Barnett's Southern blood was all on fire.

Who were these men that had come to Atchison county to ride rough-shod over him in his own house?
He sent a message equally defiant back to them, that if they did come he and his neighbors would shoot them.

But there was one man in the county that needed to have no nervousness as touching his reputation for personal bravery.

That man was Caleb May; and he interposed and said: "Let us wait patiently for more peaceful times.

The Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." But this adjourned without date our meetings.
One incident must illustrate the strained and peculiar condition of affairs in Atchison county.