It is still the old story. One of the ruffians kills the other ; but, in this case, Democrat, the strong ruffian, killed Straightwhig,—a weak ruffian, who had no " backbone,"—and now seeks to kill the babes. He is not content to let them starve,—
"Their pretty lips with blackberries
So all besmeared and dyed;"
he "would make them both away." But that is not quite so easy. Kansas, the elder, turns out a very male child, a thrifty boy: he will not die; he refuses to be killed, but, with such weapons as he has, shows what blood he came of. His relations hear of the matter, and make a noise about it. The uncle becomes the town-talk. Even the ghost of Straightwhig is disquieted, and "walks" in obscure places, by graveyards, "haunting" some houses. Nay, the Northern mother rises from the grave: perhaps the Northern father is not dead, but only sleeping, like Barbarossa in that other fable, with his Sharp's rifle for a pillow. Who knows but he, too, will "rise," and execute his own will? The history may yet end after the old sort:—
"And now the heavy wrath of God
Upon the Uncle fell;
Yea, fearftil fiends did haunt his house;
His conscience felt a hell.
His barns were fired, his goods consumed,
His lands were barren made;
Conventions failed to nominate;
No office with him staid."
Kansas applies for admission as a free State, with a constitution made in due form and by the people. The regressive force is determined that she shall be a slave State; and so all the 926,000 miles of territory become the spoil of the slave-holder. See the state of things.
The majority of the Senate is pro-Slavery, of the Satanic Democracy. For once, the House inclines the other way,—leans towards Freedom. A bill for making Kansas a slave State will pass the Senate; will be resisted in the House: then comes the tug of war. The North has a majority in the House, but it is divided. If all will unite, they make Kansas a free State before the 4th of next July.
