Sheriff Jones went away, vowing that he would have revenge, and sent
the following dispatch to Gov. Shannon:
DOUGLAS CO., K. T., NOV. 27, 1855.
SIR:--Last night I, with a posse of ten men, arrested one
Jacob Branson, by virtue of a peace warrant regularly
issued, who, on our return, was rescued by a party of
_forty men_ who rushed upon us suddenly from behind a
house by the roadside, all armed to the teeth with
Sharpe's rifles.
You may consider an open rebellion as already having
commenced, and I call upon you for THREE THOUSAND MEN to
carry out the laws. Mr. Hargis, the bearer of this letter,
will give you more particularly the circumstances. Most
respectfully,
SAMUEL J. JONES,
Sheriff Douglas County.
To His EXCELLENCY, WILSON SHANNON, GOVERNOR KANSAS TERRITORY.
On receipt of the above dispatch, Gov. Shannon wrote to
Major-General William P. Richardson, reciting the story
told him by Sheriff Jones, together with additional
stories (equally false), told him by Hargis, and closed
his letter with the following order:
You are therefore hereby commanded to collect together as
large a force as you can in your division, and repair,
without delay, to Lecompton, and report to S. J. Jones,
Sheriff of Douglas County, together with the number of
your forces, and render him all the aid and assistance in
your power in the execution of any legal process in his
hands. The forces under your command are to be used for
the sole purpose of aiding the Sheriff in executing the
law, and for no other purpose.
I have the honor to be
Your obedient servant,
WILSON SHANNON.
Gov. Shannon knew, as well as he knew his name was Wilson Shannon, that
this meant another invasion of Kansas Territory. There was no organized
militia in Kansas. Gen. Richardson did not live in Kansas; he lived in
Missouri, and it meant Missouri militia and not Kansas militia.
Moreover, the Governor knew, or at least ought to have known, what an
unreliable man this Sheriff Jones was. Jones was Postmaster at Westport,
and Shannon was living at Shawnee Mission, in the neighborhood of
Westport. And yet, without one moment's inquiry, he placed the issues of
life and death of this infant Territory in the hands of this lying
scoundrel.
There was a rallying of the clans of the blue lodges of Missouri. The
following appeal, sent by Brig. Gen. Eastin, editor of the _Leavenworth
Herald_, and commander of the second brigade, Kansas militia, must serve
as a sample of the dispatches that were scattered broadcast through the
border Missouri counties:
"TO ARMS! TO ARMS!"
It is expected that every lover of _law and order_ will
rally at Leavenworth on Saturday, December 1, 1855,
prepared to march at once to _the scene of rebellion_ to
put down the outlaws of Douglas county, who are committing
depredations upon persons and property, burning down houses
and declaring open hostility to the laws, and have forcibly
rescued a prisoner from the Sheriff. Come one, come all!
The outlaws are armed to the teeth, and number 1,000 men.
Everyman should bring his rifle and ammunition, and it
would be well to bring two or three days' provisions. Every
man to his post and do his duty. MANY CITIZENS.
In answer to the above appeal 1,500 men, mostly from Missouri, encamped
around Lawrence, under such notabilities as Maj. Gens. Strickler and
Richardson, Brig. _Gen_. Eastin, Col. Atchison, Col. Peter T. Abell,
Robert S. Kelley, Stringfellow and Sheriff Jones. They had broken into
the United States Arsenal at Liberty, Clay County, Mo., and stolen guns,
cutlasses and such munitions of war as they required.
But when this was known the free State men turned out from all the
settlements of Kansas with equal alacrity, to defend Lawrence. They came
singly, and in squads and in companies. They came by night and by day.
Sam Wood, Tappin and Smith, the rescuers of Branson, and who were
residents of Lawrence, left the city, and there were none there against
whom Sheriff Jones had any writs to execute. Dr. Robinson was appointed
Commander-in-Chief for the defense of the city, and James H. Lane was
appointed second in command. But Lane was the principal figure in the
enterprise. He alone had military experience, and he alone had the
daring, the genius and the personal magnetism of a real leader.
The free State men, for the last year, had been passing through the
furnace-fires of a vigorous discipline, and they would have fought as
the Tennessee and Kentucky backwoodsmen of Andrew Jackson fought behind
their cotton bales at the battle of New Orleans. They had seen their
rights wrested out of their hands by a mob of ruffians, and now they
were proposing to settle the matter in that court of last resort that is
the final and ultimate appeal of the nations. Except Gen. Lane, they had
small knowledge of military tactics, but they knew how to look along the
barrel of a rifle; moreover, they would fight behind breastworks, and
this to raw troops would have been an immense advantage.
It is probable that the first intimation that Gov. Shannon got of the
real state of affairs at Lawrence was conveyed to him in the following
letter, written by Brig. Gen. Eastin:
GOVERNOR SHANNON:--Information has been received direct
from Lawrence, which I consider reliable, that the outlaws
are well fortified with cannon and Sharpe' rifles, and
number at least 1,000 men. It will, therefore, be
difficult to dispossess them.
The militia in this portion of the State are entirely
unorganized, and mostly without arms. I suggest the
propriety of calling upon the military of Fort
Leavenworth. If you have the power to call out the
government troops, I think it would be best to do so at
once. It might overawe these outlaws and prevent
bloodshed.
S. J. EASTIN,
Brig. Gen. Northern Brigade, K. M.
Gen. Eastin is mistaken in putting their number at 1,000, but whether
many or few they certainly would have fought a hard battle. They were
picked men from all the Kansas settlements. Our old friend, Caleb May,
was there, as grim and as self-possessed as Andrew Jackson. So also Old
John Brown was there with his four sons, though they did not arrive
until Gov. Shannon had made overtures for peace.
The Governor telegraphed to Washington to obtain authority to call out
Col. Sumner with the United States troops at Fort Leavenworth. He also
wrote to Col. Sumner to hold himself ready to march at a moment's
notice. And now this simple-minded Gov. Shannon, Ex-Governor of Ohio,
who had come to Kansas to waste in a few short months the ripe honors he
had been so carefully hoarding up for a life-time, bethought himself
that it was time for him to go and look with his own eyes after this
rebellion he had so foolishly and recklessly stirred up.
We have already remarked that Gen. James H. Lane was the most
conspicuous figure in the defense of Lawrence. It is proper to pause and
consider the character of this man, who shone for a time like a
brilliant meteor, and then had his light quenched in the blackness of
darkness.
He had now been eight months in Kansas. He came out of the Mexican war
with a good reputation as a brilliant and dashing officer, and a man of
approved courage. As a politician he had been highly favored by the
people of Indiana. He was in the convention that nominated President
Pierce. He was in Congress at the time of the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and aided in its enactment. He was the friend of
Stephen A. Douglas. Yet he came to Kansas a man of broken fortunes. He
was bankrupt in reputation, bankrupt in property, and bankrupt in
morals, and he came away from unhappy family relations. Notwithstanding,
he brought with him boundless ambition, and a consciousness in his own
heart that he possessed genius that might lift him up to the highest
pinnacle of honor. His first effort was to reorganize that political
party that was in control of the Government at Washington, and that he
had so faithfully served in Indiana. As respects slavery, he probably
would have said with Mr. Douglas that he did not care whether it was
voted up or voted down. But his effort fell stillborn and dead. Dr. John
H. Stringfellow was an old Whig, and so also were many of the
Pro-slavery leaders, and they would not hear to it that there should be
any parties known save the Pro-slavery and Free State parties. The Free
State men were equally averse to making any division in their own ranks.
Mr. Lane was to choose, and he did choose _with a vengeance_.
Bad men usually pay this compliment to a righteous life, that they seek
to conceal their wicked deeds and wear the outside seeming of virtue.
But this strange man never pretended to be anything else than just what
he was. He displayed such audacious boldness as gave an air of
respectability even to his wickedness.
His public speaking did not belong to any school of oratory known among
men; yet, if to sway the people as a tempest bends to its will a field
of waving grain, be oratory, then was Mr. Lane, in the highest sense of
the word, an orator. He spoke once in Chicago when the people were most
excited over the Kansas troubles. A great crowd came to hear, and he
swayed them to his will, as only such men as Henry Ward Beecher and
Patrick Henry have been able to do. But this gospel was the gospel of
hate. Implacable, unforgiving hate was his only gospel.
At last this man, at once both great and wicked, having attained the
highest honors the people had to bestow, died by his own hand. The
people believed that he had gone wrong and betrayed them, and they
withdrew from him their favor. Mr. Lane loved popularity more than he
loved heaven, and he shot himself through the brain.
The writer, unwilling alone to take the responsibility of expressing
such a judgment as the above, appealed to a gentlemen whose high
position in public life and kindly and conservative temper eminently
qualify him to speak, and this is what he says:
No one can question the fact that Mr. Lane's career in Kansas exerted a
great influence in shaping the affairs and controlling the destiny of
the young State. During his life I was alternately swayed by feelings of
admiration and distrust. I recognized fully the marvelous energy and
equally marvelous influence of the man, but I distrusted his sincerity
and lacked confidence in his integrity. When I met him, or listened to
one of his impassioned speeches, ne swept me away with the contagion of
his seeming enthusiasm, but when I went out from the influence of his
personal magnetism I felt that something was lacking in the man to
justify a well-grounded confidence.
This man that had in him such a commingling of good and evil was now the
leading spirit in the defense of Lawrence. [2]