Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-08
The Bitter Fruits The suicide of slavo,,,

"AoVery.
The following remarkable article is takon
from the st. Louis InteHigenoer. Il is -
markable as the expression of opinion of
leading commercial journal of one of the looI
ing slave states. 1t is one of the signs Of II.
times, worthy Of inspection.
Our news from Western Missouri is Of 49,.
nous and most diseouraging character Tq" I-
region is suffering from mildew and bligbt
Its glory is dimmed, its spirits abated and i.
hopes fading.
The emigration to Kansas has been ent;ror.
checked. Emigrants from the nortborn
free states have ceased to 90 to Kansas ~ VI
cause they can find as good lands elsewboro
not cursed by mob law nor ruled by nom:
dent bullies. Emigrants from the somtto.r
states do not go to Kansas, because thew wHi
not put their slave property in peril, by takina
it to a territory where there is a strong freeo.
soil element, threatening the security of slaves
Any man of sense might have forseen tLo
result, Alabama and Georgia may hold nublio
meetings, and resolve to sustain the slayeLoIJ
ers in Missouri in making Kansas a slave stata
But their resolutions comprise all their aid
which is not g. material" enough for the cr5,
When shareholders of Alabama and Georg;s
emigrate, they go to Louisiana, Arkansas, and
Texas. They do not come with their slaves
to Missouri or Kansas. Call they that back,
ing their friends
Thus the matter stands. The northern
emigrants shun Missouri and Kansas as pIaone
spots of the nation. The southern emigrantS
shun Missouri and Kansas, because here is the
battle-ground between slavery and ~freesoil.
The result is, Kansas, the fairest land IN.
der the sun, is neglected and idle /; occupied
only by a few honest and earnest but disheart-
ened pioneers, and lorded over by a dozen or
two feudal ~tyrants of Missouri, who curse bv
their presence the land they have made desc
late.
Such Is kansas-pOOr, neglected and des-
~pised-and Western Missouri stands infected
by the horrible contagion of outlawry, and
dwindles away under the moral leproSy of its
mobocratic leaders. We are assured by two
gentlemen of high position in Western Mis-.
souri,, but totally differing in political sent
ment-one upholding the oligarchy that con.
trolls the affairs and tramples upon the people,
sovereignty of Kansas, the other deploring the
accursed madness of the day-that matters
are gloomy enough in Western Missouri
Business is dull. Commerce is stagnant-
Money is exceedingly scarce, and a panic per.
vades the people. The fifty thousand emigrauts
that ought this season to have poured over in.
to Kansas are not there. The prairie sod re.
mains unbroken. The sound of the axe and
the whoop of the husbandman is not heard
Western Missouri towns are not thronged with
settlers buying their outfits and their cQuir-
ments of husbandry. The farmers find no
market for their horses, mules, oxen and COWS.
There is no new and large trade springing I'd
in Kansas. The much yaunted Kansas towns
lie neglected. mockery to their owners and
a laughing stock for all men. "Dead-dead
dead may be written on all the countrv-
so deep and disastrous has been the fall from
the high and fond hopes of the past year.
In May last the editor of the IataHgeam
was in Kentucky, and he met numerous of the
most respectable and wealthy farmers of that
state, such as form so large a portion of the
population of Missouri, who inquired earnest
ly about the condition of things in Kansas and
in Western Missouri. They spoke of the in
t~ention they had of removing to Kansas Or
Western Missouri, but said they had abandon
ed it utterly, for the reason that they would
never think of taking their families to re-
gion where law was set aside, presses mobbed
and men driven from the country by i~rreSp0n-
sible and unknown bands of regulators. They
preferred the rule of law to anarchy. Ina
recent trip through several northwestern states
we found that the same circumstances We're
most industriously and fatally used to divert
emigration to those states, and to prejudice
Missouri and Kansas with every class Of PEG
pie. The most aggrayating stories of insults
and autrarpS committed Inv NiSSpuPianS nm the
persons of emigrants from the old world or
from the free states, who are found ascending
the Missouri river, are circulated in the news
papers all through the free states and it is
impossible to conceive of the deep hatred thus
generated towards our whole state in the north
ern half of the Union.
Between these fires Missouri is leading on
her languid existence. st. Louis is retarded
in a most woeful way. Our railroads creep
at snaiFs pace. We build ten miles while 9th
er western states build one hundred, In every
department of life we feel the paralysis. lF
stead of bounding forward, buoyaut, strong
and rejoicing, We sit with dull eyes and heavy
spirits, and listen to the tick of a deathwatcA
These are the bitter fruits of the repeald
the Missouri Compromise wicked and wrong
ful deed-that will yet bring a he'll of bitter
self-reproaches to its authors. Missouri did
not demand that repeal. The South never
asked it. Atchison solicited it-and in a mo-
ment of political insanity the South consented
to the wrong, and made the wrong her OWL
This was the suicide of slavery.
Euery step since taken has deepened the
wrong and enhanced the danger. The lIe
states organized Aid Societies, and sent Their
men to make Kansas free. 1t had been Tree
soil by solemn compact for thirty-fye years
and they naturally were incensed to see rs
character changed. The South would Ia"
been far more indignant if a slave territory
had been thus, by an unexpected act of C"f
greSS, been converted into free soil.
The free states had a right to be Indignant