glory. Writs were obtained for the arrest of numerous freestate men, who were charged with sundry trivial offences, and the sheriff trooped about the country executing these writs, with companies of dragoons following at his heels. He several times visited Lawrence, where, although his very presence was considered an insult and an outrage, he succeeded in making arrests without resistance. The people, though not acknowledging his authority, bowed in submission to the vernment forces.

go

On the 23d of April, the sheriff entered Lawrence, with a large force of United States dragoons, and arrested a number of persons, who were held as prisoners in the tents of the soldiers. At night, Jones was in his own tent, which was lighted, and, when stooping down, some person from the outside fired at him, and the ball took effect in his back. The wound, though severe, did not prove mortal.

This affair created a lively sensation in Lawrence. Much as the citizens despised Jones, they were averse to any outrage being committed upon him in that place, as they well knew nothing would have proved more gratifying to their enemies. They consequently held a public meeting, at which the attempt upon the life of Jones was censured in the severest terms, and a reward of five hundred dollars offered for the detection of the intended assassin.

Jones and his party determined to make capital out of this affair. Although he does not seem to have been seriously injured, dispatches were forwarded to Washington on the subject, and even the president considered it of sufficient importance to elicit his official action. Communications, at the same time, were circulated through Missouri, and the pro-slavery papers teemed with inflammatory articles. Of these, the following is but a fair and even moderate specimen :

"Kansas is once more in commotion. The traitors of Lawrence have again set the laws of the territory at defiance, and this time have added murder to their crime. Sheriff Jones, of Douglas county, than whom a braver man never lived, has been murdered while in the performance of his official duties-shot down by the thieving paupers of the north, who are shipped to Kansas to infringe upon the rights of southern settlers, murder them when opportunity offers, steal their. property, and if possible, to raise a storm that will cease only with the Union itself.

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The excitement in this city, during the past week, has been very great. Rumors of various kinds have reached us, and although we believed a difficulty had occurred, we were not prepared to hear of

OUTRAGE ON PARDEE BUTLER.

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His death

such lamentable news,-the death of the patriot Jones. must be avenged, his murder shall be avenged, if at the sacrifice of every abolitionist in the territory. If the pro-slavery party will quietly sit still and see our friends, one by one, murdered by these assassins, without raising their arms to protect them, we much mistake their character. Will they again allow a northern governor to cheat them out of their just revenge? We answer emphatically, no! If the governor of this territory and the administration at Washington any longer attempt to force us to assume the position of outlaws before we can have justice done us, the sooner such a contingency arises the better. We are now in favor of levelling Lawrence, and chastising the traitors there congregated, should it result in the total destruction of the Union. If we are to have war, let it come now! While the memory of our murdered friends, Clarke and Jones, is fresh in our memories, we can coolly and determinedly enter into the contest, let it result as it may. We do not approve of the course of the governor, in calling out the United States troops to enforce the laws of the ter ritory. It looks to us as a virtual admission that the law and order party of Kansas are not strong enough within themselves to enforce the law."

The sacking of free-state towns-the burning of free-state houses the ravishing and branding of free-state women, and turning them and their helpless children naked upon the prairies-the murders of free-state men and shocking mutilations of their dead bodies, were all nothing, and less than nothing, when weighed in the balance against this villanous attempt to take the life of Sheriff Jones. That gentleman, however, was less violent than his friends and associates, in regard to this transaction; and he was far less anxious than they, for secret reasons of his own, to discover and arrest his assailant.

On the 30th of April, the Rev. Pardee Butler, having terminated safely his voyage on the raft, again ventured to cross the Missouri River, and make his appearance in the proslavery town of Atchison, when, as he says, I spoke to no one in town save two merchants of the place, with whom I had business transactions since my first arrival in the territory. Having remained only a few minutes, I went to my buggy to resume my journey, when I was assaulted by Robert S. Kelly, junior editor of the Squatter Sovereign, and others; was dragged into a grocery, and there surrounded by a company of South Carolinians, who are reported to have been sent out by a Southern Emigrant Aid Society."

Here they exposed him to every sort of indignity, calling him a d-d abolitionist, and many of them insisting upon his

being instantly shot or hung. There were present those, however, who protested strongly against the outrage, when Kelly, who was the prime mover in the business, fearing the consequences of murdering his victim, said he "did not take Butler to be hanged, only tarred and feathered." To this some demurred, calling it a "milk-and-water-style" of doing things. Eventually they concluded upon their arrangements, and, as Mr. Butler himself says:

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'They stripped me naked to the waist, covered my body with tar, and then, for the want of feathers, applied cottonwool. Having appointed a committee of three to certainly hang me the next time I should come to Atchison, they tossed my clothes into the buggy, put me therein, accompanied me to the suburbs of the town, and sent me naked out upon the prairie.

"I adjusted my attire about me as best I could, and hastened to rejoin my wife and two little ones, on the banks of the Stranger Creek. It was rather a sorrowful meeting after so long a parting. Still, we were very thankful that, under the blessing of a good Providence, it had fared no worse with us all.

"The first mob that sent me down the Missouri River on a raft-always excepting Robert S. Kelly—were courteous gentlemen compared with this last one. When I was towed out into the middle of the stream, I do not remember to have heard a word spoken by the men on shore. This last mob, when they left me on the border of the town, shrieked and yelled like a pack of New Zealand cannibals. The first mob did not attempt to abridge my right of speech. In reply to all the hard and bitter things they said against me they patiently heard me to the end. But these men, who have come to introduce into Kansas that order of things that now exists in South Carolina, savagely gagged me into silence by rapping my face, choking me, pulling my beard, jerking me violently to my seat, and exclaiming, 'D-n you, hold your tongue!' All this was done while my arms were pinioned behind me. Many will ask now, as they have asked already, what is the true and proper cause of all these troubles which I have had in Atchison. "The head and front of my offending hath this extent, no more': I had spoken among my neighbors favorably for making Kansas a free state, and said in the office of the Squatter Sovereign, I am a free-soiler, and intend to vote for Kansas to be a free state. It is true that Kelly, by

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LECOMPTE'S CHARGE.

77

an after-thought, has added two new counts to his bill of indictment against me. The first is that I went to the town of Atchison last August, talking abolitionism. I have not the honor of being an abolitionist. And, second, that I spoke, somehow or other, improperly in the presence of slaves. All this is not only utterly false, but the charges are ex-post facto; for not a word was said of this the day they put me on the raft."

CHAPTER XIII.

Charge of Judge Lecompte to the Grand Jury.-Presentment.-Arrests at Lawrence.-Travellers interrupted on the highways.-The murder of Jones and Stewart.-The sacking of Lawrence.-Burning of the hotel and destruction of printing offices.

On the 5th of May, Judge Lecompte delivered a charge, highly partisan in its character, to the grand jury of Douglas county, of which, the following extract is in his own words:

"This territory was organized by an act of Congress, and so far its authority is from the United States. It has a Legislature elected in pursuance of that organic act. This Legislature, being an instrument of Congress, by which it governs the territory, has passed laws; these laws, therefore, are of United States authority and making, and all that resist these laws, resist the power and authority of the United States, and are, therefore, guilty of high treason. Now, gentlemen, if you find that any persons have resisted these laws, then must you, under your oaths, find bills against such persons for high treason. If you find that no such resistance has been made, but that combinations have been formed for the purpose of resisting them, and individuals of influence and notoriety have been aiding and abetting in such combinations, then must you still find bills for constructive treason, as the courts have decided that to constitute treason the blow need not be struck, but only the intention be made evident."

The grand jury accordingly made a presentment, as follows:

"The grand jury, sitting for the adjourned term of the First District Court in and for the county of Douglas, in the Territory of Kansas, beg leave to report to the honorable court that, from evidence laid before them, showing that the newspaper known as The Herald of Freedom, published at the town of Lawrence, has from time to time issued publications of the most inflammatory and seditious character,

denying the legality of the territorial authorities, addressing and commanding forcible resistance to the same, demoralizing the popular mind, and rendering life and property unsafe, even to the extent of advising assassination as a last resort;

"Also, that the paper known as The Kansas Free State has been similarly engaged, and has recently reported the resolutions of a public meeting in Johnson county, in this territory, in which resistance to the territorial laws even unto blood has been agreed upon; and that we respectfully recommend their abatement as a nuisance. Also, that we are satisfied that the building known as the Free-State Hotel' in Lawrence has been constructed with the view to military occupation and defence, regularly parapeted and port-holed for the use of cannon and small arms, and could only have been designed as a stronghold of resistance to law, thereby endangering the public safety, and encouraging rebellion and sedition in this country; and respectfully recommend that steps be taken whereby this nuisance may be removed.

"OWEN C. STEWART, Foreman."

In order to accomplish the objects of this presentment, which was simply a declaration of war against Lawrence, a number of writs were made out and placed in the hands of the marshal for the arrest of prominent citizens of that place. Although it is asserted that no attempts were made to resist the marshal's deputies in serving these writs, the marshal, on the 11th of May, issued the following proclamation :—

"TO THE PEOPLE OF KANSAS TERRITORY:

"Whereas, certain judicial writs of arrest have been directed to me by the First District Court of the United States, etc., to be executed within the county of Douglas, and whereas an attempt to execute them by the United States Deputy Marshal was evidently resisted by a large number of the citizens of Lawrence, and as there is every reason to believe that any attempt to execute these writs will be resisted by a large body of armed men; now, therefore, the law-abiding citizens of the territory are commanded to be and appear at Lecompton, as soon as practicable, and in numbers sufficient for the execution of the law.

"Given under my hand, this 11th day of May, 1856.
I. B. DONALSON,

"United States Marshal for Kansas Territory."

Previous to the publication of this proclamation, Buford's regiment, and other armed bands, had taken up positions in the vicinity of Lawrence, who were not only committing depredations upon the property of the settlers, but were intercepting, robbing, and imprisoning travellers on the public thoroughfares, and threatening to attack the town, in consequence of which a meeting was held, and a committee appointed to address Gov