The Kansas herald of freedom., 1856-12-20
TERMs.-saoO PER Assux. Is ADVANCE.
The Lesson Taught by Kansas.


Any candid and impartial observer
must be struck with the wide differ
eHee between the state of society ex-
listing in the free and the slave States.
IL has often astonished us to find in
Kansas persons Of seeming intelligence
who desired to Introduce the curse of
slavery in our midst. and to blight its
fair prospects by this evil. We haz-
ard nothing in saying, that morally.
intellectually and physically. the in
habitants of the free North are supe-
rior to those of the South; and that,
therefore. there is more of the ele-
ments of prosperity in the institutions
among which they are reared, than
there is in those the Southern oil
garchy have sought. by fraud, vio-
lence and bloodshed, to fasten upon
as. No where is the truth of the
above proposition SO apparent, as at
the present moment, in Kansas. We
have here population composed,
. mainly. of poor but intelligent farm
ers. mechanics, and working-men, from
the Eastern, Middle and Western
States of this Union, who come out
with their families and their little all,
to seek on the fertile soil Of Kansas,
home and competence. For over
two years have they lived here, with
out law or the barriers that more set
tied society impose upon its MEM
bers. subject to prosecutions unparal-
elled, outrages the most fiendish, and a
system of terror that the annals of the
first French revolution can scarcely
equal yet, we believe, that apart from
the wrong acts which have been COM
initted during the war, and such as
have grown out of those difficulties,
no section of the Union can show a
record SO clear of crime, during the
same period, as Kansas. Most of
those crimes, even, will be found to
have been committed by members OF
the opposite party from the southern
States. We have no where seen
communities where less drunkenness
exists, or where the tone of society is
more moral, than in our various Free
State settlements.
No sooner had the war ceased, In
September last, on the arrival of Gov
GEARy. than our people engaged al
once in their usual avocations. With
greater readiness than they showed in
taking up arms, to defend their rights,
they resumed the neglected nipple
ments of industry. Everywhere in
the Free State towns. buildings might
be, seen rising as if by magic, and
the familiar sounds of the axe, the
saw and the plane was heard fal
sweeter music, to our ears, than thu
report Of the rifle and the whistle o.
the bullet. School meetings abound
literary associations are projected, ant
earnestly the people of Kansas seek t.
lay the foundations of a gloriou!
State. Go out among the farmers
and the same state of things will b
found there. You will find the men
who were but lately in the ranks o
Freedoms army doing good service
for the cause they loved, hard at worl
upon their neglected fences, preparing
their dwellings for winter, and other
wise Improving the homes they have
struggled so hard to retain. Thi,
state of things is beautiful illustra
ton of the recuperative energy of fret
institutions. Who, in viewing it
can any longer doubt that Kansas
must Be free, or that she will thrive
best and do most for the future pro
gress of man, as Free State?
There is no such internal life in
pro-slavery society, as that we hav,
described. No energy that rise
above and superior to shocks Xix
those we have had in Kansas-tha
comes out of the conflict with renew
ed vigor and fresh courage. G,
among our people, and if you find al
idle. shiftless man, whose claim is I'm
improyed-whose fences are fallin,
from negleet-whose log cabin ha
openings large enough to put you
hand through. and through which til
cold. winter wind whistles. you may
in nine cases out of ten, set him dow
as pro>slayery nan-one OF tina
ignorant, unedncated class Of white
that the slave States spawn upon on
new Territories. There are, of course
some few of that. party who. posses
sing cspital; wrung from the toll I
slsves, keep up an appearance Of con
fort and thrift. Pro-slavery towr
may be known by the traveller in KaI
sas. BY the number of leafers. bal
rooms and whisky shops with whie
they abound, sad the dilapidated Al
pearanee of the buildings which con
pose the settlement
Slave society in those States whe
It has obtained fair footbold, Al
become the policy and rule Of the ne