Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/780

 upon Colonel Cook, commander of the United States forces stationed at this place, for as many troops as could be made available, and in about an hour was on my way towards Lawrence, with three hundred mounted men, including a battery of light artillery. On arriving at Lawrence, we found the danger had been exaggerated, and that there was no immediate necessity for the intervention of the military. The moral effect of our presence, however, was of great avail. The citizens were satisfied that the government was disposed to render them all needed protection, and I received from them the assurance that they would conduct themselves as law-abiding and peace-loving men. They voluntarily offered to lay down their arms, and enrol themselves as territorial militia, in accordance with the terms of my proclamations. I returned the same day with the troops, well satisfied with the result of my mission.

"During the evening of Saturday, the 13th, I remained at my office, which was constantly crowded with men uttering complaints concerning outrages that had been and were being committed upon their persons and property. These complaints came in from every direction, and were made by the advocates of all the conflicting political sentiments with which the territory has been agitated; and they exhibited clearly a moral condition of affairs, too lamentable for any language adequately to describe. The whole country was evidently infested with armed bands of marauders, who set all law at defiance, and traveled from place to place, assailing villages, sacking and burning houses, destroying crops, maltreating women and children, driving off and stealing cattle and horses, and murdering harmless men in their own dwellings and on the public highways. Many of these grievances needed immediate redress; but unfortunately the law was a dead letter, no magistrate or judge being at hand to take an affidavit or issue a process, and no marshal or sheriff to be found, even had the judges been present to prepare them, to execute the same.

"The next day, Sunday, matters grew worse and worse. The most positive evidence reached me that a large body of armed and mounted men were devastating the neighborhoods of Osawkee and Hardtville, commonly called Hickory Point. Being well convinced of this fact, I determined to act upon my own responsibility, and immediately issued an order to Colonel Cook for a detachment of his forces, to visit the scene of disturbance. In answer to this requisition, a squadron of eighty-one men were detached, consisting of companies C. and H. 1st cavalry, Captains Wood and Newby, the whole under command of Captain Wood. This detachment left the camp at two o'clock, P. M., with instructions to proceed to Osawkee and Hickory Point, the former twelve, and the latter eighteen miles to the northward of Lecompton. It was accompanied by a deputy marshal.

"In consequence of the want of proper facilities for crossing the Kansas river, it was late in the evening before the force could march. After having proceeded about six miles, intelligence was brought to Captain Wood, that a large party of men, under command of a person named Harvey, had come over from Lawrence, and made an attack upon a log house at Hickory Point, in which a number of the settlers had taken refuge. The assault commenced