The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-03-06

slavery and party elements had the DOW
or in Congress to bind Kansas in the
thrall of that constitution. Frauds
were charged, but denied. The battle
wavcrcd. Nothing but the exposure of
these frauds, shocking The moral sense
of the nation, and making tie glaring
wrong impossible, could give victory
to the people. Such exposure would
save Kansas TO freedom, and prevent
lout of the enforcement of a constitution
ION aprotesting people. The Territori-
tal Legislature, F'cc-State because of
Gov. Walkers rejection of the fradu-
lent returns, seconded our friends at
Washington byinstitnting aninsestiga-
ton. They appointed a committee to
inquire. Calhoun, determining they
should not see the returns, fled to Mis-
lsouri. His chief clerk remained to
manage all. Putting ON an air of con-
scious innocence, he ventured to q ball
at the Eldridge House, in Lawrence.
While on thc floor, the finger of an Of
ficer touched him on the shoulder, and
he followed into the presence of the
committce. There he swore that Cal
houn had taken the returns to Missouri
The dance '.wcnt on" and joy.g with
him, twas unconfincd." The public
knows that on the second morning
thereafter, the Frec-State Sheriff OF
Douglas county, with posse, found the
returns in candle box under the wood
pile at Leco1npton, and took them be-
fore the committee. But who put them
there, and when? Who saw it done
and how? Who told Sheriff Walker
and gave him diagram so true that he
went straight to the spot? Who took
the caps from the forty muskcts in the
! tSurveyors's Office in the night, when tho
office was locked and in their possession
! and so saved Walker and his party from
bloodshed and defeat? No newspapers
no historian, no public speaker ha,
told us. s@9 -,
The reasons why they have not
known, have passed away. The
lives of men no longer depend
on secresy. Assassination would
, have followed an exposure then. But
now, between the parties who laid their
plots of purjury and fraud to enslave
Kansas, and us who planned their expo
sure, the fiery tide of civil war has roll
ed, and between some, the still more
impossible gulf Of death. There are
but two men in Kansas who know the
facts am about to. relatc-theL writer
, who helped plan, and the sheriff who
helped execute the exposure of theii
yillainies. Some arc dead and somc
: are gone far off. 1t is proper that be
fore the secret is forever: locked ava,
III the coffin of the last suryivor-noN
= that no death or danger turks in disclo
:. Esure-I should break the seals of tel
3 years of silence. l owe it TO history
and heroic men who never were fairly
understood in Kansas / am therefore
! glad at last, in the presence Of this His
torical Society of the State, at this, it
, first meeting, to unlock the treasury o
, memory and make my contribution t.
:, justice and to history at the same time
With these explanations l proceed t.
=. give the story of
HOW IT WAS DISCOVERED.
There was a group ofPennsylvanian
:, constituting the family of Gen. Win
= Brindle, Receiver of the Land Oifico' 4
y Lecompton. They were himself, MR.
: BrindIe, Ned Wynkoop and Hardma
and Harry Petrikin. They were oil
; Pennsylvania friends, whose house wa
my home when was about LecomI
A ton. They occupied the log house We
- Gated by Gov. Geary-the Governmer
= muskcts all remaining in it.
= These were stored i'll the cellar and Il
:. stairs-enough of them loaded and :
- hand for emergencies. I used to sleep u
:. stairs with the. ''boys." We six wei
= the conspirators against the Calhoun
ites-a woman in the plot, as you see
80 She was wiser in counsel and as BRAY
:. as Joan of Arc, and i'll her veins ia
l. 1.-THE best heroic blood of Pennsylvania
= the blood of the Wynkoops. In tho.
- dark days and darker nights when a
% sassination lurked in alleys and prov
= led upon the streets and listened throuo
"a the key holes, we whispered or quietl
,a muttcred many an hour away togethe
OF the six, Brindle is back in Pennsy
vania-impracticab in some things
: he was thought to be, perhaps-but n
=. bile, generous, brave and patriotic "Ha
!; Try" is there too; Ned Wynkoop is Il
IA Colonel of the plains, agent of the Ind
:. ans; "Hard7 is in Union soIdiel
grave; and our heroine-all that /
:, mains of her-is memory among b
!. friends as pure as the PennsyivaI
y SHOWS under which, this hour, she sleel
: If Kansas knew how bravely she ST
tanned the weak and prosecuted rig
A. she would cnshrine her among the hs
of Dimes of her history.
IT. The Walker policy of popular rig
ron you see, was at war with the Calho
ole policy ofpro-slavery fraud. Men to
+ sides for life or death in Lecompt.
=; Brindie was the bold leader of
a.. Walker party there He was intense
- zeal, intense in hate, intense in den,
citation. He had been Major in
90 Mexican war and believed in fight
a. duty. He never went on the sire
- without his brace of revoIyers.
- was good shot and ready for an alta
tod He had singular way of advocaf
No slavery but of being ready to die to q
e. the people . chance to make Kansa
- : free State. He has been greatly mis-,