Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-08-02
From the n. Y. Tribune.
LETTER FROM THE STATE PRISONERS.
CAMP OF Y. 5. CAVALRY, NEAR LEcoMPToN, I
KANSAS, Monday, July 7, 1856.

NNAhh WV
KANSAS, Monday, July 7, 1856.
! Col. f. V. SUMNER-Dear Sir: In my converse
tion with you on the 9th inst, relative to the GU
rage at Topeka on tho 4th, and the general part
san character of the General Government, | il
tended to cast no reflection or censure upon you,
self as as officer under orders. On the contrary
/, 1 have reason to believe that, in this last net )
e the tragedy, as in all others, you have stiictl
3 obeyed the orders Of your superior, the Commun
, ld~cr-in.Chief, and could not have done otherwise
unless you had acted either against orders or with
out them, or have resigned your commission.
. Whatever judgment the people Of Kansas o.
the country may pass upon the conduct Of the ad
minlstrat0rs OF Government, or l should rather
say, administrators Of outrage, in Kansas, all par
ties must concede to you, personally, the charac
ter of an honorable, impartial, high-minded ant
efieient %olicer; Notwithstanding, in the dis
charge of your official duty, your Supporters incul
the ccnsure Of persons of all shades Of politica
faith.
The causes o f complaint the people of Kansas
have against the President Of the United States
are many and various.
He has appointed officers, Executive and Judi.
cial, for the Territory, who with very few excep.
tions, have cUuUtenanced aud aided the foreign in.
vasion OF the ballvt-box, and the foreign mobs,
robberies, murders, fire and sword, preying upon
the bona fde settlers Of Kansas. The President
himself refused to interpose for our protection,
saying he had no power to act in our be half. When
however. his Governor refused, for cause, to re.
cognize the body elected by citizens of Missouri as
the Legislature Of Kansas, and would have made
their enactments a dead letter, the President could
find power to act, and removed him ON a false
charge.
His successor, on his way to the Territory.
told the people of Missouri that no would enforce
the laws OF their Legislature upon the people of
Kansas, and from the first has acted either the
part of q tool Of men in Missouri or q violent par
tisan.
IL n,a.1al Al. Al A.. -.
ing the inequalities of tho citizens, and declining
their invitation to address them as he had done
the people of Missouri.
Last fall, when the people of another State wish.
cd to destroy Lawrence, the Governor OH q pre-.
tense that a difficulty had occurred ten miles south
OF the devoted city, issued his proclamation for his
militia to turn out and eneamp over against the town
which had taken no part in any difficulty, and in
"hieh no legal process of any kind had been at
tempted to be served by the Sheriff, and in which
no crime had been committed.
But Lawrence was the successful rival of Le-
compton, and contained some Free State men with
IN 1T and it must be destroyed, and President
Pierce's Governor must be the instrument Of de-
s%truction. Finding however, the public determin-
Ell to protect themselves from mobs, official Or 9TH
erwise, and having no legal action against the
town or Its citizens, he concluded to wait for a
more convenient season. Where a two.fold object
is to De accomplished, namely the destruction of a
rival town and the crushing out of political oppo.
nents' tie occasion is not long delayed. The Presi-
dent comes TO their aid, (having suddenly learned
that he has power to act,) by a special message
and proclamation Informing the settlers of Kansas.
and the rest of mankind, that he indJrses the
code of the Legislature. elected by the
people OF Missouri and its officers, and whether
legal or rot. the Army and Navy of the United
States and the militia of she several States shall be
employed, IT necessary, to sustain these officers and
Moreover, he more than intimates that it
WOULD not be he ont of character IN have Soma in |
dictments found for treason.
This is sufficient authority for oil that follows.
A regiment of suitable characters is enrolled in
the extreme South, armed, it is said with Bibles
aud ARRIVES just in time to be enrolled as the mil
tia of the Territory, are to lie used as the posse of
the Marshall and Sheriff.
In the meantime, the Presidents Judge ~instructs
his partisan Jury, selected by the Presidents Mar
shall or his deputy, to indict certain characters for
treason and the like.
The jury, themselves Instruments of the party.
lind true bills against certain persons for treason,
because they resolved to defend themselves and
their families from a mob; and against the hotel
at Lawrence as a nuisance, because its walls not
then complete, had sheltered some people while
preparing to defend themselves from mob violence
and because Lecompton had no hotel as good; and
against the newspapers of Lawrence, also as nui-
sances, because they justified the people in their
preparations for self.delense, and because they
exposed the villainy Of the Presidents la VS. and
officials, aud also they were an evidence Of pros.
perity which ~Lecumpton could not brook in q rival
town. This much accomplished, now for his exc.
cution.
The arrest of those indicted for treason is an
easy matter, as no one proposes to resist any pro.
in the hands of the Marshal, EXCEPT in the
case OF Gov. Reeder, who pleads his privilege
rom serving as a witness before tho Jury on &C.
count oil bis being q contestant for a seat in Con-
,ress.
Ills declining 20 recognize the right of the Mar.
hal to take him frum the Committee of Congress
IN such an errand. was seized upon as a suf6-
ient excuse for calling on all the people of the
Ierritory to assemble once more against Law
'ence.
Ihe southern regiment a:e on hand, and the
,eIPie Ut Missouri once more cross the line, wait
lpon the Marshal and the Governor, receive the
arms, are enrolled as militia or posse
and mme operations. All horses
md other property of Free State men are pressed
nto service (which means stolen or prondered in
.heir language and the motley army proceed TO
against the remonstrance and protests
# all good citizens. who volunteered to secure the
service IT any legal process in their town, if this
o'dy OF armed depredators could be kept away
6ut this would not answer there were certain
hings to be done that even the Governor and Mar
hal did not dare say were legal, and to this end
he mob must be taken into town.
All is quiet in town before the Marshal enters.
lie appears with q few men, arrests his prisoners.
s he had been doing for several da-s before.
without opposition. and then suddenly leaves
lis posse. under the direction of the Sheriff, who
$ Endorsed in the message and proclamation of J
he President. then enter, disarm the people
the envied hotel and burn it to the ground
lestroy two printing presses. type and Office.
burn a private dwelling, and pillage the
own.
This done the cirH posse is dismissed into guer. 9
la bands that infest the Territory like the plaques
Egypt, committing all manner of thefts, robbcr.
49, murders and other outrages upon the Free
tate settlers. and it is not till the people. driven
} desperation, take vengeance into their own
ands, and commence a like warfare upon this
armed er posse that the President or
Is appointees find any occasion for r~estraing the 7
illainy of their friends and partisans.
All this time, every Free State man suspected,
r even charged with an offense without sus picion