202 
KANSAS. 
with that stern justice which shall not stop to inquire whether they 
are friends or foes.” 
No sympathy was manifested for the cowardly act, and a com¬ 
mittee was appointed to ferret out the assassin. Before the six 
prisoners w^ere taken to Lecompton, efforts were made to arrest 
others of our citizens, in which they failed. Sam Salters acted as 
deputy sheriff. Some laughable incidents occurred, in consequence 
of these efforts. 
This attempt to arrest our citizens for no crime but looking 
on, with hands in their pockets, when Jones calls upon them to 
assist him, —the person he wishes to arrest being missing,.— is 
an outrage which arouses their indignation. They are not willing 
to be taken from their business, from their homes, to be impris¬ 
oned, or to recognize his authority in vexatious suits at law, by 
giving bail. Neither will they resist the United States govern¬ 
ment by an open resistance to the army and navy, which President 
Pierce says shall enforce these laws; a course, however, which the 
territorial authorities have earnestly and anxiously desired they 
should take. The only way then left to escape from such arrests 
was to keep out of sight of the troops ; and this for several days 
was done most effectually. 
Two young men, who had been stopping cut of town for a day 
or two, came in one morning, thinking not to leave again, and 
were just flattering themselves of their present safety from molest¬ 
ation, when they saw the troops, with the notorious deputy, com¬ 
ing towards them. They quickly left all, and struck into the ra¬ 
vine west of the town ; and, once in its friendly covert, they took 
different directions. The one whose course the troops followed, 
dropped his pistol as he ran, and, stopping to pick it up, he saw 
the deputy in advance of the troops, upon whom he w T as calling 
loudly to run. Mindful of the dignity of the United States uniform, 
the blue coats marched steadily on, not heeding his cry, and seeing 
the pistol again in the hand of the pursued, the sheriff seemed to 
regard the present as an opportune moment to take breath, and 
waited for them to come up. Whether the sight of the pistol may 
not have suggested such action, was but little doubtful. Be it as it 
