296 
KANSAS. 
noon, in the house and out of the house, endeavoring to gather 
a crowd; but toward evening another dram gave him a quietus 
for the night and the next day, and the matter ended. 
It was at last decided by Col. Sumner, that, for the present, he 
would keep the prisoners at Lecompton, as so many of his forces 
must be drawn away from the fort. It was impossible to get to 
Lawrence by way of Westport, and all travellers thither must go 
up the river to Leavenworth, and across the Delaware Reserve. 
The boats were getting scarce. One came up heavily loaded with 
Mormons ; every place on the upper deck was crowded with large 
emigrant-wagons, and the living freight packed in at every corner. 
Dirt and filth were visible, and the looks of these women, “ sealed ” 
to the Mormon faith and their tyrannical husbands, was one of 
utter misery. About the same time, one of the down boats car¬ 
ried, as passengers, two of the Mormon elders on their way to 
Washington, on business relating to the admission of Utah as a 
state. Several ladies on board were able to distinguish them, 
among the crowd, from their coarse, brutal looks. 
At last the Keystone came, and, on the evening of the 13th, 
in company with a gentleman and lady from Massachusetts, whose 
intelligence and pleasing ways had contributed much to the com¬ 
fort of my detention in Kansas city, I left for Leavenworth, and 
they for a summer stay at Council Bluffs. 
On the boat we overheard a conversation between a Kentucky 
lady and a lady from Missouri. The former said, 
“ They are having exciting times in Kansas! ” 
“ Yes; a great many have gone over from the border coun¬ 
ties.” 
“ Well, Kansas will be a free state in the end. The Yankees 
have determined upon it, and when they have determined upon a 
thing, they have so much more energy than the Southerners, they 
will accomplish it.” 
The idea did not seem to please the Missouri lady, but she 
replied, “ If I lived in Kansas, I would want if a free state; but 
to live in Missouri, I want it a slave state.” 
“We had slaves in Kentucky, but we preferred to come to 
Kansas, because we know property is more valuable in a free 
