Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/291

278 the people down. Hence it becomes indispensable for the Northern emigrants to take arms. It is instructive to see the old Puritan spirit coming out in the sons of the North, even those who went on theological errands. Excepting the Quakers, the Unitarians are the most unmilitary of sects; in Boston, their most conspicuous ministers have been—some of them still are—notorious supporters of the worst iniquities of American Slavery. Surely you will not forget the ecclesiastical defences of the Fugitive Slave Bill, the apologies for kidnapping. But a noble-hearted Unitarian minister. Rev. Mr. Nute, "felt drawn to Kansas." Of course he carried his Bible: he knew it also by heart. His friends gave him a "repeating rifle" and a "revolver." These also "felt drawn to Kansas." This "minister at large"—very much at large, too, his nearest denominational brother, on one side five hundred miles off, on the other fifteen hundred—trusts in God, and keeps his powder dry. Listen to this, written December 3rd, 1855:—

"I have just been summoned to be in the village with my repeating rifle. I shall go, and use my utmost efforts to prevent bloodshed. But, if it comes to a fight, in which we shall be forced to defend our homes and lives against the assault of these border savages (and by the way, the Indians are being enlisted on both sides), I shall do my best to keep them off." On the 10th, he writes :—

"Our citizens have been shot at, and, in two instances, murdered; our houses invaded; hay-ricks burnt; corn and other provisions plundered; cattle driven off; all communication cut off between us and the States; wagons on the way to us with provisions stopped and plundered, and the drivers taken prisoners ; and we in hourly expectation of an attack. Nearly every man has been in arms in the village. Fortifications have been thrown up by incessant labour night and day. The sound of the drum, and the tramp of armed men, resounded through our streets; families fleeing with their household goods for safety. Day before yesterday, the report of cannon was heard at our house from the direction of Lecompton. Last Thursday, one of our neighbours,—one of the most peaceable and excellent of men, from Ohio, — on his way home, was set upon by a gang of twelve men on horseback, and shot down. Several of the ruffians pursued him some distance after he was shot-; and one was seen to push him from his horse, and heard to shout to his companions that he was dead. A neighbour reached him just before he breathed his last. I was present when his family came in to see the corpse, for the first time, at the Free-State Hotel,—a wife, a sister, a brother, and an aged mother. It was the most exciting and the most distressing scene that I ever witnessed. Hundreds of our men were in tears, as the shrieks and groans of the bereaved women were heard all