THE “ REIGN OF TERROR IN KANSAS. 
251 
become valueless. All depends upon the action of the present 
moment.” 
On the 22d of May, the Platte County Rifle Company —one 
hundred armed horsemen, under the lead of Gen. D. II. Atchison 
•— passed through Lawrence, over the ferry, on their way back to 
Missouri. They clenched their guns nervously, but no one offered 
them any molestation. In safety they passed through the town 
they had helped to devastate. 
The threats of the men were bitter against the hotel at Kansas city. 
Murder and robbery were the order of the day. The horses and other 
property of free-state men were continually pillaged by the “ chiv- 
airy,” and travelling in the territory was unsafe. When the “mili¬ 
tia ” left Lawrence on the 21st of May, it was with the design of 
attacking Topeka. But a messenger having been despatched to Gov. 
Shannon, at Lecompton, with a report that “ Topeka was on the 
march to destroy Tecumseh,” Gov. Shannon sent to Col. Sumner 
for troops to be stationed at Topeka, to preserve order. An ap¬ 
peal had previously been sent to him from the citizens of Topeka, 
but they had no expectation of the granting of their request. 
After Lawrence was destroyed, Gov. Shannon ordered troops 
there also to preserve the peace. A part of the “ militia,” after 
leaving the sack of Lawrence, proceeded to Fish’s, the Shawnee 
Indian’s. Having put him under guard, they robbed his house 
and store, took everything which could be eaten from his house, 
tore up the fences, and took his horses from the wagons. The 
reason was, his-sympathies were with the free-state men. 
A party of the southern youth encamped between Kansas city 
and Westport, and robbed all teams which passed, even stopping 
the mail, and examining the way-bill, on the 20th, 22d and 
23d of May. Capt. H. C. Pate was the leader of the gang. He 
examined papers, trunks, valises and carpet-sacks. He obliged 
some of the passengers to take off their boots, that he might look 
into them. One passenger, upon whom he found a letter, he 
detained. When the driver grew impatient, and would have gone 
along, a man passed around in front of the horses, and presented 
a pistol at him. Coleman, the murderer, also threatened the mail- 
carrier so repeatedly that he spoke to Col. Boone, P. M. at 
