The Kansas herald of freedom., 1856-02-23
The Kansas eo,ish.

dence sets forth the preliminary skir-
mishes; while every southern journal
that reaches this Office abounds with ex-
hortations to arms, and intimates that the
spring campaign is to open with vast
invasion of the faied Territory. and close
with the expulsion of all the Free State
men. The name of David r. Atchison
figures as the commander elect of this
rabble army; exhortatory, impreeatory,
inf1ammatory epistles and circular let
ters, with that respectable appellation at
the foot, frequent all the prints which
come from the Gulf States, stimulating
the worst passions, and counting the aid
of the meanest and vilest of Southern
population, in this warfare upon an unof-
Tending settlement. Here, where We
have become accustomed to regard that
person with the contempt and aversion
due to all the exhibitions he has made OF
himself throughout tolerably long pub
lie career, we are quite apt to under-es-
innate the influence elsewhere of such
incendiary documents as these emanating
from his hand. At the South. at least
among that unintelligent body of people,
who, while neither masters nor slaves,
serve the institution with very especial
vigor and boisterousness, Achison is
ranked very little below the hierarchy of
martyrs and benefactors of the human
race. Did he not stake his political for
tunes upon the abrogation of the COM
promise, and the introduction of slavery
into those Territories I? Has he not re-
signed the presidency of the United States
Senate, in order to devote himself uu-
sel6shly to the cause From the same
praiseworthy motive has he not declined
denomination to that body, and the prof
erred position of Governor of Missouri?
Has he not sacrificed citizenship of his
own State and expatristed himself; leav-
ing. in fact, public honors, home. coun-
try, and family behind him, and all to
Insure Kansas to slavery? These con-
siderations admit at the South ofnone of
the deductions which a rejecting man
Outside of the institution and its influence
cannot avoid making. The reckless.
diam-drinking pettifogger of the aboli-
ton print, is the hero of the Shareholder,
the Godfrey of new crusade, the re-
deemer of virgin territory from the
low. brutalizing, and blightng influence
of freedom and free labor. Hence the
efficacy of these appeals. Hence the
eagerness with which they are circulated.
and read, and their invocations acted
upon in Georgia, Alabama. Tennessee
and Missouri, and more or less in other
slave States, until the notes of prepara-
ton and excitement resound from all
sides. Openly, the people are called to
arms; openly, the object of the call
is announced to oe war of extermina-
ton upon a peaceful community; so
openly that we find the summons insert
ed, without word of reprobation, in the
organ of the Federal Administration at
Washington.
Here, in New York city. there is, at
the present moment, score of respecta-
BILE gentlemen held to bail, and detained
for constructive and clearly absurd
charge of designing and levying war
upon friendly people. We have seen,
these ten years. every energy of the
Federal authorities repeatedly employed
in preventing hostile invasion of Cuba.
When a mob of negroes and others not
long ago offered armed resistance to the
armed reeaptors of runaway slave in
Pennsylvania, the Federal Government
directed the offenders to be indicted for
treason, that is, for levying war upon
the government of the land. When
Aaron Burr projected an invasion and
conquest of Mexico, he was tried upon q
charge of treason in levying war upon
an allied nation, and not acquitted for
any deficiency of evidence. Or, to de-
scend to the lowest Offices of law, to the
first principle of peace-keeping legisla-
ltion, when one citizen threatens to attack
the person of another, and the law inter-
poses and binds the turbulent character
"over to keep the peace"
In Missouri there is man, dignifed,
like Col. Burr, with the honors Of Vice.
Presidency. whose sole. avowed object
in life is treason and the levying of war.
Nor is the war to be made against foreign
States, nor the blood to be spilled that OF
people with whom We have no sympathy
of race or friendship. Nor is the pur-
pose yelled in the slightest degree nor
lis the mode of warfare mitigated in the
programme by one characteristic of
| Christianity or mercy. TO convict OF
treason requires the testimony Of overt
acts. Every act of David Atchison is
treason. and every act is overt. The ev-
idence, with his signature affixed. may
be found everywhere. He breathes
nothing but threatening. threatens nothing
but slaughter. The reasonable army
is half enrolled for arms they no doubt
reckon on the already successful expedi-
Ient of robbing the national arsenals.
Never was fillibusteFism half 50 suda.
lcious, half so dangerous /: for in the is
sues of this contest is the fate of the
Onion. Can We doubt what would be
the course Of government if the people
4 thus doomed 20 determination were Ca.
lnsdians or Cubans Can We doubt that
There would be proclamations of warn
ling !; that every officer Of tie Federal
A &c. hlsaE-na~,f xvfokf.a- of .ser a. v.s.saes