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MASS
CONVENTION
At Old Deerfield!!
SEPTEMBER 18, 1856
.

The People of Old Deerfield to their Brothers of the Val-
ley of the Connecticut, send their Greeting.

BROTHERS: The footsteps of blood are
upon our soil. The infernal war, whose distant echoes have long muttered horrid forebodings, has
seized as a victim one of our sons. DAVID STARR HOYT, our brave and honored
townsman, has been treacherously murdered on the plains of Kansas, by lurking enemies more sav-
age, cruel and merciless that those whose terrible “war-whoop woke the sleep of our mothers’ cra-
dles, and who lighted up the darkness of midnight with the blaze of our fathers’ dwellings.” We in-
vite you to come and aid us in honoring his obsequies. We call you to no ceremonial of mourning:
but to a festival of retribution. Come to us, that we may nerve one another’s hearts and hands for
the struggle, which is to sweep away with the stern besom of an outraged people the legions of mis-
rule and oppression. The hills already rock, the valleys heave with premonitions of the storm which
is gathering to burst in thunder upon the heads of traitorous counsellors and perjured rulers. When
it bursts, our brother, all our brethren slaughtered in that nefarious war, are avenged, and that shall
be the triumphant funeral anthem.

Hon. Henry Wilson,
HON. N. P. BANKS,
HON. ANSON BURLINGAME,

Henry Ward Beecher, Geo. W. Curtis, S.W. Webb, Eratus
Hopkins, Mark Trafton, E.W. Hoar, C.C. Chaffee,

and others, whom true men honor, who in counsel and eloquent in speech, have been invited to be here

Come then, and be welcomed to our gathering.

PER ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGMENTS,

HORATIO HAWKS, Chairman.

Deerfield, Sept. 10, 1856.

Gazette & Courier Job Office, No. 2 Bank Row, Greenfield, Mass.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.



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This proclamation of a convention to be held in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1856, is in reaction to the bloodshed in Kansas; particularly the death of David Starr Hoyt. The fighting in Kansas territory between pro- and anti-slavery settlers and others in the mid-1850s foreshadowed the Civil War that started in 1861. On May 21, 1856, a group of pro-slavery men from Missouri raided the town of Lawrence, Kansas, burning and destroying buildings owned by anti-slavery advocates. This attack spurred John Brown and his sons to attack pro-slavery men in Pottawatomie Creek. A series of guerilla warfare attacks along the Missouri-Kansas border led to the term "bleeding Kansas." Federal troops finally had to intervene to stop the bloodshed and lawlessness. This convention in Deerfield was in support of the anti-slavery movement.

 

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"Mass Convention at Old Deerfield"

printer   Greenfield Gazette and Courier
creator   Horatio Hawks (1819-1865)
date   Sep 10, 1856
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
height   19.0"
width   12.75"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Public Announcements/Broadside
accession #   #L04.097


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