The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-06-04
THE KANSAS TROUBLES.

The following sensible article we cut
from the Nc,o York Observer, a stand
ard religious paper, in regard to the diff
~iculties in Kansas, and the true causes
that have led to these difficulties. The
people are beginning to see where the
trouble originates, and for what object,
and the reaction against these disorgan-
izing abolition iDtensifyers, will be with
ten fold against them
SHOOTING THE SHERIFF.
On our first page we have copied tho
statement of the circumstances under
which Sheriff Jones was shot in Kansas.
We have not at tho time of writing
heard that he is dead but no hopes are
entertained of his recovery. There is a
fearful lesson in this assassination, and
one that ought to be needed by those
men who are giving rifles to the Kansas
c~olonists. What if this Sheriff was not
shot by a rifle? He was shot by a man
who believed himself justified in assas-
sinating an officer who had come into his
nelghborhood to execute the laws of the
United States. Prof. Silliman and Mr..
Dutton may disavow having given any
advice that can be constructed into en-
couraging men to violence, (Mr. Beech
err c%annot) but the influence of the rife
meeting at New Haven and of the in
cendiary speeches elsewhere on the same
subject, has been to infame the minds
of the colonists and to prepare them for
deeds of blood. The counsels of these
advocates of the rifle, have not been
peaceful and such as become the gospel.
And if uneducated aud impulsive men in
Kansas, were the restraint oflaw is weak,
are tempted to 60 beyond the advice of
the New Haven meeting, even ID the
murder of a sheriff, who will not say,
that in the eye of heaven a terrible re-
sponsibility rests on those who advise
the Kansas emigrant to go with arms in
his hand, to take possession of the soil of
his own country?
In the New Haven meeting when one
of the donors of rife was announced by
the name of Killam " one of the cler-
gymcu" Henry Ward Beccher] cried
out " KiAans ! that's a signifcant name"
and the walls of the House of God rang
with applause of the Infamous, murder
Gus comment. That single fact was
enough, as it was spread over the villag-
es of newly settled Kansas, to tell the
people that Christian ministers in New
England and Christian people crowding
the churches, were willing to applaud
the sentiment Of Murder.
On the authors of such artricious SEN
timents rests the responsibility of tho
blood hat follows their PRONUNCIATION
The best authorities assured US that
Kansas was becoming quiet, and now the
incendiary appeals of these fanatics in
the east are reaching the west and stir
ring up the people again to deeds of vio-
lence. Thus the cause of freedom is put
in peril. The Free State movement is
liable to be brought into disgrace, by
such atrocities. If the cause Of freedom
is ruined in Kansas and the slave power
gets the ascendancy, the result, which
we do not anticipate, may be fairly
charged to the violence of these Eastern
fanatics, whose measures have provoked
resistance. Peaceful emigration was
sure to make Kansas a free State. We
trust it will yet. But this wicked move
men: to make every c%olonist a soldier
and to prepare him for deeds of blood, is
so unlike the gospel method of promoting
a good cause that it caunot be expected
to prosper.
EE In regard to the assassination
of Sheriff Jones, the Chicago Times
says:
"The assassin chose his hour when
thick darknss hid him from every eye;
and even when thus shrouded he appears
to have lacked the moral courage to look
his victim in the face; for he shot him
in his back. Here we have the practi-
cal results of that military evangel
preached by rifle Beecher and his con-
federate DuttoD. Here we find a poor
misguided unfortunate,-we say unfortu-
nate, for his lot is worse than that of his
victim,-who lacked the courage to be
boldly bad, seeks to 90 the Emigrant
Aid Society some service, and of aiding
the cause in the prosecution of which he
undoubtedly went forth with a Bible in
one hand and a rife in the other, by
committing a secret assassination of
a man upon whose face, even while linn
ing at his life, he dared not look. The
caitiff must have strengthened his hand
and steadied his aim, while his pistol
was. wavering over the spine of his vic
tim, by recalling to his mind Parson
buttons sermon. His nerves must have
required such a sedative; and when he
sped the bullet on its fatal errand we
can believe he repeated buttons Scrip
ture quotation" sword of the Lord and
Gideon" If the doctrine of resistance
to the legal powers of the land be not
only taught in high places with impuni-