Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/762

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732
TROUBLES IN KANSAS.

name of "law and order," abused and robbed the occupants, and drove them out into the roads, irrespective of age, sex, or condition. Under pretence of searching for arms, they approached the house of William Phillips, the lawyer who had previously been tarred and feathered and carried to Missouri. Phillips, supposing he was to be subjected to a similar outrage, and resolved not to submit to the indignity, stood upon his defence. In repelling the assaults of the mob, he killed two of them, when the others burst into the house, and poured a volley of balls into his body, killing him instantly, in the presence of his wife and another lady. His brother, who was also present, had an arm badly broken with bullets, and was compelled to submit to an amputation. Fifty of the free state prisoners were then driven on board the Polar Star, bound for St. Louis On the next day a hundred more were embarked by Emory and his men, on the steamboat Emma.

In July, 1856, Col. John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, was appointed by the president governor of the territory. His appointment was confirmed unanimously by the senate. In September, he started for Kansas, and on the 6th of that month he held a consultation at Jefferson City with Governor Price, of Missouri, relative to the affairs of the territory, and to whom he unfolded his plans. Measures mutually approved were adopted to clear the Missouri river for the unobstructed transit of free state emigrants to Kansas. On Sunday, the 1th, Gov. Geary arrived at Glasgow, in Missouri. In company with the governor was his private secretary, J. H. Gihon, who, since his return, has published a history of the proceedings in the territory during the administration of Gov. Geary. "On approaching the town of Glasgow," says Mr. Gihon, "a most stirring scene was presented. The entire population of the city and surrounding neighborhood was assembled upon the high bank overlooking the river, and all appeared to be laboring under a state of extraordinary excitement. Whites and blacks—men, women, and children, of all ages, were crowded together in one confused mass, or hurrying hither and yon, as though some terrible event was about to transpire. A large brass-field-piece was mounted in a prominent position, and ever and anon belched forth a fiery flame and deafened the ear with its thundering warlike sounds. When the Keystone touched the landing, a party of about sixty, comprising Captain Jackson's company of Missouri volunteers for the Kansas militia, descended the hill, dragging their cannon with them, and ranged themselves along the shore; the captain, after numerous attempts, failing to get them into what might properly be termed a line. He got them into as good a military position as possible, by backing them up against the foot of the hill. They were as raw and undisciplined a set of recruits as ever shouldered arms. Their ages varied, through every gradation, from the smooth-faced half-grown boy to the gray-bearded old man; whilst their dresses, which differed as much as their ages, gave unmistakable evidences that they belonged to any class of society except that usually termed respectable. Each one carried some description of fire-arm, not two of which were alike. There were muskets, carbines, rifles, shot-guns, and pistols of every size, quality, shape, and style. Some of them were in good condition,