On Oct. 5, 1857, occurred the election for members of the legislature, and on the 23d the Doniphan Constitutionalist, a pro-slavery paper, accounted for the free-state victory by saying that the “sneaking abolitionists were guilty of cutting loose the ferry boats at Doniphan and other places on the day of the election, by order of Jim Lane.” To this the Lawrence Republican retorted: “Bad man, that Jim Lane, to order the boats cut loose; great inconvenience to the Missourians and the Democratic party.”
At the beginning of the border troubles the Platte Argus said editorially: “The abolitionists will probably not be interfered with if they settle north of the 40th parallel of north latitude, but south of that line they need not set foot.”
A pro-slavery convention at Lecompton on Dec. 9, 1857, adopted resolutions denunciatory of Govs. Reeder, Geary and Walker for their efforts “to reduce and prostitute the Democracy to the unholy ends of the abolitionists.” These instances might be multiplied indefinitely, but enough has been said to show that the pro-slaverites made no distinction whatever between the radical and conservative wings of the free-state party. If a man was opposed to slavery, though willing to let it alone where it already existed, he was just as much of an “abolitionist” as the extremist who would be satisfied with nothing less than immediate emancipation of all slaves, without regard to constitutional guarantees or the simplest principles of equity.
The radical anti-slavery people claimed that the Civil war was an anti-slavery conflict, and maintained that this view was justified by the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln, notwithstanding Mr. Lincoln's previous utterance that he was not striving to abolish slavery, but to preserve the Union.
Academy of Language and Literature.—Wilder's Annals of Kansas says this society was organized on June 16, 1885, with the following officers: J. A. Lippincott, president; O. C. Hill, vice-president; W. H. Carruth, secretary; J. E. Williamson, treasurer; W. I. Graham, Lily M. Storrs and the secretary, executive committee. The objects of the academy, as stated in the by-laws, were “to promote the love and study of literature and to encourage investigation and original production therein.”
On Dec. 31, 1885, another meeting was held, at which time Prof. W. I. Graham of Baker University was elected president; Prof. William McDonald of the University of Kansas, vice-president; Miss Viola Price, secretary; Prof. J. E. Williamson of the Topeka high school, treasurer; and the executive committee was composed of Prof. Graham, Miss Price and Prof. T. W. Phelps. The dues of the society were fixed at $1.00 per year for each member, and in 1892 the academy numbered 75 members. After the magazine called the Agora began publication in 1891 it was made the official organ of the society. The last number of this magazine, published in March, 1896, contains the announcement that the annual meeting of the Academy of Language and Literature would be held at
