The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-08-29
From the Virginia Sentinel.
What sort of Men the Kansas Saints
and Martyrs were.

A SHORT time ago the Republican papers
contained notices of the killing Of boy and
Waffle, in Kansas, for DEMONSTRATING, and
spoke Of them as the best and most heroic of
men, who were coolly murdered by "pro-
slavery ruffians" for their frcesoil principles,
and their services in the Kansas war. The
New York Journal Of Commerce says that
another version has now come to hand, from
an undoubted Republican source, confirming
the original stories and pronouncing these
abandoned men, who at length fell victims to
their own madness, to have been what "pro-
slavery" journals have always insisted they
were, mere robbers, purdercrs, and despe-
iadoes. 1t seems that they got to preying on
their own kind; even their very neighbors
had, in selfdefence, TO slaughter these dear
friends of the human race, and their brethren
in abolition faith.
The correspondent of the Chicago Jour
nal, writing from Mound City, Linn CO., Kan
sas, July 2sth, says:
The recent tragedy in this ncighborhood-
the killing of Chas. boy and Henry Waffle
has been represented bymost of the Ter
ritorial journals as a cold-blooded murder,
without just cause or provocation." The
friends and associates Of the deceased have
seized upon the opportunity to write to Re
publican editors, declaring that boy and
Waffle were assassinatcd by pro-slavery ruff
fans, for no ofIcnse but their ant-savcry
principles There is not, however, asemblance
of truth in these reports. The unfortunate
men were killed by their own auti-slavery
neighbors-by men who have known them
intimately for ycars-by those who were
their camp associates and companions in
arms in the "Jay IIawker War" of 85S, and
they were killed only because they were the
most desperate villains of the Territory of
Kansas. For more than two years they have
been connected with a gang of thieves and
robbers, and during that time have commit
ted crimes enough to damn multitude. The
evidence of their guilt as murferers, as well
as thieves and robbers, was so clear and
strong as to amount to a complete demon
stration. They did nothing but commit
crime during the two years that preceded
their death. Hence, they were dreaded, as
no other desperadoes were ever dreaded by
the people of Southern Kansas. No one
dared to complain of them, because to do so
was to invite assassination. They admitted
to their old "Jay uawker" comrades that
they were living upon the fruits of crime,
but warned them to seal their lips if they
would spare their own lives. Hence the nc
cessity of striking them dOWn, or of not strik'
ing at all.
Probably the villains would have been
spared much longer, had they not stolen Of
those who knew them best, men who had
once saved their lives when sought by the
victims of their bold robbcries. They grew
lazy, and undertook to pursue their business
without too much travel. And in this they
lost. Waffle was shot on the morning of
the 9th, and boy on the morning of the 9TH.
The latter made a fall confession before he
was finally despatched. The house of Waffle
was relieved Of the stolen goods secreted
within its walls, and then burned to the
earth, on the morning ofthe hot Saturday.