We have, with some particularity, drawn out the history of the two most distinguished of the Southern leaders, because that, with slight change, it would be the biography of a great number of citizens of Kansas that came from the South.  Now, who does not see that here is the basis of hearty co-operation, whether in the church or in the world, of men from the South or from the North? provided always we can take into our hearts the law of love:  “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.”

In further illustration of this remark we will relate an incident concerning a Disciple, who will come prominently before us in the formation of our first missionary society.  Spartan Rhea was from Missouri, and belonged to a family intensely Southern in their convictions.  He was commissioned a justice of the peace by the Territorial authorities.  A horse had been stolen by the Kickapoo Rangers from Gains Jenkins, of Lawrence.  Gov.  Geary requested Bro.  Rhea to recover the horse, and he did so with some peril to himself, and made a journey to Lawrence to restore the animal to its proper owner.  He sought to make it evident that the men of his party wanted justice done.

But Dr. Gihon also tells us that there was at the Wakarusa a small faction of irreconcilables, who, if they could do nothing else, could at least curse.

“Gen. Clarke said he was for pitching into the United States troops rather than abandon the objects of the expedition.  Gen. Maclean didn’t see any use of going back until they had whipped the Abolitionists.  Sheriff Jones was in favor, now that they had sufficient force, of wiping out Lawrence and all the Free State towns.  And these and others cursed Gov.  Geary for his interference in their well-laid plans.

“The broad ground assumed by these rabid leaders of the Pro-slavery party in Kansas was, that an equilibrium of the slave power must be maintained at any sacrifice in the American Union, and this could only be effected by increasing the slave States in proportion with the free.  Whilst, therefore, the South was willing to give Nebraska to the North, they demanded that Kansas should be ceded to the South.  It was of little consequence what number of Northern men located in Kansas—­they had no right to come unless with the intention to make it a slave State.”

This malcontent minority did, therefore, become a dangerous and revolutionary faction, entertaining criminal purposes, which they were ready to carry out by desperate methods.  They were also in possession of dangerous elements of power.  They controlled the Territorial Legislature, and all the Territorial judges were parties in this conspiracy.  Dr. Gihon testifies that “every federal officer in the Territory, and every Territorial officer from the supreme judges to the deputy marshals, sheriffs and clerks, were wedded to the slave power, and pledged at all hazards to its extension.”