Background
Charles Lawrence Robinson was born on July 21, 1818 at Hardwick, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of Jonathan and Huldah (Woodward) Robinson. He grew up in an abolition atmosphere.
Doctor commander-in-chief governor newspaper editor
Charles Lawrence Robinson was born on July 21, 1818 at Hardwick, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of Jonathan and Huldah (Woodward) Robinson. He grew up in an abolition atmosphere.
He attended a private school in his native town, and was then sent to Hadley and Amherst academies. He entered Amherst College but was forced to withdraw after a year and a half because of weak eyes. Subsequently he studied medicine under Dr. Amos Twitchell at Keene, N. H. , and attended medical lectures at Pittsfield, Massachussets, and Woodstock, Vermont
He began to practise his profession at Belchertown, Massachussets Two years later he and Josiah G. Holland opened a hospital at Springfield. After his wife's death in 1846 he joined a brother at Fitchburg and there continued the practice of medicine. In 1849 he accompanied a party of about forty Bostonians to California. After two weeks at mining on Bear Creek he formed a partnership and established a restaurant at Sacramento. In the contest between land speculators and settlers he was chosen president of the squatters' association. In an armed collision with town officials he received a wound thought to be fatal. He was arrested and placed on a prison ship, where he unexpectedly recovered. After miners and squatters had elected him to the legislature, he was admitted to bail and soon became co-editor of the Settlers' and Miners' Tribune at Sacramento. In the state Assembly he was antislavery and supported Framont for the federal Senate. Eventually a nolle prosequi was entered on charges of assault, conspiracy, and murder. He returned to Massachusetts by way of Panama in 1851 For two years Robinson edited the Fitchburg News and practised medicine. In 1854 Eli Thayer appointed him Kansas resident agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. He was well qualified for the position since his California adventure had given him a glimpse of Kansas and had introduced him to the contentious life of the frontier. In July 1854 the company sent him to the territory to arrange for its settlement. He had noted the beauty and fertility of the Kansas valley in 1849, so he explored the Missouri to Fort Leavenworth while a companion followed the Kansas to Fort Riley. He then went to St. Louis to meet the first body of New England emigrants and continued to conduct a second to the territory, which arrived at Kansas City in September. The two groups united at the present site of Lawrence and began the settlement of that town. In the spring of 1855 he conducted another party to the territory, which arrived in time to participate in the election of a legislature on Mar. 30. Although there was illegal voting on both sides, proslavery candidates won a large majority of the seats. Three days after the election he wrote to Thayer for the loan of 200 Sharps rifles and two field pieces. At the first Fourth of July celebration at Lawrence he breathed defiance as he recommended, "Let us repudiate all laws enacted by foreign legislative bodies" (Kansas Conflict, post, p. 152). During the summer and fall of 1855 he attended numerous conferences held to unite antislavery factions in the territory. At the Lawrence convention of August 14, he was appointed chairman of a Free-State executive committee of twenty-three, but a month later it was superseded by a smaller body headed by James H. Lane A Free-State party was organized at Big Springs in September, and a constitutional convention was called to meet at Topeka on October 23. He was a delegate and led the radical wing of the party that opposed discrimination against free Negroes, but without success. Largely through his influence, however, the convention refused to endorse the principle of popular sovereignty, urged by Lane and the administration faction. When proslavery Missourians gathered on Wakarusa River in December and threatened to destroy Lawrence, he was appointed commander-in-chief. His cautious policy probably averted bloodshed for the belligerent Lane wished to take the offensive. The timely arrival of Governor Wilson Shannon ended the controversy, and both sides disbanded their forces. Yet the Wakarusa War was significant for it gave Lane the leadership of the radicals. On January 15, 1856, the Free-State party elected officers under the Topeka constitution, and Robinson was chosen governor. A legislature was organized at Topeka on March 4, and he delivered an inaugural address. He was soon indicted by a proslavery grand jury for treason and usurpation of office. While on his way east in May to obtain aid for Kansas he was arrested nearLexington, Missouri. After four months of imprisonment at Lecompton he was released on bail, but the charges remained until the following year. In the fall of 1856 he resigned the governorship and went east; but the Free-State legislature did not act upon his resignation, and he withdrew it when he returned. He and Lane advised participation in the October election of 1857 for members of a territorial legislature. That policy was adopted, the Free-State party captured control of the territorial government, and the Topeka movement came to an end. In 1859 the Republican party supplanted the Free-State organization, and a new constitution was framed at Wyandotte. Robinson was nominated for governor and elected over the Democratic candidate, Samuel Medary, but of course he did not take office until the state was admitted in 1861. He was sworn in as governor on Feb. 9, and summoned the legislature to meet March 26. His message to the Assembly was able and comprehensive, and he evinced sound statesmanship in inaugurating the forms and functions of a new state government. Nevertheless, his administration of two years was beset with difficulties. Before he had been in office a year an abortive attempt was made to displace him. An election was held, but the canvassing board refused to count the votes, and the state supreme court held it illegal. Early in 1862 articles of impeachment were preferred against the auditor, secretary of state, and the governor because of alleged irregularities in the sale of state bonds. The first two were found guilty and removed from office, but Robinson was acquitted almost unanimously. Nevertheless, the bond transactions hurt him politically. In raising and officering state troops for the Civil War he and Lane worked at cross purposes. Lane had the confidence of Lincoln and Stanton, controlled Kansas patronage, and even usurped a part of the governor's prerogative. After the expiration of his term of office, he remained a great deal in retirement at his country home of "Oakridge" a few miles from Lawrence, although he engaged in politics sporadically. Always an independent, he joined the Liberal Republican movement. He was elected to the state Senate in 1874 and again in 1876. A decade later he was defeated for Congress on the Democratic ticket, and in 1890 he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor on a fusion ticket composed of Greenbackers, Populists, and Democrats. Throughout his Kansas career he was a promoter of education. As a member of the state Senate he obtained the passage of a comprehensive law regulating the public school system. From 1864 to 1874 and again from 1893 to 1894 he was a regent of the University of Kansas. As superintendent of Haskell Institute, 1887-89, he adopted a policy of industrialization, under which the school began to flourish. He was president of the Kansas State Historical Society from 1879 to 1880 and in 1892 published The Kansas Conflict. Cautious and calculative, logical and shrewd, judicious and argumentative, his greatest service to Kansas was that he gave the Topeka movement equilibrium and was the brake and balance wheel of the Free-State party. He was never very popular, but his common sense and business acumen gave great weight to his judgment, and his decisions were usually sound.
Republican
President of the squatters' association,
president of the Kansas State Historical Society
Cautious and calculative, logical and shrewd, judicious and argumentative. He was never very popular, but his common sense and business acumen gave great weight to his judgment, and his decisions were usually sound.
In 1843 he was married to Sarah Adams of Brookfield. After his wife's death in 1846 he joined a brother at Fitchburg and there continued the practice of medicine.
He returned to Massachusetts by way of Panama in 1851, and on October 30 of that year he was married to Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence, a young woman of good birth and education, daughter of Myron Lawrence of Belchertown, Massachussets