The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-05-26
Further anormities by the Western
$500 -Ss.sz@ 9n~ages

1 <SA~8bC9s
To-day we publish an account from
| Missouri paper of certain remarkable pro-
leeedings which were had lately at Park
vile, in the northwestern part of Mis-
sour. The violence and robbery COM
mitted, and the preparations for deliber-
ate murder, form . fitting sequel to the
late exploits of the Missourians in Kansas.
! Justice, like charity, should begin at
home. It is not worth while to make a
fgreat outcry about wrongs committed on
American citizens abroad, while theciyil
authority fails to protect American citi-
zens from far greater wrongs In their own
country. If the lives Of our own coun-
Itrymen are not safe here-if their person
iaf liberty is not respected-if their prop
erty may be pillaged by conspiracy,
and the plotters remain unpublished and
the outrage unredressed-with what face
can. we require other countries to abstain
from treating in like manner such of
our ccuntrymen as they may find on their
soil? How can we ask them to respect
rights which we do. not respect our
selves? They may turn upon US and
say: GLOW is it that you demand diff
ferent measure of justice from that which.
you give? We have only tseatedi your
citizens more mildly and less arbitrarily
than you treat them yourselves %
Thus there is no crime, no act of rob-
berry or cruelty, not even murder itself.
at which these wretches are to stop in the
prosecution of their intent 10 prevent
Kansas from adopting free constitution
All respect for law, for the principles of
natural justice, for the dictates of human
ity, for the Gsages of civilized life, is to.
be trampled under foot, and nothing is to-
be held sacred from outrage that inter
feres with their purpose. The acts of
these plotters against the freedom of
Kansas are the great national sins of the
day, and the foulest blot on the morals
and honor of the nation. In all the abom-
Unable acts of oppression committed by
the despotisms of the old world, there is
nothing more tyrannical in spirit, and
scarce anything SO atrociously brutal in
act.
1t was hard case, certainly. that DR..
Peck, an innocent man, according to his
own statement, should have been arrested
by the Spanish authorities of Cuba on
suspicion of reasonable practices; it was
hard, that after his release he should not
be allowed to reside and mend teeth in
the city of Puerto Principe, where all
his acquaintance lived and we do not
wonder that he chose to leave the island
rather than live anywhere else. He was
not, however, pitched into any of the,
rivers of Cuba. nor stripped of his prop
erty, nor threatened with being hanged
by the neck if he did not leave the island
Immediately The condition affixed TO-
his liberation, that he should not continue
to make his home in Puerto, Principe.
was not accompanied by. the threat that
| if any others of his eountrymen should
have the hardihood to visit Puerto Prin-
cipe, they should suffer an ignominious
punishment for the first offence, and
death for the second. If the Spanish au-
thorities had behaved half as arbitrarily
and atrociouslY in his case as the organ
lied Atchison faction has done in that of
Park and Patterson, the whole country
would have been in a fame of indigna-
ton, from the Mexican frontier to the
Canadian.
Let US attend to the worst cases first,
and as these happen to be nearest to US,
we can most conveniently give them our
attention. When the rights of the
American citizen are saeredly respected
on the soil of his ewn. country, our sensi-
tiEeness to foreign. insults will appear
more natural and reasonable. We do
not wish to degrade SO grave subject by
any trivial allusion, but all civil govern
ments should. remember. in. consulting
for the safety of their subjects, that their
is great truth in thc-old nursery ryhme.
| If you would keep them safe abroad,
| Pray keep them safe at home.-
w y EgeniD0 Past