Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-09-17
For tjic RaffSmass' S journal
rHE PIERCE AND BUCHANAN DEMOCRACY.

jzens of Kansas, in the protection of their
persons and property, against the attacks of
lawless mobs from neigbborinS State, and
with cruelty in aiding and abetting, by his re-
cent messages TO Congress, and otherwise the
riots, rsbberies and murders, committed by the
border ruifians of Missouri, against the citi-
zens of Kansas.
The american people are now just beginning
TO see the Despotism, under which they are |
Ianguishing, that no tyranny since the days OF /
Dionysius the elder, has ever fallen to the lot
of a nation like that under which we are now !
Iaboring in the Pierce dynasty. His repeal of /
the Missouri compromise, was the opening OF |
Pandoras' box, upon all the sacred rights of
our already injured country, and is the fore |
runner of anarchy and desolation, pniess ar
rested by the votes of a free and Independent !
people. When the bill for the abrogation of
that long cherished and sacred contract, the |
Missouri compromise, was brought forward in
the Senate of the United States, 10y Douglas
& Co., they were told by wise and experienced
statesmen that its repeal would bring agita-
tion. confusion, civil war, and would finally
dissolve the Union but they treated with con-
tempt the views and arguments of the frienGs
of equal rights, and at last succeeded IN tear
ing away the venerable barriers that had so
long held within the territory of its crushed
and wailing millions, the demon Of slavery,
that like the greedy vampire beneath the fam
ming of whose gloomy wing, it hushed then Orth
And scarcely had the news of the repeal of
the Compromise, and the passage of the Or
ganic law OF Kansas, officially reached Nilsson
ri, before her leading men crossed over into
Kansas, and held meetings and passed resolu-
tions that slavery now existed in the Terrific
ry and that persons opposed to slavery should
not be allowed to settle therein, yet notwith-
standing these unconstitutional, and threaten
ing resolutions, thousands of our best citizens
resolved to make their homes in the fertile
plains of Kansas. But when the time came TO
elect a Delegate TO Congress, on the 29th day
of November, 1851, which was the first e!ec-
ton in the Territory, the Missourians came by
hundreds into Kansas, and encamping in COM
Danys near the election houses of almost eve
~ precinct the evening before, and being pro-
Yidad with arms and WhSkcy, they were well
| prepared to carry out the Will Of the President,
! at the next days election, which resulted in
| the triumphant election of the Administration
/ candidate Gen. Whitfield, who received out
leof 2S11 votes pOlled, majority OF 1893 votes
! over ali others, over 1900 of which were ille
| gal votes from Missouri. The next election
/ was held on the 30th Of March, 1853, to elect
members for the legislative assembly of the
| Territory. And on the day before the cleo
| tion the MissouraDS armed with cannon, guns,
| pistols and bowie knives, came into the Terri
| tory by hundreds and thousands, bringing
numbers of their own candidates, as well a.
! own voters. along with them, and camped near
! the election houses as DclOFS- lneT pTOCcC-
! dings through the night were terrific in the
extreme. In the morning they threatened ev-
ery citizen with death, who would vote the
! free state ticket, and after forcing the Judges
appointed by the Governor to their own terms,
| or turning them out and appointing others in
/ their places from their own ranks, these Pres
| idential mobs proceeded to open the elections,
forbidding at many of the precincts the citi-
zens voting. unless they would vote the pro-
| slavery ticket, while at the other precincts the
| citizens were beaten and driven from the polls,
| so that out of $500 votes cast at that election,
1908 were Illegal, giving the Pierce. Douglas
| and Buchanan party clear majority of 5421
votes at the election.
Thus the people of Kansas have had imposed
! on them, by and through Franklin Pierce, the
President of the United States, foreign Lc-
| gislature, that has reduced them TO the condi-
tion of vassalS, to neighboring State aud
| because Coy. Reeder would not acknowledge
them 4 lawful Legislature, Pierce urged him
to resign, and finally offered him mission to
| China if he would give up the Govcrnorship Of
Kansas but on refusing this bribe from the
President, he turned Gov. Reeder out of Of
fee, and appointed one that would, and did
acknowledge this bogus Legislature lawful
body, 50 that without the consent of the gov
erned, the President, by his recent messages
and the U. 5. troops, palmcd upon the free
people of Kansas, Legislature not of their
own choosing, the enactments of which are a
disgrace to the nineteenth century. No code
this side of Dracos, has ever been so bloody
and unjust. The following is a synopsis of
some of the sections OF its statute for the ter
ritory of free Kansas:
lst. That any person or persons raising in
suuection among the slaves of the Territory,
shall suffer death.
2d. Persons aiding in a slave insurrection,
shall be put to death.
Sd. Persons by speaking, writing, printing,
or otherwise advising slaves to rebellion, shall
suffer death.
4th. Persons enticing or decoying slaves out
of the Territory, shall suffer ten years impris-
onment or be put to death.
5th. Persons aiding or assisting in enticing
or decoying slaves out of the Territory, shall
be punished with ten years imprisonment or
suffer death.
9th. Any person bringing the slave of an
other into the Territory, with intent to free
him, shall be deemed guilty OF grand larceny,
and shall suffer ten years imprisonment, or be
put to death.
18th. Any person speaking, writing, print
r ing or asserting that men have not the right to
hold slaves in this Territory, shall suffer inn
prsonment at hard labor for two years.
18th. And no person who does not admit
the right to hold slaves in this Territory, shall
be allowed the right of juror, on any trial
for the violation of this act.
! GThe entire law will be found on the first
page of this paper.-ED. jour.
Aud notwithstanding the Constitution de-
clares that the freedom of SPEECH, and the
right of the PREss, shall never be abridged
, yet the free people of Kansas, for speaking
and publishing their opinions against the burn
: ing wrongs of slavery extension, have now
their best citizens imprisoned, and all THEN
Tree presses destroyed, by the Pierce and Bu.
! chanan party now in power, so that there is nc
4 tongue now in Kansas to publicly expl ess MOI
printing press left to declare the history o