CHAPTER VI.

Why are such Outrages permitted ?-Total Failure of Justice.— The Jeffreys of the Territory.-A Test required.—An impious Oath.-Affirmation of the Nebraska-Kansas Act and the Fugitive Slave Law.-Judge, Jury, and Law.-All one Way. -Sample of the Kansas Statutes.-Ball and Chain.-Freedom of Speech forbidden.-Punishment of Death.—Abuse of the Term "Law."-No Hope of Justice for Free-state Men.

EACH party in Kansas lays claim to the title of

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law-abiding and order-loving." The Pro-slavery party, being in power, especially boasts of its affection for "law and order," and preaches to its political opponents submission to the constituted authorities.

Yet the brief history of the territory has been little else than a succession of unjust oppressions and violent usurpations. It has been the holiday of crime and wrong, anarchy and bloodshed. Month after month, Englishmen living in their peaceful homes have been startled by the intelligence of new oppressions and new outrages committed in Kansas, until they have begun to ask, Are these events

WHY ARE SUCH OUTRAGES PERMITTED? 63

occurring in a civilized land? Does the country really possess a government? Is it true that it is under the direct control of the Congress of the United States? Has it really its Governor and Secretary, its Chief Justice and Associate Judges, its Marshals and Sheriffs, its laws and law-officers, of which we read, or are these mere empty titles ? In general, how are the extraordinary anomalies which a condition of affairs like that in Kansas implies, to be accounted for? How comes it that such enormities are permitted? Why is not a remedy applied?

To the solution of such inquiries I propose to devote the present and succeeding chapter.

The first and most natural question is,—If such fearful outrages as every mail brings us intelligence of are being committed in Kansas, why are not the perpetrators of these enormities brought to justice? Is there no judge, no jury, no law, to which appeal can be made for protection?

The answer is simple. First, the man is wanting who possesses boldness or rashness enough to bring the offending parties to justice. Murder and coldblooded assassination were of almost daily occurrence at the time of my visit; but whoever should

dare to report such a case would be at once a marked man, and his life in all probability, before the day had expired, would be the penalty for his imprudence in the cause of right.

But, supposing the offender to be brought to justice, who is the judge, of what character the jury, and what the law by which he has to be tried?

The judge would be such a man as Chief Justice Lecompte—the Jeffreys of the territory. Or, if not the chief of the "bloody assizes" of Kansas, it would be some other minion of the slave power, panting after the extermination of every Free-state advocate, and pledged by his oath of office to sustain the most offensive measures which the slave power has introduced. It cannot be otherwise, for all the public offices are occupied by most resolute adherents of the pro-slavery cause; and, lest any one of a different stamp should creep in, a test is demanded, contrary to the constitution of the United States, of every candidate for office, according to which he is required to subscribe an oath, "solemnly swearing upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God" that he will "support and sustain the provisions of the act entitled 'An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,' and the provisions of the

JUDGES AND JURIES.

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law of the United States commonly known as the 'Fugitive Slave Law.'"(Vide "Statutes of the Territory of Kansas," page 438.) Thus, by the law of the territory, no man can sit on the bench or hold any other public office unless he have first specially indorsed and pledged himself to sustain the two most extreme pro-slavery measures that can possibly be cited.

If such be the judge, the jury would also be of a character no less accurately defined by, statute. What is the law of Kansas concerning jurors?— "No person who is conscientiously opposed to the holding of slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in this territory, shall be a juror in any cause in which the right to hold any person in slavery is involved, nor in any cause in which any injury done to, or committed by, any slave is in issue, nor in any criminal proceeding for the violation of any law enacted for the protection of slave property, and for the punishment of crime committed against the right to such property."-(Statutes of Kansas, p. 378.) Again, by the first section of the act, the power is placed in the hands of "the Marshal, Sheriff, or other officer, to summon a sufficient number of jurors" (p. 377). And who

F

are Marshal and Sheriff?

deputy Fain are the former;

Donaldson and his

Samuel Jones is together, the dehunters of Free

With such a law,

the most noted of the latter: stroyers of Lawrence, and the state men even to the death. and with a discretionary power vested in such hands, it will be seen at once what kind of jury must of necessity be procured.

And if such be the character of judge and jury, what are the laws they have to dispense? Take a sample:

"If any person print, write, introduce into, publish, or circulate, or cause to be brought into, printed, written, published, or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or assist in bringing into, printing, publishing, or circulating, within this territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, magazine, hand-bill, or circular, containing any statements, arguments, opinions, sentiment, doc trine, advice, or innuendo, calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous, or rebellious disaffection among the slaves in this territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service of their masters, or to resist their authority, he shall be guilty of felony, and be punished by imprisonment at hard labour for a term of not less than five years."-(Statutes, cap. 151, sec. 11.)

"If any free person, by speaking or writing, assert