Nobody said you had to use a CardLayout. That is only one of many layout managers discussed.
I just would like to have my JFRAME showing with the Panels visible Right from the Start
So create the panel and add the panel to the frame.
You don't have any problem creating the splitpane and adding it to the frame. The code for your panels would be the same. (ie, create the panel, add it to the frame).
The key is to use the layout managers properly. So download the tutorial examples and play with them if you don't understand what is going on.