Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-12-15
THE DIFFICULTIES IN KANSAS.


President Pierce sont the following answer to
Gov. Shannon's application for MD from the mill
tary forces at the stations in that vicinity, in orde
to enforce the enactments of the mob Legisla-
ture:
All the power vested in the executive will be OK
erted to preserve order and enforce the laws. Or
the receipt of your letter the preliminary meas
ures necessary to be taken before calling out troops
will be promptly executed, and then you will SC
fully advised.
The late accounts of the origin of the difficulty
shows that the Free State men acted with modera.
ton. They could have done no less than they did
without abandoning their purpose to resist the
usurpation of the mob Legislature. Dow, II Free
State man, had ordered a pro-slavery intruder of
his claim. In consequence the intruder shot Dow
dead as he was passing alone and unarmed from a
blacksmith shop 70 his boarding place. Hero he
lay for several hours, his friends ignorant Of what
had transpired; the murderer and his friends, in
the mean time, escaped to Missouri. After wards
Mr. Branson, with whom Dow boarded was arres-
ted by a citizen Of Missouri, who claimed to be
sheriff of Douglass county. The facts of his ar
rest and rescue we give in Mr.. Branson's own
words, as spoken at a meeting at Lawrence, whittier
h. was taken after his rescue. AT this meeting
Mr.. S. n. Wood presided.
We copy from the Tribune;
Mr.. Branson himself being present was called
on. lie is n man of forty or fifty; a quiet, respect
able looking farmer. He spoke simply and briefly.
lie said that the deceased person who had been
shot boarded with him; that the meeting of the
citizens the day before had first convened at his
house, and had then proceeded to the spot where
n,uy had ham pnrrlaroA Thot he nod tfap1a
that meeting and returned home when it broke up,
and retired to bed at the usual hour. About 9
o'clock he was awakened by some kind of noise,
and Immediately asked "Who is there ?" The
reply was IA friend" Io responded, Come in
when the door was driven open, and Immediately
the house was filed with armed men. lie was
addressed and had got into the middle of the floor,
when Mr.. Jones, Postmaster of Westport, who
had been elected. Sheriff of Douglas county by the
bogus Legislature, presented a pistol at his breast
and exclaimed, you are my prisoner"
They then ordered him to put on his clothes i'm
mediately. He responded that he hoped they
wouldn't hurry him, but Jones and some of the
others replied that "they would"-that he must
come Immediately or they would blow him to
hill" lie hurried on his clothes as fast as he
could, when they took him and put him on a mule
and started off, leaving his family in distress and
anxiety. There was another man about the house
who started and gave the alarm after they left
From his house Mr.. Branson stated his captors
did not follow a direct course, but rode roInd past
several houses. He asked some of the men who
was close to him what he had been taken for p
The man replied, ooh, it was only n peace tcdr-
rant" lie af.erward asked Jones what he was
taken for? Jones said, ooh, just a peace warrant
but we had no fun. We expected to have seen
those sixty men that were there ~to-day-we have
had no fun"
This, he said, was the talk of al of them rs
they came along; they were boasting of what they
.-.,l1 I.u-l L. - ..-l.-- Ala- aA-lt l-.o 49,.
his friends. AS they approached the house of a
Mr.. Abbott, they met the company of men, fifteen
in number, (~exactly the same as Jones's party, J
who had been apprised of his abduction, and had
come out to rescue him, having apprelensions that
his life was in danger.
This company was planted across the road;
Jones' party halted as they came near. a voice
from his friends requested Branson to come out
and Join them; a voice from the Jones company
said they would shoot him if he did. There was
a clicking of the lncks-Western Rifles on one side
and Sharp's Rifles on the o,ller, and both parties
leveled their pieces. Mr.. Branson rode his mule
out from among the party who had taken him,
and, stopping between the parties, asked what he
would do with the mule. A voice from his friends
said, Let him 60" He dismounted, and a man
stepped from the ranks Of the Free State party
and gave the mule n kick, driving him back to the
opposite party. These latter commenced to curse
and threaten. The Frec-State men did not say
much, and seemed determined to let their oppo-
nents make the first attack. This the latter did
not appear to relish, and kept threatening, the
would-be Sheriff declaring that Governor Shannon
had promised that they should have ten thousand
men to enforce the laws of their Legislature, and
that they would let them see. His party, howev
err, r%etreated, and sent messengers to Gov. Shan
non for military force, while the Free State men
wheeled about and marched to Lawrence; most of
them lived about the Waukarusa, but they went
to Lawrence to organize a defense against their
enemies. Mr.. Branson stated that he had been
requested by some friends TO leave Lawrence and
secre. himself or fly, 81 that no one would have
even the semblance of an excuse for attacking
Lawrence. He said he did not wish to involve any
of his friends, and if it was the will of the MAORI
ty he would 60, but he did not want to leave, his
wife, his family and property there unprotected,
and he could 20 home, even if they should muir.
der him, as they had done his friend Dow.