Speer, John (1817-1906) [Petition to Governor John White Geary]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01647 Author/Creator: Speer, John (1817-1906) Place Written: Kansas Type: Printed document signed Date: circa 1856 Pagination: 1 p. ; 45.7 x 19.5 cm. Order a Copy
Speer and others sign the petition, directed to Governor Geary. Petitioners argue that a group of the Territory's best citizens are unjustly held in prison. The men were arrested for resisting the establishment of a pro-slavery government in Kansas. Signed by sixty five men, including Speer. Circa date based on the term of Geary's governorship of the Kansas Territory, which lasted less than one year.
John Speer was a long-time opponent of slavery, was the publisher of the Kansas Tribune (in Lawrence and then Topeka) and the Kansas Republican (in Lawrence), both free-state papers. The newspaper was destroyed, and two of Speer's sons murdered, by Quantrill's raiders in 1863. Speer served in the first territorial legislature and, after the war, in both houses of the state legislature.
[Excerpt:]
To His Excellency, John W. Geary, Governor Of Kansas:
The Undersigned, Citizens Of The Territory Of Kansas, Respectfully Represent: That A Considerable Body Of Our Best Citizens--Men Of True Courage, Of Intelligence, Of Probity And Of Honorable And Manly Impulses -- Are Now, And Have Been For Several Months, Unjustly Held In Prison On Various Charges, Growing Out Of Political Difficulties, Having Their Origin In An Attempt On The Part Of Organized Bodies Of Armed Men To Usurp The Rights Of The Citizens Of Kansas, And Establish A Government Over Our People, Repugnant To Our Sense Of Right, And Especially To Inflict Upon Us The Curse Of African Slavery...
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