Kansas

THE NATIVE AMERICANS occupied Kansas for about 1,000 years before the first Europeans arrived in the area. In 1541, Francisco Vasques de Coronado explored Kansas, most of which, in 1803, became a part of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase. The southwest part of the state remained Spanish and then Mexican until the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. In the 20th century, Kansas was to play a very important role in federal politics in the United States, being the home state of three influential Republicans: 1936 presidential hopeful Alf Landon, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and 1996 presidential hopeful Bob Dole.

From 1812–21, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory, with Fort Leavenworth, the first permanent settlement of white Americans, established in 1827. On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law, and this established the U.S. territories of Kansas and Nebraska, the Kansas Territory covering some of what is now Colorado. With both the slave states and the anti-slave states anxious that Kansas should join them, many settlers arrived from Missouri and Arkansas, along with some abolitionists from Massachusetts.

This led to what became known as Bleeding Kansas, with skirmishes between supporters of slavery and its opponents. On January 29, 1861 Kansas was admitted to the Union as the 34th state, a free state. The first governor, Republican Charles L. Robinson, was violently opposed to slavery, and had been involved in attacks on pro-slavery campaigners. On January 12, 1863, he was the first governor of any U.S. state to be impeached, although he was not convicted, and his departure from office was voluntary. On August 21, 1863, Confederate William Quantrill led several hun dred men in an attack on Lawrence, a town in eastcentral Kansas, killing nearly 200 people and destroy ing much of the city.

Robinson's successor was Republican Thomas Carney. A third governor, Samuel Johnson Crawford, elected in 1864, came in to office in January 1865. In 1866, Nehemiah Green was elected lieutenant governor, becoming governor when Crawford stepped down two months before the end of his gubernatorial term. James M. Har vey, a member of the Kansas house of representatives and then the Senate, was the next governor, followed by three more Republican governors. George Washington Glick became the first Democratic governor, elected in 1882, and took office on January 8, 1883.

He was elected to the state legislature in 1862, and was a member for 14 of the following 18 years, becoming speaker pro tempore in 1876. His retirement from politics came when a throat infection worsened and prevented him from speaking. [Page 346]After the election of two more Republican governors, Lorenzo D. Lewelling was elected governor in 1892 for the Populist Party. He had been born in Iowa, and as a teenager had served in the Union army seeing action at Chattanooga. In 1894, Edmund Needham Morrill was persuaded to accept the Republican nomination for governor of Kansas, served one term, and was defeated when he stood for re-election in 1896. John W. Leedy, who defeated him, became the second member of the Populist Party to be elected governor of Kansas, served one term, and was then followed by 14 years of Republican governors.

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