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say, "Cases are frequent of the election of such delegates in the most informal and unauthorized manner. We are confident the first delegate from Kansas, (then called Nebraska), the Rev. Thomas Johnson, was so elected!' This is a mistake, but one I should pass unnoticed, were it not for the injustice it does myself.
     I was the first delegate elected to Congress "from Kansas (then called Nebraska)." I was elected by a spontaneous movement of the people,¹ and I came to Washington in accordance with their expressed will, presented my evidences of election, and, though not admitted to a seat in the House, I pressed the interests of my Territory upon the consideration of Congress with such success that a bill for its organization passed the House of Representatives by a large majority, and would have passed the Senate had it been brought to a vote at that session; but unfortunately for the country and myself, this was not done.²
     I was elected for the second session of the 32nd Congress. [Met Dec. 6, 1852] In the autumn of the succeeding year, 1853, a convention of the people of the Territory assembled at Wyandotte, and established a provisional government - a measure first suggested and the plan proposed by, myself. At this convention I was nominated for re-election. But a portion of the convention voted and another convention was called at which Mr Thomas Johnson was nominated as my competitor. The Chief of the Indian Bureau at Washington sided, both by money and personal influence, with my opponent. This I can prove. The repeal of the Missouri compromise was now first agitated, and it was thought important to success that the Territory should be represented by one favorable to that measure. Hence the interference. And as all the Indian agents were under the control of the Government, they obtained a very large Indian vote persons who were not citizens of the United States, nor willing to become such, and who voted against me, because these agents told them "if they did not do so I would be elected and bring them under the white man's laws." But a majority of actual citizens voted for me, yet the certificate of election was given to my competitor by the provisional governor. I contested the election, but the committee on elections, to

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     ¹ This is more in accordance with the facts than his expression "solitary and alone."
      ² Mr. Guthrie seems to have forgotten, or never to have known, that the Senate voted on his bill.

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whom the subject was referred, never came to any decision thereon. Mr Johnson obtained lucrative employment in the Indian Department, and through the instrumentality of Indian treaties made himself rich, and I was taken sick and have been on the verge of the grave most of the time since.
     It was not the policy of the pro-slavery party to have the country, north of 36^o, 30 minutes, known as Nebraska, opened for settlement at all; and for that reason it was set apart for Indian colonization, and its settlement by white men was forbidden by law under heavy penalties. The few whites there were there by sufferance and by license. But circumstances, which it is not necessary for me here to relate, impelled me to urge upon the people of the Territory the necessity of a territorial organization. I met with many difficulties, and on one occasion was threatened with imprisonment by the commanding officer of one of the military posts in the Territory, for my attempt at "revolution," as he called it.
     But to give a history of my early struggles in behalf of Nebraska,, then including Kansas, would take more time than I have inclination to spare. Yet I can say, without fear of refutation, that but for my efforts there would not be either Kansas or Nebraska open to the settlement of the white man. I have sacrificed much money and more time than any other living man in the cause of Kansas, and have never received one cent in return - not even the usual mileage and per diem hitherto paid to informal delegates. Then do not, I beg of you, deprive me of the honor to which I am entitled. I have paid dearly enough for it, and think I should have full credit for what I have done. In your almanac of the current year you have done me similar injustice, and I trust you will make the correction in both cases.
     In regard to Gov. Reeder, I entirely agree with you. He ought to have been admitted, and I so urged whenever I had a Congressman's ear, without reference to the man, I mean Reeder, who to tell the truth, is very far from being without sin, although, had he even done his duty as Governor of Kansas, the present condition of affairs could hardly have been averted - it was a foregone conclusion.

Yours respectfully,                    
(Signed) ABELARD GUTHRIE.

     Washington, D. C., Aug. 6, 1856.

ABELARD GUTHRIE--THOMAS JOHNSON--DELEGATE TO
CONGRESS--KANSAS TERRITORY.
(From Wilder's Annals, under date of July 28, 1853.)

     In 1855, a correspondent to the Chicago Press, made the statement that a convention was held at Wyandotte July 28, 1853, a territorial government organized, and a delegate to Congress nominated. Abelard Guthrie was put forward by a friend of Thomas H. Benton, and Rev. Thomas Johnson by the friends of D. R. Atchison. Guthrie received the nomination. Late in the fall, Thomas Johnson was brought out as a candidate, and was elected by Indian votes. He went to Washington, but the Territory was not organized, and he was not received as a delegate. The Washington Union spoke of him as "The Rev. Thomas Johnson, a noble specimen of a western man." In the New York Tribune of August 9, 1856, Mr Guthrie gives his account of this "provisional government."

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HADLEY D. JOHNSON'S STATEMENT.

(Excerpt from a paper read before the meeting of the Nebraska State Historical
     Society, January 11, 1887, by Hon. Hadley D. Johnson. Taken from the
     Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Vol. 2,
     page 85 and following.)

     "As early as 1848, the subject of the organization of a new territory west of the Missouri river was mentioned, and in congress I think a bill was introduced in that year, but did not become a law, and in 1852 the subject having been long discussed, a bill was introduced, but again without result. In 1852, however, the railroad question having been agitated more generally during the preceding year, during the session of 1852-3, a bill was reported to congress providing for the organization of the Territory of Nebraska, within the boundaries, substantially I believe, now embraced in the states of Kansas and Nebraska. Prior to this, however, some of the citizens of western Missouri, and a few persons residing or staying temporarily in the Indian country west of the Missouri river, took steps to hold an informal election of a delegate who should attend the Coming session of congress and urge the passage of the territorial bill. This election, though not sanctioned by any law, and informal, was ordered to be

held by a meeting of a number of persons held in the Indian country south of the Platte river, who fixed a day on which the election was to be held, and designated certain places at which votes, would be received. Among the places named, appeared Bellevue or Traders' Point. A newspaper printed somewhere in Missouri, containing a notice of this election, accidentally came into my possession a few days prior to the date fixed for the election. On reading this announcement, I immediately communicated the news to prominent citizens of Council Bluffs, and it was at once decided that Iowa should compete for the empty honors connected with the delegateship. An election at Sarpy's was determined on; arrangements made with the owners of the ferry-boat at that point to transport the impromptu emigrants to their new homes, and they were accordingly landed on the west shore of the Missouri river a few hundred yards above Sarpy's trading house, where, on the day appointed, an election was held, the result of which may be learned from the original certificate hereto annexed, a copy of which was sent to the Honorable Bernhart Henn, the member of the house of representatives from Iowa, by him submitted to the house, and referred to the committee on elections, but for reasons obvious to the reader of the proceedings of congress immediately following, no report was ever made by that committee in the case.¹
     "I may remark here that I consented with much reluctance to the use of my name in this connection, and for several reasons: I was poor and could not well afford to neglect my business and spend a Winter at Washington; the expenses of the trip I knew would be a heavy drain upon my limited exchequer; besides I had so lately neglected my private affairs by my service at Iowa City. However, I

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¹ BELVIEW, NEBRASKA TERRITORY, Oct. 11, 1853.

     Be it known that at in pursuance of Resolutions heretofore adopted an election was held at this place on this the Eleventh day of October 1853 being the second Tuesday in said month for delegate to Congress for the Territory of Nebraska at which the undersigned were duly appointed Judges and Clerks.
     And we do hereby certify that the number of votes cast at said election was three Hundred fifty-eight Votes of which Hadley D. Johnson received Three Hundred fifty-eight votes.

MARSHALL FINLEY
R. P. SNOW
MUNSON H. CLARK     Judges

FRANKLIN HALL
JEFFERSON P. CASSADY Clerks

finally yielded to the earnest request of a number of my personal friends, who were also ardent friends of the new scheme, and consented to the use of my name, at the same time pledging my word that I would proceed to Washington if chosen and do the best I could to advance the cause we had in hand. In addition to the ballots cast for me for delegate at this election, the Rev. William Hamilton received 304 votes for provisional Governor; Dr. Monson H. Clark received 295 for Secretary, and H. P. Downs 283 for Treasurer.
     "These proceedings at Sarpy's landing were followed by various public meetings in Iowa, (and also in Missouri) at which resolutions were adopted, urging the organization of Nebraska territory. Amongst others, meetings were held at Council Bluffs, St. Mary's, Glenwood, and Sidney, at which the actions at Sarpy's were endorsed. Earnest and eloquent speeches were made by such leading citizens as Hon. W. C. Means and Judge Snyder of Page county, Judge Greenwood, Hiram P. Bennett, Wm. McEwen, Col. J. L. Sharp, Hon. A. A. Bradford, L. Lingenfelter, C. W. McKissick, Hon. Benjamin Rector, Charles W. Pierce, Dan. H. Solomon, ----- Downs, I. M. Dews, George Hepner, Wm. G. English, Geo. P. Stiles, Marshal Turley, Dr. M. H. Clark, and others.
     "In the month of November, Council Bluffs was visited by Hon, Augustus C. Dodge, Col. Samuel H. Curtis, and other distinguished citizens of other states, who attended and addressed meetings of the people of the town, warmly advocating the construction of our contemplated railroads, and the organization of Nebraska territory. In its issue of December 14, 1853, the Council Bluffs Bugle announced that 'H. D. Johnson, delegate elect from Nebraska, passed through our place on his way to Washington last week.'
     "In compliance with my agreement, I set about making arrangements to visit the national capital, which, as you may suppose, was not easily accomplished. Before starting, however, a number of our citizens who took such a deep interest in the organization of a territory west of Iowa, had on due thought and consultation agreed upon a plan which I had formed, which was the organization of two territories west of the Missouri river, instead of one as had heretofore been contemplated, and I had traced on a map hanging in the office of Johnson & Cassady a line which I hoped would be the southern boundary of Nebraska, which it finally did become, and so continues to the present time.

     "In starting out upon this second pilgrimage, I again faced the dreary desolate prairies of the then sparsely settled Iowa, but not as a year before, solitary and alone. B. R. Pegram, then a young and enterprising merchant of Council Bluffs, being about to visit St. Louis, it was agreed that we should travel in company to Keokuk, he with a horse and buggy, I with a horse and saddle. The trip was accomplished in safety, and on arriving at Keokuk, we took a steamer for St. Louis, shipping the horses and buggy.
     "On arriving at St. Louis, I tried in vain to sell my horse for a satisfactory price, and leaving him with a friend to be sold afterwards, I took a steamer bound for Cincinnati, whence I boarded a railroad train for Washington. (I remark in parenthesis that my horse was not sold, but subsequently died, to my great grief and considerable loss.)
     "On my arrival at Washington (early in January, 1854,) I found that a bill had already been introduced in the senate, and I think referred to the committee on territories, of which the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas was chairman. This bill provided for the organization of the territory of Nebraska, including what is now Kansas and Nebraska, or substantially so. I also found, seated at a desk, in the House of Representatives, a portly, dignified, elderly gentleman, who was introduced to me as the Reverend Thomas Johnson. He was an old Virginian; a slave holder, and a Methodist preacher. This gentleman had also been a candidate for delegate at the informal election, and was credited with having received 337 votes. He had preceded me to Washington, and together with his friends, ignoring our Sarpy election, had, through some influence sub rosa, been installed in a seat at a desk aforesaid, where being duly served with stationery, etc., he seemed to be a member of the house.
     "Previous to this time, in one or two instances, persons visiting Washington, as representatives of the settlers in unorganized territory, and seeking admission as legal territories, had been recognized unofficially, and after admission had been paid the usual per them allowance as well as mileage, and in the present case I think my namesake had looked for such a result in his own ease, but for my part I had no such expectation.
     "On being introduced to M^r Johnson, who seemed somewhat stiff and reserved, I alluded to the manner of my appointment to the pres-

ent mission, which, like his own, was without legal sanction, but was for a purpose; told him there was no occasion for a contest between us for a seat to which neither of us had a claim; that I came there to suggest and work for the organization of two territories instead of one; that if he saw proper to second my efforts, I believed that we could succeed in the objects for which we each had come.
     "After this explanation the old gentleman thawed out a little, and we consulted together upon the common subject.
     "Hon. A. C. Dodge, senator from Iowa, who had from the first been an ardent friend and advocate of my plan, introduced me to Judge Douglas, to whom I unfolded my plan, and asked him to adopt it, which, after mature consideration, he decided to do, and he agreed that, as chairman of the committee on territories, he would report a substitute for the pending bill, which he afterwards did do, and this substitute became the celebrated 'Nebraska Bill,' and provided, as you know, for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska.
     "The Hon. Bernhart Henn, at that time the only member of the house from Iowa, who also was my friend and warmly advocated our territorial scheme, finding that the Rev. Thomas Johnson was seated in the house and posing as a member and not wishing to see him more honorably seated than myself, interceded, I presume with one of the doorkeepers, who admitted me into the house and seated me at a desk beside my friend, the minister, who it afterwards appeared was, like myself, surreptitiously admitted to the seat occupied by him, unknown to the speaker, or perhaps to the chief doorkeeper.
     "The fates decreed, however, that we were not to hold our seats a great while, for one day the principal doorkeeper approached me as I sat in my seat, and politely inquired who I was, and by what right I occupied the seat; and being by, me answered according to the facts, he informed me that as complaint had been made to the speaker, he was under the necessity of respectfully asking me to vacate the seat, as such was the order of the speaker. I replied to him, that of course I would do so, but, I added, as my neighbor on the left occupied his seat by a right similar to my own, I felt it to be my privilege to enquire why I should be ousted while he was permitted to remain. On this the doorkeeper turned to M^r Johnson, who corroborated my statement, whereupon the 'two Johnsons,' as we were called, were incontinently bounced and relegated to the galleries.

     "I never learned, nor did I care to know, whether I was removed at the instance of the friends of M^r Johnson, or whether a M^r Guthrie, who had also been a candidate for delegate, had fired a shot at his adversary, the Rev. Thomas. If the latter, was the case, in firing he hit two birds. I did not feel hurt by this event, but believe that the dignity of the other Johnson was seriously touched, and himself mortified.
     "I ought perhaps to mention the fact, that in our negotiations as to the dividing line between Kansas and Nebraska, a good deal of trouble was encountered, Mr Johnson and his Missouri friends being very anxious that the Platte river should constitute the line, which obviously would not suit the people of Iowa, especially as I believe it was a plan of the American Fur Company to colonize the Indians north of the Platte river. As this plan did not meet with the approbation of my friends or myself, I firmly resolved that this line should not be adopted. Judge Douglas was kind enough to leave that question to me, and I offered to M^r Johnson the choice of two lines, first, the present line, or second, an imaginary line traversing that divide between the Platte and the Kaw. After considerable parleying and M^r Johnson not being willing to accept either line, I finally offered the two alternatives - the fortieth degree of north latitude, or the defeat of the whole bill, for that session at least. After consulting with his friends, I presume, M^r Johnson very reluctantly consented to the fortieth degree as the dividing line between the two territories, whereupon Judge Douglas prepared and introduced the substitute in a report as chairman of the committee on territories, and immediately, probably the hardest war of words known in American history commenced."

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HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, DECEMBER 16, 1850.

     Agreeably to notice, Mr. BENTON asked leave to bring in a bill for the location and construction of a great central national highway from St. Louis, on the Mississippi, to the Bay of San Francisco, on the Pacific ocean; and said that, not being of the committee to which the consideration of the bill might be referred, he took occasion to explain its leading features before it was referred, so that its object

might the better be understood in the committee. It conforms, he said, to all the ideas of a national highway.
     First centrality. I deem this a cardinal idea in every conception of a national road; and my bill conforms to it. It is central under all aspects. It is to begin and to end between the parallels 38^o and 39^o of north latitude, and, with slight deflections, to follow these latitudes from the Mississippi to the Pacific. These are the middle latitudes of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They cover the central parts of the Atlantic States, the centre of the valley of the Mississippi, cut the centre of all the territory west of the Mississippi, and strike the Pacific coast both at the central point of our possessions, and that of the whole North American coast. Beginning and ending between these latitudes, and following, with little variation, the route which the bill proposes fulfills with rigorous exactitude the essential condition to every national highway - that of centrality.
     Secondly. It is to be national in its form and use, consisting not of a single road adapted to a single kind of transportation, but of a system of roads adapted to all kinds of traveling, and of all kinds of carrying, free from monopoly and private interests, and free from tolls. It proposes a railroad and a common road, to be begun at once, and the common road finished next summer; with such other roads, either macadamized, plank, or additional tracks of railroad; and a margin for lines of magnetic telegraphs, all running parallel to each other, and at sufficient distances apart to avoid interference, and yet near enough together to admit of easy transition from one to the other. This fulfills another requisite of nationality; for a nation must contain people of all conditions, rich and poor; and of all tastes and tempers, and addicted to all the modes of traveling. Some, to whom time is everything and money nothing, and who demand rapidity, without regard to cost. Others, to whom money is an object, and time a subordinate consideration, and who want a cheap conveyance, no matter how slow. Others, again, who may choose to carry themselves, going on a horse, or in a vehicle, or on foot. All these will be accommodated, and without crowding or jostling; a mile wide for the whole, and an ample track for each, gives room for all.
     Thirdly. Accommodation to the different parts of a nation is another requisite of nationality. This projected highway fulfills that condition. It accommodates all the populations west of the Missis-

sippi. Its straight line would accommodate California and Utah, and the Territories hereafter to be formed on the Kansas and Arkansas. A short branch at or near Bent's Fort would lead to Santa Fe; another branch would lead to the Mormon settlements on the Great Salt Lake, if the main way does not pass it; and a branch, still lower down in the Great Basin; would lead to Oregon. Thus, a straight line, and two or three branches, will accommodate all our populations west of the Mississippi - California, Oregon, New Mexico, and Utah - and also the valuable Territories which may soon be formed on the Kansas and Arkansas.
     Fourthly. Nationality requires the work to be done by the National Government, and owned by it when it is done: and so the bill provides. The construction and the jurisdiction of the highway are both to be in the hands of the General Government; and these are the hands in which every public and national consideration would require them to be. The means are to come from the public resources; and, what amounts to a particular propriety in this case, they are to come from the places where the roads are to go; they are to come from beyond the Mississippi - from beyond the frontier of Missouri so as to leave untouched all the present sources of revenue, now needed for the payment of the principal and interest of the new national debt. The means proposed in my bill are: 1. A strip of land from the frontiers of Missouri to the Bay of San Francisco, one hundred miles wide and sixteen hundred long, for the main highway. 2. A strip fifty miles wide and about two hundred long, from a point on the main road, on the upper Arkansas, to Santa Fe, for the New Mexican branch. 3. A strip fifty miles wide and about five hundred long from some point on the main highway in the great basin to the mouth of the Columbia, for the Oregon branch. 4. The income from the customs and the sales of the public lands in California, Oregon, New Mexico, and Utah, over and above the expenditures in those places. 5. Loans in anticipation of these resources, founded upon their hypothecation.
     In these strips, a breadth of one mile wide is to be reserved for the main, leading highway in the reservation of one hundred miles wide; and one thousand feet each is to be reserved for the branch roads in the reservations of fifty miles wide.
     These are the resources for constructing this great national highway

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