Personal Recollections of Pardee ButlerButler, Pardee
Religion
Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler
Butler, Pardee
Kansas -- History -- 1854-1861
3. That the election under which the contesting delegate,
Andrew H. Reeder, claims his seat, was not held under any
law, and should be wholly disregarded by the House.
_(Signed)_ M. OLIVER.
As a result, Congress permanently unseated Mr. Whitfield, and ordered
a new election, thus affirming the conclusions of Howard and Sherman.
This committee began its work in April and ended in June.
The "Law and Order" party did not, however, wait for the conclusion
of these proceedings at Washington. Col. Buford, as we have told in a
former chapter, arrived early in the spring with his company of South
Carolinians, and Gen. David R. Atchison had gathered, along the
borders, several hundred men to make a second raid on Lawrence. These
all marched to Lecompton, where they held themselves in readiness to
act, as soon as a pretext could be found invoking their help.
And now the inevitable Samuel J. Jones, Sheriff of Douglas County,
again put in an appearance. This time it was to arrest Sam Wood for
the rescue of Branson. Jones arrested Wood on the streets of Lawrence.
A crowd gathered around, and in the jostling and pushing Jones and
Wood were separated, and Wood walked away. No threats were made, and
no violence used. The next day was Sunday, and Jones again appeared,
but Sam Wood was missing. He had stayed that night at the house of the
writer, in Atchison County, being then on his way to the free States.
Jones, however, had writs for the arrest of those who had been the
occasion of Wood's escape, and the Sheriff called on some of the
church-going people to act as his _posse_ in making his arrests. But
these were of "the most straitest sect" of the Puritans, and it was
contrary to their consciences to do any manner of carnal work on the
Sabbath day, and in their estimation this was exceedingly carnal work,
and they kept their faces set as if they would go to the synagogue.
Samuel F. Tappan was one of the Branson rescuers, and Jones seized
Tappan by the collar, and Tappan struck Jones in the face. This was
enough; Jones had been resisted, and he went to the Governor and
demanded a _posse_ of United States soldiers to aid him in making his
arrest. Thus reinforced with a detachment of United States troops, our
valorous Sheriff Jones went a third time and arrested without
resistance six respectable citizens of Lawrence, on a charge of
contempt of court, because they had declined to break the Sabbath in
aiding him to make arrests on the Lord's day. In due course of law, it
should have been his duty to take his prisoners before a magistrate,
and allowed them to give bail to appear at a given time to answer for
this alleged contempt. But Jones elected to keep his prisoners without
bail, and to act as his own jailer, and so he encamped in a tent on
the prairie, using these United States soldiers as his guard. This was
a manifest bait to the people of Lawrence to attempt a rescue, but
they did not walk into the trap, and so these prisoners slept on the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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