80 A SHREWD SPECULATOR IN LUMBER. [1857. Their tongues became swollen, and their lips cracked, until the blood ran from them. At last we espied in the distance a feeble willow, sure indication of moisture. Spurring thither our jaded horses, we found a pool of stagnant water. The surface was covered with green scum, and as I lay down to drink, a sluggish lizzard crawled in from the bank. But necessity knows no scruples, and the famishing never criticise. Every mouthful of that jelly-like fluid was flavored with fever-and-ague; yet my long draught was the sweetest I had ever tasted. We found hundreds of claims already taken, chiefly by Missourians, who had visited them once, and made 'improvements' -inclosing a little square with four logs or rails laid upon the ground. Yet in riding twenty-five miles we saw but one occupied dwelling. We were truly on the outer verge of civilization. We selected and staked our quarter-sections, and after returning to Quindaro, sent out boards and had a cabin erected upon each. But a few weeks later when we went back to look at our 'dwellings,' some enterprising scoundrel had carried away every one of them! He did not leave a single board, rafter, or splinter. Notwithstanding the forty dollars which his cupidity cost me, I have profound respect for that shrewd speculator who not only obtained so much valuable lumber for nothing, but found it already delivered thirty miles in the interior, when the expenses of hauling were enormous. It must have enabled him to build a palatial mansion; but my experience was a ludicrous satire upon the ancient legal fiction that every man's house is his castle. From such a school must have graduated theth Kansas Infantry which acquired rare reputation for plundering during the great rebellion. A number of Kansas regiments marching through Missouri, revenged themselves upon their old enemies; but this had unapproachable genius for plunder, which the camp stories used to illustrate with genuine American exaggeration. One of them ran thus: In an Arkansas campaign a general officer found the entire-th grouped around a saw-mill and weeping like Niobes. 'Why, boys,' he asked, 'what is the matter?' Matter enough!' sobbed one enterprising volunteer. 'Thus 1857.] WITHIN PRISON WALLS. 81 far we have never left any thing behind us; but we can't possibly steal this saw-mill!' In August I attended the trial of Governor Charles Robinson at Lecompton. The Border Ruffian capital, in a rough little hollow, was composed of few dwelling-houses, many land-offices, and multitudinous whisky saloons. Free State friends pointed out to me the building where they were confined as prisoners during the early troubles. In close, filthy quarters, and covered with vermin, they spent many weeks, not only cheerfully, but often in a state of absolute hilarity. It seemed incredible; for I had not then learned how much contentment depends upon temperament, and how little upon the externals of life. Years later, I noted the same fact in rebel prisons. The feelings of men in those dens of misery, shut out from all the comforts of life, and with suffering and death constantly before their eyes, did not differ materially from their feelings after they were restored to liberty. Indeed, a friend declares in all sincerity that the two years he spent in their scenes of horror were the most cheerful of his life. Doubtless, love for the cause in which he suffered, and unshaken faith in its triumph, account for some of his fortitude. The world owes much to her prisons. They have been storehouses in whose safe keeping ripened seeds which have borne a plentiful harvest. How often have they given back blessings to the hand of tyranny, and lavished upon ungrateful ears music, which the following generations caught up to bear along in triumph! Chambers of royalty, they have held enthroned our sages and singers. There sat Socrates and Bacon, Raleigh and More and Tasso. There Marco Polo recorded his strange, romantic story. There brilliant, tireless Defoe edited his semi-weekly Review, forerunner of the modern newspaper. There Cervantes commemorated the immortal Quixote. There John Bunyan opened that well of living water, 'Whose drops Of cool refreshment drained by fevered lips, 82 LAST TREASON TRIAL IN KANSAS. [1857. The United States district court at Lecompton was held in a rude apartment, furnished with three tables, two chairs, and halfa-dozen planks for seats, resting upon blocks, stones, and boxes. Judge Cato was an avowed disunionist of the South Carolina school. Tall and thin, with closely-shaven face, and overgrown moustache, he wore the ermine carelessly, studied the Charleston Mercury intently through his heavy gold spectacles, and gave only an occasional glance at the business before him. Wier, the district attorney, stout, florid, and red-whiskered, sat on a table with his feet elevated upon the stove. The lookers-on exhibited every variety of dress and physiognomy. Robinson was charged with usurpation of office. He admitted his election as governor under the Topeka State constitution, his issuing messages to the State legislature, approval of its enactments, and other gubernatorial functions. But the witnesses swore that this action was only preparatory; that it had never been the intention to put the government in force, until Kansas should become a State in the Federal Union. This was not quite true. Nearly all the Free State men had designed to set the Topeka government in motion and support it by force of arms, whenever the Border Ruffian Terri torial authorities should drive them to the wall. The judge was overbearing and violent; but Robinson's counsel, confident that the Pro-slavery rule was nearly ended, faced him boldly, objected to some of the jurors as vagabonds and notorious partisans, and took exceptions to nearly all his rulings. Even the prosecuting attorney, from long habit repeatedly spoke of the prisoner as Governor' Robinson, though always quickly changing it to 'Doctor' Robinson. In summing up, the court charged the jury that if they found Robinson had assumed to be governor of the State of Kansas, (which then existed only in name and not at all in law or in fact,) they must find him guilty as charged by the indictment, of usurp ing the office of governor of the Territory of Kansas! After two hours absence the jurors re-appeared and asked that the case might be re-opened, and one witness re-examined, as they had forgotten his testimony! Even Cato refused to do this; and soon after they returned a verdict of Not Guilty. Thus ended the last treason trial in Kansas. 1857.] TRAVELING TO A CONVENTION. 83 THE TRIAL OF GOVERNOR ROBINSON FOR TREASON, IN AUGUST, 1857. A few days later, a Territorial Free State convention was held at Grasshopper Falls. Going thither with two friends, journeyed for hours on the Delaware Indian reservation, fifteen miles by forty. Its richness and beauty showed Kansas a country worth 84 struggling for. SIEGE OF HICKORY POINT. [1857 There are many old lake beds, basins scooped out of the prairie. Around their shores runs a well defined stratum of limestone, like an artificial wall; and for miles a similar line girdles the isolated hills, suggesting that they were islands before the waters were gathered into one place and dry land appeared. But geologists decide that these seemingly ancient water-marks are only limestone strata which lie evenly in all the bluffs. Our road was an obscure track in the prairie grass. We journeyed on and on until dark, and then for hours afterward, finding no traces of human life. Late in the night we met four Indians on horseback, of whom we inquired the distance to Oskaloosa. They replied in pure English, that they knew no such town; certainly it was not in that vicinity; the nearest white settlement was ten miles distant upon the Kaw river. In spite of the Indian fondness for romance, their seeming intelligence and honesty convinced us that we had mistaken the way. So we lariated our mules to graze, and slept soundly upon our blankets on the ground, with the soft grass for a pillow, and the gemmed sky for a roof. In the morning we woke to find hair and beards dripping with dew; but cold and rheumatic twinges are strangers to that pure summer air. Fifteen minutes after starting again, we were in sight of Oskaloosa. We had not wandered from our road, but the noble savage, true to the instincts of his race, had been fabricating falsehoods out of whole cloth. We breakfasted at Hickory Point, a little group of buildings besieged and captured by Free State men in 1856, after several had been killed on both sides. One log house still displayed huge apertures where the shells had torn through its thick walls. Our landlord of this morning commanded the Pro-slavery garrison during the skirmish; and still bears the scar where a rifle ball struck him as he was taking a drink. This fire in the rear spilled his whisky, and gave him an ugly wound. Yet he lived, not to fight another day, but to regale us with an excellent meal. He seemed chatty, courteous and honest. The convention was large and earnest. It elicited exciting discussions upon voting at the fall elections. Hitherto, after being |