page_59 < previous page page_59 next page > Page 59 identified with what he thought was the rescue of Kansas that he proposed resigning his seat in the senate that he might be entirely untrammelled.131 Perchance, also, he had some inkling that with Frederick P. Stanton132 contesting the seat, a bitter partisan fight was in prospect, a not altogether welcome diversion.133 Stanton, prominent in and out of office in territorial days, was an old political antagonist of the Lane faction and one of the four candidates whose names had been before the legislature in March. In the second half of October, Lane's brigade notably contributed to Frémont's show of activity and then, anticipatory perhaps to greater changes, it was detached from the main column and given the liberty of moving independently down the Missouri line to the Cherokee country.134 Lane's efforts towards securing Indian enlistment did not stop with soliciting the Kansas tribes. Thoroughly aware, since the time of his sojourn at Fort Scott, if not before, of the delicate situation in Indian Territory, of the divided allegiance there, and of the despairing cry for help that had gone forth from the Union element to Washington, he conceived it eminently fitting and practicable that that same Union element should have its loyalty put to good uses and be itself induced to take up arms in behalf of the cause it affected so ardently to endorse. To an ex-teacher among the Seminoles, E. H. Carruth, was entrusted the task of recruiting. The situation in Indian Territory was more than deli- (footnote continued from previous page) October 9, 1861]. Robinson was opposed to the idea [ibid., November 2, 6, 1861]. 131Official Records, vol. iii, 530. 132 Martin, First Two Years of Kansas, 24; Biographical Congressional Directory, 1771-1903. 133Daily Conservative, November 1, 1861, gives Robinson the credit of inciting Stanton to contest the seat. 134Daily Conservative, October 30, 1861.  < previous page page_59 next page >