The Missouri Democrat was what was known as the "Tom Ben ton" paper of Missouri, and was not ostensibly a Free-soil paper, yet it vehemently inveighed against the ruffianism with which free State men had been treated. Of course there was sympathy in the office of the Missouri Democrat, that made some amends for the rough treatment I had got at the hands of citizens of Missouri.
Having completed my business in St. Louis I turned my face toward my old field of labor in the "Military Tract," via the Illinois River. The reader will believe that my reflections were full of anxieties. What would the brethren say of me? Were my prospects blighted from this time forward?
CHAPTER IX.
The brethren in Illinois were at the first amazed at what they heard, and did not know what to think or say. Before they could make up their minds, the following editorial appeared in the Schuyler County Democrat, published at Rushville:
ELDER PARDEE BUTLER,
The gentleman who was placed on a raft in the Missouri River, with a proper uniform for a Northern fanatic, is in Rushville. We saw handbills posted around town stating that he would hold a meeting in the Christian Church. We are informed he will deliver a series of lectures, in which, of course, he will give vent to his indignation toward the people of Kansas, Judge Douglas and the Administration. We thought Schuyler county was the last place which a Northern fanatic would visit for sympathy. We hope that those that go to hear his lectures, which differ with him in their sentiments, will not interrupt him or give him any pretext by which he could denounce our citizens.
To the above notice of myself I made the following reply:
[For the Prairie Telegraph.]
MESSRS. EDITORS: Sirs—I find the above notice of myself in the last issue of the Schuyler Democrat.