"The only demand made by Sheriff Jones which the people did not instantly accede to was that for the surrender of their private arms, the right to bear which the Federal Constitution expressly guarantee to every citizen. At length, finding that no pretext for destruction could be trumped up, the leaders of the Ruffians commenced cannonading the Free-State Hotel and The Herald of Freedom office, and the people remaining in the town began to make their escape as fast as they could..."
- New-York Daily Tribune, New-York, Tuesday, May 27, 1856. Vol. XVI.....No. 4,713. Pg. 4.
Our "Constitutional Rights." The Constitution guarentees "the liberty of Speech and of the Press." Within a few weeks two Printing Offices have been destroyed by cannonade, for exercising the one, and a Senator in Congress beaten down and mangled in his seat, for availing himself of the other.
The Constitution declares that "the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Within the past month persons acting under Federal authority have forcibly seized two hundred stand of arms, and a field-piece belonging to citizens of Kansas and turning them upon their lawful owners, have driven them from their homes.
There is a clause in the Constitution declaring that 'no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.' The grass has hardly grown over the graves of Dow and Brown, the one shot and the other chopped to pieces by Federal permission; and Lawrence has been reduced to a heap of smoking ruins bv Federal command. Such is American liberty in May 1850. Douglas' threat is fast becoming a reality. We are becoming "subdued."
- Raftsman's Journal, Clearfield, Wednesday, June 11, 1856. Vol. 2.--No. 43. Pg. 3.
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