Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/777

 very large encampment of three hundred tents and wagons. They claim to have two thousand five hundred men; and from the appearance of the camp, I have no doubt they have that number. General Reid is in command. I saw and was introduced to General Atchison, Col. Titus, Sheriff Jones, General Richardson, etc. The proclamations were distributed.

"Secretary Woodson and General Strickler had not, up to the time I left, delivered their orders, but were about doing so as soon as they could get the officers together.

"The outposts of both parties were fighting about an hour before sunset. One man killed of the militia, and one house burned at Franklin.

"There were but few people at Lawrence, most of them having gone to their homes after your visit here.

"I reported these facts to the officer in command here, and your prompt action has undoubtedly been the means of preventing the loss of blood and saving valuable property.

"Secretary Woodson thought you had better come to the camp of the militia as soon as you can. I think a prompt visit would have a good effect. I will see you as you come this way, and communicate with you more fully.

""

Before this dispatch reached Lecompton, the governor had departed with three hundred United States mounted troops and a battery of light artillery, and riding speedily, arrived at Lawrence early in the evening of the 14th, where he found matters precisely as described. Skillfully stationing his troops outside the town, in commanding positions, to prevent a collision between the invading forces from Missouri and the citizens, he entered Lawrence alone, and there he beheld a sight which a writer has thus eloquently described:

"About three hundred persons were found in arms, determined to sell their lives at the dearest price to their ruffian enemies. Among these were many women, and children of both sexes, armed with guns and otherwise accoutred for battle. They had been goaded to this by the courage of despair. Lawrence was to have been their Thermopylæ, and every other free town would have proved a Saragossa. When men determine to die for the right, a hecatomb of victims grace their immolation; but when women and children betake themselves to the battle-field, ready to fight and die with their husbands and fathers, heroism becomes the animating principle of every heart, and a giant's strength invigorates every arm. Each drop of blood lost by such warriors becomes a dragon's tooth, which will spring from the earth, in all the armor of truth and justice, to exact a fearful retribution. Had Lawrence been destroyed, and her population butchered, the red right hand of vengeance would have gleamed over the entire south, and the question of slavery have been settled by a bloody and infuriated baptism. There are such examples in history, and mankind have lost none of their impulses or human emotions.

"Gov. Geary addressed the armed citizens of Lawrence, and when he assured them of his and the law's protection, they offered to deposit their arms