LYMAN TRUMBULL ELECTED. 143 the freemen of Illinois largely due. He ardently desired the senatorial office, for he felt that in it he could accomplish great things for free government. He relinquished all his chances, and implored his friends, who were many and steadfast, to leave him and vote for Trumbull, rather than endanger the cause in which they were all so deeply concerned. This generous concession solidified the jarring elements of the new party and made its astersuccesses possible. Nor is this generosity lessened by the fact that Judge Trumbull had never been the political friend of Lincoln, but his opponent, and sometimes his unfriendly critic. Freedom and Slavery Wrestle with Each Other-" Bleeding Kansas The Troubler of Slave-Owners - The Irrepressible ConflictLincoln's Slowness and Reticence. M EANWHILE, immigrants from free States and slave States were pouring into Kansas. In spite of the incursions of the pro-slavery men, the hardy immirants from Iowa, Northern Illinois, and New England were clearly in the majority. Something must be done to stem this tide and to turn it back upon the free States. Violence was readily resorted to. The swashbucklers who trooped over the border from Missouri and Arkansas were as ready to stuff ballot-boxes with fraudulent votes and mob free-State men as they were to vote. One thing they would not do-work. The free-State men were, indeed, actual settlers. They took up land, planted crops, and built log-cabins for their families, evidently intending to stay. The borderers, on the other hand, were rough riders, sportsmen, gamblers. They spent their time in drinking, shooting, scouring the country for prey, and terrifying helpless women and children. One of their favorite expressions was that they "would make it hot ATCHISON AND THE "BLUE LODGES." 145 for any Abolitionist," and another was that they "would cut the heart out of any man who voted the Abolition ticket." Aggressiveness like this soon engendered hatreds. The pro-slavery men were known as "border ruffians,' and the free-State men were commonly called "Abolitioners." Under the lead of the notorious "Dave" Atchison, of Missouri, a Senator of the United States, secret societies, known as "Blue Lodges" were formed for the purpose of ridding the country of the hated free-State men. Steamers bound up the Missouri River, laden with freeState immigrants and their movable property, were stopped by these ruffians, who swarmed on board, drove off the immigrants, put their cattle and goods ashore, and compelled the officers of the steamers, who were only too willing to be an unresisting party to this outrage, to go on and leave their passengers behind. The border ruffians had on their side the influence of the United States officials, the Missouri State government, and the State militia. They rode across the border, burning fields of grain and cabins of the free-State men, killing or running off their animals, and devastating the country for miles around. Under the leadership of Atchison and another of his kidney, one Stringfellow, raids were planned for long forays into the territory, the raiders returning into Missouri under the cover of the night, or camping in secluded places along the border, ready for another excursion. On the free-State side were such men as "Jim" Lane, afterward a Senator from Kansas, and a redoubt |