The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-10-25

ii. With fanatical aggression on Missouri,
with the intention of putting the torch to the
dwellings and the knife to the throats of its
people.
III. With sending persons to Kansas who do
not intend to remain there, but who go only to
interfere with and control the actual settlers.
1t is easy for US to show the entire falsehood
of every one of these charges.
| l. To the charge of recruiting armies and
hiring fanatics to go to Kansas" our answer is
very simple. We have never hired man to go
there, or paid the passage of single emigrant.
| Every settler who has gone out under our aus
pices has himself provided the means for his
passage.
| 1t is possible that you in Missouri may not
have before observed how large is the regular
emigration from New England to the new States
of the West. Every year, the sons and daugh-
tiers of the Northern States, in numbers to,be
counted by tens of thousands, choose to emf
CRATE to those more fertile regions They do
not want or need to be "hired" They go
with their own means, and make their own selec-
ton of a new home.
The favorable accounts which reached us of
the soil and climate of Kansas, and the advan-
tsges which it offers to the settler, turned the
attention of thousands of such emigrants to that
Territory. They resolved to 90 there, and were
best means of going and forming permanent
settlements in that country.
| The fact that such persons were willing to
| go, rendered it possible to form this company,
whose object is to facilitate their organization,
render their journey easy and safe, and aid
them with its capital, when there, by the cree
ton of mills and hotels, and by the promotion
of such other enterprises as are found conducive
to the common good. We do not hire them.
No company On earth could hire them. 1t
would be more proper to Say that the existence
\ of such men, and their resolution and intention
to 60 to Kansas, created and sustains this
| company.
To speak of such men as "paupers," d" mer-
cenaries," and "hired adventures" is simply
absurd. They are American citizens, who have
the enthusiasm which all their countrymen have
for colonizing new regions, and bringing them
under the sway of man.
They carry with them their education, their
skill, their money. They are erecting in Kan
| sas their steam engines, their machine ahops.
their factories of wood, paper, iron, ard all
things useful to men. They have gone there
because they had right there-because they
choose to go-because they had the mems to
| go-and because they believed that in SO doing
| they could better their condition, and perhaps
| do good service to God and man.
That they might 60 conveniently and cheap
| ly, this company has been organized. 1t is one
| of the customs Of New England for men to Or
ganize themselves to work in cooperation for
| any object which they can achieve thus better
than as separate individuals. This is one of our
| institutions to which We are attached and to
which we owe much OF our prosperity.
2. The resolutions of the Convention aharge
| US with " fanatlcal aggression on Missouri
| We have looked in vain for the first detailed
| specification by which this charge can lie sup
ported. 1t is our earnest wish that Il Q emf
| grants who go under our auspices shout main
tain the kindest and most friendly relations with
all whom they meet on their way, whether in
Missouri or any other State We have every
| reason to believe that they have done so. and
until some distinct case of fanatical aggres-
sion Is made out and sustained by the citizens
| of those towns where these emigrants meet your
people, we must entirely deny the truth of the
| charge.
BY the accidental conditions of travel at the
present time, it happens that many of the North.
| ern emigrants pass up the Missouri river, on
| their way to their new homes. Ifthis is griev
| ance to you, it is none the less an inconve
nience to them. 1t lengthens their Journey to
Kansas more than four hundred miles. We
venture to say, however, that they have so borne
| this inconvenience as to give no serious ground
of complaint to those with whom they have had
dealings in your State. So soon as the rapid
advance of the railroads in Iowa permits, they
will be able to shorten the journey materially,
and you may then be relieved from their pres
| ence. Till then, it will be convenient for them
to take your steamboats, up the river, and to
provide themselves with supplies from your mer-
| chants.
| 1t is our belief, however, notwithstanding the
| misrepresentation Of interested parties, that
| the true citizens of Missouri do not feel this
| passage of emigrants from other Sites along
| their magnificent river as any grievai:ce at all
| We believe in the brotherhood of all tbe States
in this Union, and in the hospitality CT the peo-
| pie of Missouri. We are confident they will
| cordially welcome travellers from Ners England
| as citizens of the same great country, and will
bid them God-speed on their way.
3. The remaining charge against us is, that
| of sending persons to Kansas for political OBJ
| jects, who are not bona fde settlers.
The entire I'M Justice of this charge will be
| evident from simple statement of what we
have done and are doing for emigrants in Kan
sas. The whole action of our Company is
| based upon the presumption that they are to
| be and remain there as actual settlers.
Our first object is, to aid emigrants on their
| journey. This we do, not by paying for their
| passage, but by purchasing tickets at wholesale,
and furnishing them to individuals at the act
ual cost; by combining our parties so that
| friends and neighbors can travel together, by
appointing for each party conductor acquaint-
| ed with the route, and by making it for the in
terest of rival railroads to carry them comfort
ably, safely, and cheaply. We thus reduce for
the settler the cost of his journey, guard him
against frauds, and bring him to Kansas with
the utmost expedition.
| On his arrival in NOW tba oh;
difficulty of a settler is the want of capital
| This want is particularly felt in Kansas. One
of the resolutions of the Lexington Convention
expresses regret that the settling of Kansas was
not left to lonely pioneers, like those who set
| tied Ohio and Indiana. We refer you to the
letter of General B. F. Stringfellow to Messrs
Clingman, Brooks, and others, for the opinion
on this point of one who knows that country.
| General Stringfellow assures those gentlemen
that such settlement is impossible; that such
| pioneers as have hitherto leveleG the forests
and broken up the "plains of the West" can
not do the same work in Kansas. His letter
shows that such laborers need the resources OF
capital, and that capital may WEI be embark
ed in assisting them, to the mutusl benefit OF
| all concerned.
So soon as it was evident that fhe westward
emigrants from New England intended to move
in large numbers to Kansas, it became clear
to us that their most urgent need would be for
those improvements which capital, and tina,
only, can supply. They must have, first of all
comfortable houses, school-houses, and church
es. To supply sawed lumber for these, they
must have saw-mills. They must also have no.
tells, bridges, grst-mils, and other conveniences
to secure which their own capital was necessa
rily inadequate. We at once, therefore, con
nected with our undertakings for the assistance
OF emigrants on the way, such investment Of