Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1857, by

FRED LAW.OLMSTED,.

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

MILLER & COMPANY, Printers and Publishers, N. Y.

AMERICAN EDITOR'S

INTRODUCTION.

HAVING been requested to edit and introduce an American edition of this English book, I have thought I could best serve a public purpose by examining and setting forth its value and purport as evidence and intelligent European commentary upon the present exciting questions of our politics.

MR. GLADSTONE, a kinsman of the distinguished ex-chancellor of the Exchequer of England, visited Kansas, at a moment of interest in its history, and in the history of our country. His opportunities of obtaining trustworthy information were good, and he appears to have used them calmly and diligently. As a foreigner, with claims of friendship, or even

acquaintance, upon no one in the territory, except Colonel Sumner, who, as the military representative of the federal authority, was respected by both parties, he occupied a neutral position in their warfare.

Going back of these circumstances, I find that Mr. Gladstone arrived in New York near the beginning of the year 1856, with the ordinary motives of an English traveler of his class. From all I can learn of those who knew him here, his testimony or any subject should be received with particular respect. He is thought to observe closely, and accurately, to study carefully, and to. be: slow:in: expressing the conclusions of his judgment. He is not known to have had, at this time, more knowledge of, or interest in, American politics, than is common among English conservative gentlemen-about as much, that is to say, as is common among us with regard to the affairs of Sweden or Brazil.

He proceeded, very soon after his arrival, to Washington, and thence further south, and, during the winter, enjoyed the hospitality of South Carolina and Mississippi. In the spring

AMERICAN EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

he continued his journey through Missouri, and so, finally, to Kansas, arriving at Leavenworth city on the 21st of May.

Our whole country was then hotly engaged in the presidential canvass. So great was the tumult in Kansas, and such was the temptation upon our editors and newsmongers to disallow or exaggerate the conflicting reports of its condition, according as their influence was likely to be favorable, or otherwise, to the success of one or another candidate, that it became, and has continued to be, very difficult for a cautious mind, not possessing private means of information, to form a confident judgment, first, as to the reality or extent of the alleged calamity of Kansas, and second, as to the absolute or relative culpability of either of the contending parties.

Readers, who have been accustomed to hear the "disturbances" in Kansas spoken of only as such as are "incidental to all new settlements," will, perhaps, be inclined to set down this calmly observant traveler as an impostor, or a romancer, when they find him describing the condition of the territory, upon his arrival, as

"a holiday of anarchy and bloodshed." Readers at the South, who have been accustomed to rely for contemporary history on Southern newspapers, or on those of the North in which information is given in a form adapted to the Southern market, may question if he were in his right mind when they find him testifying that: "among all the scenes of violence I witnessed, the offending parties were invariably on the pro-slavery side." Those who have seen nothing inconsistent with: the official assurances of our late president; in the rapid humiliation of his three successively appointed governors, will hardly believe that the sympathies of an impartial, dispassionate, but justiceloving Englishman, could have been so immediately engaged, on his arrival in the territory, for the Free-state party, as is implied by this narrative, unless his mind had been previously prejudiced against their opponents.

He had been in intercourse, almost from the moment of his landing in America, chiefly with Southern minds. He came to Kansas fresh charged from Southern social influence. And yet, before he had met a single avowed free-soiler