Kansas History - Spring 2009 (Vol. 32, No. 1) John Mack. “A
Second Revolution: The Struggle to Define the Meaning of the
Civil War in Southeast Kansas, 1867–1876.” Read this article
online In the 1860s and 1870s, as Union veterans immigrated to
southeast Kansas they found themselves embroiled in a legal
controversy with railroad officials over land title. The U.S.
Supreme Court finally resolved this controversy in 1876 when it
ruled in favor of the settlers. In “A Second Revolution,”
historian John N. Mack, Labette County Community College,
discusses the manner in which these settlers conceived of the
battle with the railroads and by which they interpreted the
significance of their legal victory. He argues that in fighting
the railroads, southeast Kansas settlers saw themselves as
responding not just to the personal threat of losing their homes
and farms but also to a much larger perceived risk of losing the
Republic they had defended with their lives. Consequently, in
defining their sense of purpose and conf