December 1
December 2
1859 – John Brown was hanged at Charles Town, West Virginia for his crimes. John Brown's Raid
1859 - Abraham Lincoln gives a speech at the Methodist Church on Parallel Street in Atchison, Kansas on the day of John Brown's execution. (Lincoln's Trip to Kansas Territory)
December 3
December 4
1853 - Augustus C. Dodge, of Iowa, offers in the Senate a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska.
December 5
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December 7
1905 – Working in Bailey Hall, University of Kansas, Hamilton P. Cady, and David F. McFarland discovered significant amounts of helium in a natural gas sample from Dexter, Kansas.
December 8
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December 12
December 13
1850 — By the proclamation of President Filmore, the territory ceded by Texas, on November 25 (under the act of Congress of September 9), comes under the control of the United States. The part of this cession, south of the Arkansas River and west of the one-hundredth meridian, which became a part of the State of Kansas, embraces 7,766 square miles.
1852 - Mr. Willard P. Hall, of Missouri, submitted to the House a bill organizing the Territory of Platte, comprising that region. His bill was referred to the Committee on Territories, which reported on February 2, 1853, through the Chairman, Mr. William A. Richardson, of Illinois, a bill organizing the Territory of Nebraska, which covered the same area of territory as the bill of Mr. Hall, viz.: All the tract lying west of Iowa and Missouri, and extending west to the Rocky Mountains, generally known as the Platte country. The bill, on reaching the consideration of the Committee of the Whole, was met by an unexpected and formidable opposition from the Southern members and was reported with a recommendation that it be rejected. The House, however, did not adopt the recommendation, but, on the contrary, passed the bill and sent it to the Senate, where it was defeated at the close of the session, March 3, 1853, by a vote of twenty-three to seventeen.
December 14
1843 — The Wyandots purchase of the Delawares 23,040 acres of land at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers. This contract was ratified by the United States on July 25, 1848; on the 1st of April, 1850, they agreed to pay the Wyandots $185,000 for the lands promised them.
1853 - Augustus C. Dodge of Iowa introduced a bill in the Senate. The bill proposed organizing the Nebraska territory, which also included an area that would become the state of Kansas. His bill was referred to the Committee of the Territories, which was chaired by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.
December 15
1855 - The Topeka Constitution was approved by a vote of 1,731 to 46. The Topeka Constitution prohibited slavery and limited suffrage to white males and "every civilized male Indian who has adopted the habits of the white man." Congress rejected this constitution and the accompanying request for Kansas to be admitted to the Union.
December 16
1811 — The whole valley of the Mississippi was shaken by an earthquake, and the town of New Madrid, Mo., was destroyed.
1847 - Notes of a Military Reconnoissance, From Fort Leavenworth, In Missouri, To San Diego is published by Major W. H. Emory for the United States Congress. Major W. H. Emory had accompanied the Kearney expedition to Santa Fe, and on to San Diego in 1846. The 1848 publication by Washington, Wendell, and Van Benthuysen, printers is available for download at the Library of Congress website.
December 17
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December 20
1837 — The United States agreed to reserve a location on the headwaters of the Osage River for the Saginaw tribe of Chippewas.
December 21
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December 24
1847 — Lewis Cass first promulgates the Squatter Sovereignty dogma, in a letter to A. O. P. Nicholson, of Nashville, Tennessee. He says: "The Wilmot Proviso has been before the country for some time. It has been repeatedly discussed in Congress and by the public press. I am strongly impressed with the opinion that a great change has been going on in the public mind upon this subject— in my own as well as others; and that doubts are resolving themselves into convictions, that the principle it involves should be kept out of the national legislature, and left to the people of the Confederacy in their respective local governments. "Briefly, then, I am opposed to the exercise of any Jurisdiction by Congress over this matter; and I am in favor of leaving the people of any territory which may be hereafter acquired the right to regulate it themselves, under the general principles of the constitution." The letter is published in Niles's Register. This firebrand did not make Cass President in 1848, nor Douglas in 1860. On the 1st of March, 1847, Mr. Cass said, in the Senate, of the Wilmot Proviso: "Last year I should have voted for the proposition, had it come up."
December 25
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December 29
1835 — The United States agreed to convey to the Cherokee Indians '-the following additional tract of land, situated between the west line of the State of Missouri and the Osage reservation: Beginning at the southeast corner of the same, and running north along the east line of the Osage lands fifty miles to the northeast corner thereof, and thence east to the west line of the State of Missouri, thence with said line south fifty miles, thence west to the place of beginning estimated to contain eight hundred thousand acres of land: but it is expressly understood that, if any of the lands assigned to the Quapaws shall fall within the aforesaid bounds, the same shall be reserved and excepted out of the lands above granted, and a pro-rata reduction shall be made in the price to be allowed to the United States for the same by the Cherokees."' This treaty was confirmed by Congress in 1838, and General Scott marched into their country, in Georgia, with 2,000 troops, and forced their removal.
December 30
1825 — By treaty with the Osage Indians, the tribe is located upon a tract lying between latitude 37° and 38° north, and longitude 94° and 98° west, and watered by the Arkansas, Verdigris, and Neosho rivers. The tract contains 7,564,000 acres.
December 31