Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-07-26
Letter from .ho State Prisoners.
CAMP OF U. S. CAVALRY, NEAR LEcoMPToN,
KANSAS, Monday, july 7, 1856.

Letter from the State Prisoners,
CAMP OF U. ). CAVALRY, NEAR LECoMPToN, ]
KANSAS, Monday, July 7, 1856.
Col. E. V. SUMNER--Dear Sir: In my con
versation with you on the 9TH inst, relative to
the outrage at Topeka on the 4th, and the gen.
eral partisan character of the general govern
ment, | inter ded to cast no reflection or GEN.
sure upon yourself as an officer under orders
On the contrary, have reason to believe that
in this last act of the tragedy, in all others,
you have strictly obeyed the orders of your
superior, the Commander in Chief, and could
not have done otherwise, unless you had acted
either against orders or without them, or have
resigned your commission.
Whatever judgment the people of Kansas
or the country may pass upon the conduct of
the administrators OF Governmental l should
rather say, administrators of outrage, in Kan
sas. all parties must concede to you, PERSONAL
", the character Of an honorable, impartial,
high minded and efficient officer; notwtth
standing, in the discharge of your official duty,
your superors incur the censure of persons Of
all shades of political faith.
The causes of complaint the people Of Kan
sas have against the President of the United
States are many and various.
He has appointed officers, Executive and
Judicial, for the Territory, who, with very
few exceptions, have countenanced and aided
the foreign invasion of the ballot box, and the
foreign mobs, robberies, murders, fire and
sword preying upon the bona fide settlers of
Kansas. ne President himself refused to in.
terpose for our protection, saying he had no
power to act in our behalf. When, however,
his Governor refused, for cause, to recognize
the body elected by citizens of Missouri as the
Legislature of Kansas, and would have made
their enactments dead letter, the President
could find power to act, and removed him on
false charge.
His successor, on his way to the Territory,
told the people of Missouri that he would en-
force the laws of their Legislature upon the
people of Kansas, and from the first Las acted
either the part of a tool of men in Missouri or
a violent partisan.
lie avoided the settlers of the Territory, re-
fusing the Inequalities of the citizens, and
declining their invitation to address them as
he had done the people of Missouri.
Last fall, when the people of another State
wished to destroy Lawrence, the Governor, on
a nretenna that I:na-~l&5- l>s,d vVouII1u Ten
miles south of the devoted city, issued his
proclamation for his militia to turn out and
eneamp over against the town, which had ia
ken no part in any difficulty, and in which
no legal process of any kind had been attempt
ed to be served by the sheriff, and in which
no crime had been committed.
But Lawrence was the successful rival of
Lecompton, and contained some Free State
men within it, and 1t must be destroyed, and
President Pierees Governor must be the in.
strument of destruction. Finding, however,
the public determined TO protect themselves
from mobs, official or otherwise, and having
no legal action against the town or its citi.
zens, he concluded to wait for more conve-
nient season. When two-fold object is to
be accomplished, namely, the destruction of
rival town, and the crushing out of political
opponents, the occasion is not long DELAYED.
The President comes 10 their aid, (having sud-
denly learned that he has power to act,) by
special message and proclamation, informing
the settlers of Kanzas, and the rest of man.
kind that he Endorses the Draconian code of
the Legislature, elected by the people of Mis-
souri,; and its officers, and whether legal or
not, the army and navy Of the United States,
and the militia of the several States shall be
employed, ii necessary, to sustain these Off
GERS and laws. Moreover, he more than in
Inmates tnat it would not be out of character
to have some indictments found for treason,
This is sufficient authority for all that fol.
lows. regiment of suitable characters is
enrolled in the extreme South armed, it is said.
bowie knives, &c., and arrives lust in time TO
be enrolled as the militia of the Territory, and
to be used as the posse of the Marshal aud
Sheriff.
In the mean time, the Presidents Judge
instructs his partizan jury, selected by the
Presidents Marshal, or his deputy, to indict
certain characters for treason and the like.
The jury, themselves instruments of the
party, find 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 nui
sance, because its walls, not then complete.
had sheltered some people while preparing to
defend themselves from mob violence, and be.
cause Lecompton had no hotel as good and
against the newspapers of Lawrence, also as
nuisanees, because they justified the people in
their preparations for self defence, and exposed
the villalny of the Presidents laws and Off
GERS, and also they were an evidence of pros
perity which Lecompton could not brook in q
rival town. This much accomplished, now
for the execution.
The arrest of those indicted for treason, is
an epsy matter, as no one proposes to resist
any process in the hands Of the Marshal, ex-
cept in the case of Gov. Reeder, who pleads
his privilege from serving as a witness before
the jury on account of his being contestant
for seat in Congress.
Ills declining to recognize the right of the
Marshal to take him from the Committee of
Congress on such an GRAND, was seized upon
as sufficient excuse for calling ON all the
people OF the Territory to assemble once more
against Lawrence.
The Southern regiment are on hand, and
the people Of Missouri once more cross the
line, wait upon the Marshal and the Cover.
nor,reeeive the Government arms, are enrolled
as militia or posse comitatus. and commence
operations. All horses and other property Of
Free"State men are pressed into service (Which
means stolen or plundered in their language,
aud the motley army proceed to Lawrence,
: against the remonstrance and protests OF all
good citizens, who volunteered TO secure the
service of any legal process in their town, If
this body of armed depredators could be kept
away. But this would not answer: there
were certain things to be done that even the
Governor and Marshal did not dare say wore
legal, and to this end the mob must be taken
into town.
All IL quiet in town before the Marshal en-
tiers. He appear with few men, arrests his
prisoners. as he had been doing for several
days before, without opposition, and then sud.
denly leaves. His posse, under the direction Of
the Sheriff, who is Endorsed in tho message