The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-07-03
KANSAS TROUBLES.
KANSAS TERRITORY, June l6, 1856

To the Editor Of the National Era:
Clouds and darkness thicken around the fu.
ture of Kansas. The action of Governor Shan
non, in mastering into the United States SER
vice the flibustering companies from the South,
has struck down all confidence among the Free
State people, while it has licensed the other
party to move on in their work of extermina-
ton. The Free State people in Kansas, though
everywhere in the majority, were disposed, for
the present, to submit to the Missouri K ansas
law, when required so TO do by the General
Government, but this is not what is wanted. 1t
is the Territory, and not the TAR, they would
have, and to secure it they are willing, if posi-
BILE, to exterminate the people.
We counsel, we labor to keep down the pas
sions of our people, but we dare not hope much
longer. Oppression will make even wise
man mad )" and a people harassed insulted,
and wrcnged, as have been the Free State set
tiers in Kansas, cannot, without superhuman
ad bear the CALLING yoke much longer. When
a quiet people are driven from the polls, their
laws made for them, made by a neighboring
State, made expressly to Cypress and extermi-
nate them when to these multiplied wrongs is
added the humiliatng insulting, unjust action
of, the General Government, in requiring sub
mission to laws notoriously illegal and when,
out of respect to the authority and power Of the
have flibustering companies from the South
mustered into the United States service, and
thus giving thea a kind of general license to
harass, burn, shoot down, and hunt, like wild
beasts, the actual settlers of the Territory
these evils are insupportable, and will not be
borne, unless speedily checked. When submits
sion itself no longer ssryes as a shield, then
are we on the eve of fearful revolution, Then
public safety unites the masses, and despera.
ton doubly arms them for the fearful struggle.
If the Feder.. poYer had confined its action
to outside interference, tnen Kansas would
have been at rest. The Pro-Slavery party in
the Territory are, and have been, entirely too
Uncomfortable to have enforced their odious
laws. Unaided by others, the laws were mere
dead letters. Missouri could MT have enforced
them, and the party in Kansas would not haze
ATTEMPTED it.
In these circumstances, it isgnatural to in
quire, What will Congress dor VIII they per-
NIT this state of things to continue Will
they, for any consideration, permit the question
to be STAYED off till another term? Can the
question be better settled twelve months hence?
Now, Missouri and the whole South know tic.
tie majority in Kansas are, and haze been, de-
cidedly for Free STATE. There is not an in
telligent man in Missouri but knows the fact.
They knew it, and sent their hundreds ana
thousaaG3 from Missouri to outvote u.s. They
sent their voters hGrc because they knew they
were IN the minority. They seat their numbers
because they knew they were mere nsoleiy
of the people. And, for the same reason, they
now unite with the Federal authority to enforce
laws which could not be enforced ptsslo:,t it.
This is the position of the South. Does any
man doubt it2 Let him examine the facts as
set forth by the Committee of Investigation,
If the South felt that this Territory was not a.
ready gained to Freedom, why have they not
sent their slaves here But cery tesc are in
the Territory. Not three can be found in all
Central or Western Kansas.
Again We ask, What will Congress do? All
eyes are turned to is action. Will they pass
Mr.. Douglass Enabling Act" and thus CON
tinue the excitement, and give Missouri another
opportunity to usurp our rights, and secure
Kansas to the Slave Power? Men accustomed
TO trample on all the rights of the black man,
think it small eriWe to qsurp the political
control OF the white man. Let Congress place
this Territory under martial law-"any rule or
regulation but trust not this infant land to
the action of principle so easily perverted as
the boosted one of Territorial Sovereignty"
Ii.
Ertract Of a letter from a settler at Topeka,
Kansas Territory, dated June 10, 1856.
AZ JUL iScuC Vi otn, our reQ6I1puOD
is deferred until after the Presidential election.
You think Kansas would be saved, should the
Republican nominee be elected. Now, this fact
must be known if things continue as now, un.
til then, all the Republican Presidents in the
world cannot save Kansas. 1t is men we want.
The everlasting dollar is all, it appears to us,
they talk about, when they meet and pass reso-
lutions at indignation meetings. Money, to a
certain extent, is needed, and, if subscribed, we
would like to see it; but give us men, above
all. The loss of crops for this year, to great
extent, with teams to the amount of three hun
bred horses, COWS, hogs-ip fact, everything
which goes to make up farmers worldly
store-has rendered us wholly blind to anything
else but determination to drive out the guer-
lila bands that now infest the Southern part of
this Territory; and if we perish in the attempt,
the South may attribute her victory to her five
hundred Southern hirelings, whilst the North
will end out that paper resolves, without men
here to fight, 60 for nothing. These hirelings
have forts erected, where, through parted logs,
they can, unframed, defy FIVE times the num-
Der of men. Here they congregate, and at
night go out upon unprotected settlements, and