The following news item appeared in the Abbeville [S.C.] Banner, 27 Mar 1856, p. 2, c. 3:

KANSAS MEETING

At a meeting of the two Committees, which were appointed last Sale Day [the first Monday in eahc month], held at the Court House the 22d of the month, it was determined that all suitable persons who should enrol [sic] their names as emigrants to Kansas, will be accepted, and shall receive an outfit of two hundred dollars; that Thursday, the 10th day of April, be the time of their departure form Abbeville Court House; and that those who accept the outfit will be required to remain in Kansas until a Constitution shall be adopted by the people of the Territory in due form of law. It was further resolved that a meeting be called on next Sale Day, at the Court House, and that the meeting be addressed by Hon. A. Burt, Col. Marshall, and Gen. McGowan.

The Committee are happy to announce to their fellow-citizens, that eleven true and gallant men -- Dr. J. M. Pelot, J. H. Connor, G. W. Connor, E. A. Hodges, P. M. Connor, W. A. Graydon, J. T. McNeill, William Appleton, William McGill, Alexander McNeill, and Andrew N. Darricott -- have enrolled their names as emigrants, and that handsome contributions of money have been made. The Committee are encouraged by their present success, to hope that twenty-five or thirty men will be enrolled, and ample funds to equip them obtained, by the day appointed for their departure.

The emigrants to Kansas will go out as a mere colony, without military organization or equipment. They will carry only the implements that are sueful in the private and peaceful pursuits of life. It is not expected that they will be called on to engage in any militayr expedition or enterprise, but if it become necessary to defend the Constitution of the country, or the cause of the South, by the might that is in a freeman's arm, they weill be expected, every man of them, to do their duty. These who have enrolled their names are young men of high respectability, some of them of education, all of them fit associates and companions for our most worthy citizens.

The soil of Kansas is of teeming fertility -- the climate one of the finest on earth. It is a tempting enterprise to those who seek fortune -- it is a glorious field fopr those who seek fame. The cause appeals to the courage and enterprise, to the pride and patriotism, of Southern men -- to ithe sympathies of all good men. The destiny of Kansas is the destiny fo the whole South. Her triumph will be our triumph -- her humiliation will be our humiliation. Her cause is the cause of the Constitution, of the Union, of the public peace, and of constitutional liberty. Brave men and true men will ruch from every county and village in the South to the rescue of Kansas. Shall South Carolina and Abbeville be a laggard in such a contest? Then, let the meeting next Sale Day be one of those immense gatherings of the people -- one of those noble demonstrations of patriotic enthusiasm which have given to Abbeville so much character, and to the State so much renown.

ARMISTEAD BURT

Chariman, Joint Committee

Armistead Burt, born in neitghboring Edgefield District, was a leading Abbeville lawyer and a large planter; he was also the Senator from Abbeville in the S. C. Senate; he had been in national politics and was a friend of Jefferson Davis. When Davis passed through Abbeville in early May, 1865 en route to Georgia, he stayed at the home of Burt, and the Abbeville people claim that the last cabinet meeting of the Cofnederate government was held in Burt's home. Other cities make a similar claim, but Abbeville probably has a good a claim as any other town.

Col. Marshall was J. Foster Marshall, a prominent planter and lawyer; at this time he was a colonel in the State militia, but he helped raise and became eventual colonel oif the 1 S.C. Rifles (Orr's), and was killed at 2 Manassas; he is buried in the Episcopal Cemetery in Abbeville.

Gen. McGowan, again a militia rank, was Samuel McGowan, who became a Confederate Brigadier and served for a time as a justice of the S. C. Supreme Court during the 1880's.