His ride had been longer by ten miles than that famous gallop of the
friend of his after years--Phil Sheridan. Like Sheridan, he reached the
goal in time, for father was just mounting his horse.

But the ride proved too much for his strength, and Will collapsed.
Father started with him, a few days later, for Topeka, which was
headquarters for the Free State party.

Father acquainted mother of their safety, and explained that he had gone
to Topeka because he feared his life was no longer safe at Grasshopper
Falls.

Party strife in Kansas was now at its height. Thousands came into the
territory from adjacent slave states simply to vote, and the pro-slavery
party elected a legislature, whose first meeting was held at Le Compton.
This election the Free Soilers declared illegal, because of fraudulent
voting, and assembling at Topeka in the winter of 1855-56, they framed
a constitution excluding slavery, and organized a rival government. Of
this first Free-Soil Legislature father was a member.

Thenceforth war was the order of the day, and in the fall of 1856 a
military governor was appointed, with full authority to maintain law and
order in Kansas.

Recognizing the good work effected by the emigrant-aid societies, and
realizing that in a still larger Northern emigration to Kansas lay the
only hope of its admission as a free state, father went to Ohio in the
following spring, to labor for the salvation of the territory he had
chosen for his home. Here his natural gift of oratory had free play, and
as the result of his work on the stump he brought back to Kansas sixty