MAN of DOUGLAS, MAN of LINCOLN: the POLITICAL ODYSSEY of JAMES HENRY LANE Ian Michael Spurgeon University of Southern Mississippi
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The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Summer 8-2007 MAN OF DOUGLAS, MAN OF LINCOLN: THE POLITICAL ODYSSEY OF JAMES HENRY LANE Ian Michael Spurgeon University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Military History Commons, Political History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Spurgeon, Ian Michael, "MAN OF DOUGLAS, MAN OF LINCOLN: THE POLITICAL ODYSSEY OF JAMES HENRY LANE" (2007). Dissertations. 1293. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1293 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi MAN OF DOUGLAS, MAN OF LINCOLN: THE POLITICAL ODYSSEY OF JAMES HENRY LANE by Ian Michael Spurgeon A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Studies Office of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: August 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COPYRIGHT BY IAN MICHAEL SPURGEON 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The University of Southern Mississippi MAN OF DOUGLAS, MAN OF LINCOLN: THE POLITICAL ODYSSEY OF JAMES HENRY LANE by Ian Michael Spurgeon Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Studies Office of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT MAN OF DOUGLAS, MAN OF LINCOLN: THE POLITICAL ODYSSEY OF JAMES HENRY LANE by Ian Michael Spurgeon August 2007 In 1855, former Indiana congressman James Henry Lane entered Kansas territory determined to take a leading political role during the controversial quest for statehood. Over the next twelve years, his career seemed to follow an irregular, inconsistent path of ideologies and actions. He had supported Stephen Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, but later fell out with the Democratic party. During the Kansas territorial period, he became a leading political and military figure in the extralegal Free State movement, joined the Republican party, championed Abraham Lincoln, and became one of the new state’s first senators. When civil war erupted across the nation, Lane led destructive raids into Missouri, advocated abolition, and joined radicals in promoting black military service. Yet, after the war, Lane backed Andrew Johnson’s opposition to the Radicals in Congress and their Civil Rights bill. Historians have largely portrayed Lane as either an unprincipled opportunist, demagogue, and radical, who acted only in ways to promote his own career, or a hero and noble (though tragic) convert to the Republican and antislavery folds. However, both approaches are only two-dimensional. This study endeavors to look at Lane three-dimensionally. As a result, he is seen as a man who cannot be labeled so easily. This dissertation argues that Lane did have guiding principles, that he was surprisingly consistent to those principles, and that apparent contradictions during his ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. political career were primarily understandable responses to external events. James Lane maintained a strong devotion to democratic principles, and a great concern for the integrity of the Union and of his political party. Overall, while James Lane was certainly an ambitious politician, he labored to protect his guiding principles during the nation’s most trying periods. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank committee chairman Dr. Brad Bond for his guidance during my doctoral program, and especially for his confidence and assurances during the dissertation process. I would also like to thank the rest of the committee, Dr. Greg O’Brien, Dr. Phyllis Jestice, Dr. Kyle Zelner, and Dr. Andrew Wiest, for providing an excellent historical education and variety of historical skills, all of which have hopefully come together into shaping me into a competent historian. Special thanks go to the archivists, librarians and researchers (of which there are too many to name) at the Kansas State Historical Society, the Spencer Research Library at The University of Kansas, the National Archives and the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and the Indiana State Historical Society for their help in finding various primary material. I would like to particularly thank Erin Sloan and the rest of the staff at the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at The University of Oklahoma for their extreme kindness and efforts to aid in my research. Though my visit to the center was brief, I will always remember their helpfulness and professionalism. Finally, I must thank my wife, my parents and my wife’s parents, who have all supported me throughout the doctoral process and made this degree and this dissertation possible. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................................................................................iv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 1 I. LANE IN INDIANA, 1854-1855.................................................................. 21 II. LANE GOES TO KANSAS, 1855................................................................44 III. LANE AND THE KANSAS MEMORIAL, 1856........................................ 77 IV. LANE’S ARMY OF THE NORTH, 1856...................................................103 V. LANE AND LECOMPTON, 1857.............................................................. 128 VI. LANE AND THE LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION, 1858...............155 VII. LANE’S POLITICAL COMEBACK, 1858-1861......................................174 VIII. LANE AND THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1862.. ..199 IX. LANE AND SLAVERY, 1861-1865..........................................................228 X. LANE AND THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1866...................... 255 CONCLUSION........................................................................................ 287 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................290 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 INTRODUCTION “Senators, we hear, must be politicians—and politicians must be concerned only with winning votes, not with statesmanship or courage,” wrote John F. Kennedy in the introduction to his Pulitzer Prize winning workProfiles in Courage} No better example of this popular belief can be found than in the case of James Henry Lane of Kansas (1814-1866). Indeed, this tragic figure of territorial and Civil War Kansas has become known as one of America’s notorious nineteenth-century politicians. His fiery stump speeches and radical ideas carried him to the United States Senate, yet created a veritable army of critics. Furthermore, his transition from a pro-Douglas Democrat and supporter of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 to a prominent Free State leader in Kansas and associate of rabid abolitionist John Brown by 1856 to a “radical” Republican and friend of Abraham Lincoln in 1861 to a “conservative” Republican and supporter of Andrew Johnson in 1866 seems to suggest a concern for votes typical among professional politicians. Yet, assumptions can be wrong. Kennedy did not defend the negative stereotypes of politicians, but challenged them. It is time someone challenged what “we hear” about James Lane. What we read about Lane today has been heavily influenced by his unforgettable appearance and dynamic personality. Lane’s mastery of western stump speaking became legendary in Kansas and across much of the nation in the years leading to the Civil War. His long, slender frame—reaching at least six feet in length—carried a sharply defined, and most often beardless, face punctuated by deep, piercing eyes. A receding hairline 1 John F. Kennedy,Profiles in Courage (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 1998), 18. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. exposed a smooth and prominent forehead crowned by wild shocks of hair pointing to the sky in various directions. If Lane’s words electrified a crowd, they certainly seemed to electrify him as well. He could sway an audience like an orchestra director, exciting their senses and emotions. He ranged from low, guttural growls to high shrieks as he lectured fellow Americans on the most pressing matters of the day, pointing a long boney finger towards the crowd for effect, and gazing at them with those powerful eyes. As his speech wanned up, Lane was known to partially undress himself, like a man preparing for a street fight.