"Resolved, That those patriotic Missourians who extended counsel and assistance to their fellow citizens of Kansas, are entitled to the warmest gratitude of the whole South.

"Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, the Legislature of Mississippi should place $25,000, subject to the order of the Governor of this State, to be employed when deemed expedient, in aid of the people of Kansas in defense of their legal and constitutional rights."

Similar meetings were held in various Southern States with similar results. The Legislatures contributed in accordance with these petitions. Emigrant Aid Societies were formed to induce young men to go to Kansas by paying their expenses, and furnishing them with arms. They sent out men to vote and to fight. Accordingly Colonel Buford, of South Carolina; Colonel Titus, of Florida; Colonel Wilkes, of Virginia; Captain Hampton, of Kentucky, and Colonel Treadwell, of South Carolina, all organized companies and arrived in Kansas early in the Spring. The following notices are copied from the Missouri papers:

"Southern Sharp Shooters! Twelve young men, emigrants to Kansas, from South Carolina, arrived at St. Louis on Friday. They were armed with rifles, and determined to extend the area of slavery!'"

"A large body of Tennesseans arrived at St. Louis on Saturday, on their way to Kansas. About fifty of the party carried rifles, and were amply supplied with munitions of war."

The people of the border sent speakers into the Southern States "to fire the Southern heart," and solicit funds and emigrants. Silas Woodson, General B. F. Stringfellow, and others, were sent upon a mission of this kind. In January, a letter, of which the following is an extract, went the rounds of the Southern press:

*

*

*

* "We are in a constant state of excitement here (Platte City.) The Border Ruffians' have access to my rooms day and night. The very air is full of

rumors. We wish to keep ourselves right before the world, and we are provoked and aggravated beyond sufferance. Our persons and property are not for a moment safe, and yet we are forced by the respect we owe our friends elsewhere, by respect for the cause in which we are engaged, to forbear. This state of things can not last. You are authorized to publish the whole or part of what I have written. But if Georgia intends to do any thing, or can do any thing for us, let it be done speedily.

"Let your young men come forth to Missouri and Kansas. Let them come well armed, with money enough to support them for twelve months, and determined to see this thing out. One hundred true men would be an acquisition; the more the better. I do not see how we are to avoid civil war; come it will. Twelve months will not elapse before war-civil war of the fiercest kind-will be upon us. We are arming and preparing for it. Indeed, we of the border counties are prepared. We must have the support of the South. We are fighting the battles of the South. Our institutions are at stake. You far Southern men are now out of the nave of the war; but if we fail it will reach your own doors, perhaps your hearths. We want men-armed men. We want money-not for ourselves, but to support our friends when they come from a distance. I have now in this house two gallant young men from Charleston, South Carolina. They are citizens of Kansas, and will remain so until her destiny is fixed.

"Let your young men come in squads as fast as they can be raised, well armed. We want none but true men. D. R. ATCHISON.

"Yours, truly,

"P. S. I would not be astonished if this day laid the ground work for a guerrilla war in Kansas. I have heard of rumors of strife and battle at Leavenworth, seven miles from this place; but the ice is running in the Missouri River and I have nothing definite. I was a peace-maker in the difficulty lately settled by Governor, Shannon. I counseled the ruffians to forbearance; but I will never again counsel D. R. A."

peace.

CHAPTER XXVI.

FREE STATE PREPARATIONS AND PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT.

Not a week passed after the Wakarusa war that the free state men at Lawrence did not stand in constant apprehension of an attack from Border Ruffians. Rumors would reach them of some deep laid plan being perfected on the Border for the destruction of Lawrence, but its character was not fully known. Pro-slavery leaders would ride into town, consult members of their own party, and in a short time be in another settlement. Then the border presses were constantly teeming with invectives-threats and inflammatory appeals. It was evident that something was brewing secretly, but the more to be dreaded from the fact that it was secret.

Messengers would bring reports of military stores being collected on the Border, and companies of men organizing; and "that they were only awaiting a favorable change in the weather to commence an attack." "It is supposed," says the "Herald of Freedom," "they premeditate an attack on horseback-probably after night-of two or three hundred persons, meeting simultaneously from different points, and that they propose an arrest of several of our principal citizens, and then flee as they came, to make another attack after they shall have tortured and finally killed their victims, as was the case with the martyred Brown."

แ "We understand that an attack is also expected at Topeka, and that our friends there are also preparing for defense." "The friends of freedom in the East may be prepared at any time to hear of the blow being struck. When the war shall be opened in Kansas it will be under different auspices than on former occasions. It will be a struggle in earnest, and we appeal to our friends in the north and the east to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment's notice to our rescue. They may rest assured that the people of Kansas will stand upon the right, and that they will die before they will surrender."

From all that the free state men could see the signs of the times augered trouble, war and extermination. They knew that if the attack was not made in the winter, the difficulties would be renewed in the spring, not by Border Ruffians alone, but also by ruffians and scrapings of Southern cities. Dark and gloomy was the prospect of the seattered freemen of Kansas. Far removed from friends and aid; with a large and inimical State intervening to cut off succor in the hour of trial, with no chance of subsistence only from what they raised from their fields and little hope of being able to till them; with a dark clond ready to burst upon their heads, which was still more dark and portentious towards the horizon-they did not despair, but resolved to prepare, as best they could, for the worst.

The largest

Lawrence strengthened her fortifications. earthwork stood at the foot of Massachusetts Street, to guard the approach from the river. It was one hundred feet in diameter, five feet high, and four feet wide on the top. Upon this the sentinel made his constant beat. Inside was a cabin for the comforts of soldiers, with arms and ammunition.

Companies were armed, equipped and mustered into service. The most noted of these was Company "A," called "Stubbs," from their stubby appearance. Couriers were dispatched through the Territory to give warning to free

state men of the expected attack, and to hold themselves in readiness to come to the rescue. Arms, ammunition and provisions were collected from the vicinity and stored in the city. The Free State Hotel was a barrack for soldiers; pistols and guns lay on the mantle pieces, stood in the chimney corners; officers slept in their council rooms.

On the 4th of January the Executive Committee appointed a deputation, consisting of Messrs. Lane, Emery, Hunt, Goodin, Dickey and Holliday, to visit all the principal towns of the free States "to plead the cause of the people of Kansas, and convey and lay before Congress the Constitution of the State recently adopted." The Governors of the free States were addressed by the same committee and appealed to for aid. Governor Wright, of Indiana, responded at length, refusing any such assistance, on the ground that it would be derogatory to the principles of nonintervention, and that if the people of the Territory were aggrieved it was the duty of the President of the United States to redress them. But letters of sympathy and promises of aid came in abundance from other quarters. The protection of the general Government was invoked by the following letter to the President :

"LAWRENCE, K. T., January 21, 1856. "HON. FRANKLIN PIERCE, President of the United States: "SIR: We have authentic information that an overwhelming force of the citizens of Missouri are organized on the Border, amply supplied with artillery, for the avowed purpose of invading the Territory, demolishing our towns and butchering our unoffending free state citizens. We respectfully demand, on behalf of the citizens of Kansas, that the commandant of the United States troops in this vicinity, be instructed to interfere to prevent such an inhuman outRespectfully, "J. II. LANE, "Chairman of Executive Committe, Kansas Territory. "C. ROBINSON, Chairman Executive Committee of Safety. "J. K. GOODIN, "Secretary of Executive Committee, Kansas Territory. "GEORGE W. DEITZLER, Secretary of Committee of Safety."

rage.