Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-09-17

ratlOn mob. oxen were IoFciDlN taken itoti
The piow. and bntchered liz the fields, IN the
presence OF the owners. Dwellings were bro
ken open and plundered. and the iDma ates
threatened with death, if they offered resis-
tance. American citizens were seized, tarreu
and cottoned and sent wounded to their fami
lies. Houses were burned, and wives and
children driven out to starve. Free State men
were shot from their horses, and leftto mould
er where they fell. a company of Pierce and
Douglas ruffians, composed of armed and drum
ken men mustered from Missouri and other
slave States by the officers OF the AdministTa-
ton. entered the city of Lawrence, and with
cannon bombarded and burned TO the ground
the best houses in that industrious and molten
sive town, and after destroying the printing
presses, type and material, they proceeded to
sack, pilage and rob houses, stores, trunks,
and people-men were not only robbed oi their
purses in the streets, but this tar and order ar
my even robbed the women and children OF
their clothing and their bread, and after one
of the most melcileSs, obscene and Infamous
maraudings on record these Administration
hired plunderers left the city and its vicinity
in state of mourning, starvation and ruin,
and like i gang of yoraciouS yultureS, they re-
turned 10 their gloomy roosts to prepare for
other,and perhaps more sanguinary deSolation.
But the people of the Territory. being fully
convinced that they could not live under the
shameful code of the Pierce, Buchanan <
Co.'s territorial laws without being plundcred,
murdered or driven from their homes, rcSolv-
ed. in accordance with the Constitution of the
L. s., to meet and form a Constitution for
themselves. elect their officers, and be admit
ted into the Union as q free and independent
State. Having proceeded according to the
requirements of the constitutional law, they
met and formed their State constitution, cleo
ted their officers, and proceeded to peaceably
petition Congress for a redress Of their griev-
ances. But contrary to every principle OF the
Constitution he swore TO Defend the President
Franklin Pierce ordered the army to dispersc
at the mouth Of the cannon and the point of
the b3vonet the assembled representatives, OF
a free people, in Kansas, thus crushing out the
last hope of an injured, robbed and iettered
people. First their elective franchise was ta-
ken from them. Then foreign law, more
bloody than Draco's code, was made their stat
ute. Their printing presses were then de-
stroyed, that the story Of their wrongs might
not be heard. Next their country wasted,
their towns destroyed, their citizens robbed,
and wives and children turned adrilt TO starye
and die and when. last resort the peo-
pie, by their representatives, assembled 10
humbly petition Congress for redress, the Pres
idcnt sent his army and drove them from the
halls of legislation, thus tralnpling out beneath
the iron foot of his tyranny, the last spark of
American liberty belonging to the free people
of Kansas.
Bat this iuhuman and barbarous despotism,
mas not Dee0 COnuned 10 halS3S alONC-ltS
proscrptiTe and bloody track, is seen all thro'
the locofocO slave states; citizens have been
mobcd and baniShcd for their political opin-
ions. and the very chamber of the American
Senate has been made to run with blood, by
the bullys of the Administration, to put down
the liberty Of speech. And yet the leaders of
the Administration outrages, have the effron-
| terry TO ask the free people OF this Republic to
vote for James Buchanan for President, who
has declared himself TO be the platform of the
| Pierce dynasty, and who is more than willing
| TO finish the bloody work already begun by
| giving Kansas, the very heart and garden of
/ our country. to the negroes, and thereby shut
! ting out forever, from the rich and healthy re-
/ gious of the great southwest, the free labo-
| rers of the north, and turning back upon the
| free States the tide of emigration, until labor
would not be worth even ten cents per day
For it is the extension and expansion of free
! labor, that gives life and wealth to 4 nation
/ Y ct the present policy of the locofoco, or ne
gro party, is to oppose the extension Of free
labor, and to send the Jlightng sirocco OF ne
gro slave labor over Kansas, and consequently
over all the balance of our southwestern ter
ritories. And as the public words and acts OF
James Buchanan, have everywhere demonstrl-
! ted his hostility to free labor, he Of course
should be placed at the head of the great ne
gro party. At first he was in favor of rcduc-
/ ing the value of the free labor Of America to
the standard value of vaSSal labor of Europe.
! Next because slave labor could not be intro
/ duced into Oregon, he gave away of our terri
| tory what would make three free States, TO
| England, for nothing. Then again, he was
| willing to give one hundred and twenty mil
/ lions of dollars for Cuba, for negro slave labor.
and if he could not get it for one hundred and
twenty millions of the peoples money, he was
willing TO plunder Spain of it by force. And
! now he is out as the Generalissimo of all the
| armies of negro slavery extension. and against
IL -
now free. Such an aspirant, | boldly affirm,
is unworthy the vote of single American
! freeman, unless it would be to place him on
exhibition in an iron cage, a living curiosi-
ty, embodying the supcrstitious mummery OF
the dark ages; for where can there be found
any OF the wisdom of the nineteenth century
about a man, or a party, who will adopt ne
groism as their motto, and negro extension as
the pcrpetuation of the Union. Yet the poll
cy of the leaders of this great negro party, is
now everywhere manifested-tbcy want more
/ territory for their negroes-Inorc space to sep
crate husbands and wives, and scatter their or
phan chidren-morc land over which to drive
and scourge their human bTutes-more room
for negro algamation-more soil on which
to trade in human souls and sinews-more
bounds to increase the traffic IN the purchase
of Saviour's blood-and more representative
power, to overcome the laboring masses OF the
north, and thereby with slaveholding aris-
tocracy, be able to plant on the ruins Of oul
1 noble Republic, limited monarchy. This Is
the reason why President Pierce neglected hi.
official duty in Kansas, and aided ny his mes
sages and mobs the shameful cruelty commit
ted in that Territory, and this is the reascr
why the Administration papers, from the low
est Sheet up to the official organ of the gov
ernment, slander and condemn every effort tC
make known the true state of the country I,
the people. But the people will hear. anC
hurl from power, every traitor to our Union