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In 1859, Lincoln came to Kansas Territory at the invitation of Mark W. Delahay.  Delahay had worked as a traveling newspaper man and had met and married Miss Louisiana Hanks, a cousin of some degree to Abra­ham Lincoln, and who bore him some family resemblance, and of whom Lincoln was very fond. Delahay turned to the practice of law and was admitted to the Illinois bar about 1845 and soon became a partner of Edward D. Baker, who was later senator from Oregon.  In March, 1855, Delahay moved with his family to Leavenworth where he founded the Territorial Register. His course there so offended the pro-slavery people that they mobbed his office and threw his printing press and type into the Missouri river, through a hole which they cut in the ice.  Delahay fled to Alton, Illinois, where after two years he bought another press and equip­ment with which he founded the Wyandotte Register in 1857. The next year he returned to live in Leavenworth, the free-state party having gained control of the town.

Lincoln came to St. Joseph, Missouri on November 30, 1859, having crossed the state of Missouri on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad which had just been completed. The station was in the south part of town and Lincoln was met by Delahay and D. W. Wilder, publisher of the Elwood Free Press, and taken uptown in a hack.  Lincoln wished to be shaved so they took him to a barber shop near the Planter's House and Wilder went to the news-stand and bought the New York and Chicago papers for him.  Later in the day, they went to the ferry-landing and Wilder thought Lin­coln resembled a great grasshopper with his long legs protruding as they squatted on the levee waiting for the boat to come over from the Kansas side.  They crossed to Elwood, K. T. and registered at the Great Western Hotel, a large, rambling, frame building.  Lincoln was feeling the effects of his journey, yet he consented to speak that night in the hotel dining room.  During his remarks, he referred to old John Brown and the Harper's Ferry affair, for the next day they hung Brown in Virginia:

"We have a means provided for the expression of our belief in regard to slavery-it is through the ballot box-the peaceful method provided by the constitution.  John Brown has shown great courage, rare unselfishness, as even Governor Wise testifies.  But no man, North or South, can approve of violence and crime."

The next morning a blizzard was raging when the party left Elwood for Troy.  On the road to Troy they met a man bundled up in buffalo robes, with icicles hanging from his heavy beard, driving a heavy two-horse wagon.  It turned out to be Henry Villard, a famous newspaper corre­spondent who had been to the Colorado goldfields, and had driven his ve­hicle all the way from Denver.  After talking a few minutes, Villard ex­claimed, "Why, Mr. Lincoln, you are blue and shivering from the cold!"  Lincoln had on an overcoat which failed to turn the bitter Kansas wind. Villard handed him a buffalo robe, which Lincoln later returned.  The party arrived at Troy, chilled to the bone, despite the additional wrap.  There they met another party which had come up from Leavenworth to' welcome Lincoln, one of whom had frozen his hand.  They also met Albert D. Richardson, the author of Beyond the Mississippi.

Mr. Richardson records that Troy then consisted of a few shanties, a tavern, and a frame-built court house, small and shabby.  These buildings were rocked and shaken by the terrific wind.  Lincoln spoke in the court house for an hour and three-quarters and held a small audience spellbound.  When he had finished, the customary question was asked if anyone else had anything to say.  Andrew J. Agey, reputed to be the owner of more slaves than any other man in the Territory, got to his feet:

"I have heard, during my life, all the ablest public speakers, all of the eminent statesmen of the past and present generation, and while I dis­sent utterly from the doctrines of this address and shall endeavor to re­fute some of them, candor compels me to say that it is the most able, the most logical speech, I have ever listened to."

Following the Troy address, Lincoln rode on to Doniphan where the party rested that night.  Colonel D. R. Anthony joined the group at Doni­phan.  Lincoln made a speech there but no particulars have been preserved.  On Friday morning, the accumulating party then escorted Lincoln to At­chison, one of the principal towns of the Territory and one which retained much of the pro-slavery crowd that formerly dominated the political life of the region.  The town had notice of his coming.  A local committee re­ceived him and conducted him to the Massasoit House, Atchison's best hotel.  Citizens flocked to the hotel to pay their respects.  Lincoln fixed him­self comfortably near the great stove to meet the people, among whom were John J. Ingalls, John A. Martin and B. F. Stringfellow.  Ingalls had recently returned home after playing an important part in framing the Wyandotte constitution; John A. Martin was later to become colonel of the Eighth Kansas and governor of the state.  Stringfellow was a leader of the old pro-slavery faction.

A handbill had been circulated advertising the evening meeting at the new Methodist Church. Franklin G. Adams, who was secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society for more than twenty years, left an ac­count of the meeting:

"I still remember the appearance of Mr. Lincoln as he walked up the aisle on entering the church and took his place at the pulpit stand. He was awkward and forbidding, though it required but a few words for him to dispel this unfavorable impression, and he was listened to with the deepest of interest by every member of the audience."

       The late Frank A. Root was foreman in the printing plant of Freedom's Champion, the principal newspaper of the town. Here is something of what Mr. Root said of the meeting:

"As Mr. Lincoln arose from his seat on the rostrum, at first many seemed disappointed in him.  But this was owing, no doubt, to the rather uncouth appearance he presented.  It was only a little while after Mr. Lin­coln began his talk, until the audience almost to a man realized that it had been mistaken in its hurried and previous estimation formed of the noted speaker, then almost unknown in Kansas. Most of the listeners were shortly convinced that they were not only being entertained by the plain 'Honest' Abe Lincoln, but found he was a man possessed of vast informa­tion and far advanced opinions and ideas---one of the ablest men then in the Great Middle West, an orator of renown-in short, one of the wisest and most profound minds the nation had ever produced."

After the meeting closed, most of the audience followed the band which escorted Mr. Lincoln back to the Massasoit House. Afterward there was a prolonged reception at the parlors of the hotel, for the people were fascinated by this personality. Free-state and pro-slavery adherents vied with one another in expressing respect, compliments and good will. This quality of popular favor was probably the reason that no mention of the meeting was carried in the local newspaper, for John A. Martin, the editor, was devoted to Seward for president.

Lincoln felt completely at home with these people. There was a mutual bond of understanding between him and the pioneers; their needs, their problems and their aspirations, were instinctively comprehended, for he had lived all his life among such folk in Indiana and Illinois. More than a few pro-slavery men went on down to Leavenworth with Lincoln the next morning. He arrived about noon, after another bitterly cold trip, and was escorted by a marching band and parading citizens to the Mansion House for a rousing public reception. He could not have wished a more cordial welcome.

The meeting on Saturday evening, December 3, was at Stockton's Hall.  The Hall was filled even as to standing room, for this was one of the largest political assemblies that had met up to that time in Kansas.  After a discussion of the policy of the Republican Party, Lincoln said to the pro-slavery listeners:

"You are for the Union; and you greatly fear the success of the Republicans would destroy the Union. Why?  Do the Republicans declare against the Union?  Nothing like it.  Your own statement of it is, that if the black Republicans elect a president you won't stand it.  You will break up the Union. That will be your act, not ours.  To justify it you must show that our policy gives you just cause for such desperate action.  Can you do that?  When you attempt it, you will find that our policy is exactly the policy of the men who made the Union.  Nothing more and nothing less. Do you really think you are justified to break up the government rather than have it administered by Washington and other good and great men who made it, and first administered it?  If you do, you are very unreason­able; and more reasonable men cannot and will not submit to you...  While you elect the President, we submit, neither breaking or attempting to break up the Union.  If we shall constitutionally elect a President, it will be our duty to see that you submit.  Old John Brown has just been executed for treason against a state.  We cannot object, even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong.  That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason.  It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right.  So, if constitutionally we elect a President, and therefore you undertake to destroy the Union, it will be our duty to deal with you as Old John Brown has been dealt with.  We shall try to do our duty.  We hope and believe that in no section will a majority so act as to render such extreme measures necessary."

Mr. Lincoln also referred to the border troubles with a word of caution:

"If I might advise my Republican friends here, I would say to them, 'Leave your Missouri neighbors alone.  Have nothing whatever to do with the white people, save in a friendly way.  Drop past differences, and so conduct yourselves that, if you cannot be at peace with them, the fault shall be wholly theirs.'"

After the meeting, Lincoln and Delahay went with Colonel R. Anthony to his room and there a small group talked far into the night and until all the firewood in the room had been devoured by the stove.  Anthony wrote of this occasion:

"It was a cold night as I remember it, and nobody was willing to leave the room long enough to go for wood.  Mark Parrott, the territorial repre­sentative, has sent us great sacks full of patent-office reports from 'Wash­ington to distribute to the boys.  Times were not dull enough in town to make government reports popular reading matter, and many sacks full of bound paper were unopened in the room.  Some had already served for fuel, and when the fire died down, two or three bulky books went into the stove.  One of the men said:

      'Mr. Lincoln, when you become President, will you sanction the burn­ing of government reports by cold men in Kansas territory?'

      'Not only will I not sanction it, but .I will cause legal action to be brought against the offenders,' said Lincoln, smiling good-naturedly.

Lincoln spent the next few days visiting with the Delahays, meeting and talking with the townspeople and interesting himself in the election on Tuesday, December 6, of the first state officers to be elected under the Wyandotte Constitution. He was asked to address the citizens again on Monday. He spoke at Stockton's Hall at 2:30 in the afternoon.  The day was reported to be "fearfully unpleasant, but the hall was filled to overflowing --even ladies being present."  Later there was a great public reception for him at the Planter's House.  So many people gathered that he was called upon to talk. He consented, and went out and stood on the broad steps of the entrance and spoke for over an hour to a multitude which packed the streets adjoining.  The next day the Delahays gave a party for Lincoln and on Wednesday, December 7, he departed, probably going by stage to St. Joseph.  He arrived home at Springfield on December 9.

ALAN W. FARLEY Kansas City, Kansas