But he showed himself a brave man; and came back resolutely to the battle.
He said: "_I am your Governor!_ You must admit that I have at least a _legal_ right to control my allies, so far as to give you a fair election; and I pledge you my word and honor that I will do it.

Now try me! and see if I do not keep my word!" The Free State men began to falter and to ask each other, "Is it not best to try the Governor, and see if he will be as good as his word ?" And from this time forward there began to appear a division in the Free State ranks; which sometimes grew to be bitter and acrimonious.
This division had indeed begun to appear one year before, when on the Fourth of July Col.

Sumner had dispersed the Free State Legislature at Topeka.Gov.Robinson was at that time a prisoner, and was, therefore, not present; but he said in his next annual message as Free State Governor: When your bodies met, pursuant to adjournment, in July last, your assembly was interfered with and broken up by a large force of United States troops in battle array, who drove you hence, in gross violation of those constitutional rights _which it was your duty to have protected_.
Wm.

A.Phillips, correspondent of the _New York Tribune,_ and afterwards a member of Congress, was a man terribly in earnest, and he did, on the above-named Fourth of July, in a speech, take the position that we ought to fight for our rights and defy Col.

Sumner and his dragoons.