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Title: From James Griffing to Augusta
Description: This July 9, 1855 letter was written by James Griffing at Ottawa Creek, Kansas, to Augusta. James writes that he is “travelling the rounds of another preacher’s circuit,” currently staying with an Ottawa Indian named “Jones” (possibly “Ottawa Jones”). James criticizes the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Bogus Legislature, and describes an inspiring speech given by Charles Robinson in Lawrence, Kansas on Independence Day.
Date: July 9, 1855

Title: Charles Robinson
Description: An artist's rendering of Free-State activist Charles Robinson speaking to the Lecompton Territorial Legislature. On October 6, 1856, Free-Staters boycotted the territorial elections that resulted in the second territorial legislature at Lecompton, Kansas. The Free-Staters complained that the options given on the referendum asked voters to choose between making Kansas a slave state or merely banning the new importation of slaves. The latter option would have sanctioned slavery for slaves who were already in Kansas, and its restrictions on new importations of slaves were likely unenforceable.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1856

Title: From Edward Fitch to Mr. Editor
Description: This letter, dated July 4, 1856, is from Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas to the editor of the Hopkinton (MA) Patriot. Fitch states that the Free State Legislature was supposed to convene that day in Topeka, but Colonel Sumner arrived with armed troops and, under orders from Washington, commanded everyone to leave. Fitch declares that “unless the North awakes and men (not fools) are placed in the Presidential chair this fall, Civil War must follow.” He also discusses a group of women who, in response to local rum selling, "took possession of the Liquor, which they spilled without mercy." He signs the letter “Yours for Free men, Free speech, Free Kansas, and Fre-mont.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: July 4, 1856

Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865