The following article, consisting of a cover letter form the Charleston, S. C., Kansas Association, and a letter appealing for aid and settlement in Kansas from Warren D. Wilkes, appeared in the Charleston Daily Courier 25 June 1856, p. 2, c. 3, 4. It was originally published in the Charleston Evening News, 24 June 1856, but I am not aware of any copies of that paper which survive from this period. A samll piece is not legible due to a fold in the paper when microfilmed.

"[From the Charleston Evening News, June 24.]
Executive Committee Kansas Association.
Charleston, June 23, 1856
To the People of Charleston:

The following interesting communication has been made to the Committee by Maj. Warren D. Wilkes, lately returned from the Territory of Kansas, as a plenipotentiary from the emigrants to raise men and money for the great cause in which he is engaged.

The Committee have directed that this communicaiton be offered to the papers of Charleston for publication. We wish to bring home to the people of Charleston the fact, that the battle-field of slavery has been selected --it is Kansas! Whether the field has been well chosen or not, it is no longer a matter for question; it is enough that the ground is laid out. The communication of Major Wilkes is plain, clear and distinct.

Men and money are wanted for the work; money more than men. Money is wanted it ___ ___ [two words obliterated by fold in paper] who are there already, for the reason plainly set forth by Major Wilkes. Men are wanted to multiply their numbers as bona fide settlers, to direct and regulate a wholesome condition of public feeling; to interest themselves in the soil and to secure the fruits of a well founded public opinion, in their voice at the ballot box in October next. Hence it follows, that if the men who are there need money, and you send more men, additional supplies of money will be required for the work. The Committee do not intend to argue the cause to the public of Charleston; the cause has been argued itself already; they are pledged to it, by all that a people hold most dear, by their interests, by their character, by their lives, by their religion, by their honor. The Committee pledge themselves to use their best endeavors to ensure the effective and jucicious disposition fo the contributions of the people, and they will call on every inhabitant whom they can reach, and receive his contributions. Very respectfully,

JAMES SIMONS, Chariman

COMMERCIAL HOUSE, June 22nd, 1856
Hon. James Simons:

Dear Sir: -- Matters of a personal nature, and the condition of our South Cazrolina Emigrants, compel me to hasten my departure for the Territory of Kansas. In view of this fact, and with the hope of securing a concert of action upon the part of the people of our State, I deem it best to leave for Orangeburg to-night, to address a public meeting on to-morrow, and proceed thence through the upper Districts. It will be impossible for me, therefore, to attend the meeting of your Committee on to-morrow evening and I submit herewith a brief statement of facts with regard to that Territory, the recent troubles and the wants of our Emigrants.

Far away in the sun-set regions of the West, distant some 1700 miles from this point [about half that much, really], lies the Territory of Kansas, fronting East upon the Missouri River; bounded West by the Rocky Mountains, North by the Territory of Nebraska, and South by the Indian Territory. Its length due East and West is 800 miles, and mean breadth 250 miles, with an area of over 117,000 sqare miles; you will observe that it is four times as large as the State of South Carolina. It is an inclined plain, decling gradually from the Mountains to the Missouri river, whose rolling prairies, grass-carpeted plains, and lovely wood-fringed streams, are peculiarly inviting to the eye, and profitable to the herdsman and agriculturist.

This immense Territory, disintegated from the Louisiana purchase of 1803, by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, is of immense value to the slaveholding States South and West in an agricultural and political point of view. As an agricultural region it is equal to any upon the continent, and I affirm that slave labor will be more profitable there than in South Carolina. With an intermediate climate and fertile soil, and navigable rivers leading to the great commerical marts of the South, West and East, it offers a prospect of reward to the slaveholder equal to the Rice and Sea Isaldn Cotton regions of the South. In travelling over two hundred miles of the Territory with gentlemen of experience, I becaem satisfied that it was equally adapted to slave labor with the border counties of Missouri. In soil, climate, and topography it corresponds with the border counties; in those counties Hemp, Grain and Stock are principally raised, and raised by slave labor; for in them will be found the largest slave population of Missouri; hence you will readily conclude that slavery should be extended into Kansas, and if carried there will be profitable.

The objection often urged against that Territory, that it is deficient in timber for purposes of building and enclosure, is not well founded; it is interspersed with numerous streams, each of which are heavily timbered, and, as yet, the inhabitants have suffered no inconvenience for want of lumber. Indeed they have an inexhaustible supply of limestone rock, prepared almsot for buildings by the Great Architect of Nature, while fences can be readily constructed with turf. So much for its climate, productions, etc.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

N. B. James Simons, the chairman of the Emigrant Association, was a prominent Charleston lawyer. He also had a son, James Simons, Jr., who was then in his very early twenties, but from the list of members of the committee, it is clear that the chairman was James Simons, Sr. He was a brigadier general in the S. C. State Militia, and was prominent in Charleston society and in politics, where he was a member of the State Senate. The Commercial House was a downtown Charleston Hotel.