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The World And Times Of Jesse James - Part 1 of 3

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• Isaiah 59, and we're going to read verses 12 through 15. And I trust that before this brief series is over, you're going to see the importance as well as the implications of these verses. This is the first message on the world and times of Jesse James. Look in Isaiah 59, beginning there with verse 12: "For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them."

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• "In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, and judgment is turned away backwards and justice standeth afar off. For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth. And he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice or judgment." Note if you would please, the Bible specifically says in verse 14, "and judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter." God demands justice. One of the failures of modern man as well as the failure of ancient man is the failure to provide justice. Without justice, society withers and dies. And without justice, evil men increase and prosper. In fact, the Bible says specifically in Proverbs 28 and verse 12 that when the wicked rise, then a man is hidden. In other words, during a time of inequity and during a time of injustice, it is the wicked who prosper and it is the righteous who hide themselves.

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• Everyone in this room understands the fact that government was ordained of God to be a minister of justice. The civil ruler was not to bear the sword in vain. In other words, justice is determined by God. Justice is what God says it is, and not what man says it is. However, as Solomon aptly stated, there is nothing new under the sun. So all through history, we see a lack of injustice.

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• Now, let me just encourage you to do something. Especially in light of some of the most recent Supreme Court rulings, in light of numerous things that are happening in our country today, as I preach these messages and share these things with you, I want you to think about the direction our country is headed as I tell you about the world and the times of Jesse James. Now you say, "Brother Weaver, let me just ask you, why in the world are you preaching this?" Let me just answer that for you.

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• We must remember that history, all history, is God's history. I remember a time in my life when I did not like history. And I thought, why in the world should I remember dates and places and times of men who died 200 years ago? Until I realized that history is nothing less than the eternal decree of God coming to pass in time. So history then is God's history, and it must be studied not just merely from a historical perspective, but also from a theological perspective as well. Let me point out another thought. And that is simply this, if we are blind to the injustices of the past, in all probability we will be blind to the injustices of the present as well as the future. We must understand that justice is based upon the precepts of the Word of God. William A. Settle has written a book on the life of Jesse James and the title of the book is just simply "Jesse James Was His Name."

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• And I'm going to take the opening paragraph from that book and give it to you today. And it is a report by Mark Twain. So listen very carefully. He said, "Greatness," said Mark Twain, "may be classed as the ability to win recognition. Some time ago I," that is Mark Twain, "was making a purchase in a small town store in Missouri. A man walked in and seeing me came over and outstretched his hand and said, 'You're Mark Twain, ain't you?' I nodded."

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• "Guess you and I are about the greatest in our line," he remarked. To this I couldn't nod, but I began to wonder as to what throne of greatness he held. "What is your name?" I inquired. "Jesse James," he replied, gathering up his packages. Greatest in his line was not alone. Jesse was not alone in this estimate of himself. Carl Sandburg has said, "Jesse James is the only American bandit who is classical, who is to this country what Robin Hood or Dick Turpin is to England, whose exploits are so close to the mythical and the apocryphal." Jesse James and Frank James are indeed legends even in our time. It is absolutely impossible to find someone who has not heard of Jesse James. Now the name Jesse James either invokes wonder, admiration, courage, or ire, hatred, and extreme animosity. The character of Jesse James will not allow anyone to stand in neutral territory if there was such a thing. The truth is you either love him or you hate him. You either admire him or you despise him.

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• You either believe that he was a freedom fighter and a helper of the defenseless or that he was nothing else than a thief and a murderer. The truth is this, most people have made up their minds about Jesse James based upon hearsay or based upon some movie picture that they have seen. Very few individuals have really delved into the world and times of Jesse James. Let me just tell you, it is absolutely impossible to judge a man who lived 160 years ago by today's standards without knowing the times in which he lived. Do you realize we make the same mistake with a multitude of other individuals?

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• I've heard innumerable preachers criticize Martin Luther, the reformer. Now let me explain something. I can assure you there are subjects upon which I would disagree with Martin Luther upon. But let me remind you, when Martin Luther came on the scene, he was coming out of a thousand years of darkness, facing abysmal ignorance, and at the same time, he was fighting the religious and political powers in order just to preserve his life and to save his life. And it's easy for me and it's easy for someone else to look back after a thousand years of light and say, "Well, if I had been Martin Luther, I wouldn't have said that or I wouldn't have done that or I would have studied this." No.

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• You can only study, number one, what God in His providence places upon you and what the times demand that you study. In other words, our time basically is not our own. And especially if you're fighting just to preserve your life. You've got to understand that there are some men that certainly would not have time to study out everything. And yet God used Martin Luther to start what you and I would know as the Reformation.

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• So the point I'm trying to make is this. In order to understand men, we must understand their world and their times. Alexander Franklin James was born January the 10th, 1843. Listen carefully. It may surprise you, and he died of old age February 18, 1915. 1915. So Frank James was alive until 1915. Jesse Woodson James was born September 5, 1847 and was murdered by Bob Ford on April 3, 1882.

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• They were the sons of Reverend Robert and Zerelda or Z. James.

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• Now I said that right. Because Frank and Jesse's father was a Baptist preacher. He was a Baptist pastor. Robert James was a man of great intellectual interest. And that intellectual interest is indicated by the very fact that when his will was probated that there was an inventory of his assets filed in Clay County in the probate court in 1851 and listen to this, it listed 51 books that he had in his library dealing with mathematics, chemistry, philosophy, theology, astronomy,

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• grammar, history, literature, Greek, Latin, public speaking, and other subjects. So not only was Robert James a Baptist pastor, not only was he a man of great intellect and great ability, did you know that he helped found William Jewell College in Missouri, which is still in existence, which is a Baptist college? He not only helped found it, but he was one of the original trustees of that college. Pastor James took over the pastorate of New Hope Baptist Church in Clay County, Missouri. He reorganized the church and the membership continued to grow. He also helped begin the North Liberty Baptist Association in 1844. He also helped begin Providence Baptist Church and other churches as well. Now, I'm just telling you that here was a man who was not only quite intellectual, but he had a great deal of ability as well. Listen to this. By 1850, Robert James held unencumbered title to 275 acres of land that he farmed on which he had built a modest home. How many people here can say I own 275 acres absolutely unencumbered?

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• No mortgage, owing nobody anything. By 1850 he had owned 275 acres. On the farm were 30 sheep, six head of cattle, three horses, and a yoke of oxen. In addition, there were seven slaves on the farm as well.

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• Now, besides Frank and Jesse, there were two other children born into the family. Robert on July the 19th, 1845, and Susan Levina on November the 25th, 1849. However, Robert died in infancy.

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• Now, Robert James left home in 1850 for the gold fields of California. His brother, Drury James, had already gone out there and he was going out to act, I suppose, maybe as a missionary to the miners, probably trying to pan some gold for himself as well. But shortly after arriving in California, he died, and many say of food poisoning, so Robert James was dead at the age of 32.

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• He's buried there in an unmarked grave. No one knows exactly where he's buried. So Zerelda, or Z. James, his wife remarried to a man by the name of Benjamin Sims. The marriage did not last long because a few months after the marriage, Mr. Sims died. So in September of 1855, she married Dr. Reuben Samuel, who was a physician. And by the way, if you read a lot of books on the Jameses and I've read five or six of them already, but you'll find many times that Dr. Samuel is called Dr. Samuels, plural with an S, but it was really Dr. Samuel. So Dr. Samuel and Zerelda married and then they had four additional children, Archie, John, Sally, and Fanny. Now Jesse and Frank are the two best known of the James family. However, there's another brother that became well-known, the half-brother Archie, but he was well known because of an incident that I'm going to be mentioning later on as I share with you the world and times of Jesse James. Frank and Jesse were pretty well educated.

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• Their parents were college graduates. Did you know that Frank loved Shakespeare and often quoted Shakespeare? While Frank loved Shakespeare, Jesse loved the Bible. He memorized and quoted the Bible. Now J.A. Dacus, who was a contemporary of the James, and I have his biography of the James and the Youngers in my library, J.A. Dacus said that Jesse's Bible was so underlined, that is from constant and frequent reading, that hardly anyone else was able to read that Bible. So Jesse then loved the Bible, He quoted the Bible.

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• He was a member of the Baptist Church. He sang in the choir. That may surprise you. His favorite hymn was "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Now listen to this. Jesse did not drink. He did not use vulgar language. And he always treated women in a gentlemanly manner. Peterson, whom I'm going to be quoting quite frequently, has written a book, and I probably will try to get some of these books for you to purchase. It's one of the greatest books I've ever read. It's actually on Quantrill and his guerrillas. But Jesse and Frank fought with Quantrill. So there's a lot of information in that book on Jesse and Frank James as well. But Peterson in his book on Quantrill said this concerning Jesse James, and I'm quoting. He said, "Jesse James," quote, "He was a devout believer and was never known to swear or to use foul language." That's an interesting quote. Now I might add that Jesse acquired the nickname Dingus. And the way he acquired the nickname Dingus was his pistol, which he held in his right hand, accidentally went off.

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• and shot the tip of one of his fingers off on his left hand. And when he shot the tip of his finger off, all he said was "dingus." He didn't curse. He didn't use foul language. And hence, people began to call him Dingus just simply as a nickname. Peterson also gives these words concerning Frank and Jesse. He states, and I'm quoting now, "Neither he nor his brother Jesse was ever known to drink." And then he quotes Frank as saying, "A man's a fool to drink."

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• "It takes away his money and his brains and does him no good anyway." I might add that later on in his life, Jesse, in a letter, did admit to drinking some beer. But also, Jesse and Frank played cards and they raced horses. And you've got to understand that racing horses was the thing of the day back then, and Jesse certainly was a good judge of horse flesh. While Jesse lived in St. Joseph, a neighbor lady who visited their home frequently said this concerning the James children. Listen to this. She said, "No children could be brought up better than they were. Mrs. Howard," who was an alias for Mrs. James, "Mrs. James used to take them to Sunday school regularly. She would read to them from their Sunday school papers and teach them to pray. And I know that they were good children. I fairly adored them." And then she went on to say that while they were in St. Joseph, that Mrs. James was a frequent attender at the Presbyterian Church. Now, I'm going to tell you about the Pinkertons later on, but Jesse did write a letter to the Nashville Banner condemning the Pinkertons, who were a governmental detective agency.

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• I'll tell you more about that later. But here is what he wrote concerning Alan Pinkerton. And in the paper, he said, quote, "Justice is slow, but sure. And there is a just God that will bring all to justice. Pinkerton, I hope and pray that our heavenly Father may deliver you into my hands. And I believe He will, for His merciful and protecting arm has ever been with me and shielded me."

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• "And during all my persecution, He has watched over me and protected me from workers of blood money who are trying to seek my life. And I have hope and faith in Him and believe He will ever protect me as long as I serve Him." Isn't that amazing? Jesse's wife Zerelda, who also was known as Z, was a devout Methodist.

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• Now let me ask the question which most of you probably already have in your mind. The question is, was Jesse James a Christian? If the answer is no, he was not a Christian, then we understand his life and conduct. If the answer is yes, then another question automatically comes to mind. If we say yes, he was a Christian, then the question comes to mind, how could he turn to a life of crime especially of what you and I would know as robbing and killing because scriptures are exceedingly plain when they say "thou shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not kill."

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• Now before you say that it's not possible for a man to be a real believer and actually steal and kill, may I remind you that in the Bible there was a man after God's own heart who did steal and who did kill. David. He stole Uriah's wife. And then he had Uriah murdered by the sword of the children of Ammon. And David was a man after God's own heart. Moreover, we know for a fact that David killed tens of thousands. What is it the Bible says? When they were singing, when David came back in, "Saul had slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." David was a man of war, and David also spilled a lot of blood. And yet he was called a man after God's own heart.

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• Now I'll tell you there's another enigma in Scripture. I can understand David a whole lot easier than I can understand Abraham's nephew Lot. If you were just to ask me, based upon the testimony that I originally read of Lot in the Old Testament, whether Lot was genuinely saved or lost, I'd probably say that Lot was lost. How a man could live in Sodom and Gomorrah with all the wickedness going on there, I don't know, and be a real genuine Christian. What gets me, though, is when those Sodomites surrounded his building and were demanding those angels, how a believer could offer to turn over his daughters to them. Boggles my mind. And if you were to ask me was Lot a genuine Christian, I would have said no, emphatically not. And yet, the Bible tells us in the New Testament that Lot vexed his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds. So Lot was indeed a believer, so without the testimony of Scripture, I'd have certainly judged him to be a lost man. Now, let me tell you what the truth is from my perspective.

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• I really do not know whether or not Jesse James was truly a Christian. I really do not know that. I do know that he made a profession of faith. I do know that he was baptized. I do know that he tried to live right and do right on many occasions but was not allowed to do so. I'll explain that later on. I do know that circumstances, the world and the times in which he lived helped to mold his life into the life that he lived. I do know that the premeditated violence that was inflicted upon the Missourians by the Jayhawkers cried for justice and vengeance. It is impossible to accurately judge a man's life so many years after his death when there are so many conflicting stories. Many have indeed sought to explain the deeds of the James-Younger gang based upon their world and times. And all I can tell you is this, folks, I honestly, genuinely believe that the world and times of Jesse and Frank James not only impacted them but others very greatly, and therefore it's imperative that if you and I are going to get an understanding of these men, we must also understand their times.

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• So let me begin here. Jesse James was from Missouri. Missouri was a slave state, but slaves only made up 9% of the population of Missouri. However, about three-fourths of the people of Missouri had slave state backgrounds. You cannot understand what happened in Missouri without understanding the Kansas-Nebraska Act. There was some new territory that was going to be opened. Most Missourians favored opening the Kansas territory without restriction upon slavery, but even the pro-slavery men were satisfied with the arrangements made in 1854 under the presumption that Kansas would be a slave state and Nebraska a free state.

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• Now, let me give you the background. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a bill that became law on May 30th, 1854. It was on that date that Congress then established the Kansas and the Nebraska territories. These territories for a long time had needed to be organized and certainly was overdue. An isolated issue of territorial organization was practically no problem. However, I want you to understand something. That the territorial issue was irrevocably bound to the bitter sectional controversy over the extension of slavery into the territories and then it was further complicated by what was known as the projected Transcontinental Railroad. Under no circumstances did pro-slavery congressmen want Kansas to be a free state and under no circumstances did the Radical Republicans want Kansas to be a slave state. So there's already a political fight, political intrigue over Kansas and Nebraska. Now, in 1854, when Congress opened these lands to white settlement, they instituted what was known as popular sovereignty. By that term, they meant this, that the people who settled in those states or in those territories would decide for themselves as to whether or not it would be a slave state or a free state.

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• So the abolitionists who were the anti-slavery people were satisfied and also the pro-slavery people were satisfied because most of them thought that Kansas would turn out to be a slave state and Nebraska would turn out to be a free state which then would keep and maintain the balance. So had Kansas become a slave state and had Nebraska a free state, the balance of power would have remained the same. However, there were organizations in the north that were going to ensure that Kansas did not become a slave state. Well, the people of Missouri understood. If Kansas became a free state on the border of Missouri, then everything in Missouri would be in peril and in danger at the same time.

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• Now, let me just tell you, what I am saying is vitally important. You cannot understand the warfare that existed between Kansas and Missouri without understanding this bitter sectional rivalry. Literally, all hell broke loose on both sides. Because the people of Missouri realized that they were in danger, their property was in danger, if Kansas became a free state. So, the Missourians then wanted to take action. At Liberty, Missouri, only 15 miles from the Samuel Farm, the Democratic platform, which was a newspaper, printed this. Listen to this. "Let every man that owns a Negro go to Kansas and settle, and our northern brethren will be compelled to hunt further north for a location. Kansas must be a slave state if half the citizens of Missouri had to immigrate there with musket in hand, prepared to die for the cause. Shall we allow such cutthroats and murderers to settle in the territory joining our own state? No!"

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• "If popular opinion will not keep them back, we should see what virtue there is in the favor of our arms." So what were they saying? If we can't stop those radical Republicans, if we can't stop those abolitionists from settling in this land next to us peacefully, they said we'll resort to arms. Well, Missourians did indeed cross over the border into Kansas, some to reside there, some to influence the elections, some to intimidate the immigrants from the north. Jackson, Clay, Lafayette, and nearby counties were the marshalling points for these activities, and prominent citizens of this region, even some of Missouri's most important political leaders, led forays into Kansas in order to make sure that Kansas was adopted as a slave state. Now pretty soon the nation was hearing of "bleeding Kansas."

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• Now let me tell you, and I'm going to point this out a little bit later, the Radical Republicans and the Abolitionists took the few incidents that did happen and propagandized them for their own advantage. Do you realize it was not just simply this sectional controversy that caused the problems. There were those sectional controversies. You remember John Brown was there? You remember old John Brown who murdered men and cut them down with a sword, chopped them to pieces, mutilated them because they were Southerners. I mean, that's how they were treating Southerners. John Brown certainly was there. And the men on the Missouri side were known as the Border Ruffians. The men on the Kansas side were known as the Jayhawkers or the Red Legs. It was not just sectional controversy, this debate over slavery that caused a lot of ill feelings, but also competition for land and the conflict over claims probably caused just as much trouble, if not more, than the slavery question. Moreover, you have political intrigue and you also have rivalry for patronage in the new territory that created the problems.

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• And when I say political intrigue, I'm going to show you that there were congressmen, there were judges, everybody was involved in this. Now the first wave of settlers that went into Kansas were mainly Southerners. Southerners were used to sweat, they were used to hard work and honest toil, and they claimed farmland and they began to build the area. The second wave of settlers were mostly Northerners, but I'm going to tell you about them in just a little bit, but here were people who were not necessarily looking for work. They were looking for an easy life and a quick fortune. Why?

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• Because they were sent there by the abolitionists in the east. In other words, the abolitionists organized in the north and they assisted and sent people to settle in Kansas to make Kansas an anti-slavery state. The arrival and the settlement of these northerners in Kansas, of course, aroused the pro-slavery Missourians' opposition. So they reasoned once again that if Kansas became a free state, then slave property in Missouri would not be safe.

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• Let me tell you something, folks. If they had only known that it was not just simply slave property that would be in danger, but their own homes, their livelihoods, and their lives that would be demanded to satisfy the lust and wickedness of the radical abolitionists, I can assure you they would have done a double turnover. Listen, the Missouri border during and after the war, the Missouri border during and after the war was the scene of the greatest savagery in American history. I'm gonna tell you something right now and I'm going to illustrate it later.

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• One author said this and I concur wholeheartedly. He said the war lasted in most states for four years. In Missouri it lasted 20 years. The abolitionist, the radical Republicans, the Jayhawkers, the Red Legs, those are all names to describe the same group. You can also call them Free Soilers. Same group. They not only hated slavery, they hated Southerners and any and everything Southern. Major A.V.E. Johnson of the 39th Missouri Militia, a federal force, swore, quote, "to devastate the country and leave the habitations of southern men not one stone upon another."

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• "Extermination, in fact, was what they all need." So what did he say? I'm going to destroy everything and kill every one of them. Senator James Henry Lane, known as Jim Lane. Now note, Senator Jim Lane, one of the most notorious Jayhawker, Red Legs leader, in one of his speeches said this to the Kansas settlements, quote, "Missourians are wolves, snakes, devils, and damn their souls. I want to see them cast into a burning hell. We believe in a war of extermination."

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• "There is no such thing as union men in the border of Missouri. I want to see every foot of ground in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties in Missouri burned over and everything laid waste."

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• Now how are those words for a United States Senator? Lane unfolded his plans, shaped evidently by the recent experiences of his brigade to General McClellan. He proposed to extirpate disloyalty in Missouri and Arkansas. And here's what he said. If conciliatory measures were not successful, that he would employ the most violent means. He said, quote, "Sir, if I can't do better, I will kill the white rebels and give their lands to loyal blacks," end quote.

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• Now, what was happening was this. Gangs of Jayhawkers, abolitionists, free soilers, freebooters, Red Legs, all of these are names for the same group, would come into Missouri, raid, kill, plunder, steal, and then turn around and go back to Lawrence. They would take their booty and auction it off publicly in the streets there in Lawrence. And no one dared to mess with them. Not one. Let me give you a quote. Here's from an eyewitness.

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• "They did not hesitate to shoot inquisitive and troublesome people. At Lawrence, the livery stables were full of their stolen horses. One day I saw three or four Red Legs attack a Missourian who was in town searching for lost property. They gathered about him with drawn revolvers and drove him off very unceremoniously. I once saw Hoyt, the leader, without a word of explanation or warning, open fire upon a stranger quietly riding down Massachusetts Street. He was a Missourian whom Hoyt had recently robbed."

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• "The gang contained men of the most desperate and hardened character, and a full recital of their deeds would sound like the biography of devils. Either the people of Lawrence could not drive out the freebooters, or they thought it mattered little what happened to Missouri disloyalists. Governor Robinson made a determined but unsuccessful effort to break up the organization. The Red Legs repaid the interference by plots of his assassination, which barely miscarried."

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• So when any Missourian came into Kansas looking for his property, they'd just kill him. Now, before the war broke out in 1861, listen carefully, Jayhawkers had been leading raids into Missouri as early as 1854. You see, the war didn't break out until 1861, but Missouri is being raided in 1854. Why? Because of all the radical Republicans and the abolitionists that are being sent into Kansas and they believe that any southerner was open prey. And especially if a southerner happened to have slaves, they were certainly lawful and legitimate prey.

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• And nothing would ever be done to them. Now, the term jayhawker, let me explain the term. The term jayhawker simply means someone who loots, steals, and kills. That's all. That's what a jayhawker is. Some of those birds you remember are called camp robbers. If you've ever been around out west, if you ever camp, some of these big birds will come in, they'll steal everything you have as far as food is concerned. Well, Jayhawkers means the same thing. They're thieves, they're stealing. They're thieves, they're folks who steal.

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• They got the name Red Legs because they stole several wagon loads of calf skins and of course the calf skins were red and they wrapped them around their legs and used them then to keep off moisture and briars, etc. Thus they got the name Red Legs. Any of you who've seen the movie "Outlaw Josey Wales," you notice they've got red legs, those Kansas Jayhawkers do, and they've got their pants dyed red or something wrapped around their legs because they're just simply known as Red Legs. So as early as 1854, they've been raiding into Missouri.

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• Many of those people who were sent into Kansas were sent there by the New England Immigrant Society and they sent crooks, rascals, ruffians, many of them who were already trained in the arts of thievery, who were trying to live down their past. Some of them certainly did not believe in property rights and therefore they looked upon slave owners as legitimate prey and later on they believed that anyone who believed in secession was legitimate prey and still later on they looted, robbed, raped and killed even loyal union men with equal enthusiasm. It just didn't matter to them.

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• Now let me tell you what else set up the situation to make it so bad. In 1857 and 1859, there were droughts, which means the brooks dried up, the streams dried up, many rivers dried up, which means fortunes were lost, crops failed, families had nothing to live on. And in 1860, a plague of grasshoppers ruined the crops. So those who were able to return back east did so.

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• Others remained to fend for themselves where theft, robbing, looting, burning, and murdering became a way of life. The problem was this. Listen carefully. These Jayhawkers who came over into Missouri and looted and robbed, raped and murdered. The problem is they were not and would not be prosecuted as criminals because they were abolitionists. And their deeds were done in the name of abolitionism. Therefore, they were protected by the government of Kansas, which was run by the radical Republicans or the abolitionists. The Kansas government turned a blind eye to their criminal acts and the federal government condoned their raids. You've got to remember the Radical Republicans were in charge in Washington, D.C.

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• Let me give you an idea. One such raid was against Osceola, Missouri. Osceola, Missouri was a prosperous town in southwest Missouri. Listen carefully. There were no Confederate soldiers stationed there. The town had absolutely no military value. Yet Jim Lane, James Montgomery, led their Jayhawkers into Osceola, Missouri. They took the men who lived in that town, court-martialed them, shot them, hanged them, the banks and the stores were looted, the homes were ransacked and robbed, and the town burned to the ground. Out of 800 buildings in Osceola, Missouri, when the Jayhawkers left, only three buildings were left standing. 3,000 people had been left homeless without food and without the necessary means to purchase anything because everything had been stolen from them. In 1861, there were over 3,000 residents in Osceola, Missouri. In 1865, only 183 residents were left. Interestingly enough, the brigade chaplain of the Jayhawkers, the Reverend Hugh Fisher, helped to loot the churches before he applied the torch to the churches. That's how he furnished his church building with stolen property from Missouri churches.

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• You see, what was happening is this. The very government that was supposed to protect the southern people took everything from them that they held sacred, including their lives and their property. The federal government, the state government of Kansas, and the usurped government of Missouri did everything it could to subjugate and eradicate the Southern people. Now when I said the usurped government of Missouri, let me tell you what I mean. Federal General Nathaniel Lyon captured Jefferson City. Jefferson City was the capital of Missouri and under federal bayonets he dismissed the lawfully elected government and instituted what was known as a rump government of loyal men.

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• Those who did not go along with him were arrested and tried for treason. Thus the federal and state governments were now arrayed against any and everything that was Southern. So it was not just the federal government, it was the Kansas government and also the Missouri government. Outrages were so constant and so continuous that J.T.K. Howard, who was a pro-union general agent, wrote to John W.

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• Brooks, who forwarded his letter to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and here's what the letter said. "When there is added to this the irregularities of the soldiery, such as taking of poultry, pigs, milk, butter, preserves, potatoes, horses, and in fact everything they want, entering in and searching houses, and stealing in many cases, committing rapes upon the Negroes and such like things. The effect has been to make a great many Union men inveterate enemies and if these things continue much longer, our cause is ruined."

  #54 | 46:02 to 46:40 | cleaned

• "These things are not exaggerated by me and though they do not characterize all the troops, several regiments have conducted in this way and have also repeatedly fired on peaceable citizens sometimes from trains as they passed and no punishment or none of any account has been meted out to them. If the thing goes on this way much longer, we're ruined. I fear we cannot run the road or live in the country except under military protection."

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• "It's enough to drive a people to madness and it is doing so fast." Did you hear what he said? The effect of the federal troops was making a great many Union men inveterate enemies. In other words, he recognized the problem. Union General Henry W. Halleck, whose nickname was "Brains" by the way, telegraphed George B. McClellan and here's what he said, "The conduct of these forces under Lane and Jennison has done more for the enemy in this state than could have been accomplished by 20,000 of his own army. I receive almost daily complaints of outrages committed by these men in the name of the United States."

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• "And the evidence is so conclusive as to leave no doubt of their correctness. It is rumored that Lane has been made a Brigadier General. I cannot conceive of a more injudicious appointment. It will take 20,000 men to counteract its effect in this state and moreover is offering a premium for rascalty and robbing generals." Here is a union general saying that what Lane and Jennison have done is accomplishing more for the enemy, that is the Confederacy, than 20,000 of their own soldiers could accomplish. Federal General George Caleb Bingham wrote to Missouri Congressman Rawlings stating this, listen carefully, "Jennison should be executed, for if he were hanged, Confederate General Sterling Price would lose thereby the best recruiting officer he ever had." You see, when these people came into Missouri, and there were loyal Union men in Missouri, when they committed these outrages, it was driving even loyal Union men into the Confederate Army. The Southerners, of course, were willing then to fight more effectively because of the outrages against them. Union General Richard C. Vaughan wrote to U.S.

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• Attorney General Edward Bates, and here's what he said. "It is a fact well known to me that hundreds of people in Jackson and Cass counties are true and loyal men. They have already been robbed of their property, insulted and in many cases murdered by these troops from Kansas. The policy has caused many good men to leave their homes and to fly to the bushes for protection while others have actually joined the guerrillas as a measure of safety believing they would be less liable to danger there than in their homes." Here is a third Union general saying exactly the same thing. You see after a while these Jayhawkers did not differentiate between Southerners or Union men. They robbed, raped, murdered, plundered, and all without discrimination. It is true their fiercest wrath was reserved for Southerners, but Union men were also targets of opportunity.

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• I'm not going to get into it today, but I will tell you this, that Southern men were scalped by the Jayhawkers, had their ears cut off so they could make necklaces of them, fingers cut off, noses cut off. Many times Southerners were just, not just killed, they were mutilated simply because they were Southerners.

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• Now I hope you're beginning to see that Jesse James and Frank James have been born and are now living in a world and a time that is known for its cruelty and atrocities. John Samuel, who was Jesse's half-brother, gave this account of Jesse's original run-in with the governmental forces. Listen carefully. Jesse was out plowing in the field when some northern soldiers came to the place to look for Frank. Jesse was only 16 at the time.

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• He says actually he was 15, he was not quite 16. But he says Jesse was only 16 at the time. They beat him up. Then they went to the house and asked where Frank was. Mother and father didn't know or pretended not to know. But the soldiers wouldn't believe them. They took father out and hung him by the neck to a tree. After a while, they took him down and gave him another chance to tell. Of course, he couldn't. So they hung him up again.

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• They did that three times. In other words, they would hang him just right before he strangled or choked at it, they'd let him down. So they did that three times. Then they took him back to the house and told mother they were going to shoot him. She begged them not to do it. But they took him off in the woods north of the house and fired off their guns, but they didn't shoot him. They just took him over to another town and put him in jail. My mother didn't know until the next day that he hadn't been shot because the soldiers ordered her to remain in the house if she didn't want to be shot too.

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• Now let me go on. Jesse, then a mere boy, plowing in the field, was also led forth with a rope around his neck, abused quite severely, struck several times with the sabers of the men that is on the flat side and savagely threatened with death if either he or his stepfather were ever heard of again of giving aid or encouragement to southern soldiers. That's not all. The same week his mother and sister were arrested and carried to St. Joseph and thrown into a most filthy prison and it should be pointed out that Mrs. Samuel was pregnant at the time of her arrest. The hardships they endured were simply terrible, often without adequate food, insulted by their captors, cut off

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• from all communications with the world. His sister was brought near to death's door from a fever which followed her imprisonment. And the mother, of course, and she were only released a little later after the mother was greatly emaciated and caused her to age a great deal. The week after his stepfather was hanged, the week after he was dragged to watch his stepfather being hanged and beaten with the sabers, the week after his mother and sister were arrested and thrown into prison, Jesse, not 16 years old, mounted the best horse on the place and rode with all speed to the camp

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• of William Clark Quantrill where he joined up with Quantrill's guerrillas. I want to take the time and I want to quote from this fellow several more times in the next two weeks. I want to read an article written by John Newman Edwards. Now John Newman Edwards was a Confederate soldier. He was a major. In fact, he was General Joe Shelby's adjutant and chronicler. He also went with Joe Shelby to Mexico after the war. He's written a number of articles. He wrote "Shelby's Expeditions to Mexico." He wrote another book, "Noted Guerrillas." John Newman Edwards was a great writer and a great defender of the James boys. And I'm just going to read this brief article and then make some applications where he describes the Kansas Jayhawker. So listen carefully. "The original Jayhawker was a growth indigenous to the soil of Kansas."

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• "There belonged to him as things of course a preemption, a chronic case of chills and fevers, one starved cow, and seven dogs, a longing for his neighbor's goods and chattels, a Sharps rifle when he could get it, and something of a Bible for hypocrisy's sake, something that savored of the real presence of the book to give backbone to his canting and snuffling. In some respects a mountebank, in others a scoundrel, in all a thief, he was a character eminently adapted for civil war which produces more adventurers than heroes."

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• "His hands were large and hairy and red, proof of inherited laziness, and a slouching gait added to the broad handling of the Confederate irregulars in Missouri during the war." Let's see, I skipped there. Let's see. "And a slouching gait added to the ungainliness of his figure when he walked. The type was all of a kind. The mouth generally wore a calculating smile, the only distinguishable gift remaining of a Puritan ancestry, but when he felt he was looked at and the calculating smile became sanctimonious. Slavery concerned him only as the slaveholder was supposed to be rich."

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• "And just so long as Beecher presided over immigration aid societies, preached highway robbery, defended political murder, and sent something to the Jayhawkers in the way of real fruits and funds, there surely was a God in Israel and Beecher was the great high priest. Otherwise, they all might go to the devil together. The jayhawker was not brave. He would fight when he had to fight, but he would not stand in the last ditch and shoot away his last cartridge."

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• "Born to nothing and eternally out at the elbows, what else could he do but laugh and be glad when chance kicked a country into war and gave purple and fine linen to a whole lot of bummers and beggars? In the saddle he rode like a sacked sandbag or a sack of meal. The eternal agar cake made a trotting horse his abomination, and he had no use for a thoroughbred save to steal him."

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• "When he abandoned John Brown and rallied to the standard of Jim Lane, when he gave up the fanatic enclave unto the thief, he simply changed his leader without changing his principles." So John Edward Newman certainly had no use for the Jayhawker. Let me give you some applications today. I want you to look back in your Bibles to Isaiah 59. We'll take up here next week. But look in Isaiah 59. And look particularly again at verse 14.

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• "And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street." And when truth is fallen, I want you to note, an equity or justice or that which is right cannot enter. Go back up to verse 13. "In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God, speaking what? Oppression, revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood." Isaiah 59 verses 12 through 15 teaches us that when truth is fallen into the streets, the ultimate result is chaos, confusion, and injustice.

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• We see this truth exemplified in the federal and Missouri politics before, during, and after the war of northern aggression, and especially in the life of Jesse James. And I might point out folks, by extension, this is in all probability where we're headed as a country today. Let me point out a second application. The Hebrew word for justice is the same Hebrew word that is translated righteousness in our Bibles. Do you realize that justice and righteousness are identical. They relate to the same truth. We have to understand without righteousness, there can be no justice. And without justice, there can be no righteousness.

  #72 | 59:35 to 1:00:40 | cleaned

• These concepts stand or fall together. What is happening in our judicial system? We do not have justice. That is not biblical justice. Not God's justice. And consequently, we have no righteousness in this country. We have no righteousness in our government. The third application is this. There are no excuses for sin, rebellion, and disobedience to the Word of God. However, we must understand that anarchy is often the outcome of tyranny. Anarchy is often the outcome of tyranny.

  #73 | 1:00:41 to 1:01:33 | cleaned

• Now listen to this carefully. When the civil leaders fail to execute justice and promote righteousness, there will always be some who will seek to see that justice is done in some measure. We cannot understand the lives of Jesse and Frank James until we understand their world and times. And when we see what else happened to them in the next lesson, the thing that surprises me is that there were not a thousand Jesse and Frank James. But we must understand, folks, where there is no justice, a civilized society withers and dies.

  #74 | 1:01:33 to 1:02:37 | cleaned

• Let me just show you. Many of you heard that a little Shasta County girl was found? They can't find her brother? The man who was with her was a third degree child molester? Pedophile? He was just let out on $15,000 bond. No telling what he's done to that little girl. The little boy is probably dead. I just heard last night on the news that you remember this Couey fellow? who raped this little girl and murdered her? Oh, guess what?

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• They forgot to read him his rights. He asked for a lawyer and they didn't give him a lawyer.

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• Now his confession is going to be thrown out and they're going to have to start all over and they can use nothing against him. You know what's going to happen, folks? They're going to keep letting murderers and rapists and kidnappers out until either society dies or society turns into vigilantes and kills them. You cannot have a civilized society with injustice in the government. It cries out from the ground.

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• Do you remember what our Lord said to Cain? "Where is your brother Abel? His blood cries out to me from the ground." The blood of innocent men and women cry for justice. Without it, we will perish as a society. Let's pray. Father, we do ask in the name of Jesus Christ that You would help us to see the absolute importance of justice and righteousness. That You would teach us, Lord, and let us see where we have been and where we're headed when we despise and refuse Your Word and Your Truth. We ask, Father, that You give us grace and mercy to bow to Thee and to apply Thy Word to our lives. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T21:06:34Z