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Soldiers sit in the trenches while officers scout the field at Petersburg, Virginia, during the American civil war
Soldiers sit in the trenches while officers scout the field at Petersburg, Virginia, during the American civil war. Photograph: CORBIS
Soldiers sit in the trenches while officers scout the field at Petersburg, Virginia, during the American civil war. Photograph: CORBIS

From the archive, 10 June 1856: 'Civil war' in Kansas threatens to spread

This article is more than 8 years old

Blood will flow along the Mississippi and Ohio unless the president restores peace in the warring southern states

New York, Wednesday, May 28.
The next home topic of engrossing interest is the tragedy that is being enacted in Kansas. So determined are our rulers at Washington that slavery shall be crammed down the throats of the free-state settlers in that territory, that their homes are burned to the ground, and family ties cut asunder by the rifle ball, in order that obedience to “bogus” laws shall be enforced.

The town of Laurence, in the territory of Kansas, built up by men who had sown the seeds of virtue, honesty, and enterprise was burned to ashes by the border ruffians (pets of the administration) on Wednesday of last week, and several lives were lost. The “crime” of the people of Laurence was in refusing to obey laws that were repugnant to them, and which had been forced upon them by non-residents of the territory. They were therefore threatened with arrest, but preferring to evacuate the town, they nearly all did so, when it was fired by officers of the United States, and burned to the ground!

Well and truly has it been said by a member of congress from Missouri, that the country was slumbering over a volcano. Blood is flowing in Kansas, and blood will flow along the Mississippi and Ohio, unless the President makes up to the fearful responsibility he holds, and restores peace to the affrighted territory. What with civil war in congress, civil war in Kansas, and the President at its head, who will not exclaim “Alas! my bleeding country, who shall redress thy wrongs?”

Oh, for the burning eloquence of Clay or the mighty thunders of Webster, to ring through the halls of congress, to reverberate through the land; to open the eyes of our chief magistrate, that he might see upon what a threatening precipice he stands. The pulpit, on Sunday last, in nearly all our leading cities, gave powerful utterance to the deep wrong that was being committed, and invoked the strong arm of Heaven to check the tide of fanaticism, butchery, and bloodshed, that was sweeping over the land. I sincerely trust that the President may heed these widespread appeals; and, casting aside the trammels of shiftless politics, resolve to do his duty.

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