Abraham Lincoln: a History -- Volume 2 | Page 7

and local institutions--and
evil-disposed persons actuated by a desire to obtain elevated positions;
but worst of all, against the influence of men who have been placed in
authority and have employed all the destructive agents around them to
promote their own personal interests at the sacrifice of every just,
honorable, and lawful consideration.... Such is the condition of Kansas
faintly pictured.... In making the foregoing statements I have
endeavored to give the truth and nothing but the truth. I deem it
important that you should be apprised of the actual state of the case;
and whatever may be the effect of such revelations, they will be given
from time to time without extenuation."
[Sidenote] Geary, proclamation, Sept. 11, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d
Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., pp. 93-4.
[Sidenote] Geary to Marcy, Sept. 12, 1856. Ibid., p. 95.

Discouraging as he found his new task of administration, Governor
Geary grappled with it in a spirit of justice and decision. The day
following his interview with General Smith found him at Lecompton,
the capital of the Territory, where the other territorial officials,
Woodson, Calhoun, Donaldson, Sheriff Jones, Lecompte, Cato, and
others, constituted the ever-vigilant working force of the Atchison
cabal, precisely as had been so truthfully represented to him by General
Smith, and as he had so graphically described in his letter to Marcy of
the day before. Paying little heed to their profusely offered advice, he
adhered to his determination to judge for himself, and at once issued an
inaugural address, declaring that in his official action he would do
justice at all hazards, that he desired to know no party and no section,
and imploring the people to bury their past strifes, and devote
themselves to peace, industry, and the material development of the
Territory.[10] As an evidence of his earnestness he simultaneously
issued two proclamations, one disbanding the volunteer or Missouri
militia lately called into service by acting Governor Woodson, and the
other commanding the immediate enrollment of the true citizen militia
of Kansas Territory, this step being taken by the advice of General
Smith.
He soon found that he could not govern Kansas with paper
proclamations alone. His sudden arrival at this particular juncture was
evidently an unexpected contretemps. While he was preaching and
printing his sage admonitions about peace and prosperity at Lecompton,
and laboring to change the implements of civil war into plowshares and
pruning-hooks, the Missouri raid against Lawrence, officially called
into the field by Woodson's proclamation, was about to deal out
destruction to that town. A thousand Border Ruffians (at least two
eye-witnesses say 2500), led by their recognized Missouri chiefs, were
at that moment camped within striking distance of the hated "New
Boston." Their published address, which declared that "these traitors,
assassins, and robbers must now be punished, must now be taught a
lesson they will remember," that "Lane's army and its allies must be
expelled from the Territory," left no doubt of their errand.
This news reached Governor Geary about midnight of his second day in

Lecompton. One of the brigadiers of the skeleton militia was
apparently in command, and not yet having caught the cue of the
Governor's intentions, reported the force for orders, "in the field, ready
for duty, and impatient to act."[11] At about the same hour the
Governor received a message from the agent he had sent to Lawrence
to distribute copies of his inaugural, that the people of that town were
arming and preparing to receive and repel this contemplated attack of
the Missourians. He was dumfounded at the information; his promises
and policy, upon which, the ink was not yet dry, were already in
jeopardy. Instead of bringing peace his advent was about to open war.
In this contingency the Governor took his measures with true military
promptness. He immediately dispatched to the Missouri camp
Secretary Woodson with copies of his inaugural, and the
adjutant-general of the Territory with orders to disband and muster out
of service the Missouri volunteers,[12] while he himself, at the head of
three hundred dragoons and a light battery, moved rapidly to Lawrence,
a distance of twelve miles. Entering that town at sunrise, he found a
few hundred men hastily organized for defense in the improvised
intrenchments and barricades about the place, ready enough to sell their
lives, but vastly more willing to intrust their protection to the
Governor's authority and the Federal troops.[13] They listened to his
speech and readily promised to obey his requirements.
Since the Missourians had officially reported themselves to him as
subject to his orders, the Governor supposed that his injunctions,
conveyed to them in writing and print, and borne by the secretary and
the adjutant-general of the Territory, would suffice to send them back
at once to their own borders, and he returned to