Annals of Platte County, Missouri - Paxton
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1855, APRIL. 199 RESULTS and new ones appointed: the polls have in some instances been guarded with pistols and bowie-knives: and some of those elected are going to the governor. swearing that if he does not give them certificates of election immediately, they will cut his throat from ear to ear. Is the flag of our country to be no longer progrected; or are individuals or companies to declare we will, and it must be so. without regard to law? Is this what the authors of the Nebraska- Kansas bill meant by squatter sovereignty? That such sentiments should be published in Platte County, under the very shadow of the Kansas League, was more than could be endured. According, at the next meeting a committee of the whole was appointed to meet at Parkville April 14, 1855. to cast the press and type of the Luminary into the Missouri River. to read a. sentence of banishiment to Park and Patterson, and to threaten death in ease of their return to the county. But the culprits got wind of what was coming, and stored away in the garret a large amount of type, which was not discovered, and afterwards taken to Kansas and used for Free-soil purposes. On the 14th of April the Kansas Leag,-uers appeared on the streets of Parkville. lheir hearts were fired by flaming speeches. The press was borne of many. A banner was hoisted aloft. and. amid songs and acclamations, the press and material were on- signed to the yellow waters of the turbid Missouri. Park was absent, and Patterson had to tread the wine-press alone. The decree was short: Leave the State in three days. and never return, or be hung. Park was allowed three weeks to settle up his business affairs and to leave. A public meeting was held that indorsed the proceedings, threatened with death Southern Methodist preachers, and ex- pressed the intention of dealing in like manner with other Free- soilers "not far off." These proceedings met the approbation of the Pro-slavery party at Liberty and elsewhere. RESULTS. 1. Kansas became a free State. This outrage brought a myriad anti-slavery voters to Kansas. 2. The leaders in this outrage were sued by Park. and had to pay all damages: $2,500. 3. W. J. Patterson went to Montreal, Canada, became a wealthy merchant, and died honored and revered. 4. George S. Park gathered his scattered means. and invested them in Illinois lands, became a large capitalist. and. after the war. returned to his old home, to bless and enrieh the verv men who had conspired for his ruin. He, from the wealth thrust upon him by his enemies, founded Park Collegem, the grandest and noblest educational enterprise of the West. His dust now reposes at the very spot whence he was banished in life, and a colossal marble monument to his honor overlooks the place where his press