15
Bleeding Kansas
By the 1850s it was clear to many that two different systems had evolved within
the context of American democracy. Enough liberty had existed for the North
and the South to take different routes to their respective futures. But it had
also become apparent that the desires and rights of both the majority and mi­
norities within the nation were effectively preserved and sustained by the polit­
ical system of the country. When something arose to disrupt the delicate
balance of that political system and tip the scales of politics and justice in one
direction or the other, those affected reacted with alarm and zealous defense
of their world and views. The admission of California tipped the scales in favor
of the free states, and one southern reaction was the Nashville convention. Fo,
many southerners it was just a matter of time before the northern states began
to interfere again with slavery and the rights of southern states.
There were still vast tracts of land in the West that had not been organized
into territories and had not begun the long-established apprenticeship to
statehood in the Union. California insisted that once it became a state, a na­
tional transportation system was necessary to more effectively connect it with
the other states. In order to build railroads that could reach from Chicsgo to
San Francisco, the intetvening territory needed to be surveyed, organized, and
set on the path toward formal incorporation within the Union. There were al­
ready established policies and previous political compromises that had imag­
ined the free or slave status of the territories. Still, there were those who would
seek their own desires and impose their own will on the territories even if it
meant subverting democratic mechanisms in support of sectional loya/ties and
programs. The Kansas-Nebraska Act lit a long, slow fuse that eventually pro­
duced the Civil War. The nation had found it impossible to continue to compro­
mise over land, liberty, and different definitions of happiness.
During the debates over Kansas and Nebraska and whether Kansas was to
be slave or free, our political system witnessed a horrific physics/assault by Pre­
ston Brooks on Charles Sumner, an abolitionist senator from Massachusetts.
146
ClfA,P'J1)I15: Bltf'ding J(Qnsas
147
The nation was horrified as blood actually splattered in the Senate chamber as
Brooks's cane found its mark on Senator Sumner's skull. But Brooks later de­
fended himself in the House of Representatives, of which he was a member,
even against efforts to censure him.
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, a southerner who owed his position on the
Supreme Court to his political support for Andrew Jackson during the national
bank controversy, sought to settle the issue of slavery in the territories once
and for all by his decision in the Dred Scott Case. If Taney's goal was to settle
the issue of slavery, however, he provided more fuel to the firestorm threaten­
ing to consume the nation in war. For many southerners, the first salvo of that
war was John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Literally invading the
South and specifically seeking to inspire an armed slave insurrection, Brown
was the embodiment of many southerners' worst fears. Failing in his initial pur­
pose, Brown could only hope that he might become a martyr to the greater
cause of a free life for African Americans.
DOCUMENT 15.1
Resolutions of the Nashville Convention
1. Rt.'SOlved, that the territories of the United States belong to the people of the
several states of the Union as their common property. That the citizens of
the several states have equal rights to migrate with their property to these
territories, and are equally entitled to the protection of the federal govern­
ment in the enjoyment of that property so long as the territories remain
under the charge of that government.
2. Resolved, thai Congress has no power to exclude from the territory of the
United States any property lawfully held in the stales of the Union, and
any act which may be passed by Congress to effect this result is a plain vi­
olation of the Constitution of the United States.
•••
5. Resolved, that the slaveholding states cannot and will not submit to the en­
actment by Congress of any law imposing onerous conditions or rcstrilints
upon the rights of masters to remove with their property into the lerrito­
ries of the United Stiltes, or 10 any law making discrimination in favor of
the proprietors of other property against them.
6. Resolved, that it is the duty of the federal government plainJy 10 recognize
and finnly 10 maintain the equal rights of the citizens of the several states
in the territories of the United States, and to repudiate the power to make
a discrimination between the proprietors of different species of property in
federal legislation. The fulfillment of this duty by the federal government
Source: Excerpted from Resolutions and Address Adop/ed by the Sou/hem ConvenllOn, Held .,
Nash""lIe, Tennessee, June 3-12, 1850 (Columbia, SC. 1850), pp. 3-9.
148
CHAPTElt 15~
81m/illS KDn»s
would greatly tend to restore the peace of the country and to allay the ex­
asperation and eXl;itement which now exist between the different sections
of the Union. For it is the deliberate opinion of this Convention that the
tolerance Congress has given to the notion that federal authority might be
employed incidentally and indirectly to subvert or weaken the institutions
existing in the states confessedly beyond federal jurisdiction and control is
a main cause of the discord which menaces the existence of the Union, and
which has well~nigh destroyed the efficient action of the federal govern­
ment itself.
...
11. Resolved, that in the event a dominant majority shall refuse to recognize
the "neat constitutional rights we assert and shall continue to deny the
obligations of the federal government to maintaih them, it is the sense of
this Convention that the territories should be treated as property and di­
vided between the sections of the Union, SO that th~ rights of both sections
be adequfltely secured in their respective shares. That we are aware this
course is open to grave objections, but we are ready to acquiesce in the
adoption of the line of 36- 30' north latitude, extending to the Pacific
Ocean, as an extreme concession, upon consideration of what is due to the
stability of our institution.
...
24. Resolved, that slavery exists in the United States independent of the Consti­
tution. That it is recognized by the Constitutiori in a threefold aspect: first,
as property, second, as a domestic relation of service or labor under the
law of a state; and, last, as a basis of political power. And, viewed on any
or all of these lights, Congress has no power under the Constitution to cre­
ate or destroy it anywhere; nor can such power be derived from foreign
laws, conquest, cession, treaty, or the laws of nations, nor from any other
source but an amendment of the Constitution itself.
25. Resolved, that the Constitution confers no power upon Congress to regu­
late or prohibit the sale and transfer of slaves between the states.
DOCUMENT 15.2
Organizing the Territories
That the Constitution, and all laws of the United States which are not locally in­
applicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory of
Kansas as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the
Source.' From An ACf 10 C"g.Imze the Temtories 01 Nebraska and Kansas, Thlrty'lhlld Congress, seSS.
1, Chap. 59, 185.4, p. 289.
Ot.IlI'TtAlS Bl«rJmK KA1I5II$
149
act prep<,ratory 10 the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March
sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which, being inconsistent with the princi·
pie of non·intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories,
as recognized by the legislation of eighteen hundred and filty. commonly called
the Compromise Measures. is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the
true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or
State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own Wily, subject only
to the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That nothing herein contained
shall be construed to revive or put in force ilny law or regulation which may
have existed prior to the act of sixth of March, eighteen hundred and twenty, ei·
ther protecting, establishing.. prohibiting, or abolishing slavery.
DOCUMENT 15.3
Bleeding Kansas
I. T. Yunker
L,wrence, K.T. Aug. 23, 1856
J. S. Cla,ke Esq.
Dubuque, lao
Dr Friend
Agreeable to promise I will endeavor to post you as far as I am capable in
Kans..,s affairs. I arrived here on Ihe 9th inst. We had a Very pleasant trip and
would have enjoyed it much more had we not been anoyed considerably by pro
Slavery passengers on the Boat and others who came aboMd along the River to
inspect the passengers but we didn't fear the consequences so much as we air
haTed the necessity of disguising our political sentiments.
I have engaged to work at House joining-to commence as soon as the ex·
dtement abates enough for people to lay aside their arm". As yet lluvc spent
my time loafing and rusticating with the ladies!! Except when I have been in the
baltle field or on drill. I have joined a military company c.,lled the "Stubbs.... or
Company A. We drill twice a day. Yesterday we had a grand battalion drill. the
company numbering in all about 400 Infantry nnd Cavalry headed by two com­
panies of Artillery (12 & 6 pound pieces)-all of which are quartered at
Lawrence in expectation of the Town being attacked. Report says 2CXXJ men are
forming at Westport for that purpose. The only fear the people here have is that
the report is false. They want to get a good body of them together and wipe
them out at a stroke (they can do it). I have had the pleasu.re of being in hvo I>.,t·
tles-.1nd one I wa~n't in for the reason Ihat after we had marched about 13
miles to attack a party of 300 Georgians on Washington Creek they got wind of
Sou-e.: From tho eoIechOll W., Leners, °B1eed"'9 /(sONS, ° at the I<¥lIlU Stale HlSloncal Soclety
.....ebsrte, www.Qhs.orglmalw"ar1etlefelyulk....htm.
150 DtM1DI15: Blmli1lH KilIl!ilfJ
us and fled, leaving their provisions, arms and other goods which we took
possession of and burnt their block House. We then changed our course for
Lecompton 12 miles distant for the purpose of rescuing 12 prisoners who we
heard were about to be hung. That night about 12 oclock when we were march~
ing on the open Prairie within about 5 milcs of Lecompton, we were fired upon
by a party of 27 Ruffians who were in the act of stealing horses and sacking the
settlers' houses. They were well mounted and seeing the strength of our party
they fled pell mell over the Prairie, all but one who fell from his horse and was
taken prisoner. We afterwards learned that we wounded one of the company in
the leg as we fired upon them as they retreated. We then spread down our blan­
kets and slept directly till morning, when we were called upon just as we were
baking our flap jncks for breakfast to move forward notwithstanding we had
marched allday the day before and most of the night with nothing but a few
dough cakes and bacon to regale our gaunt stomachs. It was necessMy in order
to save the poor victims from an innocent and shameful death. We reached the
block house where Col. TItus and a crew of his men were stationed, and sup­
posing the prisoners were there and wishing to capture the old ring leaders of
the Ruffians, we pitched in to their fort. We gave them 9 6-pound balls made of
the type of the Free State press that was destroyed at the sacking of L.1.wrence,
dUring which time we were sending Sharps rifle balls into the windows and
doors incessantly. The firing was responded to from the fort & held out about
~ of an hour when the white flag was hoisted from the window. We rushed up
and took charge of old TItus and 17 of his men-all that surrendered, 2 being
killed and two wounded. TItus himself was wounded twice. Our side had had
10 wounded. Captain Shambree so mortally that he died 30 hours after. His loss
is deeply felt and much lament by the free State men. I was a very energetic man
in the cause of freedom. Next day Sunday 17 Old Gov. Shanon came over to
make a treaty in behalf of the Border Ruffians which resulted in the exchange of
prisoners and the proviso on his part to do all that he could to disband the Ruf­
fians and restore peace and harmony. They also gave us a cannon to boot (12
pounder). Lawrence is the only safe place in the territory for a free state indi­
vidual. We hear of the latter being butchered in the mosl horrible manner al­
most daily. One was scalped alive on the road near Leavenworth yesterday
morning. I did nOl hear his name. There is not the slightest danger of Kansas
ever being a slave state. These people are so much excited and 50 eager to
avenge the wrongs for their friends who have been slaughtered in cold blood by
the lawless devils. They would fight till the last man would drop on the field.
But don't fear. If the Missourians or the southern Statesmen attempt to rally
again, they wish they never had been such a country as Kansas. You must come
here Clarke, as you never can know what a lovely country it is. Please write and
excuse my bunglesome style.
Your true friend,
1. T. Yunker
OIA/'TtI: 15: 81m/illg
KJlllliG
151
DOCUMENT 15.4
In Defense of Honor
Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina Defends His Assault
on Senator Charles Sumner of MasSBchuseHs, July 14, 1856
Preston S. Brooks
Mr. Speaker:
Some time since, a Senator from Massachusetts allowed himself, in an elabo­
rately prepared speech, to offer a gross insult 10 my State, and to a ven~rable
friend, who is my State representative, and who waS absent at the time.
Not content with that, he published to the world, and circulated exten­
sively, this uncalled for libel on my State and my blood. Whatever insults my
State insuJts me. Her history and character have commanded my pious venera­
tion; and in her defence I hope I shall always be prepared, humbly and mod­
estly, to perform the duty of a son. I should have forfeited my own self-respect,
and perhaps the good opinion of my countrymen. if I had failed to resent such
an injury by calling the offender in question to a personal account. It was a per­
sona' affair, and in taking redress into my own hands I meant no disrespect to
the Senate of the Unitoo States or to this House. Nor, sir, did I design insult or
disrespect to the State of Mass.,chusetts. I was aware of the personal responsi­
bilities I incurred, and W;:IS willing to meet them. I knew, too, that I was
amenable to the laws of the country. which afford the s.,me prolection 10 all,
whether they be members of Congress or private citizens. I did nol, and do not
now believe, Ihat I could be properly punished, nol only in a court of law, but
here also, at the pleasure and discretion of the House. I did not then, and do not
now, believe that the spirit of American (.reemen would tolerate slander in high
places, and permit a member of Congress 10 publish and circulale a libel on an·
other. and then call upon either House to protect him against the personal re­
sponsibilities which he had thus incurred. Bul if I had committed a breach of
privilege, it was the privilege of the Senale, and not of this House. which was
viol<ltoo. I was answerable there, and nol here. They had no right, as it seems to
me, 10 prosecute me in these HaUs, nor have you the right in law or under the
Constitution, as I respectfully submit, to l<lke jurisdiction over offences com­
milled against them. The Constitution does not justify them in making such a
request, nor this House in granting it. If, unhappily, Ihe day should ever come
when sectional or party feeling should run so high as to control all other con·
siderations of public duty or justice, how easy it will be to use such precedents
for the excuse of arbitrary power, in either House, to expel members of the mi­
nority who may have rendered themselves obnoxious to the previliling spiril in
the House 10 which Ihey Jx>lons....
Sou~: ~cerpled from
!.Wlll4Ibrooka.html.
"PrelIM S. Brooks of South earorll'll,' al www.ialh..Il191nllLedufa.nlfW/
152 ClW'TClI1S: Blming KAtuII,
If I desired to kill the Senator, why did not I do it? You all admit that I had
him in my power. Let me teU the member from New Jersey that it was expressly
to avoid taking life that I used an ordinary cane, presented to me by a friend in
Baltimore, nearly three months before its application to the "bare head" of the
Mass.'chusetts Senator. I wenl 10 work very deliberately, as I am charged and
this is admitted and speculated somewhat as to whether I should employ a
horsewhip or a cowhide; but knowing that the Senator was my superior in
strength, it occurred 10 me that he might wrest it from my hand, and then for I
never attempt any Ihing I do not perform I mighl have been compelled to do
that which I would have regretted the balance of my natural life.
The question has been asked in certain newspapers, why I did not invite the
Senator to personal combat in the mode usually adopted. Well, sir, as I desire
the whole truth to be known about the matter, I will for once notice a newspa­
per article on the floor of the House, and answer here.
My answer is, that the Senator would not accepl a message; and having
formed the unalterable determination 10 punish him, I believed that the offence
of "sending a hostile message," superadded to the indictment for ass.,ult and
b.,t1ery, would subject me to legal penalties more severe than would be imposed
for a simple assault and battery. That is my answer.
DOCUMENT 15.5
Dred Scott's Case
ENQUIRER (RICHMOND)
"The Drerl Scott Case"
March 10, 1857
In anticipation of the definitive decision of the Supreme Court of the United
States in the Dred Scott case, some two months or more ago, its adjudication
was announced through a respectable proportion of the press, emanating, we
do not now recollect precisely, whence or how; but, as the sequel shows, not
from mere conjecture, or without reliable data, for it was then stated that seven
of the nine judges constituting the court, agreed in the opinion that the Missouri
Compromise was unconstitutional, and consequently, that the rights originating
in it and under it, were even factitious and ineffective. And it will be seen by the
authentic annunciation of the grave and deliberate decision of that august body,
in another column, that what was rumor then is reality now.-Thus has a
politico-legal question, involVing others of deep import been decided emphat­
ically in favor of the advocates and supporters of the Constitution and the
Soorce: From Paul FInkelman, Dred Scott v. S.ndfoId: A Bnef H/$tory W11h Documenf$ (Boston: Bed·
ford,St. Marlin'.. 11Jg7), pp. 129-30, 147-48.
Ol.4PJU J5; B/Mlilrg KallSil5
153
Union, the equality of the States and the rights of the South, in contradistinction
to and in repudiation of the diabolical doctrines inculcated by factionists and fa­
natics; and that too by a tribunal of jurists, as learned, irnp...rtial and unpreju­
diced as perhaps the world has ever seen. A prize, for which the athletes of the
nation have often wrestled in the halls of Congress, has been awarded at Ii\st, by
the proper umpire, to those who have justly won it. The /fatioll has achieved a
triumph, sectionalism has been rebuked, and abolitionism has been staggered
and stunned. Another supporting pillar has been added to our institutions; the
ass..iJants of the South and enemies of the Union have been driven from their
poi", d'appui; a p.,triotic principle has been pronounced; a great nationaJ, con­
senative, union s.wing sentiment has been proclaimed. An adjudication of the
constitutionality of the Missowi Compromise, in the Dred Scott case, insepara­
bly embraced collateral questions of such character, as also to involve inciden­
tal issues, not unfrequently arising in the councils of the country, and which
have ever proved, points of irreconcilable antagonism between the friends and
enemies of the institutions of the South; all of which, it will be seen, h.we been
unequivocally established in accordance with the sense of the Southern people.
And thus it is, that reason and right, justice ,1Od truth, always triumph over J><'s­
sion and prejudice, ignorance and envy, when submitted to the deliberations of
honest and able men: that the dross and the genuine metal are sep..rated when
the ore is accurately assayed.
EVENING POST (NEW YORK)
The Supreme Court of the United States
March 7, 1857
The dangers apprehended from the organic tendencies of the Supreme Court to
engross the legislative power of the federal government, which Jefferson fore­
saw and so often warned his countrymen against, are no longer imaginary.
They are upon us. The decision rendered by that body yesterday, in the case of
a Missouri negro who had appealed to it for assistance in asserting his right to
share the promises of the Declaration of Independence, has struck at the very
roots of the past legislative policy of this country in reference to slavery. It has
changed the very blood of the constitution, from which we derive our political
existence, and has given to our government a direction and a purpose as novel
as it is b.:,rbarous and humiliating.
In the first place, it has annihilated at a single blow the citizenship of the en­
tire colored population of the country, lind with it aLI laws lind constitutional
provisions of the different states for the protection of those rights.
In the next place, it has stripped Congress of a power to exclude slavery
from the territories, which has been exercised by every President of the United
States from Washington down to Fillmore, and which has had.\I\ effect in shap­
ing the political and domestic instinlllons of more than half the territory of the
United States. The [Northwest) ordinance of 1787, with the pllssage or defence
154
CHAPTU
J5: Blmling K/lnsas
of which the names of the most eminent American statesman have been imper·
ishably associated, is not only pronounced unconstitutional, but the power to
enact any laws which contemplate a restriction upon the right to buy, hold and
sell slaves in our territories is distinctly denied.
Nor is this all. The doctrine which has been recognized wherever the com­
mon law prevails, since the days of Lord Mansfield, that when a slave is taken
by his master into the jurisdiction of a state which prohibits slavery, he is from
that moment free, is not only set aside, but the power is denied to Ihe states of
this Union to prohibit masters bringing slaves within their jurisdiction, pro­
vided that they do not enter it with the intention of establishing a permanent
residence there.
All of these positions are new in the juridical history of the country; the law
in reference to all of them was settled by a long line of judicial decisions by the
highest tribunals of the several states, and until within the last twelve years was
regarded as much beyond the reach of controversy as the right of the people of
the United States to a republican form of government.lf precedent, usage, pub­
lie acquiescence could hallow any doctrines of constitutional interpretation,
then were those doctrines hallowed which have been ruthlessly subverted by
the Supreme Court.
It is with feelings of more than ordinary solemnity that we record this deci·
sian, for its consequences are beyond the reach of human calculation. We are not
so much concerned at the invasion of the laws and constitution of the country,
both of which accomplishes-for the American people, we have no doubt, will
take care of their rights in spite of the Supreme Court-as we are, in being
forced to the melancholy conviction that the moral authority and consequen[t!
usefulness of that tribunal. under its present organization, is seriously impaired,
if not destroyed.
DOCUMENT 15.6
John Brown's Final Address to the Court
November 2, 1859
I have, may it please the court, a few words 10 say.
In the first place, I deny everything but what I have aU along admitted: of a
design on my part to free slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing
of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri and there took
slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moving them through the
country, and finally leaving them in Canada. I designed to have done the same
thing again on a larger scale. That was alii intended. I never did intend murder,
or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebel­
lion, or to make insurrection.
Sourc.: John Brown, •John Brown'. Final Address 10 the CoUr1,' November 2, 1959. Avdable allTlem"
befa.aoI.comf,ropper80nlbrown.hlml.
1have another objection, and that is that it is unjust that I should suffer such
a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which' admit has
been fairly proved-for' admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater por­
tion of the witnesses who have testified in this case-had I so interfered in be­
half of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the scrcalled great, or in the behalf
of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife. or children. or
any of that dass, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it
would have been all right. Every man in this court would have deemed it an act
worthy of reward rather than punishment.
This court acknowledges, too, as I suppose. the validity of the law of God.'
see a book kissed, which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testa·
ment, which teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do
to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to remember them
that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act up to the instruction.
I say I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I
believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have aJways freely admitted
I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, I did not wrong but right. Now, if it
is deemed necessary that I shouJd forfeit my life for Ihe furtherance of the ends
of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with
the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by
wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say let: it be done.
Let me say one word further. I feel enhrely satisfied with the treatment I
have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more
generous than I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from
the first what was my intention, and what was not. I never had any design
against the lIberty of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason or in·
cite slaves to rebel or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any
man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that kind.
Let me say. also, in regard to the statements made by some of those who
were connected with me, I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have
induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure
them, but as regretting their weakness. Not one but joined me of his own ac·
cord, and the greater part at his own expense. A number of them I never saw,
and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came to me, and
that was for the purpose I have stated.
Now I have done.