erference was
accepted by the Missourians as a signal for battle. The rescuers must
be arrested and punished. A large force of infuriated Missourians and
pro-slavery settlers assembled for a raid upon the town of Lawrence.
In the meantime the Lawrence militia planned and executed a systematic
defense of the town. When the two armies came within speaking distance,
a parley ensued in which the Governor took a leading part in settling
the affair without a hostile shot. This is known in Kansas history as
the "Wakarusa War."

The progress of affairs in Kansas was followed with intense interest in
all parts of the country. North and South vied with each other in the
encouragement of emigration to Kansas. Colonel Buford of Alabama sold a
large number of slaves and devoted the proceeds to meeting the expense
of conducting a troop of three hundred men to Kansas in the winter of
1856. They went armed with "the sword of the spirit," and all provided
with Bibles supplied by the leading churches. Arrived in the territory,
they were duly furnished with more worldly weapons and were drilled for
action. About the same time a parallel incident is said to have occurred
in New Haven, Connecticut. A deacon in one of the churches had enlisted
a company of seventy bound for Kansas. A meeting was held in the church
to raise money to defray expenses. The leader of the company declared
that they also needed rifles for self-defense. Forthwith Professor
Silliman, of the University, subscribed one Sharp's rifle, and others
followed with like pledges. Finally Henry Ward Beecher, who was the
speaker of the occasion, rose and promised that, if twenty-five
rifles were pledged on the spot, Plymouth Church in Brooklyn would
be responsible for the remaining twenty-five that were needed. He had
already said in a previous address that for the slaveholders of Kansas,
Sharp's rifles were a greater moral agency than the Bible. This led
to the designation of the weapons as "Beecher's Bibles." Such was the
spirit which prevailed in the two sections of the country.

President Pierce had now become intensely hostile towards the free-state
inhabitants of Kansas. Having recognized the Legislature elected on
March 30, 1855, as the legitimate Government, he sent a special
message to Congress on January 24, 1856, in which he characterized as
revolutionary the movement of the free-state men to organize a separate
Government in Kansas. From the President's point of vie