Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1856-10-23
KANSAS,
KANSAS.
Appeal of the Leavenyor.h Sufferers,
Fort LEAvENwoRTH, X. T.,
o+L
3 Me citizens 81 "a Inited lStntea


To the citizens Of the United States.
We, residents of Kansas Territory.
and previous to September lst, citizens
of Leavenworth City, herein present the
following brief and impartial statement
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, home
less, bOuSeleSS and breddleSs.
We assert, and call Heaven to witness,
that the Free State men Of Leavenworth
City We're quiet, peaceable, law-abiding
and an industrious people, asking no
privileges of government or its patron
age; demanding no right but those guar
anteed by the Constitution and human
ity. Nevertheless, on Sunday evening,
August 3lst, a large body of armed
men, mostly Missourians and Georgians,
commanded by certain notorious Cap
tain EMORY, who figured conspicuouslv
in WALKERS famous piratical expedi-
ton, entered Leavenworth City, with
banners flying, and paraded the streets
until next morning, calling upon all the
pro-slavcry men to come out and fall in
to the ranks, and at the same time tel
ling all others to leave the Territory by
the first boat, heralding each call and
notice by a bugle blast, and repeating
them at every door. Early on the en-
suing morning the same gang of des-
peradoes, by large accessions from the
gambling shops and saloons, already be-
come dense mob, reiterated the call
and notice of the previous evening, and
commenced the work of plunoley ana
o'ttrage, whose onormity was only less
astounding than the impmitywith which
| it was committed.
ReSidenceS acere f0rcibly entered ana
searched aciMoa1 the leaSt Shadoac oflo,c.
Warehouses arere p}toedered and stores
aoere 6,~oea, eoithout any effort at ia-
terfereAce BIZ the cicH authorities, al
though acjthae sight Of Fort Leacea,
acorth, 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 opportuni
| ty to make any disposition OF their eff
fleets, or any arrangements for the main
tenance Of their families Among them
were DIR. $. Norton and Mr.. n. Nc
Cracker, both extensively and favora
ably known as business men and valua
BILE citizens. Others, 10 avoid a similar
fate, fled to the Fort, barely escaping
with their lives, destitute of food oil
clothing. Such an exodus may ou
country never again see. Pale mothers
with infants but Il few weeks old, other:
from the sick bed wild with dclirium O.
fever. For all such the only place Of re
fuge was the open andunoccupied parade
ground or the unfinished barracks withou
doors or windows, which were procurc(
thro' the influence of one Of the officers o
the Fort, save when some soldier shared
the scanty accommodations of his ten
with those whom but a day before he
had envied III their honest and comfor
table competence.
No sooner had these unfortunate PEG
pie vacated their hard earned homes
than their houses were occupied by the
lcOrtHiesS m0rd'tderS, their provisions
were consumed, their furniture stolen OF
destroyed, trunks and boxes of valuable
goods broken open and rifed of every
thing that could be appropriated to the
use of the heartless and inhuman plum
derers.
Thus robbed, despoiled, and remov
ed from the possibility of obtaining by
labor the means of subsistence, we find
ourselves, for the first time in our lives
friendless and pcnnyless, thrown upon
the charities Of the world, perhaps topper
ish by hunger and cold in the winter
But we trust that a generous public vii
see that we are provided 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 for
ward Immediately their contributions to
the National Kansas Committee, at Chi
cago, Illinois.
In behalf of the sufferers,
| DAVIS