Returning to Missouri in 1867, Edwards joined "The Republican" as a reporter. The following year, he began the Kansas City Times, a staunch Democratic paper in a military ruled state governed by Republican Party. With this newspaper Edwards used the paper to champion the return to prominence of former Missouri Confederates, denounce black jurors, scalawags, and carpetbaggers, and agitating against military occupation. After the 1869 robbery of the Daviess County Saving Association in Gallatin, Missouri, Edwards met with Jesse and Frank James. In the pages of the Kansas City Times Edwards established the James Brothers as symbols of ex-Confederates "striking back" against perceived corruption, graft, oppression and criminality of military backed Republican rule in Missouri.