Editing Lawrence, Kansas (section)

==="Bleeding Kansas"===
{{See also|Bleeding Kansas|Wakarusa War}}

At the start of 1855, settlers who held opposing opinions about slavery settled in the Kansas Territory around the Lawrence area and began to vie for political power. Secret societies, called Blue Lodges, were created, and their sole purpose was to make Kansas a slave state. Their plan was to come into Kansas on the day of the election and vote so as to gain control of the legislature.<ref name=cordley28and29>Cordley (1895), p. 28{{endash}}29.</ref> Before the election, a census determined Kansas had a population of 8,601 with 2,905 of them being voters. Lawrence, specifically, had 369 voters.<ref name=cordley28>Cordley (1895), p. 28.</ref> At the legislature election on March 30, 1855, about 700–1,000 armed pro-slavery men from Missouri voted at the election. They came in over 100 wagons, and they were armed with guns, rifles, pistols, and Bowie knives. They also brought two pieces of artillery.<ref name=cordley30and31>Cordley (1895), p. 30{{endash}}31.</ref> Due to their large numbers, they went unchallenged. They left for Missouri the next morning, having camped in Lawrence the night before. Silas Bond was shot at and driven from the polls on the grounds he was "an obnoxious free-state man".<ref name=biennialreport /> 1,034 votes were cast in Lawrence, 232 of which were legal, with 802 being from non-residents. There were only 2,905 legal voters in the territory, but 6,307 votes were cast.<ref name=cordley32>Cordley (1895), p. 32.</ref> The people appealed to Governor Andrew Reeder to set the election aside, to which he agreed initially, but after being threatened by pro-slavery people, he decided to hold another election in districts in which there were protests, such as Lawrence. The people of Lawrence felt this did nothing, and many were uncertain about what would happen or what they needed to do.<ref name=cordley33>Cordley (1895), p. 33.</ref>

In June 1855, a meeting was held in Lawrence, at which resolutions were adopted intending to resist any laws that may be passed by the legislature, and they declared that the legislature was elected by "armed usurpers from Missouri".<ref name=biennialreport /> This paved the way for a larger convention on June 25. Between June 8 and August 15, 1855, seven meetings were held in Lawrence for the purposes of resisting the legislature.<ref name=cordley35>Cordley (1895), p. 35.</ref> The free-state leaders sent George W. Deitzler to the east to secure weapons from other anti-slavery people. Amos Lawrence and others sent crates full of rifles, to which they labeled "books" because "the border ruffians had no use for books, [and] they came through without being disturbed."<ref name=cordley37>Cordley (1895), p. 37.</ref> With the help of [[Horace Greeley]], a howitzer was sent to Lawrence.<ref name=cordley37 /> On August 27, 1855, the proslavery faction in Douglas County (based primarily out of the territorial capital, [[Lecompton, Kansas|Lecompton]], as well as smaller satellite settlements like [[Franklin, Douglas County, Kansas|Franklin]] and [[Lone Star, Kansas|Lone Star]])<ref>{{cite web|title=About Lecompton|url=http://www.lecomptonkansas.com/about-lecompton/|website=Historic Lecompton|date=April 19, 2015|publisher=Lecompton, Kansas|access-date=May 26, 2018}}</ref><ref>Litteer (1987), p. 32.</ref><ref>Parker and Laird (1976), pp. 146{{endash}}62.</ref> got a boost when acting territorial governor [[Daniel Woodson]] appointed the zealously proslavery settler [[Samuel J. Jones]] to the office of county sheriff.<ref>{{cite web|title=Samuel J. Jones (Sheriff), ca.1820-ca.1880|url=http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=bio_sketches/jones_sheriff|website=Territorial Kansas|access-date=April 27, 2018}}</ref> Then, in October 1855, the outspoken abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] arrived in the Kansas Territory; he brought with him a wagon-load of weapons with which he intended to use to fight off "Satan and his legions" (i.e., proslavery settlers).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bordewich|first1=Fergus|title=John Brown's Day of Reckoning|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-browns-day-of-reckoning-139165084/|publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]|access-date=April 27, 2018|date=October 2009}}</ref>

For much of 1855, the pro- and antislavery factions existed uneasily. Then on November 21, 1855, after an intense verbal altercation, the proslavery settler Franklin N. Coleman shot the Free-Stater [[Charles W. Dow|Charles Dow]] in the head, killing him.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://territorialkansasonline.ku.edu/index.php?SCREEN=show_document&document_id=101751&SCREEN_FROM=keyword&selected_keyword=Dow,%20Charles%20W.&startsearchat=0|title=Experience of John E. Stewart|date=1856|author=John E. Stewart|publisher=Kansas Historical Society|access-date=May 8, 2020}}</ref><ref name=biennialreport /> The murder was the culmination of a long-simmering feud between them, as for some time they had bickered about a land claim near the Hickory Point post office, about {{convert|14|mi|km}} south of Lawrence.<ref>Litteer (1987), pp. 4{{en dash}}7.</ref><ref>Connelley (2018) [1900], p. 44.</ref> According to the ''Border War Encyclopedia'', "Politics had not motivated Coleman to kill Dow, but the murder marked the genesis of the violent political divisions that characterized Kansas for the next 10 years."<ref name=wakwarcyc/> When Jones investigated the crime, Coleman argued he had acted in [[self-defense]]. The sheriff sided with his proslavery compatriot and chose to instead arrest Dow's free state affiliate Jacob Branson for [[Breach of the peace|disturbing the peace]]. Branson was quickly rescued by [[Samuel Newitt Wood]] and a gang of Free-Staters by breaking him out of jail.<ref name=wakwarcyc/><ref name=wakwarcyc1/><ref>Bisel (2012), pp. 55{{en dash}}56.</ref> He was rescued at one in the morning, just two hours after the arrest. As the gang of free-staters were heading back, they were unsure of what to do.<ref name=cordley50>Cordley (1895), p. 50.</ref> They consulted with Charles Robinson, and they all realized the pro-slavery people would label this act of breaking someone out of jail as an insurrection. They realized the militia would be called to carry out the arrests of those who broke Branson out of jail, but that they would likely use it as an excuse to destroy Lawrence. The rest of the city was unaware of the rescue at this time. It was decided that the men who broke Branson out of jail would need to keep out of the way. Robinson informed the others at a meeting of citizens that morning, to which they agreed.<ref name=cordley51>Cordley (1895), p. 51.</ref> They then started preparing the city for defense.<ref name=crodley52>Cordley (1895), p. 52.</ref>