CHAPTER XXXIV.

RELIEF FOR KANSAS AND THE DISPERSION OF THE LEGISLATURE.

It would be too tedious and painful to relate the many outrages that were committed during the summer. Guerrilla bands scoured the country; men were robbed on the highway; several hung in the forests, and many shot down on the prairies. Women were insulted and violated; families driven from their claims, their houses burnt, and fields laid waste. Few were the harvests reaped, and little was the provision stored away. All the evils of civil war filled the land.

Not content with oppressing and driving out the free state settlers of Kansas, the "law and order party" stopped emigrants, robbed and turned them back. Ten families, from Iowa and Illinois, with farming implements and household furniture, moving in wagons, were stopped near Platte City, by one hundred and fifty men, armed with United States muskets, bowie-knives, revolvers and shot guns. Their wagons were searched, a few gaming rifles taken, and the whole body of emigrants forbid entering the Territory. They were turned back, and finally found lodgement in some old houses, ten miles beyond Liberty, where they remained until the troubles were over. Seventeen other emigrants, from Illinois, were robbed and scattered by a mob at Leavenworth.

Boats containing passengers coming up the Missouri river were stopped and searched. Arms, clothing, money and other

valuables, were thus taken, and free state men driven back. The Missouri River was completely blockaded to eastern shipment and travel. The provisions and clothing sent out by Eastern friends to the sufferers in Kansas were deliberately taken. The following is a notice of the arrest and turning back of Eastern emigrants:

"MORE ABOLITIONISTS TURNED BACK.

"The steamer Sultan. having on board contraband articles, was recently stopped at Leavenworth City and lightened of forty-four rifles, and a large quantity of pistols and bowie-knives, taken from a crowd of cowardly Yankees, shipped out from Massachusetts. The boat was permitted to go up as far as Weston, where a guard was placed over the prisoners, and none of them permitted to land. They were shipped back from Weston on the same boat without ever being insured by the shippers. We do not approve fully of sending these criminals back to the East to be reshipped to Kansas-if not through Missouri, through Iowa and Nebraska. We think they should meet a traitor's death, and the world can not censure us if we, in self-protection, have to resort to such ultra measures. We are of the opinion if the citizens of Leavenworth City or Weston would hang one or two boat loads of abolitionists, it would do more towards establishing peace in Kansas than all the speeches that have been delivered in Congress during the present session. Let the experiment be tried."

In consequence of the excited condition of the Territory and the waste of property, the spring found the free state men in great want of the necessities of life. Appeals were made to the people of the free States for aid.

Vast contributions were raised, and provisions and clothing were sent to the needy in Kansas. Much of these supplies were seized on their way up the river. The Boston Relief Committee raised and appropriated about $20,000. Collections were made by lecturers, and relief furnished from all sections of the free States by individual donations.

The people of the Northern States watched with solici

tude the affairs in Kansas. And after the Congressional report was made public, those who were incredulous of the alleged outrages now believed the worst had never been told. They were connected with the majority of the settlers in Kansas, not only by the kindred ties of blood, but also by sympathy and interest. They regarded the emigrants here as fighting the battles of freedom against slavery, and in the cause of justice and right. When they asked for provision and clothing, the free States liberally responded. And, now, when the soil of Kansas was overrun by armed invaders, the settlers driven from their homes and many compelled to leave the Territory, when their towns were sacked or threatened with destruction; their leading men imprisoned or expatriated; when the natural course of travel and freighting was obstructed; goods seized and taken from boats; emigrants robbed and driven back, they were prepared to lend not only the means of sustenance, but of protection to the people of Kansas. This is what gave rise to the Kansas Aid Societies and meetings.

Early in the spring Kansas meetings were held at various towns, companies organized, and funds raised for Kansas. On the 1st of March such an one was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at which $3,000 in money and a quantity of arms were contributed, and a plan set on foot to organize an Emigrant Aid Company, with Auxilliary Societies in each county.

About the middle of March Rev. Henry Ward Beecher lectured at New Haven, Connecticut, for the benefit of a colony of seventy emigrants that were about to start to Kansas. At this meeting money was secured, by contributions, to purchase fifty-two Sharp's rifles, the funds for twenty-five of which Mr. Beecher pledged his congregation to raise. The company arrived in the Territory about the middle of April, and settled at Wabaunsee. It was organized and conducted under the supervision and leadership of

C. B. Lines, now State Commissioner of Claims. Such was the character of some of the first Kausas Aid Meetings.

When the people of MeLane County, Illinois, learned that a number of their fellow-citizens had been intercepted in their emigration to Kansas, robbed and driven back with violent threats, they held a meeting, raised money, arms and men for the purpose of removing the obstructions to the peaceful emigration of free state men to the Territory. W. F. Arny was the leader of this movement. In a few days an enthusiastic meeting was held at Chicago, which raised over $20,000 in one night for the relief of Kansas. To the committee appointed by this meeting Mr. Arny went, and a plan was arranged to co-operate together and extend their work over the State.

But about the first of July, at a general meeting of the friends of free Kansas in Buffalo, the Grand Kansas Aid Committee was organized, composed of one member from each of the Free States, except Illinois, which had three representatives. They appointed an Executive Committee to reside in Chicago, whose duty it was to receive, forward and distribute the contributions of the people, whether provisions, arms or clothing, to the needy in Kansas. Auxilliary Societies were formed in every free State except Massachusetts, and the committee previously at work in Illinois joined in and co-operated with the National Committee. The Executive Committee was composed of Mr. J. D. Webster, Chairman, Mr. George W. Dole, Treasurer, Mr. II. B. Hurd, Secretary. They received and distributed in money alone, about $120,000. Of this $10,000 was expended in arms. Besides this they received donations, in small and large quantities, of provision, clothing and arms. Two hundred Sharp's rifles and ammunition belonging to this committee, were seized at Waverly and Lexington, Missouri. The directors held their second and last meeting in New York during January 1857, before whom John Brown appeared and solicited aid.

The Boston Relief Committee was organized early in tho spring, for the purpose of sending clothing, provisions and money to the free State settlers in Kansas. It collected in Boston, chiefly in small sums by a spasmodic effort, $20,000 In June the State Kansas Committee of Massachusetts was organized, and took the place of the Boston Relief. Geo. L. Stearns was chairman of the former committee. He hai been laboring as agent for the latter, previously. This society extended its operations over the State, and collected in small sums from all classes. They would appoint a meeting in a locality, have a speaker to address the people, to tell the story of Kansas' wrongs and sufferings, and then take up a collection for the relief of the settlers. In this way they raised in money about $78,000, one-half of which Mr. Stearns was instrumental in securing himself. Until about the 1st of August they sent nothing but money, provisions and clothing; at that time the Missouri River was closed to em-. igration, and earnest entreaties were made for arms. Two hundred Sharp's rifles and ammunition were immediately sent by way of Iowa, to the Territory. They were detained at Mt. Tabor, Iowa, aud never reached Kansas. They finally fell into the hands of John Brown, and were taken to Harper's Ferry. The Committee also assisted in the elections of 1857-8, in the Territory.

There were many things during this summer that tended to increase the interest which the North felt in the welfare and success of free state men in Kansas, and the odium with which they regarded the slave propagandists. The Presidential campaign had opened in full blast, and was characterized by a popular excitement, scarcely equalled in the history of our country. And the wrongs and outrages committed in Kansas were held up in public meetings before the world, the Border Ruflians were burlesqued by grotesque figures and mocked in their atrocious conduct. Many a time has the writer seen Generals Stringfellow and Atchison personified by an individual of blackened face