The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-03-18
From the New York Independent.
DEFENCE OF KANSAS.

shown one thorb of sympathy for liberty, W.
shall have blood to the horses brides. II W.
are firm and prompt to obvious duty, if We
stand by the men of Kansas, and give then
all the help that they need, the flame Of wal
will be quenched before it breaks forth, anc
both they of the West, and we of the East
shall, after some angry mutterings rest down
in peace. But if our ears are poisoned BY
the advice of men who never rebuke violence
on the side of power, and never fail to in
weigh against the self defense of wronged lib
erty, we shall invite aggression and civil war
And let us know assuredly that civil war will
burst forth in Kansas without spreading =
Now if bold wisdom prevails, thecones5t VIII
be settled afar off, in Kansas, and without
blows or blood. But timidity and indiffer-
ence will bring down blows there, which will
not only echo in our houses, hitherward, and
will, by and by, lay the foundation for an
armed struggle between the whole North
and the South. Shall we let the spark kin
dleY or shall we quench it now! But, that
intelligent citizens may the better judge, let
the facts of this case be reviewed.
At the adoption of our constitution a sys-
tenn Of slavery, thought to be then declining
and that would be elected by the vis medica-
trir of the spirit of liberty among the people
and in their institutions received unexpected
vigor and growth from various commercial and
political reasonsl and from being a mere pee
cant humor in the blood, it has we'll nigh
come to be the blood itself of this great gov
ernment So that with an outward form of
freedom; with laws and institutions bearing
the civil aspect of liberty, the veins of this
government are filled with black blood, and
the heart and every artery beat with the fs-
tai current of slavery.
In 1919 slavery demanded portion of free
territory. 1t was refused The fierce battle
that followed was not fought out to the end
as it should have been. The compromise of
1S2O,-like every compromise since and like
all compromises since the world began, be-
tween unscrupulous Power and timid Liberty,
was but device Of Knavery for taking
breath. The peace always promised for such
concession is peace for repairing damages,
for forging arms, and for arraying new in
fuences and implements. Liberty was brib-
cd to yield noble province to the devasta-
tions Of Slavery with the solemn guarantee,
that no slavery should ever touch the soil
north of given line; that, by the moral
pledge Of the whole South expressed through
a legislative act, was made invoate to free
dom. 1t was trcacherous pact. 1t was
hollow from the beginning. While the terri
tory concerned lay far beyond the reach of
emigration while It was unmolcsted.- The
moment that the growth Of our country
brought our population to the border of this
territory, and it was soon to be settled, slave
ry, without an appeal to the people, without
the suspicion of the coming up of such
question in Congress, by a coup d etot, an
nullcd this agreement for liberty and declared
Kansas and Nebraska alike open to all settlers,
and that institutions should be determined
for freedom or slavery by the will Of their ac-
tual settlers.
The feet Of freedom arc ninble The feet
of slavery, shod with iron for crushing move
slowly. A thousand free settlers will move
with all their utensils to region before a
hundred men with the torpid foot of slavery
can move or start.
Liberty is SO rich that it is apt to ferraent.
Slavery has but single sefishness, and is
not embarrassed by conflicting interests. Lib
erty, breeding innumerable industries and
stirring within men life and independence, is
full of divisions and strifes. Slavery cannot
split. 1t is thin, gaunt, compact, tenacious.
In productive organizing force Liberty is
mighty; in councils and concert she is weak
II creative force slavery is imbecfe, but in
ambition and in council unit and efficient
If the South were to attempt to cope with
the North, on the field Of Kansas, 10y simple
emigration, by taking possession Of the land
for industry, they would le defeated before
they began. This was apparent. The only
hope lay in violence. Violence was tried
At the hiss Of an INSCRIPTIONS man, hordes
Of wild and indolent fellows that hang about
the towns and cities of slave States as gi-
gantic vermin, rushed into Kansas, crushed
the free and actual settlers at the polls, and
by wholesale fraud not even denied or dis
guised, reared up legislature whose Office it
was to forge law for the benefit of slavery and
for the extinction of liberty. And we'll they
performed their work.
Consider this wrong, o ye freemen of the
North This was the territory given to free
dom by the God who made it; by the insti-
tutions and spirit of the country which owned
t; by the desires Of the North, and by the
most solemn agreements of tic South.
When the day came for freedom to take,
The South broke down its treacherous promi-
Sos, opened the gates, and let forth its chill
lren to enter the race against liberty yet sol
omnly declaring that the one which took pos
session first, should hold and control il. Free
settlers took it. Slavery Jagged behind and
lost it.
Seeing itself defeated in this nefarious
scheme, the South, trcachcrous again, pour
ID armed men across her border to plant by |
,iolcnc, legislature there, and this coerced
md fraudulent Legislature dared to legalize
layery, to defend it against even discussion
~ binding law around every free throat
ike halter. Lest it be thought that we ex-
lggcratc, we give two sections Of the laws of
his pseudo-legislature:
4 II. If any person print. write. introduce into,
blish circulate TO be brought into, prn-
ed, written, published or circulated or knowingly
i'd assist in bringing into. printing, publishing
irculating thin this territory, any book paper,
Sc., containing any statements, doctrines, &c cal
ulated TO produce disahection among the slaves Of