Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-06-11
CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS.


country at last In the midst of an era
of prosperity, peace and happiness as un-
precedented as it was auspicious, when
the great republic required nothing but
repose and good government TO enable
it to achieve most brilliant destiny, the
incendiary acts of political demagogues
lighted the flames of sectional diacord,
and they now present the threatening
blaze ofcivil war The act which Doug
las and Pierce had exalted into sort
of second declaration of independence,
has produced at length the results which |
discerning men foresaw from the begin
ming. That which was claimed as a tri-
umph of the right of self-government
has proved nothing more than the priv
ilege of misunderstanding patent of
an oligarchy as foul and brutal as ever
disgraced the annals of nation.
Under one guise and another, the ma.
tional government has labored as siren
uously to prevent the settlement of north
ern men in Kan as as it was possible to
do. 1t has removed its own faithful
officers at the behest of Adventures who
rejoice in the titles of ruffians and out
laws, and appointed in their stead the
most contemplate tools of OPPRESSION
1t has seen without emotion the invas.
ion of Kansas by armed bands, their
seizure of the voting polls and ballot
boxes. and their expulsion of the proper
officers of elections. 1t has seen whole
legislature virtually chosen by persons
not residing in the terriIory', and has lent
its power 10 enforce usurpation. 1t has
endeavored by its own official organ to
defend and bolster up the character
of that legislature and its acts-acts so
atrocious and abominable that the South
itself has recoiled from them. 1t has
seen with apparent satis:actio ministers
of the gospel, guilty of no other of-
fence than attachment to the principles
Of civil freedom, seized by the same in.
Vaders, tarred and feathered, and other
wise shamefully maltreated. 1t has
heard unU:oved the tidings of citizens be-
ing murdered on their own lands, for no
other crime than asserting their own
rights. 1t has seen an army, gathered
in Missouri, march across the border for
the avowed purposes of pillage and out
rage, and pretend to consided it the legal
militia of the territory.
Accumulated wrongs have, been insult.
feient to extort from the Administration
a single effort for the defence of the peo-
bic of Kansas. 1t has persisted in be-
lieving civil war impossible, while al
most every man out of Washington has
been looking for it as certain. Leading
journals of all parties, south as well as
north, have confidently predicted this
result. But it was in vain. The Ad-
ministration was determined to remain
deaf, dumb and blind to everything in
Kansas or concerning it. And now the
war has come. An army of outlaws,
shielded by the name and authority of
The United States government, has laid
seige to the largest, most populOus and
prosperous town in Kansas. The word
has gone from mouth to mouth openly
that Lawrence is to be razed to the
ground, and not one house left standing
to mark the place of its existence. The
United States Marshal is the commander
Of the forces who threatens this, and his
act it must be presumed is approved by
President Pierce and his Cabinet.
Yet this same President Pierce is ask
ing from the northern Safes, who alone
have the power, that he shall be re-
nominated as the Democratic candidate.
He has abolished Democracy in Kansas.
He has arrayed himself on the side of
oligarchy and oppression. and yet has
the effrontery to ask the Democratic free
men of the north, whom he has sought
to deprive Of their territorial rights, to
give him four more years TO insult and
defy them. We can, unfortunately, do
nothing more than point TO the dread
scene which is being enacted in the
West, and mourn for the fate of the coun-
try. There never was a crisis in our
national affairs which called for more
patience and forbearaRce on the part of
our citizens than the present. The pow
OF the Administration is great, but thank
God, there is a limit to it. And the
hour is fast arriving. when, in the exer-
else Of privilege denied to the freemen
of Kansas, We shall be enabled to brand
as unfit for trust the trickstcrs who have
been pushing us to the verge of civil war.
But will they who have done this recOg-
nize now the danger Of the work in which
they have been engaged? Will they
even at this late hour attempt to repair
the mischief they have occasioned? 1t
were in vain to hope it, North ABaeri
can.
WE ridicnle others for their fears and