208 
KANSAS. 
thought to screen himself, and fasten the odium of the dastardly 
act upon this oppressed people. The suggestion, too, made by 
some, that, as the killing of a free-state man in the fall proved a 
failure in causing a war of extermination, now the pro-sla¬ 
very ranks must furnish a victim, that the crusade may meet with 
success, has some show of reason. 
Reports are fast circulating through Missouri that Jones is 
dead, with handbills, of flaming character, calling upon them 
to the rescue, and their papers are full of the most vile fab¬ 
rications, whole columns devoted to sentiments like the following: 
“ Reeder and Robinson were the aiders and abettors in the deed, 
and, at the time, were in some gully behind the town, setting on 
their accomplices.” And some of the papers are exceedingly bit¬ 
ter in their denunciations of the commissioners; all of which 
looks like exciting the people to another invasion. 
The only thing which has been learned, in reference to the 
attack upon Jones, is the following. Early on the evening of 
the twenty-third, two men riding upon horseback, one very 
tall, and the other very short, stopped at a house about a mile 
from Lawrence, and not far from the Lecompton road. Their 
first question was, “Is Jones in Lawrence?” 
The gentleman replied, “ I believe he is.” 
The taller man then said, “I am a pro-slavery man, but Jones 
shall never leave town alive.” 
They left immediately, taking the direction towards Lawrence. 
A little time after, these men, marked by the differences in their 
stature, fastened their horses in front of a provision store in Law¬ 
rence, and walked hastily down the street towards the tents of 
the soldiers. Soon after, the firing was heard, and they, quickly 
mounting their horses, drove off furiously. Who they were has 
never been ascertained, and they were strangers to the few who 
noticed them. 
