Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-03-03

But If the exigency was only anticipated,
it is not perceived how authority is to be
drawn from either or both, to employ
military force to disperse men because they
were elected and organized without
law"
This is~a -efy =sagaeious- remark, and
Mr.: Secretary Davis WAS. unable TO sec,
when his eyes wore strained TO see some
thing, no one else will ever see. .------a.----r
In this part of thecorrespendence, Sum
ner lth of August) makes a comment
on the Missourians, which sufficiently
describes them, their objects aud motives:
The Missourians were perfectly salts
fed so long as the troops were enIployeF
exclusively against the Free State party;
but when they found that would be strict
ly impartial that lawless mobs could no
longer come from Missouri, and that their,
interference with the affairs of Kansas was
brought to an end, then they Immediately
raised a hue and cry that they were .op-
pressed by the United States troops..S 10
Col Sumner's testimony is. no longer
needed to show that the Kansas Legisla-
TUE pro slavery was in reality the crea-
ton OF "LAwLEss MODS" Tke House of
| Representatives have just declared-by a
vote to repeal all its acts-that the miser-
able b5dy which enacted laws against light
knowledge aud liberty and, WAS mere
fraud-the creation Of oppression, and a.
! living monument Of human iniquity.
Let us take one other historical scene as
exhibited in the daguerreotypes of the
! War Department. This was the last.
Missouri invasion, and its final repulse
In the latter end of August General
] Lane had advanced into Kansas and fright
ened the Pro-Slayery men nearly out of
! their senses. Shannon, who was the Gov
\ ernor, called out the mttstia--in other
I words, thesI Missouri marauders-who
came over to the number of two thousand,
On the Goth of August, General Persfer
+. Smith thus charactcrizes this proceed
ing:
1 sin tho force thus called out, and which
will be acting under the regular govern
ment of the Territory, will undoubtedly
be incorporated all the parties that come ,
armed from. Missouri, raised under the ex-
citement | have already spoken of, and
when they feel themselves strong enough.
4 they will, undoubtedly attack their oppo-
nents, who are prepared to resist them.---
As the army can only act in aid of, and
subordinate to, the civil authority, it can
not array itself against the representatives
Of that very authority, and L sec no way
i'll which it can prevent collision brought
about by the government of the Territory
itself and in the exercise of its functions.
: 1t is gross absurdity to pretend that the
men brought in here lately are bona ttde
settlers; they are hired and paid to get pos
session Of the country, but the result will
: be q national calamity. When blood is
, shed once it will be impossible to say where
; it is to stop -.. .r..
At the time when the military array Of
~ -. Il .tbA Stata
. men of Lawrence stood confronting each
other, Gen. p. f. Smith wrote to the War
Department the following pregnant pas
sage, which we commend TO the consider
\ alton of every reader: ,.r .,.
| Until the day before yesterday l was
deficient i'll force to opefiLc aSaimst, all
: these at once; and the acting Governor OF
a the Territory did not seem to me to take n
/ right view of affairs. If Mr.. Ate hison
= and his party had had the direction Of AZ,
I, fairs, they could not have ordered them
S more to suit his purpose. Iapprove, there
j fore highly OF Col Cookies refusal to
| send command to Topeka, which not only
s would or might have resulted in the death
e of two or three hundred ctizens on the
e mere vague denuhciation of the acling
e Governor. but would have insured the alb
, sence of the troops from the neighborhood
= of Lawrence at the time wher. he Mlssou-
e rians and Kansas militia, Under the author
, ity of the acting Governor, proposed at
e tacking it, .ol.U - .rgsi = sl -s.J
3 The acting Governor was Daniel Wood
) son, and he had prepared everything for
= the massacre of several hundred FREQ State
n men at LAWRENCE General opinion says
Il he could not have ordered things moro u
= suit Perhaps the whole proceeding by
= the Government III Kansas cannot be better
= characterized than by tho following OK
G tracts from Woodsons requisition on Col.
= Cooke and Cookies reply. Sept. 1st, the
;, acting Governor writes:
Your com mand, or such>a part of it as
: may be deemed necessary, will therefore
= proceed at the earliest practicable moment
e to invest the town of Topeka, and disarm
: all the insurrectionists or aggressive inva-
); ders against. the organized government of
i the Territory to be found at or near that
d poit, retaining them as prisoners, subject
" TO the order of the marshal oft Territory
c Woodson seems to have thought he was
l. the Emperor Napoleon, or Field Marshal
h Kutuzotf, whose orders to burn, pllage,
1t and destroy must be forthwith obeyed.
It The officers of the army however, are much
e better Instructed in what becomesla citizen
= OF gentleman, than the ignorant, unprin-
, cpled politicians who are too often placed
l. in power. ''.i n. Ff'tb Z tYf
i Col. Cooke (Sept. p quotes the order
II of the Adjutant General to Col. Sumner.
IS that it was only when armed resistance is
h offered to the lars that the troops are au-
"a thorized to act. They had no authoritytd
make war on Free State men, to suit the
: piratie pur poses Of the Missouri rufiians
s Col. Cooke well and pointedly says:
|. ''No specification of resistance by the
N people OF Topeka is made in your fequi-