John Calhoun.
John Calhoun was the first surveyor-general of Kansas and a pro-slavery partisan.
Calhoun was born on October 14, 1806, in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied law in New York before moving to Springfield, Illinois, in 1830. While there, he became a surveyor and served in the military during the Black Hawk War. As a surveyor and soldier, he met and became friends with Abraham Lincoln, a friendship that lasted throughout their lifetimes. In November 1833, he founded the Chicago Weekly Democrat, the first newspaper in that town. The same year, he became a surveyor for Sangamon County, Illinois, and actively participated in the political life of that period.
In 1838, he made many speeches during the campaign and was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. In 1844, he was defeated in his bid for Congress, and in 1846, he ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois but was defeated again. On August 4, 1854, Calhoun was commissioned as surveyor-general of Kansas and Nebraska’s territories and made an ex officio register of the land offices, which were soon to be opened. He opened an office at Wyandotte, and the first report of his survey was made on October 26, 1856. He was a pro-slavery man who entered the territory’s political life actively and was president of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention.
By 1858, control of the Kansas Territorial Legislature had firmly passed into Free State hands, and the new legislature initiated an investigation into the alleged fraudulent practices of the December 1857 election. This action prompted Calhoun to leave Kansas for Missouri’s safety. General Thomas Ewing, Jr., who was a member of the committee appointed by the territorial legislature in 1858 to investigate election frauds, in a letter to his father dated January 18, 1858, said:
“Calhoun left for Washington today — fled. He would have been brought up for forging election returns, of which there is evidence enough, I believe, to warrant a presentment. He is the instigator of all the frauds; I have not a shadow of a doubt.”
The Kansas Historical Society has a manuscript entitled “A Vindication of John Calhoun,” written by his brother, A. H. Calhoun, in which it is claimed that Mr. Calhoun opposed the clause in the Lecompton Constitution that established slavery and favored submitting the instrument to a popular vote. However, records of the convention do not corroborate these statements. Calhoun died at St. Joseph, Missouri, on October 13, 1859, from the effects of an overdose of strychnine.
Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated April 2025.
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