Meantime
the Free State men came to the Governor making a bitter complaint of
the persecutions they were suffering. They said, "Our relatives and
friends are arrested and confined for weeks and months in a filthy
prison, not fit for dogs to live in, and are kept without proper food
or clothing, and are not allowed to give bail even for bailable
offenses; while murderers of the other party are allowed to go at
large and no attention is paid to them." They said, "The murderers of
Dow, Barber, Brown, Phillips, Hoppe and Buffum, have not even been
arrested or examined."
The Governor replied that he had already ordered the arrest of Hayes,
and that a grand jury of Pro-slavery men had found a true bill against
him, and that Hayes should be tried for his life. But while he was yet
speaking a messenger brought word that Judge Lecompte had released
Hayes on bail, and that Sheriff Jones had gone on his bail bond, a man
notoriously not worth a dollar; and this when the crime of murder in
the first degree, for which Hayes had been indicted, was not a
bailable offense.
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