The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-05-29

numbers than General Taylor commanded at
| Buena Vista, or than General Jackson had with
| in his lines at New Orleans-larger far than our
fathers rallied on Bunker Hill. On they came as
an army with banners" organized in compa-
| MES, with officers munitions, tents, and provis-
| ions, as though marching upon foreign foe
| and breathing loud-mouthed threats that thew
would carry their purpose, if need be, by the
bowie-knife and revolver. Among them, accord
| ing to his own confession, was David R. Atchi-
| son, belted with the vulgar arms of his vulgar
comrades. Arrived at their several destinations
on the night before the election, the invaders
pitched their tents placed their sentres, and
waited for the coming day. The same trust
worthy eyewitness, whom | have already quo
ted, says, of one locality:
| "Baggage-wagons were there, with and ammun-
ton enough for protracted yht and among them two
brass ready charged They with drums
beating and hags flying. and their leaders OF the
most prominent and conspicuous men Of their State"
OF another locality he says:
The invaders together in one armed and organ
lied body with trains OF fifty wagons besides horseme
anu the night before election pitched their camp in the
vicinity OF the polls; and, having appointed their own
judges in place who from intimidation or other
WISE failed to attend they voted without proof Of
residence"
With this force they were able, on the sue
ceeding day, in some places, to intimidate the
judges of elections; in others, to substitute
judges of their own appointment; in others, to
wrest the ballot-boxes from their rightfu possess
| sors, and everywhere to exercise a complete
control of the election, and thus, by prefer
natural audacity of usurpation impose Legis-
lature upon the free people of Kansas. Thus was
conquered the Sevastopol of that Territory
But it was not enough to secure the Legisla-
ture. The election of a member of Congress re-
CURED on the I'd October, 1855, and the same
foreigners, who had learned their strength, again
manifested it. Another invasion, in controlling
numbers, came from Missouri, and once more
forcibly exercised the electoral franchise in Kan
| sas
| At last, in the latter days of November, 1855
a storm, long brewing burst upon the heads of
| the devoted people. The ballot-boxes had been
violated and Il Legislature installed, which had
proceeded to carry out the conspiracy of the in
vaders but the good people of the Territory
born to Freedom, and educated as American citi-
zenS, showed no signs of submission. Slavery,
though recognised by pretended law, was in
many places practically an outlaw. To the law
less borderers this was hard to bear and like the
Heather of old, they ragged, particularly against
the town of Lawrence, already known, by the
frmness of its principles and the character of
its citizens, as the citadel of the good cause. On
| this account they threatened, in their peculiar
| language, to 'wipe it out" Soon the hostile
power gathered for this purpose. The wick
edness of this invasion enhanced by the way
in which it began. A citizen of Kansas by the
name of Dow, was murdered by one of the par
tisans of Slavery, under the name of q law and
order" Such outrage naturally aroused in
dignation and provoked threats. The professors
of " 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 wickedness, be-
fo-
The weak Governor, with no faculty higher than
servilty to Slavery-whom the President in his
official delinquency, had appointed to a trust
worthy only OF Ia we'll balanced character-was
frightened from his propr;ety. Ely proclamation
he invoked the Territory. BY telegraph he in
voked 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 JEFF
ferson, each of them, contributed a volunteer
company, recruited from the road sides, and
armed with weapons which chance afforded
known as the " shotgun militia Mis-
| souri, officer as commSsary general dispensing
rations, 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 of
cannon, belonging to the United States, from its
arsenal at Liberty and this formidable force
amounting to at least 300 men, terrible with
threats, with oaths and with whisky, crossed the
borders, and encamped in larger part at Wache-
rusa, 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 sent to pro-
| tect. In camp with him was the original Gait
line of the conspiracy, while by his side was the
| docile Chief Justice and the docie Judges. But
this is not the first instance in which 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 exclams, in words strictly APP
| plicable to the misdeed now arraign, " Had he
| not the Chief Justice, the tanned and domestica-
| ted Chief Justice, who waited on him like a ia
milar spirit" Thus was this invasion connte-
nanced by those who should have stood in the
breach against it. For more than a week it con-
timed, while deadly conflict seemed imminent.
| | do not dwell On the heroism by which it was
encountered, or the mean retreat to which it was
compelled for that is not necessary to exhibit
| the Crime which you are to judge. But cannot
forbear to add other additional features furnish
| ed in the letter of a clergyman written at the
time, who saw and was q part of what he de-
scribes;
"our citizens have been shot and
nnurdrso our houses invaded rcks burnt and
other provisions pundered cattle driven Oft all commu-
nica,ion cut off between and the States The
way 10 US with PROVISIONS stopped and pCndered and the
drivers taken prisoners and in hourly expectation of
an attack Nearly has been ia IN the rii-
tags Forhcaions have been thrown up, by incessant
labor night and day The sound OF the drum and the
tramp of armed men resoundes through streets fam
lies fleeing tc their household goods saf,ty Day be-
fore yesterday The report of cannon was he nj our
house, from the direction of Lecompon Last Thgrsday
of ncighbors-one of the able and ex-
cellent of men, from Ohioon his way home set upon
by gang of twelve men horseback, and shot down
Over eight hundred gathered under at Law
renee As yet no act of Violence has been penetrated
by those on our side No blood of retaliation
hands we stand and GRE really ae purely in The defence
Of our homes and iUtsn
But the catalogue is not yet complete On the
18th OF December, when the people assembled
to vote on the Constitution then submitted for
adoption-only few days after the Treaty of
Peace between the Governor on the one side and
the town of Lawrence on the other-another and
nth Eruption was made. But leave all this
untold. Enough of these details has been given
Five several times and more have these invaders
entered Kansas in armed array and thus i've sew
eral times and more have they trampled upon the
organic law of the Territory. But these extra
ordinary expeditions are simply the extraordinary
witnesses to successive uninterrupted violence
They stand out conspicuous, but not alone The
spirit of evil, in which they had their origin, was
wakeful and incessant. From the beginning, II
hung upon the skirts of this interesting Territory
narrowing its peace, disturbing its prosperity,
and keeping its inhabitants under the painful
alarms OF war. Thus was all Security of person,
OF property, and OF labor, overthrown; and when
| urge this incontrovertible fact | set forth 2
wrong which is small only by the side Of the giant
wrong, for the consummation of which ali this
was done. Sir, what is man-what is govern
ment-without security in the absence of which,
nor man nor government can proceed in develop
ment or enjoy the fruits of existence Without