Mr.
Quiett says that without a doubt that speech not only saved them from
a bloody battle that day, but that it saved the Territory from a long,
fierce war.
After they disbanded, the members of the Convention went out and sat
down on the prairie grass to eat their dinner, which each took from
his pocket, or his wagon. Mr. Quiett and Mr. Ross took theirs from the
wagon, in which they had ridden to Topeka; but father had gone on
horseback, as he usually did, and took his dinner from the capacious
pocket of his preacher's saddle-bags. Mr. Quiett said that in getting
out his dinner, father took a pistol out of his saddlebags. This
created much merriment for them, as they thought it would have been of
little use to him in case of attack. They told him that if that was
where he carried it, the South Carolinians would shoot him some day
before he could unbuckle his saddle-bags.
But father disliked very much to carry arms, and I think he never did
in his life, except for about two months during that dreadful summer.
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