The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-06-29
SETTLEMENT OF KANSAS IN
The WEST.

casioned by exaggerated reports of the plans
of the Emigration Aid Society, lately organ
lied in Massachusetts, The Association is an
honest and a deserving one its object being to
encourage and aid the settlement of poor, in
dustrious, and respectable people in the new
Territories lately organized. That such Asso-
Citations have not hitherto been established in
our Eastern States, both for their own benefit
and for the good of their surplus population, Is
somewhat surprising 1t is rather amusing to
sec the alarm this very reasonable movement
has awakened among some of our ultra Pro-
Slavery men. They imagine that the Emil
grants Aid Society is about gathering together
all. the rank Abolitionists " Of the country,
and precipitating an avalanche of them on
Kansas and Nebraska! The Washington Sen
tineI begins to glow with the fire Of chivalry,
and we shall expect soon to see him mounted,
a Ia Qlirote, and riding full tilt against this
new horror. Hear his trumpet voice:
"Now. if this rush is to be made by these
hordes, designed as they are for an army of
occupation, it is time for the South to make an
effort to establish its power in these Territories.
If fair for one, it is fair for the other. There
are clans In the South as well as clans in the
North Let The pibroch sound over hill and
valley, and true men will hcck to the gather
| ing If the effort be to get in first the South
is the nearest, and the South has most at
stake. Let her SONS step over the line, and
raise their banner over the virgin soil Of Kan
sas"
Now, we are inclined to think that our Abo-
lition friends, who have worked the Sentinel
up to such pitch Of daring viii prefer stay
ing at home, and sounding their rams horns
about the great Bastie of Slavery, trusting
the settlement of the new Territories to the
hardy freemen, who know how to sling the
axe and use the spade.
The alarm awakened by this innocent Emi-
grants Aid Society would be ludicrous, but
for the mischieyOus use that has been made OF
it. doubtless by cunning demagogues IN Wash
ipgtOn, to infame the People of some of the
western counties of Missouri. Missiles, we
presume have been sent to them, telling them
that the men who resisted the surrender of
Antony Burns, arc organizing in squadrons
for the purpose of taking possession of Kansas
and running off from Jackson and Platte cOun-
ties all their slaves-and very likely post
script has been added, limiting that it is with
such men Col. Benton is cooperating
We advise the good people of Missouri to
keep cool this hot weather, and beware Of be-
ing practiced upon. That Emigrants' Aid So
ciety, unfortunately, 50 far exists only paper
The only emigration we know anything
about, is the spontaneous movement among
certain portions of our population, who, when
ever new territory is opened for settlement,
begin to wonder whether they could not better
themselves by q change. The unprecedented
excitement occasioned by the introduction and
passage Of the Nebraska Bill, and the singular
prominence which the struggle has given to
the two Territories, have doubtless stimulated
the spirit of adventure among these classes of
our population. The people now on their way
to Kansas, are, like all other immigrants to new
Territories, self-moYed, selfdirected, selfsus-
taincd animated by such feelings as sent hun
dreds of thousands of adventurGrs to California,
and have peopled Oregon so rapidly that it is
already populous enough to become State.
Meantime, as our readers may wish TO know
something of the groundless fears awakened by
the arts of demagogues among some of the
People of Missouri, we quote the resolutions of a
meeting recently held at independence, Jackson
county, on the great thorOughfare of Western
travel:
RESOLVED, That we, the citizens of Jackson
county, in mass meeting assembled do hereby
endorse, re-aifirm, and proclaim the justice
II 81 h md &C
ton Of cur fellow-citizens who recently con-
vened at WcstpOrt, in this county; and that,
in order TO effoctuate and carry out the object
of that meeting, to secure and guaranty the
rights Of Southern emgrants TO the Territory
Of Kansas the chairman Of this meeting do APP
point a Committee of Vigilance, whose duty it
shall be to acquire full and reliable informa-
ton CT the progress of settlements in the new
Territory of Kansas, and of any infringement,
or danger of infringement upon the rights of
Southern settlers, and to take proper steps TO
prevent and resist the same
ReSolped, That Committee Of Correspond
ence he also appointed, whose duty 1t shall be
to embody, in the form Of an address, all use
fal information concerning the advantages sit
uatiOn, production, Sc, Of the Territory of
Kansas, to be circulated among citizens of our
own and other Southern States; and further,
of those States who may be DESTROYS of inform
alton upon this subject.
ReSolUed That we further most earnestly
call upon our fellow-citzens of Buchanan.
Platte, Clay, and all border and Western oOun-
ties Of Missouri, TO meet aud organize, and to
follow up their organization by action, that We
may meet and repel the wave Of fanaticism
which threatens to break upon our border
and that we pledge ourselves to cooperate
with them in all necessary measures for our
common protection.
"ResoiUed, That we recommend to all our
fellOw-citizens who have a will to remove to
Kansas, and to all others who feel with them
a common interest in the protection of their
rights and property to meet in general Con-
vention at Fort Leavenworth, or some other
suitable place in the Territory and to arrange
for their mutual and common protection
against oil interference with their rights
The resolutions adopted by the meeting held
at WestpOrt, on the Sd of June, are as follows
"The preamble sets forth, that having re-
ceived intelligence of the passage of the Kan
sas and Nebraska bill repealing the Missouri
restriction, and opening the said Territories to
settlement equally to all the people of the
Union, and feeling deep and lively interest
especially in the occupation of the border Ter
ritory of Kansas, and the passage of laws which
shall protect emigrants from every portion of
the country in the possession and enjoyment of
their property of whatever character and hay
ing heard through the public papers that or
CARNATIONS are on foot in some of the Northern
States, having for their object the colonization
of the new Territories, with view to exclude
and deter from the said Territories emigration
from the Southern States, and moro particu-
larly slave emigration from Missouri and Ar