CHAPTER IX. 
WAKARUSA WAR — PREPARATIONS. 
We cannot now tell what an hour may bring forth. This whole 
affair is probably gotten up to test the power of Gov. Shannon, and 
his accomplices, in carrying out the laws of the Shawnee Mission 
School Legislature, which he says “ shall be enforced; ” in the 
accomplishment of which he said he would call upon Missouri for 
aid, even before coming into the territory whose people he was 
sent to govern. No writs of arrest have been attempted to be 
served upon our people for breaking any of their infamous laws. 
Now the time, in the’ estimation of the worthy law-makers, seems 
to have arrived, when the laws shall be enforced, or at least an 
excuse be found for destroying Lawrence, whose prosperity has 
long been a terrible eyesore to the stockholders in the town of 
Lecompton. 
Will the free-state men yield their rights? Will they obey 
these laws ? As we look each man in the face this morning, we 
read there manliness and determination, — no crouching to tyrants. 
And each man remembers that “ resistance to tyrants is obedience 
to God.” 
We have nothing good to expect from the territorial officers, and 
Gov. Shannon is sold, body and soul, to the oppressing party. The 
events of last summer, especially of the last few months, have 
shown, too clearly to be mistaken, the infamous designs of those in 
power here. On Saturday, April 30th, McCrea, a lawyer of 
Leavenworth, shot Malcolm Clark, a pro-slavery politician, in self- 
defence. He had a long and rigorous imprisonment at the fort, 
and in the jail. At the court in September they failed to find a 
bill of indictment against him, as the Grand Jury could not 
