=Missouri River Closed to Free-state Immigration.= These activities of the North were viewed with alarm by the proslavery leaders. They believed that this inflow of free-state settlers must be checked or it would end all hope of making Kansas a slave state. One of the most important of the measures they adopted for this purpose was the closing of the Missouri River to free-state immigration. They overhauled the steamboats and seized merchandise and arms that were being sent to free-state people, and they arrested and turned back all travelers whom they believed to be unfriendly to the South. All overland immigrants received similar treatment as soon as they touched Missouri soil.
=New Route to Kansas.= Although this policy occasioned the northern people considerable loss and much inconvenience, it did not check the movement toward Kansas. It simply meant that the immigrants came through Iowa and Nebraska, entering Kansas from the north.
The Southerners also appealed to their people and money was raised and men were sent to Kansas, but the response was not to be compared with that of the North.
=A Condition of Lawlessness.= While these things were going on, Kansas was becoming more and more lawless. It would be hard to say which side surpassed the other in misdeeds. A number of free-state leaders, including Dr. Robinson, were held at Lecompton during the summer as prisoners on a charge of treason. The free-state people were irritated by the loss of money, supplies, and mail, through the Missouri blockade. Bands of armed proslavery men guarded the roads out of Topeka and Lawrence, so that these towns were really in a state of siege. These guards lived on supplies taken from the surrounding settlers, and cut off supplies sent to the towns so that food became very scarce, especially at Lawrence, where the chief article of diet for some time was ground oats. Meanwhile, supplies were reaching the proslavery towns, Tecumseh, Lecompton, and Franklin, without hindrance. It was evident to the free-state people that their enemies expected to starve them out of the Territory, and they were stirred to retaliate. The free-state guerrillas again began their work of seizing the supplies of proslavery settlers and merchants. This was kept up until many of the proslavery people were completely impoverished.