This page contains the "This Month in Legal History"
column as published in the current Douglas County Law Library E-Mail
Newsletter. The column features a different event from the history of
law and jurisprudence of Douglas County, Kansas, that occurred during
the month. It is published monthly in the Douglas County Law Library
E-Mail Newsletter and on the Home page of this website.
Archived entries from this and previous years can be accessed by
visiting the This
Month in Legal History Archive page on this website.
September 24, 1855
- Douglas County, Kansas Territory, is organized.
With the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by President Franklin
Pearce on May 30, 1854, the Territory of Kansas was created and opened
for white settlement. One of the provisions of the Act was Popular
Sovereignty, in which residents of the territory would be able to vote
on whether or not the territory would come into the Union as a state
that allowed slavery. This had the effect of repealing the restriction
on new slave states being formed north of the southern boundary of
Missouri, which had been the law of the land since its inclusion as
part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Kansas would be the first
territory where the decision on slavery would be left up to a vote of
the people in the territory. Many Free-State and proslavery partisans
came to the territory, and their interaction quickly led to violent
disputes in what became known as "Bleeding Kansas." March 30, 1855, was
the date of the election to pick representatives for the first
territorial legislature. On Election Day, thousands of proslavery
Missourians came over the border into Kansas, took over polling
stations, cast ballots for proslavery candidates, kept Free-State men
from voting, and went home to Missouri after the ballots had been
counted. The result was a territorial legislature comprised almost
entirely of proslavery men. Because of the way it was elected,
Free-Staters referred to the legislature as the "Bogus Legislature" and
refused to acknowledge its authority. Territorial Governor Andrew
Reeder had an economic interest in the town of Pawnee, a small
settlement near Fort Riley about 120 miles from the Missouri border,
and chose the town to be the capital of the Territory. Work was begun
on a capitol building there, and on July 2, 1855, the legislature
convened in Pawnee. The proslavery legislators felt that having the
capital that far from Missouri gave an advantage to the Free-State
cause in Kansas, so they proceeded to vote to move the capital to one
of the buildings at the Shawnee Methodist Mission, which was just
inside Kansas along the Missouri border. The Governor vetoed the bill,
but the Legislature overrode his veto, adjourned the session on July 6,
1855, and abandoned Pawnee. They reconvened at the Shawnee Mission on
July 16, 1855, and proceeded to enact laws favorable to the cause of
slavery in Kansas. Among the laws they enacted were: Printing or
publishing any book, pamphlet, etc. calculated to produce "dangerous
disaffection" among slaves was punishable by five years at hard labor;
Speaking or writing that "persons have not the right to hold slaves in
this Territory" was punishable by two years at hard labor; Every
officer, elected or appointed, and every attorney, was required to
swear an oath to support the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave
Law; Any person opposed to slavery was disqualified from being a juror;
Homicide when committed while correcting a slave was excusable;
Cohabitation of a slave with a white woman was punishable by
castration; Petit larceny and misdemeanors committed by slaves was
punishable by whipping; Habeas corpus was disallowed for slaves charged
with crimes; and, Wearing balls and chains was mandatory for all
prisoners serving hard labor sentences. The Legislature also found time
to begin the process of organizing 33 counties in the territory. One of
the counties approved to be organized was Douglas County, named for
Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois, and author of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lecompton, the headquarters of the proslavery
movement in the territory, was chosen to be county seat. Douglas County
was officially organized on September 24, 1855, and, in accordance with
a proclamation by Sam Jones, who had been appointed as Sheriff the
previous month by Acting Territorial Governor Daniel Woodson in
agreement with the Territorial Legislature, the first Commissioners
Court was held in Lecompton that day. The Commissioners were Dr. John
N. O. P. Wood, Chairman and ex officio Probate Judge, John M. Banks,
and George W. Johnston. James Christian was Clerk of the Board of
County Commissioners and Hugh Cameron was County Treasurer. The
municipal townships of the county were named Lecompton, Lawrence,
Franklin, Washington, and Louisiana. On January 27, 1856, the townships
were restructured into Lecompton, Calhoun, Washington, and Wakarusa. In
Late 1857, the Territorial Legislature moved the county seat from
Lecompton to Lawrence, the headquarters of the Free-State movement in
the Territory. In 1858, the townships were again restructured into
Lecompton, Lawrence, Eudora, Palmyra, Willow Springs, Marion, and
Clinton. By the time Kanawaka Township was added in 1859, the
anti-slavery cause had won out in Kansas, all proslavery laws having
been repealed, and the Territory was destined to enter the Union on
January 29, 1861, as a Free-State. In 1867, the county achieved its
modern configuration when Grant Township was formed out of part of
Sarcoxie Township in Jefferson County and added to Douglas County.
From: Pawnee, Kansas, on Wikipedia.org; Slavery, on
KansasBogusLegislature.org; Douglas County, Kansas, on Kansas
State Historical Society website; and, William G. Cutler's History of
the State of Kansas, Douglas County, Part 3, County Organization and Official
Roster.
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