An appeal from Kansas!
Creator: Parrott, Marcus J., 1828-1879
Date: December 14, 1860
This circular describes the beginnings of the Territorial Executive Committee, which was in charge of collecting relief to aid the struggling settlers of Kansas Territory during the 1860 drought. This committee met in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, on November 14, 1860, and passed several resolutions. From one hundred and one delegates were present from twenty-four Kansas counties. Out of this number, four men, including Samuel Pomeroy, were elected officers. The circular concludes with "Suggestions and Directions to those who purpose Aiding us in our Distress."

Charles Robinson to Amos Adams Lawrence
Creator: Robinson, Charles, 1818-1894
Date: November 12, 1859
Transcription of a letter from the Amos Adams Lawrence Collection, Massachusetts Historical Society. Charles Robinson wrote from Lawrence, Kansas Territory, to Amos A. Lawrence in Massachusetts, expressing his concern that Lawrence's name was not included on a college proposal submitted by S.N. Simpson, which indicated he was not among the supporters of the enterprise. Robinson mentioned the upcoming election for Territorial delegate to Congress, in which Marcus Parrott, a Republican, was a favorite. He also sought advice from Lawrence about a complicated financial matter.

Joseph Denison to Isaac Goodnow
Creator: Denison, Joseph, 1815-1900
Date: May 21, 1860
Joseph Denison wrote from Powhattan, Brown County, Kansas Territory, to Isaac Goodnow regarding issues of management of the church and college they had recently constructed. Denison had discovered that, due to the state of their treasury, some property must be sold in order to pay the taxes on the church lots. He also worried about the state of Bluemont College, as it had thus far attracted only 20 students.

Kansas: a description of the country, its soil, climate & resources
Creator: Parrott, Marcus J. (Marcus Junius), 1828-1879
Date: March 1856
This pamphlet provides people emigrating to Kansas with practical and reliable information about soil, timber, stone, coal, water, roads, postal facilities, climate, surveys, inhabitants, towns and town sites, routes, and politics.

Lecompton Constitution election returns
Date: 1857
Election returns from the first vote held on the Lecompton Constitution on December 21, 1857. Counties include Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Breckinridge (defunct), Brown, Calhoun (defunct), Coffey, Davis, Doniphan, Dorn (defunct), Douglas, Franklin, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Lykins (defunct), Marshall, McGee (defunct), Nemaha, Riley, Shawnee, and Woodson. Free-state candidates for state office included George W. Smith for Governor, William Y. Roberts for Lieutenant Governor, Philip C. Schuyler for Secretary of State, Joel K. Goodin for Auditor, Andrew J. Mead for Treasurer, and Marcus J. Parrott for Congress. Pro-slavery candidates for state office included Frank J. Marshall for Governor, William G. Mathias for Lieutenant Governor, William T. Spicely for Secretary of State, Blake Little for Auditor, Thomas Cramer for Treasurer, and Joseph P. Carr for Congress. Candidates for the Senate and House of Representatives are also listed, as well as a deciding vote to allow a constitution with slavery or "to hell with the Constitution" (without slavery).

Marcus J. Parrott to Henry Miles Moore
Creator: Parrott, Marcus J., 1828-1879
Date: January 12, 1857
Parrott, the representative of Kansas Territory to the U.S. Congress, wrote to Moore from Washington offering his assessment of the upcoming session of Congress. Parrott predicted that the Congress would reject the Lecompton Constitution. He also offered Moore, a Free State advocate recently elected to the Kansas Territorial House of Representatives, advice on activities to pursue in the Territorial Legislature.

Marcus J. Parrott to Isaac Goodnow
Creator: Parrott, Marcus J. (Marcus Junius), 1828-1879
Date: December 30, 1860
Marcus Parrott, Kansas Territory's delegate to Congress, wrote from Washington D.C. to Isaac Goodnow, confirming that Goodnow could safely count on the passage of his "College Bill" this legislative session. Goodnow, along with the other members of the Board of Trustees of Bluemont College in Manhattan, Kansas Territory, had submitted a bill to the legislature that would grant them legal title to the College and the land it occupied.

Marcus J. Parrott to Isaac T. Goodnow
Creator: Parrott, Marcus J. (Marcus Junius), 1828-1879
Date: March 4, 1860
Marcus Parrott, Kansas Territory's elected delegate to Congress, wrote to Isaac Goodnow from Washington, D.C. Parrott reported the status of a bill recently submitted on behalf of the Trustees of Bluemont College, which would give them the legal title to the College site. Parrott did not foresee any obstacles to its passing, save the "procrastination of business by the House of Reps."

Marcus J. Parrott to Samuel N. Wood
Creator: Parrott, Marcus J., 1828-1879
Date: March 28, 1860
Marcus J. Parrott, the Kansas Territory's delegate to Congress, writes Samuel N. Wood from Washington, D.C., about several issues, including the establishment of mail routes and railroad matters. Regarding the latter, Parrott briefly states his views about pending legislation and possible outcomes.

Marcus Junius Parrott
Creator: Wolfe, M.
Date: Between 1870 and 1875
A photograph of Marcus Junius Parrott, who came to Kansas Territory in 1855 and settled in Leavenworth. He became active in the Free-State Party and was elected as a delegate from Leavenworth to the Topeka Constitutional Convention. At the convention in July, 1857, he was nominated for the position of delegate to Congress. He was subsequently elected and served Kansas in that capacity for nearly four years. Parrott was in Washington, D.C., when the Kansas bill finally passed in January 1861. He ran a very close third to James H. Lane and Samuel C. Pomeroy in the balloting for U.S. Senate, and unsuccessfully sought election to Congress in 1862 and 1874. Parrott then left political life altogether and turned his attention to agriculture pursuits on his farm near Leavenworth. Later, after experiencing health problems, Parrott moved back to Dayton, Ohio, to be close to his brother, and he died there on October 4, 1879.

Marcus Junius Parrott
Date: c. 1857
A portrait of Marcus J. Parrott, a lawyer and politician from Leavenworth. He was a member of the Topeka Constitutional Convention, 1855. In 1857, Parrott was a delegate to the Free-State Conventions at Topeka, Centropolis, and Grasshopper Falls. In 1857 and 1859, he was elected the Kansas Territorial delegate in Congress.

Poll List, Leavenworth, Topeka Constitution
Creator: Anthony, Scott A.
Date: August 3, 1857
On August 3, 1857, the free-state legislature gave Kansas Territory voters another chance to vote on the Topeka Constitution (first approved in December, 1855) when they went to the polls to elect new legislators. Few, if any, pro-slavery voters participated, and the territory-wide tally was 7,257 for the constitution, and 34 against. The polling list for Leavenworth contained the names of 721 voters, "seven hundred and six (706) being in favor of said Constitution, and two (2) against."

Thomas J. Marsh to George L. Stearns
Creator: Marsh, Thomas J.
Date: September 28, 1857
The following is a letter dated September 28, 1857, from Thomas J. Marsh to George L. Stearns that attempts to convince Stearns that the territorial judges will rule in favor of the Free State party. Marsh also mentioned the territorial elections and the voter fraud in which Missourians would most likely engage. Marsh also discussed encroachment on the Delaware Indian reservations by Missourians, who were attempting to stake land claims before the reservation was legally open to settlement.

Thomas J. Marsh to George Luther Stearns
Creator: Marsh, Thomas J.
Date: August 29, 1857
From Lawrence, K.T., Thomas J. Marsh wrote to George Stearns on August 29, 1857, to describe the political situation in the territory and the results of the Grasshopper Falls Convention which had taken place three days before. Those favoring participation in the October legislative election carried the day (see Annals of Kansas, 176) and subsequently "a Grand Ratification meeting" endorse the conventions action, including the nomination of Marcus J. Parrott for delegate to Congress.

Topeka Constitutional Convention
Date: October 26, 1855
On Friday, October 26, 1855, the convention conducted some routine business but also entertained a motion by Mark W. Delahay of Leavenworth: "Resolved--That this Convention, approve the principles of non intervention in the local affairs of Kansas, as enunciated by the 'Nebraska, Kansas Act,' and that this Convention recommend to the people of Kansas a strict observance of the principles laid down in said act." In other words, he opposed the creation of a provisional government to rival the federally recognized territorial government--see Delahay's speech on this subject, as reported in "Kansas Freeman," November 14, 1855. The resolution was tabled.

Topeka Constitutional Convention
Date: October 30, 1855
During this session of the constitutional convention, delegates dealt briefly with the question of "an immediate organization of a State Government," a highly controversial issue, and considered a report on the militia. Lively debate on the latter issue seems to have followed, although not much detail is given here, with Charles Robinson offering an amendment "striking out the word white--" This presumably would have had the effect of making African Americans and Indians eligible for service, but the amendment failed seven to twenty-four. Not surprisingly Lane, Holliday, Delahay, and Parrott were among those voting in the negative. The convention also addressed the franchise and "Negro exclusion," but little detail is provided here. (For more, see newspaper coverage, New York Daily Times, in Webb Scrapbook, v. 6, pp. 237.)

Topeka Constitutional Convention
Date: October 26, 1855
During the afternoon session on Friday, October 26, 1855, the convention returned to the issue raised by Delahay that morning, among other more mundane matters.

Topeka Constitutional Convention journal
Date: October 31, 1855
During the afternoon session of Wednesday, October 31, 1855, Jim Lane presented a "Resolution which was ordered to be entered upon the Journal of the convention--said Resolution being the instructions given by the people of the 2nd Representative District" at a Lawrence meeting of October 7. The "instructions" and Lane's resolution provided that "the question of excluding Free Negroes from the Territory" be submitted to a vote of the people on the day they voted on the constitution itself.