Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/294

Rh 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,—

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:—

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.