TO WATSON FREEMAN, Esq.,

Marshal of the United States, Massachusetts District.

From facts which have been made known to me, I am of opinion that it is necessary that an efficient posse comitatus should be called out to aid you in enforcing the laws of the United States in the case of Anthony Burns, now held by you by warrant from Edward G. Loring, esq., one of the commissioners of the circuit court of the United States in the district of Massachusetts, an alleged fugitive from labor. Dated at Boston the 26th day of May, A. D. 1854. P. SPRAGUE,

Judge of the United States for the District of Massachusetts.

To the COMMANDER OF THE UNITED STATES TROOPS AT FORT INDEPENDENCE: SIR: I send you a certified copy of the judge's certificate that in his opinion an efficient posse comitatus should be called out to enforce the laws of the United States. You will please to send me all the military force at your disposal as soon as possible, to report to me at the court-house, Boston.

Respectfully yours,

WATSON FREEMAN,
United States Marshal.

P. S.—I refer you to the order of the Department of February 17, 1851. In response to this demand two batteries of the Fourth Artillery, 2 officers and 42 men, with two field pieces, under the command of Brevet Maj. S. C. Ridgely, left Fort Independence at 5 a. m. of the 27th, and reported to the marshal. A similar demand on the commandant of the navy-yard at Charlestown brought a detachment of marines and sailors, while an order of the governor called out all the militia of Boston and neighboring towns. At the hearing Burns was ordered to be returned to his master; there was great excitement, occasioned by the severe denunciation against the officers of the Government made by the counsel for Burns, among them the most eminent lawyers in the State, and there were fears of a renewal of the scenes of the 26th. To provide for this the United States marshal and attorney telegraphed General Scott on the 29th that

A larger military force is necessary to execute the laws of the United States. You are requested to forward forthwith all the troops you can spare to Fort Independence. Let these report to the United States marshal at Boston court-house.

General Scott, conceiving that he had no authority to act without the orders of the President, telegraphed to Washington for instructions, at the same time directing the troops in New York Harbor to be held in readiness to move at a moment's notice; but fortunately there was no occasion for their services. Guarded by a large armed force of police and military, Burns was taken through masses of shouting, angry, and excited people, estimated to number 200,000, to the wharf and placed on board a United States revenue cutter, which sailed for Virginia under the escort of several naval vessels. The troops were discharged by the marshal on the 2d of June and returned to their stations."

a H. R. Doc. No. 30, Forty-fourth Congress, second session, pp. 89–91,

Racine, Wis.,

1854.

About the same time one Joshua Glover was arrested at Racine, Wis., as a fugitive slave and taken to Milwaukee. The people of Racine, enraged by the arrest, held a public meeting at which a vigilance committee was appointed; 100 men fully armed went to Milwaukee, where they were joined by many hundreds of the citizens of that town; assaulted the jail and rescued the prisoner, who was taken back to Racine and sent to Canada. The affair created great excitement, and the commanding officer of the troops at Fort Brady was called on for aid, but the excitement subsided before he could obtain instructions from Washington.

IV. FROM THE KANSAS TROUBLES TO THE END OF THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

DISTURBANCES IN KANSAS, 1854-1858-THE SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., VIGILANCE COMMITTEE, 1856-THE MORMON REBELLION, 1851-1858-THE UTAH EXPEDITION, 1857-DISTURBANCES AT PROVO, UTAH, 1859—THE AFFAIR AT HARPERS FERRY, VA., 1859-THE WAR OF THE REBELLION, 1861-1865.

The act of May 31, 1854, providing for the erection in the mid continent of two immense Territories under the names of Nebraska and Kansas, and permitting the inhabitants of those Territories to decide for themselves whether slavery should or should not exist within their limits (10 Stat. L., 277), was the occasion for a political struggle that forms one of the most important chapters in the history of the United States. Almost immediately after the passage of the act emigration commenced to flow into those Territories from the free-labor States, largely from New England, accelerated by the investment of large sums of money by industrial capitalists; and these settlers not unreasonably brought with them the political principles, the prejudices, and habits of their section. They settled along the streams of the eastern section of both Territories and founded in Kansas the towns of Lawrence, Topeka, Pawnee, Grasshopper Falls, and a few others. At the same time another stream of settlers came in from the slaveholding States, very considerably from Missouri, which formed the eastern border of Kansas, and settled at points which they called Atchison, Kickapoo, Donaphan, Lecompton. It is not too much to assume with equal impartiality that the settled convictions of generations of sires were not left behind by the sons who left the slaveholding States to take up homes in Kansas. "As a

Disturbances

in Kansas,
1856-1858.

result of this state of things," says Mr. Douglas in his report of March 12, 1856, to the Senate (Senate Report, Committee 34, Thirty-fourth Congress, first session), "the great mass of emigrants from the Northwest and from other States who went there on their own account, with no other object and influenced by no other motives than to improve their condition and secure good homes for their families, were compelled to array themselves under the banner of one of these hostile parties in order to insure protection to themselves and their claims against the aggressions and violence of the other."

In October, 1854, A. H. Reeder, who had been appointed governor of the Territory of Kansas, arrived at Fort Leavenworth and took

the necessary measures for the election of a Territorial legislature, as required by the act of May 31. This election was held in March, 1855, and resulted in a large pro-slavery majority. The legislature met at a small settlement near the Missouri line, known as "Shawnee Mission," where they proceeded to enact laws; the most of which were vetoed by Governor Reeder, and instantly passed over his veto. This condition of affairs culminated in an attempt of the governor to remove the seat of government to an equally obscure settlement on the military reservation of Fort Riley, known as "Pawnee City," when he was removed from office (August, 1855) and Wilson Shannon, of Ohio, appointed to the vacancy. In October the anti-slavery citizens assembled in convention at Topeka and framed another constitution, which made Kansas a free-labor State, and on this demanded admission to the Union. From this date a reign of terror was inaugurated in Kansas; all classes of men went about armed, and little or no regard was had to either law or order. On the 28th of November Governor Shannon reported to the President that he was satisfied that a secret military organization existed in the Territory, in numbers estimated at 1,000 to 2,000, having for its object a forcible resistance to the laws; that prisoners had been rescued from the hands of the officers; cattle were being killed, crops and other personal property destroyed, and women and children driven out of the Territory; that a sheriff had called on him for 3,000 men to aid him in executing warrants in his hands, and that in order to avoid civil war he had directed that all the militia at his disposal be sent to the aid of the sheriff. Three days later he dispatched the following telegram to the President:a

His Excellency FRANKLIN PIERCE:

WESTPORT, MO., December 1, 1855.

I desire authority to call on the United States forces at Leavenworth to preserve the peace of this Territory; to protect the sheriff of Douglas County, and enable him to execute the legal process in his hands. If the laws are not executed civil war is inevitable. An armed force of 1,000 men, with all the implements of war, it is said, are at Lawrence. They have rescued a prisoner from the sheriff, burnt houses, and threatened the lives of citizens. Immediate assistance is desired. This is the only means to save bloodshed.

Particulars by mail.

WILSON SHANNON.

This was received at Washington at 10 o'clock on the morning of the 3d, and immediately responded to as follows: a

WILSON SHANNON,

Governor of the Territory of Kansas:

WASHINGTON, December 3, 1855.

Your dispatch is received. All the power vested in the Executive will be exerted to preserve order and enforce the laws. On the receipt of your letter the preliminary measures necessary to be taken before calling out troops will be promptly executed, and you will then be fully advised.

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

a Senate Ex. Doc. No, 23, Thirty-fourth Congress, first session, p. 26,

On the 11th Governor Shannon reported that he had received the President's dispatch of the 3d, and transmitted a copy at once to Colonel Sumner, the commandant at Fort Leavenworth, but that the latter declined to march until he had himself received orders from his superior commanders; that in the meantime he (Governor Shannon) had proceeded to Lawrence and had succeeded in persuading the rival forces to disband, but that this peace was but temporary, and hostilities might break out at any moment. He concludes his report with the remark that

I am satisfied that the only forces that can be used in this Territory in enforcing the laws or preserving the peace are those of the United States, and with this view I would suggest that the executive of this Territory be authorized to call on the forces of the United States when in his judgment the public peace and tranquillity or the execution of the laws may require their assistance. Should there be an outbreak it will most probably be sudden, and before orders can be obtained from Washington the crisis will have passed."

Before the end of January, 1856, the forebodings of the governor were fully realized. The President was credibly advised that a force of armed men, with several pieces of artillery, were about to enter Kansas from Missouri with the avowed intention of burning the towns occupied by the free-labor party, and that the latter were arming and assembling in considerable numbers to resist them." Realizing that the time had arrived when Federal interference was not only justified but imperative for peace and order, he issued the following proclamation:

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, indications exist that public tranquillity and the supremacy of law in the Territory of Kansas are endangered by the reprehensible acts or purposes of persons both within and without the same, who propose to direct and control its political organization by force; it appearing that combinations have been formed therein to resist the execution of the Territorial laws, and thus, in effect, subvert by violence all present constitutional and legal authority; it also appearing that persons residing without the Territory, but near its borders, contemplate armed intervention in the affairs thereof; it also appearing that other persons, inhabitants of remote States, are collecting money, engaging men, and providing arms for the same purpose; and it further appearing that combinations within the Territory are endeavoring, by the agency of emissaries and otherwise, to induce individual States of the Union to intervene in the affairs thereof, in violation of the Constitution of the United States;

And whereas, all such plans for the determination of the future institutions of the Territory, if carried into action from within the same will constitute the fact of insurrection, and if from without, that of invasive aggression, and will in either case justify and require the forcible interposition of the whole power of the General Government, as well to maintain the laws of the Territory as those of the Union;

Now, therefore, I, Franklin Pierce, President of the United States, do issue this my proclamation to command all persons engaged in unlawful combinations against the constituted authority of the Territory of Kansas or of the United States to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes, and to warn all such persons b11 Stat. L., 791,

a Ibid., p. 30.

S. Doc. 209- -6