While researching this book I have found a wealth of information pertaining to Senator Plumb’s life and career that simply will not fit into a book. Instead of relegating it back into forgotten archives, I thought it might be fitting to share some of this information on the website. This page will be updated as I find and edit more research materials.
Preston B. Plumb’s Unpublished Article on John Brown
The following is an article that was handwritten by Senator Preston B. Plumb at some time in the late 1880s or just prior to his death in 1891. It was meant to be printed by some unknown Kansas newspaper (possibly the local Emporia paper) but because it was deemed scandalous for his negative view of John Brown, it was rejected. Plumb’s wife, Carrie, kept the handwritten article and it was later transcribed by Kansas historian William Connelley around 1911 while he was researching his biography on Plumb. This article has never been published before and is contained here in its entirety. It is important to remember that Plumb was a builder and a statesman, he had no use for violence for violence sake. Although he and Brown held the same views in opposition to slavery, their methods were vastly different.
Here is the Article:
Anent [Concerning] John Brown
Some little commotion has been created by an article in a recent number of the North American Review, from the pen of a Rev. Mr. Utter, quite the reverse of complimentary to the memory of John Brown. The special cause of animadversion by Mr. Utter is Brown’s responsibility for the “Pottawatomie Massacre,” as the killing of half a dozen pro-slavery settlers on Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County in the summer of 1858 has been commonly called.
Mr. Utter states the facts in a cold-blooded way and substantially as they occurred, minus the coloring which they may properly bear, on account of the general state of contest then existing in Kansas.
Senator Ingalls, who appears to have Brown’s reputation in his more especial keeping, is, we observe, about to go into print for the purpose of Utter-ly overwhelming the too literal and unsentimental Utter – and we have no doubt that the job of scalp-lifting now in preparation will be both artistic and awful.
For John Brown as the pet of any individual or as the means of notoriety to assailants or defenders, we have no concern. But we regret all controversy which tends to put or keep him on a pedestal as the conspicuous personage identified with the Free State cause and in any material way responsible for the success of that cause in Kansas.
John Brown was not a leader of the Free State forces – nor was he even a conspicuous follower. When the struggle was ended and victory won, none, either in or out of Kansas, thought of him as an instrument of more than ordinary proportions in the accomplishment of the beneficent result. He rarely appeared in counsel with the Free State leaders, participated in no general movement of the Free State forces, co-operated with none of their plans, received no general consideration as one on whom reliance was placed in the great struggle of courage, fortitude and statesmanship which not only resulted in making Kansas free, but proved to be the vestibule of a still greater struggle which was to make the Nation free. Brown was not striving per se to make Kansas a free state, but to strike at slavery generally. This he did on his own hook, chiefly by running off slaves and by killing pro-slavery men. The utmost that can be said for him at that date was that he was a guerilla on the Free State side. He was regarded, and truly, as of ill-balanced mind, erratic, and uncertain, and what he would do or refrain from doing was never taken into account by those to whom the issue of the struggle was serious and vital – and when the struggle was concluded and the people of Kansas and of the country came to sum up all, and allot praise and rewards, Brown was little taken into account. It is quite safe to say that but for his Harper’s Ferry performance he would have had no reputation as a considerable factor in the Kansas struggle.
We regret to perceive quite a disposition current to pose Brown as a sort of a demi-god and hitch Kansas to his skirts. This is reversing things. Kansas did far more for Brown than Brown ever did for Kansas, and there are names of men both dead and living, far more deserving of enduring record on the Kansas shaft than that of John Brown. Among those whose services truly entitled them to honorable mention and public gratitude in connection with the Kansas struggle, very unlike and yet representative of classes, there occur to us the names of James H. Lane, Charles Robinson, Wm. A. Philips, Sam Walker, H.H. Williams, Major Abbott, James Montgomery – the list would grow to a score in a moment – any and all of whom rendered more efficient service in making Kansas a free state than John Brown.
John Brown was the hero of Harper’s Ferry. As such he is known and sung. There he appeared in his true light – as the destroying angel of slavery. With creative processes, with the redress of wrongs by the orderly administration of the law, he was unacquainted. He hated slavery and he struck it what he meant to be a blow to the death. Harper’s Ferry made him a “Citizen of the World.” Victor Hugo, the Internationalists of France and Germany, the Nihilists of Russia, and men of that stamp everywhere proclaim Brown as the only visible, valuable product of American civilization. With them George Washington and Abraham Lincoln stand as time servers, mean in spirit and of local Account.
Let Victor Hugo and the world of such as he have John Brown as their exemplar. Our portion in him is none the less. But let us not, in our eagerness to follow after these, forget the men who cast their lot in with Kansas permanently, for good or for ill; whose wise counsels, courage and steadfastness delivered her from her enemies, placed her in the sisterhood of states without stain, and laid broad and deep the foundations of social order, virtue and intelligence, on which she has since so securely built.
Senate Speech on the American Merchant Marine
There is no enterprise in the world beyond the ability of the American people to compass when once they address themselves to it. There is no problem their ingenuity cannot solve; there is no obstacle their courage will not overcome; there is no controversy in which they will ever engage from which they will not emerge triumphant.
Senator Preston B. Plumb
The following speech was made by Senator Plumb on May 6, 1884 in response to Senate bill 1448 regarding shipbuilding in the United States and the purchase of foreign made vessels to be used for shipping goods and possibly for defense. Senator Plumb was against this idea and spoke strongly about the American capacity to produce their own quality ships at or below the cost of purchasing foreign ships.
As our country today often struggles with goods and materials made in foreign factories while American factories lay dormant, this topic is still rather timely.
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Buck & Ball
The “Buck & Ball” was the name of a single issue newspaper created by a few printers in the 11th Kansas Infantry. The name was a reference to the ammunition of the regiments large Prussian muskets, and the motto of “Kansas is pisin to the hull on ’em” came from “a long-legged fellow who enlisted in the 11th as we passed through Northern Arkansas, and who had an intense admiration for the way in which we invaded his State,” according to Senator Preston B. Plumb (who was Major of the regiment at the time).
Only 1500 copies of the paper were produced, however, after the war, a reproduction as made that attempted to resemble the original except that the motto had been changed. Plumb was an experienced printer and newspaper owner when the war broke out and he worked with Edmund Ross (senator of Kansas), S.J. Crawford (later governor of Kansas) and a few other men of the regiment who had printing experience to create the issue. They found an abandoned printing press in Cane Hill, AR that had been used to print bibles in Cherokee. The type was scattered all over the floor and much of it was missing, which is why you will notice that many of the letters are in italics and some words are misspelled.
They started printing it on Sunday, December 6, 1862, but then the Battle of Prairie Grove broke out December 7th, and they were only able to print the first half of the paper. Plumb was able to throw the half printed papers in the back of an ambulance as the fighting broke out, where they remained for a few days following the battle. During the fight, their printing press was once again torn to pieces and Plumb, Ross, Crawford, and the others set out to repair it to finish printing their paper. They chronicled the Battle of Prairie Grove in the paper, and this is why the date on the front does not match the information inside.
The paper was popular with the men and General Ewing, but General Schofield was not as thrilled, and so another issue was never made. Below is a PDF of the newspaper that you may enjoy reading. Although I will be including some of it in my book, as well as a terrific interview with Plumb describing it, I do not have room to include the entirety of the paper.
The closing editorial in the paper was written by Plumb, and it is also likely that he provided much of the other content as well.
Independence Day Speech
The following PDF viewer contains a speech commemorating Independence Day that was found in Preston Plumb’s handwriting and is dated October 7, 1885. It’s possible he drafted this speech at that time to deliver later, or he may have never given this speech at all. Historian William Connelley typed this speech from the handwritten original (since lost) and as such, it contains a few typos. Without the original document in hand, it is difficult if not impossible to tell what the original words may have been, but luckily, this does not detract too much from the speech itself.
This would have been given scarcely 20 years after the conclusion of the Civil War. A time of rebuilding and a time of modernization and industrialization. The speech brings up a theme of Americans not celebrating Independence Day as fervently as they had in the past. Interestingly, he ties this to a realization that the founding fathers of the United States were not infallible, and were human just like everyone else. He brings attention to the fact that Americans should appreciate what they did for the country in creating it, but also realize that they were products of their time and made mistakes just as any other human being does. He states, “If they [the founding fathers] had been proved spotless we might well admire them less, for that would only show that they were exempt from all the baser impulses of humanity, and that in nobly striving and achieving they only followed an imperious destiny. It is better to look at them and their doings from a less elevated but more reasonable standpoint; to regard them as mere mortals, hampered as well by their own imperfections and cross purposes as by the difficulties and perils of the situation in which they found themselves.”
The candid student of history is neither ashamed nor afraid to confess that the conclusions to which his investigations bring him is that human nature was about the same in 1776 and the memorable years following as it is to-day; that if to look for perfection, for the highest merit, and no counter-balancing defects, we must seek it in the counsels of fulsome panegyrists and not in the stern adjustments of historical analysis.
“Independence Day Speech” Senator Preston B. Plumb, 1885