POPULATION MOVEMENTS IN RELATION TO 
THE STRUGGLE EOR KANSAS 
Political economy, as one of its most illustrious professors has ob- 
served, is essentially the science of population. We might go further 
and say that all political problems are in the last resort population 
problems.^ 
The history of Kansas in the brief period before state- 
hood is of great interest. The struggle in and over the new 
Territory created by the Kansas-Nebraska Act produced deeds 
of violence within its borders, stirring scenes and debates in 
the halls of Congress, nation-wide political and sectional agita- 
tion, and revolutionary changes in the party situation. Tho 
these phases of the great contest are of importance, they do 
not constitute the whole of the story. Indeed, the outcome 
of the conflict was not due to the efforts of antislavery men, 
to the activities of proslavery agitators, to the work of a 
party, nor to the accomplishments of emigrant aid societies. 
The forces that determined the direction and destination of 
colonists who were migrating to frontier areas in such great 
numbers during that troubled decade were indirectly respons- 
ible for determining the fate of slavery in Kansas. ^ 
Two facts in connection with the westward flow of popula- 
tion in the eighteen-fifties stand out with clearness: the 
tremendous numbers that were leaving the older states and 
coming in from foreign lands to seek homes, fortunes, or 
adventures in the West,^ and the relatively small portion of 
these who found their way to Kansas Territory.^ 
^ Manohester Guardian Weekly, March 2, 1923. 
2 In the present study, the writer has used much material from two earlier papers 
dealing with phases of the same general subject: “Popular Sovereignty and the Coloniza- 
tion of Kansas from 1854 to 1860”, in Mississippi Valley Historical Association Proceed^ 
ings, 1917-1918, 380-392 ; “The Influence of Population Movements on Missouri History 
before 1861”, in Missouri Historical Revietv, 506-516 (July, 1922). 
^ Below is given the number of free persons born outside of, but living in, each of 
seven frontier states in 1850 and in 1860. The increases in this decade were very 
great. The smallest increase is almost equal to the total population of Kansas in 1860 : 
States 1850 1860 Increases 
Michigan 257,006 454,285 197,279 
Illinois 507,852 1,005,026 497,174 
Wisconsin 242,376 528,704 286,328 
(Footnot-es continued on page 384-) 
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