“Squatter Sovereignty” has turned out to be repeated invasions of the Territory by armed bandits from Missouri, who have successfully made it a conquered province, manufactured a Territorial Government, enacted a code of laws worthy of pandemonium, and trampled the civil and political rights of the bona-fide settlers under their feet; and for one sole object— to make Kansas a slave State. Hence the appeal, in selfdefence, to the people of the free States for men, money, and arms; hence the justification for the employment of Sharp's rifles against the “border ruffians.” It is said to be a struggle for liberty; and earnest appeals are made to the hearts and the pockets of all who desire to see liberty victorious. We burn with indignation at the insults and outrages to which the settlers have thus been subjected, and acknowledge their position to be a most perilous and trying one. But we deny, in the first place, that they are acting upon principle, or contending for equal rights. They resent as a foul slander the
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them as “a herd of buffaloes,” but as poor, misguided, and lost men. We believe in his philosophy; we accept his instruction; we are thrilled by his example; we rejoice in his fidelity.
How touching is the language of James!— “ Ye have condemned and1 killed the just; and he doth not resist you.”
And how melting to the soul is the declaration: “He was led as a lamb to the2 slaughter” ! And again: “ God commendeth his love towards us3 in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
4 . . .
What are the facts respecting Kansas?
Briefly these:
2 Acts 8.32.
3 Rom. 5.8.
4 This New Testament argument, met with unsigned, would probably in no quarter of Christendom suggest anything but a Christian origin. But in this very year a book reviewer was allowed, in the N. Y. Independent of Jan. 3, 1856, to say: ‘Of the converts to Spiritualism whose previous belief is mentioned in this book, almost all of them were infidels, and some of them, like Garrison and Robert Owen, of a most degraded class’ (Lib. 26: 22, 51). Joshua Leavitt, D. D., was at this time the office editor of the Independent, which, for the rest, had an honorable distinction among the religious press for its views on slavery. The editorial board consisted of Joseph P. Thompson, D. D., Leonard Bacon, D. D., and Richard S. Storrs, D. D. Henry Ward Beecher was the most prominent contributor. In the course of the summer Dr. Bacon, addressing an Evangelical Association, professed his antipathy to political preaching. ‘For example, he did not believe in introducing the name of the President of the United States into the pulpit, or the name of the Senator from Illinois [Douglas]. (Laughter.) He rarely spoke of the Devil in the pulpit (laughter), and never of Mr. Garrison. (Great laughter.)’ ‘Dr. Bacon,’ commented the target of this clerical facetiousness, ‘is diabolically amiable and considerate towards us’ (Lib. 26: 118).
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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