=Free-state Help from Northern States.= The North was deeply stirred by the calamities endured by the free-state people in Kansas. Although practically all of the free-state newspapers here had been closed or destroyed, the papers in the northern and eastern states were filled with narrations of the hardships, robberies, and murders that had befallen antislavery settlers in the Territory. The Kansas troubles were discussed from the pulpit, and the great preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, advised sending rifles to Kansas and pledged his church for a definite number. The men thus sent out armed with Bibles and rifles were sometimes called “The Rifle Christians.” Public meetings were addressed by men fresh from Kansas, among them ex-Governor Reeder, S. N. Wood, and James H. Lane. Much sympathy was aroused for the suffering free-state settlers. Large sums of money were raised, and companies of men were organized to take part in the Territorial contest. The movement swept over the states from Boston to the Northwest.[12] “Societies of semi-military cast, no less willing to furnish guns than groceries, sprang up as if by magic, and overshadowed the earlier, more pacific organizations.” As a result of these agitations a stream of migration moved toward Kansas during the spring and summer of 1856. Every party came prepared for defense, and many brought with them a goodly stock of provisions. One writer says of the immigrants, “There were fewer women and children, less house-luggage, fewer agricultural implements; more men, more arms, more ammunition.” =Missouri River Closed to Free-state Immigration.= These activities of the North were viewed with alarm by the proslavery leaders. They believed that this inflow of free-state settlers must be checked or it would end all hope of making Kansas a slave state. One of the most important of the measures they adopted for this purpose was the closing of the Missouri River to free-state immigration. They overhauled the steamboats and seized merchandise and arms that were being sent to free-state people, and they arrested and turned back all travelers whom they believed to be unfriendly to the South. All overland immigrants received similar treatment as soon as they touched Missouri soil. =New Route to Kansas.= Although this policy occasioned the northern people considerable loss and much inconvenience, it did not check the movement toward Kansas. It simply meant that the immigrants came through Iowa and Nebraska, entering Kansas from the north. The Southerners also appealed to their people and money was raised and men were sent to Kansas, but the response was not to be compared with that of the North.