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The Legislative War
Kansas January 1893.
1892-1893 - I was teaching the Chelsea school, about ten miles northeast of El Dorado. Some time before, perhaps during the preceding summer, I had become a member of the El Dorado company of the Kansas National Guard.
One day in January 1893 my El Dorado friend Arch Stinson drove up to the school house during the noon hour, and handed me an order from the company commander to report at El Dorado at once for duty. Of course I had no choice in the matter--I at once rang the school bell, and then explained the situation to the pupils, sent word to the school board, and dismissed school until further notice. I then went to the farm, hitched the pony to the cart and drove to El Dorado, where I at once reported to the armory for duty. The company was soon mustered, and entrained for Topeka.
Conditions at the time prevailing, ?Hard Times? the ?Farmers Alliance? had

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been organized non-political, but afterwards engaged in politics as ?The Peoples Party,? or ?Populists? as they generally were called. At this time a ?Populist? was the governor of the state, and newly elected legislators had assembled in Topeka. The election of the preceeding autumn had been quite bitterly contested and there were many contests over seats in the legislature, and as the division was quite close between the Populists and the Republicans, a contest broke out at once over the organization of the ?House.? Both parties claimed a majority, and the right to control the ?House? operations. As a result each party went through the form of electing a speaker and proceeded with business, the Populists on one side of the room, and the Republicans on the other side. This continued for a day or so, and then the Populists made a bold moveby prior arrangement and understanding they went to the legislative chamber about an hour

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early one morning, locked the doors and proceeded with legislative business. It was a surprised bunch of Republicans who at a later hour repaired to the Capitol and found these doors locked and barred against them. Their indignation was great, and under the leadership of Geo. L. Douglass, representative from Sedgwick County (Wichita) they repaired to nearby Santa Fe shops, armed themselves with sledge-hammers, returned to the Capitol and broke in the massive doors. They then entered, bodily ejected the Populists, and took possession of the room. They then enlisted the services of some students of Washburn College, swore them in as assistant sergeants-at-arms, armed them with Winchester rifles, and placed them as guards at all entrances to the room, hallways, stairways, etc. This trouble has become known in Kansas history as ?The Legislative War.?
It was at this stage of affairs that the Governor (Populist) called out the National Guard and it was in response to his orders

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that our company was now headed for Topeka. We arrived at Topeka, marched to the Capitol, and were quartered in the large ground floor corridor. For meals we marched to a downtown restaurant. Returning from such a meal (one of the first) we marched into the corridor single file, then the order ?Right Face? was given, which caused us to face the wall, our first sergeant thus being at the left end of the line. Suddenly a gunshot rang out, sounding very loud among those stone walls. In a moment the Captain and others came down the line carrying our first sergeant Irwin Covey, taking him into a nearby room, he had been shot in the left thigh by the accidental discharge of a large revolver, in the hands of one of an artillery company, which company also had been called out for service, the members sharing the corridor with us. Sergeant Covey was hurried to a hospital where he remained for some time. As a result of the wound his left leg was shortened for several inches, so that he was obliged to wear

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a shoe with a thick sole, and he always limped afterward. The State Legislature, for some years following at least, granted him a pension. We slept in the Senate chamber, which was comfortably warm arrangements made by our State Senator, A. W. Dennison. The next day some of us were detailed as a guard at the State Treasurer office this I think was more to give us something to do, than from any fear the Republicans would seize the treasury. The Treasurers office was on a lower floor than the legislative hall, a wide, winding stairway leading to the upper floor from the hallway where we were on guard, and some of the assistant sergeants-at-arms, with their Winchesters, were stationed on the stairway, and no one went up those stairs without first being halted, to make sure that he was one of the Republican House.
This was the situation, and it was full of ?dynamite,? one that easily could have developed into serious trouble
(over)

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At this time I do not have full information as to how further trouble was averted, but in some manner the leaders on both sides, realizing the seriousness of the situation, and to avoid a real catastrophe, came to some kind of an agreement, and the Legislative War was over, and we returned to El Dorado
--Finis
above is copied from my written record of those days, written in 1938.
Floyd R. Bull
Oklahoma City, Okla
July 15 1955