The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-05-15
AFFAIRS IN KANSAS.

ritory. Its acts they have defed, the officers
appointed by it rejected, respecting no process
attempted to be served by them.
How happens it that they were suffered to
remain in peace after the Shannon war, until
the arrival of the Commissioners appointed by
the House of Representatives? Why were
warrants not issued against them, why were
not arrests attempted, till the Commission had
commenced its sessions in Lawrence? Why
did the Missouri Sheriff, Jones, make his de-
scent upon Lawrence coincident with the be.
ginning of the investigation of the outrages to
which the People had been subjected by Mis-
souri, invaders? Was it to provoke a conflict
which was to place the People in false posi-
ton, and make such an investigation impossi-
BILE?
We have Just received an extra from the
Office of the Lawrence Herald of Freedom, con-
tanning full account of the proceedings Of
large meeting of the citizens of that place. in
relation to the attempted murder of Sheriff
Jones. Ex-Governor Reeder presided, and,
ON taking the chair, took occasion to denounce
in unqualified terms, that act of violence:
I" If the man." he said "who committed
this deed supposed he could so redress political
wrongs, he did not understand his obligations
to society, to the Free State party; he did not
know the creed of his own party, the position
they have taken before the people of the United
States, the broad and solid foundation upon
which it has maintained itself up to this time.
Last September, the Free State party of this
Territory took position which exists now I'M
oil md fad Cd
resolution they adopted, lines distinct and I'M
mistakable are drawn. The future course of
the party was indicated in some resolutions
which will read.
he then read some resolutions adopted
by the Convention of September last, at Big
Springs.
"Such was the doctrine set forth by the Free
State party, that they would never submit to
the laws of the Territory as permanent ipsti.
tuition, but would set themselves about obtain
ing remedies for the purpose of getting rid of
them; that the ballot box and the courts and all
peaceful remedies should be resorted to; and
after those remedies had been exhausted, and
they had no choice but to sit down under
these laws permanently, or resist them by
force, they would resist them without regard
to consequences. The people of this town
have been going on quietly, refusing to recog-
flict with the authorities of the United States.
which must be destructive, thus keeping pre-.
cisely in the right path, and in a position where
your friends at home and abroad could defend
and justify you. The courts have been sought.
and | an sorry to say that little hope of redress
is to be found there. The sheriffs of the coun.
ties are partisans, carefully selected for their
work, and they select the Jurors, who are parti-
sans. The conduct of any of these Judges,
and the lengths they are disposed to go for the
purpose of pleasing their own friends, needs
no comment from me. You all know what
took place in the case Of McCrea. Thus has
been demonstrated that the courts Of this Ter
ritory are a hopeless place in which to obtain
anything like law or justice.
1--WE have appealed to another tribunal
the ballot-box, and have gone to the assembled
representatives of the nation. You sent ME
there as your representative, to go to the bar
of that great tribunal, and there, in the face of
the entire nation, to ask for that Justice we
could not obtain from any other tribunal, and
which we have declared we are as yet unwilling
TO take into our own hands. That appeal is
yet pending, is untried, and upon it there has
been no decision. A committee of the Repre-
sentatives of the nation is now among you
upon the very spot where these outrages have
been perpertrated. They can examine the very
Notifications erected here in the dead of winter
for the defence of your rights. They can go
where your ballot-boxes have been riAed and
your polls invaded; to the very spots stained
by the blood of your friends, murdered upon
the altar of Slavery. They can go through
your entire Territory, and hear your complaints,
and report the facts to the representatives of
the nation, where justice must be done. In the
midst of this progress, where everything was
10 Nd cfo
torily, and all good citizens were congratula-
ting themselves upon the successful progress
of this appeal, the hand of some malicious, in
sane, evil-dispossd individual undertakes to
throw down this superstructure we have so care
fully built up, and mar our entire prospects by
this uni ustifable and atrocious act. If the man
who struck that blow did it to help our cause,
he must have been blind and insane in his rea-
sOnings, and ignorant of the very first idea of
the position and character of the Free State
cause. He must bear the consequences of his
deed. / have no sympathy with one who would
trfe with the lives and property of the people
here"
Governor Robinson fully endorsed the senti
ments of the Chairman. We are organized in
an honorable struggle, he said we are not
cowardly assassins. But he did not believe
that the deed was perpetrated by Free State
man. The oppressors of Kansas were deter
mined to plant Slavery on its soil, cost what it
might. Human life was nothing to them. If
it was necessary to sacrifice some of their own
men, they would not hesitate. What was Ex-
Governor Reeder, or Sheriff Jones, compared
with the end had in view2
"Since | have heard of this unexpected out
rage, have taken every means in my power
to ascertain the facts and circumstances of the
case as far as l could, and have come to the
conclusion have just stated. This way of do
ing things is nothing new Late last fall, there
was an arrangement to get up an invasion. We
all understand this, and therefore need not go
into the particulars. 1t was we'll understood
here, in Kansas, that it was thought best that
there should be an invasion, and the destruc-
ton of some of the citizens of this Territory,
and of the people of Lawrence. A murder was
committed out here, some five or ten miles dis
tant. The victim was Free State man then,
though they pretended at first that he was a
Pro-Slavsry man, until the desired effect was
produced. The first reports that went into the
State below us were, that the murdered man
was Pro Slavery man, and murdered BY a
Free State man, and that the women and chill.
dren of Pro Slavery men in this vicinity were
being murdered and robbed. It had its effect.
created its excitement, and brought on an in.
vasion. But when the affair became too seri-
GUS to be contemplated with IMMUNITY, when it
appeared that the whole affair would end in a
civil war, then the party having it in charge
thought it best TO look into it a little more
close, and then they found that the people of
the Territory had no responsibility in the mat
ter whatever--that it was an individual affair
altogether, and that the parties to blame we're