Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-09-18
ed of the best blood and the bravest

ANOs ccs
ed of the best blood and the bravest
men of Missouri"
Claiborne f. Jackson, governor of
Missouri, joined us in a day or two
after we commenced operations before
Lexington. Here he was Joined by his
children, and had for some little time
the society of his family. He issued q
proclamation on the 2lst of September,
reciting the invasion Of the sovereign
state of Missouri by the armies of the
federal government, who were then in
possession of Jefferson City, and called
the legislature to meet in special aud
extraordinary session at Neosho, in
Newton county, on the 2lst day OF
October, 1861
General Fremont ordered Gen. Jim
Lane on the 18th to make diversion in
favor of Mulligan. This diversion
was made in this manner. On the
came day that Lexington fell and Null
ligan surrendered to Price, there oc-
CURED on the border of Missouri and
Kansas, near the northwest corner of
Cass county aud the southwest of Jack.
son, one of those disgraceful events
that characterized the border war as
the most infamous of American history.
1t was a scandal on American civiliza-
ton and a disgrace to the cause of the
Union.
On that border there had formerly
been feeling of hostility, on the part
of the MissOurians who had early set
tied there with their slave property, to
the organization of Kansas as q terri
tory and its admission as state. The
violent opposition to the Kansas
Nebraska bill was the result of feel
ing OF insecurity to their property and
social institutions, and had, as all will
recollect, produced trouble and blood
shed in the territory. The frauds per-
petrated by both parties in settling
emigrants and carrying elections to de-
termine the institutions of the inchoate
state had at one time produced con-
ditiOn of things bordering on war
John Brown had been defeated at
Ossawatomie, when Missourians with
organized forces from the southern
states had endeavored to repel the
settlement of Kansas by persons whom
they deemed inimical to their social
and business interests, and who were
believed, and in many instances known,
to have been sent AZ emissaries to vote
and not as permanent residents. The
power, influence, and wealth of the
northern states had been successful in
securing the admission OF Kansas as q
free state, and when that was done the
Missourians yielded their cause and
submitted to the apparently expressed d
will of the people. Probably 10
better evidence OF the grace aud good
faith with which they submitted to the
decision is needed, than the fact that,
in the presidential contest of 1860, Mis-
souri, cast her electoral vote for Stephen
A. Douglas, the author of the Kansas
Nebraska bill, and the expounder OF
the obnoxious theory of "squatter
sovereignty" The vote of Missouri
was, think, the only vote Mr.. Doug
las received in the electoral college.
The good faith of the Missourians is
further evidenced by the constant good
offices by the people on the border ex-
tended to the new, actual settlers along
the line on the Kansas side. The Kan.
sas squatters were poor, and the Mis-.
sourians afforded them the aid and
neighborly Offices so honorably charac-
teristic of the settlers OF a new cOun-
try. They loaned them seed corn and
assisted them in opening their farms,
helped to snbsist them till they could
make q crop and open their lands.
There was known to exist the kindesi
feeling toward actual emigrants, but OF
course no admiration of or good feel
ing toward the fanatics and reckless
a n anti yk,0
ing sectional prejudices and melting to
acts OF predatory hostility against Mis-
souri,.
The fall before the border had been
in constant state of excitement, and
murder, arson, aud outrage, always
ancillary to pillage, had been practiced
under the auspices Of Col MontgoEi-
cry, who had invaded Missouri In the
fall and winter of 1860, and the COVER
nor had felt it necessary to call out in
November the militia, under General
Frost, to drive them out of the state.
1t was on this border and in this par.
ticular neighborhood, in Jackson and
Cass counties. that Charles Quantrell
performed his first exploit in exposing
and defeating a lawless predatory ex.
cursion into jackson county, ostensibly
to liberate slaves, but really for pillage
and murder. The irregular bands of
narauders,t to whom had been given the
name of "Jayhawkers," had little other
sentiment in their warfare or object
than plunder. That they could not
forgive their neighbors of Missouri for
holding slaves was the ostensible pre-
tense i'll most cases upon which thew
assumed the right to rob and burn and
outrage. There were, it was true,
some with whom the sentiment amount
ed to fanaticism, who belonged to the
same class with the old Puritan, who
was never to be reconciled to .the
Apocryha in the Bible"
On the same day, as l have stated.
that Mulligan surrendered, ,Jayhawkers
or Kansas militia, in the service of the
United States, made sudden incureion
into Cass and jackson counties. They
were from twelve to fifteen hundred
strong, commanded by Gen. James
Lane, then United States senator from
Kansas, Col. Jennison, and the noted
Montgomery. They commenced a
series of murders and outrages, per-
petrated with a refued cruelty and
bravado that would have shamed the
savage atrocity of the wild Apaches.
They killed, in the presence OF their
families and neighbors, Robert Hunter,
John V. Sublett, DR.. Goodson, a man
named Irving, and two others, having
first had each man dig his own grave.
Every thing of value was carried off
that they could transport. Cattle,
horses, wagons loaded with provisions,
money, arms, and all articles of value,
were taken away, and what was left
was consigned to the flames. Women,
with young infants in their arms, had
to escape from their blazing homes; the
sick, the aged, and the helpless young
were driven out, and the neighbOrhood
made desOlation. Thomas Sublett, a
lieutenant in Eugene Irving's regiment,
who was then at home, and brother of
the one just mentioned as killed, fed
on his horse, but halted to witness the
destruction. He counted seventeen
houses blazing at once from his position
on the high prairie ,as he turned his face
to go to PrIce's army. The Jawhawk-
ers burnt the village OF Morristown,
which they had pillaged in the month
of June. This town was about ten
miles west of Harrisonville. A belt of
country some six miles wide aud fifteen
miles long was burnt and pillsged bythis
command, led by a United
Sfatas capatnr onA oEoaro