The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-03-10
Our Position.

Our Position.
In our prospectus for the HERALD OF
FREEDOM, issued in June last, and very
liberaIly copied by the press, we defined
the position of eur contemplated journal
in the following language:
"The HERALD OF FREEDOM viii de-
fend the principles of the Declaration of
Independence, together with the compro-
misses Of the Constitution, as understood
by IT'S trainers. In favor of the greatest
area of freedom, it will labor to prevent
the extension of any institution over the
new Territory incompatible Herewith.
With correspondents and
tourists who will report the progress of
the settlements. and observations upon
the fertility of the soil, salubrity of the
climate, and internal resources, the editor
feels confident that his paper will be a
welcome visitant in every family, and
serve as guide to the emigrant in seek
ing new home in the West"
In the leading article, published in the
first number of the paper, in October
last, we said further:
"Our great object is to make Kansas
a free State; and to that end we shall
labor by encouraging emigration. 1t is
not our purpose to engage in crusade
against our southern brethren, nor upon
Administrations, so long as asconfned with
in their legitimate sphere. Our field is
KANSAS, and here we shall labor, and
here shall erect anew the altar of LIB
ERTY."
OF that number of the HERALD twenty
one thousand copies. instead of twenty
thousand, as enormously stated in the
first number, was published and scattered
broadcast over the country and every
one who read it, if he possessed common
intelligence, must have understood our
position, which was :" to make Kansas
free State,' y and the means to be employ
ed was to induce a heavy emigration of
people from the non-slaveholding States
to settle here; and not doubling but
their proclivities were all for freedom,
the issue would be decided properly
Faithful to our position, we have labored
on from week to week, giving a descrip-
ton of the face of the country, its pro-
gress, soil, climate, productions, and
whatever we thought was truthful which
would make it an object with our eastern
friends to detach themselves from the
home of their childhood, with all its en-
deared associations, and remove thither
Whenever we have found occasion to
speak of slavery, We have done so frankly
and fearlessly; and not a number has yet
gone abroad which had not the impress
OF opposition to the peculiar institution"
on its pages. As such it has been Sc
yerely assailed by the southern press,
and is constantly stigmatized as an CAB
clifton sheet"
We have received letters from all sec
tions of the North, complimenting the
paper, and thanking us for our firm po-
sition in favor of the right. Not these
alone, but the anti-slavery press of the
East have invariably, SO far as has come
to our knowledge, given us words of
cheer. We have over fifteen hundred
notices of the paper from every section
of the country; and all which have taken
occasion to speak of us in that character,
have alluded to us as thoroughly devoted
to freedom. These notices were not
limited to the first number alone, but to
subsequent issues, as We have shown by
liberal extracts from the columns, of our
cotemporaries. and which viii more fully
appear hereafter.
The prominent idea with US has been,
that every northern man who comes into
the Territory of Kansas must necessarily
be in favor Of making it a free State; and
that it was unnecessary for US to go back
to first principles, and discuss those ques
tions with which all are presumed to be
familiar. The press has been laundering
for years against the impolicy, and giant
evil which has prostrated the energies of
the South. Nearly every stump orator
who has declaimedo on political matters has
discussed the question at length. 1t is
the common theme in all the lyceums,
scientific, and even freside circles of the
North and that man who is not adverse
to the wrongs and barbarities inflicted on
the sable sons of Africa, and who has
been educated under northern skies, is
looked upon with suspicious eye. Her
statesmen who have even dared to apollo
gize for the institution have been sacri-
feed. and justly too, upon the altar of
public opinion.
With this state of facts, and writing
for eastern readers, was it necessary that
We should engage in weekly diatribe
against the South9 Would it have been
IN accordance with our prospectus /? or
our leading editorial IN the first number
Of our paper? or what our readers de-
sired ? Would it have been for the best
interest of the cause of freedom in Kan
sas that We should have done so I? To
all of these interrogatories we answerem-
phatically NOT and such win be the re-
sponse of all.
Interested individuals here have repre-
sented Us as proposing to waive a discus
sion of the slavery question. and say that
we have compromised our position on
that subject, and that We are neutral or
conservative. They have published