Jim Lane's speech in Kansas.
he Defends the Kansas brigade — Justifies Negro stealing — objects of the war plainly stated--Maj. Prince's opinion of Lane. &c., &c.
From a late number of the St. Louis Democrat, the Lincoln organ in Missouri, which publishes it with evident approval, we copy the following report of a speech delivered at Leaven worth, Kansas, by the notorious and infamous Gen. Jim Lane, the Kansas U. S. Senator and Brigadier General. Lane very plainly avows his policy, which is to steal and turn loose all the slaves he can; and although it now endeavors to conceal it, the people will soon be unmistakably convinced that such is also the policy of the Lincoln Government. At the meeting which afforded Lane the opportunity of delivering his harangue, on coming forward he was received with rapturous applause. He said:
‘ "Two months ago the Kansas brigade was organized. I was put at the head of it with the respect, the confidence, aye, the love, of every man in that command. Every day since it entered the field it has been actively engaged for the protection of Kansas and the Government. It has not been whipped — it has not surrendered. Why is it that these creatures at the Fort sneer at it? They abuse the Kansas brigade because it has not surrendered to the enemy. They sneer at the Kansas brigade because we have never engaged the enemy without whipping them like the devil.
"Go to Nevada, where 56 of the Kansas brigade met and defeated 200 rebels; go to Ball's mill, where 130 Kansas whipped 350 traitors; go to Dry Wood, where 400 men under Montgomery for two hours fought 7,000 of the enemy, and drove them back from your soil; go to Morristown, the death-bed of our gallant Johnson, where too of the Kansas brigade drove 600 traitors from their entrenchments; go to Osceola, one of the strongest natural points in Southern Missouri, where, after eighty miles march through the enemy's country, we met a greatly superior force, beat it, and took and destroyed more than a million dollars worth of property. Go to these fields, and tell me why the Kansas brigade is sneered at.
"Our sin is that we have never been whipped. That brigade is conspired against. --This last Sabbath was desecrated by a conspiracy at the Fort, between Robinson and Prince, to destroy the Kansas brigade. Chas. Robinson and Capt. Prince conspired to destroy it. They were guilty of treason baser than that of Price. [Great cheering] I have come here to talk plainly to you. [Cries of ' That's right,' ' Let us have it,' ] What is the charge they make against the Kansas brigade? We are jayhawkers.
"I stated in Washington that the institution of slavery could not survive the march of the Federal army--that there would be an army of one color marching into the slave States, and an army of another color marching out. I said, further, that confiscation must follow treason, as thunder follows the lightning's flash.
"Confiscated property goes to the Government, and this rule has been adopted by my brigade. If we are jayhawkers, we are jayhawking for the Government.
"Now if — oh! the dirty puppy — if that creature Prince. or that still dirtier creature, Robinson, can find an instance of a violation of this rule in my command, the guilty man shall be hung.
"I have commanded seven armies, and I have found that officers succeed when they treat soldiers as men; do that, and they will fight for you. why, my soldiers would follow me right into the middle of hell. And let me tell you, if I wanted to make a sure job of capturing the old fellow, I'd take the Kansas brigade, and I'd do it, though he had Robinson and Prince to help him. [Terrific cheering]
"Kansas is the jewel of the West. It is all there is between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains. It is the jewel in the cup of freedom. In a department with its headquarters at St. Louis, Kansas is not as secure as she should be. So difficult is it to convey intelligence across Missouri that it is not safe for us to receive our orders from St. Louis. The true interests of Kansas demands that she should be in a separate department, with Fort Leavenworth at its base. [Cheers.] It is a military necessity.
"The appointment of Brigadier-General was offered to me, and I intended to accept it when the brigade was organized, but I could not be driven to take it. Although not a Brigadier, I have been playing it all over and pretty big — betting high on small cards. [Cheers and laughter.]
"For all my labor, hardship, and expense, I have not received one dime. Now don't you think Robinson and Prince could have afforded to let me serve my country for nothing?
"If the Government will make a separate Department here, I will resign my Senatorship and accept it. This Department ought to be commanded by a Kansas man. Then we can save Kansas, restore the Cherokee country, and a good deal South of it.
"Ask the Government to give this army a sufficient supply of artillery. They have lately ordered two thousand five hundred guns. Can't we have six of them? They are needed for service, and I tell you nothing gives the soldier so much courage as the sight of those big guns. I would like to have you get this Department so that we can clean out that thing (the fort) up yonder. Let us turn out the heartless scoundrels who have insulted us for years. [Cheers.]
"For the first time I come here alarmed for Kansas. Alarmed, not because the enemy are upon us. It is because we are in a Department that cannot receive communications from St. Louis, and cannot be safely commanded by any one man. No man has a greater admiration for Gen. Fremont than I have, but his own letters show that the Department is beyond the control of our General. It is for you to act. If you will act, I will follow it up. Of nothing you can be assured, and that is that I will ceaselessly labor for your welfare and for the defence and protection of Kansas."
’ [A person who has not Acard Lane speak, cannot form an opinion of his style by reading his reported speeches. About one half of his harangue is made up in gymnastics. He strokes his pions breast with meek humility, and calls to Heaven to witness the truth of his assertions. Then he wildly tears his hair, madly flings his arms into the air distorts his countenance, and spasmodically out his sarcasm on the devoted head of some one he dislikes. Now he winks one eye at his audience, and now he winks both. At one time he stands perfectly erect, and almost whisper his words, at another makes a terrific dive at the people, and yells like an Indian. He assumes more shapes, makes a greater variety of gestures, and has more tones to his voice than any other orator in America.]
Maj. Prince appeared in a card in one of the daily papers, and denounced General Lane as a malicious liar. What effect this had on Lane we are unable to state. Governor Robinson comes out in a two column card in the Daily Times, and reviews Gen. Lane's speech. He characterizes Lane as a liar, thief, and murderer. We quote from it to show what a pretty quarrel these public functionaries have got into:
"When General Lane says that my visit to Leavenworth, on Sunday last, was for the purpose of breaking up his brigade, and making Capt Prince Major General, he, as usual, states what there is not a word of truth in and if Governor Reynolds says so, he simply lies, and no one knows it better than himself. It is well known that my business to Leavenworth related to the protection of Kansas, and was made in consequence of a message from Generals Fremont and Prentiss. It is true that, while at the fort, a dispatch was read from Colonel Judson, of Fort Scott, to the effect that from reports of his spies he feared that Southern Kansas would soon be invaded, for the purpose of retaliation for the thieving, robbing, and burning that had been done by men from Kansas, and it is also true that I took occasion, as I do at all times when appropriate, to denounce theft, robbery, and arson in unmeasured terms I also criticised somewhat freely a Government that would tolerate such proceedings as were reported to be practiced by the army under Gen. Lane--such as laying waste the whole country through which they pass, whet her settled by Union men or Secessionists, sacking Fort Scott, burning towns, stealing horses, mules, and beef cattle, and selling them to the Quartermaster of the army, &c., &c. If denouncing such conduct, or the men who permit it, is treason, then I shall always be a traitor. Severe, however, as my denunciations have been, they have not equalled those of Hon. M. J. Parrott, Lane's Adjutant, who denounced, in my presence, Gen. Lane and his force as highway robbers deserving of death, and urged me to prefer charges against them to Gen. Fremont, that they might be put down. I, however, respectfully declined to interfere with what was his business, and the business of those connected with the army.
If one half the reports are true relative to his proceedings, the Government has rendered itself liable for more property since Lane took the field "to play General all over and pretty big, betting high on small cards," than all the other expenses of the war would amount to. All this he has been able to accomplish in his private capacity, for he says he is not General, but is simply, as Mr. Parrott said, an irresponsible freebooter. What could he not do as Major-General of a division? But he says "he knows President Lincoln, and he knows Old Abe will say, well done thou good and faithful servant." There is too much reason to fear that this is correct. A President who will permit such proceedings, is presumed to instigate them, and it is but in accordance with the old rule, that he who has been a successful thief without a commission should be promoted and made thief on a larger scale and more prominent basis. As I have no means of reaching President Lincoln directly, as I am told he believes nothing from Kansas unless it is first endorsed by General Lane, I will say for the benefit of the people of the nation that the men who have property to be stolen, and the men of character and integrity who desire a Government of law, and not of highwaymen, would gladly exchange some of the instruments and appointees of President Lincoln for those of ex-Presidents Pierce or Buchanan. There never has been a time in Kansas when robbery, theft; and murder, running as since the big General playing of Lane with "small cards." Until Lane took the field, property was respected in all counties except a few immediately on the border; but now it is unsafe every where. The thieves are protected in, and are part and parcel of, the Lane army, and nearly all the appomtees of the President say amen. People will endure this state of things but little longer, and if the President persists in this proceeding, civil war will inevitable result in Kansas, not between Unionists and Secessionists, but between thieves and their victims; but I have done with this matter, so as the public press is concerned. I intend to pursue the course of law, and protect the people to the extent of my power, and leave the responsibility of anarchy, theft, robbery, and murder where it belongs. It may be thought that I have not treated this subject with the dignity becoming my position, but how such a tirade as Lane's speech purports to be can be spoken of with dignity, is more than I can comprehend. I know of no better way than to call a man who steals, robs, and murders, a thief, robber, and murderer, and take the responsibility. The worst that can happen at the hands of such men, to a person who stands by law and justice, is assassination, and that is preferable to an alliance with such crimes as are perpetrated on our border with the pretended sanction of the President.
The Republican calls on Lincoln to "examine into the charges thus boldly made by Gov. Robinson, and dismiss the recreant from the place which he usurps."
