USA > Kansas > Kansas : the prelude to the war for the union > Part 6
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News of the raid flew swiftly through the neighborhood. There was a hurried rally to over- haul Jones. On reaching Blanton he found Cap- tain J. B. Abbott with fifteen men drawn across the road to dispute his passage. " What's up ? " asked the sheriff. " That's what we want to
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know," Abbott growled. Pistols, squirrel-guns, Sharpe's rifles, were ready for business in a twink- ling. One of Abbott's men, in the absence of better armament, provided himself with two large stones and proposed to play the part of a cata- pult against the enemy. But, notwithstanding the warlike aspect of affairs, volleys of words were the deadliest missiles exchanged. out of that," somebody among the rescuers shouted to Branson, and out of it he came.
Abbott and his men hurried to Lawrence, where they arrived early in the morning. They halted at Dr. Robinson's house on Mt. Oread. " I shall never forget the appearance of the men," Mrs. Robinson wrote, " in simple citizen's dress, some armed and some unarmed, standing in un- broken line, just visible in the breaking light of a November morning. The little band of less than twenty men had ... walked ten miles since nine o'clock of the previous evening. Mr. Branson, a large man, of fine proportions, stood a little for- ward of the line, with his head slightly bent, which an old straw hat hardly protected from the cold, looking as though in his hurry of de- parture from home he took whatever came first."
Now that the rescuers had succeeded in their enterprise, they began to fear that it might lead to serious consequences, and the visit to Dr. Rob- inson was for explanation and advice. S. N. Wood, who acted as spokesman, narrated the
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events of the night. " Now what shall we do ?"
he asked in conclusion. " I am afraid the affair will make mischief," Robinson replied. "The other side will seize upon it as a pretext for in- vading the territory. Go down to the town and call a meeting at eight o'clock."
The meeting was called, and after the circum- stances of the rescue had been set forth by Wood and Branson, Robinson led off in a speech, outlin- ing the policy which was subsequently pursued - disavowal of all responsibility in the matter, dis- patch of the men who were implicated out of town without delay, and adoption of a strictly defen- sive attitude. Conway, G. P. Lowrey, and others followed in the same strain. A committee of safety was appointed and clothed with authority to take such measures of precaution as the emer- geney might require.
Upon losing his prisoner, Sheriff Jones rode to Franklin distraught betwixt conflicting emotions of rage and exultation. The success of the Yan- kees exasperated him, yet in that success he fore- saw a sure dawn of day for the pro-slavery cause - foresaw the overthrow of Lawrence and the approach of that millennial period when he would "corral all the abolitionists and make pets of them."
Jones hastened to send missives from Franklin to his friends in Missouri calling for help. It soon occurred to him that appeals to Missouri
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might have a queer look, and couriers were sent to Governor Shannon with an exaggerated ac- count of the troubles. In the judgment of Jones, it would require a force of three thousand men to deal effectually with the traitors of Douglas County and avenge the affronts offered to justice. The governor caught the sheriff's outlaw-crush- ing furor, and unhesitatingly ordered militia offi- cers to collect as large a force as possible and march at once to Lawrence. Nobody, whether sheriff, militia general, or governor, thought it necessary to communicate with that town, to ask explanations or make demands. It was not a word and a blow, but a blow without the word.
Kansas volunteers did not respond in any large numbers to the governor's summons. The town of Franklin furnished a company led by Captain Leak - a commander with unhappy, though not disqualifying antecedents. " Mr. Leak," in the words of a resident of Franklin, " was a traveling gambler - he told me so himself." Other towns in the territory furnished contingents, but prob- ably the whole number of Kansans did not exceed fifty. The great mass of invaders came from Mis- souri. They straggled along in detached parties toward Lawrence, armed with every variety of weapons from rusty flint-locks and old-fashioned horse-pistols to modern rifles, until twelve or fif- teen hundred of them were concentrated in the vicinity - encamping for the most part on the
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Wakarusa, a small affluent of the Kansas River - an unwashed, braggart, volcanic multitude. They laid the surrounding country under contribution, overhauled travelers, rifled cabins, fired hay-stacks, seized horses and cattle - in a word, filled the region with confusion as an overture to letting slip fiercer dogs of war.
The militia generals, who responded to Shan- non's call with frolicsome alacrity that befitted a pleasure jaunt, grew sober on reaching Lawrence. It was found that the committee of safety had developed an embarrassing amount of defensive energy. The chief command they intrusted to Dr. Robinson, with the rank of major-general, though he had never seen military service. To Lane they assigned a second rank. His practical war-record would naturally have claimed the first, but the committee, in the grave and critical junc- ture, did not dare to risk a frothy. pictorial, un- ballasted leadership. Five small forts covered the approaches to the town, within the lines of which some six hundred men - large reinforcements having arrived from neighboring villages - drilled incessantly. Two hundred of these men were armed with Sharpe's rifles - a vexatious circum- stance that gave the Missourians pause. A fresh installment of them - the first reached Lawrence a few weeks after the March election - was re- ceived just as hostilities began. " I have only time to thank you and the friends who sent us the
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Sharpe's rifles," Dr. Robinson wrote A. A. Law- rence December 4th, " for they will give us the victory without firing a shot."
General Eastin, editor of the pro-slavery " Kan- sas Herald," reconnoitred Lawrence and advised Governor Shannon that "the outlaws were well fortified,"-that an assault upon them would be at heavy cost. He counseled recourse to the fed- eral troops at Fort Leavenworth. His communi- cation excited alarm at Shawnee Mission. Gov- ernor Shannon, who had viewed the whole matter as a mere bagatelle, requested permission of the authorities at Washington to employ United States soldiers in the emergency. He also urged Colonel E. V. Sumner, in command at Fort Leavenworth, to march for the scene of disturbance without awaiting orders. This request Sumner declined to comply with, but suggested that the great mob enveloping Lawrence should be made to under- stand it must confine itself wholly to defensive operations - a hint which was promptly acted on. The War Department placed the garrison of Fort Leavenworth at Shannon's service, but Colonel Sumner refused to move until orders reached him from Washington.
If the besiegers outside of the town found them- selves harassed by unexpected and increasing dif- ficulties, the besieged inside of it were not free from perplexities. The influx of reinforcements taxed the commissariat very heavily. Whoever
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possessed supplies of food or clothing found him- self uncomfortably circumstanced. The expres- sion on the faces of tradesmen as they distributed their goods among the soldiery in exchange for worthless scrip was like lamplight glimmering on the wall of a sepulchre. There was a general observance of order and decorum. Most citizens made a virtue of necessity and contributed freely what otherwise must have been rudely confis- cated. In a single instance a little outbreak of violence occurred- expending itself in the sack of a small tailor's shop. One night during the siege, according to the story of a clerk, "about twenty men, armed with revolvers," invaded the premises and extinguished the lamp by firing a tobacco-box at it. " Before I could light a candle," the clerk continued, " everything in the store was taken off the shelves and carried away." A young woman who had the misfortune to keep a hotel - the Cincinnati House - in Lawrence during the im- pecunious era of the siege, wrote a few days after its close : " It looked strange ... to see the streets paraded from morning till night by men in mili- tary array ; to see them toil day and night throw- ing up intrenehments ; to see them come in to their meals each with his gun in hand and sometimes bringing it to the table. . . . How we toiled to feed the multitudes, seldom snatching a moment to look out upon the strange scenes -often ask- ing, ' What are the prospects to-day ?'- or at
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midnight as, worn and weary, we sought the pillow, discussing such themes as these ' There 's prospect of an attack to-night.' ' The guard has been doubled, and we are all vigi- lance.' "
The sobriety of affairs in Lawrence induced the committee of safety to open communications with Governor Shannon. G. P. Lowrey and C. W. Babcock set out at one o'clock on the morning of December 6th for Shawnee Mission. Near Franklin they encountered a picket - guard, and were ordered to advance and give the countersign. " We got the cork out of the only countersign we had as soon as possible, and that passed us." The commissioners soon stumbled upon another batch of sentinels. " Where are you going ?" they de- manded. " Things are getting dangerous here- abouts," said Babcock, "and I've made up my mind to scoot for Illinois." " Abolitionists scared in Lawrence, eh? Don't believe we can let you pass." After some discussion it was agreed that the officer in command, who turned out to be the traveling gambler, Captain Leak, should be con- sulted. This worthy was reported asleep, but it was a sort of sleep which the most energetic shak- ing, permitted by a very lax military etiquette, could not break, and his valuable advice was in- accessible. The commissioners managed to pacify the guard and worry through the lines. In gen- eral, the Missourians were talkative and expressed
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their opinions unreservedly. Some of them fumed over reports that the Lawrence outlaws had sub- stituted a red flag for the Stars and Stripes. Some gloried in the ruin about to fall on the abo- lition stronghold -a ruin that would not leave one stone upon another. Others cursed Reeder as the author of all the trouble - " We must have his head even if we have to go to Pennsylva- nia after it."
Lowrey and Babeoek found Governor Shannon in ill humor. He roundly denounced free-state men - charged them with driving from the ter- ritory settlers who were politically obnoxious and firing their cabins, and with displaying a startling spirit of insubordination and rebellion by their re- sistance to territorial officers and their nullifica- tion of territorial laws. The delegation from Lawrence contended that the governor had been deceived ; that Lawrence was no more responsible for the rescue of Branson than for the precession of the equinoxes ; that the question of territorial legislation did not enter into present complica- tions, and that he was beating about in heavy fogs of ignorance and misapprehension concerning the facts out of which they rose. " I shall go to Law- rence," said Shannon, " and insist upon the people agreeing to obey the laws and delivering up their Sharpe's rifles." " We have not resisted the laws," the commissioners retorted. " As to the rifles nobody would be safe in going before our
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people with any proposition to deliver them up. If you have such an idea you had better stay away and let the fight go on."
For the first time suspicions began to haunt Shannon that he might have been misled by his Missouri advisers. The shrewdness, poise, and quickness to detect an opponent's weak points dis- played among the outlaws, whose intelligence he had put at a paltry valuation, astonished Shannon. They ought to have scattered like a flock of af- frighted birds at the first rustle of danger instead of digging trenches, learning the manual of arms, and discovering an embarrassing skill in diplo- macy.
The governor, on his arrival at the Wakarusa camp, found the militia, excited by whiskey and ignorant of free-state strength, clamoring for per- mission to attack the town. He spared no efforts to discourage their frenzy. In this movement he was heartily and effectively seconded by Atch- ison. "But for his mediatorial offices," said Butler, of South Carolina, speaking in the Senate March 5th, 1856, vaguely and imperfectly com- prehending the ugly dilemma in which the over- hasty Missourians found themselves, " the homes of Lawrence would have been burned and the streets drenched with blood." Senator Butler thought that these kind offices were very inade- quately appreciated. But let the ingrates be- ware. " If ever D. R. Atchison shall pass the line
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again and say as Cæsar did, 'I have passed the Rubicon and now I draw the sword,' I should dread the contest."
Shannon visited Lawrence December 7th, in company with prominent Missourians, to prose- cute negotations for peace. Robinson and Lane received the visitors in behalf of the citizens and of the committee of safety. The interview com- pletely undeceived Shannon. Now the pressing question was not how to disperse free-state out- laws, but how, without an explosion, to disperse the Missourians, whom the governor called "a pack of hyenas." To accomplish this he urged the representatives of Lawrence to be as generous as possible in the matter of concessions. A treaty was concluded, astutely designed to bear more than one interpretation - a treaty in which con- tradictory phrases shouldered and jostled each other, but which succeeded amidst the confusion in informing the Missourians that the governor " has not called upon persons residents of any other state to aid in the execution of the laws, and such as are here in this territory are here of their own choice."
Governor Shannon called a meeting of the Mis- souri commanders at Franklin. They were not consulted about the treaty, and knew nothing of its tenor. With the exception of Atchison, who did not relish the pass to which matters had come and declined to attend, the principal military
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men were present. Shannon insisted that Rob- inson and Lane should accompany him to Frank- lin, and assist in sugar-coating the unpalatable treaty. The governor led off in a long talk, and rehearsed the details of the campaign. Lane fol- lowed, but had hardly spoken half-a-dozen sen- tences when some arrogance of manner or impol- icy of language gave offense, and the sensitive gentry began to pick up their hats and revolvers. " Wait a minute," Shannon interposed, " and hear what Dr. Robinson has to say." Robinson suc- ceeded in getting the attention of the restless audience, while he expounded the unreason of the demand, so popular among Missourians, that free- state men should surrender their Sharpe's rifles. They had a constitutional right to bear arms. You, gentlemen, in your own case, would not for an instant tolerate the impertinence of such a claim. Further, Lawrence was not a party to the assault upon Jones. What is more, Lawrence has never resisted the service of a legal writ. "Is that so, Mr. Sheriff ? " a militia colonel broke in. The sheriff could not deny the statement. "Then we have been damnably deceived," said the colonel.
The inevitable must be accepted, and the baf- fled Missourians swore with a lighter accent than might have been expected. Sheriff Jones was disgusted at the turn of affairs. Hopes of a fu- ture opportunity to settle with the abolitionists gave him a little comfort. " I'll get up another
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scrape," he said, "if I'm opposed in executing the laws. No old granny shall stop me next time."
Atchison did not remit his efforts for peace. " The position of General Robinson is impreg- nable," he said in a speech to the disgusted in- vaders, "not in a military point of view, but his tactics have given him all the advantage as to the cause of quarrel. If you attack Lawrence now, you attack it as a mob, and what would be the result ? You would cause the election of an abo- lition president and the ruin of the Democratic party. Wait a little. You cannot now destroy these people without losing more than you would gain."
Saturday, December 8th, the pleasant weather - so mild that many soldiers on both sides were in summer clothing - suddenly changed into win- ter. In the evening a tremendous slect-storm set in and extinguished among the Missourians what- ever ardor for fighting may have survived the frosty articles of peace. They retired sullenly, carrying three " dead bodies - one killed by the falling of a tree, one shot by the guard acciden- tally, and one killed in some sort of a quarrel." The victory of Lawrence was complete - a blood- less victory won by strategy.
A single voice was raised in solemn and public protest against the peace. After the treaty and its stipulations had become known ; after speeches
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of felicitation on the happy subsidence of perils that threatened to engulf the settlement in ruin had been made, an unknown man - tall, slender, angular ; his face clean-shaved, sombre, strongly lined, of Puritan tone and configuration ; his blue- gray eyes honest, inexorable ; strange, un- worldly intensities enveloping him like an atmos- phere - mounted a dry-goods box and began to denounce the treaty as an attempt to gain by foolish, uncomprehending make-shift what could be compassed only by the shedding of blood. Since that day the name of this unknown man, plucked down from the dry-goods box with his speech mostly unspoken, has filled the post-horns of the world - Old John Brown.
CHAPTER VII.
SOME HEAVY BLOWS.
THE winter of 1855-56 in Kansas was of a Siberian character. For a time meteorological woes surpassed all others in the territory. The sleet-tempest that celebrated the close of the Wa- karusa war faithfully foretokened the coming months. For the most part the immigrants were very inadequately protected against the sudden and extreme cold. Log huts - the common type of dwelling - had few attractions for winter res- idenec. Ordinarily they were a sorry affair - a floorless pen of half-hewn logs, roughly battened with a filling of stones, sticks, and mud - the whole loosely roofed over, and usually containing a single room. In the absence of anything bet- ter, doors and windows were manufactured out of cotton cloth. Into these rickety cabins storms drifted from every quarter - above, bencatlı, around.
" I failed to complete my log-house before the winter of 1855-56 set in," said Captain Samuel Walker. "The sides were up, roofed, and partly plastered when the Wakarusa war interrupted
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work. On my return home, after the conclusion of peace, the cold was so severe that nothing more could be done, and we had to shift as best we could until warm weather. Our cabin had no floor, but we were as well off in this particular as most of our neighbors. Chinks and fissures abounded in roof and gables, as the green slabs with which they were covered warped badly. Seven of us made up the family - five children, mostly small. At times, when the winds were bleakest, we actually went to bed as the only es- cape from freezing. More than once we woke in the morning to find six inches of snow in the cabin. To get up, to make one's toilet under such circumstances, was not a very comfortable performance. Often we had little to eat - the wolf was never very far from our door during that hard winter of 1855-56."
The inhospitalities of Kansas frontier life fell with peculiar severity upon women. " He who has seen the sufferings of men," said Victo Hugo, " has seen nothing. Let him look upon the suf- ferings of women." Burdened with drudgeries in their most primitive, unrelieved shape, ex- posed to all the anxieties and perils which a state of anarchy implies, denied the relief of public and aggressive service - their heroic, untrum- peted endurance was not least heroic and worthy among the pioneer services rendered to Kansas.
Severities of winter, that frost-bit the ill-fur-
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nished settlers, called a truce to active hostilities. Yet warlike movements, that pointed to future in- vasions on a more formidable scale than had heretofore been attempted, continued along the border. " We have reliable information," Robin- son wrote A. A. Lawrence January 25th, 1856, "that extensive preparations are being made in Missouri for the destruction of Lawrence and all the free-state settlements. You can have no idea of the character of the men with whom we have to deal. We are purchasing ammunition and stores of all kinds for a siege. . We have tele- graphed to the president and members of Con- gress and the Northern governors our condition, and sent out six men to raise an army for the defense of Kansas and the Union. . . . I am do- ing my utmost to conquer without bloodshed, and I believe that if my suggestions are acted upon promptly in the states we shall avoid a war. ... Our plans are all well laid, and if the states will do their part promptly, I believe but little money will be actually used, and no lives lost."
Among the six men dispatched eastward on a mission of explanation and appeal were J. S. Em- ery, M. F. Conway, and G. W. Smith. They left Lawrence about the middle of January in a buggy, which they soon found of little service on the snow-clogged roads. Before starting the company held a consultation concerning the safest method of managing their credentials. Should some border-
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ruffian with a turn for investigation discover these credentials, the party would very likely receive rough usage. In the midst of their perplexities a bright thought struck Smith - " Boys, I've hit it. In Missouri everybody carries a jug. There a jug never excites suspicion. Put the papers in jugs with corncob stoppers and they 'll be safe." The suggestion was greeted with applause and immediately carried into effect. Plodding slowly across the State of Missouri -the journey occu- pied two weeks - masquerading under various disguises, the travelers safely reached the Missis- sippi River opposite Quincy, Illinois, over which they walked on the ice. Midway in the river they halted, broke the jugs, and transferred the creden- tials to their pockets. This delegation, and other delegations that followed, successfully pleaded the free-state cause in the North and East.
There was also stir and excitement at the South, from which bands of armed emigrants reached the territory during the spring and sum- mer of 1856. "Even in my own state," said Sen- ator Butler, of South Carolina, " I perceive parties are being formed to go to Kansas - adventurous young men who will fight anybody." The sena- tor probably had in mind the operations of Major Jefferson Buford, of Alabama, who conducted thither the most notorious company of Southern immigrants. Buford issued a call for three hun- dred men, promising them by way of inducements
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transportation, support for a year, a homestead, and the satisfaction of a chance at the abolition- ists. He fitted out the expedition largely from his own resources. To reimburse the outlay, it was understood that each member of the company would take up a claim, one half of which should be turned over to Buford. But the venture did not succeed financially, as few of the company be- came permanent residents of Kansas.
The appearance of Buford on the border encour- aged the pro-slavery leaders. " Our hearts have been made glad," said the managers of the La- fayette Emigration Society, - a Missouri organi- zation, -in an appeal to the South, "by the late ar- rivals of large companies from South Carolina and Alabama. They have responded promptly to our call for help. The noble Buford is already en- cleared to our hearts ; we love him ; we will fight for him and die for him and his companions. Who will follow his noble example ? We tell you now and tell you frankly, that unless you come quickly and come by thousands we are gone. The election onee lost, we are lost forever. Then farewell to our Southern cause and farewell to our glorious Union."
Congress shared inevitably in the disturbances which radiated North and South from Kansas - a word seized upon according to the " Democratie Review " " by the most cunning of modern magi- cians, the abolitionists, to raise the devil with."
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Numerous expedients for allaying these disastrous agitations came to the surface. Senator Critten- den, of Kentucky, proposed unsuccessfully that Lieutenant-General Scott should be sent to Kan- sas as pacificator, equipped with "the sword in his left hand and in his right hand - peace, gen- tle peace." Toombs, of Georgia, submitted a plan of adjustment, the terms of which were fair and unpartisan. It contemplated the appointment of five commissioners - men of the highest charac- ter and selected from both parties - who should take an accurate census, apportion the territory into districts, and on the 4th of November, 1856, cause an election to be held for delegates to a con- stitutional convention, at which all male citizens, residents of three months' standing, might vote. December 1st these delegates were to assemble, take under advisement the question of establislı- ing a state government, and, should it be decided affirmatively, enter at once upon the work.
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