The militia had resolved not to disband, the officers
refused to listen to the reading of the proclamation--they
were determined upon accomplishing the bloody work they
had entered the Territory to perform. Nothing but the
destruction of Lawrence and the other Free State towns,
the massacre of the Free State residents, and the
appropriation of their lands and other property, could
satisfy them.
Mr. Adams, who accompanied Secretary Woodson to the
Missouri camp, dispatched the following:
LAWRENCE, 12 o'clock Midnight, Sept. 14, 1856. To His
EXCELLENCY, GOV. GEARY:
SIR:--_Secretary Woodson thought you had better come to
the camp of the militia as soon as you can_. THEODORE
ADAMS.
Before this dispatch reached Lecompton the Governor had
departed with three hundred United States mounted troops
and a battery of light artillery, and arrived in Lawrence
early in the morning, where he found matters precisely as
described. Skillfully stationing his troops outside the
town, in commanding positions, to prevent a collision
between the invading forces from Missouri and the
citizens, he entered Lawrence alone, and there he beheld a
sight which would have aroused the manhood of the most
stolid mortal.
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