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KANZAS AND NEBRASKA:
THE I
,Zay   /     1  X,I,I
HISTORY, GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS,
AND POLITICAL POSITION OF THOSE TERRITORIES;
AN ACCOUNT OF THE
EMIGRANT AID COMPANIES,
AND
DIRECTIONS TO EMIGRANTS.
BY
EDWARD E4q HALE.
WITH AN
ORIGINAL MAP FROM THE LATEST AUTHORITIES.
BOSTON:
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY.
NEW YORK:- J. C. DERBY.
1854. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
PHIIILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED BY
HOBART & ROBBINS,
N,ew England Type and Stereotype Foundry,
BOSTON. 
P REFACE.
THE history of two territories whose first governors have
as yet never seen their dominions,- in which, indeed, there
is not yet a single town,- may seem to be easily written.
When, however, my attention was directed to the study
of the various researches which have been made in the
regions now known as Kanzas and Nebraska, I knew that I
had a wide range before me.
I have followed up, as carefully as I could, the memoirs
of the early French travellers who first opened to the civilized world the valley of the Missouri. Of more use, in the
view in which that valley is now regarded, are the more
recent travels of our own countrymen, a body of official
reports which deserve very high praise for the skill and gallantry displayed in exploration, and the care with which
their history has been written. I have made such use as I
could of the travels of Lewis and Clarke, Capt. Pike, Col.
Long, Mr. Breckenridge, Maj. Bonneville, Col. Fremont,
Col. Emory, Lieut. Abert, Mr. Parkman, Maj. Cross, Capt.
,e 
PREFACE.
Stansbury, Capt. Gunnison, Gov. Stevens, Lieut. Williamson, and others.
I have used some recent letters published in newspapers,
and have been favored with personal narratives of agents of
the Emigrant Aid Company.
The interest which is now sending into these territories a
large and well-trained population has been roused by the interest felt in their political condition. I have, therefore, given
such a sketch of their political history as the size of the volumne admitted. I have drawn my materials for a history of
the great Missouri debate from the copious contemporary
files in the library of the Antiquarian Society. The memoranda of other political passages in the history of a region, of
which the civilized government has not yet begun, are from
official documents. So few people have read " the Nebraska
Act," of which so many have talked, that I have thought it
desirable to publish an accurate copy of it, as the constitution of the new states.
Since the formation of the Emigrant Aid Companies. I
have been deeply interested in their success. The trustees
of the Boston company offered me, very kindly, any assistance in their power; but they are in no sense responsible
for my opinions, as expressed here. I should never have
undertaken this work, however, but from a wish to assist in
the great enterprise of settling Kanzas at once,- an enterprise which appears to me to open a nobler field for effort
than any public undertaking which has called upon our
energies for many years. To contribute as I could to the
immediate settlement of Kanzas, I have given such hints to
emigrants, and special information for their wants, as my
materials afforded me.
IV 
PREFACE.
The map is accurate as far as may be with our present
knowledge of the country. It is compiled from more than
twenty of the recent surveys made by government.
In my sketch of the Indian tribes I have followed the
invaluable treatise of Mr. Gallatin, the spirited sketches of
Mr. Catlin, and Mr. Parkman's interesting journal of his
sojourn with the Ogillalah, besides the notices in the travellers I have named.
It will not be long, I suppose, before historical societies
and antiquarian institutes in Kanzas and Nebraska will be
collecting materials far more abundant for their history and
geography.   I shall watch  such  collections with great
interest, as well as with the pride of being the first collector in the field. Working with the disadvantages of a
first collector, I have simply tried to make this book accurate as far as it goes.
In that view I have held to the spelling Kanzas, of most
of the travellers and of the Indian department, in preference to Kansas, the more fashionable spelling of a few
weeks past.  There is no doubt that the z best expresses
the sound, that it has been almost universally used till
lately, and that it is still used by those most familiar with
the tribe and the river which have, time immemorial, borne
this name. Kanzas, too, will soon be a state. Its name
then will, at best, too much resemble the name of Arkansas,
which was, in fact, derived from it. To keep them by one
letter more apart is to gain something.
WORCESTER, MASS., Aug. 21, 1854.
1*
v 
I 
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Discovery of these regions - Marquette - La Salle - La Hontan -  Cro  zat-  The Mississippi scheme -  Dutisne the discoverer of Kanzas,. 9
CHAPTER II.
Native tribes - General divisions - The Dahcotah or Sioux race - Paw  nees - Pahdoucahs- Arapahoes - Rapids -  Blackfeet- Emigrant
Indians from the East - Aboriginal Indians- Population and customs
of Knistineaux or Crees, Ojibwas, Assineboins, Gros-Ventres, Black  feet, Mandans, Sioux, Crows, Puncas, Omahas, Ottoes, Pawnees, Kan zas, Osages- The past condition and present prospects of the race,. 17
CHAPTER III.
NEBRASKA.
Rivers- Valleys-Soil and face of the country,.......... 61
CHAPTER IV.
KANZAS.
Rivers- Valleys- Soil and face of the country...........       81
CHAPTER V.
Stations- Military, trading and missionary posts- Projected cities in
Nebraska and Eanzas,..................        129 
VIII                          CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Routes of travel-The Pacific railroad-Navigable rivers,...139
CHAPTER VII.
POLITICLI HISTORY. -Sovereignty of France, Spain, France, and the
United States - Missouri debate - Indian legislation - Platte purchase
- Organization of the territories- Nebraska debate.......  162
CHAPTER VIII.
An act to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kanzas,.... 194
CHAPTER IX..
Emigration to Kanzas- The Emigrant Aid Companies.......       216
I 
KAN ZAS AND NEBRASKA.
CHAPTER I.
Discovery of these regions -  Marquette-  La Salle- La  Hontan -
Crozat- The Mississippi scheme - Dutisne the discoverer of Kanzas.
THIE discovery to the civilized world of the valley of the
Missouri was made by Father Marquette. In writing to
the Superior of Missions, in 1670, he spoke of this river,
from the report he had of it from the Indians.   "Six or
seven days below the Ilois" (Illinois river), he says, "is
another great river, on which are prodigious nations, who
use wooden canoes; we cannot write more till next year, if
God does us the grace to lead us there."  Among these
"prodigious nations w' was the Kanzas.
His expedition down the Mississippi did not take place so
soon as he had hoped. But, in 1673, accompanied by Joliet,
he crossed to the Fox river portage, and, on the 10th of
June, embarked on the waters of the Mississippi. -In the 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
course of the voyage which followed, they passed the mouth
of the Missouri. In the Algonquin language, this river
was called the Pekitanoui, or Muddy river, and it retained
that name for some time in the French books and maps.   "We  descend," says Father Dablon, in his narrative
of this expedition, "following the course of the river toward another called Pekitanoui,  which empties into the
Mississippi, coming from  the north-west, of which I have
something considerable to say, after what I have remarked
of this river." This " something considerable " is an intimation which our own time has proved correct, that by this
river's valley would be found an overland route to California.  "We judged," he says," by the direction the Mississippi takes, that, if it keeps on the same course, it has its
mouth in the gulf of Mexico. It would be very advantageous to find that which leads to the South Sea toward
California, and this, as I said, I hope to find by Pekitanoui,
following the acc)unt which the Indians have given me; for
from them I learn that, advancing up this river for five or
six days, you come to a beautiful prairie, twenty or thirty
leagues long, which you must cross to the north-west. It
terminates at another little river, on which you can embark,
it not being difficult to transport canoes over so beautiful a
country as that prairie. The second river runs south-west
for ten or fifteen leagues, after which it enters a small lake,
' A branch of Rock river is still called Pekatonica.
10 
MARQUETTE AND LA SALLE.
which is the source of a deep river, running to the west,
where it empties into the sea. I have hardly any doubt that
this is the Red Sea (Gulf of California), and I do not despair of one day making the discovery, if God does me this
favor and grants me health, in order to be able to publish
the Gospel to all the nations of this new world, who have
so long been plunged in heathen darkness."
This narrative was published in 1678.   It has lately
been translated and edited by Mr. Shea, who publishes with
it a fac simile of Marquette's manuscript map, still preserved
at St. Mary's College, Montreal.   The Pekitanoui or Missouri is here laid down, at its entrance into the Mississippi,
and for one hundred miles back.  On the map, to the westward, are the names of several tribes. Of these the Pana and
Paniassa are probably our Pawnees; the Ouemessourit are
the Missouri; the Ouchage, the Osagesl the Tontanta, our
Tetons; the Moingouena are Moingonans, and the Pewarea,
the Peorias; while the names of the IKansa and Maha tribes
are put down as upon our maps.
The expectation of discovering the gulf of California by
following up the Missouri, and so crossing to the waters of
the Pacific, is alluded to a second time in the same narrative.
The celebrated La Salle repeated Marquette's expedition,
in 1681 and 1682. Ile was detained by ice and winter, at
the mouth of the Illinois, till Jan. 13, 1682.   "Then,"
writes Father Membre, in his narrative, "we set out, and,
11 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
six leagues lower down, found the Ozage (Missouri) river
coming from the west. It is full as large as the river Colbert (Mississippi), into which it empties, troubling it so
that from the mouth of the Ozage the water is hardly
drinkable. The Indians assure us that this river is formed
by many others, and that they ascend it for ten or twelve
days, to a mountain, where it rises; that beyond this mountain is the sea, where they see great ships; that on the river
are a great number of large villages, of many different
nations; that there are arable and prairie lands, and abundance of cattle and beaver. Although this river is very
large, the Colbert does not seem augmented by it; but it
pours in so much mud, that, from its mouth, the water of the
great river, whose bed is also slimy, is more like clear mud
than river water. Without changing at all, it reaches the
sea, a distance of more than three hundred leagues, although
it receives some large rivers, the water of which is very
beautiful, and which are almost as large as the Mississippi." ~
In 1687, La Salle attempted to cross, with a party of
sixteen men, from his settlement called St. Louis, on the
gulf of Mexico, to the Mississippi, and ascend its stream. In
a mutiny among his men, he was killed, but six of the party
continued on the expedition, crossing the Red river and descending the Arkansas to the Mississippi. They then went
* Father Membre in Shea's History of the Mississippi, p. 166.
12
Ar 
FATHER DOUAY'S NARRATIVE.
up to the Canadian frontier in canoes. Father Douay, of
this party, thus speaks of the Missouri:   " On the north-west, the famous river of the Massourites
or Osages, at least as large as the river into which it empties; it is formed by a number of known rivers, everywhere
navigable, and inhabited by many populous tribes, as the
Panimaha, who had but one chief and twenty-two villages,
the least of which has two hundred cabins; the Paneassa, the
Pana, the Paneloga, and the Matotantes, each of which,
separately, is not inferior to the Panimaha.  They include
also the Osages, who have seventeen villages on a river of
their name, which empties into that of the Massourites, to
which the maps have also extended the name of Osages." i
In these Indian names-it is easy to recognize the tribes
known by us as different divisions of Pawnees and Mahas.
Father Douay says, also, that the Arkansas Indians formerly
inhabited one of the upper valleys of the Missouri, but were
driven down to the valley of the Arkansas river by cruel
wars with the Iroquois.
In 1680, La Salle established fort Creve Coeur, on Illinois river, of easy access from the mouth of the Missouri, and from this time probably its valley was visited by
French traders.
In the somewhat notorious letter of La HIontan, dated
Mackinaw, May 28, 1689, he describes an expedition of his
* Father Douay ix Shea, as above, p. 222.
2
13 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
own, which, if it were possible, would have made him the
discoverer of NEBRASKA.   He professes to have gone down
to the Mississippi by the Wisconsin river, and then sailed
westward for several days, by the "' Lo?ng river," till he
came to the neighborhood of waters flowing into the Pacific.
Had he done this, he would have been the first white man
in Nebraska.
But the Long river does not exist, and his narrative refutes itself by describing his voyage in detail, as made in
January, in the parallel of 46~ north latitude. In fact, all
rivers of that region are closed with ice for several of the
winter months. And the detail of the narrative, therefore,
is enough to discredit the story as completely a romance.
His map of the Missouri indicates, however, that he had
received from the savages correct general information as to
its course, to a point more than a hundred miles west of its
mouth, and above the mouth of the Osage river, where, he
says, he burned an Indian village.
Not long after, the French establishment at St. Louis
was founded. At home the valley of the Mississippi became one of the regions of romantic speculation. In 1712,
Louis XV. granted the whole valley of the Mississippi to
Crozat. In that grant he changed the name of the Missouri
to the river St. Philip, which name, however, it never retained. In 1717, Crozat abandoned this grant, and Law's
famous  Mississippi scheme  was  started.   A  great impulse at once was given to emigration and exploration.
14 
DUTISNE' S EXPEDITION.
The immense funds raised in France were, in part, devoted
to the purposes of the Louisiana colony. Many settlers
were sent over, and efforts made to establish additional cornmunication with the interior. To this gigantic scheme of
finance and fraud we owe the discovery of the territory of
KANZAS.
M. Dutisne, a French officer, was sent from New Orleans, in 1719, by Bienville, the governor, into the territory west of the Mississippi. Hie visited the village of the
Osage Indians, five miles from the Osage river, at eighty
leagues above its mouth. Thence he crossed to the north-west
one hundred and twenty miles, over prairies abounding in buffalo, to the villages of the Panionkees or Pawnees.  Here were
two villages, of about one hundred and thirty cabins, and
two hundred and fifty warriors each, who owned nearly three
hundred horses.   They were not civilized, he says, but
readily accessible on receiving a few presents. Fifteen days
more westward marching brought him to the Padoucahs, a
very brave and warlike nation. hiere he erected a cross, with
the arms of the king, Sept. 27th, 1719. In his report of
his expedition he gives the details which we have quoted,
and notices the salines and masses of rock. salt found to this
day in the region he travelled over.
He found the Osage villages at the spot which they still
occupy. If his measurements were exact, his first Pawnee
or Parionkee village was near the mouth of Republican
Fork. Fifteen days westward travel must have been up the
15 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
valleys of one of the forks of  Kanzas river; but the na,me
of the Padoucah Indians is now lost.
From the time he reached the Osage villages, Dutisne
was exploring the territory of Kauzas.   A  report of an
invasion of its Indians by Spaniards, in the same year,
probably belongs really to the year 1722; and Dutisne,
therefore, may be regarded as the discoverer of IKanzas to
the civilized world.
16 
CHAPTER II.
Native tribes - General divisions- The Dahcotah or Sioux race - Paw nees - Pahdoucahs - Arapahoes - Rapids - Blackfeet - Emigrant
Indians from the East- Aboriginal Indians- Population and customs
of Knistineaux or Crees, Ojibwas, Assineboins, Gros-Ventres, Black feet, Mandans, Sioux, Crows, Puncas, Omahas, Ottoes, Pawnees, Kan zas, Osages - The past condition and present prospects of the race.
FROM the period when thus discovered by the first white
explorers, up to the present time, the valleys of the Missou ri      and   of its western tributaries, comprising the territories of IKanzas and Nebraska, have been constantly visited
b    y wh  ite traders, hunters or trappers.   The French hunters from Louisiana and Canada were the first explorers;
but, after the establishment of the British North West
Company, its agents dealt with the Indians in these wildernesses. On the transfer of the Louisiana purchase to the
United States, in 1803, the fur trade began to come ii;to
the        hands of American merchants; and, from that timie,
there have been American traders among those who resoi ted
t o    these territories. The great exploration by Capts. Lewvis
and Clarke, in 1805, 1806, 1807, gave a key to the gog
2* 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
raphy of the region; but, up to the present moment, a few
trading houses, military stations and missionary posts are
the only habitations of white men west of the State of Missouri and of the Missouri river. There is not, at this moment, August 1, 1854, a town or village of whites in KANZAS or NEBRASKA.
The region is still in possession of the Indian tribes. And
they, with some changes of position, retain on the whole
much the same general divisions and homes as are described
to us by their first discoverers. Their population has generally diminished.
The most of these tribes belong to the great Dahcotah or
Sioux family of the Indian race.  This is the same family
which inhabited the region between the Missouri and Mississippi, now  Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.   In  NEBRASKA the Mandans, Mlinetaries and Crow Indians speak a
variety of the Dahcotah dialect. Eight other tribes speak
it with little variation. Among these are the Ogillalahs, with
whom Mr. Parkman made his Indian visit, described with
great spirit in " The California Trail." Two of these tribes,
the Osages and Arkansas, belong only in part in Kanzas.
Their homes are farther south. The Arkansas were driven
from the Kanzas river not long before the discovery by the
French.   The Ottoes, with whom the Missouris have joined
themselves, and the Omahaws, now live on the west side of
the Missouri, near the mouth of the Platte or Nebraska
is 
INDIAN TRIBES.
river.  The Puncas, a hundred miles above, use the same
dialect.
Of Indians using the Dahcotah language, there  are,
therefore,
In NEBRASKA, MVIandans and Crows, or Upsarokas, neither
of which tribes call themselves Dahcotahs; and Puncahs
and Omahlas, who acknowledge their Dahcotah origin.
In KANZAS, Ottoes, Ianilzas, Osages, Arkansas and Ogillalahs. Farther west than the Ottoes and Omahas,'on the
Nebraska or Platte river, are the Pawnees, whose language
is entirely unlike that of the Dahcotahs, and that of any
other Indians known to us. They have occupied the neighborhood of this position at least since 1719.
Another division of Pawnees are the Ricaras, sometimes
called the Black Pawnees.
South and west of the villages of these tribes, range
small bodies, of various names, as Kaskaias and Kioways,
who use a different language from any of the others, and
may be regarded as remnants of the Pahdoucahs, described
by the early explorers, but not now found under that
name.
With these the Arapahoes have lately united themselves.
They speak a distinct language, however, having emigrated
from the hunting-seats of the Rapid Indians, who belong in
the north-western parts of Nebraska, between the head
waters of the Missouri and Saskachawin. These Rapid (or
Fall, or Paunch) Indians are generally found on the Brit
19 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
ish side of the line. Their hunting-grounds, however, come
as far south as the Yellowstone.
The Blackfeet, who occupy the western part of Nebraska,
are one of the most powerful Indian tribes remaining. Their
hunting-grounds extend as far north as the 52d degree of
latitude, and take in all the region of the Upper Missouri
and its waters, from the mountains as far east as the 103d
meridian of longitude. Their population is estimated at
thirty thousand.
Besides these tribes, which have inhabited this region
since its history begins, there are, in the territory of KANZAS, a few small tribes, which have been removed thither by
treaties with the United States government. These are the
Wyandots, Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes, Peorias and Kaskaskias; Ottowas; Chippewas; Weas and Piankshaws, Pottawatomies, Shawnees and Delawares. These are, in number,
very insignificant. But they hold, by treaty, the right to
some of the best lands in Kanzas, and the officers of the
United States government have endeavored, therefore, and
with some success, for the last year, to make treaties with
them for the purchase of parts of their territory. Of these
treaties we shall give some account in a subsequent chapter.
It is intended, in all of these treaties, to give to each individual in each tribe his own quota of land, and not to attempt again their removal to a distant location.
The Shawnees occupy a belt of country immediately
south of the Kanzas river, running westward one hundred
20 
INDIAN TRIBES.
miles from the Missouri line, and about fifteen miles in
width; a district one-fifth as large as Massachusetts. They
are but nine hundred and thirty in number. Among them
are some quite good farmers, a few of whom hold a few
slaves.
Immediately south of their reservation are the small
reservations of the Weas and Piankshaws, and of the
Peorias and Iaskaskias. These are the only tribes who
consented to sell, when invited by the Indian commissioner
last year. They hold, together, only two hundred and fiftysix thousand acres, and are very few in number.
West of them are the Chippewas, thirty in number, and
the Ottowas, two hundred and forty-seven in number. The
Chippewas hold eight thousand three hundred and twenty
acres, and the Ottowas three thousand four hundred acres
only. This is mostly prairie land.
The Wyandots occupy one of the most eligible tracts in
Kanzas, which they purchased of the Delawares.  It is the
fork between the Kanzas and Missouri rivers.  They are
five hundred and fifty-three in number, and own only
twenty-three thousand nine hundred and sixty acres of land.
On the Osage river is a reservation belonging to Sacs
and Foxes, removed from the Upper Mississippi.
On the Missouri, just south of the northern line of Kanzas, is a reservation for the Iowas, another for the Sacs and
Foxes, from Missouri, and next them" a colony of " Halfbreeds."
21 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
It will be seen from this brief catalogue of the Indian
tribes in KANZAS and NEBRASICA, that they are very widely
scattered over those immense territories; that they are of
different customs and degrees of civilization, and that their
origin is from so many different sources that they speak several distinct languages. Their numbers, compared with the
immensity of the ground they hunt over, are very small.
Of them all, the Wyandots, Shawnees, Ottowas, and some
others of the emigrant Indians, are, in part, civilized. The
Wyandots and Ottowas, numbering eight hundred persons,
have some simple laws.  None of the others lhave.  All of
these tribes cultivate their reservations, and have such
knowledge of agriculture as enables them to do so.
To name these in order, there is, first, between the Little
and Great Nemaha rivers, a colony of sixty half-breeds,
who have comfortable houses, large fields well fenced, and a
considerable stock of cattle.
Next them, just south of the north line of Kanzas, are a
body of Iowas, removed from their old homes.   They number four hundred and thirty-seven. They have profited but
little from the payments annually made to them; are seduced
into a loitering, lazy life, by the emigrants passing to the
Pacific; improvident in their habits, and consequently decreasing in numbers. From eight hundred and thirty, they
have diminished, in sixteen years, to four hundred and
thirty-seven; having been all that time receiving annuities
from government, and most of it under the care of mission
22 
INDIAN TRIBES.
aries and government agents.   They wear no dress but the
blanket.  Their crops are short, and the houses built for
them by government have gone to decay.
Of the Iowas and Saics nineteen gills and seventeen boys
were last year at school.  They live at the school, under
the care of the teacher.  There is not in the Iowa reservation one adult professing Christianity, and the reports of
those in charge of them are truly disheartening.
The Kickapoos are next south of them on the Missouri
river; their condition is better than their neighbors', and
the agent seems to consider that it will improve with the
stoppage of their annuities, which, by treaty, were to cease
last year. Two hundred and eight Winnebagoes have lived
on the same agency, but were to remove last spring. Two
hundred and fifty Pottawatomies have also homes on the
Kickapoo land; but were to remove in the spring to their
own reservation south of the Shawnees.
The Delawares, Wyandots and Shawnees hold the lower
valleys of the KIanzas, and the rivers which flow into it.
Among them are six missionary stations; and four circuit
preachers attempt to preach the Gospel to them. Of these
stations, the Friends' Shawnee Labor-school has won an
honorable name from its patient and successful care of the
children confided to it. It is more than fifty years since
the Friends first labored for the civilization of the Shawnees.
In this school there are forty-nine scholars, and a good
farm is connected with it. About twenty-five scholars are
23 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
at the Delaware school, twenty at the Baptist Mission; and
Mr. Johnson, the superintendent of the "Indian Mission"
established in 1851, reports that he has as many as he can
take care of.  It is understood that they prove effective
work-people on his valuable farm.
The Shawnees, Delawares, Pottawatomies and Wyandots,
hold the best parts of Kanzas. They are addicted to liquor,
which they obtain from traders of their own nation. HIalf
of them, it is said, are drunkards, and the estimate that a
quarter part are Christians, made by Mr. Robinson, the
agent, must be made with reference to some very low standard of Christianity.
South of the Shawnees, as has been said, are the Sacs
and Foxes of the Mississippi, the Ottowas, and the Chippewas (of Swan Creek and Black River).  There are emigrant tribes also.  The Sacs and Foxes numbered, in 1853,
two thousand one hundred and seventy-three persons, who
draw from the government, annually, seventy-one thousand
dollars in money, forty kegs of tobacco, and forty barrels
of salt. Twenty thousand dollars of this annuity, with the
salt and tobacco, ceases after 1862; the rest is a perpetual
payment. They are a roving people, supporting themselves
chiefly by the chase; but they have had the sense to agree
to "spill" all whiskey, or other liquor, brought into their
country. This is the tribe in which Keokuk and Black
Hlawk were chiefs, in their war against the United States.
24 
INDIAN TRIBES.
The Chippewas are but five families, holding thirteen
sections of land, and drawing a perpetual annuity of three
hundred dollars.
The Ottowas are a farming people, honest, industrious
and prosperous. They receive a perpetual annuity of two
thousand six hundred dollars. Their land is good, lying on
the Osage river. These two little communities have a surplus of their crop for sale. The Ottowas are increasing in
numbers. They are now two hundred and forty-seven,
which is forty-two more than they were six years ago. The
influence of Rev. Jotham Meeker, supported by the Baptist
Union among them, seems to have been of enduring and
real value.
These comprise all the tribes removed by the government
into the territory of IKanzas.   The  government cannot
fairly be charged with intentional cruelty or neglect to
them. The annuities awarded to them by treaty have been
large, and have been paid; and attempts have been made to
initiate them in the arts of civilized life.
But it appears to be the universal impression now,
among those concerned in the management of these tribes,
that the payment of a money annuity to them is anything 
but an advantage. It renders them improvident, indolent
and dissolute.   The most energetic officers fail to keep
liquor fromn the tribes. The Indians themselves go for it to
the white settlements in Missouri; and the strictest prohibition of the trade in it is of no avail.
3
25 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
In Michigan, and in some of the reservations which have
now been named, it has proved that where each Indian
family has had its own house and farm, and the same stimulus has thus been brought to bear as an inducement to
labor which acts among the settlers themselves, they really
fall into the habits of civilized life, and, in some instances,
redeem themselves from those vices which  have seemed
almost inseparable from savage life on the borders. It is to
be hoped, indeed, that, by such a policy, and the care of the
new government now to be established in lKanzas, these
remnants of the Indian tribes may be saved from a further
downward progress, and secured the blessings of improvement, like that which has been made by two of the smallest
communities of their number.
With the exception of the little community of IIalfBreeds, on the Nemaha rivers, all the tribes now described
are in IKANZAS, whither they have been removed from old
homes. We proceed to speak of the tribes, of which the
names are given above, which retain their aboriginal position within the borders of these two territories.
The map will show how extensive the regions are which
they occupy. NEBRASKA is bounded on the north by the
parallel of 49~, the northern boundary of the United States;
on the south by the parallel. of 40~, which separates it from
Kanzas. Its eastern boundary is the (northern) White
Earth river and the Missouri, which divide it from Minnesota and Iowa; and its western, the ridge of the Rocky
26 
INDIANS IN NEBRASKA.
Mountains. KIANZAS extends three degrees, or two hundred and eight miles, further south. Its eastern boundary
is the state of Missouri; its northern, the line of 37~, which
divides it from the Cherokee reservation; its western, the
Rocky Mountains.
We have given a general catalogue of the native Indian
tribes which are now scattered over this vast domain. We
proceed to speak of their different characteristics in more
detail, beginning with the tribes in the northern part of
Nebraska,  and speaking  in succession  of those  further
south.
North of the valley of the Mississippi river are the head
waters of some streams which flow into the British possessions. The tribes of Knistinaux or Crees, of Ojibwas and
Assineboins, hunt on these waters, and frequently pass
further south into the territory of Nebraska.
The Crees are the most northern branch of the great
Algonkin Lenape family of Indians. Their language is a
different dialect from that spoken by the New England
Indians and the Delawares, with which, however, it agrees
in its basis. Their hunting-grounds extend as far north as
Lake Athapasca, and as far east as Hudson's Bay.   Mr.
Catlin speaks of those who reside on one side of the frontier
of Nebraska as "a very pretty and pleasing tribe," about
three thousand in number. They cultivate the soil with
some success.
The Ojibwas are a section of the great Chippewa race.
27 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
Their principal trade is with the British trading-houses, and
their hunting-grounds within the British territory.
The Assineboins give the name to the Assineboin river,
which flows east into the Lake of the Woods, just north of
the parallel of 49~. This name means " stone-boilers." For
this tribe, from want of better utensils, had formerly the
habit of boiling their meat in holes made in the ground,
lined with hide. The meat and water were put in these
holes. Large stones, heated red hot, were then dropped in
successively, until the meat was cooked, and the tribe took
the name of "Stone-boilers" accordingly.  An  acquaintance, however, with the Mandans, who made earthen pottery, and their trade with the whites, have done away with
this custom, except at public festivals, where it is still preserved.
The Assineboin language is a dialect of the Dahcotah.
The Gros-Ventres, Paunch, Fall or Rapid Indians, range
over the northern and western parts of Nebraska. They
number four hundred and twenty lodges, each lodge averaging nine inhabitants. Their language is said to be the same
as the Arrapahoes', who live in the neighborhood of the Arkansas. They are a wild, roving people, subsisting entirely
by hunting. Mr. Catlin supposes that they intermarry with
the Blackfeet, who are the enemies of every other race of
Indians.  This is not the impression of Mr. Vaughn, the
Indian agent for the Upper Missouri.
The Blackfeet are the largest and most warlike nation of
28 
BLACKFEET AND GROS-VENTRES.
all the native tribes. The traders, in former years, have
fixed their number as high as fifty thousand, but this is un doubtedly an exaggeration. Mr. Vaughn thinks it is not
more than eleven or twelve thousand. They live altogether
by the chase, roving in every direction, as far as the head
waters of the rivers of lHudson's Bay on the north, and as
far as the Great Salt Lake to the south-west. They are
rich in horses, bold in war, and the avowed enemies of all
the other tribes, unless the Gros-Ventres be an exception.
The whole eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, north of
the Platte river, may be regarded as their country, though
their roving life admits of no fixed home.
Neither they nor the Gros-Ventres have ever entered
into any treaty with the United States government. Several years since, however, they made a friendly treaty with
Messrs. Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Co., to trade with them
near the falls of the Missouri.
So adventurous are the warriors of this nation that it is
said there is among them a great preponderance of women.
But few of the men have less than two wives, the common
number is four, and many have ten.
A few of the Gros-Ventres have separated themselves
from the great body of the tribe, and pay some attention to
agriculture in villages near the Missouri river. The Ri-caras
or Arick-a-rees do the same, and the small remnant of the
unfortunate Mandans, in their village on the Missouri, is the
most civilized native tribe in the whole region.
29
3 * 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
The history, customs and position of this remarkable
tribe, now so nearly extinct, are so singular as to deserve a
fuller notice than their present population would seem to
demand.
Their history is known, from civilized authorities, as far
as a hundred years ago. They were then settled in nine
villages, seven on the west, and two on the east side of the
Missouri, eighty miles south of the Fort Mandan of Lewis
and Clarke. Their life being in a fixed locality, they were
constantly exposed to the attacks of other tribes; and, gradually wasting away before the Sioux, they removed again
and again, till, in 1805, Lewis and Clarke found them in
two villages, one on each side of the river, near the point
called Fort Mandan, where those explorers spent the year
of 1805-6. Their population was then estimated at one
thousand two hundred and fifty; they numbered three hundred and fifty fighting men.
They had a decided superiority over any of the other
western tribes in the arts of domestic life. Their pottery
was quite convenient, and they relied, without fear, upon
their crops of corn, squashes and pumpkins. They did not
make war, unless attacked, but fortified their positions with
skill and care.
They presented an additional peculiarity in the frequent
whiteness of their skin, and light color of their hair. Many
of them, who are full-blooded, have beautiful white complexions.
30 
THtE MANDANS.
These singularities have undoubtedly given rise to the
very general impression which prevailed during the latter
part of the last century, that a tribe of " Welsh Indians "
existed on the waters of the Missouri. On that impression
Mr. Southey was tempted, in part, to found his celebrated
poem Madoc. Mr. Catlin, who spent much time among the
Mandans, and was greatly interested by them, believes the
impression that they are descended from Madoc's colony
well founded. He says that remains of villages like theirs
may be found all down the valley of the Missouri and along
the Ohio. His impression is that Madoc and his followers
formed a settlement in the valley of the Ohio; that they intermarried with the natives, and lost some of the distinctive
characteristics of their race. He supposes that they were
gradually driven from these seats, lower and lower down the
Ohio river, till they were obliged to cross the Mississippi;
that then the same course of emigration brought them to
their present home.
He sustains his theory by an examination of their language.  Mr. Gallatin, whose authority we have uniformly
followed in classifying the Indian languages, says that the
fabulous account of a Welsh origin to the tribe is entirely
set aside by a knowledge of its language; and it is regarded
by him as a dialect of the I)ahcotah. Mr. Catlin, however,
gives a few Mandan and Welsh words, from familiar language, together; which certainly sustain, in part, his hypothesis. These are,
31 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
Welsh.
Mi
Chwi
A
E
HIwynt
Ni
Hwna, mas
Hona,fem
Nagoes
f Nage
Nag
Na
Pen
neta  Mawr peneathir *
Ysprid Mawr t
There can be no doubt that the chief element of the language as spoken to-day is Dahcotah. But the chief part
of the language spoken by cultivated Welshmen, in Wales,
is English. All that could be expected in the case of the
relic of a Welsh colony would be that a few words should
be preserved. The women of such a colony would be mostly
Indians; and, in the changes of nearly a thousand years, the
Welsh element of language would fare ill.
A more decisive argument against the Welsh origin of
this interesting people, is the silence of their own traditions
regarding it. They call themselves "the people of the pheas
* To act as supreme.
32
English.
I
You
He
She
it
We
They
Pronounced.,
Me
,Chwe
A
A
Hooynt
Ne
Hoona
H,ona
Nagosh
No: there is not: Megosh
No
Head
The Great -
Spirit f
Pan
Maoor panaether
Uspryd Maoor
f The Great Spirit. 
THIE MANDANS.
anlt,'" See-pohs-ka-nu-mah-ka-kee.   It is to be noticed that
there are no pheasants nearer them than the forests of Indi ana, on the east, or those of the Rocky Mountains, six hun dred miles west of them.
This fact is a decisive indication that they are emigrants
from a very considerable distance. They contend that they
were the first people on the earth.  "They originally lived
inside the earth," says one of their legends.  "They raised
many vines, and one of them had grown up through a hole
in the earth, overhead, and one of their young men climbed
up it, until he came out on the top of the ground, on the
bank of the river where the Mandan village stands.   Ie
looked around and admired the beautiful country and
prairies about him, saw many buffaloes, kIilled one with his
bow and arrows, and found its meat was good to eat. He
returned and related what he had seen, when a number of
others went up the vine with him, and witnessed the same
things.  Among those who  went up were two very pretty
young women, who were favorites with the chiefs;  and
among those who were trying to get up was a very large
and fat woman, who was ordered by the chiefs not to go up,
but whose curiosity led her to try it as soon as she got a
secret opportunity, when there was no one present. When
she got part of the way up, the vine broke under the great
weight of her body, and let her down. She was very much
hurt by the fall, but did not die. The Mandans were very
sorry about this, and she was disgraced for being the cause
33 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
of a great calamity which she had brought upon them,
which could never be averted, for no more could ever
ascend, nor could those descend who had got up;  but they
built the Mandan village where it formerly stood, a great
way below on the river; and the remainder of the people
live under ground to this day."
This tradition is told with great gravity by the chiefs
and doctors, who even profess to hear their friends talk
through the earth at certain times and places.
When Mr. Catlin visited them, both villages were on the
west side of the Missouri, at the point just now described.
These villages are about two miles distant from each other;
beautifully located, and judiciously, also, for defence against
the assaults of their enemies. The site of the lower town,
which is the principal one, in particular, is one of the most
beautiful and pleasing spots that can be seen in the world.
It is in the very midst of an extensive valley, surrounded
by hills covered with an interminable green, fading to blue
as they recede into the far distance. On an extensive plain,
covered with green turf, upon which, as far as the-eye can
possibly range, not a tree or bush is to be seen, rise from
the ground, and towards the heavens, the domes of the
earth-built huts which constitute this semi-subterraneous
village.
The ground on which it is built is upon a nearly perpendicular bank of solid rock, forty or fifty feet above the bed
of the river, which, at this place, changes its course to a
34 
THIE MANDANS.
right-angle, thereby making a natural defence upon two
sides of the village. They have, therefore, but one side to
protect, which is effectually done by a strong piquet, and a
ditch inside of it, of three or four feet in depth.
The village has a most novel effect to the eye of a
stranger; the lodges are closely grouped together, leaving
but just room enough for walking or riding between them;
they appear, from without, to be built entirely of dirt; but
one is surprised on entering them to see the interior neatness and comfort. They are all of a circular form, and are
from forty to sixty feet in diameter. Their foundations are
prepared by digging some two feet in the ground, where a
floor of earth is formed, and the superstructure is then produced, by arranging inside the excavation a barrier of
timbers, of about six feet in height. From the tops of
these converge, to a central point, smaller timbers, forming
a roof; rising, at an angle of forty-five degrees, to the apex
or sky-light, which, at the same time, serves as a chimney.
The roof is supported and strengthened by timbers underneath it; the exterior is covered with a close matting of
willow boughs to protect it from the thick incrustation of
earth and clay with which the lodge is covered to the depth
of two or three feet. This, by long use, becomes hardened,
and is quite impervious to water. It is here that the whole
family, resident inside, assemble in pleasant weather, making it their observatory and lounging-place;' when the
weather is favorable, upon the roof of almost every lodge
35 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
may be seen a group of its inhabitants, — chiefs, women,
children and dogs.
To a stranger, standing upon one of these roofs, the view
presented is the strangest medley that can be imagined.  Or,
the roofs, besides the living groups, are buffaloes' skulls;
skin canoes, pots and pottery, sleds and sledges; and on
poles, erected some twenty feet above the doors of their
wigwams, are suspended, on a pleasant day, the scalps of
warriors, preserved as trophies, and thus proudly exposed
as evidences of their warlike deeds. In other parts are
raised on poles the warriors' whitened shields and quivers,
with medicine bags attached; and here and there a sacrifice
of red cloth, or other costly stuff, offered up to the Great
Spirit, over the door of some benignant chief, in humble
gratitude for the blessings he is enjoying. Amidst all this,
and through the blue smoke that rises from every lodge,
can be seen, stretching into distance, the green and boundless prairie.
The floors of these dwellings are of earth, but so tardened
by use, and swept so clean, that they have almost a polish,
and would hardly soil the whitest linen! In the centre is
the fire-place, a circular hole, sunk a foot or more from the
surface, and curbed with stone. Over the fire-place is generally seen the pot or kettle, filled with buffalo meat, and
around it are the family, reclining in the most picturesque
attitudes upon their buffalo robes, or mats of rushes.
These cabins are so spacious that they hold from twenty
36 
THE MANDANS.
to forty persons, -a family and all its connections.  They
all sleep on bedsteads, similar to ours in form, of round
poles lashed rudely together with thongs, while buffalo robes
take the place of mattrass, pillow and blanket. They are
uniformly screened with a covering of buffalo or elk skinfs,
placed over the flame-like curtains, leaving a hole in front,
for the occupant to pass in or out. Some of these coverings are exceedingly beautiful, being cut tastefully into
fringe, and handsomely ornamented with porcupine's quills
and hieroglyphics.
In the centre of the village is an open space, or public
area, of one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and circular
in form, which is used for all public games and festivals,
shows and exhibitions, and also for the annual religious
ceremonies. The lodges around the open space front in,
with their doors towards the centre.
The Mandans never bury their dead, but place the bodies
on slight scaffolds, just above the reach of human hands,
and out of the way of wolves and dogs. They are there left
to moulder and decay. This cemetery, or place of deposit
for the dead, is just behind the village on a level prairie.
With its appearance, history and forms, it is one of the
strangest and most interesting objects to be described in the
vicinity of this peculiar race.
When a person dies in the Mandan village, and the customary honors have been paid to his remains, the body is
brought to this spot, where a separate scaffold is erected for
4
37 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
it, on which it is placed, dressed in its best attire, painted,
oiled, supplied with bow and quiver, shield, pipe and
tobacco, and provision enough to last him a few days on the
journey which it is believed is to be performed. A fresh
buffalo skin is wrapped about the body, and tightly bound
with thongs of raw hide.   The feet are carefully turned
towards the rising sun. Some hundreds of these bodies
may be seen reposing in this manner in this curious place,
which the Indians call " the village of the dead."
When the scaffolds, on which the bodies rest, decay and
fall to the ground, the nearest relations, having buried the
rest of the bones, take the skulls, which are perfectly
bleached and purified, and place them in circles, of a hundred or more, on the prairie, placed at equal distances
apart, with the faces all looking to the centre, where they
are religiously protected and preserved, in their precise
positions, from year to year, as objects of religious and
affectionate veneration.
There are several of these circles, of twenty or thirty
feet in diameter, on which uniformly rest two buffaloekulls;
and in the centre of the little mound is erected a " medicine
pole," about twenty feet high, supporting many curious
articles, which are supposed to have the power of guarding
and protecting the sacred spot. To this strange place do
these people resort, to hold conversations of affection and
fond endearment with the dead. There is scarcely an hour
in a pleasant day when more or less of the women may not
38 
THE MANDANS.
be seen sitting by the skull of a child or husband, while
they are embroidering a pair of moccasins, or engaged in
other needlework; or, perhaps, one fallen asleep with her
arms around the skull, forgetting herself for hours.
Living in permanent homes, during the period when they
were not exposed to the contaminations of civilization, the
Mandans acquired an agreeable gentleness and courtesy of
manners, scarcely known to roving tribes, which all travellers have noticed. They are constantly called the " friendly
and hospitable  Mandans,"  " the gentlemanly Mandans,"
"the polite Mandans;"  and it is proverbial, says  Mr.
Vaughln, that they have always received the whites with
graceful and dignified hospitality. The peculiar ease and
elegance of their manners seem to indicate, indeed, some
peculiarity of origin.
A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with
the different shades of complexion, and various colors of
hair', which he sees in the crowd about him, and is at once
almost disposed to exclaim that " these are not Indians!"
There are a great many of the people whose complexions
appear as light as half-breeds, and, among the women particularly, there are many whose skins are almost white,
with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features;
with hazel, gray, and blue eyes; mildness and sweetness
of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanor, which
render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful.
They render no account themselves of this diversity of
39 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
complexion. Their traditions afford us no information of
their having had any knowledge of white men before the
visit of Lewis and Clarke to the village. Since that time
there have been but very few visits of white men to this
place, and surely not enough to have changed the complex.
ions and customs of a nation.
Tine differences in the color of hair are as great as in
complexions; for, in a numerous group of these people (and
more particularly among the females, who never take pains
to change its natural color, as the men often do), there may
be seen every shade and color of hair, with the exception of
red or auburn, which is not to be found, and it is a strange
peculiarity that there are very many natives, of both sexes
and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age,
with hair of a bright silvery gray, and, in some instances,
almost perfectly white.
The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary
size of man, with beautiful symmetry of form and proportions, and wonderful suppleness and elasticity. They are
pleasingly erect and graceful, both in their movements and
attitudes, easy and polite in their manners, neat in their
persons, and beautifully clad.
Like all the other tribes, the Mandans lead lives of idleness, and, of course, devote a great deal of time to their
sports and amusements, of which they have a great variety.
Of these dancing is one of the principal, and may be seen in
a variety of forms, such as the buffalo dance, the scalp dan%e,
40 
THE MANDANS.
and a dozen other kinds of dances, all of which have their
peculiar characters and meanings, or objects.
The principal occupations of the women consist in procuring wood and water, in cooking, dressing robes and other
skins, drying meat and wild fruit, and raising Indian corn.
The Mandans raise a great deal of corn, and some pumpkins and squashes. This is all done by the women, who
make their hoes of the shoulder-blade of the buffalo or the
elk, and dig the ground over instead of ploughing it; a duty
involving, of course, a vast deal of labor. They raise a
small sort of corn, the ears of which are not much larger
than a man's thumb. The green corn season is one of great
festivity with them, and one of much importance. The
greater part of their crop is eaten during these festivals, and
the remainder is gathered and dried on the cob before it has
ripened, and is packed away into holes in the ground, tightly
closed at the top.
The annual religious ceremony of the Mandans is an occasion of much importance, in their estimation; and, like
too many of the similar rites of Indian tribes, it is conducted with inhuman barbarities and cruelties, one of the
objects of it being to conduct all the young men of the
tribe through an ordeal of privation and torture, which,
while it is supposed to harden their muscles and prepare
them for extreme endurance, enables the chiefs, who  are
spectators to the scene, to decide upon their comparative
bodily strength and ability to endure the extreme privations
4*
41 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKIA.
and sufferings that fall to the lot of Indian warriors.  This
part of the ceremony is too shocking and revolting to be
described to civilized ears.
The season of these ceremonies is fixed at the time when
the willow is in full leaf; - a reference to their traditional
history of the flood, which, it is very evident from this and
other features of the grand ceremony, they have in some
way or other received, and are endeavoring to perpetuate,
by vividly impressing it on the minds of the whole nation.
This is not surprising, as in the vicinity of almost every
Indian tribe there is some high mountain where they insist upon it the "big canoe " landed; but that these people
should hold an annual celebration of the event, and the season should be decided by such circumstances as the full leaf
of the willow, is truly remarkable. Their tradition is that
"the twig that the bird brought home was a willow bough,
and had full-grown leaves on it," and the bird to which they
allude is the turtle dove, which is not to be destroyed or
harmed by any one, and even their dogs are trained not to
do it injury.
It would seem from these traditions that these people must
have had some proximity to some part of the civilized world;
or that missionaries or others have been formerly among them,
inculcating the Christian religion and the Mosaic account of
the flood, which is, in this and some other respects, decidedly different from the theory which most of the aborigines
hlave regarding that event. This vague resemblance, how
42 
THE MANDANS.
ever, to the Mosaic account of the deluge, seems to be the
only token that has been observed of any knowledge of any
of the Christian Scriptures. Now, Madoc and his colony
were men trained in the Christianity of their day, and took
with them, doubtless, Christian ministers, and the symbols
of the Christian faith. *
These accounts are mostly digested from Mr.  Catlin's
narrative. In the summer of 1838, however, after his visit
there, while besieged by Sioux war-parties, the Mandan village was ravaged by small pox, and almost the whole population swept away. The fragment now existing is but a
wreck in numbers and in spirit. They retain their old characteristics, however, as may be seen by the expression which
we have quoted above from Mr. Vaughn's report of last
* Mr. Southey's remarks, in the preface to his poem, are in these words:
Madoc abandoned his barbarous country, and sailed away to the west,
in search of some better resting-place. The land which he discovered
pleased him: he left there part of his people, and went back to Wales for
a fresh supply of adventurers, with whom he again set sail, and was heard
of no more. Strong evidence has been adduced that he reached America, and
that his posterity exist there to this day, on the southern branches of the
Missouri, retaining their complexion, their language, and, in some degree,
their arts." This was written in 1805; but, in 1815, he added this note:
"That country has now been fully explored, and, wherever Madoc may
have settled, it is now certain that no Welsh Indians are to be found upon
any branches of the Missouri."
The most plausible ground, perhaps, for an enthusiast in the Welsh
origin of the Mandans to take, would be that they are the representatives, not of Madoc's large colony, but of the small party he left in possession after his first voyage. A Welsh colony of ten ships, fitted for settlement, would have left some sign, had they ever landed: a handful of
seamen would be more easily absorbed. 
43
4 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
year. They and the Arickarees and Gros-Ventres, who
plant the soil, do not all together number more than two
thousand two hundred and fifty souls.
South of the settlements of this unfortunate tribe, and
ranging all along the Missouri river north of the Platte, are
the Dahcotah or Sioux tribes.  The names of the leading
divisions have been given above. It must be understood,
however, that these several bands unite under no central
government, and acknowledge no common head. We copy
Mr. Parkman's well-digested account of them, reminding
the reader that this gentleman spent several weeks in the
Ogillalah lodges.
" They do not unite," he says, "even in their wars.
The bands of the east fight the Ojibwas on the upper
lakes; those of the north make incessant war upon the
Snake Indians in the Rocky Mountains. As the whole
people is divided into bands, so each band is divided into
villages. Each village has a chief, who is honored and
obeyed only so far as his personal qualities may command
respect and fear. Sometimes he is a mere nominal chief;
sometimes his authority is little short of absolute, and his
fame and influence reach even beyond his own village; so
that the whole band to which he belongs is ready to acknowledge him as their head. This was, a few years since',
the case with the Ogillalah. Courage, address and enterprise may raise any warrior to the highest honor, especially
if he be the son of a former chief, or a member of a numer
44 
THE DAHCOTAH OR SIOUX.
ous family, who will support him and avenge his quarrels.
But, when he has reached the dignity of chief, and the old
men and warriors, by a peculiar ceremony, have formally
installed him, let it not be imagined that he assumes any of
the outward semrblances of rank and honor. He knows too
well on how frail a tenure he holds his station. He must
conciliate his uncertain subjects. Mlany a man in the village lives better, owns more squaws and more horses, and
goes better clad than he. Like the Teutonic chiefs of old,
he ingratiates himself with his young men by making them
presents, thereby often impoverishing himself. Does he fail
in gaining their favor, they will set his authority at naught,
and may desert him at any moment; for the usages of his
people have provided no sanctions by which he may enforce
his authority. Very seldom does it happen, at least among
these western bands, that a chief attains to much power,
unless he is the head of a numerous family. Frequently
the village is principally made up of his relatives and descendants, and the wandering community assumes mruch of
the patriarchal character. A people so loosely united, torn,
too, with rankling feuds and jealousies, can have little power
or efficiency.
"The  western  Dahcotah  have  no  fixed  habitations.
Hunting and fighting, they wander incessantly, through
summer and winter. Some are following the herds of buffalo over the waste of prairies, others are traversing the
Black' Hills, thronging, on horseback and on foot, through
45 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
the dark gulfs and sombre gorges, beneath the vast splintering precipices, and emerging at last upon the'Parks,' those
beautiful but most perilous hunting-grounds. The buffalo supplies them with almost all the necessaries of life; with habitations, food, clothing and fuel; with strings for their bows;
with thread, cordage and trail-ropes for their horses; with
coverings for their saddles, with vessels to hold water, with
boats to cross streams, with glue, and with the means of purchasing all that they desire from the traders. When the
buffalo is extinct, they, too, must dwindle away.
" War is the breath of their nostrils. Against most of
the neighboring tribes they cherish a deadly, rancorous
hatred, transmitted from father to son, and inflamed by constant aggression and retaliation. Many times a year, in
every village, the Great Spirit is called upon, fasts are
made, the war-parade is celebrated, and the warriors go out
by handfuls at a time against the enemy.   This fierce and
evil spirit awakens their most eager aspirations, and calls
forth their greatest energies.   It is chiefly this that saves
them  from lethargy and  utter abasement.   Without its
powerful stimulus, they would be like the unwarlike tribes
beyond the mountains, who are scattered among the caves
and rocks like beasts, living on roots and reptiles.  These
latter have little of humanity except the form; but the
proud and ambitious Dahcotah warrior can sometimes boast
of heroic virtues. It is very seldom that distinction and
influence are attained among them by any other course than
46 
THL DAHCOTAH OR SIOUX.
that of arms. Their superstition, however, sometimes gives
great power to those amoing them who pretend to the chlaracter of magicians.  Their wild hearts, too, can feel the
power of oratory, and yield deference to the masters of it.
But to return. Look into our tent, or enter, if you
can bear the stifling smoke and the close atmosphere.
There, wedged close together, you will see a circle of stout
warriors passing the pipe around, joking, telling stories,
and making themselves  merry, after their fashion.  We
were also infested by little copper-colored naked boys and
snake-eyed girls. They would come up to us, muttering
certain words, which, being interpreted, conveyed the concise invitation,' Come and eat!' Then we would rise,
cursing the pertinacity of  Dahcotah  hospitality,  which
allowed scarcely an hour of rest between sun and sun, and
to which we were bound to do honor, unless we would
offend our entertainers. This necessity was particularly
burdensome to me, as I was scarcely able to walk from the
effects of illness, and was, of course, poorly qualified to
dispose of twenty meals a day.   So bounteous an entertainment looks like an outgushing of good-will; but, doubtless,
one half, at least, of our kind hosts, had they met us alone
and unarmed on the prairie, would have robbed us of our
horses, and, perchance, have bestowed an arrow upon us
beside. Trust not an Indian.. Let your rifle be ever in
your hand.   Wear next your heart the old chivalric motto
'Semper Paratus.'"
47 
KANZAS AND NEBRPASKA.
It must be understood that most of the Dahcotah or
Sioux tribes,are scattered among the valleys of the Upper
Missouri; although some, like that visited by Mr. Parkman, range in the neighborhood of the mountains in the
western part of Kanzas. Those of the Upper Missouri are
divided into the
Prulle band, one hundred and fifty lodges, the most
southerly.
Yancton band, three hundred and seventy-five lodges,
from White river up to Fort Pierre, on both sides of the
river.
Two Kettle band, one hundred and sixty-five lodges, on
the Little Missouri.
Yanctonais band, east of the Missouri.
Blackfeet Sioux, one hundred and fifty lodges, and Oukpa-pas, two hundred and eighty lodges, from the Cannonball river, one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles
southwest.
Slans Arcs band, one hundred and sixty lodges, and
Minne Conzus, two hundred and twenty-five lodges, north
of Washteg river, and running back to the Black Hills.
In calculating the population, about nine persons may be
estimated as the average number in each lodge.
The Dahcotah language has been carefully studied. Its
grammar, and a vocabulary, edited by Rev. S. R. Riggs,
are among the Smithsonian Institution's'" Contributions to
Science."
48 
CROWS, PUNCAS, ETC.
The Crow Indians, or Upsarokas, inhabit the country
on the waters of the Yellowstone. In September, 1851,
when they entered into a treaty with the government, they
numbered four hundred lodges, but, in the same year, they
suffered under a very severe visitation of small pox, which
reduced their number four hundred. They have never cultivated the soil, but subsist entirely upon buffalo, deer, elk,
and antelope, with which their country abounds. They are
eager to accumulate horses, and own large numbers, as
many as twenty to a lodge. Like the other prairie tribes,
they marry several wives, - each man having from two to
five, it is said. One of these is the favorite, who is, in a
measure, exempt from labor.  The drudgery of the lodge
falls upon the others.
Below the Indians known as Dabcotahs, on the Missouri
river, are the Puneas, Omahas, and Ottoes, all speaking
kindred dialects of Dahcotah origin. The Puncas are most
northerly. They are but a handful, their once powerful tribe
having been almost exterminated by small pox.  Next them
are the Omahas, whose country is opposite to Iowa, stretching northerly from Council Bluff. The temptations afforded
by the white settlements are unfortunately too strong for
them; -the agent complains that he cannot check the
traffic in liquor. The Omahas raised corn enough for their
winter's supply, last year; and the agent reported that the
judicious use of an annuity of five thousand dollars, due
5
49 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
them from government, would save them from suffering
during the winter and spring.
With the Ottoes are confederated the Missouris.   Their
country is on the Missouri, from the Little Nemaha to the
Nebraska. They are reduced to wretched poverty, from a
series of circumstances, first among which the agent places
the failure of the government to fulfil its treaties with them.
Their game is driven off by the emigrants to Utah, California and Oregon, and they have never received the agricultural implements to which they are entitled. If, meanwhile, they trespass on the territory of other tribes to hunt,
they are driven back with loss of life and property. Even
what is called their hunting-ground is not safe from incursions of northern Sioux who rob and kill them.
The first tribe known to the whites in this region was
the Pawnees, who were visited by Dutisne, as we have
seen, in 1719. They were, for a century, divided into four
villages: the Republican Pawnees, who gave its name to
Republican Fork of the Kanzas, the Loup Pawnees, the
Tappage Pawnees, and the Grand Pawnees.  A  warlike
tribe numbering some twenty-five thousand, they claimed
sway, thirty years ago, over the whole region watered by
the Nebraska river, from the Rocky Mountains to its mouth.
The Ottoes, Omahas, Missouris and Puncahs, at last
acknowledged their superiority, and lived under their protection. In 1832, however, all these tribes were ravaged
by the small pox, and it is said that the Pawnees then lost
50 
TIE PAWNEES.
half of their population. On the ninth of October, the next
year, they disposed of all their land lying south of the
Nebraska river, and agreed to locate themselves north of
that river, and west of the Missouri. This they did. The
government assisted them, and provided them with comfortable houses, good farms, mechanic shops, and a schoolhouse, and the new village seemed to prosper. But large
bodies of Dahcotahs came down on the new settlement,
burned the Pawnees' houses, carried off their horses, mules
and other stock, drove away the blacksmiths and teachers,
and the poor Indians were compelled to retreat to the south
side of the Nebraska; some to their allies the Ottoes, some
to their old villages. They are now settled near the Ottoes
and Omahas. Like them, they suffer by the loss of their
game, which is driven off by emigrants. More unfortunate
than they, they cannot obtain from government the agricultural implements promised them in the treaty, apparently
because they have returned to the south side of the river,
to the lands which they then abandoned. Within three or
four years only it is said that they have lost half their
number by sickness, and by the murderous assaults of the
Sioux and other tribes. They are dependent altogether
upon hunting, stealing and begging from the emigrants.
The Pawnee children are represented more largely than
any others at the school of the Ottoe and Omaha mission.
Their language is entirely distinct from that of any other
Indian nation.
51 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
We have thus named, in order, from the north, the vari ous native tribes, till we have come to the reservations of
the Indians removed from the east by the general govern ment. These fragments of tribes have been already de scribed.
West of them, around the forks of Kanzas river, is the
hunrting,-ground of the IKa,nzas tribe, from whom this river
and territory have their names. This name is spelled by
different writers in many different ways. Cansas, Conzas,
Konsas, Kansas, and Kanzas, are the most frequent. The
tribe has always existed in this vicinity.
The Santa Fe' road passes through their country, and
the temptation which the emigration gives to their stealing
propensities seems to afford their principal occupation.
They are a wild, roving people, wholly careless of civilized
arts.' I am unable to say whether they have been improved by the efforts of the missionaries," is the bitter
report of the gc,-ernment agent, "who  have labored for
them for the last thirty years, or not; if they have been, I
am inclined to think they were a miserable set of beings
when the missionaries began." They have a school, but
will not send their daughters to it, and take the boys away
as soon as they are old enough to hunt.
Some years ago the government had three hundred acres
of land prepared for planting.  -Early in the spring, a few
Indians began to plough, under the direction of their teachers; but the chiefs sent out their braves, cut up the harness,
52 
KANZAS INDIA-NS.
broke the ploughs, and whipped the men away, saying that
the women should do all the work, as they had done. The
nation numbers one thousand three hundred, and there are
but two log cabins among them all. The rest prefer the
lodges of their savage life.
The Kanzas Indians intermarry with the Osages, having
been at peace with them for most of the last fifty years.
These two tribes speak the same dialect of the Dahcotah.
The Osages inhabit the southern line of the territory of
Kanz:s.  This, also, is a tribe spoken of by the first explorers.  They are still in the savage condition of their
fathers.   They go, twice a year, six or eight hundred miles
into the grand prairie to hunt, and to trade with the
still wilder Indians of the west and north-west.   These
hunting expeditions occupy three or four months each.
In the spring they plant a little corn, which they attempt
to harvest in the fall, before the fall hunt begins.  They
live in lodges covered with mats, made out of the flag that
grows in the swamp lands of their prairies.  Their land,
except along the streams, is generally poor.  The  low
lands are subject to annual inundations.
Besides these tribes, which have some settled habitations,
roving tribes of Arapahoes,  Cheyennes,  and sometimes
Camanches, infest these territories.  Their customs  are
those of all wandering Indians, and their incursions dreaded,
if they are in considerable numbers, by all the settled tribes.
A small band of Munsee or Moravian Christian Indians
53 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
reside on the Delaware lands. They are represented as
rather a dissipated set, withl a few good and intelligent men.
Their number in all is about one hundred and forty.
About twenty-five Stockbridge Indians, half civilized and
somewhat  educated,  live in the neighborhood  of  Fort
Leavenworth.
We have thus attempted a rapid review of the emigrant
Indians, and of those native to the region now found within
the territories of Nebraska and Kanzas.  We have spoken,
in detail. only of those tribes whose present position offers
anything of special interest. The review is anything but
agreeable.   It seems fair to say, however, that a careful
view of the Indian character and history does not wholly
bear out the charges, constantly made, that these tribes are
reduced to poverty and misery by the advance of civilization.  Poverty and misery are, in fact, their normal  and
original condition. They are their own worst enemies. As
Lewis and Clarke found them, when there was almost no
trade, when they had not fire-arms, liquor, nor the diseases
of civilized life, they were suffering, as they suffer now,
under the wretchedness which will follow childish improvidence and indolence.  Lewis and Clarke supposed that there
might be one hundred and fifty thousand Indians east of the
Rocky Mountains, west of the Missouri and Mississippi.
On that estimate, they occupied the finest country in the
world, in as scanty a proportion as one man to ten squate
54 
CONDITION OF THE INDIANS.
miles. Its valleys and prairies were the most fertile known.
Its wild game, alone, is enough to feed a vastly greater pop ulation. Yet, even then, these tribes knew the agonies of
starvation, and were not increasing in number. Their constant wars kept down their population, and their distaste for
settled habitation made any sort of civilization impossible.
The Mandans were the only exception. And the Mandans
were diminishing in number under the attacks of the wandering tribes.
Of the Emigrant Indians the history is more sad. The
government of the United States has assumed a responsibility with them. It pays large sums to them, annually, in
annuities; it supports teachers of agriculture and of religion
among them; it supplies smiths, tools, stock, salt, and the
necessities of farming, and attempts to call them to the habits of civilized life.  These efforts are not wholly without
success, as.has been seen. The great obstacle in the way
of them is the passion of the Indians for spirits, and the
difficulty in checking the introduction of spirits among
them.
The agents and missionaries agree in pointing this out as
the greatest of evils to the natives. They acknowledge that
they fail in keeping the fascinating poison from the people
of their charges. If the whites do not bring it, the Indians
go for it. Where traders do not sell it, emigrants do.
The only success that has been achieved in any of the
Indian agencies of the West, in calling the natives into civ
55 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
ilized life, has been in cases where the " tribe" system has
been wholly broken up, where each family has its own freehold, and lives under the same responsibilities, and with the
same stimulants for useful labor, as civilized men.
The little community of Ottowas and that of Chippewas,
described above, under Mr. Meeker's truly Christian care,
increasing in numbers, by a happy exception to the almost universal law of Indian annihilation, illustrate the
success of this system. It is understood that in the treaties
now pending, by which the general government attempts to
release for settlement some of the lands now held in Indian reservations, this principle is to be tested.*  Each head
of a family is to select his own homestead, and, when the
rest is sold, the proceeds are to be given, not to the tribe, but
to the several families of the tribe. Side by side with this
effort is to be ranked a petition of the Wyandots, that they
may be admitted to the privileges of American citizens.
There is no reason why, if they assume the habits and the
culture of civilized life, they should not be so admitted.
They will soon learn that their application should be made,
not to the general government, but to the local government
of Kanzas. If the hopes entertained of civilizing the Indians, by giving each man his own home, be gratified; if
the Indian settlers show the manliness which the little companies of Chippewas and Ottowas alluded to have shown,
* As this book is passing through the press, it is understood that these
treaties hare been ratified.
0'6 
POPULATION.
there is no reason why the constitution of the new state
should not recognize this claim.  It may then safely grant
the privileges of citizenship to all men within its borders,
and the Indians of lKanzas have the fairest chance for themselves and their children, which, since America was discovered, any natives have enjoyed.
Among these Indians, in general, the men are taller than
the average of Europeans. The women are shorter and
thicker. The average facial angle is 78~, the transverse
line of direction of the eyes is rectilinear, the nose aquiline,
the lips thicker than those of Europeans, the cheek-bones
prominent but not angular.   The Arkansas Indians, an
off-shoot from the IKanzas, struck the French as such fine
men, that they called them "1 les Beaux Honmmnes," supposing that to be the meaning of their name.
The word NEBRASKA means flat. It is given by the Indians, therefore, to the broad and shallow Nebraska river.
It is almost impossible to present any accurate statement
of the population of these tribes. The estimates of the government agents, corrected in one or two instances where we
have additional information, give, of
Assineboins in the United States,.......      4,000
Rapids or Gros-Ventres,...........        3,500
Blackfeet,............11,000
Mandans, Ilicaras and Minetares,....                2,250
Crows....................             2,500
IDahcotahs or Sioux of Upper Missouri,... 15,640
57 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
Puncahs, Iowas, Winnebagoes and "Half-breeds,".1,000
Other EMIGRANT TRIBES, namely, Sacs and
Foxes of the Missouri  (200);  Kickapoos,
Delawares, Wyandots (553); Shawnees, Pot  tawatomies, Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi
(2,173); Chippewas of Swan Creek (30);
Ottowas (247); Peorias, Kaskaskias; Weas
and Piankesbaws, with Omahlas, and Ottoes,
and Missourias, who are not Emigrants,          14,384
Pawnees, IKanzas, Osages,......                11,000 t
There are also fragments of Munsees and Stock       bridges,............                         150
Total,..............65,374
who are scattered over a territory embracing about five hundred thousand square miles.
The Canmanches, Kiaways, Apaches, Arapahoes and Cheyennes are roving tribes, of whom no estimate is made. The
Caminanches seldom come so far north as Kanzas in large
numbers.
-The tribes here described as Emigrant tribes held the
finest portions of Nebraska and Kanzas, under the treaties
with government, by which they were removed from their
* With these Indians, councils were held last year.  At that time they
held thirteen million two hundred and twenty thousand four hundred and
eighty acres of land; an average of nine hundred and twenty acres each.
t Who held, before the recent treaties, about eighteen million acres of
land.
58 
INDIAN TITLE CANCELLED.
old homes.   Their number, however, had been diminishing
so rapidly, that even had they ever needed all this land,
they could not now occupy it, while the beauty and fertility
of the land attracted the eager attention of settlers.  The
obligations of the government, however, have been loyally
maintained.   No I' squatting" has been permitted on these
regions, and, although the Indians have suffered from the
passage of emigrant parties through their reservations, that
right was left to the whites by the treaties by which the
reservations were made.
As early as 1848 the Indian department suggested some
measures for obtaining possession for the government of a
part of these lands, that they might be thrown open to
settlement. No authority was granted for treaties, however,
till 1853, when Mr. Manypenny, the Indian commissioner,
went into the territories to attempt some arrangement with
the tribes. He was not very successful, however, and the
matter was deferred till the last spring.   This year treaties
have been negotiated with almost all of these tribes. These
sheets are put to press before those treaties have been
printed.   But it appears from a letter of Mr. Manypenny
that the Omahas, Ottoes and Missourias, Sacs and Foxes of
the Missouri, and IKickapoos, have sold all their land to the
government, with the reservation of their own homesteads
only.  The lowas have sold all theirs but ninety-six thousand acres; and the Delawares, all but five hundred and
thirty-eight thousand five hundred acres. These two reser
59 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
vations, amounting to six hundred and thirty-four thousand
five hundred acres, are, however, to be surveyed and put
into the market with the rest, by the United States officers;
but there will be no preemption rights upon these, and the
money paid by purchasers will be paid to the Indians themselves. These treaties have been ratified by the Senate.
Similar treaties with the tribes south of the J-anzas throw
open to settlers two million twenty-six thousand acres of
their land; all, indeed, owned by these tribes, except two
hundred and eight thousand one hundred and sixty acres,
belonging to the Weas and Piankeshaws, which is to be sold
for their benefit, like the Delaware and Iowa reservations
spoken of above.   It is understood that these treaties were
ratified by the Senate at the close of the session just finished, although the official promulgation had not been made
when this sheet was prepared for publication.   There are,
therefore, no material obstructions to settlement arising from
the Indian titles, though it may be necessary, for a few
months, for settlers to abstain from locating on the three
small reservations spoken of. Nearly fourteen million acres
are open, however, for their selection.
60 
CHAPTER III.
NEBRASKA.
Rivers - Valleys - Soil and face of the country.
THE opportunities offered in the new territories for the
arts of civilized life, open the questions most interesting at
the present time.
They are watered by streams, which form together the
most remarkable system of rivers in the world.   From the
head waters of the Missouri, to the sea, is a longer channel
than that of any other river.  This majestic stream has no
break to navigation, from the Great Falls to the ocean, a distance of more than four thousand miles.  Steamboats of fifteen inches draft can ascend to the falls, at any season of the
year, excepting when the river is frozen; and much larger
vessels, for a considerable part of the spring and sumnmer.
The current of the Missouri is rapid, its shores generally
bold. Its water is deeply tinged with the earth it bears
along. In time of freshet, a piece of shell or of silver cannot be seen when more than a quarter of an inch from the
6 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
surface. This peculiarity gave it the name of the Muddy
river, that being the meaning of the two names Pekitanoui
and Missouri, which, in different languages of the Indians,
it has borne.
Where the Kanzas river enters it, at the western boundary of the State of Missouri, this magnificent stream is, according to the measurement of Lewis and Clarke, five hundred yards wide. At the Great Falls they found it, in different places, three hundred and four hundred yards wide,
and occasionally expanding to a much greater breadth. Two
or three hundred miles above the falls, by the river, its
width varies from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and
fifty yards.  At that point, Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin
rivers unite to form it, and the name Missouri there begins.
These streams are of nearly the same width, about seventy
yards wide each. Gov. Stevens, in his late report, expresses
the opinion that a small steamboat, built above the falls,
could perform most of the distance to this point without interruption.
The measurements here given are to be regarded only as
approximations even to an average estimate of the width of
the river in various parts. In spring, the volume of its
waters is materially increased, and they overflow the bottom
lands upon its shores.
The country from the falls down to the river, a distance
of two thousand six hundred miles, may be in general characterized as prairie. Its general level is high above the
62 
NEBRASKA VALLEY.
bed of the river, varying from two to three hundred feet
above it. The river has formed for itself a bed, now two,
now twenty miles wide, through this prairie region. It over flows the whole of this bed at the highest water, and leaves
on the meadows the deepest and richest alluvial soil, through
which winds the singularly circuitous current of the river.
The channel constantly changes in the passage through
this alluvial formation, new sand-bars-are formed, and old
ones washed away.
The bluffs formed at the edge of the meadows present very
curious appearances to the voyager. They are sometimes
entirely bare, but generally clothed with verdure. Thou sands of different forms may be made out, sometimes assuming the aspect of artificial works - domes, ramparts, terraces,
towers, castles, solitary colunns, and even spires of clay.
The singularity of these formations puzzles the geologist,
while it amuses the traveller. As he passes up the river,
the country is less broken and more picturesque. A thousand miles, or more, just below the Yellowstone, is described
by Mr. Catlin as enchanting as fairy land; of the deepest
green, varied with every possible diversity, and covered with
herds of buffaloes, with elk, antelopes, mountain goats and
sneaking wolves.
In general, the country of the lower part of this valley
lacks wood for useful purposes.   The immediate shores of
the river, however, abound in cotton-wood, which fills it
with snags, sawyers and drift-wood; and the bottoms of the
63 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
tributary streams are, in general, well wooded. At Fort
Mandan, Lewis and Clarke used elm wood of large size, and
found ash of inferior size.
On the tributaries of the Upper Missouri, above the Yellowstone, timber is more abundant, and will probably be
found valuable for lumbering purposes. In his survey, last
summer, of the Maria river, which discharges into the Missouri on its north side, about the meridian of 110~, Gov.
Stevens found immense forests, obstructing the way in all
directions. These are, he says, the principal obstacles to
the survey of all these passes.   On the great river itself,
Lewis and Clarke speak of the timber as more abundant as
they ascended to its sources.
The most important tributary to the Missouri in the northern part of the territory is the Yellowstone, so called after
the French, who had named it La Roche Janne. Its sources
are in the Wind River Mountains, near the South  Pass.
Capt. Clarke descended it, from near its source to its mouth,
in 1807.  Its general direction is north-east.  For eight
hundred and thirty-seven miles above its junction with the
Missouri, he found it large and navigable for batteaux, there
being none of the moving sand-bars of the Missouri, and
only one ledge of rock, which is not difficult to pass.  Its
tributary rivers may be ascended in boats for a considerable
distance.  The banks are low, but bold, and nowhere subject to be overflowed, except for a short distance below the
mountains. In the upper parts of the river, Capt. Clarke
64 
THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY.
found the current four and a half miles an hour; at its
mouth, not more than two.  The whole country watered by
it is described as fertile, rich, and open.  Above  Clarke's
Fork, it consists of high, waving plains, bordered by stony
hills partly supplied with pine. There is less timber below,
and still less near the Missouri.
The valleys of the Yellowstone, and of its tributaries,
will be the garden of northern Nebraska.  They abound
in buffalo, beaver, and otter, and are a favorite resort of
hunters and trappers, notwithstanding the hostility of the
Blackfeet, who range through them. In Captain Bonneville's Adventures, edited by Mr. Irving, will be found
interesting narratives of several journeys of his through
this region.
At the mouth of the Yellovstone, at a point indicated
as early as 1806, by Lewis and Clarke, as a favorable spot
for a station, the American Fur Company have their principal fort, Fort Union. The Missouri here is three hundred and thirty yards wide, with a deep channel; the Yellowstone, near three hundred.   The space between the
rivers is well wooded, and rises, in a series of plains, quite
above the inundations of the stream, and extending back
several miles to the hills.  The fort is three hundred fet
square, with bastions armed with ordnance.
It seems very probable that a route to Oregon and W:ihington territories up the valley of the Yellowstone, >end
so across the Rocky Mountains, may be found, and prove
65
6  
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
to have the advantage of the more northerly route by the
Upper Missouri.
These great valleys of the waters of the Upper Missouri
and the Yellowstone, with the uplands which separate
them, constitute by far the principal part of the territory
of NEBRASKA, though not that which will be first sought by
settlers.
An intelligent writer in the New York Tribune, who is
familiar with the country, thus describes the agricultural
capabilities of the several parts of it: -
" The surface of the country, from the Missouri river westward to the spurs of the mountains, is rolling prairie, but
little diversified in its aspect save by the intersection of its
streams. The soil, for a space varying from fifty to one
hundred miles west of the Missouri river and the state line,
is nearly identical with that of Iowa and Missouri. The
highlands are open prairies, covered with grasses; the riverbottom a deep rich loam, shaded by dense forests. From
this first district to about the mouth of L'Eau qili Court
(Running Water river), it is one boundless expanse of rolling prairie, so largely intermixed with sand as to be almost
unfit for ordinary agricultural purposes. The prairies are,
however, carpeted with succulent grasses, affording an inexhaustible supply for herds of cattle and sheep.
'"The third district is a formation of marl and earthy
limestone, and extends in a belt of many  miles east and
west of the Mandan village, on the most northern bend of
66 
SOIL OF NEBRASKA.
the Missouri river, and southward across the southern boundary of the territory.   This soil cannot be otherwise than
very productive. I should think it especially adapted to
wheat, rye, barley, and oats. I have seen, also, very fine
Indian corn along the upper valleys of the Missouri river.
It is in this district that what are called buttes by the
Canadian French, and cerros by the Spaniards, are profusely scattered. Here and there the traveller finds surfaces, varying in diameter from a hundred feet to a mile,
elevated from fifteen to fifty feet above the surrounding
surface. They are not hills or knobs, the sides of which are
more or less steep and covered with grass.  Their sides are
nearly perpendicular, their surfaces fiat, and often covered
with mountain cherries and other shrubs. They have the
appearance of having been suddenly elevated above the surrounding surface by some specific cause. This marl and
limestone formation is, in many localities, worked into fantastic or picturesque forms by the action of the elements.
In one place, especially, called by the traders La Mauvaise
Terre (the bad ground), and about thirty miles in diameter, it has assumed a marvellous variety of singular forms.
From one point of view it assumes the aspect of an extensive and frowning fortification; from another, the appearance of an oriental city crowned with domes and minarets;
and from a third, the appearance of a sterile, broken, and
unattractive congregation of incongruous elements. These
67 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
delusive appearances are produced by distance and the position of the sun.
"The wrecks of the diluvian period of geology are spread
all over this region, and most profusely on that portion north
of the Missouri river. Detached masses of rock, some of
them hundreds of tons in weight, wholly unconnected with
the adjacent geological formations, and evidently allied to
those of the northern Rocky Mountain region, dot the whole
country.
"The district which I will call the fourth, lying north
of the Missouri river and west of Minnesota, is a succession
of undulating plains, the soil of which is quite fertile but
rather dry. These plains are covered with a thick grassy
sward, which sustains innumerable herds of bison, elk, and
deer.
" The fifth district is at the base of the Black Ilills,
between that range and the Rocky Mountains, and includes
the valley of the Yellowstone, of the Maria's river, and a
variety of other small valleys, circumvallated by an amphlitheatre of mountains and gorgeous mountain scenery.   The
valley of the Yellowstone is spacious, fertile, and salubrious.  The streams are fringed with trees, from whence the
valley expands many miles to the mountains.   The traveller can almost imagine himself upon the Danube; for the
valley is sprinkled over at long intervals with cyclopean
structures of granite, closely assimilated in appearance,
from a distant view, to the stern and solitary castles with
68 
SOIL, ETC., OF NEBRASKA.
which Europe was covered and guarded during the middle
ages.   But these structures exceed those of Europe  in
magnitude and grandeur, and the woods and waters are disposed with a taste and beauty which the highest art must
ever toil after in vain. It is encircled by a rich girdle of
heights and mountains, the bases and dark sides of which
are obscured in shrubs, and the summits tufted with noble
forest trees. And here is to be the seat of a populous and
powerful community in the far future."
Snow falls at the foot of the mountains as early as September, and in the extreme south-eastern points of the
territory as early as the first of November.  These may
be regarded as the two limits, between which the beginning
of winter in different parts will range. In general, as one
travels farther north and nearer to the mountains, the temperature will, of course, be colder than that of Iowa, which
is opposite its south-eastern frontier.
The valley of the Nebraska or Platte river, and that
part of the western side of the Missouri river which is below
this, will be the parts of Nebraska which will first attract
settlers.
The little section of the territory opposite Missouri, now
occupied by the Ottoes and by the little colony of Halfbreeds which has been described, is, undoubtedly, one of
the finest regions in the world. The part of Missouri
opposite, known as the Platte Purchase, is regarded as the
richest agricultural part of that state.  A recent report of
69 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
the geological surveyor states, as the result of careful measurements, that the soil there is fourteen feet deep.   The
corner of Nebraska alluded to, and the eastern side of
Kanzas, appear to share these great physical advantages.
Settlers from Iowa and other states have already been
"locating" there.  The various positions which have received names will be described in another chapter.
The following extract describes an expedition from Council Bluffs into this lovely region:   " A short drive brought us to the Winter Quarters Ferry, twelve miles above on the river, where a good, wellmanned, and capacious steam ferry-boat was waiting, and
in three minutes we landed all our company upon the farfamed soil of Nebraska. After a refreshing draught from
a clear, cold spring that gushes from the hill-side, a few
minutes brought us to the encampment of Messrs. Babbitt
and Stiles, situated upon a pretty grassy knoll, with the
green carpet thickly bespangled with myriads of red, juicy
strawberries, which, by the by, abound plentifully in the
river-borders of this highly interesting country. A cheerful camp-fire was soon blazing, and our animals turned
loose to graze.
" We encircled the broad, spread table (buffalo skins
spread on the ground), and regaled upon luxuries. At a
reasonable hour the camp-fire was well replenished, and a
circular bed of robes, etc., spread, and all retired in quiet to
repose, and to dream of the great future of that lovely land.
70 
EXPLORING PARTY.
"Early morn brought the report of horses being missing.
A scout soon returned with the conviction that they had
been stolen by the Indians.   A  company of horsemen
started on one trail north, while we, with a small company,
took the road for the Elkhorn, where we arrived (thirty
miles) in good camp time, after passing over a most delightful country for nearly the whole distance. There is, however, quite a scarcity of timber, which may only be found
upon the streams.
"We encamped for dinner on the Papillon, where there is
some nice timber and excellent water. In approaching near
the Elkhorn, a glorious and grand scenery breaks upon the
vision. The eye takes in, at a glance, the country ahead
for some twenty miles, giving a full view of the Elkhorn
and Platte rivers, with their winding courses, groves, bluffs,
and valleys; at sundown the scenery is both grand and
enchanting.
"The river being high, we met with no success in fishing,
although there are fine fish in the stream.  Our roast venison was eaten with a relish while seated on nature's grassy
carpet around the camp-fire. IHere we found a number of
Pawnee Indians, one of whom had a monster of a young
black eagle which he had captured after having broken one
of its wings.   We had an excellent night's rest, and at an
early hour started homeward, snatching occasionally from
their native beds a cluster of sweet flowers."'
Settlers are also passing into the fertile region between
71 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
the Nebraska and Kanzas rivers, farther back from the
valley of the Missouri.
The lower part of the valley of the Nebraska, with the
uplands on either side, offer an attractive soil and climate.
The name of this river, as has been said, signifies the Flat
River. The French name La Platte designates its great
width. It often seems almost lost in the broad bed of sand
through which its various currents pass. It does not make
any considerable falls in its long eastward course, and traders descend sometimes in canoes and batteaux from Fort
Laramie to the Missouri river, -nearly the whole length
of the southern line of Nebraska. This navigation, however, is intricate, and very tedious.  The canoes or boats
constantly get aground, and it seems to be regarded, even
at the season of freshets, as a last resort in the way of transfer of goods from above.
These remarks only apply, however, to the very highest waters of the stream. The steamboat E1 Paso is said
to have ascended the river last year, when the water was
high, more than five hundred miles from its mouth, passing up the North Fork above Fort Laramie. In token
of this triumph, she still " wears the horns; " for it is a
custom on the western waters for a steamboat which has distinguished herself by any decided- feat like this, to wear a
pair of antlers, until some more successful boat surpasses her
in the same enterprise by which she won them.  The distance achieved by the E1 Paso is probably over-estimated.
72 
SOIL, ETC., OF NEBRASKA.
At most seasons of the year the river is of little use for
navigation.
For about two hundred and fifty miles west of the Missouri river, the prairie through which the Nebraska passes
is very rich, and admirably adapted for cultivation. On the
northern side it has been less explored than on the southern.
On the southern side, the regular road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Kearney passes directly through it.   The
whole "divide" between the Kanzas and Nebraska, for the
distance named from the Missouri, is soil of loam mixed with
gravel; "a delightful soil to till, and yielding heavy crops."
The valleys are quite well supplied with timber. The want
of timber for fencing, in any part of this prairie, is abundantly made good by the ease with which the Osage orange
is cultivated. This is indigenous a little farther south, and
the finest hedged farms are made from it with less expense,
time, and labor, than the clearing and fencing of timberland requires under the most favorable circumstances. The
country is well watered. In rainy weather the roads now
followed become muddy and difficult of travel, but in this
respect, says Major Cross, in his report, it does not differ
from any of the prairies of the west.  When the season is,
dry, the ground becomes very firm, and as there are no hills
to impede travelling, there is no reason why the best public
highways in the western country should not be laid out
here.
So immense is the prairie country of Nebraska, of which
7
73 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
the " divide " now described forms the southern frontier, that
cattle were driven across, from the valley of the Missouri to
St. Peter's river in Minnesota, as long since as 1828, when
there was not a road in the whole country. The traders
often prefer crossing it with their goods to the more circuit  ous and tedious route by boat up the Missouri river.
The immediate valley of the Nebraska is a rich bottom
soil. In 1842, Col. Fremont passed down on the left bank
of the river without going inland. There was, even then, an
excellent, plainly-beaten road there. He says that Grand
Island, fifty-two miles long, with an average breadth of a
mile and three-quarters, has on it some small eminences, and
is sufficiently elevated to be secure from the annual floods of
the river.  It is well timbered, with an excellent soil.  From
the junction of the North and South Forks he found the
Nebraska occupied with numerous islands, many of them
large and all well timbered, possessing, as well as the bottom
lands of the river, a very excellent soil. With the excep tion of some scattered groves on the banks, the bottoms are
generally without timber.   A  portion of these consist of
low grounds, covered with a profusion of fine grasses, and are
,.1probably inundated in the spring; the remainder is high
river prairie, entirely beyond the influence of the floods.
The treadth of the river is usually three-quarters of a mile,
except where it is enlarged by islands.
None of the recent exploring expeditions of the govern ment have passed through the prairie country north of the
74 
SOIL, ECT., OF NEBRASKA.
Nebraska within the fertile belt of the first two hundred
miles from Missouri. In 1820, however, Capt. Long passed
from Council Bluffs across to Grand Island with a party of
men. The prairie on that side appears to resemble that on
the southern side in the richness of the soil, and there is,
apparently, even less timber. Rev. Mr. Parker, who crossed
it in 1835, thus describes it:   " For about twenty-five miles since we crossed the Elkhorn, and between this river and the Platte, which are about
ten miles apart, there is not a single hill.  It is rich bottom
land, covered with a luxuriant growth of grass.  No country
could be more inviting to the farmer, with only one exception-the want of woodland.   The latitude is sufficiently
high to be healthy; and, as the climate grows warmer as we
travel west, until we approach the snow-topped mountains,
there is a degree of mildness not experienced east of the
Alleghany Mountains. The time will come, and probably
is not far distant, when this country will be covered with a
dense population.   -  ~      Then this amazing extent of
most fertile land will not continue to be the wandering ground
of a few thousand Indians, with only a very few acres under
cultivation; nor will millions of tons of grass grow up to
rot upon the ground, or to be burned up with the fire
enkindled to sweep over —the prairie, to disencumber it of its
spontaneous burden. The herds of buffalo that once fattened
upon these meadows are gone, and the deer that once cropped the grass have disappeared, and the antelopes have fled
75 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
away, and shall solitude reign here till the end of time?
No; here shall be heard the din of business, and the churchgoing bell shall sound far and wide."
Freestone and limestone boulders of large size are found
on the "divide" between the Kanzas and Nebraska.  In the
bluffs of the Missouri, brick clay is found, and there seems
no lack of stone for building purposes. The supply of pine
lumber will be at first from the waters of the James and
Sioux rivers on the Upper Missouri. It may prove, however, that in high water pine lumber can be obtained from
the upper waters of the Platte. From a private letter from
one of the explorers of that region, it appears that there are
pines and firs of considerable size on the Black Mountains
west of Fort Laramie. In some of the valleys and gorges
there is a thick growth of tall and slender spruces. Pines
of good size are sometimes found in the adjacent prairies,
growing in small groups or singly. As one travels southward from Fort Laramie to the Arkanzas, the hills to the
westward are seen often densely wooded with firs and pines,
though in other places quite bare. If it proves possible to
run this timber down the waters of the upper streams in the
freshets, it will be a material assistance to the prairie
country.
The fertile region thus described nowhere extends more
than two hundred and fifty miles west from the Missouri.
A more inhospitable country then begins, on both sides of
the Nebraska, which affords pasturage for buffalo and for
76 
SOIL, ETC., OF NEBRASKA.
cattle, but little more which tempts the farmer. It is for a
great distance unbroken by hills.   For eighty-five miles
west of Fort lKearney the road to Fort Laramie is wholly
level. A gentle rolling country then begins. It is upon P
these sandy plains that the buffalo are now first found by,
westward emigrants.
Fort Laramie is three hundred and twenty-seven miles
west of Fort Iearney by the travelled route, and six hundred and thirty-nine miles from Fort Leavenworth.   It is
situated on Laramie's Creek, a rapid stream, about sixty
yards wide, with a firm pebbly bottom.  This stream rises
in the 13Black Hills to the west, and falls into the north
branch of the Nebraska, about half a mile below the fort.
There is good grazing on the creek, and pine and cedar
wood for the purposes of the fort are procured from the hills
on the north of the river, at a distance of about eight
miles.
Westward of Fort Laramie the country is more broken
and hilly. The spurs of the Rocky Mountains are covered
with pine forests. The plains beneath are sometimes broken
into more uneven surfaces, so as to render travelling more
difficult.  Thus the route up the North Platte to the Greats
South Pass, the route followed by all Oregon emigrants eind
by most of the California parties, is more severe beyond
Fort Laramie than to the west of it.  The route followed b,y
thle track of the emigrants shows specimens of coal for f)orty
miles.  Major Cross has no doubt, from his observatons
77
7* 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
there,* that, from Deer Creek to Sweet Water river, the
country abounds in it. It is found on the left bank of the
river at the Mormon ferry, and up to the valley of the
Sweet Water the hills bear every sign of it.  He expresses
the opinion that the coal region continues entirely across to
the Wind River Mountains, and says it evidently exists in
great quantities. His specimens were of a very fair quality.
Col. Fremont says, of the same region, "In the precipit ous bluffs were displayed a succession of strata, containing
fossil vegetable remains and several beds of coal. In some
of the beds the coal did not appear to be perfectly mineral ized; and in some of the seams it was compact and remark ably lustrous."   For several days he notes the appearance
of coal.
South of Fort Laramie, a trail, crossing the head waters
of the Platte and the various forks of the Kanzas, leads to
the Pueblo, on the Arkansas, and to Bent's Fort. This
trail opens to observation a country mostly barren, like the
plains below, sometimes broken by the spurs of the Rocky
Mountains, and occasionally showing, by the infrequent
water-courses, fresh and green meadows.
* The view which we have now taken of the great valleys
of the Missouri, Yellowstone and Nebraska rivers, of their
tributaries, and of the ranges between them, covers the
whole territory established under the recent act as the
territory of NEBRASKA. Of this vast region, which is from
*In his report to government of 1850.
78 
SOIL, ETC., OF NEBRASKA.
north to south six hundred and thirty miles, and almost the
same general width from east to west, the south-eastern portion will be that which will first attract the attention of
settlers. The "' divide " between the Kanzas river and the *
Nebraska is one of the most promising regions now thrown
open to settlers. The boundary line, which is the parallel
of 40~, leaves the larger part of this "divide"  in the
NEBRASKA territory. The lower part of the immediate
valley of the Nebraska may offer some attractions to settlers,
and the adjacent parts of the Missouri valley are, undoubtedly, highly attractive. It is there that the small reservation is made for the Iowa Indians, which has been described
in the last chapter.
The northern parts of the territory will remain, for some
time to come, principally in the hands of the fur traders.
From the Upper Missouri, were sent, last year, buffalo
robes to the number of one hundred thousand, and the value
of three hundred thousand dollars, and other peltry, worth
fifty thousand dollars. But, as we have seen, there are
attractions, all the way up that river, which will every
year draw further and further north, first the more lonely
settler, and then companies of emigrants to follow up his
discoveries.  The northern route for emigrants to Oregon 
will probably gain more favor than it has done,-so great
is the advantage of a steamboat navigation, even of three
times the length of the land trail, to the very foot of the
Rocky Mountains. Lumber, coal, and other natural re
79 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
sources of the northern parts of the territory, -will also be
inducements, not to explorers only, but to settlers.   The
success of the native tribes in the cultivation of the soil, even
as far north as the parallel of 480, shows that the climate is
not unfavorable to agriculture.
We proceed to speak, in similar detail, of the different
parts of the southern territory, KANZAS.
80 
CHAPTER IV.
KANZAS.
Rivers- Valleys-  Soil anid face of the country
TEiE territory of KANZAS is bounded on the north by
NEBRASKA, on the east by Missouri, on the south, in part,
by the line of 37~, which divides it from the Cherokee
country, and, in part, by New Mexico; and on the west by
the highest ridge of the Rocky Mountains. It is a strip of
land, about two hundred and eight miles in width, running
back from Missouri to the mountains. Its principal water
courses flow eastward, from the Rocky Mountains toward
the Mississippi, to which they all run. The Kanzas river
and its branches, and the Upper Arkansas with its branches,
are the principal streams. In the eastern parts are some
small streams which flow directly into the Missouri, or into
the Osage river, one of its tributaries.
The general aspect of the different divisions of this territory are thus described in a letter from the writer already
quoted. 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
"The face of the coiuntry is nearly uniform from the
state line to the base of the mountains.  It is one continued succession of gently undulating ridges and valleys.
The ridges are not uniformly north and south, or east and
west; their general inclination is north and south, but they
are thrown into various other directions by the course of
the streams and the conformations of their valleys. Within
the mountain chain there is to be found every variety of
aspect peculiar to mountain districts. The first district of
country, travelling westward from any point on the Missouri border, is marked by all the characteristics of the soil
inside of that border.   This district stretches from the
northern to the southern boundary, and varies in width
from eighty to one hundred and fifty and two hundred
miles. It includes the sources of the Neosho, the Verdegris, the Marais des Cygnes, and other tributaries of the
Osage, and the lower section of the Kanzas river. It is
unrivalled for the fertility of its soil, the value of its timber and forest trees, the amenity and beauty of its broad
prairies, the number of its crystal streams, and the salubrity
of its climate. It is rather more scant of timber than is the
country in the same range in Missouri, but it is identical and
equal in soils and productions, and superior in purity and
vitality of atmosphere. This fertile district does not gradually deteriorate as we progress westward to the second
district, but ceases suddenly. Travelling from Independence westward, its boundary is Sandy Creek, a tributary of
82 
SOIL, ETC., OF KANZAS.
the Kanzas, and travelling on the Santa Fe trail, it is
bounded by Council Grove. Within a belt of one hundred
yards in width, from the northern to the southern boundary
of the territory, the observer will find two distinct soils,
marking the first and second districts.  The hundred yard
belt is not a right line from north to south, but is serpen tine, and with a general direction north and south.
"'The second district presents to the eye a surface appar ently of sand, but it must be impregnated largely with
nutritive properties, for it is covered with grasses and
rushes. In the valleys and hollows, where the soil is moist,
the grass is abundant during the whole season; but upon
the ridges it becomes stunted in June and July, and dry
enough to burn after the middle of September. This district is essentially a pastoral region. There is no timber
upon it, and not trees enough to serve as fire-wood for any
great length of time. The only trees to be found at all are
in the valley of the IKanzas, and they are chiefly cottonwood and willow. It is wholly unfit for agricultural purposes, and must remain so forever.  Its geological structure
is a sufficient indication of this fact.  This district, from
Sandy Creek, extends westward to a north and south line a
few nailes east of Fort Laramie,- say about three hundred
and fifty miles.
The third district is a formation of marl and earthy
limestone, and is a continuation southward of a similar district described in my former letter as existing in Nebraska.
.8'3 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
It is in this district that what are termed buttes most
frequently occur. These buttes are elevations varying in
width from a hundred feet to several hundred yards. They
are not knolls or hills. Their surfaces are flat, and their
sides are nearly perpendicular. They can be likened to
nothing but the trap-doors on the stages of theatres when
elevated above the floors. It seems as if the general sur face had suddenly sunk down, leaving them scattered all
over the plains. I have never heard a plausible guess made
touching the causes of their existence, and imagine that
geologists will be much troubled to account for them. It is
of this formation that what are called by the traders, in
*consequence of a fancied resemblance to these objects, the
Court-House, the Cathedral, and the Chimneys - noted
objects on the road to Oregon and California -are made.
This is, however, only a narrow, irregular belt, and is suc ceeded by a fourth district, intervening between it and the
Black Hills. It is very fertile, and admirably adapted to
grain and vegetables.  It is wholly destitute of timber.
" The fourth district is somewhat similar to the first, at
least along the base of the Black Hills, where it has been
enriched for ages by the debris. There is more wood upon
it than in the last named, because the small affluents of the
great streams are more numerous along the base of the
Black Hills than anywhere else. The eastern portion of it
is pastoral, like the second district; but the western por tion, skirting the hills, consists of a broad bank of fertile
84 
SOIL, ETC., OF KANZAS.
soil, finely timbered and watered, and abounding in game,
wild fruits and flowers.  It is one of the most lovely and
desirable regions upon the continent.
"The fifth district is the space between the Black Hills
and the main chain of the Rocky Mountains.   Here   ture
has presented us with every variety of aspect and soil.
There are stupendous mountains, the grandeur and sublimity of which create mingled emotions of awe and terror.
There are beautiful valleys, embosomed by amphitheatres of
hills, where Calypso and her nymphs might have delighted
to ramble., variegated by hill and dale, traversed by sparkling
rivulets, and adorned with placid lakes. Fruits and flowers
spangle the greensward; vines hang in festoons from tree
to tree; cascades spring in rainbow hues from the cliffs;
pines and cedars, the growth of ages, spread their sombre
shade upon the mountain-sides, and the stupendous peaks,
shooting up into the skies, are crowned with a glittering
coronet of snow. A few hours' travel leads us out of this
scene of primeval beauty into one in intense contrast with
it. Here we find a sterile expanse of many miles in extent, covered with waving lines of sand, producing only
stunted artemisia and a few other miserable plants; the
rivulets are lost as they descend from the bare ridges
around -their hollow murmurs may be heard beneath the
feet; and the surrounding peaks are immense piles of bare
granite, which seem to have been thrown, by some great
convulsion, into inextricable confusion.  Small settlements
8
85 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
will, in the progress of time, be made in the rich valleys,
and they will be happy lithe communities.
The Republican and the Smoky Hill Forks take their
rise in the Rocky Mountains, and unite to form the Kanzas
river in about latitude 39~ and longitude 960. It flows
thence in a general course eastward, to its mouth, in latitude 39~ and longitude 94~. The upper portions of its two
great forks are timbered with poplar, cedar, pine and other
trees of mountain origin; thence to the eastern line of the
first district I have described, the growth is cotton-wood,
willow and other smaller shrubs; and across the first district to the Missouri line, the growth is hickory, ash, walnut,
oak and sugar-maple. The valley of the Kanzas is not over
twenty to forty miles broad in the first district; it becomes
narrower as the stream is ascended. It is a deep alluvion,
and wonderfully productive in grain and vegetables.
" The tributaries of the Kanzas are not numerous, and
their valleys are narrow. The only portions which can be
occupied now for agricultural purposes are the first district
and the valley of the Kanzas.  Flocks and herds must forever occupy the second district. The third will be also pastoral, until the means of supplying it with fuel can be
created. The fourth will be, in the course of time, partly
agricultural and partly pastoral, and the like may be said
of the fifth.
" The first district has a limestone basis; the second is
underlaid by sandstone; the basis of the third is not known,
86 
NORTH-EASTERN KANZAS.
nor is that of the fourth and fifth determined with any reliable accuracy. The great coal-fields of Missouri, south of
the Missouri, extend thirty or forty miles into Kanzas. I
incline to the belief that detached or fragmentary coal will
be found in much abundance in the north-eastern corner of
the territory. In the fourth and fifth districts there is doubtless an abundance of it, besides water-power superior to any
in the world."
Of the geological character of the north-eastern part of
KIanzas, and the neighboring section of Nebraska,  Prof.
James writes
"The country between the KIanzas and Platte is drained
principally by Wolf river and the great Nemaha. These
rivers, like the Nodowa and Nishnebottona, which enter the
Missouri nearly opposite them;, from the north-east, rise in
the prairies, at an elevation, probably, of forty or fifty feet
above the level of the Missouri. As they descend, their
valleys, becoming gradually wider, embosom a few trees, and
at length, near their entrance into the Missouri valley, are
forests of considerable extent. The surface of these prairies
presents a constant succession of small rounded hills, becoming larger and more abrupt as you approach the beds of
the rivers. The soil is deep, reposing usually on horizontal
beds of argillaceous sandstone and secondary limestone. In
all the limestones along the Missouri, we observe a tendency
to crystalline structure, and they have often a reddish or
yellowish-white color.  There is, however, something in the
87 
KANZAS AND NEBIRASKA.
arrangement and in the aspect of the crystals to distinguish
these sparry varieties from the primitive granular limestone,
to which they have something of general resemblance. The
horizontal disposition of the strata of this limestone, the great
number of organic relics contained in it, and its intimate
connection with coal strata, indicate, with sufficient clearness,. it relation to the secondary rocks.   No  person  who
shall examine this stratum with the least attention, either
about the Nemaha or the Kanzas, or in the mining district
at the sources of the Gasconade, the Merameg and the St.
Francis, will, for a moment, mistake it for any of those varieties of transition or primitive limestone, which, in some
respects, it so closely resembles. The crystalline varieties,
no less than the compact blue limestones, embrace numerous masses of chert or hornstone. This occurs of various
colors, and these are arranged in spots or stripes. Some
specimens have several distinct colors, arranged in zigzag
lines, somewhat resembling the fortification  agate.   The
hunters use fragments of this stone for gun-flints; the savages also formerly employed it in the manufacture of arrowpoints and other implements.*
"The soil superimposed upon these strata of limestone
is a calcareous loam. Near the rivers it is intermixed with
sand; this is also the case with the soil of the high prairies
about the Kanzas village. In ascending the Kanzas river,
* Jessup's MS. Report.
88 
NOIRTH-EASTERN KANZAS.
one hundred or one hundred and twenty miles from the Missouri, you discover numerous indications, both in the soil
and in its animal and vegetable productions, of an approach
to that great sandy desert, which stretches eastward from
the base of the Rocky Mountains.   You meet there with
the orbicular lizard or'horned frog,' an inhabitant of the
arid plains of New Mexico. You distinguish, also, some
cacti, as well as many of those plants allied to cheropodium
and salsola, which delight in a thirsty, muriatiferous soil.
The catalogue of the forest-trees belonging to the valleys of
this region is not very copious. The cotton-wood and the
plane-tree everywhere form conspicuous features of the forests.  With these are intermixed the tall and graceful acacia, the hloney-locust and the bonduc or coffee-tiree, and sev-,
eral species of juglans, carya and fraxinus (walnut, hickory
and ash), with pinnated or many-parted leaves. Trees of
the family of the coniferae are not of frequent occurrence
on the Missouri. About the summits of rocky cliffs are,
here and there, a few cedars or junipers, the only trees that
retain their verdure during the winter.
The prairies, for many miles on each side of the Missouri, produce abundance of good pasturage; but, as far
as our observation has extended, the best soil is a margin
of from ten to twelve miles in breadth, along the west bank
of the river. In the summer very little water is to be found
in the prairies, all the smaller streams failing, even though
the season be not unusually dry. On account of the want
89
8 * 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
of wood and of water, the settlements will be, for a long
time, confined to the immediate valleys of the Missouri, the
Kanzas, and the larger rivers; but it is probable forests
will hereafter be cultivated in those vast woodless regions,
which now form so great a proportion of the country, and
wells may be made to supply the deficiency of running water." 
In describing the southern part of the territory of Nebraska, we have already spoken of the fertile "divide" between the waters of the Kanzas and those of the Nebraska
river. The following notes from Col. Fremont's journey of
1842 will describe that portion of it which falls in Kanzas.
Col. Fremont followed up the valley of the Kanzas, about a
hundred miles, and then crossed to the usual emigrant trail
in the valley of the Nebraska river.
"From the belt of wood which borders the KCanzas, in
which we had passed several good-looking Indian farms, we
suddenly emerged on the prairies, which received us, at the
outset, with some of their striking characteristics. We encamped in a remarkably beautiful situation on the Kanzas
bluffs, which commanded a fine view of the river-valley,
here from three to four miles wide. The central portion
was occupied by a broad belt of heavy timber, and nearer
the hills the prairies were of the richest verdure.
" We reached the ford of the Kanzas late in the after
* Long's Expedition, vol. I., pp. 137-139.
90 
THE " DIVIDE.")
noon of June 14th, where the river was two hundred and
thirty yards wide, and commenced immediate preparations
for crossing. I had expected to find the river fordable, but
it had been swollen by the late rains, and was sweeping by
with an angry current, yellow and turbid as the Missouri.
Up to this point the road we had travelled was a remarkably fine one, well beaten and level, the usual road of a
prairie country. By our route the ford was one hundred
miles from the mouth of the IKanzas river.
"It proved necessary, however, to swim the river, and to
carry the stores across by a boat.
"The dense timber, in which we had encamped, interfered
with astronomical observations, and our wet and damaged
stores required exposure to the sun. Accordingly the tents
were struck the next morning, and, leaving camp at six
o'clock, we moved about seven miles up the river, to a
handsome, open prairie, some twenty feet above the water,
where the fine grass afforded a luxurious repast to our
horses.
We left this camp on the 18th, journeying along the
foot of the hills which border the Kanzas valley, generally
about three miles wide, and extremely rich. We halted for
dinner, after a march of about thirteen miles, on the banks
of one of the many little tributaries to the KIanzas, which
look like trenches in the prairie, and are usually well timbered. After crossing this stream, I rode off some miles to
the left, attracted by the appearance of a cluster of huts,
91 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
near the mouth of the Vermilion. It was a large but de serted Kanzas village, scattered in an open wood, along the
margin of the stream, on a spot chosen with the customary
Indian fondness for beauty of scenery.
" The next morning, quitting the run bottom, the road
ran along the uplands, over a rolling country, generally in
view of the Kanzas, from eight to twelve miles distant.
Many large boulders, of very compact sandstones, of various
shades of red, some of them four or five tons in weight,
were scattered along the hills, and many beautiful plants in
flower enlivened the green of the prairie. We pitched our
tents, at evening, on the head waters of a small creek,
now nearly dry, but having in its bed several fine springs.
The barometer indicated a considerable rise in the country,
here about fourteen hundred feet above the sea, and the increased elevation appeared already to have some slight influence upon the vegetation.
" The next morning was fine. The country to-day was
rather more broken, rising still, and covered everywhere
with fragments of silicious limestone, particularly on the
summits, where they were small, and thickly strewed as
pebbles on the shore of the sea. In these exposed situations
grew but few plants; though, wherever the soil was good
and protected from the winds, in the creek bottoms and ravines, and on the slopes, they flourished abundantly. We
crossed, at ten A. M., the Big Vermilion, which has a rich
bottom of about one mile in breadth, one-third of which is
92 
TIE "' DIVIDE. 7
occupied by timber." The next day "in the afternoon the
people seemed to suffer for want of water. The road led along
a high, dry ridge; dark lines of timber indicated the heads
of streams in the plains below; but there was no water
near, and the day was very oppressive. Along our route
the amorpha canescens has been in very abundant but va riable bloom, in some places bending beneath the weight of
purple clusters, in others without a flower.: It seems to love
best the sunny slopes, with a dark soil and southern exposure.  Everywhere the rose is met with, and reminds us of
cultivated gardens and civilization. It is scattered over the
prairies in small bouquets, and, when glittering in the dews
and waving in the pleasant breeze of the early morning, is
the most beautiful of the prairie flowers.  The artemisia,
abzinthe, or prairie sage, as it is variously called, is increasing in size, and glitters like silver as the southern breeze
turns up its leaves to the sun. All these plants have their
insect inhabitants, variously colored, generally taking the
hue of the flower on which they live."
The party had by this time crossed the line of 40~, which
is the northern line of Kanzas. The notes which follow
continue the narrative of the journey in Nebraska to the
river of that name.
"Our mid-day halt was at Wyeth's Creek, in the bed of
which were numerous boulders of dark, ferruginous sandstone, mingled with others of the red sandstone already mentioned. At the close of the day we made our bivouac in
93 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
some well timbered ravines near the Little Blue. Crossing,
the next morning, a number of handsome creeks with clear
water and sandy beds, we reached, at ten A. M., a very
beautiful wooded stream, about thirty-five feet wide, called
Sandy Creek, and sometimes, as the Ottoes winter there,
the Ottoe fork.  The country has become very sandy, and
the plants less varied and abundant, with the exception of
the amorpha, which rivals the grass in quantity.
At the Big Trees, where we had intended to noon, no
water was to be found. The bed of the little creek was
perfectly dry, and on the adjacent sandy bottom cacti, for
the first time, made their appearance. We made here a
short delay in search of water, and, after a hard day's
march of twenty-eight miles, encamped, at five o'clock, on
the Little Blue, where oufir arrival made a scene of the Arabian desert. As fast as they arrived, men and horses rushed
into the stream, where they bathed and drank together in
common enjoyment.   Our route the next morning lay up
the valley, which, bordered by hills with graceful slopes,
looked uncommonly green and beautiful. The stream was
about fifty feet wide, and three or four deep, fringed by cotton-wood and willow, with frequent groves of oak tenanted
by flocks of turkeys.  Game here, too, made its appearance
in greater plenty. Elk were frequently seen on the hills,
and now and then an antelope bounded across our path, or
a deer broke from the groves.   The road, in the afternoon,
was over the upper prairies, several miles from the river, and
94 
SOUTHIERN SIDE OF IKANZAS.
we encamped, at sunset, on one of its small tributaries,
where all abundance of prcle (eqi.setun) afforded fine for age to our tired animals.
" The roadl of the next day kept the valley, which is
sometimes rich and well timbered, though  the country is
generally sandy."
It will be understood that in this journey Col. Fremont
was passing constantly westward, and was thus approaching,
the wide sandy plains which make the second division of the
country to one travelling in that direction.  The next day
he crossed the high prairie ridge, destitute of water, between
the Blue and Nebraska rivers, and came to the head of
Grand Island, near where Fort IKearney is now located.
In his expedition of the next year, Col. Fremont passed
up the valley of the Republican Fork, and the notes of his
journey, therefore, describe yet another region of Kanzas,
passing from the fertile section through the sandy plains to
the mountains.
"Leaving at the ford the usual emigrant road to the
mountains, we continued our route along the southern side
of the Kanzas, where we found the country much more
broken than on the northern side of the river, and where
our progress was much delayed by the numerous small
streams, which obliged us to make frequent bridges. On
the morninc, of the 4th we crossed a handsome stream,
called by the Indians Otter Creek, about one hundred and
thirty feet wide, where a flat stratum of limestone, which
f
95 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
forms the bed, made an excellent ford. We met here a
small party of Kanzas and Delaware Indians, the latter returning from a hunting and trapping expedition on the upper waters of the river; and, on the heights above, were
five or six KIanzas women engaged in digging prairie potatoes (psoralea esculenta).
" We arrived, on July 8th, at the mouth of the Smoky
Hill Fork, which is the principal southern branch of the
Kanzas, forming here with the Republican or northern
branch the main Kanzas river. For several days we continued to travel along the Republican, through a country
beautifully watered with numerous streams, handsomely
timbered; and rarely an incident occurred to vary the monotonous resemblance which one day on the prairies here
bears to another, and which scarcely require a particular
description. Now and then we caught a glimpse of a small
herd of elk; and occasionally a band of antelopes, whose
curiosity sometimes brought them within rifle range, would
circle round us, and then scour off into the prairies.
"The bottoms which form the immediate valley of the
main river were generally about three miles wide, having a
rich soil of black vegetable mould, and, for a prairie country, well interspersed with wood. The country was everywhere covered with a considerable variety of grasses, occasionally poor and thin, but far more frequently luxuriant
and rich. We had been gradually and regularly ascending in
our progress westward, and, on the evening of the 14th,
96 
fREMONT'S JOURNAL.
when we encamped on a little creek in the valley of the
Republican, two hundred and sixty-five miles by our travel ling road from the mouth of the Kanzas, we were at an
elevation of one thousand five hundred and twenty feet.
" On the morning of the 16th, bearing a little out from
the river, with a view of heading some of the numerous affluents, after a few hours' travel, over somewhat broken
ground, we entered upon an extensive and high level prairie,
on which we encamped towards evening at a little stream,
where a single dry cotton-wood afforded the necessary fuel
for preparing supper.
"The country afforded us an excellent road, the route
being generally over high and very level prairies, and we
met with no other delay than being frequently obliged to
bridge one of the numerous streams, which were well timbered with ash, elm, cotton-wood and a very large oak, the
latter being occasionally five or six feet in diameter, with
a spreading summit.   Sida  coccinea is very frequent in
vermilion-colored patches on the high and low prairie, and I
remarked that it has a very pleasant perfume. The wild
sensitive-plant (schrankia angustata') occurs frequently,
generally on the dry prairies, in valleys of streams, and
frequently on the broken prairie bank. I remark that the
leaflets close instantly to a very light touch. Amorpha,
with the same psoralea, and a dwarf species of lupinus, are
the characteristic plants.
"June 21. During the forenoon we travelled up a branch
9
97 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
of the creek on which we had encamped, in a broken country, where, however, the dividing ridges always afforded a
good road. Plants were few; and with the short swards of
the buffalo grass, which now prevailed everywhere, giving
to the prairies a smooth and mossy appearance, were mingled frequent patches of a beautiful red grass (aristida
pallens), which has made its appearance only within the
last few days. We halted to noon at a solitary cottonwood in a hollow, near which was killed the first buffalo,
a fine bull.
"At noon, on the 23d, we descended into the valley of a
principal fork of the Republican, a beautiful stream, with
a dense border of wood, consisting principally of varieties
of ash, forty feet wide and four feet deep. It was musical
with the notes of many birds, which from the vast expanse
of silent prairie around seemed all to have collected here.
We  continued, during the afternoon, our route along the
river, which was populous with prairie-dogs (the bottoms
being entirely occupied with their villages), and late in the
evening encamped on its banks. The prevailing timber is
a blue-foliaged ash (fraxints, near F. Americana) and
ash-leaved maple.  With these were Fraxinus Americana,
cotton-wood, and long-leaved willow.
"A few miles further we entered the valley of a large
stream, afterwards known to be the Republican Fork of the
Kanzas, whose shallow waters, with a depth of only a few
inches, were spread out over a bed of yellowish-white sand
198 
FREMONT' S JOURP][AL.
six hundred yards wide. With the exception of one or two
distant and detached groves, no timber of any kind was to
be seen. Our encampment this evening was three thou  sanld five hundred feet above the sea. We travelled now
for several days through a broken and dry sandy region,
about four thousand feet above the sea, where there were
no running streams  and water only to be found in small
lakes that occurred occasionally among the hills."
By this expedition Mr.  Fremont arrived at St. Vrain's
Fort. Soon afterwards he travelled south.
Along the eastern spurs of the mountains, as we have
already said, a trail passes through the country southward to
the upper waters of the Arkansas. These streams water the
southern part of the territory. Mr. Parkman describes this
journey, singularly varied by mountain spurs, fertile "bot toms "' watered by small streams, and by sandy " divides."
Mr. Fremont, by a trail of his own, had passed through
the same region. In this journey he followed up the south
fork of the Nebraska.
"July 8. On the easternmost branch, up which we took
our way, we first came among the pines; growing on the
top of a very high bank; and where we halted on it to noon,
quaking asp (populus tremuloides) was mixed with the
cotton-wood, and there were excellent grass and rushes for
the animals.
"July 9.  We  turned to the eastward along the upper
waters of the stream on which we had encamped, entering
99
::: I:: 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
a country of picturesque and varied scenery; broken into
rocky hills of singular shapes; little valleys, with pure
crystal water, here leaping swiftly along, and there losing
itself in the sands; green spots of luxuriant grass; flowers
of all colors, and timber of different kinds: everything to
give it a varied beauty, except game.   To one of these
remarkably shaped hills, having on the summit a circular
flat rock two or three hundred yards in circumference,
some one gave the name of Pound-cake, which it has been
permitted to retain, as our hungry people seemed to think
it a very agreeable companion."
The next day, "leaving the encampment at six o'clock,
we continued our easterly course over a rolling country
near to the high ridges, which are generally rough and
rocky, with a coarse conglomerate displayed in masses, and
covered with pines.  This rock is very friable; and it is
undoubtedly from its decomposition that the prairies derive
their sandy and gravelly formation.  During the morning,
our route led over a dark vegetable mould, mixed with sand
and gravel, the characteristic plant being esparcette (onobrychis sativa), a species of clover, which is much used
in certain parts of Germany for pasturage of stock, principally hogs. It is sown on rocky waste ground, which would
otherwise be useless, and grows very luxuriously, requiring
only a renewal of the seed about once in fifteen years. Its
abundance here greatly adds to the pastural value of this
region. A species of artemisia, in flower, was very com
100 
FREMONT' S$ JOURNAL.
mon along the line of road, and the creeks were timbered
with willow and pine.
"July 11. I turned this morning to the southward, up
the valley of Bijou.  Esparcette occurred universally;
and among the plants on the river I noticed a fewv small
bushes of the absinthe of the voyageurs, which is com monly used for firewood (the artemzisia tridentata spoken
of above).
"Yesterday and to-day the road has been ornamented
with the showy bloom of a mountain lupinus, a character-.
istic in many parts of the mountain region, on which were
generally great numbers of an insect with very bright
colors.
" We followed the stream to its head in a broken ridge,
which, according to the barometer, was about seven thousand five hundred feet above the sea. This is a piny elevation, into which the prairies are gathered, and from which
the waters flow, in almost every direction, to the Arkansas,
Platte (or Nebraska), and IKanzas rivers; the latter stream
having here its remotest sources.   Although somewhat
rocky and broken, and covered with pines, in comparison
with the neighboring mountains it scarcely forms an interruption to the great prairie plains which sweep up to th'zir
bases.
" These plains sweep almost directly to the bases of (t"e
mountain barrier, an immense and comparatively smooth
and grassy prairie, in very strong contrast with the bla.ck
9.
101 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
masses of timber and the glittering snow above them. With
occasional exceptions, comparatively so small as not to
require mention, these prairies are everywhere covered with
a close and vigorous growth of a great variety of grasses,
among which the most abundant is the buffalo grass (seeleria dactyloides). Between the Nebraska and Arkansas
rivers, that part of this region which forms the basin drained
by the waters of the Kanzas, with which our operations
made us more particularly acquainted, is based upon a formation of calcareous rocks. The soil of all this country is
excellent, admirably adapted to agricultural purposes, and
would support a large agricultural and pastoral population.
A glance at the map shows that this plain is watered by
many streams. Throughout the western half of the plain
these are shallow, with sandy beds, becoming deeper as
they reach the richer lands approaching the Missouri river.
They generally have bottom-lands, bordered by bluffs varying from fifty to five hundred feet in height. In all this
region the timber is entirely confined to the streams.  In
the eastern half, where the soil is a deep, rich vegetable
mould, retentive of rain and moisture, it is of vigorous
growth, and of many different kinds; and throughout the
western half it consists entirely of various species of cottonwood, which deserves to be called the tree of the desert, -
growving in sandy soils where no other tree will grow; pointing out the existence of water, and furnishirg to the traveller fuel and food for his animals.
102 
PUEBLO.
C Turning the next day to the south-west, we reached the
wagon-road to the settlements on the Arkansas river; an
extremely good lodge-trail which issues by the head of the
Foontaine qui bouille, from the bayou Salade (South Park),
a high mountain-valley behind Pike's Peak. The soil
along the road was sandy and gravelly, and the river well
timbered."
The next day brought the party to the Pueblo on the
Arkansas river. Here a number of mountaineers, who
have married Spanish women in the valley of Taos, have
occupied themselves in firming and trading with the Indians. All travellers on the Santa Fe road visit the Pueblo.
Mr. Parkman describes the first view of it as a welcome
sight. "' The Arkansas ran along the valley below, among
woods and groves, and closely nestled in the midst of wide
cornfields and green meadows, where cattle were grazing, rose
the low mud-walls of the Pueblo." There was at that time a
Mormon settlement in progress on the south side of the river.
...~
In a subsequent expedition Mr. Fre6mont passed from the
Nebraska to the Arkansas by a course directly through the
mountains,. crossing the ridge, in fact, three times. He
thus visited the New Park, the Old Park, and the South
Park,-  curious birth-places of rivers.   The New or
North Park will fall within the limits of Nebraska; the
South Park, within Kanzas.
"We changed our course, and turned up the valley of
the Platte (Nebraska), instead of going down it. We
103
0 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
crossed several small affluents, and again made a fortified
camp in a grove. The country had now become very beautiful, rich in water, grass, and game; and to these were
added the charm of scenery and pleasant weather.
"June 14. Our route lay along the foot of the mountain,
over the long, low spurs which sloped gradually down to the
river, forming the broad valley of the Platte. The country
beautifully watered. In almost every hollow ran a clear,
cool mountain stream; and, in the course of the morning.
we crossed seventeen, several of them being large creeks.
forty and fifty feet wide, with a swift current, and tolerably
deep. These were variously wooded with groves of aspen
and cotton-wood, with willow, cherry, and other scrubby
trees. Buffalo, antelope, and elk, were frequent during the
day, and in their abundance the latter sometimes reminded
us slightly of the Sacramento valley.  The next day we
continued our journey up the valley, the country presenting much the same appearance, except that the grass was
more scanty on the ridges, over which was spread a scrubby
growth of sage; but still the bottoms of the creeks were
broad, and afforded good pasture ground. Our course in
the afternoon brought us to the main Platte river (Nebraska), here a handsome stream, with a uniform breadth of
seventy yards, except where widened by frequent islands.
It was apparently deep, with a moderate current, and wooded with groves of large willow.
"The valley narrowed as we ascended, and.presently
104 
IIEAD-WATERS OF THiE NEBRASKA.
degenerated into a gorge, through which the river passed as
throughli a gate. We entered it, and found ourselves in the
'New Park,' a beautiful, circular valley of thirty miles'
diameter, walled in all round with snowy mountains, rich with
water and with grass, fringed with pine on the mountain
sides below the line, -and a paradise to all grazing animals.  The Indian name for it signifies'cow lodge,'  of
which our own may be considered a translation; the enclosure, the grass, the water, and the herds of buffalo roaming
over it, naturally presenting the idea of a park. Its elevation above the sea is seven thousand seven hundred and
twenty feet. From this elevated cove, and from the gorges
of the surrounding mountains, and some lakes within their
bosoms, the great Platte (Nebraska) river collects its first
waters and assumes its first form; and certainly no river
could ask a more beautiful origin. The 16th and 17th we
continued through the park, and fell into a broad and excellent trail made by buffalo, where a wagon would passewith
ease. In the'course of the 17th we crossed the summit of
the Rocky Mountains, through a pass, which was one of the
most beautiful we had ever seen. The trail led us among
the aspens, through open grounds, richly covered with
grass, and carried us over an elevation of about nine thousand feet above the level of the sea. Descending from thepass, we found ourselves again on the western waters, and
halted to noon on the edge of another mountain-valley called
the Old Park, in which is formed Grand river, one of the
105 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
principal branches of the Colorado of California. The
appearance of the country in the Old Park is interesting,
though of a different character from the New; instead of
being a comparative plain, it is more or less broken into
hills, and surrounded by the high mountains, timbered on
the lower parts with quaking asp and pines."
In another part of his expedition Lieut. Fremont at tempted to cross from St. Vrain's to the South Pass by a
new route. HIis journal of this will give some further idea
of the mountain scenery and vegetation.
He was following along the Cache a' la Poudre river, a
stream which flows northwards from the high mountains
around Long's Peak.
"July 29. We were compelled, by the nature of the
ground, to cross the river eight or nine times, at difficult,
deep and rocky fords, -the stream running with great
force, swollen by the rains,- a true mountain torrent, only
forty or fifty feet wide.  Towering mountains rose round
about; their sides sometimes dark with forests of pine, and
sometimes with lofty precipices, washed by the river; while
below, as if they indemnified themselves in luxuriance for
the scanty space, the green river-bottom was covered with a
wilderness of flowers, their tall spikes sometimes rising
above our heads as we rode among them. A profusion of
blossoms on a white-flowering vine (clematis lasianthi),
which was abundant along the river, contrasted handsomely
with the green foliage of the trees.  The mountain ap
106 
FREMONT' S JOURNAL.
peared to be composed of a greenish-gray and red granite, which, in some places, appeared to be in a state of
decomposition, making a red soil. The stream was wooded
with cotton-wood, box-elder, and cherry, with currant and
service-berry bushes.   We  halted at noon  on  a small
branch; and in the afternoon travelled over a high country,
gradually ascending towards a range of buttes, or high hills
covered with pines, which forms the dividing ridge between
the waters we had left and those of Laramie river.
'-July 31. A fine rolling road, among piny and grassy
hills, brought us this morning into a large trail where an
Indian village had recently passed. The country was certainly extremely beautiful; the slopes and broad ravines
were absolutely covered with fields of flowers of the most
exquisitely beautiful colors. Among those which had not
hitherto made their appearance, and which here were characteristic, was a new delplhiziunt  (larkspur), of a green and
lustrous metallic-blue color, mingled with compact fields of
several light colored varieties of astralagus, which were
crowded together in splendid profusion. This trail conducted
us through a remarkable defile to a little timbered creek,
up which we wound our way, passing by a singular and
massive wall of dark-red granite. The formation of the
country is a red feldspathic granite, overlying a decomposing mass of the same rock, forming the soil of all this
region, which is everywhere red and gravelly, and appears
to be of a great floral fertility.
107 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
" August 1. We travelled, to-day, over a plain, or open
rolling country, at the foot of the Medicine Bow Mountain;
the soil in the morning being sandy, with fragments of
rock abundant; and in the afternoon, when we approached
closer to the mountain, so stony that we made but little
way. The beautiful plants of yesterday reappeared occasionally; flax in bloom occurred during the morning, and
esparcette in luxuriant abundance was a characteristic of
the stony ground in the afternoon.
"The mountain is thickly studded with pines, intermingled with the brighter foliage of aspens, and occasional
spots like lawns between the patches of snow among the
pines, and here and there on the heights. Our route below
lay over a comparative plain, covered with the same brilliant vegetation.   During the morning  we crossed many
streams, clear and rocky, and broad grassy valleys, of a
strong, black soil, washed down from the mountains, and
producing excellent pasturage. These were timbered with
the red willow and long-leaved cotton-wood, mingled with
aspen, as we approached the mountain more nearly towards
noon. Esparcette was a characteristic, and flax occurred
frequently in bloom. We halted at noon on the most
western fork of Laramie river, a handsome stream, about
sixty feet wide and two feet deep, with clear water and a
swift current, over a bed composed entirely of boulders or
roll-stones. There was a large open bottom here, on which
were many lodge-poles lying about; and in the edge of the
108 
HEAD-WATERS OF THIE ARKANSAS.
surrounding timber were three strong forts, that appeared
to have been recently occupied. We encamped at evening
on the principal fork of Medicine Bow river, near to an
isolated mountain called the Medicine Butte, which appeared to be about one thousand eight hundred feet above
the plain, from which it rises abruptly, and was still white,
nearly to its base, with a great quantity of snow. The
streams were timbered with the long-leaved cotton-wood and
red willow; and during the afternoon a species of onion
was very abundant."
It must be understood again, that here, as in another
part of this route, Mr. Fremont was within the territorial
limits of Nebraska. The nature of the country being quite
the same at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains,
whether just south or just north of the parallel of 400, the
boundary line between the territories, we prefers not to
separate the descriptions of them.
After a reconnoissance of the head waters of Grand river,
Lt. Fremont returned to the head waters of the Arkansas.
"Our elevation was ten thousand four hundred and
thirty feet, but still the pine forest continued, and the grass
was good. In the afternoon, of the 20th, we continued our
road, occasionally through open pines, with a very gradual
ascent. In a ride of about three-quarters of an hour, and
having ascended, perhaps, eight hundred feet, we reached
the SUMMIT OF THIE DIVIDING RIDGE, which would thus
have an estimated height of eleven thousand two hundred
10
109 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
feet.  lIere the river spreads itself into small branches and
springs, heading nearly in the summit of the ridge, which
is very narrow. Immediately below us was a green val ley, through which ran a stream; and a short distance
opposite rose snowy mountains, whose summits were formed
into peaks of naked rock. We soon afterwards satisfied
ourselves that immediately beyond those mountains was the
main branch of the Arkansas river, most probably heading
directly with the little stream below us, which gathered its
waters in the snowy mountains near by. In about a quarter of an hour, we descended from the summit of the pass
into the creek below, our road having been very much controlled and interrupted by the pines and springs on the
mountain-side. Turning up the stream, we encamped on a
bottom of good grass near its head, which gathers its waters
in the dividing crest of the Rocky Mountains.
"On the following day, we descended the stream by an
excellent buffalo-trail, along the open grassy bottom of the
river.  On our right, the bayou was bordered by a mountainous range, crested with rocky and naked peaks; and
below, it had a beautiful park-like character of pretty level
prairies, interspersed among low spurs, wooded openly with
pine and quaking asp, contrasting well with the denser
pines which swept around on the mountain-sides.
"The next day we left the river, which continued its
course towards Pike's Peak; and taking a south-easterly
direction, in about ten miles we crossed a gentle ridge, and,
110 
IIEAD-WATERS OF THE ARKANSAS.
issuing from the South Park, found ourselves involved
among the broken spurs of the mountains which border theo
great prairie plains. Although broken and extremely
rugged, the country was very interesting, being well
watered by numerous affluents to the Arkansas river, and
covered with grass and a variety of trees. The streams,
which in the upper part of their course ran through grassy
and open hollows, after a few miles all descended into deep
and impracticable canons, through which they found their
way to the Arkansas valley. During the day our road was
fatiguing and difficult, reminding us much, by its steep and
rocky character, of our travelling the year before, among
the Wind River mountains; but always at night we found
some grassy bottoms, which afforded us a pleasant camp.
In the deep seclusion of these little streams we found always
an abundant pasturage, and a wild luxuriance of plants and
trees. Aspens and pines were the prevailing timber; on
the creeks, oak was frequent, but the narrow-leaved cottonwood (populus angustifolia), of unusually large size, and
seven or eight feet in circumference, was the principal tree.
With these were mingled a variety of shrubby trees, which
aided to make the ravines almost impenetrable. After
several days' laborious travelling, we succeeded in extricating ourselves from the mountains, and, on the morning of
the 28th, encamped immediately at their foot, on a handsome tributary to the Arkansas river.   In the afternoon
we  descended the stream, winding our way along the bot
ill 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
toms, which were densely wooded with oak, and in the evening encamped near the main river."
We have been the more full in these descriptions of the
Great Plains and of the broken country west of them, in
which the South Fork of the Nebraska and the waters of
the Kanzas rise, because the frequent statement and general
impression is that those plains are wholly desert and worthless. They do not vie, indeed, with the rich, invaluable
agricultural country of eastern Kanzas. It may be doubted
whether any country in the world does. But the timber
scattered among the hills, the richness of the pasturage in
many parts, and the under-lying lime formation, are so many
sources of comfort and wealth which will not permit this
region to remain the desert which it now is.
The southern parts of Kanzas lie in the upper valley of
the Arkansas river. This stream has been so named, since
its discovery by the French, from the Arkansas tribe, whom
they found near i,s mouth. These Indians represented that
they had then but lately separated from the Kanzas Indians
on the IKanzas river. The lower part of the valley of the
Arkansas is, as is well known, a rich and fertile country.
That part of its valley, however, which lies in Kanzas is not
well wooded, and, though fertile farms have been established
in the immediate vicinity of the river, it does not appear to
be, in general, a promising agricultural region.   In the
neighborhood of the Pueblo tall woods line the river with
green meadows on each side. The crops raised there are
112 
SOUTIlERN KANZAS.
abundant. At Bent's Fort there is but little timber. Tim ber sometimes appears in small sections; but, in general, for
several hundred miles the river is most of the year a broad
sand-bed, over which a fewv threads of water glide along,
occasionally expanding into wide shallows. In the autumn,
the water sometimes sinks into the sand and disappears altogether.   At the ":Big Timbers," about thirty-five miles
below Bent's Fort, the river widens, and the banks on each
side fall towards it in gentle slopes.   The "timber" is a
thlinly-scattered growth of large cotton-woods, not more than
three-quarters of a mile wide, and three or four miles long.
"The bed of the river," says Col. Emory, "is seldom more
than one hundred and fifty yards wide, and, but for the quicksands, is everywhere fordable. The bottom-land, a few feet
above the level of the water, varies in width from half a mile to
two miles, and is generally covered with good, nutritious grass.
Beyond this the ground rises by gentle slopes into a wilderness of sand-hills on the south, and into prairie on the north.
There are one or two exceptions; for instance, at the great
bend, the sand-hills from the south impinge abruptly on the
course of the river; at Pawnee rock, a long swell in the
ground terminates in an abrupt hill of highly ferruginous
sandstone; and ten miles above Chouteau's island the hills
along the river are vertical, as if the river had cut a passage through them; and, as you approach Bent's Fort, the
hills generally roll in more boldly on the river, and the
bottoms become narrower, and the grass more precious.
10~',
'113 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
"At these places the geological formation can be seen distinctly. On the lower part of the river it is a conglomerate
of pebbles, sometimes shells cemented by lime and clay
overlying a stratum of soft sandstone, which in turn overlies a blue shale, and sometimes the richest description of
marl.
" Higher up the river we find the same formation, but in
addition argillaceous limestone, containing ammonites and
other impressions of shells in great variety, and in more
than one instance distinct impressions of oyster shells.
The dip in both cases about 6~ and a little north of east.
The soil of the plains is a granitic sand, intermixed with
the exuvie of animnals and vegetable matter, supporting a
scanty vegetation. The eye wanders in vain over these
immense wastes in search of trees. Not one is to be seen.
The principal growth is the buffalo grass, cacti in endless
variety, and very rarely that wonderful plant, the Ipomea
leptophylla, called by the hunters man-root, from the similarity of its root in size and shape to the body of a man. It
is esculent, and serves to sustain human life in some of the
many vicissitudes of hunger and privation to which men
who roam the prairies as an occupation are subjected.
"The narrow strip which I have described as the bottomland of the Arkanzas, varying from half a mile to two or
three miles wide, contains a luxuriant growth of grasses,
which, by the judicious selection and distribution of the
camps, sustained all the animals of the army of the west
114
w 
EASTERN RANZAS.
whilst on the river. The only tree of any magnitude found
on its course is the cotton-wood (Populus Canadensis), and
it frequently happens that not one of these is seen in a whole
day's journey, and the buffalo-dung and wild sage constitute
the only fuel to be procured."
The droughts described render the Arkansas river a very
uncertain reliance for communication. It is said, however,
that a steamboat can ascend at full water within twenty-four
miles of the Great Bend,- the point where the river gains
its greatest northern latitude.
Having thus given a general account of the northern
region of Kanzas, the plains and mountains of the west, and
the sandy valley of the Arkansas on its southern frontier,
we may now speak, in more detail, of the eastern part of
the territory; the basin of the Lower lKanzas river, which
will be the resort of settlers from all parts of the world, and
offers indeed the most remarkable attractions.
For nearly two hundred miles west from Missouri, a rich
vegetable soil, sufficiently wooded, is found through the
whole of this valley. It is the region of which the eastern
part has been principally occupied by the Shawnees, Delawares, and Pottawatomies, whose indolent farming, even,
produces there the most remarkable results. The soil produces wheat, corn, or hemp in great abundance, and is, to
all appearance, inexhaustible.    Every variety of timber
known in the western forests is found there in sufficient
115 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
quantity to answer the purposes of settlers. Ash, burr oak,
black walnut, chestnut oak, black oak, long-leaved willow,
sycamore, buck-eye American elm, pignut hickory, hackberry, and sumach are named by Col. Emory, whose botanical skill is well known.   The general appearance of the
country, he says, is that of vast rolling fields, enclosed with
colossal hedges. It is not till you approach the meridian of
99~ that the growth of exclusive cotton-wood begins.
Every letter and memoir written regarding this remarkable
valley confirms the accounts of its surprising loveliness and
fertility.  The following sketch is by Mr. Parkman:   We were passing through the country of the half-civilized Shawnees.   It was a beautiful alternation of fertile
plains and groves, whose foliage was just tinged with the
hues of autumn, while close beneath them rested the neat
log-houses of the Indian farmers. Every field and meadow
bespoke the exuberant fertility of the soil. The maize stood
rustling in tile wind, matured and dry, its shining yellow
ears thrust out between the gaping husks. Squashes and
enormous yellow pumpkins lay basking in the sun, in the
midst of their brown and shrivelled leaves. Robins and
blackbirds flew about the fences; and everything, in short,
betokened our near approach to home and civilization. The
forests that border on the Missouri soon rose before us, and
we entered the wide tract of shrubbery that forms their outskirts. We had passed the same road on our outward journey in the spring, but its aspect was totally changed. The
116 
EASTERN KANZAS.
young wild apple-trees, then flushed with their fragrant
blossoms, were now hung thickly with ruddy fruit. Tall
grass flourished by the road-side in place of the tender shoots
just peeping from the warm and oozy soil. The vines were
laden with dark purple grapes, and the slender twigs of the
maple, then tasselled with their clusters of small red flowers,
now hung out a gorgeous display of leaves stained by the
frost with burning crimson. On every side we saw the
tokens of maturity and decay where all had before been fresh
and beautiful. We entered the forest, and ourselves and
our horses were  checkered as we passed along by the bright
spots of sunlight that fell between the opening boughs. On
either side the dark rich masses of foliage almost excluded
the sun, though here and there its rays could find their way
down, striking through the broad leaves, and lighting them
with a pure transparent green. Squirrels barked at us from
the trees; coveys of young partridges ran rustling over the
leaves below, and the golden oriole, the blue-jay, and the
flaming red-bird, darted among the shadowy branches."
A  recent letter thus describes a journey up the valley
and across the northern "divide."
"We  landed at the mouth of the Kanzas river, and
travelled up it, on the south side, for a distance of one hundred and twenty miles. We then crossed over, and proceeded about seventy miles in a north-westerly course.  Here
we changed, and went in a north-easterly direction until we
struck the Missouri river   We had now travelled not far
117 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
from three hundred miles. Through all this section we
found the soil excellent, consisting mainly of high rolling
prairie;- indeed, it is as dark-colored and as rich as the
soil in the Wabash valley. The water is of the best qual ity, and as good as could be desired. The streams have
high banks, consisting, to a considerable extent, of limie stone rock. We did not see the first stream which over flows its banks, though we crossed many  which  would
furnish an indefinite amount of water-power. There were
no stagnant pools to render the country unhealthy. The
timber is similar to that in northern Illinois, consisting of
burr oak, Spanish oak, shell-bark hickory, black walnut,
linn, elm, etc. The timber is principally upon the creeks
and margins of the rivers, and is found in considerable
abundance, though, if there was more of it, it would be no
objection to the country. I should like to remove there,
and think it would be an object for me to do -so, though I
reside in a fertile region in Indiana."
The Pottawatomies have. occupied a reservation on the
southern side of the IKanzas. The following letter from
Mr. Duerinck, the superintendent of the Catholic mission
among them, shows what is the success of farming opera tions here:
" We have raised this season sixty acres oats, forty corn,
six potatoes,- the oats very heavy-; we cut them alL in five
days with a mowing machine. This implement is the won der of the country, - the Indians are lost in admiration
118 
EASTERN KANZAS.
when they see it work. The corn and potatoes bid fair to
yield a good crop.   Our horned stock consist of two hundred
and fifty heatd; say eighty cows, fifteen yoke of oxen, forty
two-year o1d steers, -  the balance is young cattle of our
own raising.  We derive no inconsiderable part of our support from our stock.  There is also a good qoemand for corn,
potatoes, oats, which the mission as well as the Indians can
sell at fair prices.   The government is establishiing a new
military post, Fort Riley, on the Upper ICanzas, fifty-one
nmiles above the mission; the Pottawatomie settlement is
the nearest point from which the fort can draw its supplies.
If our Indians were thrifty and enterprising, they would
find a ready market for all the produce they can raise; but,
unfortunately, the greater part of our people are glad when
they have enough to supply their own wants. The Indians
in our immediate vicinity are not in want; they have raised
good crops of corn, potatoes, pumpkins, and beans, without
giving themselves much pains to do it."
Another letter, written on the 6th of July, 1854, by a
gentleman who had passed up the valley of the Kanzas,
says:
The best portion of the land in the Kanzas valley is
held by the Indians, but almost every acre of this fine
country is said to be susceptible of agricultural improvement. The climate is generally admitted to be remarkably
serene and temperate, being well suited to out-door employ
119 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
ment, but the extensive prairies will especially make the
raising of live stock the most profitable occupation.
"The chief products are likely to be wheat, oats, and
Indian corn.   Wool-growing is also likely to become  a
favorite employment. The accounts respecting the scarcity
of timber are not substantially correct.  In those parts of
the territory where timber is not in abundance, there are
many substitutes to replace it. But the country seems
generally to be divided into timbered, opening, and prairie.
The rolling prairie, interspersed with opening, mostly prevails. The great range of pasturage on the prairies makes
it an uncommonly fine grazing country.
"The water.-power is admirable. Besides the lKanzas,
there are innumerable smaller streams and branches running throughout the whole extent of the territory, so that
no portion of it is without a plentiful supply of good and
generally pure water."
The following statement is from the pen of a most intelligent gentleman, who has travelled over all parts of
America:
I The soil, for the most part, is unsurpassed for richness
and depth by any in the world. True, in some parts, as
near the mountains, and some other places, it is thin and
sandy, but for hundreds of miles from the Missouri state
line, not an acre of waste or poor land was to be seen on
our route. The land is gently rolling, thus giving an end less variety to the scenery, as well as ridding the country
120 
EASTERN KANZAS.
of all low marshes, swamps, and stagnant pools of water,
so productive of malaria and disease. Lest it should be
thought that this is written for effect at the present time,
and, therefore, the representation too strong, I will quote,
upon this subject, a line from  my journal written on the
spot, in April, 1849, after visiting the Wyandott tribe of
Indians in this territory, as follows:'The land they occupy
is immensely rich and very beautiful.  All this region, both
the Indian territory and this side of the Kanzas river (in
Missouri), is superior to any I ever saw for cultivation,
and if it were occupied by New England society, I would
never think of visiting California.' The soil is not only
rich, but well watered. Not only are the clouds more
prodigal of their treasures than at Salt Lake Valley, and in
California, during the summer season, but streams of pure
water are to be found, at short intervals, in every direction.
These streams are almost invariably skirted with timber, in
the eastern portion of the territory, and can afford waterpower in abundance for every kind of manufactures."
" The scenery," he continues, "that most attracts emigrants, is found in the eastern portion of this territory,
where the deep virgin soil of the rolling prairie invites the
plough and spade.- To give some idea of this scenery, I
will quote my impressions, as they were pencilled while
travelling through the territory, south of the Kanzas river.
"May 11th, 1849. Our course to-day has been over
the rolling prairie, and we passed along without difficulty.
11
121 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
The prairie seems to be an endless succession of rolls, with
a smooth, green surface, dotted all over with most beautiful
flowers.  The soil is of the most rich and fertile character,
with no waste land. The feelings that come over a person,
as he first views this immense ocean of land, are indescribabl]e. As far as the eye can reach, he sees nothing but
a beautiful green carpet, save here and there perhaps a
cluster of trees; he hears nothing but the feathered songsters of the air, and feels nothing but a solemn awe in view
of this infinite display of creative power.
13th.  Turned out this morning  at four o'clock, to
watch the cattle.  Went upon a high roll of land, where I
had an extensive and enchanting view of this seemingly
boundless and ever varying prairie. The sun is rising out
of this sea of land in the east, a line of timber skirts Cedar
Creek to the N. E., also Spoon Creek to the N. W., while
still further on, in the same direction, is seen a thick fog,
marking the course of the Kanzas river.   All is still save
the grazing of the cattle, and the concert of birds, which is
composed of a great variety of songsters.   The cooing of
the prairie hens, heard in every direction, constitutes the
base; the loud cawing of the crows, the tenor; the fine
sweet voices of the ground and small birds, the treble; and
a noise as of distant wild geese, the alto.
23rd.   Passed a beautiful little creek of pure cold
water, about twelve M., where we found  a newly-made
grave. Ascended a high bluff near the creek, where I had
122 
EASTETN KANZAS.
a most delightful view of the country to a great distance.
I was reminrded of the view of the Connecticut river valley
from  Mt. IIolyoke.  There  is this difference, however:
while one is circumscribed by hill and forests, the other is
illimitable in extent, and stretches from the rising to the
setting sun; and while one is striped and checked with
cornfields and meadows like a carpet, the other is capable
of being checked as numerously with states and nations."
The character of the Kanzas river itself has been indicated in some of these notices of journeys along its shores.
The western boundary of Missouri, by the act establishing
it in 1820, is fixed as the meridian of longitude which intersects the Missouri river at the entrance of the  Kanzas.
Of course, therefore, the point of land between the lKanzas
and the Missouri is in the territory of IKanzas. It is frequently represented, even in official maps, as if it belonged
in Missouri. It is the chief station of the Wyandot tribe,
whose governor, Mr. Walker, resides there, as his brothers
do.  Their church, also, is on this point of land.  IKanzas
city is opposite in Missouri, just east of the state line.  It
has two advantages which give its inhabitants great hopes
that it will become a great commercial city.   One of these
is its " landting."  The river shore is here stone, so that
the landing is in no danger of washing away by inundations,
an evil to which most of the cities on the Missouri are
exposed.  The other is that the town has been selected as
the present western terminus of the "Pacific Railroad,"
12,3 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
incorporated by the State of Missouri, and now under contract.
The line of this road leaves the Missouri river at Jefferson
City, and does not approach it again till it strikes at Kanzas.
From this point to Republican  Fork the Kanzas river is
free from interruption, and navigable except when the water is very low, as it is through part of the summer. By
Lewis,and Clarke's measurement it was three hundred and
forty yards wide at its mouth.  It is wider above, and seldom fordable. A steamboat carried up the supplies needed
for the building of Fort Riley, the new government post at
the mouth of Republican Fork.
This post was well selected, and the neighborhood will
become important. The Republican Fork is navigable farther up, but no explorations have been made public to show
how far. The Republican Fork takes its name from the
Republican Pawnees, who formerly lived in its vicinity.
In 1844, Col. Fremont descended the valley of the Republican Fork and Kanzas. The following are his notes of
the country as he saw it then.
" Agreeably to your instructions, which required me to
complete, as far as practicable, our examinations of the
Kanzas, I left, at twenty miles below Bent's Fort, the Arkansas river, taking a north-easterly direction across the
elevated dividing grounds which separate that river from
the waters of the Nebraska. On the 7th of July we crossed
a large stream, about forty yards wide, and one or two feet
124 
VALLEY OF THE KANZAS.,
deep, flowing with a lively current on a sandy bed. The
discolored and muddy appearance of the water indicated that
it proceeded from recent rains, and we are inclined to consider
this a branch of the Smoky HIill river, although possibly it
may be the Pawnee  Fork of the Arkansas.  Beyond  this
stream we travelled over high and level prairies, halting at
small ponds and holes of water, and using for our fires the
bois de vache, the country being without timber. On the
evening of the Sth we encamped in a cotton-wood grove on
the banks of a sandy stream bed, w.here there was water in
holes sufficient for the camp. IIere several hollows or dry
creeks, with sandy beds, met together, forming the head
of a stream which afterwards proved to be the Smoky Hlill
Fork of the Kanzas river.
As we travelled down the valley, water gathered rap idly in the sandy bed from many little tributaries, and at
evening it had become a handsome stream, fifty to eighty
feet in width, with a lively current in small channels, the
water being principally dispersed among quicksands.
' Gradually enlarging, in a few days' march it became a
river eighty yards in breadth, wooded with occasional groves
of cotton-wood.  Our road was generally over level uplands
bordering the river, which were closely covered with a sward
of buffalo-grass.
"The country through which we had been travelling
since leaving the Arkansas river, for a distance of two hundred and sixty miles, presented to the eye only a succession
11).
125 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
of far-stretching prairies, covered with the unbroken verdure of the buffalo-grass, and sparingly wooded along the
streams with straggling trees and occasional groves of cotton-wood; but here the country began perceptibly to change
its character, becoming a more fertile, wooded and beautiful
region, covered with a profusion of grasses, and watered
with innumerable little streams, which were wooded with
oak, large elms, and the usual varieties of timber common
to the lower course of the Kanzas river.
"As we advanced, the country steadily improved, gradually assimilating itself in appearance to the north-western
part of the State of Missouri. The beautiful sward of the
buffalo-grass, which is regarded as the best and most nutritious found on the prairies, appeared now only in patches,
being replaced by a longer and coarser grass, which covered the face of the country luxuriantly. The difference
in the character of the grasses became suddenly evident in
the weakened condition of our animals, which began sensibly to fail as soon as we quitted the buffalo-grass.
I "The river preserved a uniform breadth of eighty or a
hundred yards, with broad bottoms continuously timbered
with large cotton-wood trees, among which were interspersed
a few other varieties."
In the extracts already made from Col. Fremont and Col.
Emory, their notes on the geology of the sections they
passed have appeared. The bituminous coal of the Missouri
coal measures appears in numerous places in the eastern
126 
REOLOGICAL FORMATION.
parts of thie  erritory, on both sides of the Kanzas river.
The limestone on which the soil rests is the carboniferous
limestone. Near the state line, south of the mouth of the
river, is one of these beds of coal at the surface. At the
Wah-ka-rusi river, forty miles west, the Shawnee Indians
work the coal, and carry it as far as Westport in Missouri.
Coal is also found in New Mexico, in the immediate
neighborhood of the south-western parts of the territory,
and the coal region of south-western Nebraska probably extenads through western KIanzas.
Capt. Stansbury's notes of the geology of the section
from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Kearney are full and interesting. The strata are generally shale, sometimes carboniferous, on which is limestone, sometimes siliceous, and always with fossils, and a ferruginous sandstone lying over the
limestone. The limestone is sometimes tinged with iron.
The fossils are spirifer, productus, terebratula and some
crinoidee. Flint is found with the limestone, and on the
surface are pebbles and granite, of quartz and porphyry,
with some large blocks of porphyritic granite. At the Big
Blue river, where, in a ravine a hundred feet deep, he saw
the strata best exposed, they were horizontal from north to
south, with a dip of ten degrees to the west. Here the lowest stratum of all was red clay and sand, gray shales were
next, then blue limestone, gray limestone, with flint and
white sandstone. All these but the clay contained fossils.
The specimens collected here are pronounced by Prof.
127 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
James HIall to belong all to the limestone of the carboniferous period, and apparently form the upper of the two great
limestones of this period in the west. This limestone continues as far as the Big Blue (in longitude 970).  It is succeeded by strata of cretaceous age, covered in considerable
measure by drift.
Of the route from Fort IKearney to Fort Laramie, which
indicates the geology of the whole western region, Prof.
Hiall remarks that nothing older than tertiary formations is
observed. In the neighborhood of Fort Laramie is carboniferous limestone again, probably of the same character as
that of the eastern part of Kanzas. Farther west the rocks
are metamorphic, probably of  silurian" age.   The coal-of
that region (already described) coming in wvith sigillaria
and calamites as fossils, and in the neighborhood of limestore, probably belongs to the true coal measures, and indicates to Prof. Hiall the existence of a great coal basin.
From the general aspect of the country it is probable
that the most available water-power for immediate use will
be found on the streams flowing into the Kanzas from the
north. These have often a bold, rapid current, and invariably flow through quite deep channels.
128 
CHAPTER V.
Stations - Military, trading and missionary posts -Projected cities in
Nebraska and Kanzas.
WE have already said that at the present time, Aug. 1,
1854, there is nothing which deserves the name of a town
either in Nebraska or Kanzas.
The most prominent positions, as yet, are the military
posts established by government. In Nebraska there are
two of these, already alluded to, Fort Kearney and Fort
Laramie.
Fort Kearney was established in accordance with Col.
Fremont's suggestion, in his first report, at the head of
Grand Island, in the Nebraska river.  All the emigrant
routes by that river to California, Utah or Oregon, converge
here, so that it becomes a position of importance. Col. Fremont selected the site because in the neighborhood of Grand
Island, which supplies it with timber.  It has scarcely any
other natural advantages. The government has established
a post-office there; the military hospital is supplied with 
KANZAS AND NEBPASKA.
ample stores for the relief of emigrants, and the soil, though
not good, has been made to yield some vegetables in the
gardens and frm of the fort.  The return of last autumn
names the 6th regiment of infantry as the garrison, under
command of Capt. II. S. Wharton.
We have already spoken of Fort Laramie, which also
occupies an-unpromising position. In 1849 it was transferred
to the United States government by the Fur Company who
had established it, and the accommodations of the fort were
considerably enlarged. It is the fort originally known as
Fort John, and so marked on the oldest maps. At the last
return it was garrisoned by a company of the 6th infantry,
under Lieut. Garnett.   There is a post-office here also.
A post-office is established also at a spot on the Nebraska
river known as Wood River, which is called the Nebraska
Centre post-office.  This is one hundred and fifty miles up
the river, not far below Fort IKearney.  It is said the service is not very regular.
The insignificant stations of the Omaha and Ottoe Indians
take rank, with names, as towns, at the present time.
Table Creek post-office is at Old Fort IKearney, at the
mouth of Table Creek, thirty miles below the mouth of the
Nebraska. Hlere is Boulware's Ferry, one of the principal
ferries across the Missouri, and the site of NEBRASKA CITY,
so called on paper.
NEBRASKIA  DEPOT  is a ferry three miles below the
Nebraska river.
130 
FORTS IN KANZAS.
BELLEVUITE is a lovely spot on the Missouri river, about
nine miles above the mouth of the Nebraska. Here is an
Indian agency, and the school of the Ottoe and Omaha
Mission.
In the northern parts of the territbry, Forts Pierre, Union,
Clatrke, Benton; Manuel's Fort, Fort Berthlold, Fort Alex ander, are stations of the Fur Company. The last three are
on the Yellowstone.   Fort Mandan, at which Lewis and
Clarke made their winter quarters in 1805, has not since
been tenanted.  It is in the territory of Minnesota.
In KANZAS the government forts now occupied are Fort
Leavenworth, Fort Riley, and Fort Atkinson.
FORT LEAVENWORTH is on the west side of the Missouri
river, three hundred and nrinety-eight miles above its mouth,
thirty-one miles above the mouth of the Kanzas river, and
four miles below Weston, Mo., in lat. 39~ 21' 14" N., and
long. 94~ 44' W.   It was established in 1827.   "It is the
great frontier depot for the other military posts on the Santa
Fe6 and Oregon routes, and the general rendezvous for troops
proceeding to western forts.  The government reservation of
nine square miles is on a handsome location, which rises
gradually from the river to a height of one hundred and
fifty feet.  There is a good landing for steamboats.  All the
buildings are well constructed of stone, and present quite an
imposing appearance. They consist of the barracks for the
troops, a large structure, three stories high; a hospital, which
cost from $12,000 to $15,000; the quartermaster's build
181 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
ing, a capacious warehouse, etc. Connected with the fort is
a large farm."
A  letter written this spring says: -" About noon we
began to approach the vicinity of Fort Leavenworth. This
is without exception the most beautiful place on the river.
When within two or three miles, whoever has been in the
country once will know that he is approaching it by the
scenery, which much resembles that of some old English
Manor that has been given up for a few years to the keeping of nature, or rather like some gigantic park.  It is difficult to believe that the hand of art has not been busy there;
the banks of the river are quite high and steep, presenting a
mural face of limestone, and the bluffs above are covered
with a small growth of elms, their branches covered with a
dense foliage and bending gracefully toward the ground like
those of the weeping willow.   As soon as the boat touched
the landing all the passengers stepped on shore and ascended
the hill to the barracks, about a quarter of a mile. Much
had been said of the beauty of the location and the fne
prospect we should enjoy from the top of the bluffs, and consequently the interest was considerable. Nor were we in
the least disappointed. As far as the eye could reach on
either hand hill rose above hill in an almost endless series
of undulations, beautiful streams were winding their sinuous
course through fertile valleys, and the whole diversified with
fine groves, gave to the view the air of enchantment. Add
to this an inexhaustible fertility of soil, and we have a truly
182 
FORT RILEY.
fine country. At the foot of the landing is a large store house, at which considerable business is done. On the sum mit of the bluff is a large plateau, on which the fort, or
rather village, stands, for it has far more the appearance of
a beautiful village than fort.  In the centre are three or four
large buildings, much like "I city blocks," in which the sol diers have their mess and lodge., At a little distance from
these, and at the several corners, are a number of fine houses,
the residences of the officers.  In the rear is a splendid
grove of elms, with their branches bending to the ground,
and through the dense foliage a fine prairie breeze is ever
playing, rendering the atmosphere cool and healthy. This is
the promenade ground."
At the last return Fort Leavenworth was garrisoned by
one company of the Fourth Artillery and one of the First
Dragoons, under Col. Fauntleroy.
The government has vacillated regarding a western fort
in I~anzas, and only last spring established that which seems
likely to be permanent, at the junction of Republican Fork.
This is called Fort Riley. The report of last winter thus
describes its progress:  "The work authorized by Congress, at its last session, to
be established at the mouth of the Republican Fork of the
Kanzas river, was commenced, under the superintendence of
Major Ogden.   Much labor has been done, and materials
procured for future operations; A steam saw-mill is in
operation, with shingle machine,  lath saws, and mortising
12
133 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
machine attached. The original plan contemplated barracks
of stone for eight companies.   Only three companies were
detailed at first for the garrison, and they arrived so late in
the season, that, with the difficulties to be overcome, more
than quarters sufficient for the officers and men of two companies, according to the plan, could not be completed; they
will, however, during the winter, shelter the four companies
of which the garrison is now composed.
"Major Ogden reports that the estimate for the work, based
upon prices of labor and material at the time it was made,
has proved entirely too small. Prices have increased thirty
per cent., and in place of two hundred soldiers which it was
estimated might be employed as mechanics and laborers,
only from sixty to seventy could be spared from other duties.
The increase in the prices of labor and materials, with the
addition to the hired force rendered necessary by the small
military force furnished, will increase the expense of the
work about seventeen thousand dollars; and the barn, stables,
granaries, and other buildings necessary for a large mounted
force, are estimated to cost about twelve thousand dollars
more, making together twenty-nine thousand dollars required
to complete the work."
This fort is one hundred and ten miles above the mouth
of the Kanzas river, which, as we have said, is navigable
thus far. It is in latitude 39~ 03' 38" N., longitude 96~ 24'
56" W., at an elevation of nine hundred and twenty-six feet
134 
FORTS IN KANZAS.
above the Gulf of Mexico. Its garrison is four companies
of the Sixth Infantry, under Capt. Loude.
The necessity of establishing a post on the Arkansas
river, to protect emigrants and merchants on the Santa F6
route, early attracted attention.  Different sites have been
recommended and occupied for a time, under the different
names of Fort Sumner, Fort Atkinson and Fort Mann.
Last year the force at Fort Atkinson was withdrawn, from
the difficulty of obtaining provision and forage, but it has
been reestablished, within a few weeks past, and two com panies stationed there. It stands where the Santa F6.trail
crosses the Arkansas river, not far from the Big Timbers,
which supply it with wood, and even forage.
At the extreme northerly point of Arkansas river, where
Walnut Creek enters it, Walnut Creek post-office was estab lished when the troops were withdrawn from Fort Atkinson.
The Big Timbers, already alluded to, are a favorite council-ground and point of rendezvous. They are thirty-five
miles below Bent's Fort. This is Mr. Charles Bent's principal trading-house. The buildings are of adobe, well fortified. The farms have been already alluded to. The Pueblo
de San Carlos, already described, is the largest station on
the Upper Arkansas. Fort Scott, near the Missouri line,
was abandoned in 1853, for Fort Riley.
There is a post-office in Kanzas at the Delawares' City,
ten miles above the mouth of the Kanzas.
The Kickapoo mission station is on the Missouri, four
135 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
mi'les above Fort Leavenworth; the Iowa and Sac, just
south of the northern line of IKanzas. On the Kanzas
river is Rev. Mr. Johnson's farm, of the Shawnee (Methodist South) mission. This is eight miles up the river. The
Shawnee Baptist mission is two miles from it, and the
Friends' school three miles west.  The American Baptist
mission, at Briggwall, is in this neighborhood. Farther up
is St. Mary's, the Catholic mission to the Pottawatomies,
about sixty miles from the mouth of the Kanzas. The success of its farms has already been described. The interesting mission of Mr. Meeker among the Ottowas is south
of the river, near the state line. And in that neighborhood
is Mr. Lykin's mission, the Baptist Mission and Labor
School, supported by the American Indian Missionary Association of Louisville.
The CATHOLIC OSAGE MISSION, on the Neosho river,
forty-five miles from Fort Scott, is one of the largest missions and schools in Kanzas.  It was commenced in 1847,
the boys' school having been opened on May 1st, and the
girls' school Oct. 10th of that year. The experiment proved
so successful that more ample buildings were needed, which
were built in 1849 and 1850. The Rev. John Schoenmaker has been the Superior of this mission from its coinmencement. iHe is assisted by two other clergymen of the
Society of Jesus, and by several lay brothers. Sermons
are preached in Osage and English. There are ten missionary stations at as many different Indian villages within
136 
CATHOLIC MISSION-  ELM GROVE.
sixty miles, attended monthly from this mission. The Cath olic population of this district is reported to be between six
hundred and seven hundred, and that of the upper country
at three thousand. Attached to this mission is a Manual
Labor School for boys, under the direction of the Fathers,
assisted by the Rev. Theodore Heiman and eight la; broth ers, who attend to the farm, gardens and household business.
During the past year, thirty-nine Osage boys were admit ted, of whom thirty-four were in constant attendance. The
school lately received an important accession by the United
States government's transferring, in April, 1853, the Quapaw school to this. Of the Quapaw children, eighteen attend
at the male department. The latter is under the care of the
Sisters of Loretto, eight in number, formerly from Kentucky, - Mother Concordia, Superior. The number of girls
during the year ending Sept. 1, 1853, was thirty-two, and
twenty-four of these attended constantly. The girls have
improved very rapidly, and are daily instructed in household business, fine sewing, working on lace and embroidery,
painting in oil and water colors, etc.
ELM GROVE, or ROUND GROVE, is a noted campingplace on the Santa Fe road, twenty-five miles from
Westport, Mo., in lat. 38~ 49' 41" N., and lon. 94~ 05'
31" W. Col. Fremont encamped here May 31, 1843; at
the  commencement  of  his second expedition.    Tra(ders
often locate here, for a season, in the prosecution of their
business.
12*
137 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
COUNCIL GROVE, a noted stopping-place on the great
thoroughfare to Santa Fe', contains some half dozen trading houses, a missionary establishment and school, two
blacksmiths' shops, etc.
138
I 
CHAPTER VI.
Routes of travel - The Pacific railroad - Navigable rivers.
THE territory of Kanzas, from its position, is the great
geographical centre of the internal commerce of the United
States.
The only overland routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
which have thus far accommodated emigrants or merchants,
either pass through its borders, or along the Missouri river
to the valley of the Nebraska, thus passing along on its
eastern side.
A southern route through Texas, and another through
Arkansas, have been explored, without thus far attracting
the travel of any but explorers.
Of the routes really used, the great emigrant track,
through the " South Pass," to Oregon and California, is by
far the most important.
It must be understood that the'" South  Pass"  is so
called only because it is south of the passes of the upper
valley of the Missouri, explored by Lewis and Clarke.  It
40 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
is more northerly than the pass proposed by Col. Fremont
for a railroad, near the line of New Mexico.
The travel along the great emigrant road is equal to
that on a considerable turnpike at the east.  Settlers leave
the river at different places, according as they choose differ ent towns for an outfit. From Independence, Westport,
Kanzas City, Weston, St. Mary's, St. Joseph's, and other
towns in Missouri and Iowa, are different roads, therefore,
leading west or north-west to the valley of the Nebraska,
along which is the proper emigrant road. Those of these
tracks which pass Fort Leavenworth are accommodated by
the military road which the government has completed be tween that fort and Fort Kearney.
This road, called the "New Military Road," was con structed in 1850, by the government, which caused it to be
surveyed, improved and bridged, and, having since kept it in
good repair, it is called the best of the emigrant routes, be ing high, level, dry, with fine grass and convenient water.
The old military road, into which the road from St. Joseph
enters, was abandoned on account of the large streams,
swamps, barrens and hills, and its general crookedness.
At Fort Kearney all these roads unite, and there is from
that place but one road up the valley. Blacksmith shops
and ferries are established along this road for the accom modation of travellers.
The great Santa F6 route has been for many years fol lowed by the overland traders to New Mexico. Its history
140
0 
ROUTES THROUGII KANZAS.
will be found fully described in Mr. Gregg's'" Commerce of
the Prairies." It follows, for a short distance, the Kanzas
valley, crosses the " divide " to the great bend of the Arkan sas, and by that valley proceeds westward to New Mexico.
By this route Gen. Kearney's command advanced in 1846.
Leaving the Arkansas river at Bent's Fort and soon turning 
southwards, it keeps along the east flank of the "Spanish
Peaks " until a little south of Santa F6, when, by a series
of passes, it crosses into the valley of the I)el Norte.
These two great lines of travel are the only two which
are used in general by settlers or merchants passing overland to the west. It is by some modification of the one or
the other that almost all the projects for a Pacific railroad
propose to cross the continent.
In view, however, of the fact that the Missouri river itself gives, far north, the nearest navigable access to the
Rocky Mountains, Gov. Stevens, the governor of the territory of Washington, was directed last year to survey the
mountains in the neighborhood of the head waters of that
stream, with reference to a route for travel through some of
their passes.
Meanwhile, since the annexation of New Mexico, several
methods of passing the mountains to the north of Santa F6
have been suggested, one of which is that adopted by Col.
Fremont in his project for a Pacific railroad.
The following general sketch of the country, through
which the various routes to the Pacific must pass, is from
141 
K ANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
the last report of the Secretary of War. It will enable the
reader to understand the details which follow, as to the vari  ous passes of tlhe mountains suggested by different enterprises.
"The western portion of the continent of North Amer- ica, irrespective of the mountains, is traversed, from north
to south, by a broad, elevated swell or plateau of land,
which occupies the greater portion of the whole space be  tween the Mississippi river and the Pacific Ocean. The
crest of this plateau, or the water-shed of the country, is
nearly midway between the Pacific coast and the Mississippi.
It may be represented on the map by an undulating line
traced between the head waters of the streams which flow
eastward and those which flow westward. It divides the
whole area between the Mississippi and the Pacific into two
nearly equal portions - that on the east being somewhat
the larger. This crest of the water-shed has its greatest
elevation in Mexico; and thence declines to its lowest point
about the latitude of 320, where it has a height of about
four thousand five hundred feet, between the waters of the
Rio Grande and those of the San Pedro, a tributary of the
Gila. From this parallel it increases in altitude northward,
and reaches its maximum near the 38th parallel, where it is
about eight thousand feet high. - Thence it declines as we
pass northward; and, in lat. 42~ 24', it has an elevation of
say seven thousand feet; and, in the latitude of about 47~,
it is reported to be at least one thousand feet lower. The
,heights here given are those of the lowest passes over the
142 
THE GREAT PLATEAU.
crest or water-shed of the great plateau of the country,
and not those of the mountain peaks and ridges which have
their base upon it, and rise, in some cases, to the height of
seventeen thousand feet into the region of perpetual snow.
"The slope of the plateau, on the east and south, to wards the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, is compara tively gentle; and, in Texas, is by several steps, of which
the highest is that known by the name of Llano Estacado,
or Staked Plain.   It is traversed by the Missouri, the
Platte, the Arkansas, and other large rivers which rise
among the mountains near the crest, and flow eastward and
southward ill channels sunk beneath the general surfacelevel of the plains.
" In lat. 42~, near the source of the Platte, it has an
elevation of about five thousand feet above tide, and in the
same latitude on, the Mississippi about one thousand feet.
Towards the sources of the Arkansas, in lat. 360, it has a
height of four thousand feet; and in the same latitude on
the Mississippi, two hundred and seventy-five feet.  These
elevations give an average declination, eastward, to the
whole plain, of about four and a half feet per mile, and
southward, of about two and a third feet.
" The crest of the plateau, and nearly the whole of its
western portion to the Pacific, is occupied by a great mountain system - the continuation of the Andes of South
America. It has a variable breadth, narrowest within our
possessions, near the Gila, in lat. 32~, where it has a width
143 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
of about five hundred miles, and attains its greatest expansion in the parallel of 40~0, where it occupies a space of
about nine hundred miles. On this mountain base, as has
been said before, are situated a series of elevated peaks,
ridges, and ranges. Those on the eastern side are nearly
continuous for about nine hundred miles, and known by the
name of the Rocky Mountains; those on the western side
are perhaps less continuous, though equally elevated above
their base, and designated as the Sierra Nevada, Coast
Range, Cascade Mountains, etc. The whole space between
these extreme ranges is occupied by high peaks, and in various directions by a series of ridges, including elevated valleys, and forming great basins, having no outlet to the sea.
The most important of these is Salt Lake Basin, having an
elevation of four thousand one hundred feet.
" This mountain region is not, as is frequently supposed,
a single chain, but a system extending from a little east of
the crest of the water-shed to near the shores of the Pacific,
and occupying about one-half of all the space between the
Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. The position of this belt
of mountain region, stretching from north to south gives
rise to a peculiarity of climate and soil. Fertility depends
principally upon the degree of temperature and amount of
moisture, both of which are much affected by increase of
elevation; and the latter, also, depends on the direction of
the wind.  The upper or return current of the trade-wind,
flowing backward towards the north-east, gives a prevalence
144
-0 
RAILROAI) ACROSS TIIE PLATEAU.
of westerly winds in the north temperate zone, which tends
to spread the moisture of the Pacific over the western por tion of our continent.
" These winds, however, ascenrding the western slope of
the mountain ridges, are deprived of their moisture by the
diminished temperature of the increased elevation; and
hence it is that the plains and valleys on the eastern side
of the ridges are generally parched and barren, and that
the mountain system, the highest chain of which, known as
the Rocky Mountains, by presenting, as it were, a screen
against the moisture with which the winds from the west
come laden, has for its eastern margin a sterile belt, which
probably extends along the whole range, with an average
width of about two hundred and fifty miles."
There is no physical difficulty of more than ordinary character in the way of a railroad route from the Mississippi to
the eastern base of the great mountain region thus described,
or to what is usually called the line of the Rocky Mountains. The slopes are gentle, and an average ascent of
about six feet to a mile would carry a railroad route to the
great sandy plains which stretch about two hundred or three
hundred miles east of the mountains proper. The route
through the plains, and then through the ridges of the
mountains themselves, becomes  the question of especial
practical interest. The various passes proposed refer to
different methods of crossing this region. To describe these
several passes through the mountains, in the order in which
13
145 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
they have claimed public attention, we speak first of the
South Pass. This is at the head of the Sweet Water river,
one of the highest tributaries of the North Fork of the
Nebraska. It was early known to the trappers, and is
described in Capt. Bonneville's adventures, as Mr. Irving
has presented them. It was first examined with scientific
precision by Lieut. Fremont, in 1842, and afterwards, on
his return from the Pacific, in 1844. In his journal of
that year he gives the following account of this remarkable
highway between the oceans:'" The morning of August 13th was clear and cold, there
being a white frost, and the thermometer, a little before
sunrise, standing  at 26.5~.   Leaving  this encampment
(our last on the waters which flow towards the rising sun),
we took our way along the upland, towards the dividing
ridge which separates the Atlantic from the Pacific waters,
and crossed it by a road some miles further south than the
one we had followed on our return in 1842. We crossed
very near the Table Mountain, at the southern extremity of
the South Pass, which is near twenty miles in width, and
already traversed by several different roads.  Selecting as
well as I could, in the scarcely distinguishable ascent, what
might be considered the dividing ridge in this remarkable
depression in the mountain, I took a barometrical observation, which gave seven thousand four hundred and ninety
feet for the elevation above the Gulf of Mexico. You will
remember that, in my report of 1842, I estimated the ele
146 
THIE SOUTH PASS.
vation of this pass at about seven thousand feet; a correct
observation with a good barometer enables me now to give
it with more precision. Its importance, as the great gate
through which commerce and travelling may hereafter pass
between the valley of the Mississippi and the north Pacific,
justifies a precise notice of its locality and distance from
leading points, in addition to this statement of its elevation.
As stated in the report of 1842, its latitude at the point
where we crossed is 42~ 24' 32"; its longitude, 109~ 26' 00";
its distance from the mouth of the IKanzas, by the common
travelling route, nine hundred and sixty-two miles; from
the mouth of the Great Platte, along the valley of that
river, according to our survey of 1842, eight hundred and
eighty-two miles; and its distance from St. Louis about
four hundred miles more by the Kianzas, and about seven
hundred by the Great Platte route; these additions being
steamboat conveyance in both instances. From this pass to
the mouth of the Oregon is about one thousand four hundred miles, by the common travelling route; so that, under
a general point of view, it may be assumed to be about half
way between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, on the
common travelling route. Following a hollow of slight
and easy descent, in which was very soon formed a little
tributary to the Gulf of California (for the waters which
flow west from the South Pass go to this gulf), we made
our usual halt four miles from the pass, in latitude, by observation, 42~ 19' 53". Entering here the valley of Green
147 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
river,- the great Colorado of the West, - and inclining
very much to the southward along the streams which form
the Sandy river, the road led for several days over dry and
level uninteresting plains, to which a low, scrubby growth
of artemisia gave a uniform dull grayish color; and on the
evening of the 15th we encamped in the Mexican territory,
on the left bank of Green river, sixty-nine miles from the
South Pass, in longitude 110~ 05' 05", and latitude 41~
53' 54", distant one thousand and thirty-one miles from
the mouth of the Kanzas. This is the emigrant road to
Oregon, which bears much to the southward, to avoid the
mountains about the western heads of Green river, - the
Rio Verde of the Spaniards."
Through this pass, as has been already said, all the overland emigration to Oregon passes, and almost all that to
California., The emigrant route follows up the north fork
of the Nebraska river from Fort Laramie, in order to pass
the dividing line of the mountains at this favorable depression. This requires a course so far northerly as to make a
consi(ecrable deflection in the route of those proceeding to
California or Utah; and, in order, if possible, to find a
more direct pass, Capt. Stansbury, in returning from the
valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1850, made a reconnoissance of Bridger's Pass, which is so called after Major
Bridger, who has charge of Fort Bridger, an Indian trading post on the Black Fork of the Green river.  This pass
is at the head waters of one of the northern tributaries of
148 
BRIDGER'S PASS.
the Grand river, called Muddy Creek, just above where it
unites with St. Vrain's.  Capt. Stansbury thus describes
the crossing of the ridge at this point, indicating, also, his
opinion that St. Vrain's will furnish a pass still better:
" Sept. 20. Leaving the camp-ground early, we con tinued up the right bank of the Muddy Creek, over rather
rough ground covered with sage, for a couple of miles, to
within one mile of the point where the main fork comes in
from the Park Mountains on the south-east, where it heads.
Hlere we turned to the left up a beautiful pass about a mile
and a half in length, with a uniform gentle ascent to its
summit. From the top of this pass we continued for four
miles over a gently undulating country, sloping to the right
into the drainage of the Muddy.   Here  we reached the
dividinig height betweei the waters of the Atlantic and
those of the Pacific.
Before us lay an undulating country, descending gently
to the east; beyond, in the distance, frowned the Medicinebow Butte, at the foot of which flowed the waters of the
Platte, while to the southward of this famous headland
stretched far away the Park Mountains, whence issue so
many tributaries to the Pacific.   From this important summit we commenced a scarcely perceptible descent into a wide
grassy hollow, forming the valley of a now dry rivulet,
which, in the spring, discharges its waters into Sage Creek,
an affluent of the north fork of the Platte. Two miles
east of the'I divide" we halted to take a noon observation,
13I
149 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
for latitude, which placed us in 41~ 83' 22".3, the computed
longitude being 107~ 30' 48". Grass and water were scarce,
and the growth of artemisia very thick, making it somewhat
difficult to pass our little wagon over it.  Near the mouth of
this little stream, we crossed over to another, heading near to
it, and running parallel with it, upon the banks of which we
encamped, after a deeply interesting march of more than
twenty-two miles.
"From what has been seen since crossing the summit, I
am satisfied that it would have been better had we kept more to
the southward before crossing it.  If, leaving the ridge
forming the southern boundary of the valley, we had followed
either the stream upon which we are now encamped, or even
the valley of another, some miles still farther south, we
should not only have somewhat shortened our route, but
obtained a greater abundance of grass, wood, and water, from
a high ridge which bounds all these little streams on the
south. Observations gave for latitude of the camp 41~ 35'
41", longitude 107~ 21' 32". Distance from Fort Bridger,
two hundred and seven miles. With the exception of the
rough ground near the head of the Muddy, which offers no
obstruction of consequence, a perfectly feasible, and indeed
a most excellent route, whether for a wagon or railroad, has
thus been traced, presenting fewer obstacles to the construction of either than almost any tract of the same length in
the country. The grades will be easy, the bridging comparatively light, and, with the exception of the crossing of
150 
PASSES TO THE DEL NORTE.
the valley of the Muddy, where a long and heavy embankment may be required, the cuttings and fillings will be
entirely within moderate limits. In no case will an inclined
plane be required, and the route is more than usually free
from the objection of high and narrow canons, liable to be
filled up or obstructed by snow during the winter."
There appears to be no depression in the mountain range
south of Bridger's Pass, or of St. Vrain's Fork near it,
which offers, even to the most sanguine, the idea of a route
fit for a railroad, until about the parallel of 38~- north of
the Spanish Peaks, but south of the high land around Pike's
Peak.  Col. Fremont suggests this region as the line for the
projected line of railway; and the late Capt. Gunnison was
directed to explore it by the government in 1853.
To come into the valley of the Del Norte, several mouintain passes were in use by the muleteers; four of which
were known as the Sangre del Christo Pass, the Roubidoux
or Musca Pass, Williams's Pass, and the San Luis Pass.
Once in the valley of the Del Norte, by one of these passes,
the traveller has to get out again, and there are open to him
westward the Coo-chi-tope Pass and the Leroux Pass. All
of these passes were examined by Capt. Gunnison.   The
first four named proved quite useless for any purposes of a
railroad; indeed, the "Sangre del Christo," which was improved as a supply road for Fort Massachusetts on the Del
Norte, is but a difficult wagon road.  Capt. Gunnison himself discovered a better summit level very low, over which
151 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
even a railroad can easily be made from the plains of the
Arkansas to Fort Massachusetts in the valley of the Del
Norte.*   He also explored the San Luis Pass, and thought
these more practicable than the others. These passes are
just west of the western line of Kanzas, which, as it will be
remembered, is on the dividing ridge over which they cross.
B3y the last but one of these passes does Col. Fremont propose
to carry the California railroad into the valley of the Grand
River of the west. It was free from snow, Dec. 8th, 1853.
The survey which Capt. Gunnison was conducting in the
valley of the Great Salt Lake was interrupted by his death.
He was killed by the Indians, on the 26th of October, with
thirteen of his party.  His first officer was Lieut. Beckwith,
who remained with the remnant of the party in the Great
Salt Lake City through the winter, to complete the survey
and drawings. His report has not been published.
The traders' route to Santa Fe does not follow the valley
of the Kanzas river far. Capt. Gunnison found a line by
which, following the valley of that river, a road could cross
the Saline and Smoky Hill Forks, and pass directly to the
Arkansas, without following the bend of that river or of the
Smoky Hill.
The usual route to Santa Fe6 crosses a line of country
easier than these described so far as that city. A line yet
* It must be remembered that Utah Creek, on which Fort Massachusetts
stands, is a tributary of the Del Norte, and has no connection with the
waters of Utah river or Utah lake. It is not in the Utah Territory.
152 
IKEARNEY'S MARCH TO SANTA FE.
farther south has been surveyed along the valley of the
Cimarron, joining the traders' route near Vegas, eighty
mniles south of the line of IKanzas. The greatest height on
the traders' route, as observed by Lieut. Emory when he
crossed with Gen. 1,earney, is seven thousand five hundred
feet. He thus describes the pass, beginning at an encampment
of which the height was five thousand eight hundred and
ninety-six feet:'Augitst 6. Colonel lKearney left Colonel Doniphan's
regiment and Major Clarke's artillery at our old camp ground of last night, and scattered Sumner's dragoons
three or four miles up the creek, to pass the day in reno vating the animals by nips at the little bunches of grass
spread at intervals in the valleys. This being done, we
commenced the ascent of the Raton, and, after marchling
seventeen miles, halted with the infantry and general staff
within a half mile of the summit of the pass. Strong parties were sent forward to repair the road, which winds
through a picturesque valley, with the Raton towering to
the left.  Pine trees here obtain a respectable size, and
lined the valley through the whole day's march. A few
oaks (Quercus olivaformis), big enough for axles, were
found near the halting-place of to-night. When we first
left the camp this morning, we saw several clumps of the
pin6n (Pizzus ed lis). It bears a resinous nut, eaten by
Mexicans and Indians. We found, also, the laminita in
great abundance.   It resembles the wild currant, and is,
153 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
probably, one of its varieties; grows to the height of several feet, and bears a red berry, which is gathered, dried,
pounded, and then mixed with sugar and water, making a
very pleasant drink, resembling currant cordial. We were
unfortunate in not being able to get either the fruit or
flower. Neither this plant, the pin6n, nor any of the plum
trees nor grape vines, had any fruit on them, which is
attributable to the excessive drought. The stream, which
was last year a rushing torrent, is this year dry, and in
pools.
"The view from our camp is inexpressibly beautiful, and
reminds persons of the landscapes of Palestine. Without
attempting a description, I refer to the sketch.
"The rocks of the mountain were chiefly a light sandstone, in strata, not far from horizontal; and the road was
covered with many fragments of volcanic rocks, of purplishbrown color, porous, and melting over a slow fire.
" The road is well located. The general appearance is
something like the pass at the summit of the Boston and
Albany railroad, but the scenery bolder, and less adorned
with vegetation.
"An express returned from the spy-guard which reported all clear in front.  Captain Cooke and Mr. Liffendorfer
have only reached the Canadian river. It was reported to
me that, at Captain Sumner's camp, about seven miles
above where we encamped last night, and twelve miles from
the summit, an immense field of coal crops out, the seam
154 
THE RATON.
being thirty feet deep. To-night our animals were refreshed
with good grass and water.
" Nine observations on Polaris give, for the latitude of
the place, 37~ 00' 21". Seven on Arcturus, in the west,
and seven on Alpha Aquilse, in the east, give the chrono metric longitude 6h. 57m. 01.35s. Height above the sea,
seven thousand one hundred and sixty-nine feet.
"August 7, camp 36.  We recommenced the ascent of
the Raton, which we reached with ease, with our wagons,
in about two miles. The height of this point above the
sea, as indicated by the barometer, is seven thousand five
hundred feet. From the summit we had a beautiful view
of Pike's Peak, the Wattahyah, and the chain of mountains
running south from the Wattahyah. Several large white
masses were discernible near the summits of the range,
which we at first took for snow, but which, on examination
with the telescope, were found to consist of white limestone,
or granular quartz, of which we afterwards saw so much in
this country. As we drew near, the view was no less imposing. To the east rose the Raton, which appeared still
as high as from the camp, one thousand five hundred feet
below. On the top of the Raton the geological formation
is very singular, presenting the appearance of a succession
of castles. As a day would be required to visit it, I was
obliged to forego that pleasure, and examine it merely with
the glass. The mountain appears to be formed chiefly of
sandstone, disposed in strata of various shades of color,
155 
KANZAS AND NEBI.ASKA.
dipping gently to the east, until you reach near the summit,
where the castellated appearance comrmences, thie sides here
being perpendicular and the seams vertical.  The valley is
strewed with pebbles and fragments of trap rock, and the
fusible rock described yesterday, cellular lava, and some
pulmice.
"For two days our way was strewed with flowers; exhilarated by the ascent, the green foliage of the trees in striking contrast with the deserts we had left behind, they were
the most agreeable days of the journey.
"There is said to be a lake about ten miles to the east
of the summit, where immense herds of deer, antelope,
and buffalo congregate, but this may be doubted.
"The descent is much more rapid than the ascent, and
for the first few miles through a valley of good burned
grass and stagnant waters, containing many beautiful flowers. But frequently you come to a place where the stream
(a branch of the Canadian) has worked itself through the
mountains, and the road has to ascend and then descend a
sharp spur. Ihere the difficulties commence; and the road,
for three or four miles, is just passable for a  wagon; many
of the train were broken in the passage. A few thousand
dollars judiciously expended here would be an immense
saving to the government."
These various routes of travel westward are all which
have been in fact followed by persons crossing with goods or
heavy stores from the one ocean to the other.
156 
ROUTES FOR A PACIFIC RAILROAD.
A southern route contemplates a line drawn from St.
Louis to the south-west corner of Missouri, thence westerly
to the neighborhood of Bent's Fort, wvhere it would unite
with that already described.
The various southern routes, converging from various di rections in Upper Texas, propose to pursue a route almost
west, through El Paso and the strip of territory purchased
of Mexico by the treaty of December 30th, 1853, to San
Francisco. But these routes, though explored, have not
been travelled on by emigrants or merchants.
The great practicable routes, thus far used, lead through
Kanzas, or the valley of Nebraska river.
There are various detailed questions already agitated as
to the route which a railroad should follow on leaving the
valley of the Missouri, and at what point of that valley it
should begin.
The Hannibal and St. Joseph's railroad, running through
the State of Missouri, from the Mississippi river to the Missouri, nearly westward, is already in progress of construction. The friends of this enterprise are eager in pressing
its continuation westward, through Kanzas, as the beginning of a railway to the Pacific.
Further south the "Pacific Railroad," so called, of Missouri, which is open about forty miles westward from  St.
Louis, is to run to Kanzas City, at the mouth of Kanzas
river. Col. Benton and Col. Fremont, in proposing what is
called F' Fremont's line of railroad," suggest that it should
14
157 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
be a continuation of this road, and run from Kanzas City.
Between these lines, Lynceus, the anonymous author of
a remarkable pamphlet published in 1853, in St. Louis,
urges that any road undertaken by the government should
run from Fort Leavenworth by Bridger's Pass. It would
thus pass through the great fertile " divide " between the
Kanzas and Nebraska rivers, and, avoiding the passage of
any wide river, proceed nearly westward to the Salt Lake
City.
To hazard a guess from the entirely insufficient information which we have as to the mountain passes, the western
part of this route would be the most feasible. The advantage of beginning at Fort Leavenworth is simply that the
government has already a large establishment at that post.
It would be necessary to build a line from K:anzas City,
thirty miles, on the west bank of the Missouri, to connect
with the IIPacific railroad" of the Missouri.  A  line of
about the same length would connect with the Hannibal and
St. Joseph's railroad, at the north, but its continuity
would be interrupted by the Missouri river.
It is scarcely probable that the advantages resulting from
the establishment of a base of operations at Fort Leavenworth, would compensate for the considerable divergence
from a western line which would be necessary to get there.
If Bridger's Pass, or St. Vrain's, just south of it, prove
practicable, a line from Kanzas City, up the valley of Kan
158 
A PACIFIC RAILROAD.
zas river, through this pass, would unite the advantages
claimed for a route from Fort Leavenworth.
But it must be understood that all such speculations with
regard to a Pacific railway are, thus far, simply specula  tions. The public and the newspapers are fond of talking
as if an enterprise of this sort were to be completed in a
year or two, by what is called the " indomitable energy of
the American people." In fact, two bids have been offered
to Congress, offering to build a road from the Mississippi to
San Francisco in five years. If two hundred working days
could be crowded into each year, besides the exceptions nec essary in the mountains, in winter, and those arising from
storms and other interruptions, this would be at the rate of
two miles of railroad a day, half of which, through the
great mountain plateau described, is through a worse coun try than a railroad was ever carried through, completely
destitute of supplies and often of water.
To begin to build a great route of communication to the
Pacific, the first necessity is to begin to talk reasonably about
it. And first, it will require a population through the country
which it is to pass, so far as the country can support a pop- 
ulation. The emigration to Kanzas will give it that population for two hundred miles, perhaps three hundred miles,
farther than now exists. Settlers, who establish themselves
along the valley of the Kanzas, and between Fort Riley and
Fort Kearney, may indulge the hope that the great line of
159 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
western communication will one day pass near them. At
present, as has been said already, the great line of emigrant
travel is along the military road north-west from  Fort
Leavenworth.
The largest number of overland emigrants which ever
crossed the plains in one year is eighty thousand.
A military road is now in progress from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley.
We have spoken of these various routes together, because
they passed in or near the regions of Nebraska and Kanzas which will be first settled. It remains to speak of
the remarkable passes much farther north, explored, in
1853, by Gov. Stevens. This officer, after a rapid reconnoissance of a line through the territory of Minnesota, from
the city of St. Paul to the neighborhood of old Fort Mandan, carried a survey along the north side of the Missouri
river to the neighborhood of Fort Benton. West of this
fort he examined two passes, one called Cadot's Pass, the
other surveyed by Lieut. Mullan. He represents the level of
Cadot's Pass as three thousand feet lower than that of the
South Pass, as measured by Col. Fremont. IIis full report
is not yet published. HIis sketch of the surveys west of the
mountains does not appear very encouraging.   But the
officers who wintered in the neighborhood of Cadot's and
Mullan's Passes report that these were but little encumbered with snow. It may yet prove that the supplies for
160 
NAVIGABLE RIVERS.
Oregon and Washington territories may be forwarded by the
Missouri and one of these passes. The main difficulties will
be found, not in the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains,
but in the territories themselves.
It may be well to repeat here what has already been
stated, that the Missouri river can be navigated by steamboats to the Great Falls.
The Yellowstone has been navigated eighty miles from
its mouth.
It is navigable by flat-boats two or three hundred miles
farther.
The El Paso steamboat ascended the Nebraska four or
five hundred miles, in the spring of 1853.
Steamboats ascend the Kanzas river to Fort Riley.
A steamboat has ascended the Arkansas, during high
water, for nearly a hundred miles above the south line of
Kanzas.
These are the only navigable rivers in the two territories.
14*
161 
CHAPTER VII.
Political history-  Sovereignty of France, Spain, France and the United
States -  Missouri  debate — Indian  legislation'  Platte purchase Organization of the territories - Nebraska debate.
UP to the summer of 1854, Kanzas and Nebraska have
had no civilized residents, except the soldiers sent to keep
the Indian tribes in order, the missionaries sent to convert
them, the traders who bought furs of them, and those of
the natives who may be considered to have attained some
measure of civilization from their connection with the whites.
For a region that has had so little practical connection
with the political arrangements of civilized states, this immense territory has had a political history singularly varied.
It has been successively under the dominion of France,
of Spain, of France again, and of the United States. A
part of Kanzas was under the dominion of Mexico. The
government of the United States now resigns its sovereignty
to the men who shall settle in it, under the modern phrase
of allowing " squatter' sovereignty" to the first comers.
Discovered by Dutisne, so far as appears, in 1719, the
valleys of the KIanlzas and Nebraska were then claimed as a 
CESSIONS OF " LOUISIANA.";
part of the empire of Louis XIV. A very short time after, a
Spanish force, from New Mexico, ravaged an Indian vill,-i,e
and was cut to pieces by the savages. It is probable that
the Spanish government of that province always made some
claims to the neighboring regions east of the mountains.
By the treaty of November, 1762, France  ceded to Spain
all her possessions west of the Mississippi, and these territories, which she had never in any form settled, and scarcely
begun to explore, passed under the dominion of the Spanish
crown with the rest.
Spanish garrisons were then placed in the forts on the
Mississippi, and that at St. Louis was thus occupied with
the rest.  But Spain took no notice of such distant regions
as Kanzas and Nebraska, which have not yet been cursed
by any discoveries of gold or silver.
In 1795 the free navigation of the Mississippi was secured
to the United States, by treaty. But, in 1798, the Spanish
posts north of the parallel of 31~ were evacuated, and when,
in 1801, some representations were made by the United
States government for redress for violations of the treaty,
the Spanish government replied that it had ceded the whole
territory to France again. The French force destined for
the occupation of the country was, however, blockaded in
the Dutch ports by the English, and Mr. Jefferson seized
the occasion for that celebrated negotiation, by which, for
fifteen million dollars, he purchased the whole territory of
Louisiana.
163 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
The whole region having thus passed peacefully into the
hands of the United States, was divided, in 1804, into two
parts, the territorial government of Orleans, and the district of Louisiana. A territorial government was afterwards established in this district.,a Orleans," in 1812, was
admitted as a state into the Union, under the name of Louisiana. The Louisiana territory was then known under the
general name of the Missouri territory, of which the only
parts settled by whites were some plantations in Arkansas
and the eastern parts of Missouri.
The government still exercised no further sovereignty
over the parts of this territory which are the especial subjects of the present volume, except to send out exploring expeditions, and to pass laws regulating trade with the Indians.
The great expedition of Lewis and Clarke passed up the
Missouri in 1804. They wintered at Fort Mandan, went up
the river to its sources, and across to the Pacific the next
year, and returned in 1806. In this year Lieut. Pike was
sent to survey the country east of the Rocky Mountains, in
the valleys of the Nebraska, Kanzas and Arkansas. He performed his task with bravery and assiduity, but, having
trespassed on Spanish territory, under the mistaken impression that he was on the sources of the Arkansas. was taken
prisoner with his men and carried to Santa F6. They were
afterwards set at liberty and sent to Nachitoches. In 1819
and 1820, an expedition, under Maj. Long, examined the
164 
THE I' MISSOURI RESTRICTION."
valley of the Nebraska, crossed to the Arkansas, and de scended the valley of that stream.
In 1818 the population of the settled parts of the terri tory of Missouri had become so considerable that the inhab itants were desirous of admission into the Union. A bill
for that purpose was introduced into Congress, in the ses sion of 1818 and 1819. It did not attract very general
attention out of Congress at that time. The Proceedings
of Congress were not so immediately known or so thoroughly
canvassed through the country then as now. The bill was
lost at that session, because the House of Representatives
insisted on what was then called " the  Restriction," introduced by Mr. Taylor, of New York, providing that in the
new state involuntary servitude should not exist. The Senate refused to concur with the House in the  Restriction,"
and the bill was lost.
Rufus King, of New York, had distinguished himself in
the Senate by urging " the Restriction." As the next session
of Congress approached, the necessity of fixing it upon the
bill attracted universal attention at the North. Mr. King
was greatly interested in calling to it the general interest
of the public. The substance of his speeches of the last
session, as prepared by himself for the press, was printed
and circulated widely. Before the session of Congress a.
public meeting was held in New York, to insist on the
adoption of the "Restriction " in the Missouri bill.  It was
addressed by Mr. King, and was the first of a series of sim
165 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
ilar meetings held at the principal towns in the Northern
States.
On the discussion thus begun, the future institutions of
the territory, still unsettled, in a measure depended. And
the great question was battled, not as if it concerned Missouri only, but as one in which all the future of the West
was concerned.
It has been often said, during the past year, that the
excitement on the similar question regarding Nebraska and
Kanzas is unparalleled. This is said only by those who
have not examined the history of the "Missouri debate."
Incidents occurred every day which showed the deep-seated
excitement and irritation of the public mind at the North
and at the South.
Such, for instance, was the display of wounded pride at
Savannah. A disastrous fire had ravaged that city. Its
government had implored relief from abroad in the most
earnest tones. Public meetings and contributions at the
North answered this call. Among other cities, New York
acted, and remitted near eleven thousand dollars for the
relief of the sufferers. It happened that, just before, New
York had sent similar relief to the town of Schenectady,
ravaged in the same way. The worthy citizens of Schenectady regarded this as a gift to all who had lost, partaking of
the nature of insurance, and divided it pro rata among the
sufferers, giving most, of course, to those richest inhabitants
who had most to lose. Fearful of such a disposition of
166 
THlE NORTI! AMERICAN REVIEW.
their Savannah fund, the government of New York sent
with it the request- not, certainly, very extravagant -
that it might be distributed among the poorest citizens, and
added the condition,  "without  distinction  of color."
These unfortunate words sealed its fate. The hot blood of
Savannah boiled, and by a vote of the councils the insult
was met by sending back the money with a short, impertinent letter. We have had but one evidence of ill-feeling
more marked than this in our own time.
On the other side, a Philadelphia insurance company,
when asked at what rate it would insure some southern
property, answered that its directors had concluded that
they would not take any more risks south of Mason and
Dixon's line.
The January number of the North American Review, in
1820, published a paper, by Judge Shaw, in defence of the
restriction, which was widely circulated. It was luminous, decided and Christian in its tone, singularly applicable
to the discussion just passed. It might have been reprinted,
-changing the word Missouri to the word Nebraska,and would have completely met the case recently before the
country. It is to be remembered, at the same time, that
the introduction of African slaves by smuggling was still
going on at the South. One of Judge Story's charges on
the slave-trade was printed in the midst of this discussion,
and in Congress it was admitted on all hands, that large
numbers of recently captured slaves were brought in by
167 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
way of Galveston and the ports of Florida.   Mr. Iing,'s
speeches, as has been said, had also been very widely circulated.  They contain a review of the policy of the government  on  the subject  of slavery, which has  been used,
and  to advantage, in the  composition of speeches made
during the present year at Washington.
At the beginning of the session, there was at the North
no question whatever as to the success of the northern
view,- at least so far as an arrest of the introduction of
Missouri by a disagreement on the " restriction" between
the branches.
Congress met on the 7th of December.   It is worthy of
remark, that, all the preliminaries having been adjusted, a
bill passed, the very first week, for the admission of the
slave state of Alabama; the questions regarding the new
states of Maine and Missouri having been reserved for
after discussion.
The territory of Arkansas had been organized the preceding year. The immediate question related, therefore, to
the new state of Missouri, to the present state of Iowa,
and to the present territories of Minnesota, Kanzas, and
Nebraska, all then known as the Missouri territory. The
debates began simultaneously in both houses.
In the great discussion which followed, the southern
policy and skill at tactics showed itself in an effort to unite
the fate of Maine and Missouri, both of which states had
applied for admission. The difference of position of the
168 
THE MISSOURI DEBATE.
two is manifest.  It need not be better expressed than in
Mr. Otis's witty way.  It fell to him to oppose the union
of the Maine and Missouri bills in the Senate.' A young
lady," he says, " no longer young, of a certain age, in fact,
presents herself on her wedding day, when every one has
given consent, and there is no objection to the match at all;
and you delay the nuptials because a young miss in her
teens has not got her corsets ready."
The debate was conducted with great spirit on both sides.
On the 14th of January, 1820, the Senate passed the bill
for the admission of the district of Maine, with the addition
of the bill introducing Missouri, by a vote of twenty-five
to eighteen. This was the -first vote taken in the Senate,
and, as it was known that the House was decidedly in favor
of the restriction, here was an evidence that the disagreement of the last session still continued. This vote, however, was by no means a final one; and the debate in the
Senate went on side by side with that in the House, at intervals, on one proposition or another, until the beginning of
March.
Unfortunately, a part only of the speeches made in the
two bodies is preserved. Of the debate in the House, in
particular, very little is recorded. Many of the leading
speeches, however, were written out by the authors. But
we have to regret, especially, the almost entire loss of that
of Mr. Clay. He was then speaker, but left the chair in
15
169 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
order to speak  against the restriction, which he did with
great power.
The debate was certainly marked by signal ability, and
almost entirely exhausted the subject.  It is remarkable to
see how precisely appropriate the various speeches preserved
are to the recent discussion. Indeed, one need only read
them to see that they have been freely used, with and without credit, by the orators of our day, on both sides, in
Congress.
An argument in favor of the restriction, not much relied
upon in later times, drawn from the constitution of the
United States, was pressed then with a good deal of energy.
It is drawn from Sec. 9 of the first article, which provides: -
ART. 1. - SEC. 9. The migration or importation of such
persons as any of the states nIow existing shall think proper
to admit, shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the
year 1808, but a tax or duty may  be imposed on such
importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.
Mr. John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Rufus King,
and other statesmen who favored the restriction, argued that
the word "migration "' here meant the movemient of slaves
from state to state, and that, therefore, the power to prevent
that movement was distinctly given to Congress.  IMr. Pinkney opposed this view. Mr. Otis, in his reply to Mr.
Pinkney, did not insist upon it; and it has not attracted
much notice in recent arguments on the subject. On the
other hand, the arguments of the opponents of the restric
1.70 
PECULIARITIES OF THlE DISCUSSION.
tion differed in one point from those who take similar ground
now. There was then no defence of the institution of
slavery, except as a temporary misfortune, which should
not be harshly dealt with.  Mr.  Clay's argument against
the restriction rested on the impression, which has since
proved completely fallacious, that the more widely the
slaves in the country were scattered, the more rapid would
be the natural decline of the institution of slavery. Mr.
Pinkney, the leading opponent of the restriction in the
Senate, was taunted in public because his opinions had been
expressed, at an early age, in favor of the emancipation of
slaves.  He had made his de6but in public life by a speech,
in the Maryland Convention, in favor of that principle.
Copies of this speech were now sent from Connecticut to
every member; but Pinkney said, when he read the speech
again, that it was a better speech than he had feared, and
that he was glad that it was put in circulation.   And in
his great speech of this session he says that his effort is,
not to answer any arguments 6n the evils of slavery, but
simply to show that the restriction of those evils would
rest on no rights granted in the constitution.  No southern
statesman attempted the defence of slavery' as a permanent
institution.
These two are the only important differences between the
principles of the debate of that winter and those of that
which has but recently closed.
In the Senate, this speech of Mr. Pinkney's was the
*  *                e. 11 *
ell..   ev....
X      ~      
171 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
leading speech, - a masterly effort, which met a masterly
reply from Harrison Gray Otis.  A part of it is preserved,
as it was reconstructed from Mr. Pinkney's notes, by his
biographer, Mr. Wheaton.   It was delivered with great
impetuosity of manner, attracted general applause, greatly
encouraged the opponents of the restriction, and was the
storlehoLse of constitutional argument, from which they
drew constantly through the remainder of the debate. In
the form in which it is preserved, it is marked with great
elegance and ability. The arrangement of its argument is
somewhat formal, and it abounds in the artistic display of
logical rules of which Mr. Pinkney was fond. His friends
considered it as one of the chief triumphs of his short
career in the Senate.
Mr. Rufus Iing was not yet reelected to his seat in the
Senate, and it was understood that Mr. Otis would reply.
Hiis speech was not published for some months after. It is
somewhat singular that it has not been reprinted in the
midst of the interest which'recent events have given to this
great debate.  It is calm, dignified, and clear.  IIe meets
the ingenuity of the southern orator with all the brilliancy
of his own fancy, and attacks this somewhat cumbrous
armor of the logical system of an older generation with
the blows of his own strong good sense, which have the
momentum always given by the eternal right in all discussions as to laws and constitutions.  Ihis  position, thus
standing for the right, is far simpler than that of Mr.
172
I
- I -.                  .1 
PINKNEY ON WOMIAN'S RIGHTS.
Pinkney, owning that slavery is wrong, but urging that there
is no constitutional power to restrict it.
It is curious to find, in these two great speeches on the
different sides of this great question, that there were adduced
two mere suppositions of fancy, which to the orators seemed
impossibilities, but which the generation which has passed
has shown as realities.
Mr. Pinkney was arguing that slavery could exist in a
republic, in reply to Mr. Morril, of New Htampshire, who
had defined a republic as a state where all the men united
in the government.
I beg leave," said Mr. Pinkney,:" if we are to entertain these hopeful abstractions, - if it be true that all the
men in a republican government must  help to wield its
power, and be equal in rights, -I beg leave to ask the
honorable mnember from New  IHampshire, -  and why  not
all the women?   They too are God's creatures, and not
only very fair but very rational creatures; and our great
ancestor, if we are to give credit to Milton, accounted them
the' wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best;' although, to say
the truth, he had but one specimen from which to draw his
conclusion, and possibly if he had had more would not have
drawn it at all."  *-   *     Continuing  in the strain,
he pushes his argument, ad absurdumn, so far as to say,
If the ultra-republican doctrines which have now been
broached should ever gain ground among us, I should not
be surprised if some romantic  reformer, treading  in the
173 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
footsteps of Mrs. WVoolstoncraft, should propose to repeal
our republican law salique, and claim for our wives and
daughters a full participation in political power, and to
add it to that domestic power, which in some families, as I
have heard, is as absolute and unrepublican as any power
can be."
The idea is thrown out as a complete impossibility,
only possible as a consequence of the wild theory of freedom.
A generation has called into being the reformers whose
existence seemed to him so incredible.
On the other hand, in Mr. Otis's reply, he also makes
the supposition of an impossibility which a generation has
exhibited in reality.   "There were," he said, "it was weli
known, in many parts of this country, societies of people called
Shakers, of good moral characters, exemplary habits of
industry, whose fundamental doctrines were founded on the
duty of celibacy. They are also a rich people, and in some
of the states experience interruptions in their endeavors to
increase their numbers, and inconvenience from laws which
press upon their consciences, especially in military concerns.  Imagine, sir," said  he, "these societies combined
and determined to make a pilgrimage and become sojourners
in the new country of promise.   Figure to yourself four or
five thousand adults of both sexes with their children in
spirit,-a dismal procession marching beyond the Mississippi,
until they shall find a spot suited to their occasions; then
halting and sending a missionary to you, with the intelli.
174 
THE MONOPOLY OF A STATE.
gence of their' demand' to be admitted as a state. Are
you bound to admit them without a stipulation that they
shall make no laws prohibiting marriage, at the moment you
knew this to be the main design of their emigration, and
thus secure a sect of those peculiar and unsocial tenets a
monopoly of that entire state, and a power of virtually excluding from its territory the great mass of your citizens?"
In this passage, Mr. Otis presented as a policy wholly
insupportable and indefensible the very policy which has
permitted the establishment of the Mormon state of Utah.
For the argument applies as well to the Mormon laws regarding marriage, as to the laws of celibacy sustained by
the Shakers. And a'" monopoly of that entire state, and
a power of virtually excluding from its territories the great
mass of the citizens of the United States," has been granted,
in exactly the way which then seemed fanciful, and even
impossible.
Both in Senate and Hlouse, the tone of oratory was even
more rabid and rancorous than we have heard in the last
few years.
John Randolph, half mad, as his friends said, cried,
God has given us the Missouri, and the devil cannot take
it froi us."7 On the other hand, northern language was
decided, in reply.
"If the alternative," says Mr. Lowrie, of Pennsylvania,
in the House, " be the dissolution of this Union or extension of slavery over the whole western country, I choose the
175 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
former."   With the true oratory of the stump, Mr. Walker,
of Georgia, cries, "IIe must be badly acquainted with signs
of the times who does not perceive a storm portending,
and callous to all the finer feelings of our nature who does
not dread the bursting of that storm.
" I cannot but imagine to myself intestine feuds, civil
wars, and all the black catalogue of evils consequent on
such a state of things. I behold the father armed against
the son, and the son against the father.  I see the brother
drawing his sword from his brother's breast. I perceive
our houses wrapt in flames and our wives and infant children
driven from their homes, forced to submit to the pelting of the
pitiless storm, with no other shelter but the canopy of heaven,
with nothing to sustain them but the cold charity of an unfeeling world." On the other hand, Mr. Taylor, who had
first moved the " Restriction," with curious foresight,
inveighing against the extension of slave representation,
states this climax of its claims:-'- On an implied power
to acquire territory by treaty, you raise an implied right to
erect it into states, and imply a compromise by which
slavery is to be established and its slaves represented in
Congress.  Is this just?  Is it fair?  Where will it end?
t      t   Your lust of acquiring is not yet satiated.  You
must have the Floridas.  Your ambition rises.   You covet
Cuba and obtain it. You stretch your arms to the other
islands in the Gulf of Mexico, and they become yours. Are
the millions of slaves inhabiting those countries to be incor
176 
CLAY AND SERGEANT.
porated into the Union and represented in Congress? Are
the freemen of the old states to become the slaves of the
representatives of foreign slaves?  You may have the power
to pass such laws, but beware how you use it."
Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, had called the restriction
"a  spark  ignited, which  shall shake this Union  to its
centre."
The gentleman talks of sparks ignited," says Mr. Otis
in reply.  "I can tell him that when the pine forests of
Maine are lighted, they will burn with quite as fierce a
flame as the spire grass of Missouri."
In this debate, Pennsylvania was first called the " key stone state," by Mr. Clay, in his great speech, of which this
passage, preserved in the reply, is one of the few fragments:   "I appeal to Pennsylvania, - the unambitious Pennsylvania, - the key-stone of the federal arch, whether she will
concur in a measure calculated to disturb the peace of this
Union!"
"Sir,"  says John Sergeant in reply, with a direct allusion to Mr. Clay,'" this was a single arch, it is becoming
a combination of arches; and -here  the centre now  is,
whether in Kentucky or Pennsylvania, might be very
hard to tell.  Pennsylvania feels her responsibility to the
Union, but she feels also her responsibility to a great moral
principle. That principle she announced the day she expressed her gratitude for independence.'We feel called
177 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
upon,' she said then,'to show the sincerity of our profession.  In commemoration of our own deliverance from the
tyranny of Britain, Be it enacted, that no child born hereafter shall be a slave.' 
Northern statesmen had reason for confident language.
In the IHouse the first vote taken resulted in a division,
ninety-three to seventy-two in favor of the restriction,-  a
clean majority of nineteen. And the first time what has
since been called the Compromise appeared, it was rejected
by a vote of one hundred and fifty-nine to eighteen, the
most eager men on both sides voting against it.*
In the Senate this proposal of the "Compromise" of the
line of 360 30', as the future boundary between free and
slave states, was introduced by Mr. Thomas, of Illinois. It
had been suggested in the debate of the year before. It
is now very curious to see how eagerly everybody afterwards disowned it. Indeed, on the North it was a great
wrong.   On the whole cause of the country it was a great
wrong. It is not singular, then, that it was always without
an acknowledged parent.
At this session it had been suggested again by Mr. Pinkney.   For political effect, however, the mover was a northern man, and MIr. Thomas, of Illinois, assumed that position. It passed the Senate first. The northern votes for it
were two from Illinois, one from Rhode Island, and one from
New Hampshire.
* The wits of Congress, tired of the discussion by this time, called it
the " misery debate.."
178 
TIIE hIOUSE AND SENATE AT ISSUE.
The House refused to concur with the Senate. It insisted
on its own complete " Pistriction "' on all the territory.
The'" Compromise line" was then moved again.  It ob tainedl thirty-three votes only, and the complete restriction
passed by a clear majority of eight votes. This was on the
28th of February.
The succeeding votes indicated the same temper by about
the same majority, and, on the 1st of March, as the ttouse
bill was sent to the Senate. it had passed by a majority of
nine, making every inch of land not included among the
states forever free.
The House took this vote upon its own bill, not that
which had come from the Senate.
In that temper was the HIouse when it adjourned on Wednesday.  What happened on Wednesday night, what promlises were made, what offices suggested, what terms instilled
into recusants, will never be told. It is in the history which
never was written, and it will be easier to find material for
telling twenty years hence than now. But Mr. Monroe, the
President, was doubtless eager that the Compromise measure should go through. Mr. Jefferson, in a letter written at
the time, had said, "This is the most portentous question
that ever threatened our Union.  In the darkest moments
of the revolutionary war, I never had any apprehensions
equal to that I feel firom this source."   ~
Mr. Calhoun's account of the change in the House was,
that if no arrangement had been made, Missouri and Mis
179 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
souri territory would have set up in a republic of their own;
northern members, hlie says, knew this, and, having shown
their first wish, were anxious now to avert that danger in
any way that was honorable.
This theory hardly accounts for the rapidity of their
change of conviction.
The history which is written tells that the Senate having
returned the Rouse bill non-concurring, the House was greatly excited. The Missouri Compromise was again suggested
by a committee of conference. The debate was kept up late.
After seven, Thursday evening, when Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, was pressing it, he fainted suddenly in front of the
chair.  The vote was pressed at once. There were one or two
absentees who lost their vote by the rapidity of the decision,
and the House struck out the restriction from its own bill,
and acceded to the Compromise proposal by a vote of ninety
to eighty-six. The majority of nine had been tortured into
a minority of four. The Compromise provision, as it has
been called since, took the place of the complete restriction.
At that moment there were two men, and only two in
that House, who supposed that that Compromise was unconstitutional: John Randolph, who tells us so, and Mr. Archer,
of Virginia. And it so trembled, it so shook in the wind, so
fearful were its friends that it should fail, that they did not
dare meet the re-consideration which Randolph announced
that he should move in the morning.
180 
JOHN RANDOLPH.
He tells the story in one of his incoherent speeches, aim ing with great bitterness at Mr. Clay, whom he calls "' Mr.
Manager" in speaking of this matter, and to whom he as cribes the suchess of the whole affair.
The night of the passage of the bill he asked Mr. Clay
if he could move a re-consideration the next day. Mr.
Clay said he could.  In the morning Randolph suspected
an intrigue to hurry the bill out of the House before he
should have his chance to make his motion.  lIe exerted
himself to prevent this, as he could, out of the House, and
then took his seat. " I found the clerk reading the journal;
the moment after he had finished I made the motion to reconsider. I was seconded by my colleague, Mr. Archer, to
whom I could appeal- not that my testimony wants evidence - I should like to see the man who would question it
as a matter of fact. This fact is well remembered; a lady
would as soon forget her wedding-day as I forget this. The
motion to re-consider was opposed; it was a debatable question; and the speaker stated something this way,'that it was
not for him to give any orders; the clerk knew his duty.' The
clerk went more than once -my impression is that he went
more than twice. I could take my oath- and so, I believe, could Mr. Archer -that he made two efforts, and
came back under my eye, like a mouse under the eye of a cat,
with the engrossed bill in his hand. But his bread was at
stake. At last, with that face, and countenance, and manner
which only conscious guilt can inspire, he went off, his poverty,
16
181 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
not his will, consenting, and, before debate was finished, he
comes with the bill from the Senate, which had then become
a law, before it was decided whether the House would reconsider it at my motion or not, which motion [shlould have]
nailed the bill to the table until it should be disposed of."
The bill was sent to President Monroe. HIe took the advice of all of his cabinet as to its constitutionality, as has
appeared from Mr. Adams's journal. All the members having signified their opinion in its favor, he signed it, on the
6th of March, 1820, and it became a law.
The celebrated " Compromise provision" which thus settled, as was then supposed, forever, the character of the
domestic institutions of Kanzas and Nebraska, with regard
to slavery, is in these words:
" SECT. 8. And be it further enacted, that in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the
name of Louisiana, which lies north of 86~ 30' north, not
included within the limits of the state contemplated by this
act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the
punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been
duly convicted, shall be and hereby is forever prohibited."
By the treaty of boundary with Spain, the boundary between the United States and the Spanish or Mexican provinces is the western bank of the Sabine to the 32d degree
of north latitude; thence a meridian line due north to the
crossing of the Rio Roxo of Nachitoches or Red river;
182 
ENLARGEMENT OF MISSOUIPI.
thence following the course of the Rio Roxo to the meridian
of 100~ west; thence crossing the Red river by that merid ian to the Arkansas; thence following the southern bank of
the Arkansas to its source; thence north to the parallel of
42~ N., thence by that parallel to the Pacific. An inspec tion of the map will show that some parts of lKanzas have
been since added under the arrangements by which the
United States acquired Texas and New Mexico.
The only change in the political arrangements for the
territories made by Congress, after the act of 1820, was the
remarkable act, which seems to have passed without com ment, by which, on the 7th of June, 1836, the triangle be tween the Missouri and the west line of the State of Mis souri was ceded to that state. By the " Compromise," this
land was to be forever free from slavery. Slaves have, however, been held there ever since it was a part of Missouri,
of which it is one of the richest parts. This was the first
distinct violation of'" the Compromise," and passed Congress without any opposition.  The author "Lynceus," already alluded to, holds that the four thousand five hundred
and fifty-eight slaves in that region, if they could bring suit
for freedom, would be freed by a decision of the United
States Court, under the act of March 6, 1820.
Meanwhile the Indian policy of the government has been
gradually removing into these regions tribes fiom the east
of the Mississippi. As early as 1803, Congress authorized
the President to exchange tracts of land west of the Missis
183 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
sippi for tracts east of it, owned by Indians. In 1825 the
Kanzas and Osage Indians, reserving some lands for them selves, which have been described, ceded to the United
States all their claim to the lands on both sides of the IKn zas river. In 1833, by the treaty alluded to in our account
of the Pawvnees, they ceded to the United States all their
claims south of the Nebraska. Other smaller tribes ceded
their claims to lands south of the Arkansas.
Into the lands thus acquired, the government, since 1830,
has removed the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminoles
and Cherokees, who occupy the lands south of Kanzas. Into
Kanzas and Nebraska have been removed those emigrant
tribes already described.
The constant diminution of these tribes left the coun try, however, almost desert, as has been already stated.
And as early as 1849, the Indian department suggested the
expediency of new treaties with these tribes, which might
open the country to settlements by the whites.  In 1853 an
act was introduced into Congress, which passed one house,
providing for the organization of one territory over the
whole region. This act contemplated an adherence to the
Missouri Compromise.   In the summer of that year Mr.
Manypenny, the head of the Indian department, visited the
country, held councils with most of the tribes, and made
treaties with one or two of the smallest.  Ie was generally
unsuccessful. ] The neighboring states were already greatly
interested in plans of emigration, and the Indians had ob tained very exaggerated notions of the value of their land.
184 
THE " NEBRASKA DEBATE."
In this position were the affairs of the territory when
Congress met in December, 1853. Of the celebrated debate
which followed, we do not attempt any minute account. Its
general character and many of its details are too familiar to
readers of the present day to need repetition now, and a
proper account of it for the pages of history would require
more space, and a closer analysis of the motives and actions
of living men, than can properly be given to such matters
in this work. The following mere summary of motions and
dates will enable the reader desirous of so doing to ex amine upon record the history of the act under which the
territories of Nebraska and I,anzas are to be organized.
In the Senate, 14th of December, 1853, two days after
the appointment of the standing committees of the Senate,
Mr. DODGE, of Iowa, according to previous notice, asked
and obtained leave to introduce a bill to organize the territory of Nebraska, and the bill having been read a first and
second time by unanimous consent, was referred to the committee on territories, consisting of Messrs. Douglas (chairman), Houston, Johnson, Bell, Jones of Iowa, and Everett.
On the 4th of January, 1854, Mr. DOUGLAS, of Illinois,
from this committee, reported back this bill with important
amendments.
On the 16th of January, Mr. Dixon, of Kentucky, gave
notice that, when the bill came up, he should move as an
amendment an additional section repealing the eighth section
of the act of March 6, 1820, and providing that citizens mPay
16*
185 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
hold slaves in any territory, as if that act had not been
passed.
On the 17th, Mr. Douglas gave notice that he should call
up the bill on the ensuing Monday, and on the same day
Mr. SUMNEPR, of Massachusetts, gave notice that he should
then move as an amendment an additional section, declaring
that the act does not abrogate or contravene the Missouri
act restriction on the subject of slavery.
On the day named January 23, Mr. Douglas reported
from the committee on territories a substitute for the original bill submitted by him, and it was ordered to be printed.
The bill, as originally introduced by Mr. Dodge, of Iowa,
provided that all that part of the territory of the United
States included between the summit of the Rocky Mountains on the west, the states of Missouri and Iowa on the
east, the 43~ 30' north latitude on the north, and the territory of New Mexico and the parallel of 36~ 30' north latitude on the south, should be organized into a temporary
government, by the name of the Territory of Nebraska;
but nothing in the act to be construed to impair the right
of persons or property now pertaining to the Indians in that
territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any territory which, by treaty with any
Indian tribe, is not, without their consent, to be included
within the territorial limits of any state or territory.  The
usual provision was made for the appointuicit of executive
1.86 - 
TIlE DIFFERENT PROPOSITIONS.
officers in the new territory, and also for a territorial legislature, a judiciary, and a territorial delegate in the Congress of the United States.
The substitute before submitted  changed somewhat, and
described more in detail the boundary of the proposed territory, fixed the seat of government at Fort Leavenworth and
contained the following proviso on the subject of slavery:
Section 21.  And be it further enacted, That in order
to avoid all misconstruction, it is hereby declared to be the
true intent and meaning of this Act, so far as the question
of slavery is concerned, to carry into practical operation the
following propositions and principles, established by the
compromise measures of 1850, viz.: First, that all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and in the
new states to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the
decision of the people residing therein, through their appropriate representatives.
Second, that " all cases involving title to slaves," and
" questions of personal freedom," are referred to the adjudication of the local tribunals, with the right of appeal to
the Supreme Court of the United States.
Third, that the provisions of the constitution and laws
of the United States in respect to fugitives from service are
to be carried into faithful execution in all the "organized
territories," the same as in the states.
The substitute now reported provided for the creation of
two territories, and Mr. Douglas said that this change met
the views of the delegate from Iowa, the Missouri delegation in Congress, so far as he had been able to discover, and
the agents who had been sent to Washingtonll by the people
of the territory. One section provided that
187 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
" All that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, except such portions
thereof as are hereinafter expressly  exempted from  the
operations of this act, to wit, Beginning at a point in the
Missouri river where the fortieth parallel of north latitude
crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to the summit of the highlands separating the waters flowing into the
Green river or Colorado of the West from the waters flowing into the Great Basin; thence northward on the said
highlands to the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence
on said summit northward to the forty-ninth parallel of
north latitude; thence west on said parallel to the western
boundary of the territory of Minnesota; thence southward
on said boundary to the Missouri river; thence (lown the
main channel of said river to the place of beginning, be, and
the same is hereby, created into a temporary government by
the name of the Territory of Nebraska."
Another section in the substitute provided that
" All that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, except such portions
thereof as are hereinafter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, to wit,  Beginning at a point on the
western boundary of the State of Missouri where the thirtyseventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence
west on said parallel to the eastern boundary of New Mexico; thence north on said boundary to latitude thirty-eight;
thence following said boundary westward to the summit of
the highlands dividing the waters flowing into the Colorado
of the West, or Green river, from the waters flowing into
the Great Basin; thence northward on said summit to the
fortieth parallel of latitude; thence east on said parallel to
the western boundary of the State of Missouri; thence south
with the western boundary of said state to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, created into a temporary
government by the name of the Territory of Kanzas."
The section providing for the election of a delegate was
iss 
MR. DOUGLAS'S ARGUMENT.
amended by adding to the words  "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 as elsewhere in the United States," the following:
" Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the
admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6,
1820, which was superseded by the principles of the legis lation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures,
and is declared inoperative."
By the time that the debate upon the bill in this form
was at last commenced in the Senate, on the 30th of Jan uary, great excitement pervaded many parts of the North
on the subject of the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise,
and an address had been issued by Messrs. Chase and
Sumner, of the Senate, and several members of the Ilouse
of Representatives, denouncing the measure in the strongest
terms, " as a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal betrayal of precious rights; as part and parcel of an
atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region
emigrants from the old world, and free laborers from our
own states, and to convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves."
Mr. Douglas opened his argument for the bill by a denunciation of this address and its authors, no less violent and
personal than the document itself, and from this commencement till its close long after in the other house, the struggle
in Congress on the one side and the other with regard to
this measure, heated and made more intense by constant
189 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
appeals from without, made by memorials, public meetings,
and newspaper arguments, was carried on with a vehemence
and passion rarely exhibited in deliberative bodies.  The
discussion was continued in the Senate until the first of
March, when nearly every Senator had spoken upon the
bill. On that day it was amended, on motion of Mr.
BADGER, of North Carolina, so as to provide that it should
not "revive or put in force any law or regulation which
may have existed prior to the act of March, 1820, either
protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery; "
and also on motion of Mr.  CLAYTON, of Delaware, so
that the proviso on the right of suffrage, etc., should read,
"that the right of suffrage shall be exercised only by citizens
of the United States." The bill thus amended was then
ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, by a vote of
twenty-nine to twelve.
The next day, March 3d, the bill came up for its final
passage, and a number of Senators took occasion to make
further speeches upon it; so that the session was protracted
till nearly five o'clock in the morning, when the question
was taken, and the bill passed, - yeas thirty-seven, nays
fourteen.
On the 21st the bill came up in thle IOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES in order. It was read twice by its title, and
then referred, after an animated debate, to the committee of
the whole. As more than fifty bills and resolves had precedence of it, this reference, which prevailed by a vote of
190 
DEBATE IN THE HOUSE.
one hundred and ten to ninety-five, was pronounced, by its
friends, an " indirect defeat" of it.  This was not its end,
however. The excitement and interest in Congress and
throughout the country were continually on the increase,
and all the members were prepared for an ardent and
protracted  struggle,  when,  on  the  8th  of May,  Mr.
Richardson, of Illinois, moved that that HIouse resolve
itself into the committee of the whole, with the view
of laying aside all business until the committee reach
the Nebraska-Kanzas bill. This - not without objection
- was done, and nearly twenty bills on the calendar having
been, one by one, laid aside, the committee took up the
" Bill to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kanzas."
This was a bill formerly reported by the territorial committee of the House, and not the Senate bill; but Mr. Richardson immediately moved as a substitute a new bill, which
was the Senate bill, with the omission of Mr. Clayton's
amendment, just above noted, and a few verbal amendments.
The question being in this position, was discussed in committee of the whole on that day and the two following, and
on the 11th Mr. Richardson, according to notice, introduced
a resolution closing the debate on the ensuing day. This
proposition to cut off at once a discussion regarded as of so
much importance, excited the strongest feeling, and all the
methods in the power of a minority to stave off taking a
question were adopted, in a session continued for thirty-six
191 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
hours, when the House adjourned, after midnight, on the
12th. On the next day Mr. Richardson expressed a willingness to modify his motion, and on Monday, the 15th, a
resolution was passed, directing that the vote should be
taken on Saturday, May 20th.
The debate was continued throughout the week, and on
Saturday the committee proceeded to the consideration of
amendments proposed, with five-minute speeches under the
rule. Mr. Richardson offered a substitute for the whole
bill.  Pending the discussion of amendments to this, the
House adjourned to the next Monday. On that day, after
many amendments had been proposed, and the business
of the committee of the whole had become much involved
by various questions of order, Mr. Stephens, of Georgia,
a friend of the bill, moved to strike out the enacting clause. This motion takes place of all motions to
amend, and if carried is considered equivalent to a rejection.
The friends of the bill voted for this motion in committee,
in order to cut off amendments, but when that fact was
reported to the House they refused to adopt the recommendation of the committee of the whole, replaced the
enacting clause, and Mr. Richardson proposed his substitute. This was adopted by a vote of one hundred and
fifteen to ninety. The bill was then ordered to be engrossed
and read a third time, by a vote of one hundred and twelve
to ninety-nine, and was finally passed, by a vote of one
192 
THE BILL PASSED.
hundred and thirteen to one hundred, on the same day, May
22, 1854.
The bill, as it thus went back to the Senate, was mn the
same form as when it left that body, excepting that Mr.
Clayton's amendment, which omitted from the class of those
entitled to vote and to hold office, " those who shall have
declared on oath their intention to become citizens of the
United States, and shall have taken oath to support the
constitution of the United States and the provisions of this
act," had been struck out by the House. In the Senate it
was again debated two days, when a motion to restore Mr.
Clayton's amendment (leaving only citizens of the United
States capable of voting or holding office) was lost, yeas
seven, nays forty-one; and the bill passed to a third reading, thirty-five to thirteen, and was finally passed on the
25th of May.
It received the signature of the President, and became a
law, May 30th, 1854, in the words given in the next chapter.
17
193
4^ 
CHAPTER VIII.
AN ACT TO ORGANIZE THE TERRITORIES OF NEBRlASKA
AND KANZAS.
BOUNDARLY OF NEBRASIU.
SEC, 1. Be'it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of  the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That all that part of the territory
of the United States included within the following limits,
except such portions thereof as are hereinafter expressly
exempted from the operations of this act, to wit, beginning at a point in the Missouri river where the fortieth
parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on
said parallel to the east boundary of the territory of Utah,
on the summit of the PRocky Mountains; thence on said
summit northward to the'forty-ninth parallel of north latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary
of the territory of Minnesota; thence southward on said
boundary to the Missouri river; thence down the main
channel of said river to the place of beginning, be, and the
same is hereby, created into a temporary government by
4w 
BOUNDARY OF NEBRASIA.
the name of the Territory of Nebraska;  and when admitted as a state or states, the said territory, or any portion
of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time
of their admission: Provided, That nothing in this act
contained shall be construed to inhibit the government of
the United States from dividing said territory into two or
more territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching
any portion of said territory to any other state or territory
of the United States: Providedfurther, That nothing in
this act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of
person or property now pertaining to the Indians in said
territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished
by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or
to include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian
tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any
state or territory; but all such territory shall be excepted
out of the boundaries, and constitute no part of the territory of Nebraska, until said tribe shall signify their assent
to the President of the United States to be included within
the said territory of Nebraska; or to affect the authority of
the government of the United States to make any regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other
rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have
195 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
been competent to the government to make if this act
had never passed.
GovERNOR.
SEc. 2. And be it further enacted, That the executive
power and authority in and over said territory of Nebraska
shall be vested in a governor, who shall hold his office for
four yeals, and until his successor shall be appointed and
qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the
United States. The governor shall reside within said territory, and shall be commander-in-chief of the militia
thereof. He may grant pardons and respites for offences
against the laws of said territory, and reprieves for offences
against the laws of the United States, until the decision
of the President can be made known thereon; he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office under
the laws of the said territory, and shall take care that
the laws be faithfully executed.
SECRETARY.
SEc. 3.  And be it further enacted, That there shall
be a secretary of said territory, who shall reside therein,
and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed by
the President of the United States; he shall record and
preserve all the laws and proceedings of the legislative
assembly hereinafter constituted, and all the acts and proceedings of the governor in his executive department; he
shall transmit one copy of the laws and journals of the leg
196 
LEGISLATURE.
islative assembly within thirty days after tle end of each
session, and one copy of the executive proceedings and oflicial correspondence semi-annually, on the first day of January and July in each year, to the President of the United
States, and two copies of the laws to the President of the
Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
to be deposited in the libraries of Congress; and in case of
the death, removal, resignation, or absence of the governor
from the territory, the secretary shall be, and he is hereby,
authorized and required to execute and perform  all the
powers and duties of the governor during such vacancy or
absence, or until another governor shall be duly appointed
and qualified to fill such vacancy.
LEGISLATURE.
SEc. 4. And be it furthler enacted, That the legislative
power and authority of said territory shall be vested in the
governor and a legislative assembly. The legislative assembly shall consist of a council and house of representatives.
Tile council shall consist of thirteen members, having the
qualifications of voters, as hereinafter prescribed, whose
term of service shall continue two years. The house of
representatives shall, at its first session, consist of twentysix members, possessing the same qualifications as prescribed
for members of the council, and whose term of service shall
continue one year. The number of representatives may be
increased by the legislative assembly, from time to time, ii
17k:
197 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
proportion to the increase of qualified voters: Provided,
That the whole number shall never exceed thirty-nine. An
apportionment shall be made, as nearly equal as practicable,
among the several counties or districts, for the election of
the council and representatives, giving to each section of
the territory representation in the ratio of its qualified
voters as nearly as may be. And the members of the council and of the house of representatives shall reside in, and
be inhabitants of, the district or county, or counties, for
which they may be elected, respectively. Previous to the
first election, the governor shall cause a census, or enumeration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several
counties and districts of the territory, to be taken, by such
persons and in such mode as the governor shall designate
and appoint; and the persons so appointed shall receive a
reasonable compensation therefor. And the first election
shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in
such manner, both as to the persons who shall superintend
such election and the returns thereof, as the governor shall
appoint and direct; and he shall at the same time declare
the number of members of the council and house of representatives to which each of the counties or districts shall be
entitled under this act. The persons having the highest
number of legal votes in each of said council districts for
miembers of the council, shall be declared by the governor
to be duly elected to the council; and the persons having
the highest number of legal votes for the house of repre
198 
THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.
sentatives, shall be declared by the governor to be duly
elected members of said house: Provided, That in case
two or more persons voted for shall have an equal number
of votes, and in case a vacancy shall otherwise occur in
either branch of the legislative assembly, the governor shall
order a new election; and the persons thus elected to the
legislative assembly shall meet at such place and on such
day as the governor shall appoint; but thereafter, the time,
place, and manner of holding and conducting all elections by
the people, and the apportioning the representation in the
several counties or districts to the council and house of
representatives, according to the number of qualified
voters, shall be prescribed by law, as well as the day of the
commencement of the regular sessions of the legislative
assembly: Provided, That no session in any one year shall
exceed the termn of forty days, except the first session, which
may continue sixty days.
RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE, &C.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That every free
white inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years, who
shall be an actual resident of said territory, and shall possess the qualifications hereinafter prescribed, shall be entitled to vote at the first election, and shall be eligible to any
office within the said territory; but the qualifications of
voters, and of holding office, at all subsequent elections,
shall be such as shall be prescribed by the legislative assem
199 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
bly: Provided, That the right of suffrage and of holding
office shall be exercised only by the citizens of the United
States, and those who shall have declared, on oath, their intention to become such, and shall have taken an oath to support
the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this
act: And provided further, That no officer, soldier, seaman or.;marine, or other person in the army or navy of the
United States, or attached to troops in the service of the
United States, shall be allowed to vote or hold office in
said territory, by reason of being on service therein.
LEGISLATIVE POWER: VETO.
SEc. 6. And be it further enacted, That the legislative
power of the territory shall extend to all rightful subjects
of'legislation consistent with the constitution of the United
States and the provisions of this act; but no law shall be
passed interfering with primary disposal of the soil; no tax
shall be imposed upon the property of the United States;
nor shall the ]ands or other property of non-residents be
taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents.
Every bill which shall have passed the council and house
of representatives of the said territory, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the governor of the territory;
if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return
it, with his objections, to the house in which it originated,
who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and
proceed to re-consider it. If, after such re-consideration,
200 
TOWN, bISTRICT AND COUNTY OFFICERS.
two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall
be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by
which it shall likewise be re-considered, and, if approved by
two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in
all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined
by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journal of each
house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by
the governor within three days (Sunday excepted) after it
shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in
like manner as if he had signed it, unless the assembly, by
adjournment, prevents its return, in which case it shall not
be a law.
TowN, DISTRICT AND COUNTY OFFICERS.
SEc. 7. And be it further enacted, That all township,
district and county officers, not herein otherwise provided
for, shall be appointed or elected, as the case may be, in
such manner as shall be provided by the governor and legislative assembly of the territory of Nebraska. The governor shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent
of the legislative council, appoint all officers not herein otherwise provided for; and, in the first instance, the governor
alone may appoint all said officers, who shall hold their offices
until the end of the first session of the legislative assembly;
and shall lay off the necessary districts for members of the
council and house of representatives, and all other officers.
aIEMBERS NOT TO HOLD OFFICE.
SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That no nmeirber of
201 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
the legislative assembly shall hold, or be appointed to, any
office which shall have been created, or the salary or emoluments of which shall have been increased, while he was a
member, during the term for which he was -elected, and for
one year after the expiration of such term; but this restriction shall not be applicable to members of the first legislative assembly; and no person holding a commission or
appointment under the United States, except post-masters,
shall be a member of the legislative assembly, or hold any
office under the government of said territory.
JUDICIARY.
SEC. 9. And be it further  enacted, That the judicial
power of said territory shall be vested in a supreme court,
district courts, probate courts, and in justices of the peace.
The supreme court shall consist of a chief justice, and two
associate justices, any two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and who shall hold a term at the seat of government
of said territory annually, and they shall hold their offices
during the period of four years, and until their successor shall
be appointed and qualified. The said territory shall be divided into three judicial districts, and a district court shall
be held in each of the said districts by one of the justices of
the supreme court, at such times and places as may be
prescribed by law; and said judges shall, after their appointments, respectively, reside in the districts which shall
be assigned them. The jurisdiction of the several courts
herein provided for, both appellate and original, and that
202 
JUDICIARY.
of the probate courts and of justices of the peace, shall be
as limited by law: Provided,  That justices of the peace
shall not have jurisdiction of any matter in controversy,
when the title or boundaries of land may be in dispute, or
where the debt or sum  claimed shall exceed one hundred
dollars; and the said supreme and district courts, respectively, shall possess chancery as well as common law jurisdiction. Each district court, or the judge thereof, shall
appoint its clerk, who shall also be the register in chancery,
and shall keep his office at the place where the court may
be held. Writs of error, bills of exception, and appeals,
shall be allowed in all cases from the final decisions of said
district courts to the supreme court, under such regulations
as may be prescribed by law; but in no case removed to
the supreme court shall trial by jury be allowed in said
court.  The supreme court, or the justices thereof, shall appoint its own clerk, and every clerk shall hold his office at
the pleasure of the court for -which he shall have been
appointed. Writs of error, and appeals from the final decisions of said supreme court, shall be allowed, and may be
taken to the supreme court of the United States, in the
same manner and under the same regulations as from the
circuit courts of the United States, where the value of the
property, or the amount in controversy, to be ascertained by
the oath or affirmation of either party, or other competent
witness, shall exceed one thousand dollars; except only that
in all cases involving title to slaves, the said writs of error
203
I 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
or appeals shall be allowed and decided by the said supreme
court, without regard to the value of the matters, property,
or title in controversy; and except also that a writ of error
or appeal shall also be allowed to the supreme court of the
United States, from the decision of the said supreme court
created by this act, or of any judge thereof, or of the district courts created by this act, or of any judge  thereof,
upon any writ of habeas corpus, involving the question of
personal freedom; Provided, That nothing herein contained
shall be construed to apply to or affect the provisions of the
"act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping
from  the service of their masters," approved  February
twelfth, seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the " act
to amend and supplementary to the aforesaid act," approved
September eighteen, eighteen hundred and fifty; and each
of the said district courts shall have and exercise the same
jurisdiction in all cases arising under the constitution and
laws of the United States as is vested in the circuit and district courts of the United States; and the said supreme
and district courts of said territory, and the respective
judges thereof, shall and may grant writs of habeas corpus
in all cases in which the same are granted by the judges of
the United States in the district of Columbia; and the first
six days of every term of said courts, or so much thereof as
shall be necessary, shall be appropriated to the trial of
causes arising under the said constitution and laws, and
writs of error and appeal in all such cases shall be made to
204 
FU(fITIVE SLAVES: TERRITORIAL ATTORNEY.   205
the supreme court of said territory, the same as in other
cases. The said clerk shall receive, in all such cases, the
same fees which the clerks of the district courts of Utah
territory now receive for similar services.
FUGITIVE SLAVES.
SEc. 10. And be it further enacted, That the provisions
of an act entitled "An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved February twelv, seventeen hundred and
ninety-three, and the provisions of the act entitled "An
act to, amend, and supplementary to, the aforesaid act,"
approved September eighteen, eighteen hundred and fifty,
be, and the same are hereby, declared to extend to and be in
full force within the limits of said territory of Nebraska.
TERRIITORIAL ATTORNEY.
SEC. 11. And be itfurther enacted, That there shall be
appointed an attorney for said territory, who shall continue
in office for four years, and until his successor shall be
appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall receive the same fees and salary as the
attorney of the United States for the present territory of
Utah. There shall also be a marshal for the territory appointed, who shall hold his office for four years, and until
his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner
18 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA
removed by the President, and who shall execute all processes
issuing from the said courts when exercising their jurisdiction as circuit and district courts of the United States; he
shall perform the duties, be subject to the same regulations
and penalties, and be entitled to the same fees as the marshal
of the district court of the United States for the present
territory of Utah, and shall, in addition, be paid two hun- 
dred dollars annually as a compensation for extra services.
APPOINTMENTS, SALARIES, &C.
SEc. 12. And be it further enacted, That the governor,
secretary, chief justice, and associate justices, attorney, and
marshal, shall be nominated, and, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, appointed by the President of the
United States. The governor and secretary to be appointed
as aforesaid, shall, before they act as such, respectively take
an oath or affirmation before the district judge or some justice
of the peace in the limits of said territory, duly authorized
to administer oaths and affirmations by the laws now  in
force therein, or before the chief justice or some associate
justice of the supreme court of the United States, to sup-'
port the constitution of the United States, and faithfully to
discharge the duties of their respective offices, which said
oaths, when so taken, shall be certified by the person by
whom the same shall have been taken; and such certificates
shall be received and recorded by the said secretary among
the executive proceedings; and the chief justice and associ
206 
APPOINTMENTS, SALARIES, ETC.
ate justices, and all other civil officers in said territory, before
they act as such, shall take a like oath or affirmation before
the said governor or secretary, or some judge or justice of
the peace of the territory who may be duly commissioned
and qualified, which said oath or affirmation shall be certified
and transmitted by the person taking the same to the secre tary, to be by him recorded as aforesaid; and, afterwards,
the like oath or affirmation shall be taken, certified, and
recorded, in such manner and form as may be prescribed by
law. The governor shall receive an annual salary of five
thousand five hundred dollars. The chief justice and asso ciate justices shall each receive an annual salary of two
thousand dollars. The secretary shall receive an annual sal ary of two thousand dollars. The said salaries shall be paid
quarter-yearly, from the dates of the respective appointments,
at the treasury of the United States; but no such payment
shall be made until said officers shall have entered upon the
duties of their respective appointments. The members of the
legislative assembly shall be entitled to receive three dollars
each per day during their attendance at the sessions thereof,
and three dollars each for every twenty miles' travel in going
to and returning from the said sessions, estimated according
to the nearest usually travelled route; and an additional
allowance of three dollars shall be paid to the presiding officer of each house for each day he shall so preside. And a
chief clerk, one assistant clerk, a sergeant-at-arms, and
door-keeper, may be chosen for each house; and the chief
207 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
clerk shall receive four dollars per day, and the said other
officers three dollars per day, during the session of the legislative assembly; but no other officers shall be paid by the
United States: Provided, That there shall be but one session of the legislature annually, unless, on an extraordinary
occasion, the governor shall think proper to call the legislature together. There shall be appropriated, annually, the
usual sum, to be expended by the governor, to defray the
contingent expenses of the territory, including the salary of
a clerk of the executive department; and there shall be
appropriated, annually, a sufficient sum, to be expended by
the secretary of the territory, and upon an estimate to be
made by the secretary of the treasury of the United States,
to defray the expenses of the legislative assembly, the printing of the laws, and other incidental expenses; and the governor and secretary of the territory shall, in the disbursement of all moneys entrusted to them, be governed solely by
the instructions of the secretary of the treasury of the
United States, and shall, semi-annually, account to the said
secretary for the manner in which the aforesaid Imoneys shall
have been expended; and no expenditure shall be made by
said legislative assembly for objects not specially authorized
by the acts of Congress making the appropriations, nor beyond
the sums thus appropriated for such objects.
SEAT OF GOVERNMEENT.
SEC. 13.  And be it further enacted, That the legislative assembly of the territory of Nebraska shall hold its
11", 0 8 
DELEGATE IN CONGRESS.
first session at such time and place in said territory as the
governor thereof shall appoint and direct; and at said first
session, or as soon thereafter as they shall deem~xpedient,
the governor and legislative assembly shall proceed to locate
and establish the seat of government for said territory at
such place as they may deem eligible; which place, however,
shall thereafter be subject to be changed by the said governor
and legislative assembly.
DELEGATE IN CONGRESS; LAWS OF UNITED STATES IN FORCE;
QUESTION OF SLAVERY.
SEc. 14. And be it further enacted, That a delegate to
the Hlouse of Representatives of the United States, to serve
for the term of two years, who shall be a citizen of the
United States, may be elected by the voters qualified to elect
members of the legislative assembly, who shall be entitled to
the same rights and privileges as are exercised and enjoyed
by the delegates from the several other territories of the
United States to the said House of Representatives, but the
delegate first elected shall hold his seat only during the term
of the congress to which he shall be elected. The first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted
in such manner, as the governor shall appoint and direst;
and at all subsequent elections the times, places, and manner
of holding the elections, shall be prescribed by law. The peil on
having the greatest number of votes shall be declared by the
governor to be duly elected; and a certificate thereof shal1
209
1 8 l 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
be given accordingly. That the constitution and all laws of
the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall
have the same force and effect within the said territory of
Nebraska as elsewhere within the United States, except the
eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of
Missouri into the Union, approved March sixth, eighteen
hundred and twenty, which, being inconsistent with the
principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the
states and territories, as recognized by the legislation of
eighteen hundred and fifty, 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 way, subject
only to the constitution of the United States: Provided,
That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or
put in force any law or regulation which may have existed
prior to the act of sixth March, eighteen hundred and twenty,
either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing
slavery.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND LIBRARIES.
SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That there shall
hereafter be appropriated, as has been customary for the
territorial governments, a sufficient amount, to be expended
under the direction of the said governor of the territory of
210 
SCHOOLS: JUDICIAL DISTRICTS.
Nebraska, not exceeding the sums heretofore appropriated
for similar objects, for the erection of suitable public buildings at the seat of government, and for the purchase of a
library, to be kept at the seat of government for the use of
the governor, legislative assembly, judges of the supreme
court, secretary, marshal, and attorney of said territory,
and such other persons, and under such regulations, as shall
be prescribed by law.
LAND RESERVED FOPR SCHOOLS.
SEC. 16.  And be it further- enacted,  That when the
lands in the said territory shall be surveyed under the direction of the government of the United States, preparatory to
bringing the same into market, sections numbered sixteen
and thirty-six in each township in said territory shall be,
and the same are hereby, reserved for the purpose of being
applied to schools in said territory, and in the states and territories hereafter to be erected out of the same.
GOVERNOR MAY ASSIGN JUDICIAL DISTRICTS.
SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That, until otherwise provided by law, the governor of said territory may
define the judicial districts of said territory, and assign the
judges who may be appointed for said territory to the several
districts; and also appoint the times and places for holding
courts in the several counties or subdivisions in each of said
judicial districts by proclamation, to be issued by him;  but
211 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
the legislative assembly, at their first or any subsequent
session, may organize, alter, or modify such judicial districts,
and assign the judges, and alter the times and places of holding the courts, as to them shall seem proper and convenient.
OFFICERS GIVE SECURITY FOR PUBLIC MONEY.
SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That all officers
to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, for the territory of Nebraska,
who, by virtue of the provisions of any law now existing,
or which may be enacted during the present congress, are
required to give security for moneys that may be entrusted
with them for disbursement, shal give such security, at such
time and place, and in such manner, as the secretary of the
treasury may prescribe.
BOUNDARY OF KANZAS.
SEc. 19. And be it further enacted, That all that part
of the territory of the United States included within the
following limits, except such portions thereof as are hereinaefter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, to
wit, beginning at a point on the western boundary of the
state of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh parallel of north
latitude crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to
the eastern boundary of New Mexico; thence north on said
212 
BOUNDARY OF KANZAS.
boundary to latitude thirty-eight; thence following said
boundary westward to the east boundary of the territory of
Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence
northward on said summit to the fortieth parallel of lati  tude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary
of the state of Missouri; thence south with the western
boundary of said state to the place of beginning, be, and
the same is hereby, created into a temporary government by
the name of the Territory of Kanzas; and when admitted
as a state or states, the said territory, or any portion of the
same, shall be received into the Union with or without
slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of
their admission: Provided, That nothing in this act con tained shall be construed to inhibit the government of the
United States from dividing said territory into two or more
territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress
shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any
portion of said territory to any other state or territory of
the United States: Provided  further, that nothing in this
act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of persons or property now pertaining to the Indians in said territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by
treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to
include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian
tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included
within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any state or
213 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
territory; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the
boundaries, and constitute no part of the territory of Kanzas, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States to be included within the said
territory of Kanzas, or to affect the authority of the government of the United States to make any regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights,
by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent to the government to make if this act had never
passed.
[Here follow in the act sections nineteen to thirty-stx,
inclusive, which, being word for word the same as sections
two to seventeen, excepting that they refer to the territory
of Kanzas, are here omitted.]
INDIAN RIGHTS RESER.VED.
SEC. 37. And be it further enacted, That all treaties,
laws, and other engagements made by the government of the
United States with the Indian tribes inhabiting the territories embraced within this act, shall be faithfully and rigidly
observed, notwithstanding anything contained in this act;
and that the existing agencies and superintendencies of said
Indians be continued with the same powers and duties
which are now prescribed by law, except that the President
214 
THE ACT APPROVED.
of the United States may, at his discretion, change the location of the office of superintendent.
LINN BOYD,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
D. R. ATCHISON,
President of the Senate pro tempore.
Approved May 30th, 1854.
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
215 
CHAPTER IX.
Emigration to Kanzas -The Emigrant Aid Companies.
THE "Missouri Compromise "  had settled the question
of slavery in Kanzas and Nebraska, "'forever." At the
end of a generation this settlement was set aside by the act
establishing their territorial governments.
So far as there is any especial principle regulating the
provisions of that act, it is its intention of leaving the institutions of the territories to those who may inhabit them.
This principle is familiarly called " the principle of squatter sovereignty," in language attributed to General Cass.
To carry out this principle fairly, it would be, of course,
necessary that no restriction of any kind should be placed
upon the emigration into these territories.
It has appeared, however, from the whole experience of
the United States, that there is scarcely any disposition on
the part of emigrants from Europe, or from the Northern
States, to move into regions where the institution of slavery
is permitted. Free labor will not place itself side by side 
ENCOURAGEMENT TO EMIGRATION.
with slave labor, and the great preponderance of northern
and foreign emigration has always been to the free states
and territories of the North-west.
As the discussion upon  the Nebraska and Kanzas bill
proceeded, it became evident, from the very nature of the
case, that there was a desire of extending slavery into Kan zas, the southern territory of the two. There was no need
of repealing the Missouri Compromise, except to gratify this
desire.
It was just as evident, that the great mass of the emigra tion would turn away from Ktanzas, in proportion as there
was a probability of the establishment of slavery there.
No single man or single family, unwilling to enter a slave
state, would trust themselves, unsupported, in a territory
which would probably become one.
/ To secure to Kanzas, therefore, a fair proportion of the
western emigration; to secure for the principle of "squatter
sovereignty " a fair trial; and to make sure that the institutions, both of Kanzas and Nebraska, should be digested
by settlers of every class; it became necessary that some
organization of the great current of western emigration
should encourage each emigrant from the North, by showing him how strong a force was behind him and around
him.
Some organization of western emigration was also necessary on pure grounds of humanity. The immense pilgrimage of four hundred thousand persons, arriving annually in
19
217 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
America from Europe, has thus far scarcely attracted the
attention of the general government.   It has cared for
their health on shipboard, but it makes no provision for
them after their arrival. The decisions of its courts have
even harassed, very considerably, the police and hospital
provisions made for them by the maritime states.  These
states succeed, however, in taxing the emigrant on his
arrival, that they may provide a fund for the care of the
emigrant body.  With this, the supervision of government
ceases entirely; and those foreign emigrants who wish to
go to the West-  perhaps one half of the whole numberare left, scarcely protected by the public, to the rapacity of
all unprincipled persons, frequently that of their own countrymen, who choose to prey on their ignorance of our
geography, our customs, our language, and of their own
rights and necessities. In the State of New York there is
even a system of slang language in use by the'various
harpies who feed this emigration. So various are the forms
of fraud that they require a dialect of their own. Even the
humane legislation of New York has in vain attempted to
break up this system. Through the summer of 1854 foreign emigrants have been hurried to the West, so closely
and inhumanly packed away in trains of cars that they
were the first victims of cholera, in the western cities to
which they came, and have furnished to that disease a constant supply of victims.
218 
EMIGRANT AID COMPANIES.
This condition of the foreign emigration westward also
pointed to the necessity of an organization of emigration.
The activity of the Northern States, at the present time,
in the institution of " Emigrant Aid Companies," and
" leagues" and " associations " auxiliary to such companies, springs from one or both of these considerations. The
number of persons in the Northern and North-western
States who move to some home westward of that they occupy, is probably three hundred thousand a year, including
the immense foreign contingent. Evidently, this movement is so large as to demand'the most careful oversight of
the travelling arrangements made for it; and as evidently,
also, a small proportion of it only will be enough to give
Kanzas the population requisite for her admission as a state
into the Union.
Influenced by both the considerations spoken of, Mr. Eli
Thayer, a member of the Massachusetts  house of representatives, circulated a petition, in the month of March,
1854, for the incorporation, by the General Court of Massachusetts, of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company.
The petition was at once granted by the Legislature, and
a charter given, of which the first section follows:
"SEC. 1.  Benjamin C. Clark, Isaac Livermore, Charles
Allen, Isaac Davis, William G. Bates, Stephen C. Phillips,
Charles C. iazewell, Alexander H. Bullock, Henry Wilson, James S. Whitney, Samuel E. Sewall, Samuel G.
Howe, James Holland, Moses Kimball, James D. Green,
219 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
Francis W. Bird, Otis Clapp, Anson Burlingame, Eli
Thayer, and Otis Rich, their associates, successors and
assigns, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the
Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, for the purpose of
assisting emigrants to settle in the West; and, for this purpose, they have all the powers and privileges, and be subject to -1I the duties, restrictions, and liabilities, set forth
in the thirty-eighth and forty-fourth chapters of the Revised Statutes."
The charter was signed by the Governor on the 26th day
of April, and took effect immediately. The persons named
in it, and others interested, met at the State House, in
Boston, on the 4th of May, accepted the charter, and
appointed a committee to report a plan of organization and
system of operations.   The  committee consisted of Eli
Thayer, Alexander IH. Bullock, and E. E. Ihale of Worcester, Richard Hildreth and Otis Clapp of Boston, who submitted the following report at an adjourned meeting:
"REPORT.
"The objects of this corporation are appareht in its name.
The immense emigration to America from Europe introduces into our ports a very large number of persons eager
to pass westward.   The fertility of our western regions,   -
and the cheapness of the public lands, induce many of the
native-born citizens of the old states also to emigrate thither.
220 
EMIGRANT AID COMPANY.
At the present time, public and social considerations of the
gravest character render it desirable to settle the territories
west of Missouri and Iowa; and these considerations are
largely increasing the amount of westward emigration.
"The foreign arrivals in America last year were four
hundred thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven. In
the same year, the emigration to western states, of Americans and foreigners, must have amounted — to much more than
two hundred thousand persons. The emigration thither this
year will be larger still. And from the older western states
large numbers are removing into new territory.
"Persons who are familiar with the course of movement
of this large annual throng of emigrants know that under
the arrangements now existing they suffer at every turn.
The frauds practised upon them by'runners,' and other
agents of transporting lines in the state of New York,
amount to a stupendous system of knavery, which has not
been broken up even by the patient endeavors of the state
officers, and by very stringent state legislation. The complete ignorance as to our customs in which the foreign emigrant finds himnself, and, in more than half the foreign
emigration, his complete ignorance of our language, subject him to every fraud, and to constant accident. It is
in the face of every conceivable inconvenience that the
country receives every year four hundred thousand foreigners into its seaports, and sends the larger portion of them
to its western country.
19*
221 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
"The inconveniences and dangers to health to which the
pioneer is subject who goes out alone or with his family,
only in making a new settlement, are familiar to every
American.
V/ "The Emigrant Aid Company has been incorporated to
protect emigrants, as far as may be, from such inconven iences. Its duty is to organize emigration to the west
and bring it into a system. This duty, which should
have been attempted long ago, is particularly essential now,
in the critical position of the western territories.
"The legislature has granted a charter, with a capital
sufficient for these purposes. This capital is not to exceed
$5,000,000. In no single year are assessments to a larger
amount than ten per cent. to be called for. The corporators
believe that if the company be organized at once, as soon
as the subscription to the stock amounts to $1,000,000, the
annual income to be derived from that amount, and the subsequent subscriptions, may be so appropriated as to render
most essential service to the emigrant, to plant a free state
in Kanzas, to the lasting advantage of the country, and to
return a very handsome profit to the stockholders upon their
investment.
"1.  The emigrant suffers whenever he goes alone into
his new home. HIe suffers from the frauds of others;
from his own ignorance of the system of travel, and of the
country where he settles; and, again, from  his want of
222 
EMIGRANT AID COMPANY.
support from neighbors, which results in the impossibility
of any combined assistance, or of any division of labor.
/' The Emigrant Aid Company will relieve him from all
these embarrassments by sending out emigrants in compa nies, and establishing them in considerable numbers.   They
will locate these where they please on arrival in their new
home, and receive from government their titles. The company propose to carry them to their homes more cheaply
than they could otherwise go, to enable them to establish
themselves with the least inconvenience, and to provide the
most important prime necessities of a new colony.  It will
provide shelter and food at the lowest prices after the arrival of emigrants, while they make the arrangements necessary for their new homes. It will render all the assistance
which the information of its agents can give. And, by
establishing emigrants in large numbers in the territories,
it will give them the power of using at once those social
influences which radiate from the church, the school, and
the press, in the organization and development of a community.
For these purposes it is recommended, first, that the
directors contract immediately, with some one of the competing lines of travel, for the conveyance of twenty thousand
persons from Massachusetts to that place in the west which
the directors shall select for their first settlement.
" It is believed that passage may be obtained, in so large
a contract, at half the price paid by individuals.  We recom
223 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
mend that emigrants receive the full advantage of this
diminution of price, and that they be forwarded in companies of two hundred, as they apply, at these reduced rates
of travel.
2.  It is recommended that, at such points as the directors select for places of settlement, they shall at once construct a boarding-house or receiving-house, in which three
hundred persons may receive temporary accommodation on
their arrival; and that the number of such houses be
enlarged as necessity may dictate.  The  new comers or
their families may thus be provided for in the necessary
interval which elapses while they are making their selection
of a location.
" 3. It is recommended that the directors procure and
send forward steam saw-mills, grist-mills, and such other
machines as shall be of constant service in a new settlement, which cannot, however, be purchased or carried out
conveniently by individual settlers. These machines may be
leased or run by the company's agents. At the same time,
it is desirable that a printing press be sent out, and a weekly newspaper established. This would be the organ of the
company's agents; would extend information regarding its
settlement, and be, from the very first, an index of that love
of freedom and of good morals which it is to be hoped may
characterize the state now to be formed.
"4. It is recommended that the company's agents locate,
and take up for the company's benefit the sections of land
224 
EMIGRANT AID COMPANY.
in which the boardiig-houses and mills are located, and no
others. And, furthcr, that whenever the territory shall be
organized as a free state, the directors shall dispose of all
its interests there, replace by the sales the money laid out,
declare a dividend to the stockholders, and   5.  That they then select a new field, and make similar arrangements for the settlement and organization of
another free state of this Union.
"II. With the advantages attained by such a system of
effort, the territory selected as the scene of operations
would, it is believed, at once fill up with free inhabitants.
There is reason to suppose that several thousand men of
New England origin propose to emigrate under the auspices
of some such arrangement this very summer. Of the
whole emigration from Europe, amounting to some four
hundireds thousand persons, there can be no difficulty in
inducing thirty or forty thousand to take the same direction. Applications from German agents have already been
made to members of the company.   We have also intimations, in correspondence from the free states of the west, of
a wide-spread desire there, among those who know what it is
to settle a new country, to pass on, if such an organization
can be made, into that now thrown open. An emigrant
company of those intending to go has been formed in Worcester county, and others in other states.
"In view of the establishment by such agencies of a new
free state in that magnificent region, it is unnecessary to
225 
2KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
dwell in detail on the advantages which this enterprise
holds out to the country at large.
" It determines in the right way the institutions of the
unsettled territories, in less time than the discussion of
them has required in Congress. It opens to those who are
in want in the eastern states a home and a competence,
without the suffering hitherto incident to emigration. For
the company is the pioneer, and provides, before the settler
arrives, the conveniences which he first requires. Such a
removal of an over-crowded population is one of the great est advantages to eastern cities. Again, the enterprise
opens commercial advantages to the commercial states, just
in proportion to the population which it creates, of free men
who furnish a market to our manufactures and imports.
Whether the new line of states shall be free states or slave
states, is a question deeply interesting to those who are to
provide the manufactures for their consumption. Especially
will it prove an advantage to Massachusetts if she create
the new state by her foresight, -supply the first necessities to its inhabitants, and open in the outset communications between their homes and her ports and factories.
' In return for these advantages, which the company's
rapid and simple effort affords to the emigrant and to the
country, its stockholders receive that satisfaction, ranked by
Lord Bacon among the very highest, of becoming founders
of states,@ and, more than this, states which are prosperous
* See Mr. Everett's speech on the Nebraska Bill.
226 
EMIGRANT AID COMPANY.
and free. They secure satisfaction by an investment which
promises large returns at no distant day.
" Under the plan proposed, it will be but two or three years
before the company can dispose of its property in the territory
first occupied, and reimburse itself for its first expenses. At
that time, in a state of seventy thousand inhabitants, it will
possess several reservations of six hundred and forty acres
each, on which its boarding-houses and mills stand, and the
churches and school-houses which it has rendered necessary
From these cenltres will the settlements of the state have
radiated.  In other words, these points will then be the
large commercial positions of the new state.  If there were
only one such, its value, after the region should be so far
peopled, would make a very large dividend to the company
which sold it, besides restoring its original capital, with
which to enable it to attempt the same adventure elsewhere.
" It is to be remembered that all accounts agree that the
region of Kanzas is the most desirable part of America now
open to the emigrant.  It is accessible in five days continuous travel from Boston.   Its crops are very bountiful, its
soil being well adapted to the staples of Virginia and Kentucky, and especially to the growth of hemp. In its eastern
section the woodland and prairie-land intermix, in proportions
very well adapted for the purposes of the settler.  Its mineral resources, especially its coal, in the central and western
parts, are inexhaustible. A steamboat is already plying on
the Kanzas river, and the territory has uninterrupted steam
227 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
boat communication with New Orleans, and all the tributaries of the Mississippi river. All the overland emigration
to California and Oregon, by any of the easier routes, passes
of necessity through its limits.  Whatever roads are built
westward must begin in this territory. For it is here that
the emigrant leaves the Missouri river.   Of late years the
demand for provisions and breadstuffs, made by emigrants
proceeding to California, has given to the inhabitants of the
neighboring parts of Missouri a market at as good rates as
they could have found in the Union.
"It is impossible that such a region should not fill up rapidly. The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company proposes
to give confidence to settlers, by giving system to emigration.
By dispelling the fears that Kanzas will be a slave state, the
company will remove the only bar which now  hinders its
occupation by free settlers.  It is to be hoped that similar
companies will be formed in other free states. The enterprise
is of that character, that, for those who first enter it, the
more competition the better.
"It is recommended that the first settlement made by the
directors shall receive the name of that city in this Commonwealth which shall have subscribed most liberally to the
capital stock of the company, in proportion to its last decennial valuation; and that the second settlement be named
fi'om the city next in order so subscribing.
"It is recommended that a meeting of the stockholders be
called on the first Wednesday in Jtne, to organize the com
228 
ORGANIZATION.
pany for one year; and that the corporators, at this time,
make a temporary organization, with power to obtain subscriptions to the stock, and make any necessary preliminary
arrangements.
"ELI THAYER,
"For the Committee."
The capital stock of the Massachusetts company was
originally fixed at $5,000,000, from which it was proposed
to collect an assessment of four per cent. for the operations
of 1854, so soon as $1,000,000 were subscribed. It subsequently proved that the provisions of the charter were not
such as to satisfy all the parties interested, and the company
finally organized on the 13th of June, under private articles of association, the management of its affairs being
entrusted to three trustees: IMr. Amos A. Lawrence, Mr.
Eli Thayer, and Mr. J. M.  S. Williams, of Cambridge.
These trustees have proceeded to- collect subscriptions to the
stock, to collect and circulate information regarding the territories, and to make negotiations for the passage of emigrants to the territory of IKanzas, and for such provision as
can be made for them there, under the general plan of the
association.
It must be understood that this plan does not contemplate
the purchase of land in large quantities. The company
does not stand between the emigrant and the United States
government. HIe may get his land as he can, as a squatter
20
229 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
or by purchase. The company only takes up such land as it
needs for its central establishments.   By providing cheap
passage,-  passage  in companies, - and  information  to
settlers; by establishing mnills and other conveniences which
need capital, the company gives such facilities to emigrants
as capital can give, but does not interfere at all with their
selection of land, except by the advice of the agents whom
it has upon the ground.
A small party of about thirty men went forward, as a
pioneer party of this company, on the 17th of July.
i The Emigrant Aid Company of I,ew York and Connecti cut organized on the 18th of July, under a charter granted
by the legislature of Connecticut at the session of the same
summer.   Its objects are of the same general character as
those of the Boston company. Its affairs are in the hands
of a board of twventy-seven trustees, who choose an executive
committee  of three for their immediate  direction.   The
capital stockl of this company is not to exceed five million
dollars, to be raised in shares of five dollars each.   Mr.
Eli Thayer is president,  Mr. R.  N.  Ilavens vice-presi dent, and Mr. M. H. Grinnell treasurer of this company.
- These two parent companies propose to send forward trains
of emigrants to IKanzas as rapidly as possible after the
general arrangements for their cheap and safe conveyance
have been made. They carry all who apply for tickets for
the journey. It is not within the immediate power of two
such companies to conduct a correspondence with every indi
230
I* 
LOCAL " LEAGUES."
vidual who wishes to emigrate, nor to arrange that compa nies of neighbors shall go together, without the intervention
of local societies, which shall take in hand the details of
such arrangements. Local "'leag,ues" or emigrant societies, for
the detailed care of the arrangements of parties of emigrants,
have been formed, therefore, in several of the large towns.
There are such societies, auxiliary to the "Aid Companies,"
in New York, in Albany, in Rochester, and probably in
other towns.   It is greatly to be desired that the number of
such auxiliaries may be enlarged.   Each of them should
appoint and pay a master of emigration, who may find out
all those who wish to move westward in his neighborhood;
make such arrangements with the Emigrant Aid Company
that, if they wish, they can go together; and, in general,
conduct their negotiations with the parent company, without
subjecting each man to the necessity of writing himself, and
for himself receiving a reply.
1 Side by side with the associations now described, the
Union Emigration Society was organized  in the city of
Washington, "by such members of Congress and citizens
generally as were opposed to the repeal of  the Missouri
Compromise, and to the opening of Nebraska and Kanzas to
the introduction of slavery."  This society is understood to
have appointedaagents in several states, for the purpose of
calling public attention to its movements, and organizing
auxiliary societies.
The operations of the two Emigrant Aid Companies, and
231 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
of the " leagues" auxiliary to them, are so completely in
their infancy, that it is impossible to make a statement of
their plans much more definite than that contained in the
report of their first committee.   To all applicants for passage they will be able to furnish passage tickets, of the first
class, from  Boston to Kanzas, at an expense of twenty or
twventy-five dollars. Passage with a simpler class of accommodations may probably be furnished for ten dollars.
These rates are much lower than the regular rates of travel,
and emigrants who take these tickets have the assurance of
the company's guarantee that the tickets will be serviceable
for their purpose, and that no further exactions for travel
will be made. on the way to Kanzas.  They will travel in
parties of persons bound to the same home with themselves.
They will arrive at a station of the company, where they
will meet with friends, and receive such information  and
general assistance as it is in the power of the company to
give them.
Applications have already been received from large numll
bers of persons from almost every one of the free states, and
from some of the slave states, who wish to join in this emigration.   The officers of several of the foreign benevolent
societies have interested themselves in the operations of the
companies, intending to direct to JKanzas large bodies of
European emigrants, as they arrive.
So soon as the heat of summer abates, parties of these
emigrants are to move forward. A party from Conneaut
232 
EMIGRATION OF 1854.
ville, Pennsylvania, accompanies Mr. George W. Brown,
who carries out a steam press and types, with which to
establish the " Herald of Freedom" newspaper, in Kanzas.
A general interest in the movement has extended among
mechanics of every craft; and, as the companies will,
doubtless, soon establish mills, with steam or water power,
at central and accessible positions, we may believe that
even the first settlers will have around them, not merely
the luxuries of a teeming soil, but even the conveniences of
manufactures, near their own homes, with the arrangements
of an advanced civilization.
Meanwhile, a rapid emigration has been going on into
the territories, particularly into lKanzas, quite independent
of the Emigrant Aid Companies. During the close of the
winter of 1853-54, it is said, large numbers of persons from
north-western states collected in the towns on the eastern
side of the Missouri, awaiting the opening of the territories, th    at t hey  might go in and stake out their locations.  As
the spring opened, a rapid current of emigration began. At
first, the northern settlers went generally into Nebraska,
but    so soon as it was known that determined and combined
arrangements  would be made to settle Kanzas from  the
North, the natural attractions of that territory began to
exercise  their influence, and the preponderance of emits ation, through the summer of 1854, has been into its 1 o(rders.  T     he Indian treaties were ratified only at the close of
the session of the Senate; some of them not till the beg,in
20$
233 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
ning of August. Settlement on the Indian lands was,
therefore, until that time, strictly illegal. But persons intending to emigrate, in many instances, made  arrangements
with the Indians, or, at the least, staked off the land on
which they wished to settle, and made registry of the priority of their  claim on the books of some:" Squatter's
Association."
/A large number of the residents of western Missouri
have in this manner passed over the Iine, and made claim to
such sections as pleased them, intending, at some subsequent period, to make such improvements as will give them
a right of preemption, when the lands are offered for sale,
but for the present not residing on the new territory.' The
Indian reservations run westward not more than forty, sixty,
or eighty miles. West of these the country has been open
without restriction to settlers, many of whom have already
begun their permanent improvements.    Since the  ratification of the treaties there is no obstacle' to such a proceeding, except in the few small reservations, already described,
left for the present by the terms of the treaties.   It is, of
course, impossible to estimate the number of scattered persons who have gone into Kanzas already in this way;
indeed, there is little use in an estimate of a number which
is enlarging every daA. Some newspaper statements have
fixed the number ofDims made before the first of August,
1854, at three or four thousand.  This was, probably, at
that time, an exaggeration, but our best i,formation leads
234 
RIGHTS OF SETTLERS.
us to suppose that that number of claims will have been
made before these pages meet the reader's eye.
The law providing for the survey of Kanzas and Nebraska passed Congress late in the session of 1854. Its
title is, "An Act to establish the offices of surveyor-general
of New Mexico, Kanzas and Nebraska, to grant donations
of land to actual settlers therein, andl for other purposes."
From this title the impression has gone abroad, very naturally, that actual settlers in Kanzas and Nebraska will
receive donations of land from the government; but it
appears, from the act itself, that this is a mistake.  The
second section of the act grants a quarter-section of land to
every white male person, above the age of twenty-one
years, who  shall live in the territory of Nev Mexico
before the year 1858, with certain conditions.  Subsequent
sections provide for the land offices in Kanzas and Nebraska,
but make no provision for donations of land to settlers.
The title of the bill is therefore false, and the position of
a settler in Kanzas is precisely what it is in any other of
the western states or territories.
Whether the land has been surveyed or not, he may
enter where he likes, and build his house, and cultivate his
farm, unless he trespass upon some previous settler. It is
the universal custom, at the West, for settlers in the same
neighborhoods to enter into associations for mutual protection; and such associations give a guarantee, always binding, which secures to each settler the proprietorship of his
235
4 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
land.  The "squatter right " thus becomes a title to the
land occupied, which is distinctly recognized in mercantile
transactions, and may be bought or sold. When the government has completed its surveys, and considers the land
to be marketable, it advertises a public sale of the lands.
The minimum price is one dollar and twenty-five cents;
and the mutual support given by settlers is such, that no
person bids over the claimant who has entered upon his
land.  Practically, therefore, the settler has the use of his
land for nothing until the government sale is ordered, and
then obtains his own quarter-section at one dollar and
twenty-five cents an acre. A "section" of land is six
hundred and forty acres. A quarter-section is the smallest
section which the government officers sell at a time.
The surveys of Kanzas or Nebraska will scarcely begin
before late in the fall of 1854.
Such associations as these described have already been
found among the settlers, in both Kanzas and Nebraska.
An effort has been made, particularly by one person, to
induce such associations to refuse to admit " Abolitionists,"
under the pretext that they  would wish to "run  off"
slaves from their neighbors' lands.  Resolutions to  this
effect have been passed in one or two instances, but have
been rejected or neglected more often.  When passed they
have been mildly stated, and have amounted only to a resolution to support sla,ve-holders in their  " legal rights;"
disavowing any intention to interfere with persons who do
.
236 
PROSPECTS OF SETTLERS.
not attempt to violate those rights, as the future laws shall
state them.
The actual settler, then, has simply to go into Kanzas
or Nebraska, to select the best spot he can find unoccupied,
and to put up his cabin or his house there, secure of pur chasing the best land in the world at one dollar and twventy five cents an acre, when the government, from whom he
will hold it, is ready to sell.
The accounts already given of the two territories give
some idea of the opportunities opened to settlers. The passage every year of large companies of emigrants to the
Pacific over the plains, gives, for the present, a good market for provisions to those who are situated in positions to
avail themselves of it. The supplies for the government
posts in New Mexico have thus far been carried in through
Kanzas, and this course must, for the present, continue.
The crop of hemp is the most valuable crop in western
Missouri, and will prove equally successful in the virgin
lands of Kanzas and Nebraska, opposite. At present the
price of this staple is very high.
There is, of course, the same demand for mechanics as in
every new territory. The mill powers, now necessary in
almost every department of mechanical business, will be
supplied by the water powers on the tributaries of Kanzas
river, and by steam engines, -  the supply of coal being so
large as to make steam power cheap in favorable localities.
There is bark sufficient for tanning; but, thus far, there is
237
I 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
no large manufacture of shoes in the states adjacent to
Kanzas and Nebraska. The iron ore of Missouri has been
called the best in the world.   Iron ore has been found be tween the Kanzas and Nebraska rivers, but has not been
collected in any considerable quantity.
Such natural resources as these, on a soil which yields
its treasures almost spontaneously, may well tempt industrious men to seek fortune in the new territories.   For men
who will not work, they have no more prizes than the rest
of the world. The population will grow very rapidly. The
land, almost given away  to-day, will command the prices
of the finest farming land when this region shall be peopled, and the first comers, who know how to bear the
hardships of a frontier life, are those who will bear away
the prizes.  It is impossible to point out to settlers favorable regions in which to locate, nearly so acceptable to
them as they will themselves select after a few days' examination.   The valley of the Kanzas and the valley of the
Missouri have thus far been the most popular districts.
The lines of the great routes to Santa Fe and to Fort Kearney will have the inducements given by the constant passage
of merchants and emigrants. These roads pass through
some fine regions of country also. The government is
opening a military road from  Fort Leavenworth to Fort
Riley, which will open a district of country north of the
KIanzas to easy settlement.
The pioneer body of the Emigrant Aid Company have
238 
ENTRANCE TO KANZAS.
made their claims on a beautiful spot bordering on the KaIzas river, about seven miles west of the mouth of Wah-karusi Creek.  They have here a good landing, wood and stone
in abundance for building, the neighborhood of coal, and a
good commercial position.
The easiest route for emigrants from the east is through
the city of Alton in Illinois, whither the steamboats on the
Mississippi or the railroads from the eastward  will carry
passengers.   This city is nearly opposite the mouth of the
river Missouri.   Here, or at St. Louis, passage may be
taken in a steamboat almost daily to any of the landings on
the Upper Missouri.   At either of these cities, or at the
landings above, may settlers make their outfits. The voyage
up the river takes three days or more, according to the speed
of the boat or the state of the water.
The climate of Kanzas and southern Nebraska has always
been singularly healthy. In 1849, when the cholera was 
very fatal in the adjoining towns of Missouri, companies of
emigrants, in some instances, escaped from it, by going into
the prairie and encamping there. The cholera, however, has
not wholly spared these regions.  The Indians and emigrants
exposed to the fatigues of travelling, and exposed to variable weather, have suffered from it there as elsewhere. There
is in these territories comparatively little of that bottomland which is the favorite seat of western diseases. It may
be hoped that as the forests are not so dense as those of.
some regions, the clearing away of the woods may not be
239 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
followed by those forms of disease which sometimes accompanies the decay of great masses of vegetable matter.  It is
understood that these regions have, thus far, been in a great
measure exempt from fever and ague, and bilious fever.
They are thoroughly drained; they have little or no standing water; they are high above the level of the ocean, and
are swept by winds from the not distant mountains. All
these are reasons for hoping that this partial exemption from
the diseases of a new settled country may be lasting.  Emigrants need to be cautioned not to commit themselves to the
cheapest lines of travel, unless some responsible emigrant
company assures them that cars and boats shall be properly
arranged for their accommodation. A great deal of sickness
has been caused by the unrighteous crowding together of
foreign emigrants in the worst class cars. Emigrants, again,
ought not be in a hurry. Their arrival a day or two sooner
or later is of little consequence, if a day or two's delay will
check an attack of illness in its infancy. Again, they ought,
if possible, to go in considerable companies. The presence
of neighbors alone spares them many of the hardships of
pioneer life. This advantage is secured to them, together
with the greatest possible economy in travel, by the arrangements of the Emigrant Aid Companies.
Any class of men or of women who are of use anywhere,
will be of use in the new territories.   Their population
increases rapidly every day, and the useful arts and sciences
of civilized life will be needed at once within their borders.
240 
INSTITUTIONS.
As has been already said, the civil institutions of the territories will be in the hands of those who inhabit them. It
is only a temporary arrangement by which the United States
government now appoints their officers. The territorial legislatures will be filled by the vote of the people, and in their
hands will be the establishment of the first laws of the newborn settlements.
FRANCIS BURT, of South Carolina, has been appointed
the first governor of Nebraska.
ALMON H. REEDER, of Pennsylvania, has been appointed
the first governor of Kanzas.
The religious institutions of the territories will also be in
the hands of the settlers. It is to be hoped that they will
not be afraid to let the principles of religion regulate the
system  of law.   The missionary boards  of the Eastern
States have thus far sent ministers to these regions to care
for the Indians. /The settlers now must carry the gospel
with them, and the teachers of the gospel must go too.  The
settlers must remember that no state can stand firm whose
foundations are not on the Rock of Ages. To preserve that
prosperity for which they wish, they must see to it that the
active efforts of active religion shall preserve the morals of
their men, and train the lives of their children.
Ministers of every religious body already offer themselves
as the pioneer apostles of the gospel in this new land.  Some
have already gone, others will soon follow.   They have a
noble field for their labors, and a chance, if there is one
21
241 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
anywhere, to see, in time, the fruits from their planting.
Missionary bodies will feel the importance of assisting in
this work.   A  single church  in Worcester,  Mass., the
Old South Church, has raised among its members the sum
requisite to support its own missionary in Kanzas for a year.
Arrangements have already been suggested for a High
School in Kanzas. The government gift of public land for
education will provide eventually a large common school
fund.
IT MUST BE that the settlement of the new territories by
the best population which can be given them shall command
the active effort of all true lovers of their country.   This
effort ought not to be spoken of as a little affair, or as incidental or subsidiary to other enterprises, but as the greatest
duty now before American patriots and Christians. It is a
way of work more hopeful than any which has been opened
for yeals. It gives room for the exertion of every one, in
whatever position, and holds out rewards such as satisfy the
most eager.  In the long, painful, irritating,, and perplexing
discussion which has sought to check and hem in the institution of slavery, the great difficulty has been the want of
a field of action, where working men should not feel that
they were wasting life in mere talk or wordy protest  or
prophecy. That field is found in Kanzas. To send men to
Kanzas, or to go to Kanzas, resolved that free labor shall be
242 
FREE EMIGRATION.
honored in Kanzas, and shall make itself honorable, is an
effort which can enlist the energies of every man. It is an
effort which the whole providence of God demands, and
which is made easy by the wonderful arrangements of his
wisdom.   From the time of Moses to this time there has
never been seen so gigantic an emigration as IHE has been
pleased, in less than forty years, to lead from Europe into
America. As part of this, and as consequence of this, every
year has seen the wave of emigration passing westward from
the Northern States into the north-western deserts.  That
wave is moving now, larger than it ever was. There needs
no Peter the Hermit to enlist crusaders. The crusaders are
already on their way.   There need only the guides who
shall show them the fairest lands in the world; the counsel
and assistance which shall organize them, that they may
encourage and support each other, and they will pass into
the valleys of the Nebraska and the Kanzas, as the waters
of a mountain stream pass into the lake in the valley.
Passing thither, they carry with them the principles which
sent them forth.  No propagandism is needed to instil them.
These emigrants would not have left their old homes had
they not wanted to work somewhere, and had they not meant
to find a home where they could work with fit prospect of
reward. That reward they can only gain in a state which
shall be free.  The dignity of working men will only be
preserved by the institutions which give all men equal chance
before the law. And without special instruction, without
243 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
pledge to any political or social party, the great pilgrimage
of free emigrants from Germany, from New England, from
the Middle States, or from the states of the God-protected
old " North-western Territory," know that this is so.  The
Emigrant Aid Companies ask no questions of their emigrants.  They sell their tickets at the cheapest rates to all
who coma for them.  They take no political position.  They
mnake no political pledges or promises. But none the less
is it sure that when twenty thousand men have gone into
the new territories from the seaboard and the North, they
will be men who will know that, to preserve the value of
their virgin farms, to maintain the dignity of their own
lives, to sustain the honor of their new-born states, those
states must be forever free.
i Thus will this emigration, with the rapidity with which it
now proceeds, add almost at once two new free states to the
American Union. It is not within the province of this
book to look farter.  It is enough to foresee so great a
victory of the right as is this. Two free states planted
w-C,t of the Missouri are two new securities for American
freedom. By so much the more is the perpetuity of the
American Union possible. By so much the more is the
principle of republican government redeemed and made consistent. And so far does the American church show its
power in checking the advance of one of the best organized
of its enemies.  They are two free states which command
the gates to the Pacific, and to the colonies on the way
244 
EMIGRATION FROM THiE WEST.
there. They are the lines of approach to New Mexico and
Utah.   They will long command the only highways of travel
to California, to Oregon, and to the territory of Washing ton.  In the centre of the United States, in what may yet
be the heart of its empire, they will maintain in its purity
the principle on which that empire is founded. So far as
their long frontier stretches, the wave of southern slavery
will break on a rock which will not let it pass. No cara vans of unwilling servants shall be led over their deserts or
through their valleys. And if any one of the western
regions should ever seek to introduce slave labor, it must
not look to the mountain passes for its supply.
Indeed, it is not too much to hope, that, as the passage
of the desert becomes shorter, in the western growth of the
civilization of these valleys and the eastward progress of
California and of Oregon, a tide of emigration may set
eastward into these regions from the Pacific. The destiny
of America is to call all races of men into a freer life within
her borders than they have ever enjoyed at home. In her
government is the secret which gives to each religion its
exercise, to each oppressed nation its refuge, to each race
of man its development.   She makes  " one out of many."
There are reasons for supposing that this comprehensiveness
of welcome will still draw in increasing companies of recruits from the crowded millions of China. They have
their foothold already upon California. It may be that they
shall pass eastward from the Pacific, by the same law which
21*
245 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
draws the exiles of Germany westward from the Atlantic
And Asiatic labor, careful, simple, and skilful, may come
in as an element, assisting in the reconciliation of the difflculties not incurable which accompany the meeting of African labor and of European labor upon the American soil.
This is only one glimpse into that immense future which
opens in the prospect, if these two territories be kept free
by the immediate emigration of freemen.   It is no question
of the politicians. It is not a temporary piece of the balance of parties.  It is one of the critical questions where
we can see that the nation's prosperity is in question, and
that the dignity and real victory of the nation are to be lost
or won.
Every indication now points to victory. The movement
of freemen is ten times as fast as is possible to men who
must sell plantations before they can move, and carry field
hands before they can labor. i/The whole foreign emigration
comes principled or prejudiced against slave institutions.
And the whole feeling of the North, whatever its politics or
its religion, turns eagerly to seek a field of action for freedom.   That field is open now, inviting effort, fair, loyal,
constitutional, and manly.   In that effort the whole energy
of the North may be enlisted, without one word of anger,
without one partisan appeal,- with a simple reliance on the
principle which is diffused through the whole system of
northern life, thought, and industry.
It will only be by a miracle of indolence, by blindness
246 
KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.
utterly incurable, that the men of the free states can forfeit
such a prize.
Unless freedom refuse the strength she always has given
to freemen, that victory is gained.   It is gained unless
the intelligent, high-trained industry of the North, which
has surrounded the world with its commerce, and made
all nature tributary to its arts, meets now its first dfeet.
It is gained unless the great principle of association in a
great cause fails as it never failed before.  It is gained unless the church of Christ, which has thrown over the world
a net-work, along the cords of which run the electrical
words of good tidings, is false at home to a golden opportunity of advancing His kingdom.
Unless, in one word, the providence of God be wholly
neglected, and the immense power for freedom flung away
which God gives when he sends an army of his children
westward over sea and land, the freedom of Kanzas and
Nebraska is secured, and the firmest step for the future
prosperity of America made sure.
That victory will be won!  God gives it to the energy
and wisdom of those who go, to the sympathy and prayers
of those who stay.
247 
I 
APPENDIX A.
THE WORCESTER CO. KANZAS LEAGUE.
It has been thought that the following constitution and plan of organization may be useful
as a guide in forming other societies with the same object.
CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE 1. Any person may become a member of this Society,
by signing his name to this Constitution, and paying to the use of the
Society the sum of one dollar, and shall continue to be a member so
long as he shall pay such sum annually.
ARTICLE 2. The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice
President, seven Directors, Treasurer, and Secretary, who shall be
Master of Emigration, -to be elected, in the first instance, immediately, and thereafter, on the second Monday in March, annually, at
a meeting held in Worcester. The President, Vice President, and
Treasurer shall be, ex officio, members of the Board of Directors.
ARTICLE 3. The officers shall perform such duties as shall appertain to their respective situations, and such, also, as shall devolve upon
them under the By-Laws of the Society.
ARTICLE 4. It shall be the duty of the Master of Emigration to
receive and keep the names of all persons desiring to emigrate to Kanzas from Worcester county; to agree upon the time and conveniences
for their departure, and to confer with the Emigrant Aid Company,
so as to make the best arrangements for their conveyance to Kanzas,
and their location there.
ARTICLE 5. The moneys of the Society shall be appropriated to
promote such emigration into the above-named territory as shall be
opposed to the introduction of slavery into the same; or, if slavery
shall be introduced, as shall be in favor of repealing all laws tolerating the same; and also for such means of promoting free emigration
as the Directors may select. Provided that nothing shall be done, in 
APPENDIX.
virtue hereof, in contravention of the Constitution, nor in conflict
with the existing laws of the land.
ARTICLE 6. Suitable By-Laws shall be adopted, at the first meeting of the Society, and the same may be altered or amended at any
annual meeting.
ARTICLE 7. It is the design of this Society to cooperate with the
Emigrant Aid Company in the colonization of Kanzas with freemen.
ARTICLE 8. The Directors shall have power to fill any vacancies
in their Board, or in the list of officers, antecedent to the annual
meeting of the Society.
BY-LAws.
ARTICLE 1. A majority of the Board of Directors shall be a quorum for the transaction of business, and a majority shall reside in
the city of Worcester.
ARTICLE 2. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to keep safely
all moneys of the Society, and to pay the same over, from time to
time, on the order of the President, or, in his absence, of the Vice
President.
ARTICLE 3. Neither President nor Vice President shall give such
an order except in pursuance of an appropriation by the Board of
Directors.
ARTICLE 4. The Secretary of the Society shall also be Secretary
of the Board of Directors.
ARTICLE 5. The compensation of the Master of Emigration shall
be determined by the Board of Directors.
OFFICERS OF TIHE LEAGUE.
President - A. H. BULLOCH. Vice President - WILLIAM T. MERRIFIELD. Treasurer - P. L. Moen. Directors - Henry Chapin, Chas.
Thurber, Horace James, Wmi. H. Harris, Edward E. Hale, William
A. Wheeler, Oliver C. Felton, P. L. Moen.
We, the undersigned, citizens of, pledge ourselves to
pay the sums affixed to our names, to constitute ourselves members
of the TVorcester County Kanzas League, and to promote the objects
set forth in its Constitution
SUBSCRIBERS' NiAMES.
50
1 $ 1 C. I 
APPENDIX B.
THE following extract from a letter by George S. Parkl, published
by the Emigrant Aid Company too late to take its place in the text,
describes the most interesting parts of the valley of the Kanzas  and
Smokyhill rivers:
"From the Pottawatomie line to its mouth, the Kanzas river
presses on the southern bank, touching the uplands every four or five
miles; while on the north side, from a point just below the mouth
of the Blue, down some fifty miles, there is a continuous bottom, four
or five miles wide, larger and more magnificent than the far-farmcd
American Bottoms, below St. Louis.   here excellent corn has been
raised, by the Half-breeds, for many years. The soil is a black, sandy
loam - kind, warm, and quick; and produces much earlier in the
season than farms in the same latitude east.  Emigrants to California and Oregon, who are aware of this fact, prefer to cross the Aissouri river, at Parkville, and take the great road up the Kanzas valley, on the north side, on this account. They find most excellent
grazing for their stock by the 1st of April, often earlier.  We have
not seen a swamp or wet slough, nor any stagnant water, in the valley drained by the Kanzas river. The streams generally speaking
flow over gravelly beds; most of the bottoms are high; the few that
are low are of a dry, sandy character, and the prairies are rolling
enough to drain off the water freely.
"Passing the west line of the Pottawatomie nation, we entered upon
open prairie, often reaching the river on both sides; now and then a
small grove and a light fringe of timber on the banks. On the right,
in a great prairie bottom, in a bend of the river extending back to
Rock Creek, Mr. Perry has made a selection for a stock farm; and a
little way above his claim there is another great bend, offering a
tempting inducement to some other enterprising farmer who has a
taste for stock-raising.  Beyond this we passed a large grove of timher on the right, and then passed a most appropriate bluff for a town
site -the first we saw for several miles. Hiere we saw Blue Hlill, 
APPENDIX.
which is a prominent landmark overlooking the mouth of Blue river.
From this point upward the bluffs are higher and more abrupt, and
the country back more elevated and broken. Here we saw a large
eagle nest, out of which the old bird looked angrily at us, for intruding on its preemption; but she, too, must give way, with the red
skins, to manifest destiny.  A little way above another huge buffalo
floated past; he may have been anxious to slake his thirst in the Republican or Smokyhill, lost foothold, and got carried away by the
rolling flood.
"Passing the mouth of the Blue, which comes in from the north
(as nearly all the tributaries of Kanzas do), and appears to be navigable for some distance, we were pleased with its fine bottoms and
long streak of timber; while, on the left, were conical bluffs and high
prairie mounds, with figured lines and steps rising one above another
in the distance, contributing to the scenery a very romantic appearance.  Immediately above this important tributary, there is another
beautiful prairie bottom, sloping back northward farther than we could
see; and, on the left, still another, containing more than two thousand acres, in a bend not more than three-fourths of a mile across the
neck.  The enticing features of the latter are- a little grove of
tinmber on the height, a cool gushing spring, and plenty of rock at
hand in the bluff, with which to raise an enduring fence over the
narrow isthmus.  The world does not present a more excellent situation for a stock farm; indeed, the whole line of the main river and
branches, from here upward, may be said to be adapted for a continuous series of such farms. On the right a bluff comes into the river,
the first above the mouth of the Blue, offering an appropriate town
site; and -we saw stakes set on the slope, as well as a tent or cabin
back on the high prairie, indicating that our countrymen were there.
Just above, there is a clear, running stream, and a line of timber
reachting far back.  From this to the fort, the river winds like a natural canal through green, flowery meadows, with similar scenery in
the distance.  On the left we saw some splendid country for farms,
up the valley-of a stream, the name of which we do not recollect;
there were fine groves of timber and rich valley land. We understand
that several claims have been made there.
" On Monday night, just before reaching Fort Riley, we were over
2 I'D 2 
APPENDIX.
taken by a tremendous thunder-storm. We were surrounded by
prairie; and the captain had to lay his craft close to the shore, and
cast anchor, there being no stump or tree to hitch to. He is of
opinion, that there should not be a cabin on steamers navigating
these prairie rivers, where the winds sometimes sweep along with
unbroken violence. We saw the Pilot Mounds in the distance,
where the military road leaves the Kanzas b6ttoms and passes
through a depression in the bluff to the crossing of the Blue. We
passed some small creeks on the right, with settlements on them;
and Clark's Creek on the left, affording some fine timbered lands and
good springs.
"A little after sunrise on Tuesday morning, we neared Fort Riley,
its fine stone buildings looming up grandly in the sunbeams. It is
located at the junction of the Republican and Smokyhill forks of the
Kanzas, on the second bench or roll of the prairie, having higher
bluffs immediately behind, from which the building rock is quarried.
It is soft limestone, easily cut into with a pick, and can be split into
any shape; we noticed the same horizontal strata cropping out at all
elevated points in the prairie. Crossing the Pawnee or Republican
fork by the government bridge, we had a good view of the fine
country between the two rivers, which rises gracefully backward in
high, swelling prairies. Here there is a saw-mill just started. We
strolled up the Republican, gathered some black raspberries, and
crossed a spring branch, then mounted a high bluff, whence we could
see the beautiful Republican valley a long way up. It is nearly
three miles wide, high, dry, and level, with a loose, black, rich soil.
The river flows in a serpentine course through the prairie bottoms,
at some bends making nearly a circuit of six or eight miles, and
coming back to within a mile of itself again - the banks generally
having a light fringe of timber, with occasional groves near the
water's edge, in the ravines, and on the bluffs. This is truly a
delightful valley - the most inviting for settlement we ever saw.
"The' Excel' made a short trip up Smokyhill.  Lieut. Sargent,
from the fort, accompanied us. We had an exciting time. The
constant announcement firom the man who heaved the lead was,
'No bottom.' The river was full and the current strong, but we
had great difficulty in getting round the short bends. It keeps on
22
253 
APPENDIX.
the course of the main Kanzas, coming a little more from the southwest.  There is more timber on this river than on the Kanzas, above
Pottawatomie, and the soil is better. We observed a deep marl
deposit on the bluffs, beneath black soil, and the bottoms inclined up
prettily from the river. A little way up we saw a band of Fox Indians crossing over, going north on a buffalo-hunt; and their motley
procession stretched along over the prairies for miles.  Here  and
there in the party was carried a pole, with a swan's neck or eagle's
head and tail, &c., stuck upon it for a flag.  They had with them
about five hundred horses, all of which looked well. Great was the
surprise manifested on seeing the' Excel' puffing along up these
unknown waters; but, poor fellows! the startling scream of the
shrill steam-whistle, and the impetuous snorting of the iron-horse,
will soon scare off the buffalo and other game from your huntinggrounds, to return no more -you, too, must follow in their trail, or
succumb to the irresistible influence of civilization.
" Some forty miles up Smokyhill, an extensive bed of gypsum has
been found, specimens of which have been tested and proved to be
of superior quality; we brought a small specimen home with us.
Salt is also alleged to be very abundant on the Saline fork; the
waters of the Smokyhill are often quite brackish, and when the
boilers of the' Excel' are filled from that river, there is a slight
incrustation of salt deposited. Specimens of coal, both bituminous
and anthracite, and of tin, lead, and iron ore, have been brought in.
Hints have been given that gold abounds, but in parts- unknown!
There cannot be a doubt, however, that valuable minerals will be
found cropping out beneath or interspersed in the primitive formation, as we ascend toward the Rocky Mountains. The country rises
very rapidly in that direction from Fort Riley; up the Republican,
for instance, the ascent, in the first three hundred miles, is said to be
two thousand feet. The rock in the vicinity of Smokyhill is principally limestone, and the river bottoms are a sandy loam.  The upland
prairies are broken, but of black, rich soil, particularly where limestone predominates; the valleys are also very rich, and the soil mellow. Passing over the high uplands, often there is nothing to be
seen but prairie spreading out beyond, till it is lost in dim distance
when all at once, as if by magic, you come upon a
' Woody valley, warm and low,'
254 
APPENDIX.
with fine springs and clear running water.  This is, indeed, a wellwatered region, and must be salubrious and healthy. We previously
mentioned the scarcity of timber above Pottawatomie; it may here
be added, that it is inadequate to supply what would be needed for
agricultural purposes, and hardly sufficient for firewood.  Here and
to the westward, a new era in agriculture must be inaugurated -a
new system must be practised. Nature demands that it should be
so. Instead of clearing timber lands, as in eastern states, the citizen-farmers of Kanzas must grow their timber. There is fuel wanted,
but coal in many places can be got with little labor; houses must
be built, and fences made, but, in the absence of sufficient timber,
excellent rock for all purposes can be procured in abundance; or,
for fencing, the farmer can hedge himself in most completely with
Osage orange.  The country abounds with the most luscious grapes.
Stock of all kinds are remarkably healthy; and these rolling prairies will make the finest sheep-walks in the world. In fact, this may
be designated the PASTORAL REGION OF AMERICA.  The gardens at
Fort Riley look well; and we procured some beautiful wild prairie
flowers.
"The difficulty of navigating the Smokyhill with a stern-wheel
steamer of such length as the' Excel' prevented Capt. Baker from
venturing so far up as he otherwise would. A shorter side-wheel
steamer, of very light draught, adapted to the navigation of these
interior rivers, will soon be put on the trade. We left Fort Riley,
on the return trip, on Wednesday morning, and came down' kiteing.'  Passing rapidly in review the splendid scenery of which we
have attempted to make hasty memoranda, we entered the Missouri
about daylight next morning.
"Before concluding these brief notes, it must be remarked, in
reference to the productions and climate of Kanzas Territory, that
there are, no doubt, superior hemp lands in its central and western
portions; but Nature unmistakably indicates stock-raising as the
proper and most profitable occupation for the farmers who shall settle there. In the great Kanzas valley below Pottawatomie, and in
the eastern region along the Missouri, there are some of the finest
hemp lands in the world. Wheat, corn, oats and vegetables, grow
as well there as in any of the western states. Those in the Platte
255 
APPENDIX.
Purchase, immediately east of the Missouri river, who attend to
fruit-growing, say that their apples, peaches, plums, &c., cannot be
surpassed anywhere; we can see no reason why as much may not be
said of the same crops in the region across the river.
"The winters are generally dry and pleasant, and the roads fine;
but little snow falls, and this lies on the ground only for a short
time. Sometimes, however, there are very' cold spells' of weather,
but they are not of long duration. For instance, the masons in
Parkville, Platte Co., Mo., quarried and laid stone last winter with
but little interruption on account of the weather. Common cattle,
colts, mules and sheep, can be wintered on blue-grass, provided the
pastures are allowed to grow up in the fall, and the stock have a
little corn or hay occasionally. February and March are frequently
quite pleasant, and much ploughing can be done in the mellow dry
loam of the Kanzas valley. The summers are quite warm and long,
the thermometer (Fahr.) not unfrequently marking up to near one
hundred degrees in the shade. The high prairies, however, are generally fanned by cool, refreshing breezes; and as we ascend the
branches of the Kanzas from Fort Riley, there is a rapid rise to a
cooler region. In May and June there is a superabundance of rain;
but the latter end of summer and fall is generally dry."
256 
Phillips, Sampson and Comnpany's Publications.
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HISTORY
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