The Briford Expedition to Kansas 41 January 7, 1856, forty plantation slaves were sold by Major Buford in Montgomery (at the average price of seven hundred dollars), and the proceeds put into the fund for defraying the ex- penses of the expedition. Donations were coming in, and Wm. L. Yancey was appointed to receive contributions. The state was thoroughly canvassed by Buford and others during the month ol February.' Alpheus Baker made some of his wonderfully per- suasive speeches in Georgia and South Carolina in the interest of the crusade. William L. Yancey, Henry D. Clayton, LeRoy Pope Walker and Henry W. Hilliard delivered addresses to the people of Alabama, calling for good and true men to protect Southern rights on the Kansas battleground. Representative F. K. Beck of Wilcox County introduced a bill in the state legislature to appro- priate $25,000 for the purpose of aiding emigrants to settle in Kansas. The bill was referred to the Committte on Federal Rela- tions, and was never reported upon.^ Early in January Major Buford made a speech in Montgomer}' before the state legislature in which he explained his plans for secur- ing Kansas to the South. A citizen of Worcester, Massachusetts, Wm. T. Merrifield, was in Montgomery at the time and heard of the designs of Buford. He at once returned to Massachusetts, told Eli Thayer, the originator of the Emigrant Aid Societies, about Buford's plans, and arranged with him to send men to oppose this Southern force. One hundred and sixty-five men well armed with Sharp's rifles (Beecher's Bibles)^ were sent to Kansas for this purpose.* It was intended that the Buford party should go armed, but in March Major Buford announced that in deference to the President's proclamation,^ and in consonance with the true designs of the ex- pedition, it would go unarmed." The Eufaula contingent left that place on March 31, accom- panied by Alpheus Baker, who at all resting-points made addresses of encouragement to the men. Passing through Columbus, Ga., and taking with him a company of fifty men from that town. Major Buford reached Montgomery on April 4. There were now col- lected here about four hundred men, of whom one hundred were 'Buford's appointments were: Cahaba, Woodville, Benton, Lowndesboro, Mt. Willing, Greenville, Valleyton, Troy, Elba, Geneva, DaleviUe, Newton, Waterford, Columbia, Franklin, Abbeville. ^ Advertiser and Slaif Gazette, January 13, 1S56. '" Border Ruffian" name for Sharp's rifles. ^Worcester Spy, 1S87. See Thayer's Kansas Crusade. 5 President Pierce, February 11, 1856. See Messages and Papers of the Presidents, V. ^ Advertiser and State Gazette, March I, 1856, from Eufaula Spirit of the South.
