Sam Brownback: “Last month in Kansas, I was able to be present for the commemoration of an important, but little known, event in…”

“Last month in Kansas, I was able to be present for the commemoration of an important, but little known, event in American history. 150 years ago, May 19, 1858, a little defile in Kansas near Mine Creek was the site of one of the incidents that led up to the Civil War; the massacre of free State settlers by proslavery men. The Marais des Cygnes Massacre is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas before the final cataclysm of civil war engulfed the Nation. On May 19, 1858, 30 men led by Charles Hamilton, a southern proslavery leader, crossed into Kansas from Missouri. Once there, they captured 11 free State men, none of whom was armed and none of whom had engaged in violence. Many of them knew Hamilton and didn't suspect he meant to harm them. These prisoners were led into a defile, where Hamilton ordered them shot and fired the first bullet himself. Five men were killed. Hamilton's gang went back to Missouri, and only one man was ever brought to justice. William Griffith of Bates County, MO, was arrested in the spring of 1863 and hanged on October 30 of that year. The incident horrified the Nation, and inspired John Greenleaf Whittier to write a poem on the murder, 'Le Marais du Cygnes,' which appeared in the September 1858 Atlantic Monthly. The incident and the poem strengthened the resolve of the antislavery cause around the Nation.”