella reports that her son Charles has an opportunity to attend school in Hudson, Ohio, and asks Samuel what he thinks about this prospect.
Date: August 20, 1860

Title: From James Montgomery to G.L. Stearns
Description: These two letters were sent to G.L. Stearns by James Montgomery. Writing from Mound City, Kansas on May 8, 1861, Montgomery states that he has organized a regiment and accepted a position on the Governor’s War Council. He reports that the Missourians are “trying to stir up the Indians on our border,” and asks Stearns for two small breech-loading guns. Writing from Lawrence, Kansas on June 21, 1861, Montgomery says that southern Kansas is threatened by invasion from Missouri and Arkansas, while Union men in Missouri are either driven out of the state or drafted into the Confederate army. Montgomery states that he has used Stearns' letter of credit at various times, and thanks him for his generosity.
Date: May 8, 1861 and June 21, 1861

Title: Union Pacific Railway Co., Wyandotte, Kansas
Description: Stereograph of the Union Pacific Railway Co. building in present day Kansas City, Kansas. The back of the print states, "Office U. Pacific Railway Co. E. D. Wyandotte, Kansas, 286 miles west of St. Louis, Mo." The Wyandotte Constitutional Convention was most likely held in this building.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: Edward Fitch writes a letter from Lawrence, Kansas to his parents in Massachusetts on February 24, 1856. He says that the Free State Legislature plans to meet next month in Topeka, and that President Pierce has proclaimed them traitors. Fitch predicts that the Missourians will attack Kansas, “but if they try it we shall have a bloody time out here.” He finishes the letter on March 9 and tells his parents that the Legislature met in Topeka, and that no violence occurred.
Date: February 24, 1856-March 9, 1856

Title: From James Griffing to Augusta
Description: This July 9, 1855 letter was written by James Griffing at Ottawa Creek, Kansas, to Augusta. James writes that he is “travelling the rounds of another preacher’s circuit,” currently staying with an Ottawa Indian named “Jones” (possibly “Ottawa Jones”). James criticizes the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Bogus Legislature, and describes an inspiring speech given by Charles Robinson in Lawrence, Kansas on Independence Day.
Date: July 9, 1855

Title: Texas Ordinance of Secession
Description: Photograph of the Texas Ordinance of Secession from February 1, 1861. Image courtesy of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Object Type: Image
Date: February 1, 1861

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on February 17, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair in Grafton, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella says she is sorry if Samuel’s feelings are hurt by her letters, but says that she intended no wrong and has tried to do right by her family and herself by staying in Ohio for the winter. She plans to go south to Xenia, Ohio with Charles in March, and adds that although Ada wants to see her father, she “does not care about going back to Kansas.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: February 17, 1861

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Father
Description: Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes a letter to his father in Massachusetts on January 20, 1856. He criticizes the Know Nothing Party, arguing that the people of Massachusetts would be more adamant abolitionists if they witnessed the effects of slavery. He contends that, “the great question of Slavery is to be the question before the country.” He includes a copy of a statement that James Henry Lane wrote on January 4, 1856, declaring his intention to present to the United States the new Constitution adopted by the state of Kansas at the Topeka Convention.
Date: January 20, 1856

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: On September 6, 1860, Florella Brown Adair writes from Grafton, Ohio to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair. Florella says that her friends think she should spend the winter in Ohio instead of returning to Kansas, and that “if you & Emma were out of Kansas I should be glad & we would not return there until things are better in temporal prospects.” Florella shares a rumor about a Methodist preacher in Osawatomie, Kansas, who was seen several times with “colored emegrants” on their way to Canada. “I am inclined to think he has been falsely accused by free state men in Kansas” she concludes.
Date: September 6, 1860

Title: From Edward Bates to Hamilton R. Gamble
Description: On August 2, 1861, Edward Bates writes from the Attorney General's Office to Hamilton R. Gamble. Bates applauds "the wise course taken by the Missouri Convention," and congratulates Gamble on his appointment as Provisional Governor of the state. "The internal peace of Missouri & its security," he declares, "…will do more towards the suppression of the insurrection in the border states, than 100,000 of our best men in arms."
Date: August 2, 1861

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

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