Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-02-18

Thus outraged, the people soon rallied in
resistance to this usurpation, and your
speaker had the honor to preside at the first
meeting pledged in advance to resist
pretended laws. a meeting addressed with
great eloquence and power by Hon. Martin
F. Conway, who publicly threw up his COM
declared that he would not sit in body
thrust upon the people by fraud and vio-
lence.
The anticipations of the free state men in
the acts of a legislature thus elected were
more than realized. 1t not only passed the
entire barbaric code of Missouri but it added
TO all the infamy of the most infamous legis-
lative bodies by making the acts of the COM
monest Humanity towards despised race a
capital offence, and the mere declaration
that slavery "did not legally exist in Kan
sas," punishable with not les, than two years
in the penitentiary. At that period there
were but three pronounced free state papers
effect on the 18th day of September, 1855,
and this audience will pardon the apparent
egotism if I present and read my own de-
nunciation of that law in the Kansas Tribune
| on the very day that it took effect, in large
I letters, on full page of that paper, % fol-
lows:
THE DAT OF oUR EsLAvEXNT.
To-day, September Is, 1856, is the day on
which the ubiquitous enactment Of the ille-
gitimate, illegal and fraudulent Legislature
have declared commences the prostration of
| the right of speech and the curtailment Of
| the liberty of the press. To-day commences
an era in Kansas which, unless the sturdy
voice of the people, backed, if necessary, by
| ''strong arms and the sure eye" shall teach
| the tyrants who attempt to enthrall Us, the
lesson which our fathers taught the kirgly
tyrants of old, shall PROSTATE US in the dust.
and make US the slave of an oligarchy worse
thnn the veriest depotism on earth.
To day commences the operation OF Law
which declares: ''Sec. Il. If any free per-
son, by speaking or by writing, assert or
| maintain that persons have not the right to
hold slaves in this territory, or shall in.
troduce into this territory, print, publish,
write, circulate or cause to be introduced
into this territory, written, printed, pub
lished or circulated in this territory any
book, paper, magazine, pamphlet or circu-
lar, containing any denial of the right of
persons to hold slaves in this territory, such
person shall be deemed guilty of felony and
punished by imprisonment at hard labor for
term of not less than two years"
Now We do assert and declare, despite all
the bolts and bars of the iniquitous legis-
lature of Kansas, that persons have not
the right to hold slaves in this territory"
and we will emblazen it upon our banner in
letters SO large and in language so plain that
the infatuated invaders who elected the
Kansas legislature, as well as that corrupt
and ignorant legislature itself, may under.
stand it, so that, if they cannot read, they
may spell it out, and mediate and deliber.
ate upon it: and we hold that the man who
fails to utter this self-evident truth, on &C
count of the insolent enactment alluded to,
is poltroon and slave, worse
than the black slaves of our prosecutors and
oPpressors.
The constitution of the United States, the
great magma charta of American liberties,
guarantees to every citizen the liberty of
speech and the freedom of the press. And
this is the first time in the history of Amer
lea that body claiming Legislative powers
has dared to attempt to wrest them from
the people. And it is not only the right, but
the bounden duty of every freeman to spuru
with contempt, and trample under foot an
enactment which thus basely violates the
rights of freemen. For our part, we do, anC
shall continue to, utter this truth SO long as
we have the power of utterance, and nothing
but the brute force of an overbearing tyranny
can prevent Us.
Will any citiZen-any free American
brook the insult of an inSOlent gag law, the
work of legislature elected by bullying
rufians who invaded Kansas with arms, and
whose drunken revelry and insults to ouI
peaceable, unoffending, and comparatively
nnarmed citizens, were disgrace to man.
hood, and a burlesque upon popular republi-
IAN government. If they do, they are slaves
already, and with them freedom is but 9
mockery."
This denunciation was followed by as bold
1tterances by the Free State and the Herald
IF Freedom. The little band of settlers had
thus presented to them the alternative of re-
siStance or of slavery. The same body
required every voter to swear to support this |
very law, as we'll as all the enactments OF
that body and all fugitive slave laws.
The day of conflict was not long delayed |
The murder of Charles w. Dow, a free state |
man, by Franklin N. Coleman, slavery,
and the arrest of Branson and his rescue by |
free state men, was followed by an invasion
of 200 men from Missouri, threatening
death, destruction and determination to
every man who dared resist the enforcement
OF the tyrannlcal enactments referred to; |
but the scattered settlers rallied to the de- |
Tense of the doomed city of Lawrence, and, |
while less than half the number of their |
enemies, CALAMITY defended the town for a |
full week, when compromise was effected
through Gov. Shannon with Gems. Robinson |
and Lane. During this seige Thomas W.
Barber, one of the purest and best of Kansas |
men, was murdered by a band of guerrillas,
portion of the invading hosts. Thence
onward war really existed in Kansas almost
COutluudlly illA tlc commencement OF inc
rebellion.
r. p. Brown, free state man Of Leaven-
worth county, was cruelty murdered on the
Goth day of December, and with his mortal
wounds was carried to his wife, with merely
strength to say before his death, IL have
been cruelty murdered without cause" and
then he died. A short cessation followed
during part of the winter, but was renewed
in early spring, the arrest of Colonel s. N.
Wood by Sheriff Jones, being the exciting
cause. Hoyt, Stewart, Jones and others of
moderate free state men, became martyrs to
freedom. and system of robbery, rapine
and murder unparalleled followed.
After these outrages old John Brown, of
Ossawatomie fame. executed five of the lead
ing spirits in the murderous war which had
preceded. Terrible az the retribution was,
its effect was almost magic: the spirit of muir
der was checked, but large bodies were SUBJ
organized, and Forts Saunders,
Titus, Hickory Point, Franklin, Lecompton
and other places became the Notifications
and rendezvous of the pro-slavery forces.
Robinson, John Brown, Jr., G. W. Brown. of
the Herald of Freedom, G. w. Smith, VIII
lams, Jenkins and others were made pris-
oners on charges of treason. The free state