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QUINDARO CHINDOWAN
A FREE-STATE PAPER
VOL.I QUINDARO, KANZAS, JUNE 13,1857. NO. 5.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
J.M. WALDEN & CO.
J.M. WALDEN..............EDITOR
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ITEM- Good morning, sister housekeepers! It is a Monday morning; one of those bright Monday mornings, that in our Eastern homes used to bring out the piles of soiled linen, the wash-tubs, big kettles, sparkling spring water, and bustling importance of the energetic housekeeper.
And have we not heard gentlemen authors, editors, and husbands abuse this blessed day, as if it were a foretaste of that "judgement to come," when the soiled soul should be arraigned and stand with no such grateful appliances for purification? Indeed we have. But our word for it, the bachelors and Benedicts of a new country, like this, will soon learn to think with becoming respect, of the good old washing days, wehn they had no care but to "put their things into the wash" and got their dickies and socks done up without sweating their own brows "fetching water," or paying ten cents or a "bit" apiece to escape participation in the labor.
And would not our housekeepers, who have been subjected, for a few weeks, to the inconveniences of homes, involving increased needs for washing-duty--be delighted to meet the old time washing-day with its spring at the door, or pump in the wash-room, big arch kettle, washbenches, tubs, pounding barrel, soft-soap and Yankee wash-board, with the nice clothes-line and bars? Ah, yes, sisters, and as we have shared richly in the experience of these changed conditions of Monday's toil; it is in perfect keeping for us to repeat the lesson we have learned, in a few comforting suggestions on the disciplinary elements of washing-day.
But first let us confess, that our present train of thought was suggested by a sermon we heard Sabbath morning, on "the disciplinary elements of Christianity," in which the speaker wisely recognised christian discipline, as the foundation of all human excellence.
Are we irreverent in thus associating divine truths with washing-day duties? For ourself, gentle reader, we have no respect for a religion that worships in High places only. Six sevenths of our time has the all-Father given us, to pursue the avocations that lay the foundations and create the conditions of temporal prosperity. These avocations from the kitchen to the National Cabinet must be presented with grateful reference to God, and a tender consideration for all the human interests involved, or we, as individuals, fail of that christian discipline, without which we can neither worship God, nor properly respect ourselves. We have no respect whatever, for a Christianity, that turns up its sacred nose at a wash-tub, or desecrates the lowly altars of toil to a hard-favored humanity.
Whenever the worker worships through his toil, both himself and his calling are elevated above princes and palaces, that know not God and love not man. One of the most efficient preachers of the Gospel we ever heard, was a plain old washer-woman, an every day christian, whose wash-bench was her desk, and her very pounding-barrel a reproof to all unrighteousness. Her cheerful industry brought sunshine, wherever she came and when any attempt was made to persuade her from her arduous and ungrateful sphere of labor, her unvarying reply was replete with the sustaining power and conscious dignity of a christian life, "be it ever so lonely"--"cleanliness is next to Godliness." The old lady had quarried from the same vein of practical christianity, as Henry Ward Beecher, when he exclaimed, "There is more Gospel in a loaf of bread, than a dry sermon, for the starving poor."
There is true christian wisdom in applying ourselves to the creation and preservation of those temporal conditions of the body, which are most congenial to the christian spirit. Neither grown persons or children are, in the main, as amiable, self-possessed, and accessible to good impressions, when dirt and hunger goad them into conscious discomfort.
Indeed, we have often seen persons in such conditions lose their self-control, and exhibit irritability, and want of consideration for others, who were habitually cheerful, pains-taking, and considerate, in the tidy garb and cleanly surroundings necessary to their cense of confort. But the indulgence of such feelings, is not "enduring as good soldiers;" is, indeed, a criminal poisoning of this springs of human happiness. All these seemingly untoward conditions of life, when necessarily incurred, offer us the noblest compensations, furnishing the happiest occassions for the acquisition of that power of cheerful adaptation to circumstances, which is the fruit of a truly christian discipline, and qualifying us for a higher apppreciation and keeper enjoyment of blessings, when restored. Thus from temporary ills we win permanent good, and learn a lesson of life-long use--that true riches consist not in what we have, but in what we enjoy.
Such, sister Housekeepers, are the truths, that, like Aarons and Hurs, bear up our hands on a washing-day, which brings with it a supply of few of the usual concomitants of that day, except the soiled linen and mud-tracked floors.
POLITENESS
(For the Chindowan)
Politeness, as defined by Webster, is "Ease and gracefulness of manner, combined with attention to the convenience of others." It is not, as too often supposed, something foreign to the mind of man, and engrafted upon it, but it is the legitimate action of certain essential elements of his nature, having its origin in the social feelings and an innate sense of propriety, which no amount of training could inculate; and its exhibition would be far more general but for the inharmonious development resulting from a false system of eduation.
All wish to please, and have some desire to make others happy; therefore it is not strange that we should seek to become polite, but it is strange that instead of cultivating nature, and educating those attributes of the soul in which politeness originates, we should study it as an art, and resort to external rules for its attainment.
Volume upon volume of arbitraty rules for the regulation of our conduct in society has been published, and what has been the result? Art has trampled down nature; the mechanical has taken the place of the spiritual; and fashion superseded politeness. The two are often confounded tho' intrinsically different in their natures and effects.
Politeness is the natural and spontaneous outbirth of the human heart in words and deeds of kindness to all.--Fashion or conventionalism is the shell without the kernel--the body without the spirit of politeness. The former is alike mindful of friends, strangers and enemies; the latter always "waits for an introduction" and the sanction of established usage. Politeness favors no class; rich and poor, high and low, have an equal claim to her attentions, upon the ground of a common humanity. Conventionalism, on the contrary, pays great respect to caste, and never allows herself to be contaminated by contact with "the culgar herd."
Thus, while the former tends to promote equality and unity in interest, by calling forth kind and benevolent emotions and binding individuals together by a common bond of sympathy, the latter favors aristocracy, closes up the natural avenues of the heart, checks the warm interchange of feeling, and alienates man from his brother.
How important, then, that we make a just discrimination between them, and seek to cultivate those qualities of mind and heart which are wellsprings of true politeness, and contribute so much to our own advancement and the happiness of others! Rules, when trusted in, have ever betrayed man into a blind dependence upon outward forms, and robbed him of the spirit; but we know there is one which at all times, in all stages of society, and in the most trivial as well as trying circumstances may be received as the magnet of our lives. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them."
ITEM-We are under obligation to Mr. Putman, agent of Richardson's Express, Jefferson City, for the despatch and care which, if there had not been a mistake in the direction, would have landed our missing Trunk some six weeks since, at Quindaro, instead of Leavenworth. We have it safety now, have "paid charges," and will certainly call on Mr. P. again in like need, from which may a good Providence and Steamboat Porter's save us, in all time to come.
SIGNIFICANT
The Charleston Mercury winds up a most despairing shriek for Slavery and Kanzas, as follows:--"Let us then be up and doing, and if we cannot make her (Kanzas) a slave State, Make her at least Democratic."
SIGNIFICANT
From Mrs. R.S. Nichols' department of the Hunterdon (New Jersey) Gazette, we copy the following description of the unseasonable weather experienced in May, of the present year. There is both truth and poetry in it.
Spring--The season in which plants rise and vegetate; the vernal season.--Dictionary.
We deny it. Spring is a misnomer for that portion of the year that follows close upon the heels of Winter, or more properly, that lies between Summer and Winter. The seasons are all wrong--there is something out of joint; not the rheumatism, however, for that is in joint, so those say who should know, and we are quite willing to take their word for it, when backed by groans and wry faces. Spring, the season when plants rise and vegetate, indeed! If they had written it thus,--Spring, the season when winds rise, and frosts, and colds, and neural-gias vegetate, there would have been some sense as well as truth in it; but plants! nonsense! unless they are oyster plants, we don't believe a word of it. The poets have exhausted their flowery vocabularies in praise of this most perverse and fickle season. They have personified her as a bright and beautiful maiden, dressed in green, and wreathed in garlands, and represent her as something very fair and bewitching indeed; and those poor, miserably beguiled beings, the painters, have followed in the poets' track, and have given to us resplendent pictures, as humbugging as they are lovely, of that same sweet young lady. All we have to say, is, that we never knew anything in life half so unpleasant or uncomfortable as the young woman in question. She is what the fascinating Mantalini would have called a moist, chilling, aggravating body; in short, a most torturing "pure and angelic rattlesnake!"--that's what she is. Leafy spring! That's another one of their fictions. Why the very trees and shrubs are bare as a whiplash, and the poor little hyacinths and crocuses that have ventured to put their noses through the ground, look for all the world as if they had the ague, and that nothing would give them so much pleasure as to be able to shake, which they generally do, and quake too, in these cold and biting winds. Then there are the poor birds, that have been most villainoulsy taken in by these old legends about balmy spring (heaven save the mark!) they must come back a month or two too soon, and wring-our hearts with their piteous little notes as they sit shivering and chirping, and trying to make believe they are happy, on the leafless twigs and branches. It is said they have a language of their own, and we are almost willing to be qualified, that we heard several veteran black birds swearing in round phrases, one frosty morning, last week; at least, if we did not, it was something like it as could be; and christain, as we are, we could hardly find it in our heart to blame them, either. Just think of it. Here we are in May. Good gracious! what monstrous stories have been told about this month. There is not a poet that ever breathed, from Shakespeare down to the smallest fledgling of some prolific poet's corner in a country newspaper, but has thought him or herself called upon to respectively lash themselves into a frenzied state of falsehood in regard to that ungrateful month. The sonnets that have been written to her alone, to say nothing of those devoted to tearful April and to stormy March, would fill several lying volumes, we regret to have it to say. And what, pray, must be the feelings of a warm, enthusiastic soul, that has sat by a cosy library fire, and read these mendacious verses, until he or she has believed them, and ventured forth to find the flowery meadows and turfy glades there spoken of? Yes what, we ask, must be that poor soul's feelings? Suppose you enquire, wehn they enter the house with red noses and racked shoulders, upon their return from Maying!
Bother the poets! Spring is a humbug; there's no such season. Its all a chimera, a falsehood, a dream.
AN OFFICIAL "SELL"
The Chicago Tribune relates a ruse employed by the authorities of that county, to relieve themselves of a surplus of company, on the day designated for the execution of Jackson for murder. The court had issued a supersedeas, by which the execution was postponed; but the crowd only regarded the announcement of this as a sham, to get rid of them. How the thing was finally managed, is thus given:
"During the forenoon numers of persons collected at different hours, in the Court Hours Square from motives of curiousity, but the police managed to disperse them with little difficulty. In the afternoon, however, from one to two o'clock, between two and three thousand persons collected about the Court House, and in the street around the square, and all the efforts of the police, short of a resort to actual force which was not deemed advisable, failed to disperse them. Under the circumstances a ruse what resorted to by the officers to get rid of the troublesome populace, which succeeded admirably. The large covered wagon, drawn by a stout horse, used for the purpose of conveying paupers to the county farms, was brought close to the jail enterance, and guarded by a strong force of policemen. Of course the crowd gave this proceeding their immediate and undivided attention. Everybody was on tip-toe to get a glimpse of the prisoner, and every position from which the movement of the officers could be overlook was instantly occupied. In a few moments, the figure of a man, eveloped in a large cloak, with a slouched hat on, emerged from the jail, surrounded by a half a dozen deputy sheriffs. "Here he is"--"where?"--"Why there"--"that's him"--and a dozen similar expressions came from five hundred pair of lips at once. The man in a cloak, who was no other tan a deputy sheriff, was placed in the wagon, and two or three officers got in with him, and the procession started, followed by the crowd which exhibited a determination to be "in at the death," worthy a company of fox hunters.
By dint of threats, expostulations, and not a few blows, the crowd was kept back from the wagon, and it moved slowly up Randolph street. The street was filled with people, who splashed through mud and water, utterly regardless of all decency, and making as much noise as they conveniently could. After the wagon crossed the bridge, the driver made a bold push, and, aided by the policemen, got in advance of the main body of the people, and turning up canal street, commenced putting his animal through. The crowd followed as fast as they could, tumbling into ditches and shouting like wild men. After turning up Kinzie St., and going nearly a half a mile on the Milwaukee plank road, the driver managed to dodge the crowd by going through an alley, and taking a back street to town.
After searching for the wagon awhile, the crowd returned to their homes, and thus ended the farce."
CUCUMBER BUGS
Dr. Heckerman, of Tiffin, writes: Most gardeners are very much annoyed by these bugs, which prey alike upon the cucumber, melon, pumpkin and squash--the latter being its favorite. Various plans have been devised for their protection, such as soot, & c. A method which I have practiced with nearly entire success, is to form a mixture of equal part of finely ground black pepper and wheat flour, and dust the plants, while the dew is upon them with this mixture, using an ordinary flour or pepper box. It is a fact generally known, that black pepper is so obnoxious to most insects, that few will approach or stay in its presence. The object of the flour is to combine with the pepper, and with the water or dew to form a paste, which will adhere to the leaves for many days unless washed off by heavy rains; in which case the application should be renewed.
We will tell our readers a better way with less trouble and sure to kill every kind of bug that destroys vines. We have practiced it these ten years adn with entire success. These bugs all lay their eggs in patches on the under side of the vine leaves. It is only necessary to visit the vines every other day for some ten days, and pinch them out, or break them off the portion of the leaf to which the eggs are fastened, and the original pair will die without posterity. The labor is very little and the good housewife will find it a benefit to herself to spend so much time among her vines each evening or morning as will suffice to keep out the bugs.
ITEM-We learn from the Cincinnati Daily Commercial, that John Joliffe, Esq. of that city, was met and beaten and insulted in the street in Covington, Ky., on the 30th ult. by Gaines, the infamous owner of the slave woman Peggy, who murdered her own child, when re-captured on the Ohio side of the river, to save it from slavery. Mr. Joliffe made no attempt at resistance, but was dogged to the ferry by Gaines and his companions who called him a d--d Abolitionist, threatening his life and the like. He was finally rescued by the Police. Mr. J's offence, was having acted as counsel to Peggy in the suit instituted against her freedom of her master.
Transcribed by Melissa Patton. 2/4/2002
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Quindaro Chin-do-wan.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
J. M. WALDEN & CO.
J. M.
WALDEN,.................. EDITOR,
MRS. C. I. H.
NICHOLS,......ASSOCIATE,
Mrs. Nichols’ articles marked....... N.
Saturday, June 13, 1857.
-JOB PRINTING neatly and promptly executed:
-SAM. F. TAPPAN, Jr., of Lawrence, Kanzas, is our authorized Agent to secure
subscriptions and advertisements, and receipt for the same.
-Subscriptions and Advertisements for the Chindowan received by EDMUND BABB,
Gazette Building, Cincinnati, Ohio.
GOV. ROBINSON’S MESSAGE. As soon as we learn that the Message of Gov.
Robinson has been sent in to the Free State Legislature, we will publish it in
an Extra.
-Our thanks to Richardson’s Express for late papers.
-Mr. Greenleaf, Clerk of the Lightning Line steamer Polar Star, has our
thanks for a late file of St. Louis papers; also for a copy of the Weston
Argus, brought us on the return trip yesterday.
-We have received a very handsome boquet – the first of the season here –
through the kindness of a friend. This delicately arranged cluster of flowers is
a sweet and welcome remembrancer of home scenes far eastward.
The Free-State Policy.
We lay before our readers, this week, the
proceedings of the Free-State Convention held at Topeka on the 9th inst. It will
be understood that this was a Mass Convention. At it a large proportion of the
people of Kanzas were represented, although we suppose the more remote sections
had no representatives there. While its action is not held to be as binding upon
the party as would have been the action of a delegate convention in which every
district would have a proportionate representation, still the proceedings should
not be passed, by those interested in the cause of Freedom in Kanzas, without a
careful examination.
We believe the policy embodied in the resolutions to be a good one – one that
will do to stand by. The first resolution will be tested on next Monday, and so
confident are we that it expresses the sentiment of the entire party, that we do
not believe that any considerable portion of the comparatively few Free-State
men who are registered will trouble the equanimity of the Pro-Slavery election
judges by presenting themselves at the polls.
In so far as the resolutions contemplate an adherence to the Topeka
Constitution we think, they must meet with favor from nine-tenths of the party.
– That Constitution was framed by a Convention of Delegates who were chosen at
polls from which no person was debarred, either by test-oaths or mob-violence
and hence empowered to act for the majority of the people. That Constitution was
submitted to the people and ratified by them, inasmuch as it received a large
majority of the votes cast at polls from which none were excluded by fraud or
any other barrier. That Constitution is a noble instrument, as free from fault,
perhaps, as any one of the kind can be emanating from men. It is an ægis that
would protect Human Rights, Free Labor and Free Men, and under it Kanzas would
march on in a prosperous career to wealth and power.
It is not only valid but is this day the Constitution of the state of Kanzas.
– The mere admission of a state into the sisterhood of states does not give
validity to a State Constitution. It derives its sacredness and moral binding
force from having originated with the people. It is the people of the state and
not the Congress of the United States that invest such an instrument with power.
Kanzas has in fact been a state ever since the day that Constitution was
ratified by the vote of her citizens – she is a state to-day! It is true she is
not ranked with the members of the Union – neither has she an active state
organization, but whilst these conditions may be essential to her peace, without
them she is a state because she was so declared by a majority of her people.
Sovereignty rests with the people. It is not the gift of any government. The
sovereign will of the people is no less the Constitution then it is the Law of a
land. Admission into the Union brings with it certain guarantees but invests no
State Government with any powers beyond what it possessed before such admission.
A careful examination of Gov. Walker’s Inaugural will convince every person that
he entertains or did entertain at the time of its writing, views which lead
directly to those conclusions. Then is the Topeka Constitution just as binding
on the present citizens of Kanzas as though it had passed both houses of
Congress instead of one, and had received the signiture of the least of all
Presidents, and it will continue so to be until repudiated in a legitimate
manner by the majority. – And, as Gov. Walker has assured us that the new states
are entitled to dictate the terms upon which they will be admitted into the
Union, if only remains for the Free-State party to achieve a glorious triumph
over their oppressors by clinging to their own Constitution.
When political affairs are as unsettled as they are in Kanzas, no one can say
at what moment an emergency may arise when a State organization, active and (?),
shall be necessary for the protection of the citizens, therefore the resolution
of the mass Convention advising the Legislature to complete the machinery of
Government and have it ready for instant action is a wise and provident one; for
whilst it does not contemplate a collision between the State and Territorial
organizations, it does look forward to a full preparation for resistance to
usurpation, should usurpation again be attempted.
The last resolution adopted is a good one every true Free-State man will say
because it draws boldly and distinctly the line of demarcation between those who
are true to the interests of Free Kanzas, and those who are in any degree the
minions of the Slave. Oligarchy – it effectually separates the sheep from the
goats and appoints the proper position to those who to any extent court the
favor of a party that is striving and conniving to humiliate and crush out the
organization to which the Free Kanzas of the future will be indebted for the
triumph of freedom within her borders.
For these considerations we think the policy proposed by the Convention the
proper one to be pursued until some future developments may require a
modification of or change in it.
Why don’t the Free State Men Vote?
“If you don’t vote you will have
a slavery constitution, and if you won’t vote you ought to have; good
enough for you!” Such was the indignant remark of a friend of ours East, a close
and thorough reader of all the leading papers, speeches, congressional
proceedings, &c. We have recently received a communication of inquiry and
remonstrance from another eminent republican to the same effect.
It seems impossible to make even intelligent men in the States, comprehend
the exact position of the Free State men of Kanzas, in their relations to “the
powers that” claim “to be.” We have stated facts, and argued in vain with those
distant friends of Free Kanzas; but we will try, once more, to show what is an
insurmountable obstacle in the way of a fair expression of opinion at the
ballot-box, aside from all objections on principle.
“Why don’t the Free State men go to the polls and vote? If they are in the
majority, as claimed and believed, they can, by so doing, take the action of the
Convention into their own hands, and thus settle the whole matter?” Yes, why
don’t they? Because the Powers that claim to be, have made conditions, or
qualifications, which cut off nine in ten, if not nineteen in twenty, of the
Free State men who are actual residents, not registering their names as such.
“Why don’t they get their names registered?” Yes, travel long distances to get
it done, and then be left out of the accepted list. The census takers have
entirely neglected whole counties, (or rather none have been appointed,) and
those the most densely populated. And where Free State men have given in their
names, at their own expense, not one in twenty has been permitted to remain on
the list of accepted voters. In Quindaro three, out of some three hundred
residents, are registered as qualified voters, and yet here are numbers who have
lived in the Territory two and three years. Now if those vote who are
registered, and acknowledged by Bogus authority, and none others will be
permitted to, the Free State party acts in a minority, and to no earthly end,
but to legalize the forming of a Slave State, and endorse the fraudulent census,
which disfranchises a majority of the bona fide residents of the Territory.
The condition or qualification – registration – which, by a fradulent
application is made to disfranchise the great majority of the Free State men of
Kanzas, is just as effective, as if it were a natural one, since it will be
rigidly enforced by the recognized authorities.
But let not the friends of Free Kanzas be dismayed. The Freemen of Kanzas, at
most, but bide their time. In future elections, where the conditions which
prevent them from voting in this, do not exist, the Free State men of Kanzas
can right their wrongs. And defeated in their previous legitimate
attempts, no consideration will restrain them, when the power to vote is theirs.
There are many of our best men who would have the present Free State
organization put into immediate working order, and we sympathize in their views;
theirs is, in our opinion, the noblest plan of action, as well as constitutional
and practicable. But, failing to bring the available force of the party to
sustain the independent organization, these will doubtless fall back upon
succeeding elections to secure their rights as freemen.
Our people are now in convention at Topeka, to determine what shall be their
line of action or of policy. Our Senior (not in years,) has gone there as
delegate, and we anticipate a rich report of proceedings in time for our present
issue.
N.
QUICK TRIP. – The Lightning Line steamer, Polar Star, on her last trip
upward, brought passengers through from St. Louis to Quindaro in forty-six
hours. We are glad to learn that Mr. D. N. GREENLEAF has become Clerk on
this steamer, as we can commend him for acting impartially towards the rival
towns on the Missouri.
POST OFFICE. – MR. PARKER, the Post Master at Quindaro, has fitted up a large
number of boxes in the office, for the accommodation of the public. Each
citizen, we think, will appreciate the convenience of such an arrangement, and
avail himself of it by securing one immediately.
-It has been either our good or bad fortune to become involved in a
controversy with Geo. W. Brown, editor of the Herald of Freedom. It originated
in no desire upon our part for such a controversy. The editorial profession is
attended with quite enough annoyances and perplexities aside from anything of a
character to unpleasant as this. But while anxious to avoid every thing of this
kind, we, acting in the capacity of a public journalist, conscious at least of
our responsibility to the public to present truths and censure error and
falsehood, feel in duty bound to forego the pleasure of pleasant relations with
each of our contemporaries whose course is censurable. Every editor is
responsible to his patrons and under solemn obligations to lay before them the
truth and the truth only. When he falls short or goes beyond this he merits
reproof and should expect to be arraigned before the public by other
journalists,
It matters very little whether the misrepresentations be of a personal
character or of a kind that affect more than mere individuals, they are alike
censurable and the editor who winks at the faults and falsehoods of a fellow
editor, fails to discharge his full duty to his patrons and the public. The
Herald of Freedom is a journal having a wide circulation a fact that multiplies
the responsibilities resting upon its editor, insomuch that it influences or at
least is read by or sent to so many persons. The first number of that paper we
received after arriving in this State, contained a false statement, calculated
if not designed to disparage the town we have chosen for a home. Other similar
paragraphs appeared in subsequent numbers. We corrected them in our humble sheet
which kindled the wrath of the illustrious ‘martyr’ in question and provoked him
to reduce the altercation to more personal matters – a species of controversy we
do not court but from which we are not inclined to flinch when forced upon us.
In the present instance there may have been, and may yet be, some
developments respecting the “record” of the editor of the Herald of Freedom that
should ere this have been made. The influence of a journal should be
proportionate to its integrity and other merits. These are to be judged of in
part by the character of its editor. Because of the influence of a newspaper
upon its readers, they are entitled to know something of the antecedents of the
person whose editorials they regularly peruse. While then we have been far from
cherishing a desire to lift the veil, if such has been done as the legitimate
result of a controversy that received its personal character from Mr. Brown
himself, we trust the public will profit thereby.
The Free-State Convention
In another place we publish the report of
the proceedings of the Mass Convention held at Topeka, on last Tuesday, as made
by the Secretaries. We have but little space left in which to detail the
occurrences of the day.
The number of persons present was variously estimated at from six hundred to
one thousand. We arrived at Topeka on Monday evening, and found the hotels
full of people, stables full of horses, and many persons were accommodated at
private houses, whilst many horses were “lariated” on the prairie. Such
accommodations in the states under similar circumstances, would have caused
divers unpleasant ejaculations, but the people of Kanzas have been disciplined
to endure privations, and can do so with an equinimity somewhat surprising.
On Monday evening, there was a large meeting in the Representative Hall,
which was addressed by Col. James H. Lane.
Tuesday morning, at 10 o’clock, the people met in Mass Convention, and after
making an organization, were entertained by speeches by Col. Lane and Gov.
Robinson. On this occasion Col. L. made a big speech, one of those by
which he succeeds in arousing a warm feeling and active sympathy in his hearers.
The afternoon session of the Convention was full of interest. The
debate alluded to in the report, was warm, yet dignified. Whilst T. D.
Thacher was speaking Gov. Walker and his suite drove up, and that too at the
very time Mr. T. was directing his remarks to the partial apportionment recently
made. However they might have been regarded by his Excellency, they were
truthful and to the point.
When Mr. T. concluded, there were loud calls for Lane. Just as he arose
to speak, the driver put whip to his horses, and the Governor was carried to the
hotel. This retreat elicited shouts loud and long.
At the adjourned session in the evening, there were two or three short
speeches, after which the report of the Committee on resolutions, was passed by
a vote to which there was not a dissenting voice. There was a universal
conviction with the hundreds present that the Free-State party is stronger than
it ever has been before, and maintains a better position, if that be possible.
After the adjournment of the Convention, the people assembled before the
hotel, where Gov. Walker was stopping, and called him out. He made a short
speech, in which he stated that unless the constitution to be framed by the
Territorial delegate convention, was submitted to the people, he would take
sides with them against it. After he concluded, his mouth piece, Mr.
Perrin, quoted poetry, told stale anecdotes, talked about the ladies and acted
the buffoon generally, much to the amusement of the boys.
-The editor of the “Herald of Freedom” in his last issue expends more than a
column of his valuable sheet in giving the reasons why he did not sign the noble
letter sent by his associate prisoners in the “camp near Lecompton” to their
friends convened at Topeka on last Fourth of July. He says: “the
position taken in the letter would bring the Legislature and the Federal
Government into immediate collision. It would involve not only that body,
but the entire people of Kanzas in a general war. – Spreading on, the North and
South would engage in the contest, the son of American liberty would go down in
blood, the Union would be dissolved and the last hope of Republicanism and
popular sovereignty would expire. We urged this and protested against
forwarding that letter to Topeka.”
We should not refer to this letter again, nor to G. W. Brown’s
non-connection with it, were it not that he adds, “as good men as the country
can boast applauded us by letter for having stood up manfully, singly and alone
and showed our native independence by withholding our name from a document so
treasonable.”
Would the name of G. W. Brown, we ask in “all candor and truthfulness”
have added a pin-feathers weight to the document, and so far as his influence
with the people of Kanzas is concerned, could it not be spared as well as not?
If the letter portended consequences so direful to the “sun of American Liberty”
and the “glorious Union,” should not the patriot Brown have written a
letter advising a different course, rather than have exhausted his profound
wisdom upon his stubborn and conceited fellow-prisoners? But, “he had no
intercourse with the outer world and was not in a condition to give advice
involving such grave responsibilities.” No one who knows the editor intimately
will complain of the confession as to his incapacity to give advice, but they
will be very apt to recollect that intercourse with the world which appeared in
letters for the press, pretending to give information upon Kanzas affairs and
especially upon the severe martyrdom suffered by one G. W. Brown. If the
great patriot will refresh his memory a little he may find that he corresponded
with the outer world at about this time and very minutely detailed his
difficulties and his sufferings.
But we deny the fact that these were reasons why G. W. Brown refused to sign
that noble letter. The reason which he gave was that he feared by signing it, he
should do something to prejudice his case. Did he not have a vision of
hemp gleaming in the distance? Did he not refuse to sign it because of a
fear of hemp and treason to Border Ruffian authority?
He says “that letter did not meet the approbation of the Topeka Legislature
and that their plan was wiser and more patriotic.” We say it did meet the
approbation of the leading members of that Legislature and was received and read
amid the applause of the brave and hardy men there assembled. That letter was
widely published and circulated. It and its authors were commended everywhere
throughout the Free North. It does not contain a word of Treason: in it there is
nothing to which a true lover of Kanzas and her suffering people would not
gladly subscribe. G. W. Brown would give a world – did he possess it – if his
name were attached to that document now. He would have signed it then, had he
not valued his neck and the prospective profits arising from the “Herald of
Freedom” as of far more worth than the brave defence of their rights by a
down-trodden and oppressed people.
Who are the good men who have applauded you for not signing the letter? They
have written you – can you produce a letter? This is a regular Brown “dodge.”
Who told them you stood up so manfully and alone? your fellow
prisoners did not. Have you been writing private letters in praise of your
immaculate self?
“That letter contemplated a general collision, and the author of it, as we
firmly believe desired to ride into popular favor on the storm-cloud which his
own bad advice would produce.”
Will G. W. Brown please inform us what sort of a ride on a
“storm-cloud” the author would have after the “sun of American Liberty had gone
down in blood, the Union had been dissolved and the last hope of Republicanism
and popular sovereignty expired?”
The people of Kanzas and of the North are becoming disgusted with this
continued straining and swelling after greatness on the part of G. Washington
Brown. It was his fortune to have his press destroyed by the ruffianly
possee, and to share the imprisonment under charge of treason with men, who by
acts had shown a disposition to defend, with something more dangerous and potent
than talk, the rights of the people of Kanzas. Instead of regarding the
destruction of his press and his false imprisonment as an outrage, not only upon
himself, but upon the people whose cause he in part represented, he chuckled
over it as affording an opportunity by which he could “bleed” fortune out of the
North. The letters written by him while in camp – his editorials – while his
agents were in the East collecting funds for his support and enrichment, are all
nicely calculated and worded so as to attract attention and contributions
towards himself rather than the suffering people around him.
“I have suffered nothing,” said Gov. Robinson, in reply to the demand made by
the assembled thousands, who gathered to listen to him at the New York Academy
of Music, that he relate his own sufferings. Not so, says G. W. Brown,
his sufferings, his losses, fill every letter, and are his
constant theme, and will continue to be, so long as he can make a penny thereby.
The best edition of the “Herald of Freedom” ever issued, was that in the
shape of a Cannon Ball made from its type, sent by Capt. Bickerton through the
walls of Titus’s Robber Cabin last summer. The type was gathered from the river
bank and other places where the ruffians threw it. G. Washington Brown
could not bear to have that ball bound on its brave, good mission, without
demanding pay. Although the North had contributed far too much, - considering
the object to be enriched – for his support and encouragement; although they had
paid for that type over and over again, yet Brown cooly makes out his bill at 30
cts. per pound for it, sends it in to the Central Committee, and without remorse
takes his pay. This does not satisfy the self-sacrificing patriot. The North
paid for his type, the Central Committee paid for it, and now he demands the
nation shall pay for it.
Is it a wonder that Brown opposes the going down of the “sun of American
Liberty in blood,” and splitting of the Union all to pieces, while he has a
claim before Congress for Thirty Thousand Dollars? Will he not pray for the
Union while that remains unpaid?
The “Treasonable” Letter.
We publish below the letter written by
the Free-State prisoners to the Free-State Legislature that was to convene at
Topeka on July 4, 1856. As it has been called treasonable by the Editor
of the Herald of Freedom, it were well to examine it and from the document
itself ascertain wherein lies the treason of its brave authors.
CAMP NEAR LECOMPTON,
Kanzas, July 1, 1856,
To the Friends of “Law
and Order,” convened at Topeka: The undersigned desire to say a word to
their friends in regard to the present aspect of affairs in Kanzas.
It is highly important at this time that the oppressed people of Kanzas
should occupy a tenable position, one which the country and the world will
sustain. – There is, it seems to us, a position which we can occupy and be
triumphant, whether overcome by numbers or not; while there is another position
which, if taken, would prejudice our cause and might lead to defeat, and weaken
the confidence and support of our friends in the country.
The first and true position is defence of the State organization. You
have a constitutional right to meet as a Legislature, complete the State
organization, and pass all laws necessary to the successful administration of
justice, and the Federal Government has no right to interfere with you in the
exercise of this right; should it do so, it becomes justifiable self-defence.
The second and untenable position is, resistance to a Federal officer in the
service of a legal process, when the defence of the State organization is not
involved. Should a collission occur under such circumstances, it would be most
unfortunate, and should be avoided if possible. If an attempt, however, is
made to arrest the members of the State organization, merely because they are
such, with a view to disable it, then resistance becomes defence of the State
organization, and is manifestly justifiable.
Accordingly, all persons against whom indictments are known to be pending,
for any other charge than that of being a member of the State organization,
should not be found at the Capital, as that might involve the people in his
case. We feel that our hope of success in this important crisis depends, first,
upon a right position, and second, upon calm and unflinching firmness.
You have met for the purpose of doing what other new States have done, and
what you have a Constitutional right to do, and no man or class of men have a
right to interfere, not excepting even the President of the United States.
Our desire to be with you in this crowning emergency is almost irresistable,
and nothing but the fear that your position might be changed from a defence of
the State organization, to a resistance to our re-arrest, can reconcile us to
this absence. As it is, you have our earnest solicitude and fervent prayers that
all may go on well with you, and that you may earn, as you will, if every step
is judiciously and firmly taken, the gratitude of millions of your fellow-men,
and the approbation of the God of Justice and Humanity.
GEO. W. SMITH,
CHAS. ROBINSON,
GAIUS JENKINS,
G. W.
DEITZLER,
HENRY H. WILLIAMS,
JOHN BROWN, JR.
THE LIGHTNING LINE. – For the benefit of persons traveling to and from
Kanzas, we desire to call their attention to the Lightning Line Steamers which
run in connection with the Pacific Railroad to St. Louis. This line is the most
expeditious of any connecting Kanzas with the States. The boats in it are good
and the distance between St. Louis and Jefferson City being made by railway, it
enables the proprietors to carry passengers either to or from Kanzas in less
time than they can go by other routes. The accommodations on these steamers are
as good, though we do not claim that they are better than on other steamers
which run up the Missouri from St. Louis. It is because of the brief time in
which they make the trip that we think travelers would rather patronize them.
-The grading on the Levee in Quindaro is progressing rapidly. Already the
facilities for landing and loading freight are excellent.
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
FREE STATE CONVENTION,
HELD AT
TOPEKA, June
9th, 1857:
Convention met at 10 o’clock, and was called to order by Judge
Conway. Gen. J. H. Lane was unanimously appointed President.
On motion, W. F. M. Arny, Judge Conway, M. W. Delahay, G. W. Dietzler, and G.
W. Cutler, were appointed a Committee to recommend to the Convention the names
of five persons as Vice Presidents and two Secretaries.
The Committee reported as follows:
For Vice Presidents - J. W.
Morris, W. C. Laribee, Lyman Allen, Fielding Johnson of Quindaro, W. W. Ross.
For Secretaries - W. F. M. Arny, T. D. Thatcher,
Which report was received and unanimously adopted.
On motion, the President appointed the following Committee to report business
for the action of the Convention.
Judge Conway, M. W. Delahay, Walter Oakley, Gov. Robinson, Judge Hunt, G. W.
Deitzler, Alex. A. Jamison, C. K. Holliday, J. P. Root, and Judge Smith.
The Committee asked leave to retire, which was granted, and by invitation
Gen. Lane and Gov. Robinson addressed the Convention, after which the Convention
adjourned to meet at three o’clock, P. M.
At three o’clock the Convention met, and the Committee on business made the
following report:
WHEREAS, The unfair legislation by the Lecompton “Legislative Assembly” and
the manner of Registration under the act providing for a call of a convention to
form a Constitution has excluded a large majority of the voters of Kanzas from a
participation in the election of delegates to said convention; therefore
Resolved 1st. That this Convention respectfully and earnestly
recommend to the Free State party of Kanzas, that the election for delegates, in
pursuance of the law enacted by the Lecompton bogus Legislature, be disregarded
and permitted to pass without any participation therein by the Free State party
of Kanzas.
2. That the people of Kanzas now as ever, disown as invalid and of no force
or effect the authority of the Territorial government as embodied in the
enactments of the so-called Legislature of Kanzas.
3. That it is made incumbent on the people of Kanzas, by the highest
considerations of justice and expediency to look forward now as ever, to their
admission into the Union under the Constitution which they have already formed,
as the only method of adjusting existing difficulties to which they will assent.
4. That the people of Kanzas will pursue with unfaltering steadiness of
purpose, the application now pending before the Congress of the United States,
for their admission into the Union under their own Constitution, and with their
own government, resting their hopes for the success thereof upon the profound
confidence they feel that a measure so distinctly just, and so accordant to the
principles of past legislation in our country will eventually be conceded and
sanctioned to them by the Representatives of the American People.
5. That the Constitution framed and adopted at Topeka, had its origin in a
public necessity, was the offspring of the popular will, and experience has
proved the wisdom of those who framed it, and it is the duty of the Legislature
and Officers elected under it to complete the State organization, and keep its
machinery in readiness for use so soon as we are admitted into the Union; or the
necessities of the people shall require.
Signed by G. W. Smith, G. W. Deitzler, J. P. Root, A. A. Jamison, Walter
Oakley, C. K. Holliday, C. Robinson, Morris Hunt, M. W. Delahay.
Judge Conway dissented from the report, and offered the following as a
substitute for the fifth resolution:
Resolved 1st. That while we disclaim any intention to employ force to
maintain the authority of our Government, we do now recommend to the people of
Kanzas, that they, voluntarily, peacefully and universally accept as their only
rightful government; and act in all things with, and up to the government
established under the Topeka Constitution; that they should look to it
exclusively to extend protection to individual rights, and to regulate all the
relations of (?) and that they should refer all their (?) to its judicial
tribunals for (?) and settlement, and should scrupulously abide the decisions of
the same; that they should in fine adopt it in all its details, and the business
of everyday life, and everywhere respect its legislation as landing upon them;
and its official functionaries as entitled to their obedience; to the end that
the aforesaid Government shall become the living Government of the community.
Resolved. 2d. That in order to enable the people to accomplish this
object, the Legislature under the State Constitution now in session at this
place, in the opinion of this Convention, should proceed to complete the
organization of the State Government so far as that work constitutes part of its
Legislative duty – first, by establishing counties throughout the State, and
providing for the form of government for the same. Secondly, by providing for
the incorporation of towns throughout the State, including forms of government
for the same; and by the enactment of all laws whatsoever which may be necessary
to the complete development of the forms of the government to that point at
which they may be taken hold of by the people in all their local departments and
made the fundamental rule of government.
The substitute, after considerable discussion by Judge Conway, Wm. Phillips,
Chas. F. W. Leonhardt, and W. F. M. Arny, in favor of the substitute; and Col.
Delehay, Gov. C. Robinson, Judge Smith, Gen. Lane, T. D. Thatcher, of the
Lawrence Republican, J. M. Walden, of the Quindaro Chindowan, and
J. W. Morris, against the substitute, was submitted to the vote of Convention.
The President could not decide by the sound and a division of the Convention was
had – the substitute was lost. The original resolution was then amended on
motion of Mr. Arny, by striking out the words “the admission into the Union,
or.” After which the report of the majority was unanimously adopted.
The Committee reported the following, which was also adopted:
On motion, it was unanimously
Resolved, That since the issues of the past have been sufficient to
develop the sterling principles of every man in Kanzas; Therefore we regard any
man who sympathises with our oppressors to the extent that he consents to become
a delegate to the Lecompton Convention, or a candidate to the same, is unworthy
the fellowship or confidence of Free State men, and should be regarded with
suspicion everywhere.
After which the convention adjourned sine die.
J. R. LANE, Pres’t.
W. F. M. ARNY,
T. D. THATCHER,
Secretaries,
ODD FELLOWS’ LITERARY CASKET. – We invite the attention of Odd Fellows to a
prospectus of this Magazine published in Cincinnati, Ohio. We have received the
last number and find it as usual filled with interesting matter.
Free-State Legislature.
The Free State Legislature met at Topeka,
on Tuesday, June 9th, at 12 M. Both Houses were opened by prayer, after which
they appointed committees on credentials and adjourned.
They met again on Wednesday morning but there not being a quorum present,
they adjourned until Thursday morning.
We have received the following since our return:
TOPEKA, Thursday, June 11, 1857. A convention of both branches of the
Legislature met last evening to decide upon the proper course of action to be
pursued.
After considerable discussion the Convention took a recess until 8 o’clock
this morning. It re-assembled at that hour, and the discussion was resumed.
Lieut. Gov. Roberts was opposed to putting the State Government into effect;
unless the Lecompton Convention should adopt a Constitution and attempt
to put it in force without submitting it to the people.
Lyman Allen was in favor of immediate action, and thought the people were now
ready to adopt the Free State organization.
Mayor Adams of Leavenworth, had come here with the conviction that it was the
proper course to adjourn without taking action. He was confident that the people
of his district would not endorse the framing and adoption of a code of laws,
but they might sustain putting the Free State Government in some practicable
shape that it might be immediately put in force, should there be an attempt to
thrust a bogus Constitution upon the people.
Rev. Daniel Foster of Bourbon, had conversed with no man, on his way from the
Osage river, who was not in favor of having some action taken which would enable
the uniform municipal organization of counties and towns.
Mr. Pillsbury thought that was the sentiment of three-fourths of the
Free-State men of Kanzas. Unless some vitality was put in it the Free-State
organization would die. He presumed that a code of laws, if adopted, might not
be immediately put into force in Leavenworth, but they would be immediately
adopted in many counties and towns, and would spread like wild-fire, until they
would finally be received by Leavenworth and all other localities. It would be
much easier to put the State Government in force now, than in any future
emergency, when it would meet with opposition.
After some further discussion, the following resolution was adopted with only
three dissenting voices:
Resolved, That it is expedient for the proper Committees to report
bills for the immediate organization of counties and townships throughout the
State.
The adoption of the resolution was vociferously cheered, and the Convention
adjourned sine die.
At 9 o’clock this morning the House assembled.
After prayer by Rev. Daniel Foster. and the reading of the minutes, the
following new members were reported by the Committee on Credentials, and were
sworn in:
>From the Eighth District, O. H.. Drinkwater, A. R. Butler and C. W.
Giddings. From the Ninth District, E. W. Bowker.
A. D. R.
Since the receipt of the above letter we have heard a report which came via
Lawrence that there was a quorum on Thursday afternoon.
YOUNG MEN’S MEETING. – A meeting of the young men of Quindaro was held
Saturday evening last, to take into consideration the propriety of organizing an
Association for mutual improvement in rhetorical and declamatory exercises,
&c.
The meeting was called to order by S. P. Clark, who stated the objects for
which it was convened.
Albert S. Corey was chosen Secretary.
A committee was appointed to draft a Constitution for the government of the
Association, consisting of Mr. Kenyan, Mr. Abbott and Albert S. Corey.
Mr. Kenyan was called upon, and made interesting remarks relative to the
benefits which might be derived from such an Association. Adjourned.
Friday Evening, June 12th. - Jesse Yarnell was chosen Chairman, and S.
P. Clark, Secretary.
The Association, after being called to order, proceeded to the election of
Officers, for its permanent organization, with the following result:
For President - J. T. GIBSON.
Vice President - A. S.
COREY.
Secretary - Mr, ABBOTT.
Adjourned to Thursday evening, June 18th.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS. – Kanzas lacks good hotels as much as any other public
accommodation. Travellers here often experience annoying inconveniences because
of the ill manner in which many public houses are kept, and we believe that
persons on their way to this new State, would be glad to learn before their
arrival, where they might expect to find a respectable hotel at which to stop.
In Quidaro there are two hotels. The Quindaro House is a large
establishment, being the second in size in Kanzas, and in its accommodations it
ranks as the first, as we know from some experience in traveling here, and from
the assurances of others who have been at very many of the towns and “cities” in
Kanzas.
Transcribed by Carrie Barker. Fall 2005