William Phillips was a young attorney who came to early Leavenworth for idealistic reasons. He was vehemently and courageously opposed to slavery and determined to make Kansas a free state. In early Leavenworth he was greatly outnumbered by slavery-sympathizers, who were capable of any kind of violent mischief when drunk on the cheap booze that flowed through early Leavenworth saloons.

Phillips had crossed the pro-slave party by crying foul to territorial Governor Reeder about the first election to the territorial legislature because the number of votes cast in Leavenworth was more than six times the actual number of legitimate voters. The extra votes were cast by ruffians from across the river in Missouri who were actually egged on by U. S. Senator David Rice Atchison, who challenged them to stuff the ballot boxes in Kansas, and justified the illegal act by claiming the property (presumably slaves) of Missouri’s citizens was being threatened within a few miles of their homes and it was their duty to vote in the Kansas election. Atchison said if they failed and the institution died, they would deserve their fate for lack of willingness to do their duty.

Pro-slavery sympathizers formed vigilance committees that accused Phillips of murder (he happened to be present when one man shot another in a public place). At first they rattled their sabers and told him to get out of town, but Phillips stood firm. He sent his wife and young child away, but he stayed on in Leavenworth until one night a vigilance committee took matters into their own hands…

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