February 1

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signed the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

 

February 2

1848 - Mexico ceded the territory now covered by the States of California and Nevada; also her claims to the territory covered by the present State of Texas, by the Territories of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, by portions of the Territories of Wyoming and Colorado, and by the unorganized territory west of the Indian country, except that part of the Territory of Arizona and that part of the Territory of New Mexico lying south of the river Gila and west of the old boundary of New Mexico, which lands were ceded by Mexico December 30, 1853, and are known as the Gadsden Purchase.

1853 — William A. Richardson, of Illinois, from the Committee on Territories, reports a bill organizing the Territory of Nebraska.

1858–President James Buchanan submits the Lecompton Constitution to Congress, recommending its approval and the admission of Kansas as a slave state. 

 

February 3

 

 

February 4

 

 

February 5

 

 

February 6

1858–An infamous floor brawl erupts as U.S. House of Representatives members debate the Lecompton Constitution. 

 

February 7

1859 - The Kansas Territorial Legislature replaced Arapahoe County with six new unorganized counties and appointed county commissioners for each. However, since the commissioners were not provided a salary, they never took office. "The settlers in the region attempted to organize a county on their own and on March 28, 1859, an election was held to elect officers. A total of 774 votes were cast, including 231 from Auraria and 144 from Denver City. A desire for a new territorial government kept the elected officials from taking their offices, as doing so would have given recognition to the Kansas Territorial government."  

 

February 8

1858–A House coalition of Northern Republicans and Free Soilers narrowly blocked the referral of the Lecompton Constitution to the House Territories Committee. 

 

February 9

 

 

February 10

1763 — Definitive treaty of peace and friendship, similar to the preliminary articles of November 3, 1762. France cedes Canada and Nova Scotia, or Acadia, to Great Britain. The boundary between the British and French territories "shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river, and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea." The nineteenth article provides for the restoration of Cuba to Spain. As a consequence of this stipulated restitution, Florida and all Spanish possessions east of the Mississippi were ceded to England. 

1853 - Richardson's bill passes the House by 98 to 43. Neither Hall's nor Richardson's bill proposed to make the new Territory Slave territory. 

February 11

1837 - The United States agrees to convey to the Potawatomis an area on the Osage River, southwest of the Missouri River.

1859 – Kansas Territorial Legislature charters the Santa Fe Railway. The railroads connected Kansas to the East and the West, bringing new settlers, and determining where cities and towns were built.

 

February 12

 

 

February 13

 

 

February 14

1833 — Seven million acres of land ceded to the Cherokees by the United States. 

 

February 15

1764 — Laclede's company established itself on the present site of St. Louis. He finds the city and gives it its name. Pierre Laclede Liguest and August and Pierre Chouteau, Frenchmen, obtained a charter from the French Government, giving them the exclusive right to trade with the Indians of Louisiana. In 1799, a trading post was established where St. Joseph, Missouri, now stands; in 1800, one at Randolph Bluffs, three miles below the present Kansas City. 

 

February 16

 

 

February 17

1820 - The debates over Missouri resulted in the Missouri Compromise, passed February 17, 1820, providing that Missouri should be admitted as a slave State, but that all future States west of the Mississippi and north of 36 and 30' should be free. On August 10, 1821, Missouri was admitted under the terms of the compromise. The question of slavery shifted to the territory west of the Mississippi, where it was to flare anew in Kansas. Two years later the boundary between Missouri and Kansas was fixed. 

1853 — Stephen A. Douglas, in the Senate, reports Richardson's bill without amendment.

February 18

1861–Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the President of the newly formed Confederate States of America. 

 

February 19

 

 

February 20

1854 — John Pettit, of Indiana, in a speech in the Senate in behalf of Douglas's bill, says that the declaration of Jefferson that all men are born free is "nothing more to me than a self-evident lie." Pettit, in the House, in 1848-9, was an ultra Wilmot Proviso man.  

 

February 21

 

 

February 22

 

 

February 23

 

 

February 24

1835 - Reverend Jotham Meeker brought the first printing press to the Shawnee Baptist Mission, and on February 24, 1835, he published the first issue of the Shawnee Sun, the first newspaper in Kansas. 

1858 - Representative Reuben Fenton, of New York, delivered his "The Designs of the Slave Power" speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, in reaction to the Congressional debate over the validity of the Lecompton Constitution. 

February 25

 

 

February 26

 

 

February 27

1887 - shoot-out with boosters — some would say hired gunmen — from nearby Leoti leaves several people dead and wounded. 

 

February 28

 

 

February 29