10-29-1856: "the grave issue which has been forced upon us by the falsely styled Democratic party . . . have been denied their constitutional rights . . . the " right to keep and bear arms," without which they have been, and are now, unable to vindicate for themselves that other right, known to the law of this land, the law of Nature, and the law of God--the right of Self-defence...."

The True Issue A Word at the Last.

   We have time and again, during this campaign, called the attention of our readers to what we consider the real issue in this contest, and at this, the eleventh hour, we hope it is not too late to ring into the ears of the doubtful, and of the wavering supporters of the Buchanan Slaveocracy the unchangeable and oft-repeaied truths of the campaign, which, in case of the election of James Buchanan, (an event may God, in his goodness and kindness to our land, forbid!) will assume almost the point and appearance of prophecy.

   Let us, while we have yet a little time, consider, with hearts free from party prejudice, and devoted to our country its honor at home and abroad, its welfare and the prosperity of its matchless institutions, the grave issue which has been forced upon us by the falsely styled Democratic party, by the administration of Franklin Pierce, which was unqualifiedly endorsed by the Convention that nominated James Buchanan,--an administration, to which none now feel so politically poor as to do reverence.

   The issue, when stripped of the verbiage with which it has been clothed by political sophists and humbugs, of its sugar-coating, (for the taste of the independent portion of the party North) is: Shall Kansas be Slave or Free?

   Gentlemen Buchaneers, you may dodge it as you will, it is nevertheless the true issue before the people of this country. The election of your candidate will, as certainly as effect follows cause, consummate the end so much desired by the controlling portion of your party--the making of Kansas into a Slave State--to save the Union?--an end for which you work with a zeal worthy of a better cause, and to accomplish which the ballot-box has been stripped of its sacredness, and the ignorant, priest-ridden hordes of new-comers to our land are gregariously tolled to the polls. The election of our Candidate will, by a wise, impartial and national direction of the affairs of that distracted Territory, infallibly make it free.

   When Gov. Geary went out to Kansas, we were told that with the assumption of the purple by him, would commence the reign of peace; that he was Buchanan's choice, appointed at the recommendation of Buchanan himself; that his administration of the affairs of the Territory should be after the plan of the Democratic party revised. And this is the test, too. It is no newspaper fiction. Well, what have we had but a repetition of Shannon's doings, and the more fatal to the interests of freedom there, too, for the reason that  the Free State men thought that the climax of wrong having been reached, any step made would surely be a step backwards, and were inclined to trust in the specious appearances which were made to herald the new, the Geary Administration into power. But the sceptre passed from the one to the other losing nothing of its despotism thereby.

   Free State men, since the advent of Geary, seeking peaceably their way into the 'Eden of the West,' with all the accompaniments of the emigrant whose business and object is agriculture and not war, have found the roads leading into that Territory bristling with the bayonets of United States soldiers--an impassible barrier.

   Free State men in large numbers have been arrested and put upon their trial for the highest crimes, while pro-slavery men are suffered to remain at large, although it is not denied that crimes of every grade and some of the most savage atrocity have been committed by them against the persons and property of Free State men and against all law.

   Free State men have, since the same advent, been robbed of their horses, their cattle, their money and their scanty provisions, by squads of armed pro-slavery men, and to the complaints of these injured citizen the ear of his Excellency has seemed to be deaf, and the strong arm (strong only when brought against the Free State men,) of the United States army, has been impotent io their relief.

   Free State men, under this same Buchanan Admisistration, have been denied their constitutional rights; the "freedom of speech, of the press;" the "right to be secure in their persons, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures," and the "right to keep and bear arms," without which they have been, and are now, unable to vindicate for themselves that other right, known to the law of this land, the law of Nature, and the law of God--the right of Self-defence.

   With such an administration in Kansas we cannot expect the Tree of Liberty there to take root and grow, for it must needs be nursed and watered by the hands of the Free Men of the North; it will inevitably be choked out by the weeds by the "sedge grass" of the "peculiar institution." There is no hope, then, but in the election of John C. Fremont, and to that end it behooves every friend of Free Kansas, regardless of past party associations and attachments, earnestly, devotedly, and untiringly, to work the short time that remains; and what is of most importance, to vote on the coming 4th of November.

   We know our cause is just; we know the great majority of tbe people of the North, desire the end we seek and with this knowledge we feel an abiding faith in the result of the struggle. Nothing but negligence on the part of our friends can lose us a victory already won in the hearts of the people. If we all do our duty, we are quite sure we shall never as a Journalist be compelled to write the words "Doomed Kansas." May God avert the Catastrophe!

[True American, Steubenville, Wednesday, Ohio, October 29, 1856. Volume 2.--Number 43. Pg. 2]