Record Data
Source citation
Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson, Diary of Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson, December 29, 1855, Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life, 4th edition, Boston, MA: Crosby, Nichols & Company, 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.
-- Doctor arrived home from Kansas city. He had, in addition to his heavy fur coat, fur gloves, and fur-lined overshoes, a heavy shawl and mittens, and was very cold even then. On his way down he suffered so severely from the cold, that with assistance he went into an Indian hut to warm, and for a half hour lay fainting on the floor. The cold at Kansas city has been even greater than here. It is apparently quiet along the border, yet the press in the frontier towns, as well as those papers of proslavery sentiments in the territory, are endeavoring to inflame the
[p. 168]
populace in such articles as the following, taken from the Kickapoo Pioneer, of Dec. 26:
"But the abolitionists, or free-state men, if you please, have become dissatisfied, and are willing to violate the constitution of their country, which explicitly recognizes slavery, and disfranchise themselves as loyal citizens, for the purpose of stealing negroes, and committing other unconstitutional and unlawful depredations. Should such men receive any compassion from an orderly, union-loving people? No! It is this class of men that have congregated at Lawrence, and it is this class of men that Kansas must get rid of. And we know of no better method than for every man who loves his country, and the laws by which he is governed, to meet in Kansas and kill off this God-forsaken class of humanity as soon as they place their feet upon our soil."
While articles like these are circulated through the borders, letters, calling for men and money, are industriously written and published throughout the South. Southern Kansas aid societies are being formed, and it is rumored that Gen. Quitman, of Mississippi, of fillibuster renown, has given twenty-five hundred dollars to this society, and will be here in the spring with several hundred men from that state. Major Buford, of Alabama, has contributed twenty-five thousand dollars for a similar purpose, and upon the opening of navigation proposes to be here with three hundred southerners. Notwithstanding the hue and cry made over northern emigrant aid societies, will there be aught said against these?
[p. 168]
populace in such articles as the following, taken from the Kickapoo Pioneer, of Dec. 26:
"But the abolitionists, or free-state men, if you please, have become dissatisfied, and are willing to violate the constitution of their country, which explicitly recognizes slavery, and disfranchise themselves as loyal citizens, for the purpose of stealing negroes, and committing other unconstitutional and unlawful depredations. Should such men receive any compassion from an orderly, union-loving people? No! It is this class of men that have congregated at Lawrence, and it is this class of men that Kansas must get rid of. And we know of no better method than for every man who loves his country, and the laws by which he is governed, to meet in Kansas and kill off this God-forsaken class of humanity as soon as they place their feet upon our soil."
While articles like these are circulated through the borders, letters, calling for men and money, are industriously written and published throughout the South. Southern Kansas aid societies are being formed, and it is rumored that Gen. Quitman, of Mississippi, of fillibuster renown, has given twenty-five hundred dollars to this society, and will be here in the spring with several hundred men from that state. Major Buford, of Alabama, has contributed twenty-five thousand dollars for a similar purpose, and upon the opening of navigation proposes to be here with three hundred southerners. Notwithstanding the hue and cry made over northern emigrant aid societies, will there be aught said against these?