New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-02-18
THE REAL QUESTION.

OF all the Border. Ruffian journals there Is not
one. not even Stringfellow's Sqaaher Sorere'gs,
which so Systematically and Indignantly misrepre-
sents the Free-State settlers in Kansas and their
friends and supporters as The Journal Of Commerce
of this city. OF this character is an article en-
titled "Hard to Please, in which that journal
takes the friends of Freedom to account for not
being satisfied with the Presidents Kansas pro-
clamaton. They have been calling, it is said, on
the President 10 interfere and now that he has in
terfered. they blame him as much as ever.
The Journal Of Commerce knows perfectly well
that the interference called for was an interference
TO protect the Kansas settlers against the nyaslons
Of the Border Ruffians, who, having imposed
Legislature Of their own on the Territory, next
proceeded to plumber and murder the Inhabitants,
and to threaten them with the destruction of their
towns and expulsion from the Territory if they did
not submit to the laws and rulers thus attempted to
be imposed upon them. This was the interference
called for. The Presidents Proclamation, on the
other hand, is not merely an instance of locking
the door after the horse is stolen, but of locking up
the owner and his friends in it, to prevent them
from pursuing the thief. This Proclamation recog-
nizes az valid the acts of the Border Ruffan
Iepisiature-which is one of the great griey-
ances complained of-and threatens the pains
and penalties Of treason against all who shall
resist the laws and officers of that Legislature, or
ala in so doing The President steps into the shoes
of the defeated Border Ruffians and takes upon
himself and the United States troops the enforce
ment of the laws which they have enacted, but TO
which they have not been able to compel the poo
pie of Kansas to submit Now this may be highly
satisfactory 10 The Journal Of Commerce and the
Border Ruffians generally, but to call upon US to
applaud il or to be satisfied with it is simply abb
surd.
The Journal Of Commerce expresses the opinion
that elf Massachusetts, and other Eastern people
chad not attempted to forestall the question of
"Slavery in Kansas, Missouri would not have at
tempted it, and this opinion it puts forth not
only as an excuse for the Missouri invasions and
murders, but as the basis of ruffanly wish of its
own. that the "AbOltionists and their abettOrs"-
meaning we suppose the subscribers TO the funds
of the Aid Societies and those journalists who
have praised that mOyement-were personally
present in Kansas, there 10 De murdered by the
Border Ruflians-an operation of which that piOus
and peace-loying journal would not, as it implies,
"be much disposed to complain"
Now it is undoubtedly true that if no Free-State
settlers had moved into Kansas, and if the few
Government officers and slavehOlding MissOurians
in occupation of it had been left to organise the
new Territory on a slayehOlding basis-there would
have been no Border-Rufian inyasions. But is
The Journal Of Commerce so blinded by it's Pro-
Slavery anaticsm as not to be able to see the differ
ence between the acts of the Eastern men and the
Border Ruffians-that what the Eastern men did,
however dsagreeable it might be to the Missourians
and The Journal Of Commerce, they had clear
legal right to do whereas all the actions of the
Border Ruffians have been in gross defiance OF law
Does The Journal Of Commerce esteem it justiica-
ton of the act of knocking down broker in Wall
street by another broker that this other broker
preferred to have the street to himself and that the
man who was knocked down might have avoided
all difficulty by staying at hOme'