Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/58

 48 JJ^. L. Fleviing unfavorable conditions the Buford party disbanded. A good num- ber enlisted in the United States troops stationed in Kansas, some of them went over to the other side and became free-state partisans,' others made their way south again, while one party remained dur- ing the fall at Westport. They were encamped near the home of Col. McGee, an ardent states-rights man, who, however, reports himself as having suffered much from disorderly pro-slavery friends. In December Buford was at Westport and made preparations to return to Alabama in the spring. He published an account of the receipts and expenditures of his expedition in the Westport Star of Empire. The figures were as follows : Cost of enterprise $24,625.06 Contributions 13,967.90 Leaving a loss of §10,657.16 These figures show the expenditures and losses of the Buford enter- prise only. None of the expenses of the Clayton and other colonies or his own expenses and losses from theft are reckoned in this ac- count. The loss was borne by Major Buford. January 12, 1857, Buford with others signed an address to the South in behalf of the National Democratic Party of Kansas. This is the last appearance he makes in the affairs of the territory. More clearly than any other man Buford had foreseen the re- sults that must follow the admission of Kansas as a free state. He gave his fortune to the cause, and worked long and faithfully to arouse the South to the impending danger, but his prophetic voice was not fully heeded. His colonization plan was a failure finan- cially and politically. The institutions of the South could not be transplanted to Kansas. The question that he hoped to have set- tled by votes in Kansas was finally decided by bayonets on a hun- dred bloody battle-fields in the South. " W.^LTER L. Fleming. I J. M. Buford; Von Hoist. 2.fter his return from Kansas Buford lived at Clayton, Alabama, where on .August 28, lS6l, he died suddenly of heart disease. "At the time of his death not one scrap of the history of the expedition, of the number of men enlisted in it, or their names, places of residence, or anything pertaining to it could be found. He had deposited them all in some bank or other place of security in Washington City of which he told no one. No trace of his papers could be found after his death. He was a very secretive man, and seldom informed any one of his plans or purposes." — J. M. Buford. I