"No Propriety in the Late Course of the Governor": the Geary-Sherrard Affair Reexamined

On 9 February 1857 William T. Sherrard accosted Governor John W. Geary with a gun in the Kansas territorial legislature. On 18 February, one of the 50 shots fired at a Lecompton rally killed Sherrard. Although most historians see the incident as a proslavery conspiracy, Sherrard was only a pawn in Geary's game for high national stakes. Geary sought to prove the existence of a proslavery conspiracy, and this he could do by producing an act of violence at the meeting. Sherrard lost his life, and Geary lost his gamble. Based on primary and secondary sources; illus., 53 notes.