The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1859-07-30
o,x s,d. of IL. Stow

ing to be acting under process of law, who
destroyed one small cylinder, mammoth
size Taylor's Printing machine, the cost
of which, in New York, was s2,25o. and
which was but slightly Injured by pre-
vious service, and which cost to get it to
Kansas. from $500 to 500; also one en-
tirely new No. Taylor's Washington
press, with patent linking apparatus, cost
ing in Kansas, as we can show by bills in |
our possession, $579 also one cap job-
bling press one imposing stone and frame;
an unusually large amount Of jobbing
type, including expensive fonts of border,
fourishes, numbsrless cuts, &c. j.; some
1,400 pounds of news and advertising
type, besides roller moulds, chases, col
umn rules, and in short, the entire para
phernalia of an extensive printing office,
the estima ted cost of which, before leaving
Pennsylvania, in 1854, as may be seen in
the New York Tribune of that season, and
in the Boston newspapers, was $4,000.
The Office was selected and made COM
plete with an expectation of doing the
Territorial printing, and was more expen-
sive than the Office we are now using,
which cost upwards of $4,000.
Besides the loss of the printing Office
proper. qur entire stock of material for
the season arrived on the steamer Lizzie
the Friday previous to its destruction.
This was all lost.
Then we brought out with us large
stock of school and miscellaneous books,
for sale, costing about $500. These were
either entirely lost or rendered valueless.
Our library, embracing many choice
and very valuable publications; also COM
plete bound files of the Congressional
Globe and Appendix for some twelve or
fourteen years, were destroyed.
To these losses were added large
number of other items, including horse,
saddle. bride, pair of reyolvers, bowie
knife, injury to building in setting it on
fire, &C., making in the aggregate for the
whole loss about $4,000. To this we
added the item of damages, and before
the Commissioners claimed for the whole
some SIT 900. They allowed us in the
vicinity of 81, 800, that being the amount
fully established by evidence. Instead
of assessing the damages in the manner
we claimed, they allowed six per cent
per annum on the value of the property
proved to have been destroyed, from the
date Of its destruction to the rendition o.
the award.
Without referring to the evidence, o.
the character of it, which we might say
was made ur by men who were acquaint
ed with all the facts, ard whose state
ments can be relied upon anywhere, W,
take pleasure in saying that Immediately
after the destruction of the office, we saw
statement of our loss going the round
of the Republican papers, and copied, prob
6 ably, by every one of them, in which it wa
put down at $4,000.
This statement did not originate will
US, for up to that time, and long after, VI
were prohibited from holding conmuni
cation with the outer World, being pris
oner at Lecompton, under the strictes
surveillance.
Without our knowledge or consent
either expressed or implied, a petition
was presented by Others to Congress, +;
: majority of which was Republican, ask
: ing remuneration for our losses. Thi
= was referred to q Committee, who exam
y ined the matter, and we are assured tina
t after hearing such evidence as our friend
9 saw fit TO present. aoit5out aaviscment nit
3 us, a bill was reported, and passed through
two of its readings, and would have fl
S nally passed but for want of time, appro
d priating eleu thoaSanL dollars from til
a federal treasury, to remunerate us.
Il After max ng all tho political capita
possible, in 1856, representing our losse
3 as So very great /; representations, toJ
made by R publican correspondents, an,
circulated n and wide by Republican
. journals, sw orn to by Republicans befor
: Congressional Committees, and allowed
by Republican Congress, the Empori
: Neos leads off in an attack upon US, anc
y says our losses did not exceed S1.4OO
The Lawrence Republican,, with its char
acteristic neanneSs, and the remnants o
those three broken presses in full view
from its flee window, the cost of which
in New York, as its specimen book wouIC
T. have shown, was $2,729, maIiciously al
leges the loss did not exceed sixteen hun
bred dollars.
MIR. CUMMINGS, of the Topeka Tribune
who was typo in the Office in the spriD,
of 1855, prior to the arrival of the powe
!. press, steam engine, &C., ignorant of tn
amount of stock destroyed, the value o
the library, the stock of school and mis-
cellsneous books, estimates it at SIS, GOV
IFm. a. Philips, "the Brougham Ink
Scotchman," without knowing anythin,
about the cost of the material, or th,
amount of it, only as he saw the remnant
of the Office after its destruction, swear
before the Commissioners on Claims, a
> we are informed, that he though: the los
about 81 800, thong h he admitted that h
did not 60 to the bottom of the river t.
see what amount of type and materia
was thrown in there. In his testimony
however, he incidentally introduced the
important evidence that Mr.. GREEN, VIII,
was foreman at the time of the destruc.