The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1855-06-16
NUMBER 24---VOLUME |.
The Coming Crisis.

The Coming Crisis.
We give up large portion of our pa.
per, this week, to the present state o.
things in Kansas and Missouri. 1t is
clear that our nation is approaching cri
sis which must settle or unsettle Amer.
can politics for many years to come
The great battle between Freedom and
Slavery, towards which the partisans o.
the latter have-been hurrying US for many
years, has actually begun. 1t isno long
er war of words, or ideas. 1t is nc
longer question for the ballot box bu
for the carsridge-box. For the first time
in the history of our government, its au
th0rities, its laws, its officers are power.
less to protect American citizenson theil
own soil. And what is more alarming
than all, there appears to be no serious at
tempt to sustain the laws or the officers
The government itself apparently winks
at the violence that trampies its own au-
thority underfoot.
What is to be the end of these things:
Where are these outrages to stop? Ii 8
territory large enough for an empire can
be invaded by an armed banditti, and Its
laws struck down with impunity, for the
purpose of planting slavery there, what
security have the States that when the
Slave-power shall have gained the com.
plete aseendancy it now contends for
that they shall not share the same fate;
The power that tramples upon the dear.
est rights of freemen in Kansas, will no
hesitate to do the same thing in any STATE
of this Union, when opportunity offers
or occasion demands. Slavery knows NJ
law but its own will. 1t respects no righ
but might. Itself the offspring of war
its hand is ever against Liberty and al
the muniments of Liberty.
The issue which Slavery makes il
Kansas aop must be met now, or, not on
" Kansas is lost, but our national liber
ties are all lost. The day that sees the
conquest of that immense and fertile ter
ritory, "acquiesced" in by the people o.
the Free States, will see the hearse and
shroud of American Freedom. The peo-
pie of the North must never acquiesce
From hilltop of the valley, from farm
and workshop, from the pulpit, the
school-house and the freside. must the
word 90 forth, "Kansas shall never be
given up to slavery. 1t was guaranteed tc
Freedom by our fathers and the fathers
of the Republic, and free it shall be,
though ten thousand unions and million:
of freemen fall in its defence"
The free State have already beenpush'
ed to the wall, and can retreat no farther
They must now turn on the aggressors
or be crippled and subjugated forever
The struggle in Kansas is their struggle
The result will be theirs. If mob law
the bowie knife and slavery conquer Kan
sasthe North is conquered. The day tina
sees that territory slave State OF thi'
Union. sees the sceptre of slavery wave
over the entire American continent
1t must never be. The spirit that nerved
our fathers IN the days of our country's
earliest struggle for liberty, must nerve
the arms and hearts of their children now
against a far more relentless tyrrany. II
the National Government will not do its
duty, and protect the liberties of the peo-
pie, the people must protect themselves,
The free States must take the weapons
into their own hands, and use them.
Don'ttell us that will dissolve the Union
The failure of the Union to protect the
rights of the people, and to preserve the
public tranquility, is itself a dissolution
of the Union. By that failure it absolveS
every American freeman from his allegi
ance to the Union, and proelaims the
right and duty of all to protect them.
selves. The only Union to which the
people of the free States owe allegiance.
is Union for Liberty under Law. And
when it becomes perverted for the over.
throw of liberty and law, it has no right
full sovereignty over the acts or eonseicn,
ces of Americans.
Disguise it as we may, to this it is com.
ing, and that rapidly. We must bring
the Union back to the policy of the faith.
ers, or it viii be dissolved. 1t cannot be
sustained by the bowie-knife aud reyoly.
er. 1t ought not to be if it could. And
the sooner the North come to look thi,
thing in the face the better. With sucl
men as are now defying all law and au
thority and all decency in Kansas, nj
union can be other thana disgrace ant
curse to the people of the free States
Away, then, with all bug-bear fears of
dissolution of the Union. 1t never cal
be dissolved while true to tile purpose
for which it was formed. When it be
comes hopelessly false to those purposes
It's end cannot come too soon.-Demo
erat, Concord, y. 81.