250 
KANSAS. 
presses in this country exposed to momentary irruptions upon 
them? We boast of the freedom of the American press. But 
let the bold assertion that freedom of speech, of action, and the 
press, is the birthright of an American citizen, no longer be 
heard. 
Louis Napoleon gave three distinct and formal warnings, in the 
last French revolution, before dealing the fatal blow. But it was 
reserved for the administration, in the year 1856, in the year of 
our independence the eightieth, to summarily demolish a free press 
as a nuisance, and to bombard a little town on the western fron¬ 
tier. “ 0, shame ! where is thy blush ? ” 
If the American people desire the discontinuance of such un¬ 
precedented horrors, let them wake to the designs of the slave 
interest. Let them shake off the shackles which are continually 
growing more galling. The power which has struck this blow in 
Kansas meditates no less designs on any other part of the free 
North, when the opportune moment arrives. 
Lieut. Warren D. Wilkes, of the South Carolina banditti, one 
of the self-constituted regulators in the territory, wrote the follow¬ 
ing to the Charleston Mercury : 
“The importance of securing Kansas for the South may be 
briefly set forth in a positive and negative form : 
“ 1. By consent of parties, the present contest in Kansas is 
made the turning point in the destinies of slavery and abolition¬ 
ism. If the South triumphs, abolitionism will be defeated and 
shorn of its power for all time. If she is defeated, abolitionism 
will grow more insolent and aggressive, until the utter ruin of the 
South is consummated. 
“ 2. If the South secures Kansas, she will extend slavery into 
all territory south of the fortieth parallel of north latitude , to the 
Rio Grande , and this of course will secure for her pent-up insti¬ 
tutions of slavery an ample outlet, and restore her power in Con¬ 
gress. If the North secures Kansas, the power of the South in 
Congress will be gradually diminished; the states of Missouri, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas, together with the 
adjacent territories, will gradually become abolitionized, and the 
slave population,confined to the states east of the Mississippi, will 
