The Blue Lodges were an American secret pro-slavery order of Western Missouri formed about 1854 to aid the Southern mission work of establishing slavery in Kansas. In March 1855 they crossed the Missouri and forcibly deposited their ballots for the pro-slavery candidates. Research Blue Lodges
The Dred Scott vs. Sanford case was a slave incident that occurred in America. In 1834 Dred Scott, a negro slave of Missouri, was taken by his master, who was a surgeon in the regular army, first into Illinois and then into Minnesota, a region from which slavery was expressly excluded by the celebrated Missouri Compromise of 1820. While in MinnesotaDred Scott was married with his master's consent, but on being brought back to Missouri in 1838, he and his wife and children were sold to another master.
Dred Scott brought action for trespass in a St Louiscourt, and a decision was made in his favour on the ground that, under the provisions of the Missouri Compromise, the negro was free. The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed this decision, and the case came before the Federal CircuitCourt in 1854. The defendant slave-holder pleaded that Dred Scott was not a citizen entitled to sue and be sued in the US Courts. The court held the contrary, but the jury's verdict decided the plaintiff still a slave. The case came before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1857. Here the judgment of the CircuitCourt was reversed, and the case dismissed on the ground that no negro, bond or free, could plead in the US Courts as a citizen. The court then, though denying its jurisdiction over the dispute, discussed the constitutional points. Dred Scott's status in Illinois was declared determined by his Missouridomicile. As regarded the Minnesota Territory the court declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and void, it being held that States alone could prohibit slavery from their boundaries. Chief Justice Taney read the opinion of a majority of the court, all slave-holders, declaring 'negroes so inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect'. Justices Curtis and McLean dissented. Dred Scott was afterwards freed by his master. The decision and case roused great excitement in the North. Research Dred Scott vs. Sanford
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill was an American Act of Congress. Under the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which was passed by Congress on May the 22nd, 1854, Kansas and Nebraska were separated And organized into Territories. The importance of this bill lay in the fact that it practically repealed the Missouri Compromise. In the bill as reported by Stephen A Douglas, the question of slavery in the two Territories was to be settled within the Territories, and if adopted the fugitive slave law was to apply. The status of Nebraska was easily settled as a free Territory, but the question caused much trouble in Kansas. The passage of the act had much to do with bringing on the American Civil War. Research Kansas-Nebraska Bill
The Kansas Aid Society was a Congressional association formed in 1854 for the purpose of aiding free immigration into Kansas to prevent the establishment of slavery, which had been made possible by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act then recently adopted. Slavery advocates from Missouri were at that time active in endeavouring to bring about the establishment of slavery. Research Kansas Aid Society
The Knights of Labor was an early American trade union-like order founded in Philadelphia in 1869 by Uriah S Stevens and formally organized in 1871 for the protection of working people and the development of educated labour. It was secret until the name was made public in 1881. By that time nearly all trades were represented. It was governed by a national executive board and local assemblies which had power to order strikes and boycotts. The chief strike ordered was that on the MissouriPacific system in 1886. It failed. Research Knights of Labor
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an exploration conducted in 1804 to 1806 by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, under orders from President Jefferson. They ascended the Missouri to its sources, crossed the Rocky Mountains, struck the head waters of the Columbia River, floated down that river to its mouth and explored a great deal of the Oregon country. Their explorations covered nearly all the country south of the 49 degree parallel. Their company was composed of nine Kentuckians and fourteen soldiers. They started for the East on March the 23rd, 1806, having explored nearly the whole of the Northwest regions. Research Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Liberal Republican Party was an abortive offshoot from the regular American Republican party in 1870 to 1872. Its origin was a reaction from the coercive measures to maintain the newly-granted rights of the negroes and suppress the Ku Klux Klan organizations. A union of the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats was first formed with considerable success in Missouri in 1870 and 1871. They advocated universal suffrage, universal amnesty, a reform of the tariff and a cessation of the unconstitutional laws to cure Ku Klux Klan disorders. A general convention assembled at Cincinnati in May, 1872, and nominated Horace Greeley for President, whom the Democrats also nominated. He was defeated because many Democrats refused to vote for him. B Gratz Brown, of Missouri, was the candidate for Vice-President. Research Liberal Republican Party
The Missouri Compromise was a compromise in America effected by the Act of Congress of March the 3rd, 1830, between those who desired the extension of slavery into the regions beyond the Mississippi and those who desired its restriction. Missouri having applied for admission as a State, Tallmadge, of New York, in February, 1819, proposed an amendment which would ultimately destroy slavery in the new State. The House passed the bill with this amendment; the Senate refused to concur. Next year the bill, in the same form, passed the House again. The Senate voted to admit Maine, provided Missouri was admitted as a slave State. The House rejected the proposal. Thomas, of Illinois, proposed as a compromise that Missouri be admitted as a slave State, but that in future slavery should be prohibited in all territory forming part of the Louisiana cession north of 36 degrees 30 minutes. When Missouri's Constitution was laid before Congress, however, it appeared that she had introduced clauses excluding free negroes from the State. The House then refused to admit Missouri. Clay effected a further compromise, whereby Missouri agreed not to deprive of his rights any citizen of another State. Research Missouri Compromise
The Mountain Meadow Massacre occurred in the autumn of 1857 when a body of thirty-six Arkansas and Missouri emigrants en route to California, were brutally murdered at Mountain Meadow, Utah, by a band of Indians, who were incited thereto by Lee, a Mormon fanatic. It was the period of the first troubles between the United States Government and the Mormons. Brigham Young had made threats of turning the Indians loose upon west-bound emigrants, but the Mormons, as a body, were innocent of the massacre. The emigrant party was encamped at Mountain Meadow when the attack began on September the 7th. They threw up earthworks and defended themselves for four days. Lee, under pretence of friendship, succeeded in drawing them out and murdering the whole party. Research Mountain Meadow Massacre
The Nashville Convention was a convention of delegates from the Southern States of America at Nashville, Tennessee in June, 1850, suggested by the Mississippi State Convention of the previous year. The convention was called to consider the slavery question and the encroachments of Northern abolitionists. It did not meet with universal approval. The Wilmotproviso and the Missouri Compromise were disapproved of, but resolutions of open resistance advanced by Texas, South Carolina and Mississippi were voted down. The convention met again in November, and again moderate resolutions were adopted. Research Nashville Convention
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Blue Lodges
