Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-06-05

recurred on the I'd OF October, 1855, and the
same foreigners, who had learned their strength,
again manifested it Another invasion, in con-
trolling numbers, came from Missouri, and once
more forcbly exercised the electoral franchise
in Kansas.
At last, in the latter days of November, 1855,
storm, long brewing, burst upon the heads of
devoted people. The ballot-boxes had been
violated, and legislature installed, which had
proceeded to carry out the conspiracy of the in
vaders; but the people of the territory, born to
Freedom. and educated as American citizens,
showed no signs of submission Slavery, though
recognised by pretended law, was in many places
ers this was hard to bear; and like the heather
Of old, they ragged, particularly against the
ness of its principles, and the character of it's
citizens, rs the citadel of the good cause. On
this account they threatened, in their peculiar
language, to i" wipe it out" Soon the hostile
power was gathered for this purpose. The
wickedness of this invasion was enhanced by the
way in which it begun. citizen of Kansas,
by the name Of Dow, was murdered by the par
tisans of Slavery, under the name of :" law and
order" Such an outrage naturally aroused in
dignation and provoked threats. The professors
of i" law and order" allowed the murderer to
escape ; and still further to illustrate the irony
of the name they assumed, seized the friend of
the murdered man, whose few neighbors soon
rallied for his rescue.
This transaction, though totally disregarded
in its chief front of wickednoss, became the ex-
cuse for unprecedented excitement. Tho weak
Governor, with no faculty higher than seryility
to Slavery-whom the President, in his official
delinquency, had appointed to a trust worthy
only of well-balanced character-was frighten-
cd from his proprioty. BY proclamation he in
voked the territory. BY telegraph he invoked
the President. The territory would not respond
to his senseless appeal The President was
dumb; but the proclamation was circulated
throughout the border counties of Missouri
and Platte, Clay Carlisle, Sabine, Howard and
Jefferson. each Of them contributed IL volunteer
company, recruited from the road sides, and
armed with weapons which chance afforded
known as " the shotgun mi lliia with ~ Mis-
souri, officer as comnssary- general, dispensing
ratlons, and another Missouri officer as general
in-chief with two wagon-loads of rifles belong
ing to Missouri, drawn by six mules from its
arsenal at Jefferson City with seven pieces be-
longing to the United States, from its arsenal at
Liberty and this formidable force, amounting
to at least 500 men, terrible with threats
with oaths and with whskey, crossed the bor-
ders, and cncamped in larger part at Wacherusa.
over against the doomed town of Lawrence,
which was now threatened with destruction.
With these Invaders was the Governor who
by this act levied war upon the people he was
r sent to protect. In camp with him was the
original Cataline OF the conspiracy, while Ivy
his side wus the docile Chief Justice und the do
. cile Judges. But this is not the first instance
in which an unjust Governor has found tools
where he ought to have found justice. In the
great impeachment Of Warren Hastings, the
British orator, by whom it was conducted, ex-
claims in words strictly applicable to the mis-
deed now arraisn, " Had he not the Chief
Justice, the tanned and domesticated Chief JUS
tice, who waited on him like familiar spirit -
Thus was this invasion countenanced by those
who should have stood in the breach against it.
, For more than week it continued, while dead
ly conflict seemed imminent. do not dwell on
the herosm by which it wills encountered, or the
mean retreat to which it was compelled for
that is not necessary to exhibit the crime which
you are to Judge Bat | cannot lorbear to add
, other additional features, furnished in the letter
Of clergyman, written at the time, who saw
. and was part Of what he describes:
Our citizens have been shot ut, and in tl0o
2 instances murdered: our houses invaded, hay
ricks burned, corn and other provisions plumber
ed, cattle driven off, all communication cut off
between us and the States wagons on the way
to us stopped and Tlundered, and the drivers
, taken prisoners, and we are in hourly expecta-
I ton of an attack. Nearly every man has been,
in arms IN the uWdge Fortihcations have been
thrown up by ncessant labor night and day
@ The sound of the drum and the tramp Of armed
men resounded through our srcets-)GAuHes
Eeeing ,eith ther household goods for Sa(ttY.-
: Day before yesterday the report Of cannon was
heard ut our house, from the direction of Le-
n compton. Last Thursday one of oar neighbors
o. ono of the most peaceablc and excellent OF
4 men, from Ohio-on his way home, was set up
4 on by n gang of twelve men on horseback, and
shot down. Over eight hundred men are gath
r cred under arms at Lawrence. AS yet no act
t Of violence has been perpetrated by those on our
II side. No blood IF retaliation STAINS our hands
We stand and are ready to act purely in defence
e of oar homeS and HreS."
II But the catalogue is not yet complete On the
v 25th of December, when the people assembled
to vote on the Constitution then submitted for
It adoption-only a.few days after the treaty OF
ls peace between the Governor on tho one side and
"a the town of Lawrence on the other another
II irruption was made into this unhappy territory
Il But leave all this untold. Enough Of these
details has been given.
10 Five several times and more have these inva-
It ders entered Kansas in armed array, and thus
70 five times and more have they tramped upor
i the organic law of The territory. But these ex
n traordnary expeditions are simply the extraor
IT dinary witnesses to successive uninterrupted VIC
n lence. They stand out conspicuous but no
ii. r o.H. i. |.
10 their origin, was wakeful and incessant. From
4 the beginning, it hung upon the skirts of thi
o. interesting territory narrowing its peace, dis
g, turbing its prosperity, and keeping its inhabi
" tants under the painful alarms of war, Thu
10 was all security of person, OF property, and O
G. labor, overthrown and when | urgo this in
R. controvertable fact, set forth wrong whic
is is small only by the side of the giant wrong 70
8. the consummaton Of which all this was done.
he Sir, what is man-what is goyornment-witl
n out security; in the absence of which, nor ma
ne nor government can proceed in development, q
iy enjoy the fruits of existence! Without secur
ty, civilization is cramped and dwarfed, Will
nd out security, there can be no true freedom. Nc
nd shall say too much, when [ say that security
. guarded of course by its offspring, Freedom,
gs the true end and aim Of government Of tn
NJ indispensable boon the people of Kansas hay
thus far been dospoiled- totally
All this is aggravated by the nature of the
ed pursuits, rendering them peculiarly sensitive
"a interruption, and at the same time attestin
,c, their Innocence They are for the most part Ell
he gagged in the cultivation of the soil, which fro,
,es time imnemurial has been the sweet employ
or of undisturbcd industry Contented in the T,
Mt turns of bounteous nature and the shade of hi
own trees, the husbandman is not aggressive
10. accustomed to produce, and not to destroy,
he is essential PEACEFUL unless his home is invade
,te when his arm derives vigor from the soil
to reads, and his soul inspiration from the HEAVIER
,s. beneath whose canopy he daily walks.
,te And such are the people of Kansas, who's