. Abraham Lincoln and the downfall of American slavery. nflict —Lincolns Slowness and Reticence. MEANWHILE, immigrants from free States andslave States were pouring into Kansas. In spiteof the incursions of the pro-slavery men, the hardy immi-rants from Iowa, Northern Illinois, and New Englandwere clearly in the majority. Something must be done tostem this tide and to turn it back upon the free was readily resorted to. The swashbucklers whotrooped over the border from Missouri and Arkansas wereas ready to stuff ballot-boxes with fraudulent votes andmob free-State men as they we
. Abraham Lincoln and the downfall of American slavery. nflict —Lincolns Slowness and Reticence. MEANWHILE, immigrants from free States andslave States were pouring into Kansas. In spiteof the incursions of the pro-slavery men, the hardy immi-rants from Iowa, Northern Illinois, and New Englandwere clearly in the majority. Something must be done tostem this tide and to turn it back upon the free was readily resorted to. The swashbucklers whotrooped over the border from Missouri and Arkansas wereas ready to stuff ballot-boxes with fraudulent votes andmob free-State men as they were to vote. One thing theywould not do—work. The free-State men were, indeed,actual settlers. They took up land, planted crops, andbuilt log-cabins for their families, evidently intending tostay. The borderers, on the other hand, were roughriders, sportsmen, gamblers. They spent their time indrinking, shooting, scouring the country for prey, andterrifying helpless women and children. One of theirfavorite expressions was that they would make it hot. ATCHISON AND THE BLUE LODGES. 145 for any Abolitionist, and another was that they wouldcut the heart out of any man who voted the Abolitionticket. Aggressiveness like this soon engendered pro-slavery men were known as border ruffians,and the free-State men were commonly called Aboli-tioners. Under the lead of the notorious Dave Atchison, ofMissouri, a Senator of the United States, secret societies,known as Blue Lodges were formed for the purpose ofridding the country of the hated free-State bound up the Missouri River, laden with free-State immigrants and their movable property, werestopped by these ruffians, who swarmed on board, droveoff the immigrants, put their cattle and goods ashore, andcompelled the officers of the steamers, who were only toowilling to be an unresisting party to this outrage, to goon and leave their passengers behind. The border ruf-fians had on their side the influence of the Unit
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