To Nebraska in '57; A Diary of Erastus F. Beadle

Published: The New York Public Library, 1923

Note: The author was born 1821 in New York, the journey was from Buffalo

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                            To Nebraska in '57
                       A Diary of Erastus F. Beadle

                   Printed from the Original Manuscript

                         by Courtesy of its Owner

                           Dr. Frank P. O'Brien



                               The New York
                              Public Library
                                   1923



                          REPRINTED AUGUST 1923
             FROM THE BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
                       OF FEBRUARY AND MARCH 1913



                  PRINTED AT THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
                        Form p175 [viii-20-23-5c]



                            TO NEBRASKA IN '57
                       A DIARY OF ERASTUS F. BEADLE

             (Published by Courtesy of Dr. Frank P. O'Brien)


INTRODUCTORY NOTE

   UPON the territory which was the goal of the writer of this diary the 
attention of America had been fixed for three years. In 1854 Congress 
passed a bill dividing the "Platte Country" into two territories, to be 
known as Kansas and Nebraska. Of greater significance, however, was the 
fact that the bill repealed the Missouri Compromise, extended the Fugitive 
Slave Law to the territories, and left the question of negro slavery 
within these territories to the decision of their inhabitants. In other 
words, it established "squatter sovereignty." The Kansas-Nebraska Act was 
one of the most far-reaching in effect in our history. It made slavery 
again a dangerous political problem. It led to the downfall of the Whig 
Party and the rise of the Republican Party; it aroused Abraham Lincoln 
once more from his waning interest in politics; it made the Fugitive Slave 
Law inoperative in the North; it wiped out the Democratic Party in New 
England, and after one more national victory brought that party into 
eclipse for twenty-five years.

   The question arose: should these new territories enter the Union as 
free or as slave states? The struggle began with which are associated such 
phrases as "border ruffians" and "Bleeding Kansas," and the name of John 
Brown. The attempt by the party of freedom and by the party of slavery to 
fill the territory, each with its own adherents, led to opposing 
governments and opposing constitutions, to violence and bloodshed. It 
ended, as did the greater contest of which it was the prelude, in a 
victory for freedom; slavery met one more defeat in its many attempts to 
extend its territory. Early in 1858, a few months after the close of this 
diary, the election took place which made it clear that Kansas was opposed 
to slavery. And Kansas was the battleground.

   This diary records the journey of a citizen of Buffalo to his preempted 
lands near Omaha, Nebraska, between March and October, 1857. It reflects 
the incidents of travel, especially on the rivers, the political 
sentiments of the day, the great emigration to the new territory, life in 
Nebraska, and toward the end, as the diarist returns, the financial panic 
of 1857. He hears, August 31, of the closing of the banks.

   Erastus F. Beadle, who wrote the diary, was born in Otsego County, New 
York, in 1821. Some account of his life was given in the Bulletin of The 
New York Public Library, July, 1922, in the article preceding the 
catalogue of the Beadle Collection, given to this Library by Dr. Frank P. 
O'Brien, the owner of this diary. About a year after his trip to Nebraska, 
Mr. Beadle moved to New York City. For many years he was senior partner of 
the firm of Beadle and Adams, chiefly known for publishing "Beadle's Dime 
Novels," -- a series which began in 1860.

   The spelling, punctuation, and capitalization of the manuscript have 
been followed.