The following letter, which discusses in more detail the proposed Carolina settlement of the Big Blue, appeared in the Charleston [S.C.] Daily Courier, 21 June 1856, p. 2, c. 3:
"We have been politely favored with the subjoined extract from a letter dated Atchison, K. T., June 4:
'We have formed a company of about 50 Carolinians for the purpose of making a settlement in Marshall county, on the Big Blue River. We intend laying off a town at Independence Ferry, and we have the land around divided off into lots of 350 acres each, and numbered according to the number composing the company. They will then be drawn for, and each man [will] eimprove his claim as he sees fit; the name of our town is to be Palmetto City, and we intend that it shall be entirely a Carolina settlement. Gen. Atchison has offered to lend us all the spare teams he has, and to go our security for as many more as we may want for farming purposes. I understand that a movement is on foot in Platte county, Mo., for raising a subscription of provisions, &c., for our support until we can get started in our new home. The location is one of the finest in the territory, and affords every facility for a prosperous settlement. We have also another reason for settling there. and that is, in the same county, and about ten miles from us, on the Black Vermillion River, is a settlement of Free Soilers, and it is to counteract their influence that we wish to settle there. We have been quite unfortunate since our arrival here. Several of us went into a speculation on the supposition that the Mormon emigrants would make this their starting point for Salt Lake, as they ahd always done heretofore; but their head men have carried all the emigrants up to Florence, Nebraska, and intend making that the starting point this year, and by so doing have knocked all our calculations in the head, and caused us to lose nearly all we brought with us.
The men sent out here by the committee I do not think are the right sort, for most of them have been clerks, and not accustomed to the work required of them here. There are very few of those sent from Charleston who are doing anything at all towards a support. Many have not the first dollar in their pockets, and how they intend summering it our I cannot see.
We have already, as you will see by the papers, been called ot Lawrence, to straighten the higher-law or abolition party; were disappointed to find, on our appraoch, that the cowardly rascals had fled from the town, leaving to our tender mercies the women and children. I consider it useless to give you an acocunt of the affair, for the correspondent of the Courier told me that he had written a full description of it. On that day I captured Gov. Reeder's private papers, but turned them over to Gen. Stringfellow for examination. Col. Abel, a partner of Gen. S., told me that one letter, he though, would convict Reeder of treason. Some of the men found pistols and rifles hid between the beds and in barrels, which they took possession of.
Since the taking of Lawrence, the abolitionists have been committing depredations upon the pro-slavery people of the territory, killing the men, burning the houses, and driving off the stock. We are forming parties throughout the territory, which, if they ever once take the field, will either drive off or hang every abolitionist that can be found.
Our people are becoming enraged at the cruelties and murders committed within the last two weeks, and if a stop is not put to this shortly we will take the matter into our own hands, and civil war must follow; and, if it is left to the people of the territory to decide, the result is evident -- the abolitionists will be driven from the country; not one will be allowed to remain.
On one occasion, two of our men were attacked by five abolitionists, and our people succeeded in killing one and wounding another of the free-soilers and making good their escape with only one of them receiving a flesh wound. [Here, without starting a new paragraph, the editor or contributor skips back to discussing the incident at Lawrence.] Had they not been such cowards they could, with half the force they had at their command, have given us a tremendous fight, or perhaps have defeated us, for we had no artillery that could have been used with any effect. Notwithstanding all the disadvantages we labored under, there was not a man who was not willing to rush upon the town and take it by storm; and, up to the time of the surrender, every one anticipated a fight, and I think was disappointed in not getting into one.
I had forgotten to mention the expense of travelling between here and Charleston. It will cost $20 for rail fare and omnibus hire between Charleston and Nashville; about $4 for meals; from ten to twelve dollard, depending on the boat you take, from Nashville to St. Louis, and 50 cnets of rporterage; between St. Louis and Atchison it will cost $15.50 -- making in all about $50 or $52. It cost this on Georgia Rail Road.
F. G. P."