he time
has come when such impositions must be disregarded, since your rights
and property are at stake. And I advise you one and all to enter every
election district in Kansas and vote at the point of the bowie-knife
and, the revolver.'

Thus, a thousand strong, with two cannon in their procession, the armed
ruffians went to vote at an election out of their own State. If brave
election judges protested--and some did, in spite of cocked pistols at
their heads (like true lawyers ready to die for justice' sake)--and
required the mob to establish their claims, they were overpowered; the
ruffians seized the ballot-boxes, and in the end there were 4,908 votes
cast, though there were only 1,410 genuine voters in the State. Such
was the deliberate report of a committee years after. The Legislature
thus elected met and were suffered to make a Statute Book for the young
State. Penalties of imprisonment and death were liberally appointed
for all who should dare to resist the institution of slavery.

With such legislation to shield their lawlessness, ruffians belonging
to the class of 'mean whites' commenced a series of barbarous outrages
in the interests of the slave-holders--a series sickening to
contemplate. Two instances may be quoted which are typical:

A ruffian bets that he will scalp an Abolitionist in true Indian
fashion, and rides out in search of his prey. A gentleman known to be
opposed to slavery is met in a gig and shot; and, taking his scalp, the
drunken fiend rides back, and producing the promised spoil, claims his
due.

Another leader of the Free-State men is surrounded by these desperate
ruffians, and his skull and brain are cloven with a hatchet. In
fiendish glee they dance upon the almost breathless man, who vainly
pleads, 'Do not abuse me, I am dying.' The only response is a shower
of tobacco juice from their filthy lips into his pleading eyes. With
his last breath he says, 'It is in a good cause,' and so
dies--slaughtered because he dared to say others should share in his
right of liberty. True, dying man, the cause is good and will triumph,
though thou and many others die first!

Such scenes roused the ire of the long-suffering Free-State men of
Kansas. Redress there was none, save in their own right arm, for, as
Emerson says, 'A plundered man might take his case to the court and
find the ring-leader who has robbed him dismounting from his own horse
and unbuckling his knife to sit as judge.