“I'll give you two minutes to surrender,” thundered the marshal, drawing his pistol. “I heard the click of rifles about me,” Walker related, “as I covered Clarke with my revolver. There was a silence like death. Nobody said a word. Major Williams held his watch to count the time. I saw nothing except the border ruffian before me. I was told that pro-slavery rifles were pointed at me while my escort aimed at Clarke. It was a mighty solemn state of affairs. The two minutes, I think, must have almost expired when Clarke, white as a sheet, handed me his carbine.” Walker afterwards arrested Montgomery himself, but, later, all the prisoners managed to escape, and he returned to Lecompton empty-handed.

Finally, Governor James Denver, accompanied by Charles Robinson, made a tour through southeast Kansas in an attempt to solve the difficulties. They visited different points and were kindly received. On June 14^th, the trip reached a sort of climax at Fort Scott, where there was a large mass-meeting with numerous speeches. Governor Denver made a conciliatory address. “I shall treat actual settlers,” he said, “without regard to former differences. I do not propose to dig up or review the past. Both parties, I believe, have done wrong and are worthy of censure, but I shall let all that go. My mission is to secure peace for the future.” The governor suggested the election of new county officers, the patrolling of the border by federal troops, delay in the execution of old writs until they should pass the ordeal of competent judicial tribunals, and the dispersion of all guerrilla bands. These measures received general approval, and introduced a few weeks of comparative peace.

Shortly after Governor Denver's peace-making tour, John Brown, absent for some months, reappeared in Kansas. Treachery on the part of a confidant led to postponement of the contemplated Virginia campaign, and his return was a feint to throw the public off the scent. During his absence in the East, Brown was able, with the assistance of friends, to put his family, which remained at North Elba, New York, on a more comfortable footing than had been their fortune.

John Brown's final visit to Kansas lasted about six months. That interval he spent mainly in the southeast part of the state. On his way there, he stopped in Lawrence and had a talk with Charles Robinson. “You have succeeded,” he said, “in what you undertook. You aimed to make of Kansas a free state, and your plans were skillfully laid for that purpose. But I had another object in view. I meant to strike a blow at slavery."

In southeast Kansas, Brown made but one excursion across the Missouri line in December, which resulted in the destruction of considerable property, the liberation of eleven slaves, and the death of a slave-owner. The raid caused great excitement, especially in Missouri, and resulted in legislative action, which brought the territorial Jayhawking era substantially to a close. During the autumn, Governor Stewart, of Missouri, opened correspondence with Governor Denver and with President Buchanan in regard to the troubles. He informed Denver that it might be “necessary to station an armed force along the border in Missouri, for purposes of protection.” Governor Denver promised to leave nothing undone to suppress the outrages, but hoped that it might not be necessary for Missouri to put an armed force into the field. On August 9^th, Governor Stewart wrote President Buchanan that he had ordered a body of militia into Cass and Bates counties, because they “have been subjected to the repeated depredations of one or more marauding parties from the territory of Kansas, in consequence of which there is no security for either life or property. Citizens of Missouri have been driven from their homes, their property taken or destroyed, and their farms laid waste; and without the protection of an armed force our citizens have not dared to return to their homes to reside.”

These measures allayed the disorders, and there was no further serious trouble until Brown's raid. January 6th, 1859, Governor Stewart sent a message to the Missouri Legislature, asking that steps be taken for redressing the outrage. He also transmitted memorials from thirty-five citizens of Bates and Vernon counties to the effect that there is “a regularly organized band of thieves, robbers, and midnight assassins upon the western border of our county,” begging him “to take into consideration the accompanying affidavits of citizens who have been robbed and outraged at their homes by a band of lawless men from the Territory of Kansas, supposed to be headed by the notorious Brown and Montgomery; and also the terrible situation of the family of the late and lamented David Cruise, who has been foully murdered in the bosom of his family by these desperadoes.”

A bill was introduced into the State Senate authorizing the employment of a military force to patrol the border, but referred to the committee on federal relations, who made a singularly dispassionate and sensible report covering the whole subject of border difficulties. End the end, the committee did not recommend the use of a military force to disperse the outlaws that had congregated in the southern portion of the Territory of Kansas for two years. Instead, they advised that rewards should be offered for the arrest of Jayhawking leaders, and that circuit judges should hold special terms in the disturbed districts at which grievances might be investigated and redressed. These rational suggestions, smoking with far less passion than might have been anticipated, were adopted by the legislature. Governor Stewart put a price of three thousand dollars on John Brown's head, but to no purpose.

During the summer of 1859 better days fairly began in the lawless, turbulent, freebooting area. It could not be expected that long-established guerrilla habits would instantly lose their charm and power. In spite of all repressive influences-- federal, territorial, Missourian -- their decline was gradual.