History That Doesn't Suck - 41: Kansas! (Bleeding Kansas, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, & Caning of Charles Sumner)
Episode Date: June 24, 2019“We can send five thousand--enough to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the Territory.” This is the story of the Civil War’s warm up. The States are increasingly dividing along northern and ...southern (anti-slavery and pro-slavery) lines, and this tension is coming out in spades in Kansas. Northerners want to see it become a free state; Southerners want it to be a slave state. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act is meant to produce a meaningful compromise, but it seems to only make things worse! Terrible violence is breaking out: Missourian “Border Ruffians” are illegally voting in Kansas and ruffing up Free state supporters; southern Congressman Preston Brooks beats northern US Senator Charles Sumner nearly to death in the Senate chambers, and abolitionist John Brown is hacking men to death with a broadsword! Meanwhile, Dred Scott’s suing for his freedom. It isn’t going to go well, and this is only more fuel for America’s raging fire. Peace--or what’s left of it--can’t last. ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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your podcasts. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and as
in the classroom, my goal here is to make rigorously researched history come to life as
your storyteller. Each episode is the result of laborious research with no agenda other than
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slash membership, or click the link in the episode notes. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck.
I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.
It is the rape of a virgin territory, compelling it to hateful embrace of slavery. Yes, sir, when the whole world, Christian and Turk,
is rising up to condemn this wrong
and to make it a hissing to the nations,
here in our republic, force, aye, sir, force,
has been openly employed in compelling Kansas to this pollution
and all for the sake of political power.
Charles Sumner's sharp words rattle friend and foe alike in the semi-circle-shaped Senate chambers.
As you can see, the Massachusetts Senator with flowing brown hair and short but thick
mutton chops is here to fight. With his words, that is, he isn't one for physical combat. The fiery abolitionist
Republican is livid about the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which has sparked a full-on small-scale
civil war over slavery in the newly organized territory of Kansas. So in this five-hour-long
speech delivered over the course of two days, the senator comes out swinging, again, just
verbally, at, quote, that slave oligarchy which now controls the republic, close quote, as well as at
three senators that came at him during the debates over the Kansas-Nebraska Act two years back.
All Democrats, these three are Virginia's James Mason, Illinois' Stephen Douglas, and South
Carolina's Andrew Butler. Allow me to give you a taste of what Charles has to say about these
senatorial colleagues of his. While speaking of James, Charles throws some founding father shade.
I quote, The senator from Virginia, Mr. Mason, who, as the author of the Fugitive Slave Bill,
has associated himself with a special act of inhumanity and tyranny,
he holds the commission of Virginia.
But he does not represent that early Virginia so dear to our hearts,
which gave us the pen of Jefferson, by which the equality of men was
declared, and the sword of Washington, by which independence was secured. But he represents that
other Virginia, from which Washington and Jefferson now avert their faces, where human
beings are bred as cattle. Close quote. Talk about bringing the heat. And Charles just keeps it up. With a solid
17th century literary reference, he compares Stephen Douglas to fictional Don Quixote's
sidekick, Sancho Panza. And on whom does Charles bestow the honor of being Don Quixote?
That would be our last of the trio, Andrew Butler. Running with the image
of this fictional windmill warrior, Charles says, quote, the senator from South Carolina has read
many books on chivalry and believes himself a chivalrous knight. Of course, he has chosen a
mistress to whom he has made his vows and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him,
though polluted in the sight of the world, is chased in his sight. I mean the harlot of slavery.
Close quote. Damn. I mean just damn. Now before we go on, I need to fill you in on congressional culture at this point.
The year is 1856, and things have gotten so tense between the North and the South over
the issue of slavery that congressmen now head to the legislative chambers armed.
You know, just in case they need to do battle with each other.
Could you imagine your 21st century senator or congressional rep
walking around Capitol Hill packing heat? Or maybe a switchblade or a club? Because that's
how things work in 1856. Only last year, Massachusetts Rep. Henry Wilson foretold that,
quote, the next Congress will be the most violent one in our history. Close quote.
Crazier yet, he also said, to quote him again,
If violence and bloodshed come, let us not falter, but do our duty,
even if we fall upon the floors of Congress.
Close quote.
Yeah, not only did he acknowledge the violence,
he basically says he's ready to throw down.
Good God. No wonder the
British foreign minister is claiming the U.S. House of Representatives is a dangerous place
no foreign minister should even visit. Congress is turning into Fight Club. And that brings us to May
22nd, 1856. It's two days after Charles finished his verbal takedown on slavery in Kansas and Senators James Mason, Stephen Douglas, and Andrew Butler
Charles is at his desk in the Senate chambers, peacefully preparing copies of his 112-page speech for mass mailing
when Senator Butler's fellow South Carolinian and cousin, Representative Preston Brooks, walks in
The representative notices
women in the room. Well, given what this southern gentleman plans to do, having ladies in the room
will not do. He sits and waits. Finally, only one remains. Oh, but he's tired of waiting though.
Can't you manage to get her out?
Preston asks the Senate Secretary, Colonel Nicholson. No, that would be ungallant. Besides,
she is very pretty. The Colonel, not realizing something nefarious is about to go down,
jokingly replies. Yes, she is pretty, but I wish she would go, Preston retorts. Finally, the woman exits the
Senate chamber and Preston seizes his moment. He briskly approaches Charles's desk, then standing
before him says, Mr. Sumner, I read your speech with care and as much impartiality as was possible,
and I felt it was my duty to tell you that you have libeled my state and slandered my relative With that pronouncement made, Preston immediately raises his gold-handled cane and strikes Charles right on the head.
Repeatedly.
Relentlessly. Seated at a desk bolted to the floor, the unsuspecting stunned senator can't even flee. Through desperate thrashing, Charles somehow
breaks the bolted desk clean off the senate floor. He now stumbles and crashes into the narrow aisle with Preston and
his cane right on top of him. Don't kill him. Elderly Kentucky Senator John Crittenden calls
out as he moves towards them. Let them alone, God damn you, calls out Lawrence Keat, Preston's
fellow South Carolina congressman, as he raises his walking cane menacingly towards the
aged senator. Preston continues to beat the bloodied Bostonian until his cane breaks.
Within the space of a mere minute, Preston struck the senator some 30 times.
I could not believe that such a thing was possible. Charles ekes out before losing consciousness.
I guess you wouldn't believe such a thing is possible if, like Charles, you're not one for fighting.
Colleagues carry the bruised, broken, blood-gushing, brain-swelling senator to a sofa
as Preston and his posse saunter out of the Senate chambers.
Try not to worry too much.
We'll find out what happens to Charles, I promise. First though, we have to set up the situation that led to his speech.
In other words, I need to tell you about Bleeding Kansas. The path to this mini-civil war in the
center of the United States includes electing Franklin Pierce as president, the Whig Party's death over the Kansas
Nebraska Act, meeting the influential legislator Stephen Douglas, and seeing the formation of new
territories while focusing on Kansas in particular. Because it's here that things get out of hand fast.
Determined pro-slavery Missouri quote-unquote border ruffians commit large-scale
voter fraud and attack anti-slavery settlers in Kansas. With this background, we can circle back
to the barely breathing Bostonian Charles Sumner. Following that though, the violence continues in
Kansas as abolitionist John Brown decides to fight back. But does that make him
a righteous Christian soldier? Or simply a murderer responsible for the Pottawatomie Creek
massacre? And can the next U.S. president, James Buchanan, team up with the Supreme Court to stop
Kansas' bleeding through a ruling on the freedom or enslavement of the Dred Scott family? We'll find out. It's a full episode as always.
So, let's head back a few years to 1852 and elect another one-term president. Rewind.
As the election cycle of 1852 gears up, one thing is clear. The Whig party is dying.
This party that came into being to fight King Andrew
I, you remember that from episode 29, right? Faces some serious infighting in the early 1850s.
The Whigs are hemorrhaging members as two new third party options come into play.
One you already know, which is the anti-slavery Free Soil Party we heard about back in episode 39.
The other is an up-and-coming anti-immigrant party simply called the American Party, aka
the Know-Nothings, a name derived from their secret society origins. Seriously, it's like
someone shouted fire in the middle of a Whig convention and its members are bolting for the
exits. Here's the thing. Most Southern
Whigs can't comfortably stay in a party that continually fights to contain or even strangle
slavery. So they abandon the Whigs like rats jumping off a sinking ship and join the Democrats.
Up north, the Free Soil Party, whose myopic platform is keeping slavery out of the territories, refuses to get back in
bed with the Whigs. And, crazy as this sounds, slavery is not the only divisive issue creating
deep fissures in the Northern Whig party base. A strong anti-immigrant nativist movement is
gaining steam in northern states due to an influx of poor, unskilled, non-English-speaking
Catholic European immigrants coming to the U.S. The immigration rate balloons. In the early 1840s,
about 50,000 people a year immigrated to the United States. By 1852, that number has skyrocketed
to around 400,000. Fear-based arguments that immigrants
will take jobs and let their Catholic faith's hierarchical trust in a pope erode American
democracy drive many Whigs into the waiting arms of the Know-Nothing Party. While the Whigs try to
plug the plethora of holes in their boat, Democrats also lose a small portion of their members to the
Free Soil and Know Nothing
parties. But even with the dip in numbers, Dems manage to keep a solid, if somewhat smaller,
base in the North. Case in point, the Democratic Party nominates a Northerner and New Hampshire
native named Franklin Pierce for president in 1852. The guy has an impressive political resume,
having served in the state legislature, as a senator, and as an officer in the Mexican-American War. this strong base in both sections of the country,
Franklin handily wins the 1852 presidential race against General Winfield Scott. Ah, I assume you
remember Winfield from the Mexican-American War episodes. Well, the breaking, splintering Whig
Party throws a Hail Mary by running yet another war hero. After all, if old Zachary Taylor and William Henry
Harrison can win, they're thinking that maybe Winfield old fuss and feather Scott can too.
But between a united democratic party, a strong economy, and Winfield's own vanity and pomposity,
the Whig hero doesn't make much headway in the campaign. Franklin sweeps the election, winning well over 50% of the popular
vote and taking home 250,000 more votes than Winfield. Franklin Pierce takes the oath of
office in March 1853. But this powerful, well-connected New Englander with untamable
curly hair and a serious affinity for whiskey isn't the only powerhouse in Washington right now.
The leader of the Northern Democratic Senators, Stephen A. Douglas, has some serious star power
of his own. And if you haven't heard of Stephen Douglas, ahem, of the Lincoln-Douglas debates fame,
well, you're going to in this and a few episodes to come. So let's get to know this guy a bit.
Born in Vermont in 1813, Stephen lost his dad when he was only two months old.
At 20, the restless, ready-for-a-change young man moved to Illinois to become a lawyer.
He settled in Jacksonville, Illinois, a frontier town about 230 miles southwest of Chicago.
Stephen fit right in on the frontier and wrote to his mom,
quote, I have become a Western man, have imbibbed Western feelings, principles, and interests,
and have selected Illinois as the favorite place of my adoption without any desire of returning
to the land of my fathers except as a visitor. Close quote. Not content with lawyering, Stephen
entered state politics soon after opening a law
practice in Jacksonville. His frank manners and lack of Yankee snobbishness made him popular in
Illinois, and his ambition, self-confidence, and short stature soon earned him the nickname
Little Giant. Stephen claims that he's 5'4", but he's probably padding his stats more brazenly than an NBA player.
However, Little Giant has broad shoulders and is barrel-chested, so he's no Little Jemmy.
Only 10 years after coming to Illinois, Stephen got elected to Congress. Three years later,
in 1846, he became a senator. Frankly, popular and productive Stephen might have become a senator sooner, but he had to wait until he turned 30.
Entering Congress in the 1840s, Stephen was involved in some way in every major piece of American expansion legislation from Texas annexation onward, and ends up chairing the Senate Committee on Territories.
He's passionate about Western expansion and writes to a colleague,
quote, the tide of emigration and civilization must be permitted to roll onward, close quote.
But Stephen does have a flaw. He's not a visionary. He borrows and adapts the ideas of others,
which makes him a pro when it comes to compromising. You probably remember his skill
at getting the Compromise of 1850 through Congress back in episode 39. But his nation-building goals make him see compromise
as a means to a manifest destiny end. He remains blind to the moral and ethical issues within those
compromises. Like the divisive, persistent, seemingly unresolvable problems of slavery
and slavery expansion. These conflicts
may need a more deft hand than pragmatic Stephen can offer. So that's Stephen, and we won't get to
his famous debates with lanky log cabin dwelling Abe today, but now you have a feel for who this
guy is. And as he enters his 10th year in Congress and President Pierce begins his tenure in the
White House, both men find themselves staring and President Pierce begins his tenure in the White House,
both men find themselves staring down the mess that is slavery in the western territories
because the Compromise of 1850 is proving to suck at its job.
It really just dealt with slavery in the territories the U.S. gained in the Mexican-American War.
Now settlers are clamoring to organize more territory in the Louisiana Purchase Lands
north and west of Missouri, and that puts the spotlight on Stephen. See, as I mentioned,
Stephen is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, so he now attempts to handle the
situation by introducing the Nebraska Act in December 1853. Now, Stephen calls the bill sectionally neutral
because it embraces the idea of popular sovereignty. I'll remind you really quick
that popular sovereignty means territorial settlers decide for themselves whether or not
to have slavery, not Congress. Anyway, Stephen hopes to promote the idea of popular sovereignty in the Nebraska
Territory, which includes pieces of the future states of Kansas, Nebraska, both Dakotas, Montana,
and Wyoming, and in so doing, sidestep the Missouri Compromise Line that prohibits slavery
north of Parallel 3630 in the Louisiana Purchase. But loudmouthed Missouri Senator Davy Acheson won't let Stephen
off the hook that easily. The tall, Roman-nosed, uncouth Davy rails against Stephen's territory
organizing bill, correctly pointing out that settlers can't possibly decide on slavery
themselves when a 30-year-old line already decided for them. The pro-slavery
frontiersman-turned-senator gets several other southern senators to back his demand that Stephen
revise the bill to abolish the Missouri Compromise Line and truly allow popular sovereignty to rule
in the Nebraska Territory. Compromise-minded Stephen goes along with their demands and revises his bill.
This new bill, which still lists Stephen as the main author, but has Southern senators' fingerprints all over it, becomes known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
It creates two new territories, you guessed it, Kansas and Nebraska, and replaces the Missouri
Compromise Line with the Compromise of 1850
principle of popular sovereignty in all U.S. territories. The bill reads,
All questions pertaining to slavery in the territories and in the new states to be formed
are to be left to the decision of the people residing therein through their appropriate representatives. Close quote.
In January 1854, Stephen, Davy, and a few other southern senators take this new Nebraska-Kansas
bill to the president. They want to have the White House's backing before pushing this thing
through Congress. These guys aren't about to repeat Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850 mistakes.
As President Pierce reads over the Kansas-Nebraska bill,
he doesn't like the explicit language that basically repeals the Missouri Compromise,
but he can't afford to make enemies in the Senate right now.
See, Franklin has his eye on an international prize.
The president recently sent U.S. Ambassador James Gadsden to
Mexico to make a deal with our old one-legged friend and current Mexican president, Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna. James is offering Presidente Santa Anna $10 million in cash for a small strip
of land known as the Mesilla Valley in modern-day southern Arizona. And Franklin really wants
this deal to work out. That valley would be the perfect place to run a leg of a potentially
wildly lucrative southern transcontinental rail line. Once Ambassador Gadsden works out the treaty,
the president needs the Senate to ratify it without thinking twice. So, in an I'll-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine
move, the president capitulates to the
powerful senators on the territorial slavery issue, hoping to cash in on the favor later.
Okay, so that was step one. Now all Stephen has to do is sell a potentially slavery-expanding
bill to anti-slavery northerners. Justifying this new bill, probably to himself as much as to his northern democrat
associates, Stephen argues that by abolishing that pesky 3630 Missouri compromise line,
the Kansas-Nebraska bill will restore sovereignty to the people living in the territory. And they
may not choose to allow slavery in Kansas, but Stephen knows that's a big maybe. He's pretty sure that
the bill will cause, quote, a hell of a storm, close quote. But the bill doesn't kick up much
dust in the Senate and passes on to the House on March 4th, 1854. However, the House drags its feet.
They put it at the bottom of their to-do list, literally, and don't vote on the bill
until May. Though some northern reps do their best to stall the bill, the official vote takes place
on May 22, 1854. The revised bill, which more closely fits with the demands of pro-slavery
southerners than Stephen's original legislation, passes in a 113-100 vote. President Pierce signs the bill as promised on
May 30th, but confesses to being more anxiety-ridden than he's ever been since the 1852
death of his son. The Senate also ratifies the Treaty of Mesilla on April 25th, 1854,
giving the Mesilla Valley, aka the Gadsden Purchase, to the United States. But the Gadsden
Purchase and its promise of a southern railroad ends up looking like just one more attempt by
southern slave owners to expand slavery into the developing American West. That's not what the
president was going for back in January when he traded favors with the Senate to get the treaty
ratified. And the newly enacted Kansas-Nebraska
bill only brings the fight to establish or abolish slavery in the territories to the surface.
Here comes the storm that Stephen Douglas predicted. An immediate casualty is the Whigs.
I mean, yes, the party was hurting before, sure, but the Kansas-Nebraska Acts passage is one in the head, two in the chest, and a nail in the coffin for it.
The emerging Republican Party gathers up the Whigs' splintered remains,
including those who'd already been lost to third parties, like the Know-Nothings and the Free Soilers.
Add a few Northern Dems to sweeten the pot, and the Republicans materialize almost overnight
as a robust, though mostly
northern and western, anti-slavery party. I guess Stephen called it, huh? This is indeed a hell of
a storm. And it's moving west. Yeah, it's time to actually apply the popular sovereignty idea
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Some northerners are ready for the rubber, or wagon wheel, to meet the
road. Anti-slavery New York Senator William Seward recognizes that the ballots cast by Kansas
settlers will now decide the slavery issue out west. He knows that the more heavily populated
north can send droves of voters to the new territory. So in a move that
would make Ralphie from the cult classic movie A Christmas Story Proud, confident William basically
triple dog dares the south to a figurative foot race to Kansas. Quote, come on then, gentlemen of
the slave states. Since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it in behalf of the cause of freedom.
We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side
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William Seward's whole God give the victory to the side which is stronger in the Kansas slavery
throwdown sounds good, but the senator isn't appreciating how dirty his opponents are willing
to play. Some see it as the fight for the future of the United States. Democrat and Senator Davy
Acheson says that, quote, the game must be played boldly. If we win, we carry slavery
to the Pacific Ocean. If we fail, we lose Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and all the territories.
Close quote. Now, I'll point out that Missouri is already a slave state and has been since the
Compromise of 1820. But Missourians, like the senator here,
fear that if their state is entirely surrounded by free states on its north, west, and east sides,
it too will become a free state in time. So with that disposition, he's ready to play dirty.
Remember when the Missourians drove the Mormons out of the state back in episode 32? Well, Davey plans to draw on that vigilante expertise.
The Missouri Senator boasts of this to U.S. War Secretary Jefferson Davis.
Quote,
We are organizing.
We will be compelled to shoot, burn, and hang, but the thing will soon be over.
We intend to Mormonize the abolitionists.
Close quote. Damn. All right, let's see this play out. Davey starts his less than legal scuffle with
voter fraud in November 1854 when the Kansas Territory goes to elect its House Representative
for Congress. Not wanting to leave any chance that
the election results in an anti-slavery rep, he gets Missourians to cross the state line and vote
in Kansas Territory's election. Though next to impossible to pull off in the modern era,
that would be like 21st century Americans getting in their cars on election day and driving to
another state to vote. Talk about illegal.
By the way, this isn't just a little nudge toward the pro-slavery candidate. According to next
year's census, Kansas will have just under 3,000 legal voters in March 1855. Meanwhile,
these Missourians, whom Horace Greeley and other newspapermen dub, quote, border ruffians,
close quote, cast, ready for this, over 1,700 illegal votes in November 1854.
Man, talk about stacking the deck. The border ruffians only up their game when Kansas holds
elections for its territorial
legislature in the spring of 1855. Enter every election district in Kansas and vote at point
of bowie knife or revolver, a border ruffian instructs his men. Meanwhile, Davy Acheson
descends from that august body that is the U.S. Senate to personally lead border ruffians into the Kansas territory.
Never shy about boasting of his ability to use violence to manipulate votes and demographics,
Davey proclaims, quote, there are 1,100 men coming over from Platt County to vote,
and if that ain't enough, we can send 5,000, enough to kill every goddamned abolitionist in the territory.
Close quote.
Oh, don't worry, he doesn't actually get 5,000 border ruffians.
No, no, only 4,908.
Kansas Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder is sickened at this.
A Pennsylvanian and a Democrat, he wasn't anti-slavery
when he came to Kansas, but the behavior of these Missourians is changing his views quickly. The man
believes in duly elected government, so Andrew orders one-third of voting districts to redo their
elections, and sure enough, they elect free soilers. But the slavery crowd doesn't care.
They won't acknowledge this new election. Obviously, the American Republic, which stands
for duly elected government, has to reject this election, right? The governor turns to the
president of these distressed states, Franklin Pierce. But Davies got the president in his pocket.
He convinces Franklin that Republican
newspapers are exaggerating, and it's an immigrant aid company helping recent immigrants in Kansas
that's making problems, not Missourians. Franklin not only upholds the election, he kicks Andrew to
the curb and brings in a new territorial governor who won't make a fuss. The pro-slavery government of Kansas stands.
Moving to cement its power, this bogus legislature makes helping slaves escape a crime punishable by
death. Even speaking against slavery can result in a fine and jail time. Good grief.
But Kansas' free soilers don't stand down. Things get worse in November 1855
when pro-slavery settler Franklin Coleman shoots and kills free-soiler Charles Dow.
Their dispute was over land, but politics quickly came into play, launching the so-called
Wakarusa War. Organized as a Kansas militia, a 1,500-strong band of Missourians now moves
on Lawrence, Kansas, where a thousand free soilers await them with rifles and howitzers.
Thankfully, our new lackey governor recognizes his militia isn't exactly Kansan and intercedes.
This quasi-war supposedly ends the following month without a real battle,
but that's not entirely true. It's more like a winter armistice. Let's fast forward to spring
1856. There are two governments in the Kansas Territory, a pro-slavery government in the city
of Lecompton and a free-soiler government in Topeka, both insisting it alone is legitimate.
Of course, despite the voter fraud,
the current legitimate one in the eyes of the president is the pro-slavery government.
Thanks again for standing up for the electoral process, Franklin.
Anyhow, with the winter's cold gone, Missourians, who have the law on their side, remember,
because it's illegal to speak against slavery in Kansas, more or less pick up where they left off late last year. On May 21st, 1856, a government-sanctioned
800-strong group of Missourians, armed with cannons no less, descends upon the free-soiler
stronghold of Lawrence, Kansas. Given the law, the residents know better than to even put up a fight. The Missourians raze the city's hotel, destroy its newspapers, and otherwise sack the town, including the free-soiler governor's home.
And as this violence rips through the center of the United States, Congress is at an impasse.
Democrats in control of the Senate are trying to pass a bill admitting Kansas to the
Union as a slave state. But they can't because Republicans control the House, and they not only
refuse to sign off, they're trying to pass a bill that will admit Kansas as a free state.
Oh, and seeing as we're talking about Congress, I'll go ahead and remind you,
this is about the time Charles Sumner makes his Crimes Against Kansas speech that opened this episode. He delivers
it on May 19th and 20th, 1856, which were the days before the sacking of Lawrence. Seeing the voter
fraud and violence in Kansas, and understanding that the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act is what unleashed
this hell in the first place, perhaps you better understand why Charles gave this speech in which
he referred to the border ruffians from Missouri as, and I quote, hirelings picked from the drunken spew and vomit
of an uneasy civilization. Close quote. You probably also see why he ripped on Senators
Mason, Douglas, and Butler for their role in its creation. It was two days after this speech, so May 22, 1856,
that Representative Preston Brooks bashed Charles' head in.
The caning of Sumner as this grotesque assault by one U.S. legislator upon another has come to be
known has a divisive impact on the nation. I know, big shocker. Thousands of Northerners register as Republicans
after this. William Cullen Bryant captures the growing concern for freedom of speech in the face
of slavery as he asks in the New York Evening Post, quote, we must speak with bated breath in
the presence of our Southern masters? Are we to be chastised as they chastise their slaves? Close quote.
Meanwhile, Preston becomes a hero in the South as admirers send him dozens of new canes to replace
the one he broke on Charles' head. They often bear an inscription such as, quote, hit him again.
Close quote. The house votes on expelling him, but his Southern colleagues prevent Preston from
receiving the required two-thirds to actually kick him out. No matter. He resigns, only to win
re-election. His total penalty for almost killing a literally seated U.S. Senator is a $300 fine.
As for Charles, he does survive surprisingly enough, but it will take years for him to recover
physically, emotionally, and psychologically. But the violence in Kansas doesn't remain a
one-way thing. Incensed over the sacking of Lawrence, one Free State fighter decides Free
Soilers must, quote, fight fire with fire, close quote. And since he'll be appearing in some future
episodes, let's get to know this
man whom Frederick Douglass will later describe as the one to, quote, at least begin the war that
ended slavery, close quote. Okay, a little hyperbolic, Frederick, but we get what you're going for,
though it's far more complimentary than others feel about this complicated,
controversial man. Ladies and
gents, I give you John Brown. Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity to become the most powerful
and significant figure in modern history. Over 200 years after his death, people are still
debating his legacy. He was a man of contradictions, a tyrant and a reformer, a liberator and an oppressor, a revolutionary
and a reactionary. His biography reads like a novel, and his influence is almost beyond measure.
I'm Everett Rummage, host of the Age of Napoleon podcast, and every month I delve into the
turbulent life and times of one of the greatest characters in history, and explore the world that
shaped him in all its glory and
tragedy. It's a story of great battles and campaigns, political intrigue, and massive
social and economic change, but it's also a story about people populated with remarkable characters.
I hope you'll join me as I examine this fascinating era of history.
Find The Age of Napoleon wherever you get your podcasts.
Born in 1800 to a household
that believed in abolitionism
some three decades
before it became a legit movement,
Johns hated slavery since childhood.
But his strong feelings
weren't just taught to him.
He came to his own personal conviction
while handling a cattle drive
from his Ohio home
up to Michigan as a 12-year-old.
Yeah, 12. And I know what you're thinking. Lazy kid. I mean, in neighboring Indiana,
Ron Swanson of Parks and Rec fame worked at both a sheet metal factory and a tannery by 11.
But I digress. The point is, 12-year-old John was traveling by his lonesome and lodged with
a family that owned a slave boy about his age. John found him to be intelligent, kind, thoughtful,
yet the family was cruel to him. The man of the house would beat this child with an iron shovel.
As John puts it, this caused him, quote, to reflect on the wretched, hopeless condition of fatherless and motherless slave children, close quote. In time, this memory led John,
quote, to declare or swear eternal war with slavery, close quote. The staunch abolitionist
moved across several states in adulthood and wasn't the best businessman by any means, but everywhere he went, he did indeed wage war with slavery. With dark, thick hair and tan skin,
John opened his home and small businesses as way stations on the Underground Railroad,
which he called the Subterranean Passway. While farming in Pennsylvania from 1825 to1835, he helped an estimated 2,500 slaves escape. And in 1850, John responded to the
Fugitive Slave Act by converting his Springfield, Massachusetts wool storage warehouse into yet
another underground railroad station. Though John worked hard to liberate slaves, he became more and
more frustrated with the non-violent approach of national abolitionist
movements. I mean, his hairline refused to recede with age, so why should the rest of him back down
from a fight? The determined man wanted action, not political compromises that led to what he saw
as wicked laws, like the Fugitive Slave and Kansas-Nebraska Acts. And John's Christian faith
backed abolitionist actions followed the principle that
Christian soldiers must combat sins, like slavery. But he hasn't actually been violent. Yet.
That changes in 1856. With four of his sons, a daughter, and his son-in-law already in Kansas,
John sees an opportunity to effect real change.
He arrives in Kansas early that year and helps to build the ineffective, unused defense work at Lawrence, Kansas. It's after that bald and blatant attack on freestaters and abolitionists in this
city that John snaps. He goes from a committed abolitionist to a violent Christian soldier,
and his actions radically reshape the Kansas Free State movement.
Nearing midnight on May 24th, John, four of his sons, his son-in-law, and a like-minded friend
walk up to a small cabin near the Pottawanamie Creek. The two dogs in the yard bark loudly,
but one of the men shoots a dog and its scared mate runs off. John then knocks on the cabin door of James Doyle and calls out that he needs directions to a nearby homestead.
As James opens the door to help, the armed group forces their way into the cabin.
Using their broadswords, yes, broadswords,
how did they even get four-foot-long crusade-style double-edged blades to Kansas in the first place. Anyway,
using their broadswords, the men take James and his two oldest sons, 22-year-old William
and 20-year-old Drury, as prisoners. Doyle matron Mahala tearfully begs the intruders to spare her
next son, 16-year-old John. The men relent and drag only the three oldest Doyle men into the night. Mahala,
John, and the three youngest Doyle children crouch together in the cabin, sobbing as Mahala hears
two shots, moans, and quote, wild whoops, close quote, just outside their home. Yeah, this northern
army, as they call themselves, has no intention of taking prisoners. They murder the Doyle men and move on down the road.
Their next target is the nearby Wilkinson cabin.
Louisa Wilkinson wakes up to the distant sound of a dog barking.
I can't tell you for sure, but it's probably the Doyle's terrified hound.
She wordly wakes her husband, Alan.
He dismisses Louisa's
fears and goes back to sleep until there's a knock at the door. Alan gets up and talks warily
to the men from behind his door. Louisa overhears them ask for directions to the next cabin.
She also hears the men ask Tennessee native Alan if he is a, quote, northern armist, close quote. In other words,
they are asking if he opposes the Free Soil Party. When Allen answers yes, the men shout something
through the door that sounds like, quote, open this damn door or we'll open it for you, close
quote. Despite Louise's terrified objections, Allen unbolts the door. Four rough and tumble men
shove their way into the small one-room cabin. They grab hold of Alan. Louisa, sick with the
measles, begs the men to leave her husband alone, but out for blood and justice, John Brown refuses.
After leaving a sobbing Louisa in her sickbed, the vigilantes drag Alan into the brush.
One of the men swings his sword
at the prisoner's neck, leaving two gaping slashes across his throat. Another man leaves gashes in
Alan's head and ribs. The murderers, now having killed four men with their guns and broadswords,
leave Alan to bleed to death and head to James Harris's cabin. James lets the dirty, scraggly
men into his cabin. I know, it's the middle of the
night and James is just opening his door and letting a bunch of armed men into his house.
What is this guy thinking? Well, I can't read his mind, but I can tell you that he recognizes the
straight mouth and stern face of old man Brown and his son Owen among the group. So at least he's not opening the door to strangers.
Does that make it better?
Probably not.
Anyway, at the Harris cabin,
the Northern Army changes up their tactics.
Instead of asking for directions, they ask for a man named Henry Dutch Sherman.
See, there are several people
staying at the Harris homestead,
but John Brown and his crew only want Dutch.
Fortunately for that guy, he's not sleeping at the Harris cabin tonight. Determined to find Dutch, a few of the
vigilantes interrogate the men individually out in the yard, while the rest stay in the cabin as
guards. One by one, each of the men returns safely. But when William Sherman, who happens to be Dutch's
brother, goes out for questioning,
the now wide-awake people in the Harris cabin hear a shot.
The Northern Army guards quickly leave the cabin and William never returns.
At dawn, the survivors find the Northern Army's victims.
A few hundred yards from his house, young John Doyle discovers the mutilated bodies of his brothers and dad.
His father, James, has taken a ball through his forehead and has a large stab wound in the chest. As for his older brothers,
William has a knife wound on one side and his head is cut nearly in two while Drury's head and chest
are slashed open and his hands and arms are severed. Best guess is that Drury was holding up his hands in a
futile attempt to shield himself as the broadsword fell on him. Down the road,
Louisa's neighbors find Alan, but they won't let the sick and distraught woman see her husband's
badly mingled body. James Harris finds William Sherman with two gaping gashes in his skull and
his left hand nearly severed. Like Drury, William's last act was
probably raising his left arm to defend himself against a broadsword attack. Oh, and he has one
gunshot wound in the chest. This violent attack on pro-slavery, though not slave-owning, settlers
awakens free-soil anti-slavery Kansans to the idea that they can fight for their cause. Which is exactly
what John Brown is going for. He wants the free staters to fight fire with fire, not to compromise
or capitulate. Through this attack, John catapults himself into a new realm. John is a Christian.
John is a freedom fighter. John is a murderer. John is a saint. Or a terrorist. Which of those he is depends on whom
you ask. Across the summer of 1856, at least 30 more people lose their lives as the fight between
free soil and pro-slavery settlers becomes violent and deadly. Yeah, after John Brown's Pottawanamene
Creek Massacre, as these five deaths come to be known, both sides are ready to kill
to defend their ideals. Kansas government officials struggle to prevent vigilante groups from forming
and attacking one another. President Pierce finally intervenes in August and sends a new
territorial governor backed by a few hundred federal troops. John Geary, a veteran of the
Mexican-American War and recent mayor of gold-rush-booming San Francisco,
arrives in September 1856. The impartial man's main goal is to hold a fair election in November.
In his September 15th inaugural address as the new territorial governor,
John, with his piercing eyes and epic beard, calls on Kansans to end the killing.
Quote, men of the north, men of the south, of the east and of the west, in Kansas, you and you alone have the remedy in your hands. Will you not suspend fratricidal
strife? Will you not cease to regard each other as enemies and look upon one another as the children
of a common mother and come and reason together? Between that moving speech,
his no-nonsense personality, and hefty military backing, the new governor puts a stop, for now,
to the infighting. More will be killed in the years ahead, but at least the worst of the bleeding
has stopped in Kansas. It does so just in time for the presidential election of 1856.
In this election, the Democrats abandon one-term
Franklin, or as the U.S. Attorney General calls him, quote, that ninny, Frank Pierce, close quote.
Instead, they run James Buchanan, the experienced statesman served as ambassador to England during
this bleeding Kansas debacle, so his hands are figuratively clean. Republicans
run the famous, now aging, Western explorer and from the shadows, bear flag revolt leader,
John the Pathfinder Fremont. The Republicans promise to contain the coercive slave power to
the South. Politically adept James, however, plays on people's fears of Southern secession
and campaigns on a pledge to save the Union above all else. This appeal works. He beats out the popular Pathfinder and secures the
presidency. As soon as the election ends, James gets to work saving the Union. Yeah, he doesn't
wait to be sworn in or even for Franklin to pack his bags and get out of the White House.
The uneasy stalemate in Kansas has to be dealt with right away. And James knows of a Supreme Court case that could answer the question of slavery in U.S.
territories. So the president-elect, I can't stress that enough, this guy is not actually
the president of the United States yet, jumps right into backdoor dealings with his friends
on the Supreme Court. Let me give you a little background on the potentially slavery in the territories resolving case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Back in the 1830s,
an enslaved man named Dred Scott lived with his owner, Dr. John Emerson, in the Free State of
Illinois and the Free Territory of Wisconsin. But when the doc moved to Missouri and died,
Dred, his wife, and two daughters passed
into the ownership of Dr. John's widow, Irene Sanford Emerson. In 1846, Dredd sued Irene for
his freedom. He won. The St. Louis Circuit Court relied on a long-standing legal precedent that
once a slave is free, he is always free and ruled that Dredd had obtained free status while living
in Illinois and Wisconsin. Nonetheless, Dredd's owner, Irene, appealed the verdict to the Missouri
State Supreme Court. In 1852, that court made a purely political move and overturned the previous
ruling and decades of legal precedents. With the desire for freedom for himself and his family and the
knowledge that he had the law on his side, Dredd appealed to a federal district court in 1854.
But by this time, Irene's brother, John Sanford, had control of Dredd and his family.
In this federal case, known as Dredd-Scott v. Sanford, district court judge Robert Wells upheld
the Missouri Supreme Court ruling.
So, in 1856, Dredd appealed his case to his last legal hope, the United States Supreme Court.
And this is where meddling President-elect James Buchanan comes into the story.
Since Dredd is suing for freedom based on the fact that he lived in free U.S. territories,
James realizes that the outcome of Dredd- Scott v. Sanford could settle whether Congress or territorial legislatures can actually ban slavery in U.S.
territories. But can one Supreme Court ruling really stop the bleeding in Kansas and settle
the slavery expansion issue for good? Southern Democrat Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney
hopes to do all that and more. He's pretty sure he can
address slavery in the territories and the political status of blacks in the United States
and the rights of slave owners all in one fell swoop. With the president-elect's help,
he just might pull it off. Pennsylvania James coerces his fellow Keystone stater,
Supreme Court Justice Robert Greer, to concur with the chief
justice's ruling. Roger and James think that by getting a Northerner to agree with a slavery
upholding and expanding decision, it won't look like a sectional politically partisan ruling.
They also hope that maybe, just maybe, Northerners will go along with it and shut up once and for all
about slavery. Not everyone on the court believes in the pipe dream. In 1857, Judge John Catron,
who agrees with Rogers' arguments in the case, predicts that not only will the verdict piss off
Northerners, it definitely won't settle the territorial slavery question. The justice flat out tells James that the court's ruling, quote, will settle nothing in my present opinion, close quote. Let's find out if
he's right. Chief Justice Roger Taney reads the official 7-2 ruling of the court on March 6,
1857. SCOTUS upholds the federal district court's decision and rules that Dredd is a slave.
The decision hangs on two basic tenets. One, Dredd is not a citizen and therefore can't sue
in U.S. courts. He goes on to argue that no African American, free or enslaved, is a citizen
of the United States. According to Roger, blacks are, quote, Now, if this is true, it's news to us all, since slaves have sued for and won their freedom based on the exact same arguments as Dredd over the past few decades.
In other words, in addition to the straight-up racism,
this ruling is crazy. But Roger is determined to rule on slavery in the territories, so,
like an undergrad starting a term paper 24 hours before it's due, he pushes his poorly argued
biased thesis forward. This brings us to point two. He says the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and episode 27 is unconstitutional
because Congress doesn't have the power to determine the slave status of a territory.
And to pour lemon juice in that huge paper cut, Roger finds that to prohibit slavery anywhere in
the U.S. would deprive Americans of their property, i.e. slaves, without due process. It takes Roger, whose aging voice
barely registers above a whisper, a couple of hours to read his decision, and the nation is
stunned by it. Well, the nation is, but not the newly sworn-in president, James Buchanan.
He had a big role in bringing this court's ruling about and vows to, quote, cheerfully submit, close quote, to the court's
decision. James then urges all, quote, good citizens, close quote, to do the same. That
won't be a problem for Southerners who rejoice at the decision. One Virginia newspaper interprets
the ruling as a guarantee that, quote, the territory of Kansas belongs alike to the man
of Massachusetts and to the citizens of Louisiana or Virginia.
It is the common domain of all the United States, and, as such, the people of each and every state have an irrefutable right to transfer themselves and their property into it.
But President Buchanan finds that most Northerners will not be submitting to anything,
nor will Kansans. Instead of quieting the slavery controversy, as Roger and James hoped,
the Dred Scott decision only ramps up the political brouhaha in the North and in Kansas.
The pro-slavery territorial legislature, yeah, that same one elected by blatant voter fraud back in 1855,
calls a state constitutional convention. Despite Rogers' ruling giving them the green light to
blow off free soilers, the convention goers write one state constitution with slavery and one
without. Then they present both versions to voters. Way to be fair and even-handed, guys. Oh, but there's a catch. The Constitution,
supposedly without slavery, gives slave owners already in Kansas the right to keep their slaves
and any of their slaves' children. It also doesn't prevent anyone from bringing enslaved men and
women into Kansas. This Constitution basically gives slavery the garage door code instead of the
key to the front door. Yeah, okay, so they are in fact blowing off free settlers and abolitionists.
They were just hoping that these groups were stupid enough to fall for this fake free state
constitution. And this is where the Kansas state constitution process hits a serious snack.
It will take years to untangle this mess, and our
old friend and popular sovereignty champion Stephen Douglas will break with President James
Buchanan over it. But that's a story for another day. We have a few other very important people
to meet as we come to the cusp of the Civil War. For a bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode,
visit historythatdoesntsuck.com.
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