The Way West

Before there was an official Kansas Territory the larger area including present-day Kansas was known as Nebraska Territory.

The organization of Nebraska Territory began with U. S. Congressman Stephen A. Douglas in 1844. Prior to that time the country west of Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas was generally referred to as “The Indian Country.”

Douglas envisioned a large belt of land through the center of Indian Country he called Nebraska. His great hope was that the nation’s first transcontinental railroad would be built through the Platte River valley of his “Nebraska Territory.”

To the south, the Kansa tribe and the Kansas River lent the name of “Kansas” to Nebraska’s central portion lying west of the City of Kansas on the Missouri River.

Douglas argued that the greatest barrier to settlement of Nebraska was the static border of Indian Country west of the previously mentioned states.

“Should not this barrier be broken down ... [or] are our railroads and highways to the Pacific there to end?”

A second bill proposed organization of a line of protective military posts on the road to California and Oregon. Douglas envisioned “a continuous line of settlements from the Mississippi to the Pacific,” supported by a modern railroad with telegraph communications.

By 1847 Douglas was a U.S. senator. Across the west new lands were brought under U.S. control following the Mexican War. The old issue of slavery as it applied to the new territories became a contentious issue. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 that designated legal slavery in southern states could not reasonably be applied across the great expanse. The dispute brought heated and divisive debate to Congress.

Henry Clay led negotiations to find a settlement. With the support of Sen. Douglas, a set of bills known as the Compromise of 1850 defused the discordant Congress. The compromise allowed self-determination in the question of slavery as states entered the Union.

In 1852 newspaper editors and engaged citizens took up the cause for Nebraska to be organized for settlement.

Just north of Kansas City at Parkville, Mo., residents convened a public meeting on June 17 “to petition Congress for the organization of the Territory of Nebraska.

The petition recognized that “the limits of the United States have been extended to the shores of the Pacific Ocean,” including Oregon, California, Utah and New Mexico.

Therefore, the “open space between the two flanks of civilization,” should be made available to the many thousands of citizens emigrating over “lands of great fertility” which were withheld from settlement “under existing circumstances.”

The petition found it necessary to “extinguish” Indian title to the land in deference to settlement by American citizens who were expected to bring civilization to the “dreary and waste” of an undeveloped land. The petition suggested that “domiciling the Indians,” on small parcels of land meant for “cultivation,” would be the proper course of action.

An eventual Nebraska bill was introduced into Congress during the winter of 1852-53. The bill passed in the House of Representatives, but was defeated in the Senate. However, momentum was growing in the west.

At the Wyandot Council House (present-day Kansas City, Kan.) “citizens of Nebraska Territory” met July 26, 1853, to begin the formation of a territorial government.

At Kickapoo village, four miles north of Fort Leavenworth, a meeting was held Sept. 20 to draft resolutions that included organization of Nebraska Territory, stipulating organization only after negotiations had been completed concerning Indian land title. These actions created great excitement on the frontier, but the proceedings that had been convened without legal authorization were largely ignored by Congress.

On Jan. 9-10, 1854, several hundred “border agitators” met at St. Joseph, Mo., for a Nebraska Delegate Convention. Although invited, Stephen Douglas was unable to attend. He sent a letter outlining his efforts to bring Nebraska Territory to fruition. He reiterated his most important points. The “Indian barrier” to the west needed to be eliminated for the country to achieve greatness as an “Ocean-bound Republic.”

Douglas insisted that railroads, telegraph communications, and continuous settlement from the Atlantic to the Pacific must be demanded by the public at large. Douglas complained that the great national controversy over slavery was consuming the nation and diverting public attention away from the importance of building a prosperous nation. In closing, Douglas hoped that the Compromise of 1850 would bring the slavery issue to an acceptable conclusion.

The convention passed resolutions and produced a document similar to that of the 1852 petition. Stephen Douglas had toiled for 10 years to realize the dream of making one nation by populating the unorganized open spaces. The elements of territorial organization were taking shape as all eyes turned to the promise of settlement of new lands of great fertility on The Way West.

The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.