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Title: Resolutions of the Kansas Territorial Legislative Assembly
Description: These documents comprise 14 separate resolutions of the Kansas Territorial Legislative Assembly, dated between 1858 and 1861. The resolutions address a variety of topics, including support for admitting Kansas into the Union as a state; revision of county and township laws; protection of American Indian land rights; and maintaining peace with Missouri by denouncing any attempt by Kansans to interfere with slavery.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1858-1861

Title: Kansas Territorial Records
Description: These documents include letters and affidavits documenting election fraud that occurred in Leavenworth, Johnson, Coffey, and Linn Counties in Kansas Territory. Kansas citizens voted on January 4, 1858 to determine the fate of the Lecompton Constitution and to elect state officials. These documents refer to incidents of “enormous fraud” including men voting repeatedly under false names, falsifying poll books, and destroying ballot boxes “by violence and force.”
Object Type: Government Document
Date: January 5, 1858-March 15, 1858

Title: Proclamation of Daniel Woodson
Description: This proclamation was issued July 4, 1856 by Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson. Woodson forbids all persons claiming legislative authority or power in Kansas from assembling at Topeka, Kansas and from organizing, attempting to organize, or acting in any legislative capacity whatsoever. Woodson declares that this proclamation upholds President Pierce’s proclamation of February 11, 1856, which decreed that all such acts would be considered insurrectionary.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: July 4, 1856

Title: Kansas Executive Department Council Journal
Description: This excerpt from the 1855 Kansas Executive Committee Council Journal records the Council’s discussion of various proposed acts and bills. These acts and bills address topics such as coal mining, the territorial capital at Lecompton, Kansas, enacting a state census and state constitutional convention, enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law, and voting rights for American Indians. The journal also features correspondence from Andrew Reeder.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1855

Title: Statement of Wilson Shannon
Description: This statement by Kansas Gov. Wilson Shannon was written ca. December 1855. Shannon describes the series of events leading to the Wakarusa War, beginning with the murder of a Free State supporter named Charles Dow by Franklin Coleman, a proslavery man. To address the subsequent civil unrest in Douglas County, Kansas, Shannon asks General Richardson, General Strickler, and Col. Sumner to supply troops and assist Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones in restoring order.
Object Type: Government Document

Title: Wakarusa Treaty (Draft)
Description: This document is a draft of the Wakarusa Treaty, signed by Kansas Gov. Wilson Shannon, Charles Robinson, and James H. Lane on December 8, 1855, ending the Wakarusa War. The signers declare that they "have no knowledge of the previous--present or prospective existence of any organization in [Kansas] Territory for the resistance of the laws." They agree to “aid the Governor in securing a posse” to execute the laws, provided that accused individuals are arrested with “legal process” and receive a hearing before a U.S. District Court judge.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: December 8, 1855

Title: From Thomas Carney to Col. James B. Fry
Description: This letter, dated January 9, 1864, was written by Kansas Gov. Thomas Carney in Topeka, Kansas, to Col. James B. Fry, Provost Marshal General, in Washington, DC. Carney says that part of a letter he wrote to Fry was published in the Leavenworth Daily Conservative, “accompanied with scurrilous remarks.” Carney blames Capt. Sidney Clarke, Assistant Provost Marshal General, for publishing the letter, but leaves it up to Fry to determine Clarke's guilt.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: January 9, 1864

Title: Proclamation of Daniel Woodson
Description: This proclamation was issued August 24, 1856 by Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson in Lecompton, Kansas. Woodson declares that Kansas Territory is “infested” with large bodies of armed men organized in military fashion – presumably Gen. James Lane’s troops – who are murdering and detaining citizens, robbing and burning houses, and plundering local militias of arms for the purpose of subverting the territorial government. Woodson proclaims that Kansas Territory is in a state of “open insurrection and rebellion,” and calls upon its citizens to rally in support of their country and its laws and put down the insurrectionists.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: August 24, 1856

Title: Major Clark's Raid
Description: This unsigned document, ca. 1856, states that Maj. Clark and 300 men burnt down houses, robbed stores, took prisoners, and sent people down the Missouri River. The document declares that Clark “has always been a fire brand” and has left the country “in a state of turmoil.”
Object Type: Government Document

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