Editing Sacking of Lawrence (section)

==Background==

[[Lawrence, Kansas|Lawrence]] was founded in 1854 by antislavery settlers from Massachusetts, many of whom received financial support from the [[New England Emigrant Aid Company]]. The town was the ''de facto'' headquarters of Free-State Kansas, which led to its becoming the epicenter of violence in [[Kansas Territory|the territory]]. The many pro-slavery settlers in eastern Kansas loathed the Free-State residents of the town (and vice versa). While the village had nearly been raided during the so-called [[Wakarusa War]] in December 1855, it was not directly attacked at that time.<ref name=ball/><ref name=jbink/>

Abolitionists and Free-Staters at the time saw the sack as a reply to the non-fatal shooting on April 23, 1856, of [[Douglas County, Kansas|Douglas County]] Sheriff [[Samuel J. Jones]], who was in Lawrence attempting to arrest Free-State settlers under the premise of events during the Wakarusa War.<ref name=ball>{{cite book|author=Durwood Ball|title=Army Regulars on the Western Frontier, 1848{{en dash}}1861|location=[[Norman, Oklahoma]]|publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]]|year=2001|page=174}}</ref><ref name=jbink>{{cite book|last1=Connelley|first1=William Elsey|title=John Brown in Kansas|publisher=Crane and Company|location=[[Topeka, Kansas|Topeka, KS]]|page=53|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ry5MDwAAQBAJ&q=a+free+state+man+named+charles+lenhart&pg=PA53|access-date=May 23, 2018|date=2018|orig-year=1900|isbn=9781387365135}}</ref> Lawrence residents drove Jones out of town after they shot him. On May 11, Federal Marshal Israel B. Donalson proclaimed that the "assassination attempt" had interfered with the execution of warrants against the extralegal [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-State]] legislature, which was set up in opposition to the official pro-slavery or "bogus" territorial government.<ref name=ball/> 
{{blockquote|text={{center|PROCLAMATION<br>{{smallcaps|To The People of Kansas Territory}}}}{{smallcaps|Whereas}}, Certain judicial arrests have been directed to me by the First District Court of the United States, etc., to be executed within the county of Douglas, and whereas an attempt to execute them by the United States Deputy Marshal was evidently resisted by a large number of the people of Lawrence, and as there is every reason to believe that any attempt to execute these writs will be resisted by a large body of armed men; now, therefore, the law-abiding citizens of the Territory are commanded to be and appear at Lecompton, as soon as practicable, and in numbers sufficient for the execution of the law.<br>Given under my hand this 11th day of May, 1856<br>I. B. Donalson,<br>United States Marshal of the Territory of Kansas<br>P. S.—No liability for expenses will be incurred by the United States until its consent is obtained.<ref name="standard">{{cite book |title=A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans |volume=1 |page=545 |last=Connelley |first=William E. |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |date=1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/standardhistoryo01conn |oclc=7306841812}}</ref>}}
Donalson's proclamation and the [[wikt:presentment|presentment]] by the first district of Kansas's grand jury that "the building known as the [[The Eldridge Hotel|'Free State' Hotel']] {{sic}} in Lawrence had been constructed with a view to military occupation and defense, regularly parapeted and portholed, for the use of cannon and small arms, thereby endangering the public safety, and encouraging rebellion and sedition in this country" enabled Sheriff Jones and Marshal Donalson assembling an army of roughly 800 [[Southern United States|Southern]] settlers. This group planned to enter Lawrence, disarm the citizens, destroy the antislavery newspapers, and level the Free State Hotel.<ref>{{cite book|author=Durwood Ball|title=Army Regulars on the Western Frontier, 1848{{en dash}}1861|location=[[Norman, Oklahoma]]|publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]]|year=2001|page=175}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Monaghan, Jay|title=Civil War on the Western Border, 1854{{en dash}}1865|location=[[Lincoln, Nebraska]]|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|year=1984|page=57}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.kshs.org/p/the-university-of-kansas-and-the-sack-of-lawrence/13191|title=The University of Kansas and the Sack of Lawrence: A Problem of Intellectual Honesty|date=1968|volume=34|issue=4|pages=409{{en dash}}26|author=Griffin, C. S.|journal=Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains}}</ref>