WAKARUSA WAR — PREPARATIONS. 
123 
to Lawrence they will find that nobody has broken any laws; for 
the people of Lawrence are a law-abiding people. Their real 
object was to destroy Lawrence; but it was a question whether 
they would attempt it without some pretext; and before the Amer¬ 
ican people Shannon would be responsible for their conduct. 
Fearful of some atrocious act upon the part of his drunken rabble, 
he has been compelled to remove the most of them to the camps 
on the Wakarusa. They really were in a predicament. They 
were afraid to attack Lawrence without a pretext, and with reason. 
He had learned, but would not vouch for its truth, that Shannon 
had telegraphed to President Pierce for the troops at the forts. It 
was also reported that Pierce had telegraphed back again that he 
might have them, and, of course, he would get them. Of course 
he would disarm the people when an invading force of drunken 
Missourians was almost at our doors, and we have no protection 
in the government of the country. (Laughter, and cries of ‘ Of 
course. 5 ) Men of Lawrence, and free-state men, we must have 
courage, but with it we must have prudence! These men have 
come from Missouri to subjugate the free-state men, to crush the 
free-state movement, — their pretence, that outrages have been 
committed. They are sustained by all the United States author¬ 
ities here; and while they do not think it essential that a good 
cause for fighting be given them, the authorities will wait at least 
for a plausible excuse before commencing to shed blood. This 
excuse must not be given them. Each man must be a committee 
of one to guard the reputation as well as lives of the free-state 
men. If the Missourians, partly from fear and partly from want 
of a sufficient pretext, have to go back without striking a blow, it 
will make them a laughing-stock, and redound fearfully agaU'St 
Shannon. This is the last struggle between freedom and slavery, 
and we must not flatter ourselves that it will be trivial or short. 
The free-state men must stand shoulder to shoulder, with an un 
broken front, and stand or fall together in defence of their liber¬ 
ties and homes. These may be dark days, but the American peo¬ 
ple and the world will justify us, and the cause of right will event¬ 
ually triumph. 55 The enthusiasm with which .these remarks were 
