Sumner. "We heard this remark," Slidell said, "without any particular emotion; for my own part, I confess I felt none. . . . I remained very quietly in my seat; the other gentlemen did the same; we did not move." Douglas stated that on hearing the remark of the messenger, "I rose involuntarily to my feet. My first impression was to come into the Senate chamber and help to put an end to the affray, if I could; but it occurred to my mind in an instant that my relations to Mr. Sumner were such that if I came into the Hall, my motives would be misconstrued, perhaps, and I sat down again." A moment afterwards hearing that Brooks had beaten Sumner badly, he went into the Senate chamber. Toombs saw part of the assault; he did not render Sumner any assistance. Hearing some gentlemen condemn the action, he stated to Brooks or to some of his own friends that he approved it.'

Before leaving this subject, fairness requires that allusion should be made to the speech of Butler,' which is a plaintive regret for what had taken place. Yet he magnified the offence of Sumner; he assumed that the hurt was not serious, and defended the attack of Brooks. The blood of Sumner's friends must have boiled as they heard or read the speech at the time; but, in the cool atmosphere of the present, the mournful words of Butler almost elicit sympathy for him in the part which the interests of his family and his order compelled him to play. His statement how he should have acted had he been present in the Senate when Sumner made his speech is necessary to the history of the transaction. "My impression now is," he said, "that I should have asked the senator, before he finished some of the paragraphs personally applicable to myself, to pause; and if he had gone on, I would have demanded of him, the next morning, that he should review that speech, and retract or modify it, so as to bring it within the sphere

66

These explanations were made May 27th.

? June 12th and 13th.

of parliamentary propriety. If he had refused this, what I would have done I cannot say; yet I can say that I would not have submitted to it. But what mode of redress I should have resorted to, I cannot tell."

Brooks died the following January, but not before he had confessed to his friend, Orr, that he was sick of being regarded as the representative of bullies, and disgusted at receiving testimonials of their esteem.' Butler lived but a few days over a year from the time that the assault was made in satisfaction of what was deemed his injured honor. During the first months of 1856, the interest in Kansas territory divided the attention of the country with the proceedings in Congress. There was note of preparation for the spring campaign at the North and at the South. Atchison made an appeal to the slave States. "Let your young men come forth to Missouri and Kansas!" he wrote; "let them come well armed!"* Well-attended public meetings were held all over the cotton States, at which gentlemen of property and standing presided. The object was to get men to enlist, and to raise money for their support in the expected Kansas war. The communities were roused by violent speeches in which the danger to the Southern institution was effectively portrayed.' It was proposed in the Georgia legislature to appropriate fifty thousand dollars to aid emigration to Kansas; and it was understood that the money would be used to arm and equip military companies. Milder counsels, however, prevailed when the project came to a vote, and it was not carried. A bill to assist emigrants to Kansas was introduced into the Alabama legislature, and, with

1 Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, vol. ii. p. 495.

2 D. R. Atchison to the editor of the Atlanta (Ga.) Examiner, New York Tribune, Jan. 19th.

3 See National Intelligencer, Feb. 17th, March 18th, April 1st; The Englishman in Kansas, Gladstone, p. 6; letter from Montgomery, Jan. 22d, New York Tribune, Feb. 2d.

• National Intelligencer, Feb. 23d.

much reason, it was proposed to get the means by a separate tax upon the slave property of the State. The results at the South were not commensurate with the efforts, mainly for the reason that ready money was hard to be obtained, while the men who were willing to go would be dependent for their support on the contributions of the wealthier citizens. If fiery newspaper articles could have created men and money, there would have been no lack.

Yet one notable company was raised through the energy and sacrifice of Colonel Buford, of Alabama. He issued an appeal for three hundred industrious and sober men, capable of bearing arms and willing to fight for the cause of the South. He would himself contribute twenty thousand dollars, and he agreed to give each man who enlisted forty acres of good Kansas land and support him for a year.' He sold his slaves to provide the money he had promised." Owing to the fervent appeals of the press, contributions from many quarters were obtained, and the enthusiasm was not confined to the men. A daughter of South Carolina sent to the editor of a newspaper a gold chain which would realize enough to furnish one man, and she begged him to let the ladies of her neighborhood know when more money was needed, for then, she wrote, "we will give up our personal embellishments and expose them for sale."'

Buford raised two hundred and eighty men' from South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Many of them were the poor relations and dependants of the wealthy slave-holders; others were poor whites. Some were intelligent, and afterwards proved worthy citizens; but the majority were ignorant and brutal, and made fit companions for the Missouri border ruffians, by whom they were received with open

1 This appeal is printed in the Liberator of Feb. 1st.

• Montgomery (Ala.) Mail, Montgomery Advertizer, Mobile News, cited in the Liberator of Feb. 22d.

* Edgefield (S. C.) Advertiser, cited by New York Times, March 7th.

New Orleans Picayune, cited by the Independent, May 1st.

arms.' The day that Buford's battalion started from Montgomery, they marched to the Baptist church. The Methodist minister solemnly invoked the divine blessing on their enterprise; the Baptist pastor gave Buford a finely bound Bible, and said that a subscription had been raised to present each emigrant with a copy of the Holy Scriptures. Three or four thousand citizens gathered on the river bank to bid them farewell, and there were not lacking "the bright smiles and happy faces" of the ladies to cheer them on. A distinguished citizen made them an address, saying that "on them rested the future welfare of the South; they were armed with the Bible, a weapon more potent than Sharpe's rifles; and, in the language of Lord Nelson, 'every man was expected to do his duty.""" The South Carolina contingent had not, on leaving home, been provided with Bibles; it had there been proclaimed that all the equipment needed was a good common country rifle.'

At the North, the importance of the conflict in Kansas was appreciated. The feeling may have been no deeper than at the South, but the manifestations of it were more numerous. The Tribune declared that "the duty of the people of the free States is to send more true men, more Sharpe's rifles, and more field - pieces and howitzers to Kansas!" The New York Times said: "The question of slavery domination must and will be fought out on the plains of Kansas." These sentiments were everywhere echoed. Public meetings in aid of Kansas were held all

1 Kansas correspondence New York Tribune, April 26th and May 3d; Geary and Kansas, Gihon, p. 73; Sara Robinson's Kansas, pp. 241, 271. Montgomery Journal, cited by the Independent, April 17th. 'Charleston (S. C.) News, March 27th, cited by the National Intelligencer. Senator Iverson, of Georgia, said that Buford's men went to Kansas unarmed. Wilson said that was true, but when they got to the territory Governor Shannon armed them and called them out as part of his military force. Congressional Globe, vol. xxxiii. pp. 844, 855.

'New York Weekly Tribune, Feb. 2d.

Feb. 15th.

over the free States; committees to collect money and use it properly were appointed; emigration was in every way encouraged. Bryant wrote to his brother: "The whole city (New York) is alive with the excitement of the Kansas news, and people are subscribing liberally to the Emigrants' Aid Society. The companies of emigrants will be sent forward as soon as the rivers and lakes are opened, and by the 1st of May there will be several thousand more free-State settlers in Kansas than there now are. Of course they will go well armed."

1

The most warlike demonstration, and one which excited the greatest attention, was at New Haven. Charles B. Lines, a deacon of a New Haven congregation, had enlisted a company of seventy-nine emigrants. A meeting was held in the church shortly before their departure for the purpose of raising funds. Many clergymen and many of the Yale College faculty were present. The leader of the party said that Sharps rifles were lacking, and they were needed for self-defence. After an earnest address from Henry Ward Beecher, the subscription began. Professor Silliman started it with one Sharps rifle; the pastor of the church gave the second; other gentlemen and some ladies followed the example. As fifty was the number wanted, Beecher said that if twenty-five were pledged on the spot, Plymouth Church would furnish the rest. Previous to this meeting, he had declared that for the slave-holders of Kansas the Sharps rifle was a greater moral agency than the Bible; and from that time the favorite arms of the Northern emigrants became known as "Beecher's Bibles."

1 Letter dated Feb. 15th, Life of Bryant, Godwin, vol. ii. p. 88. 'New York Independent, March 26th. The number of rifles wanted was subscribed.

'Ibid., Feb. 7th. Remark of Senator Butler, Congressional Globe, vol. xxxii. p. 1094. A somewhat different explanation is given in the Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, p. 283; see also correspondence between Beecher and Lines, New York Times, April 4th.