Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-03-03

tory from bloodshed and luln.
Sir, in pursuing this history, 1 have follow
ed the order of time, and 1 am now brought
to speak of another invasion from Missouri
an invasion which took place on the LIST of Oc-
tober last, when General Whitfield was elect
ed. state, on the authority of gentlemen,
some half dozen Of whom are within sound
OF my voice, and who will prove it under oath
before your committee, if you will permit them
to do so, that hundreds of men went over from
Missouri and voted in that election.
| The lnyaslon-the fourth invasion of which
we have head SO much in these papers from
the Executive Department-gre out of the
cold blooded murder of man by the name of
| Dow, at Hickory Point by one Coleman Mr..
Branson and his neighbors took the mortal re-
mains of the murdered Dow from the high
way, where he had lain for hours, and consign-
ed them to his last resting place. The murderer
has never been tried or arrested. Branson,
with whom Dow had lived was arrested on a
peace-warrant, by Sheriff Jones, and rescued
BY some fifteen OF his peghbors and friends.
| Then it was that stories were manufactured
that thousand men were organized at Law
renee, armed with Sharpe's rifles and cannon,
| ready to resist the authorities. There were not
| then more than three hundred Sharpe's rifles
IN Lawrence, and not one cannon. There was
no armed soldiery in Lawrence when these
charges were made, there were armed men
there. but they were not embodied. Of the
men who aided in the rescue of Branson-an
act which might take place in any State, at
any time, without any Governor thinking of
calling out the armed militia, much less the
forces of the United States-onlv two ever
| lived in Lawrence, and they ere not in Law
renee at that time. The reports mentioned in
these dispatches, about burning buildings,
have turOpd ont to ba axa rod and ,,,;orr
presented.
On the strength of these reports however.
Gov. Shannon sent his letter of the 2Sth of
November to the President, and on the next
day he issued that fatal proclamation which
| tomented, at the time the invasion from Mis-
souri,, and this was followed by his Geographic
dispatch of the LIST of December. Here. let
me say, that in this letter, proclamation. and
! dispatch, Governor Shannon shows that he is
not man who comprehends his position or
| his duties. He was excited and frightened by
the reports and runors he relied upon. Dur
| ing this period, when he ordered out the mi
] lltla and telegraphed the President, dispatches
! founded on rumors, were sent into Missouri;
and the result was, that from one thousand to
two thousand armed men came from Missouri
into Kanzas; and they were incorporated INTO
| that " little force Of less than four hundred
men" spoken of in these dispatches from
Kanzas, which rallied to the call of the officers
| of the militia
Sir, If the people of Kanzas had been with
| the Governor-it they had sympathsed with
him in his ill-starred movements If they had
believed that law and order were in danger
would they not have rallied to his support
On that occasion, the arsenal of the United
States in western Missouri was broken open
arms were stolen and carried into Kanzas.--
N.ztls -. IL Al - II
reports. Missourians broke open this arsenal
and stole cannon, ammunition, and muskets
seus tJlf, -e,i,,rs .,aaro,,di,,r il,
compeled-so great was the danger-to has
ten after them to keep them from hurting
somebody!-Yet, not word is said about it
in these dispatches! Sir if the freemen Of Kan
zas had broken open that arsenal, and had
stolen even gun. flint, you would have had
proclamation from your Governor, and your
President; and the Army of the United States
would have been called out to put them down.
But it was the organized men of the Blue
Lodges in western Missouri who did it. They
have been, and now are, permitted to violate
all law with impunity. Woodson, the Secre-
tary of Kanzas urged ON these lawless men
from Missouri by assuring them that "there
is no doubt in regard to having fight, and if
we are defeated this time, the Territory is lost
to the South"
The invading hosts from Missouri encamped
on the Wakarusa, within about six miles of
becaguered Lawrence. In marked contrast
to the inconsiderate folly of Shannon, was the
prudent, firm, and heroic bearing of General
Robinson. Throughout the whole contest his
prudence was sgnally manifested and in
the opinion of many, the country was saved
from boodshed and civil war. On the 9TH Of
December your Governor tells you, he went
to Lawrence but he does not tell you the
whole story. He did go to Lawrence, and he
met the Lawrence men, and the Lawrence
women, too; and he saw the inflexible deter
mination of the one and the calm devotion of
the other. He told gentlemen who directed
the affairs of Lawrence that they had been
misrepresented-t they misunderstood each
other; and then, after two days Of conference
and negotiation, he made treaty. The first
sentence of the treaty acknowledges that the
Governor and the people of Lawrence had not
understood each other. Here is a man who
asked the President for the Army of the United
States who ordered out the militia, and in
corporates into the militia of Kanzas, by the
showing of these papers, from one thousand
to fifteen hundred Missourians, and then,
after dong this, he went to Lawrence and
what did he find; People who flew to arms
simply to protect their homes and their fire.
sizes against TN armed invasion oil TWO thou
sand men, who were threatening, with oaths,
| to burn their city, and to blot them out from
existence. say. Governor Shannon made a
| treaty with General Lame known to some
| Senators here-and with General Robinson
man who, hope, is hereafter to be known to
Senators and this treaty closes with the agree
ment on the Part of Gov. Shannon, that he
"will use his influence to secure to the citi-
zens of Kanzas remuneration for any dam
ages sustained by the sherit's posse in Dou.
glas County that he has not called upon per-
SONS residents of any other State 10 aid in the
execution Of the laws; and that he has not
any authority or legal power to do so, nor will
he exercise any such power; and that he win
not call on any citizen Of another State who
may be here" In these negotiations he agreed
| to waive the question of the vail lity of the
laws of the territorial Legislature. Then he
issued an order to Gen. Lane and Gen. Rob-
inson to incorporate into the service Of Kan
zas the militia of Lawrence, and directed
them " to use the enrolled force for the pre-
servation of peace, and the protection of Law
renee and the vicinity against the armed
men on the banks of the Wakarusa.
Mr.. President-the treaty which Shannon
signed with Lane and Robinson, on Sunday,
the 9th of December, 1856, will stand per-
| petual confession of his incapacity and folly.
This order, giving Lane and Robinson au-
thority "to use the enrolled force" with
those famed Sharpe's rifles, "for the preserva-
tiou OF peace and the protection of Lawrence