y enter into any legitimate business. They very
expressively describe themselves as having _come out to
see Kansas through._ They yelled, "Kill him! Kill him!
Hang the Abolitionist." One of their number bristled up to
me and said, "Have you got a revolver?" I answered, "No."
He handed me a pistol and said, "There, take that, and
stand off ten steps; and I will blow you through in an
instant." I replied, "I have no use for your weapon." I
afterwards heard them congratulating themselves in
reference to this, that they had acted in an honorable
manner with me. The fellow was furious; but his companions
dissuaded him from shooting me, saying they were going to
hang me.

They pinioned my arms behind my back, obtained a rope, but
were interrupted by the entrance of a stranger--a
gentleman from Missouri, since ascertained to be Judge
Tutt, a lawyer from St. Joseph. He said: "My friends, hear
me. I am an old man, and it is right you should hear me. I
was born in Virginia, and have lived many years in
Missouri. I am a slaveholder, and desire Kansas to be made
a slave State, if it can be done by honorable means. But
you will destroy the cause you are seeking to build up.
You have taken this man, who was peaceably passing through
your streets and along the public highway, and doing no
person any harm. We profess to be 'Law and Order' men, and
ought to be the last to commit violence. If this man has
broken the law, let him be judged according to law; but
for the sake of Missouri, for the sake of Kansas, for the
sake of the pro-slavery cause, do not act in this way."
They dragged me into another building, and appointed a
moderator, and got up a kind of lynch law trial. Kelley
told his story. I rose to my feet, and calmly and in
respectful language began to tell mine; but I was jerked
to my seat and so roughly handled that I was compelled to
desist. My friend from Missouri again earnestly besought
them to set me at liberty. Kelley turned short on him and
said: "Do you belong to Kansas?" Judge Tutt replied: "No;
but I expect to live here in Atchison next fall, and in
this matter the interests of Kansas and Missouri are
identical." Chester Lamb, a lawyer in Atchison, and Samuel
Dickson, a merchant of the place, both pro slavery men,
also united with Judge Tutt in pleading that I might be
set at liberty. While these gentlemen were speaking, I
heard my keepers mutter, "If you don't hush up, we will
tar and feather you." But when