New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-10-02
who will chow up the attempted swindle in lts true
colors.

No act Of a Government should more excite tpe
distrust and alarm Of free people than an a''oP'
to infringe "the right to keep and bear ar'h''
When Government has become so corrupt tha' II
can only enforce its laws BY employing paid SOL
dery sgains. an unarmed people then. Ii ever rev
oution becomes justifable aud necessary oucn
was the view taken of the subject BY our 'ore-
fathers and hence they inserted in the Consl'u'oH
that clause which explicitly and solemny declaio'
that "the right of the people TO keep and oe',
arms shall not be infringed." Without luis anu
the other clauses designed TO secure the rgn'' VI
conscience and personal Liberty, the Cons'l'u'iou
would never have been adopted Hence Tue At
tempt of the Administration, through its mercena-
res in Kansas, to deprive the Free-State men o'
their arms is among the greatest OF the many ou''
RACES which il has as yet committed. "neh INC
bogus Sheriff Jones, backed up by the borde' hu'.
fans and the Administration, entered the houses VI
pesceable citizens and demanded that they should
deliver up their arms he not only commil'eo an
act of robbery for which he should have been pun
ished as common burglar, but he violated oue vi
those provisions Of the Constitution whlch Tree
people should guard with the most jealous care.
In considering this subject regard should Dc nau
to the character of the inhabitants OF Kansas
They are an agricultural people, and hence less us
posed to commOtiOn and disorder than the people
of large cities. Their property Is OF mat kiiid
which is most exposed, and most easily destroyed
Their crops are their principal dependence anu
these can neither be removed on the approach Oh ah
advancing foe nor concealed from his ooSer'''on'
No kind of property is destroyed with more ease OF
defended with more difficulty than held OF eraih'
When We hear that people thus situated Win
every motive to preserve peace, and ever! ihduce-
ment to submit to even 8 considerable degree VI
oppression before bringing ruin upon themselves
by resistance have risen against code OF laws
which armed bands from another State, Aided ana
paid by the General Government, are attempting 10
enforce by robbery arson and murder, we need not
wait 10 study the details Of that code before pro-
nouncing it despotic and cruel 1t is not necessar!
10 open the huge volume which bears upon ITS back
the impudent title THE Laws OF Kansas, and
which seems TO be made up Of the mingled mean
ness, corruption and atrocty of all other tyrannlcal
codes, in order to Judge Of its character. The SIM
pie fact that it can only be enforced among peace
full agricultural people by the military arm OF the
Government enables us in advance to judge and
condemn it, But when TO this is added the fact
that the gathering of men which styled Itself a
Legislature and sought to force this code upon the
people had no more legal authority thar the Gin
cinnati Convention or the Tammany Hall General
-, . h.. KIDD A
their right to keep and bear arms be not lnfrnged.
Ii was to provide against just such emergencies as
this that our fathers inserted in the Constitution
that clause designed to protect this right OF every
freeman. They forcsaw that however carefully they
might arrange the checks and balances OF the gov
crnrnental machine its direction might at some iri
ture time, fall into such hands that it would be
necessary for the people to have at least the means
of defense within their reach.
To deprive the people of their arms has ever been
fayorite measure with dcspots. When Napoleon
WAS endeavOring to maintain his brother upon the
throne of Naples, he was continually writing to
him TO dsarm the people. Take away their
earns, he repeats time and again. "and then YOU
twill have no difficulty in keeping them down"
When too the Emperor of Austria. by the aid of
Russian bayonets and the treachery of men who
might well claim to be the political brothers OF our
northern doughiaces, had subdued the people OF
Hungary his first care was to deprive them of their
arms.
For months past the Government OF the United
States has been trying to introduce into Kansas and
put into practice this system of the despots OF
Europe. And what, we ask, would now be the
condition of the people of Lawrence had " Sherih
Jones succeeded in his attempts to steal all the
arms Of the Free-State meni Within the past
month the ruiian hordes of Missouri have advanced
10 within sight of the town, and have only retralned
from making il the OF rapine and carnage be-
cause they feared the freemen who were prepared
10 resist them with something beside remonstrances
and naked hands. 1t is for the voters of the
Union to declare, through the ballot-box, on the
18th of November. whether they will sanction this
attempt If they do, there are those living who
will see the day when hireling sOldiery will enter
the houses of our citizens 10 search for arms pre-
paratory to enforcing upon detenceless people
laws equally atrOciOus with those of Kansas