Abraham Lincoln: a History -- Volume 2 | Page 5

Lawrence instead of Charleston. Upon fuller
information and more mature reflection, the General found that he had
no need of either the four regiments from Illinois and Kentucky, or
Border-Ruffian mobs led by skeleton militia generals, neither of which
he had asked for. Both the militia generals and the Missourians were
too eager even to wait for an official call. General Richardson ordered
out his whole division on the strength of the "Argus Extra" and
neighborhood reports,[4] and the entire border was already in motion
when acting Governor Woodson issued his proclamation declaring the
Territory "to be in a state of open insurrection and rebellion." General
Smith found it necessary to direct his first orders against the
Border-Ruffian invaders themselves. "It has been rumored for several
days," he wrote to his second in command, "that large numbers of
persons from the State of Missouri have entered Kansas, at various
points, armed, with the intention of attacking the opposite party and
driving them from the Territory, the latter being also represented to be
in considerable force. If it should come to your knowledge that either
side is moving upon the other with the view to attack, it will become
your duty to observe their movements and prevent such hostile
collisions."[5]
[Sidenote] Woodson to Cooke, Sept. 1, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d Sess.
34th Cong. Vol. III., pp. 90, 91.
[Sidenote] Cooke to Woodson, Sept. 1, 1856. Ibid., pp. 91, 92.
Lieutenant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke, upon whom this active field

work devolved, because of the General's ill health, concentrated his
little command between Lawrence and Lecompton, where he could to
some extent exert a salutary check upon the main bodies of both parties,
and where he soon had occasion to send a remonstrance to the acting
Governor that his "militia" was ransacking and burning houses.[6] To
the acting Governor's mind, such a remonstrance was not a proper way
to suppress rebellion. He, therefore, sent Colonel Cooke a requisition to
invest the town of Topeka, disarm the insurrectionists, hold them as
prisoners, level their fortifications, and intercept aggressive invaders on
"Lane's trail"; all of which demands the officer prudently and politely
declined, replying that he was there to assist in serving judicial process,
and not to make war on the town of Topeka.
If, as had been alleged, General Smith was at first inclined to regard the
pro-slavery side with favor, its arrogance and excesses soon removed
his prejudices, and he wrote an unsparing report of the situation to the
War Department. "In explanation of the position of affairs, lately and
now, I may remark that there are more than two opposing parties in the
Territory. The citizens of the Territory who formed the majority in the
organization of the territorial government, and in the elections for its
Legislature and inferior officers, form one party. The persons who
organized a State government, and attempted to put it in operation
against the authority of that established by Congress, form another. A
party, at the head of which is a former Senator from Missouri, and
which is composed in a great part of citizens from that State, who have
come into this Territory armed, under the excitement produced by
reports exaggerated in all cases, and in many absolutely false, form the
third. There is a fourth, composed of idle men congregated from
various parts, who assume to arrest, punish, exile, and even kill all
those whom they assume to be bad citizens; that is, those who will not
join them or contribute to their maintenance. Every one of these has in
his own peculiar way (except some few of the first party) thrown aside
all regard to law, and even honesty, and the Territory under their sway
is ravaged from one end to the other.... Until the day before yesterday I
was deficient in force to operate against all these at once; and the acting
Governor of the Territory did not seem to me to take a right view of
affairs. If Mr. Atchison and his party had had the direction of affairs,

they could not have ordered them more to suit his purpose."[7]
All such truth and exposure of the conspiracy, however, was
unpalatable at Washington; and Secretary Jefferson Davis, while
approving the conduct of Colonel Cooke and expressing confidence in
General Smith, nevertheless curtly indorsed upon his report: "The only
distinction of parties which in a military point of view it is necessary to
note is that which distinguishes those who respect and maintain the
laws and organized government from those who combine for
revolutionary resistance to the constitutional authorities and laws of the
land. The armed combinations of the latter class come within the
denunciation of the President's proclamation and are proper subjects
upon which to employ the military force."[8]
[Sidenote] "Washington Union,"