Record Data
Source citation
Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson, Diary of Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson, July, 1856, Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life, 4th edition, Boston, MA: Crosby, Nichols & Co., 1856, p. 366.
Type
Diary
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Michael Blake
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
-- We experienced a heavy rain yesterday. It poured through the tents, wetting everything. This tent-life in the burning sun and pouring rains will be a good recipe for ague or cholera. So, besides the discomfort of the present, we have these in anticipation. Capt. W. left on Saturday, and Capt. Sackett, a noble-looking man, has the prisoners now in charge.
To-day a gentleman has been in camp from Illinois. He with a party of seventeen were robbed at Leavenworth of their arms and farming utensils. Several of them were hunted for their lives. (Aid was afterwards asked of Gen. Smith in recovering these goods, a letter being sent to him from Woodson counselling such interference; but he declined giving it.) Also, eight families from Illinois, when near Platte city, were turned back by one hundred and fifty men, armed with United States muskets and bayonets. The stereotyped questions of "Where are you from?" and "Where going?" were put to the emigrants. The leader of the ruffians said, "I suppose you've hearn that we don't allow any movers to go through into the territory." When the ruffians proclaimed their intention of searching the wagons, an Iowa man objected, but a revolver was quickly drawn upon him. After searching their wagons twice, and taking all the arms, they took them back under guard to Liberty, Missouri, telling them "they could go where they pleased, so they did not go into the territory."
What new scheme of villany, for the subjugation of Kansas, shall we hear? Step by step the work has gone on. Missourians have invaded the territory, and, by force, taken possession of the polls. They have trampled upon the right of the people to make their own laws. They have framed a code of laws which would have disgraced the dark ages. They have denied the citizens of the territory the right of free speech. They have, for weeks, besieged a town under the leadership of the governor. They have burned and sacked towns under the United States Marshal, the aforesaid governor offering no word of disapproval; they have murdered, with all the cruelties of the Fejee islands, peaceable settlers. Without restraint they have robbed and pillaged. They have blockaded the Missouri river. No more bloody or meaner pirates, sailing under black flags, ever infested the high seas, years ago. Now the debauched and desperate robbers search and send back peaceable emigrants, their wagons laden with the emblems of their occupation, ploughs, and farming implements.
We have moved camp again to-day, two miles further from Lecompton. It was my first experience in the inside of these huge covered wagons. I protested that I would rather walk than attempt to mount into such a vehicle; but they all said ride. By extra effort E. and I got in, attempting to find a place to sit among the mattresses. At first move, one of the mules, by rapidly throwing up his feet, was soon out of harness. The jolting of the wagon was intolerable when the mules travelled faster than a walk.
To-day a gentleman has been in camp from Illinois. He with a party of seventeen were robbed at Leavenworth of their arms and farming utensils. Several of them were hunted for their lives. (Aid was afterwards asked of Gen. Smith in recovering these goods, a letter being sent to him from Woodson counselling such interference; but he declined giving it.) Also, eight families from Illinois, when near Platte city, were turned back by one hundred and fifty men, armed with United States muskets and bayonets. The stereotyped questions of "Where are you from?" and "Where going?" were put to the emigrants. The leader of the ruffians said, "I suppose you've hearn that we don't allow any movers to go through into the territory." When the ruffians proclaimed their intention of searching the wagons, an Iowa man objected, but a revolver was quickly drawn upon him. After searching their wagons twice, and taking all the arms, they took them back under guard to Liberty, Missouri, telling them "they could go where they pleased, so they did not go into the territory."
What new scheme of villany, for the subjugation of Kansas, shall we hear? Step by step the work has gone on. Missourians have invaded the territory, and, by force, taken possession of the polls. They have trampled upon the right of the people to make their own laws. They have framed a code of laws which would have disgraced the dark ages. They have denied the citizens of the territory the right of free speech. They have, for weeks, besieged a town under the leadership of the governor. They have burned and sacked towns under the United States Marshal, the aforesaid governor offering no word of disapproval; they have murdered, with all the cruelties of the Fejee islands, peaceable settlers. Without restraint they have robbed and pillaged. They have blockaded the Missouri river. No more bloody or meaner pirates, sailing under black flags, ever infested the high seas, years ago. Now the debauched and desperate robbers search and send back peaceable emigrants, their wagons laden with the emblems of their occupation, ploughs, and farming implements.
We have moved camp again to-day, two miles further from Lecompton. It was my first experience in the inside of these huge covered wagons. I protested that I would rather walk than attempt to mount into such a vehicle; but they all said ride. By extra effort E. and I got in, attempting to find a place to sit among the mattresses. At first move, one of the mules, by rapidly throwing up his feet, was soon out of harness. The jolting of the wagon was intolerable when the mules travelled faster than a walk.