November 29, 1854 . . . Kansas Election For Territorial Delegate

The Kansas election for territorial delegate to Congress, November 29, 1854, was an exciting incident in the tragic Kansas-Missouri border war. Missouri, a peninsula of slave territory in a sea of free states, was jubilant over passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the consequent repeal of the Missouri Compromise, May 30, 1854. The radical abolitionists received the act as evidence that the slave interests could not be beaten in legislative halls and prepared to carry the conflict to the Kansas prairies. The New England Immigrant Aid Society and similar settlement companies were formed to secure Kansas as a free state.

Missourians, possessing some 100,000 slaves worth about $35,000,000, became alarmed. They considered the fertile plains of Kansas as theirs and looked upon the organization of settlement companies as a northern capitalistic attempt to seize their property. Public meetings were held in various Missouri towns, and July 29, 1854, the Platte County Self Defensive Association was organized in Weston, and other secret societies were formed in western Missouri. David R. Atchison, Sam Young, Claiborne Fox Jackson, James Burns, and B.F. Stringfellow were active agitators and Missourians prepared to hold Kansas by peaceful means if possible, by force if necessary.

Missouri settlers began to stake out claims in Kansas as early as May 1854. Free-soilers began to arrive in August, and by November people from all parts of the nation were moving into the territory.

Andrew H. Reeder, Territorial Governor of Kansas, set November 29 as the date for an election to select the territorial delegate to Congress. Messengers were sent through western Missouri, and November 28, large numbers of Missourians were moving into Kansas to vote. They took possession of the polls in many precincts and voted unanimously for J.W. Whitfield, a resident of Jackson County, Missouri. A congressional investigation showed that 61 percent of the votes cast in Kansas as a whole were illegal. However, Whitfield received a majority of the legal votes and was declared elected. Missourians were elated and proclaimed that southerners might safely bring their slaves and settle in Kansas.

For primary source material on the controversial election and the Kansas-Missouri border war see: