242 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



papers, caused a wide-spread excitement, and he 

 became an object of indecent vituperation from 

 partisan journals and politicians. We quote from 

 the Diary : 



April 3. A great clamor has been raised against Mr. 

 Button * and myself on account of the rifles. It has been 

 used for electioneering purposes by the administration 

 papers, to influence the approaching election. I care not 

 what they say about me. I feel that I did right. There 

 was danger that the party more than half of them would 

 be obliged to go out unarmed, not merely among bears 

 and wolves and panthers, but among murderers and rob- 

 bers. The invaders of Kansas, from Missouri, have proved 

 their title to both these appellations by murdering three 

 peaceable settlers, robbing many more, and maltreating 

 clergymen and all whom they could bring under their 

 power. A general massacre at Lawrence was undoubtedly 

 prevented by the armed preparation of the people. It 

 matters little that these rifles were obtained in a church ; it 

 was a holy cause, and time and place were comparatively 

 unimportant. 



The matter was not deemed too insignificant to 

 be brought up in the United States Senate. In the 

 course of a reply to aspersions cast upon the New 

 Haven meeting, Senator Foster of Connecticut, 

 spoke as follows : 



" Professor Silliman is a man of wide reputa- 

 tion on both sides of the Atlantic. His name is known 

 and honored wherever the light of science shines. There 

 is a daily beauty in his life which commends to our notice 

 and respect the highest characteristics belonging to human 

 nature. No man illustrates, day by day, the courtesies, the * 



* The late Rev. Dr. Dutton, pastor of the North Church. F. 



