Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
One wonders how zealous Col. Sumner was in suppressing the “free state” militias. Or was he just going through the motions.
Such is the stuff of a Civil War; the people who would normally be responsible for maintaining authority and order are in fact partisan themselves, and cannot or will not do so in an impartial manner. While I would be sympathetic if Col. Sumner turned a blind eye to the free staters, on the other hand, it’s part of the cycle of descent into civil war.
The government itself is splitting along fault lines that divide the country. A pro-slavery acting governor and an army officer perceived as “true governor” cannot bode well for a stable solution.