The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-02-21
The 1fsfala Of Freedom.
Lawrence, Saturday, Feb. 81. 1857,
pemagogues at Home.

Erst week in January, and, in connee-
ton with Mr. Brewn, of the Herald of
Freedom, got up a petition to himself
for the pardon Of the free state convicts.
The petition was chiefly occupied with
glorifica;ion of the governor as the great
pacihcator Of Kansas. which was harm
less enough; but it contained an infer
: entail assertion that the troubles in
. Kansas had originated with eastern pol
! iticians, and several of the conYicts
eame to Lawrence and protested against
it, declaring they had rather serve out
{ their terms than be pardoned upon such
= false representations. Many who had
signed it withdrew their names, and it
was doubtful whether enough names
would be secured to justify the governor
in conferring the pardon. for which he
is more anxious than the prisoners
: Springfield Republican.
The above extracts clipped from the
columns OF the Springfield, Mass, Re
publican. 1t has been our practice to
allow such slanders to pass unnoticed !;
but to do SO now is to allow another
to be injured, when the blow was aimed
!, at us. It's principal assertions are un-
quaiifedly false. Gov. Geary was in
Lawrence, perhaps in January, but
there is not word OF truth in the as
sertion that he aided in getting up Pc
tition to himself for the pardon of the
conyicts on the contrary, the petition,
nor 10 part of it, was ever seen by him
until after the copy. with Che signatures,
was stolen from our Office, when we sent
him the original draft. We copy the
document alluded TO below, that the
reader may see how mean letter writer's
can be when they wish to be abusive
The document is just such an instru-
ment as ninety-nine hundreths of our
readers viii approve. That our troub-
les were instigated by designing pol
iticisns,' such as Atchison, Stringfel-
low, Buford, DC, is what we have al
ways maintained. 1t is baseness of
heart which prompts persons to repre-
sent that we charged such men as Sc
ward, Sumner, de-. men with whom We
have been politically associated from
our first connection with political af-
fairs. with fomentihg the difficulties in
Kansas.
The " conYicts" were stimulatedby
designing persons to oppose the petition,
and our understanding is that they did
so. One man, and one only, did erase
his name, but We believe he had per-
sonal motive in doing so. There are
about two hundred names on the petit
ton.
We do not believe Gov. Geary is
extremely anxious, "more than the
prisoners" for their Liberation. IF
properly approached, we have no doubt
he would consent TO pardon them, but
we do not believe he will change his ac-
ton or policy in the least for their ac-
commodation.
The following is the petition alluded
to-
To His Excellency, John w. Geary,
Governor of Kansas Territory -
The undersigned. your petitioners,
citizens of the Territory of Kansas, beg
leave respectfully to represent, that on
the 28th day of October last, Ephraim
BANTER, a. citizen of this Territory, was
convicted before his honor, L. D. Le-
oompte, Judge of the 1st Judicial Dis
triot Court Of the United States for the
Territory of Kansas, of an assault
with intent to kill, and was sentenced
to confinement and hard labor in the
penitentiary of this Territory. for the
termof six years. That on the 4th day
of November last, Elias Roak was con-
victed before the same honorable Court,
of similar offence, and sentenced as
above, for the term of two years. That
on the sth of November, Charles l..
Preston, Martin Jackson, Alfred j.
Paine, F. B. Swift, Alonzo Crawford,
Ezekiel d. Wbipple. Jeremiah Jordon,
Atwell Wood, Henry Hurd, E. A. ia
cobs, Horatio n. Bent, Thomas Hark-
ins, Edward Cuttingham, Samuel Stew
art, Myron Kinzler, Thomas Warner,
John Shugrue, James Black, John
Lswrie, and G. III. Calkins, were con-
victed of manslaughter, for the killing
of Chas. T. Newhall, at Hickory Point,
on the 18th of September, and were SEN
fenced to imprisonment and hard labor
for five yeals.
Your petitioners desire to state that
the offences with which each of the
above persons are charged, grew out of
political disturbances during the past
season, commencing as early as the lat
ter part of April, and continuing, with
temporary abatement, down to the peri
cd of your advent into the Territory
The assault upon Lawrence, in May, at
which the Eldridge House was destroy
ed. the two printing Offices were broken
up. and private dwellings were pillaged
aud burned, was followed by number
less other unlawful transactions, in
which, on one side or the other, nearly
every man in the Territory, of either
party, became in some manner impli-
Gated, To punish every infraetion of
the law during that period, would con-
conyertour almost entire population into
criminals, and require penitentiary of
the most spacious dimensions for their
detention.
We are not conscious that the per-
sons above named are one particle more
guilty of crime than the other eight or
ten thousand male population of the