The Kansas herald of freedom., 1856-11-08
The I}efaio Of Freedom.
Lawrencs. Saturday, Nov. 8. 1853.
An Appeal to the Public.

An Appeal to the Public.
The Free State citizens of Leaven-
worth, who were expelled from their
homes by the marauders from Missouri,
submitted an appeal to the public, of
which the following is copy, as we
find it in the eastern press -
FcRr LxAvrswoRrH, Z. T.. Sept. 9. 1856
To tie Caizeas Of tie United States -
We, residents of Kansas Territory,
and, previous to September 1st, citizens
of Leayenworth City. herein present
the following brief and impartial state
ment of the transactions which have
robbed and driven Us from our homes at
the point of the bayonet, with our sick
and dying, to face the coming Winter,
homeless, hoaseless, and 6readtess.
We assert, and call Heaven to wit
ness, that the Free-State men of Leav-
enworth City were quiet, peaceable,
law-abiding, and an industrious people.
asking no privilege of Government or
its patronage; demanding no rights but
those guaranteeds by the Constitution.
Nevertheless. on Sunday, Aug. 3lst, a
large body of armed men, mostly Mis-
SEs4a and Georgiaps, commanded by
certain notorious Capt. Emory, who
figured eonspicIously In Walkers fa-
nous piratieal expedition, entered Leav-
enworth City with banners flying, and
Paradsd the streets until next morning,
calling upon all the Pro-Slavery men
to come out and fall into the ranks, and
at the same time, telling all others to
leave the Territory by the first boat,
heralding each call and notice by q
bugle blast, and repeating them at every
door. Early on the ensuing morning
the same gang of desperadoes, by large
accessions from the gambling-shops and
saloons, already became a dense mob,
reiterated the call and notice of the pre-
sious evening, and commenced the
work of piaaadss and outrage, whose
enormity was only less astounding than
the impunity with which it was COM
mitted.
Residences were forcibly entered and
searched without the least shadow of
law. Warehouses were plundered and
stores were burned without any effort at
interference by the civil authorities,
although within sight of Fort Leayen-
worth, the whole forces of which were
subject to the order of the Mayor.
Many of the best citizens of the
town were driven to the steamboats, and
sent out of the Territory without OPP
portunity to make any disposition of
their effects, or any arrangements for
the maintenance of their families
Among them were DR.. s. Norton and
MIR. n. MeCracken, both extensively
and favorably known as business men
and valuable citizens. Others, to avoid
similar fate, fled to the Fort, barely
escaping with their lives, destitute of
food or clothing. Such an exodus may
our country never again see. Pale
mothers with infants but few weeks
old, others from the sick bed wild with
delirium of fever. For oil such the only
place of refuge was the open and unoc-
cupied parade-ground, or the unfinished
barracks, without doors or windows,
which were procured through the inhu-
enee of one of the officers of the fort,
save when some soldier shared the
seanty accommodations of his tent
with those whom but day before he
had envied in their honest and comfort
able competence.
No sooner had these unfortunate peo-
pie vacated their hard-earned homes,
than their houses were occupied by
the scortifeSs naarauders, their provis-
ions were consumed, their furniture
stolen or destroyed, trunks and boxes
Of valuable goods broken open and
rifed of everything that could be appro-
priated to the use of the heartless and
inhuman plunderers.
Thus robbed, despoiled, and remov-
ed from the possibility of obtaining by
labor the means of subsistence, we find
ourselves, for the firss time in our lives,
friendless and penniless, thrown upon
the charities of the world, perhaps to
perish by hunger and cold in the coming
Winter. But we trust that generous
public will SEQ that we are provided for,
for the cause in which we suffer is the
common cause, the cause of humanity,
the cause of right and justice, and for
that end forward Immediately their
contributions to the National Kansas
Committee, at Chicago, Illinois.
In behalf the sufferers,
D.,rr