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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Charles Robinson Biography ROBINSON,
Charles (1818-94). The first Governor of the State of Kansas. He was born in
Hardwick, Mass., studied for a time in Amherst College, and in 1843 graduated at
the Berkshire Medical School. Six years later he accompanied an emigrant train
across the plains to California. He settled in Sacramento and remained there for
two years, working as a miner, as a restaurant keeper, and as editor of the Settler's and Miner's Tribune. In 1850 he was elected to the
Legislature, in which he proved an able champion of the settlers, and also did
much to prevent California from becoming a slave State. Returning to
Massachusetts, he edited the Fitchburg News
for two years. and in 1854 was chosen by the Emigrant's Aid Society to go to
Kansas and help save that Territory for freedom. He quickly became the leader of
the Free-State party, and was made chairman of the Executive Committee and
commander of the Kansas Volunteers. It was his policy to avoid any resistance to
the United States government, but to ignore the laws passed by the bogus
proslavery Legislature of 1855. He took an active part in the Wakarusa War, and
in 1855 was a member of the Topeka Convention which drew up a free-State
constitution. In the following year he was elected Governor under this
constitution, but was arrested on a charge of treason and usurpation of office.
He was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury, but after an imprisonment of several
months he was tried for usurpation and, being acquitted, was released. Two years
later he was reëlected Governor by the Free-State party; in 1859 he was again
reëlected under the Wyandotte constitution, and in 1861 he became the first
Governor of the State. He bequeathed most of his property to his wife, but
stipulated that on her death it should go to the Kansas State University, which
owes its existence very largely to their efforts. He published The
Kansas Conflict (New York, 1892). Consult F. W. Blackmar, Charles
Robinson (new ed., Topeka, 1907), and L. W. Spring, Kansas:
Prelude to the War for the Union (rev. ed., Boston, 1907). |