Jones never lived in that house, and did not live in the Territory, so far as I know. After Mr. Oakley returned, he built a house on his claim, and we then went on the claim again and occupied it. I went on my share of the claim shortly after Mr. Oakley did, and I commenced building a house. In the conversation, at the time Mr. Hancock was turned out of the house he was living in, Mr. Jones told me, when I threatened to apply for civil redress, that Judge Lecompton was interested in the claim. In September last, an injunction was served upon me, issued by Judge Lecompton, forbidding me to commit any more waste by cutting timber on this land; and the case is still before his court, and I have ever since been under that injunction. After my house was burned, I went to Tecumseh, and applied to the grand jury for redress against these persons for having burned my house and threatened my life, but they refused to give me any hearing. This was before the county lines were established. Attorney General Isaacs told me there was no law in regard to burning houses or mobbing persons, and they had no jurisdiction over it. SAM'L SMITH.

LAWRENCE, K. T., May 12, 1856.

EDWARD OAKLEY called and sworn.

I came out here and landed in Kansas city the first day of April, 1855, with my father, Joseph Oakley, and settled near Lecompton. The town site was laid out, but there were no buildings there. We settled about a mile from the town line. My father's house was burned by S. J. Jones and his party, on the 28th of May, 1855, while my father was about on his way to Michigan. He and his party had, some two or three weeks before, burned down Mr. Samuel Smith's house. I was in my father's home, with Mr. Smith and others, when Jones and his party came up. After the house was set on fire one of Mr. Smith's sons and a neighbor, by the name of Grout, went to the house and took the goods out of it. I saw the man get up on the roof and set the shingles on fire, but was not near enough to recognize who it was.

LAWRENCE, K. T., May 12, 1856.

EDWARD OAKLEY.

Rev. PARDEE BUTLER called and sworn.

Examined by Mr. Reeder:

I came first into the Territory about the middle of May, 1855, from Iowa. I came in at St. Joseph's, went up on Wolf river, came down on the Kansas river, and then returned and settled on Stranger creek, about twelve miles from Achison. On the 16th of August I went to Achison for the purpose of taking a boat down the river. Mr. Kelly was postmaster at Achison, and is also co-editor of the "Squatter Sovereign." After transacting some business at the post office, I said

to him, in the presence of Archibald Elliott, esq., "I should, some time since, have become a regular subscriber to your paper, only I do not like the spirit of violence that characterises it." He said, "I look upon all free-soilers as rogues, and they ought to be treated as such. I replied, "Well, sir, I am a free-soiler, and expect to vote for Kansas to be a free State." He said, "I do not expect you will be allowed to vote. I went from the post office to my boarding house and remained that day. I related to a number of gentlemen the conversation I have just given, and said to them "an attempt has been made to cow free-soilers into silence; but it is our right to speak, and I intend to utter my sentiments when I please." Nothing more transpired on that day. The next morning Kelly entered my boarding house, accompanied by a number of men, and presented me certain resolutions, cut out of the Squatter Sovereign and pasted on a sheet of white paper, and demanded that I should sign them. They were as follows:

"Whereas, by recent occurrences it is now known that there are among us agents of the underground railroad, for the express purpose of abducting our slaves; and, whereas, one J. W. B. Kelly, hailing from some infernal abolition den, has, both by words and acts, proved himself a worthy representative of such an association; and, whereas others in the vicinity, whose idle habits and apparent plenty of money, induce us to believe that they are hirelings of some such infamous society; believing it due not only to ourselves, but to the adjoining portion of Missouri, to rid ourselves of so great an evil, and for the furtherance of this end:

Resolved, 1st. That one J. W. B. Kelly, hailing from Cincinnati, having, upon sundry occasions, denounced our institutions and declared all pro-slavery men ruffians, we deem it an act of kindness to rid him of such company, and hereby command him to leave the town of Atchison in one hour after being informed of the passage of this resolution, never more to show himself in this vicinity.

"Resolved, 2d, That in case he fails to obey this reasonable command, we inflict upon him such punishment as the nature of the case and circumstances may require.

"Resolved, 3d, That other emissaries of this Aid Society who are now in our midst tampering with our slaves are warned to leave, else they too will meet the reward which their nefarious designs justly merit-hemp.

"Resolved, 4th, That we approve and applaud our fellow-townsman, Grafton Thomasson, for the castigation administered to the said J. W. B. Kelly, whose presence among us is a libel on our good standing and a disgrace to the community.

"Resolved, 5th, That we have commenced the good work of purging our town of all resident abolitionists, and after cleansing our town of such nuisances, shall do the same with settlers on Walnut and Independence creeks, whose propensities for cattle stealing are well known to many.

'Resolved, 6th, That the chairman appoint a committee of three to H. Rep. 200-61*

wait upon the said Kelly and acquaint him with the action of this meeting.

66

Resolved, 7th, That the proceedings of this meeting be published, that the world may know our determination.

"On motion of Henry Allen, copies of these resolutions were ordered. to be made out, and a committee of three be requested to circulate them, with a view of obtaining signatures, thereby showing who are abolitionists."

;

This was a difference that grew up between a J. W. B. Kelly from Cincinnati and Robert S. Kelly, of the Squatter Sovereign, and others known as "border ruffians." I declined to subscribe to these resolutions. I commenced reading the resolutions aloud. Robert S. Kelly, editor of the Squatter Sovereign, finally interrupted me and demanded I should sign them. I rose up; walked down stairs into the street; here they stopped me and demanded, "will you sign?" I refused when they seized me and dragged me to the river, cursing me for a damned abolitionist, and saying they were going to drown me. When we arrived at the bank, Mr. Kelly painted my face with black paint, marking upon it the letter "R." The company had increased to some thirty or forty persons. Without any trial, without witnesses, judge, counsel, or jury, for about two hours I was a sort of target at which were hurled imprecations, curses, arguments, entreaties, accusations, and interrogatories. I told them my coming to Kansas was projected before it became apparent that there would be any controversy about slavery here; that I came for reasons independent and extraneous to this question; that I never had any connexion with any Emigrant Aid Society, and never made any communication to any paper concerning Kansas affairs. I was not accused of tampering with slaves. I explained to them that I could not countenance any interference between master and slave in Kansas, while that was an open question. They alleged nothing more against me than that I had spoken among my neighbors favorably to making Kansas a free State, and had said in the office of the Squatter Sovereign, "I am a free-soiler and intend to vote in favor of making Kansas a free State." Ira Norris, esq.; late of Platte City, who was with the company, said, "Mr. Butler, I will advise you for your good, as a friend, when you get away just keep away. I said I intended to go away, but intended to come back again; that I could not leave; that I owned real estate near Atchison, in Missouri, and had a claim on Stranger creek. Some one remarked, you can sell your claim through an agent. I said I would not sell my claim through an agent nor in my own proper person; and that if my life was not taken by them I intended to live upon it. They said, stay on your claim, but keep away from Atchison. I said I should come back to Atchison if my life was not taken and Providence permitted me to do so. They said if I came back again to Atchison they would hang me. They offered to show me the very tree on which they would hang me. They made another proposal, that I might live in the country and vote as I thought best, but hold my tongue. I said I would speak when I pleased. I told them I had done no wrong;

that I had as good a right to come there as they had, and should do my duty as I understood it, and they might do the same. I said, 'you are many, I am but one man; dispose of me as you think best; I ask no favors of you." They constructed a raft of two cottonwood saw logs, fastened together with inch plank nailed to the logs, upon which they put me and sent me down the Missouri river. The raft was towed out into the middle of the stream with a canoe. Robert S. Kelly held the rope that towed the raft. They gave me neither oar, rudder, nor anything else to manage my raft with. They put up a flag on the raft with the following inscription upon it: "Eastern Emigrant Aid Express. The Rev. Mr. Butler, agent for the underground railroad. The way they are served in Kansas. For Boston. Cargo insured, unavoidable danger of the Missourians and the Missouri river excepted. Let future emissaries from the north beware. Our hemp. crop is sufficient to reward all such scoundrels." They threatened to shoot me if I pulled my flag down. I pulled it down, cut the flag off the flag-staff, made a paddle of the flag-staff, and ultimately got ashore about six miles below.

To the best of my knowledge I had not had any conversation in the presence of slaves. I neither had sought to entice slaves away from their masters, nor did they accuse me of it. They all admitted, when we were together, that I was not an abolitionist, but a freesoiler. By freesoiler I mean one in favor of making Kansas a free State.

[Part of Mr. Butler's deposition is struck out, according to the ruling in the case of James Harris.]

LAWRENCE, K. T., May 9. 1856.

PARDEE BUTLER.

GEORGE F. WARREN was called and sworn.

I was at Leavenworth at the time of the lynching of William Phillips. It was May 17, 1855. He had written a protest to the governor signed by himself and a number of others. He is a citizen of Leavenworth, a lawyer. A committee served a notice on him to leave the Territory. I saw the notice. The committee consisted of thirty, viz: William Hughes, now clerk in the land office of Mr. Calhoun, surveyor general; H. Rives Pollard, associate editor of the Kansas Herald at Leavenworth; William Adams, publisher of the same paper; D. Scott Boyle, then and now clerk of the territorial court under Judge Lecompte; Eli Moore, deputy city marshal of Leavenworth; J. M. Lyle, chief clerk of the Shawnee legislature; D. J. Johnson, lawyer; Bennett Burnam, city surveyor; J. M. Alexander, a lawyer from Pennsylvania; J. C. Posey, surveyor. I do not remember the names

of any more now. This notice was served some days before the mobbing. There was to be a meeting in town on the day the notice required him to leave. Mr. Phillips and myself left on that day. Towards evening we returned. An hour or two after we arrived in town some one wanted to speak to Mr. Phillips in the Herald printing office. He went there, and I remained part of the time on the outside where I could see in and hear them talk. They asked him to sign that paper to leave the Territory the next day at noon, at the same time holding a pistol at his head. He would not sign it. A man asked him then if he would fight. He reached his hand to him and told him yes. Some one spoke then and said the man who proposed to fight should not do so, and thus throw away his valuable life for that damned abolitionist. They then proposed to tar and feather Phillips. They could not find any tar and feathers. He told them that molasses would do just as well. I then left, and shortly afterwards I saw Phillips. Some days afterwards, while I and Phillips were helping to raise a building, there was a company of thirteen came there. They were J. M. McAlear, William Hughes, Boyle, Burnam, Pollard, Adams, Moore, Heath, Lyle, Johnson, Posey, Mr. Blair, deputy marshal, and one other. Hughes came close to Phillips and told him he must leave the Territory and go with him. McAlear put his hand on Phillips' shoulder and told him he must go. All of them had revolvers. Phillips was unarmed, and only three or four of his friends were around, who were all unarmed except myself, and I had a revolver. There were but few persons in sight. Phillips made no reply to McAlear. Myself and Mr. Gould rushed towards him and was pushed back, and my pistol was taken from me by a friend of mine from Tennessee who wanted to fire, but I prevented him. They then took Phillips to the river, put him on a flat boat, and all got in and crossed the river. While they were crossing, a magistrate ordered a posse out with arms to rescue him. Only three of us appeared, and they were then crossing the river. They shook their fists at us, and told us we would have to go next. They landed on the other side, and that was the last I saw of them that day. I saw Phillips next morning. He had just finished getting tar off from him and was. running bullets. One side of his head was shaved. These men were never punished for this offence. They were at one time brought before Judge Lecompte and bound over to keep the peace. He said it was his duty to remove the clerk and prevent the lawyers from practicing at the bar, but he would not do it for that time. To my knowledge they were never indicted or tried. Most of them are still living in the Territory and holding office.

LAWRENCE, K. T., May 10, 1856.

G. F. WARREN.