THE ATTACK UPON LAWRENCE. 
235 
rence, or of recent date, or been absent for seme time ; more par¬ 
ticularly when an attempt was made by my deputy to execute the 
process of the First District Court of the United States for Kan¬ 
sas Territory, against ex-Gov. lleeder, when he made a speech in 
the room and in the presence of the congressional committee, and 
denied the power and authority of said court, and threatened the 
life of said deputy, if he attempted to execute said process, which 
speech and defiant threats were loudly applauded by some one or 
two hundred of the citizens of Lawrence, who had assembled at 
the room on learning the business of the marshal, and made such 
hostile demonstrations that the deputy thought he and his small 
posse would endanger their lives in executing said process. 
“ Your declaration that you ‘ will truthfully and earnestly offer 
now, or at any future time, no opposition to the execution of any 
legal process,’ etc., is indeed difficult to understand. May I ask 
gentlemen, what has produced this wonderful change in the minds 
of the people of Lawrence ? Have their eyes been suddenly 
opened, so that they are now able to see that there are laws in 
force in Kansas Territory, which should be obeyed ? Or is it that, 
just now, those for whom I have writs have sought refuge else¬ 
where ? Or it may possibly be that you now, as heretofore, ex¬ 
pect to screen yourselves behind the word ‘ legal,’ so significantly 
used by you. How am I to rely on your pledges, when I am well 
aware that the whole population of Lawrence is armed and drilled, 
and the town fortified—when, too, I recollect the meetings and reso¬ 
lutions adopted in Lawrence, and elsewhere in the territory, openly 
defying the laws and the officers thereof, and threatening to resist 
the same to a bloody issue, and recently verified in the attempted 
assassination of Sheriff Jones, while in the discharge of his official 
duties in Lawrence ? Are you strangers to all these things? Surely 
you must be strangers at Lawrence. If no outrages have been 
committed by the citizens of Lawrence against the laws of the 
land, they need not fear any posse of mine. But I must take the 
liberty of executing all processes in my hands, as the U. S. Mar¬ 
shal, in my own time and manner, and shall only use such power 
as is authorized by law. You say you call upon the constituted 
authority of the government for protection. This indeed sounds 
