Reverse - Text |
Left section:
GRIND
YOUR COFFEE AT HOME
Right section: |
KANSAS. |
FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE
CORONADO commanded a Spanish
expedition in 1541, which marched
from Mexico to Kansas in search
of gold and silver. The first
authentic account of the buffalo
is supplied by him. The French
fur-traders from Louisiana and
Canada established a trading
station in Kansas as early as
1705, and for nearly a century
these gallant chevaliers held
little commercial posts within
the prairie regions. Kansas
Territory, when first organized,
included that part of Colorado
east of the crest of the Rocky
Mountains. Among the first
Americans to visit this region
were the expeditionary forces of
Lewis and Clark, in 1804, and
Major Long, in 1819. The overland
trade on the Santa Fé trail
began in 1823. The outward-bound
traders rendezvoused at Council
Grove, until trains were made up
strong enough to beat off the
Indians on the perilous route of
800 miles. A fort was erected on
the Missouri, in 1821, to protect
this trade, and received the name
of Leavenworth, after Colonel
Leavenworth, of the Third United
States Infantry, then in
garrison. |
A bitter
struggle set in regarding this
Territory between the
anti-slavery and pro-slavery
parties in Congress and in the
Territory. The Kansas-Nebraska
Act of 1854 repealed the
condition about slavery, and left
it for each commonwealth to
settle for itself whether its
soil should be free or slave. A
terrible civil war ensued,
lasting for several years, and
"Bleeding Kansas"
aroused the pity of the world.
The convention at Wyandotte, in
1859, produced a constitution
forbidding slavery, and the
people voted for it, 10,421 to
5,530, thus settling the vexed
question forever. |
ILLUSTRATIONS. |
John
Brown's Cabin at Ossawatomie; The
Border Ruffians in-
vading Kansas in 1855; Sacking of
Lawrence in 1863 |
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