Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1856-06-12
Tepies Of the Day.

sacking of Lawrcnce-the destruction of prop
terty-the robbiag and plundering of free State
men-the cowardly numbering of innocent, i'll
offensive individuals the confusion, anarchy
and bloodshed that prevails in that doomed
land-are the topics Of the day, which exceed
all others in Importance aud engross the largest
share of public attention. In reading the ac-
counts Of the inhnman barbarifies committed
by. the self-stylcd law-and-order party of Kan
sas, the question will force itself upon minds
what have the free State men done to merit
such treatment? Of what are they guilty p
What laws have they trangressed, the break
ing of which demands that private property
shall be wantonly destroyed by an unauthor
lied mob-that persons accused Of no crime,
unless to prefer liberty to slavery be crime,
shall be unblushingly robbed on the public high
way--that every man who excitcs the suspi-
cion of blood-thirsty pro-slaveryte, shall be
deprived of his arms and then shot down with
less remorse than a decent man would shoot a
dog Why is it, We ask, that President Pierce
arms every Southern man who comes into the
territory, and gives him license to burn, rob
and murder whom and what he lists? Why
is it that our government has called forth the
federal troops, arrayed them in open hostility to
our own brethren, and placed them under the
orders of a drunken sinpleton, who is but a
tool in the hands of his masters? Why is it,
that every outrage, of which men, who have
ever acted the part of petty tyrants, can be
guilty, is CLOSED over as done by virtue Of Off
cial authority, and under color Of law Why
is it, that every man who has made himself
prominent in the movement to make Kansas
free State, is hunted day and night by the
blood hounds of slavery, and forced to flee for
life into lands where his pursucrs dare not fol-
low ! Why is it that Pierce, Douglass and
Atkinson, the advocates of the squatter SOY
eregnty doctrine, now so strcnuously oppose
the full and free carrying out Of that principle
in Kansas? Why is it, that, with population
as large as Indiana, or Mississippi, or Arkan-
admitted into the Union, and with every other
constitutional requisite, Kansas has been so
long and so pertnaciously refused admission to
the confederacy
There is but one answer to all these queries,
and there is no necessity that we should pen it,
for it has already suggested itself to every mind
Hatred to freedom, and the intention to car
ry into execution the threat of Douglas that
the North shall be subducd," are the motives
which actuate the proslavcry barbarians in
their cowardy assaults upon the free state men
Of Kansas. The same evil spirit impcllcd the
ehirolroas Brooks, in his murdcrous attempt on
Senator Sumner. The same spirit breathes in
every line of the pro-slavery press, both North
and South. The same spirit moves the breasts
Of the great mass of slave holders and white
slaves at the South, and the slave democra-
cy of the North. And it is this hatred to
freedom, this determination, by the foulest of
means, to place yoke upon our necks, and
bring US also into bondage, that we of the Free
States are compelled to meet. Shall we meet
| it as becomes the descendants of the heroes of
Bunker Hill, or with the spirit of weak hearted
cravens, prefcrring abect serviiity to an oligar-
chy to freedom
We know what the North has done, hereto
fore-we remember how, in times past, she has
again and again huu,blcd herself before the
South. HM she do 1t moic Con FORBID
The North can nolongcr remain passive it has
borne too much already. To endure more,
would be worse than cowardce it is treason
treason to the sacred principles of the Consti-
tuition, to our dearest rights, and to our very
social existence. If we would remain free, wp
must act. The scheme of fraud and treachery
and wrong, which opcned with the repeal Of
the compromises has eliminated in the sack and
pllage of Lawrence, and the hatchery of our
friends and neighbors. Freedom is stabbed in
every blow struck at Free State man of Kan
sas, 1t does not reach US directly now, but the
arm of slavery is long, and we will, in time. feel
its iron grasp if we suffer it to NOW down the
advance ranks of Freedoms guard in Kansas
Will We, ca" We remain passive, while the bal
let and the bowie-knife are seeking the hears,
and the torch and faggot are devastating the
homes Of our kindred and frieudss Fer eur
own sake, as well as theirs, let us do something