Daily Times [Leavenworth, Ks],
September 21, 1861
For months the Conservative has been the accredited organ of a system of pillage and plunder known and recognized among bandits as the highest state of civilization. Not content with occupying a superficially equivocal position between law and lawlessness it openly sets all laws and authorities at defiance in yesterday’s issue in the following language:
“Jayhawking was got up in Kansas. It’s one of our things. It works well; we believe in it, we are going to have it. It don’t make any difference whether the authorities, civil or military, believe in it or not. Kansas don’t care much for authorities; never did, never will.”
This is anarchy, riot, a reign of terror glazed over with the specious plea of loyalty to the Union; just as if a man could be loyal to the Union without being loyal to the laws and constituted authorities. Loyalty to the union implies loyalty to the government. There can be no loyalty to the government without respect and obedience to its laws and constituted authorities. Whoever sets at nought one or the other, or both, no matter on which side he proclaims himself to be, is an enemy of the Union and the government, equally with Jeff. Davis and his co-conspirators. There may be sedition among pretended Union men–this war is waged against all sedition, including Jayhawking–and there never can be peace, there never will be order, until rebellion and jayhawking are put down.
By what authority is Jayhawking carried on? Does the Government authorize it? No. Then they authorize themselves–they are a law unto themselves. If Cleveland may Jayhawk and be tolerated, Joe Tuttle or any other desperado or marauder may do the same. If one band may Jayhawk to-day, two bands may do likewise to-morrow, and so on ad infinitum. This is the naked logic of the principle. Jayhawking strikes at the very root of, and destroys American government, to wit: — the law-abiding spirit of our people. It professes to draw the sword for the Union, but acting without authority–without responsibility, it sets at defiance the laws of the Union. What use is there in drawing the sword for the Government, if by that self-same sword the laws of the Government are to be overturned? If this thing is to go on–if society is to be totally disorganized, let every man begin now, take for himself, Jayhawk in the name of the Union, the Constitution and the laws, and the utter destruction of every principle of good government, however wise and beneficent, and the security of all property or rights will be speedy and final.
The course of the Conservative is fanatical, reckless, lawless and whatever else tends to anarchy and confusion, to the overthrowing of well ordered society and wise and wholesome laws. It has not only the heart of mischief, but the audacity to flout its crimes boastingly and defiantly before our eyes. The Jayhawkers rob with an understanding that they have a journal to applaud their felonies. Its Jayhawking doctrines are infamous, uncivilized, unchristian and anti-American, and coming as they do from a public journal, are calculated to do great harm, and should be frowned down by every true patriot.