Memory-1854, January

Remembrance of Hadley D. Johnson, an Iowa State Senator. In the fall of 1853, a considerable number of persons crossed the Missouri River from Iowa and, assembling at Bellevue and Old Fort Kearney, held an election for a delegate to represent their interests in Washington in securing a territorial organization for Nebraska. The election was October 11, 1853, and the unanimous choice of Hon. Hadley D. Johnson, prominent lawyer and leading citizen of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

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Hadley D. Johnson writes:

   On my arrival at Washington (early in January, 1854) I found that a bill had already been introduced in the senate, and I think referred to the committee on territories, of which the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas was chairman. This bill provided for the organization of the territory of Nebraska, including which is now Kansas and Nebraska, or substantially so. I also found, seated at a desk, in the House of Representatives, a portly, dignified, elderly gentleman, who was introduced to me as the Reverend Thomas Johnson. He was an old Virginian; a slave holder, and a Methodist preacher. This gentleman had also been a candidate for delegate to the informal election, and was credited with having received 337 votes. He had preceded me to Washington, and together with his friends, ignoring our Sarpy election, had, through some influence sub rosa been installed in a seat at a desk aforesaid, where being duly served with stationery, eta., he seemed to be a member of the house.

   Previous to this time, in one or two instances, persons visiting Washington. as representatives of the settlers in unorganized territory, and seeking admission as legal territories, had been recognized unofficially, and after admission, had been paid the usual per diam allowance as well as mileage, and in the present» case I think my namesake had looked for such a result in his own case, but for my part I had no such expectations.

   On being introduced to Mr. Johnson, who seemed somewhat stiff and reserved, I alluded to the manner of my appointment to the present mission, which. like his own, was without: legal sanction,  but was for a purpose; told him there was no occasion for a contest between us for a seat to which neither of us had a claim; that I came there to suggest and work for the organization of two territories instead if one; that if  he saw proper to second my efforts, I believed that we could succeed in the objects for which we each had come.

   After this explanation the old gentleman thawed out a little, and we consulted together upon the common subject.

   The Hon. Bernhart Henn, at that time the only member of the house from Iowa. who also was my friend and warmly advocated our territorial scheme, finding that the Rev. Thomas Johnson was seated in the house and posing as a member and not wishing to see him more honorably seated than myself, interceded, I presume, with one of the doorkeepers, who admitted into the house and seated me at a desk beside my friend, the minister, who it afterwards appeared was, like myself, surreptitiously admitted to the seat occupied by him, unknow to the speaker, or perhaps to the chief doorkeeper.

   The fates decreed, however, that we were not to hold our seats a great while, for one day the principal doorkeeper approached me as I sat in my seat, and politely inquired who I was, and by what right I occupied the seat; and being by me answered according to the facts, he informed me that as complaint had been made to the speaker, he was under necessity of respectfully asking me to vacate the seat, as such was the order of the speaker. I replied to him that of course I would do so, but, I added, as my neighbor on the left occupied his seat by a right similar to my own, I felt it to be my privilege to enquire why I should be ousted while he was permitted to remain. On this the doorkeeper turned to Mr. Johnson, who corroborated my statement, whereupon the ‘two Johnsons’ as we were called, were incontinently bounced and relegated to the galleries.

   I never learned, nor did I care to know, whether I was removed at the instance of the friends of Mr. Johnson, or whether a Mr. Guthrie, who had also been a candidate for delegate, had fired a shot at his adversary, the Rev. Thomas. If the latter was the case, in firing he hit two birds. I did not feel hurt by this event, but believe that the dignity of the other Johnson was seriously touched, and himself mortified.

   I ought perhaps to mention the fact, that in our negotiations as to the dividing line between Kansas and Nebraska, a good deal of trouble was encountered, Mr. Johnson and his Missouri friends being very anxious that the Platte river should constitute the line, which obviously would not suit the people of Iowa, especially as I believe it was a plan of the American Fur Company to colonize the Indians north of the Platte river. As this plan did not meet with the approbation upon my friends or myself, I firmly resolved that this line should not be adopted. Judge Douglas was kind enough to leave that question to me, and I offered to Mr. Johnson the choice of two lines, first, the present line, or second, an imaginary line traversing that divide between the Platte and the Kaw. After considerable parlaying and Mr. Johnson not being willing to accept either line, I finally offered the two alternatives—the fortieth degree of north latitude, or the defeat of the whole bill, for that session at least. After consulting with his friends, I presume, Mr. Johnson very reluctantly consented to the fortieth degree as the dividing line between the two territories, whereupon judge Douglas prepared and introduced the substitute in the report as chairman of the committee on territories, and immediately, probably the hardest war of words known in American history was commenced.

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[William Connelley, William Walker and the Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory, pp. 86-88; Read the book here.]