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This was done in March, but so far as any public expression of
sentiment was concerned, the people seemed dumb. No public meeting was
called in the way of protest till the next September, and that meeting
was held at Big Springs, sixty miles from Atchison.
But if there was no public protest, there was plenty of it in private.
The men from the State of Missouri grew sick at heart. It was a deep,
unspoken, bitter and shame-faced feeling, for it was their old neighbors
that had done this.
I often asked myself, Can it be hoped that an election can be held that
shall fairly express the real sentiment of the people, if they allow
themselves to be held down under such a reign of terror?
The prevalent sentiment of the squatters from Missouri was, "We will
make Kansas a free white State; we will admit no negroes into it." These
men regarded the negro as an enemy to themselves. They said: "We were
born to the lowly lot of toil, and the negro has made labor a disgrace.
Neither ourselves nor our children have had opportunity for education,
and the negro is the cause of it.


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