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so closely identified with all the tragic events in the prolonged
struggle to keep slavery out of Kansas, that he was considered to be
an irreconcilable foe to the party that tolerated or in any way
apologized for its existence. The position he had taken in voting
against the Civil Rights Bill worried and fretted him. He keenly felt
his separation from the sympathy of such men as Sumner, Chandler, Wade,
and the whole host who had nobly fought the battle of Kansas in the
halls of Congress. He felt still more keenly the general and somewhat
indignant disapproval of his action, freely expressed by the great mass
of his constituents. One of his intimate friends said that on the very
day of his vote he received a telegram warning him that if he voted
against the bill it would be the mistake of his life. The telegram
reached him after the roll had been called. He said excitedly, "The
mistake has been made. I would give all I possess if it were undone."
He was still further disturbed by imputations upon his integrity in
connection with some transactions of the Indian Bureau--imputations
which were pronounced baseless by the two senators from Indiana (Thomas
A. Hendricks and Henry S. Lane), one a political opponent and the
other a political friend, who had impartially examined all the facts.
But under the mortification caused by parting with old political
associates, and the humiliation to which he was subjected by
groundless imputations upon his character, his mind gave way and on the
11th of July, 1866 he committed suicide.

General Lane was a native of Indiana, son of a reputable lawyer, Amos
Lane, who was a representative in Congress during the Administrations
of Jackson and Van Buren. He thus inherited Democracy of the most
aggressive type. He was a man of violent passions and marked courage.
He commanded a regiment of Indiana volunteers at the battle of Buena
Vista, and in 1852 was elected a member of the House of
Representatives. He was a warm supporter of Douglas and voted for the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He immediately afterwards emigrated
to Kansas, as he said, "to see fair play under the doctrine of popular
sovereignty." His career thenceforward formed a large part of the
history of Kansas. He contributed perhaps as largely as any other one
man to the victory of the Free-State policy, and became as violent in
his hostility to the Democratic party as he had formerly been in its
advocacy. W