assembly under the last census in the same ratio as pro-
vided in the act hereby repealed."
At this point Mr. S. E. Seely of Dodge county awoke
to the fact that his county would lose some of its territory
if the bill should pass and moved to amend by inserting
after the word "lijie" in the twelfth line of the first section,
the following words: "To the eastern boundary of Dodge
county, thence south on said eastern boundary of Dodge
county to the main channel of the Platte river, thence
down said main channel to the place of beginning," and
further by striking out all that portion which attaches a
part of Dodge county to Douglas county. This amend-
ment was rejected. February 6, the house passed the bill,
as amended by the committee and Mr. Armstrong, by a
vote of nineteen ayes to eleven nays.
114 NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The printed journal does not contain anything about
the return of this bill to the council nor its action con-
curring, but it was evidently done, because on February 9
the governor sent formal notice of his approval.
It was thus that Sarpy county came into existence,
and on May 25, 1857, an election was held for county
officers which resulted in the choice of S. D. Bangs, county
clerk; W. F. Wiley, county treasurer; John N. Enoch,
sheriff; Wm. H. Cook, probate judge; C. D. Keller,
register of deeds; H. A. Longsdorf, superintendent of
pubhc instruction; W. H. Harvey, surveyor; and J. B.
Glover, Robert McCarthy and Philander Cook, county
commissioners.
The organization of the county was completed June 10,
1857, by the first session of the board of county com-
missioners and the assumption of their duties by the other
officers. A map accompanying this paper, and filed with
the State Historical Society, shows the boundaries of Doug-
las and Sarpy counties, created by the last act. The board
of county commissioners on January 14, 1857, gave the
Bellevue people a commissioner's district, as follows: It
was ordered by the board that the county of Douglas be
districted and organized according to section 2 of an act
entitled, "County Commissioners", as follows: "District
No. 1. Bounded south by Platte river and north by section
line parallel with and two miles north of the township line
between townships thirteen and fourteen, and east and west
by the county boundaries." [Commissioner's Record A, 4.]
As Sarpy county was soon after created, no election
was held. Consequently "District No. 1" was not repre-
sented by any one from the Bellevue end of the county.
KANSAS-NEBRASKA BOUNDARY LINE
By George W. Martin^
Before any reference to boundary lines, permit me to
congratulate you on the start you have made toward a
home for your historical collection. There is no duty
more important than that of preserving public archives or
general records showing the advancement of your people
in all lines of activity, there can be no interest of more
value and pleasure than the use of such when needed, and
there is nothing more exasperating than the need of some-
thing you do not have. The extent and variety of a public
collection, such as the state assumes to keep, is to meet
the needs of the citizen who in the nature of things can not
have everything at his home or place of business. I have
experience every day with individuals who are amazed at
the extent of the "trash", as they call it, that is stored,
and I have enjoyed the discomfiture, if not the profanity^
of the same people, who call for the most insignificant and
unheard of thing which we do not have. I maintain that
the best thing a state has is its historical collection. Here
all men and all interests end. Old records and papers with
us have a commercial value to the individual, to say nothing
of the instructive feature demanded by every patriotic
citizen.
Everybody concedes this. The only advice in order,
therefore, is to go to the limit of liberality in providing a
home and necessary conveniences for proper care. These
twin states should keep abreast of each other. True, one
1 Paper read at the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical
Society, January, 1910.
(115)
116 NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
has been a trifle wild and reckless, but fifty years of state-
hood has brought some dignity, sobriety and a steady step.
Each state has started on the erection of a historical build-
ing. The legislature gave the Kansas Society $200,000 for
this purpose. This, it is estimated, will only enclose the
building, which will be four stories and a basement. The
plan with us is to place steel stacks upon the completion
of the building sufficient to give us double the shelf room
we now occupy. The building is to be partly occupied
temporarily by other state interests; but ultimately there
will be space for the Historical Society for thirty or forty
years, and it is to be absolutely fireproof. We shall have
foundation and walls sufficient to carry two or three ad-
ditional stories.
Barring ten years of hell we had on the border, from
1855 to 1865, the history of Kansas is the history of Ne-
braska. Four-fifths of our territory came into use and
prominence after the close of the war between the states.
We had the same task of opening up a new country. The
noble red man caused us about the same anxiety. The
development of these plains from the barrenness of fifty
years ago to the service of mankind we see today will
always far exceed battles and blood, raids and robbery.
We have been slowly, but with increasing rapidity each
year, reclaiming the most fertile and beautiful country on
the face of the globe. Wonderful history has been made
in these two states by men who established our schools and
churches, built our railroads, opened our farms, improved
our cattle and hogs, and who established large and small
industrial plants. Such history is worth preserving with
the utmost care. The individual without interest in history,
while he may not so understand it, is without pride of
ancestry. We start very enthusiastically with our building
in Kansas, and I hope we will end up correspondingly.
But, however rich, handsome and perfect we may do our
KANSAS-NEBRASKA BOUNDARY LINE 117
task, I sincerely hope Nebraska may beat us. The story
of your state deserves it. May this be the rivah-y between
us!
The fortieth parallel of north latitude was made the
boundary line between the territories of Nebraska and
Kansas by congress in the act of May 30, 1854. It seems
that in the beginning the Missourians wanted the Platte
river, but Hadley D. Johnson, representing more northerly
interests, insisted upon the fortieth parallel. There were
no surveys then, and there was no controversy about any
portion of the lines. Neither was there any hundred-
dollar-an-acre land; and so congress acted like the fellow
who sold a quarter section and while the buyer was not
looking slipped in the deed another quarter to get rid of it.
Nebraska extended north to the British line, and west-
ward took in a part of Colorado, the two Dakotas, and
Montana and Wyoming.^ Kansas extended to the summit
of the Rocky mountains, a few miles beyond the present
city of Leadville. Immediately upon the passage of the
Nebraska- Kansas act John Calhoun was made surveyor
general of Nebraska and Kansas. A contract was made
with John P. Johnson to establish this boundary line. It
was concluded to make it the principal base line, where-
upon to start the survey, both on the north in Nebraska
and on the south in Kansas. The fortieth parallel was
astronomically established in 1854 by Captain T. J. Lee,
topographical engineer, U. S. A. The survey was started
on the 18th of November, 1854. The party were eighteen
* Approximately only half of the territory afterward called Dakota
— that part lying west of the Missouri river — was included in Nebraska.
(See "Nebraska and Minnesota Territorial Boundary", this volume;
and the Illustrated History of Nebraska, v. 1, p. 141.] Nearly one-fourth
of Wyoming and that strip of Montana lying west of the Rocky mountains
were not included in Nebraska. About one-third of Colorado was so
included. — Ed.
118 NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
days running west 118 miles.^ When the Missouri river
was closed to northern immigration in 1856 Nebraska City-
was a port of entry for Kansas.
There is an incident relating to the north boundary line
of the state of Kansas scarcely known in her history, but
in the history of the twin state of Nebraska it constitutes
a very important chapter. January 17, 1856, J. Sterling
Morton introduced in the lower house of the territorial
legislature of Nebraska a resolution memorializing congress
to annex to Kansas all that portion of Nebraska south of
the Platte river because it would be "to the interests of
this territory and to the general good of the entire Union".
It was stated that the Platte river was a natural boundary
mark — that it was impossible to either ford, ferry or
bridge it; it was further thought that such a move would
effectually prevent the eatablishment of slavery in either
of the territories. This was postponed by a vote of 20
to 5." The project slumbered until 1858. There was
great bitterness between north and south Nebraska at that
time, and the annexation sentiment seemed to grow.
In those days Nebraska had other troubles than the
unreliability of the Platte river. Kansas was torn to pieces
by a great national issue, and our republican-populist
war of 1893 had a precedent for ridiculousness in the con-
troversy which divided the pioneers of Nebraska from 1855
to 1858. Florence, Omaha, Plattsmouth, Bellevue and
Nebraska City were contestants for the territorial capital.
The story reads like a southwest Kansas countyseat fight.
The first legislatm^e was called at Omaha, January 16, 1855.
Omaha was full of people interested in rival towns, who
•■' The contract for running the first 108 miles of the base line was let
to Johnson November_2, 1854, but he executed it in such a bungling way
that it was necessary to employ Charles A. Manners to do the work all
over again. [See History of Nebraska, v. 1, p. 383, foot note, for full
account.] — Ed.
* Ibid., p. 396.
KANSAS-NEBRASKA BOUNDARY LINE 119
made threats that the session should not be held. In
January, 1857, the antagonism to Omaha assumed an
aggressive character. A bill passed both houses of the
legislature moving the session to a place called Douglas in
Lancaster county.* This bill was vetoed by the governor.
In 1858 a portion of the legislature seceded in a small riot
but no bloodshed, and attempted to do business at a town
called Florence. September 21, 1858, the fifth session met
in peace at Omaha, and began to talk about bridging the
Platte. Restlessness was common then, for the Kansas
territorial legislature was also hard to please. The pro-
slavery people left Pawnee to sit in Shawnee Mission, and
the free-soilers would not remain at Lecompton, but in
1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861 moved to Lawrence.
About the beginning of the year 1859 several mass
meetings were held, and congress was memorialized to in-
corporate the South Platte country in the proposed state
of Kansas. There was some dissent, of course, but the
annexationists seem to have been quite lively. On the
2d of May a mass meeting was held at Nebraska City,
which invited the people to participate in the formation of
a constitution at Wyandotte July 5, reciting "that the
pestiferous Platte should be the northern boundary of a
great agricultural and commercial state". They ordained
that an election should be held in the several South Platte
counties June 7. There are no results of the election given,
but the History of Nebraska, page 401, volume 1, says
that in the county of Otoe of 1,078 ballots cast at a previous
election 900 electors signed a petition for annexation, and
that this sentiment was representative of the whole South
Platte district. Governor Medary's son and private secre-
tary, on the 16th of May, 1859, had written a letter to the
Nebraska people, urging them to elect delegates to the
* This bill undertook to remove the capital itself to Douglas City.
-Ed.
120 NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Wyandotte convention, and to proceed quietly, "as it
would only create an unnecessary issue in southern Kansas
at the time, were it freely talked of *.«
On the 12th day of July, 1859, the following Nebraska
men were admitted to seats on the floor of the Wyandotte
constitutional convention, then in session, as honorary
members, with the privilege of participating in the dis-
cussion of the northern boundary of the state of Kansas,
but not to vote: Stephen F. Nuckolls, Mills S. Reeves,
Robert W. Furnas, Obadiah B. Hewett, Wilham W. Keeling,
Samuel A. Chambers, Wm. H. Taylor, Stephen B. Miles,
John H. Croxton, John H. Cheever, John B. Bennet and
Jacob Dawson. In the archives of the State Historical
Society we find the original application of the Nebraska
people signed by Mills S. Reeves, John B. Bennet, Wm.
H. Taylor, Samuel A. Chambers and Stephen B. Miles.
On the 15th the Nebraska delegates were heard, and
on the 16th during the consideration of the west boundary
line of the state of Kansas, William C. McDowell of Leaven-
worth, a democratic member, moved the following amend-
ment:
"Pro\dded however, that if the people of southern
Nebraska embraced between the Platte river and the
northern boundary of Kansas, as established by congress,
agree to the same, a vote is to be taken by them both upon
the question of boundar^^ and upon this constitution, at
the time this constitution is submitted to the people of
Kansas, and provided congress agree to the same, the
boundaries of the state of Kansas shall be as follows:
'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 with said parallel
* The writer of the article evidently supposed that J. Sterling Morton
was the author of the account in the History of Nebraska of the annexation
movement which he quotes from: whereas, as stated in the preface of the
volume quoted from, Albert Watkins is the sole author of the history;
that is, of the text and related foot notes. — Ed.
KANSAS-NEBRASKA BOUNDARY LINE 121
to the twenty-fourth meridian of longitude west from
Washington; thence north with said meridian to the middle
of the south fork of the Platte river; thence following the
main channel of said river to the middle of the Missouri
river; thence with the middle of the Missouri river to the
mouth of the Kansas river; thence south on the western
boundary line of the state of Missouri to the place of
beginning' ."
After a short parliamentary wrangle about separating
the north and west lines the convention voted that the
northern boundary remain unchanged.
The Nebraska City News, the organ of South Platte
sentiment, was furious over the result. I quote: "The
curious may wish to know why this rich boon was refused
by the Black Republican constitutional convention of
Kansas. It was for this reason: its acquisition, it was
believed by those worthies, would operate against their
party. They said South Platte Nebraska was democratic,
and that being added to northern Kansas, which is largely
democratic, would make Kansas a democratic state; would
deprive the Black Republican party of two United States
senators, a congressman and other officers. They were
dragooned into this position too by the Republican party
outside of Kansas. Kansas, they are determined at all
hazards, shall be an abolition state. "^
It was a great deal amid the sentiment and passion of
that hour to ask the free-soilers in the Wyandotte con-
vention following the struggles of the border as far south
as Fort Scott from 1855 to 1860, to go back on the people
south of the Kaw for an unknown quantity in southern
Nebraska. The delegates from Nebraska offered great
things in a material way, but politics cropped out every-
where, principally from outside of Kansas. There was no
politics then but the slavery issue. Solon 0. Thacher said:
^ Quoted in v. 1, p. 403, History of Nebraska, from the Nebraska
City News, August 6, 1859.— Ed.
122 NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
"Chief among their arguments was one meeting an ob-
jection which they supposed would be raised in conse-
quence of the political character of the country proposed to
be annexed; and we have been invoked by all the powers
of logic and rhetoric to ignore the political aspect of the
case — to lay aside whatever feelings might arise politically,
and look at the question dispassionately. Now, sir, I say
they urge an impossibility. Had these gentlemen from
southern Nebraska seen the sky lurid with flames of their
burning homes, the soil of their beautiful prairies crimson
with the blood of their brothers and fathers, or their wives
and children flying over the land for a place of refuge
from crime and outrage they would not think
of making such an appeal to us. . . Gentlemen must
remember that this is the first time in the history of Kansas
that southern Kansas has been represented in any delibera-
tive body. Think you, sir, that the people who have just
escaped from the prison house that has kept them so long
can desire to re-enter the clammy dungeon."
I have carefully looked through the files of several
of the Kansas newspapers of that period and I find a
singular indifference to the question of annexation. The
Topeka Tribune and the Leavenworth Herald very freely
supported it. The Lawrence Republican, T. Dwight
Thacher's paper, was strongly opposed to it. There was
little else considered then aside from slavery. The Le-
compton Democrat favored the dismemberment of both
Kansas and Nebraska and the formation of a new state
lying between Kansas and the Platte rivers. The Repub-
lican said this was hatched in Washington and nursed in
the Blue Lodges of Missouri. Annexation would make
southern Kansas a mere appendage to the north and com-
pletely at its mercy. The editor of the Republican made a
visit to southeastern Kansas and reported unanimous
opposition to the movement, that the people there neither
KANSAS-NEBRASKA BOUNDARY LINE 123
cared about nor knew the politics of the Nebraska men.
A portion of the Nebraska movement was to make another
state south of Kansas river to be called Neosho. In a
speech before the convention Solon 0. Thacher said that
three-fifths of the population of Kansas was south of the
Kansas river. The Platte gave no river frontage, and would
need an appropriation every year to make it navigable by
catfish and polliwogs, and the movement would give
Kansas four additional Missouri river counties north of
the Kansas river which would not be desirable. A singular
feature is that the free-soil legislature of 1859 petitioned for
annexation, while free-soilers in the constitutional con-
vention bitterly opposed it. The Lawrence Republican is
the only paper that handled the subject with vigor. I
quote as follows:
"The proposed measure, if accompHshed, would destroy
the community of interest which now exists between the
various portions of Kansas. Our people are bound together
as the people of no other new state ever were. Together
they have gone through one of the darkest and bloodiest
struggles for freedom that any people ever encountered;
together they have achieved the most significant and far-
reaching victory since the revolution; together they have
suffered — together triumphed! At this late day, after
the battle has been fought and won, and we are about to
enter upon the enjoyment of the fruits of our perilous
labors, we do not care to have introduced into our house-
hold a set of strangers who have had no community or
interest with us in the past, who have hardly granted us
the poor boon of their sympathy, and who even now speak
of the thrice honored and loved name of Kansas as a ' name
which is but the synonym of crime and blood!' (Extract
from a Nebraska City paper)."
On the 23d of July McDowell renewed the subject in
the Wyandotte convention by the following resolution:
"Resolved, that congress be memorialized to include
within the limits of the state of Kansas that part of southern
124 NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Nebraska lying between the northern boundary of the
territory of Kansas and the Platte river."
This was defeated on the same day by a vote of 19
for and 29 against. The democrats refused to sign the
constitution, and of those who did sign, four, S. D. Houston,
J. A. Middleton, L. R. Palmer and R. J. Porter, voted to
annex the South Platte country.
Senator Green of Missouri, in opposing the admission
of Kansas under the Wyandotte constitution, said that not
over two-sevenths of Kansas could be cultivated, that
"without this addition (south Nebraska) Kansas must be
weak, puerile, sickly, in debt and at no time capable of
sustaining herself."
In the United States senate on January 18, 1861, he
moved to strike out the proposed boundaries of Kansas
and insert the following:
"Beginning in the main channel of the north Fork of
the Platte river at a point where the twenty-fifth meridian
of longitude west from Washington crosses the same;
thence down and along said channel to its junction with
the main stream of the Platte; thence down and along
the main channel of the Platte to the Missouri river;
thence south along said river and the western boundary
of the state of Missouri to the northern boundary of the
Cherokee neutral land; thence west along said northern
boundary the northern [southern] boundary of the Osage
lands, and the prolongation of the same, to the twenty-
fifth meridian of longitude west of Washington; thence
north on said meridian to the place of beginning."
This was defeated by a vote of 23 yeas to 31 nays, a
greater number of the yeas being those who opposed the
admission of Kansas under any circumstances. In support
of this proposition Senator Green said:
"It will be observed by an examination of the con-
stitution adopted at Wyandotte, now pending before the
senate, that about one-third of the territory of Kansas is
cut off on the west. That includes the Pike's Peak region.
KANSAS-NEBRASKA BOUNDARY LINE 125
where the first gold discovery was made, including the
Gregory mines, and so on, cutting off that space of territory,
which none of the other constitutions ever did. Owing to
the character of the country that reduces it to too small a
compass to constitute a good state. The gross area is
about eighty thousand square miles; but the portion
susceptible of settlement and habitation will not exceed
forty thousand; and the best authority I have reduces it
to thirty thousand out of eighty thousand square miles.
After we pass west of the Missouri river, except upon a
few streams, there is no territory fit for settlement or
habitation. It is unproductive. It is like a barren waste.
It will not even support cattle or sheep, or anything per-
taining to the grazing business. There are no mineral
resources in the state to supply any want of agricultural
resources. Hence I propose to enlarge the boundary, not
upon the west, but to take the present western boundary
and prolong it northerly up to the Platte river; and then
follow the line of the river to its junction with the Missouri
line, and follow the Missouri line down. It will add to the
territory about thirty thousand square miles, about two-
thirds of which will be susceptible of settlement. It will
then make a good, strong, substantial state. I have the
privilege to state, in this connection, that nine-tenths of
the people south of the Platte, in what is now called
Nebraska, desire this annexation to Kansas."
In the further discussion of the bill for admission,
Stephen A. Douglas, January 19, 1861, summed up the
trouble as follows:
" There is no necessity for delaying this bill as it would
be delayed by the adoption of the amendment. The senator
from Missouri well knows that this Kansas question has
been here for years, and no consideration on earth could
suffice to stop it in this body three years ago, when it
came under the Lecompton constitution. It was not
stopped then to be amended for the want of judiciary or
any other clauses; but it was forced through. We are
told first, that Kansas must be kept out because her north-
ern boundary is not right, when it is the same now as it
was then; next, that she must be kept out because the
126 NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
southern boundary is not right, though it is the same now