Record Data
Source citation
Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson, Diary of Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson, January 24, 1856, 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.
Letters from Kansas city and Leavenworth state that some deep-laid scheme for our ruin is being planned. They do not know what it is, yet advise us to prepare for the worst. There is a perfect lull at those places, -- no bravado, no threats, -- all of which reminds us of the fearful calm always preceding the bursting out of a volcano. Prominent pro-slavery men are seen riding into a town; they hold a few moments' conversation with the leaders of their party there, then disappear. Quickly they are at another settlement; but no word is dropped as to the designs.
A half ton of lead, and nearly as much powder, arrived to-day. Other teams, loaded with the same needful, are on the way. Provisions, too, are fast coming in, and we will soon be able to stand quite a siege. Sixty men, detailed from the various companies, are at work upon the different fortifications. A guard is again to watch hourly for our safety.
The Kickapoo Pioneer office issued, on the morning after the murder of Brown, January 18th, the following extra, commencing, "Rally! rally!" After making several misstatements, -- among others, that an abolition company from Lawrence had made an attack upon the pro-slavery men, -- it goes on: "Forbearance has now ceased to be a virtue; therefore, we call upon every proslavery man in the land to rally to the rescue. Kansas must be immediately rescued from the tyrannical dogs. The Kickapoo Rangers are at this moment beating to arms. A large number of pro-slavery men will leave this place for Easton in twenty minutes. The war has again commenced, and the abolitionists have again commenced it. Pro-slavery men, law and order men, strike for your altars! strike for your firesides! strike for your rights! Avenge the blood of your brethren who have been cowardly assailed, but who have bravely fallen in defence of southern institutions. Sound the bugle of war over the length and breadth of the land, and leave not an abolitionist in the territory to relate their treacherous and contaminating deeds. Strike your piercing rifle-balls and your glittering steel to their black and poisonous hearts! Let the war-cry never cease in Kansas again until our territory is wrested of the last vestige of abolitionism."
A half ton of lead, and nearly as much powder, arrived to-day. Other teams, loaded with the same needful, are on the way. Provisions, too, are fast coming in, and we will soon be able to stand quite a siege. Sixty men, detailed from the various companies, are at work upon the different fortifications. A guard is again to watch hourly for our safety.
The Kickapoo Pioneer office issued, on the morning after the murder of Brown, January 18th, the following extra, commencing, "Rally! rally!" After making several misstatements, -- among others, that an abolition company from Lawrence had made an attack upon the pro-slavery men, -- it goes on: "Forbearance has now ceased to be a virtue; therefore, we call upon every proslavery man in the land to rally to the rescue. Kansas must be immediately rescued from the tyrannical dogs. The Kickapoo Rangers are at this moment beating to arms. A large number of pro-slavery men will leave this place for Easton in twenty minutes. The war has again commenced, and the abolitionists have again commenced it. Pro-slavery men, law and order men, strike for your altars! strike for your firesides! strike for your rights! Avenge the blood of your brethren who have been cowardly assailed, but who have bravely fallen in defence of southern institutions. Sound the bugle of war over the length and breadth of the land, and leave not an abolitionist in the territory to relate their treacherous and contaminating deeds. Strike your piercing rifle-balls and your glittering steel to their black and poisonous hearts! Let the war-cry never cease in Kansas again until our territory is wrested of the last vestige of abolitionism."