feet in length, and two rude tables, make up the furniture. The cooking is done out of doors, after camp fashion. The children have been very ill, and the little one now tosses restlessly in its fevered dreams. . . . 24th. The timbers are drawn for the kitchen. . . . white-covered, The roads for many days have been full of wagons emigrant wagons. We cannot look out of the windows without seeing a number, either upon the road through the prairie east of us, which comes in from Kansas city, where most emigrants leave the boats and buy wagons and provisions for the journey, or, going on the hill west, on their way to Topeka, or other settlements above. The prairie, too, is alive with people, coming and going. Some are upon horseback, and others in carriages of eastern manufacture; while the busy teams, carrying stone for the hotel and other large buildings, give to the whole town an appearance of unprecedented thrift which renders the name of Yankee Town, bestowed upon it by the border friends, richly merited. At night we see the camp-fires all about us, on the prairies and in the ravines. The appearance of the men, preparing their evening meal, is singularly grotesque and gypsy-like. . . . [June 12.] Large stone buildings, which would be an ornament to any place, are fast being erected, while buildings of humble pretensions, of wood and stone, are springing up with a rapidity almost equalling the wonderful genius of Aladdin. We can count already fifty dwellings erected since we came; and the little city of less than a year's existence will, in intelligence, refinement, and moral worth, compare most favorably with many New England towns of six times its number of inhabitants. ... [August] 18th. The quiet citizens of Lawrence are continually annoyed by the street broils in our midst. The border papers are full of threats against the Yankees. An extract from the Leavenworth Herald is a sample of all: "Dr. Robinson is sole agent for the underground railroad leading out of Western Missouri, and for the transportation of fugitive 'niggers.' His office is in Lawrence, K.T. Give him a call." [September] 4th.- Emigration again begins to pour into the territory. During the last two months there has been little in this part of the country. Cholera has raged on the river, and summer heats have been too great for any comfort in travelling; but now the prairies are again dotted with white-covered wagons of the western emigrant. They come bringing everything with them in their wagons, their furniture, provisions, and their families. Their stock, also, is driven with the teams. Their wagons to them are a travelling home; many of them having a stove set, with pipe running through the top. They often travel far into the territory; it matters to them little how far, so that they get a location which pleases them. Then they build a cabin, and, with a fixed habitation, they will become the strength and sinew of the country. About this time the people of Lawrence entered into a self defensive organization. The street broils and outrages were becoming so frequent their lives were in daily peril. As soon as the organization was complete, and their badges gave evidence of a secret society, the outrages ceased. . . . [November 18.] . . . There has been a good deal of sickness in the country this fall,slow fever and chills. They prevail mostly in the low grounds near the rivers. We hear from some settlements, especially from those south on the Neosho, that sickness has laid its heavy hand on the strongest, and scarcely any have escaped the paralyzing blow. So far as we can learn, exposures, either necessary or unavoidable, have been the cause. Sara T. L. Robinson, Kansas; its Interior and Exterior Life (Boston, etc., 1856), 10-98 passim. The New England Emigrant Aid Company offered a prize for the song best suited to arouse Kansas immigrants, an offer characteristic of the methods of the association to kindle interest in the free-soil immigration to that territory. Miss Larcom's lyric won the prize. Later she enjoyed considerable reputation as a minor poet, and wrote several well-known patriotic poems during the Civil War. - Bibliography as in No. 36 above. Freedom is the noblest pay Ho! brothers! come, brothers! We'll sing upon the Kanzas plains Father, haste! o'er the waste There your fire-side altar stones Clad in triple mail of Right, Ho! brothers! come, brothers! We'll sing upon the Kanzas plains Mother, come! here's a home Keep from taint the air, Come, mother! fond mother, We'll sing upon the Kanzas plains, Brother brave, stem the wave! Up the dark Missouri flood Be your canvas spread. Sister true, join us too Where the Kanzas flows. Let the Northern lily bloom List! we call to thee, We'll sing upon the Kanzas plains, One and all, hear our call Echo through the land! Aid us with the willing heart. And the strong right hand! To the watch-fires of the free Millions glad shall flock. Ho! brothers! come, brothers! We'll sing upon the Kanzas plains, Lucy Larcom, Call to Kanzas (published in one sheet by the New England Emigrant Aid Company, [Boston, 1855]). 38. Pro-Slavery Emigration to Kansas (1855) BY COLONEL JOHN SCOTT Scott was a prominent citizen of St. Joseph, Missouri, and a militia officer. He went to Kansas for the elections of both November, 1854, and March, 1855, and presumably voted at both, although holding the office of city attorney in St. Joseph at the time. In the former election he was chosen judge of election by the crowd present at the polls; and he considered himself qualified to accept, because the night before he had engaged board at the settlement for a month. Bibliography as in No. 36 above. I WAS present at the election of March 30, 1855, in Burr Oak precinct in the 14th district, in this Territory. I saw many Missourians there. There had been a good deal of talk about the settlement of Kansas, and the interference of eastern people in the settlement of that Territory, since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. It was but a short time after the passage of that act that we learned through the papers about the forming of a society in the east for the purpose of promoting the settlement of Kansas Territory, with the view of making it a free State. Missouri, being a slave State, and believing that an effort of that kind, if successful, would injure her citizens in the enjoyment of their slave property, were indignant, and became determined to use all means in their power to counteract the efforts of eastern people upon that subject. They were excited upon that subject, and have been so ever since. This rumor and excitement extended all over the State, and more particularly in the borders. The general rumor was that this eastern society was for no other purpose than making Kansas a free State. One great reason why we believed that was the only object of the society was, that we heard of and saw no efforts to settle Nebraska or the other Territories with free State men. The people of the south have always thought they have always been interfered with by the north, and the people of Missouri considered this the most open and bold movement the northern and eastern societies ever made. I am perfectly satisfied, and I have heard hundreds of Missourians lament that such a course had been pursued by the north, and gave it as their opinion that there would have been no excitement upon the subject of slavery, except for the extraordinary movement made by the north and east for the purpose of making Kansas a free State. Most of the slaves of the State of Missouri are in the western border counties, or the hemp growing portion of Missouri. The people of Missouri were a good deal excited just before the March election, because it had been so long postponed, and it was generally supposed that it was postponed in order to allow time for eastern emigrants to arrive here, that they might control the elections. Everybody that I heard speak of it expressed that belief, both in and out of the Territory. The same rumors were in the Territory as in Missouri. Immediately preceding that election, and even before the opening of navigation, we had rumors that hundreds of eastern people were in St. Louis, waiting for the navigation of the river to be opened, that they might get up to the Territory in time for the election, and the truth of these rumors was established by the accounts steamboat officers afterwards brought up of the emigrants they had landed at different places in and near the Territory, who had no families and very little property, except little oil cloth carpet sacks. For some two or three weeks before the election the rumor was prevalent that a good many eastern people were being sent here to be at the elections, and then |