Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/754

 state of New York. They had gone about a mile and a half, when they me* two men, armed with Sharpe's rifles. Some words passed between them, when the two strangers raised their rifles, and, taking deliberate aim at Stewart, fired. One of the balls entered his temple. The work of death was instantly accomplished. Soon after sunrise, on the morning of the 21st, an advanced guard of the marshal's army consisting of about 200 horsemen, appeared on the top of Mount Oread, on the outskirts of Lawrence, where their cannon had been stationed late on the preceding night. The town was quiet, and the citizens had determined to submit without resistance to any outrage that might be perpetrated. About seven o'clock, doctor Robinson's house, which stood on the side of the hill, was taken possession of, and used as the headquarters of the invaders. At eight o'clock, the main body of the army posted themselves on the outer edge of the town. Deputy marshal Fain, with ten men, entered Lawrence, and, without molestation, served the writs in his possession, and arrested judge Gr. W. Smith and G. W. Deitzler. Fain and his companions dined at the free-state hotel, and afterwards returned to the army on Mount Oread. The marshal then dismissed his monster posse, telling them he had no further use for them. It was three o'clock in the afternoon, when sheriff Jones rode rapidly into Lawrence, at the head of twenty-five mounted men; and as he passed along the line of the troops, he was received with deafening shouts of applause. His presence was the signal for action, and a sanction for the outrages that ensued. Atchison addressed his forces, and then marched the whole column to within a short distance of the hotel, where they halted. Jones now informed colonel Eldridge, the proprietor, that the hotel must be destroyed; he was acting under orders; he had writs issued by the first district court of the United States to destroy the free-state Hotel, and the offices of the Herald of Freedom and Free Press. The grand jury at Lecompton had indicted them as nuisances, and the court had ordered them to be destroyed. He gave colonel Eldridge an hour and a half to remove his family and furniture, after which time the demolition commenced, and was prosecuted with an earnestness that would have done credit to a better cause. In the meantime the newspaper offices had been assailed, the presses broken to pieces, and these, with the type and other material, thrown into the Kansas river. Whilst the work of destruction was going on at the printing offices, the bombardment of the hotel, a strongly constructed three-story stone building, commenced. Kegs of gunpowder had been placed inside and the house fired in numerous places; and whilst the flames were doing their destructive work within, heavy cannon were battering against the walls without; and amid the crackling of the conflagration, the noise of falling walls and timbers, and the roar of the artillery, were mingled almost frantic yells of satisfaction. And then followed scenes of reckless pillage and wanton destruction in all parts of that ill-fated town. Stores were broken into and plundered of their contents. Bolts and bars were no obstacles to the entrance of drunken and infuriated men into private dwellings, from which most of the inhabitants had fled in terror. From these everything of value was stolen, and much that was useless to