Speculative Activities of the Emigrant Aid Company

by Russel K. Hickman

August 1935 (Vol. 4, No. 3), pages 235 to 267 Transcribed by lhn; additional HTML by Susan Stafford; digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society.

THE Kansas struggle had as a background a sharp contest of two civilizations for possession of the land. Back of all the tumult and shouting was this elemental conflict between two economic systems, in either of which control of the land was the first essential for success. One was typified to a high degree by the slaveholding Missourian of the fertile Missouri frontier, [1] the other by the enterprising Yankee, or his western descendant who had turned farmer. Back of the invasions of the Missourians into Kansas territory was more than once a claim dispute with tragic results, which became a rallying cry of the Proslavery party of Missouri. [2] The North, not to be outdone by the South, was by 1856 engaging in similar organized invasions on a large scale, and endeavoring to hold strategic centers for the cause of freedom. [3] In this struggle the South was at a great disadvantage, as it lacked the fluid capital of the North, while the market value of slave property in a rough-and-tumble Kansas frontier settlement was extremely uncertain. [4] Concerted efforts were nevertheless made by the western Missouri frontiersmen early in 1854 to "stake a claim in the territory," whether they intended to reside there immediately or not. [5] When they heard of the formation of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, a "vast moneyed corporation" formed to transport "hirelings" from the Eastern "brothels," and seize the fertile lands near their very firesides, their anger knew no bounds, and they began to organize to

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control the polls, to "beat the Yankee at his own game." [6] Unfortunately for them, they could turn to no organization comparable to the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, and its successor, the New England Emigrant Aid Company, which could "let capital be the pioneer."

The plan of artificially promoting emigration to new and unsettled lands was not a new one, being in substance followed by land companies in our earlier history. Not long after the Revolution two classes of dealers in land had made their appearance-the speculator or "land jobber," who aimed primarily at a "quick turnover" and a large profit on as small an investment as possible; and the "land developer," who bought large tracts for the purpose of long-time investment, and might then try to "hurry civilization" by various improvements and inducements aimed to obtain and hold settlers. [7] The characteristic American disease of land hunger, or "terraphobia," however, usually led the promoters to overemphasize quick sales at the expense of true development, and with the unlimited expanse of cheap lands to the west, was a factor in making the panics of the nineteenth century more severe. In these plans there appears to have been in the past little effort to consciously control the political destiny of any particular region, prior to the advent of the Emigrant Aid Company. [8] This organization (including both the Massachusetts and the New England companies), was the first to unite on a large scale the objects of investment in land and freedom in the territories, to be attained by a plan of promoted emigration. [9] The Rev. Edward Everett Hale, in 1845 a youthful minister in Washington, was very unfavorably impressed by the admission of Texas, and wrote a pamphlet entitled How to Conquer Texas Before Texas Conquers Us, appealing for the immediate settlement of Texas by the North. [10] Hale was one of the first to associate himself with Eli Thayer in the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, but

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disclaimed all credit for originating the plan, and gave full credit to Thayer. "He conceived the scheme, he arranged the working details of it, and by his comprehension and ingenious combinations so adjusted it, in the beginning, that to practical men it has always seemed an eminently practical affair." [11]

In the struggle to exclude slavery from the territories, the North should not give up in despair, Eli Thayer argued. By forming a moneyed corporation Northern emigrants could be gathered into companies and "planted" at points favorably situated to win the new territory of Kansas for freedom. The settler would be well rewarded in the increased comforts of civilization, and the stockholders would receive a comfortable dividend on their investments. What more could be asked for? When in a short space of time Kansas was free, turn to the border South, and colonize it similarly. [12] By investing money a contributor could plant a saw mill and a steam engine in Kansas. The snort of the steam engine (Instead of the crack of the blacksnake), would signalize the victory of free labor over slavery. "Saw-mills and Liberty!" became a slogan of Thayer, which was widely proclaimed in the New England press. [13]

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In response to the petition of Thayer and colleagues the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company was incorporated in April, 1854, under the laws of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its charter stated the purpose was that of "assisting emigrants to settle in the West." [14] Its capital stock was limited to five millions of dollars, to be divided into shares of $100 each. The literature of the company argued that the defrauding of emigrants could be avoided by organizing them in groups and locating them properly in the unsettled territories of the West, thereby removing the surplus of both native inhabitants and foreign immigrants. [15] The settler would be enabled to migrate more cheaply and in better manner, and his actual settlement in the West would be facilitated by the erection of temporary boardinghouses, and steam sawmills and gristmills, by the company. The company would reserve only those sections in which the boardinghouses and mills were located, but as they would become the centers of the new territory the consequent rise in property values at these points would enable the trustees to dispose of their holdings when the territory entered the Union as a free state, at a profit to the company. A market would be opened in the West for Eastern products. The troubled question of freedom or slavery in the territories would thus be settled in less time than it had taken in congress, and in a decisive manner. [16]

Because the stockholders became afraid they might be held individually responsible for their investments, the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company never functioned. To correct the defect the New England Emigrant Aid Company was formed in July, 1854, but was not incorporated until the following February. To make provision for the interim, action was vested in the trustees-Eli

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Thayer, Amos A. Lawrence, and Moses H. Grinnell (later J. M. S. William-) acting under private articles of association. [17] These trustees continued as the chief directive force in the New England Emigrant Aid Company, thereby achieving a unified and continuous course of action under both the temporary and permanent companies. [18] The capital stock of the "permanent" company was limited to a million dollars, with a paper capitalization of $200,000, consisting of ten thousand shares of $20 each, par value. Its announced purpose, like that of its predecessor, was that of "directing emigration westward, and aiding and providing accommodations after arriving at their place of destination." [19]

The plan of action which was followed quite consistently by the company. [20] was formulated by a committee appointed at a meeting of the incorporators early in May, 1854. [21] It was the belief of this committee, as stated in its report, that as soon as subscriptions to the stock amounted to a million dollars the annual income from this, with later subscriptions, might "be so appropriated as to render most essential services to the emigrants; to plant a free state in Kansas, to the lasting advantage of the country, and to render a handsome profit to the stockholders upon their investment . . . ." [22] The directors were advised to contract immediately for the conveyance of 20,000 persons from the Northern and Middle states to the point selected for the first settlement, to be forwarded in companies of 200, at reduced rates of travel. [23] Where settlements were planned,

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a boardinghouse or receiving house should be constructed, to accommodate temporarily 300 emigrants while they were locating a place of settlement. Steam sawmills and other machines needed in a new settlement, which could not be easily bought by individual settlers, were to be forwarded by the company, to be leased or run by its agents. A weekly newspaper would be the organ of the company. The report specifically noted:

4th. It is recommended that the company's agents locate and take up for the company's benefit the sections of land in which the boardinghouses and mills are located, and no others. And further, that whenever the territory shall be organized as a free state the directors shall dispose of all its interests, then replace, by the sales, the money laid out, declare a dividend to the stockholders, and

5th. That they then select a new field, and make similar arrangements for the settlement and organization of another free state of this Union.

Under the plan proposed it will be but two or three years before the company can dispose of its property in the territory first occupied, and reimburse itself for its first expenses. At that time, in a state of 70,000 inhabitants, it will possess several reservations of 640 acres each, on which are boardinghouses and mills, and the churches and schools which it has rendered necessary. From these centers will the settlements of the state have radiated. In other words, these points will then be the large commercial positions of the new state. If there were only one such, its value, after the region should be so far peopled, would make a very large dividend to the company which sold it, besides restoring the original capital with which to enable it to attempt the same adventure elsewhere. [24]

It was, in brief, a plan to tame the frontier and introduce at least some of the amenities of civilization in advance of the settler, by a judicious investment of capital. "Let capital be the pioneer." [25]

During the years 1854-1855 the Emigrant Aid Company passed through a period of severe economic trial. There was a lack of agreement within the company as to the proper course to be followed. Should the aim of making Kansas and the territories free

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be followed to the exclusion, in large measure, of the hope for profit? If so, it would be largely a charitable organization. But regardless of the answer to this question there was the even more pressing one as to where the finances were to be obtained to meet the running expenses of the company and support its agents in Kansas. Eli Thayer best typified the profit motive in the company, and Amos A. Lawrence the one of charity. The entire career of Thayer substantiates the conclusion that the profit motive was a leading one in his life, and that even his hopes of reform had a silver lining. There is, in fact, reason for the belief that if the Missouri Compromise had not been repealed Thayer would nevertheless have projected some kind of emigrant aid company, but when the Nebraska issue became the great one of the day he immediately placed his project in the Nebraska spotlight. [26] In his volume The Kansas Crusade Thayer discusses this problem under the heading "Charity vs. Business in Missionary Enterprise." His original plan had been, he says, to conduct a company on orthodox business principles, "able to make good dividends to its stockholders annually, and at its close, a full return of all the money originally invested . . . ." [27] This would have meant the location of towns wherever advisable, and investment in Missouri as well as Kansas land. He advised the purchase of land in Kansas City, but this was blocked by his associates.

The main objection of my associates to my original plan of a money-making company was a fear that people might say that we were influenced by pecuniary considerations in our patriotic work for Kansas. Therefore, they did not desire any return for any money invested. So we went on the charity plan, and were never one-half so efficient as we would have been by the other method, and were fully twice as long in determining the destiny of Kansas." [28]

Thayer said in another passage:

I had not then, and have not now, the slightest respect for that pride in charity which excludes from great philanthropic enterprise the strength and the effectiveness of money making . . . . Why is it worse for a company to make money by extending Christianity than by making cotton cloth? . . The truth is, that the highest civilization is the greatest creator of wealth. She is the

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modern Midas, with power to turn everything she touches into gold. Properly equipped, and with proper direction, she will conquer and supplant any inferior condition of men. . . [29]

Amos A. Lawrence, on the contrary, regarded the company as an organization formed primarily to attain a great political and philanthropic goal. He never expected it to pay dividends, and doubted that the stockholders would ever see their money again. He wrote to Professor Packard of Bowdoin:

The shape in which it is presented is objectionable, that is, as a stock company, and it imposes on those who manage it the responsibility of making dividends or of becoming odious. It was with great reluctance that I meddled with it at all; but it was just about dying for want of concerted action and for want of money and business knowledge on the part of those who had started it. [30]

He advised a clergyman who questioned him concerning investing in the stock of the company:

Keep your money for your own use, rather than do anything of that sort. The value of land stock companies is the most delusive of all stocks. . . . Some of my coadjutors in this enterprise would, if they had the money, invest large sums in the stock, but fortunately the sanguine ones who have property are all in debt, and the poorer ones must rest content. I have taken considerable, but only so much as I am willing to contribute to the cause; and I have already given a part of this away, and intend to do the same with the balance. [31]

Lawrence opposed from the start the plan to make the company a speculative concern, and in effect announced his position publicly. [32] He objected in no uncertain terms to the proposal to purchase real estate in Kansas City to the amount of $28,000, as "contrary to the articles of agreement which we have signed as trustees, and by which we are prevented from making any expenditure beyond the amount of funds actually in our hands," and as being "for the purpose of

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speculating, to make a profit, and is not necessary in order to accomplish the object for which the society was formed. It is using the good name of the company to create a rise in value in the neighborhood of our purchases," [33] and might place the trustees in an unfavorable light. He regarded it extremely doubtful that such property could ever be sold for cash. Lawrence actively opposed the views of Thayer, writing confidentially in October, 1854: "His views are very different from mine, and he states them as though they were a part of the plan of the society; and I requested him not to do so; but if he promulgated them at all, to say that they are his own." [34] Lawrence differed with Thayer in regard to the hope for profit, to the plan of Thayer to free the slave states in the near future, and to the practice of making large promises to gain emigrants, promises which could not be fulfilled. [35]

Which of these views predominated in the early years of the company? It appears that the influence of Thayer was considerably

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more powerful, but that it was greatly toned down to obtain the cooperation of Lawrence and those opposing speculation, while as time went on, the company was increasingly indebted to Lawrence, who was always ready, as a last resort, to underwrite its activities, when finances could not be obtained elsewhere. [36] From its earliest history the company began to invest in Kansas property with the hope of ultimate gain. This hope was well expressed by the executive committee late in 1855: "The executive committee therefore feel warranted in saying, it is rendered certain that at no very distant day the stockholders may have returned to them the whole amount subscribed, and it is probable that they will receive in addition a large dividend." In addition to the securing of freedom to Kansas, was "the great probability, almost certainty of realizing a large profit on the investments already worth more than the whole stock subscriptions." However, such "estimates of pecuniary profit are based on the probability of the success of the efforts of our friends in making Kanzas a Free State." [37]

The Emigrant Aid Company probably would have succumbed from financial troubles during the early years of its existence, save for the timely aid given it by Lawrence. While the original company had announced great plans for a five-million dollar concern, it was soon decided to begin operations when a million dollars had been subscribed. [38] After the original charter was abandoned, and the final New England Company projected, it was decided that a capital of $200,000 would be sufficient. [39] At the meetings in Chapman hall, Boston, Thayer appealed for action to save freedom on the Kansas prairies, stressed the commercial and industrial disadvantages of slavery, [40] and obtained a number of important subscriptions, notably those of J. M. S. Williams and Charles Francis Adams. Later at New York he obtained the powerful aid of Horace Greeley and the New York Tribune, and additional subscriptions. [41] Yet, in general, sales of stock were hard to make, and cash in hand,

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which was so much needed to carry on operations in Kansas, was even harder to obtain. The trustees, who then constituted the acting company, had signed articles of agreement preventing them from making any expenditures beyond the amount of funds actually in their hands. [42] They were consequently in a grave quandary by late summer, 1854, with no available stock subscriptions, "since we cannot make any assessment until the sum of $50,000 is subscribed, and now we have barely $20,000, and from the efforts which have been made we must infer that the stock, like all stock in land companies, is looked on with distrust . . . ," [43] or that other reasons prevented subscriptions. In this predicament Lawrence advised that each of the trustees take an additional $10,000 subscription, and thereby attain the working capital of $50,000. [44] Yet in November, 1854, only $12,731 had been received into the treasury, and about twice that amount subscribed, on which a half had been assessed. [45] Early in 1855 important meetings were held in New England in the interest of the company and Kansas, but the financial returns were disappointing. At. these meetings Thayer stressed the hope of profit from the investments in Kansas, as was his custom. [46] The financial embarrassment of the company continued, and early in March Lawrence wrote: "A crisis has arrived in the affairs of the Emigrant Aid Company, and the whole fabric must come down with a crash

unless we have energy enough to avert it." Pomeroy would be forced to suspend all operations, unless money could be ob-

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tained. [47] The executive committee considered the subject at an April meeting, relieved Pomeroy, but did little to solve the riddle. [48] Pomeroy addressed the first annual meeting of the company at Boston on June 1, and praised its technique in planting towns in the territory. Soon thereafter he began a series of speeches through New England, in which he appealed for money to send sawmills to the settlers, and for subscription to the company's stock. [49] Nevertheless, Lawrence continued to advance money, and became increasingly irritated at the method in which business was carried on in the territory. In September he wrote to C. H. Branscomb:

It appears to me that the plan of conducting operations in Kanzas with borrowed capital, and incurring debts which cannot be paid without further loans is not a good one. If, as in some kinds of business, the property acquired were convertible into cash, it would not be so liable to objections; but we have very little which can be thus converted. [50]

Apparently in order to sever his connection with the financial morass into which the company was sinking, Lawrence, on September 26, 1855, handed in his resignation from the position of treasurer. [51] No action appears to have been taken by the executive committee, whose members probably hoped that he would reconsider his move. Early in October Lawrence wrote more urgently: "As I have resigned my place as treasurer some way must be devised or the company must go to the wall. [52] While still in this state of suspense, he continued to pay in an individual way, drafts on the company. [53] Some sort of an agreement must have been effected, as Lawrence

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retained his position. Later in the fall Thayer came to his aid with a new plan, to meet the crisis. [54]

At the meeting of the executive committee late in the fall of 1855 it was made clear that the funds of the company were exhausted, and that Lawrence had advanced heavily of his own resources. Some of the committee were much discouraged, and repented having adopted the "charity" plan, Thayer states. Thayer proposed an immediate campaign for funds among the "friends of freedom" in New York, and left immediately on this mission. In that city he conferred with Simeon Draper and George W. Blunt, who called a meeting of prominent and wealthy men, to whom Thayer made a special appeal. [55] A series of meetings in New York and Brooklyn rewarded Thayer and his assistant, C. H. Branscomb, with a number of large subscriptions, among which those of Horace B. Claflin and Rollin Sanford were notable. [56] Henry Ward Beecher's congregation also contributed liberally, as did William Cullen Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post. Thayer continued his campaign into the early spring of 1856, when he returned to his customary work of raising colonies. [57] The immediate crisis to the company had then passed, and the troubles in Kansas, coupled with the interest in the election of Fremont, brought indirectly a new interest in the company. [58]

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The early literature of the company stressed the plan to transport emigrants, but the records of the company do not indicate any income from this source. Investment in sawmills and gristmills, to be rented or sold to the settlers, offered a better hope for income or profit. The original plan of action provided that the company forward the steam sawmills and gristmills needed in its pioneer communities, to be run or leased by its agents. The pioneers themselves could not be expected to furnish such products of capital, it was argued. Thayer and the representatives of the company greatly emphasized the importance of such machinery, whereby free labor could multiply itself, and make sure a victory over slavery. [59] By the fall of 1855 the company could report a mill in each of its five settlements, although no doubt they were not all in operation. [60] So anxious were the settlers to obtain these mills for their communities that they were frequently willing to pledge the company a share of the townsite in return. [61] This service would have been of signal benefit to the settlers if the company had been able to furnish the mills quickly, and keep them in good order, but the lack of ready finances, coupled at times with poor management in the territory, more than once defeated the plan. Thus 1854 passed with no mill in operation in Lawrence, and none in the entire territory. [62] When mills finally were obtained the agents had difficulty in keeping them running properly, and further trouble in collecting the rents when due.

As a part of the plan to transport emigrants to Kansas, the company planned a series of hotels and receiving houses, to provide

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temporary shelter. In 1854 the chief hotel at Kansas City was purchased, at a reported cost of $10,000. [63] In 1855 the Free State hotel at Lawrence was erected as a receiving depot for emigrants, at an estimated cost of over $15,000. [64] By May, 1856, the company claimed to have spent $96,956.01 in Kansas, of which by far the largest part. had gone for the two hotels, and for engines and mills. [65]

The plans of the company centered upon speculations in real estate, particularly in the towns which their emigrants had had a leading part in founding. The project for a future income or profit of this nature was emphasized, particularly by Thayer and Pomeroy, in the meetings in New England and the East. It was kept much more quiet in the territory, but was well known by the leading men, and many others as well. This was more than once brought forward, particularly by the Proslavery party and their colleagues in Missouri, as a general condemnation of the company. [66] Clause four of the plan of operation provided that: "It is recommended that the company's agents locate and take up for the company's benefit the sections of land in which the boarding houses and mills are located, and no others," [67] such properties to be disposed of whenever the territory became a free state, and a dividend declared to the stockholders. This plan was put in effect at the first settlement of the company, at Lawrence, and was consistently followed thereafter. [68] In 1855 the towns of Topeka, Osawatomie, Manhattan, Hampden,

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and Wabaunsee were established. [69] By the close of that year the company estimated its real estate in the towns of Lawrence, Manhattan, Topeka, and Osawatomie (exclusive of mill properties, hotels, buildings, lumber, horses, etc.), at the book value of $31,100. [70]

No consistent rule was followed in determining the proportion of a town site to be held by the company. At times the original amount was reduced by the town companies at later meetings. It has been pointed out that in Lawrence the share of the Emigrant Aid Company was reduced from a half of the original town site to a fourth, and in the spring of 1855 to ten of the 220 shares of the town stock (two of these in trust for a university). [71] At Topeka the original agreement gave the company a sixth of the lots "as a consideration for the erection of a mill, a schoolhouse, receiving house, etc. ," [72] but this was later reduced to one thirty-sixth. At Osawatomie, on the other hand, the original proportion of a third of the town site was retained by the company. [73] Much discretion seems to have been left in this regard to the bargaining ability of the Kansas agents, Pomeroy, Robinson, Branscomb, and Conway, [74] who were expected to follow the accepted business practice, and do the best possible for the company, in their execution of its instructions.

The year 1856 was one of transition in the history of the company. The increased sale of stock subscriptions, coupled with the greatly increased popular interest in the work of the organization, appear to have given new hope of attaining the main objectives-freedom in the territory, and a dividend to the stockholders. [75] The troubles resulting from the incursions of the Missourians, with the blockade of the Missouri, put a temporary check upon business, but the ar-

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rival of Gov. John W. Geary brought a restoration of order in the fall. The company had suffered a large loss in the destruction of the Free-State hotel, but nevertheless it continued its program of investment, even though collections were not easy to make in the territory, and few sales had been completed. [76] The events of the year showed the value a well-located town on the Missouri river would be to the Free-State party and its friends at a distance. Charles Robinson was a leading promoter of the newly projected town of Quindaro, on the Missouri, three miles below Parkville, Mo. Early in January, 1857, Robinson was in Boston in the interest of Quindaro. The company purchased ten shares of Quindaro stock and made plans to aid in its development. [77] It was announced that $500,000 had already been subscribed for investment, and that a hotel, sawmill, gristmill, machine shop, and paper mill would be constructed. [78] With such evident "puffing," Quindaro enjoyed a transitory boom, later to pass into oblivion.

In 1857 the company invested in several Wyandot floats, to safeguard the title to its properties. Pomeroy had in 1855 urged the company to invest more extensively in these claims, as sure to bring returns, but the proposal was then declined, further than laying a

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float at Lawrence. [79] However, the need of surety of title came to be more clearly appreciated, as the stake of the company in the Free-State towns of the territory grew. Hence the Emigrant Aid Company, on its own initiative, or in cooperation with other town promoters, arranged from time to time to locate Wyandot floats on such towns as Lawrence, West Lawrence, Manhattan, Topeka, and Burlington. [80]

Simultaneous with the investment in Quindaro, the company embarked on several additional town projects. Early in January, 1857, Pomeroy was instructed to sell one of the small mills at Kansas City for not less than $3,000, and take as large a share as possible in Wyandotte. [81] Late in December, 1856, the boot, shoe and leather dealers of Boston and vicinity, at an adjourned meeting, agreed to subscribe for $20,000 of the stock of the Emigrant Aid Company. As a reward they were given the privilege of naming two new towns in Kansas, after their principal contributors, William Claflin and T. J. E. Batcheller. [82] Mr. Pomeroy was directed to obtain suitable locations for these projected towns, in Kansas, and appears to have had some difficulty.83 His general advice to give the preference to

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going towns rather than newly planted ones was finally followed, and the directors of the town of Madison, on Madison creek, were persuaded to rename their town Batcheller. The company agreed to erect a mill, [84] and obtained in return a mill site of five acres, and an eighth of the townsite. [85] Claflin, the second of these two towns, was located by arrangement with the proprietors of Mapleton, Bourbon county. A New England company had laid off the site in May, 1857, but it was later preempted by a company of westerners, and called Eldora. This was later changed to Mapleton, [86] and now, in the fall of 1857, it came under the financial tutelage of the Emigrant Aid Company, and was renamed Claflin. A mill was promised at an early date, but was not actually erected until 1859. [87]

The most important investment of the Emigrant Aid Company in 1857 was made in Atchison. The Quindaro site did not appear sufficient, as the executive committee early in March authorized Mr. Pomeroy to establish a town in Kansas on the Missouri river, as nearly opposite St. Joseph as possible, at an expense of not over $8,000. [88] About a month later Pomeroy wrote he was convinced that Atchison was the best townsite on the Missouri river above Quindaro. Mr. McBratney, agent of an emigrating company from Cincinnati, had made preliminary arrangements for the purchase of one half the townsite of 480 acres, including the chief paper, the Squatter Sovereign. Pomeroy cooperated with McBratney, and demanded further property adjacent to the town, both in Kansas and Missouri. P. T. Abell, of the town company, bound himself to obtain at least fifty-one of the original hundred shares, at $400 to $500

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each, which would give control to the Free-State party. [89] A little later Pomeroy wrote that the bargain had been consummated by McBratney and himself. "It has been a very difficult matter to get a controlling share in the Town lots. But we have got them. I should have bought much more if I knew of any way to pay. The company have not authorized me to buy. I have taken the responsibility." [90] The Emigrant Aid Company accepted the Atchison purchase, as made by Pomeroy, and authorized a draft sufficient to complete the initial terms of the transaction. [91] Late in May the executive committee considered the question of changing the name "Atchison" to something of less "evil" memory. "Wilmot" was the first choice, and "Pomeroy" second, but no definite action was ever taken. [92]

By the summer of 1857 the Emigrant Aid Company reached the apex of its hopes, and was filled with gratification at its accomplishments. The Free-State cause had clearly triumphed in the territory. [93] The annual report of the directors for 1857 ably summarized

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their accomplishments: "In view of the present condition of Kansas . . . your committee may be pardoned for dwelling with pride and satisfaction upon the reflection that this result has been chiefly owing to the operations of the New England Emigrant Aid Company," which had taken the initiative. "The truth of the great principle of the immense benefits to colonization from the aid of associated capital planted in advance of emigration, to prepare the way for a civilized community, has never been so fairly tried and so fully proved as by this company." Without its work, the territory would still have been "wild and uncultivated," with slavery established. "The policy which has built up towns in Kansas, has also, as a natural result, enhanced the value of all the permanent property of the company in the territory . . . . The value of its actual property, at a low estimate, nearly equals the total amount of the subscriptions to the capital stock." [94] Land was now worth double to quadruple the amount of a year ago, in the more thickly settled areas. This was especially encouraging, in view of the fact "that considerable sums have been expended without a direct view to pecuniary profit," and additional amounts lost by the destruction of property. If peace continues the stock will probably recover its original value, and make possible good dividends on the investment.95 Amos A. Lawrence presented his annual report, and resigned his position as treasurer. In his official farewell to the company he remarked:

You will find the company free from debt, and its prosperity entire. Whatever may have been the result to the stockholders, the shares have never had more value than at the present time. The main object for which the association was formed-viz., the incitement of free emigration into Kansas-has

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been successfully accomplished.

The corporation must hereafter be considered a land company, and be managed as such. A speedy closing-up of its business seems to me to be the surest method of yielding a return of the money expended; and, in disposing of the property, much consideration appears to be due our faithful agents. . . [96]

The approach in the fall of the panic of 1857 blasted all reasonable hope for a satisfactory liquidation of the company's holdings. The crisis, precipitated by the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company late in August, spread rapidly over a wide area. [97] The west suffered most severely, as the close of the Crimean War had opened a large area to wheat production, causing that commodity to fall from $2 to 75 cents a bushel. Kansas and Nebraska were particularly hard hit, as the settlers in these regions had scarcely gotten established (many had indeed only arrived that year). As early as September the Kansas Weekly Herald of Leavenworth advertised a sheriff's sale of land for taxes. [98] The Herald of Freedom remarked in the following June: [99] "We pity the man who is compelled to raise money now in Kansas. We were told by a moneylender, the other day, that he was receiving from 10 to 20 per cent per month, and had been paid at the rate of 20, 25 and 30 per month to discount notes." Business was nearly suspended in all Kansas towns, and men with twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars could not sell property at any price, to realize even a few hundred dollars. A movement was begun to obtain united support in an appeal to the President to postpone the coming land sales, and they were put off several times, but were held in 1859 and 1860. A similar movement was instituted to reduce the taxes, but by 1859 the advertising of delinquent taxes reached an astounding scale, including both rural lands and town lots. Vast numbers of the latter were listed as of unknown owners, presumably nonresident speculators who had abandoned their holdings on the approach of the depression. [100] The severe drouth of 1860 caused an almost complete crop failure, necessitated a widespread program of relief, and

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still further postponed recovery. Thousands sold their claims, or abandoned them, and left Kansas. [101]

What were the chances of success for the Emigrant Aid Company under such circumstances? In the past the company had depended on sales of stock to finance it, and had never accumulated a reserve of any importance. Income from rents had always been disappointing, and from sales negligible. The general policy followed in the years 1854-1857 had been one of expansion, with no apparent intention of sales on a large scale. Had no depression intervened, such a program might have slowly reached fulfillment, but in stringent times, with its credit nothing to boast of, a large reserve would be imperative to tide it over. The Emigrant Aid Company was thus totally unprepared to pass through any extended period of hard times, and was in the class of "frozen" corporations which are ordinarily expected to fail in such circumstances. By a policy of sales instead of purchases in the summer of 1857 the company might have been more fortunate. Lawrence, early in the summer, in a letter to Williams, advocated the sale of at least half their Kansas property before September first, to avoid a coming depression. [102] His warning went unheeded.

The panic of 1857 brought an abrupt end to the policy of expansion, and inaugurated one of strict retrenchment. So pressing was the situation at the close of the year that the company was obliged to procure a loan to meet its obligations, and to allow Pomeroy to fulfill his engagements in Kansas. [103] Early in 1858 the resignations of Messrs. Pomeroy and Branscomb were accepted, and a new policy

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inaugurated, with M. F. Conway as general agent. [104] The company's property "will not be enlarged except in the towns of Claflin and Batcheller . . . . We do not intend to enter upon any new enterprises in the territory." [105] There was to be "a prudent husbandry of our resources, which can only be secured by economy, method in the accounts, & a careful attention to details." [106] A plan for the gradual sale of their properties, in order to obtain the best possible returns for the times, also came to be increasingly urged. In the program of townsite promotion the Emigrant Aid Company had been obliged to cooperate with the local town companies. As a result it became seriously involved, even in its earlier years. Thus at Osawatomie the company had obtained a third interest in the townsite, along with William Ward and O. C. Brown. Early in 1857 Pomeroy was made head of the town company, and could then better protect the Emigrant Aid interests. [107] A serious difference arose between Ward and Pomeroy, on the one hand, and Brown, who had formerly headed the town company, on the other. The townsite proved to be not properly preempted. [108] Even worse, however, was the course pursued by Brown, who, to avoid payment of what he owed the town, placed his property in other hands, where it could not be touched. [109] Thus by 1860 the town company was mortgaged to the extent of almost $1,000, with the courts threatening a foreclosure. The Emigrant Aid Company was obliged to authorize its agent to advance $1,000 to free its property of encumbrance. [110]

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The problem of collecting rents had always been a difficult one. The attitude of many settlers, that the Emigrant Aid Company was a great charitable organization, increased these troubles. For example, the Topeka association early in 1858 advised Mr. Branscomb it would be useless to attempt the collection of more than a nominal rent for the Topeka schoolhouse. [111] The problem of rents had become so serious by early 1858 that the company issued special instructions to Conway, the newly appointed general agent, advising him that: "These rents you will henceforward insist by all means upon collecting punctually . . . ." Otherwise the "impression is thereby produced that the company is neglectful or indifferent to its own interests. . . [112]

Conway as general agent found it virtually impossible to personally supervise the disordered business of the company all over the territory. He advised that the sales of lots, erection of mills, and the like, be left to the local agents in the towns. [113] The company now authorized the sale of its property, but to obtain any reasonable payment in cash, as desired, was almost out of the question. [114] The treasurer could no longer borrow on a simple promise of the company to pay. Before the ill-starred year of 1858 drew to a close he recommended the borrowing of $10,000. [115] In the face of this dark outlook, meetings of the executive committee, which had regularly occurred weekly, now became more and more infrequent during 1859. The company fulfilled its contract and voted a mill for Batcheller, but doubt was expressed as to the outcome. [116]

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A question arose as to the exact extent of the company's property at Manhattan. [117] It was found that in general no sales of importance were possible in such a period, but the company continued to oppose forced sales [118] even though current expenses made impossible a reduction in the notes outstanding. Sales were limited chiefly to the Topeka schoolhouse and the Kansas City hotel. [119] In its extremity territorial scrip was accepted in payment of several "bad" debts. [120] The executive committee noted, in the fall of 1860, that it was "entirely unsafe to rely for any part of this needed money, upon remittances from the territory" . . . and recommended a further note issue. [121] At the annual meeting in May, 1861, it was shown that rents from Kansas for the past year had been only $915.09, and sales a paltry $520.75. Though current expenses had been greatly reduced they were still not far from $4,000. Nonresident landholders could make no sales, while the mills of the company were deteriorating. [122] With the admission of Kansas as a free state the special purpose of the company had been fulfilled; "still, the Ex-Committee have always borne in mind, that our enterprise to be perfect in result, must be a success financially, as well as in every other way. It must be shown that the Free State system of settling new country, pays well, in money. This we do not absolutely despair of doing even in the case of Kansas," despite the series of unfortunate events. [123] It was decided to sell their entire property for $20,000, which would leave $5,000 above indebtedness, and with the $25,000 due from the United States for destruction of the Lawrence hotel, might eventually admit of a small dividend to the stockholders. A few weeks later, however, it was voted inex-

HICKMAN: THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY 261

pedient to sell at that time. In July Messrs. Brimmer and Lawrence, of the finance committee, reported that the income of the company was nothing, and "neither its value, nor the necessities of its management justify an annual expense of $3,000." [124] The salary of the secretary and expenses of the Boston office were discontinued, and the salary of the general agent in Kansas reduced. Evidently the problem of paying its debts was bringing the Kansas venture to a close.

At an auction in Boston by Leonard & Company, February 27, 1862, the entire property of the Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas and Missouri was sold to Isaac Adams, of Sandwich, N. H., and Henry A. Ayling, of Boston, for a consideration of $16,150 (excepting its claim on the United State for the Free State hotel). [125] This amount little more than covered outstanding debts, to say nothing of a dividend to the stockholders. [126] The property thus disposed of had a book value of $143,322.98, having remained at approximately that amount for some time, with no reduction to conform to depression values. [127]

In reviewing the reasons for the failure of the Kansas real-estate project, several major factors appear. There was no income to the company in the transportation of emigrants, while the indirect results, upon which it had so much doted, were hard to obtain. It was often very hard to get the emigrants to "stay put," upon which the success of a projected town so much depended. [128] The Emigrant Aid Company became so seriously involved with the affairs of the various town companies where it had interests, that its fate was virtually the sum total of theirs. [129] It has been held that the agents

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of the company, in Kansas, were in part responsible for its failures. [130] It appears that in general they did their work well, for which the company more than once heartily thanked them. There were, indeed, several serious disputes, involving at least one forced resignation, [131] but in general the agents cooperated well in carrying out their official instructions. [132] No doubt the company itself was lax in its general policy, which was reflected at times by its agents in the field, justifying well the poor opinion of it as a land company held by Amos A. Lawrence. Yet the Emigrant Aid officials did considerably alter their plan as to the agents early in 1858. Under this system the local agents were paid solely by their commissions on sales and rents, and were to do much of the actual business, while a general agent (M. F. Conway), supervised the entire interests of the company. A general policy of strict economy was enjoined on all. [133]

There is little doubt that the one chief cause of the failure of the real estate projects of the Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas was the panic of 1857, which intervened at a decisive time in the company's history. Probably few land companies could have survived such an immense deflation in property values. The severe drought in Kansas in 1860 prolonged the depression, and made it even more

HICKMAN: THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY 263

severe. [134] Yet with a sufficient fund from which to draw for running expenses, the company might have kept its investments intact until the better days of the post-war period.

None of the later projects of the New England Emigrant Aid Company approached the fruition of the Kansas venture. Early in 1857 Eli Thayer began the formation of the Homestead Emigration Society, to begin the colonization with Northern capital and labor of worn-out lands in Virginia. [135] As early as May, 1856, in the annual meeting of the Emigrant Aid Company, the subject of colonization of Virginia was broached by Mr. Thayer, as a lucrative land venture which would promote the cause of freedom. The company never acted on his proposals. [136] The future Emigrant Aid program was being studied during 1857 and 1858. In 1857 the executive committee had a subcommittee on Texas, before which Colonel Ruggles of the United States army appeared, in favor of emigration to Texas. [137] In June of that year this committee reported "that highly valuable investments can be made if prompt action be had, at comparatively moderate cost . . . ." The freesoil population could be easily added to. Operations should begin immediately to check the ingress of a slave population. [138] It was decided to make further investigation, however, before taking action. At the quarterly meeting of the directors in November, 1858, Thayer made an address in favor of continuing the activity of the company in the cause of freedom. The secretary mentioned several possible fields: Missouri-now rapidly tending to free-stateism, the Cherokee country, and western Texas, and preferred the last named. [139] The committee then appointed did not report on the subject of Texas colonization until March, 1860. [140] They believed that immediate action was needed to secure freedom to western Texas, and "that a well-sustained band of free settlements, like the line of fire to the

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scorpion, will turn back the advance of slavery, & turn its venom to its own destruction." [141] The only peaceful solution of the slavery question "was the clear demonstration to the slave holders that free labor was cheaper and better in every way than slave labor," even in the cotton belt of the South. It was believed that the tide of slavery could be safely dammed up, by planting northern settlements along a 190-mile front south of the mouth of the Little Wichita river. [142] To execute this plan the committee recommended the purchase of large tracts of around 2,000 acres at six or eight points, leaving about fifteen miles between the settlements. Armed settlers and machinery should then be quickly sent in, with the general plan kept a secret to all but a chosen few, "until we feel ourselves strong enough to bid defiance to the slave-power." [143] Land could be purchased very cheaply in this region. The committee recommended a $50,000 fund, with operations to begin when $10,000 was collected. Subscription papers were drawn up, but not enough was collected to warrant the starting of the enterprise. [144]

Late in 1864 the Emigrant Aid Company undertook a plan to transport the surplus women of Massachusetts to Oregon. [145] The Rev. Sydney H. Marsh, president of the Pacific University of Oregon, called the attention of the directors of the company to the subject as early as 1860, but the war intervened, and no action was taken. [146] The project appears to have been largely philanthropic, and devoid of plans to invest in real estate. [147] The first small group of girls were sent, via the Isthmus, late in December, 1864, and a second and larger group was transported in 1865. [148]

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Although the plan to operate in western Texas never materialized, the company still retained an interest in emigration and investment in the South. In 1862, when a bill was in congress to confiscate the lands of certain classes of former confederates, the company issued a circular suggesting that these lands be given to loyal union men, by means of an emigration southward. [149] The experience of the Emigrant Aid Company showed that such a movement should be organized. If the government should decide to do this, "it might use to advantage trustworthy agencies at the North," such as the Emigrant Aid Company. [150] A company report of the same year recommended purchases in the border states, such as Maryland and eastern Virginia, as a suitable plan for future operations. [151] This was not done because of the lack of funds. At a meeting of the company in 1865 the proposal was advanced for the company to cooperate with the United States Mutual Protection Company, in its work of promoting emigration to the South and real estate development in that section. [152] No action was taken at that time, but the general subject made a strong appeal. In February, 1867, the Massachusetts legislature issued a new charter to the New England Emigrant Aid Company, with the object of specifically authorizing Southern colonization.

The charter of 1867 authorized the issuance of $150,000 of additional capital stock, denominated "preferred," for the purpose of "directing emigration southward, and aiding in providing accommodations for the emigrants after arriving at their place of destination." [153] The company enjoyed a large correspondence at that time with persons in widely separated places, urging it to purchase land, particularly in Florida. [154] Gen. J. F. B. Jackson went on a tour of

266 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

inspection of that state, and convinced the company "that capital is greatly needed there; that it may be invested with handsome profit, and at the same time so as to largely assist and encourage emigration." [155] It was desired to colonize settlers of small means, in units for mutual support and public influence, and thereby encourage loyal union sentiment in the state. The governor of Florida, and various internal improvement companies in that state, were ready to make very liberal offers of land. [156] In May, 1867, the company announced its intention of establishing a colony on or near the St. Johns river (in the vicinity of Jacksonville), on a large tract offered at favorable terms. [157] When twenty families agreed to unite in a colony, the company would send an agent to survey and lay out the land. It was the intention to send such a colony, at least by October. The company would remedy the chief draw-back for New England settlers-the lack of religious and educational facilities, by providing a church and schoolhouse. [158]

The Emigrant Aid Company sold stock to finance its Florida project, but these sales never approached those made in the interest of the Kansas venture. [159] The cause of loyal unionism in the South did not have the appeal of "bleeding Kansas." Late in September, 1867, the company announced it had abandoned its proposed Florida colony, as announced in the May circular, because a large proportion of the emigrants wished to go unpledged as to the point of settlement, rather than in company with others. [160] For some months the company entertained further proposals as to Florida, nevertheless, and began to collect a new fund early in 1868, for "use in promoting emigration to Florida, and its other purposes." [161] The next month (February, 1868) it officially denied it furnished "pecuniary assis-

HICKMAN: THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY 267

tance to parties going to Florida." Neither did it have "any colonies located, organized, or in the process of organization, nor any interest in the purchase or sale of any lands." It gave advice instead to would-be settlers. [162] The company continued to accept gifts for a "loyal paper" in Florida, evidently hoping to thus promote Northern principles in the state. [163]

The Florida project virtually closed the eventful history of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. A final meeting of the stockholders, their heirs or proxies, was held in February, 1897, when its charter was about to expire by limitation, and its claim against the United States for the destruction of the Free-State hotel at Lawrence was then voted to the University of Kansas. [164]

Notes

1. See Harrison A. Trexler "Slavery in Missouri, 1804-1865," Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, Series XXXII, No. 2. The greatest increase in slave population in Missouri during the fifties came in the fertile counties nearer the Kansas border, and along the Missouri river. Hemp was the chief crop, and was very profitable. Platte county, home of Sen. David R. Atchison, was a leader in its production. 2. The Coleman-Dow claim trouble, which terminated in a fatal shooting, led to the Missouri invasions of December, 1855. Similar troubles later around Fort Scott furnished, in part, the background of the Montgomery raids. 3. The National Kansas Committee was the directing body, heeded by Thaddeus Hyatt. It had been appointed by the Buffalo convention of Kansas aid societies, in midsummer of 1856. The entrance of the Northern train, under Gen. James H. Lane, was the most spectacular of these Northern "invasions." 4. There never were more than a few slaves actually held as such in Kansas. 5. This "custom" was not peculiar to Missouri, being practiced in Iowa and elsewhere on the frontier. Participation in a nearby election, where he was legally excluded, was also frequently done wherever a frontiersman believed his interests particularly affected. There is perhaps no instance, however, in which it was done in such a mass way as by the Missourians in Kansas. 6. This movement was motivated in particular by the desire to protect slavery in Missouri, which would be in a critical position with Kansas free, and with enemies on three sides, as well as within Missouri itself.-See James C. Malin, "The Proslavery Background of the Kansas Struggle," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, v. X (December, 1923). The movement to prevent the abolitionizing of Kansas (and then Missouri) gathered its chief force in Missouri coincident with the news of the vast plans of the Emigrant Aid Company, and was largely distinct from the earlier movement to open Kansas (and Nebraska) to settlement. It culminated in the Lexington convention of July, 1855, and declined completely after the advent of Gov. John W. Geary. 7. A. M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble. (New York and London, 1932), p. 73 et seq. This is an enlightening though somewhat superficial treatment of the general subject. 8. Any such plan of organized emigration would have courted failure by running counter to the strongly individualistic nature of the frontiersman. 9. It was followed by a host of smaller organizations. 10. Edward E. Hale, Memories of a Hundred Years, v. II, pp. 142 145, quoted by Corn Dolbee, "The First Book on Kansas," Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. II, No. 2 (May, 1931), p. 141. 11. Hale to the editor of the North American Review, February 3, 1855, published in the April number (v. LXXX, p. 548), and quoted by Dolbee, op. cit., p. 177. The letter was in response to a pointed query of C. H. Branscomb as to the real origin of the company. Hale remarked that his Texas pamphlet was one which "no one read, and I could not induce any one to consider the idea. It contained no plan of operation " and Thayer had never seen or heard of it when he originated his plan. (Compare the Texas project of the company, in 1860, mentioned elsewhere.) Hale was much interested in properly providing for the host of foreign immigrants who reached our shores, and in 1852 delivered a sermon on this subject (cf. Dolbee op. cit., p. 141). Without doubt lie was influential in obtaining the inclusion of plans for their transportation to the West, when the Emigrant Aid Company was projected. Extensive plans were then announced, but little was ever accomplished. 12. For further details see Thayer's volume, A History of the Kansas Crusade, (New York, 1889). 13. For example, the Providence Journal of November 16, 1855, clipped in the "Thomas H. Webb Scrapbooks," v. VI, p. 223: "This droll phrase, which has become, it is said, quite a proverb among the Free State men in Kansas, really expresses very well the nature of the power which the North has in the control of the destiny of the territory." Immediate statehood depends on furnishing homes to the thousands now moving in. There is enough timber, if it can be sawed into lumber. This necessitates steam saw-mills. "But these steam sawmills cannot be put up by squatters who need every cent they have for their oxen, ploughs, and the transport of their families. To obtain them at all, they must induce capitalists to furnish them," or some organization such as the Emigrant Aid Company. Thayer was a leading exponent of the doctrine of organized emigration. (See in particular his two speeches in the appendix of The Kansas Crusade.) The general law of emigration westward following parallels of latitude could thus be avoided, and Northerners settled in communities of their own, in the South. With them would go their schools and churches, free labor, and the higher real estate values of the North. Slavery could never compete economically with freedom, and must die. Nor should one stop at the Gulf of Mexico, as Nicaragua and Central America offered equal opportunities for the gospel of freedom. In 1858 Thayer, then s representative in Washington from the Worcester, Mass., district, de livered a speech in the house of representatives, depicting in glowing terms the glory of colonizing Central America. This would relieve the pressure of population in Massachusetts and the East. "But I will speak now of that which constitutes the peculiar strength of emigration of this kind, and that is the profit of the thing. It is profitable for every one connected with it; it is profitable to the people where the colonies go; it is profitable to the colonies, and it is profitable to the company, which is the guiding star and the protecting power of the colonies. "Well, air, if we give them a better civilization, the tendency of that better civilization is to increase the value of real estate, for the value of property, the value of real estate depends upon the character of men who live upon the land, as well as upon the number who live upon it."-The Kansas Crusade, appendix II, pp. 280-282. From this arose the high hope of profit from a corporation, based on such principles. In this speech Thayer appealed to the South for support, quite as much as to the North. The humor of his remarks cawed frequent laughter. The congressional committee never reported on the subject. Thayer's entire position may be viewed as one of "Manifest Destiny." 14. Charter of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company (Boston, 1854) The capital stock could be invested in real estate, but not to exceed $20,000 in value in Massachusetts. Not more than four dollars on the share was to be assessed during 1854, and not over ten dollars in any succeeding year. Each stockholder was entitled to one vote for each share held, up to fifty votes. 15. The company came to be much interested in German immigration, which had reached a high peak after 1848. In 1854 it was reported in the press as having chartered a steamer to import immigrants from Hamburg, but in actuality the plan never went much further than the stage of investigation. In 1857 Dr. Charles F. Koh was employed to set up a German paper in Kansas (the Kanzas Zeitung of Atchison). It was then hoped to send him to Germany later, in the interest of colonization. The company had a strong penchant toward German settlers, as strongly opposed to slavery. 16. Company document, entitled: Organization, Objects, and Plan of Operations o/ the Emigrant Aid Company (Boston, 1854), pp. 3-6. Not over $20,000 was to be invested in property in Massachusetts. However, as soon as a million dollars was subscribed, it was planned to collect a mere four per cent for the operations of 1854. Such details were not realized by the general public, who were often deluded by the reports of the tremendous wealth of the company. 17. Daniel W. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, 1541-1883 (Topeka, 1883), p. 46. Also company document, History of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, (Boston, 1862). Thayer also tried to circumvent the financial defect in the charter by organizing the Emigrant Aid Company of New York and Connecticut under the laws of Connecticut (July, 1854), but its operations were never extensive. For a careful study of the organization of the various companies, see Samuel A. Johnson's "The Genesis of the New England Emigrant Aid Company," New England Quarterly, v. III, No. 1 (1930). 18. When the New England Emigrant Aid Company formally organized in March, 1855, after obtaining a charter of incorporation, John Carter Brown was made president, Amos A. Lawrence treasurer, and Thomas H. Webb secretary. Eli Thayer and J. M. S. Wiliams were made vice- presidents, and also served on the executive committee. Of these Thayer and Lawrence had the greatest influence. 19. Charter of the New England Emigrant Aid Company (Boston, 1855). Approved by the governor on February 21. The subscribers of the "temporary" company were made associates in the permanent one. The new articles of incorporation made it clear that subscribers could not be held liable for more than the amount of their subscription. The company formally organized under the new charter on March 5, 1855 and ejected a complete slate of officers. Documentary History of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, p. 11. 20. The writer uses the term "Emigrant Aid Company," or simply "company" to denote what was in actuality one acting organization. 21. This committee consisted of Eli Thayer, Alexander H. Bullock, and Edward E. Hale of Worcester, and Richard Hildreth and Otis Clapp of Boston. 22. Thayer, The Kansas Crusade, p. 27. (A copy of the report is included.) 23. The trustees advertised for bids "for conveying not less than twenty, nor more than fifty thousand persons, during the present season . " (Boston Daily Advertiser of June 20, 1854, clipped in the "Thomas H. Webb Scrapbooks," hereafter denoted as "Webb," v. I, p. 19). Small wonder that the frontier Missouri slaveholder, patriotic to his section and auspicious of Eastern capital, should be given a case of the "jitters," especially when these details of the company were so widely broadcast. The emigration under the company's auspices in 1854, as obtained by totaling the various groups, was only 703 (not including, of course, those induced indirectly to go, or those joining later of which no record was kept). The total number transported by the company during its entire history probably did not number over a few thousand. In 1860 there were only 1 282 people living in Kansas who had come from Massachusetts. See the article by William O. Lynch, "Popular Sovereignty and the Colonization of Kansas From 1854 to 1860," Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings 1917-1918, Extra No., May, 1919. Yet Thayer claimed, in a speech in November, 1854 that the company had already been the means of introducing 5,000 settlers.-Congregational Journal, November 23, in "Webb," v. II, p. 19. 24. Thayer, The Kansas Crusade, pp. 27, 28; Organization, Objects, and Plan of Operations, Of the migrant Aid Company, pp, 3-6 The latter gives the plan in greater detail, and was evidently written later, to apply also to the final company, then planned. 25. The agents of the company in Kansas particularly S. C. Pomeroy and C. H. Branscomb, often praised this plan, in their official correspondence. In his appeals for men and money in New England, Thayer followed a like course. Branscomb, then an agent in Kansas, wrote to the trustees, November 21, 1856: "What we especially want is the expenditure of capital in the territory. Emigration will follow capital of itself" without the intervention of such cumbersome and expensive devices as the National Kansas Committee, which had spent much in getting its trains into the territory."I have more reason than ever to admire the simplicity and efficiency of our plan. Let capital be the pioneer." Records of the Company Trustees, v. II, "Emigrant Aid Collection." 26. The writer does not wish to be unduly harsh in judging the part of Thayer. and advances this view as merely a probable assumption. Early in February, 1856, Thayer replied to the attack of President Pierce upon the company (New York Evening Post, February 6 1856, in "Webb," v. IX, p 49): "The company would have been formed, and put in operation had the Missouri Compromise remained in force. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise made Kansas the best field for the operations of the company. Had Kansas not been opened to settlement, some other field would have been chosen." See, also, William E. Connelley, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans (Chicago, 1918), v. 1, p. 347. 27. The Kansas Crusade, p. 58. 28. Ibid., p. 59. A more accurate conclusion might be to say that the company, despite its conflicting make-up, followed a rather continuous business plan, which included charitable elements. 29. Ibid., p. 60. "Now, if we apply the above reasoning to an organized, peaceful competition of free labor with slave labor in the former slave states, it will be readily seen with what certainty freedom would have been sustained." The national constitution gave freedom the power to destroy slavery. "Now if it was true, as the census proved, and as all the people of the free states maintained and believed, that our civilization was superior to that of the slave states, then we were at liberty at any time to go into the inferior states and establish free labor there." In fact, they had a great inducement to do so by means of a corporation which could take advantage of the rise in property values which would follow the economic conquest of the South. Although this was written in 1889, Thayer's published words of before the Civil War were in much the same tenor. 30. Quoted in William Lawrence's Life of Amos A. Lawrence, (Boston and New York, 1899), p. 80. 31. Ibid., p. 80. When the campaign to sell the stock of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company largely failed, Lawrence proposed that the trustees take large additional shares, and himself took a large block, to forestall failure. He gave away a considerable number of shares to such Kansas patriots as M. F. Conway, G. W. Dietzler, S. N. Wood, S. F. Tappan, and others. 32. At an adjourned meeting of the company at Chapman Hall, Boston, June 19, 1854, Lawrence announced on behalf of the trustees that all subscribers might be called on for the full amount of their subscription (contrary to the original plan) within a year, and no promise could be made to return any part The work would go on indefinitely, until the territory was free.-Boston Commonwealth, June 20, in "Webb," v. 1, p. 9. 33. Memorandum of Lawrence, to Messrs. Williams and Thayer, August 26, 1854. Kansas letters of Amos A. Lawrence hereafter termed "Lawrence Letters" (copies in Kansas Historical Society), p. 21. "We have good reason to believe that we have good agents, and I propose that our interest in land be small, and that they shall have an interest in it. Also that the emigrants shall have the privilege of buying small portions of us at prime cost." It is evident that the "articles of agreement" mentioned by Lawrence were the private ones signed when the Massachusetts company was given up as unworkable. 34. Amos A. Lawrence to Pliny Lawton (marked confidential), Boston, October 26 1854, ibid., p. 35. Compare the following letter of Lawrence to Edward E, Hale, February 25, 1856, ibid., p. 54. The Worcester subscription (excepting that of Thayer) turns out to be valueless, being collected for something entirely different from the purposes of the company. The notices in the paper, that parties will go twice a week, that the fare will be only $25 (it will be that much to St. Louis), is all "untrue and impossible, and creates confusion and distrust." He is led to the conclusion that they will have to separate from the gentlemen at Worcester. "You shall be 'Young America' and we will be the 'Old Fogy'." At that time many pertinent criticisms were appearing in the public press, concerning the company's course in 1854. 35. This was perhaps the most just criticism of the company. The New England press was full of unfavorable accounts by emigrants many of whom had returned completely disillusioned, the "dupes" of "high pressure salesmanship" tactics. No doubt they expected too much, and knew little of life on the frontier. Many printed their "laments" in poetic form, for which prizes were offered by Eastern papers The following comes from one of the winners, and was entitled "The Kansas Emigrant's Lament":

I left my own New England, the happiest and the beet, with a burning Kansas fever Raging in my breast. Oh that fair New England! Oh that lovely home! If I live to reach you, surely I never more will roam. I came to Lawrence city, A place of great renown, Alas! what disappointment To find so small a town. The houses were unfinished, The people had no floors, The windows had no glass in, And sheets were used for doors. I sought an Astor palace, And a table where to eat, They gave me poor molasses, With some bread and salted meat. Oh my mother's pantry! -Herald of Freedom, October 13, 1865.

36. After 1856 Thayer was primarily concerned with other matters. The writer has seen no evidence, however, for concluding that any serious rupture had taken place within the company. 37. Statement of property, signed by the executive committee, and submitted to the quarterly meeting of the directors (of the New England Emigrant Aid Company), November 27, 1856."Emigrant Aid Collection" of documents of the Kansas Historical Society. A resume of property held at that time is given below. (Here, as elsewhere, words or phrases in italics were stressed by the original authors, and not by the writer of this article.) 38. Thayer, op. cit., p. 30. 39. Ibid., p. 58. 40. Ibid., pp. 30-33. 41. Ibid. The same author, "The New England Emigrant Aid Company," in Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, v. VII, pp. 55- 56. 42. Memorandum of Lawrence, to Williams and Thayer, August 26, 1851 (cited above). 43. Quoting the same document further, Lawrence appears to have distrusted the Emigrant Aid Company at this time even more than other land companies. He had considerable interests in western lands, and was himself later a trustee of the Kansas Land Trust, which acquired large holdings around Quindaro. 44. Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence, p. 85; Lawrence to J. M. S. Williams, September 2, 1854. It appears that Lawrence acted accordingly, but not all the other trustees. There had been no money to honor the Kansas drafts sent in by Pomeroy, and Lawrence paid them himself. The company was already six or seven thousand dollars m debt to him. eanwhile we are making large promises as to what we shall do for settlers, which are certain to be broken, and which will entail much dissatisfaction," Lawrence wrote. At this same time reports were circulating in Missouri of the tremendous projects of the company, which was reputed to be immensely rich. 45. Documentary History of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. In the fall of 1854 the company sent a circular letter to the ministers of New England, appealing for support and funds. Receipts had been, it stated, "altogether inadequate to sustain the activity and vigor of the enterprise." At a later time a much wider appeal was made to the same profession, with much more success (1855). 46, Clipping in "Webb," from the Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, February 2, 1855: The meeting there was held in the hall of the house of representatives. Thayer made a long address, and stressed the importance, from a commercial point of view, of making Kansas a child of New England. Those who went out six months ago were now worth, in some cases, $3,000 each, in their locations in Lawrence. The 600,000 European immigrants directed by the society into the Southwest, would prove a mighty force against slavery. Each state should in addition furnish its quota. The company also wanted a fund of $200,000. They hoped to establish ten cities, and invest $10,000 in each, which would provide a sawmill, machine shop, reception house, ate. The company takes a fourth of the lots in a city. A fourth of the profits will be divided among all who take stock. Kansas for freedom! 47. Lawrence to J. M. S. Williams , Boston, March 2 1855 ("Lawrence Letters," p. 57); In the face of this dark situation, Pomeroy was permitted to overdraw his account, the company expecting to make it up later. Lawrence appears to have "weakened" somewhat in his opposition to speculation, at this time. He wrote Pomeroy in April (ibid., p. 757: "Do not fear to buy the Kaw lands freely for the company. The company needs something to make money with, more than the trustees or outsiders. As to stock subscriptions, they have almost ceased."' 48. Adjourned meeting of the executive committee, April 18, 1855 ("Trustees' Records," v. I): Only $26,840 had then been paid for shares, with nearly eleven thousand still outstanding. Lawrence reported around $39 000 subscribe, at the first annual meeting. Despite the crisis, the executive committee authorized the purchase of a steamer, the Grace Darling, if Messrs. Lawrence and Webb consented. Lawrence objected, believing that such investments would leave little margin for profit. 49. Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, July 10, 1855, in "Webb," v. IV, p. 209: Pomeroy promised a mill for the Hampden colony, "on condition that the citizens of Hampden county will subscribe three thousand dollars to the stock of the Emigrant Aid Co." The sawmills would be the nuclei for free settlements. Money thus given for the cause of freedom "is not asked as a donation, but simply as an investment, which will pay a good dividend in a few years." 50. Lawrence to Branscomb, September 22, 1855 "Emigrant Aid Collection." He continues: some of the executive committee have already taxed themselves to pay the drafts of Mr. Pomeroy, and may be willing to go on increasing the amount, but this makes them creditors in relation to the very property which they are appointed to hold in trust." Such was expressly forbidden by our by-laws." 51. Letter of resignation of Lawrence included in minutes of the executive committee meeting of September 29. Lawrence added that the duties of the office were so pressing that they required the entire time of a competent person. 52. Lawrence to Dr. Cabot, October 9, 1855.-"Emigrant Aid Collection." 53. Lawrence to Branscomb, October 19 1855.-Ibid. "I have not heard of the appointment of my successor as treasurer of the Emigrant Aid Company and think there must be some mistake. 54. Lawrence retained his position until 1857 when he permanently resigned. At about that time he made the following summary statement (letter of Lawrence to Giles Richards, March 22): "I find that within 2 years I have sent $20,000 and more to Kansas from my own means, and of which not a dollar can ever come back to me or my heirs, for I have never owned $200 there which I have not given to the settlers." Lawrence stated, in a letter in 1855 that his wealth was around $120,000. One sixth of his private fortune was then spent for the cause of freedom in Kansas. 55. Thayer, The Kansas Crusade, pp. 188, 202-205. The same author, "The New England Emigrant Aid Company," in Proceedings of Worcester Society of Antiquity, v. VII, pp. 55-56. His appeal included the following passage: "That New York merchants were more interested pecuniarily in this result (freedom in Kansas) than were any other people in the Union; that if they would compare their sales of goods to Kentucky with those to Ohio, they would need no further argument. . ." This was the time to act decisively, by means of a conservative company, which would in all cases support the government. 56. Claflin and Sanford each gave six thousand, Thayer states (preceding citations). Other large subscribers were Henry H. Elliott, George W. Blunt, David Dudley Field, Thaddeus Hyatt, Bowen and MacNamee, Cyrus Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, and Marshall O. Roberts. Speaking later at Syracuse, N. Y., Thayer said that $50,000 was subscribed in New York City. Lawrence, testifying before the special Kansas committee at Washington (May, 1856), stated that about $95,000 had then been paid in for subscriptions to stock, plus $4,000 of donations (34th cong., 2nd sess., H. R. Report No. 800, p. 874). Claflin remarked long after this that the six thousand he paid the company in 1856 had been several times repaid by the excess of profit on goods sold in Kansas and Kansas City over what it would have been if slavery had prevailed (Thayer, p. 209). 57. Thayer was nominated for congress from the Worcester, Mass., district in 1856, and was elected. He argued that Kansas would be free, regardless of whether Fremont were elected. At the end of 1856 he left the Kansas work, and began his Ceredo, Va., project (see footnotes numbered 76 and 136). 58. Contributions were collected in many places in 1856, to relieve those injured by the troubles in Kansas (and perhaps in part to help elect Fremont). In this the machinery of the Emigrant Aid Company was taken advantage of. Its agents might accept gifts for relief, and at the same meeting take subscriptions to the stock of the company. When Lawrence resigned the treasurership in May, 1857, he said: "You will find the company free from debt, and its prosperity entire," with the shares never more valuable.-Documentary History of the Company, p. 22. 59. See the speeches of Thayer. 60. Statement of the executive committee, to the quarterly meeting of the directors November 27 1855, "Emigrant Aid Collection." The settlements then included Lawrence Manhattan, Hampden Topeka and Osawatomie. The book value of these mills then totaled $23,400, out of a total of $82,550 of property. 61. Manhattan, Osawatomie, Wabaunsee, Claflin (Mapleton), and Batcheller (later Milford) were examples. The company also at times authorized the sale of its mills, and the purchase was now shares with the proceeds (for example, Burlington)-" Emigrant Aid Collection." rule of the company to avoid payments in cash, as far as possible, and pay instead in company property, shares, etc. During its entire history, a considerable number of mills were owned or passed through the hands of the company. A large proportion of the real estate acquired from time to time was obtained from the town companies in return for the mills furnished, thus avoiding a direct cash outlay-See the documentary History of 1862, p. 23. 62. New York Daily Times, January 10 1855: "The Aid Companies have done something toward introducing Northern emigrants, but not nearly so much as their feeble efforts have stimulated the slave interests to do. With lavish promises, the Massachusetts Company induced some hundreds to go to Kansas, a large proportion of whom, disgusted before they have ever seen Kansas, or finding that their circumstances were inadequate to meet the realities of the case, have returned some to stay, and some to take a new start in the spring. . There is no doubt that, at this very moment a large proportion of needless suffering is being endured by those who went out under its auspices. With a whole summer in which to provide sawmills, lumber, and boardinghouses, according to promise, the first of November found them without a mill in successful operation, and a mere tent, the sole shelter for newcomers at Lawrence. This was a harsh but rather truthful judgment as the company's record for 1854 was not very good, due to slowness in getting started. Later more success was achieved. At the second annual meeting of the company in May, 1856, it was reported that all five of the company s mills were in operation. 63. Kansas Weekly Herald, Leavenworth, October 6, 1854. Any such exact figures are always open to question, due to the method of payment. 64. This hotel was destroyed by the raiders from Missouri in the troubles of 1858, and thereby led to a claim by the company against the United States government, which was in 1897 transferred to the University of Kansas. 65. Pamphlet History of the New England Emigrant Aid Company (1862). The company also took stock in the hotel at Manhattan, and considered other hotel projects. The ale of these properties later brought plenty of trouble to the company. The greatest difficulty lay in carrying out the terms of a sale which was largely not a "cash down" one. However, in such transactions the agents of the company probably were merely following current business practice. 66. For example, by John Calhoun, in an address before the "Law and Order" convention at Leavenworth on November 14, 155 (reported in Kansas City Enterprise, December 1), Calhoun charged that, while political objects were kept in view, the almighty dollar was never lost sight of, as they hoped, by abolitionizing the territory, to become large land owners. The strong criticism of the company during the winter of 1854-1855 led to a meeting of its friends at Lawrence (described by William H. Carruth in his article, "The New England Emigrant Aid Company as an Investment Society."-Kansas Historical Collections, v. VI). The activities of the company were praised, as well as the "basis" on which it was operating, i. e., a share of the town lots. 67. Thayer, The Kansas Crusade, pp. 27-28. 68. In addressing the first annual meeting in May, 1855, Pomeroy reported there were eight towns of prominence among which were included Lawrence, Topeka, Pawnee, Boston, Osawatomie, and Grasshopper Falls. Northern workmen thus controlled the right points. "They have their mills, and their machinery-their churches, and newspapers. With the exception of Council City, there is not another center of influence or trade in Kansas." This control of public opinion had been arrived at "quietly but thoroughly."="Kansas Territorial Clippings." Boston was renamed Manhattan. The company never invested in either Grasshopper Falls or Pawnee. The latter proposed site of the state capital was a speculative project in which Gov. Andrew H. Reader and officers at Fort Riley were interested. Council City (later Burlingame) was the projected site of the American Settlement Company. 69. Documentary History of the Company. Wabaunsee really did not get well under way until 1856 when the famous New Haven colony, sponsored by Henry Ward Beecher, left for that place, armed with "rifles and Bibles." Hampden was located on the Neosho, about fifty miles south of Lawrence, in the spring of 1855. 70. Report of the executive committee to the quarterly meeting of the directors, November 27, 1855 in "Emigrant Aid Collection." Total property in Kansas and Missouri was then estimated at $82,550, distributed as follows: Lawrence, $36,900; Manhattan, =9,700; Hampden, $3,000; Topeka, $8,100; Osawatomie, $17,300, and Kansas City, $7,550. The Kansas City hotel had been recently sold, but the transaction had not been completed. 71. Carruth, op. cit., p. 93. Also documents included in A Memorial of the University of Kansas in Support of Senate Bill No. 2677. Concerning the bitter quarrel over the Lawrence town site, see A. T. Andreas, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago, 1883), p. 315. In 1857 the company owned 117 lots in Lawrence. 72. Original agreement of the Topeka Town Association, December 5, 1854.-F. W. Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka (Topeka, 1886), p. 21. This work gives a very good account of the various steps in the founding of a town in Kansas. 73. The other two thirds was owned by O. C. Brown and William Ward; "Emigrant Aid Collection." 74. S. C. Pomeroy, 1854-1862 ; Charles Robinson, 1854-1856 ; C. H. Branscomb, 1854-1858; and M. F. Conway, 1858-1862, Pomeroy acted as treasurer of the agents, kept books, and was chief in importance m transaction of business, from 1854 to February, 1858. Thereafter Conway became general agent. 75. However, a circular of the company dated August 10 1856, requested subscriptions to rebuild the Free-State hotel and put up the saw and grist mills already purchased. and concluded : "But the funds of the company are nearly exhausted. 78. Even the sale of the hotel at Kansas City remained "in the air," the terms having not been satisfactorily met. A little later the hotel site at Lawrence was sold to T. W. Eldridge for $5,000. Lawrence wrote to J. Carter Brown on July 9, 1856 ("Lawrence Letters," p, 151): "As to the Emigrant Aid Company, I have very much the same view as yourself: that it has done its work. But you always find it odious to propose the destruction of an organization of which you are a manager." Such might discourage the settlers. "As to the stock, its value will probably become steadily less, as no sales of land can be made to keep down the expenses." Thayer was at this time becoming increasingly interested in other things. Besides being a candidate for congress, he had begun the manufacture of a new type of rifle which, it was announced, would far exceed the Sharps in effectiveness. He was also planning his Ceredo, Va., project, with which the company declined to cooperate. 77. Pomeroy's statement of expense for September 1, 1855, to December 15, 1856 "Emigrant Aid Collection." The ten shares, valued at $3,814.80 were obtained by trading to the town company one of the three mills which had been dumped into the Missouri river by the "border ruffians," and later recovered.-Minutes of executive committee for 1857. Abelard Guthrie was vice-president of the town company, and Robinson treasurer and agent to sell shares. Robinson was also the Kansas agent of the closely allied Kansas Land Trust, a company formed in 1856 with its main office in Boston to invest in Kansas land. Its depositors included J. M. S. Williams of the Emigrant Aid Company, and Oakes Ames, later involved in the Credit Mobilier scandal. Joseph Lyman was treasurer, and Amos A. Lawrence one of the trustees. The trust bought land extensively in and around Quindaro, promising Robinson a good share of the profits. In 1857 it sold a large amount of its land to Robinson, who gave his notes, signed by Guthrie. By 1860 Robinson had paid nothing on these purchases, although contrary to his agreement. This placed Guthrie in a very tight situation (see quotations from the diary of A. Guthrie, edited by W. E. Connelley, and published in the Nebraska State Historical Society's Proceedings and Collections, Second Series, III). The trust was placed in a difficult position, because of the trouble to complete the sale to Robinson, and the impossibility, after the panic of 1857, of selling any additional land. The holdings appear to have been divided in 1860. (The Kansas Historical Society has an incomplete collection of the trust papers. These, with the diary of Guthrie, are the authority for these statements.) An arbitration in 1860 found the Quindaro town company deeply in debt to Robinson. 78. Wilder, Annals of Kansas, p. 148. Late in 1866 the company sent a saw mill to Wabaunsee, but a loan was necessary to the operators to set it up ("Minutes of the Meetings of the Connecticut Kansas Colony" p. 143). Evidently it was not satisfactory, as the town company the following June offered a bonus for a mill. Pomeroy favored such going towns, rather then ones newly projected. He proposed to also finance a hotel and a Wyandot float, for Wabaunsee. The latter was granted. The property stake of the company in the town was limited to the mill and site. 79. Weekly meeting of the executive committee, April 28, 1855-"Trustee's Records," v. I. By article 14 of the "Treaty of 1842" with the Wyandot Indians as modified by further arrangement in 1854, the United States agreed to grant in fee simple to each of thirty-five named Wyandots, or their heirs, a section of land from any of that set apart for Indian use, and still unoccupied, west of the Missouri river. Such a reserve could be planted before the lands were surveyed, and would take "precedence over that of the white settler in cases where his location either precedes or is of equal date with that of the white settler" (Government regulations for such reserves). One need only recall that there were no government surveys during the first years of settlement, and that the only "title" then existing was such as squatter claim associations could enforce upon their own members, to see why that such reserves were so much in demand. 80. Other Free-State towns upon which such floats were located included Wyandotte and Kansas City (site), Big Springs, Emporia, and Doniphan. No doubt others could be added to this list. (See Senate Documents, 1857-1858, v. II, "Report of the Secretary of the Interior," pp 274-275, for a complete list of such reserves.) Because of their lack of fluid capital, the Proslavery settlers did not locate as many as their rivals. A large number of these reserves were located, evidently by capitalists, along the Big Blue river above Manhattan. Each float of 640 acres covered four legal claims. Wyandot floats were so valuable that a cynic might point to them as a further good reason for the movement among the Wyandots (many of whom were now of white blood), to open Nebraska to settlement. Unfortunately even these reserves did not entirely prevent disputes by rival town companies, or previous claimants. Thus the Robitaille float at Lawrence was long in dispute, and less serious disputes occurred at Manhattan and Topeka. 81. Minutes of the executive committee meeting of January 9, "Trustees' Records," Y. III. Nothing came of this proposal. 82. Minutes of the executive committee meeting of December 26, 1856. At the annual meeting in 1857 this was reported as over half the total sales of stock for the year of $37,000. However, the "Journal" notes on April 7 1857, p. 4, that only $8,660 worth was actually sold. Batcheller took $1,000 worth, and Claflin $300, Figures given for publication at the start of a campaign are naturally much higher than the amounts that actually materialized later. 83. Pomeroy to Thomas H. Webb January 6, 1857, executive committee minutes of January 23, in "Trustees' Records," v. III. "The Fishes, at the mouth of the Wakarusa, now want a movement. We have organized a Town Company (unknown to even our friends) the matter is kept perfectly quiet. They vote the Em. Aid Co., one sixth of the original interest. . But I think my influence will be sufficient to secure a Name to the Town, to suit the Shoe and Leather Dealers." He had then bought a mill of the Wyandotte company, for Wakarusa. Another letter of Pomeroy of February 2, 1857, in the minutes of February 20: "The Fishes are in a heap of trouble. The commissioners, in alloting the land to the Shawnees, instead of leaving the land open are locating the lands of the orphan children and the absentees thereabout, so that little will be left for preemption. It is a trick of the Proslavery officers to prevent the Yankees settling on the upper part of the Reserve." Pomeroy had been trying to "manage the Indians," and get them to go ahead with a town on lands not set off. 84. Minutes of executive committee meeting of October 9, 1857, in "Trustees' Records." v. III. M. F. Conway was one of the original incorporators of this town, in 1858. In 1870 the name was changed to Milford. Mrs. Frank C. Montgomery, archivist clerk of the Kansas Historical Society, has an extensive bibliography of Batcheller. 85. Valued on January 1, 1859, at $3,792.35-"Emigrant Aid Collection." The mill was evidently not satisfactory, as the town company, in the spring of 1859, offered the Emigrant Aid Company a quarter interest in the town site of 320 acres to get the mill into operation quickly. This was accepted (executive committee minutes of April 29). 86. Andreas, History of Kansas, p. 1097. The Rev. B. B. Newton, of the original town company, executed a contract with Pomeroy, agreeing to change the name to Claflin. 87. Development of these last two towns came during a period of depression, when the company was compelled to curtail operations drastically. However, it eventually carried out its contracts. 88. Minutes of executive committee meeting of March 9, "Trustees' Records," v. III. A Quindaro correspondent, of strong antislavery views, of the Daily Missouri Democrat, St. Louis, of May 2, 1857, argued it as proved that the Proslavery men could not make a town. With ell its advantages Lecompton had become merely "the abode of innumerable doggeries." Delaware City was another example, until recently a company from Lawrence bought the town, when things immediately boomed. Doniphan was another case, until General Lane and some friends purchased it. Atchison was now about to capitulate, in a similar way. However, nine-tenths of the Kansas towns "are perfect catch-penny operations, and must burst as flat as flounders." Lack of needed capital was, without doubt, a basic reason for the failure of many Proslavery towns. Fluid capital from Missouri ad the South was far less than Yankee capital from New York, Cincinnati, New England and the East. No doubt some of the above transactions were motivated by a desire to "cash in" at a favorable opportunity. The Emigrant Aid Company might also have profited by selling when the tide of emigration was at its height. 89. Pomeroy to Thos. H. Webb, April 10, in minutes of the executive committee meeting of April 24, "Trustees' Records," v. III. It was further agreed to give Atchison any "abolition name desired. Pomeroy wrote the next day that, as soon as a rumor got abroad concerning the sale, shares and lots went up about 300 per cent. A move was made to locate a Wyandot float below Atchison, and start a rival town. 90. Pomeroy to Webb, April 18-ibid. He added they could now either accept, or allow him to sell to other parties. There was no town site opposite St. Joseph in which he was willing to risk any money. 91. Minutes of the executive committee meeting of April 24-ibid. Money from the sale of the Lawrence hotel site was used, in part. However, the commitments of the company were very large in this transaction. . J. Higginson noted (letter of April 29 in the minutes of May 15) that an outlay of about $11000 cash was involved, with a like amount six months hence, and the expenditure of $50,000 in the place by himself and new settlers, in which a flouring mill was to be included. Both Higginson and Martin Brimmer quailed at such a large outlay. Yet contrast the following "balance" presented at an executive committee meeting of May 25: $2,000 paid; $1500 promised in six or twelve months. In January, 1859, the company's property in Atchison was listed at over $17,000. 92. "Wilmot" after the author of the famous Proviso to exclude slavery from the Mexican cessions. When the transaction was being made, Pomeroy wrote (April 18) concerning the Atchison town company members: B. F. Stringfellow and [P. T.] Abell are here. They have both done their utmost to facilitate our bargain. They both declare they have done all they could to make Kansas a slave state; now they want to make some money, which, to quote from B. F. Stringfellow, 'can only be done by falling in with manifest destiny, and letting it become a free state..' "Minutes of the executive committee meeting of May 1. The name of the Squatter Sovereign (formerly rabidly Proslavery) was changed to that of Freedom's Champion, and the politics radically altered, with Pomeroy and McBratney as editors. 93. This was undoubtedly due chiefly to the great wave of settlers from the Northern middle-west. Even the company, in its report for 1857, did not claim that even a considerable part of the population had come through its direct agency.-See its History, published in 1862. The census of 1860 showed conclusively that by far the greatest number of permanent settlers came from such states as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.-See the article by William O. Lynch, cited elsewhere. Settlers were on the move to Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas, as well as to Kansas. Although the settlers actually transported to Kansas by the company were few in numbers, they did include a number of important leaders and influential men. Historically the greatest importance appears to attach to the powerful and widespread influence of the company propaganda and advertising. Probably many settlers were indirectly influenced thereby, while the political effects were widespread. Unfortunately. this same propaganda was the stormy petrel which, when wildly exaggerated, stirred the Missouri slaveholders to action to prevent the abolitionizing of Kansas, as a safeguard to their own firesides. The reader should bear in mind that the land activities pale into insignificance when compared historically with the effects of the company as an agent of propaganda. 94. The statement of expense to date of all their properties totaled $126,616.27 (June 20, 1857= "Journal, p. 21). However, the cost of the Atchison property so far ($1,293.78) was only a small part of its real value, while no figures could yet be placed on the projected towns of Claflin and Batcheller. The above included the following:

Expenses were prorated annually between Boston and Kansas, and charged to the various properties For 1856-1857 the total had been over $32,000. Over $27,000 had been received from stock sales that year, and $5,000 from donations. See the article by Carruth. 95. Quotations from the "Annual Report of the Directors" for 1857, in Lawrence Republican of August 8. The report noted that the great improvement from a year before was not due to any help from the government, but to the "brave and determined resistance to oppression" of the Kansas patriots. (The anti-slavery party in Kansas and elsewhere was highly prejudiced against the Democratic administration at Washington.) The tide of emigration now promised to make the aid of the company no longer needed, the report continued. The company at this time began to consider activities elsewhere, particularly in Texas 96. Annual report of Amos A. Lawrence, as treasurer, May 26, 1857, incorporated in the documentary History of the Company, p. 22. 97. Frederic L. Paxson, History of the American Frontier, 1769-1893 (New York, etc., 1924), p. 441. 98. Issue of September 26. 99. Issue of June 5, 1858. 100. Information derived chiefly from announcements in various territorial newspapers. The Neosho Valley Register of July 21, 1860, remarked that, down to the fall of 1857, Kansas had been largely dependent on Missouri for the chief articles of food, being more concerned with speculation than with the growing of crops. (It might be added hat several years were usually required for a settler to establish himself.) 101. Thaddeus Hyatt had a leading part in the program of relief. He wrote to Hon. B. F. Camp, January 12 1861, soliciting aid from the New York legislature, and stated that his statistics, covering twenty-five counties and representing the general average, were as follows: 12 63 persons had only $10,671, or less than a dollar each; 18 967 bushels of corn, or about 1 1/2 bushels each; less than nine pounds of flour each; and their corn and wheat crops had been almost complete failures= Hyatt Papers," Kansas Historical Society. 102. Lawrence to J. M. S. Williams , May or June, 1857 (exact date not clear), "Lawrence Letters," p, 258. Lawrence said; ' 1. That the land speculation now rife in the Western states must have an end before another summer. 2. That Kansas lands are higher than they will be next year. So are town lots, taking all the towns together. 4. That it is for our interest to sell freely, say one half of all we own in Kansas before September 1st. . By this course we may in time pay over to our stockholders 50 or 75 per cent of their investments. By the opposite course, in my opinion, we shall lose the capital. 103. Letters of Pomeroy of December, 1857, in minutes of the executive committee meeting of January 1, 1858, "Trustees Records," v. IV. Why the situation should have changed so very rapidly, is not entirely clear to the writer. The "Journal" states that, at the time of the annual meeting, there was a balance of $10,000 in cash on hand. 1857 had been, it is true, a year of large outlays. Whether Pomeroy was in any way responsible, cannot be said without further study. (Strange to say, the more important books of the company for the first two years seem to have disappeared.) There was at that time trouble as to the Kansas City hotel property, and claims held there against the company. To raise money, Pomeroy tried to sell the Atchison mill, but the proposition to sell for cash was deemed a joke." 104. See footnote No. 131 concerning the serious dispute between the company and Mr. Branscomb. Whether Pomeroy supported him or not, is not clear to the writer, but at any rate both resignations took effect on March 1 1858. No doubt Mr. Pomeroy wa, from a business standpoint, too optimistic to serve the company well in times of depression , when retrenchment and not expansion was necessary. He continued to serve as ]oval agent for Atchison and Kansas City, and apparently was still in good standing with his employers. 105.Letter of instructions of C. J Higginson to M F. Conway , newly appointed general agent, 'Emigrant Aid Collection. ' The letter stated that the political objective of freedom in the territory had been attained "so far as the influence of the company through investment can attain it." The second objective of profit was now to be the goal to aim at. 106. Letter of notification of Mr. Brimmer to Conway as general agent, February 6, 1858-ibid. This advice seems to have been quite to the point. In the earlier years of the company Lawrence appears to have been the only one in authority who stood for the application of strict business principles. 107. By 1859 Conway was elected to this position. He was also a member of the Manhattan town company. Pomeroy, Robinson, and Branscomb were also at times on various town companies such as Atchison, Quindaro, Lawrence, etc. The agents were greatly helped by being in such positions. 108. R. S. Stevens to O. C. Brown, Washington, February 18, 1860. The land office pronounced the entry of town sites by the probate judges as void. 109. M. F. Conway to Thomas S. Webb, May 27, 1869, and June 18, 1860. Ward had abandoned the whole affair in despair and refused to make further payment. The company was thus left to shoulder the whole burden, or follow the example of Ward, and complete the fiasco. The trouble at Osawatomie was merely an extreme example of a class of troubles that was constant. 110. C. J. Higginson to M. F. Conway, July 10, 1869.--Instructions of the executive committee, "Emigrant Aid Collection." 111. Official letter of Branscomb to the company, January 14, 1858 in the minutes of January 29. The Kansas Historical Society possesses the contract for this building, drawn up in 1857. The company advanced money to Abner Doane, to aid in its construction. (The term 'Topeka association refers to the town company.) 112. Letter of instruction, C. J. Higginson to M. F. Conway, February, 1858-"Emigrant Aid Collection." Properties then rented included the Lawrence mill, the Pinckney street and Kentucky street houses in Lawrence, the Manhattan mill, Topeka schoolhouse, Osawatomie mill, Atchison hotel (and the Atchison mill soon to be rented). Rent of the Lawrence and Manhattan mills was then overdue, and affairs of the Osawatomie mill were in disorder. 113. Official letter of Conway to the company, May 5 1858, in the minutes of May 14, "Trustees Records, v. IV. "I have the Manhattan embroglio, the Topeka embroglio, besides the Williams & Critchett embroglio, the Branacomb embroglio, and a half dozen other embroglios here in Lawrence all to straighten out. I do not wish to become myself an embroglio, so be prudent, gentlemen." The local agents could not have been very enthusiastic, as they were now paid a mere commission on business transacted. 114. When Pomeroy did sell a few lots in Atchison he could make no collection. His rosy letters as to the outlook there began to cool down by the fall of 1858. He complained in addition on January 3, 1859 (minutes of January 28): Those of us who live here are every day called upon to give a lot to a church or school or to secure the Salt Lake mail, or other purposes." 115. Letter of the treasurer, minutes of the executive committee meeting of October 22, 1858. Kansas receipts for 1858-1859 were only $3,474, and expenses $14,724.95. 116. Webb wrote to Conway, April 30, 1859: "I am in hopes now, they will go ahead and make a bona fide town. I trust the town executive committee are discreet and judicious men who will be careful not to accumulate a debt, to ruin and sink the whole concern." It may be stated here that Webb had a very large property interest in Kansas. This included a share in each of the following towns: Topeka, Brownsville, Lawrence, Quindaro, and Osawatomie; also lots at Manhattan, an undivided interest at Atchison with Pomeroy, another at Winthrop (opposite Atchison), and a quarter interest in the Wyandot float at Burlington. He had also a promise of a share in each of the following: Topeka, Emporia, and Tecumseh.Letters of Thomas H. Webb to "Friend Conway," July 6, 1858, and August 20, 1859, "Emigrant Aid Collection." Webb would request a share in a city as a reward for his account in the handbooks he published for emigrants. (A share was uniformly ten lots.) 117. Official letter of Conway, April 23, 1859, in the minutes of May 13. A hotel project there also caused trouble. 118. Minutes of the directors' meeting of May 29, 1860, "Trustees' Records," v. V. "The secretary observed that the business affairs of the company continued much as they were at the last annual meeting, the year closing having proved quite unfavorable for the effecting of sales to any great extent or amount. The opinion was very decidedly expressed that forced sales ought not to be made, but the property carefully husbanded, and disposed of in larger or smaller parcels, from time to time. 119. The Kansas City hotel was sold to one Hopkins for $10,000. The company objected to the unfavorable terms Pomeroy obtained, however. Eldridge intervened, claiming Hopkins his customer. The sale does not seem to ave been finally completed. 120. $2,500 from G. W. Brown of the Herald of Freedom, to pay his debt in full. Brown had often claimed that he owed nothing, because of his services to the cause of freedom. Also $1,500 from S. W. Eldridge, for furniture of hotel at Lawrence. 121. Minutes of the executive committee meeting of November 9, "Trustees' Records," v. V. 122. Annual meeting of May 28, 1861 described in the Documentary History of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, p. 26. 123. Minutes of the directors' meeting of May 28, 1861, "Trustees' Records," v. V. 124. Minutes of the executive committee meeting of July 22, 1861.-Ibid. 125. "Journal," p. 179. Also minutes of the executive committee meeting of March 20, 1862, in "Trustees' Records," v. V. Included in the sale were Kansas bonds and territorial scrip to the amount of $3,500. Isaac Adams was the inventor of the "Adams power press," which worked a revolution in the art of printing. He was a member of the Massachusetts senate in 1840. He died in 1883. Henry A. Ayling was in earlier years a member of the firm, Priest and Ayling, commission iron merchants. He later became an officer of the Union Elastic Goods Company of Boston. Both men were members of the Emigrant Aid Company. The original agreement of sale is in the "Emigrant Aid Collection" of the Kansas Historical Society. 126. Three notes outstanding then amounted to $12,000. 127. For most of this property, at least, the company now had valid deeds. The "Journal" lists the following (p. 179):

128. At least four of the company towns eventually became "dead towns," or were radically altered. 129. If the company could have had a 100 per cent interest, this would not have been the case, but usually its share was proportionally small. 130. See Carruth's article, cited in footnote No. 66. A minute recheck of the company's finances might lead to interesting conclusions. Unfortunately the records, as found at Topeka, are not complete in this regard. It is furthermore doubtful whether the books kept by Pomeroy are in existence. 131. The most serious dispute involved the account of Branscomb, in 1857. It was submitted to Judge Russell, who found in Branscomb's favor, with the exception of the payment by Branscomb of the expenses of four persons back to Massachusetts, when the Missouri river was closed to the Northern emigrants (1856). The company refused to pay this, and, coupled with an error as to salary, threatened suit. Branscomb eventually resigned (March 1, 1858). (The Topeka Tribune of January 28, 1860, notes that suit was then being brought in the court of Shawnee county, by the company vs. Branscomb and C. Robinson, on a note and deed of mortgage.) Charles Robinson, in his resignation in 1856 claimed he could serve the company quite as well outside, and avoid the charge of being controlled by it. Secret differences seem to have arisen. Robinson was then also becoming interested in the Kansas Land Trust, and Quindaro. The resignation of Pomeroy from his supervisory position at an hour particularly dark for the company may possibly have been due to dissatisfaction with his general policy, and more or less "free and easy" business, which would not have worked well in times of depression. 132. The company issued very definite instructions to its agents in Kansas. Those given Pomeroy in August, 1854, will serve as a good example. He was authorized to purchase property in Kansas City and Kansas territory to an amount not exceeding $40,000. With either of the other agents he could draw on the company treasurer for an amount not over $10,000. He was to buy not over six sawmills, and a gristmill if necessary, and to cause receiving houses to be erected. He was to be treasurer of the agents, and keep a set of books. Deeds of real estate were to be in his name, and at least one of the other agents. He was to have a schoolhouse built in each settlement, and to encourage the establishment of places of public worship. He was to use his influence in behalf of the Herald of Freedom, which was to be conducted on principles approved by the trustees. His salary was to be $1,000 a year, plus traveling expenses and a ten percent commission on sales, rents, etc.-Minutes of the fifth meeting of the trustees, August 26, 1854, "Trustees' Records," v. 1. 133. Instructions to M. F. Conway, February, 1858, "Emigrant Aid Collection." The company did on rare occasions send sharp reminders as to general policy. Thus on October 1, 1856, its note to Pomeroy and Branscomb included the following: "The Executive Committee feel it to be of much importance that the agents of the Co. should in future devote themselves exclusively to its affairs, so that no political or other object should be allowed to divert their attention from its interests." (Perhaps this applied well to Robinson, who resigned about this time.) 134. The documentary History of the company states that the panic "checked at once and fatally our hopes of rapidly converting our property into money." It also stresses the drought as a powerful factor (p. 24, et seq.). 135. William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, April 17, 1857. See the speech of Thayer on organized emigration to the South, cited above. 136. Proceedings of the annual meeting for 1856, Boston Daily Evening Traveller of May 28 in "Webb," v. XII, p. 225. Thayer made a tour of western Virginia (now West Virginia) and eastern Kentucky in the interest of his project to develop neglected plantations and unimproved lands. Five thousand acres were finally selected in Wayne county, near the Kentucky border, in a narrow peninsula on the Ohio. Here the town of Ceredo was founded, in which Thayer planned a great manufacturing establishment along New England lines. The plan prospered well at the start, and the earlier opposition of leading Virginians to "Yankee conversion" largely disappeared. The war intervened, however, and Ceredo remained a small town. 137. Minutes of the executive committee meetings, summer of 1857. 138. Report of the committee, minutes of June 19, in "Trustees' Records," v. III. 139. Quarterly meeting of the directors, November 23, 1858.-Minutes of the meeting. He did not favor any movement, without being first assured of at least $50,000. A committee was named to study the matter. 140. Minutes of the executive committee meeting of March 16, 1860, in "Trustees' Records," v. V. 141. Quoting from this report. 142. South and southwest of the Rio San Antonio there was little if any danger. From a point thirty or forty miles south of San Antonio de Bexar to a point nearly due north on the Rio Llano, a distance of over a hundred miles, there was a large preponderance of German settlers, blocking the advance of slavery. This left a distance of about 190 miles to the mouth of the Little Wichita river, and through this gap slavery threatened to flow. 143. A point like Lamar on the coast would be needed to land settlers and supplies for the South. Settlers for the North would go via the Mississippi, the Red, and Arkansas rivers, and then wagons overland. 144. Quoting the minutes further (meeting of March 16, 1860). Also the documentary History, p 23. Edward E. Hale, who was prominent in the later history of the company, had been much interested in the future of Texas, as his pamphlet of 1845 had indicated. 145. Emigrant Aid circular, in "Emigrant Aid Collection." This circular, dated November 2, 1864, noted that in Oregon there were, by the last census, 40,000 less women than men, while in Massachusetts there was a large surplus. The company announced it had engaged its own vessel, and employed an Oregon agent. 146. Report to the directors, May 15, 1865, of John Williams, Oregon agent, in Oregon correspondence, "Emigrant Aid Collection." 147. At least $850 was given for the cause. The later announcements noted that only girls of good character would be accepted. 148. The company advertised it would send its own steamer from Boston to Portland, in May, 1865. It appears to have used, instead, a government vessel to transport 300 lady passengers. (Difficulties arose on the first trip when the girls, being sent via steerage. were exposed to too many dangers.) Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, and Edward E. Hale of the company were the particular sponsors of the Oregon work. Oregon correspondence, "Emigrant Aid Collection." The Seattle Weekly Gazette (April 27, 1865) rejoiced at the prospect for bachelors. 149. Company circular, June, 1862, in the "Emigrant Aid Collection." 150. If employed, they would disclaim any idea of profit to the company or those connected with it. Signed by the executive committee, then composed of S. Cabot, Jr., M. Brimmer, C. J. Higginson, John Carter Brown, Amos A. Lawrence, and Edward E. Hale. 151. Documentary History, pp. 31-33. 152. This company had as its chief aim the occupation "by loyal citizens of the Northern states, of desirable plantations in the various Southern states lately in rebellion, thereby infusing into them a healthy and loyal element, and, at the same time, promoting he pecuniary interests of the patriotic men who shall be instrumental in effecting this work." It was capitalized at a large amount, and had its general offices in Washington, D. C. Hon. Alexander W. Randall, first assistant post master general was president, and the Hon. S. C. Pomeroy, senator from Kansas, vice president. (Edward Winslow, in 867 treasurer of the Emigrant Aid Company, was subagent for Massachusetts.) The company proposed to aid settlers on the same general plan as the Emigrant Aid Company had followed in Kansas, and was to reap a reward in real estate profits. Official pamphlet of the United States Mutual Protection Company, in "Emigrant Aid Collection." 153. Act to Incorporate the New England Emigrant Aid Company, February 19, 1867. Copy in Florida correspondence, "Emigrant Aid Collection." The charter was amended to expire by limitation in thirty years Preferred stock was to draw 8 per cent dividends, before any on the common. R. P. Waters was then president, Rev. E. E. Hale, vice president, and Edward Winslow, treasurer. 154. Knowledge of the land activities of the company seems to have been widespread at that time. 155. Official company circular, early 1867, in the "Emigrant Aid Collection." 156. Ibid. Every day they received applications from small farmers of limited means, who wished to emigrate. A local newspaper was planned, to cherish union sentiments. 157. "Florida Circular," May, 1867, printed circular in the "Emigrant Aid Collection." 158. Company circular of May, 1867, in the "Emigrant Aid Collection." They would sell five shares of preferred stock at $100 a share to each person desiring to be member of a colony. With the certificate of stock would go a written guarantee to furnish the holder a farm of from 50 to 100 acres, at from $5 to $10 an acre. If in a year the settler did not care to purchase, they would take back the farm, and refund the money paid, in preferred stock of the company, or its land elsewhere. All communications were to be sent to T. B. Forbush, secretary, 49 Tremont St., Boston. 159. Florida correspondence in the "Emigrant Aid Collection." One list of sales totaled $5,300, and another $11,400. Large subscribers included Samuel Cabot, $1,000; John Carter Brown, 75 and 50 shares (evidently preferred and common), William Claflin, 27 and 75, Martin Brimmer, and John W. Forbes. These were largely officers or former officers of the company. Brimmer and Forbes were then both directors. Probably these subscriptions were not paid in full. 160. Company circular of September 26 1867 "Emigrant Aid Collection." They recommended all going to Florida, however, to Capt. E. M. Cheney, their agent at Jacksonville. No doubt the company was taking a lesson from its Kansas experience, in thus abandoning the project. Settlers in the West m particular were ready to pull up stakes and "hit for the tall timber," whenever it became more inviting. 161. "Subscription Book," dated January 1, 1868, in "Emigrant Aid Collection." 162. Pamphlet of information for emigrants (2d edition), February, 1868, in Florida correspondence. A description of land around Jacksonville, products, etc., is included. 163. A large number of gifts were made to the company for this purpose by benevolent persons. Some individual gifts were above $100. The Union Printing Company, which published the Florida Union, a journal of Northern views, at Jacksonville, had appealed to the Emigrant Aid Company for funds, as it was in debt. The company could not give it money, they replied, but offered to start a subscription list instead. 164. In May, 1885, Amos A. Lawrence Edward E. Hale, and Eli Thayer incorporated the Utah Emigrant Aid and Improvement Company, under the laws of Massachusetts. Its purposes were: "Directing emigration to Utah and siding in providing accommodations for emigrants after arriving in that territory and assisting in establishing among them manufacturing and other industries."-Acts and Resolves of the General Court of Massachusetts, 1885. Capital stock was to be limited to a million dollars, only a small part of which could be invested in real estate in Massachusetts. A newspaper of the time remarked that the founders of the company proposed to effect for Utah and Mormondom what they had done for Kansas and slavery. The writer has no information as to the operation of this company. The extensive collection of papers and documents of the New England Emigrant Aid Company (and allied companies) was sent to the Kansas Historical Society many years ago by the family of Edward E. Hale. It includes the record books of the trustees, in which are found the minutes of the meetings of the executive committee and of the directors (five volumes); the "Journal" and "Ledger," which includes financial records from 1857 on; and a large amount of correspondence of the company with its agents and other persons, preliminary financial statements, company circulars, etc. The correspondence is so extensive that the writer has only slightly tapped it, and should prove a valuable source for future writers. There is a considerable aggregate of further information concerning the affairs of the company, which is widely scattered. The extensive collection of newspaper clippings in the "Thomas H. Webb Scrapbooks" is a notable compilation of such materials.

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