It was the fixed purpose of Secretary Woodson to keep Gov.  Geary in ignorance of the extensive preparations that were being made to attack and destroy the Free State settlements.  As yet the Governor had not seen Woodson’s proclamation.  Governor Geary issued the follow-orders: 

ADJT.  GEN.  H. J. STRICKLER:—­You will proceed without a moment’s delay to disarm and disband the present organized militia of the Territory.

Notwithstanding the positive character of these orders they were utterly disregarded.  Suspecting that treachery was somewhere at work he forthwith dispatched confidential messengers on the road to Westport to ascertain, if possible, what operations were going forward in that vicinity.

Messengers were constantly arriving from Lawrence bringing intelligence that a large army from Missouri was encamped on the Wakarusa River and was hourly expected to attack the town.  As these men were styled Territorial Militia and were called into service by the late acting Governor Woodson, Gov.  Geary commanded that officer to take with him Adjutant-General Strickler with an escort of United States troops and disband, in accordance with the proclamation issued, the forces that had so unwisely been assembled.  Woodson and Strickler left Lecompton in the afternoon, and reached the Missouri camp early in the evening.

Here Woodson found it impossible to accomplish the object of his mission.  No attention or respect was paid to him by those having command of the forces.  The army he had gathered refused to acknowledge his authority.  He had raised a storm, the elements of which he was powerless to control; neither could the officers be assembled to receive the Governor’s orders from the Adjutant-General.  The militia had resolved not to disband, the officers refused to listen to the reading of the proclamation—­they were determined upon accomplishing the bloody work they had entered the Territory to perform.  Nothing but the destruction of Lawrence and the other Free State towns, the massacre of the Free State residents, and the appropriation of their lands and other property, could satisfy them.

Mr. Adams, who accompanied Secretary Woodson to the
Missouri camp, dispatched the following: 

LAWRENCE, 12 o’clock Midnight, Sept. 14, 1856.  To His
EXCELLENCY, GOV.  GEARY: 

SIR:—­Secretary Woodson thought you had better come to the camp of the militia as soon as you can.  THEODORE ADAMS.

Before this dispatch reached Lecompton the Governor had departed with three hundred United States mounted troops and a battery of light artillery, and arrived in Lawrence early in the morning, where he found matters precisely as described.  Skillfully stationing his troops outside the town, in commanding positions, to prevent a collision between the invading forces from Missouri and the citizens, he entered Lawrence alone, and there he beheld a sight which would have aroused the manhood of the most stolid mortal.  About three hundred persons Were found in arms, determined to sell their lives at the dearest price to their ruffian enemies.  Among these were many women, and children of both sexes, armed with guns and otherwise accoutered for battle.  They had been goaded to this by the courage of despair.