Shawnee County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter XII 1905
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Book Title: History Of Shawnee County, Kansas

CHAPTER XII.

County-Seat Location-Movements for the State Capitol-Locations at Fort
Leavenworth, Shawnee Mission, Pawnee, Lecompton, Lawrence, Minneola and
Topeka-The Several Constitutional Conventions-Free-State and Pro-Slavery
Contests-First State Legislature-History and Description of the Finished Capitol.

    Topeka was made county-seat of Shawnee County by a vote of the people on
October 4, 1858, her rivals in the election being Tecumseh, Auburn (Brownsville)
and Burlingame. The electors of Tecumseh refrained from voting on the
county-seat proposition, although they voted on other questions at the same
election. When it became known that the majority expression was in favor of
Topeka, the citizens of Tecumseh contested the results, claiming that the
election was illegal; and the probate judge, Edward Hoagland, to whom the
poll-books were returnable, refused to certify the vote until compelled to do so
by a higher judicial authority. While the controversy was pending, a part of the
county records were forcibly removed from Tecumseh to Topeka. On the 24th of
January, 1859, the Legislature legalized this election, and declared Topeka to
be the permanent county-seat.

THE CAPITAL CITY.

    Under the constitution framed by the Wyandotte convention, July 29, 1859,
Topeka was designated to be the capital of Kansas, and this action was ratified
by a vote of the people, October 4, 1859. The events leading up to this action
are so much a part of the general history of the State that it is not necessary
to do more than epitomize them in this connection.

    By act of Congress, May 30, 1854, the Territory of Kansas was thrown open to
settlement, a Territorial government provided, and the seat of government
located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth. Governor Andrew H. Reeder, the first of
the Territorial Governors, established his headquarters there October 4, 1854.
The executive office was removed, November 24th, to the Shawnee Methodist
Episcopal Indian Mission, near the Missouri State line, about two and one-half
miles southwest from Westport, and seven miles from Kansas City. On June 27,
1855, the Governor transferred the seat of government to Pawnee, on the north
side of the Kansas River, at the eastern line of the Fort Riley Military
Reservation.

FIRST CAPITOL BUILDINGS.

    A stone building was erected at Pawnee for capital purposes. The walls of
the building are still sanding, and the spot has received its historical mark of
preservation. The Legislature met in this building July 2, 1855, and changed the
seat of government back to Shawnee Mission, the Governor returning there July
12th. On August 8th of the same year the Shawnee Mission Legislature, by vote in
joint session, located the capital at Lecompton. The United States government
spent $50,000 in the construction of a capitol building at this point, and
sessions of the Legislature were held at Lecompton in 1855, 1856 and 1857. The
Legislature of 1857 adjourned to meet at Lawrence, where it assembled January 8,
1858, Lawrence thus becoming the temporary capital. An act was immediately
passed removing the capital to Minneola, but it was vetoed by Governor Denver.
Sessions of the Legislature were held alternately at Lecompton and Lawrence in
1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861.

FREE STATE MOVEMENTS.

    The foregoing account relates in most part to the acts and attitude of the
Pro-Slavery party in Kansas, which had control of the official machinery. Of far
greater importance to Topeka was the action during the same years of the
Free-State men, who were trying to wrest the control of the government from the
other faction. The proceedings of the Free-State men, in their meetings and
conventions, are very clearly and concisely set forth in an article prepared by
the late Franklin G. Adams, who was for many years secretary of the Kansas State
Historical Society. In his paper Secretary Adams says:

    "The Free-State party in Kansas named Topeka as the capital of the State as
early as in 1855. It became the capital under the Free-State constitutional
movement. That was the movement through which the Free-State party in Kansas in
1855 framed a constitution, organized a State government, and applied to
Congress for admission into the Union. This movement began by reason of the
Shawnee Mission legislative usurpation and the oppressive legislation enacted.
It was an effort of the body of the actual settlers of Kansas to free the
territory from the thralldom of that usurpation. At a mass convention held in
Lawrence August 14 and 15, 1855, among other proceedings, a resolution was
passed declaring that the people of the Territory ought to select delegates to a
convention to frame a constitution for the State of Kansas, with a view to an
immediate admission into the American Union. This convention also indorsed a
call which had been issued for holding a general delegate convention of the
Territory at Big Springs on the 5th of September. Another convention, held at
Lawrence on the 15th, appointed a delegate convention to be held at Topeka on
the 19th of September, to take action towards the formation of a State
constitution and government. The Big Springs convention, on the 5th of
September, approved the constitutional-convention movement, and adopted a
resolution to respond to the call made for the Topeka convention on the 19th of
September.

THE TOPEKA CONVENTION.

    "The convention at Topeka, September 19th, adopted elaborate resolutions
setting forth the reasons in favor of the constitutional movement. The
convention appointed an executive committee, with instructions to issue an
address to the people and to appoint an election to be held in the several
districts of the Territory on the 9th of October, for the election of delegates
to convene at Topeka on the 23rd of October to form a constitution for the State
of Kansas. Thus was an executive .committee, appointed by a spontaneous movement
of the people and representing the dominant sentiment of the people, clothed
with the power to organize the machinery of government in the prospective
commonwealth. The force which inspired life and impelled and directed the
movements for a State government lay in the executive committee. It continued to
issue its proclamations through its chairman, James H. Lane, and to do in the
most efficient manner the work of a provisional and semi-revolutionary
government through the darkest and most disordered and dangerous period of the
Territorial existence.

    "The constitutional convention elected in pursuance of the call of the
executive committee met at Topeka October 23, 1855, continued in session until
November nth, and framed the celebrated Topeka constitution. The constitution
was sent by messengers to Washington and for years continued to engage the
attention of Congress and to agitate the country on the question of its
ratification.

    "Other constitutional conventions were held in the meantime at Lecomp-ton
and Leavenworth."

TOPEKA AND HER RIVALS.

    The location of the capital for the new State was an interesting subject in
the proceedings of the Topeka constitutional convention, for there were many
towns or projected towns at this period having capital aspirations, among them
being Council City, Cottonwood, Bloomington, Topeka, Leavenworth, Lawrence,
Lecompton, Blanton, Prairie City, Manhattan and Wabaunsee. On the third day of
the sitting of the Topeka convention, Cyrus K. Holliday moved that among the
standing committees there should be one on the location of the capital. On
November 6th the convention voted on the temporary location, Topeka being
chosen, the final ballot standing 20 for Topeka and 16 for Lawrence.

    This action was not immediately effective, as the Topeka convention was not
recognized by the existing government, but in the end it resulted in fixing
Topeka as the capital of the State. At that time there were but a few buildings
here. The building.which was known as Constitution Hall was the most
substantial. It was a stone building, erected by Loring Farnsworth on Nos. 425
and 427 Kansas avenue (under the new system of numbering), and the walls still
remain as a part of the present building in the same place. The building was so
far completed as to be occupied by the constitutional convention of October
23rd, and also by the Legislature in its session held under that constitution. 
 The Adams statement continues:

FIRST LEGISLATIVE BUSINESS.

    "Under the Topeka constitution, five meetings of the Legislature were had in
Constitution Hall. Under the constitution three elections were held for the
election of State officers or members of the Legislature, or both. The
constitution became the banner under which the Free-State party rallied in its
struggle to free the Territory from the clutches of the Pro-Slavery despotism
under which it was placed through the fraudulent election of March 30, 1855. The
outrageous laws passed by the Shawnee Mission Legislature made outlaws of the
members of the Free-State government. The Topeka constitutional movement became
the special object of the hatred of the Pro-Slavery party. Their bogus laws
contained provisions making it treason for the people thus to combine for the
object of annulling them. Their packed grand juries indicted the Topeka State
officers and members of the Legislature. Marshals and sheriffs, supported by
squads of so-called militia or by United States soldiers, hunted them down like
wild beasts.

    "The first Legislature under the constitution met March 4, 1856. It did
little legislation. It memorialized Congress for the ratification of the Topeka
constitution. It appointed committees to prepare a code of laws. It adjourned to
meet again July 4th. When that memorable 4th of July came, and the members of
the legislature gathered for their second meeting, through orders from Acting
Governor Woodson, backed by authority from Washington, Gen. E. V. Sumner
appeared with a force of United States troops and dispersed them. They met
again, the third time, January 5, 1857. At this meeting a committee was
appointed to prepare another memorial to Congress for admission into the Union.
The second day of the session a large number of the members, including the
President of the Senate and Speaker of the House, were arrested by a United
States marshal and taken under guard to Tecumseh. Then the body took a recess to
June 9th. On that day the fourth meeting of the Topeka Legislature convened. A
census law was passed, an election ordered in August, a State University was
located at Lawrence, the State capital was again established at Topeka, and
Congress was gain memorialized to admit Kansas into the Union under the Topeka
constitution. January 5, 1858, the fifth and last meeting of the Topeka
Free-State Legislature was held. Little was done except the reading of Governor
Charles Robinson's message, in which he advised the keeping up of the State
organization.

THE LEAVENWORTH CONVENTION.

    "But by this time little hope remained of the admission of the State into
the Union under the Topeka constitution. The population of the Territory had
become so large and was so overwhelmingly Free-State, that the Free-State voters
had already seized the lawmaking power by the election of the Territorial
Legislature, and that body was at this time in session. The Topeka
constitutional movement had performed its mission. For Topeka it had surely
paved the way for the permanent capital of Kansas. Mention has been made of the
Minneola capital and the Leavenworth constitution. The Leavenworth constitution
served a purpose, that of a foil to the Lecompton constitution, steeped in fraud
as that was. But there seemed no hope that Congress would ratify the Leavenworth
constitution. The Territorial Legislature of 1859 therefore passed a law
providing for a fourth constitutional convention. This became known as the
Wyandotte convention, and it framed the present constitution of Kansas. This
convention was held in Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kansas, in July, 1859. The
constitution was adopted by vote of the people, October 4th, but it was not
until January 29, 1861, that the act of Congress ratifying it was approved by
President Buchanan."

THE FINAL CONVENTION.

    The Wyandotte constitutional convention provided that Topeka should be the
temporary capital, and that the Legislature should submit the question of the
permanent location to a vote of the people. In the Wyandotte convention two
votes were had upon the temporary location. There were many candidates, and the
first vote resulted as follows: For Mound City, 2 votes; Mapleton, 1; Minneola,
2; Topeka, 15; Olathe, 2; Lawrence, 6; Burlington, 1; Stanton, 1; Atchison, 5;
Manhattan, 2; Le Roy, 1; Emporia, 2; Burlingame, 1; Louisville, 1; Kickapoo, 1;
Troy, 1; Humboldt, 1; Palermo, 1; Paola, 1; Big Springs, 1; Pike's Peak, 1;
Superior, 1.

    The second ballot resulted in favor of Topeka, the delegates voting as follows:

    For Topeka: J. M. Arthur, F. Brown, J. T. Barton, W. P. Dutton, R. C.
Foster, John W. Forman, John P. Greer, William R. Griffith, Samuel Hippie, E. M.
Hubbard, S. D. Houston, J. Lamb, G. H. Lillie, E. Moore, W. C. McDowell, A. D.
McCune, C. B. McClelland, W. McCullough, H. D. Preston, P. S. Parks, R. J.
Porter, John Ritchie, E. G. Ross, J. A. Signor, John P. Slough, Samuel A.
Stinson, J. Stairwalt, J. Wright and B. Wrigley-29.

    For Lawrence: J. G. Blunt, J. C. Burnett, John T. Burris, J. Blood, N. C.
Blood, A. Crocker, William Hutchinson, James Hanway, S. E. Hoffman, Edward
Stokes, B. F. Simpson, S. O. Thatcher, P. H. Townsend and R. L. Williams-14.

    For Atchison: Robert Graham, John J. Ingalls, Samuel A. Kingman, J. A.
Middleton, L. R. Palmer and T. S. Wright-6.

    The location under this action being only temporary, the Legislature of 1861
authorized a vote of the people on the subject, and at the general election in
November of that year the capital was definitely located at Topeka by the
following vote: Topeka, 7,996; Lawrence, 5,291; all others, 1,184.

FIRST STATE LEGISLATURE.

    The first State Legislature under the Wyandotte constitution met in Topeka
March 26, 1861, the city at that time having about 800 inhabitants. Governor
Robinson rented rooms for the executive offices in the Ritchie Block, which was
afterwards destroyed by fire. The location was at the southeast corner of Sixth
and Kansas avenues, where Rowley & Snow's drug-store now is. The first State
Senate met in the third story of this building for three years. The first House
of Representatives met in the Gale Block, now known as Crawford's Opera House,
and here the joint convention was held which elected James H. Lane and Samuel C.
Pomeroy to the United States Senate. Later in the session the House adjourned,
on account of a leak in the roof, to the Congregational Church, on the corner of
Seventh and Harrison streets. In 1862 the House again met in the Gale Block, and
the session of 1863 was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church on Quincy street,
where Odd Fellows' Hall is now located. The Legislature of 1864 met in
Constitution Hall, which was enlarged for the purpose and leased to the State
for a period of five years, until the east wing of the permanent State Capitol
was ready for occupancy, in 1869.

SITE FOR THE CAPITOL.

    The square of 20 acres of ground upon which the State Capitol stands was
donated for that use by the Topeka association, the reservation being first made
in 1855. The site, which is equivalent to four city blocks, was accepted by the
Legislature in 1862, and in 1866 a law was passed to proceed with the erection
of a State House in accordance with plans prepared by E. Townsend Mix. An
appropriation of $50,000 was voted, the money to be raised by the sale of 10
sections of land which the State had received from the Federal government. On
October 17, 1866, the corner-stone of the Capitol was laid by the Grand Lodge,
A. F. & A. M., assisted by Topeka Lodge, No. 17. In the construction of the
first, or east, wing of the building, the contractors used a brown sandstone
from a quarry near Vinewood Park, but this was found to be defective and the
wing was completed w7ith Junction City stone. This also proved to be
unsatisfactory, and the other parts of the structure were built of a more
durable stone from Cottonwood Falls.

DIMENSIONS AND COST.

    Rooms in the new Capitol were first occupied by State officers December 25,
1869, and the first legislative session in the building was in 1870. The west
wing was built in 1880, and work commenced on the central portion in 1883. It
was not until March 24, 1903, that the finished structure was turned over to the
State. The dimensions of the building are as follows: Extreme diameter or
breadth of the building, including the porches, north and south, 399 feet; east
and west, 386 feet; square of the dome at the base, 80 by 80 feet; height of
dome to balcony at lantern, 258 feet; height of dome to extreme top, 304 feet.
The total cost of the finished Capitol was $3,200,588.92, of which $481,000 was
for the east wing, including the remodeling; $314,237 for the west wing;
$1,289,611.30 for the central portion, including dome; and $416,876.19 for
decoration and furnishings. Most of the money was expended under the supervision
of a State House Commission, which had charge of the letting of contracts. The
following architects have been employed at different times on the work: E.
Townsend Mix, John G. Haskell, L. M. Wood, E. T. Carr, Kenneth McDonald, Van
Brunt & Sutton, J. C. Holland, E. J. Putnam, Seymour Davis, W. C. Hills, T. H.
Lescher and John F, Stanton.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS
AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

EDITED AND COMPILED BY
JAMES L. KING
TOPEKA, KANSAS 

"History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples"

PUBLISHED BY
RICHMOND & ARNOLD,
GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
1905.


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