The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1855-06-23
THE Issue i'm Kansas.

The disastrous results OF the abroga-
ton of the Missouri Compromise, fore
told by the opponents of the measure,
and necessarily foreseen by all enlight-
ened statesmen, are beginning to be real.
lied. The unhappy territory thrown
open by the Nebraska and Kansas Ter
ritorial Bill, as theater whereon the is.
sue between slavery and freedom should
be tried in a fresh and unencumbered
field, begins already to be filed with vio-
lenee, and her young population, fresh
and vigorous as they are, already cry
out for aid against the wave of civil dis
cords which threatens to overwhelm them.
The area, thirty-five years ago 30 solemn
ly dedicated to freedom forever, and re-
Gently, SO wickedly thrown free to the
invited aggressions of Power, ever
lawless, has already tasted the first
blood of the contest which must always
ensue when truth and error meet. How
that contest is to be determined, and
whether this first blood is to be lost
sight of and forgotten in the quick sue
cession of kindred deeds of violence,
the future only can reveal. One thing
is clear as light-that, however long and
however bloody the contest may be, the
whole is, or was, needless, is the certain
and foreseen consequence of the wretch
ed act against which our politicians were
thoroughly warned, and isthe price which
our official representatives were ready to
pay, for their various schemes of emo
luton or aggrandizement. A price, let
it be remembered, rendered at the sac
rifce of their country's rights, and bar
tered, in double treachery, for what no
man can innocently buy. Let these
truths be remembered by all lovers of
their country, and of justice, and when
we hear the erowding rumors of lawless-
ness and border feuds, where peace
should be; when we hear that our friends
who have gone thither to build them
happy homes, are driven here and there
by reckless bands of armed men, or that
they live fearfully in insecure homes, or
perhaps have fallen victims to some
desperate mob and when we hear
If it should come to that-that the
fair and fertile plains which should
smile with peace and wealth are desolate,
that young villages are laid in ashes and
that many a hearth-stone is drenched
with blood-let the burden of the fearful
responsibility rest, where it belongs, on
the traitors whose deed it was and on
the foolish voters who wilfully sustain
the men and sanction their treachery.
The accounts from that portion of
Kansas bordering on and lying contigu-
Gus to the slave State of Missouri, ex-
hibit a state Of things hitherto unparal-
leled in the history of any portion of
our extensive and constantly changing
frontiers. A natural love of freedom
among the settlers of the new ground
a majority of them, we believe, from the
northern States-and q reckless deter
miaation On the part of the older settlers
of that portion of Missouri which bor-
ders the Territory, meet here and ex-
plore in constant discords and STRIFE
Already border feud has taken root,
and years viii elapse before the clannish
enmities could ever blend and harmon
ize, even il the question which agitates
them could be laid at rest forever.
In the conduct Of this border war
which is entirely war Of aggression on
the part of the Missourians and of de-
fence on the part of the recent emf
grants. the same lawless and cruel spirit
which always charaeterizes the eneroach-
ments of the slave interest, marks the
designs and the means of the aggressive
party. Armed bands of marauders-
volunteers IN the service of the t'institu-
ton" organized with leaders and disei-
pine, provisioned and aecoutred. come
marching with music and with banners,
into peaceful neigbborhoods where the
newly arrived efhigrants are building
their homes demand of the new-eoaaers
their sentiments, harass them With threats