But the Governor vetoed them
all. That is, he refused to pass them, veto coming from a Latin
word meaning "I forbid." This made the slave party angry and they
asked the President to remove Reeder and send a new Governor. This
the President had power to do, as Texas was still only a Territory
and not a state.
The President was now quite on the side of the slave owners. So
a new Governor was sent, but the struggle went on just as before.
Both sides began to arm, and at length it came to bloodshed.
The town of Lawrence, which was a Free State town, was sacked by
a mob of ruffians, and civil war in Kansas was begun.
In Kansas there was an old man named John Brown. He was a fierce old
Puritan, and he believed that God had called him to fight slavery.
And the only way of fighting it that he thought possible was to
slay the slave-holders.
A few days after the sacking of Lawrence he set off with his sons
and one or two others to teach the slave-holders a lesson. Blood
had been spilled by them, and he was determined that for every
free state man who had been murdered he would have a life of a
slave-holder in revenge.
So in the dead of night he and his band attacked the farms of sleeping
men, and, dragging them from their beds, slew them in cold blood.
Before day dawned six or seven men had been thus slain.
When the Free Staters heard of this deed they were shocked.
Pages:
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610