The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1855-09-15
Kansns---The Suicide of Slavery.

OhihouS dliu WOSC UlSc0ulaglng character
That region is suffering from mildew ant
blight. Its glory is dimmed, its spirits abat
ed, and its hopes fading. .rl
The emigration to Kansas has been en-.
tirely checked Emigrants from the Nor
thern or free States have ceased to go tt
Kansas, because they can find as good lands
, elsewhere, not cursed by mob law or ruled
by nonresident bullies. Emigrants from
the Southern States do not go to Kansas
because they will not put their slave prop
erty in peril, by taking it to Territory
where there is a strong free-soil element,
threatening the security of slaves.
/ Any man of sense might have foreseen the
result. Alabama and Georgia may hold
public meetings, and resolve to sustain the
Shareholders in Missouri in making Kansas a
slave State. But their resolutions comprise
all their aid-which is not material" enough
for the crisis. When Shareholders of Ala
bama and Georgia emigrate, they go to
Louisiana, ARKANSAS and Texas. They do
not come with their slaves to Missouri or to
Kansas. Call they that backing their
friends
Thus the matter stands. The Northern
emigrants shun Missouri and Kansas as
plague spots of the nation. The Southern
emigrants shun Missouri aid Kansas because
here is the battle ground between Slavery
and Free-Soil. '- -.s - I'D.
The result is, Kansas, the fairest land
under the sun, is neglected and idle; occu-
pied only by a few honest and earnest. but
disheartened pioneers, and lorded over by
dozen or two feudal tyrants of Missouri, who
curse by their presence the land they have
desOlated: -,.. -,
Such is Kansas-poor, neglected and des-
piscd-and Western Missouri stands infect
ed by the horrible contagion of outlawry,
atld dwindles away under the moral leprosy
of it's mobocratic leaders. We are assured
by two gentlemen Of high position in West
ern Missouri, but totally differing in political
sentiment-one upholding the oligarchy that
controls the affairs and tramples upon the
peoples sovereignty of Kansas, the other de-
plOring the accursed madness of the day
that matters are gloomy enough in Western
Missouri. Business is dull. Commerce is
stagnant. Money is exceedingly scarce, aid
Il panic pervades the people: The fifty thou
Sand emigrants that ought this season to
haze poured over into Kansas ate hot there.
The prairie sod remains unbroken. The
sound of the axe and the whoop of the hus-
bandman is not heard. Western Missouri
towns are not thronged with settlers buying
their outfits and their equipments of hus-
bandry. The farmers find no market for
their horses, mules, oxen and COWS: There
is no litw attd large trade spiinging up in
Kansas. The much vaunted Kansas towns
lie neglected. mockcry to their owners and
a laughing stock for all men. "Dead-dead
dead" may be written on all the country,
90 deep and disastrous has been the fIlf from
the high and fond hopes of the past year:
In May last the editor of the Intelligent
Ger was in Kentucky, and he met numerous
of the most respectable and wealthy farmers
of that State, such as form so large por-
ton of the population of Missouri, who in
quircd earnestly about the condition of
things in Kansas attd in Western Missouri.
They spoke of the intention they had of re-
moving to Kansas or Western Missouri, but
said they had abandoned it utterly, for the
reason that they would never think of taking
their families to region where law was set
aside, presses mobbed, and men driven ftom
the cd'l'ltry by irresponsible ard unknown
baiids Of regulators. They preferred the
rule of law to anarchy. In a recent trip
through several Southwestern States we
found that the same circumstances were
most industriClisly and fatally used to divert
emigrants to those States, ard to prejudice
Missouri and Kansas with every class of
people. The most aggravating stories of in
suits and Outragcs committed by Missou-
rians on the persons of emigrants from the
old world or the Free States, who are fouiid
ascending the Missouri River, are circulated
in the newspapers all through the Free
! States; and it is impossible to conceive of
| the deep hatred thus generated toward our
whole State in the northern part Of our
Union. -.
Between these fires Missouri is leading on
her languid existence. St. Louis is retarded
in a most wOeful way. Our railroads creep
at snaiPs pace. We build ten miles while
Western States build one hundred. In every
department of life we feel the paralysis. In
stead of bounding forward, buyant, strong
and rejoicing, we sit with dull eyes, and
heavy spirits, and listening to the tick of a
| death watch.
These are the bitter fruits of the repeal of
the Missouri Compromises wicked and
wrongful deed-that will yet bring hell of
bitter selfreproaches to its authors. Mis-
soufi did not demand that repeal. The
South never asked it. Atchison solicited
it-and in a moment of political insanity the
South consented to the wrong, and made the
wrong her own. lnlS Was Cnc SUICIDE OF
slavery.
Every step since then has deepened the
wrong and enhanced the danger. The Free
States organized Aid Societies aid sent their
men to make Kansas free. 1t had been free
soil by solemn compact for thirty five years,
and they naturally were incensed to see its
character changed. The South would have
been far more if slave territory had been
thus, by an unexpected act of Congress, con-
verted into free soil.
The Free States had right to be indignant
that lifelong compromise had been repealed
and they had right to keep Kansas free
as it had been, by peaceful colonization. They
attempted nothing else. But portion of the
citizens of Missouri headed by AtchisOn and
Stringfellow, denounced the Northern emf
grants as "paupers and hirelings," because
they were sent West with the money of q
society; and so they had county meetings in
Missouri and raised money and sent Nilsson
rians to Kansas to make Kansas Slave Ter
ritory Were these Missourians, "hirelings'
too? And did these two wrongs make one
right ?
Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Mis-
souri, followers overwhelmed the settlers il
Kansas, browbeat and bullied them, and tool
the government from their hands,. Missouri
votes elected the present body of men, who
insult public intelligence and popular right.
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