People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1895-07-04
Jim Lane as a Soldier.
By John Speer.


English with considerable accur-
acy. Hearing that | was from
Lawrence, he said: Gen. Lane
lives there" eyes; what do you
know of Lane?" 81 read of him
in Sweden" I'm documents OF
papers from this country
4Some; but l read his Springfield
(Mo.) speech in the Stockholm
Journal. That speech notified
Missouri slave holders that no
slaves would be returned, and
ended up by saying that "if the
army is to be used to perpetuate
slavery, Jim Lane breaks his
sword and goes home"
The shot fired at Lexington
when Paul Revere dismounted
was heard around the world.
The speech of Lane to Missouri
slave holders resounded at least
as far around the world as Sweden.
The people on the border of
our neighboring state, Missouri,
imbibed against Lane an innate
hate. Why? Who can tell? 1t
was most irrational prejudice.
John Brown, whether we view
him as a philanthropist or ia
natic, was honest in his ideas;
but he was aggressive. From
the Missouri standpoint that to
be an abolitionist and approve
slavery was worse than rapine or
murder. There was sense in
hatred Of him. John Brown stole
niggers." Lane never did-at
least, not till he entered the army
as a soldier. To hang Brown
was consistency. For five years
after he came to Kansas Lane
never uttered a word to incite a
slave. He told them to keep
their institution and he asked
them to let Kansas decide only
for herself. He recognized it as
solely comfortable by the people
of Missouri. He even remained
Quiesccnt on the subject in the
territory Of Kansas until after they
invaded our territory with arms,
stuffed the ballot boxes and made
Flaws" to send him to the peni-
Tertiary for two years, if he dared
to express an opinion that "slav-
cry did not legally exist in Kan
sas,' and to disfranchise him
unless he would swear to support
slavery.
His campaigns in Missouri dur
ing the war were the results oil
the border ruffian war made upon
Kansas in its helpless infancy.
He led the kansas Brigade" in
to the very region which had
poured its legions into Kansas,
overawed its inhabitants, stuffed
its ballot boxes, usurped the off,
ces, legislative and municipal, sat
in its legislative halls and made
its laws. That revenge should be
taken by his soldiers would be
natural. The men on the border
who had invaded every locality
in Kansas, and under the plea Of
pressing property" to sustain a
code more infamous than he'd
ever been enacted even in a slave
state, stole their horses, appro-
prlated their goods and murdered
their kindred, and were then in
rebellion against the American
Union, were not class Of people
to secure the highest tokens Of
consideration and sympathy.
The army would be more than
human from whom we could ex-
pect that. In their forays upon
the Kansas border bushwhackers
and guerrillas had massacred
more men than were killed in
battle in proportion to the adult
male inhabitants.
The Kansas Brigade protected
the people from these incursions
as long as Lane had command
He repulsed Gen. Sterling Prices
raids at Drywood, near Fort
Scott, when Price had five times
as many as his. number of well
drilled soldiers. Itwas master
piece Of strategy, wherein he mar.
ialed his entire force as his ad.
vance guard, the very boldness o
which led Price to believe that he
had a competent army in the real
for his support. Any other poll
cy would have left Fort Scott t.
death, destruction and pillage
and all the surrounding country
to more than the usual calamitie
of war. He commanded a brig
ade without a commission, ant
subsisted himself without pay; n,
oath to serve his country or t
obey the constitution was eve