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The Sharps Rifle Episode in Kansas History 553 called by special invitation to see if we could raise funds for more Mills; still considering the exigencies of the case we ventured to lend a help- ing hand to help forward the movement, although by so doing we pushed out for the time being, as we apprehended would be the case, our legiti- mate business. I eventually arranged, with the aid of Dr. Cabot, so as to take the risk of ordering, in all one hundred machines, at a cost of about three thousand dollars, taking our chances hereafter to raise the money. I shall obligate myself to the subscribers to return these in due time or a satisfactory equivalent therefore, should they on trial be approved and meet with purchasers. You will therefore govern yourself accordingly and deliver them to none but trustworthy in- dividuals. . . . I am free to say, had your letter [a letter received after the arrival of Deitzler, describing some of the factious conditions in Lawrence] arrived forty-eight hours earlier, myself and others would have been little, if at all disposed to exert ourselves, as we have done, at so much expense of time and money, to procure machines for the improvement of Lawrence. Rather we should have seconded the suggestion of one of our most influential coadjutors, which was to advise you and other friends to quit L., abandon it to its impending fate, and seek a location at another spot, where more harmony and good will would be likely to prevail. . . . We shall await with much interest further intelligence from you in relation to the matters herein referred to. Please telegraph us the result of the election at the earliest, moment, and write us the details before the intelligence becomes stale. Hoping that all will yet come out right, I remain. Yours truly, Thom,s H. Webb. This first shipment of rifles soon reached Kansas. K corre- spondent for the Milwaukee Sentinel^ writing from Lawrence, May 23, states that intense excitement was produced in the minds of pro-slavery people by the arrival " of five boxes of books, which, on being opened, proved to be, instead of books, one hundred of Sharps rifles ". Threats and imprecations were loud and long. The Emigrant Aid Company was denounced as trying to overawe Western men. Even James H. Lane, who had but recently come to Kansas and was still in sympathy with the pro-slavery element, urged sending the rifles back to Massachusetts.- They never went back. The very name " Sharps rifle " was to become a term to sober the border ruffian and give him serious pause. This breech-loading rifle was a new invention and extremely effective :^ in comparison, the Missourian was poorly armed, carrying either a squirrel-rifle, a heavy buffalo-gun, or a clumsy army musket. This difference in 'Charles Robinson, The Kansas Conflict (Lawrence, Kansas, 1898). p. 128. 'Ne-ci' York Tribune, June 15, 1855, P- 6- ^ The Sharps rifle " is one of the very oldest successful guns of the breech- loading class, and the first in which a vertically sliding breech-block was em- ployed." E. H. Knight, American Mechanical Dictionary, s. v. Rifle.