Free State men and Pro-slavery men had
each in turn been thus despoiled and compelled to flee the Territory;
or if they remained they were paralyzed and unfitted for work.
But the spring and summer of 1857 had brought a new order of things.
Gov. Geary had put an end to these disorders, and the presence of S.
C. Pomeroy and other Free State men in Atchison was an additional
guarantee of peace and security. As a result the Kansas squatters had
gone to work with a will. Old things had passed away, and all things
had become new. There did indeed remain a chronic state of disorder in
Southeastern Kansas; but this was local and exceptional.
But religious and thoughtful men looked far beyond this question of
what shall we eat and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be
clothed? Intemperate habits were growing fast on the people. Coarse
profanity and ribald speech were becoming so common as to be the rule
and not the exception. Fathers and mothers began to tremble when they
thought what their boys were coming to; and this turned their thoughts
to the question of schools and churches.
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