Sheriff Jones, sitting in his tent at night, parties, unmistakable aliens and invaders, in the town of Lawrence, had been wounded always came from or retired across the Misby a rifle or pistol ball, in the attempt of souri line. Organized and sustained in the besome unknown person to assassinate him. ginning by voluntary contributions from that The people of Lawrence denounced the and distant States, they ended by levying deed; but the sheriff hoarded up the score forced contributions, by "pressing" horses, for future revenge. One additional incident food, or arms from any neighborhood they served to precipitate the crisis. The House of Representatives at Washington, presided over by Speaker Banks, and under control of the opposition, sent an investigating committee to Kansas, consisting of Wm. A. Howard of Michigan, John Sherman of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver of Missouri, which, by the examination of numerous witnesses, was probing the Border-Ruffian invasions, the illegality of the bogus legislature, and the enormity of the bogus laws to the very bottom. Ex-Governor Reeder was in attendance on this committee, supplying data, pointing out from personal knowledge sources of information, cross-examining witnesses to elicit the hidden truth. To embarrass this damaging exposure, Judge Lecompte issued a writ against the ex-governor on a frivolous charge of contempt. Claiming but not receiving exemption from the committee, Reeder on his personal responsibility refused to permit the deputy marshal to arrest him. The incident was not violent, nor even dramatic. No posse was summoned, no further effort made, and Reeder, fearing personal violence, soon fled in disguise. But the affair was magnified as a crowning proof that the free-State men were insurrectionists and outlaws. It must be noted in passing that by this time the territory had by insensible degrees drifted into the condition of civil war. Both parties were zealous, vigilant, and denunciatory. In nearly every settlement suspicion led to apprehension, apprehension to combination for defense, combination to some form of oppression or insult, and so on by easy transitions to arrest and concealment, attack and reprisal, expulsion, theft, house-burning, capture, murder, and massacre. From these, again, sprang barricaded and fortified dwellings, camps and scouting parties, finally culminating in roving guerilla bands, half partisan, half predatory. Their distinctive characters, however, display one broad and unfailing difference. The free-State men clung to their prairie towns and prairie ravines with all the obstinacy and courage of true defenders of their homes and firesides. The pro-slavery dragoons with one empty saddle came down from the fort, and while the pro-slavery men still slept, the prisoner and his escort were on their way across the prairies to Lecompton in the charge of officers of the United States Army. The governor and other prisoners were kept on the prairie near Lecompton until the 10th of September, 1856, when all were released."-THE AUTHORS. VOL. XXXIV.-13. ANDREW H. REEDER IN DISGUISE. (FROM PHOTOGRAPH chanced to visit. Their assumed character Since the unsatisfactory termination of the "Wakarusa war," certain leaders of the conspiracy had never given up their project of punishing the town of Lawrence. A propitious moment for carrying it out seemed now to have arrived. The free-State officers and leaders were, thanks to Judge Lecompte's doctrine of constructive treason, under indict It will interest our readers to know that the former editor-in-chief of THE CENTURY, Dr. J. G. Holland, formed a partnership with Dr. Robinson in 1845, and opened with him a hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts. Circumstances, however, soon led to the discontinuance of this enterprise. - EDITOR CENTURY. KANSAS INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. (FROM PHOTOGRAPH IN POSSESSION OF THE KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.) ment, arrest, or in flight; the settlers were busy with their spring crops; while the proslavery guerillas, freshly arrived and full of zeal, were eager for service and distinction. The former campaign against the town had failed for want of justification; therefore they now took pains to provide a pretext which would not shame their assumed character as defenders of law and order. In the shooting of Sheriff Jones in Lawrence, and in the refusal of ex-Governor Reeder to allow the deputy-marshal to arrest him, they discovered grave offenses against the territorial and United States laws. Determined also no longer to trust Governor Shannon, lest he might again make peace, United States Marshal Donaldson issued a proclamation on his own responsibility, on May 11th, 1856, commanding "law-abiding citizens of the territory" "to be and appear at Lecompton, as soon as possible and in numbers sufficient for the execution of the law."* Moving with * Memorial, Senate Docs., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., p. 74. + Phillips, "Conquest of Kansas," p. 289-290. all the promptness and celerity of preconcert, ex-Vice-President Atchison, with his Platte County Rifles and two brass cannon, the Kickapoo Rangers from Leavenworth and Weston, Wilkes, Titus, Buford, and all the rest of the free lances in the territory began to concentrate against Lawrence, giving the marshal in a very few days a "posse" of from five hundred to eight hundred men, † armed for the greater part with United States muskets, some stolen from the Liberty arsenal on their former raid, others distributed to them as Kansas militia by the territorial officers. The governor refused to interfere to protect the threatened town, though urgently appealed to do so by its citizens, who after somewhat stormy and divided councils resolved on a policy of non-resistance. They next made application to the marshal, who tauntingly replied that he could not rely on their pledges, and must take the liberty to execute his process in his own time and manner.§ The help of Colonel Sumner, commandMemorial, Senate Docs., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., p. 75. Ibid., p. 77. THE FREE-STATE HOTEL, LAWRENCE, KANSAS. (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH IN POSSESSION OF THE KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.) ing the United States troops, was finally invoked, but his instructions only permitted him to act at the call of the governor or marshal.* Private parties who had leased the Free-State Hotel vainly besought the various authorities to prevent the destruction of their property. Ten days were consumed in these negotiations; but the spirit of vengeance refused to yield. When the citizens of Lawrence rose on the 21st of May they beheld their town invested by a formidable military force. During the forenoon the deputy marshal rode leisurely into the town attended by less than a dozen men, being neither molested nor opposed. He summoned half a dozen citizens to join his posse, who followed, obeyed, and assisted him. He as leisurely continued his pretended search and, to give color to his errand, made two arrests. The Free-State Hotel, a stone building in dimensions fifty by seventy feet, three stories high, and handsomely furnished, previously occupied only for lodging-rooms, on that day for the first time opened its table accommodations to the public, and had provided a free dinner in honor of the occasion. The marshal and his posse, including Sheriff Jones, went among other invited guests and enjoyed the proffered hospitality. As he had promised to protect the hotel, the reassured citizens began to laugh at their own fears. To their sorrow they were soon undeceived. The military force, partly rabble, partly organized, had meanwhile moved into the town. To save his official skirts from stain, the deputy marshal now went through the farce of dismissing his entire posse of citizens and Border Ruffians, at which juncture Sheriff Jones made his appearance, claiming RUINS OF THE FREE-STATE HOTEL. (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH IN POSSESSION OF THE KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.) the "posse" as his own. He planted a company before the hotel, and demanded a surrender of the arms belonging to the free-State military companies. Refusal or resistance being out of the question, half a dozen small cannon were solemnly dug up from their buried concealment and, together with a few Sharpe's rifles, formally delivered. Half an hour later, turning a deaf ear to all remonstrance, he gave the proprietors until five o'clock to remove their families and personal property from the FreeState Hotel. Atchison, who had been haranguing the mob, planted his two guns before the building and trained them upon it. The inmates being removed, at the appointed hour a few cannon-balls were fired through the stone walls. This mode of destruction being slow and undramatic, and an attempt to blow it up with gunpowder having proved equally unsat CANNON SURRENDERED AT LAWRENCE, MAY 21ST, 1856. (ORIGINAL IN POSSESSION OF THE KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.) isfactory, the torch was deliberately applied, and the structure given to the flames. Other squads had during the same time been sent to the several printing-offices, where they broke the presses, scattered the type, and demolished the furniture. The house of Governor Robinson was also robbed and burned. Very soon the mob was beyond all control, and spreading itself over the town engaged in pillage till the darkness of night arrested it. Meanwhile the chiefs sat on their horses and viewed the work of destruction with open delight. If we would believe the chief actors, this was the "law-and-order party," executing the mandates of justice. Part and parcel of the affair was the pretense that this exploit of prairie buccaneering had been authorized by Judge Lecompte's court, the officials citing in their defense a presentment of his grand jury, declaring the free-State newspapers seditious *Sumner to Shannon, May 12th, 1856. Senate Docs., 3rd Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. V. + Memorial, Senate Docs., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., pp. 73-85. publications, and the Free-State Hotel a rebellious fortification, and recommending their abatement as nuisances.* The travesty of American government involved in the transaction is too serious for ridicule. In this incident, contrasting the creative and the destructive spirit of the factions, the Emigrant Aid Society of Massachusetts finds its most honorable and triumphant vindication. The whole proceeding was so childish, the miserable plot so transparent, the outrage so gross, as to bring disgust to the better class of Border Ruffians themselves who were witnesses and accessories. The free-State men have recorded the honorable conduct of Colonel Zadock Jackson of Georgia, and Buford of Alabama, as well as of the prosecuting attorney of the county, each of whom denounced the proceedings on the spot.t JEFFERSON DAVIS ON REBELLION. WHILE the town of Lawrence was yet undergoing burning and pillage, Governor Shannon wrote to Colonel Sumner to say that as the marshal and sheriff had finished making their arrests, and he presumed had by that time dismissed the posse, he required a company of United States troops to be stationed at Lawrence to secure "the safety of the citizens in both persons and property,"‡ asking also a like company for Lecompton and Topeka. The next day the citizens of Lawrence had the opportunity to smother their indignation when they saw the smoldering embers of the Free-State Hotel and the scattered fragments of their printingpresses patrolled and "protected" by the Federal dragoons whose presence they had so vainly implored a few days before. § It was high time the governor should move. The sack of Lawrence had unchained the demon of civil war in good earnest. The guerilla bands with their booty spread over the country, and the free-State men rose in a spirit of fierce retaliation. Assassinations, house-burnings, expulsions, and skirmishes broke out with frightful speed in all quarters. The sudden shower of lawlessness fell on the just and the unjust; and, forced at last to deal out equal protection, the governor (June 4th) issued his proclamation directing military organizations to disperse," without regard to party, names, or distinctions,"* and empowering Colonel Sumner to enforce the order.t That careful and discreet officer, who had from the first counseled this policy, at once proceeded to execute the command with his characteristic energy. He disarmed and dispersed the free-State guerillas,-John Brown's among the earliest,-liberated prisoners, drove the Missourians, including delegate Whitfield and General Coffee of the skeleton militia, back across their State line, and stationed five companies along the border to prevent their return. He was so fortunate as to accomplish all this without bloodshed. “I do not think," he wrote, June 23d, "there is an armed body of either party now in the territory, with the exception perhaps of a few freebooters."‡ The colonel found very soon that he was only too efficient and faithful. "My measures have necessarily borne hard against both parties," wrote Sumner to the War Department, "for both have in many instances been more or less wrong. The Missourians were perfectly satisfied so long as the troops were employed exclusively against the free-State party; but when they found that I would be strictly impartial, that lawless mobs could no longer come from Missouri, and that their interference with the affairs of Kansas was brought to an end, then they immediately raised a hue and cry that they were oppressed by the United States troops."§ The complaint had its usual prompt effect at Washington. By orders dated June 27th the colonel was superseded in his command, and Brigadier-General P. F. Smith was sent to Leavenworth. Known to be pro-slavery in his opinions, great advantages were doubtless expected by the conspiracy from this change. But General Smith was an invalid, and incapable of active service; and so far as the official records show, the army officers and troops in Kansas continued to maintain a just impartiality in their dealings with the vexed political quarrel of the day. The removal of Governor Shannon a few weeks after Colonel Sumner once more made Secretary Woodson, always a willing instrument of the conspiracy, acting governor. It was under this individual's promptings and proclamation, Shannon being absent from the territory, that Colonel Sumner, before the arrival of the orders superseding him, forcibly Shannon Proclamation, June 4th, 1856. Senate Docs., 3d. Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 47. Shannon to Sumner, June 4th, 1856. Ibid., p. 45. VOL. XXXIV.— 14. dispersed the free-State legislature on the 4th of July, as narrated. For this act the cynical Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, was not slow to send the colonel an implied censure,|| perhaps to justify his removal from command; but not a word of reproof went from President or Secretary of State to the acting governor. It has already been stated that for a considerable length of time after the organization of Kansas Territory the Missouri River was its principal highway of approach from the States. To antislavery men who were unwilling to conceal their sentiments, this had from the very first been a route of difficulty and danger. But now that political strife culminated in civil war, the Missourians established a complete practical blockade of the river against Northern men or Northern goods. Recently, however, railroads had been pushed forward across Iowa, and the Northern emigration to Kansas little by little found a new route through that State and Nebraska. It was about this time that great consternation was created in pro-slavery circles by the report that Lane had arrived at the Iowa border with a "Northern army," exaggerated into fabulous numbers, and intent upon fighting his way to Kansas. Parties headed by Lane and others and aggregating some hundreds had in fact so arrived, and were more or less provided with arms, though they had no open military organization. While spies. and patrols were on the lookout for marching companies and regiments, they, concealing their arms, quietly slipped down in detached parties to Lawrence. Thus reënforced and inspirited, the free-State men took the aggressive, and by several bold movements broke up a number of pro-slavery camps and gatherings. Greatly exaggerated reports of these affairs were promptly sent to the neighboring Missouri counties, and the Border Ruffians rose almost to a man for a third military invasion of Kansas. Governor Shannon, not yet notified of his removal, reported to General Smith that Lecompton was threatened with an attack. General Smith, becoming himself alarmed, called together all available force for the protection of the territorial capital, and reported the exigency to the War Department. All the hesitation which had hitherto characterized the instructions of Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War, in the use of troops otherwise than as an officer's posse, instantly vanished. Sumner to Cooper, Aug. 11th, 1856. Senate Docs., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 58. Sumner to Cooper, Aug. 11th, 1856. Endorsement, Aug. 27th, 1856. Senate Docs., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. III., p. 59. |