flag to his primitive bark, emblazoned with mottoes indicative of our contempt for such characters, Mr. Butler was set adrift on the great Missouri, with the letter R legibly painted on his forehead.

"He was escorted some distance down the river by several of our citizens, who, seeing him pass several rack-heaps in quite a skilful manner, bade him adieu and returned to Atchison.

"Such treatment may be expected by all scoundrels visiting our town for the purpose of interfering with our time-honoured institutions, and the same punishment we will be happy to award all Freesoilers, Abolitionists, and other emissaries."

Thus was a minister of the Gospel treated, against whom no heavier charge could be alleged, than that his opinions were not favourable to the extension of slavery. Mr. Butler fortunately escaped with his life, and from his own account we learn that the following were some of the mottoes emblazoned on his flag: The way they are served in Kansas." "Cargo insured,-unavoidable danger of the Missourians and the Missouri river excepted."

A FREE-STATE MAN SHOT.

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"Let future emissaries from the North beware. Our hemp crop is sufficient to reward all such scoundrels."

Two months later, Mr. Collins, who owned a saw-mill at Doniphan, was shot on similar political grounds, by a violent Pro-slavery man, named Patrick Laughlin. Pat came, it is said, originally from Ireland, and had rendered himself famous by an exposure, as it was termed, of the Kansas Legion. Laughlin was aided in this attack by three or four armed associates, and Mr. Collins' sons were present, and sought to defend their father. There was a considerable interchange of bowie-knife cuts and pistolfiring on this occasion, and the murderer himself was wounded. But the victim being a Freestate man, the law took no cognizance of the murder, and Laughlin found protection, and was rewarded by a situation in a shop in Atchison.

This reference to the slackness of the law suggests the remark that, through the whole course of the Kansas struggle, the idea of holding office for the administration of justice seems never to have entered the minds of those hold

ing the legal appointments in the territory. They were appointed-whether judges, marshals, sheriffs, or constables-by a certain party which through fraud had got into power, for the extermination of the other party. The power of arrest, the power of imprisonment, the power of hanging, was theirs only that they might arrest, imprison, or hang Free-state men. Hence, murderers, if they have only murdered in behalf of slavery, have gone unpunished; whilst hundreds have been made to suffer for no other crime than the suspicion of entertaining Free-state sentiments.

MURDER AT MID-DAY.

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CHAPTER XXIII.

Murder of Dow.--The Guilty acquitted, the Innocent arrested. --The Midnight Rescue.--Rally to Arms.-The Wakarusa War.-Position of the Encampments.--First Siege of Lawrence. Its Defence.--Amusing Incidents.-Mournful Events. --The Treaty of Lawrence.--Peace Festivities.-Disbanding of the Ruffian Forces.-Discontent.-Barbarous Treatment of Prisoners.-Murder of Mr. Brown.-Fiendish Cruelty.

Ir was in the month of November, however, that the great outburst of legalized violence commenced, since which time the rule of bloodshed and crime has not ceased. On the 21st of that month, in open day, a Pro-slavery man named Coleman, living at Hickory Point, shot dead his Free-state neighbour, Dow, as he passed his cabin door. Dow's body lay in the road, where it fell, till night, when Branson, at whose house Dow boarded, carried it home. The Free-state men were naturally indignant at the murder, and held a meeting on the subject. Coleman, being alarmed, fled to the Gov

ernor. His murder being on the right side, his act was politically a work of merit. The Freestate men, however, followed him, and insisted on his arrest. The anthorities refused either to issue a warrant, or to examine the murderer. On the other hand, Jones, the Sheriff, obtained a warrant for the arrest of Branson, whose only offence was that he had shown respect to the dead body of Dow. Summoning a posse of about twenty-five men, including two who were parties to the murder of the morning, Jones rode across to the scene of the murder, and reaching it at night, entered the cabin of the unoffending Branson. Finding him in bed, the sheriff drew his pistol, cocked it, and holding it at Branson's breast, said, "You are my prisoner, and if you move I will blow you through." The other men cocked their guns, and gathering around Branson, took him prisoner. As they were riding off with their prisoner, some Freestate men who had heard of the deed, came up to the party and rescued Branson, without, however, shedding blood.

This transaction gave rise to what is known in Kansas as the "Wakarusa War." Jones,