I said, "It is several miles to the river; how are they going ?" Said he, "They are toting their things out on their heads." Said I, "Go right at once there and offer them the wagons on the plantation to haul the things.

What is the matter ?" Said he, "I don't know; I went out this morning and summoned the hands to the field, but they say they are all going to Kansas." I got on my horse and rode out and met a negro who had been my engineer.

I said to him, "What is the matter, where are you all going ?" He stopped right on the road and said, "Mr.
Calhoun, you never have deceived me, and I am going to tell you what is the matter.

There were two men came through here last week, one night, and said 'You see this picture ?' There is a picture of a farm in Kansas for me that General Grant has bought out there for me.

That is so because my name is on the back of it, and here is my ticket; that carries me to Kansas." Said I, "Let me see it." He showed me a piece of pasteboard that had printed on it "Good for one trip to Kansas." Said I, "What did you pay him for this ?" He said, "We paid him $2 a piece." "How many of you are in this thing ?" "Over eighty of us are in this thing." Said I, "That man then swindled you out of $160; he is an imposter; there is no farm bought for you in Kansas." I saw that the time for me to remonstrate with them was not then; they were on their way to the Mississippi River, and I let them all go.
After they got out there I went and expostulated with them; told them of the difference in climate, soil, and everything else that they were accustomed to, and that if they went there many of them would lose their families and children.
They would not listen to me.