The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1859-05-28
A RaViaX.

pealed the Missouri Compromise, and !
made the question of freedom or slavery
for Kansas and Nebraska a race between
the lovers of freedom and the propagan-
dists of slavery. The incidents of that !
eventful year must be fresh in the minds
of every person who had arrived to ma.
ture years.
Some had contemplated tho result |
months before the great outrage was con-
summated, and had begun TO prepare for
it. They only saw an escape from making !
those Territories slave States, by going /
forward, and contesting upon the soil, un-
der the principles of squatter sovereignty,
the issue with shareholders. In March of
that year, before any organized movement
was made in any quarter, journalist in
q secluded town in western Pennsylvania,
announced his determination 10 raise a
colony and settle in Kansas at an early
day, his sole object being to erect again
the barrier between freedom and slavery,
which, it was apprehended, Congress was
about to break down. On the 1st Of May,
of that year, he announced that he had
two hundred names registered TO accom-
pany him on that journey. Agreeably to
his plan he hurried his business to close,
and as soon as he could possibly detach
himself from an enterprise which he had
struggled on through years to build up.
he came TO Kansas, and since then has
labored in season and out of season to ac-
complish the end in view.
The Union Emigration society, of Wash
ington, of which Hon. j. z. GooDBIcH
was President, was organized soon after
the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Bill,
probably about the 1st of june. Il never
amounted to anything.
The Emisrant Aid Company was frst
chartered by the Massachusetts, Legisla-
ture, sometime in the Spring of 1854, I'M
der the influence of Hon. ELI THAYER,
then member of that body. The char
ter bore date April 26, 1854, but the Or
ganization under it accomplished little or
nothing, and new company was organ
lied in June, of which A. A. Lawrence,
Eli Thayer, and j. S. NJ. Williams were
Trustees. In July they obtained a char
ter from the Legislature of Connecticut,
and operated under it until the following
winter, when they procured new charter
from the Legislature of Massachusetts,,
under which that organization now has
existence.
The New York Kansas League, and
the American Settlement Company, the
former probably organized in July or
August, and the latter in August or Sep
TENDER of 1854, were also important aids
in the movement of colonizing Kansas.
These were the means which have made
Kansas free, backed up, as they have been,
by thousands of strong hearts, who broke
loose from all the attachments of home,
friends aud early associations, and have
come here, defying every impediment in
the way, and have struggled amid penu-
~, disease and Border Ruffians, in quest
of tho great boon they wished to secure
freedom for Kansas, and barrier to the
further progress of slavery.
Those who had foresight sufficient to
observe the end from the beginning, were
conscious that the success of the move.
ment in making Kansas free, lay in pour
ing into the Territory an immense cmisra-
ton, and overcoming the South by "a pre-
ponderance of population. 1t was to this
end every active friend of Kansas strug-
glcd, and from the first they commenced
speaking Of the beauty of the country, its
fertile soil. salubrious climate, attractive
scenery, and the many other inducements
to settle in the Territory. Instead Of
magnifying the difficulties of emigration
and settlement by newspapers, pamphlets
and speeches, they showed how the many
natural disadvantages could be overcome,
and to enable the pioneers to resist vic.
lence successfully, arms were placed in
their hands.
But there were obstacles which it was
moro difficult to surmount, and which was
q drawback from the inception of the
Kansas movement. We allude to the
discouragements of the newspaper press
When the KsN4ss-Nebraska Bill FIRST be.
came law, they commenced mourning
the loss of the Territory to freedom, and
showed how slavery had won, and would
win in the race. Every effort freemer
could devise to defeat the machinationi
of the slave power. they said would prove
abortiye. Column after column of argu
ments were published to show that free
men had no chance in the contest, anc
not single bright ray was introduced t.
illuminate the gloom. When men begar
to go forward from the East they wen
with fear aud trembling. because of tn,
frightful tales these newspapers had pub
lished.
As soon as settlements began to be mad,
in the Territory, they began to send for
ward their correspondents, not to spy ou
the beauties of the goodly land, but t.
speak Of the discOuragemen.s to emigra
ton, aud to prevent it from coming here
a. If to make their words true, that Kan
saGwonld be a slave State.
When ths TsFiipry was ovsnun B,
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